The children shall be baptized first. All of the children who can answer for themselves, let them answer. If there are any children who cannot answer for themselves, let their parents answer for them, or someone else from their family. [from http://www.bombaxo.com/hippolytus.html; ch. 21]
Although the word children could be interpreted as children old enough to “get saved,” the rest of Hippolytus’ statement makes it clear that children who were not even old enough to speak for themselves were also considered appropriate recipients of the rite of baptism.
St. Gregory of Nanzainus gives a powerful testimony to infant baptism in his Oration on Holy Baptism
Have you an infant child? Do not let sin get any opportunity, but let him be sanctified from his childhood; from his very tenderest age let him be consecrated by the Spirit. Fearest thou the Seal on account of the weakness of nature? O what a small-souled mother, and of how little faith! Why, Anna even before Samuel was born promised him to God, and after his birth consecrated him at once, and brought him up in the priestly habit, not fearing anything in human nature, but trusting in God. You have no need of amulets or incantations, with which the Devil also comes in, stealing worship from God for himself in the minds of vainer men. Give your child the Trinity, that great and noble Guard. [NPNF 2:365, ch. XVII]
Later in the same Oration, St. Gregory says the following:
Be it so, some will say, in the case of those who ask for Baptism; what have you to say about those who are still children, and conscious neither of the loss nor of the grace? Are we to baptize them too? Certainly, if any danger presses. For it is better that they should be unconsciously sanctified than that they should depart unsealed and uninitiated. [NPNF 2:370, ch. XXVIII].
By way of summary, let me quote extensively from Philip Schaff’s History of the Christian Church volume 2:
At the same time it seems an almost certain fact, though by many disputed, that, with the baptism of converts, the optional baptism of the children of Christian parents in established congregations, comes down from the apostolic age….Among the fathers, Tertullian himself not excepted—for he combats only its expediency—there is not a single voice against the lawfulness and the apostolic origin of infant baptism. No time can be fixed at which it was first introduced. Tertullian suggests, that it was usually based on the invitation of Christ: "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." The usage of sponsors, to which Tertullian himself bears witness, although he disapproves of it, and still more, the almost equally ancient abuse of infant communion, imply the existence of infant baptism. Heretics also practised it, and were not censured for it.
The apostolic fathers make, indeed, no mention of it. But their silence proves nothing; for they hardly touch upon baptism at all…
The only opponent of infant baptism among the fathers is the eccentric and schismatic Tertullian, of North Africa. He condemns the hastening of the innocent age to the forgiveness of sins, and intrusting it with divine gifts, while we would not commit to it earthly property. Whoever considers the solemnity of baptism, will shrink more from the receiving, than from the postponement of it. But the very manner of Tertullian’s opposition proves as much in favor of infant baptism as against it. He meets it not as an innovation, but as a prevalent custom; and he meets it not with exegetical nor historical arguments, but only with considerations of religious prudence….
Tertullian’s opposition, moreover, had no influence, at least no theoretical influence, even in North Africa. His disciple Cyprian differed from him wholly. In his day it was no question, whether the children of Christian parents might and should be baptized—on this all were agreed,—but whether they might be baptized so early as the second or third day after birth, or, according to the precedent of the Jewish circumcision, on the eighth day. [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc2.v.vii.xiv.html, ch. 5, sect. 73]
While these stunning facts are totally contrary to all that I have been taught or have believed, it is nearly certain that they adequately reflect the baptismal teaching of the Early Church. What we do with these facts is left up to us but merely dismissing them become problematic if we are indeed a part of the same Church of which these early Christians were a part.
