tism of new-born babes. They who suppose that because the baptism was performed in the night, and in the prison, it was performed by sprinkling, would do well to consider that they burden themselves with two articles (to mention no more) which it is impossible to prove: the one, that there was no bath in the prison,* and the other, that the keeper and his family did not go out of it. Suppositions may be innocently used as ornaments of well-established facts; and the facts are not less true, though they may be less beautiful, if the suppositions be groundless: but to affirm a conjecture for a fact, and to build a practice on imaginary facts, as if they were truths of demonstration, is a very different process, and to touch the conjecture is to hazard the whole fabrick. The stern and manly conduct of Paul to the magistrates does the highest honour to his character and his doctrine. They had scourged him openly uncondemned, and they would have thrusted him out privily. Now, said the keeper of the prison, depart, and go in peace. No, by no means, exclaimed the apostle, let them come themselves and fetch us out. We are Romans. What dignity of character! About ten years after, Paul wrote to the Christian church in this city, and then there were bishops and deacons in it; of course, it had come to a settlement. This plurality of bishops in one church, in one city, is a case in point against diocesan bishops. The apostle was then in confinement at Rome, and as the Philippians had sent a present to him by Epaphroditus, their messenger, so the epistle is a letter of thanks. It is full of information, and contains not false compliments, but justly merited praise of the amiable dispositions of the people. *« Another objection is thus stated, &c. This case can present no diffi. oulty to the minds of any of you, my brethren, who may have been within the yard of the prison in this city (Calcutta,) or are acquainted with the fact that prison yards in the East, as well as the yards and gardens of private houses, are usually provided with tanks (i. e.) cisterns of water." [Fudson's Sermon on Christian Baptism. Preached in Calcutta, 1812.- p. 14, 15. RECAPITULATION. HAVING gone over a great deal of ground, it cannot be improper to pause, and take a retrospect, collecting, as well as the subjects will allow, the whole into one point of view, in order to retain a general idea of a very diffuse and complex affair. The first chapter attempts to narrate the origin of baptism, and it appears to have originated in an order of God, executed by John in the little kingdom of Judea, then a province of the Roman Empire, in the reign of Tiberias Cæsar. The second inquires what baptism John administered, and shews it was that of immersion in water. The third treats of the persons baptized, and attempts to prove they were only believers, and here Jesus is introduced as Lord of the New Economy. The two next proceed to inquire whether baptism were in use among the Jews before John, or among the Gentiles; and it is shewn that it was not, but was altogether a new and divine appointment. The seventh chapter treats of the improvement of the institution by Jesus Christ. He did not alter the subject, a believer, or immersion, the mode, but he extended the commission to baptize so as to include the Gentiles of that age, and all mankind, who might become his disciples in future ages. The next chapter observes that the congregations collected by the immediate apostles of Christ were baptized by immersion, and that none but believers appear on this occasion; and here ends sacred history, without exhibiting any infant or any sprinkling. The ninth chapter, and the two following, narrate the Eastern, Roman, and Mohammedan favourite practice of bathing, and the twelfth shews that the primitive Christians erected similar buildings for the purposes of sacred bathing, and called them baptisteries, from baptism, which they practised by immersion there. The next four chapters describe several baptisteries, both of eastern and western Christians, and shew that their histories are credible, and their conduct proper only on supposition that they baptized believers by immersion. The seventeenth chapter introduces artists depicting baptism, and unwarily obscuring what they meant to elucidate. The next treats of fonts both natural and artificial, and shews that a contusion of names introduced a confusion of things, by which means the original practice of baptism became more corrupted. The baptism of infants, that is, of minors, so called in general, follows, and here it is observed that the equivocalness of words went to add to the corruption of baptism. The next chapter shews that the weak fondness of parents, and the enthusiasm of the monks helped yet more to corrupt baptism, by transferring to babes an institute proper only for men. The twenty-first chapter, and the two following, shew that Africa, the least enlightened part of the Christian world, cherished the baptism of babes; and that Augustine, a pretended saint, but an illiterate hypocrite of wicked dispositions, brought it to perfection there in the fifth century; but the novel practice had no extent