Part XI. CHRIST THE GREAT BAPTIZER. (continued 2)

Section LXIX.—The Gift of Other Tongues.

The nature of this gift, and all the circumstances attending it unite in investing it with a character of peculiar impressiveness, significance and propriety among the miracles which attested the gospel. Devotional in its nature, and exercised in celebrating “the wonderful works of God,” it was an indication of the reception and enjoyment by those on whom it fell of a large measure of the sanctifying graces of the Spirit. The report of it, spreading over Jerusalem, was the attraction which assembled together that vast company, of whom three thousand were converted that day. The prophetic nature of the sign demonstrated the identity of the occasion with that predicted by Joel. And the significance of the scene,—God’s praises uttered in many languages,—as the anticipation of a world-wide acceptance of the gospel,—brings this sign into intimate accord with the new spirit of missionary zeal, and the tongues as of fire, which were the other principal phenomena of the day. It exhibited, in a figure, all the tribes and tongues of men, till then immersed in idolatry and darkness, uniting with sudden harmony in a glad burst of praise to God for the wonderful works of his grace.

The conspicuous position occupied by this gift amid the scenes of Pentecost and the relation which it sustained to the outpouring of the Spirit, as being the most observable gift thereby bestowed, occasioned a manner of expression on the subject in the book of the Acts, which has led to some misconception and error. It consists in the use of the name of the Holy Spirit, and of phrases respecting his falling on the disciples, being received by them, etc., when the subject spoken of is, not his renewing and invisible graces, but the sensible phenomena which attested the preaching of the apostles. Thus, Peter, on the day of Pentecost, 314having assured the multitude that what they saw and heard was the fulfillment of the promise, “I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy,” and explained that Jesus having received of the Father the promised Spirit, had shed forth this “which ye now see and hear;” exhorted his hearers to repent and be baptized, “and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost. For the promise (by Joel), is to you and to your children (‘your sons and your daughters’), and to all that are afar off (‘all flesh’).” Here, the assurance of receiving the Holy Ghost, upon condition of repentance and baptism, as well as the quotation from Joel, shows that Peter did not speak of the renewing gift of the Spirit; which precedes and gives repentance, but of the miraculous gifts which followed, and which they saw and heard.

Again, upon the mission of Peter and John to Samaria, it is stated that they prayed for the Samaritans, “that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them; only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.”—Acts viii, 14-17. Here, no distinct mention is made of miraculous endowments. But the manner in which the gift was imparted, the fact that they were already believers, and especially the proposal of Simon magus, on the occasion, show that it was miraculous gifts that were conferred. The sorcerer would have offered no money for the invisible renewing and sanctifying graces of the Spirit. “Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given.” And what he saw was what he sought to purchase. These perceptible and miraculous signs were therefore the things intended in the expressions used, as to the receiving of the Holy Ghost, and his falling upon the disciples.

The same manner of expression is seen in the account of Paul’s interview with certain disciples of John at Ephesus. 315(Acts xix, 1-7.) Paul asked them, “Have ye received the Holy Ghost, since ye believed?” So reads the common version. But it should be,—“(Elabete, pisteusantes), Did ye, upon believing receive the Holy Ghost?” The question had reference to the time of their first reception of the gospel. The apostle predicates his question upon the assumption that these men were believers; and he elsewhere testifies that faith is one of the fruits of the Spirit. It is thus evident, as the sequel also shows, that it was not the ordinary graces of the Spirit of which Paul inquired, but his extraordinary gifts. Such being the purport of his question, the answer is to be interpreted in accordance with it. “They said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.” That is, We have not heard of the miraculous gifts. “And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said unto him, Unto John’s baptism.” So intimately was Christian baptism related to the baptism and miracles of Pentecost, that Paul could not imagine any one to have received the former, and yet remain ignorant of the latter. To suppose, as do some, that these disciples of John meant to declare themselves ignorant of the existence of the Third Person of the Godhead, is little short of a contradiction in terms, in view of the essential place which was given to the Spirit in John’s teachings,—even were we to ignore the Old Testament testimonies, of which John’s disciples can not have been ignorant. What they meant, is manifest from the whole tenor of the narrative. In the result, the Holy Ghost was bestowed on them by the laying on of Paul’s hands, “and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.” That was the subject of Paul’s inquiry,—the subject on which they were ignorant. And the form of expression is another example of the style of language which we have seen running through the pages of the Acts on the subject.

In striking coincidence with the relation of this sign, as 316representing the dissemination of the gospel to the nations of the Gentiles was the order of its manifestation. The command of Jesus was that the gospel should be preached “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” Precisely this was the order of manifestation of the gift of tongues. First, it was given to the disciples assembled in Jerusalem and representing all Judea, on the day of Pentecost. Then Philip having preached in Samaria, to the conversion of many, Peter and John were sent thither; and by the laying on of their hands, the gift was conferred upon the Samaritans. (Acts viii, 12-17.) Afterward, Peter was called to the house of the Gentile, Cornelius, and upon his preaching, “the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word,” and they spake with tongues and magnified God. (Acts x, 44-47.) Beside these, there is but one other account, in which the manner of the gift is indicated. It is the case already mentioned, of the disciples of John in Ephesus. Respecting this sign, the following points are to be noticed.

1. As to its nature, it came under the general designation of prophecy, being an inspired utterance of the praises of God (Luke i, 67, 68), in which in the beginning at least, all the assembly, men and women united. (Acts i, 14; ii, 1, 4, 11; 1 Cor. xi, 5.) As such, Peter declared it to be a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel. “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.... And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.”—vs. 17, 18. In this exercise, while the hearts and affections of the speakers were edified by the Spirit, in connection with the utterances thus inspired, their understandings did not ordinarily apprehend the meaning. (1 Cor. xiv, 2, 4, 13, 14, 18, 19, 28. Compare Rom. viii, 26, 27.) It was in “another tongue” than that which was native to the speaker, and usually to him an “unknown tongue.”

