•AMlW^^i 
 
 oi *« ^''w%iVaf ^^^^. 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 >■& 
 
 Presented by Mr. Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Agnezv Coll. on Baptism, No. 
 
 ■■SoB 
 
I 
 
 > 
 
PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 ON HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
RIYINGTONS 
 
 IContfon Waterloo Flace 
 
 ©iforlr High Street 
 
 CTamfiritrgr Trinity Street 
 
PLAIN 
 
 SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 ON HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 Bv THE Rkv. JOHN WALLAS, M.A. 
 
 PERPETUAL CURATE OF CROSSCRAKE, WESTMORLAXD. 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old patlis, where is the 
 good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."— Jer. vi. 16. 
 
 "Grant, O Lord, that in reading Thy Holy Word I may never prefer my private sentiments 
 before those of the Church iathe purely ancient times of Christianity." 
 
 BisHor WiT.soN, Sacra Privata. 
 
 RIVINGTONS, 
 
 ?lontlon, ©jifovU, anK CamfeviKsf. 
 
 1869. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2011 witin funding from 
 
 Princeton Tiieological Seminary Library 
 
 littp://www.archive.org/details/plainscripturaltOOwall 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 rpHIS little Book does not jorofess to be a 
 complete treatise on the nature of tlie 
 Holy Sacrament of Baptism, but merely to 
 develope, in plain language, certain thoughts 
 bearing more or less directly on that Sacra- 
 ment, and thereby in part to supplement other 
 and more elaborate treatises on the same sub- 
 ject. And it is hoped that, by the manner in 
 which it attempts to accomplish these objects, 
 it may commend itself to the unbiassed judg- 
 ment of the reader, as being both fair in its 
 argaments and Scriptural in its positions. But 
 it may be as well to state here (nor is it in any 
 uncharitable spirit that it is spoken) that to 
 those who have been long trained in a theology 
 
 alien to the mind of the Church Catholic this 
 
 a 
 
Yl PREFACE. 
 
 treatise is not addressed : for to sucli persons, 
 in all probability, it would simply prove an 
 offence. 
 
 There can indeed be no doubt but tliat the 
 Sacraments of the Gospel have, in these last 
 days, lost much of the hold they formerly had 
 on the minds of Christian people. It is to their 
 faith that they are specially addressed ; but 
 faith itself is failing, as it was plainly enough 
 intimated by our Lord Himself that fail it 
 would. His words are very pregnant of mean- 
 ing : " When the Son of Man cometh, shall He 
 find faith on the earth ? " But as the word 
 "faith " here means, in the original, ''^the faith," 
 so it seems highly probable that by that word 
 our Lord meant nothing less than a true belief 
 in all the high doctrines and revelations of the 
 Gospel, such as can be fully apprehended only 
 by a humble and obedient mind. The word 
 seems to imply a belief in that entire body of 
 truth, into which our Lord Himself while on 
 earth promised His Apostles, that the Holy 
 Spirit would guide them on the Day of Pentc- 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 cost. " WTien He, tlie Spirit of truth, is come, 
 He will guide you into all truth;" rather, here 
 again it is, "into all the truth." He would 
 teach them the complete system of Grospel doc- 
 trine, the full range of Cathohc truth. " The 
 faith," therefore, of which He predicted the 
 future declension must be supposed to be a full 
 subjective belief in that complete body of objec- 
 tive truth which corresponds to it as its corre- 
 lative — that whole truth into which the Holy 
 Spirit would guide the Apostles, and which 
 they would themselves leave as a deposit with 
 the Church, sacred and precious ; to be its doc- 
 trinal heritage for ever : so that, accordingly, 
 " the Church " is constituted to be " the pillar 
 and ground of the Truth." 
 
 Our Lord could not have meant that all 
 religious faith would have disappeared from 
 the earth before His second coming, or that 
 there would not be a religious faith of some 
 sort or other even to the end. He could not 
 so have meant; for He has Himself declared 
 
 that "the Gospel of the kingdom shall be 
 
 a 2 
 
Vlll PEE FACE. 
 
 preached in all tlie world for a witness unto 
 all nations; and tlien shall the end come:" 
 words which imply, that as the knowledge of 
 Christ and of His Gospel would be extensively 
 spread over the world; so, concurrently with 
 that knowledge, would there be also a wide 
 extension of religious belief. Yet notwith- 
 standing it would still be true, that there 
 would be, in the proper sense of the word, 
 but little faith — faith in the essential verities 
 and high doctrines which relate to the Gospel 
 kingdom ; and among these must of course be 
 included the doctrine of the Holy Sacraments. 
 
 Accordingly, true it is that, together with a 
 wider extension of religious knowledge and 
 belief over the regions of the earth in these 
 latter days, there is also confessedly a less 
 deep and earnest faith among Christians ; and 
 as our Lord also predicted that it would be 
 immediately before His second coming and the 
 end of the world, that " iniquity " would 
 "abound, and the love of many " — of the many, 
 of people in general — would "wax cold;" there- 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 fore, as the Cliurcli of Christ has lost her first 
 love, so also has she lost her first faith; for 
 Love and Faith must ever go together, whether 
 to stand or to fall'. The Sacramental doctrine 
 fares now only as it fared when our Lord Him- 
 self taught it, as He stood by the side of 
 Nicodemus, and heard him say, in reference 
 to His teaching on Baptism, " How can these 
 things be?" or, when by the Sea of Tiberias 
 He taught His countrymen the high doctrine 
 of the other Holy Sacrament, and heard in 
 reply, " How can this Man give us His flesh 
 to eat?" But notwithstanding the disbelief 
 
 * The Truth and the Faith we again fiutl in one of the Epistles, 
 bronglit into juxta-position in connexion with the wickedness of the 
 world : and there also we learn the injurious influence which that wicked- 
 ness exercises upon them both in common. And the close position they 
 there occupy would seem still further to indicate their natural and 
 original connexion in relation to each other. After speaking of such 
 persons as " have the form of godliness, but deny the power thereof," the 
 Apostle goes on to say, " So do these also resist the teuth : men of 
 corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith " (2 Tim. iii. 8). And 
 indeed so natural and intimate is the relation between them, that in more 
 passages of Scripture than one, the word " faith " seems to stand for the 
 truth itself, which is the object of that faith : as in the passage in 
 St. Jude where it is said, '■ It was needful for me to write unto you, and 
 exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once 
 delivered unto the saints." Here " the faith " is plainly used for its 
 objective truth. 
 
X PEEFACE. 
 
 and opposition witli whicli His formal teacliing 
 on Sacramental grace was received on both 
 these occasions, yet not one word of com- 
 promise did He utter in reply. And precisely 
 the same are the disbelief and opposition now ; 
 and, strange to say, scarcely at all different 
 in the form in which they manifest themselves, 
 Tvdth regard to these same Sacraments; and 
 therefore precisely the same also must be the 
 conduct of Christ's ministers in relation to 
 them. As they must follow their Divine Master 
 in His teaching on these Holy Sacraments, so 
 must they equally follow Him in His uncom- 
 promising treatment of disbelief and opposition, 
 whenever they may be called iipon to encounter 
 them. His example in this respect is before 
 them, as no doubt it was providentially in- 
 tended to be, for their guidance to the end of 
 the world : and as He would not relinquish or 
 compromise any portion of His eternal Truth, 
 to allay opposition or conciliate gainsayers, so 
 He has hereby taught us that neither must 
 the}^ For being His ministers, they are but 
 
PEEFACE. XI 
 
 the stewards of His mysteries; and therefore 
 they must faithfully guard the deposit of truth 
 entrusted to them; for in stewards it is re- 
 quired that a man be found faithful. 
 
..^^**^*^*^*4^. 
 
 
 
 r 
 
 CONTENTS. ''^^^^^^T^ 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 PAGR 
 CIRCUMCISION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT A TYPE OF BAPTISM OF 
 THE NEW — THE ONE A CARNAL, THE OTHER A SPIRITCAL 
 ORDINANCE 1 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FIRST GRANTED IN BAPTISM 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 BAPTISM THE MEANS OF ADMISSION INTO THE CHRISTIAN 
 
 CHURCH 10 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 THE NECESSITY FOE ADMISSION INTO THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 
 
 A CONSEQUENCE OF THE INCARNATION OF OUR LORD ... 17 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE BENEFITS OF THE INCARNATION APPLIED THROUGH THE 
 
 SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM AND THE HOLY EUCHARIST ... 25 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE ANALOaY OF THE FIRST AND THE SECOND ADAM ... 32 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 OUR lord's conversation with NICODEMUS : ST. JOHN III. 3—5 
 
 CONSIDERED 47 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BAPTISM THE SACRAMENT WHEREIN WE ABE MADE MEMBERS 
 OF CHRIST, THE CHILDREN OF GOD, AND INHERITORS OF THE 
 KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 52 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 REMISSION OF SINS IN BAPTISM 58 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CERTAIN ALLUSIONS IN SCRIPTURE TO THE CLEANSING OFFICE 
 
 OF BAPTISM 60 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 BAPTISM TYPIFIED BY THE DELUGE AND THE PASSAGE OF THE 
 
 BED SEA 67 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CHRISTIAN BAPTISM AS DISTINGUISHED FROM THAT OF ST. JOHN 73 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST IN THE RIVER JORDAN REPRESENTA- 
 TIVE OF ALL CHRISTIAN BAPTISM 76 
 
CONTENTS. XT 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 PAGE 
 THE INCONSISTENCY OP DOUBTING THE EFFICACY OF BAPTISM 83 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 THE WATEE AND THE BLOOD "WHICH FLOWED FROM OVU LOED'S 
 
 SIDE : THEIE TYPICAL BEAEING UPON BAPTISM 86 
 
 CHAPTEE XVI. 
 
 OUE LOED S FIRST MIRACLE AT THE MARRIAGE IN CANA OF 
 GALILEE : ITS SYMBOLICAL MEANING WITH REFERENCE TO 
 BAPTISM 91 
 
 CHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 BAPTISM, AS THE MEANS OF ADMISSION INTO THE CHRISTIAN 
 CHURCH, PREFIGURED BY THE BRAZEN ALTAE AND THE 
 BRAZEN LAVEE OF THE TABERNACLE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 96 
 
 CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 
 BAPTISM IN ITS HEALING POWEE PEEFIGUEED BY THE CEEE- 
 MONIAL CLEANSING OF THE LEPEE, AND SIMILAR WASHINGS 
 IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 98 
 
 CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 THE WATER OF BAPTISM REPRESENTED IN SCEIPTUEE AS THE 
 
 BLOOD OF CHEIST IN ITS EFFECTS ON THE BAPTIZED . . . 103 
 
 CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 IN EVEEY CHEISTIAN BAPTISM CHEIST HIMSELF THE BAPTIZEE 
 
 THROUGH HIS MINISTER 105 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXL 
 
 PAGE 
 BAPTISM THE MEANS OF THE PUTTINa ON OE CHRIST: THE 
 
 EEaENEEATE STATE 109 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE BAPTIZED SAID IN SCRIPTURE TO BE "IN CHRIST:" WHAT 
 
 IS IMPLIED IN THAT PHRASE 115 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIII. 
 
 THE UNION OF THE SAINTS WITH CHRIST REPRESENTED AS SEEN 
 
 IN HEAVEN 121 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIV. 
 
 THE LIKENESS OF THE SAINTS TO CHRIST BEaUN ON EARTH, 
 
 CONTINUED IN HEAVEN 126 
 
 CHAPTEE XXV. 
 
 SONSHIP TO GOD PECULIAR TO THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION 128 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVI. 
 
 THE WORD "REaENERATION" TWICE FOUND IN SCRIPTURE: 
 
 ITS MEANING 129 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVII. 
 
 REPENTANCE; ITS RELATION TO THE BAPTISMAL STATE . . . 133 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVIII. 
 
 CONVERSION; ITS TWO MEANINGS IN SCRIPTURE 135 
 
CONTENTS. XVll 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 PAGE 
 LAPSE INTO SIN AFTER BAPTISM NOT CONTEMPLATED IN SOEIP- 
 
 TUEE 140 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THE DIFFERENCE OF LANGTJAaE EESPECTINa SIN IN THE OLD 
 
 TESTAMENT AND IN THE NEW : THE REASON FOB IT . . . 144 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE SIN OF ANANIAS AND SAPPHIEA AND ITS PUNISHMENT, IN 
 
 REFERENCE TO BAPTISMAL GRACE 146 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 THE FIRST, AND ONLY THE FIRST, INSTANCE OF A CLASS OF 
 god's DISPENSATIONS OR DEALINGS WITH MEN FREQUENTLY 
 MARKED BY HIS OWN VISIBLE INTERPOSITION: INSTANCES . 150 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S ARGUMENTS AGAINST PARTICULAR SINS SACRAMENTAL 158 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 THE GIFTS OF BAPTISM GRANTED TO ALL THE BAPTIZED . . 165 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE GIFTS OF BAPTISM ILLUSTRATED 
 BY THE TYPICAL HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES IN THE 
 WILDERNESS 166 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE STATE OF THE ISEAELITES IN THE WILDERNESS PARALLEL 
 TO THAT OF CHRISTIANS ; IN EACH STATE THE ORIOINAL 
 CALLING- AND ELECTION TTNIVEBSAL AND UNCONDITIONAL, THE 
 FINAL ELECTION AND SALTATION PARTICULAR AND CONDI- 
 TIONAL 169 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXAai. 
 
 CIRCUMCISION SUSPENDED DURING THE FORTY TEARS' SOJOURN 
 IN THE "WILDERNESS ; THE PROBABLE REASON FOB THAT 
 SUSPENSION 177 
 
 CHAPTER XXXA^III. 
 
 THE INFECTION OF NATURE REMAINING EVEN AFTER BAPTISM 184 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 OUR lord's manner OF TEACHING THE DOCTRINE OF REGENE- 
 RATION IN BAPTISM 189 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 OUR lord's manner of teaching the doctrine of THE 
 HOLY EUCHARIST IDENTICAL WITH THAT OF HIS TEACHING 
 THE DOCTRINE OF BAPTISM 193 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 THE IDENTITY OF OUE LORD'S MANNER OF TEACHING THE 
 DOCTRINE OF THE TWO HOLT SACRAMENTS, APPARENTLY 
 INTENTIONAL AND WITH DESIGN 196 
 
CONTENTS. XIX 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE IMPEOBABILITT THAT THE SACRAMENTAL DOCTBINE A3 
 TAUGHT BY OTTR LORD WOTJLB BE SO TAUGHT BY A PERSON 
 NOT HOLDING THAT DOCTRINE IN THE CATHOLIC SENSE . . 197 
 
 CHAPTEE XLIII. 
 
 THE MIRACLE AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA, A TYPE OF BAPTISM 
 
 UNDER ONE OF ITS ASPECTS 200 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 THE BODILY DISEASES CURED BY OUR LORD, REPRESENTATIVE 
 OF CORRESPONDING SPIRITUAL DISEASES AS RESPECTIVELY 
 THEIR COUNTERPARTS 207 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 THE MIRACLE AT THE POOL OF SILOAM ALSO A TYPE OP BAP- 
 TISM UNDER ONE OF ITS ASPECTS 214 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 THE MIRACLES PERFORMED BY THE TOUCH OF CHRIST, A PRE- 
 PARATORY TRAINING FOR THE MORE READY RECEPTION OP 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE SACRAMENTS . 222 
 
 CHAPTER XLVII. 
 
 THE MIRACLE OF FEEDING THE FIVE THOUSAND (OR THE POUR 
 THOUSAND) MEN, A TYPE OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST, ILLUS- 
 TRATIVE OF THE ANALOGOUS TYPE OF BAPTISM 226 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 THE MIRACLE BY ELIJAH OF PEEDING THE WIDOW AND HER 
 SON AT SAEEPTA, A PROPHETIC INDICATION WITH REGARD 
 TO THE HOLT EUCHARIST 229 
 
 CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 THE MIRACLE BY ELISHA OF CLEANSING NAAMAN IN THE 
 
 JORDAN, A PROPHETIC INDICATION WITH REGARD TO BAPTISM 235 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 SPECIMENS OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THE ANCIENT FATHERS 
 
 OF THE CHTTRCH SPOKE OF BAPTISM 244 
 
 CHAPTER LI. 
 
 EMBLEMS OF THE TWO HOLY SACRAMENTS SEEN IN VISION IN 
 
 HEATEN ..... 248 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 CIRCUMCISION OP THE OLD TESTAMENT A TYPE OP BAPTISM 
 
 OP THE NEW THE ONE A CARNAL, THE OTHER A 
 
 SPIRITUAL ORDINANCE, 
 
 TT appears to be generally admitted that Circumcision 
 of tlie Old Testament was a type of Baptism of the 
 New. Now a type may be defined to be a figure or 
 shadow of a thing, that by which something future 
 — the reality or substance — is prefigured or fore- 
 shadowed. Thus, then, whatever Circumcision was, 
 that Baptism is, and more : it is the reality or sub- 
 stance, of which Circumcision was but the figure or 
 shadow. And so, indeed, St. Paul speaks of it. He 
 says, " In Whom . also (that is, in Christ) ye are cir- 
 cumcised with the Circumcision made without hands, 
 in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the 
 Circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in Baptism, 
 wherein also ye are risen with Him\" Here the 
 Apostle clearly makes Circumcision a type of Bap- 
 tism ; for he calls Baptism a " Circumcision made with- 
 out hands,^' and '' the Circumcision of Christ." 
 1 CoL ii. 11, 12. 
 
 B 
 
2 PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 NoWj the nature and importance of each of these 
 ordinances — Circumcision and Baptism — must be 
 viewed in close connexion with the Dispensations or 
 Covenants to which they respectively belongs inasmuch 
 as they perform corresponding parts and fulfil corre- 
 sponding offices in these Dispensations or Covenants. 
 Now, when we look back on the old or legal dispensa- 
 tion, which was confessedly only " a shadow of good 
 things to come/^ that is, of the new or Gospel Dis- 
 pensation, we see at once that Circumcision was the 
 initiatory rite or door of entrance into it ; it was 
 divinely appointed for that end ; and it was so strictly 
 enjoined and required, that it could not, on any 
 account, be dispensed with as a condition for that pur- 
 pose. The Jewish children were to be circumcised 
 immediately, in order to become God^s people ; other- 
 wise, though born of parents who themselves were 
 already God^s people, yet would they be " cut off '^ 
 from among His people, that is, excommunicated and 
 regarded as the heathen around them, unless so cir- 
 cumcised. " My covenant shall be in your flesh for an 
 everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man- 
 child, whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, 
 that soul shall be cut off from his people : he hath 
 broken My covenant^." And of the heathen around 
 them, any who wished to become God^s people, and 
 so be brought within His covenant, were allowed to 
 obtain that privilege, but only through the appointed 
 door of Circumcision. 
 
 Such, then, was the office of Circumcision, and such 
 2 Gen. xvii. 13, 14. 
 
ON HOLT BAPTISM. 3 
 
 its indispensable necessity as a condition of becoming- 
 a member of the Old Covenant : it was the only door 
 of entrance into it. But this covenant itself was a 
 mere legal one, consisting of outward forms and cere- 
 monies, '' carnal ordinances/^ as St. Paul calls them ; 
 unaccompanied by any spiritual graces whatsoever; 
 and was itself but a shadow or type of the Gospel 
 Covenant, into which Baptism was now henceforth to 
 be the divinely appointed door of admission. There- 
 fore, to understand the distinction between Circum- 
 cision and Baptism, and the nature of each, we have 
 only to consider the distinction between the Jewish 
 Church and the Christian, of which they were respec- 
 tively the appointed doors or entrances. The one 
 gi-eat distinction between these two Churches is, that 
 whereas the Jewish Church consisted of ordinances 
 purely carnal, the Christian Church is endued with the 
 graces of the Spirit, as was prophesied of it : "I will 
 
 pour out My Spirit upon all flesh in those 
 
 days'*." The Holy Spirit, then, is the great character- 
 istic Gift of the Christian Church, and therefore its 
 special mark of distinction from the Jewish ; conse- 
 quently, all its essential parts and ministrations and 
 ordinances must partake of the same Spirit, and be 
 endued with its graces. Thus, whereas the Jewish 
 Church, being altogether a carnal institution, had its 
 sacrament of admission (so to call it) carnal; so the 
 Christian Church, being a spiritual institution, must 
 have its Sacrament of admission spiritual. It follows, 
 therefore, that Baptism is a spiritual ordinance; and, 
 3 Joel ii. 28, 29 ; see also 2 Cor. iii. 8. 
 B 2 
 
4 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 though it has its outward part, water, thus so far 
 resembling its type, which was purely outward, 
 yet has it also the inward grace of the Spirit, thus 
 fulfilling our notion of an antitype in relation to its 
 type ; otherwise the type and its antitype would 
 lie simply equivalent or coextensive, and so con- 
 tradict all our ideas of such a relation ; and further, 
 would imply that the Covenants themselves, to which 
 they respectively belong, are alike outward and 
 carnal. 
 
 This view of Baptism therefore, thus far, is the 
 natui^al inference from what we certainly know of Cir- 
 cumcision and of the two Covenants as contrasted with 
 each other : it is that inference which we must, in all 
 reason, have drawn from the mere consideration of a 
 type and its antitype in connexion with the Covenants 
 to which they respectively belong ; and it is, moreover, 
 just that view of the subject which our Lord Himself, 
 the giver of both Covenants, has expressly set before 
 us in these words, " Except a man be born of water 
 and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
 God^." These words of our Lord were understood 
 by the Church always and every where, for fourteen 
 hundred years after Christ, as referring to Baptism 
 only, and by all the branches of the Church, as distin- 
 guished from the sects, they are so understood still*. 
 
 * John iii. 5. 
 
 •'■ So early a writer as St. Justin Martyr, who was martyred a.d. ]G5, 
 w rites thus of Baptism and the manner in which it was performed in his 
 day : — " How we dedicated ourselves to God, being new made through 
 Christ, I will explain. All, then, who are persuaded and believe that the 
 things which are taught and affirmed by us arc true, and who promise to 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. O 
 
 " Of all the ancients (says Hooker) there is not one to 
 be found that ever did otherwise either expound or 
 allege the place, than as implying external Baptism." 
 Thus our Lord declares that the Holy Spirit is present 
 in Baptism, and that Baptism is the door of entrance 
 into the new kingdom of heaven, that is, the Christian 
 Church. And St. John the Baptist had previously 
 mentioned the Gift of the Holy Spirit as that which 
 should distinguish the Lord^s Baptism from his own. 
 '^ I indeed have baptized you with water, but He shall 
 baptize you with the Holy Ghost ^" And our Lord 
 Himself, immediately before His Ascension, com- 
 manded His Apostles " that they should not depart 
 from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the 
 Father, which, saith He, ye have heard of Me. For 
 John truly baptized with water ; but ye shall be bap- 
 tized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence '.^' 
 Accordingly on the Day of Pentecost St. Peter says 
 to the conscience-stricken Jews, inquiring what they 
 should do, " Repent, and be baptized every one of you 
 in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, 
 
 be able to live accordingly, are taught to pray and beg God, with fasting, 
 to grant them forgiveness of their former sins ; and we pray and fast 
 with them. Then we bring them where there is water, and after 
 the same manner of regeneration as we also were regenerated om-selves, 
 they are regenerated : for iu the name of God, the Father and Lord of 
 all things, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Ghost, they 
 then receive the washing : for indeed Christ also said, ' Except ye be born 
 again ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.' " 
 
 " I believe Calvin was the first that ever denied this place (John iii. 5) 
 to mean Baptism. He gives another interpretation, which he confesses 
 to be new." (Wall on Infant Baptism.) 
 
 6 Mark i. 8. 7 Acts i. 1, 5. 
 
6 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 
 
 and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. 
 For (he adds) the promise is unto you_, and to your 
 children^ and to all that are afar oflP, even as many as 
 the Lord our God shall call ^." 
 
 8 Acts ii. 38, 39. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE GIFT OP THE HOLY SPIRIT FIRST GRANTED IN 
 BAPTISM. 
 
 "VTOW what is that promise which the Apostle here 
 ■^^ connects with Baptism, and so connects with it that 
 they who are baptized shall thereby receive the fulfil- 
 ment or realization of it ? It is no less a promise than 
 that which was made by the Prophets of old, particu- 
 larly the Prophet Joel, of that which was to be the 
 great distinguishing Gift of the Gospel kingdom, the 
 promise of the Holy Ghost; and to which promise 
 St. Peter had alluded in the beginning of this same 
 discourse, the first discourse, be it observed, that was 
 addressed to the Jews after the descent of the Holj^ 
 Ghost on the Day of Pentecost, the day on which the 
 Christian Church was first established. The outpour- 
 ing of the Holy Spirit on that day had been prophesied 
 of so long before, and to that prophecy now fulfilled 
 St. Peter had thus alluded : " This is that which was 
 spoken by the Prophet Joel, And it shall come to pass 
 in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My 
 Spirit upon all flesh \" And how does the Apostle, 
 at the close of this same discom-se, tell the Jews that 
 » Acts ii. 16, 17. 
 
8 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 they are to appropriate to themselves this great Gift 
 of the Holy Spirit ? He says they are to appropriate 
 it by Christian Baptism; they are to repent and be 
 baptized for the remission of sins^ and they would 
 receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost — that same Gift 
 that had been promised to them and to their children 
 and to all that were afar off, to Jews and Gentiles 
 alike. " Then they that gladly received his word were 
 baptized ^." "A principal ingredient of the evangelical 
 Covenant (says Dr. Barrow) is the collation of this 
 Spirit^ which is the finger of God, whereby (according 
 to the Prophet Jeremy's description of that Covenant) 
 ' God's law is put into their inward parts and written 
 in their hearts/ inscribed (as St. Paul allusively 
 speaketh) not with ink, but by the Spirit, &c., whence 
 God's Spirit is called the Spirit of Promise, the dona- 
 tion thereof being the peculiar promise of the Gospel ; 
 and the end of the undertaking is by St. Paul declared, 
 'that we might receive the promise of the Spirit by 
 faith,' that is, by embracing Christianity might par- 
 take thereof according to God's promise : and the 
 Apostolical ministry or exhibition of the Gospel is 
 styled 'the ministration of the Spirit;' and 'tasting 
 of the heavenly Gift and participation of the Holy 
 Ghost' is part of a Christian's character. And our 
 Saviour instructed Nicodemus that no man can enter 
 into the kingdom of God, that is, become a Christian 
 or subject to God's spiritual kingdom, without being 
 regenerated by water and the Spirit, that is, without 
 Baptism and the spiritual grace attending it ; accord- 
 ' Verse 41. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 9 
 
 ing as St. Peter doth imply^ that the reception of the 
 Holy Spirit is annexed to Holy Baptism. ' Eepent/ 
 saith he^ 'and be baptized every one/ &c.^ '^for the 
 promise/ that great promise of the Holy Ghost^ ' is 
 unto you/ &c. 
 
 " In fine, whatever some persons or some petty 
 sects (as the Pelagians of old, the Socinians now) may 
 have deemed, it hath been the doctrine constantly and 
 with very general consent delivered in the Catholic 
 Church, that to all persons by the holy mystery of 
 Baptism duly initiated to Christianity, or admitted into 
 the communion of Christ's body, the grace of God's 
 Holy Spirit is bestowed." 
 
 It deserves, therefore, to be repeated here, that the 
 great Gift which had been promised of old, as that 
 which should belong peculiarly to the Gospel — the Gift 
 of the Holy Spirit to each individual — both our Lord 
 Himself and His Apostle St. Peter connect expressly 
 with the reception of Christian Baptism ; and in such a 
 manner as plainly to imply that this Baptism is made 
 a condition of that Gift*. 
 
 ' By this Gift is meant that distinguishing Gift of the Holy Ghost 
 which is peculiar to the Christian Dispensation. It is not at all intended 
 to deny that the Holy Ghost was given in some measure and degree 
 before Christian Baptism, even all along from the beginning. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 BAPTISM THE MEANS OP ADMISSION INTO THE CHRISTIAN 
 CHURCH. 
 
 I^OW although we learn that the Holy Spirit is the 
 -^^ great Gift of Baptism^ and although we also learn 
 that it is really He who performs whatever is done in 
 that Holy Sacrament^ yet the question may be asked, 
 What is thatwhich Baptism does for each individual ? or, 
 to state the same question in another form, What is that 
 which the Holy Spirit does for each individual in or 
 through Baptism? I answer in the first place, that 
 whereas, according to God's ordinary appointment as 
 revealed to us in Scripture, it is only by being within 
 the Church of Christ that a person can be saved, so 
 Baptism admits him into that Church'. "As we are 
 not naturally men without birth, (says Hooker) so 
 neither are we Christian men in the eye of the Church 
 of God but by new birth ; nor according to the manifest 
 ordinary course of Divine dispensation new born, but 
 by that Baptism which both declareth and maketh us 
 
 ' "They who received the Apostles' word were admitted into the 
 Church by Baptism. Neque alio modo unquam recipi potuerunt aut 
 Christiani fieri." (Bishop Pearson.) 
 
PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 11 
 
 Christians. In wliicli respect we justly hold it to be 
 the door of our actual entrance into God's house ^.'^ 
 
 When Christ institutes the Sacrament of Baptism 
 and gives His Apostles their commission, He says to 
 them, " Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, bap- 
 tizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost ^ ;" and in another Gospel we 
 find it recorded, that when, immediately before His 
 Ascension into Heaven, He gives them His final orders. 
 His words are, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
 Gospel to every creature : he that belie veth and is 
 baptized shall be saved ^." It is not sufiicient for him 
 merely to believe in Christ; he must also be baptized. 
 Had faith alone been sufficient, our Lord would not 
 have added that he must be baptized. He has clearly 
 joined Faith and Baptism together : man, therefore, may 
 not put them asunder. " Be it that salvation (says 
 
 2 In the Office for Baptism to such as are of Riper Years, there is the 
 following Exhortation : — " Beloved, ye hear in this Gospel the express 
 words of our Saviour Christ, that ' except a man be born of water and 
 the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' Whereby ye may 
 perceive the great necessity of this Sacrament where it may be had." 
 The Gospel referred to is that which contains our Lord's words as above 
 given, and the Exhortation expressly grounds " the great necessity of this 
 Sacrament " on those words. 
 
 3 Matt, xxviii. 19. 
 
 ■• Mark xvi. 15, 16. " Giving to the disciples the power of regenera- 
 tion into God, He said to them, ' Go and teach all nations, baptizing them 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' For 
 God promised that in the last times He would pour Him (the Spirit) 
 upon His servants and handmaids. This Spirit descended at the Day 
 of Pentecost upon the disciples after the Lord's Ascension, having 
 power to admit all nations to the entrance of life and to the opening 
 of the New Covenant." (St. Irenteus, Bishop of Lyons, born about 
 A.D. 130.) 
 
12 PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 Tertullian') was once througli bare faith, before tlie 
 passion and resurrection of tlie Lord : but when faith 
 grew up to a belief in His birth, passion, and resurrec- 
 tion, an enlargement was added to the sacrament" 
 (of faith) ; '' the sealing of Baptism, the clothing, in a 
 manner, of that faith which before was naked. Nor 
 doth it now avail without its own condition ; for the 
 condition of Baptism was imposed, and the form pre- 
 scribed : ' Go/ saith He, ' teach the nations, baptiz- 
 ing them in the name of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost !^ When with this law is 
 compared that limitation, '' Except a man be born of 
 water and of the Spirit, he shall not enter into the 
 kingdom of Heaven,' this hath bound down faith to the 
 necessity of Baptism. Wherefore, from that time all 
 believers were baptized : and this it .was which the 
 Lord had commanded during that afflicting bereave- 
 ment, saying, ' Arise, and go into Damascus : there it 
 shall be shown thee what thou oughest to do,' to wit, 
 to be baptized, which was the only thing wanting to 
 him. For the rest, he had learned enough, and had 
 believed that He of Nazareth was the Lord, the Son of 
 God^" Hooker says, "They draw near unto this 
 error " (that is, of the old Yalentinian heretics) " who 
 fixing wholly their minds on the known necessity of 
 faith, imagine that nothing but faith is necessary for 
 the attainment of all grace. Yet is it a branch of 
 
 * Priest of Carthage, A.D. 195. 
 
 " " It is not enough to believe ; for he who believeth and is not bap- 
 tized, but is a catechumen (that is, under prei^aratiou for Baptism), has 
 not attained to perfect salvation." (Theophylact, a.d. 610.) 
 
ox HOLY BAPTISM, 13 
 
 belief, tliat Sacraments are in their place no less 
 required than belief itself. For when our Lord and 
 Sa\aour promised eternal life^ is it anj otherwise than 
 as He promised restitution of health unto Naaman the 
 Syrian^ namely with this condition, ^Wash and be 
 clean/ or, as to them which were stung of serpents, 
 health by beholding the brazen serpent ? If Christ 
 Himself which giveth salvation do require Baptism, it 
 is not for us that look for salvation to sound and 
 examine Him, whether unbaptized men may be saved ; 
 but seriously to do that which is required, and religiously 
 to fear the danger which may grow by the want 
 thereof." 
 
 A man's faith in Christ must bring him to Baptism, 
 that so he may be admitted into the Christian Church, 
 within which alone he can be sure of finding safety ^ . 
 Accordingly we find, as already stated, that when by 
 the first preaching of the Apostles on the Day of 
 Pentecost, the people " were pricked in their heart, 
 and said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles, 
 Men and brethren, what shall we do ? then Peter said 
 unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you. 
 . . . . Then they "that gladly received his word- were 
 baptized; and the same day there were added 
 unto them about three thousand souls." ^^And 
 the Lord added to the Church daily such as 
 should be saved ^.■'^ Even the miraculous outpouring 
 
 ' "It is certain by God's Word, that children which are baptized, 
 dying before they commit actual sin, are undoubtedly saved." (Kubrick 
 at the end of the Othce for the Piiblick Baptism of Infants.) 
 
 8 Acts li. 37, 38. 41. 47. 
 
14 PLAIN SCEIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 of the Holy Gliost on that occasion did not exempt 
 them from the necessity of entering the Church through 
 the appointed door. Likewise with regard to Cornehus 
 the centurion, " a devout man, and one that feared God 
 with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, 
 and prayed to God alway," we read that he was divinely 
 directed to send for St. Peter, and St. Peter was also 
 divinely commissioned to go from Joppa to Csesarea, 
 for the purpose of instructing him and his friends, and 
 admitting them within the Church by Baptism. On 
 them, as the first Gentile believers, the Holy Ghost fell, 
 as He had fallen on the first Jewish believers on the 
 Day of Pentecost. Yet neither did their faith in Jesus 
 after the instruction they had received from St. Peter, 
 nor the extraordinary efi'usion of the Holy Ghost before 
 they were baptized, render their Baptism unnecessary, 
 but they were still to be admitted into the Church in 
 the way in which our Lord, the Head of that Church, 
 had appointed. They were still to be joined in cor- 
 porate union with Him, and to partake of those ordi- 
 nary graces of His Spirit which are the heritage 
 of all His members ^ And Philip was also divinely 
 sent to the Ethiopian Eunuch, who knew only 
 the Jewish religion. And he "preached unto him 
 Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came 
 unto a certain water ; and the Eunuch said. See, here is 
 water ; what doth hinder me to be baptized V This 
 I'equest of the Eunuch to be baptized, on the first sight 
 of water, is a clear proof, not only that he had been 
 instructed by Philip in the faith of Jesus as his 
 
 9 Acts X. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 15 
 
 Saviour, but that he had been instructed by him also in 
 the necessity of Christian Baptism, of which before his 
 meeting with PhiHp he could have known nothing. 
 "And Philip said. If thoubelievest with all thine heart, 
 thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe 
 that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And they went 
 down both into the water, both Philip and the Eunuch, 
 and he baptized him y^ and so admitted him into the 
 Christian Church. And when this was done, Philip's 
 mission as to the Eunuch was ended. 
 
 Thus we see exemplified not only the necessity of 
 faith as on man's part, but also the necessity of Bap- 
 tism as on God's part ; for it is He who baptizeth with 
 the Holy Ghost. So "he that believe th and is baptized 
 shall be saved." A man's Baptism brings him into a 
 state of present salvation — into a state in which he 
 mmj be everlastingly saved, if it is not his own fault. 
 And when the jailor at Philippi earnestly inquired of 
 Paul and Silas, "What must I do to be saved ?^' the 
 answer was, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 thou shalt be saved, and thy house ^." By faith he was 
 to lay hold on the only Saviour, and when for that 
 purpose the Apostles " spake unto him the word .of the 
 Lord, and to all that were in his house ;" when, as in 
 the case of the Eunuch and of the Centurion and his 
 friends, they had instructed them in the way of eternal 
 life, then was the jailor "baptized, he and all his, 
 straightway'." His faith in Christ brought him at 
 once to the Sacrament of Christ. And, to pass over 
 
 ' Acts viii. 26-40. " Acts xvi. 30, 31. 
 
 3 Acts xvi. 33. 
 
16 PLAIN SCEIPTUKAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 
 
 other similar cases related in the Acts^ there may be 
 mentioned here that remarkable instance of St. Paul 
 himself, who even after his miraculous conversion and 
 his faith in Christy was still in the blindness of his 
 unregenerate state_, with his sins unforgiven. He was 
 not yet admitted into the Churchy inasmuch as he was 
 not yet baptized^ and so made a member of Christy in 
 whom alone his sins could be forgiven : therefore 
 Ananias was divinely ordered to go and baptize him^ 
 
 ■* Acts xxii. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE NECESSITY FOR ADMISSION INTO THE CHRISTIAN 
 CHURCH, A CONSEQUENCE OP THE INCARNATION OP 
 OUR LORD. 
 
 npHE necessity for our admission into the Cliurch of 
 -"- Christ will appear, when we consider the necessity 
 there is that we should be grafted into the Body of 
 our Incarnate Lord ; for so we become members of His 
 mystical Body the Church. For it is only as we are in 
 union with Christ, that we can hope for any spiritual 
 graces here, or for life everlasting hereafter. From 
 His Incarnate Person all blessing's flow to us both in 
 this world and in that which is to come. One special 
 reason indeed why the Son of God became Man was, 
 that by His Incarnation He might be made the True 
 Vine into which we might all be grafted — the One 
 Body into which we might all be baptized. He is 
 made the Second Adam in order to our salvation, that 
 He might give Himself to us in the capacity of a New 
 Divine Life-giving Head, so that we, being members 
 of Him, might have life communicated to us by virtue 
 of that membership. W^e can therefore have no spiri- 
 tual life but as we are in union with Him in His 
 mystical Body, which is His Church. Hence we see 
 at once the necessity there is that we should be ad- 
 
 c 
 
18 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 mitted into the Church of Christ, which can be only 
 through His Incarnation. But now let us consider the 
 subject more in detail. 
 
 By our birth of the first Adam we inherited a fallen 
 nature, and received within us the seed of mortality ; 
 for, as is the nature of the father, such is the nature of 
 the son. By his fall, all his descendants fell with him, 
 and in him ; and as he brought death upon himself, so 
 he entailed it upon his posterity. " In Adam all die.^' 
 We received indeed from him our natural life, — '' the 
 first man, Adam, was made a living soul,^' — but we 
 received it in that sinful and corrupt state to which it 
 had been reduced in consequence of his fall. And as 
 we inherited Adam^s sinful nature, so did we inherit 
 with it all the other efiects of that curse, which was 
 originally denounced against him ; so that the death to 
 which we became heirs by the sin of oui' first parent, 
 was a death both of body and soiil. 
 
 Such was our state by natui'e, the state in which we 
 were born, by our birth of the flesh. And it was in 
 order to bring us out of this state, to make us anew, 
 not merely to redeem us from the bondage of Satan, 
 but also to restore and raise up again our fallen nature, 
 that the Eternal Word of God became incarnate. 
 "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.^' 
 " Adam is in us as an original cause of our nature, and 
 of that corruption of nature which causeth death ; 
 Christ as the cause original of restoration to life. 
 The person of Adam is not in us, but his nature, 
 and the corruption of his nature, derived into all 
 men by propagation : Chi'ist, ha^^ng Adam's nature 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 19 
 
 as we have, but incorrupt^ deriveth not nature, but 
 incorruption, and tbat immediately from His own 
 Person, into all tliat belong unto Him. As, there- 
 fore, we are really partakers of the body of sin and 
 death received from Adam; so, except we be truly 
 partakers of Christ, and as really possessed of His 
 Spirit, all we speak of eternal life is but a dream ^^' 
 He took our nature upon Him, joined it to Himself in 
 an eternal union, that thereby He might sanctify and 
 ennoble it, lifting it up unspeakably above its original 
 dignity, such as it had been in Adam, even when first 
 formed by his Creator ; for although in Adam, in his 
 state of innocence, it was free from all defilement, 
 being perfectly sinless and pure, in God's image and 
 likeness, yet was it not joined to the Divine nature : 
 the Eternal Word had not made it His own by taking 
 it into Himself. That was a state of exaltation which 
 was reserved for it when God Himself became incar- 
 nate : it was then He elevated it to a height of dignity 
 and glory, which it had not, and could not have had 
 before. For by this union man's nature has had im- 
 parted to it such influence from the Divine nature, 
 through the operation of the Holy Spirit, as lifts it 
 infinitely above all other created nature. 
 
 1 Hooker. 
 
 " As all fell in Adam, tlic root and beginniug of natural being, who 
 received the treasures of righteousness and holiness for himself and 
 those that by propagation wei-e to come of hira ; so their restoration 
 could be wrought but by Him that should be the root, foundation, 
 and beginning of supernatural and spiritual being, in whom the whole 
 nature of mankind should be found in a more eminent sort than it was 
 in Adam ; as indeed it was in the second Adam, ' of whose fulness all men 
 receive grace for grace.' " (Field on the Church.) 
 
 c 2 
 
20 PLAIN SCEIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 It was in consequence of ttis ineffable dignity^ to 
 which the Eternal Word had raised man's nature by 
 His union with it^ that when as Christ He died upon 
 the crosSj His death was of value to atone for the sins 
 of the whole world. How else could the death of One 
 have been a sufficient sacrifice for all ? For it was not 
 a mere man who died: it was Man united to God Him- 
 self: Man taken into God : it was Christ — God and 
 Man — Who suffered death for us. And as He alone, 
 as the Christ, could bear the weight of a whole world's 
 sin ; so He alone, as the Divine Victim, could avail to 
 take away a whole world's sin : the Blood of such a 
 Sacrifice was of value and preciousness sufficient, yea, 
 infinitely more than sufl&cient, to wash it all away. 
 But, inasmuch as mere man could not have made an 
 atonement for the sins of others, and inasmuch as 
 Deity could not have died, hence we see in part the 
 necessity there was that God should take upon Him 
 man's nature, and join it to His own, thus making for 
 Himself a Body; as it was said of Him, "A Body 
 hast Thou prepared Me^;" that in this Body, thus 
 exalted above all utterance or thought, He as the 
 Christ, " God manifest in the flesh," might die, and so 
 effect our reconciliation with the Father. 
 
 But the Son of God took our flesh, that He might 
 also restore it for us individually. He took it, indeed, 
 that in it He might suffer and die, and so redeem us 
 from the curse that lay upon all mankind ; but He 
 took it also that He might renew and restore it, by 
 sanctifying it through union with His own Divine 
 2 Heb. X. 5. 
 
ON HOLT BAPTISM. 21 
 
 nature ; for our sake, tliat we also miglit partake of it 
 thus renewed and restored. " Our conception (says 
 Bishop Andrews) being the root, as it were the very 
 groundsill of our nature — that He might go to the 
 root, and repair our nature from the very foundation, 
 thither He went ; that what had been there defiled and 
 decayed by the first Adam, might by the Second be 
 cleansed and set right again. We that were abhorred 
 by God were by this means made ^beloved in^ Him. 
 He cannot, we may be sure, account evil of that 
 nature, that is now become the nature of His own 
 Son, His no less than ours." So out of that nature 
 He formed for Himself a Body, that so, being God in 
 human nature. He might become the Life-giving Head 
 of a new creation, into which as the Second Adam He 
 might bring again all such as had fallen in the fii'st 
 Adam, and raise them from death to Hfe. " For, as in 
 Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made 
 alive ^." It is by being in Adam that all die; and it 
 must be by being in Christ that all shall be made alive. 
 Therefore, in order to our restoration to spiritual 
 life, we must first be in Christ, individually united to 
 
 3 1 Cor. XV. 22. 
 
 "It was for this end that the Word of God was made Man, and 
 He who was the Son of God became the Son of Man, that man, 
 having been taken into the Word, and receiving the adoption, might 
 become the son of God. For by no other means could we have at- 
 tained to incorruptibility and immortality, unless we had been united 
 to incorruptibility and immortality. But how could we be joined to 
 incorruptibility and immortality, unless first incorruptibility and immor- 
 tality had become that which we also are, so that the corruptible might 
 be swallowed up of incorruptibility, and the mortal by immortality, that 
 we might receive the adoption of sous." (St. Irenaeus.) 
 

 22 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 His Person. But how could this be ? How could we 
 be in Him ? incorporated into Him ? Certainly not, 
 as He is the Divine Word ; it could only be as He is 
 that Word made flesh, the God incarnate. So He 
 became Man, that there might be, what before there 
 could not be, a Body of Christ, into which we should 
 be incorporated. He was incarnate, in order that we 
 might be made members of Him ; might be engrafted 
 into His Body, and so partake of its saving graces. 
 For as He is indwelt by the graces of the Holy Spirit, 
 without measure, so we, by being engrafted into Him, 
 partake, in our measure, of the same graces ; just as 
 the branch partakes of the life and richness of the 
 vine, into which it has been grafted. From this union 
 all our spiritual blessings flow; they flow to us from 
 that Manhood into which all heavenly graces were 
 infused by reason of its union with the Godhead. 
 
 How often is it intimated in Scripture, in one form 
 or another, that our restoration fronii death to life is 
 due to the human nature, the flesh, of Christ. It is 
 "m Christ/' that is, in Him as God and Man, that 
 " all shall be made alive.''^ " The last Adam was made 
 a quickening Spirit." " The Word was made flesh," and 
 then " in Him was life." He as the Christ — God and 
 Man — "being made perfect, became the Author of 
 eternal salvation unto all that obey Him"." And we 
 can now " enter into the holiest by the Blood of 
 Jesus, by a new and living way which He hath conse- 
 crated for us through the veil, that is to say, His 
 flesh ^" And therefore it is that "as the children are 
 ■» Heb. V. 9. 5 Heb. x. 19, 20. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 23 
 
 partakers of flesli and blood. He also Himself likewise 
 took part of the same^/^ that thereby He might effect 
 our restoration. 
 
