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borrowed from the New-Testament writers ; ( it has sometimes misled our critics ;) in short it became at length
a sort of professional , church word , tantamount to initiati , discipuli , illuminati , baptizati , electi , and other sqch words as are found , for professing Christians , in early writers .
Where the passage is not figurative , the literal meaning of the word is to be fixed by the peculiarities and weaknesses and habits and manners of the particular periods of human life , as exhibited in the descriptions of them bv the respective writers , as in
two admired and well-known passages , one in Shakespeare , the other in Virgil . The meaning of Tertullian shall be fixed by himself , in reference to his quotation from the New Testament , and the circumstances connected with that quotation *
It has been observed , then , that Tertullian never once uses the word ( infans ) throughout this Treatise in any form , though in other parts of his works he frequently uses the simple forms , infans , infantia , the compound form infanticida , infanticidum , and the verbal form in fan to . ' The word he
uses is , parvulus , and , in my humble opinion , he so uses it , as to bar out your Correspondent's new-born babe . This father remarks , that baptism ought rather to be delayed than hurried forward without due preparation and knowledge , and , praecipue circa
parvulos , ^ particularly with respect to little ones or children . * ' The question then turns upon the word parvulus ; and without inquiring whether Mr . R . is right in comprehending the parvuM among the petentibus dato , " give to them who ask , ' * as he seems to do ,
the wli 6 le group , ' as Hg&i& ££ oiktjjoi , on which the scholiast remarks , Ovvt € *<; vjAx-Kiav , &c . He speaks not this so much with respect to their age , Tbut that it might accord with his benevolent feetfngs , as he Wd said at the beginning , tl Tenya ,, O Sons .
sis ted of children , of old and of young men : — 0 4 [ A € V 0 V ^ € tZT O ) ^ OLM ^ aV IlTfarOou crBevoyre ^ ' 01 Se < rvv yvj ^ oc "Qaguq I £ p £ * $ , eyco $£ 'C ftVQ Si 0 < * ^ * qiOeav &EYLT 01 . I admit that there were children among them , perhaps in arm ' s , biit lie addresses
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( though it occurs to me , that Gregory of Nazianzum speaks in ttk Oration on Baptism , of accommodating tbe words , in which baptism was asked for , to the capacities of children ,
according to the form , I mean , that was used by catechumens or competentes 9 j I observe that Tertullian refers to Matt . xix . 14 ; and it occurs to tt * e , that certainly the parvuli of Tertttk lian and his Africans must have been
of the same description of characters as those to whom thip quotation relates . Else , how would it apply ? Christ beheld little children before him , and says , " Suffer the little children to come to me , for of such is the
Kingdom of God : " My KaXevere avra-( 'sraifoa , ) eXOcii / Tsrpoi ; jag : "forbid them not to come to me" The word is usually translated parvuli , and I have elsewhere observed , that the very turn
of the words proves they were neither new-bom babes nor babes at the breast \ and I take leave to repeat it here : and if this passage will not satisfy ; let the parallel passage be considered , Mark x . 16 , where it is more
directly said , he called them to him . These circumstances do not accord to the character of mere infants , neivbom bales . Had such been brought , the mothers , probably , rather than his disciples , would have been rebuked . And , what does Christ perform on these children ? Wilh the kind
affections , which all amiable beings possess towards children , he put his bands on them and blessed them , that is , lie used a Jewish form , in giving a benediction , which we have borrowed in our confirmations and
ordinations . He grounds on it , further , agreeably to his mode of instruction , a monitory hint to his disciples , for whose sakes , indeed principally , this exhibition seems to have been made :
but is there the most distant allusion to baptism ? Not the most distant , at least to my apprehension 3 and if is expressly said , Christ did not baptize .
Your Correspondent , ( by the bye , ) I perceive , brings this passage forward into the foreground ( in his Flea ) with a q . d . < c Infants will be admitted inta the new community /* &c *
* Similar to this q . d . is what Calvin says hi a Comment on tlie above verse : " Hac voee tato paivulos , qnam edrtim similes comprehendit . Imul&i enim An ^
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On Mr . Ro&m&pn ' * &t ^<^!/ of Bapiim ^ $ \ 3 1 '
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VOfc . XIV , 4 M
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1819, page 613, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1777/page/25/
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