you

difpofitions of the children, when they come of age (2)? And what will fay to the church when they cenfure you for transferring their property, their offices, and their religion to drunkards and blafphemers? Had Tertullian been a divine, divine motives fhould be afcribed to him: but as he was a prudent lawyer, it is natural to fuppofe, he determined his opinion by profeffional reasons, and though he was too wife to mention them in a publication under a pagan government, yet he knew the practice of the courts.

Many years after, when Chriftianity was incorporated into the law, and the adminiftration of baptifm was accounted an act of fponfion, an event fell out at Carthage, which difcovers the power that fponfors or tutors had over their little wards, and at the fame time it fhews who the African fponfors were. A paffion for orthodoxy, wherever it goes, blafts every good thing, and hath been the disgrace and the reproach of the Christian religion. The Roman Chriftians firft established the doctrine of the Trinity by law in Africa. The Vandals followed, and established Arianifm. This made a dreadful dispute about baptized children, who were not always of a mind with their fponfors. Three cafes will exemplify the meaning of this.

There was a gentleman at Carthage named Elpidoforus, who on his own profeffion of faith was baptized, and admitted a member of the Trinitarian church. The fecond deacon named Muritta affifted him at his baptism, that is, he attended him to the baptiftery, and immediately after he was baptized, and came out of the water, put upon him the fabana, or white linen veft, in which he walked to the dreffing-room, and which he afterwards wore eight days. Muritta is called on this occafion the fufceptor of Elpidoforus, or the person who received him coming up from the font. This word is now-a-days rendered very inaccurately godfather. Some time after Elpidoforus became an Arian, and they fay, got into power and perfecuted the orthodox, and among the reft Muritta. The old man was a genuine Carthaginian, fell as a tyger. When he came before Elpidoforus, he reproached him not for perfecuting, but for being a difbeliever of the Trinity. Out he pulled from under his cloke the fabana, and holding it up exclaimed: "Here, Elpidoforus, you minister of errour, this linen will accufe you at the day of judgI diligently keep it for a teftimony of your perdition, to plunge you into the bottomlefs pit burning with fire and brimitone. This, you wretch, adorned you when you came up innocent from the font. This, you forry fellow, this will fiercely increase your punishment, when you

ment.

(2) SEVER et ANTON. Impp. De teftamentaria tutel. Quem dicis tibi tutorem in teftamento patronæ datum, fi adminiftrationi fe non immifcuit, nulla actione tibi tenetur, neque enim jure datus tutor fuit. Quod fi adminiftraverit fponte res tuas, experiri adverfus eum actione negotiorum geftorum potes. P. P. Kal. Aug. Apro et Maximo confs. 208.

are caft into the flames of hell, because you have put on curfing like a garment, and have torn and thrown away the facrament of faith and true baptifm. What will you do, you wretch, when the king comes in to view his guests? Will he not resent your laying afide this nuptial habit, and fay, where is the wedding garment I gave you?" If Muritta was a godfather, this is a part of his lecture to his child, who had been born of water about ten months before this time, but over whom he had no controul (3)

Theucarius the church school-mafter became an Arian as Elpidoforus had done with this difference, twelve of the finging boys had been under his care, and he claimed them to go with him over to the Arians. The boys liked the old church beft, and protefted they held the doctrine of the Trinity. With the Trinitarians they ftaid, but Theucarius recovered every one of them on the ground of the right of a tutor, and probably he acquired this right by having performed an act of fponfion at their baptifm. The orthodox could not prevent it, the children went againft their will, and there was no remedy, though Theucarius gave them a Carthaginian education, and drubbed them foundly and frequently to convince them that the Father was greater than the Son (4).

The third cafe is that of Maximus, mentioned fome time ago, who fuffered with Liberatus the abbot, who had brought him up. The Arians could recover twelve in the laft mentioned cafe, and yet they could not recover this one, though they were exceedingly defirous to do fo (5). The truth is they were called infantuli, and were all under age, and at the difpofal of their guardians. Theucarius recovered his twelve,

(3) VICTOR Vitens. Lib. v. Cap. ix. Elpidoforus dudum fuerat apud nos iu ecclefia Fausti baptizatus, quem venerabiles Muritta diaconus de alveo fontis fufceperat genevatum.

Senior cæpiffet extendi illa, quibus eum fufcepiens de fonte dudum texerat, Sabana....Hæc funt lintea menta, Elpidofore, minifter erroris, quæ te accufabunt, cum majeftas venerit judicantis....Rex dicet, per didifti militiæ chlamydem, quam in tutela virgineorum membrorum decem menfibus texui, &c.

