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IMMERSIO 
 
 THE ACT OF CHRISTIAN BAPTISM 
 
 BY 
 
 V 
 
 JOHN T. CHRISTIAN, A. M., D. D. 
 
 Corresponding Secretary of the Convention Board of Mi^simppi Baptists 
 
 FIFTH THOUSAND 
 
 CINCINNATI, OHIO 
 
 THE STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 Publishers of Christian Literature 
 
(Copyright, 1891, 
 By J. T. CHRISTIAN. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THIS book is the result of long and patient 
 investigation. It was with a view of satisfy- 
 ing the author's own mind that these studies were 
 begun, and with no intention of writing a book. 
 Many large libraries have been gone over, and a 
 somewhat extensive correspondence conducted. 
 Many of the books quoted are exceedingly rare, and 
 many more locked up in foreign languages, and it 
 occurred to me that these authorities might be of 
 service to those who have neither the time nor 
 opportunity to investigate so large a range of lit- 
 erature. 
 
 I am under obligation to many friends who have 
 assisted me in divers ways. I cordially mention 
 my lifelong friend, Prof. Arthur Yager, Ph. D., 
 of Georgetown College, Ky. He was especially 
 helpful in translating French and German authors. 
 And I am indebted to Rev. Basil Manly, D. D., 
 LL. D., of the Southern Baptist Theological Sem- 
 inary, for suggestions in Hebrew and Syriac. 
 
 This book has been written in no controversial 
 spirit, and it is given to the public with a sincere 
 desire to do good. That it is not faultless the author 
 is well aware, but he does believe that the propo- 
 sitions laid down are in accord with the Holy 
 Scriptures, and in harmony with the universal 
 teachings of history. •: 
 
 (3) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOK. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Law of Baptism and Principles of Interpretation. 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 What the Lexicons say 16 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 What the Classical Writers say 23 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Does Baptizo Necessarily Mean to Drown ? 31 
 
 CHAPTER V, 
 What the Septuagint says.- 36 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Baptism of John 46 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Baptism of Jesus 56 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Baptism Mentioned in Mark vii : 1-4 63 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 The Baptism of tlie Three Thousand 71 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 The Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch 83 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 Paul's Baptism 89 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The Baptism of the Jailer 94 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 The Argument from Rom. vi : 4 102 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 What the Greek Fathers say 108 
 
 (5) 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 What the Latin Fathers say 114 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 " The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles " 119 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Argument from History in favor of Immersion 128 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 Sprinkling a Heathen Custom 136 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 The Baptism of the Sick 151 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 The History of Sprinkling 158 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 What the Councils of the Roman Catholic Church say. 167 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 The Testimony of the Liturgies and Rituals 176 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 What the Poets say 182 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 What the Greek Church says 192 
 
 CHAPTAR XXV. 
 What the Catholic Church says 204 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 What the Episcopalians say 213 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 What the Presbyterians say 223 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 What the Methodists say 233 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 What the Syriac says 240 
 
IMMERSIOK 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE LAW OF BAPTISM, AND THE PRINCIPLES 
 OF INTERPRETATION. 
 
 rpHE law of baptism is laid down in Matthew 
 -^ xxviii : 18-20, in the words of our Saviour : 
 *' All power is given unto me in heaven and in 
 earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, 
 baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them 
 to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
 manded you : and, lo, I am with you alway, even 
 unto the end of the world. Amen.'' 
 
 The terms of this commission are plain enough. 
 I shall apply some of the -principles of constitu- 
 tional and statutory law to the law of baptism; 
 and in it will be found an unanswerable argument 
 in favor of immersion. Greenleaf, a very able 
 lawyer, applied the principles of law to the Four 
 Gospels, and gave to the world one of the strong- 
 est books on Christian Evidence extant ; and I am 
 sure that from the same standpoint the argument 
 for immersion is impregnable. 
 
 (7) 
 
b IMMERSION. 
 
 I shall call attention to a few of the funda- 
 mental principles of law : 
 
 1. Words are to be used in their primary or his- 
 torical sense, and in the meaning in which they 
 can be proven historically to have been used. No 
 secondary or figurative sense can be applied to 
 words as long as the historical sense can be ap- 
 plied to them. This is a fundamental rule, and 
 is laid down in all of the law books. 
 
 Blackstone, on the interpretation of law, says: 
 *^ Words are generally to be understood in their 
 usual and most known signification ; not so much 
 regarding the propriety of grammar, as their gen- 
 eral and popular use. '^ (Com. 59.) Greenleaf says : 
 "The terms of every written instrument are to be 
 understood in their plain, ordinary and popular 
 sense.'' (On Evid. 278.) 
 
 This idea is as applicable to theology as it is to 
 law. So clear is this that the celebrated Presby- 
 terian author, Dr. Charles Hodge, says : " The 
 fundamental interpretation of all writings, sacred 
 and profane, is that words are to be understood in 
 their historical sense in which it can be historic- 
 ally proved that they were used by their authors, 
 and intended to be understood by those to whom 
 they were addressed. The object of language is 
 the communication of thought. Unless words are 
 
THE LAW OF BAPTISM. 
 
 taken in the sense in which those who employ 
 them know they will be understood, they will fail 
 of their design. '' (Systemat. TheoL, vol. 1, p. 376.) 
 If this rule holds good, immersion is inevitably 
 the act of Christian baptism. Beyond doubt the 
 historical sense of the word baptizo is to dip. 
 Even if it could be proven, which is not the case, 
 that some tropical definition favored affusion, still, 
 with this rule in sight, baptism logically would 
 be performed by immersion. We have no right 
 to give the word an arbitrary meaning. This 
 principle is recognized in the interpretation of all 
 law ; why not in the law of baptism ? 
 
 2. We have no right to put any arbitrary con- 
 struction upon, or to draw any strained inference 
 from, the law of baptism. The New Testament is 
 to be construed plainly, and from its express com- 
 mands there can be no departure. • 
 
 Upon no point is the law more explicit than 
 upon this. ''A verbis legis non est recedendum: 
 from the words of the law there can be no de- 
 parture. A court of law will not make any in- 
 terpretation contrary to the express letter of the 
 statute ; for nothing can so well explain the mean- 
 ing of the makers of the Act as their own direct 
 words." (Brown, 622.) " When a law is plain and 
 unambiguous, whether it be expressed in general 
 
10 IMMERSION. 
 
 or limited terms, the legislators should be inter- 
 preted to mean what they have plainly expressed, 
 and consequently no room is left for construction. 
 Possible or probable meanings, where one is plainly 
 declared in the instrument itself, the courts are not 
 at liberty to search for elsewhere.^^ ..." That 
 which the words declare is the meaning of the 
 instrument, neither courts nor legislators have 
 a right to add to or take away from its meaning. " 
 (On Constit. Lim. 68, 70.) Mr. Cooly continues; 
 " In the case of all written laws it is the intent of 
 the lawgiver that it is to be enforced. But this 
 intent is to be found in the instrument itself It is 
 to be presumed that language has been employed 
 with sufficient precision to convey it, and, unless 
 examination demonstrates that the presumption 
 holds good in the particular case, nothing will 
 remain except to enforce it. '^ (Constit. Lim. 68.) 
 Mr. Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States, 
 said : " The government of the United States can 
 claim no powers which are not granted to it by 
 the Constitution; and the powers actually granted 
 must be such as are expressly given, or given by 
 necessary implication. " (1 Wheat. 326, Brown.) 
 "The intention of the testator ought to be the 
 only guide of the court to the interpretation of 
 his will; yet it must be his intention, as collected 
 
THE LAW OF BAPTISM. 11 
 
 by the words employed by himself in his will. Xo 
 surmise or conjecture of any object, which the tes- 
 tator may be supposed to have had in view, can 
 be allowed to have any weight in the construction 
 of his will unless such object be collected from the 
 plain language of the will itself. " (555.) 
 
 These writers all say that from the words of the 
 law there must be no departure. Now this is per- 
 fectly evident. If this commission of Christ means 
 immersion, we can not depart from the letter and 
 allow any other act. If it were " possible," or 
 ^^even probable," that sprinkling or pouring was 
 the act of baptism, yet they could not be admitted, 
 since immersion is " the historical or primary " 
 sense of the word baptizo. No room is left for 
 construction, and we are to take the Scriptures just 
 as they read. AYe are not to read meanings into 
 the word of the living God. 
 
 3. If the commission is not perfectly plain and 
 explicit in all of its terms it is of no binding force 
 whatever. This the law books plainly teach. The 
 maxim is, ubi jus incertum, ubi jus nullum^ when 
 the law is uncertain, there is no law. The learned 
 Judge Pothier says : ^^A law that is hopelessly 
 obscure is of no binding force, and no person can 
 be held responsible for obedience to it." Green- 
 leaf remarks : " In other words, in merely gener- 
 
12 IMMERSION. 
 
 ally speaking, if the court, placing itself in the 
 situation in which the testator or contracting party 
 stood at the time of executing the instrument, and 
 with full understanding of the force and import of 
 the words, cannot ascertain his meaning and in- 
 tention from the language of the instrument thus 
 illustrated, it is a case of incurable and hopeless 
 uncertainty, and the instrument is so far inopera- 
 tive and void." (On Evid. 300.) 
 
 Jesus Christ can claim no authority that is not 
 expressed in his commands; and it would be a 
 reflection to say that he did not make himself per- 
 fectly clear. If no man can tell what the commis- 
 sion means, or if it means any one of a dozen 
 things, then is baptism not binding upon us. But 
 such a proposition is at once sacrilegious and ab- 
 surd. 
 
 4. The expression of one thing is the exclusion 
 of another. If immersion is expressed, then is 
 sprinkling and pouring excluded. There is ^' one 
 baptism,'^ and not three. Coke says : '^ The ap- 
 pointment or designation of one is the exclusion of 
 another; and that expressed makes that which is 
 implied to cease. '' (Coke-Lit. 210.) And Brown 
 says : ^' If authority is given expressly, though by 
 affirmative words, upon a defined condition, the 
 expression of that condition excludes the doing of 
 
THE LAW OF BAPTISM. 13 
 
 the act authorized under other circumstances than 
 those so defined. ^' (653.) 
 
 Unquestionably the Scriptures teach that baptism 
 is by immersion, and aifusion is thus rejected by 
 this law of exclusion. 
 
 5. It would be of no service to us if Christ had 
 commanded us to be baptized, if we could not 
 know what he meant. Mr. Coke says ; " It avails 
 little to know what ought to be done, if you do 
 not know how it is to be done.^' "Where any 
 thing," says Brown, " is commanded, every thing 
 by which it is to be accomplished is also com- 
 manded. " (482.) Certainly there would be no 
 doubt thrown around the last command the Son 
 of God ever gave. 
 
 6. Next to the authority of the New Testament, 
 which is paramount, the admissions of learned 
 Pedobaptists is the strongest proof we can possibly 
 offer. The admission of the adverse party, when 
 deliberately made, is the strongest authority in a 
 court of law. The principle is the same whether 
 applied to civil or criminal matters. Starkie and 
 Greenleaf both put this proposition in the strongest 
 terms. Greenleaf says : " It is generally agreed 
 that deliberate confessions of guilt are among the 
 most effectual proofs of the law. Their value 
 depends on the supposition that they are deliberate 
 
14 IMMERSION. 
 
 and voluntary, and on the presumption that a 
 rational being will not make admissions prejudicial 
 to his interest and safety, unless when urged by 
 the promptings of truth and conscience. Such 
 confessions, so made by a prisoner, at any moment 
 of time, and at any place, subsequent to the per- 
 petration of crime, and previous to his examina- 
 tion before the magistrate, are at common law 
 received in evidence as among proofs of guilt. '^ 
 (On Evid. 215.) 
 
 There can be but one conclusion in regard to 
 the hundreds of Fedobaptist scholars who have 
 admitted that baptism was originally by immersion. 
 The truth forced them to this conclusion. I empha- 
 size this fundamental "principle of the law of evi- 
 dence, that the admissions of the adverse party, 
 against his interest or opinion, is the best of 
 evidence in law, and is an estoppel in the contro- 
 versy. I claim that the admissions of the best 
 pedobaptist scholars of this and every other age, 
 forever close out affusion as baptism. 
 
 The law requires absolute obedience, and we 
 have no right to change or in any wise alter its 
 demands. No crime is greater than disobedience." 
 (Jenks, Cent. Car. 77.) ^^ Obedience is the essence 
 of the law.'' (11 Coke 100.) Obedience is the 
 crowning grace of all. It is that "principle, I 
 
THE LAW OF BAPTISM. 15 
 
 mean, to which Polity owes its stability, Life its 
 happiness, Faith its acceptance. Creation its con- 
 tinuance." This is the principle that recognizes 
 the well nigh forgotten truth that Christ is Lord 
 as well as Saviour. It is a far reaching truth, and 
 strict obedience to it carries us into the immediate 
 presence of God. No more significant words are 
 in the Bible than those of Jesus Christ, " Ye are 
 my friends, if ye do whatsoever I have com- 
 manded you." 
 
16 IMMERSION. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WHAT THE LEXICONS SAY. 
 
 ^TT"HEN we desire the definition of a word we 
 ^ ^ naturally turn to a dictionary, or lexicon, for 
 its meaning. This I now do. I present only such 
 authorities as I have before me ; and take no state- 
 ment at second hand. These writers are certainly 
 competent witnesses. These Greek lexicons were not 
 written by Baptists, but by Pedobaptist scholars. 
 As Mr. Greenfield expressed it : "I wish it to be 
 distinctly understood that I am neither a Baptist, 
 nor the son of a Baptist ; nor is it my business to 
 make a defense of their cause." 
 
 Sometime since I wrote Dr. Gross Alexander, 
 Professor of New Testament Exegesis in Vander- 
 bilt, the great Methodist University of the South, 
 asking him kindly to mention two Greek lexicons — 
 one on Classical and the other on the New Testament 
 Greek, that he regarded as the very best. He wrote 
 by return mail, in reply: "The seventh edition of 
 Liddell and Scott, Harper & Bros., N. Y., is the 
 best Greek lexicon for general use. I emphasize 
 seventh; for as compared with former editions it is 
 a new book. The very best New Testament lexicon 
 
WHAT THE LEXICONS SAY. 17 
 
 ifi that of J. H. Thayer, Greek-English lexicon, pub- 
 lished also by Harper & Bros.'' 
 
 Dr. C. C. Hersman, President of the Southwest- 
 ern Presbyterian University, at Clarksville, Tenn., 
 writes me under date of Aug. 7th, 1890. He says : 
 "In English the best Classical Greek lexicon is 
 Liddell and Scott, the last edition. It is based on 
 the great work of Passow. In the New Testament 
 nothing can compare with the lexicon of J. H. 
 Thayer based on Grimra-Wilkes Clavis Novi Testa- 
 menti. Robinson's is a very good one. But Thayer, 
 when used with caution and intelligence, is par 
 excellence. He gives the very latest results." 
 
 No name among Presbyterians outranks that of 
 C. W. Hodge, Professor of New Testament Crit- 
 icism in Princeton Theological Seminary. He 
 writes, Aug. 10th, 1890, as follows: ''The best 
 Classical Greek lexicon is Liddell and Scott's. The 
 best New Testament Lexicon is Thayer's edition 
 of Grimm." 
 
 No scholar is likely to dissent from these opin- 
 ions. Liddell and Scott are learned Episcopalian 
 scholars of England. I turn to the seventh edition, 
 the* one all of these scholars say is the best, p. 274, 
 and baptizo is defined, " to dip in or under water." 
 Not a word is said about sprinkling or pouring. 
 That witness is satisfactory enough. 
 
18 IMMERSION. 
 
 Prof. J. H. Thayer, the author of the Greek- 
 English Lexicon of the New Testament, is Prof, of 
 New Testament Criticism and Interpretation, in 
 the Divinity School of Harvard University, Cam- 
 bridge, Mass. On p. 94, I read : '^ Baptizo, to dip 
 repeatedly, to immerse, to submerge. In the New 
 Testament it is used particularly of the rite of 
 sacred ablution, first instituted by John the Bap- 
 tist, afterward by Christ's command received by 
 Christians and adjusted to the nature and contents 
 of their religion, viz: an immersion in water." 
 Under baptmna he says, " a word peculiar to the 
 N. T. and ecclesiastical writers, immersion, sub- 
 mersion." 
 
 To make assurance doubly sure and leave not 
 a hook to hang a doubt upon I give the testimony 
 of other lexicons. 
 
 Prof. E. A. Sophocles, a native Greek, and for 
 thirty-eight years Professor of Greek in Harvard 
 University, in his lexicon of Greek usages in the 
 Roman and Byzantine periods, B. C. 146- A. D. 
 1100, Boston 1887, defines baptizo, "to dip, to im- 
 merse, to sink. There is no evidence that Luke 
 and Paul and the other writers of the New Testa- 
 ment put upon this verb meanings not recognized 
 by the Greeks." 
 
 J. W. Fradensdorf, of the Taylor Institute, in 
 
WHAT THE LEXICONS SAY. 19 
 
 his English-Greek Lexicon, London 1860, defines 
 baptizein and haptein " to baptize, to dip.^^ 
 
 Dr. W. Pope, of the Berlin Gymnasium, 1842, 
 1870, 1880, defines baptizo, "to dip in, to dip 
 under.'' 
 
 Wahl, Clavis, Leipzig 1853, says: '^ Baptizo , to 
 dip, to dip repeatedly, to immerse, to wash." 
 
 E. W. Bullinger, Greek Lexicon and Concord- 
 ance, London 1878, p. 81, says: ^^Baptizo^ to 
 make a thing dipped or dyed, to immerse for a 
 religious purpose. By baptism therefore we must 
 understand an immersion, whose design, like that 
 of the levitical washings and purifications, was 
 united with the washing away of sin.'' 
 
 Cremer, Biblico-Theological Greek Lexicon of 
 the New Testament, third English edition, 1883, 
 p. 126 : " baptizo y to immerse, to submerge. The 
 peculiar New Testament and Christian use of the 
 word to denote immersion, submersion for a relig- 
 ious purpose — baptize." 
 
 Ab. H. Stephanus, Thesaurus Graecse Linguse, 
 London 1821, vol. 3, p. 20,681, "baptizo, to merge, 
 to immerse, also to dip." 
 
 Hedericus, Lexicon, London, 1755, "baptizo, 
 to merge, to immerse, to wash in water." 
 
 Bass, London 1859, p. 39, "baptizo, to dip, im- 
 merse, or plunge in water. 2nd. To baptize figur- 
 
20 IMMERSION. 
 
 atively, to be immersed in suffering or affliction." 
 Siiicer, Thesaurus, Amsterdam • 1682, p. 622, 
 
 ^^bapiizoj to immerse, to dip.'^ 
 
 Scapula, Geneva 1628, p. 254, Haptizo, to 
 
 merge, to immerse ; also, dye, as we immerse things 
 
 for the purpose of coloring or washing them. Also 
 
 to immerse, to submerge, to wash in water." 
 Stokius, Clavis, Leipzig 1752, Haptizo, by the 
 
 force of the word indicates the idea of dipping or 
 
 immersion. Properly speaking it is a dipping or 
 
 an immersion in water." 
 
 Schoettgenius, Greek Lexicon, Lugudi, Bala- 
 
 vorum, 1755, p. 107, "baptizo, 1st, properly to dip, 
 
 to immerse ; 2nd, to bathe, to wash." 
 
 Schleusuer, Glasgow, vol. 1, p. 338, ^'baptizo, 
 
 properly to immerse, to dip, to immerse in water." 
 Schrevelius, '^baptizo, to baptize, to dip." 
 Simonis, Halse, 1766, Ha'ptizOy to dip." 
 Green, ^^baptizo, to dip, to immerse." 
 Greenfield, ^'baptizo, to immerse, to immerge, to 
 
 submerge, to sink." 
 
 Donnegan, ^^baptizo, to immerse repeatedly in a 
 
 liquid, to submerge." 
 
 Groves, ^^baptizo, to dip, to immerse, to immerge, 
 
 to plunge." 
 
 Robinson, ^'baptizo, to dip in, to sink, to im- 
 
WHAT THE LEXICONS SAY. 21 
 
 G. P. Laftcarides, London 1882, p. 341, "bapfizo, 
 to dip.'' 
 
 Here is the testimony of twenty-four Greek 
 lexicons ; and every one of them gives the primary 
 idea of dipping. I have at liand the testimony of 
 three living American Bishops, who, while they 
 hold to affusion on other accounts, allow dipping 
 to be the primaiy meaning of the word. Bishop 
 John J. Keane, President of the Catholic Univer- 
 sity of America, Washington, D. C, says ; '^The 
 best dictionaries show the classical meaning of the 
 Greek word baptizcin is primarily to plunge, to dip." 
 Henry C. Potter, Episcopal Bishop of New York, 
 says : " I am quite free to say that the literal mean- 
 ing of bapfizo as ordinarily found in classical 
 writers is, usually to plunge, to dip, immerse, or 
 whatever word you want to strengthen your jK)si- 
 tion." The next is Bishop A. Cleveland Coxe, the 
 editor of the American edition of the Ante-Nicene 
 Fathers, who says : " The word means to dip." 
 
 We can therefore say in the none too strong lan- 
 guage of Moses Stuart, the late eminent Congre- 
 gational scholar of Andover, ''hapto and haptizo 
 mean to dip, to plunge, to immerge, into any thing 
 liquid. All lexicographers and critics of any note 
 are agreed in this." (On Bap., p. 51.) I have here 
 quoted Methodist, Episcopal, Catholic, Presby- 
 
9^) 
 
 IMMEttSIOX, 
 
 terian, and many other authorities. All these 
 lexicons give dipping as the primary meaning; and 
 if the word has any secondary meaning it is in 
 accordance with this idea. The dictionaries are, 
 therefore, all in favor of dipping as the primary 
 meaning of this word. 
 
WHAT THE CLASSICAL WRITERS SAY. 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 WHAT THE CLASSICAL WRITERS SAY. 
 
 A N appeal can always be made from the lex- 
 ^-^ icons to the use of the word in the best 
 authors. I now appeal to the classical Greek 
 authors. I shall not discuss bapto, but confine my- 
 self to baptizo, the word used for baptize in the 
 New Testament. I shall begin with the oldest 
 writer who used this word, and, in chronological 
 order, give the statement of writers covering several 
 hundred years. This is the philological order, and 
 if the word means to sprinkle or pour, we will 
 certainly find that passage. I shall give later the 
 testimony of the Greek fathers ; here I only refer 
 to the use of the word in the classics. There is 
 no higher authority than this. 
 
 Pindar, B. C. 522 : " For as when the rest of 
 the tackle is toiling deep in the sea, I as a cork, 
 above the net, am undipped (abaptistos) in water." 
 
 Plato, B. C. 429 : " I perceiving that the youtlr 
 was overwhelmed (baptizomenon) , wishing to give 
 him respite," etc. "I was one of those who yes- 
 terday were overwhelmed in wine.'' 
 
 The Homeric Allegories, B. C. 400 : " The ma^s 
 
24 IMMERSION. 
 
 of iron, drawn red hot from the furnace, is dipped 
 (baptizelat) in water." 
 
 Alcibiades, B. C. 400: "You dipped (baptes) me 
 in plays: but I in the waves of the sea dipping 
 (baptizon), will destroy thee with streams more 
 bitter.'' 
 
 Demosthenes, B. C. 385 : " Not the speakers, for 
 these know how to play the dipping (diabapiizes- 
 thai) match with him, but the inexperienced." 
 
 Eubulus, B. C. 380: "Who now the fourth day 
 is immersed {baptizetai), leading the famished life 
 of a miserable mullet." 
 
 Evenus of Paros, B. C. 250: " Bacchas (the use 
 of wine) plunges (baptizei) in sleep." 
 
 Polybius, B. C. 205: The enemy "made con- 
 tinued assaults and submerged (ebaptizon) many of 
 the vessels." The vessel " being submerged (baptizo- 
 mena) became filled with sea-water and confusion." 
 "Even if the spear falls into the sea. it is not 
 lost ; for it is compacted of oak and pine, so that 
 when the oaken part is immersed (baptiztwicnon) 
 by the weight, the rest is buoyed up, and it is 
 easily recovered." "Themselv^es by themselves 
 immersed (baptizomenoi) and sinking in the pools." 
 
 Strabo, B. C. 60 : " To one who hurls down a 
 dart, from above into the channel, the force of the 
 water makes so much resistance, that it is hardly 
 
WHAT THE CLASSICAL WRITERS SAY. 25 
 
 dipped {baptizesthai)r "And he who enters into 
 it is not immersed (baptkesthai) , but is lifted out." 
 "The water solidifies so rapidly around ever>' 
 thing that is dipped into it (Lake Tatta) that they 
 draw up salt crowns when they let down a circle 
 of rushes." 
 
 Diodorus, B. C. 60: "The river rushing down 
 with the current increased in violence, immersed 
 (ebaptize) many." "Most of the wild animals are 
 surrounded by the stream and perished, being sub- 
 merged {baptizomena) ; but some escaping to the 
 high grounds, are saved." "His ship being sub- 
 merged (baptistheisas)." "They do not whelm 
 (baptizomi) the common people with taxes." 
 
 Conon, about A. D. 1 : " Having whelmed {baj)- 
 tisam) with much wine and put him to sleep." 
 
 Josephus, A. D. 37: "And stretching out the 
 right hand, so as to be unseen by any, he plunged 
 the whole sword into his body." There are thir- 
 teen other examples in Josephus all in the sense 
 of dipping. 
 
 Philo, the Jew, A. D. 50 : " The reason was 
 whelmed {baptizomenou) by the things overlying it.'' 
 Plutarch, A. D. 50 : "A bladder, then mayest be 
 dipped {baptize) ] but it is not possible for thee to 
 sink." " The soldiers along the whole way, dipping 
 {baptizontes) with cups, and horns, and goblets, 
 
26 IMMERSION. 
 
 from great wine jars and mixing bowls, were drink- 
 ing to one another/' Thirteen other times is the 
 word used in Plutarch in the sense of to dip. 
 
 Epictetus, A. D. 50 : " You would not wish, sail- 
 ing in a large and polished, and richly gilded ship, 
 to be submerged (haptizesthai).^^ 
 
 Demetrius, the Sidonian, A. D. 50 : " She is not 
 wholly dipped (bebaptisthai), but rises above." 
 
 Alciphron, A. D. 150 : " If I am to see all the 
 rivers, life to me will be whelmed (baptiathasetai), 
 not beholding Glycera." 
 
 Lucian, the man-hater, A. D. 135: *^ If the win- 
 ter's torrent were bearing one away, and he with 
 outstretched hands were imploring help, to thrust 
 even him headlong, dipping (baptizonta) , so that 
 he should not be able to come up again." "He 
 seems like one heavy-headed and whelmed {bebap- 
 tismeno).^* 
 
 Polysenus, A. D. 150: " Philip did not give over 
 dipping (diabaptizomenos) in a match with the pan- 
 cratiast, and sprinkling {rainomenos) water in his 
 face, until the soldiers, wearied out, dispersed." 
 
 Dion Cassius, A. D. 150: "And others leaping 
 into the sea were drowned, or, struck by the en- 
 emy, were submerged (ebaptizonto).''^ There are 
 seven other examples of dipping in this writer. 
 
 Plotinus, A. D. 205: "Death to her while yet 
 
WHAT THE CLASSICAL WKITERS SAY. 27 
 
 immersed (bebaptismena) in the body, is to be sunk 
 in matter.'^ " But now, since a part of us is con- 
 tained by the body, as if one has the feet in water, 
 but with the rest of the body stands out above, 
 towering up by what is not immersed (baptisthenti) 
 in the body, we by this arc attached, as to our own 
 center, with that which is the center of all." " He 
 does not continue happy, whelmed (baptistheis) 
 either with diseases or with arts of magicians." 
 
 Aristopheu, A. D. 210: "Then whelming {bap- 
 tisas) potently with wine, he set me free.'^ 
 
 Porphyra, A. D. 233 : " When the accused an- 
 swers to it, if he is guiltless, he goes through with- 
 out fear, having the water as far as to the knees; 
 but if guilty, after proceeding a little way, he is 
 immersed (baptizetai) unto the head." 
 
 Heimerius, A.D. 315: "I will show you also my 
 soldiers; one fighting life-like even in the painting 
 , . . and another dipping (baptlzonta) with his 
 hands the Persian fleet." " He was great at Sala- 
 mis ; for there, fighting, he whelmed {ebaptise) all 
 Asia." 
 
 Libanius, A. D. 315 : " I myself am one of those 
 immersed (baptmnenon) by that great wave." He 
 used the word nine other times to dip. 
 
 Themistius, A. D. 375 : " The pilot, whether he 
 eaves in the voyage one whom it were better to 
 
28 IMMEE8ION. 
 
 submerge (baptisai)J^ *' Overwhelmed {haptizomf- 
 noii) by grief?' 
 
 The Argooautic Expedition, A. D. 375 : " But 
 when Titon dipped himself into the ocean stream.^' 
 
 Chariton, A. D. 375 : " Overwhelmed {baptizo- 
 menos) by design." "Overwhelmed {ebaptizeto) as 
 to the soul." "Overwhelmed {baptizomenon) in a 
 calm." 
 
 Heliodorus, A.D. 390 : "Already becoming dipped 
 (baptizomenon) y and wanting little of sinking, some 
 of the pirates attempted to leave and get aboard 
 of their ow^n bark." " Slaying some on land, and 
 plunging {baptizonton) others with their boats and 
 huts into the lake." There are four other exam- 
 ples in Heliodorus. 
 
 Proclus, A. D. 412: "The lo-Bacchus was sung 
 at festivals and sacrifices of Bacchus, immersed 
 (bebaptismenon) with much wantonness." 
 
 Achilles Tatius, A. D. 450: ''They dip (ha^- 
 tizousi) into the water, therefore, a pole smeared 
 with pitch, and open the barriers of the stream." 
 " They who behold suppose the steel is plunged 
 (baptizesthai) down the body, but it runs back into 
 the hollow of the hilt." 
 
 Julian, A. D. 525 : " As I was once trimming 
 a garland, I found Cupid in the roses ; and hold- 
 ing by the wings, I dipped {ebaptisa) him into wine 
 
WHAT THE CLASSICAL WRITERS SAY. 29 
 
 and took him and drank him, and now within my 
 members he tickles with his wings/' 
 
 Simplicius, A. D. 650 : '' Beauty in bodies, is in 
 flesh and sinews and things that make up the body, 
 of animals, for example ; beautifying them, indeed, 
 as much as possible, but also itself partaking of 
 their deformity, and immersed (bebaptismenon) into 
 it/' 
 
 Eustathius, A. D. 1100: "My whole mind was 
 overwhelmed (katabaptistheis) with the affliction." 
 '^My spirit thou didst overwhelm {Icatebaptisas), 
 surging round, with whole seas of wailings." 
 ** Strives to overwhelm (katabaptisai) the whole 
 vessel with the waves." 
 
 I have here quoted thirty-three authors, and 
 have given fifty-six examples of the use of the 
 word in these writers. These authors cover a pe- 
 riod of over sixteen hundred years, commencing 
 with Pindar, B. C. 522, and ending with Eusta- 
 thius in the eleventh century A. D. The invari- 
 able meaning of the word in all of these passages 
 is to dip, or some word which conveys the same 
 idea. So clear is this that Prof. Stuart says : " It 
 is impossible to doubt that the words bapto and 
 baptizo have, in the Greek classical writers, the 
 nense of dip, plunge, immerse, sink, etc." (Bap. 
 p. 56.) 
 
30 IMMERSION. 
 
 The only possible objection that can be made to 
 this meaning is where the classical writers use such 
 phrases as "overwhelmed in wine," "overwhelmed 
 in sleep/^ " overwhelmed in sorrow," etc. ; but even 
 here the idea is an immersion. But this figure of 
 speech is common in all languages and with almost 
 every word. In the Latin this figure is very com- 
 mon. Livy says, ^' Mersus vino sornnoque/' or Vir- 
 gil's " Somno vinoque f^epidfus/' immersed or buried 
 in wine; and Seneca speaks of the ^^ pofatio qvm 
 mergit,^^ the drink which immerses. In Shakspeare 
 we read : 
 
 " Who dipping sd"! his faults in their affection's 
 Mould, like the spring that turneth wood into stone, 
 Convert his gyves into graces." — Hamlet, iv. 7. 
 
 Cowper sings of one : 
 
 " Immersed in soft repose ambrosial." 
 
 We can therefore say without a doubt that baj^- 
 tizOy in classical writers, means to dip. 
 
DOES BAPTIZO MEAN TO DROWN. 31 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DOES BAPTIZO NECESSARILY MEAN TO DROWN, 
 IN CLASSICAL GREEK? 
 
 TT is wonderful how many inventions there are 
 ^ to distort this simple Greek word ^^dip.^' There 
 is a theory gaining ground in many places that 
 whenever the word is used in tlassioal Greek, of 
 persons, it means more than a dipping ; it includes 
 the idea of drowning, or a complete loss of life. 
 Granting, for the sake of argument, this to be true, 
 how could it help the cause of sprinkling? Surely 
 the "sevenfold dipping" of Naaman, and the bap- 
 tism of the thousands by John in the Jordan, was 
 not a drowning. I have at hand the opinion of 
 three learned professors of Greek. They have stud- 
 ied the Greek language and literature for years and 
 they have found no such meaning. 
 
 The first is Prof M.W. Humphreys, of the Uni- 
 versity of Virginia. He says : 
 
 University of Virginia, \ 
 March 27, 1890. i 
 
 My Dear Sir, — The term " classical Greek ^Ms a 
 
 little ambiguous. If profane literature is meant, 
 
 there is certainly nothing in the theory you men- 
 
32 IMMERSION. 
 
 tion. If classical Attic prose is meant, the word is 
 too rarely used in that to justify any such generali- 
 zation. The word ordinarily has a figurative use 
 in "classical Greek/' such as overwhelm, as when 
 a boy is flooded with questions, or a man is over 
 head and ears in debt. But see the quotation from 
 Hippocrates in Liddell and Scott's Lexicon. 
 
 Yours sincerely, M. W. Humphreys. 
 
 Dr. J. H. Thayer, of Harvard Divinity School, 
 is even more explicit: 
 
 Cambridge, Mass., 67 Sparks St., \ 
 March 17, 1890. i" 
 
 Dear Sir, — In reply to your inquiry of the 14th 
 
 inst., permit me to say that the Greek word bap- 
 
 tizOj when used physically in reference to persons, 
 
 often describes an experience which issues in death. 
 
 But that the word does not always carry with it the 
 
 idea of drowning or complete loss of life, is evident 
 
 from many extant examples, which are to be found 
 
 alike in the larger Greek lexicons and such special 
 
 works as "Classic Baptism," by J. W. Dale, 1867, 
 
 or " Meaning and Use of Baptizein/^ etc., by T. J. 
 
 Conant, N. Y. 1864. Let it suffice to set down 
 
 two: Polybius, who died before Christ 122, in his 
 
 History, bk. 3, ch. 72, sec. 4, describing the passage 
 
 of soldiers through the river Febia, which had been 
 
 swollen during the night by a heavy shower, says, 
 
DOES BAPTIZO MEAN TO DROWN. 33 
 
 * ^mogis heos tou mastou hoipezoi haptizomenoi^ dia- 
 perosi^'^ : i. e. they cross with difficulty, those on 
 foot baptized as far as the breast. Again, Strabo, 
 who died A.D. 24, in his Geography, bk.l4, ch. 3. 
 sec. 9, describing the march of Alexander's army on 
 one occasion, says, ^^holan tan luimeranen hudati 
 genesthai tan porelan siineba raechri omphcdon hap- 
 tizomenon^\' i. e. it happened that the whole day 
 long the march was made in water, the men being 
 immersed (baptized) up to the naval. 
 
 Figuratively, the word is used, as you are aware, 
 of one drowned in grief, overwhelmed with care, 
 immersed in debt, over head and ears in love, etc., 
 etc. ; and no more excludes of necessity the notion 
 of ultimate rescue than such expressions in English 
 do. 
 
 In short, the word, intrinsically and in the clas- 
 sic use, no more implies that the immersed person 
 of necessity loses his life thereby, than when used of 
 the rite of Christian baptism it implies the drown- 
 ing of every person immersed. 
 
 Yours truly, J. Henry Thayer. 
 
 Dr. Harnack, the greatest living Church histo- 
 rian, of the University of Berlin, writes under date 
 of April 2nd, 1890: ^^ But this meaning does not 
 necessarily lie in the meaning of the word. One 
 
34 IMMERSION. 
 
 can be dipped (sunk) in the water without being 
 drowned. The passages in which the word in ref- 
 erence to persons appears in the classic authors, 
 are, so far as I know, not very numerous, so that 
 we can not set up a constant usage. '^ 
 
 These scholars state most positively that haptizo 
 does not intrinsically mean to "drown.'' 
 
 Besides the two examples mentioned by Dr. 
 Thayer, we have one in Hippocrates, to which 
 Prof. Humphreys refers. Hippocrates describing 
 the respiration of a patient affected with inflam- 
 mation and swelling of the throat, and oppressed 
 about the heart, says: "And she breathed as per- 
 sons breathe after having been dipped, and emit- 
 ted a low sound from the chest, like the so-called 
 ventriloquist." This is certainly decisive. Jose- 
 phus, in his Antiquities, bk. 15, ch. 3, 3, describ- 
 ing the murder of the boy, Aristobulus, who was 
 drowned, by the command of Herod, by his com- 
 panions in a swimming pool, says: "Continually 
 pressing down and dipping (baptizontes) him while 
 swimming,- as if in sport, they did not desist till 
 they had entirely suffocated him.'' If baptizo was 
 equivalent to drowning, there would have been no 
 necessity of repeatedly dipping him. I give only 
 one more example, and that from Josephus also. 
 He says of the Jews, in describing their contest 
 
DOES BAPTIZO MEAN TO DROWN. 35 
 
 with the Roman soldiers on the Sea of Galilee: 
 " And when they ventured to come near, they suf- 
 fered harm before they could inflict any, and were 
 submerged (ebaptizonto) along with their vessels 
 . . . and those of the immersed {bapthth&titoi}) 
 who raised their heads, either a missile reached or 
 a vessel overtook/' If haptlzo meant to drown, 
 these persons would not have raised their heads, 
 nor would there have been any necessity that a 
 vessel should overtake them. It is a drowning 
 cause that demands any such subterfuge. 
 
 I close this argument with the statements of 
 two learned German writers. 
 
 Witsius, vol. 3, p. 368, London 1785, .says: 
 *^ Baptizo is altogether something more than epi- 
 polazeinj to float on the surface ; but less than 
 dunein, to go to the bottom and perish.'' 
 
 Fritzche, Com. on Matth. vol. 1, p. 120, Leip- 
 zig 1826, says: "Moreover, Casaubon well sug- 
 gested that dunein means to be submerged with 
 the design that you may perish ; epipolazein, to 
 float on the surface of the water ; baptizesthai, to 
 immerse oneself wholly, for another purpose than 
 that you may perish. But that, in accordance with 
 the nature of the word baptizesthai, baptism was 
 then performed, not by sprinkling upon, but by 
 suhmerging, is proved especially by Rom. vi : 4." 
 
36 IMMERSION, 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 WHAT THE SEPTUAGINT SAYS. 
 
 "FN the Greek version of the Old Testament the 
 -^ word baptizo occurs only twice: ''and Naaman 
 went down and dipped himself seven times in the 
 Jordan" ( 2 Kings 5 : 14 ) ; and " My iniquity over- 
 whelms {baptlzei) me." ( Isa. 21 : 4.) The root word 
 bapto is frequently used in the sense of to dip, and 
 is so used seventeen times in the Old Testament. 
 The Hebrew word that corresponds with baptizo 
 is tabhal. 
 