 It is the life-giving power of the Body of Christ, in 
 our personal union with Him, to which we owe both 
 the great blessing of having been raised from death to 
 life here, and also the hope of being raised to ever- 
 lasting life and glory hereafter. For it is " Christ in " 
 us "the hope of glory ^.^^ "The only sure anchor of 
 all our hopes (says Dr. Jackson) for a joyful resur- 
 rection into the life of glory, is the mystical union 
 which must be wrought here on earth betwixt Christ's 
 human nature glorified and our mortal and dissoluble 
 nature. The Divine nature indeed is the fountain of 
 life to all, but though inexhaustible in itself, yet a 
 fountain whereof we cannot drink, save as it is derived 
 unto us through the human nature of Christ.^' 
 
 Into this Body, then, all are to be gathered one by 
 one, and thus by the incorporation of its several mem- 
 bers it becomes the one mystical Body of Christ. "He 
 is the Head of the Body the Church*; '' and " He is the 
 Head over all things to the Church, which is His 
 Body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all'.'' His 
 members are His fulness, for they fill up and complete 
 the entire mystical Body of which He is the Head ; 
 and thus is constituted the family of the Second Adam. 
 If we are to be saved, we must not only believe in 
 Christ, we must also be made actual members of Him, 
 and so admitted into His Church ; for " Christ is the 
 
 6 Heb. ii. 14. 7 Col. i. 27. 
 
 8 Col. i. 18. 9 Eph. i. 22, 23. 
 
24 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 
 
 Head of the Churchy and He is the Saviour of the 
 Body\^^ Hence^ to be within the Church of Christy 
 is to be a member of that " Body^^ of which '^ He is the 
 Saviour." Of this Church therefore, or Body mystical, 
 thus formed only by our actual incorporation into 
 Christ, we must all become members in order to be 
 saved : that is to say, in order to be saved, there is a 
 necessity for our admission into the Christian Church ; 
 but as this Church itself or Body mystical depends 
 upon and is a consequence of the Incarnation of our 
 Lord, hence it follows that the necessity for our ad- 
 mission into the Church is also a consequence of His 
 Incarnation. 
 
 1 Epli. V. 23. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE BENEFITS OF THE INCARNATION APPLIED THROUGH THE 
 SACRAMENTS OP BAPTISM AND THE HOLT EUCHARIST. 
 
 TN the last Chapter some account was given of the 
 nature of the mystical Body or Church of Christ, 
 showing that the necessity for our admission into it 
 was a consequence of the Incarnation : it is proposed 
 now to shoWj that into this Body we are admitted when 
 we are made members of Christ in Baptism, and that 
 the benefits of the Incarnation are applied to us indi- 
 vidually through that and the other Holy Sacrament. 
 
 " Baptism (says Hooker) is a Sacrament which 
 God hath instituted in His Church, to the end that 
 they which receive the same, might thereby be incor- 
 porated into Christ, and so through His most precious 
 merit obtain as well that saving grace of imputation, 
 which taketh away all former guiltiness, as also that 
 infused Divine virtue of the Holy Ghost, which giveth 
 to the powers of the soul their first disposition towards 
 future newness of life.^' Hence it is that the Holy 
 Spirit, which is the distinguishing Gift of the Gospel 
 Dispensation," is so often mentioned in Scripture as 
 being first imparted and made over to us in Baptism ; 
 for therein it is that He takes possession of the souls 
 
26 PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 and bodies of believers^ as tliey severally become 
 members of Clirist^s Body. In Christ were all "cir- 
 cumcised with, the Circumcision made without hands " 
 in Baptism^ which Baptism He Himself instituted 
 for the very purpose^ that we might become mem- 
 bers of His Body. For we could no more unite 
 ourselves to Him than we could create ourselves. It 
 must be the work of God alone. Our new birth in 
 grace, just as much as our first birth in nature, is His 
 free gift_, the j)urchase of the Redeemer's Blood. There- 
 fore He ordained a Sacrament for the very purpose of 
 uniting us to His own Incarnate Person, and so to His 
 mystical Body the Church, by the power of the Holy 
 Ghost. To the Corinthians the Apostle says, " By one 
 Spirit are we all" (rather, "were we all") "baptized into 
 one Body — and were all made to drink into one Spirit ';" 
 and immediately afterwards he says to the same 
 Corinthians, '^Now ye are the Body of Christ, and 
 members in particular." Each one of them was a 
 separate member of Him, and they all together made 
 up His entire Body. " Baptism doth now save us "." 
 " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved," for 
 in his Baptism he is ' made a member of Christ,' and 
 so admitted into that " Body " of which " Christ is the 
 Saviour :" into that Church of which it is said that 
 " the Lord added to the Church daily such as were 
 being saved." 
 
 So long as we are not baptized into Christ, we are 
 not yet members of His Body natural, and, therefore, 
 neither are we members of His Body mystical, which is 
 1 1 Cor. xii. 13. 2 1 Peter iii. 21. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 27 
 
 the Churchy the kingdom of heaven in the new creation. 
 For into this kingdom we can enter only by a new 
 birth; as our Lord says in His conversation with 
 Nicodemus, " Except a man be born again/^ or^ " from 
 above/' which He Himself explains to mean " of water 
 and the Spirit^ he cannot see " or " enter into the king- 
 dom of God;" and St. Paul declares the same truth 
 in a passage which might be a comment on these words 
 of our Lord. He says^ God " saved us by the wash- 
 ing" (literally "by the bath" or "laver") '^ of regene- 
 ration and renewing of the Holy Ghost ^" And whereas 
 our Lord had mentioned water in connexion with the 
 Spirit^ as that whereof we are to be born again^ so His 
 Apostle here explains this water to mean the bath or 
 laver, thereby giving a definite meaning to the word 
 " water " as used by our Lord^ and so preventing us 
 from explaining it to mean any thing else than the 
 water of Baptism. And whereas it is by our becoming 
 members of our Lord's Body^ that our ftdlen human 
 nature undergoes its renewal, so as to be again after 
 the image of its Creator, having in that Body " put on 
 the new man, which after God is created in righteous- 
 ness and true holiness *," so the Apostle assures us that 
 " God saved us " not only " by the laver of regenera- 
 tion," but also by the " renewing of the Holy Ghost," 
 that is, a renewing effected by the Holy Ghost, in the 
 first instance in the laver itself of regeneration, wherein 
 we " were washed, sanctified,^ justified ;" though there 
 may be a continued renewing or purifying of the same 
 renewed nature going on and increasing progressively, 
 3 Titus iii. 5. » Eph. iv. 24. 
 
28 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 day by day, ever afterwards tlirougli life, still by the 
 operation of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 St. PauFs words plainly imply that the renewal of 
 our nature first took place in Baptism. For as he 
 joins " the renewing ^^ with " the washing," and as the 
 one verb which applies to them both is in the past 
 tense *_, " He saved us," therefore it seems clear that 
 he is speaking of one past definite act, " the washing " 
 and " the renewing " being respectively the outward 
 and the inward parts of that one act ; and that the 
 renewing there spoken of is nothing less than the 
 renewal and restoration of our nature, which is then 
 begun in the laver of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. 
 And in this sense St. Chrysostom ^ comments on these 
 same words of St. Paul. He says, " How were we im- 
 mersed in wickedness, so that we could not be purified, 
 but needed a new birth ! for this is implied by 
 'Regeneration.' God has not repaired us, but made 
 us anew ; for this is ' the renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost.' He has made us new men. How ? ' By His 
 Spirit ^'" 
 
 Therefore, the " renewing " there spoken of by St. 
 Paul, must be understood to refer to that regenerated, 
 renewed, restored nature which is granted to us in 
 Baptism, and with which we are then for the first time 
 endued, through the operation of the Holy Spirit ; and 
 then it is that it may be said of us, that " if any man 
 be in Christ" (that is, a member of Him), "he is a new 
 
 * And that past tense is tlie Aorist. 
 
 * Archbishop of Constantinople, a.d. 397. 
 
 " See also his conunent on Gal. iii. 27, 28, in sec. viii. p. 153. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 29 
 
 creature*/' and that "ye have put off" (rather^ "ye 
 put off ^/' referring to a definite past act taking place at 
 a particular time^ \dz. at Baptism)^ "ye put off the old 
 man with his deeds, and put on the new man which is 
 [being] renewed ' in knowledge after the image of Him 
 that created him */' 
 
 And as our spiritual life is first received through our 
 membership with Christ in Baptism, so is the same 
 spiritual life afterwards increased and strengthened ever 
 more and more, by participation of Him in the Holy 
 Communion of His own blessed Body and Blood. As 
 He says Himself, "Whoso eateth My Flesh and drinketh 
 My Blood hath eternal life." He hath it already; not 
 he shall have it ; he hath it as soon as he eateth His 
 Flesh and di'inketh His Blood ; he has then received 
 within him a strengthening of the principle of eternal 
 life, and a more assured earnest of it ; " for My Flesh 
 is meat indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed." He 
 then next explains how this is so. It is because it 
 brings us into such close union and contact with 
 Him, investing us still more and more with His 
 sanctified human nature, so that He should be really 
 in us and we really in Him ; " he that eateth My Flesh 
 and drinketh My Blood dwelleth in Me and I in him." 
 And hereby that spiritual relationship and inter-depend- 
 ence is ever more and more strengthened and matured ; 
 so as to be made to resemble even that which subsists 
 between His own Eternal Father and Himself; " as the 
 
 » 2 Cor. V. 17. ' The Aorist. 
 
 ' avaKaiyovtJ.(yoy, being grndnally (that is to say, from day to day) 
 renewed. * Col. iii. 9, 10. 
 
30 PLAIN SCEIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 Living Father hath sent Me^ and I live by the Father : 
 so he that eateth Me^ even he shall live by Me." 
 
 Our Saviour came on earth to give Himself not only 
 for us as our ransom^ but actually to us as our life ; 
 and that life was to be bestowed on each individually, 
 through a sacramental yet real and actual union with 
 Him in His human nature, at first in Baptism, wherein 
 we receive our first sanctification, the germ of spiritual 
 life, the seed of immortality; and then afterwards, by 
 participation of that same human nature as His Flesh 
 and Blood, in Holy Communion. As He says Himself, 
 " He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me,^^ and, 
 " The Bread which I will give is My Flesh, which I 
 will give for the life of the world.'^ And so essential 
 is this Flesh and Blood for our spiritual life, that He 
 declares, in words the most solemn, that without it 
 we can have no life in us. " Verily, verily, I say unto 
 you, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, and 
 drink His Blood, ye have no life in you.^^ And that 
 we may have no doubt whatever when and how we do 
 eat this Flesh and di'ink this Blood of oui' Lord, His 
 Apostle who had received the Gospel by revelation 
 directly from Christ Himself, expressly says, ^^The 
 Cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the Com- 
 munion of the Blood of Christ ? the Bread which 
 we break, is it not the Communion of the Body of 
 Christ?" And as by partaking of His Flesh and 
 Blood we become one with Him, and He with us'; 
 
 3 " Then we spiritually eat the Flesh of Christ, aud driuk His Blood ; 
 then we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us ; we are one with Clmst, and 
 Christ with us." (Exhortation in the Office for the Holy Communion.) 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 31 
 
 SO also do we all, by tlie same Communion, become 
 one with each other; for the Apostle adds, "For we 
 being many are one bread and one body ; for we are 
 all partakers of that one Bread*." Thus "in Him was 
 life," both because we are grafted into Him, as the 
 Second Adam, the Divine Head of our regenerate race, 
 and so derive from Him our first spiritual life; and 
 also because we have that spiritual life evermore re- 
 newed and strengthened by partaking of Hira — His 
 Flesh and Blood — in His mystical Body the Church. 
 He is " the Bread which cometh down from Heaven ;" 
 not merely "which came down," but '^'^ which cometh 
 down " still day by day, and evermore will come down, 
 even unto the end of the world, " that a man may eat 
 thereof and not die." He is "the Living" — the life- 
 giving — "Bread, of which," as He says Himself, "he 
 that eateth shall live for ever, and I will raise him up 
 at the last day." 
 
 Thus much respecting the Sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper seemed necessary to be here introduced; I 
 now return to what is more directly the subject of this 
 Treatise. 
 
 * 1 Cor. X. 16, 17. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE ANALOGY OF THE FIRST AND THE SECOND ADAM. 
 
 "\T7"HAT we liave been considering in the last two 
 ' ' Cliapters will be made still plainer by a view of 
 the analogy of tbe first and the Second Adam^ although 
 this view has not been altogether lost sight of in the two 
 preceding Chapters. Whereas from that consideration 
 we saw that the two Gospel Sacraments are a necessary 
 sequel of the Incarnation, we shall now perceive, that as 
 our death and ruin were by descent from the first Adam, 
 so our restoration to life is by descent from the Second 
 Adam, through Sacramental union with Him. 
 
 As our membership with the first Adam gives us 
 our natural birth, so our membership with the Second 
 Adam gives us our spiritual birth, which is our regene- 
 ration. " The first man Adam was made a living soul, 
 the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit." This 
 new gift of membership with our Divine Head, which 
 is the beginning of our spiritual life, and must be, in 
 the first instance, purely a free gift of the power and 
 grace of God, lifts us up into the new creation, in the 
 mystical Body of Christ. From the first Adam we 
 began a descent by the way of nature, in the old 
 creation ; from the Second Adam we began a descent 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 38 
 
 by the way of grace, in a new creation. "When the 
 Son of God became incarnate, and was made Man, He 
 commenced afresh the long line of human beings ; so 
 that what we had lost in Adam, viz. to be according 
 to the image and likeness of God, that we might 
 recover in Christ Jesus ^.'' That supernatural grace, 
 which is now the principle of spiritual life to us all, 
 first dwelt in full measure in the Divine Head of our 
 race, and then flowed forth from His Manhood into all 
 His members, for the renewal of the whole family of 
 mankind, who should receive Him and beheve in His 
 Name. ^'To them gave He power to become sons of 
 God, who are born not,^^ as in the natural birth, "of 
 blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
 man, but of God,^^ that is, of God the Holy Ghost in 
 Baptism, as this passage was very generally under- 
 stood in the early, undivided Church. 
 
 The salvation of the children of Adam may be said 
 to be owing to the fact, that into his fallen nature 
 there has been introduced from above the principle 
 and influence of a higher nature in the Person of Christ, 
 through the agency of the Holy Spirit; for through 
 that Divine agency Christ^s sanctified Humanity exerts 
 its renewing power and influence on the defiled 
 humanity of His brethren. And through the union 
 of Godhead and Manhood in His Person there has 
 been infused into that Manhood such grace as sufliced 
 for the renewal of all His brethren throughout all 
 generations. His Manhood is the true seed of our 
 renewed nature : it is by it that He Who is One with 
 1 St. Irenseus. 
 
 D 
 
34 PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 the Fatlier is One also with, us, and thus we have " our 
 fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus 
 Christ ^" " Doth any man doubt (asks Hooker) but 
 that even from the flesh of Christ our very bodies do 
 receive that life which shall make them glorious at the 
 latter day, and for which they are already accounted 
 parts of His Blessed Body ? Our corruptible bodies 
 could never live the life they shall live, were it not that 
 here they are joined to His Body, which is incorruptible, 
 and that His Body is in ours as a cause of immortality. 
 .... The mixture of His flesh with ours they [the 
 Fathers] speak of, to signify what our bodies, through 
 mystical conjunction, receive from that vital eSicacy 
 which we know to be in His.^^ 
 
 Our salvation by the renewed nature imparted to us 
 in Christ stands over against our ruin by the fallen 
 nature oi'iginally imparted to us in Adam, by reason of 
 our descent from him ; and the fact that our Lord is 
 called the Second Adam, as it implies a new descent 
 from Him, so does it imply also the communication of 
 His nature, that is, of our human nature renewed in 
 Him, to all the generations of His kindred. 
 
 By our first birth we partake of that old nature 
 which we derive by descent from the first Adam : we 
 are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh; by our 
 second birth we partake indeed of the same nature, but 
 now sanctified and renewed in Christ. So that "if 
 any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ^." " For we 
 are His workmanship, created" (literally, " having been 
 created") "in Christ Jesus ^" For now Jesus Christ, 
 
 2 1 Joliu i. 3. 3 2 Cor. v. 17. ■• Epli. ii, 10. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 35 
 
 as the God Incarnate, is to us in the new creation what 
 Adam was in the old. " The first man is of the earth, 
 earthy: the Second Man is the Lord from Heaven. 
 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall 
 also bear the image of the Heavenly''." For, "whom 
 God did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be con- 
 formed to the image of His Son." 
 
 This conformity of God's people to the image of His 
 Sou, by the renewal of their nature in Him, was the 
 object of the Father's predestinating and electing grace, 
 as contemplated by Him even before the creation of the 
 world. " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual 
 blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He 
 hath chosen us in Him, before the foundation of the 
 world, that we should be holy and without blame before 
 Him in love : having predestinated us unto the adop- 
 tion of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according 
 to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the 
 glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted 
 ■in the Beloved ^." For it is only as we are in the 
 Beloved Son that we can be accepted of the Father. 
 It had been fore-ordained, in the determinate counsels 
 of God, that the race of man, which would become de- 
 praved in Adam, should be re-created and renewed in 
 Christ, who thenceforward would be a new Head of that 
 race thus re-created and renewed in Him. It was the 
 Father's predestinating will and counsel, that in the 
 fulness of time the line of the first Adam should be 
 restored in His own Eternal Son in our natm'e ; that in 
 ' 1 Cor. XV. 47. -19. e Eph. i. 3—6. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 PLAm SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 Him as the Son of Man, the Second Adam, our human 
 nature should be fashioned anew after the likeness of 
 God, which had been lost in the first parent of our 
 race. By our union with Christ, then, we are made the 
 brethren of Him our Elder Brother, who thus becomes 
 "the First-born among many brethren,^^ the Divine 
 Head of a new family of kindred, ^Hhe Beginning of the 
 creation of God " in a new Dispensation ''. Thus, on the 
 only two occasions on which St. Paul speaks of the 
 predestination of the elect, he expressly refers such 
 predestination to that mercy of God, whereby He had 
 pre-appointed that the objects of such mercy should be 
 brought into membership with Christ j that in Him 
 they might be made the sons of God and brethren of 
 the Eternal Son, and so conformed to His image and 
 likeness. "Whom He did foreknow He also did pre- 
 destinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that 
 He might be the First-born among many brethren* ;^^ 
 and. He " predestinated us unto the adoption of children 
 by Jesus Christ to Himself','^ all which privileges and 
 blessings are just those, as we elsewhere learn, which 
 become our own when we are made members of Christ 
 in Baptism, and admitted into His spiritual kingdom. 
 
 And therefore it is in like language as the above, 
 that the same Apostle speaks of Election. " From the 
 beginning " God predestined the election of His people 
 into the Church, the mystical Body of His Incarnate 
 Son, that as members of that Body they might be " an 
 offering acceptable, being (that is, by having been) 
 
 7 Rev. iii. 14. « Rom. viii. 29. 
 
 9 Eph. i. 5. 11. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 37 
 
 sanctified by tlie Holy Ghost V' and so '^be holy and 
 without blame ;" as in the passage already quoted, 
 " The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . hath 
 blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places 
 in Ghrist," that is, as in union and membership with 
 Him, " according as He hath chosen " or elected " us 
 in Him, before the foundation of the world, that we 
 should be holy and without blame before Him in love;'' 
 and as the same Apostle writes to the Thessalonians, 
 " God hath from the beginning chosen " or elected 
 "you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit 
 and belief of the truth ^.■" Hence it is that, in strict 
 accordance with his language in these passages, the 
 Apostle, when writing to those who had been baptized 
 into Christ, addresses them all, — not certain individuals 
 of them, — but whole Churches as "the elect *,^' and 
 "the election of God''," and as having been "sanctified 
 in Christ Jesus ^" And in like manner St. Peter 
 addresses whole bodies of Christians, "the strangers 
 scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, 
 and Bithynia," as " elect according to the foreknow- 
 ledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the 
 Spirit ^" Thus, the election of God's people into the 
 Church, that therein they might " be sanctified,^' and 
 made " holy and without blame before Him," that is, 
 hallowed and renewed in Christ through the sancti- 
 fying power of the Holy Ghost, was a work of grace 
 predetermined by the Father even " from the begin- 
 
 1 Rom. XV. 16. 2 2 Thess. ii. 13. 
 
 3 Col. iii. 12. * 1 Thess. i. 4. 
 
 ' 1 Cor. i. 2. 6 2. Pet. i. 2. 
 
38 PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 uing :" for " known unto God are all His works from 
 tlie beginning of the world ^" 
 
 Before all time the Almighty God had predestinated 
 the election, in time, of His people into the Church, 
 the mystical Body of His Son, whom He fore-ordained 
 to send into the world, that by union with His purified 
 Humanity our defiled humanity might be restored, 
 l^eing sanctified and healed in Him. In His own 
 eternal counsels the Father pre-determined our renewal 
 in Christ, from Whom, as a Second Adam of our race, 
 we were to begin a new descent in a renewed humanity. 
 Now therefore we are " in Christ Jesus, Who of God 
 is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sancti- 
 fication, and redemption^." The Father made Him to 
 be first our redemption, and then our sanctification. 
 It was His eternal purpose to heal our nature by sancti- 
 fying it " in Christ Jesus." For Jesus came to save 
 us, not only as our Redeemer, but likewise (as His 
 Name also seems to imply) as our Healer, the Healer 
 of our corrupt humanity. "Jesus means among the 
 Hebrews ^a Saviour,^ but in the Greek tongue ^a 
 Healer,^ seeing that He is the Physician of souls and 
 bodies, and Curer of spirits'." 
 
 Now if we keep in mind that the bodily diseases 
 which our Lord cured on earth, were really and de- 
 signedly typical or representative of corresponding- 
 spiritual diseases which He came down from Heaven 
 
 ' Acts XV. 18. s 1 Cor. i. 30. 
 
 8 St. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, a.d. 350. Elsewhere he says, 
 " Fitly is He called Jesus, deriving His Name from His salutary medi- 
 cine," anh Idcreuis. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 39 
 
 on purpose to cure in us all^ we shall see an especial 
 significance in several passages of Scripture^ where He 
 is said to heal the sick ; for we find this same word 
 used to denote the healing not only of the diseased 
 bodjj but also of the diseased soul, the soul affected by 
 some spiritual infirmity. As where our Lord says, 
 " This people^s heart is waxed gross . . . lest they should 
 understand with their heart, and should be converted, 
 and I should heal them '." Here it is the heart of the 
 people which is expressly said to be affected with a 
 spiritual disease, and such as requires that they should 
 be converted, as a condition preparatory to His healing 
 them. And so likewise when it is said, in the same 
 passage, that '' their ears are dull of hearing, and their 
 eyes have they closed," it is clear that these expres- 
 sions also must be equally intended to designate some 
 spiritual diseases represented by such corresponding 
 bodily ailments; for the conversion here required is 
 mentioned in reference to all these expressions alike. 
 Again, oui' Lord says, '' The Spirit of the Lord is upon 
 Me, because He hath . . . sent Me, to heal the broken- 
 hearted V^ not to comfort or encourage them merely, 
 but to heal them, to heal such whose hearts were 
 broken or oppressed with the burden of conscious 
 guilt. Elsewhere it is said, " The whole multitude 
 sought to touch Him; for there went virtue out of 
 Him, and healed them all \" Here apparently is meant 
 to be indicated the Sacramental Touch of our Lord's 
 sacred Person, as that whereby He would hereafter, in 
 
 » Matt. xiii. 15. 2 Luke iv. 18. 
 
 a Luke \-i. 19. 
 
40 PLAm SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 His spiritual kingdom^ heal the souls and bodies of His 
 people. For the virtue proceeding out of His Body is 
 so mentioned^ in this instance^ in connexion with that 
 Touchy as to appear to have been a consequence of it ; 
 and^ be it observed^ it is that virtue itself which actually 
 healed the multitude. It is not said that our Lord 
 cured thenij as, He might have done^ by a word spoken ; 
 but that it was the virtue going out of His Body by 
 reason of the Touch which healed them ; not " restored 
 them to health/' or " made them whole/' or " saved " 
 them_, but specially healed them. Their bodies were 
 healed through contact with His Body^ directly by that 
 virtue fiovv^ing into them which went out of Him — out 
 of His sanctified human nature. Again : to quote one 
 passage more, and this from an Epistle_, St. Peter says 
 of Christ, " Who His own self bare our sins in His own 
 Body on the tree ... by Whose stripes ye were healed ^." 
 Here we observe that in this passage it is not said, 
 that by these stripes — ^by our Lord's sufferings and 
 death — ye were " saved/' though they were indeed 
 saved by them ; but the Apostle appears to be inspired 
 to employ a word which should indicate the particular 
 manner, in connexion with the bruised Body of our 
 Lord, in which they were saved ; that it was by a means 
 or process of healing. And let us assuredly believe 
 that this word really indicates the special mode in 
 which all God's redeemed people are saved. The 
 Incarnate Word, having redeemed them by His death 
 upon the Cross, then takes them sacramentally into 
 Himself — into His own sanctified Humanity, which 
 4 1 Pet. ii. 24. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 41 
 
 thus becomes the seed or principle of their renewed 
 humanity ; and so He heals them ; He sanctifies and 
 heals their human nature thus brought into union with 
 His own ; and so He saves them. That is^ He first 
 sanctifies them and thereby heals them, and so He 
 saves them. He saves them by healing them. 
 
 In th'e passages above given (and many more might 
 be cited) we find that the original word used is that 
 which means to " heal/^ being that which appears to 
 be allied to the Name Jesus in its Greek signification. 
 Our Blessed Lord came to be our Saviour not alone by 
 redeeming us, but also by healing our sinful nature; 
 for this is that one great infirmity, which, in whatever 
 various forms it might manifest itself, was common to 
 us all, and which required no less a Physician than 
 God Himself to heal it by Sacramental union with His 
 own Incarnate Person. For this work of healing the 
 souls and bodies of His people, by sanctifying and 
 renewing them in Himself, was to be efiected through 
 the medium of a Sacramental system ordained by Him- 
 self for that purpose. In Baptism we were to be 
 united to Him by a new birth of water and the Spirit : 
 in the Holy Eucharist this union was to be consum- 
 mated by continual participation of Him ; and all this 
 through the power of the Holy Spirit working effectu- 
 ally in those Sacraments. Therefore now being " born 
 from above," "born of God," and so united to our 
 Divine Head, we may in virtue of this union be said 
 even now to be made " partakers of the Divine nature ^," 
 and now again, in a higher sense than at the first 
 5 2 Pet. i. 4. 
 
42 PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 creation^ it may be said of man, tliat " he is tlie image 
 and the glory of God ^" 
 
 By virtue of this union with the Body of our In- 
 cat*nate Lord we in our Baptism did, as it were^ die 
 together with Him^ we were buried together with 
 Him, and were raised up together with Him. Our 
 Baptism, in fact, gave us an interest in His death. 
 His burial, and His resurrection'^. He raised us up 
 when we were Ipng dead in our old nature : He 
 brought His own human sanctified Body to bear 
 upon our body : He applied it to us, so that by con- 
 tact and union with it we might be restored to life. 
 We had died by contact with the body of Adam, we 
 were raised to life by contact with the Body of 
 Christ. He united Himself to us in a Sacramental 
 union, so that we became one with Him, very " mem- 
 bers of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.^^ 
 Thus, being perfect Man, He measured Himself by our 
 measure : He took not on Him a nature above ours : 
 but, in unspeakable condescension, He took on Him 
 the seed of Abraham, that in all things He might be 
 made like unto His brethren. So He applied His 
 Life-giving Body to our dead body, that He might 
 raise it up. He was to us as the true Elijah, " God the 
 Lord;" as he who, though man yet bearing the 
 Name of God, "stretched himself" (literally, "mea- 
 sured himself") "upon the child three times," fitting 
 limb to limb, contracting in marvellous manner his own 
 full-grown stature, that he might adapt it to the 
 stature of the child_, whom he was about to raise from 
 
 6 1 Cor. xi, 7. " See Kom. vi. 3, 4; aud Col. ii. 12. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 43 
 
 death to life^ thus imparting life from his own body to 
 that of this Gentile child : " and the soul of the child 
 came into him again, and he revived ^ ;" so he raised 
 him up. He raised to life the dead Gentile. 
 
 And in His own good time Christ shall also here- 
 after, as the true Elisha, '' God who saves," raise to 
 life the dead Jew, but still after the same manner. It 
 must still be by bringing His own Living Body into 
 contact and union with the body of him who is to be 
 raised. None can raise up our ruined human nature, 
 but the very God Incarnate : no minister or messenger 
 of His apart from Himself. Not Elisha^s servant, even 
 when furnished with Elisha's own staff, and that staff 
 laid upon the face of the child, could avail to raise this 
 Jewish child to life. Elisha, that eminent type of 
 Jesus, " God the Saviour,^^ must himself go. ^^ And he 
 went up and lay upon the child, and put his mouth 
 upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his 
 hands upon his hands ; and he stretched himself upon 
 the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm^" 
 So he raised to life the dead Jew \ 
 
 8 1 Kings xvii. 21, 22. 9 2 Kings iv. 31, 34. 
 
 ^ " The son of the hostess of the man of God was dead, and his staff 
 was sent by his servant, and laid vipon his face, but he did not revive. — 
 Let then Elisha come : let him come himself in his own person, himself 
 enter into the woman's house, go up to the child, find him dead, conform 
 himself to the members of the dead child, himself not dead but living. 
 For this he did : he laid his face upon his face, &c. — he straitened, he 
 contracted himself, being great he made himself little. ' For being in 
 the form of God, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.' 
 What is. He conformed Himself, Alive to the dead ? Hear the Apostle, 
 ' God sent His Son.' This is to conform Himself, Alive to the dead, to 
 come to us in the likeness of flesh of sin, not in the flesh of sin. Man 
 lay dead in a flesh of sin, the Likeness of flesh of sin conformed Himself 
 
44 
 
 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 Thus all men^ Gentile and Jew^ must alike be raised 
 from tlieir state of deatli by tlie Body of the Incarnate 
 Son of God^ and by that Body applied^ through Sacra- 
 mental contact and union, to their ruined human 
 nature. *' For He is our peace, who hath made 
 both " (Jew and Gentile) " one, and hath broken 
 down the middle wall of partition between us ; having 
 abolished in His flesh the enmity . . , for to make m 
 Himself of twain one new man " (a renewed humanity 
 for both alike), ^^so making peace ^." 
 
 Therefore mere faith in Christ, without union with 
 Him, is of no avail for our salvation. We must be 
 severally united to His Body, as branches grafted into 
 the vine are united to that vine, and derive from it 
 alone their life and nourishment. He is the Vine and 
 we are the branches, and we can no more have life 
 except as we are in and abide in Him, than can the 
 branch except as it is in and abides in the vine. "We 
 must not merely believe in Christ, we must also our- 
 selves be personally in Him. How repeatedly under 
 the similitude of the vine does our Lord insist on the 
 necessity of our being in Him, and abiding in Him, 
 and bringing forth fruit accordingly, if we are to be 
 saved. " I am the true Yine (He says), and My Father 
 is the Husbandman : every branch in Me that beareth 
 not fruit He taketh away. . . . Abide in Me, and I in 
 you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except 
 it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide 
 
 to him. And how should it (the flesh of sin) rise again, had not He who 
 had no sin, conforming Himself to the dead, come to the likeness of the 
 flesh of sin." (St. Augustine.) 
 ' Eph. ii. 14, 15. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 45 
 
 in Me. . . . He that abideth in Me^ and I in him, the 
 same bringeth forth much fruit : for without Me " 
 (rather, ^'' apart or separate from Me^^^) "^^ye can do 
 nothing. If a man [if any one] abide not in Me, he is 
 cast forth as a branch, and is withered*." 
 
 Thus, we must not merely believe in Christ ; for we 
 might believe in Him, and be ourselves personally 
 external to Him, apart or separate from Him, as the 
 branch from the Vine. Our faith, to be of avail for 
 our salvation, must bring us to Christ and lead us to 
 become members of Him. For if, notwithstanding our 
 faith, we are still external to Him, we can have no 
 Scriptural ground of hope for forgiveness or reconcilia- 
 tion through His Blood : we can have no part or lot, 
 by covenant title, in that salvation which He has pur- 
 chased for us. "We are to believe and acknowledge, 
 that as God the Father doth neither forgive nor vouch- 
 safe reconciliation, but for the merits and satisfaction of 
 His only Son ; so neither will He vouchsafe to convey 
 this or any other blessing unto us, which His Son has 
 purchased for us, but only through His Son : not only 
 through Him as our Advocate or Intercessor, but 
 through Him as our Mediator — that is, through His 
 Humanity, as the organ or conduit, or as the only 
 bond by which we are united and reconciled unto the 
 Divine nature"." 
 
 We must therefore both believe in Christ and also 
 be baptized into Him; as He Himself has declared, 
 "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." 
 
 2 XO'p'i-s e'/uoi). ^ John xv. 1—6. 
 
 5 Dr. Jackson on the Creed. 
 
46 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 
 
 " Baptism is generally necessary to salvation," tliat is, 
 it is necessary to the salvation of all where it may be 
 had, because it is our Lord^s own appointed ordinance, 
 whereby, and whereby only, we are declared in Scrip- 
 ture to be admitted as members of His Body, in which 
 alone we can be saved. For inasmuch as we "were 
 baptized into Jesus Christ ''," so in the same laver 
 "were we all baptized into One Body'." And as 
 " there is none other name under Heaven given among 
 men whereby we must be saved ^," but only the Name 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, so neither is there any other 
 way made known to us in the Scriptures of truth, 
 whereby that Name can be made available for our 
 salvation, but only by om* becoming very incorporated 
 members of Him in His mystical Body the Church. 
 
 <i Piom. vi. 3. ' 1 Cor. xii. 13. 
 
 s Acts iv. 12. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OUR lord's conversation with NICODEMUS : ST. JOHN 
 III. 3 — 5 CONSIDERED. 
 
 /^UR Lord says to Nicodemus, " Verily, verily, I say 
 ^-^ unto thee, Except a man be born again, lie cannot 
 see the Kingdom of God." The word here translated 
 "again'' means also, in the original, "from above," 
 and it is in this latter sense that it is used by St. John 
 in every other passage where it occurs in his Gospel 
 and Epistles; therefore in this passage that meaning 
 must not be excluded. When our Lord repeats His 
 words He omits the word " again " (or " from above,") 
 but as He supplies the words " of water and the Spirit," 
 it would appear that He meant these words to express 
 what the word "again" or "from above" had pre- 
 viously expressed, and to be an explanation of it. 
 Man's first birth was a natural birth ; but in order to 
 enter into the Kingdom of God he must be born a 
 second time, but this time his birth must be " from 
 above," that is, " of water and the Spirit." 
 
 It is therefore apparently with design that our Lord 
 here uses a word with a double meaning, nor is it the 
 only instance in which a word with such a double 
 
48 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 meaning is employed by Him ; and no doubt He has 
 a Divine reason for this use of it in every single 
 instance. Thus, when we are taught in His own 
 Trayer to ask, "Thy Kingdom come,'^ we pray for 
 the enlargement and final perfection of the Church 
 or Kingdom of God, and we also pray for the increase 
 of our own personal religion to make us fit subjects 
 of that Kingdom : " the Kingdom of God is within 
 you\''^ So also when we ask, "Deliver us from evil," 
 as the word " evil," in the original, means " the evil 
 one " as well as evil in the abstract, therefore in using 
 this petition we are praying against evil in both these 
 senses : to say nothing of other possible meanings 
 which may be involved in this or in other petitions of 
 of the Lord^s Prayer. And there are in the New 
 Testament several other instances of a like kind. So 
 here in St. John iii. 3, as the word rendered " again " 
 means not only " again," but also " from above," there- 
 fore we may reasonably infer that each of these mean- 
 ings is intended by our Lord to be included in that 
 word, and to have its own proper place and application 
 in the interpretation of this passage. 
 
 It should be further noted on the words of our Lord 
 in this same passage, that as He says a person must 
 " be born of water and the Spirit," the original word 
 here translated o/^ implies that the "water and the 
 Spirit" are the immediate cause of the new birth, just 
 as it is elsewhere said that a person is "born of God." 
 Nowhere in Scripture is this spiritual birth, when from 
 any indirect or remote cause, expressed by the word 
 
 ' Luke xvii. 21. - «'«. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 49 
 
 whicli is liere rendered " of," but by a word ' which, is 
 properly rendered hy or through; as where St. Paul 
 says, "In Christ Jesus I begat you through the 
 Gospel */' that is, by preaching or making known to 
 you the Gospel of Christ. And St. Peter says, " Being 
 born again" (rather, "having been born again") "not 
 of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, hij (or through) 
 the word of God ^" "Where we have the " of" and the 
 " by ® " contrasted : " of incorruptible seed," meaning 
 the immortal seed implanted in them by the Holy 
 Spirit, the direct Agent, in Baptism ; and " hy (or 
 through) the word of God," implying the indirect or 
 remote means, the Gospel scheme preached or made 
 known to them, whereby they were brought to believe 
 in the Saviour and to be baptized into Him. And in 
 the same sense St. James says, " Of His own will 
 begat He us ivith (or by) the word of truth ^" Here 
 observe again, we were not begotten or born of the 
 word of truth, as we were " of water and the Spirit," 
 and " of incorruptible seed," and " of God ;" but, as by 
 a secondary or remote cause, " ivith/' that is, hy or 
 through the means of the true Gospel Dispensation 
 declared or revealed to us. It is not said of any re- 
 mote or indirect cause or agency whatsoever, that a 
 person is born of it ; it is not so said of man's faith or 
 repentance, or of God's love or mercy or compassion 
 for man : these and various other things may be and 
 are mentioned in Scripture as being indirectly causes 
 
 ■' As by the Greek 5(o, or by a dative of the noun. 
 
 ' 1 Cor. iv. 15. ^ 1 Pet. i. 23. 
 
 e The e/c and the 5ta. 7 i. 18. 
 
 E 
 
50 PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 wliereby we are brouglit to become God^s children : 
 tliey are means wliicli in their several ways — one in 
 one way, another in another — work towards that end, 
 and have their share in bringing it about : still we are 
 never said to be born of any of them : they are nowhere 
 spoken of as the direct and immediate cause of our new 
 birth. We may be said to be born " with " or " by " 
 or ^' through ^^ them or some one of them, but not 
 ^^of" them. This is a material distinction, and as it 
 is made by Scripture itself, it is important we should 
 keep it in mind. 
 
 Thus, then, our Lord tells Nicodemus, that except a 
 man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter 
 into or see the kingdom of God. There is a kingdom 
 of God or a kingdom of Heaven, into which all must 
 enter; they must become subjects of the Messiah's 
 spiritual kingdom, members of His Church which was 
 set up on earth, and of this Kingdom or Church He is 
 Himself the Divine King or Hea.d. Of Him it had 
 been said in prophecy, "A King shall reign and 
 prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the 
 earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel 
 shall dwell safely, and this is His Name whereby He 
 shall be called, The Lord our Eighteousness V^ and 
 that " One like the Son of Man came with the clouds 
 of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they 
 brought Him near before Him. And there was given 
 Him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all 
 people, nations, and languages, should serve Him : 
 His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall 
 8 Jer. xxili. 5, 6. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 51 
 
 not pass awaj, and His kingdom that which, shall not 
 be destroyed ^" And He said Himself before Pilate, 
 that '^to this end/^ viz. that He should be a King, 
 He was born, and came into the world, though His 
 kingdom was not to be of this world, but a spiritual 
 kingdom. His forerunner, St. John, and afterwards 
 He Himself as soon as He began His ministry, an- 
 nounced the near advent of this kingdom, and also, at 
 the same time, the disposition which alone would 
 qualify persons to become true members of it : " Ee- 
 pent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." And then, 
 in His conversation with Nicodemus, He explained the 
 mode of entrance into it, that it was to be by a new 
 birth of water and the Spirit. Accordingly, on the 
 Day of Pentecost He set up His kingdom on earth, 
 and upon His mediatorial throne in this kingdom He 
 now sits, and will continue to sit until He has " sub- 
 dued unto Him" all enemies that oppose themselves 
 to Him and to His rule. " For He must reign till He 
 hath put all enemies under His feet\" Into this 
 Kingdom or Church He is now gathering His saints 
 one by one. It is the kingdom of God, which is given 
 to the Son with authority delegated from the Father 
 to rule over it, through His ministers on earth, them- 
 selves vested with authority delegated from Him ; till 
 aU His subjects are gathered in, and the number of the 
 elect is accomplished ', and then He will deliver up the 
 kingdom to God, even the Father : He wiU lay down 
 His authority, and the Father will take back His king- 
 dom, that thenceforth for ever God may be all in all. 
 9 Dan. vii. 13, 14. ' 1 Cor. xv. 25. 
 
 E 2 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BAPTISM THE SACRAMENT WHEREIN WE ARE MADE MEMBERS 
 OP CHRIST, THE CHILDREN OP GOD, AND INHERITORS OP 
 THE KINGDOM OP HEAVEN. 
 
 rpHUS, then. Baptism is the appointed ordinance of 
 admission into the Christian Church, and this our 
 admission into the Church of Christ follows from the 
 fact, that in this ordinance we are baptized into Christ 
 Himself. For as Christ is the Head of the Church 
 which is His Body, so to be baptized into Him is to be 
 baptized into the Church His Body. In Baptism we 
 become members of Christ Himself. " Know ye not 
 (says St. Paul) that your bodies are the members of 
 Christ'.'^ "Now ye are the body of Christ and mem- 
 bers in particular "^P " As many of you as have been 
 baptized into Christ have put on Christ^." On these 
 last words St. Chrysostom thus comments : — " Why 
 does he " (the Apostle) " not say, ' For as many of you 
 as were baptized into Christ were born of God ? ' for 
 this was what strictly went to prove that they were 
 sons. Because he states it in a much more awful point 
 of view. If Christ be the Son of God, and thou hast 
 1 1 Cor. vi. 15. 2 1 Cor. xii. 27. 
 
 ' Gal. iii. 27. 
 
PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 53 
 
 put on Him, thou who hast the Son within thee, and 
 art fashioned after His pattern, hast been brought into 
 one kindred and nature with Him. Verse 28, ' There 
 is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor 
 free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all 
 one in Christ Jesus.'' Having said, 'Ye have put on 
 Christ,' even this does not suffice him, but by way of 
 penetrating more deeply into this union, he comments 
 on it thus, ' Ye are all one in Christ Jesus,' that is, ye 
 have all one form and one mould, even Christ's. 
 What can be more awful than these words ! He that 
 was a Greek or Jew or bondman yesterday, carries 
 about with him the form not of an angel or archangel, 
 but of the Lord of all ; yea, displays in his own person 
 the Christ^." "We are members of His Body," yea 
 (so intimate is the union), " of His flesh, and of His 
 bones \" Thus we are members of Christ; and they 
 who are in Christ, being members of His Body, must 
 needs partake of the Spirit that is in Him, their Head. 
 Neither does the Spirit of Christ only follow iqion, in 
 the sense of coming after, but It certainly accompanies, 
 the Sacrament of Baptism, when duly administered 
 according to His institution, " For (says the Apostle) 
 by One Spirit were we all baptized into one Body ^" 
 
 "• And see his comment on Titus iii. 5, in section v. page 28. 
 
 5 Eph. V. 30. 
 
 " " Now his meaning is this : That which hath established us to 
 become one body, and hath regenerated us, is One Spirit : for not by One 
 Spirit was one baptized, and another by another. And not only is That 
 Which hath baptized us One, but also that unto which He baptized us, 
 that is, for which He baptized us, is one. For we wei-e baptized, not 
 that so many several bodies might be formed, but that we might pre- 
 
54 PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 So that in the very act of Baptism the Spirit unites us 
 to one Body. It makes us indeed members of Chi'ist^s 
 own Body^ and if of His Body, then of His Church or 
 Kingdom, that being all His Body mystical. And 
 therefore all who, coming with proper qualifications, 
 are rightly baptized with water, are at the same time 
 baptized also with the Holy Spirit : they are admitted 
 into the kingdom of God established upon earth, and 
 if it be not their own fault, will as certainly attain at 
 last to that which is in Heaven. 
 
 Again : our membership with Christ implies our 
 sonship in relation to the Father, so that we can now 
 address Him really and truly as Father. '' With the 
 Jews the honour of adoption was one of name only, 
 but here " (with the Christians) " the reality followed 
 also, the cleansing of Baptism, the giving of the Spirit, 
 the furnishing of the other blessings \" " Ye are all 
 the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as 
 many of you as have been baptized into Christ have 
 put on Christ," (rather, *'as many of you as were bap- 
 tized into Christ put on Christ *.") " And because ye 
 
 serve one with another the perfect nature of one body ; that is, in order 
 that we might all be one body, into the same were we baptized." 
 (St. Chrysostom.) 
 
 '' St. Chrysostom. 
 
 8 It should be noted, that the tense of the verb here is the Aorist, 
 not the Perfect ; it simply dAiotes, therefore, the act of Baptism as com- 
 plete in itself, not that act abiding in its effects down to time present, to 
 denote which the verb must have been in the Perfect. When a person 
 is baptized, it cannot be known at the time whether the effects of his new 
 birth will remain with him in a consistent life, or not ; that must depend, 
 under Divine grace, upon the person himself. Consequently the verb or 
 participle referring to a past Baptism is, in the original, commonly in 
 the Aorist; although in the Enghsh Version it has been rendered, in 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 55 
 
 are sons God hath sent forth^* (rather, "God sent forth," 
 viz., at the time when you became His sons) " the Spirit 
 of His Son into yom* hearts, crying, Abba, Father'." 
 Therefore our Lord's Prayer, in which we address God 
 as our Father, is the prayer of the Baptized. In the 
 early Church those persons called Catechumens, who 
 had not yet been baptized, but were under instruction 
 for Baptism, were not suffered to say the Lord's 
 Prayer. None might say it until after Baptism, be- 
 cause till then they had not been made God's children 
 and received the Spirit of adoption. Accordingly our 
 Church, in the Office for the Administration of Bap- 
 several instances, as though it were in the Perfect. The tense of 
 the verb has, of course, an important bearing on the meaning of the 
 passage. 
 
