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Celesti ns , his disciple , born in Ireland , denied that popular doctrine , and maintained that infants were born into the world as innocent as Adam in paradise . Their great opponents were Austin , the eloquent and renowned bishop of Hippo in Africa , and Jerome , the most learned scholar and
critic of his age , who resided in Palestine . And the palmary argument of these zealous champions of the orthodox faith was derived from the universal , undisputed practice of infant baptism . Why , says Jemme , are infants baptized , if they hare no oririnal sin to wash away ? Austin plainly Hints that he suspected the Pelagians of secretly opposing infant baptism : he
cautions bis readers against them : he holds up infant baptism as the practice of the universal church , derived not from synods and councils , but from the authority of the apostles and of Christ himself . * This ( says he ) tbe church has always had , has always held , and will ever maintain . And he declares that be bad never known nor
heard nor read of any body of Christians , nor even of any heretics , who admitted the Scriptures as the rule of faitb , who were so impious : as to deny to infants the privilege of haptism . " What reply did Pelagius and his disciples make to this triumphant challenge of the orthodox fathers ? Did they deny
baptism to be a divine institution ? Did they plead , that as children are born innocent , baptism is useless ; that this rite was limited by tbe apostles to proselytes and their households ? Or , that by the divine rule and the primitive practice of the church , baptism was to be deferred till the candidates for it made a credible profession of the Christian faith ? No such thing-.
Learned , inquisitive and well-informed as they were , and though Pelagius and Celestms had resided many years at Rome the centre of ecclesiastical intelligence , and afterwards had visited both Africa and Asia , they had never beard of any such doctrine as this . They repelled with indignation the insinuations of those who represented them as denying baptism to infants : they held this rite as necessary to their
entering into the kingdom of heaven - and with Austin they agree in solemnly assertln § T that they never saw nor heard , not onl y of any Christian , but even of any heretic , so blind and impious as to deny to innocent infants the privilege of baptism . No fact in history is better ascertained
than this , that from the time of Tertullian to that of Pelagius , that is , from the end of ^ e second centu ry to the beginning of the " fth , the baptism of the infant descendants ° « baptized persons was the universal and t u . . H > uted practice of the church . And "is fact confirms the conclusion drawn ^ the inciden tal notice of Teitullian , ¦ " ** the same practice in his time was also
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general and u neon trad icted . But the universality of infant baptism in the time of Tertullian , especially when combined with the clear allusion to the same practice by Jrenseus and Justin Martyr , proves beyond all doubt that the practice subsisted
uniformly and without any controversy from the apostolic age . From whence it follows by necessary consequence , as I have shewn at large ia the Second Letter , that infant baptism is an ordinance instituted by the apostles , and that it is a rite of perpetual and universal obligation in the Christian
church . "—Pp . 46—51 . Mr . Belsham readily concedes " that if we knew nothing of Christian baptism but from what is contained in the New Testament , we should conclude , that the rite was to be limited to proselytes and their families . " P . 51 . He adds .
< c If no evidence is to be admitted but that of the New Testament , the case of baptizing * the adult descendants of baptized persons appears tome to be desperate . All that the New Testament enjoins is , Prosel and all that it lifies
yfe , baptize : ' exemp is , the baptism of proselytes and their households . Where then is the precept , where the * example , for baptizing the descendants of baptized persons , whether infant or adult ?"—P 53
With regard to the mode of baptism , Mr . Belsham argues" 1 . That as the word baptism undoubtedly expresses washing " , whether by immersion or affusion , the command to baptize ,
without annexing any limitation of the sense to one mode or the other , necessarily leaves the choice of the mode of the application of water to the baptized person , to the discretion of the parties concerned . 2 That there is the whole
" . , upon , reason to believe that the prevailing * practice in the apostolic and succeeding * a # es was to baptize by immersion : though it cannot be proved that this was the universal rule ; and some cases are mentioned in the New Testament , in which it has been thought most probable that baptism was administered bv affusion .
3 . Where immersion was practised , it is highly probable that the baptized persons , if not infants , immersed themselves ; this being * the universal practice of the Jews under the f ^ aw , and no mention beiog " made of the introduction of the nexv and inconvenient mode of one person putting * another i > rrsou under water .
" 4 . Baptism by aft ' usion , especially in cases or * sickness and supposed danger , was practised by the church in a very early aj *" e : and though this mode of baptism was disapproved , except where it was believed to be indispensable , yet the right was not questioned , nor were any persons who had
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Review , —Belsfianfs Plea for Infant Baptism . 68 S
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1817, page 683, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2470/page/43/
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