i . 2. /o/. to ^ PRINCETON, N. J. Presented by~~^'r(2/ S \ C\ (2^r\\ V^V-^ O BV 811 .H22 Hamilton, William. A compend of baptism x^. COMPEID OF BAPTISM. BY WILLIAM HAMILTON, D.D. '£>- f3dTtri6i.ia, "One Baptism."— Eph. iv, : 5. AvTo'i vi-iai fSaitridEi ev Uvivfiari dyicn) xai itVpt. "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with iire."— Matt. iii. ; 11. "What is the purport and power of Baptism? The Baptized is thoroughly changed, as to thought, and word, and deed, and becomes, according to the power bestowed, the same as that of which he was born." — Basil the Great. 2i;0t0ttt0: HUNTER, ROSE & CO., PRINTERS, 25 WELLINGTON ST. 1881. 1J Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one, by William Hamilton, D.D., in the Ofl&ce of the Minister of Agriculture. [n Mtmoxium. THE manuscript of this Compend had been com- pleted several months; but the difficulties attending publication had caused me nearly to give up all idea of its being issued. In the course of my humble labours, I had received many most valuable and encouraging letters from Dr. James W. Dale, of Media, Pa., the well-known author of the works on Baptism. I was induced to resume my labours by a note received from him, dated February 1st of the present year — the following is a characteristic ex- tract : — " I was glad to hear from you and much interested in the various items of your letter ; but made sorry by one — the sine die postponement of the results of your study on Baptism. I hope, however, that will be reconsidered, and the public, as well as myself, have the pleasure and the profit of the perusal. You think the expense may be too great, perhaps it might be subjected to hydraulic pressure, and made less bulky by squeezing some more of the water out of it." In compliance with this friendly hint, an attempt has been made to compress the work into less expen- sive dimensions. Hoping to have the transcription for the press finished soon, I wrote again to my friend, asking permission to forward the manuscript for his inspection ; but a postal card came from his son, saying that his father was " too sick to an- swer ; " and to-day, when I had transcribed to the end of " Classic Baptism," a brief letter arrives, say- ing that Dr. Dale had died on the 19th April. His expected approval and recommendation of the work would have been a reward for my labours. Those who read the compend will not require to be told how much of it is due to Dr. Dale's previous origin- al researches. Suffer me, kind reader, to add another personal recollection. The Rev. Robert Wilson, D.D., author of the learned work on Baptism, to which frequent reference is made in this Compend, was, during five years, my bosom friend and room-mate. We kept bachelors' hall together before either of us had taken to himself a help-meet. His early death pre- vented my seeing him, on my return to Ireland, in 1868, after twenty-two years' absence. More than half my desire to visit my native land had died with Robert Wilson, to whom I have never met anyone superior for extensive and accurate learning, genial wit, and general ability. And now another dear friend, whom I loved as a brother. Dr. James W. Dale, has also joined the sainted majority. This little book, humble as it is, I send forth, in my seventy -fifth year, as, in part, a tribute to their blessed memory. W. HAMILTON. Toronto, Ontario, May 6th, 1881. PREfATOliY NOTE. IN the year 1869, the author of this Compend, being in London, Ontario, called on the Rev. Andrew Kennedy, Agent of the Presbyterian Board of Publication, Philadel- phia. From among a large number of tracts on different subjects, a few were selected on the " Mode and Subjects of Baptism." " Oh," said he, " I see you are interested in that question. Is it not wonderful to think what a fuss they make ; and yet they haven't an inch of ground to stand on." The object of the present volume is to make enquiry about that standing ground, and see whether it be rock or sand or water. It is earnestly requested that all, especially non-classical readers, who may use this Compend, will follow the in- vestigation from the beginning. Only thus can the his- torical development of the word " Baptidzo " be traced satisfactorily and conclusively. Originating in the idea of Drowning by Immersion, the word has ascended into the highest spiritual meaning, unUmited by mode or ma- terial, till the proper conception of real Christian Bap- tism is reached in the New Birth, " the one baptism," the entire renewal of the soul by the Holy Spirit. All other baptism is but the emblem of spiritual renovation, the shadow of the true. In order to avoid the expense of printing extracts in Greek types, and to make the work more readable for those who have not studied Greek, the English alphabet has been employed throughout this volume. Any student VI A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. who may use this manual, and, who desires to look into the Greek originals, cannot do better than provide him- self with a copy of the learned Dr. Conant's " Baptid- zein," a thin octavo volume, which is sold at the very moderate price of 75 cents. It contains a very complete collection of sentences, exhibiting the use of the word in question. In order to facilitate reference to " Baptidzein," most of our examples are marked with the letter C and with the number, according to Dr. Conant's arrangement. The new aspects, in which the subject has been pre- sented by the labours chiefly of Drs. Carson and Conant> on the one side, and those of Dr. Robert Wilson, of Bel- fast, and Dr. James W. Dale, of Pennsylvania, on the other, seem to justify this attempt to popularize the re- sults of their labours. The literature on the subject is indeed already immense, one gentleman in Philadelphia having collected more than 3,000 works, large and small, on Baptism ; yet there seems to be room for a popular Compend. It was the honest, though fatal, boast of William Tyn- dal, the English martyr, that he would, by his translation of the Scriptures, make the day labourer of England more familiar with the Word of God, than were the Prelates and Priests of those days. The author of this Compend, simple and unpretending, as a literary work, though it may be, ventures to hope that, b}^ its diligent perusal, the intelligent mechanic of our own day, will be led to understand the Meaning and Power of Baptism, histori- cally considered, better than, as yet, do many of our Protestant clergy. " He is the Freeman, whom the truth makes free, And all are slaves besides." CONTENTS. PAGE Introductory 9 I. Classic Baptisms. 1st Various Meanings of Bapto 14 (To Tinge, to Moisten, to Imbue, to Temper.) Bapto in the Old Testament 17 2nd Various Uses of Baptidzo 20 Baptism of the Sea Shore by the Overflowing Tide 21 (By Immersion, Affusion, Sinking, &c.,) Baptism into Death by Drowning 28 Baptism by Wine into Drunkenness 30 Baptism into Confusion of Intellect by Sophistry 35 Rival Definitions of Baptidzo 38 II. Judaic Baptisms. Baptism by the Sinking of Vessels at Sea 40 Baptism into Ruin by Desertion, &c 43 Baptism of the Reason by Gluttony 44 Baptism into Ceremonial Purity by Sprinkling 46 Oriental, Greek, and Roman Bathing 50 III. Old Testament Baptisms. Baptism of the Waters at Creation 54 Baptism of the Earth by the Deluge 56 Baptism by a Branch at Marah 58 Baptism by Washing Hands and Feet 59 Baptism by Sprinkling 62 Baptism by Circumcision 65 Baptism by Confession and Repentance 66 Baptism of Naaman at the Jordan 67 Baptism by a Coal of Fire &c 70 Baptism by Iniquity 73 Baptism of the Altar by Elijah. 74 Baptisms of the Israelites and the Egyptians 75 Baptism for Purification (Apocrypha) 79 Baptism of Judith at the Fountain. 80 VIU CONTENTS. IV. JoHANNic Baptism. page Jewish Baptism before Meals, &c 84 " John the Baptist" 89 What does the Greek " En" Mean? 94 John's Baptism 98 The Places and Mode of John's Baptism 100 Many Springs, or " Much Water ? " 1 104 Baptism of Jesus by John 107 Three Baptisms received by our Lord 109 V. Christian Baptism. John's Baptism contrasted with Christ's 114 The Genealogy of the term " Baptism 115 Saving Baptism 117 The Grand Commission 120 Infants included — Objections Answered 120 Family Baptisms 135 '* Oikos" and " Oikia" distinguished 139 Allegory of the Nobleman's Park 139 Bitual Baptisms 140 The Baptism of Cornelius and his Friends 142 Ritual Baptism of John's Disciples at Ephesus 146 *• " of the Ethiopian Eunuch 148 To Pneuma Hagion, " The Holy Spirit" 151 Christ the Baptizer (en) in the Holy Ghost 155 The Baptism of the Holy Spirit 159 The First Sermon on Christian Baptism 165 The Baptism of the Three Thousand 166 Saul's Baptism 171 Passages of Scripture supposed to allude to Baptism 176 The Baptism of Christian Unity, a Real Baptism 180 Real Baptism into Christ 182 " One Baptism" 184 Baptism into Christ's Death , 186 Patristic ideas of Christian Baptism 196 VL Infant Baptism 208 Appendix. — Campbellism or Disciplism , 224 A Valedictory 233 mRODUCTORY. The controversy on the Mode of Baptism is com- paratively of modern date. Baptism by aspersion or sprinkling was always practised by the ancient church, especially for the sick ; though Immersion was early in- troduced, as more complete, and, therefore, preferable. The Popish idea of Baptismal Regeneration first sprung up among other kindred errors ; and then Immersion was introduced as the most efficient mode of Baptism. It must not be forgotten, however, that the ancients bap- tized naked. If Baptists appeal to ancient practice, they ought to be consistent and do likewise. In the time of the Reformation, the Anabaptists, or Re-baptizers, were very fanatical and troublesome. In the days of Oliver Cromwell, when Puritanism was tri- umphant. Dr. Jeremy Taylor wrote a very able tract in favour of Immersion, for the purpose of sowing dissension among the opponents of Episcopacy. Taylor's object was to divide and conquer. He succeeded perfectly. His book fell like a bomb-shell in the hostile camp. The Puri- tans were divided. Taylor then refuted his own book, and, in the triumph of Episcopacy, he took credit for his Jesuitical ingenuity. The substance of the tract may be found in Taylor's famous work, " The Liberty of Prophe- sying." In the year 1705, Dr. Wm. Wall, vicar of Shoreham, in Kent, published a learned and exhaustive work on In- fant Baptism, in which he collected, from the writings of the Christian Fathers of the first four centuries, all that had reference to that subject, proving that infants had been baptized in the earliest ages of the Christian Church. 10 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. Six years afterwards, Mr. John Gale, then a young man, published " Reflections on Dr. Wall's History." Mr. Gale also introduces in his work two long chapters on the Mode of Baptism, in which he maintains with a great show of learning that Baptidzo always signifies to Dip. His chief mistake, which was long afterwards pointed out by Dr. Alexander Carson, was that he confounded Bapto, which means to Dip, with Baptidzo, which, as we shall see in the course of our illustration, has a much more extensive and varied meaning.* Omitting mention of other writers, we must concede to Dr. Alexander Carson the credit of having " furnished a store-house, continually drawn upon by later writers." Such is the testimony to the merits of Carson in the volume entitled " The Baptists and the National Centen- ary," published in 1876. Carson was originally a Presby- terian ; and he continued to be highly esteemed among his former co-religionists, in the North of Ireland. He also resembled Bunyan, Robert Hall and Charles Spur- geon, as having continued all his life in the practice of open communion. His heart was too large to be limited by ritual boundaries. The question, which all the writers to whom we have referred, proposed is — what is the meaning and power of the Greek word Baptidzo ? The word occurs in the Heathen Classics, in Josephus, in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha, in the New Testament, and in the writings of the so-called Christian Fathers. The most eminent writers on both sides of the Baptismal controversy have maintained that Baptidzo, when introduced into Sacred Literature, does not lose its essential meaning, though it acquires new and special significations. The radical import is retained throughout all Grecian literature. Drs. Gale, Carson, and others contend, in their works, * Wall's great work, with Gale's " Beflections " and "Wall's "Answers," has been published in two volumes by the Oxford University Press, 1862. HISTORY OF THE CONTROVERSY. 11 that Baptidzo always means to dip, as Carson emphati- cally says (p. 55), " My position is that it always signi- fies to dip ; never expressing anything but mode. Gale had confounded the primitive Bapto with its derivative Baptidzo, as if they were equivalent in meaning. But Carson says, " Bapto has two meanings, the primary to dip, the secondary to dye. Baptidzo, in the whole his- tory of the Greek language has but one. Baptism means to lay under water." In the course of discussion, however, the word '* Dip " is found to be too limited in meaning to translate Baptidzo in many passages ; and therefore the word " Immerse " was early introduced by Baptist writers as its supposed, but not real, equivalent. The English reader will find no difiiculty in ascertaining that " Dip " expresses a temporary and superficial act, while " Immersion " implies completeness and perman- ency. To dip a person will not drown him ; to immerse him will endanger his being suffocated. Here lies the very pith of the controversy. Bapto really means to dip, as we shall show by examples ; Baptidzo, in its primary import, means to disown by ivi- mersion. Dr. Carson contends that the radical meaning of dipping is always discoverable in the use of Baptidzo. Later writers, such as Dr. Fuller, say, " My position is that Baptidzo means to immerse ;" Dr. Conant contends for what he calls the ground meaning of Baptidzo ; but he requires for expressing it, no less than seven different words — " To immerse, to immerge, to submerge, to dip, to plunge, to imbathe, to whelm." Is it not remarkable that, while Baptists contend for the translation of Bap- tidzo by one single English word, -the same in every instance, their most learned writer of the present day cannot discover that single English word but uses no less than seven different terms to translate it ? We shall dis- cover, when we come to examine passages, that Dr. Conant's list might have been enlarged by the appro- priate use of other forcible Anglo-Saxon words, as to 12 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. duck, to souse, to steep, to sinJc, to swamp, to^ ingulf, to swallow up, etc. So multiform and many-sided is the Greek word Baptidzo. Before proceeding to the critical examination of the Greek words Baptidzo and Baptisma, as they occur in the original Greek writings, let us try to define what is the main question to be decided in the controversy on Baptism. 1. It is not whether Baptism with water into the name of the Triune Jehovah is or is not an ordinance pre- scribed by the Saviour. With the single exception of the Society of Friends or Quakers, there have been few Christians, who rejected water baptism ; though, it must be admitted, that the spirit of antagonism to the unwar- ranted and uncharitable assertions and assumptions of Baptists, has a tendency to drive their opponents to an opposite extreme. We have noticed quite recently some indications of this deplorable result. 2. The question is not w^hether Immersion is a mode of Baptism or not, but whether it is the only mode. 3. To contend for Sprinkling as the only proper mode of Baptism is unnecessary and unwarranted. Baptidzo, we shall see, implies no special act of performance. It is as improper to speak of the act of Baptism, as it would be to talk of the act of Locomotion. There are many modes of each. 4. Our investigations into the meaning of the word Baptidzo may be aided, but cannot be ruled or governed by Lexicons. Dr. Carson is a good authority on this sub- ject. In reference to his position that Baptidzo " always means to dip, never expressing anything but mode," he says : " As I have all the lexicographers against me in this opinion, it will be necessary to say a word or two with respect to the authority of Lexicons. Lexico- graphers have been guided by their own judgment in examining the various passages, in which a word occurs ; and it is still competent for every man to have recourse HISTORY OF THE CONTROVERSY. 13 to the same sources" ; and then he adds in italics, what he would call a Canon or Law of Interpretation. " The 'meaning of a word must ultimately be determined by an actual inspection of the passages in which it occurs, as often as any one chooses to dispute the judgment of the Lexicographer. The practice of a language is the House of Lords, which is competent to revise the decisions of all dictionaries." Much labour has often been lost, especially at public discussions, in quoting the authority of Lexicons. If they are worth anything, however, in regard to this ques- tion, it may be well to know, from the testimony of Dr. Carson himself, that Lexicons do not support the idea that Baptidzo is a word signifying but one mode of action. The true method of investigation is the one, which was commenced on this subject by Dr. Gale, continued by Carson, taken up still more critically by Dr. Wilson, Pro- fessor Moses Stuart, Dr. Dale, Dr. Conant and others ; and that is direct reference to the original passages, in which the word occurs, in both sacred and profane literature. In this way the authors themselves present words to us, as they were accustomed to use them. We can judge of the meaning of a term by the general tenor of the sen- tences, which contain it. The words Baptidzo and Bapbisma are those employed in the Sacred Scriptures, to denote the introductory rite of Christianity, the sign and seal of discipleship. The languages of heathen nations are generally deficient in words fit to convey pure spiritual ideas. It is well known that a name for the true God is hard to find in any hea- then language. A controversy is still maintained among the Missionaries to China whether the name Shang-ti properly denotes Jehovah, or is merely the name of an ancient King, who was deified. The Gentiles know not God ; and therefore they have no words to denote his perfections. So it is in regard to Baptidzo and other 14 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. words of high spiritual character, such as Piieuma, which means the Holy Spirit ; but whose literal and primitive meanine: was Wind, or Breath. The word Ghost is iden- tical in origin with Gust. This manifest difficulty of translation has been met in the case of Baptidzo and Bap- tisma by simply transferring these words into modern languages and not attempting to translate them by na- tive equivalents. Every section of the Church may thus use the original word in speaking of the Baptismal ordin- ance. It is only sectarian narrowness of aim, that would insist on translating the word and thereby limiting and restricting its meaning undul}^ CLASSIC BAPTISM. BAPTO. The word Baptidzo is derived from its primitive Bapto, the former meaning to baptize, the latter signifying to dip. Bapto is never applied in the Scriptures to the Christian ordinance of Baptism; yet the older writers, Gale, Booth and Cox, treated the two words as if they were equivalent to each other. Dr. Carson was the first to criticise Gale and his followers on this subject, and to point out the difference between Bapto and Bap- tidzo. As the former is never applied in Scripture to the Christian ordinance it may seem unnecessary to discuss its meaning ; but, as it is unquestionably the root of the larger and more important word Baptidzo, we shall ex- amine a few passages, in which it occurs. In the sixth Idyl of Theocritus, Bapto is applied to the dipping of a vessel in honey: " Instead of water let my maid dip her pitcher into the honey combs." Aristotle applies Bapto to the dipping of hay into honey for the curing of flux in elephants : " Dipping hay into honey, they give it to them to eat." CLASSIC BAPTISM. 15 In the last line of the First Idyl of Moschus, the word is applied to immersion in fire. Speaking of the gifts of Cupid, it is said, " For they are all dipped in fire." " This," sa5^s Dr. Carson, " is a baptism in fire ; and be- yond all dispute, dipping was the mode." It should be observed, on the other hand, that this was no baptism. It was only a bapting, not a baptizing — a baption not a baptism. Dr. Carson's sharp criticism on Gale had reference to the secondary meaning of Bapto, which signifies to dye. He says, " Bapto signifies as properly to dye by sprinkling as by dipping, though it was originally confined to the latter." If the honest doctor had only extended his statement to Baptidzo he could not have maintained its modality — the one and only meaning to '' dip and noth- ing but dip/' which he so strenuously affirms of Baptidzo. In fact the word Bapto has many secondary meanings, while Dr. Carson admits only one. Dr. Dale gives ex- amples of no less than nine secondary significations of Bapto, of which we take the following as specimens. I. — TO TINGE AND DYE. 1. From Esop's Batromyomachia, or The battle of the frogs and mice. " He fell and rose no more, and the lake was bapted (tinged) with blood." This is the example on which Dr. Carson, justly and severely, criticises Dr. Gale, who had said that the lake was, as it were, dipped in blood. " What a monstrous paradox in rhetoric," exclaims Dr. Carson, " is the figur- ing of the dipping of a lake in the blood of a mouse." It is singular that Dr. Carson, while rebuking Dr. Gale for one error, falls himself into another in translating the same passage. It is stranger still that Dr. Halley and Pro fessor Stuart should follow in the same track, mistaking the blood of a frog for that of a mouse. Professor Wil- 16 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. son's criticism on Stuart is no less witty than just. " The attempt by Professor Stuart to translate this formidable sentence cannot be regarded as successful. His version runs thus : ' He fell without even looking upwards ; and the lake was tinged with his blood.' There is at least something new in this translation ; but the new, we ap- prehend, is not true. Whether it is a common practice with frogs, when mortally wounded, to look upward be- fore they expire, my acquaintance with natural history does not enable me to determine, and I am at a loss to discover how an author of Stuart's varied and exact scholar- ship could present such a specimen of his acquaintance with Greek literature. The upward look of a dying frog would be a study for a painter." Stuart's error arose from his confounding Ananeo, to swim upwards, with Anapneo, to breathe again. In other words, he mistook Aneneusen for Anepneusen. Cowper renders the passage correctly — So fell Crambophagus (the frog), and from that fall Never arose, but reddening with his blood The wave, &a" 2. The comic dramatist, Aristophanes, introduces a bravo threatening to dye his antagonist with blood. "Lest I dye you a Sardinian dye" — there can be no allu- sion to dipping in the Greek. 3. From Bentley's Epigrams : " Thou dyest (baptest) thine head ; thy old age thou cans't not dye." II. TO MOISTEN. Aristotle, referring to the juice of berries, says : " Being pressed, it moistens (bapts) and colours the hand. The word translated "colour" here is Anthidzo. Bapto, in the same sentence, cannot also mean to colour. III. TO IMBUE. Strabo speaks of "Arrows imbued (bapted) with the gall of serpents." Antoninus, describing a thoroughly CLASSIC BAPTISM. l7 honest man, speaks of him as " imbued (bapted) with in- tegrity to the bottom." IV, TO TEMPER. 1. iEschylus speaks of " Temperers (Baphas) of brass." 2. Homer in the Odyssey ix. : 392, " Tempers (bapts) with cold water. Any one who has been in a blacksmith's shop has seen tempering done by affusion, as much as by dipping. C. 60. In an Epigi-am attributed to Alcibiades, Eupolis is said to have " bapted" him on the stage ; and, in re- venge, Alcibiades baptizes the poet in the sea, i.e., drowns him. " You dipped me in plays ; but I, baptizing in waves of the sea, will destroy you." Here Bapto and Baptidzo are brought into contrast, evi- dently implying that the latter means far more than the former. Nicander, a Greek poet and physician, 200 years before Christ, describing the making of a pickle, directs that it should be dipped (bapted) in boiling water, and then baptized in vinegar. The one operation was temporary ; the other required complete and permanent influence. Bapto and Baptidzo are thus contrasted, instead of being equivalent. C. 70. Hippocrates, describing the application of a cer- tain instrument to a local disease, says : "Dipping (bap- ting) into oil of roses or Egyptian oil, apply it daring the day ; and when it begins to be painful, remove it and baptize it into breast milk and Egyptian ointment." Here again we have the contrast between temporary hcq^ting or dipping, and continued baptizing. BAPTO IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. It must be borne in mind, that the Old Testament scriptures were translated from Hebrew into Greek, by 18 A compend'of baptism. the order of Ptolemy Soter, King of Egypt. The work is said to have been executed by seventy Rabbis, who knew both languages. The Septuagint Version, or the version of the seventy, though in Greek, is strongly tinged with Hebrew idioms. It is called Hellenistic Greek. The writers of the New Testament, being also Jews, very naturally wrote in a similar dialect. Words, such as Baptidzo, originally Greek, acquired Jewish meanings; and, in some cases, they lost their former sig- nifications, other words being used for them. The word Bapto occurs about twenty times in the Sep- tuagint. Thus Exod. xii.: 22; "And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood, that is in the basin, and strike the lintel, &c." This refers to the sprinkling of the blood of the Paschal lamb on the door posts of the houses. In describing the offering for the sin of ignorance, the priest is directed (Levit. iv. : 6.) " to dip the tip of his fin- ger in the blood of the victim, and sprinkle the blood seven times before the Lord." It may be remarked, in passing, that sprinkling was, in general, the Mode of Purification under the Law — why not under the Gospel ? The early Christians were chiefly Jews. They did not complain of new-fangled customs being adopted, while they strenuously contended for the old and obsolete rite of circumcision." Job complains (Job ix. : 30,) that, if he were to wash himself with snow-water and " make my hands never so clean ; yet thou shalt plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me." In the book of Ruth (ii. : 14), Boaz thus directs Ruth; " At meal time come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dij) thy morsel in the vinegar." The secondary meaning of Bapto, to dye, is found in Ezekiel xxiii. : 15, where the Chaldean images, with dyed (bapted) attire, or coloured turbans, are represented. CLASSIC BAPTISM. 19 In Daniel iv. : 88, it is said, that the body of king Nebu- chadnezzar was (bapted) wet with the dew of heaven. Drs. Gale and Carson, in their zeal for Modality, make a great ado about this passage ; though it seems to be very plain and simple. Nebuchadnezzar was certainly neither dipped nor dyed in dew; yet he was bapted. Dr. Wil- son's criticism on the passage is a fine specimen of refined wit. We give a short extract : — "It is somewhat remarkable," says Dr. Wilson, "that the Baptists, the fast friends of literal interpretation, cannot approach these verses without displaying an ardent, if not suspicious, affection for the beauties of trope and figure. But is there not a cause ? The literal exposition, it is evident, possesses no affinity for the modal sense of Bapto ; nor is it practicable, either to force or flatter these discordant elements into a state of reconciliation. The dew manifestly fell upon Nebuchadnezzar ; its dia- mond drops were not collected into a pond or other re- ceptacle, that the monarch might be plunged into its crystal depths. The advocate of a figurative immersion should beware lest his interpretation open the door to a figurative, or, it may be, a neological infliction of other judgments against Nebuchadnezzar." Observe. — Modality has been the stronghold of the Baptist system. They have contended that there is but one mode of Baptism, and that Baptidzo calls for dipping or immersion. But even Bapto, which is modal in its primary sense of dipping, ceases to be modal, when it assumes a secondary signification. Dyeing and wetting may be effected without dipping. The word Bapto occurs in three remarkable passages of the New Testament — Luke xvi.: 24; "Send Lazarus that he may dip, &c." Matt, xxvi.: 23; "He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish ;" and Rev. xix. : 18, in the secondary sense of dyeing, "clothed ,with a vesture dip- ped (bapted) in blood." 20 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. In the passage from Matthew, we have Embapto, which is compounded of " En," in, and Bapto, and might iDe fitly- translated " Dip in.'' A similar compound occurs in the Classics, in which Baptidzo unites with en, and would really require to be translated by immerse ; but there is no reason for translating the simple word Baptidzo by the compound immerse. " Merse " would be more suitable. This is the word used by Dr. Dale, as an approximate to Baptidzo. Simple and uncompounded words should, evi- dently, as a rule, be translated by words of similar con- struction. In the Scriptures, however, Baptidzo never has a prefixed preposition. It is always uncompounded. BAPTIDZO. We have seen that Dr. Carson was the first to in- sist on a secondary meaning (to dye) for Bapto. In this he is followed by Dr. Dale^,who says that "Bapto secondary demands for its object a dyed condition. It then ceases to be modal. It has no form of act of its own. It drops all demand for any special act, and makes requi- sition only for a condition of quality or colour, and is satis- fied with any act that meets the requirement." Dr. Carson says, " From signifying to dip, it came to signify to dye by dipping, because that was the way in which things were usually dyed ; and afterwards, from dyeing by dipping, it came to denote dyeing in any manner." That is, it ceases to be modal. " Nearchus says that ' the In- dians dye their beards ; ' it will not be contended," says Dr. Carson, " that they dyed their beards by immer- sion." From which of these meanings, then, does Baptidzo come ? From Bapto primary, to dip, or Bapto secondary, to dye or imbue ? Dr. Carson contends, against an im- mense force of opposing evidence, that it comes from Bapto primary, and always means just the same, to dip. " My position is that it always signifies to dip, never expressing anything but mode." CLASSIC BAPTISM. 21 Dr. Dale asserts and proves that, " For this statement there is not the least shadow of support, as seen by the facts of usage, and the defining terms of lexicographers. The reverse statement would be nearer the truth." " Bap- tidzo is an extension of Bapto second (the dyeing excluded), with all its rights and privileges, as to freedom of act and rejection of envelopment." The actual meaning of Bap- tidzo can be determined only by usage. We shall, there- fore, select a few examples, showing the Classical use of the word by the ancient Greeks. Formal definitions can be arrived at from usage, which is the only true basis of inquiry. Dr. Dale, in " Classic Baptism," cites 113 pas- sages in which Baptidzo occurs. Dr. Conant's selections are very numerous ; and the quotations are longer than those of Dale. The entire range of quotation extends over a thousand years of Greek literature, 1. C. 4. From Aristotle's " Wonderful Reports."* " They say that the Thoenicians, inhabiting the region called Gadira (Cadiz), sailing beyond the Pillars of Her- cules, (the Straits of Gibraltar), with an easterly wind, four days, reach to certain desert places full of rushes and seaweed ; which, when it is ebb-tide, are not baptized ; but when it is full-tide, are flooded." Note. — In the Mediterranean there are no tides. The Greeks were surprised, therefore, at that phenomenon in the Atlantic. It will be observed that in this baptism of the sea- coast there is affusion, but no dipping. Dr. Gale was so much staggered by this passage, that he almost gave up modal dipping. " Besides," he says, " the word Baptidzo, perhaps, does not so necessarily express the action of put- ting under as, in general, a thing's being in that condi- tion, no matter how it comes so, whether it is put into the water, or the water comes over it." Dr. Carson, as usual, does not yield an inch. " Now/' he says, " though the water comes over the land " (super- * The letter C, with the number after it, denotes Conant's " Baptidzein," 22 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. fusion), "and there is no actual exemplification of the mode expressed by the word ; yet it still expresses that mode ; and the word has been employed for the very purpose of expressing it. The peculiar beauty of the expression con- sists in figuring the object, which is successively bare and buried under water, as being dipped, when covered, and as emerging when it is bare." Dr. Fuller, in regard to the same passage, says, " My position is that Baptidzo means to immerse. It matters not how the immersion is effected." For two centuries Baptists have contended for dipping, as the sole and exclusive meaning of Baptidzo. Dr. Ful- ler, and, with him, the last defender of the system* Mr. Ford,in his "Studies on Baptism," throw all such inconven- ient and antiquated lumber overboard, and say, " We hold by immersion." It is encouraging for the friends of truth and Christian unity to know that Modalism has been abandoned as indefensible. Mode is henceforth an open question. We are surely making progress in this age of free inquiry. 2. C. 84. From a pretty little ode, by Julian, of the 6th century. " As I was twining a garland, I found Cupid among the roses ; and holding by the wings, I baptized him into wine, and took and drank him ; and now within my members, he tickles with his wings." The preposition eis, into, occurs before oinon, wine, so that this is a clear case of mersion into wine ; but Dr. Conant (p. 88) tells us, " The idea of emersion is not in- cluded in the meaning of the Greek word " (Baptidzo), there was, therefore, no emersion for poor Cupid. It was a fatal baptism, and no mere dipping. Observe — The word Baptidzo is never, in the Scriptures, found in connection with the phrase EIS HUDOR, INTO WATER. — Immersion or baptism into water, as we shall show presently, must result in drown^ CLASSIC BAPTISM. 23 ing. Cupid survived his baptism into wine ; for he was immortal. 3. C. 71. From Heraclides Ponticus, 4th century before Christ. " Since the mass of iron, drawn red-hot from the fur- nace, is baptized with water ; and the fiery glow, by its own nature, quenched with water, ceases." Observe. — Hudati, in the dative case, is from Hudor, water. It occurs twice in the above passage ; and every school- boy, who has studied the elements of Greek grammar, knows that it must be rendered " by water " or " with water ;" yet Dr. Conant translates it " in water" in the one case, and ''tuith water" in the other. The obvious reason is that he makes the passage support the doctrine of Immersion, or, as he translates, " Plunging." Cooling or Tempering could be effected either way. In this case, however, the Syntax actually forbids the idea of Im- mersion. 4. C. 42. From the Commentary of Dionysius on Homer s Iliad, Book y vi. : 333, in which the poet describes the death of Cleobulus by the stroke of Ajax's sword on his neck. The weapon was slightly warmed with blood. Dionysius explaining the passage, says the sword was " baptized," so that it was warmed. Of course it must have been by superfusion, that is, by the blood from the wound flowing over it. Dr. Carson brings forward this passage as an example of dipping ! His translation, copied from Gale, is, " The sword was so dipped in blood that it was heated by it." Dr. Conant trans- lates Baptized by " Imbathed," as if bathing could not be done without immersion. Dr. Wilson sums up his argu- menton the passage as follows : " Homer simply speaks of the sword as warmed with blood ; his commentator Di- onysius represents the same implement as being baptized, obviously implying a similar regimen. That the sword then, was baptized or overwelmed with blood, is the sense 24 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. at once sustained by the construction and in accordance with the matter of fact. From the wound in the neck of Cleobulus, the blood flowed so copiously, as to cover and warm the sword of Ajax. Literal immersion under the circumstances was manifestly impracticable ; and our opponents have not yet ventured to class this among the figurative applications. Combining, therefore, the facts, of which everyone can form a judgment, with the con- struction, which is not likely to be challenged, we have anadditional instance of baptism without immersion." 5. C. 24. Plutarch, a writer of lives in the first cen- tury after Christ, in his life of Theseus, quotes an oracle of the Sybil, respecting the city of Athens, foretelling her continued existence under all her calamities : " A bladder thou mayest be baptized but thou art not destined to sink." Dr. Carson translates : " Thou mayest be dipped, bladder ; but thou art not fated to sink." Dr. Conant has imTnersed ; but observe, the water merely dashed over the bladder by afiusion ; it was not immersed, yet it was baptized. Brave Dr. Carson, however, ends his commentary on the passage with his usual war-cry : " Nothing can more decisively determine the exact import of Baptidzein than this verse. It is dip and nothing but dip!' There is a story told of Admiral Nelson, which seems illustrative of Dr. Carson's inability to see the plainest evidence that makes against him. At the battle of Copenhagen, Nelson was second in command ; and, after the contest between the ships and the batteries had long raged with destructive fury, the signal for retreat was hoisted by the Admiral-in-Chief. Nelson's attention was called to it ; but he raised his telescope to his blind eye, and said, " I cannot see it." The battle went on ; and Nelson came off" at last victorious. Is it not because Dr. Carson can never see the other side of the question, that so many consider him invincible ? CLASSIC BAPTISM. 25 6. C. 152. Plutrarch, in his Life of Sylla, describes the storming of a camp as follows : " And dying, they filled the marsh with blood and the lake with dead bodies ; so that till now man}' barbaric bows and helmets and fragments of iron breast-plates and swords are found baptized in the swamps." The word here is Embaptidzo, a compound of Baptidzo with en. Dr. Conant translates by the compound Immerse, marking no distinction between the simple word Baptize and its com- pound Embaptize. The Greeks must have seen some necessity for prefixing en, in, before Baptidzo ; but in the Baptist vocabulary, no such difierence is recognised. Is there not a cause for this ? PARTIAL IMMERSION. 7. C. 11. Strabo, speaking of the march of Alexander's army along a narrow beach, flooded in stormy weather, between the mountain called Climax and the Pamphilian Sea, has the following : — "Alexander, falling upon the stormy season, and trusting commonly to fortune, pressed on before the flood went out ; and they marched the whole day, baptized up to the waist." " Surely," says Dr. Carson, " this baptism was immer- sion." But we may ask : can there be a Baptist immer- sion, according to the doctor's own teaching, and accord- ing to the practice of the Baptists, without the whole body being covered ? The dipping system must put the entire person under water. Besides, the word Baptidzo, as used in the above extract from Strabo, shows that Bap- tism may be efiected by wading in the water^ as well as by dipping. Are wading and marching modes of bap- tism ? Baptidzo simply expresses the condition into WHICH marching BROUGHT THE SOLDIERS. 8. C. 38. Porphyry, a Greek philosopher of the 3rd century, describing the Lake of Probation in India, used by the Brahmans for a test of innocence or guilt, says : s 26 A C0M1>END OF BAPTISM. *' Being innocent, he gets through without fear, having the water to the knees ; but when guilty, proceeding a short distance, he is baptized up to the head." Here is an instance of partial self -baptism. The man baptizes himself. Professor Ripley says, "No man be- lieves that the going into the water is the baptism : these two things are perfectly distinct. The baptism takes place after descent into the water." Yet Porphyry, the great antagonist of Christianity, but one who knew Greek as his native tongue, was not of that mind. The guilty one, according to his account, baptized himself by Wading. Dr. Fuller says ; — " Suppose a man should lie in the Bap- tistery while it is filling ; yet an immersion would take place, if he remained long enough." Thus we see how many are the modes of baptism besides dipping. 9. C. 62. Pindar, a famous Greek Lyric poet, born 500 years before Christ, compares himself to a cork on a fisher's net. " As when the rest of the tackle is toiling deep in the sea, I, as a cork, above the net, am unbaptized (abaptistos) in the brine." Cannot any one see the dif- ference between a mere dipping and an immersion? Bap- tism is not a mere dipping. The cork was unbaptized, though often dipped. 10. C. 59. Poly bins, a Greek historian, 200 years be- fore Christ, describing the loss of a body of cavalry in a marsh, says : " Themselves baptized by themselves, and sinking in the marshes, were all useless, and many of them perished." Here is an instance of destructive self-bap- tism — immersion without emersion. 11. C. 6. Polybius, describing the manner of catching the sword-fish with a harpoon, says : " Even if the spear fall into the sea, it is not lost; for it is constructed of both oak and pine ; so that, when the oaken part is baptized by the weight, the rest is floating and easily recovered." The oaken part was not merely dipped. It was bap- tized. There is a contrast here. The axe-head, which fell into the Jordan, was baptized by its own weight, or by CLASSIC BAPTISM. 27 the force of gravitation. In this case, the same bap- tizing agency sinks or baptizes the oaken part of the spear, while the pine portion floats. Observe ; " the weight is in the dative case as the baptizing agency." 12. C. 9. Strabo, speaking of a stream flowing ifapidly through a contracted channel, says: " To one, who throws down a dart from above into the channel, the force of the water resists so much, that it is hardly baptized. Here " throwing down" is one of the many acts of Bap- tism. 13. C. 54. Achilles Tatius, author of a Greek Eo- mance, " Story of Clitophon and Leucipp^," speaking of a vessel thrown on her beam-ends, in a storm, says : " We all, therefore, changed our position to the higher parts of the ship, that we might lighten the baptized part of the vessel." " Baptized" here, simply means sunken. 14. C. 55. Achilles Tatius j " Suddenly the wind shifts to another quarter of the ship ; and the vessel is al- most baptized (sunk). 15. C. 31. Dion Cassius, second century after Christ, describing the effects of a violent wind-storm, says : " Ships which were in the Tiber, and Ijdng at anchor by the city and at its mouth, were baptized (sunk). 16. The same writer, narrating the defeat of the Eoman General Curio, by Juba, King of Mauritania, and describing the fate of the fugitives, says : " Crowds per- ished in flight, some embarking on the boats, thrown down by the jostling, others in the vessels baptized them- selves by their own weight." Dr. Conant translates "baptized" by "submerged," but was it not a real baptism, from which there is no emer- sion ? That is, it was Drowning ? ^° The reader wilJ observe that when a Baptist writer uses the word Immerse to denote Baptism, he means only temporary immersion or dipping. This comes from the necessity of the case. Temporary immersion does not mean drowning ; but the continued immersion or sub- 28 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. mersion of a human being produces death by drowning, a catastrophe which has indeed resulted occasionally from baptisms by immersion in running streams. But the in- stances of submersion of ships in the deep sea, called by the Greeks baptisms, shew that permanency of effect is implied in the word Baptidzo. The original meaning of Baptidzo, as gathered from examples, seems to have been mersion accomplished in any way. Thus ships mersed or baptized by storms or by overloading, sink to the bottom, and are there subjected to the influence of the water. Human beings, so baptized, are drowned. But from this original meaning of Baptidzo, arise other usages, in which influence only is designated. Thus there is no immersion in drunkenness, sleep, or insensi- bility, into which, we shall see as we proceed, we may be baptized by their proper agencies. II. baptism into death by drowning. 17. C. 14. Dipdorus, the Sicilian, sixty years before Christ, describing the sudden overflow of the Nile, when its waters have swollen to an unusual height, says : " The greater number of the wild animals, overtaken by the river, perish, being baptized." Can any one hesitate in saying that this is a baptism by affusion" or overflowing ? Dr. Carson renders the phrase : " Many of the wild ani- mals [baptidzomena] immersed in the river, perish." The phrase in the river is not in the original connected with Baptidzo, but with the word translated overtaken. Dr. Conant's translation shews this, — "are surrounded by the stream and perish, being submerged." Dr. Wilson's criticism on the passage is excellent. " On this passage Dr. Carson thus, strangely enough, anno- tates : — ' The sinking of the animals in water is here call- ed Baptism. What then is baptism but immersion ? ' Now, were we to concede that this description applies to the sinking of animals, we should still feel warranted to inquire, where is the Dipping, for which this author con- CLASSIC BAPTISM. 29 tends, as the exclusive signification of Baptidzo. In re- gard to the Mode of Baptism, it cannot be too earnestly pressed upon the minds of all parties, that the question is not how the animals perished in the water, but whether they were put into the water; and this point, on which the entire weight of the case rests, is rendered perfectly indubitable by the language of Diod5rus. The overflow- ing waters came upon the animals and overwhelmed them ; and in this manner their destruction was efiected."* Our next example will make this still clearer and more obvious. 18. C. 13. From the same author we have an ac- count of the defeat of the Carthaginian army by Timo- leon, on the banks of the Crimisus, in Sicily, when many of the fugitives perished in the river, which was swollen by a storm. He says : " The river, rushing down with a more violent current, baptized many, and destroyed them, swimming across in their armour." The Carthaginians, in this case, were immersed by the conquerors ; but they were baptized by the stream. The baptism is identified, not with the putting them into the river, but with the violence of the current, when they had been driven from the shore. 19. C. 38. Lucian, 150 years after Christ, wrote Greek with great elegance. " In his Timon the Man-hater," the misanthrope is represented as saying : " If the win- ter s torrent were bearing any one past, and he, stretching out his hands were entreating to be laid hold of, I would push him headlong, baptizing him, so that he may not be able to come up again." Thus would Timon baptize by drowning 1 As the preceding examples are very similar to one which occurs twice in the writings of Josephus, we shall introduce it here. 20. C. 17. Josephus was born thirty-seven years after Christ. Describing the murder of the youthful high- priest Aristobtilus, by some Gauls, his companions, at the 30 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. instigation of Herod, he says, in the xv. Book of " Jewish Antiquities," chapter 3rd : "Continually pressing down and baptizing him while swimming, as if in sport, they did not desist till he was entirely suffocated." The same writer, in his book on the Jewish War, I. B. 22nd chapter, narrates the same occurrence, " There, according to command, being baptized by the 'Gauls in a swimming-bath, he dies." The latter of these two sentences is less explicit than the former. The one tells the mode of the baptism, which was by pressing the youth down ; the other leaves it un- decided and indefinite. Dr. Carson says, " It was not the word Baptidzo, which destroyed him : it was the keeping him too long under the water after the immersion." What becomes then of the later statements by Alexander Campbell ? " I will say, with Mr. Carson, that, abso- lutely, Baptidzo means to immerse without the idea of emersion ;" and the similar statement by Dr. Conant : " The idea of emersion is not included in the meaning of the Greek word." What is immersion without emersion but simple drowning ? He was baptized in the pool by the Galatians, into death. The receiving ideal element is death ; the pool is the means ; the Galatians the bap- tizers. III. — BAPTISM INTO DRUNKENNESS. 21. C. 146. Plato, the philosopher, born four hundred years before Christ, introduces, in his dialogues, a speaker, complaining of the evil effects of wine. " For I am myself one of those, who, yesterday were * Baptized,' that is, intoxicated." Dr. Conant quotes a parallel passage from Shakespeare's Macbeth, speaking of the spongy officers, -when in swinish sleep Their drenched natures lie. But the question is whether Plato imagined to himself a pool, into which the guest had been plunged, or simply CLASSIC BAPTISM. 31 used the word without any figure, to express the condi- tion, to which wine had reduced him, a state of intoxica- tion. Figurative expressions often cease to suggest any figure, as Dr. Carson himself admits. 22. C. 147. Athanseus, in his "Philosophical Banquet," written in the third century after Christ, says : " You seem to me, O guests, to be flooded with vehe- ment words, and to be baptized with unmixed wine." 23. C. 169. Alexander of Aphrodisia, a Greek writer on medicine, in the third century after Christ, says : " Why is it that many die of those who drink wine to excess ? Because the abundance of wine baptizes the physical and the vital power and warmth." In the last two examples, Dr. Conant translates Bap- tidzo by Whelm, a very conveniently indefinite word, but one which means in English a force coming from ABOVE. If the figure, for which Baptists contend so strenuously, were carried out, these w^ould not be cases of Dipping but of aff'usion or superfusion. 24. C. 149. Conon, a writer of the first century, nar- rating how Theb^ destroyed her husband, Alexander, tyrant of Pherse, to prevent his intended murder of her three brothers, says : "Theb^, learning the purpose, gives daggers to her brothers, and exhorts them to make ready for the slaugh- ter ; and, having baptized Alexander with much wine, and put him to sleep, she dismisses the guards under pre- tence of taking a bath, and calls her brothers to the work." Dr. Carson translates Baptidzoin the above "immersed in much wine." The Greek must be translated " with much wine," as every school boy knows ; for it is in the dative case. This is only the old habit of inserting the preposition " in" before the dative, to which both Carson and Conant often resort, as may be seen in the 3rd ex- ample. What a difference there is between the lake dipped in blood and the lake dyed ^^nth blood, Dr. Carson himself being witness ! 32 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. 25. C. 120. E VENUS, of Paros, 250 years before Christ, in his 15th Epigram, says of Bacchus (wine), that "he baptizes with sleep, the neighbour of death." Dr. Conant's translation is singularly inappropriate : " plunges in sleep, the neighbour of death." " Oh sleep ? gentle sleep ! Nature's soft nurse ! " says the English bard, Shakespeare. " Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," echoes Young in his " Night Thoughts." We do not plunge into sleep, but gently sink into the arms of slumber, the soft baptizer. We must here repeat the remark made under the last example, that Dr. Conant has no right to insert " in," where there is no equivalent for it in the original. The baptism was hy Bacchus personified, %vith sleep, into in sensibility or forgetfulness. We might add more examples of a similar character, but we shall close this section with an extract from Josephus in his " Antiquities," Book x., chap. 9. The pas- sage refers to the same event, which is recorded in Jere- miah xl. and xli., the assassination of Gedaliah, the governor of the remnant of Judah, after the conquest of the land by the King of Babylon. 20. C. 118. "Seeing him in this condition and bap- tized into insensibility and sleep by drunkenness, Ish- mael, leaping up with his ten friends, slays Gedaliah and those reclining with him at the banquet." Dr. Carson, speaking of this mode of baptism, says (p. 80) : " Clement of Alexandria, employing the same figure, says : Baptized into sleep through drunkenness. Now, " baptized into sleep" is exactly our figure, " buried in sleep," which is an immersion ; and burial is the thing represented by Christian baptism. Is there any likeness between "pouring and sleeping ? Is not the likeness BETWEEN COMPLETE SUBJUGATION TO THE INFLUENCE OF SLEEP, AND THE COMPLETE SUBJUGATION TO THE INFLU- ENCE OF A LIQUID WHEN IMMEKSED IN IT?" CLASSIC BAPTISM. 33 Remark 1st. — Dr. Carson assumes, as other writers on the same side generally do, that if the baptism is neither by pouring nor sprinkling, it must be by immersion. In this case there was neither one nor other. 2nd. — The QUESTION, WITH WHICH Dr. C ARSON ENDS THE ABOVE EXTRACT, MAY ACTUALLY BE CONSIDERED AS THE GERM OF Dr. Dale's theory ! Writers often stumble over ideas of more importance than those they take up. Dr. Conant, with persistent absurdity, translates, "plunged into stupor and sleep." This translation, like those of Baptist writers generally, is not a translation of Baptidzo, but one made specially to meet some accident which may be supposed to pertain to the particular bap- tism in hand. Thus a ship-baptism is translated sub- merge, to meet the idea of going under ; while some other baptism is translated over- whelm, to meet the idea of a flood going over the object. Another is translated "plunge," to meet the supposed demand of the proposition eis, into, which is found in the passage. The word in this way be- comes a very Proteus under Baptist management. The wonder, even to uncritical persons, must be that those who denounce Pedobaptists for not translating, but transferring Baptidzo in the Scripture, should themselves find so gi'eat difficulty in discovering any one English word that will translate Baptidzo. The reason must be that there there is no such English word ; and the only proper way is to transfer the original and make it a deni- zen of our Saxon speech. Great importance is conferred on the above passage from Josephus, as it furnishes perhaps the first example of the use of the proposition eis, into, with Baptidzo, indicating baptism into an ideal element. ^^ " Eis," into, does not mean unto, as may be seen in the following examples: — • Clement of Rome : — " Having fallen (eis) into sleep. The same : — " The feast passing (eis) into drunkenness." element^ of Alexandria, " Carrying down (eis) into ir^- 34 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. sensibility." Nob merely unto sleep, drunkenness and insensibility, but into those conditions. " In any case of baptism," says Dr. Dale, " the baptized object passes out of one position or condition into smother. Josephus wished to express the result of the baptism of Gedaliah ; and, therefore, he says not merely " baptized by drunkenness," but baptized by drunkenness into in- sensibility and sleep." The importance of the passage will appear when we come to speak of New Testament baptism. As, for in- stance, " Baptism into (not unto) Moses" — " baptism into Christ" — baptism into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Not merely '' in the name," but " into the name ; " as every scholar must admit. The reader of this Compend, who has patiently exam- ined the examples brought forward, will now be prepared to receive the folio wingpropositions as established and true. 1. Baptidzo, in its primary sense, expresses condition CHARACTERIZED BY COMPLETE INTUSPOSITION (position within) without expressing the form of the act, by which such intusposition may be effected. 