CHAPTER XII. Baptism. THE duty of observing this ordinance appears to be very plain and obvious. Our Saviour has expressly declared that we must be born of water as well as the Spirit, if we would enter into the kingdom of Heaven.* John his forerunner baptized,f and his disciples also baptized more than John. When therefore he bade them afterwards teach all nations baptizing them, what baptism could he mean but that in which he had employed them before? And accordingly we find they did understand it as being the same, viz. a baptism of water as well as of the Holy Ghost. Philip, we read, baptized the Samaritans; not with the Holy Ghost;§ (for the Apostles went down some time afterwards to do that themselves;) but with water undoubtedly, as we find in the same chapter he did the eunuch.¶ Again, after Cornelius and his friends had received the Holy Ghost, and so were already baptized in that sense, Peter asks, can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?** When therefore John says that he baptized with water, but Christ would baptize with the Holy Ghost; his meaning appears to be, not that Christians should not be baptized with water, but that they should have the Holy Ghost poured out upon them, which was not the case, at least in an equal degree, under. John's baptism. When St. Peter says, "the baptism which saveth us, is * John iii. 5. Matthew iii. 11. + John iv. 1, 2. Acts viii. 36-38. not the washing away the filth of the flesh;" he means it is not the mere outward act, unaccompanied by a suitable inward disposition. When St. Paul says, that Christ sent him, not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, he means that preaching was the principal thing that he was to do in person; to baptize he might appoint others under him; as it seems he commonly did; as St. Peter did not baptize Cornelius and his friends himself, but commanded them to be baptized:* and we read that Jesus baptized not but his disciples.t From the universal concurrence of antiquity it appears, that baptism was used by the whole primitive church, and was considered as succeeding to circumcision under the Jewish law. It was deemed an essential rite in order to admission into the privileges of the Christian church, and was never called in question until since the reformation. It is now uniformly observed by every denomination of Christians, except a very small body, (the Society of Friends) who, resolving these commands into spiritual requisitions, observe neither baptism nor the Lord's supper. It may not be possible to point out the necessary connexion that baptism has with the blessings which it professes to convey and signify; and hence many have been led to doubt the expediency of a ceremony so simple in itself. We want something which accords with our erroneous reason, we cannot consent to wash and be clean; or if we must wash, let it be in Abana and Pharpar, or let it not be one small part, but the whole body; not our feet only, but also our hands and our head. But does it become us to dispute or to obey the divine commands? The animals that were slain in sacrifice under the law had no inherent virtue in themselves, nor could any necessary connexion be supposed to exist between the slaying of these or any other creatures, and the salvation of a sinner. But what was wanting in their general nature, was made up by special institution; and these † John iv. 2. • Acts x. 48. #Eusebius, Dupin, Mosheim's, Milner's, and Gregory's Eccles Histories. animals being once devoted and set apart for this ser vice, acquired a new relation, and consequently a value, from the substance of which they were only types and shadows. It is easy for the God of nature to carry on his great purposes without the intervention of any means; but this has not been his usual mode either in the affairs of nature or grace. Our Lord could easily have cured the eyes of the blind man by the word of his power, but he chose to honour means, by making clay and spittle the ostensible channel of his power. It is easy for him to give efficacy to the most simple agents, and because he has instituted baptism, he grants his blessing upon it when it is rightly used. "If the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather when he saith to thee, wash and be clean?" The Mode of Baptism. Circumcision, which was the painful initiatory rite under the law, was accordant with the rigour of that dispensation, under whose ceremonious tyranny the Jewish worshippers groaned: whereas the rite of bap tism which has succeeded in its place under the gospel, is easy, and correspondent to the lighter yoke which Christ is pleased to place upon his disciples. Water is an appropriate emblem of the grace of the gospel; like it, it is the great purifier of nature, and like it, it flows free and unconfined to all the inhabitants of the globe. for The customs of the Jews were accommodated in some measure to the temperature of their climate, which be ing warm, required of them in order to their health and comfort, frequent ablutions. It is therefore very probable that, in some instances, they received baptism, by a mode adapted to their custom, and went down into the water. But this fact cannot be ascertained by the meaning of the original word which we translate baptize, or by any account which is given us of baptism in scripture. If in some places it should be admitted that the word baptize means to dip under the water, it is certain that it does not always so mean: For instance, when the Apostle says of the children of Israel, "they were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea," it would seem that he could not mean that they were dipped into the cloud and into the sea, for these are contrary to the fact; but that they were sprinkled with rain from the cloud, and with the spray from the sea, which was a wall on each side of their pathway. With regard to those passages in the scripture where persons at their baptism are said to go down into and to come out of the water, it is sufficient to observe, that the prepositions EK and EIE, which are translated out of and into, may, with equal propriety, be rendered from or to the water. So that these passages, at the best ambiguous, are more than balanced by the many instances in which the persons were baptized suddenly, and in their houses, where it is not reasonable to suppose, they had conveniences for immersing themselves under the water. And if it were even demonstrated, that immersion was the universal mode of performing baptism in that country, it would not render it obligatory upon people of other climates, unless there were an express precept, or some other reason in the nature of things, by which we may understand that it is the quantity of the water, the circumstance, and not the thing, which constitutes the virtue of it. As the children of Israel were delivered from the plague wherewith God smote the Egyptians, by having the sides and door posts of their houses sprinkled with the blood of the Paschal Lamb, which typified Christ the true Passover; thus is the blood of Jesus supposed to be sprinkled upon believers, so as to wash them from their sins, and deliver them from the wrath of God. Thus it comes to pass, that instead of dipping persons baptized, or washing them all over, as it might be proper to do in hot countries; in cold climates it has been cus tomary only to sprinkle them with water; for this being a symbol or sign of the blood of Christ now, as the blood of the sacrifices was of old; and the Holy Ghost having been pleased to signify the application of the blood of Christ by sprinkling it, as well as by washing with it; it was easy to infer, that it might be represented by sprinkling as well as by any other way, if not in some sense better, as this comes nearer to the phrase of "sprinkling the blood of Christ," so often used in scripture, and which seems to have been so used to prevent the mistake of supposing, that unless persons were dipped and washed all over with water, they are not rightly baptized; as if sprinkling the water did not represent the sprinkling of the blood of Christ as well as being dipped in it. This view accords with the words of the Prophet Isaiah, who, speaking of our Saviour, says "He shall sprinkle many nations," that is, many shall receive his baptism; and with the well known Prophecy of Ezekiel, "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you." The method of sprinkling or pouring has the advan tage, that it may be administered to the sick and dying, who would be otherwise deprived of the ordinance; and that it is convenient in all climates and in the most inclement seasons. In some countries water is so rarely and insufficiently procured, that any other mode of bap tism would be altogether impracticable. Now as this rite is of universal obligation to every nation and individual, it must be a presumptive consideration in favour of any mode of its administration, that it is adapted to every circumstance and exigency of human affairs. In any case, however, where the candidate for baptism prefers immersion, the church authorizes her ministers to Accommodate the mode to his wishes. |