A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

Formerly the rubric enjoined that the banns should be published after the Nicene Creed; but the lamentable deficiency of publicity of which this arrangement was the cause, and the delay hence arising in consequence of some parishes being without any morning service on some Sundays, induced the legislature to make the provisions above cited. (26 George II. c. 33, s. 1.)

It is to be feared that much laxity prevails among parties to whom the inquiries as to parochial limits are intrusted; and that recent enactments have rather augmented than reformed such laxity. The constitutions and canons of 1603 guard cautiously against clandestine marriages. Canon 62 is as follows:—

Ministers not to marry any persons without banns or licence.—No minister, upon pain of suspension per triennium ipso facto, shall celebrate matrimony between any persons, without a faculty or licence granted by some of the persons in these our constitutions expressed, except the banns of matrimony have been first published three several Sundays, or holidays, in the time of Divine service, in the parish churches and chapels where the said parties dwell, according to the Book of Common Prayer. Neither shall any minister, upon the like pain, under any pretence whatsoever, join any persons so licensed in marriage at any unseasonable times, but only between the hours of eight and twelve in the forenoon; nor in any private place, but either in the said churches or chapels where one of them dwelleth, and likewise in time of Divine service; nor when banns are thrice asked, and no licence in that respect necessary, before the parents or governors of the parties to be married, being under the age of twenty and one years, shall either personally, or by sufficient testimony, signify to them their consents given to the said marriage.

Canon 63. Ministers of exempt churches not to marry without banns or license.—Every minister, who shall hereafter celebrate marriage between any persons contrary to our said constitutions, or any part of them, under colour of any peculiar liberty or privilege claimed to appertain to certain churches and chapels, shall be suspended per triennium by the ordinary of the place where the offence shall be committed. And if any such minister shall afterwards remove from the place where he hath committed that fault, before he be suspended, as is aforesaid, then shall the bishop of the diocese, or ordinary of the place where he remaineth, upon certificate under the hand and seal of the other ordinary, from whose jurisdiction he removed, execute that censure upon him.

See also canon 70. By the statute 6 & 7 W. IV. c. 85, sec. 1, it is enacted, that where, by any law or canon in force before the passing of this act, it is provided that any “marriage may be solemnized after publication of banns, such marriage may be solemnized, in like manner, on production of the registrar’s certificate as hereinafter provided:” so that marriages may now be solemnized in the Church of England, without banns or licence, on production of the superintendent registrar’s certificate.

BAPTISM. (Βάπτειν, to wash.) Baptism is one of the two sacraments, which, according to the Catechism, “are generally necessary to salvation.” Our blessed Saviour says that “except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John iii. 3); and in explanation of his meaning he adds, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (ver. 5). Upon this the Church remarks: “Beloved, ye hear in this Gospel the express words of our Saviour Christ, that, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God: whereby ye may perceive the great necessity of this sacrament where it may be had. Likewise immediately before his ascension into heaven, as we read in the last chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel, he gave command to his disciples, saying, ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.’ Which also showeth unto us the great benefit we reap thereby. For which cause, St. Peter the apostle, when, upon his first preaching of this gospel, many were pricked at the heart, and said unto him and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ replied and said unto them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.’ The same apostle testifieth in another place, ‘even baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.’”—Office of Adult Baptism. The Church also states in the Catechism, that a sacrament, as baptism is, hath two parts, the outward visible sign, and the inward spiritual grace: that the outward visible sign or form in baptism is water, wherein the person is baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and that the inward and spiritual grace, which through the means of baptism we receive, is a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness; for being by nature born in sin and the children of wrath, we are hereby, i. e. by baptism, made children of grace. Therefore the Church, as soon as ever a child is baptized, directs the minister to say, “Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that this child is regenerate and grafted into the body of Christ’s Church, let us give thanks unto Almighty God for these benefits, and with one accord make our prayers unto him, that this child may lead the rest of his life according to this beginning.” The Church here first declares that grace has been given, even the grace of regeneration, and then implies that the grace, if not used, may be lost. On this subject more will be said in the article on Regeneration. See also Infant Baptism.

