Scripture view of the Influence of the Sacraments.

I. The plan of salvation, revealed in God’s word, presupposes that, man is a fallen creature, depraved in nature and practice,—­that all men are rebels against the righteous government of God, lying under his righteous displeasure, and morally disqualified for heaven.  And also, that without holiness no man shall see the Lord! [Note 2] “That which is born of the flesh, is flesh,” is sinful, and except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” [Note 3] Consequently, without a new-birth, an entire moral renovation, in which the rebel lays down the arms of his rebellion, and the slave of sin is delivered from the dominion of his depraved habits, and becomes an obedient servant of Christ, loving holiness and delighting in the service of God, it is impossible for him to obtain pardon or to be justifled.

II.  The grand means by which the Holy Spirit effects this moral reformation, is divine truth, either oral, written or symbolic.  “Go ye into all the world, says the Saviour, and preach the gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is baptised, shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.”  Here preaching the “gospel,” the truths of God’s word, is placed foremost in the list of instrumentalities, and baptism is only appended as a rite to be performed after the Holy Spirit, through the preached word, has wrought faith in the hearer’s soul.  But faith presupposes regeneration.  Hence, as truth is the instrumentality employed by the Holy Spirit in the production of regeneration, and faith, as baptism is to be added after the great moral change, conversion has been effected in adults, it follows that the truth or word is the grand and principal means of grace, and not secondary to baptism.

In other passages the mission of the apostles is characterized as a mission to preach, and baptism is not even named at all.  Jesus ordained the twelve, we are told, that they might be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, &c.; Mark iii. 14, 15.  And Paul even thanks God, in his epistle to the Corinthians, [Note 4] that he had baptized none of them save Crispus and Caius, and adds:  “For Christ sent me, not to baptise, but to preach the gospel.”  Paul, therefore, certainly regarded preaching as far more important than baptism.  Of the apostles, Luke informs us, they daily in the temple and in every house, ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ; Acts v. 41, 42.  And in order to gain more time for their great work, they appointed deacons to attend at tables, that they might give themselves “continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word,” but they say nothing of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  Paul expressly tells the Romans (x. 13-15,) that faith comes by hearing (not by baptism); and to the Corinthians he says,