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but further , no term introduced into it by him , can be applicable , in his adaptation of it , to a new-born babe . This , indeed , has already been shewn , in the passages introduced , from that father , in a former letter , and I think they amount to a proof . I shall venture here on arguments somewhat
different . Of the several ends aimed at in this Treatise , the principal was to establish the obligation of water-baptism , in opposition to those who entirely rejected it . For several pages , every syllable relates to that subject , as does
considerably more than half the Treatise : all the other points which he speaks to , he mentions as comparatively inconsiderable ; questiunculse qusedam ( his own expression ) . This circumstance I more distinctly
notice , because it is too slightly considered by others ; ( there is not the slightest notice taken of this circumstance by Dr . Wall , in his chapter about Tertullian ;) and because , from TertulIiarTs studious manner of
discussing water-baptism , no less than from his positive assertion , it appears the party that rejected water-baptism was numerous . He , indeed , expressly says , plerosq . rapnit , and the followers of Montanus , who was a member of this church , became widely disseminated in the Christian world . Now
among persons , of whom some set the rite entirely aside , while others , we know , practised it by immersion , and on adults , the presumption is , that none would lay such stress on it , as to be for hurrying it on to newborn babes .
Mr . R . remarks , that Tertullian , being a lawyer , had been consulted , before he became a Christian , as a man eminent in his profession , and that in the contested passage about baptism he delivers his opinion somewhat as a lawyer , and it is more than probable , at least , considering the condition of children in this
Roman province t Africa , that his opinion may at sometime have been so taken , Tertullian being at the time not only an eminent lawyer , but of high character in the Catholic Church , an
elder , distinguished by his talents and learning . And , if his advice had been asked about the baptism of these children , it is probable that the children alluded to were the first baptized
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children of that party , perhaps , in all Africa ; for it would have been inconsistent with the serious character of those who consulted Tertullian , to have practised the rite first , and ask advice afterwards , nor was a person of
T-ertullian ' s character to be so trifled with . Be this as it may , though Tertulliando es not expressly mention new-born babes nor infants , mere infants , as Dr . Waterland expresses it , yet he appears to be the first of the early Christian writers , who even
alludes to any rising opinion relative to Poedobaptism , or the baptism of children , though prior to him , there were several who do expressly mention it , by describing the mode and the subject oE baptism , in another form and under another character . And
the opinion of many learned men , just now alluded to , is highly probable , that Africa was the country , * and -the time of Tertullian the period , of the commencement of the baptism of children . At all events , it appears
to me that'the parvuli ( the word used by Tertullian , not infantes ) , could not be according to that Father ' s own illustration , your Correspondent ' s new born babes . It is a vague word , and circumstances must determine its
meaning and limit . Mr . Robinson gives examples of readers , ( lectores , } who were martyrs and choristers , who , in Carthagenian language , being infantult and parvuli , were taught to read and sing by Theucarius , the church schoolmaster . *
* Eug-enio pastore jam in exilio constitnto nniversus clems Ecclesiaj Carthagenis cacde inediaque inaceratiir , fere quingenti vel amplius : inter quos qua inplurimi erant lectores infantuli qui graudentes in Domino procul exilio crudeli t ) nduntur . Victoris Velensis Hist .
Persecut . Vandal . ——Ibi et Iufantuli fuere quamphirimi , quos genetrices mater no se * quebantur affectu , aliae gaudentes , alia : tristes , aliae retrahentes : alia ? gandel > ant se martyres peperisse . JDum iter agereiruis , cum Dei exercitu comitantes , conspicimus liuiliei-culam sacculnm et alia vestimenta portantein , manu Infantulutn
ui » uin tenentein , atq . his semiombus cotisolantemt , Ciirre , Domine metis ;—Respond it , benedicita , benedicifa , et orate pro me et pro isto Parviilo Respond it cum hoc Parvul < i servo vestro ad ^ xilium pcrgfo , ne inveniat etnn solmn inimicus , et a via veritatis revocet ad mortem . Id . Lib . ii . Cap . ik .
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On Mr . RohhuorC * HistoryofBaptism ¦ " 6 ll
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1819, page 611, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1777/page/23/
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