put to death; which, when he understood, "he desired to be baptized first, for the forgiveness of his sins; and when he was made partaker of that sacrament of Christ, as he desired; being, after a laudable life in this world, secure also of an eternal life, he willingly offered his neck to the executioner." Other authors, though not mentioning his baptism, give the same account of his death; and the occasion of it they relate to be such, as gives us an idea of the mischief that superstitious jealousies do, when they get into the head of a cowardly prince. Valens had had some attempts made to dethrone him; and there was a report ran up and down, that some that used curious arts, had found that he should quickly have a successor; and the first letters of his name should be THEOD. The names of Theodorus, Theodoret, Theodosius, Theodulus, &c. were then very common names; and this fancy cost a great many of them their lives; and this captain among the rest. His son Theodosius was not, it seems, at that time a man noted enough to come into danger. When he came to the throne, he managed his affairs so well, both in peace and war, that none that went before, or that came after, did ever excel him. The reason why he was not baptized in infancy, must have been because his father was not then baptized, and, perhaps, not a believer. I know that Socrates, at the forecited place (lib. 5, c. 6) says, That "he (the said Emperor) had Christian parents" [or ancestors]: ἐκ προγόνων χεισιανὸς ὑ πάρχων But this was a phrase commonly used in the case of those whose parents became Christians at any time before their death, though they were not so at the time of the birth of those their children; as I shall, out of many instances that might be given, have occasion to give some presently. Of St. Basil. There is no proof to the contrary, but that he was baptized in infancy. I did, in the tenth chapter of the First Part of this work, produce the evidences that are in antiquity, that St. Basil was baptized in infancy; but it is necessary to consider those also that are brought to the contrary. I know of but one man of the Antipædobaptists that does pretend him for an instance of one baptized in his adult age [260], though born of Christian parents; and he does it very unfairly. He found in Osiander's Epitome of the Magdeburgenses *, that Vincentius, in his Speculum, tells a story of St. Basil's going to Jerusalem, and being baptized in Jordan by Maximus, the bishop there; but though Osiander and the Magdeburgenses too do, when they mention this, declare that this is a story of no credit, and that Vincentius's collection, being of late years, is of no repute [1144], and that there is no historian of credit or antiquity that speaks of any such thing, yet Mr. Danvers sets down the quotation in such manner and words, as if they had recited it as a credible history; whereas they do both of them, at the places cited, declare that it seems to them that he was baptized in infancy by his father (of which I also have, in the chapter forementioned, given some confirmation) or by some other minister. He quotes also, at the same place, and for the same thing, Socrates (lib. 4, c. 26) and Sozomen (lib. 6. c.34) who neither there, nor anywhere else, have any word tending that way. As Vincentius made his collections of historical matters without any judgment, taking them out of any sort of books, genuine or spurious, so the author, out of *Cent. 4, lib. 3, c. 42. Treatise, part 1, c. 7. + Cent. 4, c. 10. * whom he owns to have this, is Amphilochius's Life of St. Basil; and that is known by all to be a Grub-street paper, a gross forgery; and is sufficiently detected to be such by Rivet †, Baronius, Bellarmin §, Possevin, and, before them all, by Bishop Jewel |. The author thereof had, I suppose, read or heard that Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, had wrote an account of St. Basil's Life, as he did indeed; and Greg. Nazianzen and Greg. Nyssen did the like; but that which was written by him is lost, as are most of all his other works. He, therefore, put forth his stuff under the name of that great man; but it betrays itself by many tokens of fabulous miracles, incongruities in history, &c.; and in that fable which he gives of his baptisin, there are such silly monkish quibbles and witticisms put into the discourse that past between Basil and Maximus, who is made to be his baptizer (as one asks, Quis est mundus? the other answers, Qui fecit mundum? &c.) that one might guess from what shop they come. F. Combefis has published this piece in Greek and Latin, and endeavoured to vindicate it, by saying the main part of it might be genuine, though it be interpolated and mixed with some fabulous additions; but, as Mr. du Pin observes ¶, he brings no kind of proof of his opinion. The true account wrote by Nazianzen (orat. 30, in laudem Basilij) nor that by Nyssen, have no mention. of any such thing; nor that under the name of Ephram Syrus. On the contrary, Nazianzen seems plainly to refer to his baptism in infancy by his own father, as I shewed before. Their reciting all the remarkable passages of his life, after he came to age, without mentioning any thing of his baptism, is a stong argument that there was no such * Vincent. spec. Hist. lib. 14, c. 28. + Crit. Sac. lib. 3, c. 27. Ad Ann. 363. § De Script. Eccl. Apolog. Eccl. Angl. Artic. 1. Div. 33. Nouv. Bib. T. 2, Amphiloch. thing; since, in all that are baptized at age, their baptism makes a considerable circumstance for a writer, whose chief subject is their Christianity; and, there-fore, the monk who framed a Life for him that might sell well, would not omit it; and to dress it up the better, made it to be in Jordan, where Christ was baptized, and Constantine desired to be. If the 29th chapter of St. Basil's book, de Spiritu Sancto, be genuine (which is questioned by Erasmus and others) then it is certain that the same man that baptized him did also put him into the ministry; for so he says in that chapter. He is there shewing that the custom used by him and the churches, of saying the Doxology thus: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, with the Holy Spirit, -or thus: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit (instead whereof the Arians would have him say By the Son, in the Holy Spirit) was no innovation. He quotes several ancient authors that had spoke so; and begins thus: I myself, if it be proper to say any thing of myself in this case, do keep the use of this expression ώσπέρ πνα κλῆρον πατρῴον, as an inheritance left me by my father, having received it from a man who lived a long time in the ministry of God, by whom I was both baptized, and also put into the ministry of the church." This could not be Meletius (whom Dr. Cave reckons to be the man by whom he was ordained deacon) be cause he afterwards reckons Meletius as another of his authors for the same usage; and says "That the famous Meletius is of the same sentiment; they that have conversed with him do affirm." - That St. Basil himself did use to baptize children, I shewed before, in the First Part of this work, ch. 12. St. Gregory Nazianzen. He was not baptized in Infancy. An Inquiry whether his Father was a Christian when this his Son was born. When fourteen instances are produced to prove any thing, and one can shew that thirteen of them are mistakes, he is apt to suspect that there is some mistake in the other too, though he cannot find it out; yet here is an instance of a Christian's son not baptized in infancy, if this Gregory's Carmen de Vita Sua be a genuine piece (as I never heard of any that questioned it) and if there be no mistake in the reading of it. I shall represent impartially, and as briefly as I can, the proofs that are brought of his being born before his father's Christianity; and those to the contrary. That he was not baptized in infancy is plain, both from the foresaid poem de Vita Sua, and also from the sermon that he made at his father's funeral*; and also. from the history of his Life by Gregorius Presbyter ;for in all these a full relation is given, how he, in a voyage by sea from Alexandria to Athens, was in great. danger of shipwreck by a storm; "and whereas all the rest in the ship were terrified with the fear of their bodily death, I (says he) did more dreadfully fear the death of my soul; for I was in great hazard of departing this life unbaptized; amidst the sea-waters that were to be my death, wanting that spiritual water; and, therefore, I cried out, entreated, besought, that some space of life might be granted to me." He goes on to shew how his lamentation and dread on that account were so great and so moving, that the people in the ship forgot their own danger, in compassion to those terrors which they saw were upon his soul; and how he then vowed to God, that if he were delivered from that dan * Orat. 19. |