common

tremors, and so on. All hepatic, splenetic, pulmoniac
persons, and hypocondriacs, would soon have enough
of it. In a word, it is good for nothing but to despatch
men out of the world that are burdensome, and to ranken
churchyards....I conclude, if murder be a sin, then
dipping ordinarily in cold water over head, in England,
is a sin and if those that would make it men's religion
to murder themselves, and urge it on their consciences
as their duty, are not to be suffered in a
wealth, any more than highway murderers; then judge
how these Anabaptists, that teach the necessity of
such dipping, are to be suffered.... My seventh argu-
ment is also against another wickedness in their man-
ner of baptizing, which is their dipping persons naked,
as is very usual with many of them; or next to naked,
as is usual with the modestest that I have heard of....
If the minister must go into the water with the party,
it will certainly tend to his death, though they may escape
that go in but once.... Would not vain young men
come to a baptizing to see the nakedness of maids, and
make a mere jest and sport of it?"*-Were this repre-
sentation just, we should have no reason to wonder if
his following words expressed a fact: "I am still more
confirmed, that a visible judgment of God doth still
follow Anabaptistry, wherever it comes.t" Compare
Chap. III. No. 4, and No. 60, of this Chapter.—It was
not without reason, I perceive, that Mr. Baxter made
the following acknowledgment: "I confess my style is
naturally keen." I am a little suspicious also, that Dr.
Owen had some cause for speaking of his writings as
follows. "I verily believe, that if a man who had
nothing else to do, should gather into one heap all the
expressions which in his late books, Confessions and
Apologies, have a lovely aspect towards himself, as to
ability, diligence, sincerity, on the one hand; with all

* Plain Scripture Proof, p. 134—137.
+ Ut supra, p.88.

Ibid. p. 246.

those which are full of reproach and contempt towards others, on the other; the view of them could not but a little startle a man of so great modesty, and of such eminency in the mortification of pride, as Mr. Baxter is.*"-Hence we learn, that Baptists are not the only persons who have felt the weight of Mr. Baxter's hand; so that, if a recollection of others having suffered under his keen resentment can afford relief, the poor Baptists may take some comfort: and it is an old saying,

Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.

Besides, there is a precept of Horace which occurs to remembrance, and is of use in the present exigence. Amara lento temperet risu, is the advice to which I refer; and under the influence of this direction, we are led to say: Poor man! He seems to be afflicted with a violent hydrophobia! for he cannot think of any person being immersed in cold water, but he starts, he is convulsed, he is ready to die with fear. Immersion, you must know, is like Pandora's box, and pregnant with a great part of those diseases which Milton's angel presented to the view of our first father. A compassionate regard, therefore, to the lives of his fellow creatures, compels Mr. Baxter to solicit the aid of magistrates against this destructive plunging, and to cry out in the spirit of an exclamation once heard in the Jewish temtemple: 'Ye men of Israel, help!' or Baptist ministers will depopulate your country. Know you not, that these plunging teachers are shrewdly suspected of being pensioned by avaricious landlords, to destroy the lives of your liege subjects? Exert your power; apprehend the delinquents; appoint an Auto da Fé; let the venal dippers be baptized in blood, and thus put a salutary stop to their pestiferous practice."-What a pity it is, that the celebrated History of Cold Bathing, by Sir John

*Of the Death of Christ, p. 5, subjoined to his Mystery of the Gospel vindicated.

Floyer, was not published half a century sooner! It might, perhaps, have preserved this good man from a multitude of painful paroxysms, occasioned by the thought of immersion in cold water.-Were I seriously to put a query on these assertions of Mr. Baxter, it should be, with a little variation, in the words of David : "What shall be given unto thee, or what be done unto thee, thou FALSE pen?" Were the temper which dictated the preceding caricatura to receive its just reproof, it might be in the language of Michael: "The Lord rebuke thee!"

"The

Before I dismiss this extraordinary language of Mr. Baxter, it is proper to be observed, that the charge of shocking indecency, which he lays with such confidence against the Baptists of those times, was not suffered by them to pass without animadversion. No, he was challenged to make it good: it was denied, it was confuted by them. With a view to which Dr. Wall says: 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."* But surely they had reason to complain of misrepresentation; such misrepresentation, as tended to bring the greatest odium upon their sentiment and practice. Besides, however ancient the practice charged upon them was, its antiquity could not have justified their conduct; except it had been derived from divine command, or apostolic example, neither of which appears.-Whether Mr. Henry, in the passage already marked, proceeds on the authority of Mr. Baxter, in regard to that outrage on decency with which we are charged, or what induced him to record such things, is not for me to determine; but I cannot forbear wondering that Mr. Robins should publish the obnoxious sentence; as it appears from his own declaration, that he has very much abridged the treatise. Hist. Inf. Bap. part ii. chap. ix. § 3. + Advertisement, p. 7.

He hopes, indeed, that very few expressions will be found in the work, that are "offensive to serious and candid readers of any denomination :"* but whether the expressions to which I advert be not justly offensive; whether the offence given to many of his brethren, who, I trust, have some degree of candour and seriousness, be not owing to his labours, as the editor; and whether both candour and seriousness do not oblige him to imitate the following confession of Mr. Baxter, I leave to my reader's judgment. Upon the review of my arguments, upon the controversy about infant baptism," says the famous Nonconformist, "I find that I have used too many provoking words, for which I am heartily sorry, and desire pardon of God and him,"† i. e. of Mr. Tombes.

66

Now, as it appears by the concessions, declarations, and reasonings of so many learned Pædobaptists themselves, that the natural and proper idea of the term baptism, the design of the institution, and the example of the apostles, are all in favour of immersion, and all agree with our practice; we do not, we cannot want any thing more to justify our conduct, either before God or man. This must be the case, except the united testimony of such a cloud of witnesses, and the reasons of it, can be confronted with superior evidence. We have, however, a few more testimonies and concessions to review, relating to this branch of the subject.

* Ut supra, p.8.

+ In Mr. Crosby's Hist. Bap. vol. iii. Pref. p. 55.

CHAPTER V.

The present Practice of the Greek and Oriental Churches, in regard to the Mode of Administration.

HASSELQUIST.-"The Greeks christen their children immediately after their birth, or within a few days at least, dipping them in warm water; and in this respect they are much wiser than their brethren the Russians, who dip them into rivers in the coldest winter." Travels, p. 394.

2. Anonymous.-"The Muscovite priests plunge the child three times over head and ears in water." Encyclopæd. Britan. vol. ix. p. 6910.

3. Venema." In pronouncing the baptismal form of words, the Greeks use the third person, saying, 'Let the servant of Christ be baptized, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;' and immerse the whole man in water." Hist. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 660.

4. Deylingius." The Greeks retain the rite of immersion to this day; as Jeremiah the patriarch of Constantinople declares." De Prudent. Pastoral. pars. iii. c. iii. § 26.

5. Mr. Millar." In baptism they [the Muscovites] dip their children in cold water." Propagation of Christ. vol. ii. chap. vi. p. 115.

6. Buddeus." That the Greeks defend immersion is manifest, and has been frequently observed by learned men; which Ludolphus informs us is the practice of the Ethiopians." Theolog. Dogmat. 1. v. c. i. § 5.

7. Witsius." That immersion may be practised in cold countries, without any great danger of health and life, the Muscovites prove by their own example; who