3172. It was not, therefore, designed to facilitate the labors of the apostles, by enabling them to preach in foreign languages; and there is no reason to believe that it was ever so used. The Scriptures are silent on the subject, and the traditions of the primitive church to that effect are worthless. Its design seems to have been two-fold,—the edifying of those upon whom the gift was bestowed;—and, for a sign to the hearers. (1 Cor. xiv, 22.) Of what it was a sign, intimation has been, already, given. It was a token that henceforth the Spirit of all grace would be bestowed as freely, and work as effectually, in the hearts of Gentiles, as of the Jews; and that God’s praises thus inspired would be equally acceptable to him in every tongue and from every people.

3. Being intended as a sign of the ingathering of the Gentiles, it seems at first, and until the minds of the disciples had become fully imbued with that idea, to have been very abundantly bestowed, and especially at Jerusalem, the centre whence the healing waters, were to flow. In fact, its value as a great public sign depended materially upon the abundance of the gift, whereby, as on the first occasion, it presented a figure of all nations uniting in the worship of the true God and our Savior. But as the idea became familiar to the mind of the church, and the churches of the Gentiles multiplied, this gift seems to have fallen gradually into a subordinate place, among the many with which the church was endowed. (1 Cor. xii, 1-10.) The occasion of its importance as a public sign having passed away, its chief value now consisted in the spiritual edification which was ministered to the possessors themselves, in its exercise (Ib. xiv); and it gradually disappeared from the church.

4. As the apostles were the official witnesses, appointed by the Lord Jesus to testify of his resurrection and exaltation to the baptizing throne, this sign was at first given in immediate connection with, and confirmation of, their personal 318testimony. It was also, with a like intimate relation to their witnessing office, conferred by the laying on of their hands, upon disciples who had been gathered in by the ministry of others. Apart from the personal presence and ministry of the apostles, in one or other of these forms, there is no Scriptural intimation, nor reason to believe, that it was ever bestowed.

Section LXX.—The Baptism of Repentance for the Remission of Sins.

We have yet to contemplate the chief and crowning glory of Pentecost. The endowments conferred on the apostles, and the new spirit infused into the church, were but subsidiary means; glorious indeed; but only as they ministered to a more glorious end. The signs and wonders of the day were but an index hand which pointed away from themselves, and directed all interest and attention to that end. It appears, in the baptism of repentance, then first administered by the ascended Savior from his throne; the first fruits of which were the three thousand converts of that day, and the harvest of which still coming in, will only then be complete, when all his redeemed shall have been gathered from every nation and kindred and people and tongue.

The baptism of John is called “the baptism of repentance.”—Acts xix, 4. But it was so, only as the rock in the wilderness was Christ; only as the bread and cup of the supper are the body and blood of the Lord. “The baptism of repentance, for the remission of sins” which he preached (Mark i, 4), was not his own. He preached “saying that they should believe on him that should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”—Acts xix, 4. He confessed his own weakness, and the emptiness and futility of his own baptism, which was only a symbol, calling men to repentance, but without power to confer it. “I, indeed baptize you with water, unto repentance; but he that cometh 319after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.”—Matt. iii, 11. Jesus, after his resurrection, told his disciples,—“Thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name, among all nations.”—Luke xxiv, 46, 47. A few days after the baptism of Pentecost had been received, Peter, in the presence of the rulers of Israel, testified.—“Him hath God exalted with his right hand; a Prince and Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and the forgiveness of sins.” Acts v, 31. “The forgiveness of sins,” here, is the same in the original, as “the remission of sins,” in the other places, and especially in the statement concerning John’s preaching. This identity of language is undoubtedly designed to indicate identity of subject. The baptism which John preached,—that of which his own was the figure,—was the true baptism of repentance and remission, which Jesus was enthroned to dispense,—the baptism which, on the day of Pentecost, he bestowed, by the outpouring of the Spirit, whose office it is to work repentance and to seal remission. The doctrine concerning this baptism, may be thus briefly summed. By it, as given by the Lord Jesus, the Spirit is breathed into the subjects of grace, entering them as a Spirit of life. This is regeneration, the immediate effect of which is a new nature formed after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness. The indwelling Spirit and the new nature, inspired by him, lust against the flesh and loathe sin; and by consequence induce a true repentance and turning from it, and a pursuit after holiness. At the same time, the Spirit with which they are baptized, being in Christ as the head and source of life to all the body, and in them as members, unites them to Him by such a tie,—the tie of the one infinite Spirit common to both; so that they are, with him, one body, and therefore, in him, partake in the merits of his righteousness, and in it are justified.

320In that last discourse of our Savior, to which we have already so fully referred,—that discourse which was an immediate anticipation and prophecy of Pentecost,—this subject is presented in a form of great interest and prominence. In fact, the thoughtful reader will find that entire discourse to center upon the two correlative ideas of the unity of the Persons in the Godhead, and the unity of believers, in Christ. Moreover, these two doctrines are presented as sustaining the most intimate relation to each other. In answer to Philip’s request, “Lord show us the Father,” Jesus emphasizes with reiteration his own unity with the Father, and exhorts the disciples, “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me.” Then, having promised to secure for them the presence and illumination of the Comforter, he says, “Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me; because I live, ye shall live also. At that day, ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me and I in you.”—John xiv, 8-11, 19, 20. This he illustrates by a parable. “I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me (severed from me) ye can do nothing.”—Ib. xv, 1-8. In the wonderful prayer which closed that discourse, Jesus recurs to this theme, in language which from any other lips would have seemed profane, so closely does he identify us with the glory of the Godhead. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one; as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.”—Ib. xvii, 20-23. The “glory” which the Father gave the 321Son and Jesus gives his people, “that they may be one,” is the Holy Spirit, who is called “the Spirit of glory and of God,” who rests on his people (1 Peter iv, 14), and “the glory of the Father,” by whom Christ was raised from the dead. (Rom. vi, 4. Compare viii, 11; and 1 Peter iii, 18.)

Such is the relation which by the baptism of the Spirit is established between Christ and the Father and believers. Touching the manner and process of it, the following are the most important points.

