Baptism that now, being born, he may receive the Spirit, as the same took place in the first man Adam; for God first formed him, and then breathed into his face the breath of life.

In Latin:

Baptisma enim esse in quo homo vetus moritur et novus nascitur, manifestat et probat beatus apostolus dicens: "Servavit nos per lavacrum regenerationis. ...Porro autem non per manus impositionem quis nascitur, quando accipit Spiritum Sanctum, sed in Ecclesiæ baptismo, ut Spiritum Sanctum jam natus accipiat, sicut in primo homine Adam factum est. Ante enim Deus eum plasmavit, et tunc insufflavit in faciem ejus flatum vitæ. EPIST. LXXIV.

Faber also quotes Cyprian, Book II, Chap. ix, p. 193,-on the doctrine of the early Fathers touching the possibility of a reception of moral Regeneration, either before Baptism or in some cases without Baptism as follows: (page 198.)

Such Catechumens, as died without Baptism, held the sound faith and unity of the Church: and, to assail the Devil, they advanced from the Divine camp with a full and sincere knowledge of God the Father, and Christ, and the Holy Ghost. Nor, in truth, were they deprived of the Sacrament of Baptism, since they were baptized with the most glorious and the most exalted Baptism of blood, concerning which even our Lord himself said, that he had another Baptism wherewithal to be baptized. But that those who are baptized in their own blood, and are sanctified by their own sufferings, are completed, and obtain the grace of the divine promise; the same

Lord declares in his Gospel, when he addresses the thief believing and confessing in the very agony of suffering, and when he promises that he should be with him in Paradise.

In Latin, as follows:

...Sciant Catechumenos illos primo integram fidem et ecclesiæ veritatem tenere et ad debellandum Diabolum de divinis castris cum plena et sincera Dei Patris et Christi et Spiritus Sancti cognitione procedere; deinde nec privari baptismi sacramento, utpote qui baptizentur gloriosissimo et maximo sanguinis baptismo, de quo et Dominus dicebat habere se aliud baptisma baptizari. Sanguine autem suo baptizatos et passione sanctificatos consummari et divinæ pollicitationis gratiam consequi declarat in evangelio idem Dominus, quando ad latronem in ipsa passione credentem et confitentem loquitur, et, quod secum futurus sit in Paradiso, pollicetur.

Faber also quotes Cyprian, Book III, Chap. i,-page 238, on the antiquity of Infant Baptism-as follows:

If any thing could impede men in the attainment of grace sins of a grievous description might impede the adult and the aged. If, then, the remission of sins be granted, upon their subsequent belief, even to the most grievous offenders; and if no one be prohibited from Baptism and Grace; how much less ought an infant to be prohibited, who, having been but recently born, has not sinned, except only so far as he has contracted the contagion of primeval death from his first nativity, being carnally born, according to the image of Adam.

The Latin of which is a paraphrase rather than a translation:

Cæterum si homines impedire aliquid ad consequutionem gratiæ posset, magis adultos et provectos et majores natu possent impedire peccata graviora. Porro autem si etiam gravissimis delictoribus, et in Deum multum ante peccatorum datur, et a baptismo atque a gratia nemo prohibetur, quanto magis prohiberi non debet infans, qui recens natus nihil peccavit, nisi quod secundum Adam carnaliter natus contagium mortis antiquæ prima nativitate contraxit, qui ad remissam peccatorum accipiendam hoc ipso facilius accedit quod illi remittuntur, non propria, sed aliena peccata. Et idcirco, frater carissime, hæc fuit in concilio nostra sententia, a baptismo atque a gratia Dei, qui omnibus misericors et benignus et pius est, neminem per nos debere prohiberi. Quod quum circa universos observandum sit atque retinendum, tum magis circa infantes ipsos et recens natos observandum putamus, qui hoc ipso de ope nostra ac de divina misericordia plus merentur, quod in primo statim nativitatis suæ ortu plorantes ac flentes nihil aliud faciunt quam deprecantur. Ep. 64-59.

The Oxford Tract, No 67, in page 72, of the third edition, quotes Cyprian,

that we, who have been sanctified in Baptism, may persevere therein. &c.

The Tract quotes St Cyprian again at pages 316 and 381.
At page 316, thus ;

Is any perplexed that some baptized are still assaulted by unclean spirits? Let him know that the Devil has power up to the saving water, but in

baptism it loses all its venomous influence. A type whereof we see in king Pharaoh, who could resist until he came to the water: having come thither, he was conquered.

In Latin:

Quod si aliquis in illo movetur, quod quidam de iis, qui ægri baptizantur, spiritibus adhuc immundis tentantur, sciat diaboli nequitiam pertinacem usque ad aquam salutarem valere, in baptismo vero omne nequitiæ suæ virus amittere. Quod exemplum cernimus in rege Pharaone, qui diu reluctatus et in sua perfidia demoratus, tamdiu resistere potuit et prævalere donec ad aquam veniret; quo quum venisset, et victus est et extinctus. EP. 69-76.

In page 381 thus:

For by Baptism the Holy Spirit is received.

There are many editions of the works of this Father of the Church the best are those of Fell, Oxford, folio, 1682-the Benedictine edition, Paris, folio, 1600-and that of Oberthur, Wirceburgi, 8vo, 1780.

Booth, in his Pædobaptism examined, [2 vols 8vo, London, 1787, second edition] says:

Cyprian everywhere inculcates that Baptism is connected with the remission of antecedent sins and confers a power on the person baptized.

XXIX.

THEOGNOSTUS OF ALEXANDRIA.

DUPIN gives only half a page about this writer, and says that he is cited with recommendation by St Athanasius, who tells us that Origen and Theognostus have written that

the sin against the Holy Ghost was the falling away after Baptism;

that Theognostus says that

Baptism makes us partakers of the Holy Ghost.

CLARKE says that some fragments only of his works remain. CAVE'S "Chartophylax Ecclesiasticus" has the following account of him :

Theognostus Alexandrinus, sacrorum librorum interpres apud Photium,Cod. 105, ȧvýp Xóyios Athanasio, claruisse videtur circa an. 270. De ejus Hypotyposeon libris vii, vide sis Phot. loc. cit. Extant fragmenta apud Athan. ubi sup. et Homil. in illud, "Quicunque dixerit verbum, &c." ubi @avpáσtos Kai σπovdaîos vocatur.

Theognostus is not named in the common biographical dictionaries. His fragments occur only in the third volume of Gallaudii Bibliotheca Patrum.