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    tratian s were u *| t * # ly » &de by thv v £ StTM * mi # . n % i * 635 ; Ovid pSifr , ^ »««**>**• ii . 3 , 290 5 Pe rs , Sat . in J £ > &Q- ConsuLt Lomier on tbe ancient heathea

    purifications . Utrecht , 168 K Among the Jews also ablutions were customary and required by the law . See Numbers xjx . 7 , Heb . ix . 10 , Judith xii 7 8 , xvi . 18 . Josephus also in his Jewish Wars , II . 8 , 5 , 7 , makes

    mention of the solemn purification observed daily by the sect of the Essencs . And see Eisealohr ^ s Historical Bemarks on Baptism , Tubingen , 1804 , pp . 4 , &e .

    But this passage ( Matt . hi . 6 ) relates to $# e solemn baptism never to be repeated , traces pf which rite are found ; j # t&e baptism of proselytes , by which Gentiles who wished to

    confonp to the Jewish religion were purified from the unqleanness and defilement of idolatry , apd initiated to a new religion and a n $ w life .

    Some interpreters , indeed , ( Van Dale , Wernsdorf , Eraesti , Paul , de Witte and others , ) deny that the baptism of proselytes was in use among the Jews in the time of Christ . But the affirmative is maintained by many

    weighty arguments , by Danzius in his Dissertation on the Jewish Baptism of Proselytes , and on the antiquity of the initiatory baptism of the Israelites , in Meuschen ' s New Testament , illustrated by the Talmud , pp . 233 , &c , 287 , &c . ; also by Selden

    in jure Nat . et Gentium , ii . 2 ; Buxtorf s Lex . Talm . p . 408 ; Lightfoot on John Hi . and Matt . iii . 6 ; Schoet-£ en , Hor . Hebr . and Wetstein on

    Matt . iii . 6 ; Ziegler , Theol . Abhandl . Gotling . 1804 , th . 2 , Abh . 3 ; Jahn Bibl . Arch&ologie , Th . 3 , Nien , 1805 , PP . 218 , &c ; Eisenlohr ' Historical Remarks on Baptism , Tubing " . 1804 ; Bengel on the Antiquity of Jewish Prosel ytism , 1814 , 8 .

    It may-be admitted , indeed , that m the times of the Old Testament , as is evident from the Scriptures themselv es , access to the Jewish religion for Gentiles could be obtained onl y through circumcision . But after

    ^ ue period of the captivity , the Jews , to whom purifications were fuuuliar atld ^ 'cording to law , siuce a large numi , of Gentiles conformed thenifcelves to their religion , iutroduccd the

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    baptisn > of p i ^^ eji ytes , partly because many Gentiles had already 1 ) eea circumcised . Danzius 1 . c . pp . 257 , 302 . Michueli 3 on the Jewish Law , Th . 4 , § 185 . BengeKus , p . 34 , in quiUus adeo ut et feminis initiandis alio ritu

    ipsis opus esse videbatur , partim quouiaoi rauiti , religionem Jud ^ icam suscipere cupientes , circumcisioneati metuebaot , quibus gratificari volebant .

    The principal arguments to this point are the following . In many passages of the Rabbinical writers mention is made of baptism , when the subject relates to proselytes ( see taghtfoot , Schoetgen and Wetstein on Matt . iii . 6 ); and proselytes are

    even now baptized by the Jews . See Buxtorfs Lex . p . 408 . But it is highly improbable that the Jews of a later age , inflamed as they were with hatred against the Christians , borrowed the baptism of proselytes from them . See Bengel , pp . 40 , &c ^ Cherituth . f . 9 , 1 , aud Avoda Sacra .

    f . 57 , 1 . Where the subject relates to the ritual iaiji ^ tion of Gentiles , mention is made , besides circumcision , of sacrifice and of baptism . But the sacrifices could be offered only while the Temple stood , whence it follows , that the baptism of proselytes was in use before the destruction of the

    Jewish temple . ( Bengel , pp . 23 , &c . ) Apud Arrian , Diss . Epictet . 2 , 9 , the proselytes of the Jews are called ( 3 a € a (* fjLzvoi , the baptized \ on which passage see Bengel , 1 . c . pp . 91 , &c . In the very ancient iEthiopic Version , the words of Matt , xxiii . 15 .

    TZQirjo-ai tva , TrpotrYjAvTW , k . t . \ . to make one proselyte , are explained , That ye may baptize one stranger , and when he is baptized ye make him more than yourselves fitted for gehenna . The baptism of John did not excite the astonishment of the

    Jews as though it were a rite altogether new and unusual ( John i . 24 ) ; they only asked him why he assumed to himself so much authority as to baptize J # w $ 9 to separate them in a manner , by this means , from the

    society of their nation , and to introduce a new form of religion , if he were neither the Messiah nor Elijah . For that the Jews believed that ( he--Messiah and his precursor would , introduce ix new dispensation by baptism , may be iufyrwl foam JuUu i . ¦¦ B& ,

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    Transhtien > qfKmn ofi } & Not $ on M&tt * iii . 6 * on Jewish B&ptism . $ 3 f

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1826, page 737, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2555/page/37/