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ESSAY 
 
 EXTEEML ACT OF BAPTISM 
 
 ENJOINED BY 
 
 dDttr ImI ei §mmi Mm €)}mi 
 
 BAPTIST WRIOTHESLEY NOEL> M.A. 
 
 " Go ye, therefore, and disciple all nations, baptizing them unto the name 
 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Ho^iuS'iVTis fAet^j}7iV(ra<rs ^oivrx ra. 'iSv/i, ^ccrril^ovrii cthrovi us to 
 ovofita rou war^os, xai tou u'tou, xct) roZ ayiou ^nvf^aros. — Matt, xxviii. 
 19. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JAMES NISBET AND CO., 21 BERNERS STREET. 
 1850. 
 
LONDON: 
 
 Printed by G. Babclat, Castle St. Leicester Sq. 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 As many of those into whose hands this Httle 
 work may fall may not have the opportunity of 
 seeing any argument upon the most important 
 part of the baptismal controversy, the exclusive 
 right of behevers to baptism, I will here give 
 a brief sketch of it. 
 
 I. When a person who has been living in 
 the neglect of Jesus Christ, the only Saviour 
 of sinners, becomes, through the influence of 
 the Holy Spirit, a penitent believer, it is right 
 that he should individually, distinctly, and 
 openly, confess Christ before men. A pubhc 
 profession of his reliance on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ for salvation, and of his purpose to con- 
 secrate himself to his service, is a natural and 
 necessary expression of his faith and gratitude. 
 Matt. X. 82, 33; Rom. x. 9, 10. The or- 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 dinance of Christian baptism secures that 
 profession. 
 
 II. Before our Lord ascended he enjoined 
 upon his disciples, till the end of the world, to 
 bring men to be his disciples by preaching the 
 Gospel; to immerse them after their con- 
 version, and then to teach them, as his avowed 
 disciples, to keep his commandments. Matt. 
 xxviii. 18-20. Having thus desired his mi- 
 nisters to preach the Gospel and to immerse 
 converts, he added, " He thai believeth and is 
 immersed shall be saved,'' Mark, xvi. 16. It 
 was necessary to salvation, first to believe in 
 him ; secondly, to confess him ; and this con- 
 fession was to be made by immersion unto 
 his name. 
 
 III. As soon as he was ascended his disci- 
 ples began to act upon this commission. On 
 the day of Pentecost fifty or sixty of his minis- 
 ters who were then living at Jerusalem (Acts, 
 i. 15; ii. 1; Luke, x. 1-17) preached to 
 crowds of devout Jews, who had flocked from 
 every part of the world to the Eeast of First- 
 fruits. Thi^ee thousand hstened, were con- 
 vinced, and asked what they must do (Acts, 
 ii. 4, 6, 7, 37) : to whom Peter replied, 
 " Repent and he immersed , every one of you, in 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of 
 sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy 
 Ghost" (38). These three thousand " gladly 
 received his word:" they felt that they had 
 shared in the murder of Christ ; they believed 
 that Jesus was the Lord, who had shed forth 
 the Spirit (33-36) ; they gladly received the 
 apostle's exhortation to repent (38) ; they 
 gladly received his assurance that their faith 
 would secure the remission of sins (38) ; they 
 gladly looked for the gift of the Spirit as the 
 seal of their adoption and the pledge of salva- 
 tion (38) ; they became believers in Christ, 
 and were immersed in his name (41). Com- 
 pare 42-47. 
 
 Wherever the disciples of Christ went they 
 continued to convert men to him, and to im- 
 merse them when converted. At the preaching 
 of Philip the Samaritans believed and were 
 immersed. Acts, viii. 5-8, 1 2. The ^Ethiopian 
 Eunuch, a devout man (Acts, viii. 27, 28), 
 believed at the preaching of Phihp (35, 36- 
 39) ; and after believing was immersed (38). 
 As soon as Paul was converted, he testified 
 his faith by immersion, Acts, ix. 1-20. When 
 Cornelius and his friends heard the Gospel 
 preached (Acts, x. 33), they received the Holy 
 
yi PREFACE. 
 
 Spirit (44) ; and were then immersed (47, 48), 
 When Paul passed from Asia into Macedonia, 
 Lydia, a devout Jewess, was first converted by 
 the grace of God (Acts, xvi. 14) ; and then 
 professed her faith by immersion (15). Her 
 household, who doubtless shared her faith, 
 were immersed with her (15). In the same 
 city, the governor of the prison and his family 
 heard the Gospel preached (31, 32) ; they be- 
 lieved (34), and were immersed (33). At 
 Corinth, many of the people hearing the Gospel 
 believed, and were immersed. Acts, xviii. 8. 
 At Ephesus, twelve disciples of John, hearing 
 from Paul the doctrine of Christ (Acts, xix. 4), 
 believed, and were immersed (5). 
 
 IV. In all the churches the converts were 
 thus immersed ; and, in their allusions to this 
 fact in their Epistles, the apostles assumed 
 that this immersion had been the expression 
 of their faith. Writing to the Romans the 
 Apostle Paul says, " Know ye not that as many 
 of us as have been immersed unto Christ Jesus 
 have been immersed unto his death ? There- 
 fore, by immersion unto {his) death, we are 
 buried with him ; that like as Christ was 
 raised uj) from the dead by the glory of the 
 Father, even so we also should walk in newness 
 
PREFACE. VU 
 
 of life ^' Rom. vi. 3, 4. Their immersion and 
 resurrection from the water had signified that 
 they by faith had died to sin as Christ died for 
 it ; and that they had risen to a new life of 
 hoHness as Christ had risen to heaven. 
 
 To the churches in Galatia the Apostle 
 Paul wrote, " Ye are all the children of God by 
 faith in Christ Jesus ; for as many of you as 
 have been baptized unto Christ have put on 
 Christ:' Gal. iii. 26, 27. By faith, of which 
 baptism was the outward expression, they had 
 been clothed with the righteousness of Christ ; 
 and being therefore justified by faith they were 
 become the children of God. The external 
 act of baptism was a profession that they put 
 on Christ, and as many as made that pro- 
 fession truly had really put on Christ. To the 
 Colossians Paul said, ye are " buried with him 
 in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him, 
 through the faith of the operation of God, who 
 hath raised him from the dead','' Col. ii. 12. 
 If the Colossians were buried with Christ in 
 immersion, that is, if they died to sin as he 
 died for it, then their immersion was an act of 
 faith, for by faith alone can we die to sin or 
 begin a new Hfe. By the external act of 
 baptism they professed to be bmied with 
 
na PREFACE. 
 
 Christ, and if their profession was true they 
 were really buried with him by faith. St. 
 Paul here expressly ascribes this resurrection 
 with Christ to faith. Lastly, the Apostle Peter, 
 writing to the churches of Asia Minor, which 
 had been founded many years, says, " Baptism 
 doth noiD save us, not the putting away of the 
 filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good con- 
 science totoard God,'' or " the inquiry of a 
 good conscience after God," 1 Pet. iii. 21. 
 Baptism being the profession of faith, the 
 apostle here assumes it to be sincere, and states 
 that a true profession of faith in Christ saves. 
 Matt. X. 32; Rom. x. 9, 10. The external 
 act can save no one ; but when the external act 
 is the expression of a real faith, and thus is the 
 answer of a good conscience to God, i.e, when 
 it means that a man mth a conscience set free 
 from guilt by the blood of Jesus pleads his 
 righteousness before God, his judge, as a rea- 
 son for his pardon, or when it is the Ittz^mttii/ju zlg 
 0SOJ', '' the inquiry after God," the seeking after 
 the favour of God by one who has a conscience 
 so freed from guilt, then that faith of which 
 baptism is the external sign saves. But bap- 
 tism can only be all this to a behever. In the 
 case of an unconscious infant, it cannot be 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 " tli€ answer of a good conscience to God ;" 
 and if the only baptism known in these long- 
 established churches was a baptism which was 
 the answer of a good conscience, they knew no 
 other baptism than the baptism of behevers. 
 
 Thus the commission given by Christ to his 
 apostles, the narrative of the immersions by 
 which they executed the commission, and all 
 then' allusions to those immersions, prove that 
 faith must precede immersion, and that the 
 latter is a symbohc expression of the former. 
 
 Secondly, infant - baptism, on the other 
 hand, is no profession of faith, nor even a volun- 
 tary act on the part of the infant ; but is an act 
 totally unlike that which has been enjoined by 
 Christ. And yet, while it is without the sanc- 
 tion of a single line in the New Testament, or 
 of any inference soundly deduced from the 
 Old, it has nearly banished the ordinance of 
 Christ from many of his churches. A volun- 
 tary profession of dying and of rising with 
 Clu'ist by immersion is in them nearly lost ; 
 no one witnesses it ; no one thinks of it ; and 
 few even know that baptism has that meaning. 
 So completely has the human invention super- 
 seded the Divine command, Matt. xv. 6. 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 I. The circumcision of infants affords no 
 sanction to the baptism of infants, because 
 the two institutions were so different, that we 
 cannot safely argue from the administration 
 of the one to the administration of the other. 
 Circumcision was appointed for a nation, with 
 all its slaves, Gen. xvii. 10-27 ; Exod. xii. 44 ; 
 Josh. V. 2. Baptism was appointed for elect 
 believers, Matt, xxviii. 19; Mark, xvi. 16; 
 Acts, ii. 38. Circumcision was for the natural 
 Israel, Gen. xvii. 10; xxviii. 14; baptism for the 
 spiritual Israel. Circumcision was in many 
 instances for adults who were unregenerate ; 
 baptism is for no adults but those who are 
 regenerate. Circumcision was forced upon all 
 the slaves of each Jewish family, Gen. xvii. 
 14 ; Exod. xii. 48 ; baptism is the voluntary- 
 act of each convert. Circumcision admitted 
 to the privileges of Jewish citizenship ; bap- 
 tism admits to the communion of saints. And 
 therefore, while circumcision, the token of 
 God's covenant mth a whole nation, was pro- 
 perly administered to unregenerate infants, 
 who were within the national covenant, bap- 
 tism, which is an act of faith, cannot properly 
 be administered to unregenerate infants, who 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 are not within the covenant of grace; and 
 therefore not to any infants, because it cannot 
 be known that they are within that covenant. 
 Of Abraham, indeed, it is said, " He re- 
 ceived the sign of circumcision, a seal of the 
 righteousness of the faith which he had being 
 uncircumcised^' Rom. iv. 11 ; but this is only 
 said of him, and can apply to him alone. Long 
 before he was circumcised he was a justified 
 believer. Gen. xv. 6 ; and it was because he 
 was a justified believer that God made with 
 him and with his family the national covenant, 
 of which circumcision was the token. Cir- 
 cumcision, therefore, sealed or marked the 
 righteousness of faith which he had previously 
 possessed. But it could not seal or mark the 
 righteousness of faith to those who had no 
 faith. It was no seal of justification to Esau, 
 or Korah, or Achan, or to the multitude who 
 perished in the wilderness for their sins, Numb, 
 xiv. 11, 22; Heb. iv. 1, 2; or to the myriads 
 who entered Canaan, Josh. v. 2-8 ; or to the 
 millions of infants who could not believe, and 
 numbers of whom, though circumcised by 
 Divine command, were afterwards judicially 
 hardened (Isa. vii. 9, 10), and perished in 
 their unbelief, Isa. Ixv. 15; Matt. xxi. 43; 
 
XU PREFACE. 
 
 ] Thess. ii. 16 ; Gal. iv. 30. But as all these 
 received circumcision by Divine appointment, 
 it must either be the seal of justification to 
 them, or not be meant to be a seal of justifi- 
 cation at all ; and as it was no such seal to 
 them, it is clear that it was not meant to be 
 such a seal ; and was so to no one but Abra- 
 ham, of whom alone the statement was made 
 by the apostle. 
 
 II. Infant-baptism is not sanctioned by any 
 promises made to the children of godly pa- 
 rents ; because, while there are many promises 
 made to parents who educate their children 
 well, and who set them a good example, there 
 is no promise that their children shall be re- 
 generated in infancy ; and few are so, in fact. 
 
 III. When our Lord was upon earth, he 
 blessed little children who were brought to 
 him ; but did not baptize them, Mark, x. 13- 
 16. Whence we may infer that, in answer to 
 prayer, he is ready to bless them now, through 
 the means of a pious education ; but that he 
 does not allow them to be baptized. 
 
 IV. It is unreasonable to baptize infants, 
 on the plea that Paul declares the children of 
 two parents to be holy, when one parent is a 
 Christian and the other is a heathen, 1 Cor. 
 
PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 vii. 14 ; because he declares the heathen pa- 
 rent to be likewise " holy," and states that 
 the "holiness" of the children depends upon 
 the " holiness" of the heathen parent. Unless, 
 therefore, the heathen parent, continuing still 
 a heathen, is fit for baptism because he is 
 *' holy," his children are not fit for baptism 
 because they are " holy." Their holiness is 
 measured by his, and is dependent on it ; both 
 are holy in the same sense, i. e. both are law- 
 ful before God. The heathen husband is a 
 lawful husband to the Christian wife, and their 
 children are in his sight lawful ; but as the pa- 
 rent is unfit for baptism, so are the children. 
 
 V. It is unreasonable to attempt to justify 
 infant -baptism by adducing four instances in 
 which whole households were baptized, in the 
 time of the apostles. Three of these house- 
 holds are declared to have been households of 
 believers.^ The fourth was almost certainly 
 the household of a widow, or of a single wo- 
 man, which contained no infants, Acts, xvi. 
 14, 15. And if the baptism of these house- 
 holds justifies the baptism of infants, it equally 
 justifies the baptism of children of all ages, and 
 
 1 (1.) Acts, X. 2, 33, 44, 47, 48. '(2.) Acts, xvi. 32- 
 34. (3.) 1 Cor. i. 16; xvi. 15. 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 of servants of all characters ; for households 
 contain such children and servants ; and if, 
 on the baptism of the head of a household, 
 the whole household ' ought to be baptized, 
 then children of all ages, and servants of all 
 characters, no less than infants, ought to be 
 baptized, without any profession of faith; 
 which no one pretends. 
 
 VI. When the churches of Christ fell into 
 superstition, they adopted the belief that the 
 two sacraments of Baptism and of the Lord's 
 Supper were essential to the salvation of in- 
 fants ; and therefore, for several centuries, they 
 administered both to them. As the Lord's 
 Supper is a social and continual profession of 
 faith, so baptism is an individual and initiatory 
 profession of faith. Infants are therefore equally 
 incapable of each sacrament ; and as the re- 
 formed churches have thrown off the once ge- 
 neral eiTor of infant -communion, they ought 
 to throw off the twin-error of infant-baptism. 
 
 VII. Infant-baptism is not of the sHghtest 
 use to children. A regenerate child is just 
 as safe without it, and an unregenerate child 
 is just as much in danger with it. It effects 
 no change in children ; it entails on them no 
 new obligation ; it admits them to no new 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 means of instruction ; and it adds little to the 
 obligations laid on parents to train them up 
 in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 
 It is therefore as useless as it is uncommanded 
 and unauthorized. 
 
 VIII. Infant-baptism, according to the An- 
 glican Catechism, making all baptized infants 
 to be " members of Christ, children of God, 
 and heirs of the kingdom of heaven," "grafted 
 into the Chiu'ch," has thus transformed many 
 of the churches of Christ, w^hich ought to be 
 assemblies of saints and faithful brethren, dis- 
 tinct from the world (1 Cor. i. 2 ; 1 Thess. i. 
 1-10 ; Col. i. 2; Phil. i. 1 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 33), 
 into aggregates of the whole population of their 
 several neighbourhoods, to the great dishonour 
 of Christianity. 
 
 Infant-baptism also mainly sustains the doc- 
 trine of baptismal regeneration ; for those who 
 are rightly baptized are "buried and risen 
 with Christ," Col. ii. 12 ; have " put on Christ," 
 Gal. iii. 27 ; and " baptism saves them," 1 Pet. 
 iii. 21 ; and if infants are rightly baptized, it 
 follows that they are buried with Christ, have 
 put on Christ, and are saved. Hence it is 
 argued that baptism must regenerate and jus- 
 tify them. Adult converts are regenerate by 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 grace, and justified by faith, before baptism ; 
 and if baptism is said in Scripture to do this, 
 it is only as being an external manifestation 
 of faith, — it is the faith signified, and not the 
 external sign that saves. But infants have not 
 faith ; and if baptism saves them, it is not faith 
 vrhich saves, but the external rite. 
 
 The remedy for this great evil is to lay aside 
 the unscriptural practice of infant -baptism. 
 Let the ordinance of Christ, which is the bap- 
 tism of believers, replace this error ; and then 
 all men will see that faith buries with Christ, 
 faith puts on his righteousness, faith saves ; 
 and baptism is only said to do so as the ex- 
 pression of that faith. 
 
 I think it right to state, in conclusion, as I 
 did respecting the " Essay on Christian Bap- 
 tism" lately published, that in writing the 
 following little work, I have confined myself 
 to the examination of the evidence afforded by 
 Scripture, and to the arguments of those who 
 defend infant sprinkling, having never, that I 
 know of, read a single page of any controver- 
 sial work in favour of immersion. That plea- 
 sure is yet to come. 
 
^^^4^^■':'-l^ 
 
 ■>. "ic :^' 
 
 : ^^4- 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 LIST OF AUTHORS REFERRED TO. 
 
 Alford, Greek Testament. 
 Bengel, Gnomon Novi Testament!. 
 Benson, Commentary on the New Testament. 
 Bingham, Antiquities of the Church. 
 Bloomfield, Greek Testament. 
 Campbell, Commentary on the Gospels. 
 Samuel Clark, Commentary on the Bible. 
 Donnegan, Greek Lexicon. 
 Dubois, On the Manners of India. 
 Gill, Exposition of the Bible. 
 Godwin, On Christian Baptism. 
 Grotius, Annotationes in Novum Testamentum. 
 Halley, Lectures on the Sacraments. 
 Henry, Commentary on the Bible. 
 Isaac, Baptism discussed. 
 Kitto, Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature. 
 Liddell, Greek Lexicon. 
 Matthise, Greek Grammar. 
 
 Olshausen, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. 
 
 b 
 
XVlll LIST OF AUTHORS REFERRED TO. 
 
 Poole, Annotations on the Bible. 
 Eobinson, Lexicon of the New Testament. 
 
 ,, Researches in Palestine. 
 Schleusner, Lexicon Novi Testamenti. 
 Scott, Commentary on the Bible. 
 Stephen, Thesaurus GraBcae Linguae. 
 Stuart, On the Epistle to the Romans. 
 
 „ On the Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 Tholuck, On the Epistle to the Romans. 
 Thorn, On the Mode of Baptism. 
 Ward, View of the Hindoos. London, 1822. 
 Whitby, Commentary on the New Testament. 
 J. Wilson, Lands of the Bible, 
 R. Wilson, On Infant Baptism. 
 
n 
 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Introduction l 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 MEANING OF THE WORD " BAPTIZE " IN THE NEW 
 
 TESTAMENT 5 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 WE MAY LEARN FROM THE BAPTISM OF JEWISH 
 
 PROSELYTES THAT BAPTISM IS IMMERSION 54 
 
 SECTION m. 
 
 WE MAY LEARN THAT CHRISTIAN BAPTISM IS IM- 
 MERSION FROM THE BAPTISM OF JOHN 61 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 FIRST BAPTISMS BY THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST 85 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES 87 
 
XX CONTENTS. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 Page 
 
 ALLUSIONS TO BAPTISM IN THE EPISTLES 105 
 
 .••SECTION VIL 
 
 BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT 11 : 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 PRACTICE OF THE EARLY CHURCHES 121 
 
 CONCLUSION 125 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 When our Lord said. " Go ye and disciple, (or 
 convert) all nations, baptizing them/^ he used the 
 word (3a,'~Tii^oo, which generally signifies "to immerse/' 
 
 By the word "immerse^"' is meant to plunge or to 
 overwhelm; it is exactly synonymous with "submerge/"'^ 
 A thing is immersed or submerged whether it is 
 plunged into water which is at rest, or whether being 
 itself at rest it is overflowed by water. Immersing 
 is overwhelming with a fluid ; immersion is the 
 state of being overwhelmed by it. Now the word 
 "baptize' ' means thus to overwhelm with water; and 
 the word "baptism'' means the state of being over- 
 whelmed : to baptize is to immerse, and baptism is 
 immersion. The best lexicons give it this sense. 
 Thus in Stephen's " Thesaurus " it is " to immerse, 
 to submerge." ^ In Donnegan's " Lexicon" it is " to 
 
 ^ " To IMMERSE. To put uiider water, to plunge, to dip, to 
 overwhelm." — Webster's Dictionary. 
 
 ^ " Bx<^ri^M, mergo, immergo, suhmergo." — Stephen. 
 
 B 
 
2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 immerse repeatedly into a liquid, to submerge, to 
 sink/^ In Liddell and' Scott it is " to dip repeatedly." 
 Vossius says, " Since /3acr-w [bapto) is to immerse, we 
 may properly translate /Sa-r/^&j {baptizo) to immerse 
 repeatedly, especially if we speak of Christian baptism, 
 whicb is accomplished by trine immersion."^ The 
 word /Sacr/^w [baptizo) is formed from /Sacrrw [bapto] 
 to dip ; and " the main principle of formation which 
 seems to be recognised by such grammarians as 
 E,ost and Buttman is, That a frequentative character 
 belongs to those verbs in ^m [zo) which are derived 
 from other words of greater simplicity." ~ Mr. Wilson 
 substantially makes /Sa-r/^w {baptizo) to immerse : 
 for he says, " Our general statement is that the verb 
 ^ix-Ti7oj, unlike (3d-Tu in its primary sense, is not 
 tied to any exclusive mode. Let the baptizing element 
 encompass its object; and, in the case of liquids, 
 whether this relative state has been produced by 
 immersion, affusion, overwhelming, or in any other 
 mode, Greek usage recognises it as a valid baptism."^ 
 According to Mr. Wilson, therefore, the liquid must 
 "encompass its object," the person must be immersed 
 somehow, or he is not baptized. Dr. Halley, in his 
 able work on "The Sacraments," gives the same sense 
 to the word : " We believe that ^a-rl^cj [baptizo) is to 
 make one thing to be in another by dipping, by 
 
 ' "Cum autem (soi-rTu sit mergo, iSaoTT/^^y commode vertamus 
 mergito ; presertim si sermo de Christianorum baptismo, qui trina 
 fit immersione." — Vossius, in his " Etymologicum," under the 
 word " baptismus," cited in Wilson on *' Infant Baptism," p. 75. 
 
 2 WUson, p. 74. 3 ibi<j^ p_ 96^ 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 immersing, by burying, by covering by superfasion, 
 or by whatever mode effected, provided it be in 
 immediate contact. . . . Baptists explain the word as 
 uniformly meaning to put the thing baptized into 
 the liquid, we contend that it means to make the thing 
 baptized he in the liquid, however it be done. With 
 them nothing is baptized unless it be dipped into the 
 liquid ; with us everything is baptized which is 
 covered with the liquid.'^ ... In the general sense 
 /3a-rw (bapto) seems more nearly to resemble our 
 word to dip or put into a liquid ; (Sa^r-I^oj, to make 
 to be in the liquid in any way. ^ . . . Dr. Gale says, 
 ' The word (Sa-TrT/^c/j, perhaps, does not so necessarily 
 express the action of putting under water, as in 
 general a thing being in that condition,^ ({/"^^ had said 
 'coming into that condition' he would have exactly 
 expressed our meaning), ' no matter how it comes so, 
 whether it is put into the water or the water is put 
 over it ; though indeed to put it into the water is the 
 most natural way and the most common, and is 
 therefore usually and pretty constantly, but it may be 
 not necessarily, implied.^ Very excellent, indeed, is 
 this remark of Dr. Gale."^ ^^ To dip is to put into 
 water, &c. for a short time; but /Sacrr/Jw denotes to 
 put or keep under water for a considerable time in any 
 way.^'* " The primitive signification of /3«cr-/V/xa is 
 immersion, of /Sa-r/^f/v to immerse, plunge, or over- 
 
 ' Halley on "The Sacraments," pp. 347, 348. 
 = Ibid. p. 345. 3 Ibid. p. 358. 
 
 * Godwin on " Christian Baptism," p. 25. 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 whelm/^ ^ . . . ^^ I should think the word ' immersion ' 
 (which though of Latin origin is an Enghsh noun) 
 a better Enghsh name than baptism were we now 
 at hberty to make a choice. "^^ All these psedo-baptist 
 authorities agree that a person baptized is immersed 
 or submerged either by plunging or by flooding ; in 
 the one way or the other he must be buried by 
 the water^ and without that immersion there is no 
 baptism. 
 
 ^ Campbell on the Gospels, at Matt. xx. 22. 
 2 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 23. 
 
SECTION I. 
 
 MEANING OF THE WORD '' 
 
 IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 Let us first consider the proofs tliat the word 
 "baptize" has this meaning in the New Testament, 
 for which purpose we will examine^ — 
 
 1 . The places where it occurs alone ; 
 
 2. Those in which it is used with the preposition 
 sv, in ; 
 
 3. Those in which it is connected with s/c, into ; 
 
 4. Those in which it is connected with a dative 
 without a preposition. 
 
 1. The places in which /Sa-rr/t^w occurs alone are 
 the following : 
 
 " John did baptize in the wilderness/^ Mark^ i. 4. 
 
 " Repent and be baptized, every one of you/^ Acts, 
 ii. 38. 
 
 "Then they that gladly received his word were 
 baptized," Acts, ii. 41. 
 
 " When they believed Philip preaching the things 
 concerning the kingdom of God and the name of 
 Jesus Christ, they were baptized," Acts, viii. 12. 
 
 " And the eunuch said. See, here is water ; what 
 doth hinder me to be baptized ?" Acts, viii. 36. 
 
6 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 None of these passages can enable us to determine 
 the sense of the word. ^^ baptize/^ no circumstances 
 being mentioned to guide us to its meaning. We 
 must therefore call in the aid of contemporaneous 
 or preceding Greek authors ; and these, happily, fix 
 the meaning with precision. 
 
 Messrs. Godwin, Halley, and Wilson, in their 
 learned works on baptism recently published, have 
 examined all the principal passages in which the 
 word occurs in any Greek writers; and I have no- 
 thing to do on this point but to avail myself of their 
 labours. 
 
 When Alexander marched his army along a nar- 
 row passage at the foot of Mount Climax in Lycia, 
 the sea having covered the path, we are informed by 
 Strabo (lib. xiv. p. 982), that "the troops were in 
 the waters a whole day being baptized (or immersed) 
 up to the middle."^ 
 
 Pindar, referring to the impotence of slanderers, 
 whose calumnies, though they might for a while 
 afi'ect a good man, could not ruin him, says : " I am 
 unbaptized (z. e. not sunk, not dipped) like a cork 
 on the ridge of the wavej^^^ buoyant as a cork on 
 the surface of the water. The scholiast observes 
 upon this passage, " The cork is of an unbaptizeable 
 nature ^^ (not to be sunk, not to be dipped).^ 
 
 " The unbaptizeable cork of Pindar may be illus- 
 
 ' Mi^^i of^(paXov (ia-TTiXofAivav. — TVUson, p. 127. 
 ^ ' AP>a,7rriffros zlf^i <ptkkos u; vtI^ 'ioxos ak/xag. — Pindar, 2 Pyth. 
 144. 
 
 ' 'O (^iXXos .... af^tx-^riffrov ^vffiui uv, — Godwin, p. 26. 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 7 
 
 trated by the Phellopedes^ cork-footed people ofLucian 
 (Yer. Hist. lib. ii.), wbo^ walking on the sea^ were 
 baptized (not overwhelmed), but keeping over or 
 or above the waves.^'^ 
 
 " Strabo^ describing the water of a lake near Agri- 
 gentum, says, ^ Nor does it happen to those who do 
 not s\\dm to be baptized (to sink, to be dipped) there; 
 they float as wood does.' '^^ 
 
 Of a river in Cappadocia he says : " Allien one 
 casts a dart from above into the channel, the force 
 of the water presents so much resistance, that it is 
 with difficulty baptized (sunk, dipped)."^ 
 
 Of the lake Sirbon he says, " There is no need of 
 swimming, nor is one who goes into it baptized 
 (sunk, dipped), but he is borne up.'^^ 
 
 Polybius uses the word of any heavy substance 
 sinking into the water; as, for instance, "The oak 
 wood being baptized by (its own) weight.^^^ 
 
 The word is used of a vessel being sunk at sea. 
 In the "Jewish Antiquities" (Book ix. chap. 8), 
 speaking of JonaVs attempted voyage to Tarshish, 
 Josephus says, "When the vessel was about to be 
 
 ^ oh [bci'ffri^of^i.'ivovs «XX' v-^tpi^ovTUi tuv avficcruv. — Halley, 
 
 p. 356. 
 