J. H. BOEHMERI Jus Eccles. Tom. iii. Lib. iii. Tit. xlii. Sect. xxxiii. De vefte alba. Pipinus linteum, in quo filia Giflana baptizata erat, Paulo pontifici mifit, quod Sabanum vocarunt, id quod linteum denotat, obfervantibus Suicero, in thes. eccles. voc. Eacaros, et Cangio in voc. Sabanum. Paulos hoc ita fufcepiffe decitur, non fecus ac fi præfens regiam puellam e fanctiffimo lavacro fufcepiffet. Verba epiftolæ pontificis funt hæc apud Carolum Cointium. Tom. v. ad ann. 757. p. 59. Præfatus nempe fodalitatis veftræ illuftris miffus pretiofiffimum nobis fupernæ gratiæ munus attulet, Sabanum videlicet, in quo noftra dulciffima atque amantiffima fpiritualis lia facratiffimo lavacro abluta fufcepta eft, quem et cum magna jucunditate aggregata populi cohorte, infra aram facraticorpoiis auxiliatricis veftræ, beatæ Petfonillæ, quæ pro laude æternæ memoriæ nominis veftri nunc dedicata dignofcitur, celebrantes miffarum folennia cum magno gaudio fufcepimus, et per allatum eundem Sabanum eamque tanquam præfentialiter nos fufcepiffe gaudemus: qua de caufa regem Pipinum poftea in literis fæpe vocat fpiritualem compatrem, (4) VICTOR ut fup. Theucarius duodecim infantulos Carthaginem revocavit.... Segregantur corpore non fpiritu a grege fanctorum....Ariani fuftibus jubent, &c.

(5) Ibid. Paffin vii. Monach.

and

and Liberatus retained his one, because both had performed an act of fponfion in baptifin at taking the children under their care. They that think ignorance the parent of infant-baptifm are very much mistaken. None of thefe anfwer exactly to the English godfather. Muritta was an affiftant to an adult for a day at his baptifm. Theucarius and Liberatus were guardians, fidejuffors, or fponfors for the whole minority of the children under their care. Nothing in all this history touches the queftion in difpute, for the arguments that belong to the baptifm of boys do not affect the cafe of new-born babes.

CHA P. XXII.

Of the Baptifm of Babes in the Time of Cyprian.

THE HE baptifm of babes first appeared in the most ignorant and impure part of the catholick world, Africa. It was not the offspring of critical learning or found philofophy, for it fprang up among men deftitute of both, nor did any one ever take the African fathers for philofophers, or critital inveftigators of the facred oracles of God, and if they be all taken for moral men, they are overprized, for an eye-witness hath characterized African Chriftians quite otherwife. He fays, " In spite of their vain boafts of an orthodox faith, they were Pagans and blafphemers, who worshipped idols in fecret, and dedicated their children in their infancy to demons. They were more wicked in their morals than the pagan Romans had ever been. They refembled the frantick followers of Bacchus. There was no crime that they did not practise, perjury, debauchery of every fpecies, oppreffion, tyranny, madness and wickednefs of every kind, fo that the people groaned for a revolution. When in the time of Auguftine the Vandals furrounded Carthage to befiege it, the members of the church were lying along in luxury at the play, or at fome publick amusement, and the poor were more wretched and more wicked than they had ever been under the Romans (1)."

It

(1) SALVIANI De gubenat. Dei. Lib. viii. De impuritate Afrorum jam multa diximus, nunc de blafphemiis faltem pauca dicamus. Profeffa enim illic jugitur plurimorum paganitas fuit: habebant quippe intra muros patrios inteftinum fcelus, Cæleftem illum fcilicet Afrorum dæmonum dico....Quis ergo illi idolo non initiatus? quis non a ftirpe ipfa, forfitan etiam a nativitate, devotus? Quis enim non eorum, qui chriftiani appellantur, Cæleftem illum aut poft Christum adoravit, aut, quod pejus eft, multo ante quam Chriftum ?....Video enim, quafi fcaturientem

It may be asked how a church fo grofsly wicked obtained the character of purity, and on what account fome of the clergy were canonized for faints, and the principal of them confidered as pillars of the Catholick church to this day? The true answer is they placed all religion in faith, not in virtue, and their bishops were the most zealous contenders for hierarchical power of any that ever appeared under the Chriftian name, and nothing ferves the purpose of absolute dominion more directly than the baptifm of babes.