 I have said that to express a past Baptism the Aorist, not the Perfect, 
 is commonly used ; let us now illustrate this distinction in the use of tlie 
 two tenses, by taking the following instance where the Perfect is used. 
 St. John in his First Epistle (iii. 9), says, " Whosoever is born (d yiyev- 
 yrifievos) of God, doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him ; 
 and he cannot sin, because he is born of God," (ew: rod ©eoO yeyivvriTai, 
 that is, " hath been born of God and hath that bu-th abiding in its effects 
 to time present.") Here both the participle and the verb, in the 
 original, are in the Perfect ; and this tense of itself implies that the 
 effects of the man's new birth in Baptism still abide with him, as proved 
 by the consistent life he has been living ever since he was baptized ; 
 therefore such a person does not, yea he cannot, commit sin, that is, 
 habitually. The very tense of the participle or verb would have implied 
 respecting him, that " his seed remaineth in him," even though St. John 
 had not expressly stated it, as in this instance he has. Whereas if the 
 Aorist had been used, it would not of itself have implied that he was 
 living a consistent life, and that his seed remained in him : it would have 
 denoted simply the fact of his new birth, without reference to any abiding 
 results. 
 
 ' Gal. iv. 6 ; see also Eom. viil. 15. " How great this is the initiated 
 know, being with reason bidden to use this word first in the Prayer 
 of the Initiated." (St. Chrysostom.) 
 
56 PLAIN SCKIPTT7RAL THOUGHTS 
 
 tisnij requires the Lord's Prayer to be used not before 
 but immediately after tlie person has been baptized. 
 Wbeatley says^ " Since the Lord's Prayer was pre- 
 scribed by our Saviour to His disciples as a badge of 
 their belonging to Him^ it can never be more reason- 
 able or proper to use it than now^ when a new member 
 and disciple is admitted into His Church. And there- 
 fore, whereas in other OflEices this Prayer is generally 
 placed in the beginning, it is here reserved till after 
 the child is baptized and received solemnly into the 
 Church ; when we can more properly call God ' Our 
 Father ' with respect to the infant, who is now by 
 Baptism made a member of Christ and more peculiarly 
 adopted a child of God. And this is exactly con- 
 formable to the primitive Church ; for the Catechumens 
 were never allowed to use this Prayer, till they had 
 first made themselves sons by Regeneration in the 
 waters of Baptism. For which reason this Prayer is 
 frequently, by the ancient writers, called ' The Prayer 
 of the Regenerate' or 'Believers,' as being, properly 
 speaking, their privilege and birthright." Contem- 
 plating this unspeakable blessing of sonship to God, 
 St. John exclaims, '' Behold, what manner of love the 
 Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be 
 called the sons of God^ !" 
 
 1 1 John iii. 1. " We say the Prayer which the Saviour delivered to 
 His own disciples, with a pure conscience styling God ' Our Father which 
 art in Heaven.' most surpassing loving-kindness of God ! On them 
 who revolted from Him and were in the. very extreme of misery has He 
 bestowed such complete forgiveness of their evil deeds, and so great par- 
 ticipation of grace, as that they should even call Him Father." (St. 
 Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem.) 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 67 
 
 From our sonsliip to God follows our co-lieirsMp 
 with Christ of the heavenly promises. "Wherefore 
 thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, 
 then an heir of God through Christ ^.^' "We are the 
 children of God ; and if children, then heirs ; heirs of 
 God and joint heirs with Christ ^" 
 
 2 Gal. iv. 7. " 3 Kom. viii. 16, 17. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EEMISSION OP SmS IN BAPTISM. 
 
 TF such effects as above are ascribed in Scripture 
 to Baptism, we need not surely be surprised that 
 there is also ascribed to it the remission of sins, of 
 course through the agency of the same Holy Spirit 
 accompanying that Sacrament. Thus when the Jews, 
 who had committed the greatest of all crimes in having 
 killed the Prince of Life, were "pricked in their 
 heart," and inquired '^Men and brethren, what shall 
 we do?" what does St. Peter say in reply even to 
 them ? He says, " Eepent, and be baptized every one 
 of you, in the Name of Jesus Christ, for the remission 
 of sins '." Ajid to Saul, himself also lately an active 
 
 1 " \^Tiat is greater than crucifyiug Christ ? Yet even of this is 
 Baptism a purification. For thus spake Peter to the three tliousand 
 who came to him, and they the crucifiers of the Lord, when they asked 
 and said ' Men and brethren, what shall we do? ' for great is our wound ; 
 thou hast turned our thoughts, Peter, to our fall, in saying ' Ye have 
 killed the Prince of Life.' What salve is there for so great a wound ? 
 What cleansing for so great pollution ? What salvation for so great a 
 death ? To them, I say, Peter saith, ' Repent, and be baptized, each of 
 you, in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord, for the remission of sins, and 
 ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost.' O unspeakable loving- 
 kindness of God ! They look not for salvation, and they are vouchsafed 
 the Holy Ghost. Behold the power of Baptism." (St. Cyril of Jeru- 
 salem.) 
 
PLAIN SCPJPTUEAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 59 
 
 persecutor of the Cliurcli of Christ and so of Christ 
 Himself, but now a convert and believerj though not 
 yet baptized, Ananias says, " Arise, and be baptized, 
 and wash away thy sins^." So remission or washing 
 away of sins is promised even to those who had been 
 the actual slayers and the persecutors of Christ Him- 
 self; as though of Providential purpose; as if in order 
 to teach us that there is no sin, however great, which 
 cannot be washed away by the Blood of Christ in 
 Baptism, that fountain opened for sin and for all 
 uncleanness. Accordingly, the Church from ancient 
 times has professed her faith in this Article, '^1 
 acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins." 
 This, therefore, is now, and has been from very early 
 times, one of the Articles of the Christian Faith. 
 
 - Acts xxii. 16 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 CERTAIN ALLUSIONS IN SCEIPTURE TO THE CLEANSING 
 OFFICE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 TrAEIOUS allusions are made in Scripture, in 
 " manifold ways, to this cleansing office of Holy 
 Baptism. 
 
 1. In one place St. Paul, after describing to his 
 Corinthian converts what they had been before they 
 became Christians, goes on to say, "But ye are 
 washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified ^ -" 
 the original words would be more correctly rendered, 
 ''^But ye were washed,^^ &c., a form of expression 
 which clearly points to some event in their past life, 
 their washing and consequent sanctification and justifi- 
 cation in Baptism. The Apostle had just been remind- 
 ing these Corinthians, that for the unrighteous there 
 was no hope of inheriting the kingdom of God, and 
 that they themselves, some of them at least, had been 
 living very sinful lives, and that they had been of the 
 number of those against whom the kingdom of God 
 was closed, but that since then they had been washed 
 in the waters of Baptism in the Name of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God, and therefore 
 1 1 Cor. vi. 11. 
 
PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS, ETC. Gl 
 
 sanctified, and tlierefore justified. "Be not deceived" 
 (he says) ; " neither fornicators nor idolaters, &c., shall 
 inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of 
 you; but" (since then) "ye were washed, but ye 
 were sanctified, but ye were justified_, in the Name of 
 the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." 
 
 2. And in his Epistle to Titus he uses an argument 
 precisely similar. After enumerating the kind of sins 
 in which men had been habitually indulging before 
 Christ came, he goes on to describe the great change 
 in their condition and prospects, now that Christ had 
 come and they had been baptized into Him, and so 
 regenerated or born anew by the gracious operation of 
 the good Spirit of God in that Holy Sacrament, and 
 therefore justified and made heirs, in hope, of Heaven. 
 Thus therefore was man saved, not by any works of 
 righteousness which he had done or could do, but 
 altogether by God's own unspeakable grace and mercy. 
 The Apostle's words are, "We ourselves also were 
 sometime foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers 
 lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful 
 and hating one another. But after that the kindness and 
 love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by 
 works of righteousness which we have done " (rather, 
 "which we did,") "but according to His mercy He 
 saved us, by the washing " (rather, " by the bath " or 
 " laver ^ ") " of regeneration and renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus 
 Christ our Saviour ; that being justified by His grace, 
 we should be made heirs according to the hope of 
 
 - 5ia \ovTpov. 
 
C2 PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 eternal life'/' Thus,, God iu His great mercy saved us, 
 that isj placed us in a state of salvation : brougM us 
 from under tlie curse, out of tlie state of wrath in 
 which, we were by nature born, into a state of grace, 
 '^ through the laver of regeneration and renewing of 
 the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly," 
 in abundant measure, in that laver, that He might effect 
 therein our renewing, the renewal of our nature. And 
 we, having been thus justified by His grace, are now, 
 as members of Christ, co-heirs with Him of eternal 
 life, in virtue of that sonship which we have obtained 
 from being baptized into Him. As the Church Cate- 
 chism briefly states it, each baptized person is "^made 
 a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor 
 of the kingdom of heaven :" words which indicate a 
 succession of order not of time ; for the person becomes 
 all this in and through the Baptism itself. Having 
 become then " a member of Christ," therefore in virtue 
 of that membership he became at the same time " the 
 child of God," and therefore in virtue of that sonship 
 he became also at the same time " an inheritor of the 
 kingdom of heaven." "We are members of His 
 Body," for we "were baptized into Jesus Christ." 
 And members of Christ are, as such, the children of 
 God. "Ye are all the children of God by faith in 
 Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized 
 into Christ put on Christ." And the children of God 
 are, as such, inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. "If 
 children, then heirs." 
 
 3. But to proceed with the Scripture allusions to the 
 
 3 T:tus iii. 3-7. 
 
ON HOLT BAPTISM. 63 
 
 cleansing oflSce of Baptism. The Apostle saySj " Let 
 us draw near "svith a true heart, in full assurance of faith, 
 having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, 
 and our bodies washed with pure water *," or, as the 
 words should have been rendered, "having had our 
 hearts sprinkled .... and having had our bodies 
 washed," &c., words which also evidently refer to some 
 past event in their lives, their past baptismal sprinkling 
 and washing ; and this, very naturally, was to be to 
 them one special ground of assurance, on which they 
 might venture to draw near in prayer to the throne of 
 God. As though the passage had been, '' Let us draw 
 near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, inas- 
 much as our hearts have been sprinkled from an evil 
 conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." 
 Being no longer aliens and under the wrath of God, 
 but now regenerate and so His sons by adoption and 
 grace, we may (he says) approach Him in that spirit of 
 filial trust and confidence wherewith sons can approach 
 their Father. As he elsewhere says, " For ye have not 
 received" (rather, ^^ye received not *," that is, in your 
 Baptism) " the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye 
 have received" ("ye received") "the Spirit of adop- 
 tion, whereby we cry, Abba, Father ®." 
 
 4. In the Epistle to the Ephesians the same Apostle 
 says, " Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself 
 for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the 
 washing [the laver] of water by the word ^." But as 
 the Church means the body of believers, so it was for 
 
 •» Heb. X. 22. s ixd^ere. 
 
 6 Rom. viii. 15. ^ Eph. v. 25, 2G. 
 
04 PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 them that Christ gave Himself, that He might sanctify 
 and cleanse them with the washing of water by the 
 word ^. 
 
 5. It has already been mentioned that St. Paul 
 speaks of circumcision as a type of Baptism, but differ- 
 ing from it in this important particular, that whereas 
 the old circumcision was a mere carnal ordinance, with- 
 out any spiritual efficacy, " the Circumcision made with- 
 out hands," " the Circumcision of Christ," as he calls it, 
 is followed by the remission of past sins, " the putting 
 off the body of the sins of the flesh." He says, " In 
 Whom also ye are circumcised with the Circumcision 
 made without hands, in the [entire] putting off' the 
 body of the sins of the flesh by the Circumcision of 
 Christ ; buried with Him in Baptism, wherein also ye 
 are risen with Him, through the faith of the operation 
 of God, who hath raised Him from the dead," Here 
 again it is important to observe, that as in the other 
 Scripture passages already cited, which point back to 
 Baptism as a past event that has effected its work of 
 grace on the souls of the believers, so also in this pas- 
 sage all, in the original, is in the past time. Accord- 
 ingly it should be rendered, " ye were circumcised with 
 the Circumcision made without hands, having been 
 buried with Christ in Baptism ;" that is, inasmuch as 
 ye were buried with Christ in your Baptism, " wherein 
 also ye were raised together with Him." Here the 
 
 8 " By tlie laver He washeth her " (the Church's) " uncleanuess. ' By 
 the word,' saith he. What word ? ' In the Name of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' " (St. Chrysostom.) 
 
 ^ aTTSKSvcret. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 65 
 
 Apostle clearly attributes the putting off the body of 
 the sins of the flesh to their having been circumcised 
 with the Circumcision of Christy or, as we might call it, 
 the Christian Circumcision; and this he explains by 
 simply reminding them of the fact that, having been 
 baptized, they had in their Baptism both been buried 
 with Christ and raised again together with Him\ 
 
 6. Very similar is another passage of the Apostle in 
 his Epistle to the Romans, where he says, " Know ye 
 not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus 
 Christ were baptized into His death ? Therefore 
 we are " (it should be " we were '') " buried with 
 Him by Baptism into death :, that like as Christ was 
 raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, 
 even so we also should walk in newness of life. . . . 
 Knowing this, that our old man is^^ (it should be " was ") 
 ''^crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be 
 destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For 
 he that is dead is freed from sin ^." Here, how- 
 ever, it should be noted, that in the last sentence 
 the original word is not " is freed," but "has been 
 
 1 " He saith, ' In the putting quite away,' not ' putting off' mBrely. 
 ' The body of sins,' he means ' the old man.' No longer, he saith, is the 
 Circumcision with the knife, but in Christ Himself; for no hand imparts 
 this Circumcision, as is the case there, but the Spirit. It is the body 
 both in the one case and in the other, but in the one it is carnally, in the 
 other it is spiritually circumcised ; but not as the Jews, for ye have not 
 put otrflesh, but sins. When and where ? In Baptism." (St. Chrysostom.) 
 " We too, who through Him " (Christ) " have come to God, receive not 
 this fleshly circumcision, but the spiritual one. This, since we have been 
 sinners, we received by means of Baptism, through the mercy of God." 
 (St. Justin Martyr.) 
 
 - Rom, vi. 3, 4. 6, 7. 
 
66 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 
 
 justified/' tlie Apostle hereby intimatiug, as it would 
 seem, tliat wlieu a person has been baptized into 
 Jesus Christ, and in that Baptism has had " the body 
 of sin destroyed," he is henceforth, in respect of 
 that body of sin now destroyed or " washed away," 
 in a justified state, that justification following upon 
 the washing as its necessary consequence : just as the 
 same truth is also expressed in Rom. v. 1, where the 
 translation ought to be, " Therefore having been justi- 
 fied," &c., referring to a definite past event. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BAPTISM TYPIFIED BY THE DELUGE AND THE PASSAGE OF 
 
 THE RED SEA. 
 
 TT is not necessary to cite other passages of similar 
 ■^ import^ but it may be worth while to mention, in 
 connexion with this office of Baptism as the appointed 
 ordinance through which is a cleansing or remitting of 
 past defilement and sin, that St. Peter and St. Paul 
 speak of it as being the antitype, of which both the 
 Deluge and the Passage of the Red Sea were types \ 
 St. Peter says, "The ark, wherein few, that is, eight 
 souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto 
 even Baptism doth also now save us *.^' The original 
 word for what is here translated " figure " is " anti- 
 type. ^^ " Of which the antitype even Baptism doth 
 also now save us."- Baptism is the antitype, of which 
 the Deluge was the type. The Deluge saved eight 
 
 • "Almighty aud Everlasting God, Who of Thy great mercy didst save 
 Noah and his family in the Ark from perishing by water ; aud also didst 
 safely lead the children of Israel, Thy people, through the Red Sea, 
 figuring thereby Thy Holy Baptism ; we beseech Thee, for Thine infinite 
 mercies, that Thou wilt mercifully look upou this child : wash him and 
 sanctify him with the Holy Ghost ; that he, being delivered from Thy 
 wrath, may be received into the Ark of Christ's Church," &c. (Collect 
 in the Ministration of the Public Baptism of Infants.) 
 
 •^ 1 Pet. iii. 20, 21. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 persons by water ; Baptism dotli also now save us : it 
 brings us into a state of salvation in wliicli we had not 
 been before. The Deluge saved them by bearing up 
 the ark (a type of the Church), in which they had 
 taken refuge ; Baptism saves us by admitting us into 
 'Hhe Ai'k of Christ's Church/' as our true ark of 
 safety; for there only are we certainly safe; as we 
 read, " The Lord added to the Church daily such as 
 should be saved ^," or, as the words would have been 
 more correctly rendered, "such as were being saved ^;" 
 so that such as were being saved were so by being 
 added to the Church, and it was by Baptism that they 
 were so added to it, for in verse 41 it is stated that 
 " they that gladly received his " (the Apostle's) " word 
 were baptized, and the same day there were added 
 unto them," that is, to the Church, " about three thou- 
 sand souls." Again, the Deluge purged away all 
 the wickedness and pollution of the old world : by 
 Baptism we are '^purged from our old sins." Over 
 the waters of the Deluge descended the dove, bearing 
 the olive leaf, the symbol of peace and rest after war 
 and strife ; and upon the waters of Baptism descends 
 the Divine Dove, the Holy Spirit, eifecting therein 
 that work of mercy, by which the baptized person is 
 brought from under the curse of his fallen nature into 
 a state of peace and reconciliation with his God. 
 " The grace of Baptism requires peace, which, under 
 the emblem of an olive branch, the dove once brought 
 to that ark which alone escaped the Deluge ^" Lastly, 
 
 •• Acts ii. 47. ■* Tovs ffw(oiJ.fvovs. 
 
 * St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, A.D. 374. "It is an allusion to 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. (39 
 
 tlie Deluge placed the inmates of the ark in a 
 cleansed and renovated world ; so does Baptism place 
 the Christian in a new state of being, wherein "old 
 things are passed away; behold, all things are become 
 new ^" 
 
 And in a manner perhaps still more remarkable does 
 St. Paul speak of the Passage of the Eed Sea as a type 
 of Baptism. " I would not that ye should be ignorant, 
 how that all our fathers were under the Cloud, and all 
 passed through the Sea; and were all baptized unto 
 Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea^.'^ They were 
 baptized into Moses, who herein was a type of Christ, 
 into "\'VTiom all Christians are baptized. The Cloud 
 was a symbol of the Holy Spirit, for it is expressly 
 said that the Divine Presence was there ^; and the Sea 
 was the type of the baptismal water. The Israelites 
 were for a while hidden out of sight in the midst of 
 the Sea, and seemed buried in its depths, and then 
 they suddenly reappeared on the opposite side, safe 
 from the waters. They entered into the Sea Pharaoh^s 
 bondmen : they rose out of it the Lord^s freedmen, 
 inheritors of Canaan. So it is with us. Immersed in 
 the laver of Baptism we did, as it were, die therein 
 with Christ, and were buried with Him; but being 
 lifted out of that laver, we " were raised together with 
 
 ancient history; for in the Deluge this creature appeared bearing an 
 olive branch and tidings of rest to the world. AU which things were a 
 type of things to come. For now also a Dove appears pointing out to us 
 our Liberator, and for an olive branch, bringing the adoption of the 
 human race." (St. Chrysostom.) 
 
 e 2 Cor. v. 17. " 1 Cor. x. 1, 2. 
 
 * Exod. xiv. 24, 
 
70 PLAIN SCEIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 Him/' As St. Paul says, "Having been buried with 
 Him in Baptism, wherein also ye rose with Him':" 
 we rose members of the risen Lord our Divine Head, 
 the children of God and heirs of His Kingdom. For 
 there in that laver God " delivered us from the power 
 of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of 
 His dear Son\'' And elsewhere he says, "Know ye 
 not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus 
 Christ were baptized into His death ? Therefore we 
 are " [" we were "'\ " buried with Him by Baptism into 
 death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead 
 by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk 
 in newness of life ^." And as the Eed Sea delivered (" re- 
 deemed," Exod. xv. 13,andPs. cvi. 10) the Israelites from 
 their pursuing enemies, Pharaoh and his host, who would 
 fain have held them in perpetual slavery; so through the 
 efficacy of the Blood of Christ do the waters of Baptism 
 deliver us from our spiritual enemies, the devil and 
 his host, who otherwise would have held us in per- 
 petual bondage. And this deliverance — this salva- 
 tion — is God^s work alone. As Moses said to the 
 Israelites, with their pursuing enemies behind them, 
 but the baptismal Sea before them, "Fear ye not, 
 
 » Col. ii. 12. 1 Col. i. 13. 
 
 - Rom. vi. 3, 4. These Scripture passnges, Col. ii. 12 and Rom. vi. 
 3, 4, are allusions to the custom of the early Church, of immersing the 
 body of the baptized person under the water. The immersion was his 
 burial with Christ, as his lifting up, or rising again out of the water, was 
 his resurrection with Christ. This was done three several times in the 
 Name of each Person of the Holy Trinity. Our Church still recognizes 
 immersion, though it allows aftusiou, which has now become the pre- 
 valent practice. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 71 
 
 stand still, and see the salvation of the LmxV." And 
 as the Israelites, as soon as they had passed through 
 the Sea, were at once formed into a Church, called by 
 St. Stephen "the Church in the wilderness'*;" so in 
 like manner do we, on our new birth in Baptism, 
 become at once enrolled members of the Church or 
 Kingdom of God. The Red Sea Passage set them 
 safe and fair in the wilderness, through which they 
 had a forty years' journey, before passing through the 
 Jordan imder Joshua their Captain into the promised 
 Canaan, " the land flowing with milk and honey," " the 
 glory of all lands ;" and Baptism starts us fair for our 
 life-long journey through the wilderness of this world, 
 before we pass through the dark waters of the valley 
 of death under our Joshua or Jesus ("the Lord the 
 Saviour ") into our promised heavenly Canaan, the land 
 of our everlasting rest, our true and final home. The 
 Israelites did not enact the type of Baptism until they 
 had previously enacted the type of Christ's Sacrifice, 
 on which Sacrifice all Christian Baptism is founded, 
 and from which alone its efficacy is, of course, wholly 
 
 •'' Exod. xiv. 13. " Now turn from the ancient to the recent, from 
 the figure to the reality. There, we have Moses sent from God to 
 Egypt; here, Christ sent by His Father into the woi-ld: there, that 
 Moses might lead forth an oppressed people out of Egypt ; here, that 
 Christ might rescije mankind who are whelmed under sins : there, the 
 blood of the lamb was the spell against the destroyer; here, the Blood 
 of the unblemished Lamb, Jesus Christ, is made the charm to scare evil 
 spirits : there, the tyrant pursued even to the sea that ancient people ; 
 and in like manner this daring and shameless spirit, the author of evil, 
 followed thee even to the very streams of salvation. The tyrant of old 
 was drowned in the Sea, and this present one disappears in the salu- 
 tary Water." (St. Cyril of Jerusalem.) 
 
 ■< Acts vii. 38. 
 
72 PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS,, ETC. 
 
 derived. Christ first died on the Cross, and then He 
 instituted that Holy Sacrament : the Israelites first 
 killed the Passover lamb, sprinkled its saving blood 
 upon their door-posts, and then they started for the 
 Red Sea, to be saved by its waters, wherein their 
 typical baptism took place*. 
 
 5 " Those things, says the Apostle, were the types of ours. For the Sea 
 was an image of the Laver ; the Cloud, of the Gift of the Spirit ; Moses, 
 of the Priest; Israel passing through, of the baptized; the Egyptians 
 pursuing, of the demons ; Pharaoh himself was an image of the devil. 
 For after they had passed through, the Israelites were freed from the 
 power of the Egyptians, and, as in a sort of type, they received the 
 manna also from heaven, and the rock was after the pattern of the Side 
 of the Lord. For, unlooked for, it sent forth streams." (Theodoret, 
 Bishop of Cyrus, A.D. 475.) 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CHRISTIAN BAPTISM AS DISTINGUISHED FROM THAT OF 
 ST. JOHN. 
 
 rriHE subject of Christian Baptism derives some illus- 
 -^ tration from considering it in contrast with that 
 of John the Baptist. John^ inasmuch as he immediately 
 preceded the Gospel kingdom and was himself the 
 commissioned herald of itj was in that respect greater 
 and more favoured than any that were before him; 
 but inasmuch as he was not himself actually within 
 that kingdom, he was less than the least within it. 
 He was martyred before the kingdom of heaven was 
 opened upon earth, and he did not therefore enter 
 into it himself. He lived and died before the Great 
 Sacrifice on the Cross and the outpouring of the Holy 
 Spirit. So his baptism suffered a corresponding dis- 
 paragement : it lacked the great Gospel Gift of the 
 Holy Spirit, and consequently all those peculiar gifts 
 and blessings which the Holy Spirit alone can bestow, 
 such as union with the Incarnate Word, sanctification, 
 the adoption of sons. John himself, in allusion to this 
 
74 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 defect, says, " He tliat sent me to baptize witli water, 
 tlie Same said unto me, Upon Wliom thou slialt see 
 tlie Spirit descending and remaining on Him, the 
 Same is He Which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost ^^ 
 And our Saviour still more pointedly, immediately 
 before His Ascension, says to His disciples, "Wait 
 for the promise of the Father" (that is, the Holy 
 Spirit at Pentecost) *'^ which ye have heard of Me; for 
 John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be bap- 
 tized with the Holy Ghost"." And so serious was this 
 defect in John^s baptism, that those believers who had 
 received his baptism and none else, were to be baptized 
 over again. For thus we read in the Acts ', " Paul 
 .... came to Fphesus, and finding certain disciples, 
 he said unto them. Have ye received the Holy Ghost 
 since ye believed ? And they said unto him. We have 
 not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. 
 And he said unto them. Unto what then were ye bap- 
 tized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. Then 
 said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of 
 repentance, saying unto the people, that they should 
 believe on Him that should come after him, that is, on 
 Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were bap- 
 tized in the Name of the Lord Jesus," that is, the}' 
 received Christian Baptism. " Hence is shown (says 
 St. Chrysostom) an important doctrine, that the bap- 
 tism of John is incomplete. We have the sum and 
 substance of the good things : through Baptism we 
 
 1 John i. 33. 2 Acts i. 4, 5. 
 
 3 _4c(;s xix. 1 — 5. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 75 
 
 received tlie remission of sins ; sanctification ; partici- 
 pation of the Spirit ; adoption; eternal life ''/^ 
 
 ■* " Tliou hast, as the glory of Baptism, the Son of God Himself, the 
 Only-begotten. For why should I henceforth speak of man ? John was 
 great, but what was he to the Lord ? Loud was that voice, but what is 
 it to the Word ? Most glorious was the herald, but what to the King ? 
 Glorious was he who baptized with water, but what to Him who bap- 
 tizeth with the Holy Ghost and with fire." (St. Cyril of Jerusalem.) 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE BAPTISM OP CHRIST IN THE EIVER JORDAN REPRE- 
 SENTATIVE OP ALL CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. 
 
 TT^^HATEVER is said in Holy Scripture as to the 
 ' ' effects of Baptism, the same seems to have been 
 represented to us, as of Divine purpose, in the Baptism 
 of our Lord Himself in the river Jordan, Who therein 
 " sanctified water to the mystical washing away of 
 sin/^ " It behoved (says St. Ambrose) that in Christ^s 
 Baptism should be signified those things which the 
 faithful obtain by Baptism. The Lord willed to show 
 in His own case what He was afterwards to ordain for 
 men ^ ." 
 
 Is the work of grace which is wrought at the Baptism 
 of each one of us a work effected, as our Lord says it 
 
 1 " There is so in Baptism ; besides the hand seen tliat casts on the 
 water, the vii'tue of the Holy Ghost is there, workinf^ without hands 
 what here was wrought. And for this [virtue of the Holy Ghost] Christ 
 prays ; that then it might, might then and might ever, be joined to that 
 of water. Not in His Baptism only, but in the people's, and (as He 
 afterwards enlarges His prayer) in all others' that ' should ever believe 
 in His Name ;' that what in His (here) was, in all theirs might be ; 
 what in this first, in all following ; what in Christ's, in all Christians : 
 Heaven might open, the Holy Ghost come down, the Father be pleased 
 to say over the same words, toties quoties, so oft as any Christian man's 
 child is brought to His Baptism." (Bishop Andrews.) 
 
PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 77 
 
 is, by water and the Spirit? Even so there, in His 
 own Baptism, there is the water into which He enters, 
 and there is the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove 
 " descending and remaining upon Him ^" By that 
 anointing He became the Christ. It was then that, 
 " being full of the Holy Ghost '," He went forth first to 
 encounter man^s great adversary in the wilderness, and 
 then immediately afterwards, also '^ in the power of 
 the Spirit *," to commence His work of preaching the 
 Gospel of man^s salvation, and of healing all manner 
 of bodily diseases, types of the spiritual diseases which 
 He came on earth to heal; and this work He expressly 
 connects with the anointing He had received. " The 
 Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed 
 Me to preach the Gospel to the poor," &c.*, words 
 which almost sound as though the anointing which He 
 had received, had not only prepared Him to commence 
 the special duties of His office in His character of 
 Saviour of the world, but had also, so to speak, accre- 
 dited Him to that office^. Again, has the baptized 
 person ceased to be under the dominion of Satan, as 
 his subject and servant, and has he been translated into 
 
 " " Our Lord [when the Spirit in the form of a dove descended upon 
 Him] condescended now to prefigure His body, that is. His Church, in 
 which the baptized especially receive the Holy Spirit." (St. Augustine, 
 Bishop of Hippo, a.D. 395.) " The dove itself at that time therefore 
 appeared .... to teach thee also that upon thee no less at thy Bap- 
 tism the Spirit comes." (St. Chrysostom.) 
 
 3 Luke iv. 1. * Luke iv. 14. * Luke iv. 18. 
 
 6 See also Acts x. 36— 38. "Christ was not anointed hymen with 
 oil or material ointment ; but the Father, having appointed Hiui to 
 be the Saviour of the whole world, anointed Him with the Holy Ghost." 
 (St. Cyril of Jerusalem.) 
 
78 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 the kingdom of God^s dear Son, and become the child 
 of God ? So there does the Father in a voice from 
 heaven declare, " This is My beloved Son/^ He there 
 for the first time openly claims the Christ for His own 
 Son. '^And if thou hast seriousness unfeigned 
 (says St. Cyi'il''), the Holy Ghost is coming do-wn 
 on thee likewise, and upon thee the Saviour's 
 voice shall sound from on high, not, ' He is My 
 Son,' but, ' He hath now become My Son.' For ' is ' 
 belongs to Him alone, since at all times He is the 
 Son of God, but to thee belongs, ' Is now become ;' 
 since thou hast not the sonship by nature, but receivest 
 it by adoption. He is Son eternally : thou receivest 
 this grace by advancement." Does Baptism bring us 
 from under the curse of our fallen nature, that state of 
 wrath in which we were by nature born, into a state of 
 grace and of acceptance with God, so that we should 
 now be " accepted in the Beloved ^," so there, also for 
 the first time, the Father openly declares to the Sou, 
 " In Thee I am pleased." Is the baptized person, as 
 the adopted son of God, now an heir of Heaven, against 
 whom previously the heavens had been fast closed, ever 
 since the fall of our first parents ? having become the 
 " beloved son " of God, " born again of water and of 
 the Spirit," may he now " enter into the Kingdom of 
 God," His Kingdom or Church here on earth, and then 
 hereafter, if it be not his own fault. His eternal King- 
 dom in Heaven ? So there it is said of Jesus, when He 
 was baptized, not before, that He ''^saw the heavens 
 opened"." And St. Matthew expressly says, that it 
 ' Archbishop of Jerusalem. 8 Eph. i. 6. » Mark i. 10. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 79 
 
 was to Himself that they were so opened : " And lo, 
 the heavens were opened unto Him^;" unto Him, be it 
 observed. Who had been baptized, were they opened, 
 as though to the rest who were about Him they still 
 remained closed. ^^Not until then, assuredly (says 
 St. Chrysostom), were either the heavens opened, nor 
 did the Spirit make His approach. Because hence- 
 forth He leads us away from the old to the new Polity, 
 both opening to us the gates on high, and sending 
 down His Spirit from thence to call us to our country 
 there, and not merely to call us, but also with the 
 greatest mark of dignity. For He hath not made us 
 angels or archangels, but He hath caused us to become 
 ' sons of God ' and ^ ' beloved,^ and so He draws us 
 towards that portion of ours ^" 
 
 So here we have set before us the circumstances of 
 a perfect Christian Baptism. Our Lord Himself indeed 
 says, with reference to this same Baptism, " Thus it 
 becometh us to fulfil all righteousness ^." Every thing, 
 therefore, which He does regarding that Baptism must 
 be perfect and entire : in it every part and require- 
 
 1 Matt. iii. 16. 
 
 2 " Wherefore were the heavens opened ? To inform thee that at thy 
 Baptism also tliis was done, God calling thee to thy country on high, 
 and persuading thee to have nothing to do with earth." (St. Chrysostom.) 
 " Therein is shown the virtue of Baptism, that when a man comes forth 
 from it, the gates of the heavenly kingdom are opened to him." 
 (Venerable Bede, Priest of Yarrow, a.d. 700.) " He has shown that to 
 us also, after Baptism received, the entrance to Heaven is open, and the 
 Holy Spirit is given." (Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mayence, 
 A.D. 847.) 
 
 * " That is, by a dispensation of Sacraments to fulfil all righteousness, 
 in the justification and sanctification of His elect." Keble : who adds, 
 ' See this proved by S. Augustine, in John, tr. v." 
 
80 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 ment of a Christian Baptism is to be completely " ful- 
 filled " by Him. As He had been circumcised with a 
 perfect Circumcision^ as He celebrated a perfect Pass- 
 over^ and as He instituted and Himself partook of a 
 perfect Eucharist, so let us not deem otherwise than 
 that His Baptism in the Jordan represents a perfect 
 Christian Baptism^. "If, then, for our sake He 
 sanctifies Himself (says St. Athanasius^), and does 
 this when He becomes man, it is very plain that' the 
 Spirit's descent on Him in Jordan was a descent upon 
 us, because He bore our body. And it did not take 
 place in order to advance the Word, but again for our 
 sanctification, that we might share His anointing, and 
 that of us it might be said, ' Kngw ye not that ye are 
 the temples of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in 
 you ? ' For when the Lord as Man washed in Jordan, 
 it was we who were washed in Him. And when He 
 received the Spirit, it was we who by Him were made 
 recipients of It. From Him, then, we have begun to 
 receive the unction and the seal, John saying, 'Ye 
 have an unction from the Holy One,' and the Apostle, 
 'And ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of pro- 
 mise.'" 
 
 Here, then, we have w^hat may be termed a kind of 
 
 * " The whole human race was in Christ Jesus, and therefore the 
 body, being taken as the organ of the Spirit, fulfilled in itself every 
 mystery of man's salvation. All righteousness was to be fulfilled in 
 Him, by Whom alone the Law could be fulfilled. And thus both by the 
 testimony of the prophet He needed not Baptism, and by the example 
 of His authority He perfects the mysteries of man's salvation." (St. 
 Hilary, Bishop of Poictiers, A.D. 354.) 
 
 ' Archbishop of Alexandria, A D. 326. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 81 
 
 representative Baptism, setting before us, by anticipa- 
 tion, that wliicli Holy Scri|)ture and tlie Cliurcli teacli 
 us is being now done in every Christian Baptism, when 
 performed with the due requirements. Here is " the 
 washing of water ;" here is the " sanctification of the 
 Spirit," for where the Spirit " descends and remains," 
 there must be true sanctification; here is, conse- 
 quently, the " justification," the Father declaring Him- 
 self " well pleased " with His adopted child, now His 
 "beloved son;" here therefore is the "sonship," and 
 with it also, of course, the " co-heirship " with Christ ; 
 and here, consequently, are " the heavens opened," an 
 entrance is opened for him into the kingdom of God — 
 His kingdom of grace here, and His kingdom of ever- 
 lasting glory hereafter. " You see the power of Bap- 
 tism, and the blessings that are annexed to it, to 
 which all are entitled who partake in the Baptism ; for 
 Himself He was neither born nor baptized, but for 
 our sakes; that the blessings of both might descend 
 on us, who through faith are heirs together with Him 
 of the promises of God. By Baptism the gates of 
 Heaven are set open to us, and the way paved for our 
 return to our native country. By Baptism we are 
 declared to be such sons of God in whom He will 
 delight, and whom He will appoint to be heirs of His 
 kingdom. By Baptism we receive the promise of the 
 Spirit, by which we cry, Abba, Father^" 
 
 Thus, then, now, as when of old in the first creation 
 the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, 
 preparing them for the formation of light and order 
 * Bishop Sherlock. 
 
 G 
 
82 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 
 
 and beauty out of the old chaotic mass of disorder and 
 darkness ; so does the same Holy Spirit descend upon 
 the waters of Baptism, and, as the Divine Agent, 
 accomplishes all that is accomplished therein, regene- 
 rating man, and new-creating all things in him and for 
 him : that mysterious work of regenerating and renew- 
 ing grace is His work alone ^ 
 
 ' " The waters brought forth the whole world, as a mother is delivered 
 of a child ; and thus, infigiira baptismi, to foreshow that the waters also 
 should bring forth the Church, that the Church of God should be born 
 of the Sacrament of Baptism. So says Damascene, and he establishes it 
 with better authority than his own. The divine Basil saith (saith he), 
 ' The Spirit of God wrought upon the waters in the creation ; because 
 He meant to do so after, in the regeneration of man.' " (Dr. Donne.) 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE INCONSISTENCY OE DOUBTING THE EFFICACY OF 
 BAPTISM. 
 
 T\0 we marvel at this wonderful work of grace, per- 
 formed through the instrumentality of so poor a 
 thing as water ? Do we ask, " How can these things 
 be ? " Our Lord's own answer to this question is, 
 " That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." It is a 
 spiritual birth, brought about by the agency of the 
 good Spirit of God; and is any thing too hard for the 
 Lord ? As He can save by many or by few, so can He 
 save through so poor a human medium as water. The 
 only question, therefore, with which we are concerned 
 is. Has He really ordained this Sacrament to be the 
 means, in His hands, of regenerating man, and admit- 
 ting him into His spiritual kingdom ; that is, has He 
 said that He has so ordained it ? Has our Lord indeed 
 said, " Ye must be born again " in order to " enter 
 into the kingdom of God"? And has He also said 
 that this new birth must be " of water and of the 
 Spirit"? The only one question with us is. Has He 
 said it ? for if He has, then it is as He has declared ; 
 it cannot be otherwise, how great soever the trial may 
 be to some men's faith to believe it. " Hath He said, 
 
 G 2 
 
84 PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 and shall He not do it : or liatli He spoken, and shall 
 He not make it good^?" It is no argument at all 
 against any work of Providence that it involves a 
 severe strain upon our faith to believe it, even when 
 such is the case ; for in this moral government under 
 which we live we may, for aught we know, be as much 
 in a state of trial and probation, with regard to our 
 faith, as we are with regard to any part of our moral 
 conduct. For aught we know, it may be a part, and 
 that no inconsiderable part, of our moral duty towards 
 God, to accept His plain declarations in simple faith, 
 without questioning or doubting ; we certainly have no 
 reason to suppose that it is permitted us to subject 
 them to some testing process, to be conducted by the 
 limited powers of our own understanding ; and that we 
 are at liberty to believe them or not, in their plain 
 obvious meaning, according as may have been the 
 result of that process so conducted. What He dis- 
 tinctly declares to be His purpose to perform, or His 
 manner of performing it, that will assuredly be as He 
 declares it. Where God^s will is, there is the work 
 accomplished, whatever means He may choose for 
 accomplishing it. His will or His word is all that is 
 needed for the performance of any work of grace, 
 however great and marvellous, which He may design 
 for the good and the salvation of His people^. 
 
 J Num. xxiii. 19. 
 
 2 " This questioning IIoiv, is of the natural mau, and is characteristic 
 of a weak faith and of an earthly mind, like that of Sarah when she 
 laughed ; and man}% by putting such questions as to the manner of God's 
 operations on the soul, have fallen from the faith. If a person ask, Hoiv 
 is a mau born again by water 1 Let us ask in return, How was Adam 
 born from the earth / Hoto are our bones, and sinews, and veins, and all 
 our organs formed. In both cases the work is God's, Whose the elements 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 85 
 
 "The first creation (says St. Chrysostom)^ tliat of 
 Adanij was from earth ; tlie next^ that of the woman, 
 from his rib; the next, that of Abel, from seed; yet 
 we cannot arrive at the comprehension of any one of 
 these, nor prove the circumstances by argument, 
 though they are of a most earthly nature ; how then 
 shall we be able to give account of the unseen Gene- 
 ration by Baptism, which is far more exalted than 
 these, or to require arguments for that strange and 
 marvellous Birth ? Since even angels stand by when 
 that Generation takes place; but they could not tell 
 the manner of that marvellous working : they stand 
 by only, not performing any thing, but beholding what 
 takes place. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost 
 worketh all. Let us, then, believe the declaration of 
 God; that is more trustworthy than actual seeing. 
 The sight often is in error, but it is impossible that 
 God's word should fail; let us then believe it. That 
 which called [into existence] the things that were not 
 in existence may well be trusted when it speaks of 
 their nature. What, then, says it? that what is 
 effected is a Generation. If any ask *^How?' stop his 
 mouth with the declaration of God, which is the 
 strongest proof and a plain one. If any inquii'e, 
 ' Why is water included ? ' let us also in return ask, 
 ^Wherefore was earth employed at the beginning in 
 the creation of man ? ' for, that it was possible for God 
 to make man without earth is quite plain to every one. 
 Be not, then, over-curious,''^ 
 
 are, to work upon them, and by tliem, according to His will." 
 (Bishop Wordsworth.) 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE WATER AND THE BLOOD WHICH FLOWED PROM OUR 
 lord's SIDE : THEIR TYPICAL BEARING UPON BAPTISM, 
 
 TXTE must not, however, look upon the water of 
 ' Baptism as mere water and nothing more. It 
 is water indeed, but it has been sanctified to the 
 mystical washing away of sin. " Regard the sacred 
 Laver not as simple water ; rather regard the spiritual 
 grace given with the water. Plain water, after the 
 invocation of the Holy Ghost, and of Christ, and of the 
 Father, gains a sanctifying power. Now, then, that 
 thou art to descend into the waters, consider not the 
 bare element : look for its saving power by the ope- 
 ration of the Holy Ghost; for without the two thou 
 canst not be made perfect. This is not my word but 
 the Lord Jesus Christ's, Who has the power to do it. 
 He saith, ' Except a man be born again,' and He en- 
 larges, ' of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter 
 into the kingdom of God '.' " From our Lord's pierced 
 Side flowed forth the double stream of Water and 
 Blood. And the only Evangelist who records this 
 records also that our Lord " came by Water and 
 Blood;" and he particularly assures us that it was 
 ' St. Cyril of Jerusalem. 
 
PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 87 
 
 "not by water only^" Our Lord^s coming on this 
 earth was a coming through a dispensation of Water 
 and Blood, such as was that former typical dispen- 
 sation; that was also one of water and blood, but it 
 was then the blood of bulls and of goats, which could 
 not take away sins, nor purge the conscience from 
 dead works. This, however, is nothing less than the 
 atoning and cleansing Blood of our Saviour Christ. 
 With our bodily eyes we look upon the Sacramental 
 water, but by the secret agency of the Holy Spirit it is 
 endued, for the accomplishment of its Sacramental work, 
 with an efficacy from Christ's own Blood : it is as it 
 were turned into that Blood, for those gracious pur- 
 poses of mercy which He designs for us ^ ; and there- 
 fore it is that we find in Scripture the same language 
 used of the water in the laver of Baptism as is used of 
 the very Blood of Christ; the same effects are there 
 ascribed to the Baptismal washing as are ascribed to 
 the washing in His Blood. Thus Holy Scripture tells 
 us that it is Jesus Christ that " washed us from our 
 
 2 1 John V. 6, 
 
 3 " In like sort St. Chrysostom writeth of the Sacrament of Baptism, 
 ' St. John showeth that the Blood and the water are one.' " (Bishop 
 Jewel.) " That when we receive Holy Baptism we are sprinkled with the 
 Blood of Chi'ist, to the cleansing of sin, how can any doubt ? " (St. 
 Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria, A.D. 412.) Even Luther could say (on 
 Gen. xlix.), " To be baptized is nothing else than to be absolved in the 
 Blood, or by virtue of the Blood of the Son of God." 
 
 " What sparkles in that lucid flood 
 Is water, by gross mortals cy'd : 
 But seen by Faith, 'tis Blood 
 Out of a dear Friend's side." 
 
 (The Christian Year.) 
 
00 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 sins in His own Blood ^ ;" but it also tells us tliat our 
 " sins " are " washed away " by the water of Baptism *. 
 Holy Scripture tells us^ in the words of Christ Himself, 
 that it is His " Blood of the New Testament which is 
 shed for many for the remission of sins ' :" but it also 
 tells us that we are to " be baptized for the remission 
 of sins ^." 
 
 Whether in the Old Testament or in the New 
 " without shedding of blood is no remission ^," yet we 
 here observe that there is "remission of sins" in 
 Baptism. Therefore, though the washing away or the 
 remitting of sin is declared in Scripture to be by 
 water, yet is it " not by water only, but by Water and 
 Blood;" and in these words the Evangelist clearly 
 intimates to us, that with the water there is also pre- 
 sent the Blood, or at least the efficacy of the Blood of 
 Christ, to accomplish His work of mercy in the regene- 
 ration of man. The water indeed could have no virtue 
 at all but for the precious Blood of our dear Lord. 
 " It may suffice to believe (says Dr. Jackson) that this 
 Sacramental pledge hath a virtual presence of Christ's 
 Blood, or some real influence from His Body, con- 
 comitant though not consubstantiated to it, which is 
 prefigured or signified by the washing or sprinkling 
 the body with water." Again : " It is not the virtue 
 or efficacy of the consecrated water in which we were 
 washed, but the virtue of His Blood, which was once 
 shed for us, and which by Baptism is sprinkled upon 
 
 ■* Rev. i. 5. ^ Acts xxii. 16. 
 
 c Matt. xxvi. 28. ' Acts ii. 38. 
 
 8 Heb. ix. 22. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 89 
 
 US, or communicated unto us, whicli immediately 
 cleanseth. from all sin/' With tlie eye of faith, 
 therefore, we regard it as the water which flowed 
 with the Blood from our Lord's Side, mingled with 
 that Blood, and therefore partaking of its saving 
 virtue. Who could suppose that the water of Baptism 
 could have any efficacy but for the Blood of a crucified 
 Saviour, applied by the Spirit through that same 
 water to each individual soul, by the express appoint- 
 ment of our Saviour Himself." 
 
