a

them. And shall here close the discourse only with one general reflection, which may be of some use to vindicate the practice of the present Church, and give satisfaction to such sober dissenters as scruple our office of baptism, for the sake of an innocent significant ceremony or two retained in it. The candid reader may observe throughout this discourse, that not only one or two, but many significant ceremonies were observed by the Ancient Church in the administration of baptism; particularly the sign of the cross was used at least four or five times in the whole process of the action. Therefore they, who now raise objections against the present office, had they lived in the primitive times, must have had much more reason to complain of the ancient practice: And yet we do not ordinarily find objections raised against the baptism of the Church, upon the account of the ceremonies she used therein; no, not even by those who in other things differed from her. Which consideration, methinks, should a little satisfy those, who really value the peace and unity of the Church, and be an argument to them not to dissent from the practice of the present Church, for those things which must more forcibly have obliged them to have been dissenters in all ages. I know not how far this consideration may prevail upon any, but I know how far it ought to prevail upon all that love the peace, and study the quiet of the Church, and therefore I could not but in this place here, seasonably suggest it..

.

CHAP: V.

Of the laws against Rebaptization both in Church' and

State..

SECT. 1.-But one Baptism, properly so called, allowed by the Church and why?!

To what has been said about baptism, it will not be im proper to add something about the laws made both in Churchi and State, against the repetition of it, when once duly performed. The Ancients generally determine against a re

of imposition of hands descends from the Acts of the Apostles; yet in many places it was observed rather for the honour of the chief priesthood, than for any absolute necessity of the thing. For otherwise, if the Spirit was only obtained by the prayer of the bishop, those men must be in a deplorable condition, that were baptised in villages and castles and remote places by presbyters and deacons, and died before the bishop could come to visit them." All therefore that was necessary to salvation, was conferred in baptism, which ministered such a portion of the Spirit, as was sufficient to cleanse men from sin, and qualify them for eternal life. So that when some of the Ancients say, "That baptism does not minister the Spirit, which was only given by imposition of hands in confirmation," as Cornelius pleads in his letter against Novatian; and Tertullian, who says, "that we do not obtain the Holy Ghost in baptism, but are only cleansed in the water, and prepared for the Holy Ghost;" they are to be understood, as meaning only that the Holy Ghost is not given in that full measure at baptism, as afterward by imposition of hands. They do not deny, that baptism grants men remission of sins by the power of the Holy Ghost; but only, that there are some further effects and operations of the Holy Spirit, which are not ordinarily conferred on men but by the subsequent invocation of the Spirit, the increase of which men were to desire, and to receive imposition of hands in order to obtain it. In which sense it is said in the Gospel, "that the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because the Apostles had not yet received that plentiful effusion of it in the gift of tongues, which they afterwards had on the day of Pentecost," though they had before received such a measure of it, as both enabled them to work several sorts of miracles, and also qualified them in every respect for the kingdom of Heaven.

qui in Villulis aut in castellis aut in remotioribus locis per presbyteros et diaconos baptizati ante dormierunt, quàm ab episcopis inviserentur.

1 Ap. Euseb. lib. vi. cap. xiii. Τετε μὴ τυχών, πῶς ἂν το 'Αγίω Πνευ ματος ἔτυχε. • Tertul. de Bapt. cap. vi. Non quòd in aquâ Spiritum Sanetum consequamur, sed in aquâ emundati, sub angelo Spiritui Sancto præparamur.

VOL. III.

Y

SECT. 8.-How they punished those that neglected it.

But though the Ancients did not think this imposition of hands so absolutely necessary, as that the want of it should exclude those, who were baptised, from the kingdom of Heaven: yet they thought fit to punish the neglect of it, by setting some marks of disgrace and public censure upon such, as voluntarily and carelessly omitted it, when they had opportunity to receive it. Such men were ordinarily denied the privilege of ecclesiastical promotion and holy orders. As appears from the objection made against Novatian, "that he ought not to be ordained, because being baptised privately with clinic baptism, he had afterward neglected to receive his consummation from the hands of the bishop, which he ought to have done by the laws of the Church," and to this purpose the Council of Neo-Cæsarea has a canon, forbidding such to be ordained; which is made part of the code of the Universal Church. The Council of Eliberis also excludes such, as have not " Lavacrum integrum," their own baptism completed by imposition of hands, from the privilege of giving baptism to others, which in cases of necessity they allowed to all other laymen. So far they thought fit to discountenance the contempt and neglect of confirmation, though they neither esteemed it a distinct sacrament from baptism, nor of absolute necessity to salvation, but only as a proper means to strengthen men in their Christian warfare.

CHAP. IV.

Of the remaining Ceremonies of Baptism following Confirmation.

SECT. 1.-Persons newly baptised, clothed in White Garments.

MUCH about the same time as the unction of confirmation was administered to persons newly baptised, they were also

1 Euseb. lib vi. c. 43.

Con. Eliber, can. 38.

