Firstly, in the confession of faith in God and in His Son Jesus Christ; and secondly, in the renunciation of Satan, the world, the flesh, and all its lusts.
Same page as above. Theophilact on Mark 1, says, "All who came to be baptized by John, were delivered through repentance from the bond of their souls, if they believed on Christ." He says of those who came to John's baptism, that they were delivered through repentance from the bond of their souls (that is, from sin), if they believed on Christ; by which he indicates that two things were required of those candidates, in order that they might be delivered from sin; 1. repentance; 2. faith in Christ. Which things, since he adduces them for the instruction of his contemporaries, were also required of the candidates of his time, namely, that they had to repent and believe on Christ. For, to what purpose should he otherwise, by way of instruction, have adduced them? Page 581 D. J. Vicecomes (lib. 3, cap. 3, on Heb. 6), quotes from Theophilact, "When you were to be baptized, you repented of dead works, that is, rejected the works of Satan." In Lib. 5, cap. 37. Vicecomes expresses the opinion, that in the time of Theophilact the holy Supper was still administered to the baptized, after baptism. Whether we cast our eyes upon the words of Theophilact, or upon those of Vicecomes, we see that both tend in the same direction. As regards the words of Theophilact, he informs us concerning the candidates of his time, that they, before baptism, or, at least, when they were about to be baptized, repented of dead works, which, as everyone knows, can only be done by adults, and not at all by infants; for, one that is to desist from dead works, and repent, must first have committed dead works; this is incontrovertible. As to the words of Vicecomes, they confirm the foregoing; for, if the holy Supper was then administered to the baptized after baptism; which Supper, as is taught in I Cor. 11:27, had to be received with proper examination, and qualification, as, according to history, was then still done, it follows that the baptism of infants could not have been maintained among those who practiced this, seeing infants are unfit for such examination and qualification, and, consequently; also unfit to become partakers of the holy Supper, which Vicecomes also notices; for, referring, in the same place, to some among the Romanists; he says, "But when the baptism of infants was introduced, they [the infants] did not understand the virtue of the heavenly food, the church abolished this custom (namely, of administering the Supper to the baptized), that this holy sacrament might not be dishonored thereby."
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