| 322 so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be distroyed [destroyed], that henceforth we should not serve him.' It appears from the context, that the ordinance of baptism was instituted as a type, or figure, to represent the burial and resurrection of our Savior. Immersion is certainly a correct figure, and represents his burial and resurrection exactly. It is a better symbol of it, at all events, than the symbol of sprinkling.-For we ask all common sense, how a man can be 'baptized into Jesus Christ,' 'baptized into his death,' be 'buried with him by baptism into death,' in a single drop or even a bucket of water. It is an impossibility. In order to represent this matter as the apostles intended, according to the language and fair construction of the context, the officer who administers, together with the candidate, must go 'down both into the water,' as did Philip and the eunuch and the body of the candidate must be immersed, or buried in the water. The body must be covered or overwhelmed by the liquid wave. To illustrate; if you place a corpse upon the brink of a grave, above the surface of the earth, and throw a shovel of dirt upon the coffin, will it bury him? Again, if you place a candidate for baptism upon the margin of a stream, above the surface of the water, and sprinkle a gill of water in his face, will he be 'buried with him,' in the 'likeness of his death?' The answer must be emphatically in the negative. And then the act of raising the body of the candidate from the bowels of the limpid tide, is an exact and sublime representation, or 'likeness of his resurrection.' O, wisdom!-how has your understanding become darkened, that you cannot understand the simple things of the kingdom of God! 'Blind leaders of the blind!' Instead of walking up before the great mirror of heavenly intelligence, (the Bible) and letting the full blaze of truth, of light, and gospel beauty, reflect upon your souls, you grope your way through a vast domain of darkness and error, and your understanding becomes lost in the sable labyrinths of your own folly and ignorance. In the language of the scripture, you 'look through a glass darkly.' Again, the apostle says, Col., II: 12; 'Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.' This passage renders it so plain that comment is not necessary. 1st Col., X: 1, 2; 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.' We conclude there would not have been much necessity for sprinkling, in the case cited here. As a matter of course they were not sprinkled, for the apostle says they were all baptized in the sea. When men learn the force and meaning of the English language, they will learn that they cannot be IN the sea without being beneath the surface of it. How can a man be in a house without being within its walls and beneath its roof? But some will contend that a person can be in the sea without being entirely buried from sight by its water. We conclude that when the apostle talks of a man, he means the whole body of a man, and not a particular limb or member of the body. It takes all the members of the body to form the man, therefore, if you cover the hand or foot in water, the man is still above the surface, consequently, he has not been in the water at all. So, if you baptize the forehead, or hand of an individual, his forehead or hand alone has been 'buried in baptism,' and all other members of the body remain unburied; consequently the individual has not been baptized, because the burial was not complete. The similitude of the death and resurrection of the Savior is imperfect. As the whole body of Christ was buried in the tomb of and resurrected therefrom, so must the whole body of the candidate be buried in the waters of baptism and raised therefrom. Otherwise there is an imperfect representation. These arguments, we anticipate will be conceded to by all. Why? Because they are just such common sense arguments as reason will suggest to the mind of every reasonable man. Heb., X: 22; 'Let us draw near with a true heart, in assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.' The apostle mentions sprinkling here, but his meaning is clearly defined. It only extends to the sprinkling of the heart, and when he comes to speak of the way the body is to be regenerated, he washes it with 'pure water.' AS to sprinkling the heart with water, every person of sense, who understands the formation of the human system, knows this would be an impossibility; consequently we infer that the apostle alluded to the heart's being sprinkled in some other way. How it is, we do not pretend to say. No doubt the apostle understood himself, and whenever he expresses himself in a manner at all ambiguous, we are disposed to leave the spiritualizing machine of the sectarian world, to root out the mystery. At all events there is no authority here for sprinkling the body for the body is to be washed with pure water.
After this array of incontestible [incontestable] proofs, we
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