Kitabı oku: «A Bible History of Baptism», sayfa 21

Such were the testimonies with reference to which Jesus, after his resurrection, commanded his apostles to “wait for the promise of the Father, which ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” – Acts i, 4, 5. Of it, on the day of Pentecost, Peter said, “Being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.” – Acts ii, 33. What the promise was, Peter, here distinctly indicates. It was fulfilled in giving the Holy Spirit to the Lord Jesus, that he might of his royal prerogative shed down that Spirit upon his people.

The relation thus existing between the enthroned Mediator and the Holy Spirit, was very remarkably intimated by Jesus the night after the resurrection. He came to the assembled disciples with the salutation, – “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” – John xx, 21, 22. Thus by anticipation, he interpreted the gift of Pentecost, as an imparting to them of the Holy Spirit, which was now given to and dwelt in him, as his Spirit, the breath of his life.

Dr. Dale, in his invaluable treatises has overlooked the distinction here pointed out, between the endowment of the Spirit which Jesus enjoyed in the performance of his earthly ministry, and that which belongs to him as Baptizer on the throne. Discussing John i, 33, – which he translates, – “This is he that baptizeth by the Holy Ghost,” he says, “He upon whom the Holy Ghost descended and on whom he remained, ‘without measure’ was thus qualified for his amazing work, and qualified to be [‘o baptizōn en Pneumati Agiō] the Baptizer who was himself in the Holy Ghost, and being in the Holy Ghost was thereby invested with power to baptize by the Holy Ghost. – The Lord Jesus Christ —‘o baptizōn en Pneumati Agiō, – is ‘the Divine baptizer, being in the Holy Ghost.’… The passage is to be understood as announcing the peculiar character of the Lord Jesus Christ as baptizer. This is done by exhibiting him in a two-fold aspect: 1. As being personally en Pneumati Agiō. 2. As a consequence of being en Pneumati Agiō, being invested with the power of baptizing by the Holy Ghost.”⁷⁸– In another place he says, – “The original author of this baptism is the Lord Jesus Christ; the executive Agent is the Holy Ghost; the giver of the Holy Ghost is the Father… Does not the Dative and en announce the Agent in whom the power to baptize resides?”⁷⁹

1. The anointing of the Lord Jesus at his baptism did not qualify him as Baptizer. Else, neither He nor the apostles need have waited “for the promise of the Father,” which was fulfilled at the ascension, and demonstrated on Pentecost. (See Acts i, 4; ii, 33.)

2. As the water is the immediate efficient cause of the cleansing, in washing, so the Spirit is the immediate efficient cause of the grace wrought in the spiritual baptism. But to describe him as the executive Agent of that baptism, is the same error which should represent the water in that capacity, in ritual baptism.

3. Jesus was “in the Spirit,” that is under the pervasive influence and control of the Spirit, during his entire earthly life. But it was precisely herein that he filled the character of being God’s “righteous servant.” – Isa. liii, 11. It was characteristic of his humiliation, to be thus subordinate. But upon his exaltation, the order was reversed. It is no longer Christ in the Spirit, fulfilling the service and work appointed him. But it is the Spirit in Christ, subject to his control, speaking his words and doing according to the will of Jesus, the Lord. And Jesus does not baptize by the Holy Ghost doing it for Him, but “with the Holy Ghost,” as his Spirit and instrument; as he so clearly intimated, when he breathed upon his disciples and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”

Section LXIII. —Note, on the Procession of the Holy Spirit

In the year 325, the council of Nice condemned the heresies of Arius concerning the Son, and formulated the orthodox doctrine on the subject in what is known as the Nicene creed. In 381, the council of Constantinople, being assembled on account of the errors of Macedonius, concerning the Spirit, inserted into the Nicene creed a statement of doctrine concerning the Third Person, in which occurred the phrase, “which proceedeth from the Father.” About the year, 434, the council of Ephesus, being the third general council, as the before mentioned were the first and second, determined that no further addition should be made to this creed. Disregarding this decree, and without the sanction of any general council, the western or Latin church, about the end of the sixth century, silently interpolated the formula of Constantinople, so as to make it read, – “which proceedeth from the Father and the Son.” The resulting controversies became one cause of the division between the Latin and Greek churches. At the reformation, the Protestant churches generally, without discussion, accepted the Romish doctrine on the subject, and incorporated it into their doctrinal formularies.

