At the conclusion of the Prayer Book Baptism offices for infants and for adults, the priest who has administered the Sacrament is to exhort, in the former case, the godparents of the newly baptised, and in the latter case, the newly baptised. The words of the exhortation are rooted in the Apostle's words, "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?". And, after the manner of the Apostle, the declaration "that Baptism doth represent unto us our profession", calls us to recognise that the covenant of grace into which we are placed by Holy Baptism requires life-long penitence, that we may not forsake this grace: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"
which is, to follow the example of our Saviour Christ, and to be made like unto him ...
We walk in the covenant of grace, into which we are initiated by Baptism, by bearing the fruit of Christ-likeness. But we err and stray like lost sheep; we follow the devices and desires of our own hearts; we offend against God's holy laws and commandments. The grace accompanying the means of repentance calls us back throughout our earthly lives to the living out of the gift of Baptism: "by the grace of God we may arise again, and amend our lives" (Article XVI). Repentance necessarily involves us forsaking the ways of sin and following after "the example of our Saviour Christ", in His patience, grace, mercy, and faithfulness.
that as he died and rose again for us, so should we, who are baptized, die from sin and rise again unto righteousness ...
We are to "die from sin and rise again unto righteousness", day by day, that - in the words of the Absolution at Morning and Evening Prayer - "those things may please him which we do at this present; and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy". Such is the "obedience unto righteousness" of which the Apostle speaks.
continually mortifying all our evil and corrupt affections ...
These words set before us the reality of penitence: not a vague regret at faults and failures, but a renunciation of our specific sins in our hearts, that the heart may be good soil, capable of bearing good fruit. To "truly and earnestly repent" of our sins, therefore, is the outworking of the prayer offered before Holy Baptism is administered: "that the old Adam ... may be so buried, that the new man may be raised up in him".
and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of living.
The repentance that is a dying to sin and living unto righteousness is necessary to the living out of the covenant of Holy Baptism. And so we pray for the congregation in the Prayer for the Church Militant: "truly serving thee in holiness and righteousness all the days of their life". The fruit of the regenerating grace of God in Christ, of which Baptism is the efficacious sign, is that holy living characterised by repentance. In the words of Jeremy Taylor, it is our "restitution to the state of righteousness and holy living, for which we covenanted in Baptism".
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