III.

BAPTISM.

"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."-Gal. iii. 26-29.

WHEREVER opposite views are held with warmth by religious-minded men, we may take for granted that there is some higher truth which embraces both. All high truth is the union of two contradictories. Thus predestination and free-will are opposites: and the truth does not lie between these two, but in a higher reconciling truth which leaves both true. So with the opposing views of baptism. Men of equal spirituality are ready to sacrifice all to assert, or to deny, the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. And the truth, I believe, will be found, not in some middle, moderate, timid doctrine which skillfully avoids extremes, but in a truth larger than either of these opposite views, which is the basis of both, and which really is that for which each party tenaciously clings to its own view as to a matter of life and death.

The present occasion* only requires us to examine three views.

I. That of Rome.

II. That of modern Calvinism.

III. That of (as I believe) Scripture and the Church of England.

I. The doctrine of Rome respecting baptism. We will take her own authorities.

1. "If any one say that the sin of Adam. is taken away, either by the powers of human nature or by any other remedy than the merit of the One Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ, or denies that the merit of Jesus Christ, duly conferred by the sacrament of baptism in the church form, is applied to adults as well as to children-let him be accursed." -Sess. v. 4.

"If any one deny that the imputation of original sin is re

*The recent decision on the Gorham case of the Privy Council.

mitted by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is conferred in baptism, or even asserts that the whole of that which has the true and proper character of sin, is not taken away, but only not imputed-let him be accursed."—Sess.

v. 5.

"If any one say that grace is not given by sacraments of this kind always and to all, so far as God's part is concerned, but only at times, and to some, although they be duly received let him be accursed."

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'If any one say that by the sacraments of the New Covenant themselves, grace is not conferred by the efficacy of the rite (opus operatum), but that faith alone is sufficient for obtaining grace-let him be accursed."

"If any one say that in three sacraments, i. e., baptism, confirmation, and orders, a character is not impressed upon the soul, i. e., a certain spiritual and indelible mark (for which reason they can not be repeated)—let him be accursed."Sess. vii. cap. 7-9.

"By baptism, putting on Christ, we are made a new creation in Him, obtaining plenary and entire remission of all

sins."

It is scarcely possible to misrepresent the doctrine so plainly propounded. Christ's merits are instrumentally applied by baptism; original sin is removed by a change of nature; a new character is imparted to the soul; a germinai principle or seed of life is miraculously given; and all this in virtue not of any condition in the recipient, nor of any condition at all except that of the due performance of the rite.

This view is held, with varieties and modifications of many kinds, by an increasingly large number of the members of the Church of England; but we do not concern ourselves with these timid modifications, which painfully attempt to draw some subtle hair's-breadth distinction between themselves and the above doctrine. The true, honest, and only honest representation of this view is that put forward undisguisedly by Rome.

When it is objected to the Romanist that there is no evidence in the life of the baptized child different from that given by the unbaptized sufficient to make credible a change so enormous, he replies, as in the case of the other sacrament, The miracle is invisible. You can not see the bread and wine become flesh and blood; but the flesh and blood are there, whether you see them or not. You can not see the effects of regeneration, but they are there, hidden, whether visible to you or not. In other words, Christ has declared that it is with every one born of the Spirit as with the wind, "Thou

nearest the sound thereof." But the Romanist distinctly holds that you can not hear the sound-that the wind hath blown, but there is no sound-that the Spirit hath descended, and there are no fruits whereby the tree is known.

In examining this view, at the outset we deprecate those vituperative and ferocious expressions which are used so commonly against the Church of Rome-unbecoming in private conversation, disgraceful on the platform, they are still more unpardonable in the pulpit. I am not advocating that feeble softness of mind which can not speak strongly because it can not feel strongly. I know the value, and in their place, the need of strong words. I know that the Redeemer used them stronger and keener never fell from the lips of man. I am aware that our Reformers used coarse and vehement language; but we do not imbibe the Reformers' spirit by the mere adoption of the Reformers' language; nay, paradoxical as it may seem, the use of their language even proves a degeneracy from their spirit. You will find harsh and gross expressions enough in the Homilies, but remember that when they spoke thus, Rome was in the ascendency. She had the power of fire and sword; and the men who spoke so were candidates for martyrdom, by the expressions that they used. Every one might be called upon by fire and steel to prove the quality of what was in him, and account for the high pretension of his words. I grant the grossness. But when they spoke of the harlotries. of Rome, and spoke of her adulteries, and fornications, and lies which she had put in full cup to the lip of nations, it was the sublime defiance of free-hearted men against oppression in high places, and falsehood dominant. But now, when Rome is no longer dominant, and the only persecutions that we hear of are the petty persecutions of Protestants among themselves, to use language such as this is not the spirit of a daring Reformer, but only the pusillanimous shriek of a cruel cowardice which keeps down the enemy whose rising it is afraid of.

