who cleanseth us anew." We have a similar use of κaí in Tit. 3: 5: He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost."

Of a similar import is Eph. 5: 25-6: "Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water and by the word." Baptism is the inaugural rite of this life of purity. The words addressed to Saul corroborate this view of its design: "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins." To the same effect are the words of Peter: "Baptism (that is, the purification which it celebrates) doth save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God;" not the outward form, but the inward purity, both legal and actual, which assures us of God's approval.

Akin to the topic last illustrated, is the analogy between the deluge and the rite of baptism. "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth now also save us," says Peter. The deluge was a type of baptism. The human race had become irretrievably vitiated. Idolatry, bloodshed, and lust, not only held sway over the hearts of men, but had erected their trophies on every hill-top and in every grove. The prevalent moral pollution was such as no ordinary lustration could remedy. Accordingly, the miraculous power of God was exerted to an extent commensurate with the exigency. The fountains of the great deep were broken up. The bed of the sea was heaved up, and (according to Hugh Miller) the land itself was lowered and submerged beneath the rising tide of waters. The waves rolled over the offending land, and swept away its guilty inmates and the traces of their obscene idolatry. Then, after the deluge had purged the earth of its abominations, God raised the family of Noah, raised them as it were from the dead, and made them the source of a new life on earth, a life of purity and holiThe soul of man contracts a degree of moral defilement, so all-pervading, that it is ineradicable by any ordinary and natural influence. Accordingly, the power of God is put forth in an exertion of his miraculous energy. In con

version, the old life is destroyed and the traces of its defiling influence are swept away by the hand of God. In symbolic reference to this event, the waves of baptism flow over and close upon the being who is the subject of this moral change. His nature thus purified and an opportunity of fered for a new life, the believer saved, "as through water," commences a life of holiness and piety.

Nor would the teaching of the passage as to the import of baptism be changed, if we regard the deluge as symbolizing the destruction of the old and sinful world in the soul of man, and the establishment of the new world, in which holiness is predominant; and if we see baptism typified in the ark, which was the point of transition from the old world to the new.

The language of Paul, in 1 Cor. 10: 2: " And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea," has been thought to corroborate the view that baptism is consecratory. Such, however, is not its legitimate force. The allusion is designed to warn the Corinthians by the fate of the Israelites, who, though honored with sacraments as well as the church of later days, did not escape punishment for their subsequent ill-doing. There is no special emphasis upon "unto Moses." Those words merely make the allusion definite, by specifying the occasion of the event. Calvin says: "They were baptized in Moses, that is, under the ministry or guidance of Moses; for I take the particle eis to be used here, instead of ev." In accordance with this view, Calvin's version reads " in Mose;" the Vulgate," in Moyse,” and Luther's, "unter Mose," while many German translators unite upon "in Mose."

Upon the analogy between the event here alluded to and Christian baptism, Calvin says: "The Lord delivering the Israelites from the power and cruel servitude of Pharaoh, made a way for them through the Red Sea, and drowned Pharaoh himself, and the Egyptians, their enemies, who pursued and almost overtook them. In this manner, in baptism he promises and gives us a sign, to assure us that we are extricated and delivered by his power from the captivity of

Egypt, that is, from the servitude of sin; that our Pharaoh, that is, the devil, is drowned." "In the cloud there was an emblem of ablution; for, as the Lord there covered them with a cloud, affording them refreshment, that they might not faint and be consumed by the overpowering heat of the sun; so, in baptism, we acknowledge ourselves to be covered and protected by the blood of Christ, that the severity of God, which is indeed an intolerable flame, may not fall upon us." "Baptism promises us the submersion of our Pharaoh and the mortification of sin."

The analogy which Paul, in Rom. 6: 3, 4, and Col. 2: 12, has established between baptism and the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, confirms the same view. We observe, here, Christ dead, buried and risen. Here is Christ dead, no longer accessible to temptation, no longer sustained by mortal nourishment, no longer susceptible to bodily pain. Being thus dead, he is buried, not indeed in a graveyard, the abode of corruption and decay, but in a new tomb, wherein never man yet was laid; in a garden redolent with beauty, where each flower is swinging its odorous censer to the Son of God. But shortly the tomb reopens, and he is raised by the glory of God to a new life. He lives, yet he is just as insensible to the world and its temptations, just as little in need of its nourishment, as little affected by its injuries, as when he was dead. He has now a spiritual body, a glorified body, which bears, without injury, the ghastly wounds of the nails and the spear, the same body and the same likeness, in which he afterward entered Heaven, and now sits on the mediatorial throne.

