As Churchmen we cannot fail to be most deeply interested in the truth and consistency of our Church’s system; and when we see it attacked on the one hand, and misapplied on the other, it is truly refreshing to the spirit to be able to bring it fearlessly to the test of God’s unerring word. By the Bible, then, let us boldly try the
PRAYER BOOK.
In such an inquiry it is our first duty to ascertain what the Prayer Book itself teaches. We care not what men say, write, or think respecting it; our business is with the real doctrine of the book itself, “in the plain and full meaning thereof.” We will adopt the same arrangement as before, and endeavour to ascertain
I. What is the gift connected by the Church with the sacrament of Baptism?
II. What is the nature of the connection?
I. As in the Scriptures, so in the Prayer Book, the gift connected is said to be a saving union with out Lord Jesus Christ.
“Wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.”—Catechism.
“And humbly we beseech Thee to grant, that he, being dead unto sin, and living unto righteous, and being buried with Christ in his death (taken from Rom. vi.), may crucify the old man, &c.”—Baptismal Service.
As in the Scriptures, so in the Prayer Book, this union with Christ in supposed to lead invariably to the two changes above stated, viz., a change of condition, and a change heart.