A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

BAPTISM, ADULT. “It was thought convenient, that some prayers and thanksgivings, fitted to special occasions, should be added; particularly an office for the baptism of such as are of riper years; which, although not so necessary when the former book was compiled, yet by the growth of anabaptism, through the licentiousness of the late times crept in amongst us, is now become necessary, and may be always useful for the baptizing of natives in our plantations, and others converted to the faith.”—Preface to the Book of Common Prayer.

Rubric. “When any such persons of riper years are to be baptized, timely notice shall be given to the bishop, or whom he shall appoint for that purpose, a week before at the least, by the parents or some other discreet persons; that so due care may be taken for their examination, whether they be sufficiently instructed in the principles of the Christian religion; and that they may be exhorted to prepare themselves with prayers and fasting for the receiving of this holy sacrament. And if they shall be found fit, then the godfathers and godmothers (the people being assembled upon the Sunday or holy day appointed) shall be ready to present them at the font, immediately after the second lesson, either at morning or evening prayer, as the curate in his discretion shall think fit. And it is expedient that every person thus baptized should be confirmed by the bishop, so soon after his baptism as conveniently may be; that so he may be admitted to the holy communion.”

BAPTISM, INFANT. Article 27. “The baptism of young children is in anywise to be retained in the Church, as most agreeable with the institution of Christ.”

Rubric. “The curates of every parish shall often admonish the people, that they defer not the baptism of their children longer than the first or second Sunday next after their birth, or other holy day falling between; unless upon a great and reasonable cause, to be approved by the curate.”

The practice of infant baptism seems to be a necessary consequence of the doctrine of original sin and of the grace of baptism. If it be only by union with Christ that the children of Adam can be saved; and if, as the apostle teaches, in baptism “we put on Christ,” then it was natural for parents to ask for permission to bring their little ones to Christ, that they might be partakers of the free grace that is offered to all; but though offered to all, to be applied individually. It may be because it is so necessary a consequence of the doctrine of original sin, that the rite of infant baptism is not enjoined in Scripture. But though there is no command in Scripture to baptize infants, and although for the practice we must plead the tradition of the Church Universal, still we may find a warrant in Scripture in favour of the traditional practice. We find it generally stated that the apostles baptized whole households, and Christ our Saviour commanded them to baptize all nations, of which infants form a considerable part. And in giving this injunction, we may presume that he intended to include infants, from the very fact of his not excluding them. For he was addressing Jews; and when the Jews converted a heathen to faith in the God of Israel, they were accustomed to baptize the convert, together with all the infants of his family. And, consequently, when our Lord commanded Jews, i.e. men accustomed to this practice, to baptize nations, the fact that he did not positively repel infants, implied an injunction to baptize them; and when the Holy Spirit records that the apostles, in obedience to that injunction, baptized whole households, the argument gains increased force. This is probably what St. Paul means, when, in the seventh chapter of the First Corinthians, verse 14, he speaks of the children of believers as being holy: they are so far holy, that they may be brought to the sacrament of baptism. From the apostles has come down the practice of baptizing infants, the Church requiring security, through certain sponsors, that the children shall be brought up to lead a godly and a Christian life. And by the early Christians the practice was considered sufficiently sanctioned by the passage from St. Mark, which is read in our baptismal office, in which we are told, that the Lord Jesus Christ, having rebuked those that would have kept the children from him, took them up in his arms and blessed them. He blessed them, and his blessing must have conveyed grace to their souls; therefore, of grace, children may be partakers. They may receive spiritual life, though it may be long before that life develope itself; and that life they may lose by sinning.

BAPTISM, LAY. We shall briefly state the history of lay baptism in our Church both before and after the Reformation. In the “Laws Ecclesiastical” of Edmund, king of England, A. D. 945, it is stated:—“Women, when their time of child-bearing is near at hand, shall have water ready, for baptizing the child in case of necessity.”

In the national synod under Otho, 1237, it is directed: “For cases of necessity, the priests on Sundays shall frequently instruct their parishioners in the form of baptism.” To which it is added, in the Constitutions of Archbishop Peckham, in 1279, “Which form shall be thus: I crysten thee in the name of the Fader, and of the Sone, and of the Holy Goste.”

In the Constitutions of the same archbishop, in 1281, it is ruled that infants baptized by laymen or women (in imminent danger of death) shall not be baptized again; and the priest shall afterwards supply the rest.

By the rubrics of the second and of the fifth of Edward VI. it was ordered thus: “The pastors and curates shall often admonish the people, that without great cause and necessity they baptize not children at home in their houses; and when great need shall compel them so to do, that then they minister it in this fashion:—First, let them that be present call upon God for his grace, and say the Lord’s Prayer, if the time will suffer; and then one of them shall name the child and dip him in the water, or pour water upon him, saying these words, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

In the manuscript copy of the Articles made in convocation in the year 1575, the twelfth is, “Item, where some ambiguity and doubt hath arisen among divers, by what persons private baptism is to be administered; forasmuch as by the Book of Common Prayer allowed by the statute, the bishop of the diocese is authorized to expound and resolve all such doubts as shall arise, concerning the manner how to understand and to execute the things contained in the said book; it is now, by the said archbishop and bishops, expounded and resolved, and every of them doth expound and resolve, that the said private baptism, in case of necessity, is only to be ministered by a lawful minister or deacon called to be present for that purpose, and by none other; and that every bishop in his diocese shall take order that this exposition of the said doubt shall be published in writing, before the first day of May next coming, in every parish church of his diocese in this province; and thereby all other persons shall be inhibited to intermeddle with the ministering of baptism privately, being no part of their vocation.” This article was not published in the printed copy; but whether on the same account that the fifteenth article was left out, (namely, because disapproved by the Crown,) does not certainly appear. However, the ambiguity remained till the conference at Hampton Court, in which the king said, that if baptism was termed private, because any but a lawful minister might baptize, he utterly disliked it, and the point was then debated; which debate ended in an order to the bishops to explain it, so as to restrain it to a lawful minister. Accordingly, in the Book of Common Prayer, which was set forth the same year, the alterations were printed in the rubric thus:—“And also they shall warn them, that without great cause they procure not their children to be baptized at home in their houses. And when great need shall compel them so to do, then baptism shall be administered on this fashion: First, let the lawful minister and them that be present call upon God for his grace, and say the Lord’s Prayer, if the time will suffer; and then the child being named by some one that is present, the said minister shall dip it in the water, or pour water upon it.” And other expressions, in other parts of the service, which seemed before to admit of lay baptism, were so turned, as expressly to exclude it.