infants yet unsettled. "Gregory," says Mr. Robinson, "the metropolitan of SECT. all Greece, the oracle of the catholic world, gave this as VII. his opinion, which is a clear indication that the baptism Baptism of of children was a new affair, unsettled by law, human or new and divine; and this in the pulpit of the cathedral, at Constantinople, in the close of the fourth century. Indeed, it was impossible for him to say more, for, as the whole oration proves, he was preaching to an audience, many of whom were unbaptized: the Emperor Theodosius, who probably was present, had been baptized very lately in the thirty-fourth or thirty-fifth year of his age. Gregory himself was thirty when he was baptized, and Nectarius, his immediate successor, was not baptized till after he had been elected to succeed him in the archiepiscopal throne; and yet the emperor had been trained up from his childhood in the Nicene faith, and Gregory was born while his father was a bishop. The opinion given by this prelate is, that new-born babes ought not to be baptized, except in case of danger of death. In such a case, he says, they might be sanctified without knowing it. mended in Alteration "Further, the orator gave it as his opinion, that chil- Only comdren not in apparent danger of death should be baptized danger of at three years of age, more or less, because they might death. receive some impressions, and because they could pronounce some of the baptismal words. This was introducing two very considerable alterations. During the first catechumen state, it was not a few slight impressions, such as ceremonies make on the minds of chil- vice. dren, but it was a rational knowledge and an inward love of virtue, that entitled a catechumen to become a competent, or a candidate for baptism. The first catechetical lecture of Cyril is wholly on this subject, and of the baptismal ser VII. CHAP. an excellent address it is. Thus he speaks: Ye disciples of the New Testament, partakers of the mysteries of Christ, if any of you affect disguise in the sight of God he deceives himself, and discovers his ignorance of the Almighty. Beware, O man, of hypocrisy, for fear of him who trieth the heart and reins.' The other alteration regards the baptismal words. Cyril observes, there was much for a catechumen to say at baptism. Each was to renounce Satan, and each was to utter, at first the whole creed, and latterly an abridgment of it, as: 'I believe in Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and in one baptism of repentance.' The renunciation of Satan was long, and ran thus: 'Satan, I renounce thee: thee, thou wicked and most cruel tyrant: I no longer fear thy power, for Christ was made a partaker of my flesh and blood, that by his sufferings and death he might destroy thy power, subdue death, and free me from perpetual bondage. I renounce thee, thou cunning and subtle serpent: I renounce thee, thou impostor, who under a form of friendship employest thyself in all iniquity: who didst beguile our first parents to sin: thee, Satan, I renounce, thou minister and manager of all unrighteousness: I renounce all thy works, and all thy pomp, and all thy worship.' The plan of Gregory turned both the renunciation and the creed into interrogatories to be addressed by the priests to the children, and there remained only two words for the children to utter as answers: the one to the renunciation, the other to the creed, and both easy to a Greek infant of three years of age. The priest asked; Dost thou renounce Satan, that wicked and cruel tyrant,' and so on: the child answered: Apotassomai, that is, I do renounce.' The priest asked: Dost thou believe in God the Father,' and so on the child answered: Pisteuo, that is, 'I do SECT. believe.' VII. troduction The gradual introduction of infant baptism now begins Gradual into become very apparent. That, at the time Gregory of infant delivered his oration, however, infant baptism was by no baptism in means general, will appear from an oration of Basil, church. bishop of Cæsarea, delivered a few years previously. the Greek Basil, “Do you demur and loiter and put off? When you Oration of have been from a child catechised in the word, are you A. D. 375. not yet acquainted with the truth? Having been always learning it, are you not yet come to the knowledge of it? A seeker all your life long! A considerer till you are old! When will you be made a Christian? When shall we see you become one of us? Last year you were for staying till this year; and now you have a mind to stay till next. Take heed, that by promising yourself a longer life, you do not quite miss of your hope. You don't know what change to-morrow may bring.' "When I first copied out this passage," says