"I feel that this question is a profound one, and I own that my powers are not sufficient to fathom its depths. I must here be content to exclaim with Paul, O the depth of the riches! An unbaptized infant goes to damnation."[1]
Such was the doctrine held and taught by Augustine, whose writings, we are told, exerted such "a potent influence on the religious opinions of christendom" for many centuries. With good reason, therefore, did Benedict Turretin say: "Augustine holds, 'that infants dying without baptism, are punished with the punishment of eternal fire.'"
We will refer to but one other ancient authority, that of Fulgentius, who flourished during the latter part of the fifth century, and was a theologian of the same school as Augustine. This writer often, and with that apparent confidence which an author evinces when he is giving utterance to truths generally believed, speaks of God's condemning little infants to "eternal torments," "eternal burning," " eternal damnation," and the like. In one of his works he gives a catalogue of the orthodox articles of faith, beginning each with the words Firmissime tene et nullatenus dubites—"most firmly hold, and by no means doubt." And among these articles, of which there are forty in number, occurs the following:
- ↑ De Baptismo Parvulorum contra Pelagianos. Sermo D. August. xiv. capp. 2, 3, 4, and 7
