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Confession 28.1. Baptism is a sacrament
of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ,(a) not only for the solemn
admission of the party baptized into the visible Church;(b) but also, to be
unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace,(c) of his ingrafting into
Christ,(d) of regeneration,(e) of remission of sins,(f) and of his giving up
unto God through Jesus Christ, to walk in the newness of life.(g) Which
sacrament is, by Christ's own appointment, to be continued in His Church until
the end of the world.(h)
(a) Matt. 28:19.
(b) I Cor. 12:13.
(c) Rom. 4:11 with Col. 2:11, 12.
(d) Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:5.
(e) Tit. 3:5.
(f) Mark 1:4.
(g) Rom. 6:3, 4.
(h) Matt. 28:19, 20.
Confession 28.2. The outward element to be used in this
sacrament is water, wherewith the party is to be baptized, in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by a minister of the Gospel,
lawfully called thereunto.(i)
(i) Matt. 3:11; John 1:33; Matt. 28:19, 20.
Confession 28.3. Dipping of the person into the water is
not necessary; but Baptism is rightly administered by pouring or sprinkling
water upon the person.(k)
(k) Heb. 9:10, 19, 20, 21, 22; Acts 2:41; Acts 16:33; Mark 7:4.
Confession 28.4. Not only those that do actually profess
faith in and obedience unto Christ,(l) but also the infants of one or both
believing parents, are to be baptized.(m)
(l) Mark 16:15, 16; Acts 8:37, 38.
(m) Gen. 17:7, 9, 10 with Gal. 3:9, 14 and Col. 2:11, 12 & Acts 2:38, 39
& Rom. 4:11, 12; I Cor. 7:14; Matt. 28:19; Mark 10:13, 14, 15, 16; Luke
18:15.
Confession 28.5. Although it be a great sin to contemn
or neglect this ordinance,(n) yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably
annexed unto it, as that no person can be regenerated or saved without it;(o)
or, that all that are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated.(p)
(n) Luke 7:30 with Exod. 4:24, 25, 26.
(o) Rom. 4:11; Acts 10:2, 4, 22, 31, 45, 47.
(p) Acts 8:13, 23.
Confession 28.6. The efficacy of Baptism is not tied to
that moment of time wherein it is administered;(q) yet notwithstanding, by the
right use of this ordinance, the grace promised is not only offered, but
really exhibited and conferred, by the Holy Ghost, to such (whether of age or
infants) as that grace belongeth unto, according to the counsel of God's own
will, in His appointed time.(r)
(q) John 3:5, 8.
(r) Gal. 3:27; Titus 3:5; Eph. 5:25, 26; Acts 2:38, 41.
Confession 28.7. The sacrament of Baptism is but once to
be administered unto any person.(s)
(s) Titus 3:5.
Confession 29.1. Our Lord Jesus, in the night wherein
He was betrayed, instituted the sacrament of His body and blood, called the
Lord's Supper, to be observed in His Church, unto the end of the world, for
the perpetual remembrance of the sacrifice of Himself in His death; the
sealing all benefits thereof unto true believers, their spiritual nourishment
and growth in Him, their further engagement in and to all duties which they
owe unto Him; and to be a bond and pledge of their communion with Him, and
with each other, as members of His mystical body.(a)
(a) I Cor. 11:23, 24, 25, 26; I Cor. 10:16, 17, 21; I Cor. 12:13.
Confession 29.2. In this sacrament, Christ is not
offered up to His Father; nor any real sacrifice made at all for remission of
sins of the quick or dead;(b) but only a commemoration of that one offering up
of Himself, by Himself, upon the cross, once for all: and a spiritual oblation
of all possible praise unto God for the same:(c) so that the Popish sacrifice
of the mass (as they call it) is most abominably injurious to Christ's one,
only sacrifice, the alone propitiation for all the sins of His elect.(d)
(b) Heb. 9:22, 25, 26, 28.
(c) I Cor. 11:24, 25, 26; Matt. 26:26, 27.
(d) Heb. 7:23, 24, 27; Heb. 10:11, 12, 14, 18.
Confession 29.3. The Lord Jesus hath, in this ordinance,
appointed His ministers to declare His word of institution to the people; to
pray, and bless the elements of bread and wine, and thereby to set them apart
from a common to a holy use; and to take and break the bread, to take the cup,
and (they communicating also themselves) to give both to the communicants;(e)
but to none who are not then present in the congregation.(f)
(e) Matt. 26:26, 27, 28 & Mark 14:22, 23, 24 and Luke 22:19, 20
with I Cor. 11:23, 24, 25, 26.
(f) Acts. 20:7; I Cor. 11:20.
Confession 29.4. Private masses, or receiving this
sacrament by a priest or any other alone;(g) as likewise, the denial of the
cup to the people,(h) worshipping the elements, the lifting them up or
carrying them about for adoration, and the reserving them for any pretended
religious use; are all contrary to the nature of this sacrament, and to the
institution of Christ.(i)
(g) I Cor. 10:16.
(h) Mark 14:23; I Cor. 11:25, 26, 27, 28, 29.
(i) Matt. 15:9.
Confession 29.5. The outward elements in this sacrament,
duly set apart to the uses ordained by Christ, have such relation to Him
crucified, as that, truly, yet sacramentally only, they are sometimes called
by the name of the things they represent, to wit, the body and blood of
Christ;(k) albeit in substance and nature they still remain truly and only
bread and wine, as they were before.(l)
(k) Matt. 26:26, 27, 28.
(l) I Cor. 11:26, 27, 28; Matt. 26:29.
Confession 29.6. That doctrine which maintains a change
of the substance of bread and wine into the substance of Christ's body and
blood (commonly called transubstantiation) by consecration of a priest, or by
any other way, is repugnant, not to Scripture alone, but even to common sense
and reason; overthroweth the nature of the sacrament, and hath been, and is
the cause of manifold superstitions; yea, of gross idolatries.(m)
(m) Acts 3:21 with I Cor. 11:24, 25, 26; Luke 24:6, 39.
Confession 29.7. Worthy receivers outwardly partaking of
the visible elements in this sacrament,(n) do then also, inwardly by faith,
really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually, receive
and feed upon Christ crucified, and all benefits of His death: the body and
blood of Christ being then, not corporally or carnally, in, with, or under the
bread and wine; yet, as really, but spiritually, present to the faith of
believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward
senses.(o)
(n) I Cor. 11:28.
(o) I Cor. 10:16.
Confession 29.8. Although ignorant and wicked men
receive the outward elements in this sacrament: yet they receive not the thing
signified thereby, but by their unworthy coming thereunto are guilty of the
body and blood of the Lord to their own damnation. Wherefore, all ignorant and
ungodly persons, as they are unfit to enjoy communion with Him, so are they
unworthy of the Lord's table; and cannot, without great sin against Christ
while they remain such, partake of these holy mysteries,(p) or be admitted
thereunto.(q)
(p) I Cor. 11:27, 28, 29; II Cor. 6:14, 15, 16.
(q) I Cor. 5:6, 7, 13; II Thess. 3:6, 14, 15; Matt. 7:6.