To Florus 1.54

Having defended these points as far as the present passage allowed, let us return to where we left off. We will discuss this very subject more fully wherever an opportunity arises. See with what a clear confession I rejected both those who would deny baptism to infants and you who dare to stain God's justice by what you claim baptism presupposes. I testified that I hold nothing other than this: the established mysteries must be administered at absolutely every age in the same words in which they were handed down, and must not be changed to suit different cases. But the sinner becomes completely good from being evil, while the innocent person, who has no evil of his own will, becomes better from being good, that is, becomes best. Both are consecrated and pass into Christ's members (compare 1 Corinthians 12:13), but one is found in an evil life and the other in a good nature. The former corrupted by wrongdoing the innocence he received at birth. The latter, without praise or blame attaching to his will, has only what he received from God his Creator. Happier in the unpainted freshness of his earliest age, he has been unable to spoil the goodness of his simplicity. He has earned nothing through deeds but retains only what the kindness of so great a maker gave him.