lows, my fense would clearly appear; "fuch as not only believed with the "heart, but had made a profeffion of their faith, and were followers of Chrift:" nor is the sense of the word difciple, as including the idea of baptifm, confirmed by Acts xiv. 21. where it is faid, when they had preached the gospel to that city, και μαθήτευσαν της, "and taught many, or made them difciples;" which may be interpreted without tautology, and yet not include the idea of baptifm; fince the firft word, preached, expreffes the bare external miniftry of the word; and the latter, taught, or made difciples, the influence and effect of it upon the minds of men; the former may be where the latter is not; and both, where baptifm is not as yet administered. The reason why ex radar, must be rendered in, and not from their childhood, because the baptism of any perfons being not a continued, hut one fingle tranfient act, to speak of their being baptized from their childhood would be improper, is merry indeed; when Julin is not fpeaking of the baptifm of any person at all; but of their being trained up in the knowledge of Chrift, and the chriftian religion from their childhood, in which they had perfevered to the years mentioned. Upon the whole, in all thefe paffages of Justin quoted, there is no express mention of infant-baptifm, nor any hint given of it, nor any reference unto it. Proceed we now to the next writer in this century, brought into this controversy :

Ireneus; who lived towards the clofe of it, and wrote about the year 180; the only paffage in him, and which has been the subject of debate a hundred years paft, is this; fpeaking of Chrift, he fays', "he came to fave all, all I "fay, qui per eum renafcuntur in Deum, "who by him are born again unto God;" "infants, and little ones, and children, and young men, and old men." Now not to infist upon the works of Irenæus we have being moftly a translation, and a very poor one, complained of by learned men; nor upon this chapter wherein this paffage is, being reckoned fpurious by others; which weaken the force of this teftimony, and will have their weight with confidering perfons; I shall only take notice of the sense of the phrase, born again unto God; and the injury done to the character of Irenæus, to make it fignify baptifm, or any thing else but the grace of regeneration. Our author begins his defence of this paffage in favour of infant-baptifm, with a remark of the learned Feuardentius, as he calls him; "that by the name of regeneration, according to the phrafe of Christ and "his apostles, he (Irenæus) understands baptifm, clearly confirming the apof“tolical tradition concerning the baptifm of infants." As for the learning of this monk, I cannot difcern it, unless his lies and impudence against the reformers, which run through his notes, are to be fo called. Whether our author is a junior or senior man, I know not; by his writing he feems to be the former, but

1 Adv. Hæref, 1. 2. c. 39.

but the advice of Rivet, who was without doubt a man of learning, is good; "only, fays he, I would have the younger, that shall light on the works of "Irenæus advised, to beware of thofe editions, which that most impudent monk "Feuardentius, a man of large affurance, and uncommon boldness, and of no "faith nor faithfulness, has in many things foully corrupted and defiled with "impious and lying annotations :" and a false glofs this of his is, which is quoted; for Christ and his apoftles no where call baptifm by the name of the new birth. I have observed, that as yet, that is, in Ireneus's time, it had not obtained among the ancients, to use the words regenerated or regeneration for baptized or baptifm; nor is this author able to prove it. The paffage in Juftin before-mentioned falls fhort of it, as has been fhewn; and the paffages in Tertullian and Clemens of Alexandria, concerning being born in water, and begotten of the womb of water, are too late; and befide, the one is to be interpreted of the grace of God compared to water; this is clearly Tertullian's fenfe; for he adds ", nor "are we otherwise fafe or faved, than by remaining in water;" which surely can never be understood literally of the water of baptism and as for Clemens”, he is speaking not of regeneration, but of the natural generation of man, as he comes out of his mother's womb, naked, and free from fin, as he supposes; and as fuch, converted perfons ought to be.

