the Greeks often call oppayìs, the sign or seal of the Holy Ghost.' And sometimes the sign of the cross is more distinctly called σαυροειδὴς σφραγὶς, the sign made in the form of the cross, which was used not only in baptising and confirming, but also in the ordination of priests, as I have had occasion elsewhere to shew out of Chrysostom and Dionysius, and in the consecration of the waters of baptism, which is the next thing that comes now in order to be considered.

CHAP. X.

Of the Consecration of the Water in Baptism.

SECT. 1.-The Consecration of the Water made by Prayer. IMMEDIATELY after the unction the minister proceeded to consecrate the water, or the bishop if he were present consecrated it, while the priests were finishing the unction. For so the author under the name of Dionysius represents it. "While the priests," says he," are finishing the unction, the bishop comes to the mother of adoption,” (so he calls the font,)" and by invocation sanctifies the water in it, thrice pouring in some of the holy chrism in a manner representing the sign of the cross." This invocation or consecration of the water by prayer, is mentioned by Tertullian. For he says, 5" The waters are made the sacrament of sanctification by invocation of God. The Spirit immediately desends from Heaven, and resting upon them sanctifies them by himself, and they being so sanctified, imbibe the power of sanctifying." And Cyprian declares," that the water must

1 Con. Gen. Constantinop. i. can. vii.

2 Book iv. chap. vi. s. 12.

Chrys. Hom. Iv. in Matth. p. 475, Dionys. de Hierarch. Eccl. cap v. p. 312 and 314. Dionys. de Hierarch. Eccl. cap. ii. p. 253. Avròç ini τὴν μητέρατῆς υἱοθεσίας έρχεται, καὶ τὸ ταύτης ὕδωρ ταῖς ἱεραῖς ἐπικλησε καθαγιάσας, &c.

5 Tertul de Bapt. cap. iv. Sacramentum sanctificationis consequuntur, invocato Deo. Supervenit enim statim Spiritus de cœlis, et aquis superest, sanctificans eas de semetipso, et ita sanctificatæ vim sanctificandi combibunt. Cyprian. Ep. lxx. ad Januar. p. 190. Oportet verò mundari et sanctificari aquam priùs à sacerdote, ut possit baptismo sua peccata hominis, qui baptizatur, abluere.

first be cleansed and sanctified by the priest, that it may have power by baptism to wash away the sins of man." And so the whole Council of Carthage,' in the time of Cyprian, says," the water is sanctified by the prayer of the priest, to wash away sin." Optatus has respect to this, when speaking of the name of Piscis, 'Ixus, the technical name that was given to Christ, from the several initial letters of his titles, which signifies a fish, he says, "this is the fish," (meaning Christ,) " which is brought down upon the waters of the font in baptism by invocation and prayer." St. Austin often mentions this invocation in his books of baptism. "That water is not profane and adulterated, over which the name of God is invoked, though the invocation be made by profane and adulterous men." In another place, he says,* "This invocation was used both in consecrating the waters of baptism, and the oil for unction, and the eucharist, and in giving imposition of hands. And the sacraments were valid, though it were a sinner or a murderer that made the prayer." And again, answering the objection of the Cyprianists and Donatists, "that a wicked man or an heretic could not sanctify the water," he says," 5 66 every error in the prayer of consecration does not destroy the essence of baptism, but only the want of those evangelical words," he

'Con. Carthag. ap. Cypr. p. 233. Aqua sacerdotis prece sanctificata abluit delicta. 2 Optat. lib. iii. cont. Parmen. p. 62. Hic est piscis, qui in baptismate per invocationem fontalibus undis inseritur. 8 Aug. de Bapt. lib. iii. cap. x. Non est aqua profana et adultera, super quam nomen invocatur, etiamsi à profanis et adulteris invocetur.

* Id. de Bapt. lib. v. cap. xx. Si ergò ad hoc valet, quod dictum est in Evangelio, Deus peccatorem non audit, ut per peccatorem sacramenta non celebrentur; quomodò exaudit homicidam deprecantem, vel super aquam baptismi vel super oleum, vel super eucharistiam, vel super capita eorum, quibus manus imponitur? Quæ omnia tamen et fiunt et valent etiam per homicidas, &c.

* De Bapt. lib. vi. cap. xxv. Si non sanctificatur aqua, cùm aliqua erroris verba per imperitiam precator effundit, multi non solùm mali, sed etiam boni fratres in ipsâ Ecclesiâ non sanctificant aquam. Multorum enim preces emendantur quotidiè, si doctioribus fuerint recitatæ, et multa in eis reperiuntur contra fidem catholicam. Nunquid si manifestarentur aliqui baptizati, cùm illæ preces dictæ super aquam fuissent juberentur denuò baptizari ?-Certa illa evangelica verba, sine quibus non potest baptismus consecrari, tantum valent, ut per illa sic evacuentur quæcunque in prece vitiosâ contra Regulam Fidei dicuntur, quemadmodum dæmonium Christi nomine excluditur.

means the form of baptising in the name of the Trinity instituted by Christ, without which baptism cannot be consecrated) "for otherwise, if the water were not consecrated, when the minister uses any erroneous words in his prayer, then not only wicked men, but many good brethren in the Church did not sanctify the water: for many of their prayers were daily corrected, when they were rehearsed to those that were more learned, and many errors were found in them contrary to the catholic faith." Yet they that were baptised when such prayers was said over the water, were not baptised again. This is a plain evidence, that prayers of consecration were then generally used both among the Catholics and Donatists, though neither the use nor the orthodoxy of them were reckoned to be of absolute necessity to the very being and essence of baptism, which might consist with great errors in such prayers. It were easy to add many other testimonies of this ancient practice out of St. Ambrose,' St. Basil, Theodoret, Gregory Nyssen, Theophilus of Alexandria, Victor Uticensis, and some others. But I think it needless to repeat them all at length, after such full evidence from St. Austin and those writers that came before him.

