Moreover, the common custom of the Church is to administer baptism to new-born children. But there would be no purpose in such administra- tion, unless there were sin in them. If it is said that the purpose of infant baptism is not the cleansing of sin, but the arriving at the kingdom of God, the saying is nonsensical. They who say so, appeal to our Lord's words: Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost \ he cannot enter into the {ingdom of God (John iii, 5).§ The fadl is, no one is excluded from the king- * Damnation here means exclusion from heaven ment was defeated by Adam's sin. Consequently and the supernatural happiness described in B. Ill, upon that sin, God arranged to give sanctifying Chapp. LXI-LXIII. grace, ordinarily, not in creation, but in baptism.
t Thus water-pipes have to be laid down to each Before baptism, the infant is devoid of sanctifying house for that house to share the benefits of that grace. That void is not a mere negation, it is a privauniversal cause of water supply, the city reservoirs. tion: for it is an absence of that which the child t The locus classicus in Scripture on original sin, ought to have, if it is to answer to its Maker's de- Romans v, 12-21, is fully considered in my Notes on sign of leading all mankind to grace and the vision 5/ 7W, pp. 340-347. of Himself. Whence this privation? Through the $ No one enters the kingdom of God except he sin of Adam, the head and representative of the huhave sanctifying grace. God's first arrangement was man race, and therefore of that child. This privation to give sanctifying grace to every man in the moment of sanctifying grace, as traceable to the sin of the when He created the man's rational soul. To speak first parent, is original sin in that child, as we should speak of a human scheme, this arrange - dom of God except for some fault. For the end of every rational creature is to arrive at happiness; which happiness can be only in the kingdom of God; which kingdom again is nothing else than the organised society of those who enjoy the vision of God, in which true happiness consists (B. Ill, Chap. LXIII).* But nothing fails to gain its end except through some fault or flaw. If then unbaptised children cannot arrive at the kingdom of God, we must say that there is some fault, flaw, or sin in them.
CHAPTERS LI, lAl-Arguments against Original Siny with Replies CHAP. LII — Before dealing with objeftions, we must premise that there are apparent in mankind certain probable signs of original sin, as we can argue fault from penalty. Now the human race gene- rally suffers various penalties, corporal and spiritual. Among corporal penal- ties the chief is death, to which all the others lead up, as hunger, thirst, and the like. Among spiritual penalties the chief is the weak hold that reason takes of man, so that man with difficulty arrives at the knowledge of truth, easily falls into error, and cannot altogether surmount his bestial appetites, but often has his mind clouded by them. Some one may say that these de- feats, corporal and spiritual, are not penal, but natural. But looking at the thing rightly, and supposing divine providence, which to all varieties of per- fection has adapted subje&s apt to take up each variety,t we may form a fairly probable conjecture that God, in uniting the higher nature of the soul to the lower nature of the body, had the intention that the former should control the latter; and further intended to remove, by His special and super- natural providence, any impediment to such control arising out of any defett of nature. Thus, as the rational soul is of a higher nature than the body, it might be supposed that such would be the terms of the union of the soul with the body, that nothing could possibly be in the body contrary to the soul whereby the body lives; and in like manner, as reason in man is associa- ted with sensitive appetite and other sensitive powers, it might be expected that reason would not be hampered by those sensitive powers, but rather would rule them. In accordance with these natural anticipations, we lay it down, according to the doctrine of faith, that the original constitution of man was such that, so long as his reason was subject to God, his lower facul- ties served him without demur, and no bodily impediment could stand in the way of his body obeying him, God and His grace supplying whatever was wanting in nature to the achievement of this result. But when his reason turned away from God, his lower powers revolted from reason; and his body became subject to passions contrary to the [rational] life that is by the soul. Thus then, though it may be admitted that these defeats are natural, if we look at human nature on its lower side; nevertheless, if we consider divine providence and the dignity of the higher portion of human nature, we have a fairly probable ground for arguing that these defedts are penal. Thus we # Understand, < in the present order of provi- Of this difficult doctrine of original sin, the best dence,' not in that possible, but unrealised order of English exposition is in the Essay on the Immacumere nature, in which God never intends to raise late Conception in the late Father Harper's Teace His rational creature to grace and beatific vision, through the Truth, First Series. Cf. B. Ill, Chap. L, with notes. In the order of t Or for every form has prepared matter apt to mere nature, what Catholic divines now understand receive that form, by * original sin 9 would have been an impossibility.
