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ti-ing. Arcliifynagog. c. l8. Curcellosi Indlt. 1. r, c. 2. 

 § 7. Ainfworth on Gen. xxii. 12. Lightfoot ad Matt. iii. 6. 

 The quelHon of the Pharifees to John the Baptift, "Why 

 baptizeft tfiou :" evidently favonrs the fuppofition, that 

 fuch a cullom exiftcd ; and our Saviour's quellion to 

 Nicodemus, " Art thou a niafter, or teacher, in IfratI, and 

 knoweft not theie thines i" is a manifeft allufion to the 

 cuftom of initiating profclytes by watcr-wafliing or baptizing, 

 who after being lo \va(hed or baptized, were eftecmcd re- 

 generated or born again ; and therefore to a ruUr in IfratI, 

 who could not be unacquainted with thefc things, our .Sa- 

 viour's difcourfe ought not to have appeared fo unintelligible. 

 Origen, in his Com. on Epid. to ihc Romans, c. 6. fays, 

 that Chrilt was baptized by Jolin, not with that baptifm 

 which is in Chrilt, but with that which is in the law ; im- 

 plying, that under the law there was fuch a cuflom of 

 baptizing. See alfo Arrian in EpiiSet. 1. ii. 0.9. 



In the primitive times, this ceremony was performed by im- 

 merfion, as it is to this day in the oriental churchc;^ accord- 

 ing to the original fignificallon of the word. However, it 

 is not improbable, tliat when great numbers were baptized 

 at the fame time, the w.^ter was applied by fprinkling, 

 which was a praftice fufficieiitly familiar to the Ji \vs. The 

 practice of the weftern churches is, to fprinklc the water 

 on the head or face of the perfon to be baptized, except 

 in the church of Milan, in wliofc ntnal, it is ordered, tlial 

 the head of the infant be plunged three times into the 

 water; the minilter at the fame time pronouncing the 

 words " / baptiv.e thee in the name of the Father, the Son, and 

 the Huly Gh'jjl ;^' importing that by tliis ceremony the per- 

 fon baptized is received among the profcflbrsof that religion, 

 which God, the Fat her of all, revealed to mankind by the minif- 

 try of his Son, and confirmed by the miracles of his Spint. 



It is obfervable that the baptifmal form, above cited from 

 St. Matthew, never occurs in the fame words, either in the 

 book of the Afts, or in any of the Epiillcs. But perfons 

 arc required to be baptized in the name of Chrift, or faid to 

 have been baptized into Chrill ; that is, they made a pro- 

 feffion of faith in Jefus, as the Chrill, and acknowledged 

 their obligations to him, by being baptized. Afts, ii. 38. 

 viii. 16. 35. 38. Rom. vi. 3. Gal. iii. 27. But though 

 the form which is in St. Matthew never appears ellewhere, 

 the thing intended thereby is always implied. Nor could 

 any be broug'it to make a profelTion of faith in Jefus, as 

 the Chrill, but upon the fuppofition that he had taught in 

 the name and with the authority of God the father, and 

 had proved his comniiflion by miraculous attellations which 

 could not be denied nor gainfaid. It is obferved that the 

 baptifm of Jefus was, like that of John, a reception to his 

 inllruftion, or information in his dodrine, or concerning 

 him ; as appears from his own injcnftion. Matt, xviii. ly, 

 20 ; and alio from that claufe which has been confulered as 

 the form of Chriftiau baptifm ; which ought to have been 

 rendered not in, but (n;) tinto, into, or upon, the narfie of 

 God, of Chrift, and cf the Holy Spirit. The vcrfion which 

 fome have preferred is, " baptize upon the name of the Fa- 

 ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit ;" i. c. receive 

 them to inftrnftion upon thefe fubjcfts ; thus expreffing 

 what were to be the topics of tiieir information, and what 

 the srreat and diilintruiihing- charafter of the inftitutioii. 



re 



On the part of the baptizer, baptifm was a form of recep- 

 tion to inflruftion ; and on the part of the perfons coming 

 to baptifm, it vi'as an acknowledgment of the truth of the 

 pretenfions of the perfon who baptized, an acknowledgment 

 of his capacity and of his authority to propofe himfelt as a 

 religious inllruftor, and a defire of being initiated into his 

 ff.hool, for the purpofe of conforming to his dilcipliue. 



