BAPTISM, INFANT. The question whether it is right to baptize infants will be gone into under the head of Baptists. Our present service for the Baptism of Infants is the out-come of many much older. Baptism should always be administered in the presence of a congregation, as the Rubric orders. The question about sponsors will be gone into under that head. The first prayer is by Luther, the second is from an old Office; the Gospel, with nearly all the addresses or exhortations here and elsewhere in the Prayer Book, is from the "Consultation," the work of Hermann, a German reformer. The questions to the sponsors are taken from an old Office. The prayer of Consecration came into the present form in 1661; but by Consecration here we only mean that the element of water is separated from common to sacred uses. It is not a necessary part of Baptism, as is shown by its being omitted in the Office for Private Baptism. The only two things necessary for the validity of Holy Baptism are (1) that it should be administered in water, (2) in the name of the Holy Trinity, as is shown by the questions in that part of the Office for Private Baptism which treats of receiving a child publicly into the Church. It is to be noticed that the rule of our Church is that the child should be immersed in the water (see the Rubric before the form of words which accompany the act of Baptism). Thus the rite of immersion can be claimed by any Church people. The custom of affusion, or aspersion, or sprinkling, came into use in the Western Church as early as the 13th century; but in the ancient Church Baptism was so administered to the sick. The difference in the climates of Western Europe and the Holy Land is sufficient to account for the custom.
The words which express the reception of the newly-baptized child into the congregation belong altogether to the English Prayer Book. The ceremony of making the sign of the cross has come down from the ancient Church.
The Address to the congregation, the Lord's Prayer, and the Thanksgiving which follows, were placed here in 1552. It is to be noticed how clearly the Church expresses her belief in the regeneration (see Regeneration) of each baptized infant. The latter part of the last exhortation was added in 1661. "The vulgar tongue" of course means the "common" or English language.
The note at the end of the Office, although declaring the eternal safety of a baptized child, dying before it commits actual sin, does not express any opinion as to the future of an unbaptized child.
BAPTISM, PRIVATE. To be used only for "great cause and necessity." This service was drawn up in 1661, chiefly from the "Consultation." It is very much to be deplored that so few of the children baptized at home, who live, are brought to be publicly received into the Church. The distinction which the poor draw between Baptism and Christening as meaning respectively Private and Public Baptism is, of course, unfounded. Baptism is also called "Christening," because in it the child is made a Christian, or member of Christ.
Under this head we may also treat of
Lay Baptism. Until 1604 this was allowed in the Church of England, but the rubrics were then brought into such a shape that Baptism by any but a "lawful minister" was distinctly disallowed. Still we find that by the present law, Lay Baptism, that is to say, Baptism by any man, or even woman, is valid so far as to qualify for burial with the usual service. Lay Baptism is allowed in the Roman Church, as it was in the Mediaeval Church, and in primitive times. Such having always been the custom of the Catholic Church, it is well that anybody should baptize a child in a case of great emergency, when a "lawful minister" cannot be procured. Should the child live and be brought to church, the clergyman can always, if doubtful of the validity of the Baptism, use the hypothetical form at the end of the Office for Private Baptism.
BAPTISTS or ANABAPTISTS. A name improperly assumed by those who deny the validity of Infant Baptism. They were formerly called Anabaptists because they re-baptized all who had been baptized in their infancy. The Baptists formed a separate community in England in 1633. They may be looked upon as the successors of the Dutch Anabaptists. Their object in forming themselves into a separate body was (1) for the maintenance of a strictly Calvinistic doctrine; (2) for the exercise of a vigorous and exclusive discipline; (3) for the practice of a literal scriptural ritual, especially in the matter of Baptism. In Church polity they follow the Independents. The Baptists hold that immersion is essential to the validity of the ordinance. Their leading idea is that the Church must consist of true Christians, and not merely of professing ones.
In 1882 in the United Kingdom there were
Sunday
Ministers, Members, Chapels, Scholars
1,905. 298,880. 3,502. 401,517.
In addition to these they have numerous congregations abroad, and they raise about L200,000 yearly for missionary and benevolent purposes.