Whether Children Should Be Baptized?
Objection 1: It seems that children should not be baptized. For the
intention to receive the sacrament is required in one who is being
baptized, as stated above (A. 7). But children cannot have such an
intention, since they have not the use of free-will. Therefore it
seems that they cannot receive the sacrament of Baptism.
Obj. 2: Further, Baptism is the sacrament of faith, as stated above
(Q. 39, A. 5; Q. 66, A. 1, ad 1). But children have not faith, which
demands an act of the will on the part of the believer, as Augustine
says (Super Joan. xxvi). Nor can it be said that their salvation is
implied in the faith of their parents; since the latter are sometimes
unbelievers, and their unbelief would conduce rather to the damnation
of their children. Therefore it seems that children cannot be
baptized.
Obj. 3: Further, it is written (1 Pet. 3:21) that "Baptism saveth"
men; "not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the
examination of a good conscience towards God." But children have no
conscience, either good or bad, since they have not the use of
reason: nor can they be fittingly examined, since they understand
not. Therefore children should not be baptized.
_On the contrary,_ Dionysius says (Eccl. Hier. iii): "Our heavenly
guides," i.e. the Apostles, "approved of infants being admitted to
Baptism."
_I answer that,_ As the Apostle says (Rom. 5:17), "if by one man's
offense death reigned through one," namely Adam, "much more they who
receive abundance of grace, and of the gift, and of justice, shall
reign in life through one, Jesus Christ." Now children contract
original sin from the sin of Adam; which is made clear by the fact
that they are under the ban of death, which "passed upon all" on
account of the sin of the first man, as the Apostle says in the same
passage (Rom. 5:12). Much more, therefore, can children receive grace
through Christ, so as to reign in eternal life. But our Lord Himself
said (John 3:5): "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy
Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Consequently it
became necessary to baptize children, that, as in birth they incurred
damnation through Adam so in a second birth they might obtain
salvation through Christ. Moreover it was fitting that children
should receive Baptism, in order that being reared from childhood in
things pertaining to the Christian mode of life, they may the more
easily persevere therein; according to Prov. 22:5: "A young man
according to his way, even when he is old, he will not depart from
it." This reason is also given by Dionysius (Eccl. Hier. iii).
Reply Obj. 1: The spiritual regeneration effected by Baptism is
somewhat like carnal birth, in this respect, that as the child while
in the mother's womb receives nourishment not independently, but
through the nourishment of its mother, so also children before the
use of reason, being as it were in the womb of their mother the
Church, receive salvation not by their own act, but by the act of the
Church. Hence Augustine says (De Pecc. Merit. et Remiss. i): "The
Church, our mother, offers her maternal mouth for her children, that
they may imbibe the sacred mysteries: for they cannot as yet with
their own hearts believe unto justice, nor with their own mouths
confess unto salvation . . . And if they are rightly said to believe,
because in a certain fashion they make profession of faith by the
words of their sponsors, why should they not also be said to repent,
since by the words of those same sponsors they evidence their
renunciation of the devil and this world?" For the same reason they
can be said to intend, not by their own act of intention, since at
times they struggle and cry; but by the act of those who bring them
to be baptized.
Reply Obj. 2: As Augustine says, writing to Boniface (Cont. duas Ep.
Pelag. i), "in the Church of our Saviour little children believe
through others, just as they contracted from others those sins which
are remitted in Baptism." Nor is it a hindrance to their salvation if
their parents be unbelievers, because, as Augustine says, writing to
the same Boniface (Ep. xcviii), "little children are offered that
they may receive grace in their souls, not so much from the hands of
those that carry them (yet from these too, if they be good and
faithful) as from the whole company of the saints and the faithful.
For they are rightly considered to be offered by those who are
pleased at their being offered, and by whose charity they are united
in communion with the Holy Ghost." And the unbelief of their own
parents, even if after Baptism these strive to infect them with the
worship of demons, hurts not the children. For as Augustine says
(Cont. duas Ep. Pelag. i) "when once the child has been begotten by
the will of others, he cannot subsequently be held by the bonds of
another's sin so long as he consent not with his will, according to"
Ezech. 18:4: "'As the soul of the Father, so also the soul of the son
is mine; the soul that sinneth, the same shall die.' Yet he
contracted from Adam that which was loosed by the grace of this
sacrament, because as yet he was not endowed with a separate
existence." But the faith of one, indeed of the whole Church, profits
the child through the operation of the Holy Ghost, Who unites the
Church together, and communicates the goods of one member to another.
Reply Obj. 3: Just as a child, when he is being baptized, believes
not by himself but by others, so is he examined not by himself but
through others, and these in answer confess the Church's faith in the
child's stead, who is aggregated to this faith by the sacrament of
faith. And the child acquires a good conscience in himself, not
indeed as to the act, but as to the habit, by sanctifying grace.
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