SHADOW AND SUBSTANCE

By William Huntington

Clean water is sprinkled upon us, and we are clean. We are baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire, and all baptism short of this is washing the outside of the cup and the platter, and amounts to no more than carnal washing. It is not the washing away the filth of the flesh, but a purgation from guilt and a testimony by the Spirit to our justification and adoption, that is, the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, through whom, and by whom the Spirit comes. . . . Some Jews say there are 313 laws, and others tell us there are 613. If there be 6,000, I will be bound to prove that the whole of them in their spiritual sense and meaning, except the law of divorce, are couched in the text—”Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.” The law made nothing perfect, and makes nothing perfect; but the Spirit is God, and His work is perfect, and the bringing in of a better hope makes us perfect and complete in that hope.”