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204
Balthasar Hübmaier
[1524-
he not done it, Christ would have held him as a despiser and transgressor of his words, and as such he would have been punished."[1]
But though he insists thus strenuously on belief before baptism, and on the duty of every believer to be "baptised rightly, according to the order of Christ, even though he be a hundred years old," he will not for a moment admit that he is rightly called an Anabaptist:
"I have never taught Anabaptism. I know of none, except that in Acts xix. But the right baptism of Christ, which is preceded by teaching and oral confession of faith, I teach, and say that infant baptism is a robbery of the right baptism of Christ, and a misuse of the high name of God, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, altogether opposed to the institution of Christ and to the customs of the apostles. [2]
"But since this oath [in the pledge of baptism] is made to Christ himself, who abides in eternity, the once baptised should not be rebaptised, as the Novatians and Hemerobaptists. Yet since the invented infant baptism is no baptism, those who have received water baptism according to the order of Christ cannot be charged with rebaptism, though in their childhood and in the blindness of their forefathers they were formerly bathed in water. "[3]