SECT. 2.-An ancient Form of this Prayer in the Constitutions.

Only I shall add two or three observations more concerning this prayer of consecration, which may give a little light to some usages and some doctrines also of the ancient Church. And first, we find, that as they had forms for other parts of the divine service, so they had a form for this consecration-prayer, or benediction of the water; though that not so universal and invariable as the form of baptism. For St. Austin observes, "that the one never varied, but the

Ambros. de Sacram. lib. i. c. v. lib. v. c. ii. De Spir. Sancto, lib. i. c. vii. Basil. in Psal. xxviii. It. de Spir. Sancto. c. xxvii. Theodor. in 1 Cor. vi. 11. tom. iii. p. 144. Nyssen. de Bapt. Christ. tom. iii. p. 370. It. adv. eos qui Baptism. differunt, tom. ii. p. 219. Theophil. Ep. Paschal. i. Bibl. Patr. tom. iii. p. 87.

• Victor.

Utic. de Persec. Vandal. lib. ii. p. 602. Gelas. Cyzicen. et Pseudo-Athanas. De Communi Essentia, &c.

other was subject to some errors and corruptions, by reason of the liberty that was left to human composers." One of these forms is now extant in the Constitutions,' which it will not be amiss here to insert, it goes under the title of a thanksgiving over the mystical water. The priest blesses and praises the Lord God Almighty, the Father of the only begotten God, giving him thanks, for that he sent his Son to be incarnate for us, that he might save us; that he took upon him in his incarnation to be obedient in all things, to preach the kingdom of Heaven, the remission of sins, and the resurrection of the dead. After this he adores the only begotten God, and for him gives thanks to the Father, that he took upon him to die for all men upon the cross, leaving the baptism of regeneration as a type or symbol of it. He further praises God, the Lord of all, that in the name of Christ and by the Holy Spirit, not rejecting mankind, he shewed himself at divers times in divers providences towards them; giving Adam an habitation in a delicious paradise; then laying upon him a command in his providence, upon the transgression of which he expelled him in his jus tice, but in his goodness did not wholly cast him off, but disciplined his posterity in divers manners, for whom in the end of the world he sent his Son, to be made man for the sake of men, and to take upon him all the affections of men, sin only excepted. After this thanksgiving the priest is to call upon God, and say "Look down from Heaven, and sanctify this water; give it grace and power, that he that is baptised therein, according to the command of Christ, may be crucified with him, and die with him, and be buried with him, and rise again with him to that adoption which comes by him; that dying unto sin, he may live unto righteousness." Any one that will compare the form in our Liturgy, with this ancient form, will find a great resemblance between them, both in the thanksgiving and the particular prayer of consecration.

SECT. 3.-The Sign of the Cross used in this Consecration.

Secondly, I observe, that together with this prayer, it was usual to make the sign of the cross also, not as before,

Constit. Apost. lib. vii. cap. xliii.

upon the person to be baptised, but as a circumstance of the consecration. This we learn not only from Dionysius,' but from St. Austin, who says, "the water of baptism was signed with the cross of Christ." And St Chrysostom says, "they used it in all their sacred mysteries; when they were regenerated in baptism, when they were fed with the mystical food in the eucharist, when they were ordained, that symbol of victory was always represented in the action, whatever religious matter they were concerned in." To which we may add the author under the name of St. Austin, who runs over all the solemn consecration of the Church, and tells us, "the symbol of the cross was used in every one, in catechizing of new converts, in consecrating the waters of baptism, in giving imposition of hands in confirmation, in the dedication of churches and altars, in consecrating the eucharist, and in promoting priests and Levites to holy orders."

SECT. 4.-The Effects and Change wrought by this Consecration, the same as in the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist.

Thirdly, I observe concerning the effects of this consecration, that the very same change was supposed to be wrought by it in the waters of baptism, as by the consecration of bread and wine in the eucharist. For they supposed not only the presence of the Spirit, but also the mystical presence of Christ's blood to be here after consecration. Julius Firmicus, speaking of baptism, bids men here" seek

Dionys. de Hier. Eccl. cap. ii. p. 254. * Aug. Hom. xxvii. ex 50. tom. x. p. 175. Quia baptismus, id est, aqua salutis, non est salutis, nisi Christi nomine consecrata, qui pro nobis sanguinem fudit, cruce ipsius aqua signatur. 3 Chrys. Hom. 54. al. 55. in Mat. p. 475. ed Commelin. Πάντα δι' αὐτῷ τελεῖται τὰ καθ ̓ ἡμᾶς· κἂν ἀναγεννηθῆναι δέη, σαυρὸς παραγίνεται· κἂν τραφῆναι τὴν μυτικὴν ἐκείνην τροφὴν· καν χειροτονηθῆναι, &c. Aug. Hom. 75. de Diversis, in Append. tom. x. p. 702. Hujus crucis mysterio rudes catechizentur, eodem mysterio fons regenerationis consecratur, ejusdem crucis signo per manûs impositionem baptizati dona gratiarum accipiunt. Cùm ejusdem crucis charactere basilicæ dedicantur, altaria consecrantur, altaris sacramenta cum interpositione dominicorum verborem conficiuntur. Sacerdotes et Levitæ per hoc idem ad sacros ordines promo5 Firmic. de Error. Profan. Relig. c. xxviii. Quære fontes ingenuos, quære puros liquores, ut illic te post multas maculas cum Spiritu Sancto Christi sanguis incandidet.

ventur.