But among the
thousands, whom in all probability he baptized with the Holy Spirit
among the Corinthians, it does not appear, that there were more than the
members of the three families of Crispus, Gaius, and Stephanus, whom be
baptized with water.
[Footnote 177: 1 Cor. I. 14, 15, 16.]
But still it is contended, that Paul says of himself, that the baptized.
The Quakers agree to this, but they say that he must have done it, in
these instances, on motives very different from those of an
indispensable Christian rite.
In endeavouring to account for these motives, the Quakers consider the
Apostle Paul as not in the situation of Peter and others, who were a
long time in acquiring their spiritual knowledge, during which they
might be in doubt as to the propriety of many customs; but as coming, on
the other hand, quickly and powerfully into the knowledge of Christ's
kingdom. Hence, when he baptized, they impute no ignorance to him. They
believe he rejected water-baptism as a gospel ordinance, but that he
considered it in itself as an harmless ceremony, and that, viewing it in
this light, he used it out of condescension to those ellenistic Jews,
whose prejudices, on account of the washings of Moses and their customs
relative to proselytes, were so strong, that they could not separate
purification by water from conversion to a new religion.
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