CHAPTER VIII BAPTISM1 And when the pure And consecrated element hath cleansed WORDSWORTH, The Pastor. § 1. Baptismal Rites before A.D. 600. HOLY BAPTISM was instituted by our Lord Himself. In S. Matt. xxviii. 19 the risen Saviour commands His apostles to go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.' Modern sceptics have denied that Christ ever employed such a formula, simply because they deny that His sacred Body rose from the dead, and that He gave any directions to His disciples after His death on Calvary. Without pausing to discuss the momentous fact of the Resurrection, we may observe that the primitive use of this formula is attested by the mention of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity in such passages as 2 Cor. xiii. 14, S. John xiv. 26, Heb. x. 29. Another passage where Christ speaks of the necessity 1 For a full account of the Ceremonies of Baptism and the Preparation of Catechumens, see Baptism, chaps. xii., xiii., by Mr. Darwell Stone, in this series. of Baptism is in the Gospel of S. John. The Gospel was written a long time after the other Gospels, probably about A.D. 85, and the inspired author does not regard it as necessary to record the institution of the Eucharist and Baptism. These holy rites were then familiar to the Christian world, and their origin was adequately described in the other Gospels. S. John therefore confines himself to recording two discourses which illuminate these two Sacraments respectively. In chapter vi. he records our Lord's own exposition of the Bread which came down from heaven, and in chapter iii. he gives us the discourse with Nicodemus, where it is asserted that except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' It is quite impossible to exaggerate the importance which the early Christians attached to Baptism. S. Peter attaches to it the remission of our sins by God,1 and S. Paul calls it the 'laver' or 'washing' of 'regeneration' (Tit. iii. 5). Not only so, but in Romans vi. 1-14 he enforces the truth that the Christian must not yield to Sin, because any such yielding is a repudiation of the union which Baptism effects between Christ and the believer. Every one, he teaches, who has faith in Christ is baptized into Christ, and the great crises in the history of the Saviour are then repeated in the believer. Christ died, and the believer enters the baptismal water to die unto sin, and to place himself out of its reach. Christ was buried, and the believer, in order to ratify his death to sin, remains for an instant submerged beneath the water. Christ was raised from the dead, and the believer stands upright again to begin a new and risen life. It is abundantly evident that S. Paul neither here nor elsewhere regards Baptism as a mere symbol. The desire to put such an interpretation upon his words has been caused by the erroneous notion that the doctrine of a real, as opposed 1 Acts ii. 38; cf. Acts xxii. 16. to a merely symbolic, baptismal regeneration, implies that a baptized person will infallibly be saved. But the doctrine implies nothing of the kind, and the apostle only regards Baptism as an assurance of sanctification and salvation when a Christian actively avails himself of the powers which Baptism imparts. The question as to whether infants were baptized in the apostolic age must, it seems, be answered in the affirmative. It is not definitely said that infants were baptized, but the Scriptures suggest it both by mentioning the Baptism of households,' and by drawing a comparison between Baptism and Circumcision, which was always performed in infancy. Secondly, we must notice that when the Jews baptized their proselytes they seem to have baptized their children also, and the Christians would almost certainly follow the Jewish practice in such a matter. Thirdly, the Baptism of infants is definitely mentioned by S. Irenaeus, who was the pupil of Polycarp, the disciple of S. John. It is also mentioned about 190 by Clement of Alexandria; and Origen expressly says, "The Church has received it as a tradition from the apostles to administer Baptism even to infants.' The evidence of these three great Fathers is so valuable that it cannot reasonably be rejected. Outside the New Testament, the earliest account of Baptism is that contained in the Teaching of the Apostles, if we are right in dating the book about A.D. 100. The rite of Baptism here includes (1) previous instruction and fasting; (2) a person who baptizes the convert; (3) the use of water-running water if possible; (4) the repetition of the formula, 'into the Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' If the water was not abundant enough for the candidate to be immersed in it, pouring water upon his head was sufficient. The following account is given by S. Justin Martyr of Baptism as it was administered at Rome about A.D. 152: Those who are convinced of the truth of our doctrine, and have promised to live according to it, are exhorted to prayer, fasting, and repentance for past sins, we praying and fasting with them. Then they are led by us to a place where is water, and in this way they are regenerated, as we also have been regenerated -that is, they receive the water-bath in the Name of God, the Father and Ruler of all, and of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Ghost. For Christ says, 'Except ye be born again, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.' Thus, from children of necessity and ignorance we become children of choice and of wisdom, and partakers of the forgiveness of former sins. . . . The baptismal bath is also called illumination, because those who receive it are enlightened in the understanding. 1 The comparative simplicity of Justin's description of the ritual of Baptism does not exclude the probability that ceremonies which he does not mention were already employed in the service. These ceremonies came to be of a very impressive and picturesque character, having some resemblance to ceremonies employed in certain pagan rites of initiation. Capital has lately been made out of this fact, in order to represent the Catholic baptismal ceremonial of the fourth century as pagan in origin and the Church of that period as deeply infected with heathen superstition. But a close examination of the phenomena shows the accusation to be as ridiculous as it is malicious. The more important ceremonies of the fourth century were in use about A.D. 200, when the Church took no enjoyment in the precarious advantage of pagan æstheticism. Among the circumstances of Baptism about A.D. 200 was the fact that the time was generally at Easter, that the candidate renounced Satan, that he was anointed and signed with the cross, that immediately after Baptism he received the laying on of the bishop's hands, then was given Holy Communion, and finally a draught of milk and 1 Apol. i. 16. honey, symbolical of the good things of the land of promise. It is almost certain that this anointing dates back as early as A.D. 140, and the draught of milk and honey seems suggested in the Epistle of Barnabas, which is probably at least as early as A.D. 98. Now these features are conspicuous in the use of the fourth century, at which time we find an astonishing unanimity in the baptismal rites of different countries. Our best information is derived from the writings of S. Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, A.D. 347, and S. Silvia, A.D. 385, and those of S. Ambrose and S. Augustine. The former writers show us the customs of Greekspeaking Christians, the two latter show us the customs of the Latin-speaking populations of Milan and North Africa. Examples of the baptismal prayers employed in Egypt are preserved in the book of Bishop Serapion. The rites are sharply divided into two parts; the first part is the service used when a convert from heathenism was admitted to the catechumenate, i.e. made a probationary member of the Church and brought under Christian instruction. In the fourth century it was not uncommon for men to become catechumens and then to postpone Baptism until old age or the imminent approach of death. The emperors Constantine and Constantius were guilty of this trifling with religion. Sometimes the delay was due to an exaggerated reverence; too often it was due to a man's desire to have his fling' before he made his peace with God; and this accounts for the denunciation of the practice which flashed from the 'golden mouth' of Chrysostom. The second part of the rites of initiation into Christianity comprises the actual Baptism, followed by Confirmation and first Communion. 6 At Jerusalem the candidates for the catechumenate presented themselves at the beginning of Lent to the bishop. Their names were taken down, and the bishop made careful inquiries as to the character of each |