My thought has always been to connect baptism ecclesiastically with the house, one of the two characters of the assembly. (Eph. 1; 2, and elsewhere.) As a general thing, the house and the kingdom now have the same limits, though not strictly; so that I have not made any difficulty about people saying it, but the ideas are quite different. I was not aware of having connected baptism with the kingdom; I have never published anything upon it, but carefully abstained from it. Some private letters were privately printed. I have used Matt. 18 as showing the way the Lord recognized little children as objects of divine favor, and that of such was the kingdom, and thus giving a warrant for our receiving them, as also the children being holy in 1 Corinthians; but not as speaking directly of baptism, only that was one way of so owning them. The house itself is only a figure, though a scriptural one, as where the Holy Ghost dwells. The Quakers as to formal order are not in the house, but that does not hinder the sovereign pleasure of God, as in the case of Cornelius—thereupon he was received: but baptism is only the formal and orderly entrance into the place of privilege. The hundred and twenty were never baptized at all, that scripture speaks of, and could not be.
I do not believe that 1 Cor. 15:5353For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:53) speaks of two classes. "This mortal," speaks of the body, but as connected livingly with the soul, and corruptible as its nature when not kept alive, but in neither aspect fit for glory, where an undying and incorruptible body alone is fitting.
As to John 17 I apprehend that "I have manifested thy flame" is the revelation of the Father's name, never before known. It never was till the Lord came. Before that it was Almighty with Abraham, and Jehovah to Israel. The name of Father belonged to another world, and in Christ brought eternal life: the making known at the end [ver. 26] is something more intimate. It refers to the world not knowing the Father, to whom in righteousness the Son appeals, as man down here (He had said "Holy Father" to the disciples); and Christ had known Him, and walked perfectly according to all that He was to Him In making known the Father's name to them, He had associated them with the blessing contained in it. He had done it while with them on earth, and should continue to make known to them His Father's name, as He had known it as man down here, that the love the Father had loved Him with might be in them, and He in them. And this last is the present time. He had done it (little as they understood it) while here; He does it [now] when through the Holy Ghost we can apprehend and enjoy it.
London,
October 25th.