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one day, by the twelve apoftles, háth always been objected against this mode of baptizing, and though the answers given by thefe Baptifts are fatisfactory, yet a more fimple account is more fatisfactory.

If the apostles baptized in the manner described in the most ancient monuments, the whole is eafy and artlefs, each might baptize one a minute, and the twelve would baptize the whole three thoufand in two hours and five minutes in the forenoon, and the fame time in the afternoon. The Chriftians of the middle ages, whofe monuments remain, baptized in the following manner. The adminiftrator walked into the water, leading the perfon to be baptized (1). At first, all baptifteries were funk in the ground, and were kept at between three and four feet water by pipes always conveying in, and by wafte pipes always carrying off the overplus (2). In later times, fome were large baths above ground, into which the candidates went by afcending three fteps without fide, and by defcending three within fide, and the adminiftrator ftood on one fide without, and fo administered the ordinance (3). There is, it is said, such a ciftern now in the church of Cranbrooke in Kent: but fmaller than the ancient baptifteries. Some had ornamented roofs fet on pillars, and the fteps of those in the ground were three (4). The administrator, whether in or out of the water, ftood on the right fide of the candidate, his face looking to his fhoulder. The candidate ftood erect, and the adminiftrator, while he pronounced the baptifmal words, laid his right hand on the hind part of the head of the candidate, and bowed him gently forward, till he was all under water (5). Hence baptifm was taken for an act of

(1) S. AMBROS11 de Sacram. Lib. i. Cap. v. Tunc defcendat, qui baptizandus eft.... S. GREGORII de Sacram. Lib. De Sab. Pentecoft. Orationes ante defcenfum fontis....oratio poft defcenfum....Ordo Roman. de Sab. San&t. Antequam defcendatur ad fontem ad baptizandum legitur lectio prima....poft afcenfum vero fontis ingrediendum eft ad miffam publicam.

(2) P. M. PACIAUDI. Antiq. Chriftian. Diff. i. Cap. i. Receptaculum pifcina diceretur; nam quum hominem mergi oporteret, ac fi in Jordanem fefe immitteret, aquam fuperfluere neceffe erat. Caufa etiam hinc in promptu eft, cur folertes, piique epifcopi baptifteriis condendis loca fontibus, ac rivulis irrigua potiffimum deligerent....F. I. DUNODE Hift. de l'Eglife de Befançon.....D. BERTOLI Antichita di Aquileia.

(3) P. M. PACIAUDI De facris Chriftianorum balneis....PAULINI Nolan. ad Aleth. Epift. xxxi. quatuor columnis falientes aquas ambiens.

(4) ISIDOR. Hifpalenfis. de Div. Offic. Lib. ii. Cap. 24. Fons autem origo omnium gloriarum eft, cujus feptem gradus funt, tres in defcenfu, propter tria, quibus renunciamus; tres in afcenfu propter tria quæ confitemur, feptimus vero is eft, qui et quartus, fimilis filio hominis, extinguens fornacem ignis, ftabilimentum pedum, fundamentum aquæ, in quo omnis. plenitudo divinitatis habitat corporaliter....F. ALCUINI De Div. Offic. Cap. de Sabbato. Sancto. tres in defcenfu, tres in afcenfu, &c.

(5) See page 6. PAULI ARINGHI Roma Subterranea. Tom. ii. Lib. vi. Cap. iv. De Baptifmo.. Tabula Secunda Cemeterii Pontiani via Portuenfi....JOAN. CIAMPINI vet.. Monimenta.... Ejufdem de facris Ædificiis Synopfis....Schema crucis Messanenfis apud Paciaud. ut fup.

divine worship, a ftooping, and paying a profound homage to God. The baptized perfon raised himself up, and walked out of the water, and another candidate followed, the adminiftrator ftanding all the time erect in his place. This method hath more than antiquity to recommend it. It is fo easy to the adminiftrator, fo perfect an immerfion, fo difengaged to the candidate, fo free from giving pain to the fpectators, a method fo decent and expeditious, that it is a wonder it is not univerfally practifed. It requires for a middle-fized perfon, on condition of a proper genuflexion, which it is almoft impoffible to avoid making in the adminiftration, three feet of water, and for a very tall man three feet and a half. There are, as was obferved before, the remains of many ancient baptifteries abroad, in which are various antiquities defcriptive of this mode (6). The bishop ftood in the water, and the candidate in his baptifm bowed forward under his hand, which is the meaning of Prudentius, when he speaks of baptizing the breaft (7), and of Tertullian, when he fays, Chriftians of his time were baptized by bowing down with great fimplicity, without pomp, and in few words (8). The Baptift churches, it may be hoped, will forgive this animadverfion. It is the glory of their conftitution, that an individual may propofe his opinion, and that nobody is obliged to adopt it.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF BAPTISM BY THE DUTCH BAPTISTS.

