that Adam's sin is therefore justly imputed to all his posterity.(184)
He also appeals to revelation. "St. Augustine," as Father Almeyda truly
says, "and the fathers who follow him, take the fundamental principle of
their doctrine (which affirms that infants without baptism will endure
eternal pain) from the sentence which the Supreme Judge is to pronounce at
the last day. We know that the Lord, dividing the human race into two
portions, will put the elect on the right hand, and the reprobate on the
left; and he will say to those on the left, Depart into eternal fire. St.
Augustine then argues, that infants will not be on the right, because
Jesus Christ has positively excluded all those who shall not _be born
again of water_ and of the Holy Spirit: then they will be on the left; and
thus they will be comprehended in the damnation of eternal fire, which the
Lord will pronounce against those who shall be on the left side: for
having no more than two hands, and only two places and two sentences,
since, then, there are infants which God does not favour, it follows that
they will be comprehended in the sentence of the reprobate, which is not
only a privation of the sight of God, but also the pain of fire."(185)
Such is the ground, and such the logic, on which St. Augustine and his
followers erected that portentous scheme, that awful speculation, which
has so long cast a dark cloud over the glory of the Christian world, and
prevented it from reflecting the bright, cheering beams of the divine
goodness.

But, what! could St. Augustine find rest in his own views,--in his own
logic? Did he really banish all non-elect infants into the region of penal
fire and everlasting woe? If he adhered to the literal meaning of the
words of revelation, as he understood them, he was certainly bound to do
so; but did he really and consistently do it? Did he really bind the "poor
little" reprobate, because it had sinned in Adam, in chains of adamant,
and leave it to writhe beneath the fierce inquisitorial fury of the
everlasting flames? Did he really extract the vials of such exquisite and
unprovoked wrath from the essence of infinite goodness itself? No: this
was reserved for the superior logic and the sterner consistency of an iron
age. But since it has been extracted, we may devoutly thank Almighty God,
that it is now excluded from the hearts of men calling themselves
Christians, and kept safely bottled up in their creeds and confessions.

St