to have two bifhops to one city," either converted the bishoprick into an archdeaconry, or changed the chorepifcopal archdeacon into a fimple archdeacon, that is, ftripped him of his chorepifcopal title and power: as, probably, fome early catholick bifhop had ages before deprived a former bishop of St. Martin of his Saxon or British independency. This leads back to the fate of Chriftianity in Britain before the coming of Austin, and of courfe the Canterbury fonts and baptifteries are monuments closely connected with hiftory. Almoft every antique of this kind affords reflections local or periodical, which caft rays of light on the written ecclefiaftical hiftory of Chriftianity in this ifland. As the font at Bridekirk fets Danifh baptifm in a juft point of light, fo others refer to Norman or Saxon times. It is far from improbable, that the prefent bath near one end of the church of Eaft Dereham in Norfolk was a baptiftery: but the conjecture is connected with hiftorical anecdotes. If a bishop of Coventry granted to the abbey of Haghmon in Shropshire an officer, whofe province it was to baptize Jews. as well as infants, it is natural to infer, there were at that time Jews refident in Shropshire, and baptifteries, at least one, in or near the abbey, for the purpose of baptizing men and women (9). The old circular font at Brighthelmftone is on the outfide a piece of history sculpture (1). The inftitution or adminiftration of the Lord's fupper is reprefented in one compartment and Jefus and his difciples are fitting at the table. In another, baptifm is defcribed: a man is ftanding naked "in the water up to his middle; one on the right holding his clothes; another on the left dreffed in a canonical habit, like that of an officiating prieft, prefenting two rolls of linen. The figures are fhewn as if ftanding under arches, poffibly meant for thofe of a baptiftery." In another compartment, four perfons are reprefented, two in a boat, and two in or upon a rough water. Perhaps this might be intended to reprefent a baptifm in the fea. If fo, the fculpture hath a local propriety. The beautiful old octagon font in Orford chapel, Suffolk, is of a date not difficult to be gueffed by the infcription on the furface of the octagonal base of three fteps (2). The two catholick reafons for trine immerfion are reprefented here: the one by an angel holding an efcutcheon in his hand charged with a triangle to reprefent the trinity; the other, a woman fitting and holding a dead corpfe in her lap, to fignify either the dead body of Chrift, or a dying and being buried with him in Martini fubftituere renuit, dicens quod in una civitate duo epifcopi effe non deberent, cum revera in civitate epifc. non fuit, fed extra civitatem. (9) Exception to GOSTLING'S Walk. Gent. Mag. Nov. 1774. pag. 509. note....MR. GOSTLING'S Answer. Jan. 1775. (1) Antiquarian Repertory. London 1780. Vol. iii. pages 56. 254. (2) The fame, Vol. i. p. 181. Orate pro aiabus Jchis Cokerel et Katarine uxoris eius qui iftam fontem in honore dei fecerunt fieri. baptifm by trine immerfion, which reprefented the three days burial of Jefus. Thefe, and many others deferve more attention than the limits of this chapter will allow; and here it is fufficient to remark, that all, various as they are, were evidently formed to be used in the practice of immerfion, and fome of them to teach the doctrine, or the history of it. The rude figures on that at Winchester feem intended to preserve an history; and whether the boat refers to a local sea baptism, or to a foreign miffion is a queftion not cafily answered (3). To finifh this article. A conjecture, on one clafs of miracles in baptifteries, may not improperly be inferted here. The Catholicks speak of baptifteries abroad, which ufed to flow with water at Eafter without the aid of art, and to become dry of themselves after the priest had done baptizing. They gave this out for a miracle in proof of the doctrine of the trinity into which they baptized. Their enemies the Arians taxed them with impofture. Writers of natural history may, perhaps, fettle the difference. They mention a variety of fprings diftinguished by remarkable properties: and fome that ebb and flow feveral times in an hour. There is one at Laywell near Torbay and another at Gigglefwick in Craven, a district in Yorkfhire and there are many in other countries (4). A monk of the middle ages would naturally meet with much to excite his aftonishment, and cherish his creduloufnefs in fuch places. In all fuch cafes, fuppofing the illiteracy of the times, the fact might be affirmed and denied with equal fincerity on both fides. In modern times, enlightened by philofophy, the ancient Spanish Catholicks may be acquitted of a charge of fraud; the Arians their opponents of the guilt of wilful flander: and both may be regarded only as innocent fpectators of a real fact, on which neither party knew how to reafon. On fuch an axiom it may be charitably hoped, the good Parent of mankind will in all cafes of unavoidable ignorance hold his children lefs guilty than fome are willing to imagine. (3) The fame, Vol. iv. 1784. pages 40. 