Grotius (Annot. ad Matt. iii. 6) is of opinion, that the rite of baptism had its original from the time of the deluge; immediately after which he thinks it was instituted, in memory of the world having been purged by water. Some learned men think (W. Schickard, de Jur. Reg. cap. 5) it was added to circumcision, soon after the Samaritan schism, as a mark of distinction to the orthodox Jews. Spencer, who is fond of deriving the rites of the Jewish religion from the ceremonies of the Pagan, lays it down as a probable supposition, that the Jews received the baptism of proselytes from the neighbouring nations, who were wont to prepare candidates for the more sacred functions of their religion by a solemn ablution; that, by this affinity of sacred rites, they might draw the Gentiles to embrace their religion, and the proselytes (in gaining of whom they were extremely diligent, Matt. xxiii. 15) might the more easily comply with the transition from Gentilism to Judaism. In confirmation of this opinion, he observes, first, that there is no Divine precept for the baptism of proselytes, God having enjoined only the rite of circumcision, (Exod. xii. 48,) for the admission of strangers into the Jewish religion; secondly, that, among foreign nations, the Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and others, it was customary that those who were to be initiated into their mysteries or sacred rites, should be first purified by dipping their whole body in water. Grotius, on Matt. xxvi. 27, adds, as a further confirmation of his opinion, that the “cup of blessing” likewise, added to the Paschal supper, seems plainly to have been derived from a Pagan original: for the Greeks, at their feasts, had one cup, called ποτήριον ἀγαθοῦ δαίμονος, the cup of the good demon or god, which they drank at the conclusion of their entertainment, when the table was removed. Since, then, a rite of Gentile original was added to one of the Jewish sacraments, viz. the Passover, there can be no absurdity in supposing, that baptism, which was added to the other sacrament, namely, circumcision, might be derived from the same source. In the last place, he observes, that Christ, in the institution of his sacraments, paid a peculiar regard to those rites which were borrowed from the Gentiles; for, rejecting circumcision and the Paschal supper, he adopted into his religion baptism and the sacred cup; thus preparing the way for the conversion and reception of the Gentiles into his Church.

It is to be observed, under this head of Jewish baptism, that the proselyte was not to be baptized till the wound of circumcision was perfectly healed; that then the ceremony was performed by plunging him into some large, natural receptacle of water; and that baptism was never after repeated in the same person, or in any of his posterity, who derived their legal purity from the baptism of their ancestor.—Selden, de Jur. Nat. et Gent. lib. ii. cap. 1.

In the primitive Christian Church, (Tertull. de Baptismo,) the office of baptizing was vested principally in the bishops and priests, or pastors of the respective parishes; but, with the consent of the bishop, it was allowed to the deacons, and in cases of necessity even to laymen, to baptize; but never, under any necessity whatever, was it permitted to women to perform this office. Nor was it enough that baptism was conferred by a person called to the ministry, unless he was also orthodox in the faith. This became matter of great excitement in the Church; and hence arose the famous controversy between Cyprian and Stephen, bishop of Rome, concerning the rebaptizing those who had been baptized by heretics, Cyprian asserting that they ought to be rebaptized, and Stephen maintaining the contrary opinion.

The persons baptized were either infants or adults. To prove that infants were admitted to the sacrament of baptism, we need only use this argument. None were admitted to the eucharist till they had received baptism: but in the primitive Church children received the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, as appears from what Cyprian relates concerning a sucking child, who so violently refused to taste the sacramental wine, that the deacon was obliged forcibly to open her lips and pour it down her throat. Origen writes, that children are baptized, “for the purging away of the natural filth and original impurity inherent in them.” We might add the testimonies of Irenæus and Cyprian; but it will be sufficient to mention the determination of an African synod, held A. D. 254, at which were present sixty-six bishops. The occasion of it was this. A certain bishop, called Fidus, had some scruples concerning the time of baptizing infants, whether it ought to be done on the second or third day after their birth, or not before the eighth day, as was observed with respect to circumcision under the Jewish dispensation. His scruples were proposed to this synod, who unanimously decreed, that the baptism of children was not to be deferred so long, but that the grace of God, or baptism, should be given to all, and most especially unto infants.—Justin Martyr, Second Apology; De Lapsis, § 20; In Lucam, Hom. xiv. Apud Cyprian. Epist. lix. § 2–4. Tertull. de Baptismo, c. 19.