NO SALVATION OUTSIDE THE CHURCH; OR THE DOCTRINE OF EXCLUSIVE SALVATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 47, 22 November 1900, Page 3

NO SALVATION OUTSIDE THE CHURCH; OR THE DOCTRINE OF EXCLUSIVE SALVATION.

UN BAPTISED INFANTS

The following is the final of a serins of articles on the above subject contributed to the Amf, il f.i ■//</■ by his Grace the Archbishop of Melbourne —

A series of papers treating- of the doctrine of exclusive salvation may be fitly brought to a close by a paper such as this, which deals with the condition of infants who die without baptism. It is a subject of deep and perennial interest. The very obscurity in which it is shrouJei invites reverent investigation. In a letter 10 St. Jerome, St. Augustine says that the consideration of it caused him keen anxiety, and left him still in considerable doubt. 'Cum ad pcenas parvulorum ventum est, magnis mini crede coarctor anguatus, nee quid re.sponde.im prorsu.s invenio, doce ergo quid sentire, quid dicere debeamuy.'

One of the many consequences of original sin is the absolute necessity of some form of baptism for infants as well as for adults to entitle them to the beatific vision in the kingdom of God. From this very necessity of baptism St. Augustine, in his controversy with the Pelagians, undertook: to prove the fill of our first parent*, and the tranamisbiou of original pin to their posterity. So clearly is that necessity conveyed in the third chapter of St. John's Gospel, that the Pelagians, though they denied the transmission of original sin, were forced to admit thut without baptiam no infant could enter the kingdom of God. They were driven, therefore, to invent a distinction between the kingdom of God and the possession of eternal life elsewhere, and to maintain that baptism was necessary for the former, but not for the latter. Other heretics went farther, and denied the necessity of baptism at least for the children of Christian parents, even though they admitted that such children are born subject to original sin.

Outside the Catholic Church there is, at the present time, considerable difference of opinion regarding the necessity of infant baptism. But the Catholic Church holds what she held from the beginning — what she held in the Councils of Milevis and Orange in refuting the Pelagians, and what she continued to hold at the Council of Trent in resisting the Calviniats — namely, that baptism

In this natural order God might have created man without many of even the natural gifts He gave to Adam. He might have created Adam with the same defects, except sin, to which men are at present liable, passible in his mortal bjdy, limited in his imperfect understanding, and prone to concupiscence in his wayward will. Man had no claim to even" natural perfection, except such as God chose to bestow. St. Thomas says (Diat 3, 31 quest., art. 3) that when God formed Adam, and bestowed on him such exalted gifts of nature and of grace, and destined him and his posterity for the highest supernatural happiness, He might, at the same time, have formed another man, and given him only the bare requirements of human nature ; leaving him liable to death and disease, and pain, and the attacks of concupiscence.

If God was not bouud to bestow on man any certain degree of natural perfection, much less was He bound to bestow on him the supernatural gilts of grace and to destine him for the supernatural happiness which consists in the sight and enjoyment of God Himself for all eternity. The most that man could claim from God would be the natural powers which would enable him to work out his natural destiny. But there is no proportion between the exercise of eujh natural powers and the supernatural reward of the beatific vision. God could not, therefore, be bound by any attribute of mercy or justice to hold out heaven as a reward to men, no matter how perfectly they might exercise their natural powers and faculties. There is a much wider difference between the natural and 6iip«'rn itur.il order than between the lowest and the highest grades in the natural order. As no being in a grade lower than that to whicu man belongs — a horse, for instance, no matter how perfect the hor-e mk r ht be— Ksould have any claim to the privileges be-t'iwed on man, such us reason, so neither could man, unless God moHt treelv w ill'-d it, have any claim to the happiness of the supernatural order. It was. therefore, owing entirely to the bounty of God that ADAM WAS Ef,KVATIiV) BEYOND HIS NATURAL CLAIMS

to a supernatural btate, and destined for supernatural happinesß. U,it Adam, by his transgression, fell from thd supernatural state in which he \\\ib croaiel, and forteitel the special privileges both of nature and grace with which he had b^en endowed. And Adam's fall a'Focted not only himself, but all his posterity. This is what

But after the Gospel was sufficiently promulgated the sacrament of Baptism is, in case of all infants, unless they share in the martyr's crown, universally and indispensably necessary for salvation. We need not dwell on the clear proofs of this proposition which are derived from the New Testament. It will be sufficient to quote among the early Fathers, St. Augustine, who thus testifies to the faith of the primitive Church : ' Let not eternal life be promised to infants except through baptism, whereas Holy Scripture, which is to be preferred to all our human reasoning, does not promise it on any other condition.' (De Peocator Merit. Lib I. Cap. 23). Again he aays (Lib. 111. De Anima et c Origine Cap. 9) ' Do not believe, nor say, nor teach that infanta who are snatched away by death before they are baptised can obtain the remission of original sin, if you wish to continue a Catholic' Finally in hit 28th Epistle to St. Jerome, he says, ' Whosoever holds that such infants shall be made partakers of the spiritual life of Christ, as have not received the Sacrament, without doubt puts himself in opposition to the Apostolic teaching, and condemns the universal Church which makes every effort and uses all haste to procure baptism for infants, because it is a point of undoubted belief that they cannot otherwise be regenerated in Christ.'