 I present the testimony that tabhal means to dip : 
 1. It is so defined in the Lexicons. Gesenius, 
 the best authority, says : " to dip, to dip in, to im- 
 merse." 
 
 Buxtorf, London ed. 1646, p. 264, says: "to 
 dip, to dip in, to immerse." 
 
 E. Castello, Lexicon Heptaglotton, London 1669, 
 vol. 1, p. 1462: "To dip, to dip in, to immerse 
 (Eng. to dip or to babble). It differs from rahats^ 
 which means to wash a thing." 
 
 Davies, Andover 1879 : "to dip in, to sink into.'* 
 Gibbs, New Haven 1832: "to dip in, immerse." 
 De Bernadus de Mauntfaucon, Paris 1713, Hex- 
 
WHAT THE SEPTUAGINT SAYS. 37 
 
 aplorum Orgines, vol. 1, p. 441: "to dip or to 
 immerse." 
 
 Parkhurst, London 1823, p. 215, says : " to dip, 
 to immerse, to plunge." 
 
 Schaff, Lugduni 1786, p. 62 : " to merge, to im- 
 merse." 
 
 Stokius, Clairs, Leipzig 1653, p. 421 : " to dip, 
 to dip in, to immerse. " 
 
 Schindlero, licxicon Pentaglotton, Hanover 1612, 
 p. 686 says: "to dip, to dip in, to immerse." 
 
 Simonis, edited by G. B. Miner: "to dip, to dip 
 in, to immerse." 
 
 The testimony of these eleven lexicons is for dip- 
 ping. 
 
 2. The usus loquendi of the word is in favor of 
 dipping. Tahhal is translated fifteen times in King 
 James' version by dip; plunge once; dyed once, 
 because dyeing was done by dipping. (Gesenius, 
 Lex. p. 358.) Only once is tabhal thus translated, 
 and in this instance the reading is doubtful. Our 
 own Milton speaks of colors dipped in heaven. 
 Prof Stuart refers to sixteen of these examples, 
 and translates ten by dipping, three smearing on 
 by dipping, two by plunge, and one by color. 
 Luther translated sixteen times by dip, and once 
 to dye. The Greek, German, and English trans- 
 lators all render tabhal to dip. Any person famil- 
 
38 IMMERSION. 
 
 iar with the Hebrew would not fail to notice that 
 the construction of tabhal is totally different from 
 any word which means to sprinkle or to pour, and 
 is followed by a diiferent class of prepositions. It 
 usually takes the accusative Avith the preposition 
 b, in. Besides, the Hebre^\• has words meaning to 
 sprinkle and to pour, but they are never used in- 
 terchangeably with UihhdL 
 
 There is another word in the Hebrew Bible of 
 kindred signification to tabhal. It is the Chaldee 
 tabhal. The Jerusalem Targum, Jonathan's Para- 
 phrase, and Onkelos all use it in the sense of to 
 dip ; and in the Jerusalem Targum it translates 
 tabhal in Lev. iv : 6. It appears in Dan. iv : 33, 
 and v: 31, where Nebuchadnezzar was "wet with 
 the dew of heaven." It is defined by Gesenius, 
 ^^to sink, to press in." The primary syllable tbh 
 in the Western languages expresses depth and im- 
 mersion (p. 353). The Greek in these passages is 
 bapto, to dip. The idea is that the dew was so co- 
 pious that the king was as wet as if he had been 
 dipped. Any one who has read English lit- 
 erature will often find this idea. Turn to Milton's 
 Comus, line 814 : 
 
 " A cold shuddering dew dips me all over." 
 
 John Wesley, in speaking of an anxious sinner, 
 says: "On Thursday he wTCstled with God till he 
 
WHAT THE SEPTUAGINT SAYS. 39 
 
 was wet all over with sweat as if he had been dipped 
 in water/' (Journal, vol. 2, p. 152.) And Webster 
 gives as a definition of the word " wet/' to dip or 
 to soak in liquor. 
 
 There are three other Hebrew words in as many 
 difTerent passages which are translated by bapto and 
 haptizo, but as they have not the same root I will 
 briefly notice them. Lev. xi : 32: ''The unclean 
 thing must be put into water (haphasetai), and it 
 shall be unclean until the evening. ' ' The Hebrew 
 is habha, and is defined by Gesenius, "to hide, to 
 conceal." The thing is hid in water, and hence 
 dipped. Ps. Ixviii: 23: "That thy foot may be 
 dipped {ba2:)ta) in the blood of thine enemies, and 
 the tongue of thy dogs in the same.'' The He- 
 brew is nmhats. The Lexicons translate this pas- 
 sage as the English version has done. The same 
 root is found in " depths of the sea," in verse 22d. 
 Tsa. xxi: 4: "My heart panteth, fearfulness af- 
 frighted me." The Hebrew biHh is translated by 
 the Greek baptisei, to dip. Stuart renders, "My 
 iniquity overwhelms me." The idea is that he was 
 oversvhelmed by terror. 
 
 3. I shall refer to some examples taken from 
 the Talmud— later Jewish writers than the Bible. 
 It will be seen that tabhal is invariably used in 
 the sense of to dip, or to cover over with water. 
 
40 IMMERSION. 
 
 "A vessel must be dipped to render it ceremo- 
 nially clean" (folio 75). 
 
 "The child of a heathen shall be dipped {tahhal), 
 according to the decision of the Sanhedrim. " (Trea- 
 tise Chetubeth, f. 11.) 
 
 "No one is to be considered a proselyte until 
 he be circumcised and dipped {tabhal) ; he is to be 
 considered as a heathen." 
 
 The Talmud Tract Repuduu, speaking of Jethro, 
 Moses' father-in-law, says : " He was made a pros- 
 elyte by circumcision and immersion in water." 
 
 Rabbi Judah Hadzodesh, A.D. 220, says: "As to 
 a proselyte, who becomes a proselyte in the even- 
 ing of the passover, the followers of Shammai say, 
 Let him be dipped (tabhal) and let him eat the pass- 
 over in the evening. " (Tract Pheshuim cviii, s. 8.) 
 
 According to the Jerusalem Talmud, Tract Pe- 
 sah, Eliazer, the son of Jacob, is represented as say- 
 ing " that some Roman soldiers who kept guard at 
 Jerusalem, at the passover, being dipped {tahhat) in 
 the evening of the passover. " 
 
 To discuss the subject of proselyte baptism re- 
 ferred to above is no part of my object. That bap- 
 tism was by dipping, and expressed by the Hebrew 
 tabhalf to cite authorities for this purpose is need- 
 less. 
 
 That the washing of the Jews was an immersion^ 
 
WHAT THE SEPTUAGINT SAYS. 41 
 
 does noi admit of a doubt. The facts all point that 
 way. " From an early period," says the Encyclo- 
 paedia Britannica, 9th ed. vol. 3, p. 434, ^^ the Jews 
 bathed in running water, used both hot and cold 
 baths, and employed oils and ointments." 
 
 Dr. Hibbard, the well known Methodist writer, 
 says : " Within this climate lies the land of Pales- 
 tine. It is such a climate as originated the demand 
 for baths and pools and fountains throughout the 
 East, and made the practice of bathing to be com- 
 mon ; and we repeat it, it was this universal cus- 
 tom of bathing — a custom so indispensable to pleas- 
 ure, to decency, to health among the Orientals — 
 which, more than anything else, gave a bias to their 
 minds to immersion instead of aifusion. " (Hibbard 
 on Bapt. P. 2, p. 152.) 
 
 4. I will let some Jewish scholars speak, and 
 they certainly understand their own language and 
 
 customs. 
 
 Maimonides was born A. D. 1131, at Cordova, 
 and died in 1204. He is called the Eagle of the 
 Doctors and the Lamp of Israel. He was pro- 
 foundly versed in the languages and in all the 
 learning of the age, and became the physician of 
 the Sultan of Egypt. He says: ''Every person 
 must dip his whole body ... and whereso- 
 ever in the law washing of the body or garments is 
 
42 IMMEKSIOX. 
 
 mentioned, it means nothing else than the whole 
 body. For if any wash himself all over, except the 
 tip of his little finger, he is still in his uncleanness. 
 And if any have much hair, he must wash all the 
 hairs of his head ; for that also was received for the 
 body. But if any should enter into the water with 
 their clothes on, yet their washing holds good." 
 
 Leo of Modena, Rabbi of Venice, says: "He who 
 desires to become a Jew, is first circumcised, and a 
 few days afterwards is bathed in water in the pres- 
 ence of three Rabbis who have examined him.'' (De 
 Rit. et Usis Judseorum, par. 1, c. 3.) 
 
 I addressed a letter to the two distinguished Rab- 
 bis mentioned below, and they very promptly re- 
 sponded. Rabbi Wise is widely known as a Jewish 
 writer, scholar and preacher. He said ; 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, Jan. 3rd, 1883. 
 Dear Sir, — Tahhal signifies to submerge in a fluid 
 or to dip a body into it, as is evident from numer- 
 ous passages of Scripture. It is not rahats^ to wash, 
 nor nazah, to sprinkle. Yours, 
 
 Isaac M. Wise. 
 
 I here give the testimony of Rabbi B. Felsen- 
 thal, who is an orator of recognized ability, and 
 has charge of one of the largest synagogues in this 
 country : 
 
WHAT THE SEPTUAGINT SAYS. 43 
 
 Chicago, Jan. 1st, 1883. 
 Dear Sir, — Your letter of Dec. 28th has been 
 duly received. In answer I beg to state the fol- 
 lowing: It seems to me almost indisputable that 
 the verb tabhal means to dip or to immerse. A 
 comparison of all the passages in the Old Testa- 
 ment in which said verb is found — Gen. xxxvii : 
 31; Ex. xii: 22; Lev. iv: 6; alsoxiv: 6,51; Num. 
 xix: 18; Deut. xxxiii : 24; etc. — reveals the fact 
 that in almost all of these passages the fluid is men- 
 tioned with b prefixed {baddam), into which the ob- 
 ject of the act is to be tabhal ; when sprinkling or 
 squirting is meant, the verb zaraq, followed by the 
 preposition al, upon, is employed. (See f. i. Ex. 
 xxiv: 6, 8; xxix : 16, 20; Lev. xvii : 6; i: 5, 11; 
 iii: 2, 8, 13; etc.) But aside from grammatical 
 considerations and from the application of the word 
 tabhal in the Old Testament, there are historical 
 facts which prove beyond any doubt that tabhal, 
 with the Jews in the times contemporary with Je- 
 sus and the Apostles, meant to immerse. The cases 
 in consequence of which Israelites could become 
 levitically unclean were very numerous. Ever\' 
 one A^ho had touched a corpse, f. i. every woman 
 in her menstruation, etc., was unclean, and had to 
 be cleansed by tebilah. By this Neo-Hebraic noun, 
 derived from the biblical word tabhal, the Jews 
 
44 immp:r.siox. 
 
 eighteen and nineteen Inindred years ago, and in 
 all subsequent ages, designated immersion ; and 
 the Mishna, the whole Talmudic literature, is full 
 of pharisaic details concerning the tebUah, setting 
 forth the minimum size of the bathing vessels or 
 of the natural basins, the volume of the water re- 
 quired, the nature of the water to be used in the 
 act of purification. Historical allusions to tcbilah 
 which had actually taken j)lace are also numerous ; 
 and a whole book might be filled if every thing 
 that has been written by Jews concerning this 
 matter, in the earliest Christian centuries, would 
 be collected, and sifted and systematized, and com- 
 mented upon. But this would be a work requiring 
 long researches, and, consequently, several months' 
 time. 
 
 The levitical laws concerning levitical purifica- 
 tions have become dead letters since the destruc- 
 tion of the temple in the year 70 A. L). Only in 
 one instance are they still applied in the present 
 day — by the very strict among the so-called ortho- 
 dox Jews. Women, after the ])eriod of their men- 
 struation is over, take a bath of purification. In 
 the common parlance of the Jews of to-day it is 
 called by the traditional name of tebilah, and for 
 the act the verb tahhal is used ; and this tchiUih is 
 always an immersion. If there are any Jews in 
 
WHAT THE SEPTUAGINT SAYS. 45 
 
 your neighborhood, who are in the least acquainted 
 with the usage of their people, they will corrobo- 
 rate you in this statement. 
 
 I have attempted, dear sir, to answer your ques- 
 tion as fully as can be done in a letter, and in the 
 .short time to me for this answer. I shall be very 
 glad if it gives you some satisfaction. 
 
 With the best regards, 
 
 Yours truly, B. Felsenthal. 
 
 I also addressed a letter to Prof. Franz Delitzsch, 
 who was probably the most learned Oriental scholar 
 in the world, and Professor in the renowned Uni- 
 versity of Leipzig, Germany. He was also an au- 
 thor of much celebrity in Old Testament exegesis, 
 and I consider his admission as one of the most 
 valuable made to our faith in our century. I put 
 this question to him : " What is the literal mean- 
 ing of the verb tabhalf'^ and he wrote this reply 
 immediately under the question : " It signifies to 
 immerse, the same as haptizeinJ^ 
 
 I will close with a statement in Witsius' Works, 
 London 1785, vol. 3, p. 364. He says of the Jew- 
 ish baptisms : " The entire body was to be plunged 
 at once : for if but the tip of the finger was undipt, 
 and such a person was accounted to remain still in 
 his uncleanness.'^ 
 
46 IMMERSION. 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 THE BAPTISM OF JOHN. 
 
 rr^HIS baptism is graphically described by the 
 -*- Evangelist Mark: ^'John did baptize in the 
 wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance 
 for the remission of sins. And there went out 
 unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jeru- 
 salem, and were all baptized of him in the river 
 of Jordan, confessing their sins." (Comp. Math. 
 iii: 5, 6.) 
 
 If we were to leave out of the question the 
 meaning of the word baptizo, which I have de- 
 monstrated means to dip, the circumstances of this 
 narrative would beyond all doubt point to immer- 
 sion. John was baptizing "in the river of Jordan.^ ^ 
 He was not baptizing at the river but in the river. 
 If the act John was performing was sprinkling or 
 pouring, it will make good sense to substitute 
 those words for baptize. Let us try it: "And 
 were all sprinkled of him in the river Jordan." 
 ^^ Were all poured of him in the river Jordan." 
 That is nonsense. The people were neither poured 
 nor sprinkled into the river. Let us try once 
 more : "And were all dipped of him in the river 
 
THE BAPTISM OF JOHN. 47 
 
 Jordan.^' That reading is perfectly correct, and is 
 the very thing the Evangelist was saying. 
 
 The most competent authorities fully admit that 
 the baptism of John was an immersion in water. 
 Hear them : — 
 
 Dr. Isaac Wise, the learned Jewish Rabbi of 
 Cincinnati, in answer to a pamj^hlet of Mr. Hea- 
 ton, says in the American Israelite : " Mr. Heaton 
 confounds baptism with the sprinkling of the ashes 
 of the red heifer, diluted in water, when the per- 
 son or thing which had come in contact with a 
 
 dead body Any child, however, can 
 
 see that there is also a sanitary clause involved in 
 this law. There is no passage on record that John 
 the Baptist thought of this case. The very fact 
 that he went to the Jordan suggests that the case 
 of Naaman with his leprosy, and the command of 
 the prophet Elisha, was in the mind of the Baptist ; 
 and Naaman undoubtedly submerged his body 
 seven times in the Jordan. If Mr. Heaton, in- 
 stead of quibbling on words and consulting diction- 
 aries, would have inquired after facts and would 
 have looked up the matter in the Mishna, and 
 other Jewish authors, he would have discovered 
 that the Jews had no idea of sprinkling — the}' 
 knew the bath and submersion. Consequently 
 John the Baptist submerged his converts in the 
 
48 IMMERSION. 
 
 Jordan We know exactly what John 
 
 did at the Jordan, and all the dictionaries cannot 
 change the fact." 
 
 This is unprejudiced testimony. 
 
 The scholarly Meyer says, Com. Math. p. 77: 
 ^* To this, however, the immersion of the whole of 
 the baptized person, as the metanoia, was to purify 
 the whole man, corresponded with profound sig- 
 nificance, and to this the specially Christian view 
 of the symbolical immersion and emersion after- 
 wards connected itself by an ethical necessity." 
 
 Adam Clarke, the Methodist Commentator, at 
 the end of his dissertation of Mark^s Gospel, says : 
 "The baptism of John was by plunging the body 
 after this same manner as the washing of unclean 
 persons was." 
 
 Dr. Bennett says, and his book is an authority 
 in the Methodist Church and has the endorsement 
 of Bishop Hurst : " The customary mode was 
 used by the apostles in the baptism of the first 
 converts. They were familiar with the baptism of 
 John's disciples and of the Jewish proselytes. 
 This was ordinarily by dipping or immersion. 
 This is indicated not only by the general significa- 
 tion of the words used in describing the rite, 
 but the earliest testimony of the documents which 
 
THE BAPTISM OF JOHN. 49 
 
 have been preserved gives preference." (Arch. p. 
 396.) 
 
 Geikie, an Episcopalian, in his popular Life of 
 Christ, p. 276, says : " It was, hence, impossible 
 to see a convert go down into a stream, travel- 
 worn, and soiled with dust, and, after disappearing 
 for a moment, emerge pure and fresh, without feel- 
 ing that the symbol suited and interpreted a strong 
 craving of the human heart. It was no formal 
 
 rite with John Bathing in Jordan 
 
 had been a sacred symbol, at least, since the days 
 of Naaman, but immersion by one like John, with 
 strict and humiliating confession of sin, sacred 
 vows of amendment, and hope of forgiveness, if 
 they proved lasting, and all of this preparation for 
 the Messiah, was something wholly new to Israel." 
 
 Dr. Dollinger, the great Catholic historian, says: 
 "At first Christian baptism commonly took place 
 in the Jordan ; of course, as the Church spread 
 more widely, also in private houses; like that of 
 St. John, it was by immersion of the whole person, 
 which is the only meaning of the New Testament 
 word. A mere pouring or sprinkling was never 
 thought of." (The First Age of Christ, and of 
 the Church, p. 318.) 
 
 Archbishop Kenrick, Catholic, says: "As to 
 the mode in which John baptized, many circum- 
 
50 IMMERSION. 
 
 stances favor the opinion that it was by some kind 
 of immersion." (Bap. p. 180.) 
 
 The statement in John iii : 23, is to the point, — 
 '^And John was also baptizing at JEnon near to 
 Salim, because there was much water there ; and 
 they came, and were baptized." 
 
 The reason given for choosing ^non is that 
 there was sufficient water for baptismal purposes. 
 He was baptizing in JEnon because there was much 
 water there. It is objected that ])oUa Tiudata^ 
 much water, may be translated " many waters." 
 I might grant the " many streams " desired and yet 
 there is sufficient water for baptizing. I read in 
 Ps. xciii : 4, " The Lord on high is mightier than 
 many waters, yea than the mighty waves of the 
 sea." Ps. Ixxvii : 19, "Thy way is in the sea, and 
 thy paths in the great waters." The same phrase 
 is applied to the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. The 
 translation makes no difference as to the act of 
 baptism. Stuart says any small stream would fur- 
 nish water for immersion. (On Bap. p. 94.) 
 
 This is freely admitted by scholars. 
 
 Olshausen, Com. vol. 2, p. 365, says : " John 
 was also baptizing in the neighborhood, because 
 the water there, being deep, afforded convenience 
 for immersion." 
 
 Lightfoot, Presbyterian, Works vol. 2, p. 121, 
 
THE BAPTISM OF JOHN. 51 
 
 says : " That the baptism of John was by plunging 
 the body seems to appear from those things related 
 of him, namely, that he baptized in Jordan, that 
 he baptized in iEnon, because there was much 
 water there ; and that Christ being baptized came 
 up out of the water ; to which that seems to be 
 parallel. Acts viii:38.'' 
 
 Calvin says : '^ From these words, John iii : 23, it 
 may be inferred that baptism was administered by 
 John and Christ, by plunging the whole body 
 under water. Here we perceive how baptism was 
 administered among the ancients ; for they im- 
 mersed the whole body in water." 
 
 Dr. Doddridge says, Epis. vol. 1, p. 158: "But 
 nothing can be more evident than that jjolla hudata, 
 many waters, signifies a large quantity of water, it 
 being sometimes used for the Euphrates." 
 
 But does not the record read. Math, iii: 11, ^^I 
 indeed baptize you with water," but " he shall bap- 
 tize yon Avith the Holy Ghost, and with fire"? 
 Certainly, but you must remember this is the Epis- 
 copalian translation of King James. The original 
 Greek has, they shall be baptized " in w^ater," " in 
 the Holy Ghost," and " in fire." For my part, I 
 would rather take what God said than to trust any 
 translation. The preposition "with" here, how- 
 ever, was not one of instrument. It represents the 
 
52 IMMEKSIOX. 
 
 element into which the persons were to be clipped. 
 They were to be baptized ^Svith water," and not 
 *^with milk"; 'Svith the Holy Spirit/' and not 
 " with honey " ; " with fire," and not " with wine." 
 Luther's translation recognizes this distinction, 
 and translates this passage, " I indeed dip you 
 with water." Meyer takes this position. He says, 
 p. 81 : ^^ It is, agreeably to the connection of bap- 
 tizOy not to be taken in an instrumental, but as in 
 the meaning of the eleraent in which baptism takes 
 place." 
 
 The literal meaning of the passage is in water 
 and not iviih water. It is so translated by Dr. 
 Bennett, Arch. p. 389 : ^^So that while the baptism 
 of John was complete in water, en hudati, the bap- 
 tism instituted by Christ was not only in water, 
 but in the Holy Spirit and in fire, p7ieu7)iatl liagio 
 
 Dr. George Campbell, and Robinson in his 
 Greek Lexicon, translate it : " In the Holy Ghost 
 and in fire." Dr. George Campbell comments as 
 follows : " In water, in the Holy Spirit, vulgate 
 in aqua, in spiritu sancto. Thus also, the Syriac, 
 and other ancient versions. All the modern trans- 
 lations from the Greek which I have seen, render 
 the words as our common version does, except 
 LeClerc. I am sorry to observe that the popish 
 
THE BAPTISM OF JOHN. 53 
 
 translators from the Vulgate have shown greater 
 veneration for the style of that version than the 
 generality of Protestant translators have shoMn for 
 that of the original. For in this the Latin is not 
 more explicit than the Greek, yet so inconsistent 
 are the interpreters last mentioned, that none of 
 these have scrupled to render en to Jordana, in tlie 
 sixth verse, in Jordan^ though nothing can be 
 plainer than that, if there be any incongruity in 
 the expression in water, this in Jordan must be 
 equally incongruous. But they liave seen that the 
 preposition in could not be avoided there, without 
 adopting a circumlocution, and saying, xciih the 
 water of Jordan, which would have made their 
 deviation from the text too glaring. The Avord 
 baptizein, both in sacred authors and in classical, 
 signifies to dip, to plunge, to immerse, and was 
 rendered by TertuUian, the oldest of the Latin 
 fathers, tinge re, the term used for dyeing cloth, 
 Avhich was by immersion. It is always construed 
 suitable to this meaning." (Four Gos., vol. 4, p. 23.) 
 Bishop Henry C. Potter, Episcopal Bishop of 
 New York, says : " Now what was the drift of all 
 of this, but at once to interpret and illustrate the 
 meaning of In's own baptizings. The outward act 
 — that plunging in the Jordan — meant simply, get 
 your bodies clean, and so it stood for that other 
 
54 IMMERSION. 
 
 call which rings through all of John the Baptist's 
 preaching, ^^ make your lives, so far as you can 
 make them, white and clean.'' (Met. PuL, April, 
 1877.) 
 
 Prof. Plumptre, in Ellicott's Com., vol. 1, p. 12, 
 says : ^^As heard and understood at the time, the 
 baptism of the Holy Ghost would imply that the 
 souls baptized would be plunged, as it were, in 
 that creative and informing Spirit which was the 
 source of hope and holiness and wisdom." 
 
 And in the parallel passage. Acts i : 5, vol. 1, p. 2, 
 Prof. Plumptre also says; ^^ Now they were told 
 that their spirits were to be as fully baptized, i. e., 
 plunged into the power of the divine Spirit, as 
 their bodies had been plunged into the waters of 
 the Jordan." 
 
 Neander, Life of Christ, p. 53, says : " He it 
 was who should baptize them w^ith the Holy Ghost 
 and with fire ; that is to say, that as his, John's, 
 followers were evidently immersed in the water, so 
 the Messiah would immerse the souls of believers 
 in the Holy Ghost imparted by himself; so that 
 it should entirely penetrate their being, and form 
 within them a principle of life." 
 
 And the Greek father Cyril of Jerusalem, who 
 lived upon the very spot where the baptism of the 
 Holy Spirit occurred, understood it as an immersion. 
 
THE BAPTISM OF JOHN. 55 
 
 He remarks ; " For the Lord saith, ye shall be 
 immersed 'in the Holy Spirit not many days after 
 this. Not impart the grace, but all-sufficing the 
 power. For as he who sinks down into the waters 
 and is immersed, is surrounded on all sides by the 
 waters, so also they were completely immersed by 
 the Spirit.'' (Instruc. VIII.) 
 
66 IMMERSION. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. 
 
 ri^HE baptism of Jesus is recorded in Marki: 9- 
 -^ 11 : "And it came to pass in those days, that 
 Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was bap- 
 tized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming 
 up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and 
 the spirit like a dove descending upon him ; and 
 there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art 
 my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 
 
 This passage says in the original that he was 
 baptized into the Jordan, and you can not pour or 
 sprinkle a man into a river, and to say that Jesus 
 was baptized with or at a river is a ])hi]ological 
 absurdity. There is not a man with ordinary in- 
 telligence, having no purpose to serve, and without 
 prejudice, who could understand from this narra- 
 tive any thing else than that Jesus was immersed 
 into the Jordan. 
 
 So plainly does this scripture teach immersion, 
 that the advocates of sprinkling have moved 
 heaven and earth to turn aside this testimony, and 
 have sought means to explain that it has no bear- 
 ing upon our duty. 
 
THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. 57 
 
 I will point out a few of these subterfuges : 
 
 1. ^*It is objected that the baptism of John 
 was not Christian baptism." Our Pedobaptist 
 brethren borrow this objection from the Catholics. 
 Archbishop Kenrick says : " We are not author- 
 ized by any expression of the sacred writers, to 
 consider the baptism of John as a rite of divine 
 institution." (Bap. p. 16.) But the Scriptures ex- 
 pressly say, that "John was sent from God;" and 
 that his baptism was not " from men," but from 
 *^ God." Every element of Christian baptism was 
 present in the act required by John. There was 
 "repentance," Mark i: 4; "faith," Acts xix : 4 ; 
 " confession," Mark i : 5, and then baptism. All 
 the persons of the Trinity witnessed the baptism 
 of Jesus and took part in it. The Father spoke 
 his approval, the Holy Spirit came as a dove and 
 sat upon him, while the Son was baptized. If 
 Jesus received the baptism of John without a 
 question, why should you seek to throw doubt 
 upon it? 
 
 2. " It was to initiate Jesus into the priest- 
 hood." The misfortune of this theory is that it is 
 not found in the Scriptures. This assertion is a 
 pure gratuity. Jesus Christ never was a Jewish 
 priest, nor did he ever lay claim to any such office. 
 He was not of the priestly tribe of Levi : he be- 
 
58 IMMERSION. 
 
 longed to the kingly tribe of Judah. As a Jew, 
 it would have been criminal, instead of praise- 
 worthy, for our Lord to have appropriated to him- 
 self any of the ceremonies belonging solely to the 
 tribe of Levi. This charge was never brought 
 against Jesus, as it certainly would have been, had 
 there been any foundation for it in pretense or 
 fact. Jesus laid no claim to the Jewish priesthood. 
 He was a high-priest, but it was after the order of 
 Melchisedec and not of Aaron. He did not have 
 " to be initiated into the priesthood at the age of 
 thirty years ; " but he was a priest " forever after 
 the order of Melchisedec ; '' and he abideth " a 
 priest continually." (Heb. vii : 17.) The Scriptures 
 are absolutely silent on the statement that Jesus 
 was a Jewish priest. 
 
 3. But it is objected that John's baptism was 
 one of purification. If I should grant that prop- 
 osition, baptism could still be a dipping in 
 water. I ask which would more likely represent 
 purification, a few drops of water on the head, or a 
 complete baptism in wat^r? But what will 
 you do with this theory in the baptism of Jesus ? 
 He needed no purification. He was without sin, 
 and neither was guile found in his mouth. He 
 was pure and holy and separate from sinners. 
 This will not bear investigation for a moment. 
 
THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. 59 
 
 Hear what the learned Neander says : " The idea 
 that Christ was baptized with a view of purifica- 
 tion is absolutely untenable, no matter how the 
 notion of purification may be modified." (Life of 
 Christ, p. 64.) 
 
 The best way to do is to take this passage as it 
 reads. Jesus was immersed into the river of Jor- 
 dan. So certain is this that Pedobaptist scholars 
 have freely acknowledged it. I shall quote only 
 a few. 
 
 Last year Dr. Maelaren, of England, in his 
 exposition of the ^^ Sunday School Lessons," in the 
 Sunday School Timers, said that Jesus was im- 
 mersed. At once a number of gentlemen wrote a 
 protest to Dr. Trumbull, editor of the Times. In 
 an editorial, Aug. 6th, 1889, he replied: "Most 
 Christian scholars of every denomination are 
 agreed in finding the primitive meaning of the 
 word baptize to be ^to dip,' or ^to immerse.' 
 The sweep of scholarship in and out of the Baptist 
 church is in favor of immersion as a principle 
 meaning of the word baptize. A very large por- 
 tion of the scholars of the world agree with Dr. 
 Maclaren that immersion was the mode of John's 
 baptism." 
 
 Dr. Hibbard, the standard Methodist writer on 
 baptism, says : " Jesus was baptized . . . into 
 
60 IMMERSION. 
 
 the Jordan. In the latter case we have no doubt 
 of an outward baptism, and the words eis ton Jor- 
 danan^ into the Jordan, beyond all contradiction, 
 affix to the verb baptize its literal signification." 
 (Bapt. P. 2, p. 132.) 
 
 Bishop Jeremy Taylor, Episcopalian, says : 
 " Straightway Jesus went up out of the water 
 (saith the Gospel) ; he came up, therefore he went 
 down. Behold an immersion, not an aspersion. 
 And the ancient churches, followed this of the 
 Gospel, did not, in their baptisms, sprinkle water 
 with their hands, but immerged the catechumen or 
 infant All which are a perfect con- 
 viction, that the custom of the ancient churches 
 was not sprinkling, but immersion, in j)ursnance 
 of the meaning of the word in the commandment, 
 and the example of our blessed Saviour." (Works, 
 vol. 14, p. 62.) 
 
 So generally is it understood that Jesus was 
 immersed in the Jordan, that thousands of people 
 are immersed, or immerse themselves, at the reputed 
 place of the baptism of Jesus. In 1890 Dr. Tal- 
 mage, a Presbyterian preacher, baptized a man at 
 this place. Dean Stanley describes a scene that 
 takes place every year in the Jordan. '^ Of all the 
 practices," says Stanley, "superstitions, if we 
 choose so to call them, of the Oriental churches 
 
THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. 61 
 
 in Palestine, none is more innocent or natural than 
 the ceremony repeated year by year at the Greek 
 Easter — the bathing of the pilgrims in the Jordan. 
 It has often been witnessed by European travel- 
 lers. I venture to describe it from my own recol- 
 lections, for the sake of the general illustration 
 which it furnishes of the present forms of Oriental 
 Christianity, and also as presenting the nearest 
 likeness that can now be seen in the same general 
 scenery to the multitudinous baptisms of John. 
 Once a year — on the Monday in Passion-week— 
 the desolation of the plain of Jericho is broken by 
 the descent from the Judean hills of five, six, or 
 eight thousand pilgrims. . . . They dismount, 
 and set to work to perform their bath ; most on 
 the open space, some further up amongst the 
 thickets ; some plunging in naked, most, however, 
 with white dresses, which they bring with them, 
 and which, having been so used, are kept for their 
 winding sheets. Most of the bathers keep within 
 the shelter of the bank, where the water is about 
 four feet deep, though with a bottom of very deep 
 mud. ... A primitive domestic character 
 pervades in a singular form the whole transaction. 
 The families which have come on their single mule 
 or camel, now bathe together, with the utmost 
 gravity ; the father receiving from the mother the 
 
62 IMMERSION. 
 
 infant, which has been brought to receive the one 
 immersion which will suffice for the rest of his 
 life, and thus, by a curious economy of resources, 
 save it from the expense and danger of a future 
 pilgrimage in after years. In about two hours the 
 shores are cleared; with the same quiet they 
 remount their camels and horses ; and before the 
 noonday heat has set in, are again encamped on 
 the upper plain of Jericho.'' (Sinai and Pal. p. 
 386.) 
 
 There remains but one question. If, as I have 
 shown, Jesus was immersed, is it not your duty to 
 be baptized also ; and if Jesus went down into the 
 water, is it not your duty to do the same? You 
 have no right to set up your opinion against the 
 example of the Son of God. " Where he leads I 
 will follow/' is an excellent rule to obey. 
 
THE BAPTISM IN MARK. 63 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 THE BAPTISM MENTIONED IN MARK vii: 1-4. 
 
 THIS scripture reads: "There came together 
 unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the 
 scribes, which came from Jerusalem. And when 
 they ^aw some of the disciples eat bread with 
 defiled, that is to say, with unwashed hands, 
 they found fault. For the Pharisees, and all of 
 the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat 
 not, holding the tradition of the elders. And 
 when they come from the market, except they 
 wash, they eat not. And many other things there 
 be, which they have received to hold, as the wash- 
 ing of cups, and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables." 
 There are three things here that demand notice : 
 1. The Pharisees were accustomed to wash their 
 hands {niptontai) before they eat. They would 
 take a basin of water, plunge their hands into it 
 and rub them clean. Eobinson says in his Greek 
 lexicon of this practice, " unless they wash their 
 hands (rubbing them) with the fist, i. e., not merely 
 dipping the fingers or hands in water as a sign of 
 ablution, but rubbing the hands together as a ball 
 or fist, in the usual Oriental manner when water is 
 
64 IMMERSION. 
 
 poured over them ( 2 K., iii: 1), see in nipto, hence 
 ad sensum, sedulously, diligently." Perhaps Kitto 
 more accurately describes the act (Cy. vol. 1, 
 p. 18) : "The hands were plunged in water. It 
 was this last, namely the ceremonial ablution, which 
 the Pharisees judged to be necessary. When there- 
 fore some of that sect remarked that our Lord's 
 diciples ate ' with unwashed hands, ' it is not to be 
 understood literally, that they did not at all wash 
 their hands, but that they did not plunge them 
 ceremonially according to their own practice.^' 
 
 This word, however, never refers to the ordi- 
 nance of baptism. 
 
 2. When the Pharisees came from the market 
 they baptized themselves before they ate. Loud and 
 deep has been the denial that baptizo here means 
 to dip. But it cannot be asserted that such an 
 immersion "is either an impossible or an improb- 
 able one ; for surely the Jews could have immersed 
 themselves after coming from the market ; and 
 that they did practice ablution by immersion, in 
 many cases besides those precribed by the law of 
 Moses, is matter of historical proof. Besides, the 
 consistency and harni()ny of the passage requires 
 that baptizo have a more extensive meaning than 
 nipto. To read it, " The Pharisees and all the Jews, 
 except they wnsh their hands, eat not; and when 
 
THE BAPTISM IN MARK. 65 
 
 they come from the market, except they wash they 
 eat not/^ makes an unmeaning tautology. It is 
 stated in the first place, that they on all occasions 
 wash their hands previous to eating; what, then, 
 does it add to the sense, to say, that when they 
 come from the market, they do not eat without wash- 
 ing? The evangelist evidently intends to be un- 
 derstood, that all the Jews, on all occasions, wash 
 their hands before eating ; and that when they 
 have been to the forum, or place of public con- 
 course, they practice a more extensive purification. 
 Baptizo, then, may not only have its usual signifi- 
 cation here, but that meaning is absolutely re- 
 quired by the scope and harmony of the passage." 
 
 It is also a fact that rantlzontai, sprinkling, is in 
 the text of many Greek editions of the New Testa- 
 ment. Westcott and Hort has that reading, and 
 the Revised version adds, ^' Some ancient author- 
 ities read sprinkle themselves." Such a reading, 
 of course, would relieve immersionists of any sup- 
 posed difficulty in regard to this text. 
 
 I am, however, content to let the common read- 
 ing remain. Thayer, Stephanus, and the Greek 
 lexicons generally say that the Pharisees immersed 
 or bathed themselves ; while Dr. George Campbell, 
 Noyes, and other scholars render the word by im- 
 mersion or dip. I shall let the scholars testify. 
 
66 IMMERSION. 
 
 Dr. H. Holtzmann, of Strasburg University, writes 
 me, April 4th, 1890, that ^^baptizo means to dip, 
 and that washing for ablution could possibly be 
 the meaning in Mark vii : 1-4; but even there it 
 is wrong, since the passage refers to ablution by 
 dipping under before meal -time. Moreover, ranti- 
 zontai, and not haptizontaiy is the proper reading." 
 
 Dr. George Campbell, Presbyterian, says: "The 
 first is niptontaij properly translated to wash ; the 
 second is baptizontai^ which limits its meaning to a 
 particular kind of washing ; for baptizo means to 
 plunge, to dip." (Four Gos. vol. 4, p. 205.) 
 
 Olshausen, Lutheran, says : " The term baptizes- 
 thai is difterent from niptesthai ; the former is the 
 dipping and rinsing, or cleansing of food that has 
 been purchased, to free it from impurities of any 
 kind; niptesthai includes also the act of rubbing 
 oflP." (Com. vol. 1, p. 527.) 
 
 Prof. Plumptre, in EUicott's Com. vol. 1, p. 207, 
 says : " The Greek verb differs from that of the 
 previous verse, and implies the washing or immer- 
 sion (the verb is that from which our word ' bap- 
 tize' comes to us) of the whole body, as the former 
 does of part. The idea on which the practice rested 
 was not one of cleanliness or health, but of arro- 
 gant exclusiveness, fastening on the thought of cer- 
 emonial purity. They might have come, in the 
 
THE BAPTISM IN MARK. 67 
 
 crowd of the market, into passing contact with a 
 Gentile, and his touch was as defiling as a corpse. 
 So, too, the washing of cups and the like was be- 
 cause they might have been touched by a heathen, 
 and therefore impure lips." 
 
 The great exegete, Meyer, says : '*In this case 
 ean ma haptisontai is not to be understood of wash- 
 ing the hands, but of immersion, which the v/ord in 
 classic Greek and in the New Testament denotes ; 
 i. e. in this case, according to the context, to take 
 a bath. So, also, Lu. ix : 38; Comp. Eccl. xxx: 
 25 ; Judith xii : 7. Having come from market, 
 where they may have contracted pollution through 
 contact with the crowd, they eat not without hav- 
 ing first bathed. The statement proceeds by way 
 of climax : Before eating they observe the wash- 
 ing of hands always, but the bathing when they 
 come from market and wish to eat." (Com. Mark 
 vii : 4.) 
 
