Dr. Conant, referring to leading vernacular versions for the Teutonic races, says: "In the first lower-Saxon Bible (1470-1480) it is translated by the word doepen (to dip). John i. 33: But he who sent me to dip in water' (not 'with water'); Matt. iii. 11 : And I indeed dip you in water' (not with water'). In the Augsburg German Bible (1473-75) it is rendered by the word tauffen (to dip). John i. 33: But he who sent me to dip in water' (not 'with water'); Matt. iii. 11: 'And I indeed dip you in water' (not 'with water'). In Luther's German version (New Tes., 1522; entire Bible, 1534) the Greek word is rendered by taufen (to dip). So Luther himself explains the word. (Sermon on Bap.): Then also without doubt, in German tongues, the word Tauf comes from the word tief (deep), because what one baptizes he sinks deep into the water'" (pp. 145, 146).

2 The word used in this version, says Dr. Cutting, "was usually fullian. In one instance baptism was denoted by a word denoting washing; and in one instance baptistam occurs in translating the name and title of John the Baptist. As this version was translated from the Latin, it is by no means singular that such a Latin form should have been brought into it. That no more was brought in, shows how much such forms were strangers to the people for whom the version was designed." The occurrence of dyppan and depan, to translate baptizare, though in but two or three instances, in the AngloSaxon Gospels of the Bodleian Library, and of the Public Library at Cambridge, "indicate beyond question the act by which the Christian rite was in those days performed." It may also be admitted that the word fullian commonly used by the Anglo-Saxons, "denoted not only drenching, but the process of cleansing accomplished by it, and we may suppose, therefore, was chosen as expressing their notion not only of the visible act of baptism, but also of the spiritual effects accomplished by it."-His. Vin., pp. 62, 63.

"Tertullian, the earliest of the Latin Fathers, who cites from a vernacular version, and not from the original Greek, quotes the commission in Matt. xxviii. 19, in the following manner (On Bap., c. xiii.): For a law of immersing (tinguendi) was imposed, and the formula prescribed. "Go (says he) teach the nations, immersing (tinguentes) them into the name," &c. John iv. 2 is quoted as follows (On Bap., c. xi.): For we read, "And yet he did not immerse (tinguebat), but his disciples."'In the same work (c. xiv.) he quotes the apostle Paul as having said: 'For Christ sent me not to immerse (ad tinguendum);' and in c. xx. he quotes the evangelist as saying: 'Were immersed (tinguebantur), confessing their sins. In c. xvi. he quotes the Saviour's language in Luke xii. 50, in the following manner: There is indeed for us also a second bath, one and the same, namely, of blood; of which the Lord says: "I have to be immersed (tingui) with a baptism," when He had already been immersed.'

"Cyprian, about half a century later, thus quotes Matt. xxviii. 19: The Lord, after

sense.

Let any candid reader judge whether these versions do or do not confirm the conclusion that the import of baptizo is to immerse. Of all versions for the use of the learned, Dr. Conant says that " so far as is known to the writer, the Greek word is uniformly rendered in this He then gives examples and proof from D. A. Schott, Dr. G. Campbell, Fritzsche, and Kuinoel. It appears that in the Slavonic, or old Russian, krestiti (to cross) was given to the word because of the crossing that then had begun to take place at baptism. The crossing was not, and is not, in lieu of immersing, as is sprinkling in our country, but in addition to the same: and the ordinance received the name of crossing in a manner resembling that in which it has since, with some, received the name of christening. The expression, "were crossed by him in Jordan," may appear to many absurd in the extreme. But the Russian means that John both crossed and immersed; whilst the English and other Pædobaptists mean that John sprinkled. In the Latin language the Greek words were continually becoming naturalized; and we have reason to believe that this was the case with baptizo, when translated into that language to describe the Christian ordinance. The Icelandic word, meaning scouring, cleansing, though not so accurate as some other words, yet favours immersion, because the cleansing, which is by washing, includes immersion. So in regard to the Saxon fullian.

