BAP 



BAP 



BAPTES, in Natural Hiflory, a name c^ven by the 

 ancients to a folfilt fubftance ufcd in medicine; they have 

 left us but very fljort defciiptions of it. Pliny only 

 tells us that it was foft and of an agreeable fmell. Hence 

 Agricola judges, that it was probably one of the bitu- 

 mens. 



BAPTISM, in Th^ohgy; formed from the Greek BxrTt^u,, 

 oi ^xTTTui, I dip or plunge, a rite or ceremony by which per- 

 fons are initiated into the profcHion of the Chriftian reli- 

 gion ; or, it is the appointed mode by which a perfon 

 affumes the profefiion of Chriftianity, or is admitted to a 

 participation of the privileges belonging to the difciples of 

 Chrift. It was by this mode that thofe who believed the 

 gofpel were to be feparated from unbelievers, and joined 

 to the vifible Chriftian church ; and the rite accompanying 

 it, or walhing with water, was probably intended to repre- 

 fent the wafhing away, or renouncing the impurities of 

 fome former ftate, viz. the fins that had been committed, 

 and the viciovis habits that had been contrafted : and to 

 this purpofe it may be obferved, that the profefiion of re- 

 pentance always accompanied, or was underftood to accom- 

 pany, the profeflian of faith in Chrift. That our Lord 

 inftitutcd fuch an ordinance as baptifra, is plain from the 

 commiflion given to the apoftlcs after his refurreftion, and 

 recorded in Matth. xxviii. 19, 20. To this rite, there is 

 alfo an allufion in Mark, xvi. 16. John, iii. 5. Afts, ii. 41. 

 viii. 12, 36 — 38. xxii. 16. The defign of this inftitu- 

 tion, which was to exprefs faith in Chrift on the part of 

 thofe who are baptized, and to declare their refoliition of 

 openly profefliiig his religion, and cultivating real and uni- 

 verfal holmefs, appears from Rom. vi. 3, 4. i Peter, iii. 21. 

 Ephef. v. 26. and Tit. iii. 5. Some have inferred from 

 Afts, ii. 38. xxii. 16. Tit. iii. 4 — 7. that God did thereby 

 give to believers a token of the forgivenefs of their fins, 

 according to the terms of the gofpel covenant ; and they 

 have alleged, that there is a fenfe in which baptifm may be 

 called a ftal of the covenant of grace. 



We find no account of baptifm as a diftinA religious rite, 

 before the miffion of John, the forerunner of Chrift. who was 

 called the " Baptift," on account of his being commanded 

 by God to baptize with water all who (hould hearken to 

 his invitation to repeat. Walhing, however, accompanied 

 many of the Jewilh rites, and, indeed, was required 

 after contracting any kind of uncleanncfs. Alfo, loon after 

 the time of our Saviour, we find it to have been the cuftom 

 of the Jews lolemnly to baptize, as well as to circumcife, all 

 their profelytes. As their writers treat largely of the 

 rcfifons for this rite, and give no iiint of its being a novel 

 inftitution, it is probable, that this had always been the 

 cuftom antecedent to the time of Mofes, whofe account of 

 the right of circumcifion, and of the manner of performing 

 it, is by no means circumftantial. Or, baptifin, after circum- 

 cifing, might have come into ufe gradually from the natural 

 propriety of the thing, and its eafy conformity to other 

 Jewilh eufloms. For if no Jew could approach the taber- 

 nacle, or temple, after the moll trifling uncleannefs, with- 

 out bathing, much lefs would it be thought proper to 

 admit a prolelyte from a ftate fo impure and unclean as 

 heathenifm was conceived to be, without the fame mode of 

 puriliication. On the other hand, it has been alle<red, that 

 none ot the wafhings which were practifed among the Jews, 

 bear the leaft refcmblar.ee to Chriftian baptifm, except in 

 the fingle circnmftance of dipping ; and this circumflance 

 is a mere accident, and may as well be taken from Pagan 

 rituals, as from the ceremonies of the Jews ; or, in other 

 words, it is fo vague and far-fetched, that it deferves, 

 in this point of view, no confideration at all. Accordingly, 



It is maintained, there was no baptifin in the world amoi<g 

 any people till John, and tiiat the purification of a prolelyte 

 by dipping himfelf, which is called baptifm, was a late tra- 

 dition, long after the time of John. The antiquity of this 

 pradice of profelyte-baptifm among the Jews, has been a 

 fubieft of confiderable debate. It has been ftrenuoufly 

 maintained by Lightfoot (Works, vol. ii. p. 120, &:c.), 

 Emlyn (Previous Queftion in Trafts, vol. i. p. 394.), Wall 

 (Hitiory of Infant Baptifm, Introd.) ; and contefted by 

 Dr. Beiifon (On St. Paul's Epift. vol. i. Difc. viii. p. ii.). 

