The Prime Sacrament

Baptism is the prime sacrament, the foundation of them all…There are two things which baptism signifies, namely, death and resurrection…We call this death and resurrection a new creation, a regeneration, a spiritual birth…The sacrament of baptism, even as a sign, is not a momentary action, but something permanent.

While the rite itself is quite transitory, yet the purpose which it signifies lasts until death; indeed, till the Resurrection at the last day. Baptism means something by which evermore you die and live…. All our experience of life should be baptismal in character… to die and live by our faith in Christ.