6

Christ, is but the beginning of the new life, to be followed up by a faithful walking with God in Christ. Such a walk includes as an important part of it a walking in brotherly love with all who are Christ's; and this aspect of the sacrament is repeatedly emphasized in the New Testament. 'There is one baptism,' says Paul (Eph. iv. 5), when enumerating the motives for endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace;' and again,' By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body' (1 Cor. xii. 13). The real unity is effected by the inward baptism of the Spirit; we are brought near to one another by being brought near to Christ, made fellow-citizens of the saints by becoming of the household of God; made brethren one to another by becoming the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. But of this real spiritual unity the rite of baptism is a type and sign, showing us that all who profess to be Christ's receive one and the same symbolic washing, however different may be their nation, station, or character. Though some may be much more decent in outward life, or more intelligent, or more esteemed, than others, all alike need and all alike receive the same washing, and are baptized unto the same name. By baptism we are incorporated not into any local or sectional church only, but into the one holy Catholic Church of Christ, and we recognise all who have received that baptism in any of the parts or branches of the Christian Church as our brethren and fellowChristians. Baptism is the great symbol of the unity of the Church of Christ under Him her one Head.

These are the principal things signified by the rite of baptism; and it will be observed that they are just the great fundamental truths of the gospel, and that a ceremony which so naturally and simply suggests them is a most appropriate appendage to the Word, as it proclaims to sinners the Saviour, and offers to them in Him pardon, purity, and peace through His atoning sacrifice and the renewing work of the Spirit. It is a gospel in miniature, as it were, in outward act visibly presented to the eye.

QUESTIONS.

Give passages in Scripture where sin is represented as uncleanness, and cleansing from it as washing.

Describe certain rites in the Old Testament that embodied this figure. What does Christian baptism teach (1) about our natural state, (-) about the way of salvation, (3) about the duty of Christians? Why did Christ receive the baptism of John and speak of His sufferings as a baptism?

CHAPTER III.

THE PLEDGES GIVEN IN BAPTISM.

Baptism a Seal.-The truths that are represented to us symbolically in the rite of baptism are all of the nature of divine testimonies, and the most central of them are also divine promises or offers in the gospel. We have thus in connection with them the expression of a personal mind and will on the part of God; and the ordinance that Christ has appointed expressly to represent them has also the character of a seal or token of His earnestness and good-will. There is not indeed so distinct an indication of this in our Saviour's words at the institution of baptism, as in those at the institution of the Lord's Supper; but it is evident from the way in which the use of it is described in various cases afterwards, that it had this character. When the Ethiopian eunuch, after having been instructed by Philip to recognise Jesus as the suffering Servant of Jehovah who should bear the sin of many, desired to be baptized (Acts viii. 36), it could not have been merely that he might understand the truth better, but rather that he might be assured of the certainty of the promises; and so we read that after his baptisin he went on his way rejoicing, as one having a personal interest in the Saviour.

So when, at the preaching of Peter, the household of Cornelius received the gift of the Holy Spirit, the apostle directed them to be baptized, not to confer on them the new life, which they had already received, and not merely as a bare symbol, which they would not need, but as a token of the grace of God to them. Again, when Paul appeals to the rite and meaning of baptism, in a passage that is not merely an exposition of Christian truth, but an exhortation to Christian duty (Col. ii. 6-iii. 4), he plainly makes use of the sacrament, not only as a sign appealing to the mind, but as a seal or token fitted to affect the heart. We are therefore fully warranted in regarding baptism as being, like circumcision, both a sign and a seal. In fact, a symbolical observance expressly instituted by Christ, and representing the great deliverance from sin and death effected by His death for us, and realized by our entering into that death by faith, could not but have the use and effect of a seal.

