make them saints, but to the disciples who were
already converted and pardoned, to guide them into all truth, to endow
them with apostolic authority.

Jesus said to them, "Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come
upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all
Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Acts i,
8. So these disciples were converted and cleansed--saved before they
were baptized with the Holy Spirit.

There is no case in all the world's history of a sinner being baptized
with the Holy Spirit in order to his conversion from sin, or in order to
put him into Christ. These disciples who were baptized with the Holy
Spirit were by the same means qualified to fill the offices of apostles
and prophets--were guided into all truth--preached the gospel with the
Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, and that "gospel is the power of God
unto salvation, unto every one that believeth." Jesus said, "Go ye into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature; he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be
damned." Paul says, "Christ loved the church and gave himself for it
that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the
word." On Pentecost, when hundreds were convicted of their sins, and
said, What shall we do? the answer from the spirit of God was, "Repent
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
These all entered into Christ--the door, while those disciples who had
entered a good while before Pentecost were put into the offices of
apostles and prophets by the baptism of the spirit. No man should wait
to be _put_ into the open door, to be put into Christ, but should do as
all the disciples of Christ did in the days of Christ and of his
apostles--flee for refuge into an open door--not wait to be put in, but
enter. You can be saved in heaven without being put into the office of
an apostle or prophet, but you can not enter heaven without being
sanctified and cleansed. Will you come and enter by the Lord Jesus,
become a child of God by faith in Jesus Christ, being baptized into
Christ? Do you say this is not the way? Then, why? O, why should the
pages of this book of books be burthened with such things? Were those
disciples who received the baptism of repentance for the remission of
sins before Pentecost out of