Maclear and Williams on Article XXVII: Of Baptism

ii. Source. It is difficult to find any exact model, on which the xxviith Article is framed. It bears but little resemblance to any Article in any other Confession, either English or foreign, though a few expressions may be traced to the Sixth ot the Thirteen Articles of 1538.

1 An error of the press for “suscipientes.”

iii. Object. It is directed against two opposite classes of opinion : —

(i) That of those, who, like the Anabaptists, re- garded Baptism merely as a professional badge or sign of membership in the Christian Society, and repudiated Infant Baptism altogether1 ;

(ii) That of those who, like the extreme Mediaeval School, unduly exalted the efficacy of the Sacrament2.

iv. Analysis. The Article begins by asserting (i) What Baptism is not, and (ii) What it is : —

(1) ” It is not only a sign of profession, and mark of difference, whereby Christian men are dis- cerned from others that be not christened3 ;

(2) But it is also a sign of Regeneration4 or new Birth, whereby, as by an instrument5,

1 ” Because they admit not original business, as that of the painter, the sin, they (the Anabaptists) also refuse surgeon, the fowler, the huntsman, the baptisme of chyldren, and in as Comp. Pliny, Epp. iii. 19, 3. Here muche as in them lyeth, they drawe the figure seems to be taken from the awaye the moste parte of men from grafting-knife of the gardener, whereby God, and eteinall salvation.” Her- he grafts a shoot of one tree into the mann’s Consultation, T. vii. Lond., branch of another, and by the union 1547. produces fresh life. Comp. Bucerus

3 The Latin here is ” a non Chris- fusion of grace, useth the sacramentes tianis.” not as a bare signe, but as an instru-

4 In 1553 the Latin ran “signum rue/it, with whiche and by whiche it regenerationis ” as now, but the English pleaseth hym to worke them ” ; Ridley, was “a signe, and seale of our newe Disputation at Oxford, “This Sacra- birth.” In 1563 it was altered to “a ment [the Eucharist] hath a promise signe of regeneration or newe byrth.” of grace, made to those that receiv

(a) They that receive Baptism rightly are grafted1 into the Church ;

(/3) The promises of the forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed2,

(7) Faith is confirmed,

(8) And Grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God3.”

v. Infant Baptism. Having stated thus much con- cerning Baptism generally, the Article proceeds to speak of Infant Baptism. And here it differs considerably from the original draft of 1553. Then the clause ran, “The custome of the Church to christen yonge children, is to bee commended, and in any wise to be reteined in the Churche4.” This clause is simply permissive and almost apologetic. In the Article, as altered in 1563, a different complexion was given to it. “The Baptism of young children,” ran the amended clause, ” is in any wise5 to be retained in the Church, as most agreeable with the institu- tion of Christ.”

[…]

2 It is noticeable that in the Latin text of 1563 there is no comma after ” per Spiritual sanctum.” The clause runs without break “per Spiritum sanctum uisibihter obsignantur.”

3 ” Ui diuinrc inuocationis.” The words seem rather to mean ” by virtue

of the invocation of the Divine Name,” that Triune Name, which is invoked in Baptism and by our Lord’s express command forms an essential part of the Baptismal Formula.

5 In any wise corresponds to the Latin omnino. “Any wise” in the sixteenth century denoted “certainly,” “by all means.” Wise = way or manner. The Norman form was “guise” = the A. S. wise. Comp. otherwise, likewise, cross7wV«.

vi. The Use of Water for ceremonial purification has been familiar to all nations from the earliest times. With the Egyptians1, the Greeks, and the Romans, solemn ablutions formed a necessary preliminary to all acts of devotion, especially prayer2 and sacrifice3, and were es- sential to the removal of all ceremonial pollution, and of the guilt of homicide4, whether intentional or accidental.

vii. Amongst the Jews similar lustrations were equally frequent. We find this again and again, as when Jacob was returning from Padanaram to Palestine (Gen. xxxv. 2) ; when the Jewish people were about to receive the Law on Mount Sinai (Exod. xix. 10); when Aaron and his sons were consecrated to their office (Exod. xxix. 4) ; when Joshua was about to lead the host across the Jordan (Jos. iii. 5) ; when Solomon dedicated the Temple (2 Chron. iv. 2 — 6).

viii. The Baptism of Proselytes. At a later period these divers washings (Heb. ix. 10) were considerably multiplied. They preceded all great religious observances5. They accompanied all meals, and many of the most ordinary avocations of daily life (Mark vii. 3, 4). More- over by Baptism, together with Circumcision and Sacrifice, all Israelites were admitted into covenant with God, and whenever a Gentile proselyte desired to enter the common-

1 Herodotus tells us that the Egyp- tian priests bathed twice in the day and twice in the night to fit them for their sacred functions. Hdt. Hist. K- 37-

• Comp. Horn. Od. iv. 759 — 761, ‘H 5’ iihp-r\vap.ivr, Ka0apa xp°t «/*a0’ i\ov<ra,

[…]

’ Spargit et ipse suos lauro rorante capillos:

Et peragit solita fallere voce preees.”

