Gal. 3:26,27: “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
3. _That as the ark with eight souls was preserved in the water, so also believing baptized Christians are preserved or saved in baptism through the answer of a good conscience._
1 Pet. 3:20,21: “When once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.[82] The like figure whereunto baptism doth also now save us, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God).”
[82] In the ark, which was preserved through, or, properly speaking, in the water, there were none but believing and obedient persons, eight in number, namely, Noah and his wife, with their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their three wives, eight persons in all: likewise, none but believing and obedient persons belong in the church of Christ, which is compared to the ark, and which must be preserved through or in baptism.
MOREOVER, THE CONDITIONS REQUIRED IN, AT, AND ABOUT BAPTISM, INDICATE SUFFICIENTLY, THAT IT WAS NOT ADMINISTERED TO CHILDREN, BUT TO PERSONS OF UNDERSTANDING.
In order to receive baptism in a worthy and true manner, there are required sorrow and repentance of sins, accompanied with a confession of the same. Matt. 3:6, we read: “And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.”
Besides this, it is required that we should bear good fruits. “Bring forth therefore,” says John, to those who desired to be baptized, “fruits meet for repentance.” Matt. 3:8; or, according to Biestken’s translation: “Do genuine fruits of repentance.”
Mark 16:16, it is also required, that we believe, yea, that we believe with the heart. Acts 8:37.
In short, repentance or conversion, and baptism are joined together, Matt. 3:6,11; as also, teaching, believing, and baptizing, Mark 16:15,16. Confession and baptism went hand in hand with the Ethiopian, Acts 8:37. Baptism is a burying of the old man, and a sign of resurrection into a new life, Rom. 6:3,4; a putting on of Christ, Gal. 3:27; and the answer of a good conscience toward God. 1 Pet. 3:21.
These and other conditions required in baptism cannot exist in infants, who know neither good nor evil, cannot discern between the right hand and the left hand, and do as children do, Deut. 1:39; Jon. 4:11; 1 Cor. 13:11.
Here we might adduce much more, but since it is not our purpose to dispute about this point, but simply to show from the unadorned testimonies of the holy evangelists and apostles, that baptism was administered in the first century only to adult (that is, penitent and believing) persons, we shall leave this subject, and proceed to give an account of those who, according to history, have, either by word or by deed, maintained this doctrine.
OF THE TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS CONCERNING THIS ARTICLE; WHO LIVED FROM THE DECEASE OF THE APOSTLES TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY.
Although we might entirely conclude this first century as touching baptism upon faith, with the testimony of Holy Scripture, we, so as not to appear deficient, nevertheless deem it expedient, to add the testimonies of the fathers, till the end of this century.
_About the year 52._--_Jac. Mehrn. Bapt. hist. pag. 578. from Simon Metaphrastes, D. Vicecomes_ records the following incident (_lib. 1. cap. 4. in the life of St. Auxibius_): When St. Mark, the apostle of Christ, saw that Auxibius had a desire for Christ, and that he was believing and instructed, he descended with him into a pool and baptized him. This is the first example of which we read in history, outside of Holy Scripture, of those who were incorporated into the church of Christ, through baptism upon faith.