He says, that "the Apostles, before the day of Pentecost, administered the baptism of St John to prepare for that grace; that there was no difference, whether persons were baptized in the sea, in a lake, a river, a fountain, a pool, or a basin; that God can accord the grace of Baptism to the faith of him who desires it; that this grace is obtained also by martyrdom. The original sin, with which we are all born, renders Baptism indispensable to us; and we are always impure and guilty in the eyes of God, as long as we are not regenerated in water. Circumcision did. not produce the same effect; it served the Israelites only to distinguish them from other people.

On going out of the water the newly-baptized person receives unction, whereupon the name of Christian devolves on him; afterwards the ceremony of laying on of hands is performed together with the benediction and the invocation of the Holy Spirit." Tertullian could not more clearly designate the sacrament of Confirmation; and one proof of distinction between this sacrament and that of Baptism is that it attributes distinct effects to them; to Baptism the remission of sins; to the unction and laying on of hands, which follow Baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit. He distinguishes in other ways also these two sacraments, when he says: "The flesh is washed to purify the soul; the flesh is anointed to consecrate the soul; on the flesh the sign of the cross is made to fortify the soul; the flesh is enshadowed by the laying on of hands, in order that the soul may be enlightened by the Spirit. The flesh eats the body and blood of Jesus Christ, in order that the soul may be fattened by God himself."

Fotoblit Thi's - Consination.
Chink

Tricalet quotes mostly from Tertullian's "Liber de Baptismo' his "Libri de carne Christi," "Liber de Coron.," Liber de Anima, "Liber de Scorpiac.," "Liber adversus Judæos,” and “Liber adv. Prax.”

XXVI. FIRMILIANUS.

DUPIN does not directly mention Firmilianus among the Fathers of the third century: but in his notice of Cyprian [page, in Dupin, 117,] he says that St Cyprian gave his opinion on the rebaptizing of those persons who had already been baptized by heretics, and desired to be re-united to the Church, to the effect that no baptism was valid out of the Church, so that it was absolutely necessary to rebaptize such persons. Pope Stephen having written an abusive letter on this subject, St Cyprian sent it, among others, to Firmilian, who was of the same opinion as St Cyprian, and Firmilian wrote a long letter confuting the opinion of Pope Stephen.

ADAM CLARKE, in his "Concise view &c." briefly notices that Firmilian took part with Cyprian in the matter above-named and that Firmilian's epistle to Cyprian about it is found in Cyprian's works, Epistle LXXV in Oberthur's edition.

XXVII. ORIGEN.

DUPIN writes fourteen pages on Origen and his works, which are very numerous, but he does not seem to have written directly or much on Baptism, except that I suppose he wrote on it or on Regeneration in his commentaries on St John, consisting of twenty-two tomes or sections. All that Dupin mentions of baptism, in his account of Origen, is that he wrote that it was the duties of the priests and bishops to teach the people, instruct the catechumens, and prepare them for baptism for a considerable They baptized the children, and baptism was never reiterated they anointed those who were baptized with oil: they expelled from the Church such as committed public crimes after baptism.

time.

:

Origen gives seven remedies for sins-Baptism, Martyrdom, Alms-doing, Forgiveness of enemies, Conversion of our brethren, Charity, Laborious Penance, and lastly that Repentance and Unction, of which St James speaks.

The OXFORD TRACT, No 67, thus quotes Origen:

For Regeneration took place not with John, but with Jesus, through his disciples; and that which is called the bath of Regeneration, which takes place with renewal of the Spirit. &c.

The Tract quotes Origen at pages 80, 254, and 259 of the third edition.

The quotation in page 80 is introduced by the Oxford Tract as follows:

The analogy traced by Origen between this miracle and the relation which our Lord's miraculous cure of bodily diseases bore to those of the soul, in itself very striking, may sum up their meaning. "You must know that, as the wonderful miracles in the cures wrought by the Saviour, being symbols of those who were continually, by the word of God, being freed from all sickness and infirmity, nevertheless were profitable, when they took place in the body, inviting to Faith those so benefitted, so also the washing through water, being a symbol of the cleansing of the soul washed from all stain of sin, is in itself also, to him who yieldeth himself to the Divinity of the power of the Invocation of the adorable Trinity, nothing less than the beginning and fountain of divine gifts." COMM. IN JOH., tom. vi, § 17, page 133 ed. De la Rue.

In Greek :

ΤΟ

Χρὴ δὲ εἰδέναι ὅτι ὥσπερ αἱ κατὰ τὰς γεγενημένας ὑπὸ τοῦ Σωτῆρος θεραπείας τεράστιοι δυνάμεις, σύμβολα τυγχάνουσαι τῶν ἀεὶ λόγῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀπαλλαττομένων πάσης νόσου καὶ μαλακίας, οὐδὲν ἧττον καὶ σωματικῶς γενόμεναι ὤνησαν, εἰς πίστιν προσκαλεσάμεναι τοὺς εὐεργετηθέντας· οὕτως καὶ τὸ διὰ τοῦ ὕδατος λουτρὸν, σύμβολον τυγχάνον καθαρσίου ψυχὴς πάντα ῥύπον ἀπὸ κακίας ἀποπλυνομένης οὐδὲν ἧττον καὶ κατ ̓ αὐτὸ τῷ ἐμπαρέχοντι ἑαυτὸν τῇ θειότητα τῆς δυνάμεως τῶν τῆς προσκυνητῆς Τριάδος ἐπικλήσεών, ἐστιν ἡ χαρισμάτων θείων ἀρχὴ καὶ πηγή.

ADAM CLARKE speaks highly of him, and gives a list of his works, both those which are extant in the original Greek, and those which exist in a Latin translation only, the original Greek

having been lost. Dr Clarke says that very few of his works δέ,

have been translated into English.