[…]

4 Comp. Virg. sEn. ii. 718,

’ Me bello e tanto digressum et

[…]

vivo Abluero.”

5 Compare Mark vii. 4; John ii. 6,

wealth of Israel, and to take the yoke of the Law upon him, Baptism was one of the essential ceremonies, so that it was an accepted axiom, ” No man is a proselyte until he be circumcised and baptized1.”

ix. The Baptism of John2. Hence when John the Baptist came to announce the Advent of the Messiah, and demanded that the Chosen People themselves should submit to his Baptism, if they would have a place in the Kingdom of Heaven, the Jews were not astonished at this, as though it was something unintelligible. It was a common saying with them that the sins of Israel delayed the coming of the Messiah, while their repentance would hasten it. Consequently Jeritsalem, and all Judcea, and all the region round about Jordan (Matt. iii. 5) flocked forth to John, and were baptized of him after public confession of sin3 (Mark i. 5).

x. The Baptism of our Lord. The Baptism of John was in the strictest sense of the word preparatory. It possessed an outward and visible sign of a life-giving change, but the inward spiritual Grace in the fullest sense of the term was reserved for Christian Baptism. For Christ too adopted the ancient custom, but He enriched it with a new significance and a still mightier efficacy. First of all He Himself submitted to the Baptismal Rite4 in the

2 The Johannine Baptism was not a mere repetition of the Baptism which accompanied Circumcision or of the Baptism of Proselytes, nor was it equivalent to Christian Baptism ; it was more than the one, and less than the other ; it was a Symbol of Repent- ance, but it was not a Laver of Re-

generation ; and persons who had received it were baptized, if they became Christians, with the distinc- tively Christian Baptism. Comp. Luke iii. 3 ; Tit. iii. 5 ; Acts xix. 1 — 7; and see Dollinger, First Age of the Church, ii. pp. 182 sqq.

4 As the Jewish high priest was consecrated to his office by (1) Baptism,

Jordan, and so sanctified ” Water to the mystical washing away of sin1.” Secondly, with the same element of water He baptized by the hands of His disciples. Comp. John iii. 22, 26; iv. 1, 2. Thirdly, He directed that with the same element the Apostles should also everywhere baptize, and so admit proselytes and converts from Judaism into the Covenant of Grace, just as Circumcision had admitted into the Mosaic Covenant (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20).

xi. Apostolic Baptism. What Christ directed and solemnly enforced just before His Ascension (Matt xxviii. 19) the Apostles practised. Thus (1) On the day of Pentecost S. Peter admitted upwards of three thousand of his countrymen to the Sacrament of Baptism2 (Acts ii. 38 — 41); (2) Philip the Deacon baptized the Samaritans (Acts viii. 13, 16), and afterwards the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts viii. 38); (3) Saul the persecutor, though miraculously converted, was baptized by Ananias (Acts ix. 18); (4) as Paul the Apostle he baptized Lydia and her household (Acts xvi. 15), the Philippian jailor and his household (Acts xvi. 33), as also several converts at Corinth (Acts xviii. 8), sometimes doing so by his own hand, sometimes by the hands of others (1 Cor. i. 14). From that day to this Holy Baptism has been universally retained in the Christian Church, and it is plain that in primitive times it was not re- garded as “a mere sign or badge,” but as an actual means of

(2) Unction, (3) Sacrifice (Exod. xxix. Cross.

4 — 37 ; Levit. viii. 1 — 36), so our Lord 1 See the First Prayer in the Office

was solemnly consecrated as our High for the Public Baptism of Infants.