 So now our Lord comes to us in a dispensation 
 of Water and Blood, and as it is made such by the 
 gracious operation of the Holy Spirit, the Divine 
 Invisible Agent, applying our Saviour's Blood, through 
 His appointed ordinances, to the soul and body of each 
 individual believer, and working all in all for our 
 spiritual and everlasting good; therefore there are 
 three now bearing their united witness in our behalf — 
 three on earth — "the Spirit and the Water and the 
 Blood ; and these three agree in one V or, as the 
 words may perhaps be more correctly rendered, " these 
 three are for one,". for one end or object, combined for 
 one and the same result. "What is this threefold 
 witness? (says Mr. Keble) this witness of God, on 
 which the Apostle would thus unreservedly rest our 
 faith ? It is Jesus Christ, God incarnate, coming to 
 His Church, and to each one of us, by water, by blood, 
 
 3 " This, then, is to be born again of water and of the Spirit, our death 
 being effected in the water, and our life worked in us by the Spirit. So 
 that whatever grace there is in the water is not from the nature of the 
 water, but from the presence of the Spirit." (St. Basil, Archbishop of 
 Cajsarea. a.d. 370.) ^ John v. 8. 
 
90 PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 
 
 and by His Spirit. To His whole Cliurcli He came by 
 water^ when^ as tlie surety and representative of His 
 people. He was baptized by St. John in Jordan : by 
 blood, when He died on the Cross : by His Spirit, on 
 the Day of Pentecost. To each several child of Adam, 
 whom He takes out of the world as one of His own. He 
 comes by all three at once — by the Spirit, by water, 
 and by blood — in His two Sacraments : for water in 
 Scripture signifies sanctification and cleansing ; blood 
 signifies satisfaction and atonement; and both these 
 are, by His ordinance, in both the Sacraments, because 
 in both the true gift is Participation of Christ, our life 
 and our all, begun in Baptism, continued and growing 
 in the Eucharist. And they are in the Sacraments by 
 the special operation of His Spirit. ' It is the Spirit 
 that beareth witness, because the Spirit is Truth. ^ 
 The Spirit is that Truth which both declares and 
 makes them to be what they signify, as our Lord 
 declared of one of them, ' The words that I speak 
 unto you, they are spirit and they are life ;' the words 
 in this case being, for the one, ' This is My Body;' for 
 the other, ' I baptize thee in the Name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' And accord- 
 ingly the Church, expressly or virtually, has always 
 prayed for this descent of the Holy Ghost, — in Bap- 
 tism, to ' sanctify the water to the mystical washing 
 away of sin,' — in Holy Communion, according to the 
 old Liturgies, to make the elements what our Lord 
 declared them to be; according to our own Liturgy 
 to make us, receiving them, partakers of those holiest 
 things." 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 OUR lord's first miracle at the marriage in cana 
 
 OP GALILEE: ITS SYMBOLICAL MEANING WITH REFERENCE 
 TO BAPTISM. 
 
 rpmS same great truth, tliougli iu another form, 
 seems to have been taught us, by the same 
 St. John, in his account of the first miracle of our 
 Lord, at Cana in Galilee ^ . There, at a marriage, and 
 at the bidding of His mother. He turns water into 
 wine. It is clear, however, as was believed in the 
 early days of the Church, that a Sacramental mystery 
 was intended to be shadowed forth or symbolized by 
 the circumstances of this miracle. Our Lord super- 
 sedes the former wine, which had now failed, by wine 
 of His own making. And His is ^'^the good wine," 
 that is, not only "good" in itself, but also, as com- 
 pared with the former, it is the better wine : it repre- 
 sents His own Blood, which was soon to be poured 
 out. This is clear from His answer to His mother, 
 " Woman, what have I to do with thee ? Mine hour 
 is not yet come." But our Lord's "hour" always 
 means, wherever the mention of it occurs, the hour of 
 His death, when His Blood would be poured out ^. So 
 
 1 John ii. 1—11. ^ See Jobu vii. 30; viii. 20; xiii. 1; xvii. 1. 
 
92 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 that when His mother suggests to Him to make more 
 wine, He at once avails Himself of that suggestion to 
 intimate to her and to us all, that the wine which He 
 was about to give, when the time came, was really His 
 own Blood. And if, then. His wine represented the 
 better Blood — the Blood shed on the Cross for the 
 remission of the sins of the whole world — what did the 
 worse wine represent, which had thus been superseded? 
 What but the sacrificial blood of the Old Covenant, the 
 blood of bulls and of goats which can never take away 
 sins ^. 
 
 Thus, then, the former wine — the sacrificial blood of 
 slain animals — came to an end in Christ. But what as 
 regards the water that had also been so much em- 
 ployed by the Jews in their ceremonial washings and 
 cleansings ? Was that also superseded ? By no means. 
 The same waterpots that had been used for purposes 
 of purifying were now ordered by our Lord to be 
 again filled with water, and that water it was which 
 was turned into wine. Here, then, we observe, that 
 although the blood of the Old Covenant was super- 
 seded, yet the water was not, that water which was 
 employed in the ceremonial washings and cleansings. 
 It was still continued in the New Covenant ; but a 
 virtue and an efficacy was now henceforth imparted to 
 it, which it had not before. It is now as it were turned 
 into the Blood of our crucified Lord. It is seen as 
 water still ; but it has touched His own sacred Blood, 
 when flowing from the Cross, and having been min- 
 gled with it there, it is joined with it still, by His own 
 3 Heb. X. 4. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 93 
 
 appointmeiit, in His own Sacramental ordinances. 
 Water now^ therefore, is ennobled to a higher use than 
 it ever had before : it has been purified and sanctified to 
 the mystical washing away of sin, not as mere water, of 
 course ; but as water turned into Blood, our Lord's own 
 Blood, as it flowed from the Cross ; and all this by the 
 secret operation of the Holy Spirit acting in that water*. 
 And it was at a Marriage that this miracle of turn- 
 ing water into wine was performed, representing the 
 Marriage of Christ with His Church, " which He 
 hath purchased with His own Blood ^," and which 
 therefore is now "the Bride, the Lamb's Wife®." 
 It is the Lamb's Wife, because it was purchased 
 with Blood. There upon the Cross was He, like the 
 first Adam, put to sleep, and His Side was opened, 
 and therefrom was formed His Church, to be thence- 
 forth bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh. For 
 Christians are now " members of His body, of His 
 flesh, and of His bones." It is from the Blood of His 
 crucified Manhood that the waters of Baptism derive 
 all their virtue and their force. " So many of us as 
 were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His 
 death," for therein it was that " He washed us from 
 our sins in His own Blood." How often in Scripture 
 are we told that it is into the death of Christ that we 
 were baptized. 
 
 * " Through the power of God's working tlie water is turned into 
 Blood. They that be washed in it receive the remission of sins : their 
 robes are made clean in the Blood of the Lamb. The water itself 
 is nothing ; but by the working of God's Spirit the death and merits 
 of the Lord and Saviour are thereby assured unto us." (Bishop Jewel.) 
 
 ' Acts XX. 28. 6 Rev. x.xi. 9. 
 
94 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 Again : It is particularly mentioned that His Mother 
 was present, "the mother of Jesus was there;" the 
 only occasion on which she is mentioned as being pre- 
 sent at a rairacle performed by Him. Her presence 
 was especially appropriate on such an occasion, for it 
 was she from whom He had Himself received that 
 Manhood, by which He could perform a miracle of 
 such mysterious and gracious significance. And, fur- 
 ther, it was at her suggestion that the new wine was 
 made. And by whom, of all people, could the sug- 
 gestion so fitly be made as by her. His own human 
 mother, from whom alone He had received that 
 "good," that saving Blood, which was to be the pur- 
 chase-price of His Church, and through which the 
 mystical union between Himself and that Church was 
 to be effected. It is also recorded that His Disciples 
 were there. They were there, and their presence was 
 required, inasmuch as they were to be the ministers in 
 this Church or Kingdom, which He was about to pur- 
 chase for Himself. And lastly, it is called His first 
 miracle, as though the miracle of such remarkable 
 significance was to be dignified by the distinguishing 
 circumstance of being the first performed of all the 
 miracles performed by Him. 
 
 Thus, by the water of Baptism as by His own Blood 
 has our blessed Lord united the Church to Himself for 
 ever in a mystical union. As the first Adam was laid 
 asleep, and then his side was opened, out of which 
 was taken that from which Eve was formed to be his 
 wife ; so in like manner was the Second Adam put to 
 sleep on the Cross, and from His opened Side came 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 95 
 
 fortli that from which His Church was formed^ to be 
 His "Bride_, the Lamb's Wife/' And we must ever 
 remember, that from that Side there came, not water 
 only, nor Blood only, but Water and Blood conjointly ; 
 they were not separated then, who shall dare to sepa- 
 rate them now ? They flowed down together in one 
 mingled stream, a fact which the Evangelist parti- 
 cularly attests, that we may feel fully assured of the 
 truth of it. " He that saw it bare record, and his 
 record is true ; and he knoweth that he saith true, that 
 ye might believe'." 
 
 '' John xix. 35. What has here all along been said about the Blood which 
 flowed from our Saviour's Side referring to the Sacrament of Baptism, must 
 not be taken to imply that it does not also refer to the Sacrament of the 
 Holy Eucharist : the one application of it in no way excludes the other. 
 The water and the Blood have been very generally understood in the 
 Church to refer respectively to Baptism and the Lord's Supper ; indeed 
 the water was universally understood by the primitive Church to refer to 
 Baptism, though many of the Fathers, as well as other Divines of the 
 Church, have also understood the Blood to have reference to Baptism as 
 well as to the other Sacrament. And, indeed, it is not easily conceivable 
 how the case should be otherwise, when we consider that, as has been 
 shown above from Scripture passages themselves, the very same efiects 
 are ascribed in Scripture to the water of Baptism as are ascribed to the 
 Blood of Christ Himself, effects which nothing but that Blood can 
 produce ; which proves, therefore, that for the purpose of these Sacra- 
 mental effects the Baptismal water is as the Blood of Christ; not less 
 really so than, for the purpose of the other Holy Sacrament, "the 
 Cup of Blessing which we bless is the Communion of the Blood of 
 Christ." 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 BAPTISM^ AS THE MEANS OP ADMISSION INTO THE CHEISTIAN 
 CHURCH, PREFIGUEED BY THE BRAZEN ALTAR AND THE 
 BRAZEN LAYER OP THE TABERNACLE OP THE- OLD 
 TESTAMENT. 
 
 A LL this which has been now said about the Chris- 
 ^■^ tian Church, and the mode of our admission into 
 it, derives illustration from what is related in the Old 
 Testament about the Tabernacle, and the Brazen Altar, 
 and the Brazen Laver — all which were prefigurative of 
 what we have in the New. That Tabernacle was made 
 according to a model shown to Moses by God Himself: 
 He commanded him to " make all things according to 
 the pattern showed him in the Mount'." So that both 
 the Tabernacle and its services, and every thing re- 
 lating to it, were made and arranged according to this 
 Divine model. Enclosing the Tabernacle was the 
 Court, and within the Court, but outside the Taber- 
 nacle, was the Brazen Altar, on which the sacrifices 
 were offered, and the blood of the victims poured out ; 
 and in an inner part of the Court, nearer to the Taber- 
 nacle, but still outside it, was the Brazen Laver, at 
 
 ' Heb. viii. 5. 
 
PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 97 
 
 wh-ich. the person about to enter the Tabernacle was 
 first to wash, and then he might enter in. 
 
 Here we have prefigaired, first and foremost, the 
 great Sacrifice of the Lamb of God and His Blood 
 poured out, and then the Laver of Regeneration, after 
 which we are admitted into the Church of God, the 
 "true Sanctuary .^^ Thus, as in the Old Covenant 
 there was no entrance into the Sanctuary except by 
 the way of the Altar of Sacrifice and the Laver — the 
 blood and the water — so by the same way only have 
 we an entrance into the Christian Church, of which 
 the Jewish Tabernacle or Temple was the type : our 
 entrance is by the way of the one great Sacrifice and 
 the Laver of Baptism, the Holy Spirit applying the 
 Blood of the Victim to the person baptized in that 
 Laver. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 BAPTISM IN ITS HEALING POWER PREFIGURED BY THE 
 CEREMONIAL CLEANSING OP THE LEPER, AND SIMILAR 
 WASHINGS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 4 ND as bearing on tlie subject of the union of the 
 ■^-^ Blood and the Water, it may be well here to 
 notice the manner of cleansing the Leper by a process 
 of sprinkling and washing under the Old Covenantj 
 which was a type of the spiritual cleansing of sin undSr 
 the New. It formed part of the ceremony of that 
 cleansing, that the priest was required to make an 
 instrument of cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop, with 
 which to sprinkle the Leper. And into a vessel was 
 poured running water, and. into the same vessel was 
 also poured the blood of a slain bird ; and with this 
 water and blood thus mingled together was the Leper 
 sprinkled seven times by means of the sprinkling 
 instrument, which was itself first to be dipj)ed in this 
 . same water and blood. And then afterwards was the 
 Leper to be washed all over with water. 
 
 Here we see the man with the leprosy of sin washed 
 clean by the Blood of Christ applied in the Laver of 
 Baptism. The spiritual Leper is made clean by a 
 sprinkling of Water and Blood. And thus were all 
 
PLAIN SCEIPTURAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 99 
 
 the ceremonial washings of the Jews : they were some- 
 times by water, sometimes by blood, and sometimes by 
 water and blood together : " the blood of calves and of 
 goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop '/^ 
 
 And it must be to these washings, and particularly 
 to the cleansing of the Leper by means of the instru- 
 ment of cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop", that 
 David alludes when he says, " Thou shalt purge me 
 with hyssop, and I shall be clean : Thou shalt wash me, 
 and I shall be whiter than snow^." The mention of 
 the hyssop clearly points to the ceremonial sprinkling 
 and washing of the unclean person, as if David looked 
 upon his sin as a spiritual leprosy. And as these 
 words are part of that penitential Psalm which he wrote 
 after his great sin in the matter of Uriah, he seems to 
 be looking forward, under inspiration, to the time when 
 that sin shall be clean purged away in the Blood of 
 Christ. For he speaks of a time not past nor present, 
 but future : " Thou shalt purge me, , . . and I sludl 
 be clean : Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter 
 than snow." This the Law could not do with all its 
 washings, only the Gospel could, through its Sacra- 
 mental Laver. It was only the Christian, not the 
 Jewish Priest, that could say, " Arise, and be baptized, 
 and wash away thy sins;" or "Repent and be baptized 
 for the remission of sins;" it was only he that could 
 say that God " saved us by the washing [the laver] of 
 
 1 Heb. ix. 19. 
 
 2 Oi', as Bishop Home (on the Psahns) seems to think, to the cleaus- 
 iug by the Water of Separation; which, however, was for a similar 
 purpose and performed mostly in a similar manner (Num. xix.). 
 
 3 Ps. li. 7. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost;" or 
 could assure the disciple of Christ that he had been 
 " purged from his old sins *." And whereas under the 
 Jewish Law there "were offered both gifts and sacri- 
 fices^ that could not make him that did the service 
 perfect^ as pertaining to the conscience*/^ yet now 
 under the New Covenant the Christian minister can 
 declare to us^ God's baptized people^ that we have 
 " had our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, 
 and our bodies washed with pure water*/' These 
 words clearly allude to the bodily sprinkling and 
 washing under the Law; though here, under the 
 Gospel, the hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience 
 must mean an inward purification from sin, and the 
 body washed with pure water, being an external act, 
 must have reference to the washing in the Laver of 
 regeneration, which is the only external washing under 
 the Gospel : thus, this passage brings together both 
 the outward washing and the inward purification, the 
 efiect of that washing. 
 
 It seems clear, therefore, that as David wrote this 
 Psalm under inspiration, he was looking forward, in 
 prophecy, to the times of the Gospel, and that his 
 words are, in fact, themselves a prophecy of the Bap- 
 tismal cleansing that was to be in those times, a cleans- 
 ing in which even he himself should have an interest. 
 
 In like manner Ezekiel also, after predicting the 
 restoration of God's people, goes on to say, " Then " 
 (that is, at some future time after that restoration) 
 
 * 2 Pet. i. 9. 5 Heb. ix. 9. 
 
 « Heb. X. 22. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 101 
 
 " will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be 
 clean from all your filtliiness. A new heart also will 
 I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. 
 And I will put My Spirit within you. And ye shall be 
 My people, and I will be your God '^.'^ Here we have 
 again the outward sprinkling and with it the inward 
 cleansing and renovation, the new heart and new spirit 
 given them; and not only so, but God^s Holy Spirit 
 put within them. And the effect of this would be, 
 that they would be then, in a peculiar sense, God^s 
 people, and He, in a peculiar sense, their God. But 
 all this no ceremonial sprinkling or washing could 
 effect : only that future washing could effect it, upon 
 which alone God^s Holy Spirit was promised, the wash- 
 ing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost 
 in Baptism ; for, be it observed, nowhere in Scripture 
 is mention made of an outward sprinkling or washing 
 in connexion with an inward renewing and the Gift of 
 the Holy Spirit, as taking place in any thing but in 
 Baptism. 
 
 And when our Lord says, "He that believeth on 
 Me, as the Scripture hath said, Out of his belly shall 
 flow rivers of living water *,^^ St. John explains that 
 these words contain a promise of the Holy Spirit, soon 
 to be given to them ^' that believe on Him,^^ and which 
 we know was given on the Day of Pentecost. And as 
 that promise is here made under the figure of water 
 rather than any other figure, we hence observe again 
 the connexion between water and the Gift of the Holy 
 Spirit, a connexion indicating that it would be in and 
 !" Ezek, xxxvi. 25—28. s Johu vii. 38, 39. 
 
102 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 
 
 through water that that Gift would be made to each 
 believer. And it was on that same Day of Pentecost, 
 that St. Peter invites them to be baptized, promis- 
 ing that they should then receive that Gift. And as 
 our Lord, in the words above quoted, says, "As the 
 Scripture hath said,^' He is clearly alluding therein to 
 some prophecy in the Old Testament. Accordingly, 
 in Isaiah we find that, amid great promises to His 
 Church, in clear prophecy of the times of the Gospel, 
 God says, " I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, 
 and floods upon the dry ground : I will pour My 
 Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine 
 offspring'." Here we find the water and the Spirit 
 joined together to confer this great blessing of 
 renovating all things for the Church, and bringing 
 them out of their dry and barren state into a state of 
 life, and health, and fruitfulness. And farther on in 
 this same Chapter there is a plain prophecy of a com- 
 plete forgiveness of the sins of His people, and that 
 too in connexion with their redemption : a forgiveness 
 which, as we know, could take place only under the 
 Gospel. '^I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy 
 transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins : return unto 
 Me, for I have redeemed thee'." So we have here 
 brought together, in this Chapter, the water and the 
 Spii'it, and the blotting out of the Churches trans- 
 gressions and sins, and all in connexion with her 
 redemption. 
 
 9 Isa. xliv. 3. 1 Isa. xliv. 22. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE WATEE OP BAPTISM EEPEESENTED IN SCRIPTURE AS 
 THE BLOOD OP CHRIST IN ITS EFPECTS ON THE 
 BAPTIZED. 
 
 /CHRIST has ascended into Heaven, but He is still 
 ^ witli His Church here, as the Head with the 
 body, and into that body are being gathered members 
 day by day. He is now, as at the beginning, by the 
 water of Baptism adding to the Church daily such as 
 are being saved. But inasmuch as water as mere 
 water cannot save, nor wash away sins, but only His 
 Blood can, therefore as " Baptism doth save us V' ^^^ 
 does " wash away sins ''^," it can do so only as in it His 
 Blood is applied and made efficacious for that purpose 
 by the Holy Spirit. The water of Baptism is . to us 
 therefore as the Blood of our Blessed Lord, represent- 
 ing that Blood for the purposes of this Holy Sacra- 
 ment, and conveying to us the virtue of it. Even as 
 in the Holy Eucharist the consecrated wine is to us as 
 His Blood, representing that Blood for the purposes 
 of that Sacrament, and conveying it to us spiritually. 
 Yea, even as our Lord Himself, now in Heaven, is 
 represented by His ministers, who therefore are " the 
 ' 1 Pet. iii. 21. ^ Acts xxii. 16. 
 
104 PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 
 
 ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of 
 God ^/^ and whom He left behind Him to be on earth 
 " in His stead " for all the purposes of His Church. 
 As St. Paul says^ " Now then we are ambassadors for 
 Christ, as though God did beseech you by us ; we pray 
 you in Christ^s stead, be ye reconciled to God\^^ As 
 His Father had sent Him, even so He sent them, and 
 would be with them alway, even unto the end of the 
 world. Their acts should be His actsj nay, whoseso- 
 ever sins they remitted should be remitted unto them, 
 and whosesoever sins they retained should be retained, 
 though He alone as God can really remit and retain 
 sins. And to them accordingly He gave the keys of 
 the kingdom of Heaven, so that whatsoever they 
 should bind or loose on earth, should be bound or 
 loosed in Heaven. And if in all other ministerial acts 
 performed by them He is the Minister, so also, of 
 course, in the administration of the Holy Sacraments, 
 which He Himself instituted for such high purposes 
 of mercy, is He the Minister. He is the Priest in 
 Heaven ministering in and for His Church through 
 His priests on earth, whose acts He seals and makes 
 His own, and with whom He has promised His ever- 
 abiding presence. 
 
 8 1 Cor. iv. 1. -» 2 Cor. v. 20. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 IN EVERY CHRISTIAN BAPTISM CHRIST HTSISELP THE 
 BAPTIZER THROUGH HIS MINISTER. 
 
 "VrOW apply this wMcli has just been said specially 
 ' to the Sacrament under consideration. The 
 Baptist says of our Lord that He should '^baptize 
 with the Holy Ghost and with fire /^ and we read that 
 " Jesus and His disciples came into the land of -Judaea ; 
 and there He tanned with them, and baptized j^^ and 
 again that " Jesus made and baptized more disciples 
 than John\" Here, then, it is expressly said that 
 Jesus baptized; but the Evangelist adds, "Though 
 Jesus Himself baptized not, but His disciples. ^^ Hence 
 we learn that though Christ did not Himself in His 
 own person baptize, but only thi'ough His disciples, 
 yet the baptisms are spoken of as having been per- 
 formed by Him ; as though He were the Baptizer, not 
 they. And may not this be intended to intimate to 
 us, as it certainly itself seems plainly to imply, that 
 every Chi'istian Baptism performed by Chi-ist's minister 
 is a Baptism really performed by Christ Himself : that 
 He through His minister is the one only Baptizer"." 
 
 1 John iii. 22, and iv. 1. 
 
 ' " The Lord Jesus Christ would not give His Baptism to any, not 
 that there should none be baptized with His Baptism, but that He should 
 
106 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 And sucli too is the case in tlie other Holy Sacra- 
 ment. When our Lord, in the miracle of feeding the 
 5000 men in the desert with a few loaves and fishes, 
 enacts the type of what He is now daily doing in His 
 Church, in feeding His people in the wilderness of this 
 world with His own heavenly food, the true Bread 
 from Heaven, Himself seated on His holy Mountain 
 and we yet in the desert here, sure to faint by the 
 way to our true home unless so fed by Him — how on 
 this occasion does He feed them ? He first commands 
 His Apostles, " Give ye them to eat." (The word is 
 emphatic in the original.) He indeed "took the five 
 loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven 
 He blessed and brake" them; but having done this 
 as the part specially belonging to Himself to do. He 
 then " gave the loaves to His disciples, and the discq^Ies 
 to the multitude." He Himself gave none directly, 
 with His own hands, to the multitude. All but the 
 preparing the loaves by Himself, by blessing and 
 breaking them, was done by His disciples ; yet it was 
 His miracle, and it was He Who fed the multitude. 
 And in like manner it is He Who feeds the multitude 
 of His people still, and still through His ministers. 
 Jesus has gone " up into a Mountain," and there is He 
 seated on His holy Hill, but He is not indifi'erent to 
 the wants — the spiritual hunger — of His people now 
 struggling on in this barren wilderness. He can now 
 
 Himself be always the Baptizer. This arrangement was made, that by 
 the hands of ministers also the Lord should baptize; that is to say, that 
 whom the Lord's ministers should baptize, the Lord should he the 
 Baptizer, not they." (St. Augustine.) 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 107 
 
 as then say, "I have compassion on the multitude;" 
 and now as then He feeds them with food convenient 
 for them, not indeed held out to them visibly from 
 Heaven with His own hand, but through His ministers 
 whom He has ordained and left behind Him to be in 
 His stead here. To them He still says, " Give ye 
 them to eat ;" and through them He still blesses and 
 breaks the Bread from Heaven, that they may dis- 
 tribute it to His people. The blessing and the break- 
 ing was His own special act on earth, both when He 
 performed the typical miracle in the desert ', and when 
 afterwards He instituted the Sacrament itself'*; but 
 now that He has left this earth, therefore in virtue of 
 that delegated authority with which He has invested 
 His ministers, even the blessing and the breaking can 
 be performed by them. Accordingly St. Paul claims 
 it as now belonging to himself and his fellow-ministers 
 in every celebration of this Holy Communion. He 
 says, " The Cup of blessing which we bless, is it not 
 the communion of the Blood of Christ ? The Bread 
 which we break, is it not the communion of the Body 
 of Christ ^ ? " He claims for himself and for them the 
 full and entire exercise of that high prerogative of 
 administering heavenly food, even Chi'ist's own spiri- 
 tual Body and Blood, to His people. 
 
 Even so therefore in every Christian Baptism, though 
 performed by His minister, Jesus Christ Himself is the 
 Baptizer. And so also we are told that the Holy 
 Spirit baptizes. "By one Spirit we are all baptized 
 
 3 Matt. xiv. 19. ■! Matt. xxvi. 2G. 
 
 5 1 Cor. X. 16. 
 
108 PLAIN SCEIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 
 
 into one body/^ And furtlier stilly it is implied that 
 all tlie Three Persons of the ever -blessed Trinity are 
 concerned in every one Christian Baptism; for our 
 Lord expressly commanded His Apostles to baptize 
 " in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost/^ And in connexion with this let us 
 remember what is so often said in Scripture about the 
 Name of God ; how that Name seems to stand for God 
 Himself. And as Scripture speaks of our being bap- 
 tized into the Name of Christ, and also of our being 
 baptized into Christ Himself, as though these were 
 expressions meaning one and the same thing ; there- 
 fore would it not seem as though to be baptized into 
 the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost 
 were the same as to be baptized into Each separate 
 Person Himself of the ever-blessed Trinity? And 
 accordingly the abiding Presence of the Father, Son, 
 and Holy Ghost is promised to every true Christian, to 
 every one who really loves and obeys his Saviour^. 
 Sui^ely considerations such as these should enhance 
 exceedingly in our minds the peculiar sacredness as 
 well as the dignity of Holy Baptism. 
 
 6 John xlv. 15, 16. 23. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 BAPTISM THE MEANS OP THE PUTTING ON OF CHRIST : 
 THE REGENERATE STATE. 
 
 TTAYINGr been engrafted into Christ's Body and so 
 ^-^ made members of Him^ we liave been endued 
 even here, in our measure, with the graces of His 
 Spirit ; for inasmuch as we ^' were baptized into Christ, 
 we put on Christ." And as He was Himself filled 
 with the Holy Ghost without measure, so now that we 
 are members of Him, and are as it were clothed with 
 Him, having " put on " Him in BajDtism ; therefore 
 must we be clothed also with the graces of His Spirit, 
 those graces which flow to us from His incarnate 
 Person, of which we have become members : these 
 graces must, in whatever measure, be imparted to us. 
 If they belong to the Head, they must belong also to 
 the members \ And nothing less than this can be 
 implied in the phrase, " To put on Christ." Accord- 
 
 1 "As our baptizing necessarily implies the use of water; so our being 
 made thereby disciples of Christ as necessarily implies our partaking of 
 His Spirit : for all that are baptized and so made the disciples of Christ, 
 are thereby made the members of His Body, and are therefore said to be 
 baptized into Christ (Kom. vi. 5 ; Gal. iii. 27). But they who are in 
 Christ, members of His Body, must needs partake of the Spirit that is in 
 Him." (Bishop Beveridge.) 
 
110 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 ingly, the Apostle addresses his Christian converts as 
 having been " sanctified in Christ Jesus ^ ;" sanctified 
 ill Him ; that is^ as having been " grafted into " Him, 
 having " put on '' Him ; for " he that is joined unto the 
 Lord is one Spirit/^ " By one Spirit are we " (rather, 
 " were we ") " all baptized into one Body, and have been 
 all made '' (rather, '' and were all made ") " to drink into 
 one Spirit^." "But ye were washed, but ye were 
 sanctified/^ " Know ye not that ye are the temple of 
 God, and that the Spirit of G-od dwelleth in you ? . . . 
 the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are*." 
 And observe particularly the following passage, the 
 language of which is so strong in itself, and so clearly 
 connects the effect mentioned with Baptism as the 
 cause. " In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the God- 
 head bodily. And ye are complete in Him " (literally, 
 " ye have been jilled in Him,^^ referring to the word 
 " fulness " immediately preceding) : " in Whom also ye 
 were circumcised with the Circumcision made without 
 hands, in the (entire) putting off the body of the sins 
 of the flesh by the Circumcision of Christ, having been 
 bm'ied with Him in Baptism * -J" that is, as in Him 
 dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ; so in 
 you also, in your measure, inasmuch as ye have been 
 baptized into Him, must a fulness dwell, a fulness of 
 Divine grace : " ye have been filled in Him." St. Paul, 
 in the passage here quoted, expressly connects their 
 being " filled in " Christ with " the Circumcision made 
 without hands " as the cause ; and as he also, in the 
 
 " 1 Cor. i. 2. ^ See Note 8, on page 54. 
 
 1 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17. » Col. ii. 9-12. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. Ill 
 
 same passage^ plainly identifies such Circumcision with 
 Baptism, therefore in Baptism it is that we are " filled 
 in Him," filled with the graces flowing from Him, the 
 graces of His Holy Spirit. As also the Evangelist has 
 said, " Of His fulness have all we received, and grace 
 for grace ^" 
 
 All this flows from our membership or union with 
 Christ. Being baptized into Christ, we put on Christ ; 
 engrafted into Him, we partake of the graces which 
 are in Him, so long as we continue true and li^ang 
 members of Him ; just as the branch partakes of the 
 health and richness of the vine, so long as it continues 
 a living branch of it ; as our Lord Himself says, " I am 
 the Vine, ye are the branches : he that abideth in Me 
 and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for 
 without Me " — detached and separate from Me — " ye 
 can do nothing'." In Baptism we were not only 
 brought fi'om under the curse of our fallen state and 
 dehvered from the dominion of Satan, but we were also 
 brought into the new creation, translated into the 
 kingdom of God^s dear Son; and not only so, but 
 being then made very members of Him, we derived 
 from Him a principle of new life and the seed of 
 immortality. Then it was that " God anointed us ; 
 Who also sealed us, and gave the earnest of the Spirit 
 in our hearts '." And being now in Him Who is the 
 Eternal Son of God, we also are sons of God, adopted 
 in and through Him : and as He the Eternal Son is 
 Heir of all things ; so we, as being sons of God in 
 
 6 John i. 16. ' John xv. 5. 
 
 8 2 Cor. i. 22. 
 
112 PIAm SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 Him^ are also lieirs together with Him^ '^ heirs of Grod 
 and joint heirs with Christ/^ inheritors of the kingdom 
 of Heaven. 
 
 Such is our regenerate state as members of the 
 Second Adam, We have been brought out of a state 
 of wrath into a state of grace — that is to say^ a state 
 of salvation. But this salvation we are now thi'ough 
 life to work out^ to its appointed and final result, with 
 all care and diligence; yet not in any strength which 
 we possess as strictly our own^ but in that strength 
 which we derive from God^'s indwelling Presence ; as 
 said our Lord to His tempted Apostle, " My grace is 
 sufficient for thee : for My strength is made perfect in 
 weakness '' ;^^ and as St. John implies, when he says, 
 " Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the 
 world ^■'^ Therefore, though we are to '^'^work out our 
 own salvation with fear and trembling,^^ yet it is 
 really " God that worketh in us both to will and to 
 do,^^ that we may accomplish that which is agreeable 
 to Him, that which is " according to His good plea- 
 sure." We are to " be renewed in the spirit of our 
 mind; to put on the new man, which after God is 
 created in righteousness and true holiness ; " to 
 " abound more and more," thus growing more and 
 more into a conformity to the nature of God, to His 
 image and likeness, and " walking in newness of life." 
 And as we thus " grow in grace, and in the knowledge 
 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," our " inward 
 man is renewed " — is being renewed ^ — " day by day." 
 
 » 2 Cor. xii. 9. 1 1 John iv. 4. 
 
 - duaKatvovrat. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 113 
 
 This growth in grace begins from the time of our 
 Baptism. Being then made members of Christ^s 
 Body, we receiyed sanctification in our Baptism itself : 
 " but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified *." Thus, 
 by the gracious operation of God's Holy Spirit our first 
 sanctification takes place in Baptism, by reason of our 
 union with Chi'ist ; and then it is increased ever after- 
 wards through life, by the constant supplies of grace 
 from the same Holy Spirit, still in virtue of our union 
 with Christ ; according to the prayer that, " we being 
 regenerate, and made God's children by adoption and 
 grace, may daily be renewed with His Holy Spirit ^ ;" 
 that the " Almighty and Ever-living God, Who has 
 vouchsafed to regenerate these His servants by water 
 and the Holy Ghost, and has given unto them forgive- 
 ness of all their sins, would strengthen them with the 
 Holy Ghost the Comforter, and daily increase in them 
 His manifold gifts of grace ;" that He would " defend 
 them with His heavenly grace, that they may continue 
 His for ever, and daily increase in His Holy Spirit 
 more and more, until they come unto His everlasting 
 kingdom \'' This is our daily progressive sanctifi- 
 cation, continuing through life, and fitting us ever 
 more and more for the society of the holy spirits in 
 Heaven. 
 
 Such is the law of our Christian life. The work of 
 renewal is going on steadily in the soul, until the 
 
 3 " We justly hold it " (Baptism) " to be the first apparent beginning 
 of life : to our sanctification here a step that hath not any before it." 
 (Hooker.) 
 
 ^ Collect for Christmas Day. 
 
 ' Collect? in the Order of Confirmation. 
 
114 PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 
 
 image of Christ is formed within us. By God's grace 
 our spiritual life is day by day sustained, and 
 strengthened, and carried on towards perfection, in 
 an ever-increasing likeness to God Himself; insomuch 
 that, as time advances, we become ever more and more 
 sanctiiBed, ever more and more holy, and so rendered 
 ever more and more meet for the blessed Presence, in 
 Heaven hereafter, of Him Who is perfect Holiness. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE BAPTIZED SAID IN SCEIPTUEE TO BE " IN CHRIST :" 
 WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THAT PHRASE. 
 
 TTOW often in Scripture are we said to be in Clirist ! 
 a word than wliich none can be more expressive 
 of our real membership and union with Him, we, in 
 some mysterious though in a real manner, dwelling in 
 Him and He in us : as when it is said, '' Of Him are 
 ye in " (that is, " yerj members of ") " Christ Jesus ^J" 
 "1^ any man be in Christ, he is a new creature".'^ 
 Thus Christians, as having been made members of 
 Christ, "are accepted in" Him, "the Beloved^," 
 When they lie in the grave they are " asleep in 
 Christ * ;" and in Him they shall awake to their resur- 
 I'ection ; " in Christ, shall all be made alive ^" The 
 Apostle's longing desire was that in that last great 
 Day he might " be found in Him ^," still a living 
 member of Him, not cast off as a withered branch 
 from the Vine into which he had once been grafted. 
 Again, " God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings 
 in heavenly places in Christ \" " In Him we have 
 
 1 1 Cor. i. 30. 2 2 Cor. v. 17. ^ Epb. i. 6. 
 
 * 1 Cor. XV. 18. « 1 Cor. xv. 22. « Phil. iii. 9. 
 
 7 Eph. i. 3. 
 
 I 2 
 
116 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 redemption^." "Remember^ tliat ye being in time 
 past Gentiles — that at that time ye were without 
 Christy — but now in Christ Jesus " (that is^ as baptized 
 members of Him) " ye who sometimes were far oJff are 
 made nigh by the Blood of Christ ^ ;" also_, with the 
 same meanings " ye were sometimes darkness " (that is^ 
 when you were in your heathen unregenerate state), 
 '^but now are ye light in the Lord\" And it is in 
 virtue of this union with Christ, that it is even said, in 
 a sense mystical indeed, but not on that account the less 
 real, that even already God " hath raised us up together, 
 and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ 
 Jesus ^." All these expressions (and many more there 
 are of a similar kind) derive their full meaning from the 
 fact, that the persons to whom they apply, the Christian 
 converts to whom the Apostle was writing, had been 
 united to Christ, incorporated into Him their incarnate 
 Lord, made members of His very Body, by being 
 baptized into Him. 
 
 And is it not this same fact also which gives their 
 full meaning to those words of our Lord, when, assign- 
 ing the grounds on which He will one day as Judge 
 place some on His right hand, others on His left. He 
 ^^ will say to them on His right hand, Jwas an hungred, 
 and ye gave Me meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave Me 
 drink," &c. ; and to those on His left, "Jwas an hungred, 
 
 8 Eph. i. 7. 9 Ei^h. ii. 11—13. i Eph. v. 8. 
 
 - EpL. ii. 6. Sec also John i. 4; Rom. vi. 11; viii. 1; 1 Cor. i. 2; 
 2 Cor. xii. 2; Gal. iii. 28; Eph. ii. 21, 22; Phil. iv. 13; 1 Thess. ii. 14. 
 For although in one or two of these passages we find the word " through," 
 vet the original word is "in." 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 117 
 
 and ye gave Me no meat : / was thirsty^ and ye gave 
 Me no drink ;" and, '' Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch 
 as ye have done it^' (or/'' ye did it not^^) "unto one of the 
 least of these My brethren, ye have done it" (or, "ye did 
 it not ") " unto Me ^ " 1 And does not this same idea 
 underlie also His words spoken to Saul, when perse- 
 cuting His Church ? " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou 
 Me * V For is it not so, that whatever is done for or 
 against any one of Christ^s brethren, any one member 
 of His body, that same, be it good or evil, charitable 
 or uncharitable, must be so much done for or against 
 the entire body, and so much done for or against Christ 
 Himself, Who is the Head of that body ? for " whether 
 one member suffer, all the members suffer with it ; or 
 one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with 
 it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in 
 particular*." Thus, to give or to refuse to give to a 
 member of Christ must be, in a very real sense, to give 
 or to refuse to give to Christ Himself; and, in like 
 manner and for the same reason, to persecute a member 
 of Christ must be to persecute Christ Himself. All 
 this is at once suggested by the fact of the intimate 
 union subsisting between Christ and His members. 
 
 And hence it is also that the word " brother " was 
 that which was commonly used at first to designate 
 one who had been baptized into Christ. As all had 
 been made members, in Baptism, of the same Lord, as 
 all had become children of the same Father ; so were 
 they all brethren one of another. Accordingly in the 
 
 3 Matt. XXV. 35—45. ^ Acts ix. 4. 
 
 5 1 Cor. xli. 26, 27. 
 
118 PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 New Testament, after the death and resurrection of 
 our Lord, the word " brother " is used as synonymous 
 with Christian. As where St. Paul says, " Quartus, a 
 brother, saluteth you*." "If any man that is called a 
 brother, he a fornicator'/' &c.; "Brother goeth to law 
 with brother, and that before the unbelievers ^," that is, 
 before those who were not brethren, the unbaptized. 
 " If any brother hath a wife that believeth not ® '," 
 " We have sent with him the brother whose praise is 
 in the Gospel ^ ;" " Withdraw yourselves from every 
 brother that walketh disorderly'/' "For perhaps he 
 therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest 
 receive him for ever; not now as a servant, but above 
 a servant — a brother ^ ;" for Onesimus, of whom this is 
 written, had been recently converted and " begotten " 
 to be a son of God through the preaching of St. Paul. 
 And so in like manner the plural word " brethren " is 
 used as synonymous with Christians ; for all the bap- 
 tized had become " saints and faithful brethren in 
 Christ *." Accordingly we read, " The disciples de- 
 termined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt 
 in Judgea ^ ;" " Go show these things unto James, 
 and to the brethren * /' " The Jews stirred up the 
 Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the 
 brethren"/' "And they (Paul and Barnabas) caused 
 great joy unto all the brethren * /' " Then pleased it 
 the Apostles and Elders, with the whole Church, to send 
 
 •5 Rom. xvi. 23. ' 1 Cor. v. 11. ' 1 Cor. vi. 6. 
 
 9 1 Cor. vii. 12. i 2 Cor. viii. 18. "- 2 Thess. iii. 6. 
 
 ^ Philem. 15, 16. * Col. i. 2. ^ Acts xi. 29. 
 
 s Acts xii. 17. 7 Acts xiv. 2. « Acts xv. 3. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 119 
 
 Judas, surnamed Barnabas, and Silas, chief men among 
 the brethren : and they wrote letters by them after this 
 manner. The Apostles, and elders, and brethren send 
 greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles 
 in Antioch, and Syria, and Cilicia ^" These are a few 
 out of many instances which might be produced out of 
 the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, to show that 
 after our Lord had accomplished the great work of 
 man^s redemption, all that believed and were baptized 
 into Him, were known throughout the Church under 
 the common appellation of "brethren.'" 
 
 And in this connexion it may be noted, that as it 
 was by His death that our Lord purchased for us the 
 power to become the sons of God, so immediately after 
 His resurrection, not before, it was that for the first 
 time He calls His disciples by the distinctive and 
 endearing title of " brethren." " Go " (He says to 
 the women, on the morning of the resurrection) " tell 
 My brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall 
 they see Me\" And still earlier to Mary Magdalene, 
 to whom He made His first recorded appearance after 
 His resurrection, He had said, "Go to My brethren, 
 and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your 
 Father, and to My God and your God'." Thus the 
 very form in which the message was to be conveyed 
 was itself to intimate to them the great truth, that 
 now at length they (as well as He Himself) were very 
 sons of God. It is not enough that she is to say, " I 
 ascend unto My Father ;" but she is to add, " and to 
 
 9 Acts XV. 22, 23. i Matt, xxviii. 10. 
 
 - John XX. 17. 
 
120 PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 
 
 your Father/^ And, in like manner, in tliat Psalm in 
 whiclL He has been describing, in sucb clear prophecy, 
 His sufferings and death. He proceeds to speak also of 
 His " brethren." '' I will declare Thy Name unto My 
 brethren : in the midst of the congregation will I praise 
 Thee^." And to the same truth, thus expressed in 
 this Psalm, and in a like order of thought, the writer 
 of the Epistle to the Hebrews alludes, when he says, 
 "It became Him, for Whom are all things, and by 
 Whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto 
 glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect 
 through sufferings. For both He that sanctifieth and 
 they who are sanctified are all of one : for which cause 
 He is not ashamed to call them hrethren, saying, I 
 will declare Thy Name unto My brethren : in the midst 
 of the Church will I sing praise unto Thee"* :" this 
 fact being one of such important significance that the 
 sacred writer is inspired thus to call particular atten- 
 tion to it. 
 
 s Ps. xxii. 22. * Heb. ii. 10-12. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE UNION OF THE SAINTS WITH CHRIST EEPEESENTED 
 AS SEEN IN HEAVEN. 
 
 npHIS same fact of tlie intimate union between Christ 
 and His members will also probably suggest tlie 
 reason why^ in the Revelation^ where the saints and 
 angels are described as being around the throne and 
 Him that sitteth thereon, the saints are seen to occupy 
 a position nearer to that throne than the position occu- 
 pied even by the angels. The angels, indeed, are 
 seen standing in a circle round the throne of the 
 Lamb ; but nearer still, in an inner circle, are the 
 saints seen standing, none intervening between them 
 and Him. '' And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the 
 throne and of the four beasts [" living creatures "'\ , 
 and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it 
 had been slain. . . . And I beheld, and I heard the 
 voice of many angels round about the .throne and the 
 beasts and the elders : and the number of them was 
 ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of 
 thousands \" All the angels were there, and they all 
 stood outside not only the four Evangelists (" the four 
 beasts^'), and the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel 
 1 Rev. V. 6. 11. 
 
122 PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 with the twelve Apostles of Christ ("the four-and- 
 twenty elders ") ; but they stood outside also all His 
 saints. For the Vision is afterwards repeated^ "After 
 this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man 
 could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, 
 and tongues, stood before the throne and before the 
 Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the 
 throne, and about the elders and the four beasts ^.^^ 
 
 Even in Heaven hereafter, Christ as the Head will 
 not be separated from His members : the relation in 
 which He stands to them now is one that is to con- 
 tinue for ever. As there is now a union and com- 
 munion among the saints on earth, not only with each 
 other, but with those also that have passed out of this 
 world, and which will continue to subsist amongst 
 them when they have all gone to their eternal rest ; 
 and as this union and communion subsists between 
 them in virtue of their joint membership in Christ ; so 
 also must it continue to subsist between them and 
 Christ Himself for ever in Heaven. 
 
 Accordingly, it seems to fall in with our natural 
 notions of what might even have been expected before- 
 hand, that when Christ^s saints, the members of His 
 Body, are seen in Heaven, they should be seen in close 
 fellowship with Him; none other, not even angel or 
 archangel, being suffered to come between Him and 
 them, " For verily He took not on Him the nature 
 of angels, but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. 
 Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made 
 like unto His brethren^ J" Angels, whose nature He 
 2 Rev. vii. 9. 11. 3 Hob. ii. IG, 17. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 123 
 
 took not^ could not be His brethren, iuasmuch as tliey 
 could not be made members of Him^ and thereby sons 
 of Godj and so brethren of tlie Eternal Son. But the 
 saints had all been incorporated into Him : they had 
 become very members of His Body, and the Head may 
 not be separated from the members, neither in this 
 world nor in the world to come. In Heaven there is 
 seen no figure of the Church, such as to indicate or 
 imply the possibility of a separation between Christ 
 and even one of His saints. In the visible Church on 
 earth, indeed, there is the figure of the Vine and its 
 branches ; and the branches might become withered, 
 and be cut off, and cast into the fire : in Heaven, how- 
 ever, this figure disappears ; it has no place there ; but 
 St. John sees the vision of the Lamb, with " the 
 Bride, the Lamb's Wife ;" and there is " the Marriage 
 of the Lamb," and " the Marriage Supper ;" all indi- 
 cating the indissoluble union between Himself and His 
 Church the members of His Body : a union which 
 shall never terminate : the Bridegroom may never be 
 separated from the Bride : for evermore, " They twain 
 shall be one flesh." 
 
