Of the True Church of God, Its Origin, Progress, and Immovable Stability, Through All Times
Of Holy Baptism
Holy baptism is an external, visible ordinance, and its rite consists in this: that all those who hear the doctrine of the holy Gospel, believe it, and receive it gladly with a penitent heart, are baptized, for a holy purpose, with water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, according to the institution of Christ and the practice of His apostles. Acts 2, verse 41; Matthew 3, verse 11; Acts 1, verses 35 to 38; Acts 10, verse 48.
The benefit which the Lord God, on His part, declares through the sign of baptism is the washing away of the sinful corruptions of the soul through the shedding of the blood of Christ; which signifies the forgiveness of sins, obtained through this blood, for the assurance of a good conscience with God, by which believers comfort themselves with the promise of eternal salvation. Acts 22, verse 16; Colossians 1, verse 14; First John 1, verse 7; Hebrews 1, verse 3; Revelation 1, verse 5.
The obligations which baptism lays upon those baptized are these: that, burying their sins by it into the death of Christ, they bind themselves to the newness of the life of Jesus, so that, as members of the body of Christ (having put on Christ), each may employ his own gift for the maintenance and improvement of this body in spiritual and temporal things; and further, that as the true household of God, and citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, they must obey the civil laws of their King by observing all His commandments. Romans 6, verses 3 and 4; Colossians 2, verse 12; Galatians 3, verse 27; First Corinthians 12, verse 25; Ephesians 2, verse 19; Matthew 28, verse 20.