 3. The immersion of pots, brazen vessels and 
 tables. The main objection offered to this is that 
 it is not probable that "tables" were immersed. 
 Such authorities as Tischendorf, and Westcott and 
 Hort, entirely omit tables from the text ; but to be 
 absolutely fair, granting that it is a genuine read- 
 ing, we are at no loss. It certainly is not impos- 
 sible to immerse an Oriental table. Indeed noth- 
 
()S IMMERSIOX. 
 
 ing would be easier. " The table in the East/' says 
 Jahn, " is a piece of round leather, spread upon the 
 floor, upon which is placed a sort of stool. This 
 supports nothing but a platter.'^ 
 
 But it is objected that this does not mean table, 
 but a "couch or bed." But that does not help the 
 case of our opponents. The Eastern bed is quite 
 as movable as the table. "The manner of sleeping 
 in warm Eastern climates," says Kitto, " is neces- 
 sarily very diiFerent from that which is followed in 
 our colder regions. The present usages appear to 
 be the same as those of the ancient Jews, and suf- 
 ficiently explain the passages of Scripture which 
 bear on that subject. Beds of feathers are alto- 
 gether unknown, and the Orientals generally lie 
 exceedingly hard. Poor people have no certain 
 home, and when on a journey, or employed at a 
 distance from their dwelling, sleep on mats or 
 wrapped in their outer garment, which, from its 
 importance in this respect, was forbidden to be re- 
 tained in pledge over night. Under peculiar cir- 
 cumstances a stone covered with some folded cloth 
 or piece of dress is often used for a pillow. The 
 more wealthy classes sleep on mattresses stuffed 
 with wool or cotton, which often are no other than 
 a quilt thickly padded, and are used either singly, 
 
THE BAPTISM IN MARK. G9 
 
 or one or more placed upon each other." (Cy. vol. 
 l,p. 311.) 
 
 The law of Moses positively required many things 
 to be put in water. If a dead thing fall upon a per- 
 son or thing, it must be put into water. (Lev. xi : 
 32.) And other things w^ere to go through ** the 
 water." (Num. xxxi : 23.) Those laws that were 
 already stringent were greatly added to by the 
 Pharisees. Maimonides, a Jewish commentator, 
 states that it was a traditional custom of the Jews 
 to immerse all vessels for eating, drinking, and 
 cooking, whether had of a Gentile or an Israelite. 
 *^ Vessels," he says, " bought of Gentiles for the 
 use of a feast, whether molten or glass vessels, they 
 immerse in the waters of the laver, and after that 
 they may eat and drink in them ; and such as they 
 used for cold things, as cups, pots, and jugs, they 
 washed them and immersed them, and they are 
 free for use ; and such as they use for hot things, 
 as cauldrons and kettles, or brazen vessels, they 
 heat them with hot water, and scour them and 
 immerse them, and they are fit to be used; and 
 things which they use at the fire, as spits and grid- 
 irons, they heat them in the fire, and immerse 
 them, and they may be lawfully made use of This 
 is the immersion with which they immerse vessels 
 for a feast, bought of Gentiles." (Maacolot. c. 17, 
 
70 IMMERSION. 
 
 sec. 3, 5, 6.) Again the same author says : " Ves- 
 sels, they say, that are furnished in purity, that is, 
 by Jews, even though the disciple of a wise man 
 makes them, care is to be taken about them ; lo ! 
 these ought to be immersed." "A bed that is 
 wholly defiled if one immerses it part by part." 
 (Hilch. Abot. Hatum. c. 12, sec. 6; Hilch. Mik- 
 vaot, c. 1, sec. 2.) 
 
 There is nothing in this passage that will make 
 an immersionist change his opinion. 
 
BAPTISM OF THE THREE THOUSAND. 71 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE BAPTISM OF THE THREE THOUSAND. 
 
 npN the second chapter of the Acts of the Apos- 
 tles, it is said that after Peter's sermon, " the same 
 day there were added about three thousand souls " 
 to the disciples. This statement has been regarded 
 by Pedobaptists in general as a very serious objec- 
 tion to the act of baptism by immersion. Indeed 
 it is their strong fort ; it is the last rallying place. 
 To me it is a very weak and childish argument. 
 As it appears to have such great force, I shall 
 notice it at length. 
 
 Take, for example, the standard Methodist 
 writer, Dr. T. O. Summers. In his Treatise, p. 86, 
 under his " proofs of affusion," he says : " It was 
 impossible for the twelve apostles to immerse such 
 a multitude in some six or eight hours." If Dr. 
 Summers had been as good in arithmetic as he was 
 in surmising " proofs for affusion," this assertion 
 would have never been made. You will notice 
 that according to this statement the apostles would 
 have baptized less than thirty-one persons each in 
 an hour, and nothing would be easier for a Bap- 
 tist preacher than that. In this brief sentence there 
 
72 IMMERSION. 
 
 are some very violent suppositions. I shall point 
 them out separately. 
 
 1. He presumes that the entire three thousand 
 were baptized in one day. The Scripture only says 
 they "were added. ^* There is no record that they 
 were all baptized upon one day ; but so far as the 
 Bible states, they may have been baptized upon 
 the following days. You say that this is a Baptist 
 dodge. Not a bit of it. This position is endorsed 
 by the strongest scholars. I have before me the 
 declaration of Dr. Dollinger, who was the greatest 
 Catholic writer of this century. He was the Pro- 
 fessor of Church History in the University of 
 Bonn, and recently passed to rest full of honors. 
 He is surely a disinterested witness. He says in 
 his History of the Church, vol. 1, p. 319: "It is 
 not said that the three thousand converts of Pen- 
 tecost were all baptized the same day, but only 
 "on that day were added three thousand souls" 
 (Acts ii: 41); L e. their conversion and belief 
 took place on that day ; they were baptized on the 
 following days, of course, gradually, and accord- 
 ingly the fact of their baptism is mentioned with- 
 out any time being assigned.^* 
 
 Prof. C. W. Bennett, D.D., says: "No evidence, 
 however, is furnished by the record that Peter him- 
 self baptized three thousand believers on the day 
 
BAPTISM OF THE THREE THOUSAND. 73 
 
 of Pentecost. This may have been done by differ- 
 ent apostles at different places, by different modes, 
 during the entire day, or subsequent days." 
 (Arch. p. 396.) 
 
 2. It is a common matter of history that as 
 many as three thousand persons have often been 
 baptized in one day. I shall mention time, place, 
 and give the authority upon which I make this 
 declaration. 
 
 The first instance is that of Chrysostom, baptiz- 
 ing three thousand in Constautinople, on the 16th 
 of April, A. D. 404. Perthes, in his Life of St. 
 Chrysostom, p. 185, says: '^ On Easter eve, the 
 i6th of April, the Church of Chrysostom and the 
 friendly clergy met together, as was the custom, to 
 spend the night in vigils and to greet the rays of 
 the Easter morning. With them were assembled 
 three thousand young Christians who were to 
 receive baptism." Cave, in his I^ives of the 
 Fathers, London 1716, p. Q()'i, gives an account 
 of the baptism of this three thousand, and then 
 relates a most horrid story of how the Church was 
 desecrated by the soldiers and the entire city scat- 
 tered. Chrysostom himself tells us how the act of 
 baptism was performed. " For we sink our heads 
 in the water," says he, " as if in some grave, the 
 old man is buried; and the whole man, having 
 
74 IMMERSION. 
 
 sunk entirely down, is concealed. Then, we 
 emerge him, the new man rises again. For as 
 it is easy for us to be immersed and to emerge, so 
 it is easy for God to bury the old man and to bring 
 to light the new. This is done three times." 
 (Patrol. Lat. Minge, vol. 59, p. 151.) If Chrysos- 
 tom could immerse three thousand converts in one 
 night when the soldiers threatened his life and 
 drove him from his church, it would seem an easy 
 thing for Peter to immerse a like number when he 
 had favor with all the people, as he did have on 
 the day of Pentecost. 
 
 The second instance is that of St. Patrick, of 
 Ireland. During his life he is said to have 
 immersed one hundred and twenty thousand peo- 
 ple. Dr. Todd, an Episcopalian, Professor of 
 Hebrew in Trinity College, Dublin, and a ripe 
 Irish scholar, says in his life of Patrick, p. 442: 
 "Patrick entered into the king's palace, and he 
 said to flercus, (after some conversation) Wilt 
 thou receive the baptism of the Lord, which I 
 have with me? He answered, I will receive 
 it; and they came to the fountain Loigles, and 
 when he had opened his book and had baptized 
 the man Hercus, he heard men behind his back 
 mocking him one to another about the matter, for 
 they knew not what he had done. And he bap- 
 
BAPTISM OF THE THREE THOUSAND. 75 
 
 tized many thousand on that day." On p. 449, 
 Dr. Todd says : " He penetrated the hearts of all 
 and led them to embrace cordially the Christian 
 faith and doctrine. The seven sons of Amal- 
 gaidh, with the king himself and twelve thousand 
 men were baptized. They were baptized in a 
 well (fountain) called Tobur-en-adare.'* Kev. J. 
 O'P^arrell, in his popular Life of St. Patrick, p. 
 157, says: "After descending from the mountain, 
 invigorated for the sacred duties of the ministry, 
 St. Patrick came to the district of Corcothemne — 
 not far distant, it would seem — and to the fountain 
 of Sinn, where he baptized many thousands." In 
 these lives of St. Patrick there are repeated men- 
 tion of fountain baptisms which of necessity were 
 by immersion. Indeed, so late as the twelfth 
 century, Gilbert, Bishop of Limerick, in Ireland, 
 in his little book, The Constitution of the Church, 
 says of the priest: "It is his duty to administer 
 baptism, to dip believers who have been exorcised 
 and who have confessed the Holy Trinity, with 
 three immersions in the sacred font." (Patrol. 
 Lat. vol. 159, p. 1000.) Here are twelve thousand 
 men immersed in one day, and several thousands 
 on other days. 
 
 The third instance which I present is that of 
 Qovis, king of France. He was baptized in 
 
76 IMMERSION. 
 
 Rheims by Remingius, on Christmas day, A. D. 496. 
 Thanks to that magnificent collection of the Chris- 
 tian Fathers — Patrologia Latince — I have all the 
 original documents before me. Hincmar, the suc- 
 cessor of Remingius, says, that not only was the 
 king baptized, but "from his army three thousand 
 men were baptized, without counting women and 
 children.'^ (Patrol. Lat. vol. 125, pp. 1159, 1162.) 
 Gregory of Tours, who wrote a valuable history of 
 France, in 574, says, they were baptized " in a fresh 
 fountain,'^ and gives the details of the immersion. 
 Avitus, Bishop of Vienna, was so pleased that he 
 wrote the king a letter in which he says: "That 
 it might appear in due order that you were born 
 again out of the water for salvation on that day on 
 which the world received the Lord of Heaven, 
 born for its redemption.'^ (Patrol. Lat., vol. 71, 
 p. 1154.) Alcuin also says of his baptism: "He 
 (Remingius) led the eager king to the fountain of 
 life, and when he came he washed him in the 
 fountain of eternal salvation. So the king was 
 baptized with his nobles and people, who rejoiced 
 to receive the sacrament of the healing bath, divine 
 grace having been previously given them." (Patrol. 
 Lat., vol. 101, p. 670.) If there can be any sort 
 of doubt as to what Alcuin meant by washing him 
 in a fountain, he says elsewhere that baptism was 
 
BAPTISM OF THE THREE THOUSAND. 77 
 
 by ''trine immersion." (Patrol. Lat., vol. 100, p. 
 291.) The testimony of Hincmar will set tlie mat- 
 ter at rest. He says : ''After confessing the ortho- 
 dox faith in answer to questions put by the holy 
 pontiff, according to ecclesiastical custom he was 
 baptized by trine immersion in the name of the 
 holy and undivided Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy 
 Spirit." (Patrol. Lat., vol. 125, p. 1162.) This 
 immersion can not be called in question. 
 
 The fourth instance I present is that of Au- 
 gustine. He baptized 10,000 men, not counting 
 women and children, in the Swale, in one day. 
 In Fabyan's Chronicles, London 1811, p. 96, I 
 read : " He had in one day christened ten thousands 
 of Saxons or Angles in the west river, which is 
 called Swale, beside York." Henry, in his History 
 of England, confirms this statement. (Vol. 3., p. 
 192.) I have before me a letter of Pope Gregory 
 to Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria, informing 
 him of this great victory. " More than ten thou- 
 sand English," says he, ^Hhey tell us, were baptized 
 by the same brother, our fellow bishop, which I 
 communicate to you to announce to the people of 
 Alexandria, and that you may do something in 
 prayer for the dwellers at the ends of the earth." 
 (Patrol. Lat., vol. 77, p. 951.) Gregory evidently 
 understood this to mean an immersion, for he said : 
 
78 IMMERSION. 
 
 "We baptize by trine immersion.'* (Patrol. Lat., 
 vol. 77, p. 498. Gocelyn, in his Life of Augustine, 
 has this to say : ^^ He secured on all sides large 
 numbers for Christ, so that on the birth-day of the 
 Lord, celebrated by the melodious anthems of all 
 heaven, more than ten thousand of the English 
 were born again in the laver of holy baptism, with 
 an infinite number of women and children, in 
 a river which the English call Sirarios, the 
 Swale, as if at one birth of the church from the 
 womb. These persons, at the command of the 
 divine teacher, as if he were an angel from heaven, 
 calling upon them, all entered the dangerous 
 depths of the river, two and two together, as if it 
 had been a solid plain ; and in true faith, confess- 
 ing the exalted Trinity, they were baptized one by 
 the other in turns, the apostolic leader blessing the 
 water. ... So great a prodigy from heaven 
 born out of the deep whirlpool.'* (Patrol. Lat., 
 vol. 80, p. 79.) Here are more than three times 
 the number of Pentecost, not counting women and 
 children. 
 
 I would also call attention to the ba])tism of 
 Paulinus of ten thousand English in the river 
 Swale. I quote from the learned Camden, in his 
 Britannia, London 1806, vol. 3, p. 257, the Swale 
 ''was accounted sacred by the ancient Saxons, above 
 
BAPTISM OF THE THREE THOUSAND. 79 
 
 the ten thousand persons, besides women and 
 
 children, having received baptism in it, in one day 
 
 from Paulinas, Archbishop of York, on the first 
 
 conversion of the Saxons to Christianity/' 
 
 If there still lingers a doubt as to these river 
 
 baptisms of Augustine and Paulinus, I would refer 
 
 you to the Roman Catholic historian of the early 
 
 English Church, John Lingard, D.D., vol. 1, p. 291 : 
 
 '^ The regular manner of administering baptism 
 
 was by immersion." 
 
 The sixth instance took place in Germany. St. 
 ft 
 Boniface is said to have immersed 100,000 converts 
 
 during his life. Othelon, in his Life of Boniface, 
 gives an account of a large number who were bap- 
 tized at one time by him. ^^ Then also he entered," 
 says he, "other parts of Germany that he might 
 preach. He went to the Hessians located on th^' 
 confines of the Saxons, whom in like manner, he 
 converted in large numbers from paganism, and he 
 washed many thousands of men in the sacrament 
 of baptism." (St. Boniface Mogunt Arch, vita c. 
 12 srpt., Eccl. viii. ssec. Migne.) Pope Zacharias 
 in a letter to Boniface fully explains what is meant 
 by this " washing.*' " Whosoever has been washed," 
 says the Pope, "without the invocation of the 
 Trinity, has not the sacrament of regeneration (bap- 
 tism), as it is assuredly true that if any one has 
 
80 IMMERSION. 
 
 been immersed in the baptismal fountain without 
 the invocation of the Trinity, he has not been made 
 perfect until he shall have been baptized in the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Spirit. . . . Whosoever is immersed, the 
 Trinity being invoked in Gospel language after 
 the rule laid down by the Lord, in the name of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 
 has that sacrament Avithout doubt. . . . But 
 about those who immerse in the fountain of bap- 
 tism without the invocation of the Trinity, it is 
 known to thy fraternity that the series of sacred 
 rules contain something which we advise you to 
 hold tenaciously.'' (Zach. Pop., pp. 943, 994, 
 Migne.) 
 
 The seventh instance is found in Pomerania. 
 Bishop Otto, 1124, preached on a missionary tour 
 in thaf country. An account of this is given in 
 Neander's Church History, vol. 4, p. 8. "Seven 
 days," says the historian, ^Svere spent by the bishop 
 in giving instruction ; three days were appointed 
 for spiritual and bodily preparation to receive the 
 ordinance of baptism. They held a fast and bathed 
 themselves, that they might with cleanliness and 
 decency submit to the holy transaction. Large 
 vessels filled with water were sunk into the ground 
 and surrounded Avith curtains. Behind these bap- 
 
BAPTISM OF THE THREE THOUSAND. 81 
 
 tism was administered, in the form customary at 
 that period, by immersion. During the twenty 
 days residence in that town, some thousands were 
 baptized ; and the persons baptized were instructed 
 on the matters contained in the confession of faith 
 and respecting the most important acts of wor- 
 ship.^^ 
 
 The eighth example is the introduction of Christi- 
 anity into Russia. The Russian ruler, Vladimir, 
 accepted Christ, and after his baptism he com- 
 manded all the people of Kieff to be baptized. 
 Accordingly on a set day thousands of the people 
 of this city were immersed in the river. Dean 
 Stanley gives the following account of this trans- 
 action : Vladimir " was baptized accordingly at 
 Cherson, and then issued orders for a great baptism 
 of his people at Kieff. . . . The whole people 
 of Kieff were immersed in the same river, some 
 sitting on the banks, some plunged in, others 
 swimming, whilst the priest read the prayers. It 
 was a sight, says Nestor, wonderfully curious 
 and beautiful to see; and when the whole people 
 were baptized, each one returned to his own house.'* 
 The spot was consecrated by the first Christian 
 church, and Kieff, which had already, which we 
 have seen from old traditions, been the Glaston- 
 6 
 
82 IMMERSION. 
 
 bury, became henceforward the Canterbury of the 
 Russian Empire." (East. Ch., p. 291.) 
 
 The last instance records the wonderful success 
 of one of our devoted missionaries. In the Madras 
 Confederacy, in 1878, Bro. J. E. Clough, with five 
 assistants, baptized in six hours, two baptizing at 
 a time, 2,222 converts. On December 28th, 1890, 
 1,671 more were baptized. As these baptisms were 
 performed by Baptist preachers I shall scarcely 
 be expected to offer proof that the act was by 
 immersion. 
 
 The truth is that all the great baptisms of the 
 world have been by immersion. 
 
 Here are nine examples where thousands were 
 baptized by immersion in one day. These facts 
 will not only answer any quibble that may be 
 offered upon the "baptism of the three thousand,'' 
 but demonstrates that immersion was possible and 
 probable. 
 
BAPTISM OF THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 83 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE BAPTISM OF THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 
 
 ACTS viii: 38, 39: "They went down both into 
 the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and 
 he baptized him. And when they came up out of the 
 water the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip/^ 
 
 This example is overwhelmingly in favor of im- 
 mersion. The force of the preposition in this nar- 
 rative can not be overstated. They went down into 
 the water, and came up out of the water. There is 
 not a child ten years old that does not know what 
 is meant here, and exactly what took place. It 
 takes a wise man to explain away this passage; 
 and when he gets through explaining, immersion 
 is there still. 
 
 They went into the water, and came up out of 
 the water. It does not say they went to the pooPs 
 brink, but they went into the water, and they came 
 out of the water. I have an idea that when God 
 says they went into the water, that is exactly what 
 happened. I shall illustrate by rather an amusing 
 incident : There was in this State an old Baptist 
 preacher full of wit. He heard a man preach, who 
 was not a Baptist, and he took great pains to show 
 
84 IMMERSION. 
 
 that '* into '^ in this scripture meant near by, at, in 
 the neighborhood of. The next day the old man 
 saw this preacher walking in front of a saloon. He 
 said nothing, but walked up the street till he met 
 one of his prominent members, and told him he 
 saw his preacher down the street in a saloon. The 
 preacher immediately denied this statement as a 
 foul slander, and tried to make the old man take 
 it back. '^ I was not in the saloon," said he ; "I 
 only passed by it.'' ''But," said the old man, 
 " ' into,' yesterday, meant near by, in the neighbor- 
 hood of, and I thought it meant the same thing to- 
 day. It means one thing in a sermon, and another 
 thing in every-day life." No, sir ; they both went 
 down into the water, and Philip immersed the eu- 
 nuch. 
 
 The best Pedobaptist authorities agree with us 
 fully on this position. 
 
 John Calvin, Presbyterian, says : " Here we per- 
 ceive how baptism was administered among the an- 
 cients, for they immersed the whole body in water." 
 
 Dr. Doddridge says : " It would be very irrational 
 to suppose that they went down to the water merely 
 that Philip might take up a little water in his hand 
 to pour on the eunuch. A person of his dignity 
 had, no doubt, many vessels in his baggage on such 
 a journey through so desert a country — a precau- 
 
BAPTISM OF THE ETHIOPIAN EUNU( H. 85 
 
 tion absolutely necessary for travelers in those parte, 
 and never omitted by them." (Vol. 3, p. 119.) 
 
 Bishop EUicott in his Commentary says : " The 
 Greek preposition might mean simply 'unto^ the 
 water, but the universality of immersion in the 
 practice of the early church supports the English 
 version. The eunuch would lay aside his garments, 
 descend chest deep into the water, and be plunged 
 under it 'in the name of the Lord Jesus' — the only 
 formula recognized in the Acts." (Com. vol. 2, p. 
 54.) 
 
 Homersham Cox in his recent researches declares : 
 ** This (immersion) was clearly the mode of baptiz- 
 ing the Ethiopian eunuch : ' They both went down 
 into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he 
 baptized him.^ " (The First Cen. of Christ, p. 277.) 
 
 The scholars teach that this passage means im- 
 mersion. 
 
 But this objection is urged. Philip read to the 
 eunuch the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and in the 
 fifteenth verse of the preceding chapter occurs the 
 phrase, " so shall he sprinkle many nations." It 
 is taken for granted that this "sprinkling" means 
 baptism. There is no mention made of water and 
 none of baptism in this scripture. " So " in this 
 verse must refer to "as" in verse 14 to complete 
 the antithesis. The one is commensurate with the 
 
86 immp:rsion. 
 
 other. In verse 14 he is telling how Jesus shall 
 astonish the nations by his great sufferings; and 
 this verse must correspond with the other. If this 
 is the case, baptism is not the question discussed, 
 but the sufferings of the Son of God. The word 
 sprinkle then would refer to the expiation Christ 
 has made for our sins. This is often so expressed 
 in the Scriptures, as in Heb. x ; 22 : " Let us draw- 
 near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, 
 having our hearts sj)rinhled from an evil corificience, 
 and our bodies washed with pure water." 
 
 This passage can not refer to baptism because 
 the word sprinkle is used. Sprinkle is never used 
 for baptism in the Bible. Bapfizo, and that alone, 
 is the word that describes the ordinance of bap- 
 tism. This all scholars admit. Furthermore, it 
 says he shall sprinkle many nations. Baptism has 
 nothing to do with nations; it is a personal mat- 
 ter; something that each man must perform for 
 himself The commission is, " He that belie veth 
 and is baptized shall be saved." The New Testa- 
 ment always places it in this light, and in none 
 other. 
 
 The best scholars say that the word nazahy here 
 rendered to sprinkle, means to astonish. Gesenius 
 defines nazah, "to leap, to spring, to exult, to leap 
 for joy ; when applied to liquids, to spirt, to spat- 
 
BAPTISM OF THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 87 
 
 ter, to besprinkle." (Lex. p. 658.) But this paa- 
 eage does not refer to liquids ; it refers to nations. 
 But admitting that the word means to sprinkle, we 
 have not one particle of proof that the passage has 
 the most distant application to baptism. 
 
 George R. Noyes, Professor of Hebrew in Har- 
 vard University, in his New Translation of the 
 Hebrew Prophets, 1833, renders Isaiah lii: 14, 
 15, thus : 
 
 " As many were amazed at the sight of him, 
 So disfigured and scarcely human was his visage, 
 And his form so unlike that of man, 
 So shall many nations exult on account of him, 
 And kings shall shut their mouths before him ; 
 For what had never been told them shall they see, 
 And what they never heard shall they perceive." . 
 
 Dr. Barnes, the eminent Presbyterian scholar, 
 after fully discussing the various meanings of the 
 word, says : " It may be remarked that whichever 
 of the above senses may be assigned, it furnishes 
 no argument for the practice of sprinkling in bap- 
 tism. It refers to the fact of his purifying or cleans- 
 ing the nations, and not to the ordinance of Chris- 
 tian baptism ; nor should it be used as an argument 
 in reference to the mode in which that should be 
 administered." 
 
 But this is not all. Two hundred and eighty-five 
 years before Christ the Old Testament was trans- 
 
88 IMMERSION. 
 
 lated into Greek. This was done by seventy-two 
 learned men appointed for the purpose. Those 
 rabbis understood the Hebrew perfectly well, and 
 they translated this word nazah by the Greek word 
 thaumazo, to astonish, a word which never means 
 to sprinkle. To show how authoritative this trans- 
 lation is, it is only necessary to state that our Sav- 
 iour and his apostles used it nearly altogether. 
 
 From whatever standpoint we look at this pas- 
 sage it can mean nothing but immersion. 
 
PAULAS BAPTISM. 
 
 89 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PAUL'S BAPTISM. 
 
 PEDOBAPTISTS say more of PauPs baptism 
 than of any other in the New Testament; 
 yet, when rightly considered, it affords them no 
 argument whatever. This Scripture reads as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " And why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, 
 and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of 
 the Lord." (Acts xxii : 16.) 
 
 I shall examine some points in this Scripture. 
 It must be remembered that this is the proof 
 text of the Pedobaptists, and if I answer all 
 objections, and show that this passage is not incon- 
 sistent with, and is even favorable to immersion, I 
 have accomplished all that is necessary to my 
 argument. 
 
 " Arise.'' They make great capital out of this 
 word. '' Paul," say they, " simply got up and wa.s 
 baptized where he stood." Does anastas, the 
 Greek word for arise, mean a standing still? It 
 does not. The man may or may not stand still. 
 Liddell and Scott not only say it means to " arise," 
 but to make ** people arise to leave their homes." 
 
90 IMMERSION. 
 
 And Thayer says, " those who leave a place to go 
 elsewhere ; hence, of those who prepare themselves 
 for a journey/' Robinson, "He arose and fol- 
 lowed." According to the Lexicons Paul arose 
 and went to another place and was baptized. May 
 I suggest one of the "rivers of Damascus?" 
 (2 Kings v: 12.) 
 
 Do the instances where anastas occur, imply a 
 standing still after the person has arisen ? Homer 
 relates that Ulysses came in with a stag on his 
 shoulders, threw it down and said to his com- 
 panions, " arise and eat." Yet the stag had to be 
 prepared and cooked before they ate, and parts of 
 it were eaten in another place. This participle is 
 used several times in the ninth chapter of the 
 Acts, where the baptism of Paul is mentioned, 
 and always with the idea of motion. Verse 11 th : 
 "arise, and go into the street that is called 
 Straight;" v. 18th, "he arose and was bap- 
 tized ; " vs. 34th, " Eneas, Jesus Christ maketh 
 thee whole; arise, and make thy bed." Actsx: 
 13, "Arise, Peter, slay and eat;" v. 20th, "arise 
 thee, therefore, and get thee down." Every one 
 of these examples shows that the persons did not 
 stand still. I have not found a single example 
 where anastas does not imply motion. 
 
 " Be Baptized." If there was no other word in 
 
Paul's baptism. 91 
 
 this entire sentence this would be sufficient to tell 
 what was meant. As Connybeare and Howson 
 say : '^ He was baptized, and the rivers of 
 Damascus became more to him than all the 
 waters of Judah." (Life and Epis. p. 89.) Or 
 as Bishop EUicott says in his Commentary : " The 
 baptism would probably be administered in one or 
 the other of the rivers which the history of Naa- 
 man had made famous, and so the waters of Abana 
 and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, were now sanc- 
 tified no less than the Jordan for the " mystical 
 washing away of sin." But Paul himself tells 
 how he was baptized : " We are buried with him 
 by baptism into death." (Rom. vi ; 3.) The " we" 
 includes himself along with the Romans. This is 
 a clear case of immersion. 
 
 "Wash away thy sins." The word used for 
 wash is louo, in the middle voice. There are 
 words to express the washing of the several parts 
 of the body ; but louo means the washing or bath- 
 ing of the entire body. In the active voice it 
 means to wash, to bathe ; and in the middle voice 
 a washing by bathing. As a learned and candid 
 writer has said that if the word baptize was doubt- 
 ful, the use of louo would settle Paul's baptism. 
 Here is what the Lexicons say. Dr. Robinson : 
 Louo "signifies to wash the entire body, not 
 
92 IMMERSION. 
 
 merely a pari of it, like nipto.^^ Trench : ^^Nip- 
 tein and nipsasthai almost always express the 
 washing of a part of the body ; while loueiuy which 
 is not so much ^ to wash ' as ' to bathe/ and 
 lousthai, or in common Greek huesthai, to ' bathe 
 one's self/ imply always not the bathing of a 
 part of the body, but of the whole." Liddell 
 and Scott : " Wash the body, to wash one^s self, 
 to bathe." Thayer says, " louo refers to the whole 
 of the body, nipto to a part." 
 
 Louo was plainly used in this signification 
 among the Greeks. Homer represents a star just 
 rising fresh from ocean's bath. He also says of 
 some of the companions of Telemachus : — 
 
 "Thence to the bath, a beauteous pile, descend." 
 
 Jupiter gives direction to Apollo to cleanse the 
 body of Sarpedon, and then bathe it in the 
 river. 
 
 ** Phoebus, my son, delay not from beneath 
 Yon hill of weapons drawn, cleanse from his blood 
 Sarpedon's corse ; then, bearing him remote, 
 Lave him in waters of the running stream." 
 
 In the Bible it is used : 1. As synonymous with 
 baptize. (2 Kings v: 10, 14.) Elisha told Naaman 
 to go and wash, and he went and dipped himself 
 in the Jordan. 2. It is used for baptize in Heb. 
 x: 22: "Having your bodies washed or bathed 
 
PAULAS BAPTISM. 9S 
 
 in pure water." Here the entire body is to be 
 washed. This washing was, therefore, equal to an 
 immersion. I can not refrain from referring to 
 two poets who have spoken of the washing of our 
 bodies as emblematic of the washing away of 
 gin. Milton says : 
 
 "Them who shall believe 
 Baptized in the profluent stream, the sign 
 Of washing them from the guilt of sin to life 
 Pure, and in him prepared, if so befall, 
 For death, like that which the Redeemer died." 
 
 Cowper said: 
 
 " There is a fountain filled with blood, 
 Drawn from Immanuel'* veins, 
 And sinners plunged beneath that flood 
 Lose all their guilty stains." 
 
 I would therefore record it as my earnest oon- 
 viotion that this passage teaches immersion. 
 
94 IMMERSION. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE BAPTISM OF THE JAILER. 
 
 rri HE baptism of the jailer appears to give some 
 -*- of our Pedobaptist brethren a good deal of 
 comfort. Thus Dr. Summers states the case from 
 the Methodist standpoint : " The Phih'ppian jailer 
 too must have been baptized by affiision. His 
 conversion took place in the prison — at midnight — 
 and he and all his were baptized straightway. We 
 are sure that Paul and Silas did not take them 
 down to the river — especially at that unseemly 
 hour — and plunge them into it; for the noble- 
 minded prisoners would not leave the precincts of 
 the jail until they were taken out, in daylight, by 
 proper authority. And it is equally gratuitous and 
 absurd to say there was a bath or tank in the prison, 
 in which the jailer and his family were immersed. 
 A small portion of the water which he brought 
 into the prison to wash the apostle's ^stripes,' was 
 sufficient for his baptism, as, like all the other 
 cases of baptism of which any particulars are given 
 in the New Testament, it was administered by 
 pouring or aspersion." (Summers on Bap., p. 87.) 
 There is one serious objection to this statement 
 
BAPTISM OF THE JAILER. 95 
 
 of the case by Dr. Summers. He and the Scrip- 
 tures do not agree. I prefer to follow the Word 
 of God. Dr. Summers assumes that the conversion 
 takes place in the jail, that they were baptized in 
 the jail, that a small portion of the water that was 
 brought into the jail to wash the stripes was used 
 for baptizing. That is a very pretty theory if it 
 were true. The Bible reads another way. Here is 
 the way it is recorded in Acts xvi: 27-34 : "And 
 the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, 
 and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his 
 sword, and would have killed himself, supposing 
 that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried 
 with a loud voice, saying, ' Do thyself no harm ; 
 for we are all here.^ Then he called for a light, 
 and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down 
 before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and 
 said, ^ Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? ' And 
 they said, ' Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 thou shalt be saved, and thy house.' And they 
 spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all 
 that ivere in his house (not in the prison). And he 
 took than the same hour of the night, and washed 
 their stripes; and was baptized, he and all of his, 
 straightway. And when he had brought them into 
 his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, 
 believing in God with all his house." 
 
96 IMMERSION. 
 
 Nothing is more evident than that the conversion 
 did not take place in the prison, and that the bap- 
 tism did not take place in either the house or the 
 prison. The Scriptures say this so plainly that 
 there can be no doubt as to the facts in the case. 
 The harmony between our Methodist brother here 
 and the Scriptures is not apparent. 
 
 Why was it a thing incredible that Paul and 
 Silas carried this family down " to the river side/* 
 and immersed them in the river Strymon, which 
 ran hard by the city? I see nothing impossible 
 or absurd in this. The absurdity rests with the 
 man who does not wish to obey the commandments 
 of our God. The river was there, and if a river is 
 not good for baptismal purposes what is it good 
 for? 
 
 There is no doubt that near the house of the 
 jailer there was a suitable place for immersion. 
 Those who know any thing about Eastern houses 
 will have no room to doubt this. Dr. Hibbard, the 
 great Methodist writer on baptism, says, bathing 
 was a custom " indispensable to pleasure, to decency 
 And to health.'' (Bap., p. 152.) And if this is a 
 fact, is it not likely that the jailer would have had 
 such a place convenient ? In this connection the 
 two Episcopalian scholars, Conybeare and Howson, 
 Bay : " In the same hour of the night the jailer took 
 
BAPTISM OF THE JAILER. 97 
 
 the Apostles to the well or fountain of water which 
 was within or near the precincts of the prison, and 
 there he washed their wounds, and there he and 
 his household were baptized. He did what he 
 could to assuage the bodily pain of Paul and Silas, 
 and they admitted him and his, by the laver of 
 regeneration, to the spiritual citizenship of the 
 kingdom of God. The prisoners of the jailer had 
 now become his guests." ( Life and Epis., p. 267.) 
 
 The Scriptures were plain enough that they were 
 not baptized in the jail, but what was to hinder 
 there being a bath in the jail? One of the fore- 
 most Pedobaptist scholars in the world has lately 
 made the statement that there was probably a bath 
 in the prison. Prof. Plumptre, in Bishop Ellicott's 
 Commentary, says : ' 'A public prison was likely 
 enough to contain a bath or pool of some kind, 
 where the former (immersion) would be feasible. " 
 (Ellicott, Com., vol. 2, p. 109.) I can afford to risk 
 such scholars as BishopEllicott and Prof. Plumptre. 
 
 I shall use an ad hominem argument. Our Meth- 
 odist and Presbyterian brethren have fully illus- 
 trated, in the last few years, the meaning of this 
 scripture. They have repeatedly done the very 
 thing they said could not be done. There are fre- 
 quent instances where Pedobaptist ministers have 
 immersed persons in jail. What I want to know 
 
98 IMMERSION. 
 
 is this : When was the truth told ; when they de- 
 clared that this thing was absurd and impossible, 
 or when they- were immersing persons in the jail 
 aft^r the manner of Paul and and Silas? 
 
 I give some examples. Kev. T. T. Eaton, D.D., 
 LL.D., of Louisville, Ky., writes me as follows: 
 
 Gloucester, Mass., Aug. 7th, 1890. 
 Dear Bro. Christian: 
 
 Your letter was forwarded to me here. The case 
 of Shade "Westmoreland is well known in Chatta- 
 nooga. I think it was in the spring of 1874 that 
 he was executed. The facts are that he lay in jail 
 in Chattanooga, charged with murder, for fully a 
 year. Once he took an appeal to the supreme court, 
 and they remanded the case to the court below on 
 some point. The court failed to hold a session once 
 on account of the cholera^s raging in Chattanooga. 
 That was the summer and fall of 1873. I visited 
 him in jail several times, and talked and prayed 
 with him. At the date of execution I was called 
 to be absent at Hopkinsville, Ky. I bade him 
 good-by, and he expressed regret that I could not 
 "attend to him" at his execution. I told him that 
 any of the ministers w^ould readily be with him, 
 and named Revs. Bachman and Bays. On the 
 morning of the execution they were at the jail, 
 
BAPTISM OF THE JAILER. ' 99 
 
 He asked to be baptized. They were ready to use 
 a pitcher, but he demanded immersion. The jailer 
 was unwilling that he (W.) should be taken to the 
 river, and so Fletcher Rogers soon had a big bath- 
 tub in the jail, and the Revs. J. W. Bachman (Pas- 
 tor of the Presbyterian Church) and W. W. Bays 
 (Pastor of the iSIethodist Episcopal Church South) 
 did immerse Shade Westmoreland in the tub in 
 the jail. Bro. Bachman said to me afterwards : " I 
 thought we were giving you an argument when we 
 were doing that." I do not recall the exact date, 
 though that could readily be ascertained from the 
 court records. Hoping this is satisfactory, I am 
 Yours fraternally, T. T. Eaton. 
 
 Rev. A. J. Kincaid, of Fort Smith, Ark., writes: 
 Fort Smith, Ark., July 30th, 1890. 
 Eld. J. T. Christian, Jackson j Miss.: 
 
 Dear Brother, — Just about one year ago now. 
 Rev. J. L. Massey, of the M. E. Church of this 
 city, preached a rousing sermon (so he thought) on 
 baptism, in which he seemed to try to annihilate 
 immersion and all who practice it. 
 
 In the course of his sermon he said that he had 
 had to perform that indecent act, bui that he hoped 
 to God that he would never have it to do again. 
 Through with his tirade on baptism, he came down 
 
100 IMMERSION. 
 
 from his pulpit and offered an opportunity for 
 church-membership, when a lady came to join his 
 church. He received her, and reached for a glass 
 of water, when the lady said to him : " Oh, no, Mr. 
 Massey, that won't do me ; you must immerse me.'* 
 So he had to take her to the Campbellite Church, 
 or to the river — I am not certain which — and im- 
 merse her. I think he went with her to the Camp- 
 bellite Church. 
 
 That same week there were several men in the 
 U. S. prison here who were to be hanged. One of 
 them sent for Mr. Massey, and he went to see him 
 and had some religious service with him, and the 
 prisoner professed faith, and wanted to be baptized. 
 The Rev. gentleman called for a cup of water. The 
 prisoner objected, and said that would not do him ; 
 that he must put him under the water. In the rear 
 of the prison are some large troughs of water, 
 where he took him and immersed him. It was done 
 in the prison. They have arrangements in the 
 prison yard for the same thing. Indeed it frequent- 
 ly occurs here. 
 
 I did not see these things with my own eyes, 
 but I have them from those who did. 
 
 Fraternally, A. J. Kincaid. 
 
 Rev. J. S. Dill, of Goldsboro, N. C, writes: 
 
BAPTISM OF THF JAILER. 101 
 
 GoLDSBORO, N. C, Nov. Ist, 1890. 
 J. T. Christian, D. D. : 
 
 My Dear Bro., — In reply to your inquiry about 
 the jail baptism in Goldsboro I cheerfully certify 
 to the following ; One Bud Anderson, having been 
 condemned to be hung for murder, made a profes- 
 sion of faith, and was, in the county jail at Golds- 
 boro, immersed by a Free-will Baptist preacher. 
 The immersion was conveniently performed in a 
 large bath-tub. I visited Mr. Anderson several 
 times, and received from him an account of his 
 baptism. I think the baptism was witnessed by 
 W. R. Parker, then deputy sheriff, and for many 
 years a member of the Missionary Baptist Church. 
 The event occurred in the year 1889. 
 