66

To have recourfe to heathens to afcertain the name of chriftian baptifm, is monstrous; though this, it is faid, there is no need of, "fince several chriftian writers, who lived with or before Irenæus, speak the fame language, as will "be seen hereafter :" and yet none are produced but Barnabas and Justin; the latter of which has been confidered already, and found not to the purpose; and his reafoning upon the former is beyond my comprehenfion; for whatever may be faid for the giving of milk and honey to perfons juft baptized, being a fymbol of their being born again, it can be no proof of the words regeneration and regenerated being used for baptifm and baptized; when these words neither the one nor the other are mentioned by Barnabas; so that I have no reason to retract what I have faid on that point. And now we are returned to Irenæus himfelf; and two paffages from him are produced in proof of the sense of the word contended for; and one is where he thus fpeaks ", " and again giving the power "of regeneration unto God to his difciples, he faid unto them, Go and teach all nations, baptizing them, &c." By which power or commiffion is meant, not

m

the

Juniores qui in opera Irenæi incident monitos volo, ut caveant ab illis editionibus quas impudeniffimus ille monachus Feuardentius, homo projectæ audaciæ, & nullius fidei, fæde in multis corrupit & annotationibus impiis & mendacibus confpurcavit, Rivet. Critic. Sacr. 1.2.c.6. p. 188, 189. n Nos pifciculi in aqua nafcimur. Nec aliter quam in aqua permanendo falvi fumus, Tertullian. de baptifmo, c. 1.

• Stromat 1. 4. P. 538. Ed. Paris.

Adv. Hæref. 1. 3. c. 19.

the commission of baptizing, but more plainly the commiffion of teaching the doctrine of regeneration by the Spirit of God, and the neceffity of that to falvation, and in order to baptifm; and which was the first and principal part of the apostles commiffion, as the order of the words fhew; and it is most reasonable to think, that he fhould fo call the commiffion, not from its more remote and lefs principal part, but from the first and more principal one. The other paffage is where Irenæus mentions by name "the baptifm of regeneration to God:" but this rather proves the contrary, that baptifm and regeneration are two different things, and not the fame; just as the fcriptural phrase, the baptifm of repentance, and which feems to have led the ancients to fuch a way of speaking, means fomething different from repentance, and not the fame: baptifm is fo called, because repentance is a prerequifite to it, in the subjects of it; and for the fame reason it is called the baptifm of regeneration, because regeneration is abfolutely neceffary in order to it: to all which I only add, that Irenæus not only uses the word regeneration in a different fenfe from baptifm elsewhere, but moft clearly uses it in another fenfe in this very paffage; fince he fays, Christ came to fave all who by him are born again unto God; who are regenerated by Christ, and not by baptifmn; and which is explained both before and after by his fanctifying all forts of perfons, infants, little ones, young men, and old men; which cannot be understood of his baptizing them, for he baptized none; and therefore they cannot be faid to be regenerated by him in that fenfe and I fay again, to understand Irenæus as speaking of baptifm, is to make him fpeak what is abfolutely falfe; that Chrift came to fave all and only fuch who are baptized unto God. It feems Le Clerc is of the fame fentiment with me, an author I am a stranger to; whom this writer lets pafs without any reafoning against him, only with this chaftizement; "he should have understood (being an ecclefiaftical "biftorian) the fentiments and language of the primitive fathers better;" but what their language and fentiments were, we have seen already; and let them be what they will, Irenæus must exprefs a downright falsehood, if he is to be understood in the fenfe contended for: on the one hand, it cannot be true that Chrift came to fave all that are baptized; no doubt but Judas was baptized, as well as the other apoftles, and yet it will not be faid Chrift came to fave him; Simon Magus was certainly baptized, and yet was in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity, and by all the accounts of him continued fo till death; there were many members of the church at Corinth, who doubtlefs were baptized, and yet were unworthy receivers of the Lord's fupper, and eat and drank damnation to themselves, for which reason there were many weak, fickly, and afleep'; and it is to be feared, without any breach of charity, that this has been the cafe of

Ibid. 1. 1. c. 18,

Vid. 1. 4. c. 59. and 1. 5. c. 15.

thousands I Cor. xi. 29, 30.