1. Each Person of the Godhead severally co-operates in this work of grace. The Father is its Author and source, by whom the Son was commissioned for its execution and the Spirit given him to that end. Hence, this gift of the Spirit to the people of God, whilst made through the Son, is constantly referred to the Father, as being primarily and essentially his gift. The Son, having purchased salvation through the blood of his cross, is commissioned as sovereign administrator, to dispense it to the redeemed,—“to give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given him.”—John xvii, 2. In fulfilling this office, he, as the Father’s representative and likeness, “can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do.” And as the Father, having life in himself, has given to the Son to have life in himself, and to quicken whom he will (John v, 19-30), he bestows his salvation and quickens his people, by shedding on them that Spirit of life which the Father shed on him. The Spirit, thus given, dwells in the believer in his own proper character, as being the efficient cause of life and holiness.

2. All is postulated upon the fact that the Spirit, as given to and dwelling in all fullness in the Lord Jesus, is the principle and spirit of his life; by which he was born of the virgin; by which he lived in holiness, and offered himself a spotless victim to justice; by which he was quickened and rose from the dead, and which, as his Spirit, 322the breath of his nostrils, he now breathes into whom he will.

3. In baptizing his people, he imparts to them the same Spirit which is thus in him, to be in them the Spirit of life, making their bodies his temples and instruments (1 Cor. vi, 19; Rom. vi, 13); and their souls the subjects of his pervasive and transforming power. (Rom. viii, 4, 5.)

4. In this baptism, the Holy Spirit is not sent as an outside messenger or agent,—a third party coming from Jesus to the objects of his grace. To impress us with the height of his throne and the exaltation of his majesty, he says, “I will send him unto you.” But, in the same discourse, he also says, “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me and I in you;” and moreover promises, that “If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.”—John xiv, 20, 23. The Father and the Son are just as nigh the believer as is the Holy Spirit, whose office it is to attest their presence and interpret their communications to the soul. Since the Spirit is “the Spirit of Christ,”—is given to him and remains in him in all fullness, it follows, that only in him, can any one receive or enjoy the indwelling and graces of the Spirit. Hence, the style in which, in the narrative of Pentecost, the baptism is spoken of, not as the sending of a person, but the shedding down of an element. “He hath shed forth this.”^[87] Hence the manner in which, in Peter’s quotation from Joel, it is repeatedly said, “I will pour out of my Spirit.”—Acts ii, 17, 18. And hence the interpretation which Jesus, by anticipation, gave to the Pentecostal baptism; when he breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost;” and the sign of the outbreathed mighty breath. Hence Paul’s testimony,—“Your life is hid with Christ in God;” and his declaration as to himself,—“I live; yet not I, but Christ 323liveth in me.” Christ and his people breathe one Spirit and live one life. Baptized by that one Spirit into one body, and all made to drink of that one Spirit, they are thus one with him, “members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones.”—Eph. v, 30. This union is only less close and intimate than that of the Father and the Son. (John xvii, 21.) On it depends the whole process of justification and grace.

Section LXXI.—Paul’s Doctrine of this Baptism.

Paul, in one brief sentence gives a comprehensive view of the manner and results of this Baptism. “After that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Savior; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs, according to the hope of eternal life.”—Titus iii, 4-7.

Here, an amendment is proposed, in the fifth verse, so as to read,—“the laver (loutrou) of regeneration. Bishop Ellicott declares this rendering to be “indisputable.”^[88] Other expositors favor it, and the Committees of revision 324of the New Testament have honored it by inserting the word, in the margin of the Revised Version, here, and in Eph. v, 26. A rendering thus importunate and intrusive, necessitates a critical examination. The first point to be noticed is that the word, laver, is ambiguous; and in the sense which is assumed in its insertion in the text, is without warrant in the Greek language or customs. “We know very little of the baths of the Athenians during the republican period; for the account of Lucian, in his Hippias, relates to baths constructed after the Roman model. On ancient vases, on which persons are represented bathing, we never find any thing corresponding to a modern bath, in which persons can stand or sit; but there is always a round or oval basin (loutēr or loutērion), resting on a stand, by the side of which those who are bathing are represented standing undressed and washing themselves, as seen in the following wood-cut, taken from Sir. W. Hamilton’s vases.”^[89] The vessels used by the Greeks in bathing were, (1) the asaminthos, in which, sometimes, the bather sat, while the water was poured over him, as we have seen in the bath of Ulysses; (2) the loutēr, the laver, a vessel neither in size nor proportions adapted to the purposes of immersion, nor ever so employed, but designed and used as a containing vessel for the water; (3) the pitcher or dipper (arutaina), with which water was taken from the laver, and poured over the bather. There was no bath tub, nor provision of any kind for immersion. The mode of bathing appears in the story, in Theophrastus, of one who entered the bathroom (balaneion), and not being promptly waited on, dipping the ladle, (arutaina), poured it over his own person, and declared himself bathed, “no thanks to you.”^[90]

325The word loutron was used, (1) for the water of the bath. In Athenæus, the question is asked, why hot springs (therma loutra), appearing out of the ground, are by all declared sacred to Hercules, if warm bathing was an unmanly luxury, as some asserted.^[91] To the same point, in Aristophanes, the question occurs,—“Where did you ever see cold Heracleian baths (loutra)?”^[92] In Sophocles, Œdipus directs his daughters “to bring a bath (loutra) of running waters.”^[93] Homer represents the curly headed Hecameda heating a warm bath (loetra).^[94] And Euripides describes Antigone pleading to be allowed “to pour waters (loutra) over the corpse” of Polynices;^[95] that is, to bathe it for burial. In this use of the word, together with the mode of bathing by the pouring of successive dippers, or waters, over the person, is explained the fact that the word is very rarely found in the singular number, and in Homer, the oldest of the classics, never; although in its plural form (loetra, contract, loutra), it frequently occurs in his poems. This fact is very strongly against the supposition that the word contained any allusion to the bathing vessel, which would demand the singular number.