 Fraternally, J. S. Dill, 
 
 Pastor Baptist Church, 
 
102 IMMERSION. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT FROM ROM. VI: 4. 
 
 "Ty^NOW 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 baptism into death : that like as Chl-ist was 
 raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, 
 even so we also should walk in the newness of 
 life/^ (Rom. vi: 3, 4. Also Comp. Col. ii : 12.) 
 There is no more pointed passage in the word 
 of God. This Scripture unquestionably teaches 
 immersion. There is no sort of doubt about it. 
 There is no explanation that could make this 
 passage mean any thing else. It directly refers 
 to the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. As 
 he was buried in the grave so we are buried in 
 the wat-er, and as he arose from the grave so we 
 arise from the watery grave where we have been 
 laid. Our baptism thus becomes a pledge of our 
 future burial and resurrection. It contains in sym- 
 bol the whole of the Gospel of Christ. Sprinkling 
 and pouring can in no wise symbolize a burial 
 and resurrection. A "drop of water is not aa 
 good as an ocean '^ in this instance. Some of 
 
ARGUMENT FROM ROM. VI. 103 
 
 our Pedobaptist brethren try to argue that this 
 refers to a spiritual baptism, and that therefore it 
 does not refer to immersion. I could grant most 
 readily that this passage had reference to a spirit- 
 ual baptism, and still hold with every degree of 
 reason that it refers to immersion. The spiritual 
 baptism would have an outward symbol or sign, 
 and nothing would more fitly represent this than 
 an immersion in water. This, however, is a mere 
 begging of the question. The scholarship of the 
 world is unanimously opposed to this idea and in 
 favor of a literal baptism. I scarcely know an 
 authority that does not take this view of the sub- 
 ject. The fact is, the scholarship of the world has 
 put this Scripture beyond dispute. This is the 
 one of the few passages that practically all com- 
 mentators agree as teaching the same thing. I 
 shall give a few of the hundreds of scholars who 
 have written upon this subject. You will see that 
 they reflect the sentiments of all denominations : 
 
 Canon Liddon, Episcopalian, on Easter Sunday, 
 1889, preached a sermon upon " The Likeness of 
 Christ's Resurrection. '' After showing that Jesus 
 Christ really died upon the cross, the Canon 
 pointed out that according to PauPs teaching the 
 convert to Christianity should really die to sin. 
 *' Of this," he proceeded, " the apostle traced the 
 
104 IMMERSION. 
 
 token in the ceremony, at that time universal, of 
 baptism by immersion. As Jesus, crucified and 
 dead, was laid in the grave by Joseph of Arima- 
 thea, so the Christian, crucified to the world 
 through the body of Christ descends, as into the 
 tomb, into the baptismal waters. He was buried 
 beneath them; they closed for a moment over hira ; 
 he was ' planted,' Paul would have said, not only 
 in the likeness of Christ's death, but of his burial. 
 But the immersion is over; the Christian is lifted 
 from the flood, and this evidently corresponded to 
 the resurrection of Christ as the descent had been 
 to his burial. 'Buried with him in baptism 
 wherein ye are also risen with him.' " 
 
 John Wesley, Methodist, says: *' We are buried 
 with him — alluding to the ancient manner of bap- 
 tizing by immersion." 
 
 Dr. Chalmers, Presbyterian, says : '' The orig- 
 inal meaning of the word baptism is immersion; 
 and though we regard it as a point of indiiferency 
 whether the ordinance so named be performed in 
 this way or by sprinkling, yet we doubt not that the 
 prevalent style of administration in the apostle's 
 days, was by an actual submerging of the body under 
 water. We advert to this, for the purpose of throw- 
 ing light on the analogy that is instituted in these 
 verses. Jesus Christ, by death, underwent this 
 
ARGUMENT FROM ROM. VI. 105 
 
 sort of baptism — even immersion under the surface 
 of the ground, whence he soon emerged again 
 by his resurrection. We, by being baptized into 
 his death, are conceived to have made a similar 
 translation." 
 
 Est, Chancellor of the celebrated Catholic Uni- 
 versity of Douay, says : " For immersion represents 
 to us Christ's burial, and so also his death. For 
 the tomb is a symbol of death, since none but the 
 dead are buried. Moreover, the emersion, which 
 follows the immersion, has a resemblance to the 
 resurrection. We are therefore in baptism con- 
 formed not only to the death of Christ, as he has 
 just said, but also to his burial and resurrection." 
 
 Meyer, the great German scholar, says : " The 
 recipient of baptism, who by his baptism enters 
 into the fellowship of death with Christ, is neces- 
 sarily also in the act of baptism ethically buried 
 with him, because after baptism he is spiritually 
 risen with him. In reality this burial with him 
 is not a moml fact distinct from the having died 
 with him, as actual burial is distinct from actual 
 dying ; but it sets forth the fullness and complete- 
 ness of the relation, of which the recipient, in ac- 
 cordance with the form of baptism, so far as the 
 latter takes place through the kataclusin and ana- 
 dttsiriy becomes conscious successively. The recip- 
 
106 IMMERSION. 
 
 ient — thus had Paul figuratively represented the 
 process — is conscious, (a) in the baptism gener- 
 ally : now. I am entered into the fellowship with 
 the death of Christ ; (6) in the immersion in par- 
 ticular: now I am becoming buried with Christ; 
 (c) and then in the emergence: now I rise to the 
 new life with Christ/' 
 
 Charles W. Bennett, edited by Bishop John F. 
 Hurst and George R. Crooks, Methodist, says in 
 his new Archseology: "The terms of scripture de- 
 scribing the rite, most of the figures used by the 
 writers of the New Testament to indicate its sig- 
 nificance — Rom. vi: 4; Col. ii : 12, etc. — the ex- 
 planations of the Apostolic Constitutions, the com- 
 ments of the foremost Christian fathers for the first 
 six centuries, and the express instructions of eccle- 
 siastical councils, indicate that immersion was the 
 more usual mode of baptism." 
 
 Adam Clarke, Metho(list, says: "It is probable 
 that the Apostle here alludes to the mode of ad- 
 ministering baptism by immersion, the whole body 
 being put under water, which seems to say, the 
 man is drowned, is dead; and when he came up 
 out of the water, he seemed to have a resurrection 
 to life, the man is risen again, he is alive." 
 
 Albert Barnes, Presbyterian, states ; " It is alto- 
 
ABGUMENT FROM ROM. VI. 107 
 
 gether probable that the Apostle in this place had 
 allusion to the custom of baptizing by immersion." 
 Conybeare and Howson, Episcopalians, say : '' This 
 passage can not be understood unless it be borne in 
 mind that the primitive baptism was by immersion." 
 (Life and Epis. p. 557.) 
 
 Canon Farrar, Episcopalian, says: "The dipping 
 under the waters of baptism is his union with Christ's 
 death ; his rising out of the waters of baptism is a 
 resurrection with Christ, and the birth to a new 
 life." (Life and Works of Paul, p. 362.) 
 
 Prof. J. J. Oosterzee, Professor in the University 
 of Utrecht, in his recent work on Christian Dog- 
 matics, vol. 2, p. 749, says : " This sprinkling, which 
 appears to have come first generally into use in the 
 thirteenth century, in place of the entire immersion 
 of the body, in imitation of the previous baptism 
 of the sick, has certainly this imperfection, that the 
 symbolical character of the act is expressed by it 
 much less conspicuously than by complete immer- 
 sion and burial under water." 
 
 I will close this chapter with a statement of Dr. 
 George P. Fisher, Professor of Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory in Yale University, 1887, Beginnings of Chris- 
 tianity, p. 565: "Baptism, it is now generally agreed 
 among scholars, was commonly by immersion." 
 
108 IMMERSION. 
 
 CHAPTER Xiy. 
 WHAT THE GREEK FATHERS SAY. 
 
 ^VTO one doubts that there is much obscurity 
 connected with many of the authors and in 
 the writings of those who are commonly called the 
 fathers. The most remarkable errors are advo- 
 cated, and the closest discrimination must be used 
 in rating their value. Yet upon the action of 
 baptism we can safely follow them ; because this 
 relates to the use of a word and a mere statement 
 of facts. It is not a question of deductions and 
 fancies, but of an act received from the apostles. 
 In this regard their testimony may be regarded 
 highly. I shall not enter into a discussion as to 
 the authenticity of their writings, but set them 
 down as belonging to the years in which they are 
 usually set down by scholars. 
 
 Among the so-called Apostolic fathers Barnabas 
 is the only one who speaks of baptism, and his 
 reference is clearly to immersion. 
 
 Barnabas, A. D. 119, says: "Blessed are they 
 who, placing their trust in the cross, have gone 
 down into the water; for, says he, they shall re- 
 ceive their reward in due time; then he declares, 
 
WHAT THE GREEK FATHERS SAY. 109 
 
 I will recompense them. . . . This meaneth, 
 that we indeed descend into the water full of sins 
 and defilement, but come up bearing fruit in our 
 heart, having the fear of God and trust in Jesus 
 in our spirits." ( Epis. xi, Ante-Nic. Fath., vol. 1, 
 p. 144.) 
 
 Justin Martyr, A. D. 139, is the first who gives 
 a detailed statement of how baptism was per- 
 formed. We are willing to accept this statement 
 of the act. " I will also relate," says he, " the 
 manner in which we dedicate ourselves to God, 
 where we have been made new through Christ; 
 lest, if we omit this, we seem to be unfair in 
 the explanation we are making, as many as are 
 persuaded and believe that what we teach and 
 say is true, and undertake to be able to live 
 accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat 
 God with fasting, for the remission of the sins 
 that are past, we praying and fasting with them. 
 Then they are brought by us where there is water, 
 and are regenerated in the same manner in which 
 we ourselves were regenerated. For in the name 
 of God, the Father, and Lord of the universe, and 
 of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy 
 Spirit, they receive the washing with water." 
 (1 Apol. ch. Ixi, Ante-Nic. Fath., vol. 1, p. 183.) 
 
 This passage unquestionably refers to immersion. 
 
110 IMMERSION. 
 
 Moses Stuart, the Congregationalist, commenting 
 upon it, says : ''I am persuaded that this passage 
 as a whole, most naturally refers to immersion, 
 for why on any other ground should the convert 
 who is to be initiated go out to the place where 
 there is water. There could be no need of this if 
 mere sprinkling, or partial affusion only, was cus- 
 tomary in the time of Justin." (On Bap., p. 144.) 
 
 Irenseus, A. D. 177, says, speaking of Naaman : 
 "And dipped himself, (says the Scripture,) seven 
 times in Jordan. It was not for nothing that 
 Naaman of old, when suffering from leprosy, was 
 purified upon his being baptized, but (it served) 
 as an indication to us. For as we are lepers in 
 sin, we are made clean, by means of the sacred 
 water, and the invocations of the Lord, from our 
 old transgressions; being spritually regenerated as 
 new born babes, even as the Lord has declared : 
 except a man be born again through the water and 
 the Spirit, he shall not enter the kingdom of 
 heaven." (Frag. 34., Ante-Nic. Fath., vol. 1, p. 574.) 
 
 The Pastor of Hermas, A.D. 160, says : " They 
 were obliged to ascend through water in order that 
 they might be made alive ; for, unless the dcadness 
 of their life was laid aside, they coukl not in any 
 way enter into the kingdom of God. . . . The 
 seal is the water ; they descend into the water dead, 
 
WHAT THE GREEK FATHERS SAY. Ill 
 
 and they arise alive." (Sim. ix, ch. xvi, Ante- 
 Nic. Fath., vol. 2, p. 49.) 
 
 Origen, A. D. 184—254, says : " The washing in 
 water is the symbol of the purification of the soul 
 cleansed of all impurity of sin.'' (Com. John, 
 t. viii.) Again, " Man therefore through this wash- 
 ing buried with Christ in regeneration." (Com. 
 Math.) 
 
 Hippolytus, A. D. 236, appears as a western 
 preacher speaking and writing in Greek. He says : 
 *' Do you see, beloved, how the prophets spake be- 
 fore time of the purifying power of baptism. For 
 he who comes down in faith to the laver of regen- 
 eration, and renounces the devil, and joins himself 
 to Christ; who denies the enemy, and makes the 
 confession that Christ is God ; who puts oif the 
 bondage and puts on the adoption, — he comes up 
 from the baptism as brilliant as the sun, and flash- 
 ing forth the beams of righteousness, which, indeed, 
 is the chief thing, he returns a son of God and 
 joint heir with Christ." (Holy. Theoph., Ante- 
 Nic. Fath., vol. 5, p. 237.) 
 
 Baron Bunsen, who discovered the lost books of 
 Hippolytus, has this to say : " The apostolic church 
 made the school the connecting link between her- 
 self and the world. The object of this education 
 was admission into the free society and brother- 
 
112 IMMERSION. 
 
 hood of the church and community. The church 
 adhered rigidly to the principle, as constituting the 
 true import of the baptism ordained of Christ, that 
 no one can be a member of the communion of 
 saints, but by his own free acts and deeds, his own 
 solemn vow made in the presence of the church. 
 It was with this understanding that the candidate 
 for baptism was immersed in water, and admitted 
 as a brother, upon his confession of the Father, 
 the Son, the Holy Ghost.^' (Hip. His Age, vol. 2, 
 p. 105.) 
 
 Gregory Thaumaturgus, A. D. 240, represents 
 Jesus as pleading with John to baptize him in 
 Jordan. He says : " Immerse me in the streams of 
 Jordan, even as she who bore me wrapped me in 
 the children's swaddling clothes. Grant me thy 
 baptism even as the virgin granted me her milk. 
 Lay hold of this head of mine, which the seraphim 
 revere. With thy right hand lay hold on this head, 
 that is related to thyself in kinship. Lay hold of 
 this head, which nature has made to be touched. 
 Lay hold of this head, which for this very purpose 
 has been formed by myself and my Father. Lay 
 hold of this head of mine, which, if any one does 
 lay hold of it in piety, will save him from ever 
 suiFering shipwreck. Baptize me, who am destined 
 to baptize those who believe on me with^water, 
 
WHAT THE GREEK FATHERS SAY. 113 
 
 and with the Spirit, and with fire; with water 
 capable of washing away the defilement of sins ; 
 with the Spirit, capable of making the earthly 
 spiritual ; with fire, naturally fitted to consume the 
 thorns of transgressions. On learning these words, 
 the Baptist directed his mind to the object of the 
 salvation, and comprehended the mystery which he 
 had received, and discharged the divine command; 
 for he was at once pious and ready to obey, and 
 stretching forth slowly his right hand, which seemed 
 both to tremble and to rejoice, he baptized the 
 Lord." (Four Hom. Ante-Nic. Fath., vol. 6, p. 70.) 
 
 Chrysostom, 347, says: ^^ To be baptized and 
 to submerge, then to emerge, is a symbol of descent 
 to the grave, and of ascent from it.'' (Hom. 40 in 
 1 Cor. i.) Again he says : " We, as in a sepulcher, 
 immersing our heads in water, the old man is 
 buried, and sinking down, the hole is covered at 
 once ; then as we emerge, the new man rises again." 
 (Cap. iii, Johanis.) 
 
 Dionysius says: '^ Properly the total covering by 
 water is taken from an image of death and burial 
 out of sight." (Areop. di Eccl. Heir. c. 2.) 
 
 Basil, A. D. 330, says : " By the three immersions, 
 and by the like number of invocations, the great 
 mystery of baptism is completed." (De Spirtu, c. 15.) 
 
114 IMMERSION. 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 WHAT THE LATIN FATHERS SAY. 
 
 rriHE testimony of the Latin fathers is equally 
 as conclusive as that of the Greeks. I begin 
 with Tertullian, A. D. 150, the oldest of the Latin 
 fathers. He makes frequent reference to baptism. 
 He says: "When entering the water, we make 
 profession of the Christian faith in the words of 
 its rule; we bear public testimony that we have 
 renounced the devil, his pomp and his angels." 
 (De Spec. ch. iv.) Again, "To deal," says he, 
 " with this matter briefly, I shall begin with bap- 
 tism. When we are going to enter the water, but 
 a little before, in the presence of the congregation 
 and under the hand of the president, we solemnly 
 profess that we disown the devil, and his pomp and 
 his angels. Thereupon we are thrice immersed, 
 making a somewhat ampler pledge than the Lord 
 has appointed in the Gospel. Then we are taken 
 up (as new born children)." (De Corona ch. iii.) 
 Against Marcion, ch. xxviii, he says: "He there- 
 fore seals man, who had never been unsealed in 
 respect of him ; washes man who had never been 
 defiled so far as he was concerned; and into this 
 
WHAT THE LATIN FATHERS SAY. 115 
 
 isacrament of salvation wholly plunges that flesh 
 ^which is beyond the pale of salvation." On the 
 Eesurrection, eh. xlii, he says; "Know ye not, 
 that so many of us as are dipped into Jesus 
 Christ, are baptized into his death. We are, there- 
 fore, buried with him by baptism into death, that 
 just as Christ was raised up from the dead, even so 
 we also should walk in newness of life." Ter- 
 tullian has also written a treatise on baptism. He 
 says, ch. iv : " And accordingly it makes no differ- 
 ence whether a man be washed in a sea or a pool, a 
 stream or a fount, a lake or a trough ; nor is there 
 any distinction between those whom John baptized 
 in the Jordan and those whom Peter baptized in the 
 Tiber, unless w^ithal the Eunuch whom Philip bap- 
 tized in the midst of his journeys with chance water, 
 derived (therefrom) more or less of salvation than 
 others." On Bap. ch. xiii, he says: "For the 
 law of dipping has been imposed, and the formula 
 prescribed : Go, he saith, teach the nations, dip- 
 ping them into the name of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." 
 
 So manifestly does Tertullian teach immersion 
 that Dr. George Campbell does not hesitate to 
 etate : " The word baptizeiny both in sacred authors, 
 and in classical, signifies to dip, to plunge, to 
 immerse, and was rendered by Tertullian, the 
 
116 IMMERSION. 
 
 oldest of the Latin Fathers, tiugere ; the term 
 used for dyeing cloth, which was by immersion." ^ 
 (Four Gos. vol. 4, p. 24.) And Moses Stuart 
 remarks : *^ I do not see how any doubt can well 
 remain, that in Tertullian^s time the practice of 
 the African church, to say the least, as to the 
 mode of baptism, must have been that of trine 
 immersion.'^ On Bapt. p. 146.) 
 
 Cyprian, A. D. 250, Epis. xxiv, renders the 
 commission : " The Lord, when after his resurrec- 
 tion he sent forth his apostles, charges them 
 saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and 
 in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, 
 dipping them into the name of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them 
 to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
 manded you." And quoting Gal. iii : 27, Epis. 
 75, he says : ^^ For if the apostle does not speak 
 falsely when he says. As many of you as are dip- 
 ped into Christ have put on Christ, certainly he 
 who has been baptized among them into Christ, 
 has put on Christ." 
 
 Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, A. D. 340, says: 
 "Thou wast asked. Dost thou believe in God 
 the Father Almighty. Thou saidst, I believe, 
 and thus thou wast immersed, that is, wast buried." 
 (Sacram. Lit. ii, c. 7.) 
 
WHAT THE LATIN FATHERS SAY. 117 
 
 The great Augustine says : " After you pro- 
 fessed your belief three times, did we submerge 
 your heads in the sacred fountain/' (Hom. iv.) 
 ** Rightly," says he, in another place, " are ye 
 immersed three times, who have received baptism 
 
 in the name of Christ For that thrice 
 
 repeated submersion expresses a resemblance of 
 the Lord's death." 
 
 Jerome, A. D. 331, says: "And thrice were 
 we immersed, that there may appear one sacrament 
 of the Trinity." (Epis. ad Eph. ch. iv.) 
 
 Alcuin, A. D. 735, to the brethren at Lyons, 
 Epis. xc, writes : " To us it seems indeed, accord- 
 ing to our feeble judgment, that as the inner man 
 is formed anew after the image of his Maker, in 
 the faith of the Holy Trinity, so the outer man 
 should be washed with a trine immersion ; that 
 what the Spirit invisibly works in the soul, that 
 the priest may visibly imitate in water." In 
 describing the act of baptism he says : '' And so, in 
 the name of the holy Trinity, he is baptized by 
 trine immersion." (Epis. xc. col. 292.) 
 
 There can remain no question from these 
 extracts that the early Latin fathers taught immer- 
 sion as the act of Christian baptism. For the 
 first time, in the writings of Tertullian, we cross 
 trine immersion. He expressly says, however. 
 
118 IMMERSION. 
 
 that this "is somewhat more than the Lord pre- 
 scribed in the Gospel.^' Jerome also states that 
 trine baptism is only a matter of tradition. "Many 
 of the things/' says Jerome, " which are observed 
 in the churches by tradition, have usurped to 
 themselves the authority of the written law (of the 
 Scriptures) ; such as to immerse the head three 
 times in the bath.'' (Advers. Lucif. c. 4.) But the 
 act of baptism, which is by immersion, remains 
 untouched. The fathers are unanimous in favor 
 of dipping. 
 
I 
 
 TEACHING OF THE APOSTLES. 119 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES." 
 
 N 1884 a translation of this work was given to 
 the English-speaking world by Archdeacon Far- 
 rar. It had been discovered by Bryennios in 1873, 
 and an edition of it printed by him in 1883. It 
 bore a very significant signature — " Leon, Notary 
 and Sinner"— and the Greek date 6564, which 
 equals 1056. It at once created the wildest en- 
 thusiam among our Pedobaptist friends. The Bap- 
 tist position was certainly overthrown, and our 
 position was utterly untenable ! Yet out of this 
 very thing has come a great good to the Baptists. 
 " The Teaching " has caused unlimited discussion, 
 and every agitation of the baptismal question is 
 to our advantage. We have every thing to gain 
 when this subject is stirred. After seven years the 
 sweep of scholarship is all toward immersion, and 
 we are more firmly implanted in our position than 
 ever before. 
 
 The famous chapter that was relied on to do such 
 wonderful things is f9und in the Constantinople edi- 
 tion, pp. 27-29, and is translated by Dr. Schaff as 
 follows : " Now concerning baptism, baptize thus : 
 
120 IMMERSION. 
 
 Having first taught all these things, baptize ye in 
 the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost, in living water. And if thou hast not 
 living water, baptize in other water ; and if thou 
 canst not in cold, then in warm (water). But if 
 thou hast neither, pour (water) thrice upon the 
 head in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost. But before baptism let 
 the baptizer and the baptized fast, and any others 
 who can ; but thou shalt command the baptizer to 
 fast for one or two days before." 
 
 I will make several interesting observations : 
 
 1. This is undoubtedly a very great variation 
 from the teaching of the New Testament ; and it 
 matters not what this book says, the New Testa- 
 ment is the standard of authority. The New Tes- 
 tament nowhere calls baptism ekcheo, to pour; it 
 is always baptizo, to dip. This alone stamps this 
 book of late origin. 
 
 2. Immersion is plainly preferred, and pouring 
 is only allowed in the extreme cases, and that 
 must be performed three times. As Dr. Schaif re- 
 marks : ^' The preference of the ante-Nicene church 
 was for baptism in a running stream, as the Jor- 
 dan, the Nile, the Tiber.'' (Teaching, p. 185.) 
 
 3. Fasting is as fully and emphatically taught 
 as is pouring; indeed the injunction is absolute. 
 
TEACHING OF THE APOSTLES. 121 
 
 4. There are some other very fatal objections 
 to pedobaptism in this book : (1.) Infant baptism 
 is left out of the " Teaching." In trying to over- 
 throw immersion, infant baptism is destroyed. In- 
 struction is positively enjoined before baptism, and 
 this forever excludes infant baptism. Dr. SchaiF 
 admits that *' infant baptism is not contemplated in 
 the Didache." (2.) This book teachcss the Baptist 
 doctrine of close communion. No one but bap- 
 tized persons must come to the table of the Lord. 
 Chapter ix commands that, "Let no one eat or 
 drink of the Eucharist except those baptized into 
 the name of the Lord." Our Presbyterian brother, 
 Dr. Schaff, is still giving us good testimony. He 
 says: "The communion is for baptized believers, 
 and for them only. Baptism is the sacramental 
 sign and seal of regeneration and conversion; the 
 Lord's Supper is the sacrament of sanctification 
 and growth in spiritual grace. . . . Hence the 
 Apostolic Constitutions lay great stress on the ex- 
 clusion of unbelievers from the Eucharist." (Teach- 
 ing, p. 193.) (3.) The Teaching is also fatal to the 
 doctrine of Episcopacy, for only two classes of offi- 
 cers are recognized — Bishops and Deacons. These 
 are to be elected by the people. The Greek verb 
 means, in classical writers, to stretch out the hand, 
 or to vote by show of hands ; then to elect. This 
 
122 IMMERSION. 
 
 is rather a discouraging view of the matter to our 
 Pedobaptist friends. 
 
 5. The book is full of all kinds of childish 
 twaddle. The truth is that it is supremely silly 
 in many places. Concerning the character of the 
 work, Bishop Cleveland Coxe in his prefatory note 
 says : " Even Lactantius, in his Institutes, shapes 
 his instructions to Constantine by the Dua Via, 
 which seemed to have been formulated in the ear- 
 liest ages for the training of catechumens. The 
 elementary nature and ^ the childishness' of the 
 work are thus accounted for, and I am sure that 
 the ^ Mystagogic ' teaching of Cyril receives light 
 from this view of th^ matter. This work was food 
 for ' lambs ' ; it was not meant to meet the wants 
 of those ^of full age.' It may prove, as Dr. Riddle 
 hints, that the Teaching, as we have it in the Bry- 
 ennios document, is tainted by the views of some 
 nascent sect or heresy, or by the incompetency 
 of some obscure local church as yet unvisited by 
 learned teachers and evangelists. It seems to me 
 not improbably influenced by views of the charis- 
 mata, which ripened into Montanism, and which 
 are illustrated by the warnings and admonitions of 
 Hermas." (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7, p. 171.) 
 
 Those who wish to follow this mixture of fool- 
 
TEACHING OF THE APOSTLES. 123 
 
 ishness and heresy can do so, but I prefer the word 
 of the living God as my counselor. 
 
 6. The morality of the book is positively shock- 
 ing. The very first chapter teaches that if a man 
 is in need and steals it is all right. Hear it : " Woe 
 to him that taketh ; for if one that is in need taketh, 
 he shall be guiltless; but he that is not in need 
 shall give account whereof he took and whereunto ; 
 and being in durance shall be questioned touch- 
 ing what he did, and he shall not go out thence 
 until he give back the last farthing.'' I am very 
 glad we do not have to defend immersion with 
 such stuff as this. 
 
 7. The truth is that no two WTiters agree in regard 
 to scarcely any particulars concerning this book. 
 There are the wildest and most absurd contradic- 
 tions in regard to the writer, the time it was writ- 
 ien, the country, and almost every detail connected 
 with the work. Prof Harnack, who first announced 
 this book to the Western World, and who has 
 studied it more closely than any other, has fur- 
 nished a series of articles for the Theologische Lite- 
 raturzeitung. What w^e give below was published 
 June, 12th, 1886, and republished in the New 
 York Independent Aug. 26th, 1886. It put to- 
 gether, without comment, the conflicting opinions 
 that are held in regard to it. Dr. Harnack says : 
 
124 IMMERSION. 
 
 "One investigator puts the newly discovered 
 writing before the Pauline letters, or even before 
 the council of the apostles (Sabatier) ; the second, 
 in the time of Paul; the third, soon after the 
 destruction of Jerusalem (Bestinann) ; the fourth, 
 in the last decades of the first century (an idea that 
 finds- very much favor); the fifth, in the days of 
 Trajan (also a favorite idea) ; the sixth, in the days 
 of Barcochba ; the seventh, in the time of Antonines ; 
 the eighth, about the time of Commodus ; the ninth, 
 in the third century ; the tenth, in the fourth 
 century; and there are some who favor the fifth 
 or a later century. So much in reference to the 
 time of composition. 
 
 " In other points matters stand no better. On 
 the history of its transmission one says that it is 
 the book known to the Fathers from the days of 
 Clement ; others deny this ; a third party seeks a 
 middle path in regard to the integrity of the book ; 
 some say the book is from one author, and orig- 
 inal; others that it is a compilation, and is crowded 
 with interpolations ; that it consists of two or more 
 parts that originally did not belong together. In 
 regard to the character of the book, some claim 
 that it is well arranged, others that it is poorly ar- 
 ranged; some that in parts it is well arranged, 
 and in parts poorly arranged ; some that the skill 
 
TEACHING OF THE APOSTLES. 125 
 
 of the author must be admired ; others that the 
 author has no idea of the literary arts. 
 
 " With regard to the sources, some say that only 
 the old Testament served as a source, and that all 
 the rest is original, because older than all other 
 Christian writings ; others say that there is nothing 
 original in the book, but the whole is taken from 
 other sources; some that the new Testament re- 
 ceives no witness from the Didache; others that 
 nearly all the New Testament books are used in 
 it, and that the book itself thereby seems the best 
 proof of its antiquity ; some that Barnabas and 
 Hermas are used; others that Barnabas is used, 
 but that Hermas in turn used the 'Didache'; 
 others, on the other hand, that Hermas was used, 
 and that Barnabas is a later production; others 
 that Philo, the Sybiline books, and the Gentile 
 moralists were used ; others that in primitive apos- 
 tolic simplicity the author has reproduced only the 
 pure Gospel. 
 
 *' In regard to the standpoint of the author, some 
 claim that it is primitive-apostolic from the view 
 of the Jewish Christians ; others, that it is post- 
 apostolic and Jewish-Christian; others, anti-Paul- 
 ine; others, that it is strongly influenced by Paul; 
 others, that it is Saddusaic; others, vulgar, hea- 
 thenish ; others, dangerously Ebionitic ; others, Mar- 
 
126 IMMERSION. 
 
 cionitic ; others_, Montanir^tlc ; others, Theodosian; 
 others, quite moralizing; others, eneratistic ; oth- 
 ers, thoroughly Byzantine, but under a transparent 
 mask; others, that the standpoint can not be discov- 
 ered, since the author has not treated of his faith ; 
 others, classically evangelical. 
 
 " With regard to the importance of the book, some 
 say that it is the most important discovery of the 
 century, and should be received into the canon of 
 the New Testament; that it is the whole Bible in 
 mice; that it solves the greatest problems; that it 
 is peculiar, and should be used with care; that it 
 shows the average Christianity; that as a compi- 
 lation it can not be used in picturing any period ; 
 that it shows poverty of contents ; the Christianity 
 of the author can only be lamented ; that it is ra- 
 tionalistic and flat, but nevertheless interesting; 
 that it is a miserable production, without any im- 
 portance for those of our times ; the book is char- 
 acteristic only of the Byzantine forger. Places 
 assigned for the writing: Egypt, Greece, Syria, 
 Jerusalem, Rome, Asia Minor, Constantinople. 
 
 " Then some regard it as setting forth the apos- 
 tolic, the Presbyterian, the Episcopal, or no system 
 of church government whatever. It is considered 
 of great value because it favors the Protestant, or 
 the Catholic, or the Baptist, or the anti-Baptist, or 
 
TEACHING OF THE APOSTLES. 127 
 
 the Chiliastic, or the anti-Chiliastic, or the Irving- 
 ian, or some other church party; because it is still 
 apostolic and anti-Catholic and at the same time 
 Catholic; because its prophets are still apostles of 
 the real primitive Christianity; others, then, claim 
 that they are new prophets, or no prophets at all, 
 but rather inventive swindlers and parasites ; oth- 
 ers, that they are no swindlers, but homunculi pro- 
 duced by a forger." 
 
 I have given this full discussion of this work on 
 account of the prominence given to the Teaching 
 in so many quarters. It will easily be seen that 
 scholars must come nearer to an agreement before 
 the work can be seriously quoted as an authority. 
 Granting the extremest position of our opponents, 
 we gain by the book quite as much as we lose. 
 The truth is that the part that may appear to favor 
 the Pedobaptists is really the part that is directly 
 against the teaching of the New Testament. 
 
128 IMMERSION. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ARGUMENT FROM HISTORY IN FAVOR OF 
 IMMERSION. 
 
 A LL standard historians, regardless of denomi- 
 -^-^ nation, assert that immersion was the primi- 
 tive act of baptism. Time would fail me to give 
 them all, for their name is legion. I will content 
 myself, therefore, by making such selections as I 
 may deem best. 
 
 As the first authority I will give Dr. Arthur P. 
 Stanley, a late dignitary of the Church of England. 
 He was the son of a bishop. He was for seven 
 years Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Oxford 
 University. He is the author of several works of 
 high critical value, and stood at the head of En- 
 glish scholars. His last position was Lord Rector 
 of St. Andrew's and Dean of Westminster Abbey. 
 He says of baptism : "Into this society they passed 
 by an act as natural as it was expressive. The 
 plunge into the bath of purification, long known 
 among the Jewish nation as the symbol of a change 
 of life, had been revived with a fresh energy by 
 the Essencs, and it received a definite significa- 
 tion and impulse from the austere prophet who de- 
 
ARGUMENT FROM HISTORY. 129 
 
 rived his name from the ordinance. This rite was 
 retained as the pledge of entrance into a new and 
 universal communion. In that early age the scene 
 of the transaction was either some deep wayside 
 spring or well, as for the Ethiopian, or some rush- 
 ing river, as the Jordan, or some vast reservoir, as 
 at Jericho or Jerusalem, whither, as in the baths of 
 Caracalla at Rome, the whole population resorted 
 for swimming or washing. The earliest scene of 
 the immersion was in the Jordan. That rushing 
 river — the one river of Palestine — found at last 
 its fit purpose." (Christian Institutions, p. 2.) 
 
 Dr. Adolf Harnack, of Giessen, the foreuiost 
 living German Church historian, in reply to some 
 questions of C. E. W. Dobbs, D. D., made the 
 following statement on "the present state of 
 opinion among German scholars," concerning the 
 ancient act of baptism : 
 
 GlESSEN, Jan. 16th, 1885. 
 
 C. E. W. Dobbs, D. D.: 
 
 Dear Sir, — Referring to your three inquiries, I 
 have the honor to reply : 
 
 1st. Baptism undoubtedly signifies immersion, 
 (elntauchen.) 
 
 2d. No proof can be found that it signifies any 
 thing else in the New Testament, and in the most 
 
 9 
 
130 IMMERSION. 
 
 ancient Christian literature. The suggestion re- 
 garding " a sacred sense," is out of the question. 
 3d. There is no passage in the New Testament 
 which suggests the supposition that any New Tes- 
 tament author attached to the word baptizein any 
 other sense them eintauche7i=untertauchen.'' (Schaffs 
 Teach, of the Twelve, p. 50.) 
 
 Dr. Joseph Langen, Old Catholic Professor in 
 Bonn, Germany, in a letter to myself, in April, of 
 this year, says : " In reply to your pleasing letter 
 of March 13th, I have to say the following ; 
 
 " 1. The meaning of the word baptizein is to 
 dip under. 
 
 " 2. The authors of the New Testament have 
 never used th^word in any other sense. 
 
 " 3. In Western countries not till after the 
 eleventh century, after the separation from the 
 East, was pouring on the head generally established 
 in the place of dipping under." 
 
 Dr. Philip Schaff, the eminent Presbyterian 
 scholar and historian, of New York, says : ^' The 
 usual form of baptism was by immersion. This is 
 inferred from the original of the Greek baptizein 
 and baptismos; from the analogy of John's bap- 
 tism in the Jordan; from the apostle's comparison 
 of the sacred rite with the miraculous passage of 
 
ARGUMENT FROM HISTORY. 131 
 
 the Red Sea, and the escape of the ark from the 
 flood, with a cleansing and refreshing bath, and 
 with burial and resurrection; finally, from the 
 general custom of the ancient church, which pre- 
 vails in the East to this day." (Christ. Ch., vol. 1, 
 pp. 468, 469.) 
 
 Homersham Cox, a very learned English judge, 
 says in his recent book. The First Century of 
 Christianity : ^' The Jews baptized by immersion, 
 and this was undoubtedly the form of the Chris- 
 tian institution originally, though subsequently 
 baptism by affusion was allowed. Even so late 
 as the age of Cyprian (the third century) this 
 method, though tolerated, was not the most 
 usual." (p. 227.) 
 
 George P. Fisher, Professor of Ecclesiastical 
 History in Yale University, says: "Baptism, it 
 is now generally agreed among scholars, was com- 
 monly by immersion." (Begin. Christ, p. 565.) 
 
 Prof. L. L. Paine, D. D., of the Bangor Theo- 
 logical Seminary, some time since surprised some 
 of his friends by teaching that immersion was bap- 
 tism, and he wrote the following in his own justi- 
 fication : "It may be honestly asked by some, 
 Was immersion the primitive form of baptism, 
 and, if so, what then ? As to the question of fact, 
 the testimony is ample and decisive. No matter 
 
132 IMMERSION. 
 
 of Church history i>s clearer. The evidence is all 
 one way, and all church historians of any repute 
 agree in accepting it. We can not even claim 
 originality in teaching it in a Congregational Sem- 
 inary. And we really feel guilty of a kind of 
 anachronism in writing an article to insist upon it. 
 It is a point on which ancient, mediaeval and mod- 
 ern historians alike, Catholic and Protestant, 
 Lutheran and Calvinist, have no controversy. And 
 the simple reason for this unanimity, is that the 
 statements of the early fathers are so clear, and 
 the light shed upon their statements from the early 
 customs of the church, is so conclusive, that no 
 historian who cares for his reputation would dare 
 to deny it, and no historian who is worthy of the 
 name would wish to. There are some historical 
 questions concerning the early church, on which 
 the most learned writers disagree — for example 
 the question of infant baptism ; but on this one of 
 the early practice of immersion, the most distin- 
 guished antiquarians, such as Bingham, Augusti, 
 Coleman, Smith, and historians such as Mosheim, 
 Gieseler, Hase, Milman, Schaff, Alzog (Catholic) 
 hold a common language." 
 
 What is more, scholars of the highest repute state 
 that immersion was the common act of baptism for 
 thirteen hundred years. This is a very strong 
 
ARGUMENT FROM HISTORY. 133 
 
 point, and I will let the scholars speak for them- 
 selves. 
 
 Dr. H. Holtzmann, Professor in Strasburg Uni- 
 versity, writes me April 4th, 1890: "The meaning 
 of the word baptizein, as of the simple baptein, is to 
 * dip in, to dip under.' At a later date, instead of 
 immersion, aspersion occurs in the cases of sick- 
 ness, and was called clinic baptism. Aspersion be-* 
 came only more common in consequence of the 
 Ijaptism of children, and never obtained a mean- 
 ing similar to immersion until after the thirteenth 
 century." 
 
 Dr. Hilgenfeld, Professor in the University of 
 Jena, writes me : " Only in the Western Church, 
 and after the thirteenth century, did sprinkling 
 come in as the usual mode of baptism, so that it 
 became the general custom in the fourteenth cent- 
 ury. The baptism by immersion, however, is still 
 preserved by the Greek Catholic Church." 
 
