VII. opposed the baptism of babes. His questions are so SECT. plain, that the reader might almost suppose Boniface to be a baptist deacon, and St. Augustine a podobaptist D.D. 66 Suppose," says the bishop of Rome, addressing Augustine, "I set before you an infant, and ask you whether, when he grows up, he will be a chaste man or a thief? Your answer, doubtless, will be, I cannot tell. And whether he, in that infant age, have any good or evil thoughts? you will say, I know not. Since you therefore dare not say any thing, either concerning his future behaviour or his present thoughts, what is the meaning, that when they are brought to baptism, their parents, as sponsors for them, make answer and say, to the inquiry, Does he believe in God? they answer, He does believe! . I entreat you to give me a short answer to these questions, in such a manner, as that you do not urge to me the prescription or the customariness of the thing, but give me the reason of the thing." ... " a It is not necessary here to enter on the particulars of Augustine's reply: in its close, he observes, almost angrily, "I have given such an answer to your question, as I suppose is to ignorant or contentious persons not enough, and to understanding and quiet people, perhaps more than enough." What the reasonings of this eloquent penitent were, is nothing to the present purpose; but the fact that people were so "ignorant" and so " contentious" upon the subject of baptism, as to render it necessary for the bishop of Rome to write to Augus a Is not this a plain acknowledgment that Boniface did not claim Scripture authority for infant baptism; but only prescription or custom? b This insolent style of podobaptists towards baptists descended from Augustine to Calvin, who calls them "furious beasts," and I know not what else. A little remnant of this arrogance is still discerned in some pœdobaptists of the present age. CHAP. tine about it, shows clearly that Augustine's efforts had not yet settled the minds of men on this subject.c VII. Summary of the evidence of history. But few The sum of the evidence of history is this:—that infant baptism is first clearly alluded to by Origen ;—first found in actual practice in Africa, patronized by Cyprian, in the middle of the third century;-that it was admitted, in case of danger of death, in Europe in the fourth century; that many eminent men, sons of Christian parents, were not baptized till more than thirty years of age, so late as the fourth century;—that the clergy, after the accession of Constantine, endeavoured to promote baptism at a very early age;—that Augustine in the fifth century employed all his powers to promote the baptism of newborn infants, which was invariably followed by the administration of the other ordinance ;-and that this practice was founded on doctrines which, if true, rendered it necessary to every humane mind. Having selected from the writings of the Fathers all the passages relating to baptism in the third century, and as many as are necessary to prove its commencement in Augustine. the Roman and Greek churches in the fourth century, references to infant baptism before and its extensive prevalence in the fifth; it may be well to remind the reader that the works, in whole or in part, of more than forty Fathers, have come down to us; and that while they are replete with allusions to the baptism of adults, yet until the time of Augustine (and all but five of them lived before or during his time) there are only a few passages in three or four of them that are claimed to relate to infant baptism; and that all of those who preceded the fourth century, excepting Origen and This is another important fact Dr. Woods has not thought it worth while to put his students in possession of, though he has referred to Augustine's letter as proof that infant baptism was universally practised by the church. Cyprian, have been shown to have no reference to babes. SECT. Is it possible this could be the state of the case, if the VIII. practice of infant baptism had been universal from the time of the Apostles? reader. Reader, are you satisfied on such evidence, or rather An appeal to the want of evidence, as this, to make a serious addition to the Divine Word; I may say, to do away with an ordinance of Christ, as it existed under his authority? For this is, in effect, the result of infant baptism; to whatever extent it exists, the command "to believe and be baptized" is made of "none effect" by what Origen, Augustine, Wall, and the host of podobaptists I have quoted, acknowledge to be only a "tradition!" SECTION VIII. BAPTISM AS PRACTISED BY THE CHURCHES NEVER fifth cen universal. FROM the fifth century, the age in which the founda- Infant baptism tion of the apostate churches, both of Greece and Rome, general was firmly laid, by their success in taking ecclesias- after the tical possession of humanity in its state of unconscious tury, but not infancy, and afterwards holding over it the terrors of excommunication, poverty, and death, if it dared dispute the system into which it had been baptized ;-from that time to the present, babes have been the subjects of baptism, without doubt. It was much later, however, than the fifth century, before this error penetrated the more distant, or more secluded parts of the Roman empire. There is good evidence that the practice of baptizing infants was brought into England by Austin, at the close of the sixth century; and that his mission, which was to CHAP. reduce that country to the authority of the see of Rome, VII. failed to obtain the assent of the ancient British Chris Difficulties in tracing of the true church. tians of Wales, because he demanded that they should 66 gyve Christendome to," that is, baptize, their children. It is recorded that this arrogant priest employed the Saxon sword to convince, where his priestly authority failed; but his efforts were by no means crowned with entire success. The state of baptism in the reformed churches, as differing both from that of the New Testament, and that of Cyprian and Augustine, will form the subject of a subsequent chapter. I shall now trace its history, so far as the absence of the history documentary evidence respecting the details of that history will admit, amidst those churches which were never involved in the despotism and superstition of the great apostacy. The literature of the dark ages was wholly under the control of the system of spiritual tyranny under which the church groaned. The invention of printing was destined for a later age; the liberty of the press would indeed have given us a history of the true church; but then it would have doomed the demon of superstition and blasphemy to torment "before his time;" the end was "not yet." We have to glean the early history of the "witnesses " from the writings of the enemies who slew them. Nor is this all; for the documents written by these inquisitors and other Romish persecutors, have never yet been thoroughly examined by any a This is a work the baptist body of this country, in conjunction with that of England, ought immediately to undertake. A baptist only can venture to search out the history of the true church, without feeling in danger, to say the least, of undermining his own. The cause of truth and the honour of our denomination demand that this work be immediately undertaken, at whatever cost. but podobaptists, either catholic or protestant. Every SECT. reader will perceive, therefore, that he may reasonably add to, rather than diminish from, the weight of this testimony, and the conclusions he forms from it. VIII. amongst the The history of the true church must be sought among To be those numerous bodies of dissenters from the state re- sought for ligion of Constantine and his successors. I am well separatists. aware that some of those dissenters denied the deity of Christ, and adopted other erroneous sentiments; but this was far from being the case with all of them; and great allowance in each case must be made for them, from the fact that we have their history from the pens of those whose sordid interest and unhallowed delight it was to slander and misrepresent them. doctrines These separatists from the national establishment of General the Roman empire, generally agreed that the Scriptures of the were the only rule of faith and practice, in opposition to separatists. the general but corrupt doctrine, that tradition and the authority of the church were the safe guides; that the civil magistrate had no authority in matters of religion; that the national church was corrupt and antichristian. For this last reason almost all of them re-baptized those who joined their communion, whether they had been baptized in their infancy, or at the age of maturity. It does not, therefore, certainly follow from the fact of their re-baptizing, that they repudiated infant baptism as such; but that this was the case with many of them, there is satisfactory evidence. tians. Even before Christianity became the national religion The Novaof the Roman empire, through the increasing worldli A. D. 251 to ness of the church, large secessions of the more devout 600. portion of the Christian church occurred. The Novatians, who seceded from the church of Rome in the middle of the third century, were called "Cathari," a term |