Unbaptised infants cannot, therefore, enter the Kingdom of God, but neither are they condemned at death to enter the prison of the damned. ' The punishment of Original Sin,' says Innocent 111. (Cap. Majorcs), ' is the deprivation of the beatific vision ; but the punishment of actual sin is the endurance of never-ending torments.' What then will be the future condition of infanta

WHO DIB WITHOUT BAPTISM ?

There is no dogmatic definition of the Church in which an answer to this question is contained. But all Catholic theologians are agreed — (1) that infants who die without baptißm are exefuded from the kingdom of heaven ; (2) that they will not enjoy the beatific vision outside heaven ; (3) that in common with adults they will ariße and be assembled for judgment on the last day ; and (4) that after the last day there will be but two states — namely, a state of supernatural and supreme felicity and a state of what may be called in a wide sense, a state of damnation.

The whole question, therefore, rcolvea i<-«v»lf into this In what does that latter state consist in case of unbaptised infants i

Damnation is a state of existence admitting of many degrees differing widely from one another. (1) Its most deplorable form is found in the condition of the reprobate, who in the prison of hell, together with the positive pain of loss, will suffer also positive pains of mind and body — the worm that never dies, and the fire that is never extinguished. (2) It may consist in the positive pain of loss alone, that is in the consciousness of having lost God the •upreme good, but without any pain of sense. (3) It may be limited to a negative pain of loss, i.e., a deprivation of the beatific vision without any consciousness of the loss sustained. (4) Finally it might, with this negative pain of loss, include a large measure of natural happiness, including a natural knowledge and love of God.

No one has ever maintained that unbaptised infants suffer the ■»me punishment as the reprobate. It is morally certain that they ■offer no pain of senst, ' This opinion,' says Dr. Murray, in his treatise on the Church, ' appears to us, not only on account of the authority of theologians, but also, and indeed much more, on account of the solid reasons they advance in its favor, most probable, nay, morally certain.' We believe, therefore, with all confidence that these children Buffer no pain of sense. But are they also exempt from the pain of loss ? Do they know and grieve for the infinite happiness they have lost in being excluded from the sight of God and the kingdom of His glory / Are they like the children of a dethroned king, wandering in a foreign land, and ever looking with longing eyes and aching hearts, towards the lofty towers of their father's kingdom ? Or, on the other hand, is the pain of loss with them only negative, either because they are unconscious of the loss they have sustained, or, though knowing it, they are able to conform their minds perfectly to the will of God, and therefore to enjoy all the natural happiness with which God fills them ? Some have held that as these infants WILL BE TRESENT AC TUE GENERAL JUDGMENT, they must know, and knowing, must grieve for the glorious inheritance they have lost. But the weight of authority is certainly o-i the other aide. It is much more commonly held that even if they know that others are happier than themselves, they are perfectly resigned to God's will, and suffer no pain of loss in regard lo happiness which is not suited to their condition.

But Catholic theologians go further, and maintain on solid grounds that these unbaptised infants, besides being exempt from all pain of sense and of loss, enjoy all the natural happiness, including a natural knowledge and love of God, which is suitable to their state.

Some imagine that this natural happiness will be enjoyed on this earth after it hag been purified by fire and prepared for the habitation of these unbaptised infants. In several parts of the New Testament, as in the Epistles of St. Paul to the Romans it appears to be clearly signified— (l) that the present condition of the world was not that originally intended by the Almighty. (2) That the world itself was not the cause or occasion of the unfavorable ohange to which it was subjected. (3) That the visible creation expects, as it were, a glorious change and 'groaneth and travaileth in pain ' till it be accomplished, and (4) that as the fall of man subjected the visible creation to corruption, so the final glory of the blessed will be reflected in the world which was created for man's use and enjoyment.

Supposing then that this world will undergo such a glorious renovation, it is reasonable to conclude that it will still be used for the use and benefit of such of the children of men as will neither be reigning m glory with God in heaven, nor shut up within the confines of hell.

Lessius gives a graphic description of the part these unbaptised infants will play in the greatest of the world's dramas when the hour oometh, wherein all that are in the graves

SHALL HEAR THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD, and obey the Archangel's trumpet summoning all the children of Adam to the General Judgment. 'They^ shall be gathered together in ono place,' he says, 'but separated from the wioked as having a destiny different from theirs They shall see the majesty of the Judge and adore Him. Thpy shall Bee the assembly of the saints and of the wicked, of whose good and bad works they shall have a knowledge. They shall hear the Bentence of the Judge pronounced on both, and shall rejoice that they themselves are not amongst the wicked. They shall give thanks to God for having snatched them away before coming to the use of reason, inasmuch as the great majority of them, especially the children of unbelievers, would otherwise have incurred the same damnation. They will not, therefore, murmur against God, but will feel themselves exceedingly indebted to Him for having delivered them from the peril of such great woes. They shall themselves receive a sentence from the Judge, but a gracious one ; which, though it excludes them from the beatific vision and the kingdom of heaven, secures them in a state suited to the dignity of their nature, wherein, satisfied •nd rejoiomg, they shall dwell in the praises of God for all eternity. . . ,'