 2 ohl 
 voXaZ,i>v(ri. — Strabo, vi. 421 ; Godwin, p. 26. 
 
 3 Tu Vi Ka,6tiVT4 UKOVTiov civuhv SIS TO)) (io^^ov, }) (iia rod v^arcs avTi- 
 
 •r^umt roffovrov affri fioX)} (icx,vriZ,iffdai. — Strabo, xii. 809 ; God- 
 win, p. 27. 
 
 "* M>j^£ x.oXvfA^ov ^ilffSai, fivi^i (ia,Tri'^i(rSa.i tov l^/3avTa, «A.X' i^oc'i- 
 ^sff^ai. — Strabo, xvi. 1108 ; Godwin, p. 27. 
 
 • Bci^riZ,of^ivov rov "^^vivov Isoi^ii, — xxxiv. 3 ; Godivin, p. 29. 
 
MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 baptized/^ i. e. immersed.^ " Polybius, describing a 
 sea-figbtj says_, ^ They dashed incessantly against them^ 
 and baptized (sunk^ dipped) many of the boats/ ^^^ 
 " Dion CassiuSj describing a storm at Rome, says, 
 ^The ships which were on the Tiber .... were 
 baptized^ (sunk, dipped) ."^ "Hippocrates says, ^ Shall 
 I not laugh at the man who, by many burdens, 
 baptizes (sinks) his ship, and then blames the sea 
 for sinking it to the bottom with its cargo ?^ ^^* 
 
 Hippocrates further says, " He breathed as per- 
 sons breathe after being baptized :" ^ evidently allud- 
 ing to the effect of submersion upon the breathing. 
 The breathing would be equally affected, whether 
 the baptized party were put into the water, or over- 
 whelmed by the water poured upon him ; but in 
 either case there must be submersion. 
 
 " Lucian introduces Timon as saying, ^ If in the 
 winter a stream should carry away any one, and he, 
 stretching out his hand, should implore help, I would 
 push him on the head, baptizing him, that he might 
 be unable to rise ao:ain.^ ^^^ 
 
 ^ Wilson, p. 137. MiXXovroi IsciTTi^iff^Ki rod a-»a.(pov;. — Ant.ix. 10. 
 
 ^ 'F.ju.(ioXa.; rt crvvi^its Wthotruv, xa.) ^roXXk ruv (ry.u(puv i^a.'^rrt^ov. — 
 Polyb. i. 51 ; Godwin, p. 27. 
 
 ^ Ta.-ri -ffXala., to, iv roo Tifihili .... foocffTiffSyivai. — Dion Cass. 
 xxxvii. 57 ; Godwin, p. 28. 
 
 ^ M^ yiXdffeo rov t'/iv vyio, -ffoXXolcft (poortoTert (iu-^Tiiravra., &C. — Hip- 
 poc. 532 ; Godwin, p. 27. 
 
 ^ K«} avi-prVii, oJov i» rov (isfsa-yrriff^ai a,vx<rvtov(ri. — HippOC. in 
 Wilson, p. 105. 
 
 ^ 'Qhiv xat rovrov It) xKpaXviv, (ia-rri^ovroc us U'/j^l a.vocxv'^'cci ovvr,- 
 kin. — Lucian, i. 139 ; Godwin, p. 29. 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. y 
 
 " Josephus lias a similar application of the word. 
 In relating the death of Aristobulus^ who was mur- 
 dered in a bath by Herod^s servants^ he says, ^ Con- 
 tinually pressing him down_, and baptizing him as in 
 sport while he was swimming, they ceased not till 
 they had completely suffocated him/ "^ 
 
 " So Themistius : ^ Nor the pilot, if he saves in his 
 voyage one whom it would be better for him to bap- 
 tize' (sink, dip) .''2 
 
 Prom these passages, it is obvious that the word 
 /Sa'TTT-/ Jw is used of the immersion of troops up to the 
 middle in water ; of persons and things which could 
 not be immersed because they were lighter than the 
 water in which they floated; of the immersion of 
 wood by its own weight ; of the immersion of ships 
 by storm, collision, or overlading ; of the immersion 
 of a person so as to produce violent breathing ; and 
 of the violent immersion of persons so as to drown 
 them. And when we meet the word in the New 
 Testament by itself, with no circumstances to deter- 
 mine its force, it must mean, in the absence of all 
 opposite evidence, to immerse : and when Jesus said 
 to his disciples, " Go ye and disciple all nations, 
 baptizing them,-'' he meant that they were to be 
 converted and immersed. 
 
 II. The places in which /5acrr/^w governs the pre- 
 position h, in, are the following : — 
 
 ' Bxoouvns uu x-k) foaTri^ovn; m; Iv 'ffawia, vti^ofiivov, ovx avTixxv 
 
 'Im; xa.) 'Tca.'jra.'Tra.aiv a.'TroTrv'i^ix.i. — Josephus, Ant. XV. 3 ; Godwin, p, 29. 
 
 'O xiifhipvATyig , il ffiv^ii Iv Tcu tXm ov xa) Ba-TTrKrcii af/cuvov 'hv. — 
 
 Themist. Orat. iv. 133 ; Ibid. p. 30. 
 
10 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 '' Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, 
 and all the region round about Jordan, and were 
 baptized of him in Jordan," Matt. i. 6; Mark, i. 5. 
 
 '^ I indeed baptize you in water, h uhart, unto re- 
 pentance ; but he that cometh -after me is mightier 
 than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear : he 
 shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and in fire," h 
 '7rvsv[Mari ay/w xa/ '^rv^i, Matt. iii. 11; Mark, i. 8. 
 
 " John answered them, saying, I baptize in water," 
 sv vdari (John, i. 26) ; " I am come baptizing in 
 water," h ruj vhan jScjcTrrit^uv (John, i. 31) j '^ He that 
 sent me to baptize in water, sv uSar/, the same said 
 unto me. Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit 
 descending, and remaining on him, the same is he 
 which baptizeth in the Holy Ghost," h -n/gi/xar/ 
 dyiuj (John, i. 33) ; " Ye shall be baptized in the 
 Holy Spirit," h cri/si/^a-/ ay/M (Acts, i. 5 ; xi. 16) ; 
 '^ They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud 
 and in the sea" (1 Cor. x. 2) ; " We are all baptized 
 in one Spirit,^' h hi 'TrvihiMari, 1 Cor. xii. 13. 
 
 The preposition li/, in, generally in the New Tes- 
 tament, as in other books, means m, not with ; ^ and 
 as a rare sense ought never to be preferred to an or- 
 dinary sense without strong reasons, these expressions, 
 "to baptize in water," must, in the absence of opposite 
 evidence, mean, not to wash with, but to immerse in. 
 
 The sense of some of the expressions above quoted 
 is certain. When it is said that the people were 
 
 ' See Matt. ii. 1, 2; iii. 1, 3, 12, 17; iv. 13, 21, 23; 
 V. 12, 15, 16, 19, 45 ; ix. 10 ; x. 17 ; xi. 8 ; xiii. 31, 32, 44 ; 
 XV. 32 ; XX. 12, &c. &c. 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 11 
 
 baptized in the river Jordan (Mark_, i. 5)^ and that 
 the Israelites were baptized unto Moses in the cloud 
 and in the sea (1 Cor. x. 2), the preposition Iv must 
 mean in, and not with ; and since in these places the 
 words fSa'xrit^iiv h mean "to baptize in/^ not to baptize 
 with^ it is natural to conclude that they have the 
 same meaning in other places. 
 
 Passages have been sometimes cited to prove that 
 Iv has the sense of with, and expresses the instru- 
 ment of action ; but it has much oftener the sense of 
 in, as may in some measui'e be seen by the follow- 
 ing instances : — 
 
 TidTifxt b, "to place in/^ Gen.'Lx. 13; xli. 10^ 48; xlii. 
 17, 30 ; Exod. xl. 7 ; Numb. xvii. 14 ; Deut. xiv. 28 ; 
 Josh. iv. 3 ; Judges, iv. 21 ; 1 Sam. xvii. 40, 54; xx. 
 25; xxi. 12; 2 Sam. viii. 6; xii. 31; xxii. 27; 1 
 Kings, xiii. 30; xx. 26; 2 Kings, x. 17; xxi. 4; 
 
 1 Chron. X. 10 ; 2 Chron. iv. 8 ; xxxvi. 7 ; Psalm xlix. 
 14; Ixxx. 6 ; Jer. xxxii. 34; Ezek. xxxvii. 26; Matt, 
 xiv. 3 ; xxvii. 60 ; Mark, vi. 29 ; Luke, xxiii. 53 ; 
 John, xix. 41 ; Acts, v. 68, 25 ; ix. 37; Eom. ix. 33. 
 
 GaTTw £!/, "to bury in,^^ Gen. 1. 26 ; xxxv. 19; 
 xlvii. 29 ; 1. 5 ; Judges, viii. 32 ; 1 Sam. xxv. 1 ; 
 
 2 Sam. ii. 31 ; xvii. 23 ; 1 Kings, ii. 35 ; xiii. 31 ; 
 2 Chron. xvi. 14; xxxiii. 20. 
 
 nXi/vw b, "to wash in,^'' Gen. xlix. 11. 
 
 Ea-rrw ly, " to dip in,^^ Deut. xxxiii. 24 ; Ruth, ii. 
 4; 2 Kings, viii. 15 ; Ps. Ixviii. 23. 
 
 'E,a/5avrr&j Iv, "to dip in,^^ Matt. xvi. 23. 
 
 It has been said that kv with verbs of motion, 
 when it means in, and not ivith, signifies the place 
 
12 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 where the agent is at the time of the action, not the 
 place into which anything is put, as Mark, i. 4, 
 "John did baptize in the wilderness ;^^ John, iii. 23, 
 " John was baptizing in ^Enon f^ but the list of places 
 above quoted may serve to show that this use of 1 1/ is 
 the exception rather than the rule. 
 
 It has been further said, " When verbs denoting 
 to dip are constructed with h instead of iig, the 
 sense, according to a well-known Greek idiom, is to 
 put into and to leave in, as 'ikro sv (puXaxfj, He 
 put him to be in prison. Matt. x. 16. In such 
 cases, it has been added, the construction is preg- 
 nant, since both the motion to and the consequent 
 position in the place is implied, as "^/Vrg/v sig xovr/jffij 
 to fall to the ground and lie there." — Liddell, zv. 
 But either the rale does not apply to such words as 
 iSd'jrru and [3a'^Ti(^M, or else the continuance of the 
 position is not denoted, as may be easily seen from 
 the following instances : — Beut. xxxiii. 24, " Let him 
 dip his foot in oil,^^ iSd-^et sv zXai^, Sept. ; Ruth, 
 ii. 14, " Dip thy morsel in the vinegar,''^ /3a-4^£/c h rcC 
 ogg/j 2 Kings, viii. 15, " He dipped it in water,^^ 
 £/3a-4^£v sv Toj udari; Psalm Ixviii. 23, "That thy foot 
 may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies," I3d(p9i 
 sv a/'/jtar/ ; Matt. xxvi. 23, " He that dippeth his 
 hand with me in the dish," s/j.^d-^ag sv rw r^v(3X/uj; 
 Homer, Od. X. 391, "As when the smith dips in cold 
 water, sh udan ■^'^XiV ^(^'^'^^'■> the hatchet or the axe, 
 much hissing, tempering it.^' 
 
 This sense of the expression is established by the 
 only two places where it occurs in Hebraistic Greek, 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 13 
 
 in the Septuagint version of 2 Kings^ v. 10^ 14, and 
 in a passage of Josephus. The passage in the se- 
 cond book of Kings is as follows : — " So Naaman 
 came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood 
 at the door of the house of Elisha ; and Elisha sent a 
 messenger unto him saying, Go and wash in Jordan 
 seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, 
 
 and thou shalt be clean Then went he down 
 
 and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according 
 unto the saying of the man of God/'' By the word 
 "wash^"* it is obvious that Elisha meant bathe or dip ; 
 the whole body being leprous, the whole was to be 
 washed. To dip also was a definite act which could 
 be repeated seven times, but any other washing 
 would be indefinite ; and the leper would not know 
 whether any amount of washing at one time could 
 be taken for seven washings. Elisha also clearly 
 referred in this command to the Mosaic law respect- 
 ing the leper, which was as follows : — " He that is 
 to be cleansed shall wash his clothes and shave off 
 all his hair, and wash himself in water that he may 
 be clean," Lev. xiv. 8. As the leper was wholly 
 unclean, he must be wholly washed. The command, 
 therefore, meant that he should bathe himself; and 
 so the Jews correctly understood it, for their canon 
 on the subject was, " Wheresoever in the law the 
 washing of the flesh is mentioned, it means nothing 
 else than the dipping of the whole body in water. 
 For if any man wash himself all over except the top 
 of his little finger he is still in his uncleanness.'''' — 
 Gill on Mark, vii. 4. When, therefore, Elisha said, 
 
14 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 " Go and wasli thyself in Jordan/^ he meant^ " Go 
 and bathe thyself^ according to the law of the 
 leper on the day of his cleansing/^ Of course Naa- 
 man, if he fulfilled the command of Elisha^ must 
 necessarily bathe himself in the Jordan seven times, 
 and the narrative accordingly relates, " Then went 
 he down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven 
 times/' 
 
 We may learn the same fact from the force of the 
 Hebrew words employed in the narrative.^ For the 
 word VD"^, here translated " to wash/^ means often 
 " to bathe/'' as may be seen in the following in- 
 stances, Exod. ii. 5 ; Lev. xiv. 8 ; xv. 5, 6, 13 ; 
 xvii. 15. And the word bn^^ here translated "to 
 dip/^ is always used in that sense. And, there- 
 fore, the precise terms of the narrative agree with 
 the circumstances of the case and the law of the 
 leper, to show that Naaman by Elisha^s command 
 dipped himself seven times in the Jordan. We 
 may further learn that the Jewish translators under- 
 stood this to be the case, from the term by which they 
 translated the prophet^s command to bathe or wash." 
 For the command according to the Septuagint was. 
 
 * The Hebrew words are as follows : — 
 
 IH"*-^ IJ'^L'^^ T'V — " ^° ^^^ wash ia Jordan." 
 
 ITP-'^ ^^?rj 'y^ — " Then went he down and dipped himself 
 
 in Jordan." 
 
 ^ The only places in which it occurs are the following: — Gen. 
 
 xxxvii. 31 ; Exod. xii. 22 ; Lev. iv. 6, 17 ; ix. 9 ; xiv. 6, 16, 51 ; 
 
 Numb. xix. 18 ; Deut. xxxiii. 24 ; Josh. iii. 15 ; Ruth, ii. 14 ; 
 
 1 Sam. xiv. 27 ; 2 Kings, viii. 15 ; Job, ix. 31. 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 15 
 
 " Go and bathe (Xovgoct) in the Jordan/' ^ and the fulfil- 
 ment must necessarily correspond to the command. 
 Lastly, the Septuagint translators record the fulfil- 
 ment of the command in the following terms, " And 
 Naaman descended and baptized himself in the Jor- 
 dan/^ xal s(3a';rT/<saTo h rco 'loohdvri. The meaning 
 which the translators attached to the word " baptize " 
 is here certain. First, because they are recording 
 that Naaman fulfilled a command given him to 
 bathe in the Jordan, and therefore that he bathed ; 
 secondly, because they translate by the word ^' bap- 
 tize ^^ a Hebrew word, b^^, which they knew to 
 express the act of bathing ; and thirdly, because they 
 knew that the Hebrew law of the leper required him 
 so to bathe on the day of his cleansing. Since, then, 
 the expression ^^to be baptized in water,^^ jSa-Trr/^sff^a/ kv 
 '•jhartj means in Septuagint Greek "to be immersed in 
 water," it must, in the absence of other evidence, be 
 understood to mean the same in the Greek of the 
 New Testament. 
 
 The second instance in which this expression 
 occurs in • Hebraistic Greek is in the narrative of 
 the death of Aristobulus, by Josephus. There the 
 historian says : — " The youth was sent by night to 
 Jericho, and there he died, being baptized by the 
 
 ^ Tlo^svSiis "Kovtrai h tu 'lo^oivri. — Septuagint. ** Kovea, mid. to 
 wash oneself, to bathe." — Liddell. " The middle voice of Xoiu 
 almost invariably corresponds to our 'bathe.' We see no ground 
 for objecting to the general principle that when the verb is em- 
 ployed without any regimen, expressed or implied, the washing is 
 not confined to a part, but comprises the whole body." — Wilson, 
 pp. 151, 154. 
 
16 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 Galatians in a swimming-bath/^ ^ Here the bap- 
 tism was certainly immersion^ for it drowned him ; 
 and it was in the bath, for it was accomphshed 
 while he was swimming. According, therefore, to 
 the usage of the Jewish historian, /Sa-r/^so-^a/ sv is 
 '^'^to be immersed in water ; ^^ and the expression, with- 
 out contrary evidence, must be understood to mean 
 the same thing when used by the Jewish historians 
 of the New Testament. 
 
 On the whole, since the ordinary meaning of the 
 preposition sv is m, not withj since it generally has 
 this sense when it follows verbs which govern it in 
 the New Testament, and since on the only two 
 occasions in w^hich it occurs with jSacrr/^w in Hebrais- 
 tic Greek it has this meaning, it should be so 
 translated in the New Testament. Thus, ^wtttI^si], 
 h means to baptize in, not to baptize with ; and since 
 the ordinary meaning of the word (3a'r-/^M is "to 
 immerse,^^ we may certainly conclude that it has this 
 meaning in those places of the New Testament in 
 which it is connected with the preposition in; and 
 the expression of St. Mark, "the multitudes siSw^r- 
 rl^o'j-o sv rep 'lopodvri, were baptized in the Jordan,^^ 
 by John, must mean that they were immersed by 
 him in that river. 
 
 m. 'Further light is thrown upon the meaning of 
 /5aTr;<J&j by its being found in connection with the 
 preposition sig or sg, into ; w^e read "to baptize into'"* as 
 
 ' 'Tto T&/V To.Xo.'tZv (^KT-ri^o/xivos IV jcoXvf/.fhnS^ce, riXivra,. — Jewish 
 War, i. 22, § 2. — Godwin, p. 30. " And was there dipped by the 
 Galatians in a pool till he was drowned." — Whiston's Translation. 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 17 
 
 well as "to baptize in/^ In Mark, i. 9, the following 
 expression occurs, " Jesus came from Nazareth 
 of Galilee and was baptized by John into the 
 Jordan,^^ s/Sa-Tr/V^jj b'Trb 'loudwoxj zig tov 'lopddvrtv. A. 
 passage in Josephus contains the same expression. 
 In Numbers, xix. 17, 18, there is the following law 
 for the purification of unclean persons : " For an 
 unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt 
 heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall 
 be put thereto in a vessel ; and a clean person shall 
 take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it 
 upon the terit,^^ &c. With reference to this law 
 Josephus says, "Putting, therefore, some of the 
 ashes, and hyssop into spring water, and baptizing 
 into the spring water (the hyssop), and (part) of the 
 ashes, they sprinkled those who were defiled by a 
 dead body/^^ Since the Jewish law required that 
 ashes should be mingled with water, and that hyssop 
 should be dipped into the water, and Josephus 
 states that the Jewish practice was to baptize the 
 hyssop and the ashes into the water, we can see that 
 the baptism of the hyssop and of the ashes was their 
 repeated immersion into the fluid. As, then, the 
 baptism of the hyssop into water, mentioned by the 
 Jewish historian, Josephus, was its immersion into 
 water, so the baptism of Jesus into the Jordan, 
 mentioned by the Jewish historian, Mark, was his 
 immersion into that river. 
 
 ^ Toiii ovv a.To viK^ou f/,if/,ia,(r[jt,vjovi t^s TS<p^«? oXiyov si; Tfiyhv 
 IviivTis scai virtrMTov, (^u.TTtira.vri? ti (tjjv iiffirwjrov) xa) {oX'tyov] ty,; 
 ri(p^ai roLVTi-.i s/j ^r^^jjv, ippccivov, x. t. X. — Jos. Ant. iv. 4, § 6 ; God- 
 win, p. 57. 
 
 c 
 
18 MEANING or THE WORD "baptize^' 
 
 The use of the same expression by Greek authors 
 further illustrates its sense. 
 
 Heliodorus has the expression, /Sa-Trr/^g/i/ e/g, " to 
 baptize into" the lake. — Wilson, p. 112. Plutarch 
 says, iSd'XTiffov gsavrov ug QaXacaav, " baptize yourself 
 into the sea." — Godwin, p . 33. Clemens Alexandrinus 
 speaksof being h'^h fisdrig ^aTri^SfMvogsig utvo]/, "baptized 
 into sleep by intoxication." — Ibid. Plutarch mentions 
 a Roman general who, " baptizing his hand into 
 blood, wrote an inscription upon a trophy."^ And 
 Hippocrates says with reference to a blister, " Baptize 
 it again into woman^s milk."^ In all these cases 
 baptism into a fluid means immersion into it ; and 
 therefore, when we read of the baptism of Jesus into 
 the river Jordan we must understand his immersion 
 into it, and baptism in the New Testament must 
 mean immersion. 
 
 IV. In some instances /Sa-rr/^w is used with the 
 dative alone. The only cases of this construction are 
 in the following three places, Luke, iii. 16 ; Acts, 
 i. 5 ; and Acts, xi. 16, in which the expression 
 ^airr'i^iiv v^aTi ought to be translated to " baptize in 
 water," not "to baptize with water." The following 
 are the reasons for this opinion : — 
 
 1. The first clause in these passages, jSacrr/^g/i/ 
 udaTi, is antithetical to the second, ^aTrl^sffdai h 
 'Trviv/j.ari ; and since the second means " to baptize 
 in the Spirit," the first ought to mean " to baptize 
 in water," to make the antithesis complete. 
 
 ^ E/j Tfl aJfix rhv X^''^'^ [ia^riirecs 'iffrrKfi T^'o'pra.tov i'riy^d.^cts. — 
 Godwin, p. 34. 
 
 ^ Boc^rri^itv -raXiv is ydXa ywonxos. — Ibid. p. 33. 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 19 
 
 2. Tlie words in Luke, iii. 16/ are tlie evangelist's 
 record of words spoken by John tlie Baptist ; but 
 Jobn said, " I baptize in water," (SaTr/t^o) h vdari, 
 according to the two evangelists Matthew and Mark, 
 and therefore Luke must mean, like them, to record 
 that he said, " I baptize in water," not '' I baptize 
 with water/' 
 
 3. Luke elsewhere often uses the dative answering 
 to the question " wherein," the dative expressing in and 
 not with. Thus (1.) Luke, xvii. 34, Taurrj rfj v-jy^riy "In 
 that night," for Jv Tah-ri : see Acts, ii. 41 ; Luke, xix. 
 42 ; and Rom. ii. 16. (2.) Acts, i. 14, ^^offxa^rs^oDprsg 
 rfi 'Tt^oGivy^fi, " continuing in prayer/' and Acts, ii. 42, 
 for sv rfi <7:^o(;i\jyJi : see Acts, ii. 46. 'E/x/xivs/v rji 
 ir'idrii (Acts, xiv. 22), " to continue in the faith," for 
 h rf] rrisTit : see Stephen and Liddell, s/xfisvu, comp. 
 Rom. iv. 20. (3.) Uo^svofMvai rJ <p6l3(jj (Acts, ix. 31), 
 *^ walking in the fear," for Iv t(Z (p6(3(fj : see 1 Peter, 
 iv. 3. Zscav T(p ir'jihfj.ari (Acts, xviii. 25), " fervent 
 in spirit," comp. 1 Cor. xiv. 20; 2 Cor. x. 11; 
 xi. 6. (4.) Tfi ibia biaXHru) XaXa'onm (Acts, ii. 6), 
 " speaking in his own language.^' Ilws '/^^s/t 
 aytoboiMiv sTtaff-og rrj ibia, diaXsxroj Tjfiuv ; '' How hear 
 we every man in our own tongue?" Acts, ii. 8. 
 (5.) UooiViffdai ra/g odoTg abrojv, "to walk in their own 
 ways/' Acts, xiv. 16. There is much similarity in 
 the use of the dative in all these cases, and the last 
 
 ' The words, are these : — 'Ey&i /u\v vhcn (iacrri^u ii/uZs' so^srat Ti 
 
 KT^vooTi^o; f^ou .... avTO? vf^a; (iccTTiiru Iv •PTviufjt.oe.Ti ay'iui jtai 
 'prv^'i. — Luke, iii. 16. 'ludwris (Av l(ia.TTt(riv ota-Ti, vfji,u? Ti fiwrrtf- 
 6r,<riff6i h Tvivf^xrt ayioo. — Acts, i. 5 ; and xi. IG. 
 
20 MEANIx\G OF THE WORD 
 
 seems to me exactly parallel to that whicli is mider 
 examination. In tlie expressions^ ito^rbiG&ai oduJ and 
 (Sa'TTTi^siv vduTi, the datives answer to the question 
 "wherein," and as od^ expresses "in the way/' so vban 
 expresses "in water;" and this dative is a dative of 
 place_, not a dative of instrument. 
 
 4. These uses of the dative are recognised by 
 grammarians. Matthise notices, " The dative in 
 answer to the question ^wherein/" adducing the 
 following examples : " ocrsp/SaXXs/v, 'tt^oz^siv, dia(pspsiv 
 (ppovTjcfsi, adr/.icc, &c. to distinguish oneself in in- 
 telligence, injustice, &C. 'Ig^vsiv rcTg cou/xac/, " to 
 be strong in body," &c. &c.i He adds, " Lastly, the 
 dative is used in definitions of place in answer to the 
 question ^ where.' " And he then cites the following 
 examples among others, which exactly correspond to 
 the expression jSairri^siv vda-i, and settle its sense : — 
 
 Aojdojvi. — Sophocles, Trachinice, 170. 
 " Thus the old beech once uttered in Dodonaj" 
 
 'flc 67.6ru}, '/.av a/ff-^pcc rr^dcGYig. — Ihid, 596. 
 '' So if you perpetrate deeds of shame in darkness.^* 
 
 'n iJ.Yibvj sffT olzoig (3apv. — Ibid. 730. 
 " To whom there is no weight of grief in his house." 
 
 ' OdoT; zvzXuiv sfjjavrov s/g dva(rT^o'prjV. 
 
 Sophocles, Antigone, 226. 
 " On my road turning myself round to go back." 
 
 * In Attic the preposition is omitted, and the Ionic dative used as 
 an adverb, 'A^vivmi, @^^ri<ri, Qu^mi. — Liddell, h. 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 21 
 
 Koari h^ 7]\ioGr2oyig 
 KuvYi 'Koo<S'jy~a ©sccaX/r vh afJaTtiyji. — (Kd. Col. 313. 
 " On her head a Thessalian bonnet, shading from the 
 sun, covers her face.''^ 
 
 " Ky^<2^ (>\)hz 'TtoXiMhi xaTioyjrai. — Homer, Od. A. 186. 
 
 ^^ Thy father remains there in the field and comes not 
 to the city.^^ 
 
 In these cases the datives are used exactly as they 
 are in the passage under consideration ; and as the 
 dative Audoovi means " in Dodona/^ the dative or/,oig, 
 " in the house/^ the dative odoTg, " in the way/-* the 
 dative xpari, " on the head," and the dative ay^fZ, 
 *^ in the field," so the dative vban means " in the 
 water." It is the dative of place, not of instrument. 
 
 5. Like ^a-xri^cd; ^d'-ro) governs the prepositions sJg, 
 iv, into, in, and a dative without a preposition ; and 
 this dative is a dative of place, not of instrument. 
 As we read of ^oLirniv sJg vdojp, and /Soc-ttts/v s/v vdan, 
 so we read yoXyj /Ss/Sa/x/xsi^o/g, }/j.driov l3si3a/j,/j,svov c/Jfxart, 
 sXai(Z, vduTi iSd'TrTovfftv. As xoXfj (3Bi3a/M/Msvoig means 
 " dipped in gall" (Strabo in Wilson, p. 19), and i/jt^dnov 
 (3il3a,(i/ji.svov a/'/xar/ is " a vesture dipped in blood," 
 (Rev. xix. 13), so JXa/w Bd-rrrovffiv means "they dip 
 in oil," u3a-/ l3d'7rrou(Siv, " they dip in water." 
 
