Blessed Augustine of Hippo

A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants

5th c.

Classic translation Public domain

Polemics & Heresiology · English translation, 1890

Contents

• Title Page
• Extract From Augustin’s Retractations
• Book I
• Introduction
• Introductory, in the Shape of an Inscription to His Friend Marcellinus
• If Adam Had Not Sinned, He Would Never Have Died
• It is One Thing to Be Mortal, Another Thing to Be Subject to Death
• Even Bodily Death is From Sin
• The Words, Mortale (Capable of Dying), Mortuum (Dead), and Moriturus (Destined…
• How It is That the Body Dead Because of Sin
• The Life of the Body the Object of Hope, the Life of the Spirit Being a Prelude…
• Bodily Death From Adam’s Sin
• Sin Passes on to All Men by Natural Descent, and Not Merely by Imitation
• The Analogy of Grace
• Distinction Between Actual and Original Sin
• The Law Could Not Take Away Sin
• Meaning of the Apostle’s Phrase 'The Reign of Death.'
• Superabundance of Grace
• The One Sin Common to All Men
• How Death is by One and Life by One
• Whom Sinners Imitate
• Only Christ Justifies
• Sin is From Natural Descent, as Righteousness is From Regeneration; How ‘All’…
• Original Sin Alone is Contracted by Natural Birth
• Unbaptized Infants Damned, But Most Lightly; The Penalty of Adam’s Sin, the…
• To Infants Personal Sin is Not to Be Attributed
• He Refutes Those Who Allege That Infants Are Baptized Not for the Remission of…
• Infants Saved as Sinners
• Infants Are Described as Believers and as Penitents. Sins Alone Separate…
• No One, Except He Be Baptized, Rightly Comes to the Table of the Lord
• Infants Must Feed on Christ
• Baptized Infants, of the Faithful; Unbaptized, of the Lost
• It is an Inscrutable Mystery Why Some Are Saved, and Others Not
• Why One is Baptized and Another Not, Not Otherwise Inscrutable
• He Refutes Those Who Suppose That Souls, on Account of Sins Committed in…
• The Case of Certain Idiots and Simpletons
• Christ is the Saviour and Redeemer Even of Infants
• Baptism is Called Salvation, and the Eucharist, Life, by the Christians of…
• Unless Infants Are Baptized, They Remain in Darkness
• Infants Not Enlightened as Soon as They Are Born
• How God Enlightens Every Person
• What ‘Lighteth’ Means
• The Conclusion Drawn, That All Are Involved in Original Sin
• A Collection of Scripture Testimonies. From the Gospels
• From the First Epistle of Peter
• From the First Epistle of John
• From the Epistle to the Romans
• From the Epistles to the Corinthians
• From the Epistle to the Galatians
• From the Epistle to the Ephesians
• From the Epistle to the Colossians
• From the Epistles to Timothy
• From the Epistle to Titus
• From the Epistle to the Hebrews
• From the Apocalypse
• From the Acts of the Apostles
• The Utility of the Books of the Old Testament
• By the Sacrifices of the Old Testament, Men Were Convinced of Sins and Led to…
• He Concludes That All Men Need the Death of Christ, That They May Be Saved…
• No One is Reconciled to God Except Through Christ
• The Good of Marriage; Four Different Cases of the Good and the Evil Use of…
• In What Respect the Pelagians Regarded Baptism as Necessary for Infants
• The Context of Their Chief Text
• Christ, the Head and the Body; Owing to the Union of the Natures in the Person…
• The Serpent Lifted Up in the Wilderness Prefigured Christ Suspended on the…
• No One Can Be Reconciled to God, Except by Christ
• The Form, or Rite, of Baptism. Exorcism
• A Twofold Mistake Respecting Infants
• In Infants There is No Sin of Their Own Commission
• Infants’ Faults Spring From Their Sheer Ignorance
• On the Ignorance of Infants, and Whence It Arises
• If Adam Was Not Created of Such a Character as That in Which We Are Born, How…
• The Ignorance and the Infirmity of an Infant
• How Far Sin is Done Away in Infants by Baptism, Also in Adults, and What…
• Book II
• Introduction (i)
• What Has Thus Far Been Dwelt On; And What is to Be Treated in This Book
• Some Persons Attribute Too Much to the Freedom of Man’s Will; Ignorance and…
• In What Way God Commands Nothing Impossible. Works of Mercy, Means of Wiping…
• Concupiscence, How Far in Us; The Baptized Are Not Injured by Concupiscence…
