We may deplore the loss of this or that Ceremony, but a National Church exercises her undoubted right in saying at any particular period of her history how the Sacrament is to be administered, provided the essentials of the Sacrament are left untouched. The Church Universal decides, once for all, what is essential: the National Church decides how best to secure and safeguard these essentials for her own Use.
(II) WHAT IT DOES.
According to the Scriptures, "Baptism doth now save us".[[11]] As God did "save Noah and his family in the Ark from perishing by water," so does God save the human family from perishing by sin. As Noah and his family could, by an act of free will, have opened a window in the Ark, and have leapt into the waters, and frustrated God's purpose after they had been saved, so can any member of the human family, after it has been taken into the "Ark of Christ's Church," frustrate God's "good will towards" it, and wilfully leap out of its saving shelter. Baptism is "a beginning," not an end.[[12]] It puts us into a state of Salvation. It starts us in the way of Salvation. St. Cyprian says that in Baptism "we start crowned," and St. John says: "Hold fast that which thou hast that no man take thy crown".[[13]] Baptism is the Sacrament of initiation, not of finality. Directly the child is baptized, we pray that he "may lead the rest of his life according to this beginning," and we heartily thank God for having, in Baptism, called us into a state of Salvation. In this sense, "Baptism doth save us".
But what does it save us from? Sin. In the Nicene Creed we say: "I believe in one Baptism for the remission of sins". Baptism saves us from our sins.
In the case of infants, Baptism saves from original, or inherited, sin—the sin whose origin can be traced to the Fall. In the case of adults, Baptism saves from both original and actual sin, both birth sin and life sin.
The Prayer Book is as explicit as the Bible on this point. In the case of infants, we pray:
"We call upon Thee for this infant, that he, coming to Thy Holy Baptism, may receive remission of his sins"—before, i.e., the child has, by free will choice, committed actual sin. In the case of adults, we read: "Well-beloved, who are come hither desiring to receive Holy Baptism, ye have heard how the congregation hath prayed, that our Lord Jesus Christ would vouchsafe to ... release you of your sins". And, again, dealing with infants, the Rubric at the end of the "Public Baptism of Infants" declares that "It is certain, by God's Word, that children who are baptized, dying before they commit actual sin, are undoubtedly saved".
In affirming this, the Church does not condemn all the unbaptized, infants or adults, to everlasting perdition, as the teaching of some is. Every affirmation does not necessarily involve its opposite negation. It was thousands of years before any souls at all were baptized on earth, and even now, few[[14]] in comparison with the total population of the civilized and uncivilized world, have been baptized. The Church nowhere assumes the self-imposed burden of legislation for these, or limits their chance of salvation to the Church Militant. What she does do, is to proclaim her unswerving belief in "one Baptism for the remission of sins"; and her unfailing faith in God's promises to those who are baptized—"which promise, He, for His part, will most surely keep and perform". On this point, she speaks with nothing short of "undoubted certainty"; on the other point, she is silent. She does not condemn an infant because no responsible person has brought it to Baptism, though she does condemn the person for not bringing it. She does not limit the power of grace to souls in this life only, but she does offer grace in this world, which may land the soul safely in the world to come.
One other thing Baptism does. Making the child a member of Christ, it gives it a "Christ-ian" name.