baptism into death; 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.

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The Apostolical Constitutions give the sense thus: 6 Baptism is a representation of Christ's death; the water is that wherein we are buried h And a little after, The immersion is the dying ' with him; and emersion, or coming up from under the water, represents the resurrection.' And therefore Tertullian likewise says, We die symbolically in baptism' upon which words Rigaltius remarks, We are immersed as if we suffered death, and rise ' up out of the water, as reviving again k

And it is worth while to transcribe a passage from St. Chrysostom, where he says, ' To be dipped and plunged into the water, and then to rise out of it again, is a symbol of our descent into the grave, and of our ascent out of it: and therefore 'Paul calls baptism a burial, when he says, we are therefore buried with him by baptism into death'.' I argue further, that this continued to be the practice of the primitive Christians, and of many centuries together. St. Barnabas says in his Epistle,

h Lib. iii. cap. 17.

Τοίνυν τὸ μὲν βάπτισμα, εἰς τὸν θάνατον τοῦ Ἰησοῦ διδόμενον. τὸ δὲ ὕδωρ ἀντὶ ταφῆς. et paulo post: ἡ κατάδυσις, τὸ συναποθανεῖν· ἡ ἀνάδυσις, τὸ συναναστῆναι.

i De Resurrectione, pag. 354. Per simulacrum enim morimur in Baptismate, &c.

Mergimur, quasi mortem subeamus. Emergimus, ut revi

viscentes.

1 Hom. 40. in 1 Cor. tom. iii. pag. 514. Tò yàp Banтičeσbaι kai καταδύεσθαι, εἶτα ἀνανεύειν, τῆς εἰς ἅδου καταβάσεώς ἐστι σύμβολον, καὶ τῆς ἐκεῖθεν ἀνόδου. διὸ καὶ τάφον τὸ βάπτισμα ὁ Παῦλος καλεῖ λέγων, συνετάφημεν οὖν αὐτῷ διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος εἰς τὸν θάνατον.

• We descend into the water full of sins and defile'ment, and come up out of it,' &c. Tertullian almost constantly uses tinguere, mergitare, &c., which signify to dip, and immerse, as properly as he could possibly express it: and in his treatise concerning baptism he has these words, which describe at the same time the custom of that age, and what they took to have been the practice of St. John, &c. 'It is all one,' says he, 'whether we are 'washed in the sea or in a pond, in a fountain or in a river, in a standing or in a running water; nor is there any difference between those that John baptized in Jordan, and those that Peter baptized in the Tiber ".' In another place he says, Our hands are clean enough, which, together with our whole body, we have once washed in Christ ".' And Gregorius Thaumaturgus, speaking of the baptism of Christ, uses kaтádvσov, plunge or dip, as a synonymous word for ẞáπTiσov, dip, plunge me into 'the river Jordan P.'

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Nay, so far were they from contenting themselves with any thing less than dipping, that it is notorious they very strenuously pleaded for, and insisted on a trine immersion. Thus Dr. Beveridge, late bishop of St. Asaph, explains the forty-second of those canons that are ascribed to the apostles;

m Cap. xi. pag. 38. Οτι ἡμεῖς μὲν καταβαίνομεν εἰς τὸ ὕδωρ γέμοντες ἁμαρτίων καὶ ῥύπου, καὶ ἀναβαίνομεν καρποφοροῦντες, &c.

n Cap. 4. Ideoque nulla distinctio est, mari quis an stagno, flumine an fonte, lacu an alveo diluatur. Nec quicquam refert inter eos quos Joannes in Jordane, et quos Petrus in Tiberi tinxit.

o De Orat. pag. 133.

Ceterum satis mundæ sunt manus,

quas cum toto corpore in Christo semel lavimus.

p In Theophan. pag. 35. Κατάδυσόν με τοῖς Ἰορδάνου Ρείθροις.

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which rigidly enjoins, If any bishop or presbyter 'shall administer baptism only by one immersion 'into the death of Christ, and not by three im'mersions, let him be degraded 9.' And Tertullian most expressly says, which evidently demonstrates what was the custom in his time, We are im'mersed not once, but thrice, viz. unto each PERSON ' as he is named ':' or, as the rubric of the present Greek church expresses it, At each compellation 'putting him (viz. the baptized person) down into the water, and raising him up again.' St. Cyril of Jerusalem says very emphatically, 'plunge them 'down, Kaтadvere, thrice into the water, and raise them up again .' Monnulus, bishop of Girba, in his suffrage, which is the tenth in St. Cyprian's account of the council of Carthage, calls it baptismatis Trinitate, says the learned bishop of Oxford, 'because it was celebrated by a trine immersion.'

