Why fo This was a relic of an ancient cuftom I have formerly Sect. III. had occafion to mention 58: the intention and defign of it is fufficiently expreffed in the form above cited: I there- called. fore need only obferve farther, that it receives its name from the Chrism or Ointment, with which the child was anointed when the Chrifome was put on. VI. For by the fame book of King Edward, as foon as Unction the Priest had pronounced the foregoing form, he was to prefcribed anoint the Infant upon the head, faying, by the first book of Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who King Edhath regenerated thee by Water and the Holy Ghoft, and hath ward VI. given unto thee Remiffion of all thy Sins; He vouchsafe to anoint thee with the Unction of his holy Spirit, and bring thee to the inheritance of everlasting life. Amen. to Whether the compilers of King Edward's Liturgy de- Whether figned this as a continuance of the Unction that anciently this Uncmade a part of the office of Baptifm; or of the Unction, tion bewhich, though frequently used at the fame time with Bap-Baptifm or tifm, was yet rather a ceremony belonging to Confirma- Confirtion, is not clearly to be difcovered. According to the mation. beft of my judgment, I take it rather to be the latter; for the Unction that was an immediate ceremony of Baptifm, was always applied as foon as the party to be baptized was unclothed, and before his entrance into the water 59 : whereas the Unction enjoined by King Edward's Liturgy is ordered to be applied after the child is thoroughly baptized. For this reafon, I fuppofe, it was continued as a relic of the Unction which the Priest used to perform preparatory to Confirmation. And what makes my opinion the more probable is, that in the old office for Confirmation, in that book, there is no order for the Bishop to anoint those whom he confirms; which yet it is not to be imagined our Reformers (who fhewed fuch regard to all primitive cuftoms) would by any means have omitted, if they had not known that the ceremony of Unction had been performed before. But to help the reader to a clear notion in this matter, it will be neceffary to give him fome little light into the ancient practice in relation to both these Unctions. He must know then, that the Unction that was used be- How they fore Baptifm, was only with pure Oil 6, with which the were diftin 58 See page 234. fect. 19. 59. Conftit. Apoft. lib. 7. cap. 23. Quæft. ad Orthodox. 137. Eccl. Hie rarch. 1. 2. 60 See the Authorities cited in the foregoing note. guished in the primitivechurch. party Chap.VII. party was anointed juft before he entered the water, to fignify that he was now becoming a champion for Christ, and was entering upon a state of conflict and contention against the allurements of the world: in allufion to the cuftom of the old Wreftlers or Athlete, who were always anointed against their folemn games, in order to render them more fupple and active, and that their antagonists might take the lefs advantage and hold of them "1. This was commonly called the Unction of the myftical Oil: whereas the Unction wherewith the party was anointed after Baptifm, was called the Unction or Chrifm, being performed with a mixed or compound unguent, and applied by the Bishop at the time of the impofition of his hands, partly to express the Baptism with Fire, of which Oil, we know, is a proper material, partly to fignify the invifible Unction of the holy Spirit 62, and partly to denote that the perfon fo anointed is admitted to the privileges of Christianity, which are described by the Apoftle to be a chofen Generation, a royal Priesthood, an holy Nation, &c. in the defignation to which offices, anointing was generally used as a symbol. And this account Tertullian favours, where fpeaking of the Unction that followed Baptifm, he tells us it was derived from the ancient, i. e. the Jewith difcipline, where the Priests were wont to be anointed to their office. 63 But farther, the anointing in Baptifm might be performed by either a Deacon or Deaconefs 65; whereas the Chrism that belonged to Confirmation could not at first be ordinarily applied by any under the order of a Bishop. Afterwards indeed, when Christianity began to fpread far and wide, fo that Bishops could not be procured upon every extraordinary emergency, the Bifhops found it neceffary to give liberty to the Prefbyters to anoint those whom they baptized, in cafes of extremity; that so, if a Bishop could not be fent for in convenient time, a fick member of the church might not depart wholly deprived of all those spiritual affiftances which Confirmation was to fupply. However, the privilege of making and confecrating the holy Unguent, and the rite of laying on of hands, they still reserved to themfelves; and only took care to supply their Presbyters with a due quantity of Chrism, 61 Chryf. Hom. 8. in Ep. ad Coloff. Ambrof. de Sacram. 1. 1. c. 2. 62 2 Cor. i. 21, 22. 1 John ii. 20, 27. 631 Peter ii. 9. that that they might not be without it upon any neceffity 66. Sect. III. And this, though at firft indulged only upon occafion, came in a little time afterwards to be the general practice: infomuch that for the Presbyter to anoint in Baptifin became the ordinary method; and the Bifhop, when he confirmed, had nothing to do but to impose his hands, except by chance now and then to apply the Chrifm to a person that by accident had miffed of it in his Baptifm "7. And this I take to be the Unction intended in the form we are now speaking of, as well for the reasons above mentioned, as because this, of the two, appears to have been the moft ancient and univerfal, and fo the moft likely to be retained by our Reformers. Bucer indeed prevailed for the leaving out the ufe both of this and the Chrifom at the next review; not because he did not think them of fufficient antiquity or ftanding, or of good ufe and edification enough where they were duly observed; but because he thought they carried more fhow of regard and reverence to the mysteries of our religion than men really retained; and that confequently they tended to cherish fuperftition in the minds of people, rather than religion and true godliness " the church. VII. But to return to our own office: the child, being The recepnow baptized, is become a member of the Chriftian tion of the church, into which the Minifter (as a Steward