"--_Symb. B_., p. 533.
In the _Visitation Articles_, published fourteen years after the other
symbolical books for the purpose of explaining their true import, and
then made symbolic in Saxony:
ART. III.--_On Baptism_.
SECT. II. "By baptism as the _laver of regeneration_, and _the renewing
of the Holy Ghost_, God saves us, and works in us such righteousness
and purification from sins, that whosoever _perseveres_ in such
covenant, and reliance, _will not be lost_, but have eternal life."
SECT. IV. "Baptism is the bath (laver) of regeneration, _because in it
we are regenerated_, and sealed with the spirit of sonship and obtain
pardon."-_Mueller's Symb. Buecher_, pp. 848, 849.
That the doctrine of baptismal regeneration was taught by Luther, and
the prominent older divines of our church, is well known to those
acquainted with their works.
1. _Luther_, indeed, sometimes expressed the most extravagant ideas of
baptism, maintaining that the water in baptism, was pervaded by the
divine majesty, and was a (durch goettertes Wasser,) water penetrated
through and through with God! [Note 1] He compares the water in baptism
to heated iron, in which, though you see nought but iron, fire also is
contained, which represents the divine name and power pervading the
water. But we will not enter any further into his extravagant
illustrations of the power of baptism.
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