allowed, and publifhed is in thefe words (5): "Although baptifm may be adminiftered, either by dipping, pouring, or fprinkling: yet pouring is to be observed as the cuftom of the church of Rome, and it is done by pouring three times. It is not lawful to depart from this cuftom, except in cafes of neceffity." In foreign rituals of the fixteenth century, the prieft is directed to take the child into his own hands, and, when he shall have baptized him, and raised him out of the font, to deliver him to the fponfors (6). In later rituals the fponfors are directed in the rubricks to hold the child, and pictured as ftanding backward with their feet, leaning the upper part of their bodies forward, and holding a naked child over the font, while the prieft is pouring water over him (7). In rituals of the laft century, the children are reprefented clothed except the head, and the fponfor holding only that over the font. In that, which was printed for the ufe of the English feminary at Douay in Flanders, in the year fixteen hundred and four, the prieft is directed to take the infant into his hands, and baptize him by trine immerfion, invoking the holy trinity, in the following manner (8): " He fhall dip him once with his face toward the Weft, and fay, I baptize thee in the name of the Father; then he fhall dip him again with his face toward the South, and fhall fay, and of the Son; and then he fhall dip him a third time with his face toward the water, and fhall fay, and of the Holy Ghoft. Amen."

In this country and in Ireland the practice of dipping hath always flood and yet ftands cftablifhed by law. In the twelfth century a council in Ireland ordained that children fhould be baptized in pure water by trine immerfion. But, as a proof that a hiftory of facts cannot be collected from mere laws, it may be obferved that the Irifh baptized by plunging their children in milk, and were fuperftitious enough to imagine that every

(5) Ordo baptizandi, expurgatus ab inquifitore generali BERNARDO DE SANDOVAL..VENETIIS. ....Ordo baptizandi, c. fecund. morem ROMANE ecclefiæ....Ordo baptizandi, c. fecund. ufum regni NEAPOLITANI et SICILIA, &c. &c. Quamvis baptifmus poffit conferri, vel per immerfionem, vel per ablutionem, vel per afperfionem; fecundus tamen modus, qui eft juxta confuetudinem Romanæ Ecclefiæ, fervandus eft, idque fiat trina ablutione. Aqua confuetudine non licet, nifi in cafu neceffitatis, recedere.

(6) Ordo Neapel. Sacerdos accipiat puerum diligenter, et baptizet; et cum refurrexerit de fonte compatres et commatres tangant puerum, &c.

(7) Ordo Venet. 1612. nunc ad meliorem formam reda&us. Tunc patrinus, five matrina admoveat manus baptizando, et facerdos baptizans femel dicat. Ego te baptizo in nomine Patris X et Filii et Spiritus Sancti x Amen. Ad fingulas cruces fundens aquam baptifmi fuper caput baptizandi...JOAN. STEPH. DURANTI. De ritibus eccles. Cathol. Parifiis. 1631. Lib. i. Cap. xix. Ritum Baptizandi fub trina immerione vel afperfione hactenus Romana fervavit Ecclefia.

(8) Sacra Inftitutio Baptizandi, Matrimonium celebrandi, infirmos ungendi, mortuos fepeliendi, ac ali non nulli ritus Ecclefiaftici, juxta ufum infignis Ecclefie Sarifburienfis....Duaci. 1604. permifi fuperiorum. pag. 23. Sacerdos....baptizet eum fub trina immerfione, &c.

part fo plunged became invulnerable (9). In the fame century a council at York ordered that baptifm fhould always be performed by trine immerfion, and pouring was allowed only in cafe of neceffity as at Rome. In fucceeding centuries the fame order was frequently repeated in different fynods (1). In times nearer the Reformation, as the inferior clergy were extremely ignorant, and the people if poffible more fo than they, and all of them utterly incapable to determine what was law, learned canonifts drew up fmall manuals, which contained extracts from the provincial conftitutions of Archbishop Peckham, and others, and put them into the hands of both priests and people for a fort of pocket companions to direct them in all emergencies how to discharge their offices with saf ty.

