u 
 
 1 


 
 THE .DOCTRINE 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM 
 
 IN THE CASK OF 
 
 INFANTS. 
 
 an 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 THE BAPTISMAL SERVICES 
 
 OF 
 
 LUTHER AND THE NUREMBERG AND COLOGNE LITURGIES. 
 
 WILLIAM GOODE, M.A., F.S.A. 
 
 i/ 
 
 HECTOR OF ST. ANTHOLIN, LONDON. 
 
 NEW- YORK : 
 STANFORD AND SWORDS, 137, BROADWAY. 
 
 1850.
 
 HOBART I'RKHS, 
 
 M, Ai>M-8ninrr. 
 J. R. M'UOWN, PRINTER.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THE present volume is a reprint of Mr. Goode's book from the 
 second revised edition, with the exception of the first 120 pp. 
 which were stereotyped before it was known that the author 
 was preparing a second edition. The variations in this por- 
 tion of the work are, however, of no special importance.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR, 
 
 appearance of the following work will prove, it is con- 
 fidently believed, an emphatic event in the history of theolo- 
 gical controversy in the Church of England, and in her daugh- 
 ter Church in these United States. The subject is, the " effects 
 of Baptism in the case of infants" ; and the question, not what 
 the Scriptures teach in regard to it, but what the Church of 
 England, in her various standards of doctrine teaches. This 
 question, which has been contested, on both sides of the Atlan- 
 tic, for thirty years, and upwards, is here brought nearer to a 
 settlement, if indeed it is not absolutely settled, than in any 
 other book in the whole field of English theology. 
 
 The author seems eminently qualified for the final solution 
 and adjustment of points, which have been long debated, and 
 which, by protracted discussion from unskilful hands, have 
 been perplexed and confused rather than cleared up ; a case 
 which not unfrequently occurs, where, on the one side, pre- 
 judice warps the judgment, and, on the other, want of infor- 
 mation disqualifies for the exposure of sophistry. He is a 
 divine of the most accurate scholarship, the most thorough 
 and extensive reading, and the coolest and most cautious habits 
 of thought. He seems entirely incapable of a superficial in- 
 vestigation of any subject: thoroughness characterizes every 
 production of his pen. He never hurries to a conclusion, es- 
 pecially when it is complex. He discriminates carefully, 
 "divides the question," selects his arguments more like a judge 
 than an advocate, and enunciates his conclusion with all the 
 limitations which the nature of his premises demands.
 
 ii PREFACE. 
 
 Mr. Goode has already distinguished himself in a work 
 republishid in this country. His " Divine Rule of Faith and 
 Practice," must be acknowledged, even by his opponents, as 
 a monument of research and scholarship. It is indeed, very 
 observable that they have never attempted to answer it, though 
 it is the book on which those who agree in sentiment with the 
 author, rest their cause, more than on any other ; and though 
 the standing of the author, and the ability and thoroughness 
 of the work, loudly challenge a reply. As the same charac- 
 teristics and circumstances belong to the volume here given 
 to the public, it remains to be seen, and the world will look 
 anxiously to see, whether Mr. Goode's opponents will treat it 
 with the same discreet valor which has been exhibited in 
 the former instance. Nor is this said in idle banter : the oc- 
 casion is altogether too sacred for such a feeling. For the 
 truth sake, it is most earnestly to be wished, that some one, 
 who has the time and facilities necessary for the task, would 
 travel, step by step, over the same ground with the author, 
 and, if it can be done, expose any important mistakes into 
 which he may have fallen, and, above all, if he be in error, 
 the fallacy of the general argument. A work like the present, 
 should not be allowed to pass without a thorough sifting by 
 the author's theological opponents. As thousands, we venture 
 to predict, will have their doubts removed by it, and will set- 
 tle down, in consequence, in what Tractarians must deem a 
 most serious error, it would seem an act of charity to disa- 
 buse the minds, if indeed they are mistaken ; and certainly it 
 would be rendering a great service to the cause of truth. But 
 if the subject is touched, it should receive as thorough a search- 
 ing as the author has given it. A passing notice, a squib in 
 the form of a review, a culling of a few points to cavil it, as the 
 infidel assails the Bible, instead of meeting the main question 
 broadly and squarely, is not what the occasion calls for. Let 
 the author be met, as he has met his subject. Let him be 
 answered as Archdeacon Paley recommends in all such cases, 
 " The fair way," says he, " of conducting a dispute, is to ex- 
 hibit one by one the arguments of your opponent, and with 
 each argument the precise and specific answer you are able to 
 give it." He continues, " if this method be not so common,
 
 PREFACE. iij 
 
 nor found so convenient, as might be expected, the reason is, 
 because it suits not always with the designs of a writer, 
 which are perhaps no more than to make a book ; to con- 
 found some argument and keep others out of sight ; to leave 
 what is called an impression upon the reader, without any 
 care to inform him of the proofs or principles, by which his 
 opinion should be governed. With such views it may be con- 
 sistent to despatch objections, by observing of some " that they 
 are old," and therefore like certain drugs, have lost, we may 
 suppose, their strength ; of others, that " they have long since 
 received an answer," which implies to be, and are a confuta- 
 tion : to attack straggling remarks and decline the main rea- 
 soning as " mere declamation ;" to pass by one passage be- 
 cause it is long-winded, another because the answerer has 
 neither the leisure nor the inclination to enter into the dis- 
 cussion of it ; to produce extracts and quotations, which, taken 
 alone, imperfectly, if at all, express their author's meaning; 
 to dismiss a stubborn difficulty with a reference, which ten to 
 one the reader never looks at ; and lastly, in order to give the 
 whole a certain fashionable air of candor and moderation, to 
 make a concession or two which nobody thanks him for, or 
 yield up a few points which it is no longer any credit to main- 
 tain." 
 
 In the way thus recommended by Dr. Paley, we desire 
 exceedingly to see Mr. Goode's book treated by some one of 
 the party which he opposes. Should any person undertake 
 the task after this manner, we venture to predict he will not 
 long pursue it. And we would even indulge the hope, that 
 such an one, having begun by making opposition, would end 
 by giving his assent. In short, we have no fears in regard to 
 this work, except that it may be avoided and neglected by 
 those whom it most concerns to read and digest it well ; or 
 that, an answer being attempted, it may prove a mere pre- 
 tence, such as Dr. Paley so aptly describes and justly con- 
 demns. 
 
 The author of the work before us, as has already been 
 remarked, does not discuss the subject of the effects of Infant 
 Baptism, in relation to the testimony of Scripture. Tho 
 questions, what do the Scriptures teach, and what do the
 
 i v PREFACE. 
 
 standards of our Church teach, are perfectly distinguishable, 
 and may very well receive a separate discussion. The one 
 question determines onr loyalty to our Church ; the other our 
 submission to the word of (rod. But though thus distinguish- 
 able and separable, they ought not to be kept constantly apart. 
 They ought rather to be kept side by side. The mere presence 
 of Scripture authority is good at all times : it has a salutary 
 effect, imparting fairness and seriousness to the mind, ele- 
 vating and purifying it, and keep away from it that secularity 
 of spirit which is apt, otherwise, and indeed often in spite of 
 every check, to creep over the hearts of theological contro- 
 versialists. Among Episcopalians the check of such a reference 
 to Scripture, is entirely legitimate for the additional reason, 
 that in their Church, Scripture is made the foundation of every 
 thing. Even the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds are received, 
 only because they may be proved by most certain warrant of 
 Holy Scripture ; and if these, how much more, any other for- 
 mularies in the Prayer Book ! The founders of our Protestant 
 .Church then, having had the Scriptures before them when they 
 drew up our doctrinal standards, it cannot but have a bene- 
 ficial and proper effect upon the inquirer, who would know 
 what the Reformers taught, that in searching their writings 
 he should have ever by him the light which they so rever- 
 entially, faithfully and constantly used : read in this light, the 
 true sense of their writings is most likely to be attained. 
 Perhaps of late the question of the effect of Baptism upon 
 iufants, has been considered too much apart from the Scrip- 
 tures ; as certainly it has, from the general theology of the 
 Reformers. The author of the present work having brought 
 us back, in the settlement of this question, in such a very 
 thorough way to the Reformers, and shown us so decisively 
 their opinions ; one cannot but wish that he had in like man- 
 ner brought us back to the Scriptures also, and shown us their 
 decision. For the one task, as well as the other, he is abun- 
 dantly competent. Wherever, in his other works, he has been 
 called to handle a question according to the verdict of the 
 Scriptures, he has done it with singular discrimination and 
 ability. To be shown that the sense we put upon the Prayer 
 Book is conformed to the natural sense of Holy Writ, on
 
 PREFACE. y 
 
 any points under discussion, at the same time that it is shown 
 to be conformed to the 'manifest and undisputed theology of 
 the Reformers, could not fail "to establish, strengthen and 
 settle" our minds. 
 
 The subject here discussed has been so long and so largely 
 discussed, that some may be prevented from reading this work 
 under the impression, that it is only a new concoction of old 
 matter. They ought therefore to be apprised that it is a 
 mistake. The work is original, in the strictest sense in which 
 originality can characterize an inquiry of this nature. The 
 author invariably goes to the original sources : he takes 
 nothing second-hand ; and he has drawn upon them more 
 largely than any that have gone before him in the same track. 
 Moreover, his mode of handling the question is, in many re- 
 spects, as original as the matter which he has collected. We 
 will venture the assertion, that no man who has not read this 
 book, is aware of the variety and abundance of the evidence 
 by which " evangelical truth" is sustained and established in 
 the Baptismal' controversy. 
 
 The chief difficulty here lies in the office for the Baptism 
 of Infants : the interpretation of this office is the crux of the 
 controversy. Now some in untying the knot would use only 
 the aid of Scripture ; but this, though the excellent and only 
 method for determining the soundness of the formulary, is not 
 the proper one for arriving at its historical sense. Other in- 
 terpreters would confine themselves almost exclusively to the 
 fathers of the early Church, and be guided by their opinions ; 
 but, however valuable their judgment as a help, it should be 
 remembered the Church of England is not a Church of prim- 
 itive times, but a Church of the Reformation. Others again, 
 like Sir Jenner Fust, show an indisposition to look beyond 
 the mere words of the Baptismal Service, choosing to say they 
 are so plain as to need no comment. But they forget, that the 
 primd facie sense is not always the true one ; and that in the 
 case of the words, " this is my body," " this is my blood," no 
 Protestant will admit it. There is yet another class, howev- 
 er, who would resort to the writings of the Reformers, their 
 letters, sermons and books, the Reformers of Great Britain 
 and the Reformers of the Continent, and thence learn, histori-
 
 yj PREFACE. 
 
 call y, what the formularies of the Church mean, or, at least, 
 what they do not mean. And this, plainly, under certain 
 limitations, is the true method. Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, 
 Hooper, Jewel and the rest, could not have meant to teach one 
 doctrine in the offices which they drew up for public use, and 
 another in their correspondence, pulpit discourses and published 
 works ; nor to approve in their brethren in Germany and 
 Switzerland what they condemned in England, and what may 
 thus be said of the British, may also be said of the Continental 
 Reformers. 
 
 This last principle of interpretation has not been employed 
 as much as it should have been, otherwise the present contro- 
 versary would have been brought to an end long ago. Arch- 
 iishop Lawrence complains of its neglect, in the preface to his 
 Bampton Lectures. His words are : " This mode of illustra- 
 tion, although it has not been wholly disregarded, has never- 
 theless been but partially pursued." In the body of his work, 
 accordingly, he proceeds to apply this method: with how 
 much success we need not here say, except to remark, that, 
 as in the use of every other means of ariving at truth, here too 
 the mind may be under a bias. In his recent charge the 
 Bishop of Maryland also, has very strongly affirmed the same 
 rule of interpretation for all our formularies. " There is a 
 sense," says he, " fixed in proportion as it is carefully, and 
 full as it is successfully ascertained, the sense of the compiler 
 or composer, the original historical sense, that which was in 
 the mind of those who first made and used the for mularies, and 
 which they should always have." Now to this authority Mr. 
 Goode also appeals in determining the sense of our office of 
 Infant Baptism; and he does so, plainly, with great confidence. 
 The appeal is more full, accurate, and as we think impartial, 
 than has ever been made before. He seems not in the slightest 
 
 o 
 
 degree straitened by a want of matter, nor impeded by serious 
 obstacles in his way. He moves along in his argument with 
 a composure of mind, which indicates, not only that he is 
 master of his subject, but also that he is profoundly convinced 
 that he has truth the whole truth on his side. There are san- 
 guine and confident minds, in'which such assurance is an index 
 of nothing " without themselves;" but such is not the temper
 
 PREFACE. yji 
 
 of this writer. In a question of fact like the present, the 
 calm confidence, of one so eminently cool, cautious and ju- 
 dicious as Mr. Goode, promises a safe conclusion. But 
 what his style and manner promise, his matter abundantly 
 fufils. In truth, we see not how a careful and impartial rea- 
 der can fail to admit, that he has brought the question to a 
 close. 
 
 One author sets out, most judiciously, by showing us pre- 
 cisely what he does not, as well as what he does, undertake to 
 do. He tells us he not going to draw a mathematical line, and 
 insist that every man walk upon it, as the sole condition of 
 honesty and orthodoxy : he is too sound minded and tolerant 
 for such a course. He has no disposition to establish a Pro- 
 crustean bed, for the present or any other theological topic. 
 But on the other hand, he is no latitudinarian. He thinks 
 the Church though liberal, yet decided ; and whilst she allows 
 her children all the freedom which a sense of human infirmity, 
 and of the fallibility of her own decisions, would naturally dic- 
 tate, that still, 
 
 "sunt denique fines, 
 Quos ultra, citraque, nequit consistere rectum." 
 
 On the one hand he would condemn those who think Bap- 
 tism but a mere sign, which Heaven does not in any case ac- 
 company with blessing : under certain condition, he holds the 
 blessing to the great. But on the other, he denies that we 
 have any warrant, according to the sentiments of the English 
 Reformers, for supposing that the sign is invariably, i. e. opere 
 operate, accompanied by the thing signified. He further 
 holds and proves, that both these views are condemned by 
 the Church of England, and that this opere operato view 
 especially, so far from being even tolerated by the Reformers, 
 was emphatically condemned by them, as one of the worst 
 features of that system against which they protested through- 
 out life and in death. But between these two views, namely, 
 that which makes the rite of Baptism only a sign, and that 
 which makes it invariably the instrument of spiritual regen- 
 eration, our author teaches that our Church allows diversities 
 of opinion.
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 Against the opus operatum view of the effects of Infant 
 Baptism, Mr. Groode contends with much ability. He argues 
 from the general tone of the theology of the Reformers, both 
 in England and on the Continent, which he shows, beyond 
 dispute to have been what we now call Calvinistic, insisting 
 that it unavoidably follows, that they could not have held the 
 Tractarian system upon that subject. He adduces also their 
 express language on the topic, showing that they did not. 
 Again he argues from the intercourse and intimacy, and 
 mutual counsel and aid, of the English Reformers with their 
 Continental brethren, especially the " Reformed," i. e. the 
 followers of Zuingle and Calvin. And again, from the simi- 
 larity, and to a great extent, the identity, of the Baptismal 
 formularies of these several churches. He asserts also that 
 he is sustained by the succession of Protestant divines in 
 England to the time of Laud ; and that though from time to 
 time on to the present, the Church of England has been much 
 less Calvinistic, yet that on the subject of the following work, 
 there has been very little change of sentiment, until the rise 
 of the new school established by Froude, Newman, Pusey and 
 Keble. To prove this he furnishes a catena of divines from the 
 Reformation down, condemnatory of the Tractarian view of 
 Baptism, a catena strong enough in any part of it, to con- 
 vince impartial men that the inseparability of the sign and 
 thing signified in that rite, is not the doctrine of the English 
 Church even by usage ; and irresistibly strong in the most 
 important, i. e. the earliest part ; for there, it embraces 
 every man of eminence in ability or station, Archbishops, 
 Bishops, Regius and Lady Margaret Professors of theology in 
 the Universities, with very many others, down to the middle 
 of the reign of Charles the First. 
 
 Against the conclusion which the author comes to in this 
 work, we fear some may be prejudiced, by the medium of proof 
 which he employs. It may rather bar up their minds against 
 conviction, to be told that the English Reformers could not 
 have held to an inseparable connexion between the waters and 
 the grace of Baptism, because they were indubitably Calvin- 
 ists. But earnest and honest men should at once exorcise 
 such prejudices from their minds. Feeling should give way
 
 PREFACE. i x 
 
 to fact, and preconceived opinions to truth; In the examin- 
 ation of a historical question, our likings and dislikings are 
 impertinent intruders, and should be at once refused a hearing. 
 No matter what the inducement, to reject a historical con- 
 clusion to which the evidence plainly leads, is to fight against 
 truth, and to fight against truth, is to fight against Grod. 
 
 For the sake, however, of those whose minds are strongly 
 set against the system of the great Genevan Reformer, it 
 ought to bo stated, that Mr. Gfoode, in employing the Calvin- 
 ism of the reformers as a proof against the Tractarian doctrine 
 of Baptism, does not seek to proselyte his readers to that 
 system : he does not even avow his own attachment to it. 
 On the contrary, he shows that Calvinistic and Arminian 
 divines may and do oppose that doctrine. So far from having 
 any such ulterior object, he is careful to declare, " I believe 
 that the articles were drawa up so as to admit of some lati- 
 tude of interpretation in the points controverted among the 
 reformers, and so as neither to exclude Melancthon nor Calvin." 
 
 The way, therefore, seems clear on this subject, disincum- 
 bered of all impediments, growing out of the peculiarities of 
 the two systems of theology referred to ; and the reader may 
 go fearlessly forward, assured that he is embarked only for 
 one issue ; namely, whether, according to the true sense of the 
 standards of our Church, the modern doctrine be correct, that 
 every child baptized is, ipso facto, regenerated in the Scriptu- 
 ral sense of that term.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 I AM unwilling to enlarge a work, which has already extended 
 beyond the limits originally contemplated, by adding here 
 anything more than a very few prefatory remarks explanatory 
 of its object ; which is, to point out what doctrine the Church 
 of England requires to be held by her ministers on the subject 
 of the effects of Baptism in the case of Infants. And the first 
 question that occurs in such an investigation is, whether, 
 among all the various shades of view that have been enter- 
 tained on this point, she has selected one, to the exclusion of 
 all others, to which she requires, their assent ; or, whether she 
 has only adopted one class of views within which their doc- 
 trine is to be found. It will appear, on a careful examination 
 of the authorities on which the determination of this question 
 rests, that the latter is the case. And this is what we might, 
 a priori^ have expected. 
 
 That different shades of doctrine on this point, within 
 certain limits, should be left open to us, is to my mind credit- 
 iible to her character as a Scriptural Church not seeking to 
 bind her ministers to certain exact and precise determinations 
 on such points, going beyond the declarations of Holy Scrip- 
 ture* The contrary course she leaves to the Church of the 
 Council of Trent, and an infallible Pope. They who are 
 willing to take their faith from the dicta of one or more Italian 
 Bishops, may be satisfied to swear by any particular view 
 which their oracle offers them : and if the last contradict the 
 first, and the middle are consistent with neither ; and the 
 divines respectively contemporary with the first, middle, and 
 last, are equally at variance with each other, and among
 
 xii PREFACE. 
 
 themselves, their followers in the present age may, perhaps, be 
 contented to accept the solution of these perplexities that has 
 lately been offered to them in the theory of " development," a 
 system which will smooth all difficulties and set at rest all 
 doubts. 
 
 The Church of England, rejecting all but the written 
 % word of God as the authority for her faith, lays down her 
 deductions from the express declarations of that sacred word, 
 on the great truths of Christianity and the disputed points of 
 faith on which the Church has at various times been agitated 
 with controversies, as the rule by which she expects her 
 children to be guided. But where Scripture is silent, or 
 appeared to her open to different views, there she is equally 
 so. She receives even the three Creeds, only because she 
 believes they may be "proved by most certain warrants of 
 Holy Scripture." She is not therefore likely to require of her 
 members the belief of what she does not suppose may be 
 similarly proved. 
 
 So far as she has definitely spoken, there all who have 
 subscribed her Formularies and minister in her communion 
 are bound, so long as they remain in her service, to abide by 
 and maintain her determinations. Rather should I say, they 
 are found in her communion because they conscientiously 
 believe her determinations to be right. 
 
 There are vital and fundamental points on which she has 
 spoken definitely and expressly, so as to forbid the slightest 
 deviation from one precise line to the right hand or to the left. 
 There are important points, such as that discussed in the 
 following work, on which she has laid down certain limits on 
 both sides, 
 
 'Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum. 
 
 That those limits have been transgressed, fearfully trans- 
 gressed, by some among us, I should be the last to deny. 
 The following pages may perhaps tend to show, by whom they 
 have been trangressed ; and such trangression I should be the 
 last to justify. 
 
 The great point in dispute in our Church at the present 
 time, is briefly this, Whether the full baptismal blessing is, in
 
 PREFACE. jiij 
 
 the case of infants, under all circumstances, invariably and 
 universally bestowed ; whether, in fact, (rod has pledged him- 
 self, whenever an infant is baptized, apart from all considera- 
 tion of every other circumstance except the mere act of 
 baptism, to give, that child, in the act, the full blessing of 
 spiritual regeneration. 
 
 And though in prosecuting the inquiry, what is the doc- 
 trine of our Church upon the subject, it has been necessary 
 to show the theological school to which our Reformers and 
 early Divines were attached, in order more fully to illustrate 
 the meaning of the Formularies they drew up, the determi- 
 nation of the doctrine of our Church on the question at issue 
 does not depend upon our connecting the theology of our 
 Church with one particular system. Men of very different 
 schools among us have agreed in taking the negative view on 
 the point in controversy, But certainly when the theology of 
 our early divines is taken into account in the matter, the 
 statement that the universal and unconditional efficacy of 
 baptism in the case of infants is the doctrine of our Church, 
 is one which carries its own condemnation on the face of it. 
 
 The contrast between such a doctrine and the theological 
 system of our early divines, reduces it to an absurdity. 
 
 In the face of the testimonies produced in the following 
 work, I am at a loss to understand what ground there is left 
 for the maintenance of such an assertion. 
 
 I have shown, that the testimony of our Archbishops, 
 Bishops, and the Divinity Professors of our Universities, at 
 and for a long period after the Reformation, is wholly opposed 
 to the notion of spiritual regeneration being always conferred 
 upon infants in their baptism, and that they were followed at 
 a later period by divines who, though of a different school, 
 agreed with them on the main point of the controversy ; I 
 have shown that the Services of our Prayer Book upon which 
 the assertion that this is the doctrine of our Church is almost 
 wholly rested, were submitted to the judgment of Peter 
 ' Martyr and Bucer, whose sentiments were notoriously opposed 
 to such a doctrine, and that they fully approved of them, with 
 exceptions no way touching the point now in question ; I 
 have shown that Bucer himself drew up Services of a pre-
 
 XIV 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 cisely similar kind to our own, and from which our own are 
 confessed to have been " freely borrowed" when holding 
 sentiments which render it necessary for those Services to be 
 interpreted on the hypothetical principle ; I have shown that 
 the earliest (and those publicly authorized) Expositions of our 
 Articles and Catechism support the same view ; I ask, then, 
 what remains wanting for the establishment of a complete 
 and perfect proof, that this doctrine is not the doctrine of our 
 Church, but, on the contrary, is opposed to it ? 
 
 And I cannot help remarking, how completely the case 
 before us proves the unfitness of Liturgical forms to answer 
 the purpose of a dogmatical standard of faith ; and the errors 
 and absurdities which men might fall into when deducing 
 doctrine, inferentially, from devotional phrases occurring in a 
 Book of Prayer. 
 
 It remains only for me to remark, that the following work 
 has been written and passed through the press, not merely 
 within a much shorter period than I could have wished to 
 have given to it, but amidst the pressure of numerous other 
 engagements. The circumstances of the times, however, for- 
 bade delay. And I make the remark, not as pleading guilty 
 to any ill-considered statements, or hasty conclusions, or the 
 citation of authorities which will not stand the most search- 
 ing scrutiny, (so far as my imperfect powers qualify me for 
 the task undertaken) on the contrary, the work is the result 
 of much previous labor, undertaken in the hope of being 
 prepared for the vindication of truth when the fitting occa- 
 sion presented itself but from the feeling that I have scarcely 
 had the opportunity to do the subject full justice. 
 
 As it is, I present it to the reader in the humble hope 
 that it may tend to clear the real character of the doctrine of 
 our Church on the subject discussed; and thus remove the 
 misapprehensions, and refute the misrepresentations, that are 
 current respecting it. And I pray the great Head of the 
 Church that His blessing may rest upon it just so far as it is 
 calculated to promote the cause of truth. 
 
 W. GOODE. 
 31, Charterhouse Square, 
 March 21, 1849.
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 THE kindness with which the former Edition of this Work has been 
 received, and the early call for another Edition, render it unnecessary 
 for the Author to offer more than a very few remarks in this place. 
 He desires, however, to express his thankfulness at the reception 
 given to the Work, as it encourages him to hope that it may be of 
 use, with God's blessing, for the promotion of the cause of truth, and 
 the manifestation of the true doctrine of the Church of England, on 
 the momentous subject of which it treats. 
 
 Late events in our Church have given the long-standing contro- 
 versy among us on this point a more than ordinary degree of importance. 
 The attempt has been made to force upon the Church, as a standard 
 of faith, an interpretation of her Services which would place them in 
 direct antagonism to the doctrine of the very men who drew them up, 
 and to eject from her ministry all who hold a different view. It was 
 quite time, therefore, that the claims of such an interpretation should 
 be fully investigated, and the true doctrine of our Church set forth 
 and proved. To do this, is the object of the following Work. And 
 while it fully investigates the important and conclusive internal evi- 
 dence afforded on the subject by our Formularies themselves, the 
 Author has more especially directed his attention to what may be 
 called the historical part of the argument. Nothing can more fully 
 show the weakness of the claim set up by those who call themselves 
 41 High Churchmen" among us, to the exclusive admissibility of their 
 interpretation of our Book of Common Prayer, than the fact of its 
 contrariety to the doctrine of our Reformers and early divines. To 
 say nothing of the sentiments of those who drew up the Prayer Book 
 of Edward VI., the notorious facts that the compilers of the Eliza- 
 bethan Prayer Book (which, with a few alterations not affecting the 
 present question, is that now in use) were, of what is called the 
 " Calvinistic " School, and that the Primate who first issued and 
 earnestly pressed the Canon for subscription to the Prayer Book was a 
 High " Calvinist," (Archbishop Whitgift,) ought to silence for ever 
 the assertion that a " Calvinist" cannot consistently subscribe to that 
 Book. And if a " Calvinist " can without difficulty subscribe to it, 
 then certainly it does not assert that spiritual regeneration is the 
 universal and unconditional effect of Baptism in all infants.
 
 xvi PREFACE. 
 
 And here lies the importance of the historical argument in elucida- 
 ting the meaning of our Formularies. We do not point to the 
 " Calvinism " of our early divines as showing that a Calviriistic 
 interpretation must be given to our Formularies, or as identifying a 
 denial of the "High Church " doctrine as to the effects of Baptism 
 with Calviuistic views, for Arminians^are found equally denying 
 it, but we adduce the fact of the '' Calvinistic " doctrine of those to 
 whom we are indebted for our Formularies as irrefragable evidence 
 against the attempt made to fix upon those Formularies an exclusive 
 interpretation, framed by men of a directly opposite school. 
 
 Apart from any consideration of the peculiar circumstances under 
 which the subject is now discussed in our Church, it is impossible to 
 overrate its importance as connected with sound views of doctrine on 
 other points. False views as to the effects of Baptism in the case of 
 infants introduce confusion and error into the whole system of doctrine 
 connected with them. If it is supposed that the Clergy can dispense 
 God's grace and the best blessing of the Gospel Covenant to anybody 
 they please in infancy, there is an end to all sound theology. The 
 doctrines of the necessity of God's gift of preveriient grace, and justi- 
 fication by faith, as laid down in our 10th and llth Articles, are 
 almost nullified. And the whole scheme of doctrine embraced, par- 
 takes of the consequences of this primary false principle on which it 
 is built. 
 
 One effect however may result frpm the present controversy, and 
 the consequence be of great benefit, if it please God, to the interests 
 of truth in our Church, namely, that the minds of men will be 
 more drawn to the importance of sound and clear views on this 
 subject. 
 
 The present Edition of this Work has been carefully revised 
 throughout. I must add, however, that I have certainly found no 
 reason at present, from any remarks made on the Work, to withdraw 
 or alter a single position, argument or authority, advanced in it. A 
 few additional remarks and authorities will be found interspersed here 
 and there ; and a translation has been given of the Latin quotations. 
 The latter forms the major part of the matter added. 
 x It remains only for the Author again to commend it to the Divine 
 blessing. 
 
 W. GOODE. 
 31, Charter House Square, ) 
 Dec. 7, 1849. J
 
 TABLE OP CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 MM. 
 
 PRELIMINARY REMAKES . 21-47 
 
 CHAPTER H 
 
 ON THE VIEWS OF SOME OF THE EARLIER SCHOLASTIC DIVINES . . 48-67 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 ON THE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY TO WHICH OUR REFORMEBS AND EARLY 
 
 DIVINES BELONGED 68-164 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE CONFESSIONS OF THE FoKElGN PKOTESTANT 
 
 CHURCHES AND DIVINES RESPECTING THE EFFECTS OF BAPTISM ' . 165-173 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF MARTIN BUCER AND PETER MARTYR, (WHO WERE 
 PLACED BY ARCHBISHOP CRANMER, AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE 
 REIGN OF EDWARD VL, AS THE FIRST REGIUS PROFESSORS OF DIVINITY 
 AT CAMBRIDGE AND OXFORD,) ON THE SUBJECT OF THE KKFKUTS OF 
 
 INFANT BAPTISM 174-189 
 
 1. The doctrine of Martin Bucer 174-186 
 
 2. The doctrine of Peter Martyr 186-189
 
 TABLE OF ^CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 ON THE CHARACTER OF THE WORKS ISSUED BY PUBLIC AUTHORITY IN THE 
 LATTER PART OF THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII., AND THEIR DOCTRINE 
 ON THE SUBJECT OF THE EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS . . 190-218 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF OUR LEADING REFORMERS AND DlVINES DURING THE 
 
 REIGNS OF EDWARD VI., AND ELIZABETH, AND THE EARLIER PART 
 OF THAT OF JAMES L, ON THE SUBJECT OF THE EFFECTS OF BAPTISM 
 IN INFANTS . . . 219-388 
 
 During the reign of Edward VI. ; 
 
 Testimonies of Catechism of 1553 p. 220, Abp. Cranmer, 222, Bp. 
 Ridley, 236, Bp. Latimer, 236, Bp. Hooper, 237, John Bradford, 241, 
 Archdeacon Philpot, 248, Bp. Coverdale, 248, Thomas Becon, 249, 
 iDean Turner, 251, Lancelot Ridley, 252, John Olde, 262, Roger 
 Hutchinson, 253, Short Catechism, 1550, 254 . * . . . 219-255 
 
 During the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. ; 
 
 Testimonies of Works having public sanction : Bishop Jewell's 
 Apology, <fec. p. 255, Dean NowelTs Catechism, 263, Bullinger's 
 Decads, 271 255-282 
 
 Testimonies of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the 
 Regius and Margaret Professors of Divinity at Cambridge and Oxford : 
 Abp. Whitgift, 283, Abp. Sandys, 286, Bp. R. Abbot, 286, Bp. 
 J. Prideaux, 292 Bp. Westfaling, 294, Dr. CalfhilL, 298, Dr. Bene- 
 field, 298, Dr, Whitaker, 299, Bp. Davenant, 307 .... 283-314 
 
 Testimonies of various other Bishops, Bp. Geste, 315, Bp. Alley, 
 816. Bp. Cooper, 317, Bp. Babington, 321, Bp. Bridges, 324, Bp. 
 W. Barlow, 327, Bp. L. Andrews, 330, Bp. Parry, 334, Bp. Lake, 
 886, Bp. Carleton, 338, Bp. Downame, 342, Abp. Usher, 345, Bp. 
 Beddl, 361 814-868
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. jfc 
 
 Testimonies of learned Divines and Laymen : Dr. W. Haddon, 358, 
 Dr. R. Some, 360. Dr. Prime, 365, Dr. Fulke, 366, R. Hooker, 
 869. Dr. A. Willet, 372, T. Rogers, 380, Dr. Sparke, 382, Lord 
 Chancellor Bacon, 384 . . . S58-888 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 / 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES, AMD THE BOOK OF 
 
 HOMILIES, ON THE SUBJECT OF THIS WORK .... 389-411 
 
 1. The doctrine of the Thirty-nine Articles .... 389-405 
 
 2 The doctrine of the Book of Homilies . . . 405^11 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRATER ON THE SUBJECT OF 
 
 THIS WORK . ' . 412-456 
 
 1. Examination of the Baptismal Services for infants, and proof of 
 the principle on which they are constructed, by a comparison of them 
 with the other Services in the Book of Common Prayer . . . . 412-428 
 
 2. The judgment of Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr, upon our 
 Baptismal Services for infants 428-432 
 
 3. Luther's Service for Infant Baptism expressed in similar terms 
 to ours, and understood by him in the hypothetical sense . . . 432-435 
 
 4. The meaning of the Baptismal Service demonstrated by a com- 
 parison of it with a similar Formulary, drawn up by Bucer himself, 
 in a Liturgy from which our own Office is admitted to be " freely bor- 
 rowed." . . 434-456 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CATECHISM ON THE SCBJECT OF THIS WOBK . 457-475 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 ON THE SAVOY CONFERENCE, AND THE SUBSEQUENT REVIEW AND RE- 
 ESTABLISHMEXT OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER BY CONVOCATION 
 AND PARLIAMENT IN 1662 476-481
 
 xx TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIL *. 
 
 TESTIMONIES FROM OUR DIVINES SINCE THE RESTORATION, CHIEFLY OF 
 THE ARMINIAN SCHOOL, ON THE SUBJECT OF THIS WORK ; AND CON- 
 CLUDING REMARKS ......... 482628 
 
 Testimonies from Bp. W. Nicolson, p. 484, Bp. Jeremy Taylor, 487, 
 Bp. Hopkins, 487, Bp. Pearson, 490, Dean Durel, 492, Dr. W. 
 Falkner, 495, Bp. Burnet, 498, Abp. Tillotson, 499, Abp. Sharp, 500, 
 Bp. John Williams, 501, W. Burkitt, 501, Dr. T. Bray, 602, Bp. T. 
 Wilson, 504, Bp. Beveridge, 505, Joseph Bingham, 509, Bp. Brad- 
 ford, 510, Chancellor Stebbing, 512, Thomas Stackhouse, 514, Abp. 
 Seeker, 515, Bp. Edm. Law, 517, Bp. Horsley, 518, Bp. Barrington, 
 519 482-519 
 
 Concluding Remarks 619624 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 ' Luther's Form for the Baptism of Infants, according to the second 
 edition published by him in German in 1524, and translated and pub- 
 lished in Latin in 1526 .... .... 625-628 
 
 No. 2. * 
 
 The Order and Form of Baptism (including the Prefatory Remarks 
 on the subject of Baptism) inserted in the Bradenburg and Nuremberg 
 Liturgy of 1533 628-636 
 
 No. 8. 
 
 The Forms and Orders for Baptism and Confirmation, -with the 
 accompanying observations, drawn up and inserted by Bucer, in the 
 Liturgical work published in 1543, by Herman, Archbishop of Cologne 536-658 
 
 ADDENDA, (fee. 558 ad fin.
 
 DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 THE remarks contained in the following pages are intention- 
 ally confined to the discussion of the question, Wliat is the 
 doctrine of the Church of England as to the effects of bap- 
 tism in the case of infants ? 
 
 In treating this subject, I shall argue it quite independently 
 of the further question, Whether the XXXIX. Articles are, or 
 are not, the supreme standard of faith and test of orthodoxy 
 for the ministers of our Church in those points treated of in 
 them, and shall endeavor to show the sense of our Formu- 
 laries, both from internal testimony, and as illustrated by the 
 writings of our divines from the period of their construction. 
 
 Before I proceed, however, to the regular discussion of the 
 subject, I would offer a few preliminary remarks tending to 
 illustrate the real character of the question, and how far a de- 
 finite and certain solution of it is to be expected. It appears 
 to me that erroneous views are often entertained on this point. 
 The matter is often spoken of as if the Church of England 
 must of necessity have laid down, and had in fact laid down, a 
 certain definite precise view upon this subject, and perempto- 
 rily enjoined it upon all her ministers for their acceptance and 
 belief. In my humble apprehension such "a notion is entirely 
 opposed to fact, and also to the well-known principles upon 
 which our Reformers were guided in drawing up the Formula- 
 ries of our Church. As our Reformers have not bound us to
 
 22 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 one precise human system of theology, so I believe that they 
 have not tied us to one precise view of the subject we are now 
 about to discuss and the parties who are the loudest in 
 clamoring for the establishment of their view as the exclusive 
 doctrine of our Church, are probably the farthest from the 
 doctrine of our Reformers ; even to the transgression of the 
 limits which they certainly did not intend to be overstepped. 
 The way in which some are in the habit of putting forward 
 their view on this subject, as precisely and definitely the ex- 
 clusive view of the Church of England to be held by all her 
 ministers, on the pain of incurring the charge of dishonesty 
 and being driven with disgrace from her communion, forcibly 
 reminds one of the tone assumed by one of their late leaders 
 when advocating his system as the doctrine of the Fathers. 
 In his opinion (and he, we are told, was one of the most learned 
 theologians and patristical scholars in our Church, if not su- 
 preme among them) there was no room for argument on the 
 subject. That his system was established as the truth by the 
 Catholic consent of all the Fathers, was "an obvious fact ,"* 
 about which in impartial minds there could not be any doubt. 
 But somehow or other, in the course of a very few years, the 
 " obvious fact" was found out to be a delusion ; the produce 
 of a one-sided view of certain passages from certain authors 
 favorable to the doctrine which had engaged his affections. 
 And so this very learned patristical scholar, who was to have 
 enlightened all England by showing them how " everybody 
 always everywhere " for a vast number of centuries from the 
 beginning had maintained " Church principles," was cut short 
 in his course by the awkward "fact" that he had made a 
 grand mistake, and that there was no such consent. But 
 alas ! " Church principles " were too precious to be abandoned, 
 and therefore, (wisely upon his view of the subject) he adopted 
 the principles that come nearest to them, and in some points 
 appear to approximate very closely to them ; and passed over 
 to a party where the trouble of further doubt, argument, or 
 research, is rendered wholly unnecessary, and an infallible 
 determination bids every scruple cease and every tongue be 
 silent. 
 
 R See Newman's Lectures on Romanism and Popular Protestantism, passim.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 23 
 
 I will not anticipate such a result from an endeavor to 
 prove that the statements of pertain parties as to the doctrine 
 of our Church on the subject we are now considering, are as 
 idle and groundless as Mr. Newman's claims for his "obvious 
 fact." But the assertions seem to me so remarkably similar 
 in character and origin, that the remembrance of the one came 
 forcibly into my mind when about to offer some remarks on 
 the other. 
 
 Now, as I have already intimated, it appears to me, after 
 much long and anxious consideration of the question here pro- 
 posed for discussion, that all which our Church has done upon 
 this question is, to lay down certain limits on both sides, with- 
 in which the views of her ministers are to be confined. 
 
 At the beginning of the Reformation in Germany, several of 
 the Continental Reformers, offended with the grossly corrupt 
 doctrine of the Church of Rome on the subject, maintained (or 
 at least used language which seemed to imply) that the Sacra- 
 ments were mere signs, not having any peculiarly promised 
 gift of grace attached to them, even in the case of the most 
 worthy recipients. This view seems rather implied, even by 
 Melancthon, in the earliest edition of his " Loci Theologici," 
 published in 1521, under the title of " Hypotyposes Theologi- 
 eae,"* a work which underwent very great alterations in sub- 
 sequent years at the hands of its author, partly in this point, 
 and more especially in some others. But Luther, apparently 
 from the very first, took a higher view of the value of the Sa- 
 craments in the case of faithful recipients. And the language 
 of Melancthon (though to the last cautious and guarded) soon 
 became similar to his on the subject. The difference of lan- 
 guage, however, between Luther and some of his friends on 
 one side, and Bucer and others of the Reformers on the other, 
 upon this point, was one of the subjects of discussion in a Con- 
 ference held between Luther, Melancthon, and others, as repre- 
 sentatives of one party, and Bucer, Musculus, and others, as 
 representatives of the other, at Wittemberg in 1536, in which, 
 
 * The Chapter on the Sacraments is entitled " De Signis." The original 
 edition is of great rarity, bnt it has been reprinted in Von der Hardt, Hist Liter. 
 Reform., and lately republished separately in Germany.
 
 24 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 after mutual explanations, the parties present came to a full 
 understanding on the point, and each side agreed to withdraw 
 expressions tending to the undue exaltation or depreciation of 
 the Sacrament of Baptism. An account of this Conference is 
 to be found in Bucer's " Scripta Anglicana."* And in the 
 same year Bucer published a new edition of his Commentaries 
 on the Grospels, containing a " retractation" of some passages on 
 Baptism and the Lord's Supper, which had appeared in his 
 previous edition of 1530.f The concessions made by Bucer 
 and his party upon this occasion were not altogether grateful 
 to the whole Protestant body ; but the ground taken in this 
 Conference upon the subject, certainly became the prevailing 
 view among the Continental Reformers, especially in their 
 public Confessions. I purpose hereafter to revert to it. 
 
 Now upon this point, as we might expect, our Church has 
 spoken decidedly. In her 27th Article she declares, (and re- 
 quires her clergy to maintain,) that " Baptism is not only a 
 sign of profession, and mark of difference, whereby Christian 
 men are discerned from other that be not christened ; but is 
 also a sign of regeneration or new birth," and that not an 
 empty, but efficacious sign " whereby, as by an instrument, 
 they that RECEIVE BAPTISM RIGHTLY, are grafted into the 
 
 Church, &c Faith is confirmed ; and grace increased 
 
 by virtue of prayer unto Grod." Our Church thus repudiates 
 the doctrine of those who hold baptism to be a mere sign, and 
 pronounces that a certain definite gift and blessing are attached 
 to it in those that rightly receive it. Here, then, is the limit 
 on one side. 
 
 But on the other side, there were those, namely, the Ro- 
 manists, who maintained that baptism conferred grace upon 
 all to whom it was given, even ex opere operato, from the per- 
 formance of the act ; in case there was no direct obstacle op- 
 posed to its reception by the party baptized. 
 So it was laid down in the Council of Trent. 
 
 " Si quis dixerit, wvcramenta novae legis non continere gratiam quam 
 significant; aut gratiam ipsam non ponentibus obicem non conferre ; quasi 
 
 * Buceri Scripta Anglicana. Basil. 1677, fol. pp. 648-669. 
 f Buceri In sacra quatuor Evangelia Enarrationes. Basil. 1536, fol. pp. 
 42-45; and 483-487: 566,7.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 25 
 
 signa tantum externa sint acceptae per fidera gratiae, vel justitise, et notae 
 quaedam Christiana professions, quibus apud homines discernuntur fideles 
 ab infidelibus ; anathema sit." (Sess. vii. Can. 6.) 
 
 " Si quis dixerit, per ipsa novae legis sacramenta ex opere operato non 
 conferri gratiam, sed solam fidem divinae promissionis ad gratiam conse- 
 quendam sufficere anathema sit." (Ib. Can. 8.*) 
 
 These statements are drawn up in the style too common 
 among the Romanists. Their own views are first stated, and 
 then contrasted with a misrepresentation of those of their op- 
 ponents. What we are concerned with, however, is the state- 
 ment of their own doctrine ; and this is clearly, that the Sacra- 
 'ments confer grace ex opere operato on all who do not place an 
 impediment in the way. The nature of this " impediment " has 
 been variously stated, and the Council has certainly left it 
 doubtful what in their view was its precise character. But in 
 whatever way the words may be explained, they are clearly 
 contrary to the doctrine of our Church, as expressed in the 25th 
 Article. " In such only as worthily receive the same, [i.e. the 
 Sacraments,] they have a wholesome effect or operation. But 
 they that receive them unworthily purchase to themselves 
 damnation, as S. Paul saith." And in the corresponding 
 Article of 1552, the very phrase, ex opere operato, was ex- 
 pressly repudiated in strong language of disapprobation, the 
 clause running thus : " And in such only, as worthily receive 
 the same, they have an wholesome effect and operation, and 
 yet not that of the work wrought, as some men speak, which 
 word, as it is strange and unknown to Holy Scripture, so it 
 engendereth no godly, but a very superstitious sensed But 
 they that receive the Sacraments unworthily, purchase to 
 themselves damnation, as Saint Paul saith." 
 
 In the revision in 1562, the whole article was re-cast, and 
 the words in italics omitted ; no doubt as unnecessary, for as 
 Bishop Burnet says in his Commentary on the Article, " In 
 all this diversity there is no real difference ; for the virtue of 
 the Sacraments being put in the worthy receiv%g, excludes 
 
 * Ed. Streitwolf Getting. 1888, vol. i. p. 89. 
 
 f Idque non ex opere (ut qtiidam loquuntur) operato, quae vox ut peregrina 
 est etsacris literis ignota, sic parit sensum minime pium, sed admodum supersti- 
 tionim. (Ed. Cardwell.)
 
 26 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 the doctrine of Opus operatum as formally as if it had ex- 
 pressly been condemned." And certainly those engaged in 
 the revision of the articles in 1562, were little likely to take 
 a view more favorable to the Romish in this or any other 
 point, than those that drew up the articles of 1552. One of 
 them, the author of the Apology, Bishop Jewell, may be al- 
 lowed to speak for all. " We say," (he remarks in his Apol- 
 ogy, a work the high authority of which the Bishop of Exeter 
 acknowledges,)." that the sacraments of Christ, without faith, 
 do not once profit those that be alive, a great deal less do 
 they profit those that be dead." (Ch. 15, div. 2. In Def. of 
 Apology, in his Works, p. 282, ed. 1611.) And in his " Reply 
 to Hard ing's Answer " to his Sermon, he expressly opposes the 
 Roman doctrine of Opus operatum, as maintained in the 
 eighth Canon of the Seventh Session of the Council of Trent, 
 (above cited,) and other passages in Romish writers. (Works, 
 Reply, p. 437, &o.) 
 
 The same doctrine is also clearly maintained in the 26th r 
 28th, and 29th Articles. In the first of these, where it is. 
 stated that "the grace of God's gifts" is not " diminished 
 from such as by faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments 
 ministered unto them." In the 28th and 29th, where it is 
 stated that " to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith re- 
 ceive" the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the bread is 
 "a partaking of the body of Christ," and the wine "a par- 
 taking of the blood of Christ," while "the wicked" in re- 
 ceiving are " in no wise partakers of Christ." 
 
 Here, then, is a distinct limit laid down by our Church 
 on the doctrine of the Sacraments on the Romish side, draw- 
 ing a clear line of separation between us and Rome on the 
 subject. 
 
 And here I feel bound to remark, that the Bishop of Exeter, 
 in his recent Charge, has clearly and expressly transgressed 
 this limit, j^c has there ventured to state, (I quote from the 
 third edition,) that " at the time when the Articles were first 
 compiled, in 1552, and even ten years afterwards, when they 
 assumed their present form, the point on which of all others 
 there was the least of difference either between us, or even 
 the German Protestants, and Rome, was the doctrine of Bap-
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 27 
 
 trism." (p. 10.) And that " by the Sacraments ex opere ope- 
 rato grace is conferred, may be affirmed, if it be understood, 
 that it is God who worketh by them." (p. 11, note.) And 
 that on the subject of Baptism, " we are agreed" with Rome, 
 (p. 11.) 
 
 It is difficult to conceive how such a statement could have 
 been ventured upon, but by one whose station seemed likely 
 to protect him from being called to account for it. The very 
 Articles of 1552, to which his lordship here refers as favoring 
 his views, repudiate in express terms (as we have just seen) 
 the doctrine he has laid down, stating (in opposition to the 
 Canon of the Council of Trent, passed in 1547) that the 
 Sacraments have not their effect ex opere operato, and de- 
 nouncing the phrase as " engendering no godly but a very 
 superstitious sense." And the same is the meaning of the 
 Article as it now stands ; for, essentially, it remains the same ; 
 nor will the Bishop, I suppose, himself assert that any real 
 difference was intended on this point by the divines who re- 
 vised the Article in 1562. 
 
 Equally unfortunate is his Lordship's reference to Jewell 
 in defence of the doctrine he has here advanced ; for, as we 
 have just seen, Jewell expressly repudiates it. I shall notice 
 his lordship's extracts from Jewell, when I come to consider 
 Jewell's testimony more at length. But I would here remark, 
 that the Bishop's mistake with respect to his testimony has 
 arisen precisely in the same way as his mistake (now acknow- 
 ledged in the second and subsequent editions of his Charge) 
 with respect to the Confessions of the Reformed Churches. He 
 has deduced from Jewell's general statements of the effect of 
 the Sacraments, when their full end and purpose are answered, 
 the unwarranted inference, that he asserts that such effects 
 are always produced, whenever they are administered. By 
 this mode of reasoning he has (as I pointed out in my " Vin- 
 dication," in reply to his Charge) adduced as an unanswera- 
 ble proof that Dean Nowell's Catechism supports his view, 
 a passage taken from Calvin. And by a similar process he 
 might convert every author who ever held that the Sacra- 
 ments, when worthily received, were accompanied by a gift 
 of grace suitable to their character, into a defender of his
 
 28 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 views. In a word, he confounds the doctrine of the efficacy 
 of the Sacraments as held by the Reformers, subject to the 
 condition of the suitability and worthiness of the recipient, in 
 the eye of God, with the opus operatum doctrine of the Ro- 
 manists, in which the grace of God is so tied to the adminis- 
 tration of the Sacraments, that where the one is, there must 
 of necessity be the other. 
 
 The great difference between the two, may be seen at once 
 by a reference to two authors, whom the Bishop himself will, 
 I suppose, admit to be far enough from holding his view. 
 
 Thus the learned W. Whitaker (whose testimony I shall 
 consider at large hereafter) says, 
 
 " What, therefore, do we say ? Do -we take away all grace from the 
 Sacraments ? Far be it from us ; although they [the Romanists] misrepre- 
 sent us as so doing. For we say that they are most efficacious instruments 
 of the Holy Spirit, and are also instrumental causes of grace : and this they 
 also say ; but we say it in one sense, they in another.* 
 
 So also even Perkins, 
 
 "Of the efficacy of the Sacraments. 1. We .teach and believe that the 
 Sacraments are signs to represent Christ with his benefits unto us. 2. We 
 teach further, that the Sacraments are indeed instruments whereby God 
 offereth and giveth the foresaid benefits unto us. Thus far we consent with 
 the Roman Church." (Reformed Catholic, Pt. 19. Wks. 1616. Vol. 1. p. 
 610.) 
 
 His Lordship may see from these passages, that the lan- 
 guage which he seems to think conclusive in favor of hiS 
 views, is freely used by authors who are entirely opposed to 
 it. It has not the meaning he wishes to derive from it. 
 
 We hold as much as the Bishop does the value and effi- 
 cacy of baptism as God's ordinance, and have no difficulty in 
 using corresponding language respecting it. But we speak 
 of the ordinance as it is when received by one upon whom 
 God pleases to bestow his blessing in it. And be it remem- 
 bered, that all general statements as to the efficacy of baptism, 
 apply as much to the case of adults as to that of infants. And 
 
 Quid ergo noa dicimus? omnemne a sacramentis gratiam removemus? 
 absit ; etsi illi quidem de nobis PIC mentiuntur. Dicimus enim esse efficactssima 
 organa Spiritus Sancti, et esse causas etiam instrumentales gratise : et hoc illi 
 etiam dicunt; Bed aliter illi, aliter nos. (Whitak. Prelect, de Sacram. Francof. 
 1624, 4to , p. 62.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 29 
 
 as in the case of adults, such language is used only on the 
 hypothesis that they come to baptism with a right mind, in 
 faith and repentance ; so in the case of infants, we have no 
 right to suppose that all arc equally acceptable in the sight 
 of God. 
 
 But, to return to our subject, we see from the remarks 
 made above, that our Church has clearly laid down a limit on 
 each side of the question as to the effects of baptism. And 
 beyond this she certainly has not gone in her Articles. 
 Whether her other formularies narrow these limits, is a ques- 
 tion which shall be discussed hereafter ; when I shall also 
 reply to the attempt made to strain some of the XXXIX. 
 Articles to a " High Church " and Popish sense. 
 
 But I notice the fact (as I must be permitted for the pre- 
 sent to assume it to be) here, in order to point attention to 
 the circumstance, that between these limits there are various 
 shades of doctrine, especially as it respects the case of infant 
 baptism, which have, probably, from the first, been more or 
 less maintained in our Church. And I think it will conduce 
 to a clear understanding of the nature and difficulties of the 
 subject with many readers, if I make here a few observations 
 on the various views that have prevailed among us on the 
 point. No man sitting down calmly and impartially to ex- 
 amine the matter, can fail to see, that there are many com- 
 plex and difficult questions to be determined, in pronouncing 
 upon the effects of infant-baptism, on which our Church has 
 given no decision, and on which our divines have been ob- 
 viously divided in opinion, and which materially affect the 
 judgment to be given. 
 
 Nor is this surprising, when we consider how careful our 
 Church has been of tying up her members beyond the doc- 
 trines clearly laid down in the Word of Grod ; and that Holy 
 Scripture has nowhere expressly and nominatim determined 
 the precise effects of infant baptism. 
 
 It must be carefully remembered, that as the doctrine of 
 Infant Baptism is deduced inferentially, and by analogical 
 reasoning, from statements of Scripture applying more ex- 
 pressly to the case of adult baptism, so the doctrine of the 
 effects of infant baptism can be obtained only in the same
 
 80 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 way. Now as we deduce without difficulty, in one case, the 
 fact, that baptism is to be administered ; so in the other we 
 equally without doubt deduce the fact, that there is, under 
 corresponding 1 circumstances, a blessing given to the child 
 similar to that given to the adult. But the question is, (and 
 here lies the difficulty,) what these corresponding circum- 
 stances are. 
 
 In the case of an adult, our Church .distinctly requires the 
 existence of faith and repentance in the party coming to 
 baptism ; and maintains that in such only as worthily receive 
 the Sacraments, they have a wholesome effect or operation. 
 (Art. 25, 26, and 27.) In adults, therefore, certain qualifi- 
 cations are indispensably required, in order to their being 
 made partakers of the full baptismal blessing. 
 
 But, in proceeding from their case to that of an infant, it 
 is obvious that we have got one of a very different kind to 
 deal with, but still one in which we must reason by analogy, 
 from the former, as to the grounds upon which baptism is 
 administered, and the effects produced by it. For the decla- 
 rations of Holy Scripture on this subject had more especial 
 reference, in their first application, to the case of adults. 
 
 It is unnecessary here to enter upon the question of the 
 title of infants, as infants, to baptism, because that is fully 
 granted on both sides. 
 
 But it is an important inquiry, to what infants that title 
 belongs. For not all, even in the sight of man, can be con- 
 sidered as fit subjects for that holy rite. 
 
 What infants are proper subjects for baptism ? Are the 
 children of infidels fit subjects ? "Will it be said that if we 
 went into heathen countries and baptised by force or stealth 
 the children of the heathen, such baptism would certainly be 
 attended with the gift of regenerating grace ? If baptism is 
 followed by such a salutary effect, even ex opere operato, this 
 cannot be denied. But will any one gravely maintain that 
 this is the doctrine of our Church ? It is not indeed any- 
 where (as far as I remember) distinctly laid down in any of 
 the Formularies of the Church, that the children of .infidels 
 are not admissible to baptism. But is it not clearly implied ? 
 so implied that baptism administered to them is not warranted
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 31 
 
 by our Church ? Supposing a case where by force or stealth 
 an infant of heathen parents was brought, even with the 
 required sureties, for baptism, would any minister of our 
 Church feel justified in performing the rite ? What does 
 Jewell's Apology a very high, though not legally binding 
 authority say respecting baptism ? " We say that Baptism 
 is a Sacrament of the remission of sins, and of that washing 
 which we have in the blood of Christ ; and that no person 
 which will profess Christ's name, ought to be restrained or 
 kept back therefrom no, not the very babes of CHRISTIANS ; 
 forsomuch as they be born in sin, and do pertain unto the peo- 
 ple of God." (Ch. ii. div. 3, Works, p. 216.) The adminis- 
 * tration of the Sacrament is here clearly limited to the babes 
 of " Christians," and they are to be baptised on the ground 
 thut they " pertain unto the people of God." The same doc- 
 trine is clearly laid down in Nowell's Catechism, where it is 
 said, " Cum infantes nostros vim et quasi substantiam Bap- 
 tismi communem nobiscum habere cerium sit, illis injuria fieret, 
 
 si signum, quod veritate est inferius, ipsis negaretur 
 
 Itaque eequissimum est, ut parvulis nostris Divinse gratiae, 
 atque salutis fidelium semini promisste hasredes se esse, Bap- 
 tismo, impresso quasi sigillo, testatum fiat," 
 
 The authority of these works confessedly stands so high, 
 that it is hardly necessary to give further references on the 
 subject. The same ground, however, (I will just remark,) 
 is taken by Bishop Beveridge in his Exposition of the 27th 
 Article. 
 
 In fact, the argument from Scripture for infant baptism is 
 founded very much upon texts which apply only to the chil- 
 dren of Christians. Thus the chief Scriptural ground on 
 which it is placed is the text, " The promise is unto you and 
 your children." (Acts iL 39.) And one of its best supports 
 is St. Paul's statement, that the children of a believing parent 
 are in a certain sense " holy." (1 Cor. vii. 14.) 
 
 Here, then, we have at once (if the question respecting 
 the baptism of children of infidels is determined in the nega- 
 tive) an important element in our determination of the ques- 
 tion of the effects of infant baptism. We see the necessity 
 of inquiring whether the child is the offspring of parents who
 
 32 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 are at least professedly Christians. If not, we are not enti- 
 tled to expect a salutary effect from the ordinance. Our 
 Service for Infant Baptism, therefore, is drawn up on the 
 HYPOTHESIS that the infant is the child of at least one (really, 
 or at any rate nominally) believing- parent. 
 
 Hence, the principle of the hypothetical interpretation of 
 the Service must be admitted. As it is supposed, in the Ser- 
 vice for Adult Baptism, that those who come to be baptised 
 come truly possessed of the qualifications of faith and repent- 
 ance, so it is supposed, in that for Infant Baptism, that the 
 infants brought are at least the children of professedly 
 Christian parents. 
 
 But having proceeded thus far, it is obvious that another* 
 question arises. If we are not entitled to reckon upon a salu- 
 tary effect in baptism in the case of the infant of infidel 
 parents, are we entitled to do so in the case of the infant of 
 mere nominal' believers? Those who come as believers must, 
 indeed, be treated by man as real believers ; (unless the false- 
 hood of the profession be patent and canonically provable ;) 
 but will He who searcheth the hearts act as if they were so ? 
 Baptism must be administered by us to their children as to 
 the children of real believers, but have we any right to affirm 
 that those children will be dealt with by God as. the children 
 of real believers, when their parents are destitute of genuine 
 faith ? God may, doubtless, give his blessing ; but is not the 
 recognised title to baptism really, though not apparently, 
 wanting 1 Here is a question not decided by the Church, and 
 which probably admits of argument. But it is at least rea- 
 sonable to think, that our Church, administering baptism on 
 the grounds stated by Jewell and Nowell, administers it on 
 the supposition that the professed belief is a reality ; and, 
 consequently, that her Service is constructed on this hypo- 
 thesis. 
 
 Here therefore we have at least a probable reason for ex- 
 tending 1 the hypothesis on which the Service is constructed. 
 
 But we have further to inquire, whether there is any 
 Scriptural ground for supposing that all infants of even a 
 truly believing parent, must necessarily receive the full bap- 
 tismal blessing when brought to the font. The answer must
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 33 
 
 be, that there is not. And consequently we must further con- 
 sider, in what cases we have reason to expect that blessing, 
 and thus extend somewhat further the hypothesis on which 
 the thanksgiving in the Service is offered for that blessing. 
 
 Here again there is of course some variety of opinion. 
 
 Many might be inclined to think, that all infants of a true 
 believer receive in baptism a spiritual blessing, so far that it 
 is to them a seal of the remission of original sin, anorthere- 
 fore that, as infants, they may be said to be regenerated by it. 
 
 The faith of the parent is to the infant, as an infant, and 
 so far as concerns original sin, mercifully reckoned by God as 
 imputable to the infant, and on the strength of this it is bap- 
 tized, faith and baptism together (as in the case of adults) 
 perfecting the work of infantine regeneration. And (whether 
 this view is preferred or not) I know not why any one should 
 quarrel with the term infantine regeneration, in this sense, 
 more than with the Apostolic term infantine holiness used in 
 a similar sense. All the objections that could be raised from 
 Scripture against the one, might (barring the passage of the 
 Apostle just referred to) be raised against the other. If we 
 can justly call the children of every true believer holy, we 
 can as justly, after they have received the seal of the coverfant 
 in baptism, call them regenerate. And the Service for Infant 
 Baptism would then be used precisely in the same sense as 
 that for Adult Baptism must be used to make it consistent 
 with the 25th Article. 
 
 But then comes a further question as to what this regenera- 
 tion is, and whether one who may have been rightly called 
 regenerate as an infant is therefore to be so considered as an 
 adult. Clearky not ; because, by the word of Grod, personal 
 faith is essential to the regeneration of an adult. The child, 
 in passing from an infantine state to a state of responsibility, 
 goes through a complete change of condition. 
 
 And this is the view of the Bishop of Exeter's own referee, 
 Dr. Jackson. His Lordship has triumphantly adduced Dr. 
 Jackson, (Charge, p. 20,) as maintaining his own doctrine, 
 because he affirms the universal regeneration of the infants 
 brought to baptism ; that is (be it remembered) the infants of 
 those who profess to be true believers. But his Lordship has 
 3
 
 34 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 here merely caught up a few words (apparently taken at 
 second hand from some quarter where he found the quotation, 
 for no reference is given*) from an author of whose real doc- 
 trine he is wholly ignorant. For Dr. Jackson expressly 
 says, 
 
 " The same measure of regeneration which sufficeth children, or infants 
 dying before they come to the use of reason, will not suffice such as attain 
 to the u^e of reason or years of discretion." (Works, iii. 100.) 
 
 This view was also advocated by the learned Bishop Daven- 
 ant, as I shall show elsewhere. 
 
 Now I pass no judgment upon this view, but I notice it as 
 one clearly maintainable in our Church, and defended more- 
 over by one to whom the Bishop of Exeter himself refers as a 
 theologian of the highest order among us. 
 
 The expressions of many of our divines seem to me strongly 
 to favor this view, though they have not so distinctly ex- 
 pressed it as Dr. Jackson. 
 
 But I must add, that no man has any right to stretch the 
 Rubric as to the undoubted salvation of all baptized infants 
 dying in their infancy, so as to include any other than the in- 
 fants of professing Christians. Children are baptized in our 
 Church as the children of believers, as our early divines con- 
 stantly affirm ; and therefore all statements on the subject of 
 their baptism must be interpreted on that supposition. And 
 further, it is clearly open to us to maintain, that such pro- 
 fession must be a reality, to obtain any blessing from God. 
 Man must indeed treat it as a reality, but God is not to be 
 thus mocked. 
 
 Others, however, have not been satisfied, that such a dis- 
 tinction can properly be drawn between infant regeneration 
 and adult regeneration ; and (still within the limits prescribed 
 by our Church) they have adopted other views, of which the 
 three principal appear to me to be the following. The first is 
 this. 
 
 That the efficaciousness of baptism in infants depends upon 
 previous election by God to salvation ; those inclined to Cal- 
 vinistic views, holding such election to be a free act of 
 
 The passage occurs in his Work on the Creed, Book xi. c. 17, Works iii. 471.
 
 , EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 35 
 
 sovereign mercy ; and those inclined to Arminian views, hold- 
 ing it to proceed from foreseen faith and holiness.* 
 
 In such cases, it is held, that baptism, as God's ordinance, 
 is effectual to the incorporation of the baptized into the true 
 Church the true body of Christ. The pardon of original sin 
 is seated to the child of a believer, and the infant becomes truly 
 a member of Christ's body, and therefore may truly be called 
 regenerate. Such a child may, when an adult, display for a 
 time little or no evidence of his membership ; and as long as 
 this is the case, instead of telling him that he is certainly re- 
 generate, because baptized, we must warn him that there is 
 every reason to fear that he is unregenerate, and uninterested 
 in the blessings of the Covenant ; and it is by such exhorta- 
 tions that we may hope to be instrumental, in God's hand, in 
 the accomplishment of that internal change which is to be 
 effected in him. 
 
 And in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, (as must 
 be the case with infants,) it is held, that we are bound in the 
 judgment of charity to regard the infant brought for baptism 
 as one so elected to salvation. 
 
 The second view is of a somewhat similar nature, but irre- 
 spective of any consideration of the doctrine of election. It is 
 this : 
 
 That as in adults the efficaciousness of baptism depends upon 
 the party coming to that ordinance in the spirit of true faith 
 and repentance, so in infants (excepting the case of those who 
 
 * This mode of interpreting the Baptismal Service may be adopted by the 
 Arminian as well as the Calvinist ; for the difference between the two does not 
 concern the existence of such a thing as divine election and predestination, but the 
 cause of them ; the former holding it to be the effect of foreseen N faith in 
 the predestinated, the latter the effect of a mere gratuitous act of sovereign 
 divine mercy, ultimately producing faith. True, the Arminian holds, that the 
 same degree of faith is given to all ; while the Calvinist holds, that more is given 
 to some than to others. But both these views of the Arminian, are com- 
 patible with the notion, that grace and regeneration are not always and necessa- 
 rily bestowed in baptism. He is not, by his views as an Arminian, shut up to 
 the conclusion that, even where the Divine prescience foresees, that the grace 
 given will be always and permanently rejected, yet, nevertheless, the grace o 
 regeneration must necessarily be bestowed in the rite of baptism. He may 
 legitimately take the view, that where a good use of the grace given is foreseen, 
 it may be always bestowed as baptism ; while in the case of others, equal grace 
 may be given at some period of their lives, but not necessarily at baptism.
 
 36 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 die in their infancy, where such qualifications are not required) 
 the efficaciousness of baptism depends upon the prevision by 
 (rod of future faith and repentance in the child at a subsequent 
 period of life. This view seems clearly implied in those words 
 of Bishop Hooper, where he says, " Thus be the infants ex- 
 amined concerning repentance and faith, before they be bap- 
 tized with water, at the contemplation of the which faith God 
 purgeth the soul."* 
 
 In such cases, it may fairly be held, that the guilt of origi- 
 nal sin being removed from the child baptized, as the child of 
 a believer, (the vicarious faith of the parent uniting with bap- 
 tism to produce this result) it is, in contemplation of its sub- 
 quent faith and repentance, then promised for it, made a 
 member of the true Church of Christ, and so regenerate. 
 
 This subject has often been illustrated, and I think happily, 
 by the consideration of the case of' the purchase of an estate 
 upon certain conditions. 
 
 Let us suppose an adult purchasing an estate for a thousand 
 pounds. The seal is affixed to the covenant, when the con- 
 dition of purchase, the payment of a thousand pounds, is ful- 
 filled. And when the covenant is signed and sealed, and not 
 before, the party purchasing becomes possessed of the estate, 
 and all the privileges and titles it confers. 
 
 But suppose an estate purchased by trustees for a minor, on 
 the condition (promised by them as far as they are able to 
 make a promise for him) that when he comes of age he shall 
 pay a thousand pounds, and that so long as that sum remains 
 unpaid, it shall not be enjoyed by him. By what name shall 
 we call the interest he has in it while a minor ? Can we say 
 that the estate is his ? Clearly in a sense we may do so. But 
 it is only in a sense, only hypothetically ; man knows not 
 whether the agreement made is of any value to the child or 
 not. And in the eye of one who foresees all things, such a co- 
 venant, if the terms should never be fulfilled by the child, is 
 from the first a nullity. 
 
 Now in the case of baptism, the conditions for the reception 
 of its grace are faith and repentance, and the worthiness ot 
 
 Declaration of Christ and His Office. Early Writings. P. S. Ed. p. 74.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 37 
 
 the party, even in the case of infants, (supposing them after- 
 wards to reach a responsible age) depends upon the ultimate 
 fulfilment of these conditions. I do not enter now into the 
 discussion whether the performance of those conditions re- 
 quires a sovereign and peculiar act of divine grace. That is 
 another question. But what is maintained is, that there is a 
 personal worthiness or suitability required in the infant, cor- 
 responding to that required in an adult, in order that baptism 
 should seal up to him the gift of regeneration. If faith and 
 repentance are foreseen, the covenant made in baptism is valid 
 and effectual in the eye of God. It may fairly be held, that 
 the child is made a real member of the true Church of Christ, 
 and more or less therefore a partaker of the Spirit. 
 
 This, then, is another view of the case, which may fairly be 
 taken, within the before mentioned limits. Difficulties may 
 be started respecting it, and so they may to every view of the 
 subject that can be taken. And, no doubt, there will be, to 
 the end of time, a difference of opinion respecting it. 
 
 But there is also a third view, which is this, That as faith 
 and repentance are required in the adult, so they are requisite, 
 in proportion, to the infant, for the reception in baptism of the 
 full blessing of that ordinance. Some have described this as 
 truly and properly faith ; others as, the seed or principle of 
 faith. And it is important to observe, that this was maintained 
 by Luther, who says that infants are brought to baptism, 
 "hac spe atque animo, quod certo credant."* This doctrine 
 has not been perpetuated among his followers, who have in 
 fact, in more than one point, deserted the views of the great 
 leader after whom they are called. But Luther's doctrine it 
 certainly was ; and we shall find hereafter that this fact will 
 enable us to obtain an important illustration of the meaning of 
 our Baptismal Service. And I find him followed by one at 
 least of our earliest divines, namely, Lancelot Ridley, made 
 by Cranmer, in 1551, one of the six preachers at Canterbury. 
 Others, as future extracts will show, prefer adopting the notion 
 of a seed, or principle, or habit of faith, having been implanted 
 in the heart. 
 
 * Catechismus Major.
 
 38 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Where this gift, then, of divine grace (namely, the posses- 
 sion of faith, or at least a spiritual bias of the mind which 
 may be called a seed or principle 'of faith) has been bestowed, 
 there (as in the similar case of adults) baptism is efficacious 
 for the fulfilment of its best end and purpose. 
 
 All these views are clearly admissible within the limits 
 prescribed by our Church. And all these, we shall find here- 
 after, have been held by some of our best divines. 
 
 But, I must add, that to keep within these limits is of the 
 utmost importance; to guard, on the one side, against any 
 contempt or neglect of Christ's own ordinance ; and, on the 
 other, against the arrogant pretensions of a self-exalting priest- 
 hood to confer, on whom they please, gifts which our blessed 
 Lord gives according to his own will ; through the instru- 
 mentality, indeed, generally of his ministers, but only when, 
 and in whom, he pleases to work through them. 
 
