VII. flocks do not take upon themselves an undue and dange- SECT. rous responsibility? 3. Whether he will have independence enough to take any adequate means to ascertain if these statements can be denied? And, finally, if they cannot be gainsayed, whether he will dare to remain unbaptized, and, therefore, in a state of disobedience to the King of kings? SECTION VII. ADMISSIONS OF PODOBAPTIST ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORIANS AND DIVINES. In a previous portion of this volume, the testimony of Immersion the only numerous learned theologians, both ancient and modern, apostolic have been laid before the reader, both respecting the practice. meaning of the term baptizo, and the practice of the apostles. I shall now place before them a few passages from the writings of podobaptists, respecting the practice of the primitive church, which prove not only that immersion was generally practised, but that no other practice was regarded as apostolic. No evidence can possibly be more decided on this point, than that the validity of baptism, in the cases of those who were affused when in danger of death, was a matter of earnest debate; which could not possibly have been the case, had the practice been deemed apostolical. authors. MOSHEIM: "The sacrament of baptism was adminis- Acknow tered in this [the second] century, without the public of podoledgments assemblies, in places appointed and prepared for that baptist purpose, and was performed by immersion of the whole body in the baptismal font.-Those adult persons, that desired to be baptized [among the collegiants] received the VI. CHAP. sacrament of baptism, according to the ancient and primitive manner of celebrating that institution, ever by immersion." a GROTIUS: "That baptism used to be performed by immersion, and not pouring, appears both from the proper signification of the word, and the places chosen for the administration of the rite, (John iii. 23; Acts viii. 38;) and also from the many allusions of the Apostles, which cannot be referred to sprinkling. (Rom. vi. 3, 4; Col. ii. 12.)" b BOSSUET: "The baptism of John the Baptist, which served for a preparative to that of Jesus Christ, was performed by plunging. When Jesus Christ came to John, to raise baptism to a more marvellous efficacy in receiving it, the Scripture says, that he went up out of the water of Jordan, (Matt. iii. 16; Mark i. 10.) In fine, we read not in the Scripture that baptism was otherwise administered; and we are able to make it appear, by the acts of councils, and by the ancient rituals, that for thirteen hundred years, baptism was thus administered throughout the whole church, as far as was possible." c DR. WHITBY: "It being so expressly declared here, (Rom. vi. 4, and Colos. ii. 12,) that we are buried with ·Christ in baptism, by being buried under water; and the argument to oblige us to a conformity to his death, by dying to sin, being taken hence; and this immersion being religiously observed by all Christians for thirteen centuries, and approved by our church, and the change of it into sprinkling, even without any allowance from the Author of this institution, or any license from any a Eccles. Hist. Cent. II. Part II. Chap. iv. § 8. and Cent. XVII. Sec. II. P. II. Chap. vii. § 1. Apud Polum, Synops. ad Mat. iii. 6. c. In Mr. Stennett against Russen, p. 175-76. council of the church, being that which the Romanist SECT. e VII. still urgeth to justify his refusal of the cup to the laity." DR. WALL: "Their [the primitive Christians] general and ordinary way was to baptize by immersion, or dipping the person, whether it were an infant, or grown man or woman, into the water. This is so plain and clear by an infinite number of passages, that as one cannot but pity the weak endeavours of such podobaptists as would maintain the negative of it; so also we ought to disown and show a dislike of the profane scoffs which some people give to the English antipodobaptists, merely for their use of dipping. It was, in all probability, the way by which our blessed Saviour, and for certain was the most usual and ordinary way by which the ancient Christians did receive their baptism. 'Tis a great want of prudence, as well as of honesty, to refuse to grant to an adversary what is certainly true, and may be proved So. It creates a jealousy of all the rest that one says. As for sprinkling, I say, as Mr. Blake, at its first coming up in England, let them defend it who use it.' They [who are inclined to presbyterianism] are hardly prevailed on to leave off that scandalous custom of having their children, though never so well, baptized out of a basin, or porringer, in a bed-chamber; hardly persuaded to bring them to church; much farther from having them dipped, though never so able to bear it."{ MR. JOHN WESLEY: "Mary Welsh, aged eleven days, was baptized according to the custom of the first church, and the rule of the church of England, by immersion. The child was ill then, but recovered from that hour." e Note on Rom. vi. 4. Hist. of Inf. Bapt. Part II. chap. ii. p. 462. 5 Extract of Mr. John Wesley's Journal, from his embarking for Georgia, p. 11. СНАР. VI. German critics. -Buried with him,' alluded to the ancient manner of baptizing by immersion." h THOLUCK'S Romans, chap. vi. 4. "In order to understand the figurative use of baptism, we must bear in mind the well known fact, that the candidate in the primitive church was immersed in water and raised out of it again." WINER, in Manuscript Lectures on Christian Antiqui- BRETSCHNEIDER's Theology, vol. i. p. 684. "The Baptism was RHEINWALD'S Archæology, of 1830, p. 303, n. 1. "Immersion was the original apostolical practice." 66 HAHN'S Theology, p. 556. According to apostolical instruction and example, baptism was performed by immersing the whole man." STARCK, in his History of Baptism, p. 8, says: "In regard to the mode, there can be no doubt, that it was not by sprinkling, but by immersion." J. H. FRITSCH, Bib. Theology, of 1820, vol. iii. p. 507. "With infant baptism, still another change in the out h Wesley's Notes on Rom. vi. 4. VII. ward form of baptism was introduced, that of sprinkling SECT. with water, instead of the former practice of immersion.”i VON COELLN:-"Immersion in water was general until the thirteenth century; but among the Latins it was displaced by sprinkling; but retained by the Greeks." That it was in cases of sickness only that immersion Immersion dispensed was superseded by application of water in some other form, the following authorities will suffice: with only in cases of sickness. SALMASIUS: "The clinics only, because they were Testimony confined to their beds, were baptized in a manner of of podobaptist auwhich they were capable: not in the entire laver, as thors. those who plunge the head under water; but the whole body had water poured upon it. Thus Novatus, when sick, received baptism; being perikutheis, besprinkled, not baptistheis, baptized." PAMELIUS: "Whereas, the sick, by reason of their "It may be edifying to some of our readers to learn, how far Dr. Miller, of Princeton, has kept pace with the great critics of the age. In his work on Baptism, published in 1835, he says,' There is not the smallest probability that he (John) ever baptized an individual in this manner (by immersion) p. 93. The sacred writers have not stated a single fact, or employed a single term, which evinces, that they either preferred or practised immersion in a single case p. 99. Immersion is not even the common meaning of the word' baptize! p. 84. All impartial judges, by which I mean all the most profound and mature Greek scholars,— who are neither theologians nor sectarians,―agree in pronouncing, that the term in question imports the application of water by sprinkling" p. 85. This is the man that speaks ex cathedra in his book, from the beginning to the end, using such terms as, ‘I can assure you, my friends,' and brands with ignorance and infamy those who maintain the contrary. Such a production is not to be answered by argument."-Christian Review, vol. iii. p. 102. * History of Theological Opinions. Cassell, 1834, vol. i. p. 203. J Apud Witsium, Econ. Fœd. L. IV. C. xvi. § 13. |