 Now, as the expression vdan j3d-7rrsiv means ^' to dip 
 in water," so the expression vdan (Sa'Trrt^nv similarly 
 means " to immerse in water." It is so used by Hera- 
 clides in the following sentence : '^ Eor the mass of 
 iron which is drawn out by the blacksmiths red-hot 
 is baptized in water, and that which is fiery of its 
 
22 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 own nature being quenclied in tlie water ceases to 
 be so/'i 
 
 According to the instances above quoted, the 
 words vdari /^aTT/^sra/ should mean an immersion "in 
 water/^ not an immersion "by- water." And the cir- 
 cumstances lead us to the same conclusion as the rules 
 of grammar ; for a red-hot iron would be so much 
 more easily and expeditiously cooled by plunging it 
 into water than by pouring water upon it, that a 
 blacksmith would never use the latter method ; and 
 Heraclides must have meant an immersion by dip- 
 ping rather than an immersion by affusion. And 
 that this was the habit of the smiths of ancient 
 Greece we learn from the following lines of Homer : 
 
 'He 5' or av^o ^aXzsijg <7rsXsx.vv /xsyccv rji 
 "E/v vdari "^v^^uj /Sacrrs/ /j^sydXa Id^ovra 
 ^a^fidffffojv. 
 " As when the smith dips in cold water the hatchet or 
 the axe much hissing, tempering it."^ 
 
 SouTi (ia.'TTil^iTai, xa) to (pXoyuOig iiTo rris l^ias <puffi&>s vOart xattt- 
 a-fiiffhv avgiTavirai. — Wilson, p. 114. 
 2 Homer, Od. X. 391. 
 
 The following passages show this to have been the method of 
 tempering iron among the Romans, as well as Greeks ; — 
 * * AUi stridentia tingunt 
 -^ra lacu." — Virff. Georg. iv. 172. 
 ** Ensem, quem Dauno ignipotens deus ipse parent! 
 
 Fecerat, et Stygia candentem tinxerat unda." — ^n. xii. 91. 
 " Gelido ceu quondam lamina candens 
 
 Tincta lacu stridit." — Ovi \ Met. ix. 107. 
 " Ut calidis candens fernim e fomacibus olim, 
 
 Stridit ubi in gelidum propere demersimus imbrem." 
 
 Lucretius, vi. 147. 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 23 
 
 To temper the hatchet^ the Greek smith dipped it 
 in cold water; and therefore when we read in the 
 schoHast of Sophocles of the Greek smiths^ ffidr,oov 
 ■jdari (3d<7rTovffiv, we must understand him to mean, 
 " they dip it in water ;" and when Heraclides says, 
 vduTi /Sa-rr/Tsra/, w^e must understand him to mean 
 " it is baptized in water/^i 
 
 6. We may further judge that the words /Sacrr/Js/v 
 udari mean " to baptize in water/^ from the use of the 
 Latin ablative in connexion with the words tinc/o, to 
 dip, lavo, to bathe, andmergo, to immerse, recollecting 
 that the Greek dative corresponds to the ablative in 
 Latin. The following instances are sufficient for our 
 purpose : — 
 
 • Like (ha.TTtZ,a, rlhf^i governs the prepositions lU, h, and the 
 dative without a preposition ; and therefore we may expect this 
 dative to have the same force in connexion with each of the two 
 words. 
 
 Ti0/if/.i governs u; in Horn. H. Y. 704, Q. 797, &c. It governs Iv 
 in the following instances : — 'Ev (poitr) Siffh 'ixaffros aiou. — //. N. 
 121. 'Ev Tifjuf rihrai. — Herodotus, iii. 3. "E^sto £v (puXcifiTi. — 
 Matt. xiv. 3 : see also Matt, xxvii. 60 ; Mark, vi. 29 ; Rom. 
 ix. 33. 
 
 But we find likewise rtSifi.iv voaJ, " to place a thing in the mind" 
 — Pindar P. i. 78 ; Liddell. And xoXiaJ filv ao^ SU, " place thy 
 sword in thy sheath." — Od. K. 333. 
 
 Just as TtdivoLi xoXiM 1^ *' to place in the sheath," so (-la.'rTi^tiv 
 I'W/ is " to baptize in the water." 
 
 We find exactly similar use of the word mergo, to immerse, in 
 the following instances : — 1. " Flavins in Euphratem mergitur ;" 
 ** Mergeremanura in ora ursae ;" " PuUos mergi in aquam jussit." 
 2. " Se in mari mergunt;" " Nihil in lacu mergi potest." 3. 
 *' Me Deus aequore mersit ;" " Mergitur oceano;" '* Visceribus 
 ferrum mergere." — Facciolati, " mergo." "Animas Into de- 
 mergere ;" " Colla demersere humeris," are similar expressions. 
 
24 
 
 We read, "Tingere in amne faces j^^ "In unclis 
 summa pedum taloque tenus vestigia tingit -^^ " Spon- 
 gia in aceto tincta j^"* and likewise, without the prepo- 
 sition, " Telum fluvio tingere/'' and " Tingunt sera 
 lacu/^ — Georg. iv. 172. See Riddle and Facciolati, 
 " tingo/' 
 
 We read, " Lavantur in fluminibus ;'' " In umbroso 
 fonte lavari f^ and likewise without the preposi- 
 tion, " Phoebe qui Xantho lavas amne crines/^ — See 
 Fac. "lavo/^ 
 
 Yfe read also, " Visceribus ferrum mergere j" " Nee 
 me Deus sequore mersit ;^^ " Bootes qui vix sero alto 
 mergitur oceano.'^ — Fac. " mergo/^ 
 
 As, therefore, " fluvio tingere" is '"''to dip in the 
 river," "amne crines lavare" is "to bathe the hair in 
 the stream," so ^a<7rT/^nv udarf is "to bathe in the 
 water." 
 
 7. There are many places in which ISa'^ri^oj is con- 
 nected with the dative of instrument. In all these 
 cases it expresses the force which plunges into the 
 water, and is never in a single instance, as far as I 
 know, used to express the water itself. The follow- 
 ing instances illustrate this fact : — 
 
 Thus Hippocrates says, " Shall I not laugh at the 
 man who by many burdens baptizes his ship ?" ^ And 
 Justin -Martyr speaks of persons " baptized by the 
 heaviest sins."- In these cases the burdens and the 
 heavy sins describe the force which baptizes into the 
 
 ' M^ ytXeia-u tov rriv vyiO, 'z-oXXolfft ^ooriolffi (la.'ZT'Kra.vTa, ; — HippOC, 
 532 ; Godwin, p. 27. 
 
 * Tu7s jiaovraTais a,f/.a^rlai; (iifaccrrifff^ivoi. — Just. Mart. Ibid. p. 33. 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 25 
 
 element, not the baptismal element. The man, like 
 a ship, is sunk in a sea of calamity by his burden ; 
 and sinners are baptized by their heavy sins in a sea 
 of guilt. Exactly similar is the construction of all 
 the following passages. Plutarch, says " The mind is 
 improved by proportioned labours, but is baptized by 
 those which are excessive.^^^ He speaks further, '^ of 
 persons baptized by debts."- Chrysostom speaks '' of 
 being baptized by cares /^ ^ and " of being baptized 
 by many waves of business."^ In all these places 
 the dative expresses not the water, but that which 
 plunges into the water. The excessive labours, the 
 heavy debts, the numerous cares, and the waves of 
 business, all plunge the person into the sea, but are 
 not the sea itself. There is one case cited in which 
 the dative connected with /Sa-r/^w may express the 
 water of baptism. Heliodorus speaks of a man 
 rfi Gvfjjcpooa (3i[3a~Tigfj/s<joi/, "baptized in the calamity, or 
 by the calamity." If it is the dative of instrument, 
 then, as in all the other places, it expresses not the 
 water of the baptism, but the force which plunged 
 into the water ; and if it expresses the water, it is the 
 dative of place, not instrument, and should be 
 translated " baptized in the calamity." 
 
 This view of the dative of instrument is farther 
 confirmed by the fact that whenever /Sa^rr/^w is con- 
 
 Yy;^*) To7s f^iv trvfji.fAi'T^oi; uv^irat ttovoi;, to?; S' vTri^^iiXXoiKri 
 (axTTt^trxi. — Godwin, p. 32. 
 
 ^ '0:pXyilu,etffi jiifoa.TTitrf/.ivoi. — Ibid. p. 33. 
 
 ^ Bez^rr/^^^Ei/aj (p^ovTtcri. — Ibid. 
 
 * HoXXois ficc.Tri^of/.ivog TT^a.'yf/.uTajv fiUf^-ua-t. — Ibid. 
 
26 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 nected witli ucro expressing agency, the preposition 
 always expresses the force which baptizes in the 
 water_, and not the water itself; we always have the 
 expression, — to be baptized by anything in water, 
 not to be baptized by water. , Thus Dion Cassius 
 says, " How should it not be baptized by the veiy 
 multitude of the rowers ?"i Libanius says, "He 
 who with difficulty sustains the burden which he 
 bears would be baptized by a small addition." ^ 
 Polybius speaks of a galley " pierced and baptized 
 by a ship of the enemy j"^ and of things " being by 
 themselves baptized and going down."* Libanius 
 says, " I am one of those baptized by that great 
 wave," i. e. being overwhelmed by the wave, he was 
 sunk in the sea.^ Clemens Alexandrinus speaks 
 of being "baptized by intemperance into sleep ;"^ 
 and Josephus says, that Aristobulus, " being baptized 
 by the Galatians in a bath, died."'^ In these cases, 
 as everywhere else, the water is the element in which 
 the baptism takes place, and not the agent by which 
 it is accomplished. 
 
 ' TlZs /u,iv av ovK v-Te a,VTou Tov Tkrjovs tZv kwttuv (iaTTurhiri ; 
 — Dion Cassitts, lib. xviii. 
 
 ^ 'O ^5 f/.oXis a vhv (pi^n (pioui vvo fiiKpeis civ (iccsTTia-hin T^air- 
 ^riKfii. — Libanius ; Godwin, p. 33. 
 
 ^ TsT^iJjtASv^jy xcc) /SaTTi^a/iSv*?!' vtto viaig ToXtf/,ia.s. — Polyb. xvi. 
 6 ; Godwin, p. 27. 
 
 * Auto/ uot' uvtuv ^a.<7rriZ,'(ifjt,ivoi xtti xarctovvovris. — Ibid. p. 29. 
 
 ^ AvTos ilf^t Tuv ^i(hix,'r'rKTfjt,iva)v v9ro tov f^iyaXov KVf/,aro; Imtvou. 
 —Ibid. p. 31. 
 
 ^ 'Toro f/^'i^ns p>ct7rTiZ,ofj(,ivoi s/j wVvav. — Ibid. p. 33. 
 
 ' 't^ro ruv Ta,\aTcov (hccTTTi'^ofAivoi iv KoXvfJt,(^ri6^ix, nXivra, — Ibid. 
 p. 30. 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 27 
 
 Like Dr. Campbell, therefore, who translates 
 vdan ^avr/^M (Luke, iii. 16), "I baptize in water,^' 
 we may conclude that when the dative occurs in the 
 New Testament with ^atrr'tZ^o), it must be under- 
 stood, not as the dative of the instrument, but as the 
 dative of the place; for this fact has been esta- 
 blished by the antithesis between the first and the 
 last clauses in each of these passages ; by the re- 
 cords of the same sentiment found in the evan- 
 gelists Matthew and Mark, where the words are " to 
 baptize in water -/' by a similar use of the dative 
 in other passages in the writings of Luke and of 
 the New Testament ; by the recognised use of the 
 dative in other Greek authors; by a similar use 
 of the dative with (SaTrrM ; and by the fact that 
 not a single passage is adduced in which the dative 
 of instrument connected with ISa'rri^oj means the 
 baptismal water. 
 
 All these considerations prove that the ge- 
 neral sense of /Sacrr/^&^ in the New Testament is, 
 to immerse by dipping. 1, the word has this 
 sense generally in classical authors; 2, it is used 
 with the preposition h, to immerse in, not to wash 
 with ; 3, it is used with the preposition s/'g, into, to 
 immerse into ; and 4, it is used with the dative 
 answering to the question '^ wherein,^^ l3a,-~-it^siv 
 xthari, " to immerse in water .^^ 
 
 But, undoubtedly, the lexicons give a secondary 
 sense to the word. Stephen assigns to it the mean- 
 ing, obruo aqua, " to overwhelm with water ; '' Lid- 
 dell, " to bathe, to soak ; " Donnegan, " to drench, to 
 
28 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 overwhelm/^ Mr. Wilson says, " Our general state- 
 ment is that the verb /Sa^r/^w, unlike /Swctt-w in its 
 primary seuse, is not tied to any exclusive mode. . . . 
 Let the baptizing element encompass its object, and in 
 the case of liquids, whether this relative state has been 
 produced by immersion, affusion, overwhelming, or 
 in any other mode, Greek usage recognises it as a 
 valid baptism. Thus, the sea- coast is baptized when 
 the tide flows overit.^^ — Wilson, p. 96. " Dr. Gale 
 felt constrained to attach to the verb a sense which 
 any paedo-baptist might safely adopt almost without 
 modification. ^ The word /Sacrr/^w,'' he observes, 
 ' perhaps, does not so necessarily express the action 
 of putting under water, as in general a thing^s being 
 in that condition, no matter how it comes so, whether 
 it is put into the water, or the water comes over it."* ^^ 
 — Wilson, p. 97. In citing this passage of Dr Gale, 
 Dr. Halley inserts the words, "If he had said, 
 ^ coming into that condition,^ he would have exactly 
 expressed our meaning." — Halley, p. 358. 
 
 Dr. Halley further explains his view thus : " In 
 the general sense, (Sut-u seems more nearly to 
 resemble our word to dip or put into a liquid; 
 (Sa'TTTt^M, to make to be in the liquid in any way. 
 We dip our hands {j3d<7rrM) ; but sink a ship (/S«cr- 
 rl^oj). . -. .We believe that /Sacrr/^w is to make one 
 thing to be in another by dipping, by immersing, by 
 burying, by covering by superfusion, or by whatever 
 mode effected, provided it be in immediate contact. 
 . . . Baptists explain the word as uniformly meaning 
 to put the thing baptized into the liquid. We con- 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 29 
 
 tend that it means to make tlie thing baptized be in 
 
 the liquid, however it be done With them 
 
 nothing is baptized unless it be dipped into the 
 liquid ; with us, everything is baptized which is co- 
 vered with the hquid/' — Halley, pp. 345, 347, 348. 
 " With them, to baptize is to dip and nothing else ; 
 with us, it is not to dip, nor yet to overwhelm, nor 
 yet to pour ; but it has a more general signification, 
 which has no reference to mode ; and it may be ef- 
 fected by dippings or by overwhelming, or by pour- 
 ing, or by any other mode in which the baptized 
 thing becomes in the baptizing substance/'' — Ibid. 
 p. 348. " Dr. Cox, in his excellent work on baptism, 
 says, ^ A person may, indeed, be immersed by pour- 
 ing, but immersion is the being plunged into water, 
 or overwhelmed by it.'' I see not what philological 
 question there is between Dr. Cox and myself.'" — Ibid. 
 p. 359. 
 
 This view, that (Sa'jrri^M may mean to cover \\dth 
 water, to immerse in it in any mode, is sustained by 
 the following citations : 
 
 "They say respecting the Phoenicians, who in- 
 habit the parts called Gadeira, that they, sailing 
 without the pillars of Hercules for four days with an 
 easterly wind, came to some desert places abounding 
 with rushes and sea-weed, which on the ebb are not 
 baptized, bat in the flood are deluged.''"' — Aristotle 
 de Mirabil. Auscult} 
 
 "The greater number of the land animals over- 
 
 xXv^iffSat. — Aristotle de Mirabil. ,- Halley, p. 356. 
 
30 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 taken by tlie river perisli, being baptized.^^ — Diodo- 
 rus Siculus.^ 
 
 ^^The river, flowing down with a more violent 
 current, baptized many, and destroyed them swim- 
 ming across in their armour." — Ibid.'^ 
 
 "The billow high raised baptized them." — Jose- 
 phus.^ 
 
 To these instances may be added an expression 
 quoted by Mr. Wilson and others from the " Life of 
 Homer." " In the 16th Book of the Iliad, 333, Ho- 
 mer says of Ajax : ' He struck him on the neck with 
 his hilted sword, and the whole sword was warmed 
 with blood j^ Ilav h' v-TrediPfxavdri ^i(pog aifxaTi. On the 
 latter clause of the sentence Dionysius remarks : ^ In 
 this he expresses greater emphasis : ^a'rrr'iG&ivrog oZru 
 roZ ^i(poug oog ts Qi^ixdv^Tivai, the sword being so bap- 
 tized as to be warmed,^ Vit. Horn. 297." — Wilson, 
 p. 116. What the critic evidently meant to say was, 
 that the blood which flowed from the neck of Cleo- 
 bulus upon the sword of Ajax was so abundant that 
 the sword was completely immersed in it. 
 
 I am not the least disposed to question this se- 
 condary sense of the word /Sacrr/^w. As it generally 
 
 * T&;v %\ ^i^cra'iuv &npicov ra •pfoXXa, fjt,\v vto too TOTctfiou ^i^iX7i(p6'ivTa, 
 'hia,<p6iioirKt (^ocrTi^of^iva,. — Diod. Sic. lib. i. torn. 1, p. 417 ; Wilson, 
 p. 109. 
 
 ^ 'O •ffOTo-izli Qtaiorioa) rS pivfjt.a,Ti xocTa,(pioofitvos ToXkohs ifhd'Trrifft 
 xa) f/.ira t&iv otrkuv 'hiavyi^ofjt.'ivovs ^n<phi^i. — Ibid. tom. ii. p. 142; 
 Wilson, p. 110. 
 
 ^ MiTieo^o; vTi^ei^his o kXv^uv IfiuTTKriv. — Joseph. Wars, iii. 8, 
 § 3 ; Godwin, p. 28 ; Wilson, p. 137. But this means, as Mr. 
 Godwin rightly interprets, the wave sunk, dipped them, i. e. im - 
 mersed them in the sea. 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 31 
 
 means to immerse by dippings to plunge into water, 
 so it sometimes means to immerse by flooding, to 
 overwhelm with water. But since this secondary 
 sense is rare, it seems to me that we bave no rigbt 
 to expound by it Christ's commission to his disci- 
 ples. Since he used the word /Sacrr/^w without ex- 
 planations, he must be understood to use it in its 
 ordinary sense. When he said, " Go and baptize,'^ 
 he must have meant, " Go and immerse by dipping,''^ 
 because this is the plain and natural sense of the 
 word, and an ordinary person would assign to the 
 word no other sense. Custom may conceal the abuse 
 of selecting a secondary sense ; but any one may 
 detect it by applying a similar method of interpre- 
 tation to any other word. Had our Lord used the 
 word jSoccrrw instead of /Sa-^rr/^w, would his ministers 
 have been justified in acting upon its secondary sense 
 to dye, instead of its primary sense to dip ? If he 
 had said, *'Go and dip all nations,'^ might they have 
 proceeded to dye all nations, because /3a^rw means 
 to dye as well as to dip ? If not, why may they 
 cover with water, instead of immersing in water, 
 because (Sa-zri^u has sometimes the former sense, 
 though it generally has the latter? The word has 
 also, according to Dr. Halley, a third subordinate 
 sense, i. e. to cover with earth, or to bury in ruins. 
 Why, then, may not Christians substitute for immer- 
 sion in water, covering with earth, since the word is said 
 to have that meaning as well as covering with water ?i 
 
 ' *' A body put in the surrounding earth of a grave, or a man 
 covered with the ruins of a house, is baptized." — Halley, p. 347. 
 
32 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 Another zealous author gives forty-five senses of the 
 words ^' baptize" and " baptism •" among which are^ 
 daubing with painty ornamenting with a needle, and 
 oppressing with taxes. — Thorn, p. 114. So that, if 
 this doctrine be received, that, in interpreting a 
 command, we may select any sense of the word 
 employed, however rare, the author might expound 
 the command to mean, " Go ye and teach all nations, 
 daubing them with paint, ornamenting them with a 
 needle, or oppressing them with taxes !" 
 
 If our Lord had said, " Go and disciple all na- 
 tions, circumcising them," his disciples might have 
 gathered armies to destroy the heathen nations, be- 
 cause the w^ord Vl52^ "to circumcise," means sometimes 
 to destroy or cut off (see Psalm Iviii. 7; xc. 6 ; cxviii. 
 10-12) j or because we may find the w^ord crs^z-s/xi/s/v, 
 " to circumcise," meaning sometimes to cut ofi", or to 
 hem in all round, as a body of soldiers. If these 
 interpretations would have been inadmissible, the rea- 
 son would have been, that w^hen our Lord used, with- 
 out further explanation, any w'ord to express his will, 
 the ordinary, and not any extraordinary, sense of the 
 word, must be preferred. Many errors are sustained 
 by the practice of substituting extraordinary senses 
 of words for the ordinary senses, in the interpreta- 
 tion of -Scripture. When the Scripture says that 
 "the Word was God," the Unitarian sustains his 
 denial of the deitj^ of Christ by understanding it 
 to mean he was a hero-god, as Moses w^as called a 
 god to Pharaoh. And w^hen the Scripture says that 
 " the wicked shall go away into everlasting punish- 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 33 
 
 ment" (Matt. xxv. 46), some say that the punish- 
 ment of the wicked is limited in duration, because 
 the word aJuivioSj " everlasting/^ may sometimes mean 
 merely lasting. 
 
 But even should this secondary sense of covering 
 with water be admissible, it would not justify the 
 ordinary custom of sprinkling, instead of immersing, 
 the applicants for baptism. In all cases, as we have 
 seen, ^a'Trrt^u means to immerse by dipping or by 
 overwhelming. Dr. Halley, Mr. Godwin, and Mr. 
 Wilson, all acknowledge this meaning ; and the ci- 
 tations from Greek authors suggest no other. The 
 baptized shore, the baptized cattle, the baptized sol- 
 diers, were completely submerged. Although they 
 were not plunged into water, the water completely 
 buried them; and no instance is adduced in which 
 any baptized person or thing was not submerged • 
 so that a person washed all over by the application 
 of water to different parts of the body successively, 
 would be no more baptized in this secondary sense 
 of overwhelming, than in the primary sense of dip- 
 ping. To be baptized, a person or thing must be, 
 according to all the instances adduced without ex- 
 ception, submerged, buried in water; and no other 
 application of water than that which submerges is 
 any fulfilment of the command to baptize. If, there- 
 fore, the secondary sense of the word /Saff-r/Jw be 
 admitted as applicable to the commission given by 
 Christ to his apostles, it could not be acted upon. 
 For since it it is impossible for the Christian minis- 
 ter to immerse converts by overwhelming, as the tide 
 
 D 
 
34 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 immersed the shore or the torrent immersed the 
 soldiers_, still the only practicable mode of fulfilling 
 our Lord's command 'would be to immerse by dip- 
 ping. If it were within our Lord^s meaning that a 
 torrent or flood might be brought upon the appli- 
 cant for baptism so as to bury him, this would be 
 so much more difficult than immersing in any bath or 
 stream by dipping, that it could not be contemplated 
 as the act intended generally by the commission. 
 
 This latter argument would, indeed, be met if it 
 could be shown that the word jSa-rr/^w has in the New 
 Testament yet a third sense not found in classical 
 usage, namely, that of washing, whether by sprinkling 
 or otherwise, without immersion.^ The passages cited 
 in support of this sense, Mark, vii. 4, Luke, xi. 38, 
 1 Cor. X. 1, 2, Heb. vi. 2, ix. 10, all fail to prove it. 
 
 That in Mark is as follows, ^' For the Pharisees 
 and all the Jews, exce'pt they wash their hands oft, 
 eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And 
 when they come from the market, except they baptize 
 themselves they eat not.''- As all the Jews could 
 net, it is said, immerse the whole body every time 
 that they came from the market, baptism here must 
 mean simply washing. "This is best explained, 
 ' Unless they wash their bodies,^ in opposition to 
 
 ^ Some psedo- baptist lexicographers and commentators give the 
 word this third sense of washing ; but as they have derived it 
 wholly from certain passages in the New Testament which are 
 palpably misunderstood, their authority cannot be adduced in the 
 argument. They give that sense as theologians, not as scholars. 
 
 * Ka; ciTTo ixyo^xg, lav fih (iw^Tiffcovrat ohx, \ff6iovfft. — Mark, vii. 3, 4. 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 35 
 
 the washing of the hands before mentioned^ in 
 which, however, is not imphed immersion." — Bloom- 
 field. Since it is said in the third verse that the 
 Jews would not eat without first washing their 
 hands, but that when they came from the market 
 they baptized, it is plain that the baptism was 
 different from the washing of the hands. The 
 washing was always necessary, but when they had 
 been in the crowd, where the danger of ceremonial 
 defilement was greater than elsewhere, they baptized. 
 What, then, was this baptism which was not the 
 washing of their hands ? Dr. Gill, maintaining that 
 the mention of "all the Jews^' in the third verse is 
 incidental, and relates to the statement contained in 
 that verse alone, interprets the 4th verse of the 
 Pharisees alone ; and answers the question thus : 
 "The Scribes and the Pharisees when they came 
 from the market or from any court of judicature, 
 immersed themselves all over in water," according to 
 the true sense of the word /SaTr/^w here used : for, 
 " If the Pharisees touched but the garments of the 
 common people they were defiled raid needed immer- 
 sion, and were obliged to it. Hence, when they 
 walked the streets, they walked on the sides of the 
 way that they might not be defiled by touching the 
 common people. Wherefore, they eat not except 
 they wash or immerse themselves in water, as well 
 as used D*^!** nb^^^to, immersion of the hands." 
 Grotius gives this answer : " With greater care they 
 purified themselves from contact with the market, 
 not merely by washing their hands, but by immersing 
 
36 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 their bodies/'' And Dr. Halley answers: "The 
 Pharisees as early as the time of our Lord practised 
 immersion after contact with the common people/' — 
 Halley, p. 379. "Admitting that the custom 
 ascribed to the Pharisees by Maimonides of immersing 
 themselves whenever they were polluted by the touch 
 of the common people, prevailed as early as the time 
 of our Lord,, we may explain consistently with the 
 doctrine of our baptist brethren the baptism of the 
 Pharisees in coming from the market.^' — Ihid. p. 377. 
 
 But if the passage refers to all the Jews, then the 
 D*^!** nb'^^ltD " the immersion of the hands/' and not 
 the immersion of the whole body, is intended. On 
 this point I am happy to quote the candid admission 
 of an able writer : " I know not whether our 
 baptist friends mil regard as a concession, what all 
 ought to acknowledge, that the two kinds of ablution, 
 the pouring of water upon the hands and the 
 dipping of them in it, might have been intended in 
 the Gospel of Mark, where the former is called 
 ^washing the hand to the wrist,' and the latter 
 ^baptizing.'" — Halley, p. 376. 
 
 The passage in Mark continues as follows, '^ And 
 many other things there be which they have received 
 to hold, as the washing {Swrriff/xryjg) of cups and pots, 
 and of brazen vessels, and of tables'' (zXivuv). Is it 
 possible that they washed their kliiice, or "couches," 
 as the word xXimi, here rendered " tables," ^ ought 
 
 * The word xXivy; means "a couch," and is so translated wherever 
 else it occiirs in the New Testament, Matt. ix. 2-6 ; Mark, iv. 21 ; 
 30 ; Luke, v. 18 ; viii. 16 ; xvii, 34 ; Acts, v. 15 ; Rev. ii. 22. 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 37 
 
 to be translated? "These (couclies) were to be 
 washed when they received any defilement, and that 
 by immersion. Their canon runs thus : ^ nt:)^^ a 
 bed that is wholly defiled, if nb*'ni:in be dips it 
 part by part, it is pure/ Again, ^ If nr:)nn n« IS 
 nb"^StDn^ be dips the bed in it (the pool of water), 
 although its feet are plunged into the thick clay (at 
 the bottom of the pool), it is clean/ ^^ — Dr. Gill. 
 But although it appears from this extract that the 
 Jews immersed the frames of their beds in water, 
 it is probable that the couch itself, and not its frame, 
 is here expressed by %>./r/j. " Orientals sit or recline 
 on a divan or sofa, that is, a part of the room raised 
 above the floor. The divans frequently serve the 
 purpose of a bed, with the addition of two thick 
 cotton quilts, one of which, folded double, serves as 
 a mattress or as a covering/^ — Calmefs Did. art. 
 ' Bed.^ " The more wealthy classes sleep on mat- 
 tresses stufied with wool or cotton, which are often 
 no other than a quilt thickly padded, and are used 
 either singly or one or more placed upon each other .^^ 
 — KiMs Cyclopcediay ' Bed/ These beds were light 
 and small ; for we find, in the narrative of Matthew, 
 a paralytic man brought to Jesus in his bed (Matt. 
 ix. 2) ; and this man, when cured, was desired to 
 take up his bed, and go with it to his house. Matt, 
 ix. 6: see also Luke, v. 18, 24; Acts, v. 15. It was 
 this which would be defiled by the touch of the de- 
 filed person, and would therefore need immersion. 
 " The Jews were undoubtedly most careful and 
 particular in thoroughly washing the drapery and 
 
38 
 
 covering of their seats ; and if any one will take the 
 trouble to study the various pollutions of beds and 
 couches^ as they are described in Maimonides and 
 the Talmudic tracts^ he must, I think, in candour 
 admit, that these articles of furniture were in some 
 instances immersed in water." — Halley, p. 383. In 
 this passage, therefore, there is no reason to doubt 
 that baptism means immersion. 
 