 Gale (Reflcftions on \v"all), Robinfon (Hift. of Baptifm, 

 p. 37.) &c. Dr.Benfon was at firft an advocate for the Jcwifli 

 cuftom of initiating heathen profelytes by baptifm ; but 

 upon further incjuiry he relinquiflied this opinion : alleging 

 that he had not found any inftance of one perfon's wafhing 

 another by way of confecration, purification, or f :'iftifica- 

 tion ; except that of Mofes's wafliing Aaron and his fons, 

 when he fet them apart to the office of priefts, Lev. viii. 6. ; 

 and that he cannot find that the Jews do at prefent prac- 

 tile any fuch thing as that gf baptiziiig the profelytes that 

 go over to them, vliough they are faid to make them wafii 

 themfelves. He then aflis, where is any intimation of fr.ch 

 a practice among the Jews, before tVie coming of our Lord ? 

 If any one, he fays, could produce any clear teftimony of 

 that kind from the Old Teilament, the Apociypha, Jofe- 

 phus, or Philo, that would be of great moment. He adds, 

 in former times, profelytes coming over from heathenilm 

 to the Jewifn religion, ufed to wadi themklvcs, which is 

 a very diflerent thing from baptifm, or one perfon's being 

 wafhed by another. The genuine Targuirs, fay Gill and 

 Gale, written about the clofe of the firft ceiitur)', and the 

 Mifchna, written about the middle of the fccond century, 

 fay nothing on this fubjeA. The Chriftian writers, called 

 Fathers, fpeak of Jewifli profelytes, and wafliings, and puri- 

 fications from ceremonial uucleannetTes ; but nothing of 

 admitting profelytes into tiie community by baptifm. The 

 baptilm of profelytes, it is faid, came to light through the 

 later Rabbles, and is chiefly to be fuught in the writings of 

 Maimonides, who flourifhed in the eleventh or tweltth cen- 

 tury. In the Old Ttftament there are many precedents 

 of admitting profelytes into the Jewifii church, as Rahab, 

 Ruth, and others ; but not one word is faid of their being 

 baptized. Among the laws of admillion given by Mofes, 

 Exod. xii. 48, 49, this is not mentioned. Dr. John Owen 

 (Theologoumcna) confiders the opinion, that Chriftian 

 baptifm came from the Jews, as deflitute of all probability. 

 On the other hand, Mr. Wall has made it highly probable, 

 to fay the leaft, from many teftimonies of the Jewifh writers, 

 who without one diflenting voice allow the faft, that the 

 pradlice of Jewilh baptifra obtained before and at, as well 

 as after, our Saviour's time. There is alfo a ftrong intima- 

 tion, even in the gofpel itfelf, of fuch a known praftice 

 among the Jews in the time of John the Baptill. John. i. 25. 

 The teftimonies of the Jewilh writers are of the greater 

 weight, becaufe the practice, reported by them to have 

 been of fo ancient a date, did ftiil remain among them ; for 

 if it had not been of that antiquity to which it pretends, 

 viz. before the time of Chrift, it is not likely that it would 

 ever have become a cuftom among the Jews afterv>ards. 

 Would they begin to profelytc pcrfons to their religion 

 by baptifm in imitation of the difciples of Jefus of Nazaielii, 

 whom they held accurfed ? And yet if this profclyte baptilm 

 were adopted by the Jews fince the time of Chrift, it muft 

 have been a mere innovation in imitation of Chnltians, which 

 is not very likely. See on this fubjett Maimon. in Mifchn. 

 tom.ii. Ifure bia. c. I. and c. 13. Selden de Jure Natnrali, 

 &c. 1. ji. c. 2. Altingius de Profel) tis, dill". 7. J 46. Vi- 



triiig. 



