But I think Mr. Tombs could not well have said a more unlucky thing for his own cause, than to instance. Epiphanius; for since he wrote nothing to speak of, but a catalogue of those opinions which the several sectaries held contrary to the church, to plead that he. says nothing of infant baptism, is in effect to give an argument that there never was any sect that in that matter practised otherwise than the church did in Epiphanius's time, who died after the year 400 [300]; and that the church at that time used infant baptism is so plain, that the Antipædobaptists do seldom deny it.

Mr. Tombs gives an instance of a case in which he thinks it would have been proper for Epiphanius to have mentioned infant baptism, if it had then been in universal use in the church; for Epiphanius gives an account * of a sect that had began about 100 years before, called the Hieracites, who taught that no infant dying before the use of reason, could come to the kingdom of Heaven. Their reason was, If any one strive, he is not crowned, except he strive lawfully. How much less can an infant be crowned, who never strives at all! They thought of the kingdom of God in Heaven, as the An tipædobaptists do of his kingdom on earth, that it is no state for babes. Now, Mr. Tombs thinks that Epiphanius, among the arguments he brings, that infants may be glorified, would have pleaded their baptism, if the baptizing them had been usual in the church.

But he seems not to have considered that heretics and schismatics do not use to be prevailed on by arguments drawn from the practice or doctrines of the church; and as for arguments from Scripture, Epiphanius uses those that do more expressly and immediately prove their admission into the kingdom of God; as that saying of our Saviour, Of such is the kingdom of God, &c. and is but short in all.

It might be objected again, That in all probability these heretics did not baptize their own children. If they did, it could be only in prospect of some benefit

* Hær. 67.

t2 Tim. ii. 5.

it might do them afterward, if they lived; and if they did not baptize them, it had been proper for Epiphanius to mention that, as a thing wherein they differed from the Catholics, supposing that the Catholics did baptize theirs.

But upon a more careful reading of their opinions there rehearsed, it appears that they could have no children; for one of their tenets was, That all marriages and getting of children is unlawful under the New Testament; and that "no married person can inherit the kingdom of God: that the only end of Christ's coming was to settle an absolute continence; for what new thing did he bring into the world else? Against malice, covetousness, injustice, fornication, &c. the law had well enough provided before."

Whether these men would have baptized their children, if they had had any, is uncertain; but the first body of men we read of that did deny baptism to infants, which were the Petrobrusians, anno Dom. †150 [1050], did it upon a ground or reason which they held common with these men, viz. That infants, baptized or not baptized, are incapable of the kingdom of Heaven, as I shew in the Second Part of this work, ch. 7.

In

Epiphanius reckons in all eighty heresies [274]; which he says *"were all that he heard of in the world." He says nothing of their baptizing or not baptizing infants; but in the end of his work he recites the faith held by the church, in opposition to all heresies. settling the articles of faith he is large; but he has also a few words concerning the rites of the church. He mentions the fasts and feasts, &c.; and he adds, "As for the other ordinances, concerning baptism and the internal mysteries, as the tradition of the Gospel and of the Apostles is, so they are ordered;" and after some mention of the manner how the Catholic Church uses the Prayers, Psalms, ways of relieving the poor, &c. he adds, "And for baptism, she [the Catholic Church] ac.counts it to be in Christ [or to the Christians] instead

Hær. 80.

1

of the old circumcision." The like he says in his eighth chapter, which is of the Epicureans: -"The Law had the patterns of things in it; but the truth of them is in the Gospel. The law had the circumcision in the flesh, serving for a time, till the great circumcision came, that is, baptism; which circumcises us from our sins, and seals us unto the name of God.

Philastrius [280] makes above 100 heresies. He makes a difference in opinion about any trifling matter, to be a heresy. He mentions no dispute about infant baptism.