 The next passage cited to prove that baptism does 
 not always mean immersion is the following : '^ And 
 as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine 
 with him : and he went in and sat down to meat. 
 And when the Pharisee saw it, he wondered that he 
 had not first baptized himself before dinner J" '^ As the 
 expression '' to wash" would generally mean the whole 
 body, but under some circumstances might mean to 
 wash the hands, so the word /Sc47rr/^w, which gene- 
 rally means to immerse the body, may here mean to 
 immerse the hands. ^^ There were, I admit," says 
 Dr. Halley, "two modes of washing the hands ob- 
 served by the Pharisees ; one by pouring, D^*r^ nb"*l23^ 
 and one by dipping, D>*f> nb^ntD ', and if our Lord 
 had been subject to the greater defilement, and his 
 disciples to the less, the washing expected from our 
 Lord might have been more complete than that of his 
 disciples." — Halley, p. 375. As the immersion of 
 the hands might be termed baptism in Mark, vii. so 
 it may be here; and baptism still means immersion. 
 In the lOth chapter of the First Epistle to the 
 
 ' "On ol rreuTov l^aTr'nrSyi jf^o rod a^'iffrov, — Luke, xi. 37, 38. 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 39 
 
 Corinthians^ the Apostle Paul has used these words : 
 "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should he 
 ignorant how that all our fathers were under the 
 cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all 
 baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea,'' 
 1 Cx)r. X. 1, 2. The argument of the apostle is as 
 follows : As the Israelites had been baptized unto 
 MoseSj so the Corinthians had been baptized unto 
 Christ; and as many of the baptized Israelites 
 perished in the wilderness through their rebellion, 
 so might the baptized Corinthians faU too : hence he 
 urged them to beware. In this passage_, therefore, 
 there is a comparison between the baptism of the 
 Israelites and the baptism of professed believers. 
 The Israelites had descended into the Red Sea ; there 
 they were " under the cloud/^ and " passed through 
 the sea/'' and therefore the cloud and the sea to- 
 gether buried or immersed them, till they were vic- 
 torious on the opposite shore of the sea. They might 
 or might not be wetted by the cloud and the sea ; 
 what was essential to the baptism was, to be covered 
 by them. As Dryden speaks of a person being " im- 
 mersed in a wood," so Paul speaks of the Israel- 
 ites being immersed in the cloud and sea, because 
 the cloud and sea covered them. While the cloud 
 descended behind the loug column of the Israel- 
 ites, involving the Egyptians in darkness, it spread 
 over their heads along the deep avenue of the sea, 
 throwing its light in front of the advancing host, 
 Exod. XX. 19, 20. Now just as they descended into 
 the sea, and were buried by the sea and by the cloud. 
 
40 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 and tlien emerged from them, so the Corinthians 
 had descended into the waters of haptism, had heen 
 buried by them, and then emerged. The compari- 
 son shows with sufficient distinctness that both the 
 earher and the later baptism, the national baptism 
 and the baptism of the Christian converts, had been 
 an immersion. 
 
 In the 6th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 the Apostle gives to the Christians whom he ad- 
 dressed the following exhortation : '' Therefore, leav- 
 ing the principles of the doctrine of Christy let us 
 go on unto perfection; not laying again the foun- 
 dation of repentance from dead works and of faith 
 towards God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of lay- 
 ing on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, 
 and of eternal judgment,'' Heb. vi. 1, 2. In this 
 passage "the doctrine of baptisms,^^ being classed with 
 the elementary doctrines of the Gospel, must be the 
 doctrine of Christian baptism, and not of any Jewish 
 baptisms unconnected with Christian doctrine. " That 
 the Christian rite is included among the baptisms 
 here mentioned is evident from the instruction (or 
 doctrine) being part of the first lessons of Chris- 
 tianity." — Godwin, p. 121. Grotius understands the 
 doctrine spoken of to be the doctrine of the necessity 
 of a double baptism, interior and exterior.^ " Storr 
 supposes /^acrr/ff/xajv to be used here in a kind of dis- 
 tributive sense, so that the sentiment is ' the doc- 
 trine that every believer must be baptized.^ '' — Stuart, 
 
 ^ " Doctrina de duplice baptismo interiore et exteriore." 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 41 
 
 We have before proved baptism to mean immersion, 
 and this passage leaves that truth unaffected. 
 
 Lastly, in Heb. ix. 10, we read as follows : " JVhich 
 (tabernacle) has been a figure or type up to the pre- 
 sent time, in which (time) are offered both gifts and 
 sacrifices that cannot make the worshipper perfect 
 as pertaining to the conscience : (being) only, in 
 addition to meats, and drinks, and divers baptisms, 
 carnal ordinances imposed until the time of refor- 
 mation.'^ 1 
 
 Under the law, various immersions were ordered, 
 — immersions of the priests before they of&ciated in 
 the temple (see Hammond on Matt. iii. 1) ; immer- 
 sions of persons. Lev. xiv. 8 ; xv. 5, 13 ; xvi. 26, 28 ; 
 xvii. 15, 16 j xxii. 6 ; Numb. xix. 7, 9, 19 ; immer- 
 sions of clothes. Lev. xiv. 8 ; xv. 13 ; Numb. xix. 7, 
 10; xxxi. 24; immersions of the hands and feet, 
 Exod. XXX. 19; immersions of vessels. Lev. \\. 28; 
 immersions in a mixture of water and blood, Lev. 
 xiv. 6.2 These different immersions are here called 
 
 * "Hr/j Tx^etfioXyi it; rov xeci^h <rov hitrrnKOTcx,, ko.^ ov ^uoa, n xai 
 ^uirlen •x^off(pi^ov7oe,i fz,ii dvvdfiivai KaToc, ffvvi'i^yjfftv TiXiiutrui rov Xccr^iV' 
 ovTOi, fiovov, Itti ^^ufjt,a,(n x,ou •^Ofjt.a.ffi, xctt %ta,(poooi$ ^ot.VTKry.oli^ ^mcciuaTa 
 ffagaoi, f^'^X,^i Kccioou ^io^6&i(ncos i-ffixi'tf/Ava.. — Heb. ix. 9, 10. 
 
 'Et/ ^ouf/,a,(Ti, &c. " 'E^ri marks accession, or addition to some- 
 thing already mentioned, Matt. xxv. 20, 22 ; Luke, iii. 20 ; xvi- 
 26 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 16 ; Eph. vi. 16 ; Col. iii. 14 ; Phil. ii. 27." — 
 Rolinson's Lex. " 'Et; must not be translated ' in,' but with the 
 best commentators 'besides,' or 'with.' " —Bloomfield. 
 
 ' The word yt-;'^, used in most of these places, means, it is true, 
 " to wash," as well as "to bathe," and is variously rendered in the 
 Sept. Version by Xovu and n-rru, but it sometimes means simply 
 "to bathe," as Exod. ii. 5 ; and the circumstances show that it 
 
42 MEANING OF THE WORD " BAPTIZE*' 
 
 " divers baptisms ;" and thus^ again, we see that bap- 
 tism is immersion. 
 
 There are two other places, in the Apocrypha, 
 where the word occurs with the same signification 
 of immersion. 
 
 The first is Ecclesiasticus, xxxiv. ^5 : " He that 
 haptizeth himself after the touching of a dead body, 
 ^a<7rr/i^6/j.svog cctto vsx^ov, if he touch it again, what 
 availeth his washing?'' rcJ Xovt^(Z ahrov. 'Aero is 
 sometimes used as a preposition of time, signifying 
 after doing anything. — Don, Thus we read, ysvstr^a/ 
 OL'TTO bii'avouy " to bc aftcr supper f 'ttivziv a'nh roxj diriou, 
 " to drink after eating : '' see Matthise, prep. dcr^. 
 BaTr/^sC^a/ aero rov vstcpov, " to be baptized after the 
 touch of a dead body/^ is a similar form of expres- 
 sion. And that the baptism is here an immersion 
 is plain, for Xovrfov is an immersion, and the bap- 
 tism is here called a Xovr^h ; or d<7rh may express 
 deliverance from any state, as ?ppavTi0/j,svoi aero cuvs/S^- 
 ffsoog <7rovriPag, " sprinkled from an evil conscience,'^ 
 Heb. X. 22; /Sacrr/c^'/^rs rriv -^{j^yjv clitq h^yrig. — See 
 Godwin, p. 92. 
 
 The second is in the 12th chapter of the book of 
 Judith. 'When an immense Assyrian army, under the 
 command of Holofernes, lay encamped near the city 
 of Bethulia .(Judith, vii. 1-4), Judith, a woman of 
 
 meaBS also " to bathe " in the passage above quoted. So also the 
 word D33, used for washing of clothes, is used in the vast majority 
 of cases, if not always, for their immersion. The washing of the 
 clothes was as necessary as the washing of the body, for the legal 
 purification of the person, Lev. xvi. 26, 28, &c. &c. 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 43 
 
 tHat city, of determined courage, entered tlie Assyrian 
 camp with intention to kill tlie general, x. 9-23. 
 Having been received by him with much honour as 
 a person of wealth, beauty, and sense, she had a 
 tent assigned to her. " She slept till midnight, 
 and she arose when it was toward the morning 
 watch,^'' xii. 5. The terms by which the old Hebrew 
 divisions of the night were characterized are, — the 
 first watch, the middle watch, and the morning 
 watch. ^^The first extended from sunset to ten 
 o^ clock ; the second, from ten at night till two in 
 the morning; and the third, from that hour till 
 sunrise. ^^ — Kitto, '^Watch.^^ About one o^ clock, 
 therefore, she sent to Holofernes, saying, " Let my 
 lord now command that thy handmaid may go forth 
 unto prayer,'^ xii. 6. Holofernes having given 
 orders that the sentinels should not stop her, "" She 
 loent out in the night into the valley of Bethuliay 
 
 udarog, and baptized herself at the fountain of water 
 in the camp/' xii. 7; vi. 11; vii. 3. By her asso- 
 ciation with idolaters, she judged herself to be 
 ceremonially defiled. Long after this the Apostle 
 Peter thus expressed the Jewish belief to Cornelius 
 and his friends : '^ Ye know how that it is an un- 
 lawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep 
 company or come unto one of another nation,^^ Acts, 
 x. 28. For one who was thus defiled, the law en- 
 acted, "On the seventh day he shall purify himself, 
 and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, 
 and shall be clean at even," Numb. xix. 19. The 
 
44 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 other legal sprinklings slie could not secure, but slie 
 might bathe in the fountain of Bethulia. And she 
 who had sought the camp of the enemy to take the 
 generaFs life did not want courage for that midnight 
 walk. Attended, doubtless^ by her servant, she 
 passed the sleeping army, her object being "in 
 umbroso fonte lavari,^^ [Ovid, Fast. iii. 12), "to 
 bathe in that fountain/^ ^ It was the hour of deepest 
 darkness and most universal sleep — no sentinel 
 could leave his post, no movement disturbed the 
 silent camp. And in the darkness of the night, and 
 in the solitude of the lone valley, which was only 
 broken by the presence of her faithful attendant, 
 she washed away by immersion the ceremonial de- 
 filement which she had contracted. " So she came 
 in clean,^^ xii. 9. Since it was necessary to obtain 
 ceremonial purity that her entire body should be 
 washed, we may be sure that she would accomplish 
 it by dipping in the water, since this was by far 
 the most expeditious and convenient mode ; and 
 this is properly expressed by J/5a^r/^iro. 
 
 It affords further confirmation of the fact that 
 j8a^r/^w means to immerse and not to sprinkle or 
 pour out, that it is always found with a different 
 construction from that of words which have these 
 latter meanings. We find the words " to sprinkle,^' 
 "to pour OUt,^' '^"1^; r^\, pavri^Mj pa/vUj "r^oGy/iu, 
 
 ' A fountain may form a pool suitable for bathing as that men- 
 tioned by Cicero, "Fons aquse dulcis cui nomen Arethusa est, 
 incredibili magnitudine, plenissimus piscium." — Cicero in Fac. 
 *' Fens." 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 45 
 
 in construction with the preposition upoUj hv^ l-jij 
 never with the preposition in, s, h, and, on the 
 contrary, we find the word ,8acrr/^w in construction 
 with the preposition in, Iv, and never with upon, Icr/.^ 
 
 Since we never find the expression " to sprinkle/^ or 
 "pour in/"* but often "to sprinkle/^ or "pour on/'' and 
 never find the expression "to baptize on," but often 
 " to baptize in," it is apparent that to baptize is not 
 the same thing as to sprinkle or to pour. If we under- 
 stand baptism to be sprinkhng, this diversity of 
 construction is unaccountable; but if baptism be 
 immersion, the reason is plain. 
 
 All the passages containing the word ,'3a-T-/^aj 
 adduced by psedo-baptist authors, without a single 
 exception, either prove that baptism means im- 
 mersion, or are fully consistent with that sense. 
 But the establishment of this fact has been skilfully 
 turned into an argument against the immersion of 
 believers. For the immersion expressed by /Sa'^rr/Jw 
 has been declared by some to be so complete and 
 lasting that it would involve destruction of life, and 
 is therefore unfitted for a religious rite. " BaTrr/^w," 
 it is said, " denotes ' to put or keep under water for 
 
 ' The following passages will sufficiently illustrate this fact. 
 
 Instances of h'J rr^rt, Lev. vi. 27 ; xiv. 7 ; xvi. 15 ; Isa. Ixiii. 3. 
 h'J pr^t^ Exod. xxiv. 6, 8 ; xxix. 16, 20 ; Lev. i. 5. 11 ; Ezek. xxxv. 
 25. ''PocvTiZ^u it). Lev. vi. 27 ; Numb. xix. 13, 20. 'Faiva It), Exod. 
 xxix. 21 ; Lev. viii. 11 ; xvi. 14, 15, 19 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 25. Uooff^ioj 
 It) (-^'J pr:), Lev. i. 5 ; vi. 32 ; viii. 18 ; ix. 12, &c. 
 
46 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 a considerable time/ and would be inappropriate to 
 a transient dipping/^ Hence some would translate 
 tbe word generally in tbe New Testament by the 
 English word "to purify/^ Before this new sense 
 be adopted, we must have proof of the assertion 
 which has mainly led to it, that baptisrh means a 
 lengthened immersion ; but let any one consider the 
 follomng passages, and he will perceive that it may 
 just as well express an immersion which is transient. 
 I will first recall the Sibylline verse recorded by 
 Plutarch in his life of Theseus : — 
 
 A bladder thou mayst dip, but canst not sink. 
 
 The sense given by Liddell and Donnegan to bhm 
 is, 1st, "to enter into,^^ and 2dly, "to sink in.^^ 
 Langhorne translates the verse thus : — 
 
 " The bladder may be dipped, but never drowned." 
 
 Mr. Godwin more accurately, " A bladder thou mayst 
 be baptized, but it is not thy destiny to enter 
 in.^^ In this, as in other cases, it is clear that the 
 baptism was an immersion ; and secondly, that the 
 immersion was opposed to sinking, was transient 
 and not lasting, like the immersion of a bladder, 
 which would, if submerged, immediately rise to the 
 surface. As an inflated bladder might be sub- 
 merged, but would not sink, — specifically lighter 
 than the water — so Athens might be immersed in 
 calamity, but would not sink in it. "WTien the sun 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 47 
 
 descends beneath tlie horizon, it is said dvvsiv. 
 Homer said of Neptune, A/Vs >.aov ^ KyjL'ir/jiv 'Evj/o- 
 (Siyaiog, hvvi ds tovtov iu>v, Iliad, O. 219, '^ Neptune 
 left the Greeks, and entered the ocean ; ^■' where the 
 word dv\/u expresses his descent towards the depths of 
 the sea. And in the Sep tuagint translation of Exod. 
 XV. LO, we read, 'Eo-jca;/ ojffsj (x67.i^og h -Joa-/, "they 
 sank as lead in the water.''^ The immersion, then, 
 of Athens was transient, and not continued. 
 
 Of a river in Cappadocia, Strabo says, "When 
 one casts a dart from above into the channel, 
 the force of the water presents so much resistance 
 that it is with difficulty baptized." If the dart had 
 been specifically heavier than the water, it would 
 have been plunged to the bottom without difficulty ; 
 it was therefore specifically lighter, and conse- 
 quently would speedily, when immersed, rise again 
 to the surface, and the baptism was therefore 
 momentary. When Hippocrates says, "He breathed 
 as persons breathe after being baptized," he speaks 
 of an immersion which could not be longer than the 
 time during which a person could hold his I r oath. 
 Josephus says of the murderers of Aristobulus, 
 " Continually pressing him down, and baptizing 
 him, as in sport, while he was swimming, they ceased 
 not till they had completely suffocated him." If 
 the word " baptize " meant of itself a permanent 
 immersion, why was it necessary for the historian to 
 say that they ceased not from baptizing him till he 
 was drowned ? A single act of baptism would have 
 been his death. And if baptism meant more than a 
 
48 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 momentary immersion, how could they baptize him 
 '^as in sport ?" If they held him under water till 
 he was drowned, the murder would have been mani- 
 fest, but if one after another immersed him for a 
 moment, allowing him no time to breathe, they 
 might seem to be amusing themselves, and not to 
 intend his death ; the immersions were therefore 
 momentary. The immersions, likewise, of Naaman, 
 who " baptized himself seven times in the Jordan,^^ 
 (2 Kings, V. 14), were momentary. When Josephus 
 says that hyssop was '' baptized into spring water,^'' 
 with a view to sprinkle unclean persons, he must 
 mean a transient immersion. When Plutarch says, 
 " Baptize thyself into the sea ; " Heliodorus, " Baptize 
 into the lake/^ and Hippocrates, with reference to 
 the preparation of a blister, " Baptize it into milk,^^ 
 these authors mean by baptism transient and not 
 permanent immersion : and the Roman general, who, 
 *^ baptizing his hand in blood, wrote an inscription 
 upon a trophy,^^ speedily drew his hand out of the 
 blood that he might write with it. In all these 
 cases baptism means transient immersion; and in 
 the other cases generally where the word occurs, it 
 does not seem to me to express more of itself. 
 When a ship is baptized at sea by the weight of its 
 cargo, it remains indeed under the water, but the 
 baptism merely expresses its submersion. So when 
 soldiers were baptized in their armour they would 
 be drowned, but the baptism and the consequent 
 drowning were distinct facts. Indeed, I can find 
 no instance where the word of itself expresses the 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 49 
 
 continuance of tlie submersion ; and till sucli proof is 
 afforded^ I must continue to think tliat '^to baptize^* 
 is merely "to immerse/^ 
 
 If it could be shown that the word /Sacrr/^a^ gene- 
 rally means "to place under water permanently/* 
 still all allow that it sometimes means a transient 
 immersion, and, therefore, as our Lord could not 
 command baptism in the former sense, we must 
 understand him to command it in the latter sense. 
 Even then it would be much more reasonable to 
 translate it by the word " immerse '^ than by the 
 word "purify," to give it a sense which it has 
 sometimes, than a sense which it cannot clearly be 
 shown to have in a single place. Still immersion 
 alone would appear to be its meaning. 
 
 Yet upon this fragile foundation has been built 
 an ingenious and elaborate argument to prove that 
 it means " to purify.''^ "Bc6Tr/^&j, as a religious term, 
 means neither to dip nor sprinkle, immerse nor 
 pour, nor any other external action in applying a 
 fluid to the body, or the body to a fluid, nor any 
 action which is limited to one mode of performance ; 
 but as a religious term it means at all times ^to 
 purify, or cleanse.* . . . In this usage it is in every 
 respect a perfect synonyme of the word y.a&cioil^ca" — 
 Beecher. I am unable to assent to this conclusion, 
 for the following reasons among others, 1. It is 
 unnecessary, because the classical sense of /Sacrr/^w 
 much more completely meets all the facts of the 
 case. 2. There is no positive evidence for this 
 derived sense, and the alleged probabilities seem to 
 
50 MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 me improbabilities. 3. Had our Lord meant to 
 command bis disciples to purify men, be would bave 
 used tbe word xa^a^/^w (wbicb is declared to be a 
 perfect synonyme, and wbicb is unequivocal) ratber 
 tban bave selected a term wbicb be knew tbe vast 
 majority of men must understand in anotber sense. 
 4. A command to purify men must eitber refer to 
 ritual defilement or to moral defilement. Tbere is 
 no ritual defilement recognised in Cbristianity, and 
 tberefore tbe command must refer to moral defile- 
 ment. But men are purified from moral defilement 
 by faitb (Acts, xv. 9), and faitb comes by bearing, 
 Rom. X. 17. So tbat tbe command "to purify" is 
 tbe same as tbe command " to make disciples ; " and 
 if tbe word " to baptize " meant " to purify," tbe 
 two clauses in tbe commission, " disciple and baptize," 
 would be tautological. 5. Tbere are no otber places 
 in Scripture wbere men are said to purify otber 
 men : tbis is tbe work of God. In six places 
 wbere tbe word xada^fC^u is used witb reference to 
 spiritual cleansing, tbe act is expressly ascribed to 
 God, Acts, XV. 9 ; Epb. v. 26 ; Tit. ii. 14 ; Heb. ix. 
 14 ; 1 Jobn, i. 7,9. In tbree places men are urged 
 to cleanse tbemselves. Matt, xxiii. 26 ; 2 Cor. vii. 
 1 ; James, iv. 8 ; but never once are Cbristian 
 ministers urged to cleanse otbers. 6, Tbe legiti- 
 mate inference from tbis interpretation would be 
 tbat tbere is no external baptism appointed. For if 
 to baptize means to purify, tbe command to purify 
 must necessarily mean to purify tbe beart, tbere 
 being no ritual purification in Cbristianity, and, 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 51 
 
 therefore, neither the commission given to the apo- 
 stles, nor any other precept, enjoins any initiatory 
 rite whatever, and external baptism vanishes from 
 the list of Christian duties. 
 
 Here let us recall a remark of Hooker, which has 
 much truth in it : "I hold for a most infallible rule 
 in expositions of Scripture, that where a literal con- 
 struction will stand, the farthest from the letter is 
 commonly the worst. There is nothing more dan- 
 gerous than this licentious and deluding art, which 
 changeth the meaning of words as alchemy doth, or 
 would do, the substance of metals, maketh of any- 
 thing what it listeth, and bringeth in the end all 
 truth to nothing." — Polity, Book v. 
 
 This interpretation, therefore, of jSu'irrl^oj seems to 
 me as untenable as the rest. And here let me notice 
 the evidence that baptism means immersion arising 
 from the various and opposite interpretations put 
 upon it by the advocates of sprinkling. All the best 
 scholars agree that it often has the meaning of im- 
 mersion, this sense unites all suffrages; but when 
 psedo-baptist authors, with the task before them of 
 defending the prevailing custom, set themselves to 
 establish some other meaning, we find the widest 
 discrepancy in men equally learned and excellent. 
 Some say that the word means less than immersion, 
 and some more ; some that it means to wash, and 
 that immersion is more than is required ; some that 
 it means to keep under water a considerable time, 
 and that immersion is less than is required. One 
 contends that it means the application of water in 
 
52 MEANING OF THE WORD " BAPTIZE^^ 
 
 any way ; another that it means to purify or cleanse, 
 without any application of water. Do not these vast 
 discrepancies in the judgments of learned men, when 
 they attempt to attach any other meaning to the 
 word than immersion, combined with their general 
 acknowledgment that it has the sense of immersion, 
 prove that this is its true meaning ? When the dis- 
 ciples heard our Lord say, '^'^Go ye and disciple aU 
 nations, baptizing them," could they attach to the 
 term baptism any other meaning than immersion, 
 and are we at liberty to introduce any other? 
 
 On the whole, there is abundant evidence that the 
 words (Swrr/t^Uj /Sacrr/V/xa, and (3a<7rrig/jbogj mean, in 
 their ordinary signification, 'immersion by dipping :" 
 and although they sometimes mean immersion by 
 overwhelming, there is no evidence whatever, — not 
 one solitary passage, adduced from a single Greek 
 author, sacred, Hebraistic, or classical, — not one sen- 
 tence in the whole compass of the Greek language, 
 to show that they ever mean any washing which is 
 less than complete imrpersion. The most prodigal 
 and devoted efforts of the ablest and best psedo- 
 baptist scholars to prove that the words mean some- 
 thing else than immersion have only established 
 beyond all doubt that immersion is their single and 
 exclusive meaning. Had, therefore, our Lord meant 
 his ministers to sprinkle, or partially to wash, those 
 who wish to profess their faith in him, he would 
 have used, in his commission, the word pavr/^w, " to 
 sprinkle," or the word i/zVt-w, '^to wash," or some other 
 equivalent words. But, since he used the word 
 
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 53 
 
 ^ccTrTi^oj, ^^ to immerse/^ saying to them, '^ Go ye and 
 make disciples of all nations, immersing them unto 
 the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost,^^ he has ordained that eveiy behever in 
 him should confess his repentance, his faith, and his 
 discipleship, by immersion unto that holy Name. 
 
SECTION II. 
 
 WE MA.Y LEARN FROM THE BAPTISM OF JEWISH 
 PROSELYTES THAT BAPTISM IS IMMERSION. 
 
 When our Lord commanded his disciples " to go 
 and disciple all nations, baptizing them/^ they had 
 been already in the habit of baptizing. For we read 
 of the disciples of John, " They came unto John, and 
 said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond 
 Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the 
 same baptizeth, and all men come unto him," John, 
 iii. 26. And the evangelist added, ^' When there- 
 fore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard 
 that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than 
 John, (though Jesus himself baptized not, but his 
 disciples,) he left Judea, and departed again into 
 Galilee," Johp, iv. 1-3. As he indicated then no 
 change in their practice, it would continue what it 
 had been before; and, as no earlier directions re- 
 specting the rite are recorded, but it is simply 
 stated that they baptized, we have reason to think 
 that they administered the baptism to which as Jews 
 
BAPTISM OF JEWISH PROSELYTES. 55 
 
 they were accustomed. The simple record that they 
 baptized must be understood to declare that they did 
 so according to the common recognised practice. 
 The use of the word " baptize/^ as of a term generally 
 known^ and which called for no explanation^ proves 
 that it must be understood in its common sense. 
 Had the external act of baptism, when that rite was 
 administered by the apostles, differed materially from 
 the external act of baptism as practised by the Jews, 
 the difference would have been explained to prevent 
 mistake in successive generations. And since there 
 is no explanation whatever, we may conclude that 
 the apostles administered baptism after the manner 
 of the Jews. 
 
 This being premised, we ma)^ infer that baptism 
 is immersion from the baptism of Jewish prose- 
 lytes. 
 
