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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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ami which , once pointed out , readers the passage so palpably fatal to the very purpose for which the Doctor adduce ? it " . The passage with the preceding vers ^ is as follows : " All our fathers were under ( Wo ) the cloud , and all passed through the sea , { dice Tr \ q % a , \ oca < rrjq SiwXSoy . ) and were all baptized unto
( EI 2 ) Moses , in ( EN ) the cloud , and m ( EN ) the sea . " There is a passage 3 n a subsequent part of the same Epistle , ( eh . xii . 13 , ) which may , perhaps , be considered another example of the distinctive force of
the two prepositions : " By one spirit ( the original Is bv ivi TrvevfAah , in one c wind * !; are we all baptized into ( £ * $ ) one body . " Here , perhaps , 1 may appear to be too generously furnishing Dr .
Jones with a prop to sustain his tottering theory . How , indeed , an aid so valuable for the Doctor ' s purposes should have escaped his sagacity , tiauscends my comprehension ; for the oversight must not for a moment be referred to the
circumstance of the £ v in the original being concealed under the " by" of the English translation . The Doctor , however , would derive little real benefit from anv such apparent generosity on
my part ; for were it admitted that the passage last quoted is to be understood as referring to a metaphorical baptism " iu spirit" as distinguished from a literal baptism iu water , it even then goes no farther than John's declaration as
recorded in the four Evangelists , that Christ would baptize < 4 in ( £ j >) the holy wind and fire , " on which Dr . J . so strongly insists in his preliminary positions , but which 1 have shewn to be wholly beside his purpose ; since the admission that the benefits of
Christianity may be occasionally represented metaphorically under the figure of baptism , does not in any manner conclude or prejudice the question relative to the historical fact of the appointment of the
rite in a literal sense . There is yet another passage which , taken singly , and in its English dress , at first sight appears favourable to the metaphorical theory 1 am exposing . I mean Peter ' s exhortation , Acts ii . 38 : '' Repent , and be baptized every one of you tn the name of Jesus Christ for the remission ( or rather for the renunciation , eiq cufjEcnv of sins . " But , here again , we have not only the peculiar force of the preposition £ < C , which is aptly rendered hy the word
' for , " and points out the reformation of the individual as the end or design of baptism ; but any embryo hope which the Doctor may have cherished from the preceding phrase , ' * in the name , " must be blasted by the cruel discovery that the Greek preposition , translated i 6 in , " is not bp , but € tu , and the trtfe rendering therefore is , " upon the nam # ;' ttms
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excluding the wisheS- ( or exclusion of wftter-baptism , which the " in" might otherwise have led the Doctor to infer : —tftrd he will not be bold enough to assert , that the baptism of Peter s converts in compliance with this injunction , as related afterwards in ver 41 , was either a mere figurative baptism , or , if literal , to be ascribed , as T . A . T . would suggest , to <* the misplaced zeal of Peter . "
I need not hesitate to admit that there are instances in which the prepositions , whose peculiar force I have above distinguished , are used in their primitive application , and , without referring to either the means or end of baptism , simply
indicate the place where the rite was performed I allude to the four passages , which respectively describe John as baptizing " in Jordan , " Matt . ill . 6 ; " in the wilderness , " Mark i . 4 ; cc in the river of Jordan , " Mark i . 5 ; and Cl m ^ Eiion , " John Hi . 23 ; and in all which ,
£ v is the preposition employed : and to the passage , Mark i . 9 , where Jesus is said to be baptized by John into Jordan , £ ig being used in its primary and most literal sense , as expressive of actual physical motion into the river . But the meaning in all these passages is so palpably obvious , as to leave my general observation wholly unprejudiced .
The preceding are , to the best of my knowledge , all the passages in which baptism is mentioned in connexion with tiL'O qualifying nouns , and their examination has , I trust , incontrovertibly established the distinction that ev is appropriated to point out the element or means , and siq the design or , ultimate object of baptism : and this distinction so far from being exclusively confined to the perception of Greek critics , is
sufficiently indicated to the mere English reader of our common translation by the discriminative use , with one or two trifling exceptions , of the corresponding prepositions ** in" oif * with , " for ev and . " unto" or " for /* as the representative of etc .
Having conceded to the Doctor thaj the express mention of a figurative medium of baptism may exclude the supposition , of the literal element , I must now remind him of the converse proposition , equally evident , that when the sacred writers speak of baptism without any accompa- * nying noun indicative of either its element or object , or with only one noun governed by ek , ( unto ox for J expressing its ultimate design , the baptism so spoken of nmst in each case be understood in its literal sense—which literal sense
" unenlightened Christians /* like myself , are fully warranted in assuming , until the contrary be proved , to be baptism in water . The passages , Mark x . 39 , 40 , and Luke xii . 5 ( K in which Jesus speafes of the bapttetn he had to be Dabti ^ ed with , and which carry riiet & tfhor on the
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1826, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1716/page/5/
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