Extract from Calvin’s Mode of Baptism – To read the full text, click “Download” below.
Most Baptists seem oblivious of Calvin’s 20th April 1556 Sermon on Deuteronomy 30:6. There, he clearly declared:1 “In Baptism…the water is poured upon the head of a little child…. We indeed do baptize with water…. The Minister lays the water on the child’s head.”
Baptists often quote from Calvin’s Commentary on John’s Gospel, where it says: “John and Christ administered baptism by total immersion.”2 Yet they neglect to add that such ‘im-mersion’ is not the same as sub-mersion. For all Presbyterian Ministers ‘put in’ or ’im-merse’ their fingers, (but never totally sub-merse) them under the baptismal water before sprinkling babies therewith.