or duration worth mentioning. The next chapter shews how the Easterns depraved the institute, and brought it down gradually to children. Chapter the twenty-fifth examines a pretended canon of some poor African monks, who, to supply their wants, imported African baptism into Spain, in the sixth century. The next chapter shews how the Emperor Charlemagne imposed on the Saxons a law for infant baptism, to serve the political purpose of enslaving them, and others of mankind; and how other despots copied his example, and turned the institute of Christ into an engine of state. The twenty-seventh chapter accounts for the extensive progress of infant baptism, by shewing how well it suited the interest of various classes of men, and the very corrupt manners of those ignorant, enslaved, and barbarous times. Next follows an account of several consequences of making baptism necessary to babes, and so brings on the last stage of the corruption of it, the practice of baptizing infants unborn, who could not be im mersed, but might by art be wetted, and so the priests found themselves obliged to affirm that moistening a part was equal to bathing the whole. This vulgar, indecent, and barbarous farce is yet acted abroad, under the false pretence, that the wise and good Sovereign of the universe hath connected invisible and eternal benefits, not with knowledge and virtue, but with the exercises of a priest, how silly and sordid soever, both he and they may be. However, this whole system is consistent with itself, for if it be once admitted that baptism and eternal life are inseparably connected, the necessity, and even the charity of baptizing every living human animal, follow of course, and the doctrine is established that there is no salvation out of the church. Baptism had been practised many ages, in divers countries, by all sorts of men, and it had been connected with a great variety of other practices. These connections are treated of in the two following chapters, and they all imply that the institute had been made very free with to serve secular interests by men, who had not regulated religion by its only standard the holy scripture, and that even these abuses tell the original form. The thirty-third chapter traces the history of aspersion, and shews that the monks introduced from Pagan rites the practice of sprinkling holy water, which in the end was mistaken for Christian baptism. The next treats of the real practice of primitive baptism, which in some countries truly, and in others falsely is called Anabaptism, and the three following chapters_narrate the present state of baptism in various churches, Eastern and Western, Greek, Roman, Reformed, and Renovated, by the original pattern. Having narrated the several states of this divine institute, the subject closes with an attempt to shew the true ground on which religion in justice ought to rest; and as baptism is a positive institute, both commanded and exemplified, a list is given of all the first churches, in which there does not appear any sprinkling, or so much as one infant, whence the conclusion is, that infant baptism is not of divine appointment, and that Christianity is not in this institute openly or covertly inimical to the birth-rights of mankind; on the contrary, by requiring personal knowledge and virtue, it is the best friend of a good system of civil government, and deserves well of all mankind. It removes ignorance, the bane of virtue, and by educating the world, teaches mankind at once to be both rational and religious, fit members of civil society, and "meet to be partakers of an inheritance with the saints in light.” Page Aeta Sanetorum, 60 or 70 volumes Action, the true ground of, in religion Adult baptism, no connexion with the subject of government, Enon, John's third baptismal station, fully described Ablutions, or washings, were prevalent among all nations 323 501 422 26 49 Ambrosians, books so called 370 Ambrose, governor of Milan, chosen bishop, nominated by an infant 156 425 Anabaptist, is one who is rebaptized 411 Catherine III. of Russia was one 411 412 Different kinds of persons, so called, in general six sorts Anabaptism, Firmilian, Dionysius, the Acephali, Novatus, Novatian, Donatus, &c. all practise it All parties thought it necessary to the purity of their churches 437 410-413 414 416 Antipedobaptists, a name given by Dr. Wall Africa, what is meant by it in ecclesiastical history when the gospel planted in it, not known always trafficked in persons African fathers, but little notion of Christian liberty 262 264 161 162 163 173 183 185 231-249 Amulet represents both the Trinity and baptism to be given to chil- ancient baptisms of a Greek Captain, defining baptism by motions. Note 294 517 Arnoldi, and Dr. H. Schyn, refute the charges against the Dutch Atto's canon against baptizing any who could not say by heart the creed and the Lord's prayer 280 Audofledis, sister to the king of France. dipped three times 375 Austin, baptized more than ten thousand in the river Swale in England 119 Augustine of Africa, his history and character, and effort to bring in the baptism of babes 194-206 the Manicheans deny his ever belonging to them |