DISCOURSE V.

ON BAPTISMAL REGENERATION.

Preached on the NATIVITY OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST, 1824.

MATTHEW, III. 11.

"I indeed baptise you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.”

THESE words indicate a great superiority, not only in the dignity and office in general, but also in the baptism of Christ to that of John, “I indeed baptise you with water unto repentance; but he shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." The mention of fire is a manifest allusion to what was to take place on the day of Pentecost a few

years after; as well as to the enlightening, purifying, animating effects of the Holy Ghost, upon all who are so happy as to feel and obey his influences. But there is nothing in this declaration of John, except it be contained in the very word baptise, to shew that water was to have any thing to do in the spiritual baptism about to be introduced by Christ. That point was, however, soon decided by the event; for water was in fact employed1 in all the baptisms which took place under the immediate directions of Christ, during his personal ministry on earth; was declared by Christ, in his conversation with Nicodemus, to be for ever essential;2 and was accordingly appointed by Christ,3 in his most solemn commission to his ministers, to be for ever continued in his church, as the outward and visible sign of the inward and Spiritual grace of baptism.

But the inward and Spiritual grace, the mystical washing away of the guilt, and other natural consequences of Adam's transgression, by the unperceived agency of the Holy Ghost, so far applying the benefits of Christ's Atonement to every worthy partaker of that holy ordinance this being

1 See John, iii. 22, 23, 26; and iv. 1, 2. 2 John, iii. 5. 3 Compare Matt. xxviii. 19, with Acts, viii. 36; and x. 47.

what raises the baptism of Christ so much above that of John, and above every other baptism, is most properly pointed out in the words of our Text as the great distinguishing characteristic of Christian baptism. In like manner, the inward ministration of the Spirit, which accompanies all the external ordinances of Christianity, renders the Christian ministry in general so much superior to the ministry of John, and every other ministry, that, though " among them that are born of women there had not risen," before him, "a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he;" that is, the lowest minister in the church of Christ exercises a higher and more holy office than his.

In confirmation of this view of the superiority of the Christian ministry in general, and of the Christian baptism in particular, above that of John, we may refer to the baptism of about three thousand souls on the great day of Pentecost, in compliance with the exhortation of Peter, who said unto them, "Repent, and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, (P) for the remission of sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Here the baptism of Jesus Christ is clearly proposed, as a means of obtaining, on re

pentance, remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost, not only to those first converts, but to all who should at any time be called to the profession of Christianity. "For the promise," added St. Peter," is to you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."4

The necessary (B) connexion between the elemental and spiritual baptism is also apparent in the case of the first Gentile converts, Cornelius and his friends. Though, to remove all doubts from the Judaising mind of the Apostle, the Spirit vouchsafed in their case manifestly to lead the way, this was so far from rendering the administration of the water unnecessary, that it convinced Peter of the necessity of administering it. For when the Holy Ghost fell on them, and they began to speak with tongues and magnify God, “then remembered Peter the word of the Lord, how he said, John, indeed, baptised with water, but ye shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost." Whence the Apostle argued, "Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptised, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he

4 Acts, ii. 38, 39.

5 Acts, xi. 16.

commanded them to be baptised in the name of the Lord." This case, with the Apostle's reasoning upon it, confirms in every point the inference we drew from the words of our Text; for it shews both that the gift of the Holy Ghost has an established connexion with the due administration of baptism in the Christian Church, and that it had no such connexion with the baptism of John.

This is farther confirmed by what we read in the nineteenth chapter of the same book of Acts, about the twelve disciples whom St. Paul found at Ephesus, and "said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what, then, were ye baptised? (2) And they said, Unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John truly baptised with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. (P) And when Paul laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues and prophesied."

6 Acts, x. 47, 48.

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