 In his annotations upon Matt. iii. 1, Dr. Ham- 
 mond, describing the Jewish washings, states the 
 first sort to be that of the priests, who washed their 
 whole bodies before going into the temple to minister; 
 and adds, "A second sort was the washing of the 
 proselytes. . . . These men were admitted by the 
 Jews not only by circumcision, and while the temple 
 stood by sacrifice, but also with this ceremony or 
 solemnity of washing, i. e., ablution of the whole body, 
 done solemnly in a river or other such great place or 
 receptacle of waters.^^ This practice was probably 
 founded on the following law in the Mosaic code : 
 '^ The clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean 
 on the third day, and on the seventh day : and on 
 
56 BAPTISM OP JEWISH PROSELYTES. 
 
 the seventli day lie shall purify himself, and wash his 
 clothes, and hathe himself in water, and shall be clean 
 at even. But the man that shall be unclean, and 
 shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off 
 from the congregation, because he hath defiled the 
 sanctuary of the Lord,^^ Numb. xix. 19, 20; It would 
 be strange and unaccountable if the law that was 
 binding on a native Jew were not also binding on 
 the Gentile proselyte. Can it be supposed that a Jew, 
 until purified, was excluded from the society of his 
 countrymen, and from the religious privileges which 
 were his birthright, on account of a single act pro- 
 ducing ceremonial defilement -, and that the Gentile 
 who had often done the same thing was not excluded 
 also until purified in the same way ? Would a Jew 
 require this purification after merely touching the 
 unclean Gentile before restored to his religious privi- 
 leges, and would the unclean Gentile be admitted 
 without this purification to participate in them ? The 
 supposition is most unreasonable. Not only is it 
 contrary to the spirit of the Jewish people and to the 
 design of their ceremonies, but it is opposed to the 
 express injunction of the law, which required that 
 the Gentile should be treated as the Jew : "One law 
 and one manner shall be for you and for the stranger 
 that sojourneth with you,^^ Numb. xv. 16. — Godwin, 
 p. 72. Now as the Gentile must be bathed in order 
 to be admissible into Jewish society, we can easily 
 see that he would be required to do this before wit- 
 nesses, without which his legal purification could not 
 be known, and under these circumstances it was most 
 
BAPTISM OF JEWISH PROSELYTES. 57 
 
 natural that lie sliould be baptized by the priests. 
 The Mosaic law thus affording strong presumptive 
 evidence that the Jewish proselyte was baptized or 
 bathed, we find the fact confirmed by Jewish writers. 
 " About the year of our Lord 220, the Mishna or 
 Repetition, which constitutes the text of both Tal- 
 muds, was composed by Rabbi Jehudah Hakkodesh. 
 According to the Jews it consists of traditions which 
 had descended uncorrupt from Moses, and could thus 
 rightfully claim Divine authority.'^— J^z7so?2, p. 190. 
 In this work is the following passage : " As to a pros- 
 elyte who becomes a proselyte on the evening of the 
 Passover, the followers of Shammai say. Let Mm he 
 baptized (b^lD)^ and let him eat the Passover in the 
 evening." — Ibid. p. 190. Jewish tradition informs 
 us that Rabbi Shammai flourished about forty years 
 before the advent of our Saviour ; but whether that 
 tradition be accurate Or not, we know that the com- 
 piler of the Mishna, in the beginning of the third 
 century, found proselyte-baptism already an esta- 
 blished custom among the Jews ; and we find that 
 the right of the proselyte to receive the Passover on 
 the same day that he was baptized had been even 
 then a subject of ancient controversy among his 
 learned countrymen of previous generations. Some 
 give the Mishna an earlier date : " That the Mishna 
 was arranged in the second century, and contains the 
 traditions of the Elders prevalent in the time of our 
 Lord, there can be no reasonable doubt." — Hallei/j 
 p. 133. ^^ Dr. Prideaux considers the date of the 
 Mishna to be about a.d. 150 j Lardner, 180; Light- 
 
58 BAPTISM OF JEWISH PROSELYTES. 
 
 foot, 190. Eabbi Judali Hakkedosh, its reputed 
 compiler, is said by Wagenseil to have died about 190, 
 or according to others, 220." — Halley. "In the 
 Jerusalem Talmud, compiled in the close of the third 
 centurj^, sundry statements are made concerning the 
 baptism of proselytes. In the Babylonian Talmud, 
 compiled in the sixth century, it is said our ancestors 
 did not enter into covenant save by circumcision, 
 baptism, and the sprinkling of blood ; therefore the 
 proselytes enter into covenant in the same manner.^' 
 — Godwin, pp. 73, 74. " The Babylonian Talmud 
 supplies full and indisputable testimony to proselyte- 
 baptism. ... In the Gemara we read, ^ As to a pros- 
 elyte who is circumcised but not baptized, what of 
 him ? He is not a proselyte until he is circumcised 
 and baptized.^ " — Wilson, p. 189. " In accordance 
 with both Talmuds is the testimony of Maimonides, 
 the great authority in Jewish customs : ^ Whenever,' 
 he says, ' a heathen will come and be joined to the 
 covenant of Israel, . . . voluntary circumcision, bap- 
 tism, and oblation, are required of him. Abundance 
 of proselytes were made in the days of David and Solo- 
 mon, before private men ; and the great Sanhedrim 
 . . . would not cast them out because they were bap- 
 tized.' ''—Halley, p. 126. 
 
 These considerations and testimonies go far to show 
 that the baptism of proselytes was practised by the 
 Jews in the time of our Lord, and that their baptism 
 was immersion. The verb employed by the Mishna 
 to express their baptism was 'h'D.'^, which generally, if 
 not always, means "to dip.'' "Professor Stuart affirms 
 
BAPTISM OF JEWISH PROSELYTES. 59 
 
 it to be ' on all hands conceded that so far as the 
 testimony of the Rabbins can decide such a point, 
 the baptism of the proselytes among the Jews was by 
 immersion/ ^^ — Wilson, p. 205. And Dr. Halley 
 says : " I feel bound in candour to admit that the 
 Jewish baptism of proselytes was by immersion. Of 
 this there can be no reasonable doubt whatever ; for 
 that proselytes were baptized in a confluence of waters 
 sufficient to cover the whole body, we learn from the 
 Talmud and from Maimonides.^^ — Halley, p. 393. 
 
 It has been thought by some that the Jewish bap- 
 tism being founded on the command which obliged 
 the unclean person to bathe himself before he was 
 esteemed clean (Numb. xix. 19), was performed in 
 secret by the person himself, there being no publicity 
 and no officiating priest. But the best authorities 
 appear to contradict this opinion. Mr. Home states 
 that the baptism must be performed in the presence of 
 at least three Jews of distinction. — Home, iii. p. 260. 
 Calmet intimates that it was not performed by the 
 person himself, for he says : ^^They gave him baptism 
 by plunging his whole body into a cistern of water 
 by one immersion. This ceremony being a judicial 
 act, was to be performed in the presence of three 
 judges." — Calmet, "Proselyte." " The manner of 
 baptism among the Israelites was this : ^ It was not 
 performed but in the presence of triumvirs or three 
 men, . . . who were Israelites of the purest blood. 
 It was their business not only to take care that every- 
 thing was duly performed, and to testify concerning 
 their due performance, but further to instruct the 
 
60 BAPTISM OF JEWISH PROSELYTES. 
 
 person to be baptized concerning some precepts of 
 the law. It was unlawful to administer baptism but 
 in a natural current or collection of waters^ as a river, 
 lake^ fountain, because, according to tbem, none could 
 be duly baptized in water fetched from any place and 
 received in artificial receptacles. The entire body 
 was to be plunged at once ; for if but the tip of a 
 finger was undipt, such a person was accounted to 
 remain still in bis uncleanness. Yet it was not neces- 
 sary that the person to be baptized should put off 
 all his clothes, provided they were such as the 
 water could easily penetrate." — Witsius, iv. 16, §5. 
 As the Jews therefore baptized by immersion, and 
 the apostles were ordered by our Lord to baptize, 
 without any further explanation of the word, they 
 certainly must have understood the command to en- 
 join immersion, and did accordingly immerse the 
 converts. 
 
SECTION III. 
 
 WE MAY LEARN THAT CHRISTIAN BAPTISM IS 
 IMMERSION FROM THE BAPTISM OF JOHN. 
 
 When Jolin began to preach lie found immersion 
 to be one initiatory rite by wbicli the Jews admitted 
 converts to the ordinances of their rehgion^ and when 
 he began to baptize he would naturally adopt their 
 baptism. Since the Jews immersed their proselytes 
 in token of his complete purification from heathen 
 defilement_, John would immerse his disciples in token 
 of their complete renunciation of all sin. As im- 
 mersion, the most significant mode of washing, was 
 in use among the Jews, John, who preached a more 
 complete repentance and reformation than they, 
 would not adopt sprinkling, which was a much less 
 significant mode of washing, especially with a people 
 so habituated to the use of symbols, and attaching 
 so much value to them. 
 
 The narratives of John^s ministry show that he 
 did what it might have been previously supposed 
 that he would do. When the evangelists call him 
 
62 BAPTISM BY JOHN. 
 
 the Baptizer^ and relate that he baptized, without 
 explaining these words, it is evident that they used 
 them in the sense in which they were generally used 
 by their countrymen. As any Jew of that day, when 
 he said that any proselyte was baptized, meant that 
 he was immersed, so, when the evangelists, who were 
 Jews, record that the disciples of John were bap- 
 tized, they must mean that they were immersed. 
 Had John sprinkled instead of immersing, his dis- 
 ciples must have asked the reason of his abandoning 
 the significant practice of their country. Those, also, 
 who did not imbibe his doctrine must have taken 
 occasion from it to condemn his innovation. In 
 John, iii. 25, w^e read, " Then there arose a question, 
 between some of John^s disciples and the Jews about 
 purifying. ^^ Such questions respecting their ritual 
 were subjects of continual discussion among the Jews. 
 And can we imagine that if John had sprinkled his 
 disciples while the Rabbis immersed theirs, that this 
 would not have led to much debate ? But neither 
 the enemies of John, nor his disciples, nor the Jewish 
 historians of his ministry, animadverted in the least 
 on his mode of washing. All is profound, unbroken 
 silence on the subject : and the evangelists, in simply 
 recording that John baptized, without giving any 
 explanation of a word which every one understood, 
 have proved that he baptized as all his countrymen 
 baptized — by immersion. 
 
 Several statements in the narratives of the mi- 
 nistry of John confirm this conclusion. In John, iii. 
 22, 23, we read, ^^ After these things came Jesus and 
 
BAPTISM BY JOHN. 63 
 
 his disciples into the land of Judcea, and there he 
 tarried with them, and baptized. And John, also, 
 was baptizing in AEnon, near to Salim, because thei^e 
 were many waters there, u^ara 'jroyXcc r^v l%ii\ and 
 they came and were baptized!^ The place derived its 
 name from ^1? (e?/^^) ^^ a fountain/^ because the place 
 abounded in fountains, and these forming streams 
 and ponds, it had irdKka uhara, "many waters/-* If 
 baptism had been a sprinkling of the disciples, this 
 reason could not have been alleged for the choice of 
 the place, since the " many waters" would have been 
 necessary neither for the baptism of the converts nor 
 for the wants of the multitudes. If one thousand 
 persons presented themselves daily to be baptized, a 
 single barrel of thirty-six gallons would allow a 
 quarter of a pint for each, a quantity more than suf- 
 ficient for the sprinkling required by the rite. On 
 the other hand, let us suppose that two thousand 
 persons assembled daily to hear John preach, and 
 each required half a gallon of water each day, the 
 whole company would require twenty-eight barrels, 
 containing thirty-six gallons each, or one thousand 
 gallons in the twenty-four hours, or about forty-one 
 gallons each hour, a quantity which any good well, 
 or petty stream, or ample tank, would supply. 
 
 Not iEnon alone would yield this supply, but he 
 
 ' This word '("'J^ entered into the composition of the names of 
 various places, among which were ^~\ yj En-gedi, " the Fountain 
 of the Kid," Josh. xv. 62 ; 1 Sam. xxiV. 1. ""n" 7?. En-dor, 1 Sam. 
 xxviii. 7. t:s-i"q y<. En-mishpat, " the Fountain of Judgment," 
 Gen. xii. 7, &c. &c. 
 
64 BAPTISM BY JOHN. 
 
 miglit find it over tlie whole surface of the country. 
 Let us recall the description of it by Moses : " The 
 Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land^ a land 
 of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that 
 spring out of valleys and hills/^ Deut. viii. 7. The 
 population which the country maintained under 
 David and Solomon sufficiently evince its fertility. 
 In the reign of David the result of a census was 
 thus stated : " And Joab gave the sum of the 
 number of the people unto David : And all they 
 of Israel were a thousand thousand and a hundred 
 thousand men that drew sword, and Judah was 
 four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that 
 drew sword," 1 Chron. xxi. 5. 1,570,000 men 
 could not represent a less population than 6,280,000 
 persons. And these were maintained by a country 
 whose supei-ficial extent is about one-fourth of Eng- 
 land and Wales, or about eleven thousand square 
 miles (Kitto, p. 453), which gives 570 inhabi- 
 tants for every square mile; a population whose 
 density far exceeds that of England, Belgium, 
 Ireland, or China, — the most populous countries 
 of the world. Durin^* the reio'n of Solomon the 
 
 o ~ 
 
 people seem to have increased rather than dimi- 
 nished. " Judah and Israel were many as the sand 
 which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drink- 
 ing, and making merry," 1 Kings, iv. 20. The 
 country must have been well watered then, and still, 
 were there an industrious and intelligent population 
 to avail themselves of their natural advantages, the 
 country would be now well watered and productive. 
 
BAPTISM BY JOHN. 65 
 
 " Palestine, from its northern latitude, is without the 
 range of the tropical rains, and has in their stead 
 the early and the latter rains in spring and autumn. 
 These are generally copious, though they sometimes 
 fail. The heaviest rains fall generally in December, 
 which in January spread a covering of verdure over 
 the whole country/''^ ^' The autumnal rains usually 
 commence at the latter end of October or the begin- 
 ning of November. During the months of November 
 and December they continue to fall heavily : after- 
 wards they return at longer intervals, and are not so 
 heavy. Eain continues to fall more or less during 
 the month of March.'' ^ 
 
 " Judaea is intersected throughout its whole length 
 by a ridge of mountains, from which other and lesser 
 branches diverge and overspread the whole country.""^ 
 " The deep ravines of these mountains are watered 
 by numerous streams, which arise on all sides in 
 great abundance.''* " The numerous smaller streams, 
 of which the courses are indicated upon the map, at 
 once give to Palestine the appearance of being a well- 
 watered country ; a character which it really possesses 
 in a greater degree than most parts of Western Asia. 
 But by far the greater number are mere winter tor- 
 rents, whose beds are generally dry during the sum- 
 mer."^ a rji^g whole course of the Jordan is not 
 above one hundred and fifty British miles to the 
 
 ' Encyclopedia Britannica, " Palestine." 
 
 2 Kitto's Bib. Cyc. " Palestine." 
 
 ^ Encyc. Brit. * Ibid. 
 
 * Bible Maps, by Hughes, p. 14. 
 
66 BAPTISM BY JOHN. 
 
 Dead Sea, but it receives a number of large streams 
 on botb sides."^ In addition to the streams and 
 natural lakes of tlie- country tbe people in their 
 days of prosperity constructed tanks and cisterns, 
 from which they derived much water. "There are 
 traces in many parts of ancient and more extended, 
 as well as more skilful cultivation, such as the 
 remains of walls which were built to support the 
 soil on the declivities of the hills ; also of cisterns in 
 which the rain-water was collected and afterwards 
 distributed in canals over the fields.'^ " All the ancient 
 accounts of Judaea accordingly agree in describing it 
 as a rich, productive, and well-cultivated country .^"'^ 
 " The ridge of chalk mountains, chiefly those con- 
 taining marl, is in most places so irrigated by water, 
 and so acted on by the sun, as to be remarkable for 
 the luxuriant growth of the great variety of plants 
 with which they are adorned."^ " Fountains and 
 streams are few as compared with Europe and Ame- 
 rica : and the inhabitants therefore collect water 
 during the rainy season in tanks and cisterns, in the 
 cities, in the fields, and along the highroads, for the 
 sustenance of themselves and of their flocks and 
 herds, and for the comfort of the passing traveller .^^* 
 With such copious mnter rains, with numerous 
 streams, of which some flow all through the year, 
 and, above all/ with so large a supply of cisterns and 
 tanks as that the people could aff'ord to irrigate their 
 
 * Bell's Geography, vol. iv. p. 186. 
 
 ^ Encyc. Brit. •' Palestine." ^ Kitto's Palestine. 
 
 * Robinson's Biblical Researches, vol. i. p. 481. 
 
BAPTISM BY JOHN. 67 
 
 fields with them^ it is impossible that JEnon should 
 have been selected by John merely to satisfy the 
 thirst of the multitudes who resorted to him. There 
 was not a town or village in Judsea^ probably, that 
 would not have furnished the water which was 
 requisite to supply them. How many springs were 
 there as abundant as the fountain of Siloam ? and 
 yet when the Roman army under Titus, ten times 
 more numerous than the multitudes who came to 
 hear John, was besieging Jerusalem, Josephus, who 
 was serving in that army, thus addressed his country- 
 men who were upon the walls, in order to show that 
 the Providence of God was fighting against them : 
 "As for Titus, those springs that were formerly 
 almost dried up when they under your power, since 
 he has come run more plentifully than they did 
 before; accordingly you know that Siloam, as well 
 as all the other springs that were without the city, 
 did so far fail that water was sold by distinct mea- 
 sures : whereas they now have such a great quantity 
 of water for your enemies as is sufficient not only for 
 drink both for themselves and their cattle, but for 
 watering their gardens also/" — Josephus, Wars, v. ix. 
 If the fountain of Siloam could thus supply the 
 men, horses, and gardens, of the army of Titus, why 
 should not each affluent of the Jordan, each fountain, 
 well, and tank, each village in the land, supply the 
 smaller numbers who were attending the ministry of 
 John with water for their thirst ? 
 
 This seems rendered certain by the fact that num- 
 bers equally great flocked to hear the teaching of 
 
68 BAPTISM BY JOHN. 
 
 our Lord, or to witness his miracles, and yet that he 
 never sought a place of many waters with a view to 
 supply water for their- thirst. When Jesus went about 
 all Galilee, " There followed him great multitudes of 
 people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from 
 Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan,^' 
 Matt. iv. 23-25. When he ascended a mountain in 
 Galilee for secret prayer, and there chose his disciples, 
 a great multitude of persons from out of all Judsea, 
 and from the sea-coast of Tyre and Sidon, gathered 
 together to hear him preach, Luke, vi. 12, 17-19; 
 Matt. V. 1; vii. 1. When he was making another 
 tour, multitudes again gathered round him. Matt, 
 xi. 1-7. On another occasion, wherever he came 
 multitudes flocked to hear him. Matt. ix. 35, 36. 
 The same thing happened when he traversed Decapo- 
 lis, Mark, vii. 31 ; viii. 1. And, again, on his descent 
 from the mount of transfiguration he found a mul- 
 titude gathered at the foot of the mountain. Matt, 
 xvii. 14; Mark, ix. 14; Luke, ix. 37. In all parts 
 of the country, therefore, Jesus collected multitudes 
 like those which attended John at ^Enon. On some 
 of these occasions we hear of their wanting food, 
 never of their wanting water. And, therefore, the 
 idea that John was reduced to the necessity of seek- 
 ing Mnon that he might supply the thirst of his fol- 
 lowers is a mere imagination. 
 
 On the supposition of baptismal sprinkling the 
 language of the passage under examination is unin- 
 telligible, but if John immersed his disciples it 
 becomes plain. The immersion of some hundreds of 
 
BAPTISM BY JOHN. 69 
 
 persons daily would require either a river like the 
 Jordan,, or the "many waters ^^ of ^non, since any tank 
 or pond would soon become turbid by their entrance 
 into it; and several pools of water instead of one 
 would be a great comfort both to John and to the 
 baptized converts. From this passage^ therefore, 
 we may conclude that John immersed his disciples. 
 
 Some have supposed that ^non was chosen by 
 John, not in contrast with other places throughout 
 Palestine or Judaea, but in contrast with other arid 
 parts of the desert in which he was accustomed to 
 preach (Mark, i. 4; Luke, iii. 3, 4; vii. 24; John, 
 i. 23) ; and that the water w^as therefore necessary 
 for the multitudes who flocked to him. But had this 
 been the case, though the historian might have said 
 that there was water there, he would not have specially 
 noticed the " many streams,^^ the -roXXa vdocTu. This 
 marked a larger supply of water than was meant 
 for their thirst. But it is improbable that ^non 
 is mentioned in contrast with the wilderness. Euse- 
 bius and Jerome place it eight Uoman miles south 
 of Scythopolis, and fifty-three north-east of Jerusa- 
 lem. — Kitto, " iEnon.^^ In the absence of all other 
 information on the subject, this must be held to 
 determine its site probably ; and if the testimony 
 of Eusebius is to be accepted, the whole of Samaria, 
 from north to south, lay between it and the wilder- 
 ness of Judsea. For " that which is called the Wil- 
 derness of Judsea was the w^ild and inhospitable re- 
 gion lying eastward of Jerusalem, in the direction of 
 the Jordan and of the Dead Sea.^^ — KittOj " Judsea.^^ 
 
70 BAPTISM BY JOHN. 
 
 It is^ moreover^ improbable that ^non was contrasted 
 with the wilderness^ because that lay along the banks 
 of the Jordan; and when John preached in it^ he 
 baptized in the river, Matt. iii. 1-6. 
 
 Since, then, it was chosen in preference to other 
 places in the neighbourhood because of its waters, 
 it is very unlikely that it was chosen to supply the 
 multitudes with drink. This is the less likely, be- 
 cause the numbers which were baptized at this place 
 were so much reduced, that the disciples of Jesus 
 were now baptizing more than John baptized (John, 
 iii. 22 j iv. 12) ; so that the disciples of John were 
 filled with jealousy, John, iii. 26. 
 
 Further : this reason for the selection of ^Enon is 
 rendered the more improbable by the circumstance 
 that Jesus is never said to have chosen the place 
 when he preached for their supply of water, although 
 numbers from every part of the country flocked to 
 him. It is a mistake to suppose that while John 
 preached in the wilderness Jesus preached only near 
 towns and villages. In Mark, i. 45, we read that he 
 preached ^^in desert places.^^ The miracles of the five 
 loaves and of the seven loaves were wrought in desert 
 places for five thousand and for four thousand men, 
 Mark, vi. 35 ; viii. 4. And the cure of a demoniac 
 was wrought in the presence of great multitudes, at 
 the foot of the mountain of transfiguration, no neigh- 
 bouring village being mentioned, Mark, ix. 14. 
 
 It is not a satisfactory reason for the choice of 
 Mnon that John was poor, and could not obtain 
 access to wells and tanks ; some tanks and wells 
 
BAPTISM BY JOHN. 71 
 
 were public, Jolin_, iv. Q, 7 ; v. 2-4; ix. 7. Our 
 Lord was as poor as John, and John was the most 
 popular. Jerusalem and all Judsea went out to hear 
 him preach ; Scribes and Pharisees came to him, 
 influenced apparently by self-interest ; multitudes 
 thought that he was a prophet, Matt. xiv. 5 ; Mark, 
 xi. 32. All " the people were in expectation, and all 
 men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were 
 the Christ, or not,^^ Luke, iii. 15. To suppose that 
 the persons who came to hear him preach could not 
 beg or buy water in the villages of Judsea is unrea- 
 sonable. Still, therefore, we have reason to conclude 
 that John immersed his disciples, because he chose 
 JEnon as a place in which to baptize on account of 
 its ^^ many waters.'"' 
 
 As it appears, from all the considerations already 
 adduced, that John immersed his disciples generally, 
 so it is manifest from the narrative that he immersed 
 our Lord. The words of the Evangelist Mark are 
 these : " It came to pass in those days that Jesus 
 came from Nazareth of Galilee, zai i^aTrris&r, h-Tth 
 'Iciodvvov ug rh 'loobar^v, and was baptized by John into 
 the Jordan,-*^ Mark, i. 9. That the proper meaning 
 of 2!g Tov 'looddvrii/ is "into the Jordan/^ appears from 
 the following instances. In Matt. xvii. 14, we read : 
 " He falleth ilg to 'ttv^ xai sig to vdoj^, into the fire 
 and into the water.^^ Matt, xviii. 3, " Ye shall not 
 enter sic ttiv /Satr/Xs/a;/, into the kingdom.''^ Matt, xviii. 
 8, "It is better for thee to enter sIg t^v ^mvj into 
 life . . . than to be cast sIg to <7ru^j into fire.^'' Mark, 
 ix. 22, " He hath cast him sJg -rD^ xai sJg vda-a, into 
 
72 BAPTISM BY JOHN. 
 
 fire and into waters/^ Mark^ ix. 25, "Enter no more 
 £ig avrovj into him." 'John, v. 7, " I have no one to 
 put me g/g TTiv 'A,o7.v[j.^ri^Dav, into the pool." These 
 instances show the natural and proper meaning of the 
 words itg rov ^lo^davriv; and that meaning seems to me 
 rendered certain by the uniform use of the expression 
 in the text under consideration by Greek authors. 
 "To plunge into the lake" is ^ci'Trr/^nv iJg rnv Xffj.vy]v; 
 " to plunge yourself into the sea " is /Sacrr/t^s/v csay- 
 rbv sig SdXaffffav ; "to be plunged into sleep" is /3aT- 
 r/^£(T/Ja/ zig v'ttvov ; "to plunge the hand into blood" 
 is j3a--i^nv rr,v yjiirt sJg cJ/xa ; and " to plunge into 
 milk" is (Sa'TTTl^siv Ig yaXa. These instances de- 
 monstrate that the words /Sacrr/^gc^a/ g/'g rov 'lo^ddvT^v 
 mean " to be plunged or immersed into the Jordan." 
 To corroborate this fact, that Jesus was immersed in 
 the river, Matthew says, " Jesus, when he was bap- 
 tized, went up straightway out of the water," av's^rj 
 svSvg d'zo rov vdarog, Matt. iii. 16. And Mark says, 
 " Straightway coming up out of the water (Eu^swg 
 dva^aivuv cczh rov vdarog), he saw the heavens opened,'^ 
 Mark, i. 10. 
 
 If Jesus came up out of the Jordan, he descended 
 into it ; and it is improbable that any one should 
 enter into a river merely to be sprinkled by a hand- 
 ful of its water. It is objected, that he merely de- 
 scended the bank of the river to the water, and that 
 he ascended the bank, not out of the water, but from 
 the water, because d'zo may have that sense. But 
 the banks of the river are so low in the neighbour- 
 hood of Jericho, where John was baptizing, that we 
 
BAPTISM BY JOHN. 73 
 
 read in Joshua, iii. 15, '^'^ Jordan overflowetli all his 
 banks all the time of harvest/^ When the water is 
 low, the banks, according to Mr. Maundrell, are not 
 more than two yards above it; and at a ford, or 
 where the bank was smoothed away, the ascent would 
 be so insignificant as scarcely to be noticed. Be- 
 sides, for what purpose would our Lord descend to 
 the margin ? Surely John had respect enough for 
 the Christ, the Lamb of God who taketh away the 
 sins of the world, whose shoe's latchet he felt un- 
 worthy to unloose, not to make him descend to the 
 river when a small cup of water might so easily be 
 brought to baptize him under the shadow of a tree 
 or on the smooth grass. 
 
 When we add to these considerations, that the 
 ordinary sense of the word /^a-^r/^w is " to immerse,'^ 
 and that the common baptism of the country was 
 immersion, it seems to me certain that Jesus was 
 immersed in the river, not sprinkled at its margin. 
 And here I am happy to quote the acknowledgment 
 of an able advocate of infant-baptism, who, while 
 contending that sJi may mean '*'at," adds, "Yet I 
 have no wish to deny that, in the instance of our 
 Lord, John baptized into the Jordan. In some in- 
 stances, and in this, immersion might have been the 
 most convenient mode." — Ilalley, p. 416. 
 
 But as our Lord had no sins to renounce, and no 
 new life to begin, but merely received baptism to 
 honour an ordinance of God, he would receive the 
 ordinance in the ordinary mode. If immersion was 
 not necessary for others, it was still less necessary 
 
74 BAPTISM BY JOHN. 
 
 for him ; if it was suitable to him who was sinless, 
 it was much more suitable to those who were sinful. 
 If Jesus was immersed, it was because John gene- 
 rally practised immersion. The immersion of Jesus 
 proves that John^s disciples generally were immersed, 
 since the act is significant of complete repentance 
 and renovation, which Jesus needed not, but which 
 all others needed. 
 
 T\Tiat is thus rendered probable by the baptism of 
 Jesus the narrative states to have taken place. '' In 
 those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the 
 wilderness of Jud(2a, and saying. Repent ye, for the 
 kingdom of heaven is at hand. Then went out to 
 him Jerusalem and all Judaa, and all the region round 
 about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, 
 U TU) 'lo^ddvrj, confessing their sins/' Matt. iii. 1, 2, 5, 6. 
 Mark has made the same statement; they were baptized 
 by him sv rui 'looddr/j 'rorajnu), "in the river Jordan,^^ 
 Mark, i. 5. To all these John said, "There cometh one 
 mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes 
 I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed 
 have baptized you in water, sv udari, but he shall bap- 
 tize you sv -rvsj/xar/ dy/uj, in the Holy Ghost,^^ Mark, i. 
 7, 8 : see also Matt. iii. 11. " 'Ev with the name 
 of a river," says Dr. Halley, " must, as I think, be 
 rendered in, John was baptizing (I must repudiate the 
 version ' with the Jordan,' or ^with its water') in the 
 Jordan either within the channel standing at the 
 edge, as Dr. Carson thinks, or in the stream, as I, 
 being here a better Baptist, believe." — Halley, p. 416. 
 I have already shown that fSwrr-i^nv sv means to 
 
BAPTISM BY JOHN. 75 
 
 baptize in, not to baptize with (p. 10) ; and as 
 John baptized in the river, as the ordinary meaning 
 of ^airrlZ^c) is to "immerse/^ as the Jews practised 
 immersion, and as Jesus was immersed, it follows 
 that John immersed his disciples generally. 
 
