True Christianity #670
670. The Washing Called Baptism Means a Spiritual Washing, Which Is the Process of Being Purified from Evils and Falsities and Therefore the Process of Being Regenerated
As we know from the statutes given through Moses, the children of Israel were commanded to wash. For example, Aaron had to wash before putting on his ministerial clothes (Leviticus 16:4, 24), and also before performing rituals at the altar (Exodus 30:18-21; 40:30-32). The Levites were commanded to do the same (Numbers 8:6-7), and so were people whose sins had made them unclean. They were said to be sanctified by washing (Exodus 29:1, 4; 40:12; Leviticus 8:6). Therefore to give people a place to wash, there was a "sea" made of bronze and many washbasins placed around the Temple (1 Kings 7:23-39). People were also told to wash their vessels, furniture, and household items such as tables, saddles, beds, plates, and cups (Leviticus 11:32; 14:8-9; 15:5-12; 17:15-16; Matthew 23:25-26).
[2] The washings just mentioned, and many other things like them, were commanded to and required of the children of Israel because the church that was established among them was symbolic in nature. It was designed to prefigure the Christian church that was yet to come. Therefore when the Lord came into the world, he abolished these symbolic acts, all of which were external in nature, and established a church with practices that were all internal in nature. The Lord dispelled the allegories and revealed the true forms themselves, like someone who opens a veil or a door and allows what is behind it not only to be seen but also to be entered into.
Of all the rituals that had existed earlier the Lord carried over just two, although together they contain everything of the internal church. Baptism took the place of the washings, and the Holy Supper took the place of the lamb that was sacrificed every day and the lambs that were killed for the celebration of the Passover [Exodus 12:3-6; 29:38-41; ].
1 Kings 7:23-39
23
He made the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and its height was five cubits; and a line of thirty cubits encircled it.
24
Under its brim around there were buds which encircled it, for ten cubits, encircling the sea: the buds were in two rows, cast when it was cast.
25
It stood on twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; and the sea was set on them above, and all their hinder parts were inward.
26
It was a handbreadth thick: and its brim was worked like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it held two thousand baths.
27
He made the ten bases of brass; four cubits was the length of one base, and four cubits its breadth, and three cubits its height.
28
The work of the bases was like this: they had panels; and there were panels between the ledges;
29
and on the panels that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubim; and on the ledges there was a pedestal above; and beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work.
30
Every base had four bronze wheels, and axles of brass; and the four feet of it had supports: beneath the basin were the supports molten, with wreaths at the side of each.
31
The mouth of it within the capital and above was a cubit: and its mouth was round after the work of a pedestal, a cubit and a half; and also on its mouth were engravings, and their panels were foursquare, not round.
32
The four wheels were underneath the panels; and the axles of the wheels were in the base: and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit.
33
The work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel: their axles, and their rims, and their spokes, and their naves, were all molten.
34
There were four supports at the four corners of each base: its supports were of the base itself.
35
In the top of the base was there a round compass half a cubit high; and on the top of the base its stays and its panels were of the same.
36
On the plates of its stays, and on its panels, he engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, according to the space of each, with wreaths all around.
37
In this way, he made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one form.
38
He made ten basins of brass: one basin contained forty baths; and every basin was four cubits; and on every one of the ten bases one basin.
39
He set the bases, five on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house: and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward, toward the south.
