202. BAPTISM.

BAPTISM was instituted for a sign that a person is of the Church, and for a memorial that he is to be regenerated; for the washing of baptism means nothing else but spiritual washing which is regeneration.

19. Who loves us and washes us from our sins in His blood. This symbolically means, who out of love and mercy reforms and regenerates people by His Divine truths drawn from the Word.

It is apparent that to wash us from our sins is to purify us from evils, thus to reform and regenerate, for regeneration is a spiritual washing. However, "His blood" does not mean the suffering of the cross, as many believe, but the Divine truth emanating from Him, as can be seen from many passages in the Word, which it would be too tedious to present in their entirety here. We will present them in nos. 379 and 684 below. In the meantime, see what we have said and shown regarding the symbolic meaning of the Lord's blood and flesh in the Holy Supper, in The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine, (London, 1758), nos. 210-222, and in the same place regarding spiritual washing, which is regeneration, nos. 202-209.