 Two objections are urged against this conclusion. 
 The first has been thus stated : " At the time John 
 was baptizing, Jerusalem, Judsea, and the region about 
 Judsea, comprehended at least 2,000,000 of inhabi- 
 tants. .... Let us suppose that 2,000,000 of people 
 came under the influence of John^s baptism; all 
 these, then, according to the letter of the sacred 
 historian, were baptized by immersion during the 
 space of six months. We will suppose that John 
 baptized but a tenth of the probable inhabitants of 
 the country. ... To have accomplished this he must 
 have stood in the water twelve hours every day for 
 six months, sabbaths excepted, and have dipped over 
 head and ears and pulled up again 1280 between 
 the rising and setting sun, about 107 every hour, 
 and nearly two every minute. Without a miracle his 
 garments must have rotted, his saturated flesh must 
 have peeled from his bones, and the cold water must 
 have caused a fatal rush of blood to his head. . . . Mr. 
 Burt is very bold and saith, ^ I question not but one 
 minister may immerge, and raise again from the 
 water, fifty in an hour for five hours successively.'' 
 But, after all, this would be a trifle compared with 
 the labours of poor ''John the Dipper.^^^ — Thorn, 
 pp. 324-327. The plain testimony of the sacred 
 historians is, that John baptized in the Jordan, and 
 
76 BAPTISM BY JOHN. 
 
 the simple, ordinary meaning of baptizing is im- 
 mersing; and as we iiave seen, there are strong 
 grounds for believing that John immersed. With 
 this plain testimony before us too much weight must 
 not be attached to conjectural objections, which 
 may be grossly fallacious. There is reason to think 
 that the assumption of 2,000,000 for the population 
 of Jud^a, excluding Samaria, Galilee, Decapolis, 
 and a large part of Persea, is an overstatement, con- 
 sidering that this province was liable to all the vexa- 
 tions and exactions which its Roman conquerors chose 
 to impose upon it. But it is more important to 
 notice exactly what the sacred historians say of this 
 population. " Then went out to him Jerusalem, and 
 all Judsea, and ^11 the region round about Jordan, 
 and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their 
 sins," Matt. iii. 5, 6. ^' And there went out to him 
 all the land of Judsea, and they of Jerusalem," 
 Mark, i. 5. A^Tien it is said that Jerusalem went 
 out to him, any one would suppose that many of its 
 inhabitants were meant, and not all ; when it is added 
 that all Jud?ea went out to him, it is evident that 
 the " all" is contrasted with Jerusalem, and refers to 
 the extent of country from which the people came, 
 and does not express that all the population came. 
 What the words naturally mean is, that multitudes 
 came from Jerusalem and from all Judsea. And so 
 the best psedo-baptist commentators have understood 
 the words. " Vast numbers were induced to resort 
 to John from all parts of Judsea and from Jerusa- 
 lem." — Scott. " Great multitudes came to him from 
 
BAPTISM BY JOHN. 11 
 
 the city, and from all parts of the country ; some of 
 all sorts/' — Henry. " Many people from Judaea. 
 It does not mean that literally all the people went, 
 but that great multitudes went. It was general/' — 
 Barnes. " ' A writer in the Moniteur Universel thus 
 
 describes his visit to the English capital The 
 
 races in question are, as well known, a sort of 
 national /e^e in England. During the solemnity of 
 ^the Derby' the houses of Lords and Commons 
 adjourn their sittings. All London and its suburbs 
 proceed to Epsom.' " — Times, June 6th, 1849. Any 
 Frenchman upon reading this statement would at 
 once understand its meaning to be, not that above 
 2,000,000 of persons went, but merely that numbers 
 went from London and from all Middlesex ; and 
 various considerations show this to have been the 
 meaning of the evangelists. In John, iii. 26, we 
 read that the disciples of John came to him and 
 said, ^' Rabbi, he that was ^\ith thee beyond Jordan 
 to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same bap- 
 tizeth and all come to him," John, iii. 26. And 
 shortly after a rumour reached the Pharisees ^^ that 
 Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John," 
 John, iv. 1 . And yet of Jesus it is said, " He came 
 unto his owTD, and his own received him not,'' John, i. 
 And the largest number of disciples which assembled 
 between his resurrection and ascension was five hun- 
 dred, 1 Cor. XV. 6; Matt, xxvdii. 7-16 ; Mark, xvi. 7. 
 Had John baptized a large proportion of the popula- 
 tion, these baptisms by Jesus could not have excited 
 the jealousies of John's disciples. Of many it is 
 
78 BAPTISM BY JOHN. 
 
 expressly said that they were not baptized by him. 
 To great numbers of Jews Jesus said, " Whereunto 
 shall I liken the men of this generation ? They are 
 like unto children selling in the market-place, and 
 calling one to another, and sayings We have piped 
 unto you, and ye have not danced ; we have mourned 
 to you, and ye have not wept. Eor John the Bap- 
 tist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; 
 and they say. He hath a devil,'^ Luke, vii. 31, 32. 
 One large and important class rejected his bap- 
 tism. '^All the people and the publicans justified 
 God being baptized with the baptism of John : but 
 the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel 
 of God against themselves, being not baptized of 
 him,^^ Luke, vii. 29, 30. None were baptized but 
 those who at the same time confessed their sins, 
 Matt. iii. 6. And it cannot be supposed that the 
 whole nation believed in John as an inspired prophet, 
 and consequently, that Jesus was, according to his tes- 
 timony, ^'^ the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of 
 theworld,^^ since they so soon rejected him with enmity 
 and contempt : see John, vii. 1 ; Isa. liii. 1; John, xii. 
 37-40 j Matt. xxi. 43. On the contra, numbers who 
 came to be baptized were addressed as "a generation 
 of vipers" (Luke, iii. 7) ; and as none were baptized 
 but those who ~ confessed their sins, many who re- 
 sorted to John certainly were not baptized by him as 
 his disciples : see John, iv. 1 . Much fewer, there- 
 fore, were baptized by John than many opponents of 
 immersion have believed. Had the nation generally 
 been baptized, Josephus must have recorded the fact, 
 
BAPTISM BY JOHN. 79 
 
 but, when relating the death of John, he only states, 
 " Herod slew him, who was a good man, and com- 
 manded the Jews to exercise virtue, .... and so to 
 
 come to baptism Now when others came in 
 
 crowds about him, for they were greatly moved by 
 hearing his words, Herod thought it best, by putting 
 him to death, to prevent any mischief which he might 
 cause. ^^ — Josephus, Ant. xviii. v. 2. 
 
 But if great numbers were baptized, it is easy to 
 conceive that it might be administered in such a 
 manner as to occupy little more time than sprink- 
 ling. A'VTiy might not the converts enter the stream 
 in companies, and, dipping themselves beneath the 
 water, receive from him a benediction at the same 
 time with the imposition of his hands ? 
 
 But, in all probability, he baptized almost entirely 
 by the ministry of others. No charm went forth 
 from his hands. The whole value of the act in each 
 case consisted in the solemn and sincere profession 
 of repentance by each of the baptized ; and, whether 
 John himself, or any one of his disciples under 
 his sanction, dipped the neophyte in the river, 
 the result was exactly the same. The expression 
 that they were " baptized by him^^ in the Jordan 
 may mean no more than that they were baptized 
 under his superintendence. Whatever is done by a 
 man's order and under his superintendence may be 
 said to be done by him. It is recorded in Genesis, 
 xvii. 23, that " Abraham took Ishmael his son, and 
 all that were born in his house, and all that were 
 bought with his money, every male among the men 
 
80 BAPTISM BY JOHN. 
 
 of Abraham^ s house^ and circumcised them in the 
 self-same day^ as God-had said to him." Now Abra- 
 ham had three hundred and eighteen servants ca- 
 pable of bearing arms who had been born in his 
 house (Gen. xiv. 14), besides those '^ bought with 
 money of the stranger," Gen. xvii. 27. These men 
 represented a tribe of at least twelve hundred per- 
 sons, and of these at least six hundred were males. 
 It being impossible that Abraham should circumcise 
 six hundred persons in one day, it was evidently per- 
 formed by others under his orders ; and as Abraham 
 was said to circumcise his household when he super- 
 intended the rite, so John may be said to baptize 
 disciples when he superintended their baptism. Ex- 
 actly similar expressions were used respecting Jesus 
 himself: " Rabbi," said some of John's disciples to 
 him, "he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to 
 whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same bap- 
 tizeth, and all men come unto him," John, iii. 26. 
 And we are further told, that the Pharisees heard 
 " that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than 
 John," John, iv. 1. If John is said to have bap- 
 tized disciples, so is Jesus said to baptize more dis- 
 ciples than John ; and yet Jesus with his own hands 
 baptized no convert, leaving that office to his dis- 
 ciples, John, ni. 4. As, therefore, when the dis- 
 ciples of Jesus baptized it was said that Jesus bap- 
 tized, so when the disciples of John baptized it was 
 said that he baptized ; and the number of repentant 
 persons who were baptized in the Jordan offers no 
 presumption against their immersion. 
 
BAPTISM BY JOHN. 81 
 
 It has been objected^ in the second place, that 
 multitudes of men and women could not with de- 
 cency have been immersed together in the Jordan ; 
 that they would need to change their clothes ; that 
 there were no convenient places for changing their 
 dresses ; that Jewish women were especially secluded 
 and retiring ; that the practice was contrary to all 
 the customs and feelings of Asiatic ladies. " Let any 
 one consider the habits of Oriental women, concealed 
 rather than adorned by their veils, and then resolve 
 the inquiry, whether it is probable that the women 
 of Judaea, exposed to the gaze of promiscuous crowds, 
 would submit to be immersed in the Jordan by John 
 the Baptist.''— i/ri%, p. 402. 
 
 All these imaginary objections, without a particle 
 of positive evidence on the subject, cannot weigh 
 against the plain narrative. But nothing whatever 
 is said of any female converts ; there might have 
 been no women in the crowds, or very few. Few* of 
 them would leave their homes to go out into the 
 wilderness amidst a promiscuous crowd. When 
 Jesus fed the five thousand with five loaves, and the 
 four thousand with seven loaves, on each occasion 
 the number of women and children were not counted, 
 as adding inconsiderably to the whole amount. Matt. 
 xiv. 21 ; XV. 38. And John worked no miracles; 
 still fewer therefore would be found there. But 
 those who were convinced and converted would feel 
 little hesitation to be immersed. Among the Jews 
 female proselytes were immersed as well as men. — 
 Halley, p. 394. And it is certain that in the Christian 
 
82 BAPTISM BY JOHN. 
 
 churches the women both of Syria, Greece_, and 
 other countries, were for some centuries all im- 
 mersed. They were immersed before the time of 
 John and the apostles ; they were immersed after 
 the time of John and of the apostles-; and why 
 should that time be selected as the only time during 
 which their secluded and retiring habits should 
 make them think immersion to be indecorous? 
 The factj doubtless, is, that John and the apostles, 
 when they did superintend the immersion of female 
 converts, took care that it was so done as to secure 
 all the solemnity and devotion of feeling which that 
 profession of repentance and faith ought to inspire. 
 
 '\^Tiatever obstacles may be supposed to exist to 
 the immersion of multitudes in Palestine must be sup- 
 posed to exist in Hindostan. There the men are not 
 more robust, there the women are not less timid and 
 secluded ; multitudes, nevertheless, are immersed 
 there at their sacred festivals. " There are a great 
 many springs and pools consecrated by superstition, 
 and much renowned for the spiritual effects which 
 they communicate to those who bathe in them. 
 When the year and the day arrive for bathing in 
 those sacred waters, a crowd of people, almost with- 
 out number, .... arrange themselves all round the 
 water at the happy time. They wait for the favour- 
 able hour and moQient of the day ; and on the in- 
 stant of the astrologers announcing it, all, men, 
 women, and children, plunge into the water at once.^^ 
 — Dubois^ p. 125. 
 
 '^ But of all festivals, the most famous, at least in 
 
BAPTISM BY JOHN. 83 
 
 most countries^ is that which is called Pongol^ cele- 
 brated in the end of December, or the winter solstice. 
 The second day is called Surya Pongol, or Pongol of 
 the Sun. Married women, after purifying them- 
 selves by bathing, which they perform by plunging 
 into the water without taking off their clothes, and 
 coming out all dripping with wet, set about boiling 
 rice in the open air, and not under any cover .^^ — 
 Dubois, p. 387. " In the full moon, at Asharhu, "many 
 thousands of Hindoos assemble at Prutapu-guru, a 
 place to the west of Lucknow, and bathe in the 
 Godavery.^^ — Ward, vol. iii. p. 218. "On the last day 
 of Choitru, a large concourse of Hindoos, some say as 
 many as twenty thousand, principally women, as- 
 semble at Uyodhya to bathe in the Suruyoo.''' — 
 Ibid. p. 219. " On the banks of the Yumoona, on 
 the second of the moon, in Khartickhu, vast crowds 
 of Hindoos assemble in different places to bathe. ^^ — 
 Ibid. p. 219. On the thirteenth of the decrease of 
 the moon, in Choitru, the people descend into the 
 water, and, with their hands joined, immerse them- 
 selves. The people repeat after the priest certain 
 significant words, as the day of the month, the name 
 of Vishnoo, &c., and then immerse themselves again. 
 . . . On this occasion, groups of ten or twelve 
 persons stand in the water in one spot, for whom one 
 Bramhun reads the formulas.^^ — Ibid. p. 212. " At 
 sacred spots such as Benares, one hundred thousand 
 men are often seen assembled on the banks of the 
 Ganges, especially at the time of an eclipse ; as soon 
 as the shadow of the earth touches the moon, the 
 
84 BAPTISM BY JOHN. 
 
 whole mass^ upon a certain signal given, plunge at 
 once into tlie stream/^ — Weithrechty p. 116. All 
 that can be imagined against immersions in Judaea 
 might with equal plausibility be advanced to prove 
 that there are no immersions in India. ' If to bathe 
 in their clothes would injure the disciples of John at 
 Bethabara, so it would injure the devotees of Vish- 
 noo at Benares. If the secluded habits of the Jewish 
 women would forbid their immersion at baptism, so 
 would their more secluded habits forbid the women 
 of India from being immersed at their festivals. But 
 as it takes place under the eye of the British Govern- 
 ment in India, notwithstanding these imaginations 
 of its improbability, so did it take place in the 
 Jordan, notwithstanding similar arguments to the 
 contrary. Let the reader observe that these Hindoo 
 baptisms are not cited to justify the practice of im- 
 mersion, — it needs no justification; but simply to 
 ob\aate imaginative arguments against the historical 
 fact derived from the supposed seclusion of Jewish 
 women and the supposed danger of immersion to 
 their health. 
 
SECTION lY. 
 
 FIRST BAPTISMS BY THE DISCIPLES OE CHRIST. 
 
 The fact wliicli has been now established that John 
 immersed bis disciples renders it more probable that 
 the disciples of Christ immersed too. Before John 
 was imprisoned by Herod during the first year of our 
 Lord^s ministry; before he had called the twelve 
 apostles (Matt. x. 2-4; Mark^ iii. 13 ; Luke, vi. 13) ; 
 before he had even called the first four apostles (Matt. 
 iv. 18 ; Mark, i. 16) ; when a few disciples alone had 
 followed him (John, i. 37-51), these disciples began to 
 baptize converts (John, iii. 26 ; iv. 1, 2), no innovation 
 in the usual practice of the Jews or of John being 
 recorded, it is simply said that they baptized. What 
 reason is there to think that they introduced any 
 change into the common practice ? The Jews im- 
 mersed their converts ; John immersed his converts ; 
 the disciples were familiar with immersion as a pro- 
 fession of repentance and of faith ; and when it is said 
 that they baptized converts to Christ, what possible 
 reason is there for changing the usual meaning of 
 that word, and for supposing that it means "to 
 
86 FIRST BAPTISMS BY THE DISCIPLES. 
 
 sprinkle/^ not " to immerse ? '' When the Jews 
 baptized they immersed; when John baptized he 
 immersed; and we may conclude^ since nothing is 
 hinted to the contrary, that when the disciples bap- 
 tized during the first year of the ministry -of onr Lord 
 they hkewise immersed. 
 
SECTION y. 
 
 BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 
 
 Since the meaning of the word ^^ baptize ^^ is "to 
 immerse;^' since the Jews immersed the converts to 
 Judaism; since John immersed those who became his 
 disciples ; and since the disciples in the early part of 
 the ministry of Jesus immersed those who believed in 
 him_, it follows that when Jesus said to them just 
 before he ascended, " Go ye and teach all nations, 
 baptizing them/^ they must necessarily have under- 
 stood him to direct that his disciples everywhere in 
 all nations should be immersed. As this was the 
 natural and ordinary meaning of the word, and as in 
 this its natural and ordinary meaning it enjoined that 
 which was consistent with Jewish practice, directing 
 them to do what the Jews, and John, and they them- 
 selves had already done, they could understand it in 
 no other sense. There is accordingly some evidence 
 in the narratives of subsequent baptisms that they 
 immersed those who believed through their preaching. 
 The use of the word " baptize ^^ is indeed itself suffi- 
 cient evidence. I have already proved that the word 
 
88 BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 
 
 (SaTTT/l^oj means to " immerse/^ and nothing else : 
 it may^ therefore, be translated by " immerse '' 
 wherever it occurs. In Acts, ii. 38, we read that 
 Peter said to the Jewish multitude, "Repent and be 
 immersed '/' and in verse 41, '' Then they -that gladly 
 received his word were immersed.^' In Acts viii. we 
 read of the people of Samaria who heard the gospel 
 preached by the deacon Philip, " They were immersed, 
 both men and women" When Cornelius and his 
 friends believed and received the gifts of the Holy 
 Ghost, all Peter's doubts respecting their admission 
 into communion with the church of Christ vanished, 
 and "^ He commanded them to be immersed in the name 
 of the Lord'^ Acts, x. 48. The same may be said of 
 all the other instances of baptism. The use of the 
 word "baptism ''' shows their immersion — "they were 
 baptized," i. e., they were immersed. 
 
 But in one of these narratives the circumstances 
 further prove the immersion. AYhile Philip the evan- 
 gelist was sitting with an Ethiopian officer in his 
 chariot, and they were together traversing the wild 
 country between Jerusalem and Gaza, and were con- 
 versing upon the 53d chapter of Isaiah as illustrated 
 by the death and resurrection of Jesus, the ^Ethiopian, 
 seeing a pool of water near the road, exclaimed, "See, 
 here is water ; 'what doth hinder me to be baptized? 
 And he commanded the chariot to stand still : and they 
 ivent both down into the water, both Philip and the 
 Eunuch, and he baptized him ; and when they were 
 come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught 
 away Philip, that the Eunuch saw him no more,'' Acts, 
 
BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 89 
 
 viii. 36-39.^ It is improbable that the words, " They 
 went down into the water ^^ (xa-g/S'/^trai/ dg rh -odojp) 
 mean " they descended the bank to the water/' and 
 that the words translated " they came up out of the 
 water ^^ [avi^ncav I-a tcv '■joc/.rog) mean " they ascended 
 the bank from the water/^ as the opponents of immer- 
 sion have contended, for the following reasons : — 
 1. There is no mention that the pool had banks to 
 descend and to ascend. 2. The descent and ascent 
 of the bank would be a circumstance of no moment 
 in the narrative, whereas the descent into the water 
 would evince the nature of the baptismal rite. 3. The 
 banks of ponds are usually in hot climates clothed 
 with rank vegetation, and therefore the bank would 
 be unsuitable for baptismal sprinkling. 4. It is un- 
 likely that Philip would propose for no reason that 
 the ^Ethiopian should leave his chariot for an object 
 which could be attained as well or better close beside 
 
 * "There were several ways leading from Jerusalem to Gaza: 
 one by Ramleh, one by Bethshemish, and the other through Eleu- 
 theropolis, and thence to Gaza through a more southern tract. The 
 latter now actually passes through the desert, that is, through a tract 
 of country without villages, inhabited only by nomadic Arabs. . . . 
 When we were at TeU-el-Hasy, and saw the water standing along 
 the bottom of the adjacent Waddy, we could not but remark the 
 coincidence of several circumstances with the account of the 
 Eunuch's baptism. This water is on the most direct route from 
 Beit-Jibrm to Gaza on the most southern road from Jerasalem, 
 and in the midst of the country now ^'desert,' i.e., without vil- 
 lages or fixed habitations. There is at present no other similar 
 water on this road, and the way to Gaza, the chariot, and the sub- 
 sequent finding of Philip at Azotus, go to show that the transaction 
 took place in or near this place." — Robinson, vol. ii. p. 641. 
 
90 BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 
 
 it. 5. It is unlikely that the ^Ethiopian would allow 
 Philip to take the trouble of descending to the water, 
 when one of his attendants could so easily bring the 
 water to the chariot. 6. It is utterly improbable that 
 a man of wealth would cross the desert without 
 having a supply of water for himself and his attend- 
 ants more than sufficient for the required sprinkling, 
 and therefore the Eunuch would have asked for bap- 
 tism before coming to the pond, if the rite had been 
 performed by sprinkling. TVTien Mr. Stephens set 
 out for Mount Sinai from Cairo, one of his camels 
 carried "two of the largest skins containing the 
 filtered water of the Nile.^^ — Stephens, vol. i. p. 232. 
 When Dr. Wilson and his party were setting out on 
 the same journey, their supply of water required four 
 camels for its conveyance. — Wilson,vo\. i. p. 107. "At 
 Bethulie,'' says Lamartine, " there is a good spring. 
 An Arab drew water for an hour to satisfy the horses 
 and to fill the jars hung from the saddles of our mules. 
 There is no more water as far as Jericho, a journey 
 of ten or twelve hours.^^ ^ We may be sure that in 
 that hot climate a man of rank and wealth would not 
 be without the comfort of water-skins on his journey, 
 especially as he had before him the desert of Shur, 
 which he must cross before he could reach the Nile. 
 If it be objected that the Eunuch would not sit in his 
 
 ^ ** Arrive au village de Bethulie ... II y a une bonne source. Un 
 Arabe tire de I'eau, pendant une heure, pour abreuver nos chevaux, 
 et remplir nos jarres suspendues aux selles de nos mulets. II n'y a 
 plus d'eau jusqu'a Jericho, dix ou douze heures de marche." — De 
 La Martine, Voyage en Orient. 
 
BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 91 
 
 wet clothes_, I answer that Gaza, towards wliicli they 
 were travelhng, lies in latitude 31° 29', nearly ten 
 degrees south of Naples ; that if the Eunuch was re- 
 turning from Jerusalem after either of the three great 
 festivals, he would find the sky cloudless, since the 
 interval between the early and latter rains is without 
 clouds, and that beneath that burning sun he would 
 be exposed to no danger, and to little inconvenience, 
 if his under linen-garments, which alone would be 
 immersed, dried upon his person, if he threw round 
 him other dry clothing; and if he did sufi*er any 
 inconvenience, it was a slight test of his sincerity, in 
 which he would rejoice. 
 
 But it is unnecessary to suppose that he submitted 
 to this inconvenience. Meroe in Upper Nubia over 
 which Queen Candace reigned, was at this time '^ one 
 of the richest countries upon the earth." — KittOj 
 " Candace.''^ She was therefore a wealthy sovereign, 
 and the Eunuch was her treasurer, verse 27. Erom 
 Jerusalem, which is at nearly the thirty-second 
 degree north latitude, to the city of Meroe, which 
 lay about the eighteenth degree north latitude, the 
 distance was fourteen degrees of latitude ; and part 
 of the journey, from Gaza to the Delta of Egypt, he 
 would have to cross the edge of the wilderness of 
 Shur, of which we read, Exod. xv. 22. A rich man 
 with such a journey to accomplish would certainly 
 provide himself with tents. When Dr. Robinson 
 describes his preparations for a journey from Suez 
 to Sinai he says, " A tent was to be purchased and 
 fitted up ; water-skins were to be procured," &c. — 
 
92 BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 
 
 Robinson, vol. i. p. 49. Dr. Wilson, witli reference to 
 the same journey, says, "Mr. Smith and I purchased 
 a small tent for ourselves, and one for our servants.^' 
 — Wilson, Yo] A. p. 107. And Mr. Stephens thus 
 describes his entrance on this desert : " I rode on in 
 silence and alone for nearly two hours ; just as the 
 sun was sinking behind the dark mountains of 
 Mokattam, I halted to wait for my little caravan ; 
 and I pitched my tent for the first night in the 
 desert with the door opening to the distant land of 
 Goshen.'^ — Stephens, vol. i. p. 330. The treasurer of 
 Candace w^as not without his tent. As beneath the 
 shadow of that tent he would have stood with Philip 
 had baptism been performed by affusion, which it 
 evidently was not ; so beneath its shelter he changed 
 his dress when he had been immersed. 
 
 One such instance of immersion is enough to prove 
 the apostolic practice, for unless the apostles had 
 generally immersed the converts, Philip would 
 certainly not have felt himself at liberty to immerse 
 the ^Ethiopian ; if sprinkling had been the practice 
 of baptism in Jerusalem where there was eveiy 
 convenience of baths, Philip would certainly have 
 preferred sprinkling where there were no conveniences 
 for immersion. He immersed because the apostles 
 immersed; and they immersed because Christ said, 
 " Go ye and teach all nations, immersing them.^' 
 
 II. Some circumstantial objections are still to be 
 removed. 
 
 1 . With respect to the baptism of the three thou- 
 sand converts on the day of Pentecost, it has been 
 
BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 93 
 
 objected that the city would not supply water enough 
 to immerse them all. But the objection is without 
 force. The supply of water in Jerusalem having 
 been very great. ^^ Jerusalem lies in the midst of a 
 rocky, limestone region, throughout which fount- 
 ains and wells are comparatively rare ; yet, with all 
 these disadvantages of its position, the holy city would 
 appear always to have had a full supply of water for 
 its inhabitants, both in ancient and modern times. 
 In the numerous sieges to which in all ages it has 
 been exposed, we no where read of any want of water 
 within the city. During the siege by Titus, when 
 the Jews, pressed by famine, had recourse to the most 
 horrible expedients, and thousands daily died of 
 hunger, there is no hint that thirst was added to 
 their other sufferings. So, too, in the siege by the 
 Crusaders, a.d. 1099, the inhabitants were well 
 supplied while the besiegers were driven to the 
 greatest straits by thirst under the burning sun of 
 June. Thus, in every age the truth of Strabo^s brief 
 description has been manifest : ^ Jerusalem, within 
 well watered ; without, wholly dry,^ hrog (mzv svvdpovj 
 szrog 8s 'TravrsXoog di-^TjpSv.^' 
 
 "The main dependence of Jerusalem for water at 
 the present day is on its cisterns; and this has 
 probably always been the case. I have already 
 spoken of the immense cisterns now, and anciently, 
 existing within the area of the temple, supplied 
 partly from rain-water and partly by the aqueduct. 
 In addition to these, almost every private house in 
 Jerusalem of any size is understood to have at least 
 
94 BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 
 
 one, or more cistern s_, excavated in the soft limestone 
 rock, upon whicli the. city is built. The house of 
 Mr. Lanneau, in which we resided, had no less than 
 four cisterns ; and as these are but a specimen of the 
 manner in which all the better class of houses are 
 supplied, I subjoin here the dimensions : — 
 
 
 Length. 
 
 Breadth. 
 
 Depth. 
 
 1 
 
 15 feet. 
 
 8 feet. 
 
 12 feet. 
 
 2 
 
 8 „ 
 
 4 ,, 
 
 15 „ 
 
 3 
 
 10 „ 
 
 10 „ 
 
 15 „ 
 
 4 
 
 30 „ 
 
 30 „ 
 
 20 „ 
 
 The water is conducted into these from the roofs of 
 the houses during the rainy season, and with proper 
 care remains pure and sweet during the whole sum- 
 mer and autumn. In this manner most of the larger 
 houses and of the public buildings are supplied. 
 Most of these cisterns have undoubtedly come down 
 from ancient times, and their immense extent fur- 
 nishes a full solution of the question as to the supply 
 of water for the city. A city which thus annually 
 laid in its supply for seven or eight months could 
 never be overtaken by the want of water during a 
 siege. That Jerusalem was thus actually supplied of 
 old with water is apparent also from the numerous 
 cisterns still existing in the tract north of the city, 
 which was once enclosed within the walls. ^^ 
 
 " The same causes which led the inhabitants of 
 Judaea to excavate cisterns induced them also to build 
 in and around most of their cities large open reser- 
 voirs for more public use. Such tanks are found at 
 
BAPTISMS BY THE AIOSTLES. 95 
 
 Hebron, Bethel, Gibeon, Bireh, and various otber 
 places. With such reservoirs Jerusalem was abun- 
 dantly supplied. Without the walls, on the west 
 side of the city, are two very large reservoirs, one 
 some distance below the other in the valley of Gihon 
 or Hinnom, and both unquestionably of high anti- 
 quity. Now, as the prophet Isaiah speaks of an 
 Upper and Lower Pool, the former of which lies, at 
 least apparently, on this side of the city, I venture 
 to apply these names to the two reservoirs in ques- 
 tion. Upper Pool: It lies in the basin forming the 
 head of the valley of Hinnom, about 700 yards 
 west-north-west from the Yafa gate. The dimen- 
 sions are as follows — length, 316 feet; breadth, 200; 
 depth, 18. Lower Pool : This reservoir is situated in 
 the valley of Hinnom or Gihon, southward from the 
 Yafa gate. The following are the measurements — 
 length, 502 feet ; breadth, north end, 245 ; breadth, 
 south end, 275 ; depth, north end, 35 ; depth, south 
 end, 42.^^ 
 
 " Within the walls of the city are three reservoirs, 
 two of large size. Pool of Hezekiah : The reservoir 
 lies some distance north-east of the Yafa gate. Its 
 breadth at the north end is 144 feet ; its length on 
 the east side about 250 feet ; the depth not great. 
 Bethesda Sheep Pool: In the Gospel of St. John 
 we are informed that ' There was at Jerusalem, by 
 the Sheep-gate, a pool, which was called in the He- 
 brew tongue Bethesda, having five porches,^ John, 
 v. 2. I hold it to be the ancient fosse which pro- 
 tected the fortress Antonia and the temple on the 
 
96 BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 
 
 nortli. The pool measures 360 Englisli feet in 
 lengthy 130 feet in breadth^ and 75 feet in depth/^^ 
 
 Besides these provisions for the supply of water 
 to Jerusalem there are three immense reservoirs, 
 called Solomon^ s Pools, connected with the city by 
 an aqueduct. "These three huge reservoirs, built 
 of squared stones, and bearing marks of the highest 
 antiquity, lie one above another in the steep part of 
 the valley, and are so situated that the bottom of 
 the one is higher than the surface of the next below. 
 Our first business was to measure the pools, and the 
 following is the result : — 
 
 "1. Lower Pool. — Length, 582 feet; breadth, 
 east end, 207; west end, 148; depth at east end, 50. 
 
