"de late. The very fame word is here used which the Apostle applies to the crucifixion of Chrift.

"He was made a curfe for us, as

it is written, curfed is every one that hangeth on a tree.""The anger and fury of wasty God, and vials of his wrath, are rep.hted as being poured out upon na❝tions and individuals."

These metaphors are in fome refpe&s applicable to the fufferings and baptifm of Chrift; but the literal fenfe appears to me much the most natural, fignificant, and important. Chrift, by being literally baptized with the blood and water that iffued from his own body, hath literally fulfilled, and put an end to, all the bloody rites, facrifices, and baptifms of the old teftament.

Under the new teftament, the baptifmal water is not to be mingled with blood or the afhes of a facrificed heifer. All compofitions and mixtures are to be laid afide. "I will fprinkle," fays Chrift, "clean water upon you, "and you fhall be clean."-" So fhall he fprinkle many nations.” I am, Sir, &c.

SIR,

LETTER XVII

WE find in the facred scriptures, that the

application and ufe of water, in a facramental fenfe, and the communication of divine influences, are both denominated Baptifms. Let us then attend to this fpiritual Baptifm of the Holy Ghoft, and fee if it will not reflect some useful light upon that literal Baptifm, which is adminiftered by the application of water.

I perceive that you, like the other Baptist writers, have turned your attention wholly to the ever memorable day of Pentecoft; and feem to imagine that the affufions of God's fpirit, on that particular occafion, were fo plentiful, as to favour the mode of dipping.

You obferve, Serm. 4, page 62; "Here "was truly a wonderful inftance of Chrift's. baptizing with the Holy Ghoft."

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"Here 1. All the houfe was filled with "the found, wind or fpirit from heaven.. 60 2. Cloven tongues like as of fire, and it fat "upon each of them. 3. They were all "filled with the Holy Ghoft."

We here fee that they were all over"whelmed; for all the house where they "were fitting, was filled; and not only were "they all overwhelmed, but they were also filled."

"It is left for you to determine, what be"comes of Mr. Cleaveland's argument, upon "which he lays fo much ftrefs, and of which "he speaks with fo much confidence, and "not unfrequently with an air of triumph,

" &c."

Thus, Sir, you appear to boast a little on the occafion, as if your obfervations relative to this fpiritual Baptifin, were unanswerable and conclufive. But let us examine them.

In the first place you tell us," that all the "house was filled with the found, wind or "spirit, from heaven." Sound, wind, fpiritThese three words, or at least two of them, are mentioned by you as if they were perfectly fynonimous; which is very different from the fenfe in which St. Luke used them. He does not fay that the houfe was filled with wind, nor even intimate that there was any wind at all in it. He does not fay that the houfe was filled with the fpirit. He only meant to inform us, that it was filled with an unusual, aftonishing found, refembling the noife of a mighty rushing wind. So that your overwhelming was an immersion into a mere found. It is however true, that the whole houfe was actually filled with the Spirit of God; and you might with the fame propriety have told us, that his Omniprefent Spirit pervaded the immenfity of space; that his effential prefence equally filled all houfes-all perfonsand all things; and that being thus filled and

furrounded with Deity, we all are conftantly and totally overwhelmed and immerfed.

But the facred hiftorian was not speaking concerning the effential prefence of God. He was only relating thofe miraculous operationsand effects of the Spirit, which were then peculiar to that particular time and place. The found was audible in every part of the house. They all heard it with their ears. The appearance was vifible. They faw it with their eyes. This appearance affumed a vifible form, refembling that of cloven tongues of fire. The exact fize of these tongues is not mentioned, but the appearance was fo fmall, that it fat diftin&ly upon each one of the Apoftles. They are faid to be filled with the Holy Ghoft. They were influenced in an extraordinary manner, and enabled to speak in various languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance. The Apoftles were not dipped. The Holy Spirit affumed a vifible, fhape; and that vifible fhape, like a fiery flame, came down from heaven, and fat vifibly upon each individual, undoubtedly upon his head.

I perceive that you have adopted a language, fimilar to that of Dr. Gill and Mr. Booth. Whenever perfons are baptized by an affufion of dew, or rain, or of the Holy Spirit, i is of courfe thought to be fo abundant, as to look confiderably like immerfion." But, Sir, after all that has been faid, there is an important difference, between a "feeming immenfion," and a real affusion.

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There is another thing which I have frequently noted. Formerly, the baptifts, with whom I have been acquainted, commonly ufed the word dipping; after a while, they introduced plunging; then, immerfion; and latterly, overwhelming, which is evidently a word of very indefinite meaning, and as different in its fignification from dipping, as it is from pouring.

You could not say that the Apostles were dipped into the Holy Ghoft. This language would have been intolerably uncouth. You therefore tell us, that they were overwhelmed. I suppose you mean by a plentiful affufion. Let us examine this matter a little further, and fee how the facred fcriptures explain it.

Baptifm, by water, is an emblem of baptifm by the Holy Spirit. The infpired writers have therefore repeatedly affociated thefe baptifms, even in the fame fentence, as if they were nearly related. John, the Baptizer, exprefsly declares, as in Matt. iii-11. Mark i. 8. Luke iii. 16. John i. 33. "I, indeed, "baptize you with water, but he fhall baptize "you with the Holy Ghoft." St. Matthew and Luke have both added the word fire. "He fhall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, "and with fire." This remarkable prediction is mentioned by each of the four Evangelifts: And in the Acts of the Apostles, it is twice applied, by Chrift himself, to the pouring out of God's Spirit; as in the ft chapter and 5th verfe. "For John truly baptized