In the foregoing discussion this theory is ignored, in favor of the primitive doctrine; for the following reasons:

1. The point in question is the essential and eternal procession of the Spirit. If there is one Scripture, referred to by any writer, or contained in the sacred volume, which even seems to describe such procession from the Son, it has not been my privilege to meet with it, in the course of a careful and long continued inquiry. The texts usually cited are, all of them, statements explicitly referring to the voluntary and temporal mission of the Spirit, coming into the world; and not to his essential procession, which is involuntary and eternal. They are John xv, 26; xvi, 7: Gal. iv, 6. “When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father.” – “If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” Will any one pretend that these passages refer to the eternal procession?

2. The language in which Jesus speaks of this procession as being from the Father seems designed to be adequate and exhaustive. “When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.” – John xv, 26. That the Father, specifically, is the one essential and peculiar source of the Spirit, is here doubly asserted, by the phrase, “whom I will send unto you from the Father;” and by the further expository statement, “which proceedeth from the Father.” Should James and John unite in writing a book, any one who in speaking of James should say that he wrote it, would be justly chargeable with carelessness of statement. But if the book itself and its authorship and origin are the subject of discussion, it could not be said, with any regard to truth and accuracy that “This book was written by James.” And, if the subject of the book were the life of John, and the statement were made that “This book was written by James, and gives the story of John’s life,” the omission, which previously might perhaps be accounted an inadvertence, assumes a character of falsehood and deceit. This, it seems to me, is a just parallel to the case which is made by the insertion of the filioque clause, making the procession to be from the Father and the Son. In the place in question, Jesus is speaking expressly of the Spirit, whom he describes with reference to his qualification to be a witness, on behalf of the Son. Had the whole thought of the passage been concerning the Father, and in describing him Jesus had said, “From him proceedeth the Spirit,” the declaration would seem scarcely reconcilable with a coincident procession from the Son. But when the Spirit, himself, and his qualification to be a witness on behalf of the Son, is the distinct subject of discourse, – the statement that “He proceedeth from the Father, and will testify of me,” utterly excludes a like procession from the Son. This conclusion is strengthened by the remarkable language on the same subject, uttered by the Lord Jesus upon another occasion. “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true… The works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me.” – John v, 31-36. Peter declares that “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good.” – Acts x, 38. Jesus here expressly certifies that the testimony thus by the Spirit given to his ministry was distinctively the Father’s testimony and not that of the Son, – a statement wholly irreconcilable with the supposition that the Spirit of witness who was the efficient author of those miracles proceeded alike from the Son and the Father.

3. The phrase, – “which proceedeth from the Father,” – is explanatory of the language immediately preceding. “When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father.” But why “from the Father,” since it is Christ that sends Him? Why not “from the Father and the Son?” Jesus gives the reason, – “Which proceedeth from the Father.” Either this indicates something peculiar and exclusive, or words are without meaning.

4. There is undoubtedly a voluntary and temporal bestowal of the Spirit by the Father upon the incarnate Son, a bestowal in virtue of which, he, as the Spirit of the Son, is by the Mediator breathed or shed upon his people. But if the doctrine in question is true, the Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son, sustains essentially and eternally the very same identical relation to each, and it would be just as impossible that he should be given by the Father to the Son, as on the contrary, by the Son to the Father. The fact that he is given to the Son shows conclusively that his relation to the Father is not only primary, but peculiar, a fact which is the express contradictory of the theory in question. In fact, by that theory the voluntary, temporal, and mediatorial mission of the Spirit, by the Son as incarnate, is necessarily and inextricably confounded with the eternal procession, which is essential and involuntary, the Scripture testimony on the subject is distorted and set at naught, and the whole subject involved in perplexity and confusion. These considerations, and especially the fact that there is not even a plausible pretense of Scriptural authority for the doctrine, lead me to its rejection.

Section LXIV. —The Baptism of Fire

Christ’s baptizing office is not all of grace. “He shall baptize you,” says John, “with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” John thus, in harmony with the Old Testament writers, from Moses to Malachi, sets forth two distinct functions to be exercised by the coming One; the one, of grace, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and the other, of justice and wrath, the baptism of fire. As this interpretation of John’s language is denied, and the two baptisms interpreted as signifying essentially one and the same thing, it is necessary to consider with some care the evidence on the subject.

