But we will not enter any further into his extravagant illustrations of the power of baptism.

The result at which he arrives is thus expressed: "Therefore, he (this omnipotent name or power of God,) must also in baptism, make pure and holy, heavenly and divine persons, as we shall hereafter further see." (Darum musz er auch in der Taufe reine und heilige und eitel himmlishe, goettliche Menschen machen, wie wir hernach sehen werden.") [Note 2] In his sermon on Baptism, Luther thus describes the influence of this ordinance:--"The import of baptism is a blessed dying unto sin, and resurrection in the grace of God, that the old man that was conceived in sin, may arise and go forth _a new man_ born of grace.

Thus St.Paul in, Tit.iii.5, terms baptism a bath of _the new birth_, that in this bath men may be _born again_ and renewed.

Thus also Christ, in John iii.
3, says: Unless ye are born again of water and the Spirit (of grace), ye cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven.

For just as a child is born of its mother, and by this bodily birth is a sinful being and a _child of wrath;_ thus also is man taken and _born spiritually_ from the baptism, and by _this birth he is a child of grace and a justified person_.