 The great (I had almost said fatal) mistake which those 
 who maintain what are called High Church views among us 
 have made on this and other kindred subjects, appears to me 
 to be this, that they suppose, that because they are ministers 
 of Christ, and that certain ministrations were appointed for 
 certain ends, therefore those ministrations must always be 
 effectual to the accomplishment of those ends. Now it is true 
 that Christ works by them, and works by certain ministra- 
 tions the ends intended to be fulfilled by them ; but only 
 when, and in what cases he pleases. They are instruments 
 for fulfilling the purposes of his will. Out of every hundred 
 individuals to whom they preach, there may be very few in 
 whose hearts the Spirit works by them. Out of every hun- 
 dred to whom they administer the Sacraments, there may be 
 very few to whom they minister more than an outward rite or 
 ceremony. 
 
 But with this, some will not be satisfied. No, say they, 
 I have been made a minister of Christ, and thus had power 
 given me to dispense, whenever I please, spiritual influence by 
 the administration of the Sacraments. And the very logical 
 mode of arguing by which this is supported, is, that being 
 duly ordained, their administration of the Sacraments is valid, 
 and that Scripture tells us, that the Sacraments were appointed
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 39 
 
 for such and- such ends ; and, of course, uses language re- 
 specting them appropriate to their proper character and pur- 
 poses. They that are baptized have put on Christ, says the 
 Apostle. Therefore, says the Bishop of Exeter, whoever are 
 baptized by me have put on Christ. Most logical conclusion ! 
 Let us take another case of such reasoning. They that are 
 instituted and inducted into a living, have obtained legal pos- 
 session of that living. Therefore, whoever are instituted and 
 inducted to a living by the proper authorities for performing 
 such acts, even though it may turn out that they were never 
 ordained, have obtained legal possession of that living. The 
 fallacy lies in arguing from a general statement, where con- 
 ditions are tacitly implied, to particular cases in which those 
 conditions are not fulfilled. 
 
 In all these views that we have mentioned, it must be ob- 
 served, there is one governing principle, namely, that the 
 doctrine of the effects of infant baptism must correspond 
 (according to the analogy of the two cases) with that of the 
 effects of adult baptism. That infants should enjoy in bap- 
 tism the full blessing of that holy ordinance, it is necessary 
 that there should be something in their state or circumstances 
 corresponding with that which is required in adults for the 
 attainment of that blessing. And it is the complete praeter- 
 ition of all consideration of the necessity of qualifications in 
 infants for enjoying that blessing that is (as it appears to me) 
 the grand cause of the mistakes made by many among us, 
 both as to the doctrine itself now in question, and as to the 
 meaning of the language of our divines on the subject of 
 baptism. When general statements are found in our divines 
 pointing out the value and excellent effects of baptism, they 
 claim them at once as maintaining their view that all infants 
 are spiritually regenerated in baptism. But when we ask, 
 whether they mean, that baptism produces these effects in all 
 cases, they are compelled to reply, No, in the case of adults 
 we must suppose that these statements were intended only to 
 apply to those adults who have faith and repentance. Why 
 then, I ask, are we not to suppose a similar and analogous 
 limitation implied in the ease of infants ? And the only an- 
 swer is, because they choose to think that all infants are alike,
 
 40 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 or that they adopt the notion (utterly unsanctioned by our 
 Church) that all receive the grace of baptism who do not op- 
 pose the obstacle of mortal sin. But this reply is evidently in- 
 sufficient. It proceeds upon a mere private notion of their 
 own. It is a mere baseless fiction, utterly unsupported by a 
 shred of Scriptural testimony, or the evidence of any document 
 of authority in our Church. 
 
 And the requirement by our Church of sponsors who shall, 
 previous to the baptism of the child, promise, in its name, 
 faith and repentance when it reaches the age of responsibility, 
 (baptism being administered, to those likely to reach that age, 
 only on condition of such promise being made,) shows that it 
 sanctions no such notion. Faith and repentance being neces- 
 sary pre-requisites to the worthy reception of baptism in adults, 
 our Church has deemed it right, that, even in the case of in- 
 fants, a pledge of the future existence of these dispositions 
 shall, as far as possible, be given ; evidently showing that 
 baptism is administered only in the anticipation of the subse- 
 quent exercise of these dispositions. True ; the validity of 
 the Sacrament does not depend upon these promises being 
 made ; for as Bishop Jewell says, "Whether one, or two, or 
 three, or more, be god-fathers, or witnesses of the baptism, it 
 maketh nothing to the virtue of the Sacrament ; they are no 
 part thereof ; without these baptism is whole and perfect . . 
 Christ left no order for the use of these things, neither did by 
 his word or example require them."* But, nevertheless, the 
 requirement shows the sense of our Church as to the necessity 
 of subsequent faith and repentance on the part of the child, if 
 it lives to years of responsibility, in order that its baptism may 
 be of any service to it ; and that if it could be foreseen, that 
 such faith and repentance would not be exercised by it, (as it 
 is by God, where such is the case,) baptism would not be 
 given to it ; for it is given on this condition and understanding. 
 
 And it is exceedingly important to observe this, because 
 nothing is easier than to bring forward a host of passages from 
 our divines, extolling the effects and value of baptism ; and 
 they who tacitly ASSUME that all infants are worthy recipients, 
 
 * Treatise of the Sacraments, jx 267, Works, 1611, foL
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 41 
 
 though they neither have, nor ever will have, any good notions 
 or feelings in them, at once apply all that is said, to the case 
 of every infant baptized, and produce such passages as proofs 
 of what their authors supposed all infants to receive in bap- 
 tism. So completely has the Bishop of Exeter allowed him- 
 self to be misled by such passages, as to quote Calvinistic 
 Confessions of Faith as maintaining his doctrine, affording 
 an irrefragable proof, how completely we may misrepresent the 
 authors of such statements, by interpreting them as favor- 
 ing such a doctrine. 
 
 It may be said, perhaps, that the child is baptized as the 
 child of Christian parents, and brought by Christian sponsors, 
 and that this constitutes its worthiness for the blessing of the 
 rite. 
 
 But this is a mere unwarranted assumption. These are 
 requisites to the qualification of the child for baptism. And 
 these are all the qualifications that man can demand ; and we 
 know, that among- those thus brought, are some at least who 
 will enjoy the full baptismal blessing. But it does not follow, 
 that these are all the qualifications that God requires, or that 
 he will look with equal favor upon all who are thus brought, 
 even where it is foreknown to him that the party to the day of 
 his death will remain faithless and impenitent. All the in- 
 fants of the Israelites were to be circumcised ; but circum- 
 cision was not to all of them what it was to Abraham, or even 
 to Isaac and Jacob. It is most important to recollect, that all 
 events, past, present, and future, are simultaneously present 
 to the Divine mind. God is omnipresent in all time, as well 
 as in all space. 
 
 And, I must add, that beyond these considerations touching 
 the state of the infant, our Church clearly teaches us the ne- 
 cessity of prayer to any well-grounded anticipation of obtain- 
 ing the Divine blessing in the rite of baptism, as much as in 
 any other ordinance ; not, indeed, to the validity of the exter- 
 nal rite, as a rite, but to our looking" for the presence and 
 blessing of Grod in it. Grod may, indeed, be mercifully pre- 
 sent to the child in it, but we have no right to assume that 
 such will be the case. This is so clearly laid down in the 
 27th Article, that by no fair interpretation of the words can it
 
 42 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 be got rid of. That article tells us, that in this ordinance 
 " Faith is confirmed, and grace increased by virtue of prayer 
 unto God" (vi invocationis divince) . The words, no doubt, 
 apply more immediately to the case of adult baptism, but 
 also it must be admitted, in their due proportion and analogy, 
 to that of infant baptism. And the Article is supported in 
 this, as I shall show hereafter, by a work drawn up at the same 
 time under Cranmer's eye and supervision, called the " Refor- 
 matio Legum." 
 
 There is another point, also, which it is of the greatest 
 importance to observe in connexion with this subject. And 
 that is, what the full baptismal blessing is. For it might 
 be supposed from the language used by some parties on this 
 subject, that not even the slightest interest in the favor of 
 God, or any spiritual change, can be enjoyed till the moment 
 of baptism. A more unscriptural notion could not be enter- 
 tained. In all cases, baptism is connected with regeneration 
 only as the formal signing and sealing of the deed is con- 
 nected with the completion of a purchase. This follows 
 necessarily from the fact, that faith and repentance are re- 
 quired (either in person or by promise) from all who come to 
 baptism, and that in Holy Scripture these are described as 
 essential characteristics of regeneration. Consequently, in 
 adults, the internal work of regeneration must be at least 
 commenced before parties can properly receive baptism ; and, 
 in infants, it must either be commenced, or foreseen by God 
 certainly to follow. 
 
 But baptism is the formal act of incorporation into Christ's 
 body, the Church ; not merely the visible Church, but (when 
 God acts in the ordinance) the true Church, the mystical body 
 of Christ. And therefore it may justly be said, that, where 
 it is efficacious, there we are regenerated by it. For whereas, 
 before, we were only the children of Adam, and so of wrath ; 
 we are hereby made children of grace, members of Christ. 
 But it must be remembered, that as in the natural birth there 
 was life previously ; so in the spiritual new birth, life, a living 
 principle of faith must have been implanted to make the birth 
 by baptism effectual to the production of a being spiritually 
 alive. And Holy Scripture, clearly, often speaks of the im-
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 43 
 
 plantation of this principle of spiritual life as the act of re- 
 generation, inasmuch as it is the most important part of the 
 work of spiritual new-birth.* "While it also speaks of that 
 new-birth as connected with baptism, but evidently in the 
 sense just mentioned. And if this easy distinction is kept 
 in view, all the passages of Holy Scripture on the subject 
 harmonize fully with one another. 
 
 It is also to be borne in mind, that as spiritual regenera- 
 tion is thus connected with baptism, which is its sign and 
 seal, there is a sense in which all that are baptised may be 
 called by man regenerate ; not as having beyond doubt re- 
 ceived spiritual regeneration, but as having received the Sa- 
 crament of regeneration, and thus being sacramentally rege- 
 nerate ; and the Sacrament also is called by the name of that 
 of which it is a sign. 
 
 Thus Augustine says, 
 
 " Si enira sacramenta quandam similitudinem earum rerum, quarum 
 sacramenta sunt, non haberent, omnino sacramenta non essent. Ex hac 
 Butem similitudine plerumque etiam ipsarum rerum nomina accipiunt. 
 Sicut ergo secundura quemdam modum sacramentum corporis Christi, cor- 
 pus Christ! est, sacramentum sanguinis Christi sanguis Christi est, ita 
 sacramentum fidei fides est." (Epist. ad Bonif. Ep. 98, Op. ed. Ben. torn. 
 2. col. 267.) 
 
 And elsewhere ; 
 
 " Quia in Christo dicimus baptizatum, fatemur cum Christum induisse; 
 et si hoc fatemur, regeneratum fatemur.". " Induunt autem homines 
 Christum, aliquando usque ad sacramenti perceptionem, aliquando et usque 
 ad vitae sanctiflcationem : atque illud primum et bonis et malis potest esse 
 commune, hoc autem alterum proprium est bonorum et piorum." (De 
 bapt. contr. Donat. lib. I. c. xi. lib. V. c. xxiv., Op. ed. Ben. torn. 9., fol. 
 88, and 157.) 
 
 I ought however to remark, before I bring this chapter to 
 a conclusion, that there is one other view (and a very com- 
 mon one among us, in more modern times) on this subject 
 which I have not yet noticed ; namely, that which maintains 
 that baptism, as the act of incorporation into the visible 
 Church, may properly be described as conferring regeneration, 
 as being an introduction into a new state, bringing new duties, 
 
 See John i 12, 13 ; Eph. iv. 24 ; James i. 18 ; 1 Pet i 28 ; John ra. 9; 
 T. 1 and 4.
 
 44 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 responsibilities, privileges and blessings, and consequently 
 that all may in this sense be said to be regenerated in bap- 
 tism. It is held by those who maintain this view, that it may 
 or may not be accompanied with the gift of spiritual regene- 
 ration, but that as the introduction into a new ecclesiastical 
 state, it may properly be said to be a regenerating ordinance. 
 Hence has arisen the distinction between baptismal and spirit- 
 ual regeneration. And, no doubt, the word regeneration may 
 be, in itself, fairly and correctly used in this sense; but it 
 seems to me to be alienating it from its Scriptural sense to 
 do so. This view may be connected with various theological 
 systems, and according to the system adopted will be the ex- 
 planation given as to the precise state of the baptised infant ; 
 but into that it is unnecessary here to enter. 
 
 Writers holding this view, therefore, understand the regen- 
 eration spoken of in the Baptismal Service as being always 
 conferred, but as not necessarily implying more than what 
 they would call baptismal regeneration. 
 
 I am unable, I confess, to view the language of the Service 
 in this light. It appears to me that regeneration, in the full 
 Scriptural sense of the word, as implying incorporation into 
 the true Church and body of Christ, is prayed for, and that 
 the thanksgiving is for the presumed bestowal of the blessing 
 asked. 
 
 I should be very sorry, however, to assert that such a view 
 cannot be honestly and legally maintained in our Church. 
 
 And of course the testimony of those who have held it as 
 the doctrine of our Church, is a strong witness against the 
 correctness of such extremely opposite views as those of the 
 Bishop of Exeter. It has been held by a large number of 
 our more modern divines ; and, consequently, while they have 
 adopted the affirmative, and not the hypothetical principle of 
 interpretation in the Baptismal Service, they have neverthe- 
 less earnestly advocated the necessity of regeneration, in the 
 full Scriptural sense of the spiritual new-birth, for those who, 
 though baptised in infancy, have not exhibited the marks of 
 spiritual regeneration. 
 
 It must be recollected, therefore, that there are two views 
 advocated among our divines on this subject, (namely, that
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 45 
 
 mentioned above as held by Dr. Jackson, and the one just 
 referred to) in which, though the language of the Service is 
 interpreted affirmatively, yet it is with a meaning entirely 
 different from that affixed to it by the Bishop of Exeter ; and 
 one which leaves the question, in what cases spiritual re- 
 generation in the highest sense is conferred on infants in bap- 
 tism, quite open. 
 
 For any clear understanding of the testimony of our 
 divines on this matter, it is quite essential that we bear in 
 mind the existence of these different views among them. 
 Otherwise we may quote, as authorities for a particular doc- 
 trine, statements which were far from being intended to bear 
 the meaning we attribute to them. Thus, for instance, the 
 Bishop of Exeter has quoted from Dr. Jackson a passage 
 nearly identical in words with his own statements, but which 
 Dr. Jackson intended to be understood in a very different 
 sense. 
 
 And my great object in offering these preliminary re- 
 marks is, to point out the different views that may be, and 
 have been entertained on the subject, within the limits our 
 Church seems to prescribe ; in order both to show the reader 
 the various aspects under which it may be viewed, and to 
 prevent a misconception of the meaning of testimonies to be 
 hereafter adduced. 
 
 The moderation of our Reformers induced them to leave 
 points on which Scripture has not spoken explicitly, open, 
 within Scriptural limits, to a difference of view. And accord- 
 ingly there has been from the first some variety of sentiment 
 among our divines on this subject. That there were any, 
 however, who embraced such views as those advocated by 
 the Bishop of Exeter and the modern " High Church" school, 
 until about the times of Montague and Laud, in the latter 
 part of the reign of James I., I have yet to learn. And for 
 the way in which our Formularies were originally understood, 
 (and consequently for the interpretation which has at least 
 the best claim upon our acceptance,) we must go to the testi- 
 monies wo find in the works of our Reformers and early 
 divines, particularly of those who were instrumental in estab- 
 lishing those Formularies upon their present basis. And here
 
 46 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 we shall find ourselves in a school of theology very different 
 from that which has long held the supremacy among us. This 
 fact it is essential to realize, if we would arrive at any correct 
 conclusion as to their doctrine on the matter before us. And 
 therefore I shall devote an early chapter to the elucidation of 
 this point. 
 
 The views held on the subject of Baptism have always 
 been intimately connected with, and corresponding to, those 
 held on the subject of the nature of the Church. 
 
 Now on the latter point, there have been two leading 
 views into which the opinions of our divines have been di- 
 vided. One of which is this, That the nominal Church 
 consists of two distinct portions, one consisting of those who 
 will ultimately be saved, the other of all those who will ulti- 
 mately perish ; of which the former correspond to the wheat, 
 and the latter to the chaff, in the Scripture parable. And, 
 following out the view of the subject which this parable and 
 other similar descriptions of the Church in Scripture seem to 
 give, the maintainers of this doctrine hold, that those sown as 
 wheat by our Lord never become chaff; that those who are 
 once truly united to his mystical body, the true Church, never 
 perish. 
 
 In connexion with this view, it is held, that the full bap- 
 tismal blessing can be enjoyed by those only who are received 
 by Christ as wheat as true members of his mystical body. 
 
 The other view is this : 
 
 That there is no such distinction between the members of 
 the nominal Church, but that all who are baptised are alike 
 regarded by Christ as members of his body, and equally par- 
 takers of the influences of his Spirit. 
 
 In connexion with this view, baptism is regarded as, in 
 all cases, equally, the formal act of incorporation into the 
 true body of Christ, bringing the baptised into the possession 
 of all the spiritual influences vouchsafed by Christ even to 
 those who will ultimately be saved. It is held that as bap- 
 tism is the ordinance by which the party baptised promises 
 faith and obedience, so in it God bestows the gifts of the Holy 
 Spirit, unites to Christ's Church, and promises final salvation 
 on the fulfilment of certain conditions, in the case of every
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 47 
 
 infant, without any reference to any purpose of his own will, 
 or any previous work of his on the heart, or any future faith 
 and repentance in the child. 
 
 Of these two views the works of our Reformers clearly 
 show that they maintained the former, and therefore, what- 
 ever minor variations are traceable in their doctrine on the 
 subject of Baptism, the modern " High Church " notion of all 
 the baptised receiving indiscriminately the full baptismal 
 blessing, was opposed by them all. 
 
 It seems to be forgotten by those who would interpret our 
 Formularies in such a sense, that our early divines made 
 common cause with the Continental Reformers, particularly 
 (and indeed in Queen Elizabeth's time, exclusively) with 
 those of the " Reformed" (that is, more or less, Calvinistic) 
 Churches. And the leading divines of those Churches were 
 the great authorities, of later times, quoted by them in their 
 works.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON THE VIEWS OF SOME OF THE EARLIER SCHOLASTIC DIVINES. 
 
 BEFORE I proceed to those testimonies which are of authority 
 in our Church in determining the question under discussion, 
 it may be worth while to point out to the reader the fact, that 
 the doctrine of some of our " High Church" divines of the 
 present day, is much less consistent with a sound Protestant 
 view of the subject, than even that of some of the earlier 
 scholastic divines. Peter Lombard, the Master of the Sen- 
 tences, the Father of the Scholastic divines, might be read by 
 them with advantage on this point. 
 
 In referring, however, to those authors, I must carefully 
 guard myself against the supposition, that I attribute to them 
 any weight in determining the doctrine of our Protestant 
 Church. And the reference which is now being made to them 
 by the Tractarian party, in support of their errors, I regard 
 as a delusion, nay more r as an unwarrantable attempt to 
 mislead the public mind, by sending it to sources of informa- 
 tion of a corrupt character, and opposed to the doctrines of 
 our Church. A writer of this school has recently ventured to 
 maintain, that "the language of our forms can only be un- 
 derstood by reference not to the Reformers, but to the 
 theology of the schools." And passages are given by writers 
 of this Party, from the scholastic divines, as if they had a 
 species of authority among us. Perhaps a Roman Catholic 
 author will be a better authority with such writers than a 
 Protestant, to show them their mistake. I will therefore give 
 them an extract from Sanders's work " De Schisrnate Angli- 
 cano."
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 49 
 
 In his account of the Reformation under Edward VL, 
 under the head " Doctrina scholastica explosa," he says, 
 
 " Libros omnes eorum magistrorum qui vi et rations Theologiam caete- 
 rasque disciplinas tradiderunt, quia istorum solida doctrina et methodica 
 institutione haereticorura populares fraudes non difficulter cerni et dispelli 
 sciebant, e studiosorum manibus et fere e bibliothecis excutiunt ; Lombard!, 
 Aquinatis, Scoti, caeterorumque doctissimorum scholasticorum nomina de 
 barbaric, Scripturarnm ignoratione, et veiria deceptione traducunt, memori- 
 amque quantum possunt damnant" fyc,* 
 
 This extract may suffice to show how much weight was 
 allowed to the scholastic divines by our Reformers. t 
 
 But it may not be without its use to refer to Peter Lorri- 
 bard on this occasion, because we certainly may derive from 
 his statements on the point now in question an a fortiori 
 argument as to the doctrine of our Church. 
 
 The Master of the Sentences, no doubt, holds, that all the 
 infants of Christians receive in Baptism remission of their 
 sins. But on the question, " "Whether grace is given to in- 
 fants in Baptism by which they may profit in riper years," 
 he says, 
 
 It is often also asked, whether grace is given to infants in baptism, by 
 which, when they have the opportunity of using their free will, they may 
 have a good inclination of the will and run well. For with respect to 
 adults who receive the Sacrament worthily, it is not doubted, but that 
 they have received influencing and co-operating grace .... But respect- 
 ing infants who have not arrived at the use of their reason, there is a ques- 
 tion, whether in baptism they have received grace by which, when they 
 come to riper years, they may be able to will and work what is good. It 
 appears that they have not received it ; inasmuch as that grace is love and 
 faith which prepares and aids the will. And who will say that they haA'e 
 received faith and love ? But if they have not received grace by which 
 they may be able to do good works when they have grown up, therefore the 
 grace given in baptism is not sufficient for them in this state, [i. e. aa 
 adults.] nor can they now be good through it, but need the addition of other 
 graces." 
 
 Such was the view taken even by the Father of the 
 
 * Ed. CoL Agripp. 1610, p. 233. 
 
 \ In the above remarks I am not of course, denying, that some illustrations 
 of the meaning of phrases used by our Reformers may be gathered from the 
 works of the scholastic divines, but only that our Reformers attributed any weight 
 to their writings as exponents of the Christian faith. 
 
 4
 
 50 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Scholastic divines. Without entering into the question whether 
 he may not have overstated the matter in denying that such 
 grace is ever given, one thing is quite clear, namely, his op- 
 position to such views as those of the Bishop of Exeter. In 
 fairness to his lordship, however, I will add, that he admits 
 that, 
 
 " Some think that influencing and co-operating grace is given to all 
 infants in baptism, so far as concerns the bestowal, not the use of it, so that, 
 when they have grown up, they may obtain the use from the gift, unless 
 through their free will they destroy by sinning the use of the gift." * 
 
 Nor had Peter Lombard any notion of that inseparable 
 and exclusive connexion between the sign and the thing sig- 
 nified which our modern " High Churchmen " so strenuously 
 contend for. For he says, 
 
 " If it is asked of what thing that baptism is a Sacrament, which is 
 given to one already justified, we reply that it is both a Sacrament of that 
 tiling which has preceded it, that is, of the remission bestowed before through 
 faith, and of the remission of temporal punishment, or of the sin, if any, 
 that is committed in the meantime, and of the renewal and all the grace 
 there granted. For it is a sign of every thing of which it is a cause. Nor 
 must you be surprised, that the thing sometimes precedes the Sacrament, 
 since sometimes also it follows long after, as in the case of those who come 
 hypocritically, to whom, when afterwards they shall have repented, baptism 
 
 * Si parvulis datur in bzptimno gratia qua posswnt in majori estate proficere. 
 Solct etiam quceri, si parvulis in baptismo datur gratia qu6 cum tempus habuerint 
 utendi libero arbitrio possint bene velle et currere? De adultis enim qui digne 
 recipinnt sacramentum non ambigitur, quin gratiam operantem et co-operantein 
 perceperint ; qute in vacuum eia cedit si per liberum arbitrium post mortaliter deli- 
 querint ; qui merito peccati gratiam appositam perdunt. Unde dicuntur conttime- 
 liam Spiritui Sancto facere et ipsum a se fugare. De parvulis vero qui nondum 
 ratione utuntur quoestio est, an in baptismo recipiunt gratiam qua ad majorcm ven 
 icntes aetatem possint velle et operari bonum ? Videtur quod non receperint; quia 
 gratia ilia charitas est et fides quse voluntatem prseparat et adjuvat. Sed quis dix- 
 erit cos accepisse fidem ct charitatem ? Si vero gratiam non receperint qua bene 
 operari possunt cum fuerint adulti, non ergosufficiteis in hoc statu gratia in baptis- 
 mo data ; nee per illam possunt modo boni esse, nisi alia addatur ; quse si non ad- 
 ditur, non est ex corum culpa quia justificati aunt a peccato. Quidam putant gratiam 
 operantem et co-operantem cunctis parvulis in baptismo dari in munere non in 
 urn, ut cum ad majorcm venerint aetatcm ex munere sortinntnr usum nisi per 
 liborum arbitrium usum muneris extinguant peccando ; et ita ex culpa eorum est 
 non ex defectu gratite quod mali fiunt; quia ex Dei munere valeutes habere 
 urnim bonum, per liberum arbitrium renuerunt, et usum pravum elegerunt, 
 (PE-re. LOMBARD. Serrtent. lib. 4, dist. 4, foL 92. Ed. Paris, 1510. 12mo.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 51 
 
 will begin to be of use ; in whom baptism was the Sacrament of this sanc- 
 tification which they have on repentance. But if they should never repent, 
 nor depart from their hypocrisy, of what thing would the baptism received 
 by them be a Sacrament ? It may be replied, of that thing which would 
 be there if their wickedness did not prevent it." * 
 
 And very similarly, in one place, speaks even Thomas 
 Aquinas : 
 
 " Adults," he says, " believing before on Christ, are incorporated into 
 kirn mentally, but afterwards when they are baptized, are incorporated into 
 him in a manner corporally, to wit through the visible Sacrament, without 
 the intention to partake of which they would not have been even mentally 
 incorporated." f 
 
 The following passages also are well worth notice, in fur- 
 ther illustration of Peter Lombard's views on this subject : 
 
 " Defate accedentibus. Qui vero sine fide vel ficte accedunt, Sacramen- 
 tum non rem suscipiunt. Unde Hieronymus, (super Ezech. xvi.) Sunt 
 lavacra gentilium hsereticorum, sed non lavant ad salutem. In Ecclesia 
 etiam, qui non plena fide accipiunt baptisma, non Spiritum sed aquam/ 
 suscipiunt. Augustinus etiam ait, (super Ps. 83.,) Judseis omnibus com- 
 munia erant Sacramenta, sed non communis omnibus erat gratia quse est 
 virtus Sacramentorum ita et nunc communis est baptismus omnibus bap- 
 tizatis, sed non virtus baptismi, id est, ipsa gratia. Item, (De poenit.,) omnia 
 qui jam suas voluntatis arbiter constitutus est, cum accedit ad Sacramen- 
 tum fidelium, nisi pceniteat eum veteris vitae, novam non potest inchoare. 
 Ab hac poenitentia cum baptizantur soli parvuli immunes sunt. His 
 aliisque testimoniis apte ostenditur adultis sine fide et prenitentia vera in 
 baptismo non conferri gratiam remissionis; quia nee parvulis sine fide 
 aliena, qui propriam habere nequeunt, datur in baptismo remissio. Si quis 
 ergo ficte accedit, non habens veram cordis contritionem, Sacramentum sine 
 re accipit." (PETR, LOMBARD. Sentent. lib. 4. dist. 4. B. fol. 79.) 
 
 * Si quseritur cujus rei baptismus ille sit Sacramentum qui datur jam justo ; di- 
 cimus Sacramentum esse et rei qrae praecessit, id est, remissionis ante per fidem 
 datee, et remissionis temporalis poante sive peccati si habetur quod interim commit- 
 titur, et novitatis ac omnia gratise ibi praestitae. Omnis etenim rei signum est, 
 cujug causa est Nee mireris rem aliquando praecedere Sacramentum, cum ali- 
 quando etiam longe post sequatur ; ut in illis qui ficte accedunt, quibus cum postea 
 pcsnituerint incipiet baptismus prodesse ; in quibus fuit baptismus Sacramentum 
 hnjus sanctificationis quam pcenitendo habent. Sed si nunquam poeniterent, nee 
 a figmcnto recederent, cujus rei Sacramentum esset baptismus ab illis susceptus? 
 Potest dici rei qua ibi fieret si non eorum enormitas impediret. (PETE. LOMBARD. 
 Sentent. lib. 4. dist 4. G. fol. 82.) 
 
 f Adulti prius credente in Christum sunt ei incorporati mentaliter ; sed post- 
 modum cum baptizantur, incorporantur ei quodammodo corporaliter, scilicet pr 
 visibile Sacraraentum, sine cujus proposito nee mentaliter incorporari potuissent. 
 (Aquix. 5umna. Theolog. part 3. q. 69. Art. 5. p. 177. ed. Paris. 1631. fol.)
 
 62 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 " Quomodo intelligatur illud, Quotquot in Christo baptizati estis Christum 
 induistis. Quseritur ergo quomodo illud accipiatur, Quotquot in Christo bap- 
 tizati estis, Christum induistis ? Potest dici, quod qui in Christo, id est, in 
 Christi eonformitate baptizantur, scilicet, ut moriantur vetustatr peccati, sicut 
 Christus vetustati prense, induunt Christum quern per gratiam inhabitantera 
 habent. Potest et aliter solvL Duobus enim modis Christum induere 
 dicimur, vel assumptione sacramenti, vel rei perceptione. Unde Augus- 
 tinus. (De bapt. contra Don.) Induunt homines Christum aliquando usque 
 ad sacramenti perceptionem, aliquando usque ad vitae sanctificationem ; atque 
 illud primum bonis et malis potest esse commune, hoc autem est proprium 
 bonorum et piorttm. Omnes ergo qui in Christi nomine baptizantur, Chris- 
 tum induunt vel secundum sacramenti perceptionem, vel secundum vitae 
 sanctificationem. (PETR. LOMBARD. Sentent. lib. 4. dist. 4. C.fol. 79, 80.) 
 
 " Quod vero invisibilis sanctificatio sine visibili sacramento quibusdam 
 insit aperte Augustinus tradit super Levit. (q. 88) dicens invisibilem sancti- 
 ficationem quibusdam affuisse et profuisse sine visibilibus sacramentisf 
 visibilem vero sanctificationem quse fit sacramento visibili sine invisibili 
 posse adesse ; mm posse prodesse. Nee tamen visibile sacramentum ideo- 
 contemnendum est, quia contemptor ejus invisibiliter sanctificari non potest. 
 Hinc Cornelius et qui cum eo erant, jam Spiritu sanctificati baptizati sunt, 
 . . Solet etiam quaeri de illfs qui jam sanctificati Spiritu cum fide et charitate 
 ad baptismum accedunt quis [quid] ei [eis] conferat baptismus. Nihil enim 
 eis videtur prsestare, cum per fidem et contritionem jam remissis peceatis 
 justificafi sunt. Ad quod sane dici potest, eos quidem per fidem et contri- 
 tionem justificatos, id est, a macula peccati purgatos, et a debito eternss 
 poenae absolutes, tamen adhuc teneri satisfactione temporali qua poenitentes 
 ligantur in ecclesia. Cum autem baptismum percipiunt, et a peceatis, si 
 quae interim post conversionem contraxerunt, mundantur, et ab exteriori 
 sanctificat lone [satisfactione] absolvuntur, et adjutrix gratia omnisque virtus 
 in eo augetur, ut vere novus homo tune dici possft. Fomes quoque peccati 
 in eo magis debilitatur. . . . Multum ergo confert baptismus etiam jam per 
 fidem justificato, quia accedens ad baptismum quasi ramus a columba por- 
 tatnr in arcarn. Ante intus eratjudicio Dei, sed nunc etiam judicio Ecclesia? 
 intus est." (Id. ib. lib. 4. dist. 4 : E. P. fol. 81, 82.) 
 
 These passages appear to me well worth the attention of 
 some aTnong us. It will be recollected that they were written 
 by Peter Lombard, about the middle of the 12th century. 
 
 And the doctrine that grace was always conferred upon 
 infants in baptism did not become a ruled doctrine in the 
 Church of Rome till the Council of Vienna in 1311, and was- 
 then only laid down as the more probable opinion. 
 
 For in a Letter of Pope Innocent IV. in 1250, afterwards 
 inserted in the Canon Law, it is distinctly recognised as an 
 open question, whether grace is or is not conferred upon in- 
 fants in baptism, in the following words :
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 53 
 
 ** Illud vero quod opponentes inducunt, fidem aut charitatem, aliasque 
 -virtutes panrulis, utpote non consentientibus, non infundi, a plcrisque non 
 conceditur absolute, cum propter hoc inter doetores theologos quac.stio referatur, 
 *liis asserentibus, per virtutera baptism! parvulis quidem culpam remitti, 
 sed gratiam non conferri ; nonnullis dicentibus, dimitti peccatum et virtutea 
 infundi habentibus il'las, quoad habitum, non quoad usum, donee perve^iant 
 [aL pervenerint] ad aetatem adultam."* 
 
 And the words in which Pope Clement V. determined the 
 point in the Council of Vienna in 1311, (also inserted in the 
 Canon Law,) are these: 
 
 " Verum quia, quantum ad effectum baptism! in parvulis, reperiuntur 
 detores quidam theologi opiniones contrarias habuisse : quibusdam ex ipsig 
 dieentibus, per virtutem baptisrai parvulis quidem culpam remitti, sed gra- 
 tiam non conferri: aliis e contra asserentibus quod et culpa eisdem in 
 baptismo remittitur, et virtutes ac informans gratia infunduntur, quoad 
 habitum. etsi non pro illo tempore quoad usum: nos autem attendentes 
 generalem efficaciam mortis Christi, (quae per baptisma applicatur pariter 
 omnibus baptizatis) opinionem secundam '(qu-x dicit, tarn parvulis quam 
 adultis conferri in baptismo informantem gratiam et virtutes) tanquam 
 PKOBABILIOREM, et dictis Sanctorum ac Doctorum modernorwn Theologia 
 magis consonant ac concordem, sacro approbante Concilio, duximus eligen- 
 dam."t 
 
 These passages, then, clearly show the difference of opinion 
 that prevailed, and was freely allowed to prevail, even in the 
 middle ages, on the question whether anything more was 
 bestowed upon infants in baptism than the remission of 
 original sin. That they might call this regeneration, I freely 
 admit ; but the most objectionable part of the doctrine of our 
 modern " High Church " divines is, that the regeneration 
 which (in their view) takes place in all infants at baptism, 
 includes those gifts of grace that give spiritual life to the soul. 
 Now we see from the above extracts, that so little was this 
 doctrine recegnised by a large proportion even of the middle- 
 age divines, (inclined surely to take a sufficiently high view 
 of the power of the Priesthood and the virtue of the Sacra- 
 ments,) that they denied that those gifts were conferred at all 
 upon infants. 
 
 And it was not till some time after the age of the Master 
 
 Decret Qregor. lib. 3, tit 42, Corp. Jur. Can. CoL Munat, 1783, vol. ii. 
 cL621. 
 
 f Corp. Jar. Can. Clement lib. 1. tit 1. Ed. ead. VoL ii. col. 194.
 
 54 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 of the Sentences that the notion arose of sacramental grace 
 being always conferred, ex opere operato, upon all who did 
 not ponere obicem mortalis peccati against the effects of the 
 Sacraments. And so monstrous and unscriptural is this view 
 of the ex opere operato salutary effect of the Sacraments, 
 that many of the Romanists themselves have endeavored to 
 explain away the words, so as to give them a sense very dif- 
 ferent from what they were ordinarily understood to imply. 
 As for instance, the divines of Cologne, in their "Antididag- 
 ma" against the " Deliberatio" of Archbishop Herman, who- 
 endeavor to explain the words as referring only to the validity 
 of the sacramental act on the part of the priest as God's min- 
 ister, in contradistinction to the opus operantis, or work of 
 the priest personally.* 
 
 But the phrase, as ordinarily used among the later Scho- 
 lastic divines and Romanists, is evidently intended to mean 
 more than this. And, explain the words as they will, the 
 remark of the Article of 1552 on them is most just ; that as 
 the phrase " is strange and unknown to Holy Scripture, so it 
 engendereth no godly > but a very superstitious, sense" (Art. 
 26 of 1552.) And so are the following remarks of Bucer, in 
 his reply to the "Antididagma." 
 
 " De opere operato. Cap. 101. 
 
 " Hoc loco dicunt adversarii, scholasticis doctoribus ineiviliter et malitiose 
 affingi, quasi docuerint opus sacerdotis in missa valere coram Deo ex opere 
 operato, sine bono motu utentis, sineque opere operantis, hoc est, etiamsi 
 nee sacerdos nee populus suum opus, hoc est veram fidem adjungat. 
 
 " Responsio. 
 
 " Hanc erroneam seductoriamque doctrinam Christiani nemini adscribunt r 
 nisi qui ultro se illi adjungit. Quoniam vero experientia compertum est r 
 multa millia sacerdotum quotidie contra ordinationem et institutionem 
 Domini missas facere, aliosque homines eas audire, quos ambos propria 
 vita convincit, quod omni poenitentia ac fide vacui sint, quandoquidem in 
 manifestis et excomrnunicatione dignis flagitiis sceleribusque contra con- 
 scicnt lain hserent, negari non potest errorem istum in nimis magna hominum 
 parte sat altas radices egisse, quas necdum adversarii evellere tentant, quin 
 potius omnibus iis, qua ad eonservationem istius abominationis faciunt, 
 fuco patrocinantur. 
 
 " Alioqui vcrum est, S. Comam juxta institutionem Christi administra- 
 
 Antididagma, seu Christiana; et Catholic Relig. per Canon. Mctrop. Ecclee. 
 Colon, propugnatio. fol. 71. Ed. Colon. 1644. fol.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 53 
 
 torn, per se bonum ac salutiferum opus esse omnibus qui ea rite utuntur : 
 etiam si sacerdos orani fide destitutus sit, modo populus sine propria culpa 
 id ignoret Consimilis ratio est etiam de eaeteris ministeriis ecclesiasticia, 
 mandatis ab ipso Domino, in quibus omnibus solum opus operatum, hoc est 
 opus juxta verbum et mandatum Domini peractum, atque idcireo opus ipsiuB 
 Domini, quamvis per ministrum externe absolutum, utile ac salutiferum 
 est fidelibus : siquidem illud tanquam opus Domini vera fide recipiant et 
 usurpent : nihilque obest illis opus operantis ministri, licet impurum sit, 
 hoc estj non quidem vera fide, sed tamen alioquin juxta institutionem Jesu 
 Christi a ministro perfectum, Omnis enim gratia in sacramentis nullo 
 modo ex opere operantis ministri, sed ex opere operate Christi, quod ibi 
 juxta verbum et mandatum illius praebetur, proficiscitur. Nihilominus 
 tamen opus operantis sumentis et sacris Christi utentis quoque accedere 
 oportet, hoc est, indubitatam fidem in Christum et promissiones ejus, quae 
 opus Christi apprehendit, eoque fruitur. Non quod fides aliquid ex se nobis 
 promereatur, vel ad opus meritumque Christi nonnihil ponderis praeterea 
 adferat, sed quod opus meritumque Christi apprehendat. 
 
 "Quod si voluerimus ad hunc modum ista verba intelligere, nihil 
 controversies in se habent. Verum loquendum est juxta vulgarem consue- 
 tudinem, et ad captum hominum, quo veritas omnibus perspicu patefieri, 
 et a mendacio propri discerni queat : quo et mendacium homines relinquere, 
 et veritati firmiter adhaerere possint. Neque licet in Ecclesia Christi 
 ejusmodi horrendis abominationibus fucatis sermonibus patrocinari, quo 
 facilius rudioribus hominibus tanquam insignes cultus supponantur, vel ipsi 
 in talibus abominationibus confirmentur. Jam vero nimis, proh dolor, 
 manifestum est, quomodo homines apud missam opere operate non Christi 
 Domini, sed sacerdotis fidant: idque non eo modo quo instituit Dominus, et 
 ipsius opus esset : sed quemadmodum jamdudum contra ordinationem 
 Domini depravatum, opusque Antichrist! factum est. Adhsec quomodo nihil 
 curent opus operantis, vel ministri, utrum fideliter id peragat,vel sumentis, 
 qui tamen judicium sibi sumit, quando sine proprio opere operantis, hoc 
 est, opere verse fidei suae, opus operatum, quamvis juxta mandatum et 
 institutionem Domini peractum, usurpat, vel ejus se participem reddit." 
 (Buceri Constans Defensio, &e. Genev. 1613. 4to, pp. 317. 318.) 
 
 I shall not, however, detain the reader longer upon the 
 subject of this chapter, except to remark, that there is one 
 other point on which the views of many of the Romanists and 
 scholastic divines were sounder than those which have lately 
 been received among us. It was with great regret that I 
 found Mr. Maskell advocating the notion of the elements in 
 the Sacraments conveying- the grace given. The remark 
 occurs in connection with the following complaint respecting 
 Hooker. " Of the grace [i. e. of the Sacraments] only need 
 we inquire further into what this great divine understood by
 
 56- EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 it : and I may pass on to that the more readily, as his remarks 
 seem scarcely enough to reach to the full extent of Catholic 
 teaching, with regard to the l element r and ' the word. 1 " And 
 in what does the reader suppose that it falls short of " Catho- 
 lic teaching ? " Mr. Maskell shall state it in his own words. 
 " For, in the eucharist, for example, 'the word ' has more effect 
 than simply to express what is done by the element, inasmuch 
 as it endues the element with its mysterious power ; making, 
 in conjunction with the other essential rites, the bread to be 
 the Body and the wine to be the Blood of our Blessed Lord. 
 So in Baptism : l the element ' not alone shadoweth and sign!- 
 fieth, but CONVEYETH GRACE." (On Baptism, pp. 23, 24.) 
 
 Here is an error against which, beyond doubt, our Re- 
 formers with one voice, and in the strongest terras, protested j 
 an error moreover which many of the most celebrated divines 
 of Rome itself, almost all the scholastic divines, repudiated. 
 I say this on the authority of one of Rome's most able divines, 
 Estius ; who observes, 
 
 " Alii vero neq,ue proprie dietam r id est r physicam instrument! rationem 
 in sacramentis agnoscunt, neque virtutem aliquam creatam eis inesse putant, 
 qua gratiae effectum operentur ; sed dicunt hactenus tantum sacramenta esse 
 efficacia gratiae signa r quia divina virtus sacramentis ad producendum 
 gratiae effectum certo et infallibiliter ex Christi promissione assistit, ut 
 videlicet habeant rationem causa; sine qua non, vel potius causae instru- 
 mcntalis generaliter dictse, instrumentum morale vocant. Hanc opinionenx 
 tradunt Scotus, Henrieus a Gandavo, Bonaventura, Durandus, Alexander 
 de Ales, et alii plerique." 
 
 And he adds that this opinion " fuisse et esse inter scholas- 
 ticos doctores eommunemsententiam, quemadmodum testatur 
 Bonaventura ad Distinctionem, ult. Kbri 3. Sentent., et confi- 
 tetur Dominions Sotus in praesentem Distinctionem, dicens 
 earn esse omnium fere doctorum etiam neotericorum. quaest. 
 3. art. 1 et 4." And he remarks, that the Council of Trent 
 has worded its statements so as to avoid a determination of 
 this question.* 
 
 I have purposely abstained, in this work, from discussing 
 the question of the doctrine of the Fathers on the subject ; 
 
 * Eetius, Comment, in Libr. Sentent. Lib. 4, diet 1. . 5. pp. 6, 7. Ed. Neap. 
 1720, VoL 2.
 
 EFFECTS OP BAPTISM IN INFANTS. fff 
 
 not from any unwillingness to enter upon the inquiry, but on 
 the ground that the doctrine of our Reformers and early 
 divines, to whom we are indebted for our Formularies of faith 
 and worship, must be judged of by their own writings. I will 
 however, just point the attention of the reader to one passage 
 from a Father often quoted on the subject, (Augustine,) as 
 showing that while he uses the word "regeneration" to de- 
 scribe the effect of baptism in all infants, he does not suppose 
 a spiritual regeneration to take place which gives a principle 
 of spiritual life to change the bias of the heart. 
 
 " Sicut ergo in Abraham praecessit fidei justitia, et accessit circumcisio 
 signaculum justitise fidei : ita in Cornelio praecessit sanctificatio spiritalis 
 in dono Spiritus Sancti, et accessit sacramentum regenerations in lavacro 
 baptismi. Et sicut in Isaac, qui octavo suae nativitatis die circumcisus est, 
 prsecessit signaculum justitiae fidei, et, quoniam patris fidem imitatus est, 
 secuta est in crescente ipsa justitia, cujus signaculum in infante praecesserat : 
 ita in baptizatis infantibus praecedit regenerationis sacramentum ; et si 
 Christianam tenuerint pietatem, sequetur etiam in corde eonversio cujus 
 mysterium praecessit in corpore. Et sicut in illo latrone quod ex baptismi 
 sacramento defuerat complevit Omnipotentis benignitas, quia non superbia 
 vel contemtu sed necessitate defuerat : sic in infantibus qui baptizati mori- 
 untur, eadem gratia Omnipotentis implere credenda est, quod non ex impia 
 voluntate, sed ex aetatis indigentia, nee corde credere ad justitiam possunt, 
 nee ore confiteri ad salutem. Ideo cum alii pro eis respondent, ut impleatur 
 erga eos celebratio sacramenti, valet utique ad eorum eonsecrationem, quia 
 
 ipsi respondere non possunt Quibus rebus omnibus ostenditur, aliud 
 
 esse sacramentum baptismi, aliud conversionem cordis, sed salutem hominis 
 ex utroque compleri." (AUG. De Bapt. contra Donat. lib. 5. cc. 24, 25. IX. 
 140, 141, ed. Bened.)
 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON THE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY TO WHICH OUR REFORMERS AND 
 EARLY DIVINES BELONGED. 
 
 THE difference of meaning attached to the same theological 
 terms and expressions, by men of different schools of theology, 
 renders it of great importance, in an inquiry like the present, 
 to know the prevailing tone of theology among those whose 
 views on any particular point we are endeavoring to ascer- 
 tain. It may be useful, therefore, if, before I proceed further, 
 I endeavor to throw some light upon the question, What was 
 the prevailing bias of the theology of our Reformers and early 
 divines, especially respecting the Church, Predestination, and 
 some kindred topics ; the views entertained on those points 
 having manifestly an important influence upon the subject of 
 the effects of infant baptism. This is the more necessary, from 
 the circumstance of attempts having frequently been made, 
 since the prevailing tone of doctrine in our Church became 
 changed, and the writings of our early divines (with very few 
 exceptions) disregarded and often almost unknown, of repre- 
 senting their general views of doctrine as very different from 
 what they were in reality. From the paucity of the remains 
 of our early theological literature of the Reformed school, this 
 was no difficult task. But times are now changed in this re- 
 spect. The conflict which the true successors of the Refor- 
 mers have had to maintain, even for toleration in our Church, 
 has led to an extensive republication of the works of our Re- 
 formation divines. And we have already some indications 
 that more just views on the subject are beginning to prevail 
 even among those who are attached to that Laudean school of
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 59 
 
 theology that succeeded the school of our Reformers, as we 
 may judge from the extract given in my recent reply to the 
 Bishop of Exeter's Charge.* 
 
 I would premise, however, that while I adduce the follow- 
 ing testimonies as showing the prevailing bias of the theology 
 of our Church at the time spoken of, I by no means wish to 
 imply that the Articles and Formularies of our Church were 
 formed upon a Procrustean principle of reducing the views of 
 all to the precise standard of that prevailing bias. Our Re- 
 formers were men of far too much Christian charity to adopt 
 such a principle. But the object which I have in view is simply 
 this, to prove, by showing the general tone and character of 
 the theology of our early divines of the Reformed school, what 
 modern school among us approaches the nearest to their stand- 
 ard, and consequently to the intended meaning of the Formu- 
 laries they drew up. My conviction is, -that I might take 
 much higher ground than this, but with this I am contented. 
 And though the discussion has only a general bearing upon the 
 subject more immediately before us, yet its indirect evidence 
 respecting it, will be admitted by all those who know how 
 much any one's doctrine upon the point in question may be 
 judged by the system of theology to which he is attached, to 
 be of very great force. In fact, if it shall appear (and I be- 
 lieve it to be undeniable) that their doctrine was in the most 
 important points, what is now called " Calvinistic," there is, 
 or ought to be, an end to the controversy as to the interpreta- 
 tion they intended to be given to our Formularies, both as it 
 respects baptism and several other points. 
 
 When we speak of the theology of our Reformers, we can 
 hardly consider anything previous to the time of Edward VI. 
 (until which period the Reformation can hardly be said to have 
 been established) as entitled to much weight in elucidating its 
 character. But I will go back a little way into the reign of 
 Henry VIII. in order to show what was even then the doctrine 
 of our leading Reformers on the subject of the present section. 
 
 See " Vindication of the Defence of the XXXIX. Articles." pp. 4, 5. Also 
 a remarkable article that appeared in 1842 in the British Critic, No. Ixiv. pp. 300 
 et seq.
 
 60 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 And I begin with the " Institution of a Christian Man," 
 published in 1537, with the sanction of the great body of the 
 bishops and clergy ; in the drawing up of which Archbishop 
 Cranmer had the principal hand. Amidst much that is objec- 
 tionable and thoroughly Popish, and that was in a few years 
 entirely discarded by the Archbishop, (so that no inference in 
 favor of any Popish doctrine contained therein being subse- 
 quently maintained by him, can be legitimately drawn from 
 it,) there is also much of a decidedly Protestant character, 
 standing out in very remarkable contrast with the nominal 
 Protestantism of modern "High Churchmen." I allude more 
 particularly to that remarkable portion of it, called the Inter- 
 pretation of the Creed, in which the views that ought to be 
 entertained by a Christian man on each Article are expressed 
 by a large paraphrase. I would call the attention of the 
 reader to the following extracts.* I take the passages as they 
 come, begging the reader to observe particularly the views of 
 Cranmer and his party, even at that time, on the nature of 
 the true Church of Christ as distinguished from the nominal 
 Church, and the appropriating character of true faith. 
 
 From the paraphrase of the first Article. 
 
 " I believe also and profess, that he is my very God, my Lord, and my 
 Father, and that I am his servant and his own son, by adoption and grace, 
 and the right inheritor of his kingdom." (p. 31.) 
 
 From the paraphrase of the second Article. 
 
 " I believe also and profess, that Jesu Christ is not only Jesus, and Lord 
 to all men that believe in him, but also that he is my Jesus, my God and 
 
 my Lord. For whereas of my nature I was born in sin, &c I 
 
 believe, I say, that I being in this case, Jesu Christ, by suffering of most 
 
 painful and shameful death upon the cross, &c hath now pacified 
 
 his Father's indignation towards me, and hath reconciled me again into his 
 favour, and that he hath loosed and delivered me from the yoke and tyranny 
 of death, of the devil, and of sin, and hath made me so free from them, that 
 they shall not finally hurt or annoy me ; and that he hath poured out plenti- 
 fully his Holy Spirit and his graces upon me, specially faith, to illumine 
 and direct my reason and judgment, and charity to direct my will and 
 affections towards God, whereby I am so perfectly restored to the light and 
 
 They are taken from the edition in " Formularies of Faith put forth by 
 authority during the reign of Henry VIII. Oxf. 1825." 8vo. This book was pub- 
 lished by the late Dr. Lloyd, Bishop of Oxford,
 
 EFFFCTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 61 
 
 knowledge of God, to the spiritual fear and dread of God, and unto the 
 love of him and mine neighbor, that with his grace I am now ready to obey, 
 and able to fulfil and accomplish his will and commandments. Besides all 
 this, he hath brought and delivered me from darkness and blindness to light, 
 from death to life, and from sin to justice, and he hath taken me into his 
 protection, and made me as his own peculiar possession, and he hath planted 
 and grafted me into his own body, and made me a member of the same, and 
 he hath communicated and made me participant of his justice, his power, 
 his life, his felicity, and of all his goods ; so that now I may boldly say 
 and believe, as indeed I do perfectly believe, that by his passion, his death, 
 his blood, and his conquering of death, of sin, and of the devil, by his re- 
 surrection and ascension, he hath made a sufficient expiation or propitiation 
 towards God, that is to say, a sufficient satisfaction and recompense as well 
 for my original sin, as also &>r all the actual sins that ever I have commit- 
 ted, and that I am so clearly rid from all the guilt of my said offences, and 
 from the everlasting pain due for the same, that neither sin, nor death, nor 
 hell, shall be able, or have any power, to hurt me or to let me, but that 
 after this transitory life I shall ascend into heaven, there to reign with my 
 Saviour Christ perpetually in glory and felicity." (pp. 34, 35.) 
 
 From the paraphrase on the fourth Article. 
 
 " I believe that by this passion and death of our Saviovir Jesus Christ, 
 not only my corporal death is so destroyed that it shall never have power 
 to hurt me, but rather it is made wholesome and profitable unto me, but 
 also that all my sins, and the sins also of all them that do believe in him 
 and follow him, be mortified and dead, that is to say, all the guilt and 
 offence thereof, and also the damnation and pain due for the same, is clearly 
 extincted, abolished and washed away, so that the same shall not afterward 
 be imputed or inflicted unto me. And therefore will I have this passion 
 and this death in my daily remembrance. And I will not only glory and 
 rejoice continually therein, and give all the thanks I can unto God for the 
 same, considering I have and shall assuredly attain thereby my redemption, 
 my justification, my reconciliation, unto God's favor, and life everlasting ; 
 but I will also endeavor myself, to my possible power, and by the help of 
 God, to follow this my Saviour Jesu Christ," &c. (p. 40.) 
 
 From the paraphrase on the fifth Article. 
 
 " I believe .... that the devil, with all his power, craft, subtility, and 
 malice, is now subdued and made captive, not only unto me, but also unto 
 all the other faithful people and right believers in Jesu Christ that ever was 
 [were] or shall be sith the time of Christ's said descending into hell. And 
 that our Saviour Jesu Christ hath also, by this his passion and this his 
 descending into hell, paid my ransom, and hath merited and deserved that 
 neither my soul, neither the souls of any such as be right believers in Christ, 
 shall come therein, or shall finally be encumbered with any title or accu- 
 sation that the devil can object against us, or lay unto our charge." " And 
 I believe assuredly that by this descending of Christ into hell, and this his 
 resurrection again from death to life, Christ hath merited and deserved for
 
 62 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 me and all true and faithful Christian men, not only that our souls shall 
 never come into hell, but also that we shall here in this life be perfectly 
 justified in the sight and acceptation of God, and shall have such grace, 
 might, and power given unto us by him, that we shall be made able thereby 
 to subdue, to mortify, and to extinguish our old Adam, and all our carnal 
 and flesh! y concupiscences, in such sort, that sin shall never afterward reign 
 in our mortal bodies, but that we shall be wholly delivered from the kingdom 
 of sin, and from spiritual death,, and shall be resuscitated and regenerated 
 into the now life of the Spirit and grace." " Also that we shall after our 
 corporal death be preserved from the captivity of hell, and shall be made 
 partakers of Christ's resurrection, that is to say, that we shall arise and 
 live again in the self-same bodies and souls that we now have, and so shall 
 utterly overcome death, in like manner as our Head and our Saviour Jesu 
 Christ hath done before us, and "shall finally live with him immortally in 
 joy and felicity." (pp. 41-43.) 
 
 From the paraphrase of the eighth Article. 
 "I believe that .... neither it is possible for any man to come unto 
 the Father by Christ, that is to say, to be reconciled into the favor of God, 
 and to be made and adopted into the number of his children, or to obtain any 
 part of that incomparable treasure which our Saviour Jesu Christ, by his 
 nativity, his passion, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, hath merit- 
 ed for mankind, unless this Holy Spirit shall first illumine and inspire into 
 his heart the right knowledge and faith of Christ, with due contrition and 
 penance * for his sins, and shall also afterward instruct him, govern him, 
 aid him, direct him, and endue him with such special gifts and graces, as 
 
 shall be requsite and necessary to that end and purpose." " All and 
 
 singular which gifts and graces [i. e. u holy fear and dread of God," "fer- 
 vent love and charity towards God and our neighbor," " spiritual wisdom 
 and understanding," &c.] I acknowledge and profess that they proceed 
 from this Holy Spirit, and that they be given, conferred and distributed unto 
 us mortal men here in earth, at his own godly will, arbitre and dispensa- 
 tion, and that no man can purchase or obtain, ne yet receive, retain, or 
 use any one of them, without the special operation of this Holy Spirit. And 
 although he giveth not nor dispenseth the same equally and unto every 
 man in like, yet he giveth always some portion thereof unto all persons, 
 which be accepted in the sight of God, and that not only freely, and without 
 all their deservings, but also in such plenty and measure, as unto his godly 
 
 knowledge is thought to be most beneficial and expedient." " And I 
 
 believe .... that from that day [i.e. the day of Pentecost] unto the world's 
 end, he hath been and shall be continually present, and also chief presi- 
 dent in the Catholic Church of Christ, that is to say, that he hath and 
 shall continually dwell in the hearts of all those people which shall 
 "be the very members of the same church, and shall teach and reveal unto 
 them the secrets and mysteries of *all truth, which is necessary for 
 
 The word is used in this document in the sense of penitential sorrow.
 
 X 
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 63 
 
 them to know, and that he shall also continually, from time to time, rule 
 them, direct them, govern them, sanctify them, and give unto them remis- 
 sion of their sins, and all spiritual comfort, as well inwardly by faith, and 
 other his secret operations, as also outwardly by the open ministration and 
 efficacy of the word of God and of his holy Sacraments ; and that he shall 
 endue them with all such spiritual graces and gifts as shall be necessary 
 for them to have, and so finally shall reward them with the gift of everlast- 
 ing life and joy in heaven." pp. 49-51.) 
 
 From the paraphrase of the ninth Article on the Church. 
 
 " I believe assuredly in my heart, and with my mouth I do profess and 
 acknowledge, that there is and hath been ever from the beginning of the 
 world, and so shall endure and continue forever, one certain number, soci- 
 ety, communion, or company of the elect and faithful people of God ; of 
 which number our Saviour Jesu Christ is the only head and governor, and 
 the members of the same be all those holy saints which be now in heaven, 
 and also all the faithful people of God, which be now in life, or that ever 
 heretofore have lived, or shall live here in this world, from the beginning unto 
 the end of the same, and be ordained for their true faith and obedience unto 
 the will of God, [that true faith and consequent obedience being, according 
 to the paraphrase on the preceding article, bestowed freely by the Holy 
 Spirit according to his will,] to be saved and to enjoy everlasting life in heaven. 
 And I believe assuredly that this congregation, according as it is called in 
 Scripture, so it is in very deed the city of heavenly Jerusalem .... the 
 Holy Catholic Church." " And I believe that this whole congregation is 
 all holy, that is to say, that this Church, and all the parts and members of 
 the same, be so purified and mundified, as well by Christ's most precious 
 blood, as also by the godly presence, governance, and assistance of his Holy 
 Spirit, (which dwelleth and inhabiteth continually within the said congre- 
 gation, and governeth and sanctifieth the same,) that neither the lepry of 
 heresy, or false and perverse doctrine, neither the filthiness of sin, neither 
 the gates of hell, shall be able finally to prevail against them, or to pull 
 any of them out of the hands and possession of Christ. And although God 
 doth ofttimes suffer not only sin, error, and iniquity so to abound here in 
 the world, and the congregation of the wicked to exercise such tyranny, 
 cruelty, and persecution over this holy Church, and the members of the 
 same, that it might seem the said Church to be utterly oppressed and ex- 
 tinguished, but also suffereth many and sundry of the members of the same 
 holy Church to fall out from this body for a season, and to commit many 
 grievous and horrible offences and crimes, for the which they deserve to be 
 precided and excluded for a season from the communion of this holy 
 Church ; yet I believe assuredly, that God will never utterly abject this holy 
 Church, nor any of the members thereof, but that the same doth and shall 
 perpetually continue and endure here in this world, and that God shall at 
 all times (yea when persecution is greatest and most fervent) be present 
 with his Holy Spirit in the same Church, and preserve it all holy and un- 
 defiled, and shall keep, ratify, and hold sure all his promises made unto the
 
 64 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 same church or congregation ; and finally, that all such members as be fall- 
 en out from the same by sin, shall at length rise again by penance, and shall 
 be restored and united again unto the same holy body. And I believe assur- 
 edly, that in this holy Church, and with the members of the same, (so long as 
 they be militant, and living here in earth,) there have been ever, and yet 
 be, and ever shall be joined and mingled together an infinite number of the 
 evil and wicked people, which, although they be indeed the very members 
 of the congregation of the wicked, and, as the Gospel calleth them, very 
 weeds and chaff, evil fish and goats, and shall finally be judged to everlast- 
 ing damnation yet forasmuch as they do live in the common society or 
 company of those which be the very quick and living members of Christ's 
 mystical body, and outwardly do profess, receive, and consent with them for 
 a season in the doctrine of the Gospel, and in the right using of the Sacraments, 
 yea and ofttimes be endued with right excellent gifts of the Holy Ghost, 
 they be to be accounted and reputed here in this world to be in the numbers 
 of the said very members of Christ's mystical body, so long as they be not by 
 open sentence of excommunication precided and excluded from the same. Not 
 because they be such members in very deed, but because the certain judgment 
 and knowledge of that their state is by God's ordinance hidden and kept 
 secret from all men's knowledge, and shall not be revealed until the time that 
 Christ himself shall come at the world's end, and there shall manifest and 
 declare his very kingdom, and who be the very true members of his body, and 
 who be not. And I believe that this holy Church is Catholic, that is to say 
 that it cannot be coarcted or restrained within the limits or bonds [? bounds] 
 of any one town, city, province, region, or country j but that it Is dispersed 
 and spread universally throughout all the whole world. Insomuch that 
 in what part soever of the world, be it in Africa, Asia, or Europe, there 
 may be found any number of people, of what sort, state, or condition soever 
 they be, which do believe in one God the Father, creator of all things, and 
 in one Lord Jesu Christ his son, and in one Holy Ghost, and do also profess 
 and have all one faith, one hope, and one charity, according as is prescribed 
 in Holy Scripture, and do all consent in the true interpretation of the same 
 Scripture, and in the right use of the Sacraments of Christ ; we may 
 boldly pronounce and say, that there is this holy Church, the very espouse 
 and body of Christ, the very kingdom of Christ, and the very temple of 
 God." " And I believe . . that like as our Saviour Christ is one person 
 and the only head of his mystical body, so this whole Catholic Church, 
 Christ's mystical body, is but one body under this one head 
 Christ. And that the unity of this one Catholic Church is a MERE 
 SPIRITUAL UNITY, consisting in the points before rehearsed, that is to say, in 
 the unity of Christ's faith, hope, and charity, and in the unity of the right 
 doctrine of Christ, and in the unity and uniform using of the Sacraments 
 consonant unto the same doctrine." " And I believe and trust assuredly, 
 that I am one of the members of this Catholic Church, and that God of his 
 only mercy hath not only choaen and called me thereunto by his Holy Spirit, 
 and by the efficacy of his Word and Sacraments, and hath inserted and uni- 
 ted me into this universal body or flock, and hath made me his son and
 
 EFFECTS O.F BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 65 
 
 inheritor of his kingdom ; but also that he shall of his like goodness, and 
 by the operation of the Holy Ghost, justify me here in this world, and finally 
 glorify me in Heaven," (pp. 52-57.) 
 
 From the paraphrase on the tenth Article : 
 
 "I believe that in this Catholic Church I, and all the lively and quick 
 members of the same, shall continually and from time to time, so long as 
 we shall live here on earth, obtain remission and forgiveness of all our sins, 
 as well original as actual, by the merits of Christ's blood and his passion, 
 and by the virtue and efficacy of Christ's Sacraments, instituted by him 
 for that purpose, so oft as we shall worthily receive the same," (p. 58.) 
 
 From the paraphrase of the eleventh and twelfth Articles: 
 
 "And after that I shall be so risen again from death to life, I believe 
 that I, and all true penitent sinners that ever died, or shall die, in the faith 
 of Christ, shall then be perfectly sanctified, purified, and delivered from all 
 contagion of sin and from all corruption and mortality of the flesh, and 
 shall have everlasting life in glory with God in his kingdom." (p. 60.) 
 
 From the " Notes and Observations " on the Greed, follow- 
 ing the paraphrase : 
 
 " In the Ninth Article [that on the Church] many things be to be noted. 
 
 " First, that this word church, in Scripture, is taken sometime generally 
 for the whole congregation of them that be christened and profess Christ's 
 Gospel ; and sometime it is taken for the Catholic congregation, or number 
 of them only which be chosen, called, and ordained to reign with Christ in 
 everlasting life. 
 
 " Second, it is to be noted, that the Church, in the first signification, is 
 in Scripture compared sometimes unto a field full of good corn and naughty 
 weeds mingled together ; and sometimes unto a net full of good fish and 
 bad ; &c 
 
 " Thirdly, it is to be noted, that by these parables, and certain such 
 other, rehearsed in Scripture, is signified, that among them whicJi be chris- 
 tened, and do profess Christ's Gospel, and live in the common society and 
 communion of the Sacraments of the Church, divers be indeed the very 
 quick and living members of Christ's mystical body, and shall reign with 
 him everlastingly in honor. And that the congregation or society of them is 
 the very field, and they be the very good corn or seed, which Christ himself 
 did sow. A nd divers be indeed chaff, or stinking and naughty weeds, sown 
 by the devil ; , . . . the very members of the synagogue of the devil, and not 
 the living members of Christ's mystical body. 
 
 " By these parables also it is signified, that in this present life these two 
 sorts of people, good and bad, be continually mixed and mingled together in 
 the Church, as it is taken in the first signification. And that the said mem- 
 bers of the synagogue of the devil, so long as they grow in the same field 
 wherein the good corn groweth, that is to say, so long as they do in outward 
 appearance profess the same faith of Christ which the very members of 
 
 5
 
 66 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Christ's Church do profess, and do consent and agree .with them outwardly 
 in the doctrine of the Gospel, and in all other things appertaining unto Christ's 
 religion ; they must be accepted and reputed here in the world for the very 
 members of Christ's mystical body ; and they ought not ne can be dissev- 
 ered from them, until the day of judgment 
 
 " Fourthly, it is to be noted, that of the Church, as it is taken in the 
 second manner of signification, it is said in Scripture that she is the heavenly 
 
 Jerusalem, the city of God All which sentences, and divers such 
 
 other, spoken in Scripture of the Church, be to be referred and verified of 
 the Church in the second signification. And finally, in this signification 
 also the ninth Article of our Creed is to be under standed. For surely it is 
 necessary for our salvation to believe that that church or congregation, which 
 containeth the very quick and living members of Christ's mystical body, 
 and which shall reign everlastingly with him in heaven, is all holy and 
 catholic ; and that like as it hath been ever in the world, and yet is, so it 
 shall continue for ever; and for ever is, and shall be unto the world's end r 
 spiritually and inwardly renewed, quickened, governed, justified, and sanc- 
 tified with the presence, and spiritual assistance, and grace of the Holy Ghost 7 
 and inwardly shall be connected and united together in one godly consent in 
 charity, 'and in the true doctrine of Christ. * 
 
 " And for confirmation hereof, it is also further to be noted and considered, 
 that it is not only very necessary for all true Christian men to learn and know 
 the certain notes and marks whereby the very true Church of Christ is dis- 
 cerned from the church or congregation of the wicked, which God hateth, 
 and also what is the principal cause whereby they be made to be the very 
 quick members of the Church of Christ ; but it is also one of the greatest 
 comforts that any Christian man can have, to believe and trust for certain 
 that there is such a congregation, which containeth the very lively members 
 -of Christ's mystical body, and that he is a member of the same congregation : 
 specially considering the great and excellent promises which Christ himsel f 
 hath made unto the said congregation, being his own mystical body, and his 
 own most dear and tenderly beloved espouse 
 
 Sixthly, it is to be noted, that although the lively members of this 
 militant church be subject to the infirmities of their flesh, and fall ofttimes 
 into error and sin, as was said before ; yet they always in Scripture be 
 called holy, as well because they be sanctified in the blood of Christ, and 
 professing in their baptism to believe in God, and to forsake the devil and 
 all his works, they be consecrated and dedicated unto Christ ; as also for tha$ 
 they be from time to time purged by the word of God, and by faith, hope, 
 and charity, and by the exercise of other virtues ; and finally shall be endued 
 with such grace of the Holy Ghost, that they shall be clearly sanctified and 
 purified from all filthiness, and shall be made the glorious espouse of Christ, 
 riuning in all cleanness, without having any spot, or wrinkle, or any other 
 thing worthy to be reprehended. 
 
 " In the tenth Article it is to be noted, that divers interpreters of Holy 
 Scripture do diversely interpretate the first part thereof, that is to say r
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 67 
 
 communion of saints. For some of them do refer it unto the ninth Article, 
 and do take it as a clause added to declare and explain what is signified by 
 these words, the Catholic Church ; and so they do conjoin this clause with 
 that that went before in this sense: I believe that this Catholic Church ia 
 the communion, that is to say, the multitude, or the commonalty, or the 
 commonwealth of saints only, that is to say, of those which be under the 
 kingdom of Christ, and be governed and sanctified with his Holy Spirit, and 
 
 be prepared to come to everlasting life And some doctors do expound 
 
 it to signify that treasure of the Church which is common equally unto all 
 the members of the same. And those doctors which be of this opinion do 
 interpretate that treasure to be nothing else but the grace, that is to say, the 
 mercy, the goodness, and the favor of God in this world, and glory in the 
 world to come. They say also, that this grace of God is the common treasure 
 of all the elect people of God, and that our poverty is so extreme, that of 
 ourselves, without this grace, we should be utterly nothing. They say 
 further, that the effect and virtue of this grace is to make us able to rise 
 from sin and flee from sin, to work good works, to receive th& reward of 
 everlasting glory, to have and retain the true sense and understanding of 
 Holy Scripture, and to endue us with Christian faith, hope, and charity. 
 Finally, they say, that this grace worketh all those effects IN THE ELECT 
 PEOPLE OF GOD, by two special instruments, which be, the Word of God and 
 his Sacraments. And forasmuch as Jt>oth the Word and the Sacraments 
 have all their efficacy by and through the might and operation of the Holy 
 Ghost, and forasmuch also as this Holy Ghost dwelleth and abideth only in 
 the Catholic Church, and in the members of the same, and worketh none of 
 these effects out of the Church they think that by this clause, communion 
 of saints, is meant here the treasure of the Church ; and that this treasure 
 is nothing else but the Holy Ghost himself, and his graces," &c. (pp. 75-80.) 
 
 These remarkable passages, overthrowing the very founda- 
 tions of that Laudean system of theology pressed upon us by 
 some parties under the name of " Church principles," supply 
 us with most important evidence as to the progress made by 
 Cranmer and his party, even at this early period, in Protest- 
 ant doctrine, on the fundamental points here treated of. And 
 the work, though reprinted, is in the hands of so few persons, 
 that I feel persuaded that no apology will be thought neces- 
 sary for the length of the extracts. 
 
 The reader will probably at once see the importance of 
 some passages in these extracts in showing the doctrine then 
 entertained on the point which is more particularly the sub- 
 ject of these pages, and in that view I shall have to refer to 
 them again hereafter ; but I adduce them here as evidence of 
 the system of doctrine maintained by Cranmer and his co-re-
 
 68 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 formers even so early as 1537. And we need not be surprised 
 at finding, as we shall hereafter, that the work was so un- 
 satisfactory to the Popish party, and (through the influence of 
 Gardiner, the Popish bishop of Winchester) with the King, 
 that it was soon superseded by one of a very different charac- 
 ter, the " Necessary doctrine and Erudition for any Christian 
 man," " set forth by the King's Majesty" in 1543. 
 
