A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

“In the baptismal service, we thank God for having regenerated the baptized infant by his Holy Spirit. Now from hence it appears that, in the opinion of our reformers, regeneration and remission of sins did accompany baptism. But in what sense did they hold this sentiment? Did they maintain that there was no need for the seed then sown in the heart of the baptized person to grow up and to bring forth fruit; or that he could be saved in any other way than by a progressive renovation of his soul after the Divine image? Had they asserted any such doctrine as that, it would have been impossible for any enlightened person to concur with them. But nothing can be conceived more repugnant to their sentiments than such an idea as this; so far from harbouring such a thought, they have, and that too in this very prayer, taught us to look to God for that total change, both of heart and life, which long since their days has begun to be expressed by the term regeneration. After thanking God for regenerating the infant by his Holy Spirit, we are taught to pray, ‘that he, being dead unto sin, and living unto righteousness, may crucify the old man, and utterly abolish the whole body of sin;’ and then declaring the total change to be the necessary mean of his obtaining salvation, we add, ‘so that finally, with the residue of thy holy Church, he may be an inheritor of thine everlasting kingdom.’ Is there (I would ask) any person that can require more? There are two things to be noticed in reference to this subject, the term regeneration and the thing. The term occurs but twice in the Scriptures; in one place it refers to baptism, and is distinguished from the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which, however, is represented as attendant on it; and, in the other place, it has a totally distinct meaning, unconnected with the subject. Now the term they use as the Scripture uses it, and the thing they require as strongly as any person can require it. They do not give us any reason to imagine that an adult person can be saved without experiencing all that modern divines [ultra-Protestant divines] have included in the term regeneration; on the contrary, they do, both there and in the liturgy, insist upon a radical change of both heart and life. Here, then, the only question is, not ‘whether a baptized person can be saved by that ordinance without sanctification,’ but whether God does always accompany the sign with the thing signified? Here is certainly room for difference of opinion, but it cannot be positively decided in the negative; because we cannot know, or even judge, respecting it, in any case whatever, except by the fruits that follow; and therefore, in all fairness, it may be considered only as a doubtful point; and if we appeal, as we ought to do, to the Holy Scriptures, they certainly do, in a very remarkable way, accord with the expressions in our liturgy. St. Paul says, ‘By one Spirit we are 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.’ And this he says of all the visible members of Christ’s body. (1 Cor. xii. 13, 27.) Again, speaking of the whole nation of Israel, infants as well as adults, he says, ‘They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.’ (1 Cor. x. 1–4.) Yet, behold, in the very next verse he tells us that, ‘with many of them God was displeased, and overthrew them in the wilderness.’ In another place he speaks yet more strongly still: ‘As many of you,’ says he, ‘as are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.’ Here we see what is meant by the same expression as that before mentioned, of the Israelites being ‘baptized into Moses (the preposition εἰς is used in both places): it includes all that had been initiated into his religion by the rite of baptism; and of them universally does the apostle say, ‘they have put on Christ.’ Now I ask, have not the persons who scruple the use of that prayer in the baptismal service, equal reason to scruple the use of these different expressions?

“Again; St. Peter says, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins.’ (Acts ii. 38.) And in another place, ‘Baptism doth now save us.’ (1 Pet. iii. 21.) And speaking elsewhere of baptized persons who are unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, he says, ‘He hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.’ (2 Pet. i. 9.) Does not this very strongly countenance the IDEA WHICH OUR REFORMERS ENTERTAINED, THAT THE REMISSION OF OUR SINS AND THE REGENERATION OF OUR SOULS, IS ATTENDANT ON THE BAPTISMAL RITE?”

The importance of holding this doctrine, besides its being scripturally true, must be at once apparent to those who reflect, that the whole moral education of a Christian people is altered, if instead of teaching them, as we ought to do, that God has given them a gift which they may use to their own salvation, but for losing which they will be awfully punished,—if instead of this we tell them to wait and to expect the gift of grace, before receiving which they cannot please God. The orthodox would preach to all baptized persons, telling them that they may and can serve God if they will: the heterodox would address baptized persons as heathens, and warn them that, until they have an effectual calling, they can do nothing. It is easy to trace much of the evil which disgraces the religion of the present day to the prevalence of the latter notion.

