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CHAPTER IX.

BAPTISM-THE HOLY SUPPER-AND CHRISTIAN

FELLOWSHIP.

IN the first age of the church, only adults who entered it consciously and voluntarily, were baptized. But after the first foundation of the church had been laid, and Christian domestic life had been formed, infant baptism was introduced, from a development of the Christian consciousness corresponding to the idea of baptism and of the church. Whoever was born in a Christian family, it was necessarily presupposed that he did not become acquainted with Christianity from the midst of heathenism; that he did not first develop himself from the stand-point of the natural man, and then make his way into a new life, through regeneration, but from the beginning the sanctifying influence of Christian communion must have been shed on the first development of the life of the soul, surrounded as it was with a Christian atmosphere. From the first it must have been trained into communion with Christ-dedicated to him-led to his redeeming grace. Regeneration must have taken place not suddenly, but gradually, allying itself to the first movements of advancing rational life. Thus Irenæus founded infant baptism on the fact that Christ became a child to children, and had sanctified human nature from the first germs of its development.

But in the centuries of which we are now speaking, many things, especially in the Oriental church, opposed the introduction of infant baptism. There were many persons who for a long time had lived thoughtlessly in a middle position between heathenism and Christianity, who remained in the class of catechumens, and could not be induced to receive baptism, except by some alarming event in the course of their lives. Many acted thus, that meanwhile they might more freely indulge their lusts, in the false confidence of which we have already spoken, that if they received baptism on the

THE ORIGIN OF INFANT BAPTISM

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near approach of death, however faulty their lives haa been up to that time, they would at once be purified, and enter into eternal life. It is evident that in such cases the delay of baptism arose from a preponderance of the heathenish element, and from a defect in Christian domestic life, upon which it must have injuriously reacted.

But many pious parents, owing to a misapprehension, were afraid to trust what was of the highest value, and which might so easily be lost, to the weakness of the child, who had to pass through a development as yet uncertain. Gregory Nazianzen, in an exhortation on infant baptism, says: "Thou hast a child. Let not evil gain any time. From the beginning let it be sanctified; let it be dedicated to the Holy Spirit. Thou art afraid of the seal of baptism on account of the weakness of nature, like a narrow-hearted, distrustful mother. Hannah vowed to devote her son to God, even before he was born; she treated him as a priest, and brought him up in a priestly dress, because she was not afraid of what was human, but trusted in God." In the church of Antioch a prayer was offered up for the catechumens who had been prepared for baptism, which was designed to arouse them to a consciousness of what was essentially necessary for them, and to excite a longing after the divine light, without which they could understand nothing of divine truth. The prayer was to this effect: that "the all-merciful God would hear their prayers; that he would open the eyes of their hearts; that they might understand what no eye had seen, and no ear had heard; that he would instruct them in the words of truth; that he would sow the fear of God in their hearts, and confirm their souls in the truth of his word; that he would reveal to them the gospel of righteousness; that he would grant them a godly disposition, a sound understanding, and a virtuous course of life; so that at all times they might think and act according to God's will-might dwell day and night in the law of God; that he would redeem them from every kind of evil, from all devilish sins, and all temptations of the Wicked One; that he would grant them, at the right time, regeneration, the forgiveness of sins, the garment of a divine life raised above all death; that he would bless their going out and coming in, their families, their domestics; that he would increase their children, biess them, lead them to maturity, and make them

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wise; that he would cause everything that awaited them to be for their good.' While this prayer was offered, the catechumens knelt down; they were then called to stand up, and to pray themselves "for the angel of peace: peace for everything that might await them; peace for the present day, and peace for all the days of their lives, and for a Christian end." The injunction ended with, Commend yourselves to the living God, and to his Christ."*

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As the regeneration symbolically represented and mediated by baptism, the being born of the Spirit, without which no one born of flesh can enter the kingdom of heaven, must be distinguished from it; so must the spiritual participation of the Holy Supper be distinguished from its bodily participation, in reference to the former of which Christ calls himself the bread that came down from heaven-the bread of life—and says in the same connection: As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This spiritual participation, which is confined to no special time, but pervades the whole life of a Christian, must be continually renewed, as the Christian is always impelled to turn afresh from himself to his Redeemer, and to seek his life in him. Of such a spiritual participation of the Supper, Augustin says: "The first resurrection is that which takes place in the inner man during the present life, in which he believes, and passes from death unto life. That bread of the inner man presupposes hunger. Hence Christ says: 'Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.' But the Apostle Paul says, that Christ is made unto us righteousness.' (1 Cor. i. 30.) Whoever, therefore, hungers after this bread, he hungers after righteousness, but after that righteousness which comes down from heaven-the righteousness which God gives, not that which he makes himself. To believe in him is to eat the living bread. Whoever believes, eats; he is satisfied in an invisible manner, because he is regenerated in an invisible manner; he is renewed inwardly; where he is renewed, there he is satisfied. Give me a man who feels this longing and hunger, a wanderer in this desert, who thirsts and who sighs after the

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*Neander's General History, vol. iii. p. 456. Edition. TR.]

