The Principles of Christian Religion, Principle 5
¶Of Baptisme.
¶What Baptisme is.
BAptisme is the ordinaunce of Christ,Titus. … to washe eueryevery beleuing Christian with water, in the name of the father, and of the sonne, and of the holy ghost.
S. Paule calleth Baptisme, the fountaine of the new birth, and renuing of the holy ghost.
☜Probations out of the holy Scriptures.
All power is geuen vntounto me in heauen,Math. 28. and in earth. Goe ye therefore, and teach all nacions, baptising them in the name of the father, and of the sonne, and of the holy ghost: teaching thē to obserue all thinges, what soeuer I hauehave commaunded you.
Goe ye into all the world,Mar. xvj. and preach y• Gospell to eueryevery creature. He that beleueth, and is haptised, shall be saued: But he that beleueth not, shall be damned.
Except a mā be borne frō aboue,Iohn. iij. he can not see y• kingdome of God.
Uerily, verily, I say vntounto thee, except a mā be borne of water, and of y• spirite, he cānot enter into the kingdome of God. That which is borne of the fleshe, is flesh, and that which is borne of y• spirit, is spirite.
¶To what vse Baptisme was vsed.
First, to be a sure seale and an euident testimony vntounto vsus, that God the father, for his sonne Iesus Christes sake, hath freely forgeuen vsus all our sinnes, receaued vsus into hys fauour, and geuen vsus the holy ghost, by whō we are borne a new, not of mortall, but of immortall seede, by whom also we are made the sonnes and heyres of God, and through sayth, reckened pure and holy in hys godly sight.
☜Probations out of the holy Scriptures.
He that beleueth,Mar. xvj. and is baptised, shall be saued.
Repent you of your sinnes,Acte. ij. and be baptised eueryevery one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sinnes, and ye shall receaue the gift of the holy ghost.
Christ loued the congregation,Ephe. v. & gaue him selfe for it, to sanctifie it, and clensed it in the fountaine of water through the worde, to make it vntounto him self a glorious cōgregation, without spot or wrinckle, or any such thing, that it should be holy and without blame.
Not by the deedes of righteousnes,Titus. iij. which we wrought, but according to his mercy hath hee saued vsus by ye fountaine of the new birth, and renuing of ye holy ghost, which he shed on vsus abundantly, through Iesus Christ our Sauiour, that w… iustified by hys grace, should bee made heyres according to the hope of eternall life.
Baptisme saueth vsus,j. Pet. iij. not by the putting away of the filth of y• flesh, but in that a good conscience consenteth to God, by the resurrection of Iesus Christ, which is on the right hand of God, and is gone into heauen.
Secondly, to put vsus in remembrance, that for as much as we are become the souldiours of Christ, we ought so long as we liue, valiauntly to fight agaynst the deuill, the world, and the fleshe, to mortifie all vncleane lustes, to die vntounto sinne, and to rise againe new mē, bearing the image of Christ, and fashioning our conuersation and maners after his example, that we may learne the Lord our God in such holines and righteousnes, as is allowed before hym all the dayes of our life.
☜Probations out of the holy Scriptures.
know ye not,Rom. vj. that all we which are baptised into Iesus Christ, are baptised to die with hym? We are buried then with him by baptisme, for to dye, that likewise as Christ was raised from death by the glory of the father, euen so we also should walke in a new life. For if we bee graft in death like vntounto hym: euen so shall we partakers of the resurrection, knowing this, that our old mā is crucified with hym also, that the body of sinne might vtterly bee destroyed, yt hence forth we should not be seruauntes vntounto sinne. For hee that is dead, is iustified from sinne. Wherefore, if we bee dead with Christ, we beleue that we shall also liue with him.
All ye that are baptised,Gal…. iij. hauehave put on Christ.
Ye are buryed with Christ thorow baptisme,Coloss. ij. in whom ye are also risen againe thorow fayth, that is wrought by the operation of God, which raysed hym from death.
If ye then bee risen againe with Christ,Coloss. iij. seke those things which are aboue, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on heauenly thinges, & not on earthly thinges. For ye are dead, & your life is hid with Christ in God. When soeuer Christ, which is your life, shall shewe him selfe, then shall ye also appeare with hym in glory.