mtmimiltilttm^l^iltlt^igt^^ MiMMMaiMlMiMiHillM XN^ ^H OF mNcifo- "^OtOGt.CM S£^^^ BV 811 .D384 1847 Davison, J. Remarks on baptismal regeneration REMARKS BAPTISMAL REGENERATION BY THE LATE REV. JOHN DAVISON, B.D., FORMERLY FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD, AUTHOR OF DISCOURSES ON PROPHECY. ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE QUARTERLY REVIEW FOR JULY 1810. OXFORD : JOHN HENllY PARKER. M DCCCXLVII. REMARKS BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. VV E intend to offer to such of our readers as may be inclined to take up a grave question of Theo- logy, with the seriousness it deserves, a few remarks upon the subject discussed in these several publica- tions. To go into the detail of the publications themselves, with the accuracy of official criticism, is no part of our purpose, since that would be a work of intricate pursuit, more likely to hinder than assist the elucidation of the doctrine which we are desirous of presenting in the most plain and perspicuous form. In a case of common contro- versial learning, this conciseness and reserve might pass for a desertion of our trust, or a want of respect to the authors who had endeavoured to in- struct us. But in the present instance, for reasons which press strongly upon our mind, we feel an extreme unwillingness to entertain any discussion, B 2 4 On Baptismal Uegeneration. not necessary to the material doctrine in question ; and Avisli to decline the irritation as well as the labour of every syllable which can be spared ; not without some doubt whether our more perfect wis- dom might not be an entire silence upon it. Under this forbearance, however, we wish openly to disavow the officious service of labouring for an accommodation in opinion, between persons who may have their reasons for avoiding all approaches to it. Because, first, we cannot pretend to the authority which ought to go along with the assump- tion of such an office ; and next, not being willing to concede any part of our own belief, we could adopt no principle of accommodation between others, except the firm and temperate statement of our opinions ; which could be conciliatory only just so far as the grounds of them are convincing ; and, lastly, we are well aware that nothing is less wel- come to persons strongly engaged in a debate, than the neutrality of a peace-maker, who is likely with many to provoke the anger he would disarm, by his suspected censure of it. And therefore, as we have no special call, in our pages, to this offensive and ungracious moderation, we request that we may not incur the prejudice and evil report of it, with any description of men. In short, we address ourselves to the doctrine solely ; being as far from seeking to silence the argument of any man by the assumption of a character, as we should rejoice to persuade by our own fair and legitimate deductions. Our hopes. On Baptismal Regeneration. 5 however, do not look so high. We promise our- selves no converts to our scheme of exposition, plain and old as it is, from among those who may have previously taken a part against it. But we shall be contented with stating, what appears to us, the substance of serious truth, for the use of those who may wish to enjoy it in quiet, without engaging in a conflict for it. Controversy, when it is carried on in the sound and manly spirit of investigation, is so favourable to the advancement, or the more firm establishment of our knowledge, that we shall never presume to check or decry it. While it is so conducted, reli- gion is only more securely rooted, by its friendly violence. Indolent and implicit knowledge is roused by it, to a more honest discipline ; and error flies before it. If some degree of animation, inspired perhaps more by the ardour of conflict in discussion, than by the exact unprejudiced concern for the sub- ject, should insinuate itself, we still should regard that accident as a venial one, which may render the advocates, on either side, more alert, and quicken their research without perverting their principles of judgment. The more severe and jealous accuracy which we must be contented often to take from per- sonal feelings may, in the end, produce that best of all results, a more certain and a better reasoned apprehension of the truth. In this light our infir- mities may serve us better than our duties. They may give us a vigour of research, which those more 6 On Baptismal Regeneration. tardy motives might fail to supply : for we never hail the progress of truth so much as when we hope ourselves to share her triumph. The tendency which controversy has, however, at the same time, to overstep these limits, and at once to destroy charity, and perplex the truth, is a topic which we do not mean now to enlarge upon. With- out adverting to so great an evil, it must be con- fessed, that while even the more moderate warfare lasts, the truth itself is not unfrequently a sufferer : — we do not mean from the mistakes or injudicious- ness of the parties, which is too palpable a thing to be noticed, but from the temper of the public mind, as affected by the existing controversy. The direc- tion of thought, at such a moment, is all turned towards the field of warfare, and not to the valu- able interest to be decided upon it. It is intent upon the proceedings of the debate more than the doctrine at issue. It becomes controversial by habit, a temper most adverse to the love and im- provement of that very treasure of doctrine, for the sake of which all are so hotly engaged, as no ground is less cultivated than that which is the scene of present and active hostilities. Nor is it uncommon to see many, who, having ranged them- selves on the one side or the other, with a very im- perfect knowledge of the reasons and merits of the case, make up in feeling what they want in infor- mation, and studiously aggravate the state of sus- picion and unfriendliness in order to meet the need On Bapt'uswal Ileyenerafion. 