2. In secondary use Baptidzo expresses condition, THE RESULT OF COMPLETE INFLUENCE, effected by any pos- sible means, and in any conceivable way. Bapto, in its primary meaning, has reference to Dip- ping into water or other fluid ; but, in secondary meaning, it signifies to dye, to wet, to temper, to imbue by any means, either by dipping, pouring, or sprinkling. Baptidzo means, primarily, position within an element, effected by any means whatever. The reader can easily satisfy himself on this subject by referring to the exam- ples already given. Baptism into drunkenness requires no intusposition. The Duke of Clarence was indeed im- mersed in a butt of Malmsey ; but it was a baptism by wine into death, not into drunkenness. We shall conclude this part of the subject with a selec- tion of various examples, in which no intusposition or CLASSIC BAPTISM. 35 immersion can be found, even by the most imaginative theorist. 27. C. 135. Plato, speaking of a young man confounded with sophistical questions, says : — " And I, perceiving that the youth was baptized, wishing to give him a respite, &c." The young man's faculties were overpowered by so- phisms. As wine overpowers both soul and body ; so sophistry obtains a controlling influence over the mind. Wine baptizes by drinking. Sophistry also bap- tizes the intellect. Professor Wilson, in connection with the above ex- ample, says : " According to the highest modern au- thority, Baptidzo is not to be found in the writings of Plato, in the sense of immersion. The learned Aste, who expended the literary labour of a lifetime on his Lexicon of Plato, gives Immergo, to dip or immerse, as the mean- ing of Bapio and obruo, oprimo, to overivhelifn, to o'ppress, as the meaning of Baptidzo, having no reference what- ever to dipping." 28. C. 111. Achilles Tatius. " What so great wrong have we done, as, in a few days, to be baptized with such a multitude of evils." 29. C. 112. The same author. " Misfortunes assailing baptize us." 30. C. 114. LiBANius, a Greek philosopher and rhe- torician, born 315 after Christ, in his funeral discourse on the death of the Emperor Julian, speaks of " Grief baptizing the soul and darkening the judgment." 31. C. 101. The same weiter. " He, who hardly bears the things, which he is already bearing, would be baptized by a small addition. Evidently the meaning of the preceding examples is, that misfortunes have a controlling influence over the mind and its faculties. The soul is baptized by them. There is a Power in Baptism. 32. C. 163. Achilles Tatius. " Satyrus had some- what left of the drug, by which he had put Conops to 36 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. sleep. Of this, while serving us, he pours secretly into the last cup, which he brought to Panthia. She, rising, went into her chamber and immediately slept. But Leucipp^ had another chamber servant, whom having baptized by the same drug, Satyrus comes to the door- keeper, at the third door, and him he casts down by the same power." " Four cases, says Dr. Dale, " are here presented with varying phraseology, in which the work of stupefaction is accomplished by an opiate drug. Are all these cases spoken of under the form of figure ? Or, are all spoken of with a simple prosaic literality ? Most persons do see in this passage a very unembellished statement of the controlling influence of this drug — to stupefy. " Drug- ging to stupefaction was, therefore a mode of Greek bap- tism. A pill would have baptized, just as well and eflfectually, as the potion." 38. C. Q6. Plutarch. " Why do they pour in sea-water with the wine, and say that fishermen received an oracle commanding to baptize Bacchus at the sea." Dr. Conant has this among physical baptisms. There is then no figure here. In a note we learn that " To immerse Bacchus means to temper wine." The water was poured into the wine, to baptize the wine, that is, by making it less intoxicating. The wine was not plunged into the water ; nor did the water overwhelm the wine. It simply mingled with it, reduced its strength, and thereby bap- tized it. How manifold are the modes of Greek bap- tism ! The following striking passage is from Dr. Dale's " Classic Baptism," p. 79 : " Give what explanation you will, the stubborn fact, the truly important thing, re- mains ; that the Greeks daily eflfected baptisms by a draught of wine, by a bewildering question, and by drop- pings from an opiate — accumulate around these baptisms metaphor, figure, picture, and what not, I make my argu- ment with finger pointed to the cup, the question^ the DEFINITIONS OF BAPTIDZO. 87 opiate, and say, the old Greeks baptized, through a thou- sand years, by such things as these. We have now shewn the varied meanings of Baptidzo from the writings of more than twenty Greek authors. It was important that we should deduce the significations of the word from original usage. The laws of language development lead us to expect that the word would acquire new meanings, while the original signification would be either lost or modified. The instances we have examined shew a great variety of meanings. Baptidzo can be rendered to sink, to drown, to intoxicate, to puz- zle in argument, to stupefy by drugging, to put to sleep, &;c., yet Dr. Carson contends for the one meaning " to dip and nothing but dip throughout all Grecian literature." Dr. Conant also insists on the one " ground meaning ; " which he translates, inconsistently, by no less than seven diflferent words or phrases. It is long since John Locke and his friends discovered that a loose use of words was the chief origin of difierence of opinion and sentiment among men. Instead of lan- guage being the servant of thought, it often becomes its master. N othing, short of the Spirit of God, would tend more to Christian unity, than clear, exact and precise definitions. If our Baptist friends would, in translating Baptidzo from the ancient writings, either admit that it is not a uni vocal expression ; or else consistently limit themselves to one word in translating it, they would soon discover practically that Baptidzo scorns one-sidedness, and demands such freedom and diversity of meaning as would destroy their theory. Have they not already, to their own discomfiture, attempted an Immersionist ver- sion of the New Testament ? Even with the use of the equivocal and cloudy word. Immersion, they have learned that neither Merse nor Immerse, nor any other mere English word will translate Baptidzo. Except in the case of the simplest terms, no words, in any foreign tongue, can be exact equivalents to native expressions. S8 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. Baptidzo originated among a heathen people. It expressed heathen ideas ; but, being introduced among the Hebrews, it acquired a Judaic character, while, to a great extent, it retained also, among Jewish writers, its original meaning. Essentially, the word was unchanged ; but its scope was enlarged and purified. We have already seen that Jo- sephus used Baptidzo in the sense of drowning. We shall see, presently, that he added a Judaic sense to the heathen usage. Adopted by the Saviour to denote a Christian ordinance, Baptidzo ascended to a higher sphere, and be- came intensely spiritual. Retaining still its essential character, it has been imbued with the Christian element. Where, in any modern language, can we find its exact equivalent ? In some of the European languages native terms have been adopted to denote Christian Baptism ; but it will be found, in such cases, that the native word used has changed its meaning, and acquired a special Christian character. Better, far better, is the plan of transferring the original word, and then interpreting it by the general teaching of scripture. In concluding this section, it may be well to lay before the reader two rival definitions of Baptidzo ; that he may, in the light of the foregoing examples, be enabled to de- cide, which corresponds better with actual usage. Dr. Dale, in his second volume, " Judaic Baptism," p. 57, says that his definition may be amplified thus : — "Whatever act is capable of thoroughly changing the character, state, or condition, of any object by placing it in a state of physical intusposition, is capable of baptizing that object ; and whatever influence is capable of thor- oughly changing the character, state, or condition of any object, by pervading it and making it subject to its own characteristic, is capable of baptizing that object; and, by such changes of character, state or condition, these acts and influences do, in fact, baptize their objects." The reader, we think, may easily see the truth of this definition if he will apply it to the passages, in which the t)EI'INmONS OF BAPTIDZO. S9 sinking of ships, the drowning of men, drunkenness, con- fusion of intellect by sophistry, putting to sleep by a drug, are exhibited as Baptisms. The number and va- riety of such passages might have been easily enlarged ; but our plan is chiefly explanatory and illustrative, not ex- haustive. If we succeed in placing the main facts and instances before the reader, we shall be content. He can draw his own conclusions. Dr. Conant's definition of Baptidzein may be found p. 158 of the treatise, from which we have drawn so many examples, and which we have recommended. " The word Baptidzein, during the whole existence of the Greek as a spoken language, had a perfectly defined and unvarying import. In its literal use, it meant to put entirely into or under a liquid or other penetrable sub- stance, generally water, so that the object was wholly covered by the inclosing element. By analogy it express- ed the coming into a new state of life and experience, in which one was, as it were, inclosed and swallowed up, so that, temporarily or permanently, he belonged wholly to it." If, instead of " literal use," we read " primary meaning," and, instead of " by analogy,", we read " secondary use," we shall approximate Dale and Conant to each other. The phrase "temporarily or permanently" in Conant's definition, differs from Dale and from Conant himself, when he says (p. 88) " The idea of emersion is not in- cluded in the Greek word," a statement which is found, also, as we have seen, in both Carson and Campbell, and which is borne out by the facts of the case, for all true baptism is complete and irrevocable. Baptism into Christ implies Union to Him for ever. The baptism of the Spirit reforms the whole man, and renews the nature after the image of God. The backslider brings in ques- tion the reality of his conversion : " They went out from us," says John in his 1st Epistle, " but they were not of us; for, if they had been of us, they would no doubt have 40 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. continued with us ; but they went out, that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us — But ye have an unction (a baptism?) from the Holy One, and ye know all things." Had Simon Magus been truly baptized, he would not have remained in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. " If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Thus it is always in real baptism. The drowned man is beyond the aid of the Humane Society. The drunken man continues intoxicated while the poison of the alcohol operates. The opium-eater remains insensible, while the power of the drug lasts. The dumbfoundered debater is silent, while sophistry holds him spell-bound. The swamped vessel sinks to the bottom of the sea, and re- mains there gathering sea- weed. Real baptism lasts as long as the baptizing agency continues to exert its con- trolling influence. Real Christian Baptism is an ever- lasting spiritual anointing. JUDAIC BAPTISM. Examples of the Judaic use of Baptidzo are found in the works of Josephus and Philo ; in the Septuagint ver- sion of the Old Testament ; in the Apocrypha ; and in passages from the writings of the Christian Fathers, in which they speak of the Mosaic ordinances. A few ex- amples have already been given from Josephus, in order to shew how entirely his use of the Greek word Baptidzo harmonizes with classic usage. In the following pas- sages, it will be seen, that the word is used in a similar manner. 1. C. 20. " When the vessel was about to be baptized" (sunk). The example is taken from the accoimt of the attempted voyage of Jonah to Tarshish. 2. C. 21 . In the narrative of his own life, 'Josephus says : "Our ship having been baptized in the midst of JUDAIC BAPTISM. 41 the Adriatic, being about six hundred in number, we swam through the whole night." 3. C. 19. Describing the condition of vessels in !the port of Joppa, during a storm, he says : " Many of the vessels, struggling against the opposing swell, towards the open sea, the billow rising high above baptized." Professor Wilson remarks that the Baptist mode of explaining such passages as the above, virtually tends to the support of a baptism which would, in fact, drown all entrants into the Christian Church." Again, says the learned professor, " Where is the evidence in support of dipping ? Would it adequately convey the sense of the original to the English reader, were we to state that the ship, which carried Jonah, was about to be dipped ; or to advert to another passage that a lofty billow dipped the vessel ? Why, we ask again, does Baptist translation itself religiously avoid, in these and similar examples, its own favourite term ? The reason is plain ? Dip, as the pro- posed representative of Baptidzo, is felt to be inappro- priate ; and hence recourse is had to a variety of substi- tutes." In commenting on the fact that Dr. Carson makes no distinction of meaning between Bapto primary and Bap- tidzo, both signifying, he says, to dip, Dr. Halley, of England, remarks : " If the reader will go through his (Carson's) versions of the two words, it will be found, that, while he generally renders Bapto to dip, he gener- ally renders Baptidzo by some other word. On examining the second, third, fourth and fifth sections of his second chapter, in which he collects instances of the primary signification of Bapto, 1 find, if I count correctly, of the one hundred and four instances, which he adduces, he renders Bapto to dip, in one hundred and one, and in only three instances by other words, twice to immerse and once to plunge. In the tenth section, in which he adduces thirty-seven citations of Baptidzo, he renders it to dip only in seven instances ; and by other words, as to bap- C 42 A COMPEND OF BAfTlSM. tize, to ^sink, to immerse, to drown, &c., in the other thirty! Such a difference could not have been accidental, no more than the sun could have been lighted by acci- dent." The value of this argument, as bearing against the contracted Baptist view of |Baptidzo, is very evident. The variety of words which both Carson and Conant use in rendering Baptidzo, shews that no mere English word can always and uniformly translate it. It may be well to add that Professor Moses Stuart, who published his Essay on Baptism, in the " Biblical Reposi- tory," April, 1833, brings forward nearly the same citations that Dr. Carson had adduced ; but Mr. Stuart did not see Dr. Carson's book before he had closed his labours on the Essay ; so that Carson and Stuart, as critics and transla- tors, were independent of each other. In the Essay there are thirty-four instances of Bapto, of which twenty-two are rendered to dip, and twelve others by corresponding words, such as plunge ; but of forty-six examples of Bap- tidzo, only one is rendered to dip, and forty-five by other words, such as overwhelm, etc. Few men have ever stood higher than Professor Stuart, of Andover, for sound scholarship and honest independence. The coincidence between his translations and those of Dr. Carson is very remarkable; but how different their conclusions! Stuart WAS NO Baptist. 4. C. 68. Simon, a great warrior among the Jews, is de- scribed by Josephus ("Jewish War," Book ii: 18) as having first slain his parents, wife and children, to prevent their falling into the hands of his enemies, and then commit- ting suicide. " Stretching out the right hand, so as to be unseen by no one, he baptized the entire sword into his own neck." Dr. Conant translates " plunged ;" but why does he not say " submerged," if the word, as he affirms, " had, during the whole existence of the Greek, as a spoken language, a perfectly defined and unvarying import ? If Simon had fallen on the sword, as King Saul did, the act would have been different ; but the sword would have iDcen equally JUDAIC BAPTISM. 43 baptized. The condition of the sword, as bathed in blood, is what is meant. The means of accomplishment may be varied indefinitely. Mode of action has nothing to do with it. The result simply is indicated. SECONDARY USE. 5. C. 97. Josephus, in his "Jewish War," has some highly illustrative examples. Being himself besieged by the Romans at Jotapata, and, seeing the defence of the city hopeless, he proposed to make his escape ; but the inhabi- tants besought him not to depart ; " For," they said, " it became him, neither to fly from his enemies, nor to desert his friends, nor to leap off, as from a ship in a storm, into which he had entered in fine weather : that he wou)d him- self epi-baptize the city, as no one would make resistance to the enemy when he was gone, through whom their cour- age was sustained." The untranslatable prefix epi, in the passage, simply adds emphasis to the expression. Dr. Conant translates by his favourite " overwhelm ; " but how the mere desertion of a city could be considered as overwhelming it, seems to be a conception inconceivable. The desertion of the city by Josephus left it open to the enemy ; and it would be epi-baptized (ruined) by their attacks, for there would be none to resist them effectually. The baptism would consist in the ruined condition of the city to which deser- tion and assault would bring it. 6. C. 98. In the same work (Book iv. 3, 3.) Josephus describing the evils inflicted on Jerusalem by robber bands, entering the city, and eating up its provisions, says : — " Who, even independently of the sedition, after- wards baptized the city." Dr. Conant quotes several pas- sages from the Psalms, in illustration of this example from Josephus, such as Ps. Ixix : 2, "I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me," vs. 14, 15 : " Let me be de- livered - - - out of the deep waters, where the floods overflow me, etc. ; " but the baptism of the passage means 44 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. more than all this. It means ruin accomplished, not merely in the process of infliction. The ship in the storm is not baptized till it has completely sunk to the bottom. The final baptism of Jerusalem was when she was utterly desolate, not one stone being left on another. Baptism here simply means ruin complete. 7. C. 96. Another curious example of Epi-baptism is mentioned by Josephus in " Jewish War " (Book i. ch. 27), where he tells of the manner in which two sons of Herod by Mariamnd were persecuted to death by their stepmother, Salom^. Speaking of their mock trial and condemnation, he says : " This, as a final storm, epi-baptized the tempest-beaten youths." Cruel persecution epi-bap- tized them. 8. C. 136. Two interesting examples are found in the writings of Philo, a Jew, who lived in the first century. Contrasting the intellectual powers of those who live glut- tonously and those who are frugal, he says, " The sober and those contented with little excel in intelligence ; but those, on the contrary, who are glutted with food and drink, are least intelligent, as though the reason were baptized with the things coming upon it." Here is a bap- tism of the reason by gluttony and drink. What a num- ber of Baptisteries of this sort are found in our day ! Temperance baptizes the soul into clear thought; intemper- ance, into stupidity, mental paralysis and spiritual death. 9. C. 142. The other example from Philo is On a Contemplative Life : " I know some who, when they become slightly intoxicated, before they are thoroughly baptized (drunk), make provision, by contribution and tickets, for to-morrow's drinking." The word translated "slightly intoxicated," means in the Greek literally " slightly armed," on the idea, probably, that Drink " drives dull care away," and arms us against the sorrows of life. It is here contrasted with Baptized, which means entirely drunk. Dr. Conant translates by his favourite word Overwhelmed, which Dr. Carson absolutely rejects. '* The classical meaning of the word," he says, " is in no JUDAIC BAPTISM. 45 instance overwhelm." He would translate it " immersed in wine." Dr. Conant's idea is that of an overwhelming flood ; Dr. Carson imagines a vast baptistery ; while the Greek writer simply meant to say, without any figure of speech, " drunk, intoxicated." Dr. Carson says very truly (p. 79), " It must be a bad figure, if the point of resem- blance in the objects is not obvious. Now, let it be ob- served, that there is no likeness between the action of drinking and either the pouring of fluids or immersion in them." Again, he says (p. 80), " The point of resemblance is between a man completely under the influence of wine and an object subjected to a liquid in which it is wholly immersed." Do we not here, then, led by Dr. Carson himself, amidst all his self-contradictions, come to Dr. Dale's doctrine of controlling influence ? It must not be forgotten that the subject of our present discussion is simply the mode of Baptism, as denoted by the Greek word Baptidzo. Immersionists contend that there is only one mode, Dipping or Immersion in the sense of Dipping. Pedobaptists maintain that Baptidzo is independent of mode ; and that it denotes complete effect, controlling influence, by whatever means it may be accomplished. It may be by immersion, by sprinkling, by aff*usion, by drinking to excess, by drowning, by overwhelming argu- ment, by drugs, by gluttony. It is folly to contend for one unvarying mode, in the face of such varied instances. We shall discover, presently, that even this catalogue of modes is far from being complete. 10. C. 69. We come now to the most important but most controverted passage in the writings of Josephus, the one respecting purification by heifer ashes. Dr. Conant gives two versions of the Greek original, in one of which after Baptisantes, (Baptizing,) the words " of " or " by this ashes " is omitted, and in the other they are inserted. It is out of our way to enter deeply or extensively into these critical matters. We shall, therefore, merely say that in an excellent work by Rev. J. G. Stearns, of Zumbrota, Minnesota, '• The Meaning and Power of Bap- 46 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. tism," the omitted words are shewn to belong to the passage, as it is found in the best editions. Dr. Dale's translation, as given p. 100, and modified p. 387, is as follows : "Those, therefore, defiled by a dead body, intro- ducing a little of the ashes and hyssop branch into a spring, and also baptising by this ashes put into spring water, they sprinkled both on the third and seventh day." Josephus, in this passage, obviously refers to the 19th chapter of Numbers, in which minute directions are given for the burning of the red heifer, the gathering and pre- serving of the ashes, and their use in purifying the cere- monially unclean. The following extracts shew how the ashes were applied. "He that toucheth a dead body shall be unclean seven days. He shall purify himself with it (the heifer ashes), on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean. . . . This is the law. . . . 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 him that toucheth one dead. . . . But the man, that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut ofi" from the congregation, because the water of purification has not been sprinkled upon him ; he is unclean." Philo, the Jew, refers to this rite in the following re- markable passage. " Moses does this philosophically, for, most others are sprinkled with unmixed water, drawn from the fountains. But Moses employed ashes for this purpose. Then, as to the manner, they put them into a ves- sel, pour on water, then moisten branches of hyssop with the mixture, sprinkle it upon those who are to be purified." The Apostle Paul makes reference to the same rite in Heb. ix. 13. : " For if the ashes of a heifer, sprink- ling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh," etc. Here then is a baptism for cleansing by the sprinkling of ashes, It was not a fatal baptism such as Pompeii JUDAIC BAPTISM. 47 received, when the ashes of Vesuvius descended and en- veloped the doomed city ; but it was a purifying process, b}^ which ceremonial defilement was removed, and a con- dition of purity was secured. This fact lies on the sur- face of all these passages ; and no sophistry can brush it away. Water no doubt was used with the ashes ; but Paul, Philo and Josephus lay stress, not on the water, but on the ashes, as the matter of essential importance. Ashes mixed with water, was the means — sprinkling the mode of application, ceremonial purity the result. Dr. Conant, taking advantage of the shortened text of the passage, dips the hyssop-branch though it had already been introduced by the word Enientes (introducing). How could the branch, indeed, on Baptist principles, be baptized, if it was not completely covered by the mix- ture ? But any one may see without any laboured criti- cal discussion, that the Baptism in this case was the bringing of an unclean person, by means of sprinkled ashes, into a ceremonially purified condition. 11. C. 175. A passage, similar to the last, is found in the Apocrypha (Septuagint) Wisdom of Sirach,xxxiv.30,or in the common English version, Ecclesiasticus, xxxiv. 25 : *' He that baptizeth himself from a dead body and touch- eth it again, what is he benefited hy his washing ? " The subject is manifestly the same that we had under the last example ; but the passage is less explicit. The means of purification, in this case, are not mentioned. We learn, however, from Numbers xix., it was the sprinkling of hei- fer ashes ; but the passage alone gives no such information. A very similar passage is found in I. Cor. xv. 29 : " Baptized for the dead ;" but as the text is unique, and we have scarcely any means of explaining the Apostle's meaning, everyone admits the almost insuperable diffi- culty of giving it a satisfactory interpretation. The pas sage from Ecclesiasticus, in which we have a similar expression, may suggest a meaning. In the text from 1st Corinthians, we have " Baptized for the dead," in the plural number, and with a different preposition " huper 48 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. ton nekrdn ; while, in that from Ecclesiasticus, it is " apo tou nekrou " (from ths dead) in the singular. The par- allelism of the two passages would, however, be con- firmed, if we adopted the conjectural marginal reading of Baxter's Polymicrian edition of the New Testament, apo erg5n nekrdn " from dead works." Then the following interpretation, might be given : What shall they do, who are baptized from dead works, and a dead condition, into a risen and livins: Saviour. " Faith," according to the Apostle's argument, can be of no avail, if there be no resurrection of Christ or his people. In the latter part of the sentence from Ecclesiasticus, the word " Loutron" occurs, and is translated " cleansing." It is derived from the Greek verb Lou5, to wash or bathe! Hence comes the idea of cleansing. The passage from the Book of Numbers, as interpreted by Paul and Philo, refers the cleansing to the ashes ; but, on the seventh day, the person, thus previously baptized, was to wash his clothes, and to bathe himself with water. It is very re- markable that, while the ashes cleansed the previously unclean person from ceremonial defilement, every one, who had anything to do with the ashes, also became un- clean. The High Priest himself did not touch the red heifer or the ashes, but allowed his deputy or an assistant Levite, to take her out of the camp, and there to slay and burn her : then, collecting the ashes, he returned into the camp, washed his clothes, and was unclean till the even. Here then were two different sources of defilement. In the one case, from touching the dead body, the unclean- ness lasted seven days ; in the other case, from touching the ashes, it continued only till evening. In the former case it was removed by the heifer ashes ; in the latter by washing. On the seventh day the unclean person, who had been cleansed by the ashes, but had, by contact with them, acquired a temporary defilement, was required to wash his clothes ; and thus he too became clean at even. The different defilements are easily distinguished : and each had its appropriate and peculiar mode of cleansing. GREEK BATHING. 49 Dr. Carson, in reference to this passage from Ecclesias- ticus, says : " As Baptidzomenos (baptized) is the word here used ; and as, from Numbers xix. 18, we learn, that such a person was to be purified by sprinkling ; does it follow that Baptidzo must signify to sprinkle or to purify by sprinkling ? The answer must be obvious to every person who consults Numbers xix. 19, which shews that sprinkling was but a part of that purification, and that the unclean person was also bathed in water. It is this bathing that is efiected by baptism. The passage in question ought to be translated " He that dippeth or bap- tizeth himself because of a dead body and toucheth it again, what availeth his dipping or baptism ? " Dr. Car- son here makes the loutron (washing) to be the baptism, accomplished by dipping, while the cleansing by heifer ashes is left out of the account ! That, which is, every- where else made the chief matter, is passed by as scarcely worthy of notice ! Dr. Conant translates p. 86 : " What is he profited by his bathing ? " By bathing, of course, he means Immer- sion or Dipping. The question then arises, from the views of both Carson and Conant, — What is the meaning of Loutron, the word which the one renders Dipping and the other Bathing ? Now there is scarcely any other Greek word, of which we can form a more definite idea than Loutron. Let it be understood then, that the bath- ing OF THE GREEKS WAS NOT IMMERSION. We shall easily prove this. In Dr.Wm. Smith's "Dictionary of Christian Antiqui- ties," under the article Loutron, it is said, "On ancient vases, on which persons are represented bathing, we never find anything corresponding to a modern bath, in which per- sons can stand or sit ; but there is always a round or oval basin, [louter or louterian] resting on a stand, by the side of which those who are bathing are represented, standing undressed and washing themselves." Reference is here made to a wood-cut taken from Sir Wm. Hamilton's col- lection of ancient vases. The word Demosia on it^ signi- 50 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. fies that it belonged, not to a private, but to a public bath. To the same effect reference is made to a passage in Homer's Odyssey, B. x. 359-365, in which is a miimte and graphic description of the bathing of Utysses in an Asaminthus or bath. The water was heated in a large caldron, and poured over his head and shoulders. He went into the Asaminthus ; but there was no water in it for immersion. He received a loutron or bathing by affu- sion or pouring. It is now universally admitted that the civilization of Greece was derived chiefly from Egypt. Hence we see the importance of the following extract from Sir J. Gar- diner Wilkinson's great work on the Manners and Cus- toms of the Ancient Egyptians. It refers to an ancient painting on a tomb. " One attendant removes the jewelry and clothes the lady has taken off, or suspends them on a stand in the apartment ; another pours water from a vase over her head ; as the third rubs her arms and body with her open hands ; and a fourth, seated near her, holds a sweet-scented flower to her nose, and supports her, as she sits" (on a carpet or mat). A practice similar to that depicted in the Egyptian painting still prevails in India, another of the lands of the East. The Rev. Mr. Lowenthal, one of the martyred missionaries, says, " The Hindoos use a small urn called a lota, with which they bathe at the river, pouring water over the body. The reader will notice the similarity of the word Lota to Louter in the Greek. Such analogies are now admitted by learned men like Max M tiller, as evi- dence of the common origin of nations now distant from each other. A more curious, but less closely related, instance is de- scribed as the Japanese mode of bathing. The Rev. Chas. Stuart, Chaplain U. S. N., was on board the man-of-war which conveyed home the Japanese Ambassador from the United States. He says that for ablution the ambassador was seated on the floor, while an attendant spirted water, taken f ropa a small vessel, over his n^-ked body. ROMAN BATHING. 51 It must not be forgotten that the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament \vas done at Alexandria, in Egypt. A large colony of Jews were settled there. Similarity of usages would ensure similarity of meaning in the use of the verb signifying to ^uash or bathe. The word conse- quently which is used for the brazen laver, and described in Exod. xxx. 18, 19, is, in the Septuagint version, louter. Now, according to Dr. Carson, the hands and the feet must have been immersed in the louter ; but we know that such was not the usage. The 19th verse says that Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and feet thereat. Ex autou " Out of it," not in it. The customary mode of hand-washing among the Jews was, that an attendant poured water out of a small jar or pitcher on the hands of the guest or the master. Thus Elisha, the servant of Elijah, is described as the one who poured water on the hands of Elijah. Water was, in Eastern countries, in many regions very scarce. Wells, as we know from the Bible, were subjects of solemn treaties. Economy in the use of water was, therefore, the more required. This may have given origin to the very economical mode of hand- washing by affusion, as well as the similar method of bathing. The custom, being once established, the person, who washed even by the side of a river, did not bathe, as we do, by immersion. Rome had many magnificent aqueducts, which brought whole rivers into the city of the Csesars. Emperors, nobles, and merchant princes rivalled each other in erect- ing splendid public baths, the magnificent ruins of which still to be seen there, attest the luxury of aijcient days. In those capacious buildings, immersion was fully and commonly practised. But one must not transfer the ideas of life in ancient Imperial Rome, or life in our own days, " of modern improvements," to the cities and coun- tries of the East. Bathing among the Greeks and in the countries of the Orient was not, as we have seen, by im- mersion, but by affusion, or, as in Japan, by the still more economical mode of sprinkling or spirting. 52 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. In Dr. Carson's dissertation on the verb Louo, he says : " That the word (lou5) does not necessarily imply 'mode' we readily admit. This must be determined by circum- stances, though, as a matter of fact, immersion is, almost always, the way of bathing. All that I contend for is, that the object to which it is applied, is covered with water, and that when used without regimen in the con- text, it refers to the whole body ; and, as immersion is the usual way of bathing, baptism must have been an immersion, because when it is called a bathing; the refer- ence would be to the common way of bathing, not to a merely possible way." Dr. Carson then closes his dissertation on Lou5 with his usual war-cry. '* Baptism then is immersion ; and nothing but immersion is Baptism." The reader must have been convinced, we think, ere this, that the learned doctor's dictum is not indubitable. We have seen in the examination of the passage from Ecclcsiasticus, as compared with the xix. chap, of jS umbers, that ceremonial cleansing was accomplished with heifer ashes by sprinkling. The unclean person was thus bap- tized into ceremonial purity. A Jew had no difficulty in understanding this. He found, in the Greek language, the word Baptidzo, which, by the natural process of develop- ment of meaning, served to express, in Jewish writings, ceremonial purification. The ancient Greek was not ignorant that the word might be so used ; though it did not so readily suggest to his mind the idea of ceremonial cleansing. In fact the most common meaning, among the ancient Greeks, had reference to drunkenness. If a Greek saw a man giving signs of inebriety, he would say simply, Baptidzetai — " He is drunk." In the same w^ay when we speak of a man who is habitually intemperate, we say, " He drinks." For a similar reason, if a Jew saw a man whom he knew to have been ceremonially cleansed by heifer ashes, he might say Baptidzetai — " He is cleansed." The mode of action, in these cases, may have been totally different- but it did not affect the result, as ex- OLD TESTAMENT BAPTISMS. 53 pressed by Baptidzo. In each case, however varied and 'unlike, complete effect, a change of condition, is implied. And this we have seen so far is the essential meaning of Baptidzo. .OLD TESTAMENT BAPTISMS. The Christian Fathers, the chief of whom thought and wrote in Greek, must be, so far as the meanings of words are in question, considered the best authorities. If those old Greeks and learned Latins found, in the Old Testa- ment, many kinds and forms of Baptism, which we could not have discovered without their aid, who shall venture to dispute their verbal interpretation ? Our aim is now to discover the uses of the word Baptidzo. They knew the extent of that word, employing it in daily conversa- tion. If we find them applying it to transactions, de- scribed in the Old Testament, which are wonderfully varied in character, we may, in some measure, learn from them the extent of its meaning, and the variety of its application. The Apostle Paul speaks of " Baptism into Moses," with reference to the passage of the Red Sea. In all respects, we must receive his doctrine on that subject, as inspired and authoritative. His knowledge of the Greek language justifies his use of the word, while his character, as an inspired apostle, establishes his doctrine. It is, however, only in regard to the legitimate meaning of the Greek word, that we quote the authority of the Fathers. Their doctrines must be tried by reference to the inspired Scrip- tures; but, as to the uses of the word Baptidzo, the authority of the Fathers is of the highest value possible. The Christian Fathers did not believe in one Baptism only. They held, with the Evangelist Mark, vii. 4, That there are Baptisms (see the Greek original), or "wash- ings " in the plural. They had regard, in all instances, to controlling influence by whatever means effected. In- stead of calling Immersion in water Baptism, though they 54 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. did generally immerse, they looked to the spiritual result^ as essential. "What," says Basil the Great, "is the nature and POWER OF Baptism? That the Baptized person be CHANGED, AS TO THOUGHT, SPEECH, AND ACTION, AND BECOME, ACCORDING TO THE POWER BESTOWED, THE SAME AS THAT OF WHICH HE IS BORN." A noble description of real, spiritual Baptism! The Fathers did not believe that water alone had power to sanctify. Tertullian said : " Water alone has not the power to purge and sanctify a man, unless he has also the Holy Spirit." The Fathers generally believed in Baptismal Regeneration ; but they also maintained that the water itself was baptized by the Spirit ; and thus it received power to sanctify from sin. This idea of the original Baptism of the waters by the Spirit, when He brooded over the deep, and gave the sub- jected waters power to sanctify, occurs in both the Greek and the Latin Fathers. The following extract from Ter- tullian is a specimen of their mode of thought on the subject. I. — BAPTISM AT CREATION. Gen. i. 2, " And the spirit of God moved on the face of the waters." " But it is sufficient to have premised these things, whereby also may be recognised that prime nature of Baptism, by which, even by its very dress, was foreshown, by a figure of baptism, that the Spirit of God, which, from the beginning, was upborne above the waters, would transform the imbued (intinctos) baptized. But indeed the holy was borne above the holy, or that which bore, received sanctity from that upborne. Since what- ever substance is beneath receives, of necessity, character from that which rests above, especially is a physical sub- stance pervaded by a spiritual, through the subtlety of its nature. So the nature of the waters was sanctified by the Holy one and itself received power to sanctify." Tertullian evidently recognises in Gen. i. 2, an instance OLD TESTAMENT BAPTISMS. 55 of Baptism, as well as an original fountain also of bap- tismal influence. The waters were baptized by the Spirit, that they might be the means of baptizing and thereby sanctifying believers. Baptismal regeneration was an idea which originated very early among the Christian Fathers. The cleansing power of the water derived from the Spirit " upborne above the waters," is here assumed. Our appeal to the Fathers, let it be fully understood, is not that we may slavishly follow their doctrinal teachings ; but simply that we may understand in what sense they use the words Baptidzo and Baptisma. Those Fathers knew Greek thoroughly ; and the most eminent of them wrote in that language as their native tongue. Now Baptists say that Baptidzo has just one meaning, to dip or im- merse. Here is a case then by which we may test their theory. According to Tertullian of the second century who wrote in Latin but thoroughly understood Greek, and Didymus of Alexandria, a Greek writer in the end of the fourth century, the waters were themselves bap- tized by the Spirit. The passage from Didymus is as follows : " The indivisible and unspeakable Triad, foreseeing from Eternity the failings of human life, together with the bringing forth from nothing of the watery substance, prepared a remedy for man in the waters. Therefore, by the gift of Himself, the Holy Spirit, since then, appears sanctifying them and making them life-producing. For it appears manifest to every one that what lies above communicates of its peculiar property to that which lies below it; and every substance lying beneath, loves to take somehow of the quality of that which lies upon it. Hence Baptism is effected by every water indiscrimin- ately." The similarity of sentiment and expression between the above passages from Tertullian and Didymus Alex- andrinus, is very remarkable. In both the waters are 56 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. represented as baptized. Gale was severely criticised by Carson for saying that the waters of a lake were baptized (dipped) into the blood of a frog; here the waters of the world are baptized without the possibility of immersion. It was effected by the Brooding Spirit. The following similar passage is from Ambrose : " The Lord was baptized, not wishing to be cleansed but to cleanse the waters ; that, washed through the blood of Christ, who knew no sin, they might have the power of baptism." Here the waters were cleansed by the baptism of Jesus. II. — BAPTISM BY THE DELUGE. There are not many things about which Baptist writers are more solicitous than plenty of water at Jerusalem, plenty of water in the wilderness; a full supply every- where. Dr. Carson, under the inspiration of the word Baptidzo, would find water for immersion even in a desert. A notable instance of this anxiety for securing a copious supply of water was given by a lecturer, whom the writer of this Compend heard a few years ago at Bedford, Ohio. He had been a solitary missionary to the Jews at Jerusa- lem for seven years, supported by the Campbellite de- nomination of the United States. He was himself a Jew. Mentioning a large pool at Jerusalem, and describing its ample dimensions, he exclaimed, '' Here is plenty of water ! There could be no difficulty in immersing the three thousand at Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost." Being asked afterwards, privately, whether he meant the pool of Hezekiah, he said that he did. Kind reader ! just imagine a Mormon-Baptist ])reacher, obtaining three thousand converts in an American or Canadian city, and leading them away to the public reservoir for immersion ! What a commotion there would be ! Are not the cases sufficiently parallel ? But the Christian Fathers supply us with plenty of water for another still more extensive baptism. Tertul- OLD TESTAMENT BAPTISMS. 57 lian, Ambrose, Cyprian, Basil and Didymus of Alexan- dria, speak of the deluge as a Destructive Baptism for the world, and a Saving Baptism for Noah and his family. Tertullian : — " As, after the waters of the deluge, by which the old iniquity was purged, after the baptism, as I might have said, of the world " Cypeian : — " As in that baptism of the world, by which the old iniquity was purged, he, who was not in the ark of Noah, could not be saved ; so, now, neither can he be saved, who is not in the Church." Ambrose : — " Is not this deluge the same as baptism, by which all sins are washed away, and the soul of the righteous, and grace alone, revived." The same : — " Not so much a deluge as a baptism oc- curred. Baptism it clearly was, because, with sinners iniquity was taken away, with Noah righteousness was preserved." Basil : — " ' The Lord inhahiteth the flood.' — Ps. xxix. 10. A flood is an overflow of water, covering all that is under it, and purifying every defilement. Therefore he calls the grace of baptism a flood." Did. Al ex. : — The deluge foretold the purification of sins." Dr. Carson is very vehement in regard to this Deluge Baptism. " What ! Noah not immersed. Are there no bounds to perverseness ? Will men say everything rather than admit the mode of an ordinance of Christ, which is contrary to the commandments of men ? Noah and his family were saved by being buried in the waters of the flood; and, after the flood, they emerged as rising from the grave." There was certainly in this case, notwithstanding Dr Carson's rhetoric, no dipping or immersion in the sense of dipping. The Baptism was effected by the rain descend- ing from above, and the waters, rising from the deep, overflowing the Earth?; and it seems the height of absur- dity to say that Noah was immersed in those waters ; yet, D 58 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. according to Patristic ideas, he was baptized by them. The world and its sinful inhabitants were destructively baptized, immersed, drowned ; but Noah and his family were also baptized by the deluge into the faith and wor- ship of the true God ; while, according to the idea of the Fathers, the Earth itself was baptized from a state of violence and wrong into a condition of purity and peace. Chrysostom (the golden-mouthed)) furnishes an analo- gous case of Earth-baptism — when he says : ^' The whole earth was then defiled by the smoke, and fume, and blood of idol sacrifices, and other pollutions. . . . But Christ having come, and having suffered without the city, he purified the whole earth, .... for the blood from his side dropped upon the earth, and thoroughly purged away the pollution." What a sublime concep- tion ! A few drops of blood sufiicient to purify a world ! We will not mar the grand simplicity of the passage by adding another syllable of comment. III. — BAPTISM BY A BRANCH. In Exodus XV. 23-25, we have an account of the mira- cle performed by Moses in sweetening the bitter waters. " And when they came to Marah (bitterness), they could not drink of the waters of Marah ; for they were bitter ; therefore, the name of it was called Marah : And the people murmured against Moses, saying. What shall we drink ? And he cried unto the Lord ; and the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet : there he made them a statute and an ordinance ; and there he proved them." We have, in this passage, an account of the miracle performed by Moses, in sweetening the bitter waters of Marah by casting into them a branch, according to the directions of Jehovah. Ambrose, a Latin Father of the 4th century, speaks of this as a baptism of the waters. Just as the Spirit brooding over the deep, gave the waters OLD TESTAMENT BAPTISMS. 59 a sanctifying quality ; so the branch, cast into the bitter water, made it sv^eet, or baptized it into sweetness. It is obvious that, in this case, the immersion purified the re- ceiving element, and not the reverse. The drinking of wine baptizes into drunkenness. The brooding of the Spirit consecrates the waters ; and the branch gives sweet- ness to them. It is CONTROLLING INFLUENCE in each case, but by different modes or methods. All these are cases of Baptism, but how different from each other ! Yet Baptist writers contend for one exclusive mode. Dipping, immersion, or complete covering is, in their view, essen- tial ; yet none of these modes is found here in these several Baptisms. Ambrose says, " There are many kinds of Baptism, but the Apostle announces ' One Baptism.' There are Bap- tisms of the Gentiles ; but they are not Baptisms. They are washings, not Baptisms. The body is washed. Sin is not washed away ; nay, by that washing it is con- tracted. Moses cast the wood into the fountain, and the water, which before was bitter, grew sweet. ... If, in figure merely, Baptism was so powerful, how much more powerful is Baptism in reality ! " Ambrose, in this passage, considering the sweetening of the water as a Baptism, is in full accordance with Tertullian and the other Fathers, who believed that the waters themselves had a sanctifying power, derived from their Baptism by the Spirit. IV. — BAPTISM BY WASHING HANDS AND FEET. Exod. XXX. 17 — 20. " And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a basin of brass, and his foot of brass, to wash withal : and thou shalt put it be- tween the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar ; and thou shalt put water therein. For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat." The " Septuagint" translates the 19th verse — " shall 60 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. wash their hands ' out of it ' (ex autou), and their feet with water." Cyril of Jerusalem interprets — " The High Priest first washes, then sacrifices ; for Aaron was first washed, then became High Priest ; for, how could he be permitted to pray for others, who was not first cleansed by (dia) water ? And the laver, placed within the tent, was a symbol of Baptism." Origen. " The word of the precept, truly, with the feet, orders the washing with internal water, announcing, figuratively, the sacrament of Baptism." Clemei^t of Alexandria. " Purity is to think purely. An image of this Baptism was communicated to the poets, from Moses, thus — Having washed, and being clothed with clean garments, Penelopd comes to prayer. . . . But Telemachus, having washed his hands from the hoary sea, prays to Minerva." The same : — " This is a custom of the Jews to baptize often upon the couch. Therefore it is said : — ' Be pure not by washing, but by thinking.' " Dr. Carson contends that washings (loutra) must be by immersion ; and he asserts (p. 481) that " Louo," like our word hathe applies to animal bodies only. This is in his first reply to President Beecher ; but in his second, he admits that, " The examples, produced by Mr. Beecher, prove that louo was sometimes applied to other things besides animal bodies ; but, he adds, " none of them prove that the thing so washed is not covered with water. This is all we want ; the water may be applied by sprink- ling, or by pouring, or in any way." So endeth " Dip and nothing but dip." The very next passage in the Doctor's book, speaking of the Baptism of the Spirit, quotes from Mr. Beecher:" But my objection is that there is no resemblance between the operations of the Holy Spirit and Immersion." Dr. Carson adds, is not THE resemblance IN THE EFFECTS ? We may be per- OLD TESTAMENT BAPTISMS. 61 mitted to add, also, that this last sentence, found near the close of Dr. Carson's large volume, is a real, but un- intentional surrender of all that he has contended for. It is, to a great degree, an anticipation of Dr. Dale's theory, that Baptism denotes complete effect — a CHANGED CONDITION. Chrysostom and Origen speak of martyrs washed by their own blood ; yet blood tends to defile. They do not . mean, therefore, mere blood physically, but sacrificial blood, which washed both body and soul. John Calvin is very clear regarding baptism by the washing of hands and feet. He says : " The washing of the hands and feet denoted that all parts of the body were infected with uncleanness ; for, since Scripture often uses the word * hand ' for the actions of life, and compares the whole course of life to a way or journey, it is very suitable to say, hy synecdoche, that all im- purity is purged away by the washing of the hands and feet." Let it be remembered that the question, in regard to these passages, relates, not to the theology of either Cal- vin or the Fathers, but to their understanding of the words Baptidzo, Louo, and other synonyms. Those, who contend for the one mode, can never harmonize with their system, the ideas of the Fathers, regarding the many sided word Baptidzo. It utterly refuses to be limited to Dipping or to any other definite mode of action. In Solomon's Temple, besides ten lavers for washing the sacrifices, there was an immense brazen laver, called a Sea, capable of containing twenty -thousand gallons, for the washing or purification of the priests. Dr. Carson says, refening to II. Chron. iv. : 6, "Was not this washing performed by immersion ? " p. 44!4. Let any one figure to himself a priest climbing up over the oxen and over the lofty side of the brazen sea, and plungiog into the bath of twenty thousand gallons of water ; and he may form some conception of the absurdity of this. The true idea is that 62 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. the hands and feet onl}^ were washed with water drawn or taken from the laver : and that operation ceremonially cleansed the whole person. As the sprinkling of ashes cleansed the leper, and the dipping of the branch sweet- ened the spring, so the partial baptism of hands and feel purified the entire man. Exod. xxx. 17-21. V. — BAPTISM BY SPRINKLING. Our attention has already been directed to the cleans- ing of the leper by the sprinkling of ashes, according to the Law. Ambrose, in a remarkable passage, compares this cleansing with Christian baptism " By the cedar wood the Father, by the hyssop the Son, by the scarlet woo], which has the brightness of fire, the Holy Spirit is designated. Whoever wished to be cleansed in proper form was sprinkled by these three, because no one can be cleansed from the leprosy of sin by the water of baptism, except under the invocation of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost And he cleanses us, who are designated by the leper, by their invocation, and by the water of Baptism." Here, in full detail, the cleans- ings are described ; but there is no intimation that the sprinkling in the one case would not be suitable and suf- ficient in the other. In Psalm li. 2, 7, David prays "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean ; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." Commenting on this passage, Ambrose says, " How we must be renewed, hear : * Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.' He is rightly renewed, who is changed from the darkness of sin into the light of virtue and grace. . . He, who wished to be cleansed b}^ typical Baptism, was sprinkled with the blood of the lamb by a bunch of hyssop. . . He, who is baptized, whether in conformity with the Law, or in conformity with the Gospel, is cleansed ; in conformity OLD TESTAMENT BAPTISMS. 