and dying persons, and in all such cases where total or partial immersion was impracticable. Some
writers suppose that this was the case even in the first baptism of the three thousand on the day of
Pentecost; for Jerusalem was poorly supplied with water and private baths; the Kedron is a small
creek and dry in summer; but there are a number of pools and cisterns there. Hellenistic usage
allows to the relevant expressions sometimes the wider sense of washing, bathing, sprinkling, and
ceremonial cleansing.^681 Unquestionably, immersion expresses the idea of baptism, as a purification
and renovation of the whole man, more completely than pouring or sprinkling; but it is not in
keeping with the genius of the gospel to limit the operation of the Holy Spirit by the quantity or
the quality of the water or the mode of its application. Water is absolutely necessary to baptism, as
an appropriate symbol of the purifying and regenerating energy of the Holy Spirit; but whether the
water be in large quantity or small, cold or warm, fresh or salt, from river, cistern, or spring, is
relatively immaterial, and cannot affect the validity of the ordinance.- As to the Subjects of baptism: the apostolic origin of infant baptism is denied not only
by the Baptists, but also by many paedobaptist divines. The Baptists assert that infant baptism is
contrary to the idea of the sacrament itself, and accordingly, an unscriptural corruption. For baptism,
say they, necessarily presupposes the preaching of the gospel on the part of the church, and
repentance and faith on the part of the candidate for the ordinance; and as infants can neither
understand preaching, nor repent and believe, they are not proper subjects for baptism, which is
intended only for adult converts. It is true, the apostolic church was a missionary church, and had
first to establish a mother community, in the bosom of which alone the grace of baptism can be
improved by a Christian education. So even under the old covenant circumcision was first performed
on the adult Abraham; and so all Christian missionaries in heathen lands now begin with preaching,
and baptizing adults. True, the New Testament contains no express command to baptize infants;
such a command would not agree with the free spirit of the gospel. Nor was there any compulsory
or general infant baptism before the union of church and state; Constantine, the first Christian
emperor, delayed his baptism till his deathbed (as many now delay their repentance); and even after
Constantine there were examples of eminent teachers, as Gregory Nazianzen, Augustin, Chrysostom,
who were not baptized before their conversion in early manhood, although they had Christian
mothers.
having his body thrice plunged in water in the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, dies to the carnal life of
sin, and is born again of the Holy Ghost to a life spiritual and holy." Marriott (in Smith and Cheetham, I., 161) says: "Triple
immersion, that is thrice dipping the head while standing in the water, was the all but universal rule of the church in early time,"
and quotes in proof Tertullian, Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom, Jerome, Leo I., etc. But he admits, on page 168 sq., that affusion
and aspersion were exceptionally also used, especially in clinical baptism, the validity of which Cyprian defended (Ep. 76 or
69 ad Magnum). This mode is already mentioned in the Didache (ch. 7) as valid; see my book on the Did., third ed., 1889, pp.
29 sqq.(^681) 2 Kings 5:14 (Sept.); Luke 11:38; Mark 7:4 (βαπτισμοὺς ποτηρίων, etc.); Heb. 6:2 (βαπτισμῶν διδαχή); 9:10 (διαφόροις
βαπτισμοῖς). Observe also the remarkable variation of reading in Matt. 7:4: ἐὰν μὴ βαπτίσωνται (except they bathe themselves),
and ῥαντίσωνται (sprinkle themselves). Westcott and Hort adopt the latter in the text, the former in the margin. The Revision
of 1881 reverses the order. The ’divers baptisms’ in Heb. 9:10 (in the Revision " washings") probably include all the ceremonial
purifications of the Jews, whether by bathing (Lev. 11:25; 14:9; Num. 19:7), or washing (Num. 19:7; Mark 7: 8), or sprinkling
(Lev. 14:7; Num. 19:19). In the figurative phrase βαπτίζειν ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ, to overwhelm, plentifully to endow with the Holy
Spirit (Matt. 3:11; Luke 3:16; Mark 1:8; John 1: 3; Acts 1:5; 11:16), the idea of immersion is scarcely admissible since the Holy
Spirit is poured out. See my Hist. of the Apost. Ch., p. 569.
A.D. 1-100.