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But although Lydia was pleased with the company of these brethren, the Baptists appear to wish that they had sought other quarters. It will not do to say that Timothy and Luke were the household of Lydia, which Paul baptized and yet they try to believe that the household which was baptized, and the brethren who were comforted, were the same persons; and adults, of course. They, therefore, wish you to believe that Lydia's servants and grown children were her household, and that her grown children and servants and other adult converts were the brethren whom Paul and Silas comforted. This, however, is conjecture, without evidence, and against evidence. It is without evidence, because this adult assembly of children, servants, and other Philippian converts at Lydia's house, is no where recorded nor hinted at, except in uninspired conjectures, and those, it appears, of a modern date. It is against evidence; because the inspired record furnishes us with the names of the brethren whom Paul and Silas comforted at Lydia's house, while the whole tenor of the narrative marks the absence of adults in her baptized household. It is quite possible that after they had been for some time under the influence of Christian prayers, instruction, and example, this household became as worthy of notice, as that of Stephanas, which, though baptized on the father's profession, was afterwards commended for ministering to the saints, according to their age, ability, and opportunity. Much more would this commendation have been deserved and received, if, instead of being promising children, Lydia's household had consisted of converted adults. If such had been the case, how natural would it have been, for the historian to tell us that Lydia's household, as well as herself, resorted to the sea shore to worship; that the Lord opened their hearts as well as hers; that they, as well as she, attended to the things which were spoken of Paul; that they, as well as she, were faithful to the Lord; and that for this reason, they joined her in beseeching, and aided her in constraining Paul and his companions to enter their common resi

dence.

How different the account which the sacred writer has given! If it were not for baptism, we should never have known that she had a household. They are never once mentioned, except in receiving this ordinance with her. It is Lydia alone who resorts to the sea-shore; Lydia alone whose heart is opened; Lydia alone who attends to Paul's preaching; Lydia alone who is faithful to the Lord; she alone beseeches the preachers to visit her; and she alone constrains them to enter her house. But She was baptized, and her household!" and thus proves household baptism to be infant baptism.

VI.

HOLOS OIKOS.

This appears to be generally considered as synonymous with pas oikos. Accordingly, while Luke points out the household of Cornelius by the latter phrase, Eusebius describes it by the former.(k) It will not be denied that when Baasha "smote the whole house of Jeroboam,"(1) there were some children in that house. Nor will this be denied in another instance; where it is said that Zimri "slew the whole house of Baasha :"(m) where Dr. Gill says, that it means "his whole family, all the children that he had," "that not only his posterity, but "all any way related to him should be cut off.” Paul says, that "Moses verily was faithful in his whole house, as a servant,"(n) Gill properly understands this whole house to mean the Old Testament church, which had millions of infants. Yet when the same Apostle says, that certain deceivers of his day "subvert whole houses," (o) the Baptists answer, that "whole houses could not be subverted, unless they had first been converted;" and, taking it for granted that no infant can be said to believe or be converted, they would have us con

When

(k) Acts x. 2. See Taylor's "Baptists Self-convicted," p. 41, Note. (7) 1 Kings xv. 29. (m) 1 Kings xvi. 11. 12. where this is twice said. (n) Hebr. iii. 2. 5. where this is twice said. (0) Tit. i. 11.

clude that these whole houses, subverted by false teachers, were composed of adult converts, instead of unbelieving and unconverted infants. And so they think of the family of Crispus, when it is said, that "Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord, with his whole house."(p) But to this it is answered that this baptism of believers, each on his own profession, would not be called household baptism, but the baptism of separate individuals.