 And I would now call the reader's attention to some of 
 Archbishop Cranmer's Annotations upon the King's proposed 
 corrections of the " Institution," written not long after its 
 publication, as further elucidating Cranmer's views. 
 
 To the words, " I believe assuredly, that God will never 
 utterly abject this holy Church, nor any of the members thereof, 
 but that the same doth and shall perpetually continue and en- 
 dure here in this world," the King proposed to add these 
 words, " if fault be not in themselves ; " to which Cranmer 
 thus objects, " This article speaketh only of the elect, in whom 
 finally no fault shall be, but they shall perpetually continue 
 and endure."* 
 
 Again, to the words, "that all such members as be fallen- 
 out from the same by sin, shall at length rise again by 
 penance, and shall be restored and united again unto the 
 same holy body," the King proposed to add, " if wilfully and 
 obstinately they withstand not his calling ; " to which Cran- 
 mer objects, "Likewise the elect shall not wilfully and obsti- 
 nately withstand God's cat 'ling-. "t 
 
 Again on the words, " I believe, that I being united anc! 
 corporated as a living member into this Catholic Church, (as 
 undoubtedly I trust that I am,) not only Christ himself, being 
 Head of this body, and the infinite treasure of all goodness, 
 and all the holy saints and members of the same body do and 
 shall necessarily help me," &c., the king proposed to add, 
 after the words " I am," these words, " and so continuing ; " to 
 which Cranmer objects, " Continuance is comprehended in 
 faith ; for if I believe not that I shall continue in the Holy- 
 Catholic Church, I cannot believe that I shall have any benefit 
 by Christ."* 
 
 * Cranmer'B Works, P. 8. ed. vol. 2. p. 91. f Ib. p. 91. 
 
 t It-. 91, 92.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 69 
 
 Again, on the words, " I believe that in this Catholic 
 Church I and ail the lively and quick members of the same, 
 shall continually and from time to time, so^long as we shall 
 live here on earth, obtain remission and forgiveness of all our 
 sins, as well original as actual, by the merits of Christ's blood 
 and his passion, and by the virtue and efficacy of Christ's 
 sacraments, instituted by Him for that purpose, so oft as we 
 shall worthily receive the same," the King proposed to add 
 after the words "on earth," "following Christ's precepts, or 
 when we fall repent our fault ;" to which Cranmer objects, 
 " The elect, of whom is here spoken, will follow Christ's pre- 
 cepts and rise again when they fall, AND THE RIGHT FAITH 
 CANNOT BE witlioul following of Chrisfs precepts, and repent- 
 ance after falling: See the fourth annotation. Therefore in 
 my judgment it were better to say thus : ' The elect shall fol- 
 low Christ's precepts, or when they fall, they shall repent and 
 rise again, and obtain remission,' &c."* In the " fourth 
 annotation" here referred to, the nature of true Christian faith 
 is fully pointed out, and two important points strongly insisted 
 upon as characteristic of it, namely, its indefectibility and its 
 ^appropriating character. The following extract will suffici- 
 ently show this. On the words, " I believe also and profess, 
 that he is my very God, my Lord and my Father, and that I 
 am his servant and his own son by adoption and grace, and 
 the right inheritor of his kingdom," the King had proposed, 
 that instead of the words "the right inheritor," the following 
 should be substituted, " as long as I persevere in his precepts 
 and laws one of the right inheritors." Cranmer objects to this 
 change, in these words, 
 
 "This book speaketh-of the pure Christian faith unfeigned, which is 
 without color, as well in heart, as in mouth. He that hath this faith, con- 
 verteth from his sin, repenteth him .... and trusteth assuredly, that for 
 Christ's sake he [God] will and doth remit his sin, withdraweth his indig- 
 nation, delivereth him from hell, from the power of the infernal spirits, 
 taketh him to his mercy, and maketh him his own son and his own heir . . . 
 For the more large declaration of the pure Christian faith, it is to be 
 considered, that there is a general faith, which all that be Christian, as well 
 good as evil, have : as to believe that God is And all these things even 
 
 Craomer's Works, pp. 91, 92.
 
 70 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 the devils also believe. . . . But they have not the right Christian faith, that 
 their own sins by Christ's redemption be pardoned and forgiven, that them- 
 selves by Christ be Delivered from God's wrath, and be made his beloved 
 children and heirs of his kingdom to come. The other faith hath [have] all 
 devils and wicked Christian people that be his members : but this pure 
 Christian faith have none, but those that truly belong to Christ, and be the 
 very members of his body, and endeavor themselves to persevere in hia 
 
 precepts and laws If the profession of our faith of the remission O/OUR 
 
 OWN sins enter within us into the deepness of our hearts, there it must needs 
 kindle a warm fire of love in our hearts towards God . . . and, in summa, a 
 firm intent and purpose to do all that is good and leave all that is eviL 
 This is a very right, pure, perfect, lively, Christian, hearty and justifying 
 1 faith which worketh by love,' as St. Paul saith, and suffereth no venom or 
 poison of sin to remain within the heart. . . . This being declared, in my 
 judgment it shall not be necessary to interline or insert in many places, 
 where we protest our pure Christian faith, these words or sentences that be 
 newly added, namely, ' I being in will to follow God's precepts.' ... ' If I 
 continue a Christian life,' ' If I follow Christ's precepts." . . . and such 
 other like sentences or clauses conditional, which to THE RIGHT FAITH need 
 not to be added, for without these conditions is NO RIGHT FAITH."* 
 
 The appropriating character of true faith is, as we have 
 seen, strongly insisted on in the " Institution" in several places. 
 But there is also another passage, which, as well as the re- 
 marks of the King and Cranmer on it, are of importance in this 
 inquiry. The " Institution" says, 
 
 " The penitent must conceive certain hope and FAITH that God will forgive 
 him his sins, and repute him justified, AND OF THE NUMBER OF HIS ELECT 
 CHILDREN, not for the worthiness of any merit or work done by the peni- 
 tent, but for the only merits of the blood and passion of our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 On the latter words the King proposed adding " only " 
 after " not," and. " chiefly " after " but ; " to which Cranmer 
 replies, 
 
 " These two words may not be put in this place in anywise : for they 
 signify that our election and justification cometh partly of our merits, though 
 chiefly it cometh of the goodness of God. But certain it is, that our election 
 cometh only and wholly of the benefit and grace of God, for the merits of 
 Christ's passion, and for no part of our merits and good works. "f 
 
 1 do not understand how any one can deny, that these 
 passages are decisive as to Cranmer's views, and those taught 
 by public authority in the " Institution," on the following 
 
 Cranmer's Works, pp. 84-S& f Ib. p. 96.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 71 
 
 points, (1) that election is wholly and solely of (rod's free and 
 sovereign mercy, and that such as are elected continue Christ's 
 disciples to the end ; (2) that true Christian faith is enjoyed 
 by such only, and is indefectible ; (3) that true Christian faith 
 is an appropriating faith, that is, that he who has it in exercise 
 believes that his own sins have been remitted through Christ's 
 atonement, and that he is and will continue a child of Grod ; 
 (4) that those who ultimately perish never were members of 
 the true Catholic Church, or mystical body o Christ, that 
 Church and body (the Catholic Church of the Creed) being 
 composed exclusively of those who will ultimately be saved. 
 The phraseology by which the difference between the two is 
 marked I shall consider hereafter. 
 
 I leave others to give a name to this system. But such 
 was Cranmer's. 
 
 Again, among the persons promoted by Cranmer at this 
 period was Lancelot Ridley, who was made by the Archbishop, 
 in 1541, one of the six preachers in Canterbury Cathedral.* 
 The following passages from his works will show clearly the 
 theological school to which he belonged. 
 
 " Signs of God's predestination are these. First, God of his goodness 
 electeth and chooseth whom he will, only of his mere mercy and goodness, 
 without all the deservings of man whom he hath elected, he calleth them 
 for the most part hy preaching of the Gospel, and by the hearing of the 
 word of God, to faith in Christ Jesus : and through faith he justifieth them, 
 forgiveth sins, and maketh them obedient to hear his word with gladness, 
 to do that thing that God's word commandeth them to do in their state and 
 calling. ... Of the contrary part, whosoever be not glad to hear the word 
 of God, but despise it, &c. . ... it is a token that they be not the children 
 of salvation, but of perdition and eternal damnation: of these works that 
 follow, we may have a conjecture, who be ordained of God to be saved, 
 and who to be damned."f 
 
 " If these be true, as they be in very deed, then methinks that they err, 
 and are to be blamed, that say, that we, of our free will, may do good, may 
 assent and receive the grace of God offered to all men, or not assent to it and 
 forsake it, if we list, and at onr own pleasure and free will; or else our will, 
 they say, cannot be free, or called a free will. Of these men I would ask 
 one question ; whether to assent to the grace of God offered, and to receive 
 
 Stryp's Cranmer, 94 or 134. 
 
 f Comm. on E plies, (i. 3, 4,) first published ia 1540, reprinted in Richmond"* 
 Fathers, ii. 31, 32.
 
 72 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 it, is good, or no? And if it be good, as I trust none will deny, then it i 
 of God the Father, and not of us." (James i.)# 
 
 This is the doctrine, be it observed, of one whom Arch- 
 bishop Cranmer, in 1541, made one of the six preachers in 
 Canterbury Cathedral ; so that even at this early period of 
 Cranmer's career, what would now be called rank Calvinism 
 was preached under his authority and through his appointment 
 in his Cathedral. 
 
 But in 1551, the year before the Articles were drawn up, 
 Cranmer himself speaks (as might be expected) yet more 
 clearly. 
 
 " And yet I know this to be true, that Christ is present with his holy 
 Church, which is his holy elected people, and shall be with them to the 
 world's end, leading and governing them with his holy Spirit, and teaching 
 them all truth necessary for their salvation. And whensoever any such 
 be gathered together in his name, there is he among them, and he shall not 
 suffer the gates of hell to prevail against them. For although he may 
 suffer them by their own frailness FOR A TIME to err, fall, and to die; yet 
 finally, neither Satan, hell, sin, nor eternal death, shall prevail against 
 them. . . . But this holy Church is so unknown to the world, that no man 
 can discern it, but God alone, who only searcheth the hearts of ay men, 
 and knoweth his true children from other that be bastards. This Church 
 is 'the pillar of truth,' because it resteih upon God's word. But as for 
 the open known Church, and the outward face thereof, it is not the pillar 
 of truth, otherwise than that it is, as it were, a register or treasury to keep 
 the books of God's holy will. . . . And the holy Church of Christ is but a 
 small herd or flock in comparison to the great multitude of them that fol- 
 low Satan and Antichrist; as Christ himself saith, and the word of God, 
 and the course of the world from the beginning until this day hath de- 
 clared.''! 
 
 There can be no mistake as to the meaning of this passage, 
 whatever may be our view of his sentiments as expressed in 
 the passages previously cited. 
 
 And from this extract we may judge of the correctness of 
 the statements of Archbishop Laurence,}: that the doctrine of 
 our Church is, that the elect people of (rod are all the baptized. 
 
 One of the earliest acts of Archbishop Cranmer after the- 
 
 Cumin, on PhiL (i. 3-8,) first published about 15S6, reprinted ib. ii. 188, 
 
 189. 
 
 f Ans. to Smith, App. to Answ. to Gardiner. Wks. i. 376, 377. See also 
 
 Preface to " Defence of True and Cath. Doct. of Sacr." published 1550, in Wks. 
 15. 
 
 $ See his Bampton Lectures.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 73 
 
 accession of Edward VI> was to call Peter Martyr over to 
 this country, to aid him in the work of Reformation ; and after 
 a brief residence with himself at Lambeth, to place him, in 
 1548, as Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Ox- 
 ford. That it was by the express invitation of Archbishop 
 Cranmer that he came over to this country, is testified both by 
 Archbishop Parker, (in a passage to which I shall refer 
 presently,) and by Melchior Adam, in his life of Peter Martyr.* 
 I cannot therefore but remark here upon the unfairness of the 
 way in which the late Archbishop Laurence endeavors to get 
 rid of any argument respecting the tendencies of Cranmer's 
 doctrine, drawn from his patronage of Peter Martyr, by repre- 
 senting that patronage as " the bare circumstance of his being 
 favored with an ASYLUM in this country r ,"t and this in the 
 midst of quotations from Melchior Adam and Archbishop 
 Parker's Antiq. Britann., which show Archbishop Laurence to 
 have been well acquainted with both those works.1: 
 
 Now it is notorious that the sentiments of Peter Martyr 
 were what would now be called Calvinistic ; nor can it be 
 
 * Quia ex academiis ministri Ecclesiarum prodeunt, eas cum primis diligenter 
 reformandas duxit [i. e. Cranmerus] : quo deinde ex his purus succus sanae doc- 
 trinae in singulas regni partes derivaretur. Quia vero Petrus Martyr doctorum 
 virorura.judicio ob singularem eruditionem et incredibilem multarum rerum peri- 
 tiam, unus ojnnium ad hoc munus maxime idoneus videbatur, ab Archiepiscopo 
 Cantuariensi, de voluutate regis, vocatus est Itaque sub exitum Novembris anni 
 quadragesimi septimi, permissu senatus, Argentina ubi jam quinquennium docuerat 
 in Angliam discessit, comitante eum Bernardino Ochino, qui et ipse quoque ab 
 eodem Archiepiscopo vocatus fuerat. (Melch. Adam, Vitee, in Vit. Theol. exteror. 
 p. 21. Francof. 1706, fol.) 
 
 f Bampton Lect. 3rd ed. p. 248. 
 
 \ The refutation of a good sized octavo volume cannot of course be attempted 
 in a corner of a chapter of a work on a different subject ; but (while I desire to 
 express myself respectfully towards the esteemed author) I cannot but enter my 
 humble protest against the remarkable partiality and superficial character of the 
 work above referred to, (Archbishop Laurence's Bampton Lectures,) and conse- 
 quently the erroneous nature of the view it gives of the subject of which it 
 treats. And I trust that the few facts I am about to mention above, will be 
 sufficient to put the reader on his guard against its statements. 
 
 I use the term Calvinistic as that which is now commonly applied to that 
 system of doctrine which generally prevailed among the " Reformed " Churches 
 of the Continent at the period of which we are speaking. There were points in 
 the system of Calvin, (strictly speaking,) about which there was much difference 
 of opinion, both here and elsewhere. But I am here speaking of the broad fea-
 
 74 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 supposed, (as Archbishop Laurence would wish us to think) 
 that Cranmer was ignorant what his sentiments, were when he 
 invited him over, or at any rate when, after some months' 
 residence with himself at Lambeth, he sent him to be Regius 
 Professor of Divinity at Oxford. And in the very point in 
 which Archbishop Laurence maintains the opposition of Cran- 
 mer's mature views to those of Peter Martyr, evidence is pro- 
 ducible that he is mistaken. He says, " It is likewise certain 
 that both immediately before and after his arrival here, the 
 sentiments of Cranmer were completely at variance with his, 
 upon one of the most important topics of the day, viz. the Sa- 
 cramental Presence." (p. 248.) Now the fact is precisely 
 the contrary, for in a letter of Bartholomew Traheron (made 
 in 1551 Dean of Chichester) to Bullinger, dated so early as 
 Sept. 28, 1548, it is said, " That you may add yet more to the 
 praises of (rod, you must know that Latimer has come over to 
 our opinion respecting the true doctrine of the eucharist, 
 together with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other 
 Bishops, who heretofore seemed to be Lutherans." (Orig. 
 Lett. vol. i. p. 322.) And in another from the same to the 
 same, dated Dec. 31, 1548, "On the 14th of December, if I 
 mistake not, a disputation was held at London concerning the 
 eucharist, in the presence of almost all the nobility of England. 
 The argument was sharply contested by the Bishops. The 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, contrary to general expectation, 
 most openly, firmly, and learnedly maintained your opinion 
 
 upon the subject I perceive that it is all over with 
 
 Lutheranism, now that those who were considered its princi- 
 pal and almost only supporters, have altogether come over to 
 our side." (Ib. p. 323.) And in a letter of Bishop Hooper to 
 Bullinger, in Dec. 1549, it is said " The Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury entertains right views as to the nature of Christ's pre- 
 sence in the Supper, and is now very friendly towards myself. 
 He has some articles of religion, to which all preachers and 
 
 tares of the prevailing system. The views of Peter Martyr are so well known 
 that it can hardly be necessary to prove them by extracts, but I would refer the 
 reader to (among his other works) his Commentary on the Romans, originally 
 delivered at his University Lectures, and afterwards published (Lat. Tiguri 
 1559, Ac. Engl. Lond. 1568,) particularly his remarks on the 9th chapter.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 75 
 
 Jecturers in divinity are required to subscribe, or else a license 
 for teaching is not granted them ; and in these his sentiments 
 respecting the eucharist are pure and religious, and similar to 
 yours in Switzerland. We desire nothing more for him but a 
 firm and manly spirit." (Orig. Lett, relat. to Reform, vol. i. 
 pp. 71, 72, Park. Soc. ed.) He repeats this in another letter 
 to the same party, written in Feb. 1550. (Ib. p. 76.) 
 
 But, to silence at once and for ever such representations, 
 let Cranmer himself be heard. In his Answer to Dr. Smith, 
 published in 1551, he thus speaks, 
 
 " After this he (i. e. Dr. Smith) falleth to railing, lying and slandering 
 of M. Peter Martyr, a man of that excellent learning and godly living, 
 that he passeth D. Smith as far as the sun in his clear light passeth the 
 moon being in the eclipse. 
 
 " 'Peter Martyr,' saith he, 'at his first coming to Oxford, when he was 
 but a Lutherian in this matter, taught as D. Smith now doth. But when 
 he came once to the Court, and saw that doctrine misliked them that might 
 do him hurt in his living, he anon after turned his tippet, and sang another 
 song.' 
 
 " Of M. Peter Martyr's opinion and judgment in this matter, no man 
 can better testify than I; forasmuch as he lodged within my house long before 
 he came td Oxford, and I had with him many conferences in that matter, and 
 know that he was then of the same mind that he is now, and as he defended 
 after openly in Oxford, and hath written in his book. And if D. Smith under- 
 stood him otherwise in his lectures at the beginning, it was for lack of 
 knowledge, for that then D. Smith understood not the matter, nor yet doth 
 not, as it appeareth by this foolish and unlearned book, which he hath now 
 set out: no more than he understood my book of. the Catechism, and therefore 
 reporteth untruly of me, that I in that book did set forth the real presence of 
 Christ's body in the Sacrament. Unto which false report I have answered 
 in my fourth book, the eighth chapter. But this I confess of myself, that 
 not long before I wrote the said Catechism, I was in that error of the real 
 presence, as I was many years past in divers other errors, as of transub- 
 stantiation, of the sacrifice propitiatory of the priests in the mass," &c. 
 . . . . " But as for Dr. Peter Martyr, hath he sought to please man for 
 advantage? who, having a great yearly revenue in his own country, for- 
 sook all for Christ's sake, and for the truth and glory of God came into 
 strange countries, where he had neither land nor friends, but as God of his 
 goodness, who never forsaketh them that put their trust in him, provided 
 for him." (Cranmer's Works, P. S. ed. vol. 1, pp. 373, 374.) 
 
 I will only add that Peter Martyr was one of three (the 
 others being Dr. Rowland Taylor, and Walter Haddon) whom 
 the Archbishop associated with himself in drawing up a revi-
 
 76 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 sion of the ecclesiastical laws,* (including the most important 
 points of doctrine,) and that it was Peter Martyr whom the 
 Archbishop afterwards selected in the reign of Q,ueen Mary to 
 aid him in defending the religion and Book of Common Prayer 
 established here in the reign of Edward VI., when he challenged 
 the Romanists to a public disputation upon the subject. But 
 this fact I shall notice more particularly elsewhere. 
 Strype remarks, therefore, 
 
 " As for the learned Italian, Peter Martyr, .... there was not only 
 an acquaintance between him and our Archbishop, but a great and cordial 
 intimacy and friendship : for of him lie made particular use in the steps he took 
 In our Reformation. And whensoever he might be spared from his public 
 readings in Oxford, the Archbishop used to send for him, to confer with him 
 about the weightiest matters. This Calvin took notice of, and signified to 
 him by letter how much he rejoiced that he made use of the counsels of 
 that excellent man. And when the reformation of the ecclesiastical laws 
 was in effect wholly devolved upon Cranmer, he appointed him and Gualter 
 Haddon, and Dr. Rowland Taylor, his chaplain, and no more, to manage 
 
 that business and in that bold and brave challenge he made in the 
 
 beginning of Queen Mary's reign, to justify, against any man whatsoever, 
 every part of King Edward's Reformation, he nominated and made choice 
 of Martyr therein to be one of his assistants in that disputation, if any 
 would undertake it with him."f 
 
 The invitation of Cranmer to Peter Martyr was followed, 
 in 1548, by one from the same quarter to Martin Bucer, P. 
 Martyr's fellow-laborer at Strasburg,t and who, though, in 
 the matter of the eucharist, more ambiguous in his phrase- 
 ology, was in substance entirely in agreement with him in 
 doctrine ; by whom Archbishop Laurence has, by some extra- 
 ordinary mistake, put down as a Lutheran, and hence, as we 
 shall see hereafter, used arguments grounded upon Bucer's 
 case, to the infinite damage of his own cause. 
 
 To illustrate the general character of his doctrine, I will 
 here give some extracts from his Commentary on the Romans, 
 published in 1536, and dedicated to Cranmer, so that his views 
 must have been well known to the Archbishop before he sent 
 for him to come over. 
 
 * See Strype's Cranmer, i. 191, 192. Oxf. ed. 
 
 f Strype'a Cranmer, p. 418, or Oxf. ed. 693. 
 
 J Bucer taught Theology at Straaburg for twenty years, and it was at his 
 invitation, and procurement of a salary from the authorities of Strasburg for him, 
 that Peter Martyr joined him. (See Melch. Adam.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 77 
 
 " Ex sanctis patribus non recte intellects extitit aliquando is error, 
 nostra bona opera esse aliquo modo causam nostrae prsBdestinationis, qu6d 
 Deus praevidens suos gratiam suam oblatam amplexaturos, et donis suis 
 probA usuros, eos hac de causa prsedestinet et ad salutem praefiniat. Seel 
 
 hone errorem etiam D. Thomas rectfi confutat, P. 1. q. 23 Deus 
 
 sane in nobis, qui ex nihilo sumus, quid praevideat, nisi quod ipse nobis 
 ex sua bonitate statuerit donare ? Nihil igitur in nobis prorsus esse potest, 
 quod respiceret Deus, nos inter salvandos prsefiniendo : propter se ipsum 
 facit, donatque nobis omnia."* 
 
 " Jam commentum istuc, nos tantum habere virium ad recte Tivendum, 
 ut vocati per Evangelium, et ea Domini gratia adjuti, quam omnibus mor- 
 talibus perpetuo offert et donat, possimus vocantem Deum sequi, et oblatam 
 gratiam amplecti, ejusmodi esse, ut qui illud tueri velit, necessario neget, 
 Deum esse. inde perspicuum est. Omnes, cum Deum nominamus, intelligi- 
 mus authorem omnis boni ; et qui aliquid boni non effici a Deo affirmet, 
 eum non dubitant negare Deum."f 
 
 " Fit sane necessario quicquid Deus vult simpliciter. Quaecunque enim 
 voluit fecit in coelo et in terra, at quae vult et probat in vita suorum, ea 
 multis, imo omnibus proponit externo verbo ; quae tamen non vult simpliciter 
 eos amplecti, quos decet esse ex multis vocatis, non ex paucis electis : qui 
 vwluntati quidem Dei. quam exponi vult omnibus, obtinere autem tantum 
 in electis, adversantur; sed eum Deus hoc ipsum in eis vult simpliciter, 
 Dei voluntati singulariter de se inserviunt, non obsistunt. Atqui sicut hoc, 
 qua justitia Deus alium velit salvum simpliciter, alium vocari tantum ad 
 salutem, perditum vero simpliciter, vestigandum a nobis non est ; ita nee 
 illud, qui deceat Deum vocare ad salutem et testari suam voluntatem esse 
 ut vocationi pareant atque serventur, quos tamen simpliciter vult audire 
 nee intelligere, videre nee cognoscere. Certum enim est, ut vocationi Dei 
 quis pareat, quod est initium totius salutis, id esse donum et opus Dei ; quod 
 Deus aliis largitur, aliis negat. Illis enim suadet ut persuadset; his non 
 ita : et non possunt non sequi vocantem quibus persuadet, nee sequi qui- 
 bus non persuadet. Vult itaque omnino alios audire se et exaudire, alios 
 audire et contemnere. Cur autem ita velit et faciat Deus, D. Augustinus 
 duo tantum habet quae respondeat. O altitude divitiamm ! Et, Nunquid 
 iniquit as est apud Deum ? Addens Cui responsio ista displicet, queerat 
 doctiores, sed caveat ne inveniat prsesumptores. De. Sp. et lit. c. 34. Nee 
 aliud respondebunt, quicunque ver& pii sunt.' ; $ 
 
 The letter (dated Oct. 2, 1548) in which Cranmer's invita- 
 was conveyed to Bucer, is still extant, and expresses Cran- 
 mer's earnest desire for Bucer's aid in this country in further- 
 
 * Metaphr. et Enarr. in Ep. Pauli ad. Rom. c. 8, first published, Argentine 
 1586. I quote from the edition published, Basil. 1562. fol. p. 412. 
 t Id. ib. in c. ix. p. 458. 
 Id. ib. 460.
 
 78 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 ing the cause of the Reformation. After expressing his sym- 
 pathy for the state of Germany, he says, 
 
 " I doubt not but God will hear this and similar groanings of the pious j 
 and will preserve and defend the true doctrine which has been hitherto faith- 
 fully propagated in your churches against all the ragings of the devil and 
 
 the world To you therefore, my Bucer, our kingdom will be by 
 
 far the safest refuge, in which, by the blessing of God, the seeds of true 
 doctrine have begun to be sprinkled with good success. Come therefore to 
 us, and give yourself to us as a laborer in the Lord's harvest. You will not 
 be of less use to the Catholic Church of God when with us, than if you 
 retained your old place of abode . . . Therefore, laying aside all delay, 
 come to us as soon as possible. We will show that nothing can be more 
 pleasant or acceptable to us than the presence of Bucer.* 
 
 And when Bucer replied, apparently declining the invita- 
 tion, Peter Alexander, at the direction of the Archbishop, wrote 
 from Lambeth a more pressing letter to him in March 1549,t 
 begging him to come over.l In consequence of this second 
 letter, Bucer arrived in this country in April, and with him 
 came, also by the invitation of Cranmer, Paul Fagius. Both 
 were entertained by the Archbishop, at Lambeth, until the 
 following autumn, when Bucer was placed as Regius Professor 
 of Divinity in Cambridge, and Fagius, in the same place, as 
 Professor of Hebrew. 
 
 In this post he publicly maintained the same doctrine that 
 he had previously advocated, as appears by his Lectures on the 
 Ephesians,!! and his public Disputations in the University, 
 afterwards published.il ^ 
 
 * Nee dubito quin Deus hoc et similes piorum gemitua exauditurus sit ; et 
 veram doctrinam, qus hactenus in vestris ecclesiis sincere propagata est, et con- 
 servaturus et defensurus sit adversus omnes diaboli et mundi furores. . . . Tibi 
 igitur, mi Bucere, portus longe tutissimus erit nostrum regnum, in quo, Dei bene- 
 ficio, semina verse doctrinae feliciter spargi coeperunt. Veni igitur ad nos, et te 
 nobis operarium przesta in messe Domini. Non minus proderis Catholicee Dei 
 
 ecclesite cum apud nos fueris, quam si pristinas sedes retineres Omni 
 
 igitur semota cunctatione, quamprimum ad nos venias. Ostendemus nobis prae- 
 eentia Buceri nihil gratiua aut jucundius esse posse. (Cranmer's Works, P. 8. ed. 
 voL 2, p. 424. Also Buceri Scripta. Angl. p. 190: and Strype's Cranmer, Doc. in 
 App. xliii.) 
 
 j- See it in Buceri Scripta Anglic, p. 191. 
 
 J See Strype's Life of Cranmer, i. 280. Oxf. ed. 
 
 See Life of Fagiua by Melch. Adam, and Peter Alexander's Lett, to him, 
 dated March 24, 1549. (Orig. Lett. p. 829.) 
 
 | Prtelectiones in Epist. ad Ephes. Basil, 1562. fol. 
 
 *fi In his Scripta Anglicana. Basil. 1577. fol.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 79 
 
 From the former I give a few extracts as a specimen : 
 
 " Primus locus Theologiae quern Paulus hac Epistola tractat, est de 
 electione nostri ad hsereditatem aeternam. Revocat enim hac Epistola 
 Ephesiis in memoriam beneficia, quae Dens illis contulerat. Ergo ab 
 omnium primo et maximo incipit. nimirum ab electione et complexu aeterno, 
 quo ipsos et omnes suos, ante omne tempus, ad vitam et salutem seternam 
 complexus est. Hujus causain efficientem dicit esse meram gratiam Dei 
 et meritum Christi. Gratiae enim vocabulum, gratuitum Dei favorem et 
 benevolcntiam hoc loco significat: quanquam et gratuita Dei dona per 
 figuram etiam gratia dicantur in Scripturis. Causae finales sunt, vitas 
 Banctificatio, et gloria Dei. Non enim est vitas nostrae sanctificatio praeci^ 
 puus finis electionis nostrae, sed ipsa gloria Doi 7 propter quam, et ad quam 
 omnium fuit conditio, et nostri est regeneratio." # 
 
 " Debetis ei esse grati, qui vobis gratuito donavit omnia, electionem, 
 adoptionem, vocationem, fidem, &c. Quae apud Deum sunt firma. Stud- 
 eamus tamen nos, ut etiam quantum ad nos magis ac magis sint firma, 
 quanquam electi serventur omnes, nee penitus excidant. Sed danda etiam 
 opera est, ne vel ad momentum excidamus per nostra peccata." f 
 
 "Nomen electionis bifariam accipitur. Aliquando pro externa ad 
 aliquod munus electione : ut, Nonne duodecim vos elegi, et unus est ex 
 vobis diabolus ? . . . . Rursus electio aliquando accipitur, ut sit aliquo- 
 rum hominum ex communi perdita massa, ad eognitionem voluntatis Dei, 
 et demum ad vitam externam designatio, ex mera gratia Dei : et de 
 ea electione hie sermo est, et de ea loquitur Christus, ubi dicit : Ego scio 
 quos elegerim. Si hujus electionis memoria et meditatio nobis auferretur, 
 bone Deus, quomodo resisteremus diabolo ? Quoties enim Diabolus tentat 
 fidem nostram, nunquam autem non tentat, tune semper ad electionem est 
 nobis recurrendum. et de ea cogitandum, atque ita cogitandum, ut omnem 
 dubitationem excludamus. Nam si hac fidei certitudine-careamus, si de ea, 
 persuasi non sumus, non possumus vitam aeternam expectare : Deum pro 
 patre, et Christum pro redemptore non possumus agnoscere ; nihil denique 
 solidBB pietatis, et verae dilectionis Dei in nobis esse potest.J 
 
 " Electio merum est donum Dei. Ergo gratia, et non merces. Lega- 
 tur Augustinus, habet certe clarissima et evidentissima testimonia. Est 
 itaque electio, destinatio et certa Dei miseratio ab aeterno ante mundum con- 
 stitutum, qua Deus eos. quorum vult misereri, ex universo perditorum hom- 
 inum genere, ad vitam aeternam secernit, ex plane liberali misericordia, 
 priusquam quicquam possint boni aut mali facere. Certa, inquam, est, et im- 
 mutabilis, per Jesum Christum unigenitum filium Dei et nostrum mediatorem, 
 ab aeterno destinatum caput Ecclesise, ac reconciliatorem, secundum aeternum 
 et immutabile propositum suum, ut nos adoptaret in filios et haeredes, et 
 in novam vitam regeneraret. ut sancti essemus," &c. 
 
 <: Deus in electione suum tantummodo propositum sequitur, suam glori- 
 
 Prselect in Ep. ad Ephes. c. 1. Basil. 1562. fol. p. 19. 
 
 f Ib. p. 20. t Ib. p. 21. Ib. p. 23.
 
 80 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 am, charitatem, misericordiam, et filium suum Jesum Christum. Sed 
 dices : Si nihil hominis concurrit, redditur homo remissior. Nequaquam 
 ita est : imo qui firmiter credit ex mera Dei voluntate, charitate, misericor- 
 dia hoc provenire, magis accenditur ad bona opera : sed qui non credunt, 
 hi omnia rapiunt in libertatem peccandi. In nono quoque capite ad Ro- 
 manos, gratuitam esse electionem ostenditur adeo clar6 ut magis non possit. 
 Quod argumentum optime urget Augustinus. Simile est et illud : Ego vos 
 elcgi, non vos me elegistis. Non ergo prseparatoria aut alia lilla opera cos 
 servarunt, qui servati sunt, sed sola gratia. Prsedicant prEcterea IIEDC verba 
 textus justitiam Dei, quod scili.cet reprobi justo Dei judicio reprobi man- 
 ent. ... Si quis igitur objiciat, Si ex parte hominis nihil fit, quod ad 
 electionem attinet, quod concurrat cum divino opere, videtur Deus injustws 
 esse quod non omnibus ex sequo idem dat praemium, Respondendum illi est; 
 Nihil simile esse inter cogitationes Dei et nostras. Nos enim qui legem 
 habemus bene faciendi, hanc quidem legem sequi debemus, nisi injusti esse 
 velimus. At Deus nulla hujusmodi lege tenetur, nullo cogitur prsecepto, 
 ut perditis benefaciat, et immeritis conferat salutem," &c. 
 
 It would be easy to multiply such passages a hundredfold. 
 
 On his death, at the close of 1551, Matthew Parker, after- 
 wards Archbishop of Canterbury, preached his funeral sermon, 
 and praised him particularly for the soundness and excellence 
 of his doctrine ; in which, (he tells us,) as well as the holiness 
 of his life, he was a burning and shining light in the Church 
 of Christ for many years.t 
 
 And at a subsequent period we have a similar testimony to 
 him from another of our most able primates, Archbishop Whit- 
 gift. Thus he speaks of him in his reply to Cartwright, (who 
 had found fault with some of his remarks,) 
 
 " I have sometimes heard a Papist burst out into this rage against M. 
 Bucer. being pressed with his authority : but you are the first professor of 
 the Gospel that ever I heard so churlishly to use so reverent, so learned, so 
 painful, so SOUND a father, being also an earnest and zealous professor." $ 
 
 And in the same work he frequently refers, with great re- 
 spect, to Bucer's Review of the Prayer Book. 
 
 Similar invitations were also sent to many other of the 
 more famous divines of the " Reformed"^ Churches, and ac- 
 
 Ib. 
 
 f See Hist. Vera de Vita, Ac., Buccri, Ac., 1662. 8vo. fol. 58 and 65. In- 
 serted also in Buceri Scripta Anglic. 
 
 J Def. of Answer to Admon. p. 522. 
 
 I use the word " Reformed" in its strict sense as distinguished from "Luth-
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 81 
 
 oepted by some of them. Several invitations were also sent 
 to Melancthon, but for some reason not accepted. And here 
 again I must notice the remarkable partiality displayed by 
 Archbishop Laurence in his Bampton Lectures. From a 
 perusal of those Lectures one might supp&se that Melancthon 
 was the only one of the foreign Reformers invited to this 
 country by Cranmer, and the invitations addressed to him are 
 very carefully recorded ;* while the fact is, that, with this 
 single exception, (and that in favor of one remarkable for the 
 moderation of his views as a Lutheran, and their leaning 
 towards those of the Reformed party,) almost all, if not all, 
 who were invited to this country by Cranrner, to aid him in 
 the work of Reformation, were of the Reformed Churches, and 
 therefore of Zuinglian or Calvinistic views. And now let us 
 see what is the account given by Archbishop Parker of those 
 who came over, and compare it with Archbishop Laurence's. 
 
 " Archbishop Cranmer, that he might strengthen the evangelical doc- 
 trine in the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, from which an infinite 
 number of teachers go forth for the instruction of the whole kingdom, called 
 into England the most celebrated divines from foreign nations, Peter Martyr 
 Vermilius a Florentine, and Martin Bucer, a German, from Strasburg. 
 The former taught at Oxford, the latter at Cambridge. With the latter, also, 
 Paul Fagius became Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge. And, besides these, 
 Immanuel Tremellius, Bernardino Ochine, Peter Alexander. Valerandus Pol- 
 lanus, all of whom, with their children and wives, he liberally maintained. 
 Philip Melancthon also, and Musculus, were invited; but. being kept back 
 by their countrymen, they sent letters to excuse themselves. . . . These three 
 were liberally maintained at the expense of Cranmer. But Fagius soon 
 died. The other two, by constant readings, sermons, and disputations, 
 refuted Popery and spread the Gospel ; and Bucer died the third year of his 
 coming into England, and his funeral was honored by the attendance of all 
 orders at Cambridge, and the lamentations of every one expressed in odes 
 and sermons. Peter Martyr still lived and sustained constant labors in 
 the defence of the evangelical truth against the Papists." f 
 
 What a contrast is this account to that given by Arch- 
 bishop Laurence ! All the parties here mentioned except Me- 
 lancthon, and perhaps Peter Alexander, were of the " Re- 
 formed " school. Of Peter Alexander, it is said by Strype, 
 
 eran ;" the former following the views of Zuingle or Calvin. It is unnecessary 
 here to enter into the question of any minor differences of view between these 
 two Reformers. * See Bampt. Lect. Note, p. 198. 
 
 f Translated from Antiq. Britann, p. 580; ed 1729, fol. 
 
 6
 
 82 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 " Peter Alexander was of Artois, and lived with the Archbishop before 
 Bucer came into England. He was a learned man, but had different senti- 
 ments in the matter of the Eucharist, inclining to the belief of a corporeal 
 presence with the Lutherans ; though some years after he came over to a 
 righter judgment, as his companion Peter Martyr signified to Calvin, in a 
 letter wrote from Strasburg." (Life of Cranmer, 195 or Oxf. ed., 279.) 
 
 So that the effect of Peter Alexander's residence in Eng- 
 land was to attach him completely to the "Reformed" party. 
 
 To the persons just mentioned as having come over to this 
 country on the invitation of Cranmer, I must add John a Lasco, 
 a well-known divine of the "Reformed" school. Cranmer's 
 first invitation not having been successful, he thus addressed 
 him in a second letter, dated July 4, 1548. 
 
 " I am sorry that your coming to us has been prevented by the unlocked 
 for intervention of some other engagement. . . . We are desirous of setting 
 forth in our churches the true doctrine of God, and have no wish to be shift- 
 ing and unstable, or to deal in ambiguities ; but, laying aside all carnal 
 considerations, to transmit to posterity a true and explicit form of doctrine 
 agreeable to the rule of the sacred writings ; so that there may not only be 
 set forth among all nations an illustrious testimony respecting our doctrine, 
 delivered by the grave authority of learned and godly men, but that all 
 posterity may have a pattern to imitate. For the piirpose of carrying this 
 important design into execution, we' have thought it necessary to have the 
 assistance of learned men, who, having compared their opinions together 
 with us, may do away with doctrinal controversies, and build up an entire 
 system of true doctrine. We have therefore invited both yourself and some 
 other learned men ; and as they have come over to us without any reluc- 
 tance, so that we scarcely have to regret the absence of any of. them, with 
 the exception of yourself and Melancthon, we earnestly request you, both to 
 come yourself, and, if possible, to bring Melancthon with you." (Cranmer's 
 Works, P. S. ed. vol. ii. pp. 421, 422, where the original Latin is also 
 given.) 
 
 It would appear, then, from this letter, that Melancthon 
 was tho only Lutheran that had been invited by Cranmer to 
 come over to this country. 
 
 It is also of importance to notice the parties invited to this 
 country by Cranmer, to aid him in the project he had mucli at 
 heart of drawing up a Confession of Faith which might be 
 accepted by all the Protestant Churches. The three persons 
 to whom he wrote on thi subject were Melancthon, Henry
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM itf INFANTS. 83 
 
 Bullinger, and Calvin.* His object was thus expressed in 
 his letter to Calvin, 
 
 " I have often wished, and still continue to do so, that learned and 
 godly men, who are eminent for erudition and judgment, might meet 
 together in some place of safety, where, by taking counsel together, and 
 comparing their respective opinions, they might handle all the heads of 
 ecclesiastical doctrine, and hand down to posterity, under the weight of their 
 authority, some work not only upon the subjects themselves, but upon tha 
 forms of expressing them."f 
 
 The letters to BulHnger and Calvin are dated March 20, 
 1552. That to Melancthon on this subject is dated March 27, 
 1552, and in it the AYchbishop says. 
 
 " I have written likewise to Masters Calvin and Bullinger, and exhorted 
 them not to be wanting to a work so necessary, and so useful to the com- 
 monwealth of Christendom. You wrote me word in your last letter that 
 the A reopagites of the Council of Trent are making decrees respecting the 
 worship of the host. Wherefore since the adversaries of the Gospel meet 
 together with so much zeal for the establishment of error, we must not 
 allow them to be more diligent in confirming ungodliness, than we are in 
 propagating and setting forth the doctrine of godliness," $ 
 
 The project (it is necessary to add) failed, tke difficulties 
 attending its fulfilment being no doubt insuperable, but the 
 names of the parties applied to by Cranmer, show the bias of 
 his mind. And it is impossible not to see from the facts just 
 mentioned, how completely certain parties among us are self- 
 condemned, when in one and the same breath they maintain 
 the agreement of their views with those of Cranmer, and at the 
 same time depreciate and despise the very men, Peter Martyr, 
 Bucer, &c., whom he called over to this country, and placed in 
 situations of the greatest importance, to teach the nation what 
 lie believed to be the true faith. 
 
 Further ; what was the doctrine of Thomas Becon, one of 
 Cranmer's chaplains, and appointed by him one of the six 
 preachers at Canterbury ;ll appointments which are surely 
 good tests of Cranmer's judgment as to the soundness of his 
 doctrine ? 
 
 * See the Letters to them in his Works, Vol. II pp. 430^134. 
 
 f Ib. p. 432. 
 
 j Ib. p. 434. 
 
 Strype's Cranmer, book 2, c. 33, p. 290, or 417. 
 
 | Ib. book, 3, c. 28, p. 423, or 607.
 
 84 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 In his " Pomander of Prayer," published as early as 1532, 
 we find a prayer afterwards transferred to Edward the Sixth's 
 Primer, (where it appeared under the sanction of the highest 
 authorities of the Church.) from which the following is an 
 extract. 
 
 " Notwithstanding, O heavenly Father, thou hast a little flock, to whom 
 it' is thy pleasure to give the glorious kingdom of heaven. There is a certain 
 number of sheep that hear thy voice, whom no man is able to pluck out of 
 thy hand, which shall never perish, to whom also thou shalt give eternal 
 life. Make me therefore, Lord, of that number whom thou from ever- 
 lasting hast predestinate to be saved, whose names also are written in the 
 book of life."* 
 
 " This Calvinistical devotional tract [observes Lowndes] was, 
 says Grifford, a frequent subject of ridicule with the wits of those 
 days."f But the author of this " Calvinistical devotional tract" 
 was made by Cranmer one of his chaplains, and one of the six 
 preachers at Canterbury; and the very prayer which is the 
 most thoroughly Calvinistical of all, was inserted, or allowed to 
 be inserted, by Cranmer, in the Primer issued by royal authority 
 for public use. 
 
 The same sentiments will be found in his " Christmas Ban- 
 quet," first published in 1542.1 
 
 In his Catechism (of the date of which I am uncertain) he 
 says, 
 
 " If the election of God be certain, as it is most certain, who learncth 
 not then of these aforesaid sentences, that God's elect can by no means 
 perish ? To be elected is to be saved. . . . Our whole salvation dependeth 
 not of any external work, but of the free election and undoubted grace of 
 God." 
 
 So in his " Sick Man's Salve," written in the form of a 
 dialogue, in the early part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, we find 
 the following ; 
 
 " Epaphrod. What if I be not of the number of those whom God hath 
 predestinate to be saved ? Philem. Fear you not. God, without all doubt, 
 hath sealed you by his holy Spirit unto everlasting life. Your name is 
 written in the book of, life. You are a citizen of that new glorious and 
 
 * Works, P. 8. ed. Vol. iii. p. 84. 
 f Lowndes's Bibliotheca, under " Becon." 
 | See hia Works, P. S. ed Vol 1. p. 72. 
 Works, vol. ii. p. 222
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 85 
 
 heavenly Jerusalem. You shall remain with God in glory, after your 
 departure, for ever and ever. Epaph. It sore repenteth me that I have at 
 any time offended the Lord my God. Phil. This repentance IB an evident 
 testimony of your salvation, and that God hath predestinate and tofore 
 appointed you unto everlasting life. . . . Epaph. I have an earnest faith 
 in the blood of Christ, that God the Father will forgive me all my sins for 
 Christ's sake. Phil. You thus believing cannot perish ; but this your faith 
 is an undoubted assurance unto your conscience that you are predestinate 
 to be saved. For it is written," &c. 
 
 And so the dialogue proceeds, treating baptism, the reception 
 with comfort of the Lord's supper, the glad hearing of the word 
 of God, as so many evidences that (rod hath " chosen " such a 
 person " to be his," and " predestinated him unto everlasting 
 glory."* 
 
 So in his " Common Places of the Holy Scripture," published 
 in 1562, three heads of his Common Places are the following ; 
 
 " That God's election is certain and unchangeable." 
 " That God's election is free and undeserved." 
 " That God's elect and chosen cannot perish."f 
 
 And the same doctrine is repeated in his " Demands of Holy 
 Scripture," published in 1563.1: 
 
 Another remarkable testimony as to the system of doctrine 
 embraced by the great body of our divines at this period, occurs 
 in two letters of Dean Traheron to Bullinger. The first is dated 
 Sept. 10, 1552, and in it he writes thus, 
 
 " I am exceedingly desirous to know what you and the other very learned 
 men who live at Zurich, think respecting the predestination and providence 
 of God. If you ask the reason, there are certain individuals here who 
 lived among you sometime, and who assert that you lean too much to 
 Melancthon's views. But THE GREATER NUMBER AMONG us, of whom I own 
 myself to be one, embrace the opinion of John Calvin as being perspicuous 
 and most agreeable to Holy Scripture. And we truly thank God, that that 
 excellent treatise of the very learned and excellent John Calvin, against 
 Pighius and one Georgius Siculus, should have come forth at the very time 
 when the question began to be agitated among us. For we confess that he 
 has thrown much light upon the subject, or rather so handled it, as that we 
 have never before seen any thing more learned or more plain. We are 
 anxious, however, to know what are your opinions, to which we justly allow 
 much weight. We certainly hope that you differ in no respect from his 
 excellent and most learned opinion. At least you will please to point out 
 
 Works, vol. iii. pp. 172, 178. f Ib. pp. 316-313. 
 
 $ Ib.p. 616.
 
 86 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 what you approve in that treatise, or think defective, or reject altogether, if 
 indeed you do reject any part of it, which we shall not easily believe." (Orig. 
 Lett. vol. i. pp. 325, 326.) 
 
 And from the reply of Traheron (dated June 3, 1552) to 
 Bullinger's' answer, it appears that the point of disagreement 
 was, respecting an extreme statement of Calvin as to Grod's 
 predetermination of the evil actions of men. 
 
 "Though I admire," says Traheron, "both your exceeding learning and 
 moderation in this writing of yours, nevertheless, to say the truth, I cannot 
 
 altogether think as you do Though God does not himself create in us 
 
 evil desires, which are born with us, we maintain nevertheless, that he 
 determines the place, the time, and mode, [of bringing them into action,] so 
 that nothing can happen otherwise than as he has before determined that it 
 should happen. For, as Augustine has it, he ordains even darkness. To> 
 be brief, we ascribe all actions to God r but leave to men whatever sin there 
 
 is in them You do not approve of Calvin, when he states that God 
 
 not only foresaw the fall of the first man, and in him the ruin of his posterity, 
 but that he also at his own pleasure arranged it. And unless we allow 
 this, we shall certainly take away both the providence and the wisdom of 
 God altogether." (Ib. pp. 326, 327.) 
 
 The remark of Bullinger, to which the last sentence refers,, 
 was this : 
 
 " Ego ccrte sic loqui non ausim, utpote qui existimem gratise sincerita- 
 tem defendi posse, utcunque non dicamus Deum homines creare in exitium, 
 et in ilium finem ipsos deducere aut impellere indurando et excsecando."" 
 (Ib. 327.) 
 
 Now the reader will observe, that Traheron states, that the 
 views he here defends, which involve the extreme of Calvinism,, 
 were the vie A T S of "the greater number" of his brethren. And 
 at the time that he wrote the first letter, he was Dean of 
 Chichester, to which Deanery he was appointed in Sept. 1551 ;* 
 and between writing the two letters, i. e. in January 1552 
 (0. S.)t ho was promoted to a prebendal stall at "Windsor. The 
 prevalence, therefore, of the very highest Calvinistical views 
 among a large portion of our clergy of that period can hardly, in 
 the face of suoh testimony, be denied ; while I doubt not, that 
 the more moderate and judicious views of Bullinger upon the 
 point here in question, prevailed with such men as Cranmer and 
 Ridley, and others. But this passage may show us, how widely 
 
 Strype's Eccl. Mernor. II ii. 26ft. \ Ib. 276,
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 87 
 
 even still higher views than those of Bullinger prevailed here 
 at that time. 
 
 A still more weighty testimony may be derived from certain 
 public documents of this period. 
 
 In the same year (1553) in which the Articles of Edward 
 VI. (agreed upon in 1552) were first published, there was "set 
 forth, by the King's Majesty's authority for all schoolmasters to 
 teach," "a Short Catechism" in Latin and English; to which 
 the Articles were adjoined. This Catechism, Bishop Ridley tells 
 us,* was subscribed both by himself and Crawner, as well as 
 others. In this public document, therefore, we have the best 
 possible witness of their tenets at that time. I must beg the 
 attention of the reader, then, to the following extract from that 
 part of it relating to " the Church." 
 
 " To the furnishing of this commonwealth [i. e. the church] belong all 
 they, as many as do truly fear, honor, and call upon God, wholly applying 
 their mind to holy and godly living ; and all those that, putting all their 
 hope and trust in him, do assuredly look for the bliss of everlasting life. 
 But as many as are in this faith stedfast, were forechosen, predestinate, and 
 appointed out to everlasting life, before the world was made. \V itness hereof 
 they have within their hearts the Spirit of Christ, the author, earnest, and 
 unfailable pledge of their faith. Which faith only is able to perceive the 
 mysteries of God : only bringeth peace unto the heart : only taketh hold on 
 the righteousness that is in Christ Jesus. 
 
 " Master. Doth then the Spirit alone and faith (sleep we never so 
 .soundly, or stand we never so reckless and slothful) so work all things for 
 us, as without any help of our own to carry us idle up to heaven ? 
 
 " Scholar. I use Master, as you have taught me, to make a difference 
 between the cause and the effects. The first, principal, and most perfect 
 cause of our justifying and salvation, is the goodness and love of God: 
 whereby he chose us for his before he made the world. After that, God 
 granteth us to be called by the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 
 when the Spirit of the Lord is poured into us by whose guiding and gov- 
 ernance we be led to settle our trust in God : and hope for the performance 
 of all his promises. With this choice is joined, as companion, the morti- 
 fying of the old man, that is, of our affection and lust. From the same 
 Spirit also cometh our sanctification : the love of God, and of our neighbor : 
 justice : and uprightness of life : finally, to say all in sum, whatsoever is in 
 us, or may be done of us, pure, honest, tru&, and. good, that altogether springeth 
 out of this most pleasant root, from this most plentiful fountain, the goodness, 
 love, choice, and unchangeable purpose of God. He is the cause, the rest art 
 
 * Disp. at Oxford. See his Works, p. 2S7.
 
 88 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 thefntits and effects. Yet are also the goodness, choice, and Spirit of God, 
 and Christ himself, causes conjoined and coupled each with other : which 
 may be reckoned among the principal causes of our salvation. As oft 
 therefore as we use to say, that we are made righteous and saved by only 
 faith ; it is meant thereby, that faith, or rather trust alone, doth lay hand 
 upon, understand and perceive, our righteous-making to be given us of God 
 freely ; that is to say, by no deserts of our own, but by the free grace of 
 the Almighty Father. Moreover faith doth engender in us the love of our 
 neighbor, and such works as God is pleased withal. For if it be a lively 
 and true faith, quickened by the Holy Ghost, she is the mother of all good 
 saying and doing. By this short tale is it evident, whence and by what 
 means we attain to be made righteous. For not by the worthiness of our 
 deservings were we heretofore chosen, or long ago saved : but by the only mercy 
 of God, and pure grace of Christ our Lord, whereby we were in him made to 
 those good works that God hath appointed for us to walk in. And although 
 good works cannot deserve to make us righteous before God, yet do they so 
 cleave unto faith, that neither can faith be found without them, nor good 
 works be any where without faith 
 
 " Master. Why is he [the Holy Ghost] called holy ? 
 
 " Scholar. Not only for his own holiness, but for that by him are made 
 holy the chosen of God, and members of Christ.* 
 
 Can it be denied, that this is what would now be called 
 clear and decided Calvinism ? 
 
 But further. In the same year was published, "A Primer, 
 or Book of Private Prayer," " authorized and set forth by the 
 King's Majesty, to be taught, learned, read, and used by all his 
 loving subjects," of course by the counsel of Cranmer, Ridley, 
 and others, like the Articles and Catechism. Now in one of 
 the prayers of this book, in which they would surely be cautious 
 of introducing such a doctrine without strongly feeling its 
 importance, we have the Prayer (verbatim) which I have given 
 above, (p. 84,) from one of Becon's works.* 
 
 There is also one more document of a similar kind, prepared 
 tinder the guidance and direction of Archbishop Cranmer, about 
 the same time as those already quoted ; the publication of which 
 however, at the time of its preparation, was prevented by the 
 death of Edward VI. I mean the "Reformatio Legum 
 Ecclesiasticarum," which, as is well known, received its last 
 corrections from Cranmor. In this book there is an article " On 
 
 * Two Liturgies, with other Documents, of Edw. VI. Parker. Soc. ed . ppv 
 51 1-45 U. 
 
 f Liturgies and Documents of Edw. VI. p. 475.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 89 
 
 Predestination," in which, after reproving those who indulge 
 themselves in sin, sayingj that as they are either predestinated 
 to life or not, it matters not, the writer proceeds, 
 
 " Nos vero sacris Scripturis eruditi, talem in hac re doctrinam ponimus, 
 quod diligens et accurata cogitatio de praedestinatione nostra et electione 
 Buscepta (de quibus Dei voluntate determinatum fuit, antequam mundi 
 fundamenta jacerentur) Haec itaque diligens et seria, quam diximus, his de 
 rebus cogitatio, piorum hominem animos, spiritu Christi afflatos et carnis ac 
 membrorum subjectionem persentiscentes,* et ad coelestia sursum tendentes, 
 dulcissima quadam et jucundissima consolatione permulcet, quoniam fidem 
 nostram de perpetua salute per Christum ad nos perventura confirmat, 
 vehementissimas charitatis in Deum flammas accendit, mirabiliter ad gratias 
 agendas exuscitat, ad bona nos opera propinquissime adducit, et a peccatis 
 longissime abducit, quoniam a Deo sumus electi, et filii ejus instituti, qua 
 singularis et eximia conditio summam a nobis salubritatem morum et excel- 
 lentissimam virtutis perfectionem requirit, denique nobis arrogantiam minuit, 
 ne viribus nostris geri credamus, quae gratuita Dei beneficentia et infinite 
 bonitate indulgentur. Prseterea neminem ex hoc loco purgationem cense- 
 mus vitiorum suorum afierre posse, quia Deus nihil ulla in re injust* 
 constituit, nee ad peccata voluntates nostras unquam invitas trudit Qua- 
 propter omnes nobis admonendi sunt ut in actionibus suscipiendis ad decreta 
 prsedestinationis se non referant, sed universam vitse suae rationem ad Dei 
 leges accommodent, cum et promissiones bonis et minas malis in sacris 
 Scripturis generaliter propositas contemplentur. Debemus enim ad Dei 
 cultum viis illis ingredi et in ilia Dei voluntate commorari, quam in sacris 
 Scripturis patefactam esse videmus."f 
 
 What is the doctrine here maintained cannot, I conceive, 
 admit of any question. 
 
 But if there were any doubt on the subject, the names of 
 the authors would be sufficient to remove it ; for, as we have 
 seen in a preceding page,t the parties whom Cranmer employed 
 to draw it up were Peter Martyr, whose views on the subject 
 are well known; Dr. Rowland Taylor, who, as we shall see 
 presently, joined with John Bradford, in a letter to Cranmer. 
 
 * For " persentiscentes" the printed editions have, by mistake, " praesentes." 
 f MS. Bibl. Harl. No. 426, fol. 15, 16. In the British Museum. The work 
 from which this is extracted was published in 1571 ; edited by John Fox; and 
 again in 1640. But the above extract is given from the MS. of the work, belonging 
 to Cranmer, and interlined and corrected by him, among the Harleian MSS. In 
 the last sentence but one the words originally were, " et cum promissiones turn 
 minas in sacris Scripturis sibi propositas contemplentur," which was altered by 
 Cranmer to those given above. 
 $ See p. 75 above.
 
 90 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Ridley, and Latimer, asking their names to a treatise of Brad- 
 ford upholding the doctrine of free election ; and Walter 
 Haddon, whose sentiments are abundantly manifested in his 
 answer to Osorius.* If the Article needed interpretation, then, 
 we have here a clear proof of the doctrine intended to be con- 
 veyed by it, as well as of Cranmer's state of mind when he 
 employed such men to draw it up. 
 
 I pass on to the testimony of Bradford, and his controversy 
 with some of his fellow-prisoners, in the time of Queen Mary, 
 on this subject. In the year 1554, when all Protestants of any 
 note, whatever their peculiar sentiments might be, were in 
 prison, Strype tells us, 
 
 u One thing there now fell out, which caused some disturbance among 
 the prisoners. Many of them that were under restraint for the profession 
 of the Gospel were such as held free will, tending to the derogation of 
 God's grace, and refused the doctrine of absolute predestination and original 
 
 sin Bradford had much discourse with them Bradford 
 
 was apprehensive that they might now do great harm in the Church, and 
 therefore out of prison wrote a letter to Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, the 
 three chief heads of the Reformed (though oppressed) Church in England, 
 to take some cognizance of this matter, and to consult with them in reme- 
 dying it. And with him joined Bishop Ferrar, Rowland Taylor, and 
 
 [Archdeacon] John Philpot Upon this occasion Ridley wrote a 
 
 treatise of God's election and predestination. And Bradford wrote another 
 upon the same subject, and sent it to those three fathers in Oxford for their 
 approbation, and, theirs being obtained, the rest of the eminent divines in 
 and about London were ready to sign it also."f 
 
 Now Ridley's Treatise is unfortunately lost. But Bradford's 
 we have. And what is its testimony? 
 
 " This is a sum ; that, where a Christian man's life hath respect to God. 
 to man, and to himself, to live godly, justly, and soberly, all is grounded 
 in predestination in Christ. For who liveth godly but he that believeth? 
 And who believeth, but such as are ordained to eternal life? Who liveth 
 justly, but such as love their neighbours ? And whence springeth this love, 
 but of God's election before the beginning of the world, that we might be 
 blameless by love ? Who liveth soberly but such as be holy ? and who 
 are those, but only they that be endued with the spirit of sanctification, 
 which is the seal of our election which (by election) do believe?" "This 
 
 * Respons. contra Osor. 1677, lib. 2. An English translation of it was 
 published; from which large extracts are given in Richmond's English Fathers, 
 vol. 8. 
 
 f Strype's Cranmer, p. 850, (602, Ox ed.)
 
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 91 
 
 word of God, which is written in the canonical books of the Bible, doth 
 plainly set forth unto us, that God hath, of his own mercy and good will, 
 and to the praise of his grace and glory in Christ, elected some, and not all, 
 whom he hath predestinated unto everlasting life in the same Christ, and 
 in his time calleth them, justifieth them, and glorifieth them, so that they 
 shall never perish and err to damnation finally." '' That the cause of 
 God's election, is of his good will, the Apostle sheweth," &c. "That 
 election is so certain, that the elect and predestinate to eternal life shall 
 never perish or err to damnation finally, the Apostle doth here also very 
 plainly shew," &c.* 
 
 This Treatise was sent, with the Letter above-mentioned, 
 signed by Bishop Ferrar, Rowland Taylor, and Archdeacon 
 Phi/pot, to Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, for their approval. 
 We have, unfortunately, no evidence to show what their judg- 
 ment on this Treatise was. But is it to be credited, that if its 
 general doctrine was not agreeable to their views on the subject, 
 which must have been well known, one who was so well 
 acquainted with their sentiments as Bradford would have sent 
 the Treatise to them for their approval ; to say nothing of the 
 consent of Ferrar, Taylor, and Philpot ? A reply to Bradford's 
 Letter, however, from Bishop Ridley, is extant, and therefore I 
 will here insert the more important parts of Bradford's Letter 
 and Ridley's reply. 
 
 " Herewithal I send unto you a little treatise, which I have made, that 
 you might peruse the same ; and not only you, but also ye, my other most 
 dear and reverend Fathers in the Lord for ever, to give your approbation, 
 as ye may think good. All the prisoners hereabout in manner have seen 
 it and read it ; and as therein they agree with me, nay rather with the 
 truth, so they are ready and will be to signify it, as they shall see you give 
 them example. The matter may be thought not so necessary as I seem to 
 make it. But yet if ye knew the great evil that is like hereafter to come to 
 the posterity by these men, as partly this bringer [Augustin Berneher] can 
 signify unto you, surely then could ye not but be most willing to put hereto 
 your helping hands. The which thing that I might the more occasion you 
 to perceive, I have sent you here a writing of Harry Hart's own hand. 
 .... In free will they are plain Papists, yea, Pelagians. And ye know 
 that modicum fermenti totam massam corrumpit. They utterly contemn 
 all learning. But hereof shall this bringer shew you more. As to the 
 
 Letters of the Martyrs, ed. 1837, pp. 302 305. This treatise, with a 
 second part, containing much additional matter, was published by Archbishop 
 Laurence in his " Authentic Documents of the Predestinarian Controversy." 
 Ox 1819. 8vo. a publication which I shall notice presently.
 
 92 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 chief captains, therefore, of Christ's Church here, I complain of it unto 
 you ; as truly I must do of you unto God in the last day, if ye will not, as 
 ye can, help something, ut veritas doctrinse maneat apud posteros, in this 
 behalf; as ye have done in behalf of matters expunged by the Papists."* 
 
 To this letter of Bradford, expressly accusing the doctrine 
 opposed to that of his treatise, of Pelagianism, Ridley replies 
 in one in which he evidently sympathizes with him fully in the 
 controversies he had had to sustain with his fellow-prisoners, 
 drawing no distinction on this point of predestination, which, 
 had he disagreed with Bradford on the point, he would have 
 been bound to do ; and in the beginning of this letter refers 
 particularly (among others) to those " infected with the errors 
 of the Pelagians," which, unless he had agreed with Bradford 
 in the justice of the accusation, he would not have done. His 
 words are these. 
 
 "Whereas you write of the outrageous rule that Satan, our ghostly 
 enemy, beareth abroad in the world, whereby he stirreth and raiseth so 
 pestilent and heinous heresies, as some to deny the blessed Trinity, some 
 the divinity of our Saviour Christ, some the divinity of the Holy Ghost, 
 some the baptism of infants, some original sin, and to be infected with the 
 errors of the Pelagians, and to re-baptize those that have been baptized 
 with Christ's baptism already ; alas ! Sir, this doth declare this time and 
 these days to be wicked indeed !" "As for other the devil's gait- 
 ropes that he casteth in our ways by some of his busy-headed younkers, I 
 trust they shall never be able to do the multitude so great harm. For 
 blessed be God, these heresies before time, when Satan by his servants hath 
 been about to broach them, have by God's servants already been so sharply 
 and truly confounded, that the multitude was never infected with them, or 
 else where they have been infected, they are healed again, that now the 
 peril is not so great. And where you say, that if your request had been 
 heard, things (you think) had been in better case than they be ; know you 
 that concerning the matter you mean, I have in Latin drawn out the places 
 of the Scriptures, and upon the same have noted what I can for the time. 
 Sir, in those matters I am so fearful, that I dare not speak farther, yea. al- 
 most none otherwise than the very text doth, as it were, lead me by the 
 hand. And where you exhort us to help, &c. Lord, what is else in 
 this world that we now should list to do ? I bless my Lord God, I never 
 (as methinketh) had more, nor better leisure to be occupied with my pen in 
 such things as I can do, to set forth (when they may come to light) God's 
 glory.t 
 
 Letters of the Martyrs, ed. 1837, p. 274, 276. 
 f Letters of the Martyrs, ed. 1837, pp. 46, 47.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 93 
 
 Bishop of Coverdale, who first published this letter in this 
 "Letters of the Martyrs," observes, in the margin, on the 
 latter part of this extract, "He meaneth here the matter of 
 God's election, whereof he afterward wrote a godly and com- 
 fortabJe treatise remaining yet in the hands of some, and 
 hereafter shall come to light, if God so willed ;" an observa- 
 tion which of itself leads to the conclusion that Ridley took in 
 the main the same ground as Bradford on this subject, for there 
 can be little doubt that Miles Coverdale would not otherwise 
 have called it " a godly and comfortable treatise." In fact, 
 however much the letter may show Ridley's caution in his 
 statements on the subject, one thing is clear, that he sympa- 
 thized with Bradford in at least his general views, and was not 
 inclined to find fault with his treatise, but that he preferred 
 drawing up a statement of his own upon the matter. 
 
 Indeed, when we consider in what light Ridley regarded 
 and acted towards Bradford and those that agreed with him in 
 doctrine, and at the same time the strong feeling that existed 
 on both sides on the subjects in controversy, we can have no 
 reasonable doubt as to Ridley's views. On Nov. 18, 1552, he 
 thus writes to Sir W. Cecil, Secretary to Edw. VI., and Sir J. 
 Gate, his Vice-Chamberlain. " Ye know both how I did bestow 
 of late three or four prebends, which did fall in my time, and 
 what manner of men they be unto whom I gave them, Grindall, 
 Bradford, and Rogers, men known to be so necessary to be 
 abroad in the commonwealth, that I can keep none of them 
 with me in the house." And then noticing the report that 
 Grindall was about to be made a Bishop, he asks to be allowed 
 to fill up his place in these terms, 
 
 '' If ye would know, unto whom I would this dignity of our Church, 
 called the Chantership, should be given, surely unto any one of these, 
 either unto Mr. Bradford, whom in my conscience I judge more worthy to be a 
 Bishop than many [a one] of us that be Bishops already to be a parish priest; 
 or unto Mr. Sampson, a preacher; or unto Mr. Harvey, a divine and 
 preacher; or unto Mr. Grimbold. a preacher; or unto Dr. Lancelot Ridley, 
 a preacher." (Works, pp. 336, 337.) 
 
 The views of all the parties here mentioned, are well known 
 as having been agreeable to Bradford's, except two, Harvey and 
 Grimbold, who, if I recollect rightly, have not left any thing
 
 94 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 from which their views can be ascertained. Is it possible, 
 however, to suppose, that if Ridley's doctrinal views differed 
 from Bradford's in such important points as those we are now 
 considering, Ridley would have borne such a testimony to him 
 as he here does ? 
 
 So again, writing to him when both were in prison, he 
 says, 
 
 " Blessed be God that hath given you liberty in the mean season, that 
 you may use your pen to his glory, and to the comfort (as I hear say) of 
 many." (Ib. p. 364.) 
 
 " If it be not the place that sanctifieth the man, but the holy man doth 
 by Christ, sanctify the place, brother Bradford, then happy and holy shall 
 be that place wherein thou shalt suffer, and shall be with thy ashes in 
 Christ's cause sprinkled over withal. All thy country may rejoice of thee, 
 that ever it brought forth such a one. . . . O good brother, blessed be God 
 in thee, and blessed be the time that ever I knew thee." (Ib. p. 378.) 
 
 And writing of Bradford to Augustine Berneher, he 
 says, 
 
 " I do not doubt but that he for those gifts of grace which the Lord 
 hath bestowed on him plenteously, hath holpen those who are gone before 
 in their journey, that is. hath animated them and encouraged them to keep 
 the highway, et sic currere uti tandem acciperent premium. The Lord be 
 his comfort, whereof I do not doubt, and thank God heartily that ever I was 
 acquainted with him, and that ever I had such a one in my house." (Ib. 
 p. 380.) 
 
 These subsidiary testimonies as to Ridley's views are surely 
 sufficient to show to which school of doctrine he belonged. 
 And who are the parties to whom Bradford, Bishop Ferrar, Dr. 
 Rowland Taylor, and Archdeacon Philpot were opposed in this 
 matter ? Their very names show the insignificance of the 
 party at that time. " Their chief man" says Strype, " was 
 Harry Hart; who had written something in defence of his 
 doctrine. Trewe and Abingdon were teachers also among 
 them ; Kemp, Gibson, and Chamberlain were others." (Cran- 
 mer, 350.) And to Trewe's " Narrative of the Contention," 
 pointing out the " enormities" of Bradford's doctrine, (answered 
 by Bradford in the treatise above referred to,) the following are 
 the names subscribed. " John Trewe, Thomas Avington, 
 Richard Harman, John Jacksonne, Henry Wickham, Cornelius 
 Stevenson, John Guelle, Thomas Arede, John Saxbye, Robert
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 95 
 
 Hitcherst, Matthew Hitcherst, Margery Russell."* Will any 
 one afford us further information as to these parties ? 
 
 The last testimony which I shall produce, is that of Arch- 
 
 * Authentic Documents relative to the Predestinarian Controversy, with In- 
 troduction by R. Laurence, (afterwards Archbishop of CasbeL) Oxf. 1819. 8vo. 
 pp. 69, 70. I have noticed this case somewhat fully, on account of the attempt 
 wade in the above work to represent Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, as unwilling 
 to sanction Bradford's views in the above-mentioned Treatise, and to raise the 
 opposing party, headed by Hart and Trewe, into some importance. It would 
 occupy too much space here to rep'y to the arguments adduced, which, however, 
 to my mind, are weak and far-fetched in the extreme. I must leave them to be 
 met by the positive testimonies given above. I will only observe, that it is easy 
 to conceive, that there may have been several reasons to prevent Cranmer, Lati- 
 mer, and Ridley formally setting .their hands, under therr circumstances, to Brad- 
 ford's Treatise, besides disapproval of its contents ; and that Ridley, neither in 
 the Letter quoted above, nor in that which the Archbishop has cited in addition, 
 hints at disapproval, which he would of course have done, had he felt it. 
 
