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Objection 1: It seems that children should not be baptized. For
the intention to receive the sacrament is required in one who is being
baptized, as stated above (Article 7). But children cannot have
such an intention, since they have not the use of free-will.
Therefore it seems that they cannot receive the sacrament of Baptism.
Objection 2: Further, Baptism is the sacrament of faith, as
stated above (Question 39, Article 5; Question 66, Article
1, ad 1). But children have not faith, which demands an act of
the will on the part of the believer, as Augustine says (Super
Joan. xxvi). Nor can it be said that their salvation is implied in
the faith of their parents; since the latter are sometimes
unbelievers, and their unbelief would conduce rather to the damnation
of their children. Therefore it seems that children cannot be
baptized.
Objection 3: Further, it is written (1 Pt. 3:21) that
"Baptism saveth" men; "not the putting away of the filth of the
flesh, but the examination of a good conscience towards God." But
children have no conscience, either good or bad, since they have not
the use of reason: nor can they be fittingly examined, since they
understand not. Therefore children should not be baptized.
On the contrary, Dionysius says (Eccl. Hier. iii): "Our
heavenly guides," i.e. the Apostles, "approved of infants being
admitted to Baptism."
I answer that, As the Apostle says (Rm. 5:17), "if by one
man's offense death reigned through one," namely Adam, "much more
they who receive abundance of grace, and of the gift, and of justice,
shall reign in life through one, Jesus Christ." Now children
contract original sin from the sin of Adam; which is made clear by the
fact that they are under the ban of death, which "passed upon all" on
account of the sin of the first man, as the Apostle says in the same
passage (Rm. 5:12). Much more, therefore, can children
receive grace through Christ, so as to reign in eternal life. But
our Lord Himself said (Jn. 3:5): "Unless a man be born again
of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God." Consequently it became necessary to baptize children, that,
as in birth they incurred damnation through Adam so in a second birth
they might obtain salvation through Christ. Moreover it was fitting
that children should receive Baptism, in order that being reared from
childhood in things pertaining to the Christian mode of life, they may
the more easily persevere therein; according to Prov. 22:5: "A
young man according to his way, even when he is old, he will not
depart from it." This reason is also given by Dionysius (Eccl.
Hier. iii).
Reply to Objection 1: The spiritual regeneration effected by
Baptism is somewhat like carnal birth, in this respect, that as the
child while in the mother's womb receives nourishment not
independently, but through the nourishment of its mother, so also
children before the use of reason, being as it were in the womb of
their mother the Church, receive salvation not by their own act, but
by the act of the Church. Hence Augustine says (De Pecc.
Merit. et Remiss. i): "The Church, our mother, offers her
maternal mouth for her children, that they may imbibe the sacred
mysteries: for they cannot as yet with their own hearts believe unto
justice, nor with their own mouths confess unto salvation . . . And
if they are rightly said to believe, because in a certain fashion they
make profession of faith by the words of their sponsors, why should
they not also be said to repent, since by the words of those same
sponsors they evidence their renunciation of the devil and this
world?" For the same reason they can be said to intend, not by their
own act of intention, since at times they struggle and cry; but by the
act of those who bring them to be baptized.
Reply to Objection 2: As Augustine says, writing to Boniface
(Cont. duas Ep. Pelag. i), "in the Church of our Saviour
little children believe through others, just as they contracted from
others those sins which are remitted in Baptism." Nor is it a
hindrance to their salvation if their parents be unbelievers, because,
as Augustine says, writing to the same Boniface (Ep. xcviii),
"little children are offered that they may receive grace in their
souls, not so much from the hands of those that carry them (yet from
these too, if they be good and faithful) as from the whole company of
the saints and the faithful. For they are rightly considered to be
offered by those who are pleased at their being offered, and by whose
charity they are united in communion with the Holy Ghost." And the
unbelief of their own parents, even if after Baptism these strive to
infect them with the worship of demons, hurts not the children. For
as Augustine says (Cont. duas Ep. Pelag. i) "when once the
child has been begotten by the will of others, he cannot subsequently
be held by the bonds of another's sin so long as he consent not with
his will, according to" Ezech. 18:4: "'As the soul of the
Father, so also the soul of the son is mine; the soul that sinneth,
the same shall die.' Yet he contracted from Adam that which was
loosed by the grace of this sacrament, because as yet he was not
endowed with a separate existence." But the faith of one, indeed of
the whole Church, profits the child through the operation of the Holy
Ghost, Who unites the Church together, and communicates the goods
of one member to another.
Reply to Objection 3: Just as a child, when he is being baptized,
believes not by himself but by others, so is he examined not by himself
but through others, and these in answer confess the Church's faith in
the child's stead, who is aggregated to this faith by the sacrament of
faith. And the child acquires a good conscience in himself, not
indeed as to the act, but as to the habit, by sanctifying grace.
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