At page 237 of the same volume and in the same chapter vii, is the following paragraph: Considera etiam hic quid dicat sanctus Pater de baptismo parvulorum. Illud autem, videtur quidem, ut is manifestum facit, eum hæc et alia Sancto Timotheo tanquam interroganti scripsisse. Videbitur itaque profanis non immerito risu dignum, quod infantes docent qui necdum audire possunt; atque insuper movebit hoc eos ad nostra mysteria explodenda, quod alii pro aliis abrenuntiationes ac professiones pronuncient. Verum non oportet Hierarchas ac prudentes indignari illis qui errant, sed religiose rationem reddere, nec non addere rationes in his quasdam esse quæ nostram superent intelligentiam, quarum aliquarum notitia tamen Angelos non latet, quarundam vero etiam ipsos fugit, et soli Deo cognitæ sunt. Veruntamen, in quantum a præceptoribus nostris accepimus, qui antiqua traditione docti erant, dicimus infantes, si in lege sacra instituantur, ad sanctum animi statum esse perventuros, ita ut donum intelligant quod acceperunt. Hoc itaque illos aliquando ad perfectam ætatem ac statum perventuros, quum præceptoribus nostris in mentem venisset (ubi nota constructionem Atticam exλulòs pro genitivo Autótos) placuit admitti pueros; verumtamen sic, ut naturales eorum parentes filium fideli alicui pædagogo ac susceptori concredant, a quo in divinis instituatur. Ab hoc itaque Antistes exigit professiones: non, ut alii aiunt, alium pro alio divinis imbuens, sed promissiones hujus excipiens, tempore nimirum opportuno, parvulo huic omnem mysterii doctrinam tribuendam esse; ita ut ipse propria sua sponte rebus contrariis renuntiaturus, ac fidem professurus, atque insuper re ipsa professiones a susceptore pro se factas adimpleturus sit. Nihil itaque absurdum est, si hæc super puero peragantur, quum ducem ac sponsorem habeat, qui divinis ipsum erudiat. Puerum autem mysteriorum consortem facit, ut in iis magis educetur, neque amplius secundum carnem vitam ducat, sed divina contemplantem et in iis sub sponsoris disciplina proficiat." English translation: Consider also here what the holy father says on the baptism of children. It seems indeed, as he makes it clear to them, that he wrote these and other words to Saint Timothy as if he were questioning him .It will also seem ridiculous to profane persons, and not without reason, that they teach infants who cannot yet understand them; and this moreover will urge them on to cry out against our mysteries, that one person should take on himself to utter renunciations and promises for others. But it is not proper for hierarchs and learned men to despise those who are in error, but religiously to argue the matter with them, and to prove that there are some arguments in these things which go beyond our understanding, the knowledge of some of which is not however concealed from the angels, but of some of them they also are ignorant, and those are known to God alone. However, as far as we have heard from our preceptors, who were instructed by ancient tradition, we say that infants, if they be instructed in the sacred law, will attain a holy state of mind, so as to understand the gift they have received. When therefore it occurred to the minds of our preceptors that they would attain full age and a perfect condition (here notice the Attic construction envòs for the genitive envóтos) — they determined that boys should be admitted, on condition however that their natural parents should entrust their son to some faithful teacher and curator by whom he might be instructed in divine matters. From him then the bishop exacts the promises, not, as some say, endowing one person for another with divine matters, but receiving promises of this kind, that doubtless at a suitable time all knowledge of the mystery would be given to this child, so that he might of his own accord renounce all things contrary to holiness, profess the faith, and by his acts fulfil the promises made on his behalf by his curator. It is not therefore at all absurd if these things are done in the case of a boy, since he has a guide and sponsor to instruct him in divine learning. He also makes the boy a participator in the mysteries, that he may be better educated in them, and may no longer lead a life according to the flesh, but contemplate divine things and profit by them under the discipline of his sponsor. XIII. MINOR WRITERS OF THE FIRST CENTURY. As the valuable collections of GALLANDIUS and DELABIGNE "Bibliotheca Patrum &c.," have been mainly used as the source from which our extracts are taken, it may be useful to name here the minor Fathers and Patristical works which occur in vol. 1 of that collection. ANONYMI viri Apostolici ad Diognetum, by some named as Justin Martyr. PRESBYTERORUM et diaconorum Achaia epistola de martyrio Sancti Andreæ apostoli. TESTAMENTUM DUODECIM PATRIARCHARUM. But neither of these works has any thing on the subject of Baptism; and with those already cited, they make up all the writers or works of the first century which are in the first volume of Gallandius's Bibliotheca. This Synopsis has, also, all the writers of the first century named by DUPIN. He mentions indeed, as of the first century, (placing them between Barnabas and Hermas,) the following: |