he seems to have complained that some had resorted to that ordinance within the second or third day after the birth. The council, consisting of sixtysix bishops, unanimously determined that the mercy and grace of God are not to be denied to any one; and Cyprian, who communicates this determination, argues that "the grace which is given to those who are baptized cannot be greater or less in proportion to the age of the recipients, because the Holy Spirit is not granted according to measure (the measure of our worthiness), but according to the affection and indulgence of a father equally to all. And again, "If remission of sins is granted to the most heinous offenders when they become believers, and baptism and grace is prohibited to no one, how much more should it not be prohibited to an infant, who, being just born, has committed no sin, except that, being born after the flesh, it has contracted the contagion of death from its first birth."2 Baptism, therefore, was the second birth, and the doctrine, that grace is imparted in that ordinance to all who do not themselves hinder its reception, is explicitly stated. In a subsequent epistle to Stephen, the Bishop of Rome, he lays down this rule: "Then only can they be fully sanctified, and become the children of God when they are born of the double sacrament; since it is written that Unless a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.' " 3 1 Routh's Reliquiæ Sacræ, iii. 75. 3 Epist. lxxii. 2 Ibid. p. 76. 4. About this time, Martial became bishop of Limoges. Two epistles are ascribed to him, and, on that account, they are noticed here; but their date is extremely uncertain. The manuscript is said to have been found in a tomb in St. Peter's Church, in an almost illegible state. It is probable, therefore, that much was supplied by the transcriber, who mistook the bishop for one of the same name in the first century, and accordingly has made him speak in that character. Whatever credit may be due to these epistles, their language is in perfect accordance with the evidence already produced. The first is addressed to the people of Bourdeaux, "who were already born again in Christ, by water and the Holy Spirit';' and the second declares that, "unless a man be baptized in the name of Christ by the water of regeneration, he cannot be saved."2 Multitudes of people are said to have been brought to the fount of regeneration, and were not the less believed to have been born again, because some of them might ultimately perish. "The soul," says he, "lives again by baptism, but some perish; and those which Christ had washed with the water of sanctification, the enemy of life wins over to his own perdition, because, being backsliders from God, they involve themselves in deadly sins." 5. Gregory, called Thaumaturgus, died, according to Cave, in the year 265. Nicephorus places that event much later. In his sermon on the Bap 1 Epist. ad Burdegalenses, c. 1. Biblioth. Patr. tom. ii. 108. tism of Christ, he says, "Let us contemplate the image of our own regeneration, which is shadowed out in those waters; and he seems to have considered the baptism, by which we are admitted into the Church, to be compounded of the three particulars mentioned in the Gospel-water, the Holy Ghost, and fire; the office of the water being to wash away the corruption of sin; of the Holy Ghost, to make us spiritual instead of earthly; of fire, spiritual fire, to burn up the briars of wickedness.' All these effects, therefore, though distributed to their several agents, were combined in baptism as a whole. Neither was Gregory insensible to the importance of the Deluge, as a type of baptism and regeneration; for he observes, that "the Father, by sending the Holy Ghost in the form of a Dove, pointed out the new Noah - Noah, the author of a new world, and a good pilot of nature in peril of shipwreck." Whatever may be the inaccuracy of the similitude, which I am not at all bound to defend, it is plain that the regeneration of nature by the Deluge was transferred in this author's imagination to the regeneration of Christians by baptism. 6. Methodius fills up the remainder of this century. He maintains, by a somewhat whimsical line of argument, the undoubted truth, that every one who is born again becomes a member of Christ. Upon the principle that the second creation must correspond to the first, he contends that as Eve was 1 Greg. Sermo de Christi Baptismo. Bib. Pat. tom. iii. p. 315. 2 Ibid. taken out of the side of the first Adam, so the Church, being the spouse of the second Adam, must be taken out of the side of Christ; for "the Church," says he, "cannot as a mother conceive believers, and regenerate them by the laver of regeneration, unless Christ adhering to his spouse had allowed them to be formed out of his side; for the rib is his Spirit, by partaking of which they are regenerated to incorruption." In perfect conformity "In with the same rule of belief he holds that St. Paul was renewed through baptism; which in that case must mean regeneration; for though a man may be and must be renewed frequently after baptism, yet renovation through baptism must mean something more than an outward sign, or a seal of foregone blessings. 1 Method. Convivium Virginum. Orat. iii. Bib. Pat. tom. iii. p. 682. 600 CHAP. XXIX. TESTIMONIES FROM THE FOURTH CENTURY, AND CONCLUSION. In the fourth century, the number of writers increases so much, together with their distance from the Apostolic age, that short extracts from the works of each will suffice, except that at the close of that period, the opinions of the two Fathers, who have exercised the greatest influence upon the Christian Church, Jerome and Augustine, will require a more attentive consideration. 1. Then Lactantius wrote under the Emperor Diocletian about the year 303. His works are more philosophical than theological; but in discussing the nature of man, he observes, that "he is born mortal, but afterwards becomes immortal; which happens, when any one being purified by the heavenly washing, puts off his infancy with every stain of his preceding life, and by receiving increase of divine strength becomes a full and perfect man." The two states of life, through which every Christian passes, are here distinctly marked- the one into which he is born, polluted, and under sentence of death; the other into which he is born again, by the washing of regeneration, purified and admitted into the hope of immortality. 2. Eusebius, the historian, was bishop of Cæsarea, twelve years afterwards. He, after reciting the 1 Lactant. Instit. Divin. lib. vii. c. 5. |