Dr. Wall, Dr. Wall's "to put it into this collection, I thought it to be the ,, е • Robinson's History of Baptism, pp. 249, 250, 251, 252. d Basil, called the Great, to distinguish him from other Greek patriarchs of the same name, was born in 329, at Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, and, after having studied at Athens, he for a while taught rhetoric and practised at the bar. In 370 he was made bishop of Cæsarea, where he died in 379. He is the most distinguished ecclesiastic among the Grecian patriarchs. His efforts for the regulation of clerical discipline, of the divine service, and of the standing of the clergy; the number of his sermons; the success of his mild treatment of the Arians; and, above all, his endeavours for the promotion of a monastic life, for which he prepared vows and rules, observed by himself, and still remaining in force, prove the extent of his influence. The Greek church honours him as one of its most illustrious patron saints.-Ency. Rel. Know. P. 197. e St. Basil, Oratio exhort. ad Baptism. observations on it. CHAP. strongest evidence against the general practice of infant VII. baptism in those times, of any that is to be found in all antiquity, (though it has not, I think, been taken notice of by any of the antipodobaptists,) for it plainly supposes that a considerable part of St. Basil's auditory at this time, were such as had been from their childhood instructed in the Christian religion; and, consequently, in all probability, born of Christian parents, and not yet baptized." Proves in fant baptism had not yet become general. Infant sprinkling not in of traditions. This appeal of Basil to his congregation was delivered about A. D. 375. In seventy years from the accession of Constantine, the Roman empire, at least such principal parts of it as the diocese of Cæsarea, had long since been freed from paganism. Notwithstanding, therefore, what Dr. Wall urges to the contrary, the persons Basil was addressing must almost all of them have been the children of Christian parents, and yet remained unbaptized. What proof more can be needed that infant baptism was very far from general at the close of the fourth century? In support of the position that Basil did not deem infant baptism an apostolical tradition, it is important to Basil's list notice that he enumerates a list of traditions, among which are "the sign of the cross, the consecration of the baptismal water, the three immersions, the renunciation of the devil, the unction," &c.; but he makes no mention of sprinkling or of infants.5 Ambrose. A passage from Ambrose is quoted in Dr. Wall's defence, written a few years later; but it is questionable whether the phrase "infants" refers to babes or youth. f Important as the bearing of the Oration of Basil is on the question at issue, clucidating and confirming that of Gregory, Dr. Woods does not even suggest it in his Lectures to his students. Basil de Spir. Sanct. cap. xxvii. tom. ii. p. 351. Indeed, from the clause "reformed back again from their SECT. wickedness," the latter would appear most consistent." 6 -"But, perhaps, this may seem to be fulfilled in our time and in the Apostles' time; for that returning of the river waters back and towards the spring-head, which was caused by Elias when the river was divided, (as the Scripture says Jordan was driven back,') signified the sacrament of the laver of salvation, which was afterwards to be instituted; by which those infants are reformed back again from wickedness to the primitive state of their nature." Other passages from Ambrose and Augustine and Chrysostom, relating to the doctrines from which they urge and sustain infant baptism, will be given in a subsequent chapter. There is no question, as matter of historical fact, that Augustine and Chrysostom strenuously. endeavoured to bring in infant baptism as a universal practice, and, to a considerable extent, succeeded. But the most remarkable declaration on the subject is found in Augustine's controversy with the Donatists, a sect who repudiated the introduction of infant baptism: VII. "And if any one do ask for divine authority in this Statement of Augusmatter, though that which the whole church practises, tine. and which has not been instituted by councils, but was A. D. 398. ever in use, is very reasonably believed to be no other than a thing delivered by authority of the Apostles, yet, we may, besides, take a true estimate how much the h Dr. Woods, however, will have it that Ambrose plainly signifies that infants (by which word the Doctor means babes) were baptized in the times of the Apostles. The phrase "a wicked state," agrees better, however, with a child than an innocent babe. ¡ Ambrosius, Comment. lib. 1. in Luc. c. 1. |