unity and peace; or fourthly, by a constant partaking of the eucharist, in the bosom of the Church.

SECT. 24.-The Case of Infants dying unbaptized. The Opinion of
the Ancients concerning it.

But it is to be observed that these allowances were chiefly made to adult persons, who could exhibit faith and repentance, the essential parts of religion, to make some compensation for the want of the external ceremony of baptism; but as to infants, the case was thought more difficult, because there was no personal faith or repentance could be pleaded in their behalf; so that they were destitute both of the outward visible sign, and the inward spiritual grace of baptism. Upon this account, they, who spoke the most favourably of them, would only venture to assign them a middle state, neither in heaven nor hell. As Gregory Nazianzen,' who says, "that such children as die unbaptized, without their own fault, shall neither be glorified nor punished by the righteous Judge, as having done no wickedness, though they die unbaptized, and as rather suffering loss than being the authors of it." Severus, bishop of Antioch, follows Nazianzen in this opinion; for first he says, "that if children die unbaptized, without partaking of the laver of regeneration, they are certainly excluded from the kingdom of heaven :" but then he adds, " that, forasmuch as they have committed no sin, they shall not undergo any punishment, or torment, but be consigned to a sort of middle state," which he describes as a state betwixt the glory of the saints and the punishment of the damned. But this opinion of a middle state never found any acceptance among the Latins. For they make but two places to receive men after the day of judgment, heaven and hell, and concluded, that since children, for want of washing away original sin, could not be admitted into heaven, they must of necessity be in hell, there being no third place between them. St. Austin frequently insists upon this against the Pelagians, who distinguish between the kingdom of God and eternal life, asserting, "that children dying unbaptized, might be ad

Naz. Orat. 40. tom. i. p. 653.

Sever. Caten. in Joh. iii. p. 83.

mitted to eternal life and salvation, though not to the kingdom of God:" whom he opposes after this manner in his books about the Merits and Remission of Sin; "though," he says, the condemnation of those shall be greater, who to original sin add actual sins of their own; and every man's condemnation so much the greater, by how much greater sin he commits; yet original sin alone does not only separate from the kingdom of God, whither children, dying without the grace of Christ, cannot enter, as the Pelagians themselves confess; but also it excludes them from eternal life and salvation, which can be no other than the kingdom of God, into which our communion with Christ alone can introduce us." A little after he says plainly," that children dying without baptism are under condemnation, though theirs be the mildest of any other. But he is very much deceived and deceives others, who teaches that they are in no condemnation at all, whilst the Apostle declares, “that judgment was by one offence to condemnation." And again, "that by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation." He tells us," upon this account the Punic Christians were used to call baptism by the name of salvation, and the sacrament of the body of Christ, life. And therefore, since no one could hope for salvation and eternal life without baptism and the body and blood of the Lord, it was in vain to promise children salvation without them." In the same book he declares peremptorily against

1 Aug. de Peccat. Meritis. lib. i. c. 12. Quamvis condemnatio gravior sit eorum, qui originali delicto etiam propria conjunxerunt, et tanto singulis gravior, quanto gravius quisque peccavit; tamen etiam illud solum quod originaliter tractum est, non tantùm à regno Dei separat, quo parvulos sine acceptâ gratiâ Christi intrare non posse, ipsi etiam confitentur; verùm et à salute ac vitâ æternâ facit alienos, quæ nulla alia esse potest præter regnum Dei, quò sola Christi societas introducit. 2 Ibid. c. 16. Potest proinde

rectè dici, parvulos sine baptismo de corpore exeuntes in damnatione omnium mitissimâ futuros. Multum autem et fallit et fallitur, qui eos in damnatione prædicat non futuros, dicente Apostolo, 'judicium ex uno delicto in condemnationem.' Et paulo post, per unius delictum in omnes homines ad condemnationem.' 3 Ibid. lib. i. c. 24. Optimè Punici Christiani baptismum ipsum nihil aliud quàm vitam vocant.-Si ergo nec salus, nec vita æterna sine baptismo, et corpore et sanguine Domini cuiquam speranda est, frustra sine his promittitur parvulis. 4 Ibid. c. 28. Nec est ullus ulli medius locus, ut possit esse, nisi cum diabolo, qui non est cum Christo. Hinc et

