are obliged to declare, that we have not found a single passage in the whole book of God, in which the immersion of the whole body is required in this ordinance. That was not the usual manner of washing with water under the Mosaic dispensation, but if it had been, we cannot think that Jesus would have enjoined it upon his followers in all ages and nations. He, in many instances, paid a condescending regard to the genius and customs of the people among whom he lived; and his apostles after him have recommended to Christians that they give none offence, either to Jew or Gentile, or the church of God.-The usual methods of baptizing by immersion might not, perhaps, eighteen hundred years ago, be offensive in Judea, nor can we say that it would disgust the uncultivated inhabitants of the south of Africa even now; but it is very certain that the custom of publicly plunging multitudes of men and women, either naked (as some have done) or in thin vestments, or in their usual dress, is accounted an indecency by many in more civilized nations. When we bathe, either for amusement or health, it is usually in some retired situation, or in a convenient apartment, with a few of our own sex, that we may not seem to transgress the rules of decorum: though if any do act indecently in such instances, v bring the reproach upon themselves alone, ot upon the holy name whereby they are and n But if Paul * could pronounce it uncome the called. 1 Cor. xii. 13. ly that a woman should pray unto God uncovered, professing Christians in general, and women in particular, should see to it that they have the authority of an express command of Christ, before they submit to be thus plunged in water, with all the solemnity of a Christian institution, even in secret, and much more in the presence of persons of both sexes, and of all characters, lest they offend some, and give occasion to others to speak evil of the Gospel, and of their divine Master. It likewise deserves notice, that our divine Lord not only spake of his yoke as easy, but manifested a disposition to make it so, in the tender regard he expressed to the lives and health of mankind in general, and of his own disciples in particular. On the authority of that declaration of his heavenly Father, "I will have mercy and not "sacrifice," he even vindicated his followers in breaking through a restriction of the Mosaic law, by plucking some ears of corn when they were an hungered on the sabbath day. And can we think that this tender and compassionate Jesus would universally require the performance of a rite that, in many seasons and climates, would be not only burdensome, but unsafe, both to people and ministers? As he said in that case of the sabbath, “it was made for man, and not man for the sabbath"; so may we say of this institution, Baptism was made for man, and is therefore to be administered in a + Matt, xii. 1---7. way that may be most suitable and profitable to him; and not man for baptism, so as that he should be obliged to submit to it in a form that would be distressing to his spirits, and hazardous to his constitution. Though there were special reasons for God's appointing the painful rite of circumcision as a token of his covenant of old, yet it is not easy to say why such a mode should be preferred under the mild and spiritual dispensation of the Gospel, as greatly agitates the spirits of many adults, discomposes their minds, and often renders them very unfit for the exercise of proper thoughts and affections, and indeed utterly incapable of them. Nay, we may easily conceive of many cases in which the immersion of the whole. body in water would, in all human probability, be instant death to young and old, and of some situations and circumstances in which it would be absolutely impracticable. Travellers inform us of countries in which they have searched in vain, for many miles together, for a quantity of water sufficient to quench their thirst; and we have known seasons in our own country in which, either through the parching heat of the sun in summer, or hard frosts in winter, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, in many places, to procure water sufficient for immersion: so that, on all these considerations, it seems highly incredible that our Lord should require that particular mode as indispensably necessary to our being duly set apart as his disciples. CHAP. III. On the scriptural significations of the Greek Words Bañliw, to baptize, and Baliouos, Baptism; with Remarks on the ancient Jewish Washings. SOME writers have asserted, that immersion is required in every command to baptize with water, because, say they, the Greek word, Bali, used, for baptizing, signifies to dip or plunge. We shall produce several passages in which this word is made use of, both in the original of the New Testament, and in the Greek translation of the Old, and leave it to the candid reader to judge. That version of the Old Testament called the Septuagint, (though perhaps not so old as has been pretended) was undoubtedly in being and credit at and before the time of our Saviour.* It has been often acknowledged that the primitive word artw signified to wash in general, either by dipping or in any other way; but it should be observed that John is no where called Bann, the dipper, nor is this ordinance called Baupa, dipping. The terms βαπιςης and βαπλισμα, applied to him and to it, are evidently formed from ßarlic, a derivative word; and all who are acquainted with the original lan *For the true sense of the word in those passages in which it ❤ccurs, in that version of the apocryphal books, the reader may consult a sensible tract, entitled "Dipping not the only scriptural way of baptizing;" in which are likewise many other judicious remarks upon the subject. guage of the New Testament, must not only know that there is a difference between primitive and derivative words, but likewise that those in are frequently diminitives; so that as Barla signifies to wash, Balica is to wash a little but even Barla itself occurs in some places where there is not the least appearance of dipping. We find (4) made use of * to describe the fall of the dew from heaven upon Nebuchadnezzar. It is indeed rendered in our English bible, he was wet, washed, or baptized, with the dew of heaven; not surely as being plunged in it, but as it distilled, or fell in small drops, upon him. The Israelites (if the external mode is at all referred to in the expression) seem to have been baptized in like manner unto Moses in the cloud and the sea, when the former descended in refreshing showers, or, as it is expressed,‡ in a plentiful rain upon them; and when they were sprinkled by the waves of the latter in their passage through it. The Egyptians were indeed plunged in the sea, and, if that may be called baptism, both they and. their chariots and horses were baptized in it together, when the depths covered them, and they sank as lead in the mighty waters; but we have no account of the immersion of the Israelites in it; so far from it, we are told expressly, that they walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea. Ps. Ixviii. 9. * Dan. v. 21. + 1 Cor. x. 2. |