 Where the Lamb is seen in Heaven, there also are 
 His saints seen with Him. Their eternal bliss and 
 happiness will be, to be ever with Him their Saviour 
 and He with them : they ever " before His throne," 
 and He ever " dwelling among them :" they '' follow- 
 ing the Lamb whithersoever He goeth," and He 
 " leading " them forth amid the rich pastures of His 
 love. " They are before the throne of God, and serve 
 Him day and night in His Temple ; and He that sitteth 
 
124 PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 on the throne shall dwell among them The 
 
 Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed 
 them^ and shall lead them unto living fountains of 
 waters *." Even the place of departed spirits will be 
 a " paradise " to His saints^ but only because He is 
 with them there. To the pardoned penitent His own 
 promise was^ '' To-day thou shalt be with Me in 
 paradise." The zealous Apostle, wearied with the con- 
 tinual strife, the "fightings without" and "fears within" 
 of his daily life, " desired to depart," but only because 
 " to depart" was " to be ivith Christ, which is far better." 
 " The disciple whom Jesus loved," now the aged 
 saint, is gladdened at the prospect that He Whom he 
 also himself so greatly loved, and Whom he had so 
 long waited for, is now soon about to be with him 
 again, never more to be separated from him. " Behold, 
 I come quickly," says our Lord, " Even so. Amen. 
 Come, Lord Jesus," replies the longing Apostle. To 
 the same St. John and to the rest of the Apostles He 
 had Himself promised, when on earth, " I will come 
 again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, 
 there ye may be also^" And now' His promise to all 
 is, " To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with 
 Me in My throne \" There in Heaven hereafter shall 
 His saints be ever with Christ, they " seated in His 
 throne," and He evermore " dwelling among them," 
 and " in the midst of them /' they " following " Him 
 " whithersoever He goeth," and He " feeding them " 
 and " leading them " beside the ever-flowing " foun- 
 
 ■» Rev. vii. 15. 17. ' .Tolin xiv. 3. 
 
 6 Rev. iii. 21. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 125 
 
 tains of waters." There is here no idea or prospect of 
 change, no hint or thought of separation. " He shall 
 reign for ever and ever '/^ and they also with Him and 
 " in His throne '/^ " shall reign for ever and ever'." 
 
 ^ Kev. xi. 15. * Rev. iii. 21. '^ Rev. xxii. 5. 
 
CHAPTER XXIY. 
 
 THE LIKENESS OF THE SAINTS TO CHRIST BEGUN ON 
 EAKTH^ CONTINUED IN HEAVEN. 
 
 npHUS, having been made members of Cbrist and so 
 
 sons of God, sons togetber witb tbe Eternal Son, 
 
 therefore He is now j^leased to speak of us as His 
 
 brethren, and to make Himself as one with om'selves. 
 
 And if as being sons of God we are brethren of Christ 
 
 here, so likewise, in virtue of the same relationship, 
 
 shall we be like Him hereafter also, if we be not in the 
 
 meantime cast off from Him. As being His brethren, 
 
 we are first to be conformed to His image here. 
 
 " Whom God did foreknow. He also did predestinate to 
 
 be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might 
 
 be the First-born among many hrethren." By our 
 
 union with Him, as the Second Adam, we not only 
 
 become sons of God in Him, but we are also made 
 
 like Him ; being grafted into Him, our incarnate Lord, 
 
 we are made members of Him, and partake of His 
 
 nature and likeness. " If Christ be the Son of God, 
 
 and thou hast put on Him, thou who hast the Son 
 
 within thee, and art fashioned after His pattern, hast 
 
 been brought into one kindred and nature with Him\'" 
 
 1 St. Chrysostom. Tbe passage has been already quoted on page 53. It 
 continues : — " Having said, ' Ye have put on Christ,' even this does not 
 
PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 127 
 
 And tlien as regards the likeness tliat is to be here- 
 after, St. Paul says, '' As is tlie heavenly, such are they 
 also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the 
 image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the 
 heavenly." And St. John, " Beloved, now are we the 
 sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall 
 be j but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall 
 be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is '." And 
 this remark follows directly upon that exclamation of 
 thrilling wonder, and of gratitude for God's great mercy 
 in having thus made us His sons. ^^ Beloved, what 
 manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that 
 we should be called the sons of God ! " 
 
 suffice him ; but by way of penetrating more deeply into this union, be 
 comments on it thus : ' Ye are all one in Christ Jesus,' that is, ' Ye have 
 all one form and one mould, even Christ's.' What can be more awful 
 than these words ! He that was Greek, or Jew, or bondman yestA-day, 
 carries about with him the form, not of an angel or archangel, but of the 
 Lord of all ; yea, displays in his own person the Christ." 
 2 1 John iii. 2. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 SONSHIP TO GOD PECULIAR TO THE CHRISTIAN 
 DISPENSATION. 
 
 nnHIS sonship to God is a privilege whicli no prophet 
 -*- nor king under the Old Covenant, not even the 
 greatest and most highly favoured of them, might pos- 
 sess ; neither Moses nor John the Baptist. Moses, " the 
 meekest of men ;" who had been admitted into God's 
 immediate Presence ; who saw His glory ; to whom 
 " the Lord spake face to face, as a man speaketh unto 
 his friend ' :" even he was still only a servant, not a 
 son. " Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a 
 servant '." John the Baptist was a greater prophet 
 than any that had preceded him ; yet " the least in the 
 kingdom of heaven was greater than he.^^ There had 
 been no Baptism into Christ ; therefore no regeneration, 
 nor admission into Christ's Church or Kingdom : no 
 sonship to God ; therefore no co-heirship with Christ : 
 the great Gift of the Holy Ghost had not yet been 
 vouchsafed to effect all this. As before Christ came 
 there could be no spiritual Baptism, so neither could 
 there be a spiritual regeneration. Consequently, in the 
 Old Testament the very name of regeneration is unknown. 
 
 1 Exod. xxxiii. 11. - Heb. iii. 5. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE WORD " EEGENESATION " TWICE FOCND IN SCRIPTURE : 
 ITS MEANIXa. 
 
 "DEGENEEATION, as indeed the word itself signi- 
 fieSj is " a new birth/^ To be " born again " was a 
 phrase introduced into the New Testament by our Lord 
 Himself, when declaring the necessity of Baptism, in 
 order to a person's admission into the kingdom of God. 
 Under the Old Covenant as there was no such thing as 
 being born again, no new birth, of water and of the Spirit; 
 so the word Regeneration had no place there : it belongs 
 exclusively to the New Covenant. We find it twice 
 used : once by St. Paul, to denote the work of man's 
 salvation efiected in Baptism, as when he says, '^Accord- 
 ing to His mercy He saved us, by the washing (" the 
 laver") of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost 3" and once by om- Lord, where He says, " In 
 the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the 
 throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve 
 thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel \" 
 
 Here apparently our Lord denotes by this word that 
 further change still to take place hereafter, which is to 
 correspond, in some way, to that which now takes place 
 1 Matt. xix. 28. 
 
 K 
 
130 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 in Baptism^ wherein to each individual " old things are 
 passed away ; behold^ all things are become new/^ It 
 seems to refer to that great change unrevealed and 
 unknown to us as yet^ which all creation is described 
 as even now looking and longing for, " The earnest 
 expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifesta- 
 tion of the sons of God .... Because the creature itself 
 also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption 
 into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For 
 we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth 
 in pain together until now. And not only they, but 
 we ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the 
 Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, wait- 
 ing for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our 
 body"," that great "restitution," or as it were that 
 future new birth, " of all things," whereby they shall be 
 made anew, and shall receive their final and eternal 
 form, to be no more subject to change for ever. 
 
 That this is the meaning of the word Regeneration 
 as used by our Lord seems probable from the fact that 
 it is to take place then, " when the Son of Man shall 
 sit on the throne of His glory ; " for in the Revelation 
 we find Him described as sitting on that throne ; and 
 then it is that He says, "Behold, I make all things 
 new," and then it is also that St. John, who sees Him 
 sitting there, speaks of himself as seeing all things in 
 their new and altered form. " I saw a new heaven 
 and a new earth : for the first heaven and the first earth 
 were passed away; and there was no more sea. And 
 I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down 
 
 2 Rom. viii. 19. 21-23. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 131 
 
 from God out of Heaven." He saw too liow all had 
 been changed and had become new with regard also to 
 the troubles and the evils of life. " And God shall wipe 
 away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no 
 more death^ neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall 
 there be any more pain : for the former things are 
 passed away." And then our Lord on His throne of 
 glory declares, " Behold, I make all things new'." 
 This may be that further regeneration, that absolute 
 and complete redemption, which all creation is said to 
 be now expecting and longing for, and which may have 
 reference to that full and final "salvation" which St. 
 Peter says has yet "to be revealed in the last time''." 
 
 There has also been suggested another and not 
 improbable interpretation of this passage in which 
 the word Regeneration occurs as used by our Lord. 
 According to this interpretation the word means simply 
 that regeneration which takes place now in Baptism : 
 and by our Lord sitting on the throne of His glory is 
 meant to be intimated that on His Ascension, after 
 which the Dispensation of regeneration or the Christian 
 state would commence. He should take possession of 
 His throne at the right hand of His Father as King in 
 Heaven over His mediatorial kingdom ; and that His 
 Apostles and their successors as His chief ministers on 
 earth, should also sit on thrones or seats of honom*, 
 judging or ruling with authority delegated from Him 
 the twelve tribes of Israel, that is, God^s people, the 
 true Israel, in all parts of the woi'ld. But indeed there 
 seems to be no reason for supposing that either inter- 
 
 3 Rev, xxi. 1, 2. 4, 5. •< 1 Pet. i. 5. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 
 
 pretation necessarily excludes the other. Our Saviour's 
 words may have a first fulfilment in this Dispensation 
 of regeneration in His mediatorial kingdom on earthy, 
 and yet may look forward, as they certainly do seem to 
 look forward, to a higher and more complete fulfilment 
 in His kingdom of glory hereafter. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 REPENTANCE ; ITS RELATION TO THE BAPTISMAL STATE. 
 
 "OUT be the meaning of tlie word Regeneration what 
 it may in the particular passage just considered, 
 there is at least no second regeneration in this life, 
 because there is no second Baptism. For such as have 
 been living in sin, whether before or after Baptism, 
 there is repentance and conversion. For a person who 
 has been hving in sin before Baptism, such repentance 
 with a true faith in Christ as his Saviour is a necessary 
 qualification fitting him for that holy Sacrament. If 
 his life of sin has been after Baptism, then repentance 
 is necessary for his restoration. Only, the more 
 grievous any course of post-baptismal sin is with any 
 person, the more' difficult in consequence is the work 
 of repentance with him ; for the Holy Spirit which was 
 granted to dwell in his heart for his gradual sanctifica- 
 tion and growth in grace, has been " grieved /' and, 
 the habit of sin continuing. He withdraws Himself 
 more and more, until in the end, if the sinful habit be 
 persisted in. He is "quenched ;" He withdi-aws Himself 
 altogether from the heart of that man, who thus 
 becomes hardened against repentance, whose conscience 
 has been " seared," and whom Scripture describes as 
 
134 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 
 
 " reprobate." He had been indwelt by the Holy Grhost, 
 and he has now done despite to that Spirit of grace, 
 Which alone could give him repentance. That Holy 
 Spirit having therefore now left him, how is he to 
 repent ? Repentance in his case seems all but im- 
 possible : indeed. Holy Scripture declares it to be 
 actually impossible; although, as what is impossible 
 with man is possible with God, we may still hope that, 
 exceedingly awful as is all wilful sin persisted in after 
 Baptism, and extremely difficult as is the work of real 
 repentance then; yet in the great mercy of God through 
 Christ, in no case is repentance entirely and absolutely 
 impossible in this life. Still the exceeding fearfulness 
 of a falling away from so high a grace is recorded in 
 Scripture for our warning; and to that warning we 
 shall do well to give due heed. " For it is impossible 
 for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted 
 of the heavenly Gift, and were made partakers of the 
 Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, 
 and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall 
 away, to renew them again unto repentance*." 
 
 5 Heb. vi. 4-6. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 CONVERSION; ITS TWO MEANINGS IN SCRIPTURE. 
 
 O UCH is the necessity of repentance : it is our only 
 resource for the pardon of sin committed after Bap- 
 tism; our last and only refuge from its consequences 
 then. As there is no second Baptism, so there is no 
 second plenary remission of sins in Baptism. But 
 there is repentance ; and conversion is its natural and 
 immediate consequence, always following close upon 
 true repentance. The word Conversion, indeed, means 
 simply " a turning." A person first feels sorrow for 
 his sin — such a sorrow as to induce a thorough change 
 of mind with regard to that sin : that is his repent- 
 ance : and then he turns from it ; with all his heart he 
 turns to God : that is his conversion. Thus the Pro- 
 digal Son in the parable repented, when he thought, 
 with deep sorrow of heart, of the good father and 
 happy home he had left, and found himself now in so 
 miserable a condition, fain to fill his belly with the 
 husks that the swine did eat. All this misery be- 
 tokened his repentance ; but when he arose, and went 
 to his father with the confession, " Father, I have 
 sinned against Heaven and in thy sight," this be- 
 tokened his conversion, for then he turned away from 
 
136 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 his sinful course of life, and betook himself to his 
 father again. 
 
 The word Conversion, however, is used in Scripture 
 in two senses, diflPering somewhat according to the 
 class of persons to whom it is applied. It is used to 
 denote, as in the instance above given, a turning away 
 from a sinful to a religious course of life ; and it is 
 used to denote also a turning away from a false reli- 
 gion (as from idolatry or Judaism) to the true one. 
 Thus, in the latter of these senses, Saul was converted 
 when our Lord appeared to him on his way to Damas- 
 cus. Even before his conversion, he had been living a 
 strict and conscientious life, serving his God zealously 
 in the way he thought was the only right way. As he 
 says, '^I was zealous toward God ^;" " touching the righ- 
 teousness which is in the law, blameless^;" ''after the 
 most straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee'." 
 Therefore, inasmuch as he had persecuted the Church 
 " ignorantly in unbelief," he "obtained mercy* ;" Christ 
 converted him to the true faith. In this same sense 
 of the word conversion, St. Paul and St. Barnabas say 
 to the men of Lystra, who wished to offer sacrifices to 
 them as gods, " We preach unto you that ye should 
 turn," or be converted, " from these vanities unto the 
 Living God, Which made heaven and earth*." And 
 in the chapter following we read, "They [Paul and 
 Barnabas] passed through Phenice and Samaria, de- 
 claring the conversion of the Gentiles ° ;" that is, their 
 turning from idolatry to the true God. And in the 
 
 ' Acts xxii. 3. 2 piiii. iii, 6, 3 Acts xxvi. 5. 
 
 < 1 Tim. i. 13. 5 Acts xiv. 15. « Acts xv. 3. 
 
ox HOLT BAPTISM. 137 
 
 same chapter^ St. James referring to these conver- 
 sionSj saySj " Wherefore my sentence is, that we 
 trouble, not them which from among the Gentiles are 
 turned/^ or converted, " to God^.'" And St. Paul says 
 to his Thessalonians, " They themselves show of us 
 what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how 
 ye turned," or were converted, " to God from idols to 
 seiwe the Living and True God^." In these and other 
 passages which might be quoted, the same word in the 
 original is translated indifferently conversion and turn- 
 ing, the word conversion being, in fact, only the Latin 
 form of the word turning. 
 
 This, then, is the meaning in which the word Con- 
 version is used in Holy Scripture with reference to 
 one class of persons — those who have been living in 
 some false religion. But the other class in reference 
 to whom it is used, are they who have indeed known 
 the way of life, and have walked in it for a time, faith- 
 fully serving their God ; but have since deserted His 
 service, having fallen into habits of sin. The conver- 
 sion of such persons is by the way of repentance, that 
 sorrow for sin and' thorouo^h chano-e of mind and affec- 
 tions with regard to it which leads them to desire and 
 to seek a reconciliation to that holy God Whom they 
 have so grievously offended. Thus they are brought 
 to return to Him from Whom they had wandered 
 away; and this is their conversion. The instance of 
 the Prodigal Son has already been given in illustra- 
 tion of the nature of conversion in reference to this 
 class of persons. In this sense of the word, therefore, 
 7 Acts XV. 19. * 1 Thess. i. 9. 
 
lob PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 — that is^ as signifying a turning from a life of folly and 
 sin to a life of devotion to God, — conversion implies 
 a previous repentance. Accordingly, we find the ex- 
 hortation always to run in the form, to repent and be 
 converted, the repentance coming first, both in the 
 Old Testament and in the New ; as where, in the Old 
 Testament, the prophet says, " Eepent, and turn your- 
 selves" (be converted) "from all your transgressions^;" 
 and, in the New, St. Peter says, " Repent ye, there- 
 fore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted 
 out';" and St. Paul "showed first unto them of 
 Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the 
 coasts of Judeea, and then to the Gentiles, that they 
 should repent and turn," or be converted, " to God"." 
 Unlike regeneration, which takes place only in Bap- 
 tism, and which therefore belongs exclusively to the 
 New Covenant, conversion has no necessary connexion 
 with Baptism, but may take place either before or after 
 it ; and inasmuch as it denotes a person^s turning from 
 sin to God, it belongs equally to the Old Covenant as 
 to the New. Accordingly, we find our Lord quoting 
 words used by Isaiah, when rebuking his countrymen 
 for their obstinate refusal to listen to him when ex- 
 horting them to conversion : " Therefore they could 
 not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath 
 blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they 
 should not see with their eyes, nor understand with 
 their heart, and be converted, and I should heal 
 them';" and Ezekiel, as above, exhorts them, "Ee- 
 
 9 Ezek. xviii. 30. i Acts iii. 19. 
 
 - Acts xxvi. 20. » John xii. 39, 40. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 139 
 
 pent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; 
 so iniquity shall not be your ruin'';'^ and again, "As 
 I live, saith. the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the 
 death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn,^' or be 
 converted, " from his way, and live : turn ye, turn ye 
 from your evil ways ; for why will ye die, house of 
 Israel*?" And to cite one passage more from the 
 New Testament, St. James says, "Brethren, if any of 
 you do err from the truth, and one convert him ; let 
 him know, that he which converteth the sinner from 
 the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and 
 shall hide a multitude of sins^" Conversion, there- 
 fore, in the Scriptural sense of the word, invariably 
 denotes an act which might take place at any time : it 
 never denotes a habit, or an abiding state of life ; con- 
 sequently the phrase, " a converted state," which has 
 been introduced of late years into religious language, 
 has no sanction from Scripture ; and the use of it tends 
 only to obscure the proper Scriptural meaning of the 
 term conversion, which signifies simply the act of 
 turning from a false religion to a true one, as in the 
 case of a person who had not previously known the 
 right way ; or, the act of turning from the service of 
 Satan to the service of God, as in the case of one who 
 knew the right way and had once lived in it, but had 
 since departed from it. 
 
 ■* Ezek. xviii. 30. s Ezek. xxxiii. 11. 
 
 6 James v. 19, 20. 
 
^^ 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 LAPSE INTO SIN AFTER BAPTISM NOT CONTEMPLATED IN 
 SCRIPTURE. 
 
 A ND it deserves to be noted, tliat as conversion in 
 -^^ this latter sense implies that there has been a 
 previous lapse into sin after Baptism, and as such lapse 
 is altogether contrary to the law of the Christian state, 
 the New Testament seems scarcely to contemplate 
 such a thing as the conversion of the baptized ; nor in 
 all the Epistles are there probably more than one or 
 two express allusions to such a conversion. The New 
 Testament Scriptures contemplate rather a gradual 
 growth in grace in all Christians from the time of their 
 Baptism — a going on unto perfection, a growing day 
 by day into the perfect spiritual man. Thenceforward 
 their affections are to be set only on things above : 
 their conversation is to be in Heaven; that is, their 
 manner of life is to be heavenly. Under the constant 
 supplies of Grod's grace they are to go on increasing 
 ever more and more in holiness, so as at length to 
 attain to that conformity to the Divine likeness, which 
 shall fit them for God's Presence hereafter. 
 
 Such is the law of the Christian state, and such is 
 the law which alone is recognized in the New Testa- 
 
PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 141 
 
 ment, as that by wliicli the life of the baptized shall 
 be regulated ever after their entrance into that state. 
 Once, indeed, it speaks expressly of the lapse of the 
 baptized, but in such awful terms as plainly to show 
 how very exceptional is such a thing to the law of the 
 Christian life. It says, " It is impossible for those 
 who were once enlightened, &c., if they shall fall 
 away, to renew them again unto repentance." The 
 sacred penmen so write, as though they seemed scarcely 
 able to entertain the idea that their baptized converts 
 could think lightly of their Christian privileges, or 
 could be so ungrateful to God, or so regardless of their 
 own best interests, as to live in the neglect of blessings 
 so unspeakably great : they are directed so to speak, 
 as though appearing to take it for granted that Chris- 
 tians, duly appreciating the nature and importance of 
 their privileges, are gladly availing themselves of 
 them, and are striving in earnest to live up to their 
 profession. 
 
 And so do they write about the ChurcK itself, not so 
 much as what it would actually become through the 
 sin and folly of mankind, but rather as what it was 
 intended to be by God Himself; as what it should be 
 as looked upon by Him in that perfection of beauty 
 and holiness in which our Saviour Christ had originally 
 constituted it, and presented it to the world, and in 
 which He willed it should abide, and in the same 
 perfection be presented back to Himself in the end. 
 " Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it ; 
 that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing 
 of water by the word, that He might present it to 
 
142 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 Himself a glorious Cliurcli, not having spot^ or wrinkle, 
 or any sucli thing ; but that it should be holy and with- 
 out blemish \-'^ In this respect, then, it seems alto- 
 gether abhorrent to the Divine mind to contemplate 
 the Chui'ch of the redeemed as otherwise than in her 
 beauty and holiness. She is that " King's daughter" 
 in the Psalm, who " is all glorious within : her clothing 
 is of wrought gold :" she is that Church in Isaiah 
 whom her Lord ^''hath clothed with the garment of 
 salvation; hath covered her with the robe of righte- 
 ousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with orna- 
 ments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels :" 
 she is that " wife of the Lamb " in the Eevelation, to 
 whom "was granted that she should be arrayed in 
 fine linen, clean and white : for the fine Hnen is the 
 righteousness of saints :" she is that " virgin " with- 
 out fault or blemish, whom and whom only the 
 ancient priestly type of Christ was commanded to take 
 for his wife : " He that is the High Priest among his 
 brethren .... shall take a wife in her virginity, .... 
 a virgin of his own people ^ :" as St. Paul also says to 
 his Corinthians, " I have espoused you to one Husband, 
 that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ^." 
 The sins and defilements of which they had formerly 
 been guilty in their state of heathenism are now not 
 to be thought of by Christians : they are not to be 
 once named among them : of such iniquity he says, 
 ^'Let it not be once named among you as hecometh 
 saints*." Accordingly the Apostles in their Epistles 
 
 ' Eph. V. 25—27. 2 Lev. xxi. 10. 13, 11. 
 
 =« 2 Cor. xi. 2. * E;.li. v. 3. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 143 
 
 not only address all tlie members of the Cliurch^ that 
 is^ are insjnrcd to address them all as "saints^^^ as 
 "sanctified in Christ Jesus/^ as "elect/' as "justified/' 
 all which they became in Baptism ; but they are in- 
 spired also so to address them^ as though assuming 
 that they are Hying accordingly : consequently so it is^ 
 that perhaps in no one instance, in all their Epistles, do 
 they expressly urge them to repentance or conversion ; 
 but that, on the contrary, their addresses to them so 
 commonly assume rather the form of exhortations 
 to continued exertion, and that these exhortations 
 themselves are so frequently founded upon their re- 
 generation. As when the Apostle says, "Ye were 
 sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord : 
 walk as children of light'/' and, "Eemember, that ye 
 in time past .... were without Christ, being aliens from 
 the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the 
 covenants of promise, having no hope, and without 
 God in the world : but now in Christ Jesus " (that is, 
 as having been baptized and so made members of 
 Ckrist) " ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh 
 by the Blood of Christ /' and then aftei-wards he adds 
 the exhortation, "I therefore beseech you that ye 
 walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called "/' 
 
 5 Eph. V. 8. 
 
 6 Eph. ii. 11-13, and iv. 1. See also 1 Thess. ii. 11, 12; Titus iii. 
 8 ; aud 1 Pet. i. 22, 23. How very different this from what has now 
 become so common among a certain class of preachers, mostly among 
 schismatical bodies, of urging repentance and conversion indiscriminately 
 upon all persons alike; quite regardless of the fact, that there must 
 frequently be persons so addressed to whom such preaching cannot at 
 all apply. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THE DIFFERENCE OP LANGUAGE RESPECTING SIN IN THE OLD 
 TESTAMENT AND IN THE NEW : THE REASON FOR IT. 
 
 fTIHE difference of language in the Old Testament 
 -^ and in tlie New with regard to sin is particularly 
 to be observed. In the Old Testament it is simply 
 spoken of as sin against God : in the New, it is sin 
 specially against the Holy Ghost. And the reason of 
 the difference is obvious. For under the New Covenant 
 it is the Holy Spirit Who comes to take up His abode in 
 the heart of the baptized : that heart is therefore His 
 peculiar dwelling-place. He was promised at Pentecost 
 as the special Gift of the baptized. So the bodies of 
 Christians are the temples of the Holy Ghost. And 
 although our Lord promised the indwelling Presence of 
 Each Person of the Holy Trinity, yet it is the Third Per- 
 son Who is specially present within them to carry on that 
 work of grace and sanctification which is to fit them 
 for the Presence of the All-holy God in Heaven. It is 
 " God the Holy Ghost Who sanctifieth me and all the 
 elect people of God." And therefore it is, that every 
 sin committed now is sin specially against the Holy 
 Ghost ; is sin committed in the very immediate Pre- 
 sence, and, as it were, before the very Face of Him 
 
PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 145 
 
 Who is Himself Very and Eternal Gocl. Therefore 
 now all sin " defiles the temple of God/^ " grieves the 
 Holy Spirit," and if persisted in, " quenches " Him, 
 drives Him from His temple. " Know ye not that ye 
 are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God 
 dwelleth in you ? If any man defile the temple of 
 God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is 
 holy, which temple ye are \" 
 
 » 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE SIN OP ANANIAS AND SAPPHIEA AND ITS PUNISHMENT, 
 IN KEFEEENCE TO BAPTISMAL GKACE. 
 
 rriHE fact wliicli has been adverted to in tlie pre- 
 ceding Chapter, it is which makes all sin in a 
 Christian so exceedingly sinful, so unspeakably awful 
 as compared with what it had been and is in the un- 
 baptized. And the more defiling any sin is in its own 
 nature, such as sin of impurity, the more especially offen- 
 sive must it be to that pure Spirit who dwells within. 
 And therefore the Apostle has a separate warning against 
 this kind of sin in particular. " Flee fornication " (he 
 says) . " Every sin that a man doeth is without the 
 body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth 
 against his own body. What ? " (he adds) " know ye 
 not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost 
 Which is in you'?" And therefore also it is that sins 
 of impurity stand at the very head and forefront of that 
 fearful list of "the works of the flesh,'^ respecting 
 which the Apostle says that "they which do such 
 things shall not inherit the kingdom of God'." Is 
 there any sin such that it " shall not be forgiven unto 
 
 1 1 Cor. vi. 18, 19. 
 
 " G:il. V. 19—21. See also 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10 ; Eph. v. 5 ; Col. iii. 5, 6. 
 
PLAIN SCEIPTURAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 147 
 
 men, neitlier in tliis world, neitlier in tlie world to 
 come " ? It is tlie sin of " blasphemy against the Holy 
 Ghost\" Is there any sinner such that with him 
 availing repentance is said to be " impossible ^' ? It is 
 he who has fallen away, after he was once enlightened, 
 and had tasted of the heavenly Gift, and was made 
 partaker of the Holy Ghost"*. Accordingly the first 
 recorded sin committed by a Christian is recorded along 
 with its punishment, to be an example and a warning 
 for all Christians to the end of time, to teach them 
 what is the real nature of sin in the baptized ; that it 
 is committed in the very Presence of the Holy Spirit 
 Who dwells within them, Who is Himself very God ; 
 and in defiance of Him. The first recorded sin of a 
 disciple after the establishment of the Christian Church 
 on the Day of Pentecost was a lie by Ananias. But 
 St. Peter is there as God's minister, to speak God's 
 word and perform His will on occasion of this first 
 recorded sin against the Holy Ghost. Ananias, indeed, 
 not thinking of His awful Presence Who had so recently 
 come to dwell within him, seems to have imagined that 
 he was lying only to men : but what was St. Peter 
 directed to say to him ? " Why hath Satan filled thine 
 heart to lie to the Holy Ghost ? Thou hast not lied 
 unto men, but unto God." And to show that God's 
 finger was indeed in the matter, it is added, " Ananias 
 hearing this fell down, and gave up the ghost :" a fate 
 which soon afterwards befell also his wife Sapphira for 
 merely confirming his lie : and this double punishment 
 was doubtless in order to invest the matter with all the 
 3 Matt. xil. 31, 32. •< Heb. vi. 4. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 more circumstances of awe and terror_, that it might 
 thereby prove so much the more forcible as a warning 
 for future generations. 
 
 There appears to have been nothing really special in 
 this sin of Ananias, in such sense as to distinguish it 
 from ordinary sins of falsehood, that have been com- 
 mitted by Christians ever since : but it was the first 
 recorded sin under the New Law given at Pentecost ; 
 and being such, it is followed by God^s judgment at 
 once ; and both the sin and the judgment are set down 
 for our admonition, to be a warning at the very begin- 
 ning, once for aW. And it will remind us of a similar 
 Divine interposition in vindication of God^s former 
 Law promulgated at Sinai, when He, in like manner, 
 punished with immediate death the first, but only the 
 first, recorded breach of each commandment of that 
 Law, in the Sabbath-breaker, the blasphemer, the 
 idolaters, and the adulterers ; and we are expressly told 
 that "all these things happened unto them for en- 
 samples [types], and they are written for our admoni- 
 tion, upon whom the ends of the world are come'." 
 
 5 " How was it that they" (SS. Peter aud John) " did not strike him" 
 (Simon Magus) " dead, as they did Ananias and Sapphira ? Because 
 even in the old times lie that gathered sticks " (on the Sabbath day) " was 
 put to death as a warning to others, and in no other instance did any 
 suffer the same fate ;" one instance, and that the first, being sufficient as 
 a warning for all future time. (St. Chrysostom.) 
 
 fi 1 Cor. X. 11. Hence it is that none of the judgments inflicted on 
 the Jews under the Old Dispensation is repeated under the New, one 
 judgment for each class of sins being sufficient for His people as a warn- 
 ing with regard to that particular class of sins, and being intended to 
 serve as such warning for all future time, whether under the Old Dis- 
 pensation or the New. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 149 
 
 Only, be it remembered that the sin of Ananias was 
 unspeakably greater than theirs, in that it was a sin 
 against the Holy Ghost, the God dwelling within him. 
 And (awful thought !) such is all sin after Baptism, 
 now that the body of the Christian has been made 
 "the temple of the Living God^.'^ 
 
 " 2 Coi-. vi. 16. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 THE FIRST, AND ONLY THE FIRST, INSTANCE OP A CLASS 
 OF god's DISPENSATIONS OR DEALINGS WITH MEN 
 FREQUENTLY MARKED BY HIS OWN VISIBLE INTERPOSI- 
 TION : INSTANCES. 
 
 TN connexion witli what has just been said in tlie last 
 -^ Chapter, and in further illustration of it, it may not 
 be irrelevant to remark here, that the first instance of 
 a class of God's dispensations or dealings with men is 
 commonly marked by God Himself. This first instance 
 is of such a nature, or is accompanied with such cir- 
 cumstances, as to make it appear to be intended as a 
 kind of pattern or specimen of the class generally ; or 
 an illustration of its meaning and importance, or of 
 the doctrine involved in it ; that first instance, in fact, 
 revealing to us clearly, once for all, God's own mind 
 and purpose respecting the whole class \ A few such 
 instances shall be given : — 
 
 1. Thus, whereas it was promised of old, that the 
 Holy Spirit should be the great Gift of the New 
 Covenant, and whereas it pleased God that that Gift 
 
 • " For so evermore at the beginnings of all wonderful and spiritual 
 transactions sensible visions appear, and such like signs ; that so, though 
 afterwards no such thing occur, what hath been declared by them once 
 for all, at the first, may be received by the faith." (St. Chrysostom.) 
 
PIATN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 151 
 
 should be bestowed in Baptism, therefore when the 
 time came for that promise to be performed, the Holy 
 Spirit, on His first descent on the Jews, proves by 
 visible signs that He has indeed now come amongst 
 them, in fulfilment of the promise, to be henceforth 
 appropriated in Baptism by each individual believer, as 
 their Divine Indweller. This is done only on His first 
 descent on the Jews. And when afterwards the Gen- 
 tiles also are to be brought into the Christian Church, 
 and the first Gentile is to be baptized into it, then 
 again the Holy Spirit manifests Himself on occasion of 
 this first instance of a Gentile Baptism ; to prove to us 
 the inward and invisible Divine Presence by the out- 
 ward and visible signs of It, and that Jews and Gentiles, 
 as they are sharers equally of that Divine Gift, so 
 should they equally have the evidence of His coming to 
 dwell within them, in the first instance in each case. 
 
 2. And when our Lord, for the first time, asserted 
 His Divine power to forgive sins. He proved that power 
 by a visible miracle. "That ye may know that the 
 Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then 
 saith He to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy 
 bed, and go unto thine house ^." 
 
 3. The same is true with regard to our Lord's 
 miracles : for His first miracle, at Cana of GaHlee, 
 appears to be intended to represent that mystical 
 Marriage by which He was about to espouse the 
 Church to Himself. He intimates to His mother, 
 that when His hour was come. He should then 
 have to provide wine, that is. His own Blood, which 
 
 2 Matt. ix. 6. 
 
152 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 would be "the good wine/' as contrasted witli tliat 
 which had now come to an end, the blood of slain 
 animals under the former dispensation. In this first 
 miracle, therefore, "this beginning of miracles/' we 
 see represented the True Bridegroom, providing " the 
 good wine" for His marriage with His Church, the 
 true Bride. Having therefore performed this miracle, 
 which thus in its circumstances relates to the origin of 
 the Christian Church, and therefore naturally comes first 
 among the miracles of om- Lord, He then proceeds to 
 perform His other miracles of power and of mercy, one 
 by one ; to represent to us, that He first establishes 
 His Church, as on the Day of Pentecost, and that 
 then ever afterwards He is performing His miracles of 
 power and mercy, of heahng and saving grace, in 
 behalf of that Church and of every individual member 
 of it. 
 
 4. The same is true also with regard to His parables. 
 When He began to deliver His parables, we find that 
 the fii'st of them — the parable of the Sower — possesses 
 a significance of such practical importance, as to 
 appear naturally to assign to it the foremost place 
 among all the parables delivered by Him. He was 
 then beginning His Divine teaching ; and at the very 
 outset He intimates by this parable, that no such 
 teaching could be of any avail, where the ground of 
 the heart was not duly prepared for it by previous 
 culture. And, indeed, that was the very work for 
 which John the Baptist was raised up to be His fore- 
 runner : his office was to prepare the hearts of the 
 people by impressing upon them the necessity of re- 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 153 
 
 pentance, previous to our Lord's own public ministry 
 among them, when He should teach them the great 
 truths relating to His kingdom. St. John's efforts 
 were directed to pi-epare the way of the Lord, by turn- 
 ing the hearts of the fathers to the children, and 
 the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest when 
 Christ came among them. His coming should be not 
 with a blessing, but with a curse. So the great 
 practical truth taught by this parable, lies at the very 
 foundation of all religious teaching, whether by parables 
 or otherwise : and it is the same truth which God 
 Himself had previously taught His people of old 
 through the prophets. " Thus saith the Lord to the 
 men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow 
 ground, and sow not among thorns ^" '' Sow to 
 yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy ; break up 
 your fallow ground^." To this object, therefore, of a 
 previous preparation of the heart, upon which all else 
 depends, our Lord's first parable is directed. 
 
 And, moreover, it is in connexion with this first 
 parable and never elsewhere, that He intimates the 
 remarkable fact, that this and all the other parables 
 which He should afterwards deliver, were but as speci- 
 mens of the parables with which this natural world 
 abounds ; as though this whole world of nature stands 
 over against the kingdom of grace, part corresponding 
 to part. He says to His disciples, " Know ye not this 
 parable ? and how then will ye know all parables * ? " 
 that is, all the parables of nature, of which this is but 
 
 3 Jer. iv. 3. ■• Ilosea x. 12. 
 
 * Mark iv. 13. 
 
154 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 one instance ; all this world of parables : as thougli 
 hereby intimating that the world itself^ in all its parts^ 
 is as it were but one great parable, all the various 
 parts of it having been designed and created originally 
 with a view to the kingdom of grace, which was to be 
 afterwards. 
 
 5. And sOj in like manner, with respect to the two 
 Sacraments of the Gospel. It appears to be God^s 
 intention to teach us, at the very outset of the Chris- 
 tian Dispensation, the awful greatness of the Gift 
 received in each of those Sacraments, and "the great 
 peril" to ourselves of acting disrespectfully towards 
 that Gift ; that so we may be deterred from profaning it. 
 
 (a) Accordingly, we have the first recorded sin after 
 Baptism along with its punishment ; to teach us that, 
 as the baptized have received no less a Gift than the 
 very Presence of the Holy Spirit come to dwell within 
 their souls and bodies, so all sin committed by such 
 persons is committed directly against the Holy Ghost, 
 Himself very God, thus dwelling within them : and the 
 greatness of such sin was manifested by God Himself 
 inflicting, through His minister, the judgment of 
 immediate death upon the first offenders . 
 
 {h) The same may be said with regard to the other 
 Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, when God punished, 
 in like manner, the first recorded profaners of it, who 
 "discerned not the Lord^s Body" received within 
 them in that Sacrament. " For this cause" (the Apostle 
 says) "many are weak and sickly among you, and many 
 sleep" that is, are punished with death ^ 
 
 6 1 Cor. xi. 30. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 155 
 
 6. So in tlie case of the appointment of God's 
 ministers. The first was appointed by God Himself; 
 the rest all followed in the order of succession. Aaron 
 was Divinely called to be the first High Priest of the 
 Jewish Churchy and then all his successors followed in 
 the order as at first established : never otherwise : for 
 the inspired writer says, " No man taketh this honour 
 unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was 
 Aaron ^.■" And the same law of the ministry holds 
 under the Christian Dispensation; for the same in- 
 spired writer adds^ " So also '' (that is, as in the case 
 of Aaron) " Christ glorified not Himself to be made 
 an High Priest, but He that said unto Him, . . . Thou 
 art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.'' 
 Thus, though the priesthood itself has been changed, 
 yet not the law or principle of appointment to the 
 ministry : that remains the same as at the first. As 
 none under the Jewish Dispensation might take this 
 honour untu himself; so, much less, may any under 
 the Christian Dispensation presume to take it unto 
 himself. For the first recorded breach of this law 
 about 15,000 men were destroyed, not merely by God's 
 order, but as it were by His own hand; to be a warn- 
 ing for all future time against unauthorized intrusion 
 into the ministry; a warning no less for Christians 
 now than for the Jews of old ; for St. Paul clearly sets 
 it down as intended for us as well as for them. For 
 after enumerating the several punishments of God's 
 people in the wilderness, of which this was one, he 
 expressly adds, that "these things happened unto 
 7 Heb. V. 4. 
 
15G PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 them for ensamples; and they are written for our 
 admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are 
 come*/^ that is, for an admonition for us Chi'istians. 
 That first punishment therefore was to serve as a 
 warning both for the Jews then and for Christians 
 now and unto the end of the world, against intrusion 
 into the divinely appointed ministry of the Church. 
 And the fact that St. Paul reminds Christians of this 
 punishment, saying that it was wi'itten for a warning 
 for us, proves that the law and order, as at first esta- 
 blished by God with regard to the ministry, still con- 
 tinues in full force. 
 
 7. And when our Lord had risen from the dead as 
 the First-fruits of them that slept, and so had burst 
 the bonds of death and the grave; to show that He 
 had done so not for Himself alone, but also for the 
 saints that should sleep in Him, it is written that " the 
 graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints 
 which slept arose, and came out of the graves after 
 His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and 
 appeared unto many ^.'' These few first resurrections of 
 His saints, following immediately upon that of the 
 Lord their Head, were to be an earnest of the resur- 
 rection hereafter of all His saints, the members of His 
 Body ; and by going into the holy city and appearing 
 unto many, they thereby afforded a visible proof of 
 that cardinal doctrine of the Gospel, " The resurrection 
 of the body.'' 
 
 8. And there may be mentioned also, in this con- 
 nexion, the case of St. Stephen, as coming under the 
 
 » 1 Cor. X. 11. « Matt, xxvii. 52, 53. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 157 
 
 same principle of explanation. It is said of him^ wlien 
 about to be put to death, that " he looked up stead- 
 fastly into Heaven, and saw the glory of God, and 
 Jesus standing on the right hand of God *." Although 
 we read that when Jesus ascended into Heaven, He 
 " sat on the right hand of God,'^ and there He still 
 '^sitteth,^^ yet now, on occasion of the death of His 
 first martyr. He not only shows Himself to him, but 
 He also shows Himself standing ; thereby all the more 
 to prove to him and to all Christians, once for all, 
 the special interest He takes in those who yield 
 themselves to suffering and death for His sake and 
 the GospeFs, and that " right dear in the sight of the 
 Lord is the death of His saints 'J" 
 
 ' Acts vii. 55. 
 
 - Psalm cxvi. 13. This principle of God's dealings with mankind, 
 which has been illustrated in the instances above given, is mentioned by 
 St. Paul in connexion with his own personal history. He says that 
 he had been " a blasphemer and a persecutor, and injurious, .... the 
 cliief of sinners. Howbeit " (he adds) " for this cause I obtained mercy, 
 that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a 
 pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlast- 
 ing" (1 Tim. i. 16). 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 ST. Paul's arguments against particular sins 
 
 SACRAMENTAL. 
 
 TT is remarkable how tlie sacred writers^ particularly 
 St. Paul^ found their exhortations and warnings 
 on the fact, that the Christians to whom they are 
 writings had received the Holy Ghost to dwell within 
 them at their Baptism. The passages already above 
 quoted are themselves sufficient instances of this. For 
 they show how constantly in the minds of the Apostles 
 was the thought of the indwelling of the Spirit of God 
 in the souls and bodies of believers : and from the 
 frequency with which St. Paul, in particular, uses this 
 argument in writing to the Corinthians, it is clear that 
 he considered that no more powerful argument could 
 be employed, to deter them from any habit of sin 
 they might be indulging, than simply to remind them 
 of the fact, that now as Christians their bodies are 
 temples of the Holy Ghost ; as though, were this 
 argument to prove ineffectual, and fail in reclaiming 
 them, there was none else by which he could hope to 
 prevail with them. And for the same purpose he em- 
 ploys also the parallel argument, di^awn from the fact of 
 their having received within them the Body and Blood of 
 
PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 159 
 
 their Saviour^ in the other Sacrament. For whereas the 
 Holy Spirit is the special Gift at Baptism, so is the 
 Body and Blood of Christ the special Gift of the Holy 
 Eucharist. And as showing how entirely St. Paul's 
 mind was filled and impressed with the thought of the 
 awful sacredness of the regenerate human soul and 
 body, by the Divine Indwelling through the Sacra- 
 ments, it is remarkable and worthy of particular 
 notice, that this appears to be the first thought which 
 occurs to him, when he has occasion to dissuade 
 or deter his erring Corinthians from any grievous sin 
 into which they were falling. We have seen how, for 
 this purpose, he reminds them of the Indwelling of the 
 Holy Spirit in their body, as in a consecrated temple ; 
 and we shall presently see that, for a like purpose, he 
 employs a precisely similar argument from the fact of 
 their having received within them the Body and Blood of 
 their Saviour, in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. 
 For this argument from the Sacraments appears to be, 
 if not the only yet certainly the principal argument 
 which he addresses to them, with that object, in every 
 single instance. Indeed, it may fairly be asked, what 
 other argument, really such, does he address to 
 them ? 
 
 The Corinthians were they who, by their vicious 
 conduct in many ways, caused St. Paul more grief and 
 anxiety than did any others of his Christian converts. 
 Indeed, the Church of Corinth seems to have been the 
 only one in which was found actual immorality, such 
 as to cause him any real anxiety on that score ; there- 
 fore, in learning how he acted towards the Chm'ch 
 
160 PLAIN SCEIPTUKAL THOUGHTS 
 
 there, we learn how he would have acted towards the 
 Churches elsewhere, had he found occasion. 
 
 Now, as I have just said, I think it may fairly be 
 asked. What other argument, really such, in case of 
 any profaneness or palpable immorality among the 
 Corinthians, does the Apostle address to them, other 
 than that which is suggested by the great Gift 
 received within them at each of the Holy Sacraments ? 
 or if, indeed, he uses at times other dissuasives, is not 
 this at least his one real argument, as such ; that on 
 which he mainly relies ? Let us now consider the ques- 
 tion, by examining more in detail the instances of this 
 kind of argument, of which some have already been given. 
 
 Have the Corinthians given evidence of being 
 " carnal," by having among themselves " envying, and 
 strife, and divisions " ? In his First Epistle he says to 
 them, " I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, 
 but as unto carnal ; for ye are yet carnal : for whereas 
 there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, 
 are ye not carnal, and walk as men^ V And then, after 
 a few more sentences in connexion with this subject, 
 he goes on to say, " Know ye not that ye are the temple 
 of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? 
 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God 
 destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple 
 ye are^;" which words at once recall what was said by 
 St. Peter to Ananias, and the fate of Ananias which 
 followed. Again : is he urging them to " flee fornica- 
 tion"? It is the same argument he mainly dwells 
 upon, as being the one on which he chiefly relies. 
 1 1 Cor. iii. 1. 3. - 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 161 
 
 After sayingj " Be not deceived : neither fornicators, 
 nor idolaters, nor adulterers, &c., shall inherit the king- 
 dom of God/' he goes on to say, '' Now the body is not 
 for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the 
 body •/' and, " Know ye not that your bodies are the 
 members of Christ ? Shall I then take the members of 
 Christ, and make them the members of an harlot ? God 
 forbid \" And so the argument runs on, still in the 
 same strain. " What ? know ye not that he which is 
 joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith He, 
 shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord 
 is one Spirit." And then again he repeats the men- 
 tion of the sin, but only in order that he may repeat 
 also the same argument against it, though in plainer 
 and stronger words. " Flee fornication. He that 
 committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 
 What ? know ye not that your body is the temple of 
 the Holy Ghost, Which is in you. Which ye have of 
 God3 V Once more : is he, in his Second Epistle, 
 dissuading them from the society and pollutions of 
 idolaters ? his argument, though more briefly stated, 
 is still the same. '^What agreement hath the temple 
 of God with idols ? For ye are the temple of the 
 Living God\'' 
 
 These are the instances in which the argument 
 suggested by the Presence of the Holy Ghost received 
 in Baptism, is brought forward by the Apostle. We 
 shall next find that he brings forward also the parallel 
 argument, suggested by the Presence of the Body and 
 Blood of Christ received in the Holy Eucharist. We 
 3 1 Cor. vi. 9. 13. 15-19. * 2 Cor. vi. 16. 
 
