WATER BAPTISM, ADMITS TO THE OUTER OR NOMINAL KINGDOM; SPIRIT BAPTISM, TO THE INNER OR TRUE KINGDOM,-THE ONE BAPTISM BEING THE OTHER. INDEPENDENT AND IRRESPECTIVE OF THE word "baptise," in Scripture, like the word "Church," has manifold meanings; one, as applied to the rite of baptism; another, to the influence of the Spirit; another, to suffering. It is used in the first sense by our Lord, when He said, "Go, baptise all nations." It is used in the second sense by St. Paul, when he writes, "They are all baptised by one Spirit unto one body." It is used in the third sense by our Lord, when He asked, "Can ye be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised withal ?" Divines recognise these several meanings, but they have failed to separate them. They attribute to "one baptism" all these meanings. They apply every expression in connection with the word "baptise" as pertaining to "one baptism." They assume this "one baptism" to be water baptism. "to It is our purpose to show that water baptism, Spirit baptism, and a baptism of suffering, have no necessary connection. Arising out of the fact that every expression in connection with one or other of the three baptisms have been held to refer to "one baptism," the rite has been supposed to cleanse from sin, to give a new birth in Christ, and that faith is essential as a prerequisite to the due reception of water baptism. We intend to show that the popular belief is erroneous. To elucidate the subject, we propose to consider it under the following heads. 1. We wish to show that baptism has not hitherto been understood. 2. That water baptism does not cleanse from sin. 3. That it does not give new life in Christ; that is, that it does not baptise into Christ. 4. That faith is not essential as a prerequisite to a due reception of the rite. 5. To shew the intention of water baptism. 6. To explain the meaning of our Lord's words, "Ye must be born again of water and of the Spirit." 7. In conclusion, to shew from the bearings of the whole, that water baptism admits to the outer, Spirit baptism to the inner or true kingdom of Christ, and that the two baptisms have no necessary connection. BAPTISM, NOT HITHERTO UNDERSTOOD. After a lapse of 1800 years, during which the minds of men have been more or less interested and enquiring upon the subject of baptism, for an obscure person to rise up and boldly to declare, and to attempt to prove, that it has not been understood, is a daring manifestation of hardihood. What! after the greatest minds in each succeeding age from the Apostolic have exerted their powers, is the declaration to be tolerated, that all their labours have led to little result? Yes: tolerated it must be; for so it is, that, notwithstanding the greatest intellects have been devoted to enquiry on this subject, they have not been permitted to comprehend it. But this was not only foreseen, but allowed ignorance has been in fact a part of God's dealings. He has taken away from the past "the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water" (Is. iii); that is, in spiritual things Christendom has been famished. For wise purposes, as suited to the past, God withheld a full knowledge of divine things. Our Lord declared His kingdom to be a spiritual kingdom. This declaration has been but imperfectly understood. It has been received to mean "a holy and ghostly authority," delegated to a few. Far from receiving it in its literal acceptation, it is held to mean a covenant relationship to God by sacramental signs. Whereas, it means nothing of the kind. It means literally what is declared, that it is a spiritual kingdom. Certain outward signs are connected therewith, but they are not covenant signs. They have relation to a flesh and blood kingdom, and are an appointed medium of relationship in this kingdom. But this relationship is not a covenant relationship. The covenant relationship is of a perfect character, and refers to a purely spiritual kingdom. Not that this spiritual kingdom has no connection with the flesh and blood kingdom. It has connection, but the two are not coincident. The mistake of the past has been in confounding the two kingdoms. Hence the perfect unassailable covenant has been replaced in the world, in the imagination of men, by an imperfect and assailable covenant. They have substituted for a kingdom of grace a kingdom of covenant law. Men have not sufficiently realized the great fact that they are, while yet on earth, spiritual beings. They think of it, they speak of it, but they do not realize it. They find themselves confined by their fleshly nature to a limited sphere of action, and permit their thoughts to be encircled therewith. They do not rise to the lofty conception that they are even now spiritual beings connected with the Great Father of spiritual life. From this it is that they do not perceive that to be in spiritual harmony with God requires something superior to, and above all, physical and material things; they cannot think of God irrespective of the limits of an earthly consciousness; they do not permit their thoughts to associate them here with a world of spirits; they do not perceive that in the wide world of spiritual life of which they already form a part (Heb. xii. 22-24), that harmony with God consists not in ritual observances, but in the thoughts and the affections being attuned in love to Him; they have yet to learn that harmonious spiritual life in God consists simply in love to God; they have, perhaps, partially discovered the loveliness of that harmonious beauty which reigns through God's proper kingdom, but this condition they think has no relation to earth; they paint it as something to be, not as something that is. The perfect covenant is referred to a hereafter, and not discovered to be a living reality here among us. True it is that there is much evil in the world, but God came down to earth in the person of Christ to counteract this, and it is declared (1 John iii. 5-14), that it can be countervailed only by a living union with Christ. Now this living union is not by gross material rites, but by the influence of Spirit upon spirit. Of course, it is not hereby meant that God has not appointed certain ordinances to be observed. Man, as man, is incapable of appreciating a purely spiritual rule, and certain rites are appointed as means of external union; but they do not express or constitute true union. True union brings a man into harmonious fellowship with God. Rites bind men together, whereby they instruct each other in the things of God. To be brought into true union is the end sought by God's teaching. Thus we are taught to pray, "Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven." A kingdom united by rites, is not a kingdom as "in heaven." Rites assist in setting up the kingdom, but they do not establish it. To observe commanded ordinances is a duty, but to attach a value to them in themselves evinces great spiritual blindness. This was the fault of the Jews as it is yet the fault of Christians. The latter Israel has erred in this respect, as did the first Israel. It is against the present spiritual blindness that Isaiah opens his book. His condemnations are supposed to refer to the Israel of old; but this is a great mistake. Isaiah employs language and |