This distinction was expressly recognized among the Greek and Latin Fathers, who certainly had some acquaintance with the Greek language. Clemens Alexandrinus, who lived in the second century, says, "The "doctrine of the Master of Christianity did not remain "confined to Judea only, as the philosophy of the Greeks 66 was confined to Greece: but it spread itself over the "whole world, converting equally Greeks and Barba"rians, in every nation and village, and in all cities, "whole houses, and separate individuals."(q) Here we find that separate individuals, making a personal profession, are distinguished from whole houses, embracing infants incapable of this profession: yet both are said to be converted. How this was understood, before the refinements of Anabaptism perplexed the church, may be learned from a passage of Augustine, which has, if I mistake not, been quoted in relation to the jailer's household. His words are as follows, viz. " When an infant "that has not yet the faculty of faith, is said to believe, "he is said to have faith, because of [baptism] the sacra"ment of faith; and to be converted (CONVERTERE se) "to God, because of [baptism] the sacrament of conver"sion." And so an infant, though he be not yet consti"tuted a believer, by that faith which consists in the will "of believers, yet he is, by [baptism] the sacrament of "that faith; for as he is said to believe, so he is called a

(h) Acts xviii. 8.

(φ) οίκους όλους και ίδια έκαςον. Taylor's Facts and Evidences, first edition, London 1818, p. 116. Second edition, London, 1819, p. 106.

"believer, not from his having the thing itself in his ❝mind, but from his receiving [baptism] the sacrament "of it."(r)

Let it not be said that this is giving human authority in divine things. This common-sense understanding which the church of God has always had of the subject, has already been shewn to be founded upon the infallible word. Remember that children are there declared to have entered into covenant; and, certainly, faith and conversion may be ascribed to them as correctly as covenant-making, and they are ascribed to them in the same sense, as the Fathers, just now quoted, have explained. If this language may not be used, concerning infants, on account of their participation in the external ordinances of religion, I should like to know what the Baptists would make of a passage of scripture, in which such language is applied to irrational domestic animals, on account of their participation in the privations of a public fast. The proclamation of the king of Nineveh says, "Let "man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry "mightily unto God: yea, let them be converted every "one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands."(s) The word converted is here used, because, that is the force of the Original and of all our translations, and is expressly used by the ancient Latin Vulgate, which reads convertatur; as a modern French Bible reads, " que chacun se convertisse;" the very phraseology used by Augustine, when he said that it is possible for infants" CONVERTERE SE; to convert themselves, or be converted," in a certain sense, by receiving the sacrament of conversion. These, then, belonged to the whole house of Crispus, and the whole houses which were subverted by false teachers.

(r) Wall's History of Baptism, Book 1. Chap. 15. Sect. 5. Subsect. 4. (8) Jon. iii. 8.

VII.

PANOIKESIA.

In the use of this word, Thucidides speaks as follows, viz. "In the manner above mentioned, were the Athe66 nians, for a long series of time, scattered about the "country, in towns and communities, at their own dis"cretion. And as not only the more ancient, but even "the latter Athenians, quite down to the present war, "had still retained the custom of dwelling about the Country PANOIKESIA, with their whole households." (t) In this place, panoikesia is used to include the millions of children, which are born to a whole nation, in many successive generations.

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Dionysius of Halicarnassus, uses the same word in the same meaning, in the following passage, viz. "And 66 very great numbers removed, PANOIKESIA, with their "whole households, some of whom returned when the "affairs of the city were composed: but others re"mained where they were."(u)

The same writer says, "And by this usage they forced "those who were unable to bear it, to leave the country, "with their wives and children, and to take refuge in "the neighbouring cities. . . . but the greatest part also "of these had removed, PANOIKESIA, with their whole "households, and leaving their [dwelling-] houses 66 empty, lived in the country."(v)

....

Thucidides uses the word to embrace all the infants of Greece in general. He says, "How horrible will it "seem for Platea to be destroyed by Lacedaemonians ! ❝ —that your fathers inscribed the city on the tripod of "Delphos, in justice to its merits ;—and that, to satisfy "the Thebans, you expunged it, ex яavros To Exavizov яavoixnoia, from all the whole household of Greece."(w)

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(t) Taylor's " Baptists self-convicted.” (u) Do. p. 48. (v) Do. p. 49.

εκ παντος του Ελληνικού

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