We have, in the table adduced, fifteen ancient versions, five of them in the second and third centuries, and ten of them completed before the close of the ninth, all clearly indicative of immersion, or plainly consistent with it. From the ninth century we have twenty more, all clearly encouraging the same action, or all accordant with immersion as the import of baptizo. In all these it is not once rendered by a word meaning to sprinkle or to pour; whilst in many the word for the Greek undeniably means to immerse. Also in all the instances in which the transference of the Greek word was equivalent to its translation, the import is immerse, as is confirmed by the practice of that time. Let the reader who doubts the correctness of Dr. G., read his ample and Christian defence and illustration, now published by J. Heaton & Son in the Appendix to Hinton's History of Baptism. The fact that almost every version of the Bible, previous to 1820, has invariably either not translated, but transferred the Greek word, or has rendered it by a term

His resurrection, when sending forth the apostles, gives a command, and said: "All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, immersing (tingentes) them," &c. (Epis. xxv.; also Epis. lxiii.). He thus quotes Gal. iii. 27: "For if the apostle lies not, when he says, 'as many of you as were immersed (tincti estis) in Christ, have put on Christ,' then verily he, who was then baptized (baptizatus est) in Christ, has put on Christ (Epis. lxxv.)" (Abbre. from Dr. Conant, pp. 142, 143). Dr. C. argues forcibly that the earliest usage in translations into the Latin language, was an expression of the literal meaning of the Greek term, and that subsequently the Greek words were retained to express sacred things by what were superstitiously regarded as sacred appellations (pp. 142-144). With similar clearness and force this is shown by Dr. Gotch. The transference of the Greek word was in some instances equivalent to a translation.

♦ Dr. CUTTING. —"Wickliffe, the date of whose version is 1380, used baptize, sometimes, however, substituting as its synonym, wash." "The period of what is termed Middle English, is the period of transition from fullinge to baptism” (His. Vin., p. 71). These notes we have appended to the extract from Dr. Gotch.

equivalent to immerse, is worthy of attention. Pædobaptists have recently "rendered the word in the Seneca language, to sprinkle (the first time the word was ever so used); in the Chinese, 'to use the wetting ceremony;' and by way of producing a literary equilibrium with the Seneca translation, they have rendered it in the Cherokee, immerse! Leaving modern missionary versions out of the question, there is not a solitary version, in either the Eastern or Western languages, which in the slightest degree favours any other meaning of the term baptizo than that of immerse. Better collateral evidence could not be desired."I. T. Hinton's His. of Bap., p. 34.

We may here, in opposition to what we have read in a Baptist publication, express a wish that the Anglicised Greek for baptizo were now abandoned in the English version of the New Testament, because baptize as an English word does not now convey the sense of the original. Our opposing brethren advocate with us the faithful and explicit translation of the original as a whole, making this an exception. We have read, in a note on the word Raca, in Matt. v. 22, after the author had given "vain fellow," instead of the untranslated Syriac word: "What idea can an unlearned English reader attach to a Syriac word untranslated?" (H. B. Hall's Companion, &c., p. 5). Why should any word capable of translation be untranslated, or incorrectly or obscurely translated?

SECTION V.

ON EVIDENCE FROM THE GREEKS AND THE GREEK CHURCH.

Prof. WILSON.-"We take leave to state definitively that in our brief notice of this department of Christian antiquity, we owe no submission, and shall pay none, to patristic authority. The baptism referred to or administered during the early ages, we regard as a valuable auxiliary in ascertaining the character of apostolic baptism; beyond this point it has no valid claim on our acceptance (p. 525).

H. CRAIK.-"Supposing a rich relation were to die in a distant country, and leave his last will and testament in some foreign tongue, would not most of those to whom this property had been left, and who valued the possession of earthly riches, deeply regret their inability to understand the language which their wealthy relative had chosen to employ in the composition of so important a document? And shall the men of the world be more interested in the last will and testament of a wealthy relative, than Christians are found to be in reference to the meaning of that Book which describes their heavenly inheritance, and contains the record of the 'exceeding great and precious promises?"-On the He. Lang., p. 4.