63 with the Law because Moses sprinkled the blood of the lamb with a bunch of hyssop." Baptism is declared in this passage to be effected by sprinkling. This is too obvious to require comment. A passage similar to the above is found in Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26 : " Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean : from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." The interpretations of this very striking passage, found in the writings of the Fathers, are numerous. Jerome : " Upon the believing and those converted will I pour out the clean water of saving baptism ; and I will cleanse them from their abominations and from all their errors It is to be observed that a new heart and a right spirit may be given by the pouring and sprinkling of water." There is but little support here for Immersion, in the sense of Dipping — Jerome believed in the changed condi- tion produced by Baptism — Mode to him was nothing — effect was essential. Hilary : " Sprinkling, according to the Law, was the cleansing of sin through faith, purifying the people by the sprinkling of blood (Ps. li. 9) ; a sacrament of the future sprinkling by the blood of the Lord." What other sacrament can be meant here if not Bap- tism ? Hilary believed in sprinkling, though his general practice may have been immersion. DiDYMUS OF Alexandria: — "The very image of Bap- tism, both continually illuminated and saved all Israel at that time, as Paul wrote (i. Cor. x. 1,2) : "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be 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" ; and as prophesied by Ezekiel (xxxvi. 25) : " I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean : from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I 64 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. cleanse you ;" and David, (Ps. li. 7) : " Sprinkle me with hyssop and I shall be clean." Dr. Carson readily accepts the first of these illustra- tions, and exclaims : " What could be more clear or strik- ing, or more demonstrative of the truth of the theory, than the covering by the cloud and the water walls of those in the depths of the sea ? " Dr. Carson's imagin- ation could help him out of any ordinary or even extra- ordinary difficulty ; but how could he bring a dipping or a covering out of the sprinkling of David and Ezekiel ? The theory does not hold good here. Cyril of Jerusalem : — " Thou seest the power of bap- tism .... Be of good courage . . . He will sprinkle upon you clean water, and you shall be purified from all your sin,' Sprinkling is again accepted as a mode of cleansing. Origen, speaking of the martyrs sanctified by their own blood, says, "That we may depart washed by our own blood ; for, it is only the baptism of blood, which can make us more pure than the baptism of water made us . . . . If God would grant to me, that I might be cleansed by my own blood, that I might attain that sec- ond baptism, dying for Christ, I would depart out of this world without fear." Cyprian : — " It is necessary that the water be first puri- fied and sanctified by the priest, that it may be able, by its own baptism, to wipe ofi* the sins of the baptized man. And, through Ezekiel, the prophet, the Lord says : — " And I will sprinkle you with pure water." According to Cyprian, in the above passage, the water is first itself sanctified ; and then it sanctifies or baptizes the sinner by sprinkling. Origen had before his mind no image of a " fountain filled with blood," into which sinners should be plunged ; but he desired that his own blood, trickling from his veins, might baptize him. The Patristic error of baptismal regeneration constantly crops out in our extracts ; but Dipping — "nothing but dipping," seems OLD TESTAMENT BAPTISMS. 65 almost unknown. Dr. Carson says, p. 400, " If one in- stance of sprinkling was called immersion, I would give up the point of univocal meaning." Again, p. 392, " Sprinkling cannot be called Baptism with more pro- priety than sand can be called water." Let the reader revert to the passages we have quoted, and he will see how possible it is to produce many such instances. Yet Dr. Carson exclaims — " A people, who called a purifying by sprinkling or pouring a baptism ! Where is such a people ? Not under the heavens. The facts alleged are mere assumptions." So saith Dr Carson ! Have we not shown, however, that the Fathers with their thorough knowledge of Greek, which was, to many of them, their native tongue, did speak of sprinkling as a mode of Baptism ? But Dr. Carson would send the Angel Gabriel to school, if he opposed the theory, or denied that Baptism meant only Immersion. VI. — BAPTISM BY CIRCUMCISION. Joshua, V : 3, 9. " And Joshua made him sharp knives and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill, of the foreskins. And the Lord said unto Joshua, this day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you." Justin Martyr, in reference to this, exclaims : "What, then, is the record of circumcision to me, having received testimony from God ? What need is there of that bap- tism to one baptized by the Holy Spirit ?" Justin Martyr, in this passage, plainly calls circum- cision a baptism. Dr. Carson admits this ; but he vainly tries to avert the obvious conclusion, p. 490. " He (Jus- tin Martyr) sometimes also, speaks of circumcision as a baptism, or agreeing in the emblem, though altogether different in the things and in the words that designate them. Let President Beecher study this; and it will show how the Fathers can call various things by the name ot baptism, without importing that they are included in 66 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. the meaning of the word." No answer from the Delphic oracle was ever more obscure or enigmatical than this ; yet Dr. Carson could write intelligibly and clearly when he chose. The cuttle fish, when hard pressed, ejects a cloud of ink into the water, and thus escapes from its foe. Cyril : — " Therefore, by the likeness of the faith of Abraham we come into adoption ; and thus, after faith, like to him, we receive the spiritual seal, being circum- cised through washing by the Holy Spirit. Cyril here shews that circumcision, as a typical rite of purification of the flesh, was an emblem of the Christian rite, by which sin was washed away. It is, therefore, ac- cording to Greek Patristic usage, called a Baptism. The Holy Spirit operated through the water to take away sin. This is only one of many instances and illustrations of the fact, that "ANY agency, which thoroughly CHANGES THE CONDITION AND CHARACTER OF ANY OBJECT, IS CAPABLE OF BAPTIZING IT." A lucifer match may bap- tize a lamp into flame. Gregory Nanzianzen : — " Shall we baptize these (in- fants) ? Certainly ; . . . . the evidence of this is circum- cision, which is a typical seal, .... and in like manner, the smearing of the door posts, protecting, through these insensible things, the first-born." VII. — BAPTISM BY CONFESSION. Cyprian : — "The baptism of a public confession and of blood may avail to salvation (but not to a heretic out of the Church). The Lord declares in the Gospel that those baptized by his blood and passion are sanctified and at- tain the grace of the divine promise, when he speaks to the thief, believing and trusting in the very passion, and promises, that he shall be with him in Paradise." Chrysostom : — " He did not dare to say, ' Remember me,' until that by confession he purified himself from the pollution of sins. He confessed, and he found Paradise opened." OLD TESTEMENT BAPTISMS. 67 Here we have distinctly announced the baptism of the penitent thief by a public confession. This was the Pa- tristic interpretation and understanding of our Saviour's words — "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father, which is in Heaven." The penitent thief's confession indicated a complete change in his spiritual condition, and was, therefore, a Baptism. VIII. — BAPTISM BY REPENTANCE. Isaiah i. 16, 17. "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; learn to do well ; seek judgment ; relieve the oppressed ; judge the fatherless ; plead for the widow." Justin Martyn interprets : — " Through the washing of repentance and of the knowledge of God, which was established an account of the transgressions of the people of God, as Isaiah declares, we have believed and made known that this very|[baptism, which he foreannounced, is the only one able to cleanse the repenting : this is the water of life Baptize the soul from anger, and from covetousness, and from envy, and from hatred ; and behold the body is pure." HiPPOLYTUS : — " As Isaiah says, ' Wash ye,' etc., dost thou see, beloved, how the prophet declared beforehand the character of this baptism ? " IX. — BAPTISM OF NAAMAN AT THE JORDAN. — II. Kings V. 14. No other instance of Baptism in the Old Testament is claimed, as an exclusive possession, by the Baptists, more earnestly than this. Dr. Carson says, " Naaman went down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan. Here bathing in a river is called Baptism. What more do we want, then, to teach us the mode of this ordinance of Christ ? If there was not another passage of Scripture to throw light on the institution, as far as respects mode, 68 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. is not this, to every teachable mind, perfectly sufficient '< etc." Ad nauseam ! Dr. Fuller is equally vehement and triumphant. " Naaman went down, and dipped himself (ehaptisate) seven times in the Jordan. All (?) concede that this was immersion. Now, Jesus commands this very act. (?) The Septuagint says, ' Naaman ebaptisate en Jordan^ ! ' This is admitted (?) to mean, Naaman ' dipped himself in the Jordan.' " ^p° We have noted, by interrogation marks, some of Dr. Fuller's gratuitous assumptions. Let us, however, examine the original word in the pas- sage. It is Tabal in the Hebrew, a word which occurs in Exod. xii. 22 ; Levit. iv. 6, 17 ; ix. 9, and in ten other places of the Old Testament, in which the word Bap to, to dip, is used to translate it. For instance, it is found where the priest dips his finger, or the hyssop-branch, in blood for Baptism by sprinkling. In this passage, re- specting Naaman, the word Baptidzo is used, and not Bapto. What is the reason of the difference ? The seventy must have had a reason for using a diflTerent word, Baptidzo, instead of Bapto, which is employed to translate Tabal in other places. In fact, the English translator's had no idea of the extravagance of Baptist ' interpretation in our day, or else they would have trans- ferred Baptidzo as they have done uniformly in the New Testament, except, it may be, in the one case of ceremonial " washing " of cups and pots, referred to in Mark vii. 4. The Hebrew word Tabal signifies primarily to dip, and is, therefore, equivalent to Bapto in Greek, and Tingo in Latin ; but, like them, it has secondary meanings, as, for instance, to colour or dye, in Gen. xxxvii. 31, which has Tabal in the Hebrew, and Moluno (to stain) in the Greek, and is translated in the authorized version, " dipped (stained) the coat in the blood." Of course, it would have been impossible to dip the coat in the blood of a kid ; but it might be stained by sprinkling or otherwise. In 1st OLD TESTAMENT BAPTISMS. 69 Chron. xxvi. 11, the name Tebaliab occurs. It is derived from Tabal and Jah, and is translated by Gesenius, " He whom Jehovah has purified," assigning the secondary sense of purification to Tabal. In Ezekiel xxiii. 15, Tabal is rendered, in the Septuagint, by Parabapto, with the secondary meaning, to dye. We thus show, from many examples, that Tabal is not so limited in meaning, as Baptist writers have maintained. Besides, there is actually another Hebrew word Tabah, which means "to sink," as in Ps. ix. 15 — "The heathen are ' sunk down ' in the pit that they made." The case of Naaman was that of partial leprosy. He expected that Elisha would " strike his hand over the place," or, as in the margin, "would move it up and down," like the modern animal-magnetizer. The command of the prophet, therefore, need not be understood as apply- ing to the whole body. It was enough to ceremonially wash or baptize the part afiected. The washing of a part, besides, was sufficient ceremonially, to cleanse the whole body. This we have seen by former examples. In confirmation of this, let it be observed that the pro- phet did not use the word Tabal, when he directed Naaman to go and wash. It was the word Rahatz he employed, which means simply to wash the body or bathe. We have already seen that the ancient Egyptian, Grecian, and Oriental mode of washing was not by im- mersion, even at the side of a river. It was by Aftusion or Sprinkling. Immersion would, no doubt, have fulfilled the prophet's directions ; but a full dipping of the body was uncalled for and unnecessary. Dr. Halley says on this passage : " Naaman was commanded to wash ; and to ascertain the meaning of the word ' Baptize,' we must look elsewhere ; for there is nothing to expound it in the clause (from the Septuagint). 'He baptized himself seven times in the Jordan.' Let ' Baptize' mean to dip, or to sprinkle, or to purify, or to do anything in Jordan, this verse will not explain it." 70 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. The special mention of " the place" would imply only- partial washing. The use of the word Baptidzo, instead of Bap to by the seventy, indicates that they understood a washing for purification, which did not require complete immersion. X.— BAPTISM BY A COAL OF FIRE. Isaiah vi. 5-7. " Then said I, woe is me ! for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips : for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the Seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from ofi" the altar : and he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips ; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged." Ambrose interprets : " We all touch the dead, for who will boast that he keeps his heart pure, or will dare to say that he is clean from sins ? . . . Hence Esaias, when be had said (v. 5-7) immediately one of the Sera- phims came down and touched his lips with a coal, and cleansed his unclean lips." Ambrose evidently alludes, in this comment, to the defilement arising from contact with the dead, which, under the law, was purged by sprinkling of heifer ashes, a species of Patristic baptism, as we have already seen. The touch of the coal from the altar on the lips of the prophet baptized him or wrought a complete change, and prepared him for the work to which he was called. XI. — baptism by the FLAMING SWORD. Origen : — " He places a flaming sword and cherubim, to guard the way of the tree of life. And as if a sword, sharp and hot, be struck against the body, it causes double pain, of burning and of cutting ; so, also, the sword which is mentioned, as placed as a guard of Paradise, OLD TESTAMENT BAPTISMS. 71 produces double torment, it burns and it cuts, etc. . . . Hear the Saviour showing the use of fire and knife in two passages. In one place he says ' I have not come to send peace on the earth but a sword.' But in another place he says : ' I have come to send lire upon the earth, and I Avish it were already kindled.' Therefore the Saviour brings both sword and fire, and baptizes these things which could not be purged by the purification of the Holy Spirit." Very fanciful yet highly illustrative. Ambrose : — " Baptism is not one : that is one, which the Church gives by water and the Holy Spirit, where- with it is necessary that catechumens be baptized. And that is another Baptism, of which the Lord Jesus says, ' I have a baptism to be baptized with, which ye know not.' . . . This must be the baptism of Passion or sufifering, by which, through his blood, every one of us must be cleansed. There is also a baptism, at the entrance of Paradise, which formerly did not exist, but, after the transgressor was excluded, the flaming sword began to be, which God established, which was not before, when sin was not. Sin began, and baptism began.' " Here are three baptisms — Baptism by water and the spirit, baptism by suffering (Luke xii. : 50), and baptism by the flaming sword, Ambrose goes on to say : " By water, that sins may be washed away ; by fire, that they may be consumed." He then asks : " Who is it that bap- tizes by this fire ? He of whom J ohn says : ' He shall baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire.' Then shall come THE Great Baptizer. He will see many standing be- fore the entrance of Paradise ; he will wave the sword every way ; he will say to those on the right hand, not hav- ing weighty sins — ' Enter ye, who are of good courage, who fear not the fire, etc' " Again we say, very fanciful but highly illustrative of the varied meanings of Baptidzo, as used by the old Greek and Latin fathers. Basil, in the same line of thought, asks : " But how canst thou come back again into Paradise, not being 72 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. sealed by Baptism ? Dost thou not know that the flam- ing sword has been set to guard the way of the tree of life — to* the unbelieving terrible and consuming, but, to the believing, easy of approach and pleasantly shining ? " Note. — The Fathers understood the action of the flaming sword to effect a Baiptism. The most perverse ingenuity can find no Immersion here. Prayer of Gregory Thaumaturgus : — " Baptize me, who am about to baptize them that believe, by water and spirit and fire — by water, which has power to wash away the defilement of sins ; by spirit, which has power to make the earthly spiritual ; by fire, which has the nature to burn up the thorns of iniquities." Water, fire, and spirit, are here the agencies to effect the Baptism, with evidently no Immersion, just as wine baptizes into drunk- enness, and drugs baptize into insensibility without im- mersion. Eusebius, the historian, mentions the case of a female catechumen, who had not been baptized with water ; but "she received the baptism which is by fire," i. e., by martyrdom. XII. — BAPTISM BY LOSS AND BY HEAVIEST SINS. A very remarkable case of baptism is found by the Fathers in the raising of the axe-head from the water into which it had fallen (II. Kings, vi. : 6). Elisha cast a stick into the river, " and the iron did swim," etc. According to Justin Martyr, the axe was baptized by falHng into the water (lost), so we are baptized (lost) by heaviest sins, as Eve was by eating the forbidden fruit. How shall Eating and Falling be included under Dip- ping? Yet Dr. Carson says (p. 103) : that "The word " (baptism) "without one exception, signifies simply to dip." The axe was not merely dipped, but lost, just as the sinner, sunk in sin, must remain, till the grace and mercy of God deliver him and bring him forth. OLD TESTAMENT BAPTISMS. 73 The axe was raised from its lost condition by the stick, which was cast by the prophet into the river ; so we are delivered from guilt by the power of the cross. Chrysostom speaks of the power of the cross drawing us up from the depths of depravity. 'Ambrose : — " Elisha called upon the name of the Lord, and the iron of the axe, which had been sunk, ascends from the water. Behold another kind of baptism ! etc." The loss of the axe and its recovery were, each of them, a baptism — Baptism out of air into water — Baptism out of water into air — Baptism by sin into guilt, and bap- tism out of guilt into purity by the cross. Each of these, according to Patristic ideas was a true and proper baptism. That which immerses has no power to draw forth. Im- mersion, Dr. Conant being witness, does not imply Emer- sion. The ship baptized sinks to the bottom, and re- mains there. The axe-head was immersed by the power of gravitation ; and it must have continued so, had not the miracle been wrought. The sinner baptized into the depth of his sins, can never be delivered but by the miraculous power of Divine grace, baptising into holiness. xiii. — baptism by iniquity. Isaiah, xxi : 4. " My heart panted, f earfulness affrighted me : the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me." The Septuagint: — " My heart wanders : iniquity bap- tizes me." The passage relates to the taking of Babylon, and may refer to Belshazzar's feast, when the fingers of a man's hand wrote the doom of the Empire on the palace wall (Daniel v. : 5, 6), " and the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees shook one against another." He had committed sacrilege in using the holy vessels of the temple at his feast, as common drinking E 74 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. cups ; and Iniquity baptized him into terror and ruin. This was the Baptism of Iniquity. " Conscience does make cowards of us all." On that night Belshazzar was slain — baptized, overwhelmed by an awakening conscience, and by the just judgments of God. XIV. — the baptism of the altar by ELIJAH. In I. Kings, xviii. 83, 38, we have a full account of the baptism of the altar by the directions of Elijah. He said, " Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood ; and he said, do it a second time, and they did it a second time, etc." " Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water, that was in the trench." Origen plainly calls this pouring of the water on the altar Baptism. His idea was that the altar needed cleansing. He may have been fanciful in this notion; but we have only to do with his use, as a learned Greek, of the word Baptidzo. The simple question is — did Origen and the other Christian fathers consider this pour- ing of water on the altar a baptism ? Here are his words: " Why do you believe that the Elias to come will baptize, when he did not, in the time of Ahab, baptize the victim upon the wood of the altar, which needed cleansing, at the appearing of the Lord by fire ; for he commands the priests to do this." Basil the Great expresses similar sentiments. " Elias has shown the power of baptism by burning the sacrifice upon the altar of burnt offerings, not by means of fire but by means of water ; for, though the nature of fire is opposed to that of water, yet, when the water is mystic- ally poured thrice upon the altar, the fire begins and kindles a flame as though it were oil." This passage is doubly interesting, as exhibiting the Patristic idea of the sanctifying power which at creation water received from the brooding Spirit. OLD TESTAMENT BAPTISMS. 75 Dr. Carson holds the above passage from Origen at arms' length, and dismisses it with unusual brevity. These are his words, p. 394, in his reply to Dr. Miller, of Princeton : "Dr. Miller tells us that Origen was contemporary with Cyprian, and that he, in commenting on 1 Kings xviii. 83, tells us that ' Elijah baptized the wood on the altar.' This proceeds on a principle I have often explained and illustrated. Every child knows that our word Immerse may be used in the same way." And that is all ! ! If, then, pouring be immersion, why not include sprinkling also ? And why did Dr. Carson write his book of 500 pages, to prove that Baptidzo means " Dip and nothing but dip, throughout all Grecian literature " ? XV. BAPTISM OF ISRAEL IN THE RED SEA. We come now to one of the grandest baptisms recorded in the Word of God, that of more than two millions of Israelites, including all their infant children, at the passage of the Red Sea. Let us read the original record in Exodus xiv. 19-31 : "The angel of God, which went before Israel, removed and went behind them ; and the pillar of cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them, etc. And Israel saw that great work, which the Lord did upon the Egyptians : and the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses." The unbelieving Israelites, who were ready to rebel against Moses and against God, while Pharoah's chariots thundered in the rear, were baptized, by the passage of the Red Sea, into believing the Lord and his servant Moses. The Egyptians were immersed with a destructive baptism ; but Israel was baptized, purged from the sin of unbelief. See 1 Cor. x. 1, 2 : " Moreover, brethren, I would not have you ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea ; and were all baptized into Moses by the cloud and by the sea." 76 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. It is necessary to observe that the preposition unto in the passage should be " into " from the Greek Eis. The preposition En should be not in but by. This we have shown, in the foot note, from the Baptist version of the Scriptures. The passage then would read thus : " were all baptized into Moses by the cloud," etc. The Christian is baptized into Christ. Israel was baptized into Moses, the leader of the Lord's Host.* Dr, Carson has great trouble with this passage, but, like the old Scotch preacher with the hard texts, he faces the difficulty, and bids it pass on. He calls the baptism of Israel " a dry baptism ;" yet he says it was a real immersion. " The going down of the Israelites into the sea, their being covered with the cloud and their issuing out on the other side, resembled the baptism of believers, p. 119. The Israelites, by being under the cloud and passing through the sea, were baptized into Moses." It is curious and interesting to notice how dextrously Dr. Carson, after declaring that haptidzo signifies " dip and nothing but dip," slides off" into the use of the equi- vocal word Im'inersion. " Nothing," he says, p. 120, " is " Christian baptism but the immersion of a believer in water, in obedience to the command of Jesus." * The Greek preposition En is translated by in passages which refer di- rectly to the pillar of cloud — as in the Septuagint version of Nehemiah ix. 12, " Thou leddest in the day by a cloudy pillar (en stul«^) and in the night (en) a pillar of fire." Ps. Ixxviii. 14, " In the day-time, also, he led them with (en) a cloud, and all the night with (en) a light of fire. Ps. Ixxvii. 20 : Thou leddest Thy flock by (en) the hand of Moses and Aaron. If the reader will refer to the New Baptist translation l)y the Bible Union, he will find en translated in one verse three times by With, and once by In — " Because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with (en) a shout, with (en) the voice of the archangel and with (en) the trump of God ; and the'dead in (en) Christ shall rise first.'' — I. Thes. iv. 16. There are many other places, in which the same rendering of en is found in the Baptist New Translation. We shall only add the following, taken almost at random — " Wherefore I give you to understand, that no one speaking by (en) the the Holy Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed ; and no one can say, that Jesus is Lord, but by (en) the Holy Spirit. — I. Cor. xii. : 3. " With (en) all thy heart with (en) all thy soul, with (en) all thy might." —Matt, xxii : 37. " If any to be killed (en) with the sword, he must be killed (en) with the sword."— Rev. xiii. : 10. OLD TESTAMENT BAPTISMS. 77 Assuming this to be proved, he asserts that, wherever a baptism is performed, he will find water even in the desert. There is plenty of water in this case ; but it im- merses, not the Israelites, but the Egyptians. Yet Paul affirms that Israel was baptized. To effect the baptism then Dr. Carson imagines the water standing, as a wall, on each side of the host, and the cloud covering them, The ^Scripture says, however, that the cloud was not over the Israelites but between them and their foes. " It was," Dr. Carson says, " on account of their faith they received their baptism ;" but we say it was their baptism as we have described it, which led to their faith in Moses, as the leader of the Lord's Eost. " Israel saw that great work, which the Lord did upon the Egyptians : and the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord, and His servant Moses." Here was the baptism, the effect. The Fathers have frequent reference to this Red Sea baptism. Thus Ambrose : — " Observe, in that passage of the Hebrews even then a figure of sacred baptism went before, in which the Egyptian perished and the Hebrew escaped." " Who hast not been mindful of thy displeasure ; but, as in the sea, thou hast drowned all our iniquities like Egyptian lead, .... which may also be referred to bap- tism, where the Egyptian is drowned and the Hebrew rises again." Basil the Great : — " But the sea and the cloud at that time induced faith through amazement ; but, as a type, it signified, for the future, the grace that should be thereafter." DiDYMUS OF Alexandria : — " The waters, securing safety for the people, signifying the baptism . . . Moses was himself a type of Christ." Let it be observed that, in the extracts from Ambrose, he includes the baptism of the Egyptians, as well as that of the Israelites. The former received a destructive, the latter a saving, baptism. Israel a baptism on dry land, the Egyptians in the depths of the sea. 78 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. Basil shows the agency by which the Red Sea Baptism was effected. Didymus makes the waters the means of Israel's deliverance, not by their overflow, but by their being kept at a distance. What a grand Baptism ! Jehovah the baptizer, the millions of Israel, with their infant children, the subjects baptized, the cloud and the sea the agency, and Moses the receiving element ! A Baptism out of infidelity and mur- muring into the belief and fear of the Lord and of his servant Moses. XVI. — BAPTISM OF THE ISRAELITES BY THE JORDAN. A Baptism, similar to the preceding, is frequently re- ferred to by the Fathers, in connexion with the passage of the Jordan under Joshua. It is obvious, indeed, that, if unbelieving Israel were baptized into Moses by the passage of the Red Sea, the passage of their children, crossing the Jordan in the same miraculous manner, must have confirmed their faith in Joshua, as Moses' successor. It was the seal of Joshua's commission. Origen : — " As it was said, concerning the Fathers, that ' all were baptized into Moses by the cloud and by the sea,' so, also, it may be said of Joshua, that all were bap- tized into Joshua by the Hol}^ Spirit and water." Again, " Paul might say of this, ' I do not wish you, brethren, to be ignorant that all our Fathers passed over through the Jordan, and all were baptized into Joshua by the Spirit and the river.' " Origen certainly did not consider immersion in the river to be necessary for Baptism 63/ it. Dr. Carson's architecture, which he employs in the Red Sea Baptism, fails here. One wall is wanting, for the water flowed away towards the Dead Sea, while the upper waters were gathered in a heap towards Zaretan. But, leaving this, we may add, that the Baptism into Joshua was very effective ; for the sacred narrative re- BAPTISMS IN THE APOCRYPHA. 79 cords that Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, as they had been obedient to Moses during forty years in the wilderness. Here is the permanent result, which we claim for Baptidzo, by whatever means the Baptism may be effected. BAPTISMS IN THE APOCRYPHA. To the preceding Old Testament Baptisms, so varied in their modes and character, yet agreeing in the idea of CHANGED CONDITION and CONTROLLING INFLUENCE, we now add two instances from the Apocrypha. We do not quote passages from the Apocr3^pha, as being of doctrinal authority, or even of historical truth, but as examples of the uses of the word Baptidzo by Greek writers. I. BAPTISM FOR PURIFICATION. I. In the second book of The Maccabees i. 19, we read, "For, when our fathers were led into Persia, the priests, that were then devout, took the fire of the altar privily, and hid it in a hollow place of a pit without water. . . Neemias did send, of the posterity of those priests that had hid it, to the fire : but when they told us they found no fire, but thick water. . . Neemias commanded the priests to sprinkle the things laid thereupon with the water. When this was done, and the time came that the sun shone, which afore was hid in the cloud, there was a great fire kindled, so that every man marvelled. . . . 80, when this matter was known, it w^as told the King of Persia that, in the place where the priests that were led away had hid the fire, there appeared water, and that Neemias had purified the sacrifices therewith. And Neemias called this thing Naphthar, which is as much as to say (catharismos), a cleansing." Ambrose, in reference to this passage, says : " The narrative of the preceding event (Levit. ix. 24), and 80 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. especially of the sacrifice offered by Neemiah, betokens the Holy Spirit and the Baptism of Christians." The reader will be ready to recognise, in this narrative, an example of Patristic Baptism, which signified cleansing from defilement, or purification, by whatever means effected. In this case, the effect was produced by sprink- ling. The sprinkled water kindled the fire ; and the fire consumed the sacrifice. Nehemiah called it a catharismos, a cleansing. Ambrose says : " It betokens the Baptism of Christians." II. BAPTISM AT A FOUNTAIN. The following passage from the Apocryphal Book of Judith contains, in the Greek, the word Baptidzo, used to denote a washing of the body. Judith xii. 5 — 9. In the seventh verse we read that " She went out in the night and washed (baptized) her- self in a fountain of water by the camp." The common version is singularly inexact. It ought to be " In (en) the camp, at or upon (epi) the fountain." The expression " the fountain" shews that there was but one, or, at least, that it was one of chief importance. " At or upon the fountain" does not mean "in the fountain," and " in the camp" does not signify " by or near the camp," but " in it." The circumstances of this baptism should be carefully considered in forming a judgment as to its nature. Let us briefly review the history. In the fifth chapter we find a long speech by Achior, captain of the sons of Amnion, before Holofernes, the general of the Assyrian army, in which he recapitulated the history of the Jews, and warned him against attack- ing them. Holofernes reproached Achior for his speech, and commanded his servants to deliver him to the people of Bethulia, until Holofernes should come and destroy both him and the Bethulians. Achior was well received by the Jews ; and the next day Holofernes marched 120,000 men and 12,000 cavalry to the neighbourhood of Judith's baptism at the fountain. 81 Bethulia, and seized the fountain at the foot of the hill, from which the city received its suppli^,,''. of water. The people of the city went to the elders and besought them rather to deliver the city than to allow them to perish with thirst. The elders answered that, if the Lord did not bring deliverance in five days, they would surrender. In the meantime, Judith, a young and beautiful widow, remonstrated with the elders, and offered that she and her waiting woman would go forth that night. They were not to enquire her reasons for going till she had finished her design. The elders said " Go in peace." After prayer to the God of her fathers, Judith put off her mourning garments, washed (perieklusato) her body all over with water, anointed herself with precious oint- ment, braided her hair, put a tire upon it, and " put on the garments of gladness, wherewith she was clad dur- ing the life of Manasses, her husband, and went down to the camp of Holofernes, who received her with much honour and admiration." Holofernes com- manded his guard to allow her to go out in the night and " wash (baptize) herself, ejpi at or upon, the fountain in the camp." There are two washings referred to in this passage, one in her chamber, expressed by periJdudzo to wash all over, and the other simply to wash (Baptidzeto) "bap- tized." The former is used to express the washing of Tobit at the river Tigris. Dr. Carson is very severe on Mr. Beecher in regard to the word ; and as the passage is characteristic of Dr. Carson's caustic style, we shall quote it : — " Mr. Beecher's criticism on the Greek word cludzo, here employed for washing, is entirely false. He expounds the word as signifying a washing all round, just as a man stands in a stream and throws the water all over his body, and washes himself by friction. Mr. Beecher criticizes from imagination, not from knowledsre of the laneruao^e. Has he justified his criticism by a single example ? He seems 82 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. to be better acquainted with the different circumstances in the operation of bathing, than with the occurrences of the word, on which he undertakes to criticise. The simple word signifies to deluge, to overwhelm, to inundate, to flow over any thing, and is generally applied to water flowing or rolling, in a horizontal manner. There is no friction nor hand-rubbing in the word. It performs its purpose by running over either gently or with violence. The word does not signify that the young man, in bath- ing, splashed about like a duck, and rubbed himself like a collier, but that he threw himself into the river that the stream might flow over him. He was then baptized indeed and much more than baptized." The best answer to all this eloquent tirade, is found in the fact that it is this very word which denotes the private washing of Judith, when it is said : " She rose and went down (not to the fountain, but) into the house, and washed her body all over with water." The people of Bethulia were in danger of perishing with thirst, is it likely that Judith could obtain enough of water for com- plete immersion ? A small quantity was sufficient for a washing all over ; and that is what is meant in the pas- The second washing, denoted by Baptidzo, was in the camp, at the fountain. Dr. Carson would say, she dipped herself in the fountain, or if not, " Is it not probable that stone troughs, or other vessels were usually provided for bathing and washing clothes?" "It is," he says, " from the established meaiiing of the word, not from views of inde- pendent probability, that we must derive our knowledge of the fact, even were the fact improbable in itself, the testimony of the word would establish it. ... I care not if there had not been a fountain at all in Bethulia, she might be immersed without it. If, from other places, I prove that immerse is the meaning of the word, this, in every situation, will provide the water." Is not this cast-iron criticism ? It will not bend, so it Judith's baptism at the fountain. 83 must break. A single example of the word Baptidzo, with a different meaning, must overthrow it. Have we not supplied many examples. Dr. Fuller says that Judith " washed herself." At ano- ther place he says, " she bathed herself" in a fountain, situated in the valley of Bethulia. " The pretence that bathing would have been indelicate is absurd. Had it been in the day, and in a place where our heroine could be seen,'there would have been no indelicacy, for she was, of course, draped in proper apparel." That is, we presume, she had a baptismal robe for the occasion ! Dr. Conant translates — " Immersed herself in the camp at the fountain." He adds in a note, " There was evi- dently no lack of water for the immersion of the body, after the . Jewish manner ; merely by walking into the water to the proper depth, and then sinking down till the whole body was immersed." We have allowed the advocates of The Theory to speak for themselves in the above extracts. They evidently feel that they have a hard task before them, when they attempt to dip, bathe, or immerse Judith in, or at, the fountain. The reader already knows that ceremonial washing may be done by washing the hands and feet only. What need was there for immersion ? Observe the circumstances. The fountain was the one which had supplied Bethulia with water. The enemy had taken possession of it, and the inhabitants of the city were, therefore, perishing with thirst. Yet Judith was allowed to go, and baptize herself in (en) the camp at, or upon (epi), the fountain. Is it conceivable that she dipped herself in the fountain ? There is not a word in the narrative to signify that she did, if it be not Baptidzo. The immersionists claim that she did actually dip herself. It was just as probable as the immersion of the 3,000 con- verts, on the day of Pentecost, in the pool of Hezekiah, of which we shall speak hereafter. 84 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. JOHANNIC BAPTISM. " There are many kinds of Baptisms," says Ambrose ; but Dr. Carson says, " What is baptism in one case, is baptism in another." The celebrated Baptist preacher, Robt. Hall, of England, was of a different opinion. " The Baptism," he says, " instituted by our Lord is, in Scrip- ture, distinguished from that of the forerunner by the ^ superior effects with which it was accompanied ; so that instead of being confounded, they are contrasted in the Sacred Writings." " It is proper to say," remarks Dr. Dale, " that the two baptisms, while distinguished by dis- tinctive characteristics, were in perfect harmony with each other. It is not proper to say that they are the same baptism in all respects. Nor are they so far the same that they could be interchanged. Christian Bap- tism is complementary of John's Baptism." That is, what was lacking in John's Baptism is found in Christ's. John preached " the baptism of repentance into the remission of sins" (Luke iii. 3). But Christian Baptism is into Christ, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world, implying deliverance from sin and a vital and spiritual union to Jesus. JEWISH BAPTISMS BEFORE MEALS. In endeavouring to ascertain the nature of John's Bap- tism, it seems interesting and important, to enquire first, what Baptisms were common among the Jews in his time. We have already spoken of Baptism with heifer ashes, for the removal of ceremonial impurity. As the son of an offici- ating priest, John must have known this rite. The word Baptidzo, applied to such mode of cleansing, must have been as familiar to him as we have seen it was to Josephus. The Septuagint version, in which the word appears, was in common use among the Jews in John's days. But, be- sides the Baptism with ashes, we learn from the New BAPTISM BEFOKE MEALS. 85 Testament, that there were other baptisms practised after the traditions of the elders, for a ceremonial cleansing. The first of these is described in Mark vii. 2-4 : " And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with "unwashen, hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And, except they baptize themselves from (apo) the market, they eat not." Dr. Carson is very positive that the persons referred to in Mark vii. 4, " were immersed on the occasions men- tioned, or the inspired writer testifies a falsehood." Dr. Carson was a good man; but he was very rash in his assertions. The reader will observe that, in the last verse of the previous chapter, it is said that "the sick were laid in the streets," that Jesus might heal them. Now the word rendered " streets" in Mark vi. 56, is the same word that is rendered " markets" in vii. 4. The Grecian Agora, which is the word employed, meant, like the Eoman Forum, the principal place of business and resort. Now the disciples had been with their Master in the Agoras of the cities ; and, if they contracted peculiar defilement from that, why did not the objectors say " unbaptized " instead of " unwashen hands." The malicious Pharisees would certainly have used the strongest terms of censure that the circumstances would appear to justify. But they only said " unwashen hands," from which the inference seems plain, that the subsequent clause in the 4th verse is merely expository, or explanatory, of the former clauses in the second and third verses. To baptize was to wash for purification. It was to wash the hands. In the Sinai tic manuscript instead of " baptize" in this passage we have (rantize) " sprinkle." We have already seen that hand- washing was performed by pouring water on the hands, instead of immersing them as we do. We have learned also that partial washing of the hands and feet by the priests was considered to purify the whole person. 86 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. The common version of the passage supplies " when they come," before the phrase, " from the market." This inserted clause is unnecessary. The verse is similar in meaning to " Baptized from the dead," which has already been examined. Just as the touch of a dead body defiled a Jew, so the intercourse of the market caused defilement. The chief priests and elders would not, for a similar rea- son, enter into the judgment-hall of Pilate, lest they should be defiled. Such isolating prejudices and customs prevailed among the Jews, partly from their law, and partly from the traditions of their elders. The reading of the Sinai tic manuscript, indicates the manner of the Baptism in this case. Was it not by sprinkling, or aflfu- sion ? Dr. Carson says, " It ought to have been trans- lated, ' except they dip themselves, they eat not.' " The reader has seen, from many examples, that Baptidzo does not mean Dip ; and Baptist writers, of late, have gener- ally conceded this point. (See Ford's " Studies.") Dr. Robiuson, in his " Lexicon of the New Testament," says, " The usual mode of ablution in the East is by pouring water on the hands. This is done by a servant." The same author, in his " Biblical Researches," Vol. ii., p. 451, says, that, in May, 1838, he dined with ten persons in a house at Hebron. " One went and washed his hands, by having water poured upon them, in an adjacent room." Another "did not leave his place, but had the water brought to him, where he sat." Dr. R. and Rev. Eli Smith accepted the proposal of their host, that a servant should wash their feet. " She brought water," he says, " which she poured upon our feet, over a large shallow basin of tinned copper ; kneeling before us, and wiping them with a napkin." A curious story is told of the famous Rabbi Akiba, when the water, brought to him in prison, was not enough to drink. " Pour the water on my hands," he said ; " it is better to die of thirst, than transgress the tradition of the elders." Thus he fulfilled the tradition. CEREMONIAL BAPTISMS. 87 Clement of Alexandria says, that the Jews were " frequently baptized, according to custom, on the couch," on which they reclined at meals. That is, by sprinkling. In regard to the disciples, who were blamed because they had not washed before eating, Ambrose says, " Jesus had washed them ; they sought no other Baptism : for Christ, by one Baptism, resolves all Baptisms." Theophylact also calls the washing of the hands a Baptism. The learned Lightfoot says, " A log was six eggshells' full, and a quarter of a log was sufficient to wash the hands of one or two persons, a half of a log for three or four persons, and a whole log for five, ten, or one hundred persons." There was no need, therefore, for much water for purification. The six water-pots of stone (John ii. 6), at the marriage in Cana of Galilee, had been emptied for the w^ashing of the numerous guests, " after the manner of the purifying of the Jews," when Jesus ordered the pots to be refilled, that he might change the water into wine. Another similar passage, respecting Baptism before meals, is found in Luke xi. 39. " And, as he spake, a cer- tain Pharisee besought him to dine with him ; and he went in, and sat down to meat. And, when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled, that he was not first ' baptized' before dinner." In Mark vii. 3, we have seen what this Baptism was : " The Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not." In Math. xv. 2, it is said that the disciples were found fault with, because they washed not their hands when they ate bread. Those ablutions were not prescribed by the Law of Moses, but by the tradition of the Elders ; and therefore Jesus did not observe them. Theophylact, commenting on the passage, says: "Wash- ing the hands purifies the body only, not the soul." baptism of cups, pots, brazen vessels and couches. " And many other things, which they have received to 88 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. hold, the ' baptizings' of cups, and pots, and brazen ves- sels, and couches'.' — Mark vii. 4. The word Baptismos, Baptism, in the original, is in this place, translated, in the authorized version, by the word " Washing." The baptism or washing was obviously of a ceremonial character, and not for mere cleanliness. It is admitted that the smaller vessels may have beem im- mersed in washing them ; but the immersion of the larger ones, and especially of couches, capacious enough for four persons to recline on at meals, seems very impracticable. Besides, the very nature of the Baptism for ceremonial cleansing did not require Immersion. The Mosaic Law shews this abundantly. The sprinkling of heifer ashes and of blood purified the unclean. Baptidzo is not limited to any mode. It simply requires complete effect, brought about by any means. Baptism into sleep and insensibility was produced by drinking. The same effect was produced by a drug. The baptism of the axehead was effected by the piece of wood floating over it and raising it. Dr. Carson becomes very wild, when he speaks of the baptism of couches, p. 367 : " Couches may be immersed (dipped) without any difliculty ; and, if the Holy Spirit reports truly, couches were immersed (dipped) as they are said to have been baptized." p. 453. — " In fact," he says, " to allege that the couches were not immersed (dip- ped) is not to decide on the authority of the word used, but in opposition to this authority ; to give the lie to the Holy Spirit. Inspiration employs a word to designate the purification of couches, which never signifies any thing but immersion (dipping). If they were not im- mersed (dipped) the historian is a false witness/' (! !) Dr. Carson supposed that he had proved that Baptidzo always means to dip. He takes the liberty of exchanging the word for the equivocal term, Immerse ; and then he maintains that Baptidzo, except in a case of an absolute impossibility, must be so translated. To obviate the ob- JOHANKIC BAPTISM. 89 jection, that the immersion of couches would be next to an impossibility, he says, p. 400, " Whatever might have been their size, they might easily be immersed in a pond. But, even on the supposition that they are too large to be immersed (dipped) entire, I have contrived to take them to pieces, and immer.se them in parts." " Oh, my friends, can you restrain your laughter ? " But such in- consistent reasoning and unreasonable assertions are more calculated to make the wise man weep than smile. It is very dangerous to make our interpretation of a word, a touch-stone for the truth of Scripture. In Numbers xix. 18, we learn how household goods were purified. "A clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels." The dining couch is not specified here ; but it is surely included as part of the furniture. " Sprinkling," says Prof Stuart, " was used most frequently of all, by way of purification." Sprinkling, therefore, was baptism. "JOHN THE BAPTIST." The testimony of Josephus to John the Baptist (Jewish Antiquities xviii. 5, 2) is of great interest and value. " Herod slew him, a good man, exhorting the Jews to cultivate virtue, observing uprightness toward one another, and piety toward God, and so to come for Baptizing (puri- fication) ; for thus the Baptizing would appear acceptable to him, not using it for the remission of sins, but for the purity of the body, provided that the soul has been pre- viously purged by righteousness." In this passage, Josephus uses Baptismos and Baptisis, instead of Baptisma, the last word being the term used exclusively in the New Testament for John's Baptism, and for the Christian ordinance. From this peculiar phraseology, it would appear that Josephus reports the current popular traditions respecting John, without de- riving his knowledge from the Gospels, in which the word F 90 A COMPENB OF BAPTISM. Baptisma is found.