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6 § 6 ©» Mr . JBehham ' s Censure of Mr . Robinson *
taught by your good works ( fAaO ^ rev-6 *) voci ) . ibid . c . 10 . See also Ep . ad Romanos , c . 3 . So again , as to Stephanas ' s houseliold , if the circumstances of their administration in the church , and
other particulars mentioned in the apostolical writings , did not limit them to adults , 1 should think the following passages would explain the phrase : as , where Ignatius , using a similar phrase , yet meaning to include children , expressly mentions them : thus
in the Epistle to Polycarp , " I greet the wife of Epitropus with her whole household , and her children . " A nd Tertullian , where he is speaking only of adults , introducing the case of Stephanas ' s household , asks , why did he ( St . Paul ) baptize ( tinxit ) Gaius , Crispus , and Stephanas ' s household ? *
In such places , the words jwa ^ Tv ^ and ( AocO' / jreva , suppose such a condition ¦ of persons as were made disciples by instruction , or capable of being so , or repenting and believing , &c , which , of course , cannot include infants ; and this is the sense of them in all the
earliest Christian writers , and in all the Greek classical authors . Indeed , how can persons be disciples , who are not taught , or capable of being taught ? And no such early writer ever dreamt
of making the word teach , make disciples ( jxotOYiT € v < r < xT € ) 9 synonymous with € dX 7 TTi £ eT € , including infants incapable of instruction . Indeed , very long after the period here supposed , the first catechistica ) lectures , as those of St .
Cvril , addressed to catechumens or dismf ciples , are all addressed to persons capable of instruction . ( I shall have occasion to speak of Gregory of Nazianzen in the proper place . ) And this sense of the word ^ aBfirevco , is so obvious , that even our most critical
commentators and expositors of the Church of England , —Dr . Whitby , Bishop Burnet , ( in his Exposition on the Thirty-nine Articles , ) and Dr . Hammond himself , ( in his Paraphrase and
Annotations , ) when he was , perhaps , e little off his guard , —have admitted it in its fullest , amplest sense . I beg leave to add , that Mr . Walker , too , Mr . Wall ' s predecessor in this
contro-? The learned Van Dale has fully vindicated this sense of the wor $ JBaeitfi , as used in the Hebrew Scriptures . — -Dissert . de Pctdobap ' tismo .
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versy , in a similar case , and no tess incautiously , makes this distinction , where speaking on Mark i . 4 , of John ' s baptism in the wilderness , he adds , that is , 1 st , instruct the people ; 2 d , who were to be baptized in the doctrine of repentance and remission of sins . In short , if there is any truth
in the adage , Apvei u&wj ) K $ ' fi < T € Q& o avev € i € Xov [/ , av-OavGov , He , who attempts to read without a book Into a sieve draws water fxom the brook , we may of people discipling without teaching , say ,
Avn toov yGYjvoov tc ^ rat ; nova € goroi , Men now are taught , and in the parents * place , To look with rev ' rence at the conj ' riog " race . Mr . Wall , i » his History of Infant
Baptism , has lavished much Christian ink iu a most unfortunate critique on this word , fj , oc , 9 v ) T € va . Again , the word € ona"ri £ a with otheip words synonymous with it in the New
Testament , does , in my humbleopinion , in regard to believers baptized , invariably relate to an entire covering of the body , and to adults j and that is the uniform meaning of the same words in the same relation , in the .
apostolical fathers , and Tertullian ' s book , De JBaptismo ; I must add , too , with leave of Mr . Walker and Mr * Wall , of Justin Martyr . In goingover the different ancient writers *
sense of fea-sTr ^ w , * the former quite omits the Patres Apostolici , which was prudent ; for they certainly are directly and strongly against his explication of Justin Martyr , as , indeed , Justin Martyr himself is , according to the latter ' s own representations , as
could be most easily shewn - for the exposition of the Magdeburgh Centuriators , ( 2 d Collect . 110 , L . 48 , ) though condemned by Mr . Walker , is confir med by the whole tenor of Justin Martyr ' s Apologies . Atq . ita ( this is
their exposition ) hoc lavacro mersdfti lustrantur ; that is , and so being immersed in this laver , they are cleansed : and if Mr . Walker ' s application of Tertullian ' s liantization , ( Mr . W / s own word , ) in his book , JJe Pmnitentia , # Bonznri < rfi < ijy A * Sa % > j , by Wai ? Walker , B . J > , 167 SL , Ch . x ^
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1818, page 690, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2482/page/26/
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