6y§- BAP 
Baptifm has been fuppofed by many learned authors-to 
have had its origin from the Jewifii church, in which, as 
they maintain, it was the practice long before Chrift, to 
baptize profelytes or converts to their faith, as part of the 
ceremony of their admiffion ; a pradtke which, according 
to feme, obtains among them to tins day; a perfon turn¬ 
ing Jew, is fir it circumcifed, and, when healed, is bathed, 
or baptized,, in water, in prefence of their rabbins; after 
which he is reputed a good Jew. Others, however, infill 
that the JewiJh profelyre baptifm is not by.far lo ancient, 
and that John the Baptift was the firft adminiflrator of bap-. 
t-ilin among the Jew's. The learned Grotius is of opinion, 
that the rite of baptifm had its origin from the time of the 
deluge ; immediately after which, lie thinks, it was infti- 
t-uted in memory of the world having been purged by wa¬ 
ter. Some learned men think it was added to circumei- 
fion, foon after the Samaritan fchifm, as a mark of dif- 
tindlion to the orthodox Jews. Spencer, who is fond of 
deriving the rites of the Jevvifh religion from the ceremo¬ 
nies of the pagans, lays it down as a probable fuppofition, 
that the Jews received the baptifm of profelytes from the 
neighbouring nations, who were wont to prepare candi¬ 
dates for the more faered functions of their religion by 
a folemn ablution ; that, by this affinity of faered' rites, 
they" might draw the Gentiles to embrace their religion’, 
and that the profelytes might the more eafily comply with 
the transition from Gentilifm to Judaifm. In confirmation 
of this opinion, he obferves, firft, that there is no divine 
precept for the baptifm of profelytes, God having enjoin¬ 
ed only the rite of circumcilion for the admillion of ftran- 
gers into the jewifii religion. Secondly, that, among fo¬ 
reign nations, the Egyptians,, Perfians, Greeks,- Romans, 
and others, it was cuftomary that thofe who were to be 
initiated into their myfteries, or faered rites, fhould be firft 
purified by dipping their whole body in water. That 
learned writer adds, as a farther confirmation of his opi¬ 
nion, that the cup of blefiing likewife, added to the paf- 
chal fupper, fee-ms plainly to have been derived from a 
pagan original: for the Greeks, at their feafts, had one 
cup, called irturr^w a.ya.^8 oasi^oi-®-', ‘ the cup of the good 
demon or god,’ which they drank at the cqnclufion of 
their entertainment, when the table was removed. Since 
then, a rite of Gentile origin was added to one‘of the Jew¬ 
ifii faefiaments., viz. the paUover,.there can be no abfur- 
dity in fuppofing, that baptifm, which was added to the 
other facrament, namely circumcilion, might be derived 
from the fame fource. In the laft place, he obferves, that 
Chrift, in the inftitution of the facraments, paid a pecu¬ 
liar regard to thofe rites which were borrowed from the 
Gentiles: for, rejecting circumcifion and the pafchal fup¬ 
per, he adopted into his religion baptifm and the faered 
cup; thus.preparing the way for the converfion and re¬ 
ception of the Gentiles into his church. 
If baptifm be indeed pradlifed by the Jews, it is' flip- 
poled to imply a regeneration, whereby the prOfelyte is 
rendered a new man, and of a (lave becomes free. The 
effedf of it was that of cancelling all former relations ; fo 
that thofe who were before akin to the perfon, after the 
ceremony ceafed to be fo. It is to this ceremony Chrift is 
fuppofed to have alluded, in his exprefiion to Nicoaemus,- 
shat it was neceifary he fhould be born again, in order to 
become his difciple. The necefiity of baptifm to falva- 
tion is grounded on thofe two fayings of our Saviour : He 
that believetk, and is baptized, flail befaved ; and, Except a 
■man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
the kingdom of God. The ancients did not generally think 
the mere want of baptifm, where the procuring of it was 
impradlicable, excluded men abfolutely from the hopes of 
eternal falvation.. Some few of them, indeed, are pretty 
fevere upon infants dying without baptifm ; and fome o- 
theps feem alfo, in general terms, to deny eternal life to 
adult perfons dying without it : but, when they interpret 
themfelves, and fpeak more diftindily, they make fome 
allowances, and except fev£Tal cafes, in which the want 
t'i baptifm may be fupplied by other!means. Such are, 
r i s m. 