 Prof. Gaston Bonet-Maury, Professor in the Prot- 
 estant Theological Faculty of Paris, writes : " The 
 literal meaning of the Greek word bcqAizein is to 
 plunge, to immerse, to dip. Baptism by immer- 
 sion is still practiced by all the orthodox Greek 
 churches of the East. This form was practiced in 
 the West until the close of the thirteenth century. 
 But at the close of the thirteenth century, baptism 
 
134 IMMERSION. 
 
 by aspersion prevailed definitely for the baptism 
 of children. In 1311 the Council of Ravenna al- 
 lowed free choice between immersion and aspersion. 
 Thomas Aquinas declares the two forms equally 
 legitimate. Baptism by immersion has been pre- 
 served until the present time in the cathedral of 
 Milan. In the sixteenth century Edward VI. and 
 Queen Elizabeth were baptized by immersion, and 
 the English liturgy of baptism enjoined immersion 
 for the public baptism of little children. Since the 
 beginning of the seventeenth century this form has 
 been very rare in the non-Baptist churches.^' 
 
 Dr. Philip Schaff, Presbyterian, says : ^^ Pouring 
 and sprinkling were still exceptional in the ninth 
 century, according to Walafrid Strabo (De Eel. 
 Eccl. c. 26) ; but they made gradual progress, with 
 the spread of infant baptism, as the most convenient 
 mode, especially in northern climates, and came into 
 common use in the West at the end of the thirteenth 
 century. '' 
 
 Dollinger, the eminent Catholic author who so 
 recently died at Bonn, says in his History : " Bap- 
 tism by immersion continued to be the prevailing 
 practice of the Church as late as the fourteenth 
 century.'^ (Hist. Ch. vol. 2, p. 294.) 
 
 Dean Stanley says : " For the first thirteen cent- 
 uries the almost universal practice of baptism was 
 
ARGUMENT FEOM HISTORY. 135 
 
 that of which we read in the New Testament, and 
 which is the very meaning of the word ' baptize ' — 
 that those who were baptized were plunged, sub- 
 merged, immersed into the water. That practice 
 is still, as we have seen, continued in Eastern 
 churches." (Chris. Ins. p. 17.) 
 
 Dr. Funk, of Tubingen University, writes that, 
 " In the thirteenth century the practice of pouring 
 began considerably to prevail ; and in some places 
 (as in France) somewhat earlier than this." 
 
 Here are seven witnesses — and many more might 
 be given — all testifying that immersion was the 
 common practice for thirteen hundred years. They 
 say it was the universal practice, save those who 
 Avere baptized upon their sick-bed. Could I want 
 stronger testimony to the primitive rite? These 
 men are Presbyterians, Catholics, and Episcopali- 
 ans, and are not prejudiced toward the Baptists. 
 The testimony is sure, and our position remains 
 tenable. The voice of history is fully on our side, 
 and all antiquity says that the ancient act of bap- 
 tism was an immersion in water. 
 
136 IMMERSION. 
 
 CHAPTER XVllI. 
 
 SPRINKLING A HEATHEN CUSTOM. 
 
 nnHE practice of sprinkling, for baptism, is of 
 pagan origin. In the days of the apostles 
 corrupt practices began to creep into the churches. 
 In the course of time, as the Roman Catholic 
 Church began to extend its borders, thousands of 
 baptized, but unconverted heathen, were received 
 into her communion. These persons assumed the 
 name of Christians, but brought along with them 
 their corrupt and abominable practices. They 
 changed their name, but not their rites and cer- 
 emonies. One of the doctrines they brought with 
 them was that of baptismal salvation. This has 
 been the bane of pure Christianity. But along 
 with this came the attendant evils of sprinkling 
 and infant baptism. The heathens worshiped the 
 river as a god, and believed that a bath in its 
 waters, or its sacred water poured or sprinkled 
 upon themselves, would bring everlasting life. It 
 was a matter of indiiference to them how the 
 water should be applied. 
 
 With the corruptions of Christianity this idea 
 began to prevail among the thousands Avho came 
 
SPRINKLING A HEATHEN CUSTOM. 137 
 
 from the heathen. The argument was to them 
 complete and convincing: If water baptism saved 
 a man, and this many of the fathers most ardently 
 believed, it was very necessary that a man should 
 not die without the " laver of regeneration." But 
 as it is not always convenient to dip a man who 
 was at the point of death, copious pouring was 
 resorted to as in the case of Novatian; and from 
 this confessed innovation, sprinkling has become 
 the general practice of the Roman Catholic Church, 
 and of those churches which have been connected 
 w^ith it. The same matter of convenience and sal- 
 vation applied to infants, and so it became cus- 
 tomary to sprinkle them in case they were weak, 
 and from that came the prevailing custom of infant 
 sprinkling. If there was no such doctrine as bap- 
 tismal salvation, infant baptism Avould die a nat- 
 ural death, and sprinkling would never have been 
 a custom in the Christian world. 
 
 But I will make good these statements that bap- 
 tismal salvation and aifusion are of heathen origin, 
 and have been engrafted as a custom upon the 
 Christian religion. These propositions will more 
 fully appear from the unimpeachable authorities 
 that I present. I wish especially to acknowledge 
 my indebtedness to a very able editorial which 
 
138 IMMERSION. 
 
 appeared in the January number, 1891, of the 
 Outlooh. 
 
 The pagans were accustomed to worship the sun, 
 rivers and fountains, and sometimes their rites 
 were a combination of ceremonies to these. It is 
 in this way that Virgil writes : 
 
 ^^He started up, and viewing the rising beams 
 of the ethereal sun, in his hollow palms, with 
 pious form, he raised water from the river, and 
 poured forth to heaven these words: Ye nymphs, 
 ye Laurentine nymphs, whence rivers have their 
 origin ; and thou, O Father Tiber, with thy sacred 
 river; receive ^neas and defend him at length 
 from dangers. In whatever source thy lake con- 
 tains thee, compassionate to our misfortunes, from 
 whatever soil thou springest forth most beauteous, 
 horn-bearing river, monarch of the Italian streams, 
 ever shalt thou be honored with my veneration, 
 ever with my offerings. O grant us thy present 
 aid, and by nearer aid confirm thy divine oracles." 
 (^neid, b. 8, 1. 70-82.) 
 
 Ovid, describing the feast of Pales, held in May, 
 exhibits the same combination of sun and water 
 worship : 
 
 "Often in truth have I leaped over the fires 
 placed in three rows, and the dripping bough of 
 laurel has flung the sprinkled waters. . 
 
SPRINKLING A HEATHEN CUSTOM. 139 
 
 Shepherd, purify the full sheep at the beginning of 
 twilight, let the water first sprinkle them, and let 
 the broom made of twigs sweep the ground. . . . 
 Protect thou alike the cattle, and let all harm fly 
 away, repelled from my stalls. Let that happen 
 which I pray for, and may we at the close of the 
 year, offer cakes of good size to Pales, the mistress 
 of the shepherds. With these words must the 
 goddess be propitiated; turning to the East, do 
 you repeat these words three times, and in the 
 running stream thoroughly wash your hands." 
 (Fasti, bk. 4, 1. 728-779.) 
 
 In another place Ovid tells us of Deucalion and 
 Phyrra, resolving to seek the sacred oracles, in 
 prayer, at the temple of the goddess Themis ; he 
 says : 
 
 " There is no delay ; together they repair to the 
 waters of Cephsius, though not clear, yet now 
 cutting their wonted channel. Then when they 
 had sprinkled the waters poured on their clothes 
 and their heads, they turn their steps to the tem- 
 ple of the sacred goddess, the roof of which was 
 defiled with foul moss, and whose altars were 
 standing without fires.'' (Metamorphoses, bk. 1, 
 fable 10, lines 651, &c.) 
 
 Sir Monier-Williams, describing water worship, 
 and one of the temples in India, says : 
 
140 IMMERSION. 
 
 " Thither, therefore, a constant throng of wor- 
 shippers continually resort, bringing with them 
 offerings of flowers, rice and other grains, which 
 they throw into the water thirty or forty feet below 
 the ground. A Brahman is perpetually employed 
 in drawing up the putrid liquid, the smell, or 
 rather stench of which, from incessant admixture 
 of decaying floAvers and of vegetable matter, making 
 the neighborhood almost unbearable. This he pours 
 with a ladel into the hands of the expectant crowd, 
 who either drink it with avidity, or sprinkle it 
 reverentially over their persons. A still more 
 sacred well called the Manikarnika, situated on 
 one of the chief Ghats leading to the Ganges, owes 
 its origin, in popular belief, to the fortunate cir- 
 cumtance that one of Siva's ear-rings happened to 
 fall on the spot. This well is near to the surface 
 and quite exposed to view. It forms a small 
 quadrangular pool, not more than three feet deep. 
 Four flights of steps on the four sides lead to the 
 water, the disgusting foulness of which, in the 
 estimation of countless pilgrims, vastly enhances 
 its efficacy for the removal of sin. The most 
 abandoned criminals journey from the most distant 
 parts of India to the margin of this sacred pool. 
 There they secure the services of Brahmins, ap- 
 pointed to the duty, and descending with them 
 
SPRINKLING A HEATHEN CUSTOM. 141 
 
 into the water, are made to repeat certain texts and 
 mutter certain mystic formulae, the meaning of 
 which they are wholly unable to understand. Then, 
 while in the act of repeating the words put into 
 their mouths, they eagerly immerse their entire 
 persons beneath the offensive liquid. The long 
 looked for dip over, a miraculous transformation 
 is the result; for the foul water has cleansed the 
 gtill fouler soul. Few Hindus venture to doubt 
 that the most depraved sinner in existence may 
 thus be converted into an immaculate saint, worthy 
 of being translated at once to the highest heavens 
 of the God of Benares." (Brahminism and Hindu- 
 ism by Sir Monier-Williams, M. A., D. C. L., Lon- 
 don 1887.) 
 
 In a still later work, Sir William describes the 
 present baptismal custom in Thibet and Mongolia, 
 as follows: 
 
 "It is noticeable that a kind of infant baptism 
 is practiced in Thibet and Mongolia. It is usual 
 to sprinkle children with consecrated water, or to 
 immerse them entirely on the third or tenth day 
 after birth. This is called khrus-sol (according to 
 Jaschke). The priest consecrates the water by re- 
 citing some formula, while candles and incense are 
 burning. He then dips the child three times, bless- 
 es it, and gives it a name. After performing the 
 
142 IMMERSION. 
 
 ceremony he draws up the infant's horoscope. Then 
 as soon as the child can walk and talk, a second 
 ceremony takes place, and prayers are said for its 
 happy life, and an amulet or little bag is hung 
 around its neck, filled with spells and charms against 
 evil spirits and diseases." (Buddhism, etc.) 
 
 Alabaster also says : 
 
 " Baptism was a religious rite from very ancient 
 times, the Brahmins holding that if any one who 
 had sinned went to the banks of the Ganges and 
 saying, ^ I will not sin again,' plunged into the 
 stream, he would rise to surface free of sin, all his 
 floating away. Sometimes when any one was sick 
 unto death, his relatives would place him by the 
 river, and give him water to drink, and pour 
 water over him till he died, believing that he would 
 thus die holy and go to heaven.'' (Buddhism, pp. 
 30, 31.) 
 
 Mallet says of baptism in Scandinavia : 
 
 "It was no less remarkable that a kind of in- 
 fant baptism was practiced in the North, long before 
 the dawning of Christianity, and had reached those 
 parts. Snorri Sturlason, in his chronicle, speaking 
 of a Norwegian noble who lived in the reign of 
 Harold Harfragra, relates that he poured water on 
 the head of a new born child, and called him 
 Hakon, from the name of his father. Harald him- 
 
SPKINKLING A HEATHEN CUSTOM. 143 
 
 self had been bapti2sed in the same manner, and it 
 is noted of King Olaf Tryggvason, that his mother 
 Astrida had him thus baptized and named as soon 
 as he was born. The Livonians observed the same 
 ceremony, which also prevailed among the Germans, 
 as appears from a letter which the famous Pope 
 Gregory the Third sent to their Apostle Boniface, 
 directing expressly how to act in this respect. It 
 is probable that all of these people might intend, 
 by such a rite, to preserve their children from the 
 sorceries and evil charms which wicked spirits 
 might employ against them at the instant of their 
 birth. Several nations of Asia and America have 
 attributed such a power to ablutions of this kind ; 
 nor were the Romans without such a custom, though 
 they did not wholly confine it to new born infants.'' 
 (Mallett's Scandinavian, p. 206.) 
 
 S. Baring Gould testifies concerning pagan bap- 
 tisms in Scandinavia as follows : 
 
 " Among the Scandinavians, infant baptism was 
 in vogue before the introduction of Christianity, 
 and the rite accompanied the naming of the child. 
 Before the accomplishment of this rite, the expo- 
 sition of the babe was lawful, but after the ceremony 
 it became murder. A baptism in blood seems to 
 have been practiced by the Germans and Norsemen 
 in remote antiquity ; to this the traditions of the 
 
144 IMMERSION. 
 
 horny Sigfrid, or Sigurd, and Wolfdietrich point. 
 Dipping in water, and aspersion with water, or with 
 the blood of a victim, w^as also customary among 
 the Druids, as was also the baptism of Fire, perhaj)3 
 borrowed by them from the Phoenicians. This 
 was that passing through the fire to Molech alluded 
 to repeatedly in the Jewish Scriptures." (Orig. 
 and Devel. Rel. Bel. Circu. p. 397.) 
 
 Prescott speaks of the amazement with which 
 the early Spaniards beheld the points of similarity 
 between the customs of the Pagan Mexicans and 
 the Roman Catholic Church : He says : 
 
 " With the same feelings they witnessed another 
 ceremony, that of the Aztec baptism ; in which, after 
 a solemn invocation, the head and lips of the in- 
 fant were touched with water, and a name given 
 to it; while the goddess Cioacoati, who presided 
 over child-birth, was implored that the sin which 
 was given to us before the beginning of the world, 
 might not visit the child, but that, cleansed by 
 these waters, it might live and be born anew." 
 (Con. of Mex. vol. 3, p. 369.) 
 
 A full account of these pagan baptisms in Mex- 
 ico is given by Shagun-de-Bernardino, as follows: 
 
 " When eveiy thing necessary for the baptism 
 had been made ready, all the relations of the child 
 were a88eml)led, and the midwife, who was the 
 
SPRINKLING A HEATHEN CUSTOM. 145 
 
 person that performed the rite of baptism, was 
 summoned. At early dawn they met together in 
 the court-yard of the house. When the sun had 
 risen, the midwife, taking the chikl in her arms, 
 called for a little earthen vessel of water, while 
 those about her placed the ornaments which had 
 been prepared for the baptism in the midst of the 
 court. To perform the rite of baptism, she placed 
 herself with her face toward the west, and imme- 
 diately began to go through certain ceremonies. 
 After this she sprinkled water on the head of the 
 infant, saying, ' O my child, take and receive the 
 water of the Lord of the world, which is our life, 
 and is given for the increasing and renewing of 
 our body. It is to wash and to purify. I pray 
 that these heavenly drops may enter into your 
 body and dwell there ; that they may destroy and 
 remove from you all the evil and sin which was 
 given to you before the beginning of the world ; 
 since all of us are under its power, being all the 
 children of Chalchivitlycue' (the goddess of water). 
 She then washed the body of the child with water, 
 and spoke in this manner: ^ Whencesoever thou 
 comest, thou that art hurtful to this child, leave 
 him and depart from him, for he now liveth anew, 
 and is born anew ; now he is purified, and cleansed 
 afresh. And our mother Chalchivitlycue again 
 10 
 
146 IMMERSION. 
 
 bringeth into the world.' Having thus prayed, 
 the midwife took the child in both hands, lifted 
 him toward heaven, and said : ' O Lord, thou seest 
 here thy creature, whom thou hast sent into this 
 world, this place of sorrow, suffering, and peni- 
 tence. Grant him, O Lord, thy gifts and thine 
 inspiration, for thou art the great God, and with 
 thee is the great goddess.' Torches of pine were 
 kept burning during the performance of these cere- 
 monies. When these things were ended they gave 
 the child the name of some one of his ancestors, 
 in hope that he might shed a new luster over it. 
 The name was given by the same midwife or 
 priestess who baptized him.'' (Hist, de Neuva- 
 Espana, lib. G, cap. 37.) 
 
 From these unimpeachable authorities nothing 
 is more evident than that the heathens believed in 
 baptismal salvation, and practiced infant baptism, 
 and that the act was pouring, sprinkling, and im- 
 mersion indifferently. When some of the popular 
 Church Liturgies of to-day are compared with the 
 j)rayers and performances quoted above, the simi- 
 larity is most striking and startling. The truth is 
 that the ceremonies of infant sprinkling are taken 
 from the Elusinian and Druidical lustrations. Many 
 of the foremost Pedobaptist scholars do not deny, 
 but freely admit, this fact. 
 
SPRINKLIXG A HEATHEN CUSTOM. 147 
 
 Dr. Bennett, a Methodist author whom we have 
 frequently quoted, repeatedly shows that in the 
 architecture of the third and following centuries 
 heathen thought and figures are used, and that a 
 heathen god is in the only picture of pouring for 
 baptism Ibund in early art. His w^hole book on 
 *' Archaeology '^ is a statement of this fact. 
 
 Dean Stanley is even more explicit. He says : 
 '* It IS astonishing how many of these decorations 
 are taken from heathen sources and copied from 
 heathen paintings. There is Orpheus playing on 
 his harp to the beasts ; there is Bacchus as the god 
 of the vintage ; there is Psyche, the butterfly of 
 the soul ; there is the Jordan as the god of the 
 river. The Classical and the Christian, the He- 
 brew and the Hellenic, elements had not yet 
 parted. The strict demarkation, which the books 
 of the period would imply, between the Christian 
 Church and the heathen world, had not yet been 
 formed, or was constantly effaced. The Catacombs 
 had more affinity with the chapel of Alexander Se- 
 verus, which contained Orpheus side by side with 
 Abraham and Christ, than they have w^ith the writ- 
 ings of Tertullian, who spoke of heathen poets only 
 to exult in their future torments ; or of Augustine, 
 who regarded this very figure of Orpheus only as a 
 mischievous teacher to be disparaged, not as a type 
 
148 IMMERSION. 
 
 of the two forms of heathen and Christian civiliza- 
 tion. It agrees with the fact that the funeral in- 
 scriptions are often addressed Dis manibus, ^to the 
 funeral spirits.' " (Inst. p. 230.) 
 
 If any thing more was needed, the statement of 
 the late Cardinal Newman would put it at rest 
 when he speaks of these appendages as ^Hhe very 
 instruments and appendages of demon worship." 
 (Devel. pp. 359, 360.) 
 
 In truth the Roman Catholic writers defended it 
 as the very best policy possible. No man is higher 
 authority among Roman Catholics than Cardinal 
 Baron i us. He says : 
 
 '^ It was permitted the Church to transfer to pi- 
 ous uses those ceremonies which the pagans had 
 wickedly applied in a superstitious worship, after 
 having purified them by consecration ; so that, to 
 the greater contumely of the devil, all might honor 
 Christ with those rites which he intended for his 
 own worship. Thus the pagan festivals, laden with 
 superstition, were changed into praiseworthy festi- 
 vals of the martyrs; and the idolatrous temples 
 were changed to sacred churches, as Theodoret 
 shows." 
 
 The scholarly Max MuUer says of the first three 
 centuries : 
 
 " This age was characterized, far more than all 
 
SPRINKLING A HEATHEN CUSTOM. 149 
 
 before it, by a spirit of religious syncretism, an 
 eager thirst for compromise. To mold together 
 thoughts which differed fundamentally, to grasp, 
 if possible, the common elements pervading all the 
 multifarious religions of the world, was deemed 
 the proper business of philosophy, both in the East 
 and in the West. It was a period, one has lately 
 said, of mystic incubation, when India and Egypt, 
 Babylon and Greece, were sitting together and gos- 
 siping like crazy old women, chattering with tooth- 
 less gums and silly brains about the dreams and 
 joys of their youth, yet unable to recall one single 
 thought or feeling with that vigor which once gave 
 it light and truth. 
 
 '• It was a period of religious and metaphysical 
 delirium, when every thing became every thing; 
 when Maya and Sophia, Mithra and Christ, Yiraf 
 and Isaiah, Belus, Zarvan, and Kronos were mixed 
 up in one jumbled system of inane speculation, 
 from Avhich at least the East was delivered by the 
 positive doctrines of Mohammed, the West by the 
 pure Christianity of the Teutonic nations.^' (Last 
 Res. of Persian Res. c. 3, sec. 1, part 1.) 
 
 I would, therefore, state the case thus : In the 
 New Testament we find no such things as bap- 
 tismal salvation, infant baptism, sprinkling and 
 pouring, godfathers, and many more such things; 
 
150 IMMERSION. 
 
 but in contemporary heathenism we will find all 
 of these things. A little later there are thousands 
 of baptized but unconverted heathen received into 
 the Church. They were required to change their 
 name, but not their practices. It came to pass that 
 all of these ceremonies found in heathenism, but 
 unknown in the Nesv Testament, were found in 
 the Catholic Church. From whence came they? 
 Only one answer can be given : They were taken 
 from the pagans by way of compromise. 
 
THE BAPTISM OF THE SICK. 151 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 THE BAPTISM OF THE SICK. 
 
 TF immersion was so universally taught in the 
 ancient Christianity, how was sprinkling in- 
 troduced? I answ^er in the baptism of the sick, or, 
 as it was afterwards called, clinic baptism. The 
 baptism of the sick originated in a dangerous 
 heresy. Men had departed from the simplicity of 
 the Gospel. The atoning efficacy of the blood of 
 Christ was left out of sight, and the importance of 
 baptism was overestimated. It was at this time that 
 the doctrine of baptismal salvation was spread abroad 
 throughout the churches. Along with it were the 
 attendant evils, infant baptism and sprinkling. It 
 was argued that if infants were to die unbaptized, 
 they would be eternally condemned. Since a man 
 upon his sick bed could not be immersed easily, 
 and if he died unbaptized, he would be lost, it wa-i 
 thought that a profusion of water poured upon him 
 might save him. This was called clinic baptism. 
 
 The first instance of clinic baptism upon record, 
 indeed, the first example of affusion, is given in 
 the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, which lies 
 before me. It was the celebrated case of Nova- 
 
152 IMMERSION. 
 
 tian, A. D. 250. Eusebius says of him: "Being 
 delivered by the exorcists, he fell into a severe 
 sickness; and as he seemed about to die, he re- 
 ceived baptism by affusion, on the bed where he 
 lay ; if, indeed, we can say such a one did receive 
 it.^' (Nic. Fath. vol. 1, pp. 288, 289.) 
 I will make some reflections on this case : 
 
 1. This is the earliest instance of sprinkling 
 upon record. Pedobaptists have searched dili- 
 gently, and they have never found an earlier. 
 When was this? Two hundred and fifty years 
 after Christ ! 
 
 2. Sprinkling had its origin in the baptism of 
 the sick. Eusebius mentions this case as peculiar. 
 Many writers say that sprinkling and pouring 
 originated in the baptism of the sick. Cyprian, 
 Bishop of Carthage, A. D. 257, in answer to 
 Magnus, says : " You have asked also, dearest 
 son, what I thought of those Avho have obtained 
 God's grace in sickness and weakness, whether 
 they are to be accounted legitimate Christians, for 
 that they are not to be washed, but sprinkled, with 
 
 the saving water As far as my poor 
 
 understanding conceives it, I think that the divine 
 benefits can in no respect be mutilated and weak- 
 ened; nor can any thing less occur in that case, 
 where with full and entire faith, both of the giver 
 
THE BAPTISM OF THE SICK. 153 
 
 and of the receiver, is accepted what is drawn from 
 
 the divine gift In the sacrament of 
 
 salvation, when necessity compels, and God be- 
 stows his mercy, the divine methods confer the 
 whole benefit on believers ; nor ought it to trouble 
 any one that sick people seem to be sprinkled or 
 aifiised when they obtain the Lord's grace." (Ante- 
 Nic. Fath., vol. 5, pp. 400, 401.) 
 
 As late as 754 the monks of Cressy asked Pope 
 Stephen II.: "Is it lawful, in cases of necessity 
 occasioned by sickness, to baptize an infant by 
 pouring water on its head from a cup or the 
 hands ? " The Pope replied : " Such a baptism, 
 performed in such a case of necessity, shall be ac- 
 counted valid.'* Basnage says: " This was ac- 
 counted the first law against immersion." 
 
 The great historian Neander remarks: '^ In 
 respect to the form of baptism, it was in con- 
 formity with the original institution and the orig- 
 inal import of the symbol, performed by immersion, 
 as a sign of entire baptism into the Holy Spirit, of 
 being entirely penetrated by the same. It was 
 only with the sick, when the exigency required it, 
 that any exception was made ; and in this case 
 baptism w^as administered by sprinkling. Many 
 superstitious persons, clinging to the outward form, 
 imagined that such baptism by sprinkling was not 
 
154 IMMERSION. 
 
 fully valid; and hence they distinguished those 
 who had been thus baptized by denominating them 
 the clinici,'' (Ch. Hist., vol 1, p. 310.) 
 
 Geiseler is most emphatic, and calls things by the 
 right name. He says : " It was often necessary to 
 baptize the sick, and in that case sprinkling was 
 substituted for the visual rite.^' (Ch. Hist., vol. 1, 
 p. 159.) 
 
 3. As it has been already intimated, all persons 
 did not hold that this baptism was valid. None 
 thought it so good as immersion. Eusebius adds : 
 ** If, indeed, it be proper to say that one like him 
 did receive baptism.'' There would have been 
 no dispute if sprinkling had been regarded as 
 baptism. 
 
 The historians are unanimous on this point. 
 Dr. George C. Kuapp, late Professor of Theology 
 in the University of Halle, says : " Immersion is 
 peculiarly agreeable to the institution of Christ, and 
 to the practice of the apostolic church, and so even 
 John baptized, and immersion remained common for 
 a long time after ; except that in the third century, 
 or perhaps earlier, the baptism of the sick was per- 
 formed by sprinkling or affusion. Still some 
 would not acknowledge this to be true baptism, and 
 controversy arose concerning it, so unheard of was 
 
THE BAPTISM OF THE SICK. 155 
 
 it at that time to baptize by affusion." (Knapp's 
 TheoL, p. 486.) 
 
 Venema testifies : " To the essential rite of bap- 
 tism in the third century, pertained immersion, and 
 not aspersion, except in cases of necessity, and it 
 was accounted a half perfect baptism. 
 
 Salmasius: "Thus, Novatian, when sick, re- 
 ceived baptism, being sprinkled, not baptized." 
 
 Valesius says : " Therefore, baptism of this kind 
 was not customary, and was esteemed imperfect." 
 
 Baronius, the great Catholic historian, adds: 
 " Those who were baptized upon their beds were 
 not called Christians, but clinics." (Annals, vol* 
 1, p. 208, ed. 1623.) 
 
 Look at what these historians say ; the iutrodw- 
 tion of sprinkling, even for the sick, caused a con- 
 troversy that lasted for centuries. It was an 
 unheard of thing. It was called a half perfect 
 baptism, and the persons thus baptized were iiot 
 called Christians, but clinics. 
 
 4. The clinics were not admitted to sacred or- 
 ders. Eusebius quotes Fabius with approbation, 
 as follows : " For this illustrious man forsook 
 the Church of God, in which when he believed, he 
 was judged worthy of the presbyterate through the 
 favor of the bishop who ordained him to the pres- 
 bvterial office. This had been resisted bv all the 
 
156 IMMERSION. 
 
 clergy and many of the laity ; because it was un- 
 lawful that one who had been affused on his bed, 
 an account of sickness, as he had been, should en- 
 ter into any clerical office; but the bishop re- 
 quested that he might be permitted to ordain this 
 one only/' (Nic. Fath., vol. 1, p. 289.) 
 
 This establishes the point. 
 
 Was it against the condition of Novatian being 
 sick, or against the act of baptism that the objec- 
 tion was urge<l? I answer, against both. 1. 
 Against the person sick. The Council of Neo- 
 Csesarea, in its twelfth canon, affirms : ^^ He that 
 is baptized when he is sick, ought not to be made 
 a priest; for his coming to faith is not voluntary, 
 but from necessity.'' 2. Against his baptisn). 
 While Novatian was living Magnus asked Cyp- 
 rian, ^' Whether they are to be esteemed right 
 Christians who are not washed in water but only 
 sprinkled?" Cyprian answered, "Necessity com- 
 pelling, and God granting his indulgence.'' Vale- 
 rius says : " In addition, since baptism properly 
 signifies immersion, a pouring of this sort could 
 hardly be called a baptism. Wherefore clinics 
 were forbidden to be promoted to the rank of the 
 presbytery, by the twelfth canon of the Council of 
 Neo-Ciesarea." 
 
 This, then, is the origin of sprinkling. From 
 
THE BAPTISM OF THE SICK. 157 
 
 this clinic baptism sprinkling has finally prevailed 
 in the West among Catholics, with the exception 
 of Milan, which still holds to immersion, and 
 among Protestants with the exception of the Bap- 
 tists. This small beginning has led to great re- 
 sults. ^* It shows how closely we should watch 
 innovations, and how earnestly we should hold to 
 the practice of the Scriptures. This ordinance of 
 God's house has been changed, and so changed as 
 to completely destroy its symbolical import. It 
 shows how the spirit that lives and moves in 
 human society can override the most sacred ordi- 
 nances.'^ Or, as Dean Stanley has said in another 
 place : " These are the outward forms of which, in 
 the Western churches, almost every particular is 
 altered, even the most material points. Immer- 
 sion has become the exception and not the rule. 
 Adult baptism as well as immersion, exists only 
 among the Baptists. The dramatic action of the 
 scene is lost" 
 
158 IMMERSION. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF SPRINKLING. 
 
 ITT has already been shown that sprinkling orig- 
 inated in the baptism of the sick. This, how- 
 ever, was of very doubtful authority and did not 
 come into current use. It proved not to be popular, 
 but was an innovation that was most generally 
 condemned. Upon the origin of sprinkling for 
 baptism the learned Sir David Brewster says : ^' It 
 is impossible to mark the period when sprinkling 
 was introduced. It is probable, however, that it 
 was invented in Africa, in the second century, in 
 favor of clinics. But it was so far from being ap- 
 proved of the church in general, that the Africans 
 themselves did not count it valid.'' (Edin. Ency., 
 vol. 3, p. 236.) 
 
 Before the Reformation sprinkling made very 
 indifferent headway. Now and then it had an ad- 
 vocate, but it did not prevail. All of the reformers 
 recognized immersion as the primitive act of bap- 
 tism. They had no hesitation in freely expressing 
 themselves. Luther, in his work on The Sacrament 
 of Baptism, says: ''First, baptism is a Greek 
 word. In Latin it can be translated immersion, as 
 
THE HISTORY OF SPRINKLING. 159 
 
 when we plunge something into water, that it may 
 be completely covered with water; and although 
 that custom has been given up by most persons — 
 for they do not wholly submerge the children, but 
 only pour on them a little water, yet they ought 
 to have been completely immersed and straight- 
 way drawn out again." 
 
 Luther voiced the opinion of all of the reform- 
 ers, but the popish practice of sprinkling had 
 already set in and the tide was too great to be 
 resisted. The Greeks, not being under the authority 
 of the Pope, would not give way and so practice 
 immersion till this day. But in other quarters 
 sprinkling became well nigh universal. 
 
 The question then naturally comes up, from 
 whence came this sprinkling. That it was a change 
 in the original act there can be no doubt. "The 
 question now arises," says Dr. Schaff, the eminent 
 Presbyterian scholar, "when and how came the 
 mode of pouring and sprinkling to take the place 
 of immersion and emersion, as a rule. The change 
 was gradual and confined to the Western churches. 
 The Roman Church, as we have seen, backed by 
 the authority of Thomas Aquinas, ^the Angelic 
 Doctor,' took the lead in the thirteenth century, 
 yet so as to retain in her rituals the form of immer- 
 sion as the older and better mode. The practice 
 
160 IMMERSION. 
 
 prevailed over theory, and the exception became 
 the rule/' (Teach, p. 51.) 
 
 France appears to have been the first country 
 where sprinkling prevailed. That country was 
 more completely under the power and spirit of the 
 Pope than any other, and it at once accepted the 
 doctrine that the Church had a right to change 
 any ordinance at its will. Says Dr. Wall : " France 
 seems to have been the first country in the world 
 where baptism by aifusion was used ordinarily to 
 persons in health, and in the public way of admin- 
 istering it. . . . From France it spread (but 
 not till a good while after) into Italy, Germany, 
 Spain, &c., and last of all into England. '' (Hist. 
 In. Bap. vol. 1, p. 576, 577.) 
 
 Sir David Brewster gives such a clear account 
 of the origin of sprinkling that I present what he 
 says in this connection. Says he : " The first law 
 for sprinkling was obtained in the following man- 
 ner: Pope Stephen III. being driven from Rome 
 by Astulphus, king of the Lombards, in 753, fled 
 to Pepin, who, a short time before, had usurped the 
 crown of France. Whilst he remained there, the 
 Monks of Cressy in Brittany consulted him, whether, 
 in a case of necessity, baptism, performed by pour- 
 ing water on the head of the infant, would be 
 lawful. Ste])lK'n n^plied, that it would. But though 
 
THE HISTORY OF SPRINKLING. 161 
 
 the truth of this fact should be allowed, which 
 some Catholics deny, yet pouring or sprinkling was 
 only admitted in cases of necessity. It was not 
 till 1311, that the legislature, in a Council held at 
 Ravenna, declared immersion or sprinkling to be 
 indifferent.'' (Edinburg Ency. vol. 3, p. 236.) 
 
 But it is a remarkable fact that the cold coun- 
 tries held on to immersion longer than the warm 
 countries. France, a southern country, introduced 
 sprinkling; but England, a cold country, held on 
 to immersion. It was not until the time of bloody 
 Mary that sprinkling was introduced into England. 
 Dr. Wall says : " One would have thought that the 
 cold countries should have been the first that should 
 have changed the custom from dipping to affusion, 
 because in cold climates the bathing of the body in 
 water may seem much more unnatural and danger- 
 ous to the health than in the hot ones (and it is to 
 be noted, by the way, that all of those countries of 
 whose rites of baptism, and immersion used in it, 
 we have any account in the Scriptures or other an- 
 cient history, are in hot climates, where fre(iuent 
 and common bathing both of infants and grown per- 
 sons is natural, and even necessary to the health). 
 But by history it appears that the cold climates 
 held the custom of dipping as long as any ; for En- 
 gland, which is one of the coldest, was one of the 
 11 
 
162 IMMERSION 
 
 latest that admitted this alteration of the ordinary 
 way/' (WalPs Hist. vol. 1, p. 575.) 
 
 As to just how universal dipping was in England 
 at this period I will let Dr. Schaif relate : '' King 
 Edward VI.," says he, " and Queen Elizabeth were 
 immersed. The first Prayer Book of Edward YI. 
 (1549), followed the Office of Sarum, directs tlie 
 priest to dip the child in water thrice : ' first, dyp- 
 ping the right side ; secondly, the left side ; the 
 third time, dypping the face toward the fonte.' In 
 the second Prayer Book (1552) the priest is simply 
 directed to dip the child discreetly and warily; and 
 permission is given, for the first time in Great 
 Britain, to substitute pouring if the godfathers and 
 godmothers certify that the child is weak. ^During 
 the reign of Elizabeth,' says Dr. Wall, ^ many fond 
 ladies and gentlewomen first, and then by degrees 
 the common people, would obtain the favor of the 
 priests to have their children pass for weak chil- 
 dren too tender to endure dipping in the water.' 
 The same writer traces the practice of sprinkling 
 to the period of the Long Parliament and the West- 
 minster Assembly. * This chanr/e in England and 
 other Protestant countries from immersion to ])our- 
 ing, and from pouring to sprinkling, was encour- 
 aged by the authority of Calvin, who declared the 
 mode to be a matter of no importance ; and by the 
 
THE HISTORY OF SPRINKLING. 163 
 
 Westminster Assembly of Divines (1643-1652), 
 which decided that pouring and sprinkling are * not 
 only lawful, but also sufficient.' The Westminster 
 Confession declares : ' Dipping of the person into 
 the water is not necessary ; but baptism is rightly 
 administered by pouring or sprinkling water upon 
 the person.'" (Teach, pp. 51, 52.) 
 
 It was largely through the authority of Calvin 
 that sprinkling came into general use in England. 
 I am anxfthis to have these statements historically 
 correct, and therefore I give them in the words of 
 others. Sir David Brewster, whom I have so often 
 quoted in this chapter, is unquestioned authority. 
 His account is as follows: "During the persecu- 
 tion of Mary, many persons, most of whom were 
 Scotchmen, fled from England to Geneva, and there 
 greedily imbibed the opinions of that church. In 
 1556 a book was published in that place contain- 
 ing ' The Form of Prayer and Ministration of the 
 Sacraments, approved by the' famous and godly 
 learned man, John Calvin,' in which the adminis- 
 trator is enjoined to take water in his hand and 
 lay it upon the child's forehead. These Scotch ex- 
 iles, who had renounced the authority of the Pope, 
 implicitly acknowledged the authority of Calvin ; 
 and returning to their own countr}^, with Knox at 
 their head, in 1559, established sprinkling in Scot- 
 
164 IMMERSION. 
 
 land. From Scotland this practice made its way 
 into England in the reign of Elizabeth, but was 
 not authorized by the established church. In the 
 Assembly of Divines, held at Westminster in 1643, 
 it was keenly debated whether immersion or sprink- 
 ling should be adopted : 25 voted for sprinkling, 
 and 24 for immersion ; and even this small major- 
 ity was obtained at the earnest request of Dr. 
 Lightfoot, who had acquired great influence in 
 that Assembly. Sprinkling is therefore the gen- 
 eral practice of this country. Many Christians, 
 however, especially the Baptists, reject it. The 
 Greek Church universally adheres to immersion." 
 (Edin. Ency. vol. 3, p. 236.) 
 
 The account of this change as given by Dean 
 Stanley, the English High-Church Episcopalian, is 
 intensely entertaining. He says : " We now pass 
 to the changes in the form itself For th'.' first 
 thirteen centuries the almost universal jiractice of 
 baptism was that of which we read in thc^ New 
 Testament, and which is the very meaning of the 
 word baptize : that those who were baptized were 
 plunged, submerged, immersed into the water. 
 That practice is still, as we have seen, continued 
 in Eastern churches. In the Western Church it 
 still lingers among Roman Catholics in the solitary 
 instance of the Cathedral of Milan ; amongst Prot- 
 
THE HISTORY OF SPRINKLING. 165 
 
 estants in the luimerous .sect of the Baptists. It 
 lasted long into the Middle Ages. Even the Ice- 
 landers, who at first shrank from the water of their 
 freezing lakes, were reconciled when they found 
 that they could use the Avarm water of the Geysers. 
 And the cold climate of Russia has not been found 
 an obstacle to its continuance throughout that vast 
 empire. Even in the Church of Enghuid it is still 
 observed in theory. The Rubric in tlu' public 
 baptism for infants enjoins that, unless for special 
 causes, they are to be dipped, not sprinkled. Ed- 
 ward VI. and Elizabeth were botli immersed. But 
 since the beginning of the seventeenth century the 
 practice has become exceedingly rare. With the 
 few exceptions just mentioned, the whole of the 
 Western churches have now substituted for the an- 
 cient bath the ceremony of letting fall a few drops 
 of water on the face." (Institutes, pp. 18, 19.) 
 
 These historical statements prove beyond doubt 
 that sprinkling is of a popish origin. Where the 
 Pope of Rome has not had control, sprinkling has 
 never been practiced. This is a notorious fact, and 
 is worthy of serious consideration. Dr. AYall, and 
 he was a staunch Episcopalian, makes this plain 
 enough. Says he : " Sprinkling, for the common 
 use of baptizing, was really introduced (in France 
 first, and then in the other popish coujifries) in 
 
166 IMMERSION. 
 
 times of popery; and that accordingly all those 
 countries in which the usurped power of the Pope 
 is or has been owned have left off dipping of chil- 
 dren in the font ; but that all other countries in the 
 world (ichich have never regarded his authority) do 
 still use it; and that basins, except that in case of 
 necessity, were never used by papist or any other 
 Christians whatsoever till by themselves." (Wall's 
 Hist. p. 583.) 
 