 "2. Middle Pool.— Length, 423 feet; breadth, 
 east end, 250 ; west end, 160 ; depth, east end, 39. 
 
 " 3. Upper Pool. — Length, 380 feet ; breadth, east 
 end, 236; west end, 229; depth, east end, 25.'^ ^ 
 
 To fill these various and immense receptacles of 
 water the clouds of Palestine usually yield an abun- 
 dant supply. " The autumnal rains usually com- 
 mence at the latter end of October or beginning of 
 November. During the months of November and 
 December the rains continue to fall heavily. After- 
 wards they return at longer intervals, and are not 
 so heavy ; but - at no period during the winter do 
 they entirely cease to occur. Rain continues to fall 
 more or less during the month of March .^■' — Kitto, 
 "Palestine.^' 
 
 * Robinson's Biblical Researches, vol. i. pp. 479-490, 434. 
 ' Ibid. vol. ii. pp. 164, 165. 
 
BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 97 
 
 Besides all these cisterns and reservoirs there was 
 the Pool of Siloam^ to which Jesus sent the blind 
 man, mentioned John, ix. 7; and of the fountains 
 which supplied it Josephus thus spoke to the Jews 
 during the Roman siege : " They now have such a 
 great quantity of water for your enemies as is suffi- 
 cient not only for drink both for themselves and 
 their cattle, but for watering their gardens also/^ — 
 Josephus, War, v. ix. Let me add, that to all these 
 supplies Pilate the governor had recently added an- 
 other. Josephus says, '^ Pilate undertook to bring 
 a current of water to Jerusalem, and did it with the 
 sacred money, and derived the origin of the stream 
 from the distance of 200 furlongs. ^^ — Ant.XYm.Z, § 3. 
 
 Pentecost fell on that year on the 28th of May. — 
 Greswell's Harmony. 
 
 The city had then a supply of water to last to the 
 end of October. Its cisterns and reservoirs were all 
 nearly full with the rains, which had only ceased to 
 fall at the end of March ; and so far from the city 
 being unable to supply water for the baptism of the 
 three thousand, a single house like that of Mr. Lan- 
 neau,now at Jerusalem, which has, when its cisterns are 
 full, twenty- one thousand four hundred and twenty 
 cubic feet of water, i. e. seven cubic feet for each of 
 the three thousand persons, would alone have yielded 
 nearly a sufficient supply for the purpose. 
 
 There is not the least reason to suppose that they 
 would not easily find baths and pools enough. The 
 pools of Siloam and of Bethesda were clearly accessible 
 to all, John, v. 2, 3 ; ix. 7 : and those vast reservoirs, 
 
 H 
 
98 BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 
 
 the Upper and the Lower Pool^ were close at hand. 
 Pubhc and private baths must have been common : for 
 Jerusalem being at this time a proconsular city, and 
 the metropolis of a Roman province, had constant 
 intercourse with Greece and Italy, and in both these 
 countries the bath was a very common indulgence. 
 '' The Greeks were familiar with the use of the bath 
 as a source of health and pleasure long before it 
 came into general practice among the Romans. It 
 was customary for the Greeks to take two baths in 
 succession, the cold first, and afterwards the warm. 
 Thus, in the Iliad, Ulysses and Diomede both bathe 
 themselves in the sea, and afterwards refresh them- 
 selves with the warm bath, called a6a[xiv&og, ' the 
 asaminth.^ This was a vessel in which the bather 
 sat while warm water was poured upon him. But 
 this must not be confounded with the halnece or 
 thermcej in which were plunging and swimming- 
 baths, and in which numbers bathed together. The 
 Athenians had public baths, Xour^ung, attached to 
 the gymnasia ; which were more used by the common 
 people than by the great and wealthy, who had 
 private baths in their own houses. The balnece were 
 public cold baths ; and these, under the empire, were 
 succeeded by the therma, which included hot and 
 cold baths. These public baths became very com- 
 mon in Italy. Teanum, a small town of Campania^ 
 had its balnese for men and its balnese for women ; 
 and Pompeii had its public baths, cold and hot. In 
 Pompeii the cold bath was circular, twelve feet ten 
 inches in diameter, and about three feet deep. The 
 
BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 99 
 
 water ran into tlie basin through a spout of bronze, 
 and was carried off again through a conduit on the 
 other side. But we may judge from the names 
 given to the cold baths that they were often deeper 
 than that at Pompeii. They were called not only 
 puteiis, ' the well/ but also natatio and natatorium, 
 ' the swimming-bath/ and piscina^ ' the pooF (for 
 bathing) / not only Xovr^hv, ' the bath/ but (3a'7:Ti(f- 
 T7]^iov, ^ the swimming-bath/ 2 and xoXv/x(3ridpa,, ^the 
 swimming-bath/ " Amongst the Greeks and Romans 
 bathing was always a preliminary to the hour of 
 meals. " It was the usual and constant habit of the 
 Romans to take the bath after exercise, and pre- 
 viously to their principal meal, the coena. . . . When 
 the public baths were first instituted, they were only 
 for the lower orders, who alone bathed in public ; the 
 people of wealth, as well as those who formed the 
 equestrian and senatorian orders, using private baths 
 in their own houses.^' But ^^ in process of time, 
 even the emperors themselves bathed in public, with 
 the meanest of the people.^^ ^ 
 
 This being the habit of the Greeks and Romans 
 it was impossible that Jerusalem, a proconsular city, 
 and the metropolis of a Roman province, situated" ten 
 degrees south of Rome, and five degrees south of 
 
 ^ As piscina publica, " the public swimming-bath," near the 
 Porta Capena in Rome. — Riddle, " Piscina." See, also, Liddell, 
 'Ba.'TrrnTrYi^iov. 
 
 ^ So (ioi'TTia'Tv^iov is rendered by Liddell, on the authority of 
 Pliny ; though Mr. Smith, on the same authority, says that it was 
 a vessel not large enough for immersion. 
 
 ^ Smith's Antiquities, art. " Baths." 
 
100 BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 
 
 Athens, should not have its public and private baths. 
 Josephus_, describing, the palace of Herod, says, 
 " There were rooms of great magnificence, and over 
 them upper rooms, and cisterns to receive rain water. 
 They were many in number/^ — War^ v. 4, § 3. 
 '' There was also built over that cloister another tower, 
 parted into magnificent rooms, and a place for bath- 
 ing/^ — Ibid. Other houses in Jerusalem must have 
 had similar conveniences. And as the feeling 
 against the Christians had not yet become universal, 
 inasmuch as we find that, after the accession of the 
 three thousand converts, they " had favour with all 
 the people" (Acts, ii. 47), there could have been no 
 difficulty in obtaining baths for the purpose of im- 
 mersion. 
 
 There was also abundant time for the immersion 
 of the converts. Among the one hundred "and twenty 
 disciples who were waiting for the promised gift of 
 the Spirit, according to Christ's command, must 
 have been many of the seventy evangelists whom he 
 had previously sent forth to preach in his name, 
 Luke, X. 1, 17. If we suppose fifty of these to have 
 now aided the apostles in preaching to the myriads 
 vv^ho were assembled to the Feast of First Fruits, at 
 least sixty ministers of Christ, including the apostles, 
 were engaged~ in baptizing the converts. Shortly 
 after nine o'clock, the recorded address of Peter to 
 the multitude was finished. Acts, ii. 15. Let us 
 suppose that an hour was spent afterwards in con- 
 versation (Acts, ii. 40), then from eleven o'clock, at 
 the latest, to six o'clock in the evening, the sixty 
 
BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 101 
 
 ministers of Christ might be engaged in baptizing 
 the converts in the different pools and baths of the 
 city. Each minister would have to baptize fifty^ and 
 it is obvious that the solemn service^ with prayer and 
 praise, would not demand more than two or three 
 hours for its accomplishment ; while the heat of the 
 sun in latitude 32° would render the immersion of 
 those who had no conveniences for a chano-e of 
 
 o 
 
 raiment, and who were immersed in the open air, 
 quite as safe as the immersion of the thousands of 
 Hindoos now is in their sacred rivers. 
 
 2. The remarks which have been made with 
 respect to the immersion of the converts at Jerusa- 
 lem apply more or less to all the other baptisms re- 
 corded in the New Testament. 
 
 There could be no difficulty in providing for the 
 immersion of the converts at Samaria (Acts, viii. 12), 
 for as that city would, no less than the inhabitants 
 of Jerusalem, gather the rains of winter into tanks 
 and cisterns, so it is situated in a region which is 
 thus described. In Judsea the hills are mostly bare, 
 and it is only the narrow, intervening valleys that are 
 fertile : in Samaria, on the other hand, the hills are 
 clothed to the summits with vegetation. " These, 
 with the luxuriant valleys which they inclose, present 
 scenes of unbroken verdure in almost every point of 
 view, which are delightfully variegated by the pic- 
 turesque forms of the hills and vales themselves, en- 
 riched by the occasional sight of wood and water, 
 and rills and torrents running among them.^'^ 
 
 * Buckingham's Palestine, vol. ii. p. 390. In Encyc. Brit. art. 
 ** Palestine." 
 
102 BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 
 
 3. With respect to the baptism of Lydia and her 
 household in the httie river Gaugites, near Phihppi 
 (Acts, xvi. 15), the advocates of immersion are as 
 much entitled to consider that it took place in sum- 
 mer as their opponents to believe that" it was in 
 winter. On the former supposition, the wet 
 clothes of the converts would be a slio^ht incon- 
 venience in latitude 41°, more than ten degrees 
 south of London, and with a sun as burning as that 
 of Naples ; and as soon as they had ceased to drip 
 upon the sunny bank, the dry and flowing robes in 
 which they would envelope themselves would efi'ectu- 
 ally conceal all traces of their immersion from 
 strangers on their road back to the city. The Jew- 
 ish women who resorted to the proseuchey or chapel, 
 on the banks of the stream, accustomed as they 
 were to the immersion of female proselytes by the 
 hands of Jewish priests, would witness the spectacle 
 with solemn emotion. But if any expressed, on the 
 contrary, their scorn, such dilB&culties would seem 
 trivial to Lydia and her converted household. The 
 Lord Jesus Christ had said to his disciples, " Go ye 
 and teach all nations, immersing them," and had 
 given to all his disciples this command, " If any man 
 will come after me, let him deny himself, and take 
 up his cross and follow me.''^ And Lydia, "whose 
 heart the Lord opened" to receive the truths of the 
 Gospel, would rejoice in bearing any measure of 
 shame in obedience to his command. To worldly 
 persons immersion has been, and ever will be, a 
 source of profane ridicule. It is the most signifi- 
 cant and solemn profession of entire repentance, of 
 
BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 103 
 
 complete renovation, of unreserved consecration to 
 God; and the world, wliich scorns the reality, will, 
 of course, scorn the symbol. When David, one of 
 the most illustrious kings who ever reigned, laying 
 aside his robe of state, " danced before the Lord^^ in 
 a simple linen dress among multitudes of his sub- 
 jects, to express his joy at receiving the ark of God 
 into his capital, and his proud princess said, with 
 bitter irony, " How glorious was the king of Israel 
 to-day, who uncovered himself to-day in the eyes of 
 the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain 
 fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself,^'' he answered, 
 " It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy 
 father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler 
 over the people of the Lord, over Israel ; therefore 
 will I play before the Lord. And I will yet be more 
 vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight," 
 2 Sam. vi. 20, 21. Like him, the believer is willing 
 to bear contempt, when it is occasioned by his doing 
 the will of God. 
 
 4. The immersion of the jailor at Philippi, and 
 of Cornelius at Csesarea, would take place without 
 difficulty. The public prison must have its tank 
 and baths, which the governor would employ for his 
 baptism ; and since " people of wealth, as well as 
 those of the senatorian and equestrian orders, used 
 private baths in their own houses,^^ Cornelius, a 
 Roman captain, with an income which enabled him 
 "to give much alms to the people," and with a 
 household large enough to despatch two of his men- 
 servants as messengers to Peter at Joppa (Acts, x. 
 
104 BAPTISMS BY THE APOSTLES. 
 
 2j 7), would not, in latitude 32° 30', be without tlie 
 comfort of a batli in his house. 
 
 All objections, therefore, to the supposition that 
 the baptisms recorded in the New Testament were 
 immersions being unfounded, and the narrative of 
 the ^Ethiopian affording positive evidence in its 
 favour, we are entitled to understand the word " bap- 
 tism" in its ordinary sense of immersion, and to 
 conclude that all the converts were immersed. 
 
 We thus arrive at the fact that baptism is im- 
 mersion by the sense of the word /Sa-jr/^w, by the 
 proof that the Jews immersed their converts, by the 
 recorded immersion of the disciples of John, by the 
 immersion of the first disciples of Christ, and by the 
 immersion of the Christian converts in the apostolic 
 churches. 
 
SECTION VI. 
 
 ALLUSIONS TO BAPTISM IN THE EPISTLES. 
 
 In addition to these proofs it may be expected 
 that if baptism means immersion, the incidental 
 allusions to it in the apostolic epistles to the 
 churches must contain some indications of this fact. 
 Let us then examine them. 
 
 In the Epistle to the Ephesians we read, " Christ 
 loved the church and gave himself for it, that he 
 might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of 
 water hy the word,'' ruj aoutouj rov udarog sv pTjfMciTi, 
 Eph. V. 26. And in the Epistle to Titus, '^According 
 to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regene- 
 ration/' dia y.ovT^ou 'TraXtyysvsffiag, Tit. iii. 5. The 
 word XovT^ov, which in these passages is translated 
 " washing/^ means "a bath, or a bathing." ^ If, there- 
 
 * " AovT^ov, from Xovu ; kovof^cit, mid. to wash away, to bathe ; 
 kova-0cci 'jrora.iJt.olo poriffiv, Od. 2. 216." — Liddell. "When the verb 
 Xovu is employed without any regimen expressed or implied, the 
 washing is not confined to a part, but comprises the whole body." 
 — Wilson, p. 154. " Kovr^ov, a bath." — Liddell. *' The cold 
 bath was named indifferently by ancient authors, ' natatio,' ' nata- 
 torium,' 'piscina,' ' baptisterium,' ' Xowr^ov,' a bathing." — Smith's 
 Ant. Baths. " 'Ev Xout^m, while bathing. Yitruvius says the 
 Greeks used this word to express a cold bath (bathing). ' Frigida 
 lavatio quam Grseci Xovt^ov vocitant.' " — Smith's Baths. 
 
106 ALLUSIONS TO BAPTISM IN THE EPISTLES. 
 
 fore, they refer to baptism, then baptism is a bath 
 or bathing ; and if they refer to the spiritual regene- 
 ration of which baptism was but the symbol, still 
 the regeneration itself is here called an immersion, 
 because the appointed sign of it was a literal 
 immersion. 
 
 In Heb. x. 22, we read, " Let us draw near with 
 a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our 
 hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our 
 bodies washed with pure vjater'' "kiXo-oiMivoi rh gojimo, 
 vdar/ -/.aJao'Sj. The sprinkling of which the apostle 
 speaks is clearly the application of the blood of 
 Jesus Christ to the consciences of believers by faith, 
 Heb. ix. 13-23; Exod. xxiv. 1-8; Rom. v. 9; Eph. 
 i. 7 ; and therefore believers are said "to be come to 
 the blood of sprinkling '' (Heb. xii. 24), and "to be 
 elect unto the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus,^' (1 
 Pet.i. 2) : the washing of which he speaks is thought 
 by eminent commentators to be baptism. " We who 
 have our bodies washed with the pure water of 
 baptism.^^ — Whitby. "Here is a plain allusion to 
 the use of water in the initiatory rite of baptism.^^ 
 — Stuart. " That there is an allusion to baptism is 
 clear." — Barnes. If there be here an allusion to 
 baptism, — since it is called washing or bathing the 
 whole body in water, for such is the meaning of the 
 expression XoUiv to coj/j^o, — then the external act of 
 baptism must be the washing or bathing of the 
 whole body by immersion. 
 
 Further, the apostle Paul has made the two fol- 
 lowing allusions to baptism : " We are buried with 
 
ALLUSIONS TO BAPTISM IN THE EPISTLES. 107 
 
 him hy baptism unto death, that like as Chi^ist was 
 raised up from the dead hy the glory of the Father, 
 even so we also should walk in neivness of life," Rom. 
 vi. 4. ^^ Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye 
 are risen with him,'' Col. ii. 12. Upon these passages 
 Grotius, though a psedo-baptistj has remarked^ 
 '^Both the proper meaning of the word (baptize)^, 
 and the places chosen for that rite (John, iii. 23; 
 Acts, viii. 38), and many allusions of the apostles 
 which cannot be referred to sprinkling (Rom. vi. 
 3, 4 ; Col. ii. 12), indicate that this rite was accus- 
 tomed to be performed by immersion, and not by 
 affusion." He alludes here to the form of baptism. 
 '' For the immersion of the whole body into the river 
 so that it could no longer be seen, bore a resem- 
 blance to the sepulture which is given to the dead." — 
 Grotius.^ ^'In this phrase the apostle seemeth to 
 allude to the ancient manner of baptism, which was 
 to dip the parties baptized, and, as it were, to bury 
 them under the water for a while, and then to draw 
 them out of it and lift them up, to represent the 
 burial of the old man and our resurrection to 
 newness of life." — Assembly's Annotations. " We 
 have been thus buried in the waters of baptism. . . . 
 There is a plain allusion to the ancient custom of 
 
 * ** Mersatione autem, non profusione, agi solitum hunc ritum 
 indicat et vocis proprietas et loca ad eum ritum delecta (Joh. 
 iii. 23 ; Act. viii. 38), et allusiones multse apostolorum, quse ad 
 adspersionem referri non possunt, Rom. vi. 3, 4 ; Col. ii. 12." — 
 Grotius on Matt. iii. 5, 6. *' Tmmersio totius corporis in flumen, 
 ita ut non conspiceretur amplius, imaginem gerebat sepulturse 
 quse datur mortuis." — Ibid, on Rom. vi. 4. 
 
108 ALLUSIONS TO BAPTISM IN THE EPISTLES. 
 
 baptism by immersion/^ — Bloomfield. " The ancient 
 mode of baptism by- immersion was a very suitable 
 emblem of the old Adam being buried and the new 
 man being raised up/^ — Slade. " It seems tbe part 
 of candour to confess that here is an allusion to the 
 manner of baptizing by immersion as most usual in 
 these early times/'' — Doddridge. " We are buried 
 mth him/'' alluding to the ancient manner of bap- 
 tizing by immersion. — Benson. " It is altogether 
 probable that the apostle in this place had allusion 
 to the custom of baptizing by immersion/^ — Barnes. 
 ^' The original meaning of the word ^ baptism ^ is 
 
 immersion We doubt not that the prevalent 
 
 style of the administration in the apostles^ days was 
 by an actual submerging of the whole body under 
 water/^ — Chalmers. ^' In this place we must by no 
 means think of their own resolutions only in baptism, 
 or see no more in it than a figure, as if by the one 
 half of the ancient rite of baptism, the submersion, 
 the death and the burial of the old man, — by the 
 second half, the emersion, the resurrection of the 
 new man — were no more than prefigured ; we must 
 rather take baptism in its inward meaning as a 
 spiritual process in the soul. This efficacy can only 
 be ascribed to the baptism of grown persons, and in 
 their case it coincides with regeneration.^^ — Olhausen, 
 ad he. " The baptismal symbol itself may be re- 
 garded as a figure of the death of Christ, and accord- 
 ingly he in this verse (the 4th) represents the 
 Christian undergoing baptism as being in some sort 
 bmied with his Saviour. . . . For the explanation of 
 
ALLUSIONS TO BAPTISM IN THE EPISTLES. 109 
 
 this figurative description of the baptismal rite^ it is 
 necessary to call attention to the well-known circum- 
 stance that in the early days of the Church persons 
 when baptized were first plunged below^ and then 
 raised above the water, to which practice, according 
 to the direction of the apostle, the early Christians 
 gave a symbolical import/^ — Tholuch, ad he. 
 
 These remarks seem to me just, because, though 
 a living faith in Christ professed in baptism 
 would imply the believer^ s death unto sin and re- 
 surrection to a new life, even if there had been no 
 literal immersion, yet the literal immersion alone 
 would make the sign correspond with the thing 
 signified ; and the selection of these terms to express 
 the sanctification of a believer, evidently originated 
 in his burial in the water and his resurrection from 
 it. On the supposition that the baptism was 
 sprinkling in the time of the apostles, these allusions 
 are inapplicable to the sign, though they describe 
 the thing signified; but if the baptism was im- 
 mersion, they explain the thing signified by allusion 
 to the sign. In the one case the apostle would 
 have said, " We are buried with him by faith,^^ in the 
 other, as here, " We are buried with him by baptism 
 unto death. '^ There is an exact correspondence in 
 every part of the antithesis. As Christ was buried 
 in the earth, so the Christian is buried in the water ; 
 as Christ rose again from the earth, so the Christian 
 rises again from the water. As Christ died for sin, 
 so the Christian spiritually dies to sin ; and as Christ 
 rose to a new life in glory, so the Christian spiritually 
 
130 ALLUSIONS TO BAPTISM IN THE EPISTLES. 
 
 rises to a new life of faith and love to end in glory. 
 Thus the allusions to baptism in the apostolic writ- 
 ings corroborate the proofs derived from the ordinary 
 use of the word ^^ baptize/' from the baptism of the 
 Jews^ from the baptism of John, from the baptisms 
 of the first converts, and from the records of apostolic 
 baptisms, that the baptism ordained by Christ is 
 immersion. 
 
SECTION VII. 
 
 BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 We may further infer that baptism is immersion 
 from the use of the word with respect to the work 
 of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of water is com- 
 pared to the baptism of the Spirit, so that the one is 
 the emblem of the other; and as the sign should 
 correspond with the thing signified, and the baptism 
 of the Spirit is an immersion in divine influence, the 
 baptismal sign must also be an immersion. 
 
 The following are all the passages of the New Tes- 
 tament where the baptism of the Spirit is mentioned : 
 
 Matt. iii. 11 : ^'^ I indeed baptize you in water, 
 Iv vdocTi ; but he that cometh after me ... . shall 
 baptize you in the Holy Ghost and in fire,^^ Iv 'ttvsv- 
 
 Mark, i. 1 ; Luke, iii. 16 : the expression is the same. 
 
 John, i. 33 : " He that sent me to baptize in 
 water, the same said unto me. Upon whom thou 
 shalt see the Spirit descending .... the same is he 
 which baptizeth in the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Acts, i. 5 : " John truly baptized in water, vdan ; 
 but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Acts, xi. 16. The expression is the same. 
 
112 BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 1 Cor. xii. 13 : '^ For in one Spirit, sv Ivi ^vgy^ar/, 
 are we all baptized unto one body.^^ 
 
 In all these places it is promised that the disci- 
 ples of Christ shall be baptized in the Spirit, h tj/s-j- 
 fiarif not with the Spirit; it is an immersion, and 
 not a sprinkling, which is promised. Hence, also, 
 believers are said to be in the Spirit — immersed in 
 a divine influence, Eev. i. 10; iv. 2 ; xxi. 10 ; Matt, 
 xxii. 43 ; 1 Pet. i. 12 ; Acts, xix. 21 ; Rom. viii. 9 ; 
 Col. i. 8 ; Jude, 20, &c. 
 
 In opposition to this interpretation, the following 
 passages have been quoted to show that the expres- 
 sion, h crvsu/tar/, may mean " with the Spirit,'^ rather 
 than "in the Spirit,^^ Rom. xv. 16; 1 Cor. vi. 11; 
 1 Pet. i. 12. But in all these cases the words ex- 
 press agency, not instrumentality. The same sense 
 might be expressed by 0^5, as in Matt. iv. 1 ; Luke, 
 ii. 26 ; iv. 1 ; Acts, xiii. 4 ; 2 Pet. i. 21 ; or by dia, 
 as in Acts, xxi. 4; Rom. v. 5 ; 1 Cor. xii. 8 ; 1 Pet. 
 i. 22; but not by /^sm, "with," as Heb. ix. 19. 
 We cannot infer that an expression may denote in- 
 strumentality fi'om its denoting agency. If h rQ 
 'Kyihij.aTi may mean h'Ko rov 'jvsjfji.arog, " by the Spirit," 
 it does not follow that it may mean fMSTu rov cri/gu/^a- 
 roc, "with the Spirit." And even if such an appli- 
 cation of the word should be found, what reason is 
 there here to depart from the ordinary sense ? If 
 it could be proved that in 2 Cor. vi. 6, Eph. v. 18, 
 Iv may express instrumentality, how much oftener 
 does it answer to the question " wherein ?" See for 
 instances Luke, i. 17; John, iv. 23, 24; Rom. ii. 
 
BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. 113 
 
 29; Phil. i. 27; 1 Thess. i. 5 ; 1 Tim. iv. 12. It 
 is therefore proper here to adhere to the ordinary 
 sense of the words, and to understand h toj 'Trv&v/j.aTi 
 to mean "in the Spirit/^ and not "with the Spirit/^ 
 
 Various Jewish washings were emblematical of the 
 purification of the soul. Thus, of the cured leper 
 the Mosaic law enacted : " He that is to be cleansed 
 shall wash his clothes.''^ His leprous clothes were 
 to be thoroughly washed, soaked, and scoured. Now 
 the word D?|, which is used to express this complete 
 washing, is also applied to the work of the Spirit. 
 Thus David says (Psalm li. 2), "Wash me tho- 
 roughly from mine iniquity .^^ "The psalmist here 
 fervently prayed to be cleansed from the pollution, 
 as well as from the guilt, of his sins.^^ — Scott. "Prom 
 the guilt and the defilement.''^ — S. Clark. The same 
 word was used by the Almighty with reference to 
 spiritual influence when he said to the Jews by the 
 prophet Jeremiah, " Jerusalem, wash thine heart 
 from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved,^^ Jer. 
 iv. 14. The washing spoken of in these two cases, 
 like the v/ashing of the leprous clothes, implied 
 repeated immersion. 
 
 Besides the Jewish washing of clothes, expressed 
 by the word D^S, there were also legal bathings of 
 the body, expressed by the word Vt^P- When the 
 leper was cleansed, he was ordered by the Mosaic law 
 to wash his clothes and then to " wash himself in 
 water,^^ Lev. xiv. 8. Others were similarly ordered 
 to bathe. Lev. xvi. 4, 24, 26, 28. Hence, when 
 Naaman was to be cured of his leprosy, he was 
 
 I 
 
114 BAPTISM IN THE HOLT SPIRIT. 
 
 directed thus to bathe^ 2 Kings, v. 10. This word, 
 to wash or bathe the person, is applied to the puri- 
 fication of the heart, " Wash you, make you clean,^' 
 Isaiah, i. 16; and specially to the work of the Holy 
 Spirit, in the following words: "And it shall come 
 to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that 
 remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even 
 every one that is w-ritten among the living in Jeru- 
 salem : when the Lord shall have washed away [yO^) 
 the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have 
 purged (0^*7^) the blood of Jerusalem from the midst 
 thereof ^7/ the Spmt of judgment and by the Spirit 
 of burning,^'' Isaiah, iv. 3,4. Vitringa, Poole, Samuel 
 Clark, Henry, Scott, &c., all understand this predic- 
 tion to describe the work of the Spirit of God. The 
 elect were to be washed and purged from their de- 
 filement by the Spirit, baptized in the Holy Ghost 
 and in fire.^ Here, therefore, again the influence of 
 the Holy Spirit is said to be like a complete washing 
 of the whole body from defilement ; it is an immer- 
 sion of the soul in Divine infiuence. 
 
