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Baptism, Bridekirk
Font
DIPPING the Proper BAPTISM.
... ...
That Baptism was administered by Immersion in the Scripture
Times, is confess'd by many, that to this Day adhere to the
Innovation of Sprinkling, and that it was performed this Way
in After-Times I may prove (by way of Appendix to the many
Testimonies I before gave) from that famous old Font at
Bridekirk in Cumberland, which seems by the
Inscription to be erected upon the most early Conversion of
the Saxons to Christianity; where, as Bishop
Nicholson observes, 'we have on the East Side fairly
represented a Person in a long sacerdotal Habit dipping a
Child into the Water, and a Dove, (the Emblem, no doubt, of
the Holy Ghost) hovering over the Infant.' They are
the Words of the Bishop to Sir William Dugdale, that
famous Antiquarian, and may be found in Gibson's
Cambden, p.841. ...
In a letter by Marcus written 16 October 1738.
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