 Here are the plainest and most emphatic decla- 
 rations of Pedobaptist scholars that immersion w«w 
 changed to sprinkling, and this by the authority 
 of Rome. Sprinkling, then, does not come from 
 the New Testament, but from the Roman Catholic 
 Church. It also teaches the dangerous tendency 
 of innovations. Beginning with the affusion of a 
 sick man, it has overthrown the entire act as com- 
 manded by Christ, and substituted an entirely dif- 
 ferent thing in its place. The beauty and sym- 
 bolism of the ordinance have been destroyed. As 
 for our part, let us abide by the plain teaching of 
 God^s word, and we are not likely to go astray. 
 
WHAT THE COUNCILS SAY. H>7 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 WHAT THE COUNCII^ OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH SAY. 
 
 Ij^ROM early times until now it has been the 
 -^ custom of the Roman Catholic Church to 
 call together councils concerning the welfare of 
 that church. Some of those that I shall notice are 
 called General Councils, representing the general 
 interest of that church ; while others were Provin- 
 cial, representing only limited sections. The au- 
 thorities I present are unquestioned. Labbe and 
 Cossart^s edition of the Councils is a very elabo- 
 rate work, and is of indisputable authority. This 
 immense work is by two Jesuits, and nothing con- 
 trary to Catholic faith is likely to be found in its 
 pages. It is in seventeen large Latin volumes, 
 and bears date, Paris, 1671. The other references 
 are equally authoritative, though not so extensive. 
 The acts of the first General Nicene Council, 
 A. D. 325, are in favor of immersion. The fol- 
 lowing is found in the acts of the Council : " He 
 who is baptized descends indeed, obnoxious to sins, 
 and held with the corruptions of slavery; but he 
 ascends, free from the slavery and sins, a son of 
 
168 IMMERSION. 
 
 God, heir — yea, co-heir — with Christ, having put 
 on Christ, as it is written, ^As many of you as 
 were baptized into Christ have put on Christ/ " 
 
 In the Council of Carthage, A. D. 348, there 
 was a fierce discussion of the subject of baptism. 
 Several bishops spoke, and their speeches have 
 been preserved. Bishop Gratus said : '^ I ask this 
 sacred assembly to express their opinion whether, 
 after a man has descended into the water, and has 
 been questioned as to his belief in the Trinity, 
 according to the faith of the Gospel and the doc- 
 trines of the Apostles, and has made a good con- 
 fession concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 
 he ought to be again questioned concerning the 
 same faith, and again immersed in water ? " All 
 the bishops answered, " Far be it, far be it." 
 (Labbe and Cos. vol. 2, p. 1821.) 
 
 In 633 the Spanish Council known as the Fourth 
 Council of Toledo was called by King Sisimand. 
 It was composed of the Archbishops of Seville, 
 Narbonne, Braga, Merida, Toledo, and Tarragona, 
 with fifty-three suifragan bishops, and with seven 
 presbyters representing bishops. A change had 
 been made from trine to single immersion. Al- 
 though this change had been indorsed by the most 
 venerable bishops, and by a letter from Pope Gre- 
 gory, the people were indignant and much excited. 
 
WHAT THE COUNCILS SAY. 169 
 
 To calm this excitement and unite the Spanish 
 Catholics this Council decreed : '' For shunning 
 the schism or the use of an heretical practice, we 
 observe a single immersion in Imptism. Nor do 
 they who immerse three times appear to us to ap- 
 prove of the claim of heretics, although they follow 
 their custom (of trine immersion). And that no 
 one may doubt the propriety of this single sacra- 
 ment, let him see that it is the death and resurrec- 
 tion of Christ shown forth. For the immersion in 
 the waters is a descent, as it were, into the grave ; 
 and, again, the emersion from the waters is a res- 
 urrection. Likewise he may see displayed in it the 
 unity of the Deity and the Trinity of persons — the 
 unity whilst we immerse once, and the Trinity 
 whilst we baptize in the name of the Father, and 
 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." (Labbe and 
 Cos. vol. 1, pp. 1705, 1706.) The Council first of 
 all indorsed the letter of Gregory, which became 
 famous, and has been quoted in all controversies 
 since, and then passed this decree in favor of sin- 
 gle immersion. 
 
 In 787 the Council of Calcuith, in England, sent 
 an account of its enactments to Pope Adrian I. by 
 Gregory and Theophylact, and, among other things, 
 they stated that baptism was to be performed in the 
 font on the festivals of Easter and Whitsuntide. 
 
170 IMMEE8ION. 
 
 The following are the recommendations of the sec- 
 ond canon : " That baptism be performed accord- 
 ing to the canons, and not at any other time except 
 in cases of emergency; and that all who receive 
 children from the holy font, and answer for those 
 who can not speak for the renouncing of Satan and 
 his works and pomps, and for believing the faith, 
 know that they are their sureties unto the Lord 
 according to their promise; and when they shall 
 have attained to a competent age, let them teach 
 the aforesaid Lord's prayer and creed/' (Hart's 
 Eccl. Kec. p. 195.) 
 
 The second council of Calcuith was held in the 
 kingdom of Mercia in 816, and was presided over 
 by Mulfud, Archbishop of Canterbury. The elev- 
 enth canon insists on immersion in these strong 
 words : " Let presbyters also know that when they 
 administer baptism they ought not to pour the 
 consecrated water upon the infants' heads, but let 
 them always be immersed in the font; as the Son 
 of God himself afforded an example unto all be- 
 lievers when he was three times immersed in the 
 river Jordan." (Hart's Eccl. Rec. p. 195.) The 
 learned Collier said of this canon that, " by enjoin- 
 ing the priest not to sprinkle the infants in bap- 
 tism shows the great regard they had for the prim- 
 itive usage of immersion ; that they did not look 
 
WHAT THE COUNCILS SAY. 171 
 
 upon this as a dangerous rite, or at all impractical 
 in these northern climates; not that they thought 
 this circumstance essential to the sacrament, but 
 because it was the general practice of the primitive 
 church ; because it was a lively, instructive em- 
 blem of the death, burial, and resurrection of our 
 Saviour ; for this reason they preferred it to sprink- 
 ling/^ (Collier's Eccl. Hist. vol. 1, p. 354.) This is 
 a very practical admission, coming as it does from 
 the leading historian of the Episcopal Church of 
 England. To the fact that this Council decreed 
 immersion, and repudiated sprinkling, this histo- 
 rian is a very competent witness, but as to the 
 reason why this was done we have as much right 
 to an opinion as he had. They decreed immersion 
 because it was the apostolic rite. 
 
 The Council of Worms, A. D. 868, passed a de- 
 cree almost identically like that of the Council of 
 Toledo given above, and the reason was the same : 
 "While some priests baptized with three immer- 
 sions, and the others with but one, a schism was 
 raised, endangering the unity of the Church." 
 (Can. 5.) 
 
 The Council of Tribur, A. D. 895, makes use 
 of these strong words: "Trine immersion is an 
 imitation of the three days' burial, and the rising 
 again out of tlie water is an image of Christ 
 
1 72 IMMERSION. 
 
 rising from the grave." (Labbe and Cos., vol. 9, 
 p. 446.) 
 
 The Council of Cashel, under Henry II., xV. D. 
 1172; was called to secure uniformity between the 
 English and Irish churches. Canon 1 reads: 
 *' That children be brought to the church and be 
 baptized there in pure water, with a threefold im- 
 mersion; and that this be done by priests, unleas 
 when there is imminent danger of death, when it 
 may be administered by any one without distinc- 
 tion of s-x or order." (Hart's Eccl. Rec, p. 202.) 
 
 Another Council held at Cashel about the same 
 time decreed: "That infants be catechised before 
 the doors of the church, and then be baptized in 
 the font, in baptismal churches." (Hart's Eccl. 
 Rec, p. 202.) 
 
 The Council of York, 1185, also decreed in 
 favor of immersion. 
 
 The Westminster General Council, held in Lon- 
 don, A. D. 1200, decreed: "If a layman baptize 
 a child in case of necessity, let all that follows 
 after the immersion, (the chrism, etc.) be per- 
 i'ormed by a priest." (Can. 3.) 
 
 The Council of Worcester, 1240, speaks of im- 
 mersion in these words : " We enjoin that in every 
 church where baptism is performed, there shall be 
 a font of stone of sufficient size and depth for th" 
 
WHAT THE COUNCILS SAY. 17S 
 
 baptizing of children, and it shall be deeply cov- 
 ered, .... such little candidate for baptism 
 ?>e thrice immersed.'' And a further decree : " But 
 i'hildren baptized in case of necessity, if they re- 
 cover, must be brought to the church, that those 
 things that are wanting may be supplied, namely — 
 those things which follow the immersion in bap- 
 tism.'' 
 
 The Council of Clermont, A. D. 1268, consider- 
 ing a baptism that had been performed by a layman 
 in case of necessity, decreed : " At the font every 
 thing which is usually done shall be performed, 
 the immersion only excepted, but if it is doubtful 
 under what form of words the child has been bap- 
 tized, then let the priest baptize him; but while 
 he immerses him, let him say, "If thou art not 
 already baptized, I baptize thee in the name of the 
 Father," etc. 
 
 The Council of Reading, 1279, decreed that the 
 children should be baptized only at Easter and 
 Pentecost, cases of necessity excepted ; and that in 
 the meantime they should be instructed, "so that 
 immersion alone remains to be performed on the 
 day of baptism." (Can. 4.) 
 
 The Council of Oxford, 1222, decreed: "Let 
 not above three persons be admitted to raise the 
 
174 
 
 IMMERSION. 
 
 child from the holy font." (Hart^s Eccl. Rec., 
 p. 205.) 
 
 The Council of Cologne, in 1280, decreed: "That 
 he who baptizes, when he immerses the candidate 
 in water, shall neither add to the words, or take 
 from them, or change them." 
 
 The Council of Nismes, 1284, decreed that: 
 " The baptizer shall thrice immerse the infant in 
 water, but if one immersion have been performed, 
 the child will nevertheless be baptized." (Labbe 
 and Cos., vol. 11, p. 1199.) 
 
 The Council of Ravenna, 1311, decreed: *^Bap- 
 tism is to be administered by trine aspersion or 
 immersion." (Labbe and Cos., vol. 11, B. 2, 
 p. 1586.) 
 
 This is the first time in history that sprinkling 
 or immersion were made indifferent. It is well to 
 say that this Council only represented one pro- 
 vince. Soon after this sprinkling became cus- 
 tomary in France, but immersion prevailed in 
 England until the seventeenth century. 
 
 In 1355, the Council of Prague decreed : "Let 
 the presbyters take heed lest any negligence be 
 committed, either in putting together or in the 
 expression of the proi>er form of words, as well as 
 in the immersion in water with which the whole 
 value of baptism is connected. As to the form, 
 
WHAT THE COUNCILS SAY. 175 
 
 let the immersion be trine, in this manner — that at 
 once, when the administrator begins to utter the 
 prescribed form, he does that which is first and 
 that which is last when he finishes." 
 
 From this time sprinkling rapidly prevailed in 
 the Catholic Church, and has become universal 
 with them except in the church at Milan. 
 
176 IMMERSION. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE tp::stimony of liturgies and rituals. 
 
 T RARELY, if ever, heard the Liturgies and 
 Missals referred to in an argument upon the 
 action of baptism, and yet I consider that they 
 give very strong testimony in favor of immersion. 
 The Roman Catholic Martini says : " In all of 
 the pontificals and rituals I have seen, and I 
 have seen many, ancient as well as more recent, 
 immersion is prescribed. I must except, how- 
 ever, the ritual of the church of Madeleine de 
 Beaulieu, the age of which does not exceed three 
 hundred years, in which the priest is directed to 
 pour water on the head of the infant.'^ A ritual 
 is of more weight than the testimony of any indi- 
 vidual could be ; for it represents the opinion and 
 })ractice of a church, or of many churches, while 
 an individual only expresses his own sentiments. 
 I here present a number of these rituals : 
 
 The Gothic Missal, a very old manuscript, has 
 the following prayer in the baptismal benediction : 
 " We pray our Lord God that he will sanctify 
 this font, so that all who will descend into this 
 
TESTIMONY OF LITURGIES, ETC. 177 
 
 font may receive through the washing of the 
 blessed laver, the remission of their sins." 
 
 The Syrian Ritual, as used by the NestxDrians, 
 appears to be decisive : " They bring them to the 
 priest, who, standing on the western side of the 
 baptistery, turns the cliild's face to the east, and 
 immerses him in water, putting his hand on his 
 head, and saying, such a one is baptized in the 
 name of the Father, etc." (Badger's Nestorians 
 and their Ritual, vol. 2, pp. 207, 208.) 
 
 The Baptismal Liturgy, which formed a part of 
 the Sacramentary of Pope Gelasius, A. D. 492, 
 and which was taken by Cardinal Thomasins, 
 1748, from a codex manuscript, more than a 
 thousand years old, reads thus: "Then immerse 
 three times in water." 
 
 Remingius, who baptized King Clovis, in a 
 
 ritual taken from a very old manuscript, says : 
 
 " The presbyters or the deacons, or, if need be, 
 
 acolythis, having put on their robes, proceed to 
 
 the font, and enter into the water, and receive 
 
 therefrom their parents, baptize, first the males, 
 
 and then the females, by trine immersion, with but 
 
 one invocation of the Holy Trinity, saying; I 
 
 baptize thee into the name of the Father, and ^ 
 
 dips once, and of the Son, and dips again, and of 
 
 Holy Ghost, and dips the third time." 
 12 
 
178 IMMERSION. 
 
 An ancient ritual found in a manuscript codex 
 of the Monastery of Glogan, in the diocese of 
 Cologne, says: "The presbyter receiving the 
 infant from its parents, asking its name, first bap- 
 tizes the males, and then the females, by trine 
 immersion, saying : I baptize thee in the name, 
 etc:' 
 
 The Ordo Romanus, a Ritual of the eighth cen- 
 tury, has: "I baptize thee in the name of the 
 Father, (and immerses once,) and of the Son, (and 
 immerses the second time,) and of the Holy Ghost, 
 (and immerses the third time)." 
 
 The Manual of Sarum, drawn up about 1085, 
 by Osmond, Bishop of Salisbury and Chancellor 
 of England, and adopted by nearly all of England, 
 Wales and Ireland, and continued in use till Ed- 
 ward the VI., has: "The priest shall take the 
 child into his hands, and asking his name, l)ap- 
 tize him by trine immersion, thus calling on the 
 name of the Trinity, he shall say: N., I bap- 
 tize thee in the name of the Father, and dips him 
 once, etc." 
 
 This manual was regarded as very great au- 
 thority. Wall quotes it and says : " The offices 
 ^)r liturgies for public baptism in the Church of 
 England did all along, so far as I can learn, enjoin 
 dipping, without any mention of pouring or sprink- 
 
179 
 
 ling. And John Frith, writing in the year 1533, 
 a treatise on baptism, calls the outward part of it, 
 the plunging down into the water, and lifting up 
 again, which he often mentions, without ever 
 mentioning pouring or sprinkling.'^ (WalPs Hist. 
 Int. Bap. vol. 1, p. 579.) And Wheatly, writing 
 on the Book of Common Prayer, in 1885, says : 
 "The Salisbury Missal, printed in 1530, (the last 
 that was in force before the Reformation,) expressly 
 requires and orders dipping.^' (p. 350.) 
 
 In a ritual formerly belonging to the church at 
 Ravenna, a manuscript of the twelfth century, and 
 until lately in possession of Jos. Baptista Martini, 
 but now in the library of the University of the 
 city of Bologna, we find : " Then taking him, (the 
 candidate) he baptized him, with trine immersion, 
 saying, Wilt thou be baptized ? Answer, I will, 
 three times. And I baptize thee in the name of 
 the Father, and dips him once, etc." 
 
 Guillaume Durant, Bishop of Mendefurn, 1286- 
 1296, prescribed a ritual for his clergy, in which 
 the following passage occurs: "That he who bap- 
 tizes, after giving a name to the child, and made 
 the sign of the cross upon the water, must plunge 
 the infant three times, .... he shall im- 
 merse the child.'' 
 
 M. De Moleon alludes to an ancient ritual of 
 
180 IMMERSION. 
 
 the year 1581, which prescribes immersion: "The 
 presbyter shall say to the boy, I baptize thee into 
 the name of the Father, immerse once, etc." 
 
 The first prayer book of Edward VI. reads: 
 '^ First, dipping the right side; secondly, the left 
 side; third time dipping the face toward the 
 font." The second prayer book of Edward, 1551, 
 the first book of Queen Elizabeth, 1559, and that 
 of King James, in 1604, all read: "The priest 
 shall dip him in tlu water, discreetly and warily ; 
 but if they certify that the child is weak, it shall 
 suffice to pour water upon it." This book of Ed- 
 ward is the first authentic permission for altering 
 the act of baptism in Great Britain, yet Dean 
 Stanley asserts that " Edward the VI. and Elizabeth 
 were both immersed." (Christian Institutions, p. 18.) 
 
 The Saxon Visitation Articles, 1592, Art. iii, 
 says : " That there is but one baptism, and one 
 ablution : not that which is used to take away the 
 filth of th(^ body, but that which washes us from 
 our sins. By baptism, as the bath of regenera- 
 tion and renovation of the Holy Ghost, God saves '> 
 us, and works in us such justice and purgation 
 from our sins, etc." (Schaif^s Creeds of Christen- 
 dom, vol. 3, p. 184.) 
 
 The order of the Sacraments, prepared by Po})e 
 Gregory I., in 1776, has: "Let the priest bap- 
 
TESTIMONY OF LITURGIES, ETC. 181 
 
 tize with a trine immersion, once only, invoking 
 the Trinity.'^' 
 
 The Methodist Discipline, so late as 1846, a.<- 
 serted that Christ was baptized ^Mn the river of 
 Jordan," and that " buried in baptism " alludes 
 to water baptism. 
 
 The present Ritual of the Greek Church reads: 
 '' And when the whole body is anointed, the 
 priest immerses him, holding him erect, and look- 
 ing toward the cast, saying, the servant of the 
 God is immersed, in the name of the Father, and 
 of the Sou, and of the Holy Spirit; now and ever, 
 and to ages of ages, amen. At each invocation, 
 bringing him down, and bringing him up. And 
 after the immersing, the priest washes his hands, 
 singing with the people: Happy they, whose sins 
 are forgiven, etc.'^ 
 
 I only ask that you shall weigh the evidence 
 here submitted. These rituals represent, or have 
 represented, much of the faith and practice of the 
 world. 
 
182 IMMERSION. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 WHAT THE POETS SAY. 
 
 "T~^AUL^ in the sermon which he delivered at 
 Athens, thought it legitimate to appeal to 
 their own poets. I will also refer to this class 
 of writers. I have long observed that all of the 
 principal poets have favored immersion as the rite 
 of Christian baptism, but for some reason they are 
 not often quoted. The evidence I introduce is of 
 two kinds: 1st, a direct statement to this effect; 
 and, 2nd, an illustration of the classical use of the 
 word. I will give what several of the poets have 
 to say on the subject. 
 
 Dante, A. D. 1300, in his vision of hell, describes 
 some apertures in the rocks of torment, of the same 
 dimensions as the fonts of St. John the Baptist at 
 Florence : 
 
 *' I saw the Uvid stone throughout the sides, 
 And its bottom full of apertures, 
 All equal in their width, and circular each ; 
 Nor ample less nor larger they appear'd 
 Than in Saint John's fair dome of me helov'd, 
 Those fram'd to hold the pure baptismal streams, 
 One of the which I brake, some few years past, 
 To save a whelming infant; and be this 
 A seal to undecoive wlioever doubts 
 
WHAT THE POETS SAY. 183 
 
 The motive of my deed. From out the mouth 
 Of every one emerg'd a sinner's feet, 
 And of the legs high upward as the calf ; 
 The rest beneath was hid." 
 
 There is a j)assage in Dante that throws light on 
 the much quoted words of Polybius : " The foot- 
 poldiers were baptized as far as the breast/' Lately 
 some have contended that immerse was not a proper 
 rendering of baptize in this passage. The poet says 
 of some of the lost in hell : 
 
 " In the pit they stand immers'd, 
 Each from his navel downward." 
 
 The bard believed in baptismal salvation by 
 
 immersion, and hence he makes Beatrice exhort 
 
 Christians : 
 
 *' Be ye more staid, 
 O Christians ; not, like feather, bj" each wind 
 Removable ; nor think to cleanse yourselves 
 In every water." 
 
 He says of himself: 
 
 " I return'd 
 From the most holy w^ave, regenerate, 
 E'en as new plants renew'd with foliage new, 
 Pure and made apt for mounting the stars." 
 
 The Vision of Pierce Plowman, <»f the fourteenth 
 
 century, has the following : 
 
 " Trojanus was a true knight, and toke never Christendom, 
 And he is safe, sayeth the boke, and his soule in heaven ; 
 For there is fulling in fonte, and fulling in blud shading, 
 And through fire is fullynge, that is firm believe." 
 
184 IMMERSION. 
 
 This style of writing was common before the 
 Reformation. Baptism is here called fulled, which 
 was performed in a baptistery, and of course by 
 immersion. The following is from the same work : 
 
 " Quod he, 
 May no medicine on mold the man to heal brj'nge, 
 Neither faith ne sine hope, so festered he hys wounds, 
 Wythout the bloud of a barne bore of a mayden, 
 And he bathed in that blood baptized as it were 
 Than plastered with penance, and passion of that baby, 
 He should stand and step, and stalworth he never 
 Till he have eaten all the barne, and his bloud drunken." 
 
 The celebrated Lodovico Ariosto, who composed 
 his Orlando Furioso A. D. 1504, understood bap- 
 tism as a dipping. Of one of his heroes he says : 
 
 " On the portentious bridge he meant to meet 
 Whatever champion dar'd the pass to try, 
 And send the warrior and his steed to fleet 
 Down the deep flood that swept his castle by. 
 
 His falling foe the Algerine compell'd 
 
 To quaff at large the cool and tein])'rate flood, 
 
 For that Circean draught that late impell'd 
 
 His cruel hand to shed a virgin's blood. 
 
 As if that baptismal rite could ease his inward load. 
 
 Fool, to suppose that the surge could wash away 
 
 The bloody orgies of the venom'd bowl ; 
 
 Yet many a knight who fought the dubious fray 
 
 By turns were sent adown the fl<^od to roll." 
 
 Pollok, in speaking of the loss of freedom, says 
 of some who defended slavery : 
 
WHAT THE POETS SAY. 185 
 
 " Of Christian parentage descended, too, 
 And dipped in the baptismal font, as sign 
 Of dedication to the Prince who bowed 
 To death, to set the sin-bound prisoner free." 
 
 The pious Isaac Watts sings : 
 
 *' Do we not know that solemn word, 
 That we are buried with the Lord ? 
 Baptized into his death, and then 
 Put off the body of our sin." 
 
 Cowper in his Task says of Philosophy : 
 
 " Philosophy baptiz'd 
 In the pure fountain of eternal love, 
 Has eyes indeed." 
 
 And who has not sung the words of this poet : 
 
 '* There is a fountain filled with blood 
 Drawn from Imuianuel's veins; 
 And sinners, plunged beneath that tlood. 
 Lose nil their guilty stains." 
 
 This plunging in the blood of Christ has a fit 
 emblem in buried with Christ in ba2:)tism. 
 
 The classical expression *^ baptized in sleep" is 
 well explained by Cowper : 
 
 " Immersed in soft repose ambrosial." 
 
 Virgil sings of the Greeks taking Troy : 
 " They invade the city buried in sleep and wine." 
 
 Pope in his Odyssey translates the root of bap- 
 tize to plunge. When the eyes of Polyphemus are 
 
186 IMMERSION. 
 
 bored out with a red-hot iron, he compares it with 
 
 a smith tempering his steel : 
 
 "As when armourers temper in the ford 
 The keen edge pole-axe, or the shming sword, 
 The red-hot metal hisses in the lake, 
 Thus in the eye-ball hissed the plunging stake." 
 
 Pope thus relates the death of one of Homer's 
 heroes : 
 
 " Plunged in his throat the smoking weapon lies." 
 
 Mr. Dryden likewise expresses the poet's sense 
 
 thus in the ^neid : 
 
 "Thus having said, her smouldering torch unpress'd, 
 With her full force she plunged into his breast." 
 
 Aratus, describing the setting of the constel- 
 lation Cepheus in latitude sixty-nine or seventy 
 degrees, calls it baptizing or plunging his upper 
 parts into the sea; and, "also if the sun baptizes 
 himself without a cloud into the western sea." 
 These expressions are often found in the poets. 
 Virgil, as translated by Dryden, in speaking of 
 the Greater and Lesser Bears, says they — 
 
 " By fate's decree 
 Abhor to dive beneath the northern sea." 
 
 Homer tells of a hero who was — 
 
 " Like the red star that fires the autumnal skies, 
 When fresh he rears his radiant orb to sight. 
 And bath'd in orean shoots a keener light." 
 
WHAT THE POETS SAY. 187 
 
 And Bickersteth says : 
 
 " The sun, 
 Who climbing the meridian steep of heaven, 
 Shone with a monarch's glory, till he dipp'd 
 His footsteps in the ruddy western waves." 
 
 And again : 
 
 " It was golden eventide. The sun 
 Was sinking through the roseate clouds to rest 
 Beneath the western waves." 
 
 Bickersteth in that beautiful poem, "Yesterday, 
 To-day, and Forever,'^ speaks thus of the work of 
 
 the Baptist: 
 
 " Jerusalem 
 Hurried to Jordan. ' Ah, what deeds of wrong 
 Lips, counted by their fellows as pure as babes, 
 Flung then upon startled winds ! What filth 
 Was wash'd away from penitential hearts 
 In that baptismal stream.' " 
 
 Of the baptism of Jesus he says : 
 
 "John, abash'd, 
 Shrank from the suit he urged. But he refused 
 Refusal. And, as from the shallow ford 
 Returning, on the bank he knelt in prayer." 
 
 The poet also throws light on the much disputed 
 
 passage, Rev. xix : 13 : " And he was clothed in a 
 
 vesture dipped in blood/' He says : 
 
 "Who knows not 
 The loves of David and young Jonathan, 
 When in unwitting rivalry of hearts 
 The son of Jesse won a nobler wreath 
 Than garlands pluck'd in war and dipp'd in blood." 
 
188 rMMKHSlON. 
 
 In another passage he expressly refers to this 
 
 passage : 
 
 " The Lord of hosts, 
 Apparell'd in a vesture dipp'd in blood." 
 
 John the Baptist said that Christ, when he came, 
 would baptize the wicked in the fires of hell. Bick- 
 ersteth in the '* Millennial Sabbath " catches the 
 spirit of this when he describes how God utterly 
 ruined some of the fallen angels : 
 
 "He hurled them down 
 Like meteors through the lurid vault, and fix'd 
 Their adamantine fetters to a rock 
 Of adamant, submerged, not consumed, 
 Beneath the lake of fire." 
 
 And the wicked sank — 
 
 " Btiil down, still ever down, from deep to deep, 
 Into the outer darkness, till at last 
 The fiery gulf received them, ami they plunged 
 Beneath Gehennah's sulphureous waves 
 In the abyss of ever enduring woe." 
 
 This poet also gives us a significant exposition 
 of the " ba})tism of suffering '^ : 
 
 "The Sun 
 Of Righteousness, with healing in his winga, 
 Has risen upon a world weary of night: 
 Most glorious, when euiergent from the Hood 
 That from far Lebanon to Kadesh roll'd 
 Its waves of fire baptismal, Zion rose 
 In perfect Ix'uuty." 
 
WHAT THE POETS SAY. 189 
 
 Moore, ever popular with many, adds his testi- 
 mony. Julian, in his ode to Cupid, says he caught 
 the boy, baptized him in wine, and drank him. 
 Moore thus sings of this event : 
 
 " I caught him by his downy wing, 
 And whelm'd him in the racy spring : 
 Ah, then I drank the poison'd bowl, 
 And love now nestles in my soul." 
 
 The classic " baptized in wine " is explained by 
 Moore. He says of wine, personified as Bacchus, 
 
 that— 
 
 " To my inmost love he glides, 
 And bathes it with his ruby tides." 
 
 I now refer to the immortal Milton. The Arch- 
 angel Michael is explaining to Adam the plan of 
 salvation, and finally tells him of the great com- 
 mission, when he says : 
 
 " Them who shall believe. 
 Baptizing in the profluent stream, the sign 
 Of washing them from guilt of sin to life 
 Pure, and in mind prepar'd, if so befall, 
 For death, like that which the Redeemer died." 
 
 The last quotation is from Paradise Lost; this 
 one is from Paradise Regained. Satan sees the 
 thousands coming to the baptism of John, and in 
 alarm he speaks of Christ to his hosts : 
 
 " Before Him a great prophet, to proclaim 
 His coming, is sent Harbinger, w ho all 
 
190 IMMEHSIOX. 
 
 Invites, and in the consecrated stream 
 Pretends to wash off sin, and fit them so 
 Purified to receive Him pure, or rather 
 To do Him honor as their kin<r; all come, 
 And he himself among them was baptized ; 
 Not thence to be more pure, but to receive 
 The testimony of heaven, that who He is 
 Thenceforth the nations may not doubt. I saw 
 The prophet do him reverence, on Him rising 
 Out of the water, heaven above the clouds 
 Unfold her crystal doors, thence on His head 
 A perfect dove descends, whate'er it meant." 
 
 Christ, while meditating in the wilderness, speaks 
 of this transaction : 
 
 (The Baptist)— "first 
 Refused on me his baptism to confer, 
 As much his greater, and was hardly won ; 
 But as I rose out of the laving stream 
 Heaven open'ed her eternal doors." 
 
 Among the Greeks bapto was used with the sig- 
 nification "to dye," because dyeing was done by 
 dipping. So Milton has used it in his beautiftil 
 description of the angel Raphael : 
 
 " The middle pair of his wings 
 Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round 
 Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold 
 And colors dipped in heaven." 
 
 Bickersteth has the same idea : 
 
 " The stones 
 Of purest crystal are from gloomiest mines ; 
 The tenderest pearls are won from roughest seas ; 
 
WHAT THE P0ET8 SAY. 191 
 
 And stars of colors dipp'd in Iris' vats 
 Beam from unfathomable distances 
 Ere they disclose their radiance." 
 
 I might add other names and extracts, but these 
 are sufficient. 
 
192 IMMERSION. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 WHAT THE GREEK CHURCH SAYS. 
 
 T HAVE shown in former chapters that baptize 
 -*- in classic Greek, in the Septuagint, in the New 
 Testament, and in the Greek fathers, means to dip. 
 The Greek Church practices dipping to-day, and 
 has never held to any other form of baptism. I 
 present the practice of the Greek Church as an 
 unanswerable argument in faver of immersion. 
 We will consider: 
 
 1. Ancient and modern Greek is substantially 
 the same language in structure and in words. In 
 twenty-five hundred years there has been but little 
 variation in this language. This point alone is 
 enough to put the whole baptismal controversy at 
 rest. 
 
 Upon the harmony of ancient and modern Greek 
 I give the testimony of two among the foremost 
 teachers of Greek in this country, and what they 
 state is confirmed by scholars in Germany, England 
 and America. 
 
 Prof. A. F. Fleet, LL. D., for many years pro- 
 fessor of Greek in the State University of Missouri, 
 
WHAT THE GREEK CHURCH SAYS. 193 
 
 and who spent much time in Athens in the study 
 of this language, writes me : 
 
 Mexico, Mo., Jan. 26th, 1891. 
 Rev. J. T. Christian, Jacksouj Miss. : 
 
 Dear Sir, — In answer to yours of the 17th inst., 
 I would say that the modern Greek language is 
 substantially the same in structure and in words 
 as that spoken and written by the ancient Greeks. 
 As I have frequently said in public and in private, 
 Socrates and Plato, Xenophon and Demosthenes, 
 and even Homer himself, might to-day sit at the 
 foot of the Acropolis and read the morning paper 
 published in Athens with comparatively little dif- 
 ficulty. There has been less change in the Greek 
 language within the past 2,300 years than in the 
 English within the past 500. 
 
 With regards, I am, very truly, 
 
 A. F. Fleet. 
 
 Prof. Addison Hogue, Professor of Greek in the 
 University of Mississippi, and author of a learned 
 work on Attic Prose, writes: 
 
 Oxford, Miss., Jan. 2l8t, 1891 
 Rev. J. T. Christian, D. D. : 
 
 My Dear Sir, — Yours of the ITt^h is post marked 
 the 20th, and was received by me this morning, 
 
194 IMMERSION. 
 
 which will explain what might seem a tardiness in 
 replying. 
 
 My answer is, modern Greek is substantially the 
 same as the old Greek: it is far more like the 
 Greek of 2,200 years ago than modern English is 
 like the English of 500 years ago. English has 
 taken in numerous words from outside languages ; 
 modern Greek has naturally a great many Turkish 
 words; and the language as spoken among the 
 uneducated people, and the colloquial Romaic, has 
 
 departed very widely from the old classical stand- 
 ard. But the written language is amazingly like 
 what Greek used to be. A modern Greek news- 
 paper is easy to read, provided one can read an- 
 cient Greek with ease. Children's school books 
 show the same similarity; and the foreign words 
 of which I spoke are by no means so numerous as 
 might be supposed. 
 
 If Xcnophon were handed in the "Islands of the 
 Blessed," the paper I send you, it would give him 
 the least trouble in the world to read it, though he 
 would naturally wonder who had been tampering 
 with his good old Greek. You may use this as 
 you like. 
 
 Command me further if I can be of service. 
 Yours, very truly, Addison Hoguk. 
 
WHAT THE GREEK CHURCH SAYS. 195 
 
 Having sufficiently emphasized the fact that 
 ancient and modem Greek is the same language, I 
 now pass to the proof that the Greek Church now 
 practices immersion. 
 
 2. The use of t]\o l•ln^•llago. I nunn \>y use 
 the common, every-day acceptation of words. The 
 v/ord baptize is in constant use among the Greeks. 
 A modern Greek writer on natural philosophy 
 repeatedly employs the word. In explaining the 
 method of determining specific gravity, he says we 
 first weigh the body, then immerse it in water, and 
 then weigh it, thus suspended by a cord. The 
 Minerva^ an Athenian newspaper, in explaining the 
 explosive gun-cotton which caused such a noise in 
 the world thirty years ago, says: ^'Common cot- 
 ton, well cleansed, is taken, which, being immersed 
 {baptizemeno7i) for about half a minute in strong 
 nitric acid, &c." Cereas, the most learned of 
 modern Greek writers, says: " Right<}ousne6S for- 
 bids a man to dip, (baptize in) his pen in the filth 
 of flattery." The Age, another Athenian newspaper, 
 says: "The Papists verily believe that they are 
 being saved by sprinkling {rantizomenoi), and not 
 by being baptized (baptizomenoi).^' 
 
 3. The ritual and catechism of the Greek 
 Church. The best way to tell what a church 
 practices, is to study their ritual and catechism ; 
 
196 IMMEKSIOX. 
 
 and I propose to let the ritual and catechism of 
 the Greek Church speak for itself: " The servant 
 (handmaid) of God, N., is baptized in the name of 
 the Father, amen ; and of the Son, amen ; and of 
 the holy Ghost, amen ; now and ever, and to ages 
 of ages. At each invocation he immerses the can- 
 didate and raises him again." (Offic. Orien. Ch. 
 p. 94.) And hence the Russian catechism reads: 
 *^ This they hold to be a point necessary y that no 
 part of the child be undipped in water." 
 
 4. The Lexicons. Prof. Sophocles, a native 
 Greek, Avho long ably filled the chair of Greek in 
 Harvard University, published a lexicon of the 
 Roman and Byzantine periods, ^* extending from 
 B. C. 140 to A. D. 1100." He defines baptize " to 
 dip, to immerse, to sink." On the New Testa- 
 ment meaning of the word, he remarks : " There 
 is no evidence that Luke and Paul, and other 
 writers of the New Testament, put upon this verb 
 meanings not recognized by the Greeks." 
 
 In a French and Greek lexicon, published in 
 Athens, in 1842, the French word immerse is de- 
 fined by three Greek words, emhapsis^ baptisis^ 
 katadusis, " dip in, dip, sink under." 
 
 In an English-Greek lexicon, published in Cer- 
 fee, in 1827, the word " immerge " is translated by 
 
AV^HAT THE GREEK CHURCH SAYS. 197 
 
 "baptize." This was done by a zealous defender 
 of infant sprinkling. 
 
 5. The testimony of native Greeks. The Greeks 
 certainly ought to know what their own language 
 teaches, and has always taught. They are unani- 
 mous in their verdict, that baptize means to 
 immerse. I will give the testimony of a few dis- 
 tinguished Greeks : 
 
 The Bishop of Cyclades says: "The word bap- 
 tize, explained, means a veritable dipping, and, in 
 fact, a perfect dipping. An object is baptized 
 when it is completely co^vered. This is a proper 
 explanation of the word baptizoJ^ 
 
 Bishop Platon, of Moscow, Pres. State of Greek 
 Ch., Edinburg, 1814, says: "The Greeks and 
 Russians always use the trine immersion." 
 
 Alex, de Stourdza, Russian State Counselor, 
 says : " The Church of the West has, then, de- 
 parted from the example of Jesus Christ; and 
 has obliterated the whole sublimity of the ex- 
 terior sign; in short, she commits an awful 
 abuse of words and of ideas in practicing bap- 
 tism by aspersion, the very term being, in itself, 
 a derisive contradiction. The verb baptize, im~ 
 mergo, has, in fact, but one sole acceptation. It 
 signifies, literally and always, to plunge. Baptism 
 and immersion are, therefore, identical, and to say 
 
198 IMMERSION. 
 
 baptism by aspersion is as if one should say, im- 
 mersion by aspersion, or any other absurdity of the 
 same nature/' (Con. sur LaDoc. et U Esprit, p. 87.) 
 
 Prof. Timayenis, a native Greek of the Hellenic 
 Institute, N. Y., in a lecture at Chautauqua, in 
 1881, speaking of the Greek religion, said: "The 
 Greeks baptize, of course — they baptize in the real 
 way. The Greek word haptizo means nothing but 
 immerse in the water. Baptism means nothing but 
 immersion. In the Greek language we have a 
 different word for sprinkling. When you put a 
 piece of wood into the water, and cover it entirely, 
 you baptize, you do what is expressed by the 
 Greek word baptizo. I am ready to discuss this 
 with any divine about the Greek word. Sprinkling 
 is not what the Bible teaches; that is a fact that 
 you may depend on.'^ 
 
 The Rev. Nicholas Bjerring, of New York, 
 in his Offices of the Oriental Church, 1884, re- 
 marks: "Baptism is celebrated sometimes in the 
 church and sometimes in private houses, as need 
 may be. It is always administered by dipping the 
 infant, or adult, three times into the water.*' 
 (p. 13.) 
 
 Prof N. Bonwetsch, of Dorpat University, 
 writes me under date of May 5th, 1890: "As far 
 as the ceremony of the Greek-Russian Church is 
 
WHAT THE GREEK CHURCH SAYS. 199 
 
 concerned, immersion is the only method used in 
 baptizing," 
 
 Dr. A. Diomedes Kyriasko, of the University 
 of Athens, Greece, writes to Rev. C. G. Jones, of 
 Lynchburg, Va., as follows: 
 
 Athens, Aug., 1890. 
 
