thereabouts, even those that are not Christians, do -ordinarily put their infant children into the coldest water they can. get, for health's sake, and to harden them; for so the same author tells of the Crim Tartars*, that the Mothers do use to bathe their infants, once a day at least, in cold water, wherein a little salt is dis:solved, to make them hardy." And the success answers, for these are one of the healthiest, hardiest, and most vigorous nations in the world.

But whereas the said doctor says, "that the Must covites glory that they are the only true Christians now in the world, forasmuch as they are baptized, whereas others have been only sprinkled; which is the reason they allege for rebaptizing all such, of what persuasion soever, that embrace their religion." This is neither consistent with the account given by himself, in the same chapter, of their rebaptizations," that even Muscovites, that, having changed their religion in another country, are willing to return to their own communion, must first be rebaptized," nor with the account of the practice of other Greek Christians, who do all baptize ordinarily by immersion, as well as the Muscovites; nor with the account given by other writers, of the practice of the Muscovites themselves; for though Mr. Daille do say much the same of them, as Dr. Crull does here (he does not say quite the same; he says, The Muscovites say that the Latins are not duly and rightly baptized); yet other writers say that the Muscovites themselves do, in case of the weakness of the child, baptize by affusion. Joannes Faber, in an epistle that he has written purposely, of these people's religion, says, "If the child be strong, he is thrice plunged all over; otherwise, he is wetted with the water : but this last is seldom used; conspersio enim minus sufficiens judicatur, for they count sprinkling not so well (or not so sufficient)." And another author, quoted by Mr. Walker, out of Purchas' Pilgrim, part 3,

* Ch. 7, p 112.

+ Ch. 11, at the beginning. L. 2. de Usu Patrum, pag. 148.

p. 229, says, that in such a case, a pot of warm water is poured on the child's head. And another, "The priest pours a whole gallon of water upon the child," &c.

Since the writing of this, I find that Mr. Russen (ch. 5, quoting for it Alvarez, chap. 5) says, "The Abassens baptize in the church-porch, without fonts, with a pot full of water only." I know not what credit is to be given to this. I know that Brerewood does often note Alvarez as an unfaithful relater;-and Brerewood himself, though he says nothing of the manner of their baptizing infants (only, that they do it on the fortieth day for a male, and the eightieth for a female child) yet, speaking of their yearly baptizing themselves on Twelfth Day (not using it as a sacrament, but as a cus tomary memorial of Christ's baptism on that day) says, that they do it in lakes or ponds, chap. 23; which makes that which Alvarez says very improbable.

What was just now mentioned of the Muscovites baptizing stark naked, and dipping three times, is perfectly agreeable to the ancient practice in both the usages. The ancient Christians, when they were baptized by immersion, were all baptized naked, whether they were men, women, or children: -- Vossius* has collected several proofs of this; which I shall omit, because it is a clear case. The English Antipædobaptists need not have made so great an outcry against Mr. Baxter for his saying that they baptized naked; for if they had, it had been no more than the primitive Christians did. They thought it better represented the putting off the old man, and also the nakedness of Christ on the cross: moreover, as baptism is a washing, they judged it should be the washing of the body, not of the clothes.

They took great care for preserving the modesty of any woman that was to be baptized; — there was none but women came near, or in sight, till she was undressed, and her body in the water; then the priest came, and putting her head also under water, used the * De Baptismo, Disp. 1, c. 6, 7, 8.

1

form of baptism; then he departed, and the women took her out of the water, and clothed her again in white garments.

There is an account given by Sozomen of an insult made by the soldiers in the great church at Constantinople against St. Chrysostom and his adherents; and how, on Easter-Eve they rushed in armed: [303] and he adds, "There was a great tumult at the font, the women shrieking in a fright, and the children crying; the priests and deacons were beaten, and forced to run away with their vestments on. What else must

needs happen in such a confusion, they that have been baptized do apprehend; but I shall not express it, lest some that are not Christians do light upon my book."