252. (4) DR. CAMPBELL'S Political Sarvey of Britain, Vol. i. Book i. Chap: v. DR. STUKELEY's Itinerar. curiof. Iter. v. Springs flowing with the tide. Memoires de MR. NODOT. Tom. i. Amfterdam. 1706. De l' eglife ou oratoire de St. Pierre de la prifon à Rome. On defcend par vingt-cinq ou trente degres dans un petit endroit on il y a un autel, et dix degres encore plus bas on entre dan un grotte, qui eft aparement le cachot ou etoient enfermes les deux apotres: [S. S. Pierre et Paul. Au milieu de ce cachot il y a une fontaine miraculeufe, qui s'y eft toujours confervée de la maniere qu'on la voit depuis que St. Pierre le'eut fait fortir de milieu de pavé, qui s'ouvrit, manquant d'eau pour baptifer deux des principaux foldats, &c.....BARON An. lxviii. Perenni illuftris miraculo....Sic aqua fcaturit, ut nec fons exundet, nec quantumlibet hauriatur unquam ficcetur. Notiffimum eft ejus rei experimentum, &c.....De Balneis omnia quæ extant apud Græces, Latinos et Arabes. Venetiis. Junte 1555 CHAP. XIX. Of Infant - Baptifm. INFANT is of baptifmittel. is NFANT-BAPTISM is an ancient practice: but infant-fprinkling is more ancient than the inftitution of baptifm itself. Let no ferious man take offence at the diftinction between baptifm and sprinkling, for it is neceffary in ecclefiaftical hiftory, and it is impoffible to relate with any degree of accuracy the hiftory of baptifm without it. To baptize is to dip: to fprinkle is to scatter in drops. The application of water to infants in these two modes forms an hiftory naturally divifible into two diftinct branches.. The dipping of children for a religious purpose rifes to view at a certain period in the ecclefiaftical hiftory of Chriftians: the sprinkling of children. is an article of pagan mythology, and it is traced by antiquaries from monument to monument on Roman and Etrufcan remains till it hides itfelfin depths of the most remote antiquity (1). Among the Pagans, it was luftration: when it first appeared in the church it was under the name of exorcifm when the monks united exorcifm with baptifm it became confounded with baptifm itself: and in the end it came forward, and fupplied the place of it. In a future chapter ON ASPERSION, all this will be investigated at large. At prefent it will be fufficient in brief to observe, that baptifm was univerfally performed by immerfion fingle or trine for the firft thirteen hundred years (2): that from thence till after the reformation it was generally performed by trine immerfion: that pouring or fprinkling began to be allowed for baptifm only in the eighth century in cafes of neceffity: and that in this country fprinkling was never declared valid ordinary baptifm till the affembly of divines in the time of Cromwell, influenced by Dr. Lightfoot, pronounced it fo (3). In the Eaftern and Greek churches it (1) GORII Museum Etrufcum. Florentia. 1737. Tom. ii. Tab. clxxii. Figure in fepulchro marmoreo. Addo, etiam, Etrufcos compluribus fæculis ante Numam Pompilium in ufu habuiffe baptifma i. e. afperfio, vel luftrat. in facris.] MICHAEL. ANGEL. CAUSSEI DE LA CHAUSSE De infignib. pontific.Max. flamin. dialis. TAB. v. Afpergillum, five afperforium ex equinæ pilis. confectum quo facerdotes aquam luftralem afpergebant. Apud GREVII. thefaur, antiq. Romanar Tom. v. (2) JAC. BASNAGII Thefaur. Monument. ecclef. et hiftoric. five HENRICI CANISII lectiones antiq. digeft. Antverpiae. 1725. Tom. i. Cap. v. De ritibus. Jam fatis de immerfione, quæ per tredecim fæcula perfeveravit dictum. Nune de numero immerfionum. (3) MARTINI GERBERTI. S. Blafii Abbat. Vetus liturg. Aleman. Typis San-Blafianis. 