of sins. Tertullian and others
attest this custom among the followers of Cerinthus and Marcion.

12. _Use of the Name._--In Acts iv. 7, the rulers and priests of the Jews
summon Peter and inquire by what power or in what name he has healed the
lame. Here a belief is assumed which pervades ancient magic and religion.
Only so far as we can get away from the modern view that a person's name is
a trifling accident, and breathe the atmosphere which broods over ancient
religions, can we understand the use of the name in baptisms, exorcisms,
prayers, purifications and consecrations. For a name carried with it, for
those who were so blessed as to be acquainted with it, whatever power and
influence its owner wielded in heaven or on earth or under the earth. A vow
or prayer formulated in or through a certain name was fraught with the
prestige of him whose name it was. Thus the psalmist addressing Jehovah
cries (Ps. liv. 1): "Save me, O God, by Thy name, and judge me in Thy
might." And in Acts iii. 16, it is the name itself which renders strong and
whole the man who believed therein. In Acts xviii. 15, the Jews assail Paul
because he has trusted and appealed to the name of a Messiah whom they
regard as an overthrower of the law; for Paul believed that God had
invested Jesus with a name above all names, potent to constrain and
overcome all lesser powers, good or evil, in heaven or earth or under
earth. Baptism then in the name or through the name or into the name of
Christ placed the believer under the influence and tutelage of Christ's
personality, as before he was in popular estimation under the influence of
stars and horoscope. Nay, more, it imported that personality into him,
making him a limb or member of Christ's body, and immortal as Christ was
immortal. Nearly all the passages in which the word _name_ is used in the
New Testament become more intelligible if it be rendered _personality_. In
Rev. xi. 13, the revisers are obliged to render it by _persons_, and should
equally have done so in iii. 4: "Thou hast a few _names_ (i.e. persons) in
Sardis which did not defile their garments." (See CONSECRATION.)

13. _Origin of Christian Baptism._--When it is asked, Was this a
continuance of the baptism of John or was it merely the baptism of
proselytes?--a distinction is implied between the two latter which was not
always real. In relation to the publicans and soldiers who, smitten with
remorse, sought out John in the wilderness, his