parisons between the two brothers, and often men- CHAP.III. tions Valentinian's want of baptism; but observes Year after no such thing of Gratian. Besides, he calls him the apothere Fidelis; which is a term never given by the ancients but to a baptized person.

But yet it is probable his baptism was not in infancy. For what should make Valentinian the father baptize his eldest son in infancy, and not his youngest? Unless we may judge that Justina, the mother of the youngest, being an Arian, (for the mother of the eldest was not so,) and the father himself being a catholic, they could not agree into which faith he should be baptized. For the Arians were like the Donatists for that; that they had so ill an opinion of baptism given by the catholics, that they baptized such over again; as may be seen by St. Ambrose's Discourse against Auxentius". And therefore,

stles.

V. 3. The chief question is, whether Valentinian the father were baptized himself at the time when his youngest son was born. We have heard · already, that he was a baptized Christian at a certain time, when he said, that he did not think • himself fit to judge between bishops.' But what time of his reign this refers to we have no way to know certainly. The passage that looks most like it in all that we read, is that which happened at the election of St. Ambrose himself to the bishopric of 274 Milan and St. Ambrose was more likely to know that, and to refer to that, than any other. For then, as Theodoret tells us, the bishop of Milan

* Orat. in Auxentium, in fine. [§. 37. Op. tom. ii. p. 874. edit. benedict.]

§. 2 of this chapter.

g Hist lib. iv. cap. 6.

the apo

sties.

CHAP,I. being dead, the people were much divided about the Year after choice of a new one, some setting up one, and some another: so that to avoid confusion, Valentinian ordered the neighbouring bishops that were then in that city to choose one for them. The bishops desired that he himself would pitch upon some person. But he answered, This is a thing too great for me to undertake. You that are filled with the grace

of God, and illuminated by the light thereof, may 'much better do this office of choosing a man for a ' bishop.'

If this were the time St. Ambrose means, at which he was then a baptized person; this was but a year, or thereabouts, before his death: for St. Am274. brose was made bishop in the year of Christ 374, as Baronius, or the beginning of 375, as Petavius computes; and Valentinian died November the 17th, 275.375.

So that he might for all that be unbaptized when 266. his son Valentinian was born, which was, as we saidh, nine years before, viz. anno Dom. 366.

Sect. 4. Of Theodosius the First.

His father was not a baptized Christian when he was born.

I. Theodosius, (of whom we had occasion to 279. speak in the last section,) who was chosen by Gratian to be his fellow emperor, is another of the instances of persons not baptized in infancy. What I have to say of him, may be dispatched in a few words. He was baptized quickly after he was chosen emperori, and in a fit of sickness, by Acholius, (or, as the Greeks write his name, Ascholius,) bishop of Thessalonica: being then thirty-four i Socrates, lib. v. cap. 6.

h §. 2.

years old, as Victor counts; forty-four as So-CHAP.III. crates reckons; or about fifty, if the Chronicon Year after Alexandrinum be to be relied on.

the apostles.

II. His father, who was also named Theodosius, 170. had been put to death by order of Valens nine years before. At what time of his life he was baptized, I think we should not have known but for Orosius, who because he was a Spaniard, his countryman) speaks more particularly of his concerns. So that we know by him that he was baptized before he ded: but not till twenty-five years (by the lowest account) after this his son was born. And whether he was, at that time of his son's birth, a Christian in intention, or an unbeliever, is not to be known.

Orosius' account is this; that he, being a commander in the army, had done good and faithful services: but yet that on a sudden, and for what reason nobody knew, there came an order that he must be put to death. Which when he understood, -be desired to be baptized first, for the forgiveness of his sins. And when he was made partaker of ⚫ that sacrament of Christ, as he desired; being, after a laudable life in this world, secure also of an eternal life, he willingly offered his neck to the executioner.

Other authors, though not mentioning his baptism, give the same account of his death. And the occasion of it they relate to be such, as gives us an Mea of the mischief that superstitious jealousies do, when they get into the head of a cowardly prince. Valens had had some attempts made to dethrone him. And there was a report ran up and down

k Hist. lib. vii. [cap. 33-]

the apost.es

CHAP.IL that some that used curious arts had found, that he Year after should quickly have a successor: and the first letters of his name should be THEOD. The names of Thendorus, Theodoret, Theodosius, Theodulus, &c., were then very common names. And this fancy cost a great many of them their lives; and this captain among the rest. His son Theodosius was not, it seems, at that time a man noted enough to come into danger. When he came to the throne, he managed his affairs so well both in peace and war, that none that went before, or that came after, did ever excel him.

The reason why he was not baptized in infaney, must have been because his father was not then baptized, and perhaps not a believer. I know that Socrates (at the forecited place, lib. v. cap. 6.) says, that he (the said emperor) had Christian parents, or ancestors, ἄνωθεν ἐκ προγόνων χριστιανὸς ὑπάρχων· Βut this was a phrase commonly used in the case of those whose parents became Christians at any time before their death, though they were not so at the time of the birth of those their children: as I shall, out of many instances that might be given, have occasion to give some presently.

Sect. 5. Of St. Basil.

There is no proof to the contrary, but that he was baptized in Infancy.

I. I did in the tenth chapter of the First Part of this work, produce the evidences that are in antiquity, that St. Basil was baptized in infancy. But it is necessary to consider those also that are brought to the contrary.

I know of but one man of the antipædobaptists that does pretend him for an instance of one

the apo

baptized in his adult age, though born of Christian CHAP.11. parents: and he does it very unfairly. He found in Year after Osiander's epitome of the Magdeburgenses, that sties. Vincentius in his Speendum tells a story of St. Ba- 260. s's going to Jerusalem, and being baptized in Jordan by Maximus, the bishop there. But though Osiander and the Magdeburgenses" too do, when they mention this, declare that this is a story of no credit; and that Vincentius' collection, being of late 1144 years, is of no repute; and that there is no historian of credit or antiquity that speaks of any such thing: yet Mr. Danvers" sets down the quotation in such manner and words, as if they had recited it as a credible history: whereas they do both of them at the places cited, declare that it seems to them that he was baptized in infancy by his father, (of which I also have, in the chapter forementioned, given some confirmation,) or by some other minister.

He quotes also at the same place, and for the same thing. Socrates, lib. iv. cap. 26, and Sozomen, 13. vi. cap. 34, who neither there, nor any where else, Lave any word tending that way.

II. As Vincentius made his collections of historical matters without any judgment, taking them oct of any sort of books, genuine or spurious; so the author, out of whom he owns to have this, is Amphilochius life of St. Basil. And that is known by all to be a Grub-street paper, a gross forgery;

: Cent. 4. lib. iii. cap. 42.

# Cent. 4. cap. 10. (tom. i. p. 941. edit. Basil, 1560.) * Treatise of Baptism, part i. cap. 7. (p. 60.]

• Vincenti Speculum Histor. lib. xiv. cap. 78.