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 baptised him.--Ibid. ix. 18. And rising up, he (Saul) was baptised.---Ibid. x. 47, 48. Then Peter answered: can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptised, who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

As the necessity of Baptism is generally admitted by all Christian societies, one alone excepted, I shall observe only, that the obligation of complying with the precept is strongly inculcated by all the ancient Fathers, while they describe the various modes in which it was primitively administered, and specify the ceremonies that were used. These ceremonies, let me add, are precisely the same that are, at this time, practised in the Catholic Church. Their antiquity, therefore, commands the highest respect; and the Fathers often produce them as a proof, even in their days, of many things being observed, which no written 'word, but the Tradition from the Apostles had taught. “Of these and similar rites,” says Tertullian,“if you demand the written law, you will not find it: Tradition is your authority !” De Cor. Mil. p. 289.

Acts viii. 14, 15, 16, 17. “Now when the Apostles that were in Jerusalem, had heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John.---Who, when they were come, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For he was not as yet come upon any of