In 858, Nicetas Serronius speaks of those who have been baptized by pouring.* Walapidus Shabo, who flourished about the year 850, says, "many have been baptized, not only by immersion, but also (desuper fundendo) by pouring water on them from above, and they may still be so baptized."t Bede frequently uses the term tingo, abluo, perfundo aqua, in relation to baptism, and represents one Herebaldus speaking of himself as baptized in this way: "I was sprinkled with water."+ In the year 499, Clodovacus, king of the Franks, was baptized by Remigius, archbishop of Rheims, not by immersion, but (per infusionem aquae) by pouring of water."§ Gennadius, of Marseilles, who flourished about the year 490, says, "The person to be baptized makes confession of his faith before the priest, and after confession, he is either wetted with water or plunged into it."|| The centuriators (quoting from Socrates, Lib. 7, Cap. 17) tell us of a celebrated font, "out of which (baptza a to aqua superfusa) water is poured from above on the baptized person." In the year 390, Aurelius Pindentius, a man of consular dignity, a christian and a poet, thus sings in one of his evening hymns: "Worshipper of God, remember that thou didst go under the (rorem sanctum) holy dews of the font and laver," in other words, that thou wast sprinkled in baptism.¶ Dupin states that Constantine the Great, "being clothed with a white garment and laid upon his bed, was baptized in a solemn manner by Eusebius."** Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, a warm hearted christian, and a martyr to his religion, who lived about 150 years after the apostles, speaking of some who were baptized by sprinkling, quotes the language of the prophet Ezekiel: "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean ;" and then he adds, "Hence it appears that sprinkling is of equal validity with the salutary bath."tt *P.Com. on Greg. Ord. p.40. P. De Rebus. Eccl. His. Lib. 5, Cap. 6.. Walker's Doc. Bap. ch. 10, 13. Doc. Bap. ch. 10. **P. Dupin Eccl. His.vol. 2, p. 84. Epis. 7. Cap. 26, p. 415. P. Eccl. Wall p. 466. ¶Walker. tt P. Opera Cyp. Lib. 2, Eusebius mentions Basilides as having been baptized in prison. Novatian, a distinguished philosopher, became a christian about 120 years after the apostles; and says Eusebius, the ecclesiastical historian, who lived not long after Nevatian, being "visited with sickness, baptism was administered to him, according to the custom of those times, by affusion or sprinkling."* Lawrence, who became a christian about fifty years after the apostles, and suffered martyrdom, a little while before he suffered, baptized, with a pitcher of water, one of his executioners.t Irenins, born about the time the apostle John died, speaks of a sect of christians, "who," he says, "baptized by an affusion of water mixed with oil."+ Athanasius, another early father, speaks of a sect who practised "baptism by sprinkling,"◊§ (rantizomenon.) In the time of Marcus Aurelius Antonius, about sixty or seventy years after the apostles, a distinguished bishop decided in a certain case, that "the man was baptized, if he only had water poured upon him," &c.ll Cave states that the primitive christians thought the martyrs "sufficiently qualified for heaven, by being baptized in their own blood."T Athanasius, one of the early fathers, who suffered severe trials and was finally a martyr, speaks "of the baptism of tears."§ Gregory, another father, says, "I know of a fourth baptism, that by martyrdom and blood, and I know of a fifth, that of tears."** Bassil, another father, says of a martyr, "He was baptized with his own blood."** The author of the Responses to Antiochus, (attributed to Athanasius) says, "God hath granted unto man three purging baptisms: that of water, that of the testimony of one's own blood, and that of tears."tt *Euseb. Eccl. His. Lib. 6, Cap. 5 and 43. p. 465. Bap. ch. 10. er Cap.6. Wall's His. Infant Bap. part 2, P. Advers. Haeres. Lib. 1, ch. 23. P. Orat. 3. || Walkre's Doc. ¶ Prim. Chris, part 1, ch 10. seventh ed. of 1728, p. 191. **WalkWalker's Doc. Bap. chap. 6. Lactantius, a noble christian, born in the third century, says Christ received baptism "that he might save the Gentiles by baptism; that is, by the distilling of the early dew," (purifiici roris perfusione.*) "The water of baptism is here represented as falling like dew. Can any, then, be more expressive ?" So Tertullian, who lived within 100 years of the apostles, speaking of a man who had been baptized, says, "Who will accommodate you a man whose penitence is so little to be trusted with one sprinkling of water?" (asperginem unan aque.)† This shows both what was the opinion of Tertullian, and also that sprinkling was a mode of baptism then practised. Clemens Alexandrius, who lived within fifty years of the apostles, says of a backslider whom the apostle John was the means of reclaiming, "He was baptized a second time with tears;"*** a most emphatic expression to show that baptizo means affusion. (Mo. and Sub. Bap. p. 27.) Thus we find, from the foregoing quotations, that, so far from "immersion having been used throughout the whole church as much as possible," sprinkling (or pouring) has been practised in the church up to the very days of the apostles. The informed advocates of immersion meet the foregoing incontrovertible evidence of the uniform (though not universal) practice of sprinkling, by the church, from the earliest ages, by quoting as (we have before shown) they have done the word baptizo, the Greek prepositions, and the writings of those divines who hold to sprinkling, in such a manner that the uninformed are inevitably led to the conclusion, that they held that immersion only was practised in the times of the early fathers: whilst the uninformed boldly deny (as above) "that sprinkling was practised in the church until the 13th century." Thus, from church history it is also evident that the error of immersion was very early in the church, (although not as early as the error of eating and drinking too much at the Lord's supper ;) but as its advocates did not set up for exclusiveness, and as the New Testament has not commanded the mode, (the mode having * Opera Lib. 4, Cap.15. †P. p. 33, De poenitit, Cap. 6. Eusebius Eccl. His Lib. iii. Cap. 20, ed. of 1672. been fixed by the law and the prophets, and as it is probable that the knowledge of the fact that the apostles proved all things from the Scriptures, was soon lost in the early church,) therefore, it is likely that all persons were permitted to be baptized in any mode that they thought the most proper. This accounts for the fact that the mode of baptism was no oftener mentioned in the early history of the church; and not "that sprinkling is a modern innovation." Furthermore, as a great part of the gospels, and almost the entire of the epistles, were written to combat error, if those errors had not arisen or existed, those portions of the New Testament would in all probability never have been written; (and we are indebted to controversy for the most part of the New Testament ;) therefore, if the mode of baptism had been controverted either in the apostles' times or immediately following, it undoubtedly would have been alluded to in the epistles or the writings of the early fathers. But as the church were, in the apostles' times and immediately following, in the practice of proving all things from the Old Testament; and as immersion had not there been foretold, but the "sprinkling of clean water," and the "sprinkling of the nations;" there was no room for either controversy or diversity of opinion, until the church generally had so far "departed from the faith," as to cease "to take heed to the more sure word of prophecy, as to a light that shineth in a dark place," and to "the law and the testimony ;" and to know that “if any man spake not according to this word, there was no light in him." And it may be safely affirmed, that the departing from the "law and the testimony," is the only reason why a portion of the church have "stumbled! fallen! and been broken" (off! from their brethren,) "and snared! and taken" in the error of immersion, and close communion. |