r the law, that we might receive the adoption of
sons."(336)

Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, came to wash away the defilement from our
souls and to restore us to that Divine friendship which we had lost by the
sin of Adam. He is the second Adam, who came to repair the iniquity of the
first. It was our Savior's privilege to prescribe the conditions on which
our reconciliation with God was to be effected.

Now He tells us in His Gospel that Baptism is the essential means
established for washing away the stain of original sin and the door by
which we find admittance into His Church, which may be called the second
Eden. We must all submit to a new birth, or regeneration, before we can
enter the kingdom of heaven. Water is the appropriate instrument of this
new birth, as it indicates the interior cleansing of the soul; and the
Holy Ghost, the Giver of spiritual life, is its Author.

The Church teaches that Baptism is necessary for all, for infants as well
as adults, and her doctrine rests on the following grounds:

Our Lord says to Nicodemus: "Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be
born again of water and the Holy Ghost he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God."(337) These words embrace the whole human family, without regard to
age or sex, as is evident from the original Greek text, for {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}, which is
rendered _man_ in our English translation, means any one--mankind in its
broadest acceptation.

The Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul, although containing
only a fragmentary account of the ministry of the Apostles, plainly
insinuate that the Apostles baptized children as well as grown persons. We
are told, for instance, that Lydia "was baptized, and her household,"(338)
by St. Paul; and that the jailer "was baptized, and all his family."(339)
The same Apostle baptized also "the household of Stephanas."(340) Although
it is not expressly stated that there were children among these baptized
families, the presumption is strongly in favor of the supposition that
there were. But if any doubt exists regarding the Apostolic practice of
baptizing infants it is easily removed by referring to the writings of the
primitive Fathers of the Church, who, as they were the immediate
successors of the Apostles, ought to be the best interpreters of their
doctrines and practice.

St. Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of St. John