Standard Library

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fountain of his eternal fatherland. Give me such a man, and he will understand my meaning. But if I speak to one who is cold and indifferent, he understands not what I say. Christ says (John vi. 47): He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.' He meant to reveal what he was; for he could in a word say: 'Whoever believeth hath me;' for Christ himself is the true God and eternal life. Whoever believes in me, he therefore said, passes into me; and whoever passes into me, has me. But what is it to have me? It is, to have eternal life. Whoever wishes to live, knows where he can find life; whence he can draw life. He comes, he believes, he is incorporated with Christ; he is made alive. But he who belongs to the body of Christ, lives by the Spirit of Christ." enlightened Christians must agree in this, that the outward participation of the Holy Supper can be of no advantage without that internal spiritual participation. On the words, This is the bread that cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die," Augustin says: "This is applicable to the inward power and meaning of the sacrament, not to the outward visible signs. It is to be applied to that which is internal, not to that which is merely external; to that which is enjoyed with the heart, not to that which is enjoyed merely with the mouth."

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All

Though in reference to the necessity of that continued spiritual communion no controversy could arise among genuine Christians; yet, on the other hand, opinions differed respecting the greater or less frequency of the outward participation of the Holy Supper. Some thought that as the Christian must live in daily fellowship with the Redeemer, he required all daily outward fellowship with him by means of the communion, and that he must attain the former through the latter. Others thought that the Christian ought to venture only after special preparation, a collectedness of mind before God, and examination of his life and faith (which, indeed, if every thing were as it should be, must be daily continued through the whole of life), and (since amidst the business of the world he could not partake of it daily), at special times to partake of the communion. The first view prevailed in the Oriental church, the second in the Western, Augustin thus gives his opinion on this difference: Perhaps those persons decided the controversy most correctly who

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advised, that before all things they should cultivate Christian union; that every one should do that which, according to his belief, and with a devout mind, he considered ought to be done. For neither of the two parties were wanting in reverence towards the body and blood of the Lord; on the contrary, they vied with each other how they might show him the greatest reverence. For Zaccheus and the Centurion did not quarrel with one another, and neither of them preferred himself to the other, though the one joyfully received the Lord into his house, and the other said: Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof.' Both honoured the Saviour, though in different and almost opposite ways. Both were unhappy in their sins, and both obtained mercy."

Meanwhile, even many in the Oriental church came but seldom, perhaps only once a year, at one of the principal festivals, to the communion, not from a conscientious reverence for the body of the Lord, nor bowed down by a sense of their own unworthiness, but from indifference to sacred things, and to the state of their own souls; those nominal Christians of whom we have spoken. And when such persons came only once a year at Easter to the communion, they were not better prepared, or believed that they were sufficiently prepared, by a stricter manner of living during the fast; without coming with those sincere feelings of repentance, and of renewed cordial surrender to Him with whom they were to unite themselves more closely by the communion. Had they made such a preparation, the blessed effects of the holy ordinance would have been manifested in their subsequent life, from what actually happened. Chrysostom says:*Many partook of the Holy Supper only once a year, sometimes twice; others more frequently. I speak to all, not only to those who are here, but to those who dwell in deserts (the hermits); for these take the Supper only once a year, and often only twice in two years. How now? Which among all shall we allow

* Τί οὖν; τίνας ἀποδεξόμεθα; τοὺς ἅπαξ (τῆς θυσίας μεταλαμβάνοντας τοῦ παντὸς ἐνιαυτοῦ); τοὺς πολλάκις; τοὺς ὀλιγάκις; Οὔτε τοὺς ἅπαξ, οὔτε τοὺς πολλάκις, οὔτε τοὺς ὀλιγάκις, ἀλλὰ τοὺς μετά καθαρᾶς καρδίας, τους μετὰ βιου ἀλήπτου. Οἱ τοιοῦτοι ἀεὶ προσίτωσαν. Οἱ δὲ μὴ τοιοῦτοι, μηδέ ἅπαξ. Τί δήποτε; Ότι κρίμα ἑαυτοῖς λαμ. Pávovo Chrysost. in Hebr. 17, § 4.

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