MIRAE INNOCENTIAE ANIMA DVLCIS EMILIANVS QVI D.XVIII DORMIT IN PACE Columba cum ramo. Innocens and innocentia in infcriptions are fometimes proper names (5) and the departed fpirit of a perfon who had been reftored to innocence by baptifin is often called the innocent or the holy fpirit, or the holy ghoft of fuch a perfon, the infcription being intended to inform the reader that the deceafed, although born in fin, had been baptized for the remiffion of fin, and had acquired innocence by baptism (6). This is called in the canon law a diftinction, and it is a diftinction abfolutely neceffary to the hiftory of catholick baptifm, for in the churchof Rome it is exprefsly declared by law that innocence is not natural but acquired, and acquired by baptism (7). INNOCENTIO QVI VIXIT ANNOS X. INNOCENTIAE. FILIAE VIXIT ANNOS Ñ III SPIRITO SANCTO INNOCENTI QVI VIXIT AN. PL. M. III. GEMELLINVS. VICTORIE CONIVGI BENEMERENTI ISSPIRITO SANTO IN PACE. Ita blandiri folitos parentes filiis in tenella ætate obitis, per fequentes infcriptiones obfervo. Vid. lxxxvi. SEVERO....In ea ætatis innocentia....etfi de omnibus poft baptifmum infantibus afferi potuiffet, &c. (5) FABRETTI ut fup. Cap. viii. lii. 144.--.Cap. iii. 581.... Cap. viii. lii. 143. (6) IBID. Cap. viii. lii. E. Cemeterio B. Helena. Victoriæ fpiritus fanétus hic appellatur, id eft, anima fanéta, anima innocens, anima dulcis: ut alibi paffim. (7) Corp. jur. canon. MELCHIADIS Pape Decret. iii. Diftin&io v. Cap. ii. Spiritus fanctus, qui fuper aqua baptifmi falutifero defcendit illapfu, in fonte plenitudinem tribuit ad innocentiam....Qui autem poft baptifmum cum acquista innocentia immaculatus pervenit ad mortem, confirmatur morte: quia non poteft peccare poft mortem. In In remote ages the Pagans had employed children to officiate in the orgies of Bacchus. The following is an ancient infcription in memory of Herophilus, a child who died at the age of feven years and two months, and who had officiated three years in the rites of the god that is, adorned with rows of bells, an ivy crown and other enfigns of the order, he had danced and fung on the feftivals of Bacchus. ΜΗ ΠΩ ΙΕΥΣΑΜΕΝΟΣ ΗΒΗΣ ΟΥΚ ΕΓΕΝΗΘΕΝ. Ad verbum....Cum nondum guftaverim pubertatem As the Monks attacked the Pagans on their own ground, they, after (8) FABRETTI ut fup. Cap. vi. Sacra et miniftri farorum. Pueri, incompofitis crinibus bacchantis, et furore correpti effigies addita; et hanc præter, tria ad ejufmodi facra pertinentia fymbola. Primum eft, tintinnabulum; cujus in Bacchanalibus ufum oftendit hæc figura ternis tintinnabulorum ordinibus præcincta, exiftens in villa nobb. de Sacchettis ad vallem inferni; aliis fimilis, quas cernere eft inter Faunos, Satyros, ac Silenum, infanum illud Bacchi fatellitium, in duobus farcophagis, altero in Mufeo Chriftinæ Suecorum reginæ, altero in hortis Farnefiis....Aliud eft gramen feptem internodiis præditum....Ultimum hederaceam coronam, &c. Erroris, fi non ftupri patiens, in tenella ætate Herophilus ifte initiatus legitur, &c. pagan models, formed religious confraternities, and affociated children to officiate in the fervice of God (9). They preferved the form, and changed the rites by training boys to read and fing in choir. In the degenerate days of monachifm the children exhibited, as the pagan children had, dra matick representations, and, as some monaftical laws quoted by Mr. Warton feem to prove, the mafters too faithfully copied the nameless practices. of the Bacchanals into their tuition of the boys (1). Antiquaries have humoured their tafte for pagan models by claffing inferiptions in memory of their juvenile officers after the fashion of claffing thofe of the Pagans; for both Monks and Pagans had their facra, and their infant facrorum miniftri; and each was thought fo honourable as to be infcribed on the tombs. of the deceased. The following fragment in memory of Fundanius: Jovianus, a reader, is a christian counterpart of that of Herophilus. The Emperour Julian in his youth had performed the fame office at Nicomedia,, where he publickly read the fcriptures in the church (2).. B† M IACET FVNDANIVS OVIANVS LEC' OR QVI VIXIT AN NIS XGI MENS, GIII DXX DEP IN PACE PRID NONA. S. IANVAR. At the Alexandrian school in Egypt, where the baptifm of minors was (9) Ibid. Dubitat Reinefius, inter facros ne, an politicos, conventus ejufmodi fint reponendi ad infer. 37. Cl. vi. verum fimiles concutiales, homines corporis religiofi vocaverat ad hanc infcr. 4. Cl. x. cui opinioni eo libentius adhæro, quo ab ipfa origine hafce fodalitates facras fuiffe ex Cicerone accipio in lib. de Senect.. ubi ita Cato loquens inducitur: Sodalitates autem me quæftore conftitutæ funt, Sacris ideis magnæ matris acceptis.. Epulabar igitur cum fodalibus omnino modice, Sc.. (1) Hift. of English Poetry. (2) FABRETTI ut fup. Ad varia collegia et fodalitiæ, feu quas Græci vocant pas fubjiciendæ hic infcriptiones plures fpectabunt: quas ideo in hanc claffem [Sacra et miniftri facrorum] digefli, quia inter catus religiofos cenfebantur....ANT. FRANC, GORII Prefb. Flor. Baptifterii et ecclefiæ S. Johannis Infcript. antiq. quæ in Etruriæ urbibus exftant.. Florent. 