LVTHERS DOCTRINE.
Luther vpon these words:y vnlesse a man be borne againe of water and the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of God, saith. [wee will diligentlie obserue, chiefly against the blind Anabaptistes, who thinke the Baptisme of children to be vnprofitable and to no end, but how can such a manner of bap∣tisme be vnfrutfull, when as heere thou hearest, that our sauiour hath ordayned water vnto this end, that the holy ghost concurring with it, it doth worke vnto regeneration? Now if it be necessarie for chil∣dren to be regenerate, or otherwyse they cannot see the kingdome of God, why should wee deny them baptisme?]
Againe: [Is not this (saith he) a great gift and glo∣ry, that a woman also in tyme of necessitie may bap∣tize and say: I free thee from death, from the Diuell, sinne and all euill; I giue thee life eternall, I make thee of the son of the Diuell the son of God?]
All which haue nothing contrary to the former opinions or sentences, but in another place he saith.z [That children although sometyme they departe hence without baptisme yet if they be without their owne actuall fault they may be saued.