* The description of John's Baptism by Josephus is very remarkable. He implies that it was not for ceremonial impurity ; but it was a seal of the pre- vious Baptism of the soul " by righteousness." The Bap- tism of the body was a reflection of the Baptism of the soul, which was a Baptism by righteousness " into the re- mission of sins." Josephus does not supply the last par- ticular in due form ; but his understanding of the subject, so far as he has expressed it, is singularly in accordance with evangelical and historical truth. The Baptism of the soul must precede the Baptism of the body. An analogous case is found in Plutarch, where he speaks of the influence of wine. " Of those slightly intoxicated, only the intellect is disturbed ; but the body is yet able to serve its impulses, being not yet ' baptized.' " Plutarch evidently refers, in this passage, to a twofold Baptism, one of the soul, the other of the body, like the one, of which Josephus speaks, affecting first the soul, and then the body, neither of them being effected by Immersion. *The words Baptismos and Baptisis, employed by Josephus, are, in a critical point of view, of much interest and importance in regard to his testimony, as proving its independence. Baptisma, the word employed in the New I'estament t<> designate the ordinance of Baptism, denotes, not an ACT, but a RESULT. Ihis distinction lies at the very fle of formation, the word Baptidzo has three nouns derived from it. Ba]:)tisma, the Effect ; Baptisis, the Act ; Baptistes, the Baptist. Any Greek grammer maybe consulted on this subject. We have referred to Thiersch, edited by Sir Daniel Sandford ; Hadley's grammar, and Rev. Dr. Bullions'. The last named says, " From the first root of the verb are formed three names of different terminations, indicating, respectively, the thing done, the doing, and the doer." To make the matter still clearer, we add two other examx^les. From Poieo, to make or create, we have Poiema, a poem, or creation ; Poiesis, Poesy, or the art of creating ; Poietes, the poet, or creator of poetry. From Tele, afar, and Grajjho, to write, we have Telegrai)h and Telegram. JOHANNIC BAPTISM. &I The words Baptist (baptistes) and Baptism (baptisma) are not found in Classic Greek. John's name, Baptist, may have originated from the great prominence that was given to the ordinance of Baptism by his ministry, The word Baptisma was probably designed to mark the differ- ence between the New Testament baptism and all others. The termination " es" signifies an Agent. Baptistes, one who baptizes. The termination " ma " means, as we have shewn in the foot note, a thing done, an effect, a product or state. A Baptism is the condition produced by Baptisis, the baptizing. Complete influence is de- noted by the word, by whatever means it may be accom- plished. No specific act, such as Dipping, is included in its meaning. Of this the reader must, we think, be satis- fied, from the great variety of baptisms, we have brought forward. These words Baptidzo, Baptisma and Baptistes are not, by any means, self -interpreting. They must be explained by their adjuncts, or the words that accompany them. We have seen that one may be baptized into water and drowned — baptized by wine into drunkenness — baptized by a drug into insensibility and sleep — baptized by heifer ashes out of ceremonial uncleanness into ceremonial purity ; and now, in John's baptism, we have the baptism of repentance into remission of sins. In all these and similar cases we have the preposition Eis denoting Into and indicating the receiving element, real or ideal, into which the baptized person is baptized. It is much to be regretted that Baptist writers, even including the learned Dr. Conant, do not tranlate Eis, in the description of John's Baptism, as they do elsewhere. Dr. Conant regularly translates Eis by " Into " in classical examples ; but when the Baptist version, edited by him, comes to Mark 1, 4, it reads, " Preaching the immersion of repentance unto the remission of sins." The reason for this is plain. "Eis" according to the theor}^, must be re- served for water, with which, however, it is never con* 92 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. NECTED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT ; and, therefore, Eis must be rendered by the Baptists unto. Can it be mere preju- dice on our part that we are unable to make any sense out of this strange combination of words, " The Immersion of repentance ! " Is it repentance that is immersed ? or is Repentance the Immerser ? How noble and how simple the real sentiment of the evangelist ! " Preaching the baptism of repentance into the remission of sins." John preached that men should repent, which they could not do but by the Baptism of God's Spirit ; and, when they had confessed their sins, having received from above a spiritual Baptism, he baptized them with water, as the sign and seal of their being forgiven, pointing them, at the same time, to the Coming One, as the " Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world." The real Baptism which John preached, John himself could not give ; but he could exhort the sinners that crowded to hear him ; " Prepare the way of the Lord ! Make His paths straight ! " The humble penitent was welcomed, comforted, " baptized ;" but, when the proud, self-righteous Pharisees approached John, he said, " O generation of vipers ! who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come ? " It was no mere water-baptism that could cleanse their souls from the guilt of avarice and hypocrisy. " Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance. I indeed baptize you with water into repentance ; but He, that cometh after me, is mightier than I ; whose shoes I am not worthy to bear : He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." And then he adds, evidently in the spirit of the subsequent famous Patristic interpretation ; " Whose fan is in his hand ; and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner ; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Are we not reminded here of the great Baptizer of the Christian Fathers, with the flaming sword at the gate of Paradise, who guards the way to the tree of Life, purges his chosen ones, and JOHANNIC BAPTISM. 93 consumes, in his wrath, the objects of his just indig- nation ? The Baptism, which John preached, was spiritual, pre- paratory to the reception of Christ. The Baptism, which John administered, was not another baptism, but the same Baptism in a symbolic form. We are anxious to avoid, as far as possible, learned critical remarks in the discussion of this subject ; but the advocates of the Dipping-immersion system are very bold in their affirmations, as to the meaning of certain words in the Gospel, bearing on this question, and, therefore, we shall try to make the matter so plain, that even the unlearned may understand : — 1. Allusion has been made to the preposition Eis. We have affirmed that its meaning generally is into, as in the phrases, into (eis) Christ into (eis) Moses ; into (eis) repentance ; into (eis) the remission of sins. Baptidzo, in its primary meaning, having reference to position within an enclosing substance, requires this signification for its accompanying preposition. Thus, in primary meaning, Baptidzo means to drown by complete envelopment in water or other fluid ; and Eis signifies the entrance into the enclosing element. Baptidzo, in pri- mary meaning with Eis, denotes immekston without EMERSION, which, to a living being, is death by drowning. We have seen, from many instances, that Baptidzo does not always signify immersion into any physical element ; but simply CONTROLLING INFLUENCE, as when it denotes Baptism into sleep, into drunkenness, etc. The preposi- tion Eis, in such cases, implies the complete control, which the ideal element exercises over the baptized person. When we are baptized into Christ, he becomes our Lord and Master. In Him we live and move, and have our spiritual being. Henceforth " we live the life, which is hid with Christ in God." Let it be observed, moreover, that this condition is permanent. This idea has been beautifully illustrated from the use of the old law term 94 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. Merger. A terminable title to a property in land is anni- hilated, swallowed up, Merged in a title or lease for- ever. 2. The Greek preposition En, which generally signi- fies In, but not always, requires some further considera- tion. It may be, in a great measure, looked upon as the representative, in New Testament or Hellenistic Greek, of the Hebrew letter B. * Observe : — The Jews in writing Greek were in the habit of using the preposition En, as the equivalent of Beth, where Classical Greeks would have simply used the dative case without any preposition. The Evangelist Matthew often uses En, " In or With" ; where Luke, who wrote in a purer dialect of Greek, would have simply em- ployed the dative case without any preposition. This circumstance is of much importance in ascertaining the meaning of En where it occurs. The distinguished cri- tic, Winer, notices this peculiarity of Jewish Greek, when he says : " A predilection for prepositions, where the Greeks employ cases alone, is especially noticeable." Thus Luke always says simply, " hudati,'' with water, when he speaks of John's Baptism ; while Matthew, after the Jewish idiom, says " En hudati." They both, of course, mean the same ; and, if it were not for the desire to get people into and under the water, both would be translated in the same way. At any rate, it seems very * It may not be inappropriate to mention the idea of Philologists, that Pre positions were originally nouns, which have been abbreviated in order to express relations. Thus the Hebrew preposition P>. (see Hebrew Alphabet) is from Beth, a house, a word, whi(!h is often met in interesting connexion with names of places. Thus Bethel means " house of God" — Beth-aven, ** house of vanity or evil," when idols were set up there. The idea of home seems the starting point of the Hebrew Beth or B. Somewhat like the French Chez, as " chez lui," "At his house." Gesenius in his Hebrew Lexicon, gives nineteen different meanings for Beth— among which are the following : Exod. xxii. 21.: Be-eretz Mitzraim, " In the land of Egypt." Gen. xvi. 7. Ba-ayn, " By a fountain." Prov. xii. IG, Ba-yom, " By day or presently." Gen. i. 26, Be-tsalmenu, " After our likeness." Dent, xjcviii. 3, Ba-eer, *' in th« city." Pfv-Sadee, " in the field." WHAT DOES " EN '' MEAN .^ 95 remarkable, that, in the new Baptist version, there is no scruple manifested about translating " En" by the pre- position " With or By" in scores of places, w^here In would not be suitable. We shall give a very few instances, while we might fill pages of such from the New Version. Take Matthew only. Dr. Conant's translation, in wh'ich there are no less than thirty-seven such instances. Matt. V. : 13. " Wherewith (en) shall it be salted ? " " V. : 34. " Swear not at all, neither by (en) hea- ven," etc. Matt. vii. : 2. " With (en) what measure you mete " etc. " vii. : 6. " Lest they trample them with (en) their feet." Matt. ix. : 34. " Casts out devils through (en) Beelze- bub," etc. Matt. xvii. : 21. " This kind goeth not out but by (en) prayer and fasting." Matt. xxii. : 37. " With (en) all thy heart, with (en) all thy soul," etc. Matt. xxii. : 4. *' How doth David by (en) the Spirit call Him Lord ? " It is conceded that where a place or locality is men- tioned En will denote the same as our word In. Thus En eremo means " In the desert." En Jordan, " In the Jordan." Un Aindn, " In ^non." Dr. Conant translates Matt. 3:11, "I indeed baptize you in water ;" and he says, "This is the only sense in which En can be used wioh Baptidzo," This would be correct, if water were a place or locality; but the examples we have brought forward from Dr. Conant's translation of Mat- thew, show that, in his own estimation. En is not always to be rendered by In. En hudati in Matt, is the same as Hudati without En in Luke; and, as both mean the same, they are both to be translated " With or by water." The merest tyro in Greek can see this. Hudati without En would be rendered "in water" by no one who had not a preconceived theory to bolster up. 96 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. But it may be said, " En Jordane," signifies "in Jordan ;' does not that mean immersion in water ? We answer, in the first place, that, if it did, John must have drowned those he immersed, for, as Dr. Conant teaches very truly, Baptidzo does not include Emersion. In the second place, it can be shown that thousands of people have, at dif- ferent times, met in the Jordan, who were not immersed in the water. Dr. Gill says, " The place where they were baptized of him was the Jordan." Dr. Carson admits that Jordan is a locality ; but he contends that the lo- cality is a river, so that " In Jordan " must mean " In the water." But on p. 339, speaking of Ulysses escaped from shipwreck, and Lying on the bank of a river, he says, " On the bank he could have no shelter : in the river he would have the shelter of the bank. He might be in the river, yet not in the water : ALL within the banks is THE RIVER." But let us look at some passages from the Septuagint version of the Old Testament. Translating 1 Kings xvii. 3, the Septuagint speaks of Elijah hiding himself in the brook Cherith. The translators did not suppose that he hid in the water. He was in the brook, that is, within its lofty and overhanging or precipitous banks. The original Elijah thus hid from his enemies in the brook Cherith ; and his antitype John baptized persons in " the Jordan," whose outer banks were far enough from the water to allow thousands of people to assemble within them for instruction and Baptism; but "in the Jordan" does not necessarily mean " in the river." The Septuagint represents King Saul (1 Samuel xv. 4, 5) as forming an ambuscade of 200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah " in the brook." Dr. Carson asks " What is to hinder the place of ambush from being in the brook ? A very proper question surely, but not helpful to the theory. Ps. Ixxxiii, 9. "Do to them as to Midian and to Sisera, as to Jabin in the brook Kishon." Referring to the parallel passage, Judges iv. 13^ we read " Sisera had WHAT DOES " EN " MEAN t 97 collected 800 chariots of iron and all the people that were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles, into (eis) the brook Kishon." Not into the water surely, but within the banks, or into " Kishon dale." 1 Rings xv. 1 3, " Asa destroyed her idol and burned it in (en) the brook, Kishon," not in the water certainly. Dr. Dale quotes a number of verses from the account, in the book of Joshua, of the passage over Jordan, in which the dry bed of the river is called the Jordan ; but it seems to be unnecessary to further multiply examples, in order to prove that "En Jordand" does not necessarily imply " In the water." It has been mentioned that Hudati, " with water," some- times has En before it, and, at other times, it appears as a simple instrumental dative, both expressions meaning in general the same, but the former being Hellenistic Greek, the latter Classical. On the other hand, it is worthy of remark that the Baptism, which Jesus confers, is always expressed by the phrase " en pneumati hagio" — " En the Holy Spirit." The phrase, in its full and glorious' meaning cannot be translated. We have no preposition in English that can represent it in this connexion, any more than we have a Saxon or Latin word exactly equiva- lent to Baptidzo. The Spirit of God can make the bap- tized ones understand it. It is as the " white stone" given to him that overcometh, and " in the stone a new name which no man knoweth saving he that receive th it." When the Scripture speaks of Baptism " hudati," with w^ater, it means only symbolic baptism ; but when one always reads " En pneumati hagio," " En the Holy Spirit," it always means real, spiritual Baptism, including true re- pentance and change of heart. The instrumental dative, Hudati, and En hudati, agree in a common generic thought ; but the latter term is the more forcible and specific. T^us says Dr. Dale : " It is not the same form of thought, which is expressed by " Seal (En) the ring," and "Seal 'with' the ring" — "Kill (En) the sword/' and 98 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. " Kill 'with' the sword." " Baptize En hudati into repen- tance," and " Baptize ' with' water into repentance" — The ring, the sword, the tvater have power and authority with En, which are lacking in the simple instrumental da- tive. Water with En has a symbol power to baptize into repentance ; but the Spirit alone could baptize in reality, i. e. En pneumati. John's baptism. John i. 25 : " What (Baptism) dost thou baptize ? " Luke iii. 3 : " Preaching the Baptism of repentance (eis) into the remision of sins." Act xix. 4 : " John baptized the Baptism of repentance." The translation of the last of these verses in the com- mon version, is "John baptized with the Baptism of re- pentance." In the new Baptist version it is, "John im- mersed with the immersion of repentance." " With" is not in the original. The phrase is similar to, " I will dye you a Sardinian dye" (p. 16). The common version of the first quotation (John i. 25) is "Why dost thou bap- tize ? " ; but, according to what we see in the third quo- tation, (Acts xix. 4.) it may be translated, as we have given it — " What (Baptism) dost thou baptize ? " This question was put to John by a deputation from the Phar- isees, who came to inquire about John's mission, and as- certain whether or not he claimed to be the Messiah, or the Elijah of Prophecy. When he had denied that he was either, they asked him, " What (Baptism) then, dost thou baptize?" He answered, "I baptize with (en) water; but the one coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose : " Then, the next day, John makes a fuller statement : " He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, ' Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remain- ing on him, the same is he, which baptizeth with (en) the Holy Ghost.' " As if he had said, " The Baptism of the John's baptism. 99 Coming One is the real Baptism of the'soul ; mine is but an emblem, indicating, by the purifying water, the work, which the Spirit only can effect, on the heart." This view of the passage is confirmed and illustrated by Acts xix. 3. Paul found at Ephesus certain disciples, who had not received the gift of the Holy Ghost ; and he enquired (N.Y.), " Into (eis) what " (Baptism) " then were ye baptized?" and they said, "Into (eis) John's Baptism." The answer shows the proper ellipsis to be supplied in the preceding verse, and in the verse we have quoted from John : " What Baptism dost thou baptize ? " Still, the question of the Pharisees is not the same, in all respects, as the question of Paul. Baptism into wine, as in the case of the Duke of Clarence, a drowning baptism, is not the same as a baptism with wine, instrumentally, into drunkenness. " What Baptism ? " is an enquiry as to which, of all the many kinds of baptism, John prac- tised ; but, " Into what Baptism ? " requires an answer, explaining the results of the baptism, which the disciples at Ephesus had received. The Baptism of John was a baptism of repentance into remission of sins. The Bap- tism, which Paul preached, and which water, in the name of Jesus, symbolized, was a Baptism by the Holy Spirit into a new nature. The gift of tongues was a special evidence of its reality, and its power. The word Repentance seems to require special attention in connection with our subject. Baptism (Eis) into re- pentance. What does it imply ? Is it merely sorrow, or is it the result of sorrow ? Paul teaches to distinguish repentance from mere sorrow in 2 Cor. vii. 10. " For," he says, " Godly sorrow," or the sorrow which is after God, " worketh repentancs not to be regretted." (N.Y.) In the common version, there seems to be a play on the word repentence, which is not found in the Greek. Metamelomai denotes regret, while Metanoeo properly means Repent- ance, by a thorough change in the mind. We may regret that of which we do not repent. For instance, Paul re^ 100 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. gretted his first letter to the Corinthians, for it had caused them much pain ; but he did not repent that he had written it, since it had brought the offender to repentance, and had induced the Corinthians to exercise proper dis- cipline in the church. Esau deeply regretted the selling of his birthright ; but he found no place for " a change of mind," which is the literal meaning of the Scripture word for Repentance, " though he sought it carefully with tears." (Heb. xii. 17.) It was not a change in his own mind he sought, but in his father's mind ; and, there- fore, he sought in vain. Judas deeply regretted his crime in betraying Jesus ; but he had no proper change of mind, as we know from his miserable end. " He went to his own place." "The sorrow of the world worketh death." It leads to despair. THE PLACES AND MODE OF JOHN's BAPTISM. The places where John baptized were chiefly the wil- derness, the villages of ^non and Bethany, and the river Jordan. Those who plead for immersion have devoted much research and laborious discussion to this subject, pleading earnestly for dipping facilities. Dr. Robert Wilson says on this snbject, " The argument for immer- sion founded on the places, has always appeared to us to be feebleness personified. How stand the facts of Scrip- ture history ? Out of nine or ten localities specified in the New Testament, as the scenes of the administration of baptism, only two, ^non and Jordan, possessed a liberal supply of water. Much water is the exception ; little water is the rule. So simple was the rite, that its performance appears to have been equally convenient in a private house, a prison, or a desert." We have seen that the mention of the river Jordan, though it could supply abundance of water, did not neces- sarily imply immersion. Besides, "in Jordan" might mean anywhere within the banks, Pr. Carson himself WAS JOHN'S BAPTISM BY IMMERSION ? 101 being witness. Unless the word Baptidzo necessarily im- plies immersion, the phrase " in the river" will not do so. Furthermore, the circumstances of John's preaching and baptizing rendered immersion very improbable. Multi- tudes left their homes, out of mere curiosity to hear the preacher in the wilderness, unprovided with " baptismal robes," or a change of clothing. Were they immersed naked, or, if they retained their clothes, how could they get them dried ? This may seem improper questioning; but common sense will justify it. Such attention to practical details cannot be fairly deemed unnecessary. The learned Lightfoot says that, when Proselyte Bap- tism was administered to a female, the Rabbis, who re- hearsed to her the precepts of the Law, while she remained in the water, retired as she immersed her head,- leaving her in the sole charge of attendants of her own sex. The hand of man was not permitted to press even her head under the water; and hence such proselytes were said to have immersed themselves. Referring to the baptism of females by John, Dr. Wilson asks, " Was immersion the mode ? were the females dipped in their ordinary gar- ments ? or how ?" Professor Stuart shows conclusively from the writings of Ambrose, Cyril, and Chrysostom, " that all candidates for baptism, men, women and infants, were completly divested of all their garments, in order to be baptized." Well does he conclude with these words. " Enough of this most unaccountable of all the practices of the ancient Church. I am ready to thank God for the honour of the Christian religion, that the New Testament contains no intimation of such a usage ; nor even any of the early fathers. How it was possible that it could prevail, is a problem difficult of solution." Baptists commonly affirm that no injury to health arises from immersion. If we granted this, as a matter of experience, which, consistently with facts, we cannot do, might it not be accounted for by the extreme excite- 102 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. inent of the person baptized, or by the improved methods of immersion in warmed water, unknown in the primi- tive age, and unpractised in rural districts at the present day ? Pilgrims in cities of the nineteenth century boil their peas, while in country places, they glory in their hardness. The vast multitudes, who attended the preaching of John, and were baptized by him during the brief period of his ministry, form a great obstacle in the way of the Dipping-immersion theory. Abraham Booth thought the baptism of three thousand, in one day, required spe- cial explanation. He attempts to remove the difficulty by the following historical parallels. " Mr. John Fox in- forms us, that Austin the Monk baptized and christened ten thousand Saxons or Angles in the West river, that is called Swale, beside York, on a Christmas-day." Another instance is given from Robertson's History of South America — A single clergyman baptized in one day, above &Ye thousand Mexicans, and did not desist till he was so exhausted by fatigue, that he was unable to lift up his hands." It is recorded that Francis Xavier eclipsed all other feats of this nature by baptizing fifteen thousand in one day. Booth's illustrations fail, however, from the trifling circumstance, that the Church of Home, in the above cases, did not impose immersion upon her converts. They were baptized by sprinkling. In the third chapter of Matthew, we are told that " Jerusalem and all Jordan and the region round about Jordan " went to John and were " baptized of (by) him in Jordan, confessing their sins." We must remember that John preached as well as baptized ; yet the simple physical effort of immersing such vast multitudes, within the time of his brief ministry, is wholly incredible. No man could have done it, even setting aside from consider- ation the amphibious life he must have lived in its per- formance. John was as liable as other men, no doubt, to rheumatism and other similar diseases, from which, in WHAT DOES "EN JORDANE " MEAN .^ 103 the circumstances, he could not have escaped, except by miracle. Some have calculated the number baptized by John at two millions. A low estimate would be three hundred thousand. Supposing him engaged every day for ten years, in the work of immersion, his task would scarcely have been completed ; yet his ministry was but one year, a fact, which, alone, proves the impossibility of his having " plunged " so great a multitude. In Mark i. 4, it is said, " John was baptizing in the wilderness," etc. The new Baptist version has it, " John came immersing in the wilderness, and preaching the im- mersion of repentance unto (eis) remission of sins." If " En Jordan^ " means " In the water of the Jordan," what does " En te eremo" mean, but " In the sands of the desert." The reasoning, we admit, is fallacious ; but it is just as good in the one case as in the other. Jordan does not necessarily mean water, neither does desert mean a wilderness of sand. Is it any harm to play off one sophism against another ? But (badinage apart) let the reader re- member how learned Baptists, like Dr. Conant, can always translate eis by Into, except when it occurs in the formula of Baptism. Every Baptist seems to feel that Eis, Into, must be reserved for the water ; and thus, oh, lamentable failure ! they fall short in expression, though not, we are persuaded, in experience, of the Baptism into Repentance — Baptism into Christ ! But another, though far less important, objection to the above translation arises from the fact that Immerse is a compound word, while Baptidzo is simple and uncom- pounded. There is such a word as Embaptidzo, or Bap- tidzo with En before it. If the word Merse were accepted as an equivalent to Baptidzo, to which it is indeed similar in meaning, then Immerse might translate Embaptidzo ; but to use Immerse as the equivalent of Baptidzo, is evi- dently improper and fallacious. It does not require more than a very small acquaintance with the structure of lan- guage to see this. Any one, who can spell, may see it. 104 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. Supposing, then, that we discard Immerse, and use Merge, or Merse, in translation, how would it read ? " John came merging in the wilderness," a phrase, suffi- ciently barbarous, yet really much nearer the mark than Immerse. We have seen how the old law term, Merger, denotes the annihilation of an inferior and mere tempo- rary title to property, by its being swallowed up in a title for ever. So John preached the mersion of the temporary state of Repentance into the blessed assurance of sins, forgiven for ever. It seems hardly worth while to spend time and space in discussing the use of the ancient favourite " Dip," the energetic " Plunge," or the disjointed " Put under." Bap- tists themselves severally repudiate each of these terms in succession as unsuitable or ridiculous. Let them only make up their minds that they cannot find an English word equivalent to Baptidzo ; and they will be on the high road to emancipation from Modalism, and to the fraternal privileges of open communion. MANY SPRINGS, OR MUCH WATER. " And John, also, was baptizing in ^non near Salim ; for there were many springs (polla hudata) there; and they came and were baptized." John iii. 23. John had been baptizing beyond Jordan. He was now at iEnon, the place of many springs ; but why had he changed the location of his labours ; and why did he come to JEnon ? In the 3rd chapter of Joshua, we are told that " Jordan overfloweth all his banks in time of harvest." In Jordan dale, between the outer banks and the river, there was ample room for great multitudes to assemble ; but the melting snows of Lebanon and Hermon, in the months of March and April, raised the waters of the river; and it rushed with full, impetuous, and turbid current down to the Dead Sea, filling its channel full from brim to brim. The water became unfit for use ; for it carried off the accumulated impurities of the previous MANY SPRINGS OR MUCH WATER ? 105 year ; and the space, which had afforded accommodation for tens of thousands, became inaccessible, a great wide- spreading flood. It was not then suitable for John's disciples to assemble there. He must find another locality. Six miles north east of Jerusalem lies a deep valley, descending, by a ravine, from the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, It was probably in the seclusion of this valley that Elijah hid, when the brook Cherith gave him drink, and the ravens brought him food. The Arab name, Ainyun-Wady-Farah, means " Fountains of the valley of Delight." This appears to be the ancient ^non, where John and Jesus, at the same time, found room and water for their followers, and opportunity for baptism. Dr. Robinson paid a second visit to Palestine, princi- pally, it is said, for the purpose of discovering this locality. Dr. Barclay, in his valuable work " City of the Great King," describes it. A succession of fountains (poUa hudata) for a mile or two, gush out from under high cliffs and form pools, deep enough for wading, swimming, or immersion. These springs dry up in summer. The locality was convenient to Jerusalem, and 10 miles from the Jordan. An obvious use of these many streams was to supply drinking water, and water for cooking and washing, to the multitudes who flocked from all quarters to the ministry of Jesus and of John. The abundance of water could not prove immersion, unless the word bap- tism, by some other reasons, were shewn to mean a Dipping, Any one, who has beheld the procession, formed from a Baptist church in a rural neighbourhood, to some brook or mill-pond ; or who has witnessed the scenic effect of a Baptism in a city church Baptistery, must think it strange that no adjournment of the services to a pool or a river is ever mentioned in the New Testament. The ceremony seems to have been easily performed, whether the bap- tisms were in Jerusalem, in the desert, in the prison, or ^t the many springs of iEnon, Just a^ a yery small quan^ F 106 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. tity of water was enough for cereraonial ablution ; so, for anything in the Word of God, that we have been able to discover, it seems clear that a small quantity of water was sufficient for Christian Baptism ; yet it has been argued that John went to the Jordan and to the " Polla hudata" of ^non, for the convenience of immersion. " My argu- ment," says Dr. Carson, " is this : If Baptism had not been immersion, there can be no adequate cause alleged for going to the river ? Can sober judgment, can candour suppose, that, if a handful of water would suffice for a baptism, they would have gone to a river ? " The answer to this is at hand. Telemachus is repre- sented by Homer as going to the sea for a hand-washing for purification. A curious story is told also in Livy's "History of Eome," that there was a certain Sabine, who had a heifer, about which a prophecy had been reported, that, whoever sacrificed her would secure, for his own na- tion, the supremacy. A Roman priest saw the Sabine come with the heifer, and called out — " Are you going to oflfer a sacrifice without first purifying ? " The Sabine left the animal, went down to the river, ivashed his hands, and on his return, found that the crafly Roman had in the meantime oflfered the victim. It would be easy to multiply examples of partial washing at running streams being considered sufficient for ceremonial cleansing. In connexion with the passage, which speaks of the Baptisms by both Jesus and John at ^non, we find men- tion of a question arising, between John's disciples and the Jews, about purifying — John iii. 25. The 26th verse says, "They came to John, and said unto him: ' Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest vritness, behold the same baptizeth, and all men come to him." Is it not easy to see that John's disciples and the Jews connected the ordinance of Baptism with Puri- fying? and may we not infer that John's Baptism re- sembled the old mode of puiification by sprinkling, as practised under the Law ? Please to note this. BAPTISM OF JESUS BY JOHN. 107 THE BAPTISM OF JESUS AT THE JOED AN. Mark i. : 9. — " Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee to the Jordan, and was hajJtized by John." Compared with Luke xi. : 38. — " And when the Pharisee saw it he marvelled that he was not first baptized before dinner." The expression in the latter verse, referring, as we have already seen, to hand-washing purifications, is precisely the same as in the former verse. Ehaptisthe is the Greek word for Baptism in one case, and for Washing in the other. Ambrose says, " There are many Baptisms." The Theory says, there is but one. Are there not two Bap- tisms here ? The one refers to ceremonial cleansing, the other to a spiritual ordinance ; yet, there is not in the word Ehaptisthe the difierence of a single letter. If there was no immersion in one case, why should we say there was immersion in the other ? " But," says the critic, "we have here " Ebaptisth^ eis ton Jordanen." — " Into the Jordan ;" while you have translated it " To the Jordan." Well may Dr. Carson triumph as he does, with exceeding joy. " Mark i. : 9, then, itself decides the controversy. It is into the Jordan; and nothing but into the Jordan it can be. I venture to assert that there is not an illustrious name among grammarians, that will sanction the use of this doctrine, that is made of it by this writer (his critic). There is not in Europe, there never was in existence a great scholar, who would deny that Jesus Christ was immersed in the Jordan. Nothing but the confidence of ignorance could ever venture such extravagance." And yet, if the reader will exercise a little patience, we shall be able to show that in this, the ONLY CASE in the Scriptures, in which " Baptidzo eis " seems to connect itself with water, it does not do so in reality. 1. We have already shown that the names Jordan, Cherith, etc., mean localities, in which there are both water and dry ground, so that " Into Jordan " does not 108 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. necessarily imply immersion in water any more than it signifies drowning. The hosts of Sisera were in the Kishon, but not in the water. Saul and his ambush were in the brook " Cheimarroon," but not in the water; so that the mention of the Jordan does not imply of ne- cessity being in the water. 2. The reader will observe that there are two verbs in the passage, the one " came " (elth^) a verb of motion, and the other "was baptized" (ebaptisthd). Now we have great pleasure in quoting Dr. Carson's authority for overthrowing his own interpretation. " My doctrine is," says Carson, " that the motion is implied in a verb, which is understood, and is not properly communicated to a verb which has no motion in itself. It is absurd to suppose that the same verb can designate both rest and motion. It is impossible to stand and move at the same time. What I say is, that when Eis is construed with a verb, in which there is no motion, there is always a verb of motion understood, and which is not expressed because it is necessarily suggested." In this case, however, the matter is still clearer ; for we have " elth^, came," a verb of motion, expressed ; and £is, according to Dr. Carson, and according to Greek idiom, connects with it, instead of connecting with Baptidzo. The translation, then, is, " Came (eis) into Jordan (Jordan- dale), and was baptized." Dr. Carson, in expounding the passage, connects Eis with both verbs ; and thus, as Dr. Wilson says, " produces a case of philological bigamy." Eis may be connected grammatically with either verb, but not with both. Dr. Dale profoundly remarks that, " If Dr. Carson's axiom, ' Baptidzo eis,' ' Baptize into,' in all cases," be carried out, the theory is at once buried out of sight, by a Baptism " into repentance," not into water, and by a Baptism into remission of sins, not into Jordan. The reader will bear in mind, the Baptist trans- lation of eis metanoian, " unto repentance," using " unto" instead of " J»to," in order to reserve Eis for the water, THREE BAPTISxMS RECEIVED BY OUR LORD. ] 09 We shall now give a few examples of Eis, in which a verb of motion is either expressed or understood with another verb. Dr. Carson quotes from Xenophon. " Cyrus com- manded an officer to stand 'into' the front ;" that is, to go and stand in the front. The going is implied in the preposition, Eis. Luke xxi. 37. He went out, and lodged (eis) in the Mount of Olives. The meaning is, " He went out to the Mount, and lodged there." John ix. 7, " Go, wash (eis) in the pool of Siloam." John ix. 11, " Go (eis) to the pool of Siloam, and wash." The last two verses mean, of course, the same, though the construction is different. In both cases, the motion towards the pool is expressed by Eis. Why may we not, therefore, translate, " He came from Nazareth to the Jordan and was baptized ? " The word " came," as a verb of motion, evidently, according to the usage of the Greek language, as seen in the above examples, requires Eis to be attached to it, and not to Baptidzo. "Eis" refers to the journey from Nazareth, and not to the Baptism. Please take note of this also. THREE PERSONAL BAPTISMS RECEIVED BY OUR LORD. In the last section the Baptism of our Saviour by John at the Jordan was considered, in regard to the place and manner of the ordinance. It remains to inquire into its nature and design. 1st. Did Jesus receive the Baptism of John, as it was administered to the thousands, who came to him, confess- ing their sins ; or was the Baptism of the Saviour special and peculiar ? The question itself suggests the answer. Jesus had no sins to repent of, and could not, therefore, receive the baptism of repentance. John the Baptist acknowledged this, and said : (Matt. iii. 14) "I have need to be baptized of thee ; and comest thou to me ? " The answer of Jesus indicates the character of the Baptism, which he souQ^ht at the hands of John : " Suffer it to be so 110 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." For thirty years Jesus had, in private life, shewed a per- fect example of human obedience to the moral law ; he was now about to enter on his grand God-like mission, as the Saviour of the world. He was to be manifested, as the Lord our righteousness. Here then he claims from John his public recognition, and asks for Baptism from his forerunner, as the inaugurating ceremony of his Messianic work. At his Baptism, he undertook the task of fulfilling all righteousness ; at the cross he said : " It is finished." The work was then complete. He came, " not to destroy the law, but to fulfil." 2nd. Immediately after the inaugurating Baptism of the Saviour, its confirmatory sign from heaven was given by the descent of the Holy Spirit. John bare record saying, " I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove ; and it abode upon him." (John i. 32.) This was the real Baptism of Jesus. Henceforth he was full of the Holy Ghost. John, afterwards, said to his own disciples : " He, whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God ; for God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him." The gift to Jesus was unlimited in continuance and in power. In his first recorded sermon, delivered in the synagogue at Nazareth, soon after his Baptism, Jesus read from the prophecies of Isaiah : " The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. . . . And he began to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." The miracles he performed, were wrought by the same power : " If I, (en) by the Spirit of God, cast out devils, then is the kingdom of God come unto you." His final offering up of himself as a sacrifice is ascribed to the same divine agent, " who, through the eternal spirit, offered himself < without spot to God." (Heb. ix. 14.) It is remarkable that, immediately after this Baptism of the Spirit, it is said : " Then was Jesus led up by (en) the spirit into the wilderness ; " and when the temptations THREE BAPTISMS RECEIVED BY OUR LORD. Ill had ended, " he returned in (en) the power of the Spirit." The reader will notice, that, in this heavenly Baptism of Jesus, there is no momentary Dipping or Immersion, but an INFLUENCE CONTROLLING THROUGH THE WHOLE LIFE. There is evidently a resemblance between this Baptism of Jesus, and the Baptism of the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. Both were Baptisms by the Spirit, and both were preparatory for life-work. The dove-like ap- pearance characterized the meek and lowly one ; the cloven tongues denoted the special gifts, by which, through the foolishness of preaching, the Apostles were to subdue and evangelize the world. 8rd. What may be termed the third Baptism of our Lord is called (Matt. xx. 22, and Mark x. 38, 39) " the BAPTISM OF THE CUP." " Can ye drink of the cup, that I drink of, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with ? " This was a Baptism into death by the drinking of the cup of penal suffering. James and John sought eminent honour for themselves, to sit on each hand of Jesus in his kingdom. In their ignorance they declared themselves ready to drink of the cup, of which he was to drink ; and Jesus told them that they should indeed suf- fer. The way of the cross was the way of life, " via crucis, via lucis." He had already told them (33 and 34 verses) that the Son of Man should be delivered unto the high priests and unto the scribes ; " and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, &c.," and then, in reference to their request, he adds (in the 43, 44 and 45th verses) " Whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister ; and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all ; for even the Son of Man came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." In these last words we have the interpretation of what he meant, when he spoke of the cup, which he had to drink, the cup of suffering even unto death. Often does he allude to this, as in Luke xii. 50 : " I have a baptism to be baptized wit h 112 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. and how am I straitened until it be accomplished." Re- peatedly, in the Garden of Gethsemane, does he refer to the cup in his prayers, Matt. xxvi. 89 : "0 my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me ; " and again, in the 42nd verse, " O my father, if this cup may not pass from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." When Peter would have resisted the arrest of his Master by the soldiers, Jesus said (John xviii. 11) : " The cup which my father hath given me to drink, shall I not drink it ? " Dr. Dale's remarks on this Baptism are singularly beautiful and appropriate. " This Baptism of our Lord is the only Baptism of the New Testament, which is re- presented as effected by drinking from a cup. There is no other Baptism, which could fitly be so represented. This Baptism stands all alone. It was no ordinary death- baptism ; it was no martyr- death -baptism ; it was an atoning death-baptism. The ordinary Baptisms, agencies, and symbols are out of place. What so fit, so tenderly beautiful, as a cup, held to his lips by his Father's hand ? In that cup, melted down by the mighty menstruum of the law, are the Incarnation, the manger, the temptations of the wilderness, the contradiction of sinners, the scoff, the derision, the blaspheming, the buffeting, the thorn, the nail, the spear, the forsaking by his Father ! and he drank it all, and was baptized into death, ' that whoso- ever believeth on him might not perish, but have ever- lasting life.' The believer in Christ drinks of the cup, of which he drank, but not until it is emptied by his Lord of its penal woe, and it is made unto him a ' cup of sal- vation ; ' he is baptized with the Baptism with which he is baptized, but not until its death-issue is exhausted, and life springs up in its stead." * The personal Baptism of Christ, then, was threefold : — 1st. The Covenant Baptism to fulfil all righteousness. 2nd. The Baptism of the Holy Ghost, which descended * See also Dr. Dale's sermon, " The Cup and the Cross." THREE BAPTISMS RECEIVED BY OUR LORD. 113 ^pon him, and abode with him in all his mediatorial work. 3rd. The cup Baptism into death, when he gave his life a ransom for many. In speaking of the cup that Jesus had to drink, Dr. Carson (p. 87) refers to such passages of the Old Testament, as " Save me, God, for the waters are come unto my soul. I sink in mire, where there is no standing," etc. Thus he confounds the drinking from a cup with Immersion ! On page 117, he denies that drinking has any respect to the ordinance. He says, " The conceit is as arbitrary as any thing in the mysteries of Popery." We need only remind the reader of the Baptisms by drinking, which have been given from the Classics. " Baptized by unmixed wine " (Athanceus). " Baptizing powerfully " (the same). " Baptized by yesterday's de- bauch " (Plutarch). " The body not yet baptized " (the same). We might easily enlarge the number of examples. These, we presume, will be sufficient to justify the inter- pretation of the cup, as a mode of baptism. To the Greek Fathers the idea was quite familiar. Cyril of Jerusalem says : " The Saviour called martyr- dom Baptism, saying, Can ye drink the cup that I drink ? " Chrysostom : " Here calling his cross and death a cup and a Baptism." Origen : " The Baptism of martyrdom is given to us ; for so it is called, as is evident : ' Can ye drink of the cup which I drink V or 'be baptized with the Baptism that I am baptized with ? ' " The word Baptidzo is translated uniformly, in the new Bible-Union (Baptist) Translation, by the equivocal term Immerse, except in Mark x. 30, where the word " Endure " is substituted for it. The passage then reads: " Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink, and en- dure the immersion which I endure." Why not be con- sistent, and say, " Immersed with the immersion with which I am immersed ? " Would not the absurdity of the translation be too transparent ? Yet Baptists insist 114 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. on translating the word in every instance, except in the name of their own denomination ! They are, par excel- lence, Baptists ! II. John's baptism contkasted with Christ's. "I indeed baptize you (en) with water into (eis) re- pentance .... He shall baptize you (en) with the Holy Ghost and with fire." — Matt. iii. 11 ; Luke iii. 16. Observe I. The preposition En properly rendered With is found in Matthew according to the Hebrew idiom; but does not occur in Luke, whose Greek is more free from foreign expressions. Observe II. The preposition Eis after Baptidzo, ought always to be translated Into, when the receptive element is denoted, as Eis Christon, Into Christ ; Eis metanoian, Into repentance. In the Classics Eis is found in connex- ion with water or other fluids, as Eis thalassan, into the sea. It is also used to denote a change of condition, as Eis hupnon, Into sleep. In the scripture Baptidzo eis is never found in connection with water. Baptidzo eis hudor, " Baptize into water," never occurs. The receiv- ing element in the New Testament is, besides, always IDEAL, as Christ, Repentance, Remission of Sins, &c. Observe III. While Luke uses the instrumental dative Hudati without En, neither Luke nor any other of the writers in the New Testament ever employs the naked expression " Pneumati," as an instrumental dative, that is, without having En before it. The phrase is always En Pneumati — " In or By the Spirit " — or En Pneumati Hagio, " In or By the Holy Spirit." It may be somewhat difficult for the English reader to appreciate the differ- ence in these expressions ; but the importance necessarily attached to them demands our attention. We shall try to illustrate the distinction, as follows : John was filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. It was by the indwelling of the Spirit THE GENEALOGY OF THE TERM "BAPTISM." 115 he was qualified for his work, as the forerunner of our Lord. The water he used in Baptism, was only ritual ; and, therefore, Luke speaks of it merely as instrumental ; but the Spirit, with which Jesus baptized, was no mere instrument. The Spirit was the agent, co-operating with Jesus, distributing the various Baptisms, according to his sovereign will. When the Apostles were specially pre- pared for their office, they received from the Spirit the Baptism of the cloven tongues of fire. When believers were enabled to perform miracles and to speak with tongues, it was from the Holy Ghost, bestowed by the laying on of the Apostles' hands. Just as God gave his Son, and sent him into the world to redeem ; so is the Holy Spirit given and sent by the Father and the Son, to give the new heart and renew a right spirit in the soul — to apply the blood of Christ, and thus to reconcile us to God. It is the Spirit, who is now the great agent in car- rying on the work of salvation in the world. Jesus has ascended to the heavens. He has entered the inner sanc- tuary, as the intercessor before the throne ; but he has left another comforter, the Paraclete, the Helper, " to con- vince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judg- ment." He is THE PRESENT BAPTIZER. THE GENEALOGY OF THE TERM "BAPTISM." We shall now attempt to present to the readers of the Compend, what may be called the genealogy of the term Baptism, with its obvious bearing on Mark xvi. 15-16. The Hebrew word, which is used to signify the faith of Abraham, is Am an, which means " to stand firm," or, in a moral sense, " to he true, or faithful." Gen. xv. 6 : "Abraham believed God," or, "Abraham stood firm in God." In like manner, we read in Exodus xiv. 31, "Israel stood firm in the Lord," or believed in the Lord. Paul sa ys, in reference to the same transaction, i. Cor. x. 2, that the] Israelites were " baptized (eis) into Moses" by the cloud 116 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. and by the sea. That is, " Israel was made to stand firm in Moses ; " or to beheve in Moses. Now, it is well known that the dialect, which our Lord and the Apostles used, in common life at least, was the Syriac. Professor Stuart says : " The Syriac translation is the oldest of all the translations of the New Testament, that are extant." It is admitted also to be one of the most faithful. How then does it translate the word Baptidzo ? Only and always by a word, which corres- ponds (in point of form) to the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic word^ agreeing in sense with the Latin Stare, to stand ; Perstare, to stand firm or continue standing. The learned Dr. Murdock, translator of the Syriac New Testament, says, in the "Bibliotheca Sacra," 1850 : " The Syrian Christians transferred this word from a physical to a metaphorical sense, or used it to denote a mental and not a bodily act." Dr. Dale says, in reference to this : " If I wish to ex- press the relation of a soul to Christ, or to the Triune God, it is a matter of indifference whether I say, the soul stands firm in Christ — is established in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; or whether I say, the soul is baptized into (that is brought under the controlling influence of) Christ — or of the name of the Father, &c. The relation, declared to exist in the one, or in the other, is identically the same. The form only, un- der which the conception is presented, differs. It is then an unquestionable truth, that the ' stand firm' of the Sy- riac, and the ' Baptize into' of the Greek, are truly equivalent and justly interchangeable expressions." The following highly illustrative examples of the use of the word Baptidzo, are also from Dr. Dale : "Whether I say : 'He is baptized into (or under the controlling influence of) sleep, or, He stands firm, is estab- lished, confirmed in sleep,' I say substantially the same thing. If I say, ' He is, by wine, baptized into (under the controlling influence of) insensibility,' — or, 'He stands SAVING BAPTISM. 117 firm, is established, confirmed, in insensibility,' I say sub- stantially the same thing. If I say, ' He is, by a drug, baptized into (that is, under the controlling influence of) stupor ' ; or ' He stands firm, is established, confirmed, in stupor ' ; I say, substantially, the same thing. If I say, * He is, by immoral teaching, baptized into (that is, under the controlling influence of) fornication' ; or, ' He stands firm, established, confirmed, by immoral teaching, in for- nication,' I change the word ; but I do not change the sentiment." Dr. Murdock says : " According to this idea of the latent or etymological meaning of the term, the Commission of our Lord to his Apostles might be rendered, from Matt, xxviii. 19, not, " Go ye and teach (disciple) all nations, immersing them in the name" &c. ; but, " Go ye and teach (disciple) all nations,' 'making them to stand fast ' in the name of the Father, &c." The parallel passage in Mark xvi. 16, would read : "He that believeth and standeth fast shall be saved." Instead of two apparent conditions of salvation, Belief and Bap- tism, the text would evidently require but one, steadfast and persevering Faith. This would harmonize with the general tenor of Gospel teaching, which is, that he who continues firm to the end, shall be saved, that is, he who is "rooted and grounded in love." "Now" says. Paul, "we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord," that is, " if ye believe." SAVING BAPTISM. Mark xvi. 15, 16, " And he said unto them. Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned." In the Revised Version the latter part of the 16th chap- ter of Mark, from the 9th verse to the end, is said to be omitted in the two oldest Greek manuscripts. In the Tauebnitz edition of the Authorized English Version, 118 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. edited by the learned Tischendorf, the discoverer of the Sinaitic manuscript, it is said that the Sinaitic and Vati- can manuscripts omit all those verses. It is implied, however, that they are contained in the Alexandrine. Judicious critics do not reject those verses absolutely ; but any conclusions, drawn exclusively from them, must be, in some degree, doubtful ; at least, they would require to be strengthened by other passages of less questionable authority. Assuming the passage to be inspired and genuine, how- ever, we are led to enquire. What does it teach ? Is it that Belief and Baptism are equally necessary to salva- tion ? The former part of the 16th verse declares this distinctly. " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." With regard to the second part of the verse, in which Baptism is not mentioned, unbelief alone is made the cause of condemnation. Can it be possible that Water Baptism is essential to the salvation of the soul ? All who receive the teachings of the New Testament must admit that there is such a thing as Baptism by the Spirit, of which Water Baptism is only a sign and seal. Assum- ing, then, that the 16th verse does not speak of Water Baptism, but Spiritual Baptism, the passage simply teaches that the salvation of the soul is secured by the Spirit working faith in us, and thereby baptizing us into Christ. As to the external rite, no true and consistent believer in ceremonial observance will neglect or omit the ritual ordinance. Thus Peter said, in regard to Cornelius and his kinsmen and friends, " Can any man forbid * the ' (Re- vised Version) water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost, as well as we ? " They had already been baptized by the Spirit ; 5^et Peter commanded them to be baptized with water in the name of Jesus Christ. Had Water Baptism, however, been a saving ordinance, that is, an ordinance necessary to sal- vation, can we think it possible that Peter would have delegated the performance of the rite to others ? That SAVING BAPTISM. 