3. There is no necessity for assuming that there is any refer- ence in John iii. 5, to external baptism. The passage may be ex- plained after the analogy suggested by what is said in Matthew iii. 11. There it is said that Chris b would baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire. No one understands this of literal fire. Fire was one of the familiar Scriptural emblems of purification. (Is. iv. 4 ; Jer. v. 14 ; Mai. iii. 2 ; Acts ii. 3.) To baptize with fire, was to effect a real, and not merely an outward purification. According to this analogy, to be born of water and of the Spirit, is to experience a cleansing of the soul analogous to that effected for the body by water. This is the interpretation generally adopted by the Reformed theologians. It is in accordance, not only with the passage in Matthew iii. 11, but with the general usage of Scripture. In that usage the sign and the thing signi- fied are often united, often interchanged, the one being used for the other. Water, essential to the existence of all living crea- tures on the face of the earth, not only the means of cleansing and refreshment, but also one of the elements of life, is familiarly used for the divine blessing, and especially for the saving, sanctifying, refreshing, and sustaining influences of the Holy Spirit. Thus in the gracious invitation of the prophet, " Ho, every one that thirst- eth, come ye to the waters." (Is. Iv. 1.) Before in chapter xii. 3, he had said, " With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." Isaiah xxxv. 6, " In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert." Isaiah xliv. 3, " I will pour water upon him that is thirsty." Ezekiel xxxvi. 25, " Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean." Jere- miah ii. 13, God says, My people " have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters." Zechariah xiv. 8, " Living waters shall go out from Jerusalem." (Compare Ezekiel xlvii. 1-5.) Our Lord said to the woman of Samaria, " If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink ; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." (John iv. 10.) On another occasion, he said, " If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters. But this he spake of the Spirit." (John vii. 37, 38.) Revelation xxi. 6, " I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." xxii. 17, " Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." It would be a sad mistake to understand by water in all these passages, the physical element, or even sacramental water. When God promises to sprinkle clean
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594 PART III. Ch. XX. — THE MEANS OF GRACE.
water upon us, He promises the renewing of the Holy Ghost ; and when Christ says, we must be born of water, He explains it by saying, we must be born of the Spirit.
That our Lord, in John hi. 5, does not make baptism essen- tial to admission into the kingdom of God, but regeneration by the Spirit, is the more probable, because Christian baptism was not instituted when the words there recorded were uttered. It is impossible that Nicodemus, or any who heard those words, could understand them of that sacrament. Christ, however, intended to be understood. He intended that Nicodemus should under- stand what was necessary to his salvation. He was accustomed to hear the sanctifying influence of God's grace called water ; he knew what the Scriptures meant by being washed with clean water ; and it was easy for him to understand that being " born of water " meant to be purified ; but he could not know that it meant baptism. To make the passage refer to the baptism of John is out of the question, although sustained by the authority of Grotius, Episcopius, Bengel, Neander, Baumgarten-Crusius, Hof- man, and others. The baptism of John was confined to the Jews. It admitted no man to the kingdom of Christ. Our Lord is lay- ing down the conditions of salvation for all men, and therefore cannot be understood to refer to a baptism of which the Gentiles were not partakers, and of which, in the vast majority of cases, they had never heard.1
Another argument on this subject is derived from the fact that in the sixth and eighth verses of this chapter, where our Lord in- sists on the necessity of regeneration, he says nothing of being born of water. It is simply regeneration by the Spirit that He declares to be necessary. It cannot be supposed that one doc- trine is taught in the fifth verse and another in the sixth and eighth verses ; the former teaching that baptism and the renew- ing of the Holy Ghost are both necessary, and the latter insisting only on a new birth by the Spirit. If the two passages teach the same doctrine, then the fifth verse must teach that being born of
1 That the baptism of John was not Christian baptism would seem plain, (1.) Because it belonged to the old dispensation. The Christian Church was not yet established. (2. ) It bound no man to faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Saviour of the world. (3.) He baptized all Judea, but all the people in Judea, pharisees and others, were not thereby made professing Christians. (4. ) It was a baptism simply unto repentance, as a prepar- ation for the coming of Christ. (5.) Those who were baptized by John were rebaptized when they professed to become Christians. Of the multitudes converted on the day of Pentecost and immediately after, many no doubt had been baptized by John, and yet they were baptized anew. And according to the interpretation, almost universally received in our day, of Acts xix. 1-6, Paul baptized in Ephesus "certain disciples" in the name of the Lord Jesus, who had already been baptized by John.