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great information from it , and that it would throw nnich new light upon the Historical argument . My disappointment was proportionate . In Mr . Robinson ' s work , I found much curious infopmation about fonts and baptisteries , and I read much h # rsh censure of the celebrated Bishop of Hippo ,
who , previous tohisconversion , appears to have been a profligate young man , and who , after he became a Christian , wrote many injudicious and intemperate works ; but who , greatly to ' his honour , in the decline of life , published a book of Retractations , which might , one would think , have abated the
severity of censure in one whose candour , if life had been spared , would probably have induced him in this respect to have imitated th « example of the great SL Augustin , But in vain did I search the pages of Mr . Robinson for a single fact or argument to elucidate the much controverted question
concerning Infant Baptism , in vain did I seek for any proof that either Christ or his apostles had ordained the application of Baptism to the descendants of baptized persons , but had limited the rite to those only who were of adult age : —in vain did I look for any opposition in the earliest ages of the church to the early and prevailing
practice of Infant Baptism : —in vain did f inquire for a single denomination of Christians , for a single country , a single district , a single church or congregation , in which adult baptism was the prevailing practice : —in vain did
I ask even for a single individual , Tertullian excepted , who expressed disapprobation of Infant Baptism , or for a single individual , whp , being the child of baptized parents , had his baptism deferred to adult age : —and finally , in vain I sought after the
solution of the extraordinary problem , how it could possibly happen that when adult baptism was the institution of the apostles , so great an alteration as Infant Baptism should have been so early introduced , and so universally
received in perfect silence , without the slightest opposition , without a single church adhering to the apostolic institution , without a single individual lifting up his voice in its favour j and that at a time when the church was
rent into a thousand parties , by con * troveiwes upon subjects of much less importance ; for all persons are not of
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the opinion of the Christian Surveyor , that the question concerning the true origin of a Christian institution is too trifling to be discussed . Upon alt these subjects did I seek with eagerness
and with fond expectation for information in Mr . Robinson ' s truly learned work § but I sought in vain : and I closed the book with disappointment and regret . Yet this is the book to which I am sent "to find a full
refutation of all that I have advanced upon Infant Baptism . * As this is probably the last letter , or as my polite opponent calls it , tirade , that I shall address to you upon this subject , I will take the liberty of subjoining a few cursory observations .
In the first place , I am myself chargeable with a great oversight in having omitted to state at length the important testimony of Justin Martyr , though I have appealed to him , in p . 46 of the Plea for Infant Baptism .
The passage is found in Justin ' s Apol . p . 22 , Edit . Thirlby , viz . " Many men and many women , who are now sixty or seventy years of age , and who , from their childhood , were discipled to to Christ ( of sk itouSwv s [ xocQyjrsv 9 yjcray
? w X f < rcp , the very word used iii Matthew ) , continue uncorrupted . " The children who were thus disci pled , were , no doubt , baptized ; but whether they were the children of baptized persons or of proselytes , does not appear . If of the former , it
would carry the practice of Infant Baptism very far back indeed into the apostolic age , viz . to A . D , 70 or # 0 but at any rate , it is conclusive against the necessity of deferring baptism , to adult age ; and to those who deny proselyte baptism , it must be decisive in favour of baptizing the children of baptized Christians .
Some have conceived that the practice of Infant Baptism was only beginning to be introduced in the time of Tertullian ; but will any one who
* The inisataleinent and gross mistranslation of what Tertullian wrote upon the subject of baptism , can only be accounted for by the hurry in which Mr , Robinson wrote , and must hare been corrected , had he lived lo revise his work . Thus he
translates Norint petere salutemy &c . a They just know how to ask for salvation , " fee . wherea * the advice of TertuUiftfti is , " X # t them know how , " that » , let them wait till they do know How to «* fc forftUvatidn , Ice *
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$ 4 & Mr . Belsham on the Argument for Infant Baptism
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1818, page 242, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2475/page/18/
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