Part 1

Transcribed from the 1865 Hatchard & Co. edition by David Price, email [email protected]

BAPTISM AS TAUGHT IN The Bible and the Prayer Book.

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BY EDWARD HOARE, M.A., INCUMBENT OF TRINITY CHURCH, TUNBRIDGE WELLS.

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“_Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts_; _and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you_, _with meekness and fear_; _having a good conscience_.”—1 Peter iii. 15, 16.

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SIXTH EDITION.

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LONDON: HATCHARD & CO., 187, PICCADILLY, W. Booksellers to H.R.H. the Princess of Wales. 1865.

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BAPTISM AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE AND THE PRAYER BOOK.

BY EDWARD HOARE, M.A., INCUMBENT OF TRINITY CHURCH, TUNBRIDGE WELLS.

FEW subjects have occasioned greater controversy than that of baptism, and few have been discussed with greater eagerness. The baptismal service of the Church of England has been a stumbling-block to many without her pale, and been made the basis of the extreme views entertained by many of those within. Some have thought it unscriptural, and have resolved in consequence upon separation from our Church; while others have regarded it as containing the Church’s principles more distinctly than the Articles, and have founded upon it the doctrine of spiritual regeneration as invariably connected with the sacrament. The object of the present tract is to compare the Prayer Book with the Bible: in doing which it will be needless to attempt any statement of the various opinions expressed upon the subject; our simpler and safer course will be to turn at once to the books themselves.

THE BIBLE

of course must claim precedence, and our endeavour will be to ascertain

I. What is the inward and spiritual blessing connected with the sacrament of baptism in Scripture?

II. What is the nature of the connexion?

I. That there are certain high and rich gifts connected with baptism in sacred Scripture must be acknowledged by all who study it in a childlike spirit. Men may entertain different opinions as to the connexion, and even as to the nature of the gifts, but that there are such gifts it is surely impossible to deny. Few words may suffice to shew that the sum and substance of these gifts is a saving union with our Lord Jesus Christ. In 1 Cor. xii. 13, it is written, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” That these words apply to the inward and spiritual grace of which baptism is a sign and means, lies on their very surface. They are plainly speaking of an inward and spiritual work, for they ascribe it to the agency of the Holy Ghost himself—“By one Spirit are ye all baptized;” while the use of the word “baptized” is proof of a connexion between this inward change and the outward sacrament. The inward grace is the subject of the passage, and this grace is connected by the language with the outward sign. We are, therefore, fully warranted in employing this text as a description of that blessing with which baptism is connected. It does not teach us the nature of the connection, but it does teach us the nature of the gift. And what is this blessing? The formation of a union with Christ Jesus; an engrafting into the living vine; an incorporation amongst the members of His body. The agent who forms this union is the Holy Ghost. “By one Spirit.” And the body with which the union is established is the mystical body of the Lord Jesus Christ; the body of which the Apostle speaks when he says, “And gave Him to be the Head over all things to the Church, which is His body.” (Eph. i. 22, 23.)

It is of the utmost importance that all should bear in mind that this is the great, grand gift to be sought in baptism. The Bible says not a word of the implanting of a principle which may or may not grow in after life; it speaks of nothing short of a union with our Lord in its highest, holiest, and most efficacious sense. If the grace be really given, in the fullest sense in which the words can be used we are made members of the body of our Lord. The same appears from many other passages. In Gal. iii. 26, 27, we read, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” And again, Rom. vi 3, 4, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death.” These words are sometimes thought to apply simply to the profession made. As we are not now inquiring into the nature of the connexion, we need not pause to discuss that question: our only object at present is to shew that a union with Christ is the inward blessing with which baptism is connected in Scripture. And this appears plainly in both passages, for the words are, “Ye have put on Christ.” “Ye are baptized into Jesus Christ.”

If this be plain, the remainder of our present inquiry will be easy: for there are two changes immediately produced when this union with Christ is formed, viz., a change of condition and a change of heart.

CHANGE OF CONDITION.