 Dear Sir, — The verb baptizo, in the Greek lan- 
 guage, never has the meaning of to pour or to 
 sprinkle, but invariably that of to dip. In the 
 Greek Church, both in its earliest times and in our 
 days, to baptize has meant to dip. It is through 
 this process that our church baptizes, and always 
 has baptized both infants belonging to Christian 
 families and adults turning from any other religion 
 to Christianity, i. e., by dipping them thrice in the 
 water. Thus also meaning by dipping, used by the 
 Apostles, to baptize. Were it not so Paul could 
 not have compared baptizing to the death of 
 Christ, saying that in baptism we are buried with 
 Christ, and arisen with him ; that is to say, the 
 old man in us has been buried, and the new man 
 fashioned according to the likeness of Christ risen 
 again. Since baptism, therefore, by the cleansing 
 «^f the soul, this idea can only be clearly represented 
 by the entire dipping of the body into water, and 
 not by sprinkling or pouring. Yours truly, 
 
 Dr. a. Diomedes Kyriasko, Professor. 
 
200 IMMERSION. 
 
 6. Scholars of other communions fully confirm 
 the Greeks in this testimony. Dr. W. D. Powell, 
 who has just returned from Athens, says in the 
 Western Recorder^ under date of January 8th, 
 1891.* "One of the Professors (in the University 
 of Athens) brought two Greek and English Lexi- 
 cons, one T remember was by Dr. Sophocles, who 
 was a Professor in Harvard University for twenty - 
 eight years, and both lexicons rendered the word 
 to dip, to plunge, to immerse. 
 
 "I asked the Professors what the word baptizo 
 meant in Latin, and they replied, ' submergcrc.^ 
 I enquired furthermore what it meant in Spanish, 
 and they said ^immersion.' 
 
 "An intelligent Greek said: ^ Don't ask me, 
 ask any common laborer you meet on the street 
 and he will tell you.' So when I returned to the 
 hotel I requested the head-waiter, who was a 
 Frenchman, to ask the porter what the word Z>ap- 
 tizo meant. He replied, that it meant ^ to put 
 under the water and to take out of the water.'" 
 
 The Episcopalians bear witness to the fact that 
 the Greek Church immerses. Two witnesses are 
 sufficient. 
 
 Dean Stanley wrote a book upan the Eastern 
 Church, and in it he says : " There can be no 
 (piestion that the original form of baptism — the 
 
WHAT THE GREEK CHURCH SAYS. 201 
 
 very meaning of the word — was complete immer- 
 sion in the deep baptismal waters ; and that, for at 
 least four centuries, any other form was either un- 
 known, or regarded in the case of dangerous ill- 
 ness, as an exceptional, almost a monstrous case. 
 To this .form the Eastern Church still rigidly ad- 
 heres ; and the most illustrious and venerable por- 
 tion of it, that of the Byzantine Empire, absolutely 
 repudiates and ignores any other mode of adminis- 
 tration as essentially invalid." (East. Ch., p. 117.) 
 Dr. Wall says: "The Greek Church, in all 
 branches of it, does still use immersion ; and they 
 hardly count a child, except in case of sickness 
 well baptized without it. And so do all other 
 Christians in the world, except the Latins.'' (Hist. 
 Inft. Bap., vol. 1, p. 589.) 
 
 The Presbyterians give their testimony : 
 Dr. Schaff says : " The Oriental and the Or- 
 thodox Russian churches require even a three- 
 fold immersion, in the name of the trinity, and 
 deny the validity of any other. They look upon 
 the Pope of Rome as an unbaptized heretic, and 
 would not recognize the single immersion of the 
 Baptists. The Longer Russian Catechism thus 
 defines baptism : * A sacrament in which a man 
 who believes, having his body thrice plunged in 
 water, in the name of God. the Father, the Son, 
 
202 IMMERSION. 
 
 and the Holy Ghost, to a life spiritual and holy.' 
 Marriott, (in Smith and Cheatham, i: 161) says: 
 ^ Triple immersion, that is thrice dipping the 
 head whilst standing in the water, was the all but 
 universal rule of the church in early times.'" 
 (Hist. Ch. Church, vol. 1, p. 468, note.) 
 
 Prof. Moses Stuart, of Andover, says : " The 
 mode of baptism by immersion, the Oriental Church 
 has always continued to preserve, even down to the 
 present time. The members of this church are 
 accustomed to call the members of the Western 
 churches, sprinkled Christians, by way of ridicule 
 and contempt." (On Bapt., p. 151.) 
 
 The Methodists join in proving the same thing. 
 
 Dr. Bennett, whose work is edited and endorsed 
 by Bishop Hurst and Dr. Crooks, says: "The 
 Greek Church adheres to trine immersion with 
 great tenacity, and to-day practices this mode in 
 all its chief churches." (Arch. p. 408.) 
 
 Prof Bonet-Maurey, of the Theological Fac- 
 ulty, Paris, France, writes me: "Baptism by 
 immersion is still practiced by all the diiferent 
 orthodox Greek churches of the East." 
 
 I could add many other learned witnesses, but 
 these are sufficient. They include some of the 
 brightest lights of P]uropc and America. Here is 
 the testimony of the Greek Church as given by 
 
WHAT THE GREEK CHURCH SAYS. 203 
 
 itself, and its representative men; and the most 
 bcholarly Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Meth- 
 odists confirm this view. Some of these men have 
 only recently investigated this subject and give us 
 overwhelming facts. Here is a church that speaks 
 the language that the New Testament was written 
 in, a people that have the very words that Christ 
 selected to designate the ordinance of baptism, in 
 constant use. Above all, they have practiced im- 
 mersion since the days of Christ. This proof to a 
 candid mind is unanswerable. 
 
204 IMMERSION. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 WHAT THE CATHOLICS SAY. 
 
 rpHOMAS AQUINAS, the great Catholic Di- 
 vine of the Middle Ages, who died 1274, ap- 
 }>ears to have been the first person in the Catholic 
 Church who took the ground that affusion under 
 ordinary circumstances would answer for baptism. 
 Yet he did not think it so good as immersion. He 
 also said that " by immersion the burial with Christ 
 is more vividly represented ; therefore, this is the 
 more common and commendable way." He also 
 declares it to be safer. His contemporary, Bona- 
 ventura, says that "the way of dipping into water 
 is the more common, and the fitter and the safer." 
 This opinion favoring sprinkling, however, was not 
 endorsed by any Council or Pope. It was not till 
 the Council of Ravenna that sprinkling was de- 
 clared to be indifferent. This was the first ofliciiil 
 action of the Catholic Church. 
 
 The foremost Catholic scholars have no hesita- 
 tion in declaring that the Scripture act of baptism 
 was by immersion. I give the testimony of some 
 unimpeachable witnesses. 
 
 Dr. Dollingerj of Bonn University, who recently 
 
WHAT THE CATHOLICS SAY. 205 
 
 «lied at a ripe old age, says: "At first Christian 
 baptism commonly took place in the Jordan; of 
 course, as the church spread more widely, also in 
 private houses. Like that of St. John, it was by 
 immersion of the whole person, which is the only 
 meaning of the New Testament word. A mere 
 pouring or sprinkling was never thought of." 
 (First Age of Christ and Ch. p. 318.) He also 
 says in his Church History, vol. 2, p. 294 : " Bap- 
 tism was administered by an entire immersion in 
 water.'' 
 
 Arnoldi says: ^'Baptizein, to immerse, to sub- 
 inerge. It was as being an entire submersion 
 under the water, since washings were already a 
 confession of impurity and a symbol of purifica- 
 tion—the confession of entire impurity and a 
 symbol of entire purification." (Com. on Math. 
 
 iii : 6.) 
 
 Dupin says: "They plunged those three times 
 in the water when they baptized." (Hist. vol. 2, 
 p. 77, 3d century.) 
 
 Paul Maria Paciandi, the great antiquarian, 
 wrote a most learned book, which he dedicated to 
 Pope Benedict XIV., and it was published by 
 the authority of the Pope. He says of the repre- 
 sentations of pouring on the head of the Savior, 
 in the picture at Ravenna, that " Nothing can be 
 
206 IMMERSION. 
 
 more preposterous than these emblems. Was our 
 Lord baptized by aspersion? This is so far from 
 being true, that nothing can be more opposite to 
 the truth, and it is to be attributed to the igno- 
 rance and rashness of workmen." 
 
 Dr. Joseph De Yicecomes, of Milan, says : " I 
 will never cease to profess and teach that only im- 
 mersion in water, except in cases of necessity, is 
 lawful baptism in the church. I will refute that 
 false notion that baptism was administered in the 
 primitive church by pouring or sprinkling." (Ch. 
 6, Bk. 4.) 
 
 John Mabillon says that pouring " Was contrary 
 to an express canon of the ninth century ; contrary 
 to the canon given by Stephen, which allowed 
 pouring only in cases of necessity ; contrary to the 
 general practice in France, where trine immersion 
 was used ; contrary to the practice of the Spaniards, 
 who used single immersion ; contrary to the opinion 
 of Alwin, who contended for trine immersion ; and 
 contrary to the practice of many who continued to 
 dip until the fifteenth century." (Acta Sane. Ord. 
 Ben. par. ii. Proef : c. vii S. 186.) 
 
 Lewis Anthony Miratori, treating of the Am- 
 brosian rite of baptism, as performed at Milan, 
 says : " Observe the Ambrosian manner of bap- 
 tizing. Now-a-days the priests preserve a shadow 
 
WHAT THE CATHOLICS SAY. 207 
 
 of the ancient Ambrosian form of baptizing, for 
 they do not baptize by pouring, as the Romans do ; 
 but, taking the infant in their hands, they dip the 
 hinder part of his head three times in the baptismal 
 water, in the form of the cross, which is a vestige 
 yet remaining of the most ancient and universal 
 practice of immersion." (Atiq. Ital. Tom. iv. Dis. 
 Ixvii.) 
 
 Mattes says : " In regard to the ablution (in bap- 
 tism) the present practice of the Latin Church dif- 
 fers altogether from that of the ancient church. 
 We are accustomed to perform the ablution by 
 sprinkling or by pouring water ; but the apostles 
 performed it by immersion, and this mode of bap- 
 tism was the general practice until far into the 
 Middle Ages." (Kirchen-Lexicon, art. Taufen of 
 Wetzer and Welte.) 
 
 Catholic historians also declare that immersion 
 was the general practice of the church for thirteen 
 hundred years. 
 
 Bollinger says : " " Baptism by immersion con- 
 tinued to be the prevailing practice of the church 
 }i8 late as the fourteenth century." (Hist. Ch. vol. 
 2, p. 295.) 
 
 Cardinal Gibbons, the foremost Catholic in the 
 United States, says: "For several centuries after 
 the establishment of Christianity, baptism was usu- 
 
208 IMMERSION. 
 
 ally conferred by immersion ; but since the twelfth 
 century the practice of baptizing by affusion ha-s 
 prevailed in the Catholic Church, as this manner 
 is attended with less inconvenience than baptism 
 by immersion." (Faith of Our Fathers, p. 275.) 
 
 F. Brenner, in a very learned book, says : " Thir- 
 teen hundred years was baptism generally and or- 
 dinarily performed by the immersion of a man 
 under water, and only in extraordinary cases was 
 sprinkling or affusion permitted. These latter 
 methods of baptism were called in question, 
 and even prohibited." (Augusti, Denkwurd, vii, 
 ,,. 68.) 
 
 There is a remarkable difference in the way 
 Catholics and Protestants defend sprinkling. Prot- 
 estants try to prove it from the Bible ; but Cath- 
 olics very frankly state that the Church changed 
 the rite from immersion to sprinkling. Our Pedo- 
 baptist brethren have no answer to this statement 
 of the case. The Catholic does not appeal to the 
 Scripture, for it does not teach sprinkling; but 
 the Church has authority over all ceremonies, and 
 to him his position is impregnable. This could 
 be proved by a multitude of authors, but two are 
 sufficient. 
 
 Bishop Bossuet says : " The decision of Con- 
 stance, in approbation of and for retaining com- 
 
WHAT THE CATHOLICS SAY. 209 
 
 munion under one kind, is one of those, wherein 
 our adversaries think they have the most advan- 
 tage. But in order to be convinced of the grav- 
 ity and constancy of the Church in this decree, we 
 need but remember that the Council of Constance, 
 when they passed it, had found the custom of com- 
 municating under one kind established, beyond 
 contradiction, many ages before. The case was 
 much the same as that of baptism by immersion, 
 as clearly grounded on Scripture as communion 
 under both kinds could be, and which, neverthe- 
 less, had been changed into infusion, with as much 
 ease and as little contradiction as communion un- 
 der one kind was established, so that tlie same 
 reason stood for retaining one as the other. It is 
 II fact most certainly avowed in the Reformation, 
 although some will cavil at it, that baptism was 
 instituted by immersing the whole body into water ; 
 that Jesus Christ received it so, and caused it to 
 be so given by his Apostles; that the Scripture 
 knows no other baptism than this ; that antiquity 
 so understood and practiced it; that the word it- 
 self implies it, to baptize being the same as to dip ; 
 this fact, I say, is unanimously acknowledged by 
 all the divines of the Reformation, nay, by the 
 Reformers themselves, and those even who best 
 
 understood the Greek language and the ancient 
 14 
 
210 IMMERSION. 
 
 customs as well of the Jews as Christians ; by Lu- 
 ther, by Melancthon, by Calvin, by Casaubon, by 
 Grotius, by all the rest, and lately even by Jurien, 
 the most contradictory of all ministers. Nay, Lu- 
 ther has observed that the German word signify- 
 ing baptism was derived from thence, and this 
 sacrament named Taufy from profundity or depth, 
 because the baptized were deeply plunged into 
 water." (Varia. Protest, vol. 2, p. 370.) 
 
 The same views prevail among Catholics In the 
 United States. I wrote Cardinal Gibbons in re- 
 gard to baptism, and he at once referred me to the 
 work of Archbishop Kenrick on that subject as 
 authoritative and as giving the information I de- 
 sired. Archbishop Kenrick says: ^' The change of 
 discipline which has taken place to baptism should 
 not surprise us, for although the Church is but the 
 dispenser of the sacraments which her Divine 
 Spouse instituted, she rightfully exercises a discre- 
 tionary power as to the manner of their administra- 
 tion. She can not change their substance. Bap- 
 tism essentially consists of a washing with water 
 under the invocation of the three Divine Persons. 
 She can not substitute any other liquid, however 
 precious, or any other formulary. The ablution 
 can in no circumstances be dispensed with, but the 
 manner of making it can be more or less solemn, 
 
WHAT THE CATHOLICS SAY. 211 
 
 according to her wise discretion. Immersion was 
 well suited to the Eastern nations, whose habits 
 and climate prepared them for it, and was therefore 
 practiced in the commencement, whenever neces- 
 sity did not prevent it. Cases, which at first were 
 exceptional, gradually multiplied, so that at length 
 the ordinary mode of baptism was by aiFusion. 
 The Church idsely sanctioned that which, although 
 less solemn, is equally effectual. The poirer of 
 binding and loosing , which she received from 
 Christ, icarrants this exercise of governing ivisdom^ 
 that the difference of times and places being con- 
 sidered, condescension may be used in regard to the 
 mode of administering the sacraments without dan- 
 ger to their integrity. It is not for individuals 
 to question a right which has been at all times 
 claimed and exercised by those to whom the dis- 
 pensation of the mysteries is divinely intrusted." 
 (Kenrick on Bap. p. 174.) 
 
 In regard to the changing of the ordinance, one 
 more quotation will be sufficient, because it was 
 approved by their infallible Pope, Pius IX., and 
 hence is maintained by all good Catholics. For 
 whatever the Pope formally approves can be quot- 
 ed as authoritative Catholic utterance. Pius IX. 
 approved Haydock's notes on the Douay Bible. 
 And the comment on Matt, iii: 6 is: "The 
 
212 IMMERSION. 
 
 Church, which can not change the least article of 
 faith, is not so tied up in matters of discipline and 
 ceremony. Not only the Catholic Church, but 
 also the pretended reformed churches, have altered 
 the primitive custom in giving the sacrament of 
 baptism, and now allow of baptism by sprinkling 
 and pouring water upon the person baptized ; nay, 
 many of their ministers do it now-a-days by fillip- 
 ing a wet finger and thumb over the child's head, 
 which it is hard enough to call a baptizing in any 
 sense/' 
 
 While the Catholics now practice affusion be- 
 cause the Church changed the rite, they have no 
 sympathy with that very foolish idea, "a drop is 
 as good as an ocean," and with the flippant man- 
 ner in which some persons administer the ordi- 
 nance. In addition to the above from Haydock, 
 I would commend this passage of Archbishop 
 Kenrick to some of our friends: "Where no 
 water is applied, it is absurd to suppose bap- 
 tism ; where the application of the water is scanty, 
 and careless, as when a few drops are sprinkled 
 toward a person, or the moist finger is slightly 
 pressed on the forehead, there is great reason to 
 fear that there is no baptism." (p. 5.) 
 
WHAT THE EPISCOPALIANS SAY. 21o 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 WHAT THE EPISCOPALIANS SAY. 
 
 npHE testimony of the Episcopalians is clear 
 -^ and conclusive as to the original manner of 
 baptizing. There has been no hesitation among 
 Episcopalian scholars in declaring that the Script- 
 ures teach immersion. It was one of the last of 
 the Pedoba])tist churches that admitted sprinkling 
 as baptism, and England was one of the very last 
 countries that admitted sprinkling for baptism. 
 Dr. Wall, a very learned Episcopalian, says : 
 
 " One would have thought that the cold coun- 
 tries should have been the first that should have 
 changed the custom from dipping to affusion, be- 
 cause in cold climates the bathing of the body in 
 water may seem much more unnatural and dan- 
 gerous to the health than in hot ones (and it is to 
 be noted, by the way, that all of those countries 
 of whose rites of baptism, and immersion used in 
 it, we have any account in the Scriptures or other 
 ancient history, are in hot climates, where fre- 
 quent and common bathing both of infants and 
 grown persons is natural, and even necessary to 
 the health). But by history it appears that the 
 
214 IMMERSION. 
 
 cold climates held the custom of dipping as long 
 as any ; for England, which is one of the coldest, 
 was one of the latest that admitted this alteration 
 of the ordinary way. . . . The offices or litur- 
 gies for public baptism in the Church of England 
 did all along, so far as I can learn, enjoin dipping, 
 without any mention of pouring or sprinkling. 
 The Manuele ad usum Sarum, printed 1530, the 
 21st of Henry Vlllth, orders thus for the public 
 baptisms: 'Then let the priest take the child and, 
 having asked the name, baptize him by dipping 
 him in the water thrice,' &c. And John Frith, 
 writing in the year 1533 a Treatise of Baptism, 
 calls the outward part of it the plunging down 
 into it, and lifting up again ; which he often men- 
 tions, without ever mentioning pouring or sprink- 
 ling. In the Common Prayer Book printed in 
 1549, the 2nd of King Edward Ylth, the order 
 stands thus : ' Shall dip it in the water thrice,* &c., 
 ' so it be discreetly and warily done, saying, N, 
 I baptize thee,' &c. But this order adds : ' And 
 if the child be weak, it shall suffice to pour water 
 upon it, saying the aforesaid words.' Afterward 
 the book do leave out the word thrice, and do say, 
 ' Shall dip it in the water, so it be discreetly,' &c., 
 which alteration J I suppose, was made in the 6th 
 of Edward the A'Ttli, for then there was a new 
 
WHAT THE EPISCOPALIANS SAY. 215 
 
 edition of the book, with some light alterations. 
 And from thence it stood unaltered as to this mat- 
 ter to the 14th of Charles II." (WalPs Hist. Inft. 
 Bap. vol 1, pp. 575, 579.) 
 
 There need be nothing more added to tell how 
 sprinkling became the practice of the Episcopalian 
 Church. 
 
 But as to the testimony of Episcopalians to the 
 primitive act of baptism I could give innumerable 
 names of the highest authority. I will have to 
 content myself with a few selections. I shall be- 
 gin with Dr. Wall, whom I have just quoted on 
 another matter. 
 
 Dr. Wall says : " Their general and ordinary 
 way was to baptize by immersion, or dipping the 
 person, whether it was an infant or grown man or 
 woman, into the water. This is so plain and clear 
 from an infinite number of passages that, as one 
 can not but pity the weak endeavors of such Pedo- 
 baptists as would maintain the negative of it, so 
 also we ought to disown and show a dislike of the 
 profane scoffs which some people give to the English 
 anti-Pedobaptists merely for their use of di2)ping. 
 It is one thing to maintain that that circumstance is 
 not absolutely necessary to the essence of baptism, 
 and another to go about to represent it as ridiculous 
 and foolish, or as shameful and indecent; when 
 
216 IMMERSION. 
 
 it was, in all probability, the way by which our 
 blessed Saviour, and for certain was the most usual 
 and ordinary way by which the ancient Christians, 
 did receive their baptism. I shall not stay to pro- 
 duce the particular proofs of this. Many of the 
 quotations which I brought for other purposes, 
 and do bring, do evince it. It is a great want of 
 prudence, as well as of honesty, to refuse to grant 
 to an adversary what is certainly true, and may 
 be proved so. It creates a jealousy of all the rest, 
 one says.'' (Hist. Inft. Bap. vol. 1, pp. 570, 571.) 
 
 B. H. Kennedy, late Professor of Greek, Cam- 
 bridge, Eng., A. D. 1888, says: "That haptizo and 
 its root word hapto, both of them, generally mean 
 to dip, to immerse, is true ; and upon this truth in 
 part, in part upon the fact that our Lord and oth- 
 ers, when baptized in the river Jordan, did go 
 down into the water, and so were immersed, the 
 Christian sect, commonly called Baptists, found 
 their practices of immersion.'' 
 
 John Henry Blount, M. A., F. S. A., says : " It 
 means dipping or bathing (Naaman, 2 Kings v: 
 14, and Judith xii : 7, lxx), the washing of cups 
 and dishes (Mark vii : 3, Heb. ix : 10) ; also sig- 
 nifies overwhelming sorrows and sufferings (Isa. 
 xxi : 4, LXX ; Luke xii : 50, Matt, xx : 22). From 
 all of which we may gather the meaning of a thor- 
 
WHAT THE EPISCOPALIANS SAY. 217 
 
 ough cleansing, as by immersion or washing, and 
 not by mere affusion or sprinkling of a few drops 
 of water." (Die. Doc. and His. Theol. Art. Bap.) 
 
 Charles Wheatly, in his recent work on the 
 Book of Common Prayer, London, 1885, p. 349, 
 says: "However, except upon extraordinary oc- 
 casions, baptism was seldom, or perhaps never, 
 administered for the first four centuries, but by 
 immersion or dipping. Nor is aspersion or sprink- 
 ling ordinarily used, to this day, in any country 
 that was never subject to the Pope. And among 
 those that submitted to his authority, England was 
 the last place where it was received. Though it 
 has never obtained, so far as to be enjoined, dip^ 
 ping having been always prescribed by the rubric' 
 
 Dean Stanley says: "Baptism was not only 
 a bath, but a plunge — an entire submersion in the 
 deep water, a leap as into the rolling sea or the 
 rushing river, where for the moment the waves 
 close over the bather's head, and he emerges again 
 as from a momentary grave ; or it was the shock of 
 a shower bath — the rush of water passed over the 
 whole person from capacious vessels, so as to wrap 
 the recipient as within the vail of a splashing^ cat- 
 aract. This was the part of the ceremony that the 
 Apostles laid so much stress. It seemed to them 
 like a burial of the old former self, and the rising 
 
218 IMMERSION. 
 
 up again of the new self. So St. Paul compared 
 it to the Israelites passing through the roaring 
 waves of the Red Sea, and St. Peter to the passing 
 through the deep waters of the flood. ^ We are 
 buried/ said St. Paul, ' with Christ by baptism at 
 his death ; that like as Christ was raised, thus we 
 also should walk in the newness of life.' Bap- 
 tism, as the entrance into the Christian society', 
 was a complete change from the old superstitions 
 or restrictions of Judaism, to the freedom and con- 
 fidence of the Gospel; from the idolatries and 
 profligacies of the old heathen world to the light 
 and purity of Christianity. It was a change eflected 
 only by the same effort and struggle as that with 
 which a strong swimmer or an adventurous diver 
 throws himself into the stream and struggles with 
 the waves, and comes up with increased energy 
 out of the depths of the dark abyss.'' (Christ. 
 Inst. p. 7, 8.) 
 
 Bishop Ellicott says: "Jewish ablutions . . . 
 had nothing in common with the figurative act 
 which portrayed through immersion the com- 
 plete disappearance of the old nature, and by 
 emerging again, the beginning of a totally new 
 life." (Life of Christ, p. 110.) 
 
 Dr. C. Geikie says : '^ It was, hence, impossi- 
 ble to see a convert go down into a stream, travel- 
 
WHAT THE EPISCOPALIANS SAY. 219 
 
 worn, and soiled with dust, and, after disappearing 
 for a moment, emerge pure and fresh, without feel- 
 ing that the symbol suited and interpreted a strong 
 craving of the human heart. It was no formal 
 rite with John.'' (Life of Christ, p. 276.) 
 
 Dean Alford says : ^' The baptism was admin- 
 istered in the day time, by immersion of the whole 
 person." (Gr. N. T., vol. 1, p. 20.) 
 
 Edershcini >«^ays : " It was as if symbolical, in 
 the words of St. Peter (1 Pet. iii : 21), that bap- 
 tism had been a flood, and he now emerged from 
 it, ... . indicative of a new life. Here, at 
 these waters, was the kingdom into which Jesus 
 had entered in the fulfillment of all righteousness ; 
 and from thence he emerged as its heaven desig- 
 nated, heaven qualified, and heaven proclaimed 
 king." (Life of Christ, vol. 1, p. 284.) 
 
 There is a feeling on the part of a great many 
 eminent Episcopalians to restore the primitive im- 
 mersion among them. This is advocated by many 
 of their foremost men. In 1861, Mr. Crystal pub- 
 lished a book on " The modes of Christian Bap- 
 tism," in which he ardently defended the return 
 of the Episcopal Church to immersion as the act 
 of baptism. Among other things he said : " It is 
 evident, 1. That if we restore immersion, we only 
 restore what has ever been our theory, so far back 
 
220 IMMERSION. 
 
 as the history of the Anglican Church extends. 
 We correct only a late and not primitive practice. 
 2. Should we restore the trine immersion as the 
 general practice, we should have good reason to 
 lay claim to the only mode which, so far as we can 
 judge from all the testimony which the early 
 church aifords, can lay historically attested claim 
 to being the normal mode of the Apostles.^' 
 (p. 213.) 
 
 Bishop Smith, of Kentucky, was a defender of 
 immersion. Said he: "We have only to go back 
 six or eight hundred years, and immersion was the 
 only mode, except in case of the few baptized on 
 their beds when death was near. And with regard 
 to such cases, it disqualified its recipient for holy 
 orders in case he recovered. Immersion was not 
 only universal six or eight hundred years ago, but 
 it was iwimitive and apostolic, no case of baptism 
 standing on record by any other mode for the first 
 three hundred years, except the few cases of those 
 baptized clinically, lying in bed. If any one 
 ]>ractice of the early church is clearly established, 
 it is immersion." But Bishop Smith was not satis- 
 fied with a mere statement of the case ; he desired 
 a restoration of the primitive practice. Accord- 
 ingly, he immersed his own infant child, having 
 previously declared it advisable to send some 
 
WHAT THE EPISCOPALIANS SAY. 221 
 
 Episcopalians to Greece, that they might obtain 
 immersion from those who had practiced it in reg- 
 ular succession from the Apostles, and on their re- 
 turn restore the practice quietly and without noise 
 throughout his communion. (Kenrick on Bap. 
 p. 150.) 
 
 I have before me a noble letter from the most 
 scholarly Bishop of the Episcopal Church in 
 America — Bishop A. Cleveland Coxe, Buffalo, 
 'Sew York. He is the editor of that learned 
 work that has just come from the press — The 
 Ante-Nicene Fathers. While I differ from him in 
 some statements, he does say that ^^ dip " is the 
 meaning of the word baptize ; and, further, that 
 the primitive rite of dipping should be restored in 
 all Christian churches. This is in every way so 
 remarkable that I give his letter entire : 
 
 Buffalo, N. Y., April 16th, 1890. 
 
 Rev. and Dear Sir, — Yours of the 31st ult. 
 came to hand at the very busiest season of our 
 *^ Christian year.'^ I have had no time since then 
 to answer half of my letters. I laid yours aside, 
 hoping to find a spare hour to reply to it, as it 
 merits. I dare not wait any longer, and must 
 therefore answer in few words, as follows : 
 
 1. The word means to dip. 
 
 2. I think the "sacred writers" used the word 
 
222 IMMERSION. 
 
 in the primary sense, but also for other washings 
 which were not dippings. So did also the class- 
 ical writers, with great freedom and variety of 
 meanings. 
 
 3. In the Church of England dipping is even 
 now the primary rule. But it is not the ordinary 
 custom. It survived far down into Queen Eliza- 
 beth's time, but seems to have died out early in 
 the seventeenth century. It never has become 
 obsolete. I, myself, have baptized by dipping 
 both adults and babes. 
 
 I ought to add that in France (un reformed) the 
 custom of dipping became obsolete long before it 
 was disused in England. But for this bad example 
 my own opinion is that dipping would still pre- 
 vail among Anglicans. 
 
 / wish that all Ohristlans would restore the primi- 
 ive practice. I ,«ay this, tho' I believe the other 
 to be valid — as in the case of clinic baptism — in 
 in early Christian history. 
 
 In Christ your friend and Brother, 
 
 A. Cleveland Coxe. 
 
WHAT THE PRESBYTERIA^'S SAY. 223 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 WHAT THE PRESBYTERIANS SAY. 
 
 A S to the original act of baptism, the scholar- 
 -^-^ ship of the Presbyterian Church has all been 
 on one side. They declare that the original act 
 of baptism was immersion. I shall present the 
 statements of some Presbyterians and give some 
 history in this chapter. 
 
 John Calvin, the father of the Presbyterian 
 Church, never failed to testify that baptism was 
 an immersion in water. Says he ; " The word bap- 
 tize signifies to immerse, and it is certain that the 
 rite of immersion was observed by the ancient 
 church." (Inst. Book 4, c. 15.) 
 
 Beza, who was a colleague of Calvin, testifies : 
 ^' Christ commanded us to be baptized, by which 
 word it is certain immersion is signified." '' To 
 be baptized in water signifies no other than to be 
 immersed in water, which is the external ceremony 
 of baptism." 
 
 Zwingle, another of Calvin's associates, said: 
 ^* When ye were immersed into the water of bap- 
 tism, ye were engrafted into the death of Christ ; 
 that is, the immersion of your body into water 
 
224 IMMERSION. 
 
 was a sign that ye ought to be engrafted into 
 Christ and his death, that as Christ died and was 
 buried, ye also may be dead to the flesh and the 
 old man, that is, to yourselves/' (Com. Kom. 
 vi: 3.) 
 
 Dr. John Diodati, of Geneva, one of the most 
 learned men of his times and a member of the 
 Synod of Dort, says of the baptism of John: 
 " Plunged in the water for a sacred sign and seal 
 of the expiation and remission of sins.'' (Annotat. 
 1648, p. 6, vol. 2.) On Rom. vi: 3, he says: " In 
 baptism, being dipped in water according to the 
 ancient ceremony, it is a sacred figure to us that 
 sin ought to be drowned in us by God's Spirit." 
 (Vol 2, p. 158.) 
 
 Although these early Presbyterians were thus 
 positive about the apostolic act of baptism, they 
 erred in not following what they confessed the 
 Scriptures thus plainly taught. Calvin took the 
 ground that it was a matter of no consequence, 
 and that churches ought to be left at liberty on 
 this question. No flood gate was ever opened 
 wider, and innumerable have been the evils that 
 have followed from this position. I will give his 
 theory in his own words, as they are sufficiently 
 explicit: "Wherefore the Church did grant lib- 
 erty to herself, since the beginning, to change the 
 
WHAT THE PRESBYTERIANS SAY. 225 
 
 rites somewhat, excepting the substance. It is of no 
 consequence at all whether the person that is bap- 
 tized is totally immersed, or whether he is merely 
 sprinkled by an affusion of water. This should 
 be a matter of choice to the churches in different 
 regions.^' This is exactly the Roman Catholic 
 position, and will always end in direct disobedi- 
 ence to the commands of Jesus Christ. 
 
 In another chapter I have shown some of the 
 practical workings of this thing. John Knox and 
 many others were compelled to flee from Scotland 
 during the reign of bloody Mary, and they sought 
 an asylum at Geneva. Here they enthusiastically 
 accepted the views of John Calvin. When they 
 returned home they carried these opinions with 
 them. They at once advocated affusion for bap- 
 tism instead of immersion. This idea slowly 
 grew, and the people were much divided. At 
 length, when the Westminster Assembly of Divines 
 met to frame a creed and government for the 
 Presbyterian Church, sprinkling was carried over 
 immersion by one vot^. The vote stood 25 to 24. 
 The Presbyterian Church came this near forever 
 practicing the apostolic act of baptism, and yet 
 there be some who defend sprinkling on the 
 ground of its being scriptural. It was only through 
 
 the influence of Dr. Lightfoot, who was President 
 15 
 
226 IMMERSION. 
 
 of the Assembly, that sprinkling was admitted 
 at all. 
 
 These are such interesting statements that I will 
 give the transaction in the words of Dr. Light- 
 foot himself. He was the principal actor in the 
 matter and kept a journal, and so his testimony 
 may be reckoned unbiased. Dr. Lightfoot said: 
 " Then we fell upon the work of the day, which 
 was about baptizing 'of the child, whether to dip 
 him or to sprinkle.' And this proposition, ' It 
 is lawful and sufficient to besprinkle the child/ 
 had been canvassed before our adjourning, and 
 was ready now to vote; but I spake against it, as 
 being very unfit to vote; that it is lawful to 
 sprinkle' when every one grants it. Whereupon 
 it was fallen upon, sprinkling being granted, 
 whether dipping should be tolerated with it. And 
 here fell we upon a large and long discourse, 
 whether dipping were essential, or used in the first 
 institution, or in the Jews' custom. Mr. Coleman 
 went about, in a large discourse, to prove tbilh to 
 be dipping overhead. Which I answered at large. 
 After a long dispute, it was at last put to the ques- 
 tion, whether the Directory should run thus, ' The 
 minister shall take water, and sprinkle or pour it 
 with his hand upon the face or forehead of the 
 child;' and it was voted so indiflferently, that we 
 
WHAT THE PRESBYTERIANS SAY. 227 
 
 were glad to count names twice; for so many 
 were so unwilling to have dipping excluded, that 
 the votes came to an equality within one; for the 
 one side were 24, the other 25, the 24 for the re- 
 serving of dipping, and the 25 against it; and 
 there grew a great heat upon it, and when we had 
 done all, we concluded upon nothing in it, but the 
 business was recommitted.'' 
 
 "Aug. 8th. But as to the dispute itself about 
 dipping, it was thought safe and most fit to let it 
 alone, and to express it thus in our Directory: 
 ' He is to baptize the child with water, which for 
 the manner of doing is not only lawful, but also 
 sufficient, and most expedient to be by pouring or 
 sprinkling of water on the face of the child, with- 
 out any other ceremony.' But this lost a great 
 deal of time about the wording of it." (Works, 
 vol. 13, p. 299, London 1824.) 
 
 Thus was affiision established in the Prebyterian 
 Church. To say the least, this is a very remark- 
 able history. 
 
 But notwithstanding this the foremost scholars 
 have always conceded that immersion is baptisui. 
 I shall present the names of only a few, but they are 
 all representative men. 
 
 I begin with the great Turretin, who was a Pro- 
 fessor of Theology in Geneva. He eays : " For as 
 
228 IMMERSION. 
 
 in baptism when performed in the primitive man- 
 ner, by immersion and emersion, descending into 
 the water, and again going out of it, of which 
 descent and ascent we have an example in the 
 eunuch, Acts viii : 38, 39; yea, and wliat is more, 
 as by this rite, when persons are immersed in wa- 
 ter, they are overwhelmed and, as it were, buried, 
 and in a manner buried together with Christ, and 
 again they emerge, seem to be raised out of the 
 grave, and are said to be risen again with Christ/^ 
 (Works, vol. 3, p. 326, Edinburg ed. 1847.) 
 
 Richard Baxter, and the Presbyterians never 
 had a greater man, says : " It is commonly con- 
 fessed by us to the Anabaptists, as our commen- 
 tators declare, that in the Apostles* time the bap- 
 tized were dipped over head in the water, and 
 this signified their profession, both of believing the 
 burial and the resurrection of Christ, and of their 
 own renouncing the world and flesh, or dying to 
 sin and living to Christ, or rising again to newness 
 of life, or being buried and risen again with Christ, 
 as the Apostle expounded in the forecited texts of 
 Col. and Rom. And though (as before said) we 
 have thought it lawful to disuse the manner of dip- 
 ping, and to use less water, yet we presume not to 
 change the use and signification of it." (Dis. Right 
 to Sac. p. 70.) 
 
WHAT THE PRESBYTERIANS SAY. 229 
 
 Dr. Chalmers, after saying, ^' the original mean^ 
 ing of the word baptism is immersion/' remarks : 
 '^ Let it never be forgotten of the Particular Bap- 
 tists of England that they form the denomination 
 of Fuller and Carey and Ryland and Hall and Fos- 
 ter ; that they have originated among the greatest 
 of all missionary enterprises ; that they have en- 
 riched the Christian literature of our country with 
 authorship of the most exalted piety, as well as the 
 lirst talent and the first eloquence ; that they have 
 waged a very noble and successful war with the 
 hydra of Antinomianism ; that perhaps there is not 
 a more intellectual community of ministers in our 
 island, or who have put forth to their number a 
 greater amount of mental power and mental activ- 
 ity in the defense and illustration of our common 
 faith ; and, what is better than all of the triumphs 
 of genius or understanding, who, by their zeal and 
 fidelity and pastoral labor among the congregations 
 which they have reared, have done more to swell 
 the lists of genuine discipleship in the walks of 
 private society, and thus to uphold and to extend 
 the living Christianity of our nation." (On Rom. 
 Lee. 14, p. 76.) 
 
 Dr. Lyman Coleman, for many years Professor 
 in Lafayette College, Pa., says : " We can not re- 
 sist the conviction that this mode of baptism was 
 
230 IMMERSION. 
 
 the first departure from the teaching and example 
 
 of the Apostles on this subject It was 
 
 a departure from their teachings; it was the earli- 
 est, for immersion was unquestionably very early 
 the common mode of baj^tism." (Ancient Chris. 
 Ex. p. 366.) 
 
 Dr. George Campbell was one of the most schol- 
 arly men the Presbyterians ever had. He says: 
 '^ I have heard of a disputant of this stamp, in de- 
 fiance of etymology and use, maintain that the word 
 rendered in the New Testament baptize means more 
 properly to sprinkle than to plunge ; and, in defi- 
 ance of all antiquity, that the former method was 
 the earliest, and for many centuries the most gen- 
 eral practice in baptizing. One who argues in this 
 manner never fails, with persons of knowledge, to 
 betray the cause he would defend ; and though, in 
 respect to the vulgar, bold assertions generally suc- 
 ceed as well as arguments, sometimes better, yet a 
 candid mind will disdain to take the help of a false- 
 hood even in support of the truth." (Lect. on Pul. 
 El. Lect. 10, pp. 294, 295.) 
 
 Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Church 
 History in the Union Theological Seminary, New 
 York, says ; ^' The baptism of Christ in the river 
 of Jordan, and tbe illustrations of baptism used in 
 the New Tostani'nt, arc all in favor of immersion 
 
WHAT THE PRESBYTERIANS SAY. 231 
 
 rather than sprinkling, as is freely admitted by the 
 best exegetes, Catholic and Protestant, English and 
 German. Nothing can be gained by unnatural exe- 
 gesis. The aggressiveness of the Bajytists has driven 
 Pedobaptists to the opposite extreme.''^ (Teach, pp. 
 5e5, 56.) 
 
 I have at hand a fresh and new statement of the 
 case. The Southern Presbyterians of the United 
 States have founded three churches in Greece, and 
 all three of them practice immersion. Dr. W. D. 
 Powell, of Mexico, recently wrote from Athens, 
 Greece, as follows : " I found that all churches in 
 Greece — the Presbyterians included — are compelled 
 to immerse candidates for baptism, for, as one of 
 the professors remarked, ' the commonest day la- 
 borer understands nothing else for baptizo but im- 
 mersion.' Some Greeks who have made fortunes 
 in other countries have built and equipped some 
 fine schools and colleges, as well as museums, &c. 
 The university has 3000 students, of whom 1200 
 are preparing to be doctors and lawyers. I visited 
 the university and saw the magnificent library and 
 museum. I asked a professor what baptizo meant, 
 and he said : ' It has but one meaning — to sub- 
 merge, to immerse. Why do you ask ? ' '' 
 
 In reply to an editorial in the Christian Observery 
 of Louisville, Ky., Dr. Powell writes to the West- 
 
232 IMMERSION. 
 
 ern Recorder, Jau 8th, 1891, as follows: " I asked 
 Bro. Sakellarios, who has charge of the Baptist 
 Church in Athens, if the Greek word could mean 
 any thing but immersion, and he said * No/ To 
 my inquiry how the Presbyterians managed this 
 question, he replied: 'Very easily — by having a 
 baptistery made, in which they immerse infants just 
 as the Greek priests do.' Said he : ' Once they 
 sprinkled some children, and it created such a 
 scandal that it came near breaking up the church, 
 and they were compelled to have a small baptis- 
 tery made.' Adult Greeks are received into the 
 Presbyterian Church on the baptism whicli they 
 received in the Greek Church. In Greece, Bul- 
 garia, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, and wherever 
 the Greek language is spoken, immersion for bap- 
 tism is practiced." 
 
 Here is an instance where the Presbyterians 
 practice what their scholars preach. This is the 
 land where Greek is a living language, and noth- 
 ing but immersion is practiced there. This little 
 statement does away with many a ponderous arti- 
 cle written by our Presbyterian brethren to ex- 
 plain and defend their practice on this subject. 
 We commend this to our Presbyterian brethren. 
 
WHAT THE METHODISTS SAY. 233 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 WHAT THE METHODISTS SAY. 
 
 nr HAVE been examining Mr. AVesley^s works, 
 -^ and will give the result of my investigation. 
 Turning to his journal, vol. 1, p. 20, under date 
 of Saturday, February 21st, 1736, Mr. Wesley 
 says : " Mary Welch, aged eleven days, was bap- 
 tized according to the custom of the first church, and 
 the rule of the Church of England , by immersion. 
 The child was ill then, but recovered from that 
 very hour.'' 
 
 Three things are evident from this: 1. The early 
 church practiced immersion. 2. That this was the 
 practice of the Church of England; and 3. That 
 this is positively opposed to the doctrine of some 
 circuit riders who say that immersion destroys 
 health. Before this objection is offered again they 
 must change the "standards," as they have often 
 done before, and make Mr. Wesley cease to say, 
 "the child was ill then, but recovered from that 
 very hour." 
 
 The next instance occurred in Savannah, Ga., 
 May 5th, 1736, and is most significant. Mr. Wes- 
 ley says: "I was asked to ba]>tize a child of Mr. 
 
234 IMMERSION. 
 
 Parker's, second bailiff of Savannah ; but Mrs. 
 Parker told me, neither Mr. P. nor I will consent 
 to its being dipped ! I answered, if you certify 
 that your child is weak, it will suffice (the rubric 
 says) to pour water upon it. She replied : ^ Nay, 
 the child is not weak, but I am resolved that it 
 shall not be dipped.' This argument I could not 
 refute, so I went home and the child was baptized 
 by another person. (Journal, vol. 1, p. 24.) But 
 this was not the end of the matter. On the first 
 day of September, 1737, Mr. Wesley was tried by 
 a grand jury of forty-four men, found guilty, and 
 ordered to leave the country. I will let Mr. 
 Wesley state the charges. He says: "Therein 
 they asserted, upon oath, that John Wesley, clerk, 
 had broken the laws of the realm, contrary to the 
 peace of our sovereign lord the King, his honor 
 and dignity. 
 
 1. By speaking and writing to Mrs. Williamson, 
 against her husband's consent. 
 
 2. By repelling her from the holy communion. 
 
 3. By not declaring his adherence to the Church 
 of England. 
 
 4. By dividing the morning services of Sundays. 
 
 5. By refusing to baptize Mr. Parker's child, 
 otherwise than by dipping, except the parents 
 
WHAT THE METHODISTS SAY. 235 
 
 would certify that it was weak, and not able to 
 bear it. 
 
 6. For repelling William Gough from the 
 holy communion. 
 
 7. By refusing to read the burial services over 
 the body of Nathaniel Polhill. 
 
 8. By calling himself ordinary of Savannah. 
 
 9. By refusing to receive William Aglionby, 
 as god-father, only because he was not a com- 
 municant. 
 
 10. For reflising Jacob Matthews for the same 
 reason ; and baptizing an Indian trader's child with 
 only two sponsors. (This, I own, was wrong; for 
 I ought, at all hazards, to have refused baptizing it 
 till he had procured a third.) " (Journal, vol. 1, 
 pp. 42, 43.) 
 
 This is a strange record for the father of the 
 Methodists. John Wesley was tried and found 
 guilty by the courts of the land for refusing to 
 sprinkle a baby ! Dr. Watson, in his Life of 
 Wesley, professes to give a fair account of this trial 
 of Wesley, and yet he says not a word about this 
 child He mentions a few of the most trivial 
 charges, and altogether treats the trial as a small 
 affair. Does not this look like trying to conceal 
 an important &ct? And talk of close communion. 
 
236 IMMKRSIOX. 
 
 No Baptist of my acquaintance has over ^^ repelled" 
 a man and a Avoman from the Lord's table. 
 
 On June the 25th, he re-baptized John Smith ; 
 and March 21st, 1759, he baptized two adults by 
 immersion." (Journal, vol. 2, p. 16.) 
 
 I have heard men speak very largely upon the 
 figurative use of the word baptize; baptized in 
 wine, sleep, dews of heaven, etc. But all sueh 
 persons need to do is to turn to Mr. Wesley\s 
 Journal, vol. 2, p. 152, and read of a certain man 
 "• who was wet all over with sweat as if he had 
 been dipped in water." 
 
 In the old Discipline, compiled by Wesley, 
 Jesus was baptized in the river of Jordan, and the 
 sixth of Romans means simply a burial in water. 
 On the baptism of suffering, Mark x : 38, he says : 
 "Our Lord was filled with sufferings, and covered 
 with them without." 
 
 I now turn to Wesley's Notes on the New Tes- 
 tament, and under Rom. vi : 3, I read: "We are 
 buried with him, alluding to the ancient manner 
 if baptizing by immersion." 
 
 Adam Clarke follow^- Wesley in his admissions. 
 He says, in reference to the baptism of John: 
 "That the baptism of John was by plunging the 
 body (after the same manner as the washing unclean 
 persons, and the baptism of proselytes was), seems 
 
WHAT THE METHODISTS SAY. 237 
 
 to appear from those things that are related of 
 Mm ; namely, that he baptized in Jordan, that he 
 baptized in Enon, because there was much water 
 there; and that Christ being baptized came up out 
 of the water; to which that seems to be parallel, 
 Acts, viii: 38, Philip and the eunuch went down 
 into the water,'' &c. (Com. vol. 3, p. 344.) 
 
 In his comment on Rom. vi : 4, he says : " We 
 are buried with him by baptism into death. It is 
 probable that the apostle alludes to the mode of 
 administering baptism by immersion, the whole 
 body being put under water, which seems to say 
 the man is drowned, is dead ; and, when he came 
 up out of the water, he seemed to have a resurrec- 
 tion to life; the man is risen again, he is alive. 
 He was, therefore, supposed to throw off his old 
 gentile state, as he threw off his clothes, and to 
 assume a new character, as the baptized generally 
 put on a new or fresh garment." (Com. vol. 4, 
 
 -^. 78.) 
 
 On Colossians ii: 12, Clarke says: "Alluding 
 to the immersion practiced in the case of adults, 
 wherein the person appeared to be buried under 
 the water, as Christ was buried in the heart of the 
 earth. His rising again the third day, and their 
 
 ^ emerging from the wat«r, was an emblem of the 
 
238 IMMERSION. 
 
 resurrection of the body, and, in them, of a total 
 change of life.'' (Com. vol. 4, p. 538.) 
 
 Gregory and Ruter say in their Church History : 
 '* The initiatory rite of baptism was usually per- 
 formed by immersing the whole body in the bap- 
 tismal font, and in the earlier years of Christianity 
 was permitted to all who acknowledged the truths 
 of the Gospel and promised conformity to its 
 laws.'' (Hist. p. 34.) Of the second century they 
 say : " Baptism was publicly performed twice a 
 year. The catechumens (or probationers for bap- 
 tism) assembled in the church on the great festi- 
 vals of Easter and Whitsuntide; and after a pub- 
 lic declaration of their faith, and a solemn assur- 
 ance from their sponsors that it was their inten- 
 tion to live conformably to the Gospel, they re- 
 ceived the sacrament of baptism. This rite was 
 performed by three immersions and the body was 
 divested of clothes. In order to preserve decency 
 in the operation, the baptismal font of the women 
 was separated from that of the men, and they were 
 as much as possible attended by the deaconnesses 
 
 __^of the church." (Church Hist. p. 53.) 
 
 I have before me a very recent book, 1889, from 
 
 / the Methodist press. It is called Christian Arch- 
 
 / geology, by Charles W. Bennett, D.D. It is edited 
 
 / by George R. Crooks, D.D., and Bishop John F. 
 
 / 
 
WHAT THE METHOJ>18TS SAY. 239 
 
 Hurst. The preface announces that *' the theology 
 of the '^ volume is in '^ harmony with the stand- 
 ards of the Methodist Episcopal Church." This 
 is certainly authoritative as well as fresh. Dr. 
 Bennett says : ^^ The customary mode was used by 
 the apostles in the baptism of the first converts. 
 They wore familiar with the baptism of John's 
 disciples and of the Jewish proselytes. This was 
 ordinarily by dipping or immersion. This is in- 
 dicated not only by the general signification of the 
 words used in describing the rite, but the earliest 
 testimony of the documents which have been pre- 
 served gives preference to this mode 
 
 The terms of Scripture describing the rite, most of 
 the figures used by the writers of the New Testa- 
 ment to indicate its significance (Rom. vi : 4 ; Col. 
 ii : 12, et al.), the explanations of the Apostolic 
 Constitutions, the comments of the foremost Chris- 
 tian fathers for the first six centuries, and the ex- 
 press instructions of ecclesiastical councils, indi- 
 cate that immersion was the more usual mode of 
 baptism.'^ (Chris. Arch. pp. 396, 397.) 
 
 The scholarship of the Methodist Church joins 
 with that of all others in proclaiming that immer- 
 sion is apostolic. 
 
240 IMMERSION. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 WHAT THE SYRIAC SAYS. 
 
 /^NE of the oldest, if not the oldest, translation 
 ^ of the New Testament is that of the Peshito 
 8yriac. It was made in the second century in the 
 very country where the apostles lived and wrote. 
 It is regarded by scholars as one of the best trans- 
 lations of the New Testament ever made. From 
 these considerations the Syriac is of much impor- 
 tance. 
 
 The word used in the Syriac to translate the 
 Greek word baptize is amad. It has been claimed 
 by some that amad means ^^to stand.'' Gesenius 
 defines the Hebrew word which corresponds with 
 amad " to stand," and adds : " In the Syriac 
 Church amad is ' to baptize,' perhaps because the 
 person to be baptized stood in the water ; but see 
 Castell Lex. ed. Michaelis sub verbo." This 
 standing up in the water suits the idea of immer- 
 j?ion rather than that of sprinkling or pouring; 
 for certainly no one " stands in the water " to re- 
 ceive sprinkling or pouring. If the word means 
 to stand, sprinkle or pour can not be a direct 
 translation of it. 
 
WHAT THE SYRIAC SAYS. 241 
 
 If I was forced to the oonclusion that the Syriac 
 amad must be limited to the idea of standing, I 
 should pi-efer to regard it as meaning "to take a 
 stand/' and so to make the public profession. 
 Baptism is the appointed method of professing to 
 be a Christian, and the word indicating the thing 
 accomplished by baptism may have come to be 
 used for the act of baptism itself. This position 
 is suggested by eminent Pedobaptist scholars. 
 Dr. Isaac H. Hall, of the Metropolitan Museum 
 of Art, New York, one of the foremost Syriac 
 scholars of our countr)^, writes me under date of 
 February 7, 1891 : " I think the word was orig- 
 inally the same as the Hebrew and the Arabic, 
 and that it meant to stand, to set up. Baptizing 
 was thus taking a stand or position as one of the 
 visible church. Thence used to render haptizemy 
 it obtained finally the meaning to dip, or to im- 
 merse" If this is the meaning of the word, I have 
 only to observe two things: 1. In that view it 
 primarily gives no indication as to the act of bap- 
 tism, but by usage the word came to mean to dip ; 
 and 2. That it explicitly disagrees with the bap- 
 tism of infants who do not " take a stand," or 
 make any personal profession, any more than they 
 *^ stand up in the water ^' to be baptized. So the 
 
 word in that understanding of it gives no aid to 
 16 
 
242 IMMERSION. 
 
 our Pedobaptist brethren. It does not help them 
 as to the act, and it is distinctly opposed to their 
 teaching as to the subjects. 
 
 The view, however, which seems to be the most 
 probable is, that the Syriac word means to im- 
 merse. It is claimed by B. Davies, in his Hebrew 
 Lexicon, that besides the ordinary Hebrew word 
 amady meaning ^' to stand," there is a second root, 
 spelled and pronounced exactly like it, and mean- 
 ing "to sink," and so to be overwhelmed. Fui*st, 
 in his lexicon, gives anmd three times, as three 
 separate roots; the first being the ordinary one 
 "to stand," the second "to waver," and the third 
 " to be inclined, to lean to a thing, to turn to one 
 side," and from this third root he derives the com- 
 mon Hebrew preposition immad. 
 
 Without going into any discussion as to the root 
 of the word amad in Hebrew in these various 
 senses, which is only indirectly in line with our 
 investigations, it is sufficient to say that all Syriac 
 lexicons recognize immerse as the natural mean- 
 ing of the Syriac word amad. 
 
 I present the testimony of the lexicons : 
 
 Castell says: "To bathe, to baptize, to im- 
 merse." (Lex. Heptaglot sub. vc. London, 1669.) 
 
 Buxtorf says : " To baptize, to dip, to bathe, to 
 bathe oneself" (Lex. Chal. and Syr. Basle, 1622.) 
 
WHAT THE SYR r AC SAYS. 243 
 
 Guido Fabricus says : ^' To baptize, to dip, to 
 wash." (Ant. Poly. sub. vc. Antwerp, 1592.) 
 
 Michaelis says : " To bathe, to baptize, to im- 
 merse." He adds : " In this signification of bap- 
 tizing not a few compare with the Hebrew amad- 
 stetit (he stood), so that stare is stare in flumine, 
 illoque mergi (to stand in the river, and in it to 
 be immersed). To me it seems more probable 
 that it is altogether different from the Hebrew 
 amad, and has arisen through some permutation 
 of the letters from the (Arabic) amath, suhmergere 
 (to submerge). The signification of standing, com- 
 mon to the other Oriental tongues, I do not find 
 among the Syrians, save in the derivative amudj 
 and which is cited from Castell from one place 
 (Ex. xiii : 22), but which you will find is read al- 
 most everywhere in Hebrew pillar of cloud and 
 pillar of fire." 
 
 Gutbier, in the small lexicon affixed to his edi- 
 tion of the Syriac New Testament, gives the mean- 
 ing, "to baptize, he was baptized, he upheld." 
 This last meaning has no reference to support it, 
 and it is apparently introduced only with the pur- 
 pose of deriving from this sense of the verb the 
 noun amudy which means a column. With this 
 exception I do not find in any Syriac lexicon the 
 
244 IMMERSION. 
 
 expression to stand, or any similar expression, 
 given as a signification of the Syriac word amad. 
 
 Bernstein says: "To immerse, to he immersed, 
 to immerse oneself/' (Chres. Syr. Leipzig, 1836, 
 p. 378.) 
 
 Tlie latest and most authoritative of all the 
 Syriac lexicons is that of R. Payne Smith, pub- 
 lished last year in England. G. B. Benistein, of 
 Germany, gathered much material for such a work 
 during his laborious life, and at his death this 
 material passed into the hands of Dean Smith. 
 Now, after years of work, and with the co-opera- 
 tion of the foremost Syriac scholars of the world, 
 Dean Smith has published his "Thesaurus Syri- 
 acus." He defines amad: "to descend, to be im- 
 mersed, to be baptized.^' 
 
 The testimony of these seven lexicons is con- 
 clusive. There is not the most distant intimation 
 that fhese scholars ever thought that amad meant 
 to sprinkle or to pour. 
 
 The use of the word by Syriac scholars is in 
 ac<x)r<l with this idea. All through the Syriac 
 Bible amad is used to translate the Greek baptizo ; 
 and wmad is used ten times in the sense of to dip 
 in the Syriac Bible where the ordinance of bap- 
 tism is not referred to, and where, therefore, it 
 must be used in the ordinary and non-ecclesiastical 
 
WHAT THE SYRIAC SAYS. 245 
 
 eense. This fact is sufficient to clothe with shame 
 thoe€ who adduce this Syrian word as an argu- 
 ment against immersion. The word is frequently 
 used in Syriac literature in the sense of to dip, as 
 a diver after pearls, of the setting sun, the enter- 
 ing of an arrow into the brain, the three Hebrew 
 children into the fire, he dipped his mouth into 
 the water, &c. 
 
 Ephraem Syrus, of Edessa, speaks of the bap- 
 tism of Christ in a way that must include an im- 
 mersion. " How wonderful," says he, '' that thy 
 footsteps were planted on the waters, that the 
 great sea should submit itself to thy feet, and that 
 yet at a small river that same head of thine should 
 be subjected to be bowed down and baptized in it." 
 
 I add an array of authority that is impregnable. 
 
 Theodore Beza says that baptlzo means to im- 
 merse, and adds; "Nor does the signification of 
 amadj which the Syrians use for baptize, differ at 
 all from this.'' (Annot. in Mark vii : 4.) 
 
 Casparis Clavor, after quoting the Syriac for 
 Rom. vi: 4, adds : '' Which may be translated Mn 
 baptism,' beyond all doubt referring not to bap- 
 tismal sprinkling, but to immersion." (Anniversa- 
 rium Dodec, Leipzig, 1719.) 
 
 Dr. John Mason Neale, the greatest Anglican 
 connoisseur of the Greek Church, says : " All the 
 
246 IMMERSION. 
 
 Syrian forms prescribe or assume trine immersion." 
 (Hist. East. Ch., p. 949.) 
 
 Some years ago Dr. C. H. Toy, Professor of 
 Oriental Literature in Harvard University, wrote 
 a work upon '^ AmacU^ His conclusions were: 
 " From our inquiry it appears that there were 
 no cases in which aniad may not mean dij), and 
 some in which it must have that meaning : that 
 there are similar verbs in Arabic meaning the 
 same thing : that the verb amad, ' to stand/ proba- 
 bly disappeared from the Syriac language some 
 centuries before Christ : that it is not satisfactorily 
 explained how a meaning baptize could come from 
 a meaning stand: and that all authorities in Syriac 
 concur in assigning to amad the signification dip." 
 
 I recently w rote Dr. Toy and asked him if more 
 recent research had confirmed him in these con- 
 clusions. He replied: 
 
 Cambridge, Mass., January 29, 1891. 
 
 Dr. J. T. Christian: 
 
 Dear Sir, — Your enquiry of the 24th has been 
 received. My conclusion was that the stem amad 
 in Syriac, signifies **to be dipped." In addition 
 to the authorities there quoted, I can now cite the 
 great " Thesaurus Syriacus, '' edited by Payne Smith, 
 with the co-operation of many scholars; in thia 
 
WHAT THE SYRIAC SAYS. 247 
 
 most recent publication (which appeared last year) 
 amad is defined as — ^^ descendit, mersus est, bap- 
 tizatus est." Yours truly, 
 
 C. H. Toy. 
 
 It is with genuine pleasure that I am able to 
 present the additional testimony of Dr. Gottheil, 
 of Columbia College, New York ; Dr. R. Payne 
 Smith, the Dean of Canterbury, England, and the 
 author of the great Syriac Lexicon ; and of Prof. 
 Th. Noldeke, Strasburg, Germany, who is a 
 recognized authority in Syriac the world over. 
 The testimooy of these men is most decisive. 
 
 Dr. Gottheil says : 
 
 Columbia College, N. Y., March 21, 1890. 
 My Dear Sir: — 
 
 1. The Syriac word you refer to, amad, means 
 really to go down, decline, immerse one's self, 
 {e, g, the day declines). 
 
 2. It is used in the sense of baptizein continually 
 in the New Testament. 
 
 3. It is from the Arabic glamada, " to put a 
 thing within something else," {e.g., a sword in its 
 sheath). Believe me, very truly yours, 
 
 EicHAKD Gottheil. 
 
248 IMMERSION. 
 
 Dean Smith writes : 
 
 Deanery, Canterbury, March 20, 1891. 
 The Rev. J. T. Christian, D.D. 
 
 Dear Sir, — The strict meaning of arnad is to go 
 down, descend. It is used of the sun setting, etc., 
 and secondly to going down into a brook, river, 
 etc., to wash. The word for baptism is the Aphel 
 or Causative form, literally to cause to cUscendy im- 
 mersey dip, either totally or partially. In this sense 
 the verb is used in the Syriac New Testament and 
 in all ecclesiastical writers for baptize. It an- 
 swers to the Greek baptizeln in the sense of wash- 
 ing one's self. The Aphel is seldom used in any- 
 other sense than that of baptism ; but it is used of 
 dipping a bell into water, but possibly as a sort 
 of religious ceremony. 
 
 Believe me, very truly yours, 
 
 R. Payne Smith. 
 
 Prof. Th. Noldeke writes: 
 
 Strasburo, Germany, Febru«iry 17th, 1891. 
 Dr. J. T. Christian, Jackson, Miss. : 
 
 Dear Sir, — Amad signifies, as is declared with 
 entire correctness by Payne Smith, primarily to 
 draw dowrij to go undeVy to immerse one's self. In 
 the New Testament it is used with entire reg- 
 ularity for haptizesthaij and always in the passive 
 
WHAT THE 8YHIAC SAY8. 249 
 
 sense: therefore, it is connected with the Syriac 
 men-von-hupo. (Math, iii: 13.) By all Syrians it 
 is the regular word for being baptized. The 
 Christian inhabitants of Palestine, who spoke 
 another dialect, have a different word, Atbal; 
 which word is also found in use among the Man- 
 deans, a peculiar sect in Babylonia, which took its 
 origin in part only from Christianity. This word, 
 however, signifies immerse (eintauchen). 
 
 I am inclined to believe that John and Jeeus, 
 as residents of Palestine, used the word atbal or 
 iabal for baptize, and that the word amad, which 
 extended from Edessa all over Syria, was employed 
 to set forth Christian opposition against the usage 
 of the Jewish Christian party. That, however, is 
 nothing more than a supposition. I would remark, 
 in addition, that baptize in the active voice is ex- 
 pressed by the causative amad. The Jewish word 
 for the baptismal bath is Hetbil. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Th. Noldeke. 
 
 I, therefore, justly arrive at the conclusion that 
 (smad means to dip. 
 
 THE END. 
 
INDEX OP AUTHORS AND SUBJECTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Achilles, Tatius. 28 
 
 Admiesions of Pedobap- 
 
 tist Scholars 13-15 
 
 jEnon, Baptism of 50 
 
 Age.The 195 
 
 Alabaster 142 
 
 Alcibiades 24 
 
 Alciphron 26 
 
 Alcuin 76, 117 
 
 Alexander, Dr. Gross 16 
 
 Alford, Dean 219 
 
 Ambrose, Bishop 116 
 
 Apostolic Constitutions. . 121 
 Aquinas, Thomas. 134, 159, 204 
 
 Aratiis 186 
 
 Argonautic Expedition . . 28 
 
 Ariosto 184 
 
 Aristophen 27 
 
 Amoldi 205 
 
 Augustine, Bishop . . 117, 150 
 
 Augustine 77, 79 
 
 Avitus, Bishop 76 
 
 Badger 177 
 
 Barnabas 108, 125 
 
 Barnes, Albert 87, 106 
 
 Baronius.. 148, 155 
 
 Baenage 153 
 
 Basil 113 
 
 Bass. 19 
 
 Baxter, Richard 228 
 
 PACK 
 
 Beaulieu, Madleine de... 176 
 
 Beds, Baptism of 68 
 
 Benardus de Montfaucon 37 
 Bennett, Dr. C. W...48, 52, 
 
 72, 106, 147, 202, 238 
 
 Bernardino 144 
 
 Beza 223, 245 
 
 Bickersteth 187, 188, 190 
 
 Bjerring, Rev. Nicholas. . 198 
 
 Blackstone 8 
 
 Blount, John Henry. . . . 216 
 
 Bona Ventura 204 
 
 Boniface, St 79 
 
 Bon wetsch. Prof 198 
 
 Bossuet, Bishop 208 
 
 Brazen Vessels 67 
 
 Brenner, F 208 
 
 Brewster, Sir David 158, 
 
 160, 163 
 Britannica Encyclopaedia 41 
 
 Brown 9, 10, 12, 13 
 
 Bryennios, Bishop.. . 119, 122 
 
 Bullinger, E. W 19 
 
 Bunsen, Baron Ill 
 
 Buried with Christ 102 
 
 Burnstein 244 
 
 Buxtorf.. 36, 242 
 
 Calcuith, Council of. 169, 170 
 Calvin, John 51, 84, 162, 
 163, 210, 223, 224, 225, 238 
 
 (251) 
 
INDKX. 
 
 J'AGE 
 
 Camden 78 
 
 CampbeH, Dr. George. 52, 
 
 65, 06, 115, 230 
 Carthage, Council of . . . . 168 
 
 Cash el, Council of 172 
 
 Caeaubon 35 
 
 Caytello, E 36, 240, 242 
 
 Catholics, Testimony of. . 204 
 
 Cave 73 
 
 Cereas 195 
 
 Cerfeo, Lexicon of 196 
 
 Chalmers, Dr 104, 229 
 
 Chariton 28 
 
 ( hristian Baptism 57 
 
 Chrysostom 73, 74, 1 13 
 
 Clarke, Adam... 48, 106, 236 
 
 ( Uassical Baptism 23 
 
 Clavor 245 
 
 Clermont, Council of 173 
 
 Clinic Baptism 151 
 
 (Mough, J. E 82 
 
 Clovis, King • 75 
 
 Coke 12, 13 
 
 Cold Countries 161 
 
 Coleman, Lyman 229 
 
 Collier 170 
 
 Cologne, Council of 1 74 
 
 Conant, T. J 32 
 
 Conon 25 
 
 Conybeare and Howson 
 
 37, 91, 96, 107 
 
 ('ooly 10 
 
 Councils 167 
 
 Cowper 30, 93, 185 
 
 Cox, Homcrsham 85, 131 
 
 Coxe, Bishop A. Cleve- 
 land 21, 122, 221 
 
 Cremer 19 
 
 Crvstal 219 
 
 PA.GK 
 
 ("yclades, Bitshop of 197 
 
 Cyprian 116, 131, 152, 156 
 
 Cyril of Jerusalem 54 
 
 Dale, J. W 32 
 
 Dante 182, 183 
 
 Davies 30, 242 
 
 Delitzsch, Franz 45 
 
 Demetrius 26 
 
 Demoleon, M 179 
 
 Demosthenes 24 
 
 Didache 119 
 
 Dill, J. S 1#1 
 
 Diodati 224 
 
 Diodorus 25 
 
 Dion Cassius 26 
 
 Dionysius 113 
 
 Discipline,Methodi8t.l81, 251 
 
 Dobbs, C.E. W .. 129 
 
 Doddridge, Dr .51, 84 
 
 D51 linger, Dr. 49, 72, 134, 
 
 204, 207 
 
 Dounegan 20 
 
 Drown, docs baptko mean 
 
 to 31 
 
 Dryden 186 
 
 Dupin 205 
 
 Durant, Guillaume 179 
 
 p:aton, T. T 
 
 Ellicott, Bishop. 
 
 98 
 
 54, 60, 
 85, 97, 218 
 
 Endersheim 219 
 
 Epictetus ^ 26 
 
 Episcopalians, tefifimony 
 
 of 213 
 
 Est, Chancellor 105 
 
 Eubulus 24 
 
 Eulot^us 77 
 
INDEX. 
 
 25^ 
 
 page; 
 
 Eunuch, The 83, 115 " 
 
 Eufiebiu8..151, 152, 164, 155 
 
 EuBtathius 29 
 
 Evenus 24 
 
 Fabyan 77 
 
 FabrycuB 243 
 
 Farrar 107, 119 
 
 Fathers, Greek 23. 108 
 
 Fathers, Latin 114 
 
 Feleenthal, Rabbi B 42 
 
 Figurative Meanings... 30, 38 
 Fisher, George P. . . .107, 131 
 
 Fleet, Dr. A. F 192 
 
 tYadensdorf, J. W 18 
 
 Frith, John 179 
 
 Fritzche a5 
 
 Funk, Dr 135 
 
 Geikie, C 49, 218 
 
 Giesler 154 
 
 Gesenius, 3&-39, 86, 240 
 
 Gibbons, Cardinal... 207, 210 
 
 Gibbs 36 
 
 ( rilbert. Bishop 75 
 
 Glogan, Ritual 178 
 
 Gocelyn 78 
 
 Gothic Missal 176 
 
 Gottheil, R 247 
 
 Gould, S. Baring 143 
 
 Gratus, Bishop 168 
 
 Greek Church 192 
 
 Ancient and Modern 
 
 Greek 192-195 
 
 Greek Ritual 181, 195 
 
 Green 20 
 
 Greenfield 16, 20 
 
 Greenleaf 7, 8, 11, 13 
 
 Gregory Pope. . . .77, 169, 180 
 Gregory, Thaumaturgus. 112 
 
 PAOS 
 
 Gregory of Toura 76 
 
 Groves 20 
 
 Gutbier 248 
 
 Hak-Kodesh, Rabbi 40 
 
 Hall, Dr. Isaac H 241 
 
 Harnack, Adolf.. 33, 123, 
 
 124, 129 
 
 Hart 170,172,174 
 
 Haydock 211 
 
 Heaton 47 
 
 Hebrew lexicons, testi- 
 mony of 36 
 
 Hedericus 19 
 
 Heimerius 27 
 
 Heliodorus 28 
 
 Henry 77 
 
 Hersman, C. C 17 
 
 Hibbard, Dr 41,59,96 
 
 Hilgenfeld, Prof 133 
 
 Hincmar 77 
 
 Hippocrates 32, 34 
 
 Hippolytus Ill 
 
 History, testimony of... . 128 
 
 Hodge, C 8 
 
 Hodge, C.W 17 
 
 Ilogue, Prof. Addison.... 193 
 
 Holtzman, Prof 66, 133 
 
 Holy Spirit, baptism of.. 51 
 
 Homer 90,92,186 
 
 Homeric Allegories 23 
 
 Humphreys, Prof. M. W. 31 
 Hurst, Bishop. . . .48, 106, 202 
 
 Irenseus 110 
 
 Jahn 68 
 
 Jailer's baptism 9\ 
 
 Jerome 117, 118 
 
 Jesus, baptism of 56 
 
!54 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 John the Baptist 46 
 
 Jonathan 38 
 
 Josephus 25, 34 
 
 Julian., 28, 189 
 
 Justin Martyr 109 
 
 Keane John J 21 
 
 Kennedy 216 
 
 Kenrick, Arch., 49, 66, 
 
 210, 211, 221 
 
 Kincaid, A. J 99 
 
 Kitto 64, 68 
 
 Knapp, George C 154 
 
 Kyriasko, Prof 199 
 
 I^abbe and Cossart, 167, 
 
 168, 172, 174 
 
 Langen, Joseph 130 
 
 Lascarides, G. P 21 
 
 Law of baptism 7 
 
 LeCierc 52 
 
 Leo, Rabbi 42 
 
 Lexicons, statement of. . 16 
 
 Libanius 27 
 
 Liddell and Scott, 16, 17, 
 
 89, 92 
 
 Liddon, Canon 103 
 
 Lingard, Dr. John 79 
 
 Liturgies and Mifisals... 170 
 
 Livy 30 
 
 Lucian 26 
 
 Luther, Martin, 37, 52, 
 
 158, 210 
 
 Mabillon 206 
 
 Maclaren, Dr 59 
 
 Maimonides 41, 69 
 
 Mallett 142 
 
 Mariott 202 I 
 
 Marshall, Chief Justice. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mattes 207 
 
 Martini 176, 179 
 
 Maury, Bonet G.... 133, 202 
 
 :\Ietho(ii^^tH, The 2^:) 
 
 Meyer 48, 'y2, 67, 105 
 
 MichaeliH 240, 243 
 
 Milton, John... 37, 'oS, 93, 
 
 189, 100 
 
 Minerva, The 195 
 
 Miratori 206 
 
 Mishna, The 44 
 
 Moore, Thos 180 
 
 Muller, Max 148 
 
 Naaman, Baptism of . . 36, 
 
 47, 49, 92, 110 
 
 Neander 54,59, 80, 153 
 
 Neo-Csesarea, Council of. 156 
 
 Nestor 81 
 
 Newman, Cardinal f48 
 
 Nicene, Council of 167 
 
 Nismes, Council of 174 
 
 Noldeke, Th 240 
 
 Noyee 66, 87 
 
 O'Farrel... 75 
 
 Olshausen 50, 66 
 
 Onkelos 38 
 
 Oosterzee, Prof. J. J 107 
 
 Origen Ill 
 
 Othelon 79 
 
 Otto, Bishop 80 
 
 Ovid 138, 139 
 
 Oxford, Crtuncil of 17.". 
 
 Paciandi, Paul Maria 205 
 
 Paine, Prof. L. L 131 
 
 Parkhurst 37 
 
 10 . Paeeow L 
 
INDEX. 
 
 255 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Pastor of Hermae.. . . 110, 125 
 
 Patrick, St 74,75 
 
 Paul, Baptism of 89 
 
 Paulinus, Arch 78, 79 
 
 Perthes 73 
 
 Philo 25, 125 
 
 Pierne Plowman 183 
 
 Pindar 23 
 
 Plato 23 
 
 Platon, Bishop 197 
 
 Plotinus 26 
 
 Plumptre 54, 66, 97 
 
 Plutarch 25,26 
 
 Poets, The 182 
 
 Pollok 184 
 
 Polysenue 26 
 
 Poly bias 24,32, 183 
 
 Pope 185, 186 
 
 Pope,Dr. W 19 
 
 Porphyra 27 
 
 Pothier 11 
 
 Potter, Bishop Henry C. 
 
 21, 53 
 Powell, Dr. W.D.... 200, 231 
 
 Prague, Council of 174 
 
 Presbyterians, The 223 
 
 Prescott 144 
 
 Priesthood of Christ 57 
 
 Proclus 28 
 
 Purification, Theory of . . 58 
 
 Ravenna, Council of. 134, 
 
 174, 204 
 
 Reading, Council of 173 
 
 Remingius 76, 177 
 
 Riddle, Dr 122 
 
 Robinson 17, 20, 62, 63, 90 
 
 RomanuB, Ordo 178 
 
 PAOK 
 
 Salmasius, 155 
 
 Sarum, Manual 178, 214 
 
 Saxon Visitation 180 
 
 Scapula 20 
 
 Schaff 37 
 
 Schaff, Dr..ll9, 120, 121, 
 130, 134, 159, 162, 180, 
 
 201, 230 
 
 Schindleri 37 
 
 Schleusner 20 
 
 Schoettgenius 20 
 
 Schrevellius 20 
 
 Seneca 30 
 
 Septuagint 36, 87 
 
 Shakespeare 30 
 
 Simplicius 29 
 
 Simonis 20, 37 
 
 Smith, Bishop 220 
 
 Smith, R. Payne 244, 248 
 
 Sophocles, E. A. .18, 196, 200 
 Sprinkling, a heathen 
 custom, 136 ; history 
 of, 158 ; many nations, 
 85; France first coun- 
 try where practiced, 
 160; introduction into 
 
 England 163 
 
 Stanley, Dean, 60, 81, 
 128, 134, 147, 157, 164, 
 
 180, 200, 217 
 
 Starkie 13 
 
 Stephanus 19, 65 
 
 Stephen, Pope 153 
 
 Stockius 20, 37 
 
 Stourdza.., 197 
 
 Strabo 24, 33 
 
 Strabo, Walafrid 134 
 
 Stuart, 21, 37, 39, 50, 110, 
 
 116, 202 
 
256 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAOX 
 
 8uicer 20 
 
 Summers, Thos. 71, 94 
 
 8yriac, The, 240 ; Ritual, 177 
 8yrus, Ephraim 245 
 
 Tables, baptism of 67 
 
 Talmage, Dr 60 
 
 Talmud , Jerusalem 40 
 
 Taylor, Bishop Jeremy... 60 
 
 Targum 38 
 
 " Teaching of the Twelve 
 
 Apostles," 119 
 
 Tertullian 114,117 
 
 Thayer, J. H., 17, 18, 32, 
 
 34, 65, 90, 92 
 
 Themistius 27 
 
 Three thousand, baptism 
 of, 71 ; Not all baptized 
 in one day, 71 ; Ex- 
 amples of the baptism 
 
 of thousands 73 
 
 Timayennis 198 
 
 Tischendorf 67 
 
 Todd,Dr 74, 75 
 
 Toledo, Council of 108 
 
 Toy, Dr. C. H 246 
 
 Trench 92 
 
 Tribur, Council of 171 
 
 Trine immersion 117 
 
 Trumbull, Dr 59 
 
 Turretin 227 
 
 Use of Wordg 8-12 
 
 Valesius 155 
 
 Venema 155 
 
 Vicecomes, Dr 206 
 
 Virgil 30, 138, 185, 186 
 
 Vladimir 81 
 
 Vulgate 52 
 
 Wahl 19 
 
 Wall, Dr.... 160-162, 165, 
 
 178, 201, 213, 215 
 
 Watson, Dr 235 
 
 Watts 185 
 
 Webster 39 
 
 Wescott 65, 67 
 
 Wesley, John, 38, 104, 233-236 
 Westminster, Assembly 
 
 of Divines 225 
 
 Westminster, Council of. 172 
 
 Wheatley 179, 217 
 
 Williams, Sir M 139, 141 
 
 Wise, Rabbi Isaac M..42, 47 
 
 Witsius 35, 45 
 
 Worcester, Council of... 172 
 Worms, Council of 171 
 
 York, Council of 172 
 
 Zacharias, Pope, 79 
 
 Zwingli 233 
 

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