True, you will say; “but that was because they repented.” I deny that; for however, if they had not repented, they had not received the Holy Spirit. Yet their repentance was not the cause of their receiving the Spirit in baptism, but, Christ’s own institution and promise to accompany his own ordinance with the inward grace. Otherwise, why did they need to be baptized? For if repentance would certainly fetch the Spirit; baptism in that respect should be superfluous. It cannot honestly be denied that those very persons had received the Spirit in some measure before baptism. How else could they
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