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Question: Is baptism sprinkling or immersion?

     "About the year 251 A.D., Eusebuis informs us that one
Novation, being on a sick bed, desired to be baptized. But he was
thought too weak to be taken to the water, and so it was arranged
to put a great quantity of water upon him as he lay upon his bed,
as the nearest possible approach to baptism under the
circumstances." (LCWilson, Hy. of Sprinkling.p.3). But this was
followed by controversy.

     
     Jesus can claim no authority that is not expressed in His
commands: and it would be a refection to say that He did not make
himself perfectly clear. If no man can tell what the commission
means, or if it means any one of a dozen things, then is baptism
not binding upon us. But such a proposition is at once sacrilegious
and absurd.
     The expression of one thing is the exclusion of another. If
immersion is expressed, then is sprinkling and pouring excluded.
There is one baptism, and not three (p.8)


TAVAL (Ges. 317) "To dip, to dip in, to immerse, followed by an
acc[usative] of the thing, and [Heb."b(e)] before the
liquid"..."Intrans. to immerse oneself. 2 Kings 5:14..."dipped
himself in the Jordan seven times." (Wilson: the LXX renders this
BAPTIZO, p.47). 

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