Hello,

I am a newcomer to this great topic of Baptism, and would just like to seek some council relating to what I read in Augustine (from this source):

Quote
42. This is the meaning of the great sacrament of baptism, which is celebrated among us. All
who attain to this grace die thereby to sin—as he himself is said to have died to sin because he died
in the flesh, that is, "in the likeness of sin"—and they are thereby alive by being reborn in the
baptismal font, just as he rose again from the sepulcher. This is the case no matter what the age of
the body.
43. For whether it be a newborn infant or a decrepit old man—since no one should be barred
from baptism—just so, there is no one who does not die to sin in baptism. Infants die to original
sin only; adults, to all those sins which they have added, through their evil living, to the burden
they brought with them at birth.

Clearly he believed that Baptism is a sign/symbol, and carefully warned elsewhere not "to take signs for the things that are signified by them." Then why does he say original sin is cleansed in infants, even before they have believed? Or that in Baptism adults die to all sin? Perhaps I should ask, what is the theological backdrop to what he is saying (in brief of course!)?

Many thanks