7 of being zealous opponents in a public and im- portant cause. We intend no allusion Avhatever to any supposed vehemence or strong language, in any single writer or person, who may have engaged in the present controversy ; which vehemence, however, might be excusable in any one, under the apprehension that an important article of doctrine was in danger. But, penetrated by a sense of the inconveniencies which we have described, as attaching to all the most legitimate controversy, when it becomes ear- nest and general, we shall endeavour, as far as possible, to avoid the adding of one voice more to the debate. Without denying ourselves altogether the use of the argumentative form, we shall not be contentious, wishing to follow, as nearly as we can, that apostolic sentiment, aXrjdevecv iv dyaTrrj. Our proposed plan will be, first, to state precisely the doctrine of our Church, on the subject of Bap- tismal Regeneration ; next to endeavour to ascer- tain the style and language proper to be used, in respect of that topic, in the course of popular and practical instruction. This order is the natural and obvious one ; viz. that sound theological opinion should precede and direct the form of Christian piety. Our position is, that according to the doctrine of our Church, Baptismal Regeneration is also Spiri- 8 O/i Baptismal Reg ene rati on. tual Regeneration, to all who, in mature age, re- ceive Baptism rightly : and in respect of infants, that Baptismal Regeneration is also Spiritual Re- generation, simply. Now in order to obtain truly the sense in which our Church understands and teaches the efficacy of Baptism, at either age, it will be right to look, in the first place, to the office of Baptism itself, as to the most sure and positive rule of her doctrine on that head ; because in administering the rite, the Church also professedly expounds it. The exposi- tion given in such a place is direct and conclusive ; the subject is fully in view ; the judgment upon it is a solemn one, designed to express the value of the rite to the minds of those who receive it, if they be capable of understanding it, to those who minis- ter in it, that they may be aware of the nature of their function, and to those who are present as wit- nesses of the sacrament. No occasion can be imagined more needful for the doctrine to be ex- plained, than when the benefit of the sacrament is to be applied ; and to the explanation afforded under such circumstances, we are bound therefore, as fair inquirers, to attend with peculiar respect. With regard to adults, the service of Baptism framed by our Church shews, unequivocally, that in her sense. Baptism is neither on one hand a kind of charm, nor on the other a mere ineffectual or ex- ternal rite, but a certain medium of the grace of On Bajotistnal Regeneration. 9 Regeneration to the worthy receiver. It is not a cliarm to convert, hy a ceremonial power, human nature from a fallen to a restored state ; to infuse grace by a material miracle ; or to call down from heaven a supernatural blessing upon prevarication ; or to adopt into the privileges of the Gospel, those in whom no sincerity of mind towards Christian faith and amendment is to be found. This part of our position is demonstrated by the fact that certain special interrogatories, to be put to the person who is to be baptized, make a part of the service. For that an actual and a real Faith and Repentance are pledged by the answers given to those interroga- tories, must be obvious to any one who considers, that a Faith and Repentance not real are nothing at all. And the nullity of the Faith and Repent- ance, when they are professed, but exist not, having only the superadded virtue of an hypocritical pro- fession to improve them, are not likely to be raised thereby to the standard of qualification required by a Church which has as honest and strong a meaning in asking who and what manner of person he is, who comes to be baptized, as in pronouncing him, after Baptism, Regenerate, a member of Christ, a child of God. The previous existence of his quali- fication, as connected with the efifiicacy of Baptism, is moreover expressed in these decisive words : " Doubt ye not, therefore, but earnestly believe, " that He will favourably receive the present per- " sons, TRULY REPENTING AND COMING UNTO HiM BY " FAITH." The same exhortation in which these 10 On Baptismal Regenerutluti. words are contained had previously quoted the words of Christ, " He that helieveth and is baptized '' shall be saved :" and also the words of St. Peter, " Repent and be haptized every one of you for the " remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of " the Holy Ghost." The language of the Catechism is equally explicit : '^ What is required of persons '' to be baptized ? Repentance, whereby they for- " sake sin, and faith, whereby they steadfastly " believe the promises of God made to them in " that sacrament." So explicitly does the Church connect the demand of qualification with the rite. — Nor less explicitly does she connect with the rite, so duly received, the gift of Regeneration. For, on the other hand. Baptism is not, in the sense of our Church, a mere ineffectual or ecclesi- astical rite. It is not a rite of bare public admission unto communion ; nor is it a simple declaration on the part of the Church, setting forth the hopes and duties of the new disciple. These uses of ecclesias- tical incorporation, though included in the service, are subordinate to the other higher purpose of the sacrament, viz. the assurance of federal communion in the blessings of the Gospel, with the gift of Re- generation by the Holy Spirit, communicated in the sacrament, and sealed by it, through the instru- mentality of the Church, acting in the name of God, and under the warrant of Scripture. This part of our interpretation is equally appa- On Baptismal Regeneration. 