SERMON IV.

ON THE BAPTISMAL OFFICES.

TITUS iii. 5.

The washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.

I AM to speak to you this day of the offices appointed by the Church for the ministration of the sacrament of Baptism; and may God the Holy Ghost, through whose gracious influences upon our souls we were in that holy sacrament regenerated, be with us, that the Gospel propounded in this ordinance may be blessed to us, so that we may be more and more zealous to make our calling and election sure!

For Baptism, the Church of England provides us with three offices:-I. The Ministration of Public Baptism of Infants, to be used in Church; II. The Ministration of Private Baptism of Children in Houses; III. The Ministration of Baptism to such as are of Riper Years, and able to answer for themselves.

The first office is the basis of the other two; the two latter differing from it only in those matters of detail which the alteration of circumstances requires. To the Ministration of Public Baptism of Infants I shall, there

fore, chiefly direct your attention, only incidentally making observations on the other offices.

And here we must commence with a few remarks on the practice of baptizing infants, as the Baptism of Infants is nowhere commanded in Scripture. The Baptism of Infants is rather the necessary result of two great doctrines, which none except heretics are found to deny; viz. that all men are conceived and born in sin; and that the inward and spiritual grace which is conveyed to the soul by the Holy Ghost, through the instrumentality of this sacrament, is a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness. In other words, if you believe in original sin, and if you believe that regeneration is the grace of Baptism, from this faith Infant Baptism follows as a matter of course. If you do not believe these facts, why do you bring your infants to be baptized at all? If men deny either of these facts,-either original sin, or the regenerating grace of Baptism, they can only protect themselves against the charge of superstition, by producing some express command in Scripture for the Baptism of Infants. So inconsistent are those persons who deny either the doctrine of original sin, or the doctrine of regeneration, and yet resort to Infant Baptism! But the question assumes a very different shape with us Catholic and orthodox Christians, who believe in these fundamental verities of the Bible. If our children are born under the curse of original sin; if one by one they come into the world under the Divine curse; if no one so born can escape the penalty of original sin, except through union with Christ our Saviour; and if "as many of us as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ';" if, as the Apostle says, "we are buried with Him in Baptism';" if,

as St. Peter teaches us, "Baptism doth also now save us3, which, of course, it can only do by uniting us to Christ,

1 Gal. iii. 27.

2 Col. ii. 12.

31 Pet. iii. 21.

the only Saviour; if these things be so, the Christian parent asks, not "Must I, am I commanded to bring my infant to Baptism ?" but, "May I, am I permitted?" And joyful is the sound to him of his Saviour's words, "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." An ample permission! But how are they, not as yet capable of faith, to come to Jesus except through Baptism? When our Lord gave His command, that nations should be taught and baptized, because He did not exclude infants, we may argue that He intended to include them; since the Jews, in baptizing converts, baptized the children as well as adults; and to Jews who would so understand Him our Lord spake and in like manner, when we read of the Apostles baptizing households, we may conclude that they did what their successors also have done ever since, that they baptized the infants; for if they had not baptized infants, their omission so to do would have been expressly recorded in what was written for the instruction of Jews as well as Gentiles. So easy is it to find authority from Scripture for what we do in this respect, if our action is the result of our faith in the two great scriptural doctrines to which we have referred: whereas, by the absence of an express command, heretics, who deny the facts of original sin, and of regeneration as the grace of Baptism, are justly censured for superstition when they bring their infants to the font, although, on the faith of the Church, infants so brought are received.

The immense importance attached by the Church to the administration of this sacrament appears from this, that she pronounces upon the fate of the infants thus baptized: "It is certain, by God's word, that children which are baptized, dying before they commit actual sin, are undoubtedly saved"." What comfort, what holy joy do Christian parents derive from this assurance! The perils of infancy

4 See Rubric at the end of the Office.

are so many, that no believer will delay the Baptism of his infant longer than he can help. He is aware that the law of election, the law by which God elects some persons and not others, is undiscoverable to us: but one mark of election is Baptism; and how vast the consolation, if our infant die, to know for certain that he has received the sign, and has gone into the next world an elect infant! What may be the fate of other infants we know not; we only know that they were born into this world under a curse, and God hath not so ordered events as visibly to remove the curse from them: and therefore, they who were born into this world in original sin, have, with the curse of original sin, gone into the next world. But the Church of England, herein differing from the Romish assembly of Trent, pronounces nothing whatever on their condition. She is content (assuming as she does the regeneration of every infant that is baptized) with saying, “It is certain by God's word that children which are baptized, dying before they commit actual sin, are undoubtedly saved."

Now the office according to which the clergy of the Church of England administer this sacrament to infants may be divided into three parts.

The first consists of the preparation for Baptism. It is derived from an old office in the primitive Church, which was prepared for the admission of a convert into the order of Catechumens, in which order he frequently remained for some time previously to Baptism, when Baptism was administered to him as an adult. This office was blended with that of Baptism in the middle ages, when by the conversion of nations adult Baptism had become infrequent; and even in the office of Infant Baptism, the ceremonies of admitting a Catechumen were adopted. At the Reformation, our Church at first retained, but afterwards discontinued, the mystical and figurative rites, such as the

giving of salt and the anointing with oil, which belonged to the original office of Catechumens, not in all, but in many of the primitive Churches; but she retained the ancient prayers and addresses.

The introductory part of the office relates first to the child which is brought to Baptism, and the congregation are reminded that all men are conceived and born in sin; which shows that infants are sinners, creatures involved in original sin the congregation is also reminded that our Saviour Christ saith, "None can enter the kingdom of God, except he be regenerate and born anew of water and of the Holy Ghost;" this sacrament thus being, as the Catechism teaches, generally necessary to salvation, they are then besought to call upon God, "that He will grant unto this child that thing which by nature he cannot have; that he may be baptized with water and the Holy Ghost, and received into Christ's holy Church, and be made a lively member of the same." Then follow the two collects, through which the Church does what the congregation have just been exhorted to do; in the second of which, used in our Church long before the Reformation, we call upon God "for this infant," "that he, coming to Thy holy Baptism, may receive remission of his sins by spiritual regeneration :" the purport of both collects being, first, that God by His Holy Spirit would regenerate the infant, and then grant him the grace of perseverance; because, in spite of his regeneration, the Church knows that the child may perish everlastingly.

That portion of St. Mark's Gospel is then read, in which we have our Lord's command to His disciples, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God;" a passage which, on the principle before laid down, the Church produces, in order to show the Divine sanction she possesses for her practice of Infant Baptism.