The word designated (2.) the washing which was accomplished by the water. In the comedies of Aristophanes, the women in revolt, warn the men who threaten to assail them,—“If you happen to have soap, we will give you a bath (loutron);” which they do, by dashing buckets of water over them. Thereupon, the men run to the police, complaining,—“Do you not know what a washing (loutron) these have washed us, just now, and that in our clothes, and without soap?”^[96] The idiomatic expression here (“to 326wash a washing”), indicates how very close is the relation between the verb louo, to wash, and its derivative, loutron, a washing. The one expresses the action, or doing; the other, the thing done. The same idiom presents itself in Antigone’s account of the obsequies of her slain brother Polynices. “Washing it a pure washing (lousantes agnon loutron),” they gathered leaves, and burned “the poor remains.”^[97]

As bathing was performed by the outpouring of water on the person, the word was thence used (3.) to designate libations, performed by a like outpouring of water, in honor of gods or heroes. Thus, Agamemnon having been murdered at the instigation of his wife Clytemnestra, Orestes pours (loutra) libations at his father’s tomb;^[98] and Electra dissuades her sister Chrysothemis from fulfilling her mother’s commission, to offer (loutra)(loutra) libations at the same place, as a means of averting coming vengeance.^[99]

The word designates (4.) a bathing place. Plutarch describes Alexander as speaking of “having washed off the sweat of battle (loutrō) with the bath of Darius.”^[100] In such passages, the controlling idea is not a supposed bathing vessel, but the cleansing water of the bath; as is here indicated by the form of the participle “(apolousamenoi), having washed off;” and by the instrumental dative “(loutrō), with the bath;” which show that, whatever the construction of the bathing place of Darius, the Greek mode was present in the mind of Alexander. The idea of loutron is further illustrated by its compounds. At Athens, before a marriage, the bride was bathed with water brought from the fountain of Callirhoe, by a young girl, who was hence called (hē loutrophoros), “the bath-water carrier.” So, 327the fee for the privilege of the bath, was, epiloutron,—for the bath.

The voice of the classics is clearly against the rendering in question. The fact that the Greeks are entirely silent as to a washing by immersion, or any vessel for the purpose,—the distinct name of loutēr given to the only vessel that contained water,—the bathing performed by pouring,—the use of loutron to express such bathing, and to designate the water itself, where there was no vessel, and libations, in which there was water poured out, but no laver, nor bathing,—the primitive and peculiar employment of the word in the plural number,—and the derivatives formed from it, all inure to the one conclusion. At least, in classic Greek, loutron does not mean, a laver, but water for washing, and the washing accomplished by it; and that, with intimate reference to its affusion on the person.

Nor does the Hellenistic Greek utter a different testimony. In the Song of Songs, it is said,—“Thy teeth are like a flock, shorn, which came up from the washing (apo tou loutrou).” So reads the Septuagint. From Ecclesiasticus (above, p. 169) we have the proverb, “He that is baptized from the dead, and again toucheth the dead, what availeth his washing (loutrō)?” Here, cleansing by the sprinkled water of separation is called loutron, a washing. So Philo (above, p. 175) describes the purifying rites, the washings (loutra) and the sprinklings, of the Jews. Josephus says of the two springs of Machærus, near the Dead Sea, the one hot, and the other cold, that “when mingled together they make a most pleasant bath (loutron).”^[101] And Paul, himself, writes that Christ gave himself for the church, “that he might cleanse it, purifying it with the washing (tō loutrō) of water.” Here the new version must either make nonsense of the passage, or do violence to the Greek. Either it must read, “purifying it with the laver,” that is, with the bath tub, not the washing; or, “in the 328laver,” a rendering forbidden by the instrumental dative (tō loutrō.)

On the other hand, in more than a dozen places,—wherever the lavers of the tabernacle and the temple are mentioned, the Septuagint is loutēr,—the same word, in the same sense in which it was used by the Greeks to designate the containing vessel. In a word, neither in the classics, nor in Hellenistic Greek, is loutron ever found in the sense of a laver, or bathing vessel. Or, if it is so used, the Lexicons ignore it; Stephanus, in his great Thesaurus, knows nothing of it; and the advocates of that rendering do not adduce it. And were such example found, it would be wholly insignificant as to the interpretation of Paul, in presence of all these facts.

If now, we ask for the evidence in favor of the new version, the answer presents two points,—first, that certain versions of the New Testament,—the Vulgate, Claromontanus, Syriac, and Gothic,—have so translated loutron; and second, that in accordance with Greek usage, the termination, on (loutron), justifies the assumption that the word designates an instrumental object. As to the first consideration,—it may be asserted with confidence that we are as fully possessed of the means of determining the question as were the unknown authors of those versions; and the growing prevalence at that time, of a ritualistic spirit in the church, and the consequent introduction of the form of immersion, sufficiently account for the rendering, apart from any critical considerations. Respecting the termination, on, the number of examples in which it is found in words that designate instrumental objects is too few to establish a rule. But were it accepted as decisive, the whole weight of its authority is against, instead of being in favor of the proposed amendment. A laver, and especially a Greek laver, is no instrument of bathing. Perhaps the arutaina, the dipper, might be so called. But the water and the washing, each are instrumental causes of the cleansing, 329the salvation; of which, in the text, the apostle says,—“he saved us (dia loutrō) by means of the washing.” Nor do the classics ignore this relation. Plato (above, p. 181) asks concerning “the washings (loutra) and sprinklings,”—“Are they not effectual to one end, to render a man pure, both as to body and soul?”

In the text, loutron means, the washing, but with intimate reference to the water as the means,—a sense which we have just seen illustrated from the classics. Strictly, the regeneration is the washing, of which the water is the instrument. The figure thus used, the apostle immediately explains. “The washing of regeneration, even the renewing of the Holy Ghost.” As water is the instrument of washing, so the Spirit shed down by Jesus Christ is the instrument of that spiritual work which is indicated alike by the two identical words, regeneration, and renewing. Paul then proceeds with the pronoun “which,”—equally appropriate, in the construction of the original, to the water (loutrou), or to the Holy Spirit, as its antecedent; and, in fact, referring to both, as identified in one,—“which water, even the Spirit, he shed on us abundantly (dia) by the hand of Jesus Christ.” Orestes speaks of himself and companions “(cheontes loutra) pouring water” of libation at the tomb. So Paul speaks of “(loutrou hon execheen) the water of cleansing which He shed forth on us.” In the latter case, the prefix, ex, emphasizes the source of the outpouring, but otherwise the conception and action of the two passages is the same. By the hand of his Son, God the Father from on high sheds his Spirit, and baptizes us with his renewing power. Thereby united to the Lord Jesus, we are thus invested with his righteousness, and so, says the text, “are justified by his grace.” And since by the same union we share his relation as Son;—“if sons, then heirs,” “according to the hope of eternal life.”

