For Conrad Grebel, another leading Anabaptist, “one notices that [baptism] is not a sign of what God will do in the life of the baptized, as Zwingli had understood it, but rather a sign of what the baptized has done already and will do in the future. It would appear that for Grebel baptism is not so much an act of God as an act of the one baptized.  It is his or her confession of faith.” (Hughes Oliphant Old, The Shaping of the Reformed Baptismal Rite in the 16th Century, p. 91)

“Above all we should notice this fact: this call for a the radical reform of the rite of baptism [by Thomas Muntzer, a leading Anabaptist PJ] is found in a work which looks for the reform of the Church not in the direction of justification by faith, nor in a rediscovery of the authority of Scripture, nor in a renewed appreciation of the sovereignty of grace, but rather in a book which sees the reform of the Church in terms of medieval German mysticism. For Muntzer salvation is not through faith, but through the imitation of Christ.” (Hughes Oliphant Old, The Shaping of the Reformed Baptismal Rite in the 16^th Century, p. 83)

In the quotes below Hughes Oliphant Old is discussing Anabaptism in the 16th century.

“At issue in this question of believers’ baptism was an attempt to found a new church for the spiritually elite.” (Hughes Oliphant Old, The Shaping of the Reformed Baptismal Rite, p. 77)

“In Zurich, too, there was a circle of proto-Anabaptists. As in Wittenberg and Strasbourg, the circle was made up of those who were impatient with the slowness and the caution of those who were leading the Reformation…They wanted to move out and form a new church made up of those who were fully committed Christians.” (Hughes Oliphant Old, The Shaping of the Reformed Baptismal Rite, p. 87)

“The baptismal rite of Basel makes one thing clear above all: baptism is in the end a work of God. The minister, as the apostles before him, administers the sign of washing, but it is God who through his Holy Spirit cleanses the heart. One might say that the service underlines the epicletic nature of baptism.  Having begun the service with the affirmation that our salvation is in the power of God alone, “Our help is in the name of the Lord,” the minister calls the church to prayer.  We are reminded that our part is to pray for the salvation of the child.  It is God’s part to give the child faith and by the inner baptism of the Holy Spirit to regenerate him. The power to save remains with God, who works when and where and how he pleases.  The power is not in our hands.  It resides not in the proper performing of liturigical rites.  This was one of the essential insights of Reformed theologians.  Our part is to administer obediently the sign God has given, to proclaim the rich promises of grace, to call on God to fulfill these promises, and to trust that he will fufill them…If it is true that God’s Spirit works when and where and how he pleases, it is equally true that God works where he has promised to work.  That was the heart of the theology of the covenant.” (Hughes Oliphant Old, The Shaping of the Reformed Baptismal Rite, p. 72-73)

“We have taught that those baptized in the Lord Jesus are made one body with him in his death, and through baptism they die with him and are buried with him and in his Resurrection they rise to new life.  Therefore, the true use or observance of baptism is that we regularly die to the old Adam and this kind of dying we must do as long as life shall last.” (Wolfgang Capito, A reformer who worked alongside Martin Bucer in Strasbourg)

“Capito makes a point here which is essential to understanding the further development of the Reformed rite of baptism.  Baptism is not a ritual which saves one as if by magic at a particular time or occasion. It is not as though before one is baptized one is lost and after baptism one is saved. Baptism is far more a sign under which the Christian lives out the whole of life. It is a sign of continual washing from sins and a continual renewal in new life. It is not so much the ritual of a once-and-for-all crisis experience as it is a prophetic promise of what is and always will be the character of the Christian life.” (Hughes Oliphant Old, commenting on the above quote in The Shaping of the Reformed Baptismal Rite, p. 52)