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hte is at years _ of discretion , and may marry or cl / oose a guardian , but he is not of full age , and therefore cannot ' L , .--. , — ¦¦¦ - _ . — - _ | ^ u , - ¦ _ . p > ¦ — f - ¦ - r the book referred to : but I do not find , that in either of the four books of
Justinian ' s Institutes , though there is a distinct title , de Tutelis , Lib . i . Tit . xiii . that there is any title , de Infantid , or that the word in fans occurs once , though it is exact and complete -in stating * the limits and condition of nonage .
Mr . Robinson seems to spealc , as though sponsor and tutor or guardian , was one and the same office . Now I must doubt whether this was strictly and necessmily the case . What he says of the office of the tutor and curator , according to the oivil law of the Romans , is strictly conformable to what is laid down in the
Institutes . But though the words tutors and curators are mentioned hundreds of times , it does not occur to tne ^ that sponsor is any where introduced as a synonysm , or as naturally and necessarily related to them .
nor , Indeed , that it is once mentioned . The inference , therefore , seems to be , that the sponsor was not , as a matter of course , connected with the office of tutor or guardian .
The first Christian writer who mentions the word sponsor is Tertullian ; and it should seem to be one connected merely with the Christian profession . When the baptism of children was 6 rst stirred , ( and as before observed , in the judgment of many learned men it was first stirred in
Africa , ) a difficulty would naturally arise relative to the questions usually put to those who asked for baptism , and the profession that was to be made by them ; hence sponsors engaged for them . It might happen , indeed , that a sponsor might be a tutor or g-uardian , but 1 know of no
law which provided thai no Gentile could be a tutor or guardian of the child of a Christian , and it does riot appear how a Gentile tutor could be a Christian sponsor . The sponsor , therefore , seems rather to hare been a sort of Christian fide-jussor , whether he was his tutor or not . The
child might be considered a sort of g * odbearn , and the sponsor what we now call a god-father . It does not , therefore , seem strictly correct to say the tutor ( i . e . guardian ) or sponsor , because in , certain cases
( particularly where a guardian was not appointed in the will of a parent , and the next of kin , on the male side , became Tutores Legitimi , Instit . Jur . Civ . L . i . Tit . xv . or in the case of Tutores
Fiduciani , L . i . Tit . jliv . where the Tutela was also LegitimaJ they might , it should seem , be different characters . The office of tutor or guardian is thus described ia the Insti-
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altene ( has no voice in the disposal of ) his lands , goods and chattels , arid is therefore considered an infant . At all events , infans was used for children of various ages , and is soused by Tertullian , But the word parvulus , as Mr , Roi ) inson properly observes , is more ^ ague still ; and yet vague as it is , by the reference made .
and the circumstances attending that reference , it cannot , in my humble judgment , be brought down to your Correspondent ' s babe , whether newborn , or at the breast .
This shall suffice for the former part of the compound , Infant ; Baptism , in reference to Tertullian : with respect to the latter part , Baptism , quotations in abundance have been given long since from that father , in reference to the mode practised , and the
persons baptized : and after combining together the above observations with those quotations , the reader will form bis judgment on the point submitted to him , whether Mr . R . or Mr . B . is most incorrect with respect tb Tertullian on the subject of baptism * For my own part , 1 scruple not
to express my humble opinion , that Mr . B . is fundamentally wrong , that he stumbles at the threshold , and goes on stumbling : nor can I do justice to the subject , without tracing him a few steps further , licet non passibus aequis . D .
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Brief Notes on the Bible . No . VIII . THERE are three resting-places , which the orthodox are accustomed to occupy , when pressed with arguments against the possibility , either of there being a second God , or of the existence of a second person in the Godhead ; ( can a more prominent
tutes , Tit . xiii . : JE&t an tern Tivtela ( ut Servius definivit ) Vis ( alifer Jus ) ac l * otestas in capite libciro ad tueruluiu eum qui propter wtatein se defendere nequit , jure civili data etpermissa , Tutores ante in sunt qui cam vim ( al . Jus ) ac potestatem
habent , exque ips& re nomea acceperunt . Itaque appal Iantur tu tores , quasi tuilore * atque defensores , sicut acdilui dicuntur , qui acdes tuentur . The sponsor was a surety ; a word used several times by Cicero , and from him , I suspect , it \^ a $ derived .
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Brief Notes on the Hibte . No . VIII . 615 s
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1819, page 615, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1777/page/27/
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