It has this

We will do justice to this doctrine of Rome. merit at least, that it recognizes the character of a church: it admits it to be a society, and not an association. An as sociation is an arbitrary union. Men form associations for temporary reasons; and, arbitrarily made, they can be arbitrarily dissolved. Society, on the contrary, is made, not by will, but facts. Brotherhood, sonship, families, nations are nature's work: real facts. Rome acknowledges this. It permits no arbitrary drawing of the lines of that which calls itself the Church. A large, broad, mighty field: the Christian

world: all baptized: nay, expressly, even those who are baptized by heretics. It shares the spirit, instead of monopolizing it.

Practically, therefore, in the matter of education, we should teach children on the basis on which Rome works. We say as Rome says, You are the child of God: baptism declares you such. Rome says as Paul says, “As many of you as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Consequently, we distinguish between this doctrine as held by spiritual and as held by unspiritual men. Spirituality often neutralizes error in views. Men are often better than their creeds. The Calvinist ought to be an Antinomian-he is not. So, in holy-minded men, this doctrine of baptismal regeneration loses its perniciousness-nay, even be comes, in erroneous form, a precious, blessed truth.

It is quite another thing, however, held by unspiritual Our objections to this doctrine are,

men.

1. Because it assumes baptism to be not the testimony to a fact, but the fact itself. Baptism proclaims the child of God. The Romanist says it creates him. Then and there a mysterious change takes place, inward, spiritual, effected by an external rite. This makes baptism not a sacrament, but

an event.

2. Because it is materialism of the grossest kind. The order of Christian life is from within to that which is without -from the spiritual truth to the material expression of it. The Roman order is from the outward to the creation of the inward. This is magic. The Jewish Cabalists believed that the pronunciation of certain magical words engraved on the seal of Solomon would perform marvels. The whole Eastern world fancied that such spells could transform one being into another-a brute into a man, or a man into a brute. Books containing such trash were burnt at Ephesus in the dawn of Christianity. But here, in the midday of Christianity, we have belief in such spells, given, it is true that it is said, by God, whereby the demoniacal nature can be exorcised, the Divine implanted in its stead, and the evil heart transformed unconsciously into a pure spirit.

Now this is degrading God. Observe the results: A child is to be baptized on a given day; but when that day arrives the child is unwell, and the ceremony must be postponed another week or month. Again a delay takes place -the day is damp or cold. At last the time arrives; the service is read; it may require, if read slowly, five minutes more than ordinarily. Then and there, when that reading is slowly accomplished, the mystery is achieved. And all this

time, while the child is ill, while the weather is bad, while the reader procrastinates-I say it solemnly-the Eternal Spirit who rules this universe must wait patiently, and come down, obedient to a mortal's spell, at the very second that it suits his convenience. God must wait attendance on the caprice of a careless parent, ten thousand accidents, nay, the leisure of an indolent or an immoral priest. Will you dare insult the Majesty on high by such a mockery as this result? 3. We object, because this view makes Christian life a struggle for something that is lost, instead of a progress to something that lies before. Let no one fancy that Rome's doctrine on this matter makes salvation an easy thing. The Spirit of God is given the germ is implanted; but it may be crushed, injured, destroyed. And her doctrine is, that venial sins after baptism are removed by absolutions and attendance on the ordinances: whereas for mortal sins there is —not no hope--but no certainty ever after until the judgment-day. Vicious men may make light of such teaching, and get periodic peace, from absolution, to go and sin again; but to a spiritual Romanist this doctrine is no encouragement for laxity. Now observe, after sin life becomes the ef fort to get back to where you were years ago. It is the sad longing glance at the Eden from which you have been expelled, which is guarded now by a fiery sword in this world forever. And, therefore, whoever is familiar with the writings of some of the earliest leaders of the present movement Romeward, writings that rank among the most touching and beautiful of English compositions, will remember the marked tone of sadness which pervades them-their high, sad longings after the baptismal purity that is gone-their mournful contemplations of a soul that once glistened with baptismal dew, now "seamed and scarred" with the indelible marks of sin.

The true Christian life is ever onward, full of trust and hope a life wherein even past sin is no bar to saintliness, but the step by which you ascend to higher vantage-ground of holiness. The "indelible grace of baptism," how can it teach that?

II. The second view is that held by what we, for the sake of avoiding personalities, call modern Calvinism. It draws a distinction between the visible and the invisible Church. It holds that baptism admits all into the former, but into the latter only a special few. Baptismal regeneration as applied to the first, is merely a change of state- though what is meant by a change of state it were hard to say, or to deter