OF GOD IN HIS REVELATION may gather the inference [a priori] that the human race must have been in- fedled with some sin from its first origin. Now we may answer the argu- ments to the contrary.
Arg. I. The son shall not bear the iniquity of his father (Ezech. xviii, 20).
Reply 1. There is a difference between what affe&s one individual and what affefts the nature of a whole species: for by partaking in the species many men are as one man, as Porphyry says. The sin then that belongs to one individual is not imputable to another individual, unless he sins too, because the one is personally distinct from the other. But any sin touching the specific nature itself may without difficulty be propagated from one to another, as the specific nature is imparted by one to others [by generation].* Since sin is an evil of rational nature, and evil is a privation of good, we must consider of what good the privation is, in order to decide whether the sin in question belongs to our common nature, or is the particular sin of a private individual. The a&ual sins then, that are commonly committed by men, take away some good from the person of the sinner, such as grace and the due order of the parts of his soul: hence they are personal, and not im- putable to a second party beyond the one person of the sinner. But the first sin of the first man not only robbed the sinner of his private and personal good, namely, grace and the due order of his soul, but also took away a good that belonged to the common nature of mankind. According to the original constitution of this nature, the lower powers were perfc&ly subject to reason, reason to God, and the body to the soul, God supplying by grace what was wanting to this perfection by nature. This benefit, which by some is called * original justice/t was conferred on the first man in such sort that it should be propagated by him to posterity along with human nature. But when by the sin of the first man reason withdrew from its subje&ion to God, the consequence was a loss of the perfect subjection of the lower powers to reason, and of the body to the soul, — and that not only in the first sinner, but the same common defeCt has come down to posterity, to whom original justice would otherwise have descended. Thus then the sin of the first man, from whom, according to the doctrine of faith, all other men are descended, was at once a personal sin, inasmuch as it deprived that first man of his own private good, and also a sin of nature {peccatum naturale), inasmuch as it took away from that man, and consequently from his posterity, a benefit conferred upon the whole of human naturc.J This defedt, entailed upon other men by their first parent, has in those other men the charadter of a fault, inasmuch as all men are counted one man by participation in a common nature. This • All this would be clearer if Averroes's theory t Here it a definition carefully to note. ' Original were tenable, of one common human mind, or soul, justice,' according to St Thomas, is the ' perfect sub- one common psychic stock, as it were, sprouting out jection of man's lower powers to his reason, of his into various branches, or personalities, 'something reason to God, and of his body to his soul.' He like an aquatic plant, with many heads showing marks off * grace,' i.e., sanctifying grace, from above water, and these distinct, but all meeting in * original justice.' ' Original justice 9 then implies one root under water. Then we might argue that freedom from concupiscence, from folly, and from the common stock remained infected with original bodily weakness and incapacity of all sorts. A man sin, though individuals were cleansed. The theory in original justice would have no difficulty in banish- is, I suppose, utterly untenable; or, if there is any ing from his mind thoughts that he recognised as truth in it, it is a truth that no man hitherto foolish and undesirable. He would have absolute con-. has been able to formulate without grave and trol over his emotions and passions, dangerous error. We cannot impute such a notion to t From the context it is apparent that this ' bene- the great opponent of Averroism. But St Thomas's fit * is the * benefit,' above mentioned, of * original distinction between nature and person in this con- justice.' nezion would be plainer, and his whole argument more telling, on Averroistic principles. See his own remark on Averroism in Chap. XLI.
sin is voluntary by the will of our first parent, as the aftion of the hand has the charafter of a fault from the will of the prime mover, reason. In a sin of nature different men are counted parts of a common nature, like the different parts of one man in a personal sin.* Arg. 5. What is natural is no sin, as it is not the mole's fault for being blind.
Reply 5. The defedts above mentioned are transmitted by natural origin, inasmuch as nature is destitute of the aid of grace, which had been conferred upon nature in our first parent, and was meant to pass from him to posterity along with nature; and, inasmuch as this destitution has arisen from a voluntary sin, the defe6t so consequent comes to bear the charafter of a fault. Thus these defeats are at once culpable, as referred to their first principle, which is the sin of Adam; and natural, as referred to a nature now destitute [of original justice].
Arg. 6. A defeft in a work of nature happens only through defeft of some natural principle.
