Pagi,' agree in their verdict with the ancients against the modern fiction. So that now it is agreed on all hands, that Constantine was one of those, who deferred his baptism to the time of his death: and the most probable account, that can be given of this, is the fancy which he had entertained of being baptised in Jordan, which the providence of God never suffered him to put in execution. Another sort of fanciful men would not be baptised, till they could have one to minister baptism to them, who had some extraordinary qualifications. Gregory Nazianzen takes notice of some such as these, and rebukes them after this manner: "say not thou, a bishop shall baptise me, and that a metropolitan, and also one of Jerusalem: for grace is not the gift of the place, but of the spirit: say not, I will be baptised by one that is of noble birth, and that it will be a reproach to thy noble descent to be baptised by any other: say not, if I am baptised by a Presbyter, it shall be one that is unmarried, and one that is of the continent and angelic order, as if thy baptism were defiled by any other: make not thyself judge of the fitness or qualification of the preacher or baptiser, for there is another that judgeth of these things. Every one is qualified to thee for thy purgation, provided only he be one of those, that are allowed and not condemned, nor a foreigner, nor an an enemy the church. Judge not thy judges, thou that hast need of healing. Tell me not of the dignity of thy purgators; make no difference among thy spiritual fathers; one may be better or more humble than another, but each of them is in an higher rank than thou." By all this it appears, that a superstitious distinction of times, and places, and persons, had an influence upon some, and was pleaded as a reason for deferring baptism.

SECT. 6.-5. A Pretence to follow the Example of Christ.

Others pleaded for deferring their baptism, till they were thirty years old, from the example of Christ, because he was of that age when he was baptised.

Pagi. Critic. in Baron. an. cccxxiv. n. iv. Bapt. p. 656.

Which pretence

Naz. Orat. xl. de

of

is copiously refuted by Gregory Nazianzen,' shewing in answer to it, that Christ, as God, was purity itself, and had no need of purgation, but what he did in that kind, was only for the sake of men; that there was no danger could befall him by delaying or protracting his baptism; that there were particular reasons for his doing so, which did not belong to other men; and that he did many things which we are not concerned to follow his example in; for all his actions were not designed to be copies and examples for our imitation.

He, that would see more of these pleas, may consult the discourses of St. Basil, Nazianzen, and Nyssen upon this subject; or Mr. Walker's Treatise of Infant-Baptism, in the preface to which he enumerates no less than nineteen such causes as these, which were the pretended occasions of men's deferring their baptism. Those, I have already mentioned, are sufficient to our present purpose, to shew, that when men made great delays in this matter, they commonly did it against the rules and orders of the church, and that the ancients with great severity and sharpness always declaimed and inveighed against it as a dangerous and unchristian practice. Therefore, though there may be some particular instances of persons, who thus carelessly and wilfully, through ignorance or false conceits, neglected their own baptism, and perhaps the baptism of their children too; yet these men's actions are of no account to shew us what were the standing measures and methods of proceeding in the church, since they are manifest transgressions of her rule, and deviations from her ordinary practice. The church had but two reasons at any time for deferring the baptism of adult persons year after year; the one was to give sufficient time to the catechumens to prepare them for baptism, and the other to reform their miscarriages, when they happened to turn lapsers or apostates before their baptism. Both these were grounded upon one and the same principle; which was, that men were obliged to give sufficient security and satisfaction to the church, that they intended to live by the rules of the Gospel, before they were admitted to the mysteries of it:

Naz. Orat. xl. de Bapt. p. 658.

and the best security that could be given, was from the experiment and trial beforehand, and therefore this discipline was used to make them give testimony of their intentions by a reasonable prorogation of their baptism.

SECT. 7.-The solemn Times appointed for Baptism by the Church were Easter, Pentecost, and Epiphany.

Upon this account the church appointed certain stated seasons and solemn times of baptism in ordinary cases; allowing her ministers still the liberty to anticipate these times, if either catechumens were very great proficients, or in danger of death by any sudden accident or distemper. The most celebrated time among these, was Easter; and next to that, Pentecost or Whitsuntide; and Epiphany, or the day on which Christ was supposed to be baptised. These three are plainly referred to by Gregory Nazianzen,' where he brings in some giving this reason why they deferred their baptism: "one said, he staid till the Epiphany," for the Ancients mean that by pura and lumina, not Candlemas, as some mistake it, but Epiphany, the day on which Christ was baptised, and manifested to the world: "another said, he had a greater respect for Easter; and a third, that he waited till the time of Pentecost:" which plainly implies, that these three festivals were then the most noted and solemn times of baptism. But Easter and Pentecost were the chief; for they are sometimes mentioned without the other, and sometimes with an express prohibition of it. St. Jerom speaks of the two former, as usual, but says nothing of the latter. He tells us, some referred that prophecy in Zechary to baptism," "Living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; in summer and in winter shall it be." The Septuagint reads it," in the summer and in the spring." And this they applied to the two solemn times of baptism, Pentecost and Easter, one of which was in summer, and the other in the spring, when the living waters of baptism were distributed to all that thirsted after them. He mentions the same in his Epistle to Pammachius against the errors of

1 Naz. Orat. xl. de Bapt. p. 654. Μένω τὰ φῶτα, τὸ πάσχα μοι τιμιώτερον, την πεντεκοςὴν ἐκδέξομαι, &c. 2 Hieron. Com. in Zechar. xiv. 8. Aquas viventes multi ad Baptismum referunt, quæ in vere et in æstate, hoc est in Pascha et Pentecoste, sitientibus largiendæ sunt.-Chrys. Hom.xxxvi de Pentecost. T. v. p. 552. Hom. i. in Act. p. 12. Hieron. Epist. Ixi.