1 1 rent from the very words of the service : " Seeing " that these persons are regenerate" It is also apparent from the assertion of the Catechism, that in a sacrament there are two parts, the sign and the inward grace. If then the grace be a part of the sacrament, it must be communicated in the sacramental rite. The grace peculiar to Baptism is also asserted to be " a death unto sin, and a new " birth unto righteousness." A new birth unto righteousness, or Regeneration, then, is by Bap- tism. We are not aware of any objection possible to be made to the construction which we have assigned to this office of our Liturgy, which relates to the Baptism of those who are of riper years ; either as not being the direct and obvious construction in each of its parts, or even as not being exclusively the single and necessary construction of the mean- ing of the office : so that no other can either be true or have the semblance of truth. We are not aware indeed that, in any protestant country where the doctrine of the opus operatum is estimated as it deserves, there is any doubt among thinking men of the necessity of some qualification in the person receiving Baptism in order to his spi- ritual benefit by it. Least of all do we suppose that any members of our Church are inclined to such an error. If words have escaped any one, importing a doubt of that kind, we take them as 13 On Baptismal Regeneration. a mere oversight of style, and nothing more serious. It has been therefore only with a view of making our statement complete in each branch of it, that we have gone through this part of the interpre- tation which we proposed. Upon the whole, we affirm that the form of Bap- tismal service, comprehending the ritual of the words of institution, as appointed by our Saviour, and the use of the symbol of water also appointed by Him, combined together, though it possess not by nature any regenerating power, nor has received that power by an unconditional or irrespective pro- mise, does yet, in the doctrine of our Church, con- stitute the appointed medium, through which the grace of Regeneration is conveyed ; that grace coming from the fountain of all purity and holiness, from the Eternal Spirit, whose emanations, assured to us by special promise, are to be thought of, as attendant upon that promise, and as verifying it. The Church, therefore, as the minister of God, pro- claims the value of Baptism, to all who are fit for it, and pronounces the efficacy of her ministration, for the beginning of their new and spiritual state. Did the Church profess the doctrine of universal Regene- ration in those of riper age, without respect to their Faith and Repentance, those things would not be stated in the Catechism as required, nor would the strict demand of them be made in the service itself. Were the Church able to discern the secrets of men's hearts, she would actually, and in form, limit On Baptismal liege iie ration. 13 the assurance of Regeneration in the same extent, as under the absence of such knowledge, she vir- tually and implicitly does now limit it. But that her ministration may neither be void, nor presump- tuous, may neither bless those whom God hath not blessed, nor reject those whom He will not have re- jected, combining the defect of her knowledge with the certainty of the Evangelical promise, she speaks to the supposed faithful and penitent, a language, to them who are such, universally true ; which to the impenitent and unfaithful, must be, according to her doctrine, as universally not true. We proceed to the second part of our position ; viz. that infant Baptism is regarded by our Church as conferring Spiritual Regeneration, simply, and without reserve. Here, as before, our first refer- ence must be made to the office itself. The intro- ductory part of the office for infant Baptism deserves attention. It adverts to the discourse held by our Saviour with Nicodemus. The topic of that dis- course is the necessity of a man's being born again of water and of the Holy Ghost, in order to his entering into the kingdom of God. Sjnriiual Regen- eration then is the first thing which is presented to our thoughts in the preliminary part of this office. And as it begins, so it continues. The same is the subject of the beginning of the office, and of the middle, and of the end of it. The same subject of Spiritual Regeneration is exhi- bited in prayer, interceding for it ; in references 14 On Bapfisinal Wegener (dlon. to portions of scripture, which relate to it ; in posi- tive affirmation of doctrine ; in thanksgiving to God for the gift as actually given. The sacrament from first to last, holds the doctrine of Regeneration by the Holy Spirit enclosed and embodied in it. Its phrase is formed upon that doctrine : its purport and efficacy are explained by it. Nor may we believe that the Church intends to represent this sacrament as a type and symbol of Spiritual Regeneration, without possessing infused into it the very grace itself. Because the words employed on the occasion are not merely such as imply that the sacrament and the grace are com- bined together, but they are such as have been stu- diously selected to express that idea, and such as do most emphatically express it. They even shew an anxiety that nothing less may be supposed. " Doiiht ye not therefore, but earnestly believe that " He will likewise favourably receive this present " infant ; that He will embrace him with the arms of " His mercy ; that He will give unto him the bless- " ing of eternal life, and make him partaker of " His everlasting kingdom." Again, " Seeing now, " dearly beloved brethren, that this child is regene- '* rate, and grafted into the body of Christ's Church, " let us give thanks unto Almighty God for these " benefits." Again, " We yield Thee hearty thanks, " most merciful Father, that it hath pleased Thee to *' regenerate this infant with Thy Holy Spi?it, to re- " ceive him for Thine own child by adoption," &c. On Biipfismal Rege.nt'i-allon. 