Theodoret [330] has wrote in the best method about heresies. He has reduced them to some general heads; he makes four. The first, Of those before mentioned, and such others as have denied that the world was made by God; the second, Of those that have attributed to our Saviour no other nature than the human. The other two of other sects. He says, The first sort had at that time hardly any that adhered to them; and the second sort none at all. He mentions some sects that used no baptism at all; but it was only some of the most absurd and impious; but of those that used baptism, he has none that renounced infant baptism. After the four books of these four sorts of heresies, he adds a fifth; which is " Of the True and Orthodox Doctrines and Usages of the Church." He mentions there the

baptism of infants, not as a thing disputed of, or denied by any sect; but occasionally. Shewing the advantages of baptism, that it conveys not only pardon for the sins of men's former life, but many other graces, he proves it by the baptism of infants, who have committed no sin. The words I had occasion to recite before, in chap. 14. There is another catalogue of heresies at the end of Tert. de Præscript; but it hath nothing about baptism, save that Menander said None could be saved that were not baptized in his name.

CHAPTER XXII.

CONTAINING REFERENCES TO THE BOOKS OF SOME AUTHORS OF THE NEXT SUCCEEDING TIMES.

[Year after the Apostles from 300 to 400.]

THIS is the best account I can give of the passages concerning infant baptism, that are in the genuine books of the writers that flourished from the Apostles' time to the year of Christ 400. The reason that I go no farther is, Because, for the next 700 years, the matter is clear; yet of those years, and of the Waldenses that arose about the year 1150 [1050], I intend to discourse something in general in the Second Part of this

work *.

And here, for the sake of those that have any mind to trace the quotations for about one hundred years farther, I have set down some references to the places where they are to be found. To set down the words is too long [344]; they being all to the same effect with those already rehearsed.

Prosper, in almost all his works against the Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian tenets, makes use of the argument taken from the necessity of the baptizing of infants. Particularly,

Epist. ad Augustinum, prefixed to St. Austin's book de Prædestinatione Sanctorum.

Epist. ad Demetriadem, among the Works of St. Ambrose.

De Vocatione Gentium, lib. 1, c. 16, 22; lib. 2, c. 20, 21, 22, 23, &c. I know it is questioned whether this be Prosper's, or Pope Leo's, or some other man's work; but it is much one to this purpose, since, whoever he were, he lived about this time.

Carmen de Ingratis, cap. 1, 6, 21, 30, 31, &c.

* Part 2, ch. 7.

Contra Collatorēm.

Epist. ad Rufinum, circa Medium.

Defensio Augustini.

Orosius Apologetic.

[S16].

Paulinus Diaconus, Libello ad Zosimum Papam. [320].

Hilarius Arelatensis, Epist. ad Augustinum. [330]. Marius Mercator. Commonitorii, c. 1 et 4. [318]. Præfatione ad Subnotationes.

Subnotat. c. 6, item 8.

Calestinus Papa Epist. ad Maximian. apud Acta Concilii Ephesini. [323].

Epist. ad Gallos Episcopos.

Epistola Synodica Concilii Ephesini ad Calestinum Papam. [331].

Autor Prædestinati, a Sirmondo editus. Par. 1643. [335].

Possidius in Vita Augustini. [330].

Autor Hypognosticwv, inter Opera Augustini, lib. 4, 5, et passim. [330].

Isidorus Pelusiota, lib. 1, epist. 125; lib. 3, epist. 195, &c. [312].

Cassianus de Incarnatione Domini, lib, 5, c. 11.

[324].

Cyrillus in Levitic. c. 8. [312].

Theodoretus in 1 Cor. vii. 14. [323].

Epitome Decret. Divin. lib. 5.

Leo Magnus Papa, Epist. 37, ad Neonem. [340]. Epist. 92, ad Rusticum, cap. 16.

Epist. 86, ad Nicetam Aquilejiensem, item Epist.88, ad Episcopos Germ.

All these were contemporary with St. Austin, but younger than he, and wrote before the year 450; and in the next fifty or sixty years, these following:

Faustus Reinsis (one of those then called Semi-Pelagians) de lib. Arbitrio, lib. 1, c. 1, 2, 14. [372]. Gennadius (one of the same) de Ecclesiasticis Dogmatibus, c. 52. [395].

And his interpolator, a Predestinarian, c. 31.