On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    • would richly have deserved all that obloquy and contempt which this candid Friend has so liberally poured out upon them . No , Sir . Of such an argument as this no one ever dreamed . The authority of Jerome and Augustine , of

    Pelagius and Celestius , is appealed to for no other purpose than to ascertain a matter of fact . And though this candid Friend is pleased to say , that " their assertion on this or any other point has no weight with him , " I presume , that it will be generally

    allowed , that their testimony to a matter of fact of public notoriety , in their own time , is as much entitled to credit , as the testimony of the Christian Surveyor of the Political World to any of the best authenticated facts of the present day . They were the most

    leafned , pious and respectable men of the age in which they lived : they resided in different quarters of the world : they differed materially in theological doctrines : and carried on a very sharp controversy with each

    other . But they all bore testimony to owe fact , viz . that Infant Baptism , in their time , was the universal practice : they all declare that they never met with nor heard of any one , no not even any heretic , who disputed it : and that it was the universal belief

    that this rite derived its origin from apostolic institution , and had been uniformly , observed by the Christian church from the primitive age . Such are the facts attested and

    authenticated by Jerome , who resided in Asia ; by Augustine , who lived in Africa ; and by Pelagius and Celestius , who * vere natives of the British Isles , and who sojourned at Rome .

    These are facts , supported beyond all reasonable doubt , by contemporaneous testimony . The argument built ypon them is quite distinct , and not at all liable to be confounded with them by a , discriminating mind . This general assent , this striking unanimity » tt the great body of Christians , so

    ttiuch split and divided upon other subjects , must have a cause . If Infant Baptism was really of apostolic origin , this singular phenomenon is easily explained . But if " Infant Baptism crept in among Christians , " after the age of the apostles , how came it to Paaa that so gross a deviation from an a postolic institution should have esta-

    Untitled Article

    blished itself peaceably and quietly through the universal church , so that in the lapse of four centuries , abounding with learned writers and subtle controversies , not one voice should

    have been raised , not a single pen should have been employed in defence of the genuine Christian rite , or in opposition to a gross and widely spreading innovation ?

    If our candid Friend does not comprehend this argument , I cannot help it : nor is it in my power by any further elucidation , to bring it more within the level of his capacity . To me it appears c \ enr , decisive and

    unanswerable , nnd precisely similar to that by which we establish the truth of Christianity itself from notoriety of fact . In what light it may be regarded , and how far it may impress the minds of others in different circumstances , it is not for me to say .

    But having now advanced all that appeared necessary to rescue the argument from this Friend ' s misconceptions and misrepresentations , I forbear to notice his personalities and

    sarcasms . T . BELSHAM . P . S . I now willingly take leave of a cavilling opponent to reply to the objection of a more candid and

    consistent inquirer . T . G . ( p . 657 , ) understands and fairly states the argument in the Plea . Actual apostolic institution is the hypothesis , and the only hypothesis which can account for the

    universal practice of Infant Baptism , and the uniform tradition that it was derived from the apostles . 1 have stated , that the permanent obligation of the Lord ' s Supper as a Christian institution , stands upon no other foundation than Infant Baptism .

    For though Christ instituted the Eucharist , he gave no precept for its permanent obligation : and though St . Paul incidentally mentions that in the Lord ' s Supper " shew forth

    his death until he come , " such an oblique notice is by no means equivalent to an express command . But the uniform universal practice of the church , shews how the precept was understood , and , consequently , how it was intended to be understood .

    So with respect to Baptism , the precept is , Go and baptize : the practice shey ^ s in what sense the precept was understood , and , of course , how

    Untitled Article

    Mr . Belsham . on his € t Plea for Infant Baptism" 731

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1817, page 731, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2471/page/35/