15 The words of the first passage are certainly remark- able as shewing- an anxiety that we may receive the full doctrine on this head. The words of the pas- sage corresponding with it in the office for those of riper years are as follow. " Douht ye not therefore, " but earnestly believe, that He will favourably receive " these present persons, truly repenting and coming " unto Him by faith" The same pointed and earnest wish is shewn in both. And this clause in the lat- ter office, " truly repenting and coming unto Him by *' faith/' which is wanting in the former office, is equally significant in the place where it is inserted to shew what is required in the one instance, as in the other place where it is omitted, to shew that in the other instance the absence of actual moral quali- fication does not vacate the benefit of the sacra- ment. — The insertion and the omission are alike from design, and that design is in both places ob- vious to be understood. The Office for the order of Confirmation comes next to be considered ; and we shall see that it sup- ports and illustrates the exposition which we have given. As the rite of Confirmation is connected in design with the sacrament of infant Baptism, and is a supplement to it, we might expect to find that which actually we do find, a connection of doctrine in the two offices. The Spiritual Regeneration, as already communicated, and communicated in Bap- tism, is thus recognised in the prayer which pre- cedes the solemn act of Confirmation, " Almighty IG On Bajjflsnial Regenerat'ion. " and everliving God, who hast vouchsafed to rege- " nerate these Thy servants by water and the Holy " Ghost, and hast given vnito them forgiveness of " all their sins : strengthen them, we beseech Thee, *' O Lord, with the Holy Ghost the Comforter, and " daily increase in them Thy manifold gifts of grace." The most specific use of the Catechism is to qualify those who have been baptized in infancy to receive this rite of Confirmation, by instructing them in their Christian calling. It is their manual of instruction, and their knowledge of it is the testimonial where- upon they are admitted to be confirmed. The Cate- chism, then, informs them, that the inward and spiritual grace is a part in each sacrament, and that the grace of Baptism is a death unto sin, and a nexv birth wito righteousness : for being by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace. (The word herehy, we sup- pose, must refer grammatically to the sacrament. If it be referred to the more remote antecedent, " a new *' birth unto righteousness," logically the difference is nothing : for that new birth has jireviously been declared to be a part of the sacrament.) Moreover the answer dictated to the second question of the Catechism seems in itself equivalent to a volume. " Who gave you this name ? My godfathers and " godmothers in my Baptism, wherein I was made " a member of Christ, a child of God, and an in- " heritor of the kingdom of heaven." Such is the continued train of instruction provided in the three connected offices, of Baptism, the Catechism, and On Bn])f'txiiial Ucgene ration. 17 Confirmation, holding one uniform and consistent language. We have said that Confirmation is a supplement to Baptism. We mean, that it is a supplement to it, inasmuch as it adds to Baptism the actual attes- tation of the child, -svho had been baptized, to the covenant of the Gospel, with the seal of his own moral powers. But the Church does not regard it to be such a supplement as may draw down from God the grace of Regeneration : that grace is pre- supposed to exist, and is declared to have been be- stowed " by water and the Holy Ghost," that is, in Baptism. Therefore, Confirmation is not an adult Baptism, but on the part of the child an adult re- cognition of the vicarious baptismal vow. It is a rational service, and its very name bears a meaning which implies a confirmation of that Christian state in which the child is found; a confirmation of good to him, as well as a confirmation made by him of his vows. The plain and positive sense of these several oflfices ought not to give way to the refinement which a curious piety may contrive for them. Are they not offices for general use, addressed to the understanding of common men, who must under- stand by the ear, and be taught with simplicity ? Are they not offices for young persons, (we speak of the Catechism and the office for Confirmation,) for young persons whose reason is just on the dawn, who know little and believe infinitely, and whose c 18 On, Bcqjtismal Reyeuerat'wn. error must be charged to the account of those who, under pLain and direct terms, have a reserve of hypothesis behind ; that error which the young mind cannot avoid, of believing that a distinct affirmation contains a definite meaning, that strong words mean something positive, and that the asser- tion of a past event does not express a change future and contingent ? These considerations are to us of great force, and literally conclusive. But as the hypothetical meaning is urged by some whose sincerity in the search of truth we do not suspect, and whose error, as we suppose it to be, gives us no small pain, combined as it is with zeal, and ability, and learning; we shall not de- cline following this point a little further, and separating the cases, in which, as it appears to us, an hypothetical sense may be admitted, from those in which it cannot be admitted. An hypothetical sense, then, seems admissible only when the Liturgy is speaking Jirst of indi- viduals, as indeed is the case here, and when also, secondly, their individual state is impossible to be known in those respects wherein it bears upon the tenor of the special service relating to them ; and when also there can be no ambiguity whether it be an hypothetical sense or not. Under these three conditions we do not object to the fitness of it. In the Office of Visiting the Sick, the case of an in- dividual is in view, and the absolution in that On Baptismal Regeneration. 19 office is hypothetical, that is to say, upon the assumption of the sincere faith and penitence of the sick person, previously demanded, and previously declared, the Absolution is positive and valid ; upon the supposed absence of them, the Absolution is neither valid, nor possible to be so understood : for the Church could not mean to affirm that which is contrary to her own known belief: and we know her belief, absolute, universal and undisguised, that to remission of sins, faith and penitence are so needful in all persons capable of them, that without them there is neither hope nor promise of it. Secondly, in the Office for the Burial of the Dead, the case of the individual is spoken of in a language which is so far hypothe- tical in sense as it expresses no more than a hope of his present happy state. Such phrase, however, really falls short of an hypothetical proposition : it is manifestly and in terms no more than the hope of Christian charity : It is impossible to be mistaken for firm belief. Thirdly, the service of Baptism for those who are of maturer age, we have