Spirit and Baptism

Now about baptism, this is how you are to baptize: after saying all these things beforehand, baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in living water. If you do not have living water, baptize in other water; and if you cannot do it in cold water, use warm.

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Concerning the water, Scripture addresses Israel: the baptism that brings forgiveness of sins will not be accepted, yet they will build for themselves.

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I will explain how we devoted ourselves to God after being renewed through Christ, so that by covering this point we may not appear to be doing something wrong in our account.

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We are free to set aside unnecessary defenses against those who love to find fault. We are neither children nor infants clinging to a childish, easily dismissed teaching, as those who claim superior knowledge have slandered us.

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Since the rule states that no one attains salvation without Baptism, grounded on the Lord's own pronouncement — "Unless someone is born of water, he will not have life" (John 3:5) — certain people raise scrupulous, or rather reckless, objections: how can this rule apply to the Apostles, whom we do not find baptized in…

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They claim baptism isn't necessary for people who have faith, since Abraham pleased God through the sacrament of faith alone, without any water at all. But they're arguing backward: in every case, what comes later decides the matter, and the subsequent overrides the prior.

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I've said enough on the points where the logic of Baptism first surfaces—points that already foreshadowed, by the mere fact of the Spirit's presence, how the Spirit of God, who hovered over the waters at creation, would one day reform those who are dipped.

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Then that most holy Spirit descends willingly from the Father upon purified and blessed bodies, upon the waters of Baptism, as if recognizing a former seat;

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