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    for having nothing to do in our first birth , but being begotten by necessity , or without our own consent , to , the end therefore we might continue no longer the children of necessity and ignorance , but offreedornr and knowledge , mid obtain remission of our past siqs by virtue of this water ; the penitent now makes this second birth an act of liis own choice "

    As this passage is at variance with that necessity and ignorance which appertains to the baptism of infants and " < bond servants , " the advocates of this practice have adjudged it wholly to the favoured class of proselytes . But Justin himself makes no such

    distinction ; his terms are " general , or rather universal / 1 As many as are persuaded and believe , &c , He does not confine it to proselytes from Judaism , &c . with their children and slaves . No : nothing of this kind entered his thoughts ; the

    reason which he assigns for baptism is totally inconsistent with it , " that we might be no longer the children of necessity" &C- . That this is a reason applicable alike to all who are born aftd are called to be Christians , is too

    palpable upon the face of it to be rendered more apparent . In the view of this writer , baptism is the result of knowledge and choice , as opposed to necessity and ignorance ; none were

    baptized till they were persuaded and believed that the things taught by Christians were true , and resolved to live accordingly . It is , therefore , manifest , that neither Justin , nor any of the churches in whose name he

    ^ vrote , knew any thing of a baptism or second birth , as be terms it , which was the result of no knowledge , nor belief , nor Christian resolution . Such a practice must have beep totally inimical to the rational and liberal ideas

    ivhich he entertained of " the reason " ox % which baptism was founded , as they * ' had" received " it" from , the apostles . Ignatius , in his epistle to the church of Smyrna , has these words , fi Let none of yon be found a deserter ; but let your baptism , remain as your arms . " What propriety would there have

    been in this exhortation , if they had not all volunteered as Christians by baptism ? If the members had every one of them joined the Christian standard , as the result of his oivn deliberate choice , with the greatest reason might he be culled upou not to desert

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    it in a time of peril ; but , if the reverse was true , with regard to many , the exhortation , as it respected them , would have been without reason , and probably without effect . Upon the whole , as there not only appear no traces of , the baptism of

    any except voluntary professors of Christianity from the time of Christ down to that of Irenaeus at least , if not to that of Tertullian ; but as it seems utterly opposed to the very design for which baptism was instituted , and to all that can be learnt , either from

    the New ^" Testament or the earliest Christian writers , from the apostolic age to that of Justin Martyr 5 , and as what we read appears quite sufficient to establish the origin of the opposite practice from Christ- himself .

    as the express institutor , and its general , if qot universal , prevalence in those truly primitive ages $ as Tertullian himself is in the main a warm and able advocate for it in its application to the offspring of Christians , the

    point appears to me to be sufficiently established . There cannot surely be any necessity for giving much attention to Origen ' s tradition concerningits use as a remedy for original sin , no ?

    to Austin ' s , Jerome * s , or even Pelagius * $ confident testimonies in the beginning of the fifth century . Superstition had begun to attend the ceremony whex * Justin wrote , since he talks of its

    illuminating and regenerating influences it had made greater advances in the time of Tertullian , and probably of Irenaens , since when the former wrote * it had begun to be applied to objects wanting * Christian qualifications , oij . the responsibility { dangerous as it was

    justly considered ) of others : in the time of Origen its strides were evidently yet greater , original sin , with which Tertullian was unacquainted , having then been discovered . Tradition now began to supply the place of Scripture , and superstition to overr

    rule the plainest dictates of reason . But though with » uch advantages , i ? had , about fifty years lat ^ r , made such rapid progress in Africa * and particu ~ larly at Carthage * where we fir ^ t

    obtain any distinct intelligence of it , that M council of . sixty-six pious and orthodox prelate ;* " decided in favour of baptizing infants within a few days at feo $ f of the birth ; yet , above a hundred leaner stilf to the ages of general c # r *

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    Mr . Pines Examination of 31 >\ Q Behhani $ Arguments for Infant Baptism . 4 ?

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    VQL- Xllf . 3 S

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1818, page 497, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2479/page/25/