granted to be framed in part upon an hypothetical sense, and in such a structure there can be no ambiguity ; inasmuch as the intention of the Liturgy is broadly and fully declared to the person coming for Baptism, by specific citations of Scripture, which join faith and repentance with Baptism, and by the demands of personal qualification actually pressed upon him. His insincerity and prevarication therefore, if they exist, being in himself, and after having warning c2 20 Oil Bapihiiial Regeneraihm. given, must naturally be understood to intercept the moral and spiritual benefit of the rite. But all these circumstances, which account to our easy comprehension for the conditional tenor of the services to which we have just now adverted, do, in our judgment, entirely lose their application to the Baptism of infants. The Church is in this instance fully aware of the present state and con- dition of the subject to whom the rite is to be applied. The infant is born in a state of sin, and it is incapable of believing and repenting. It is confessedly incapable of any moral act whereby to seek its recovery ; not merely incapable in that sense whereby human nature is generally incapa- ble of doing any thing to its restoration, without the aid of grace from above, but by a stronger degree of incapacity, incapable of even seeing its own wants, and feeling its weakness, or knowing how they may be removed. Its cries are full of weakness, but they are not expressive of any moral desire : its whole imbecility is uninformed by any purpose of heart or determination of thought. This state, which we suppose no one denies, is not un- known to the Church, nor, since it pertains at the same time to the application of the office to be ad- ministered, can it be disregarded by the Church in that office. The possible reasons of exception, therefore, which might exist in the other cases, can have no place here : and since the actual subject is so definitely and universally known, the language On Biqithiiial liegene ration . 21 of the service cannot have a concealed reserve in regard to any such reasons of exception. Tacit reserve, without a hint of condition, or w^ithout a known ground of possible exception, as against the party to whom any promise of benefit is assured, seems to us unintelligible in reason, and intolerable in good faith. We suspect no such dealing in the offices of our Church : we rest therefore in this conclusion, that, since the Church, with an entire knowledge of the present state of the individual, and with a strict attention to it, receives an infant into communion, by Baptism, and declares the in- fant to receive a Regeneration to life in that Bap- tism, her sense is as simple as her language, and that all honest subterfuge of supposition by which that which is in terms absolute should be made precarious, and that which is universal in the obvious meaning should be made limited in the true meaning, is, in this present question, neces- sarily excluded. Moreover, we apprehend that to depart from this direct admission of the obvious meaning of words which carry in them a kind of importunate perspicuity, is to introduce a principle of universal and incurable scepticism into the in- terpretation of doctrines ; insomuch that if it were admitted, we should despair for our own part of ever being able to say that any words could ever ex- press a certain and fixed doctrine, or that any doc- trine could ever be expressed in intelligible words. Hitherto we have endeavoured simply to state 22 On Bajit'ismal Tiegeneratton. the doctrine of the Church on the question of Bap- tismal Regeneration, as interpreters of it, and to draw our interpretation from the public formularies of our Liturgy, pertaining to the rite of Baptism itself. The persons whose works have occasioned these remarks are all members of our Church, who profess to hold no new opinions of their own, nor any not conformable, as they think, to the public national creed. It seems therefore that the ques- tion between them either resolves itself into the strict interpretation of our public doctrine ; or at least, if that interpretation could be well made out, that the question, in its present shape, between them, would virtually be ended. We have in- tended, therefore, to offer our opinion in a way conformable to the need of the occasion, and to confine it closely to the actual range of inquiry. And further, since we think the public formularies of our Liturgy give the most authentic account of those solemn rites which are to be administered in our service, the sacraments are best explained by the offices appointed for them ; and since plain and explicit and reiterated words do not need to be made plainer by any comment from without, we shall think that we have now satisfied, in scope at least, the first end which we proposed, in extract- ing from the offices of Baptism the doctrine of the Church as to its value. We are aware that authorities are much sought for ; that the judgments of divines are collected. On Bajiiistnal Regeneration. 23 and precedents of interpretation arranged, with more or less skill, on one side and the other. The force of such authorities cannot be denied. But we wish earnestly to insist upon the prudence of consulting the original record itself. If it speak a plain sense of its own, its own authority is the most competent to deliver that sense, and its perspicuity is the best pledge to us that we understand it. Other writings can hardly be said either to confirm or to explain it. The habitual reverence, however, which we feel towards great names, will always draw us to a leaning upon their authority ; so that, without their concurrence, we shall scarcely trust the most sound and necessary conclusions of our own understanding. The divines of the Church of England, we apprehend, claim this kind of de- ference to them as justly as any leading men ever had a right to claim it of their profession, their Church, or their Country. In research, in ability, in luminous communication by their writings, they have set themselves as high among the learned of every age, as we believe they have set the standard of sound protestant doctrine in their country among the other churches of the Christian