119 Ritual Baptism is not necessary to salvation is evident from the case of the thief, who was converted on the cross, and to whom Jesus said, " To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." There does not seem, also, to be any evidence or proof that the apostles of our Lord re- ceived ritual Christian Baptism ; but Christ himself bap- tized them by breathing on them, saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Dr. Dale, in regard to Mark xvi. 16, says, " We accept the real Baptism by the Holy Spirit, as the sole Baptism directly contemplated by this passage, because it meets, in the most absolute and unlimited manner, as a condition of salvation, the obvious requirement on the face of the passage, having the same breadth with belief, and univer- sally present in every case of salvation." The words, Salvation, Belief, and Baptism have lower meanings and higher. In the voyage of Paul to Rome it is said, " All hope that we should be saved was taken away," which means, simply, that their hope of escape was gone. It is said, also, that " the devils believe and tremble." Their belief is of the intellect, not of the heart, and, therefore, it does not save them. Simon Magus was baptized ; but certainly not by the Holy Ghost. The only reasonable interpretation of the text has reference to the higher meaning. " He that belie veth with the heart upon Christ, and is baptized by the Holy Ghost into Christ, shall be saved with the redemption of Christ." The Apostle Paul, speaking in Phillipians iii., of the importance and neces- sity of holiness, and of having our conversation in heaven, ends his fervent appeal with these words, " Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed-for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved." The Philippians had received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost ; therefore, they were to " stand fast in the Lord." It seems humiliating, after these lofty views of the di- vine work in the soul of man, as wrought by the Spirit, who alone can baptize us or make us stand, to descend 120 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. into the mud-flats of controversy, and be called on to en- quire whether such Baptism can be effected by an aque- ous immersion, which, if real, would symbolize, or rather signify death. But the mistake, which originated the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, is almost as old as Christianity itself. The spirit of Anti-Christ was not un- known even in the days of the Apostles. John says, "Even now are there many Anti-Christs." — I. John, ii. 18. The only way to deliver Christendom from the Apostasy, is by an appeal, pure and simple, to the Word of God. By the Baptism of the Spirit and the teachings of the Word, we shall be enabled to stand fast in the spiritual liberty of the sons of God. the grand commission. Matt, xxviii. 91, 20. — " Go ye, therefore, and make disci- ples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teach- ing them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you : and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." — Revised Version. These solemn words are the Grand Commission, which our Lord gave to his disciples, just before he ascended to heaven. Their importance cannot be overestimated. In our common English translation the word Teach oc- curs twice ; but all critics are now agreed that " Mathe- teusat^," in the first clause, should be rendered " Disciple." There is almost an equal unanimity in translating Eis be- fore " the name " by the preposition " Into." This is done in the Revised Version. 1st. What does the word Disciple imply ? We learn, from Acts xi 26, that the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. The command then is to make disciples to Christ — to make Christians. John made dis- ciples for th^ Coming One ; Christ made disciples for him- ^elt THE GRAND COMMISSION. l2l 2nd. What is meant by discipleship to Christ ? It is implied that we are baptized, by the Spirit, into a sav- ing union with Jesus, and into the benefits of his death. This is real Baptism, which is symbolized by Water Bap- tism. 3rd. What is meant by Baptism into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ? It is implied that, through the previous Spiritual Baptism into Christ, we are baptized into full reconciliation to God, and into restoration to the Divine image and favour. There is not, in this final Baptism, any symbolic represen- tation. Dr. Dale says, " The ritual Baptism of Christi- anity, with its symbol water, belongs exclusively to the former Baptism, and not to the latter. And yet the Church, for many ages, has verbally separated the ritual symbol from the causative Baptism ' into Christ,' and at- tached it to the resultant Baptism ' into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' These Baptisms have an inseparable connexion ; and yet they have as essential a difference as the Son incarnate, bleeding on the cross, and the Trinity unincarnate, reigning on the throne." Again, says Dr. Dale, " A more violent impro- bability w^as never suggested than that the Apostles, hav- ing been commanded to baptize, ritually, into the Name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, — should never in a single instance so baptize, but should substitute another formula for it." " If a baptism into the unincarnate Son, or into the Father, Son and Holy Ghost could have secured remission and reconciliation, then, the Son would never have be- come incarnate and died upon the cross." ^p"Dr. Dale's object is to shew that there is no Water Baptism in this Grand Commission. Dr. Halley, of Manchester, in his work on Baptism says : " If to baptize is to immerse in this passage, then, according to the usual construction of the words, the name of the Holy Trinity is the thing, into which the nations are to be immersed. If the words be taken literally, there Q 122 A COMPEND Oi' BAPTISM. is, certainly, no command to immerse into water. To immerse into the name of the person, whose religion is professed, is the religious rite of making proselytes, as to immerse into the name of the Father, &c., is the appro- priate act (function) of ministers and of the Gospel. The construction of the passage brings the immersion of the passage, so far as it exists, not into the element of bap- tizing into water, but into the object of baptizing into the name of the Father, Son and Spirit. So Paul enquires of the Apostles of Apollos: * Into what were ye baptized ? ' And the answer is not, ' Into cold water,' but, ' Into John's Baptism.' Let it be observed, on the other hand, that we have not anywhere in scripture the phrase, to baptize into water, and to baptize into the Holy Ghost ; but to bap- tize with water, and to baptize with the Holy Ghost ; these being construed as the instruments, with which the Bap- tism was performed, not the substances, into which the persons were baptized." Professor Godwin, of London : " There is nothing in this Commission to shew that the phrase here used, is a form of words for the administration of Baptism. The great object of Baptism, and not the language used at the observance of Baptism by water, is denoted by the terms. The one incomprehensible and invisible God, who manifests himself in the person of his Son and by the Spirit, which abides in believers, is the object of this Christian Ba])tism. . . . this passage is not quoted (by the Fathers) as enjoining the rite of baptism, until the introduction of the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, which led to the supposition that any baptism mentioned in scripture was the one BAPTISM WITH WATER." The Commission does not in- stitute Ritual Baptism. It does not announce a formula for Ritual Baptism. Calvin: "Matt, xxviii. 19 is not the institution of Ritual Baptism, which dates from Christ's ministry. Bap- tism is an appendage subordinate to the function of teach- TEtE GRAND COMMISSION. 123 ing. Ritual Bajotism is a shadow of the remission of sins through Christ, which remission is not effected by the outward symbol, but by the Holy Spirit." President Beecher : " The fathers regard the Com- mission to remit sins, in Luke and John, as a commission to baptize, as really as that in Matthew and Mark. They regarded it merely as another mode of expressing the same idea." Thus, " Baptized into the remission of sins." 4th. What is meant by discipling ? It is the process, by which sinners are brought to Christ. It implies Repentance, Faith, Obedience and the acknowledgment of Christ, as our Lord and Master, which includes Ritual Baptism as consequent upon it. The means employed are preaching and teaching, accompanied by the power of the Spirit. No inferior agency can engraft into Christ and produce the faith, that worketh by love. The sinner, in the pollution of his guilt, comes to the fountain of redeeming grace, and all his vileness is washed away. Then is he reconciled unto God. The enmity, which kept him so long in bondage, is removed ; and his soul, redeemed and disenthralled, rises into participation of the divine nature. The change is gradual and progressive, from the first germ of the divine life to the full development of the Christian character. It is like the grain of mustard seed, small at the implantation ; but, nurtured by the dews of the spirit, and warmed by the beams of the sun of righteousness, it grows into the fulness of the stature of the tree of life in the Paradise of God. Such is the beginning, the progress and the consummation of the gospel discipline. No Simon Magus was ever so baptized, no Judas ever possessed such discipleship. But the humblest believer, whose intelligence has been sufficient only to know the love of God in Christ, fails not to ad- vance in spiritual gifts till he is fully baptized into the name of the tri-une Jehovah. 5th. What is implied in the phrase " ALL nations ? " It implies that the restrictions, which had hitherto limited 124 A COMfEND OF BAPTISM. the Church of God to the chosen people of Israel, were done away in Christ. Every barrier between Jew and Gentile is thrown down ; and the heralds of salvation are to " go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Even Christ's personal ministry was limi- ted — " Now I say, " says Paul, Komans xv : 8, " that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fath- ers. " The Saviour alluded to the restriction of his ministry, when he said to the Gentile mother, " I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel " ; and when he commissioned the twelve, saying, " Go not into the way of the Gentiles ; and into any city of the Sama- ritans enter ye not." But he gave an indication of the coming change, when he said to the Samaritan woman, at the well of Jacob, " The hour cometh, when ye shall nei- ther, at this mountain (Gerizim) nor at J erusalem, worship the Father. Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." The full opening of the gate of salvation, however, was reserved for his final tri- umph, won by his death. Then he said, " Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." How full of encouragement and consolation are the be- ginning and close of this Commission 1 " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth ; go ye, therefore, and evangelize the nations." Bear the glad tidings to the uttermost ends of the earth. He had said to his disci- ples long before, "Ye shall be hated of all men for my sake ; but he that endureth to the end, shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into an- other ; for, verily I say unto you, ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come." And here he gives the parting assurance, " Lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." It is the presence of Christ, by his Spirit, alone, that can give effi- cacy to the Word, power to the sacraments, and life to the INFANTS INCLUDED — OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 125 Church. And, then, how soon was the promise fulfilled ! When Saul made havoc of the Church, " they that were scattered abroad, went everywhere preaching the Word ;" Paul himself, in his Epistle to the Romans, x. : 18, fer- vently appeals to the Church at Rome, " Have they not heard ? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the end of the world." Persecuted and despised, the first preachers of the Cross, triumphed by the Baptism of the Spirit and the power of the Word. Christ himself was with them. He gave them such won- derful success. INFANTS INCLUDED — OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. "Disciple all nations, baptizing, &;c.,teaching,&c." — Matt, xxviii : 19,20. The reader will observe that the expression here is not Disciple and baptize and teach. The word " Disciple " is in the form of a command, or in the imper- ative mood, while the words baptizing and teaching are present participles. Alexander Campbell directs attention to this, and says, " Have you ever adverted to the import of the participle in the Commission, * Disciple or convert the nations, im- mersing them.' I need not tell you that this is the exact translation. Let me ask you, then, does not the active participle always (?) when connected with the imperative mood, express the manner, in which the thing commanded is to be performed ? Cleanse the room, washing it ; cleanse the floor, sweeping it . . . Convert the nations, bap- tizing them, are exactly the same forms of speech. No person, I presume, will controvert this [?] If so, then, no man could be called a disciple or convert until he was im- mersed." Remark 1st. Baptism is not immersion. 2nd. There is no Ritual Baptism in the passage. 3rd. Water is not the only means of Baptism. 4th. Christ's promised spiritual power Bap- tizes, through the preaching and teaching of the Word, 126 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. Besides, according to the above passage, the first thing to be done with a convert would be to immerse him, just as the Jesuits, among the heathen, are accustomed to sprinkle a little water on one, who has no knowledge of Christian- ity or belief in its principles. This is their way of con- verting the world. Would the followers of Alexander Campbell approve of this plan ? On the contrary, they contend for believers' Baptism ; and they hold, with other Baptists, that, as children cannot believe, they ought not to be baptized. What then are we to understand about the member- ship and Baptism of infants from this Commission ? What does the other Alexander the Great, hight Carson, say about it ? In the first place, he is very vehement in prov- ing that none but believers should be baptized ; though he admits that infants might be baptized under some special arrangement. " But," he says, " the Gospel has nothing to do with infants, nor have Gospel ordinances any respect to them. The Gospel has to do with those who hear it — it is good news ; but to infants it is no news at all. They know nothing of it. The salvation of the Gospel is as much confined to believers as the Bap- tism of the Gospel is. Infants are saved by the death of Christ, but not by the Gospel — not by faith. None can be saved by the Gospel but such as believe the Gospel ; none can be baptized with the baptism of the Gospel but such as believe the Gospel. There is no exception to either. Surely none can be baptized into the faith and subjection of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost but adults. Infants cannot believe, nor express subjection." And thus that great man, Alexander Carson, goes on, page after page, with most vehement rhetoric, denounc- ing the doctrine of Infant Baptism, which we shall here- after prove to have been held by the primitive Church, and, which, with very limited exceptions, the whole Christian world has practised to the present day. Suppose we were to apply the same line of argument INFANTS INCLUDED— OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 127 to Circumcision. Was not Abraham justified by faith ? did he not receive the sign of circumcision as the seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had before being circumcised ? Could his infant children believe ? How- could their circumcision be justified, when they could not exercise faith? The answer is obvious. Abraham was the representative of his children. As the descendants of Adam were included in the Covenant of Works and in the Fall ; so the children of Abraham were included in the Covenant made with him ; and, therefore, they were circumcised. So, also, every Christian parent is the repre- sentative of his children ; and, according to the Abrahamic Covenant, the child is received in Baptism on the ground of his parent's faith. Baptist writers rely much on the parallel passage, Mark xvi. 16, " He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved ; but he that disbelieveth, shall be condemned" (N. Y.) It might be enough to say that this text and another very favourite Baptist proof-text. Acts viii. 37, respecting the declaration of the Eunuch's faith, are both doubtful. The learned world of the present day acknowledge the Sinaitic, the Vatican and the Alexan- drine manuscripts to be the most ancient of any in exis- tence. Now, the text, Acts viii. 27, is not found in any of those manuscripts; while Mark xvi. 16, occurs only in the Alexandrine. Neither of the texts, therefore, pos- sesses decisive authority in the judgment of unprejudiced critics. It seems very remarkable that these two chief cornerstones of the Baptist system should prove to be so incapable of giving it solid support. But, waiving this for the present, it is obvious from Mark xvi. 16, that the Baptism, which can stand on an equal footing with faith, cannot be mere water Baptism. Neither the Christian Fathers nor the Church of Rome teach that mere water can regenerate. John baptized with water into repentance ; but Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The Baptism of the Spirit is true Christian Baptism, of which ritual or Water Baptism, 128 . A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. as Calvin teaches, is but the shadow. The Fathers of old and the Church of Rome, in our own day, have confound- ed the ritual and the real ; and the result is Baptismal Kegeneration, a doctrine which seems inevitable to those who follow ritualistic notions. Starting from the posi- tion, that immersion in water is Baptism, Alexander Campbell was led fully half-way to Kome ; and, by legi- timate inference, he adopted the doctrine, that Immersion is, on an equal footing with faith, a means of regenera- tion. Dr. Fuller also, though a regular Baptist, com- mences his book on Baptism by quoting Mark xiv. 15, 16, adding the brief comment, " Saved or damned ! " The system presents the Baptistery on the one hand, and the pit of destruction on the other ; and, when pushed to its logical results, whether by Romanism or by Campbellisra, it screams to its terrified disciple, " Saved or damned ! " It is a common saying, equivalent to a maxim, among the Baptists of the American continent, that, without close communion, their system cannot stand. Let it perish then. Let it no longer act as a wedge, to split the Church of the living God asunder, separating believing parents from believing children, the believing wife from the be- lieving husband; and committing, to the uncovenanted mercies of God, nineteen-twentieths of the body of Christ. The fact is patent and undeniable, whatever excuse or palliation may be offered for the enormity and the offence. Woe to them, by whom the offence cometh ! It is argued by Baptist writers, from the terms of the Grand Commission, that children are not fit subjects of Baptism, because they can neither believe nor understand ; and that they should be allowed to come to years of dis- cretion, when they would be capable of instruction, be- fore being baptized. Church history informs us that Tertullian took this view ; but his argument implies that the prevailing practice in the third century was to bap- tize in infancy. It so happens, however, in regard to the Commission, that, while " Piscipling" includes, of course, INFANTS INCLUDED — OBJECTIONS ANSWERED, 129 instruction, present or future, the word Didaskontes, pro- perly rendered Teaching, comes after the mention of Bap- tism. So that, if we have sufficient reasons elsewhere for baptizing infants, this passage will be no hindrance in the way of it. Baptize infants first, teaching them AFTERWARDS. Take a similar passage, and see how the Baptist logic would deal with it. " I will, therefore, that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without fear and doubt- ing." Does Paul mean that we are to pray first, and lift up our hands afterwards ? The uplifting of the hands properly accompanies the prayer, or precedes it. Alexander Carson, illustrating the doctrine, that the commission to baptize believers necessarily excludes in- fants, supposes the case of a colonel, who was directed to fill up a regiment with men six feet high, while he was found afterwards to have enlisted men only five feet, eight inches. The officer, he says, would deserve to be dismissed from the service, because he violated his instructions. But let us state the case more justly, as follows : — The famous tall regiment of the great Frederick of Prussia, consisted of men, the least of whom was six feet high. Suppose it contained, besides, a set of drummers and camp boys, each of them ten or twelve years old, boys designed ultimately to be soldiers. Let us suppose, also, that a new order was issued, permitting men only 5 feet 8 inches to be enrolled, but making no mention of the boys ; how would the colonel of the regiment think the sergeants of the regiments had discharged their duty, if all lads, in future, were rejected. He would most likely degrade the sergeants to the ranks for having stupidly misunderstood, or wilfully misinterpreted, their instructions. The new regulations did not exclude the boys, when it opened the door to men of inferior stature. But how shall the Ana- baptist fare when, without warrant, he refuses to baptize the children of believers, who were admitted to Church privileges under the Old Testament economy ? 130 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. An interesting parallel has been drawn between the argument for the perpetual obligation of the Lord's Day, and that for Infant Baptism. In the one case, we go back to the beginning of Genesis, and find the rest of the Sab- bath, mentioned in connection with the work of creation, long before the time of Moses, though incorporated also in the Decalogue, delivered at Sinai. We find nothing in the New Testament abrogating or repealing the original Sab- bath Law, though it is modified by the change from the seventh day of the week to the first, which is indicated, specially, by the change of name to the Lord's Day. The great principle is ONE day's eest in seven. The change does not alter the essential character of the Sabbath, as a day of sacred rest. In like manner, we find the law of infant Church mem- bership existing from the days of Abraham, though it was, in principle, from the beginning ; and it was also incor- porated in the Law of Moses. In the New Testament, there is nothing to repeal or abrogate the privileges of in- fants, though the initiatory rite, the sign of the Covenant, is altered. Children now, in nineteen-twentieths of the Christian denominations, receive Baptism instead of Cir- cumcision. The abolition of Circumcision does not repeal or take away the original, inalienable, imperishable, and essential privilege of membership. There is, indeed, one way in which this analogical argument may be nullified ; and that is, by denying the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath, which, in fact, is done by one set of immersionists, — the Pl3^mouth Brethren ! IV. FAMILY BAPTISMS. Lydia and her household — Acts xvi. 15 ; the Jailer and his household — Acts xvi. 33 ; household of Stephanas — I. Cor. i. 16. All of them Ritual Baptisms. Under the Abrahamic Covenant, children were circum- cised w^hen eight days old. They were entitled to the FAMILY BAPTISMS. 131 privileges which God's peculiar people enjoyed. Abraham and his household were circumcised. The family relation was thus hallowed and blest. Society is still organized on the same original princi- ples — the family is its unit. Marriage was ordained by God. " It is not good," said the Creator, " for man to be alone — They twain shall be one flesh." In the Covenant with Adam, all his descendants were included. They sinned in him, and fell with him. The Lord also said to Noah, before the flood, " Come thou and all thy HOUSE into the ark ; for thee have I seen to be righteous before me in this generation." Also, after the flood, " God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, ' And I, behold I, establish my covenant with you and with YOUR SEED after you.' " Of Abraham it was said by Jeho- vah, " I know him that he will command his children and his household after him." Moses, in addressing Israel before his death, said, " Ye shall command your chil- dren to observe to do all the words of this Law." Paul reiterates the spirit of the Law, when he says, " Children obey your parents in the Lord." Peter, on the day of Pentecost, recognises the same great principle, when he exclaims, " The promise is to you and to your children." Paul refers to the same, when he says to the jailer at Philippi, " Believe, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." The family relation is thus recognised in all the successive dispensations of God ; shall it be ignored in the constitution of the Christian Church ? " Behold," says Jehovah, "all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine." Parents are bound to pray for the regeneration of their children by the Holy Spirit. John the Ba-ptist was " filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb." Have parents now no right to pray for a like influence upon their children ? If parents under the Law had the seal of the Covenant im- pressed upon their children eight days after their birth, may we not ask — Where is the prohibitory interdict 132 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. against their being recognised, as the children of the Cov- enant, under the Gospel ? When converts from heathen- ism were received in the ancient Jewish Church as prose- lytes, their male children were circumcised as well as themselves. Besides, in Christ " there is neither male nor female ; for ye all are one in Christ Jesus." Instead of restriction there is expansion of privileges. Christian households are baptized, and not merely believing indivi- duals. When Israel was passing through the Red Sea with their little ones, numbering not less than half a million, they were all baptized into Moses by the cloud and by the sea. Pharoah had demanded that Israel should go to offer worship in the wilderness, leaving their families behind, as guarantees for the return, saying : " Go now, ye that are men, and serve the Lord." But Moses said : " We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters." So does the Anti-psedobaptist say : " Come as individuals, not as parents and children, not as husband and wife ; bring not your little ones to the Lord ! " While we answer that, as Lydia and her household, the jailer and his household, Stephanas and his household were each family baptized together, so also will we come to the ordinance of Christ. We dare not refuse for our offspring what was given so freely for 1,500 years under the Law, and was practically re-enacted under the Gospel. We bring our little ones, in the arms of faith and love, to the ordinance, which symbolizes the cleans- ing power of Christ's blood and the renewal of the Holy Ghost ; and we pray that what is done on earth may be ratified in heaven. It is very painful to be obliged to subjoin, from Dr. Carson's work on Baptism, the following passage, which indeed bears on its front its own condemnation. " They tell us that the Covenant of Abraham was the new cov- enant. Now, for argument's sake, let it be the new cov- enant ; and I deny the result that they wish to drawv J^AMlLY BAPTISMS. ISS Infants are not saved by the new covenant," (the capitals are Dr. Carson's) " and, therefore, they cannot be connected with it in any view, that represents them as interested in it. It is a vulgar mistake of theologians to consider, if infants are saved they must be saved by the new covenant " (p. 173). " Certainly if there were no other way of saving children but by the Gospel, this con- clusion (that a person must actually believe, else he can- not be saved) would be inevitable. The Gospel saves none but by faith. But the Gospel has nothing to do with infants, nor have gospel ordinances any respect to them. It is good news ; but to infants it is no news at all. They know nothing of it. The salvation of the Gospel is as much confined to believers as the Baptism of the Gospel is. None can ever be saved by the Gospel, who do not believe it. Consequently by the Gospel no infant can be saved. . . . Infants are saved by the death of Christ but not by the Gospel." Is the above extract like the voice of him who took little children into his arms and blessed them, all uncon- scious as they were of the blessing they received; while he said : " Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven ? " Is it like him, who quoted from the viii. Psalm : " Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise ? " But Dr. Carson was too good a man and too sincere a Christian, to let this utterance of the cast-iron theory pass without himself suggesting an answer. He says : "Theologians, justly considering that infanta have sinned in Adam, have also considered that they must be washed in the blood of the Saviour." Dr. Dale expands and im- proves this sentiment, as follows : " Theologians, justly considering that infants having been included in the covenant of obedience with the family head (although they could not hear the Law and could not obey the Law), were thus brought into an 134 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. estate of sin and condemnation ; therefore, theologians have also justly considered that infants, being included in the covenant of grace with their family head (although they cannot hear the Gospel, or believe the Gospel), are thus, by a faithful observance of that covenant, on the part of believing parents, brought into a state of gracious covenant relation with God in Christ." If the covenant of death includes infants, why should they not be included in the covenant of life ? " The promise is to you and to your children^ Amen. Baptist Misquotations. — We may here just glance at one of the peculiarities of Baptist controversialists, that is, a desire to compel eminent Psedobaptist writers, to bear favourable testimony to Baptist views. The writings of Luther, Calvin, Matthew Henry, and other Psedobap- tists, have been mutilated or distorted, in order that they may seem to make concessions favourable to Baptist ideas. We shall give only two specimens out of many. 1st. Peter Edwards was a Baptist minister for ten years at Portsea, England. While reading Booth's " Pse- dobaptism examined," he was convinced that the Baptist theory was unscriptural. He, therefore, left the Baptist denomination ; and, in 1795, published " Candid reasons for renouncing the principles of Anti-psedobaptism." The work has been republished by the Presbyterian Board, Philadelphia. We give the following extract, both on ac- count of its own value, and as an illustration of the use made of it. On pages 174 and 175, Edwards shews the fallacy of Booth's arguments and their evil tendency. Booth had denied the existence of any church of God un- der the Old Testament Dispensation. " But," says Ed- wards, " where would have been the harm of supposing the ever-blessed Jehovah to have been more, infinitely more, than a political sovereign ? And that he gave his word and ordinances, to lead to the faith of Christ ? That he sent his prophets to bear witness, that, through his name, whosoever believed in him should receive remission FAMILY BAPTISMS. 135 of sins ? That he formed a people for himself, to show forth his praise ? Where, I say, would have been the harm of supposing this ? None at all, in reality : the harm would only have been to Mr. Booth's (baptist) sys- tem. For, had Jehovah been a religious sovereign, he would have had a religious community, and that commu- nity would have been a religious Church, that is, a Church professing godliness ; and then, an obedient subject of civil government would not have been a complete mem- ber ; and then their institution would have been a reli- gious institution ; and then — what then ? And then Mr. Booth's system would have gone to ruin. But he, wisely foreseeing this, takes measures to secularize the whole. He begins at the head and goes down to the institution. Jehovah (Jesus) must be a political sovereign, that the Church may be political ; the Church must be political, that the membership may be so too ; the membership must be political, that the institution (Circumcision) may be political also. So all was political ; a political Sovereign, a political Church, a political member, a political institution ! " And now Mr. Booth has gained his point ; for sure enough, there can he no analogy between a church and no church ; and, consequently, no argument can he drawn in favour of infant membership from a church that never was to a church that now exists. Yes ! he has gained his point, he has run down Infant Baptism ; but, at the same time, he has eradicated the Church of God. Nay, he was under a necessity of eradicating the Church of God, that Infant Baptism might be run down. This has given me a notion of Infant Baptism, far different from what I ever had before. And, if I could say that any one thing has satisfied my mind respecting it more than another, it has been this : I say that Infant Baptism can by no means be overthrown without overthrowing the Church of God. And for this conviction I am indebted to that very book (Booth's), on which I have taken the liberty to animad- vert." 136 A COMPEND 01* BAPTISM. In a debate held at Carrolton, Missouri, the words printed above in Italics were quoted by Dr. R. J. Graves, to show, forsooth, on the authority of Peter Edwards, that Infant Baptism was unscriptural. 2nd. Dr. Conant, in " Baptizein" p. 154, quotes from Cal- vin's Institutes the latter half of a sentence, as a concess- sion to the Baptist Theory, while he omits the former half, which shews it to be on the other side. " It is not," says Calvin, " of the least consequence, whether the per- son baptized is wholly immersed, and that once or twice, or sprinkled with water" — Then follows the portion quot- ed : " Though the word baptize itself signifies to immerse; and it is certain that the rite of immersion was observed by the Ancient Church." Remarks — 1st, Calvin does not say the Primitive, but the Ancient, Church. 2nd, The Latin word used by Calvin is Mergo, not immergo. 3rd, The wonder is not that Calvin admits of immersion as a mode; but that, brought up under the Romanist system, he was enabled to see that mode was unimportant. 4th, Dr. Conant might as well quote from the Scripture, " There is no God," omitting the former clause, " The fool hath said in his heart" &c. ; and thus the Bible itself might be made to support Atheism. "OIKOS" AND "OIKIA," DISTINGUISHED. "Oikos," means either a house or &famili/ contained in it. It has been confounded with " oikia" — which has, in Greek, a larger and more comprehensive meaning, some- what equivalent to household, including servants or slaves. Oikos is the word, which occurs in connexion with what have been loosely called " household baptisms." That it has special reference to children, we may learn from the Greek of the Septuagint, II. Sam. vii. 11, 25, 27, where an '^OIKOS'^ AND "OIKIA/* DISTINGUISHED. 137 oikos, " a house," is promised to David. In I. Kings, xi. 88, a similar promise of a family (" oikos") is made to Sol- omon. In Deut. XXV. 9, the law is given respecting the building up of a brother's " oikos," by the marriage of his widow. Paul exhorts young women, I. Tim. v. 14, to marry, bear children, and rule the house, or to despotize the " oikos." Many more examples might be given, evi- dently signifying or including little children, infants. I. Now, let us turn to Acts xvi. 13-15, where we have the record of Lydia's conversion with her " oikos," family. In her invitation of the Apostles to her house, she says : " If ye have judged me (not us) to be faithful." She is the DESPOTES, mistress of the family. She acts as their re- presentative. Baptist writers insist that her children were grown up, and that she had no little ones. The pro- bability is all on the other side. An " oikos" without children would be indeed a desolate " household." The Baptist, however, points to the 40th verse, and says: There were " brethren" in the family (oikos) of Lydia. This does not follow, however; for Lydia's house was the home of Paul and his helpers. The 40th verse does not mention the oikos at all. The 1st verse shews that Timothy was there; and the 13th, by the introduction of the pro- noun WE, that Luke was of the company. Only Paul and Silas were thrown into prison. After their release they went to the house of Lydia, literally, " to Lydia," com- forted Luke and Timothy, " the brethren," and departed. Luke seems to have remained at Philippi till Paul's next visit, recorded in the 20th Chapter — Timothy is found with Paul earlier at Beroea, xvii. 14. It was not grown up sons of Lydia, therefore, that Paul and Silas comfort- ed, but the brethren, Luke and Timothy. II. The narrative of the centurion's conversion, Acts x., affords a fine illustration of the difference between oikos and oikia. Cornelius feared God with all his family (oikos). He saw a vision in his private residence (oikos) and sent messengers to Joppa, who found Peter in the H 138 A coMpend of baptism. OIKIA of Simon the Tanner. This oikia of Simon is men- tioned repeatedly in the narrative. Simon's house (oikia) included large premises. His oiJcos is not mentioned at all. The distinction thus maintained is uniformly ob- served in the Scriptures. III. Paul refers, in Phil. iv. 22, to converts in the oihia, the palace of Caesar. Paul's labours had won converts in the oikia, or household of Caesar — while, it may be, the Imperial family (oiKOS) were unblessed by the gospel and unconverted. IV. Paul baptized the oikos of Stephanas. 1 Cor. i. 16. V. The narrative of the jailer's conversion, in Acts xvi., is highly illustrative. There were an oikos and an oikia. When the jailer said, " Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? " the answer was, "Believe on the Lord, and thou shalt be saved, and thy oikos (family)." And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his oikia, or premises, including, undoubtedly, the prisoners, as well as the family. The narrative goes on to say that " he took them, the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all his, straight- way." Then he took them into his oikos, his family apartments, set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his oikos, or family. Observe the Greek words for believing and rejoicing, in this passage, are in the singular number. He believed and rejoiced, as the representative of the family, who believed and rejoiced with him and in him. The Abrahamic covenant included the children. It was preached by Paul, and exemplified by the jailer and his family. Blessed union ! We would not, by any means, over-estimate the im- portance of the argument, from the terms Oikos and Oikia. It is, of course, ^possible that there were no infants in the families of Lydia, Stephanas, and the jailer ; but the pro- bability that there were infant children in each Oikos of those we have mentioned amounts a moral certainty. We have abridged, from a small work on Baptism by ALLEGORY OF THE PARK. 139 Professor Witherow of Ireland, the following beautiful Allegory. The argument, implied in the story, seems to be unanswerable. Man}^ centuries ago, a wealthy landowner and noble- man, who lived near a great city, and had a fine demesne with pleasant gardens, being about to remove to a foreign country, called on the mayor of the city, to whom he was much attached, and said that he would allow the mem- bers of the city council, with their families, to visit the gardens and demesne at their pleasure. After the baron's departure, the mayor and aldermen greatly enjoyed the privilege, that had been bestowed on them. Many a pleasant evening they spent with their families, roaming about in the demesne, or sauntering in the gardens. The baron did not return ; but, after many years, his son came, and found that the city had greatly increased in population ; but the old city council was gone, and their successors began to consider the ancient privilege as part of their own peculiar inheritance. They became insolent and proud, and despised their fellow-citizens. The young baron resolved to deprive the corporation of their exclusive privileges. He enlarged the garden, and made it into a park, but more beautiful than ever, widened the gate, and appointed new gate-keepers, giving them this rule of admission, " Every friend of mine may enter here, but not my enemies." The very first day that the new park was opened, no less than 3,000 claimed and obtained admission, as friends of the nobleman. Every day it was crowded with citi- zens and children. Many years passed on, and the park continued to be the favourite resort of thousands ; but one of the gate-keepers, reading the instructions, saw that children were not specially mentioned, and he resolved that they should be admitted no longer, as far as he was concerned. He thought the old rules were entirely set aside, and that the new rule must be strictly interpreted. There were other gate-keepers, indeed, who let in the 140 A COMI^END OF BAtTISM. little ones ; but his obstinacy, nevertheless, gave consider* able annoyance. Not Jong ago a citizen, who was a warm friend of the baron, proposed to spend a day's leisure in the pleasure grounds. His family were greatly delighted at the pros- pect of so much enjoyment ; but when they came to the gate, they found, to their great dismay, that the surly porter had charge of it. They did not like to return with- out attempting to mollify him. So the citizen asked him to open the gate. He refused, pointing to the children ; and saying, they were too young to be counted friends of his lordship. The citizen pleaded his own well-known loyalty, and the careful training, he was giving his children, that they might follow in his footsteps. He reminded the gatekeeper how a certain lady, called Lydia, with her children, and the household of Stephanas, and the family of the jailer, had all been admitted ; but he said, " You must first prove that there were children in those house- holds, before I can admit you." " Well," said the citizen, " there is a book called ' The Acts of the Apostles,' which tells about the admissions to the gardens for the first seventy years, can you tell me, from that book whether any children were, in that time, refused!' " I cannot find any such record," said the gatekeeper. " Tell me then, whether any gatekeeper, for 200 years after the baron's visit, shut out the children ? " " No," said the gatekeeper ; " but they were all wrong." The citizen continued his remonstrance, but in a severer tone, on which the gate- keeper clashed to the door, and went into his lodge ; while the citizen, with his children, returned indignant to his home. RITUAL BAPTISMS. I. — THE BAPTISM OF THE SAMARITANS. " Only they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus."— Acts viii. 12-16. THE BAPTISM OF THE SAMARITANS. 141 Philip had gone down to Samaria and preached Christ to the Samaritans ; and " there was great joy in that city." Many miracles were wrought ; the people believ- ing the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, were baptized, both men and wo- men. Simon, the wizard, believed also and was baptized. His subsequent conduct, in committing, what is called af- ter his name, Simony, shewed that he had not received the real Baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is, therefore, undeniably, in the case of Simon, an instance of mere Ritual Baptism. The laying on of the Apostles' hands, which Simon so eagerly desired, was a higher and subse- quent Baptism, obviously designed as a most signal evi- dence of the truth of Christianity. The Ritual Baptism, which the Samaritans received, was but the shadow of the real Baptism, which they had already received from the Spirit by faith. They were indeed sealed by their Bap- tism into the Christian Church ; but Simon, not having had saving faith, remained " in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." He was in the Church, but not of it. His mere Ritual Baptism had no effect on him what- ever. The shadow was nothing without the substance. The Baptism of the Samaritans was with water (eis) into the name of the Lord Jesus. They had previously received the Baptism of the Spirit. It included women as well as men. There is no evidence that John bap- tized either women or children. His ministry was very brief, and his object was temporary, to prepare for " The Coming One." But Jesus went, not to the wilderness, but to the cities and houses of the Jews. Women were among his distinguished followers ; and little children were taken into his arms, as the special objects of his love. Peter had already declared that the promise was to the children ; and here women are particularly mentioned as among the baptized. Observe, moreover, that the Samaritan men and women were baptized, not into ^uater, but with, ivater, into the name of the Lord Jesus, 142 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. We must here also carefully distinguish between the regenerative Baptism, by faith, of which the Symbolic Baptism was the sign and seal ; and the subsequent higher Baptism by the laying on of the hands of Peter and John, when the Samaritan converts received the Holy Ghost. II. — THE BAPTISM OF CORNELIUS, HIS KINSMEN AND FRIENDS. In Acts X, we have a full account of the circumstances which led to this first Ritual Baptism among the Gentiles, and of the manner in which it occurred. Cornelius, a man of large heart and earnest prayer, was directed by an angel in a vision, to send for Peter, that he might " tell him what he ought to do. Peter, at the same time, was prepared beforehand, by a similar vision, to go with the messengers, notwithstanding his Jewish preju- dices against intercourse with the Gentiles. On arriving, with his companions, at the house of Cornelius, he found the centurion, with his kinsmen and friends, awaiting his coming and prepared to hear what he had to say. Peter then preached the Gospel, as he had done at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost ; and, while he was yet speaking, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the Word ; and the Jewish companions of Peter were astonished ; " For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter : ' Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we ? ' And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord." Remark 1st. The Spirit's Baptism of Cornelius and his friends was of the same nature as the Baptism of the three thousand on the day of Pentecost. When Peter rehearsed the matter to the Apostles and brethren at Je- rusalem, as recorded in Acts xi., he said : " As I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them as on us at the begin- ning. The Apostles, by their Baptism, were prepared for THE BAPTISM OF CORNELIUS, KINSMEN, ETC. 148 their ministry; and Cornelius and his friends, as the first fruits of the Gentiles, were then signally introduced into the bosom of the Church, being endowed with gifts simi- lar to those bestowed on the day of Pentecost. Remark 2nd. Cornelius and his friends, after receiving the Baptism of the Spirit, received also the Symbol Bap- tism with water ; for Peter said : " Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized, which have re- ceived the Holy Ghost as well as we ? " Remark 3rd. Peter did not himself administer the symbol of Water Baptism ; even as Paul said, " Christ sent me, not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel." It is recorded also of Jesus, the great Baptizer, that he did not "himself baptize (ritual) 3/), but his disciples (baptized). If Water Baptism be a means of securing remission of sins or of regenerating the soul, how did it happen that Jesus did not himself baptize ? How was it that Peter delegated the service to others ? And how did Paul thank God that he had baptized so few at Corinth ? Both Apostles evidently considered the preaching of the Gospel of more importance than the performance of any mere ritual ordinance, Remark 4th. In regard to the mode of Christian Bap- tism, Peter's account of the occurrences at the house of Cornelius is very striking and illustrative — Acts xi. 15. " And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. 16th. Then remembered I the word of the Lord ; how that he said : ' John indeed bap- tized with water (Hudati) ; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost (en Pneumati hagio) ' " 1st. Observe " en," with or by, always accompanies Pneumati, and signifies the power of the spirit displayed in the manifestation. Hudati " with water," generally has no En prefixed to it, except in the Hebraistic Gospel of Matthew. 2nd. The Spirit fell on the Gentile converts. In other words, the Spirit was poured out on them. Nei- 144 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. ther of these expressions agrees with immersion. Peter testified that this falling of the Spirit on the converts was the fulfilment of our Lord's promise, " Ye shall be bap- tized with the Holy Ghost." The affusion of the Spirit, then, Avas the Baptism with the Holy Ghost. Remark 5th. The " forbidding of water " seems to imply that the water was to be brought for the Baptisms ; not that the persons should go forth and seek it in some pool or reservoir. Remark 6th. The formula of Baptism, used at Samaria, and, indeed, generally emplgyed in reference to Baptism in the 'New Testament, differs from the one, which our Lord prescribed to his disciples, when he gave them their Commission. They were to baptize " into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; " yet, in no subsequent instance recorded, was this lengthened formula used. Is not this remarkable ? The Christian Fathers have, in various ways, attempt- ed to explain this obvious deviation from the original formula ; but no satisfactory solution of the question seems to be found, further than that Baptism into Christ implies belief in all the persons of the Trinity, and com- plete reconciliation to God. In reference to this question, Calvin, in his Commentary on I Cor. i. 13, says : 1. ''In Baptism, the first thing to be considered is, that God the Father, by planting us in his Church in unmer- ited goodness, receives us by adoption into the number of his sons. 2. As we cannot have any connection with him except by means of reconciliation, we have need of Christ to re- store us to the Father's favour by his blood. 3. As we are by Baptism consecrated to God, we need also the interposition of the Holy Spirit, whose office it is to make us new creatures. Nay, farther, our being washed in the blood of Christ is peculiarly his work ; but, as we do not obtain the mercy of the Father or the grace of the Spirit, otherwise than through Christ alone, it is on THE BAPTISM OF COKNELIUS, KINSMEN, ETC. 145 good grounds that we speak of him as the peculiar object in view in Baptism, and more peculiarly inscribe his name on Baptism. At the same time, this does not exclude the name of the Father and of the Spirit; for, when we wish to sum up, in short compass, the efficacy of Baptism, we make mention of the name of Christ alone ; but, when we are disposed to speak with greater minuteness, the name of the Father, and that of the Spirit, require to be expressly introduced." On this. Dr. Dale remarks that, if Calvin had considered the force of the terms entering into the formula, rather than the general scope of the Scripture teaching, he might have seen that " there was no need nor propriety in the introduction of the name of the Father, or of the Holy Ghost into a Baptism which belonged to the distinctive work of Christ. Baptism ' into Christ ' makes meet for Baptism ' into Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.' See Calvin's Secondly." Prof. Addison Alexander (Comm. Acts viii. 12, 16) says, " The other subject of his preaching was the name of Jesus Christ i. e., all denoted by these names, one of which (Jesus) means the Saviour of his people, and the other, their Messiah, or Anointed Prophet, Priest, and King. ' Into the name, i. e., into union with Christ and subjection to him, in all these characters, the Samaritan believers were ftitroduced by the initiatory rite of Bap- tism, which, unlike that of Judaism, was administered alike to both men and women . . . . ' Into the name,' i. e., into union with him and subjection to him, as their Sovereign and their Saviour." The following passage from Dr. Dale's " Christian Bap- tism," p. 164, is a fine example of his admirable, illus- trative criticism : — " There is neither change of principle nor obscurity of thought induced by a person being introduced as the re- ceptive element. Who would stumble at the statement, ' I have dipped into Aristotle/ any more than at the state- 146 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. ment, ' I have dipped into the writings of Aristotle ? * ' He is imbued with Plato,' rather than ' imbued with the philosophy of Plato ? ' ' He is immersed in Shakspeare/ rather than * immersed into the dramas of Shakspeare?' * He is steeped in Voltaire,' rather than ' steeped in the infidelity of Voltaire ? ' As the names of Aristotle, Plato, Shakspeare, and Voltaire are so intimately associated with certain distinctive conceptions, that the names alone are suggestive and representative of them ; so the name of the Lord Jesus is indissolubly and solely connected with the sacrificial atonement for sin ; and it is, therefore, a difference of form, and not in thought, when sinners are said to be baptized ' into the remission of sins,' or ' into the name of the Lord Jesus,' from whom the remission of sins alone proceeds. ' Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins hy his blood, be glory for ever and ever.' " III. — RITUAL CHRISTIAN BAPTISM OF JOHN'S DISCIPLES AT EPHESUS. Acts xix. 3 — 5. Paul found at Ephesus some disciples of John, who had not been fully instructed in the doc- trines of Christianity and its development. The Apostle enquired, Into what Baptism they had been baptized, not, certainly, into what water; for the answer they gave was, " Into John's Baptism." As Jews, they must have known, from the Old Testament Scriptures, that the Spirit of God was given to his ancient people ; but they had not heard that special gifts were now bestowed on believers by the laying-on of the Apostles' hands. John had spoken to his converts of belief in the coming one, and had baptized them into the Baptism of Repentance. This, we have seen, was but introductory to the revela- tion of Jesus as the Messiah, and to the special manifes- tation of the Holy Spirit. Had those disciples been fully indoctrinated into Christianity, we have no sufficient rea- RITUAL CHRISTIAN BAPTISM OF JOHN'S DISCIPLES 147 son to believe that their ritual Baptism would have been repeated ; but, in the circi instances, Paul re-baptized them ; and, laying his hands on them, they received the Holy Ghost, and " spake with tongues, and prophesied." In the new Baptist version JSis is, as usual, translated in this passage unto, the reason obviously being that Into may be reserved for Water, as the receiving element ; while Bis hud5r, or any thing equivalent to it, is, we re- peat, never found in all the New Testament. " Eis Jor- danen," which comes nearest to it in appearance, has not that meaning, as we have proved elsewhere. Dr. Carson declares that, " What is Baptism in one case is Baptism in another. Between the Baptism of Christ and the Baptism of John there could be no difference in the mode." The truth is, we affirm. There is no mode in Baptism. Baptism expresses condition attained by any means or mode. A drowned man is baptized, by being immersed ; a drunken man is baptized by wine-drinking ; a man dumb-founded is baptized by argument. Are all these Baptisms identical in mode ? Another embarrassment of the Baptist translators is to express " Baptize the Baptis'tn." One makes it, " Ad- minister the immersion." Dr. Conant, "Immerse with the immersion." Their readers will, no doubt, in the course of time, be familiarized with the barbarism ; and they may suppose that the insertion of with is quite allowable ; but no scholar, except under the pressure of a dire logical necessity, would resort to such a subterfuge. Besides, if Immerse is to be taken in the sense of Dipping, how would the passage read, " Dipped with the Dipping," etc.? The true explanation of the phrase is that Baptidzo is used in a secondary sense ; and it is to be translated just as its primitive Bapto is translated when used in its secondary sense, to dye. When, for instance, the bravo in Aristophanes threatened to draw the blood " of his antagonist with his fist he says : " I will d^e you a Sar- 148 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. dinian dye." There are many different modes of dyeing, as there are many modes of Baptism. Water is not mentioned in this passage, but it is im- plied in Christian Baptism, just as it is expressed elsewhere, in regard to John's Baptism, when we read that John baptized with water into repentance; so the necessary ellipsis to be supplied, regarding the twelve Ephesian Disciples, is : " They were baptized vnth water into the name of the Lord Jesus." IV. — RITUAL BAPTISM OF THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. Acts viii. 35-38. Water is distinctly mentioned in con- nection with this Baptism : " See ! water ; what doth hin- der me to be baptized ? " The pious Eunuch had been, on his return from Jerusalem, sitting in his chariot and read- ing aloud from the book of Isaiah. The expression in the last verse of the 52nd chapter : " So shall he sprinkle many nations," when expounded by Philip, may have suggested Baptism and its practicable mode. The region, through which they were passing was, and still is, desert. No streams nor ponds, sufficient for immersion, are found. And, if there were, the idea of immersing a human being in the precious fluid, which was limited, yet essential to human life, in the desert, must be contrary to all ascer- tained oriental usage. At the same time, we must add, that, quite irrespective of the question, whether there was a pond or stream on the way, there is no sufficient evidence for immersion- dipping. Dr. Carson lays hold on this passage as alone sufficient to decide the controversy. " I have written,'* he says, " some hundreds of pages concerning the mode of this ordinance ; yet to a mind thirsting to know the will of God, and uninfluenced by prejudice, this passage without comment is, in my view, amply sufficient. The man who can read it and not see immersion in it, must have something on his mind unfavourable to the investiga- RlTtTAL BAPTISM 01^ THE ETHIOPIA.N EITNUCH. 