At the Reformation in fome of the firft rituals publifhed by authority, there is a fhort preface, which fays, "Baptifme in the old time was not commonly miniftred but at two tymes in the yeare, at Eafter and at Whitfuntyde, at which times it was openly miniftred in ye prefence of all the congregation (2). Which cuftome (now being growne out of ufe) although it cannot for many confiderations be wel reftored again, yet it is thought good to folow y fame as nere as conveniently may be." Then it proceeds to direct that baptifm be administered on a Sunday in a church, "when the moft nombre of people may come together.' "Then, fays the rubrick, the prieste fhall take the chylde in his handes and afke the name and namyng the chyld, fhall dyppe it in ye water thryfe. Fyrft dyppyng the ryght fyde: feconde the lefte fyde: the thyrde tyme dippyng the face toward the fonte....And if the chyld be weake it fhall fuffyce to pour water upon it." In later rituals the rubrick fays, the priest fhall take the child in his hands....and fhall dip it in the water....and if the child be weak it fhall fuffice to pour water (3). The modern rituals fay the fame, and require the font to be "filled with pure water.” On the whole, law and practice were both alike for ages: but when practitioners found law inconvenient and trouble fome in practice, experiment got the better of authority, and in time legiflature thought it the wifeft way to let both alone, as many evils would have attended an alteration of law, and many more a direct prohibition of a very convenient cuftom.

(9) GODOLPHIN's Repertorium.

(1) SPELMAN. Concilia.....CASSIL. 1172.....EBOR. 1195.....LONDIN. 1200.....SALISBUR. 1217.....DUNELM. 1220.....EXON. 1287.....WINTON. 1306.....WIGORN. 1240. Trina femper fiat immerfio baptizandi.

(2) The boke of the common praier, &c. Wigornice in officina JOANNIS OswÆNI cum priv.

Mai. 1549.

(3) The boke of common prayer, &c. Londini, in officina EDOVARDI WHYTCHURCHE. CHM pris. ad imprimendum folum, 1552.

СНАР.

CHAP. XXXVII.

Reformed Baptifm.

N the deplorable ftate mentioned in the preceding chapter the rethey awoke to inquiry. In the firft inftance they determined their own right to inquire; in the next they adjusted their creed; and in the last place they regulated their polity: but in all they retained the original errour. Inquiry is the right of man, and to reafon is to inquire: but faith, not reafon, was made the ground-work of the Reformation, and in the new church as in the old inquiry was monopolized by a facred few, and the reft, as incompetent to an exercife fo fublime, were ordered to obey.

In regard to baptifm, the founders of established reformed churches retained five principal articles. Firft, they imagined a fictitious being, which they called the church, that was themfelves, not the people, but their kings, the clergy in fynod, and as many fathers as they fupposed had been of their fentiments, of whom Saint Auguftine was always one. Secondly, they retained the chief or rather the only reafon for infantbaptifm, original fin: fome with all its frightful confequences; and others with the fame confequences qualified after a certain manner. Thirdly, they united certain invisible benefits with baptifm: fome fuppofed it a phyfical cleanfing from fin; others a conveyance of moral qualities; and others a feal or fign of a contract between Almighty God and the faithful, and the children of the faithful, or, as they by a Jewish figure expreffed it, the feed of the godly, implying that godlinefs, and expressly declaring that fin, were both propagated by natural generation. Fourthly, They confined the adminiftration of it to a clergy. Laftly, They gave the people no liberty of refufal: the alternative was fubmiffion or perfecution. The whole reformation of baptifm, then, lay in difcarding a few of the least popular of the two and twenty exterior ceremonies. How much fuch a reformation contributed to the real improvement of society, or the advancement of virtue, is not a queftion of this place.

However various the objections of different reformers against the feveral parts of papal baptifm were, none, except the Socinian and other Baptifts, touched either the theological bottom of original fin, or the

civil ground, abfolute power of impofing religion on babes, which are the true and real bafes of infant baptifm.

Some English reformers objected against the ceremonies. Thus in a book printed abroad in the reign of Mary: "For befydes that they [the facraments] are miniftred in an unknown tunge, howe be they defyled with mens tradicions, and beggarly ceremonies? unto the facrament of baptifme, they putte Heathenifh rites and wicked coniuracions. For Baals priefte, before the childe can be baptized, bewytcheth the water, fhutteth the church doore, coniureth the deuel out of the poore youge infaunte, befpueth the chylde with his vile fpitle and ftincking flaueringe, putteth falte in the chyldes mouth, fmereth it with greafye and unfauer oyle, &c. And withoute these apyfh toycs, they make the people beleue, that the baptifme is nothig worth. Ah good Lord, is this any other thing than a playne laughing to fcorne of thy' dere foñes inftituceo? Do thefe Papiftes, by adding beggarly ceremonies, anye other thinge than fet thy Sonne Chrifte to fchole, and auance theyr owne flefhly imaginacio aboue the wyfedome of the Lorde Chrifte (1) ?"

The Reformers objected, alfo, against the administration of baptifm in Latin, an unknown tongue. Thus Tyndale: "Baptym hathe alfo his worde and promyfe whyche the preeft ought to teache the people and chryften the in the Englyfhe tonge, and not to play the popуngaye with Credo faye ye, Volo faye ye, and baptifmum faye ye, for there ought to be no mummynge in fuch a mater (2).