the doctrine of a middle state for infants or any other. "There is no middle place for any," says he, " he must be with the devil, who is not with Christ. For our Lord himself intending, to take away this opinion of a middle state, which some erroneously endeavour to assign to children dying unbaptized, as if by virtue of their innocence they might be in eternal life, though not with Christ in his kingdom so long as they wanted baptism, pronounced this definitive sentence to stop the mouths of these men, saying, He that is not with me, is against me."" He argues against this middle state in many other places,' against the Pelagians, and urges the necessity of baptism to take away original sin in children, and bring them by regeneration to eternal life: therefore, he says, men ran with their children to be baptized, because they verily believed they could not otherwise be made alive in Christ. Fulgentius is rather more peremptory and severe than St. Austin: he says, "It is to be believed without all doubt, that not only men, who are come to the use of reason, but infants, whether they die in their mother's womb, or after they are born, without baptism, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are punished with everlasting punishment in eternal fire, because though they have no actual sin of their own, yet they carry along with them the condemnation of original sin from their first conception and birth." The author under the name of Justin Martyr, also speaking of infants, says, "there is this difference between those that die baptized, and those that ipse Dominus volens auferre de cordibus malè credentium istam nescio quam medietatem, quam conantur quidam parvulis non baptizatis tribuere, ut quasi merito innocentiæ sint in vitâ æternâ, sed quia non sunt baptizati, non sint cum Christo in regno ejus, definitivam protulit ad hæc ora obstruenda sententiam, ubi ait, qui mecum non est, adversum me est.' Aug. Serm. 14. de Verb. Apost. tom. x. p. 122. Aug. de Anima. lib. i. c. 9. Lib. ii. c. 12. Lib. iii. c. 13. It. Epist. 28. ad Hieron. 2 Fulgent. de Fide ad Petrum, c. 27. Firmissimè tene et nullatenùs dubites, non solùm homines jam ratione utentes, verùm etiam parvulos, qui sive in uteris matrum vivere incipiunt et ibi moriuntur, sive cùm de matribus nati, sine sacramento sancti baptismatis, quod datur in nomine Patris, Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, de hoc sæculo transeunt, ignis æterni sempiterno supplicio puniendos: quia etsi propriæ actionis peccatum nullum habuerunt, originalis tamen peccati damnationem carnali conceptione et nativitate traxerunt. Vid. Fulgent, de Baptismo Ethiopis, c. S. 3 Justin. Quæst. et Respons.

ad Orthodox. Q. 56.

1

die unbaptized, that the one obtain the benefits that come by baptism, which the other do not obtain." And the author of the Hypognostics,' under the name of St. Austin, who is supposed by learned men to be either Marius Mercator, or Sixtus, bishop of Rome, disputing against the Pelagians, treads exactly in the steps of St. Austin; for he says, "there is no middle state between heaven and hell; a third place for unbaptized infants is no where mentioned in Scripture. This was only an invention forged in the shop of the Pelagians, to find out a place where infants might have rest and glory without the grace of Christ." These are pretty severe expressions, and yet considering the state of the controversy between the Catholics and Pelagians, there seems to have been pretty good reason for them. For Pelagius said, "there was no original sin nor any need of baptism to wash away the guilt of it, but children might obtain salvation and eternal life, distinct from the kingdom of God, without it." In opposition to this, the Catholics maintained the necessity of baptism for infants, as well as adult persons, to purge away original sin, and procure eternal life for them. But they have not so plainly told us, whether there be any excepted cases as to what concerns infants, as they have concerning adult persons; whether a bare want of baptism in the child, when there was no contempt or neglect of baptism in the parent, but an unavoidable necessity and sudden death intervening, debars the child from the kingdom of heaven? Among all the Ancients, only Fulgentius has declared absolutely against the salvation of infants dying before the birth in the mother's womb. But others seem to speak more favourably, except where the parents were guilty of a contempt or neglect of baptism, in not bringing their children to be baptized when they had time and opportunity to do it, in which case the child might fail of salva

1 Aug. Hypognostic. lib. v. c. 5. Primum locum fides Catholicorum divinâ authoritate regnum credidit esse cœlorum, unde, ut dixi, non baptizatus excipitur; secundum, gehennam, ubi omnis apostata, vel à Christi fide alienus, æterna supplicia experietur. Tertium penitùs ignoramus, immò nec esse in Scripturis Sanctis invenimus. Finge, Pelagiane, locum ex officinâ perversi dogmatis tui, ubi alieni à Christi gratiâ vitam requiei et gloriæ possidere parvuli possint.

"We

tion for the parents' fault, and there be no impeachment of God's justice or mercy in the punishment. This seems to have been the judgment of that excellent author, who wrote the book De Vocatione Gentium, which goes under the name of Prosper or St. Ambrose. For he gives this reason, why this doctrine about the necessity of baptism for the salvation of infants was so earnestly pressed upon men; that parents might not be remiss or negligent in bringing their children to baptism; which they certainly would be, if they were once possessed with an opinion that there was no necessity of baptism to salvation. ought not to believe," says he,' in general terms, "that they, who obtain not the sacrament of regeneration, can appertain to the society of the blessed: for every one must be sensible, how easily sloth and negligence would creep into the hearts of the faithful, if in the business of baptizing infants nothing was to be feared from the parents' carelessness, or the mortality of their children." This author presses the necessity of baptizing infants, as all good Christians do, upon supposition of some benefit which the parents' care may bring to the child; and contrariwise, an irreparable damage and loss which the child may sustain by the parents' default and negligence. And this is sufficient to quicken the care and watchfulness of parents, though it be allowed, that in cases of extreme necessity children may be saved without baptism. Nor is it improbable, that the Ancients intended any more, though their expressions run in severe and general terms without standing precisely to make exceptions. For it cannot be denied but that infants may be martyrs as well as adult persons; such were the children which Herod slew at Bethlehem: parents likewise may desire baptism for their children, vowing faith and repentance in their name, when some extreme necessity only, and not any culpable neglect hinders the obtaining of it. And in such cases, if adult persons may be saved without

1 Prosper. de Vocat. Gentium. lib. ii. c.8. Neque credi fas est, eos qui regenerationis non adepti sunt sacramentum, ad ullum beatorum pertinere consortium.-Non latet quantum cordibus fidelium desidiæ gigneretur, si in baptizandis parvulis nihil de cujusquam negligentiâ, nihil de ipsorum esset mortalitate metuendum.