world. To such highly gifted men, we do not refuse any fair appeal ; it being premised, however, that in the subject before us, the appeal to them is made only for gratuitous inquiry. For we repeat it, that our principles of judgment would be turned adrift, if we thought the point was one still reserved to be decided by their comment upon it. 24 Ou Baptismal Regentrat'ion. Our divines are a library in themselves, various in kind, in learning, and in subject. It would be idle to consult them either very largely or at a venture. For, besides the anomalies of style, or the different characters and occasions of their works, we must be aware that the very liberty of the Protestant spirit has the effect of giving more fulness than uniformity to their writings, and that under such freedom, variously used, and according to the discretion of the writer, with a general agreement of doctrine there may be, there must be, a great diversity in the complexion of their works, and, in the detail of them, great latitude in the way of putting particular clauses and portions of doc- trine. To proceed properly towards our object, we must make some selection among them. The writers most worthy to be selected as wit- nesses to the doctrine of our Church are those who combine these two recommendations ; viz. who have been themselves most distinguished by the confidence and veneration shewn to them by their inferior brethren, and who have also written pro- fessedly upon the subject in question. The first qualification gives weight to their evidence, the second gives it what may be called authenticity. For no man's casual observation is to be put on a par with his distinct proposition ; nor is one man's proposition as good as another's. Had all the serious and learned divines of our On Baptismal Regeneration. - 25 Church to give their voice in favour of the one man whom they would hold forth as the greatest light of the Reformation — as the person whose mind had most fully comprehended and laboured upon the whole compass of Reformed Truth, and whose writ- ings do still preserve the most highly sanctioned memorial of it ; — we know not whether they would name any other than him, who, having received from the great fathers of the Reformation the office of unfolding, complete in all its parts, that truth which they with their faithful voice had pro- claimed among us, first reduced and recorded our whole national creed with its illustration and evi- dence — Bishop Jewel. He, with a more leisurely survey of the bearing of every doctrine than could be taken even by the leading reformers themselves, who, in the first effort and agony of their work, with rude and noble simplicity, threw down the fabric of error, and hewed the granite from the quarry, and brought it for the building, he, coming in the close of their labours, united and perfected all that they had prepared or done, as much as any one man can be said to have done it. To the theological inquirer, he is a master builder of the system of our doctrine. His formal and deliberate judgment, therefore, is of the greatest value. The doctrine of the sacraments, as our readers know, was one which the reformers found among the most corrupted. The gross notions of the 26 On Baptismal Regeneration. Romanists respecting them, disguised under the name of mystery, had compounded an ostentatious ceremonial and a faith in the power of the Church, into a superstition which had nearly devoured the very soul of that religion which should teach the worship of God in spirit and in truth. The refuta- tion of error so gross was easy ; but at the same time it was hazardous, as not unlikely, by the pro- vocation of the extreme folly to be set aside, to have driven the reform into the opposite extreme, that of stripping the two sacraments, that really were such, too much of their spiritual nature. In some churches, if we are rightly informed, the change of doctrine has been so carried to excess, that the temptation to it was strong. But we may admire, in this respect, the temper of argument wherewith our own patrons treated their subject. To make up their creed, they canvassed, compared, and adjusted. Under the leading infallible testi- monies of Scripture, they took reason and antiquity to their aid ; and made good their ground by a progressive analysis in their inquiries, instead of plunging into the fallacy which would persuade them that the flat reverse of error is the truth. They reasoned as they proceeded for that which they assumed, as well as against that which they rejected. This is eminently the method of Bishop Jewel ; and the method was favoured in no small degree both in him and others, by the steady and leisurely march of the actual course of events, in our Reformation, which, under Providence, seems to On Baptismal Regeneration. 27 have added to the fulness no less than to the mode- ration of our entire scheme of doctrine. Individually he wrote much against the Roman- ists, on the sacramental question. And if such a service was likely to have made him think too low rather than too high of the sacraments, there is a force on the safe side, in his assertion of their value. The following are extracts from his works : — "We confess and evermore have taught that in the sacrament of Baptism, by the death and blood of Christ, is given remission of all manner of sinnes ; and that not in half or in part, or by way of imagination, or by fansie, but full, whole, and perfect of all together; so that now, as Saint Paul saith, there is no damnation unto them that be in Christ Jesus." — Defense of the Apologie of the Church of England, p. 219^ " It is granted of all, without contradiction, that one end of all sacraments is to join us unto God, as Dionysius saith here of the Holy Communion, and Paul likewise of the sacrament of Baptisme : ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus ; for as many of you as are Baptised in Christ, have put on Christ." — p. 20 of Private Masse. "When in Baptism our bodies are washed with water, we are taught that our souls are washed in the blood of Christ. The outward washing or sprinkling doth repre- sent the washing and sprinkling which is wrought within us : the water doth signifie the blood of Christ. If we were nothing else but soule. He Avould give us His grace barely and alone, without joining it to any creature, as He doth to * In the edition of his works, foHo, London. 