There are yet other passages which some of our pædobaptist friends endeavor to lay hold of; but they are so utterly irrelevant to the subject as not to require notice in a volume devoted mainly to historical investigation. One, however, I will mention, as it has often been quoted with a kind of triumph in favor of sprinkling" So shall he sprinkle many nations,” Isa. lii. 15. This is entirely a mistranslation, the Hebrew word signifying to astonish, startle, or surprise,* as when a man has water suddenly dashed in his face.

Of all the recent attempts to uphold sprinkling, that which seeks to find authority for a Christian ordinance in the writings of the Jewish prophets is perhaps the most singular. This is in keeping with the idea adopted by many padobaptists (and it would seem by Dr. Woods), that the arrangements of the Jewish economy may be copied into the Christian, UNLESS THEY ARE FORBIDDEN. Where is it forbidden to Christian ministers to dress like Aaron? This is the very door which, once opened, admits all the judaizing practices of the church of Rome.t Judaizing teachers began

.

* Professor Conant, of Hamilton Theological Institution, one of the ablest Hebrew critics of the age, sustains this as the proper translation. Rev. Albert Barnes says,-" The word (yazze) here rendered 'sprinkle,' has been very variously rendered. The Septuagint renders it, 'So shall many nations wonder, or express admiration at him.' The Chaldee, 'So shall he scatter or dissipate many people.' The Syriac, Thus shall he purify, cleanse, or offer expiation for many nations.' Martini, Rosenmuller, and Gesenius, suppose that it is derived from an Arabic word, meaning to leap, to spring, to spring up, to leap for joy, to exult; and that the idea here is that he should cause many nations to exult or leap for joy. It may be remarked, that whichever of the above senses is assigned, it furnishes no argument for the practice of sprinkling in baptism. It refers to the fact of his purifying or cleansing the nations, and not to the ordinance of Christian baptism. Nor should it be used as an argument in reference to the mode in which that should be administered."-Barnes' Notes on Isaiah, vol. iii. pp. 411, 412.

+ Dr. Woods, and pædobaptists generally, have drunk deep enough of this cup of poison to maintain, that, "in regard to the general end

SEC. III. 11.] SO SHALL HE SPRINKLE MANY NATIONS." 153

to plague the church of Christ before the apostles had terminated their career; and the church is not yet freed from the baneful influence of notions, whose anti-apostolical descent may clearly be traced through the reformed churches to that of Rome, with her councils, and thence to the Fathers, who laid the foundation of her splendor and her tyranny, by pròpagating the "mystery of iniquity" which had already begun to work. That many of the Fathers are subject to this grave charge will be made apparent in a subsequent chapter.

sought, we consider the ministry of the gospel as substituted for the Levitical priesthood!"--Lectures on Infant Baptism, p. 142. This is another extract from the mystery of iniquity which laid the foundation of the tyrannical priestcraft of Rome.

CHAPTER VI.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.-MODE OF BAPTISM.

SECTION I.

ON THE RIGHT USE OF CHURCH HISTORY.

THE study of uninspired ecclesiastical history is the study of the progress of error; but it is not on this account the less important or instructive. Nothing can be more interesting or improving to the intelligent mind, than to contemplate the effects of erroneous doctrines and forms upon large masses of men in various ages of the world. The beaconblaze that warns of danger is sometimes as needful as the light that guides to the desired haven. The necessity of investigating the history of the church on the subject of baptism, arises, however, from no deficiency of evidence respecting it in the inspired writings, but from the extent to which ecclesiastical history has been perverted by the opponents of the truth.

Let none imagine, therefore, that the unwavering testimony of the ancient church to immersion, as the apostolic mode of baptism, is valued otherwise than simply as confirmatory of a truth already clearly established from the sacred oracles ; or that this investigation is entered upon for any other purpose, than to rescue ecclesiastical history from the misrepresentations which are still extensively circulated, under the authority of divines sustaining elevated positions in ecclesiastical society. It is true, indeed, that, not only the most

learned English and German divines of the past and present age have unhesitatingly admitted the testimony of the early ages on this point; but that, in our own country, Professors Stuart and Woods do not hesitate to avow similar sentiments; but still, under the sanction of one of the most respectable ecclesiastical organizations of the age, the most perverted statements on this subject are extensively circulated,* and eagerly copied into the publications of other pædobaptist sects. A comprehensive exhibition of the facts of history on this subject, therefore, is neither uncalled for, nor unserviceable to the cause of truth.

The sources of evidence on this point are the writings of the Fathers ancient baptisteries-the "ordines," or ritual regulations for the administration of baptism-the continued practice of the Greek and eastern churches-the circumstances in which pouring and sprinkling originated—and the admissions of modern ecclesiastical historians, all of them pædobaptists. On each of these points we shall place before the reader an ample supply of facts, from which he can form his own conclusions.

* "From the days of the apostles down to the reformation, affusion and sprinkling in baptism, as well as immersion, have been in constant use; some of the gravest and most sober-minded writers, have firmly defended the two former, as well as the latter; the strong arguments in favor of affusion or sprinkling, as the preferable mode, have been, in all ages, distinctly appreciated; and it has ever been considered as a part of Christian liberty to use either mode, as may be conscientiously preferred.”—Dr. Miller's Treatise on Infant Baptism, p. 98 ; published by the Presbyterian Board of Publication.

SECTION II.

THE WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS.

THE term "Fathers" is applied to eminent personages in ecclesiastical history who lived prior to the sixth century. About fifty individuals are honored with this title.* Five of them, Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Hermas, Ignatius, and Polycarp, are alleged to have been contemporary with the apostles, and are therefore called apostolic Fathers. Twenty more lived prior to Christianity becoming a state religion in the days of Constantine, and the remainder subsequently to 'that period.t

Numerous passages might be quoted, in which the persons baptized are affirmed to be dipped, and in which circumstances possible only in case of immersion are particularly described. I select a few.

* Contemporaries of the apostles, Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Hermas, Ignatius, and Polycarp. Papias, A. D. 116. Justin Martyr, 140. Dionysius of Corinth, 170. Tatian, 172. Hegesippus, 173. Melito, 177. Irenæus, 178. Athenagoras, 178. Miltiades, 180. Theophilus, 181. Clement of Alexandria, 194. Tertullian, 200. Minutius Felix, 210. Ammonius, 220. Origen, 230. Firmilian, 233. Dionysius of Alexandria, 247. Cyprian, 248. Novatus, or Novatian, 251. Arnobius, 306. Lactantius, 306. Alexander of Alexandria, 313. Eusebius, 315. Athanasius, 326. Cyril of Jerusalem, 348. Hilary, 354. Epiphanius, 368. Basil, 370. Gregory Nazianzen, 370. Optatus, 370. Ambrose, 374. Philaster, 380. Gregory of Nyssen, 390. Jerome, 392. Theodore of Mopsuestia, 394. Ruffinus, 397. Augustine, 398. Chrysostom, 398. Sulpitius Severus, 401. Cyril of Alexandria, 412. Theodoret, 423; and Gennadius, 494.-Encyc. Relig. Knowl. p. 529.

+ Observations on the writings of the Fathers, and on the moral and literary character of the early ages of the Christian church, will be found in chap. vii. sect. ii.