Tertullian

“ Chapter XII.—Of the Necessity of Baptism to Salvation.
When, however, the prescript is laid down that “without baptism, salvation is attainable by none” (chiefly on the ground of that declaration of the Lord, who says, “Unless one be born of water, he hath not life” [1] ) , there arise immediately scrupulous, nay rather audacious, doubts on the part of some, “how, in accordance with that prescript, salvation is attainable by the apostles, whom—Paul excepted—we do not find baptized in the Lord? ”

“ It is, however, as I think, one thing to be sprinkled or intercepted by the violence of the sea; another thing to be baptized in obedience to the discipline of religion. But that little ship did present a figure of the Church, in that she is disquieted “in the sea,” that is, in the world, [9] “by the waves,” that is, by persecutions and temptations; the Lord, through patience, sleeping as it were, until, roused in their last extremities by the prayers of the saints, He checks the world, [10] and restores tranquillity to His own. ”

“ For if they had undergone the human baptism of John, and were longing for that of the Lord, then since the Lord Himself had defined baptism to be one; [3] (saying to Peter, who was desirous [4] of being thoroughly bathed, “He who hath once bathed hath no necessity to wash a second time;” [5] which, of course, He would not have said at all to one not baptized;) even here we have a conspicuous [6] proof against those who, in order to destroy the sacrament of water, deprive the apostles even of John’s baptism. ”