1609. 28 On Baptismal Regeneration. His angels ; but seeing our spirit is drowned in our body, and our flesh doth make our understanding dull, therefore we receive His grace by sensible things." — p. 262, Treatise of the Sacraments. — " What ? are they nothing else but bare and naked signs ? God forbid ! They are the seales of God, heavenly tokens, and signs of the grace, and righteousness, and mercie given and imputed to us. They are not bare signs ; it were blasphemie so to say. The grace of God doth alway work with His sacraments." " Chrysostom saith, — in nobis non simplex aqua opera- tur : sed cum accepit gratiam Spiritus, abluit omnia pec- cata. — So saith Ambrose also, — Spiritus Sanctus descendit, et consecrat aquam. — So saith Cyril. — So said Leo, some- time a bishop of Rome, — Dedit aquse quod dedit Matri. Virtus euim Altissimi et obumbratio Spiritus Saucti quae fecit ut Maria pareret Salvatorem, eadem fecit ut regene- ret unda credentem." — p. 263, ibid. " I will now speake briefly of the sacraments in severall, and leave all idle and vain questions, and only lay open so much as is needful and profitable for you to know. Bap- tism, therefore, is our regeneration or new birth, whereby we are born anew in Christ, and are made the sons of God, and heires of the kingdom of heaven," &c. " For this cause are infants baptized, because they are born in sin and cannot become spiritual, but by this new birth of water and the Spirit. — They are the heires of the promise; the covenant of God's favour is made with them." "Infants are a part of the Church of God : they are the sheep of Christ, and belong to His flock. Why should they not beare the marke of Christ ? They have the promise of salvation : why should they not receive the scale wheieby it is confirmed unto them ? They are of the fellowship of On Baptismal Regeneration. 29 the faithful ; Augustine saith, — ubi ponis parvulos non bap- tizatos ? profecto in mimero credentium. Wliy then should not they be partakers of the sacrament, together with the faithful'?"— p. 265. " Christ, saith the Apostle, loved the church, and gave himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water through the word. Again, according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of the new birth, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. For this cause is baptism called salvation, life, regeneration, the forgivenesse of sins, the power of God to resurrection, the weed of im- mortality. And yet are not these things wrought by the water ; for then what need had we of Christ ? what good did His Passion ? what dotli the Holy Ghost work in our hearts ? what power or force is left to the word of God ? " —p. 266. Not different in kind or in force from the expla- nations of Bishop Jewel are those of Hooker, an- other divine of the same family and order among us. Did we know any more highly esteemed, we should apply to them first ; since we do not, we shall take these Avriters for our guides, till greater can be found. Hooker too has written professedly on the sacraments, in his memorable work, the Ecclesias- tical Polity ; — that work which having been com- posed to defend the fabric of our Church, both without and within, its doctrine as well as its order, may now instruct us what it is that we have to defend. Our extracts from this author shall be shorter, as his work is more generally known and read. Those who may wish to see the whole of his very copious dissertation on the subject will find it 30 On Ba^jlis/nal Reyenei-af'ion. in the fifth book of the Eccles. Polit. cap. 57 to 66. — After specifying some other kinds of use in the sacraments, he adds : " But their chiefest force and virtue consisteth not herein, so much as in that they are heavenly ceremonies which God hath sanctified and ordained to be adminis- tered in His Church. First, as marks whereby to know when God doth impart the vital and saving grace of Christ to all that are capable thereof; and secondly, as means conditional which God requireth in them unto whom He imparteth grace. '^ " It may be hereby both understood that sacraments are necessary, and that the manner of their necessity to life supernatural is not in all respects as food unto natural life, because they contain in themselves no vital force or efficacy — they are not physical but moral instruments of salvation; duties of service and worship ; which unless we perform, as the Author of grace requireth, they are unprofitable. For all receive not the grace of God, which receive the sacraments of His grace. Neither is it ordinarily His will to bestow the grace of sacraments on any, but by the sacra- ments, which grace also they that receive by sacraments, or with sacraments, receive it from Him, and not from them. " Yet then doth Baptism challenge to itself but the inchoation of those graces, the consummation whereof de- pendeth upon mysteries ensuing ?" — p. 273. " We answer, that the fruit of Baptism dependeth only upon the covenant which God hath made ; that God by covenant requireth in the elder sort Faith and Baptism ; in children, the sacrament of Baptism alone, whereunto He hath also given them right by special privilege of birth, within the bosom of the Holy Church ; — that infants, there- fore, which have received Baptism complete, as touching tie mystical perfection thereof, are, by virtue of His own On Baptismal Regeneration. 