149 tion of truth. . . . Amidst the most violent perver- sion, that it can sustain on the rack, it will still cry out immersion, imm,ersion I " Dr. Carson argues from their both going down (eis) into the water and coming up (ek) out of it that there was immersion. He lays particular stress on (ek) " which implies," he says, " that the point of departure is within the object and not without it, eis might signify unto, but ek must be ' out of.' " " I conclude then," he says, " with all the authority of demonstration, that Philip and the Eunuch were within the water because they came out of it!' Has the reader ever seen a horse ridden into a watering place and ridden out of it 1 Was he immersed ? Dr. Carson's argument assumes 1st, that Baptidzo means to dip, which is contrary to all usage, and 2nd, that the water was deep enough for dipping. The fact seems to have been that the chariot stopped (epi) at the water ; Philip and the Eunuch stepped down (eis) into the water ; and Philip baptized him. The going into the water APPLIES TO BOTH, as also the going out ; and the preposi- tions eis and ek would be appropriate if the water had not been more than a few inches deep. There is no men- tion of their wading into the deeper water, if there were any ; but simply they " went down " and " he baptized him." The sprinkling of the 52nd chapter of Isaiah was, in the circumstances, most practicable. Dr. Carson's argument turns chiefly on eh meaning out of ; but that is not its invariable signification. In Acts xxviii we read that " a viper came out of the heat, and fastened on Paul's hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang (ek) on his hand ; " certainly not " out of his hand." In Acts xii. 7, it is said that the chains fell (ek) off froTYi Peter's hands ; certainly not " out of his hands." Dr. Conant translates a passage from Achilles Tatius : " Stoop- ing forward (ek) from the vessel, he directs his face (eis) towards the stream." By the same rule we might trans- 150 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. late the passage from Acts : " They stepped down towards the water, and stepped up (anebesan) (ek) from the water." But we have no reason to say that Fis does not mean Into in this passage. Their stepping into the water does not imply depth. Wearing sandals they could easily have taken them off, and, in that warm climate, the cooling of their feet by their immersion would have been pleasant. We maintain, therefore, from all the circumstances, and from the force of the words employed, that Dr. Carson's supreme confidence in this passage, as a proof of immer- sion, was misplaced. Having now examined the chief instances of Ritual Baptism recorded in the New Testament, may we not conclude that Baptism into water (eis huddr) is not found in any. The full formula of Baptidzo is in Matt, iii. 2, " I baptize (en) with water (eis) into repentance" ; this being shown by the omission of en by Luke, who uses the simple instrumental dative (hudati) " with water," Luke iii. 16. Water is not the receiving element in ANY case. It is the instrumental agency of Ritual Bap- tism, as appointed by Christ and used by the Apostles. Ritual Baptism was, by John, " luith water into repent- ance." By the Apostles, " tvith water into the name of the Lord Jesus," or " into Christ." Baptism into water would imply all the consequences of immersion, that is, death by drowning. Baptism into Christ denotes our vital union to him and our assimilation to his character. We put on Christ, as Paul testifies, Gal. iii, 27, " As many of you, as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." Real Baptism is not that of Simon Magus, which left him in his sins, though the rite was adminis- tered, it may be, by Apostolic hands ; but it is " the wash- ing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost," which cleanses from all sin. The following touching story of a ritual self -baptism by a Chinaman, is copied, merely as an illustration, from the Canadian Presbyterian, May 27th, 1881. To PNEUMA HAGION, THE HOLY SPIRIT. 151 He had been converted by simply reading the New Testament, Then he wanted to be baptized. " One rainy day," he said, " as I was sitting in the door of my cabin, I read the words, ' He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ' ; and I said to myself, * I believe ; but how can I receive Baptism,' for, far and near, there was no mission- ary. Then, as my eyes followed the falling rain, the thought occurred to me, * It is God who sends down the rain. Can I not pray to him to baptize me?' So I bared my neck and breast that they might be sprinkled, went out, fell on my knees, and cried, * Heavenly Father, I receive thy Baptism in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.' And now in my heart I have the conviction that I have received Baptism from God himself" Who can doubt it ? A very distinguished minister, of whom I have heard, had scruples about receiving ordination by the laying on of hands of the Presbytery ; but, after he had delivered a most solemn, spiritual, and deeply impressive discourse, an aged minister said to him, "God has ordained you"; and in fact he never received any other ordination, though recognised by all the brethren, as a true and regular minister of Christ. TO PNEUMA HAGION, THE HOLY SPIRIT. To have correct scriptural ideas of the nature and operations of the Holy Spirit is essentially necessary for the student of Christian Baptism. The Greek word pneuma, which literally signifies wind or air in motion, or breath, finds its highest meaning in the Divine Being, the Spirit of God, that is, the Holy Spirit. In many passages of Scripture the Holy Spirit is represented as possessing the attributes of existence, intelligence, agency, personality. In the form of the Apostolic benediction, II. Cor.xiii. 14, the Holy Spirit is con- joined with the Father and the Son, as equally the source 152 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. of Divine blessings. In the Apostolic Commission the di- rection is, that the Baptism is to be " into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit," again implying equality of the persons in the Trinity. The Saviour, at his Baptism by John, received a higher Baptism by the descent of the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove, which the Evangelist says, " abode on him." The same Spirit led him away to the wilderness, in which he was tempted. When Jesus, after his resurrection, was taking leave of his disciples, he promised that the Holy Ghost would come upon them as another comforter or helper, which promise was gloriously fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. At the time of the reception of Cornelius and his friends into the Christian Church, as the first fruits of the Gospel among the Gentiles, a similar descent of the Spirit is described. Omitting other references, we may briefly say, that, in all these cases, the Personality of the Holy Ghost is manifest. The word Ruach in Hebrew and Pneuma in Greek are used as equivalent in the Scriptures, in both a literal and a figurative sense — thus our Lord says, in a literal sense, " The wind (Pneuma) bloweth where it listeth." Pneuma is also used to signify disembodied spirits, both good and evil. But, in the highest sense, it denotes the Third Person of the Trinity, as the highest agency of God. He is called the Spirit of love, of wisdom, of joy, of peace. He is that Supreme Spirit, who bestows all spiritual gifts on men. Few passages in the New Testament are more illustrative of this Divine Agent than I. Cor. xii. 4-11, in which the Spirit is described as distributing gifts, sev- erally, according to his will. We shall quote from 8th verse : " For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom ; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit ; to another faith by the same Spirit ; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit, (fee."" 11th verse, " But all these worketh that one and the self -same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will." The Personality of the Spirit is here manifest. TO PNEUMA HAGION, THE HOLY SPIKIT 153 The word Pneuma, or Spirit, in the Greek, is of the neuter gender ; and, according to ideas derived from Eng- lish idiom, this would seem to be inconsistent with per- sonality and would appear to lend support to the idea that the Pneuma is only divine influence. But in John xv. 26, we read. When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit (Pneuma) of truth, He (ekeinos) (not it) shall testify of me. The masculine pronoun (ekeinos) He, shows that Personality is meant. Still more decided is John xvi. 13, 14. When He (ekeinos) the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself ; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me : for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." There is, in this passage, no possibility of mistake. It clearly exhibits the Spirit as a Person. All the personal pronouns are in the masculine, agreeing in sense with Pneuma , but not in gender. If Pneuma denoted mere influence this grammatical anomaly would not occur. Just in the same way, Elohim (God), which is in the plural number, takes the verb after it in the singular. Thus the Unity of the Godhead is implied even when the name of God occurs in the plural number. The question naturally arises in connection with this subject — Is there any reason for the heresy regarding the Holy Spirit, to be found in the teachings of the Baptist denomination ? Regular Baptists, it is well known, are evangelical in their theology. They do not believe in Baptismal Regeneration, and they acknowledge entire de- pendence on the Spirit's work. Yet they insist on a par- ticular ritual observance in such terms, as would almost imply that they considered it essential to salvation. " Saved or damned," are the words, with which Dr. Fuller commences his treatise on Baptism, his design being, by that dissyllogistic phrase, to impress on his readers the ne- cessity of immersion. Submit to immersion or else-r-cal- I 154 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. dilate the consequences ! Alexander Campbell and his followers complete the Syllogism, and land in the doc- trine of Baptismal Regeneration. Insisting on Immersion into water, they allow the influence of the Spirit and the need of Spiritual Baptism to fall into the back- ground. The Spirit, in their creed, ceases to be the Agent, and is transmuted into the receiving element in Baptism. Let it not be said that these are groundless charges against the Baptist system. In a letter, dated April 24, 1880, from Rev. Dr. Dale, the following passage occurs, " I was much astonished on enquiring recently at the Baptist Board of Publication for some treatise, book or tract, on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, to be told that ' they had none.' I sent to Cincinnati, to the Disciples' Publication House ; and my astonishment became amazement when told, that they too ' had none except a solitary chapter, in a large volume, which did not profess to give a thorough treatment of the subject.' " Formerly the Baptist controversy had respect chiefly to the question, whether infants should be baptized. Of late, we hear but little about Infant Baptism, but much re- specting Immersion. Perhaps it is considered enough just to denounce Infant Sprinkling, as a ridiculous and ab- surd practice. It may be an institution of God, as was Circumcision ; but it is thought to be proper to ignore or ridicule a custom, observed and held sacred by the great majority of Christians. On the other hand, Immersion is the constant theme of controversy. Those who have not been immersed, may be acknowledged as Christian breth- ren, with whom it is proper to unite in all acts of public worship ; but, from the Table of the Lord they are de- barred and excluded. Psedobaptists believe conscien- tiously that they have been properly baptized ; but, be- cause they have not been plunged into water — a practice which the word Baptidzo never sanctions in any other sense than that of drowning — they are told that they cannot be received at the Lord's Table. English Baptists, CHEIST THE BAPTIZER (en) BY THE HOLY GHOST 155 such as John Bunyan, Robert Hall, Alexander Carson, and Charles Spurgeon, can virtually say to the members of other denominations, " Come in, ye blessed of the Lord ! We differ in matter of ritual, but we are one in spirit. We have both received the one baptism, which Christ can alone give, through the Blessed Comforter." When shall we see a similar spirit prevail on the American Conti- nent ? Never ! until the Holy Spirit is acknowledged by all as the real Baptizer ; never, until all who profess their faith in Christ, and bring forth fruits meet for re- pentance, shall be acknowledged as members of Christ's bod^, whatever may have been the mode or the time of their Baptism. CHRIST, THE BAPTIZER (en) BY THE HOLY GHOST. In a former section, it was mentioned that the preposi- tion En is rendered, in the Bible Union version, by ov through in thirty-eight passages of the Gospel according to Mat- thew, translated by Dr. Conant. It must now be added that the meaninof of En, as connected with Pneuma, has . . . . a more profound significance than the English preposi- tion By serves to indicate. One of the examples formerly given was " En machaira," En the sword, which does not mean simply with or by the sword, as an instrument ; but " with the authority of the siuord." In the same manner, when John says of Jesus " This is he that baptizeth En Pneumati hagio," it may be fitly rendered : " This is the Baptizer, who is in the Holy Ghost," who is, therefore, invested with the power of the Holy Spirit. Winer says : " In Rom. XV. 16, En pneumati hagio is employed de- signedly, ' in the Holy Spirit,' ... So, likewise, in I Cor. xii. 3, En pneumati theou is to be rendered, ' Speaking in the Spirit of God,' that is, the element in which the speaker lives." He that baptizeth en Pneumati is, in like manner, the one who is in the Spirit, and, therefore, invested with power to baptize hy the Holy Spirit. 156 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. In his public ministry, Jesus preached (en) in the Spirit, that is, dwelling in the Spirit, he gave forth the mind of the Spirit. His miracles also were wrought (en) in the same power. " This fellow," said his enemies, " doth not cast out devils but (en) by Beelzebub." Matt. xii. 24. In Mark iii. 22, the same idea is expressed differently. "He hath Beelzebub, and (en) in the prince of the devils, he casteth out the devils." (R.V.) This blas- phemy is sharply rebuked by the Saviour ; and the claim is advanced that he was (en) in the Spirit of God, and, therefore, invested with power to cast out devils. The instrumental force of en is thus grounded on in, its pri- mary meaning. The great Baptizer, our Lord Jesus Christ, was in the Holy Spirit, and, therefore, invested with power to baptize by the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elias ; but Jesus came in the power of God's Spirit. John was, therefore, not worthy even to bear the shoes of " the coming one." • The word pneuma and the phrase pneuma hagion have, in the original, a peculiarity which is not apparent in the common English translation. The unclassical reader can, however, to some extent understand the mat- ter by remembering that, while in the Latin language there is no definite article, the word Dominus, for instance, being translated either " Lord," or " The Lord ;" the Greek word Kvfjvoi means " Lord," and Ho Kvpioi, " The Lord." The Greek definite article has three forms. Ho, mascu- line ; He, feminine ; To, neuter. It would seem, at first sight, that, as Pneuma occurs sometimes with the article, as To pneuma, and, at other times, as Pneuma simply without the article, there must be a difference of meaning between the two expressions. Baptist writers, and es- pecially those of the Campbellite section, are disposed to mark the difference by translating Pneuma hagion as " Holy Spirit, or a holy spirit ; " and. To pneuma hagion, as " The Holy Spirit." In the quarto edition of the Bible-union version, Matt. iii. 11 is translated, "He shall CHRIST THE BAPTlZER (en) BY THE HOLY GHOST. 157 immerse you in Holy Spirit and fire ; " but in the small edition, intended for general circulation, the usual render- ing of the phrase is restored, " He shall immerse you in the Holy Spirit and fire." It is presumed that the de- liberate judgment of the revising editors decided against the form put forth in the quarto. In fact, it is easy to see that, if Pneuma Hagion be taken AS A proper name, it requires no article ; just as in English we can say either Christ or The Christ, taking the word either as a proper name or as an appellative, meaning " the anointed one." It is not within the scope of this Compend, which is designed for the people, fully to discuss critical questions, which require, for their elucidation, much reference to the original language of the New Testament. But we can imperfectly report the opinions of learned critics on the subject, whose authority may be, in some degree, suf- ficient for our guidance. Bishop Ellicott says : " It is much more natural to regard Pneuma, Pneuma Hagion and Pneuma Theou (" spirit of God") AS proper names, with latitude as to the article." Rev. E. H. Bickersteth, in his volume entitled " The Divine Person and Work of the Holy Ghost," p. 40, says, " It is freely admitted that there are several Scriptures, in which the term Spirit or Spirit of God is used to signify (better, "to represent") the gifts and graces of the Spirit, as when we read of the Spirit being poured out upon the church ; or a double portion of the Spirit being given to Elisha — being upon Moses — — upon the seventy elders. It may be asked, If the Spirit were a person, how could he be thus effused or di- vided ? But to this it is quite sufficient to answer, that, in such cases, by a very frequent figure of speech, the INFLUENCES AND EFFECTS ARE DESCRIBED BY THE SOURCE FROM WHICH THEY FLOW. The question is not whether some passages may, or may not, be brought forward, which denote the operations and influences of the Spirit, and, therefore, do not establish his personality ; but, be- sides these, whether there are not very numerous passages 158 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. of Holy Writ, which do positively assert and prove it. A horticulturist may use the term " sun" to express the radiance of the sun ; " place cei'tain plants in the sun" — " more or less sun" ; but does this beget a doubt whether he believes in the great solar mass ? We admit that by the Spirit are sometimes intended the gifts and graces of the Spirit. These graces may be poured out, these gifts may be distributed. These diverse manifestations are given to every man to profit withal. But the Apostle adds : " All these worketh that one and the self-same spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will" (i. Cor. xii. 11). On this passage from Bickersteth Dr. Dale kindly fur- nishes, in a letter, the following valuable critical remarks: " This last quotation" (from I. Cor. xii. 11) " forbids the conversion of Pneuma Hagion into gifts, graces and influ- ences : these may be immediately spoken of, but ' Pneuma Hagion' does not express them, but expresses only the per- sonal Holy Spirit, * who worketh all these gifts, graces and influences.' ' Therefore, Bickersteth speaks unguard- edly, when he admits that Pneuma, Pneuma Hagion, and Pneuma Theou, (Spirit of God), are used to signify the gifts and graces of the Spirit ; they cannot * signify,' they may represent his woi'k, or, as the source may indicate that V/ hich flows from it ; but ' ivorkTYian still means workman and not work ; and ' the source' still means * the source,' and not that which flows from it. ' They were were all filled of (by) the Holy Ghost.' ' Pneumatos Hagiou,' although without the article, means nothing but the personal Holy Ghost ; but not, on that account, is it declared, that the Apostles were filled with his per- sonality ! He did personally fill them, yet not with him- self ; but with such of his gifts, as he saw needful to en- dow them for their Apostolic mission. Bickersteth very properly refers to like phrases in relation to ' the Sun and his influences.' " " The sun rises at five o'clock," " the sun sets at six THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT. 159 o'clock." " The sun is the centre of the solar system" : such phrases refer directly to the sun as a distinct exis- tence. " Sun-rise is beautiful " — " Sunset is gorgeous " ; " set the plants in the sun " ; " the sun colors vegetation." " The sun ripens the grain" ; " plants in a Southern ex- posure have a double measure of the sun" : such phrases refer directly to some quality or influence of the sun ; yet the sun, in no case, means the quality or influence of light, or heat, or influence of any kind ; but onl}^ and al- ways, the sun, out of which we deduce the quality or in- fluence, which the particular case may require. " This seems to be certain," adds Dr. Dale, " the phrase Pneuma Hagion always points to the personal Holy Spirit, either directly in his Personality or the Personal source of gifts received by his people." May the Holy Spirit reveal Himself to the readers of this Compend, and lead them into all truth 1 Amen. THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT. Acts i. 5. " Ye shall be baptized (en) by the Holy Ghost." Dr. Carson seldom came nearer the true meaning of Baptidzo, than when he wrote the latter clauses of the fol- lowing sentences : — " Believers are said to be immersed into the Spirit, not because there is anything like Immer- sion in the manner of the reception of the Spirit, but from the resemblance between an object immersed in a fluid and the sanctification of all the members of the body and the faculties of the soul." It has been already aftirmed that there is no such expression in the New Testament as " Eis to pneuma " Into the Spirit ; " and therefore the phrase used by Dr. Carson " into the spirit," as the re- ceiving element, is incorrect and untrue. The receptive element is in the New Testament always ideal, as Eis Christon, into Christ ; Eis metanoian, into repentance, &c. But Dr. Carson's statements that 1st. There is nothing like Immersion in the Baptism of the Spirit ; and 2nd. 160 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. That Baptism consists in the sanctification of the body and the soul — are in full accordance with the nature and meaning of Baptidzo. Spiritual or real Baptism means a thorough change of the spiritual character and condition of the person baptized. As iron, baptized by fire, changes its character, becomes soft and bright, instead of being hard and dark ; so the believer, baptized (en) by the Spirit of God, is assimilated to the Divine Nature. The analogy in this case, indeed, comes short of the full force of the matter illustrated, as most mere analogies must do, for the iron soon returns to its former condition, but the bap- tism of the soul is permanent. It endures forever. The idea that the Holy Spirit is the receptive element cannot be true ; because the Spirit is everywhere in Scrip- ture, represented as the Agent in conversion and sancti- fication. The Spirit cannot be at once the Pool and the Helper in the House of Mercy. In the New Baptist Translation (Quartp) Matt, ix., 34 by Dr. Conant, " En to archonti " is translated, " Through the prince of the devils ; " and the following foot note is given, " En (with dative of person) denotes the one, in whom resides the power or authority, by which a thing is done : hence " by " or " through ; " with reference also to " Winer's Idioms," sec. 48 ; yet *' en hudati " is translated in the Baptist ver- sion, " In water " though Luke omits the en ; and en pneumati is rendered " In the Spirit ; " whilst the person- ality of the Spirit is not denied — what absurdity and con- tradictions will prejudice and preconceived notions not sanction ? The passage we have quoted above, from Dr. Carson, in regard to the effect of the Baptism of believers, does not apply to the Baptism of the Apostles and brethren on the day of Pentecost. It was not merely a Baptism of sanc- tification, such as ordinary Christians receive, but it was preparatory to the life-work of the Apostles and the other heralds of the Cross. They were to tarry at Jerusalem till they should be endued with power from on high. When THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT. 161 at the great Pentecostal Baptism, they were thoroughly changed in their spiritual condition, and were made able ministers of the New Covenant. Those who had, in the time of trial, forsaken their Master and fled, were prepared by this Baptism, for standing before rulers and councils and multitudes, whom they knew to be hostile, but whom they did not fear. It is worthy of remark here that, just as the altar on Carmel was baptized without immersion, but by pouring water on it, so the Holy Spirit was " poured out" on the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. There may, therefore, be a Baptism without immersion. We do not found the argument for pouring or sprinkling on the figurative ex- pression, "poured out"; but we say that the figure of pouring-out was grounded on the previous practice of baptizing by pouring or sprinkling. A figure of speech MUST ARISE FROM SOME REAL RESEMBLANCE. " The SUn of Napoleon's glory has set," could not be used as a figure, if the sun did not actually set. The pouring out of the Spirit being called Baptism, implies that Baptism was properly effected by pouring. Dr. Carson and others are at great pains to identify what they call the emblems of this Baptism of the Apostles with immersion. Dr. Carson admits that there was nothing like immersion in the manner of the reception of the Spirit ; still he adds that " the disciples were im- mersed into the Holy Spirit by the abundance of its gifts ; they were literally covered with the appearance of the wind and fire." We can have a clear idea of the appearance of fire ; but it was merely cloven tongues " like as of fire," which could not surround or cover them, and while the Scriptures speak of a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, there was no real fire, no real wind, but the mighty rushing of God's Spirit, in its descent upon the Apostles and brethren. President Halley, of England, referring to the Pente- costal Baptism, quotes from Dr. Carson: "The wind 162 A COxMPEKD OF BAPTISM. descended to fill the house, that, when the house was filled with the wind, the disciples might be baptized with it." " That this philosophy of a house full of wind," says Dr. H alley, " is not of Scripture, but of Dr. Carson, I would have sceptics take notice ; lest they should pro- fanely ask. Was it ever empty of wind ? or, if there was more than u.sual, what kept the building together ? " " Their Baptism," says Dr. Carson, " ' consisted in their be- ing totally surrounded with the wind, not in the manner in which the wind came.' Of course he means ' came upon them.' Will you believe me, gentle reader, that Dr. Carson's book is written to prove that baptize is a Modal verb, referring exclusively to the manner in which the action is performed — the manner in which the wind, or water, or baptizing fluid incloses a person by his being put into it, and not by its coming upon him ?" The reader of this Compend will see that it would be just as easy to immerse the Israelites in the Red Sea, without drowning them, as to make out an immersion from the Pentecostal Baptism. Yet the Israelites were baptized, (en) by the cloud and (en) by the sea, into Moses ; and the Apostles and brethren (en Pneumati hagio), by the Holy Spirit, into fitness for their labours in evangelizing the world, and establishing the Church. It seems very sad that the grand simplicity of the gos- pel narrative, respecting the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, should be so metamorphosed, so caricatured, in order to make it harmonize with a system which has really no foundation in the Word of God. But the importance of the event itself, as the fulfilment of an- cient prophecy, and of the personal promise of the Sa- viour cannot be over-estimated. 1st. It was the formal inauguration of the gospel system, the coming of the kingdom of heaven, the introduction of the dispensation of the Spirit. 2nd. Jesus was the author of the work, as Peter said : " Being by the right hand of God exalted, he hath shed THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT. 163 forth tliis, which ye now see and hear." John the Baptist had foretold it, " He shall baptize you (en) with the Holy Ghost." Jesus was qualified to bestow this gift, for he had himself received the Spirit without measure. He was THE Baptizer who was in (en) the Holy Ghost, and was thereby invested with power to baptize by the Holy Ghost. Ambrose, therefore, calls him the great Bap- tizer. He was always in (en) the Spirit, and under his influence. 3rd. The personal agent of the Pentecostal Baptism was the Holy Spirit. We have seen that the Spirit was not the receptive element, in which the Baptism took place. The Baptist theory tends to exclude the personal agency of the Spirit ; but the Spirit is described in Scrip- ture as personally teaching all things, and as " dividing to every man severally as he w411." It is not the work of Christ to bring the souls of men into the Holy Ghost ; but it is the work of the Spirit to bring them, and bap- tize them into Christ. Neither are Christ and the Spirit independent Baptizers. They are intimately related and united. It is from this union, and their mutual relation, that real Baptism proceeds. Jesus is the more remote author, the Spirit the more immediate agent. 4th. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the common inheritance of the saints. It is said, in Acts ii. 1, that they " were all with one accord in one place." In the foregoing chapter we learn that the number of the names together were about one hundred and twenty. All these received the Holy Ghost, and were enabled to speak with tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Peter spoke of the Pentecostal Baptism as not limited to the apostles and their immediate co-workers, saying, " Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ (eis) into the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off", even as many as the Lord our God shall call." All received a real Bap- 164 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. tism of the Spirit ; but all were not similarly endowed. The Apostles were prepared for the great work of organiz- ing the Church, their followers became evangelists, " helps, governments." The holy women, also, were qualified for their special spheres of labour. Phoebe was a deacon of the church at Cenchroea. Priscilla was a helper of Paul in Christ Jesus. The beloved Persis laboured much in the Lord. Were not these co-workers with the Apostles prepared, by the Baptism of the Spirit, for the work they had to do ? " The manifestation of the Spirit," says Paul, " i-; given to every man to profit withal, . . for by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body." The promise of the Spirit is not given to the world. " Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him." It is the peculiar heritage of the saints. 5th. The channel through which the Spirit came was faith, exercised in prayer. " They continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with the brethren." Thus they waited and prayed ; and God sent down the answer. Jesus had instructed his disciples to ask, that they might receive, that their joy might be full : " for every one that asketh, receiveth ; and he that seeketh, findeth." " If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your chil- dren, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him." We are instructed by James to " ask in faith, nothing wavering ; for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed ; for let not that man think that he shall re- ceive any thing of the Lord." (jth. This blessed gift of the Spirit is intended, not merely to fill our souls with peace and joy, but to prepare us for the service of the Redeemer. The Spirit is at once the preparation and the reward : " for whosoever hath, to him shall be given ; and he shall have more abundantly." It is a very partial and unscriptural view of this subject, to maintain, as some do, that the Spirit is only a reward. THE FIRST SERMON ON CHRISTIAN BAPTISMS. 165 The law of our nature is that we gruw stronger in all our faculties by exercise. The diligent shall be made rich in spiritual as well as temporal things ; but the talents, the capital, on which we trade in the spiritual world, is not our own. It is originally and solely the gift of our hea- venly Father. THE FIRST SERMON ON CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. Fifty days had gone by since the Passover ; the day of Pentecost had come. The disciples, according to the di- rections of their Master, had tarried at Jerusalem till they were " endued with power from on high." A vast multi- tude had assembled to witness the wondrous exhibition of Divine power. Strangers from all parts of the vast Koman empire were there ; and every man heard the Gos- pel in his own language. The disciples were " all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Amazement seized the multitude, and they said one to another, "What meaneth this ? " Others, mocking, said, " These men are filled with new wine." Peter, therefore, stood up, and, quoting from the prophecy of Joel, and from the Psalms, showed that this was only the fulfilment of God's prom- ise in the gift of the Holy Ghost. Here was the full inauguration of the Gospel. This was the first sermon under the ministration of the Spirit. What, then, was the first blast blown from the Gospel trumpet ? Peter said unto them, " Repent and be baptized, every one of you, (resting, or believing) on the name of Jesus Christ, into the remission of sins." We accept the state- ment of a writer in the " Baptist Quarterly" for October, 1871, that "Eis" ought always to be translated " into." In regard to the ellipsis, which we have supplied — " rest- ing, or believing " — it is required before the preposition Epi, "upon." Just as Jesus came from Gallilee "Epi 166 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. Jordanen," that is, to the bank of the Jordan, and rested there ; as Judith rested, "Epi," upon the well, when she baptized herself; so does the believer stand fast on the Rock of Ages, when he is baptized by the Holy Spirit. This is the sure foundation, on which our hope must rest. IN KEGAKD TO THE DOCTRINES OF THE SERMON. 1st. Repentance, a change of mind and heart, is essen- tial to salvation. " Except ye repent," said Jesus, ye shall all likewise perish ! 2nd. Repentance is the gift of God. " Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins." 3rd. Repentance still baptizes. John preached the Baptism of repentance into the remission of sins. Repen- tance and remission of sins are inseparably connected. Dr. Dale says emphatically, " Repentance cannot exist for a moment without the remission of sins, any more than the lightning flash without the thunder peal." Such was the doctrine of Peter's sermon ; let us next consider the accompanying effect. THE BAPTISM OF THE THREE THOUSAND ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST. Christian Baptism is twofold — real and ritual. Real Christian Baptism is a complete change in the moral and spiritual condition of the soul by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Ritual Baptism is not another and different Baptism, but the same Baptism, shadowed forth by a ma- terial emblem. Water has a physically purifying power. It was, therefore, employed under the Old Testament eco- nomy, and it is retained under the New, as the symbol of purification. The bread and wine in the Lord's Supper symbolize the body and blood of Christ, the sources of life to the soul ; so the use of water in Baptism symbolizes THE BAPTISM OF THE THREE THOUSAND. 167 the Baptism of the sanctifying Spirit. Neither depends on the quantity of the material employed. A morsel of bread and a sip of wine constitute the material emblems of the Lord's Supper ; so may the smallest quantity of water fitly symbolize the purifying agency of the Holy Spirit. Errors on the subject of Baptism have sprung chiefly from confounding real Baptism of the Spirit with symbolic water Baptism. The Bomish Ritualist and the Episcopal High Churchman agree in considering Water Baptism as a means of regeneration. The Campbellite Baptist believes that it is instrumentall}^ for (Eis) the remission of sins, on the same footing as faith in Christ. Evangelical Christians, on the other hand, agree in believing, that, in the case of adults, Baptism is a sign and seal of justifying faith in the Lord Jesus — a faith imparted by a previous Baptism of the Holy Spirit ; and Regular Baptists, while they insist on the importance, necessity and duty of Immersion, do not regard it as a saving ordinance. The Baptism of the three thousand on the Day of Pente- cost has long been a battle-ground, on which the advo- cates and opponents of Immersion have met and wrangled. Dr. Dale steps in and relieves both sides by maintaining that it was not an occasion of any Water Baptism. If this were the case, the practical absurdity of attempting to immerse so great a multitude in the cisterns and pools of a hostile city, would be unnecessary. Much learned discussion, also about the supply of water in Jerusalem, would be stripped of its chief interest. Let us briefly and concisely consider the matter : — 1st. This was the first Baptism preached under Christ- ianity. Multitudes were crying out " What shall we do ?" Peter answers : " Repent and be baptized every one of you, (believing) (epi) upon the name of Jesus Christ, into the remission of sins." The Jews had Baptism by the sprinkling of heifer-ashes for ceremonial purification. John had preached the " Baptism of Repentance (eis) into 168 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. the remission of sins." The Jews had understood his Baptism, which he announced as a " Baptism (en) with water," symbolizing the purification of the soul. Josephus says, with marvellous correctness, in regard to John's Baptism, that " the purification of the body would be ac- ceptable to God, only when the soul had been previously thoroughly purged by righteousness." John said also to his disciples : " I indeed baptize with water (eis) into re- pentance. . . . He shall baptize you (en) with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Peter, in his sermon, an- nounces, to the conscience-stricken Jews, the Baptism of Christ. What then was that Baptism ? 2nd. The Greek preposition Epi, upon, which is prefixed to " the name of Jesus Christ," implies faith leaning on the Saviour. Just as Judith baptized himself, resting on (epi) the lip of the fountain, so is the penitent believer baptized into repentance, while he rests on Jesus. A Jew, resting on his couch, might be baptized by sprink- ling into ceremonial purity. So the Christian, resting on " the name, which is above every name " — " the only name given under heaven whereby we can be saved," is thereby baptized into the remission of sins. 3rd. The word " baptized " in the passage has no men- tion of water connected with it. The same is the case in the 41st verse, where the word " baptized " is used with- out explanation. Plutarch says in reference to a certain person : " He baptized the stewards, being not stewards but sharks " — meaning, most probably, that he drowned them ; but it might signify in Greek, that he baptized them into poverty, or into disgrace and shame, as there is no explanatory expression to specify the kind of Baptism. So, in this case, the three thousand were baptized ; but into what ? Not into water certainly, but into repentance, as Peter had already taught. Whether or not the symbol of Baptism, with water, took place, we are not informed in the passage. 4th. The circumstances of the case render Eitual Bap- THE BAPTISM OF THE THREE THOUSAND. 169 tism improbable. John baptized the Jews, who came to him confessing their sins ; but here were Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Cretes, Arabians, &c. An hour before, it may be, mockers at the work of the Spirit — how could they, each one, be examined in one day as to their conversion and fitness for being received into the Christian Church, or, we may ask. Were they received by Ritual Baptism without examination ? Who but Christ was competent to organize the Church ? Did not he, by his Spirit, at once organize and baptize them ? It is said, Acts ii. 47, " The Lord added to them day by day " those that were being saved," — [Revised Version.] Acts xi. 24, " Much people was added unto the Lord." Certainly this was by no Ritual Baptism. Hypocrites, like Simon Magus, may be added to the Church by ritual washing, but it is only the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Ghost, that can remove the pollution of sin, restore the soul to its fellowship with God, and save it from eternal ruin. 5th. Peter told the assembled multitude that this was the fulfilment of Joel's prophecy, " It shall come to pass in the last days, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, . . . and, on my servants and my handmaidens, I will pour out my Spirit, ... and whose ver shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Five hundred years before had this pro phecy been delivered. Jesus had said it should be fulfilled " not many days" hence. Peter declared to the multitude, " The promise is to you and to your children," — that is, the POURING OUT of the Holy Ghost ! The preceding con- siderations seem to justify Dr. Dale in assuming that the Baptism of the three thousand on the day of Pentecost was not ritual, but real and spiritual. We need not, how- ever, insist on this point. Immersion was impracticable in the circumstances. Sprinkling might easily have been per- formed after the manner in which Moses " took the blood of calves and of goats, and with water and scarlet wool, J 170 A COMMEND OF BAPTISM. and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying ' This is the blood of the testament (cove- nant) which God hath enjoined unto you.' " Here was a Eitual Baptism of blood and water. Why should not the Apostles, in like manner, have separated their professing converts, and by the ancient mode of sprinkling, " bap- tized them UPON the name of Jesus, into the remission of sins." Such a Ritual Baptism w^ould indeed have been valueless, even though administered by Apostolic hands, unless they had previously been baptized by the Holy Spirit. Simon Magus continued to be " in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity," though, we are told, that he had been (ritually) baptized. To show how practicable the Baptism of a large num- ber in a short time is, we subjoin the following account of a scene in the Sandwich islands. " In the afternoon of the first Sunday of July, 1838, 1705 men, women and children were baptized, and 2,400 communicants sat down at the table of the Lord. The great crowd of people at the morning service had been dismissed. Down through the middle aisle of the house are seated, first, the original members of the church, perhaps fifty in number. The missionary then calls upon the head man of each village to bring forward his people. With note-book in hand he carefully selects the converts, who have been previously accepted. They have been for many weeks at the station, for instruction and examination. The multitude of can- didates are then seated upon the earthen floor, in close rows, with space enough between for one to walk. There is prayer and singing ; and, lest any should trust in the external rite, an explanation, made many times before, is given anew, of the Baptism they are now to receive. Then, with a basin of water in his hand, the pastor, rapidly and reverently, passes back and forth along the silent rows ; and every head receives the sealing ordinance. When all had been thns touched, he advances to the front, and, raising his hand, pronounces the hallowed words : ' I Saul's baptism. 171 baptize you all into the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.' How impressive ! How simple ! How easy for one missionary in this way to baptize nearly two thousand people in an afternoon ; but how utterly impossible had he immersed them ! " Saul's baptism. Paul stands alone among the Apostles as a converted persecutor. Yet he claims to have been not a whit behind the chiefest of the Apostles. Christ himself had called him, and had said to Ananias, " He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and Kings and the Children of Israel." In speaking of his conversion before King Agrippa, Paul himself said that, when Jesus appeared to him by the way, he had said, " Rise and stand upon thy feet ; for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister both of those things which thou hast seen and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee "...." delivering thee from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee." Observe the word " send " in the original is " Apostello," from which the word Apostle is derived. Paul was, therefore, called to the Apostleship, by our Saviour from that hour. Why then was Ananias sent to him ? His mission had a two- fold object — first, that Paul should receive his sight and, second, that he should be filled with the Holy Ghost. An- anias then went to the house where Saul was, and put his hands on him ; the scales immediately fell from his eyes, and he received sight forthwith, and rising, was baptized. That is, He was filled with the Holy Ghost. Paul received the same Baptism as the other Apos- tles, to qualify him for his work. He was baptized by the Holy Ghost. Some have contended that the word Anastas, "standing up," implies sprinkling or pouring. Alexander Campbell properly shews that it 172 A COMPEiSTD OF BAPTISM. does not denote a separate action from the Baptism. Dr. Dale accepts the criticism and draws the conclusion that ' in the act of rising' he was baptized by the Holy Spirit. The learned Dr. Murdock, in the " Bibliotheca Sacra," tranlates Acts xxii. 16, from the Syriac ver- sion, as follows, " Arise, be baptized, and be cleansed from thy sins, while thou invokest his name." " Here, " as Dr. Dale remarks, "the Baptism and the cleansing from sin are to be secured by prayer, and while the prayer is being made." Chrysostom pointedly marks the distinction between Baptism into Christ and Baptism by calling on his name. " Here," he says, " a great truth was uttered ; for he did not say — Baptize thyself into his name, but, ' calling upon the name of Christ '; this shows that he was God." Saul baptized himself by calling on the name of Christ, and invoking his divine power. See the Greek. " Baptisai ! " Literally, being in the Aorist tense, it means Hibernice, " Be after baptizing thyself." It implies urgency. " Why tarriest thou, &c."* The form of expression in Acts xxii. 16, is remark- able. The verb baptize is in the Middle Voice, expressing an action done to one's self. Paul was commanded " to baptize himself ." He did so by calling on the name of the Lord. Neither in the ix. Chapter, where Luke nar- rates the original transaction, nor in the xxii. Chapter, where Paul rehearses the matter before the tumultuous Jews, is any mention made of Ananias baptizing him. " I see nothing in Paul's case," says Dr. Carson. " to prevent his immediate immersion." " For immersion," says Pre- sident A. Campbell, " he must go to the water." True ! if Baptism meant immersion ; and if it were necessary * More than fifty years ago, my learned and witty friend and chum, Rob- ert Wilson, pointed out to me this analogy between Hibernian English in the past-present time and the Aorist tense. Irish, so-called, blunders have often a significance, which the hard English common sense cannot under- stand or appreciate. W. H. saul's baptism. 178 that an Apostle should receive Water Baptism. We know- that Ritual Baptism is an institution of the Christian Church ; but we have no evidence that any of the Apos- tles received Christian Ritual Baptism, as distinguished from John's Baptism. Who could have baptized the Apos- tles ritually ? Jesus did not baptize with water ; but his disciples seem to have administered a Baptism similar to John's, while John w^as still baptizing at Enon ; as we learn from John iii. 22, 23 ; but the precise character of the Baptism is not mentioned. " My deliberate opinion," says Robert Hall, in his treatise in favour of Open Com- munion, " is that, in the Christian sense of the term, they (the Apostles) were not baptized at all. From the total silence of the Scripture, and from other circumstances, which might be adduced, it is difficult to suppose they submitted to that rite after the Saviour's resurrection ; and previous to it, it has been sufficiently proved that it was not in force." Tertullian, in his Treatise on Baptism, says, " Others violently enough, contend that the Apostles had w^hat filled the place of Baptism ; when, the ship being sprinkled with the waves, they were covered ; and that Peter, also, himself, going through the sea, was sufficiently merged. But I think it is one thing to be sprinkled and intercepted b}^ the violence of the sea, and another thing to be tinged (baptized) by the discipline of religion. Note 1st. Tertullian tried, but in vain, to introduce the word Tingo, as the translation of the word Baptidzo, into Latin. The Greek word was, of necessity, at last trans- ferred into that language, just as it is in English. Note 2nd. Tertullian does not object to the sprinkling of the Apostles in the storm, as being wrong in mode, be- cause it was not immersion ; but because it was not the " discipline of religion." What becomes, we may now ask, of the argument for Close Communion, if our Lord himself communed with unbaptized persons ? " Him that is weak in the faith re- 174 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. ceive ye," says Paul, Rom. xiv. 1-5, ' but not to doubtful disputations. Who art thou that judge th another man's servant ? To his own master he standeth or falleth ; yea, he shall be holden up ; for God is able to make him STAND — TO BAPTIZE HIM (Syriac). Wherefore, receive ye one another, as Christ also hath received us to the glory of God." " They " (the Close Communion Baptists) " are the only persons in the world," says Robert Hall, " of whom we have either heard or read, who contend for the exclu- sion of genuine Christians from the Lord's table . . . What intimation shall we find in Scripture of an inten- tion to create such an invidious disparity among the mem- bers of the same body ? " The expression in the address of Ananias to Paul, "W^ash away thy sins," is interpreted by the additional phrase, " calling upon the name of the Lord." Unless we accept the doctrine of Rome, that Water Baptism cleanses from sin, or the doctrine of Alexander Campbell, that immer- sion in water is a means, an instrumental cause of the re- mission of sins, we must maintain the doctrine, that it is only the blood of Christ, applied by the Holy Spirit, which takes away sin — of which Water Baptism is an appropri- ate symbol. It does not seem strange that the Society of Friends should exemplify the recoil of the human mind from the dominion of ritualism. Those brethren, who distinctively maintain the extreme of spiritualistic doctrine, appear to forget that Jehovah has always presented his covenant in symbols. The tree of life in the garden of Eden was, no doubt, a real tree, but it had a spiritual meaning. The emblems in the Lord's Supper are material bread and wine, not transub- stantiated into the real body and blood of Jesus, but to be spiritually enjoyed by the believing recipient. So the emblem of heifer ashes under the law, and of water Bap- tism under the Gospel, signify the cleansing of the soul, and our being made meet for the heavenly inheritance. ■^ Saul's baptism. 