This baptism of the Spirit is the theme of frequent discussion in Paul’s writings. He particularly dwells on it as 330being the instrumental cause of that intimate unity which exists in the body of Christ, and of equality in privilege among all the members, Jews and Gentiles. “As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many are one body, so also is Christ. For, by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink one Spirit.... Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.”—1 Cor. xii, 12-14, 27. Here, the figure of baptism is followed up by the expression, “have been all made to drink one Spirit;”—literally, “have been all watered with one Spirit.” The preposition, (eis) “into one Spirit,” is rejected by the critical editors as spurious; and the verb (potizo) means, to apply water, either externally or internally,—to water, to cause to drink. Compare in the same epistle, 1 Cor. iii, 2, “I have fed you (epotisa) with milk;” and 6-8,—“Apollos watered (epotisen).”

The same point is set forth in another epistle—“Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit; even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ.... That we henceforth be no more children, ... but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in love.”—Eph. iv, 3-16.

That the “one baptism” here spoken of is that wherein, “by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body,” is manifest from the connection and the analogy of the other passages here presented above and below. To suppose it to be water 331baptism, would be to make the apostle exclude that spiritual and real baptism of which water baptism is the shadow, and to which, in all his writings, he constantly gives so much importance as the means of the union which he here discusses.

In another place, the apostle represents this baptism as merging all other relations in the one tie of identity with Christ. “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”—Gal. iii, 27-29. Here, again, it is clear that the baptism spoken of is that of the Spirit. The oneness with Christ, thus complete by this baptism, Paul uses as a powerful argument of the duty of his people to be dead to the world that crucified him, dead to sin and all the works of the old man, and alive only to God. (Rom. vi, 3-6; Col. ii, 9-11.) These passages will receive special consideration hereafter.

The unity of conception which pervades these Scriptures is manifest, and makes it evident that they all contemplate one and the same baptism, that in which by one Spirit all Christ’s people are baptized into one body, the spiritual body of Christ.

Touching the nature of this baptism, the following are the chief particulars:

1. The entrance of the Spirit shed down by Jesus is regeneration, or the new birth. It is the imparting of new life to the soul,—the introduction of a principle of grace, “the new man,” which, like its source, the eternal Spirit, is immortal and supreme wherever it exists; and which, sustained and nourished by the indwelling Spirit, will grow and expand until it gains full and exclusive possession of all the faculties and powers, making the soul its seat, the body its temple, and the members its instruments.

3322. Coincident with this is the death of the old man, the destruction of the controlling principle and power of evil in the soul. Hitherto, it reigned supreme. But now, slain; and, cast out, it remains, a “body of death” in the members; offensive in its corruption, and by its loathsomeness acting as a stimulus to the opposing principle of grace. (Rom. vii, 24.)

3. The result is, that whereas, formerly, the sinful affections “did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death,” “now, being made free from sin and become servants to God,” his people have “their fruit unto holiness.”—Rom. vii, 5; vi, 22.

4. The Spirit thus given is not a transient influence; but is within the believer, a well of living water, springing up unto everlasting life;—a well, from which it is his privilege at all times to drink of that one Spirit. Thereby, “to every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ;” so that we “grow up into him in all things which is the Head, even Christ.”—Eph. iv, 7, 15. Thus grace is nourished, in preparation for glory.

5. While such are the effects of this baptism on the spiritual condition of the redeemed, equally important are its influences on their external relations. The first is their justification. United to the Lord Jesus, as members of his body, the consequence is that their sins are laid to the charge of their Head, and satisfaction for them credited to the blood of his cross. On the other hand, his righteousness is recognized as theirs, and in it they stand, not only pardoned, but justified; approved, and entitled to the inheritance of glory. They are “accepted in the Beloved; in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.”—Eph. i, 6, 7.

6. Another result is their reception to the relation and privileges of children of God. Born of the Spirit,—born of God, they are thus by inheritance children. Members 333of Christ,—the first-born, the eternal Son,—they share in his relation, and are in him sons; and if sons then heirs;—heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.

7. The final result is the resurrection unto glory. “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”—Rom. viii, 11.

Such is the one baptism, of which all ritual baptisms are mere shadowy symbols,—the baptism which Paul proclaims,—“One Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. iv, 5), a baptism, one and alone from its very nature, as dispensed by the one only Mediator, in the bestowal of that one Spirit, which belongs to and is therefore imparted by him alone. Thus have we the perfect antitype of the baptisms of the Old Testament,—the administrator, Jesus the great High Priest; the element, that living water, the Holy Spirit; the mode, his outpouring upon us from heaven; the effect, washing to the corrupt,—life to the dead. By this means, does our Baptizer bestow on his people all grace for the present time, and the resurrection and glory in the end.

Section LXXII.—Noah Saved by Water.

Beside the places before cited, one remains to be noticed. It is 1 Peter iii, 17-22. There are some various readings in the MSS., although none that materially affect the interpretation. Adopting what seem the best, the passage is as follows:—“It is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. For Christ, also, once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death as to the flesh, but quickened as to the Spirit. By which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, formerly disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, in which few, that is, eight, souls were 334saved by water. You also now antitype baptism saves (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but [conformity to] the demand of a good conscience toward God); by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being subjected to him.”

