Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/421

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—ORIGINAL SIN PROVED FROM INFANT BAPTISM.
211

power of the Spirit we may be renewed from the death of sin, being re-born in God." As also in the following paraphrase of Theodoret, (ad. loc.) "The Lord having used gentleness towards man, freed us from our former evils through the Only-Begotten, having freely given us remission of sins by saving Baptism, and having new-created and new-formed us, and having bestowed upon us the gifts of the Spirit, and shown us the way of righteousness." So also St. Augustine, ad Ps. 139, §. 9, Cyprian de habit, virg. p. 102. Origen in Joann. t. vi. § 17. "the bath of regeneration, which taketh place together with the renewal of the Spirit." And of moderns, J. Gerhard Loc. t. 4. p. 265, and most ap. Poole's Synopsis ad loc, and even the Reformed divines, as Calvin Institt. 4. 15. 5. and 16. 20; P. Martyr, ad Rom. 6; Witsius de Bapt. Infant. §. 19. Of the ancients, Jerome seems to have stood alone in the ordinary interpretation, ap. Waterland's Works, T. 8. p. 343, who prefers the above. Bucer de vi Bapt. Christi. (Opp. Anglic, p. 597.) "He calls it the washing of regeneration and of renewal by the Holy Ghost. Salvation, therefore, which consists in our regeneration and in that renewal, which the Holy Spirit effected in us, and so the Holy Spirit Himself, and our only regeneration and renovation, are bestowed on us by Baptism." Burges' Regeneration of Elect Infants, p. 87. "In which words, it is clear, as the sunne at noone-day, that Baptisme is not the laver of regeneration alone, but of the renewing of the Holy Ghost; so as he that is partaker only of the former, is but halfe baptized, i.e., he is partaker but of the body of the Sacrament, without that which gives life, forme, and being, unto that ordinance. And to make the Baptisme of the elect to be no more ordinarily, than a participation of the carcase of Christ's institution, would, I think, be a harsh doctrine even in their own eares, that deny the Spirit to elect infants."


Note (C), on page 23.

St. Augustine frequently cites this passage (Rom. vi. 3.) against the Pelagians, in proof that "infants are cleansed from original sin by regeneration;" (ab originali peccato parvulos regeneratione mundari,) and that, because St. Paul asserts, that all, without exception, who have been baptized in Christ, have been baptized in His death, i.e. have died an actual death to sin: all infants, therefore, must have died to sin; otherwise Christ had not died for them, which no one would say.—See c. Julian. Pelag. L. vi. § 7. sqq. L. i. § 28. Op. Imp. c. Jul. L. ii. § 135. and § 222. sq. Enchirid. c. 52. Wall (Infant Baptism, art. Augustine) enumerates also the following places wherein that father, from the acknowledged benefits of Baptism to infants, infers the truth of original sin:—"Ad Valerium de nuptiis et concupiscentiâ. Ad Bonifacium contra duas Epistolas Pelagianorum. De Gratiâ et Libero arbitrio. De corruptione et gratià