No sooner is a union with Christ established, than there is a complete change in our position before God. When a man is not in Christ, he stands alone, and bears the whole weight of sin, both original and actual. He is like the manslayer outside the city of refuge, or like those who saw the waters of the flood arising, but were themselves outside the ark. Those that are “without Christ” are “without hope,” for it is written, (Eph. ii. 12,) “That at that time ye were without Christ” (separate from Christ, not in union with Him), “being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” Nothing can be plainer than the contrast here drawn between men without Christ and men in Christ. Those without Him are strangers from the covenant; but those in Him are reconciled, or made nigh by His blood. In Christ they are justified from all things. They are no longer under the curse, because His atonement has removed it from their head. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” (Coloss. i. 14.) They are no more regarded as sinners, for as their sin has been laid on Christ, so His righteousness is imputed unto them. “He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

CHANGE OF HEART.

But there will also be a change of heart. It is wholly impossible that there should be a union so close, so intimate, so rich in gifts as this is, without the likeness of our Lord being formed in the heart of Him that is so united to him. The member of Christ must be like Him. This seems so obvious as scarcely to require proof. If we be so made one with Christ as to be accepted in Him, to share the love shewn Him, to be regarded in all respects as members of His body, we must be moulded after His likeness, and changed by the Holy Ghost after His image. The words of St. Paul, “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit,” set this question at rest at once. They shew that there must be a change of heart whenever there is a union with the Lord. The same appears from 2 Cor. v, 17, 18, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, &c.” The change here spoken of is not one of condition, or of covenant relationship with God; but a new creation of the soul, a renovation of the habit of the mind, of the thoughts, of the affections, of the whole bearing of the new created spirit. “Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.”

None, therefore, can claim a union with Christ in whom no such change has taken place. The careless, thoughtless, prayerless professor may be in outward fellowship with the Church; but he is not, he cannot be, partaker of a union with Jesus. No system of man can dethrone from their sovereign authority those awakening words of sacred Scripture, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.”

A union with Christ, therefore, involves invariably a change of condition and a change of nature; it only remains that we examine whether these change are connected in the word of God with baptism. If our first conclusion were correct, that a union with Christ is the blessing connected with the sacrament, it ought to follow that these two gifts are connected with it likewise.

What then saith the Scripture respecting the change of condition, or the pardon of our sins? In Acts ii. 38, we read, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” And in Acts xxii 16, “Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” Can anything be clearer than that there is a connexion in these passages between baptism and forgiveness?

A similar connexion may be observed between baptism and a change of heart.

In John iii 5, believers are said to be “born of water and of the Spirit.” In the passage above referred to, Acts ii. 38, the gift of the Holy Ghost is described as a gift consequent on baptism. “Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” In Eph. v. 26, there is a clear connexion between baptism and the cleansing power of the word. “That He might sanctify it with the washing of water by the word.” (See also Rom. vi.)

The whole of Scripture, therefore, is harmonious. The great, grand, primary gift is a union with Jesus; and as this is inseparably connected with forgiveness of sin and renewal of heart, so these two blessings are connected with the sacrament of baptism. This is the sense in which throughout the following pages we employ the term “regeneration.”

It is important that this definition should be borne in mind, for, if we are not agreed as to the meaning of terms, there can be no hope of agreement in our conclusions. When, therefore, the word regeneration is used in this tract it is in the higher sense just described. It is not used for that admission into the visible church with all its privileges and responsibilities which invariably takes place at baptism; nor is it spoken of as the sowing of a certain seed, which may or may not grow in after life; but it is employed to express the commencement of a new life in the Lord Jesus Christ invariably accompanied by justification and change of heart. I am anxious that there should be no mistake on this point; for those who do not believe in the invariability of baptismal grace are sometimes said to take low views of the sacrament of baptism. But nothing can be further from the fact, for it is just because we take high views of the spiritual grace connected with it that we believe that spiritual grace to be incompatible with the ungodly lives of too many of the baptized.