Both Peter and those to whom his epistles were addressed, were familiar with Paul’s writings. (2 Peter iii, 15, 16.) In the passage here cited, the preacher of the day of Pentecost speaks of that Spirit baptism the beginning of which he had then witnessed, in a style which constantly reminds us of the language and manner of Paul, on the same subject. If Peter speaks of Christ as having been “quickened by the Spirit,” or rather “quickened as to the spirit,”spirit,” Paul tells us that thus he became, “a quickening spirit.”—1 Cor. xv, 45. If Peter states that “antitype baptism now saves us,” the baptism, that is, of the Spirit, of which water baptism is the type,—Paul says that “He saves us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ.”—Tit. iii, 5. Peter represents this baptism as saving us “by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead;” and Paul, to the same effect, testifies that “even when we were dead in sins God hath quickened us together with him and hath raised us up together” (Eph. ii, 1, 4-6); and that we are “buried with him in the baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him, through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead.”—Col. ii, 12. To the account which, on the day of Pentecost, Peter gave of the exaltation of the Lord Jesus to God’s right hand, he here adds,—“angels and authorities and powers being subject to him,”—language in which we recognize the style of Paul’s repeated descants on the same theme. (Eph. i, 20, 21; Col. i, 16; ii, 10.) As Peter’s language is so thoroughly imbued with the style of thought and expression of Paul, we need not hesitate to interpret 335the passage by the doctrine of the great apostle of the Gentiles.

The design of Peter is, to encourage the people of God in the endurance of injustice and persecution for righteousness sake. His first argument is the example of Christ, who suffered patiently the just for the unjust, “being put to death as to the flesh,” that is, “as to his natural life,” “but quickened as to the Spirit,” inasmuch as his death was to him the exhausting of the curse under which he died, and was, therefore, the release of the Spirit of life which was in him, from all restraint upon his quickening energies, by which, therefore, he rose from the dead. Thus, the very sufferings of his death were his door of entrance into life. Unexpressed, but latent in the apostles’ argument is the fact which, on the same subject, he states, in his second epistle, that “the longsuffering of the Lord is salvation” (2 Peter iii, 15), that having so pitied the ungodly as to die for them, praying for his enemies on the very cross, he now spares the persecutors of his people, if possibly they may repent (2 Peter iii, 9), and that, in the end, “the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations” (or persecutions), “and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.”—Ib. ii, 9. This, he illustrates by the case of Noah and the old world. The question as to “the spirits in prison” (Vs. 19), does not belong to the present inquiry. The point of interest is the eight souls “saved by water.”—Vs. 20. To understand this, it is necessary to keep it distinctly in mind that the point to which the apostle’s argument is directed is,—the righteous suffering persecution, and the persecutors spared. He assumes what can not but have been the fact, that during the one hundred and twenty years of the building of the ark, Noah, “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter ii, 5), was exposed to bitter persecution. If we consider that “the earth was filled with violence” (Gen. vi, 11-13), that Noah’s preaching could not but be exceedingly 336offensive to those whose wickedness he reproved, and that his holy life, as “he walked with God,” and his building of the ark, by which he “condemned the world” (Heb. xi, 7), combined to intensify the hostility, it must be evident that nothing but the almighty protection under which he was sheltered could have saved him and all his from speedy destruction. It also seems to be implied by the language here, and by the connection in which Peter elsewhere introduces the same matter (2 Peter ii, 5-9), that when the flood came, the enmity and hatred had reached a crisis; so that the call to enter the ark was like the bringing of Lot out of Sodom, a rescue from present destruction by the wicked. Thus, the very waters which purged the world by sweeping away the ungodly, were the salvation of the eight persons, who shut up in the ark, were upborne upon their bosom. They were “saved by water,” while, as it rose, the world ready to perish would, in mad and impotent despair, have wreaked a blind vengeance upon the prophet and his family, for the terrible judgment of God; like Ahab with Elijah, in the days of the famine. But “the Lord shut him in” (Gen. vii, 16), and the waters bore them up, safe amid their perishing enemies.

Peter next points out that analogous to this is the salvation of Christ’s people,—that as the waters of the deluge were the destruction of the old world, but life to the new, to Noah, and his house,—so the baptism of the Spirit is death to the old man, but life to the new, through union with the Lord Jesus and participation in his life. “You also, now, antitype baptism saves, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh” (that is, as stated immediately after, he that hath become “partaker of Christ’s sufferings”), “hath ceased from sin.”—Ch. iv, 1, 13. Here we recognize perfect identity of thought and 337argument with what has already appeared in Paul’s writings. “So many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death. Therefore, we are buried with him by the baptism into his death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”—Rom. vi, 3, 4.

The conclusion of Peter’s argument is found, a little farther on,—“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.”—1 Peter iv, 12, 13. So Paul says, “If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”—Rom. viii, 17. It is evident that the two great apostles are perfectly united in their testimony concerning this baptism and its relations to the plan of salvation.

In the foregoing exegesis, I have regarded both forms of the pronoun in the beginning of the twenty-first verse, as alike spurious; at the same time that the language of that verse is understood as containing a reflex allusion to Noah and his family “saved by water.” The phrase “antitype baptism” does not, it is true, necessitate the previous mention of a type baptism. But it certainly does invite us to look for, and expect such mention, an expectation confirmed by the presence of the particles, “also, now.” “You, also, now, antitype baptism saves.” Here seems to to be an allusion to something in the past, corresponding to the antitype baptism of the present. And when we find the immediately preceding mention of the salvation by water of Noah and his family, we can not be mistaken in recognizing this as the type to which, in the phrase “antitype baptism,” Peter refers. The salvation, therefore, of Noah by the waters of the deluge was a baptism. Dr. Dale asserts the ark and not the water, to have been the 338instrument of the salvation, and quotes examples to justify the translation of dia hudatos, by “through the water,” as a medium and not an instrument. But (1.) it is, of course, true that this is one meaning of dia. (2.) One of his examples, “faith tried by fire” (1 Peter i, 7), shows that it may also express instrumental relations. (3.) More pertinent would have been a citation of the parallel clause which immediately follows the phrase in question. As Noah is stated to have been saved “by water” (dia hudatos), in the typical baptism, so “antitype baptism saves us by the resurrection (dia anastaseōs), of Jesus Christ.” The parallel, here, between type and antitype, requires that in both clauses, the preposition should be understood in the same sense; and, as in the antitype, dia certainly points out the resurrection of Christ, as being the instrument or means of our salvation, so in the type, must we understand it to designate the waters of the flood as the means of Noah’s deliverance.

