The terms baptize and baptism are used in Scripture to express the spiritual regeneration as well as the mystical. On the one hand, we hear of “the Baptism of John;” “I indeed baptize you with water;” “he that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved;” “Christ sent me not to baptize;” “there is one baptism;” “they were baptized in the name of Jesus;” “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;” and many other instances, having reference only to baptism with water. On the other hand, we read, with reference to spiritual baptism, “He shall baptize you,” saith John, concerning Jesus, “with the Holy Ghost and fire;” [23a] where water is not contemplated: “By one Spirit are we all” “baptized into one body.” [23b] “So many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death. Therefore we are buried with Him by the baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed;” and that we should “yield ourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead.” [23c] And St. Peter, speaking of the salvation of Noah through the flood, says, “The antitype, or counterpart, of which, even baptism, doth also now save us; not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,” (which is of water baptism,) “but the answer of a good conscience towards God,” (which is of spiritual baptism,) “by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” You have it [24a] also, where the apostle speaks of the Colossians as “circumcised with the circumcision made without hands,” and “buried with Christ in baptism, wherein also they were risen with Him through faith of the operation of God, and quickened together with Him.” [24b]
Now, whether this latter baptism is, or is not, ever without the former, and the washing of the Spirit only synchronous, or not, with that of water; it is unquestionably evident that the two things are perfectly distinct, the one from the other.
Proceed, however, a step further, and observe that it is not water baptism which the Holy oracles speak of as the mean, instrument, or channel, of spiritual baptism or regeneration, but the Holy Scriptures themselves without it; and immediately the general separation of the two is as clear as the distinction between them. “Of His own will,” saith St. James, “begat He us with the word of truth.” [24c] “Being born again,” saith St. Peter, “not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” “And this is the word, which by the Gospel, (not water-baptism,) is preached unto you.” [25a] And add to this, concerning the thousands of outwardly baptized sinners, the testimony of St. John, that “whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; in this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil, whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God;” [25b] and the proof is conclusive, that in the formal baptism of these thousands upon thousands, who do so commit sin, no regeneration of God was ever experienced at all. The separation is clear. Men are born, without water-baptism, by the Spirit and the word; multitudes have it, and are never born of God at all. [25c]
Against all this, however, the system of the Anglo-catholics speaketh on this wise:—“The Scriptures, the Church, and the Fathers declare, with united voice, that regeneration takes place at baptism. But they go farther; they tell us very definitely what regeneration is; they tell us that it is an engrafting into Christ; a new creation in Christ; and by consequence, that all the gifts of grace are actually and really imparted to us in baptism; that in short we are justified, sanctified, quickened, crucified with Christ, planted together in the likeness of His death, risen with Him by the power of His resurrection, and seated with Him in heavenly places; and that all this is effected by baptism.” [26] This is in a sermon entitled “Nehushtan, or an Attempt to break the Trifle of Brass.” And this Nehushtan is the doctrine of justification by faith; concerning which I refer you to the glory of our Articles, the eleventh; and then I close this point with the plain question, Who are the true members of the Church of England; and with whom is the Spirit of the Holy Scriptures, the Spirit of the martyrs of the Reformation, the Spirit of the living God, the Holy Ghost? He cannot be with both.
f. The assigning of regeneration and remission of sins to outward baptism gives immediate occasion to many other errors: but to one in particular, of a very lamentable character. I mean the deplorable, and all but hopeless condition of those, who sin away their regeneration, and their plenary remission received in baptism; as innumerable multitudes are held to do. “The great majority,” say the Anglo-catholics, “die under the bond of their sins;” yet so far “under God’s favour,” that if they pray, and fast, and give alms, and confess, mourn, and judge, humble, afflict, and abhor themselves, they may peradventure obtain pardon somewhere, plenary pardon; though it cannot be granted them any more in this life! [27a] And that somewhere, is Purgatory, plainly avowed! [27b]
All this ministers strongly to the authority of a priesthood, in confessions, partial absolutions, and penances; [27c] but our Church (Art. 22) seems to us to say that it is plainly repugnant to the word of God: and so we believe. Certainly, therefore, the Holy Ghost is not with one portion of us in this matter. We know of no condition, except that of blaspheming against the Holy Ghost, in which, “if we confess our sins, God is” not “faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness;” and, “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins.”
g. I shall not go over the same ground again, with reference to the sacrament of the holy Communion, as I have done with respect to Baptism, but state little more than that the way, in which the Anglo-catholics treat it, is precisely similar.
Spiritual communion in the body and blood of Christ, which we hold that believers always may enjoy by faith in the living words of Christ, the Anglo-catholics bind inseparably to the sign or sacrament thereof; namely to the bread and wine, and the sacred ceremonial. Their body and blood of Christ is the bread and wine made so by their priests, and given only by their means to the people. “The sacraments,” to the exclusion of other ordinances, “are (with them) the sources of divine grace.” [28a] One is the very and only womb of regeneration itself; the other the only breast that nurses the child of God with the very body and blood of Christ. These forms their clergy can handle and talk about, and they reservedly hint at the work of the Spirit of God in them: howbeit of spiritual life and spiritual communion, as things distinct from them, and much more large, and of other times and places, and means also, they profess to believe nothing. They hold the Spirit of God mostly within their own sources; and the body and blood of Christ quite at their own disposal. [28b]
Now, when our Saviour says, “Except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood ye have no life in you,” and it is held that the baptized have life, though they have not come to the table of the Lord; it will needs be granted that eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ is a thing previous to coming to that holy table: therefore it may be, as no doubt it is, after coming thither also; of course in other places and by the use of other means. Jesus says, therefore, “Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life:” and when He would save them from the delusive idea of eating His carnal body and blood, He tells them “it is the Spirit,” that is, the Holy Ghost taking of the things of Christ, and showing them unto us spiritually, “that quickeneth,” ministereth life; and then he refers them for the means, not to any contemplated sign or sacrament, but to His words attended by His Spirit: “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” In them believers have their constant food.
The very flesh of Christ itself, if they could have it in a literal sense, would profit them nothing; all that is effective being the “ministration of the Spirit.” Even in the sacrament, the Word, thought of, and received by faith of the operation of the Holy Ghost, is that medium by which the Spirit most properly conveys the Saviour to the soul. The bread and wine have no more in them than the character of the most beautiful, significant sign or sacrament of so great a thing: just as the king’s letters, and not his picture, even in the most affecting transactions of his life or death, would really convey the presence of his mind and attributes to his people.