Page:Balthasar Hübmaier.djvu/187

"Balthasar. My Œcolampadius, how are children killed in water-baptism? Bodily? Then they must be drowned. Do you say spiritually, a killing of the old Adam? Then I hear indeed that cradle-infants can sin and resist sin, against the clear word of God. (Deut. i. [39].) Ah, God, whither will the truth drive you!

"Œc. What need is there of division for the sake of the water?

"Bal. It is not for the sake of the water, but for the high command, the baptism of Christ. Water is not baptism, as the making of idols is not mere stone and wood, but idolatry which by that is practised against the earnest command of God. (Ex. xx. [4], Deut. v. [8].)

"Wolfgang. Well, in baptism it is not your father's faith that is applied, but that of the Christian assembly.

"Bal. Some of you tell me of the faith of another, of father and mother, some of the faith of godfathers, some of the faith of the Church, and all of this is spoken without foundation in the Scriptures. For if infants are baptised on the faith of their father and mother, why is it forbidden to the father and mother to present their children for baptism? If it is in the faith of godfathers or of the Church, men may be saved by another's faith. All of which is contrary to the Scriptures, for, the just will live by his own faith. (Hab. ii. [4], Rom. i. [17].) He who himself believes and is baptised shall be saved, not he for whom one believes. (Mark xvi. [16].) Philip demanded the chamberlain's own faith. (Acts viii. [37].)^[1] The Christian Church is built on the confession of one's own faith. (Matt. xvi. [16].)

1. Hübmaier could not be expected to foresee that modern textual criticism would cut the ground from under this argument by pronouncing this verse an interpolation.