John of Jerusalem, where he speaks of forty, that were baptised at Bethleem upon Pentecost, and others that offered themselves at Easter, but were rejected by that humoursome bishop, when they were ready for baptism. These two, and no other, are likewise spoken of by Tertullian.' He says, "Easter was appointed as the time of Christ's sufferings, into which we are baptised. And after that, Pentecost is a very large space of time set aside for that purpose. In which time Christ manifested his resurrection to his disciples, and the grace of the Holy Spirit was first given, and the angels predicted his second advent at his ascension." Where it is very plain, that Tertullian, by the large space of Pentecost, does not mean a particular day, but the whole fifty days between Easter and Whitsuntide, which in his time was one continued festival, as he tells us in other places. And therefore though Vicecomes reprehends Ludovicus Vives for asserting this, as if he had no authority for it; yet Habertus* defends him out of this place of Tertullian; and other learned men are of the same opinion. Vicecomes thinks the time of baptising at Easter was only one day, that is, the great Sabbath, or Saturday, when our Saviour lay in the grave. But this is also a mistake: for though this day was the most famous for baptising catechumens and infants also, as we learn from Chrysostom, and the author of the Constitutions, yet the whole time of fifty days was set a part for this purpose, and accounted but as one solemn season for baptism. Which perhaps is the true reason, why some ancient canons allow no other time but that of Easter for baptism; including the whole fifty days from Easter till Pentecost, in the sense of Tertullian. Thus, in the second council of Mascon, a decree was made, that whereas many Christians, not ad Pammach. c. xvi. Circa dies Pentecostes, quadraginta diversæ ætatis et sexûs presbyteris tuis obtulimus baptizandos.-It. Præcepisti Bethleem presbyteris tuis, ne competentibus nostris in pascha baptismum traderent.

& Vice

'Tertul. de Bapt. cap. xix, Diem baptismo solenniorem Pascha præstat, cum et Passio Domini, in qua tingimur, adimpleta est.-Exinde Pentecoste ordinandis Lavacris latissimum spatium est, quo et Domini Resurrectio inter Discipulos frequentata est, et Gratia Spiritûs Sancti dedicata, &c. Vid. Tertul. de Idol. cap. xiv. et de Coron. Mil. cap. iii. com. de Ritib. Bapt. lib. i. c. xxv. observ, iv. p. 134. Chrisost. Ep. i. ad Innocent. p. 680. Conc. Matiscon, ii. can. iii. Comperimus Christianos, non observantes

Habert. Archieratic. par. viii.

5 Cave. Prim. Christ. par. i. c. xi. p. 307.

'Constit. Apost. lib. v. c. 19.

regarding the lawful time of baptism, were used to bring their children to be baptised upon any holyday or festival of a martyr, so that at Easter there were not above two or three to be baptised; they therefore enacted, that from thenceforward no one should be permitted so to do, excepting those whose children were in extremity of sickness and danger of death. A like decree was made in the council of Auxerre1 confining all children to the time of Easter, except in case of sickness, when they were allowed to have clinic baptism. And so Socrates says, it was the custom in Thessaly only to baptise at Easter. All which must either be understood to include the fifty days of Pentecost, or else it must be said, these churches had a peculiar custom differing from the rest of the world. For in other rules and canons, express mention is made of Easter and Pentecost, though other festivals are excluded. In the Council of Girone, in Spain,3 all catechumens are ordered to come only at Easter or Pentecost, because the greater the feast was, the greater ought the solemnity to be. But on all other festivals, none but sick people were to be baptised, who were not to be refused baptism at any time. Siricius, in his Epistle to Himerius, bishop of Tarraco in Spain, intimates indeed, that abundance of people presumed to take greater liberties to be baptised on the nativity of Christ, and the Epiphany, and the festivals of the

legitimum diem baptismi, pene per singulos dies ac natales martyrum filios suos baptizare, ut vix duo vel tres reperiantur in Sancto Pascha, qui per aquam et Spiritum Sanctum regenerentur: idcirco censemus, ut ex hoc tempore nullus eorum permittatur talia perpetrare, præter illos, quos infirmitas nimia aut dies eztremus compellit filios suos baptismum suscipere.

Con. Antisiodor. can. xix. Non licet absque Pascha solennitate ullo tempore baptizare, nisi illos quibns mors vicina est, quos Grabatarios dicunt, &c. 2 Socrat. lib. v. c. 22. 8 Con. Gerundens. Can. iv. De Catechumenis baptizandis id statutum est, ut in Paschæ solennitate, vel Pentecostes, quanto majoris celebritatis celebritas major est, tanto magis ad baptizandum veniant. Cæteris autem solennitatibus infirmi tantummodo debeant baptizari, quibus quocunque tempore convenit baptismum non negari. 4 Siric. Ep. ad Himer. c. 2. Sola temeritate præsumitur, ut passim ac libere Natalitiis Christi, seu Apparitionis, nec non et Apostolorum seu Martyrum Festivitatibus, innumeræ (ut asseris) plebes baptismi Mysterium consequantur; cum hoc sibi privilegium et apud nos et apud omnes Ecclesias, dominicum specialiter cum Pentcoste suâ Pascha defendat, quibus solis per annum diebus, ad fidem confluentibus generalia baptismatis tradi convenit Sacramenta, &c.