them to be hard sayings, Jesus Christ closes his address to them in the following words: "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are Life." It appears from hence, according to the Quakers, that Jesus Christ, in mentioning the loaves, took occasion to spiritualize, as he did on all other fit occasions, and to direct the attention of his followers from natural to spiritual food, or from the food that perisheth to that which giveth eternal life.

Jesus Christ calls himself on this occasion the living bread. He says that this bread is his flesh, and that this flesh is meat indeed. The first conclusion which the Quakers deduce on this subject is, that this flesh and blood, or this bread, or this meat, which he recommends to his followers, and which he also declares to be himself, is not of a material nature. It is not, as he himself says, like the ordinary meat that perisheth, nor like the outward manna, which the Jews ate in the wilderness for their bodily refreshment. It cannot therefore be common bread, nor such bread as the Jews

ate

ate at their Passover, nor any bread or meat ordered to be eaten on any public occasion.

Neither can this flesh or this bread be, as some have imagined, the material flesh or body of Jesus. For, first, this latter body was born of the Virgin Mary; whereas the other is described as having come down from heaven. Secondly, because, when the Jews said, "How can this man give us his flesh?" Jesus replied, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing:" that is, Material flesh and blood, such as mine is, cannot profit any thing in the way of quickening, or cannot so profit as to give life eternal: this is only the work of the Spirit. And he adds, "The words I have spoken to you, they are Spirit, and they are Life.”

8

This bread then, or this body, is of a spiritual nature. It is of a spiritual nature, because it not only giveth life, but preserveth from death. Manna, on the other hand, supported the Israelites only for a time, and they died. Common bread and flesh nourish the body for a time, when it dies and perishes; but it is said of those who feed upon this food, that they shall never die.

his first Epistle to the Corinthians, that "Christ sent him not to baptize (evidently alluding to the baptism by water), but to preach the Gospel." It is clear, therefore, that St. Paul did not understand his commission to refer to water; and who was better qualified to understand it than himself?

It is also stated by the Quakers, as another argument to the same point, that if the baptism in the commission had been that of water only, the Apostles could have easily administered it of themselves, or without any supernatural assistance; but in order that they might be enabled to execute that baptism which the commission pointed to, they were desired to wait for divine help. Jesus Christ said, "I send the promise of my Father upon you. But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high; for John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence*.' Now the Quakers ask, If baptism by water had been the baptism contained in the great commission, why could not the Apostles have

*Luke xxiv. 49.

performed

performed it of themselves? What should have hindered them more than John from going with people into the rivers, and immersing them? Why were they first to receive themselves the baptism of the Spirit? But if it be allowed, on the other hand, that when they executed the great commission they were to perform the baptism of Christ, the case is altered. It became them then to wait for the divine help. For it required more than human power to give that baptism, which should change the disposition and affections of men, and should be able to bring them from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God. And here the Quakers observe, that the Apostles never attempted to execute the great commission till the time fixed upon by our Saviour in these words, "But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." This was the day of

Pentecost.

After this "they preached," as St. Peter says, "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," and with such efficacy, that "the Holy Ghost fell upon many of them who heard their words."

: VOL. II.

2 B

SECTION

SECTION V.

Objection to the foregoing arguments of the Quakers; namely, "If it be not the baptism of John that is included in the great commission, how came the Apostles to baptize with water?"-Practice and opinion of Peter considered—also of Paul -also of Jesus Christ-This practice, as explained by these opinions, considered by the Qua kers to turn out in favour of their own doctrines on this subject.

I HAVE now stated the arguments by which the Quakers have been induced to believe that the baptism by the Spirit, and not the baptism by water, was included by Jesus Christ in the great commission which he gave to his apostles, when he requested them "to go into all nations, and to teach them, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

Against these arguments, the following question has been usually started as an objection: "If it be not concluded in the great commission, how came the Apostles to bap