But St. Chrysostom himself, in a letter of complaint of this matter to Innocent, then Bishop of Rome, describes the foulness of this outrage more particularly: -"The women, who had undressed themselves, in order to be baptized, were forced by the fright of this violence, to run away naked; not being permitted in that amazement to provide for the modesty and credit of their sex and many of them were also wounded; the font was stained with blood, and the holy waters of it dyed with a red colour."

The way of trine immersion, or plunging the head. of the person three times into the water, was the general practice of all antiquity. Tertullian, in a dispute against Praxeas, who held but one Person in the Trinity, uses this among other arguments: -"Our Saviour commanded the apostles, that they should baptize unto the Father, and unto the Son, and unto the Holy Spirit; not unto one Person, for we are not plunged once, but three times; once at the naming of each name." And the fiftieth [alias forty-two] of those canons that are very ancient, though without reason, called Apostolic, orders any bishop or presbyter that does not use the trine immersion in baptism to be deposed.

*H. E. 1. 8. c. 21.

+ Cap. 26.

The antients do themselves own that there is no command in Scripture for this; yet they speak of it as brought into use by the apostles: and it is common with them to urge this custom and some others, as instances that some rites or orders are derived from the apostles' practice, and yet not set down in Scripture. Tertullian, arguing against some that pleaded that "in all pretence of tradition, one must produce some written authority," gives an answer, which I shall here recite at large, because he instances in this and several other customs then received:

"Let us try, then, whether no tradition ought to be allowed that is not written [100]; and I shall freely grant that this need not to be allowed, if the contrary be not evinced by the examples of several other customs, which, without the authority of any Scripture, are approved, only on the account that they were first delivered, and have ever since been used.

"Now, to begin with baptism: When we come to the water, we do there (and we do the same also, a little before, in the congregation) under the hand of the pastor, make a profession that we do renounce the Devil, and his pomp, and his angels. Then we are three times plunged into the water; and we answer some few words more than those which our Saviour in the Gospel has enjoined. When we are taken up out of the water, we taste a mixture of milk and honey : and, from that day, we abstain a whole week from bathing ourselves, which otherwise we use every day.

"The sacrament of the Eucharist, which our Lord celebrated at meal-time, and ordered all to take, we receive in our assemblies before day; and never but from the hands of the pastor.

"We give oblations every year for [or in commemoration of] the dead on the day of their martyrdom ; we count it an unfitting thing to keep any fasts on the Lord's Day, or to kneel at our prayers on that day.

* De Coronâ Militis, cap. 1, 2, 3.

The same liberty we take all the time from Easter to Pentecost.

"We are troubled at it if any of our bread or wine fall to the ground. At every setting out, or entry on business; whenever we come in or go out from any place, when we dress for a journey, when we go into a bath, when we go to meat, when the candles are brought in, when we lie down, or sit down; and whatever business we have, we make on our foreheads the sign of the Cross.

"If you search in the Scriptures for any command for these and such like usages, you shall find none; tradition will be urged to you as the ground of them; custom as the confirmer of them; and our religion teaches to observe them."

Of the oblations and prayers which they made for [or in commemoration of] the dead, as I said before, in the First Part, chap. 20, that they were nothing of the nature of the popish ones; so here it appears; for they used them for martyrs themselves: and though we see here that the Papists were not the first that used the sign of the Cross, yet they are the first that ever taught that it is to be worshipped.

In an epistle of St. Hierom, [278] in form of a dialogue, * one of the parties makes the same use of the same instance of trine immersion as Tertullian does here, saying thus of the custom of confirmation after baptism, which he there proves by Scripture, but adds, "And if there were no authority of Scripture for it, the consent of the whole world in that matter would obtain the force of a precept; for many other things which are, by tradition, observed in the church, have got authority as if they were written laws; as in the font of baptism, ter mergitare caput, to plunge the head thrice under water," &c. St. Basil [260] speaks just after the same manner of the same thing; and St. Chrysostoin [280] says, " Our Lord has delivered to us one baptism by three immersions."

Epist. contra Luciferianos. + Lib. de Spiritu Sancto, c. 27.

‡

Hom. de Fide.