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. (j) They received the sign of the cross on the brow; the bishop usually dipped his thumb in the chrism and said: "In name of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, peace be with thee." In laying his hands on their heads the bishop in many places, especially in the West, called down upon them the sevenfold spirit. (k) The first communion followed, with milk and honey added. (l) Usually the water in the font was exorcized, blessed and chrism poured into it, just before the catechumen entered it. (m) Easter was the usual season of baptism, but in the East Epiphany was equally favoured. Pentecost was sometimes chosen. We hear of all three feasts being habitually chosen in Jerusalem early in the 4th century, but fifty years later baptisms seem to have been almost confined to Easter. The preparatory fasts of the catechumens must have helped to establish the Lenten fast, if indeed they were not its origin. Certain features of baptism as used during the earlier centuries must now be noticed. They are the following:--(1) Use of fonts; (2) Status of baptizer; (3) Immersion, submersion or aspersion; (4) Exorcism; (5) Baptismal formula and trine immersion; (6) The age of baptism; (7) Confirmation; (8) _Disciplina arcani_; (9) Regeneration; (10) Relation to repentance; (11) Baptism for the dead; (12) Use of the name; (13) Origin of the institution; (14) Analogous rites in other religions. 1. _Fonts._--The New Testament, the _Didach[=e]_, Justin, Tertullian and other early sources do not enjoin the use of a font, and contemplate in general the use of running or living water. It was a Jewish rule that in ablutions the water should run over and away from the parts of the body washed. In acts of martyrdom, as late as the age of Decius, we read of baptisms in rivers, in lakes and in the sea. In exceptional cases it sufficed for a martyr to be sprinkled with his own blood. But a martyr's death in itself was enough. Nearchus (_c._ 250) quieted the scruples of his unbaptized friend Polyeuctes, when on the scaffold he asked if it were possible to attain salvation without baptism, with this answer: "Behold, we see the Lord, when they brought to Him the blind that they might be healed, had nothing to say to them about the holy mystery, nor did He ask them if they had been baptized; but this only, whether they came to Him with true faith. Wherefore He asked them, Do ye believe that I am able to do this thing?" Tertullian (_c._ 200) writes (_de Bapt
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