Instead of more citations from the Fathers, give me leave to mention some of our learned moderns, who upon very nice examination, confirm this to have been the practice of the earliest times. And this I choose rather to do, because at the same time it shews, not only that I am right in my assertion, but also that the most learned and judicious critics acknowledge and confirm the truth of it, which is a double advantage.

4 Εἴτις ἐπίσκοπος, ἢ πρεσβύτερος, μὴ τρία βαπτίσματα μίας μυήσεως ἐπιτελέσῃ, ἀλλὰ ἐν βάπτισμα τὸ ἐς τὸν θάνατον τοῦ Κυρίου διδόμενον, καθαιρείσθω.

r Adversus Praxeam, cap. xxvi. pag. 516. Nam nec semel, sed ter, ad singula nomina in PERSONAS singulas tinguimur. • Catechet. Mystagog. cap. ii. pag. 232.

ὕδωρ, καὶ πάλιν ἀνεδύετε.

[See Cypriani Opera, edit. Fell, p.23 2.]

Καὶ κατεδύετε εἰς τὸ

Dr. Beveridge, whom I named but now, at the beginning of his annotations on the fiftieth canon, and in his Vindication of the Canons against Daillé, largely asserts the trine immersion. So does the learned Dionysius Petavius, in these words: Their 'wonted manner of administering this sacrament was to plunge the persons baptized thrice into the water " &c. And the celebrated Johan. Gerard. Vossius speaks to the same effect in his Etymologicon, at the word baptismus. Casaubon on Matt. iii. 6, says,The form of baptizing was by plunging into the water,' &c. The passage is quoted above at large. Episcopius, in his answer to Quæst. 35, tells us, Those who were baptized by the ceremony of plunging into the water, and rising out ' of it again, declared themselves to be as it were dead,' &c. Mons. Jurieu assures us, in his Pastoral letters, that the ancients used to plunge 'persons into the water, calling on the adorable TRINITY. And in another place, Because bap'tism was then administered by immersion z,' &c. And, a little after, He that was baptized was 'plunged into the water a.'

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u De Pœnitentia, lib. ii. cap. 1. §. 11. Ratio autem solita administrandi hujus sacramenti erat, ut ter in aquam immergerentur qui baptizabantur.

▾ Hic enim fuit baptizandi ritus, ut in aquam immergeren

tur, &c.

x Pag. 34. Nam ii qui baptizabantur, ritu isto immersionis et emersionis testabantur se mortuorum instar esse, &c.

y Let. v. an. 1686. pag. 36. On se contentoit de plonger les personnes dans l'eau, avec l'invocation de l'adorable Trinité.

z Let. vi. an. 1686. pag. 42. Parce qu'alors le batême se faisoit par immersion, &c.

a Celui qui étoit bâtizé, étoit plongé dans l'eau.

Mons. Le Clerc, whom you so deservedly honour for his great learning, says the same thing, on Rom. vi. 4, The manner of baptizing at that time, by 'plunging into the water those whom they baptized, was an image of the burial of Jesus Christ.'

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The learned antiquary, Mr. Archdeacon Nicholson, at present bishop of Carlisle, in his letter to sir William Dugdale, concerning the font at Bridekirk in Cumberland, as it is published in the additions 'to Mr. Camden's Britannia,' takes notice, 'There is fairly represented on the font a person in a long 'sacerdotal habit dipping a child into the water. And presently remarks on it thus: Now, sir, I need not acquaint you that the sacrament of bap'tism was anciently administered by plunging into 'the water, in the western as well as the eastern part of the church; and that the Gothic word AANIIGA, (Mark i. 8. and & ANIIGAN, Luke iii. 7, 12.) the German word tauffen, the Danish word dobe, and the Belgic doopen, do as clearly make out that practice, as the Greek word βαπτίζω.

I will give you but one citation more, which is too remarkable to be omitted. It is Dr. Whitby's Annotation on Rom. vi. 4. It being so expressly

declared here, and Coloss. ii. 12. that we are buried with Christ in baptism, by being buried under water and the argument to oblige us to a conformity to his death, by dying to sin, being taken

La manière que l'on avoit alors de baptizer, en plongeant dans l'eau ceux que l'on baptizoit, étoit comme une image de la sepulture de Jesus Christ.

y Page 841. [or Gough's edition, iii. p. 183. Compare what is said on this subject above, vol. i. p. 86. vol. ii. p. 43. and in the note there.]