Another Letter From Jacob Van Den Wege, To His Wife, And His Brethren And Sisters.

But when men grow up, and have attained their years, the heart, as Jeremiah says, is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Hence there dwells no good thing in the flesh, but it departs from the Lord in every respect, since through evil lusts and desires the flesh is impelled to all wickedness and sin, whereby they often go astray and sin, because they have little or no right instruction; hence they lose Christ’s death and merits, under which grace they were when they were first born. Men must therefore, according to the Scriptures, through the power of the divine word, be taught to know sin; that sin and all unrighteousness are sin; and they must be exhorted to repentance and amendment, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, they should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; and to become new creatures, and regenerated children of God by faith, for we cannot see, nor enter into, the kingdom of God, except we be renewed and born again of water and of the Spirit. Which Spirit in the Scriptures is called water as well as Spirit, even as God spake by the prophet Joel, saying: “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, that is, upon all generations or nations, namely that have become lowly in spirit and contrite in heart, and believe in God.” Which faith, as Paul says, cometh by hearing the word of God. Hence I confess, that men must first be taught, that they bring forth genuine fruits of repentance, believe in Christ, and then be baptized upon their faith, as Christ himself ordained this, and commanded his apostles, saying: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” And in the sixteenth chapter of 925 Mark, he says: Go and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And the apostles did as they were commanded, as we may read in the Acts of the Apostles, and in their epistles: they first taught, and then baptized all the god-fearing with water, in the name of the Lord, they that hearkened to their words and believed in the Son of God received baptism, and this for a burial of sin and washing of regeneration, for a fulfillment of all righteousness and the answer of a good conscience toward God, for a covenant to live in holiness and righteousness, and for an entrance into and uniting with the body of Christ, which is the church of God; for by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, as Paul says: “Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Jer. 17:9; Rom. 7:18; Gal. 5:17; 2 Tim. 3:16; 1 John 3:4; Tit. 2:12; 2 Cor. 5:17; 1 Pet. 1:23; Gal. 3:26; John 3:3,5; Is. 44:3; Joel 2:28; Isaiah 57:15; Acts 16:34; Rom. 10:17; Acts 2:38; 16:31; Matt. 28:19,20; Mark 16:15,16; Acts 2; 16:14; 2:41; 8:12; Matt. 3:15; 1 Peter 3:21; Luke 1:75; 1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:26–28.