1. John, as the context shows, is addressing himself in terms of earnest admonition to the Pharisees and Sadducees, and to the Jews, as infected with their leaven. (Compare Matt. iii, 7, and Luke iii, 7.) He warns them of the discrimination which the Lord Jesus was about to use, in the purging of his floor. He begins with the expostulation, “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” He proceeds to indicate that the time then current was one of threatening portent. “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees.” The safety of the righteous he leaves to silent implication; but emphasizes the doom of the wicked, – “Every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.” He then modifies the figure, with reference to his own baptizing office. “I indeed baptize you with water… But he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire;” and lest there should be any doubt, as to his meaning, he completes the sentence with an expository detail, – “whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” It is certainly very improbable that in a Scripture so closely knit together and consecutive, so pervaded with one spirit and intent, the baptist should have used the word, fire, at the beginning and end, as a vivid figure of the judicial wrath of Christ, and in the middle, change it, without notice or explanation, into a figure of his grace; and this, too, when the first and third clauses present every appearance of being parallel to, and expository of the second. The supposition that the baptism of fire, means an exercise of grace is, in fact, irreconcilable with the purpose of John’s whole announcement, and renders the passage contradictory to the context, and false to John’s mission and Christ’s office and work. This is the only clause in the connection in which John states in direct terms, to the Pharisees and Sadducees whom he is addressing, the office of Christ, as toward them distinctively. And if, while proclaiming in general terms, His judicial and executive functions, consuming the evil trees and burning up the chaff, he is to be understood as saying, – “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with his gracious influences,” the only justifiable conclusion would be that those self-righteous sectaries were the favorites of heaven, and had no reason to fear that day that should burn as an oven.

2. It is a mistake to suppose the figure of fire to be, in the Scriptures, arbitrary and variable in its signification. On the contrary, while constantly resorted to, as a figure of speech, and as a symbol, both real and ritual, it stands out with a meaning, fixed and invariable, – a meaning which springs out of its essential nature and its familiar phenomena and effects, and is incorporated in the language and institutions of the Word, by express divine sanctions. The two most conspicuous phenomena of fire are its consuming power, and the torture which its contact inflicts upon sentient beings. Hence, with constant reference to the final fiery day, it is everywhere employed as the appointed symbol of the divine wrath, arrayed against sin. In this character, it appears in such real symbols as the flaming sword of the cherubim, at Eden’s gate, – the fire of God which was rained down upon the cities of the plain, thus “set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 7), and the fire in which God descended on Mount Sinai. In the same sense was the ritual use of fire which continually burned on the altars of the Old Testament, from the beginning of man’s history, to the desolation of Jerusalem. Thus, as conspicuous as were the temple, and the altar, and incorporated in the very heart of the ritual system, was this symbol of God’s avenging wrath, the fierceness of fire. As a figure of speech, it is constantly used to express the inflicted wrath of God. And, in fact, it is never employed in any sense incongruous to this. It is true, that processes which are dependent on the use of fire are sometimes employed as symbols of the manner in which the divine grace is exercised. Says Malachi, – “He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap; and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver.” – Mal. iii, 2, 3. But, even here, the fire is not the Spirit, but the inflictions which the Savior employs and which by the Spirit he sanctifies to his people. Of this we have the divine certificate. “I have refined thee; but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” – Isa. xlviii, 10. But, while the figure is thus used, and while it is further true, that phenomena of fire, such as light, and heat, are used as figures of particular graces, it may with confidence be asserted that fire, itself, is never employed to represent the Spirit or his fruits.