 There is a passage, however, in this work which it may be well more par- 
 ticularly to notice. Dr. Laurence says, " The doctrine which seems to have been 
 a principal point of controversy between the Predestinarian and Anti-Predestina- 
 rian party, and to have proved most offensive to the latter, was that which is 
 usually called the indefectibility of grace" (p. xl.) Now, if instead of the phrase 
 " the indefectibility of grace," which, (though it has certainly often been used by 
 divines,) is ambiguous, and likely to mislead, inasmuch as it is very generally 
 granted that every kind of grace is not indefectible, we insert the phrase the in- 
 defectibility of true Christian faith and justification, Cranmer was clearly, from 
 the passages given above, a supporter of the doctrine. The Archbishop proceeds 
 to contrast some words of Careless and Ridley, spoken shortly before their mar- 
 tyrdom, to illustrate the views of the two parties. The words of Careless are, 
 " I am most sure and certain of my salvation by Jesus, so that my soul is safe 
 already, whatsoever pains my body may suffer." Now certainly this (whatever 
 we may think of it) is only following out the teaching of Cranmer in the passages 
 given above. But the extract which the Archbishop has selected out of all the 
 numerous letters of Ridley, written in prison, is a singular specimen of the way 
 in which a case may be made out. He says, " Contrast with this the modest 
 
 but manly expressions of Ridley, when contemplating the same event 'I 
 
 know that the Lord's words must be verified in me, that I shall appear before the 
 incorrupt Judge, and be countable to him of all my former life. And although 
 the hope of his mercy is mv sheet-anchor of eternal salvation, yet am I persuaded, 
 that whosoever wittingly neglecteth, and regardeth not to clear his conscience, he 
 cannot have peace with God, nor a lively faith in his mercy.' Can we for a mo- 
 ment conceive, that men who expressed themselves so differently upon the same 
 occasion, could have coincided in the same common sentiments ?" But the con- 
 trast is a most unfair one, because it is not a contrast of similar passages ; and 
 there is no inconsistency in the two. The question is, whether these cautious 
 expressions of Ridley, u&f.d in a Letter to a Romanist, (Works, p. 339,) with only 
 an indirect reference to his feelings in the prospect of martyrdom, really repre- 
 sented the extent of his faith. And it needs only a reference to other passages in
 
 96 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 deacon Philpot. His agreement with Bradford has already 
 appeared by the letter which they unitedly addressed to 
 Ridley, enclosing a copy of Bradford's treatise on predestina- 
 tion for his approval. His Remains are almost exclusively 
 
 his Letters at this period to see that this was not the case. Let us mark how he 
 expressed himself in his " Farewell." " All ye." he says, " that be my true lovers 
 and friends rejoice, and rejoice with me again, .... that for his Son's sake .... 
 he hath vouchsafed to call me .... unto this high dignity of bis true prophets, 
 of his faithful apostles, and of his holy, elect, and chosen martyrs." (Works, p. 
 398.) " Ye that be my kinsfolk and countrymen, know yc .... that ye have 
 and shall have, by God's grace, ever cause to rejoice and to thank God highly, 
 and to think good of it, and in God to rejoice with me, your flesh and blood, 
 whom God of his gracious goodness hath vouchsafed to associate unto the blessed 
 company of his holy martyrs in heaven." (Ib ) This surely is quite as strong, to 
 say the least, as the language of Careless. 
 
 But certainly the Archbishop could never have read the passages I have 
 given above from Cranmer, when he penned the following sentence. " But, in- 
 deed," he proceeds, "those [i. e. the sentiments] of Ridley as well as of Cranmer, 
 upon this much controverted topic, are sufficiently, I apprehend, developed in 
 the following words of our Funeral Service ; ' Suffer us not at our last hour for 
 any pains of death to fall from Thee :' words, which so plainly indicate the pos- 
 sibility of falling from grace even in the very hour of death, that the ingenuity 
 neither of ancient nor of modern Calvinists has ever been able to explain them 
 away.* That is, we are to suppose, that Cranmer and Ridley held that the true 
 children of God, the living members of Christ, may apostatize and cease to be 
 so through the pains endured in the hour of death. Such a thought, I believe, 
 our Reformers would have repelled with horror, nor do I think that the words 
 refer to actual apostacy, but to a loss of active trust in God's mercy and pro- 
 mises. And the Archbishop has himself supplied the best answer to his own 
 statement. For (meeting a supposed reply to his arguments,) he says, " The 
 passage in which they [the words in question] are found was taken from a Ger- 
 man Hymn of Luther, composed as a kind of poetical paraphrase upon another 
 very ancient one, in the Offices of the Romish Church. The words of Luther in 
 the latter part of this Hymn are .... [he gives the German, and himself 
 translates thus,] ' holy Lord God, holy mighty God, holy merciful Saviour, 
 thou God eternal, suffer us not to fall from the consolation of true faith! To 
 ascertain, therefore, the precise meaning of the terms in our own Liturgy, nothing 
 more seems requisite than to compare them with the original."f Precisely so ; 
 and we find that the fall meant is not final apostasy, but a fall from such a faith 
 as brings consolation and peace with it."}: 
 
 We must also recollect that the parties alluded to by the Archbishop hold it 
 to be the Christian's duty to seek of God in prayer the aid and blessings he needs, 
 
 Authentic Documents ; Introd. p. xii. Also Bampton Lect. 3rd ed. p. 881. 
 f Bampton Lect. p. 881. 
 
 | Compare the translation of Heb. xii. 6 and 12, as given by Ridley. (Works, 
 p. 424.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 97 
 
 occupied with other subjects, but there are a few passages 
 which clearly show his mind on the points in question, and 
 one of them (considering his position and learning) proves 
 much more than his own view, and will be, I think, considered 
 by impartial readers as decisive of the question we are here 
 discussing. 
 
 The first I shall quote is from one of his letters, touching 
 upon the subject rather incidentally than directly, and in the 
 form of a caution to those who abused the doctrine. 
 
 " Some other, 7 ' he says, " there be, that for an extreme refuge in their 
 evil doings, do run to God's predestination and election, saying, that if I 
 be elected of God to salvation, I shall be saved, whatsoever I do. But such 
 be great tempters of God, and abominable blasphemers of God's holy elec- 
 tion ; and cast themselves down from the pinnacle of the temple in pre- 
 sumption, that God may preserve them by his angels through predestina- 
 tion. Such verily may reckon themselves to be none of God's elect child- 
 ren, that will do evil that good may ensue, whose damnation is just, as St. 
 Paul saith. God J s predestination and election ought to be with a simple eye 
 considered, to make us more warily to walk in good and godly conversation 
 according .to God's word, and not to set cock in the hoop, and put all on 
 God's back, to do wickedly at large : for the elect children of God must 
 walk in righteousness and holiness, after that they be once called to true 
 knowledge ; for so saith St. Paul to the Ephesians, that God ' hath chosen 
 us before the foundations of the world were laid, that we should be holy 
 and blameless in his sight.' Therefore St. Peter willeth us through good 
 works to make our vocation and election certain to ourselves, which we know 
 not but by the good working of God's spirit in us according to the rule of 
 the Gospel; and he that transformeth not himself to the same in godly 
 conversation, may justly tremble and doubt that he is none of the elect 
 children of God, but of the viperous generation, and a child of darkness. 
 For the children of light will walk in the works of light, and not of 
 darkness: though they fall they do not lie still."* 
 
 however much he may feel assured that they are his by promise. The use of 
 such prayers, therefore, is no proof that the party using them does not hold the 
 doctrine objected to. 
 
 But, to give the last merciful stroke to this sorry argument, the fact is, that 
 the very same expressions were inserted by the Puritans in their Liturgy. In the 
 final prayer of the Baptismal Service, we read, " We beseech thee, that thou 
 wilt confirm this thy favour more and more towards us, and take this infant into 
 thy tuition and defence, .... and never suffer him to fall away from thce : 
 but that he may know thee continually to be his merciful Father, through thine 
 Holy Spirit working in his heart ; by whose divine power he may so prevail 
 against Satan that, in the end, obtaining the victory, he may be exalted into the 
 liberty of thy kingdom." (Hall's Reliq. Liturg. Vol. 1. p. 50.) 
 
 f Philpot's Works, P. S. ed. pp. 223 224. 
 7
 
 98 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 The next passage, however, is more directly to the point* 
 In his fifth examination before Q,ueen Mary's Commissioners,. 
 in 1555, occurs the following colloquy, 
 
 " Philpot .... By this I know we are of the truth ; for that neither by 
 reasoning, neither by writing, your synagogue of Rome is able to answer. 
 Where is there one of you all, that ever hath been able to answer any of the 
 godly learned ministers of Germany, who have disclosed your counterfeit 
 religion ? Which of you all at this day is able to answer Calvin's Institu- 
 tions who is minister of Geneva ? 
 
 " Dr. SAVERSON. A godly minister indeed of receipt of cutpurses and 
 runagate traitors ! And of late, I can tell you, there is such contention 
 fallen between him and his own sects, that he was fain to flee the town, 
 about predestination. I tell you truth, for I came by Geneva hither. 
 
 " Philpot. I am sure you blaspheme that godly man, and that godly 
 church, where he is minister as it is your church's condition, [custom,] 
 when you cannot answer men by learning, to oppress them with blasphe- 
 mies and false reports. For, in the matter of predestination, he is in none 
 other opinion than all the doctors of the Church be agreeing to the Scrip- 
 tures." * 
 
 This is decisive as to his own views at least. 
 
 But the passage which I shall now give is still more to the 
 point, as it contains an express testimony as to the views of our 
 Church in this matter in King Edward's days. In his last 
 Examination we find the following ; 
 
 " Philpot. . . . Christ did prophesy that in the latter days there 
 should come false prophets and hypocrites, as you be. Coventry. Your 
 church of Geneva, which ye call the Catholic Church, is that which 
 Christ prophesied of. Philpot. I allow the Church of Geneva, and the 
 doctrine of the same ; for it is una, Catholica, et apostolica, and doth fol- 
 low the doctrine that the apostles did preach ; AND THE DOCTRINE TAUGHT 
 
 AND PREACHED IN KlNG EDWARD'S DAYS WAS ALSO ACCORDING TO THE 
 SAME." f 
 
 If this is not conclusive upon the question at issue, it is 
 difficult to conceive what would be. 
 
 The bearing of these testimonies upon the question of the 
 general tone of doctrine prevailing in our Church in the time 
 of Edward VI., and consequently on that of the interpretation 
 of our Formularies most suited to the views of our Reformers^ 
 I leave to the judgment of the reader. He will bear in mind 
 
 Ib. pp. 45, 46. f Ib. p. J58.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 99 
 
 that I have no desire to maintain any rigidly exclusive view of 
 the doctrine maintained in our Formularies, but that my ob- 
 ject is to show what was the general tone or character of the 
 doctrine they were intended to favor, I believe that they 
 were drawn up so as to admit of some latitude of interpreta- 
 tion in the points controverted among the Reformers, and so 
 as neither to exclude Melancthon nor Calvin ; and conse- 
 quently that different views were allowed to be inculcated in 
 our Church upon such points ; but at the same time I cannot 
 understand, how any impartial reader can doubt, that their 
 bias and intended tendency are towards what is now ordinarily 
 understood by the phrase "moderate Calvinism." 
 
 Before I pass on, however, I would just add a caution as to 
 the way in which this subject is often dealt with by writers 
 on the other side. To refute their statements at length, would 
 occupy a space which I have not here to give them. But the 
 key to the solution of the difficulties and objections they bring 
 against our view of the subject, will be found, I think, in the 
 following remarks. The general view of doctrine which pre- 
 vailed among our early divines is encumbered, in the writings 
 of some of the Reformers, and of those that succeeded them at 
 the latter part of the sixteenth century, with notions and 
 phrases of a dangerous and unscriptural character ; as, for in- 
 stance, that Christ died only for the elect, that the predestina- 
 tion of God, and not sin, is the cause, of men's condemnation, 
 &c. Against these notions, it is of course not difficult to find 
 passages in the writings of our Reformers. The way, there- 
 fore, in which this argument has been conducted has been 
 this : to connect these notions with the views ordinarily 
 known by the term " the doctrines of free grace," as indis- 
 solubly joined in one system with them ; and then, by the aid 
 of passages opposed to such statements, to parade the appear- 
 ance of a host of witnesses against the whole system. 
 
 And further, inferences drawn from the doctrine objected 
 to, which would be disallowed by those who hold it, are brought 
 forward to prove its opposition to statements of ,our Formu- 
 laries or divines. 
 
 But such a mode of treating the subject is merely throw- 
 ing dust into the eyes of the reader. It tends to anything 
 rather than the establishment of truth.
 
 100 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS, 
 
 Thus much, then, as to the doctrine of our Church in the 
 time of Edward VI. 
 
 'I now come to the period of the re-establishment of the- 
 Reformation on the accession of Q,ueen Elizabeth. This is a 
 period which, in one view, is of more importance in connexion 
 with our present inquiry than that of Edward YL, inasmuch 
 as the Formularies of our Church were then revised and 
 settled, and have remained ever since nearly in the state in 
 which they were then placed. It is scarcely necessary, then r 
 in showing the general view of doctrine they were intended to 
 favor, to go higher than the divines of the Elizabethan period. 
 
 But to detail all the evidences that might be adduced on 
 the subject with reference to this period, can scarcely be ne- 
 cessary, when it is so notorious what was the general tone of 
 the doctrine maintained by the great body of the ecclesiastical 
 rulers of our Church at that time. In fact, those who take an 
 opposite view of the matter to that here advocated, are pecu- 
 liarly shy of this period, and, if they touch it at all, attempt to 
 explain away the difficulties they find, by supposing that 
 communion with the foreign Protestant Churches had caused 
 the exiles, during the reign of Mary, to take a more favorable 
 view of the doctrines of Calvin. 
 
 "In prosecuting this inquiry," [i.e., as to the meaning of the 17th 
 Article,! says one of them, " it is intended to confine it to the sense of our 
 Reformers in the reign of Edward VI. To proceed further, into that of 
 Elizabeth, would only be to discover, that many of our divines, during their 
 exile under Queen Mary, were strongly tinctured with Calvin's doctrines." 
 (Winchester on Art. 17. pp. 1, 2.) 
 
 And so Peter Heylin, hard driven to account for much that 
 took place at this time, says : 
 
 " Many of our divines, who had fled beyond the sea to avoid the hurry 
 of her [Q. Mary's] reign, though otherwise men of good abilities in most 
 parts of learning, returned so altered in their principles, as to points of 
 doctrine, so disaffected to the government forms of worship here by law 
 established, that they seemed not to be the same men at their coming 
 home, as they had been at their going hence : yet such was the necessity 
 which the Church was under, of filling up the. vacant places and prefer- 
 ments, which had been made void either by the voluntary discession or 
 positive deprivation of the Popish clergy, that they were fain to take in 
 all of any condition, which were able to do the public service, without re- 
 lation to their private opinions in doctrine or discipline, nothing so much
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 101 
 
 regarded in the choice of men for Bishoprics, Deaneries. Dignities in Cathe- 
 dral churches , the richest benefices in the country, and places of most command 
 and trust in the Universities, as their known zeal against the Papists," &c.* 
 
 This, no doubt, is a very ingenious mode of accounting for 
 the " Calvinism," as it is called, of that period ; but, not to 
 mention other cases, one, already noticed, and that the case of 
 the highest among them, is sufficient to show how little ground 
 there is for the remark. I mean the case of Archbishop Parker, 
 who, in his funeral Sermon for Bucer, especially praises the 
 soundness of his doctrine. 
 
 But all this is, in fact, nothing to the point. The question 
 is, what their views were ; not, how they imbibed them. And 
 if their views were what are called " Calvinistic,".( which is 
 clearly admitted in the above passages,) are we to suppose that 
 the Formularies they voluntarily established are opposed to 
 those views? Is it credible, is it within the bounds of reason 
 to suppose, that those who had the re-modelling of our For- 
 mularies on the accession of Queen Elizabeth, should establish 
 such as they themselves could not honestly subscribe, or even, 
 such as did not favor their views ! The question so com- 
 pletely answers itself, that it would be absurd to propose it, 
 but for the fact, that men, prepossessed by the prejudices of 
 habit and education, and judging from the circumstance that 
 almost the whole of the wealth and power of the National 
 Church have long been in the hands of divines of contrary 
 views, (a change, the origin and progress of which are as dis- 
 tinctly traceable as any event in history,) venture to assert 
 that our Formularies are opposed to such doctrines.! 
 
 * Quinquart. Hist, in Tracts, p. 609 
 
 f I am not, of course, attributing here any deliberate dishonesty to those 
 who maintain a contrary view to that here advocated. There are grounds readily 
 to be found sufficient to account for the difference. The circumstances in which 
 our Reformers found themselves placed, when they had to draw up Formularies 
 for a nation, a large proportion of whom were opposed to their doctrine, and yet 
 were bound by law to worship according to the prescribed National Ritual, neces- 
 sarily produced an effect upon their labors. They retained all which it was 
 possible to retain of the old Ritual, where the words could be interpreted in what 
 they considered an orthodox sense, though bearing with the Romanists another 
 sense. We have a clear illustration of this in the Consecration and Ordination 
 Services, where (as I have shown in my " Vindication of the Defence of the 
 XXXIX. Articles'") we have the same language continued as that which had
 
 102 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 I shall select, therefore, a few of the leading testimonies 
 supplied by the Elizabethan period and the earlier part of the 
 reign of James I., in illustration of the subject of this Chapter. 
 
 The first testimony to which I shall refer is that of Nowell's 
 Catechism, as being a book known to have had the highest 
 sanction of the ecclesiastical authorities of our Church in the 
 time of Queen Elizabeth, including that of the Convocation. 
 I have already, in a former work,* noticed the fact that a large 
 portion of this Catechism is taken almost verbatim from that 
 of Calvin, and I shall therefore place by the side of some of the 
 following extracts the passages in Calvin from which they are 
 taken. 
 
 NOWELLI CATECH. CALVINI CATECH. 
 
 A. ... Qui autem sunt in hac 
 fide firmi, stabiles, atque constantes, 
 hi electi atque designati et (ut nos 
 loquimur) prsedestinati erant AD 
 hanc tantam felicitatem ante posita 
 
 long been used by the Romanists, but continued (as one of our earliest and ablest 
 primates, Archbishop Whitgift, tells us) in a very different sense from that which 
 they attributed to it. And this shows the fallaciousness of the rule laid down by 
 Mr. Maskell in his recent " Sermon on the Means of Grace," namely, that all such 
 passages are to be interpreted according to the sense they bore previous to the 
 Reformation, unless there be some definite statement prohibiting this sense in our 
 Formularies. "Whereas h is surely obvious, that such passages ought to be inter- 
 preted in a sense agreeable to the general system of doctrine maintained by our 
 Reformers. These passages, then, are naturally enough singled out as the strong- 
 hold of the Romanizing party among us ; their Romish interpretation maintained 
 as the only admissible one ; and views attributed to our Reformers utterly ab- 
 horrent from their system of doctrine. And to the popular mind, and to those 
 prejudiced in favor of such views, there is of course a plausibility in such state- 
 ments. 
 
 Further, as to the doctrines more immediately in question in this Chapter, 
 there are many expressions in our Formularies which bear different senses, just 
 according to the theological system of the party who interprets them. This is 
 the unavoidable result of the imperfection of human language. The " High 
 Church" school of divines, therefore, naturally enough attaching to them their 
 own sense, make them the test of the doctrinal system of the Reformers, and 
 reduce other passages to the standard of these, so interpreted. But this is surely 
 inverting the right order of proceeding in such a case. It is only by first ascer- 
 taining the general system of doctrine maintained by our Reformers, that we are 
 in a condition to pass a correct judgment upon the meaning of many portions of 
 the Formularies they have left us. 
 
 Vindication of the " Defence of the XXXIX Articles," p. 17.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 103 
 
 nrandi fundamenta: cujus rei tes- 
 tem ipsi intus in animis habent 
 Spiritum Christi, fiduciae hujus 
 authorem pariter et pignus certissi- 
 mum. Cujus Divini Spiritus in- 
 stinctu, mihi etiam ceftissime per- 
 suadeo meipsum quoque beata hac 
 civitate. Dei per Christum beneficio, 
 gratuito donatum esse, (Ed. Oxon. 
 1795. 8vo. p. 96.) 
 
 A. Ecclesia est corpus Reipub, 
 Christianas, id est, universitas socie- 
 tasque fidelium omnium, quos Deus 
 per Christum ad vitam perpetuam ab 
 seterno tempore destinavit. (p. 97.) 
 
 M. Ecclesiam hanc cur sanctam 
 appellas ? 
 
 A. Ut hac notione ab impionun 
 nefario ccetu discernatur. Quos- 
 cunque enim Deus elegit, in vitas, 
 ees sanctitatem atque innocentiam 
 restituit. (pp. 97, 98.) 
 
 M. Potestne Ecclesia aliter cog- 
 nesci, quam quumfide creditur ? 
 
 A. Hie quidem in symbolo pro- 
 prie agitur de eorum congregations, 
 quos Deos arcana elections per 
 Christum sibi adoptavit; qua Ec- 
 clesia nee oculis cerni, neque ex 
 signis cognosci perpetuo potest. Est 
 tamen et visibilis seu spectabilis 
 Dei Ecclesia, cujus nobis indicia 
 notasque ostendit atque patefacit.* 
 (pp. 101, 102.) 
 
 M. An non omnes ergo in hac 
 visibili ecclesia sunt ex electorum 
 ad vitam seternam numero ? 
 
 A. Multi per hypocrisin, et 
 simulationem pietatis, in hanc se 
 societatem adjungunt, qui nihil 
 
 P. [Ecclesia est] corpus ac socie- 
 tas fidelium quos Deus ad vitam 
 ceternam pradestinavit. 
 
 M. Porro Ecclesiam quo sensu 
 nominas sanctam ? 
 
 P. Quia scilicet quoseunque elegit 
 Deus, eos justificat, reformatque in 
 sanctitatem -ac vita innocentiam, &c. 
 
 M. Potestne autem hac Ecclesia 
 aliter cognosci quam quumfide cre- 
 ditur ? 
 
 P. Est quidem et visibilis Dei 
 Ecclesia, quam nobis certis indiciis 
 notisque descripsit : sed hie proprie 
 de eorum congregatione agitur, quos 
 arcana sua electione adoptavit in 
 salutem. Ea autem nee cernitur 
 perpetuo oculis, nee signis dignos- 
 citur. 
 
 * The note of Bishop Cleaver, the editor of the edition from which I quote, 
 upon this passage is, "Frustra profecto intelligebat No\vellus Symbolum hlc 
 proprie agere de Ecclesia invisibili," Ac. But his Lordship forgot, perhaps, that 
 the " frustra" applies not merely to Nowell personally, but the English Church of 
 his day.
 
 104 
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS, 
 
 minus quam vera ecclesice membra 
 sunt. Verum, quia ubicunque 
 verbum Dei sincere docetur, et 
 Sacramenta rite administrantur, ibi 
 perpetuo sunt aliqui ad salutem 
 per Christum designati, totum illura 
 coetum ecclesiain esse Dei cense- 
 mus: quum et Christus sese vel 
 duobus aut tribus, qui suo nomine 
 congregati fuerint, adfuturum polli- 
 ceatur.* (pp. 10?, 104.) 
 
 M. Qua) tandem [i. e. via qua 
 nos Deus in gratiam recipit] quaeso? 
 
 A. Ad Dei misericordiam confu- 
 giendum est, qua gratis nos in 
 Christo, nullo nostro merito, nee op- 
 erum respectu, amore et benevolea- 
 tia complectitur : turn peccata nobis 
 nostra condonans, turn justitia 
 Christi per fidera in ipsum ita nos 
 donans, ut ob earn, perinde ac si 
 nostra esset, ipsi accept! simus. 
 Divinse ergo per Christum clemen- 
 tise justitiam nostram omnem accep- 
 tam ferre debemus.* 
 
 P . . . . Itaque mera sua mise- 
 ricordia, nulloque operum respectu 
 nos gratis amplectitur in Christo, 
 acceptosque habet, illius justitiam 
 nobis acceptam ferendo, ac si nostra 
 esset, peccata vero nostra nobis non 
 imputando. 
 
 * The reader will observe the pointed contradiction here given to Archbishop 
 Laurence's monstrous statement that all in the visible Church are to be considered 
 as the elect. 
 
 f On the words, " justitia Christi . . . nos donans," Bishop Cleaver coolly re- 
 marks, "Accuratius Theologi recentiores statuerunt doctrinam Justitiae Christi 
 nobis imputatsE nullo Scripturarum fundamento inniti. Et profecto nos per 
 Christum justificamur, vel justi sumus coram Deoj eo quod Deus propter Christum 
 nobis peccata nostra non imputat. Sua justitia ergo non tam donat nos Christus, 
 quam nostra nos injustitia, si ita dicam, in foro exuit. Vide Bulli Opera, cum 
 annotatis Orabii." So that Nowell's Catechism, sanctioned by Convocation, is to 
 be corrected by Bishop Bull's theology ! But it is of some use to obtain so ex- 
 plicit a confession of their discrepancy. Bishop Cleaver adds at the end of his 
 Annotations (when noticing a remark on Ecclesiastical discipline) the following 
 curious note, "Jam tandem video unde sensua hujus loci est petendus, scilicet ex 
 Catechismo ad normam Disciplinsc Oenevensis conscripto, et ab Henrico Stephano, 
 anno 1563, Greece et Latino excuso: cut profecto non tantum formam ct rerum 
 distributionem debebat Nowcllus, quin et non raro matcriam ipsam doctrinamque : 
 et, quod lectorcm ignorarc minime velim, partem longc max Imam tam sententiarum 
 quam verborum, qua aut explicatione aut annotatione indigere vidcbantur." (p. 175.) 
 The announcement of the discovery in the "Jam tandem video," and the stopping 
 short at Henry Stephens, without any idea of the Catechism being Calvin's, ar
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 105 
 
 M. Qualiter ergo dicis justificari 
 nos fide? 
 
 P. Quoniam duin certa cordis 
 fiducia amplectimur Evangelii pro- 
 missiones, hujus, quam dico, justitiaa 
 possessionem quodammodo adipis- 
 cimur. 
 
 M. Unde ista ita esse intolli- 
 gimus? 
 
 A. Ex Evangelic, quod Dei per 
 Christum promissiones continet, 
 quibus dum fidem, id est, certam 
 animi persuasionem, et stabilem be- 
 nevolentisB divinae fiduciam, qualis 
 jam per totum Symbolum est de- 
 scripta, adjungimus, in hujus, quam 
 dico, justitiae possessionem, pedem 
 quodammodo ponimus. (pp. 110, 
 111.) 
 
 M. Non ergo inter hujus justitiae 
 causas fidem principem locum tenere 
 dicis, ut ejus merito nos ex nobis 
 justi coram Deo habeamur? 
 
 A. Nequaquam: id enim esset 
 fidem in Christi locum substituere. 
 Verum hujus justifies fans est Dei 
 misericordia, qua in nos per Chris- 
 tum derivatur : per Evangelium vero 
 nobis ojfertur, et a nobis fide, quasi 
 manu, prehenditur. 
 
 M. Fidem igitur non causam sed 
 instrumentum esse justitiae dicis, 
 quod scilicet Christum, qui est justi- 
 tia nostra, amplectitur, tarn arcta 
 nos conjunctione cum illo copulans, 
 ut omnium ejus bonorum participes 
 faciat. 
 
 A. Sic est. (p. 111.) 
 
 M. Nullis ergo operibus aut me- 
 ritis Deum antevertere possumus, 
 quibus ilium ad benevolentiam bene- 
 ftcentiamque priores provocemus ? 
 
 A. Nullis plane. Nam nos Deus 
 non solum quum inimici ejus esse- 
 mus, id est, peccatores, sed et ante 
 mundi jacta fundamenta in Christo 
 dilexit atque elegit. Et hie est ille, 
 quam dixi, justitia nostrai FONS 
 
 ATQUE ORIGO. (p. 113.) 
 
 Another very remarkable and decisive testimony is afforded 
 
 somewhat curious. And the fact that the Catechism is Calvin's, will show us at 
 once, how far the "explicationes" and " annotationes" are admissible.
 
 106 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 us by the letters of Bishop Jewel, Archbishop Grrindal, and 
 others, to the foreign Calvinistic Reformers. 
 
 On Feb. 7, 1562, (just after the Thirty-nine Articles had 
 been passed in Convocation,) Bishop Jewel thus writes to Peter 
 Martyr, then at Zurich. 
 
 "Now that the full light of the Gospel has shone forth, the very 
 vestiges of error must, as far as possible, be removed together with the 
 
 rubbish, and, as the saying is, with the very dust As to matters of 
 
 doctrine, we have pared everything away to the very quick, and DO NOT DIFFER 
 
 FROM TOUR DOCTRINE BY A NAIL's BREADTH." * 
 
 Let us proceed to the testimony of Archbishop Grindal, 
 successively Bishop of London, Archbishop of York, and then 
 Parker's successor at Canterbury. 
 
 On June 6, 1562, when Bishop of London, he writes thus 
 to Conrad Hubert at Strasburg. After speaking in high terms 
 of Bucer, and blaming the conduct of some of the Lutherans 
 for proscribing " the Zuinglians," he adds, 
 
 " It is astonishing that they are raising such commotions about predes- 
 tination. They should at least consult their own Luther on ' the bondage 
 of the will.' Fdr what else do Bucer, Calvin, and Martyr teach, that 
 Luther has not maintained in that treatise ? Unless perhaps they wish to 
 take refuge in some recantation of Luther, whom they all but regard as a 
 God. Luther has indeed deserved exceeding well of the Church, and is 
 worthy of being celebrated by all posterity. But he would have been 
 more eminent in my eyes, if these Canaaus were not always discovering 
 the nakedness of their father, which all godly persons desire to be concealed. 
 But do you, most learned Conrad, persevere in defending the fame o'f Bucer, 
 and in maintaining the truth. The Lord will not suffer this cause, which 
 is his own, to be always kept under." f 
 
 Zurich Letters, P. S. ed. 1st Ser.p. 100. The original Latin is, "Nunc yero, 
 postquam erupit lux omnis evangelii, quantum quidera fieri potest, vestigia ipsa 
 erroris una cum ruderibus, utque aiunt, cum pulvisculo auferenda sunt. . . in dog- 
 matis prorsus omnia ad vivum resecavimus, et ns unguem quidem latum absumus 
 a doctrina vestra." (Ib. Pt. 2, p. 59.) 
 
 f Zurich Letters, 2d Ser., p. 73. The original Latin is as follows, " De prse- 
 destinatione vero mirum est eos tantas tragcedias excitare. Consulant saltern 
 Lutherum sutim in Servo Arbitrio. Quid aliud docent Bucerus, Calvinus, Martyr, 
 quod Lutherus eo libello non docuit f Nisi forte ad aliquam Lutheri, qnem tan- 
 turn non pro Deo habef t, palinodiam confugere velint. Optime quidem de eccle- 
 sia meritus est Lutherus, dignusque quern omnis posteritas celebret : esset autem 
 mihi celebrior, si non isti Chanaani patris sui uuditatem, quam omnes pii obtectam
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. JQ7 
 
 Again, in August 1566, he thus writes to Henry Bui- 
 linger ; 
 
 " We who are now Bishops, on our first return, and before we entered 
 on our ministry, contended long and earnestly for the removal of those 
 things that have occasioned the present dispute ; but as we were unable to 
 prevail, either with the Queen or the Parliament, we judged it best, after 
 a consultation on the subject, not to desert our Churches for the sake of a 
 few ceremonies, and those not unlawful in themselves, especially since the 
 pure doctrine of the Gospel remained in all its integrity and freedom ; in 
 which, even to this day, (notwithstanding the attempts of many to the con- 
 
 trary.) WE MOST FULLY AGREE WITH YOUR CHURCHES AND WITH THE CoN- 
 
 FESSION YOU HAVE LATELY SET FORTH. And we do not regret our resolu- 
 tion ; for in the mean time, the Lord giving the increase, our Churches are 
 enlarged and established, which under other circumstances would have 
 become a prey to the Ecebolians, Lutherans, and semi-Papists." * 
 
 The Confession here referred to is the later Helvetic Con- 
 fession, drawn up by Henry Bullinger in 1566 ; of course in 
 support of what is called the Calvinistic system of doctrine. 
 
 In December 1563, the Bishop of Winchester, Dr. Robert 
 Horn, thus writes to Henry Bullinger ; 
 
 '' We have throughout England the same ecclesiastical doctrine as your- 
 
 In confirmation of these statements we may observe also 
 the following remark of Dr. John Parkhurst, the Bishop of 
 Norwich, in a letter to H. Bullinger, in June, 1574. 
 
 cnpiant, perpetuo retegerent. Tu vero, Conrade doctissime, perge in Buceri fama 
 tuenda, ac veritate propugnanda. Dominus non sinet hanc causam, quas ipsius 
 est, perpetuo eupprimi." (Ib. Pt 2, p. 45.) 
 
 * Zurich Letters, 1st Ser. p. 169 The original Latin is as follows: "Nos qui 
 nunc episcopi sumus, (eos dico qui in Germania et cseteris locis erulaverant,) in 
 primo nostro reditu, priusquam ad ministerium accessiraus, diu multumque con- 
 tendebamus, ut ista, de quibus nunc controvertitur, prorsus amoverentur. Sed 
 cum illud a Regina et Statibus in comitiis regni impetrare non potuimus, commu- 
 nicatis consiliis, optimum judicavimus non deserere ecclesias propter ritus non 
 adeo multos, eosque per ee non impios, praesertim quum pura evangelii doctrina 
 nobis Integra ac libera maneret, in qua ad hunc usque diem (utcunque multi multa 
 in contrarlum moliti sunt) cum vestris ecclesiis vestraque confessione nuper edita 
 PLKNISSIME consentimus. Sed neque adhuc pcenitet nos nostri consilii. Nam 
 interea, Domino dante incrementum, auctae et confirmatae sunt ecclesiee, qu 
 alioqui Eceboliis, Lutheranis et Semipapistis praedae fuissent exposite." (Ib. Pt 
 2, p. 100.) 
 
 f Zurich Lett. 1st Ser. p. 135. The original Latin is, "Nos per totam 
 Angliam eandem habemus ecclesiasticam doctrinam quam vos." (Ib. Pt. 2, p. 81.)
 
 108 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 "That Confession of true religion which you published in 1566 is now 
 read in English, and in the hands of every one."* 
 
 And as the testimony of our own Bishops was thus deci- 
 sive as to the agreement of the doctrine of our Church with 
 that of the foreign Calvinistic Churches, so on the other side did 
 the early divines of those Churches profess the agreement of 
 their doctrine with that of the Church of England. 
 
 Thus speaks Beza in a letter to Bishop Grrindal in f566, 
 
 "We consider that your Churches agree with us in all points of 
 doctrine."f 
 
 And again, in a letter to some person of importance in Eng- 
 land (the name is not known) in 1572, he writes, 
 
 " As far as regards the faith itself or the doctrine received in England by 
 public consent and confirmed by Royal authority, I do not think there is any 
 one of those who think sufficiently correctly concerning these things, who 
 does not embrace it as true and certain."}: 
 
 Thus also speaks Peter du Moulin of the French Reformed 
 Church ; 
 
 " I know that under pretence that the Church of England hath another 
 form of discipline than ours is, our adversaries charge us that our religion 
 is diverse. But experience confuteth this accusation, for we assemble with 
 the Englishmen in their Churches, we participate together in the Holy 
 6upper of our Lord ; the doctrine of their Confession is wholly agreeable 
 unto ours." 
 
 Another evidence of the doctrine of our Church in the time 
 of Queen Elizabeth is to be found in the fact, that the Bishops 
 of that period considered the Puritans as not differing from 
 them in doctrine, but only in the matter of rites and ceremo- 
 nies. Thus Dr. Pilkington, Bishop of Durham, says of the 
 Puritans in 1573, 
 
 * Zurich Lett. 1st Ser. p. 804. "Confessio ilia verse religionig, quam 1566 
 edidisti, loquitur Anglice, et omnium manibus teritur." (Ib. Pt. 2, p. 178.) 
 
 f " Vestras ecclesias . . . nobiscum in omnibus doctrinee capitibus consentirc 
 arbitramur." Ep. viii. Tract. Theol. vol. 3, Genev. 1582, fol. p. 209.) 
 
 J " Quod ad fidem ipsam sive doctrinam istic publico consensu 'receptam 
 Regiaque auctoritatc confirmatam attinet, nullum esse arbitror eorum qui satis 
 recte de his rebus sentiunt, qui non earn ut veram ac certam amplectatur." (Ep. 
 69, Ib. p. 288.) 
 
 The Buckler of the Faith, or a Defence of the Confession of Faith of the Re- 
 formed Churches in France, by P. Du Moulin. Translated into English. Lond. 
 1620, 4to. p. 846.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 1Q9 
 
 u The doctrine alone they leave untouched."* 
 And Dr. Bridges, when Dean of Salisbury, in 1587, (after- 
 wards Bishop of Oxford,) says, 
 
 " The controversies between the common adversaries [the Papists] and 
 us, are pro arts et facts, for matters, and that capital matters, of the substance 
 and life of our Christian religion; not trifles, as some neutrals would bear 
 
 the people in hand Whereas, the controversies betwixt us and our 
 
 brethren [the Puritans] are matters, or rather (as they call them) but manners 
 and forms of the Church's regiment."^ 
 
 These last two extracts I have already given in a former 
 publication,^ but I repeat them here as important parts of the 
 chain of evidence to which this chapter is devoted. 
 
 For the same reason I must again notice the very forcible 
 testimony supplied by the Statute of the University of Oxford, 
 in 1579, for " the extirpation of every heresy, and the instruc- 
 tion of youth in true piety," in which it was ordered, that the 
 students should use either Nowell's Larger Catechism, OR 
 Calvin's Catechism, or the elements of Christian Religion, by 
 Andrew Hyperius, or the Heidelberg Catechism, according to 
 the capacity of the hearers and the pleasure of readers. And 
 that to these might be added Bullinger's Catechism for adults, 
 and Calvin's Institutions, or the Apology of the Church of 
 England or the Articles of Religion ; and all Catechisms 
 " opposed to this sound doctrine, and other superstitious and 
 Papistical books," were interdicted. $ 
 
 * Lett, to Gualter, July 1573, in Zur. Lett. 1st Ser. p. 287. " Solam doc- 
 trinam nobis integram relinquunt." (Ib. Ft. 2, p. 168.) 
 
 f Defence of Gov. establ. in Ch. of England. Lond. 1587, 4to. Pref. p. 3. 
 
 t Vindication of the " Defence of the XXXIX Articles." 
 
 g 1. Ad extirpandam hceresim quamcunque et ad informandam in vera pietate 
 juventutem, libros hosce legendos censemus et statuimus, viz., Catechismum 
 Alexandri Novell! Majorum Latine et Graece, vel Catecbismum Johannis Calvini 
 Latino Graece et Hebraice, vel Elementa Christianae Religionis Audreae Hyperii? 
 vel Catechesin Heydelburgensem, pro captu auditorum et arbitrio legentium. 
 
 2. His adjungi possunt Henrici Bullingeri Catechesis pro adultis, et Institu- 
 tiones Calvini, vel Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanse, vel Articuli Religionis in Synodo 
 Londinensi conscripti et authoritate Regia editi cum explicatione locorum commu- 
 nium testimoniis a sacra Scriptura aut interdum e Patribus desumptis. Ad pri- 
 marn lectionem juniores, ad secundum provectiores omnes nullo gradu insignitos 
 astringi volumus. 
 
 8. Catechismos omnes, sane hole doctrinae contraries, aliosque libros supersti-
 
 HO EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Another remarkable testimony of the same kind is the fact, 
 that at the Convocation in 1586, " the Archbishop and Bishops " 
 agreed to certain " Orders," of which the first was this, 
 
 " Every minister having cure, and being under the degrees of Master 
 of Art and Bachelor of Law, and not licensed to be a public preacher, shall, 
 before the 2nd day of February next, provide a Bible and Bullinger's 
 Decads, in Latin or English, and a paper-book. And shall every day read 
 over one chapter of the Holy Scriptures ; and note the principal contents 
 thereof briefly in his paper-book. And shall every week read over one sermon 
 in the said Decads ; and note likewise the chief matters therein contained in 
 the said paper [book]. And shall, once in every quarter . . . show his said 
 notes to some preacher near adjoining^ to be assigned for that purpose." 
 
 And by the second " Order," the said preachers are to cer- 
 tify to the Archdeacon or Bishop, " who do perform the said 
 exercises, and how they have profited therein."* 
 
 And accordingly, in the following January we find Dr. 
 Aylmer, Archdeacon of London, and son of the Bishop, ordering 
 all ministers, not preachers, in his archdeaconry to have " Bui- 
 lingers Decads"^ 
 
 This surely is a decisive proof what was the character of 
 the publicly received doctrine of the Church at that time. 
 
 From these testimonies as to the public doctrine of the 
 Church, I pass on to review the doctrine maintained by its 
 leading bishops and divines during the period respecting which 
 we are now inquiring. And the only difficulty with which we 
 have to contend arises from the paucity of their writings ; for 
 so far as testimonies are to be found as to their views on the 
 subject under consideration in this chapter, their evidence is 
 altogether such as the proofs already adduced of the real doc- 
 trine of our Church would lead us to expect. 
 
 And first let us take the series of Primates in the Sees 
 both of Canterbury and York. 
 
 First, Archbishop Parker. His writings unfortunately are 
 not sufficiently extensive to supply us with the most direct 
 testimony to his views. But still we have what is sufficient 
 
 tioaos et papisticos legi et haberi interdicimus. (Ant. a Wood, Hist, et Antiq. 
 Univ. Oxon. vol. 1. p. 296, ed. 1674.) 
 
 Strype's Whitgift, Appendix, No. 82. iii. 194, 195. Oif. ed. See also Wil- 
 kins's Concilia, iv. 321. 
 
 f Strype's Aylmer, p. 88.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 for the purpose. For, first, we have already seen what was his 
 testimony to the doctrine of Bucer, from which we may fairly 
 infer his own. Again ; another strong though indirect testi- 
 mony of the Archbishop's views is to be found in the books he 
 gave to the Cambridge University Library. 0f four parcels of 
 25 vols. each, the first of which contained Bibles, Concordances, 
 Greek Scholia, and some historical works, and the last some 
 Miscellaneous MSS., the second and third consisted of Com- 
 mentaries on the Old and New Testament ; which were 
 these, John Calvin on the Pentateuch, Munster on several 
 books of the Bible, Gualter on the 12 Minor Prophets, Calvin's 
 Institutions, Musculus's Common Places, Beza on the New 
 Testament, Erasmus's Annotations and Paraphrase on the 
 New Testament, Calvin's Harmony of the four Evangelists, 
 Bucer on the four Gospels, Robert. Stephens on three Gospels, 
 Zuinglius on the four Gospels, Fox and Pantaleon's Martyr- 
 ologies.* No one surely can read this list without seeing at 
 once the character of Parker's theology. 
 
 Again; we have seen in a preceding page, (p. 62,) the 
 notice taken by Parker, in a work published towards the close 
 of his career, of the divines of the foreign "Reformed" Churches, 
 brought over here by Cranmer, to aid him in strengthening 
 " the evangelical doctrine " in this kingdom. Here again we 
 have pretty good evidence of his views in the language he uses 
 respecting them ; so utterly opposed to that of the divines who 
 call themselves " High Churchmen." 
 
 And to this may be added, that his Chaplain, Dr. John 
 Man, translated by his advice and encouragement, the Common 
 Places of Musculus, and dedicated the book to the Archbishop,! 
 who recommended it to the Church, as we learn on the autho- 
 rity of Haddon as quoted by Strype.t 
 
 The successor of Parker in the See of Canterbury was 
 Grindal, whose view of the doctrine of our Church we have 
 already seen. I add the following as another testimony of his 
 own views. It occurs in a letter from him when Archbishop 
 of York, to Rodolph Gualter, in July 1573. 
 
 * Strype's Parker, book 4, ch. 42, ii. 409, 410. Ox ed. 
 t Sttype'a Parker, book 4, c. 46, ii. 460, Oxfl ed.
 
 112 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 "Health in Christ, my very dear master Gualter. Your desire that 
 your lately published Homilies on the First Epistle to the Corinthians should 
 appear under my name and that of some other very dear brethren and 
 fellow-labourers was very gratifying to me. . . . Although you are not 
 personally known to me, you are well known to me by your writings, abound- 
 ing as they do in singular erudition and learning : and on account of the 
 excellent piety which they breathe, and I will add too, on account of our 
 most close agreement in the true doctrine of Christ, you are most dear to 
 me."* 
 
 The next Primate was Dr. John "Whitgift, of whom it is 
 perhaps still less necessary than in the case of Dr. Grrindal to 
 say much as to his doctrinal views ; he being the Primate by 
 whom the famous " Lambeth Articles " (well known, and uni- 
 versally admitted, to be thoroughly " Calvinistic," as it is called) 
 were put forth in 1595. I shall give presently a further account 
 of these articles. I will just add, however, an extract from the 
 Archbishop's " Defence of the Answer to the Admonition," 
 which may not be so well known, and which has a direct and 
 important bearing on the subject of this work. He says, 
 
 "There are two kinds of government in the Church; the one, invisible; 
 the other visible ; the one, spiritual ; the other external. The invisible and 
 spiritual government of the Church is, when God by His Spirit, gifts, and 
 ministry of his word doth govern it, by ruling in the hearts and consciences 
 of men, and directing them in all things necessary to everlasting life : this 
 kind of government indeed is necessary to salvation^ and IT is IN THE CHURCH 
 
 OF THE ELECT ONLY."f 
 
 The successor of Whitgift was Dr. Richard Bancroft, 
 translated from London to Canterbury in 1604. He was a 
 celebrated opponent of the factious proceedings of the Puritans, 
 in matters of Church government and discipline. But what 
 his view of the doctrine of the Church of England was, may 
 be judged from the exposition of the Articles published in 1607, 
 by his Chaplain Thomas Rogers, with a dedication to him ; a 
 book which (we are told by a contemporary) " came abroad 
 with injunction from the Archbishop that then was [Dr. Ban- 
 croft] that there should be one of them bought for every parish 
 in the Province of Canterbury?^ 
 
 * Zurich Lett. 1st Ser. p. 293 "propter arctissimatn in vera Christi 
 
 doctrina consensioncm carissimua." (Ib. Pt. 2. p. 171.) 
 f Defence of Answer to Admonition, 1674, fol. p. 80. 
 \ Dr. Burges's Baptismal Regeneration of Elect Infants. Oxf. 1629, 4 to. p. 68.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. H3 
 
 I will give a few extracts from Rogers's Commentary on the 
 17th Article. 
 
 " They which are predestinate unto salvation cannot perish," 
 
 " Wander then do they from the truth which think, 
 
 " That the very elect totally and finally may fall from grace and be 
 damned ; 
 
 " That the regenerate may fall from the grace of God, may destroy the 
 temple of God, and be broken off from the vine Christ Jesus ; which was 
 one of Glover's errors ; 
 
 " That the number of those which be predestinate, may both increase 
 and be diminished : so thought the Pelagians," 
 
 " Of the mere will and purpose of God, some men in Christ Jesus are 
 elected, and not others unto salvation. 
 
 " The proof from God's word. 
 
 " In the Scripture we read of man's predestination the cause efficient to 
 be the everlasting purpose of God: Rom. ix. 11, Eph. i. 5, 2 Tim. i. 9: 
 the cause formal, God his infinite mercy and goodness; Exod. xxxiii. 19, 
 Rom. ix. 15 : the cause material, the blood of Christ; Eph. i. 4, 5; 1 Tim. 
 i. 18, 20 : the cause final or end, why both God the Father hath loved, 
 and Christ for his elect hath suffered is the glory of God; Eph. i. 6, Prov. 
 xvi. 4 : and the salvation of man ; Rom. viii. 29, Rom. ix. 21. 
 
 " And this do all the Churches militant and reformed, with a sweet con- 
 sent testify and acknowledge. 
 
 " Hereby is discovered the impiety of those men which think that, 
 ***** 
 
 " God beheld in every man whether he would use his grace well and be- 
 lieve the gospel or no ; and as he saw a man affected, so did predestinate, 
 choose, or refuse him. 
 
 " Besides his will there was some other cause in God, why he chose one 
 and cast off another man ; but this cause is hidden from us." 
 
 " They who are elected unto salvation, if they come unto years of 
 discretion, are called both outwardly by the word, and inwardly by the 
 Spirit of God. 
 
 " Though true it be, the Lord knoweth all and every of his elect ; yet 
 hath he revealed unto us certain notes and tokens, whereby we may see and 
 certainly know, whether we be of that number or not. For such as be or- 
 dained unto everlasting life, if they live long in this world, they one time 
 or other be called unto the knowledge of salvation, by the preaching of 
 God's word : they obey that calling, through the operation of the Holy 
 Ghost working within them : they feel in their souls the same Spirit bear- 
 ing witness unto their spirits, how they are the children of God ; and finally 
 they walk religiously in all good works 
 
 " Sundry adversaries hath this truth, and 
 
 " First the Papists, who teach that none are to think or persuade them- 
 selves, that they are of the number of the Predestinate unto salvation, but to 
 
 be ever doubtful thereof." 
 
 8
 
 114 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 " The Predestinate are both justified by faith, sanctified by the Spirit,. 
 
 and shall be glorified in the life to come." 
 
 " This doctrine of Predestination is to the godly full sweet, pleasant, 
 and comfortable, because it greatly confirmeth their faith in Christ, and 
 increaseth their love toward God . . . But to the wicked and reprobate 
 the consideration hereof is very sour, unsavory and most uncomfortable, as 
 that which they think (though very untruly and sinfully) causeth them 
 cither to despair of his mercy, being without faith, or not to fear his justice, 
 being extremely wicked : whereas, neither from the word of God, nor any 
 confession of the Church, can any man gather that he is a vessel of wrath, 
 prepared to damnation ; but contrary- wise by many and great arguments 
 
 may persuade himself that God would not his destruction 
 
 Therefore they are to be taken as much out of the way, which say that 
 this doctrine leadeth either unto desperation, which is without all comfort, 
 or unto looseness of life, and so unto Atheism ;' and therefore to be pub- 
 lished neither by mouth nor book ; and so thought both the Pelagians and 
 the Predestinates (a sort of heretics so called) in old time, and the Family 
 . of Love in our days, who term the doctrine of Predestination a licentious 
 doctrine, and say it filleth all the prisons almost in England." * 
 
 Without going further, these extracts are, I suppose, amply 
 sufficient to show the view of doctrine maintained in this, the 
 first and publicly authorized, Exposition of the Thirty-nine 
 Articles, and one which Archbishop Bancroft ordered all the 
 parishes in his province to supply themselves with. 
 
 In 1610 Bancroft was succeeded by Dr. George Abbot, 
 whose views of doctrine it is quite unnecessary to prove, as they 
 are well known to, and recognized by, all parties as being 
 decidedly Calvinistic. 
 
 I now pass to the Archbishops of York during the same 
 period. 
 
 Of the first, Dr. Thomas Young, I find no remains or notice 
 from which his views are to be gathered. 
 
 His successor was Grrindal, whose case has already been 
 considered. 
 
 The successor of Grindal was Dr. Edwin Sandys. Scarcely 
 anything has come down to us of his writings except some 
 sermons, and it is, of course, seldom, except through contro- 
 versial works, that we are able to prove the precise views of 
 
 * The faith, doctrine, and religion professed and protected in the realm of 
 England, <tc. See on Art. 17. I have quoted from the edition published in 
 1625, 4to.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 115 
 
 ny one on the points we are now considering. Judging how- 
 ever both from his sermons and conduct, it will I think be 
 admitted, that there can be little doubt that his theology was 
 like that of his predecessor. And a passage in one of his ser- 
 mons certainly expresses that view of doctrine, where he says 
 that " holiness is the end of our election"* 
 
 The next that filled the Archiepiscopal chair at York was 
 John Piers, of whom nothing remains by which to judge of his 
 doctrine. 
 
 Pier's successor was Dr. Matthew Hutton, who was ap- 
 pointed in 1594. Here again we have decisive testimony as 
 to the doctrine held, Dr. Hutton having, as Archbishop of York, 
 united with Whitgift in the publication of the Lambeth Arti- 
 cles, and left a treatise written in favor of the theological 
 views therein maintained ; to which I need only here refer the 
 ceader.t 
 
 These were all that held the See during the reign of Eliza- 
 beth ; but I may add, that in 1605, Hutton was succeeded at 
 York by Dr. Tobie Matthew. Of the writings of this able and 
 excellent prelate, but one Sermon was printed, which was a 
 reply to Campian. He left, however, a large number of sermons 
 in MS., two of which were printed not long since in the pages of 
 . periodical publication.^ The general character of his doc- 
 trinal system may be easily gathered from them, and it is 
 evidently similar to that of his predecessors. 
 
 An uninterrupted succession, then, of such prelates in the 
 Archiepiscopal Sees of Canterbury and York, for so many years 
 from the commencement of the restoration of our Reformed 
 Church on the accession of Queen Elizabeth, is surely of itself 
 a very strong testimony as to the character of the doctrine 
 then maintained among us as the established doctrine of our 
 Church. 
 
 I am not here attempting to accumulate all the evidences 
 that might be adduced on this subject, otherwise it would be 
 
 * Sandys' Works, P. S. ed. p. 190. 
 
 f Brevis et dilucida cxplicatio verae, certae, et consolationis plenae doctrinae d 
 Electione, Praedestinatione, ac Reprobatione. Hardrovici, 1613, 12mo. 
 
 $ The Christian Observer for October, November, December and Appendix 
 for 1847,
 
 116 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 necessary to show, how completely the evidence we have as 
 to the views of their brethren on the Episcopal Bench, shows 
 that the series of Archbishops may be taken as correct repre- 
 sentations of the great body, if not the whole, of their brethren. 
 Their doctrine may fairly be considered as, for that period, a 
 test of the general character of the theology of those appointed 
 to the Episcopal Bench. Nor is it possible to obtain many 
 testimonies of any kind to the views of the Bishops ; inas- 
 much as few, comparatively, of the prelates of that period 
 have left anything behind them in print from which their doc- 
 trine may be deduced. Of those appointed during the whole 
 of the first fifty years after the accession of Q,ueen Elizabeth, 
 I can find but twenty-nine of whom there are any remains r 
 and of these but twelve where those remains are more than 
 three or four sermons or letters, namely, James Pilkington, of 
 Durham ; Robert Horn, of Winchester ; T. Cooper, of Win- 
 chester ; T. Bilson, of Winchester ; Lancelot Andrewes, then 
 of Ely ; W. Alley, of Exeter ; I. Woolton, of Exeter ; W. 
 Barlow, of Lincoln; F. Godwin, then of Llandaff; J. Bridges, 
 of Oxford ; J. Jewel, of Salisbury ; and Grervase Babington, 
 of Worcester. Of these, it will, I think, be found, that the 
 doctrine of all who have spoken on the subject, (excepting, to 
 a certain extent, Andrewes, who was appointed when the stream 
 was beginning to turn,) is similar to that of the occupants of 
 the Archiepiscopal Sees. And the same might, I believe, be 
 said of the remainder of the twenty-nine. The case of 
 Andrewes I shall presently notice. 
 
 I cannot think it necessary, however, to the establishment 
 of the fact I am now endeavoring to prove, to enter further 
 into the views maintained at that period by the Episcopal 
 Bench as a body. 
 
 I now proceed briefly to notice the character of the theo- 
 logical views taught by the Regius and Margaret Professors of 
 Theology at the two Universities. 
 
 I begin with Oxford, and the Regius Professors of Theology 
 there. The first in the time of Edward VI. was Peter Martyr, 
 of whose views it is unnecessary to say a word. He was suc- 
 ceeded, of course, by Roman Catholics, in the reign of Mary. 
 The first appointed on the accession of Elizabeth was Laurence
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 117 
 
 Humphrey, of whom the High Church biographer, Anthony 
 Wood, gives the following account : 
 
 " The truth is, that from the city of Zurich (remarkable 
 for the preachings and death of Zwinglius) and the correspon- 
 dence that he had at Geneva, he brought back with him, at 
 his return into England, so much of the Calvinian, both in 
 doctrine and discipline, that the best that could be said of him 
 was, that he was a moderate and conscientious non-conform- 
 ist." He " sowed also in the Divinity school such seeds of 
 Calvinism, and labored to create in the younger sort such a 
 strong hatred against the Papists^ as if nothing but divine 
 truths were to be found in the one, and nothing but abomina- 
 tions were to be seen in the latter." " Sure it is, that Hum- 
 prey was a great and general scholar, an able linguist, a 
 deep divine ; and for his excellency of style, exactness of 
 method, and substance of matters in his writings, he went 
 beyond most of our theologists." An he then adds the high 
 character given of him by Archbishop Tobie Matthew.* Such 
 was the first Regius Professor on the accession of Queen 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 In 1589 he was succeeded by Thomas Holland, of whom 
 Wood says 
 
 " He was esteemed by the precise men of his time and 
 after, another Apollos, mighty in Scriptures, and so familiar 
 with the Fathers, as if he himself was a Father ; and in the 
 Schoolmen, as if he had been a seraphical doctor."t But he 
 held the same doctrinal views as his predecessor ; for Wood, 
 speaking of his successor Robert Abbot, says, he was " a more 
 moderate Calvinian than either of his two predecessors, Hol- 
 land and Humphrey, in the divinity chair, were, which he ex- 
 pressed by countenancing the sublapsarian way of Predesti- 
 nation.'^ 
 
 We have here, then, a testimony as to the views of his suc- 
 cessor, Robert Abbot, appointed Professor in 1612. The only 
 improvement (in Wood's view) in the occupant of the chair, 
 was that Abbot " countenanced the sublapsarian way of pre- 
 destination." And he is compelled to bear the same testimony 
 
 * Athen. Oxon. L 657 ; ed. Bliss. f Ib. ii. 111. J Id. ib. u. 225.
 
 118 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 to his character and learning as in the case of his predeces- 
 sors. 
 
 " He was a person of unblameable life and conversation, a profound 
 divine, most admirably well read in the Fathers, Councils and School- 
 men."* 
 
 The reader will find his doctrinal views, on the points now 
 under consideration, in his "Work, " De gratia et perseverantia 
 sanctorum, Lond. 1618," 4to. 
 
 In 1615, on the appointment of Abbot to a bishopric, suc- 
 ceeded John Prideaux, another staunch Calvinist. He is called 
 by Wood " a stout champion against Socinus and Arminius ? 
 and it is added, " All that knew him esteemed him a noted 
 artist, a plentiful fountain of all sorts of learning, an excellent 
 linguist, a person of a prodigious memory, and so profound a 
 divine that they have been pleased to entitle him ' Columna 
 fidei orthodoxse,' and i malleus hseresecus, patrum pater,' and 
 1 ingens scholse et academiae oraculum.' "t 
 
 For his own account of his views, the reader may refer to- 
 his " Lectiones," and " Fasciculus Controversiarum." 
 
 From the Regius Professors let us go the Margaret Pro- 
 fessors. The first after the accession of Queen Elizabeth was 
 Francis Babington, of whom I can find no account. 
 
 The next r in 1562, was Herbert Westphaling, of the nature 
 of whose doctrine on the points now under consideration, I can 
 find no testimony. 
 
 To him succeeded, in 1563, James Calfhill, who was nomi- 
 nated in 1570 to the bishopric of Worcester, but died before 
 consecration. Of his theology we have again the same testi- 
 mony. He was "very orthodox, and a great admirer of all 
 Calvin's opinions. "t 
 
 To Calfhill succeeded, in 1565, Edward Cradock, and to 
 Cradock, in 1594, John Williams ; whose views I have not 
 yet been able to ascertain. 
 
 But in 1613 the chair was given to Sebastian Benefieldy 
 whose Calvinistic views are well known. The following char- 
 acter is given of him by Wood. 
 
 * Id. ib. coL 224. 
 
 f Athen. Oxon. iii. 266, 267. 
 
 $ KippLs's Biographia Britannica, vol. 3. p. 61.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 119 
 
 tl He was a person for piety, strictness of life, and sincere conversation 
 incomparable. He was also so noted an humanitian, disputant, and the- 
 ologist, and so well read in the Fathers and Schoolmen, that he had scarce 
 his equal in the University. ... He was accounted no mean lover of the 
 opinions of John Calvin, especially as to the points of predestination." * 
 
 The reader will find a full confirmation of this account of 
 his doctrinal views in the following, among his other "Works : 
 41 Eight Sermons publicly preached in the University of Ox- 
 ford. Oxford, 1614." 4to. " The Sin against the Holy Ghost 
 discovered, and other Christian doctrines delivered, in 12 Ser- 
 mons upon part of Heb. x. Oxford, 1615." 4to. In these 
 works it will be found that his Calvinism advanced even to 
 the extent of maintaining that Christ died for the elect only. 
 
 Such were the theological Professors at the University of 
 Oxford, for the first half century and more after the accession 
 of Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 Let us now go to the sister University of Cambridge, 
 beginning as before with the Regius Professors. 
 
 The first was Martin Bucer, appointed in 1550 by King 
 Edward VI. Of him nothing need be said. 
 
 Shortly after the accession of Queen Elizabeth, Leonard 
 Pilkington was appointed to the chair. Of his views I can 
 find no testimony. 
 
 To Pilkington succeeded, in 1562, Matthew Hutton, after- 
 wards Archbishop of York, whose views I have already noticed. 
 
 Next came, in 1557, John Whitgift, afterwards Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, whose doctrine has also been already pointed out. 
 
 To Whitgift succeeded, in the same year, William Chad- 
 erton. Of "W. Chaderton's writings nothing has been printed 
 nor have I found any direct testimony as to his doctrinal 
 views.! 
 
 The successor of Chaderton, in 1580, was the celebrated 
 "William Whitaker, of whose Calvinistic views it is of course 
 superfluous to say a word. 
 
 In 1596 came John Overall, whose views I shall notice 
 
 * Athen. Oxon. ii. 487. 
 
 f His kinsman, Laurence Chaderton, a contemporary, and afterwards Head 
 of Emanuel College, as William was of Queen's, was a zealous Calvinist. And 
 as W. Chaderton's great patron was the Earl of Leicester, (Strype's Ann. II. ii. 
 200,) we can have little doubt as to his views.
 
 120 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 more particularly when I come to deal with the case of Barret 
 and the Hampton Court Conference, and shall show that 
 though he differed in some respects from His predecessors in 
 the theological chair, his differences were very far less than 
 might be supposed from the way in which his views have often 
 been referred to in modern times. 
 
 The period when he resigned the chair, is not exactly 
 known ; but it was probably about 1613, when he was suc- 
 ceeded by John Richardson, of whose views I have found no 
 testimony. 
 
 I proceed to the Margaret Professors of Divinity. 
 
 The first appointed after the accession of Q,ueen Elizabeth 
 was Robert Beaumont. Nothing of his writing remains, nor 
 can I find any particular notice of his views ; but they may be 
 judged of by the fact of his supporting the movement in the 
 Convocation of 1562 against the habits, &c.* 
 
 His successor, appointed in the same year, was Matthew 
 Hutton, afterwards Regius Professor and Archbishop of York, 
 whose views I have already pointed out. 
 
 In 1566 was appointed John Whitgift, whose case has also 
 been considered. 
 
 In 1567 succeeded William Chaderton, afterwards Regius 
 Professor, of whom I have spoken before. 
 
 To Chaderton succeeded Thomas Cartwright, who after- 
 wards became the celebrated Nonconformist, and whose de- 
 cided Calvinism will not of course be questioned by any one. 
 
 After him came John Hanson and John Styll, of neither of 
 whom can I find any information as to their precise views. 
 
 The next was Peter Baro, whose views, no doubt, were of 
 what is now called an Arminian complexion, and he ivas com- 
 pelled by the Heads of the University, with the manifest ap- 
 proval of the Archbishops, to resign his professorship on that 
 account. So that his case, though an exception as far as his 
 own personal views are concerned, strengthens the evidence 
 for the general prevalence in our Church, at that period, of 
 the doctrine now called " Calvinistic." I shall notice his case 
 again in connexion with the Lambeth Articles. 
 
 See Strype's Annals, I. i. 501, 504 ; and see Strype's Parker, I. 386.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 121 
 
 Baro's successor was Thomas Playfere, and it is hardly 
 necessary to say, that Baro having been compelled to retire on 
 account of his Afminian views, Playfere's doctrine restored 
 the Calvinism of the professorial chair, as his Sermons show. 
 I will give a few extracts from them. 
 
 " Whereby we may see the absurdity of the Papists. They would prove 
 that justifying grace may be lost, because some have made shipwreck of 
 faith. But if we should grant them that the Apostle (1 Tim. i. 19) speak- 
 eth of justifying not of historical faith, yet we have the help of a second 
 answer. To wit, that shipwreck is one thing, and drowning another. 
 Therefore faith which is wreckt is not by and bye drowned. For it may 
 happen to suffer shipwreck as S. Paul did, and swim out safe to the 
 shore. But this is but a touch by the way. Mean season we see how safe 
 and secure the faithful man is in Christ. He is a house to which the 
 floods may come near to shake it, but never to throw it down he is a ship 
 which the waves may come near to toss it, but never to turn it over : even 
 as St. Peter began to sink, but still kept up his head ; and St. Paul suffer- 
 ed shipwreck, but was not a hair the worse for it. ' Surely in the flood of 
 many waters, they shall not come near him.' "* 
 
 Again elsewhere, 
 
 "It is nothing but a slander which the Church of Rome casteth upon 
 us, that forsooth we should teach a man whose person is justified by faiths 
 in Christ committing some foul act, is never a wit the worse for it. Nay, 
 our doctrine is this, that such an one hath hurt himself two ways. In re- 
 spect of his own guiltiness, and in respect of God's righteousness. For the 
 first, though God for his part do not break off the purpose of adoption and 
 adjudge him to wrath, and therefore he is not guilty of condemnation for 
 sin ; yet he is simply guilty of sin, and hath grievously wounded his own 
 conscience. Fo the second, though God again hath pardoned all the sins 
 of his elect, even those that are to come, by his decree, by his promise, by 
 the value and price of his Son's merits, yet absolutely and actually he 
 doth not apply this pardon to the apprehension and feeling of the sinner's 
 faith, till he recover himself, and renew his repentance. Marry this we 
 teach, that God upholdeth his chosen children so by faith and repentance, 
 that it is impossible any of them should die in final impenitency. But 
 that sweet sanctifying Spirit which dwelleth in them, is still busy like a 
 bee as we say, and never leaveth stinging them, and stirring them up to 
 repentance, and working them like wax (as it were) till as much as it was 
 before grieved for their aversion by sin, so much it be after delighted for 
 their conversion by amendment of life. Therefore as they all need not to 
 doubt a wit of their salvation who after they have fallen asleep in sin, 
 
 * Nine Sermons preached by Dr. T. Playfere. Cambridge, 1612, 8vo. pp. 
 213, 214
 
 122 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 awake betimes, and ' water their couch with their tears,' so I assure you, 
 holy brethren, their case is dangerous and desperate, nay, they are in a 
 cursed case, which will not be awaked, but lie still sleeping and snoring 
 in sin. Seeing no pardon can be procured, but where repentance is renew- 
 ed."* 
 
 Again, in the same Sermon, further on he speaks thus : 
 
 " But now some man may further object and say, He is not yet fully 
 satisfied for this latter part, because, talk as long as we will, all these in- 
 conveniences which come, as hath been declared, by persevering in sin are 
 either no bridle at all, or else not so strong a bridle to restrain men from 
 sin as if they be persuaded, they may by sinning quite and clean lose all 
 justifying grace, and so may be finally impenitent when they die. But 
 he which will put forth this doubt must remember that the children of 
 God are led by the Spirit of God. And the Spirit, though not in the same 
 degree, yet in the same sort, worketh in all those that have been, are, or 
 shall be sanctified ; who as they serve God not for any servile fear of losing 
 their faith, or of dying in impenitency, or such like, but only for pure love 
 of his Majesty, so they can neither will nor choose, but being bitten with 
 sin, they must needs in their souls and consciences feel the smart of it. . . 
 As Elihu then kept silence somewhile even from good words, though it 
 were pain and grief to him ; but at the last the fire kindling and his heart 
 being hot within him spake with his tongue, so the Spirit of God in all the 
 elect of God is like wine put into a bottle, which will have a vent to spurge 
 out, or else it will burst the bottle, or like fire raked up in embers, which 
 will have a passage to burn out, or else it will consume the whole house. 
 And therefore Saint John likewise saith. Whosoever is born of God, doth 
 not sin, for his seed remaineth in him, neither can he sin, because he is 
 born of God. Mark ye this well. The Apostle thinketh it not enough to 
 say, He doth not sin, but addeth moreover, He cannot sin. What is that ? 
 To wit, presumptously without fear he doth not sin ; and desperately with- 
 out remorse he cannot sin. . . . Why so ? Because the seed of God remain- 
 eth still in him. And what is the seed of God ? It is the Spirit of God. . . 
 So that this is a legal kind of preaching to say, Take heed you sin not ; 
 ye may happen so to lose your faith ; to lose all the justifying grace which 
 God hath given us ; to be for ever excluded out of the kingdom of heaven. 
 This is to be said tovassals, to drudges, to slaves, not to sons. To sons 
 this may be better said, Take heed ye sin not ; God hath adopted you and 
 given you the earnest of hi Spirit. Therefore grieve not this sweet Spi- 
 rit, whereby ye are sealed up to the day of redemption. If ye be loving 
 children indeed, though there were no hell to fear, no heaven to hope for, 
 no torments to dread, no rewards to expect, yet ye will obey your good 
 Father, and be the sorrowfullest creatures in the world if you have but 
 
 The Sick Man's Conch, a sermon [on Ps. vi. 6.] before Prince Henry, Mar. 
 12, 1604. By T. Playfere, Prof. Ac. Ed. used in Lond. 1617, 8vo. pp. 40, 41.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 123 
 
 once displeased him, only for the mere love ye bear towards him. and for 
 the unspeakable love he hath showed towards you."* 
 
 After Playfere came, in 1609, John Davenant, one of the 
 representatives of our Church at the Synod of Dort, and after- 
 wards Bishop of Salisbury, whose Calvinism will not of course 
 be disputed. 
 
 Now I would ask any impartial reader, if he can fairly 
 look in the face the remarkable testimony thus afforded us by 
 these almost unbroken lines of " Calvinistic " Primates and 
 University theological Professors, in illustration of the doctrine 
 of our Church as settled at the accession of Q,ueen Elizabeth, 
 and deny that our Formularies were intended to favor what is 
 called Calvinism. 
 
 From the divines of that period, I might of course add nu- 
 merous testimonies in favor of the same views of doctrine, but 
 I can hardly conceive further evidence to be necessary. 
 
 I must not fail, however, to direct the attention of the 
 reader to the theology of Hooker, the "judicious" Hooker. 
 The doctrine of the author of such passages as the following 
 cannot be a matter of doubt. 
 
 " In this we know we are not deceived, neither can we deceive you, 
 when we teach that the faith whereby ye are sanctified cannot fail ; it did 
 not in the Prophet, it shall not in you. . . . There was in Habakkuk that 
 which St. John doth call ' the seed of God,' meaning thereby the First 
 Grace which God poureth into the hearts of them that are incorporated 
 into Christ which having received, if because it is an adversary to sin, we 
 do therefore think we sin not both otherwise, and also by distrustful and 
 doubtful apprehending of that which we ought steadfastly to believe, surely 
 we do but deceive ourselves. Yet they which are of God do not sin either 
 in this, or in any thing, any such sin as doth quite extinguish grace, clean 
 cut them off from Christ Jesus ; because the ' seed of God ' abideth in them 
 and doth shield them from receiving any irremediable wound." f 
 
 " If he which once hath the Son, may cease to have the Son, though it 
 be but a moment, he ceaseth for that moment to have life. But the life of 
 them which live by the Son of God, is everlasting in the world to come. 
 But because, as Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath 
 no more power over him ; so the justified man, being alive to God in Jesus 
 
 Ib. pp. 51-55. 
 
 f Sermon on the Certainty and Perpetuity of Faith in the Elect Works, ed. 
 Keble, vol. 3. Ft. 2, pp. 688, 689.
 