The Dutch Baptifts reject infant-baptifm, and adminifter the ordinance only to fuch as profefs faith and repentance: but they baptize by pouring (1). They affign in general fix reasons for the baptifm of believers,

and

(6) SCIPION. MAFFEI Verona Illuftrata. Par. iii. Cap. iii.....SERVIAN. LATUADE Defcrizione Milan. Tom. iv... . .A. S. MAZZOCHII. Diff. Hiftorica de Cathed. Eccles. Neapolitana, Cap. iii. iv.....De baptifteriis Florentino, Pifano, Veronenfi, Parmenfi Urbevetano, Novarienfi. Tergeftino, &c. &c. Vide PACIAUD. De Antiq. Chriftian. Diff. ii. De baptifteriis....De copia aquarum in baptifteriis....De Sacellis in baptifteriis....De Donariis in baptifteriis....De Supplicationibus ad Fontes, &c. Cap. i. ii. iii, iv. v.

(7) PRUDENTII Psychomachia.......Dans impenetrabile tegmen Pectoribus lotis, dederat quibus illa renafci.

(8) TERTULLIANI De Baptifmo. Cap. ii." Quoniam tanta fimplicitate fine pompa, fine apparatu novo aliquo, denique fine fumptu homo in aquam demiflus, et inter pauca verba tinctus"....qui demiffo animo eft. CICERO....Demiffo capite terram intueri. CÆSAR.......... Demitto auriculas. HORATIUS Sat. i. ix. 20.....Demitto, deorfum mitto. GRAMMATICI. Tum breviter Dido, vultum demiffa, profatur....VIRG. Æn. i. 565. Suppliciter venerans demiffo lumine Turnus....IBID. xi. 220.

(1) JOHANNIS RISII, et LUBBERTI GERHARDI fidei confeffio Mennonitarum. Art. xxxi. Aqua baptizantur in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, qui doctrinam fancti evangeli audiunt, credunt, et libenter, pœnitenti corde, accipiunt. Tales enim juffit Chriftus baptizari, fed neutiquam infantes.

4 A 2

HERMANNI

and the rejection of infants The firft is, the command of Christ in the twenty-eighth of Matthew, Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them: firft teach them, then baptize them. The fecond is, the neceffary prerequifite, a perfonal profeffion of faith, of which infants areincapable: the eunuch afked, What doth hinder me to be baptized? Philip. answered, If thou believeft with all thine heart thou mayeft. The third is, that profeffing of Chriftianity, which is expected of the perfon baptized: as many of you as have been baptized into Chrift, have put on Christ. The fourth is, the habit of living, which is required both at and after baptifm, which is repentance and newnefs of life: Repent, and be baptized: fo many of us as were baptized into Jefus Chrift, fhould walk in newness of life. The fifth is, the fign and feal of communion with Jefus, both in his death and refurrection: So many of us as were baptized into Jefus Christ were baptized into his death: in baptifm ye are rifen with him through faith of the operation of God. The fixth is, the ftipulation of the baptized to devote themfelves wholly to the fervice of God: baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft. In defence of thefe principles they quote the conceffions of both Catholicks and Proteftants, as of Witfius, Limborch, Voffius, and many other learned men, as well as the arguments of writers of their own community: who all give a verdict against the competency of infants to partake of this ordinance, but they hold themselves bound to nothing but their own fense of fcripture (2).

so

Menno, the father of the Dutch Baptifts, fays, "after we have searched ever fo diligently, we fhall find no other baptifm befides dipping in water [doopfel inden water] which is acceptable to God, and maintained in his.

HERMANNI SCHYN. Hift. Mennonitarum. Cap. iii. Mennonitarum fententiæ de adultorum baptifino.

MENNONIS SIMONIS Opera. Fundamentum Chriftianæ Do&trina....De vera Chriftiana fide ....Declaratio Chriftiani baptifmi in aqua....Expofit. Pfal. xxv............. Caufa cur MENNO Semonis non ceffat docere et fcribere, &c.

MARTINI DUNCANI. Anabaptift. hæres. confutatio Antwerpiæ. 1549

Fluctitat Amfterodamica fæx, ftat lege Senatus

Cum populo firma. Turba retineta cadit, &c.

(2) HERMANNI WITS. Oecon. Fad. S. xli.....Exercitat Academ. Ex. ix. De Efficacia Baptifmi.

