14 son, yet the efficacy of it, after the manner of all signs, was but weak. For, First, It did not give the Spirit, not one drop of the Spirit; yea, some who were baptized with John’s baptism, did not know the way of the Lord perfectly ; that is, had no certain knowledge of Christ, the only way to God, as Apollos, Acts xviii. yea, some of them did not so much as know whether there were any Holy Ghost or no, as those twelve disciples, Acts xix. much less had received the Spirit. Secondly. Neither did it give repentance and remission of sin (for what was the plunging of a man in cold water towards repentance and remission of sin?) but these were the works of Christ’s own baptism, which is the baptism of the Spirit: for no man can repent of sin but by the presence of the righteousness of God in his heart, which is the work of that Spirit which is given in Christ’s baptism ; neither can any remit sin but God : our sins are never forgiven by God, till God dwells in us through Jesus Christ, by the work of the Spirit; so that repentance was given, and sin forgiven, but in hope only in John’s baptism, but really and truly in Christ’s, which was the real baptism of repentance and remission of sin. Thirdly. Neither did it give entrance into the kingdom of God; for the kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom, and no earthly or corporeal thing can give entrance into it: the baptism in the water of Jordan could deliver no man up into the kingdom of God, but the baptism in that river that makes glad the city of God, Psal. xlvi. 4. in that river clear as crystal, that proceeds from the throne of God and of the Lamb, which is the Spirit, which delivers up all that partake of it, first, into the kingdom of the Son, and after, through that into the kingdom of the Father. The baptism of John left men in that old world wherein it found them ; but the baptism of Christ delivers them up into the new world, or the kingdom of God. Now in all these regards, it appears that John’s baptism did not do the work of the baptism of the New Testament; for then that only had been sufficient, and there had been no need of Christ’s to come. And thus you see that the baptism of John, as it is
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