Chapter 42.--The Sacrament of Baptism Indicates Our Death with Christ to Sin, and Our Resurrection with Him to Newness of Life.
And this is the meaning of the great sacrament of baptism which is solemnized among us, that all who attain to this grace should die to sin, as He is said to have died to sin, because He died in the flesh, which is the likeness of sin; and rising from the font regenerate, as He arose alive from the grave, should begin a new life in the Spirit, whatever may be the age of the body?
Chapter 43.--Baptism and the Grace Which It Typifies are Open to All, Both Infants and Adults.
For from the infant newly born to the old man bent with age, as there is none shut out from baptism, so there is none who in baptism does not die to sin. But infants die only to original sin; those who are older die also to all the sins which their evil lives have added to the sin which they brought with them.
Chapter 44.--In Speaking of Sin, the Singular Number is Often Put for the Plural, and the Plural for the Singular.
But even these latter are frequently said to die to sin, though undoubtedly they die not to one sin, but to all the numerous actual sins they have committed in thought, word, or deed: for the singular number is often put for the plural, as when the poet says, "They fill its belly with the armed soldier," [1161] though in the case here referred to there were many soldiers concerned. And we read in our own Scriptures: "Pray to the Lord, that He take away the serpent from us." [1162] He does not say serpents though the people were suffering from many; and so in other cases. When, on the other hand, the original sin is expressed in the plural number, as when we say that infants are baptized for the remission of sins, instead of saying for the remission of sin, this is the converse figure of speech, by which the plural number is put in place of the singular; as in the Gospel it is said of the death of Herod, "for they are dead which sought the young child's life," [1163] instead of saying, "he is dead." And in Exodus: "They have made them," Moses says, "gods of gold," [1164] though they had made only one calf, of which they said: "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt," [1165] --here, too, putting the plural in place of the singular.
[1161] "Uterumque armato milite complent.".--Virgil, Æn. ii. 20.
[1162] Num. xxi. 7 ("serpents," A. and R.V.).
[1163] Matt. ii. 20
[1164] Ex. xxxii. 31
[1165] Ex. xxxii. 4
Chapter 45.--In Adam's First Sin, Many Kinds of Sin Were Involved.
However, even in that one sin, which "by one man entered into the world, and so passed upon all men," [1166] and on account of which infants are baptized, a number of distinct sins may be observed, if it be analyzed as it were into its separate elements. For there is in it pride, because man chose to be under his own dominion, rather than under the dominion of God; and blasphemy, because he did not believe God; and murder, for he brought death upon himself; and spiritual fornication, for the purity of the human soul was corrupted by the seducing blandishments of the serpent; and theft, for man turned to his own use the food he had been forbidden to touch; and avarice, for he had a craving for more than should have been sufficient for him; and whatever other sin can be discovered on careful reflection to be involved in this one admitted sin.
[1166] Rom. v. 12
Chapter 46.--It is Probable that Children are Involved in the Guilt Not Only of the First Pair, But of Their Own Immediate Parents.
And it is said, with much appearance of probability, that infants are involved in the guilt of the sins not only of the first pair, but of their own immediate parents. For that divine judgment, "I shall visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the children," [1167] certainly applies to them before they come under the new covenant by regeneration. And it was this new covenant that was prophesied of, when it was said by Ezekiel, that the sons should not bear the iniquity of the fathers, and that it should no longer be a proverb in Israel, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." [1168] Here lies the necessity that each man should be born again, that he might be freed from the sin in which he was born. For the sins committed afterwards can be cured by penitence, as we see is the case after baptism. And therefore the new birth would not have been appointed only that the first birth was sinful, so sinful that even one who was legitimately born in wedlock says: "I was shapen in iniquities, and in sins did my mother conceive me." [1169] He did not say in iniquity, or in sin, though he might have said so correctly; but he preferred to say "iniquities" and "sins," because in that one sin which passed upon all men, and which was so great that human nature was by it made subject to inevitable death, many sins, as I showed above, may be discriminated; and further, because there are other sins of the immediate parents, which though they have not the same effect in producing a change of nature, yet subject the children to guilt unless the divine grace and mercy interpose to rescue them.
[1167] Ex. xx. 5; Deut. v. 9
[1168] Ezek. xviii. 2
[1169] Ps. li. 5 (The A.V. has the singular, "iniquity" and "sin").