About the year two hundred and fifteen the tenth part of the inhabitants of Carthage were reputed Christians, and there were many congregations in other parts. Tertullian had thought they increased too fast, and loft in the crowd the fimplicity of the Chriftian religion. Awhile he had endeavoured to ftem the torrent, by a ftri& fcrutiny at the admiffion of members, and as feveral came to join the church, who had been, or who pretended they had been baptized elsewhere, he infifted on re-examining and re-baptizing them, unless they could make it appear they had been baptized by churches in communion with that at Carthage (2). Congregations of the fame faith and order held communion with each other then exactly as all congregations do now in ftates where none of them are establifhed by law. This had not fully anfwered the end of Tertullian, who was an auftere man, and, finding that the churches of his own communion became more corrupt, he quitted them, and joined the Montanifts. There was a feparate congregation formed by him at Carthage, which continued two hundred years, and then fell into the eltablifhed church, as Auguftine fays. Agrippinus the first bishop of Carthage that appears in hiftory, and feventy other bifhops agreed to purfue Tertullian's method of admitting members, and they re-baptized all fuch as joined them from other communities (3). Succeffive bifhops continued to do fo for the space of forty years, and when Cyprian became bishop of Carthage the affair caused an open rupture between him and Stephen bishop of Rome. Each had his partizans. Each affembled. councils and anathematized the other, and hence came a multitude of volumes ancient and modern about an uninterefting difpute, whether Stephen the Baptist at Rome, or Cyprian the Anabaptift at Carthage, fhould.

fcaturientem vitiis Carthaginem: video urbem omnium iniquitatum genere ferventem, plenam quidem turbis, fed magis turpitudinibus, plenam divitiis, fed magis vitiis....Circumfonabant armis muros Carthaginis populi barbaroruin, ecclefia Carthaginienfis infaniebat in circis, luxuriabat in theatris.

(2) J. FORBES11 Inftru&t. Hift. Theol. Lib. x. iv. Concil. Arelatens, i....Du PIN.... MOSHEIM....LABBEI Concil. du. 217. Auctore Agrippino hæreticorum baptifmus condemnatur....TERTUL. prædicti baptifmi auctor.

(3) CYPRIANI Epift. lxxi, ad Quintum. Quod quidem et Agrippinus bonæ memoriæ wir, &c.

be

be the pope and the tyrant over all other bifhops (4). Neither fide ever entertained a thought of making the people free: but bishops and fchifm, fchifm and bifhops, like ferpents run hiffing through every line of the disgusting hiftory of the contentions of these men. Cyprian was an ignorant fanatick, and as great a tyrant as ever exifted. A man, who loves liberty, will fee very little in Africa to ftay his curiofity, except it be hereticks, who, believe what they would, had the virtue to refift the torrent, and worship God in freedom and peace. The orthodox reproach thefe people because they had neither faints nor martyrs. They had no faints: because they had no popes to canonize any. They had few or no martyrs: because they exercised no dominion, and gave pagan governours no umbrage. No, hereticks had no martyrs till Chriftians made them, for before the orthodox got themselves eftablished, they were as good Christians as the reft. Hereticks were numerous in Africa in this period, but as the orthodox had not then got the fword of the magiftrate in their hands, they took no harm, though they formed feparate affemblies, because they thought the orthodox churches confifted moftly of tyrants and flaves. Bafnage obferves, when two country bifhops write to Capreolus the bishop of Carthage, thus ran their style: "Vitalis and Conftantius, two humble finners, your most humble flaves, proftrate themselves at your feet, and conjure your apostleship to inftruct their littleness, and to inform them what the church ought to believe on the question, whether God was born of a virgin: becaufe fome condemn this expreffion. We befeech your bleffedness to pardon our fimplicity. If we err it is through ignorance (5)."

One of this fort of humble bifhops, named Fidus, in the year two hundred and fifty-feven, wrote to Cyprian of Carthage to know whether children might be baptized before they were eight days old, for by his bible he could not tell; nor could Cyprian tell without confulting a council, which was about to be affembled on two very important affairs. While these wife men are preparing to attend the affociation where the baptifin of babes is to make its first appearance by a motion from a country bifhop, it may not be improper to run the eye over the district where this bifhop refided, inhabited by Pagans, and Chriftians of two forts. Each must be examined apart.

To begin with the Pagans. Had not a great number of authors of undoubted veracity afcertained the fact, it would be difficult to believe, that any clafs of mankind could be reduced to fuch a state of barbarity

(4) CYPRIAN. Op....STEPHANI Epift....CONCIL. CARTHAG.....VALESII not. ad EUSEB. BLONDEL. de primat.... FACUNDI Defens. trium. Cap. &c. &c.

(5) SIRMONDI Op. Tom. i. See the whole letter in Card. DE AGUIRRE's 2d vol, of the Councils of Spain, p. 195. Confulimus honorificentiam tuam, ut de bono thefauro cordis tui vifceribus irrigari jubeas quæ fides catholica recta teneat. Ora pro nobis domine fancte, venerabilis et beatiffime papa.

as