Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	age_n	old_a	year_n	4,796	5	5.3056	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38017	An enquiry into four remarkable texts of the New Testament which contain some difficulty in them, with a probable resolution of them by John Edwards ...	Edwards, John, 1637-1716.	1692 (1692)	Wing E208; ESTC R17328	127,221	286

sense the Article which is here inserted should be left out and it should have been barely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Learned Hammond sets it down in his Annotations being Conscious as it were that it should be so 4. Let us pass to another Reading of the words and it shall be still of Those who take Baptizing here in the Sacramentalsense and hold that the baptized for the dead were those persons who had That Sacrament administred to them when they were close upon the confines of death and just expiring their last This Exposition is abetted by Calvin The baptized for the dead saith he are they who are baptized when they are Dying when they are given over and look'd upon as dead And so the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as the Latin pro as when they say habere pro derelieto Other Learned Writers also take This to be the sense of the Apostle's words but it came first from Epiphanius in his Book against Hereticks who acquaints us that when it so chanced that the Catachumeni or New Comers to Christianity were overtaken with some Mortal distemper and there was an utter Despair of their Living till they could be brought to the Sacred Font they used to be baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they lay in their Beds and from that usage of theirs the Clinici or Bed-ridden took their Name For you must know that it was usuall with those that were converted to Christianity to defer their Baptism Perhaps say some at first it proceeded from fear and cowardize which made them unwilling to hazard themselves by the open profession of their Religion and so they put off their admission into the Church as long as they could but when they were arrested by Grievous Sickness and confined to their Beds they passionately begged to be baptized before they left the world This was one sort of Clinicks But there was a second sert who deferred their Baptism on other accounts These were no New Converts but such as had imbraced Christianity a considerable time yet they purposely deferred their Baptism on one pretended ground or other Thus Constantine the Great was not baptized till the sixty fifth year of his age which was the one and thirtieth year of his Empire and he declared himself as Eusebius testifies that he delay'd his Baptism because he intended to be Baptized in the River Iordan the place which was so famous for the fi●st Baptizing and where our Saviour himself was baptized ●ut he was hindred from going thither though I see no Cause of that hindrance in so many years and being Aged he fell sick and was Baptized in the City of Nicomedia where he then was by Eusebius Bishop either at that time or formerly of that place and he died in the very same year he was Baptized I know this is Contradicted and it is said he was not baptized in the East but in the West not by a Greek Bishop but a Roman one This was Miltiades say some others stiffly maintain that it was Sylvester and this they have f●om one of the Roman Bishops who wrote Sylvesters Life and asserts that He baptized Constantine telling us withall that this Emperour among other Admirable Ornaments and Utensils kept in his Palace the Font wherein he was baptized and des●ribes the Make and Costliness of it It seems it is since translated or thought to be translated to Rome and there is kept as a Choice Memo●ial And as for the Occasion of Constantine's being Baptized they tell us it was This he being guilty of his son Crispus's bloud and other unnatural murders was struck by God with Leprosie which Affected him so much that he applied himself to the Bishop and shew'd himself Sorrowful for the fact and to give an evidence of his Repentance he desired to receive Baptism Then by the ●ishops Prayers and this Holy Laver he was cured of his Noisome Distemper This was in the eighteenth year of his reign A. D. 324. and is mentioned by Zosimus and Baronius Yet Cedrenus and others say he was baptized at Rome by this Sylvester some years before viz. in the seventh year of his reign But Eusebius the famous Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine who writ the Life of Constantine saith not a word of all this but tells us that he was baptized not at Rome but at Nicomedia and that many years after the Nicene Council in the close of his life the last year of his reign five years after Sylvester was dead by Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia and this is testified and confirmed by S t Ierom S t Ambrose Socrates Sozomen Theodoret and others and seems to be the True Account of the Emperours Baptism To hasten then out of this Digression this Example of Constantine's deferring his Baptism was follow'd by several other succeeding Emperours Thus his son Constantius was baptized at the point of Death Theodosius the Great falling sick was thereupon baptized and Recovered upon it but he had deferr'd his Baptism longer if his sickness had not hastned it The next Theodosius was not baptized till he was very old Ecclesiastical History acquaints us also that the Emperour Valentini●n put off his Baptism that he might receive that Sacrament from S t Ambrose but he was prevented by death We read the same of some of the most Eminent Fathers of the Church S t Ierom and S t Ambrose were not baptized till they were thirty years of age although their Parents were Christians Augustin was a Manichean till he was one and thirty years old and then and not before he was baptized by the foresaid S t Ambrose the famous Bishop of Milan Thus it was also in the Greek Church some of the most Eminent persons besides the Emperours before spoken of deferr'd their Baptism till they came to some ripeness of years Thus Chrysostom though born of and bred up under a Christian Mother and Gregory Nazianzen born of Christian Parents were not baptized till they arrived to be Men. Nectarius Archbishop of Constantinople entered into Episcopal Orders before he was baptized Now there are Different yea Contrary Reasons alledged for this practise some did purposely put off their Baptism till death approached that they might be the more at liberty to indulge their follies and vices for when one of the Catechumeni Committed a fault they used to excuse his failing by alledging This in his favour that he was not yet Baptized They did it also that they might not sin after the celebrating the Sacrament of Baptisme for S Cyprian tells us they had This fond and groundless notion that there was no Pardon for those that relapsed into sin after Baptisme This arose from the mistaking of That place Heb. 6. 4 5. which the Novatians very warmly insisted upon and would by no means Absolve those that lapsed after Baptism But the Orthodox Fathers were of another mind and sharply reproved