martyrdom, which commonly goes by. the name of Jeconf 
baptifm in men's own blood, in the writings-of the ancients: 
becaufe of the power and efficacy it was thought to have 
to fave men by the invifible baptifm of the Spirit, with¬ 
out the external element of water.. Faith and repentance 
were alfo efteemed a fupplement to the want of baptifm, 
in fuch catechumens as died while they were pioully pre¬ 
paring themfelves for baptifm. Conffantly communica¬ 
ting with the church was thought to fupply the want of 
baptifm, in perfons who had been admitted to communion, 
on a prefumption of their being duly baptized, though the 
contrary afterwards appeared. For infants* dying without 
baptifm, the cafe was thought more . dangerous; as here 
no perfonal faith, repentance, or the like, could be plead¬ 
ed, to fupply the defedt, and walh away original fin : oiv 
this account, they who fpoke moft favourably of them, as* 
Greg. Nazianzen-, and Severus biftiop of Antioch, only 
afiigned them a middle frate. But the Latins, as St. Au~ 
guftin, Fulgentins, Marius Mercator, &c. who never re¬ 
ceived the opinion of a middle ftate, concluded, as they 
could not be received into heaven, they could not be fa¬ 
ved. Pelagius, and his followers,, who.denied original fin, 
afierted, that they might be admitted to eternal life and. 
falvation, though not to the kingdom of heaven ; between 
which they diftinguiftied. Where the fault was not on the 
fide of the child, nor his parents, but of the minifier,- or 
where any unavoidable accident rendered baptifm abfo¬ 
lutely impoflible,. Hincmar, and others, make an excep¬ 
tion, in holding the child faved,. even though baptifm 
may not have taken place. 
The ceremony of receiving baptifm is not limited to- 
any time or age of life. Some indeed have contended for 
its being adminiftered like circumcifion, precifely on the 
eighth day,, as'Greg. Nazianzen ; whilft others would have 
it deferred till the child is three years of age, and able to- 
hear the myftlc words, and make anfwer thereto, though 
he may not underftand them. In the canon law we find 
various injunctions againfi: deferring the baptifm of in- 
.fants beyond the thirty-feventh day, thirtieth day, and the 
9th day; fome of them under pecuniary fines and penalties.. 
Salmafius, and Suicerus from him, deliver it as authentic 
hiftory, that, for the two firft ages, no one received bap-, 
tifm, who was not firft inftrudled 1 in the faith and dodlrine 
of Chrift, fo as to be able to anfwer for himfelf, that he 
believed ; becaufe of thofe words, He that bclieveth, and is. 
baptized ; which, in effedl, is to fay, that no infant, for 
the firft two ages, was ever-admitted to Chriftian baptifm. 
But, afterwards., they own, thatpaedo-baptifm came in, 
upon the opinion that baptifm was neceffary to falvation. 
But Voffius, Dr. Forbes* Dr. Hammond, Mr. Walker, 
and efpecially Mr. Wall, who has exactly confidered the 
teftimony and authority of almoft-every ancient writer up¬ 
on this fubjeft, endeavour to evince, that infants were 
baptized even in the apoftolical age. It is certain,. Ter- 
tullian pleads ftrongly againfi: giving baptifm to infants; 
which /hews, at lead, "that there was fome fuch praftice- 
in his age, though he difapproved of it. It is certain, the 
ordinary fubjedls of this facrament, in the firft ages, were 
converts from Judaifm and Gentilifm, who, before they 
could be admitted to baptifm, were obliged to fpend fome 
time in the ftate of catechumens, to qualify them to make 
their profefiions of faith, and a Chriftian life, in their 
own perfons: for, without fuch perfonal profefiions, there 
was ordinarily no ad-mifiion of them to the privilege of 
baptifm. Thofe baptized in their lick beds were called 
clinici-, and were held in fome reproach, as not being 
reputed true Chriftians. Hence feveral cenfures, in coun¬ 
cils and ecclefiaftical writers, of clinic baptifm. This 
clinic baptifm was not fufficient to qualify the perfon, in 
cafe of recovery, for ordination. Some had their bap¬ 
tifm put off by way of punifirment, when they fell into 
grofs and fcandalous crimes, which were to be expiated 
by a longer courfe of dilcipliqe and repentance. This was 
fometimes five, ten, twenty, years, or more; or even to 
the hour of death, if their.crimes were very notorious. 
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