 M 
 
162 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 have just seen that in his Second Epistle_, the Apostle 
 endeavours to withdraw the Corinthians from the 
 society and defilements of idolaters, by alleging the Gift 
 of the Holy Ghost received within them in Baptism; 
 but as we shall now see_, in his First Epistle he had 
 previously endeavoured to withdraw them from this 
 same sin of idolatry, by alleging the Gift of the Body 
 and Blood of Christ received within them at the other 
 Sacrament. There he had said, " Wherefore, my dearly 
 beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; 
 judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing which we 
 bless, is it not the communion of the Blood of Christ ? 
 The bread which we break, is it not the communion of 
 the Body of Christ? For we being many are one 
 bread, and one body : for we are all partakers of that one 
 bread *.^' And afterwards again it appears from the 
 Chapter following, that they were guilty of drunken- 
 ness and other irregularities at the feasts which followed 
 their Communions ; he therefore, in order to cure them 
 of this pi'ofane conduct, which reflected so much dis- 
 honour upon their Communions themselves, first relates 
 the history of the institution of the Lord's Supper, and 
 then he particularly sets before them " the great peril 
 of the unworthy receiving thereof;" reminding them, 
 •for that purpose, of the exceeding fearfulness of pro- 
 faning the Lord's Body by any acts of disrespect shown 
 towards it. '' Whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink 
 this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the 
 Body and Blood of the Lord," that is, he has committed 
 an ofience directly against the Lord's Body and Blood, 
 
 s 1 Cor. X. 14 17. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 168 
 
 for "which he shall be held guilty, and shall be punished 
 accordingly. ^'For he that eateth and drinketh un- 
 worthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself", 
 not discerning the Lord's Body/' not perceiving that 
 it is His Body in distinction from other food, and 
 therefore not treating it respectfully as such. And to 
 make the case all the more like sin against the Holy 
 Ghost received in Baptism, as that sin has been de- 
 scribed in the passages above quoted, particularly 
 1 Cor. iii. 1 7, he adds, " For this cause many are weak 
 and sickly among you, and many sleep" — sleep, that 
 is, had been punished with death for their undiscerning 
 and profane treatment of their Lord in this Holy 
 Sacrament. 
 
 These seem to be the only instances in which the 
 Apostle has occasion to correct in the Corinthians any 
 actual sins of profaneness or immorality, of which they 
 had been guilty or were in imminent danger of becom- 
 ing so. And they abundantly prove how completely 
 his mind was absorbed, at all times, with the thought 
 of the awful greatness of the Divine Gift received in 
 each of the Holy Sacraments : so much so indeed, that 
 he considered that the mere mention of the Gift so 
 received must be sufficient to hold back his offending 
 disciples from any course of sin into which they were 
 falling, or that nothing could. Surely no language of 
 man can exalt the dignity of these Sacraments more 
 highly than does the language of the Apostle respecting 
 them, and the use for which he employs the great 
 doctrine contained in them, in these his Epistles to the 
 Corinthians, And in connexion with what is here 
 
 M 2 
 
164 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 
 
 said, there is one consideration wMcli we must ever 
 firmly keep in mind_, as tending greatly to enhance our 
 views on this subject; and that is, that as St. Paul 
 wrote and spoke under inspiration, so the arguments he 
 uses were not his own merely, but were the arguments 
 directly suggested to him by that God in Whose cause 
 they are employed ; yea, by that Holy Spirit Himself, 
 Whose Presence in the souls and bodies of men furnishes 
 the very occasion for these arguments. 
 
 < 
 
CHAPTER XXXIY. 
 
 THE GIFTS OP BAPTISM GRANTED TO ALL THE BAPTIZED. 
 
 rpHIS gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is 
 granted to all the baptized. Our Lord's words 
 to Nicodemus imply that regeneration is denied to 
 none, be the age or sex what it may. He says, " Ex- 
 cept a man be born again/' but the original word is, 
 " a person/' any one, man, woman, or child. All are 
 regenerated in Baptism, and all receive therein the 
 gift of the Holy Ghost. And St. Paul, in his Epistles 
 even to the Corinthians, who by their misconduct in 
 so many ways, as we have just seen, had caused him so 
 much anxiety of mind, still addresses them all as " the 
 Church of God," as " saints," as "sanctified in. Christ 
 Jesus," as " washed, sanctified, justified." He is 
 speaking of them all, when he says that their "bodies 
 are the members of Christ," and " temples of the Holy 
 Ghost," Which was in them. He says also, " By one 
 Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, . . . and 
 were all made to di*ink into one Spirit." As all the 
 Corinthian converts had been washed in the laver of 
 Baptism, so all without exception had been sanctified 
 therein, though many of them, at the time of his 
 writing, were living very unsanctified and sinful lives. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 THE UNIVERSALITY OP THE GIFTS OF BAPTISM ILLUSTRATED 
 BY THE TYPICAL HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES IN THE 
 WILDERNESS. 
 
 A ND SO likewise, when he reminds these same 
 Corinthians of the history of the Israelites of 
 old, in regard to their passage in the wilderness, their 
 journeyings therein, and what befell them there, being 
 in that part of their history such exact types of 
 Christians in their life on earth, he begins, " More- 
 over, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, 
 how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all 
 passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto 
 Moses in the cloud and in the sea ; and did all eat the 
 same spiritual meat ; and did all drink the same spiri- 
 tual drink \" He lays particular stress on the fact of 
 their all having shared these blessings of a deliverance 
 as by Baptism, and of a supernatural support after- 
 wards as by the Body and Blood of Christ. Here 
 St. Paul proclaims the universality of their redemp- 
 tion, and of their election into the Church of God, 
 His " Church in the wilderness." As in ■v\Titing to a 
 Christian Church, he speaks of all its members as 
 > 1 Cor. X. 1—4. 
 
PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 167 
 
 "the elect of GodV^ so were all the Israelites elected^ 
 "chosen to be a special people unto the Lord their 
 God'/' and so were they all " redeemed out of the 
 house of bondmen '^/' through their Red Sea Baptism : 
 all were then admitted into " the Church in the wilder- 
 ness/' and all were sustained in that wilderness with 
 "spiritual meat," "bread from heaven/' "angel's 
 food /' and with " spiritual drink" from " that spiritual 
 rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ." 
 
 Such had been the universality of the redemption of 
 the Israelites, of their election into the Church of God, 
 and of their supernatural support afterwards : to all 
 of them also God had given the good land of Canaan, 
 and had promised, even with an oath, that He would 
 bring them into it. Yet what is the sequel ? Not- 
 withstanding all this, the Apostle says, "With most 
 of them God was not well pleased, for they were over- 
 thrown in the wilderness." The promise had been, 
 " I will redeem you, and I will take you to Me for 
 a people, and I will be to you a God : and I will bring 
 you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear 
 to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob ; and I 
 will give it you for an heritage \" Such was His pro- 
 mise : it was absolute and unconditional in terms ; yet 
 was there a condition implied, as there is in all God's 
 promises : and as this condition was not fulfilled on 
 the part of His people, who neglected to perform their 
 part of the covenant, into which they had entered with 
 Him, but, instead, " lusted after evil things /' became 
 
 2 Col. iii. 12. 3 D^ut. vii. G. 
 
 4 Deut. vii. 8. ' Exod. vi. 6-8. 
 
168 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 
 
 " idolaters ;" " fornicators ;" '' tempted Christ in tlie 
 desert ;" " murmured •" therefore the promise as to 
 them was all withdrawn. The Israelites were not 
 brought into that good land, even they to whom the 
 promise had been made. They were " disinherited :" 
 they fell in the wilderness. Though the promise had 
 been so express, yet when afterwards they provoked 
 God, He declares, " I will smite them with the pes- 
 tilence, and disinherit them.^^ He says to them, 
 ''Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, con- 
 cerning which I sware to make you dwell therein. 
 And ye shall know My breach of promise^;" the 
 breach of that very promise, on the strength of which 
 they had gone forth out of Egypt, in the hope of 
 arriving at that good land of Canaan, "the glory of 
 all lands '^' true type of our heavenly Canaan, where 
 we hope to find some time our everlasting home and 
 rest. 
 
 Num. xiv, 12. 30. 34. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 THE STATE OP THE ISRAELITES IN THE WILDERNESS 
 PARALLEL TO THAT OP CHRISTIANS; IN EACH STATE 
 THE ORIGINAL CALLING AND ELECTION UNIVERSAL AND 
 UNCONDITIONAL, THE PINAL ELECTION AND SALVATION 
 PARTICULAR AND CONDITIONAL. 
 
 "VrOW all this, St. Paul says, applies to us Christians : 
 ' the case of the Israelites in this their history is 
 our case. " They were types of us.^' " And where- 
 fore saith he these things?'^ (says St. Chrysostom.) 
 " To point out that as they " (the Jews) " were nothing 
 profited by the enjoyment of so great a gift, so neither 
 these" (Christians) "by obtaining Baptism and partak- 
 ing of spiritual Mysteries, except they go on and show 
 forth a life worthy of this grace. Wherefore also he in- 
 troduces the types both of Baptism and of the Mysteries. 
 For as the gifts are figures, so are the punishments 
 figures ; and as Baptism and the Table were sketched 
 out prophetically, so also by what ensued, the certainty 
 of punishment coming on those who are unworthy of 
 this gift was proclaimed beforehand for our sake, that 
 we by these examples might learn soberness." We 
 were once baptized into Christ ; we have ever since 
 been sustained with spiritual meat and spiritual dinnk. 
 
170 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 even witli the precious Body and Blood of our dear 
 Lord. Unspeakably great as these blessings are, yet 
 must we never think to presume upon them, as 
 though they alone would ensure our final salvation, 
 without due effort and vigilance on our part. We 
 are regenerated in our Baptism, yet even then is the 
 prayer made unto Almighty God for each one of us, 
 that he " may lead the rest of his life according to this 
 beginning.'^ Into a state of salvation we have 
 indeed all been brought; yet have we, all our life 
 long afterwards, to " work out our own salvation 
 with fear and trembling.'^ " The called of Jesus 
 Christ" we all of us are, "called to be saints^;" yet 
 many are called who do not obey their calling, and so 
 in the end " few are chosen." We have been elected 
 into His Church, and so accordingly are we now the 
 "election of Cod ^;" yet are we to give all " diligence 
 to make our calling and election sure '." 
 
 As by God^s grace Christians are brought into a 
 state of salvation at first, so must they ever after 
 " pray unto God to give them His grace, that they 
 may continue in the same unto their life's end." He 
 grants His grace to enable them to subdue the infec- 
 tion of nature, and to overcome all their temptations 
 whether from the world, the flesh, or the devil. But 
 although He offers grace and strength sufficient for 
 all their needs, yet does He not take away from them 
 their free will or free agency. Although dedicated to 
 God in Baptism, yet may Christians live, as such 
 
 1 Rom. i. G. ■ \ Tliess i. 4. 
 
 3 2 Pft. i. 10. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 171 
 
 numbers do^ very unholy lives, and dishonour their 
 Christian name and profession. Although they have 
 had their ^^ names written in Heaven/^ yet may they 
 cause the Lord to " blot out their names from the 
 book of life.^^ Whether He do or not is made to 
 depend upon their persevering to the end and over- 
 coming. " He that overcometh ^' (says our Lord 
 Himself), ^Hhe same shall be clothed in white raiment; 
 and I will not blot out his name out of the book of 
 life''.^^ "He that endurethto the end shall be saved ^^^ 
 Many have received a crown of life, and then after- 
 wards have suffered that crown to be taken from 
 them. Our Lord warns the Church of Philadelphia 
 against this danger. " Hold that fast which thou 
 hast, that no man take thy crown ^" To His twelve 
 Apostles He promised a kingdom : " Fear not, little 
 flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you 
 the kingdom •/' yet one of these was the traitor 
 Judas : he never received the kingdom. To the same 
 Apostles He also promised_, " When the Son of Man 
 shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit 
 upon twelve thrones ;" yet Judas, one of those to whom 
 that promise was made, became " the son of perdition," 
 and ''went to his own place.'' And to all baptized 
 Christians it is said, " If ye live after the flesh, ye shall 
 die \" 
 
 Our Lord Himself had said, "My sheep hear My 
 voice : and I give unto them eternal life ; and they 
 shall never perish, neither shall any man " (any one) 
 
 •» Rev. iii. 5. ^ ]\i,,tt;. x. 22. 
 
 6 Rev. iii. 11. " Koui. viii. 13. 
 
172 -PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 " pluck them out of My hand. My Father^ which gave 
 them Me^ is greater than all ; and no man is able to 
 pluck them out of My Father^s hand ^" So Christ^s 
 sheep shall never perish, and no one — man or evil 
 spirit — shall or can pluck them out of His hand. And 
 the Father as well as the Son is pledged to keep them 
 safe; and none can pluck them out of their Father's 
 hand. Yet can they " pluck " themselves, cast them- 
 selves forth, out of His hand. The Prodigal Son was 
 safe in his father's house, safe as against any enemy ; 
 yet when he of his own will chose to leave that safe 
 home, leave he could : his father did not hold him back 
 perforce against his will, much as he must have 
 grieved to see him leave; much as he afterwards 
 rejoiced to see him return. Our Lord promises to 
 " keep " those whom His Father has given Him ; and 
 He also prays His Father to " keep " them ; yet not- 
 withstanding both His promise and His prayer. He 
 does not in fact keep the whole even of those few in 
 behalf of whom that promise and that prayer were 
 made : one is lost. " Holy Father, keep through 
 Thine own Name those whom Thou hast given Me : 
 those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of 
 them is lost, hut the son of perdition ^." " Every 
 branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away \ 
 
 « JoliD X. 27—29. " John xvii. 11, 12. 
 
 » Johu XV. 2. 
 
 " The grey-hair'd saint may fail at last, 
 The surest guide a wanderer prove ; 
 Death only binds us fast 
 To the bright shore of lov^e." 
 
 (The Christian Year.) 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 173 
 
 Notwitlistaiiding' tliat the Israelites had been 
 " chosen " to be a special people unto the Lord their 
 God^ had been delivered from the Egyptians, had been 
 brought into a place of safety, were under God^s pro- 
 tecting hand, which would have kept them safe all 
 their journey through, and had received His own pro- 
 mise to bring them into Canaan ; yet because they 
 " tempted '' and '' provoked '^ Him in the desert, 
 therefore He overthrew them there, " Now " (says 
 the Apostle) "these things were our examples" (or, 
 as it should have been rendered, " types " or " figures 
 of us ") ; and he a second time reminds us, " Now all 
 these things happened unto them for ensamples : and 
 they are written for our admonition, upon whom the 
 ends of the world are come." And he then adds those 
 words of caution, "AVherefore let him that thinketh he 
 standeth take heed lest he fall." This warning voice 
 of ancient history our Church echoes now (as did the 
 Jewish Church of old) day by day in her courts from 
 the inspired words of the Psalmist, " To-day if ye will 
 hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the pro- 
 vocation, and as in the day of temptation in the 
 wilderness ; when your fathers tempted Me, proved 
 Me, and saw My works, .... unto whom I sware in 
 My wrath that they should not enter into My rest ^." 
 And these same words of warning-, employed thus by 
 the Psalmist for the Jews of old, the inspired writer 
 of the Epistle to the Hebrews brings forward to the 
 New Testament, and applies them for the instruction 
 and admonition of Christians also, for all future 
 = Ps. xcv. 
 
174 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 tiine^ founding upon them his own exhortations ac- 
 cordingly^. 
 
 St. Paul^ in the passage above referred to^ viz. 1 Cor. 
 X. 6 — 12, had just told the Corinthians that the 
 Christian hfe is a race, that there is a prize — an incor- 
 ruptible crown — to be obtained, but that we must run, 
 and so run as to obtain it; that there is to be a 
 striving, as though for the mastery, which therefore 
 requires on our part, " temperance in all things ;" that 
 he, the Apostle himself, found it necessary to " keep 
 under his body, and bring it into subjection, lest that 
 by any means, when he had preached to others, he 
 himself should be a castaway." He then proceeds, 
 but still pursuing the same course of thought, " More- 
 over, brethren," in addition to what I have just said 
 about the Christian life being a race, and as such 
 requiring due effort and temperance on our part, con- 
 sider also the typical history of the Israelites in the 
 wilderness, in all its parts so like that of Christians 
 now ; consider how they had, as it were, yom' privi- 
 leges in the two Sacraments of the Gospel, and like 
 you had a heritage promised to them ; yet they never 
 actually obtained it. " I would not have you igno- 
 rant" how all they like you were baptized, all they 
 like you ate spiritual meat and drank spiritual drink. 
 These were the two Gospel Sacraments in type, and 
 the Israelites were saved by them. In their baptism 
 they were redeemed from their bondage, and then 
 afterwards by their spiritual food they were sup- 
 ported : thus they, like you, were both saved and sus- 
 
 2 Hob. iii. uiul iv. 1— 11. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 175 
 
 tained by tlie two Sacraments ; yet, notwithstanding 
 all this, they lost their inheritance; they were not 
 brought into their promised Canaan; they did not 
 fulfil the conditions of faith and obedience, but sinned 
 in the wilderness ; and so were overthrown there. In 
 all this the Israelites were our examples, types of us 
 Christians, and accordingly their history has been 
 written down for our admonition. Therefore, though 
 we have these Sacraments, not in type now, but in 
 reality, we must not so far presume upon them as to 
 relax our own personal endeavours : we must still ever 
 keep in mind that the Christian life is a race, and that 
 we are to strive for our incorruptible crown, or with all 
 our privileges we shall fail in obtaining it. So far 
 from securely relying upon privileges and blessings so 
 great as are undoubtedly involved in the possession of 
 these Sacraments, we must ever on our part exercise 
 due care and watchfulness, lest, after all, we fall from 
 our own steadfastness and miss our prize. "Where- 
 fore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest 
 he fair." 
 
 Such seems to be the tenor of the Apostle^s argu- 
 ment, an argument in this case also, as in the cases 
 already before mentioned, drawn exclusively from the 
 nature of the two Sacraments. Here he singles them 
 out as the special privileges and blessings of the 
 Gospel Covenant, and as being themselves so great, 
 that the mere possession of them by those who duly 
 appreciated their importance, as the Christians in the 
 times of the Apostles naturally would, might lead to 
 •> See alio Heb. iv. 1. 1] . 
 
176 
 
 PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 
 
 the temptation of a false security, from an over-reliance 
 upon them ; inasmuch as those Christians, by reason of 
 the high views they must necessarily have held of the 
 Sacraments under the Apostle^s teaching, might be 
 tempted to rest in them in such a manner as to relax 
 their own personal care and diligence in working out 
 their salvation. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 CIRCUMCISION SUSPENDED DURING THE FORTY YEAES' SO- 
 JOURN IN THE WILDERNESS j THE PROBABLE REASON 
 FOR THAT SUSPENSION. 
 
 TN connexion with tlie subject of the journeying of 
 -*- the Israelites through the wilderness^ it deserves 
 to be noticed as a fact remarkable in itself, that during 
 their whole forty years' sojourn in that wilderness, 
 they omitted altogether to practise the rite of circum- 
 cision, although the observance of it had been enjoined 
 upon them under such severe penalties. There must 
 have been some Divine reason for this; and that reason 
 seems to have been that Circumcision, as a type of 
 Baptism, was to be superseded for a time by the Pas- 
 sage of the Red Sea; both because that Passage was in 
 itself and in its circumstances so much higher and 
 more exact a type than Circumcision was, and also 
 because the sojourn in the wilderness, into which it 
 introduced the Israelites, was itself a remarkable t}'pe 
 or representation of the Christian life, into which Bap- 
 tism intyoduces us. And, indeed, so exact and com- 
 plete a type was their Red Sea Passage, that St. Paul 
 speaks of it almost as though it were not a type at all, 
 
 N 
 
178 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 but the very thing typified — Baptism itself: "All 
 were baptized ^^ (he says) "unto Moses in the Cloud, 
 and in the Sea/' For there in that passage was the 
 water as the human medium, and God's Presence in 
 the cloud as the Divine Agent effecting the deliver- 
 ance of His people in and through that water, and so 
 starting them fair for their journey towards their 
 earthly Canaan ; just as it is by water and the Spirit in 
 Baptism, that God's people now are delivered from 
 their great enemy and his host, and started fair for 
 life's journey towards their heavenly Canaan. 
 
 The words of the institution of Circumcision, as 
 spoken by God to Abraham, were, " This is My cove- 
 nant, which ye shall keep, between Me and you and 
 thy seed after thee ; Every man child among you shall 
 be circumcised." And it is added : " The uncircum- 
 cised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not cir- 
 cumcised, that soul shall be cut off" (that is, excom- 
 municated) " from his people ; he hath broken My 
 covenant^." And when afterwards the Passover was 
 instituted, the command was, in like manner, that all 
 should keep it, " The man that is clean, and is not 
 in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the Passover, even 
 the same soul shall be cut off from among his people^." 
 And yet, if any one were uncircumcised, he might not 
 keep the Passover, since none but the circumcised 
 were in covenant with God as His people : " No un- 
 circumcised person shall eat thereof*." 
 
 > " Because he " (the Apostle) " wislies to bring the Type near the 
 Truth, he uses the terms of the Truth even in the Type." (St. Clirysostom.) 
 - Gen. xvii. 10. 14. ^ Num. ix. 13. ^ Excel, xii. 48. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 179 
 
 Now let it be remembered^ tliat at the very time 
 when Moses, under inspiration, was penning these 
 passages, he, though the lawgiver and the ruler of the 
 Israelites, was himself actually omitting to enforce the 
 observance of this same ordinance of circumcision, 
 herein so imperatively required; and that, though God 
 Himself interposed on so many occasions to remind 
 His people of their duty towards Him in other 
 respects, and so frequently visited them with heavy 
 judgments for their neglect of that duty, yet in this 
 matter of circumcision He never once interposed : 
 nowhere does He remind them of a neglect of this 
 ordinance, and nowhere is such neglect even alluded 
 to, during the whole of their sojourn in the wilder- 
 ness; but as soon as that sojourn is over, then, 
 though still without a word of rebuke, He simply com- 
 mands them to renew it*. This omission, therefore, 
 to enforce the law of circumcision in the wilderness 
 can have been through no real neglect on the part of 
 Moses : there must have been a Divine reason for it. 
 And, indeed, down to the very time when the Israelites 
 entered the wilderness, they seem to have carefully 
 practised circumcision, as is shown by the Divine dis- 
 pleasure and the danger which even Moses brought 
 upon himself by delaying to circumcise his own son, as 
 it would seem, beyond the proper time\ 
 
 The explanation of all this is probably to be found 
 
 in the fact, that this part of the history of the Israelites 
 
 was Providentially intended to be especially typical, in 
 
 its main features, of the Christian state ; that it was 
 
 « Joshua V. 2. 5. o Exod. iv. 24—26. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 meant to represent that state so exactly, as that Chris- 
 tians now, looking back upon the Israelites in the 
 wilderness, may see themselves in a remarkable 
 manner portrayed in their history there, and may 
 receive instruction and warning accordingly. And 
 St. Paul clearly intimates that such was indeed the 
 Divine intention, when he expressly assures us that 
 the events occurring in this same part of the history 
 of the Jews were types of us, and that they were 
 written for our sakes, "for our admonition, upon whom 
 the ends of the world are come." 
 
 Accordingly, the Israelites in the wilderness were 
 enacting the type of the Christian state ; and as it is 
 Baptism, not Circumcision, which admits us into that 
 state, so introducing us to the other holy Sacrament of 
 the Body and Blood of Christ ; therefore, throughout 
 their whole sojourn of forty years in the wilderness, 
 during which the type of the Christian state was 
 enacted (that sojourn answering to the period of a 
 human generation of Christian trial and probation), 
 the Red Sea baptism of the Israelites was, for the pur- 
 pose of this type, to supersede their circumcision. By 
 their Red Sea baptism they were introduced to the 
 manna from heaven, and the water from the rock, 
 " which Rock was Christ ;" these being their " spii-i- 
 tual meat and spiritual drink," so typical of the Body 
 and Blood of Christ. And as the spiritual life of the 
 Christian is from beginning to end sacramental, so also 
 the, life of the Jews, in that part of their history, was 
 altogether, in type, sacramental. By their sacramental 
 passage through the sea they were delivered, and 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 181 
 
 brought into a state of safety, being " saved from him 
 that hated them^;" and by their sacramental manna 
 and water they were sustained all the way through to 
 the shores of their promised Canaan. 
 
 The more we study this history of the Jews, the 
 more we shall find how remarkably it represents the 
 providential interpositions and various fortunes in the 
 history of Christian people during their sojourn here, 
 as strangers and pilgrims in the wilderness of this 
 world. God Himself was training them, by His 
 wonderful providences, for something higher and 
 better than any thing they could enjoy there ; for they 
 were " not as yet come to the rest and to the inherit- 
 ance which the Lord their God had given them'." He 
 had a rest and an inheritance for them beyond that 
 wilderness ; and for this He was training and pre- 
 paring them with the tenderest fatherly care. Then' life 
 throughout was a state of training, as well as a state of 
 trial and probation. When their journeyings were 
 nearly over, Moses says to them, in his last speech, 
 " The Lord^s portion is His people ; Jacob is the lot of 
 His inheritance. . He found him in a desert land, and 
 in the waste howling wilderness; He led him about, 
 He instructed him. He kept him as the apple of His 
 eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over 
 her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, 
 beareth them on her wings : so the Lord alone did lead 
 him^." " Thou shalt consider in thine heart, that, as a 
 man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth 
 thee. . . . Who led thee through that great and ter- 
 1 Vs. cvi. 10. « D(.ut. xii. 9. 9 Deut. xxxii. 9—12. 
 
182 PLAIN SCEIPTUKAL THOUGHTS 
 
 rible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scor- 
 pions, and drought." " He suffered thee to hunger, 
 .... fed thee in the wilderness with manna." And 
 why all this course of discipline ? The reason is added, 
 " That He might humble thee, and that He might 
 prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end\" Their 
 life, therefore, altogether was one of training, and of 
 trial and probation ; and such also is the Christian life. 
 God is training and preparing us for our heavenly 
 Canaan : He is, for that purpose, leading us about 
 amid His mysterious providences, through the changes 
 and chances of this mortal life : He is, as St. Paul says, 
 " chastening " us, when need requires, " as a father 
 chasteneth his son :" He is conducting us through the 
 wilderness of this world, wherein are fiery serpents, 
 and scorpions, and drought — that is, Satan and his 
 host leagued against us ; and bodily want and other 
 afflictive dispensations, with which He is ever exer- 
 cising us ; but it is all for our profit at the last — to do 
 us good at our latter end^. 
 
 And then, when their journeyiugs were over, came 
 their passage through the Jordan, which brought them 
 to their long-desired home. And Joshua was their 
 appointed leader through that river. Joshua is the 
 same name as Jesus, meaning " The Lord that saves ;" 
 for it is Jesus the Lord our Saviour, Who alone can 
 lead His people through those dark waters of the valley 
 of death, through which we must all pass before 
 we can reach our heavenly home, wherein richer bless- 
 ings await us, if we are worthy, than that " milk and 
 
 ^ Dent. viii. - Sec Ileb. xii. 5 — 11. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 183 
 
 honey" with which the earthly Canaan abounded. 
 And Joshua did not lead his people through the Jordan 
 until he had first brought the Ark into the midst of 
 its waters ; and then^ those waters dividing, the people 
 all passed safely through, as though under the ArVs 
 sure protection. As the rod, the type of the Cross of 
 Christ, had been the instrument for dividing the Red 
 Sea ; so the Ark, the type of the Church of Christ 
 wherein is God's special Presence, was that by which 
 the waters of the Jordan were divided. " And as they 
 that bare the Ark were come unto Jordan, and the 
 feet of the priests that bare the Ark were dipped in 
 the brim of the water, the waters which came down 
 from above stood and rose up upon an heap," the Ark 
 thus making their passage safe, and also showing them 
 the way : " There shall be a space between you and it, 
 .... come not near unto it, that ye may know the 
 way by which ye must go ; for " (it is added) '^ ye have 
 not passed this way heretofore^." This way of death 
 we can each of us pass but once : we have none of us 
 passed it heretofore. And as " the Church of the Living- 
 God" is our divinely appointed guide through life, 
 " the pillar and ground of the truth'* ;" so will it be our 
 guide through death : and it is Joshua, our Saviour" 
 Lord, Who alone can lead us safely through its dark 
 waters. He has appointed His Church, within which we 
 must all find our refuge here, and through which He en- 
 sures a secure passage for all His faithful people to their 
 final home and rest, where they shall sometime be safely 
 landed on the eternal shores of the heavenly Canaan. 
 
 •* Joshua iii. * 1 Tim. iii. 15. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 THE INFECTION OE NATURE EEMAININa EVEN AFTER 
 BAPTISM. 
 
 " ri OD so loved the worlds that He gave His only- 
 ^ begotten Son^ that whosoever believeth in Him 
 should not perish^ but have everlasting life\" '^He 
 will have all men to be saved ^." For this purpose, to 
 each of the baptized He has vouchsafed the Gift of the 
 Holy Spirit, to enable them to overcome the remains 
 of their innate corruption ; " for the infection of nature 
 doth remain, yea, in them that are regenerated : " even 
 in them " the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the 
 Spirit against the flesh." Even they who have been 
 "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the 
 Father, through sanctification of the Spirit," are urged 
 to ^'^ abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the 
 soul^." St. Paul addresses the Christians at Colosse 
 as " saints and brethren in Christ," for whom a " hope 
 was laid up in Heaven," who had " received Christ Jesus 
 the Lord," were "complete in Him, in Whom they 
 were circumcised with the circumcision made without 
 hands, in putting ofi" the body of the sins of the flesh 
 
 1 .John iii. 16. " 1 Tim. ii. 4. 
 
 3 1 Pet. i. 2 ; ii. 11. 
 
PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 185 
 
 by the circumcision of Christ ; having been buried with 
 Him in Baptism, whom God quickened together with 
 Him, having forgiven them all trespasses;'^ yet even 
 them he goes on to exhort, '^Mortify your members 
 which are upon earth; fornication, uncleanness, inor- 
 dinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, 
 which is idolatry *J' 
 
 Such indeed as believe and are baptized shall be 
 saved, as our Lord, has said. Such, having been re- 
 ceived into Him through Baptism, are henceforth 
 partakers of that human nature which He has purified 
 and made His own by uniting it to Himself. They are 
 " members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones;'' 
 and " as He is, so are they in this world." Thus are 
 they made one with Him : and it is in virtue of this 
 union that the grace and holiness which belong to His 
 human nature, are communicated to theirs. And as 
 His pure and spotless humanity can be under no con- 
 demnation, so now that they have been taken into Him 
 and their nature has been sanctified through union 
 with His human nature, therefore now neither are they 
 under condemnation. And herein lies their justifi- 
 cation. " Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a 
 new creature," a new creation, having been created 
 anew in Him as the Second Adam, Who is the Head of 
 the new creation of God : " for in Christ Jesus neither 
 circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but 
 a new creature \" God requires nothing less than 
 that man be re-formed or re-created in Christ, in that 
 nature which He has consecrated in Him. This is his 
 •» Col. i. 2. 5; ii. 6. 10—13; iii. 5. s Gal. vi. 15. 
 
186 PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 regeneration^ liis new birth. With such persons there- 
 fore " old things are passed away ; behold, all things 
 are become new:" to such, being now in Christ Jesus, 
 there is no condemnation; yet is there still within them 
 the taint of their original corruption : the original sin 
 itself has been remitted : the guilt has been extin- 
 guished, yet has not man's concupiscence been eradi- 
 cated : that still remains. And therefore it is that he 
 is still so liable to temptation, and that Satan possesses 
 so much power to hurt him, and to hinder him in his 
 religious progress. St. Paul had his " sins washed 
 away '' in his Baptism ; yet ever after he had to keep 
 under his body and bring it into subjection : he was 
 still conscious of a law in his members warring against 
 the law of his mind; so that his spiritual life from 
 beginning to end was a constant warfare. 
 
 And so it is with all the baptized. All their life 
 through they retain a liability to sin, in consequence of 
 this abiding infection of their nature. But though this 
 original infection remains in them even after Baptism, 
 yet not only has their Baptism itself pledged them to 
 strive unceasingly against it, but inward grace is then 
 imparted, to enable them to subdue it, and to change 
 the carnal into the spiritual mind. Our Lord says as 
 it were to each of them, as He said to St. Paul 
 struggling against this same infirmity, ''My grace is 
 sufficient for thee : for My strength is made perfect in 
 weakness ^" On our earnest prayer God is willing as 
 He is " able to do " for us " exceeding abundantly 
 above all that we ask or think, according to the power 
 6 2 Cor. xii. 9. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM, 187 
 
 that worketli in us ''." And this inward power is that 
 which is supplied to uSj as the gracious gift of the 
 Father^ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It 
 is for the help of this strengthening grace that the 
 Apostle so earnestly prays in behalf of his Ephesian 
 converts. " I bow my knees ^^ (he says) '^unto the Father 
 of our Lord Jesus Christy .... that He would grant 
 you . . . . to be strengthened with might by His Spirit 
 in the inner man^." 
 
 This " might " or " strength '' is an inward grace, a 
 Divine power which is the peculiar property of all 
 believers as soon as they become members of Christ. 
 In Baptism the Holy Spirit comes to take possession 
 of .their body as His own temple, expelling thence 
 that " strong man armed " that had got previous 
 possession of it. And so ever after they are endued 
 with grace and strength sufficient and more than 
 sufficient to enable them to resist their spiritual ad- 
 versary, for " greater is He that is in them than he that 
 
 7 Eph. iii. 20. 
 
 ^ Eph. iii. 14. 16. The word here variously translated " strength," 
 " power," " might," in the three passages last cited, is, in the original, the 
 same word in all these passages : Swafxts, power. Although this power is 
 ascribed in Scripture to each separate Person of the Ever-blessed Trinity, 
 yet it seems to be specially that indwelling and abiding power which is 
 particularly associated with the Gift of the Holy Ghost, accompanying 
 that Gift from the time that it is first granted to believers. As where 
 our Lord says to His Apostles, "Behold, I send the promise of the 
 Father upon you " (that is, the Holy Spirit promised at Pentecost) ; 
 " but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power 
 from on high " (Luke xxiv. 49) ; and, " Ye shall receive power, after 
 that the Holy Ghost is come upon you" (Acts i. 8; and see x. 38. 
 Rom. XV. 13. 19. 1 Cor. ii. 4. 2 Cor. iv. 7. Eph. i. 19 ; iii. 7 ; vi. 10. 
 Col. i. 11. 2 Thess. i. 11. 2 Tim. i. 7). 
 
188 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 
 
 is in the world." He is in tliem_, if they provoke Him 
 not to leave them^ as their Divine Indweller, to remove 
 their natural incapacities; gradually to purify their 
 affections ; to fill them with heavenly graces ; to sanc- 
 tify them more and more ; and so, in the end, to render 
 them meet for the holy society of Heaven. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 OUR LOED^S MANNER OP TEACHING THE DOCTRINE OF 
 REGENERATION IN BAPTISM. 
 
 rriHE particular manyier in which our Lord taught the 
 doctrine of Regeneration in Baptism deserves to 
 be noted. In teaching that doctrine He uses what 
 seems to be the strongest possible language. " Verily^ 
 verily^ I say unto thee^ Except a man be born again, he 
 cannot see the kingdom of God." He begins with the 
 twice repeated "verily/^ a mode of expression which, 
 were we not used to it by reading it here and in a few 
 other passages from early youth, would surely arrest 
 our attention very forcibly, when we consider Wlio it 
 is — that it is even the Lord Himself — that finds it 
 necessary to employ such a repetition, in order to 
 assure us of the truth of what He is asserting. " For 
 that " it is " doubled twice, it is because the thing is 
 established by God, and God will " certainly " bring it 
 to pass ^ J" And in a tone of Divine authority. He 
 continues, "I say unto thee;" I Whose "words shall 
 not pass away," though " heaven and earth shall pass 
 away ;" I Who am Myself the very Word of God, 
 even I being such declare this unto thee. And then, 
 1 Gcu. xll. 32. 
 
190 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 in order to make tlie declaration itself the stronger^ He 
 puts it in the negative and exclusive^ rather than in 
 the ajBirmative form ; " Except a man be born again, 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God ;" no one can see the 
 kinofdom of God who is not born again ^. 
 
 And when Nicodemus showed himself perplexed by 
 this statement of the doctrine, not seeing how a man 
 can be born a second time, our Lord in no way softens 
 the statement itself: on the contrary. He repeats His 
 former words, though with the explanation added, that 
 this second birth is '''of water and of the Spirit." 
 " Verily, veril}^, I say unto thee, Except a man be born 
 of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the 
 kingdom of God." Thus He only explains. This 
 second birth or regeneration is effected by the Holy 
 Spirit of God in or through water; it is therefore a 
 spiritual, not a natm-al birth. And although Nicodemus 
 is st^U perplexed at this renewed assertion of the doc- 
 trine even when thus explained, and inquires, " How 
 can these things be ? " yet our Lord does not even 
 then modify His original statement, much less with- 
 draws any part of it, in order to conciliate this " ruler 
 of the Jews." Now assuredly it does seem to have 
 been providentially so ordered, not only that we should 
 have here set before us our Lord's own teaching on the 
 subject of this Sacrament, but that the objection which, 
 
 " " Hear ye, as many as are unilluniinatcd " (that is, iinbaptizcd) ; 
 " fearful is the threat, fearful the sentence. ' It is not possible,' He saith, 
 ' for one not boru of water and the Spirit, to enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven;' he hath uot received tlie Lord's token; he is a stranger and an 
 alien ; he hath not the royal watchword. ' Except,' He saith, ' a man hv 
 born of water and the Spirit,' " &c. (St. Chrysostom.) 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 191 
 
 in whatever form, has since from time to time been 
 made against the doctrine of it in these modern days, 
 should have been addi'essed, first of all, to our Lord Him- 
 self, and that His own words of reply should also have 
 been set down ; that we may learn from Himself, once 
 for all, how we also are to treat the same objection, for 
 all time, when that objection is addressed to us against 
 the same holy doctrine. 
 
 And this view of the case receives confirmation from 
 the fact, that our Lord's manner of teaching the doc- 
 trine of the other Holy Sacrament is the same ; and the 
 objection made against it is, in kind, the same; and 
 His manner of meeting that objection is also the same ; 
 a fact which cannot be accounted for by the assump- 
 tion of a mere coincidence. When Nicodemus asks, 
 though apparently in no scornful mood, as has been so 
 often the case since, "How can these things be?" 
 this inquiry is, in fact, prompted by the same spirit of 
 doubt and unbelief, that has prompted every doubting 
 objection which has been urged against the same doc- 
 trine ever since his day : every such objection has 
 been the same in kind, though the particular form and 
 manner of it may have varied at different times and 
 with difierent individuals ; and it arises from the same 
 sceptical turn or constitution of mind, which cannot 
 receive God's words of wonder-working mercy in 
 simple child-like faith. " How can these things be ? " 
 every objector does in effect ask. How can it be that 
 water, sprinkled upon a person in the Name of the 
 Holy Trinity can have any part in effecting the re- 
 generation of that person, and admitting him into the 
 
192 PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 
 
 Christian Churchy the kingdom of God on earth ? So 
 here, then, for our instruction and for our comfort too, 
 amid the prevalence of such doubting objections, we 
 have our Lord's own reply to them all, and His manner 
 of acting in presence of the objectors themselves. And 
 herein, surely. He has afforded us an example, for all 
 future time, as to the manner in which we are to regard 
 and to treat His holy doctrines — that however much 
 they may perplex the faith of some, and however much 
 they may be objected against, they are still to be main- 
 tained in their integrity ; there must be no thought of 
 conciliating objectors or wiiining their adhesion by 
 one jot or tittle of compromise. These high and holy 
 truths are not ours to barter away : they are a sacred 
 trust committed to us ; and, for aught we know, we 
 are as responsible for the manner in which we act with 
 regard to that trust, as we are for any other part of 
 our moral conduct. What is said with respect to God's 
 ministers in particular, is true also, no doubt, in a mea- 
 sure, of all Christians, that they are " stewards of the 
 mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, 
 that a man be found faithful ^." 
 
 3 1 Cor. iv. 1, 2. 
 
CHAPTER XL. 
 
 .'o 
 
 OUR LORD S MANNER OP TEACHING THE DOCTRINE OF THE 
 HOLY EUCHARIST IDENTICAL WITH THAT OF HIS TEACH- 
 ING THE DOCTRINE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 "IXTHAT lias here been said of our Lord's manner of 
 ' ' teacliing the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration 
 and of His manner of meeting objections against that 
 doctrine^ the same may be said also of His manner of 
 teaching the doctrine of the other Holy Sacrament of 
 His own Body and Blood : for, as has already been 
 intimated, in both cases His manner of teaching the 
 doctrine and of treating the objections against it is 
 precisely the same. Here too He begins with the 
 twice repeated " Verily ;" and He continues, " I say 
 unto you/' and, '^Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son 
 of !Man, and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you '." 
 He had indeed just before expressed this truth in its 
 less exclusive and therefore in its milder form. He had 
 said, " I am that Bre..d of life. This is the Bread 
 which Cometh down from Heaven, that a man may vnt 
 thereof, and not die. I am the Living Bread which 
 came down from Heaven : if any man eat of this 
 Bread, he shall live for ever : and the Bread that 1 will 
 1 John vi. 53. 
 
 O 
 
194 PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 give is My Flesli^ whicli I will give for tlie life of the 
 world '/' On hearing these words His followers were 
 "offended." "The Jews therefore strove among 
 themselves^ saying. How can this Man give us His 
 flesh to eat?" Here we have again Nicodemus's ob- 
 jection, "How can these things be?" Seeing, there- 
 fore, His hearers thus offended, this was our Lord's 
 opportunity to have qualified His words of teaching, as 
 He certainly would have done had they admitted of it, 
 especially considering the woes He Himself denounces 
 against those who offend any of His little ones, and 
 that He came not " to break the bruised reed, nor 
 quench the smoking flax." He of all teachers could 
 not have used language unnecessarily strong, if language 
 less strong would have sufiiciently expressed the doctrine 
 He was teaching. Does He, then, qualify His words ? 
 By no means. For now it is, ofter His hearers had 
 uttered their objection in the form of the sceptical 
 inquiry, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" 
 that He again declares the same truth, but now this 
 time He expresses it in its strongest possible form : — 
 "Verily, verily, I say unto you. Except ye eat the Flesh 
 of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, ye have no 
 life in you ;" this being the identical form, be it 
 observed, in which He had expressed the doctrine of 
 Regeneration in Baptism, an identity of language 
 which, no doubt, is of providential purpose ; and then 
 He proceeds to express this same truth in every variety 
 of form. And when " He knew in Himself that His • 
 disciples murmured at it. He said unto them. Doth this 
 2 Jolm vi. 48. 50, 51. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 195 
 
 offend you ? " This again was His opportunity to 
 have removed the offence, by abating somewhat of the 
 strong language He had used^ had that been possible : 
 but it might not be ; He withdraws nothing, and He 
 abates nothing : but, as in the case of the other Sacra- 
 ment, He only explams. It is His spiritual Flesh and 
 Blood which all must eat and drink. "What and if 
 ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was 
 before ? It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh pro- 
 fiteth nothing. ^^ It was to be the spiritual Body of our 
 ascended Lord of which all are to partake, for flesh as mere 
 flesh can profit nothing. When, however, this explanation 
 does not conciliate His followers and secure their belief 
 in the truth He was teaching, He has nothing more to 
 add with that view ; for although it is said that '' from 
 that time many of His disciples went back and walked 
 no more with Him,^' yet He sufiered them to do so, 
 rather than soften or qualify His words on so high a 
 doctrine. And yet it seems to have been in heaviness 
 of heart that, seeing these leave Him, He made the 
 inquiry of His twelve, "Will ye also go away?" No 
 doubt it was grief which forced this inquiry from Him. 
 But many of His disciples might go back and walk no 
 more with Him ; yea, were it to be so, even His Twelve 
 might have gone also, but He could not withdraw His 
 words nor explain them away, in order to retain any of 
 His followers *. 
 
 ' It is worthj' of notice, that St. John does not relate the institution 
 of either of the Sacraments, but only this remarkable instruction on the 
 nature of them. It seems to be his peculiar part to give us doctrine. 
 
 o 2 
 
CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 THE IDENTITY OF OUR LORd's MANNER OF TEACHING THE 
 DOCTRINE OP THE TWO HOLY SACRAMENTS, APPARENTLY 
 INTENTIONAL AND WITH DESIGN. 
 
 TXTE see from the last Chapter that our Lord^s method 
 of teaching the doctrine of the Eucharist is 
 similar to that in which He taught the doctrine of 
 regeneration in Baptism. Now assuredly it can be by 
 no casual coincidence that Christ's manner of teaching 
 on the subject of these two Sacraments should be so 
 identical in every particular ; that in His own presence 
 objections should be made in each case, and these 
 too so alike; and that in each case His manner of 
 dealing with those objections should be so exactly 
 alike. All this could never have been by mere chance : 
 it must have been Divinely so ordered, and for the 
 reason already suggested, that we are intended to learn 
 from our Lord's own example in these instances, how 
 we also are to act under similar circumstances with 
 regard to the high and sacred truths — and, in parti- 
 cular, those relating to the two Gospel Sacraments — 
 which have been committed to the guardianship of His 
 Churc^h. 
 
 I 
 
CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 THE IMPROBABILITY THAT THE SACRAMENTAL DOCTRINE AS 
 TAUGHT BY OUR LORD WOULD BE SO TAUGHT BY A 
 PERSON NOT HOLDING THAT DOCTRINE IN THE CATHOLIC 
 
 SENSE. 
 
