it is impossible for those that are once generated [or born] to enter again into their mother's womb. 'It was foretold by the prophet † Isaiah, as I said, by 'what means they who would repent of their sins might escape them; and was written in these words, Vash you, make you clean, put away the evil, &c. เ And we have been taught by the apostles this word [or this reason] for this thing, Because we, being ignorant of our first birth, were generated by necessity [or course of nature] of the humid seed of our parents mixing together, and have been brought up in ill customs and conversation; that we should not continue ' children of that necessity and ignorance, but of will [or choice] and knowledge, and should obtain forgiveness ' of the sins in which we have lived, by water [or in the ' water]. There is invoked, over him that has a mind to be regenerated, the name of God the Father, and 'Lord of all things, &c.; and this washing is called The Enlightening,' &c. If I am asked To what purpose I bring in this in a discourse of Infant Baptism? my answer is, That I do not produce it as making directly or immediately either for or against it. He being here to shew that the ceremony of entering proselytes that came to them from the Heathens, kad no ill thing in it, had no occasion to speak of the case of infants; but I bring it, 1. Because it is the most ancient account of the way of baptizing, next the Scripture; and shews the plain and simple manner of administering it. The Christians of these times had lived, many of them at least, in the apostles' days. 2. Because it shews that the Christians of these times used the word Regeneration [or, being born again] for baptism; and that they were taught so to do by the apostles; and it will appear, by the multitude of places I shall produce, that they used it as customarily, and appropriated it as much to signify baptism as we do + Isaiah i, 16, the word christening. They used also avaκaivious or KaivoTOúa, renewing, and periods, enlightening, for the same thing; as appears by the first and last words of this passage. And, 3dly, Because we see by it, that they understood that rule of our Saviour, Except one be regenerated [or born again] of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,-of water-baptism; and concluded from it, that without such baptism, no person could come to Heaven; and so did all the writers of these 400 years, not one man excepted. This is of more use to note, because many modern writers use the word Regeneration, or New Birth, for repentance and conversion, whether it be accompanied with baptism at that time or not; but the antients do not so. The Scripture also uses it for baptism:The washing of regeneration (Tit, iii. 5) is the washing of baptism. I shewed before, in the Introduction, that this phrase was not first used by our Saviour or his apostles; but that it was a usual word of the Jews, to denote that baptism by which any proselyte was baptized unto Moses. Justin Martyr, Apol. 1 (vulgo 2da) prope ab initio. Καὶ πολλοί τινες καὶ πολλαὶ ἐξηκοντᾶται καὶ ἑβδομηκοντᾶται, οἱ ἐκ παίδων ἐμαθητεύθησαν τῷ χριστῷ, ἄφθοροι δια μένεσι. ' 'Several persons among us, of 60 and 70 years old, of both sexes, who were discipled [or made disciples] to Christ in or from their childhood, do continue uncorrupted' [or virgins.] St. Justin's word, quanrev0noav, were discipled, or made disciples, is the very same word that had been used by St. Matthew in expressing our Saviour's command, μalnτεvoare, disciple [or make disciples] all the nations; and it was done to these persons, Justin says, in or from their childhood; so that. whereas the Antipa dobaptists do say, that when our Saviour bids the apostles disciple the nations, baptizing them, he cannot mean infants; because he must be understood to bid them baptize only such among the nations as could be made disciples; and infants they say cannot be made disciples. They may perceive that, in the sense in which Justin understood the word, they may be made disciples; and Justin wrote but 90 years after St. Matthew, who wrote about 15 years after Christ's ascension; and they that were 70 years old at this time must have been made disciples to Christ in their childhood (as he says they were) about 36 years after the Ascension; that is, in the midst of the apostles times, and within 20 years after St. Matthew's writing. CHAPTER III. QUOTATIONS OUT OF ST. IRENEUS [Year after the