thousands befides: and on the other hand, it cannot be with truth fuggested, that Chrift came to fave only fuch as are baptized; he came to die for the tranfgreffions that were under the First Teftament, or to fave perfons under that difpensation, who never received Chriftian baptism; he said to one and to another, unbaptized perfons, thy fins are forgiven thee; and no doubt there are many faved, and whom Chrift came to fave, who never were baptized in water; and the Pædobaptists themselves will stand a bad chance for falvation, if this was true; for they will find it a hard task to prove that any one of them, only sprinkled in infancy, was ever truly baptized; and yet as uncharitable as we are faid to be, we have fo much charity to believe that every good man among them, though unbaptized, fhall be faved. And now fince the words of Irenæus taken in this sense contain a manifeft falfhood, and they are capable of another fense, agreeable to truth, without ftraining them; as that Chrift came to fave all that are regenerated by himself, by his fpirit and grace, we ought in a judgment of charity to believe that this latter fenfe is his, and not the former; and the rather, fince his words in their proper and literal fenfe have this meaning; and fince they are expreffed with fo much caution; left it fhould be thought it was his meaning that Chrift came to fave all men, good and bad, he describes the perfons he came to fave, not by their baptifm, which is a precarious and uncertain evidence of salvation, but by their regeneration, which is a fure proof of it; and fince this fenfe of his words is agreeable to his ufe of the phrase elsewhere, and to the context likewife, and is fuited to all forts of perfons of every age here mentioned; and indeed to depart from this clear literal sense of his words, which establishes a well-known truth, and fix a figurative, improper one upon them, which makes him to say a notorious untruth, to serve an hypothesis, is cruel usage of the good old father, and is contrary to all the rules of honour, justice, truth, and charity. To put our Lord's words in Mark xvi. 16. upon a level with the falfe fenfe of Irenæus, is mean and ftupid; they need no qualifying fenfe; the meaning is plain and eafy; that every baptized believer shall be faved, and leave no room to fuggeft that unbaptized believers shall not; but that every unbeliever, be he who he will, baptized or unbaptized, shall be damned. And now what a wretched cause must the cause of infant-baptifm be, that requires fuch managing as this to maintain it? what a wretched caufe is it, that at its first setting out, according to the account of the advocates of it; for Dr Wall fays", "this is the first exprefs mention that we have met with of infants baptized?" I say again, what a wretched cause muft this be, that is connected with lies and falfhood at its firft appearance, as pleaded for; is established upon downright injuftice to a good man's character, and supported by real injury to

66

Matt. ix. 5. Luke vii. 48.

"History of Infant-baptifm, part I. c. 3. §. 6.

it? and yet notwithstanding all this, our author has the front to fay, "fo much "then for the teftimony, the plain, unexceptionable testimony, of Irenæus, for "the practice of infant-baptifm."

And now we are come to the close of the fecond century; but before we pass to the next, we must stop a little, and confider a paffage our author, after Dr Wall, has produced out of Clemens of Alexandria, who lived at the latter end of this century, about the year 190; and it is this: fpeaking of rings worn on the fingers, and the feals upon them, advises against every thing idolatrous and be a lafcivious, and to what is innocent and useful; "let our feals, fays he ", "dove, or a fish, or a fhip running with the wind, or a mufical harp-or a "mariner's anchor and if any one is a fifherman, Arosoλ μsportal TOP “ §§ udaT© avaosperor woudiar, "let him remember the apostle, and the "children drawn out of the water." This paffage was fent by two Gentlemen from different places to Dr Wall, after he had published two editions of his hiftory; and he seems to have been afhamed of himself for not having obferved it, and fancies that this refers to the baptizing of a child, and the taking, drawing, and lifting it out of the water. Now, though I do not pretend to fupport my conjecture by any manufcript or printed copy, nor do I think it worth while to fearch and inquire after it, whether there is any various reading or no, but fhall leave it to others who have more leifure and opportunity; yet I perfuade myself my conjecture will not be condemned as a groundless one by any man of sense and learning, especially out of this controversy: my conjecture then is, that it fhould be read not radar, "children," but xuw,

fifhes;" for who ever heard of a draught of children; when a draught of fishes is common? and why should a fisherman, more than any other, remember an apostle and a draught of children? furely a draught of fishes is more proper to him: the words I think therefore fhould be read, "let him remember the "apostle, and the fishes drawn out of the water;" and the fenfe is, let him. remember the apostle Peter, and the draught of fishes taken by him, recorded either in Luke v. 6, 9. or in John xxi. 6, 8, 11. for the words manifeftly refer to fome particular and remarkable fact, which fhould be called to mind, and not to a thing that was done every day; which must be the cafe, if infantbaptifm now obtained: befides, the word ufed cannot with any decency and propriety be applied to the baptizing of a child; a wide difference there is in the expreffion, between taking and lifting a child out of the font, and a drawing or dragging it out of the water; the word is expreffive of strength and force neceffary to an action, and well agrees with the drawing or dragging of a net full of fishes. However, if this inftance is continued to be urged, I hope it VOL. II. 3 E

Pædagog. 1. 3. c. 11. p. 246, 247.

* Luke xiv. 15. Afte xi. 10.