PHILIPPI A LIMBORGH Theol. Chriftian. pag. 614. Nullum illius [podobaptifmi] extat in fcriptura mandatum. Imo omnia loca, quibus baptizandi mandatum continetur, directe adultos refpiciunt: quoniam prius doceri jubentur, fidefque tanquam conditio neceffaria in ipfis prærequiritur, quæ folorum adultorum propria funt. In genue agnofcunt pontificii doc

tores, &c.

GER. JOH. VOSS11 Thefes theol. De Baptifmo.

MONTANUS De Nullitate podobaptifmi. Belgice....MENNONIS SIMONIS Opera....GALENI ABRAHAMS Apologia. Gallice. Amfterdam. 1704, &c.

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word (3)." Menno was dipped himself, and he baptized others by dipping but fome of his followers introduced pouring, as they imagined through neceffity, in prifon, and now the practice generally prevails. The candidate kneels, the minifter holds his hands over his head, the deacon pours in water, which runs through on the top of the head. Then follow impofition of hands and prayer. The narrator of this obferves, "that the requifition of faith and repentance in the Dutch baptifms keeps the world and the church afunder, as baptifm was intended to do, for, adds he, where the baptizing of infants prevails there is no world, all are church (4)."

ENGLISH-AMERICAN BAPTISM.

During the reigns of the Stuarts perfecution fell with intolerable weight on the Baptifts in England, and they fled into America. Their hiftory hath been lately written by one of their minifters (1). They have continued ever fince to believe the doctrine, and practise the discipline of the Calvinist churches of their mother-country, fo that their baptifm resembles that of the English Baptists, and there is no need to attempt a defcription of it here.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF BAPTISM BY THE GERMAN BAPTISTS IN AMERICA.

The German Baptifts in America, called Tunkers or dippers, baptize fo as to include the principal forms of the English, the Dutch, and the Greeks (1). The adminiftrator with the candidate goes into a river. The candidate kneels down in the water, and the adminiftrator puts his hand on his head and bends him forward till he is immerfed; he does this three times pronouncing during the ceremony the ufual baptismal words. The baptized continues kneeling till the adminiftrator prays, and lays on hands, then he rifes and departs. Trine immersion is very eafily performed this way: kneeling feems ill-timed, but the reflection of the hiftorian, that it doth not reprefent a burial, is not quite accu

(3) MENNONIS SIMONIS. Opera. 1539. pag. 24.

(4) MORGAN EDWARDS. Materials toward a Hiftory of the Baptifts in Penfylvania. Vol. ir pag. 94.

(1) In two volumes 8vo. By the Rev. ISAAC BACKUS, the first at Boston. 1777. the fecond at Providence. 1784.

(1) M. EDWARDS, as before, page 67.....LUDWIG. Tauchen oder Tuncken: to duck, dive, or flounce, under water.

rate;

rate; for to bury, in a figurative fenfe, which is the fenfe of the apostle Paul, is to conceal, to hide, to put out of fight, to cover, and in the prefent cafe to cover with water. It is not the posture of the body, but the overflowing of the water that seems to be intended. Thus it is faid buried in fnow, buried in thought, buried in the world, buried in books; and in this sense ecclefiaftical writers understood a being buried in water in baptifm (2): not for the expofure of a corpfe, but for the covering of a man, as Jefus was covered in the grave.

The first English Baptifts, when they read the phrase buried in baptifm, instantly thought of an English burial, and therefore baptized by laying the body in the form of burying in their own country, but they might have observed that Paul wrote to Romans, and that Romans did not bury, but, burned the dead, and buried nothing of the dead but their ashes in urns, fo that no fair reafoning on the form of baptizing can be drawn from the mode of burying the dead in England.

CHA P. XXXIX.

The true Ground of Action in Religion.

N general there are only two grounds of action in religion, force and

I choice, but Itrialy Ipeaking, there are three, which may for called

for distinction fake, power, paffion, and reason: but the laft is the only fafe ground.

POWER IS NOT A RIGHTEOUS GROUND OF ACTION.

Power over religion and confcience is iniquitous in every form. If it be exercised by a ftate, it is civil tyranny: if by a council or a fynod, by one ecclefiaftick or more, it is ecclefiaftical tyranny: if by a parent or a mafter, a guardian, or a tutor, it is domeftick tyranny; the fame thing in different hands. Jefus foretold, that such an unnatural dominion would

(2) GREGORII NYSSEN. Orat. de Baptif. Nos baptifma affumentes ad imitationem Domini, in terra quidem non fepelimur, fed ad terræ cognatum elementum venientes, in illa, ficut falvator in terra, abfcondimus.....HONORI Auguftodun. De Cæn. Dom. Serm. Triduo Domino confepelimur cum ter undis immerfi quafi terra operimur.

be

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