not mean any new forms of prayer instituted by the Church, but the very form of baptism instituted by Christ, which they rightly suppose to be an invocation of the Holy Trinity: in which sense, no baptism can be duly performed without an invocation to consecrate the water, though it may be performed in times of exigency, without the additional prayers of the Church.1

CHAP. XI.

Of the different Ways of Baptising by Immersion, Trine Immersion, and Aspersion in the Case of Clinic Baptism.

SECT. 1.

All Persons anciently divested in Order to be baptised.

HAVING thus far considered all things preceding the very act of baptising, we are now to inquire into the manner how that was usually performed, whether by dipping and total immersion, or by aspersion and sprinkling, which is now the more general practice of the Church. There is no question made but that either of these ways does fully answer the primary end of baptism, which is to purify the soul and not the body, by washing away sin. But yet the Ancients thought, that immersion or burying under water, did more lively represent the death and burial and resurrection of Christ, as well as our own death unto sin, and rising again to righteousnes: and the divesting or unclothing the person to be baptised, did also represent the putting off the body of sin in order to put on the new man, which is created in righteouness and true holiness. For which reason they observed the way of baptising all persons naked and divested, by a total immersion under water, except in some paticurlar cases of great exigency, wherein they allowed of sprinkling, as in the case of clinic baptism, or where there was a scarcity of water. That persons were divested in order to be baptised is evident, partly from what has been said before of the unction, which was administered not only on the

1 Vid. Albertin. de Eucharist. lib. i. p. 18. v. 22.

head, but on other parts of the body; partly from express testimonies which affirm it; and also from the manner of baptising by immersion, which necessarily presupposes it. St. Chrysostom speaking of baptism, says,' men were as naked as Adam in paradise,

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but with this difference: Adam was naked because he had sinned, but in baptism a man was naked that he might be freed from sin: the one was divested of his glory, which he once had, but the other put off the old man, which he did as easily as his clothes." St. Ambrose says, " men came as naked to the font, as they came into the world;" and thence he draws an argument by way of allusion, to rich men, telling them, "how absurd it was, that a man who was born naked of his mother, and received naked by the Church, should think of going rich into heaven." Cyril of Jerusalem takes notice of this circumstance, together with the reasons of it, when he thus addresses himself to persons newly baptised: "As soon as ye came into the inner part of the baptistery, ye put off your clothes, which is an emblem of putting off the old man with his deeds: and being thus divested ye stood naked, imitating Christ, that was naked upon the cross, who by his nakedness spoiled principalities and powers, publicly triumphing over them in the cross. O, wonderful thing! ye were naked in the sight of men, and were not ashamed, in this truly imitating the first man Adam, who was naked in paradise, and was not ashamed." So, also, Amphilochus, in the Life of St. Basil, speaking of his baptism," says, he arose with fear and put off his clothes, and with them the old man. And Zeno Veronensis reminding persons of their baptism, bids them rejoice," for they went

4

1 Chrys. Hom. vi. in Colos. p. 1358. Ενταῦθα γυμνότης, κἀκεῖ γυμνότης ἀλλ ̓ ἐκεῖ μὲν ἁμαρτήσας ἐγυμνώθη, ἐπειδὴ ἥμαρτεν· ἐνταῦθα δὲ, ἵνα ἀπαλλαγῇ γυμνᾶται, &c. 2 Ambros. Serm. x. Nudi in sæculo nascimur, nudi etiam accedimus ad lavacrum.—Quàm autem incongruum ac absurdum est, ut quem nudum mater genuit, nudum suscipit Ecclesia, dives introire velit in cœlum ? 3 Cyril. Catech. Myst. ii. n. 2. * Amphiloc. Vit. Basil. cap. v. 5 Zeno Invitat. ii. ad Bapt. Bibl. Patr. tom. ii. p. 442. Gaudere, in fontem quidem nudi demergitis, sed æthereâ veste vestiti, mox candidati inde surgitis, quam qui non polluerit, regna cœlestia possidebit.

down naked to the font, but rose again clothed in a white and heavenly garment, which if they did not defile they might obtain the kingdom of Heaven." Athanasius in his invectives against the Arians, among other things lays this to their charge," that by their persuasions the Jews and Gentiles broke into the baptistery, and there offered such abuses to the catechumens as they stood with their naked bodies, as was shameful and abominable to relate." And a like complaint is brought against Peter bishop of Apamea in the Council of Constantinople under Mennas," that he cast out the Neophytes, or persons newly baptised, out of the baptistery, when they were without their clothes and shoes." All which are manifest proofs, that persons were baptised naked, either in imitation of Adam in paradise, or our Saviour upon the cross, or to signify their putting off the body of sin, and the old man with his deeds.

SECT. 2.—No Exception in this Case either with respect to Women or Children.

