He had the reputation of great learning, had travelled extensively, had lived in Greece, Rome, Cappadocia, and Arabia, though he spent the principal part of his life in Syria and Palestine." I would place implicit reliance on the testimony of such a man, under such circumstances, to any question of history with which he professed to be familiar, even if I differed from him in matters of opinion.

But such a man would not state, for veritable history, that which the world knew to be false.
Now, what is Origen's testimony as to the fact, simply, of the apostolic usage with regard to infant baptism?
In his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Book v., he says: "For this cause it was that the church received an order from the apostles to give baptism even to infants." In his homily on Lev.

12, he says: "According to the usage of the church, baptism is given even to infants, when, if there were nothing in infants that needed forgiveness and mercy, the grace of baptism would seem to be superfluous." In his homily on Luke 14, he says: "Infants are baptized for the forgiveness of sins." It was the practice, then, in Origen's day, to baptize infants.

He tells the people of his day, to whom he preaches and writes, why it was that the church had received a command from the apostles to baptize them, not proving to them the fact of history, but, taking that as well known, explaining the theological reason for it, as he understood it.
It is now 1857.

Eighty-five years ago, the length of time after the apostles to the birth of this man, brings us back to 1772.