ledge of God, through sanctification of the spirit unto-sprinkling of the blood of Christ.* 3. Baptism with clean water may denote the simplicity of the gospel dispensation.

The writer of the letters says, There does not appear in all the five books of Moses, any rite of sprinkling meer water, but it was water mixed with blood, ashes, &c.' The Mosaic institution was of a mixed nature: It consisted both of moral and ceremonial precepts. And the rites of purification were of a piece with the dispensation itself; for they were performed by water mixed with other ingredients. But the gospel dispensation is pure and simple, charged with few external rites, and these plain and easy. Thus Ezek. xxxvi. 25. God, foretelling the happiness of his people in the Gospel times, says, Then will I sprinkle clean water upon shall be clean. This expresand you sion,' says the author before mentioned, alludes to some watery purification in the law of Moses.' But he says, "There was no ceremony of unmixed water.' He thinks, 'it alludes to the water of separation.' And

ye

*Heb. xii. 24. 1 Pet. i. 2.

yet

he says,

This was a composition of vá

rious ingredients.'

The meaning of the passage then must be this. In the latter times I will give you a pure and spiritual dispensation, not burdened with such rites and ceremonies as the present. The simple nature and spiritual design of it shall be represented by the great rite of initiation, which shall be the sprinkling of pure water, and not the application of such mixtures and compositions as are now in use.

ye

Peter

Observe here: Sprinkling is said to cleanse the person. I will sprinkle clean water upon shall be clean, and from all your you and filthiness will I cleanse you. So washing Peter's feet only, was washing him. says, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus replies, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in me. When he requested that his hands and head might be washed too, Christ answered, He that is washed, need not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.*

It has been said, 'A minister may as well wash the hands or feet, as sprinkle the face

* John xiii. 8, 9, 10.

of a person, in the name of the Trinity, and call it baptism.' I am far from asserting, that the validity of baptisin depends upon the part to which the water is applied.There is however an obvious propriety in applying it to the head. This is the princi

pal part of the body. It is the part which is usually uncovered; and the water doubtless should be applied to the person, rather than to his clothes. The ceremony of benediction was performed by laying the hands on the head. Unction was performed by pouring oil on the head, which was called. anointing the body. The Holy Ghost was communicated by the imposition of the Apostles hands: And they who had the Spirit thus communicated to them, were said to be baptized with it; which makes it highly probable that baptism, the token of this communication, was performed by putting water on the heads of the persons baptized. Accordingly, the Apostle to the Hebrews speaks of the doctrine of Baptisms and laying on of hands."

* Chap. vi. 2.

4. The Apostle, in 1 Cor. 10, speaking of the Jews who came out of Egypt, says, They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. The Apostle here undoubtedly alludes to christian baptism, and therefore we may suppose there was some resemblance between baptism unto Christ, and that ancient baptism unto Moses.-Now how were they baptized in the cloud and sea? Surely not by being plunged all over in water; for they went over on dry land; but only by being sprinkled with some sprays of the sea, and drops from the cloud. This appears to me the most natural sense of the expression. The author of the letters indeed ridicules such an interpretation, and says, 'Here is an allusion to the custom of immersion, the Israelites, being covered by the cloud over, and by the water on each side of them.' But I think he has not mended the matter; for though the waters surrounded them, yet (as he would have it understood) not even a spray touched them, nor a drop fell on them; for then they would have been sprinkled. It was a dry baptism: A baptism without water. Jonah might as well have been

said, to be baptized in allusion to immersion, when he went down into the sides of the ship, and there lay, while a storm hung over him.

5. Baptism signifies our obligation to renounce sin and put on the character of Christ.

The Apostle says, Rom. vi. 4. We are buried with Christ by baptism into his death. And Col. ii. 12. Buried with him in Baptism. The plain meaning is; by baptism we are bound to die to sin, and walk in newness of life, in conformity to the death and resurrection of Christ. Our brethren imagine, these two passages afford a strong argument for immersion. They tell us, The phrase of being buried with Christ in Baptism, alludes to the manner of baptism, which was a burial in the water; for if there were nothing like a burial, the phrase would be very improper. But as well might they say, 'The mode of baptism must resemble his crucifixion; for in the same passage the Apostle says, We are baptized into his death, planted together in the likeness of his death-our old man is crucified with him. But I am