Book I

On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants · Saint Augustine of Hippo

1. Main text
2. Introductory, in the Shape of an Inscription to His Friend Marcellinus.
3. If Adam Had Not Sinned, He Would Never Have Died.
4. It is One Thing to Be Mortal, Another Thing to Be Subject to Death.
5. Even Bodily Death is from Sin.
6. The Words, Mortale (Capable of Dying), Mortuum (Dead), and Moriturus (Destined to Die).
7. How It is that the Body Dead Because of Sin.
8. The Life of the Body the Object of Hope, the Life of the Spirit Being a Prelude to It.
9. Bodily Death from Adam’s Sin.
10. Sin Passes on to All Men by Natural Descent, and Not Merely by Imitation.
11. The Analogy of Grace.
12. Distinction Between Actual and Original Sin.
13. The Law Could Not Take Away Sin.
14. Meaning of the Apostle’s Phrase 'The Reign of Death.'
15. Superabundance of Grace.
16. The One Sin Common to All Men.
17. How Death is by One and Life by One.
18. Whom Sinners Imitate.
19. Only Christ Justifies.
20. Sin is from Natural Descent, as Righteousness is from Regeneration; How ‘All’ Are Sinners Through Adam, and ‘All’ Are Just Through Christ.
21. Original Sin Alone is Contracted by Natural Birth.
22. Unbaptized Infants Damned, But Most Lightly; The Penalty of Adam’s Sin, the Grace of His Body Lost.
23. To Infants Personal Sin is Not to Be Attributed.
24. He Refutes Those Who Allege that Infants are Baptized Not for the Remission of Sins, But for the Obtaining of the Kingdom of Heaven.
25. Infants Saved as Sinners.
26. Infants are Described as Believers and as Penitents. Sins Alone Separate Between God and Men.
27. No One, Except He Be Baptized, Rightly Comes to the Table of the Lord.
28. Infants Must Feed on Christ.
29. Baptized Infants, of the Faithful; Unbaptized, of the Lost.
30. It is an Inscrutable Mystery Why Some are Saved, and Others Not.
31. Why One is Baptized and Another Not, Not Otherwise Inscrutable.
32. He Refutes Those Who Suppose that Souls, on Account of Sins Committed in Another State, are Thrust into Bodies Suited to Their Merits, in Which They are More or Less Tormented.
33. The Case of Certain Idiots and Simpletons.
34. Christ is the Saviour and Redeemer Even of Infants.
35. Baptism is Called Salvation, and the Eucharist, Life, by the Christians of Carthage.
36. Unless Infants are Baptized, They Remain in Darkness.
37. Infants Not Enlightened as Soon as They are Born.
38. How God Enlightens Every Person.
39. What ‘Lighteth’ Means.
40. The Conclusion Drawn, that All are Involved in Original Sin.
41. A Collection of Scripture Testimonies. From the Gospels.
42. From the First Epistle of Peter.
43. From the First Epistle of John.
44. From the Epistle to the Romans.
45. From the Epistles to the Corinthians.
46. From the Epistle to the Galatians.
47. From the Epistle to the Ephesians.
48. From the Epistle to the Colossians.
49. From the Epistles to Timothy.
50. From the Epistle to Titus.
51. From the Epistle to the Hebrews.
52. From the Apocalypse.
53. From the Acts of the Apostles.
54. The Utility of the Books of the Old Testament.
55. By the Sacrifices of the Old Testament, Men Were Convinced of Sins and Led to the Saviour.
56. He Concludes that All Men Need the Death of Christ, that They May Be Saved. Unbaptized Infants Will Be Involved in the Condemnation of the Devil. How All Men Through Adam are Unto Condemnation; And Through Christ Unto Justification. No One is Reconciled with God, Except Through Christ.
57. No One is Reconciled to God Except Through Christ.
58. The Good of Marriage; Four Different Cases of the Good and the Evil Use of Matrimony.
59. In What Respect the Pelagians Regarded Baptism as Necessary for Infants.
60. The Context of Their Chief Text.
61. Christ, the Head and the Body; Owing to the Union of the Natures in the Person of Christ, He Both Remained in Heaven, and Walked About on Earth; How the One Christ Could Ascend to Heaven; The Head, and the Body, the One Christ.
62. The Serpent Lifted Up in the Wilderness Prefigured Christ Suspended on the Cross; Even Infants Themselves Poisoned by the Serpent’s Bite.
63. No One Can Be Reconciled to God, Except by Christ.
64. The Form, or Rite, of Baptism. Exorcism.
65. A Twofold Mistake Respecting Infants.
66. In Infants There is No Sin of Their Own Commission.
67. Infants’ Faults Spring from Their Sheer Ignorance.
68. On the Ignorance of Infants, and Whence It Arises.
69. If Adam Was Not Created of Such a Character as that in Which We are Born, How is It that Christ, Although Free from Sin, Was Born an Infant and in Weakness?
70. The Ignorance and the Infirmity of an Infant.
71. How Far Sin is Done Away in Infants by Baptism, Also in Adults, and What Advantage Results Therefrom.