Atonements are guilty of the original sin of adam, the consequences of which are the loss of original holiness and justice, spiritual death, No sanctifying grace, being a slave to sin, death and the devil, justly condemned, and the wrath of GOd abides upon them.
Infants and all of us have original sin in us, the prevarication of Adam, as though it were our own, as defined by the council of Trent and the ecumenical council of Florence. THe COuncil of Trent also defined that infants cannot be saved apart from baptism.
A. Original sin has a personal quality and the nature of guilt: Session Five, paragraph 3.
- If any one asserts, that this sin of Adam,–which in its origin is one, and being transfused into all by propogation, not by imitation,*** is in each one as his own***, --is taken away either by the powers of human nature, or by any other remedy than the merit of the one mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath reconciled us to God in his own blood, made unto us justice, santification, and redemption; or if he denies that the said merit of Jesus Christ is applied, both to adults and to infants, by the sacrament of baptism rightly administered in the form of the church; let him be anathema: For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be [Page 23] saved. Whence that voice; Behold the lamb of God behold him who taketh away the sins of the world; and that other; As many as have been baptized, have put on Christ.
Council of Trent Session Five, Paragraph 5.
"5. If any one denies, that, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is conferred in baptism,
the guilt of original sin is remitted; or even asserts that the whole of that which **has the true and proper nature of sin **is not taken away; but says that it is only rased, or not imputed; let him be anathema.
Council of Trent session 6, Chapter 2:
“The holy Synod declares first, that, for the correct and sound understanding of the doctrine of Justification, it is necessary [Page 31] that each one recognise and confess, that, whereas **all men had lost their innocence **in the prevarication of Adam-having become unclean, and, as the apostle says,
by nature children of wrath, as (this Synod) has set forth in the decree on original sin,-
they were so far the servants of sin, and under the power of the devil and of death, that not the Gentiles only by the force of nature, but not even the Jews by the very letter itself of the law of Moses, were able to be liberated, or to arise, therefrom; although free will, attenuated as it was in its powers, and bent down, was by no means extinguished in them.”
Council of Trent Session 6 Chapter 3:
"But, though He died for all, yet do
not all receive the benefit of His [Page 32]
death, but those only unto whom the merit of His passion is communicated. For as in truth men, if they were not born propagated of the seed of Adam, would not be born unjust,-seeing that, by that propagation, they contract through him, when they are conceived,
injustice as their own,-so, if they were not born again in Christ, they never would be justified; seeing that, in that new birth, there is bestowed upon them, through the merit of His passion, the grace whereby they are made just. For this benefit the apostle exhorts us, evermore to give thanks to the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light, and hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption, and remission of sins.
Trent, by manner of Syllogism, has declared there is no other means of Salvation for infants than Sacramental water Baptism:
- It is infallibly defined that Christ was speaking of Sacaramental Water Baptism in John 3:5 when he said “Unless a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.”
Council of Trent, Session 7, On Baptism, Canon II.
CANON II.-If any one saith, that **true and natural water **is not of necessity for baptism, and, on that account, wrests,
to some sort of metaphor, those words of our Lord Jesus Christ; Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost; let him be anathema.
- Trent applied our Lord’s restriction to infants, when in session 5, paragraph 4 was defined:
“4. If any one denies, that infants, newly born from their mothers’ wombs, even though they be sprung from baptized parents, are to be baptized;
or says that they are baptized indeed for the remission of sins, but that they derive nothing of original sin from Adam, which has need of being expiated by the laver of regeneration for the obtaining life everlasting,–whence it follows as a consequence, that in them the form of baptism, for the remission of sins, is understood to be not true, but false, --let him be anathema. **For that which the apostle has said, By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and so death passed upon all men in whom all have sinned, is not to be understood otherwise than as the Catholic Church spread everywhere hath always understood it. For, by reason of this rule of faith, from a tradition of the apostles, even infants, who could not as yet commit any sin of themselves, are for this cause truly baptized for the remission of sins, that in them that may be cleansed away by regeneration, which they have contracted by generation. *For, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” ***
Note that this last phrase is applied in an infallible statement by an ecumenical council in a context that is about one subject: Infants and their baptism.
