London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689):
1. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus
Christ, to be unto the party baptized, a sign of his fellowship with him, in
his death and resurrection; of his being engrafted into him; of remission of
sins; and of giving up into God, through Jesus Christ, to live and walk in
newness of life.
2. Those who do actually profess repentance towards God, faith in,
and obedience to, our Lord Jesus Christ, are the only proper subjects of this
ordinance.
3. The outward element to be used in this ordinance is water,
wherein the party is to be baptized, in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
4. Immersion, or dipping of the person in water, is necessary to
the due administration of this ordinance.
A Brief Confession of the Principal Articles of the Christian
Faith (c. 1580)
Prepared by John de Rys and Lubbert Gerrits, Ministers of the
Divine Word among the Protestants who, in the Belgian Confederacy, are called
Mennonites.
. . . .
ARTICLE
XXXI.
OF
EXTERNAL BAPTISM.
Holy Baptism is an external, visible and evangelical action, in
which, according to Christ’s precept (a) and the practice of the apostles (b),
for a holy end (c), are baptized with water in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy spirit, those who hear, believe and freely receive in a
penitent heart the doctrine of the holy gospel (d); ; for such Christ commanded
to be baptized, but by no means infants.
ARTICLE
XXXII.
WHAT
BAPTISM SIGNIFIES INTERNALLY.
The whole action of external, visible baptism places before our
eyes, testifies and signifies that Jesus Christ baptizes internally (a) in a laver
of regeneration (b) and renewing of the Holy Spirit, the penitent and believing
man: washing away, through the virtue and merits of his poured out blood, all
the spots and signs of the soul (c) and through the virtue and operation of the
Holy Spirit, which is a true, heavenly (d), spiritual and living water,
[washing away] the internal wickedness of the soul € and renders it heavenly
(f), spiritual (g) and living (h) in true righteousness and goodness. Moreover
baptism directs us to Christ and his holy office by which in a glory, he
performs that which he places before our eyes, and testifies concerning its consummation
in the hearts of believers and admonishes us that we should not cleave to external
things, but by holy prayers ascend into heaven and ask from Christ the good
indicated through it [baptism] (i) : a good which the Lord Jesus graciously concedes
and increases in the hearts of those who by true faith become partakers of the
sacraments. (William Joseph McGlothlin, Baptist Confessions of Faith [Philadelphia:
American Baptist Publication Society, 1911], 26, 42-43)
The Confession of Faith, Of those Churches which are commonly (though
falsely) called Anabaptists (London, 1644):
XXXIX.
That Baptisme is an Ordinance of the new Testament, given by
Christ, to be dispensed onely upon persons professing faith, or that are
Disciples, or taught, who upon a profession of faith, ought to be baptized.
XL.
The way and manner of the dispensing of this Ordinance the Scripture
holds out to be dipping or plunging the whole body under water it being a
signe, must answer the thing signified, which are these: first, the washing the
whole soule in the bloud of Christ: Secondly, that interest the Saints have in
the death, burial, and resurrection; thirdly, together with a ‘confirmation of
out faith, that as certainly as the body is buried under water, and riseth
againe, so certainly shall the bodies of the Saints be raised by the power of
Christ, in the day of the resurrection, to reigne with Christ. (Ibid., 185)
An Orthodox Creed, or A Protestant Confession of Faith, Being an
Essay to Unite and Confirm All True Protestants in the Fundamental Articles of
the Christian Religion, Against the Errors and Heresies of Rome (1679):
XXVIII.
ARTICLE.
Of
the right subject and administration of holy Baptism.
Baptism is an ordinance of the new testament, ordained by Jesus
Christ, to be unto the party baptized, or dipped, a sign of our entrance into the
covenant of grace, and ingrafting into Christ, and into the body of Christ,
which is his church; and of remission of sin in the blood of Christ, and of our
fellowship with Christ, in his death and resurrection, and of our living, or
rising to newness of life. And orderly none ought to be admitted into the visible
church of Christ, without being first baptized, and those which do really
profess repentance towards God, and faith in, and obedience to our Lord Jesus
Christ, are the only proper subjects of this ordinance, according to our Lord’s
holy institution, and primitive practice; and ought by the minister, or
administrator, to be done in a solemn manner, in the name of the father, son,
and holy ghost, by immersion or dipping of the person in the element of water;
this being necessary to the due administration of this holy sacrament, as holy
scripture sheweth and the first and best antiquity witnesseth for some
centuries of years. But the popish doctrine which they teach and believe, that
those infants that die without baptism, or have it not actually, or in desire,
are not, nor cannot be saved, we do not beheve. Nor yet their practice of
admitting persons only upon an implicit faith of the church, nor their superstitious
and popish ceremonies of salt, and spittle, and breathing on the face of the
party baptized, together with their chrisoms and hallowed lights. Neither do we
believe, that infants dying in infancy, without baptism, go to purgatory or
limbus infantum, as they erroneously teach. Nor do we believe, that the Pope of
Rome, or any other persons whomsoever, have power to alter, or change this ordinance
of Christ, as they have done by this superstitious, and such like idolatrous inventions
and practices of the Romish church. All which superstitions of theirs, are contrary
to Christ’s institution, or the apostles practice of holy baptism. (Ibid., 144-45)
Confession of Faith and Constitution of the Churches of Baptized
Christians commonly called Baptists. With Proofs out of the Holy Scripture. 13th
Edition (1908):
Article
8.
OF
HOLY BAPTISM.
We believe that according to the definite declarations of the New
Testament holy baptism, which was ordained by Christ, and is to continue for
believers until his reappearance (1), consists in this, that the candidate is
dipped one time under water in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit (2) and again raised out of the same by a minister of the Lord
appointed for that purpose. Only so is the divine command fulfilled (3), and
the ordinance of Christ retains its deep original significance (4). The persons
who should subject themselves to this ordinance and receive with thankful heart
this means of grace are also very definitely defined in Holy Scripture, viz.,
only such persons, no matter to what people they may belong, as have previously
been converted from their sins to Christ through the gospel and God’s free
grace, and believe with the whole heart on him as their Redeemer (5).
Baptism is a first-fruit of faith and love to Christ, the entrance
into obedience toward the Lord (6) and his church (7). It is the solemn
declaration, the confession of the sinner (8), who has recognized the
frightfulness of sin and the damnability of his whole being (9) : that he sets
all his people solely on the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ his
Saviour (1), and believes on him as the Redeemer of the curse and wages of sin
11), -- that he consecrates himself with body and soul to Christ and puts him on
(12), as his righteousness and strength (13),-- that he gives his old man to
death and wishes to walk with Christ in a new life (14).
Baptism is moreover, the solemn declaration and assurance of God
to the believing candidate that he is swallowed up in Christ Jesus (15), and so
with him dead, buried and risen again (16) ; that his sins are washed away
(17), and that he is a beloved child of God, in whom the Father is well pleased
(18). Baptism should call forth the consciousness of his deliverance and
salvation in the candidate more definitely and powerfully (19), and such will
God work through ha sealing with the Holy Spirit (20), though only where he has
previously brought forth through this Spirit true faith in the Son of God in
the power of his death and his resurrection (21).
Baptism has the peculiarity that it should be administered only
once, while the other means of grace are repeated and renewed throughout the
whole life of the Christian; therefore it is especially necessary that this ordinance
should be rightly performed. (Ibid., 340-41)
