prayer, and other pious exercises. It was to answer for them that sponsors or godfathers were first instituted, though they were afterward admitted also in the baptism of infants.

"There were, twice a year, stated times when baptism was administered to such as, after a long course of trial and preparation, offered themselves as candidates for the profession of Christianity. This ceremony was performed only in the presence of such as were already initiated into the Christian mysteries.

"We have only to add, that none were admitted to this solemn ordinance, until, by the menacing and formidable shouts and declamation of the exorcist, they had been delivered from the dominion of the prince of darkness, and consecrated to the service of God. The origin of this superstitious ceremony may be easily traced, when we consider the prevailing opinion of the times. The driving out of this demon was now considered as an essential preparation for baptism; after the administration of which, the candidates returned home, adorned with crowns and arrayed in white garments, as sacred emblems; the former, of their victory over sin and the world; the latter, of their inward purity and innocence." [3d century.]

History of the Church, by George Waddington, M. A.: "The ceremony of immersion (the oldest form of baptism) was performed in the name of the three persons of the Trinity; it was believed to be attended by the remission of original sin, and the entire regeneration of the infant or convert, by the passage from the land of bondage into the kingdom of salvation."

Text-Book of Ecclesiastical History, by J. C. I. Geiseler: "The custom of considering certain doctrines and rites as mysteries [in the 3d and 4th centuries] would naturally have some effect on the mode of admission to the church. Baptism was preceded by a long preparatory course, during which the catechumens (katechoumenoi) were gradually led, from general religious and moral truths, to the peculiar doctrines of Christianity, by teachers appointed for the purpose, (catechistes,) and must pass through various grades (audientes, genuflectentes, competentes,) before they were deemed fit to be actually admitted. This course usually occupied several years, and often the catechumens voluntarily deferred their baptism as long as possible, on account of the remission of sins by which it was accompanied. Hence, it was often necessary to baptize the sick, and in that case sprinkling (baptismus clinicorum, tou klinikou,) was substituted for the usual rite. The baptism of infants became now more common. The use of exorcism is distinctly mentioned, and all who had been baptized, even the children, partook of the Eucharist.” Cave's Primitive Christianity: The action having proceeded thus far, the party to be baptized was wholly immerged or put under water; which was the almost constant and universal custom of those times, whereby they did more notably and signifi

cantly express the three great ends and effects of baptism. For, as in immersion there are in a manner three several acts, the putting the person into water, his abiding there for a little time, and his rising up again; so by these were represented Christ's death, burial, and resurrection; and, in conformity thereunto, our dying unto sin, the destruction of its power, and our resurrection to a new course of life. By the person's being put into water was lively represented the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, and being washed from the filth and pollution of them; by his abode under it, which was a kind of burial unto water, his entering into a state of death or mortification, like as Christ remained for some time under the state or power of death. Therefore, as many as are baptized into Christ, are said to be 'baptized into his death, and to be buried with him by baptism into death, that, the old man being crucified with him, the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth he might not serve sin, for that he that is dead is freed from sin,' as the apostle clearly explains the meaning of this rite. Then, by his emersion, or rising up out of the water, was signified his entering upon a new course of life, differing from that which he lived before, that, like as Christ was raised up from the dead to the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.""

6

Grotius: "Buried with him by baptism. Not only the word, baptism, but the very form of it, intimates this [immersion]. For an immersion of the whole body in water, so that it is no longer beheld, bears an image of that burial which is given to the dead. There was in baptism, as administered in former times, an image both of a burial and of a resurrection."

Bishop Taylor: "The custom of the ancient churches was not sprinkling, but immersion; in pursuance of the sense of the word (baptize) in the commandment and example of our blessed Saviour. Now this was of so sacred account in their esteem, that they did not think it lawful to receive him into the clergy who had been only sprinkled in his baptism, as we learn from the Epistle of Cornelius to Fabius of Antioch."

Archbishop Usher: "Some there are, that stand strictly for the particular action of diving or dipping the baptized under the water, as the only action which the institution of the sacrament will bear; and our church allows no other, except in case of the child's weakness; and therein is expressed our Saviour's baptism, both the descending into the water, and the rising up."

Church of England: "As we be buried with Christ by our baptism into death, so let us daily die to sin, mortifying and killing the evil motions thereof. And as Christ was raised up from leath by the glory of the Father, so let us rise to a new life, and walk continually therein." In the directions for the "Public Baptism of Infants," the Book of Common Prayer says: "Then

the priest shall take the child into his hands, and shall say to the godfathers and godmothers, 'Name this child.' And then, naming it after them, (if they shall certify him that the child will endure it,) he shall DIP it in the water, discreetly and warily, saying," &c.

Encyclopædia Britannica: "The Muscovite priests plunge the child three times over head and ears in water."-Art. Russia.

Richard Baxter: "It is commonly confessed by us to the Anabaptists, as our commentators declare, that in the apostles' time, the baptized were dipped over head in the water, and that this signified their profession, both of believing the burial and resurrection of Christ; and of their own present renouncing the world and flesh, or dying to sin and living to Christ, or rising again to newness of life, or being buried and risen again with Christ, as the apostle expoundeth, (Col. iii. and Rom. vi.;) and though we have thought it lawful to disuse the manner of dipping, and to use less water, yet we presume not to change the use and signification of it."