 The influence of the Spirit is described in similar 
 terms by our Lord. When Jesus w^as washing the 
 feet of the disciples he came to Simon Peter : 
 " Peter saith to him. Thou shalt never wash my 
 feet. Jesus answ^ered him, If I wash thee not, 
 thou hast no part with me.^ Simon Peter saith 
 
 ' Ij'"^ does not mean to expiate, but to wash or purge out. 2 
 Chron. iv. 6 ; Ezek. xl. 38. — Alexander, 'rfin, to wash. — Gesen. 
 
 ^ " Aovu, whence kovr^ov, is spoken of the whole body, vlfrru of 
 a part." — Bengel. " Those who were invited to a feast used be- 
 
BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. 115 
 
 to him. Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands 
 and my head. Jesus saith to him. He that is 
 washed (o XsXov/j^svog) needeth not save to wash his 
 feet, but is clean every whit ; and ye are clean, but 
 not all/' " He that is XsXou/xjvoc, ' washed all over 
 already,' needs no more washing, save only for his 
 feet/' — Hammond. " Look, as it is with persons that 
 have been washing themselves in a bath, when they 
 are washed, yet walking abroad barefoot, or with their 
 sandals, will be again subject to pollute their feet, 
 but they need not soon again wash their whole bodies ; 
 so it is as to souls washed in my blood. Washed and 
 sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
 and by the Spirit of God (1 Cor. vi. 11), their state 
 is not to be renewed; they need not be justified a 
 second time, but they will need to have their feet 
 washed ; they will have need of a daily washing by 
 repentance and fresh applications of their souls to 
 my blood."— Poo/e. " The man who had been in 
 the bath needed not to repeat his washing except as 
 his feet had contracted some occasional defilement. 
 . . . This action of Christ was an intended emblem 
 of that washing from sin by his blood and Spirit, with- 
 out which we can have no part in him. The true 
 believer is thus washed when he first receives Christ 
 for his salivation; all his sins are completely par- 
 doned; the sanctification of the Spirit pervades all 
 his faculties, dispositions, affections, and conduct, and 
 
 fore they went thither to wash their whole body in a bath at home ; 
 yet on arriving at the house of their host their feet were washed by 
 a servant." — Wetstein, in Bloomjield's Digest. 
 
IIG BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 he is graciously considered as clean ' every whit :^ yet 
 by his intercourse with this evil worlds he is liable 
 anew to contract guilt and defilement^ and he needs 
 washing continually by Jesus/^ — Scott. " Ye are 
 my disciples already in respect of the main business 
 of regeneration^ washed from your sins; yet there 
 are some remains of worldly affections which must 
 still be purged away in the best of men/^ — Bp. Hall. 
 From this passage it is plain that the daily pardon 
 and sanctification of the believer is compared to 
 washing the feet^ and that the justification and rege- 
 neration of the sinner is the washing of the soul all 
 over^ the plunging it in a bath of Divine influence. 
 The daily work of the Spirit is a partial washing of 
 the soul j his work in regeneration is an immersion. 
 
 With this image agrees a prediction of the gift of 
 the Spirit which we find in the prophet Isaiah : " I 
 will pour water upon him that is thirsty_, and floods 
 upon the dry ground/' Isaiah^ xliv. 3. As the ground 
 is immersed by a flood which covers it, so it was pro- 
 mised that men^s souls should be immersed by the 
 Holy Spirit. 
 
 When at length the Holy Spirit was given at 
 Pentecost, one of the symbols employed expressed 
 this same all-pervading influence of the Spirit : 
 " Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a 
 rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house 
 where they were sitting," Acts^ ii. 2. Jesus had 
 before compared the Holy Spirit to wind : " The 
 wind bloweth w^here it listeth, and thou hearest the 
 sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh 
 
BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. 117 
 
 nor whether it goeth ; so is every one who is born of 
 the Spirit/^ John^ iii. 8. This wind at Pentecost, or 
 this s^;ound of wind^ was therefore the symbol of the 
 Spirit ; and when the symbol filled the house, it bap- 
 tized, or covered, them . They were then enveloped by 
 the symbolic wind, as their souls were immersed in 
 the Spirit, of w^hich it was a symbol. 
 
 For, lastly, the fact agrees with the symbols em- 
 ployed. Each regenerate person is truly immersed 
 in Divine influence. It envelopes and pervades the 
 soul, like the waters of the bath, like the Pentecostal 
 wind ; all the faculties of a believer are bathed in 
 grace. The judgment, the affections, the will, the 
 whole character and conduct, come under the all-per- 
 vading influence, of which there is no other adequate 
 or even suitable emblem than total immersion; and 
 as the sign is likely to correspond to the thing signi- 
 fied, and, being of Divine appoiotm^ent, must be a 
 suitable sign, we may infer from the comparison 
 made between the two, that baptism, the appointed 
 sign of a real immersion of the soul in Divine influ- 
 ence, is an immersion of the body. 
 
 This conclusion is not invalidated by those passages 
 which speak of the pom-ing out of the Holy Spirit, 
 Isaiah, xxxii. 15; Ezek. xxxvi. 25; Joel, ii. 28; 
 Acts, X. 44 : or by those which speak of his descend- 
 ing, Mark, i. 10; John, iii. 16; Acts, xi. 15 : or by 
 those which speak of his being put on individuals, 
 Numb. xi. 29 ; xxiv. 2 ; Judg. iii. 19 ; 2 Kings, ii. 9 ; 
 Isaiah, xii. 2 ; xlii. 1 ; Luke, iv. 18 ; Acts, xix. 6. 
 The origin of the heavenly gift is described by these 
 
118 BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 passages as the abundance of tlie gift by those 
 wbicb describe the souFs immersion. If the meta- 
 phors employed to describe the influence of the 
 Spirit under different aspects be incongruous, they 
 may still describe concurrent and harmonious truths. 
 As the Spirit is poured out on the Church, so the 
 Church is led by the Spirit, Rom. viii. 14. The 
 ima2:es are inconprruous, for descendins; waters cannot 
 lead; but the truths agree, for the Holy Spirit 
 descends from his glory ir.to the heart, and then 
 leads it. As the Holy Spirit is the stream from 
 which the believer drinks, so is he a fire which may 
 be quenched, John, vii. 39 ; 1 Tbess. v. 19. A 
 stream cannot be a fire, yet the Holy Spirit resembles 
 both. Exactly similar metaphors are also clearly used 
 respecting Christ ; as the Holy Spirit is said to be 
 poured out, so of Christ it is said, " He shall come 
 down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers 
 that water the earth/' Psalm Ixxii. 6. And with 
 reference to the sprinklings of the Mosaic law, his 
 bloodis called the "blood of sprinkling,'' ' Exod. xxiv. 8; 
 Lev. xvi. 15 j Exod. xii. 8-13 ; Heb. xi. 28 ; xii. 24. 
 Yet his blood is also termed " a fountain,^' in which 
 believers are washed fi'om sin and their robes washed 
 white, Zech. xiii. 1 ; Rev. i. 5 ; vii. 14. As, there- 
 fore, the Redeemer descends as the rain, and yet 
 washes believers in his blood as in a fountain, so the 
 Holy Spirit may be poured out as the rain, and yet 
 wash believers as in a fountain. But indeed, as the 
 truths described by those metaphors are harmonious, 
 so are the metaphors themselves. They describe the 
 
BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. 119 
 
 influence of the Holy Spirit descending from God^ 
 but in so copious a manner as to immerse the souls 
 of men ; and why should not this be ? In Matt. vii. 
 27, we read, " The rain descended, and the floods 
 came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house ; 
 and ■ it fell.'''' The rain then first descended, and 
 then covered the house which fell into the flood. 
 So in Noah's deluge, the rain first descended, and 
 then buried the whole earth, which lay immersed 
 beneath it. So the Pentecostal wind, the emblem 
 of the Spirit, first came from heaven, and then 
 immersed the disciples by filling the house in which 
 they were sitting (Acts, ii. 2) ; and the two images 
 are combined in a prediction of the gift of the Spirit : 
 " I will pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods 
 upon the dry ground ; 1 will pour my Spirit upon 
 thy seed,''^ Isaiah, xliv. 3. The gracious influence 
 descends from God upon the hearts of men, who are 
 like the dry ground, and they are then immersed in 
 the flood. 
 
 On this point I am happy to adduce the opinion 
 of Dr. Campbell, who translates Matt. iii. 11, thus : 
 " I indeed baptize you in water that ye may reform, 
 but he who cometh after me is mightier than I, 
 whose shoes I am not worthy to carry. He will 
 baptize you in the Holy Ghost, and fire.''^ Upon 
 this passage he further remarks, " ' In aqua, in Spiritu 
 Sancto.'' — Vulgate. Thus also the Syriac, and other 
 ancient versions. The Latin is not more explicit 
 than the Greek. The word /Sacrr/Js/i/, both in sacred 
 authors and in classical, signifies ' to dip, to plunge. 
 
120 BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 to immerse/ It is always construed suitably to 
 this meaning. Thus it is sv vdan, sv rdl 'lopddvr,. 
 But I should not lay much stress on the preposition 
 svj which, answering to the Hebrew 2, may denote 
 with as well as i?i, did not the whole phraseology in 
 regard to this ceremony concur in evincing the same 
 thing. Accordmgly, the baptized are said dvajSahsiv, 
 'to arise, emerge, ascend/ d'Tro rov vdarog, and sy. 
 rou vdarog, 'from out of the water.' Let it be 
 observed, further, that the verbs pa/i/w and pavr/^co, 
 used in Scripture for sprinkling, are never construed 
 in this manner. ' I will sprinkle clean water upon 
 you ' (Ezek. xxxvi. 25), is in the Septuagint, pavu 
 Ivj)' C/xa; zadafov vdoop, and not as (3a<nT/^ca is always 
 construed, pavoj vfj^dg sv x.adao(Z vhari, see Ex. xxix. 
 21 j Lev. vi. 27 j xvi. 14. Had /Sa-^rr/^w been here 
 employed in the sense of pa'ivo), ' I sprinkle,"* (which 
 as far as I know it never is, in any use, sacred or 
 classical,) the expression would doubtless have been, 
 Qa'ir-i'^'j) s(p' ijfj:dc vdu^, or aoro rov vdocrog. When, 
 therefore, the Greek word /Sccprr/'^w is adopted rather 
 than translated, the mode of construction ought to 
 be preserved so far as may conduce to suggest its 
 original import. It is to be regretted that we have 
 so much evidence that even good and learned men 
 allow their judgments to be warped by the sentiments 
 and customs of the sect which they prefer. The 
 true partizan, of whatever denomination, always 
 inclines to correct the diction of the Spirit by that 
 of the party .^^ 
 
SECTION VIII. 
 
 PRACTICE OF THE EARLY CHURCHES. 
 
 The last point to be adduced in evidence that 
 baptism is immersion is the general practice of the 
 churches subsequent to the apostolic age. For cen- 
 turies from the time of the apostles no other mode 
 of baptism was thought of, except^ indeed^ when 
 persons desirous of baptism were dangerously ill^ 
 and immersion might have proved fatal. " The 
 ancients thought that immersion^ or burying under 
 water, did more lively represent the death, and bm-ial, 
 and resurrection of Christ, as well as our own death 
 unto sin and rising again unto righteousness. For 
 which reason they observed the way of baptizing all 
 persons by a total immersion under water, except in 
 some cases of great exigency wherein they allowed 
 of sprinkling.''^ — Bingham, Book xi. chap. xi. " Per- 
 sons were usually baptized by immersion. As this 
 was the original apostolical practice, so it continued 
 to be the universal practice of the Church for many 
 ages upon the same symbolical reasons as it was 
 first used by the apostles.^^ St. Chrysostom says, 
 '^When we dip our heads in water as in a grave, 
 
122 PRACTICE OF THE EARLY CHURCHES. 
 
 our old man is buried ; and when we rise up again, 
 the new man rises therewith.''^ Cyril of Jerusalem 
 says, " As he that goes down into the water and is 
 baptized and surrounded on all sides by the water, 
 so the apostles were baptized all over by the Spirit. 
 The w^ater surrounds the body externally, but the 
 Spirit incomprehensibly baptizes the interior soul." 
 The fourth Council of Toledo says, " The immersion 
 in water is, as it w^ere, descending into the grave, 
 and the rising out of the water, a resurrection." 
 And so St. Ambrose explains it : " Thou wast asked. 
 Dost thou believe in God the Father Almighty ? and 
 thou didst answer, I believe : and then thou wast 
 immersed in water, that is, buried." It appears, 
 also, from Epiphanius and others, that almost all 
 heretics w^ho retained any baptism retained immersion 
 also. The Ebionites received baptism as it was 
 practised by the Church. The Marcionites baptized 
 by a total immersion. I must observe, further, that 
 they not only administered baptism by immersion 
 under w^ater, but also repeated this three times. 
 TertuUian speaks of it as a ceremony generally used 
 in his time : " We dip not once, but three times at 
 the naming every person of the Trinity.''^ " We 
 cover ourselves in the vrater," says Gregory Nyssen, 
 " as Christ did in the earth, and this we do three 
 times." St. Jerome says, " Though we are thrice 
 put under water to represent the mystery of the 
 Trinity, yet is it reputed but one baptism." St. 
 Chrysostom says, " Christ delivered to his disciples 
 one baptism in three immersions of the body, sv r^iai 
 
PRACTICE OF THE EARLY CHURCHES. 123 
 
 xarah-oGiCi rou cw/xaroj. Pope Pelagius says, " The 
 evangelic precept from our God and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ admonishes us to administer holy baptism to 
 each one by three immersions in the name of the 
 Trinity, since the Lord said : Go, baptize all nations 
 in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 Spirit/^ ^ — Bingham, Book xi. chap. xi. pp. 269-281. 
 " It being so expressly declared (Rom. vi. 4 ; Col. ii. 
 12) that we are buried with Christ in baptism by 
 being buried under water, and the argument to 
 oblige us to a conformity to his death by dying to 
 sin being taken hence, and this immersion being reli- 
 giously observed by all Christians for thirteen cen- 
 turies, and the change of it into sprinkling, even 
 without any allowance from the author of this in- 
 stitution, it were to be wished that this custom might 
 be again of general use." — TVhithy on Rom. vi. 4. 
 
 Great corruptions have sprung up in the churches 
 of Christ, and have become nearly universal; but 
 this universal practice of immersion in the churches 
 of the first centuries cannot be so accounted for. 
 Corruptions spring up in the churches in times of 
 defection from the truth which promote the self- 
 indulgence of professed Christians ; but this is a 
 practice requiring so much self-denial, that some 
 writers have declared that they cannot on that ac- 
 count believe it to be an appointment of Christ. 
 
 ' "Evangelicumprseceptum, ipso Deo et Domino Salvatore nostro 
 Jesu Christo tradente, nos admonet, in nomine Trinitatis, trina 
 etiam mersione sanctum baptisma unicuique tribuere, dicente 
 Domino," &c. — Pelagius, Ep. ad Gaudentium. 
 
124 PRACTICE OF THE EARLY CHURCHES, 
 
 Decaying churclies do not make their obedience 
 more strict and self-denying. Corruptions which 
 exalt the priesthood are likely to spring up in times 
 of ignorance and decay ; but immersion recalls the 
 moral character of baptism^ and attributes nothing to 
 the officiating minister. Corruptions^ too, are likely 
 to thrive in a period of decay which substitute ex- 
 ternal forms of religion for the renewal of the heart, 
 and services to the Church for consecration to the 
 service of God ; but baptismal immersion recalled 
 the decaying and lukewarm churches to that entire 
 renovation of character and that complete consecra- 
 tion to God which is most opposed to spiritual de- 
 clension and lethargy. It is, therefore, unaccount- 
 able that immersion should be the general practice 
 of the churches for several centuries after the apostles, 
 except upon the supposition that the churches re- 
 ceived that practice from the apostles themselves, 
 and maintained it from a just regard to their writings 
 in the In ew Testament. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 The evidence which has been above adduced 
 seems to me to leave no room for doubt that the 
 baptism enjoined by our Lord was immersion, and 
 nothing else. When our Lord said to his disciples, 
 " Go ye and baptize," he used a word which, in 
 every author, Greek or Jewish, until the time of the 
 commission, means "to immerse" alone. It may 
 mean to immerse by flood or to immerse by dipping, 
 but in every case it means to immerse : and since in 
 the interpretation of any precept we must not, with- 
 out cause, use any of its words in an unusual sense, 
 we ought not here to give to the word the unusual 
 sense of immersing by flood, instead of immersion by 
 dipping. If we were also at liberty to adopt the un- 
 usual sense, the application of it in fact would be 
 impracticable. Baptism by aff*usion, i. e., immersion 
 by a flood, is impossible; and therefore it follows 
 that the only sense in which the word can be imder- 
 stood with reference to Christian converts is to 
 immerse them by dipping. 
 
126 CONCLUSION. 
 
 That which we learn from the use of the word 
 jSaTrr/^u, we may also learn from the practice of the 
 time when the commission was given. When Jesus 
 said to his disciples, " Go and baptize/^ baptism was 
 of very familiar occurrence among the Jews. As it 
 was to be the initiatory rite of Christianity, so it was 
 already one of the initiatory rites of Judaism. When 
 the Jewish proselyte was baptized, his baptism was 
 an immersion; and without an intimation to the 
 contrary, the disciples must understand that when 
 a Christian proselyte was to be baptized, his baptism 
 must be also an immersion. The same word must 
 necessarily express the same external act for both 
 religions. Since the convert to Judaism was im- 
 mersed, in token of his discipleship to Moses, and 
 this was called his baptism, when Jesus commanded 
 his apostles to administer baptism as the token of 
 discipleship to him, they must have understood that 
 baptism likewise to mean immersion. 
 
 But another baptism had been recently introduced 
 by Divine appointment, not exactly like that of Jesus, 
 because it referred to a Saviour about to come, 
 instead of to a Saviour already come, and was not a 
 baptism unto the name of the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy Spirit. But the baptism of John was the 
 token of repentance and of faith in the Saviour about 
 to come, as the baptism of Jesus was the token of 
 repentance and faith in the Saviour already come. 
 This baptism, so similar to that of Jesus, was im- 
 mersion. Some of them had themselves received it ; 
 all knew it ; it must have frequently been in their 
 
CONCLUSION. 127 
 
 mouths. And to them^ who always thought of im- 
 mersion when they thought of baptism^ and always 
 meant immersion when they spoke of baptism^ who 
 never connected any other idea with the word, and 
 to whom the word was perfectly familiar, Jesus said, 
 without any further explanation, " Go ye and baptize" 
 They could understand by it nothing but immersion. 
 
 At length, according to Christ^s command, they 
 went forth to baptize. The narrative of the mode in 
 one instance is sufficient to determine it in all, be- 
 cause in all instances the apostles and those whom 
 they taught would exactly comply with the directions 
 of the Lord. Since, then, we find that the Eunuch 
 was immersed in the lake of the wilderness near 
 Gaza, we may infer that other converts were im- 
 mersed in like manner. There is no probable evi- 
 dence to show the contrary; and there is reason, 
 therefore, to believe, that the apostles and other evan- 
 gelists immersed the three thousand converts on the 
 day of Pentecost, the inhabitants of Samaria, the con- 
 verts at Philippi, the Corinthians, and the members 
 of all the churches, as Philip immersed the Eunuch. 
 
 Besides the evidence of the apostolic practice, fur- 
 nished by the narratives of baptisms in the New 
 Testament, there are various allusions to baptism in 
 the apostolic epistles. In these passages generally 
 each allusion implies that the baptized persons were 
 immersed. 
 
 Further, if the apostles instituted the rite of im- 
 mersion, it could not but be retained a long time in 
 the churches ; and if the apostles did not institute 
 
128 CONCLUSION. 
 
 it_, it could scarcely be introdaced at all^ inasmuch as 
 that it was too troublesome and too solemn for cor- 
 rupt churches in a degenerate age. -Under these 
 circumstances^ we find it prevailing with undisputed 
 authority as far back as Christian records extend; 
 and meet with no intimation of any opposite prac- 
 tice in any evangelical churches. 
 
 Lastly^ since the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an 
 immersion of the soul in Divine influence, all the 
 faculties and affections being bathed by it — and since 
 the baptism of the Holy Spirit is compared in Scrip- 
 ture to the baptism of water in a way to show that 
 the latter is the sign of the former — therefore, the 
 thing signified being an immersion of the soul, the 
 external symbol must be an immersion of the body. 
 
 All the direct and positive evidence on every point 
 of the investigation is in favour of immersion. Able 
 writers against it have imagined many difficulties. 
 Here there could not be sufficient water, there the 
 number of ministers must have been inadequate : in 
 one place prejudice must have hindered converts from 
 submitting to the rite, in another it could scarcely 
 have been decent : it is onerous, unpleasant, unbe- 
 coming; it excites the world^s merriment. In all 
 this creation of the fancy there is not one particle 
 of real evidence. No author is shown to use [Sa'TTTi^M 
 in any other sense than ^' to immerse ; ^' no one pre- 
 tends that the Jews baptized in any other way ; in 
 no one instance is it proved that John sprinkled any 
 one, and termed that baptism ; not one convert can 
 be shown to have been sprinkled by the apostles; 
 
CONCLUSION. 129 
 
 no single allusion to baptism intimates, even re- 
 motely, that it was accomplished by sprinkling. All 
 the positive , evidence is on one side ; while the sur- 
 mises on the other side have been shown in some 
 instances, and those the most imposing, to be il- 
 lusory. 
 
 I therefore conclude, that to baptize means to 
 immerse; that baptism by the Jews, by John, by 
 the apostles, by the early churches, was in every case 
 immersion. According to the foregoing evidence, 
 the command of Christ to his ministers is simply 
 and exclusively, " Go and immerse ;" and they must 
 immerse. His command to converts by his apostles 
 is, "Repent, and be immersed;'^ and they must be 
 immersed. If ministers substitute sprinkling for 
 immersion, they seem to me to have mistaken one 
 of these commands; and if disciples receive sprink- 
 ling instead of immersion, they seem to me to have 
 mistaken the other. For the baptism enjoined by 
 our Redeemer appears from the evidence to be im- 
 mersion, and nothing but immersion. 
 
 Yet, although this is proved, our task is not 
 done. Christianity being a spiritual religion, forms, 
 as many think, are of no moment. * What we have 
 to regard is the religious principle in each duty. 
 That principle in baptism is either parental dedica- 
 tion or personal profession; and these things are 
 secured by sprinkling as well as by immersion : sub- 
 ordinate circumstances were not meant to be obh- 
 gatory. Who thinks it needful to eat unleavened 
 bread at the Lord^s Table ? or to eat the bread in a 
 
130 CONCLUSION. . 
 
 recumbent posture, though the apostles certainly 
 did both ? Who washes the feet of others, because 
 our Lord said, " If I your Lord and Master have 
 washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one ano- 
 ther's feet V^ John, xiii. 14.' And so the plain and 
 positive command of our Lord is set aside. Where 
 do we learn that obedience in little things is of no 
 moment ? Not from him who said, " Whosoever 
 shall break one of these least commandments, and 
 shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in 
 the kingdom of heaven,^' Matt. v. 19. "He that 
 is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in 
 much,'' Luke, xvi. 10. Our Lord has not commanded 
 us either to eat unleavened bread, or to recline at 
 the Lord's Table, or to wash each other's feet ; had 
 he so commanded, we ought to do these things. 
 But he has commanded, plainly and peremptorily, his 
 ministers to immerse all nations, even to the end of 
 the world ; and in neglecting to do so, we violate 
 his express command. And where is this deviation 
 from his declared will to cease ? If when Christ 
 has commanded us to immerse we sprinkle, because 
 forms are of little moment, much more may we dis- 
 continue sprinkling for the same reason. If the rite 
 of immersion is nothing, the rite of sprinkling is 
 nothing. If the psedo-baptist innocently disregards 
 a profession by immersion, the quaker may as inno- 
 cently disregard a profession by sprinkling. If im- 
 mersion may be set aside because the Gospel is 
 spiritual, and forms are nothing, then the Lord's 
 Supper may be set aside for the same reason. The 
 
CONCLUSION. 131 
 
 spirituality of Christ^s religion justifies disobedience 
 to Christ's commands ; and we may evade any duty 
 on pretence that it is trivial. 
 
 Before Christian men venture to pour contempt 
 on the immersion of converts, they ought to be more 
 sure than any scholars can be that our Lord did not 
 enjoin it. Ridicule is the ready and familiar weapon 
 of the infidel. It is easy enough to compare minis- 
 ters of Christ to the bathing-men of a proprietor of 
 machines {Isaac, p. 64; Thorn, p. 377) ; to describe 
 Timothy and others as " embracing ladies very ten- 
 derly ^^ previous to putting them under the water 
 {Isaac, p. 66; Thorn, pp. 378, 381); to speak of 
 men half-suffocated by swallowing the water, and of 
 women dipped almost by force, and kicking in the 
 water {Thorn^ pp. 384, 389) ; to imagine a weak and 
 infirm minister vainly endeavouring to raise Daniel 
 Lambert or the giant O^Brien from the water {Isaac, 
 p. 74 ; Thorn, p. 386) ; to depict converts drip- 
 ping amongst the ice-fields of Labrador, or churches 
 vainly seeking for baths in arid sands within the 
 tropics ; but our Lord well knew, when he demanded 
 from his disciples this solemn profession of their 
 faith, that no inconvenience could arise from it in 
 any part of the world, when men would use that 
 common sense with which God has invested them. 
 To his injunction that his disciples should be im- 
 mersed he has added, by his apostle Paul, " Let all 
 things be done decently and in order." Both, there- 
 fore, must be obeyed. In the severest climate where 
 any abodes of men are found, there are sunny sea- 
 
132 CONCLUSION. 
 
 sons in which immersion may be safely practised. 
 In the neighbourhood of the most arid plains which 
 will support human life there are always found lakes 
 and rivers. Our merciful Lord demands no service 
 which endangers health. If any converts have a 
 morbid dread of water, this may be overcome pre- 
 viously to baptism by the use of a private bath. 
 And it is obvious that the disciples who obey this 
 command of Christ may be so clothed that the most 
 sensitive may not feel a moment^s interruption of 
 their solemn joy, in this public act of dedication to 
 the Triune God ; nor the most delicate dread the 
 slightest shock to their constitution. 
 
 Let the reader recollect, that in this immersion 
 according to Christ^s law, each believer professes a 
 renunciation of all sin, the commencement of a new 
 life, and an entire consecration to God the Father, 
 the Son, and the Spirit. Let him remember that 
 it is accompanied with appeals to the omnipresent 
 God with earnest prayers for his blessing, — that an 
 assembly of saints and faithful brethren there engage 
 in prayer for the present and eternal welfare of one 
 now enlisting under the banner of Christ as his sol- 
 dier, — that a minister who has been oflfering secret 
 supplication to God now implores the descent of his 
 Spirit on another immortal being rescued by grace 
 from the dominion of Sin and Satan ; and then ima- 
 gine the influence which that scene is likely to have 
 upon all present. Pastor and people alike rejoice 
 in another fellow- sinner saved. The young see one, 
 of their own age perhaps, setting out in a course of 
 
CONCLUSION. 133 
 
 holy obedience to Christ ; the careless see one who 
 in early life counts salvation the one thing needful ; 
 and the worldly see one who was^ hke themselves, 
 devoted to frivolous gaieties or earthly gains, now 
 joining the people of God, and seeking as the first 
 and greatest good a place in his kingdom. How 
 many are likely to ask for grace to follow so good 
 an example, and to give themselves up to the Lord ! 
 A contemptuous fancy may easily contrive absurdi- 
 ties which never happen, and malevolent zeal may 
 multiply rare accidents into habitual improprieties. 
 Persons who cannot overthrow any material part of 
 the evidence which proves that our Lord has com- 
 manded immersion, and who are even destitute of 
 sufficient learning to appreciate that evidence, may 
 yet, by a caricature bordering on profaneness, frighten 
 from their duty those who have little moral courage, 
 and arm with flippant sophisms those who wish to 
 justify their disbelief j but so long as the plain 
 meaning of words proves that our Lord has com- 
 manded immersion^ and the experience of hundreds 
 of thousands of sober and pious persons attests the 
 practice to be safe and salutary, so long dutiful dis- 
 ciples of the Redeemer will continue to obey this 
 command, although to the world's contempt is added 
 a measure of ridicule from their own beloved and 
 respected brethren. 
 
 London :- Printed by G. Barclay, Castle St, Leicester Sq, 
 
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