Ten Reasons Proposed to His Adversaries for Disputation in the Name: of the Faith and Presented to the Illustrious Members of Our UniversitiesCampion, Edmund, Saint
Religion
Ten Reasons Proposed to His Adversaries for Disputation in the Name: of the Faith and Presented to the Illustrious Members of Our Universities
Campion, Edmund, Saint
Catholic Church -- Apologetic works
I hasten to pass on to the Sacraments. None, none, not two, not
one, O holy Christ, have they left. Their bread is poison; and
as for their baptism, though it is still true baptism,
nevertheless in their judgment it is nothing, it is not a wave
of salvation, it is not a channel of grace, it does not apply to
us the merits of Christ, it is a mere token of salvation
(Calvin, _Instit._ iv. 15). Thus they have made no more of the
baptism of Christ, so far as the nature of the thing goes, than
of the ceremony of John. If you have it, it is well; if you go
without it, there is no loss suffered; believe, you are saved,
before you are washed. What then of infants, who, unless they
are aided by the virtue of the Sacrament, poor little things,
gain nothing by any faith of their own? Rather than allow
anything to the Sacrament of baptism, say the Magdeburg
Centuriators (Cent. v. 4.), let us grant that there is faith in
the infants themselves, enough to save them; and that the said
babies are aware of certain secret stirrings of this faith,
albeit they are not yet aware whether they are alive or not. A
hard nut to crack! If this is so very hard, listen to Luther's
remedy. It is better, he says (_Advers. Cochl._), to omit the
baptism; since, unless the infant believes, to no purpose is it
washed. This is what they say, doubtful in mind what absolutely
to affirm. Therefore let Balthasar Pacimontanus step in to sort
the votes. This father of the Anabaptists, unable to assign to
infants any stirring of faith, approved Luther's suggestion;
and, casting infant baptism out of the churches, resolved to
wash at the sacred font none who was not grown up. For the rest
of the Sacraments, though that many headed beast utters many
insults, yet, seeing that they are now of daily occurrence, and
our ears have grown callous to them, I here pass them over.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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