1776. Tem. ii. Difq. v. Cap. i. De baptifmo. TAB. VI. Baptifmus Chrifti... Naaman fe lavans... TAB. VII. Vita S. Nicolai. Infantum baptifma. Ex rotulo bibl. Cafanatenfis Romæ. n. 3. hath &c. hath been invariably administered by dipping from the first introduction of it to this day (4). Before the hiftory of infant-baptifm be inveftigated, it is above all things neceffary to define the terms, especially the word infant. The neceffity of doing fo is obvious: for, on the one hand, divines, who defend infant-baptifm, do fo by proving the antiquity of pedo-baptifm; and, on the other, undoubted monuments fhew that ПAIΣ did not fignify a natural' infant, and that Chriftians in the fifth century did baptize boys. Many fuch will be mentioned hereafter: at prefent two may ferve to prove that a definition of terms is fuggefted not by caprice, but by a real ftate of facts. The firft is a Greek infcription on a fepulchral monument, which was taken out of the church-yard of St. Agnes at Rome, and was firft published by that learned antiquary Raphael Fabretti, and fince with amendment's by Montfaucon. In this, a child of eight years and five months old is called παιδα. ΜΗΝΟΦΙΛΟΝ ΤΑΦΟΣ OYTOC ΕΚΕΙ ΠΟΛΥΠΕΝΘΕΑ This tomb contains Menophilus, an infant to be lamented with many tears: whom, adorned with the beauty of the three graces, cruel fate fnatched away from his unfortunate parents. Here you behold him, who lived eight years and five months (5). The fecond is a Roman infcription published by Father Mabillon, who received it from Fabretti, while he was making that collection, which he afterward made publick. This fpeaks of the baptifm of a child of fix years of age in the fifth century. The learned and ingenuous father inferted it in a small but ineftimable treatise addreffed to his brethren to direct the ftudies of young monks, and, among many other curious articles, he advises them to take hints from fuch monuments as this, and inquire why the primitive Chriftians deferred baptifm, and whether infant-baptifm were practifed before the fifth century. This is the infcription (6).. (4) DR. KING's Rites of the Greek church. Euchologion.. TZANFURNARI Menalo-gia. (5) MONTFAUCON Ital. p. 321. Bati.. (6) MABILLON Traite des etudes Monaftiques. A Paris. 1691. pag. 561. Siecle v. zoit-on les petits enfans avant ce fiecle? Quel fentiment avoit on de ceux qui demuroient Long temps fans fe faire batizer? Les princes ont-ils pu obliger les Juifs a fe batizer? V. DE LAUNOY. NICOLAI. NATU NATU SEVERI NOMINE PASCASIUS ET RUFO VVCC CONSS. QUI VIXIT XI. KAL. MAIAS ET ALBAS SUAS OCTABAS PASCAE AD SEPULCHRUM DEPOSUIT DIIII. KAL. MAI. FL BASILIO V. C. CONS. This infcription fays: Pafchafius was born on the fourth of April in the year four hundred and fifty feven, Conftantine and Rufus being confuls: that he was baptized at Eafter on the twenty first of April in the year four hundred and fixty-three, in the confulfhip of Bafil: and that eight days after he gave up his life along with his white baptifmal garments, being fix years of age. It is in fuch monuments as these, and not in vague lexicons, or in the treacherous disputations of polemical writers, that the history of ecclefiaftical rites is to be fought; and the prefent inquiry feems on this principle not improper. It is generally fuppofed, the baptifm of children was firft mentioned at Carthage in the third century, and Tertullian, who first mentioned it, wrote a book to fhew the reasonablenefs of baptizing as the church at Carthage did, and to expofe the impropriety of baptizing children. Hence it is inferred, that fome Chriftians in the third century did baptize infants, although the church at Carthage did not. There is, alfo, a report, that infants had been baptized before this time at Alexandria (7). The facts will be examined in their proper places: now, it is only obferved in general, that, fuppofing infants were baptized in the early ages of the church, the terms ought to be defined. Baptifm in the third century fignified dipping, and infant-baptifm was the dipping of an infant: but the meaning of the word infant cannot be determined when it ftands alone, or when it is connected with baptifm only for the queftion will always be afked, Who is an infant? Is it a natural infant, or is it an infant in law, that is, a minor? If it fignify a minor, it may ftand for an infant, and it may not, and circumftances must be examined to determine the point. Now, there are four unquestionable evidences of the pofition, that the words infant, child, and all others fynonymous, as wais, Beεpos, Boεquation, puer, puerulus, parvulus, infans, infantulus, cild, lything, barne, figliulo, piccierillo, infante, (7) DR. WALL'S Hiftory of Infant-Baptifm. Origen.. Tertullian...Nazianzen, ... Vossi Thefes, De Baptifmo. infanta, |