Reply 6. There is a defe<5t of principle, namely, of the gratuitous gift bestowed on human nature in its first creation; which gift was in a manner c natural/ not that it was caused by the principles of nature, but because it was given to man to be propagated along with his nature.
Arg. 9. The good of nature is not taken away by sin: hence even in devils their natural excellences remain. Therefore the origin of human generation, which is an a<5t of nature, cannot have been vitiated by sin.
Reply 9. By sin there is not taken away from man the good of nature which belongs to his natural species, but a good of nature which was super- added by grace, f 10. The gift, not belonging to the essence of the species, was neverthe- less bestowed by God gratuitously on the first man, that from him it might pass to the entire species: in like manner the sin, which is the privation of that gift, passes to the entire species.
1 1. Though by the sacraments of grace one is so cleansed from original sin that it is not imputed to him as a fault, — and this is what is meant by saying that he is personally delivered from that sin, — yet he is not altogether healed;J and therefore 'by the a6t of nature [i.e., of generation] original sin is transmitted to his posterity. Thus then in the human procreant, considered * The difficulty of this interesting passage is its t An axiom of the first importance in arguing seeming to place original sin in the privation of with a Calvinist or a Jansenist, or any other who original justice, as above defined: whereas baptism, will maintain that 'human nature is desperately cleansing as it does from original sin, does not im- wicked,' or that ' all the virtues of philosophers are part original justice, but sanctifying grace. Original vices,' or that there is no virtue which is not sin is the privation of sanctifying grace, under the ex- supernatural.
planations given in note, p. 379. God's sentence upon \ Non tamen totaliter sanatur. Though there is Adam has worked like an attainder upon a nobleman nothing in this passage of St Thomas inconsistent guilty of treason. The title is taken away from the with the Council of Trent, Sess. 5, Can. 5, still I family. We are by nature and birth a family of com- scarcely think that the Saint would have written this moners, and worse than commoners, for we ought to phrase had that canon been framed in his time. The be noble, and are not, because of the brand of treason Council insists on the axiom that there is nothing in resting upon our race. So we are rtKva <f>u<rei opyrjq the baptised that God hates (in renatis nihil odit <Deus).
(Eph. ii, 3): we are born in disgrace with God. Our But waiving the question of language and formunobility comes with our baptism, and consists in the laries, St Thomas here stands on two affirmations sanctifying grace given in that Sacrament; not in which every Catholic must affirm with him: (1) * original justice,' which shall not be restored to our that the baptised Christian, though cleansed from race till the day of the resurrection of the just. original sin, is not endowed with « original justice,' There is no difficulty in the text of Ezechiel, as above defined: (2) that the children of baptised which refers to the sins of the people to whom the parents are conceived and born in original sin. prophet was sent; and describes the providence of God, not over Adam, but over his posterity.
as a person^ there is no original sin; and there may very well be no aftualsin in the a6t of procreation: still, inasmuch as the procreant is a natural prin- ciple of procreation, the infection of original sin, as regards the nature^ re- mains in him and in his procreative a<Sl.* CHAPTER INl-Ofthe Need of Sacraments THE death of Christ is the universal cause of man's salvation: but a universal cause has to be applied to particular effcdts. Thus it was found necessary for certain remedies to be administered to men by way of bringing Christ's death into proximate connexion with them. Such remedies are the Sacraments of the Church. And these remedies had to be administered with certain visible signs: — first, because God provides for man, as for other beings, according to his condition; and it is the condition of man's nature to be led through sensible things to things spiritual and intel- ligible: secondly, because instruments must be proportioned to the prime cause; and the prime and universal cause of man's salvation is the Word In- carnate: it was convenient therefore that the remedies, through which that universal cause reaches men, should resemble the cause in this, that divine power works invisibly through visible signs.
Hereby is excluded the error of certain heretics, who wish all visible sacramental signs swept away; and no wonder, for they take all visible things to be of their own nature evil, and the work of an evil author (B. Ill, Chap. XV).f These visible sacramental signs are the instruments of a God Incarnate and Crucified (instrumcnta Dei incarnati et passi).