3. It is impossible, here to examine all of the multitude of passages in which the figure occurs. It will be sufficient to notice those which are most commonly appealed to in proof of such use as is here denied. On the words of John, Dr. Addison Alexander thus remarks: – “With fire, – not the fire of divine wrath, as in verse 10; but the powerful and purifying influences of the Spirit; so described elsewhere. (See Isa. iv, 4; lxiv, 2; Jer. v, 14; Mal. iii, 2; Acts ii, 3.)⁸⁰ Other writers add Isa. vi, 6; Zech. xiii, 9; 1 Cor. iii, 13, 15. These are the most pertinent passages referred to, in support of the exegesis given by Dr. Alexander. How entirely perfunctory and really inapposite these references are, appears in the fact that of the places cited by Dr. Alexander two occur in the prophecy of Isaiah, and one in the Acts of the Apostles, on which books the church is enriched with commentaries from the pen of that distinguished divine; and that in those commentaries he, in every instance, ignores and excludes the interpretation implied in his above-cited references. Thus; Isa. iv, 4, – “the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning,” he explains as “the judgment and burning of the Holy Spirit, with a twofold allusion to the purifying and destroying energy of fire; or rather, to its purifying by destroying; purging the whole by the destruction of a part, and thereby manifesting the divine justice⁸¹ as an active principle.” In Isa. lxiv, 2, the figure of the ebullition of water, represents the agitation of the ungodly nations in the presence of God’s justice, delivering and avenging Israel; and so it is expounded by Alexander. “O that thou wouldst rend the heavens, that thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence; as when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence.” In Isa. vi, 6, the cherub takes a coal of fire from off the altar, and applies it to the lips of the prophet, saying, “Lo! this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” It would seem evident, that, by the coal from off the altar, is meant the atoning merits of the Lord Jesus, of whose sufferings the fire of the altar was the appointed symbol. Or, if the language be interpreted of the golden altar of incense, the fire of which was kindled from the altar of burnt offering, the meaning is the sweet savor of Christ’s intercession grounded on the merit of his sufferings. By no legitimate exegesis can it be made to mean, the Spirit of God. Jer. v, 14 needs only to be recited. “Behold I will make my words in thy mouth, fire, and this people, wood; and it shall devour them.” The destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and the captivity of the land, in fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy, sufficiently expound this language. Remarks already made are sufficient as to the next citation: – Zech. xiii, 9. “I will bring the third part through the fire and will refine them, as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried.” With this, the interpretation of Mal. iii, 2, is identical. The reference to Acts ii, 3, looks to the “cloven tongues like as of fire,” of the day of Pentecost. But, we shall presently see that not burning but brightness, – illumination as of a lamp was the phenomenon of that day. Says the Psalmist, “The entrance of thy word giveth light.” The day of Pentecost was, to the nations, the entrance of God’s word, – the beginning of the gospel; and its appropriate symbols were tongues of light and voices of praise in many languages. As little pertinent is the next passage: 1 Cor. iii, 13-15. – “Every man’s work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it; because it [the day], shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is… If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by (dia, through) fire;” – that is, – “so as passing through the fire, with a bare escape.” That fire here means the judicial and punitive agencies of the last great day, in the discovery and punishment of sin, is clear.

Such are the most pertinent Scriptures to which I find reference made, to prove that, by fire, John meant, the Holy Spirit, or his gracious influences. That they wholly fail to establish the point, is evident; and a further independent examination induces the conviction that no others more pertinent are to be found.

4. A comparison of the four evangelists on the language of the baptist strongly confirms the interpretation here maintained. Mark and John, in giving account of the baptist’s preaching, direct attention more particularly to the gospel aspect of his mission; as he was the herald of the atoning Lamb of God. Neither of them, therefore, mentions his impressive warnings to the Pharisees and Sadducees, respecting the trees cast into the fire and the threshing floor purged by burning. And, while they both record the testimony of John concerning Jesus, as he that should baptize with the Holy Ghost, they are both silent as to the baptism of fire. (Mark i, 8; John i, 33.) But Matthew and Luke enter more into the sterner aspects of John’s office, as coming in the spirit and power of Elias, to announce judgment as well as mercy. They both, therefore, report his words of warning to a generation of vipers, words which the others omit. They both tell of the axe laid to the roots of the trees, and the threshing floor purged with fire; and both of them interpose between these passages the announcement of the two baptisms, “with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” The omissions of Mark and John, and the harmony of Matthew and Luke show that the baptism of fire belonged to the judicial and avenging aspect of Christ’s mission, as emphasized by the latter evangelists, but only lightly touched by the others.