Similarly, in conversion, man dies to the world, to sin, to temptation. The world vainly offers him its allurements or seeks to affright him by its terrors. In vain does the law utter its denunciations. He is dead to that wherein he was held. Being thus dead, he is buried; not indeed in a literal grave, but in the emblem and type of purity. The mystic grave closes upon him; but lo! while we gaze, the grave reopens, and he rises, raised by the glory of the Father, to walk with him in newness of life. He is now no longer of

the world, animated by its spirit, sustained by its nourishment, governed by its motives, pleased by its joys, or injured by the pains which it can inflict. He is insensible to all these. He has died to them. The life which he leads now holds the same relation to his former life that the spiritual body of Christ did to his former body. He leads a life of purity, of holiness, a life of which his state in Heaven will be but the continuation and the development, a life of which his baptism marked the initiation.

Nor ought it to be omitted that there is a most marked harmony between this view of the import of baptism and the mode in which, according to the highest authorities, the rite was administered in the apostolic age of the church. In the Article already referred to, allusion is made to the testimony of Neander and Bunsen, that immersion was the apostolic mode of baptism. Calvin says: "The word bap tize signifies to immerse, and it is certain that immersion was the practice of the ancient church." Conybeare and Howsen, on Rom. 6: 3, 4, say: 66 This passage cannot be understood, unless it be borne in mind that the primitive baptism was by immersion." We are warranted in expecting an analogy between the "invisible grace" and its "visible sign." Unless there be such a harmony, we cannot but feel that either our conception of the import of the rite, or our view of its form, is erroneous. But if we find them harmonizing, then the two, the form and the import of the rite, confirm and illustrate each other. There seems no special appropriateness in the apostolic mode of baptism, if conse cration was the leading idea of the rite. There seems a beautiful significance, if it be a rite of inauguration.

The above view of baptism might be still further illus trated and confirmed at great length. It is believed that a full examination of the Scriptural allusions to the rite would establish the fact that, while, in no instance, is consecration unmistakably put forward as its leading idea, every passage, when rightly viewed, presents baptism as initiatory. Extended citations might also be made, in support of the view here advanced, from authorities entitled to high regard.

But already the Article has exceeded the limits which it was designed to occupy. It may, however, be permitted to cite, in support of this view, a name, than which no higher uninspired authority can be urged, the name of Calvin. "Baptism is a sign of initiation;" "it is proposed to us by our Lord, first, as a symbol and token of our purification"; second, "it shows us our mortification in Christ and our new life in him;" third, "it affords us the certain testimony, that we are not only engrafted into the life and death of Christ, but are so united as to be partakers of all his benefits."

If the view taken in the above remarks is just, it renders needless any enquiries as to the proper subjects of this rite. The question is already answered. Can we with propriety baptize any save those who are now capable of an intelligent entrance upon the Christian life, those who are believed to have entered upon the new life, of which baptism is the inauguration?

ARTICLE IV.

HOMERIC IDEAS OF THE SOUL AND A FUTURE LIFE.1

BY JOHN PROUDFIT, D. D., PROFESSOR OF GREEK LITERATURE IN RUTGERS

COLLEGE.

Homer once more! Such was the title which Goethe prefixed to a short lucubration on the great poet, implying

1 Ueber die Bedeutung von yuxh und erowλov der Ilias und Odyssie, als Beitrag zu der Homerischen Psychologie. Von Dr. K. H. W. Voelcker, Giessen.

1825.

On the Signification of yʊxh and eïowλov in the Iliad and Odyssey. By Dr K. H. W. Voelcker. Giessen, 1825. Translated from the German by C. P. Mason, B. A. (Classical Museum, Vol. II.), 1845.

Die Homerische Theologie in ihrem Zusammenhange dargestellt von Carl Friedrich Naegelsbach, Professor am K. B. Gymnasium zu Nürnberg. Nürnberg im Verlage von Johann Adam Hein. 1840.

2 Homer noch einmal, Sämmt. Werk. Vol. XXVI. p. 356.