We take it as Wesley did, that “by one Spirit,” is by the _direction_
of one Spirit, we are all immersed into one body. It is clear that
the baptism alluded to is the initiatory rite, for there is no other
baptism _into one body_. The immersion in the Spirit is not _into one_
body, or _into_ anything. At the house of Cornelius they were immersed
into Christ after they had been immersed in the Holy Spirit. The
immersion in the Spirit was to convince Peter and his Jewish brethren
that God intended to receive the Gentiles as well as the Jews. Hence,
when Peter, in his rehearsal of the matter to his Jewish brethren, when
he came to this, exclaims, “What was I that I should withstand God?”
The “one baptism” of Paul is the initiatory rite—the baptism of the
Commission, connected with the faith and repentance for the remission
of sins, and will remain as long as there is one to believe, repent or
seek remission of sins. The faith, repentance, confession, immersion
and remission of sins stand connected in the gospel of the grace of
God, and we see not how any man can be so perverted as to try to evade
any one of these items.