Reverend and Dear Sir,—You, sir, need no argument to convince you that WATER BAPTISM is the first ordinance, after faith and repentance, that initiates the believer into the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God is to be established upon the earth, according to the pattern of the heavenly order, which is the first principle taught in the memorable prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ, which prayer will be pertinent to all believers on earth, until the object of the prayer is fully achieved and the kingdoms of this world have universally become the kingdom of God. And if we were to search the kingdom of God from one end to the other, and from side to side, we should not find a single adult believer in the whole heaven, who had not been baptized with water.
Do you ask why I make such a bold declaration, and how I know this seemingly exclusive and uncharitable truth? I know it, sir, by the voice of God from the heavens, and this voice is to you as well as me, if you will receive it. Do not you believe the scripture that saith, "except a man be born of the WATER and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God?" I know that you believe this scripture, and am persuaded that your ingenuous mind will not seek to pervert it from its plain and obvious import.
Whatever an over-jealous mind may fear concerning the state of the penitent thief on the cross, and of devout and upright men that have lived and died in every age of the world, still let God's word be accounted true, and every man that gainsays it be esteemed a liar! No man ever puts on the uniform of Christ's followers, such as is worn by subjects of the kingdom of Christ, until he is "baptized into Christ" for "remission of sins." Hereby he "puts on Christ," When an ambassador of Christ finds a man or woman that heartily repents of his or her rebellion against the laws of Christ, he baptizes him unto repentance for "remission of sins." By the ordinance of baptism, the rebellious subject virtually says, I hereby signify to all men my repentance; and the lawful administrator as virtually says, on the part of Jesus Christ, whose Ambassador I am, (being called by revelation, and being authorized to act in his name and for him), I pronounce this person's sins remitted, according to his genuine repentance and faith in Christ.
Now, sir, what objection can there be for a man sent from God to remit sins by baptism, in the name and by the authority of the King of heaven? If Christ has power on earth to forgive and remit sins, may He not send forgiveness and remission by another, even by whom he will? And will not such a remission and forgiveness of sins be as valid as though He administered the ordinance of baptism himself? Undoubtedly it will be indisputably valid. And what ordinance is so beautifully significant as that which expresses both the penitence of the subject and the cordial acceptance of the Ruler and Lord?
Has not Jesus Christ a right to remit sins by baptism unto repentance? Who shall say that the penitent believer's sins are not remitted by baptism? Who shall lay any sins to his charge? Is it not God that justifies? Has not Christ died? Has he not a right to say who are fit subjects for baptism? Has he not a right to say by what ordinance sins shall be remitted? He has never said that repentance and faith shall secure remission of sins to any one without baptism. It is not in the power of any man or angel to find a license in the Bible to receive a person into the kingdom of God without baptism. Jesus Christ has never given any license, but, on the other hand. He has explicitly said, in the most unequivocal language possible, that NO MAN can "enter the kingdom" without water baptism, or being "born of the water."
Do you ask, if I call baptism a saving ordinance? I reply, that repentance and faith will not save any body in the kingdom of God without baptism. Some men, whose crimes are unpardonable in this world, may, and doubtless do, repent and believe; but they cannot be baptized for the remission of sins, nor forgiven "until the times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord in the restitution of all things." Righteous Noah was "saved by water;" and the apostle Peter, rehearsing the fact, says that baptism saved believers in his day in like manner.
You, sir, must be perfectly aware that Jesus Christ has said, by the mouth of his servant John, that BAPTISM constitutes no less importance of character than one of the THREE GREAT WITNESESS of adoption and citizenship into the kingdom of God on the earth—the SPIRIT, the WATER, and the BLOOD. These three bear witness on the earth and agree in one. One of these THREE performs the double office of bearing witness on the earth, and also of bearing record in heaven. Three witnesses appear to be requisite in order to prove our title good to a place in the kingdom of God; and the testimony of these THREE, and nothing less, is recorded in heaven by the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Who will dare to say that the THREE in heaven will accept of the testimony of the two witnesses on earth, when God has explicitly said that he requires the testimony of THREE, and nothing less?
Do we forget that all men are to be judged out of the books? And if the books show the absence of one WITNESS, and the consequent disagreement of the three before named, can that person that is thus deficient of testimony, stand acquitted from the books out of which he is judged? By no means! The THREE witnesses will agree in one; and when they agree, the Spirit will bear the testimony of the Water and the Blood to the recording angel, and these united with his own seal, will be placed on record until the books are brought forward for judging the nations of the earth.
Furthermore, no man can ever be born of the Spirit until he has first been born of the water. The Holy Ghost will never condescend to become the covenant-guide and instructor, and holy comforter of any one, until he has been baptized or born of water. Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye were baptized? Peter told penitent believers that they might receive the Holy Ghost after they were baptized; so said John the Baptist to those he baptized. If, in a single instance, the Holy Ghost was given before baptism, still it was no part of Christ's instructions to his apostles ever to confer the Holy Ghost until after baptism—and then it was to be done by the laying on of hands.