Section LXXIII.—Christ’s Baptizing Administration.

Thus Jesus fills the throne in the heavens, and possesses all power and prerogative for accomplishing the purposes of the Godhead, concerning the human race—the redeemed and the lost; concerning Satan and his angels, and the whole universe of God, moral and physical, as inseparably connected with the moral history and destinies of these. And thus, in every aspect of his work, as it progresses, from the day of Pentecost to the final consummation and glory, he is in the exercise of that office wherein he was announced by his herald John, as he that should baptize with the Holy Ghost, and with fire,—that office of the gracious aspects of which as toward his people, the baptism of water has been, for all ages, the symbol and seal. For, on Pentecost, Jesus only began to fulfill the prophecy and promise,—“I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh.” Not even yet is the breadth of its meaning accomplished. He 339will continue to breathe his Spirit into his people, till all are gathered in. So, of them, individually, the purifying, although assured by the first baptism which they respectively receive, is brought to fruition only through the daily breathings of Christ’s life in them, the influences of his Spirit quickening them continually; as the leper was not cleansed by one affusion, but was sprinkled seven times. And while the idea of baptism has special reference to the first act of grace in bestowing the Spirit, it views that act as comprehensive of the whole process of grace, which is potentially involved in, and secured by it.

It is not for us to know the times and seasons “which the Father hath put in his own power.”—Acts i, 7. But, respecting some things of vital interest as to the order and issue of coming events, in the history of Christ’s baptizing office, we do know by the testimony of God.

1. Whatever, to our limited and carnal apprehensions, may be the mysteries of the past history of the gospel in the world, there has been no lack of power in the baptizing scepter of Christ, nor mistake in its exercise. The Baptizer is that Son of man in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and who is the personal Wisdom of God, and the Power of God. His blood paid the price of salvation. His arm overcame and his heel crushed the serpent, during the days of his humiliation in the flesh. And now, enthroned in power, he doeth in his wisdom according to his pleasure. If the heathen of old could say, “The mills of the gods grind slow, but they grind exceeding fine,” well may we confide in our King, that he need not make haste, in the fulfillment of his purposes. “Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”—2 Pet. iii, 8. Four thousand years rolled by, before the promise made to the fallen woman in the garden was fulfilled, in the virgin birth of the babe of Bethlehem. And now, “the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the 340end it shall speak and not lie; though the promise tarry wait for it; because it will surely come; it will not tarry.”—Hab. ii, 3.

It does not fall in with the purposes of the present discussion to enter into the prophetic question, as to the time and manner of the future developments and glory of the Redeemer’s kingdom. Respecting it, one thing is certain. The past has been a time of the hiding of his power; but the light of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will yet cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. The Branch of Jesse “shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek; and his rest shall be glorious.”—Isa. xi, 10.Isa. xi, 10.

2. Every soul to whom the grace of God has come, from the day of Pentecost to this hour, has received it from the immediate hand of Jesus, baptizing him with the Holy Ghost. And so it will be to the end. Thus, each one so redeemed is a new proof and pledge that Jesus fills the throne,—that Satan and all the powers of darkness are under his feet; and that the hearts of men are in his hands, to give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given him.

3. When the end shall come, and the mystery of God shall be finished, it will appear that in every aspect of the issues joined with Satan, triumph and glory crown the head of the Son of man. Nor will it be the mere force of physical omnipotence crushing the feebler powers of Satan. But the glory of perfect righteousness, of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, of knowledge and fear of the Lord, in the Head and leader of the salvation,—a perfection, not merely of moral excellence but of all gifts and endowments, tried and proved, first, in the form of a servant under the law, in obedience and sufferings, amid the temptations of the world and the flesh, the wiles of the devil, and the inflictions of God,—a perfection then shown upon the throne of glory, in administering with perfect 341wisdom and perfect skill the vast and various affairs of God’s boundless empire, thwarting and turning to confusion the plots and policies of Satan and his angels, rectifying the disorders wrought by the enemy, and vindicating God’s glory impeached through man.

It will be a moral triumph revealed in each one of the redeemed, once a prostrate slave of Satan and sin, baptized and quickened, and aroused to struggle for liberty, and made more than conqueror, in the conflict, through the grace and Spirit of Christ, over Satan and all his powers without, and indwelling sin and corruption,—each one scarred with the wounds of battle, but all—the crushed serpent writhing beneath their feet,—wearing the white robes of triumph and waving the palms of victory;—all clothed in the righteousness of One, and each grown to the stature of Christ, in the perfection of holiness and beauty, after the image of God.

It will be the moral triumph of the whole ransomed host, by one Spirit baptized into one body, her garments of wrought gold and needle-work, received and revealed, spotless and complete in all divine perfections,—the bride of the Lamb, the glory of her husband, as he is the image and glory of God. (1 Cor. xi, 7.) In them shall the principalities and powers in the heavenly places behold and study and admire the reflected likeness of the unapproachable glory of the infinite Invisible.

It will be the triumph involved in all this revelation of glory and blessedness in contrast with the spectacle of Satan and his followers and work, exposed before all intelligences, in shame and everlasting contempt;—his achievements seen in discord and darkness, in sin and suffering and sorrow, in lamentation and woe, in the loss to him and to his of all the divine perfections in which they were created, and in distortion, deformity and discord, possessing and pervading them all; his confident wisdom and power turned to imbecile folly, and his conspiracies and wiles made the 342occasions and means of fulfilling God’s plan which he opposed, and crowning the Son of man with glory.

The true dignity and significance of the rite of baptism can only then be adequately realized when we appreciate this comprehensive extent and grandeur of the baptizing office of Christ, signified by it. In the fulfillment of that office he now orders all things; and its exercise must be continuous to the end. The Great Baptizer must breathe the Spirit of life into all that mighty multitude, out of every generation and race, whom the Father has given Him. He must send fire upon the earth, and divide between his people and his enemies, and vindicate the Father’s sovereignty and grace in all his dealings with the wicked. He must, at last, by the quickening virtue of the baptism of His Spirit, raise up his saints,—their bodies glorious as his own glorious body, and their souls perfect in holiness,—and place them on the throne of judgment with himself; judge and cast the wicked out of his kingdom; confirm the holy angels in rectitude and blessedness, and cast Satan,—thwarted, defeated and bound in chains of darkness,—into the gulf of fire,—him and his angels and followers. He must purge the earth and heavens with fire, from the defilement which Satan and sin have wrought, and out of them create and adorn the new heavens and the new earth, the abode of righteousness, the home of the holy and the blessed,—where the many sons shall dwell with God and the Lamb. He must make all things new.

