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at Carthage , and the pre-requisites , which , Tertullian says , the Carthagenian Church demanded , were impossible to infants . '' He describes baptism " as it was practised at Carthage ; but it is the baptism of adults by trine immersion , " p . 177 . This is strictly true : though , therefore , Tertullian does not address the Church at
Carthage , yet he speaks in its name and under its authority . He was a lawyer by profession , but he was an elder of the church ; and he repeatedly speaks as delivering the opinion and practice of the aggregate body of the
Orthodox , Catholic Trinitarian Church at Carthage , " He ( Tertullian ) adds , that the baptism of children was not only unsupported by Scripture , but it was contrary to the reasonable customs of the church and the world / ' These
are Mr . Robinson ' s words . And again , " This ( Tertullian ) is the first writer who mentions the baptism of children , and he dissuades from it ; but the question is , whether he means natural children or infants in law . " I think
it certain , that he means the latter ; and that Tertullian himself , and his Church at Carthage , opposed Infant Baptism as a regular practice , and in the ordinary acceptation of the word .
So that opposition to Infant Baptism * according to Mr . R e commenced with the very introduction of Infant JBap ^ tism , and continued in its earliest age , long before the practice of sprinkling new-born babes was even heard of .
To proceed ; it i& well known that , in a period a little later , many Christians rebaptized those whom they received to their communion . Of this nqmber was Donatus , and his followers were numerous ; and many of those who rebaptized adults , opposed
Infant Baptism . Whether Mr . Robinson means that the Donatists generally opposed Infant Baptism , I will not say ; but these are his words , p . 215 : " With this view they admitted none to baptism without a personal profession of faith and holiness , and them they baptized , or , if they had
belonged to the great party , they rebaptized . " These were of the same doctrinal faitjh vvith the Catholic party , Trinitarians ; but it is certain , that when speaking pf the Eunomiaa * , wfro were Unitarians , and who also reb ^ ptized those who came to them from other ( Trinitarian ) churches . M r .
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Robinson says , " they rejected Infant Baptism . ' He calls them , therefore , ' * Unitarian Anabaptists , " he adds , " literally so , for there was no sprinkling then . " He speaks of the Manicbseans again and again as opposing and rejecting Infant Baptism . They abounded all over the East . These were the
followers of Manes , a Persian physician . " What is certain of Manes , " said Robinson , " is , that he professed and taught the Christian religion , and had a great multitude of followers in the third and succeeding centuries , called after him Manichseans . " In a
subsequent period , " theManichseans spread themselves , and formed churches in Italy , Armenia and Bulgaria . " Amidst other particulars of this virtuous and numerous / people , ( for such they appear to have been , ) he observes , " that one of the most learned antiquaries
hath produced manuscripts , which prove they denied the baptism of infants ' > and others who bad been intimate with them , describe their manner of baptizing adults as that of the Bogomilans and others is described in the Greek Church . u Manichaeans
in England , " he adds , u would be called Unitarian Baptists ; for Dr . Mosheim hath proved they did baptize adults , and that they did not baptize any but such as desired it . " Elsewhere lie refers to Mosheim again , and produces his words at large .
History of Baptism , p . 496 . A branch of this sect , ( which appeared very early in Africa , ) as well as the Donatists , as , indeed * every one who differed from hinu were visited by Augustine with Revere persecution , confiscation , deprivation , banishment
and death . He stimulated the emperor to make violent laws against them ; remonstrated against them , if they were not put in execution ; nor would he allow the followers and bishops of
these people , who suffered death for their principles , the consolation of considering them as martyrs . Much notice , therefore , is taken of them in the writings of Augustine , and their opposition found him ample employ *
merit . Mr . R-, speaking of Augustine * * bitterness against those who rejected Infant Baptism , asks , " Had he , who pretended he had been a Mauichsean , never heard that they did not baptize
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438 On Mr * JBelsham ' s Censure of Robinson *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1818, page 438, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2478/page/30/
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