We have thus far spoken of these spiritual blessings without attempting to define their connexion with the outward sign. Our only concern, hitherto, has been to shew that there is such a connexion clearly pointed out in the word of God. It now behoves us to examine—

II. Into the nature of that connexion.

1. And first we may remark, that the connexion is of such a character as to lead the Apostles when addressing their converts to assume the spiritual gift to have been received wherever the outward sacrament had been administered. The language of St. Paul to the Corinthians may illustrate what we mean. He is addressing a body of professing Christians, of persons baptized in the name of Jesus, and he assumes without the least caution or qualification that they were really what they professed to be, true, devoted, regenerate believers. “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.” (1 Cor. i. 2.) So also, as baptism was the visible act of union, he assumes that the Holy Spirit had been pleased to accompany it, and that they had been really united to their Lord; as, for example, when he says “By one Spirit are ye all baptized into one body.” The same remark may be made of almost every passage in which mention is made to believers of their baptism. The Apostles gave free scope to their affectionate and hopeful interest; they addressed professors on the assumption that they were in fact what they were in profession; that they had received the gift of which they had received the sign and seal.

2. But secondly we may remark, that in the doctrinal statements of the Word of God the spiritual grace is proved to be separable from the outward sign.

As there are some passages where baptized believers are addressed, so there are others in which the doctrines of the gospel are defined and taught. The former correspond to the Liturgy, the latter to the Articles of our Church. It is very important to observe this distinction; for in the different classes of passages different modes of expression must be expected. Of course the whole of sacred Scripture, being inspired by the same Spirit, speaks the same truth; but it is one of the perfections of the Bible that it conveys truth in every form both of statement and application. We are bound, therefore, to study these various forms; and without doing so, we can never hope either to receive or convey the mind of God. Now it is obvious we should naturally look for the principle of assumption in that class of passages in which our baptismal privileges are made the subject of personal appeal. If regeneration were not assumed, the appeal would be altogether powerless. If the writer were to pause to fence in his argument, and check himself by his expository cautions, the whole address would be stripped of force and interest. When St. Paul, _e.g._, with an overflowing heart, writes to the Colossians, “Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, &c.,” he cannot stop to caution them against presumption, or to point out the necessary signs of their election. Just so in addressing baptized persons, he appeals to them as regenerate without destroying the force of his address by cautions as to the nature of regeneration. Such cautions are given in the doctrinal passages of the Scriptures. To these, therefore, we must turn for exact and dogmatical statements of Christian truth. Now, as in the hortatory addresses of the Apostles, regeneration is invariably assumed until sad facts prove the contrary; so in the doctrinal statements of the Bible invariable grace is no less explicitly denied.

(1.) In such passages it is laid down as a general law of God’s kingdom that no outward ordinances whatever can invariably convey divine grace. It is our privilege, as believers, to expect His presence while in the way of His judgments we wait for His blessing; but “God is a Spirit and they that worship must worship Him in spirit and in truth,” nor are we anywhere warranted in asserting that any act on man’s part is invariably accompanied with any gift on God’s part. He does not bind His gifts to our actions, even if those actions be hallowed by His own authority. Only examine his language respecting all His appointed ordinances.

_Circumcision_. “He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” (Rom. ii. 28, 29.)

_Sacrifice_. Great blessings were attached to sacrifices, but not invariably; for “The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind.” (Prov. xxi. 27.)

_Prayer_. We know the rich promises attached by God to prayer; but prayer itself may be powerless; for “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.” (Prov. xxviii. 9.)

_Preaching_. There is scarcely any ordinance to which such language is applied as is used of preaching. It is “the power of God” (1 Cor. i. 18); the channel by which “faith cometh” (Rom x. 17); an instrument of the new birth (1 Peter i. 23, 25); and nothing less than a means of salvation to the hearer (1 Tim. iv. 16). Yet we must not argue even from this that the personal benefit is invariable; for “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.” (1 Cor. i. 18.)

