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ttiairs argument lias any force against Adult Baptism , it would have equal farce against Unitariahism . For I doubt whether there is an Established , a National Church , of Christian Unitarians ^ at least in Mr . Belsham ' s sense of the word . In the Greek Established
Church , Trinitarianism was sometimes the national religion , and sometimes Arianistn , the difference lying between the ofA 68 < riot and o ^ isa-iot , it settled at length in the Trinitarian doctrine . The Latin Church was all Trinitarian-, the Established Reformed
Churches were all Trinitarian , as may be seen in their several confessions , in Quick ' s Synodicon . The Polish Unitarians , * with all their talents , learning , dignity and power , ( and they had much of each , ) never rose to be
a national , established religion . The religion of the ancient Jews , indeed , founded in the ipsa nnitas of the Deity , without any distinctions or qualities , as Maimonidesf expresses it , ofliftjfei place or person * ( about which the Trinitarian and Unitarian
controversies , through their many shades of difference , are concerned , ) the religion of the Jews % vas a national Unitarian religion . Mahomet , too , colleaguing with a Jew and Nestorian Christians , ^ and extracting from them a sort of essence of religion , a fundamental principle , ( which appears to have been t he foundation of most ancient
theologies , till they degenerated i nto idolatry , ) formed a national religion , on the abstract idea , the Unity of God . But I beg leave to submit to your learned Correspondent , whether in his sense of the words , there
ever was , or is at this day , any National Church of U ? iitarian Christians ? In examining Christian antiquity , in reference to the question under
discussion , it was thought no improper way to appeal , in a former letter , to the testimony of some learned and independent men , who , having gone over this ground with the same end in view , would be competent to give
* Sets JMr . ltobznsoti * s Ecclesiastical Researches . Church of Poland ^ p . 554 . * f Deus mil las habet qualitates—Qiiare cohstatiter asserinms , ilium absoluti $ sime esse unutn Maintonidis . Moreh JSTevo cheim ^ pp . 79 , 80 . t See Piideaux ' s Life of Mahomet ,
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testimony . Your readers were , thus furnished with the proper evidence to try the merits of the question . These learned men were taken from our own country ; and they" might very easily have been multiplied . But that our
jury may be as complete as possible , we beg leave to add to them a fevv names of foreigners . They shall be taken from among critics of different opinions on other theological points ,
butall of the first eminence for learning atid their knowledge of Christian antiquity among their several religious denominations . This part of my work being ready done to my hand by Van Dale , I shall do little more than
translate their testimonies from him . The first is of Campegio Vitringa , the celebrated Professor of Theology and History at Amsterdam , well known for his critical works on Isaiah and the Revelations . He was doctrinally a Predestinarian .
" What is advanced out of Cyprian is more evident ; although from all the other writers referred to , nothing can be collected but this ; that infants might be baptized , and sometimes
were ; but not that it was the custom in the first Church that they should be baptized just after their birth , as is done in our sacred assemblies , " &c . Observationum , Lib . ii . Cap . xvi .
He then refers to Ludovicus Vives , and he shall be our next testimony , who , in his observations on Augustine , ( De Civitate Dei , Cap . xxvii . Lib . i . ) after other remarks , adds : " Let no one be deceived by this
passage , no one formerly was laved by sacred baptism , till of an adult age , and when the same person both knew what he wished of that m ' ystica ! water , and desired to be washed , and not merely once asked , " &c .
The next testimony that I shall produce is that of Salmasius , which may also be taken as that of Van Dale himself , who was equal at least to those whom he quotes , in that sort of literature which is necessary for a
complete knowledge of his subject , as his Own admirable work abundantly proves , * " Something , therefore /" says Van Dale * *? must be said of the origin arid progress of this Paedobaptfatrt , Which ,. .. ' . . . s i , - "' . » ... * . .... . . . ¦'' - . ¦ * ' i ? Hist . . B&pUsmatmn cum Hebraicornm turn Christianorum .
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38 On Mr * BelshanCs " Plea for Infant Baptism :
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1819, page 38, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1768/page/38/
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