The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to him were unworthy of Baptism,
yet as there were exceptions, and as he could not search hearts, he
baptized them all. Nevertheless, he says: "Every tree which bringeth not
forth good" fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire. I, indeed, baptize you
with water, but He that cometh after me shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost, and with fire. Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly
purge His floor, and gather the wheat into His garner, but He will burn up
the chaff with unquenchable fire." When we look at these words in their
connection, remember the class of persons addressed, and notice how the
Baptist, in the way in which the word "fire" runs, fixes its meaning here,
nothing seems clearer than this, that John has in view not the work of the
Holy Spirit in the individual, but His great work in the mass, and not His
purifying power in those who are blessed by it, but His purifying power
shown in the removal and destruction of the evil. The wind created by the
fan descends alike upon the wheat and the chaff; both are alike baptized by
it, but with wholly different results. The purifying power of the air is shown
in both. It is a single act, indeed, which renders the wheat pure by
removing the impurity of the chaff. "You," says the Saviour to the
generation of vipers, "shall also be baptized with the Holy Ghost." His
work shall be to separate you from the wheat. You, too, shall be baptized
with fire; the fire which destroys the impurity which has been separated by
the Spirit. See also Luke iii. 9-17. The addition of the word "fire" marks,
with awful significance, what is the distinction of the Baptism of the
wicked; and such an idea, as that the children of God are baptized with
fire, is not to be found in the New Testament. The only thing that looks
like it is Acts ii. 3, where it is said, "There appeared unto them cloven
tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them," but the fire here was
symbolical of the character of the TONGUES of the Apostles, of the fervor
with which they glowed, and of the light which they shed, in the varied
languages in which they spoke. John spoke of the Holy Spirit and fire,
when he addressed those who were not to enter the kingdom of God.
When he addressed true disciples, he associated