The Augustinian and Lutheran predestinarianism is moderated by the
churchly and sacramental principle of baptismal regeneration. The Calvinistic
predestinarianism confines the sacramental efficacy to the elect, and turns the
baptism of the non-elect into an empty form; but, on the other hand, it opens a
door for an extension of electing grace beyond the limits of the visible
Church. Zwingli’s position was peculiar: on the one hand, he went so far in his
supralapsarianism as to make God the sinless author of sin (as the magistrate
in inflicting capital punishment, or the soldier in the battle, are innocently
guilty of murder); but, on the other hand, he undermined the very foundation of
the Augustinian system—namely, the wholesale condemnation of the race for the
single transgression of one; he admitted hereditary sin, but denied hereditary
guilt; and he included all infants and pious heathen in the kingdom of heaven.
Such a view was then universally abhorred, as dangerous and heretical. (Philip
Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 8 vols. [New York: Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 1910], 8:547-48)