But are not the two _sacraments_ an exception? Certainly not that of the Lord’s Supper. The blessing connected with this sacrament is the highest and choicest of which the Christian soul is capable, even the communion of the body and blood of Christ our Saviour. But this is not invariably given, for in some cases the communion is a curse and not a blessing. “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.” (1 Cor. xi. 29.)

We should gather, therefore, from the harmony of God’s dealings, that the spiritual grace was not invariably attached to the outward sign in Baptism. We find that under every dispensation He attached certain moral conditions, such as faith and repentance, which were pre-requisites, to any special grace conveyed by His ordinances. If Baptism be an exception to this general law we should expect to find some statement to this effect in sacred Scripture. If there be any deviation from God’s wonted principles of religious government we should naturally expect to find the deviation explicitly taught. We might reasonably look for some dogmatical passage in which it is declared that every baptized person is invariably made one with Christ. But it we look in vain for such a passage. There are texts in which the connexion is assumed, but we may safely assert that there is not one single passage in which, as a matter of doctrine, invariability is either taught or proved. If, however, it be an exception to the general law, it must be so from one of two causes. Either there must be something peculiar in its nature as a sacrament, which makes the connexion sacramentally invariable without reference to moral character, or there must be something in the moral character of the recipient which invariably insures the blessing.

That there is nothing peculiar in its nature as a sacrament is amply proved by the language of St. Peter. “The like figure whereunto baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God), by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (1 Pet iii. 21). A certain character is here asserted to be needful in the recipient: the blessing is not given unless there be the answer of a good conscience towards God; and there is no sacramental peculiarity which excepts Baptism from the general law, and attaches the gift invariably to the sign.

It is argued, however, that infants oppose no obstacle to the operation of Divine grace, and, therefore that in their case the moral character of the recipient invariably insures the blessing. We are not about to discuss this question, for it is not amongst “the things that are written.” There is not a word upon the subject in the Scriptures, and, therefore, we can only expect to be perplexed and led astray when we attempt to define and to determine. This, only, we would remark—that there is no argument drawn from the moral innocence of infants to prove their invariable regeneration, which would not equally prove that Esau was as much a child of God as Jacob. They were born on the same day, and of the same parents; they were circumcised by the same persons under the same circumstances, and we leave it to those who believe God’s gifts to become invariable through the moral innocence of infants to explain the words of God himself, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” (Rom. ix. 13.)

(2.) Again, In all the doctrinal passages of Scripture the new birth is said to be invariably accompanied by holiness of personal character.

Only refer to the first epistle of St. John, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” (1 John iii. 9, 10.) “Everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love.” (1 John iv. 7, 8.) “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” (1 John v. 4.) “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.” (1 John v. 18.)

There are some acknowledged difficulties in these passages; but we make a fearless appeal to any unprejudiced mind: do they not teach beyond the possibility of controversy that the man without faith and without love is not born of God, and that we have no scriptural warrant for calling those regenerate who grow up in sin, who spend their strength in sin, and who go to the grave with the curse of unrepented sin upon their heads?

(3.) The practice of the Apostles accords with these doctrinal statements. They always assumed regeneration in baptized professors until sad facts proved the contrary; but there was a limit to this assumption. And when these sad facts occurred, they declared in language the most explicit that such characters were not regenerate by God.

The language of St. Peter to Simon Magus in Acts viii, 21, is not addressed to him as to a regenerate man in a state of inconsistency; but to an unregenerate man in a state of false profession. In one sense Simon had believed. Like the devils he had been convinced, but he had no union with his Saviour either before his baptism or after it; and though on the principle of assumption the inspired Apostle had sanctioned his baptism on his profession, on the principle of Christian truth he pronounced him reprobate on the manifestation of his sin. “Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter; for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.”

The language of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians is of the same character. In 2 Cor. xiii, 5, he says, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” The word here rendered “reprobate” is the word which would be applied to false coinage when tested and found wanting. Those, therefore, who were not in the faith were regarded by St. Paul not as regenerate persons who were inconsistent, but as base metal; persons who bore the outward sign of Christianity, but who were not really regenerate, and were, therefore, enjoying no real union with the Lord Jesus.