Infant Baptism

HISTORY:
Infant baptism was a practice in the church, as I have read, which started after the death of the apostles but before the time of Augustine. Christians practiced it and didn't think much about it; it was the way things had been done; I am curious, though, to find out in further readings if there were any in this era who questioned it. I was recently taught in my class that no one till then had yet justified it by means of scripture. Augustine took this tradition of the church and gave it body when he explained original sin in a further, and more desperate, manner.

Once taking a stance that all can be spiritually regenerated even without personal consent through water baptism, it soon came time for him to explain why some, or many, of those who were baptized did not follow in any portion according to the faith. In this frame of mind the doctrine of predestination was conceived and given form by Augustine.

I am reading along in the writings of Augustine, and find them very thought provoking (link given at the bottom of post). Let me share just a small piece which shows his thinking as I have connected already the doctrine of original sin with infant baptism:

If original sin is a nullity, would it not follow, that not only grace withdraws men from many offences to justification, but judgment leads them to condemnation from many offences likewise? For assuredly grace does not condone many offences, without judgment in like manner having many offences to condemn. Else, if men are involved in condemnation because of one offence, on the ground that all the offences which are condemned were committed in imitation of that one offence; there is the same reason why men should also be regarded as withdrawn from one offence unto justification, inasmuch as all the offences which are remitted to the justified were committed in imitation of that one offence. But this most certainly was not the apostle's meaning, when he said: "The judgment, indeed, was from one offence unto condemnation, but the grace was from many offences unto justification." We on our side, indeed, can understand the apostle, and see that judgment is predicated of one offence unto condemnation entirely on the ground that, even if there were in men nothing but original sin, it would be sufficient for their condemnation. For however much heavier will be their condemnation who have added their own sins to the original offence (and it will be the more severe in individual cases, in proportion to the sins of individuals); still, even that sin alone which was originally derived unto men not only excludes from the kingdom of God, which infants are unable to enter (as they themselves allow), unless they have received the grace of Christ before they die, but also alienates from salvation and everlasting life, which cannot be anything else than the kingdom of God, to which fellowship with Christ alone introduces us. {1}

Here is another quote which, in my opinion, shows the difficulty he has in injecting his belief in original sin as a trespass in addition to personal ones:

Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound." Romans 5:20 This addition to original sin men now made of their own wilfulness, not through Adam; but even this is done away and remedied by Christ, because "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin has reigned unto death" Romans 5:21 —even that sin which men have not derived from Adam, but have added of their own will—"even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life." Romans 5:21 There is, however, other righteousness apart from Christ, as there are other sins apart from Adam. Therefore, after saying, "As sin has reigned unto death," he did not add in the same clause "by one," or "by Adam," because he had already spoken of that sin which was abounding when the law entered, and which, of course, was not original sin, but the sin of man's own wilful commission. But after he has said: "Even so might grace also reign through righteousness unto eternal life," he at once adds, "through Jesus Christ our Lord;" Romans 5:21 because, while by the generation of the flesh only that sin is contracted which is original; yet by the regeneration of the Spirit there is effected the remission not of original sin only, but also of the sins of man's own voluntary and actual commission. {2}

ONE SOLUTION:
Of course, there are many who understand that spiritual regeneration is a washing of the inner man by the Spirit of God, and not something done with literal water. It is unfortunate, as someone who sees the scriptures explain this, to read a whole theological construct delineating who may enter heaven and who may persist to the end, come about from just one false construct.

IMPLICATIONS:
Do we need a belief in Augustinian predestination with a knowledge of infant baptism being ineffectual? Calvin resurrects this belief later on after the Reformation.



On Merit and the Forgiveness of Sins, and the Baptism of Infants. Augustine, {1}Book 1 ch. 15; {2}Book 1 ch. 20.