5. The inseparable relation of these two functions of Christ’s office as the enthroned Son of man is certified in all the Scriptures. It is prominent in those which had immediate relation to the coming of John, and the purposes of his ministry. We have seen this, as to the first announcement made of the Angel of the covenant, to Israel at Sinai. On the one hand, he was described as the Guide and Deliverer, who should bring them into the promised land. On the other, they were warned to “Beware of him… Provoke him not; for he will not pardon.” – Ex. xxiii, 20, 21. In the second Psalm, the terrors of the Son are almost exclusively signalized, in warning to the rebellious nations. “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, O ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” Especially does Malachi emphasize Christ’s two contrasted functions. A careful examination of the third and fourth chapters of that prophecy, particularly the latter, will satisfy the intelligent reader that not only do they contain John’s commission, as the forerunner of Christ, but give the keynote and substance of his preaching. He is there announced as the Lord’s herald, to go before the face of the Messenger of the covenant, who is described as coming to execute two opposite but inseparable functions. On the one hand, he is to be the refiner and purifier of the sons of Levi; on the other, a swift witness and avenger against the wicked. (Mal. iii, 2-5.) Particularly did John have in his mind the fourth chapter, the first verses of which are thus given in the admirable translation of Dr. T. V. Moore. “For behold! the day comes! burning like a furnace! and all the proud, and all the doers of evil are chaff! and the day that comes burns them, saith Jehovah of hosts, who will not leave them root nor branch. And then shall rise on you the sun of righteousness, and healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and leap as calves of the stall. And ye shall trample down the ungodly; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet, in the day which I make, saith Jehovah of hosts.”⁸² The “stubble” of Malachi and the “chaff” of John refer to the same thing. The threshing floor was a spot in the field which was beaten hard and smooth. The grain was threshed by the treading of cattle, or by dragging over it “a sharp threshing instrument with teeth.” The process of winnowing with the fan separated the grain into one heap, and the broken straw or “stubble” and “chaff” into another. To clear the floor, the latter were burned. From this custom was derived the vividness and beauty of the prophet’s imagery. He represents the wicked as thus separated and consumed, and the righteous, like calves let forth from the stalls in the brightness of the morning, skipping over the fields where the threshing floor lay, and thus treading among and trampling under foot the ashes of the wicked. Compare Rev. vi, 10; xi, 18; xv, 3, 4. It was with a view to the portentous character of the day thus described, that Malachi announces the commission of John to preach repentance to Israel. “Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of that great and dreadful day of the Lord.” From the prophecy, which sets forth in such vivid colors, the tremendous issues depending on his ministry, John derived the imagery of his own warning, which is, in fact, a running paraphrase of Malachi.

“Behold,” says Malachi, “the day cometh.” “It is now immediately at hand,” says John. “It shall burn as an oven,” says the prophet, “and all the proud and all that do wickedly … the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” John responds: “The axe is laid at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.” Says Malachi, “All the proud and all that do wickedly shall be chaff, and the day that cometh shall burn them up.” John repeats and develops the figure. “Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Thus thoroughly are the thought and language of John imbued with the conceptions and imagery of the prophet, concerning “that great and dreadful day of the Lord,” the description of which derives all its vividness and terror from the manifest and accepted meaning of fire, as an intense figure of God’s consuming wrath. In the presence of these facts, the supposition is at once incredible and revolting that, into the very midst of the prophet’s tremendous portraiture of that fiery day, with the awe and dread of which he had so successfully striven to fill the imaginations and the hearts of his hearers, – John should have injected, abruptly, and without the shadow of explanation or reason, a phrase, in which the same figure is employed in a sense wholly foreign to that in which it is used by Malachi, – foreign to its ordinary meaning in the Scriptures, and to the whole spirit and tenor of the connection alike of the prophet, and of the baptist.

The words of John are, in themselves incapable of being forced into coincidence of meaning. “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” Here are two distinct affirmations connected by the copulative, “and.” The latter, uttered through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, purports, upon the face of it, to be additional to the former. And the more critically it is examined, the more thoroughly it will be found to vindicate that character. It can not be a mere repetition. It can not be explained as interpreting the first clause. What then does it mean, but to announce a baptism of fire, in addition to the baptism of the Holy Ghost? – a baptism of justice and wrath, as well as one of renewing and grace?

Appeal is sometimes made to phraseology employed by the Lord Jesus, in his interview with Nicodemus, as being similar in construction. – “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God.” – John iii, 5. But the resemblance disappears, upon a moment’s examination. With Nicodemus, our Savior first employs the ritual figure of water, which was or should have been familiar to the Jewish ruler. But then, to avoid the possibility of mistake on a point so vital, he explains himself literally by naming the Holy Spirit, of whom water was the symbol. But, in the words of the baptist, the Spirit is first named, in literal terms, which neither needed explanation, nor could be made clearer by it. But the second clause is a supposed explanation of that which needs none; an explanation less intelligible than the words to be explained, – an illustration by a figure, used in a sense directly the reverse of its familiar meaning in the Scriptures, the meaning in which it is used in the same immediate connection, both before and after the clause in question, – an illustration, therefore, at once obscure and embarrassing, shedding no ray of light upon the subject, but involving it in darkness, and turning to weakness, not to say, platitude, the stern energy of the baptist’s warning cry. “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with his gracious influences.”

Whilst the interpretation in question is without precedent or authority in the Scriptures, the arguments in its behalf are of no appreciable force. First, it is said to be “harsh” to understand the baptism of fire to mean Christ’s judicial administration as toward the wicked. As I must confess myself unable to understand the meaning and force of this argument, if argument it be, I leave it without note or comment. Another plea assumes the form of assertion that “the idea of baptism does not admit of any reference to punishment.”⁸³