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    Sees ; Ifcdeeciy Ubwevfcr , take' Ms buM of Mar 4 ( iWckv hy the horns , when he proifeSfceS to discover the * abrogation" of barpfiam by water , and its * ' complete and unequivocal exclusion from "being a Christian institution , " in our Lord ' s

    command , " Go , make disciples of all nations , baptizing them in the name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the Holy Spirit /* The observation that the word / 3 omti % gj had " become exceedingly vague in its signification , the literal being sunk in the metaphorical

    sense / ' if intended to be applied to the intrinsic meaning of the word , without reference to any qualifying context , I must decline assenting to , until some authority be adduced in its support , although I may safely concede to the

    Doctor that the peculiarity of the annexed nonn may , and in many of the instances cited by him does , qualify the verb and indicate its use in a metaphorical sense . But when the Doctor , confiding in those cc conductors to his thoughts , " the " fibres" of his Ariadne's thread , pursues the analogy and

    puts forth his deduction , prefaced by his favourite " thus , " that " to baptize in a name signifies to assume that name , without the ceremony of plunging in water actually accompanying it , " and then jumps to the conclusion that our Lord ' s injunction is to be understood in a metaphorical sense , it becomes necessary to examine with some minuteness and

    rigour the basis on which this strange interpretation of ( i baptizing in a name " is founded . A very slight examination of the various passages throughout the New Testament in which baptism is mentioned , will convince us , that the root of the Doctor ' s error is to be found in his

    latent assumption that the constant construction of pom ;! iC p is with one single noun , expressing the element , whether literal or figurative , in which the baptism takes place . Allow him this assumption , and he might with some plausibility infer , that as in the phrases

    to baptize with wind , with fire , with a burden , or with sleep , or to be baptized in sfrty the specification of a figurative element excludes the supposition of any literal element , so to baptize in a name excludes the idea of the baptism being in water . The fallacy of this assumption is now to be shewn .

    Is it , then , come to this , that Dr . Jones is to be set right , and on a point of Greek construction too , by one of those " unenlightened Christians' * who , by their il over-weening zeal for a fri-1

    volous external ceremony ' and attachment to " the childish practice of plunging hi water , " expose themselves to rje charged with " narrow views /* and to be branded With the etigma of « Ig-

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    norance ' "and stperstitiem" - ? " C & i \ * t 1 ie grammarian and lexicographer submit ? to be reminded , not to say ' irif & rmed ' , by a Baptist , that the word ffarrlt ^ to , " ' so far from being limited in its construction , as assumed by Dr . Jones , to a single noun , is repeatedly used by the sacred writers in connexion with two nouns :

    one in the dative case , governed by the preposition fv , expressing the element or means , in or with which the baptism , whether literal or figurative , is performed ; the other , hi the accusative , governed by ei <; and pointing out the end or object unto or for which the

    ultimate operation of the baptism spoken of is designed to be directed ? Johu accordingly declared ( Matt . iii . 11 ) , that he baptized EN iSxli El 2 fA . e 7 ayoiocv 9 " with ( or rather inj water unto repentance . " The same distinction is likewise kept up in the accounts of the matter as given

    by Mark and Luke . They first . inform us , ( Mark i . 4 , Luke iii . 4 , ) that John preached " the baptism of repentance for the remission" (< £ * £ ctcpeeriv , which I should rather translate for the

    renunciation ) " of sins / ' and state subsequently ( Mark i , 8 , Luke iii . 16 ) the declaration of John that he baptized with ( fv ) water . * And throughout the numerous instances in the first chapter of John , in which he mentions his baptizing with

    water , the preposition is uniformly sv + In respect also to a metaphorial baptism , my observation is aptly exemplified by the passage I Cor , x . 2 , which the Doctor himself cites without detecting or appearing to suspect the distinction of which it is so striking an illustration ,

    * In support of the distinction here insisted on , I beg to refer Dr . « f° ncs to an authority to which he must implicitly bow . In the valuable Lexicon recently published by this learned gentleman , we find that av , " as it is connected with different words , may be rendered in , on r at , into , among , before , with , towards ;" and among the illustrative cjtatious , we

    have fv vdan , " " in water , bv means of have fv uoan , in water , by means of water , Matt . iii . 11 . " For & iq , the Lexicographer gives " iutOj unto , for , until ,

    towards , against , " and cites , eiq tov lopftocvyv , into the Jordan , Mark i . 9 , " but with the gratuitous explanation , " i . e . in j" the Doctor further cites , eiq a . ( pEcriv , unto the remission , for the remission of sins : " but not having his

    baptismal hypothesis then uppermost m his head , he cites no instance of us being employed to point out the means or instrument , as distinguished from the end or design . Under the head ( 3 < zirr * ty , the Doctor hints the theory which he has uow so fully developed , and then cites the very passage to which that theory is ttiore peculiarly applied by him *

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1826, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1716/page/4/