his family, Acts xi, 15, 16; and such, undoubtedly, must be the case with every Christian, whether more or less gifted, who is converted and sanctified by the powerful influence of divine grace. Now, the general doctrine to be deduced from the declarations thus made both by the Baptist and our Saviour, may be explicitly stated in a few words. It is, first, that the baptism which properly appertained to the dispensation of John, and which distinguished it from Christianity, was the baptism of water; and, secondly, that the baptism which properly appertains to Christianity, and which distinguishes it from the dispensation of John, is the baptism of the Spirit.

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 we are 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;" I Cor. xii, 12, 13. 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 fellow-members 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 (as in I Cor. vi, 11; Eph. v, 26; Tit. iii, 5; Heb. x, 22), and since, in the passage now: cited, he has plainly used the verb baptise 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 baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into 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. "In whom (that is, in Christ) ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the eircumcision of Christ: buried with him by 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, 11, 12. "For 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;" Gal. iii, 27, 28, comp. I Cor. xii, 12, 13. I am aware that the plurality of commentators interpret these passages as relating to an outward baptism. But, for the general reason stated above, they are plainly capable of being understood in a spiritul sense; and, that we are correct in so understanding them, they will severally be found, on examination, to afford a strong internal evidence. In Rom. vi, 4, baptism appears to be described as the efficacious cause of our dying to sin and of our walking in newness of life. In Col. ii, 11, 12, to be buried and to rise with Christ in baptism, are mentioned in immediate connexion, and apparently represented as identical with being spiritually circumcised in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh; and it is piore

over declared that the good effects of this baptism— this redeeming influence are produced in us by the faith in the operation of God. In Gal. iii, 27, those only are described as baptized into Christ who have actually put on Christ, or who, in other words, are invested with his character, comp. Rom. xiii, 14, Eph. iv, 24; and who are thus brought into a real unity with his members. Now, the whole of these descriptions apply, with the greatest accuracy, to that baptism of the Spirit to which Paul, in other parts of his epistles, has so frequently adverted; and they are, I think, as completely inapplicable to the mere outward rite of immersion in water. On a general view, therefore, of the passages in which the apostle makes any doctrinal allusion to this subject, we may fairly conclude that the only baptism of importance, in his view, was that of the Spirit; and that it was exclusively to this inward work that he intended to direct the attention of his readers, when he expressed himself as follows:" There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, ONE BAPTISM;" Eph. iv, 4, 5.

A very lucid declaration on the same subject may be found in the writings of the apostle Peter. After adverting to the events which happened in the days of Noah-" while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water"-that apostle continues, "the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good con science towards God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ;" I Pet. iii, 21. The common English version of the first part of this verse is calculated to produce an erroneous impression of the apostle's meaning. There is nothing in the original Greek which conveys the idea that Christian baptism is a "figure." The

word rendered "the like figure" signifies, as is justly remarked by Schleusner, nothing more than that which is similar or corresponding. So Archbishop Newcome renders the apostle's words, "And what answereth to this (even) baptism doth now save us. I apprehend, however, that the Greek would be still more accurately rendered, "A corresponding baptism whereunto doth now save us." "6 We are informed by the apostle Paul that the Israelites, who were led by the cloud, and passed through the sea, "were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea"; I Cor. x, 2. On a similar principle, I conceive Peter to insinuate that Noah and his family, who were saved in the ark "by water," underwent a baptism of their own. By that baptism their natural lives were saved; and Christians enjoy a corresponding baptism which effects the salvation of their immortal souls. After drawing this comparison between the baptism of Noah, by which the life of the body was preserved, and the baptism of Christians, by which eternal life is secured for the soul, the apostle proceeds still farther to determine his meaning by adding a definition, first, of that which this saving Christian baptism is not, and secondly, of that which it is. Accordingly, he informs us that it is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh-or, in other words, not the immersion of the body in water; and that it is the answer (or stipulation) of a good conscience towards God. Here there is probably an allusion to the circumstances which attended the outward rite of baptism; for, whether the person baptized in water was the proselyte to Judaism, or the convert to Christianity, he was (as is generally allowed) instructed and interrogated during the course of the ceremony, and made to stipulate for his future conduct. But while the outward rite supplies the 6 ὃ καὶ ἡμᾶς ἀντίτυπον νῦν σώζει βάπτισμα,

apostle with his figures and suggests his phraseology, he explicitly discards the sign, and insists only on the substance. The answer or stipulation of a good conscience is the result of a moral change, of a real regeneration. This is the baptism which the apostle here describes as distinguishing Christianity, and as saving the soul of the believer. Nor is it like the baptism of water, the work of man. Peter expressly informs us that it is "by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." It is effected by the power of that Saviour who is risen from the dead-" who is gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him."

With the exception of Mark xvi, 16; (a text presently to be cited) I believe we have now examined the whole of the passages in the New Testament which contain any doctrinal statement on the subject of baptism. Now, the reader will probably recollect that, in the epistle to the Hebrews which contains so noble an exposition of the entire spirituality of true religion, the "doctrine of baptisms" is mentioned as one of those elementary principles of truth, which were familiar even to the babes in Christ; Heb. v; 13, 14; vi, 2. Of the nature and principal features of that doctrine, the information of which we are in possession respecting the old baptisms of the Jews, together with the several passages of the New Testament which have now been considered, will enable us to form a sound and satisfactory estimate. Judging from the documents before me, I should say that this well-known "doctrine of baptisms" must have been nearly as follows. That, under the legal dispensation, "divers carnal baptisms" were observed by the Jews as rites of purification, Heb. ix, 10; that among those rites was numbered the baptism on conversion, a ceremony to which the Israelites themselves submitted on