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BAPTISM

BAPTISM

instituting His other sacrament, we might be ata loss to understand on what principle theyallowed themselves so much latitude in inter-preting the first, while clinging so tenaciouslyto the text of the last. But the first rite havingbeen in use among them for some time, they hadtheir previous practice to guide them, and theywould naturally be for retaining all that theywere not distinctly told to change. When, there-fore, they continued baptising by deputy, asthey had done before, we may be sure they hadHis leave for it; and when they continuedemploying the form which He had first giventhem, we may be sure He had trusted them withdiscretionary powers when it was to be disused-for the second. It would naturally fall intodisuse when the first of the gospels had becomecurrent *, and there is positive proof that in lessthan 100 years from their death the second formhad become law everywhere.

So much, then, for its form and matter intheir hands. We must enquire further, 1, thelight in which they regarded it; 2, the effectsthey attributed to it; 3, the conditions on whichit was bestowed; and 4, the persons chargedwith its administration.

* 1. They looked upon it as a rite that had beenlong prefigured; the fulfilment of what hadbeen again and again foreshadowed. Accordingto St. Peter it had been prefigured by the deluge;by the passage of the Israelites through the RedSea, according to St. Paul (1 Pet. iii. 20-22;1 Cor. x. 2); the latter, again, drew a sharpcontrast between it and circumcision (Col. iii.10-13). Our Lord had twice spoken of Hiscrucifixion as His impending baptism (Luke xii.50; comp. Matt. xx. 22, and Mark x. 38). St.Paul taught, conformably, that all who hadbeen “ baptised into Christ,”—or, through bap-tism, made one with Him—had been “baptisedinto His death”—in other words, “buried withHim ”—-that, like as He was “ raised from thedead by the glory of the Father, even so theyshould walk in newness of life” (Rom. vi. 3—6;Col, ii, 12). Christian baptism was, therefore,-from his stand-point, the medium by whichpeople were brought into living fellowship withChrist, and made veritable partakers of Hisdeath and resurrection. If it was symbolical inone sense, it was doubly real in another. If theirdeath was a figure, their new life was a factattested by their own consciousness. It was thatsecond, birth, of which they had heard theirLord tell mysteriously years before, “ Except aman be born again—born of water and of thespirit,” in other words—“he cannot enter intothe kingdom of God ” (John iii. 3-5). The para-phrase of the apostle fixed the drift of those.words, and accounted simultaneously for theperemptory declaration contained in them. Every-body now recognised intuitively what was meantby the old and the new man; each discoveredfor himself that what the gospels had called thebaptism of the Holy Ghost was a power actingupon the soul, and no dream.

Another of its features dwelt upon by St. Paulwas that the gift conveyed in it was purelygratuitous; • in other words, was not bestowedupon man for any merit of his own. “Not byworks of righteousness which we have done, but,according to His mercy, He saved us by thewashiug of regeneration and renewing of the

Holy Ghost” (Tit. iii. 5), as it is said: while bythis phrase, “the washing of regeneration,” its.bestowal was associated indissolubly with thebaptismal rite.

A further point in his teaching—in fact, apalpable corollary from it—was that Christianbaptism once received could not be repeated,though it was often administered to those whohad been baptised by John. Probably John him-self never baptised anybody twice. But Christianbaptism had a reality, no less than a meaning,which that of John had not, being the applicationof the death of Christ to its recipients in eachcase. Consequently, there could be “ no moresacrifice for sin ” where that was spurned (Heb. x.26, and vi. 4). Post-baptismal apostasy wasequivalent to “ crucifying the Son of God afresh.”As surely there was but “ one baptism,” as therewas but “one Lord,” “one faith” (Eph. iv. 5),one sacrifice upon the cross for sin.

2. This estimate of baptism in apostolic timesalone shews how real its effects were supposedto be. “And now, why tarriest thou? Arise,and be baptised, and wash away thy sins, callingupon the name of the Lord,” said Ananias to thepersecutor of his brethren (Acts xxii. 16). “Butye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye arejustified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and bythe Spirit of our God,” said he to them after-wards, in describing its effects on sinners ingeneral, which he had then tested in his ownperson (1 Cor. vi. 11). In other words, thatthey were “sanctified,” or made holy; that theywere “ justified ” or had their sins cancelled,was due to their having been “ washed,” that is,baptised with water, “ in the name of the LordJesus,” and made temples of “ the Spirit of God.”On the day of Pentecost, after St. Peter hadfinished his sermon, the multitude, “beingpricked in their heart,” said unto Peter and tothe rest of. the apostles, “ Men and brethren,what shall we do?” Peter, as their spokesman,replied unhesitatingly, “Repent, and be baptisedevery one of you in the name of Jesus Christ forthe remission of sins, and ye shall receive thegift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts ii. 37-8). Asthere is no limitation expressed or implied inthese passages, it is clear that the remission ofall sins is contemplated, and consequently thateach recipient of baptism went up from the fontsinless—as sinless as Adam and Eve were beforethey began life; as competent to abstain fromsin as they were before they fell. This, indeed,on the face of it, implied that the future wasleft in his own hands ; yet certainly the hope—■the confident hope—was in those days thatnobody who had once “put on the Lord Jesus”would ever put Him off. It then seemed a moralimpossibility that any should. “ He cannot siu,because he is born of God,” says St. John (1 Johniii. 9). If he did, another passage seems to say,there was no hope for him. “For it is impos-sible for those who were once enlightened, andhave tasted of the heavenly gift, and were madepartakers of the Holy Ghost ... if they shallfall away, to renew them again unto repentance(Heb. vi. 4-6). But these passages must be readside by side with the countless, and .almost pas-sionate, exhortations addressed by every apostlewhose words are preserved, to Christians to dowell, to be true to their calling, to flee lusts, torepent, to recover themselves, which would all