EXPOSITION OF SCRIPTURE ON BAPTISM.
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| 1 Pet. iii. 21—(continued). | |
| Zuingli-Calvinists. | Socinians. |
| Whitaker de Sacr. ap. Gat. p. 109. "Faith is required in adults before Baptism, whence it is manifest that it is faith which saves us, not Baptism." | "us, not, &c.' mean but 'a Baptism saves us, but by Baptism, I mean, not the putting off of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience,' 'or a Baptism which is,' &c.? So certainly the author of the truly golden notes on the New
'* Testament in the Bible of Vatablus; as if he said, the Baptism whereby we are saved, is not a washing whereby the filth of the flesh is washed away, but the declaration of a right and faithful mind towards God, whereby the filth of the soul is washed away, as by water that of the body. This explanation of the passage being retained, it is from this plea manifestly false that Baptism saves us; so far from this assumption being confirmed by the testimony of Peter. Nor is it true that the Baptism of water saves us so far as that interrogation of a good conscience there takes place." |
| Eph. v. 26. | |
| Piscator, Thes. Theol. t. i. loc. 25. § 17. ap. Gat. p. 119. "By the washing of water. Baptism is not necessarily understood, since there may be understood blood compared to the washing of water." Zuingli de Peccato Orig. 0pp. t. ii. f. 121. v. "Baptism is sometimes taken for the blood or passion of Christ; in 1 Pet. iii., he meaneth not the washing of water, but Christ Himself, or His blood and death; so that the sign is taken for the thing signified. How absurd, then, any one, who contends, on account of certain expressions, that we are washed from sin by the water of Baptism! So, also, Eph v. and Rom. vi. are not to be taken to the letter." Ad Fridol. Lindov. t. i. f. 204. "God ordered, that he who | Crellius de Satisfact. Christi, Opp. t. iv. p. 167. "If the Apostle had meant by 'purifying' expiation or freeing from guilt, and the punishment of sin, he would not have made mention of the 'washing of water in the word,' but of 'blood,' wherewith Christ expiated us, as is customary in Holy Scripture; especially when so good an occasion was furnished by the mention of the death of Christ, the end of which he is explaining. But since he is speaking of the washing away and purifying of the wickednesses themselves, and of that Baptism, which, as Peter says (1 Pet. iii. 22), is 'not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the stipulation of a good conscience towards |