 124 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Christ our Lord, doth as necessarily from that time forward always live, as 
 Christ, by whom he Jtath life, liveth always." * 
 
 " The first thing of his so infused into our hearts in this life is the 
 Spirit of Christ ; whereupon, because the rest, of what kind soever, do all 
 both necessarily depend, and infallibly also ensue, therefore, &c." f 
 
 " So that all his foreknown elect are predestinated, called, justified, and 
 advanced unto glory, according to that determination and purpose which he 
 hath of them, neither is it possible that any other should be glorified, or can 
 be justified and called, or were predestinated, besides them which in that 
 manner are foreknown." $ 
 
 But one of the most decisive testimonies on the subject we 
 are considering, is the case of "W. Barret at Cambridge, in the 
 year 1595. And it is one in which the partial deviation of 
 the party concerned from the doctrine of his contemporaries, 
 and the way in which his case was dealt with, supply us with 
 very remarkable clear evidence as to the prevailing system of 
 theology in our Church at that time. And I must add, that a 
 very mistaken view has often been taken of the doctrine of 
 Barret himself. Arminian writers of modern times have 
 frequently been disposed to claim him and all who supported 
 him (who, however, were scarcely half-a-dozen persons) as 
 maintainers of their views against the doctrines of Calvin ; in 
 order that they may appear to have had a portion of our 
 Church in their favor, even at that time. Consequently, 
 this opponent of some of the extreme points of the highest 
 Calvinistic doctrine has been held forth as the champion of 
 Arminianism in the reign of Elizabeth. And, agreeably to 
 the ordinary way in which such matters have been dealt with 
 among us in modern times, when ecclesiastical studies have 
 been left to the spare moments which could be afforded from 
 the real study of classical literature, philosophy, science, 
 natural history, architecture, the belles lettres, and the fine 
 arts, the most superficial statements have been considered 
 amply sufficient to settle the question. I must take the liberty 
 however, of requesting those who are desirous of knowing the 
 truth, to inquire a little further into this matter. 
 
 The details have been given very fully by Strype, in his 
 
 Disc, of Justification, 26. Ib. 642, 643. . 
 
 t Eccl. Pol. V. Ivi. 11, vol. 2, p. 824. 
 
 \ Fragments of Answer to Christian Letter, Works, ed. Keble. vol. 2, p. 761.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 125 
 
 Life of "VVhitgift, from which I take the following account. 
 The statements of Barret which gave offence were delivered by 
 him in a sermon " ad clerum," before the University, and he 
 was first required to make a public retractation of them in the 
 same place in which the sermon was delivered, in a form of 
 words prepared for him by some of the Heads of the University. 
 As this retractation clearly shows the view of the Heads of the 
 University as to the received doctrine of our Church at that 
 time, I shall here give it entire as printed by Strype. 
 
 " When I was preaching in Latin a few days since in the Church of the 
 University, O most learned men, many things fell from me which were both 
 untruly and rashly uttered; by which I understand the minds of many 
 were wounded. That I may therefore make satisfaction to the Church and 
 the truth, both which I have publicly injured, I publicly confess, both by 
 recounting and recalling, my errors. 
 
 " First, I said that no one in this frail world was so firmly supported, at 
 least with the certainty of faith, that is, except (as I afterwards explained 
 myself) by revelation, that he ought to be secure of his own salvation. But 
 now I profess before God, and acknowledge in my conscience, that those 
 who are justified by faith have peace towards God, that is, reconciliation with 
 God, and through faith in him stand by grace. Therefore that they ought to 
 be certain and secure of their own salvation, with the certainty of faith itself. 
 
 " Secondly, I asserted that the faith of Peter could not have failed, but 
 that the faith of others may. For (as I then said) the Lord did not pray for 
 the faith of individuals. But now with a better and sounder judgment, 
 taught by the words of Christ when he said, (John xvii. 20,) ' I pray not for 
 these,' that is, the Apostles, ' only, but also for those who shall believe on 
 me through their word;' I acknowledge that Christ prayed for the faith of 
 individuals ; and that through the efficacy of that prayer of Christ all that 
 truly believe are so supported, that their faith cannot fail. 
 
 " Thirdly, As it regards final perseverance, I said that that security con- 
 cerning a thing future, and one of its own nature contingent, of which kind 
 is the perseverance of every man, was proud. Nor did I only pronounce it 
 to be proud, but most impious. But now I frankly profess, that true and 
 justifying faith, by which the faithful are most closely united to Christ, is 
 so immovable and also certain of the future, that it can never, by any 
 temptations of the flesh, the world, or the devil himself, be entirely rooted 
 out of the minds of the faithful. So that lie who once possesses it, will 
 always possess it. For by the blessing of this justifying faith Christ dwells 
 in us and we in Christ. Therefore it cannot but both increase (Christ daily 
 growing in us) and persevere even to the end, (because God bestows constancy.) 
 
 " Fourthly, I affirmed that there was no difference in faith, but in those 
 that believe. In which matter I confess that I erred. I now willingly 
 acknowledge that a temporary faith (which, as Bernard testifies, is therefore 
 feigned because it is temporary) is distinguished not in measure and degrees
 
 126 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 but intrinsically, and differs from that life-giving faith by which sinners 
 apprehending Christ are justified for ever before God ; moreover I add, that 
 James makes mention of a dead faith, and Paul of one that works by love, 
 
 " Fifthly, I added that remission of sins was an article of faith, but not 
 special to individuals, that is, (as I explained it,) thafNh'ery truly faithful 
 man neither could nor ought to believe with certainty that his sins are 
 remitted to him. But now I think otherwise, and frankly confess, that 
 every truly faithful man is bound by this Article of belief (namely, ' I believe 
 the remission of sins') to believe with certainty that his own peculiar sins 
 are freely remitted to him ; and that it does not hence follow that the petition 
 in the Lord's Prayer (namely, ' Forgive us our trespasses ') is superfluous. 
 For in that prayer we seek as well the gift as the increase of faith. 
 
 " Sixthly, These words fell from me in my sermon, namely, As it regards 
 those who are not saved, I most firmly believe, and I frankly profess that I 
 so believe, against Calvin, Peter Martyr, and the rest, that sin is the true, 
 proper, and primary cause of reprobation. But being now better taught, I 
 affirm that the reprobation of the wicked is from eternity, and that that 
 saying of Augustine to Simplician is most true, namely, ' If sin were the 
 cause of reprobation, then none would be elected, since God foreknows all 
 to be polluted with it ;' and (to act frankly) I no otherwise think and believe 
 of the doctrine of election and reprobation, than the Church of England 
 believes and teaches in the Book of the Articles of Faith, in the Article of 
 Predestination, in this manner, ' Predestination to life is the everlasting 
 purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) 
 he hath constantly decreed, by his counsel, secret to us, to deliver from curse 
 and damnation those whom he hath Aosen in Christ out of mankind, and 
 to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honor. 
 Wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be 
 called, according to God's purpose, by his Spirit working in due season; 
 they through grace obey the calling ; they be justified freely ; they be made 
 sons of God by adoption ; they be made like the image of his only begotten 
 Son Jesus Christ ; they walk religiously in good works, and at length by 
 God's mercy they attain to everlasting felicity,' &c. 
 
 " Lastly, I rashly uttered these words against John Calvin, a man who 
 has the highest claims upon the Church of Christ; namely, that he had 
 dared to exalt himself above the most high and omnipotent Son of the 
 most high and omnipotent God. By which words I confess that I did great 
 injury to a man most learned and truly pious ; and I humbly pray that 
 you will all pardon this my rashness. As well also for that I uttered 
 some very bitter expressions against Peter Martyr, Theodore Beza, Jerome 
 Zanchy, Francis Junius, and others of the same views, the lights and 
 ornaments of OUR Church ; calling them by an odious name ' CalvinistsJ 
 and with other words of reproach branding them with the most grievous 
 mark of infamy. Whom since our Church deservedly reveres, it was not 
 right that I should injure their character, or in any way lessen their 
 reputation, or dissuade any of the members of our communion from reading 
 their most learned writings.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 127 
 
 " Therefore I repent and am ashamed of this most grievous scandal, 
 given publicly by me to this most celebrated University, which is a temple 
 of true religion, a sanctuary of piety ; and I promise that by God's help I 
 will never so offend for the future. And I earnestly entreat you, O most 
 accomplished men, and all others whom I have offended either in the 
 preceding points, or in any other part of my aforesaid sermon, that of your 
 humanity you will pardon me on my repentance."* 
 
 * " Mr. Barret's retractation of some points deli vered by him in his Clerum 
 at St. Mary's, anno 1595. 
 
 " (MSS. cod. in Biblioth. Coll. Trin. Cantab.) 
 
 " Concionanti mihi Latino ante paucos dies in Acadeinuu templo (ornatissimi 
 Viri) multa ceciderunt, et falso et temere dicta : quibus njultorum animos exul- 
 ceratos intelligo. Ut ergo Ecclesias et veritati, quas publice laesi, ?atisfaciam, 
 confiteor publice, et recensendo et revocando, errores meos. 
 
 " Primo, Dixi neminem in hoc fragili rauudo tanta firmitate esse suffultum, 
 saltern certitudine fidei, f. e., nisi (ut postea exposui) per revelationern, ut de 
 salute sua debeat esse securus. Nunc vero coram Deo profiteer, et in conscicntia 
 mea agnosco, fide justificatos pacem habere erga Deum, i. e. reconciliationem 
 cum Deo, et per fidem in iftp gratia stare. Ergo debere eos de salute sua, fidei 
 ipsius certitudine, certos esse et secures. 
 
 Secund6, Petri fidem deficere non potuisse asserui, at aliorum posse. Nam 
 pro fide singulorum (ut tune dixi) non oravit Dominus. Nunc vero meliori et 
 eaniore judicio, dicentis Christi verbis edoctus, (Johan. xvii. 20,) Non pro Us, sciL 
 Apostolis, rogo tantum, sed et pro us, gui per sermonem eorum crcdituri sunt in 
 me; agnosco pro singulorum fide Christum ordsse; et illius Christi precationis 
 efScacia, ita esse singnlos vere credentes suffultos, ut eorum fides nequeat 
 deficere. 
 
 Tertio, Quoad finalem perseverantiam, superbam esse dixi illam securitatem 
 de futuro, eoque natura sua contingent! : cujus generis est uniuscujusque hominis 
 perseverantia. Neque tantum superbam affirmavi, sed impiissimam. Nunc vero 
 ingenue profiteer, fidem veram et justificantem, qua fideles arctissime Christo 
 uniuntur, ita esse fixam, et de futuro etiam certam, ut nunquam possit ullis ten- 
 tationibus carnis, mundr, ant ipsius diaboli, e fidelium animis radicitus evelli. 
 Adeo ut, qui hanc semel habet, semper sit habiturus. Ejus enim fidei justifican- 
 tis beneficio, Christus in nobis habitat, et nos in Christo. Ergo uon potest non 
 et augeri (Christo in nobis indies crescente) et ad finem usque (quia Deus con- 
 stantiam largitur) perseverare. 
 
 Quart6, In fid/nullam esse distinctionem aflSrmavi, sed hi credentibus. Qua 
 in re me errasse fateor. Nunc libenter agnosco, fidem temporariam (quae idcirco 
 ficta est, teste Bernardo, quia temporaria) non mensnra et gradibus sed reipsa 
 distingui, et differri a fide ilia salutifera, qua peccatores Christum apprehendentes, 
 coram Deo in setemum justificantur ; praeterea addo, Jacobum facere mentionem 
 fidei mortuffl, et Paulum, per dilectionem operantis. 
 
 Quinto, Subjunxi remissionem peccatorum esse articulum fidei, sed non spe- 
 cialem, nee hujus, nee illus, L e. (nt ego exposui,) nee posse, nee debere quen- 
 quam vere fidelem certo credere, peccata sua esse sibi remissa. Jam vero aliter 
 sentio, et ingenu^ confiteor, unumquemque vere fidelem, hoc articulo fidei (sc. 
 Credo remissionem peccatorum) teneri, certd credere sua ipsius peccata par-
 
 128 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Such was the form drawn up by the Heads of the Uni- 
 versity as Barret's retractation ; and very remarkable evidence 
 it affords us of the received doctrine of our Church in that 
 day. 
 
 This retractation was read by Barret ; but having been de- 
 livered by him so as to imply that it did not express his views, 
 
 ticularia esse sibi gratuito remissa. Nee tamen hinc sequi petitionem illam 
 orationis Domini (viz. JRemitte nobis debita nostra) esse supervacaneam. In ilia 
 enim petitione petimus fidei turn donum, turn incrementum. 
 
 Sexto, Hwec verba mihi in concione exciderunt, viz. Quod ad eos attinet qui 
 mm servantur, firmissime credo, et me sic credere ingenue profiteer, contra 
 Calvinum, P. Martyrem, et reliquos, peccatum esse veram, propriam et primam 
 causam reprobationis. Sed melius nunc edoctus clico, reprobationem impiorum 
 esse ab teterno, et illud Augustini ad Simplician. esse verissimum, viz., Si 
 peccatum esset causa reprobationis, turn nullus eligeretur, cum praesciat Deus 
 omnes eo contaminatos ; et (ut ingenue agam) non aliter sentio et credo de 
 doctrina electionis et reprobationis, quam Ecclesia Anglicana credit et docet libro 
 de articulis fidei, articulo prsedestinationis, in hunc modum : ' PrBedestinatio ad 
 ' vitam est a-ternum Dei propositum, quo ante jacta mundi fundamenta, suo 
 ' consilio, nobis quidem occulto, constanter decrevit, eos, quos in Christo elegit ex 
 'hominum genere, a maledicto et exitio liberare, atque (ut vasa in honorem 
 'efficta) per Christum ad scternam salutem adducere. Undo qui tarn prseclaro 
 ' Dei beneficio sunt donati, illi Spiritu ejus, opportuno tempore, operante, secundum 
 'propositum ejus vocantur; vocation! per gratiam parent ; justificantur gratis ; 
 ' adoptantur in filios Dei ; unigeniti ejus filii Jesu Christi imagini efficiuntur 
 'conformes; in bonis operibus sancte ambulant; et demum ex Dei misericordia 
 'pertingunt ad sempiternam felicitatem,' <fec. 
 
 Postremo, Temere haec verba effudi adversus Johannem Calvinum, virum de 
 Ecclesia Christi optime meritum; eum nimirum ausum fuisse scse attollere supra 
 altissimi et omnipotentis Dei verfe altissimum et omnipotentem Filium. Quibus 
 verbis me viro doctissimo vereque pio magnum injuriam fecisse fateor; t'emeri- 
 tatemque hanc meam, ut omnes condonetis humillime precor. Turn etiam quod 
 nonnulla adversus P. Martyrem, Theodorum Bezam, Ilieronym. Zanchium, 
 Franciscum Junium, et ca;teros ejusdem religionis, Ecclcsicc noslrce lumina et 
 ornamenta, acerbissime effuderim ; eos odioso nomine appellans Calvinistas. et 
 aliis verbis ignominiic gravissimam infamise notam inurens. Quos quia Ecclesia 
 nontra mcrito rcvcrelur, non erat rcquum, ut ego corum famam violarem, aut 
 existimationem aliqua ratione imminuerem ; aut aliquos e nostris dehortarer, ne 
 eorum doctissima ecripta legerent. 
 
 Hujus igitur gravissimi scandali,a me publice dati, celeberrim;r huic Academine, 
 qufc est venc religionis templum, pietatis sncrarium, me posnitet, pigetque, et 
 polliceor me nunquam ita in postcrum, Deo dante, delicturum. Et a vobis 
 (omatisimi Viri) aliisque omnibus, quibus vel in pnucedentibus articulis, vel in 
 aliqua alia pnrdictin ooncionis men; parte. hoc prrcbui ofFencliculum, obnixe rogo, 
 ut pro veslra humanitate pO3nitenti mihi ignoscatis. (Strype's Whitgift, iii. 
 317.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 129 
 
 his conduct with respect to it did not give the University satis- 
 faction, and an appeal was made by both parties to the Arch- 
 bishop, who required the Heads of the University to examine 
 him upon the subject. Now, of the questions put to him in 
 this examination, the 6th was, " Whether (rod from eternity 
 hath predestinated certain men to life, and reprobated certain. 
 And why ? " No doubt the reader who has only heard of 
 Barret as the opponent of Calvinism will expect to find his 
 answer quite opposed to the " Calvinistic " view of the subject. 
 But, on the contrary, what is it? "To the sixth Article," 
 says Strype, "he answered only in these words, affirmative, 
 et quia voluit"* That is, his reply was, as he himself after- 
 wards gave it to the Archbishop, " affirmatively, and because 
 so God would." He traces this predestination and reprobation 
 to God's sovereign will. His replies, however, on other points 
 were unsatisfactory, both to the Heads of the University and 
 the Archbishop, and the consequence was, he " came to a 
 second examination at Lambeth, before the Archbishop and 
 one or two of the Heads," in which, answering more fully the 
 first question that had been proposed to him, he observes, " I 
 most firmly believe that the elect cannot fall away finally."! 
 Consequently, after all, according to modern phraseology, he was 
 a decided Calvinist. And if we want a proof of this so-called 
 Calvinism being the universally received doctrine of our Church 
 in the reign of Elizabeth, Barret's case is the one to supply us 
 with it ; as showing that even one who incurred the censures 
 of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the University of Cam- 
 bridge for his opposition to certain Calvinistic doctrines, yet 
 nevertheless held these points as firmly as the rest. 
 
 The truth is, that the points then questioned by him and a 
 few others in our Church, were entirely distinct from these. 
 To go fully into the controversy would occupy too large a 
 space here. But it may be briefly stated, that they related 
 principally to the subjects of reprobation, and assurance of 
 salvation ; in the first of which he maintained, " that in the 
 case of those who are not saved, sin is the true, proper, and 
 
 * Strype's Whit^ift, book 4. c. 16, p. 453, or, vol. 2, pp. 263, 264. 
 f Strype's Whitgift, p. 457 ; or, ii. 273. 
 9 .
 
 130 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 primary cause of reprobation,"* which was considered an un- 
 orthodox statement, both by the Heads and also by the famous 
 Dr. Saravia, (whose judgment the Archbishop requested on the 
 whole matter, and which is given by Strype,)t although it is 
 admitted by them, that "in the execution of (rod's decree 
 there is always respect to sin, and the cause of damnation is 
 in the wicked themselves :"$ in the latter, the Archbishop (as 
 he himself states) did not understand him as denying that the 
 faithful might be assured of their salvation by the certainty 
 of faith, but that they were assured by the certainty of such a 
 faith as that with which they believe the omnipotence and 
 unity of the Godhead, &c. 
 
 The whole controversy clearly shows, that the most 
 thoroughly Calvinistic views of doctrine on all these points 
 were then almost universally held in our Church. For al- 
 though the Archbishop and the Heads of the University differed 
 a little in some points, yet Barret's statements were considered 
 by both as involving various important errors, and gave rise to 
 what are called the Lambeth Articles, which I shall notice 
 presently. 
 
 I have already mentioned that the Archbishop applied to 
 Dr. Saravia for his judgment in this matter. The paper he 
 wrote on the subject is given by Strype,ll and is well worth 
 the reader's perusal, as the judgment of a learned, able, and 
 moderate man of that period. I will not, however, detain 
 the reader with it here, further than to observe, that on the 
 two points of gratuitous election and predestination, and final 
 perseverance, his testimony is of the strongest kind in de- 
 fence of the " Calvinistic " view. " That there is no cause," 
 he says, " of election and predestination besides the gratuitous 
 mercy of God, has always been beyond controversy among- all 
 orthodox persons ."H With respect to reprobation, however, 
 he considered the case to be different, it being the desert of 
 sin. On the question of perseverance he maintains, that to 
 
 Ib. p. 436, or, ii. 230. 
 f Ib. p. 442 ; or, ii. 241-243, and Appendix. 
 
 % Ib. p. 446 ; or, ii. 249. Ib. p. 466 ; or, ii. 270. 
 
 | Whitgift's Life, App. book 4, No. 24. 
 ^ Strype's Whitgift, App. to book 4, No. 24, p. 196 ; or Ki. 881.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. J31 
 
 the predestinate such a gift of perseverance is given, as that 
 while without it they would not be able to persevere, with it 
 they cannot but persevere"* On the other points he mode- 
 rates with much ability between Barret and the Heads of the 
 University. 
 
 I now come to the Lambeth Articles, which are of great 
 importance, as showing us the judgment of the then Arch- 
 bishops of Canterbury and York, and several of the most 
 eminent divines of that period. 
 
 These Articles were drawn up at a meeting at Lambeth 
 in November, 1595, at which were present the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury ; Dr. Fletcher, Bishop of Bristol, but elect of 
 London ; Dr. R. Vaughan, elect of Bangor ; Dr. Tyndal, 
 Dean of Ely ; Dr. Whitaker, and some other Cambridge di- 
 vines.t 
 
 The Articles are thus given by Strype. 
 
 " Articles approved by the Most Reverend Lord, John, Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, and Richard, Bishop of London, and other divines, at Lambeth, 
 the 20th of November, in the year 1595. 
 
 " 1. God has from eternity predestinated some to life, and reprobated 
 some to death. 
 
 " 2. The moving or efficient cause of predestination to life is not the 
 prevision of faith, or perseverance, or good works, or anything which exists 
 in the persons predestinated, but the sole pleasure of the goodwill of God. 
 
 " & The number of the predestinated is foreordained and certain, and 
 can neither be increased nor diminished. 
 
 " 4. They who are not predestinated to salvation will necessarily be 
 condemned on account of their sins. 
 
 " 5. True, living, justifying faith, and the sanctifying Spirit of God, is 
 not extinguished, does not fail, is not lost in the elect, either finally or 
 totally. 
 
 " 6. A man truly faithful, that is, endued with justifying faith, is cer- 
 tain, with the full assurance of faith, of the remission of his sins, and his 
 eternal salvation through Christ. 
 
 " 7. Saving grace is not given, is not communicated, is not granted to 
 all men, by which they may be saved, if they will. 
 
 " 8. No one can come to Christ, except it shall have been given him 
 to do so, and unless the Father shall have drawn him. And all men are 
 not drawn by the Father so as to come to the Son. 
 
 " 9. It is not placed in the will or power of every man to be saved."J 
 
 Ib. p. 194, or iii. 330. 
 
 f Heylm's Quinquart Hist. Part 8, c. 20. 
 
 \ Articuli approbati a Reverendiss. Dom. D. D Joanne Arcbiepiscope
 
 132 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS, 
 
 These propositions the Archbishop of Canterbury sent to 
 Dr. Matthew Hutton, Archbishop of York, who had been 
 Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge from 1562 ta 
 1567, (when he was succeeded by Whitgift himself,} for his 
 judgment ; which he gave in favor of each seriatim. " And 
 then," says Strype, 
 
 " He subscribed his name after these words, Ha, theses ex sacris literis 
 vel aperte colligi vel necessaria consecutions deduct possunt ; etex scriptis 
 Augustini. Matth. Ebor." * 
 
 These propositions the Archbishop of Canterbury sent to 
 Cambridge with a letter to the Heads, " praying them to take 
 care that nothing should be publicly taught to the contrary ;" 
 adding, however, " that the propositions nevertheless must so 
 be taken and used as their private judgments ; thinking them 
 to be true and correspondent to the doctrine professed in the 
 Church of England, and established by the laws of -the land ; 
 and not as laws and decrees."! 
 
 And in a paper drawn up, as Strype supposes, " for the in- 
 
 Cantuariensi et Richardo Episcopo Londinensi et aliia Theologis, Lambethae. 
 Novembris 20, anno 1595. 
 
 1. Deus ab aeterno proedestinavh qvrosdam ad vitam, et quosdam ad mortem 
 reprobavit. 
 
 2. Causa movens aut efficiens prnedestinationis ad vitam non est pr;c visio fidei, 
 aut perseverantise, aut bonorum operum, aut ullius rei, qua) insit in personis- 
 prsedestinatis, sed sola voluntas beneplaciti Dei. 
 
 3. Priudestinatorum prscfinitus et certus numcrus est, qui nee augeri nee 
 minui potest. 
 
 4. Qui non sunt pra.'destinati ad salutem necessario propter peccata sua 
 damnabuntur. 
 
 6. Vera, viva, justificans fides, et Spiritus Dei sanctificans, non extinguitur, 
 non excidit, non -evanescit in electis, aut finalitnr aut totaliter. 
 
 6. Homo vere fidelis, id est, fide justificant pra-ditus, certus est plerophoria 
 fidei de remissione peccatorum suornm et salute sempiterna sua per Christum. 
 
 7- Gratia salutaris non tribuitur, non comtnunicatur, non conceditur universia 
 hominibus, qua servari possint, si voluermt. 
 
 8. Nemo potest venire ad Christum, nisi datum ei fuerit, et nisi Pater eum 
 traxerit. Et omnes homines non trahtmtur a Patre, ut veniant ad Filium. 
 
 0. Non est positum in arbitrio aut potestate uniuscujusque hominis servari, 
 (Strype's Whitgift, book 4, c. 17, p. 461 ; or ii. 280.) 
 
 * Strype's Whitgift, book 4, c. 17, p. 461 ; or ii. 280 ; and see also his con- 
 firmation of this opinion, ib. p. 478 ; or ii. 814. 
 
 fib.
 
 : EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 133 
 
 formation of some great men" as to this whole affair of Barret, 
 the Archbishop says of these propositions, 
 
 " I know them to be sound doctrines and uniformly professed in this 
 Church of England, and agreeable to the Articles of religion established by 
 authority. And therefore I thought it meet that Barret should in more 
 humble sort confess his ignorance and error: and that none should be 
 Buffered to teach any contrary doctrine to the foresaid propositions agreed 
 upon. And this is the sum of all this action. And if this agreement be 
 not maintained, further contentions will grow, to the animating the com- 
 mon adversaries, the Papists : by whose practice Barret and others are set 
 on. Some of his opinions being indeed Popish."* 
 
 From these propositions, then, it clearly appears what was 
 the view then entertained in the highest places of the Church, 
 as to the doctrine of the Church of England. The value and 
 force of the testimony I leave the reader to appreciate. He 
 may also, I suppose, easily determine the question, whether 
 in the face of these proceedings within a few years of the es- 
 tablishment of our standards of doctrine, and of the affirma- 
 tions here made of such doctrine having been the uniform 
 doctrine of our Church, it can be maintained, not merely that 
 these propositions go beyond the express statements of our 
 Articles, (which is a totally different question,) but that the 
 statements of the two are opposed to each other. 
 
 It was not likely, "however, that such explicit statements 
 of doctrine should be received with universal satisfaction ; and, 
 moreover, the very circumstance of their being put forth with- 
 out the royal sanction excited the jealousy of the Queen. It 
 appears from a letter of the Archbishop to the Heads, that the 
 Queen, though ''persuaded of the truth of the propositions ," 
 " did think it to be utterly unfit that the 'same should any 
 ways be publicly dealt with either in sermons or disputations," 
 and supposed that they had been sent to the University for 
 this purpose."! And she was still more angry with Baro, the 
 Margaret Professor of Divinity, for publicly maintaining doc- 
 trine which appeared contrary to some of the propositions. $ 
 
 And, as I have observed, it was not to be expected that the 
 
 Ib. c. 16, p. 459; orii. 277. 
 
 f Ib. book 4, c. 17, p. 463 ; or ii. 284. 
 
 $ Ib. p. 465 ; or ii. 287, 288.
 
 134 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 statements of these propositions should meet with universal 
 assent. Accordingly we find, that though they met with no- 
 direct and open opposition, the authority which promulgated 
 them being sufficient to prevent that, they were secretly dis- 
 liked by many ; who took the course, too common in such 
 cases, of professing to receive them, while they explained away 
 their meaning. 
 
 The leader of the dissentients was Baro, the Margaret 
 Professor of Divinity, who was several times convened before 
 the Heads, and charged with opposing the doctrine contained 
 in these Articles, and maintaining various errors. These 
 errors were what would now be called Arminianism.* The 
 charge of opposing the doctrine maintained in the Lambeth 
 Articles, he denied ; but nevertheless, after a careful exami- 
 nation of his judgment of those Articles sent to the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, at his request, I must confess that I cannot 
 consider him as a maintainer of the doctrine contained in 
 them ; and I am not surprised that the Archbishop of York r 
 when asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury for his judgment 
 respecting him, " in his answer showed how little he liked of 
 him and his learning, wishing that he were in his own country 
 and not to disturb the peace of our <7/*wc/j."f His conduct 
 seems to me to have been what we should now call very Trac- 
 tarian, that is, thoroughly disingenuous ; and in the following 
 year he resigned his Professorship and retired from Cambridge.t 
 His " orthodox explication," as he called it, of the Larnbeth 
 Articles is given by Strype, and was, I think, clearly in- 
 tended to strain them in what would now be called an 
 " Arminian " direction. 
 
 Of course, however, when we consider the way in which 
 his case was taken up, and his being obliged in consequence 
 to retire from Cambridge, his example is anything but a proof 
 that his doctrine is that of our Church, but much the contrary- 
 In fact, the remark made by Heylin himself when noticing 
 
 Ib. book 4, cc. 17 and 18. 
 
 f Ib. p. 476 ; or ii. 309. See also a letter of the Heads to their Chancellor, 
 Strype's Annals, Records No. 160. 
 
 \ Strype'a Annals, ii. 1. 668, book 1, c. 86. 
 Strype's Whitgift, App. book 4, No. 2&
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 13 
 
 this case, shows this. " Such," he says, " was the condition 
 of affairs at Cambridge at the expiring of the year 1595, the 
 genuine doctrine of the Church BEGINNING then to break through 
 the clouds of Calvinism, wherewith it was before obscured^ 
 and to shine forth again in its former lustre."* It is here ad- 
 mitted that the Anti-Calvinistic doctrine began to show itself 
 publicly in our Church in 1595 ; and the insinuations that it 
 is " the genuine doctrine of our Church," and began then to 
 shine forth " in its former lustre," are merely groundless 
 assertions made to mislead the reader ; because it is not pre- 
 tended that this " genuine doctrine " had made its appearance 
 publicly in any former period of Queen Elizabeth's reign, that 
 is, at any time since the present Formularies of our Church 
 were established. From the period of their establishment, at 
 the commencement of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to the year 
 1595, the doctrine now called Calvinism, on the points of elec- 
 tion, predestination, and final perseverance, was the almost uni- 
 versal doctrine of our divines, and consequently is, of necessity, 
 most in accordance with those Formularies ; unless we suppose 
 that the very men who established them voluntarily made them 
 such as they could not themselves conscientiously subscribe. 
 I must observe, however, before I pass on, that even Baro 
 appears to have held the doctrine of final perseverance, so far 
 as Augustine's view of it extended ; for, in his remarks on the 
 fifth Article of Lambeth, he says, after maintaining that justi- 
 fying faith is sometimes lost, " Nevertheless in the elect, as 
 this Article rightly teaches, it is not finally lost. Nay fur- 
 ther, when in these very elect the whole is sometimes lost, 
 yet in a sense it may be said that it is not totally lost; that 
 is, it is not so lost in the elect, but that it is afterwards 
 restored through penitence."! And it is admitted by Heylin 
 when compelled to confess that Overall was of this opinion, 
 that several others whom he would fain have been able 
 to range on his own side, took this view. " Nor can it 
 
 * Quinquart. Hist Pt. 3, c. 22, 6. 
 
 f In electis tamcn, ut recte docet hie articulus, non amittitur finaliter. Imo 
 quando in his ipsis electis sell, tota interdum amittitur, aliquo tamen sensu dici 
 potest non amit ti totuliter : id eat, non amitti in electis, quin per pcenitentiam 
 postea restauretur.
 
 136 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM ITS INFANTS. 
 
 be denied," he says, to use his own peculiar phraseology, but 
 " that some other learned men of those times were of the same 
 opinion also."* The question which one would have been 
 glad to ask him is, what learned men of those times in our 
 Church were not of that opinion ? 
 
 The views of Baro were very probably participated in, to a 
 certain extent, by several others ; but Strype mentions only 
 the names of Overall, Clayton, Harsnet, and Andrews. t And 
 I can find no others added even by Heylin as taking his part 
 at that time. 
 
 What Dr. Clayton's particular views were, or how far he 
 agreed with Baro, I cannot find ,* there not being, as far as I 
 am aware, any record of his judgment upon the points in 
 question. 
 
 The views of Harsnet, who was afterwards promoted to 
 the Episcopal Bench, and ultimately in the times of Charles I. 
 became Archbishop of York, may be judged of by a sermon 
 originally preached by him in 1584, but not published till 
 1656,t many years after his death, which took place in 1631. 
 From this sermon, (the delay in the publication of which is 
 somewhat remarkable,) it would appear that his views were 
 what we should now call Arminian. But I suppose the mere 
 fact that such a sermon was preached, especially considering 
 that it was never published till 1656, can hardly be considered 
 of much weight. 
 
 The views of Andrews, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, 
 may be best gathered from his judgment on the Lambeth 
 Articles. They are propounded with much wisdom, learning 
 and moderation. And I cannot refrain from quoting, for the 
 benefit of over zealous spirits on both sides, his opening re- 
 marks in giving his judgment. 
 
 "The first four Articles are about Predestination and Reprobation ; of 
 which the one is called by the Apostle, ' the depth [of the riches of the 
 wisdom and knowledge of God '], the other by the prophet ' a great deep,' 
 Rom. xi. 33 ; Psal. xxxvi. 6. I indeed frankly confess, I have followed 
 
 * Quinq. Hist. Pt. 8, c. 22, 6. 
 f Life of Whitgift, book 4, c. 18, p. 478 : or ii. 303. 
 
 $ Three Sermons by Dr. R. Stuart, to which is added a fourth by the Right 
 Rev. S, Harsnet, <fec. Lend. 1656, 12mo., 2nd ed. 1658, 12mo.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 137 
 
 Augustine's advice, these mysteries which I cannot unfold I have viewed 
 with admiration as they lie concealed ; and hence that for these sixteen 
 years, ever since I was made priest, I have neither publicly nor privately 
 disputed about them, or written a sermon on them ; and that now I had 
 rather hear than speak concerning them. And indeed, since the topic is 
 one in which the danger of falling is great, and which has on both sides 
 dangerous precipices, and since the passages from St. Paul's writings, from 
 whence the doctrine is commonly drawn, are always held to be among those 
 things hard to be understood (of which Peter speaks :) and since there are 
 not many among the clergy who are able wisely and cleverly to explain 
 and unravel these things, and very few of the people that are fit and 
 competent hearers of the matter, I should advise, if it could be done, that 
 silence should be enjoined on both sides, and that these things should not 
 be so indiscriminately and crudely set forth by every body as they are 
 wont to be." * 
 
 The judgment he gives upon the statements of the Articles 
 however, though very cautious and temperate, and not quite 
 so clear as could have been desired, seems to me clearly to 
 show that his views had what we should now call an Arminian 
 bias, except as to the doctrine of final perseverance, which he 
 distinctly maintains in his remarks on the fifth Article, which 
 are as follows, 
 
 " Certainly no one, I believe, ever said, That faith finally fails in the 
 elect. It certainly does not fail. But that it does not fail is, I think, 
 owing to the nature of its subject, not its own from the privilege of the 
 person, not of the thing. And this on account of apostates, who ought not 
 to be charged with falling from faith, their faith never having been true 
 and lively. But whether the Holy Spirit may for a time be taken away or 
 extinguished, is, I think, yet a question. I confess that I am in doubt on 
 the subject."f 
 
 * Quatuor priores articuli de pracdestiiiatione snnt et reprobatione ; quarum 
 ilia ab apostolo dicitur, fl j3*9oc, hcec a propheta, abyssus multa, Rom. xi. 83, 
 Psal. xxxvi. 6. Ego certe ingenue fateor, sequutus sum Augustini consilium, 
 mysteria hacc quse aperire non possum, clausa miratus sum, et proinde, per hos 16 
 annos, ex quo presbyter sum factus, me neque publice nequet privatim vel 
 disputasse de eis, vcl pro concione tractasse ; etiam nunc quoque malle de eia 
 audire quam dicere. Et quidem cum lubricus locus sit, et habeat utrinque peri- 
 culosa praecipitia, cumque loci Paulini, unde fere eruitur, inter JWmra ilia (de 
 quibus Petrus) semper sint habiti, cumque nee multi in clero sint, qui ea dextre 
 expedire, et perpauci in populo qui idonei illius auditores esse possint, suaderem, 
 si fieri posset, ut indiceretur utrinque silentium, nee ita passim et crude propone- 
 rentur a quibusque ut assolet," Ac. 
 
 f Certe nemo unquam dixerit, credo, Fidem in electis finaliter excidere. nia 
 vero non excidit Sed quod non excidat, hoc habere existimo a natura subject!
 
 138 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 He then adduces some passages of Scripture to prove the 
 affirmative of this last question, and finally adds, 
 
 u Although I am aware that this very phrase, that faith cannot be totally 
 lost, may be thus explained ; that although the whole of it may be lost, it 
 cannot be lost wholly for good or irrecoverably, that is, so lost that there 
 is no opportunity for men to return whence they fell." * 
 
 There remains for consideration the case of Overall, after- 
 wards Dean of St/Paul's and Bishop of Norwich. But this is 
 one of a different kind, and one which will repay the trouble 
 of investigation. Although there were some points in which 
 he agreed with Baro, and that he did not altogether hold with 
 the Lambeth Articles, yet he did not agree with the Arminian 
 doctrine. His views in fact were somewhat peculiar, and 
 took a middle course between the Calvinistic and Arminian 
 views on the subject ; and although it cannot be conceded that 
 they were precisely the views held by the Reformers of our 
 Church when drawing up the Articles, yet they may be ad- 
 mitted to be fairly included in the intentionally comprehensive 
 phraseology of our Articles. To my mind they are well worth 
 consideration. 
 
 His opinion upon the points to which I am here more ex- 
 pressly referring, was given in connexion with the famous 
 Quinqu articular controversy that arose early in the 17th cen- 
 tury in Belgium, and led to the Synod of Dort, in which he 
 took a middle view of the points in question between the two 
 parties. 
 
 His judgment on this controversy (which has been referred 
 to and quoted by Bishop Davenant in his Answer to Hoard, 
 and largely by Bishop Hall in his Via Media) has never been 
 published,* but their quotations have enabled me to identify it 
 
 Bui, non sua ; ex privilegio personce, non rei. Atque hoc propter apostatas, qui- 
 bus vitio dari nou debet, quod excidant a fide, qua; vcra ct viva nunquam fuit. 
 An vero SpirituinSanctus ad tempus auferri aut extingui possit, existimo quteri 
 adhuo posse ; fateor hirrere me. 
 
 * Etsi non sum nescius, et hoc ipsum, non posse amitti totaliter, exponi posse 
 sic, in totum prorsus vel penitua amitti nequeat, esti tola amittatur, id est, ita 
 amitti, ut non sit locus reverteudi, unde exciderunt. (Hist. Artie. Lambeth, ad 
 finem Ford, in Art. 89, pp. 425 et seq. 
 
 t A Btatement of the doctrine of our Church on the five Articles involved in 
 thia controversy, attributed to Overall, has often been published in the " Historia
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 139 
 
 in two MSS. in the Harleian Collection in the British Museum ; 
 in one of which, (I may add,) though it occurs anonymously, 
 it is placed in juxtaposition with several acknowledged pieces 
 of Overall. Not having been published, I shall present the 
 reader with the whole of it as it there stands. 
 
 " There are five Articles controverted in Belgium. 
 
 " 1. Concerning the Divine Predestination. 
 
 " 2. Concerning the Death of Christ. 
 
 " 3. Concerning Free Will and Grace. 
 
 " 4. Concerning the mode of the operation of Divine grace. 
 
 " 5. Concerning the perseverance of believers. 
 
 "Respecting which the Remonstrants or Arminians, and the Contra- 
 remonstrants or Puritans, defend opposite tenets ; between which our Church 
 much more correctly (as it appears to me) holds the middle path. 
 
 " 1. Concerning the Divine predestination. 
 
 First, the Remonstrants maintain a general Decree of predestination, 
 and conditional upon faith, according to the general Evangelical promise 
 of the salvation of all men on account of Christ having died for them, if 
 through the word and the Holy Spirit aiding it they believe in him with a 
 lively and persevering faith. 
 
 " [The Remonstrants maintain] secondly, a special and absolute Decree, 
 arising from the foreknowledge of faith, respecting the salvation of those 
 men in particular of whom God foresaw that they would through grace 
 believe ; and on the other hand the damnation of those of whom He foresaw 
 that they would remain in sin impenitent and unbelieving. And this is the 
 judgment of the ancient Fathers, before Augustine, and of many after him, 
 of many also of the Papists, the Lutherans, and many others. 
 
 " In the second place, the Contra-remonstrants, excluding a general and 
 conditional Decree, maintain an exclusive particular and absolute Decree 
 respecting certain individuals selected out of the human race to have faith 
 and perseverance bestowed upon them, and to be saved, for the sake of the 
 death of Christ, suffered for them only, through the efficacious and irresis- 
 tible grace of the Holy Spirit, enjoyed by them alone : all the rest being 
 rejected and condemned by an absolute Decree. And this is the view of 
 Zuingle. Calvin, and the Puritans, unknown to all the ancient Fathers, even 
 to Augustine and his followers, rejected by most of [one MS. reads, all] the 
 Papists, all the Lutherans, and many others." 
 
 Artie. Lambeth." annexed to Ellis's " Defens. Artie." and Ford's " Comment, in 
 Artie. 1720," 8vo.; but I cannot find the authority for calling him the author of 
 it ; although it may very possibly have been -written by him, as it seems to 
 accord -with his general views. It was first published, I believe, at the end of 
 Bishop Davenant's "Dissertationes duae de morte Christi et de pnedestina- 
 tione. Cant. 1650," fol, where it is attributed to Davenaut, but certainly by mis- 
 take.
 
 140 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 [I doubt whether some of the parties here mentioned would have allowed 
 this to be a fair statement of their views.] 
 
 " In the third place, our Church, holding a middle path, JOINS a particular 
 absolute Decree, not arising from the foreknowledge of human faith or will, 
 but from the purpose of the Divine will and grace, respecting the liberation 
 and salvation of those whom God hath chosen in Christ, with a general and 
 conditional will, or a general Evangelical promise; teaching that the 
 Divine promises are so to be embraced by us as they are generally set forth 
 in the Holy Scriptures, and that that will of God is to be followed by us 
 which we have clearly revealed in the word namely, that God gave his 
 Son for the world or the whole human race ; that Christ offered himself a 
 sacrifice for all the sins of the whole world ; that Christ redeemed the whole 
 human race ; that Christ ordered the Gospel to be preached to all ; that 
 God wills and commands all to hear Christ, and believe in him, and that 
 he has set forth grace and salvation for all in him ; and that this is an 
 infallible truth in which there can be no error. Otherwise that the Apostles 
 and other ministers of the Gospel preaching this are false witnesses of God, 
 and make God a liar, &c. ; and this opinion agrees with the opinion of 
 Augustine, as it is explained by Prosper and Fulgentius. It is the more 
 common opinion of the Church since Augustine. And these two things 
 agree very well together, that God in the first place proposed salvation in 
 Christ to all, if they believed, and common and sufficient grace, in the 
 means divinely ordained, if men were not wanting to the word of God and 
 the Holy Spirit : Then, secondly, that He might help human infirmity, and 
 that the salvation of men might be more certain, that he thought good to 
 add a special grace, more efficacious and abundant, to be communicated to 
 whom He pleased, by which not only they might be able to believe or obey, if 
 so inclined, but also actually be inclined, believe, obey and persevere, according 
 to the saying of Augustine, The God and Lord of all has so ordered the life 
 of angels and men, that in it he might first show what their free will could 
 do, then what the blessing of his grace and the communication of righteous- 
 ness could do. 
 
 " 2. Concerning the Death of Christ. 
 
 " In like manner concerning the death of Christ undergone for men, 
 there are three opinions. 
 
 " The first, that Christ died for all men, and by his death redeemed 
 the whole human race, with a general and conditional intention on the 
 part of God of giving salvation to all for the sake of Christ's death, on the 
 condition of faith dependent on the free co-operation of men under grace. 
 
 " The second, contrary to the first, that Christ did not die for all men, 
 &c., and did not redeem the whole human race, &c., and that God did not 
 in any way or under any condition purpose or intend to give salvation or 
 grace for the sake of Christ to any others than to the elect alone. 
 
 " The third, while it grants the death of Christ for all men, and the 
 conditional intention of God respecting the general grace of the Evangelical 
 promise, adds the special intention of God concerning the application of the 
 benefit of the death of Christ, through more abundant and efficacious grace,
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 141 
 
 absolutely , certainly, and infallibly, to the elect alone, without any prejudice 
 to others, or any diminution of will and common and sufficient grace in the 
 case of others. 
 
 " 3. Concerning Free Will and Grace. 
 
 " Concerning Free Will and Grace, all agree that the Free Will can do 
 nothing good without grace praevenient, accompanying, and following after, 
 so that grace may hold the beginning, the middle, and the end, both in con- 
 version, and faith, and every good work. But they differ in this, that The 
 first opinion lays it down, that influential grace is so joined with the word 
 heard, understood, and meditated upon, that to all willing to do that, it is 
 in some degree common. The second maintains that grace is proper and 
 peculiar to the elect alone, and does not admit that it is in any way common 
 to all. The third joins together both kinds of grace, so acknowledging a 
 common and sufficient grace connected with the word, as to maintain also 
 a special and efficacious grace, leading with certainty to salvation, peculiar 
 to those whom God has chosen in Christ of his own gracious good pleasure. 
 11 4. On the mode of the operation of Divine Grace. 
 
 " The first opinion lays it down, that grace so works in man, as not to 
 take away the liberty of the human will, but to preserve it ; that man is 
 so enabled by grace to believe and obey, as that he is able also by his free 
 will to resist grace. 
 
 " The second opinion maintains the irresistible operation of grace, so 
 that wherever it is, it unalterably inclines and leads the mind to assent and 
 obedience. 
 
 {; The third teaches that men are so influenced and moved by grace, that 
 they both can follow the grace that calls and moves, if they apply themselves 
 to it, and also can resist the Divine call and influence by their Free Will, 
 and too often do resist; but it adds, that God, when he wills, and to whom he 
 wills, gives grace so abundant, powerful, or suitable, or in some other way 
 efficacious, that although the will is able to resist it, on account of its liberty, 
 yet it does not resist, but certainly and infallibly complies ; and that God so 
 acts with those whom he has chosen in Christ, so far as is necessary for their 
 salvation. 
 
 " 5. Concerning the perseverance of believers. 
 
 "The first opinion maintains, that all believers are so aided by Divine 
 grace, that they are able to persevere, if they are disposed to apply proper 
 care, and that they can also by negligence and security fall from faith and 
 grace. 
 
 " The second maintains, that no believers can so fall from faith and 
 Divine grace as to fall back into the state of damnation, or perish ; but that 
 those who have once believed, always so persevere in faith and grace, that 
 at length they all reach salvation. 71 
 
 " The third maintains, with Augustine, that believers may, through the 
 infirmity of the flesh and temptations, go back from grace and faith, or even 
 fall from them. But it adds, that those believers who are called according to 
 God's purpose, and who are firmly grounded in a lively faith, cannot either 
 totally or finally fall or perish, but, by a special and efficacious grace, so
 
 142 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 persevere in a true and lively faith, that at length they are brought to eternal 
 life."* 
 
 Such were the views of Overall, which most men in the 
 present day would call Calvinistic, and which appear to me 
 
 * MS. Harl. in Mus. Brit, No 31-42, pp. 13 et No. 750, fol. 87, 88. [I have 
 given, within hooks, the various readings of MS. 750.] 
 Quinque sunt Articuli in Belgio controversi: 
 
 1. De praedestinatione divina. 
 
 2. De morte Christi. 
 
 3. De libero arbitrio et gratia. 
 
 4. De modo operationis gratiae divinae. 
 
 5. De perseverantia credentium. 
 
 De quibus Remonstrantes sive Arminiatii, et contra-Remonstrantes give Puritani, 
 contra rias sententias tuentur : inter quas Ecclesia nostra multorectius (ut mihi vide- 
 tur) mediam viam tenet. 
 
 1 . De pnedestinatione divina. 
 
 Primo, Remonstrantes ponunt praedestinationis decretum generale et condi- 
 tionatum sub conditione fidei, secundum geueralem promissionem Evangelicam 
 de servandis omnibus hominibus propter Christum pro iis mortuum, si in eum 
 per verbum et Spiritum Sanctum eidem assistentern fide viva et perseverante 
 crediderint. 
 
 Secundo, speciale et absolutum ex praescientia fidei de servandis iis singular!- 
 bus hominibus quos prasvidit Deus per gratiam credituros ; contraque iis dam- 
 nandis quos praevidit in peccato impcenitentes et incredentes [incredulos, MS. 
 750.] mansuros. Et hose est sententia veterum patrum, ante Augustinum, multo- 
 rumque post ilium, ex Pontificiis multorum, Lutheranorum, et multorum 
 aliorum. 
 
 Secundo [secunda sententia, MS. 750.] contra-Remonstrantes, excluso decreto 
 generali et conditionato, unicum [MS. 750 omits unicum] ponunt decretum par- 
 ticulare et absolutum, de ce.rtis quibusdam singularibus hominibus ex humano 
 genere selectis, propter Christum pro iis solis mortuum, per Spiritus Sancti [760 
 omits Sanctil gratiam efficacem sou irresistibilem iisque peculiarem, fide et per 
 severantia donandis et servandis [750 omits et servandis] omnibus absoluto decreto 
 rejectis et dainnandis. Et hac est sententia Zuinglii, Calvini, et Puritanorum, 
 ignota omnibus antiquis patribus, etiam Augustino et ejus sectatoribus, rejecta a 
 plerisque [ab omnibus for a plerisque, 750.] Pontificiis, Lutheranis omnibus [750 
 omits omnibus,] multisque aliis. 
 
 Tertio, [tertia sententia, MS. 750.] nostra Ecclesia mediam viam tenens, [in- 
 sistens for tenens, 750,] conjungit particulare decretum absolutum, non ex 
 prascientia humanm fidei aut voluntatis, sed ex proposito divinro voluntatis et 
 gratise, de his quos Deus elegit in Christo liberandis et salvandis, cum-generali 
 et conditionata voluntate, seu generali promissione Evangclica, docens promis- 
 siones divinas sic amplectendas esse, ut nobis in sacris Literis generaliter [750 
 omits generaliter] propoeitjB sunt, eamque Dei voluntatem nobis sequendam esse, 
 quam habemus in verbo di^erte revelatam, videlicet, Deum dedisse filium pro 
 mundo sive toto genere humano ; Christum obtulisse ee sacrificium pro omnibus 
 peccatis totius mundi : Christum redemisse totum [omnc for totuna, 750] genus
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 143 
 
 to rurr exceedingly near to those of Calvin and his more 
 moderate and judicious adherents, though guarding against the 
 extremes to which his system was carried by numbers even 
 in our own Church. The chief difference seems to me to lie 
 
 genus humanum ; Christum mandasse omnibus Evangelium praedicandum ; 
 Deum velle et jubere ut omues Christum audiant, et in eum credant, in eoque 
 proposuisse gratiam et salutem omnibus ; esseque hanc veritatem infallibilem cui 
 non possit [potest for possit, 750] subesse falsum. Alioqui Apostolos aliosque 
 ministros Evangelii hoc [haec for hoc, 750] praedicantes esse falsos testes Dei, 
 facereque Deum mendact-m, <fcc. ; et htcc sententia congruit cum sententia An- 
 gustini, prout a Prospero et Fulgentio explicatur. [Et heec videtur esse senten- 
 tia Franc. Sales, lib. 4 De A more Dei. cap. 1. par. 1. Not. marg.] Est Ec- 
 clesiac sententia magis communis post Augustinum. Et ha;c duo bene conveniunt, 
 Deum primo loco proposuisse salutem in Christo omnibus [hominibus, 750] si 
 crediderint, gratiamque communem et sufficientem, iu mediis divinitus ordinatis, 
 si homines verbo Dei Spirituique Sancto deesse noluerint Deinde secundo loco 
 ut succurreret humanae infinnitati, certiorque salus [hominum, 750] esset, voluisse 
 addere specialem gratiam, magis efficacem et abundantem, quibus placuerit com- 
 mnnicandam, per quam non solum possint credere, aut obedire si velint, sed etiam 
 actu velint, credant, obediant ac perseverant, juxta sententiam Augustini, Sic 
 Deus Dominusque omnium ordinavit angelorum hominumque vitam, ut in ea 
 primum ostenderet quid posset eorum liberum arbitrium, deinde quid posset SUSB 
 gratiae beneficium, justitiaeque indicium. 
 
 2. De Morte Christi. 
 
 Simih'terde morte Christipro hominibus [omnibus for hominibus, 750] obita, 
 <res sunt sentebtia?. 
 
 Prima, Christum mortuum esse pro omnibus hominibus, et per mortem suam 
 rcdemisse totum genus humanum, cum intentione Dei generali et conditionata, 
 de danda propter Christum mortuum salute omnibus, sub conditione fidei 
 dependente ex libera co-operatione hominum sub gratia, 
 
 Secunda primae contraria, Christum non esse mortuum pro hominibus [750 
 omits hominibus] omnibus, etc., nee redemisse totum genus humanum, <fcc., nee 
 Deum ullo modo aut conditione velle aut intendere dare salutem aut gratiam 
 propter Christum aliis quam solis (750 omits solis) electis. 
 
 Tertia, supposita morte Christi pro omnibus homiuibus, et intentione Dei 
 conditionata de gratia promissionis Evangelicae generali, addit intentionem Dei 
 epecialem, de applicando beneficio mortis Christi per gratiam magis abundantem 
 et efficacem, absolute, certo, et infalh'biliter solis electis, sine ullo pray'udicio, aut 
 ulla voluntatis et gratis communis et sufficients diminutione. 
 3. De libero Arbitrio et Gratia. 
 
 De libero Arbitrio et Gratia omnes consentiunt liberum arbitrium nihil boni 
 posse sine gratia pra;veniente, comitante, [750 omits comitante] et subsequente, 
 ita ut gratia teneat principium, medium, et finem et [in for et, 750] conversione 
 et fide et ornni opere bono. Sed differunt in eo quod Prima sententia statuit 
 [statuat/or statuit, 750] gratiam excitantem [750 omits gratiam excitantem] sic 
 cum verbo audito intellecto et cogitato conjunctam esse [gratiam, 750], at 
 omnibus id [750 omits id] facere volentibus sit in aliquo [quodam/or aliquo, 750] 
 gradu communis. Secunda, gratiam sob's electis propriam et peculiarem esse
 
 144 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 in Overall's view of the doctrine of final perseverance, which 
 supposes, that men having true faith, and therefore regenerate, 
 may finally and entirely fall away ; though not the elect, who 
 are called according to God's purpose, and on whom the gift 
 of final perseverance is bestowed. At the same time, his 
 words just quoted seem to imply the consciousness of a dis- 
 tinction between the nature of the faith that fails, and that of 
 the elect, which would make the difference not very great ; for 
 that there is a species of faith from which men may fall away, 
 all admit. 
 
 And here it is of importance to notice a passage in the 
 
 contendunt [contendat for contendnnt, 750], nee illam omnibus communem aliquo 
 [ullo for aliquo, 750] modo fateatur. Tertia utramque gratiam conjungit, sic 
 communem et sufficientem cum verbo connexam agnoscens, ut specialem et 
 efficacem, ad salutem certo perducentem, his quos Deus in Christo ex beneplacito 
 BUG gratioso elegerit propriam profiteatur. 
 
 4. De modo operationis Gratise divinae. 
 
 Prima sententia ponit, gratiam sic in homine operari, ut libertatem voluntatia 
 humanac non tollat, sed conservet ; ita posse hoininem per gratiam credere et 
 obedire ut possit etiam per liberum arbitrium gratis resistere. 
 
 Secunda sententia [ponit, 750] operationem irresistibilem gratis [750 transposes 
 the two last words], ita ut ubicunque fuerit, rnentem ad assentiendum et obedi- 
 endum immutabiliter flectat et perducat. 
 
 Tertia docet homines sic a gratia excitari et moveri, ut et possint gratiae 
 vocanti et moventi, si attenderint, obsequi, et possint etiam divinae vocation! et 
 motioni per liberum arbitrium resistere, et nimium soepe resistunt ; sed addit, 
 Deum, cum voluerit, et quibus voluerit, gratiam tarn abundantem, aut potentem, 
 aut congruam, aut alio modo efficacem, concedere, et [ut, 750] quamvis possit 
 voluntas ratione suae libertatis resistere, non tamen resistat, sed certo et infalli- 
 biliter obsequatur, et ita Deum agere cum his quos eligit in Christo, quatenus ad 
 eorum salutem necessarium est. 
 
 5. De pereeverantia credentium. 
 
 Prima sententia ponit, omnes credentes sic instructos esse divina gratia, ut 
 possint perseverare, si debitam curam adhibere voluerint, posse etiam eosdem 
 per negligentiam et securitatem a fide et gratia deficere. 
 
 Secunda ponit, nullos credentes posse a fide et gratia divina ita deficere ut in 
 statum dumnationis recidant [accidantybr recidant, 750] aut pereant, sed qui 
 Bcmel crediderint, ita semper in fide et gratia perseverare, ut tandem omnes ad 
 ealutem [certo, 750] pervcniant. 
 
 Tertia ponit, cum Augustino, credentes posse a gratia et fide per carnia 
 infirmitatom et tentationes recedcre, nut otiam deficere. Sed addit, illos credentes 
 qui pecundum propositum vocati mint, quiquc in fide viva solide radicati sunt, non 
 posse aut totaliter aut finaliter deficere aut perire, sed per gratiam specialem et 
 efficacem ita in fide vera et viva perscverare, ut tandem ad vitam ueternam 
 perducantur.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 145 
 
 Hampton Court Conference, which has often been strangely 
 misrepresented in modern times, in a sense the very reverse of 
 the truth. In that Conference the Puritans expressed a wish 
 that in Art. 16, after the words, " After we have received the 
 Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace," the following words 
 should be added, " Yet neither totally nor finally."* The Bish- 
 ops opposed the introduction of these words. The fact, nakedly 
 stated, has been quite sufficient for our modern theologians to 
 ground upon it the assertion, that in the Hampton Court Con- 
 ference the Bishops maintained that the doctrine of final perse- 
 verance was not the doctrine of our Church. And far and wide 
 has the assertion been made, and found its way even into Ex- 
 amination papers for young theological students. Now it really 
 might have been expected, that the authorized printed account 
 of the Conference (drawn up by Bishop Barlow) should have 
 been read. And then it would have been found, that the fact 
 is just the reverse of what has been stated. There were cir- 
 cumstances in the state of the Church at that time that 
 seemed to render it inexpedient to make the addition proposed, 
 as the Bishop of London stated on the occasion.! But the 
 Bishop's language shows that he did not think of denying the 
 truth of the doctrine involved in the words ; and the remarks 
 of Overall (then Dean of St. Paul's, and afterwards Bishop of 
 Norwich) are so expressly in favor of the Augustinian doc- 
 trine at least on the subject, that it is astonishing how any 
 one could overlook them. The following is the report given of 
 them. 
 
 " Upon this the Dean of St. Paul's kneeling down, humbly desired leave 
 to speak, signifying unto his Majesty, that this matter somewhat more 
 nearly concerned him, by reason of controversy between him and some other 
 in Cambridge, upon a proposition which he had delivered there ; Namely, 
 that whosoever (although before justified) did commit any grievous sin, as 
 adultery, murder, treason, or the like, did become, ipso facto, subject to God's 
 wrath, and guilty of damnation, or were in a state of damnation (quoad 
 prcEscntcm statum) until they repented ; ADDING HERETO, that those which 
 were called and justified according to the purpose of God's election, however 
 they might, and did sometimes fall into grievous sir.s } and thereby into the 
 
 * See " Account of Hampton Court Conference," reprinted in the " riicenix," 
 vol. i. p. 149. 
 f Ib. p. 151. 
 
 10
 
 146 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 present state of wrath and damnation ; yet did never fall, either totally from 
 all the graces of God, to be utterly destitute of all the parts and seed thereof, 
 nor finally from justification, but were in time renewed, by God's Spirit, unto 
 a lively faith, and repentance ; and so justified from those sins, and the wrath, 
 curse, and guilt annexed thereunto, whereinto they are fallen and wherein 
 they lay, so long as they were without true repentance for the same."* 
 
 Such is Overall's own statement. What he objected to 
 was, that it should be maintained, that men, while in a state 
 of un repented sin, are still at that very time in the " state of 
 justification," while nevertheless he himself held, that none 
 that are "called and justified according to the purpose of 
 God's election" ever fall " either totally from all the graces of 
 God," or " finally from justification.' 17 The distinction appa- 
 rently drawn here, between "justification," and "justification 
 according to the purpose of God's election," seems to me 
 quite unauthorized by Scripture. 
 
 The difference, then, between the view of Overall (follow- 
 ing Augustine) and that of the great body of our Reformation 
 divines, on the doctrine of final perseverance, was only this, 
 that the latter held that those once made members of Christ, 
 and partakers of true faith and repentance, never fall away, 
 while the former held that some to whom these blessings are 
 vouchsafed do fall away, but that to certain individuals elected 
 by God to ' salvation, God of his free mercy vouchsafes to 
 superadd a measure of grace that insures perseverance. 
 
 In what way Augustine's doctrine smooths the difficulties 
 of the subject, 1 cannot understand. It appears to me that 
 the doctrine that spiritual regeneration, and its accompany- 
 ing gifts and graces, are generally given, but that none but 
 those upon whom the gift of final perseverance is bestowed 
 will be saved, and that that gift is bestowed only upon the 
 elect, is equally difficult of reception with the doctrine that 
 spiritual regeneration and its accompanying blessings are 
 given only to the elect, and that those to whom they are given 
 have also the gift of final perseverance. The exclusion of 
 those who are not among the elect is as complete on the 
 former system as on the latter ;t and the only difference be- 
 
 * Ib. pp. 155, 156. 
 
 f This certainly was Augustine's view, and apparently Overall's. The latter
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 147 
 
 tween the two systems is as to the amount of spiritual gifts 
 bestowed upon those whom Grod has not appointed to salva- 
 tion. This seems to me a question of no very material 
 moment: and of the two systems the latter surely has the 
 fewer difficulties ; and much might be quoted from the latter 
 treatises of Augustine, written after his views had somewhat 
 changed, which seems to favor such a system much more 
 than that which his earlier works seem to support. But 
 Augustine no doubt speaks of all baptised in infancy as spiri- 
 tually regenerated, and hence our modern "High Churchmen'' 
 are fond of quoting his authority for the word. Let them, 
 however, but take his doctrine with it, and they will feel that 
 his writings are not likely to advance their cause. 
 
 It is very important, however, in our present subject, to 
 notice this difference of view, because those who confound the 
 Predestinarian system that prevailed among the Reformed 
 with that of Augustine, suppose that that system had no bear- 
 ing upon the views of the Reformers as to the effects of 
 Baptism ; whereas in truth it had a very material influence 
 upon them. Our Reformers, as a body, held that the elect 
 only are made partakers of those spiritual gifts that are 
 essential to regeneration, and that final perseverance was 
 always connected with those gifts. I am not, of course, de- 
 nying that some among the Reformers themselves may have 
 held precisely St. Augustine's view ; but the evidence already 
 adduced shows that the prevalent opinion was in favor of 
 what is now commonly called the 'J-alvintstic view ; a name 
 attached to it by Romanists and its opponents among Pro- 
 testants, in order to throw discredit upon it, but which our 
 early divines would have called the Scriptural doctrine on the 
 subject. 
 
 To this brief summary -of some of the principal evidences 
 as to the received doctrine of our Church in the reign of Queen, 
 Elizabeth and the early part of that of her successor, it would 
 be easy to add largely ; and I ought not to forget to direct 
 the attention of the reader to the fact, that four representatives 
 
 bas not indeed absolutely stated, that none of those who have only ordinary grace 
 use it so as to obtain salvation ; but bis words strongly imply that such is 
 the case.
 
 148 
 
 of our Church were sent by public authority to the Synod of 
 Dort in 1619, and gave their unanimous testimony, as such 
 representatives, in favor of the system of doctrine there agreed 
 to. 
 
 The principal of these representatives was the learned 
 Bishop Carleton, who, in his controversy with Mountagu in 
 1626, thus bears testimony to the nature of the doctrine of 
 our Church. 
 
 " The Church of England was reformed by the help of our learned and 
 reverend Bishops in the days of King Edward the Sixth, and in the begin- 
 ning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. They who then gave that form of re- 
 formation to our Church held consent in doctrine with Peter Martyr and 
 Martin Bucer, being by authority appointed readers in the two Universi- 
 ties. . . . For that these worthy Bishops who were in the first reformation 
 had this respect unto P. Martyr and M. Bucer, it is apparent, both because 
 the doctrine of our Church doth not differ from the doctrine that these 
 taught, and because that worthy Archbishop Cranmer caused our Liturgy 
 to be translated into Latin, and craved the consent and judgment of M. 
 Bucer, who gave a full consent thereto, as it appeareth in his works, Inter 
 Opera Anglicana. And P. Martyr being likewise requested, writeth in 
 his Epistles touching that matter, his judgment and consent of the govern- 
 ment and discipline of our Church. This uniformity of doctrine was held in 
 our Church without disturbance, as long as those worthy Bishops lived wha 
 were employed in the Reformation. For albeit the Puritans disquieted our 
 Church about their conceived Discipline^ yet they never moved any quar- 
 rel against the doctrine of our Church,, which is well to be observed. For 
 if they had embraced any doctrine which the Church of England denied, they 
 would assuredly have quarrelled about that as well, as they did about the Dis- 
 cipline. BUT IT WAS THEN THE OPEN CONFESSION BOTH OF THE BlSIIOPS 
 
 AND OF THE PURITANS, THAT BOTH PARTS EMBRACED A MUTUAL CONSENT IN 
 DOCTRINE, ONLY THE DIFFERENCE WAS IN MATTER OF INCOXFORMITY. THEN 
 
 HITHERTO THERE WAS NO PURITAN DOCTRINE KNOWN. TllC first disturbers 
 
 of this uniformity in doctrine were Barret and Baro, in Cambridge; and 
 after them Thomson. Barret and Baro began this breach in the time of 
 that most reverend prelate Archbishop Whitgift. Notwithstanding that 
 these had attempted to disturb the doctrine of our Church, yet was the 
 uniformity of doctrine still maintained. For when our Church was dis- 
 quieted by Barret and Baro, the Bishops that then were in our Church ex- 
 amined the new doctrine of these men, and utterly disliked and reject- 
 ed it; and in the point of Predestination confirmed that which they 
 understood to be the doctrine of the Church of England against Bar- 
 ret and Baro, who oppugned that doctrine. This was fully declared by 
 both the Archbishops, Whitgift of Canterbury, and Ilutton of York, with 
 the other Bishops and learned men of both Provinces, who repressed Bar-
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 149 
 
 ret t,nd Bare, refuted their doctrine, and justified the contrary, as appear- 
 eth by that Book which both the Archbishops then compiled."* 
 
 Bishop Carleton's view of the doctrine of our Church on 
 the subject of Baptism will be found in a subsequent page. 
 
 But I do not think it necessary to enter further upon the 
 subject in this place, my especial object having been, to show 
 the views of doctrine prevailing here, at and near the times of 
 the first publication and subsequent re-settlernent of our For- 
 mularies. To know these is of vital importance for the deter- 
 mination of any controversy as to orthodoxy in our Church. 
 For to suppose that those who voluntarily established or re- 
 established our Formularies, should have published Forms of 
 doctrine or worship incompatible with an honest adherence to 
 their own views, is so palpable an absurdity that it stands 
 before all self-condemned. And how far the account above 
 given of the received doctrine of our Church in the reigns of 
 Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth, illustrates, nay, to a cer- 
 tain extent, settles, the points at issue in the Baptismal Con- 
 troversy, I leave to the serious consideration of the reader. 
 
 It would be easy to show how completely the above 
 argument as to the "Calvinism" (as it is called) of our 
 Reformers is borne out by the testimony of many impartial 
 witnesses. Thus the learned and impartial Mosheim says, 
 that in England, after the death of Henry VIII., 
 
 " The universities, schools, and churches became the oracles of Calvin- 
 ism, which also acquired new votaries among the people from day to day. 
 Hence it happened, that when it was proposed, in the reign of Edward VI., 
 to give a fixed and stable form of the doctrine and discipline of the Church, 
 Geneva was acknowledged as a sister Church ; and the theological system 
 there established by Calvin was adopted, and rendered the public rule of 
 faith in England."! 
 
 Similar testimony is borne by the historian Hume.t 
 Aud not only have impartial witnesses taken this view of 
 
 * Examination of those things wherein the author of the late Appeal holdeth 
 the doctrines of the Pelagians and Arminians to be the doctrines of the Church of 
 England. 2d Ed. Load. 1626. 4to. pp. 6-9. 
 
 f Eccl. Hist, Cent xvi. 3. P. 2. ch. 2. par. 16. (Maclaine's transl. 1826. 
 tv. 333.) 
 
 $ Hist, of Engl. ch. 51. anno 1629. (vol. vi. p. 271. ed. 1778) and App. to 
 reign of James I. (ib. pp. 166, 167.)
 
 150 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS!. 
 
 the matter, but also some of those whose prejudices would 
 have led them in an entirely opposite direction. 
 
