Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

1 1 4 Different Interpretations
CHA.P. IV.
instance from which such guilt could arise, from this state
of The
happiness.
text, Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of
God, was, indeed, considered to settle this question, and
that in two ways : first, as deciding that no one in a state
of nature could enter into the Kingdom of God ; secondly,
as deciding that the only means by which the penalty of
nature was removed was the rite of baptism. An exception
was made in favour of those who died accidentally, before
partaking
of this sacrament, having shown faith and re
pentance ; and especially in favour of martyrs. But no
supposition of a subsequent extraordinary Divine mercy,
and extraordinary means, was allowed in favour of the
rest, who were all, heathen and unbaptized infants alike,
considered as cut off for ever from the remission of original
sin, and so as excluded eternally from the kingdom of
heaven. 1
III. A state of happiness after death, which is not the
highest state, is by implication a middle state. But,
thirdly, a definite idea of a middle state subsequently grew
up. Two distinguished fathers of the Eastern Church,
2
Gregory Nazianzen, and Gregory of Nyssa, leaned to it ;
and the Pelagians seem to have held it unchallenged till
Augustine who himself, in his earlier theological life,
inclined to it rebuked them. But this state was intro
duced only to meet the case of infants, not of heathens ;
though on the same principle in which the former were
admissible into it, the latter were also for those ; who have
made the most of inferior opportunities are in no worse
case than those who have had none. But the early Church
stopped short of any large application of the doctrine of a
checked by the absence of any allusion to it
middle state ;
1
Augustine appeals to this estab- licus. (De Anima, 1. 3. c. ix.) This
lished opinion in the case of infants is opposed to the most fundamental
in his controversy with Vincentius Catholic faith contra Catholicam
Victor : Never believe, or say, or fundatissimam fidem. De Anima,
teach that infants dying before they 1. 2. c. xii. See Wall on Infant
are baptized can attain to the re- Baptism, part 1. c. 15 ; part 2. c. 6.
mission of original sin, if you wish 2 NOTE XVI.
to be a Catholic si vis esse Catho-