Wesley Corpus

ad Fidum.) If need were, we might cite likewise Athanasius, Chrysostom, and a cloud of witnesses. Nor is there one instance to be found in all antiquity, of any orthodox Christian who denied baptism to children when brought to be baptized; nor anv one of the Fathers, or ancient writers, for the first eight hundred years at least, who held it unlawful. And that it has been the prac tice of all regular Churches ever since, is clear and manifest. Not only our own ancestors when first converted to Christianity, not only all the European Churches, but the African too and the Asiatic, even those of St. Thomas in the Indies, do, and ever did, baptize their children. The fact being thus cleared, that infant baptism has been the general practice of the Chris tian Church in all places and in all ages, that it has continued without interruption in the Church of God for above seven teen hundred years, we may safely conclude, it was handed down from the Apostles, who best knew the mind of Christ. 10.