the reformers. CHAP. tainly never been conceived. This was reserved for the IX. most corrupt age of the Church of Rome, when the docDouble cor- trine of transubstantiation was "come to the full;" so ruption of that the Reformers have followed the corruptions of the ancient church in giving baptism to infants, and the corruptions of modern Romanism in withholding from them the Lord's supper-and then in the adoption of this compound of error, (with the facts of history staring us in the face,) they ask baptists to follow them, and are far from pleased at our obstinate refusal. No, brethren!" Whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder." When podobaptists give their children both ordinances, they will be consistent; but while they withhold the Lord's supper from their children, let them not complain of others withholding baptism. The fact that wherever in the Scriptures, or in the ancient church, baptism is found, there the other ordinance is found in connection with it, is, in itself, enough to overthrow all the arguments for the practice of infant baptism, when used by those who do not practise infant communion. Whatever arguments will sustain the one, will be equally available for the other. It is astonishing that Dr. Woods, and other professors of ecclesiastical history, even in their lectures to their students, do not bring forward this important fact and fairly meet it. Church of England writers are much more candid and fearless. Mr. Bingham, the Prebendary of Chichester, in his valuable work on Christian Antiquities, has brought forward evidence which places this matter beyond a doubt. a Dr. Miller, indeed, has done his best; but in vain. Dr. Woods has quoted the testimony of Cyprian and other Fathers, in favour of infant baptism, and has added several pages of comment, but could not make room for this important fact. b Zornius also has collected a mass of evidence, to which the curious in ecclesiastical antiquities are referred. of Mr. "Nor was this [confirmation after baptism] only true SECT. with respect to adult persons," says Mr. Bingham," but II. also with respect to infants, who were anciently con- Testimony firmed by imposition of hands and the holy chrism, or Bingham. unction, as soon as they were baptized; which will, perhaps, seem a paradox to many who look no further than to the practice of later ages: but it may be undeniably learned in two ways; first, from the plain testimonies of the ancients declaring it so to be; and, secondly, from that known custom and usage of the church, in giving the eucharist to infants, which ordinarily pre-supposes their confirmation." As to the testimony of the ancients, nothing can be Gennadius. plainer than that of Gennadius:-"If they be infants that are baptized, let those that present them for baptism answer for them according to the common way of baptizing, and then let them be confirmed by imposition of hands and chrism, and so be admitted to partake of the eucharist." c One of the canons of the Greek church directs, "that Greek a presbyter may not consign infants in the presence of church. the bishop, except he be particularly appointed by the bishop to do it." a e Gregory. Pope Gregory, both in his Sacramentarum and his Pope Epistles, and subsequently all the writers in the eighth. and ninth centuries, notice the same facts. Alcuin, who wrote about offices of the church in the time of Charles the Great, says: "After an infant is baptized, he is to be clothed and brought to the bishop, if he be present, b Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, Book XII. ch. i. vol. iii. p. 288. • Gennad. de Dogmat. Eccles. cap. lii. a Martin Bracarensis, Collect. Canon, cap. iii. IX. CHAP. who is to confirm him with chrism, and give him the communion; and if the bishop be not present, the presbyter shall communicate him."{ Baluzius. Jesse, bishop of Amiens. Cyprian. His ridicu lous story on the subject of infant communion. Baluzius refers to two ancient manuscript Pontificals of the ninth century, where this order for confirming infants is continued ; and to an epistle of Jesse, bishop of Amiens, where the bishop is directed, after the baptism of the infant, "to confirm him and communicate him with the body and blood of Christ."h Cyprian also refers to it as a common practice. Speaking of little children taken in their parents' arms, when they went to participate in the pagan sacrifices, he represents them as saying, "Neither did we leave the bread and cup of the Lord to run of our own accord to the profaned contagions." In another place he relates the following ridiculous story; to make those that had revolted to idolatry in the late persecution at Carthage sensible of their guilt and of God's wrath; and that they ought not without due confession and penitence approach the holy table.* "I'll tell you what happened in my own presence. The parents of a certain little girl, running out of town in a fright, had almost forgot to take any care of the child, whom they left in the keeping of a nurse. The nurse had carried her to the magistrates; they, because she was too little to eat flesh, gave her to eat, before the idols, some of the bread mixed with wine, which had been left of the sacrifice of those wretches. Since that time her mother took her home; but she was no more f Alcuin de Offic. tom. x. p. 259. g Baluz. not. in Regino, lib. i. c. 69. h Jesse Ambianenus Ep. de Ordini Bapt. ibid. i Cypr. de Lapsis, p. 125. * Lib. de Lapsis, circa. medium. capable of declaring and telling the crime committed SECT. than she had been before of understanding or hindering II. it. So it happened that once when I was administering, her mother, ignorant of what had been done, brought her along with her. But the girl, being among the saints, could not with any quietness hear the prayers said; but sometimes fell into weeping, and sometimes into convulsions, with the uneasiness of her mind; and her ignorant soul, as under a rack, declared by such tokens as it could, the conscience of the fact in those tender years. And when the service was ended, and the deacon went to give the cup to those that were present, and the others received it, and her turn came, the girl by a divine instinct, turned away her face, shut her mouth, and refused the cup; but yet the deacon persisted, and put into her mouth, though she refused it, some of the sacrament of the cup: then followed retchings and vomitings; the eucharist could not stay in her polluted mouth and body; the drink consecrated in our Lord's blood burst out again from her defiled bowels! Such is the power, such the majesty of our Lord! the secrets of darkness were discovered by his light! even unknown sins could not deceive the priest of God! This happened in the case of an infant, who was by reason of her age, incapable of declaring the crime which another had acted upon her."1 1 The reader cannot well fail to observe a striking resemblance between this ancient advocate of infant baptism, and his successor the Professor at Princeton-the extent to which they venture to test the confidence of their respective charges in their veracity. How enviable the state of those "quiet people," as Augustine calls them, who can believe without a faltering doubt the assurances of St. Cyprian and Dr. Miller! IX. constitu CHAP. The author of the Apostolical Constitutions, in his invitation to communion, bids mothers bring their chilApostolical dren with them; and describing the order of the service, "First let the bishops receive, then the presbyters, says: &c.; among the women, the deaconesses, virgins and widows; after that the children, and then all the people in order." n tions. Augustine maintains the commu needful for 990 Augustine not only refers to the practice in Cyprian's time, but also intimates pretty clearly, that partaking of nion to be the eucharist was necessary for infants, in order to infants. obtain eternal life; resting upon the declaration of our Saviour, "except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." "And dare any one be so bold as to say," is the comment of Augustine, "that this sentence does not appertain to little children, or that they can have life without partaking of this body and this blood?" P He reiterates this sentiment in his controversy with the Pelagians, as well as other writings. Pope Innocent, his contemporary, appears to have concurred in this sentiment, for he pleads in his Epistles to Augustine, for the necessity of baptizing infants, from the necessity of their eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man. This practice continued in the church for many ages. In Gregory's Sacramentarum, there is an order "that infants should be allowed to suck the breast before the holy communion, if necessity so required." The old Ordo Romanus of the ninth century directs; "That infants after they are baptized, should not eat any food, n Const. lib. viii. cap. 12. • Zornii Historia Eucharistiæ Infantium, cap. vii. P. 88. |