To perform an act and say that you do it in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, when neither of these august personages say one word on the subject, is getting as far from the truth as it is possible for a man to go. A preacher must have little to do, that is important, when he can spend his time in preaching, and teaching something, about which the Holy Spirit has failed to communicate a single idea. But," says one, "out of your own mouth you condemn yourself, for the word immerse is not in the Bible, and you are contending that nothing else is baptism.'

Let us study carefully the following chapter and learn why the word immerse is not in the Bible.

IT

CHAPTER X.

WHY THE WORD IMMERSE IS NOT IN THE

BIBLE.

T may be interesting to learn why the word IMMERSE IS NOT IN THE BIBLE. Let history tell. When King James called his wise men to translate the Bible, which work was completed in 1611, the King gave them fourteen rules to govern them in their work. Two of the rules I will quote: 1. "Old ecclesiastical words must be kept, as, the word church must not be translated congregation,

etc."

2. "The ordinary Bible, read in the church, commonly called the Bishop's Bible, to be followed, and as little altered as the original will permit."

(See Lewis' history of the English translations of the Bible.)

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The Bishop's Bible" was a translation made by the Bishops about 1561.

At this very time the "new doctrine of Calvin," viz., sprinkling, was being sharply discussed. Many of the Bishops were in favor of abolishing immersion, which at that time was enforced by the law of England, and substituting sprinkling in its stead. These proud and unscrupulous bigots used every means to bring

about the change, even going before Parliament and preaching on the subject, affirming that "the devil of immersion ought to be legislated out of the realm, it was so trouble

It was during this heated controversy, that the Bishops made their translation. When they came to the word baptizo, what did they do? What could they do? If they were to translate the word, it would "legislate the devil of immersion" into the realm, instead of "legislating it out. A happy thought came to them; and what was it? We will not translate the word at all, but transfer it from the Greek, into the English language, and give it an English termination. That is, they dropped the Greek letter omega at the end of the word, and substituted the English letter e. Baptizo is the Greek, baptize is the same word anglicized by giving it an English termination. The Bishops did not translate the word, but left it in the Greek, to cover up their pious fraud, as we shall presently prove.

That you may be able to form some opinion of the honestly and piety of these Bishops, let me remind the reader that it was by the decree of these same Bishops that many people were bitterly persecuted, banished, burned to the stake, and tormented in the most devilish manner simply because they could not believe

and practice what these wicked and godless Bishops taught.

How did it please these time servers to regard the word as one of the "old ecclesiastical words," spoken of by the King, which they were warned to keep? How did the King and his partners obey the law? In the Septuagint Greek, 2 Kings 5:14, in Isa. 21:4 and Job 9:31, et. al., they found the same word baptizo, but in these places they translated it. In Matt. 26:23, Mark 14:20, Luke 16:24, and in John 13:26, "where the same Greek words occur they disregard their age, and their ecclesiastical nature," and translate them into plain English; but where these words stand connected with Christian baptism the Bishops never translated them. How did they come to be "old ecclesiastical words" in one place and not in another? Simply that these men might carry their point, and get rid of the "devil of immersion." The certain and unavoidable conclusion of this matter is, the reason the word immerse is not in the Bible is because the Greek word baptizo was not translated, but was left in the Greek for reasons that are apparent. Whenever and wherever you find the word translated, it is rendered by immerse, dip, plunge, or a word of kindred meaning, but never by the words sprinkle, pour or purify.

In this investigation more than forty of the