BAPTISM

I

Without knowledge of the spiritual sense of the Word no-one can know what is involved in and effected by the two sacraments, baptism and the Holy Supper.

I showed in the chapter on the Sacred Scripture [Chapter 4] that every single detail of the Word contained a spiritual sense, a sense that has up to now been unknown, but is now revealed for the sake of the new church which the Lord is to inaugurate. What that sense is like can be seen not only in that chapter, but also in that on the Ten Commandments [Chapter 5], which were explained in accordance with that sense. Had that sense not been revealed, who would think of these two sacraments, baptism and the Holy Supper, except as the natural sense, the literal sense, indicates? So he would say, or mutter to himself: 'What is baptism but the pouring of water over a child's head? And what use is that for salvation?' Or again: 'What is the Holy Supper but the taking of bread and wine? And what use is that for salvation?' He might go on: 'Where is the sanctity in them, apart from the fact that they have been accepted and ordered by the clergy as holy and divine?' He would say that in themselves they are nothing but ceremonies, which the churches claim become sacraments when the Word of God is added to those elements.

[2] I challenge the laity as well as the clergy to say whether in spirit and at heart they have perceived anything else in these two sacraments, but have worshipped them as divine for various causes and reasons. Yet these two sacraments looked at in the light of the spiritual sense are the holiest part of worship, as will be evident from what follows, where I shall deal with their purposes. But since there is no way that the purposes of these sacraments can occur to anyone's mind, unless the spiritual meaning uncovers and discloses them, it follows that without that sense no one could know otherwise than that they are ceremonies, which are holy because they were commanded to be instituted.