 Of this the following extracts from a Review, which 
 appeared in 1842 in the British Critic, will, I think, be con- 
 sidered a very sufficient proof. The reader is probably aware 
 that this periodical (which has some time since ceased) wa 
 at that time the leading Tractarian Review, and the state- 
 ments of the Article to which I allude, are so peculiarly frank 
 and so confirmatory of the view I have been endeavoring to- 
 establish in this chapter, of the received theology of our 
 Church in the time of Edward and Elizabeth, that it may be 
 worth while to add a few of them here. The Article is en- 
 titled. " Development of the Church in the Seventeenth Cen- 
 tury," and occurs in the October Number for 1842 (pp. 300 
 et seq.] The following are a few extracts : 
 
 " Cranmer . . . receded from one point of doctrine to another, and he 
 and his associates at last submitted to the fate of all secondary and inferior 
 minds who come into contact with superior ones ; they were obliged to bow 
 to the master mind of Calvin, backed by the whole movement party in this 
 country, over which he virtually presided.* and with which, by the resi- 
 dence of Bucer and Peter Martyr, and others of his school, as well as by 
 
 his own letters, he kept up a constant communication So far as we 
 
 can judge by signs or appearances, it [i. e. compliance with the foreigners] 
 would probably before long, if the death of Edward VI. had not intervened,, 
 have swamped the English Church in one general alliance with continen- 
 tal Calvinism. Cranmer, for the last two or three years of Edward's 
 reign, corresponded with Calvin with that view. . . The fact [of " tha 
 foreign influence upon our Reformers "] is too notorious to be disputed" 
 &c. &c. " But doctrine, as well as ritual and external religion, suffered 
 from the influence which the Calvinistic school was allowed to gain; the 
 whole Church, from one end to the other, was flooded with the peculiar 
 doctrines of Calvinism, absolute election, reprobation, and the rest of the five 
 points. They gained possession of both Universities ; they were the recog- 
 nised doctrines of our divinity schools, it was thoitght heretical to doubt them. 
 Oxford (how different, how incongenial with everybody's idea of the place 
 now) was the very focus of Genevan influence, its doctors and professors 
 were Calvinistic preachers, its colleges and halls were seminaries of Cal- 
 vinism. UP TO A CONSIDERABLE TIME AFTER THE REFORMATION, HEYLIN 
 MENTIONS ONLY TWO NAMES OF MERE PRIVATE PERSONS IN THAT UNIVERSI- 
 TY, WHO EXPRESSED ANY PUBLIC DISAGREEMENT WITH THAT SYSTEM. The 
 
 * This is not quite correct, but it shows the view of the writer as to the pro- 
 yalence of Calvin's doctrine, even at that time, in our Church.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 151 
 
 exiles who came from Frankfort and Geneva at the death of Queen Mary, 
 doubly imbued, from their intercourse with the Protestants there, with the 
 Calvinistic tenets, were triumphant everywhere : the bishoprics, deaneries, 
 stalls, canonries, and all the benefices in the Church, were monoplized by 
 them. Queen Elizabeth would gladly have dispensed with their services ;# 
 but only just come to the Crown, she was more afraid of the Papists than 
 the Puritans, who were yet in embryo, and not formed into a distinct 
 party ; and moreover, there was no one one else to give the places to ; ALL 
 THE WORLD WERE CALViNiSTs. Heylin, trying to make out the best case 
 he could for the Church, could only say, that as there were seven thousand 
 in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal when the apostasy was 
 apparently universal ; so there were doubtless secret believers in the true 
 Church-doctrines even in those times, who, ' though few in number, served 
 for a good assurance that the Church still kept possession of her primitive 
 truths, not utterly lost, though much endangered by such contrary doctrines 
 as had of late been thrust upon her.' " 
 
 Now these " Calvinists," be it remembered, are the parties 
 to whom we are indebted for our present Formularies. 
 I proceed with the extracts : 
 
 "So much for the Calvinistic days of our Church; she was however 
 even then [i. e. in the days of Field and Jackson, about the middle of the 
 reign of James I.] upon the move, and the movement proceeded ; even her 
 Calvinism, as we have seen, had departed from the continental Calvinism 
 which the Reformation had introduced in the first instance ; it had divested 
 itself of its deadly opposition to Church /orms." 
 
 11 Nor were the changes we have been describing in the outward appear- 
 ance of the Church mere movements upon the surface, but indications of a 
 sounder theology that was forming underneath. A reaction against the 
 old Calvinistic doctrines had begun, and was advancing with rapidity and 
 success. Laud found Oxford a seminary of Calvinism, and he left it a school 
 of orthodoxy : he found the foreign Reformers installed as its doctors and 
 divines, and he left an English Reformer in their place, who has main- 
 tained himself in it up to this day." 
 
 " Such is the relation in which we find the l old ' standing to the ' new 
 Episcopal party:' nor can there be any greater mistake than that of string- 
 ing all our divines together, without distinction or explanation. . . . There 
 are distinctions amongst our divines; our Church divinity has been, as a 
 matter of fact, a progressive not a stationary one. The Laudian school was 
 as clearly a NEW DEVELOPMENT of the Church in its day, as history can 
 show it. And be it well noted, it was a successful development ; it estab- 
 lished itself. Laud and his party were ' innovators in their day ;' but how 
 
 * This is a mistake, as her appointments clearly show ; and we have Whit- 
 gift's testimony (as I have shown above) to her belief in the truth of the Lambeth 
 Articles.
 
 152 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 are they regarded now ? As our great doctors, the highest standards, and 
 
 brightest ornaments of the Church The truth is, these divines, by 
 
 dint of immense effort, by a great and strong heave, lifted the Church above 
 the levels of Calvinism to a higher ground, and that ground has remained 
 our terra firma to this day. SEE H$w BISHOP TOMLINE, IN HIS ANSWER 
 TO SCOTT, is OBLIGED TO APOLOGIZE FOR THE DIVINES BEFORE THAT 
 TIME. THAT BISHOP TOMLINE WAS ENABLED TO TAKE THE ANTI-CAL- 
 VIN1ST1C SIDE, AS THE CHURCH SIDE OF THE QUESTION: THAT THE CHURCH 
 WAS FOR HIM, AND AGAINST HIS ANTAGONIST J HE MIGHT THANK LAUD, AND 
 NOT THE REFORMERS. THE PRESENT ORTHODOX DIVINITY OF OUR CHURCH 
 IS A DEVELOPMENT SINCE THE REFORMATION, AND A REACTION UPON IT. We 
 care not how great innovators the school were considered in their time, or 
 upon HOW SLENDER A THREAD they seemed to hang : they succeeded, and 
 their innovation is now oor rule. The Church cannot shake off the Laudian 
 school: she has identified herself with them; she has accepted their ground 
 and she stands upon it." (pp. 328, 345.) 
 
 It is only necessary to remind the reader, that our Formu- 
 laries, which are our only authoritative standards of appeal, 
 remain (speaking generally) as settled by the earlier " Cal- 
 vinistic " School. 
 
 One more passage will conclude my extracts from this in- 
 structive and important Article. 
 
 " Upon the plainest historical grounds, then, supported by the testimony 
 of popular opinion at the present day, we have the fact established of a 
 change in - our Church theology a change since the Reformation the 
 development of a standard divinity in a later age different from the stan-' 
 dard divinity of a former. Calvin and his school were the master spirits of 
 the Reformation ; they gave the impulse, and thus left a stamp upon the 
 movement which cannot be mistaken ; LET HISTORY FOR ONCE BE ALLOWED 
 TO SPEAK. The full development of Calvinism was stopped indeed, but 
 only because the Reformation itself was stopped, AND ITS PECULIAR DOC- 
 TRINES REMAINED THE THEOLOGY OF OUR CHURCH TILE LAUD UPSET THEM. 
 
 Let us hear no more of the sure middle ground which the English Church 
 has kept from the first we are too glad to have had such a ground BUT 
 
 INSTEAD OF BEING THE GROUND OF THE REFORMATION, IT WAS A REACTION 
 
 UPON IT. ... Why uphold a mere view, a pretty solacing theory, when the 
 first breath of history must send our bandbox hypothesis to the winds 1 Why 
 not confess, what harm can there be in acknowledging the truth, that ours 
 was in spirit a Calvinistic Reformation, and that a noble episcopate after- 
 wards reclaimed us ? If the one fact be humiliating, the other is a coun- 
 terbalance to it ; and our Church between them both, would stand where 
 she now stands." (pp. 384, 385.) 
 
 . This witness is true ; and most certainly comes from a
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 153 
 
 quarter where overwhelming evidence in its favor would alone 
 have led to such explicit confessions. 
 
 Is it possible, then, that after all this accumulated evidence 
 as to the doctrine of our Reformers and earliest divines, (it 
 signifies not, how they were induced to embrace it,) any one 
 can have the hardihood to maintain, that our Formularies are 
 riot (to say the least) thoroughly consistent with what are 
 called " Calvinistic " views on the subject of Predestination 
 and the Final Perseverance of those who have true faith and 
 are regenerate ? 
 
 In fact, the Article in the British Critic is a confession of 
 an adversary, that, in matters of doctrine, the original * 
 " Church principles " of our Reformed Church were those 
 which are now railed at under the names of Puritanism and 
 Calvinism. And of course one of the most important points 
 involved in those views, is the doctrine of the effects of 
 Baptism. 
 
 Consequently, the assertion of our modern " High Church- 
 men," that the universal spiritual regeneration of infants in 
 baptism is the genuine doctrine of our Church, is opposed to 
 the clearest testimony of history. Such a notion is utterly 
 incompatible with the system of doctrine maintained by our 
 Reformers. 
 
 ^ And my great object in drawing attention to the " Calvinis- 
 tio " views (as they are improperly termed) of our early divines 
 on certain points, has been to make manifest this fact. I am 
 not contending that the Formularies of our Church must be 
 understood by all in a " Calvinistic " sense on these points. 
 My conviction is, that they were drawn up so as to admit of 
 a considerable latitude of interpretation. I am not myself pre- 
 pared to acquiesce in all the views which the extracts given in 
 this chapter show were maintained by the great majority of 
 our early divines. But one thing is clear, that to insist upon 
 the necessity of such an interpretation of our Formularies as 
 would place them in direct antagonism to the theological 
 system of those who drew them up, is an act of direct and 
 palpable injustice. 
 
 There is one more remark also, which I ought here to 
 make, and that is, that a denial of the doctrine of the univer-
 
 154 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 sal spiritual regeneration of infants in baptism is by no means 
 peculiar to those whose views are of a " Calvinistic " com- 
 plexion. It has been equally opposed by others holding very 
 different views of doctrine. Our Formularies, therefore, may 
 be interpreted in an Arminian sense, and yet the doctrine of 
 the universal spiritual regeneration of infants in baptism, 
 be repudiated as strongly as it is by the most zealous Cal- 
 vinist.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE CONFESSIONS OF THE FOREIGN 
 PROTESTANT CHURCHES AND DIVINES RESPECTING THE 
 EFFECT OF BAPTISM. 
 
 THE connexion which has been shown in the last Chapter to 
 have existed between the doctrine of our Reformers and that 
 of the " Reformed " Churches on the Continent, renders it a 
 matter of some importance to know in what way the Con- 
 fessions of those Churches speak of the effects of baptism ; 
 more especially as the Bishop of Exeter was disposed for 
 some time to claim them as supporting his doctrine on the 
 subject. The claim (though withdrawn in the second edition 
 of his Lordship's Charge) is one which it is of importance to 
 notice, because it shows the mode in which general statements 
 as to the salutary effects of baptism, made unhesitatingly by 
 the Reformers, but (as I shall show hereafter) only as apply- 
 ing to them when blessed by God to the fulfilment of their 
 appointed end, in carrying out his will, have been miscon- 
 strued by his Lordship as indicating the maintenance of a 
 doctrine to which the authors of those statements were dia- 
 metrically opposed. And I cannot help observing, by the way, 
 that we are thus famished with a clue to the ground of that 
 confidence with which his Lordship maintains that his view 
 is that of our own Church ; a notion which I humbly hope 
 to show is as unfounded as his similar misconception of the 
 doctrine of the foreign Protestants, and arising from a similar 
 cause. 
 
 No statement, indeed, which his Lordship could have made, 
 could have been better calculated to throw discredit upon his 
 interpretation of the phraseology of our Church on the subject, 
 than this appeal in its favor to the similar phraseology of the
 
 156 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 foreign Protestant Confessions. The fact is, that of the five 
 Protestant Confessions he has quoted,* (for the Catechism of 
 Heidelberg is a species of Confession) three belong to that 
 system of doctrine which is commonly called Calvinistic, in 
 which none but "the elect," the certain heirs of salvation, are 
 held to be ever regenerated by the Spirit of God. And the 
 phraseology to which the Bishop so triumphantly appealed as 
 showing that these Churches agreed with him and the Church 
 of Rome (for the Bishop himself joins them) as to the effects 
 of Baptism, refers only to such persons, and is therefore only 
 applicable to a portion of the baptized. And if his Lordship 
 was better acquainted than he evidently is with the works of 
 the Reformers, he would know that it was a view entertained 
 by many of them that regeneration was always given to 
 " the elect " in baptism. And consequently they had no 
 hesitation in using language with respect to Baptism, which, 
 by one not aware of their real views, might be supposed to 
 favor the Bishop's doctrine, but which in their minds applied 
 only to the elect children of God. And that such was the 
 interpretation generally given to our own Baptismal Service 
 at the period of the Reformation, I shall endeavor hereafter to 
 show. 
 
 Thus, for instance, the Bishop refers to "the Confession of 
 Helvetia." A more intimate acquaintance with these Con- 
 fessions would have probably induced his Lordship to state 
 which Confession of Helvetia he means, as there are two, the 
 former and the latter.t However, I believe there is practically 
 little doubt to which the reference is made, as the names of 
 the Confessions quoted are just those contained in a work 
 published at Oxford for young students, called "Sylloge 
 ConfessionunV't and in the order in which they there stand ; 
 and the Confession there given as the Confession of Helvetia 
 
 " The Helvetic, that of Augsburg, the Saxon, the Belgic, and the Catechism 
 of Heidelberg." (Charge, 1st edit p. 10.) 
 
 f Augusti, in his edition of the Libri Symbol. Eccles. Reform., reckons three, 
 counting as the first that of Basle, in 1532. But Niemeyer gives the name of 
 Helvetic Confession to two only, namely that of 1536, sometimes called the second 
 of Basle, and that of 1666. 
 
 1804. 8vo. 2nd ed. 1827. 8vo.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 157 
 
 is the latter, or that of 1566. The authority of this compila- 
 tion for styling it the Confession of Helvetia will, I suppose, 
 hardly be pressed by any one who is aware that the Editor of 
 the first edition knew so little about the matter that he gave 
 the Confessio Variata of 1540 as the genuine Augsburg Con- 
 fession of 1530.* 
 
 Now this latter Confession of Helvetia was written by 
 Bullinger, a fact which alone shows the Bishop's mistake in 
 quoting it. But the internal testimony alone is quite sufficient 
 to prove it. 
 
 First, however, let us observe the language in which the 
 benefit of baptism is spoken of, which will show us the way in 
 which those who held Calvinistic views on the subject were 
 in the habit of representing it. 
 
 The following is the description of the nature of the Sacra- 
 ments generally. 
 
 u Sacraments are mystical symbols or holy rites, or sacred actions in- 
 stituted by God himself, consisting of his word, of signs, and the things 
 signified, by which he keeps in memory, and from time to time recalls to 
 mind his greatest blessings conferred upon man ; by which also he seals 
 his promises, and outwardly represents and as it were places before our 
 eyes, to be contemplated, those things which he himself gives to us inter- 
 nally, and thus confirms and increases our faith, the Spirit of God working 
 in our hearts by which finally he separates us from all other peoples and 
 religions, and consecrates and binds us to himself alone, and signifies what 
 he requires from us." f 
 
 " We do not approve of their doctrine, who speak of the Sacraments 
 merely as common signs, not sanctified or efficacious ."J 
 
 " To be baptized in the name of Christ is to be inscribed, initiated, and 
 
 * The Editor of the second edition of the Sylloge has therefore added a copy 
 of the first edition, printed in 1531. 
 
 f Stint autem Sacramenta, symbola mystica, vel ritus sancti, aut sacne ac- 
 tiones a Deo ipso institute, constantea verbo suo, signis, et rebus significatis, 
 quibus in Ecclesia summa sua beneficia, homini exhibita, retinet in memoria, et 
 subinde renovat, quibus item promissiones suas obsignat, et quae-ipse nobis interius 
 praestat, exterius repm-sentat, ac veluti oculis contemplanda subjicit, adeoque 
 fidem nostram, Spiritu Dei in cordibus nostris operante, roborat et auget: quibus 
 denique nos ab omnibus aliis populis et religionibus separat, sibique soli consecrat 
 et obligat, et quid a nobis requirat, significat. (Sylloge Confess, ed. 2", pp. 74, 
 75 I quote from the edition the Bishop of Exeter apparently uses.) 
 
 \ Neque probamus eorum doctrinara, qui de Sacramentis perinde loquuntur, 
 ut signis comrmmibus, non sanctificatis aut efficacibus. Ib. p. 79.
 
 158 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 deceived into the covenant and family, and so into the inheritance, of the 
 eons of God, moreover to be now called by the name of God, that is, to be 
 entitled a son of God, to be cleansed likewise from the pollution of our 
 sins, and to be endued with the manifold grace of God, that we may lead 
 a new and innocent life," &c. &c. * 
 
 Now, take these general statements, and you may no doubt 
 reasonably draw from them the doctrine of the universal 
 efficacy of the Sacrament of Baptism. No limitation is implied 
 in the words, intimating that the Sacrament is efficacious only 
 in certain cases. 
 
 But what is meant by these passages is clear, both from 
 the known doctrine of the author, and from other parts of the 
 Confession. 
 
 Thus it is said elsewhere, 
 
 " Whence baptism is called by some a sign of initiation of the people of 
 God, as being that by which the elect of God are consecrated unto God." f 
 
 And still more clearly is this expressed in the preceding 
 chapter on " the Sacraments in general ;" where it is said, 
 
 "But the principal thing which in all the Sacraments is offered by God, 
 and looked to by all the saints of all times, (which others call the substance 
 and matter of the Sacraments.) is Christ the Saviour. ... by whom all the 
 elect are circumcised without hands by the Holy Spirit, and are cleansed 
 from all their sins, and are nourished with the true body and blood of 
 Christ unto eternal life." $ 
 
 And in the chapter on Faith (c. 16.) it is said, 
 " But this faith is the mere gift of God, which God alone out of his free 
 favor gives to his elect, according to measure, and when, to whom, and 
 how much he wills, and that by his Holy Spirit, through the means of 
 the preaching of the Gospel and faithful prayer." 
 
 * Etenim baptizari in nomine Christi, est inscribi, initiari, et recipi in fcodus, 
 atque familiam, adeoque in hsereditatem filiorum Dei, imo jam nunc nuncupari 
 nomine Dei, id est, appalleri filium Dei, purgari item a sordibus peccatorum, et 
 donari varia Dei gratia, ad vitam novam et innocentem. Ib. p. 80. 
 
 f Unde a nonnullis Baptisraus nuncupatus est signum initiale populi Dei, 
 utpote quo initiantur Deo electi Dei. c 20. Ed. Oxon. 1827, p. 80. 
 
 t Caeterum prrecipuum illud, quod in omnibus Sacramentis proponitura Deo, 
 et attenditur a piis omnibus omnium temporum (quod alii nuncupant substantiam 
 et materiam Sacramentorum,) Christus est Servator .... per quern electi omnea 
 circumciduntur sine manibus per Spiritum Sanctum, abluunturque a peccatis 
 Buis omnibus, et aluntur vero corpore et sanguine Cbristi ad vitam oeternam. 
 Ib. p. 76. 
 
 Haec autem fides merura est Dei donum, quod solus Deua ex gratia sua, 
 clectis suis, secundutn mensurara, etquando, cui, et quantum ipse vult, donat, et
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. J59 
 
 "We know that a man is neither created nor regenerated by faith, that 
 he should be idle," &c. * 
 
 But it would be wasting time to proceed farther t in a point 
 about which no one well informed on the subject can have a 
 moment's doubt. 
 
 It may be worth while, however, to add the words of the 
 earlier Helvetic Confession on the subject. 
 
 " Baptism is by the institution of the Lord the laver of regeneration, 
 which [regeneration] the Lord gives to his elect by a visible sign through 
 the ministry of the Church, as it is above expressed. With which holy 
 laver we on that account baptize our infants, because it is impious to reject 
 from the communion of the people of God those who are sprung from us, 
 (who are the people of God) and are all but pointed out for this by the voice 
 of God, especially since we ought piously to presume of their election, ,"f 
 
 I proceed to the Belgic Confession. Here again we find 
 the same general expressions used, and used in the same sense. 
 
 " The Sacraments," says this Confession, " are signs and visible sym- 
 bols of things internal and invisible, by which, as by means, God himself 
 works in us by the power of the Holy Spirit," &c.$ 
 
 Take these words by themselves, and they will support the 
 doctrine of the universal efficacy of baptism. They are in 
 fact precisely similar to the words in our 27th Article, which 
 are insisted upon by our " High Church " divines as conclu- 
 sive in favor of their view. But those who used them clearly 
 
 quidem per Spiritum Sanctum, mediante praedicatione evangelii et oratione fideli." 
 Ib. p. 54. 
 
 * Cum sciamus hominem nee conditum nee regenitum esse per fidem, ut 
 otietur, sed potius, <fec. Ib. p. 65. 
 
 f Among other passages we may observe the following, " Neque vero ap- 
 probamus istorum quoque doctrinam, qui docent gratiain et res significatas, signis 
 ita alligari et includi, ut quicunque signis exterius participant, etiam interus gratise 
 rebusque significatis participes sint, quales quales sint." (p. 79.) 
 
 \ Baptisma quidem ex institutione Domini lavacrum regenerationis quam 
 Dominus electis suis visibili signo per ecclesise ministerium (qualiter supra ex- 
 positum est) exhibeat. Quo quidem sancto lavacro infantes nostros idcirco tin- 
 gimus, quoniam e nobis (qui populus Domini sumus) genitos populi Dei consortio 
 rejicere nefas est, tantum non divina voce hue designates, praesertim quum de 
 eorum electione pie est praesumendum. (Coll. Confess, in Eccles. Reform, ed. 
 Niemeyer. Lips. 1840, 8vo. p. 120. 
 
 Sunt enim sacramenta, signa ac symbola visibih'a rerum internarum et in- 
 visibilium, per quse, ceu per media, Deus ipse virtnte Spiritus Sancti in nobis agit. 
 c. 38. SylL Conf. p. 348.
 
 160 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 confined that efficacy to " the elect." Regeneration is ex- 
 pressly ascribed to faith.* And (to quote no more) the fol- 
 lowing passage is decisive on the point. 
 
 " Those that are regenerate have in them a double life ; one carnal 
 and temporal, which they brought with them from their first nativity, and 
 this is common to all the other spiritual and heavenly, which is given 
 them in that second birth which takes place through the word of the Gos- 
 pel in the union of the body of Christ, and this is peculiar to the elect of 
 God aZone."f 
 
 Such is the language of a Confession which the Bishop of 
 Exeter, misinterpreting words used in one part of it, quoted 
 as agreeing with his view. 
 
 I now proceed to the Heidelberg Catechism. Among the 
 questions and answers on Baptism are these. 
 
 " Q. 69. In what way are you admonished and confirmed in baptism, 
 that you are a partaker of that one sacrifice of Christ ? 
 
 " Because Christ has commanded the external laver of water, with this 
 promise annexed, that I am not less certainly washed by his blood and 
 Spirit from the pollutions of the soul, that is, from all my sins, than I am 
 cleansed externally by water, by which the pollutions of the body are used 
 to be washed away. 
 
 Q. 70. What is it to be cleansed by the blood and Spirit of Christ? 
 
 " It is to receive from God remission of sins freely on account of the 
 blood of Christ, which he in his sacrifice upon the cross poured forth for 
 us ; and then also to be renewed by the Holy Spirit, and through sanctifi- 
 cation by him to become a member of Christ, by which we more and more 
 die to our sins, and live holily and unblameably. 
 
 Q. 71. Where has Christ promised that he will as certainly cleanse us 
 by his blood and Spirit, as we arc cleansed by the water of baptism ? 
 
 " In the institution of Baptism, in these words, l Go and teach all 
 nations,' &c. (Mat. xxviii. 19.); ' He that believeth and is baptized,' &c. 
 (Mark xvi. 16.) This promise is repeated when Scripture calls baptism 
 the lavcr of regeneration (Tit. iii. 5) and the washing away of sins." 
 (Acts xxii. \Q.)\ 
 
 * Crcdimus veram hanc fidcm per auditum verbi Dei et Spiritus Sancti 
 operationem unicuique nostrum inditam nos regenerare, atque veluti novos 
 homines efficere. c. 24. ib. p. 341. 
 
 f Qui vcro rcgenerati sunt duplicem in se vitam habent: unam quidem 
 carnal om et temporariam, quum secnm a prima sun nativilate attulerunt, et hacc 
 communis est omnibus; alteram spiritualem et ccclestem, qu;c illis donatur in 
 secunda ilia nativitatc qu:c fit per veibum Evangclii in unione corporis Christi, 
 ct lure solis c-lcctis Dei peculiuris est. c. 35. Tb. p. 850. 
 
 \ Syll Confess, pp. 376, 377. The Catechism la so common, that it seems 
 hardly necessary to give here the original Latin.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 161 
 
 Now to a superficial reader, unacquainted with the context 
 or the views of those who drew up the form, these words might 
 doubtless seem to favor the Bishop's doctrine. But that they 
 should be quoted in support of it by one pretending to any 
 learning on the subject, is indeed extraordinary. And the 
 reference is another instructive proof of the fallaciousness of 
 the argument which the Bishop derives from the use of such 
 language, as showing that the authors of it must have held 
 his view. It is, indeed, as decisive a proof of the unsound- 
 ness of the Bishop's position as he could have supplied us with ; 
 for the language is as explicit and precise as any which he 
 can adduce from our own Formularies, and yet was far enough 
 from being intended (as I shall immediately show) to speak 
 his Lordship's doctrine. The fact is, that the Catechism of 
 Heidelberg is a strictly Calvinistic Confession, written by 
 Zachary Ursinus, a staunch Calvinist, assisted by Peter 
 Olivianus. 
 
 The 54th Question and Answer, (not to mention others) 
 might have sufficiently shown this even to one ignorant of its 
 history. 
 
 "What believest thou concerning the Holy and Catholic Church of 
 Christ ? I believe that the Son of God doth, from the beginning of the 
 world to the end, gather, defend, and preserve unto himself, by his Spirit 
 and word, out of whole mankind, a company chosen to everlasting life, and 
 agreeing in true faith : and that I am a lively member of that company, 
 <md so shall remain for ever."t 
 
 I refer the reader to the note below for other passages, t 
 
 This translation is from " The Sum of Christian Religion, Ac. By Z. Ursinus, 
 Englished by D. H. Parry, 1645." fol. pp. 346, 347. The original Latin is as 
 follows : 
 
 " Quid credis de sancta et catholica Christ! Ecclesia ? 
 
 " Credo Filium Dei, ab initio mundi ad fiiiem usque, sibi ex universe genere 
 humano coetum ad vitam aeternam electum, per Spiritum suum et verbum, in 
 vera fide consentientem, colligere, tueri, ac servare, nieque vivum ejus coetus 
 membrum esse, et perpetuo matisurum." Syll. Conf. p. 373. 
 
 f "Q.uoniam igitur sola fides nos Christi atque omuium ejus beneficiorum 
 participes facit : unde proficiscitur haec fides ? 
 
 " A Spiritu Sancto, qui earn per pnEdicationem Evangelii in cordibus nostris 
 accendit, et per usum sacramentoruin confirmat. 
 
 " Quid sunt Sacramenta? 
 
 " Sunt sacra et in oculoa incurrentia eigna ac sigilla, ob earn causam a Deo 
 iastituta, ut per ea nobia promissionem Evangelii magis declaret et obsiynet ;
 
 162 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 And it so happens that the author of the Catechism has 
 himself left us an Explication of it; in which, commenting 
 upon the question and answer just quoted, he observes, (after 
 stating that the good pleasure of (rod is the sole reason why 
 one is elected and another a reprobate,) that " the effect of 
 election is the whole work of our salvation, and all the degrees 
 of our redemption . . . faith, justification, regeneration, good 
 works, final perseverance," &c. ; * and that the reprobate [i. e. 
 all those who finally perish] are not " ever members of the 
 invisible Church, that is, of the Church and company of 
 saints." t And in a previous passage he maintains that the 
 regenerate never lose wholly the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and 
 never finally fall away. J And, in a word, in his Theological 
 Theses, publicly maintained at Heidelberg, he expressly says, 
 " Neither yet are all those who are baptized with water, 
 (whether they be of understanding [adults] or infants) par- 
 takers of the grace of Christ : for the everlasting election of 
 (rod, and his calling into the kingdom of Christ, is free."$ 
 
 Consequently the meaning of the Catechism, so far as it 
 seems to connect regeneration with baptism, is this, that 
 regeneration takes place in baptism in the case of the elect ; 
 but it does not admit that this effect is produced in any others 
 at that time, for it denies that in such it is ever produced. 
 And this was a common view of that period. 
 
 But, as the Bishop intimates, that not only the Confessions 
 he mentions support his view, but that there was a general 
 consent in its favor among the Protestant Churches, I will 
 
 quod scilicet non universis tantum, verum etiam singulis credentibus, propter 
 unicnm illud Christ i sacrificium in cnice peractum, gratis donet remissionem 
 peccatorum et vitam eeternam." (p. 876.) 
 
 " Estne ergo extermis baptismus acquw ipsa peccatorum ablutio ? 
 
 "Non est: natn solus sanguis Jesu Christi purgat nos ab omni peccato." 
 (p. 377.) 
 
 * The Sum of Christian Religion, Ac., p. 867. 
 
 t Ib. p. S59. 
 
 \ Ib. p. 86. 
 
 g Ib. p. 426. The original Latin is, " Neque autem omnes qui baptizantur 
 nqua, sive infantes, Five adulti, gratioe Christi fiunt participes. Libera enim est 
 H'ternn Dei electio et ad Christum vocatio. Corp. Doctr. Christian. Ursiui. Genev- 
 1623, 8vo. Appendix, p. 126.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 163 
 
 offer his Lordship some further testimonies from the Confes- 
 sions of the Reformed Churches on the subject. 
 
 For instance, let us refer to the Gfallican Confession. No 
 doubt it tells us, that in both the Sacraments " God really, 
 that is, truly and efficaciously, gives us whatever he there 
 sacramentally shadows forth, and therefore we annex to the 
 signs the true possession and fruition of that thing which is 
 thus offered us."* Could stronger words be used to express 
 the efficacy of baptism ? But who are the parties spoken of ? 
 Clearly, from other parts of the Confession, those whom Grod 
 pleases to make his children, by giving them of his own free 
 mercy saving faith .f And regeneration is expressly attributed 
 to faith. t 
 
 So in the Bohemian Confession of 1575, while in the 
 Articles on the Sacraments and Baptism, (Art. 13, 14,) strong 
 language is used as to the benefits of baptism, yet in other 
 parts regeneration is expressly attributed to faith. $ 
 
 I will quote but one more, as it seems quite unnecessary 
 to heap up evidence on the point. But the language of the 
 " Consensus Tigurinus " (or Agreement of the divines of 
 Zurich with Calvin and Farell, drawn up in 1549) is very 
 specific on the subject. 
 
 : Moreover," they say, " we diligently teach, that God does not put 
 
 * Credimus, sicut antea dictum est, tarn in ccena quam in Baptismo Deum 
 oobis reipsa, id est, vere et efficaciter donare quicquid ibi sacramentaliter figurat, 
 ac proinde cum signis conjungimus veram possessionem ac fruitionem ejus rei 
 , <qvuE ita uobis offertur. Art 37. Confess, ed. Niemeyer, p. 338. 
 
 f Credimus nos arcana Sancti Spiritus gratia donari fidei lumine, quse sit 
 
 1 rrratuilum Dei donum, et Us unis propvlum, quibus Deo libuit illitd tribuere, ut 
 
 non habeant fideles, de quo in seipsis glorientur, cum potius duplo sint obligntiores 
 
 ! quod cmteris praeferantur. Sed et illud credinius, fidem electis dari, non ut semel 
 
 tantum in rectam viaui introducantur, quin potius, ut in ea ad extremum usque 
 
 pergant, quia sicut a Deoinitium est, ita etiam est complementum. Art. 21. Ib. 
 
 p. 334. See also Art. 12, p. 332. 
 
 f Credimus nos qui natura servi sumus peccati, hac eadem fide intercedente 
 in novam vitam regenerari. Art 22. Ib. p. 334. 
 
 Atque ita sanctificatio, renovatio vel regeneratio hominis fit per fidem et 
 Spiritum Sanctum, quando per fidem in Christum Dominum participes reddimur 
 Jesu Christi [et] omnium meritorum ejus, atque hoc pacto perfecte coram Deo 
 justificamur. Art. 8. Ib. p. 830. Salvifica fides. . . homini credent! affert 
 remissionem peccatorum, reconciliationem cum Deo, justificationem, regenera- 
 tionem per Spiritum Sanctum, et vitam at'ternam. Art. 9. Ib. p. 832,
 
 164 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 forth his power without distinction in all who receive the Sacraments, but 
 only in the elect. For as he enlightens, so as to produce faith in, those 
 only whom he has pre-ordained to life, so by the secret power of his Spirit 
 he causes that the elect are made partakers of those things which the 
 Sacraments offer." " By this doctrine thai figment of the Sophists is over- 
 thrown, which teaches, that the Sacraments of the New Law confer grace 
 on all who do not put in the way the obstacle of mortal sin. For besides 
 that in the Sacraments nothing is received but by faith ; it is also to be 
 held, that the grace is by no means to be tied to them, so that whosoever 
 has the sign, enjoys also the reality. For the signs are ministered to the 
 reprobate equally as to the elect, but the reality of the signs comes to the 
 latter only."* 
 
 But still they say, " Although we distinguish, as is just, 
 between the signs and the things signified, yet we do not dis- 
 connect the reality from the signs ;" words which, according 
 to the Bishop of Exeter's mode of interpreting such statements, 
 would be conclusive in his favor. But they immediately 
 explain themselves as meaning by this, that all those who by 
 faith embrace the promises there offered receive Christ spiritu- 
 ally with his spiritual- gifts.t 
 
 An exposition of the Articles of Agreement follows, written 
 by Calvin himself, who upon this head remarks, 
 
 " What further will good men require here ? Do they maintain that 
 God acts through the Sacraments ? This we teach. Do they maintain 
 that our faith is exercised, nourished, assisted, confirmed in them ? We 
 maintain the same. Do they maintain that the power of the Holy Spirit 
 exists in them, so that they are of avail to God's elect for salvation ? The 
 same we also grant. The question hinges upon this, whether it is proper 
 to ascribe to God alone altogether all the parts of our salvation, or whether 
 
 * Pncterea sedulo docemus, Deum non promiscue vim suam exerere in 
 omnibus qui sacrament a recipiunt, sed tantum in electis. Nam quemadmodum 
 non nlios in fidem illuminat, quam quos prteordinavit ad vitam, ita arcana 
 Spiritus eui virtute efficit, ut percipiant electi qu;u offerunt sacramenta. Art. 
 16. Hac doctrina evertitur illud Sophistarum commentum, qnod docet sacra- 
 menta NOVJD Legis conferre gratiam omnibus non ponentibus obicera peccati 
 mortalis. PrsBterquam enim quod in sacramentrs nihil nisi fide percipitur, 
 tcnendum quoque est, minime alligatam ipsis esse Dei gratiam, ut quisquis 
 eignum habeat, re etiani potiatur. Nam rcprobis peracque ut electus signa 
 administrnntur, veritas autem srgnorum ad hos solos pervenit. Art. 17. Confess, 
 ed. Nicmeyer, p. 195. 
 
 t Quare etsi distinguimus, nt par e?t, inter signa et res signatas ; tamen non 
 disjungimus a signis verkatem ; quin omnes qui fide amplectuntur illic oblatas 
 promissionea, Christum spiritualiter cum epiritualibua ejus donis recipere. Art. 9. 
 Ib. p. 193, 194.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 165 
 
 he himself permits the Sacraments to share part of that honour while he 
 uses them." " What we say, that the [Sacramental] signs do not profit 
 all without distinction, but the elect of God only, to whom the inward and 
 efficacious operation of the Spirit comes, is too evident to need a long argu- 
 ment. For if any one wishes to make its effect common to all, besides 
 tliat such a figment is refuted by the testimony of Scripture, experience 
 also opposes it."* 
 
 But nevertheless no one has used stronger language than 
 Calvin himself as to the value and efficacy of baptism. 
 
 The following passages are but a few of those that might 
 be quoted in proof of this. 
 
 " Inasmuch as the instruments used by the Holy Spirit are not dead, 
 God truly effects and bestows through Baptism what it represents."f 
 
 11 Yet nevertheless it is vain cavil, that I mock men with ambiguous 
 words, as if the acceptance which takes place by Baptism were nothing 
 else than an external declaration in the sight of men : since I openly 
 affirm, that in Baptism we deal with God, who not on-ly by a testimony of 
 his paternal love pledges his faith to us, so that we may be certainly 
 assured of our salvation, but also himself establishes within us by his own 
 power what he represents by the hand of the minister."! 
 
 " For we also admit the necessary use of Baptism ; that it is not law- 
 ful for any one to omit it through neglect or contempt. And thus we by 
 no means make it a rite which we are free to observe or not. Nor do we 
 only strictly bind the faithful to its observance ; but we also maintain it to 
 
 * Quid etiam hie requirent boni viri? Deum per sacramenta agere volunt? 
 Hoc docemus. Volunt in ipsis fidem nostram exerceri, foveri, adjuvari, confirmari ? 
 Idem asserimus. Volunt Spiritus Sancti virtutem in illis extare, ut electis Dei 
 in salutem prosint ? Idem nos quoque concedimus. In eo vertitur qua'stionia 
 status : soline Deo in solidum adscribere conveniat omnes salutis nostns partes, 
 
 an ejus laudis partern ipse ad sacramenta derivet, dum illis utitur Quod 
 
 dicimus, non omnibus promiscue, sed electis Dei tanum, ad quos interior et 
 efficax Spiritus operatio pervenit, prodesse signa, clarius est quam ut longa 
 refutatione indigeat. Nam si quis omnibus communem facere velit effectum, 
 prseterquam quod Scripturae testimonio refellitur tale coramentum, experientia 
 etiam reclamat. Ib. pp. 208, 209. 
 
 \ Quia mortua non sunt Spiritus Sancti organa, vere per Baptismum efficit ac 
 praestat Deus, quod figurat. (See Def. de Sacram. contra Westpbal. Op. 1671, 
 vol. viii. p. 683.) 
 
 ^ Frivolum tamen interea est cavillum, me ludere ambiguo sermone, ac si 
 receptio qurc fit per baptismum, nihil alind foret, quam externa coram hominibos 
 declaratio : siquidem palam affirmo, nobis in baptistno cum Deo esse negotiant, 
 qui non modo paternum amorem testando, fidem nobis suam obligat, ut dc saluto 
 rostra ccrto simus persuasi, sed etiam quod per ministri manum figurat, ipse 
 intue sua virtnte sancit. (Ib.)
 
 166 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 be God's ordinary instrument to wash and renew us, and moreover to com- 
 municate salvation to us."* 
 
 " I will willingly allow, that the use of those things which Christ has 
 given us as helps to salvation, may be said to be necessary ; to wit, \vhei> 
 the power of using them is given us,"f 
 
 " If there are any who deny, that there is contained in the Sacraments 
 the grace which they represent, we blame them.' r $ 
 
 " We agree, that Sacraments are not empty figures, but do truly supply 
 whatever they represent : that the efficacy of the Spirit is present in Bap- 
 tism to cleanse and regenerate us." 
 
 " The reason why Paul teaches [Eph. v. 26.] that we are cleansed ia 
 Baptism, is, because God there testifies to us our cleansing, and at the same 
 time effectually works what He represents. For unless the truth of the 
 thing represented, or the exhibition of it. which is the same, were conjoin- 
 ed [with Baptism], that saying, Baptism is the laver of the soul, would be 
 incorrect/'' || 
 
 " That principle ought to prevail with the pious, that God does not 
 mock us with empty figures, but supplies inwardly by his own power what 
 he manifests by the external sign. Wherefore Baptism is appropriately 
 and truly called the laver of regeneration. He will take a right view of 
 the power and use of the Sacraments, who so connects together the thing 
 and the sign as not to make the sign empty or. inefficacious, and at the- 
 same time not for the sake of magnifying the sign to take away from the 
 Holy Spirit what belongs to 
 
 * Nam et nos baptism! usum necessariutn confitemur : ne cui liceat vel 
 oegligcntia, vel contetnptn, ipsum omittere. Atque hoc modo nequaquam> 
 liberum facimus. Nee fideles modo severe adstringiraus ad ejus observationem : 
 eed ordinarium quoque Dei instrumentum asserimus, ad nos lavandos et reno- 
 vandos, ad salutcm denique nobis communicandam. (Antid. ad Cone. Trid. Sesc. 
 1. Op. vol. viii. p. 258.) 
 
 t Fncile patiar, ut qusc nobig Christus dedit salutis adjumenta, eorum usu 
 necessarius dicatur: quando scilicet datur facultas. (Ib. p. 256.) 
 
 $ Si qui sint qui negent, sacramentis contineri gratiam quam figurant, illos 
 improbamus. (Ib.) 
 
 Convenit, non inans esse figuras [L e. sacramenta], sed re ipsa pracstari 
 [? praestare] quicquid figurant. In baptismo adesse Spiritus efficaciam, ut no3 
 abluat et rogeneret. (Calv. Ep. acl Mclanctb. 1554, Op. vol. ix. Epist., p. 82.) 
 
 \ Quod baptismo nos ablni docet Paulus [in Eph. v. 26], ideo est, quod illic 
 nobis ablutionem nostram testatur Deus, et simul ffficit quodfigurat. Nisi enim 
 conjuncta esset rei veritas, aut exhibitio, quod idem est, impropria base loquutio 
 esset, Baptismus est lavacrum animae. (Calv. Comm. in Eph. v. 26. Op. vol. vii., 
 p. 850.) 
 
 ^[ Principium illud valere debet inter pios, Deum non inanibus nobiscum' 
 figuris ludere, sed virtute sua intus prncstare quod externo signo demonstrat. 
 Quare baptismua congrucnter et vere lavacrum regenerationis dicitur. Vim et 
 usum sacramentorum recte ia tenebit qui rem et signum ita connectet, ut signum
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 167 
 
 And so among the notes of the celebrated Genevan Version 
 of the Bible, we find the following on the words " one body," 
 in 1 Cor. xii. 13 : 
 
 " That we might be one body with Christ, and the whole Church one 
 Christ: of the which conjunction Baptism and the Lord's Supper are 
 effectual signs : for by Baptism we are regenerate into one Spirit, and by the 
 Lord's Supper we are incorporate into Christ's Body, to be governed by the 
 same Spirit." 
 
 The reply of Beza to one who accused him of holding that 
 baptism is only a sign of regeneration, will perhaps be useful 
 in illustrating the view taken of the efficacy of that Sacrament 
 by some who still denied that it is always effective. 
 
 " Andreas is guilty of a double calumny when he says that Baptism is 
 held by us to be only a sign or testimony of regeneration. For neither do 
 we say that Baptism is only a sign, but a sacramental sign, that is, one with 
 which, as far as concerns God, the thing signified is always truly given to 
 be received by faith ; nor do we say that the effect of Baptism is regenera- 
 tion only, but also and more especially cleansing from sins. Moreover, he 
 is no better logician than theologian, when from our saying that those 
 baptized with the outward baptism are sometimes not partakers of the 
 inward, he draws the conclusion that we make the symbols empty things; 
 as if, forsooth, the consequence were valid. The interior is offered to all 
 with the exterior, therefore the interior is received by all who receive the 
 exterior : and of this most false and absurd inference these disputants, or 
 rather slanderers, have been so frequently admonished, that it is difficult 
 sufficiently to wonder at their denseness or obstinacy.''! 
 
 And the peculiar case of infants is noticed in the follow- 
 ing words ; 
 
 " But although it is probable that infants have not faith in the act, (as 
 
 non faciat inane aut inefficax : neque tamen ejus ornandi causa Spiritui Sancto 
 detrahat quod suum est. (Id. in. Tit. iii. 5. ib. p. 506.) 
 
 f Dupliciter calumniatur Andreas quum baptismum a nobis dicit tantum pro 
 signo seu testimonio regenerationis haberi. Etenim neque haplismum esse dun- 
 taxat signum dicinus, sed signum sacra mentale, id est, cum quo, quod ad Deuni 
 attinct, res significata vere semper jide accipienda pra-betur '. neque regenerationera 
 tantum, sed etiam vel in primis ablutiouetu a peccatis diciuius esse baptismi effec- 
 tum. Deinde nihilo doctior est Logicus quam Theologus quum ex eo quod baptis- 
 mo exteriore baptizatos dicimus interdum interioris non esse participes, a nobis 
 exinaniri synibolacoligit: quasi videlicet valeat baec consequutio, praebetur omni- 
 bus interior cum exteriore, ergo ab omnibus qui exteriorem recipiunt, interior 
 recipitur : de qua mere falsissima et absurdissima collectione quum toties sint isti 
 disputatores an conviciatores admoniti, quis illorum vel stuporem vel pervicaciam 
 satis possit admirari? (Bcoe Tract. Theol. vol. 3, p. 126, ed. Gen. 1582. fbL)
 
 168 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 they say,) but only its seed, yet since they are comprehended in God's cove- 
 nant, -which cannot be of no effect, we justly think that they are reckoned 
 among the people of God, and are bedewed with the Holy Spirit, who will 
 in his own time put forth his power in them. For we do not limit the 
 efficacy of Baptism to that moment of time in which it is given, but we 
 know that it yields good fruit according to the good pleasure of God ;J * 
 
 Such, then, was the doctrine of the " Reformed " Churches 
 of the Continent on this subject; of those Churches whose 
 doctrine (as distinguished from the views both of the Romish 
 and Lutheran Churches) is said by some of the most able and 
 distinguished of our earliest Protestant divines (as we have 
 seen in a preceding chapter) to be in all points agreeable to 
 that of our own Church. 
 
 There remain the Confessions of Augsburg and Saxony, 
 both drawn up by Melancthon, which I shall now proceed to 
 consider. 
 
 Now as it respects the latter, whatever may be the precise 
 doctrine it is intended to teach on this subject, the following 
 passage (to which others might be added) is sufficient to show 
 that it was not the doctrine of our modern " High Church " 
 divines. 
 
 " But we have shown above, that by faith is signified a reliance upon 
 the Son of God, the Propitiator, on account of whom we are received, and 
 please God, not on account of our virtues or fulfilling of the Law. But 
 nince in this very consolation, the confidence with which we repose on the 
 Son of God is truly a feeling kindled by the Holy Spirit, by which the heart 
 is quickened into life and freed from eternal death, this conversion is called 
 regeneration ; John iii., Except a man be born again of water and the 
 Spirit, &c. And now the man becomes truly the dwelling-place of God r 
 who is effectual in him," &c.f 
 
 * Etsi autem infantes versimile est ficlem ipso actu (quod aiunt) non habere, 
 Bed duntaxat cjua semen, tamen quum in fuedere Dei compreheiulantur, quod irri- 
 tum esse non potest, inerito arbitramur, eos in peculio Domini censeri et Spiritu 
 Sancto perfundi, qui suo tempore virtutem in illis excrat. Neque enim baptismi 
 efficaciam ad illud temporis momentum restringimus quo exhibotur, sed ilium- 
 pro bona Dei voluntate scimus fructutn bonum edere. (Bezae Tract. Theol. vol. 
 1, p. 883. ed. Gen, 1578. fol.) 
 
 t Ostendimus autem supra, fide significari fiduciam acquiescentem in Filio 
 Dei propitiatore, propter quern recipimur et phicemus, non propter nostraa vir- 
 tutes aut legis impletionem. Cum autem in hac ipsa conaolatione, fiducia, qua 
 acquiescimua in Filio Dei, vere sit motus accensus a Spiritu Sancto, quo vivifica- 
 tur eor, et liberatur ex irtcrna morte, dicitur liiec coHversio, regeneratio; Joan, iii..
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 169 
 
 It is needless to quote more, but I would recommend the 
 whole chapter to the reader's perusal, as showing the decided 
 discrepancy of the theology of this Confession with that of 
 modern " High Churchism." 
 
 Lastly, as to the Confession of Augsburg. Its words are 
 these ; 
 
 " Concerning Baptism they teach, that it is necessary to salvation, and 
 that through Baptism is offered the grace of God ; and that children are to 
 be baptized, who being offered to God by Baptism are received into the favor 
 of God. They condemn the Anabaptists, who disapprove the baptism of 
 children, and affirm that children maybe saved without baptism." Art. 9.* 
 
 But with this we must connect the 13th Article, which runs 
 thus ; 
 
 " Concerning the use of the Sacraments they teach, that the Sacraments 
 are instituted, not only that they may be marks of profession among men, 
 but rather that they may be signs and evidences of the goodwill of God 
 towards us, set forth to excite and confirm faith in those who use them. 
 Therefore the Sacraments are to be used so as that faith is present, which 
 believes the promises that are exhibited and shown by the Sacraments. 
 Therefore they condemn those who teach that the Sacraments justify ex opere 
 operato [evidently referring to the Romanists] and do not teach that there 
 is required in the use of the Sacraments faith which believes that sins are 
 remitted."! 
 
 Nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aqua et Spiritu. Et fit homo jam vere domicilium 
 Dei, qui est in eo efficax. Syll. Confess, ed. Oxon. 1827, p. 258. 
 
 * De baptismo decent, quod sit necessarius ad salutem, quodque per baptis- 
 mum offeratur gratia Dei ; et quod pueri sint baptizandi, qui per baptismum 
 oblati Deo recipiantur in gratiam Dei. Damnant Anabaptistas, qui improbant 
 baptismum puerorum, et affirmant pueros sine baptismo salvos fieri. (Ib. p. 126.) 
 
 In the " Confessio Variata," or revised edition of the Confession, in 1540, this 
 passage stands thus, 
 
 De baptismo decent, quod necessarius sit ad salutem, tanquam ceremonia a 
 Christo instituta. Et quod per baptismum offeratur gratia Dei: et quod infantes 
 sint baptizandi: et quod infantes per baptismum Deo commendati, recipiantur in 
 gratiam Dei, et fiant filii Dei, sicut Christus testatur, loquens de parvulis in 
 ecclesia ; Matt, xviii., Non est voluntas Patris vestri qui in coalis est, ut pereat unus 
 ex parvulis istis. Damnant Anabaptistas, qui improbant baptismum infantum, et 
 amrmant infantes sine baptismo et extra ecclesiam Christi salvos fieri. (Sylloge 
 Conf. ed. 2, pp. 171, 172.) 
 
 f- De usu sacramentorum decent, quod sacramenta instituta sint [sacramenta 
 instituta esse, corr. 1540,] non modo ut sint note professionis inter homines, sed 
 [multo, add. 1 540] magis ut sint signa ei testimonia voluntatis Dei erga nos, [pro- 
 posita, add. 1540,] ad excitandam et confirmandam fidem in his qui utuntnr pro- 
 posita. [del. proposita, et add. eis. 1540.] Itaque utendum est sacramentis, ita
 
 170 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 And in the revised edition of this Confession in 1540, after 
 the words "shown by the Sacraments," the following are 
 added, " By this faith we receive the promised grace which 
 the Sacraments represent, and the Holy Spirit." 
 
 Now, in what way did Luther himself understand Art. 9? 
 We have his sentiments fully expressed in a work published 
 only the year before his Confession, (i. e. in 1529,) namely, 
 his Larger Catechism. The following extracts will show his 
 views, 
 
 " The great efficacy and usefulness of Baptism being thus understood, 
 let us further observe, what sort of person it is that receives such things as 
 are offered by baptism. This again is most beautifully and clearly expressed 
 in these words : He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. That is, 
 faith alone makes a person worthy to receive with any profit this salutary 
 and divine water. . . . Without faith Baptism profits nothing, although in 
 itself it cannot be denied to be a heavenly and inestimable treasure."* 
 
 " We bring a child to a minister of the Church to be baptised, IN THIS 
 HOPE AND PERSUASION, that it certainly believes, and we pray that God may 
 give it faith.''f " The word being joined to the water, baptism is to be 
 esteemed valid, even though faith is not present. For my faith does not 
 
 produce baptism, but recognizes and apprehends baptism Even if 
 
 children did not believe, which is by no means to be affirmed, (as has been 
 already shown,) yet their baptism would be true baptism, nor ought any 
 one to rebaptize them."J 
 
 ut fides accedat, [transp. verba, 1540,] qurc credat promissionibus, qua) per sac- 
 ramenta exhibentur et ostendutur. [Hac fide accipimus promisam gratiam, quam 
 eacramenta significant, et Spiritum Sanctum, add, 1540.] Damnant igitur illos, 
 qui decent, quod sacramenta ex opere operate justificent, nee decent fidem requiri 
 in usu eacranaentorum, quiR credat remitti peccata, [Damnant igitur Pharisacum 
 opinionem, quae obruit doctrinam de fide, nee docet fidem in usu sacramentorum 
 requiri, qua} credat propter Christum nobis gratiam dari. Scd fingit homines 
 justos esse propter usum sacramentorum ex opere operato, et quidem sine bono 
 motu utentium, corr. 1540.] (Ib. pp. 127 et 173, 174.) 
 
 * Cognita jam ingenti cum virtute turn utilitato baptism!, videamus ulteriua, 
 qute persona sit talia accipiens, quae per baptismum offeruntur. Hoc iterum 
 pulcherrime ct clarissime in bis verbis expressum cst : Qui credideret et bap- 
 tizatus fuerit, salrus erit. Hoc est : sola fides personam dignam facit, ut hanc 
 salutarem et divinam aquam utiliter suscipiat .... Cltra jidem nihil prodest 
 baptismus, tametsi per sese coclestis et iivcstimabilis thesaurus esse negari non 
 possit. Luther. Catech. Major, Art. De baptismo. Apud Libr. Symbol. Ed. 
 Hase, 1846, p. 541. 
 
 f Puerum ecclesirc ministro baptizandum apportamas, hue spe atque aninw, 
 quod ccrto credat, et precamur, ut Detis eum fide donet. Ib. p. 646. 
 
 \ Accedente aqux- verbo, baptismus rcctus habendus est, etiam non accedente
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 171 
 
 Hence he held, that baptism, though valid without faith in 
 the receiver, was profitable only when there was faith ; and 
 this in the case of children as well as adults. The notion may 
 seem to many in the present day singular, that infants should 
 be considered as capable of faith, but it was shared with Luther 
 by others at that time. 
 
 Such was Luther's view at the very time that he adopted 
 as a declaration of his creed the Confession of Augsburg. He 
 considered that children were brought to be baptized, under 
 the supposition that they had faith ; and he distinctly maintained 
 that without faith baptism profits nothing. 
 
 This was not indeed subsequently the generally received 
 doctrine of the Lutheran Churches as it regards infants, though 
 I doubt whether Luther himself ever varied his doctrine upon 
 the subject. But certainly the language of his Catechism 
 cannot be mistaken, nor therefore the interpretation he would 
 have given to the Confession of Augsburg. And it is of 
 importance to observe this difference of view between Luther 
 and most of his followers on this point, because we shall have 
 occasion hereafter to apply a Baptismal Service drawn up by 
 Luther in illustration of the meaning of our own. 
 
 The Apology of the Confession, published in the same year 
 a^ the Confession, by Melancthon, and reckoned also one of the 
 Symbolic Books of the Lutheran Church, condemns in strong 
 terms the Romish doctrine on the subject. 
 
 " Here we condemn the whole set of the Scholastic doctors, who teach that 
 the sacraments confer grace upon one who places no obstacle in the way 
 from the very performance of the work without any good motion in him who 
 uses them. This is simply a Jewish notion, to suppose, that we may be 
 justified by a ceremony without any good motion of the heart, that is, 
 without faith. And yet this impious and pernicious notion is taught with 
 great authority in the whole realm of Popery. Paul (Rom. iv. 9, and seq.) 
 protests against it, and denies that Abraham was justified by circumcision^ 
 but that circumcision was a sign set forth for the exercise of his faith. So 
 we teach, that in the sacraments there ought to be present faith to believe 
 those promises, and to receive the things promised, which are there offered 
 
 fide. Neque enim fides mea facit baptismum, sed baptismum percipit et appre- 
 
 hendit Quanquam pueri non crederent, quod nullo modo affirmandum est, 
 
 (ut jam ostensum est) tamen baptismus verus eeset, neque quiequam eos rebap- 
 tizare debet. (Ib. p. 545.)
 
 172 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 in the Sacrament. And the reason is plain and most sure. The promise 
 is useless, unless' it is received by faith. But the sacraments are signs of 
 the promises. . . . But no one can tell what abuses that fanatical notion of 
 the opus operatum without any good motion in the user has produced in the 
 Church."* 
 
 I have already remarked, that the Bishop of Exeter has, 
 in the second edition of his Charge, withdrawn the statement 
 that these foreign Protestant Churches, our own Church, and 
 that of Rome, all agreed as to the doctrine of regeneration 
 universally taking place in Baptism. But the note in which 
 this withdrawal is made is so remarkable, that it may be well 
 to insert it in this place. 
 
 " I have here withdrawn," his Lordship says, " a statement made by 
 me, when I delivered this Charge, respecting the early Confessions of Faith 
 of foreign Protestants. Closer inspection (especially of the Confessions of 
 those bodies which adopted the doctrines of Zwingle and Calvin,) has dis- 
 covered under a seeming agreement with the doctrine of our Articles and 
 Liturgy on Baptism, a real and considerable difference. In more than one 
 of these documents there are statements seemingly inconsistent with each 
 other, which it is not for me to attempt to reconcile." (p. 10.) 
 
 That is to say, his Lordship cannot understand how any 
 one can make a general statement as to the value and efficacy 
 of the Sacrament of Baptism, and at the same time hold that 
 it is not efficacious in every case in which it is administered. 
 I would humbly suggest, that the "seeming inconsistency" 
 vanishes the moment we apply to the interpretation of these 
 statements the system of doctrine held by their authors. And 
 I cannot but further remark, that as there is (by his Lordship's 
 
 * Hie damnamus totura populum Scholasticorum doctorum, qui docent, quod 
 sacramenta non ponenti obicem conferant gratiam ex opcre operate sine bono 
 motu utentis. HSEC simpliciter Judaica opinio est, sentire, quod per ccremoniam 
 justificemur sine bono motu cordis, hoc est, sine fide. Et tamen htcc impia et 
 perniciosa opinio magna auctoritate docetur in toto regno Pontificio. Paulus 
 (Rom. iv. 9, seq.) reclamat et negat, Abraham justificatum esse circumcisione, sed 
 circumcisionem esse signum propositutn ad exercendam fidem. Ita nos docemus, 
 quod in usu sacrafnentorum fides debeat accedere, quoc credat illis promissioni- 
 bus, et accipiat res promissas, qune ibi in sacramcnto offeruntur. Et est ratio 
 plana et firmissima. Promissio est inutilis, nisi fide accipiatur. At sacramenta 
 tunt rigna promigsiomtm. . . . Quantum autem in Ecclesia abusuum pepererit 
 ilia fanatica opinio de opere operate sine bono motu utentia, nemo verbis 
 consequi potest. (Art. 7. De num. et usu Sacram. Libra Symbol, ed. Hase. 
 p. 203.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 173 
 
 confession) "a seeming agreement with the doctrine of our 
 Articles and Liturgy on Baptism," in one portion of these 
 statements, and that the " seemingly inconsistent " statements 
 only need the light of the system of doctrine held by their 
 authors to show them to be in perfect harmony with each other, 
 so there will appear in both an evident " agreement with the 
 doctrine of our Articles and Liturgy," if we will only view 
 those Articles and Liturgy by the light of the same system of 
 doctrine ; a system which our third Protestant Primate, 
 Archbishop Grindal, (to mention no oth'er authority,") tells us 
 is the system of our Church.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 , THE DOCTRINE OF MARTIN BUCER AND PETER MARTYR, (WHO 
 WERE PLACED BY ARCHBISHOP CRANMER, AT THE COMMENCE- 
 MENT OF THE REIGN OF EDWARD VI., AS THE FIRST REGIUS 
 PROFESSORS OF DIVINITY AT CAMBRIDGE AND OXFORD,) ON 
 THE SUBJECT OF THE EFFECTS OF INFANT BAPTISM. 
 
 1. The Doctrine of Martin Bucer. 
 
 THE position in \vhich Martin Bucer was placed in this 
 country by Archbishop Cranmer at the commencement of the 
 Reformation in the reign of Edward VI., and other circum- 
 stances, to which I shall have hereafter to refer, connected with 
 the name of that able Reformer, render it of much importance 
 for us to know, what were his views on the subject of the 
 present treatise. 
 
 I shall now proceed, then, to show what was the doctrine 
 of Bucer on this subject, as delivered in his works published 
 before his arrival in this country. And I begin with an extract 
 from the Conference held by him and other divines of the 
 "Reformed" school with Luther and some of his followers at 
 Wittenberg in 1536, because the result of that Conference was 
 to induce him to modify some of his previous statements on 
 the subject, and express himself more strongly on the benefits 
 of Baptism, and therefore we have in these passages the most 
 unexceptionable representation of his views. The conversation 
 which then passed between him and Luther (in which the two 
 parties came to an agreement on the doctrine of the Sacraments) 
 throws considerable light on the views of both. 
 
 "When we were again assembled together in the morning, Doctor 
 Luther proposed three things to us, as far as relates to baptism. Since
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 175 
 
 there arc many who will not baptize infants ; others also are found, who 
 indeed permit them to be baptized, but maintain that baptism itself is only 
 a naked sign, and therefore would suffer infants to die without baptism 5 
 others, lastly, baptize without water ; therefore he thought that we ought 
 to declare our belief on these points. But what he thought ought to be 
 done, he explained beforehand, namely, that infants are to be baptized, and 
 that that baptism is truly efficacious, and confers the adoption of the sons 
 of God.* Lastly, that it ought to be administered with water, as they had 
 written concerning these things in the Confession of Augsburg, the Apolo- 
 gy, and elsewhere. 
 
 " To these things Bucer, agreeably to what we had arranged among 
 ourselves should be proposed, replied, That we all had contended, and still 
 contended, against the enemies of Paeclobaptism, as our writings show. 
 Moreover that baptism is held sacred by us, and that we teach concerning 
 it, not as of some naked sign, but as of the true laver of regeneration, which 
 (regeneration) is, through v the power of God and the ministry of the minis- 
 ter, supplied to us with the water, f But that some are offended in that 
 (since faith in Holy Scripture is received according to that which is heard, 
 and comes to us through hearing, by the application of the word of God, 
 according to the saying of Paul in the tenth of the Romans, c faith cometh 
 by hearing,') we with Augustine and other Fathers have said and written, 
 that infants in that respect have not faith. But that if we will understand 
 the word faith in a large sense, for any surrender of ourselves to God, in 
 this sense even infants, may be called faithful. For that we simply believe 
 and teach, that true regeneration and true adoption into the sons of God 
 are communicated to infants in baptism, and that the Holy Spirit works 
 in them according to the measure and proportion given to them, as we read 
 of St. John, that he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's 
 womb.J Yet lest we should fall into the opus operatum notion, that we 
 are accustomed so to state these things, as to acknowledge that all this is 
 the work of God only, but that the ministration only belongs to the minister. 
 But that where there is any foundation in Scripture for what some affirm 
 that infants when they are baptized understand the words of the Gospel and 
 actually believe them, and thus are saved, whence this can be proved from 
 the sacred writings, we are unable as yet to see. 
 
 " To these things Luther replied, that this was not the view of himself 
 and his followers ; but that as we even when asleep, are numbered among 
 the faithful, and are in truth such, although we are actually thinking 
 nothing of God, so that a certain beginning of faith (which nevertheless is the 
 
 * Eamque esse vere efficacem et adoptionem filiorum Dei conferre. 
 
 f Prseterea sacrum baptisma a nobis haberi, et de eo doceri, non ut de nudo 
 aliquo symbolo, sed ut de vero lavacro regenerationis, quae virtute Dei et minis- 
 terio ministri cum aqua nobia exhibetur. 
 
 \ Nos enim simpliciter credere et docere, infantibus in baptismo veram regen- 
 erationem, veramque in filios Dei adoptionem communicari, et Spiritum Sanctum 
 in illis operari juxta iliis datam menBuram et modulum, &c.
 
 176 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 work of God) exists in infants,* according to their measure and proportion, 
 which we are ignorant of; and that he called this faith ; and that he 
 had rather that no questions should be moved concerning these things, and 
 that no one should venture to search deeply into these things, to ascertain, 
 that is, in what way the Lord performs in them this his own wor/c.f 
 
 "Moreover to this that they had said, that baptism was necessary, 
 Bucer replied thus, That we by no means maintain that God has so tied 
 salvation to baptism, that no one can obtain it unless he be baptized, and 
 that all infants who are not baptized (so that baptism is not neglected 
 through contempt) are to be held as damned, according to the opinion of 
 some ancient doctors ; yet nevertheless that we exhort the people, that 
 they bring all their infants to baptism 
 
 " To these things Doctor Luther and his followers assented, and were 
 desirous that we should do this, that we should admonish the people not 
 to suffer their infants to grow up without baptism; for that they belong to 
 the Church, and therefore that, as far as lies in our power, baptism is to 
 be given to them : which we willingly undertook to do, as also beforetime 
 we have faithfully contended against contempt of baptism in our sermons, 
 and have faithfully exhorted all to offer their children for baptism, since 
 baptism is truly the laver of regeneration and the communication of Christ's 
 blood, which vre religiously desire, and ought to desire, should be imparted 
 to our children ; yet nevertheless with the addition of an express declara- 
 tion, that that is the work of Christ alone, who in performing it uses the 
 external ministry of the Church, and the annexation of a warning against 
 that old but yet too popular error among the Papists, when men seek the 
 salvation of their children in the external work of baptism, but neither 
 know, nor invoke, for the salvation of their children, the true Baptist, 
 Christ. And so in these points also we came to an agreement."! 
 
 "We here see that both Luther (as we have already seen in 
 the extract given from his Catechism) and Bucer held, that 
 infants were to be baptized because they were faithful, that is, 
 in the sense of having the principle of faith implanted in them 
 by the mercy of Grod, not that baptism might first give it to 
 them. The possession of this gift of faith however by infants, 
 was of course (as Luther speaks in his Catechism, and as we 
 shall find Bucer stating) a matter of charitable hope ; but (as 
 Bucer expresses it in a passage which we shall quote presently) 
 as we know that Grod works in the hearts of some children, it 
 was felt by them, that it would be as absurd to deny children 
 baptism because we know not in which of them Grod works, 
 
 * Initium quoddam fidei (quod tamen Dei sit opus) in infantibua extare. 
 \ Qua nimirum rationo hoc suuni opus in ipsis Dominus perficiat. 
 \ Buccri Scripta Anglicana. Basil 1677, fol pp. 655, 656.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 177 
 
 as to deny adults baptism, because, not being able to see the 
 heart, we may baptize some hypocrites ; and of both, acting 
 in the spirit of hope and charity, they spoke as of those who 
 were fit recipients, and therefore had the full benefit of bap- 
 tism. 
 
 In the same year in which this Conference took place, 
 Bucer published a second edition of his Commentary on the 
 Four Gospels, in which he altered some passages which had 
 occurred in the former relating to baptism, and inserted what 
 he called " retractation" conformable with the higher view of 
 the benefit of baptism which he had maintained at the Con- 
 ference at Wittenberg. In this " retractation" he explains 
 why he had before hesitated to use the language which Luther 
 and some others had applied to the Sacrament of Baptism, and 
 adds, that, having agreed with him on the sense in which such 
 language was to be used, he felt no further difficulty respect- 
 ing it, and he lays down precisely his own view of the doc- 
 trine of baptism. These statements, therefore, are peculiarly 
 adapted to show the sense in which these eminent Reformers 
 used language respecting the Sacrament of Baptism which 
 the Bishop of Exeter and others, unacquainted with their 
 views, are strangely perverting to the support of doctrines to 
 which they were strenuously opposed. I shall therefore add 
 ihere some extracts from this work. 
 
 He remarks, then, that as the statements of Luther and 
 others, 
 
 " That external words and sacraments were the certain seals, channels, 
 and instruments of the grace of Christ, in which the Spirit of Christ is 
 |most certainly received, appeared to him to favor the error and superstition 
 jof those who seek salvation from outward ceremonies without true faith, it 
 |was his wish to vindicate as fully as possible to Christ the Lord, all 
 Remission of sins, relief of conscience, and participation of the Spirit of 
 Christ, and diligently to teach that lesson, that we receive here by faith 
 bnly what he bestows and works for our salvation. And on this 
 Recount we said, that ministers absolve from sins, when they pronounce 
 men to be absolved through Christ, and that they confirm the consciences 
 pf men, and establish and advance their faith, when they proclaim that 
 Christ confirms consciences and increases faith : that they wash away sins 
 by baptism and regenerate, when by words and the sacred sprinkling they 
 represent and bear witness that Christ washes from sins, and that they feed 
 with the body and blood of the Lord, when in like manner by words and 
 
 12
 
 178 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 signs they proclaim, that Christ himself nourishes us with himself. We 
 described the principal use of baptism to be, to be received into the Church T 
 and make a profession of faith of the eucharist, that we should be reminded 
 of our redemption, and profess our perseverance in faith and love. We 
 never thought, nor wrote, that the signs arc empty signs : on the contrary, 
 in those very passages which I retract, I clearly testified that Scripture 
 speaks of the sacred signs, AS THEY ARE WHEN TRULY RECEIVED, IN WHICH 
 
 CASE THE THING SIGNIFIED IS ANNEXED TO THE SIGN, AND THAT IS REALLY 
 PERFORMED WHICH IS REPRESENTED BY THE SIGNS. It is not OUF 
 
 view that the ministers do nothing, since, with Paul, we wrote, that they 
 plant and water. This only we wished to urge, that without the power of 
 Christ, by which he draws us to himself, the work of ministers, and more- 
 over the words themselves and external signs administered, cannot bring 
 salvation to any one. In these things any one may see that there is nothing 
 contrary to piety : but, as I have said, they are so written that they may 
 be twisted so as to be made use of for lowering the sacred ministry below 
 its proper place. I confess therefore first, that I have not sufficiently 
 explained the authority of God, and the true benefit in the Word and 
 Sacraments, in not carefully inculcating that truth, that Christ uses the 
 minister as his .organ, that above all things he may set forth in his Word 
 and Sacraments the remission of sins and communion with himself, and 
 that the true profit in these things is, if the minister as diligently as possible 
 commends this exhibition, and the others embrace it by a true faith. The 
 profession of religion is here secondary. For faith precedes the profession 
 of faith, and the preaching of the mercy of God and the redemption of 
 Christ, which is the object of faith, precedes faith. Moreover the symbols 
 in the Sacraments are nothing but visible words, by which the preaching 
 and offering of the grace of Christ becomes more influential and more 
 effectual to rouse the mind. Further, I acknowledge, that these metaphors, 
 that the Sacraments are instruments, organs, and channels of grace, are 
 agreeable to the Scriptures. For St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, ' I 
 have begotten you by the Gospel,' 1 Cor. iv. In 2 Cor. iii. he writes that 
 lie had administered to them the Spirit, not the letter, and that he had made 
 them an epistle of Christ. To the Galatians he writes, that he had 
 received the Spirit by the hearing of faith. Hence he called baptism the 
 laver of regeneration, and the eucharist the communion of the body and 
 blood of Christ. He affirms that by baptism we are buried into the death 
 of Christ, incorporated into Christ, and have put on Christ, From all 
 which, as it is evident, that the Gospel and the Sacraments, which are as 
 it were visible Gospels, were instituted by Christ the Lord for this purpose^ 
 that he might communicate to us through thorn his own redemption ; so it 
 is very clear, that these are to the Lord to a certain extent instruments and 
 channels of his Spirit and grace, and thus that there is nothing absurd in 
 these metaphorical expressions ; if only this is carefully pointed out for 
 observation, that ministers and the ministry are such instruments of our 
 salvation that they have nothing of it, nor supply anything, in themselves,. 
 but only so much of it as Christ, using them according to his own spon-
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 179 
 
 tenecws mercy, condescends to give and supply through them. And in this 
 way we ourselves have never denied, that the words and Sacraments of the 
 Gospel are Christ 1 s organs, by which he gives us the benefit of his 
 redemption. This only we deny, as we have clearly expressed it, that 
 Sacraments and sacred words are such instruments and channels of grace 
 5 that they bring salvation with whatever mind or faith you partake of them. 
 For some have so tied the grace of Christ to them, that these external 
 things seem of themselves to work salvation, even though the mind never 
 seriously raises itself to Christ, so that the superstition of the common 
 people, who are yet ignorant of the true faith of Christ, rests in these 
 things. 
 