2 Con. Neo Cæsar. can. 12.

clothed in white garments. In the Latin Church it came immediately before confirmation; but in the Greek Church it seems to have followed after. For Cyril of Jerusalem speaks of it as following the unction.' This was to represent their having" put off the old man with his deeds, and having put on the new man Christ Jesus." Hence they were called Aεvxεμovšvτes, et Grex Christi Candidus et niveus, the white flock of Christ, as we find in Lactantius and many others. Palladius, in the Life of St. Chrysostom, notes it particularly, as a great piece of barbarity in Arcadius, that, when St. Chrysostom's presbyters in his exile had baptised three thousand persons at one festival, the Emperor sent his soldiers to disperse them, as they were evxELμOVÕVTES, clothed in their white garments. This was otherwise called, the garment of Christ, and the mystical garment. For so Socrates* and Sozomen speaking of the ordination of Nectarius, bishop of Constantinople, which was immediately given him after his baptism, say, " He was ordained whilst he had his mystical garment on," meaning this white robe, which had just before been given him at his baptism. St. Jerom also, writing to Fabiola, seems to allude to this, when he says, "We are to be washed with the precepts of God, and when we are prepared for the garment of Christ, putting off our coats of skins, we shall put on the linen garment, that hath nothing of death in it, but is all white, that rising out of the waters of baptism, we may gird about our loins with truth, and cover the former filthiness of our

'Cyril. Catech. Myst. iv. n. 2.

χρὴ λευχειμονεῖν διαπαντὸς, &c.

Ενδυσάμενος τὰ πνευματικὰ λευκὰ, 2 Lactant. Carmen de Resur. Dom.

Fulgentes animas vestis quoque candida signat,

Et grege de niveo gaudia pastor habet.

-Moschus Prat. Spir. cap. ccvii. 'Idóvre aúrýv λevkopopšσaι, &c. Paulin. Ep. 12. ad Sever. p. 145.

Unde parens sacro ducit de fonte sacerdos

Infantes niveos corpore, corde, habitu.

8 Pallad. Vit. Chrysost. cap. ix..

Socrat. lib. v. cap. viii.

Sozom. lib. vii. cap. viii. Týv μvsikýv šodñтa čтi ýμpieoμévos, &c. 6 Hieron. Ep. cxxviii. ad Fabiol. Præceptis Dei lavandi sumus, et cum parati ad indumentum Christi, tunicas pelliceas deposuerimus, tunc induemur veste lineâ, nihil in se mortis habente, sed totâ candidâ, ut de baptismo consurgentes, cingamus lumbos in veritate, &c.

breasts." Some also allege two other passages in his Epistles to Pope Damasus,' where he speaks of "his having put on the garment of Christ at Rome." But others who have more exactly considered the time of St. Jerom's baptism, and the same phrase as used by him in other places, more probably conclude, that he means the monastic habit, which he elsewhere calls the garment of Christ, and not the Albes of baptism. However, not insisting on those dubious passages of St. Jerom, the ancient custom is sufficiently attested from other authors.

SECT. 2.-These sometimes delivered to them with a solemn Form of Words.

Some of which also tell us, that these garments were wont to be delivered to the neophytes with a solemn form of words, in the nature of a charge: such as that in Gregory's Sacramentarium, "Receive the white and immaculate garment, which thou mayest bring forth without spot before the tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ, that thou mayest have eternal life. Amen."

SECT. 3.-Worn eight Days, and then laid up in the Church.

These garments were commonly worn eight days, and then laid up in the church. in the church. St. Austin, or some one under his name, speaks of the Sunday after Easter, as the time

Hieron. Ep. lvii. ad Damas. Cathedram Petri, et fidem apostolico ore laudatam censui consulendam; inde meæ animæ postulans cibum, unde olim Christi vestimenta suscepi. It. Ep. lxxviii. ad Damasum. Christi vestem in Romanâ Urbe suscipiens, nunc barbaro Syriæ limite teneor. See Wall of Infant-Baptism, Par. ii. chap. iii. sect. 10. Hieron. Ep. xxii. ad Eustoch. et Ep. xxvii. Epitaph. Paulæ. Gregor. Sacrament. de Bapt. Infant. Vestitur infans, dicente presbytero; "Accipe vestem candidam et immaculatam, quam perferas fine maculâ ante tribunal domini nostri Jesu Christi, ut habeas vitam æternam. Amen." Ordo Roman. de S. Sabbato. Bibl. Patr. Tom. x. p. 83. Deportantur ipsi infantes ante eum, et dat singulis stolam candidam et decem siliquas et chrismale, dicens, "Accipe vestem candidam, &c."

Aug. Hom. lxxxvi. de Diversis, in Octavis Paschæ, tom. x. p. 709. Paschalis solennitas hodiernâ festivitate concluditur, et ideo hodie neophytorum habitus commutatur; ita tamen, ut candor, qui de habitu deponitur, semper in corde teneatur.