1743. Tom. iii. Monum, vet. Chriftian, eruta e Florentinis cœmeteriis xi. Defunt fracto marmore int dextro fummo latere aliquot litteræ, quæ facile ita fupplentur. BONAE Memoria. Hic jacet Fundanius Jovianus Le&or. etc. Effoffus eft hic titulus fubpavimento tribus fere ulnis, e regione Sacelli Nobb. Guidettiorum, v. idus Martias anno 1736. Stilo Florentino....Ad lectorum munus primum provectæ ætatis homines doctrina, moribus, et meritis fpectantiffimi funt delecti; poftmodum impuberes etiam admiffi. Jamdudum multa in Chriftianos lapides in adverfariis. habeo que collegi, co confilio, ut omnem ecclefiafticam hierarchiam, facrofque miniftros, et fideles in ecclefia fancta Dei, lapidibus primis fæculis erutis, et in hanc rem felectis, in quibus eorum fit mentio, item que facramentorum, obfervationibus aliquando, Deo Dante illuftrem, &c. τον firft introduced, Clement refembled the fpeculations of the fchool, and the devotions of the boys to the myfteries of the Pagans, and exprefsly called them divine orgies (3). He was fo fafcinated with the facred rant that he was in raptures when he celebrated the fervice of God our eudaimon Xopw, Kala тov Пalva, with the blissful choir according to Plato (4). To imagine a refemblance between a pretended baptifmal regeneration to effect an initiation into myfteries, to fpiritualize the return of old Iolaus to youth, the inftant arrival of the infant fons of Callirhoe at manhood, and the transformation of Philemon and Baucis into facred perfons, and their cottage into a temple were small feats in the hands of fuch men (5). If miraculous power was neceffary, the baptifmal dove was at hand. This was the fpirit, fuch were the patterns, and thefe were the men, who, stepping out of the fchool of Chrift, began with the baptism of minors, and ended with that of new-born babes. These inscriptions, to which a great number more might be added, were in general of two forts; the one are apologies for baptizing babes: and the other are memorials of little furplice-boys, who had chanted, or officiated in choirs, which implies they had been baptized, for no one could enter into the catholick kingdom of Chrift upon earth, unless he had been (as the fashion of the times called it) born of water and the fpirit, and it may very well be fuppofed these were two great sources of infant-baptifm, the fondnefs and the fears of parents would fuggeft the one, and for the other, a defire to provide a comfortable fubfiftence for little ones would be fufficient. (3) Stromat. Lib. iv. Vere ergo Servator nofter nos myfteriis initiat: convenienter iifquæ dicit tragedia. Quod fi roges: Rurfus audies: Videns videntes, ipfa donat orgia. Cujufmodi fint ifta quæ dico orgia, Arcana: non bacchantibus fcire haud licet. Quod fi quis rurfus curiofe fcrutetur cujufmodi ea fint, rurfus audiat. 14) Lib. v. Te fcire non fas, digna fint fcitu licet. Qui eft impius, funt huic Dei infefta orgia. Accedens igitur ad veram qui vult difciplinam, &c. (5) OVIDII Metam. Lib. ix. Pene puer, dubiaque tegens lanugine malas, Fab. x. Jupiter his motus, privignæ dona nurufque Lib. viii, Fab. ix... ...modo veftra relinquite tecta; Ac noftros comitate gradus, et in ardua montis Ite fimul. Parent: et Dis præeuntibus ambo. &c. Y 2 Had Had it been true, that all thefe infants had been fanctified from the womb, it would not have followed that they ought to have been baptized, for baptifm is neither intended to wash away fin, nor to fignify that it hath been put away by any other means, but it is a mere form of putting on the profeffion of Chriftianity: as fuch it is proper, fignificant, and beautiful, but in every other view it either implies the knowledge of the heart, or a moral effect produced by a mechanical caufe, which would be prepofterous. Happy to be content with the fimplicity of Revelation! Baptifm is for the ufe of the living, not for the benefit of the dying or the dead. FEW Of Baptifm in Africa in the Time of Tertullian. EW writers have been fo often quoted in the controverfy concerning infant baptifm as Tertullian, and yet the subje&t is not fo much as mentioned by this father. They are boys and not babes, of whose baptifm he writes. This looks as if a subject might be greatly difputed without being much studied, however, fuch overfights render it neceffary thoroughly to examine the whole of the bufinefs as far as it regards Tertullian of Africa. Christianity coming out of Africa into the Weft resembles old Jacob the fhepherd tottering into the prefence of King Pharoah, and may very properly adopt his language, and fay, Few and evil have the days of my pilgrimage been. In the Eaft and in the Weft it took fome centuries to enervate the religion of Jefus, to wear out the spirit of it, and to reduce it to a fkeleton, or rather to turn it into an engine of abfolute dominion: but the Africans went on more rapidly, and in a very fhort period gave the world a fyftem for a gospel, of which most readers of the four evangelifts had never entertained a thought, and gave it as tyrants give orders to their flaves. As the intelligence of a corporation, like that of an individval, is to be appretiated by its fpeculative productions, it should seem eafy to determine the worth of the fpeculations of Africa. No, it is not. Christians are extremely divided in opinion about the doctrine of this church. Some confider their difputes about grace and freewill, original fin and the divine decrees, in the most folemn light, and think falvation depends not only on investigating thefe fubjects, but on determining concerning them precifely as they did. Others behold them with perfect indifference, and inftead of difputing thefe points repeat a tale of a Jefuit miffionary, |