Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), January 1819, Edition 1 of 1, Page 37

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  Baptists , that is , they always baptized by immersion , and they still continue to do so . The learned father Simon , who had so thoroughly studied the religion and customs of the Eastern nations , and who derived his
  
  information from the most authentic sources , says , " They delay the baptism of children until the third , fourth , fifth , sixth , tenth , and eighteenth year of their age . * The Melchites followed
  
  the common opinions of the Greeks , * being in all things true Greeks . t The Georgians or Iberians " are not very pressing to receive baptism ; but they re-baptize those who return to the faith after apostacy : with baptism
  
  they administer to children confirm motion and the eucharist : " % a proof by the bye , that the Greek Church never administered baptism to newborn babes , for they always gave the eucharist immediately after baptism , and gave it to children in a
  
  spoon . ¦ ' The Mingrelians administer baptism after the manner of the Georgians . " In his supplement concerning the Georgians and Mingrelians , father Simon adds , " Baptism is deferred till the child be about two years old , then they baptize it , dipping it in hot water ; " at length they give it bread that hath been blessed , to eat ,
  
  and wine to drink , which appears to have been the ancient way of baptism . * Observations similar to these he makes of other Greek Christians , as to the performance of the three sacraments , baptism , confirmation and the eucharist , with a little variety of some few ceremonies accompanying them , but not at all affecting baptism .
  
  " The Greek Church , subject to the patriarch of Constantinople , was not always of that vast extent to which it attained after that it pleased the Eastern Emperors to lessen other patriarchates for greatening that of Constantinople \ which they could the
  
  more easily do , because their power , as t o things of that nature , hath be ^ n far greater than the Emperor of the West , apd that for erecting new bishoprics , ov granting new rights and jurisdictions , they stood but very little on the consent of patriarchs . " " They
  
  j , - ' ? Critical Hist , of tlie Religion and Customs of the Eastern Nations . Done into English by A . Zovei * A . M . 1685 , p . 5 . t lbid > p . 61 , 63 . I Ibid p . 66 .
  
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  profess obedience to the Oriental canon taw , and the ordinances of the Emperor . " " They ( the Georgians or Iberians ) obey not the patriarch , who takes the title of Catholic or Universal ; ? nd yet it is not he who
  
  is the chief in spiritual affairs , but the prince , who is supreme in spirituals and temporals . The prince has his voice with the bishops in the election of the patriarch , and ajl choose him whom he desires ; and the will of the several lords within their
  
  territories stands for law . " " The Abyssines or Ethiopians , who in all things follow the religion of the Cophlites , ( who were of the Greek Church , ) are under subjection to him , who is called
  
  the Emperor of the Greater and Upper Ethiopia . ' * Some of the Oriental Churches are now in civil subjection to the Grand Seignior , the Armenians to the King of Persia ,
  
  Now the established Greek Church * never , in any instance , practised the sprinkling of new-born babes ; and if Mr . R / s account is well-founded , the Greek rituals were first composed only for adults , and afterwards adapted to the circumstances of children . But ,
  
  without the advantage of this latter argument , all their churches being Baptist and ( except those who afterwards became Latinized ) Anabaptist , ( all baptized by immersion , ) being under the canon laws of the Eastern Church , and the civil imperial laws ;
  
  under , too , the protection , authority , and supremacy pf reigning sovereigns and princes ; with this constitution of ecclesiastical and civil arrangements , what can there be wanting to denominate them , even according to the c ommon acceptation of the word , National Churches ?
  
  I am surprised , I own , that a Unitarian ( though I ought to beg pardon of him for wandering out of my record , by referring to his own hook on Infant Baptism , as your Correspondent will perceive I qnt ) should have Employed such an argument , it being , as 1 humbly conceive , not only not ;
  
  founded in truth and fact , but cutting both ways , like a two-edged Svyord , against his Infant Sprinkling , as wc ^ ll as liis IJnitarianisrrt . I dp not say , ^ however , that because any particular doctrine has not been the established religion of any country , therefore it is not true , but only thjat if this gentle-
  
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  On Mr . Behhanis " Plea for Infant Baptism" $ 7
Citation
- Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1819, page 37, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1768/page/37/

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