17] _Ibid_., 275.

[18] _Book of Concord_, English Translation, p. 473.

[19] _Erl. Ed._, XI, 63, 48, 2d Ed., XI, 65, 61. See discussion by
writer in _Lutheran Church Review_, XVIII, 598-657, where passages
cited may be found with full context translated, together with
other statements of Luther and those who followed him, on the
same subject.

A TREATISE ON BAPTISM

[Sidenote: Meaning of the Word]

I. Baptism [German, _die Taufe_] is called in the Greek language
_baptismos_, in Latin _mersio_, which means to plunge something
entirely into the water, so that the water closes over it. And
although in many places it is the custom no longer to thrust and
plunge children into the font of baptism, but only to pour the
baptismal water upon them out of the font, nevertheless the
former is what should be done; and it would be right, according
to the meaning of the word _Taufe_, that the child, or whoever is
baptised, should be sunk entirely into the water, and then drawn
out again; for even in the German tongue the word _Taufe_ comes
undoubtedly from the word _tief_, and means that what is baptised
is sunk deep into the water. This usage is also demanded by the
significance of baptism, for baptism signifies that the old man
and the sinful birth of flesh and blood are to be wholly drowned
by the grace of God, as we shall hear. We should, therefore, do
justice to its meaning and make baptism a true and complete sign
of the thing it signifies.

[Sidenote: The Sign]

II. Baptism is an external sign or token, which so divides us
from all men not baptised, that thereby we are known as a people
of Christ, [Heb. 2:10] our Captain, under Whose banner (i. e.,
the Holy Cross) we continually fight against sin. Therefore in
this Holy Sacrament we must have regard to three things--the
sign, the significance thereof, and the faith. The sign consists
in this, that we are thrust into the water in the Name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; but we are not left
there, for we are drawn out again. Hence the saying, _Aus der
Taufe gehoben_.[1] The sign must, therefore, have both its parts,
the putting in and the drawing out.

[Sidenote: The Thing Signified]

III. The significance of baptism is a blessed dying unto sin and
a resurrection in the grace of God, so that the old man, which is
conceived and born in sin, is there drowned, and a new man, born
in grace, comes forth and rises. Thus St. Paul, in Titus iii,
call