DISCOURSE. "Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him." MATTHEW iii. 13-15. BAPTISM is the initiatory Christian sacrament. It is the gate through which men are received into the external church. It stands in the Christian church where circumcision did amongst the Jews; and was prescribed by our Lord, for the church which he founded, instead of that Jewish rite, as the sign and seal of the new covenant, as the other had been the external sign and seal of the old covenant with Abraham and his descendants; the internal or spiritual signification of the two being the same. It stands in the literal sense of the New Testament, chiefly, simply as a command, — as a prescribed act for the commencement of the Christian life, and the prescribed sign by which the disciples of the Lord should be known and recognized. "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." It is also frequently represented as being, in some way, essential to the salvation of the baptized person. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." Mark xvi. 16. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." John iii. 5. From these and similar things in the teachings of Christ and the apostles, the rite has been observed as primary and essential by every branch and subdivision of the Christian church, in every age of its existence. Hitherto, it has been obeyed chiefly as a precept; simply because it is commanded; without any clear, definite, or intelligent understanding of what it internally involved, the reason why it was prescribed, or what are the uses effected by it. This is not too much to say, for it has been regarded as one of the mysteries of the faith; a thing to be received and done because commanded, and concering which no further reason was to be asked. Some idea of its simple signification was known and taught in the primitive church, and has since been retained: it is generally understood to denote, in some way, the regeneration of man; but the relation between the two has been exceedingly vague and undefined. It was known to be a sign that the person receiving the rite had entered into covenant relations with God, and that it was the external seal of that covenant; but its significance and effect always have been, and still are, supposed to be of merely a forensic or legal character, operating in a way wholly external to and beyond the individual himself. This state of things was inevitable so long as the spiritual sense of the Word remained unrevealed, and the literal sense was the only one known. The real use which baptism effects, and the reason of its institution, were, indeed, mysteries, as the church taught, because they were not known; all that was required was simple obedience to the injunctions of the letter |