CHAPTER INll-Ofthe Difference between the Sacraments of the Old and of the New Law THESE Sacraments, having their efficacy from the Passion of Christ, which they represent, must fall in and correspond with the salvation wrought by Christ. Before the Incarnation and Passion of Christ this salvation was promised, but not accomplished: it was wrought by the Incar- nation and Passion of the Word. Therefore the Sacraments that preceded the Incarnation of Christ must have been such as to signify and promise salva- • The above is a summary of the scholastic theo- his eyes off the thought of the century in which logy of original sin. If I mention biblical criticism of the historic value of the early chapters of Genesis; evolutionist views of the gradual development of man from bestial ancestors; the observations of the anthro- pologist on what he calls 'primitive man/ a being far removed from 'original justice,' and only inno- cent inasmuch as he tfted without law (Rom. vii, 9); I do so by way of recognition of the many sciences that now claim the attention of the ecclesiastical student over and above scholastic theology. The leisurely hours of the seventeenth century were occupied with discussions as to the number of days that Adam spent in Paradise, and whether original justice consists of one * form ' or many. That leisure is gone: <rxo\fi (whence scholastic) has passed into curxpXta. Still, to be deep, one must specialise; and one field of specialisation is scholastic theology. Only let the modern scholastic specialist never take he lives. St Thomas is brimful of the speculations that were rife in his own University of Paris. So is Suarez replete with the best contemporary thought of Spain, and was not neglectful even of England. A great theologian is never behind the times.
t Manicheism, as represented by the Cathari and Albigenses, was * strong power in St Thomas's time. After a prevalence of more than a thousand years, it is entirely dead in the West. As the plague takes the place of other sicknesses, so Materialism has killed Manicheism. In old times, Matter bafRed Mind; and Mind was tempted to pronounce Matter evil. Now the empire of Mind over Matter is consolidated and daily spreading; and Mind is apt to fall in love with its creature, Matter, to identify itself with it, and finally to worship it. There is a strand of Manicheism in those two lost causes, Calvinism and Puritanism.
tion:* while the Sacraments that follow the Passion of Christ must be such as to render salvation to men, and not merely show it forth by signs.
This avoids the error of the Jews, who believe that the sacred rites of the Law must be observed for ever, because they were instituted by God, who repents not and changes not. There is no change or repentance about an arrangement, which arranges for different things to be done according to the fitness of different times; as the father of a family gives different com- mands to his son in his nonage and when he is come of age.f Still more irrational was the error of those who said that the rites of the Law were to be observed along with the Gospel; an error indeed which is self-contradic- tory: for the observance of the Gospel rites is a profession that the Incarnation and the other mysteries of Christ are now accomplished; while the observance of the rites of the Law is a profession that they are still to be fulfilled.
CHAPTER INlll-Oftbe Number of the Sacraments of the New Law THE remedies that provide for spiritual life are marked off, one from another, according to the pattern of corporal life. Now in respect of corporal life we find two classes of subjects. There are some who propagate and regulate corporal life in others, and some in whom corporal life is propagated and regulated. To this corporal and natural life three things are ordinarily necessary, and a fourth thing incidentally so. First, a living thing must receive life by generation or birth. Secondly, it must attain by augmentation to due quantity and strength. The third necessity is of nourish- ment. These three, generation, growth, and nutrition, are ordinary necessities, since bodily life cannot go on without them. But because bodily life may receive a check by sickness, there comes to be incidentally a fourth neces- sity, the healing of a living thing when it is sick. So in spiritual life the first thing is spiritual generation by Baptism: the second is spiritual growth leading to perfect strength by the Sacrament of Confirmation: the third is spiritual nourishment by the Sacrament of the Eucharist: there remains a fourth, which is spiritual healing, either of the soul alone by the Sacrament of Penance, or of the soul first, and thence derivatively, when it is expedient, of the body also, by Extreme Unftion. These Sacraments then concern those subjects in whom spiritual life is propagated and preserved. Again, the pro- pagators and regulators of bodily life are assorted according to a twofold division, namely, according to natural origin, which belongs to parents, and according to civil government, whereby the peace of human life is preserved, and that belongs to kings and princes. So then it is in spiritual life: there are some propagators and conservators of spiritual life by means of spiritual ministration only, and to that ministration belongs the Sacrament of Order: there are others who propagate and preserve at once corporal and spiritual life together, and that is done by the Sacrament of Matrimony, whereby man * But what was the use of this promise to men ferred by a minister who does not believe in it, prowho were never to live to see the salvation of Christ? viding he confers it seriously and without maiming Were they to die in their sins? It is commonly re- the rite.