Priest, (i) by Baptism in the river 2 Originally Christian Baptism took

Jordan ; (ii) by the Unction of the place in the Jordan ; a mere pouring

HolyGhost, who descended and abode or sprinkling was never thought of,

upon Him (Matt. iii. 16 ; Acts x. 38) ; Baptism being distinctly a \ovrpbv or

(iii) by the daily sacrifice of Himself bath. The three thousand of Acts

in lifelong and continuous obedience ii. 41 were not all necessarily baptized

to His Father’s will (Heb. x. 5, 7), on the same day. Comp. Barnab.

and by its consummation — the sacri- Epist. xi. 8 ; Dollinger, First Age of

fice of Himself 011 the Altar of His the Church, ii., pp. 182 sqq.

Grace, a Sacrament of Initiation, without which not even the great Apostle of the Gentiles, though miraculously converted on the road to Damascus, could be admitted into the Christian Church1 (Acts ix. 18).

xii. The Grace of Holy Baptism. ” Every man,” as we have seen above2, “that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam” suffers from the original “fault and corruption ” of his nature. He is ” very far gone from original righteousness,” and being born in sin cannot in his natural condition see the kingdom of God2 (John iii. 3). For entrance into this Kingdom it is necessary that he be bom again or anew*, that he be born of zvater and the Spirit (John iii. 3, 5). Of this new birth, this translation from a state of nature into a state of Grace, Baptism is the

1 With regard to Christian Baptism in the Sub-Apostolic Age, we may notice —

(i) Its Initiatory Function. M^Seis 5e cpaylrw p.rj5e

[…]

(iii) Its Relation to Faith. While faith had to be pro- fessed before Baptism, yet the laith accepted was rather a desire than a fixed consciousness.a laith which

was aided and developed by the Grace of Baptism ;

Sid TOp \0VTp0V…{l/XfU

[…]

3 Oil Bwarat ISeip tt)v ^aaiXeiav rod Oeov. To see means to partake of, to have part in. Comp. iSCm davarov, Luke ii. 26 ; Oeuipetv Qavarov, John viii. 51. Our Lord does not say, ” A man shall not,” but ” he cannot.” It is a moral impossibility for him to have a share in the new kingdom.

4 “Avw6ev. This may mean either (i) from above, and that (a) literally, as of the Veil of the Temple rent in twain from the top, dirb avoid tv ?ws kcltoi ( M att . xxvii. 51, Mark xv. 38) ; (b) figura- tively, James i. 17 ; iii. 15, 17; or (ii) afresh, from the very beginning, Luke i. 3 ; Acts xxvi. 5. The former render- ing is generally adopted by the Greek Fathers, the latter by the PeshittO, Ethiopic, and Latin Versions. Nisi qui renatus fuerii denuo, Vulg. Comp. Westcott, in he.

M.

ordained instrument. As Circumcision admitted the Jew- to the privileges of the Old Covenant, so Baptism admits the Christian to the privileges of the new and better Covenant, which God has ratified with the whole world in the Blood of the Mediator, Jesus Christ. They that receive Baptism rightly1 are new born, i.e. they ” are grafted into the Church,” which is Christ’s “mystical Body2,” and are made “members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven.” As members of Christ they have assured to them privileges which “by nature they cannot have.” God of His bounteous mercy signs and seals to them the promise of (i) the forgiveness of their sins3; (ii) the assistance of the Holy Spirit4; and (iii) if they do not forfeit it, of eternal life5.

1 Recti, i.e. with the right materia, water, and the repetition of the pre- scribed formula.

2 ” Baptism is a Sacrament that God hath instituted in His Church, to the end that they which receive the same might thereby be incorporated into Christ, and so through His most precious merit obtain as well that sav- ing grace of imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness, as also that infused Divine virtue of the Holy Ghost, which giveth to the powers of the soul their first disposition towards future newness of life.” Hooker, Eccl. Pol. v. 6o, 2. “Admission into Christ is the great gift of Baptism. All Christians are agreed that Baptism is the act by which we are visibly incorporated into the historical Church. But if the his- torical Church is what we have already seen it to be, in no merely figura- tive sense, the Body of Christ, then incorporation into it must carry the blessing of membership in Christ… To the mind of S. Paul, inspired by the Holy Ghost, union with Christ was infinitely more than a metaphor. It did not mean to him an agreement with the principles of Christ, or sym- pathetic intercourse with His Person.

It meant, literally, a participation in His very self.” Mason’s Faith of the Gospel, pp. 267, 268, Ed. 1888. Cf. Rom. vi. 3 ; Gal. iii. 27.

