Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 edition. Excerpt: ... to faith. To those who said Baptismus non est necessarius quibus fides satis est he replies that after faith had come to include the Nativity, Passion, and Resurrection, lex tinguendi imposita est et forma praescripla; Ite, inquit, docete nationes, tinguentes eas in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti; hide legi collata definitio ilia Nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aqua et spiritu non intrabit in regnum caelorum cbstrinxit fidem ad baptismi necessi' tatem (c. 13): yet neither here nor elsewhere does he refer to the verse which would have supplied him with the desired authority in five words. Some imaginary references to these verses by Tertullian in other books hardly deserve a passing notice: for Apol. 21 see Mt xxviii 19; Lc xxiv47; Act xi 19; Col i 23 &c; for Apol. 51 Mc xii 36 &c.; for Anim. 25 Lc viii 2. The baptismal controversies in which Cyprian was engaged afforded no such stringent motive for adducing Mc xvi 16, though it might have been expected to be cited somewhere in the epistles bearing on this subject: but there can be only one reason for its absence from the third book of his collection of Testimonies from Scripture, which includes such heads as these, Ad regnum Dei nisi baptizatus et renatus quis fuerit pervenire non posse (25), Eum qui non crediderit jam judicatum esse (31), Fidem totum prode esse et tanturn nosposse quantum credimtis (42), Posse earn statim consequi baptismum qui vere crediderit (43). This evidence of the earlier Fathers of North Africa is specially important on account of the local and genealogical remoteness of their text from the texts which supply nearly all the other evidence to the same effect. It may be added that Lucifer and Hilary, who have purer texts than any other Latin Fathers of Cent....
