corporation in that Christ with all saints, and that by the same Spirit."
Again, let any one consider the emblems under which Baptism is pointed out in Scripture, as having been figured in the Old Testament, the flood, and the passage of the Red Sea. In modern times, neither has appeared a very obvious similitude: the symbol of the Ark, as an emblem of Christ's Church, has recommended itself to us; not so the resemblance of Baptism to the flood, since the flood destroyed life, Baptism saves it. The Apostle, however, looks upon the flood as the entrance, and the only entrance into the Ark, and laying aside all other points of resemblance or of difference, he fixes our minds upon this one subject,—by what means we were brought in thither[1]; and since the flood was the occasion of Noah's entering the Ark, and the Ark was borne up by that water which destroyed those who entered not therein, he pronounces that "the few, the eight souls were brought therein safe by water: the antitype whereof, Baptism, doth also now save us, not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the inquiry into a good conscience towards God," i.e. Baptism, not as an outward rite, but accompanied with Faith, the baptized person answering with a good conscience to the inquiry made into his Faith[2]. It was then an object with the Apostle to impress upon the minds of Christians the greatness of the Sacrament of Baptism, by comparing it with the most wonderful displays of Almighty power which this globe had ever witnessed: and the less obvious the resemblance, the more moment we must suppose there to have been in pointing out their connection: or rather we should admire God's mercy, who in the record of His dispensations so harmonized them together, that we should not be "staggered through unbelief," at the meanness of the instruments which he uses[3]; but having seen that the Holy Spirit
- ↑ "As that water which destroyed the rest of the world, preserved, as it were in death and by death, Noah and his family through a miracle of Divine benevolence: so Baptism engraffing us into the death of Christ, saves from eternal death, by the death of the old Adam and of sin."—Bucer de vi Baptismi Christi, Script. Anglic, p. 597.
- ↑ See Note (H) at the end.
- ↑ "There is nothing," says Tertullian, "which so hardens the minds of
