Acts 19:3

Acts 19:3. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? ‘ Unto what as the object of faith and confession then were ye baptized? ' for it is clear by your own words that you had not been baptized, to use your master John's own expression, ‘with the Holy Ghost' (see Matthew 3:11). St. Paul well knew that the faith of these disciples of the forerunner was at best but a very imperfect faith, and that the baptism of John was but an imperfect rite.

And they said, Unto John's baptism. They had been baptized into a faith in a coming Messiah a Messiah who was even then on the earth with a confession, too, of the necessity of repentance. But their knowledge of the effects of His sufferings, of the work of the precious blood, was very dim, very uncertain, and of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit they confessed that they knew nothing.