A Seal of Regeneration in Christ.-Baptism is a token given by God of the actual accomplishment of that complete deliverance from sin which it represents, i.e. regeneration and new life through the death and resurrection of Christ. It is to be observed, that while the Bible represents baptism as specially connected with regeneration, as its sign and seal; it does not, in this connection at least, limit regeneration in that precise way that theological systems have been wont to adopt, to the first implantation of the new life in the soul. Our being dead with Christ and rising with Him implies in Paul's representation our mortifying our members upon the earth, putting off the old man, and putting on the new, a change which lasts the whole life long (Col. ii. 11, 12, iii. 5–17) So too in John's view, the being begotten of God implies complete sinlessness and even impeccability (1 John iii. 9); ¿.e., this is realized in the full perfection and development of the life of God in the soul, and is given in principle and germ even now in the seed of God that abides in His children. What we generally call sanctification is not in the New Testament so sharply

distinguished from regeneration as it is by modern divines; but is represented as its necessary complement and development, and often included in the name and idea. Now it is regeneration in this full and wide sense of which baptism is the seal or token. It is not a token of regeneration in the sense of the very beginning of the new life as promised by God, for in giving it He exercises His sovereign grace (John iii. 8; Tit. iii. 5; Jas. i. 18); neither is it a token to the individual that God has already given the new life to him, for no outward thing can be a token of inward spiritual life: the Holy Spirit of promise is the seal of that. But it is a token of the great and precious objective truth, that the whole of that complete deliverance from sin and eternal life are in Christ Jesus, that they who believe on Him receive the Spirit for all this work-yea, that God will give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.

This wide and comprehensive sense of regeneration, which is a thoroughly Scriptural one, is that in which baptism is regarded as the seal of regeneration by the Reformed Churches. So in the exhortation before baptism in John Knox's Book of Common Order, it is said: 'Furthermore, it is evident that baptism was ordained to be ministered in the element of water, to teach us, that like as water outwardly doth wash away the filth of the body, so inwardly doth the virtue of Christ's blood purge our souls from the corruption and deadly poison wherewith by nature we were infected, whose venomous dregs, although they continue in this our flesh, yet by the merits of His death are not imputed unto us, because the justice (i.e. righteousness) of Jesus Christ is made ours by baptism; not that we think any such virtue or power to be included in the visible water, or outward action, for many have been baptized and yet never inwardly purged: but that our Saviour Christ who commanded baptism to be ministered, will, by the power of His Holy Spirit, effectually work in the hearts of His elect, in time convenient, all that is meant and signified by the same. And this the Scripture calleth our regeneration, which standeth chiefly in these two points-in mortification, that

is to say, a resisting of the rebellious lusts of the flesh; and in newness of life, whereby we continually strive to walk in that pureness and perfection wherewith we are clad in baptism.' Similarly in the baptismal exhortation in the Directory for Public Worship, regeneration is explained as equivalent to sanctification, and as consisting of the two parts, mortification of sin and rising to newness of life. This is also the view habitually taken by Calvin, both in his Institutes and in the Catechism and Liturgy of the Church of Geneva.

Need of such a Seal.-This is really the assurance that the earnest soul desires and can receive by an outward sign. Such an one may have no doubt of the truth of the general doctrine of Scripture, that God does regenerate the souls of men in order to their salvation; he may even be quite assured that God has been working in his soul new feelings, desires, and purposes; or if he is in doubt about that, he knows that the doubt must be removed not by any outward sign, but by more evidence of a divine work in the effects of it in his own soul. But knowing that without holiness no man shall see the Lord, and feeling how far he is from that holiness, how great and thorough a change it needs in his character and life before he can be thus holy and perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, feeling how weak and inconstant are his efforts, and how far the needed change exceeds his own power, he longs for some guarantee that this change will be perfectly accomplished in him. Now what meets this want and craving of the soul must be something external and objective. We have it in the word and promise of the gospel, testifying that Christ is made of God unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. But this is confirmed and made more impressive to the seeking soul by the sacrament of baptism as a token of the truth and sincerity, the grace and love, of God in Jesus Christ.

Power of Baptism as such a Seal. This is done all the more