• The Will of Man Requires the Help of God
• Wherein the Pharisee Sinned When He Thanked God; To God’s Grace Must Be Added…
• Four Questions on the Perfection of Righteousness: (1.) Whether a Man Can Be…
• (2) Whether There is in This World a Man Without Sin
• The Beginning of Renewal; Resurrection Called Regeneration; They Are the Sons…
• Perfection, When to Be Realized
• An Objection of the Pelagians: Why Does Not a Righteous Man Beget a Righteous…
• He Reconciles Some Passages of Scripture
• A Subterfuge of the Pelagians
• Job Was Not Without Sin
• Carnal Generation Condemned on Account of Original Sin
• Job Foresaw That Christ Would Come to Suffer; The Way of Humility in Those That…
• No One Righteous in All Things
• Perfect Human Righteousness is Imperfect
• Zacharias and Elisabeth, Sinners
• Paul Worthy to Be the Prince of the Apostles, and Yet a Sinner
• All Righteous Men Sinners
• An Objection of the Pelagians; Perfection is Relative; He is Rightly Said to Be…
• Why God Prescribes What He Knows Cannot Be Observed
• An Objection of the Pelagians. The Apostle Paul Was Not Free From Sin So Long…
• God Punishes Both in Wrath and in Mercy
• (3)Why No One in This Life is Without Sin
• The Divine Remedy for Pride
• A Good Will Comes From God
• A Subterfuge of the Pelagians (xxx)
• All Will is Either Good, and Then It Loves Righteousness, or Evil, When It Does…
• Grace is Given to Some Men in Mercy; Is Withheld From Others in Justice and…
• God’s Sovereignity in His Grace
• Through Grace We Have Both the Knowledge of Good, and the Delight Which It…
• (4) That No Man, With the Exception of Christ, Has Ever Lived, or Can Live…
• Adam and Eve; Obedience Most Strongly Enjoined by God on Man
• Man’s State Before the Fall
• The Corruption of Nature is by Sin, Its Renovation is by Christ
• What Benefit Has Been Conferred on Us by the Incarnation of the Word; Christ’s…
• An Objection of Pelagians
• An Argument Anticipated
• Children of Believers Are Called ‘Clean’ By the Apostle
• Sanctification Manifold; Sacrament of Catechumens
• Why the Children of the Baptized Should Be Baptized
• An Objection of the Pelagians
• The Law of Sin is Called Sin; How Concupiscence Still Remains After Its Evil…
• Guilt May Be Taken Away But Concupiscence Remain
• All the Predestinated Are Saved Through the One Mediator Christ, and by One and…
• Christ the Saviour Even of Infants; Christ, When an Infant, Was Free From…
• An Objection of the Pelagians (l)
• Why It is That Death Itself is Not Abolished, Along With Sin, by Baptism
• Why the Devil is Said to Hold the Power and Dominion of Death
• Why Christ, After His Resurrection, Withdrew His Presence From the World
• An Objection of the Pelagians (liv)
• Why Punishment is Still Inflicted, After Sin Has Been Forgiven
• To Recover the Righteousness Which Had Been Lost by Sin, Man Has to Struggle…
• The Case of David, in Illustration
• Turn to Neither Hand
• 'Likeness of Sinful Flesh' Implies the Reality
• Whether the Soul is Propagated; On Obscure Points, Concerning Which the…
• Book III
• Introduction (i, 2)
• Pelagius Esteemed a Holy Man; His Expositions on Saint Paul
• Pelagius’ Objection; Infants Reckoned Among the Number of Believers and the…
• Pelagius Makes God Unjust
• Chapter 4
• Pelagius Praised by Some; Arguments Against Original Sin Proposed by Pelagius…
• Why Pelagius Does Not Speak in His Own Person
• Proof of Original Sin in Infants
• Jesus is the Saviour Even of Infants
• The Ambiguity of 'Adam is the Figure of Him to Come.'
• He Shows That Cyprian Had Not Doubted the Original Sin of Infants
• The Ancients Assumed Original Sin
• The Universal Consensus Respecting Original Sin
• The Error of Jovinianus Did Not Extend So Far
• The Opinions of All Controversialists Whatever Are Not, However, Canonical…
• We All Sinned Adam’s Sin
• Origin of Errors; A Simile Sought From the Foreskin of the Circumcised, and…
• Christians Do Not Always Beget Christian, Nor the Pure, Pure Children
• Is the Soul Derived by Natural Propagation?
• Sin and Death in Adam, Righteousness and Life in Christ
• The Sting of Death, What?
• The Precept About Touching the Menstruous Woman Not to Be Figuratively…
• We Ought to Be Anxious to Secure the Baptism of Infants
• Epilogue