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Preliminary Difcourfe

OF THE

Various Opinions of the Fathers concerning Re-baptization, and Invalid Baptifms: with REMARKS.

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N St. Cyprian's Days, about the middle of the third Century, arofe a great Debate in the Church concerning the Validity of Baptifm, adminifter'd by fuch as were then either Hereticks or Schifmaticks: St. Cyprian, with the reft of the Bishops of the African Churches, together with many of the Eastern Bifhops, maintain'd, "That Catholick Bi"fhops were obliged to condemn all fuch

Baptifms, and to hold them void and null, "and by confequence not ftrait to confirm, "but first to baptize all fuch, as having re"ceived no other than those False Baptifms, "in those Falfe and Antichriftian Communi86 ons, left them, and came over to the One, "True, Catholick, and only Salutary Com66 munion.

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Stephen Bishop of Rome, and his Party, maintain'd, That by the Evangelical Law

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Catholick

"Catholick Bishops were bound to ratify "Heretical and Schifmatical Baptifms, and "to hold them Good and Valid, and to ad"mit fuch as having been baptized by He"reticks or Schifmaticks, deferted them, and "came over to the True Catholick Commu"nion, without giving them Catholick Bap"tifm, or ufing any other Rite at their Re"ception, than that of Impofing the Hand "for the Collation of the Holy Ghost.

"The Stephanians mufter'd up a great ma

ny Arguments for the Validity of fuch Bap"tifms; they pleaded that Hereticks them"felves were not fo nice, as to baptize those "who came over from other Herefies to their "Communion: That all Catechumeni, who "died unbaptized, were not therefore damn

ed; much less those who had received Bap "tifm, tho' from Hereticks or Schifmaticks: "That to refuse those who were willing to "forfake Herefy or Schifm, unless they would "confent to be re-baptiz'd, was to obftruct "their coming over: That those who had been baptized by Philip in Samaria, were

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not re-baptized by the Apostles when they "came among them (Acts 8.) and that they "received Impofition of Hands only, for the "Collation of the Holy Ghoft: That tho "fome in St. Paul's Time preach'd Christ out "of Envy and Strife, i. e. from a Contentious "and Schifmatical Humour, yet he was plea"fed that Chrift was preached (Phil. 1. 15.)

"That

"That fome Schifmaticks, particularly the "Novatians, obferved the due Form, and "propofed the due Interrogatories in Bap"tifm: That the Efficacy of the Sacraments "did not depend on the Orthodoxy or the "Charity of the Adminiftrators; and that if "Perfons were baptiz'd in the Name of Chrift

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any manner of way, it was no matter who "baptized them: But the main Argument "(as St. Auftin afterwards reckon'd it) was, "that Stephen Bishop of Rome had had it "handed down to him by constant Tradi"tion from St. Peter and St. Paul, Founders "of the Church of Rome; that those who

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came over from Heretical or Schifmatical "Communions, to the Communion of the "True Catholick Church, fhould not be re"baptized; and that all his Predeceffors, Bi"fhops of Rome, fince the Days of thofe Apo"ftles, had always conform'd their Practice "to fuch unquestionable Tradition; they "had always Ratified, never Repudiated He"retical or Schifmatical Baptifm.

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"The Arguments of the Cyprianifts against "the Validity of fuch Baptifms were briefly "these. St. Cyprian rejects the Baptifms of "Novatianus upon this very Score, that he

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was not a Bishop; Cornelius was the only "True Bishop of Rome; no Valid Baptifms "could be performed in that Church but by "him, or in dependance on him: Novatianus difowned all Dependance on him, fepa

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"rated

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"rated from him, and pretended to be Bifhop of Rome in Oppofition to him; his "Baptifms therefore could not be Valid, they "could not be True Chriftian Sacraments, "St. Cyprian's 69 Epift. And in the fame "Epiftle thefe Three [to fet up an Epifcopal "Chair] [to affume a Primacy] [and to pre"tend to a Sovereign or Independent Power "of Baptizing and Offering, i. e. Confecra"ting the Holy Eucharift] he plainly makes "Equivalent Phrafes, and by them expreffes "the one Crime of Novatianus in ftanding up

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as an Anti-bishop to Cornelius: That all his "Miniftrations were of the fame Kidney with "thofe of Corah, Dathan and Abiram, which "were wicked, damnable and naught, because "perform'd in Oppofition to the High-Prieft "Aaron: That it was unaccountable in BI"SHOPS to Ratify Heretical or Schifmatical "Baptifms; it was a Proftitutiou of the Ho"nour both of the Catholick Church and the "EPISCOPAL COLLEGE; it tended to "hinder People from coming over from He

refy or Schifm; it encourag'd them to think "themselves fafe and secure enough in either; "for if there they had true Baptifm, why not "likewife a true Church and true Remiffion "of Sins? To weaken the Authority of a pre"tended Custom to the contrary, he lays it "down for an undoubted Truth, That we 66 are not to be determined by any CUS"TOMS of that nature, but to examine " whether

"whether they will bear the Test of Reason. "He affembled at Carthage a Council of 71 "Bishops, who confirmed all that had been "determined a little before in another Synod "held in the fame City, concerning the Bap"tifm of Hereticks, viz. that it was null and "void; and about the fame time, immedi"ately after this Council, he writ a long Let"ter to Jubaianus, a Bishop who had confult"ed him about this Queftion, wherein he 66 urges abundance of Reasons and Texts of "Scripture to fupport his own Opinion, and "anfwered the Objections that were brought "against it. In another Letter to Pompey Bi"fhop of Sabra, he oppofes the TRUTH of "the Gofpel, and the FIRST TRADITI"ONS of the Apoftles, both to the Custom ❝and Tradition which Stephen had alledg'd "for himself. Firmilian Bishop of Cefarea in

Cappadocia, in his Letter to St. Cyprian, o"penly condemns the Procedure of Stephen

Bishop of Rome [who had anfwered St. Cy"prian very roughly] extols St. Cyprian's Con"duct, declares himself entirely in favour of "his Opinion, proves it by feveral Reasons, "and affures him it was the ancient Cuftom "of the Afiatick Churches, and that it had "been regulated many Years before in two "Numerous Synods held at Synnada and Ico"nium. The fame Firmilian anfwers Stephen's "Plea of the conftant Tradition he had hand"ed down to him from St. Peter and St. Paul, 66 as

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