Dr. HALLEY.-"I am not appealing to church authority, but to the language of ecclesiastical writers.". "We respect" ecclesiastical antiquity "as a witness of the meaning of the word; as a teacher of grammar we listen to her testimony; . as an old and respectable philologist she has a right to be heard with attention by both parties. The inquiry is, what use she

made of the word baptize. Christians could speak Greek as well as pagans; bishops and divines as well, or at least as much, as philosophers and poets. When they found in the records of their faith the word baptism, did they or did they not understand it to be perfectly synonymous with immersion?" (pp. 335, 327).

IT has been considered as neither an unnatural nor an unimportant inquiry in connexion with this subject, What has been the practice of the Greeks, and of the Greek church, in regard to the ordinance of Christian baptism? Perhaps some may need to be informed that at a comparatively early period of the church's history, Rome and Constantinople contended for supremacy of power and honour in the professing church of Christ; and that Roman and Greek became the designation of the church as a whole; the Roman embracing especially the Western,

and the Greek more particularly the Eastern portion of professing Christendom. Thus the Roman church embraced far more than the professing Christians at Rome, and the Greek had a much wider compass than the territory of Greece. A distinction, therefore, exists between the Greeks and the Greek church: the former term designating the natives of Greece, and the latter embracing persons in certain parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. In regard to the Greek church, we are not aware of any difference in sentiment or practice affecting the present matter of dispute, whether its members lived in Greece proper, and knew no other language than their native Greek, or whether they lived in any other place.

Having consulted lexicons, and read numerous extracts from Greek authors in proof of the meaning of baptizo; having also noticed the meaning attached to this word by those who have translated the New Testament into other languages, we now inquire of the Greeks themselves what they understand to be the import of this word. That they should understand their own language better than foreigners, it is reasonable to conclude. The correctness of lexicographers may be further tested by the practice of Greeks professing Christianity. If we are satisfied respecting the meaning of the word as used by profane authors, it may be inquired, Does the practice of the Greek church sustain the idea that the inspired penmen used the word in an altered and opposite sense, or that they used the word according to its native, explicit, and well-understood import? Our inquiry is not respecting any speculative opinions that might or might not be entertained by the Greek church, but simply respecting the meaning they attach to one of their own words. The conviction to which we believe every candid mind is necessitated to come is, that they have invariably attributed to baptizo the exclusive sense of to immerse. The fact of three immersions being their customa practice which early obtained-has nothing to do with the present dispute. We need only say that it does not appear to us that trine immersion was enjoined by the Saviour, or practised in apostolic times. In corroborating our position from the practice of the Greek church, we shall first adduce a few extracts from the writings of persons sometimes called Greek Fathers, and then give several testimonies from the writings of Pædobaptists (theologians, and others), respecting the practice of the Greeks and of the Greek church at large.

BASIL."The great mystery of baptism is accomplished by three immersions (en trisi tais katadusesi), and the same number of invocations; and thus the emblem of death is shadowed forth," &c. (M. de Spirit Sanct. T. H., c. xv.). Also, commenting on Paul's words (Rom. vi. 3), he says: "We were immersed (ebaptisthemen), says he, in order that from it we might learn this: that as wool immersed (baptisthen) in a dye is changed as to its colour; or rather (using John the Baptist as a guide, when he prophesied of the Lord, He will immerse (baptise) you in the Holy Spirit and fire);... let us say this: that as steel (baptizomenos), immersed in the fire kindled up by wind, becomes more easy to test whether it has in itself any fault, and more ready for being refined; so it follows and is necessary, that he who is immersed (baptisthenta) in the fire, that is, in the word of instruction, which convicts of the evil of sin, and shows the grace of justification, should hate and abhor unrighteousness," &c.-On Bap., b. i., c. ii., 10.

GREGORY (Nazian).—"Suntaphomen Christo dia tou baptismatos, hina kai sunanastomen; sugkatelthomen, hina kai sunupsothomen; sunanelthomen, hina kai sundorathomen (we are buried with Christ by baptism, that also we may rise with Him; we

descend with Him that we may be lifted up with Him; we ascend with Him that we may be also glorified with Him)."-Ora. xl., p. 642.

