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    those words literally translated , the New Testament would every where have condemned the established mode of baptizing . Upon the same principle , the writers of our English Dictionaries studiously avoid making use of any terms which would convey to the reader any idea of the real meaning of the word

    baptism , of which they give the following explanation : — " To baptize , ( baptizo Gr ., ) to christen . " * *« To baptize , to christen , to administer the sacrament of baptism . Baptizer—one that christens , one that aduSiuisters baptism . " f Those ideas could not possibly be attached to the term baptism by the sacred writers , because the Scriptures were written long

    before those terms were invented , or had au existence ; they , therefore do not give the true meaning of the word . Nor is washing the meaning of the Greek term baptisnia ; uor can it any where , withpropriety , be so rendered , and in some cases such a rendering would be quite ridiculous ; for instance , to render the words of our Lord , Luke xii . 50 , * ' I

    have a washing to be washed with , and how am I straitened till it be accomplished ! " And Acts i . 5 : " Ye shall be washed with the Holy Ghost not many days hence . ' * The translation of a term , in any connexion in which it may occur , which gives to the passage a sense manifestly absurd , or which obscures or

    perverts its obvious meaning , cannot be the proper rendering of the word . To immerse and to wash convey two distinct ideas ; they are different actions , and each of them have their corresponding terms in the Greek . Why then should they be confounded ? Baptizo is to immerse , nip to is to wash .

    Thirdly , in the words unto repentance , I contend the rendering of the preposition eh ; , unto , in this connexion is incorrect ; it should have been rendered upon : 1 indeed baptize you in water upon repentance . We have a strikin g instance of this sense of eu ; , Matt . xii . 41 , and its parallel passage , Luke xi . 32 : *• They repented , " a $ , at , i . e . " uponthe . preach *

    ing of Jonah . " John first preached repentance in order to baptism , Matt . iii . 2 . John , says Mark , i . 4 , 5 , did baptize in the wilderness , and preach the baptism op repentance , and those who repented upon his preaching , and gave evidence of their repentance by confessing their sins , were

    * Dr . Johnson . f Walker ' s Pronouncing Dictionary . &c .

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    Miscellaneous Correspondence * . 505-

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    Baptism of John and of Jesus Christ . To the Editor . Sir , I submit to the consideration of your correspondents the following brief criticism on the baptism of John and of Jesus Christ , mentioned Matt . iii . 11 , by the admission of which in your Repository you will oblige yours , &c .

    JOHN MARSOM . "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance ; he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire . " First , then , as to the subject itselfbaptism . I indeed baptize you with water . I contend , then , that the true rendering of the Greek term baptism is immersion . For this sense of the Greek

    term I appeal to the Greek Lexicons , and to the writings of the Greeks in general ; but we have stronger evideuce than that of Lexicons , that is , their practice founded on the meaning of the term , which shews how they understood it ; for it is an incontrovertible fact , that from the days of the apostles to the present time , the Greeks have uniformly

    baptized by immersion , and have never udopted any other mode . Baptism , then , being immersion , it necessarily supposes au element in which it is performed . The element of John ' s baptism , however , is expressly said to be water . They were all baptized by him in the river Jordan , Mark i . 5 ; and so here , / indeed baptize you with water ; which leads us to

    observe , Secondly , that with water is not a proper translation of the original , zv than , which is literally in water ; so the preposition £ v is twice rendered in the first verse of this chapter ; had it been rendered with , in the passage cited from Mark , as it is in thin , it would seem to imply that as they were all baptized

    with the river Jordan , so also the river Jordan was baptized with them . But further , the rendering of the preposition w , with t instead of in , is not only improper , but is also a perversion of the meaning of the passage , which represents baptism as the application of its subject

    to the element—/ indeed baptize you in water—whereas that rendering represents it as the application of the element to the subject . The known sentiments of the translators , and the influence they were under in making their translation , will naturally account for their retaining the Gyeek term fcaptisuia untranslated , and fov their veudering the Greek , preposition tv , with , instead of in ; for were

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1829, page 505, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2574/page/57/