“_The primeval hovering of the Spirit of God over the waters typical of baptism. The universal element of water thus made a channel of sanctification. Resemblance between the outward sign and the inward grace._”
In this chapter Tertullian teaches that the divine power hovering over the water, in creation, made it “holy” as well as life-producing, and that these qualities continue to exist in all water. He says:
“Thus the nature of the waters, sanctified by the Holy One, itself conceived withal the power of sanctifying. Let no one say, ‘Why, then, are we, pray, baptized with the very waters which then existed in the first beginning?’ Not with those very waters, of course, except in so far as the _genus_ indeed is one, but the _species_ very many. But what is an attribute to the _genus_ reappears likewise in the _species_. And accordingly it makes no difference whether a man be washed in a sea or a pool, a stream or a font, a lake or a trough; nor is there any distinction between those whom John baptized in the Jordan and those whom Peter baptized in the Tiber, unless withal [it be thought that] the eunuch whom Philip baptized in the midst of his journeys with chance water, derived [therefrom] more or less of salvation [than others]. All waters, therefore, in virtue of the pristine privilege of their origin, do, after invocation of God, attain the sacramental power of sanctification; for the Spirit immediately supervenes from the heavens, and rests over the waters, sanctifying them from himself; and being thus sanctified, they imbibe at the same time the power of sanctifying.”
In chapter v. Tertullian discusses the pagan theory as embodied in the rites of Isis, Mithra, the Apollinarian and the Eleusinian games, and attempts to show that cleansing cannot come through these rites, because idols cannot imbue the water with sanctifying power, and evil spirits can impart only evil influences. He expresses faith in their power to do this, thus showing that he still held to the fundamental features of the pagan system, and made them the basis of his theory of Christian baptism.
_The Epistle of Barnabas_ presents a similar combination of fact and fancy concerning baptism. The pagan idea of water as a regenerating power underlies the theory set forth, and the reader will see how Scripture is misquoted and misapplied in the effort to give a scriptural coloring to the pagan theory. Chapter xi. of the epistle is entitled: