him, saying: I have need to be baptized by thee, and comest thou to me? Then Jesus answered: Suffer me now, for thus it becomes us to perform every

same spiritual instructions. Lightfoot ascribes the first use of Baptism to Jacob, when he admitted into his family and the church of God, the proselytes of Shechem and other heathens. The phrase, "be ye clean," Gen. xxxv. 2, is interpreted by Aben Ezra to mean a washing of the body in baptism. Hence, according to the testimony of Maimonides and the Israelites in general, all proselytes were brought into the Jewish church by baptism: and whensoever any heathen would betake himself to the covenant of Israel and take the yoke of the law upon him, not only all the males must be circumcised, but all whether males or females must be baptized. Nay, all Israel assert, that all their own nation were brought into the covenant by baptism. This, they believe, received the divine sanction and authority at the time God gave the law on Sinai. "And the Lord said to Moses, go unto the people and sanctify them to day and to-morrow, and let them wash their clothes. Ex. xix. 10. This is the import of the Apostle's meaning; Heb. x. 22. "Let us draw near, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." Hence, also the great Master of Christians addressing a ruler of the Jews, tells him it was necessary to be born of water as well as of the spirit, in order to enter the kingdom of God; John iii. 5. Indeed, on the authority of Maimonides we can say, that the deep reverence maintained for this rite, even in the days of David and Solomon, so overawed the great Sanhedrim, as to prevent them from excluding any heathen proselytes from the church of God, who had been baptized, even though their baptism had been performed privately and without their sanction.

The Baptism of Proselytism was performed on the introduction of Gentiles into the Jewish religion, and as administered by John, was an introduction of Jews into a new religion. The Easterns greatly delighted in emblematical instructions: and every Jew well understood, that this baptism implied a washing away of former impurities, opinions, and prejudices. Jewish washings were used to indicate ablution from legal uncleanness; and when administered to a Gentile proselyte, implied purification from moral impurity and pagan worship, and qualification for admission into the privileges of the Abrahamic covenant. The baptism of John required the purification of even Jews who were legally clean, and exacted obedience to the spirit as well as the letter of the law, thereby preparing the subjects of it for initiation into the religion of the Messiah then to come. The Baptism of Proselytism is clearly indicated by Ezekiel xxxvi. 25; and that it should be performed at the commencement of Messiah's kingdom was also plainly foretold by Zechariah xiii. 1. The Jews therefore, never called in question the propriety or authority of Bap

righteous ordinance: then he suffered him. And Jesus being baptized, whilst he was praying, the high

tism, though they asked John by what authority he administered this ancient and sacred institution. They well knew that his baptism implied purification of heart and life, and readily submitted to its administration with humble confession of their sins; believing that as it was proper for them to wash and be clean when God gave the law at Sinai, so it became them to be still more pure on the approach of Messiah their long expected and much desired king. O what a glorious view to the pious beholder, to see the many thousands of Israel congregate to purify themselves in thought and life, and await the mandates of their coming Lord. May their conduct put to shame the thousands of professing Christians who feel no interest in Christ or his Baptism.

As to the mode of Baptism, there should be no dispute. When Naaman went at the command of the prophet and dipped himself in Jordan, the Seventy say he baptized himself. This was the ancient mode of Baptism: the persons entered the water, received instruction, and in the presence of witnesses plunged or dipped themselves beneath the surface, and then came out of the water, This explains the reason of John's Baptism being performed in Jordan and at Enon, and of Philip and the Eunuch going down into the water. This account also gives the reason of that facility with which many thousands were baptized almost simultaneously by John. They all dipped themselves and were thus baptized. Much disputation has arisen about the meaning of the term Baptize: but it must be acceded by all, the word radically and primarily implies immersion or washing, though the term has undoubtedly been used in a more limited signification. For plunging or covering with water, authorities can be adduced from Strabo, Polybius, Aristotle, Josephus, and Diodorus: but, we ought not hence to infer, that sprinkling or affusion is not Baptism. The application of water as a symbol of purification, in whatever manner it be made, is the import of this sacred rite. Bap tism in whatever mode it may be performed, is not a real but a figurative washing, intended to signify the purification of the soul. Hence, the Baptism of John and Jesus, led to a disputation about purification. John iii. 22—26; Acts xxii. 16; 1 Peter iii. 21.

We read of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit; but that Baptism took place by affusion, or pouring out of the Spirit; Mat. iii. 11, compared with Acts ii. 3; and x. 44—47; and xi. 15-16. The divine promise runs thus: I will sprinkle pure water upon you, and you shall be clean; Ezek. xxxvi. 25: and this washing of Regeneration is said to be shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ; Tit. iii. 5, 6. Compare Is. xliv. 3; Joel ii. 28; and Acts ii. 18-33. Indeed, if we admit the Apostle to be Judge in this matter, he will determine that those who have been sprinkled have been Baptized, for he af

est heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him, in a bodily form, like a dove, and a

firms, that all the fathers of the Jewish nation were Baptized by the cloud and the sea: not surely by immersion, but by aspersion or sprinkling; 1 Cor. x. 1-2. Clouds sprinkle by rain, but do not wash or plunge.

The Baptism of John and Jesus was the same. Some have been induced to think otherwise, from Acts xix. 5; but, this verse should not be understood to speak of any persons being re-baptized by the Apostles who had been previously Baptized by John; for they who had been Baptized by John, were on hearing the doctrine of the Spirit, made perfect in the Christian Baptism. See Beza, Benson, and Wolfius on the passage. John Baptized in the name of the Messiah. The disciples of Jesus Baptized in the name of their master alone; Acts ii. 38, and viii. 16. All that Jews needed was, Baptism in the name of Jesus as the true Messiah; for already they believed in the One only God, and the purifying influence of his Holy Spirit: but to Gentiles, who were ignorant of the true God, Baptism was, and ever ought to be, administered in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the name of the Father, because he alone is the living and true God; in the name of the Son, because he is the Mediator between God and man, and the only name by which we must be saved; in the name of the Holy Spirit, because only by that sacred influence on our souls, can we be made meet for the enjoyment of God in this, or any other world.

The subjects of Baptism are persons of all ages and countries, for all, from the least to the greatest, are impure in the sight of an infinitely holy God. The only dispute to which we would attend at present is that concerning Infant Baptism. In this case, some suppose the administration cannot be valid, seeing the subjects have not been instructed into the nature and design of the institution; neither made a profession of the Christian faith. We admit the commandment of Jesus, to his Apostles, includes instruction; and chiefly for this reason, that the Gentiles, who should become proselytes to the religion of Jesus, through the ministry of the Apostles, must necessarily become acquainted with the principles of Christianity, before they could reasonably avow their faith in its divine authority, or receive the initiatory sacrament. But this general command of Jesus, however necessary and appropriate to the circumstances in which the heathen world then were, cannot be so understood as to exclude the children of professing parents, from admission to the Church of the living God, to which they seem to be heirs through parentage.— Acts ii. 39; 1 Cor. vii. 14. The language of Paul, Ephes. vi. 1-4, cannot be mistaken. The children, whom he advises to obey their parents in the Lord, must have been initiated into Christ's Church, otherwise they could not have had parents in the Lord; for this ex

voice came from heaven, saying: This is

Son, in whom I am well pleased.*

my

beloved

pression marks incorporation into the Christian Church.-Rom, xvi. 7, 8, 11, Philemon 16.

Among the descendants of Abraham, the seal of circumcision was impressed on the eighth day, by the appointment of God. Were not Jewish children as ignorant of the nature and design of circumcision, as children of Christian or heathen parents can be, of the nature and intention of Baptism? and if the authority of the parent be proper in one instance, why not in another? From Maimonides, it appears, that the children of proselytes were also baptized with their parents; and sometimes heathen children being baptised at the request of sponsors, or one who adopted them, were considered as proselytes. As, therefore, no evidence can be adduced, which sets aside the authority of the Jewish parent over his child, or prohibits the Baptism of children, we have the strongest presumption that the children, of Christian or Jewish parents, always were considered as fit recipients of this seal of the covenant: and they seem either to forget or deny the legal authority of parents over their children, who teach or assert their inability to dedicate their children, by thus inducting them into the Christian sanctuary. No man need ever doubt of the stability of a young person's faith and attachment to Christianity, who has been duly and piously instructed by his parent: for experience proves the truth of the proverb: "train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." The neglect of the parent to induct his child into the Christian Church, and leaving the child wholly to his own volition when of age, is in effect saying: There is nothing valuable in itself, but as your imagination may dispose you to believe; and it is a matter of indifference to me and to you, whether you be Christian or infidel! O Christian parents-think of this!! Bring your little children to Jesus, and train them up in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord.

No.

* In relation to the word, evdoxnoa, "I am well pleased," I admire the celestial wisdom manifested in the selection of the aorist tense of the Greek verb. Jehovah was, is, and always shall be, well pleased, with his dear Son. Hence that doctrine which supposes the Great Eternal to have poured out his wrath on the Son of his Love, or willingly grieved the Soul of the Mediator, should be rejected. The attention of the reader is called to the conduct of Jesus. slavish fear filled his breast; yet, in humble attitude, he is found bowing the knee to the Father of spirits, and praying for the sanctiGed use and success of every Christian institution. Nominal Christians! arise and be baptised, and wash away your sins, calling upon you the name of Jesus. The innocent Lamb of God, had no sins to wash away, except the merely ceremonial implication of the Jewish

SECTION FIFTH.

THE GENEALOGY OF JESUS.

Now Jesus himself was about thirty years of age when he began his ministry,* being, according to the custom of pedigrees,† a son of Joseph, son of Jacob, son of Matthan, son of Eleazar, son of Eliud, son of Achim, son of Zadoc, son of Azor, son of Neariah, son of Shemiah, son of Eliakim, son of Abiud,

Law, Heb. vii. 27: but he persists, notwithstanding the remonstrance of the Baptist, in the determination not to slight or neglect any instiution tending to produce the fruits of righteousness. May God grant conviction to the despisers and indifferent.

* In no other instance, that I have observed, have our English translators mismanaged their very important undertaking, so far as in the present. It would even seem from this passage, that they were ignorant of the Greek construction and idiom. Agxuevos, v, beginning, was. Beginning what? Was what? Beginning his public ministry, as appears from the same Luke, xxiii. 5-teaching through all Jewry, beginning, from Galilee. Began to do and teach, Acts i. 1. Mat. iv. 17, and Mark iv. 1. This is the rendering of the vulgate, and ought to be followed by all.

Was what? was about thirty years of age, as every priest must have been according to the Law. Num. iv. 3, 23, 35. Hence it appears to be the meaning of the Evangelist, that Jesus was thirty years of age, when, about to commence his public office, he came to John to be baptized, according to the custom of the priests. Levit. viii. 6.

+ Reader, I here present you the Genealogy of your Lord and Master, carefully collated with the Genealogical tables of the old Testament and corrected and amended according to the best authorities. Any name introduced into this table, concerning which there remains any doubt, is put in Italics; and the great important and essential names are in capitals. Hence it appears that Jesus is the son of David through the regal line; that he descended from Solomon, 2 Sam. vii. 12-16, and not from Nathan, and consequently, the objection of Calvin is removed, who affirms, that "if Christ was not descended from Solomon he could not be the Messiah." That our Master sprang from the tribe of Judah according to the declaration of the Apostle and the prediction of the Patriarch; that he is the son of Abraham according to the promise; a son of Adam, and therefore the kinsman redeemer of all mankind ; the son of God and hence the heir and Lord of the world.

From the critical and very learned work of Dr Barrett, it appears that the eighteenth verse of the third chapter of first Chronicles,