nor suck the breast, without great necessity, till they SECT. had communicated in the sacrament of the body of II. Christ."

Salmasius observes, that "It was the invariable practice to give the catechumens the eucharist immediately after they were baptized. Afterwards the opinion prevailed that no one could be saved unless he were baptized, so the custom of baptizing infants was introduced. And because to adult catechumens, as soon as they were baptized, no space of time intervening, the eucharist was given, so after podobaptism was introduced, this was also done in the case of infants.” s

Salmasius.

Bossuet affirms, "The church has always believed, Bossuet. and still believes, that infants are capable of receiving the eucharist as well as baptism, and finds no more obstacle to their communion in the words of St. Paul, Let a man examine himself and so let him eat,' than she finds to their baptism in these words of our Lord, Teach and baptize.' But as she knew the eucharist could not be absolutely necessary to their salvation, after they had received the full remission of sins in baptism, she believed it was a matter of discipline to give or not give the communion in this age; thus it is that during the first eleven or twelve centuries she, for good reasons, gave it; and for other reasons, equally good, has since then ceased to give it." t

It forms an interesting, though minute point of investigation, for the ecclesiastical historian, to ascertain with certainty the precise circumstances which led, in the Romish church, to the withholding of the eucharist from

• Salmasius (a learned Catholic writer) in libro de Transubstantione, contra H. Grotium, p. 495.

t Bossueti Traité de Communion sous les deux Espèces, part i.

p. 3.

CHAP. infants. There appears to me, however, little room to IX. doubt, that when the elements came to be regarded as

Infant

commu

nion abro

council of Trent.

the real body of Christ, great difficulty occurred, because
the babes would sometimes spit out the sop, (for the
bread was sopped in the wine,) to the great consternation
of devout believers in transubstantiation. To obviate
this the bread was taken away from the infant, and the
priest dipped his finger in the cup and put it in the babe's
mouth, (as is the practice in the Greek church to this
day.) But when the cup came to be taken from the
laity, in the Romish church, then the babes were de-
prived of the Lord's supper.
Will my esteemed friends
excuse my asking whether sprinkling a few drops in
the face of a babe, is more like New Testament bap-
tism, than the putting the wine-imbued finger of the
priest in the child's mouth, is like the New Testament
administration of the Lord's supper?

When the council of Trent abrogated the practice entirely, it gave the protestants of that day an admirable gated by the opportunity to attack the favourite principle of the catholics, "That, the true church never changed." In fact the abandoning this practice is as fatal to the great principle of popery, the infallibility of the church, as the existence of the practice from the third to the twelfth century is to protestant infant baptism. There cannot be a particle of evidence produced that for more than one thousand years the two ordinances were ever separated; and the responsibility which rests upon those who continue to separate that which God has joined together, and thus to assume the position of legislators instead of obedient subjects of Zion's King, is such as should make the violators of the order of Christ's house seriously reflect, and cheerfully return to the good old way.

CHAPTER X.

THREE BAPTISMS.-BAPTISM OF THE APOSTLES, OF
THE FATHERS, AND OF THE REFORMERS.

SECTION I.

APOSTOLIC BAPTISM.

I.

and faith essentials of

baptism.

IN preceding chapters it has been clearly proved that SECT. infant baptism has neither the command of Christ, the practice of the Apostles, nor the sanction of the ancient Repentance church, during the two first centuries. It is not, however, necessary here to enter into a apostolic description of apostolic baptism: it has already been substantiated, beyond any possibility of doubt, by the testimony of Evangelists, Apostles, Fathers, and modern podobaptist divines, that apostolic baptism required repentance, and faith, and desire for baptism, in the person baptized, (not in his proxy,) and that baptism was designed to indicate the participation of the individual baptized in the glorious privileges purchased by the death, and secured by the resurrection, of Jesus Christ; even the remission of his sins-the regeneration of his soul-and his ingrafting by faith into the body of Christ.

Those who have attentively perused the preceding pages, cannot fail to have formed some general idea of baptism as practised by the Fathers of the third and

CHAP. following centuries. It is desirable, however, in order X. that the reader may perceive the entire contrast between their baptism and that of the Apostles on the one hand, and that of the Reformers on the other, that the subject should be presented collectively and distinctly.

In this chapter I shall make it manifest that infant baptism, as now practised in the reformed churches, the episcopal churches of England and America excepted, is a species of baptism utterly unknown to the world till the time of John Calvin, and as distinct from the baptism of the Fathers as theirs was from that of the Apostles.

SECTION II.

BAPTISM OF THE FATHERS.

Ancient formula.

Baptism as described in the writings of the Fathers.

THE formula of the Greek church, as to its baptismal service, has already been inserted in a preceding chapter. If the reader refers to that ritual, he will find that he has before him the baptismal service of the ancient church, as used both in the case of adults and infants, with a few additional superstitious forms, introduced at a later period.

That the light in which the ancient church viewed the ordinance of baptism may be still more evident, I will give a few quotations from the Fathers, in addition to those already presented in the preceding chapters.

BASIL:-" Baptism is the setting free of the captive; the death of sin; the soul of regeneration; an indelible stamp; the way to heaven; the grace of adoption."

a Basil, in Sanct. Baptism.

a

b

II.

AMBROSE :-" What else do we daily teach respecting SECT. this sacrament, but that in it sins are drowned and error destroyed." Again: Again: "Who regenerated thee of the water and the Holy Spirit, remitted your sins, and anointed you to eternal life." Once more: "Since in baptism there is the similitude of death when you are immersed, emerging there is also the similitude of resurrection." C

In

CHRYSOSTOM :-"Baptism is the sign of faith." a another place he calls baptism "the cleansing of the soul by the Holy Spirit."

AUGUSTINE:-"As you cleanse the body in water, so the Spirit washes the soul from sin."f Again: "That [the baptismal water] washes the body, and signifies what is done in the soul." g "The visible sacraments are the signs of invisible realities, as words are of things."h "Made a member of Christ in baptism." i

Episcopal Churches of England and America.

It will be clearly perceived that the compilers of the Church of England Liturgy of the church of England, have followed in baptismal their office of baptism, both the forms and the ideas of service. the Fathers.

66

Dearly beloved, ye have brought this child here to be baptized; ye have prayed that our Lord Jesus Christ would vouchsafe to receive him, to release him from sin, to sanctify him with the Holy Ghost, to give him the kingdom of heaven and everlasting life. Ye

b Ambrose, de iis qui myst. init. cap. iii. tom. 6.

c De Sacram. lib. iii. cap. 1.

d Hom. v. in Matt.

e Hom. vii. in 1 Cor.

Augustine, Lib. Quæst. x. Novo Test. cap. lix. tom. iv.

Tract vi. in Epist. Joan. tom. ix.

h De Civitat. Dei, lib. x. cap. 9.

i Sermone ad Infantes.