3 Compare the words of S. Peter to the multitudes on the day of Pentecost, ” Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins ! (Acts ii. 38); as also the words of Ananias to Saul of Tarsus, “Arise, and be baptized, and wash ariuay thy sins ” (Acts xxii. 16). The clause in the Nicene Creed, ” I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins,” explicitly connects the forgiveness of sins with Baptism. The Apostles’ Creed does so by implication, when it names ” the forgiveness of sins ” as the first consequence of membership of the Holy Catholic Church.

4 Compare again S. Peter’s words,

“Repent ye, and be baptized and

ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts ii. 38), and see Acts xix. i—7-

5 ” He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark xvi. 16), and salvation, in its ultimate stage, implies eternal life.

xiii. Regeneration. The Jews, as we have seen, were wont to speak of a proselyte as ” one new born,” as “one born into a new world1.” But with infinitely greater truth may the term be applied to one baptized into the Christian Church. For whereas by nature we were born in sin and made liable to all its consequences, we are by Baptism translated from our natural state into a higher state altogether. By this lavcr of regeneration”2 (Tit. iii. 5)

2 Regeneration, in Greek 7^X17- yeveala, was a term not unknown to Classical writers—

(i) Thus

(a) Plutarch applies it to the transmigration of souls, to their being born again “into a new world”;

(b) Marcus Antoninus applies it to the revival of nature in spring time from its winter sleep, tt)v irepioSiKrji/ irahi.yyevcaia.v tuiv okoiv, Marc. Anton. Meditations, xi. 1 ;

(c) Cicero in a letter toAtticus applies it to his restoration from exile to the dignities and honours of life at Rome, Ad Att. vi. 6, ” hanc irahiyyiviolav nos- tram”;

[…]

stein on S. Matt. xix. 28. (ii) With this sense of renewal, revival, restoration, the word passes into the writings of the New Testament, and there it occurs twice, and twice only — (a) In S. Matthew we read how, in reply to a question of S. Peter, our Lord said, Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration (iraXeyyeveala), when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. xix. 28);

(fi) In Titus iii. 5 S. Paul says that God saved us through the laver of regeneration (dia \ovTpovnra\iyyeyeijias). In the former of these passages the word denotes the new birth of the whole creation, the airoKaTauTa.- <ris ttclvtwv, the restoration of all things at the last day (comp. Acts iii. 21); in the latter it de- notes in a narrower and more restricted sense the new birth, not of the whole creation, but of a single soul, ” the free act of God’s mercy and power, whereby He translates the sinner out of the kingdom of darkness into that of light, out of the state of nature into a state of grace.” See Trench, Synonyms, p. 72, Ed. 1855. See also Tertullian, De Bapt. c. v.

we are born afresh into the Church and Family of God ; and we have His gracious promises signed and sealed to us. The corruption of our mortal nature is buried, as it were, with Christ through baptism into death (Rom. vi. 4), and by virtue of His Resurrection, the first germ of Covenant Grace is given unto us “to be newly formed unto a new life, and to obey the righteousness of God.” Thus the baptized, whether infant or adult, by virtue of membership with Christ is born afresh into a new rela- tionship other than any that nature could have bestowed. He is brought into a position, wherein he not only enjoys “the everlasting benediction of God’s heavenly washing,” but is by adoption and Grace made partaker of Christ’s Sonship, and an inheritor of eternal life.

xiv. Infant Baptism. The last clause of the Article is concerned with the Baptism of infants. This it affirms is ” in any wise to be retained in the Church, as most agreeable with the institution of Christ.” It is true that those of whom we read in the New Testament as being baptized were for the most part adults, who had come to years of discretion, and therefore could not only promise repentance and faith, but also perform and keep that promise. But if “we regard Baptism as a holy cleansing, we cannot think any age superfluous for infants, con- sidering how the human heart from the outset contains the germs of sin, however undeveloped1.” The arguments that may be advanced in favour of Infant Baptism are many and various, but for practical purposes they may be grouped under four heads : (i) The analogy of the Jewish Covenant2 ;

2 The analogy of Circumcision view of ” eighth day circumcision’ with Christian Baptism is recognised any day earlier than the eighth v both in Scripture, Col. ii. 11, and in allowable for Christian Baptis early Christian writers, as Justin Mart. Cyprian Epist. lix.

