that their prayers would be accepted by the God of mercy, through the merits and intercession of a kind Redeemer. In the earliest of the primitive times, the spirit of immediate inspiration had not ceased; and at a later period, the ordinary influence of the same spirit supported them, as it does us, with all joy and peace in believing. And what was the happy consequence? To them, an ineffable devotion, and a thorough prostration of mind, suitable to the great illumination which they enjoyed ;-to us, a worship of God, transmitted through the same pure channel, in the same spirit,. and almost, if not altogether, in the same words with the faithful followers of Christ. But, my soul! let not the spirit of devotion evaporate in the form. The forms, indeed, thus transmitted, and thus received, are excellent; and, when animated with the life-blood of true religion, they effect all that the most aspiring mind can desire. True it is, we are not yet all-spiritual, we are compassed with infirmity; we must not, however, be disappointed if we are not able to accomplish what flesh and blood cannot attain. We must not be discouraged; we must go on unto perfection; we must covet earnestly the best gifts, the spirit of devotion and prayer, the spirit of piety and attention, the spirit of profound meditation on all the sanctifying graces of the gospel, and the spirit of uniting all in the purified and corrected life of a primitive christian.

CHAPTER X.

Of Baptism, and the Administration of it in the primitive Church.

OUR Lord having instituted baptism and the Lord's supper, as the two great sacraments of the christian law, they have accordingly ever been accounted principal parts of public worship in the christian church. Baptism, being the door by which persons enter in the great and solemn rite of our initiation into the faith of Christ, I shall treat first of it; particularly in these four respects, namely, the persons by and upon whom,-the time when,-the place where,and the manner how,-this sacrament was administered in the ancient church.

*

1. The persons by whom this sacrament was administered were the ministers of the gospel, the stewards of the mysteries of Christ, baptizing and preaching the gospel, being joined together by our Saviour in the same commission. It was usually done by the bishop, without whose leave neither presbyters nor deacons might take upon them to baptize, except in cases of necessity. As christianity increased, this became a more familiar part of the presbyters and the deacons' office, and had doubtless been executed by them from the beginning.-[See Acts viii. 38.]

* J. Martyr and Tertullian.

It was also considered necessary, not only that baptism should be conferred by a person called to the ministry, but one that was orthodox in the faith. This occasioned a controversy concerning the rebaptizing of those who had been baptized by heretics.* A custom had prevailed that lay-men might baptize others in cases of necessity, provided they were christians, and baptized themselves. A council declared that, if the persons so baptized lived, they should receive confirmation from the bishop. There is no doubt that this opinion arose from their belief of the absolute and indispensable necessity of baptism, without which they scarce thought a man's future condition could be safe; and, therefore, that it was better that it should be had from any, than to depart this life without it. At the same time, it was ever denied to women, whom the apostle has so expressly forbidden to exercise any ministry in the church of God. However, it crept in in some places, and is allowed and practised by the church of Rome at this day, in cases of necessity.

2. The persons on whom baptism was conferred were infants and adults. The baptism of infunts was a constant practice in the church; and if those who immediately succeeded the apostles be the best interpreters of the laws of Christ, the dispute concerning infant-baptism should be at an end; for that it was always the custom to receive the children of christian parents into the church by baptism, we

* Cyprian's Works.

+ Illiberine Coun. Can. 38.

have sufficient evidence from the greatest part of the early writers.* Cyprian, sitting in council with sixty-six bishops, declared that "it was their universal judgement, that the mercy and grace of God was not to be denied to any, though as soon as he was born." "This," said Augustine, "was no new decree, but kept the faith of the church most firm and sure."

But those who made up the main body of the baptized in those days were adults, who, flocking over daily in great numbers to the faith of Christ, were received in at this door. They were usually for some considerable time catechised and trained up in the principles of the christian faith, till having given testimony of their proficiency in knowledge to the bishop or presbyter, and of their sober and regular conversation they then became candidates for baptism.

3. With respect to time.—At first all times were alike, and persons were baptized as occasion served; but when the discipline of the church became a little settled, it began to be restrained to two solemn and stated times [or seasons] of the year, namely, Faster and Whitsuntide; the former, in memory of Christ's death and resurrection, represented in baptism, dying unto sin, and rising again unto newness of life; the latter, in memory of the Holy Ghost's being shed upon the apostles; the same being, in some measure, represented and conveyed in baptism. At the same

*Irenæus, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, &c.

time, if there was a necessity (as in case of sickness and danger of death) they might be baptized at any other time. It was usual in those times (though solemnly discountenanced by the Fathers) for persons to defer their being baptized till they were near their death, out of a kind of Novatian principle; that, if they fell into sin after baptism, there would be no place for repentance, mistaking that passage of the apostle, where it is said, that, "if they who have been once enlightened (which the ancients understood of baptism) fall away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance."

4. As to the place of baptism, it was at first unlimited; any place where there was water, in pools or lakes, at springs or rivers,* but always near the place of their public assemblies, as it was seldom done without the presence of the congregation. Indeed it was forbidden, except with the leave and approbation of the bishop, that they might be witnesses of that profession and engagement which the person baptized then took upon him. Afterwards they had their baptisteria, or fonts, built at first near the church, then in the church-porch, to represent baptisms being the entrance into the mystical church ; afterwards they were placed in the church itself. They were usually very large and capacious, not only that they might correspond with the custom of persons baptized, being immersed or put under water, but because the stated times of baptism returning so

* Justin Martyr and Tertullian.