To these testimonies from ecclesiastical histories, and others alluding to ancient records, many more might be added; such as testimonies from Du Pin, Milner, and the Roman Fathers, without at all increasing the evidence. For, on reading Mosheim's notices of the three first centuries, we may see the ancient institution and the continual change going on in the concomitant rites and usages, as clearly, though not as fully, as from a thousand volumes. In the first century we have a simple immersion-a few additions in the second-many more in the third-and so on.

We shall, therefore, glance for a moment at the origin and history of sprinkling, and thus add to the chapter of evidence now before us. And with whom should we more naturally commence than with the father of ecclesiastical historians-Eusebius himself?

"Novatus, being relieved thereof by the exorcists, fell into a grievous distemper; and it being supposed that he would die immediately, he received baptism, being besprinkled with water, on the bed wheron he lay, (if that can be termed baptism,) neither when he had escaped that sickness, did he afterwards

*"This word perichutheis, Rufinus very well renders perfusus, besprinkled; for people who were sick, and were baptized in their beds, could not be dipped in water by the priest, but were sprinkled with water by him. This baptism was thought imperfect, and not solemn, for several reasons. Also, they who were thus baptized were called ever afterwards, clinici; and, by the 12th canon of the Council of Neocæsarea, these clinici were prohibited the priesthood."-Eusebius.

receive the other things which the canon of the church enjoineth should be received: nor was he sealed by the Bishop's imposition of hands: which, if he never received, how did he receive the Holy Ghost?"

The canon to which he alludes is the following:

"That they who were baptized in their beds, if they recover again, should afterwards go to the Bishop that he might supply what was wanting in that baptism."

This clinic baptism slowly advanced, but never got into much favor for thirteen centuries. As to the introduction and progress of sprinkling, the Edinburgh Cyclopædia gives the following account:

"The first law for sprinkling was obtained in the following manner: Pope Stephen II. being driven from Rome by Adolphus, king of the Lombards, in 753, fled to Pepin, who, a short time before, had usurped the crown of France. Whilst he remained there, the monks of Cressy, in Britany, consulted him whether, in case of necessity, baptism poured on the head of the infant would be lawful. Stephen replied that it would. But though the truth of this fact be allowed-which, however, some Catholics deny-yet pouring, or sprinkling, was admitted only in cases of necessity. It was not till the year 1311 that the legislature, in a council held at Ravenna, declared immersion or sprinkling to be indifferent. In Scotland, however, sprinkling was never practised in ordinary cases, till after the Reformation, (about the middle of the sixteenth century.) From Scotland, it made its way into England, in the reign of Elizabeth, but was not authorized in the Established Church." Art. Baptism.

Wall, the most learned and able of Pedobaptist writers, gathers up into one paragraph a volume of evidence in attestation of the fact just now asserted. I shall give his words in lieu of a hundred extracts which can be readily gleaned from ecclesiastic writers :

"France seems to have been the first country in the world where baptism by affusion was used ordinarily to persons in health, and in the public way of administering it. They [the Assembly of Divines at Westminster] reformed the font into a basin. This learned Assembly could not remember that fonts to baptize in had been always used by the primitive Christians long before the beginning of Popery, and ever since churches were built; but that sprinkling, for the common use of baptizing, was really introduced (in France first, and then in other Popish countries) in times of Popery. And that accordingly all those countries in which the usurped power of the Pope is, or has formerly been owned, have left off dipping of children in the font:

but that all other countries in the world, which had never regarded his authority, do still use it: and that basins, except in case of necessity, were never used by Papists, or any other Christians whatsoever, till by themselves. What has been said of this custom of pouring or sprinkling water in the ordinary use of baptism, is to be understood only in reference to these Western parts of Europe; for it is used ordinarily no where else. The Greek Church, in all the branches of it, does still use immersion; and they hardly count a child, except in case of sickness, well baptized without it. And so do all other Christians in the world, except the Latins. That which I hinted before, is a rule that does not fail in any particular that I know of, viz. All the nations of Christians that do now, or formerly did submit to the authority of the Bishop of Rome, do ordinarily baptize their infants by pouring or sprinkling. And though the English received not this custom till after the decay of Popery, yet they have since received it from such neighbouring nations as had be-gun in the time of the Pope's power. But all other Christians in the world, who never owned the Pope's usurped power, do, and ever did, dip their infants in the ordinary use." History of Infant Baptism, Part ii. chap. ix.

Bishop Burnet's reason for the change is thus expressed :— "The danger of dipping in cold climates may be a very good reason for changing the form of baptism to sprinkling." Vol. iv., page 162.

HISTORY OF SPRINKLING.

Novatian, as before shown in the histories quoted, had water poured all over him in a bed. This happened not earlier than a. D. 251, probably 253. (Eusebius, p. 114.) About eighty years after this time, when other sick and feeble persons were preferring this method introduced by Novatian, so far as all authentic records inform us, a decree was issued, called "the 12th canon of the Council of Neocæsarea," against such pourings, inhibiting persons so poured upon from any participation in the honours of the ministry or priesthood. Dr. Wall, who cannot be suspected of any partiality to Baptists, or any of us, gives such a history of the introduction of sprinkling and pouring as must satisfy every candid and disinterested man that it came into use by slow degrees, and only in some of the more western parts of the western Latin church, and that for full thirteen centuries the whole world practised immersion, with the exception of invalids and pretenders of inability to endure cold bathing. Bonaventure, in a. D. 1160, alludes to sprinkling in France as becoming