(among which he particularly mentions "divers baptisms") are treated of by the apostle as denoting the spiritual realities of the New Covenant; and when he proceeds to describe those realities, it is from the ordinances of Judaism that he borrows his figures. As the mercy-seat and the altar, on the great day of atonement, and the people themselves on other occasions, were sprinkled with the blood of bulls and of goats, so are the hearts of Christians to be sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of Christ; and as the flesh of the priest, of the unclean person, or of the proselyte, was bathed in pure water, so is our body, or natural man, to be cleansed and renewed by the purifying influence of the Holy Ghost. The "sprinkling of the heart" and the "washing of the body" are expressions equally metaphorical. The one denotes our deliverance from guilt; the other our purification from sin. The one is the application of the sacrifice of Christ; the other is the baptism of his Spirit.4 Such are the passages in the New Testament which contain indirect allusions to baptism in water, and in which the circumstances of that rite are figuratively adverted to, in descriptions relating exclusively to the work of grace. I shall now proceed to consider certain other passages of the same general import, in which the verb "baptize," or the substantive "baptism," are actually introduced. In the passages already cited, the baptism of the Spirit is represented by its characteristic circumstances. In those to which I am now about to invite the reader's attention, it is called by its name; it is described as a baptism. 4 So Calvin, Gill, and other Commentators. The first passages to be adduced, of this description, are those which contain the declarations of John, the forerunner of Jesus, respecting the baptism of the Messiah, as contrasted with his own: one of these declarations is recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and the other by the apostle John. "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance," cried the Baptist to the Pharisees and Sadducees, and to the whole multitude by whom he was surrounded;5 "but he that cometh after me is mightier than 1, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."6 Luke has recited the Baptist's declaration, in nearly the same words;7 and Mark records it simply as follows: "John preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized you with water; but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost." The baptism with fire, mentioned in Matt. iii, 11, and Luke iii, 16, is explained by some commentators solely of the punishments to be inflicted by the Son of God on the unbelieving Jews and on the wicked in general. That this expression contains some allusion to punishment, is, in degree probable from the following verse: but the manner in which it is introduced to notice, in immediate connexion 5 Comp. Luke iii, 16. 6 Matt. iii, 11, 12. 7 Chap. iii, 16, 17. with the baptism of the Holy Ghost, affords strong reason to believe that this fiery baptism represents more particularly the enlightening, inflaming, and purifying operation of the Spirit upon the hearts of men. One thing is described, as Grotius observes on Matt. iii, 11, by two different modes of expression-an observation which derives confirmation from Mark i, 8, in which passage, the baptism ascribed to Christ, is only that "with the Holy Ghost."9 The other declaration made by the Baptist to the same effect, is related by the apostle John, as follows: "And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him, and I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bare record that this is the son of God."1 Such is the contrast drawn by John between his own baptism and the baptism of Christ. The one is with water, and merely external; the other is with the Spirit and fire, internal and powerful. The one is the work of man, and, like the minister who practised it, is "of the earth, earthly," the other is divine, the work of the Son of God, who came from heaven, and "is above all."2 9 Such is the view taken of the " fiery baptism" here mentioned, by many learned and able critics: for example, Munster, Erasmus, Vatablus, Clarius, Lud. Cappellus, and Calvin. Grotius I have already mentioned: see Critic. Sacr. in loc. An excellent exposition of Matt. iii, 11, will be found in the well-known and justly valued commentaries of the late Thomas Scott. A precisely similar comparison was afterwards made by our Saviour himself. When he was on the point of quitting this lower world, the sphere of his humiliation, and was about to shed forth upon his disciples, in freshness and abundance, the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait there for the "promise of the Father;" for "John truly" said he, "baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."3 Although the immediate disciples of Christ were endowed with a very unusual measure of the divine influence, it is always to be remembered that the promise of the Father was to all, in every age, who should believe in Jesus:4 we may conclude, therefore, that all, in every age, who should believe in Jesus, were to receive, as well as the apostles themselves, the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Such, it is expressly declared, was the case with Cornelius and his family;5 and such undoubtedly, must be the case with every Christian, whether more or less gifted, who is converted and sanctified by the influence of divine grace. Now, the general doctrine to be deduced from the declarations thus made both by the Baptist and by our Saviour, may be explicitly stated in a few words. It is, first, that the baptism which properly belonged to the dispensation of John, and which distinguished it from Christianity, was the baptism of water; and secondly, that the baptism which properly belongs to Christianity, and which distinguishes it from the dispensation of John, is the baptism of the Spirit. 3 Acts i, 5. 4 Acts ii, 39. 5 Acts xi, 15, 16. The baptism of the Spirit is expressly mentioned by the apostle Paul. When describing the union which subsists among all the living members of the church of Christ, he writes as follows:-" For 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 into one Spirit."6 Baptism with water, as adopted among the early Christians, was nothing more than a sign of that conversion which introduced into the church of Christ. The baptism of the Spirit, here mentioned by the apostle, is that powerful and divine operation, which really effects such an introduction, and by which, therefore, all the believers in Christ are brought together and united as fellowmembers of the same body. Since this apostle has so frequently alluded to the work of the Spirit on the heart, under the figure of washing in water;7 and since, in the passage now cited, he has plainly used the verb baptize in reference solely to that internal work, there can be no critical impropriety in attributing to him a similar meaning on other occasions, when he makes use of the same verb, or its derivative substantive, in a manner somewhat less precise and defined. The examples to which I allude are as follows:-" Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were 61 Cor. xii, 12, 13. 7 As in 1 Cor. vi, 11; Eph. v, 26; Tit. iii, 5; Heb. x, 22. K |