31 covenant and promise, cleansed from all sin — p. 285. — Bap- tism, wherein the mysterie of our Begeneration is wrovght — p. 287. And till wc come [from iuftmcy] to actual belief, the very sacrament of faith is a shield as strong as after this, the faith of the sacrament, against all contrary infernal powers; which Avhosoever doth think impossible, is un- doubtedly further off from Christian belief, though he be baptized, than are these innocents, which, at their Baptism, although they haA^e no conceit or cogitation of faith, are notwithstanding pure, and free from all opposite cogita- tions ; whereas the other is not free. If therefore, without any fear or scruple, we may account them and term them believers only for their outward professions' sake, which inwardly are further from faith than infants, why not in- fants much more at the time of their solemn initiation by Baptism, the sacrament of faith, whereunto they not only conceive nothing opposite, hut have also that grace given them, which is the first and most effectual cause out of which our belief groweth ? — p. 292. For when we know how Christ in general hath said, that of such is the kingdom of heaven, Avhich kingdom is the inheritance of God's elect, and do withal behold how His providence hath called them unto the first beginnings of eternal life, and presented them at the well-spring of new birth, wherein original sin is purged ; besides which sin, there is no hinderance of their salvation known unto us, as themselves will grant; hard it were, &c. p. 293. — The ancient custom of the Church was, after they had baptized, to add thereunto imposition of hands, with effectual prayer for the illumination of God^s most Holy Spirit, to confirm and perfect that which the grace of the same Spirit had already begun in Baptism." — p. 302. Hammond has written in form upon the subject of infant Baptism. Speaking of the reasons of it, he says ; " One sort of those reasons I suppose myself to know, 32 On Bapt'txmdl Reyenenif'ion. viz. that by the promises of God^ signed to them in that sacrament, they may be more solemnly secured of a right in the imvard assistance of the Spirit of Christ, &c. To these I may further add, that as Baptism is to infants an institution of Christ, so it gives a virtue to the external act and words pronounced of the minister, so far as to make them member's of Christ, and children of God, and heii's of His kingdom ; and this hath be^n the doctrine of the Church of God." — p. 618. vol. i. of his works, ed. 1684. The admirable Bishop Taylor has given a full and precise treatise upon it in his Life of Christ. " Infants receive many benefits by the susception of Bap- tism. 1. The first eff'ect of Baptism is, that in it Ave are admitted to the kingdom of Christ, off'ered, and presented to Him. 2. Children may be adopted into the covenant of the gospel, that is, made partakers of the communion of Saints. 3. In Baptism we are born again. 4. Baptism takes off the evil of original sin. 5. The Baptism of infants does to them the greatest part of that benefit which belongs to remission of sins. 6. The next great efl'ect of Baptism wliich chihlren can have is the Spirit of sanctification : and if they can be baptized with water and the Holy Spirit, it will be sacri- lege to rob them of so holy treasures. 7. That Baptism, which doth consign men and women to an holy resurrec- tion doth also equally consign infants, hath nothing, that I know of, pretended against it. 8. And after all this, if Baptism be that means which God hath appointed to save us, it would be well if we would do our parts towards in- fants' final interest." This author has enlarged on each of these heads with his usual exuberance of thought and matter. Let us recollect that he is the author, who, above all others, has made theology practical : every doc- On Bd/ilisnidl Beyeneratlon. 38 trine with him is a homily, every speculation with him ends in piety, and prayer, and the personal in- terests of a holy life. Let us recollect on the other hand that he is the author of " The Liberty of Pro- phesying," a work which shews what were his high principles of theological inquiry. A man so intent upon practical holiness, and the energy of a right faith in every action of life, and, at the same time, who had so absolute and independent a grasp of protestant principles, is not soon to be suspected of laying more stress upon the virtue of any rite, than his Church, or the reason of the thing required. Barrow's testimony to the general consent of the Catholic Church, in believing that every Christian is a partaker of grace, as a consequent of Baptism, is as follows : " In fine, whatever some few persons, or some petty sects, (as the Pelagians of old, the Socinians now,) may have deemed, it hath been the doctrine constantly, and with very general consent, delivered in the Catholic Church, that to all persons by the holy mystery of Baptism duly initiated to Christianity, or admitted into the Communion of Christ's body, the grace of God's Holy Spirit certainly is bestowed, enabling them to perform the conditions then undertaken by them." — Sermon 45, vol. iii. p. 526. There can be no doubt, we suppose, that, in ascribing this doctrine to the Catholic Church, he meant strongly to affirm, that it is also the doctrine of our own. D 34 Oil Baplismal Ref/enerafJon. We believe also that, generally, the most learned of our divines, for a century after the Reformation, in treating either of Regeneration or Baptism, con- sidered internal and Spiritual Regeneration to be so connected with Baptism, so to si)nng from it, and to be communicated in it, as well as be signified by it, that, unhesitatingly, and without any argument, when they are simply stating their creed, they as- sume this connexion as a principle of their divinity, and proceed to justify it only when they are writing to meet the objections of persons without the Church. Within the pale of their communion, it is, as far as we are acquainted with the best writers of our Church, an acknowledged article. As the great body of Christians to whom they wrote, and of whom they wrote, were such as had been baptized in in- fancy, it follows that their theology did not leave infants who had been brought to Baptism in an un- regenerate state. The rite is spoken of by them as the fountain of Christian life, not partially, but in unrestricted terms. Its value was both compre- hensive and spiritual : it was the beginning of a new life, that new life a Christian one, and the be- ginning of that new life to all. As an example of this prompt and immediate reference of Regeneration to Baptism, without any question or suspicion, as if the point needed to be made out, we shall quote a passage, among many others, which might be taken from other eminent writers, from the learned and accurate Joseph Mede. In a discourse upon these words, hta XovTpov 7ra\ijyeveaLa