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“He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.”—Matt. iii, 17.
“This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: And it shall cometo pass, in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon allflesh.”—Acts ii, 16, 17.
Not only does the ordinance of baptism hold aposition of pre-eminent honor, as being the doorof entrance to all the privileges of the visible church,but it has been distinguished with a place of paramountimportance and conspicuity in the transactions of thetwo grandest occasions in the history of that church,—insealing the covenant at Sinai, by which Israel becamethe church of God, and the grace of Pentecost,by which the doors of that church were thrown opento the world. Proportionally interesting and significantis the ordinance, in itself, as symbolizing the mostlofty, attractive and precious conceptions of the gospel,and unfolding a history of the plan of God in proportionsof unspeakable interest, grandeur and glory.And yet, heretofore, the discussion of the subject hasbeen little more than a disputation, alike uninteresting,inconclusive and unprofitable, concerning the wordbaptizo.
The present treatise is an attempt to lift the subjectout of the low rut in which it has thus traversed,and to render its investigation the means of enlighteningthe minds and filling the hearts of God’s peoplewith those conceptions, at once exalted and profound,and those high hopes and bright anticipations of thefuture which the ordinance was designed and so happilyfitted to induce and stimulate.
Eighteen years ago,—in a catechetical treatise on“The Church of God, its Constitution and Order,”4from the press of the Presbyterian Board of Publication,—theauthor enunciated the essential principleswhich are developed in this volume. In 1870, theywere further illustrated in a tract on “The BibleHistory of Baptism,” which was issued by the PresbyterianCommittee of Publication, in Richmond, Va.The reception accorded to these trea