Apostles 67.] IRENEUS does in many places speak of original sin as affecting all mankind, † all our race," putting them in a state of "Debtors to God, transgressors, and enemies to him, § under the stroke of the serpent, and addicted to death;" and that it is only in and through Christ that they have || "reconciliation and redemption." He also so speaks of baptism, as of the means or instrument by which this redemption is conveyed and aplied to any one, and calls it by the name of ¶ Aurowols and ἀπολύτρωσις, redemption. Though this laid together do make an argument for the baptizing all persons, infants as well as others,-yet I shall pass by this and other such places in this and * Lib. c. Hær. 5, c. 19. +Ibid. c. 21. § Lib. 4, c. 5; and lib. 5, c. 19. Lib. 1, c. 18. other authors that speak of original sin, and the necessity of baptism only in general; intending henceforward to recite such only as do more directly and immediately concern infants, and speak of their baptism, cither for or against it. Irenæus adv. Hæreses, lib. 2, c. 39. Magister ergo existens magistri quoque habebat ætatem. Non reprobans nec supergrediens hominem, neque solvens suam legem in se humani generis; sed omnem ætatem sanctificans per illam quæ ad ipsum erat similitudinem. Omnes enim venit per semet ipsum salvare; omnes, inquam, qui per eum renascuntur in Deum, infantes, et parvulos, et pueros, et juvenes, et seniores. Ideo per omnem venit ætatem; et infantibus infans factus, sanctificans infantes, in parvulis parvulus, sanctificans hanc ipsam habentes ætatem; simul et exemplum illis pietatis effectus, et justitiæ et subjectionis; in juvenibus juvenis," &c. 'Therefore, as he was a master, he had also the age ' of a master. Not disdaining nor going in a way above human nature, nor breaking in his own person the law which he had set for mankind; but sanctifying every 'several age by the likeness that it has to him; for he came to save all persons by himself:- All, I mean, who by him are regenerated [or baptized] unto God, infants and little ones, and children, and youths, ' and elder persons; therefore, he went through the se• veral ages; for infants being made an infant, sanctifying infants. To little ones he was made a littleone, sanctifying those of that age; and also giving them an example of godliness, justice, and dutifulness;-to youths he was a youth,' &c. This testimony, which reckons infants among those that are regenerated, is plain and full; provided the reader be one that is satisfied that the word regeneration does, in the usual phrase of those times, signify baptism; * and this cannot be doubted by any that are at all acquainted with the books of those ages. As for those that are not, I have already had occasion to refer them to the use of the Jews before and in Christ's time, and to some places of Scripture; and it may be worth the while to turn back to the passage of Justin Martyr last quoted (he lived but 30 or 40 years before this man) and to observe how he uses the word. The reader will also see in almost all the passages that I shall have occasion to produce, the same use of the word constantly observed; that to say regenerated, is with them as much as to say baptized, At present, take these three evidences of it: 1. Irenæus himself uses it so in all other places of his book that I have ever observed; as for instance (lib. 3, c. 19) where he is producing testimonies of Scripture concerning the Holy Spirit he has this, Et iterum, potestatem regenerationis in Deum demandans discipulis, dicebat eis, &c. And again, when he gave his disciples the commission of regenerating unto God, he said unto them, Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;--where the commission of regenerating plainly means the commission of baptizing. And (lib. 1, c. 18) concerning the Valentinian heretics, who altered and corrupted both the form of Christian baptism and the manner of administering it (of which corruptions I have occasion to speak particularly hereafter, chap. 21; and Part 2, chap. 5) he says, Εἰς ἐξάρνησιν τοῦ βαπτίσματος τῆς εἰς Θεὸν ἀναγεννήσεως, καὶ πάσης τῆς πίστεως ἀπόθεσιν, ὑποβέβληται τὸ εἶδος τοῦτο ὑπό τοῦ Σατανά. 3 This generation of heretics has been sent out by Satan for the frustrating [or denying] of the baptism of regeneration unto God [i. e. the true Christian baptism, instead of which, they set up a mock baptism of their own] and the destruction of our whole *Introduction. |