of God's child into family) doth folemnly receive it; and, for the clearer manifestation that it now belongs to Chrift, folemnly figns it in the forehead with the fign of the Crofs. For the better The antiunderstanding of which primitive ceremony, we may ob-quity and ferve, that it was an ancient rite for mafters and generals the fign of meaning of to mark the foreheads or hands of their fervants and fol- the Crofs. diers with their names or marks, that it might be known to whom they did belong; and to this cuftom the angel in the Revelation is thought to allude 69: Hurt not the earth, &c. till we have fealed the fervants of our God in their foreheads thus again 70, the retinue of the Lamb are faid to have his Father's name written in their foreheads. And thus, laftly, in the fame chapter, as Chrift's flock carried his mark on their foreheads, fo did his great adverfary the beast fign his fervants there alfo : If any man shall receive : 66 Concil. Araufican. Can. 1. Concil. Carthag. 4. Can. 36. Concil. Toletan. 1. Can. 20. But fee this proved more at large in Di. Hammond de Confirmatione, cap. 2. fect. 3, 4. and Mr. Bingham's Antiquities, book 12. chap. 2. vol. iv. page 379, &c. 67 Concil. Arauf. Can. 1. the Chap.VII. the mark of the beaft in his forehead, or in his hand, &c. Now that the Chriftian church might hold fome analogy with those facred applications, fhe conceived it a most fignificant ceremony in Baptifm, (which is our firft admiffion into the Chriftian profeffion,) that all her children should be figned with the Crofs on their foreheads, fignifying thereby their confignment up to Chrift; whence it is of ten called by the ancient fathers, the Lord's Signet, and Chrift's Seal. And it is worth obferving, that this mark or fign seems to have been appropriated from the very beginning to fome great mystery: the Ifraelites could overcome the Amalekites no longer than Mofes by ftretching out his arms continued in the form of a Crofs 72; which undoubtedly prefigured that our falvation was to be obtained through the means of the Crofs: as was alfo farther fignified by God's commanding a Crofs (for that Grotius fuppofes to be the mark understood) to be fet upon those who should be faved from a common destruction 73. 66 66 66 But to come nearer: when our bleffed Redeemer had expiated the fins of the world upon the Crofs, the primitive difciples of his religion (who, as Minucius Felix affirms, did not worship the Crofs) did yet affume that figure as the badge of Christianity: and long before material croffes were in ufe, Tertullian tells us, that " upon every motion, at their going out or coming in, at drefling, at "their going to bath, or to meals, or to bed, or what"ever their employment or occafions called them to, they were wont [frontem Crucis fignaculo terere] to mark, or (as the word fignifies) to wear out their foreheads with "the fign of the Crofs; adding, that this was a practice "which tradition had introduced, cuftom had confirmed, "and which the prefent generation received upon the cre"dit of that which went before them 74." It is pretended indeed by our adverfaries, that this is only an authority for the use of this fign upon ordinary occafions, and gives no countenance for ufing it in Baptifm. Suppose we fhould grant this; it would yet help to fhew from fome other paffages in the fame author, that the fame fign was alfo ufed upon religious accounts. Thus, in his book concerning the Refurrection of the Flesh, fhewing how inftrumental the body is to the falvation of the foul, he has this 72 Exod. xvii. 11, 12, 13. "1 ༢ ་ ་།། ་། 74 Tert. de Coron. Mil. c. 3. pag. 102. A. B. expreffion: expreffion: "The flesh is washed, that the foul may be Sect. III. "cleanfed; the flesh is anointed, that the foul may be "confecrated; the flesh is figned, that the foul may be "fortified; the flesh is overfhadowed by the impofition "of hands, that the foul may be enlightened by the Spi"rit of God; the flesh is fed on the Body and Blood of "Chrift, that the foul may receive nourishment or fatness "from God"." Thus again, in another place, fhewing how the Devil mimicked the holy Sacraments in the heathen myfteries; "He baptizeth fome," faith he, " as his faith"ful believers; he promises them forgiveness of their "fins after Baptifm, and fo initiates them to Mithra, and "there he figns his foldiers in their foreheads, &c. 76" Now here is plainly mention made of figning or marking the flesh, and figning too in the forehead, even in the celebration of religious myfteries; and we know no fign they fo religiously efteemed, but what Tertullian had in the other place mentioned, viz. the fign of the Crofs. I will not indeed be certain, but that the figning in both these places may refer to the Crofs which was made upon the forehead, when they were anointed in Confirmation: but ftill this proves that croffing on the forehead was ufed upon religious, as well as ordinary occafions; that it was used particularly at Confirmation, and therefore it is highly probable it was used alfo in Baptifm: fince they who used it upon every flight occafion, and made it a constant part of the folemnity in one office, would not omit or leave it out in another, where the ufe of it was full as proper and fignificant. We have gained fo much therefore from Tertullian's authority, that the ufe of the Cross, even in religious offices, was, in his time, a known rite of Chriftianity. This will gain an eafier belief to a paffage among the works of Origen, where there is exprefs mention of fome, who were figned with the Cross at their Baptifm77, and better explain what is meant by St. Cyprian, when he tells us, that "thofe who obtain mercy of the "Lord are figned on their forehead," and that "the "forehead of a Chriftian is fanctified with the fign of 75 Caro abluitur, ut anima emaculetur; caro unguitur, ut anima confecretur; caro fignatur, ut et anima muniatur; caro manus impofitione adumbratur, ut et anima Spiritu illuminetur; caro Corpore et Sanguine Chrifti vefcitur, ut et anima de Deo faginetur. Tertul. de Refurrect. Carnis, c. 8. 76 Tinguit et ipfe quofdam, utique credentes et fideles fuos; expiationem delictorum de Lavacro repromittit, et fic adhuc initiat Mithræ. Signat illic in frontibus milites fuos. Tertul. de Præfer. adv. Heretic. c. 40. 77 Hom. 2. in Pf. xxxviii. par. 1. p. 299. 78 De Unit. Ecclef. p. 116. |