yearly Baptize themselves in Rivers and Lakes on Epiphany day And I could add from a Late Author that the Bishops in Muscovy at this day consecrate the Rivers on the Epiphany every year But what is all this to the purpose Is here any Baptizing for the benefit of the dead No assuredly I am ready to grant also that Baptizing of the dead was used heretofore by some Christians This is as certain as that it was usual● to give the Other Sacrament to the dead which both appear to have been Practised from the Sixth Canon of the 3 d Council of Carthage and the 83 of the Council of Trullo in which you find a Prohibition against that administring the Eucharist and Baptism to the bodies of the deceased And the above named Canonists in their Comments on the 18 th Canon of Carthage acquaint us with the Ground of this Baptizing the dead and likewise of the Baptizing the living in the room of the dead namely upon the Misunderstanding these words of the Apostle What shall they do that are baptized for the dead The Iews it seems had the like Superstitious opinion and practice as to Circumcision for Buxtorf acquaints us that the Infant that died before it was eight days old was Circumcised in the Burying-place over the grave And that is yet more Fond which I have read of a people among the Tartars who had so great an opinion of Matrimony that if their sons and daughters died before Age they solemnized a Marriage between the parties after death Such a piece of Folly was the Baptizing of the dead which was practised we grant in some Ages after the Apostles and Those Learned Lawyers think it was sounded on the Text. Yet any Unp●ejudiced man may see that there is not the least foundation in the words for such a Practise for it is impossible to make These two one Baptizing the dead or baptizing persons when they are dead and being Baptized for the Benefit of the dead 8. There is another Opinion which may be referred to This First Rank of Interpreters and that is that the Apostle speaks here of the Custom received in the Church of giving Names in Baptism in memory of the dead This saith H●insi●s who is the only Expositor that goes this way was in use among the Old Christians and thence the Nominalia were instituted and so lemnly observed by them which were Festival days kept by the Christians yearly in remembrance of the Name given them in Baptism These Nominalia as Tertullian calls them or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gregory Nazianzen stiles them were first derived from the Iews in Circumcision at which time the Infants had the Names given them of their Parents or Near●st Kindred and Friends deceased which is con●●●ed in the Evangelical History by that dispute which was about the N●ming of S● Iohn the Baptist And this usage prevailed in the Christian Church afterwards and they were wont to give their Children the Names of their Kindred who had excell'd an vertue for These were thought to inspite them by the● Worthy Examples And by this means also the Names of their departed friends were Recorded and their Memories preserved and they seem'd to Survive in those that bore their Names These were said to be Baptized for the dead i. e. saith that Learned Critick in gratiam memoriam mortuorum They might justly be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to raise up the Name of the dead as those were said to do among the Iews who being next of kin married the widow of the deceased The Apostle then is thought by Him to refer to That giving of the Names of the dead to those that were Baptized because That was in Memory and Honour of the expired friends in hope of their Resurrection and in belief of Eternity for though they were Dead yet they really Lived in another world Thus therefore the Argument is supposed to run Why are those Names of departed Parents and Friends given to the Baptized Relations if those persons are not at all in being To what purpose were this if the Deceased utterly perished and after death were never to rise again The Resurrection supposeth the Souls Immortality and so believing This we cannot question the Other The persons wearing the Names of those that are dead do hereby tell the world that they believe their Pious Parents and Friends are still in being and at the last day shall rise again What shall they do how fondly do they act who are thus baptized themselves or baptize others in Memory of the Dead if they believe not the Resurrection else why do they consider the Deceased as yet Living when they give or bear the Names of those persons The Answer to all this in short is 1. If such a custom was in the Apostles times yet it seems to be too Particular and too Mean a one to ground so Great and General a matter on 2. T is not giving or receiving a Name that is here spoken of but Baptizing which is another thing and of more moment And why Baptism should be put here for Imposition of Names in Baptism I see no reason unless it could be proved that an Improper Acception of a word is more agreeable then the Proper and Native one 3. It is not evident that Names were generally and commonly given at Baptism so early If we consult the History even of the Times soon after Christ we shall read of very few which I somewhat wonder at I confess who bore the Names either of the Evangelists or Apostles or other Martyrs 4. To argue from the Imposition of the Names of the dead to their Certain Rising again is no ways firm and solid And therefore it is not probable on These Considerations that This was the sense of the Apostle 9. In the next place I will propound the Opinion of that late Learned Critick Alexander More who in his Notes on some Select places of the New Tostament understands this place of the Sacramental Baptism but by the dead which in the Greek is in the Plural he thinks is denoted a Singular Person and that person is Christ and to be baptized for the dead is to be baptized for Christ the meaning of which you may find in that Author I will only here take notice of the Unreasonableness of his Interpretation so far as he understands Christ by those that are dead It is true I grant that there are several Examples of the change of the Singular number for the Plural in Holy Scripture This Syllepsis or Synechdoche or Enallage numeri call it as you please is frequent in the Sacred Stile and it is most used when some Eminent Person or Thing is meant And I grant that Christ was the most Eminent Person and his Death the most Signal and Remarkable Thing that ever was But I cannot think that the Apostle here expresses the Singular by the Plural because 1. the Apostle here mentions