22 but I must decrease that is, the truth must cat out the ceremony, and the substance the sign, and the more his ministry and baptism come in, mine shall go out; and the ministry of the Son shall swallow up the. ministry of the servant, as the sun-light doth the moon-light; and the baptism of fire shall devour the baptism of water ; and his Spirit baptism by degrees shall put an end to my water baptism : and therefore Paul, as you have heard, after he had used this baptism twice or thrice, quite forbore it and yet planted many churches of Christ; and so probably by degrees did other apostles too ; for they knew that Christ’s baptism included John’s, and was fully sufficient of itself without it; and therefore we find Paul teaching in Christ’s kingdom but one baptism, and this the baptism of the Spirit, Eph. iv. from which the church of the New Testament, both Jews and Gentiles, was to take its beginning, and not from outward elements or water washing. Wherefore seeing these things arc so, the Anabaptists have extremely mistaken, who have made their water washing so essential a work of the New Testament, that they would neither hear the word, nor have Christian communion with any one that was not so washed; yea, though they were convinced touching them, that they had received the Spirit: this, I say, hath been the great errour of very many honest and well-meaning people, through misunderstanding the tvord, to make washing with material water so necessary a thing in spiritual worship ; yea, and more essential to the communion of saints, than the very Spirit itself; whom I do not therefore judge, but pity. And thus much for water baptism, which was John’s, and belonged only to that middle ministry, betwixt the prophets and Christ. Now the other baptism I am to speak of, is Christ’s, which is Spirit or fire baptism ; and this is the one and only baptism of the New Testament, as we find Paul affirming, Eph. iv. 4, 5. where he saith, that in Christ’s kingdom there is but one body and one Spirit, and one hope of our calling, and one Lord, and one Faith, there is also but s? one Baptism; and this is the bap
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