175 In treating of this passage, Dr. Carson says, " Here we see Baptism figuratively washes away sins, and supposes that they are washed away " (p. 212). Prof. Hackett : " This is the only instance in which the verb occurs in the middle voice with reference to Chris- tian Baptism, ' And wash away thy sins.' Baptism is re- presented as having this importance or efficacy, because it is a sign of the repentance and faith, which are the conditions of salvation." Alex. Campbell : " Baptism is ordained for the remis- sion of sins, not as a procuring or efficient cause, but as an instrumental cause, in which faith and repentance are de- veloped and made fruitful." Dr. Pusey, of ritualistic fame, in his work, " Scriptural views of Holy Baptism" (p. 174) : "What took place dur- ing those three days and nights, we are not told beyond a general intimation. . . But, as yet, neither were his sins forgiven, nor had he yet received the Holy Ghost ; much less, then, was he born again of the Spirit through his Saviour's sacrament. . . By Baptism, he was filled with the Holy Ghost." In this case, Dr. Carson finds a figure. Dr. Hackett a sign, A. Campbell an instrumental cause. Dr. Pusey an efficient sacrament. If we rightly consider the passage, we shall see that all these views, which are founded on the idea of Paul's Bap- tism being only ritual and with water, come far short of the truth and reality. Jesus had appeared to Saul in the way ; Saul had been three days under deep conviction of sin — in physical and spiritual darkness ; yet he had received the spirit of prayer — " Behold he prayeth." Ananias was sent to him, as to one who was already a chosen vessel — an elect one. He addresses Saul as " Brother." Saul was not without faith. He had already felt the throes of the new birth ; his knowledge of the Old Testament, in which Christ is revealed by faith, had, no doubt, begun to dawn on his 176 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. mind, as a new revelation of the true Messiah. Still, the burden of guilt was heavy on his soul. He lay writhing in the agonies of repentance, and on the verge of despair, when the messenger of Jesus came to lift him up, to pour the balm of consolation into his wounded spirit. And then he received the Baptism of an apostle : he was filled with the Holy Ghost, while he called on the name of the Lord. No mere Ritual Baptism could account for all this. PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE SUPPOSED TO ALLUDE TO BAPTISM. As it is impossible, within the limits of a Compend, fully to examine all the texts, which have been brought into the discussion of this subject, we shall give a very brief statement of some passages, which have been sup- posed to relate to Ritual Baptism. I. John iii. 25: " There arose a question, between some of John's disciples and the Jews, about purifying." Some manuscripts read " A Jew" ; but the meaning does not seem to be affected by the difference. It was not a dis- cussion about the personal merits of John and Jesus ; but about the purifyings, which the Jews had before John came, as compared with John's Baptism — Jewish purifica- tions by sprinkling, as prescribed by the Law, were cere- monial ; John's Baptism was spiritual. He preached the Baptism of Repentance into the remission of sins, — that is, "The Baptism by repentance, which no Water Baptism could effect. The Spiritual Baptism, by God's spirit, into repentance, must precede the ritualistic symbol by John. The Baptist clearly taught this when the Pharisees and Saducees came to him to be baptized. Josephus also de- scribes John's Baptism as of this character. Christian Baptism had not yet been fully established; and it cannot, therefore, be here alluded to. 11. John iii. 5 : "Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Except a man be born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter SCRIPTURE SUPPOSED TO ALLUDE TO BAPTISM. 177 into the kingdom of God." These words were spoken to Nicodemus, an eminent teacher of the Law among the Jews, a Pharisee. He had all confidence in the ceremo- nial sprinklings under the Law ; but he had rejected JohnV Baptism with water, which pointed to another Bap- tism by the Spirit. The Saviour meets him at once with the declaration that he must be born again, not as depend- ing on Jewish washings, but as symbolized by the Water Baptism of John. There was no immersion-dipping among the Jews ; but there was a sprinkling of heifer-ashes, which produced ceremonial purity. As mingled blood and water had power thus to cleanse the body, so the spirit could purify the soul. There cannot be any refer- ence here made to Christian Baptism, which would have been, without explanations, unintelligible to a Jew. To be born of water and of the spirit meant, that, as a Jew, he was to be cleansed externally and ceremonially, while his soul, internally, was to be regenerated and renewed in spiritual purity by the Holy Ghost. " That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." " Of his own will begat he us by the word of Truth." "Sanctify them," said Jesus, in his prayer for his disciples, " through thy truth ; Thy word is truth." How inconsistent are such passages with the idea of Bap- tismal Regeneration. III. 1 Cor. vi. 11: "But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." Calvin says : — " Though these three terms have the same general mean- ing, there is nevertheless, great force in their variety. There is an implicit contrast between washing and defile- ment — sanctification and pollution — justification and guilt. The term washing is metaphorical, Christ's blood being likened to water. ' In the name of the Lord Jesus' Christ is the source of all blessings, is communicated to us by the Spirit. For it is by faith that we receive Christ, 178 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. and have his graces applied to us. The Author of faith is the Spirit." According to Calvin, therefore, this passage has refer- ence to Christ's blood, and not to water- washing. The word loud, which may signify to wash the whole body, is supposed to imply a reference to immersion, as the emblem of spiritual cleansing ; but sprinkling with heifer ashes, under the Law, cleansed the whole body, as well as an entire submersion could have done. The triumphal doxology of the sainted John, in Rev. i. 5, begins, " Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins (en) by his own blood." Did John mean that we are immersed in Christ's blood ? We are cleansed by the blood of sprinkling, not immersed. IV. Titus iii. 5 : "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he (God our Saviour) saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Dr. Pusey sees Water Baptism in this passage. " We are saved," he says, " neither by faith only, nor by Bap- tism only ; but faith bringing us to Baptism, and ' by Baptism God saves us.' They are the words of God him- self. As our Lord said negatively, that without the birth of water and the Spirit, or Baptism, man ' could not see the kingdom of God ; ' so St. Paul, that hy it we are saved out of the world, and brought into the ark, if we but abide there and become not reprobates." Calvin says : " The strain runs thus : God hath saved us by his mercy, the symbol and pledge of which he gave in Baptism, by admitting us into his Church, and engraft- ing us into the body of his Son. " Though he mentioned the sign, that he might exhibit to our view the grace of God, yet, that we may not fix our whole attention on the sign, he immediately sends us to the Spirit, that we may know that we are washed by his power, and not by water. . . Because his s^race is SCRIPTURE SUPPOSED TO ALLUDE TO BAPTISM, 179 invisible and hidden, a visible symbol of it is beheld in Baptism." The expression " God our Saviour," occurring in the 4th verse, and implied in the 5 th, shows that it is Christ's Baptism by the Spirit which is here meant, and not its mere symbol. The remarks made regarding spiritual washing in I. Cor. vi. 11, are applicable here, and need not be repeated. We may add, however, that when David wished to express his sanctification, he says, "I will wash my hands in innocency." Pilate washed his hands in water, but his guilt remained. Ananias said to Paul, "Wash away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord." Prayer was the laver in his case. The glorious company of the saints in heaven have washed their robes and made them white by the blood of the Lamb. Water is a most significant emblem of cleansing ; but in itself it is powerless, as the experience of millions of backsliders fully attest. They were baptized on profession of their faith ; but by their fruits we can judge them. 5th. Hebrews x. 22 : " Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprin- kled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." Dr. Carson says, " This refers to Ritual Baptism. To me it is evident that the whole body was covered with water. The heart is said to be sprinkled, in allusion to the blood of the sacrifices; and the body, in allusion to bathings un- der the Law, is said to be washed in pure water, referring to the ordinance of Baptism. Now, the pouring of a little water on the face is not a washing of the body. I admit that sprinkling a little water on any part of the body might be an emblem of purification, but this would not be called a washing of the body." Calvin takes a much loftier view of the passage. " The Jews," he says, " cleansed themselves by various carnal washings. In Christ all these things are far superior. Away, then, with all the external washings of the flesh. 180 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. The apostle sets a true heart, a sure faith, and a cleansing from vice, in opposition to these external rites. ' Our bodies washed with pure water.^ This is generally un- derstood of Baptism ; but the apostle more probably al- ludes to the ceremonies of the Jew ; and so by water de- signates the Spirit of God, as in Ezekiel xxxvi. 25, ' I will sprinkle clean water upon you.' The meaning is, that we are sanctified in body and soul by faith, a pure conscience, and that cleanness of soul and body which flows from, and is effected by, the Spirit of God." Dr. Carson himself admits in the above extract that sprinkling a little water on any part of the body might be an emblem of purification. That is enough. THE BAPTISM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY, A REAL BAPTISM. 1 Cor. xii. 13 : "By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body." That En hudati can signify with or hy water is strenously denied by those who plead for immersion, even when the absence of En before Hudati in Luke's gospel makes it undeniable ; and yet, in this chapter, En pneumati is, in the Baptist and Campbellite versions, translated five times, " BY THE Spirit ; " that is, twice in the 3rd verse, twice in the 9th verse, and once in the 13th. What a precious jewel is consistency ! We rejoice, how- ever, in the concession that Christian gifts, leading to Christian unity, are, on all hands, admitted to be given only hy the Spirit. Dr. Carson says (p. 212), "In 1 Cor. xii. 13 it is taken for granted that all who are baptized belong to the body of Christ ; and, for this reason, they are baptized into it. They are, by Baptism, externally united to that body, to which they are internally united by faith. None are here supposed to be baptized upon the expectation, or probability, or possibility, that they may yet belong to that body. They are all baptized into that body." Of course,. Dr. Ca^rson means in this passage Ritual Baptism j THE BAPTISM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY, ETC. 181 but the passage from 1 Cor. xii. 13 says, "By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body." No Ritual Baptism could effect this. It must signify the real Baptism of the Spirit. There is a double Baptism, which every true child of God receives, one by which he is renewed in the Spirit after the image of God ; and another Baptism of unity ' by which he becomes one with the church of the livin^ God, through the indwelling of the Spirit of love. By the former Baptism we are united to Christ ; by the latter we are all united into one body. This great work, begun imperfectly on earth, shall be gloriously complete in hea- ven. We shall be one in him. How sweetly does the sainted Charles Wesley sing of this blessed union in his famous hymn ! *' Let saints below in concert sing with those to glory gone, For all the servants of our king, in heaven and earth, are one. One family, we dwell in him ; one church, above, beneath ; Though now divided by the stream, the narrow stream of death. One army of the living God, to his command we bow ; Part of the host have crossed the flood, and part are crossing now. Dear Saviour, be our constant guide ; then, when the word is given, Bid Jordan's narrow stream divide, and land us safe in heaven." How sad to think that a difference about the mode of Ritual Baptism should separate, in the communion of Christ's death, those who are admitted, on all hands, to be one by Spiritual Baptism ! Why should parents and children, nay, husband and wife, be separated at the Lord's table, when they undeniably are one in Christ Jesus ? The following eloquent passage, showing the workings of Close Communion, is from "The Mode of Christian Baptism," by Rev. Samuel Hutchings : — " Close Communion exerts the most baleful influence upon the peace of families. A Christian wife has prayed for years for her impenitent husband. She has held up before him her own pure example, and has besought him with the tenderest entreaties to turn to the Saviour. At 182 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. last God hears her prayer, and the voice of joy and praise ascends from the newly-erected altar of the household. And now, twice married in the holiest ties, she would bring her husband with her to the communion table. But a Baptist minister has persuaded him that immersion alone is Baptism, and has succeeded in drawing him into the water. ' No, madam,' he tells her, ' you cannot sit down with him at Christ's table. Only on one condition may the longing of your heart be gratified. Renounce your own Baptism : tell the world that the faith of your parents, when they brought you in infancy to the sacred font, was a superstition ; turn your back upon them, and on all those with whom you have hitherto walked in the Lord ; go into the water, and then you may come and commune with your husband.' Similar is the case with children ; ' and so the unity of the family is broken, and instead of walking to the house of God in company, they go different ways ; and the parents sit childless at the sacramental feast." REAL BAPTISM INTO CHRIST. " For ye are all the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus ; for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. — Gal. iii. 26, 27. The following passage from Tertullian, in reference to the text, is important. " He, who was sanctified by Bap- tism, laying aside his sins, and spiritually renewed, was made fit to receive the Holy Spirit, since the Apostle says: * As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ,' (Gal. iii., 27) ... Christ cannot be put on without the Spirit, nor can the Spirit be separated from Christ. Mere water, without the Holy Spirit, can neither purge away sins nor sanctify the man. Wherefore it must be admitted, either that the Holy Spirit is there where Baptism is, or that Baptism is not where the Spirit is notj for Baptism cannot be without the Holy Spirit. " tlEAL BAPTISM INTO CHRIST. 183 Putting-on-Christ, according to Tertullian,is not merely a profession of Christian character, but is the reality. Cyril, of Jerusalem, referring to the nakedness of the persons baptized and their being anointed, says : "Oh, wonderful thing ! you were naked before the eyes of all and not ashamed .... Having been baptized into Christ, and having put on Christ, ye became of like form with the Son of God. Therefore, having become parta- kers of the Christ (the anointed One), you are well called Christs ('anointed ones,') and concerning you God says: ' Touch not my Christs (anointed ones).' Ye have be- come Christs, having received the anti-type (the Baptis- mal oil) of the Holy Spirit. And everything has been done to you typically, because ye are types of Christ. And he indeed, having washed in the river Jordan, com- municated to its waters the fragrance of his divinity." Tertullian and Cyril, with the other Fathers, believed that the baptizing with water and the anointing with oil was invariably accompanied by the Spirit's influence. Thus they fatally mixed truth with error ; and Popery is THE RESULT ! But is it not well for us, while we regret the error, that we should recognise the truth, underlying and accompanying it ? Dr. Pusey, who follows the teachings of the Fathers, says, in the following passage, " Since Christ is the Son of God, and thou hast put him on, having the Son in thyself, and being transformed into his likeness, thou hast been brought into one kindred and one species with him .... St. Paul speaks then not of duties, but of privileges, in- estimable, inconceivable, which no thought can reach unto — our union with God in Christ, ' wherein we were joined in Holy Baptism.' ' Ye are all one in Christ Jesus,' brings out the more clearly how the being clothed with Christ, is the same as being in Christ Jesus ' ; are in him by be- ing clothed upon by him, . . . for, seeing we are in him, then the putting on Christ is a spiritual reality, the being encompassed, surrounded, invested with him, as a body is 184 A COMPEND OB' BAPTISM. with a garment .... So we see the force of these words by which St. Paul so frequently describes our Christian privileges, the being in Christ." Let us remember that, while, in the above extracts, the writers really meant Ritual Baptism; yet it was not a mere ritual. It was the combination of the real and the symbolical. But what shall we say of the following pas- sage from Dr. Carson ? " The Apostle does not state the import of an ordinance of God in Gal. iii. 27 ; he does not alleo^e that their sub- • • . . . mission to Baptism was an evidence of putting on Christ ; for it is not such ; but is a figure of putting on Christ. Some of them might not turn out to be real believers, but in their Baptism they were taken to be such." Let the reader only observe that the Apostle is speaking of a real .spiritual work in the soul, and he will see how far short Dr. Carson comes of the truth of the passage. Indeed he directly contradicts it. Dr. Carson believed that a dip- ping in water was Baptism ; the Christian Fathers also " immersed " ; but they did not believe that a mere dip- ping in water was Baptism — the symbol was a nullity without the reality. ONE BAPTISM. " One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism." Eph. iv. 5. The question here is whether Paul means Real Baptism by the Spirit or Ritual Baptism with waller. Baptists say that, as the Apostle here speaks literally of one Lord and one Faith, so also Baptism must be under- stood in a literal sense. That is to say they call the Baptism of the Spirit and the Baptism into Christ's death figurative, while they are in truth the most real Baptisms of all. Is not Baptism into Christ a grand and blessed reality ? There is nothing more real that the Christian's experience of the work of divine grace in his soul — that Baptism, which is effected by the Holy Ghost. ONE BAPTISM. 185 Suppose we read the passage, as it is in the Baptist version, " one Lord, one faith, one immersion, one God and Father of all." Can any thing be more incongruous than the introduction of an immersion — dipping-into- water — a mere physical performance, into the grand series of the cardinal five points of the truly Catholic Christian Faith ? Restore the repudiated but inspired word Baptism, and understand it in a spiritual sense ; and the passage becomes resplendent with lofty and consistent meaning. If there is but one Baptism, it cannot be a mere dipping-into- water. It is quite true that we have the example of the Apos- tles for the practice of Water Baptism ; but it does not constitute a Baptism separate from that which is effected by the Holy Spirit, any more than the shadow of a man is to be considered as another and diflferent human being. The real Baptism by the Spirit is merely s3^mbolized by the ritual. The latter is of no value without the former, as we see in the case of Simon Magus. Dr. Carson reasons as follows : " We learn from Ephe- sians iv. 5 that there is but one Baptism. Now, as the Baptism of the Commission cannot possibly extend to infants, if there is such a thing as infant Baptism, there must be two Baptisms. If then there is but one Baptism, there can be no infant Baptism." Dr. Dale's answer is very characteristic. " This logical dart we catch upon our shield and let it drop into the dust, thus : Baptism into Christ by the Holy Ghost (the ' One Baptism ' of Christianity) is essential to salvation ; infants, by the admission of Dr. Carson, receive salvation ; therefore, the Baptism of the Commission, so far as it is the one Baptism of Christianity, does apply to infants. Or, ad hominem ; Baptism of the body in water cannot possibly identify with Baptism of the soul in the Holy Ghost ; therefore, since it is affirmed that there is a Bap- tism of the soul in the Holy Ghost, if there be such a thing as a Baptism of the body in water, there must be K 186 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. two Baptisms ; but Paul teaches that there is but * one Baptism/ therefore, there can be no Baptism of the body in water." Alexander Campbell pushes his argument a little be- yond Dr. Carson, so as to approach Dr. Pusey. " Now, if there be but one Baptism, and if it appear that both the New Testament dispensations of Baptism, by John and by the Apostles, clearly affirm a connexion between Baptism and the remission of sins, must it not follow that the ONLY divinely instituted Baptism is FOR the remission OF SINS ? " The reader will, we hope, be able to answer this ques- tion consistently, as well from true Protestant principles as from the Word of God. We have " one Lord," Jesus Christ ; " one Faith" itpon Jesus Christ ; " one Baptism" into Jesus Christ ; or, to complete the full scope and compass of the passage, one Spirit, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. These are the five points of Evangelical Religion, all spiritual and scriptural in their meaning. In these may we have peace ! baptism into Christ's death. Rom. vi. 3, 4 — " Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death. Therefore, we are buried with him by the Bap- tism into the death, that, like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life." (See the Greek.) Observe, it is Baptism-into-Christ's-death that is here spoken of, as being equivalent to Baptism into Christ. Baptism into Christ cannot mean Baptism into Christ personally, but Baptism into all the privileges and bless- ings of the New Covenant, of which Christ's death is the procuring cause. Christ died, that we might Hve in him and through him. BAPTISM INTO CHRIST'S DEATH. 187 The Apostle has been speaking in the verses before these we have quoted, and he speaks in those which fol- low, of death unto sin, and life unto righteousness, as the blessed results of Baptism into Christ's death. We should never forget that real Baptism is not, in any form or sense. Baptism either in water or lulth water. Our Baptist brethren will not deny the difference between the Baptism of the Spirit and the rite which symbolizes that Spiritual Baptism. The Romish system confounds the two ; but no truly Protestant system will do so. Christ's Baptism is not ritual but spiritual, as John said, " I, indeed, bap- tize you with water. . . He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost." Wherever Christian Baptism, therefore, is referred to in the New Testament, without limitation from the context, the presumption is that real Baptism is intended. We maintain that, in this and other similar passages, real Baptism, not ritual, is meant. The Greek and Latin Fathers, for a thousand years, taught that the real and the ritual were combined ; and, therefore, they called Ritual Baptism Regeneration ! The Church of Rome has inherited the error ; but a better acquaintance with the Word of God corrects and removes it. By the Baptism of the Spirit, the soul is renewed in the image of God ; by Ritual Baptism with water that great change is symbolized. The passage from the sixth chapter of Romans, and others of a similar nature, have undoubtedly by their being misapplied and misunderstood, done more to increase the number of Immersionists, than any other passage from the New Testament. The very phrase, " Burial in the water," a water burial, which is imagined to be warranted by it, contains the germ of the entire system. Yet water is not mentioned in the passage. Even Dr. Carson says, " That the figurative burial is under water, is not in the passage ; this is known from the rite, and is here supplied by ellipsis". But no one knew better than Dr. Carson, that an ellipsis must be supplied, not at random, but from 188 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. some passage, in which the full and complete form of ex- pression is found. The reader need not have been told that water is nowhere in the Scriptures spoken of as the receiving element in Baptism. We say, according to the Scripture, " baptized into Christ," but not " baptized into water," nor " baptized under water." Dr. Carson's great reliance is on the meaning of the word Baptidzo, which, he says, means " dip, and nothing but dip." Whenever the word Baptidzo, therefore, occurs, he assumes " Dip- ping," as The Mode, or, as he calls it in the above extract, " the Rite" — which is necessarily implied in the word. Observe : Paul is proving that the Gospel system of Free Grace does not tend to licentiousness, but to moral purity ; and he appeals to the very nature of Baptism- into-Christ's-death, as the guarantee of a life unto God. No Ritual Baptism could effect that great change from death unto life, from sin to holiness ; and, therefore. Real Spiritual Baptism is here intended. Observe again. It is not Baptism-into-death generally, but Baptism-into-Christ's death. The definite articles, before the words Baptism and Death in the 4th verse, shew that it is the Baptism and the death, mentioned in the 8rd verse. We are buried with Him by Baptism-into- his-death. We have a very gratifying confirmation of this view in the New Baptist translation published by the American Bible Union. The translation of the passage in that work reads as follows : " Know ye not, that all we, who were immersed (baptized) into Jesus Christ, were immer- sed (baptized) into his death. We are buried with him by the immersion (baptism) into his death ; that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life." Read " baptized" in the preceding instead of " im- mersed" ; and we shall have the true doctrine that — Be- ing baptized into the death of Christ issues in spiritual life, and brings us into the privileges of the children of God. BAPTISM INTO CHRIST'S DEATH. 189 " It is faith," says Dr. Carson, " that buries us truly into Christ's death." The passage does not say so. He ought to have said : It is faith that baptizes us into the death of Christ. Burial into Christ's death has no war- rant in Scripture. "Baptism into Christ's death" is full of instruction and consolation. Irenseus gives the phrase " Dying thou shalt die," as the equivalent of " Baptism into death ; " but Baptism into his death is a release from sin and its death penalty. The practice of trine Immersion, or Immersion thrice in the name of the Trinity, with many other superstitious observances, very early prevailed in the Christian Church ; but the Greek Fathers did not say " Baptize into water " any more than the Apostles and Evangelists ; and we know that the phrase " Baptism " (eis hudor) " into water " is found nowhere in Scripture. The words which the Greek Fathers used were Kutaduo and Kutadusis, which mean to plunge into water, and Anaduo and Anadusis, which mean the rising out of the water. The use of these words was intended to express the fanciful analogy, which they imagined between death and resurrection ; but it is very noteworthy that they used a different word from Baptidzo. Was there not a cause for this ? They knew that the original meaning of the phrase " Baptize into water " (eis hudor) meant drowning, since baptism into water must allow the subject to remain there. " The idea of Emer- sion," says Dr. Conant, is not implied in Baptidzo." Hence the Fathers used other Greek words, which could really signify Immersion or Emersion without a fatal submersion, that is, drowning. Professor Stuart is rather a favourite with the Baptists, on account of some rash admissions he makes in his Treatise on Baptism. We shall give his view of this passage and of others similar in character. Page 367. "Let us return to the rite of Baptism. What is it that it signifies ? Purification is the answer; and this is the only scriptural answer we can give. So 190 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. Paul teaches Eph. v. 25-27, * Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it ; that he might sanctify and cleanse it, with the washing of the water, by the word, &c.' Heb. x. 22, ' 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 water.' In the latter passage the washing of the body is joined with the thing signified by it, viz., the having the heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. See also 1 Peter iii. 21, 'The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.' Jesus himself also, John iii. 5, ' Verily, verily I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he can- not enter into the Kingdom of God.' " Even in these controverted cases, Rom. vi. 4, o and Col. ii. 12, Baptism is connected with the work of the Spirit and is significant of his influence. It is a dying to sin and being raised to a new spiritual life, which is perfected by it. How greatly has this been overlooked. Why should Baptism be made symbolical of the death of Christ? All Jewish analogy is against it. What were all the ablutions and sprinkling of the ritual law designed to prefigure and to signify ? Most obviously we must answer, Purification. ... So it is with Baptism. How could an intelligent Jew ever have regarded the rite, as designed to prefigure the death and burial of Christ, when there was not a single thing that bore any analogy to this in all the ablutions prescribed by the ritual law, nothing even in all those prescribed by the superstition of the Pharisees. P. 370. " Where else in all the Bible is a ritual wash- ing with water an emblem of death and burial ? No- where; and I, therefore, venture to say that it is only moral and spiritual Baptism into the death of Christ, BAPTISM INTO CHRIST'S DEATH. 191 of which the Apostle speaks in these passages. I know- well that an appeal against this opinion can be made to man}^ of the Fathers. But I know, too, that, by the like appeal, I may prove equally well, that Baptism must be performed on naked subjects ; and, moreover, that it is spiritual regeneration, and that it is necessary to our final salvation." On this long and interesting passage we would make but one remark. Professor Stuart maintains that Bap- tism means purification. It does so, we admit, in the pas- sages to which he refers ; but Baptism has a much larger scope of meaning than Purification, as any one may easily discover by a few examples of its usage. Baptism into Moses, for instance, does not mean purification, but faith, confidence, obedience, as the result of Israel's Baptism by the guiding and defending cloud and the barrier of the wall-like sea. They stood, on the one shore, a trembling crowd of coward rebels ; they landed, on the opposite bank, a triumphant host of freemen, trusting in the Lord and in his servant Moses. Thus were they, by their miracu- lous deliverance, " Baptized into Moses." As an illustration of modern Patristic doctrine, we shall here introduce a quotation from Dr. Pusey's work, " Holy Baptism," pp. 78-80, in which we have a fair sample of the results of such teaching. " All that a large number of Christians, at the present day, find in this passage (Rom. vi. 2-4) is that Baptism represents (as it does) to us our profession, that we, having been baptized, and having acknowledged Christ as our Lord are bound to lead a new and godly life. This is very true, and is certainl}^ in the passage ; but the question is whether this be all ? The Fathers certainly saw herein, not only the death unto sin, which we were to die, but that also which in Christ we had by having been baptized and incorporated into Christ ; not the life only, which we are to live, but the actual life, which by Baptism was infused into us. St. Paul speaks throughout of actual facts, which have taken place in us 192 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. ♦ and duties, consequent upon them. ' We were all bap- tized into Christ,' i. e., into a participation of Christ, and his most precious death, and union with him : ' we were buried with him by baptism into his death, that we may also walk in newness of life. ... A most intimate communion with the acts in our Lord's own holy life and death is, by the original language, conveyed. It were much to be buried, to be crucified with him ; but it is more to become partakers of his burial and crucifixion ; to be (so to speak) co-interred, co-crucified ; to be included in, wrapt around, as it were, in his burial and crucifixion, and gathered into his very tomb ; apd this, he says, we were by Baptism ; transfused into his death, implanted or ingrafted into it, our old man was thereby nailed to his very cross. There is a marked identification with our Lord. . . . These thoughts were prominently in the thoughts of the ancient Church, when dwelling on the text; the close connection of what Christ had done for us on the Cross, with what he worketh in us by his spirit in Baptism ; that this union with him is the power of Baptism, and that from this union so imparted is all the Christian's strength to realize Christian duty." Let the reader only understand the above passage, not according to the design of the writer, but according to the truth of Scripture ; and he will see in it a description of the nature and results of the only real Baptism, that by the Spirit, of which Water Baptism is but the shadowy and unreal emblem. It was no wonder that Alexander Campbell was dissat- isfied with the the so-called watery burial, in which there was no true cleansing power ; and should take his stand just half way between mere Immersion and Baptismal Re- generation — between immersion into water, which the Fathers denounced as no Baptism at all, and that Bap- tism with water, which Bome uses as a means of sal- vation. The following passage from Origen is interesting, as BAPTISM INTO CHRIST's DEATH. 193 presenting the view of Rom. vi. 3, 4, which prevailed among the Greek Fathers. " Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death ? For we were buried with him by haiptisra-into-his- death, teaching by these things that, if any one is first dead to sin, he is ne- cessarily buried with Christ by Baptism ; but, if any one is not first dead to sin, he cannot be buried with Christ. For no living person is ever buried. But, if he is not buried with Christ, neither is he lawfully baptized. If any one shall not have been ' born from above' he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven ; for this is to be baptized by the Holy Spirit .... But attend yet more closely to this mystical order. It is necessary for thee first, to die to sin, that thou mayest be buried with Christ. Burial belongs to the dead. If thou dost yet live to sin, thou canst not be buried with Christ, nor be placed IN HIS N EW Sepulchre, because the old man lives and cannot walk in newness of life. The Holy Ghost has care- fully taught that the sepulchre, in which Christ was bur- ied, must be new ; and that he was wrapped in clean linen, that every one who wishes to be buried with Christ, bring nothing of oldness to the new sepulchre, nothing of uncleanness to the clean linen Observe how careful is the Apostle, for he says, * Who- soever of us have been baptized into Christ.' Therefore our Baptism is into Christ. But Christ himself is said to have been baptized by John, not by that Baptism which is ' into Christ,' but with that Baptism, which is into the Law. For so he says himself to John, 'Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.' By which it shews that the Baptism of John was the end- ing of the old, not the beginning of the new." Origen shews in this passage that 1st. John's baptism was not into Christ; therefore it was not Christian Baptism. 2nd. Christian Baptism is spiritual, not physical. 194 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. 3rd. Death goes before burial. " T^ o living person is ever buried." We die to sin when we live to God. 4th, Christ's Baptism by John was a Baptism into the Law and its death penalty. The believer's Baptism into Christ's death is a release from the curse of the Law and from condemnation and suffering, which it denounces against the sinner. It is a deliverance from spiritual death. This is real Christian Baptism, of which Water Baptism is but the symbol. The error of Origen and the other Chris- tian Fathers, in confounding the real and the symbolic, scarcely appears at all in the above striking passage. It is said by Baptist writers, that Baptism " exhibits the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Christ."' The entering into the water is death, followed by a moment- ary burial, and an immediate resurrection. Such is the Baptist idea. But, in the first place, Christ's death was on the cross ; and there is no resemblance between Im- mersion and Crucifixion. 2nd. Christ was not let down into a pit, when he was buried, but carried into a sepul- chre. 3rd. The idea of a grave and burial implied pollu- tion in the mind of every Jew ; but the essential idea of Christian Baptism is purification, of which washing with water is the symbol. How could Baptism be at once the symbol of purification (washing) and of burial ? The two ideas are incompatible and irreconcilable with each other. 4th. Cleansing may be symbolized in W^ater Baptism ; and other cognate ideas, not symbolized, may be implied in the ordinance. Thus, sprinkling with water may symbolize the washing with Christ's blood ; but it does more. It implies reconciliation to God, and restoration to the divine life in the soul. 5th. The work of the Spirit in real Baptisni is represented in Scripture, not by burial, but by POURING, SPRINKLING, and being shed on us ABUNDANTLY. COLOSSIANS IL 9 — 13. Tyndale translates Col. ii. 9-13, in his old English FULNESS IN CHRIST. 195 version : " For- in HIM dwelleth all the fulnes of the God- heed boddily, and ye are full in him, which is the heed of all rule and power, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hondes, by putting of the sinfull boddy of the fleshe, thorowe the circumcision that is in Christ, in that ye are buried with him thorowe Bap- tism, in whom ye are also risen againe thorowe faith, that is wrought by the operation of God which raysed hym from deeth." This passage is manifestly, in its leading ideas, parallel with Rom. vi. 3,4-. The " Baptism-into-Christ" of the one corresponds with " Fulness-in-him" of the other. Both of these again are analogous to circumcision-in-him, which is here introduced as equivalent. He, who has been bap- tized into Christ, remains in him, and is full in him. " Circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter." The believer has received the circumcision made without hands by putting off " the sinful body of the flesh, through the circumcision that is in Christ." But the wealth of the passage is still unexhausted ; for the Apostle adds : " In whom ye are also risen again, through faith that is wrought by the operation of God, who raised him from the dead." In one particular the venerable translation of Tyndal fails to convey the full sentiment of the original. It is not " thorowe Baptism," but " the Baptism," an emphatic and elliptical expression, which must be completed from Rom vi., " Baptism into his death." No Ritual Baptism can be meant here. Baptism into Christ's death brings life. Immersion into water is death ; for it is without Emersion. Baptism with water is but the symbol of the life-giving Baptism of the Spirit. It is the shadow of the True. When the Apostles, on the day of Pentecost., were bap- tized with the Holy Ghost, they were full of his influ- ence. The mockers said : " These men are full of new wine." We have seen that, in the Classics and in the 196 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. usage of Joseph us, Baptism- with-wine meant Drunken- ness. Paul, in Eph. v. 18, says : " Be not drunk with wine ; but be filled with the Spirit." Elizabeth and Zach- arias, and John were filled with the Spirit. That is, they were baptized with the Spirit. " To fill " and " to bap- tize," therefore, are, in such expressions, equivalent. Bap- tism, we infer, does not imply necessarily, either in water or tuith water. Justin Martyr rejects Jewish circumcis- ion, which he calls a Baptism, saying, " What value to me is circumcision being approved by the witness of God ? What need has he of that Baptism " (circumcision) " who has been baptized by the Holy Ghost ? " In the opinion of Justin, then, a Baptism was more than a Dipping into water. There is a Baptism also in circumcision. Cyril, of Jerusalem says, " By the likeness of the faith of Abra- ham, we come into adoption. And then, after faith, in like manner with him, we receive the Spiritual seal, being circumcised by the Holy Ghost through the washing, (that is, Baptism,) not as to the fore-skin of the body, but of the heart, as Jeremiah says, ' Circumcise to the Lord the foreskin of your heart ; ' and, according to the Apostle, ' By the circumcision of Christ, being buried with him by Baptism.' " How is it possible, out of these manifold forms of ex- pression, to deduce the idea that Baptism-in- water — " a watery burial ! " is the only true and real Baptism ? Such texts rise far above the sphere of mere Ritualism. Nei- ther is the word Baptism so limited ; nor is the teaching of the Spirit in the word so grossly material. PATBISTIC IDEAS OF CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. The Apostolic Fathers have not much to say about Baptism. What the men, who lived nearest to the Apos- tles, ascribed to the spiritual part of Religion, their de- generate and less enlightened successors ascribed to the Ritual. In every age human speculation tends to error ; PATRISTIC IDEAS OF CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. 197 and it is only by constant reference to the Word of God, that we can escape from the influence of superstition. Nothing is more remarkable, in the development of Romanism, than its retaining all the leading doctrines and truths of Christianity, while every truth and every doc- trine is encrusted over and neutralized with error. Christ is set forth as the Redeemer and Mediator ; but his mo- ther and the saints are also represented as Mediators and Intercessors. Rome teaches that Repentance and Faith are necessary to Salvation ; but Penance is substituted for Repentance ; and an unreasoning confidence in the Confessional and the Priest takes the place of belief in the Only Saviour. The sacrament of the Lord's supper is transmuted into the idolatrous sacrifice of the Mass ; and Water Baptism, with its superadded accompaniments, becomes the Means of Spiritual Regeneration ! The labours of Isaac Taylor in his learned book, " An- cient Christianity," and those of Dr. James W. Dale, in the fourth volume of his great work on Baptism, clearly shew that the errors of Rome are of very ancient origin. The Greek and Latin Fathers, for more than a thousand years, confounded real and symbolic Baptism. They did not believe that simple water could baptize ; but they held that Baptism, duly administered, possessed spiritual power to regenerate. Protestantism, it must be admitted, has erred in an op- posite direction. The common Protestant idea is that Immersion in water, or Sprinkling with water, is Bap- tism. The shadow is taken for the substance. The syra- holic is assumed to be the real. Hence have arisen ex- aggerated notions about the mode of Water Baptism, on the one hand, and a contemptuous neglect of the ordin- ance on the other. The Immersionist urges obedience to tlie positive commands of the Saviour, as almost essential to salvation ; while multitudes, believing that Baptism is but a mere ceremony, though they were themselves bap- tized in infancy, do not offer their children to the Lord 198 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. for Baptism. The Baptist should remember that " circum- cision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing." It is the Baptism of the Spirit, which the sinner needs. The negligent Christian also should not forget, that our great Master took little children into his arms and blessed them, saying : " Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not ; for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." It is a cruel wrong to the child for the parent to neglect its Baptism. The Ancient Fathers either wrote in Greek or were thoroughly acquainted with the Greek language. We have seen, therefore, in former sections of this Compend, that their use of the words Baptidzo and Baptisma is in full accordance with the usage of the Classics. Accord- ing to the laws of language development, those words ac- quired new and higher meanings. Baptism for ceremo- nial cleansing sprung from the usage of the Mosaic law. Baptism-into-repentance expressed the doctrine of John. Baptism into Christ signifies the full revelation of the anointed Saviour. Baptism into the name of the Trinity denotes the restoration of the sinner to the divine image and complete reconciliation to God. The Fathers erred in supposing that the water and the spirit always acted together in Water Baptism ; and, there- fore, they believed in the doctrine of Baptismal Regenera- tion. But it may be fairly questioned whether their mis- take was farther from the truth than that of those, who consider mere Immersion in water to be Baptism. The Patristic Baptism had the spiritual element. The im- MERSiONiST Baptism leaves out the spirit ! Jerome asks, " How can the soul, which has not the Holy Spirit, be purged from old defilements ? For water does not wash the soul, unless it is first washed by the Holy Spirit, that it rtiay be able spiritually to wash others. ' The Spirit of the Lord,' says Moses, ' was borne above the waters.' " Jerome, and others of the Fathers, taught that the water must be itself baptized, impreg- PATEISTIC IDEAS OF CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. 199 nated with holy influence, that it might be prepared for baptizing sinners. Cyprian says, " Neither can the Spirit operate without water, nor water without the Spirit .... But it is necessary that the water be first purified and sanctified, that it may be able, by its oivn Baptism, to cleanse away the sins of the baptized man." These brief extracts are a fair sample of Patristic teach- ing on the subject of Baptism. They shew that, accord- ing to the Fathers, Christian Baptism is not a mere dip- PING-INTO-WATER. The Greek Fathers often used other words as substi- tutes for Baptisma, as, for instance, Photisma, " Illumina- tion ; " Palingenesia, " Regeneration " ; Loutron, " Wash- ing. Gregory Nazianzen says, "Baptism is the (phot isma) illumination of the soul, a change of life, ' the an- swer of the conscience towards God.' Baptism (photisma) is the putting away of the flesh, the following of the Spirit, the partaking of the Word .... Baptism is the chariot of God, the walking with Christ, the support of faith, the perfection of understanding, the key of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is the noblest and the most mag- nificent of the gifts of God." Kind reader ! if Baptism be only a Dipping-into- water, or a SpriDkling with water, what sense would there be in these grand words of Greg- ory ? Let us understand the passage as describing real Baptism, and the eloquent Father is fully justified. HiERONYMUS (Jerome) speaks of the same subject as follows : " This hidden grace and operation of the Holy Spirit in the heart no one upon earth can receive, except those who have been truly baptized into the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Concerning this our riches, the Lord says, ' The kingdom of heaven is like to treasure hid in a field, that is, the Holy Spirit, which is hidden in us in the day of the Divine Baptism . . . The mark of a Christian is no external thing." 200 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. A favourite term for Baptism with the Greek Fathers was Loutron, which means a Washing. Louter means a Laver ; but Loutron, an Ablution. Dr. Carson, in his dis- sertation on Louo, to wash, contends that the Loutron meant a bath and implied immersion. We have shown, elsewhere, that the Greek bath, unlike the Roman, did not signify immersion. In ancient pictures Greeks are represented as standing beside the Louter, or bath, per- forming their ablutions. — (See Smith's "Dictionary of Antiquities"). Justin Martyr calls sprinkling a Loutron. " And when the demons had heard, through the preaching of the pro- phet, of this Loutron, they required their worshippers (rantidzein) to sprinkle themselves." The priests under the Law did not immerse themselves in the brazen sea. Paul alludes to legal purifications when he says : " Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinJded from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed (leloumenoi) with pure water." Dr. Carson, commenting on the above extract from Justin Martyr, says : " Justin Martyr not only always uses the word conformably to this distinction, but, speak- ing of the Pagan purifications, invented by the demons, in imitation of Baptism, he showed that they used the washing of the whole body, as the most complete purifi- cation. Baptism then is immersion, and nothing but im- mersion is Baptism." The reader can form his own judg- ment of the case from the facts and evidences, which we have given abundantly. Louo certainly does not signify to cover with water ; for the bodies of Paul and Silas when tuashed (elousen) were not immersed ; neither was the body of Dorcas immersed, when she was " washed (lousantes) and laid in an upper chamber." Clement of Alexandria says, " It is necessary to cleanse the soul by the purifying word . . . The best washing (Loutron) cleanses the defilement of the soul, and is (pneumaticon) spiritual. PATRISTIC IDEAS OF CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. 201 The diversity of Baptisms found in the writings of the Fathers is remarkable. Gkegory Nazianzen enumer- ates diverse Baptisms thus : " 1st. Moses baptized, yet with water only {en hudati). 2nd. John baptized, yet not Judaically, for he baptized not only with water, but also (eis) into repentance, still he does not baptize altogether spiritually, for he does not add this (En pneumati) by the Spirit, 3rd. And Jesus baptizes, but (En pneumati) by the Spirit. This is per- fection. And, that I may embolden some little. How is he not God, by whom even thou mayest become God ? 4th. And I know a fourth Baptism, that (dia) by means of martyrdom and blood, (with which also Christ himself was baptized), and, indeed, much more admirable than the others, because it is not polluted by after defilements. 5. And I know yet a fifth Baptism, that by means of tears, but more painful, since washing (lou5n) nightly his bed with tears, the wounds of his transgression are a stench unto him. 6. There is a final Baptism, hereafter, when they will be baptized (t5 puri) by the fire, both more pain- ful and more protracted." AthaNASius speaks of the Baptism by fire as " a final baptism, which is not saving, but burning and punishing sinners for ever and ever." In these enumerated Baptisms, there are diverse agen- cies, water, the spirit, blood, tears and fire, EACH PRODUC- ING ITS OWN ASSIMILATING EFFECT, and each acting in its own peculiar way ; and yet the Immersionist Theory in- sists that all Baptisms must be either real or figurative immersions ! A striking illustration is given by Dr. Dale from the use of Barama (Bamma), which is derived from Bapto, as Baptisma is from Baptidzo : " I know of no reason in the nature of things, or in the laws of language, why Bamma (from Bapto) might not be used to express the condition of the effect of dipping into water ; but, in fact, it is never so used, but is limited to express Colour or Col- L 202 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. ouring agency. So, I know of no reason in the nature of things, or in the laws of language, why Baptisma might nob be used to express the condition of Inness (unlimited by time), within a fluid element, the effect of the action in Baptidzo ; but, in fact, it is never so used, but is limited to express a liquid possessed of a definite quality, with power to impart that quality, or a condition, the effect of such agency. " As a Bamona may be secured by putting an object within a colouring element, or by putting the colouring ele- ment upon the object : so a Baptisma may be secured by putting an object (really or ideally) within an element, which thus imparts its quality ; or by putting the element upon or within the object, when the element does, in such way, impart its quality. And, as it is a matter of absolute indifference to the Bamma, whether there be a putting- into or a putting-upon ; so, to the Baptisma, it is a mat- ter of infinite unconcern whether the object be put with- in the agency, or the agency be put within or upon the object. That the Christian Baptisma consists in a water- dipping no Patristic writer ever thought of believing. That the Christian Baptisma is effected, in the most per- fect manner and measure, by sprinkling, no Patristic writer ever thought of questioning." Athanasius says, " God has granted to the nature of man three Baptisms, purifying from all sin whatsoever. I mean, 1st, The Baptism by water; 2nd, the Baptism by our own blood through martyrdom ; 3rd, the Baptism by tears, into which Baptism the harlot was purified. And, likewise, Peter, the chief of the Holy Apostles, after his denial, having wept, was received and saved. It is neces- sary to know that, equally with the Baptism (of water), the fountain of tears purifies a man." Is it not evident, from the preceding passages, that in the estimation of the Fathers, there were many kinds of Baptisms ? Patristic baptism was not merely physical but spiritual. PATRISTIC IDEAS OF CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. 203 Cr.EMENT OF Rome. — " * Disciple first all the nations, ' and then he added this, ' And baptize them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost/ Therefore, let the baptized, in his renunciation, say : ' I disjoin myself from Satan, and his works, and his pomps, and his service, and his angels, and his inventions, and all subject to him ; and I conjoin myself with Christ, and be- lieve, and am baptized into the One Unbegotten, the only true God Almighty, the Father of the Christ, Creator and former of all, of whom are all things ; and into the Lord Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, the first-born of every creature, begotten (not made) by the good pleasure of the Father, before the ages, through whom were all things, which are in heaven and upon earth, visible and invisible . . . . And I am baptized into the Holy Ghost, that is the Paraclete, who hath wrought in all Saints from the beginning of the world. " The REAL BAPTISM then is into the one Living and True God, an abiding and enduring: relation. " We know that we are of God, and the whole world is lying in the evil one."* This text expresses the subjection of the world to Satan. The reverse condition is, when we are in the true one, in his Son Jesus Christ, this is the True God. When we are baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are in complete subjec- tion to, and conformity with, the will of the True God. The prayer of Jesus for his disciples was to the same ef- fect. " I pray for them. I pray, not for the world, but for those thou hast given me ; for they are thine . . . Holy Father, keep in thy name those whom thou hast given me ... I pray that thou shouldst keep them out of the Evil One ... I pray that they all may be one, as thou. Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us." Clement of Alexandria. — " The man baptized into * See the version of the Baptist Bible Union, I John, v. 19 ; abo the Re« vised Edition, 204 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. God has entered into God, and has received power over scorpions and to tread on serpents — the powers of evil." Basil the Great. — " He who is baptized, is baptized into the Trinity, into the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; not into Principalities nor into Powers, nor into any such things among creatures." In all these passages the receiving element is ideal, not physical. It is not Baptism into water in the name, etc., but Baptism ivith water, as the symbol of a spiritual Bap- tism into the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. BAPTISM BY SPRINKLING. It is admitted that the usual mode of Baptism in the ancient Patristic Church was by immersion ; but the Fath- ers held that Baptism by sprinkling was equally valid. Cyprian, being consulted respecting the Baptism of the sick, by sprinkling on their beds, that is. Clinic Baptism, replies : " It should not trouble any one that the sick are seen to be sprinkled or poured upon, when they obtain Divine grace, when the Holy Spirit says, Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26., ' I will sprinkle clean water upon you ; and ye shall be cleansed from all your uncleanness, &c.'; likewise, in Num- bers viii. 5,7, 'The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, " Thusshalt thou purify them ; thou shalt sprinkle them with water of purification" ' . . . Or, if any one thinks that they have obtained nothing, because they have only been sprinkled or poured upon, with the saving water, but are empty and void, let them not be deceived, so as to be bap- tized, if they recover from their sickness. They who have been baptized in sickness, receive no less measure of the Holy Spirit, nor are more exposed to. the influence of evil spirits. Finally, experience shows that those bap- tized in sickness, under pressing necessity, both obtain grace and live worthily in the Church, daily growing in grace." The concluding clause of this passage contains an argu- BAPTISM BY SPRINKLING. 205 ment, which -will apply by comparison at the present day. Are the members of the Baptist churches more abundant in the fruits of good works, than the members of Psedo- Baptist churches ? Let those who denounce Baptism by sprinkling, be the judges. We do not fear the comparison. Cyprian's answer to the cavillers in his da}^ settled that question, in regard to the ancient Church. The case of Novatian, related by Eusebius, has been re- ferred to, in order to prove that Clinic Baptism was in- sufficient or invalid. " Novation, relieved by the Exorcists, having fallen into a dangerous disease, and thinking that he was about to die, having been poured upon, in the bed where he lay, received, if indeed it be proper to say that such a one re- ceived — " received what ? A dipping ? Nay, but the Holy Ghost — as appears by the following passage. " Nor when he recovered, did he attain those other things, which it is necessary to receive (Confirmation ?) according to the rule of the Church, and to be sealed by the Bishop. And, not receiving this, how could he receive the Holy Ghost ? Through the favour of the Bishop, laying hands upon him, he was made a Presbyter, when all the clerg}^ and many of the laity opposed, because it was not lawful that one poured upen, as he was, upon a sick bed, should be re- ceived into the ranks of the clergy." The objection to Novatian was not that he had been merely sprinkled on the bed. He had delayed his Baptism, like the Emperor Constantine ; and, like all sick- bed repentance, his was not above suspicion. The early Christians did not believe that a man of such character was truly baptized, any more than was Simon Magus. The question was not, whether he had been dipped or sprink- led, but whether he had received the holy spirit. The Church objected to the postponement of Baptism until death was approaching ; and those, who recovered after Clinic Baptism, were not baptized again, but were debar- red from the ministry. Is it not singular that their praq^ 206 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. tice should be so different from that of modern immer- sionists ? As Dr. Dale says very pointedly : " The theory reverses this ; men not dipped (only poured upon) are re- ceived to all the rights of the ministry in the pulpit, but excluded from the rights of private members at the Com- munion table." " This," said a friend, lately, " is indeed a horrible thing, that persons, acknowledged to be Chris- tians, and even Christian ministers, are debarred from the Lord's table." It is a practical eeductio ad absur- DUM. E,obert Hall, himself a Baptist, says that the Close Com- munionists " are the only persons in the world, of whom we have either heard or read, who contend for the exclu- sion of genuine Christians from the Lord's table." In the the United States indeed there are other Close Commun- ionists besides the Baptists ; but they do not prosper. Why should they ? In a former part of the Compend we have quoted pas- sages from the Fathers, shewing that the sprinklings un- der the Law were considered by them to be Baptisms. The Pouriog, also, upon the altar, by Elijah, was recog- nized as a Baptism. Ambrose says : " Baptism, like fire, consumes sins ; for Christ baptizes by fire and the Spirit. You read this type in the books of Kings, where Elias, put wood upon the altar, and said that they should throw water over it from water pots ; and when the water fiowed, Elias prayed, and fire came down from heaven. Thou, O man 1 art upon the altar, who shalt be cleansed by water, whose sin is burned up, that thy life may be re- newed . . . John baptized into repentance, and all Judea gathered together. Christ baptizes by his Spirit. Ehas shewed but a type of Baptism, and opened heaven, which had been shut for three years and six months. How much greater blessings belong to the real baptism 1 " Ambrose recognises the Baptism by Elijah as a type of CJhrist's Baptism. If Christian Baptism be, necessarily, a dipping into water, how can this type correspond with CO-OPERATION OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT. 207 its antitype ? Elijah's Baptism of the altar was by Pouring. co-operation of water and the spirit. We dare not deny that Immersion of persons, in a state of nudity, was generally practised for a thousand years. And yet, it cannot be affirmed with truth, that immersion in mere water was considered to be Baptism. The Fathers believed in the co-operation and co-action of the Spirit with the water in Baptism. Dr. Dale gives a very in- genious and forcible illustration of this as follows: " The Theory claims that a momentary covering in sim- ple water is Christian Baptism. But then there is no such water known to Patristic Baptism. To say that this makes no difference is to talk as witlessly as to say : It makes no difference whether white linen be dipped into simple water or into water empurpled by murex. There is a difference ; in the one case, the colour remains unchanged, white ; and, in the other case, it is wholly changed. The white has become purple. The Patrists strenuously af- firmed that a dipping into simple water could, by no pos- sibility, be Christian Baptism ; for, the soul came out of such dipping, just as it went in, unwashen of sin and un- regenerated ; while one dipped in ' our water' came out thoroughly changed in condition, sins remitted, and soul regenerated, or, in other words. Baptized. The Theory is at war with this old Baptism at every point. It can find aid and comfort no where." Tertullian says, referring to John iii. 5, " This is that spirit, which, in the beginning, was upborne above the waters ; for neither can the Spirit operate without the water, nor the water without the spirit. The Council of Carthage : " For, water only, unless it have the Holy Spirit also^ cannot purge sins or sanctify a man," 208 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. Augustine : " For his (Christ's) Baptism was not like that of John, with water only ; but also by the Spirit." We might greatly multiply our quotations, on this subject, from the Fathers ; let the above suffice. What we chiefly want to know is the doctrine of Scripture and the practice of the Apostles. INFANT BAPTISM. The first Christians were all Jews ; and we learn, from the New Testament, that they were zealous for the tradi- tions of the Fathers. They were disposed to contend for the perpetual observance of Circumcision and other cere- monial rites, maintaining even that they should be imposed on the Gentile converts. To settle such questions, Paul and Barnabas were deputed, by the Church at Antioch, to go up to Jerusalem and lay the matter before the Apos- tles and elders. When those Apostolic delegates from Sy- ria had opened their commission, and had declared all the things, that God had done by them, " There rose up certain of the Pharisees which believed, saying : That it was needful to circumcise them (the Gentiles), and to com- mand them to keep the Law of Moses." Peter, when there had been much disputing, remonstrated against putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples,which, said he, " neither our fathers nor we were able to bear." James summed up the matter, as the Moderator of the meeting ; and the decree was issued, under the authority of the Holy Ghost, that no greater burden should be imposed on the Gentiles than the necessary things, which were then enumerated. From time to time, however, the principles and practices of the Ceremonial Law still occasioned much troublesome dis- cussion, and even, in some instances, led to persecution. It is important to observe that the Laws of Moses had, from their first promulgation, made provision for the re- INFANT BAPTISM. 209 ception of the Gentiles into all the privileges of the cho- sen people. Circumcision was, however, an essential pre- requisite. This rite was now abolished ; but along with circumcision, had grown up the custom of baptizing con- verts. When John the Baptist appeared, no surprise was manifested at his adopting the practice of baptizing his followers. It was no new thing ; but it had been hith- erto, it is probable, confined to Proselytes. The Baptism of Repentance was now extended to the Jews themselves, as preparatory to the coming of Him who was to " sprin- kle many nations." In the Mosaic Law there is, indeed, frequent mention of purification, though it does not pre- scribe Baptism as an entrant rite for Proselytes. The Talmud and the writings of Maimonides speak very dis- tinctly on the subject. The principle was that both Circumcision and Baptism were necessary for the Prose- lyte : and this, of course, included infants as well as adults. In the xviith of Genesis we have an an account of the circumcision of Abraham, ninety-nine years old, Ish- mael his son, thirteen years, and all the males in his house, that were eight days old or upward. The 14th verse de- clares that the uncircumcised man child, whose flesh of his foreskin shall not be circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people ; he hath broken my covenant.'' When the Passover was instituted as a perpetual ordin- ance for Israel, just before they left the land of Egypt, it was ordained, Exodus xii. 48. " When a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and let him come near and keep it ; and he shall be as one born in the land : for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. One Law shall be to him that is home born, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you." As far as circumcision was concerned, therefore, we see that the Law made it the door of entrance to the ancient Church of Israel. Learned men have differed much re- 210 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. specting the alleged practice of baptizing Proselytes. The Jewish Rabbins say that three things were necessary for the initiation of a Proselyte — Circumcision, Baptism, and a free-will offering or sacrifice. It is argued plausibly, that, if the Jews had not used the ordinance of Baptism before the Christian era, they would not have been likely to adopt it afterwards, when it had been incorporated with Christianity. Besides, the divine ritual, prescribed in the Law, ordained the cleansing of things polluted by wash- ing or sprinkling with pure water. The heathen were wholly unclean, and it was therefore natural that they should be thus purified. The learned Dr. Lightfoot says that the Jews brought their children with them to John's Baptism. ''The whole nation knew well enough that infants were to be baptized. There was no need for a precept for that, which was al- ready settled by common use," Again, he says : " If Bap- tism and baptizing infants had been a new thing and un- heard of till John Baptist came, as circumcision was till God appointed it to Abraham, there would have been an express command for baptizing infants, as for circumcis- ing them. But when the baptizing of infants was a thing commonly known and used, as appears incontestable from their writers (the Rabbins) there need be no express as- sertion that such and such persons were to be the objects of Baptism ; when it was as well known, before the Gos])el began, that men, women, and children were bap- tized, as that the sun is up." " It was, therefore, necessary," says Lightfoot, " that there should have been an express and plain order that infants and little children should not be baptized, if our Saviour had meant that they should not. For since it was ordinary in all ages before to have infants baptized : if Christ would have had that usage abolished, he would have expressly forbidden it : so that his and the scripture's silence in this matter does confirm and establish Infant Baptism forever," INFANT BAPTISM. 211 It is not less certain also that the Christian Fathers were not alone in their exaggerated ideas of Baptism. The j-abbis called it the new birth, or regeneration. The Tal- mud says, " If any one become a proselyte, he is like a child new bom." Maimonides, " The Gentile that is made a proselyte, and the slave that is made free — behold he is like a child new-born." The Jews told such a proselyte, that he was now taken out of his unclean state, and put into a state of sanctity or holiness. They declared that the baptized proselyte was under the wings of the divine majesty, or Shechinah. We do not attach much importance to the opinions of Rabbis or other learned men ; our great reliance is on Scripture testimony ; but it is, perhaps, not well wholly to omit the literature of the subject, especially as the ap- peal to human authority and to the views of theologians seems, to some people, so weighty and convincing. In discussing the subject of Infant Baptism, it is im- portant for us clearly to understand what is the point IN DEBATE, and what are the differences between Pgedo- baptists and Anabaptists. The latter contend strenu- ously for believers' Baptism, as if they were specially " set for the defence " of that principle of the Gospel system. It is most manifest that the admission of believers only, to the privileges of the Church, is not new. It prevailed under the ancient dispensation. No unbelieving Gentile could be received as a proselyte. It is equally true that Paedobaptist Churches observe the same practice. The Presbyterian Church says, for instance, that " Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible Church, till they profess their faith in Christ and their obedience to Him." All the array of proofs from Scrip- ture that believers only are to be baptized, on their pro- fessing faith in the Saviour, does not disprove that, in- fants are also to be baptized, on their parents' faith, as children eight days old under the old economy, were, on the same principle, circumcised. The Baptism of believers 212 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. is common ground between Psedobaptists and Anabap- tists. Where then is the point of divergence between them ? It is just here. The Anabaptist maintains that because a profession of faith was required from Jews, Sa- maritans and Pagans, on their entrance into the Church, therefore, the infants of believers, who are Church mem- bers, must make a similar profession, or be entirely exclu- ded from Church privileges. Paedobaptists deny this con- sequence as unscriptural. Belief was not required from an infant before circumcision ; neither should it be re- quired before Baptism. A foreigner settling in this country must be naturalized before he can enjoy the privileges of citizenship ; but the natives are free-born. Paul tells us that the infants of Church members are holy (hagioi), sainted — that is, they have, by birth-right, an incipient, hereditary membership, which entitles them to Baptism, and, indeed, involves a claim to the full privileges of the Church, if it be not for- feited by unbelief and subsequent misconduct. The ex- clusion of adults, who were baptized in infancy, may be a proper act of discipline. The privilege is too often for- feited, or unclaimed and neglected. It is worse than folly to ask — what good can the sprink- ling of a little water on the face do to an unconscious in- fant ? An Israelite might as well have said, what can Circumcision do for a baby ? If Infant Baptism be an ordinance of God, it ought not to be neglected ; but it ought to be performed according to God's appointment. We hold that God has greatly blessed this ordinance. Psedobaptist Churches, or those, in which Infant Baptism is practised, are, to say the least of it, not less favoured with the divine influence than those, which despise or neglect the privilege. Is it too much to say that every Psedobaptist minister of experience has seen the blessed influence of Infant Baptism. A case lately occurred un- der the ministry of the present writer. Two interesting girls, of eleven and thirteen years old, were present at a tNt'ANT BAPTISM. 2lS baptismal service, when the nature of the ordinance and its benefits were explained. Returning home in much joy, they said to their mother, " We are already members of the Church ; we were baptized in infancy." At the next communion season they declared themselves on the Lord's side, and sought the privileges of full communion. The state of ecclesiastical exclusion, in which the chil- dren of Baptists are left, is one of the worst and most de- plorable features of the system. The little ones may, in- deed, be well and carefully instructed, but they are not recognised as included in the Covenant. Parents in the Baptist denomination, in our own day, have felt this, and have tried to find a partial remedy. In many cases their children are " CONSECKATED " by a solemn service, being devoted formally to the Saviour ; but their immersion is reserved till they become old enough to judge for them- selves, and to become personally candidates for Baptism. Thus the system is modified, and its evils are partially remedied. 1st. In order to justify the practice of Psedobaptism, or the Baptism of infants, it is important that we should clearly understand what is meant by the Church visible. We speak of the Church of England, the Lutheran, the Methodist, the Baptist, the Presbyterian ; but we use the word in a far more comprehensive sense, when we speak of the Church visible, as embracing all the profes- sors of the true religion in the world. No Christian will deny that such an organization exists — that the author of Christianity has prescribed laws and appointed officers for the government of His Church. Jesus has often, in parables and otherwise, alluded to the Church under the name of the Kingdom of God, which is ultimately to be extended over the whole world. 2nd. It is important to observe further that the visible Church does not consist exclusively of the regenerate. The officers of the Church cannot read the heart, so as to exclude unworthy and unconverted members. Our Lord 214 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. expressly forbids them to attempt it. In the Parable of the Tares, which represents the Kingdom of Heaven, that is, the visible Church, He says, regarding the tares and the wheat, " Let both grow together until the harvest. . . lest, while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them." The Saviour himself, though he knew the hearts of all men, and " knew from the begin- ning who should betray him," nevertheless, called Judas to be an Apostle, and made him even the Treasurer of the Church of the Disciples. Judas, though a thief in his heart, " had the bag, and bare what was put therein." Often have attempts been made to organize Churches on a higher basis and on a purer platform ; but the failures have been lamentable and disastrous. To exercise disci- pline in regard to delinquent members is the duty of the Church and of her officers ; but much forbearance, and the charity, that covereth the multitude of sins, is essen- tial. " Charity (love) suffereth long and is kind ; Love envieth not ; Love vaunteth not herself, is not puffed up . . . beareth all things, belie veth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." Love is the cement which binds the Church together, and makes all its members ONE in Christ Jesus. The exclusive spirit of Purism, which says " stand by thyself, come not near to me ; for I am holier than thou," engenders spiritual pride, and leads to end- less divisions. 3rd. The ancient Commonwealth of Israel was the Church. The Hebrews were called, out of all the nations of the earth, to be God's peculiar heritage. The nation was the Church, and the Church was the nation. This is plain from Rom. ix. 4. — " Who are Israelites ; to whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenents, and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises." What more could be said of any Church in any age than this ? The Israelites, as a nation, were witnesses for God. Their temple was his dwelling-place. Their kings, prophets and priests were his ministers. No INFANT BAPTISM. 215 man could be a member of their Commonwealth, unless he professed the true religion, and received the rite of circumcision, as the seal of his faith. The nation was the Church, and the Church was the nation. 4th. The Christian Church of the New Testament is the same as the Church of Israel before the coming of the Saviour. It is not a new organization. The old root was not plucked up ; but it received a new engrafting. St. Paul tells us, Rom. xi. L6-I8, " If the lirst fruit be holy, the lump is also holy ; and if the root be holy, so are the branches ; and if some of the branches be broken off, and thou (the Gentile), being a wild olive-tree, wast graffed in among them,and, with them,partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree,boast not against the branches," (fee. The Church is founded on the ancient covenant made with Abraham by Jehovah, when he promised that his seed should be as the stars of heaven for multitude, and that in his seed (Christ) all the nations of the earth should be blessed. This promise was indeed only a defi- nite and explanatory repetition of the promise made to the woman in the garden. It was the Gospel preached to Abraham by Jehovah himself. Paul shews the iden- tity of the promise with the Gospel, Acts xxvi. G, 7. " And now," he said to Agrippa, " I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers." Paul argues at full length, in Rom. iv. and Gal. iii. that faith was the condition, on which all these promises rest. In Gal. iii. 7, he declares that they which be of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. In Gal. iii. 29, " If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs, according to the promise." The doctrine that the Church now rests on the Abrahamic covenant is woven by Paul into the web of the Gospel. Christ came, not to destroy, but to fulfil. He constantly referred en- quirers to the Old Testament Scriptures. " Search the Scriptures," he said, " for in them ye think ye have eter- nal life : and they are they which testify of me.' The 216 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. Bereans, in the Acts of the Apostles, are warmly com- mended, because they searched the Scriptures (the Old Testament) daily, whether these things were so. It is not a little remarkable, that those who are in- clined to oppose Infant Baptism, are often disposed to dis- card and reject the authority of the Old Testament. Is it not because they cannot successfully controvert the overwhelming argument, drawn from the Abrahamic cove- nent, for Infant Baptism ? Oh ! how precious is the truth, that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is onr Lord in the New — that the divine person, who led Israel through the wilderness, who ap- peared in glory to Isaiah in the ancient temple, is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The faith, which justi- fied Abraham, was directed to the same object, that is presented to us. The brazen serpent, which brought healing to Israel, was a a true type of the good physician, the Lamb of God, at once the priest and the victim, who taketh away the sin of the world, healing all our soul- maladies, and cleansing us with his own blood ! 5th. The terms of admission to the Church remain un- changed. Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Every sincere Israelite be- lieved in the God of Abraham. Paul gives the true doc- trine, Kom. ii. 28, 29 : " He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly ; neither is that circumcision, which is out- ward in the flesh : but he is a Jew, which is one in- wardly ; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praist^ is not of man, but of God." The Israelite, who renounced the religion of his fathers, was counted as uncircumcised; and the heathen, who became a proselyte, received circumcision, as the seal of his faith. Just so in the Christian church — Baptism is the sign and seal of our covenant engagement to be the Lord's. No change has been introduced in the principle of admission, or in its terms. 6th, Infants were members of the Church under the INFANT BAPTISM. 217 Old Testament economy. This was shewn by their being circumcised on the eighth day after their birth. It has been said that circumcision was only the sign of the national covenant, and gave a title only to temporal privi- leges. But we have seen that the Church and State were one under the Old Testament. Exclusion from the one involved exclusion from the other. Originally, the chief priest was the head of both church and state. Circum- cision was the sign and seal of membership in the Church and citizenship in the State. Such was God's covenant with Abraham and with his seed. As a nation, Israel dwelt apart from the Gentiles. They had a code of laws, in which civil and religious duties were blended. God was their real sovereign, even when they had adopted the form of a regal government. Their grand distinction was that to them were committed the " Oracles of God." They were, as a nation, a holy people. If Israel then was not the Church of God, the Church had no existence : God left himself without a witness ! Im- possible ! The plan of salvation under all dispensations has been the same. In the counsels of eternity a Covenant was entered into, between the Father and the Son, that the Son should die for man, and thus open the way for sin- ners to eternal life. When man fell the Eternal Coven- ant was revealed in the promise : " The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Abel's sacrifice, offered in faith of this covenant, was accepted, while Cain's mere thanksgiving offering was rejected. When Noah had been delivered from the waters of the flood, he built an aliar to Jehovah, and ofiered of every clean beast a burnt sacrifice ; and the Lord entered into covenant with him and with his seed after him, setting the rainbow in the heavens, as the token of the covenant. When the Gentile world had relapsed into idolatry, God called Abra- ham, giving him the promise, that he would bless him and make his name great 5 " and in thee shall all familie.^ 218 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. of the earth be blessed." Of this comprehensive promise Paul teaches us to see the fulfilment in Christ. In the XV. chapter of Genesis, after Lot had separated himself from Abraham, and had suffered the consequences of his folly, Jehovah again appeared to Abraham, and, in the most solemn manner, ratified the promise he had given him in the land of his nativity. In answer to Abraham's complaint that he had no heir, God gave him the assurance that Sarah should have a son, and that his seed should be as the stars of heaven for multitude. In the xvii chapter of Genesis, when Abraham had proved himself faithful, Jehovah again appeared to him and said : " I am the Almighty God ; walk before me and be thou perfect." The promises, given formerly, are re- peated, with special blessings to Abraham's descendants ; but Paul teaches us that the true seed, in whom the bless- ings were confirmed, was Christ. " Now, to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not ' And to seeds/ as of many; but of one, ' And to thy seed,' which is Christ." Finally, in the xxii chapter, after Abraham had shown himself to be the father of the faithful and the friend of God, by the sacrifice of his only son, Isaac, the angel of Jehovah called unto Abraham out of heaven, and said, "By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven. . . and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Is it not manifest that all these are but successive devel- opments of the covenant, the promise, the ratifying sacri- fice, and the oath ? It is worse than folly to attempt to carnalize the Abrahamic covenant, and make it apply olny to the temporal privileges of Abraham's seed accord- ing to the flesh. The application of this statement to Infant Baptism INFANT BAPTISM. 219 must be obvious. Israel of old was the Church of the Living God ; infants were included in its membership ; the Christian Church is not another Church but the same, under a different dispensation ; the membership of infants has never been repealed or abrogated ; consequently the infant children of believers, professing Christians, are still entitled to Church membership. Israel, we repeat, was a holy people, a church in the form of a nation. The main design of their national existence was to keep alive the knowledge and hope of the great promise, made of old to their fathers, in which promise was included the salvation of the world. Every child was sealed by circumcision, as an evidence of God's faithfulness and of the people's hope. Besides, we must remember, that circumcision was en- joined on Abraham, as a seal of the Covenant, long before Israel became a nation. Paul says that Abraham received the sign of circumcision,, a seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had yet being U')^circumcised. Surely this looks far higher than to mere temporal blessings. Again, we find that the meaning of circumcision was just the same as that of baptism. Each of them signified the cleansing away of sin. In Deut. x. 16, we read of the circumcision of the heart. In many places " uncircumcised lips" are spoken of. Paul says. True circumcision is not that which is outward in the flesh, but that which is in- ward, of the spirit and the heart. Of himself and other believers, he says, " We are the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." The main design of circumcision was to denote deliverance from sin, through the power of regenerating grace. In like manner Ritual Baptism is a sign and seal of Real Baptism b}^ God's Spirit, which cleanses from sin, and* renews the soul in the image of God. When Israel stood before Moses, listening to the words of their National Covenant, the Lawgiver said : " Ye 220 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God Your captains of your tribes, your elders and your officers, with all the men of Israel, YOUR little ones, your wives, and thy stranger, that is in thy camp, from the hewer of wood unto the drawer of water." The little ones were not excluded for their tender years, nor the servants for their bondage. It may be objected that children cannot make contracts, but, in the sight of God children, and their parents are one in the Covenant. Parents represent their children, and are their natural sponsors. The prin- ciples of Kepresentation, indeed, run through the whole economy of Providence and Redemption. The father is the representative of his child, as Christ is the represen- tative of his people. The Covenant, made with Adam, included his posterity. The covenant with Abraham was for him and for his seed, that is, Christ, who is the re- presentative and Saviour of his people. Now, here is the very hinge and turning point of the controversy. If the Church is the same under both dis- pensations; if infants were members under the Old Tes- tament economy, then they are members now ; and they ought, as such, to receive the Seal of the Covenant. In full accordance with these views, we find Paul, in I. Cor. vii. 14, declaring that the children of the Saints are holy— " For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband ; else were your children unclean ; but now they are holy." The word rendered holy in this passage is Hagios, which is everywhere else in Scripture rendered holy or saint Baxter says that it is taken in the sense of " holy" 600 times in Scripture ; and it is not taken once in the sense of " legitimate" which Dr. Carson and others would give to it ! Dr. Doddridge says, " On the maturest and most impartial consideration of this text, I must judge it to refer to Infant Baptism. Nothing can be more apparent than that the word ' Holy J signifies persons, who might be grirnitted to partake qf the distinguishing INFANT BAPTISM. 221 rites of God's people." The celebrated John Locke, in his commentary on the Epistles, says, " the words akathartos (unclean) and hagios (holy) are used here by the Apostle in the Jewish sense. The Jews called all that were Jews holy, and all others they called imclean. This way of speaking St. Paul transfers from the Jewish into the Christian Church, calling all, that are of the Christian Church, saints or holy, by which reason all that were out of it were unclean." " This view," says Dr. Wilson, " is not only the correct one ; but it has in reality no compe- titor." In this passage from 1st Corinthians there is a distinc- tion which the Baptist fails to recognise. He treats all children alike, as far as admission to privileges is con- cerned. All, in his treatment, are equally unclean. The word Holiness, as we have said elsewhere, has two mean- ings in Scripture — the one. Purity of moral character, the other. Consecration to God. In the former sense, God and the unf alien angels are holy, that is, morally pure. In the other sense, the temple, the priests, the promised land are holy, that is, DEVOTED TO GoD. In this sense, all Israel was a holy people, because they were chosen as his witnesses before the nations, and as specially devoted to his service. In like manner, every Jewish child was holy. By nature, the little ones of Israel were children of wrath, even as others ; but they received the seal of the Covenant, and were, therefore, claimed by Jehovah as his own. It is in this sense that Paul speaks of the children of believers as holy, or consecrated to God. As the child of a Jew was to be treated as a Jew, so the child of a Christian is to be treated as belonging to Christ. He claims the little ones as his own. In the next place, it will follow from this, that the child of every believer is to be presented publicly to the Lord . Under the law, every first-born male child is called " holy to the Lord." Jesus was himself brought by his parents to the temple at Jerusalem, in his infancy, to be ^22 A COMPEND OF BAPTISM. presented to the Lord. The passage from Corinthians teaches us that, in like manner, every child of a believer is holy to the Lord, and is, consequently, to be presented publicly to him, as his peculiar property. How appro- priately is this done in the ordinance of Baptism, a duty and a privilege, though neglected by many, and renounced by the Baptists ! How emphatic are the terms in which Jesus invites the little ones ! We read, in Matt xix., that little children were brought to him that he should " put his hands on them and pray ; and the disciples rebuked them ; but Jesus said. Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me ; for of such is the kingdom of heaven ; and HE LAID HIS HANDS ON THEM." Did he not then baptize them by prayer ? It was manifestly believing parents, who brought their infants for consecration by prayer, to the Incarnate Saviour. Why should not believing parents now follow their example, and consecrate their little ones to the Lord by presenting them in Baptism, believing that, of them, too, is the kingdom of heaven ? Jesus has not forbidden IT. Dr. Miller very properly remarks that, " The language, which our Lord himself employs concerning infants, is re- markable, ' Of such is the kingdom of heaven.' It is pre- cisely the same form of expression in the original, which our Lord employs when he says, ' Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' It is not simply those who rese^rahle little children, any more than it is those who re- semble the persecuted ones." It may be objected that " if infants belong to the kingdom of heaven, then all infants should be baptized." We answer — Yes ! if there be suffi- cient guarantees that they will be brought up in the nur- ture and admonition of the Lord. If parents solemnly covenant to train their children in the way in which they INFANT BAPTISM. 228 should go, let the little ones be baptized. Of course such parents give the best of all guarantees, when they give themselves to the Lord, and enter into covenant with Christ and his people. Lastly, on this head, we may ask our opponents to point out anything in the New Testament, which justifies the exclusion of infants from the membership of the Church. They were recognised as members, during a period of two thousand years, under the Old Testament dispensation. The original Abrahamic covenant was made, as Paul argues, four hundred and thirty years before the giving of the Law. Ever since that time, infants have been received as members of the visible Church : who is he that will exclude them ? There is not a word in the New Testament to abrogate their privileges. A Divine Law can be set aside only by Divine authority. Where is that authority ? We are asked to prove, from the New Testament, that infants are included in the membership of the Christian Church. But the burden of proof rests not on us, but on the objector. Our title goes back four thousand years. It is established in the Old Testament ; and it is not set aside in the New. It is nowhere disan- nulled or cancelled. APPENDIX. CAMPBELLISM OR DISCIPLISM. Campbellism originated in Virginia about the year 1823. Alexander Campbell, from the North of Ireland, had been preceded in that region by his father, in the work of preaching a radical reformation of the Church throughout the world. All worshipping establishments, then in operation, were denounced, as legitimate daugh- ters of Rome ; all creeds were abandoned, except a simple faith in Jesus, as the true Messiah ; and every believer was declared to have the right to preach, baptize, and dis- pense the Lord's Supper. Ministers were no longer to be paid for their services ; and all outlay of money for Home or Foreign Missions was unnecessary. This cheap, level- ling system was immensely popular ; and, when Immer- sion was adopted, as the only mode of Baptism, many Baptist churches in the West were absorbed in the New Reformation. Arianism, Socinianism, and Universal ism claimed the privilege of fraternization, and were, though not without much discussion, finally admitted and incor- porated. Churches of the new sect, which was opposed to all sects, sprang up like mushrooms, or like Jonah's gourd — but bold, insolent, and invasive. The system still continues in the process of development ; and it may ulti- mately grow into more harmony with itself and with the Scriptures. The peculiar errors of Campbellism are as follow : — 1st. Immersion introduces persons into the kingdom of CAMPBELLISM OR DISCIPLISM. 225 Heaven. Regeneration is a change of state, not of heart. The ACT of faith (immersion) is presented to sinners, as that act, by which a change in their state is effected ; or, in other words, by which alone they can be pardoned. Campbell says, " There are three births, three kingdoms, three salvations — One from the womb, one from the water, one from the grave. We enter a new world on, and not before, each birth. The present animal life, at the first birth ; the spiritual, or the life of God in the soul, at the second birth ; and the life eternal in the presence of God, at the third birth." The reader will see that the above is simply the doc- trine of Baptismal Regeneration in as gross a form, as ever it was taught in the Church of Rome. Campbell him- self was unsteady and inconsistent in his advocacy of this principle ; and passages, modifying it, might be selected from his voluminous writings ; but Campbellism of the present day is believed to hold it substantially. Its motto is, " NO ASSURANCE OF SALVATION V/ITHOUT IMMERSION." 2nd. Campbellism denies the influence of the Holy Spirit in Regeneration and Sanctification. Campbell held that the Holy Spirit dictated the Scriptures and confirmed them by miracles and other evidences ; and now men must be converted and sanctified by the Word. " As the spirit of man puts forth all its moral power in the words, which it fills with its ideas, so the Spirit of God puts forth all its converting and sanctifying power in the words, which it fills with its ideas." " We plead that all the convert- ing power of the Holy Spirit is exhibited in the Divine Record." And all this vain theorizing comes from the man, who professed to receive only the testimony of God's word ! Ezekiel says,xxxiii. 27, " I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." It appears to us that this miserable doctrine of Alexan- der Campbell's is the legitimate outgrowth of the system, which would iTnmerse men in the Holy Spirit, instead of 226 APPENDIX. representing them as being baptized by the Holy Spirit. In the plan of Redemption each person of the Trinity has his own special work to do. The Father originates all. The Son fulfils the conditions of the Covenant ; the Holy Spirit applies, to the Church and to individuals, the benefits purchased by Christ. Eomanism robs Christ of his glory, and bestows it on Mary. Campbellism denies, except in the days of miracles, the entire work of the* Spirit, and so robs him of his glory. There is no more pernicious error, connected with the Baptist system, than its tendency towards degrading the Holy Spirit. Dr. Carson talks of immersion into the Holy Spirit, while the expression Eis to pneuma is never found in connexion with Baptidzo. Dr. Conant speaks of " immersion in Holy Spirit." Dr. Hackett, on Acts i. 5, has this note : " Hudati, with water as the element by which, en pneu- mati hagio as the element in which the Baptism is per- formed." In all these quotations the idea is, that the Holy Spirit is the receiving element, in which, or into which the believer is immersed ; while, in no single in- stance, does the preposition eis occur in regimen with Pneuma and in connexion with Baptidzo ! A most impor- tant and inevitable fact ! It is well-known that a large proportion of the Disci- ples or Campbellites deny the present agency of the Holy Spirit. But A. Campbell himself believed in it, though he contended that the Spirit is limited to co- operation with the Word. " In conversion and sanctifi- cation," he said, " the Holy Spirit operates only through the Word of Truth." The following noble passage is from A. Campbell's Treatise on Baptism. " The revelation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not more clear and distinct than are the diflferent offices, as- sumed and performed, by these glorious and ineffable Three, in the present affairs of the Universe. It is true, so far as unity of design and concurrence of action are contemplated, they co-operate in every work of creation. CAMPBELLISM OR DISCIPLISM. 227 providence, and redemption. Such is the concurrence, ex- pressed by the Messiah, in these words : ' My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. I and my Father are one.' ' Whatsoever the Father doeth, the Son doeth likewise': but not such a concurrence as annuls personality, impairs or interferes with the distinct offices of each in the salva- tion of man. For example : the Father sends his Son, and not the Son, his Father. The Father provides a body and soul for his Son, and not the Son, for his Father. The Son offers up that body and soul for sin, and thus expi- ates it. The Father and the Son send forth the Spirit, and not the Spirit, either. The Spirit now advocates Christ's cause, and not Christ his own cause. The Holy Spirit now animates the Church with his presence, and not Christ himself. Christ is the Head of the Church, while the Spirit is the heart of it. The Father origin- ates [all, the Son executes all, the Spirit consummates all. Eternal volition, design, and mission belong to the Father : reconciliation to the Son : sanctification to the Spirit." The translation of the Baptist version of Acts, as pub- lished in the Quarto form with notes, has the following on Acts X. 44, " Tlie Holy Ghost fell wpon them all." " The Holy spirit represents, not a Spirit of God, nor an angel of God, but all Divinity, and Divinity too in all its grandeur We thank God that we have the full assurance of understanding that Pneuma Hagion, like Jesus Christ, is the divinely established designation of the Christian's Advocate and Sanctifier. That which is ascribed to Pneuma " spirit," is ascribed to To pneuma " The Spirit," and to Pneuma Hagion " Holy Spirit," and to To Pneuma Hagion " The Holy Spirit," and, to make it superlative, to To pneuma to Hagion, " The Holy Spirit" — which caps the climax of grammatical precision and of exegetical development." Note. — The reader will see how well this note corres- ponds with the passages quoted from Alexander Camp- 228 APPENDIX. bell. Indeed it was b}^ Alexander Campbell, it is said, that this translation of Acts was made. " This translator," says Dr. Dale, " insists in the strong- est terms on the divine personality of the Holy Ghost, and that he is the executive agent in effecting this Bap- tism, whence these conclusions follow : I. The preposi- tion in the phrase En pneumati should be translated hy. II. The executive Agent in effecting Baptism cannot be the quiescent element, in which such Baptism is effected by somebody else. For this double reason there is no such thing in Scripture as Baptism in the Holy Ghost." It seems strange that, after so full and scriptual a de- scription of the special character and work of the Holy Spirit, Alexander Campbell should proceed to " limit the Holy One," by attempting to prove that " In conversion and sanctification, the Holy Spirit operates only through the Word of Truth." It is freely conceded that the means, by which the Holy Spirit generally operates now, is through the Word. But a question arises here. What word is meant ? Is it the written word ? Then how did the Antediluvian saints ? — how did Abraham and the other patriarchs re- ceive instruction ? Was it not partly by the unwritten word and partly by signs and tokens of the Divine Will ? It is possible to make the Word itself an idol, denying and ignoring The Holy Spirit, its author and its essence. Why should prayer be offered continually to God for the Holy Spirit ? As David prayed, " Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me." Does he simply mean that he may know the Word of God more thoroughly ? The ti-uths of God in the Bible are glorious, but David prayed, " Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law." Nature was gloriously beautiful all round the blind man, whose sight was miraculously restored by the Saviour ; but it was only when his eyes were opened, that he could enjoy the prospect. Paul prayed for the Ephesian converts, that CAMPBELLISM OR DISCIPLISM. 229 God would grant them " according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might, by his spirit, in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." Is there no difference between his words and ar- guments and the direct agency of the Spirit ? The mind of Alexander Campbell was fond of abstruse speculations : and he was able to present such subjects in a clear and persuasive manner. He is often very elo- quent. But his preconceived system led him away from the simplicity of the Gospel. Many of his disciples have followed him in his denunciations of certain doctrines ; but they have not retained the leaven of truth, by which his speculations were generally modified. A few years ago. the author of this Compend was pas- tor of a Church at Bedford, in the northern part of Ohio. He had called frequently to visit an invalid lady, who was a Campbellite. She invited and enjoyed the visits. On one occasion some remarks were made respecting the Holy Spirit. "What is the Holy Spirit?" she said, " That's it," pointing to the pocket Bible, which lay open on the table, " No ! " was the reply, " That's not it. * The letter killeth; but the Spirit giveth life.' " Good Mat- thew Henry's comment on this text confirms the applica- tion. " As able ministers of the New Testament, they were ministers, not merely of the letter, to read the writ- ten word, or to preach the letter of the Gospel only ; but, (ministers) of the Spirit also. " The letter killeth " : This the letter of the Law does, for that it is the minis- tration of death ; ^d, if we rest only in the letter of the Gospel, we shall never be the better for so doing ; for that will be a savour of death unto death." The late Dr. N. L. Rice, in his tract, entitled " Camp- bellism," published by the Presbyterian Board, when urg- ing the objection that, according to A. Campbell's doc- trine, prayers for the conversion of sinners are wholly un- availing and useless, cites the following passage from a letter, written to Mr. Campbell by one of his disciples, and 230 APPENDIX. published by him in the " Millennial Harbinger," vol. ii. p. 469. " Without any further preface or apology, I will come at once to the object I had in addressing you at this time ; and that is, to ask your opinion, whether it be lawful, ac- cording to the will of God, as revealed to us, to pray for our unconverted friends, that is, to ask God to convert them to the Christian religion ? If it be true, as you af- firm (and which I am not prepared to controvert), that the righteousness of a Christian is a righteousness by faith in Jesus as the Messiah ; that that faith comes alone by hearing or reading the testimony concerning Jesus ; and that we have no right to expect any influence super- inducing the mind to faith, or even causing the sinner to examine the testimony, or place himself in circumstances for the light of divine truth to shine upon his mind ; I say, upon the supposition that these things are so, what right has any one to expect that God will answer his prayers on behalf of his unconverted friends ? . . . . When we pray, we are told to pray in faith ; and, in order that we may pray in faith, as I understand, we should pray for such things as our Heavenly Father has authorized us to expect at his hands, and no other. Now, if the Divine Being exercises no other influence over the minds of men than that influence, which is derived to them through the words, that He has spoken to men ; and if we cannot pre- vail upon wicked men to give attention to these words, the question is, are we authorized to expect that God will answer our requests on behalf of sucl^n one ? Here is my difficulty, and it has long been a difficulty with me ; and I find it no less so with many of my friends." To this letter Mr. Campbell gave no satisfactory answer. It is, in fact, unanswerable on his principles. The objection urged is fatal to his system. It seems to us that no other error of the present day is more abhorrent to the Gospel, than the denial, by the Campbellites, of the Holy Spirit's influence in the actual CAMPBELLISM OR DISCIPLISM. 231 present experience of believers. As the Campbellites have no formulated creed, there are differences of belief among them on this subject ; but, as a denomination, they do, in general, deny that the Holy Ghost has been given since the days of miraculous manifestation in the Apos- tolic age. The written word in the New Testament, to the exclusion of the Old Testament, is made the sole standard of doctrine ; while the living testimony of the Spirit, present in the soul, is repudiated. Campbellism is the very opposite of Quakerism. Well has the Word it- self warned us against this error, when it says, " The let- ter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." Paul speaks, in the passage to which we here allude (II. Cor., iii. 6.) of his being a minister of the New Testament, not of the letter but of the Spirit ; for, he says, " The letter," that is the letter of the New Testament, " killeth ; but the Spirit giveth life." If Campbellism be true, then we may cease to pray for Divine influence ; and we ought, in preaching, to confine ourselves to appeals drawn from the Scriptures and di- rected to the consciences of men and to their natural un- derstandings. Yet Paul prayed for the Ephesian Chris- tians, " that he (God) would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with all might by His Spirit in the inner man ; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." If the Spirit operates only in and through the Word, and, if assurance of salvation can come only through im- mersion, what shall be the fate of infants, who cannot un- derstand the Word, and who are prohibited by the sys- tem from Baptism ? Without holiness none can enter into heaven. If Baptism and the Word are the only means of obtaining holiness, how shall unbaptized infants dying in infancy, be saved ? Alexander Campbell admitted that infants are depraved in their nature, as the consequence of the Fall. Experi- ence attests the truth of this doctrine ; but Jesus loved 232 APPENDIX. little children, and said, " Of such is the kingdom of hea- ven." " Their angels do alway behold the face of my heavenly Father." He took the little ones into his arms and blessed them. He has nowhere prohibited their be- ing reckoned members of the Church, as they were under the Old Testament economy, being sealed now by Bap- tism, as they were of old by Circumcision. A VALEDICTORY. 233 A VALEDICTORY. Kind and patient reader, let me hope that you have followed me, step by step, through this too long, yet com- pendious volume. You will perhaps say, however, that it still needs more hydraulic pressure. If I had more time, I could make it shorter. I trust that you have learned, by its perusal, and by the testimony of God's Word, the following facts and principles. 1st. That Real Baptism is no human operation, with water or in water, but is the work of the Holy Spirit. 2nd. That sprinkling may be allowed to remain, as one of the authorized modes of Ritual Christian Baptism. 3rd. That the infant children of God's people are not deprived, by the New Covenant, of the ancient rights, which they had under the old Dispensation. 4th. That the " one Baptism " of God's Spirit unites all the members of Christ's body into one loving and har- monious communion. May the Divine Spirit lead us into all truth, and bap- tize us into that one body ! Amen !