BATES, WILLIAM: English Presbyterian; b. at London Nov., 1625; d. at Hackney July 14, 1699. He was graduated at Cambridge 1647, and was vicar of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, London, until 1662, when he lost the benefice for non-conformity; he was one of the commissioners to the Savoy Conference in 1661 and represented the nonconformists on other occasions in negotiations with the Churchmen; was chaplain to Charles II and had influence in high places both under Charles and his successors. He is said to have been a polished preacher and a sound scholar. Perhaps the best known of his works is The Harmony of the Divine Attributes in the Contrivance and Accomplishment of Man's Redemption (2d ed., London, 1675). A collected edition of his works, with memoir by W. Farmer, was published in four volumes at London in 1815.
BATHING: The bath in the East, because of the heat and the dust, is constantly necessary for the preservation of health, and to prevent skindiseases. The bathing of the newly born is mentioned in Ezek. xvi, 4; bathing as part of the toilet in Ruth iii, 3; II Sam. xii, 20; Ezek. xxiii, 40, and elsewhere. As the Law attached great religious value to the purity of the body, it prescribed bathing and ablutions for cases in which it was apparently impaired (see DEFILEMENT AND PURIFICATION, CEREMONIAL). Ablution was required when one approached the deity (cf. Gen. xxxv, 2; Exod. xix, 10; Lev. xvi, 4, for the high priest on the Day of .Atonement). Bathing in "living" (i.e., running) water was regarded as most effective in every respect (Exod. ii, 5; II Kings v, 10; Lev. xv, 13). More accessible and convenient were the baths arranged in the houses. To a well-furnished house belonged a courtyard, in which was a bath--according to II Sam. xi, 2, an open basin. Susannah (verses 15 sqq.) bathes in a hedged garden and uses oil and some kind of soap; the Hebrew women used bran in the bath, or to dry themselves, (Mishnah Pesahim ii, 7). The feet, being protected by sandals only, were exposed to dust and dirt, and no attentive host omitted to give to his guests water for their feet before he entertained them (Gen. xviii, 4; xix, 2; I Sam. xxv, 41; cf. Luke vii, 44; John xiii, 1-10). The washing of hands before meals was customary for obvious reasons; but it is not expressly attested before New Testament time, and then as a religious enactment which the Pharisees rigidly observed (Matt. xv, 2; Luke xi, 38); so in general with reference to washings and bathings the punctilious were at that time more exacting. The efficacy of warm springs was recognized at a very early period (cf. Gen. xxxvi, 24, R. V., and the name Hammath, Josh. xix, 35; xxi, 32). They were found near Tiberias (Josephus, War, II, xxi, 6; Ant.,
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Abuses connected with the public baths in early Christian times called forth protests from many of the heathen and led some of the emperors to attempt restrictive precautions. The Church Fathers also raised their voices, but it is noteworthy that though there was public censure (e.g., of women, particularly of virgins who were immodest in the bath), there was no formal, ecclesiastical prohibition of the public baths. The use of the bath was remitted during public calamities, penance, Lent, and for the first week after baptism. From the time of Constantine it was usual to build baths near the basilicas, partly for the use of the clergy, and partly for other ecclesiastical purposes.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: For Hebr. custom consult DB, i, 257-258. On the Christian, DCA, i, 182-183; the article "Baden" in KL, i, 1843-46, covers both subjects.
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