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Untitled Article
As to Mr , R . ' s misstatements and gross mistranslations of Tertullian , on the subject of Baptism , I am not aware ( though I do not profess to be such a critic as your Correspondent ) of any such .
After making- the allowances for a free and fuJl translation , which the stiffness and closeness of Tertullian ' s style required , I do not perceive above one or two places that will admit of much criticizing or dispute . There are , indeed , one or two evident
errors of the press , in the passage produced by Mr . R . 5 there is also an omission of three or four words . But as he has given full and correct translations of them , these also are as evidently as the others , errors of the printer ' s , which a distance of fifty miles from the press prevented the author from correcting *
The two passages that mary perhaps admit of a little dispute with critics , are the following . In endeavouring to remove an objection brought against the mode of baptism , as now administered by the Baptists , the author says that the mode in Tertullian ' s time was for the
administrator to stand in tlie water , putting his hand to the back part of the head of the candidate , who also stood in the water , and was bowed forward till he was wholly immersed :
and he explains , Homo in aqua demissus , as being the same phrase as Homo demisso capite , demisso vnltu , &c . A doubt has been expressed , whether this is strictly and classically correct , or as sufficient to determine
this point : it was further observed , that Vultus demissus , or Homo capite demisso , or caput demissus , can have but one bowing direction : but that Homo demissus can apply to a person placed in or let down into the water any way , * whether perpendicularly or horizontally . Perhaps , this is true , and it does tiot occur to n * e that any
? Inquiry into the Nature of Subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles , 2 nd Ed . p . 420 . The writer ( though at the same time speaking in the most , respectful manner of Mr . ll . s History of Baptism ) seems
to intimate , too , that Mr . R had omitted to mention , that some of the Cainitejs , noticed by Tertullian , rejected waiter baptism . This was an oversight . Mr . R . has noticed that circumstance .
Untitled Article
Christian writer of primitive antiquity , ( to borrow a flourishing phrase from your learned Correspondent ) at least any of the two first centuries , uses a phrase declaratory of the distinction , viz , whether the rite was performed by the bowing of the head in the
water , the person in the mean while standing in it , according to Mr . R . ' s account , or b } ' being immersed flat on his back , according to the mode of the modern Baptists ; nor is it a matter of any consequence towards ascertaining the meaning of the word :
for an entire immersion , either way , is a baptism-InclinatuSf perhaps , would have been a more unexceptionable and sure word . However , Tertullian is not to be considered as a writer of classical purity : and when it is recollected that in Tertullian s and Cyprian ' s time they baptized by a trine immersion , once in the name of the Father , then again in the name of the Son , and a third time in the name of the Holy Ghost , it is probable , I think , that the mode recommended by Mr . R , was practised in Tertullian ' s time : * and the mode is more convenient , to say nothing more , than that now followed by the Baptists . In confirmation of his idea , Mr . It . appeals to the most ancient monuments , ^ on which the candid ate appears standing erect , and the
administrator , while he pronounced the baptismal words , laid his right hand on the hind part of the head of the candidate , and bowed him gently forward till he was all under water .
I have it in recollection , too , that Mr . R ., cither in his History of Baptism , ¦ —¦— ¦ ¦ ¦ . 1 " 1 —
* Tertull . deJ 5 a . pt . Cap . vii . In aqua mergimur . Coron Mil . Cap . iii . Dehinc ter Hjergitamur . Adver . Prax . f * ost resurrection em spondens se discipulis promissiouein Patris , et novizsimc ma . nduns ut tinguerent in Patrem , et Filium , et Spiritum Sanctum , won in 11 num . Nam nee sernel , sed tor , ad singula nominji in personas sing-ulas ting-uimur . As quoted by Mr . R ., Hist , of Bapt . p . 168 . - } - See p . 6 , Pauli Aringhi llama Subterrdnea , Tom . II . L . vi . Civ . JDe Bapiismo . Tabula Secunda Cotimeterii Pontianl Via Porticensi . Joan . Ciampini vet . Monumenta . IZjusdem de Saeris JEdificiis Synopsis — Schdmn crucis Messanensis apud Pudaudi ut sup .- ~* -A note in Mr-R . ' * Hiet , of Bapt . p . 546 .
Untitled Article
234 On Mr . BelsTiarris Plea for Infant Baptism"
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1819, page 234, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1771/page/22/
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