 "VrOW here it may be a>ked, Would any man, not 
 ■^^ holding the doctrine on these Sacraments in that 
 high and catholic sense in which it has ever been held 
 in the Church from the beginning, and which must be 
 the sense in which our Lord ' taught it, if His words 
 are taken in their literal meaning — would any such 
 person (I ask), having occasion to teach on this sub- 
 ject, use the kind of language here used by our 
 Lord? Or, again, supposing such a person were to 
 adopt our Lord's own language, strange as such a sup- 
 position is, yet when he came to meet with objections 
 to his teaching as such, on the part of some of his 
 hearers, and to find that such teaching caused 
 " ofi'ence " in their minds, would he persist in the use 
 of that language, as our Saviour did, without qualify- 
 ing its high meaning ? "Would he not rather call it 
 " figurative,'' or in some way reduce it to that more 
 qualified form, which he both believes is its true form, 
 and which he also believes would at once remove the 
 
198 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 offence from the minds of tlio objectors^ an offence 
 wliicli is preventing them from embracing the doctrine 
 in the sense in which he holds it himself^ though that 
 be not the sense in which it has been held in the 
 Church Catholic from the beginning ? Is it possible 
 such a person could go on^ as ov^r Lord did^ insisting 
 that it is even so as he had at first stated it^ persisting 
 still in the use of that strong language respecting it^ 
 and refusing to abate or qualify it in the least degree ? 
 Of course, no man, holding the uncatholic view which 
 was introduced by Calvin and Zuingli, and which has, 
 since their day, been so prevalent, would use or at least 
 persist in the use of language like that of our Lord, 
 the moment he observed that it was understood in its 
 literal meaning, and in that meaning was deterring 
 even one of his hearers from accepting the doctrine in 
 the sense in which he himself held it. Consider what 
 would be the conduct, under such circumstances, of 
 some Christian missionary engaged in converting the 
 heathen. When he began to instruct them on the 
 doctrine of the Sacraments, would he teach them in 
 such manner as that they would ever have occasion to 
 ask, whether in the spirit of scorn or mere perplexity 
 of mind, " How can these things be ? " or, " Shall 
 there be given us flesh to eat ? " and would he suffer 
 them even to " go back, and walk no more with him," 
 for want of some such qualifying explanation as should 
 reconcile them to the doctrine in the sense in which he 
 wished them to understand it, being that in which he 
 understood it himself? Assuredly no man, believing 
 as Calvin and his followers have believed, would or 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 199 
 
 could have taught and acted in the manner in which 
 we certainly know that our Lord did teach and act 
 with reference to the doctrine of these Holy Sacra- 
 ments : the thing is utterly inconceivable. 
 
CHAPTER XLIIL 
 
 THE MIEACLE AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA, A TYPE OF 
 BAPTISM UNDER ONE OF ITS ASPECTS. 
 
 TT appears probable that tbe miracle performed^ at 
 *^ certain periods^ at tlie Pool of Betbesda*, was 
 performed on purpose to prepare people's minds for 
 the reception of the doctrine of Holy Baptism. It 
 seems to have been just such a miracle as would 
 be most adapted for meeting the particular objec- 
 tion, which persons might be supposed most likely 
 to urge against our Lord's words of teaching on 
 that subject^ and which in fact always has been 
 urged by such as would not, or could not, accept 
 His words in their plain literal meaning. In that 
 miracle we certainly have a most apt illustration of 
 what our Lord has taught us in His discourse with 
 Nicodemus, regarding the new birth in Baptism. For 
 what is the bodily disease of the man that was cured, 
 but an emblem of that spiritual disease which He came 
 to cure in us all ? The water was the human agency 
 through which that cure was effected ; and a mes- 
 senger from heaven, here called an angel, moved that 
 water, and so imparted to it the power of healing. 
 * John V. 
 
PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 201 
 
 But no angelj as mere angel, could really impart such 
 power to it ; only God could : that Holy Spirit could 
 do so, Who at the first moved upon the face of the 
 waters, preparing them for the creation of the world ; 
 and Who again descended upon the waters of Jordan, 
 when our Lord was baptized therein. Only God 
 could impart the power of healing to the water of 
 Bethesda, even though He did it through His " minis- 
 tering spirit." 
 
 So here in this miracle we have water as the human 
 medium, and God Himself as the Divine Agent, both 
 concerned in the cure of this bodily disease. And 
 these are the very same agents for effecting the cure 
 of our spiritual disease in Baptism. Therefore, now 
 that our Lord has said, " ExcejDt a man be born of 
 water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the 
 kingdom of God," a person could with as little reason 
 object that so great a work as that of spiritual regene- 
 ration can or would be effected through so ordinary a 
 human medium as water, as he could object that a 
 man can or would be cured of a bodily disease 
 through the same medium. The supposed unreason- 
 ableness of the cure effected in such a manner would 
 be the same, in kind, in the one case as in the other. 
 The objection^ however, with regard to the bodily cure, 
 he now cannot make, because Scripture declares the 
 man to have been cured in the water of Bethesda; 
 and the objection with regard to the spiritual cure 
 (that is, regeneration in Baptism) he now cannot make, 
 unless he disbelieves that a spiritual cure would be 
 effected through water, even though he is obliged to 
 
202 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 admit that a bodily cure certainly was effected through 
 water, God Himself being the Person acting in that 
 water in both cases. And it must ever be kept in 
 mind, that a miracle working a bodily cure is as much 
 an act of Almighty power as is a miracle working a 
 spiritual cure. In the one case, as in the other, it can 
 be Grod only Who really performs the miracle. And 
 our Lord Himself has taught us this, when on one 
 occasion He performed a bodily cure, in proof that He 
 could also forgive sins, which, of course, none but God 
 can do. '''And they come unto Him, bringing one 
 sick of the palsy. When Jesus saw their faith. He 
 said unto the sick of the palsy. Son, thy sins be for- 
 given thee. But there were certain of the Scribes sit- 
 ting there, and reasoning in their hearts, "Why doth 
 this man thus speak blasphemies ? Who can forgive 
 sins but God only ? And immediately when Jesus 
 perceived in His spirit that they so reasoned within 
 themselves. He said unto them. Why reason ye these 
 things in your hearts ? Whether is it easier to say. 
 Thy sins be forgiven thee ; or to say. Arise, and take 
 up thy bed, and walk ? But that ye may know that 
 the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, 
 (He saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee. 
 Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine 
 house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, 
 and went forth before them alP." 
 
 Not that Christian men would doubt God's ijower to 
 forgive sins, and perform a work of regeneration in the 
 soul of man through the medium of water, any more 
 2 Mark ii. 3. 5—12. 
 
ON HOLT BAPTISM. 203 
 
 than they would doubt His power to heal a man sick 
 of the palsy, as in the case just now cited, and as at the 
 Pool of Bethesda ; but they object to the means em- 
 ployed : they allege an unreasonableness in the use of 
 means so simple. As if men could be competent 
 judges beforehand what means Almighty God might 
 choose for accomplishing His works of spiritual mercy 
 towards mankind; or as if He is not, in fact, daily 
 performing the most mai'vellous works of temporal 
 mercy towards us all through the most ordinary 
 means ; and, indeed. His noblest earthly creature — 
 man, made in His image, after His likeness. He 
 formed even out " of the dust of the ground ;" and it 
 may be added, after that ground had first been 
 covered with the waters, and the Spirit of God had 
 moved upon the face of those waters^. 
 
 It appears probable, therefore, that as the miracle at 
 Bethesda was repeated at intervals at the very time 
 when our Lord was teaching the doctrine of the new 
 birth in Baptism, it was providentially so repeated 
 then, in order that, being well known to the Jews, it 
 might serve to illustrate that doctrine, and be appealed 
 to in support of it, in case objection should be taken 
 
 ' " When, the world being disposed according to its elements, inbabi- 
 tants were given unto it, it was commanded to ' the waters ' first to ' bring 
 forth living creatures :' water first brought forth that which had life, so 
 that there might be no wonder if in Baptism the waters should be able 
 to give life. For even the work of forming man himself was accom- 
 plished by waters joining their aid. The material was formed of the 
 earth, yet not fit for use, unless moist and full of juice, which in fact the 
 waters, separated before the fourth day to their own place, had, through 
 the moisture which remained behind, made clay by their admixtm-e." 
 (Tertulliau.) 
 
204 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 against it (as indeed our Lord Himself so well knew 
 would be the case)^ on tlie ground of the human 
 medium employed for accomplishing so marvellous a 
 work of grace as man's regeneration ; and that it has 
 been recorded in Scripture^ and so handed down to 
 us in the Churchy that it may answer the same pur- 
 pose for all generations. For it being providentially 
 ordered^ that in each case there is water as the human 
 medium^ and God Himself as the Divine Agent, it is 
 not only as easy, but, for aught we can know, as likely 
 and as reasonable, that that Almighty Agent should 
 work a spiritual cure, called a new birth, in the laver 
 of Baptism, as that He should work a bodily cure in 
 the Pool of Bethesda. That bodily cure He did work 
 at Bethesda; the spiritual cure our Lord says He 
 works in the laver of Baptism. And, to use His own 
 argument, whether is it easier for Him to say to the 
 diseased person coming to Bethesda, " Be healed of 
 thy infirmity in this pool /' or to the unregenerate 
 person coming to Baptism, "Be born again in this 
 water .■'^ It is only the mere act of speaking the word, 
 which it is as easy for Him to speak in the one case 
 as in the other ; for Him, I say. Who spake this world 
 itself into existence. For, " by the word of the Lord 
 were the heavens made ;" " He spake the word, and it 
 was done : He commanded, and it stood fast ■*." 
 
 " What manner of cure is this V asks St. Chrysos- 
 tom. "^Vhat mystery doth it signify to us? for these 
 things are not written carelessly, or without a pur- 
 pose ; but as by figure and type they show in outline 
 * Ps. xxxiii. 6. 9. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTIf-.il. 205 
 
 things to come_, in order that what was exceedingly 
 strange might not, by coming unexpectedly, harm 
 among the many the power of faith. What, then, is 
 that they show in outline ? A Baptism was about to 
 be given, possessing much power and the greatest 
 gifts ; a Baptism purging all sins, and making men 
 alive, instead of dead. These things, then, are fore- 
 shown, as in a picture, by the pool and by many other 
 circumstances. And first " (that is, under the Old 
 Dispensation) " is given a water which purges the 
 stains of our bodies, and those defilements which are 
 not" (really such), "but seem to be, as those from 
 touching the dead, those from leprosy, and other simi- 
 lar causes : under the Old Covenant, one may see 
 many things done by water on this account." 
 
 " First, then " (under the Old Covenant), " as I said 
 before. He causeth defilements of our bodies, and after- 
 wards " (under the New Covenant) " infirmities of dif- 
 ferent kinds, to be done away by water. Because God, 
 desiring to bring us nearer to faith in Baptism, no 
 longer healeth defilements only, but diseases also. 
 For those figures which came nearer " (in time) " to 
 the reality, both as regarded Baptism and the Passion 
 and the rest, were plainer than the more ancient. 
 ' And an angel came doT\ni and troubled the water,' 
 and endued it with a healing power, that the Jews 
 might leai'n, that much more could the Lord of angels 
 heal the diseases of the soul. Yet as here it was not 
 simply the nature of water that healed, but water 
 joined to the operation of the angel ; so in our case it 
 is not merely the water that worketh, but when it hath 
 
206 
 
 PLAm SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 
 
 received the grace of tlie Spirit^ tlieu it putteth away 
 all our sins. Now, each hath power to approach^ for 
 now it is not an angel that ' troubleth/ it is the Lord 
 of angels Who worketh all. And this miracle was 
 done in order that men, learning that it is possible by 
 water to heal the diseases of the body, and being exer- 
 cised in this for a long time, might more easily believe 
 that it can also heal the diseases of the soul." 
 
 I 
 
CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 THE BODILY DISEASES CURED BY OUE LOED^ REPRESENTA- 
 TIVE OP CORRESPONDING SPIRITUAL DISEASES AS RE- 
 SPECTIVELY THEIR COUNTERPARTS. 
 
 rpHE particular suitableness of this miracle for tlie 
 purpose here supposed will be further seen, when 
 it is considered that the bodily maladies, of whatever 
 description, which our Lord cured, were in all in- 
 stances types or emblems of corresponding , spiritual 
 maladies, which He came on earth to heal in us all. 
 Each bodily disease was intended to represent some 
 spiritual disease as its counterpart, which our Lord, as 
 the true Physician of souls, alone could heal. This 
 fact is intimated by our Lord Himself on more occa- 
 sions than one\ For instance, the blind and the 
 deaf, to whom He gave sight and hearing, and. even 
 the dead whom He raised to life again, represent 
 respectively the spiritually blind and deaf, and the 
 spiritually dead. It is this spiritual blindness and 
 
 1 " Jesus means, among the Hebrews, * a Saviour,' but in the Greek 
 tongue, ' a Healer ;' seeing tliat He is Physician of souls and bodies, and 
 Curer of Spirits : curing the blind in body, and leading minds into light; 
 healing the lame in limb, and guiding the steps of sinners to repentance ; 
 saying to the sick of the palsy, ' Sin no more,' and ' Take up thy bed, and 
 walk.' " (St. Cyril of Jerusalem.) 
 
208 PLAIN SCEIPTUIJAL THOUGHTS 
 
 deafness of which He so frequently accuses the 
 JewSj whom He came to teach and to heal. Neither 
 His Divine words of wisdom^ when He spake "with 
 authority," "spake as never man spake," nor His 
 wonderful works of power, could bring them to 
 believe in Him as the Saviour. " For this people's 
 heart " (He says) " is waxed gross, and their ears are 
 dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed ; lest 
 at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear 
 with their ears, and should understand with their 
 heart, and should be converted, and I should heal 
 them^." It was the thought of this, their grossness 
 of heart, their spiritual deafness, that caused Him to 
 sigh as He opened the ears of the deaf man. " And 
 looking up to heaven. He sighed, and saith unto him, 
 Ephphatha, that is. Be opened^." He was thinking 
 then, with sorrow, of that more real deafness, that 
 inner grossness of heart, of the people whom He came 
 to save, and which would not let them be saved by 
 Him. And still more was His heart oppressed with 
 the thought of their spiritual death, from which they 
 so persistently refused to let Him raise them up, when 
 He "wept" at the grave of Lazarus; an act so expres- 
 sive of His intense grief; and the cause of it He after- 
 wards intimates, when having again " wept over " 
 Jerusalem, His ministry being now nearly ended. He 
 says, " If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this 
 thy day, "the things which belong imto thy peace ! but 
 now they are hid from thine eyes'*." And the same 
 
 2 Matt. xiii. 15. ^ Miuk vii. Sk 
 
 ' Luke xix. 1], 12. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 209 
 
 principle of action is strikingly illustrated in a passage 
 in St. Matthew, where it is said, " They brought unto 
 Him many that were possessed with devils; and He 
 cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that 
 were sick •!' and then, it is added, " That it might be 
 fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, say- 
 ing. Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sick- 
 nesses'.^' But these words of Isaiah doubtless have 
 reference, not only to the fact of our Lord taking upon 
 Himself our human nature, with all its sinless infirmi- 
 ties, but also to the further fact of His having had laid 
 on Him the iniquity of us all, the spiritual sicknesses 
 and infirmities of the whole human family, that He 
 might heal them in Himself. For in the verse follow- 
 ing that in Isaiah which is here quoted by the Evan- 
 gelist, it is said, " He was wounded for our transgres- 
 sions, He was bruised for our iniquities : the chastise- 
 ment of our peace was upon Him ; and with His stripes 
 we are healed ^'■' Hence we learn that in these words 
 in St. Matthew, in which he speaks of our Lord as 
 casting out devils and evil spirits, and healing human 
 sickness, there is indicated the fact of His healing the 
 accumulated sinriiual sickness and infirmity of the 
 whole human race, which for that very purpose He took 
 upon Himself. And, indeed, Isaiah in prophecy so 
 indiscriminately intermixes, by the form of language 
 he uses, the bodily diseases and distresses with those 
 of the soul, as what our Lord was anointed and sent to 
 heal, as clearly to imply that they were intended to be 
 understood as having each their counter^oarts respec- 
 5 Matt. viii. 16, 17. « j^^. liii. 4, 5. 
 
 P 
 
210 PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 lively corresponding to tliem^ the one to the other_, the 
 bodily representing' the spiritual in every instance. 
 He says^ or rather our Lord says through him^ " The 
 Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath 
 anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He 
 hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to jjreach 
 deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to 
 the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to 
 preach the acceptable year of the Lord^/^ And He 
 satisfied John the Baptist that He was the Christ, by 
 proving to him that He was fulfilling the requirements 
 of His mission, in the sense prophesied of Him, when, 
 in reply to the messengers whom John had sent to 
 inquire, "Art Thou He that should come, or do we 
 look for another V He said, " Go and show John 
 again those things which ye do hear and see : the 
 blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers 
 are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised 
 up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them^/^ 
 These, though mostly works of bodily mercy, were to 
 be the proof to John that Jesus was indeed the Christ ; 
 for John knew what those works of spiritual mercy 
 were which they severally represented, and for the 
 sake of which the Saviour really came upon this earth. 
 The same truth is intimated by our Lord^s manner 
 of stealing on more occasions than one, when He had 
 been performing a bodily cure upon a diseased person : 
 as when He said to the blind man, " Keceive thy sight, 
 thy faith hath saved thee ^.'' Now the word " saved,^^ 
 
 " Luke iv. 18, 19. 8 Matt. xi. 4, 5. 
 
 3 Luke xviii. 42. See alsoviii. 48; xvil. 19. For although iu these 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 211 
 
 particularly when used as here in connexion with faith, 
 is properly used in the New Testament to denote the 
 cure not of a bodily so much as of a spiritual disease, in 
 which sense it so often occurs in the Epistles. When . 
 therefore it is employed by our Lord to denote the 
 cure of blindness, or leprosy, or other disease of the 
 body, it is clear that He would thereby intimate to us, 
 that such bodily disease does but represent, or is a 
 type of some spiritual disease corresponding to it as its 
 counterpart, which He, as the Saviour, was sent on 
 earth to cure. And, indeed. He does Himself on one 
 occasion use this same phrase in its strict sense, to 
 denote the cure of a spiritual disease only, even that 
 greatest cure of all, the forgiveness of sins : as when He 
 says to the '^ woman which was a sinner. Thy sins are 
 forgiven. . . . Thy faith hath saved thee ; go in peace'." 
 And, indeed, the case which has been considered in 
 the preceding Chapter, the cure of the infirm man at 
 Bethesda, does itself furnish another instance of the 
 same kind. For our Lord says to him, " Behold, thou 
 art made whole : sin no more, lest a worse thing come 
 unto thee." In using these words He could not intend 
 to imply, that the man's bodily disease was the efi"ect 
 of sins previously committed by the man himself, inas- 
 much as He elsewhere forbids us to take this view of 
 temporal evils ^ : His purpose clearly seems to be, to 
 intimate to us that He was looking beyond the man's 
 bodily infirmity to that spiritual infirmity which it 
 
 two latter passages the words are rendered, " Hath made thee whole," 
 yet the original words literally mean, " Hath saved thee." • 
 
 1 Luke vii. 37. 48. 50. 2 Luke xiii. 1—5; John ix. 2, 3. 
 
 P 2 
 
212 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 represented. His words have no proper relevancy to 
 any but a spii'itual disease. He was thinkings appa- 
 rently, of that disease of sin, which He alone, as the 
 true Physician of souls, could heal, and of which the 
 man^s bodily infirmity was but the visible type or form : 
 for to such disease only can His words have any appro- 
 priate reference. They at once remind us of what He 
 elsewhere teaches, that ^^when the unclean spirit is 
 gone out of a man, he will return," unless due care be 
 taken, " to his house whence he came out, and finding 
 it " ready for his re-occupation, will " take with him 
 seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they 
 will enter in and dwell there ; and the last state of that 
 man is worse than the first." So when a man has been 
 washed clean from his sin, as in Baptism, it is espe- 
 cially incumbent upon him to walk warily ever after ; 
 to give all dihgence to make his calling and election 
 sure ; and by the supporting and strengthening grace 
 of God's Holy Spirit, to go on working out his own 
 salvation with fear and trembling, " lest a worse thing 
 come unto" him; lest "having been once enlight- 
 ened, having tasted of the heavenly gift and been 
 made partaker of the Holy Ghost," he should yet after 
 all fall away, and so it be impossible, or all but impos- 
 sible, to renew him again unto repentance ; thus his 
 last state would be worse than the first. Such seems 
 to have been the thought which our Blessed Saviour 
 meant His words to suggest to our minds ; a thought 
 which had reference to the inner spiritual signification 
 of the man's bodily infirmity, rather than to the mere 
 bodily infirmity itself. " Behold, thou art made whole," 
 
ON HOLT BAPTISM. 213 
 
 or^ as He afterwai'ds says of liim ^, '^'"made every whit 
 whole," restored to spiritual health and soundness : 
 "sin no more, lest a worse thing/ ^ a worse and more 
 incurable state of sin, " come unto thee/' 
 
 Considering, therefore, the circumstances of this 
 miracle, especially in connexion with the words " who- 
 soever then first after the troubling of the water stepped 
 in was made whole of tvhatsoever disease he had " 
 — words indicating the particular nature of its mean- 
 ing — we are led to infer that the cure wrought therein, 
 performed as it was by the agency of water and of an 
 angel, was meant to represent the spiritual healing 
 which takes place in Baptism, under that aspect of it 
 as the Sacrament wherein is effected a restoration to 
 spii'itual health and soundness, by the remission or 
 washing away of all sin. As St. Chrysostom also has 
 suggested in the words already quoted, where he calls 
 the cure a " figure or type, to show in outline things to 
 come. A Baptism" (he says) "was about to be given, 
 possessing much power and the greatest gifts ; a Bap- 
 tism purging all sins, and making men alive instead 
 of dead. These things, then, are foreshown as in a 
 picture, by the pool and by many other circumstances. 
 An angel came down and troubled the water, and 
 endued it with a healing power, tjiat the Jews " (and 
 therefore, of course, we all) " might learn, that much 
 more could the Lord of angels heal the diseases of the 
 soul." 
 
 3 John vii. 23. 
 
CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 THE MIRACLE AT THE POOL OP SILOAM ALSO A TYPE OP 
 BAPTISM UNDER ONE OP ITS ASPECTS. 
 
 A ND in furtlier illustration of this pointy and also as 
 ^-*- bearing on our subject of Baptism^ there may be 
 mentioned here the case of the man born blind_, who 
 was cured in the pool of Siloam^ a cure effected too 
 after a Sacramental manner \ Our Lord introduces 
 this miracle with the remark, '^ As long as I am in the 
 world, I am the Light of the world/' a remark which 
 must intimate that it is He Who alone can give the true 
 spiritual light to men; or, as St. John says of Him, 
 '^In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. 
 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that 
 cometh into the world ^.'' By this introductory remark 
 our Lord prepares us to expect a miracle with a special 
 significance attached to it, and with the nature of that 
 significance indicated by the miracle itself. Accord- 
 ingly we read, " When He had thus spoken. He spat 
 on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and He 
 anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and 
 said unto him. Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which 
 1 John ix. 2 Jobu i. 4. 9. 
 
PIATNT SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 215 
 
 is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way there- 
 fore, and washed, and came seeing." 
 
 Now^ though at the risk of appearing fanciful, I will 
 here venture the suggestion, that the fact that our 
 Lord made the clay of His own spittle rather than of 
 other water, is itself significant. For here the clay 
 was made not of water simply, but of water which had 
 received His own Breath upon it. Thus, together 
 with the dust of the ground and the water with which 
 the clay is made, there is also the Breath or Spirit of 
 Him Who was God as well as Man, to prepare the eyes 
 of the blind man for being opened in Siloam^. This 
 being so, we have here another instance of the uni- 
 formity of Grod^s operations in nature and in grace. 
 For man was made at first out of the dust of the 
 ground, but not until that ground had been covered 
 with the waters ; and then " God hreatJied into his 
 nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living 
 soul^;" as Elihu says of himself, ^^The Spirit of God 
 hath made me, and the Breath of the Almighty hath 
 given me life^" And by the Word was the world 
 made, but not without the waters, and those waters 
 breathed upon by God, being moved upon, or,' as the 
 original word signifies, '' brooded over " by His Spirit, 
 ^Vho is the Giver of life. " By the Word of the Lord" 
 (says the Psalmist) "were the heavens made, and all 
 
 3 " He makes the clay with spittle and not with water, to make it 
 evident that it was not the pool of Siloam whither he was about to be 
 sent, but the virtue proceeding from His mouth, which restored the 
 man's sight." (St. Chrysostom.) St. Augustine also assigns a divine 
 meaning to the spittle, and a human meaning to the dust of the ground. 
 
 •* Gen. ii. 7. * Job xxxiii. 4. 
 
216 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 the host of them by the Breath of His mouth ^." Upon 
 these words Bishop Home says, " It is also true, that 
 by the instrumentality of the Eternal Word and the 
 Eternal Spirit the old heavens and earth were made ; 
 as also the new heavens which shall succeed them/^ 
 And St. Augustine says on the same words, "The 
 works of the Son and of the Holy Spirit are the same. 
 The Word is certainly the Son of God, and the Breath 
 of His mouth His Holy Spirit.^' And it is said of our 
 Lord Himself, that He " breathed on '' the Apostles, 
 " and saith unto them. Receive ye the Holy Ghost '.^^ 
 Thus, not only this world, but man himself was created 
 at first in nature of water and of the Spirit ; and he is 
 re-created or re-born in grace of water and of the Spirit. 
 And with the clay thus made our Lord " anointed 
 the eyes of the blind man." This word " anointed " of 
 itself goes far to confirm the view above suggested, that 
 the clay had received its power of anointing from the 
 fact of our Lord's Breath or Spirit having passed over 
 the spittle with which it was made; for the word 
 '' anointed " used here implies the presence of the 
 Holy Spirit. Even the ceremonial anointings in the Old 
 Testament were intended to convey typically that mean- 
 ing ; but here the original word, rendered " anointed * " 
 in this passage, is used on all occasions, in the New 
 Testament, both before and after this miracle, in a 
 sense certainly conveying the notion of a spiritual 
 anointing, that peculiar anointing which can be only 
 by the Holy Spirit ®. Thus it is used on more occa- 
 
 <■ Ps. xxxiii. 6. ' John xx. 22. * iirixpiu- 
 
 " " xpioi, to anoint. In the New Testament it is applied only spiri- 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 217 
 
 sions than one of Christ, as where it is said of Him, 
 " The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath 
 anointed Me ^/^ and, " God anointed Jesus of Nazareth 
 with the Holy Ghost and with power ^/^ and indeed 
 He is Himself called " The Christ " from being the 
 " Anointed One/' And what is especially to our pur- 
 pose, it is the word used of the baptismal anointing ; 
 as where St. Paul says, " Now He Which . . . hath 
 anointed us " (rather, " Now He Which anointed us '') 
 "is God, Who also sealed us, and gave the earnest of 
 the Spirit in our hearts^;" and St. John, alluding to the 
 same, says, "Ye have an unction'^ (an anointing) "from 
 the Holy One ■*,■" Therefore, as in every other instance 
 where this word occurs it certainly contains the mean- 
 ing of a spiritual presence, it is reasonable to infer that 
 in this instance also, where it is used of the blind man, 
 it must contain the same meaning. Were that mean- 
 ing not here intended, some other word would un- 
 doubtedly have been employed instead, especially as 
 there are two such other words" even in the New 
 Testament, which are also translated by "anointing." 
 But these latter words do not, in the original, contain 
 the meaning of a spiritual anointing. They are both 
 of them used by our Lord : the one, where He says of 
 Mary, " She is come aforehand to anoint My body to 
 
 tually to the gifts and graces of tlie Holy Spirit, with which Christ and 
 Chi-istians are anointed" (Parkhnrst's Greek Lexicon). What is here 
 said of the simple verb must be true also of its compounds. 
 
 1 Luke iv. 18. « Acts x. 38. 3 2 Cor. i. 21, 22. 
 
 * 1 John ii. 20. See also Acts iv. 27, and Heb. i. 9. 
 
 ' fivpl^ai and aXeicpai. 
 
218 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 the burying ®;^' tlie other, where He says, "When thou 
 fastest, anoint thine head'/^ But these anointings, 
 as being by man only and for temporary purposes, do 
 not imply the presence of the Holy Spirit ; and the 
 original words expressing them are altogether different 
 from that which does imply that Divine presence ; con- 
 sequently, they are different from that which is here 
 used of the blind man, and which, as already said, is 
 used on all occasions when that Divine presence is 
 meant to be signified; and on such occasions we find 
 that the anointing is performed, in every instance, 
 either by God Himself, or by a spiritual body. His 
 Church, as in Rev. iii. 18. So that when it is here said 
 of our Lord, that He anointed the eyes of the blind 
 man with the clay, the very word used to express that 
 act implies that there was a spiritual presence, a 
 spiritual anointing being the only sense in which the 
 original word is used in the New Testament. Indeed it 
 could not otherwise, in strict propriety, have been said 
 of day that it anointed. Clay as mere clay does not 
 involve the idea of anointing : it may be said to 
 " smear,^^ or, as is said in the Old Testament of 
 slime and pitch and mortar, to "daub;" but not to 
 ^'^ anoint," a term which implies the presence of oil 
 either literally or (as in this instance) spiritually un- 
 derstood. 
 
 Next, our Lord sends him to the pool of Siloam, to 
 wash therein; and the Evangelist is inspired to ex- 
 plain that Siloam means Sent. Our Lord Himself is 
 
 6 Mark xiv. 8. 
 
 ' Matt. vi. 17. See also Mark vi. 13, and James v. 14. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 219 
 
 He that was '' sent " : it was He Whom God the Father 
 anointed and sent into the world, to be " the Apostle 
 and High Priest of our profession ^ ;" and to the 
 Apostles whom He appointed to be the first ministers 
 in His Churchj He said, " As My Father hath sent Me, 
 even so send I you." And of all ministers in the 
 Christian Church the Apostle says that they must 
 have this same commission; for he asks, ^'Hovy shall 
 they preach, except they be sent V " And, therefore, 
 the man born blind, representing him who had his 
 original sin upon him\ and so " sitting in darkness and 
 in the shadow of death," is directed to go and wash in 
 Him Who was sent by the Father to be the Light of 
 the world. ^^He was anointed" (says St. Augustine), 
 " and still did not see. He sent him to the pool which 
 is called Siloe. It concerned the Evangelist, however, 
 to call our attention to the name of this pool : and he 
 saith. Which is by interpretation. Sent. Who was the 
 Sent, of course, ye know : had He not been sent with 
 that mission, none of us would have had remission of 
 our iniquity. Well, he washed his eyes in that pool, 
 ' which is by interpretation. Sent :' he was baptized in 
 Christ. If therefore Christ in some sort baptized the 
 
 8 Heb. iii. 1. 9 Rom. x. 15. 
 
 ' " Bliudness came upon the first man by reason of sin, and from him 
 we all derive it ; that is, man is blind from his birth." (St. Augustine.) 
 
 " So it is that those acts of our Lord Jesus Christ which are astonish- 
 ing and marvellous, are both works and words — works, because they are 
 things done ; words, because they are signs. If, then, we consider what 
 is signified by this thing done, this blind man is " (that is, represents) 
 " mankind in general ; for this blindness took place in the first man 
 through sin, of whom we all have derived the origin, not only of death, 
 but also of iniquity." (Idem.) 
 
220 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 raan in Himself^ He then enlightened him." He had 
 already received the anointings there was only needed 
 the water to complete the Sacrament ; so he was sent 
 to wash in Siloam, He was to be baptized into Christy 
 in Whom only he could receive that spiritual illumina- 
 tion, that only true enlightenment which Christ be- 
 stows on those who have been made members of Him ". 
 Hence, regeneration in Baptism is frequently alluded to 
 by writers in the early Church under the name of 
 " illumination '' or " enlightenment ^/' And St. Paul 
 also speaks of " those who were once enlightened," in a 
 passage which certainly refers to Baptism ''. 
 
 Considering, therefore, the circumstances of this 
 miracle and the remark with which our Lord intro- 
 duces it, '^As long as I am in the world, I am the Light 
 of the world," a remark indicating the nature of its 
 meaning, and suggesting the direction in which we are 
 to look for it — considering these things, we are led to 
 believe that He intended us to see in it a type of 
 Christian Baptism under one particular aspect, that 
 aspect, namely, under which we are to regard that 
 
 2 " He was sent to the pool which is called Siloam, that is, he was 
 baptized in Christ, and then he was enlightened." (St. Augustine.) 
 
 ' " We bring the person to be washed to the laver. Now this wash- 
 ing is called ' illumination,' because they who learn the meaning of these 
 things are enlightened in their mind. And in the Name of Jesus Christ 
 Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and in the Name of the Holy 
 Ghost, does he who is enlightened receive the washing." (St. Justin 
 Martyr.) 
 
 ^ Heb, vi. 4. See also Heb. x. 32, where " illuminated " is used in 
 the same sense. "After ye were illuminated" (that is, after ye were 
 baptized, after ye became Christians), "ye endured a great fight of 
 afflictions." 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 221 
 
 Sacrament as tlie ordinance wherein we receive a 
 spiritual enlightenment, which we had not before ; an 
 enlightenment received in virtue of that incorporation 
 into Christ which takes place only in Baptism. The 
 blind man was washed in Siloam, that is_, in Him That 
 was sent, and then he received his sight. As St. 
 Augustine also states it, "He was sent to the pool 
 which is called Siloam, that is, he was baptized in 
 Christ, and then he was enlightened.^^ In this miracle 
 therefore we see represented our incorporation into 
 Christ in Baptism, and our consequent spiritual illumi- 
 nation in Him ; whereas, as has been already intimated, 
 in the miracle periodically performed in the pool at 
 Bethesda, wherein it is said that the person "was 
 made whole of whatsoever disease he had,^' we see 
 Baptism under another aspect : for in this miracle we 
 see represented our restoration to spiritual health and 
 soundness, by the cleansing or washing away of sin, of 
 whatever nature, in that Holy Sacrament. "Behold, 
 thou art made whole, sin no more." 
 
CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 THE MIRACLES PERFOEMED BY THE TOUCH OP CHRIST, A 
 PREPARATORY TRAINING FOR THE MORE READY RECEP- 
 TION OP THE DOCTRINE OP THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 rpO tlie same class of miracles as the one last consi- 
 dered, as being distinguislied by the same pecu- 
 liarity, may be referred the miracle of healing the deaf 
 and dumb man, recorded in St. Mark vii. 32 — 35, and 
 that of the blind man of Bethsaida, recorded in chapter 
 viii. 22 — 25 of the same Gospel. In the former case, 
 Christ " took him aside from the multitude ;" in the 
 latter, " He took the blind man by the hand, and led 
 him out of the town :" in the former. He " put His 
 fingers into his ears, and He spit and touched his 
 tongue •/' in the latter, He " spit on his eyes, and put 
 His hands upon him." After the same manner, there- 
 fore, the cure was effected in both cases. I. In both, 
 the cures were performed in secret (and so also, appa- 
 rently, was the anointing of the eyes of the blind man 
 who was sent to wash in Siloam). II. In both, there 
 was the water and the Breath or Spirit of our Lord. 
 And III. In both, there was His sacred Touch. And, 
 as if on purpose to show how important a part in the 
 work of healing was performed by the Divine Touch 
 
PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 223 
 
 in tliese miracles, it is particularly mentioned with 
 regard to one of tliem, tliat " He put His hands upon 
 him, and asked him if he saw ought. And he looked 
 up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that 
 He put His hands again upon his eyes, and made him 
 look up : and he was restored, and saw every man 
 clearly." Thus, in both these miracles,, we observe 
 the water and the Spirit and the Sacramental contact 
 with the Body of our Lord ; to indicate, as it would 
 seem, that all these are essential to om' spiritual 
 restoration. 
 
 And it may be further noted, as showing how com- 
 monly om* Lord employed the Touch of His own 
 sacred Person in performing His cures, that in both 
 the above cases the friends of the diseased persons 
 asked Him to cure them by laying His hands upon 
 them. In the former case we read, " They beseech 
 Him to put His hand upon him ;" in the latter, " They 
 besought Him to touch him.'^ They knew this to be 
 His ordinary mode of performing His cures. And 
 St. Luke says, with regard to the sick brought to Him 
 on another occasion, that " He laid His hands on every 
 one of them, and healed them'." 
 
 In reference to this point Mr. Keble says, " It will 
 be found on examination that His ordinary miracles — 
 by far the greater part of them — were wrought not 
 without some visible touch of His Body. ... If you 
 reckon up the miracles of healing especially recorded 
 as wrought by Christ in the flesh, you will, I believe, 
 find that two-thirds — twenty-two out of thii'ty-three 
 1 Luke iv. 40. 
 
224 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 ■ — were wrouglit by the Touclij immediate or virtual, of 
 His Body." 
 
 And soon after he speaks particularly of tlie three 
 cases already above treated of, clearly considering that 
 these three had a special significance of their own. 
 " To this popular notion " (namely, " that almost as 
 soon as ever our Lord came to be known by His mira- 
 culous cures, the Touch of His blessed Body came also 
 to be known as the ordinary visible mean whereby He 
 performed them"), "it would seem, moreover" (he 
 says) , " that an additional sanction is supplied by 
 each of those remarkable cases, iu which our Lord was 
 pleased to withdraw Himself, and deal in a peculiar 
 way with certain sufferers : such as the deaf and dumb 
 man in St. Mark vii. And, again, at Bethsaida. And 
 then the well-known cure of the man born blind, in 
 St. John ix., which also seems to have taken place 
 in private." 
 
 With reference to the Sacramental significance of 
 the Touch of our Blessed Lord, when performing His 
 miracles, Mr. Keble says, " His disciples and friends 
 on earth were trained by their experience of the virtue 
 which went out of" His flesh, "in the way of cor- 
 poral and physical miracles, to believe in and adore its 
 wonder-working presence, when it should be made 
 known to them as the very food and medicine of their 
 souls." Although these words appear to have special 
 reference to the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, yet 
 the explanation they give of the reason of the Divine 
 Touch, so frequently emjoloyed in the miracles per- 
 formed by our Lord, applies with equal relevancy to 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 225 
 
 the case of the other holy Sacrament. For it is only as 
 we are incorporated into our incarnate Lord ; it is 
 only as we are brought into contact and union with 
 His sanctified human nature, that our corrupt human 
 nature can be healed, and thereby renewed and re- 
 stored. It is, in fact, our membership with Christ ; it 
 is, if I may so say, the actual touch of His blessed 
 Body, as involved in that membership, that gives us 
 our regeneration. And on careful consideration of 
 the several instances in which our Lord performs a 
 miracle of healing, or of other bodily mercy, by the 
 touch of His own sacred Person, we shall find, I 
 thmk, that some of these miracles are of a nature to 
 direct our thoughts more particularly to one of the 
 Sacraments, others more particularly to the other; as 
 if He were intending to train and prepare our minds, 
 by means of these miracles of bodily touch, for the 
 more ready reception of the doctrine involved in both 
 the Sacraments. 
 
CHAPTER XLYII. 
 
 THE MIRACLE OE FEEDING THE FIVE THOUSAND (OR THE 
 FOUR thousand) MEN^ A TYPE OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST, 
 ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE ANALOGOUS TYPE OP BAPTISM, 
 
 T confirms us in this view, when we consider how, in 
 like manner, our Lord's miracle of feeding the five 
 thousand (or the four thousand) men in the desert, 
 through His disciples, with food blessed and broken by 
 Himself, appears to have been wrought on purpose to 
 prepare people^s minds to receive His teaching on the 
 subject of the Blessed Sacrament of His own Body and 
 Blood. For we must observe, that not only are this 
 mii'acle and His teaching respecting His Flesh and 
 Blood both recorded in the same chapter, but that this 
 miracle it was which gave occasion for that teaching : 
 and further, after blessing and breaking the food on 
 that occasion. He uses language precisely the same as 
 that which He uses when actually instituting that Holy 
 Sacrament. In the miracle He '^blesses and breaks'' 
 the bread, as He does also at the institution of the 
 Sacrament ; and in His teaching after the miracle He 
 uses words concerning His Flesh and Blood, such as 
 He uses concerning His Body and Blood at the insti- 
 tution. Indeed, His discourse on that occasion was 
 
PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS, ETC. 227 
 
 always understood by the Churcli to refer to tliis 
 Sacrament. This being so, it is highly reasonable to 
 infer that the mii'acle and its circumstances, out of 
 which that discourse arose, were intended to illustrate 
 His teaching respecting that Sacrament, and to prepare 
 men's minds for the reception of it ; by meeting the 
 particular objections which might most naturally be 
 urged against the doctrine of it, by such as would not 
 take our Lord's words in their true literal meaning. 
 For there we have very remarkably represented to us 
 what Christ is doing for His people now, through His 
 ministers, in that Sacrament of His Body and Blood. 
 For who are those multitudes whom He feeds in the 
 desert, and who but for His so feeding them might 
 have fainted by the way to their homes ? Who are 
 they but His people here in the wilderness of this 
 world, who but for the spiritual food which He alone 
 can supply, could " have no life in them," could have 
 nothing to sustain them, so as to enable them to reach 
 their true home in Heaven. And He, seated on a 
 mountain, blesses and breaks the bread, and gives it to 
 the people below ; not directly however with His own 
 hands, but mediately through His Apostles. And is 
 not this what He is now constantly doing ? Does He 
 not now, seated on His holy Mountain, day by day 
 administer '' the true Bread from Heaven," " the Bread 
 of life," to His people here below? Nor is this 
 heavenly supply ever exhausted : it only increases ever 
 more and more in His hands the more we partake of it. 
 With the four thousand men He began with seven 
 loaves, and had seven baskets full of fragments remain- 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 
 
 ing ; but witli tlie five thousand men He began with 
 five loaves^ and had twelve baskets full of fragments 
 remaining. He Who is " more ready to hear than we 
 to pray, and is wont to give more than either we desire 
 or deserve/' loves to give His people this heavenly 
 food, that they may all eat and drink thereof until His 
 coming again. He still has compassion on the multi- 
 tude in their spiritual hunger ; and to His ministers 
 He still says, " They need not go away ; give ye them 
 to eat •/' and this spiritual meat He is now evei-more 
 dispensing to them through these His ministers, whom 
 He has appointed to be "in His stead'' for this as for 
 all other ministerial purposes ; and He is " with them 
 alway," and will be "until the end of the world." 
 They are His own words of promise, therefore we may 
 not doubt. He is present with them as much as ever 
 He was when on earth, though invisible now; and 
 through them He is blessing and breaking and ad- 
 ministering the Bread of life as certainly and as really 
 as in the days of His jQesh. 
 
CHAPTER XLYIII. 
 
 THE MIRACLE BY ELIJAH 0¥ FEEDmG THE WIDOW AND HER 
 SON AT SAEEPTA, A PROPHETIC INDICATION WITH REGARD 
 TO THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 
 
 " T TELL you of a trutli," says our Lord to His 
 -^ fellow-townsmen of Nazareth, '' many widows 
 were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven 
 was shut up three years and six months, when great 
 famine was throughout all the land ; but unto none of 
 them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, 
 unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers 
 were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet, and 
 none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian'." 
 These words, it seems probable. He meant to be an 
 intimation, obscure indeed, purposely so, but still 
 really an intimation, that a time was coming when 
 God^s special favours should be no longer confined to 
 the Jews, but that the highest of those favours, the two 
 Sacraments of the Gospel, and with them of course the 
 Gospel itself, should pass from them to the Gentiles ; 
 that the miracle by Elijah of feeding the Gentile widow 
 and her son in a miraculous manner by multiplying her 
 meal and oil, was a prophetic type or intimation of our 
 • Luke iv. 25—27. 
 
230 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 Lord feeding the Gentiles witli tlie true Bread of life, 
 while He left the Jews still in their famine of spiritual 
 food; and that the miracle by Elisha of cleansing 
 Naaman the Syrian leper, by sending him to wash 
 seven times in Jordan, was also a prophetic type or 
 intimation of our Lord cleansing the Gentiles of the 
 leprosy of sin, by sending them to the waters of 
 Baptism, while He left the Jews still in their spiritual 
 leprosy, the uncleanness of their original unregenerate 
 state. That the cleansing of Naaman in the Jordan 
 was a type of Baptism can admit of no doubt ; and this 
 renders it the more probable that the other miracle 
 also, thus brought forward by our Lord in conjunction 
 with it and for a like purpose, was a type of His feed- 
 ing the Gentiles with the Bread of life ; when the Jews, 
 through their rejection of Him, would be without this 
 food, and be left still languishing under a spiritual 
 famine. 
 
 And the circumstances under which the words were 
 spoken by our Lord seem to suggest, still further, that 
 such was probably His meaning. For at that time He 
 was in His own city Nazareth, and His words imply 
 that He was not held in any special honour by His 
 countrymen there : but the contrary. For He says, 
 '' Verily, I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his 
 own country." And soon afterwards, upon His speak- 
 ing the words already above quoted, it is said, " All 
 they in the synagogue, when they heard these words, 
 were filled with wi'ath, and rose up and thrust Him out 
 of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill whereon 
 their city was built, that they might cast Him down 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 231 
 
 headlong." And, in like manner, it was whilst Elijah 
 was escaping for his life, that he left his countrymen for 
 awhile, and fed the Gentile widow and her son with 
 meal and oil, or with cakes made thereof. 
 
 And as to the meal, or the flour mingled with oil, or 
 the cakes made of them, we find that they were re- 
 quired under the Law to be eaten with the sacrifices. 
 Take, as an instance, the daily sacrifice morning and eyen- 
 ing throvighout the year. We read, " Now this is that 
 which thou shalt ofier upon the altar ; two lambs of the 
 first year day by day continually. The one lamb thou 
 shalt off'er in the morning, and the other lamb thou shalt 
 ofier at even : and with the one lamb a tenth deal of 
 flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten 
 oil ; and the fourth part of an hin of mne for a drink 
 ofiering. And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, 
 and shalt do thereto according to the meat ofiering of 
 the morning, and according to the drink ofi'ering there- 
 of, for a sweet savour, an ofi'ering made by fire unto the 
 Lord '." Here we have the bread, or fiour mingled 
 with oil, for a meat ofi'ering, and wine for a drink 
 ofi'ering ; and these were to be eaten and drunk with 
 the slain animal, as a feast upon a sacrifice': and as no 
 one doubts but that the slain animal itself was in 
 every instance a type of our sacrificed Lord, so neither 
 need there, I think, be a doubt but that the bread and 
 the wine also typified His spiritual Body and Blood 
 
 ' Exod. xxix. 38—41. 
 
