They maintain also that the meaning of bap tism is to be found in a visible representation of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord— that this visible representation is found in im mersion, but is not found in either sprinkling or pouring. Z. T. S.
Figurative. 1. There is a twofold meta phorical baptism: (a) The baptism of the Holy Ghost, and of fire, which denotes not only the miraculous collation of the influences of the blessed Spirit, whereby the New Testament church was solemnly consecrated to the service of God ; but chiefly his gracious influences, which, like fire, purify, soften and inflame our heart with love to Jesus and wash away our sin and enable us to join ourselves to him and his people (Matt. iii :it ; Cor xii:t3). (b) The sufferings of Christ and his people are called baptism; they are means of purging away iniquity, and thereby Christ and his people solemnly dedicate themselves to the service of God, and avouch him to be their only Lord (Matt. xx :22 ; Luke xii:5o).
2. There appears a strong resemblance be tween the baptism of Israel into Moses and the baptism of the church of God into Christ. Bap tism in the name of Christ confessedly sets be fore us completely the doctrine of Christ, and by it we are introduced into the church of Christ. In like manner the pillar of cloud and passage through the sea exhibited a grand display of the whole doctrine of Moses, and by this bap tism the whole church of Israel was initiated. As NW, is inseparable from baptism in the name of Christ, so by faith Israel passed through the Red Sea, which the Egyptians essaying to do were drowned. The same truths set before us in bap tism were set before Israel when they passed through the Red Sea. They were all baptized, young and old, male and female, infants and adults. The youngest child among them partook of the beneficial effects of the cloud and the glorious salvation through the sea; the parents, in bringing them along with them, trusted them Into the bed of the Red Sea, believing what the Lord had said to them by .loses, hoping for
the same salvation for them that they expected for themselves. And guilty sinners who look for deliverance in Christ bring their children un der the cloud in the ordinance of baptism, know ing that the same Almighty power which carries them through every danger and death can also carry their children. (See t Cor. x:r, 2.) 3. St. Peter makes the saving of a few persons through water at the flood a figure of the Chris tian rite (I Pet. iii :2o, 2t), where the water which purged the earth of its wicked inhabitants by floating the Ark saved its inmates. Luther al most inverts this when he remarks that 'baptism is a greater deluge than 'hat described by Moses, since more are baptizes than were drowned by the Deluge.' 4. But patristic writers find baptism typified in a variety of things, some of which are remote enough, e. g., not only in the passage of the Jor dan (Josh. iii:t7), and the cleansing of Naaman (2 Kings v:14), hut in the river of Paradise, the well revealed to Hagar. the water from the rock, the water poured upon Elijah's offering, etc. Ter tullian asserts that the primeval water 'brought forth abundantly the moving creature that bath life' (Gen. i :2o), in order that there should be no difficulty in believing that baptismal waters can give life (De Mpt. iii). In a like spirit prophecies -^•pecting Christian baptism were found with great freedom, not only in Zechariah's fountain for sin and for uncleanness' (Zech. xiii: t), in Isaiah's promise that sins red as scarlet shall he white as snow (Is. i:t8), and in Ezekiel's 'I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall he clean. * * A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you' (Ezek. xxxvi :25, 26), hut even in the hart panting after the water brooks (Ps. xlii:t), and in the waters breaking out in the desert (Is. xxxv :6). (A. Plummer, Hastings' Bib. Diet.)