in the putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of the Christ; having been buried like him in baptism, wherein also ye were awakened like him through faith in the power of God who hath awakened him from the dead. (Col. 2. 10-12.) In baptism we symbolize the putting off the body of the flesh, and we have faith in the power of God who awakened Jesus from the dead to accomplish it. This is called the circumcision of the Christ, or of the heart, in the Spirit, of which the Jewish rite was a type. (Rom. 2. 29. Eph. 4. 22-24. Col. 3. 8-10.) Baptism is also called the bath of regeneration, of which it is a symbol, and by means of it the disciples are said to be saved, because they are saved by faith in that of which it is a figure: namely, the death and resurrection of the Christ. (Tit. 3. 5. 1 Pet. 3. 21.) VI. Types of baptism. The rite of circumcision was a type of the baptism of the believer, for every male child of Abraham was circumcised in sign of his entering into the covenant which God made with his father. (Gen. 12. 1-4; 17. 1-18.) And in like manner the children of God testify by baptism that they have entered into his kingdom. The Abrahamic covenant was made with Abraham and his posterity; but the covenant of grace is made with an individual only, and not with his posterity. Every one entered into the Abrahamic covenant by virtue of the faith of his father, whereas every one enters into the new covenant by his own faith. (John, 3. 16.) The rite of circumcision, though a type of the baptism of the believer, has therefore a very different signification from the latter; and hence we conclude that the children of believers have no claim to God's mercy by virtue of the faith of their parents; for no one can be justified by vicarious faith from the curse of the law. In the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea the apostle Paul sees a type of baptism, saying: 'Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptised in Moses and in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was the Christ.' (1 Cor. 10. 1-4.) After having been redeemed from the house of bondage by the blood of the paschal lamb, the Israelites entered the Red Sea by faith in Moses and in him who was in the cloud, that is Jehovah; and passing through the water they arose from it again in safety, while the Egyptians were buried under it. Thus also the believer who has been saved by the blood of Jesus enters the water and is immersed in it, and rises again from it, while the old man the son of Adam lies buried beneath it. And as the children of Israel followed Moses through the sea to be a separate people to glorify their Saviour in the holy land: so also the Israel of God now pass through the water, in sign of their salvation from the bondage of Satan, and their separation from the world, to glorify their Redeemer Jesus the Christ in the Assembly of God. Finally, the apostle Peter compares the deluge to the baptism of the faithful in the following words: For the Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made to live in Spirit: by which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison; who were rebellious, when the long-suffering of God was waiting in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved through the water: which [water] the antitype [of that] even baptism doth also now save you, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, by means of the resurrection of Jesus the Christ: who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him. (1 Pet. 3. 18-22.) The salvation of Noah in the ark by faith in God and his rising above the water as a just man, while the old world was buried beneath the flood of water, is a type of the baptism of the believer, by which he is saved from the judgment of God; not however by the ordinance itself, but by the sincerity of his faith in the death and resurrection of the Christ; for without the testimony of a good conscience to the truth of the confession of faith in the Christ which the disciple makes previous to his baptism, this rite has no other signification than the putting away of the filth of the flesh. The baptism of a child, therefore, has no spiritual signification, being like that of an unbeliever, which is only a mockery of the holy ordinance which the Lord has commanded as a testimony of the faith of his disciples, and by which they are recognised by their brethren as members of his Assembly. In a word, baptism is for the children of God, and not for the children of Adam; for without faith in the Christ there is no baptism, and without baptism no one can become a member of his Assembly. V. Its Apostasy from the Faith and its death. I. The Lord Jesus founded his Assembly when he rose from the dead, according to the promise which he made to Peter when he confessed that he was the Christ, the Son of Jehovah; saying, 'Blessed art thou Simon, son of Jona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Assembly, and the gates of the abode of the dead shall not prevail against it.' (Matt. 16. 17, 18.) Jesus the Christ is himself the rock upon which he built his Assembly (Isa. 28. 16. Matt. 7. 24. 1 Cor. 3. 11), which is formed of the faithful brethren who are baptised as his disciples, and he will raise it again at the last day. (Luke, 20. 36. John, 5. 28, 29; 6. 40.) And Peter was the first stone of the temple of God that was built upon the rock, that is, upon the Christ (John, 1. 42), who is the chief corner-stone of the building (Matt. 21. 42. * The word 'Ekklesia' means assembly, which is rendered in our version of the New Testament by the vague and indefinite term 'Church.' Acts, 4. 11. Eph. 2. 20. 1 Pet. 2. 6, 7), and who is, therefore, its foundation and its founder. For the Assembly, which is figuratively called a temple, is not built upon Peter nor upon the faith of Peter, but upon Jesus the Christ, on whom Peter believed as his Saviour when God raised him from the dead. (Luke, 24. 36-53. Acts, 1.) And God hath made the Christ the head of the Assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who accomplishes all things in all. (Eph. 1. 22, 23. Acts, 2. 36. Matt. 28. 18.) As the establishment of the kingdom of the Christ, which is synonymous with his Assembly, has been already treated of in these pages, it is unnecessary to refer to it again in this place. It is sufficient to say that all who confess their faith in the Christ, and who are baptised as his disciples, form the professing assembly, and that the sons of God who are in it constitute the Assembly of the Christ, which is figuratively called the Lord's body. It is to the holy brethren who were spiritually and visibly united in One Body, though forming separate assemblies, that the apostle Paul wrote his Epistle, which is addressed to the saints who were at Corinth, and to them who in every place confess that Jesus is the Lord (1 Cor. 1. 2); that is, to the Assembly of the sons of God who were baptised to be One Body, saying: 'Ye are the body of the Christ, and his members each one for his part.' (1 Cor. 12. 27. Comp. Rom. 12. 5.) And again he testified to the unity of the Assembly, saying,' As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body being many, are one body, so it is also [of the body] of the Christ.' (1 Cor. 12. 12.) The Assembly of the Christ is termed his kingdom, because the sons of God, who constitute his body, obey him as their Lord; for wherever the saints confess Jesus as their Saviour, and obey his commandments, his Assembly is there, inasmuch as they form a component part of it; and Baptism, the Lord's Supper, |