 " Moreover, as they seemed to us so to speak of the word and Sacra- 
 ments of the Gospel, that we considered that there was danger from their 
 words lest that superstition of the common people should either be 
 strengthened, where it still cleaves, or be brought back where it has been 
 driven out : so they in their turn, when we, desirous of guarding, lest any 
 one should seek salvation for himself from ceremonies, without certain 
 faith in Christ, wrote that Christ bestows his grace and Spirit according 
 to his will upon whom and when he pleases, and that what is performed 
 by man can effect nothing of this, thought that we attributed nothing else 
 to the Sacraments than that they are external marks of our communion in 
 Christ, and that we did not acknowledge that they are symbols of grace, 
 and that grace is given through them. But the Lord has now granted, 
 that both they should acknowledge that we, and we that they, think and 
 teach that respecting the word and Sacraments that Scripture delivers, 
 namely, that they are effectual signs and organs of communion with Christj 
 that is, of our salvation, by which the Lord bestows upon us communion 
 with himself; but that according to the good will of the F&ther^ and his 
 own compassion towards us, with no merit of any creature ; on which 
 account they require faith. Therefore each error is excluded on both sides, 
 both of those who seek salvation for themselves from ceremonies without 
 faith in Christ, and of those who so pretend that they seek salvation for 
 themselves from Christ, that they hold in small estimation the sacred 
 ministry of the Church." * 
 
 From this passage Bucer's general view of the doctrine of 
 the Sacraments is very apparent, and we see from it, that he 
 has no hesitation in speaking of the Sacraments as Christ's 
 organs and channels of divine grace ; but then, when he uses 
 this language, he uses it, as he maintains that Scripture uses 
 it, not as applicable to every case in which they are adminis- 
 tered, but to those only in which God of his free mercy pleases 
 to use them as his instruments for that end, in the case of 
 
 * Buceri Enarr. in. Evang. Basil. 1536. fol. pp. 43, 44. It seems unnecessary 
 <o give the whole of this long passage in the original.
 
 180 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 parties whom he has made fit recipients. He is quite ready 
 to maintain with the Bishop of Exeter himself, that Grod has 
 appointed them as instruments in the use of which he con- 
 veys grace to the soul, but not indiscriminately to all that use 
 them. And it is by confounding these two things, wjjich are 
 wholly distinct from one another, and interpreting general 
 statements of the purpose and effects of baptism, where spir- 
 itually efficient, as if they were intended to apply to every 
 case where baptism is received, (at least in the case of in- 
 fants,) that the Bishop of Exeter has quoted, as supporting 
 his view, men who would have held it in abhorrence. 
 
 It may be well, however, to add some other passages from 
 Bucer ; and I shall first give those which speak generally of 
 the benefits of baptism, in order to show how strong may be 
 the general terms used on this subject by those who at the 
 same time carefully limited the beneficial effects of baptism 
 to recipients of a certain character. 
 
 Thus, then, in his Letter to Dr. Fox, Bishop of Hereford, 
 prefixed to the work from which I have just quoted, he states 
 that his doctrine is, that 
 
 " Christ truly washes from their sins and regenerates those upon whom 
 the Church bestows baptism, which is in fact the laver of regeneration." * 
 " Since we ought to speak of the Word and Sacraments, as the Lord has 
 commended them to his Church, and wishes them to be used, I some time 
 since aknowledged, and re-assert, that it is rightly said of the Word and 
 Sacraments, WHEN WE SPEAK SIMPLY OF THEM, that they are the adminis- 
 tration of salvation, channels, vehicles, and instruments of the Spirit and 
 grace." f " We shall then speak most fully, clearly, and certainly 
 concerning these points of faith, when we speak according to the rule and 
 form of the Scriptures. Now therein the Lord clearly says, that his 
 Gospel is his power for salvation to every one that believes, that baptism 
 is the laver of regeneration, that the cucharist is the communication of his 
 body and blood, that his ministers bind and loose, retain sins and remit 
 them ; why therefore should not we also speak thus ? " J 
 
 * Peccatis vere abluere, et regignere, quibus ilia baptisma, quod nimirum _ 
 lavacrum regeneration is est, impertit. Epist. ad Ed. Fox. prefix, ad Enarr. in 
 Evang. p. 6. 
 
 \ At quia do verbo et sacramentis loquendum est, ut ea Dominus Ecclesiee 
 suae commendavit et usurpari vult, pridem agnosco, et confirmo, recte dici de 
 verbis et sacramentis, cum simpliciter de illis loquimur, esse ea administrationem 
 salutia, canales, vehicula et instrumenta Spiritus et gratice. Ib. p. 7.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 181 
 
 And in the work itself he says, that " by baptism we are 
 said tolbe loosed and washed from our sins, because by baptism, 
 through the power of Christ and the ministry of the Church, 
 we receive pardon and cleansing," &c. :* and he calls the laver 
 of water in baptism " a true and exhibitive sign ;"f and says 
 that in baptism " the renewal of the Spirit is exhibited and 
 received. "$ 
 
 " Nor will they be offended/' he says, ' ; if any Scriptures seem to at- 
 tribute justification to baptism ; for they will observe that Scripture as- 
 cribes to those Sacramental signs \vhatbelongs to the thing signified. For 
 they are exhibitive signs ; and when it speaks of signs truly received, in 
 which case that which the signs signify is present together with them, it is 
 in the habit of joining the internal things with the external, that is, the 
 .sign and the thing signified, and thus to speak of them unitedly." 
 
 From these passages we may see, that Bucor had no hesi- 
 tation in using the strongest language as lo the benefit of 
 baptism, when enunciating in general terms its nature and 
 effects. And they show us also, with ivhat views the Refor- 
 mers used language, on several points, which from its ambi- 
 guity and capability of diverse interpretations, has been since 
 their time the cause of so much contention in the Church. 
 
 But, while the Sacrament of Baptism is spoken of by him 
 in these terms, in consequence of the end it is appointed to 
 answer where (rod's blessing accompanies it, the question as 
 to the parties in whom that end is accomplished, is not touched 
 by that general statement. What Bucer's answer to this 
 question would have been, is sufficiently apparent from what 
 I have already quoted ; but I will add one or two passages still 
 more explicit on this point. 
 
 " From that saying, ' I never knew you,' that is, acknowledged you 
 among mine, we are clearly taught, that those ivho can at any time fall 
 
 * Baptismate dicimur peccatis solvi et ablui, quia baptismate, virtute Christi 
 et Ecclesii? ministerio, solutionem et ablutionem percipimus. p. 41. 
 
 f Signo vero et exhibitivo. p. 42. 
 
 f Spiritus renovatio exhibetur atque percipitur. Ib. 
 
 Neque offendentur, BI qure Scripturse videantur baptismo justificationem 
 tribuere ; animadvertent enirn Scripturam siguis istis sacramentalibus adscribere 
 qnod ?ignati est. Sunt enim signa exhibitiva, cumquo de signis in veritate per- 
 ceptis loquatur, quo pacto simul adest quod significant, solet interna simul cum 
 oxternis, hoc est, signum et signatum conjungere, atque ita junctim en pradicarc. 
 Cd. ib. p. 42.
 
 182 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 away from Christ, never were Christ's, and never truly believed on him, 
 or were pious, never obtained the spirit of sons. . . . Moreover, as the re- 
 probate were never known to Christ, so the elect were never unknown."*' 
 
 " ' My sheep hear my voice.' In these words he clearly teaches, that 
 all things depend upon the Divine election, and that those to whom it has 
 once been given to be sheep can never perish. For here we are told, that 
 they only hear the voice of Christ, that is, receive faith, who are sheep. f 
 Whence now will it be, that some are sheep, that is, capable of receiving 
 the doetrine of Christ, others not at all so ? Doubtless because the former 
 are inspired with the good Spirit of God, the latter not at all. . . . But 
 whence will it be, that the former have the gift of the Spirit, the latter 
 have not? Truly no otherwise than that the former are ordained to life,, 
 the latter are not ; that the former are given to the Son to be saved, the 
 latter by no means. To the Lord therefore let us give this glory, that he 
 bestows the Spirit, in no degree aided by our labour.":): 
 
 " Whence, indeed, we, who cannot reject any from the grace of Christ 
 except the denicrs of it, ought not only to permit, but also to exhort, that 
 all children indiscriminately should be brought to the Lord, that is, offered 
 to his Church, because that which he himself commands cannot but be 
 best? If they already belong to the Church, and theirs is the kingdom of 
 heaven, why should we deny them the sign of Baptism, by which they 
 who belong to the Church of Christ are in the habit of being received into* 
 it ? If there are any goats among them, they will then be to be excluded by us r 
 when they shall have shown themselves to be so. Meanwhile let us not be 
 more scrupulous than Christ, who pronounced children indiscriminately 
 brought him to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven, and on that account 
 was angry that they were driven away from him, and ordered them to be 
 brought to him, and when brought took them up in his arms, put his hands 
 upon them and blessed them. By so many signs he wished to show that 
 they belonged to him. and were by no means to be shut out of the kingdom, 
 of heaven. And since by far the greater number are snatched hence in 
 childhood, who, I make no dpubt, are saved by the mercy of Christ, espe- 
 cially those born of believers, I believe that the Lord wished in this place 
 [Matt. xix. 14] to signify, that no period of human life gave more citizens- 
 to the kingdom of heaven."^ 
 
 " Moreover, from the fact that infants are destitute of faith, nothing 
 
 * Ex illo, Nunquam novi vos, id est, inter mcos agnovi, clare docemur, qur 
 aliquando a Christo possunt excidere, eos Oliristi nunquatn fuisse, eoque nunquam- 
 verc credidisse, aut fuisse pios, nunquam spiritum filiorum fuisse nactos .... 
 Proinde ut Christo nunquam noti sunt reprobi, itit nunquam ignoti electi. Id. ib. in- 
 Matt. c. 7. p, 203. 
 
 f In his apcrte docet, omnia a Divina olectionc pendere, eosque quibus seiner 
 datum fuerit oves esse, perire nunquam posse. Hie namque audimus, eos tantun* 
 vocem Christi audire, id est, fiJcin recipere, qui oves sint. 
 
 $ Id. ib. in Joann. c. x. p. 716^ Id. iU. in Matt c. xix. p. 403.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 183 
 
 less follows than that, as some think, they therefore cannot please God or 
 be holy. Since John the Baptist is said to have been full of the Holy 
 Ghost from the womb- (Luke i.) the child is not said to have been endued 
 with faith, and yet he was great in the sight of the Lord. For God leads 
 his own as is suitable to the age and condition of each. Faith ought to 
 proclaim the glory of God, and to be efficacious through love ; and as these 
 things do not belong to infants, what if also they have not faith, being 
 nevertheless marked for salvation by the Spirit of God. But as to what 
 they object from the last chapter of Mark, ' He that believeth not, shall be 
 condemned,' they show thai they have not rightly weighed that passage. 
 For there a command of Christ precedes concerning preaching the Gospel 
 in the whole world, and then it is added, ' He that believeth and is bap- 
 tized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned ;' which is 
 as much as to say, he that has faith in the Gospel preached by you and 
 shall confess it by baptism, shall be saved, but he that has not shall be 
 damned. And thus this sentence by no means applies to those who have 
 not heard the Gospel. Therefore, WITH ELECT INFANTS THE SPIRIT OF THE 
 LORD is PRESENT, by which, so far as suffices for their age and condition, 
 they are led ; and when they grow up, at the time ordained by the Father, 
 it teaches them to believe the word of God, and leads them by faith to sal- 
 vation.* But they who depart hence before they grow up, since they are 
 Christ's, they shall also be with him, and be happy, and that with the 
 bestowal of the beatific knowledge of God," &c.f 
 
 And he maintains that those who are not thus elect, but are 
 " goats and vessels of wrath," (" hoedi et vasa irse,") grow up 
 and lose the simplicity of children, and thus are shut out from 
 the kingdom of heaven.! 
 
 Now Bucer, holding these views, is earnestly invited by 
 Archbishop 'Cranmer to come over to this country as a teacher 
 of theology, hailed as a most sound and able divine, and placed 
 by Cranmer in the Chair of the Regius Professor of Divinity 
 at Cambridge,^ In this post he publicly defended the same 
 views as those maintained in the extracts I have just given 
 from his Commentaries on the Grospels. Thus in a public 
 Disputation with some Romish divines at Cambridge in 1550, 
 
 he says, 
 
 ,_ . 
 
 * Adest itaque electis infantibus Spiritus Domini, quo, quantum ad ipsorum 
 setatem et conditionem satis est, aguntur ; iidem cum adolescunt, tempore 
 a Patre definite, ad crcdendum Dei verbo eos erudit, fideque ad salutom 
 perducit. 
 
 f Id. ib. in Matt. c. xix. p. 404. 
 
 \ Qui vero hcedi sunt, et vasa iree, ii ut adolescentes alioa animos assumunt, 
 ita tales non persevcrant, et regni coelorum redduatur itorres. Ib. p. 403. 
 
 See ]>p. 58 et seq. above.
 
 184 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 "For those that are Christ's sheep cannot perish, and they have eternal 
 life ; and he cannot sin and err perseveringly and finally (for every holy 
 person falls into sin and prays for the pardon of sin) whosoever truly be- 
 lieves in Christ, and is therefore regenerate in him,}''* 
 
 And one of his theses being, " The Canonical books alone 
 abundantly teach the regenerate all things which are necessary 
 for salvation," he remarks, 
 
 ' But in adding the word ' regenerate,' I have done it on this account, 
 because they who are not born again of God, and endued with the Spirit 
 of God. neither can hear nor understand what the Scriptures teach. "f 
 
 In the same year (L550) he lectured upon the Epistle to 
 the Ephosians, and in his Lectures on the 4th chapter treated 
 particularly on the virtue and use of the sacred ministry, in 
 which lectures he observes: 
 
 " From these things therefore it is readily acknowledged that every true 
 Church of God consists only of the regenerate, but nevertheless has for the 
 most part among them in external communion in sacred things those that are 
 NOT REGENERATE, but their true character concealed, if so be that Christ's 
 discipline flourishes as it ought. "J "Hence [i. e. from 1 John iii. 14] it is 
 plain that the true members of the Church are alone regenerated.'''' ^ 
 
 And proceeding in these lectures to speak expressly " of the 
 force and efficacy of baptism," while he distinctly lays down 
 
 * Nee enim possunt perire quaj oves Christi stint, et habent vitam asternara, 
 peccareque ei errarc perscveranter et finaliter (in peccata labitur enim, et pro 
 peccatoruin venia orat omnis sanctus) non potest, quicnnque vere credit Cliristo, 
 eoque cM in co regcnitiis. Disput. Cant. hab. Inter Scripta Anglicana, p. 787. 
 
 \ Canonic! libri doceut soli abunde renatos quie sint saluti omnia 
 
 Quod autem ndjeci (renatos) id ideo feci, quod qui non sunt renati ex Deo et 
 Spiritu Dei pra-diti, ea qua; Scripturac docent, nee audire possunt, uec intulligere. 
 Job. viii. & x. 1 Cor. iii. Ib. p. 713. 
 
 \ Ex liia itaque facile cognoscitur, omnem ecclesiam verara Dei constare 
 tantum irenatis ; liabere tamcn plerumque inter se in communione externa 
 sacrorum non renatos, sed latcntcs, siquidem vigeat Christi disciplina ut debet. 
 Explic. do vi et un S. Minist. ib. p. 558 ; where the portion of the Lectures 
 which treats on this subject is reprinted. The Lectures on the whole Epistle 
 were printed in 1562, under the following title, Praalectiones doctiss. in Efrtst. 
 D. P. ad Eplicsios, eximii doctoris D. Martini Buceri, habitsc Cantabrigias in 
 Anglia a. 1550 et 1551. Basil. 1502, fol. ed. Iinnian. Tremell. The reader may 
 be glad also to know that a portion of these Lectures on the 4th chapter is 
 inserted in the "Scripta Anglicana" (pp. 504-538) which is not to bo found in 
 the " Preelection cs." 
 
 | Hinc itaque planuin est, vera Ecclesioe membra esse tantum renatos. Ib. p. 
 B60. See also p. 67'2, and 592, 593.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 185 
 
 regeneration as its effect, and maintains this to be the meaning 
 of such passages as John iii. 5, Eph. v. 26, Tit. iii. 5, he as 
 distinctly limits this effect to " the elect."* 
 
 And in his elaborate work " Concerning the Kingdom of 
 Christ," addressed to Edward VI. , and written about this period, 
 he says, "For men ought by baptism to be cleansed from 
 their sins, to be regenerated, and renewed to eternal life, to be 
 incorporated into Christ the Lord, and clothed with him ; all 
 which things belong to none but the saints and those elected to 
 eternal /z/e."t 
 
 Such were the views firmly and clearly maintained by 
 Bucer, while enjoying the patronage of Archbishop Cranmer. 
 And as we have already seen, he obtained, on his death, the 
 testimony of one who was to be Cranmer's Protestant successor, 
 (Archbishop Parker,) that for the soundness and excellence of 
 his doctrine, as well as the holiness of his life, he was a burning 
 and shining light in the Church ;$ and at a subsequent period 
 was spoken of by Archbishop "Whitgift as " so reverent, so 
 learned, so painful, so sound a father."^ 
 
 Two circumstances which add greatly to the importance of 
 this case are, that there is a Baptismal Service extant drawn 
 up by Bucer on the same principle as our own ; and that our 
 own Prayer-book having been submitted to him by Cranmer 
 for his judgment, he approved of our Baptismal Service. But 
 these are matters which I shall in a future, chapter fully place 
 before the reader. 
 
 
 2. The doctrine of Peter Martyr. 
 
 The similar position held at Oxford,. through Archbishop 
 
 * Ex his jam omnibus locis clare pcrspicimus baptisma commendari nobis, 
 ut instrumentum divinrc misericordise, quo Deus non sua sed nostra causa dignatur 
 uti, ut quo clectis suis, quibus ipse hccc sua destinavit dona, conferat. . . . re- 
 generationem, <fec. . . . Nee minus efficax est horum omnium donorum Dei 
 instrumentum baptisma electis Dei, quos eo statuit Dominus sibi regignere, quam 
 est ullum remedium. . . . <fec. ad conferendam santtatem corpori. Ib. p. 598. 
 See the whole of pages 595-598. 
 
 f Baptismate enim homines debent peccatis ablui, regigni, et innovari ad 
 vitam oeternam, Christo.Domino incorporari, eo indui : quae omnia non sunt nisi 
 sanctorum et ad vitam reternam electorum. De Regno Ghristi, lib. 1. c. 7- Inter 
 Script. Anglic, p. 38. 
 
 \ See p. 64 above. See p. 65 above.
 
 186 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Cranmer's means, by Peter Martyr, renders it of equal impor- 
 tance to us, in our present inquiry, to ascertain his views 
 upon the subject. 
 
 And in the case of one whose general views are so well 
 known, it seems hardly necessary to give a large body of ex- 
 tracts from his writings. But the important question is, 
 What did he teach from the chair of divinity at Oxford ? As 
 Regius Professor he read lectures on the Epistle to the Ro- 
 mans and the First to the Corinthians, which he afterwards 
 published. 
 
 Let us observe, then, what doctrine he delivered in them 
 on this point. 
 
 And first let us notice his general statements as to the 
 benefit of baptism. This is his definition of it, that it is 
 
 " A Sacrament instituted by the Lord, consisting of water and the word, 
 by which we are regenerated and engrafted into Christ, for the remission of 
 sins and eternal salvation. Water is a symbol peculiarly appropriate to it. 
 For as by it the filth of the body is cleansed, so by this sacrament the soul 
 is purified."* a Baptism is nothing else but the Sacrament of regeneration, 
 consisting of water and the Spirit through the word of God, from which we 
 have remission of sins and eternal life according to the promise of Christ. 
 .... We draw the conclusion from this place [1 Cor. xii. 12,] that by 
 baptism we are most truly joined to Christ, not less than by the Eucharist. 
 .... Reason teaches us that baptism produces it more efficaciously than 
 the Eucharist, just as we obtain more by our birth than by nourishment or 
 food."f 
 
 Such are his statements, left unhesitatingly, without any 
 qualification in the context, as to the benefits of baptism. But 
 did he mean that all who were baptized, either in the case of 
 adults or infants, derived these blessings from baptism ? No- 
 
 * Sacrnmentum a Domino institutum, ex aqua et verbo constans, quo regen- 
 eramur, et Christo inserimur, ad remissionera peccatorum et u;ternam salutem. 
 Aqua symbolnm est illi quatu appositissimum. Nam nicut ea sordes corporis 
 abluuntur, ita per hoc Sacramentum lustratur animus. (Pet. Mart, in 1 Cor. i. 17. 
 Ed Tiffiir. 1567. fol. 10.) 
 
 t Bapti^rnum primo loco ponit, qui nihil eat aliud, quam sacramentum regen- 
 erationis, constans ex aqua et Spiritu per verbum Dei, ex quo habemus remis- 
 sionem peccatorum et vitain a-ternam juxta promissionem Christi .... Eliciturex 
 hoc loco, nos per baptismum Christo verissime conjungi, nee minus quam per 
 eucharistiatn .... ratio docet, baptismum id efficacius prcestare quam eucharis- 
 tiam, sicut per generationem plus adipiscimur, quam alimento seu cibo. (Id. ib. 
 xii. 12. fol. 178, 179.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 187 
 
 thing of the kind ; as other passages distinctly show. He 
 spoke of baptism as what it is when it avails to the purposes 
 for which it was intended ; not when it is received in vain. 
 With the passages just quoted we must connect such as the 
 following ; 
 
 Commenting upon Rom. ix. 8, he says 
 
 " This passage declares, that what has been before promised generally 
 was restrained by the secret election of God to certain men in particular. . . 
 In the same way it happens at this day respecting the children of the 
 faithful. We have a promise, that God is willing not only to be our God 
 but also the God of our seed ; which promise being indefinite is applied to 
 infants by the secret election of God, not indeed always to all, but to some 
 certain ones in particular, according as it shall seem fit to God's purpose. 
 And since this is unknown to us, and we ought to follow the outward word 
 which is committed to the Church, under that promise we baptize our little ones 
 as the anticnts circumcised theirs. The Anabaptists blame us for doing so ; 
 because we know nothing concerning the spirit, nor the faith, nor the election 
 of those little ones. But we do not think those things of any weight in the 
 matter ; we only regard the word of God which is offered to us in the form 
 of a general and indefinite promise. But we commit its fulfilment to God, 
 since we cannot judge respecting his election. But let them in their turn 
 tell us. how they baptize adults, when it is uncertain whether they belong 
 to the election, and whether what they say they believe and profess, they 
 truly say, and come to Christ with a sincere mind. Here they can answer 
 nothing except that they follow the confession of faith which adults make 
 before the Church when they are to be baptized. But since they may 
 easily be deceived in that confession, and cannot know anything for certain 
 either concerning their state of mind or concerning their election, there is 
 no reason why they should find fault with us. For the same thing altogether 
 happens to us in the case of little ones who are offered to the Church to be 
 baptized, which happens to them in the case of adults"* 
 
 * Hie locus [Rom. ix. 8] declarat, id quod antea promissum fuerat generaliter, 
 per arcanam Dei electionem ad quosdam singulares homines revocari .... Eodem 
 modo hodie usu venit de liberis fidelium. Haberaus promissionem, Deum Velio, 
 non tantum nostrum esse Deum, verum etiam seminis nostri : quae promissio cum 
 sit indefinita, arcana Dei electione infantibus applicatur: non quidem semper 
 omnibus, sed certis quibusdam, prout divino proposito visum fuerit. Quod quum 
 nos lateat, sequi autem debeamus externum verbum, quod commendatum est 
 Ecclesia), sub ea promissione parvulos nostros baptizamus, quemadmodum suos 
 vetercs circumcidebant. Id factum Anabaptistaj reprehendunt, quod neque de 
 epiritu, neque de fide, neque de electione llorum parvulorum nobis quicquam con- 
 stet. Verum nos ista nihil moramur : tantum repicimu3 verbum Dei, quod in 
 generali atque indefinita promissione nobis offertur. Executionem autem ejus 
 Deo committimus, cum de Illius electione non possimus judicare. Sed illi vicissim 
 nobis dicant, quanain ratione tingant adultos, quum incertum ait, an illi pertineant
 
 188 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 A more distinct recognition of the hypothetical principle, 
 that is, of acting on the supposition that the party concerned 
 is a true child of God, when there is no evidence to the con- 
 trary, (both in the case of adults and infants) could not be 
 penned. 
 
 I will add, however, one more passage. 
 
 " Wherefore we may conclude from these words, that as formerly cir- 
 cumcision was given to infants, so now baptism cannot be denied them ; for 
 if they have the thing, what reason is there why they should not have the 
 sign ? And lest you should doubt whether circumcision and baptism are 
 equal and have the same purpose, Paul shows this most manifestly 'in his 
 Epistle to the Colossians, where he calls baptism the circumcision of Christ. 
 And they who lay it down, that the infants of the Hebrews ought to be 
 circumcised, but that ours ought not to be baptized, make God more just to 
 the Jews than to Christians. Some inquire, why, when we are ignorant 
 whether infants have the reality of the Sacrament, we give them the sign, 
 and seal that which is uncertain to us. To whom we reply, that this 
 question is alleged not against us, but against the word of God. For he 
 clearly commanded and willed that children should be circumcised. Then 
 further let them tell us, why they admit adults to baptism or the com- 
 munion, when they are uncertain of their state of mind. For they who 
 are baptized or communicate, may pretend to be what they are not, and 
 deceive the Church. They reply that they hold their profession to be suf- 
 ficient. If they speak falsely, what ie that to us ? they say they must 
 look to that themselves. So we say concerning infants that it is suffi- 
 cient for us that they are offered to the Church, either by their parents, or 
 by those in whose power they are. But if election and predestination con- 
 cur with the administration of the Sacrament, what we do is ratified if 
 not, it is useless. For our salvation depends upon the election and mercy 
 of God. But of the former, since to us it is hidden, we judge nothing. 
 We only follow those indications which we can have respecting it, such as 
 these, that young children are brought to the Church to be baptized, and 
 that those of maturer years profess in words that they believe Christ; 
 which marks, although they are not so certain that they cannot deceive, 
 yet they are sufficient for us for making them partakers of the Sacra- 
 ments."* 
 
 ad electioncm, et utrum, quce dicunt se credere ac profited, vere dicant, <*t sincero 
 animo ad Christum accedant. Hie nihil possuut respondere, nisi ee sequi con- 
 fessionem fidei quam adulti faciunt coram Ecclesia cum sint baptizandi. Verum 
 cum ea confcssione facile possint decipi, neque ant de animo illorum, aut de elec- 
 tione aliqtoid certo sciant, nihil est, quod nos accusent. Idem enim prorsus nobis 
 accidit in parvulis, qui offeruntur Ecclesiao baptizandi, quod illis in adultis. (Pet. 
 Mart, in Horn. ix. 8. Ed. Basil. 1559. 8vo. pp. 788-790.) 
 
 * Quare licet ex his concludere, sicut olim circumcisio dabatur infantibus,
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 It is, I suppose, clear enough what doctrine is delivered in 
 these passages. And we have already seen what Cranmer's 
 opinion was of their author.* 
 
 In this case also, as in that of Bucer, we shall find here- 
 after, that, while publicly maintaining these views, Peter Mar- 
 tyr gave his approval to our Baptismal Service. 
 
 ita nunc baptismum eisdem negari non posse ; nam si rem habent, quae ratio est, 
 cur signum habere non possint ? Et ne dubites, nura circumcisio et baptismus 
 paria sint, et eandem habeant rationem, Paulus hoc apertissime demonstrat ad 
 Colossenses, quo in loco baptismum appellat circumcisionem Christi. Et qui 
 Btatuunt, Hebracorum infantes debuisse circumcidi, nostros vero non posse 
 baptizari, Deurn faciunt suquiorem Judaeis quam Christianis. Quserunt nonnulli, 
 quum nesciamus, utrum infantes rem sacramenti habeant, cur apponamus signum, 
 et id quod nobis incertum sit obsignemus. Quibus respondemus, hanc quaestionem 
 non contra nos adduci, sed contra verbum Dei. Is enim diserte praccepit, et 
 voluit, ut pueri circumciderentur. Deinde respondeant ipsi nobis, cur adultos ad 
 baptismum aut communionem admittant, cum de animo illorum sint incerti. 
 Etenim qui baptizantur, aut communicant, possunt simulare ac Ecclesiam decipere. 
 Respondent satis esse eorum habere professionem. Si mentiuntur, quid hoc ad 
 nos, inquiunt ; ipsi \ iderint. Ita nos dicimus de infantibus, nobis esse satis, quod 
 Ecclesice offerantur, vel a parentibus, vel ab illis in quorum sunt potestate. Quod 
 ti cum actions sacramenti electio et prcedestinatio concurrat, ratum est quod 
 agimus ; sin minus, irritum. Salus enim nostra pendet ab electione ac miseri- 
 cordia Dei. De ilia vero, cum nobis occulta sit, nihil judicamus. Ea tantum 
 sequimur indicia, quse habere de ilia possumus, qualia sunt, quod pueri infantes 
 offeruntur Ecclesiae baptizandi, quodque adultiores verbis confitentur se Christo 
 credere ; quse indicia etsi non adeo certa sint, ut fallere non possint, nobis tamen 
 satis Bunt ad sacramenta conferenda. (Id. ib. iv. 11. p. 260.) 
 * See pp. 54-58, above.
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 ON THE CHARACTER OF THE WORKS ISSUED BY PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 IN THE LATTER PART OF THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII., AND 
 THEIR DOCTRINE ON THE EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 It is a favorite practice with what may be called the re- 
 trograde school in our Church, to refer to the works published 
 in the very dawn of the Reformation among us, as an evi- 
 dence what is the present doctrine of our Church. Such a 
 fact cannot fail, I should suppose, of itself, to excite some sus- 
 picion in the mind of the reader, as to the character of the 
 views of those who make their appeal to the works of men 
 but half emancipated (as Cranmer afterwards confessed of 
 himself) from the errors of Romanism. 
 
 But the reference being so frequently made, and made as 
 if it was to works of some degree of authority in our Church, 
 it is well to meet it. I must first premise, however, that not 
 one iota of authority can now belong to the works published 
 under the sanction of Crown or Clergy, or both united, in the 
 reign of Henry VIII. This is too obvious to need proof. In 
 fact, almost the only bearing which I can conceive them to 
 have upon the question of the meaning of our present Formu- 
 laries, is derived from the fact of Cranmer's connexion with 
 them. So far as ho was concerned in them, so far it may be 
 thought, that where he can be proved to have remained of the 
 same mind at a subsequent period, when engaged in drawing 
 up our present Formularies, there they may be legitimately 
 referred to, as adding to the probability of the correctness of 
 any interpretation of those Formularies they may favor.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. J91 
 
 But considering the extent of the change which Cranmer 
 himself tells us (in passages which I shall quote presently) his 
 mind experienced, the onus of proof that his views on any 
 subject connected with the differences between the Romish 
 ftnd Protestant churches remained the same, lies upon those 
 who assert it. 
 
 The chief of these documents are, the "Articles about Re- 
 ligion,". in 1536, the " Institution of a Christian Man," in 
 1537, and " A Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any 
 Christian Man," in 1543, which was founded upon the " Insti- 
 tution," but varied greatly from it, and (as I shall show) was 
 only tolerated, and not approved, by Oranmer. These three 
 works were republished a few years since by Dr. Lloyd, then 
 Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, and afterwards Bishop 
 of Oxford, who, in his Preface, makes the following remarks : 
 
 " It is needless to observe, that these documents cannot pretend to any 
 authority in the present day. Nothing antecedent to the .reign of Edward 
 VI. has any title to that character. It was then only that the errors of Po- 
 pery were formally renounced, and the pure doctrines of Protestantism 
 authoritatively established in this kingdom. In these Formularies, ac- 
 cordingly, many of the tenets of Romanism are to be found, which, in the 
 succeeding reign, on a closer examination of Scripture, and under the Ex- 
 ercise of an unfettered liberty of judgment, afforded by the more fortunate 
 
 circumstances of that reign, were discarded as erroneous." ' On these 
 
 points [i. e. " all those points in which the positive doctrines of Popery 
 were immediately concerned "] undoubtedly, the free expression of Cran- 
 mer'' s sentiments was impeded and overruled." 
 
 Of the " Necessary Erudition" he observes, 
 
 " I think it is truly said by Collyer. that it ' manages with less lati- 
 tude than the Institution, bends to the six Articles, and, in some points of 
 controversy, drives further into the doctrines of the Roman Communion.' 
 It is probable that Gardiner had greater influence in the preparation of 
 this work than in either of the former."* 
 
 To these three documents, which were issued by public 
 authority, may be added what Dr. Jenkyns calls the "Articles 
 agreed upon by Cranmer with the German Reformers in 1538," 
 but their authorship and object are uncertain. 
 
 It is quite clear, then, at the outset, that such documents 
 
 * Pref. pp. iv. T. and viii.
 
 192 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 can afford us no trustworthy evidence as to the meaning of 
 the Formularies drawn up from twelve to sixteen years later, 
 in the next reign, when the whole aspect of things was 
 changed. 
 
 And it may be well, before we proceed further, to give the 
 reader some specimens of their theology.* 
 
 Th following are from the Articles of 1536 : 
 
 " The Sacrament of Penance. . . . That by penance and such good 
 works of the same, \ve shall not only obtain everlasting life, but also we 
 shall deserve remission or mitigation of these present pains and afflictions 
 in this world." (p. xxiv.) 
 
 " The Sacrament of the Altar. Fourthly, as touching the Sacrament 
 of the Altar, we. will that all bishops and preachers shall instruct and 
 teach our people committed by us unto their spiritual charge, that they 
 ought and must constantly believe, that under the form and figure of bread 
 and wine, which we there presently do see and perceive by outward senses, 
 is verily, substantially, and really contained and comprehended the 
 very self-same body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which was 
 born of the Virgin Mary, and suffered upon the cross for our redemption 
 and that under the same form and figure of bread and wine the very self- 
 same body and blood of Christ is corporally, really, and in the very sub- 
 stance exhibited, distributed and received unto and of all them which re- 
 ceive the said Sacrament." (p. xxv.) 
 
 " Justification. . . . That sinners attain this justification by contrition 
 and faith joined with charity, after such sort and manner as we before 
 mentioned and declared." (p. xxvi.) 
 
 Among the " Articles concerning the laudable Ceremonies 
 used in the Church," it may be sufficient to notice the follow^ 
 ing. 
 
 Of " images," it is stated that " it is meet that they should 
 stand in the churches," " especially the images of Christ and 
 our Lady," though their worship is prohibited, (p. xxviii.) 
 
 " Of praying to Saints. As touching prayer to saints, we will that 
 all Bishops and preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed 
 by us unto their spiritual charge, that albeit grace, remission of sin, and 
 salvation, cannot be obtained but of God only by the mediation of our Sa- 
 viour Christ, which is only sufficient Mediator for our sins ; yet it is very 
 laudable to pray to saints in foaven everlastingly living, whose charity 
 is ever permanent, to be intercessors, and to pray for us and with us : unto 
 Almighty God after this manner: All holy angels and saints in heaven 
 
 * I quote from Bp. Lloyd's edition, entitled, Formularies of Faith put forth 
 by authority during the reign of Henry viii. Oxf. 1825. 8vo.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 193 
 
 pray for us and with us unto the Father, that for his dear son Jesu Christ's 
 sake, we may have grace of him and remission of our sins." (p. xxix.) 
 
 " Of Rites and Ceremonies. As concerning the rites and ceremonies 
 of Christ's Church, as .... sprinkling of holy water .... bearing of 
 candles on Candlemas-day, in memory of Christ the spiritual Light .... 
 giving of ashes on Ash Wednesday .... creeping to the cross and humbling 
 ourselves to Christ on Good Friday before the cross .... and kissing of it 
 in memory of our redemption by Christ made upon the cross ; setting up 
 the sepulture of Christ .... the hallowing of the font, and other like 
 exorcisms and benedictions by the minister of Christ's Church and all other 
 like laudable customs, rites, and ceremonies, be not to be contemned and cast 
 away, but to be used and continued as things good and laudable, to put us 
 in remembrance of those spiritual things that they do signify." (pp. xxx., 
 xxxi.) 
 
 " Of Purgatory. Forasmuch as due order of charity requireth, and 
 the Book of Maccabees, and divers ancient doctors plainly shew, that it is 
 a very good and a charitable deed to pray for souls departed .... we will 
 that all Bishops and preachers shall instruct and teach our people . ! . . 
 that it standeth with the very due order of charity, a Christian man to 
 pray for souls departed, and to commit them in our prayers to God's mercy, 
 and also to cause other to pray for them in masses and exequies, and to 
 give alms to other to pray for them, whereby they may be relieved and 
 holpen of some part of their pain," &c. (p. xxxi.) 
 
 All these passages, with the exception of that on praying 
 to saints, are repeated,* without, I may say, the slightest al- 
 teration, (the only difference being in two or three little words 
 that do not affect the sense,) in the " Institution of a Chris- 
 tian Man ;" where also we find long disquisitions on the value 
 and importance of each of the seven Sacraments. 
 
 Now this work, i. e. the " Institution," drawn up by a body 
 of Bishops and Divines, with Cranmer at their head, is no 
 doubt an important testimony as to his views at that time. In 
 his letter to Cromwell, enclosing his Annotations upon the 
 King's corrections of this work, he speaks of it as "the book 
 lately devised by me, and other Bishops of this realm.-'t And 
 we see from the quotations just given, how far he was from 
 being emancipated from the errors of Popery ; perhaps to a 
 considerable extent, kept back by those with whom he was 
 
 * See pp. 99, 100, 135, 147, 209, 210. The passages on images and rites and 
 ceremonies, in pp. 135, 147, occur in the explication of the second and fourth 
 commandments. 
 
 f Strype's Cranmer, p. 51 ; or L 73. Oxf. ed. 
 
 13
 
 194 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 associated. But I must add, that there is a great deal of de- 
 cided Protestant statement on other points, such as we should 
 hardly perhaps have expected from his pen at this time, as I 
 have already shown, (p. 49 et s. above.) And this, notwith- 
 standing the opposition which (as we learn from Fox's MS V 
 Life of Cranmer, quoted by Strype,*) he had to encounter 
 from Gardiner Bishop of Winchester, and some others. 
 
 In the Articles called by Dr. Jenkyns. " Articles agreed 
 upon by Cranmer with the Grerman Reformers in 1538," the 
 Article on Justification is sound, but the doctrine of that on 
 the Eucharist, which I subjoin, remains the same: 
 
 " De eucharistia constanter credimus et docemus, quod in sacramento 
 corporis et sanguinis Domini vere, substantialiter, et realiter adsunt corpus 
 et sanguis Christi sub speciebus panis et vini ; et quod sub eisdem speci- 
 ebus vere et realiter exhibentur et distribuuntur illis qui sacramentum ac- 
 ripiunt, sive bonis sive malis."f 
 
 The difference between the Article on Justification in these 
 Articles, and the statement on that subject in the " Institu- 
 tion," is remarkable, as showing the progress of truth in Cran- 
 mer's mind : and, in that respect, his Annotations upon the 
 King's proposed corrections of the Institution on this subject 
 are worth attention.! 
 
 The next work to be noticed is, " A necessary Doctrine and 
 Erudition for any Christian Man," published in 1543, and com- 
 monly called the King's Book, from its having been revised 
 and " set forth " by the King, with the sanction of Parliament ; 
 whereas the " Institution " was published by a body of 
 divines headed by the Archbishops and Bishops, with a Preface 
 addressed to the King.S And here we see at once a decided 
 retrogressive movement towards Romish doctrine. Not only 
 is all the objectionable matter inserted in the " Institution" 
 retained here, but much that was valuable in that Work, es- 
 pectolly the important Paraphrase on the Creed, is struck out, 
 and unsatisfactory doctrine substituted for it ; and, on all the 
 
 Life of Cranmer, p. 51 ; or i. 73 Oxf. ed. 
 f Cranmer'a Works, P. S. ed. ii. p. 476. 
 \ Works, ii. 113, 114. 
 
 The " Institution" is said by Collyer (ii. 139) to have been "composed in 
 Convocation," but I cannot find upon what authority he asserts this.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 195 
 
 important points, the statements made are changed materially 
 in favor of Romish views. 
 
 This is especially observable in the Article on Justification, 
 which is the more remarkable, because the statement on this 
 subject in the Articles of 1538 (or perhaps 1540) was sound. 
 But the fact is, that Cranmer was completely overruled with 
 respect to this work, and therefore it is perfectly useless for 
 ascertaining his views even at that time. How little power 
 he had to prevent the issue, by Royal or Parliamentary autho- 
 rity, of Articles of Religion of which he disapproved, is mani- 
 fest by the Act of the Six Articles, (as it is called,) passed in 
 1539, and which was enacted against his strong and earnest 
 remonstrances ;* but to which, as in the case of the " Neces- 
 sary Doctrine," he felt himself compelled to submit. 
 
 And shortly after the accession of Edward VI., in 1547, 
 he openly avowed what his opinion had been respecting the 
 "Necessary Doctrine," and charged Gardiner, the Popish Bishop 
 of Winchester, with having " seduced " the King with respect 
 to it. "We learn this from Gardiner's answer to Cranmer's 
 letter to him containing this statement, remaining among Fox's 
 MSS., and printed by Strype ;t in which Gardiner says, " It 
 grieveth me much to read written from your Grace in the 
 beginning of your letters, how the King our late Sovereign was 
 seduced, and in that he knew by lohom he was compassed, in 
 that I call the King's Majesty's Book."t And after taunting 
 him with having commanded it to be published and read in his 
 diocese, and forbidden his clergy to preach against it, he adds, 
 " And therefore, after your Grace hath four years continually 
 lived in agreement of that doctrine under our late Sovereign 
 Lord, now so suddenly after his death to write to me that his 
 Highness was seduced, it is, I assure you, a very strange 
 speech." 
 
 "We are obliged to Bishop Gardiner for the information^ his 
 letter conveys, and shall probably be not much moved by his 
 
 See Collyer's Hist ii. 168. 
 f Life of Cranmer, Append. No. 35. 
 
 J The " Necessary Doctrine and Erudition," was generally called the King's 
 Book, having been revised by him, and published in his name.
 
 196 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 taunts, well knowing the difficulties with which the good 
 Archbishop had to contend. 
 
 With respect to the real character of this book, and Cran- 
 mer's disapproval of it, it may be worth while to quote the 
 remarks of the Nonjuror Colly er. 
 
 "Under the Sacrament of the Altar, the 'Erudition 7 speaks plainly 
 for transubstantiation which the ' Institution ' doth not. But now, we are 
 to observe, the Six Articles were enacted and farther, that Cranmer and 
 his party, who opposed the passing the Six Articles, were overruled in the 
 composing this ' Necessary Erudition.' The ' Erudition' insists on the suf- 
 ficiency of receiving under one kind, of which there is not a word in the 
 ' Institution.' The ' Erudition ' likewise takes notice, that priests used 
 to receive only under one kind, except when they consecrate." " To add 
 a word or two by way of comparison: The l Erudition' manages with less 
 latitude, bends to the Six Articles, and in some points of controversy drives 
 further into the doctrines of the Roman communion .... In a word, where 
 the ' Erudition ' differs from the l Institution' it seems mostly to lose ground, 
 to go off from the primitive plan, and reform backwards. Besides, this 
 last Book does not stand upon so strong an authority as the former. The 
 ' Institution' as we have seen, was the act of the whole Clergy, and sub- 
 scribed by both Houses of Convocation. But the ' Necessary Erudition," 1 
 as our learned historian observes, was drawn up only by a Committee of 
 the King's nomination. 'Tis true, the Preface tells us, 'twas approved by 
 the Lords Spiritual in Parliament but this may possibly amount to no 
 more than a majority in the Upper House." (Eccles. Hist. ii. 190, 191.) 
 
 The statements in this work on " the Sacrament of the 
 Altar " and Justification, may be judged of by the following 
 extracts. 
 
 " In this most high Sacrament of the Altar, the creatures which be 
 taken to the use thereof, as bread and wine, do not remain still in their 
 own substance, but by the virtue of Christ's word in the consecration be 
 changed and turned to the very substance of the body and blood of our Saviour 
 Jcsu Christ .... By these words [referring to Matt, xxvi., &c.J. it is plain 
 and evident to all them which with meek, humble, and sincere heart will 
 believe Christ's words, and be obedient unto faith, that, in the Sacrament, 
 the things that be therein be the very body and blood of Christ in very 
 substance. Which thing whosoever will deny, he denieth the very open 
 and plain words of Christ, which cannot be but true ; for he is truth itself 
 and cannot lie." 
 
 And it proceeds to defend the reception of the Sacrament 
 by the people under one kind only, observing that, 
 
 " If any man should teach that the lay people ... bo seduced, and so 
 cause them to think that the whole body and blood of Christ were not com-
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 197 
 
 prehended in that only form of bread, as well as in both the kinds, this 
 doctrine ought utterly to be refused and abjectcd, as a pestiferous and a 
 devilish school." (pp. 263, 265, 266.) 
 
 On justification it says, 
 
 " Not only faith, as it is a distinct virtue or gift by itself, is required 
 to our justification, but also the other gifts of the grace of God . . . And 
 whereas in certain places of Scripture our justification! is ascribed to faith . . 
 it is to be understood of faith . . wherein the fear of God. repentance, hope, 
 and charity be included and comprised ..... Our good works which we do, 
 being once justified, by faith and charity, avail both to the conservation 
 and perfection of the said virtues in us, and also to the increase and end 
 of our justification and everlasting salvation." (p. 368.) 
 
 It is hardly necessary to point out, how directly contrary 
 these remarks on Justification are to what we find in Cran- 
 mer's Homily on Salvation, published only four years after, in 
 1547. To this fact we have Gardiner's own testimony, who 
 refused his assent to the " Homily on Salvation," chiefly on 
 account of its maintaining the doctrine that we are justified 
 by faith only, to the exclusion even of charity in the office of 
 justification, contrary to the views upheld in the " Necessary 
 Doctrine and Erudition."* And, while adverting to this sub- 
 ject, it may be worth while to point attention to this contro- 
 versy between Cranmer and Gardiner, as showing the real 
 meaning of the Article and Homily on the subject of Justifi- 
 cation, which in modern times has been too often explained 
 away. One of Cranmer's arguments, mentioned by Gardiner, 
 may at once convince us what his meaning was in those doc- 
 uments. Gardiner says in one of his letters, " And one ar- 
 gument my Lord [i. e. Cranmer] hath devised, which he 
 frameth thus : ' We be justified by faith without all works of 
 the law : charity is a work of the law : ergo we are justified 
 without charity.' "t There can be no doubt, then, as to the 
 real meaning of the Article and Homily. 
 
 Against this Homily it seems he had also other grounds of 
 complaint, for he says, 
 
 * See his Letters to the Lord Protector, in Fox's Acts and Monum. ed. 1838. 
 vol. 6, pp 45-55. Also a portion of one omitted by Fox, given by Collyer, ii. 
 2SO, and Strype, in his Cranmer, App. No. 36. 
 
 t See Fi>x, as above, p. 49. Collyer ii. 232.
 
 198 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 " As for my lord of Canterbury's Homily of Salvation [it] hath as many 
 faults as I have been weeks in prison, -which be seven, besides the general,, 
 that the matter maketh a trouble without necessity, and is handled con- 
 trary to the teaching of the Parliament."* 
 
 What he means by its making a " trouble without neces- 
 sity," is shown by a previous letter, where he urges (upon his- 
 own Popish views^that any such disquisition on the. doctrine 
 of Justification is perfectly unnecessary in a Church where all 
 are baptised as infants, " in which Sacrament of Baptism alt 
 we be justified before we can talk of this justification we 
 strive for."t If Cranmer. then, had agreed with him in this 
 view of baptism, no doubt he would have felt the same as to- 
 the uselessness of the controversy on Justification. 
 
 There can be no question, therefore, that Cranmer is not 
 responsible for any statements in the " Necessary Doctrine and 
 Erudition ; " nor consequently,, that those statements are en- 
 tirely incapable of affording any valid argument as to the 
 meaning of the Formularies of our Reformed Church. t 
 
 But/I must add still further, that even where they do ex- 
 press the views which Cranmer held at the time they were 
 made, they cannot be taken as any evidence of what hi* 
 views were a few years afterwards. And I make this asser- 
 tion on his own testimony. 
 
 In his Answer to Gardiner, first published in 1551, he- 
 says, 
 
 " Now forasmuch as you say, that ' you will pass over the unreverent 
 handling of Christ's words, which you heard me once more seriously re- 
 hearse in solemn open audience,' I acknowledge that not many years pass- 
 ed I was yet in darkness concerning this matter [i. e. Christ's presence in 
 the Eucharist], being brought up in scholastical and Romish doctrine, 
 whercunto I gave too much credit. And therefore I grant, that you have 
 heard me stand and defend the untruth, which I then took for the truth. . . 
 
 * See Fox, as above, p. 65. 
 
 f Ib. p. 49. 
 
 \ So little, however, is the Bishop of Exeter acquainted with the history of 
 these wbrks, that ho unhesitatingly says to his clergy, " Look at the Formularies 
 get forth in this country during the reigii of Henry VIII., in all of which Cranmer, 
 the compiler of our Articles, had the. principal hand." (Charge, 3rd ed. p. 10.) 
 Aud again, after enumerating by name the four Formularies I have just men- 
 tioned, his Lordship says, " Cranmer, I repeat, had the chief hand in all of 
 these." (p. 14.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 199 
 
 But praise be to the everliving God, who hath wiped away those Saulish 
 scales from mine eyes." (Works, P. S. ed. vol. i. p. 241.) 
 
 And again, in the same work, in reply to Dr. Smith, he 
 speaks yet more fully as to this change of views, as follows, 
 
 " But this I confess of myself, that not long before I wrote the said 
 Catechism [that of Nuremberg, translated by the Archbishop, or under his 
 direction, and published in 1 548} I was in that error of the real presence, 
 as I was in many years past in divers other errors ; as of transubstantia- 
 tion, of the sacrifice proptiatory of the priests in the mass, of pilgrimages, 
 purgatory, pardons. AND MANY OTHER SUPERSTITIONS AND ERRORS THAT 
 CAME FROM ROME ; being brought up from youth in them, and nousled 
 therein for lack of good instruction from my youth, the outrageous floods 
 of papistical errors at that time overflowing the world. For the which, 
 and other mine oifences in youth, I do daily pray unto God for mercy and 
 pardon. . . . But after it had pleased God to show unto me, by his holy 
 word, a more perfect knowledge of his Son Jesus Christ, from lime to time, 
 as I grew in knowledge of him, by little and little I put away my former 
 ignorance. And as God of his mercy gave me light, so through his grace 
 I opened mine eyes to receive it. and did not willfully repugn unto God and 
 remain in darkness. . . . And now I may say of myself, as St. Paul said : 
 When I was like a babe or child in the knowledge of Christ, I spake like 
 a child, and understood like a child: but now that I come to man's estate, 
 and growing in Christ through his grace and mercy, I have put away that 
 childishness.' " (Ib. p. 374.) 
 
 Such is Cranmer's own account of the change of view his 
 mind underwent ; and be it observed that two at least o the 
 points expressly specified here as among those on which his 
 views had undergone a change, were points maintained in the 
 works I have just been referring to ; so that, though he uses 
 the phrase " many years passed," he includes the period in 
 which these works were published. 
 
 It is difficult to see, then, how any of these v semi-Popish 
 works can be taken as affording evidence of any kind as to 
 the doctrine of the Reformed Church of England. For not 
 only was Cranmer, at the time of their publication, by his 
 own confession, greatly in the dark as to many of the doc- 
 trines of the Grospel, but hampered by the King and most of 
 his brother prelates in all he did. And the " Necessary Doc- 
 trine" was directly disapproved of by him. 
 
 But I will go one step further. As it respects the point 
 now in question, the effect of infant baptism, (with the ex-
 
 200 EFFECTS, OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 ception, perhaps of the last) their testimony, even as it stands, 
 will be of little use to those that maintain that all men are 
 spiritually regenerate who have been baptised in infancy. 
 
 It must always be recollected in interpreting such docu- 
 ments, (which are in fact, to a great extent, protests against 
 error ,) what were the errors more particularly in view; and 
 the language used must be considered as especially directed 
 against such errors. The reasonableness of this is obvious, 
 because it often happens that a general statement directed ex- 
 pressly against one particular error, is not so guarded as to be 
 incapable of having , an inference drawn from its words in 
 favor of some other error not at the time In the mind of its 
 author. If, for instance, it was 1 asserted, that the Sacrament 
 of the Lord's Supper is merely a meeting together of Chris- 
 tians to eat bread and wine in memory of our Lord's death, 
 we might justly say, in opposition to this view, that this Sac- 
 rament is one in which there is a spiritual presence of Christ 
 to the soul, by which it is nourished and strengthened. To 
 meet the error opposed, it would be unnecessary to proceed to 
 define the state of mind necessary in the receiver, in order 
 that this effect should be realized. But the words, as they 
 stand, might be urged as maintaining that the souls of all 
 who partake of this Sacrament are thus nourished. And such 
 a mqfle of arguing has, in fact, been the great source of mis- 
 conception as to the views of our early divines on the subject 
 of baptism. 
 
 Now the great errors which had recently arisen among 
 Protestants at the period of these documents, were these two : 
 (1), the error that the Sacraments are bare signs ; (2), the 
 error (of the Anabaptists) that infants, as not having faith, are 
 not proper subjects for baptism. And the doctrine of the 
 Church of Rome was not then fixed, as it was subsequently at 
 the Council of Trent. 
 
 And we must bear in mind further (to enter fully into their 
 views) that our divines held at that time, as appears by these 
 documents, a view which beyond doubt was afterwards, to say 
 the least, relinquished as a public doctrine of the Church, 
 namely, that none but the baptized, even of infants, are saved. 
 
 Against these two errors, then, the statements in these
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 201 
 
 documents are particularly directed. From whatever cause it 
 may have arisen, the question whether all infants are or are 
 not partakers of full spiritual regeneration in baptism, is not 
 determined in them. 
 
 Thus, in opposition to the first error, it is maintained that 
 the Sacrament of Baptism is a rite in which God bestows 
 pardoning mercy and regenerating grace upon the soul, which 
 is therefore spoken of (in Scriptural terms) as the laver of 
 regeneration, &c. Our Reformers, from first to last, agreed 
 with the majority of the most distinguished Continental 
 Reformers in maintaining that baptism (when spoken of in the 
 abstract with reference to its true nature, intent, and purpose) 
 is a rite divinely appointed as the instrument in the use of 
 which a certain spiritual blessing is conveyed by God to the 
 recipient; and the consequence was, that both, when speaking 
 of baptism in the abstract, used the strongest expressions as 
 to the value of the blessings conferred in it by (rod : and they 
 did this, both for the purpose of upholding the truth, and coun- 
 teracting the opposite error. 
 
 But it is, palpably, a misinterpretation of this language, to 
 infer from it, that this Sacrament is represented thereby as 
 having this effect upon all who partake of it; because such 
 general statements refer to the case of adults as well as infants; 
 and, in the former case, it is admitted, even in these documents, 
 that faith and repentance are necessary to a salutary reception 
 of the Sacrament. Therefore some similar qualification may 
 have been held necessary in the latter case. 
 
 Against the latter error, it is maintained, that infants ought 
 to be baptized, and that they experience, as well as adults, the 
 blessed effects of baptism. But it is no more asserted, that all 
 infants experience those effects, than that all adults experienced 
 them. True, it is pointed out that faith and repentance are the 
 qualifications for a salutary reception of the Sacrament by an 
 adult ; and no distinction is clearly drawn between one case 
 and another in the reception of the Sacrament by infants ; but 
 no argument can be derived from this, except that our Reformers 
 were not prepared to tie men up to one view on a point not 
 determined by Scripture, and on which the minds of men were 
 divided; some holding (as Luther) that infants have faith, and
 
 202 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 are baptized on the presumption of their having faith ; others, 
 that the salutary effect of baptism followed in the case of elect 
 infants ; and others probably varying from both those views. 
 
 And further, (holding as they then did, that none but the 
 baptized are saved) they remonstrated against the supposition 
 that infants are not the objects of the divine mercy, and therefore 
 contended that they ought to be made partakers of that rite 
 which they considered necessary to their salvation. But to 
 interpret these words as meaning that all infants are alike the 
 objects of the divine mercy, is a gratuitous and unwarranted 
 assumption, and, I may add, a misinterpretation grounded 
 upon a forgetfulness of the doctrinal views of many of the 
 authors of such statements. 
 
 It must be remembered, that however much the notion may 
 have prevailed among us in modern times, that all infants of 
 Christian parents are in the sight of Grod equally entitled by 
 his promise to receive the full baptismal grace, such was far 
 from being the prevailing notion in the times of which we are 
 speaking. I have already noticed the fact, that Luther held 
 that infants are capable of faith, and in his Catechism, published 
 in 1529, expressly says that infants are baptized, hac spe atque 
 animo, quodcerto credant, that is, in this hope and persuasion, 
 that they certainly believe. And the same view is clearly 
 inculcated in a work published in 1540 by one who, in 1541, 
 was made by Cranrner one of the six preachers at Canterbury 
 Cathedral Lancelot Ridley in a passage which I shall now 
 quote. A.nd such faith was of course (according to the doctrinal 
 system embraced, as I have shown above, by this author) 
 considered to be a gift freely bestowed by G-od according to his 
 own will. 
 
 In his Commentary on the Ephesians,* speaking on the 
 subject of baptism, he say (on V. 25 27 :) 
 
 " Hero is shewed, how Christ hath purged his Church truly in the 
 fountain of water, by his word. Although God, of his mercy and good- 
 ness, without all man's deserts or merits, only for Christ's sake, hath wash- 
 ed and purged man from sin; yet he useth a mean, by the which he cleanseth 
 
 * First published in 1640, and reprinted from the copy in the Cambridge 
 University Library in Richmond's Fathers of the English Church, vol. ii. pp. 1 8 
 et Beq.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 203 
 
 men from sin, which is by baptism in water, by the word of God and so 
 in baptism are our sins taken away, and we from sins purged, cleansed, 
 and regenerated in a new man, to live an holy life, according to the Spirit 
 and will of God. It is not the water that washes us from our sins, but 
 Christ by his word and his Spirit, given to us in baptism, that washeth 
 away our sins, that we have of Adam by carnal nature." (p. 135.) 
 
 And he proceeds to observe (according to the views of the 
 time) that 
 
 " Children, of necessity, must be christened, or else they cannot be 
 purged of their sins, nor yet saved by Christ, and come to life everlasting. 
 Wherefore the Anabaptists that would not have children to be christened, 
 they shew themselves that they would not have children to be purged from 
 their sins and be saved. If they would have children saved, they would 
 not deny to them the means whereby Christ purgeth his Church from sins, 
 and saveth it, which is by baptism, as here appeareth." 
 
 And he repeats in the context the same doctrine ; with the 
 saving clause, however, "except God of his absolute power do 
 save them." (p. 136.) 
 
 The argument is this, Christ " purgeth his Church " by 
 baptism, and none can be saved who are not thus purged. If 
 therefore we admit that any infants belong to his Church, they 
 ought to be baptized ; and as we cannot discriminate which do, 
 and which do not, belong to his Church at that age, all must 
 be baptized ; of course in the hope, as to each, that it may be 
 of the number of the members of Christ's mystical body. And 
 if it die in infancy, few have ever denied that it is to be con- 
 sidered to have been so. 
 
 And when he comes to reply to the objections of the Ana- 
 baptists, he meets them in these words : 
 
 " They say that those that should be christened, must first believe, and 
 then be christened. Children, they say, cannot believe, for 'faith is gotten 
 by hearing and hearing by the word of Godi' So children cannot have 
 faith, say these Anabaptists ; wherefore they say that children should not 
 be christened. To this reason I answer and say, that children may have 
 faith, although they have it not by hearing, yet they have faith by infusion 
 of the Holy Ghost, as the holy prophets had, and many holy men in the 
 old law had. Also, faith is the gift of God, and. the work of the Holy Ghost. 
 Who should let God to give his gifts where he will, seeing faith is the gift 
 of God ? (Eph. ii. ; Phil, i.) He may give faith as well to children, as 
 to old men. Faith also is the work of God, (John vi.) and not of man, of 
 man's will, or reason. Who shall let God to work, where he list ? There-
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 fore it is not impossible for children to have faith, as these Anabaptists 
 falsely suppose. 
 
 " Also God regardeth no persons, but giveth his gifts without all regard 
 of persons : a child or old man be counted as persons in Scripture : where- 
 fore it followeth plainly, that he giveth not faith to an old man, or, [? and] 
 denieth faith to a child, because he is a child ; for then God should regard 
 persons which he doth not. [It will be observed here, that faith is consid- 
 ered as in all cases a free gift, given as God listeth.] 
 
 " And where they say, that they must express their faith before they be 
 christened what will they do with deaf and dumb men, that get not faith 
 by hearing, nor cannot express their faith by words ? Will they exclude 
 them from baptism, and condemn them to hell-pit ? 
 
 " And also some aged, peradventure, will dissemble, and say, they have 
 faith, when they have not faith- and if they will christen none without 
 they be certain of their faith, then shall they christen none, neither young 
 nor old ; seeing that old may dissemble and say they have faith, when 
 they have not faith." (pp. 140, 141.) 
 
 And he expressly requires faith in infants that they may 
 be accepted ; for, referring to Matt. xix. 14, 15, and Mark x. 
 14, et seq. where Christ took the children in his arms, and 
 blessed them, and said, Of such is the kingdom of (rod, in 
 favor of infant baptism, he says, 
 
 " Here are tokens that God loved these children, that they pleased him, 
 
 and THAT THEY HAD FAITH J FOR WITHOUT FAITH NO MAN CAN PLEASE GoD. 
 
 Heb. xi." (p. 138.) 
 
 From these passages, then, it is evident in what way we 
 are to interpret the general statements previously made by 
 this author as to the benefits and blessings accompanying 
 baptism ; statements which, if they had not been accidentally 
 accompanied by this reply to the objections of the Anabaptists, 
 showing the limitation to be placed to their meaning, would, 
 beyond doubt, have been applied (according to modern reason- 
 ing) to show that what was said applied to the case of every 
 infant baptized. 
 
 Such was the doctrine of an eminent divine at the very 
 period in which these documents were put forth. 
 
 Now it is probable, from a passage in Cranmer's Answer 
 to Gardiner,* that he did not hold that infants were capable 
 of actual faith : but (as I shall show presently) he maintained, 
 
 " Works, vol. i. pp. 124 125.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 205 
 
 even at this time, the doctrine of Peter Martyr and Bucer, 
 (whom he afterwards, in 1547 and 1548, chose as his great 
 helpers in carrying on the work of the English Reformation,) 
 who, while they do not seem to have regarded infants as 
 capable of actual faith, considered such only to be acceptable 
 recipients of baptism in the sight of God, and to be made true 
 members of Christ's mystical body, whom he had chosen to 
 be his children. 
 
 I now proceed, then, to give the passages on our present 
 subject, from the documents above referred to. 
 
 First, from the Articles of 1536.* The article on Baptism, 
 after asserting that baptism is " necessary for the attaining of 
 everlasting life, according to the saying of Christ, John iii. 5," 
 proceeds thus, 
 
 " Then, That it is offered unto all men, as well infants as such as have 
 the use of reason, that by baptism they shall have remission of sins, and 
 the grace and favor of God, according to the saying of Christ, (Matt. [Mark] 
 xvi..) Qui crediderit et baptizatus fuerit, salvus erit : that is to say, Whoso- 
 ever believeth and is' baptized shall be saved." 
 
 Here, clearly, faith is acknowledged to be indispensable to 
 acceptance by (rod ; and apparently with reference to the case 
 of infants as well as adults, for no distinction is drawn between 
 the two cases, but the text quoted is (so far as appears) applied 
 to both. 
 
 " Then, That the promise of grace and everlasting life, (which promise 
 is adjoined unto this Sacrament of Baptism,) pertaineth not only unto such 
 as have the use of reason, but also to infants, innocents, and children ; and 
 that they ought therefore and must needs be baptized ; and that by the 
 Sacrament of Baptism they do also obtain remission of their sins, the grace 
 and favor of God, and be made thereby the very sons and children of God " 
 
 Here is a general statement, to which none but Anabap- 
 tists will object, namely, that the promise of grace pertains 
 not only to adults, but to infants ; and that what baptism 
 does for the former, it does also for the latter. 
 
 And the Article proceeds thus, 
 
 " Insomuch as infants and children dying in their infancy shall undoubt- 
 edly be saved thereby, and else not." 
 
 * See " Formularies of Faith," Ac. pp. xviii-rx.
 
 206 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Now here, besides the doctrine that baptism is absolutely 
 necessary to salvation,* (which as I shall show presently, has 
 been undeniably relinquished by our Church as a doctrine of 
 authority in her communion,) the words do not necessarily 
 imply more than that baptism has a salutary effect in the case 
 of all infants who die during the period of infancy. Now the 
 salvation of such infants, (recollecting, of course, that those 
 spoken of are the infants of professing believers, who alone are 
 fit subjects for baptism,) few, probably, will be inclined to deny. 
 And the child of a believing parent, foreknown by (rod as one 
 that will never commit actual sin, may well be considered as 
 a partaker of all the blessings of baptism. Most, even of our 
 modern divines, would, I think, consider such a child as inter- 
 ested , even without baptism, in the promises of the covenant 
 of grace ; but such was not the view maintained in .these 
 Formularies, in which baptism is considered necessary to that 
 end. 
 
 The next Article declares the reason why it was considered 
 that infants must be christened in order to be saved, as 
 follows, 
 
 .." Then, That infants must needs be christened, because they be born in 
 original sin, which sin must needs be remitted ; which cannot be done but 
 by the Sacrament of Baptism, whereby they receive the Holy Ghost, which 
 exerciseth his grace and efficacy in them, and cleanseth and purifieth them 
 from sin by his most secret virtue and operation." 
 
 Here is a general statement as to what baptism works in 
 the case of infants, but it is obvious that there is here no 
 determination of the question, whether or not it works these 
 effects in the case of all infants. And a proof that such 
 statements were not understood at that time as implying that 
 these effects are produced in all baptized infants, is to be found 
 in the fact, that these general statements are freely made by 
 those who firmly maintained that they are not, as for instance, 
 Calvin, Bucer, and Martyr. 
 
 The next Article forbids the iteration of baptism ; the 
 succeeding one condemns the opinions of the Anabaptists and 
 
 * It ia to me doubtful what the words, " and else not," were intended to apply 
 to ; but I am willing to take them in the sense attached to them above.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 207 
 
 Pelagians ; and the last declares the qualifications for adult 
 baptism, i. e., that persons "having the use of reason " 
 
 " Shall, by the virtue of that holy Sacrament, obtain the grace and 
 remission of all their sins, if they shall come thereunto perfectly and truly 
 repentant and contrite of all their sins before committed, and also perfectly 
 and constantly confessing and believing all the articles of our faith accord- 
 ing as it was mentioned in the First Article : and finally, if they shall also 
 have firm credence and trust in the promise of God adjoined to the said 
 Sacrament, that is to say, that in and by this said Sacrament, which they 
 shall receive, God the Father giveth unto them, for his Son Jesu Christ's sake, 
 remission of all their sins, and the grace of the Holy Ghost, whereby they 
 be newly regenerated, and made the very children of God," &c. (pp. xix. xx.) 
 
 Now, whatever interpretation the Romanizing party of that 
 period may have put on the words of these Articles, and they 
 were very probably intended to admit of more than one sense, 
 (just as in other parts Bishop Lloyd observes* that " in many 
 points the name only of the doctrine appears to be retained, 
 while the principle is, in fact, surrendered,") there is certainly 
 nothing in them asserting that all infants indiscriminately are 
 regenerated in baptism. The first Article clearly points in a 
 different direction. And the quotation I have just given from 
 L. Ridley proves that some at the time would so have 
 interpreted it, that is, as opposed to such a notion. We have 
 already seen how much the Romanists were divided among 
 themselves on the question of the effects of baptism in infants, 
 previous to the Council of Trent. We need not wonder, 
 therefore, at any indefiniteness of expression occurring in 
 Formularies drawn up by those who had just begun to think for 
 themselves on such matters. 
 
 But such general statements are totally insufficient to prove 
 that all men are spiritually regenerate who have been baptized 
 in infancy. What the advocates of such a doctrine want is, 
 some definite declaration that G-od looks upon all infants with 
 equal favor, and that although all adults are not, yet that 
 all infants are, spiritually regenerated in baptism : and still 
 further, some evidence that what is spoken of infants, even if 
 intended to apply to all universally, does not apply to them 
 
 * Pref. p. iv.
 
 208 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN" INFANTS. 
 
 merely as infants, but extends to their condition as adults. 
 For there had been much difference of opinion on this point. 
 
 But the best proof of the interpretation which, at least, 
 Cranmer and his party must have put upon those statements, 
 is to be found in the passages with which these very same 
 statements are connected in the "Institution of a Christian 
 Man," published in the next year. Here the article on Bap- 
 tism is precisely the same as that in the " Articles" of 1536.* 
 And yet in another part of the same work we find those 
 remarkable passages, some of which I have already placed 
 before the reader,! and to which I must now again call his 
 attention. 
 
 In the paraphrase of the Ninth Article of the Creed (that 
 on the Church) we read, 
 
 " I believe assuredly that there is and hath been ever from the 
 
 beginning of the world, and so shall endure and continue for ever, one certain 
 number, society, communion, or company of the elect and faithful people of 
 God; of which number our Saviour Jesu Christ is the only head and 
 governor, and the members of the same be all those holy saints which be 
 now in heaven, and also all the faithful people of God which be now on 
 life, or that ever heretofore have lived, or shall live here in this world.". . . 
 " And I believe assuredly that this congregation, according as it is called in 
 Scripture, so it is in very deed the city of heavenly Jerusalem . . . the holy 
 Catholic Church." '-And I believe that this whole congregation is all holy 
 .... so purified and mundified, as well by Christ's most precious blood, as 
 also by the godly presence, governance, and assistance of his Holy Spirit 
 .... that neither the lepry of heresy, or false and perverse doctrine .... 
 shall be able finally to prevail against them, or to pull any of them out of 
 the hands and possession of Christ." <: I believe assuredly .... that all 
 such members as be fallen out from the same by sin, shall at length rise 
 again by penance, and shall be restored and united again unto the same holy 
 body." 
 
