Baptism According to Scripture

Transcribed from the 1850 Seeleys edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
BY E. H. HOARE, A.M. VICAR OF BARKBY, LEICESTERSHIRE.
JESUS “SAID UNTO HIM, WHAT IS WRITTEN IN THE LAW? HOW READEST THOU?”—LUKE X. 26.
SECOND EDITION.
Seeleys . FLEET STREET, AND HANOVER STREET. LONDON: MDCCCL.
At a Clerical Meeting in the country this Question was lately proposed for discussion;—“What may be deduced from Holy Scripture concerning Baptism, as a Sacrament of the Christian Church?”
In order to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion, it appeared to one of the members present to be necessary, that every passage of Scripture bearing upon the subject should be considered, and its true meaning sought; and that care should of course be taken, that no text be so expounded as to make it repugnant to another. This course was consequently pursued by him. Each passage was examined in succession; and though the inquiry extended much beyond his expectation, and was not carried through without pains, yet the interest of the research more than compensated for the labour of it.
The subject being of great importance, and more especially at the present time, it was thought that the cause of truth would be served by the publication of what had been written; and a request was made to that effect. In the hope, and with the earnest desire and prayer, that such may be the result, the writer has consented to its publication: and as the Church, to which it is his privilege to belong, has declared concerning Holy Scripture, “that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of the faith,” (Art. vi.)—he feels himself fully justified, as a Minister of the Church, in having endeavoured simply to ascertain the sense of Scripture, in the several texts which have come before him.
January , 1850.
It is thought by some, that baptism, or the washing of the person or clothes, as a religious ceremony, commenced immediately after the deluge. St. Peter certainly speaks of baptism in connection with that great event: (1 Ep. iii. 20, 21,)—“While the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water: the like figure whereunto, even baptism, doth also now save us.” But, however this might be, we read of it at an early period. The first instance on record in Scripture of this washing as a preparation for God’s service, is probably that which is found in Genesis xxxv. 2. God had said unto Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make thee an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean , and change your garments ; and let us arise, and go up to Bethel, and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress.” The direction—“Be clean,” taken in connection with the change of their garments, did probably, among other things, mean the washing of themselves with water, as an emblem of the putting away of sin. Dr. Lightfoot understands by it Jacob’s admission of the proselytes of Shechem and Syria into his religion by baptism; because circumcision was become odious to them. The cloud which God spread over the Israelites for a covering, (Ps. cv. 39,) when they came out of Egypt, and their safe passage through the waters of the Red Sea, appear to have had reference to the same subject; for the Apostle Paul, in 1 Cor. x. 1, 2, thus writes;—“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 baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” Now if they were “baptized unto Moses,” (which baptism represented and confirmed their obligation to follow Moses as their leader, and to obey the instructions and laws which he should give them,) much more were they baptized and bound unto God: or rather, they were baptized and bound unto Moses, as the minister of God and the medium of communication between God and the people.