water baptism be indispensible, then is this grace or manifestation of the spirit not suf ficient: and it ought to be said that by the baptism of water, and the gift of the holy spirit, man only can be saved; and that though a soul experience the refining power of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, yet unless the body experience the influence of water baptism, there is no salvation possible. Should the latter be insisted upon, it will be necessary to resort to the Scriptures for proof. But though John baptized with water unto repentance, we do not find that he has in one instance held out that his baptism was sufficient; but he points to Christ, as the all-sufficient baptizer. And it appears that for this end he was raised up and qualified; not as the advocates for water baptism suppose, to establish an outward ordinance in the Christian church; but to point to him, in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily. And thus he is spoken of by the prophet: "the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Isaiah xl. 3. To this end he came, turning the Jews from their desert and wilder pess state to Christ, the Son of God. The pro

phet has, in this summary of the character and mission of John the Baptist, held up no system to be established by him; neither has he shewn any connexion in the mission of this prophet and Christ; but simply that the former was a preparatory messenger to the Jews; a kind of outward witness which a merciful God condescended give them of the Messiah: that as they were told by the same prophet that Christ should come, so they might have in evidence his forerunner to prepare them, to let go their confidence in the desert and wilderness of ceremony, and be by him turned to Christ, the Lamb of God, who only can take away the sin of the world. To this end we believe John the Baptist came. The prophet Malachi has spoken of him more particularly by name. "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." Mal. iv. 5. But neither does he attribute to him the authority to set up or establish any system or ordinance in the church, or clothe this forerunner with power to administer any part of the means of salvation; and the evangelist Luke, who refers to this prophet, explains this Elijah to mean a messenger in the spirit and power of Elias;

the same that the Jews expected, and ought, upon their own principles, to have received, in evidence to the fulfilment of the prophecy concerning Christ; but neither has the evangelist given him any office in the church, but considered him simply in the light of a witness to the Messiah; and Luke professes to state the declaration of the angel Gabriel to Zacharias, concerning the mission or service of this forerunner of Christ. "And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God; and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Luke 1. 16, 17. Now, inasmuch as he was to go before, and be, as the evangelist John has said, "a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." John i. 7, 8, 9. we cannot infer from thence, or from all the testimony combined, that his office was to establish any system, or enjoin any ordinances, upon those who might believe his testimony!

But he was clearly a messenger under the law, pointing to the Jews, and informing them of a more glorious dispensation, about to be ushered in. Accordingly we find that when they sent messengers to him, saying, "Why baptizest thou, then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet;" he immediately informs them of Christ, saying, " I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not. He it is, who com→ ing after me, is preferred before me; whose shoes' latchet I am not worthy to unloose." John i. 25, 26, 27, 29. And the next day he informs them again of Jesus, and calls their attention, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, after me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me. And I knew him not, but that he should he made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water." As this was the end to be answered by the ministry of John, so we believe that in fulfilling his office, he very fitly had recourse to water baptism in order to instruct those among whom he was sent, that they might know that in like manner as by his baptism, the body was immersed in

water, so should the souls of men be dipped or immersed into the spirit of Christ, by that baptism of the Holy Ghost of which he spake, alluding to Christ, "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into his garner." Matt. iii. 11, 12. Thus we understand this messenger to the Jews, nor does it appear that he ever aimed at any other purpose by his ministry and baptism. Therefore we believe that the office of water baptism, as a Jewish ceremony, designed outwardly to represent a more effec tual and saving baptism, ended as to its influence and purpose, when Christ, the great and spiritual baptizer of his true believers, came. This appears to us the true state of the case. But it may be said, if water baptism was not intended as an ordinance, why did the Saviour of the world go to John to be baptized? to this we answer, that he knew John was his forerunner, the same of whom the prophets had spoken: and therefore if he had not given his baptism countenance, his own disciples might have been left in some doubts, as well as probably some of the Jews, who expected that Elias must first come; and not only so, but in the act of submitting himself to that