(ii) The teaching of our Lord ; (iii) Apostolic custom ; (iv) Primitive practice.

xv. Analogy of the Jewish Covenant. Under the Jewish Covenant we find God distinctly commanding every male among the Jews to be circumcised (Gen. xvii. 10 — 14), and accordingly Jewish children were circumcised on the eighth day after birth (Levit. xii. 3). Under the same Dispensation we also find Moses engaging not only their heads, their tribes, their elders, and their officers, even all the men of Israel, but also their little ones, that they shall enter into the covenant of the Lord their God (Deut. xxix. 10 — 12), and enjoining that at the Feast of Tabernacles, and in the solemnity of the year of release, not only the men and women, but the little ones should be gathered together that they might observe to do all the words of the law1 (Deut. xxxi. 12). We might naturally expect, there- fore, that in Baptism, which takes the place of the Jewish rite of Circumcision (Col. ii. 11, 12), God would be willing to receive children into His new and better Covenant, unless He had expressly revealed otherwise to us2.

xvi. The Teaching of our Lord. But, so far from revealing otherwise to us, His Blessed Son, who is one with Him in will and nature, when He was incarnate here on earth showed in a very special manner that children were the objects of His care and love. For on one oc- casion, when His disciples would have kept back certain children, who had been brought to Him by their mothers to receive His blessing3 (Matt. xix. 13), He blamed4 them

1 Comp. also 2 Chron. xx. 13, and the same grace should now bethought

see Hooker, Eccl. Pol. v. lxiv. 3, 4. to be either obscurer or in any part

• ” Sith it is certain that the abated.” Noell’s Catechism, p. 209.

grace of God is both more plentifully Ed. Parker Society,

found and more clearly declared in 3 It was customary for Jewish in-

the Gospel by Christ, than at that fants to be taken to the synagogue to

time it was in the Old Testament by be blessed by the Rabbis.

Moses, it were a greater indignity if 4 ‘MyavaKT-qatv (Mark x. n) = Hc

severely for their interference ; He took the children in His arms1, and blessed them, laying His hands tipon them (Mark x. 16). And if the “outward gesture and deed” of Him, whose slightest act was full of hidden meaning, be not enough, His words are decisive, for He proceeded to say, Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. xix. 14).

xvii. Apostolic Custom. Moreover, though there is no express mention in the New Testament of the Baptism of infants as such2, yet we find S. Peter declaring to his hearers on the day of Pentecost that the promise of the Holy Ghost was to them.. .and to their children (Acts ii. 39); we find S. Paul speaking of the children of his Corinthian converts as holy (1 Cor. vii. 14)3; we find him baptizing Lydia and her household at Philippi (Acts xvi. 15), the gaoler and all his at the same place (Acts xvi. 33), as also the household of Stephanas at Corinth (1 Cor. i. 16), and it is difficult to believe that these families and households included no children.

xviii. The Practice of the Primitive Church. Though, however, there is no express mention of Infant Baptism in the New Testament, we have every reason to

was much displeased. The word ex- of all nations (Matt, xxviii. 19), He

presses extreme indignation. It occurs was addressing persons who had been

three times in S. Matthew, xx. 24, accustomed to enrol in the Jewish

xxi. 15, xxvi. 8; twice in S. Mark, x. Church their owninfantsand proselytes

41, xiv. 4; and once in S. Luke, xiii. of all ages, and who, unless expressly

14, but is not found in S.John. “The forbidden, would naturally interpret

only time this strong word is used of His words as implying that the prac-

our Lord,” Edersheim, Life and Times tice was according to I lis will.” Abp

of Jesus the Messiah, ii. p. 336. Whately on the Sacraments, p. 34.

1 ‘EpayKaXtadfievos avra (Mark x. 3 S. Paul’s assumption that sancti- 16), even as He Himself had been fication is conferred upon children by taken into the arms (ei’s rds dvxdXas) even one Christian parent is, though of the aged Symeon, Luke ii. 28. indirect, perhaps the strongest evi- The verb is only used by S. Mark dence to be found in the Apostolic here and in ix. 36. writings of the contemporary practice

2 ” When our Lord bade His of Infant Baptism. Comp. Uollinger, Apostles make disciples or proselytes First Age of the Church, ii. 185 sq.

believe that it prevailed from the most primitive times. S. Irenaeus, who was born probably in the year A.D. 97, and who sat at the feet of S. Polycarp, the disciple of S. John, says that our Lord came into the world in order that “through Himself He might save all men, infants, and little ones, and children, and youths, and elders, even all who through Him are born again unto God1.” S. Justin Martyr, writing his First Apology, about A.D. 139, men- tions persons who had been made disciples to Christ while children2. Tertullian, again, who was of full age before the death of Irenaeus, gives absolutely conclusive proof that the Baptism of infants was a common practice of the Church in his own time3. Origen, who was born probably in the year A.D. 186, and was a disciple of the famous S. Clement of Alexandria4, argues that infants must have original sin, asks why else they are baptized5, and goes on to affirm that the Church received from the Apostles the tradition to administer Infant Baptism. S. Cyprian asserts of a Council of sixty-six Bishops, held A.D. 252, that they had decided that the Baptism of infants ought not to be delayed beyond the second or third day after birth.

