Wesley Corpus

And that they are included, appears, (1.) Because the Apostle addresses to “every one” of them, and in “every one” children must be contained. (2.) They are expressly mentioned: “The promise is to you, and to your children.” 9. Lastly. If to baptize infants has been the general prac tice of the Christian Church in all places and in all ages, then this must have been the practice of the Apostles, and, conse quently, the mind of Christ. But to baptize infants has been the general practice of the Christian Church, in all places and in all ages. Of this we have unexceptionable witnesses: St. Austin for the Latin Church, who flourished before the year 400; and Origen for the Greek, born in the second century; both declaring, not only that the whole Church of Christ did then baptize infants, but likewise that they received this prac tice from the Apostles themselves. (August. de Genesi, l. 10, c. 23; Orig. in Rom. vi.) St. Cyprian likewise is express for it, and a whole Council with him. (Epist. 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.