 3 On the words, " This is the Bread which cometh down from heaven," 
 St. Augustine says, " This Bread the manna signified : this Bread the 
 altar of God signified. Those were sacraments; in signs they are diverse, 
 in the things signified they are alike." 
 
ZOZ PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 eaton and drunk at the Holy Eucliarist. The oil was to be 
 used on several religious occasions for purposes of some 
 holy anointing, which anointing was itself typical of the 
 anointing by the Holy Spirit ; and being mingled with 
 the bread of the meat offering, what could more fitly 
 represent beforehand the interpenetrating presence of 
 the Holy Spirit in the consecrated bread of the Eucha- 
 rist, so making it to become for us that Sacramental 
 bread to be eaten with the once sacrificed though now 
 spiritual Body of our Blessed Lord * ? And a portion 
 of this meat offering was to be taken by the priest and 
 burnt upon the altar, '' as a memorial thereof," and as 
 " a sweet savour unto the Lord \" And it is particularly 
 said too of the meat offering itself, significantly, not 
 only that ^^it is a sweet savour unto the Lord," but 
 also that " it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the 
 Lord made by fire ";" words which show that a peculiarly 
 sacred character attached to this meat offering. The 
 unleavened bread, indeed, which was to be eaten with 
 the Paschal lamb, the great annual sacrifice of the Jews, 
 so peculiarly typical of our Lord\s Sacrifice, seems to 
 have been of meal ; for at the time when the Passover 
 was instituted the barley only was ripe, the time of the 
 wheat harvest not having yet arrived ^ ; and it was 
 with barley loaves that our Lord fed the five thousand 
 
 ■* " The oblation of the flour which was commanded to be offered for 
 those who were cleansed from leprosy " (and so the oblation of the flour 
 which was commanded to be offered with the other sacrifices as well) 
 " was a type of the bread of the Eucharist, which Jesus Christ our Lord 
 commanded us to otter in the remembrance of the Passion which He 
 underwent." (St. Justin Martyr.) 
 
 5 Lev. ii. 2. « Lev. ii. 3. 10. 7 gee Exod. ix. 31, 32. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 233 
 
 men in tlie desert^ by a miracle wliicli so remarkably 
 represents His feeding His people in tlie wilderness of 
 this world^ witli the bread of life^ " lest tliey faint 
 by the way " to their true home in Heaven. 
 
 Thus, therefore, the bread, whether of meal or of 
 flour, which was eaten with the sacrifices, seems to 
 have betokened the consecrated bread which is eaten 
 with the spiritual Body of our Lord at the Sacrament 
 of the Holy Eucharist. Both the bread and the wine 
 used at the Jewish sacrifices are brought forward by 
 our Lord Himself to the last Passover ; and of the 
 bread He says, " This is My Body,^^ and of the wine, 
 "This is My Blood/' then it is that He transfers 
 them from their former use, and appropriates them for 
 the Sacrament of His Body and Blood : they had been 
 the type before, now they are become the very conse- 
 crated elements themselves in that Holy Sacrament. 
 The once sacrificed Body with which they are eaten 
 and drunk is no longer indeed visibly present on earth, 
 as was the case with the victim with which the meat 
 ofiering and driuk offering of old were eaten and 
 drunk ; but though invisible now, it is present not- 
 withstanding at that holy Feast, in all its SacraTuental 
 efficacy. 
 
 From these considerations therefore it would appear 
 probable, that when Elijah was ordered by God Him- 
 self to go to the widow woman, it was also by a pro- 
 vidential appointment, and therefore for a provi- 
 dential purpose, that he fed her and her son, in a 
 miraculous manner, with bread and oil rather than 
 with any other food. There were other ways of sup- 
 
234 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 
 
 porting tliem during tlie famine, had lie cliosen tliem ; 
 otlier kinds of food with which he might have fed 
 them ; but the bread and oil were chosen before them 
 all : and let us doubt not that they were so chosen, 
 because they contained a Divine purpose and meaning, 
 looking forward to a time future, even to the time of 
 the Gospel Dispensation, when the true Elijah, " God 
 the Lord,^^ should be rejected by the Jews, and go 
 over to the Gentiles, having withdrawn from His own 
 people for awhile, " until the times of the Gentiles be 
 fulfilled \" 
 
 s " In that widow to whom Elias was sent was prefigured a type of 
 the Church." (St. Ambrose.) 
 
CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 THE MIRACLE BY ELISHA OE CLEANSING NAAMAN IN THE 
 JORDAN, A PROPHETIC INDICATION WITH REGARD TO 
 BAPTISM. 
 
 A ND still more plainly was the wavsliing- of the 
 "^ Syrian Naaman in Jordan a type of Gentile Bap- 
 tism. Naaman was a leper. Now the leprosy was a 
 disease which was incurable by man : the physician^s 
 skill could not cope with it ; and it was the disease of 
 all diseases which rendered the man unclean in such a 
 manner as that he was, for the time at leasts cut off 
 and separated from the people of God, and commanded 
 to show openly certain appointed signs of his unclean- 
 ness; so that all persons, seeing them, might keep 
 aloof from him; and for the same reason he was 
 required to cry aloud, " Unclean, unclean.''^ And 
 what could this be but the figure of that spiritual 
 disease which separates men from God's people, and 
 keeps them far away from His Church and its privi- 
 leges ? It is the leprosy of sin : and in him who has 
 been a leper from his birth, it represents that sinful 
 nature with which we are all born, having inherited it 
 from our parents, and which we retain until it has 
 been washed clean in the Blood of Jesus Christ. 
 
236 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 Naaman^s leprosy, tlien, was an apt emblem or type 
 of that sinful nature, that spiritual leprosy, which, was 
 upon all the Gentile world before they were brought 
 to Christ. By nature we are all unclean; we were 
 '' shapen in wickedness, and in sin our mother con- 
 ceived" us. Yet is there a way whereby we may 
 be cleansed ; till then, however, we are not fit to hold 
 religious communion with God's people, nor share in 
 those high privileges which belong only to them. Like 
 the leper of old, we must yet stand aloof from the 
 camp and the holy people. 
 
 When the leprosy was healed, the priest was then 
 to pronounce the leper clean, and to receive him back 
 to the people of God : but this was to be done by a 
 certain prescribed process, which has already been 
 described elsewhere in these pages. It may be well 
 to repeat here, however, that of the two birds which 
 were to be taken, one was to be killed over a vessel 
 containing running water, and with that water and 
 blood thus mingled together the leper was to be 
 sprinkled seven times, and then afterwards he was to 
 wash himself all over with water. 
 
 Now, the blood of the slain bird denotes the death 
 of Christ, and the sprinkling of that blood, for the 
 purpose of cleansing the leper, denotes the sprinkling 
 of the Blood of Christ for the cleansing of sinful man. 
 And whereas, after the leper had thus been sprinkled 
 with the water and blood, and then washed all over 
 with water, it was required that the priest should put 
 some of the blood, and then some of the holy oil, upon 
 the extreme parts of his body, who thenceforth was to 
 
ON H(3LY BAPTISM. 237 
 
 be regarded and treated as clean, being admitted into 
 the congregation of God^s people ; so, in like manner 
 now, in the laver of Baptism, is the person '''washed^' 
 in the Blood of Christ ; and there he is " sanctified ;" 
 and having been thus made clean, he is accepted of 
 God as such; in other words, he is "justified;" so 
 that in that laver he has been " washed, sanctified, jus- 
 tified," and admitted into the Church of Christ. So 
 analogous is the order in the process of cleansing in 
 the case of the leper to that in the case of the baptized 
 person, as indicated by the holy Apostle \ 
 
 Such was the case of the leper. And as leprosy was 
 a type of the spiritual disease of sin, and the cleansing 
 of leprosy by blood and water was a type of our spiri- 
 tual cleansing in Christ our Great Sacrifice ; so, when 
 Eliaha ordered Naamau to go and wash seven times in 
 the River Jordan, his bodily washing was but a figure 
 of the spiritual cleansing in that " fountain " which has 
 since been " opened for sin and for all uncleanness." 
 He was to wash seven times, in accordance with the 
 custom observed in the regular cleansing of the leper. 
 Thus water was made the instrument of his cleansing : 
 water, as being typical of that Blood which was to be 
 shed for the purification of the whole world : his cleans- 
 ing, therefore, was a remarkable figure of that purifica- 
 tion which must take place with all who shall be admitted 
 to the kingdom of Christ, the appointed means whereto 
 is the water of Baptism, which by our Lord Himself has 
 been made the mode of entrance into His kingdom. 
 
 When Elisha ordered Naamau to go to the Jordan 
 » 1 Cor. vi. 11. 
 
238 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 to wash therein and be clean, Naaman at first refused 
 to obey the command^ being offended at the simplicity, 
 the poorness, as he thought, of the means to be 
 employed to cure him. How could the mere washing 
 in Jordan perform so great a work upon him as to 
 cure him of his leprosy ? ^^ Are not Abana and 
 Pharpar'^ (he says), "rivers of Damascus, better than 
 all the waters of Israel V Could he not, more likely, 
 wash in them and be clean, if washing in a river at all 
 could cleanse him ? He thought that to effect so great 
 a work Elisha would himself have come out and done 
 something great and extraordinary, so as to impress 
 the minds of the beholders ; that he would have em- 
 ployed means with circumstances of external appear- 
 ance, in some way corresponding to the work to be 
 accomplished by them, and (as he might imagine) 
 befitting its greatness. "Behold" (he says), "I 
 thought. He will surely come out to me, and stand, and 
 call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his 
 hand over the place, and recover the leper. So he 
 turned and went away in a rage." In a rage ! He 
 was indignant at being told that he could be cleansed 
 of such a disease as the leprosy by simply washing 
 in water, and that, too, the water of Jordan. And 
 how often is this same objection, in spirit at least 
 (yea, and often too in language not less indignant), 
 made to the healing powers of Baptism ! Even as 
 Nicodemus said to our Lord, though he probably in no 
 scornful or indignant mood, "How can these things 
 be ?" when our Lord had told him that "except a man 
 be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 239 
 
 the kingdom of God." The particular form of tlie 
 objection may vary with different persons, but the 
 objection itself is essentially the same in all cases, and 
 will be so to the end. " How can a little water/' 
 people say, " sprinkled upon a person, produce so great 
 an effect as to regenerate that person?" while they 
 forget, however, or do not choose to consider, that it is 
 not really the water which performs the work, but that 
 the Holy Spirit is promised in every Baptism, as the 
 invisible Divine Agent to perform all that is performed 
 therein. And surely the Almighty God can perform His 
 most wonderful works of mercy through the simplest 
 of means, if He chooses and if He has promised so to do. 
 Naaman's refusal at first, therefore, to go and wash in 
 Jordan, a refusal founded wholly on the simplicity of the 
 means to be used for his cleansing, stands for that 
 doubt and unbelief, as to the efficacy of Baptism for 
 accomplishing its work of grace, which is still so pre- 
 valent among people now; notwithstanding our Saviour's 
 own command and His plain words of teaching re- 
 specting it, and the equally plain words of His inspired 
 Apostles on the same subject ^. 
 
 2 If language so plain and express is to be explained away according 
 to certain preconceived notions or theories of our own, which notions or 
 theories vary with different persons ; and if we are to bring to the study 
 of Scripture a kind of verifying faculty informed by such notions and 
 theories : then clearly no Scripture language need necessarily mean any 
 thing definite at all ; and under the exei'cise of such a verifying faculty 
 so informed no Scripture can be safe ; and whether it be plain or not 
 plain in its literal meaning will, under such circumstances, make no 
 diii'erence whatever. For when we bring to the study of Scripture any 
 cherished theory of our own, and meet with passages which, in their 
 obvious literal meaning, are clearly inconsistent with it, it is no such 
 difficult process, when we are so minded, to explain those passages in a 
 
240 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 As Naaman tlie Syrian^ being a Grentilej represents 
 tlie Gentile people, and as his washing represents 
 the washing of Baptism ; so it is to be observed 
 that this washing takes place in the river Jordan : that 
 river is chosen which is the one wherein John the 
 Baptist baptized those that came to him, and the waters 
 of which our Lord Himself sanctified to the mystical 
 washing away of sin by His own Baptism therein. 
 Any other river or water might have been selected 
 for the mere purpose of cleansing a man of a bodily 
 disease, had nothing more been intended ; but as a 
 type of Baptism was to be enacted, Jordan, that 
 baptismal river, as it may be called, was chosen before 
 all others ^ 
 
 sense which shall not interfere with that theory. In such cases Scrip- 
 ture is made to give place to the theory, not the theory to Scripture. 
 But then, nucler this treatment, what becomes of Holy Scripture itself as 
 a book of authority for Christians ? And of what use can it be to refer 
 persons to it to teach them either doctrine or duty ? It may perhaps 
 tend in some degree to check people in the reckless exercise of this habit, 
 if they will remind themselves that there is such a thing as " wresting 
 the Scriptures unto their own destruction " (2 Pet. iii. IG), and that our 
 Lord has left recorded an awful warning closely bearing on this subject, 
 a warning relating indeed particularly to the Book of Revelation, but 
 which is applicable to our treatment of Scripture generally : " I testify 
 unto every man, that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If 
 any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him tlie plagues 
 that are written in this book : and if any man shall take away from the 
 words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of 
 the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are 
 written in this book," Rev. xxii. 18, 19. 
 
 ' " Now in a mystery the people " (the Jews) " pollute the Church, that 
 another people " (the Gentiles) " might succeed, gathered together from 
 foreigners, leprous indeed at first, before it is baptized in a mystical stream, 
 but which, after the Sacrament of Baptism, washed from the stains of 
 body and soul, begins to be a vu-gin without spot or wrinkle." (St.- 
 Ambrose.) 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 241 
 
 And noWj wlio was lie that sent Naaman to tlie 
 Jordan to be washed therein ? It was Elisha^ a prophet ; 
 yea^ in type he was more than a mere prophet. He 
 bore the character and he bore the name of our Lord 
 Himself. It was he upon whom a double portion of 
 the spirit of Elijah had fallen. The wonderful works 
 he performed were such as could be performed only 
 in the power of Grod Himself, and by one who, for 
 that purpose, should stand in God^s stead. Eis 
 works, with those of Elijah, were more wonderful 
 than those of any other prophet ; and more than any 
 others, they indicated the power of God in their per- 
 formance. 
 
 In his works, therefore, he indicated the Lord our 
 Saviour, and also in his name. For the word Elisha 
 means, '' the Lord that saves." So here, then, in 
 figure we see the Lord our Saviour sending the 
 Gentiles or heathen nations to His Baptism, as the 
 door through which they should enter into His Church 
 and become His people. Accordingly, we find that 
 Naaman was not only cleansed, but that he also became 
 a believer in the God of Israel, vowing thenceforth to 
 worship Him only. Just as the widow of Sarepta also, 
 after witnessing the miracles of mercy performed in 
 behalf of herself and her son by Elijah, acknowledged 
 him a prophet of the true God. And in so doing these 
 two Gentiles seem to represent the conversion of the 
 Gentiles at large to the true faith of God. 
 
 " Naaman represents the Gentile people, who is ordered to be washed 
 seven times, because Baptism saves that which the sevenfold Spirit 
 renews." (Bede.) 
 
 K 
 
242 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 Thus, that the Gentiles were some time to be brought 
 into the Church or fold of Christ by Baptism was 
 typified by Naaman ; just as the rejection of the Jews, 
 refusing the Christian faith, seems to have been 
 typified by Gehazi, who hitherto had been one of God^s 
 people, but to whom henceforward the leprosy should 
 cleave which had passed from the Gentile. When 
 Gehazi had returned, with the two talents of silver and 
 two changes of garments, which he had taken from 
 Naaman by falsely pretending that his master had 
 need of them, what then does Elisha say to him ? 
 '' The leprosy of Naaman shall cleave unto thee and to 
 thy seed for ever/' " And " (it is added) " he went 
 out from his presence a leper as white as snow/' 
 Now this Gehazi was a Jew ; and as the Jewish people 
 under the Old Covenant are frequently called in Scrip- 
 ture the '^servants" of God, their proper designation 
 as distinguished from the "sons'' of God under the 
 New ; so Gehazi, being the servant of him who was so 
 eminent a type of our Lord, may be regarded as repre- 
 senting the Jewish people, in this narrative ; and the 
 leprosy of Naaman being transferred to him, to cleave 
 to him and his posterity ever after, appears to betoken 
 the rejection of the Jewish people at large, after the 
 cleansing and the reception of the Gentiles through 
 the appointed ordinance of Baptism : all which has 
 been so exactly fulfilled in the history of the Church 
 of Christ. The leprosy of Naaman is upon Gehazi and 
 his posterity still. The Jews, as a people, have not 
 yet been healed of their spiritual leprosy, in the 
 only fountain which has been opened for sin and 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 243 
 
 for all uncleanness ; their covetousness and worldly- 
 mindedness beings perhaps, that which more than any 
 thing else prevents their embracing the humble, self- 
 denying doctrine of the Gospel, and believing in the 
 Saviour. 
 
 R 2 
 
CHAPTER L. 
 
 SPECIMENS OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THE ANCIENT 
 FATHERS OP THE CHURCH SPOKE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 " rpHE Churcli of tlie Living God," St. Paul calls 
 -'- " the pillar and ground of tlie truth ;" and our 
 Church speaks of it, in her Thirty -nine Articles, as 
 " a witness and a keeper of Holy Writ." At the same 
 Convocation at which she imposed these Articles, 
 she enacted a Canon, in which she ordered that her 
 " clergy shall be careful never to teach any thing from 
 the pulpit, to be religiously held and believed by the 
 people, but what is agreeable to the doctrine of the 
 Old and New Testament, and collected out of the same 
 doctrine by the Catholic Fathers and ancient Bishops." 
 And to any one reading the Homilies, it is apparent 
 how the writers of those Homilies appealed, on all 
 occasions, to these same Catholic Fathers and ancient 
 Bishops. Accordingly these Fathers and Bishops are 
 witnesses how the Church Catholic from the first has 
 insisted on the Gospel Sacraments as being, what 
 our branch of the Church also calls them, " generally 
 necessary to salvation." Every where in the old Testa- 
 ment did they discover types, or emblems, or pro- 
 phecies, or intimations of these Holy Sacraments ; and 
 
PIAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS^ ETC. 245 
 
 tliey tliouglit no language too higli wliereby to 
 describe tlie benefits and blessings accruing tbrou§|h 
 tliem to the saints of Christ. One or two instances 
 (and instances might be multiplied almost indefinitely) 
 shall be given of the manner in which they could speak 
 of Baptism^ and these instances shall be taken from 
 the words of two Archbishops. St. Cyril, Archbishop 
 of Jerusalem, a.d. 350, says to the catechumens who 
 had become candidates for Baptism, and whom he 
 is soon about to admit into the Church through that 
 Holy Sacrament, "At that time, to each man and 
 woman among you, may the gate of Paradise be 
 opened : may you then enjoy the fragrant waters which 
 contain Christ : may you then receive Christ's name, 
 and the efficacious power of Divine things. Even now, 
 I beseech you, lift up the eye of your understanding ; 
 imagine the angelic choirs, and God the Lord of all 
 sitting, and His only-begotten Son sitting with Him 
 on His right hand, and the Spirit with them present, 
 and thrones and dominions doing service, and each 
 man and woman among you receiving salvation. Even 
 now let your ear^ ring with the sound : long for that 
 glorious sound, which after your salvation " (that is, 
 after you have been baptized, and so brought into a 
 state of salvation), " the angels shall chant over you, 
 ' Blessed are they whose iniquities have been forgiven, 
 and whose sins have been covered;' when, like stars 
 of the Church, you shall enter in it, bright in the 
 outward man and radiant in your souls." 
 
 " Great, indeed, is the Baptism which is offered you. 
 It is a ransom to captives : the remission of offences ; 
 
246 PLAIN SCRIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 the death of sin ; tlie regeneration of the soul ; the 
 gi^rment of hght; the holy seal indissoluble; the 
 chariot of heaven ; the luxury of Paradise ; a pro- 
 curing of the kingdom/^ 
 
 And St. Chrysostom^ Archbishop of Constantinople, 
 A.D. 39 7j in one of his comments on Scripture, says, 
 " When without a sign thou believest, then he " (the 
 priest) " gives thee the sign also ; when thou hast done 
 thine own part, then also God doth fully assure thee. 
 How and in what manner ? By the water. For the 
 being baptized and immersed, and then emerging, is a 
 symbol of the descent into hell and the return thence. 
 Wherefore, also, Paul calls Baptism a burial, saying, 
 ' Therefore we are buried with Him by Baptism into 
 death. ^ By this he makes that also which is to come 
 credible — I mean, the resurrection of our bodies. For 
 the blotting out sins is a much greater thing than the 
 raising up of a body. For to forgive sins with God 
 only is possible : it being God alone Who doeth this ; 
 which, accordingly, in the Laver of Regeneration He 
 will bring to pass. For His grace touches the very 
 soul, and thence plucks up the sin by the root. Here 
 is the reason why he that hath been forgiven by [an 
 earthly] king may be seen with his soul yet impure, 
 but of him that is baptized no longer so ; rather the 
 very sunbeams are less pure than it ; and it is such as 
 it was originally formed ; nay, rather, much better than 
 that. For it is blessed with a Spirit, on every side 
 enkindling it, and making its holiness intense. And, 
 as when thou art recasting iron or gold, thou makest 
 it pure and new once more, just so the Holy Ghost, 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 247 
 
 also recasting the soul in Baptism as in a furnace, and 
 consuming' its sins, causes it to glisten with more 
 purity than all purest gold'/' 
 
 1 These extracts have been taken from the Oxford edition of the 
 Library of the Fathers, from which most of the foregoing extracts from 
 the Fathers have also been taken. A few are from the Catena Anrea of 
 St. Thomas Aquinas. 
 
CHAPTER LI. 
 
 EMBLEMS OP THE TWO HOLY SACEAMENTS SEEN IN VISION 
 IN HEAVEN. 
 
 F the saints liave owed so much, to the two great 
 Gospel Sacraments — to the one^ their incorporation 
 into Christ; to the other^ so largely^ their continued 
 spiritual sustentation and growth in grace through life 
 — it is natural to expect that even in Heaven we should 
 find some emblem or notice of them^ some allusion to 
 them in one form or another even there : we scarcely 
 could suppose beforehand that^ in any vision or de- 
 scription we may have of Heaven^ all note and remem- 
 brance of Divine ordinances so all-important as these 
 have been^ so necessary to man^s salvation, should find 
 no place at all, but should clean disappear, even 
 though they be no longer needed there as they have 
 been here. And in accordance with these our natural 
 anticipations, we find that St. John in vision sees "a 
 pure Eiver of Water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding 
 out of the throne of God and of the Lamb/^ And 
 close by the river, "in the midst of the street of^^ the 
 New Jerusalem, " and on either side of the river,^' he 
 sees also " the Tree of Life, which bare twelve manner 
 of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month ; and the 
 
PLAIN SCEIPTURAl THOUGHTS^ ETC. 249 
 
 leaves of the Tree were for tlie liealiug of the nations'." 
 And to show that this is au allusion to the River and 
 to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, it is added, 
 " And there shall be no more curse," since in that 
 garden it was that the curse was pronounced iipon our 
 jSi'st parents. Therefore, as "the River," which "went 
 out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence was 
 parted, and became into four heads," watering the whole 
 earth, was a type of the water of Baptism, wherein " all 
 nations " are to be baptized ; so here in the Revela- 
 tion, this " pure River of Water of Life " is an emblem 
 of that same regenerating and life-giving water ; and 
 as such it has proved " a pure River of Water of Life " 
 to all the saints of Christ. 
 
 Our Lord Himself had made mention of this water 
 to the woman of Samaria, under a similar figure or 
 designation. " If thou knewest " (He said) " the gift 
 of God, and Who it is that saith to thee, ' Give Me to 
 drink,' thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He 
 would have given thee living water." It is "living 
 water," or " water of life," because, as He goes on to 
 explain, "the water that I shall give 'him shall, be in 
 him a well of water springing up into everlasting 
 life^." And to this living water He afterwards invites 
 all to come and drink of it. " Jesus stood and cried, 
 saying. If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and 
 drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture 
 hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living 
 water." And then the Evangelist explains, " This 
 spake He of the Spirit, Which they that behove on 
 1 Rev. xxii. 1, 2. 2 John iv. 10. 14. 
 
250 PIAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 Him should receive : for the Holy Ghost was not yet 
 given; because that Jesus was not yet glorij&ed'." 
 
 Here, then, in these passages in the Gospel we have 
 allusion made beforehand to the Gift of God, the pro- 
 mised Gift of the Holy Spirit, Which we find so often 
 mentioned afterwards in connexion with Baptism ; and 
 our Lord here assures the woman of Samaria, that if 
 she really knew what that Gift was, and Who He was 
 that was speaking to her, she would ask of Him to 
 give her that " living water,^' which would be " a well 
 of water springing up into everlasting life " to every 
 one that should drink of it. And, as this well of water 
 is one that should be "m him," and these "rivers of 
 living water " should " flow out of his helly," this lan- 
 guage, with St. John^s explanation of it, clearly points 
 to that inward grace, that internal spiritual cleansing, 
 which would be wrought by the Holy Spirit in the life- 
 giving waters of Baptism for every believer. So then 
 we have here "the living water," and in connexion 
 with it the gift of the Holy Spirit promised as what 
 would be, but was not yet ; for the Evangelist ex- 
 pressly says, " The Holy Ghost was not yet given ;" 
 and he implies that He would be given when our Lord 
 was " glorified." Our Lord's words, therefore, are a 
 prophecy of the gift of the Holy Ghost to the baptized, 
 after He had Himself entered into His glory. And, 
 accordingly, then it was, but not till then, that 
 St. Peter said, " Be baptized, and ye shall receive the 
 gift of the Holy Ghost." 
 
 These passages, therefore, in St. John's Gospel con- 
 
 3 John vii. 37—39. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 251 
 
 tain a manifest; allusion to Baptism by tlie Holy Spirit, 
 after He sliould have descended on the Day of Pente- 
 cost ; and so were they very generally understood by 
 the Fathers of the early undivided Church. And now 
 observe the close similarity of language used by our 
 Lord in these passages to that which He again uses in 
 the Revelation ; for both in the Gospel and in the 
 Revelation, He is Himself the speaker. Whereas in 
 the Gospel He speaks of " the living water," so in the 
 Revelation He speaks of "the water of life," which 
 must mean the same thing. And whereas in the 
 Gospel He invites all that are athirst to come to 
 Him (" If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and 
 drink ") ; so in the Revelation He says, ^' I will give 
 unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water 
 of life freely ■*;" and in the chapter following there is 
 also the invitation, "Let him that is athirst come, 
 and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life 
 freely." In the Gospel, again, it is " a well of water 
 springing up into everlasting life ;" in the Revelation 
 it is a " fountain of the water of life." In the Gospel 
 it is " rivers of living* water ;" in the Revelation it is 
 "a pure river of water of life." In the Gospel 
 St. John explains that the Holy Spirit is promised 
 with those waters ; in the Revelation it is He, with the 
 Church, that invites all to come and drink of them : 
 " The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And whoso- 
 ever will, let him take of the water of life freely." 
 
 Now all this identity of language makes it plain, 
 beyond reasonable doubt, that whatever our Lord's 
 4 Rev. xxi. 6. 
 
252 PLAIN SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS 
 
 words in tlie Gospel mean^ they must mean tlie same 
 in the Revelation; and as His words in the Gospel 
 seem clearly to refer to Baptism, and were generally 
 so understood in the early Church_, the obvious in- 
 ference is, that His corresponding words in the Reve- 
 lation must refer to Baptism also. And the same 
 inference may be drawn from the fact already indi- 
 cated, that the " pure River of Water of Life," flowing 
 as it does close by " the Tree of Life," and where now 
 henceforth " there shall be no more curse," is an allu- 
 sion to the River in Eden, which also appears to have 
 been, and in the early Church was commonly believed 
 to have been, a type of Christian Baptism. 
 
 And if the '^ pure River of Water of Life " in the 
 Revelation is a symbol of the Sacramental waters of 
 Baptism, so is " the Tree of Life," which stands in 
 such close connexion with that river, a symbol of Him 
 of Whom we partake in the Sacrament of the Holy 
 Eucharist. The Tree of Life there, with its healing 
 powers, its " leaves " being ^' for the healing of the 
 nations,^^ is a plain and direct allusion to '^ the Tree of 
 Life " in Eden, of which he that should '' take and 
 eat " should " live for ever." And our Lord Himself 
 clearly intends us to understand that it is so. For He 
 says of it, " To him that overcometh will I give to eat 
 of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the para- 
 dise of God* ;" which words plainly identify the two 
 trees. For in each case there is the Tree of Life, and 
 there is the eating of that Tree ; and in each case the 
 place where it stands is the same — the Garden of 
 s ijev. ii. 7. 
 
ON HOLT BAPTISM. 253 
 
 Eden, or (a name wliich means tlie same tiling) Para- 
 dise. And the Tree of Life in Eden appears to refer, 
 and was understood by Fathers of the early Chui'ch to 
 refer, to our Lord giving Himself in the Sacrament of 
 the Eucharist to His people, to be their true " Bread of 
 Life/' as He calls Himself in that remarkable discourse 
 in St. John's Gospel; in which He was also understood 
 by the primitive Church to be speaking of that same 
 Holy Sacrament, wherein He would give His Body 
 and Blood to His people, so necessary for their spiri- 
 tual life. TVTiereas in Eden it was a " Tree of Life," 
 whereof a man might " take, and eat, and live for 
 ever®;" so in like manner here, in this discourse, our 
 Lord calls Himself " the Bread of Life," and " the 
 Living Bread," of which, if any man eat, " he shall 
 live for ever." 
 
 These words, therefore, in His discourse in St. John, 
 seem to refer to the Tree of Life in Eden, as a type of 
 our Lord giving Himself, sacramentally, to be the life- 
 giving spiritual food of His people. And as He also, 
 in the same discourse, expressly refers to the manna as 
 a type of Himself, Who came down from heaven, and 
 of Whom all must partake ; therefore it would appear 
 He would have us infer, not only that the Tree of Life 
 in Eden, but also that the manna in the wilderness, is a 
 type of Him gi\ang Himself as that true and living 
 Bread, of which all must eat, that they may live for 
 ever. Accordingly, we find that both the Tree of Life 
 and the Manna are brought forward to the Revelation; 
 and that they both of them occupy there a precisely 
 ^ Gen. iii. 22. 
 
254 PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 similar position in relation to tliose tliat are saved, to 
 whom shall be given the privilege of eating thereof 
 (that is, both of the Tree of Life and of the Manna), 
 as a reward of their having overcome and endured 
 unto the end. With regard to the one the Spirit says, 
 " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the 
 Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of 
 God ;" and in like manner, with regard to the other. 
 He says, " To him that overcometh will I give to eat 
 of the hidden Manna^." And that the Manna is a 
 type of the spiritual food given in the Sacrament of 
 the Holy Eucharist is so plainly implied by St. Paul, 
 in 1 Cor. X. 3, 4, as to admit of no doubt whatever : 
 and this circumstance of itself goes far to prove that 
 the Tree of Life also must be a type of the same spiri- 
 tual food, they both being brought forward to the 
 Revelation together, both occupying the same relative 
 position towards the saints of God there, and both 
 performing the same office towards them. 
 
 But, indeed, it requires no elaborate argument to 
 prove, or at least to render it in the highest degree 
 probable, that as the Tree of Life in the Revelation is 
 the same as that in Genesis ; and as that in Genesis 
 has the special property that whosoever should eat 
 thereof would live for ever ; and as this property can 
 belong to none but our Lord Himself, and He ex- 
 pressly claims and appropriates it as His own, in pas- 
 sages which have always been understood to relate to 
 the Sacrament of His own Body and Blood ; therefore 
 the Ti'ee of Life in the Revelation must relate to the 
 ' Rev. ii. 7. 17. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 255 
 
 same ; in other words, the Tree of Life there is a 
 symbol of that Sacrament. Just as the pure Eiver of 
 Water of Life, by the side of which it stands, is a 
 symbol of the Sacrament of Baptism. There we find 
 them mentioned in their own proper order — first " the 
 River," and then " the Tree ;" and both again seen 
 just there where we* should naturally most have 
 expected to find them, in close connexion with Him 
 Who instituted the two Sacraments, and with those 
 His saints who so greatly owe their salvation to them. 
 There was the Lamb seen seated on His throne ; and 
 before the same throne were His saints seen standing ; 
 and " out of the throne of God and of the Lamb pro- 
 ceeded a pure River of Water of Life, clear as crystal ; 
 and in the midst of the street of^' the city, "and on 
 either side of the River, was there the Tree of Life." 
 St. John sees them all there together, the Lamb, and 
 His Saints, and His Sacraments — the two great Sacra- 
 ments of the Gospel. And there, most appropriately, 
 in close order after them, it is added, " And there shall 
 be no more curse;" for where the Sacraments are, 
 there the curse has been cancelled. 
 
 This river of healing waters Ezekiel also saw in pro- 
 phetic vision ; and whereas St. John sees it near and 
 in connexion with the throne of God, so Ezekiel saw it 
 near and in connexion with the house of God, even His 
 Sanctuary. " Afterwards He brought me again unto 
 the door of the house ; and, behold, waters issued out 
 fi'om under the threshold of the house eastward, .... 
 and the waters came down from under from the right side 
 of the house, at the south side of the Altar. Then He 
 
256 PLAIN SCEIPTUEAL THOUGHTS 
 
 brouglit me^ and caused me to return to tlie brink of 
 tlie river. . . . Then said He unto me, ... It shall come 
 to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, 
 whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live, . . . every 
 thing shall live whither the river cometh, . . . And by 
 the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on 
 that side, shall grow all trees f<Sr meat, whose leaf shall 
 not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed : 
 it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, 
 because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary : 
 and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf 
 thereof for medicine ^." 
 
 The distinction of the visions, however, as seen 
 respectively by Ezekiel and by St. John is particularly 
 to be noted. Ezekiel sees the waters issuing from 
 under the threshold of the house of God, " out of the 
 sanctuary " of God's temple, and, which is also a sig- 
 nificant circumstance, flowing in the direction of or 
 near the altar. They seem, therefore, to be t}"]3ical of 
 the baptismal life-giving waters in the Church militant; 
 for in Heaven, in the New Jerusalem, there is no 
 temple. St. John says, " I saw no temple there.'" 
 And yet it was there that he saw " the pure River of 
 water of life,'' in the street of that holy city, and 
 issuing from under the throne of God and of the 
 Lamb ; that same throne, before which were seen also 
 the glorified saints, arrayed in white robes and 
 palms in their hands. This pure River, therefore, as 
 being seen in the New Jerusalem, is there with the 
 Church triumphant in Heaven ; to symbolize for ever- 
 8 Ezek. xlvii. 1.6.8, 9.12. 
 
ON HOLY BAPTISM. 257 
 
 more those same baptismal waters, which, in the un- 
 bounded mercy of God, and by the appointment of His 
 Son, Jesus Christ, have been of such unspeakable 
 benefit to all His saints on earth, in the great work of 
 their salvation. And while these His saints, standing 
 before the throne in that wonderful Vision, do ever 
 behold the face of the Lamb by Whose blood they 
 were redeemed; so do they ever behold also, streaming 
 forth from beneath that throne, the pure Eiver of 
 water of life, the symbol of that sacred Laver in 
 which their sins were once " washed away.^' For in 
 that Laver it was that the Holy Spirit first took 
 possession of them, and sanctified and renewed their 
 nature by grafting them into the hallowed human 
 nature of their Saviour Christ, thereby making them 
 very sons of God; and then ever after through life 
 nom'ishing them with the precious Body and Blood of 
 the Eternal Son ; and enduing them with His manifold 
 gifts of grace ; thereby sanctifying them more and 
 more, that so He might render them meet to dwell 
 in Heaven amid the pure and holy spirits there, and in 
 the very immediate presence of God and of the Lamb, 
 before Whose glorious Throne it is their consummate 
 bliss and happiness to worship with an everlasting 
 worship, and from that unceasing service to "rest not 
 day and night." For ever and for evermore they are 
 before the llun^ne of God. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 BY THE REV. LORD ALWVNE COMPTON. 
 
 Sttggestions for the Preparation of a Third Service, 
 
 for use on Sundays between Morning and Evening Prayer : a Letter to the 
 Rev. R. Se^Tnour, Rector of Kinwarton, and Proctor in Convocation for the 
 diocese of Worcester. 8vo. ■2S. 
 
 BY THE REV. C. N. GRAY. 
 
 Statement on Confession. With full Catena of 
 
 Anglican Divines. Third Edition. 6d. 
 
 BY THE REV. JAMES GERALD JOYCE. 
 
 Ca}t the Liturgy be used to attach the People to the 
 
 Church? a Paper, read before the Churchman's Association for the Rural 
 Deaneries of Andover, Basingstoke, and Chilbolton. Svo. is. 
 
 BY THE REV. GEORGE HENRY SUMNER. 
 
 Peace, Christ's Legacy to His CluircJi : a Sermon 
 
 preached in Westminster Abbey, at the Consecration of the Rev. Ashton 
 Oxenden, D.D., to the Metropolitan See of Montreal, on Sunday, August i, 
 1869. Svo. -IS. 
 
 BY THE REV. G. I. PELLEW. 
 
 A Sermon, preached at St. Mary's Church, Putney, 
 
 in the Defence of the Athanasian Creed, on the first Sunday after Trinitj', 
 1869. Svo. (>d. 
 
 BY THE REV. W. E. JELF. 
 
 A Review of Mariolatry, Liturgical, Devotional, 
 
 Doctrinal, as exhibited in the Offices, the Devotional and Dogmatic Books, 
 at present used in the Romish Communion. Svo. is. 6d. 
 
 The Reformation of the Church of England 
 
 [a.d. 1514 — 1547] : a Review, Reprinted by Permission from the "Times," 
 of February 27th and March 1st, 1869. Second Edition. Svo. 6d, 
 
 TConlfon, ©ifort, anti fiCamliritifi* 
 
28 J^tcssrs. 3R{b{ngton's j^tbJ publications 
 
 Ncnv ptiblishiiig in Eight Volumes, cro7un 2>vo, p7-ice ^s. each. 
 A NEW AND UNIFORM EDITION OF 
 
 A DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 GOSPEL NARRATIVE. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Rev. ISAAC WILLIAMS, B.D. 
 
 FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 jFor 'aifbtnt an^r ©i^rtstmas. 
 OUR LORD'S NATIVITY. 
 
 THE BIRTH AT BETHLEHEM. THE FIRST PASSOVER. 
 
 THE BAPTISM IN JORDAN. 
 
 \Reaay. 
 OUR LORD'S MINISTRY. SECOND YEAR. 
 
 THE SECOND PASSOVER. THE TWELVE SENT FORTH. 
 
 CHRIST V^flTH THE TWELVE. 
 
 \Ready. 
 OUR LORD'S MINISTRY. THIRD YEAR. 
 
 TEACHING IN GALILEE. LAST JOURNEY FROM GALILEE TO 
 
 TEACHING AT JERUSALEM. JERUSALEM. 
 
 \Ready. 
 
 || IContion, ©iforO, antt ©amlirittg? 
 
J^cssrs. Bibington's i^ctB ^utlications 29 
 
 £ox TLcnt mti CFastcr. 
 THE HOLY WEEK. 
 
 THE APPROACH TO JERUSALEAr. THE LAST SUPPER. 
 
 THE TEACHING IN THE TEMPLE. INDEX OF TEXTS. 
 
 THE DISCOURSE ON THE MOUNT OF 
 
 OLIVES. [J^t-ady. 
 
 JFor %tnt mts faster. 
 OUR LORD'S PASSION. 
 
 THE HOUR OF DARKNESS. THE DAY OF SORROWS. 
 
 THE AGONY. THE HALL OF JUDGMENT. 
 
 THE APPREHENSION. THE CRUCIFIXION. 
 
 THE CONDEMNATION. THE SEPULTURE. 
 
 [I^eadf. 
 jFor ■?tsccnaiion=tiUc. 
 OUR LORD'S RESURRECTION. 
 
 THE DAY OF DAYS. THE APOSTLES ASSEMBLED. 
 
 THE GRAVE VISITED. THE LAKE IN GALILEE. 
 
 CHRIST APPEARING. THE MOUNTAIN IN GALILEE. 
 
 THE GOING TO EMMAUS. THE RETURN FROM GALILEE, 
 THE FORTY DAYS. 
 
 {Ready April 1st. 
 
 lEntrolfucttirB Uolumc. 
 THOUGHTS on the STUDY of the HOLY GOSPELS. 
 
 CHARACTERISTIC DIFFERENCES IN MENTION OF ANGELS IN THE GOSPELS. 
 
 THE FOUR GOSPELS. PLACES OF OUR LORD's ABODE AND 
 
 OUR lord's MANIFESTATIONS OF MINISTRY. 
 
 HIMSELF. OUR LORD's MODE OF DEALING WITH 
 
 THE RULE OF SCRIPTURAL INTERPRE- HIS APOSTLES. 
 
 TATION FURNISHED BY OUR LORD. CONCLUSION. 
 
 ANALOGIES OF THE GOSPEL. INDEX OF TEXTS. 
 
 [Ready April 15//;. 
 A HARMONY of the FOUR EVANGELISTS. 
 
 [Ready May isl. 
 
 lonion, ©ifortr, anlr ©amferiUjje 
 
30 JUtssrs. IRibfngton's igcto ^ublitattons 
 
 CATENA CLASSICORUM, 
 
 A SERIES OF CLASSICAL AUTHORS, 
 
 EDITED BY MEMBERS OF BOTH UNIVERSITIES UNDER 
 THE DIRECTION OF 
 
 THE REV. ARTHUR HOLMES, M.A. 
 
 FELLOW AND LECTURER OF CLARE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, LECTURER AND LATE 
 FELLOW OF ST. JOHN's COLLEGE, 
 
 THE REV. CHARLES BIGG, M.A. 
 
 LATE SENIOR STUDENT AND TUTOR OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD, SECOND 
 CLASSICAL MASTER OF CHELTENHAM COLLEGE. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 
 
 The following Parts have been already published:— 
 
 SOPHOCLIS TRAGOEDIAE, 
 Edited by R. C. Jebb, M.A. Fellow and Assistant Tutor of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge. 
 [Part I. The Electra. ss. 6cl Part II. The Ajax. 3J. 6</. 
 
 JUVENALIS SATIRAE, 
 Edited by G. A. SiMCOX, M.A. Fellow and Classical Lecturer of 
 Queen's College, Oxford. [Thirteen Satires. 3J. 6J. 
 
 ■^onUon, ©ifort, anlr CTamfiriiigc 
 
Jtlcssrs. Iltfaington's ;0.m ^ublicaUons 31 
 
 CA TENA CLASSIC OR UM~{Continued). 
 
 THUCYDIDIS HISTORIA, 
 
 Edited by Charles Bigg, M.A. late Senior Student and Tutor of 
 Christ Church, Oxford. Second Classical Master of Chelten- 
 ham College. 
 
 [Vol. I. Books I. and II. with Introductions, ds, 
 
 DEMOSTHENIS ORATIONES PUBLICAE, 
 
 Edited by G. H. Heslop, M.A. late Fellow and Assistant Tutor 
 of Queen's College, Oxford. Head Master of St. Bees. 
 
 [Parts I. & II. The Olynthiacs and the Philippics. 4s. 6d. 
 
 ARISTOPHANIS COMOEDIAE, 
 
 Edited by \V. C. Green, M.A. late Fellow of King's College, 
 Cambridge. Classical Lecturer at Queens' College. 
 
 [Part I. The Achamians and the Knights. 4J-. 
 [Part II. The Clouds. 3s. 6d. 
 [Part III, The Wasps. 3s. bd. 
 
 ISOCRATIS ORATIONES, 
 
 Edited by John Edwin Sandys, B.A. Fellow and Lecturer of 
 St. John's College, and Lecturer at Jesus College, Cambridge. 
 [Part I. Ad Demonicum et Panegyricus. 4J. 6d. 
 
 A PERSII FLACCI SATIRARUM LIBER, 
 
 Edited by A. Pretor, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 Classical Lecturer of Trinity Hall. 3s. 6d. 
 
 HOMERI ILIAS, 
 
 Edited by S. H. Reynolds, M.A, Fellow and Tutor of Brasenose 
 College, Oxford. [Vol. I. Books I. to XII. 6s. 
 
 Hlon^jon, ®xfoxts, aiOj dCamtirilfge 
 
32 JWcsars. IRibtngton'g i^eto ^ubltcatfons 
 
 CATENA CLASSIC DRUM. 
 The following Parts are in course of preparation:— 
 
 PLATONIS PHAEDO, 
 Edited by Alfred Barry, D.D. late Fellow of Trinity College, 
 Cambridge ; Principal of King's College, London. 
 
 DEMOSTHENIS ORATIONES PUBLICAE, 
 Edited by G. H. Heslop, M.A. late Fellow and Assistant Tutor 
 of Queen's College, Oxford ; Head Master of St. Bees. 
 
 [Part III. De Falsa Legatione. 
 
 MARTIALIS EPIGRAMMATA, 
 Edited by George Butler, M.A. Principal of Liverpool College ; 
 late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, 
 
 DEMOSTHENIS ORATIONES PRIVATAE, 
 Edited by Arthur Holmes, M.A. Fellow and Lecturer of Clare 
 College, Cambridge. [Part I. De Corona, 
 
 HORATI OPERA, 
 Edited by J. M. Marshall, M,A. Fellow and late Lecturer of 
 Brasenose College, Oxford ; one of the Masters in Clifton 
 College. 
 
 TERENTI COMOEDIAE, 
 Edited by T. L. Papillon, M.A. Fellow and Classical Lecturer of 
 Merton College, Oxford. [Part I. Andria et Eunuchus. 
 
 HERODOTI HISTORIA, 
 Edited by H. G. Woods, M.A. Fellow and Tutor of Trinity 
 College, Oxford. 
 
 TACITI HISTORIAE, 
 Edited by W. H. SiMCox, M.A. Fellow and Lecturer of Queen's 
 College, Oxford. 
 
 OVIDI TRISTIA, 
 Edited by Oscar Browning, M.A. Fellow of King's College, 
 Cambridge ; and Assistant Master at Eton College. 
 
 CICERONIS ORATIONES, 
 Edited by Charles Edward Graves, M.A. Classical Lecturer 
 and late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. 
 
 [Part I. Pro P. Sextio. 
 
 THEOPHRASTI CHARACTERES, 
 Edited by A. Pretor, M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge; 
 Classical Lecturer of Trinity Hall. 
 
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