Water and Fire

Has water , in itself, any virtue to wash away sin? Certainly not; but the lord says, "If the sinner will repent of his sins, and go down into the waters of baptism, and there be buried in the likeness of being put in the earth and buried, and again be delivered from the water, in the likeness of being born- if the sincerity of his heart will do this, his sins shall be washed away"