1 ” Omnes enim venit per Semet- ipsum salvare ; omnes, inquam, qui per Eum renascuntur in Deum, in- fantes, et parvulos, et pueros, et juve- nes, et seniores.” lien. adv. Har., ii. 22, 4. Ed. Bened.

[…]

that the practice of his own contem- poraries was an innovation upon the earlier usage of the Church.” Smith’s Diet. Christian Antiqq., i. p. 169.

xix. Conclusion. Thus the analogy of the Jewish Covenant, our Lord’s words1, Apostolic custom, and primi- tive antiquity alike, tend not only to remove all doubt as to the propriety of admitting infants to Holy Baptism, but to make us earnestly believe that our Heavenly Father will ” embrace them with the arms of His mercy ; that He will give unto them the blessing of eternal life, and make them partakers of His everlasting Kingdom2.”

1 So far from infants being unfit there is no virtue in belief, bu; that

for His Kingdom, our Lord says that the barrier is disbelief. See Hooker,

grown men must become like them to Ecc. Pol. v. lxiv. 5.

be fit. He says that innocence, not 2 See the Office for the Public

intelligence, is the qualification ; that Baptism of Infants.

Notes

• Some of this school taught the in Retract, in Matth., ” agnoscit sacra- doctrine of “a quasi-physical union of menta recte dici instrumenta, organa the Holy Spirit with the element of et canales gratke” ; Sir Thomas More, water.” See Hardwick, Hist. Art., Works, i. 386, “God in the working p. 105, n. Ed. 1859. of such clensing of the soule and in-
• Instrumentum in Classical Latin worthily, because grace is given by it, denotes (1) an implement or tool of as by an instrument,” Works, Ed. P. any kind, comp. Caesar, B. G. vi. Society, p. 241 ; see Hardwick, Hist. 30; (2) the utensils necessary for any Art., p. 393. Ed. 1859.
• “Mos Ecclesia? baptizandi par- vulos et laudandus est et omnino in Ec- clesia retinendus.” The Reformatio Legiim, “de Haeresibus,” c. 18, reads “crudelis illorum impietas in bap- tismum irruit, quern infantibus imper- tiri nolunt, sed omnino nulla ratione.”
• See Schurer’s Jewish People in the time of Jesus Christ, Div. ii. Vol. ii. , p. 319; Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, pp. 745, 747, Ed. 1, 1884; Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. on Matt. iii. 6.
• ‘E^o/j.o\oyoviJ.(VoiTa.ia./xapT[as avT&v (Mark i. 5) = openly confessing their sins. On Exomologesis, see the Article in Smith’s Diet. Christian Antiqq. i. 644, &c.
• See Article ix., above, p. 143.
• “The Gentile that is made a proselyte, and the servant that is made free, behold, he is like a child new- born.” ” If any man become a prose- lyte, he is like a child new-born.” Lightfoot Hor. Hcb. on John iii. 3 ; Waterland, Works, iv., p. 429 ; Wall on Infant Baptism, Introd., p. 95.
• Mason’s Faith of the Gospel, p. Dial. cum Tryph.% 41. In S. Cyprian’s 295, -2nd Edit. time it was even doubted whether ii
• Tertullian asks, ” Quid festinat innocens aetas ad remissionem pec- catorum?” De Bapl., c. 18. “With characteristic freedom he expresses his own opinion that the practice might wisely be altered, stating reasons for his opinion (de Bap/., c. 18). But he nowhere says one word to imply
• This Father in a passage bearing on Baptism speaks of children “being drawn up out of the water,” tCiv it; iiSaros ivaawuiixivuv 7rcu5(W. Padag. iii. c. 1 1.
• .See Origen, Horn. viii. on Leviti- cus, and his Comment, in Ep. ad Rom. v. 9, c. vi. 9, ” Ecclesia ab Apostolis traditionem suscepit, etiam parvulis Baptismum dare. Sciebant enim illi, quibus mysteriorum secreta commissa sunt divinorum, quod essent in omni- bus genuinae sordes peccati, qua? per aquam et Spiritum ablui deberent.