And this practice was then so general, that we find no exception made, either with respect to the tenderness of infants, or the bashfulness of the female sex; save only where the case of sickness or disability made it necessary to vary from the usual custom. St. Chrysostom is an undeniable evidence in this matter. For writing about the barbarous proceedings of his enemies against him on the Great Sabbath, or Saturday before Easter, among other tragical things which they committed, he reports this for one, "That they came armed into the church, and by violence expelled the clergy, killing many in the baptistery, with which the women who at that time were divested in order to be baptised, were put into such a terror, that they

2 Con. Constant.

Athan. Ep. ad Orthodoxos, tom. i. p. 946. act. i. p. 53. Ed. Crab. Cum essemus in baptisterio neophytistarum, fine tunicis et calceamentis existentium, venit episcopus noster Petrus, et ejecit nos foras unà cum neophytis, &c. 8 Chrys. Ep.

ad Innocent. p. 680. Γυναῖκες πρὸς τὸ βάπτισμα ἀποδυσάμενοι κατ' αὐτὸν τὸν καιρὸν, γυμναὶ ἔφυγον ὑπὸ τῶ φόβε τῆς χαλεπης ταύτης ἐφόδε· ἐδὲ τὴν πρέπεσαν γύναιξιν εὐσχημοσύνην συγχωρέμεναι περιθέσθαι. Vid. Moschum Prat. Spir. c. 104.

fled away naked, and could not stay in the fright to put on such clothes as the modesty of their sex required. "And that so it was in the case of children also, is evident from the custom of immersion which continued in the Church for many ages; as also from what is particularly said of infants in the Ordo Romanus and Gregory's Sacramentarium, "that after the priest has baptised them with three immersions, they are to be clothed, and brought to the bishop to be confirmed." For this clothing supposes that they were unclothed before in order to be baptised.

SECT. 3.-Yet Matters were so ordered as that no Indecency might be committed.

But yet that no indecency might appear in so sacred an action, two things were especially provided for by ancient rules. First, that men and women were baptised apart. To which purpose the baptisteries were commonly divided into two apartments, the one for the men, the other for the women, as I have had occasion to shew from St. Austin? in another place. Or else the men were baptised at one time and the women at another, as Vossius observes out of the Ordo Romanus, Gregory's Sacramentarium, Albinus Flaccus, and other writers. Secondly, there was anciently an order of deaconesses in the Church, and one main part of their business was to assist at the baptism of women, where for decencies sake they were employed to divest them, and so to order the matter, that the whole ceremony both of unction and baptising might be performed in such a manner as became the reverence that was due to so sacred an action; of all which I have given sufficient proofs in a former Book, which I need not here repeat.

1 Gregor. Sacram. de Bapt. Infant. Baptizat eum sacerdos sub trinâ mersoine, &c. Et vestitur infans. It. Ordo Roman. Cap. de Die Sabbati S. Paschæ. Cùm vestiti fuerint infantes, pontifex confirmet eos. Vid. Athanas. de Parabolis Evangel. q. 94. Tò yàp Karadúσai rò ñaidìov, &c. 2 Aug. de Civ. Dei. lib. xxii. c. 8. 8 Book. viii. chap. 5 Book ii. chap.

vii. s. 1. xxii. s. 8.

4 Voss. de Bapt. disp. i. p. 36.

SECT. 4.-Baptism usually performed by Immersion.

Persons thus divested or unclothed were usually baptised by immersion or dipping of their whole bodies under water, to represent the death and burial and resurrection of Christ together; and therewith to signify their own dying unto sin, the destruction of its power, and their resurrection to a new life. There are a great many passages in the Epistles of St. Paul, which plainly refer to this custom, Rom. vi. 4. "We are buried with him by baptism, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." So again, Col. ii. 12. "Buried with him in baptism; wherein ye are also risen with him, through the faith of the operation of God, who raised him from the dead." And as this was the original Apostolical practice, so it continued to be the universal practice of the Church for many ages, upon the same symbolical reasons as it was first used by the Apostles. The author of the Apostolical Constitutions says, "baptism was given to represent the death of Christ, and the water his burial." St. Chrysostom proves the resurrection from this practice" for," says he, "our being baptised and immerged in the water, and our rising again out of it, is a symbol of our descending into hell or the grave, and of our returning from thence." Wherefore St. Paul calls baptism our burial. "For," says he, "we are buried with Christ by baptism into death." And in another place, when we dip our heads in water as in a grave, 66 our old man is buried;" and when we

rise up again, "the new man rises therewith." Cyril of Jerusalem makes it an emblem of the Holy Ghost's effusion upon the Apostles: for as he that goes down into the water1 and is baptised, and surrounded on all sides by the water; so the Apostles were baptised all over by the Spirit: the water surrounds the body externally, but the Spirit incom

1 Const. Apost.lib. iii. c. 17. Ἐπὶ τοίνυν τὸ μὲν βάπτισμα εἰς τὸν θάνατον Të 'Inoš didóμèvov, tò dè vdwp avti Tapñs. 2 Chrys. Hom. xl. in 1 Cor. p. 689. Τὸ γὰρ βαπτίζεσθαι, και καταδύεσθαι, εἴτα ἀνανεύειν, τῆς εἰς "Αδα καταβάσεως ἐπὶ σύμβολον, καὶ τῆς ἐκεῖθεν ἀνέδε, &c. 8 Chrys. in Joh. iii. 5. Hom. 25. p. 656. Cyril. Catech. xvii. n. 8. p. 247.

VOL. III.

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