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baptized with the Holy Ghoft; and being baptized with the Holy Ghoft, in all other inftances, fignifies being baptized with the Holy Ghoft and with fire, as we thall fee prefently; and probably, therefore, fignifies the fame in the cafe of our Saviour. That he was baptized with the Holy Ghoft, after John Baptift had baptized him with water; or that the Holy Ghoft defcended on him after he came out of the water, all the evangelifts relate. The gofpels, indeed, make no mention of fire, or of any glory, yet it is most likely that it was a glory; in which the Holy Ghoft defcended in a bodily fhape, and with the hovering motion of a dove, and refted upon him. Juftin Martyr fays, that it came from the apoftles, that the fire came upon Chrift as he went into the water, and that the Holy Ghoft came upon him as he came out of the water'. By which means perhaps it was, that John Baptist knew Jefus when he went into the water, as it is plain he did, from his forbidding him, faying, "I have "need to be baptized of thee, and comest "thou to mem? Though we are told, that

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John knew him not; at least, knew not that he was the perfon that was to be baptized with the Holy Ghoft and with fire (which, perhaps, is the meaning of St. John in this * Matt. iii. 16. Mark i. 10. Luke iii. 22. John i. 32-35. Dial. cum Tryph, p. 31. Matt. iii. 14.

paffage

paflage of his gofpel); but by the fign that
God had given him, "that on whomsoever
"he fhould fee the Spirit defcending, he it
"was that should baptize with the Holy
"Ghost "." Which, according to the ac-
count of the evangelifts, did not happen till
after he came out of the water. This is the

account given in the gospel of the Ebionites or
Nazarenes, καὶ εὐθὺς περιέλαμψε τὸν τόπον φῶς
μέγα· ὃν ἰδὼν ὁ Ἰωάννης λέγει αὐτῷ, Σὺ τίς εἶ, Κύριε.
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But whether Jefus himself was baptized with
fire or no, yet he foretold what should hap-
pen to his difciples, juft before his afcenfion,
as John Baptift had done before.
Acts i. 4,5.
"And being affembled together with them,
"commanded them, that they should not de-
"part from Jerufalem, but wait for the
"promife of the Father, which, faith he, ye
"have heard of me. For John truly baptiz-
❝ed with water, but ye fhall be baptized
"with the Holy Ghoft, not many days
"hence." And when Peter found, that the
Holy Ghoft fell on Cornelius and his fami-
ly; or, as he fays in another place, that
"the Holy Ghoft fell on them as he did on

us (that is, us apoftles and our company) at the beginning (that is, with cloven "tongues like as of fire), putting no differ"ence between them and us ; then that

n John i. 31. 33.

P ibid. xi. 15..

O Acts x. 44. q Ibid. xv. 9.

"he

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"he remembered the word of the Lord, how "that he faid, John indeed baptized with "water, but ye fhall be baptized with the

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Holy Ghost." By comparing these texts, and particularly Matt. iii. 11. Mark i. 8. Luke iii. 16. together, it is fufficiently plain, that baptizing with the Holy Ghost, and baptizing with the Holy Ghost and with fire, are expreffions of the fame import and fignification; which it is of ufe on this occafion to obferve, and will be on others. It is likewise called, "the pouring out of the Holy Ghost," alluding to the plentiful effufion of it foretold in Joel, "I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, faith the Lord," Joel ii. 28. And the reafon of the phrafcology in Joel is the allufion to the plenty that Joel had juft before told the people that God would fend them, by means of the former and latter rain, ver, 23. and to the Spirit's being represented under the fymbol of water in other prophets, as Ifa. xliv. 3. xxxv. 7. lv. 1. xii. 3. Ezek, xxxvi. 25. John vii. 37-40. It is perhaps from the fame reason, that it is called the fhedding forth of the Holy Ghosts: or, perhaps, rather in allufion to the plentiful unction we have from the holy One, who was himself the "Anointed, being anointed with "the Holy Ghoft and with power; or with

Acts xi. 15, 16.
Ibid. x. 38.

• Ibid. ii. 23.

"the

"the oil of gladness above his fellows "." I am the more apt to think that the fhedding forth of the Holy Ghoft refers to this unction, becaufe St. Peter, in the very next verfe, plainly refers to the cxth Pfalm, where God is reprefented as fwearing to Christ, that he will conftitute, or that he had conftituted, him an High-prieft (which was done by pouring oil on him, and anointing him more plentifully than the other priefts w; which denoted the inward unction or fitness for his office) for ever after the order of Melchizedek *. On the whole, I apprehend, that nobody was faid to have the Holy Ghoft fall (which denotes his coming down in fome visible emblem, as fire), be poured forth, or shed down, on him, or to be "baptized with the Holy "Ghoft;" but he on whom the Holy Ghost fell immediately, and which I apprehend was always attended with this fymbol of cloven tongues, like as of fire. Every text favours this notion but I Cor. xii. 13. and that does not feem to be much against it.

Those who had this fingular honour and high privilege feem to have had a greater "illumination (perhaps in kind as well as degree) than thofe to whom it was imparted by laying on of the hands of the apoftles. For those who were baptized with the Holy

.W

Lev. xxi. 10.

u Heb. i. 9.
* See Bishop Patrick's Comment on Exod. xxix. 7.

Ghoft,

Ghost, or on whom the Holy Ghost fell, was poured forth, or fhed down, are faid in the Acts, to be "filled with the Holy Ghoft;" which, though it does not fignify a complete endowment with all gifts, or a full revelation of every thing they were ever to have revealed to them; for it is probable they received farther endowments; and it is certain they received farther revelations from time to time (as we fee in the cafe of the hundred and twenty, Acts iv. 23. 29-32, 33; in the cafe of Peter, who received a revelation to preach to the devout, and of Paul, who received a revelation to preach to the idolatrous Gentiles); yet fignifies a large and plentiful effufion of gifts, fufficient for what they were then to do; and fuch a great effufion or communication of them, as they could not contain within themselves, but which would overflow, and break out plentifully and powerfully for the unfpeakable benefit of others. Thus we find, "they were all filled with the

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Holy Ghoft, and began to speak with "other tongues, as the Spirit gave them "utterance.' So Acts iv. 31. where the Holy Ghost seems to have fallen on them a fecond time (for it is faid, the place was fhaken, most probably, by the found from heaven of a mighty rufhing wind, much ftronger, perhaps, than the gentler breeze

y Acts ii. 4.

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