At the Savoy Commission, 1661, the following are among the answers of the bishops to the exceptions of ministers.

“Receive remission of sins by spiritual regeneration.” Most proper, for baptism is our spiritual regeneration, (John iii. 5,) “Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit,” &c. And by this is received remission of sins, (Acts ii. 38,) “Repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins.” So the Creed: “our baptism for the remission of sins.”

Seeing that God’s sacraments have their effects, where the receiver doth not “ponere obicem,” put any bar against them (which children cannot do); we may say in faith of every child that is baptized, that it is regenerated by God’s Holy Spirit; and the denial of it tends to Anabaptism, and the contempt of this holy sacrament, as nothing worthy, nor material whether it be administered to children or no.

[The form of Confirmation] supposeth, and that truly, that all children were at their baptism regenerate by water and the Holy Ghost, and had given unto them forgiveness of all their sins; and it is charitably presumed, that notwithstanding the frailties and slips of their childhood, they have not totally lost what was in baptism conferred upon them.—Cardwell’s Hist. of Conferences, pp. 356, 358.

REGISTER. The keeping of a church book for registering the age of those that should be born and christened in the parish began in the thirtieth year of Henry VIII.

By Canon 70. “In every parish church and chapel within this realm shall be provided one parchment book at the charge of the parish, wherein shall be written the day and year of every christening, wedding, and burial, which have been in the parish since the time that the law was first made in that behalf, so far as the ancient books thereof can be procured, but especially since the beginning of the reign of the late queen. And for the safe keeping of the said book, the churchwardens, at the charge of the parish, shall provide one sure coffer, and three locks and keys; whereof one to remain with the minister, and the other two with the churchwardens severally; so that neither the minister without the two churchwardens, nor the churchwardens without the minister, shall at any time take that book out of the said coffer. And henceforth upon every sabbath day immediately after morning or evening prayer, the minister and the churchwardens shall take the said parchment book out of the said coffer, and the minister in the presence of the churchwardens shall write and record in the said book the names of all persons christened, together with the names and surnames of their parents, and also the names of all persons married and buried in that parish in the week before, and the day and year of every such christening, marriage, and burial; and that done, they shall lay up the book in the coffer as before. And the minister and churchwardens, unto every page of that book, when it shall be filled with such inscriptions, shall subscribe their names. And the churchwardens shall once every year, within one month after the five and twentieth day of March, transmit unto the bishop of the diocese, or his chancellor, a true copy of the names of all persons christened, married, or buried in their parish in the year before, (ended the said five and twentieth day of March,) and the certain days and months in which every christening, marriage, and burial was had, to be subscribed to with the hands of the said minister and churchwardens, to the end the same may faithfully be preserved in the registry of the said bishop; which certificate shall be received without fee. And if the minister and churchwardens shall be negligent in performance of anything herein contained, it shall be lawful for the bishop, or his chancellor, to convent them, and proceed against every of them as contemners of this our constitution.”

The Act 52 Geo. III. c. 146, (A. D. 1812,) directs that “registers of public and private baptisms, marriages, and burials, solemnized according to the rites of the United Church of England and Ireland ... shall be made and kept by the rector, vicar, curate, or officiating minister of every parish (or of any chapelry) where the ceremonies of baptism, marriage, and burial, have been usually, and may according to law be, performed for the time being, in books of parchment, or of good and durable paper, to be provided by his Majesty’s printer as occasion may require, at the expense of the respective parishes or chapelries; whereon shall be printed, upon each side of every leaf, the heads of information herein required to be entered in the registers” (agreeably to schedules annexed to the act). Such registers should be kept in separate books, and every minister shall enter the baptism, or burial, as soon as possible, and shall sign the same; “and in no case, unless prevented by sickness, or other unavoidable impediment, later than within seven days after the ceremony of any such baptism, or burial, shall have taken place.” (Sect. 3.)