Bishop Ridley did not think it much fignified: "Although I wolde wifshe baptifme to be geve in the vulgar toung for the peoples fake which are prefente, that they may the better underftande their owne profeffion, and alfo be more hable to teache their childre the fame, yet notwithstanding ther is not lyke neceffitee of the vulgare tounge in baptifme, and in the Lorde's fupper. Baptifme is geve to children, who by reafon of their aege are not able to understande what is fpoken unto them what tounge foever it be (3)."

They did not object against the mode in ufe but explained and confirmed it. Thus Tyndale: "The plungynge into the water fignifieth that we dye and are buryed with Chryft as concernynge the old lyfe of fynne

(1) An humble fupplication unto God, for the reftringe of hys holye woorde, unto the churche of Englande, mofte mete to be fayde in these our dayes, euen with tears of euery true and faythful English barte. Imprynted at Strafburgh. 1554.

(2) The Obedyence of a Chryften Man, &c. By WILLIAM TYNDALE, otherwyfe called HYCHINS, Prynted at Malborove, in the lande of Heffe, by HANS LUFT. The viii. day of Maye. Anno M. D. XXVIII. Fo. Ixxv. Baptym.

(3) Certe godly, learned, and comfortable conferences, betweene the tavo Reuerende fathers and bolye martyrs of Chrifte, D. Nicolas Rydley late Byfshoppe of London, and M. Hughe Latymer fometyme Byfshope of Worcester, during the tyme of theyr empryfonmentes, M. D. LVI.

which is Adam. And the pullynge out agayn fygnyfyeth that we ryse agayne with Chryfte in a newe lyfe (4).' "Mafter.

Thus the matter is defcribed in King Edward's Catechifm. Tell me (my fonne) how thefe two facramentes be miniftred: baptifme: and that which Paul calleth the fupper of the Lord? Scholar. Hym that beleveth in Chrift: profeffeth the articles of the Chriftian fayth: and myndeth to be baptifed (I fpeake nowe of the that be growe to ripe yeres of difcretion: fith for the yōg babes, theyr parentes or the churches profeffio fufficeth) the minifter dyppeth in, or wafheth with pure and cleane water onlye, in the name of the Father, and of the Sonne, and of the Holy Ghoft: and the commendeth him by praier to God, into whose churche he is now openly as it wear enrowled, that it may please God to graunte him hys grace, whereby he may answer in belefe and life agreablye to his profeffion (5)."

The Reformers wifhed for a further Reformation. Thus Dr. Edwin Sandys Archbishop of York, in his will. "Fourthly, concerning rites and ceremonies, by political conftitutions authorized amongft us, as I am and have been perfuaded, that fuch as are now fet down by publick authority in that churche of Englande, are no way either ungodly or unlawfull, but may with good confcience, for order and obedience fake, be used of a good Chriftian; for the private baptifm to be miniftred by women, I take neither to be prescribed nor permitted, fo have I ever been, and prefently am perfuaded, that fome of them be not fo expedient for this church now, but that in the church reformed, and in all this time of the gospell, wherein the feed of the fcripture hath fo long been fown, they may better be difufed by little and little, then more and more urged (6)."

The printed creeds, canons, and rituals of churches refemble the statute laws of a kingdom: but real practice often differs very widely from declared rules both in church and state. This is remarkably true in three great communities of Chriftians in regard to both the mode of baptizing, and the reafon of the practice of infant-baptifm. If by fprinkling be understood fcattering in fmall drops, it must be granted it is contrary to law in the church of Rome, in the Lutheran church, and in the epifcopal church of England (7). In the ftandards of thefe churches baptifm is defined:

(4) Obedyence of a Chryften Man, &c.

(5) THE CATECHISME. Imprynted at London by Jhon Day....and are to be folde at hys. Shop by the litle conduit in Chepefyde at the fygne of the Refurreccion. [printed in 1553.]

(6) RASTALL'S Hiftory of the Antiquities of the Town and Church of Southwell. London. 1787. p. 302. The preamble of the last will and teftament of Edwin Sandys, late Archbishop of York, who died at Southwell 10 July, 1588.

(7) MALLET Encycloped. Afperfion. C'eft l'action d'afperger, d'arrofer, ou de jetter ca & la avec un goupillon, ou une branche de quelqu' arbriffeau, de l'eau ou quelqu' autre fluide. Voyez Goupillon. Ce terme eft principalement confacre aux ceremonies de la religion, pour.

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