plied that circumcision, the chief of the Sacraments t A remark to remember, as bearing on the evoof the Old Law, took away original sin, not of itself, lution of the moral law simultaneously with the but by virtue of the faith of them that performed it; evolution of society, whereas baptism is effectual of itself, even when conand woman come together to raise up issue and educate their children to the worship of God.* CHAPTER UX-Of Baptism THE generation of a living thing is a change from not living to life.t Now a man is deprived of spiritual life by original sin; and what- ever sins are added thereto go still further to withdraw him from life. Baptism therefore, or spiritual generation, was needed to serve the purpose of taking away original sin and all adtual sins. And because the sensible sign of a Sacrament must be suited to represent the spiritual effedt of the Sacrament,| and the washing away of filth is done by water, therefore Baptism is fittingly conferred in water san&ified by the word of God. And because what is brought into being by generation loses its previous form and the properties consequent upon that form, therefore Baptism, as being a spiritual generation, not only takes away sins, but also all the liabilities con- tracted by sins, — all guilt and all debt of punishment: therefore no satisfaction for sins is enjoined on the baptised. v With the acquisition of a new form there goes also the acquisition of the aftivity consequent upon that form; and therefore the baptised become immediately capable of spiritual aftions, such as the reception of the other Sacraments. Also there is due to them a position suited to the spiritual life: that position is everlasting happiness: and therefore the baptised, if they die fresh from baptism, are immediately caught up into bliss: hence it is said that baptism opens the gate of heaven.
One and the same thing can be generated only once: therefore, as Baptism is a spiritual generation, one man is to be baptised only once. The infection that came through Adam defiles a man only once: hence Baptism, which is dire6ted mainly against that infection, ought not to be repeated. Also, once a thing is consecrated, so long as it lasts, it ought not to be con- secrated again, lest the consecration should appear to be of no avail: hence Baptism, as it is a consecration of the person baptised, ought not to be repeated.
• Hence the saying of theologians, that the end resurrection than generation. Hence in Romans vi, and purpose of matrimony is generart regenerandos, to 3-1 1; Ephesians ii, 5,6; baptism is compared to generate subjects for regeneration. resurrection from the dead. But the transition in t I fear, this definition can hardly stand. It con- thought is easy from resurrection to new life, and tradicts the now established axiom, Omm Ytvum ex from new life to new birth, or regeneration. Hence vivo, and we may add, per vftum. If the generative baptism is called the sacrament of regeneration. Cf. products were themselves dead matter, no life could John iii, 3-5; Titus iii, 5; 1 Pet. i, 3. come out of them. Generation is now recognised as t Hence the axiom, a cardinal principle in the a mode of growth of living things. In baptism indeed theology of the sacraments: ' The sacraments effect the soul comes to be spiritually alive from being what they signify/ sacramenta efficinnt quod significant. spiritually dead: in the order of grace it is brought It bean upon the Edwardine Ordinal. To spoil the from not-living to living: but that is more like significance is to spoil the effect.
CHAPTER LX-Of Confirmation THE perfection of spiritual strength consists in a man's daring to con- fess the faith of Christ before any persons whatsoever, undeterred by any shame or intimidation. This Sacrament then, whereby spiritual strength is conferred on the regenerate man, constitutes him a champion of the faith of Christ. And because those who fight under a Prince wear his badge, persons confirmed are signed with the sign of Christ, whereby He fought and conquered. They receive this sign on their foreheads, to signify that they do not blush publicly to confess the faith of Christ. The signing is done with a composition of oil and balsam, called 'chrism,' not unreasonably. By the oil is denoted the power of the Holy Ghost, whereby Christ is termed 'anointed' [Ads ii, 36: x, 38] and from Christ [xpumk, anointed] 'Christians' have their name, as soldiers serving under Him. In the balsam, for its fragrance, the good name is shown, which they who live among worldly people should have, to enable them publicly to confess the name of Christ, to which end they are brought forth from the remote confines of the Church to the field of battle.* Appropriately too is this Sacrament conferred by bishops only, who are the generals of the Christian army: for in secular warfare it belongs to the general to enrol soldiers:f thus the recipients of this Sacrament are enrolled in a spiritual warfare, and the bishop's hand is im- posed over them to denote the derivation of power from Christ.