Then may the triumphant Son of man proclaim his work accomplished, and his office ended. Then may he,—not now from the cross, but from the throne,—cry, “It is finished!” “The former things are passed away, and behold I have made all things new.” Sin and the curse are abolished;—tears, and death, and sorrow, and crying, and pain are no more; and in life and immortality the earth-born sons of God possess the glory.

“It is done!” The floor is purged; the garner filled; 343and the chaff burned. The baptism is accomplished. Then shall the Son, his commission fulfilled, deliver up the kingdom to God even the Father, and shall himself also be subject to Him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. (1 Cor. xv, 24, 28.)

Section LXXIV.—Argument from the Real to Ritual Baptism.

Thus is Jesus revealed in characters of unspeakable grandeur, as the true and only Baptizer,—his the real baptism, of which all others are mere shadows. His baptizing office is the very end of his exaltation, the peculiar and distinguishing characteristic of his throne and scepter. As the cross of Christ is the symbol of the whole doctrine of his humiliation, sorrow and death, so his baptizing scepter represents the whole doctrine of his exaltation his kingdom and glory. And, as the sacrament of the supper shows forth his abasement and atonement for sin; so, that of baptism proclaims the glory and power of his exaltation, and the riches of salvation and grace which he sheds on his people from on high. The ritual ordinance therefore if true to its office, must be true to the similitude of the real baptism,—must represent and proclaim those very things which are realized in the office and work of the great Baptizer. But what has the real baptism to do with the humiliation of Christ, in any of its aspects? And, especially, what has it to do with the burial of his dead body? With the throne of his power, the prerogatives of his scepter, the grace, the grandeur and the glory of his achievements to the end, its relations are intimate and from them inseparable. But with humiliation and shame, with death and the grave, it holds no relations but those of boundless distance and infinite contrast.

Here then, at the culminating point in the history of baptism and the plan of God’s grace, as identified with it, the divergence of the immersion theory from the statements, 344conceptions and principles of the Scriptures on the subject interposes between them a widening and deepening gulf, broad, profound and impassable. Whilst the Scriptural rite points exultingly upward to Christ’s high throne, and calls us to lift up our heads and admire and adore the height of his majesty and the grace and grandeur of his baptizing work,—the immersion theory constrains its votaries, with bowed heads and stooping forms, to grope among the graves, in the vain endeavor to trace some fanciful resemblance between the rite which they espouse and the form and manner of the burial of the dead,—a burial, too, which, as thus imagined, the crucified One never received!

The doctrine of the real baptism is thus utterly incongruous to that of immersion. Equally irreconcilable with that form are all the phenomena and expressions used in connection with the administering of Christ’s baptism. The sound from heaven as of an outbreathed mighty breath poured down, and filling all the place, was the only phenomenon of Pentecost indicative of form or mode. And its mode was affusion, or outpouring, and descent from above. The language in which the transaction is everywhere described and referred to is equally specific and invariable. It was a shedding down—a pouring down—a falling upon—a filling of the disciples;—a style of expression used, not on the occasion, only, but in every subsequent allusion to the subject. So, the prophecyprophecy cited by Peter is an express definition of this as the mode. “I will pour out of my Spirit.” But, more than this, it identifies the outpouring of Pentecost with all those Old Testament prophecies, in which the gift of the Spirit is spoken of in terms of pouring and sprinkling. All these, again, as we have formerly seen, are intimately associated with the baptisms of the Levitical system. Those baptisms represented in ritual form the things which the prophets set forth in analogous figures. If Christian baptism departs 345from the Old Testament mode, it to the same degree departs from the form in which the grace of Pentecost is uniformly predicted, represented, described, and referred to.

The attempt is made to evade the force of these facts by the assertion that the “sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind,” “filled all the place where they were sitting;” and that the disciples were immersed in it. But (1.) the immersion thus imagined is, an inversion of the Baptist theory. The result of an admitted affusion, it is an application of the element to the person, and by a sustained analogy, on Baptist principles, would require that the grave should have been brought and put about the body of Jesus, and that, in water baptism, the element should be poured over the subject, until he is covered, although drowning would be the inevitable result. (2.) There is, in fact, no analogy, except in the jingle of words, between an immersion in water, which is immediately and inevitably fatal to life, and an immersion in the vital air, which is the very breath of life, the withdrawal of which is fatal. (3.) If Christian baptism sustains any real relation at all to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which Christ administers—as it assuredly does—it is that of type to antitype—of a similitude to the reality. Both the form and the meaning of the rite must be derived from the nature of the reality, of which it is the symbol. If then the immersion of the disciples in the wind or breath of Pentecost is the antitype symbolized in the outward form of baptism, the ordinance means, not the burial of Christ’s dead body, but the imparting of his Spirit of life to his people. Thus the Baptist theory of the form and meaning of the ordinance is exploded, since the two ideas can not stand together. They are mutually destructive and the incongruity is fatal to the whole scheme, which can not stand without an immersion on Pentecost; and can not endure the crucial test of the only immersion which they can pretend to discover there.

346The alternative is inexorable. If that which Christ dispenses is the normal, the antitype, baptism, then by it the ritual baptisms of both economies are to be interpreted; and their signification is to be found, not in the sepulchre, but on the throne—in the Spirit thence poured out, and the life and salvation thence dispensed;—and the form of the ordinance must needs correspond to its meaning. If, on the other hand, immersion in water is the normal baptism, and the burial of the body of Jesus, its meaning, then the baptism of Pentecost with all its phenomena and doctrine is to be struck from the record, as no baptism at all. If that which Christ dispenses is baptism, immersion is not.

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