Imatges de pàgina
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rection to a new life. And while the general tendency of the passage, as of the entire Epistle of which it forms a part, is to enforce on Christians the necessity of a life corresponding to the great privileges and benefits to which they have been admitted; it plainly falls in, not only with the more particular declarations with respect to Baptism, to which we have already adverted, but with the whole system of mercy revealed to us in the Gospel; of which it is one conspicuous feature, that in it the goodness of God appears, as providing beforehand, and admitting us at once to many benefits of the covenant of grace; and calling upon us to qualify ourselves afterwards for the full enjoyment of its ulterior blessings, by our conduct subsequent to our admission to those early privileges.

The extent to which this discourse has already reached, forbids my insisting on any additional corroboration of our views, which might be obtained from the prosecution of our examination, in reference to some texts, indirectly bearing upon our inquiry, which I have hitherto omitted to notice. Nor is

it perhaps necessary. If those views appear, from what has been said, to be in themselves correct, and supported by a sufficient evidence, both direct and collateral; it cannot be required of us, as it would be manifestly impossible, to adduce every circumstance of confirmation, by which their propriety might be illustrated.

And having so long trespassed on your time, in the examination of the Apostolical Epistles, I will defer to our next meeting the consideration of such passages in the Gospels, as may appear calculated to throw light upon the subject under investigation; in full confidence that the result of an inquiry into the tendency of the anticipative allusions of our Lord and his forerunner to Baptism, will be found in agreement with the conclusions drawn from the sources of information already referred to.

LECTURE V.

MATT. iii. 11.

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.

FROM the consideration of the words and circumstances of institution, and from our review of those passages in the Acts and apostolical Epistles, in which the benefits of the instituted rite of Baptism are directly spoken of, or plainly alluded to, I now pass to the examination of some passages in the Gospels, in which the rite itself, or the benefits accruing from it, are referred to by our Lord himself, or his precursor, in the way of anticipation. And with the help of the results derived from our previous inquiry, I trust that any uncertainty, which might otherwise attach to the interpretation of such anticipative references, will be obviated, and that we shall thus be enabled to derive from the Word of Life himself, some

further confirmation of the views already taken of his institution.

The first passage in the Gospels, in which the Baptism of our Lord is spoken of, is that of my text; in which John the Baptist contrasts the Baptism of the Messiah with his own, in one very essential point; and a point bearing very directly upon the subject of inquiry in these Lectures. I, says he to the Pharisees and Sadducees who had come to his baptism, baptize you with water, unto repentance; but he who cometh after me is mightier than I; he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire".

A distinction between the Baptism of John the Baptist and that of Jesus Christ is here plainly intimated. The words are not merely a general expression on the part of John, of his own inferiority to him, who should come after him, but a specific declaration of one point of marked inferiority; namely, in the intention and efficacy of their respective baptisms. The one, that

à Matthew iii. 11.

of John, was a baptism of preparation and repentance, an outward or symbolical representation of that spiritual or internal purification, which those who came to it confessed they needed, to prepare and fit them for the new life they were to lead, in the kingdom of God about to be established. But of itself, it conveyed no grace or benefit to the receiver; it was a manifestation, on his part, of a disposition of mind adapted to the reception of the doctrines of the Gospel; but it was not a pledge, on the part of God, of any promises to man: by it the Holy Ghost was not given, nor any new or extraordinary assistances afforded to the discharge of duty. This was reserved for the Baptism of the Messiah. He was to baptize with the Holy Ghost. His baptism was indeed, like that of John, to be a baptism of repentance; but it was to be more than that: it was to be a baptism of admission and initiation into a better covenant; into that kingdom, the approach of which John preached, and for which his baptism did but prepare the

way.

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