the Sea, or in a Fountain, or in a Lake, upon condition nevertheless, that in the first place they should give an Account of the Christian Faith, and make an open Con∣fession of it. The Ten Books of Recognitions falsly at∣tributed to St Clement Disciple of the Apostles, are very ancient, but forged; and writ before Origen who liv'd in the third Century, in the VI of these Books at the end, we read St. Peter Baptised near the Sea, Those which had fully received the Faith of our Lord and Saviour; that is to say, those which believed in him, and which had been Instructed in the knowledge of his Gospel. St. Jerom expounding these words of our Saviour to his A∣postles,
Go teach all Nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, St. Jerom observes,
the Apostles taught them first, and that after having instructed them, they baptised them with Water, for saith he, It cannot be that the Body should receive the Sacrament of Baptism, unless the Soul has first received the truth of Faith:
which the forty six Cannon of Laodicea also prescribes.
St. Owen writes in the VIII Chap. of the 2d. Book of the Life of St. Eloy Bishop of Noyon, That he baptised every year at Easter, those which in the compass of the year he could Convert, that is to say, those he could turn from the darkness of Paganism to the Light of the Gospel. Paulinus Arch-bishop of York did the like in the same Century, that is in the 7th. as is related by Beda in his Ec∣clesiastical History of England. Theodulph Bishop of Or∣leans follows the same method in his 1 chap. of his Trea∣tise of Baptism.
Aleuin who approved not the Saxons should be constrained to be baptised by force, alledged for a Reason, that they ought first of all to be Instructed. But to descend to the last Century, Cardinal Borrome in the Fifth Council of M••llan, of which place he was