66

CHRYSOSTOM, on John, chap. iii., writes: Hemon, kathaper en tini tapho, to hudati kataduonton tas kephalas ho palaios anthropos thaptetai kai katadus kato kruptetai holos kathapax (When we immerse the head in water, as in any sepulchre, the old man is buried, and the lower parts being immersed, the whole person is entirely concealed)."

GERMANUS, OF CONSTANTINOPLE.-"Dia tes en to hudati kataduseos te kai anaduseos, triples te epikluseos, ten triemeron taphen kai ten anastasin autou tou Christou exeikonizomen (By immersion in water, and emersion, even a triple inundation, we represent the three days' burial, and the resurrection of Christ himself)" (His. Eccles., p. 146). Respecting the Greek words katadusis, kataduo, anadusis, and anaduo, we only observe that the first is rendered by Mr. Ewing himself, as well as by other lexicographers, a going down;" the second, "I go down, hide myself, make to go down," the third, "an emerging, rising up;" and the last, "I emerge."

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JOHN, OF DAMASCUS.-"Baptism is an emblem of the death of Christ; for by three immersions (dia gar ton trion kataduseon) baptism represents the three days of the Lord's burial" (Orthod. Fid., lib. 4, c. 10). Referring to our Saviour's baptism, he says: "He is immersed (baptizetai), not as himself needing cleansing, but appropriating my cleansing, that He may overwhelm sin, and bury all the old Adam in the water. Do., b. iv., c. ix.

PHOTIUS.-"Hai treis kataduseis kai anaduseis tou baptismatos, thanaton kai anastasin semainousi (The three immersions and emersions of baptism signify death and resurrection)."-Apud Ecumenium, in c. vi. ad Romanos.

THEOPHYLACT.- -"Ho baptistheis sunthaptetai to Christo, dia ton trion kataduseon ten triemeron taphen tou kuriou skematizon, kai apothneskon hoson ge kata ton palaion kai hamartetikon anthropon (Whoever is baptized, is buried with Christ by three immersions, representing the Lord's burial for three days, and dying, as to the old and sinful man)."-Ad Coloss., c. ii., v. 12.

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To baptisma hosper dia tes kataduseos thanaton, houto dia tes anaduseos, ten anastasin tupoi (Baptism typifies; as by immersion death, so by emersion resurrection)." -Ad Coloss., c. iii., v. 1.

“Baptizometha kai autoi mimoumenoi ton thanaton dia tes kataduseos, kai ten anastasin dia tes anaduseos (We ourselves also are baptized, imitating the death [of Christ] by immersion, and the resurrection by emersion)" (Epi. i. ad Corin., c. x., v. 2). Also: "To baptisma en trisi katadusesi teleitai (Baptism is performed by three immersions)."-In c. viii. Marci.

Additional quotations from the Greek Fathers will be given under concessions on Rom. vi. 2-4. These quotations are not to justify the theology of these Fathers, but to prove the meaning attached to the action in the Christian ordinance by those to whom Greek was their mother-tongue, as we believe to have been the case with the majority, if not with the whole, of those who have now been quoted. Instead of adducing more, we shall now give on this subject the explicit acknowledgments of several eminent Pædobaptists.

Dr. WHITBY.-"The observation of the Greek church is this, that He who ascended out of the water, must first descend down into it."

Dr. J. G. KING.-"The Greek church uniformly practises the trine immersion, undoubtedly the most primitive manner."-Rites and Cere. of the Gr. Ch. in Russia, P. 192.

Dr. WALL.-"The Greek church in all the branches of it does still use immersion." "All the Christians in Asia, all in Africa, and about one-third part of Europe, are of the last sort, in which third part of Europe are comprehended the Christians of Græcia, Thracia, Servia, Bulgaria, Rascia, Wallachia, Moldavia, Russia Nigra, and so on; and even the Muscovites, who, if coldness of the country will excuse, might plead for a dispensation with the most reason of any."—His. of Inf. Bap., part ii., c. ix.

HASSELQUIST.-"The Greeks christen their children immediately after their birth, or within a few days at least, dipping them in warm water; and in this