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Hence it would follow, that " to be baptized unto, or upom 

 Chrift," was a public folcmn profciiion of faith in him. 

 However the baptifm of the Ethiopian minifter by Philip, 

 in a fcene fo private, and before fo few, if indeed before any 

 witnefTes, fccms to be incoiifillcnt with the notion that bap- 

 tifm was a folemn public profeffion of faith in Chrill ; and 

 the rtquifition of a previous verbal declaration of fuch faith 

 totally overturns it. See Cappe's Difl'crtation on Baptifm, 

 in Crit. Rem. vol. ii. p. 102. 



Baptifm is not to be repeated, fince it is a right of initia- 

 tion into Chrill's church. However, thofe perfons might 

 be baptized in the name of Jefus, as the Mcfllah already 

 come, who had before been baptized by John and his dif. 

 ciples into the general expectation of u McCiah ftiortly to 

 be revealed. Compare Afls, xix. 5. Tiie ChriCians in 

 Abyflinia repeat their baptifm annually, on the feiival of 

 Epiphany. The naming of the ba])tized perfon is by no 

 means any part of this inftitution ; and when it is ufcd, is 

 to be coulidcrcd as an addrcfs to the perfon, calling him by 

 his name, rather than as the manner of giving a name to 

 him: though it is probable, that the cullom of naming a 

 child at baptilm might arife from the praflice of the Jew* 

 at their ciivunicifion. Luke, i. 59 — 63. ii. 21. 



A triple immerlioU was at an early peiiod nfed, and con- 

 tinued fur a long time : this wai. to lignify either the three 

 days that our Saviour lay in the grave, or the three perfons 

 in the Trinity. But it was afterwards laid afide, becaufe 

 the Allans uled it ; it was then thought proper to plunge 

 but once. (See ImmitRsion.) Some are of opinion that 

 fprinkling in baptilm was begun in cold countries. It was 

 introduced into England about the begiimlng of the ninth 

 century. Ac the council of Celchyth, in 816, it waa or- 

 dered, that the pricll lliould not only fprinkle the holy wa- 

 ter upon the head of the infant, butlikewife plunge it in the 

 bafon. Some have referred the introduction of fprinkling 

 in the church of Rome to a canon yf pope Stephen III., 

 who, during his relidence in France, in 754, was confnlted 

 by fome monks of CrefTy in Britanny w;th regard to feve- 

 ral quellions ; one of which is faid to have given occafion to 

 the firll authentic law for adminillciing baptilm by pouring, 

 which in time wa.s interpreted to fignity fprinkling. Tlie 

 queftion propofed was, whetlier in cafe ui ncceffitv occaG- 

 oned by illncls of an infant, it were lawful to baptize by 

 pouring water out of the hand or a cup on the iiead of the 

 infant ? To which Stephen replied, that if fuch a baptifm 

 were performed in fuch a cafe of ncccflity, in the name of 

 the holy Trinity, it iliould be held valid. This, fays the 

 learned James Balnage (Monum. vol.i. prjcf. c. v. ^.4. de 

 Canonc Stcph. III. Papje), is accounted the firll law for 

 fprinkling, but it doth not forbid dipping ; allowing it only 

 in cafe of iain.inent danger. He adds, that the authenticity 

 of it is denied by fome Catholics ; that many laws were 

 made after this time in Germany, France, and England, to 

 compel dipping, and without any provilion for cales of ne- 

 cefiily ; and therefore that this law did not alter the mode 

 of dipping in public baptifnis, and that it was not till 557 

 years after, that the legiflature, in a council at Ravenna, 

 in the year 13 1 1, declared dipping or fprinkling indifferent. 

 It has been alleged, that this anfwer of Stephen is the true 

 origi.i of private baptilm and of fprinkling. The intro- 

 duction of Iprinkliiig inllcad of dipping, in ordinary cafes, 

 into this ifland, is faid to have been tffetled by fuch Eng- 

 lifh, or more llriclly fpeaking Scots exiles, as were difciples 

 of Calvin at Geneva, during the Marian perfecution ; and. 

 it is added, that the Scots CalviiiiUs, who firll introduced 

 fprinkling in ordinary baptifm into the northern parts of the 

 iilaiid, were the importers of it mto the fouthcru. In the 



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