 " And I believe assuredly that in this Holy Church, and with the 
 members of the same (so long as they be militant and living here in earth) 
 there have been ever, and yet be, and ever shall be joined and mingled 
 together, an infinite number of the evil and wicked people, which, although 
 they be indeed the very members of the congregation of the wicked, and, as 
 the gospel calleth them, very weeds and chaff, evil fish and goats, and shall 
 finally be judged to everlasting damnation; yet, forasmuch as they do live 
 
 * See " Formularies," &c. pp. 92-94. It is BO far a verbatim transcript, that 
 the differences are only in a few unimportant words not affecting the sense. 
 f See pp. 60 et seq. above.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 209 
 
 in the common society or company of those which be the very quick and 
 living members of Christ's mystical body, and outwardly do profess, receive, 
 and consent with them for a season in the doctrine of the Gospel, and in the 
 right using of the Sacraments, yea and ofttimes be endued with right 
 excellent g-ifts of the Holy Ghost, they be to be accounted and reputed here 
 in this world to be in the number of the said very members of Christ's mys- 
 tical body, so long as they be not by open sentence of excommunication 
 precided and excluded from the same. NOT BECAUSE THEY BE SUCH 
 MEMBERS IN VERY DEED, but because the certain judgment and knowledge 
 of that their state is by God's ordinance hidden and kept secret from all men's 
 knowledge, and shall not be revealed until the time that Christ himself 
 shall come at the world's end, and there shall manifest and declare his very 
 kingdom, and who be the very true members of his body and who be not."* 
 
 Again, in the " Notes and Observations on the Creed," it 
 is said ; 
 
 " In the ninth Article, [on the Church] many things be to be noted. 
 First, that this word church, in Scripture, is taken sometime generally for 
 the whole congregation of them that be christened and profess Chris? s Gospel \ 
 and sometime it is taken for the Catholic congregation, or number of them 
 only which be chosen, called, and ordained to reign with Christ in everlasting 
 life. ... It is to be noted that by these parables, and certain such other, 
 rehearsed in Scripture, is signified, that among them which be christened, and 
 do profess Christ's gospel, and live in the common society and communion 
 of the Sacraments of the Church, divers be indeed the very quick and living 
 members of Christ's mystical body, and shall reign with him everlastingly 
 in honor. And that the congregation or society of them is the very field, 
 and they be the very good corn or seed, which Christ himself did sow. And 
 divers be indeed chaff, or stinking and naughty weeds, sown by the devil, n 
 &c. ..." By these parables also it is signified, that in this present life 
 these two sorts of people, good and bad, be continually mixed and mingled 
 together in the Church, as it is taken in the first signification. And that 
 the said members of the synagogue of the devil, so long as they grow in the 
 same field wherein the good corn groweth, that is to say, so long as they do 
 in outward appearance profess the same faith of Christ which the very 
 members of Christ's church do profess, and do consent and agree with them 
 outwardly in the doctrine of the Gospel, and in all other things appertaining 
 unto Christ's religion; they must be accepted and reputed here in the world 
 for the very members of Christ's mystical body; and that they ought not, 
 ne can be dissevered from them, until the day of judgment." ;: Fourthly, 
 it is to be noted, that of the Church, as it is taken in the second manne of 
 signification, it is said in Scripture that she is the heavenly Jerusalem, the 
 city of God. . . . All which sentences, and divers such other, spoken in 
 Scripture of the Church, be to be referred and verified of the Church in th* 
 
 * See pp. 63-65 above ; and pp. 62-64 of the " Institution. 
 
 14
 
 $10 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 second signification. And finally, in this signification also the ninth Article 
 of our Creed is to be understanded" &c., &c.* 
 
 Having thus divided the nominal Church into two bodies, 
 the one consisting of those that are " christened and profess 
 Christ's Gospel," but are indeed chaff and loeeds " sown by 
 the devil," and the other of " the Catholic congregation," the 
 Church of the Creed, composed of " those ONLY which be 
 chosen, called and ordained to reign with Christ in ever- 
 lasting life," and distinctly maintained that none of those 
 who are made true members of Christ's mystical body, the 
 Catholic Church, can ever perish or fall away finally ; it 
 also shows how our Lord acts towards those who are " chosen, 
 called, and ordained to reign with him in everlasting life," 
 namely, that in the case of ' the very members of his Church," 
 he shall "continually rule them, direct them, govern them, 
 sanctify them, and give unto them remission of their sins, 
 and all spiritual comfort, as well inwardly by faith, and other 
 his secret operations, as also outwardly by the open ministra- 
 tion and efficacy of the word of Grod and of his holy Sacra- 
 ments" (see pp. 62, 63 above; or "Institution/' p. 51.) 
 
 And hence the Christian is taught to say, as part of his 
 belief: 
 
 " I believe and trust assuredly, that I am one of the members of this 
 Catholic Church, and that God of his only mercy hath not only chosen and 
 called me thereunto by his Holy Spirit, and by the efficacy of his word and 
 Sacraments, and hath inserted and united me into this universal body or 
 flock, and hath made me his son and inheritor of his kingdom ; but also 
 that he shall of his like goodness, and by the operation of the Holy Ghost, 
 justify me here in this world, and finally glorify me in heaven." (See p. 
 64 above ; or (< Institution," pp. 56, 57.) 
 
 And in speaking of the Article on " the communion of 
 Saints," it remarks that this expression is variously interpre- 
 ted ; and among the various interpretations which it com- 
 mends to the attention of the reader, occurs the following ; 
 
 ''Some doctors do expound it to signify that treasure of the Church 
 [meaning the true Catholic Church as before defined] which is common 
 equally unto all the members of the same. And those doctors which be of 
 
 * See the passages more fully in pp. 65, 67 above; and pp. 75-80 of the 
 " Institution."
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 211 
 
 this opinion do interpretate that treasure to be nothing else but the grace, 
 that is to say, the mercy, the goodness, and the favor of God in this world, 
 and glory in the world to come. They say also, that this grace of God is the 
 common treasure of all the elect people j)f God, and that our poverty is so 
 extreme, that of ourselves, without this grace, we should be utterly nothing. 
 They say further, that the effect and virtue of this grace is to make us able 
 to rise from sin and flee from sin, to work goed works, to receive the reward 
 of everlasting glory, to have and retain the true sense and understanding 
 of Holy Scripture, and to endue us with Christian faith, hope, and charity. 
 Finally, they say, that this grace worketh all those effects in the elect people 
 of God, by two special instruments, which be, the word of God and his Sacra- 
 ments. And forasmuch as both the word and the Sacraments have all their 
 efficacy by and through the might and operation of the Holy Ghost, and 
 forasmuch also as this Holy Ghost dvjelleth and abideth only in the Catholic 
 Church, and in the members of the same, and worketh none of these effects 
 out of the Church; they think that by this clause, communion of saints, is 
 meant here the treasure of the Church ; and that this treasure is nothing 
 else but the HolyGhost himself, and his graces, n &c. (Seep. 67 above; or 
 ''Institution," pp. 79, 80.) 
 
 Here, then, in this very document of 1537, we find an end 
 of the \vhole controversy, for it cannot be pretended that Cran- 
 mer was less Protestant when he subsequently drew up our 
 Formularies, the contrary being notoriously the case. It is 
 here distinctly laid down, that none but those who are elected 
 and ordained to eternal life, and are such as will never fall 
 away, ever belong to the true Catholic Church, or are mem- 
 bers of Christ's mystical body, all others never being members 
 at all. Consequently there is an end to the notion that all 
 are made so in their baptism. The very essence of spiritual 
 regeneration is incorporation into the true mystical body of 
 Christ, the Catholic Church of the Creed. But none (accord- 
 ing to this document) are ever so incorporated, but those who 
 will ultimately be saved, and therefore none but such receive 
 true spiritual regeneration. There is no spiritual new birth in 
 " chaff and weeds" " sown by the devil." And the " efficacy" 
 of the Sacraments is here distinctly limited to the " very 
 members of Christ's body." 
 
 Have some of those who are so fond of quoting certain 
 passages from this work on one point ever read it ? I doubt 
 whether we shall hear so much of it from that quarter here- 
 after. 
 
 And I cannot refrain from anticipating here (in passing) a
 
 212 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 remark which I shall have to dwell further upon hereafter, 
 namely, that to argue from the words of the Catechism, (drawn 
 up by Cranmer, or under his direction,) " baptism, wherein I 
 was macte a member of Cffrist, &c.," that therefore every 
 child baptized is certainly made in baptism, in the full spiritual 
 sense, a member of Christ, &c., because it is taught to use 
 such words respecting itself, merely betrays the ignorance of 
 the arguer as to the doctrinal views of those who drew up this 
 form, as illustrated by works of the same period. The expres- 
 sions are identical with those of the paraphrase of the Creed 
 in the " Institution," where the context shows, that they are 
 considered as applying only, in their strict interpretation, to 
 the case of the true child of God, " elect and ordained to eter- 
 nal life." And the child, evidently, was instructed to use 
 them in order to teach him the language then held to be the 
 befitting language of every true Christian ; who was exhorted 
 to feel assured of, and put his trust in, (rod's purposes of spe- 
 cial and gratuitous mercy towards him. 
 
 It may be worth while to add, that in the article on Confir- 
 mation in this work, (pp. 94, 95,) the benefit of the Sacrament 
 of Baptism is limited to those who "duly receive" it. 
 
 The next document, in the order of time, that has been 
 appealed to, is what the Bishop of Exeter, after Dr. Jenkyns, 
 calls the " Articles agreed upon by Cranmer with the German 
 Reformers in 1538." This title, however, is a mere guess ; 
 and I am disposed to think with Strype,* that they were 
 rather Articles drawn up in conformity with the Act passed in 
 1540, appointing a Commission to prepare Articles of Faith 
 for the English Church. On this point, however, I shall not 
 enlarge, nor upon the fact that they appear to be merely a 
 rough draught of what was never finally settled, for whatever 
 purpose they were intended. And it is very probable that (as 
 the Bishop of Exeter asserts) Cranmer had the principal hand 
 in them. 
 
 But the Article that occurs in them on the subject of Bap- 
 tism is a mere counterpart of the statements in the Articles of 
 1536, and the " Institution." And in the Article " On Origi- 
 
 * Eccles Memor. I. 366, 867 ; or I. i. 650, 651, and Append. No. cxii.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 218 
 
 nal Sin," we find a passage entirely contrary to the notion that 
 regeneration is always conferred in baptism. "All men," it 
 says, " have concupiscence, repugnant to the law of (rod ; and 
 this original disease or corruption is truly sin, damning and 
 bringing now also eternal death on those who are not born 
 again by baptism and the Holy Spirit.' 1 ''* 
 The Article on Baptism runs thus, 
 
 <( De Baptismo dicimus, quod baptismus a Christo sit institutes, et sit 
 necessarius ad salutem, et quod per baptismum offerantur remissio pecca- 
 torum et gratia Christi infantibus et adultis. Et quod non debeat iterari 
 baptismus, et quod infantes debeant baptizari. Et quod infantes per bap- 
 tismum consequantur remissionem peccatorum et gratiam, et sint filii Dei, 
 quia promissio gratiae et vitae seternae pertinet non solum ad adultos, sed 
 etiam ad infantes. Et hsec promissio per ministerium in eeclesia infanti- 
 bus et adultis administrari debet. Quia vero infantes naseuntur cum pec- 
 cato, et illud ita remittitur ut reatus tollatur, licet corruptio natura seu con- 
 cupiscentia manet in hac vita, etsi incipit sanari, quia Spiritus Sanctus in 
 ipsis etiam infantibus est efficax et eos mundat. Probamus igitur sententi- 
 am Eeclesiae. qufe damnavit Pelagianos, quia negabant infantibus esse 
 peccatum originis. Damnamus et Anabaptistas, qui negant infantes bap- 
 tizandos esse. De adultis vero doccmus. quod ita consequuntur per baptis- 
 mum remissionem peccatorum et gratiam, si baptizandi attulerint pocni- 
 tentiam veram, confessionem articulorum fidei, et credant vere ipsis ibi 
 donari remissionem peccatorum et justificationem propter Christum, sicut 
 Petrus ait in Actis, ' Poenitentiam agite, et baptizetur, &c.' "f 
 
 Now here it will be observed, that (besides the doctrine of 
 the necessity of baptism, then held) nothing more is stated than 
 that infants are proper subjects for baptism as well as adults ; 
 and that they obtain the same spiritual blessing in baptism as 
 adults do ; which all but Anabaptists allow ; and further, that 
 adults obtain the blessings of baptism only if they come with 
 penitence and faith, &c. ; the doctrine on the subject of tho 
 acceptance of infants by God being left (as it is in Scripture) 
 to be inferred from that in the case of adults. 
 
 It is clear that in none of the documents we have been 
 considering is there any assertion that all infants indiscriminately 
 
 * Omnes homines .... habent concupiscentiam, repugnantem legi Dei : estque 
 hie morbus seu vitiam originis vere peccatum, damnans et afferens mine quoque 
 trternam mortem his qui non renascuntur per baptismum el Spiritism Sanctum. 
 (CVanmer's Works, P. S. ed. vol. 2. App. p. 472.) 
 
 f Ib. p. 475. 

 
 214 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 are partakers in baptism of its full spiritual blessing. The 
 doctrine of the " Institution " is opposed to it. And I have 
 shown that one at least of the principal divines of the period, of 
 Cranmer's party, (L. Ridley,) held that faith was a necessary 
 condition of their acceptance in baptism. 
 
 I proceed to the " Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any 
 Christian Man." 
 
 Here, as might be expected from the account already given 
 of this work, we find the language in which the doctrine of 
 Baptism is delivered, like the rest, changed. The yaluable 
 explication of the Creed, given in the "Institution "is ENTIRELY 
 REMOVED, and in its place an interpretation of a totally 
 different theological character substituted. And as the articles 
 on " the Sacrament of the Altar," the Second Commandment 
 (on the question of Images) and Justification, are all altered 
 (the last especially) so as to make them more favorable to the 
 Popish doctrine ; so the article on the Sacrament of Baptism 
 is of course another specimen of similar alterations. 
 
 Thus, the language used is, that by baptism infants " being 
 offered in the faith of the Church receive forgiveness of their 
 sin, and such grace of the Holy Grhost, that if they die in the 
 state of their infancy, they shall thereby undoubtedly be saved.'* 
 (Art. on Baptism, p. 254.) And again, " As for infants, it is to 
 be believed -that their justification is wrought by the secret 
 operation of the Holy Ghost in their baptism, they being offered 
 in the faith of the Church." (Art. on Justification, p. 366.) 
 And the same declaration is of course made as to the necessity 
 of baptism to infants for their salvation, in these words, " Seeing 
 that out of the Church neither infants nor no man else can be 
 saved, they must needs be christened and cleansed by baptism, 
 and so incorporated into the Church." Art. on Baptism, p. 
 255.)* 
 
 After the words " thereby undoubtedly be saved," in the quotation given 
 above from p. 254, there followed in the corresponding passage in the " Institu- 
 tion," the words " and else not," which are here omitted. This omission might, 
 in itself, have led to the supposition of a withdrawal of the doctrine of the abso/- 
 lute necessity of baptism to infants for salvation ; but this passage in p. 265 
 negatives such a supposition. Nor would the history of this work lead us to- 
 expect such a withdrawal.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 215 
 
 The language is here changed from what was used before. 
 It is not merely said that infants receive grace in baptism as 
 well as adults, which all but Anabaptists admit, and that those 
 who die in infancy are thereby saved, (according to the doctrine 
 of the period,) but the words used definitely imply that all receive 
 forgiveness, the grace of the Holy Ghost, and justification, of 
 whom such as die in infancy are thereby saved. 
 
 Nevertheless, even this work itself, speaking of the " new 
 life of grace and the Spirit," in which we have " bound ourselves 
 by baptjsm " to " walk and proceed," says, 
 
 " Into the which we are called by the word of God, and BY DUE FAITH 
 
 AND DUE RECEIVING OF THIS HOLY SACRAMENT ARE BROUGHT AND 
 
 SET INTO THE SAME." {p. 257.) 
 
 These contradictory statements are to be accounted for, I 
 suppose, from the difference of view existing in those that were 
 engaged in drawing up this work. 
 
 It must be observed, also, that in the " Necessary Doctrine," 
 as well as in all the preceding Formularies, in the case of adults 
 coming to baptism, faith and repentance are absolutely required 
 in order to their obtaining the baptismal blessing.* No such 
 notion is countenanced, even in these semi-Popish works, as the 
 possibility of the reception of any spiritual gift in baptism by 
 adults who come to that rite destitute of these dispositions. 
 
 It would hardly be necessary to point attention to this fact 
 in our own Church, where the 25th Article has so definitely 
 settled the doctrine of our Church in the matter, were it not 
 for the lengths to which the Romanising faction that has lately 
 sprung up among us, have proceeded in this among other points; 
 one of its principal organs having the effrontery to maintain, 
 that " not only in the language of charity, but of fact, of even 
 an impenitent adult coming to baptism, it may with truth be 
 said, as the Church of England says, that he is ' born again,' 
 and ' grafted into the body of Christ's Chureh,' that he is 
 ' regenerate.' " And to palliate the offensiveness of such a 
 statement, it is added, that " such regeneration and salvation 
 
 See Art. on the Sacrament of Baptism, pp. 253, 254, 256, and Art. on 
 Justification, p. 365. The passages ia the preceding Formularies have been 
 already quoted.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 are given only conceptionally," and " the presence of sin closes 
 instantly round the baptismal seed, and renders it unfruitful, 
 and prevents his sins being actually forgiven."* So that the 
 man is maintained to be truly born again and regenerate, &c. r 
 though his sins are not forgiven him ; and the almost blasphe- 
 mous assertion is made, that even a wicked hypocrite coming 
 to baptism is necessarily a recipient of Divine grace ! 
 
 The object of all this is, to get rid of an argument which 
 admits of no reasonable reply ; namely, that as these terms are 
 used in the Service for Adult Baptism hypothetically, (as the 
 Bishop of Exeter himself admits in his recent Charge,) so they 
 may fairly be interpreted in a similar way in the Service for 
 Infant Baptism. The author of the above passages thinks to 
 take a short road to an answer, by denying that even in the 
 Service for Adult Baptism they are used hypothetically. 
 
 But these parties are in fact upon the horns of a dilemma* 
 If they take this ground, they are refuted by the 25th Article. 
 If they admit that the terms are used hypothetically in one 
 Service, (as the Bishop of Exeter is compelled to do,) it follows 
 that they may fairly be so interpreted in the other. 
 
 It is worth notice, also, that even by the authors of the 
 
 * Christian Remembrancer for October, 1848, pp. 491, 492. On the refer- 
 ence made in support of this notion to " theology of the schools," much might be 
 said if it were worth while to do so, as the reader may judge from chapter 2. 
 above. But it is sufficient here to remark, that to send us to the Schoolmen for 
 an interpretation of the Formularies of our Church, shows only the deplorable 
 ignorance of the writer as to the views of our Reformers. The gross and palpable 
 misrepresentations upon which the article is founded render any formal reply to 
 it wholly unnecessary ; but one passage so thoroughly shows the complete disre- 
 gard to truth, and also the ignorance or worse than ignorance of the writer of the 
 article, that it may be well to notice it. Speaking of the theology of the Schools, 
 the writer adds, " A department of divinity, in which Mr. Goode is as ill-read as 
 eome of his opponents are content and desirous to remain in Mr. Goode's foreign 
 Protestants." Now the writer of this has not the slightest knowledge on which 
 to ground this assertion, and therefore made it merely to damage an adversary, 
 careless whether it was true or not, and the imputation implied happens to be 
 Contrary to the truth. But the reason why I notice the passage is, to show how 
 completely the writer is convicted out of his own mouth, (when he thus speaks 
 of the foreign Protestants,) of being totally opposed in doctrine to our Reformers 
 and early divines, who openly avowed their agreement in doctrine with the for- 
 eign Reformed Churches. The weapons of Romanizers are ahvays the same.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 217 
 
 " Necessary Doctrine," " the children of Christian men "* only 
 are contemplated as fit subjects for baptism. 
 
 Before I conclude this Chapter, it may be well to show, that 
 our Church, though she has not given any sentence upon the 
 state of unbaptized infants, has at least relinquished the affirma- 
 tion, that baptism is necessary to the salvation of infants. In 
 all the Formularies we have been considering, this affirmation 
 is unhesitatingly made ; and the idea seems to be sanctioned 
 in the first Liturgy of 1549, in which, in the first prayer in the 
 Baptismal Service, occur the following words, " that they, 
 being delivered from thy wrath, may be received into the ark 
 of Christ's Church, and so saved from perishing." In the 
 revision of the Liturgy, published in 1552, the words " and so 
 saved from perishing " were omitted ; a significant intimation 
 of a change of view. 
 
 We have also decisive evidence, that at the period of the 
 revision, Cranmer at least did not hold the doctrine of the 
 necessity of baptism for the salvation of infants. For in the 
 " Reformatio Legum," compiled under his superintendence and 
 corrected by him, the notion is very decisively condemned as 
 superstitious and impious, in the following words. 
 
 {; We ought also to consider as impious the scrupulous superstition 
 of those who so entirely confine the grace of God and the Holy Spirit to 
 the elements of the Sacraments as openly to affirm that no infant of Chris- 
 tians will obtain eternal salvation who shall have died before he could be 
 brought to baptism ; which we consider to be far otherwise. For salvation 
 is taken away from those only, who despise this sacred font of baptism, or 
 through pride or contumaciousness revolt from it : and since this unreason- 
 ableness does not fall in with the age of children, nothing can be deter- 
 mined against their salvation by the authority of the Scriptures ; nay, on 
 the contrary, since the general promise comprehends such children within 
 it, we ought to entertain the highest hope of their salvation."f 
 
 * Art. on Baptism, p. 254. 
 
 f Illorum etiam impia videri debet scrupulosa superstitio, qui Dei gratiam et 
 Spiritum Sanctum tantopere cum Sacramentorum elementis colligant, ut plane 
 affirment, nullum Christianorum infantem aeternam salutem esse consequuturum, 
 qui prius a morte fuerit occupatus, quam ad Baptismum adduci potuerit: quod 
 longe secus habere judicamus. Salus enim illis solum adimitur qui sacrum huno 
 Baptism! font em contemnunt, aut superbia quandam ab eo, vel contumacia resil- 
 iunt : quae im portunitas cum in puerorum aetatem non cadat, nihil contra salutem 
 illorum authoritate Scripturarum decerni potest ; immo contra, cum illos commuuit
 
 218 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 This shows that the alteration in the Baptismal Service 
 was intentional ; and, considering the supremacy of Cranmer's 
 authority at that time in ecclesiastical matters, may be taken 
 as decisive evidence, that the doctrine previously maintained 
 was then relinquished as a doctrine of the Church, though no 
 dogmatic statement was published on the subject. 
 
 promissio pueros in se comprehendat, optima nobis spes de illorum salute concipi- 
 enda est. (Reform. Leg. Eccles. ; De haeres. c. 18, p. 17. Ed. 1640.)
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF OUR LEADING REFORMERS AND DIVINES 
 DURING THE REIGNS OF EDWARD VI. AND ELIZABETH, AND 
 THE EARLIER PAR.T OF THAT OF JAMES I., ON THE SUBJECT 
 OF THE EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 I NOW proceed to a review of some of the direct testimonies 
 which the works of our early divines afford us as to their 
 doctrine on the subject of baptism ; and much is it to be 
 regretted that their remains are not more abundant, as in that 
 case we should be able, (as is evident from the general 
 character of their theology,) considerably to multiply the 
 amount of evidence given below for the view maintained in 
 this work. But the weight of the testimonies which can be 
 produced, so far as respects the question of number, must be 
 judged by the number and character of the works that remain 
 to us of the period inquired into. And the only important 
 question left is, what evidence (if any) of a contrary kind can 
 be produced from the period of the reigns of Edward VI. and 
 Elizabeth. It is very immaterial what any of our divines 
 may have maintained on the subject after that period. It is 
 a matter of history, that while the theology of our Church, as 
 far as regards its standards of doctrine, remained the same, 
 the views prevalent among the great body of its divines became 
 then very different from what they had previously been. Now 
 whether this change was for the better or the worse, or how 
 far it was within the limits of the words of our Formularies, 
 are questions which I shall not here stop to discuss. "What 
 we are now endeavoring to ascertain is, what was the mean- 
 ing originally attached to our Formularies, by those who put
 
 220 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 them forth, or first adopted them. We appeal, in fact, from 
 the interpretation affixed to them by the Laudian party in our 
 Church, to that which was given to them by those who pre- 
 ceded that party ; and who have, clearly, on various grounds, 
 especially as the compilers or authors or original promoters of 
 those Formularies, or as the immediate successors of such 
 persons, a prior claim upon our regard. 
 
 And the first extracts to which I shall call the attention of 
 the reader, are from a document which originally had the 
 highest ecclesiastical and civil sanction, having been issued by 
 Royal authority in the reign of Edward VI., upon the advice 
 of Archbishop Cranmer and the approval of Bishop Ridley, 
 and the heads of the Reformed party in our Church,* namely, 
 
 THE CATECHISM OF 1553. 
 
 First, let us observe its language respecting the Sacrament 
 of Baptism. 
 
 " Master. Tell me what thou callest Sacraments. 
 
 " Scholar. They are certain customable reverent doings and ceremonies 
 ordained by Christ ; that by them he might put us in remembrance of his 
 benefits, and we might declare our profession, that we be of the number 
 of them which are partakers of the same benefits, and which fasten all 
 their affiance in him ; that we are not ashamed of the name of Christ, or 
 to be termed Christ's scholars. 
 
 " Master. Tell me (my son) how these two Sacraments be ministered : 
 Baptism, and that which Paul calleth the Supper of the Lord. 
 
 " Scholar. Him that believeth in Christ, professeth the Articles of the 
 Christian religion, and mindeth to be baptized, (I speak now of them that 
 be grown to ripe years of discretion, sith for the young babes their parents,' 
 or the Church's profession sufficeth,) the minister dippeth in, or washeth 
 with pure and clean water only, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost : and then commendeth him by prayer to God, into 
 whose Church he is now openly as it were enrolled, that it may please 
 God to grant him his grace, whereby he may answer in belief and life 
 agreeably to his profession." 
 
 The next question and answer relate to the Lord's Supper. 
 
 * See Cranmer's Works, P. Soc. ed. vol. i. p. 422, and vol. ii. p. 220 ; and 
 Ridley's Works, P. Soc. ed., pp. 226, 227. This Catechism was probably -written 
 by Bishop Ponet. See Letter of Sir J. Cheke to Bullinger in " Orig. Lett. rel. 
 to Eogl. Reform.," published by the Parker Society, p. 142.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 221 
 
 " Master. What doth baptism represent and set before our eyes ? 
 
 " Scholar. That we are by the Spirit of Christ new born, and cleansed 
 from sin : that we be members and parts of his Church, received into the 
 communion of saints. For water signifieth the Spirit. Baptism is also a 
 figure of our burial in Christ, and that we shall be raised up again with 
 him in a new life, as I have before declared in Christ's resurrection."* 
 
 This is the whole account given of Baptism in the Cate- 
 chism. The doctrine implied might safely be left to the 
 judgment of the reader. But other portions of the Catechism 
 place it beyond doubt. 
 
 Thus, in the following passage, faith is clearly made 
 essential to the regeneration of, at least, adults. 
 
 " Master. Why dost thou call God Father ? 
 
 " Scholar. For two causes : the one, for that he made us all at the be- 
 ginning, and gave life unto us all : the other is more weighty ; for that by 
 his Holy Spirit, and by faith, he hath begotten iis again : making us his 
 children : giving us his kingdom and the inheritance of life everlasting, 
 &c.f 
 
 Moreover, the work which Baptism is here said to " repre- 
 sent," is performed only in " the chosen of God,'' as the 
 following passage shows us. 
 
 " Master. Why is he [the Holy Spirit] called holy ? 
 
 " Scholar. Not only for his own holiness, but for that by him are made 
 holy the chosen of God and members of Christ. And therefore have the 
 Scriptures termed him the Spirit of sanctification or making holy. 
 
 " Master. Wherein consisteth this santification ? 
 
 " Scholar. First, we be new gotten by his inward motion. And there- 
 fore, said Christ, we must be new born of water and of the Spirit.''^ 
 
 Arid the true Church of Christ, the Church of the Creed, is 
 considered as consisting of those only who are thus sanctified, 
 so that no other of the baptized are supposed to be true 
 members of Christ, the true Church consisting of the scattered 
 but spiritually united body of the truly faithful. 
 
 " To the furnishing of this commonwealth [the Church]," it says, 
 " belong all they as many as do truly fear, honour, and call upon God, 
 wholly applying their mind to holy and godly living ; and all those that 
 putting all their hope and trust in him, do assuredly look for the bliss of 
 everlasting life. w 
 
 * Liturgies, Ac., of Edw. VI., P. Soc. ed., pp 516, 517. 
 
 t Ib. p. 501. J Ib. p. 514. 
 
 Ib. p. 511. See also p. 87 above.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 " The Church, which is an assembly of men called to everlasting 
 salvation, is both gathered together and governed by the Holy Ghost, of 
 whom we even now made mention. Which thing, sith it cannot be per- 
 ceived by bodily sense or light of nature, is by right and for good reason 
 here reckoned among things that are known by belief. And, therefore, 
 this calling together of the faithful is called universal because it is bound 
 to no one special place. For God, throughout all coasts of the world, hath 
 them that worship him : which, though they be far scattered asunder by 
 divers distance of countries and dominions, yet are they members most 
 nearly joined of that same body, whereof Christ is the head : and have 
 one Spirit, faith, sacraments, prayers, forgiveness of sins, and heavenly 
 bliss, common among them all ;" &c.* 
 
 I proceed to 
 
 ARCHBISHOP CRANMER; 
 
 Archbishop of Canterbury from 1533 till deprived by Mary. 
 Martyred in 1555. 
 
 Here I must first recall to the recollection of the reader the 
 passages quoted in the last Chapter from the " Institution of a 
 Christian Man,"t published in 1537, in the drawing up of 
 which work Cranmer had the principal hand, and which 
 (though containing much Papistical doctrine which Cranmer 
 afterwards wholly abandoned) contains also some very remarka- 
 ble passages bearing upon the subject of this work. Respect- 
 ing this treatise, however, I refer the reader (to prevent repe- 
 tition) to what I have already said in a previous page. 
 
 Another work connected with Cranmer's name, from which 
 passages are often quoted by those who uphold the doctrine of 
 the universal spiritual regeneration of infants in baptism, is a 
 Catechism put forth by him in 1548, and translated from one 
 published originally in German, and translated by Justus 
 Jonas into Latin, which Latin translation appeared in 1539. 
 It has been recently reprinted at Oxford,! with a preface by 
 the late learned Professor Burton, giving an account of its 
 history, which renders it unnecessary for me to dilate upon 
 that point. The Justus Jonas who translated it into Latin is 
 considered by Professor Burton to have been Justus Jonas 
 senior, the intimate friend and companion of Luther : not (as 
 
 * Ib. pp. 614, 515. f See pp. 208 et s. above. 
 
 Oxf. 1829. 8vo.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 223 
 
 Strype conjectures) Justus Jonas junior, who came over to 
 this country, and was for a time with Archbishop Cranmer at 
 Lambeth. I would observe, therefore, that the translator of 
 it into Latin was one of Luther's assistants at the Conference 
 between Luther and Bucer at Wittenberg in 1536, of which 
 an account has already been given ;* the name of Justus 
 Jonas standing next to that of Luther in the subscriptions to 
 that Conference.t The Catechism was originally published 
 in German, by George, Marquis of Brandenburg, for the use 
 of his own territories and of Nuremberg. Professor Burton 
 remarks, that " of this German original no copy has yet been 
 discovered ; but there are good reasons for thinking, that it 
 was one of the numerous Catechisms which appeared in Ger- 
 many about this period, and which were framed upon the 
 model of Luther's Shorter Catechism. "t Dr. Todd, of Trinity 
 College, Dublin, however, has since been fortunate enough to 
 obtain a copy, which he has deposited in the Library of his 
 College. It was printed at Nuremberg in small folio in 1536. 
 That the Marquis of Brandenburg followed the doctrine of 
 Luther in such matters is evident from the " Kirchen Ord- 
 nung," or Ecclesiastical Regulations he published for the use 
 of his dominions in 1533, in which the Baptismal Service 
 published by Luther a few years before, occurs verbatim^ 
 
 Now, Luther's doctrine at this period, as delivered in his 
 Larger Catechism, I have already pointed out.ll We may be 
 prepared therefore to find, that the doctrine of this Branden- 
 burg Catechism, (by whomsoever drawn up, for its author is 
 not known,) translated into Latin by Luther's friend and fellow- 
 laborer Justus Jonas, (his assistant at the Wittenburg Confer- 
 ence in 1536,) corresponds with that of Luther himself at that 
 period. And such we shall find to be the case.1l 
 
 * See pp. 174 et seq. above. 
 
 f See Bucceri Scripta Anglicana, pp. 667, 668. \ Pref. p. viii. 
 
 Professor Burton remarks, that this book, " from the account given of it by 
 Seckendorf, (Hist. Luth. vol. 2. pp. 71, 72,) might be thought to have contained 
 the very Catechism which is now under consideration." (Pref. p. viii.) This, 
 however, is not the case. A copy of the book is lying before me as I write, and 
 it certainly does not contain the Catechism. 
 
 | See pp. 170, 171, above. 
 
 ^[ Were it necessary a question might justly be raised how far Cranmer is
 
 224 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Now true it is, that this Catechism says, that " the second 
 birth is by the water of baptism ;" (p. 182, Oxf. ed.) and that 
 by it " we be born again to a new and heavenly life, and be 
 received into (rod's Church and congregation, which is the 
 foundation and pillar of the truth," (p. 183 ;) and that 
 it has other similar passages. But with these statements, 
 which are perfectly general, must be compared such declara- 
 tions as the following occurring in the context. 
 
 " These new affections and spiritual motions are in the souls of such as 
 ARE born again by baptism, but they be unknown to worldly men, and such 
 as be not led by the Spirit of God." (p. 189.) 
 
 Here, evidently, a distinction is drawn between the baptized ; 
 of whom some are considered to be born again, and others not 
 so, but as remaining " worldly men '' to whom the " affections, 
 and spiritual motions " which characterize the regenerate are 
 " unknown." 
 
 And in various passages, (according to the well known doc- 
 trine of Luther,) faith is spoken of as essential to the salutary 
 effect of baptism. 
 
 " All these things doth baptism work in us, when we believe in Christ. 
 And therefore Christ saith, " He that will believe and be baptized, shall 
 be saved. But he that will not believe, shall be damned." (p. 189.) 
 
 11 Peradventure some will say, How can water work so great things ? 
 To whom I answer, that it is not the water that doth these things, but the 
 Almighty word of God (which is knit and joined to the water) AND FAITH 
 which receiveth God's word and promise." (p. 190.) 
 
 " When you shall be asked, What availeth baptism ? you shall answer, 
 Baptism worketh forgiveness of sin, it delivereth from the kingdom of the 
 devil and from death, and giveth life and everlasting salvation, to all them 
 
 that believe these words of Christ and promise of God." "If a man 
 
 ask you, How can water bring to pass so great things ? ye shall answer, 
 Verily the water worketh not these things, but the word of God, which is 
 joined to the water, and faith, which doth believe the word of God." (p. 
 191.) 
 
 First of all, the Holy Ghost provoketh and stirreth up men to preach 
 God's word. Then he moveth men's hearts to faith, and calleth them to 
 baptism, and then BY FAITH AND BAPTISM he worketh so, that he maketh us 
 new men again. And when we be thus newly born and made again, and 
 
 responsible for the statements of this Catechism, as there are certainly some pas- 
 sages in it contrary to his own views, even at the period of its publication ; as, for 
 instance, that there are three sacraments, (p. 183. Oxf. ed.) But it seems hardly 
 worth while to raise this qucslion.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 229 
 
 be become the children of God, then the Holy Ghost doth dwell in us and 
 make us holy and godly, &c." (p, 122.) 
 
 Consequently, notwithstanding the general statements as 
 to the benefits of baptism, faith is made essential to the gift of 
 regeneration. And even if we held that adults only are capa- 
 ble of faith, still the limitation shows that the general state- 
 ments are not to be understood as excluding all consideration 
 of qualification in the party baptized, and therefore not as 
 excluding it in the case of infants, whatever their particular 
 qualification may be. But the fact is, as we have seen, that 
 the doctrine of Luther (which this Catechism is considered as 
 following) was, that infants are capable of faith, and that 
 faith is requisite in them as well as in adults, in order that 
 they may receive a salutary effect from baptism. 
 
 The meaning, therefore, of the passages stating the value 
 and efficacy of baptism, is plain. They speak of the ordinance 
 as Bucer himself does, and as he maintains that Scripture 
 speaks of it, namely, as it is when its full end and purpose 
 are fulfilled in it, which, the context states, happens only in 
 the case of fit recipients. 
 
 And in another part of the same Catechism the true Church 
 is (according to the general doctrine of the Reformers) limited 
 to those who have true faith and will be saved ; so that none 
 become by baptism members of this Church but those that are 
 saved ; which again shows that baptism was not considered as 
 always producing this effect. Thus it speaks, 
 
 " I believe the Holy Catholic Church, that is to say, all godly and 
 Christian men must believe, that the Gospel or doctrine of God's grace 
 through the merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ, is never in vain published 
 in the world, or sowed abroad without fruit, but ever there is found some 
 company of men, or some congregation of good people which believe the 
 Gospel and be saved. And this company of men which believeth the Gospel, 
 although here upon earth they be severed in sundry places, yet are they 
 called one Holy Catholic or Universal Church of Christ, that is to say, a 
 multitude, congregation, or company of Christian people. For this word, 
 Church, doth not here betoken a temple or church builded of timber and 
 stone, but it signifleth a company of men lightened with the Spirit of Christ, 
 which do receive the Gospel, and come together to hear God's word, and to 
 pray. And this Christian Church is a communion of saints, that is to say, 
 all that be of this communion or company be holy, and be one holy body 
 under Christ their head ; they be one holy congregation or assembly. And 
 
 15
 
 226 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 this congregation receiveth of their Head and Lord Jesus Christ, all spiritual 
 riches and gifts that pertain to the sanctification and making holy of the 
 same body. And these ghostly treasures be common to the whole body r 
 and to every member of the same. For he that is unfeignedly a faithful 
 and godly man, is made partaker of these benefits. And these are the said 
 gifts, which be common to the whole Church of Christ, and to every member 
 of the same."* 
 
 From this Catechism let us proceed to Cranmer's own 
 works. 
 
 Of course it will be easy to find in them statements which, 
 speaking of baptism in the abstract, connect regeneration 
 with it.f But, in the context, or elsewhere, he strictly limits 
 the salutary effect of the Sacrament to those who receive it 
 worthily or with faith. The following passage will abundantly 
 show us the meaning of his phraseology on this subject. 
 
 " This word ' Sacrament,' " he says, " I do sometimes use for 
 
 the Sacramental bread, water, or wine And sometime by this word 
 
 ' Sacrament,' I mean the whole ministration and receiving of the Sacraments, 
 either of baptism or of the Lord's Supper: and so the old writers many times 
 do pay, that Christ and the Holy Ghost be present in the Sacraments; not 
 meaning by that manner of speech, that Christ and the Holy Ghost be present 
 in the water, bread, or wine, (which be only the outward visible Sacraments.) 
 but that in the due ministration of the Sacraments according to Christ's 
 ordinance and institution, Christ and his Holy Spirit be truly and indeed 
 present by their mighty and sanctifying power, virtue, and grace, in all them 
 that worthily receive the same.\ 
 
 And thus he continually speaks ; as, for instance, in the 
 following passages : 
 
 " Although Christ in his human nature, substantially, really, corporally, 
 naturally, and sensibly, be present with his Father in heaven, yet sacra- 
 mentally and spiritually he is here present. For in water, bread, and wine, 
 he is present, as in signs and sacraments ; but he is indeed spiritually in 
 those faithful Christian people, which according to Christ's ordinance be 
 baptized, or receive the holy communion, or unfeignedly believe in him. n ^ 
 
 Therefore, as in baptism those that come feignedly, and those that come 
 unfeignedly, both be washed with the Sacramental water, but both be not 
 washed with the Holy Ghost, and clothed with Christ : so in the Lord's Supper, 
 both cat and drink the Sacramental bread aud wine, but both eat not Christ 
 
 ' Ib. pp. 123, 124. f Works, P. S. ed. vol. i. p. 4&, Ac. 
 
 $ Answer to Gardiner, Preface. See Works, P. S. ed. i. 8. 
 Answer to Gardiner, Works, i. 47.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 227 
 
 himself, and be fed with his flesh and blood, but those only which worthily 
 receive the Sacrament."* 
 
 " Whosoever cometh to that water [i. e, baptism,] being of the age of 
 discretion, must examine himself duly, lest if he come unworthily, none 
 otherwise than he would come unto other common waters, he be not renewed 
 in Christ, but instead of salvation receive his damnation."^ 
 
 And the following passages clearly make baptism and 
 regeneration separable : 
 
 "For as baptism is no perfect Sacrament of spiritual regeneration, 
 without there be as well the element^ of water, as the Holy Ghost spiritually 
 regenerating the person that is baptized, which is signified by the said 
 water ; even so the Supper of the Lord can be no perfect Sacrament of 
 spiritual food, except there be as well bread and wine as the body and blood 
 of our Saviour Christ, spiritually feeding us, [which he held to be the case 
 only with the faithful recipient,] which by the said bread and wine is 
 signified."! 
 
 "All that be washed in the water, be not washed with the Holy 
 Spirit."* 
 
 And, comparing the Sacraments of the Old and New Tes- 
 taments, he says, " Our Sacraments contain presently the 
 very things signified, no more than theirs did"^ 
 
 Moreover all that are spiritually regenerated are undenia- 
 bly made members of the true Church of Christ ; but accord- 
 ing to Cranmer, that church consists only of the elect, and all 
 its members persevere to the end. For he says (precisely like 
 the " Institution,") 
 
 " And yet I know this to be true, that Christ is present with his holy 
 Church, which is his holy elected people, and shall be with them to the 
 world's end, leading and governing them with his holy Spirit, and teaching 
 them all truth necessary for their salvation. And -wheresoever any such 
 be gathered together in his name, there is he among them, and he shall not 
 suffer the gates of hell to prevail against them. For although he may 
 suffer them by their own frailness for a time to err, fall, and to die, yet 
 finally neither Satan, hell, sin, nor eternal death, shall prevail against 
 
 Now, although the case of infants is not expressly referred 
 to by Cranmer, yet it is obvious, that these limitations show, 
 that the general statements made by him^respecting the bless- 
 
 * Ib. i. 221. .(. Tb. Answer to Smith, i. 878. 
 
 J Answer to Gard. ib. i. 804. Ib 206. 
 
 ! Ib. 16. ^ Answer to Smith, ib. i. 876.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS, 
 
 ings connected with baptism, are to be understood as referring 
 to it, when fulfilling the purpose for which it was instituted 
 by Ofod in the case of the true members of his Church. The 
 fitness or worthiness of the recepient is supposed in such state- 
 ments. It is clear, therefore, that the case of infants is, in its 
 measure, affected by such limitations as much as that of adults. 
 We have no right to say, These general statements must, we 
 admit, be understood with an implied condition in the case of 
 adults, but they are to be understood as applying universally 
 to all infants. For this involves an assumption as to the uni- 
 versal worthiness of infants, which, however general among 
 Romish divines, is entirely opposed to the views of the Reform- 
 ers and early Protestant divines, both in this country and on 
 the Continent. I quite admit that some of our later divines 
 have advocated the doctrine laid down by the scholastic writers 
 of the fifteenth century, that the Sacraments confer grace 
 upon all that do not oppose the obstacle of mortal sin, (non 
 ponenttbus obicem mortalis peccati,) and therefore upon all 
 infants without exception. But I challenge any one to show 
 that this was the doctrine of our Reformers and early Pro- 
 testant divines ; and I will give them to the end of the six- 
 teenth century for authorities on the subject. That the view 
 was maintained here, by some among us, at the period when 
 the prevailing tone of theology in our Church began to change 
 in the time of Laud, I am not anxious to deny. And that the 
 Laudian Bishops who managed matters at the Savoy Confer- 
 ence at the Restoration, and inflicted by their harsh and 
 uncharitable conduct an irreparable blow upon the Church, 
 from which it has never recovered, and never will recover, 
 openly advocated the doctrine, is no doubt perfectly true. But 
 it is equally true, that such a notion is diametrically opposed 
 to the doctrine of our Reformers and early divines. And 
 (though I am anticipating) I will at once show the reader, 
 before I proceed, that I am not speaking without authority 
 when I say this, and will quote the words in which one of our 
 greatest divines has spoken on this subject. Dr. Robert Abbot 
 was Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford from 1612 to 1615, 
 and Bishop of Salisbury from 1615 to 1617. He is said even 
 by Wood (no friend to theologians of his school,) to have been
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 <c a profound divine, most admirably well read in the Fathers, 
 Councils, and Schoolmen;"* and is called by Fuller, " one of 
 the honors not only of that See [Salisbury] but of the Church 
 of England."t In his reply to Thomson, he uses the follow- 
 ing language : 
 
 " That Papistical saying of the Scholastics, which is the foundation of 
 the opus operafum, which nevertheless is here, with inconceivable audacity, 
 put forth as a doctrine of the Catholic faith, that the Sacraments always 
 confer their effect upon one who does not place a bar in the way."J 
 
 And our learned Bishop Carleton, (one of the representa- 
 tives of our Church at the Synod of Dort,) after refuting the 
 same doctrine, adds, 
 
 " That opinion, which teaches that Sacraments confer grace upon one 
 who places no bar in their way, by the virtue of the work done, without 
 any good and deserving motion, seems to have arisen about the age of Johii 
 Seotus. Aquinas seems to have added some stones to this building when 
 he taught, ' that the Sacraments of the New Law cause grace after the 
 manner of an instrument.' (3 par. q. 62. Artie. 1.) These words gave 
 occasion to the Sophists that followed to philosophize after their manner. 
 But Aquinas has nothing about the work done, or about a bar. These 
 things seem to have been added by those that came after. And thus the 
 Tridentine creed, like a patched coat made up of many and various rags, 
 was at length put together and became one. Before these times this 
 opinion was unheard of in the Church of Rome. 7 '|| 
 
 Consequently our divines who have maintained this notion 
 
 Ath. Oxon. 3. 224. t Hist. bk. x. p. 72. 
 
 \ " Papisticum ilhid Scholasticorum pronunciatum, quod operis operati fun- 
 <f amentum est, quod hie tamen nescio qua fronte tanquam Catholicae fidei dogma 
 proponitur, ' Sacramenta semper conferre suum effectum non ponenti obicem.' " 
 In Thomsoa Diatribam, c. 7. p. 119. Sub. fin. tract. De gratia et persev. sanct 
 Lond. 1618. 4to. 
 
 He was Bishop of Llandaff from 1617 to 1619, and of Chichester from 1619 
 to 1628. 
 
 I Opinio ista, quae docet sacramenta conferre gratiam ex vi operis operati 
 sine bono motu meritorio non ponenti obicem, circa Joannis Scoti saeculum enata 
 videtur. Aquinas ad hanc structuram lapides quosdam attulisse videtur, quum 
 docuerit : ' Sacramenta novae legis gratiam causare per modum instrument!.' (3 
 Par. q. 62. Artie. 1.) Hsec occasionem Sophistis insequentibus dederunt philoso- 
 phandi suo more. Verum Aquinas nihil habet de opere operate, ant de obice. 
 Haec addita videntur a posterioribus. Atque ita fides Tridentina tanquam ramosa 
 tunica ex multis et variis panniculis consarcinata tandem congesta coaluit. Ante 
 h.-pc tempora inaudita erat hec opinio in Ecclesia Romana." (Consensus Eccles. 
 Cathol. contra Tridentinos. Franc. 1613. 8va p. 421, 422.)
 
 230 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 of the Sacraments conferring grace ex opere operate, upon all 
 non ponentibus obicem, have placed themselves in the unenvia- 
 ble position of supporting the corruptions introduced by the 
 later Scholastic divines, and confirmed by the Tridentine, 
 against the sounder views of even the earlier Scholastics them- 
 selves, who (as we have already seen by the extracts given in 
 a preceding chapter from Peter Lombard* 1 ) advocated doctrine 
 of a totally different kind. Painful indeed is it, to see the 
 way in which a large body of our divines have, for a long 
 period, retrograded from the ground taken up at the Reforma- 
 tion, and relapsed into various Popish errors. And still more 
 painful, to see them so ill-informed or so wanting in conscien- 
 tiousness, as to turn round upon the true successors of the 
 Reformers, and (as Bishop Abbot says, nescio qua f route} 
 accuse them of not holding the doctrines of the Formularies- 
 drawn up by those very men whose doctrine these accusers 
 have notoriously deserted. 
 
 I have thought it right to make these remarks at the very 
 outset of our review of the statements of our early divines on 
 the subject of this work, in order that the reader may bear in 
 mind throughout, that the assertion, that the Sacraments 
 confer grace upon all not putting a bar in the way, and conse- 
 quently that the general statements of our divines as to the 
 effects of baptism, though to be understood with limitations in 
 the case of adults, are to be considered as applicable in their 
 full force to all infants, is wholly unwarranted, and directly 
 opposed to the doctrine of our most learned divines of the 
 school of the Reformers. 
 
 It is undeniable, (and undisputed among us but by a few 
 not worth notice,) that faith and repentance are absolutely 
 necessary in an adult coming to baptism, that he may expe- 
 rience the salutary effects of that ordinance ; and consequently 
 that all general statements as to the effects of baptism must 
 be interpreted conditionally in his case. This is distinctly 
 laid down in Scripture, and from it by our Church in her 25th 
 and other Articles. So therefore in the case of infants, it is 
 reasonable to conclude that there is a distinction in the eye of 
 
 * Sec pp. 49-62 above.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 231 
 
 God : especially when we remember, that a large number of 
 them remain to the end of their lives impenitent and unbe- 
 lieving. Upon what such a distinction may be grounded, is 
 another question. On this point men attached to different 
 doctrinal systems will take different views. But, clearly, we 
 have not the smallest right to assume, that God will in all 
 such cases confer the gift of spiritual regeneration. Scripture 
 is altogether silent upon the point. And so {as usual where 
 such is the case) is our Church. But when we find her speci- 
 fically demanding a promise of future faith and repentance to 
 be exercised by the child when grown up, and giving baptism 
 to none likely to reach that age without that promise being 
 made, we reasonably infer, that she, at least, limits the bap- 
 tismal blessing to those who, as adults, fulfil that promise. 
 
 The faith of the parent is accepted on behalf of the child 
 as giving it a title to baptism, in the same way as the adult's 
 profession of faith is accepted as his title to baptism. All who 
 profess faith and repentance are entitled to baptism at our 
 hands. And all infants brought by professedly believing parents 
 are similarly entitled to it. But, in both cases, some receive 
 it without profit, and we leave judgment upon this point to 
 God. The faith of the parent does not entitle the child to 
 spiritual regeneration and all its consequent blessings. Such 
 a supposition would be as unwarrantable as that of the Jews 
 of old, who, because they were the seed of Abraham and were 
 circumcised, thought that they must in consequence be 
 necessarily the children of God. It would be making God's 
 best gifts dependant upon the course of human generation ; for 
 baptism is in the power of all. But the seed of believing 
 parents are baptized as the children of the Jews were circum- 
 cised, and out of them God has a seed to serve him. As among 
 the Jews there were some that had the true circumcision of 
 the heart, and the others had only the outward form " in the 
 letter ; " so among us there are some who have the true 
 ablution of the heart and renewing of the Holy Ghost, and 
 others who have but the outward sign. And in the case of 
 infants we leave it to the judgment of God to distinguish 
 between the two, and moreover to pronounce the grounds of 
 ihe distinction.
 
 HI 
 
 No doubt, infants are so far interested in their parents' 
 faith, that they may be reckoned by u, as infants, as being 
 acceptable in the eye of God (the Apostle calling them holy ;) 
 and if they die in infancy, are partakers, as such r of the full 
 baptismal blessing. Nor need we, 1 think, be anxious to 
 deny, that, in the case of infants, there may always be 
 bestowed the pardon of original sin. And when the term 
 regeneration is applied in this sense, by those who speak of 
 the universal regeneration of infants in baptism, and the 
 distinction is preserved between this infantine regeneration 
 and that regeneration of heart which is necessary for the sal- 
 vation of an adult, then (whether or not we agree in the view 
 taken) it seems very unnecessary to raise a further contro- 
 versy. But that spiritual regeneration of the heart of which 
 Scripture speaks, and which sanctifies the adult, is a gift not 
 conferred by God in consequence of a parent's faith, but 
 according to his own good pleasure. 
 
 To return then to Cranmer, it is clear, that while no 
 direct testimony can be obtained from his writings, respecting 
 the particular case of infants, his subject not leading him any 
 where to this point, his general doctrine is directly opposed 
 to the view that all infants are spiritually regenerated in 
 baptism. 
 
 Before, however, we quit the writings of Archbishop Cran- 
 mer, there is another work, whose testimony on this subject 
 ought to be noticed, which, though not written by him, was 
 drawn up under his eye, and corrected by him, namely, the 
 " Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum." The history of this 
 work I have already noticed in a former chapter,* and the 
 authors employed to write it are a pretty plain indication of 
 Cranmer's sentiments. Its statements are (in conformity 
 with the usual course adopted by our Reformers) more general 
 and indefinite than might have been desired. But still the 
 doctrine inculcated is sufficiently clear in its opposition to 
 modern " High Church " notions. 
 
 Thus, speaking of errors on the subject of Baptism it 
 ays, 
 
 * See pp. 75 and 88, above.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 333 
 
 " Moreover many more errors are heaped up by others on the subject 
 of Baptism, which some regard with so much awe and wonder as to believe 
 that the Holy Spirit emerges from that external element itself, and that 
 his influence, power, and virtue by which we are new created, and the 
 grace and other gifts proceeding from him, swim in the very waters of 
 Baptism. In short they hold that our whole regeneration is due to that 
 sacred fount which is manifest to our senses. But the salvation of our 
 souls, the renovation of our spirit, and the blessing of adoption, by which 
 God acknowledges us as sons, proceed from the divine compassion flowing 
 to us through Christ, as also from the promise to be found in the Holy 
 Scriptures."* 
 
 'The work then proceeds to deny the necessity of baptism 
 for the salvation of infants, in a passage already quoted in a 
 former page.t 
 
 Again ; its definition of a Sacrament is as follows ; 
 
 " What a Sacrament is. A Sacrament (in the sense in which we 
 understand it in this place) is a visible sign instituted by God, by which 
 the grace brought to us by the promises and merits of Christ, and the 
 express pardon of sins remitted through them, is signed and sealed ; which 
 has a double effect in our minds. For first the reception of those external 
 things both recalls to our minds the value of the effects properly attributed 
 to them, a recovery of our salvation, and causes us openly to testify to its 
 value ; and moreover it sharpens and excites our faith, and adds strength 
 to it. Moreover it unites us together in mutual charity, and pours forth 
 the fear of God in our minds. Lastly it rouses us to sincerity and integrity 
 of life. Of this kind was circumcision in former times. Now Baptism 
 and the Encharist have succeeded to it."J 
 
 * Plures item ab aliis cumulantur errores in baptismo, quern aliqui sic attoniti 
 epectant, ut ab ipso illo externo creclant elemento Spiritum Sanctum emergere, 
 vimque ejus, nomen et virtutem ex qua recreamur, et gratiam et reliquax ex eo 
 proficisceutia dona in ipsis baptism! fonticulis innatare. In summa totam regen- 
 erationem nostram illi sacro puteo debcri volunt, qui in sensus nostros incurrit, 
 Verum salus animarum, instauratio spiritus, et beneficium adoptionis, quo DOS 
 Deus pro filiis agnoscit, a misericordia divina per Christum ad DOS dimanante, turn 
 etiara ex promissione sacris in Scripturis apparente proveniunt. (Reform, Leg. 
 Eccles. Lond. 1640. 4to. Tit de haeres. 18, pp. 16, 17.) 
 
 f See pp. c. 217, 218, above. 
 
 J Quid sit Sacramentum. Sacramentum (quomodo DOS illud in hoc loco 
 capimus) signum est institutum a Deo quod videri potest, quo gratia Christ! 
 promissis et meritis ad nos profecta, condonatioque peccatorum ipsis remissorum 
 expressa consignatur, quod duplicem in animis nostris vim habet. Primum enim 
 horum externorum snmptio, et attributarum illis proprie virtutum nobis recuperatw 
 ealutis nos tree pretium in memoriam revocat, et id, ut aperte profiteamur, efficit, 
 deinde fidem acuit, et exuscitat, et illi robur addit. Pntterea charitate noa mutua 
 consent, et io mentibus nostria Dei timorem effundit Postremo vitiam ad since-
 
 234 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 The description here given of the nature and effects of the 
 Sacraments is clearly very different from that of our modern 
 " High-Church-men." 
 
 The requisites to a Sacrament are thus stated ; 
 " What is to be sought in a Sacrament. For the perfection of a Sacra- 
 ment three things ought to concur. The first is a manifest and notable 
 mark which can be clearly discerned. The second is the promise of God, 
 which is represented to us by an external sign, and thus plainly confirmed. 
 The third is the precept of God. by which the necessity is laid upon us of 
 partly doing those things and partly commemorating them ; and since these 
 three things are to be found on the authority of the Scriptures only in 
 Baptism and the Eucharist, we maintain that these two only are true and 
 proper sacraments of the New Testament."* 
 
 Baptism is defined thus ; 
 
 " What Baptism is. Baptism is a sacrament by which our second birth 
 is sealed to us by external washing, and pardon of sins is granted, and the 
 influence of the Holy Spirit is poured into us, as is contained and set forth 
 in the words used in the rite of Baptism, that our faith may be more 
 elevated and perfect. But when we are dipped under the waters, and rise 
 again out of them, Christ's death and burial are first brought to our view, 
 then his quickening and return to life, that we may bring to mind by these 
 memorials his death and life, and openly testify that sin lies dead and 
 buried in us, and that the new and salutary Spirit of God lives again and 
 flourishes in us ; and that, our body being outwardly washed with the 
 external waters, our souls inwardly, the pollutions of sins being washed 
 away, raise themselves pure and thoroughly cleansed to the eternal and 
 heavenly shores."f 
 
 ram et integrara extimulat. Ex hoc genere circumcisio priscis temporibus erat. 
 Nunc Baptismus et Eucharistia successerunt. (Ib. De Saoram. c. 1. p. 28.) 
 
 * Quid in Sacramento queer endum sit. Ad sacrament! perfectionem tria con- 
 currere debent. Primum evidens est et illustris nota quae manifesto cerni possit. 
 Secundum est Dei promissum, quod externo signo nobis repraesentatur, et plane 
 confirmatur. Tertium est Dei praeceptum, quo necessitas nobis imponitur, ista 
 partini faciendi, partim commemorandi : qua tria, cum authoritate Scripturarum 
 in Baptismo solum occurrant et Eucharistia, nos hsec duo sola pro veris et propriis 
 Novi Testamenti Sacramentis ponimus. (Ib. c. 2. pp. 28, 29 ) 
 
 t Quid sit Baptismus. Baptismus est sacramentum, quo secunda generatio 
 nostra nobis externa consignatur conspersione, veniaque peccatorum indulgetur, 
 et Spiritus Sancti virtus infunditur, quemadmodum verbis comprehensura est in 
 Baptismo propositis, ut erectior in nobis et perfectior esset fides. Dum autem in 
 aquas demergimur, et rursus ex illis emergimus, Christi mors priinum et sepultura 
 commendatur, deinde suscitatio quidem illius, et reditus ad vitam, ut istius mortis 
 et vita monumentis recordemur, et pal&m testificemur peccatum in nobis mortuum 
 ot sepultum jacere, eed novum et salutarem Dei Spritum rcmviscere in nobis et 
 refloreicere : tinctoque foras extemis aquis corpore, nostras intiis animas, abstersia
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 235 
 
 Here, as in our 27th Article, the previous possession of 
 faith and the Holy Spirit is supposed, and the new birth is- 
 externally sealed by baptism, (externa consignatur consper- 
 sione,) pardon and grace are given, and there is a revival of 
 the work of Grod's Spirit within us (Dei Spiritual reviviscere 
 in nobis.) These words probably were intended to apply more 
 particularly to the case of adults. And that of infants is left 
 to be inferred from them by analogy. 
 
 In this work, then, we have another illustration of Cran- 
 mer's views. And we find reason to draw the same conclusion 
 as to them, as that to which his other works have led us. 
 
 It is worth notice also that when a treatise of Bullinger's 
 on the Sacraments was shown to Cranmer by John a Lasco, 
 he urged its publication, though he had not read it, observing 
 that Bullinger's writings "needed no inspection."* Now 
 though this fact does not make Cranmer responsible for all 
 Bullinger's statements in that work, it is a strong testimony 
 that he considered Bullinger's doctrine on the subject of the 
 sacraments (which must have been well known to him) to be 
 sound. And what that doctrine was, needs no proof. The 
 reader, however, who wishes for further information respecting 
 it, will find ample extracts a few pages hence from his 
 " Decads." t 
 
 peccatorum Bordibus, puras et perpurgatas ad aeternas et coelestes eras se attol- 
 lere. (Ib. c. 3. p. 29.) 
 
 * Libellus tuus de Sacramentis ante triennium ad me missus jam tandem sub 
 prelo est. Ubi ad me cum reliqua Bibliothecae mea? parte nuper advectus esset, 
 exhibui ilium D. Cantuariensi. Is vero ubi audisset, nondum esse editum, voluit 
 ut ederetur, etiamsi non legisset, hoc addens, Tua nulla indigere inspectione. J. 
 a Lasco Ep. ad Bulling, scr. Apr. x. 1551. in Gerdes. Serin. Antiq. sive Miscell. 
 Groning. vol. 4, pp. 470, 471. To this testimony of Cranmer's approval of Bul- 
 linger's doctrine, my attention was directed, since the First Edition of this Work, 
 by the Rev. G. C. Gorham. 
 
 f Bullinger's Treatise on the Sacraments, shown to Cranmer by John a Lasco, 
 was published by the latter at London in April 1551. 16mo. Of this peculiarly 
 rare work I fortunately possess a copy, and find it to be substantially the same 
 as Sermons vi. and vii. of the fifth Decad, published about the same time by 
 Bullinger himself. There are passages in each not to be found in the other, but 
 the doctrine of Bullinger on the subject is as clearly and fully stated in one as ia 
 the other. A Lasco, when sending a copy of his edition to Bullinger, writes, 
 " Libellum ad te tuum de Sacramentis, quern ante triennium ad me miseras, et 
 nunc demum guintce decadi tua inseruisti, per manus Domini a Bredam, fratris
 
 286 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 BISHOP RIDLEY; 
 
 Bishop of Rochester from 1547 to' 1550, and of London from 
 1550 till deprived by Mary. Martyr 1555. 
 
 Bishop Ridley, though, like the rest, he describes baptism 
 as man's " regeneration when he is received into the Holy 
 Catholic Church of Christ," yet in the context he speaks of 
 " that good word of God " " whereby the man is born anew 
 and made the child of God ; that seed of God, whereby the 
 man of God, so being- born, cannot sin ; "* evidently showing, 
 that he did not consider the spiritual new birth as due to bap- 
 tism alone. The words are the same as those used by Bishop 
 Latimer, in a passage which I shall immediately give, in 
 opposition to the Popish doctrine on the subject. 
 
 BISHOP LATIMER; 
 Bishop of Worcester from 1535 to 1539. Martyr 1555. 
 
 The following decisive passages will at once show us the 
 views of the venerable Latimer. 
 
 " Our Saviour saith to Nicodeme, Nisi quis renatus fuerit, ' Except a 
 man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' But how cometh 
 this regeneration ? By hearing and believing of the word of God : for so 
 saith St. Peter, Renati non ex semine mortali corruptibili ; l We are born 
 anew, not of mortal seed, but of immortal, by the word of God.' Like- 
 wise Paul saith in another place, Visum est Deo per stultitiam prcedieatio- 
 nis salvos facere credentes ; ' It pleased God to save the believers through 
 the foolishness of preaching.' "f 
 
 And in another place he speaks still more strongly. 
 
 " It is declared," he says, " in many places of Scripture, how necessary 
 preaching is ; as this, Evangelium est potentia Dei ad salutem omni credenti ; 
 1 The preaching of the Gospel is the power of God to every man that doth 
 
 Domini Falesii, ad te misi, hie, me autore, sed valde incorrecte excusum ; non 
 putarem enim, te istic illium editurum ease, cum tanto tempore apud me, praeter 
 meam interim voluntatem, delituisset." (Ep. scr. Jun. 7, 1551. in Gerdes. Serin. 
 Antiq. iv. 472.) If Cranmer had read the Treatise on the Sacraments, and defi- 
 nitely committed himself to an approval of its statements, it would have been 
 worth while to have given extracts from this work. But as Cranmer's words refer 
 only in general terms to Bulh'nger's views, Cranmer's approval, so far as it goes t 
 applies as much to Bellinger's own edition of his work in the Decads as to that 
 published by John a Lasco. 
 
 Works, P. S. ed 66, 67. f Sermons, P. S. ed. vol. i. p. 471.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 237 
 
 believe.' He means God's word opened ; it is the instrument, and the 
 thing whereby we are saved. Beware, beware, ye diminish not this office ; 
 for if ye do, ye decay God's power to all that do believe. Christ saith, 
 consonant to the same, Nisi quis renatus fuerit e supernis, non potest videre 
 regnum Dei: ' Except a man be born again from above, he cannot see the 
 kingdom of God.' He must have a regeneration. And what is this 
 regeneration ? It is not to be christened in water, as these firebrands [the 
 Romanists] expound it, and nothing else. How is it to be expounded then? 
 St. Peter sheweth that one place of Scripture declareth another. It is the 
 circumstance, and collation of places, that makes Scripture plain. Regene- 
 ramur autem, saith St. Peter, l And we be born again.' How? Non ex 
 semine mortali, sed immoftali : Not by a mortal seed, but by an immor- 
 tal.' What is this immortal seed ? Per sermonem Dei viventis ; ' By the 
 word of the living God ; ' by the word of God preached and opened. Thus 
 eometh in our new birth."* 
 
 BISHOP HOOPER ; 
 
 Bishop of Gloucester from 1550, and of Worcester from 1552 
 till deprived by Mary 1553. Martyr 1554. 
 
 " The office of a Sacrament," says Bishop Hooper, " is this : to shew 
 unto us outwardly that the merits of Christ is [are] made ours, for the 
 promise sake which God hath made unto those that believe ; and these 
 Sacraments by faith doth applicate and apply ouwardly unto him that 
 in faith receiveth them the same grace, the mercy, the same benefits that is 
 represented by the Sacraments, but not so by the ministration of the Sacra- 
 ments, as though they that receive them were not before assured of the 
 same graces and benefits represented by the Sacraments. That were a 
 manifest error : for in case the Sacraments could give us very Christ, the 
 promise of God were in vain, the which always appertain unto the people 
 of God before they receive any Sacrament ; but they be the testimonies of 
 promise, and declare unto us for an infallible verity, and unto the Church 
 of Christ, that we be the people that God hath chosen unto his mercy, and 
 that by faith we possessed before Christ ; and in faith, friendship, and 
 amity with God we receive these Sacraments, which are nothing else but 
 a badge and open sign of God's favour unto us, and that we by this livery 
 declare ourselves to live and die in his faith against the devil, the world, 
 and sin." ..." This [baptism] is the sign wherewithal God marketh all 
 that be living in this world ; and his friends by those means he sealeth in 
 the assurance of remission of sin, which thou hast first in spirit received 
 by faith, and for the promise made unto thy father and his posterity. For 
 the promise of God, the remission of sin, appertaineth not only unto the 
 father, but also unto the seed and succession of the father, as it was said 
 
 * Ib. p. 202.
 
 238 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 unto Abraham, Gen. xvii., Ero Deus tuus, et seminis tui post te. It is ill 
 done to condemn the infants of the Christians that die without baptism, 
 of whose salvation by the Scripture we be assured." . . " This Sacrament, 
 and all other, be but the confirmation of Christ's promises which be in the 
 person that receiveth the Sacraments before, or else these external signs 
 availeth nothing. This may be easily known by the use of baptism every, 
 where. The testimonies of the infant to be christened are examined in the 
 behalf of the child, of faith, what they believe of God. . . . Before yet or 
 he [that is, even he, the infant] be christened, he maketh this solemn vow, 
 full little regarded of all the world in manner, that he will at the years of 
 discretion practise and live godly after this faith. . . . Then is he christened 
 in the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The which 
 fact doth openly confirm the remission of sin, received before by faith. For 
 at the contemplation of God's promises in Christ, he is saved as soon as the 
 conscience of man repentetk and believeth, and his sins be forgiven. John 
 iii. and vi. : Qui credit Filio habet vitam seternam ; qui non credit non 
 videbit vitam, sed ira Dei manet super eum. There is neither faith, 
 neither Sacrament, unto this christened creature in vain. Faith receiveth 
 first Christ for the promise sake; then is he bold [that is, when in adult 
 life he thus believes] to take this Holy Sacrament for a confirmation of 
 God's benefits towards him, and then to manifest, open, and declare unto 
 the whole Church, represented by the minister and such as be present at 
 the act, [referring apparently to the rite of confirmation,] Christ, that 
 already secretly dwelleth in his soul, that they may bear record of this 
 love, amity, peace and concord, that is between God and him by Christ. 
 And forasmuch as all displeasure, ire, vengeance, and hatred, between God 
 and him, is agreed upon by the intercession of Christ, whom faith BEFORE 
 BAPTISM brought before the judgment seat of God, to plead this charter of 
 remission ; it is the office of the Church, which hath an open and manifest 
 declaration thereof, to give God thanks for the preservation of HIS CHURCH, 
 and for the acceptation of this christened person into the eommonwealth of 
 
 his saved people." " As the promise of God is received by faith, so must 
 
 the Sacraments be also. And whereas faith is not, no Sacrament 
 availeth."* 
 
 This passage appears to me specially deserving of notice, 
 as explanatory of Hooper's view of the whole subject of the 
 effects of baptism in infants. Maintaining that the Sacrament 
 is only the seal and confirmation of what exists before in the 
 person baptized, he goes on to remark that this is true " every- 
 where," that is, in all cases, even in that of an infant. For 
 the child is examined through its sureties as to its faith, and 
 
 Answer to Bishop of Winchester (first published in 1647) in his "Early 
 "Writings," P. 8. ed. pp. 127-185.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 239 
 
 it is only upon the promise that " he will at the years of discre- 
 tion practise and live godly after this faith," that he is baptized. 
 And his baptism confirms that remission of sin which even 
 before baptism his anticipated faith had brought him, for even 
 " before baptism" his faith "brought Christ before the judg- 
 ment seat of God, to plead the charter of remission." And 
 " as soon as" his "conscience repents and believes" he is 
 " saved," and forgiveness applied to him. And when faith has 
 received Christ, then he is able to look upon his baptism as "a 
 confirmation of God's benefits towards him," &c. And seeing 
 that even " before baptism," the anticipated faith of the infant 
 " brought Christ before the judgment seat of God to plead the 
 charter of remission," " it is the office of the Church, which 
 hath an open and manifest declaration thereof [that is, of his 
 faith] to give God thanks for the preservation of his Church, 
 and for the acceptation of this christened person into the com- 
 monwealth of his saved people ; " in other words, to use such 
 a thanksgiving as our Church prescribes to be used in her 
 Service for the Baptism of Infants. 
 
 The same view is also very clearly placed before us in the 
 following passage : 
 
 "Although baptism be a Sacrament to be received and honourably 
 used of all men, yet it sanctifieth no man. And such as attribute the 
 remission of sin unto the external sign do oflend. John, Matth. iii., 
 preached penitence in the desert, and remission of sin in Christ. Such as 
 confessed their faults, he marked and declared them to be of Christ's 
 Church. So that external baptism was but an inauguration or external 
 consecration of these, that first believed and were cleansed of their sin, as 
 he declareth himself in the same place : Ego (inquit) baptizo aqua : I 
 christen with water. As though he said. My baptism maketh no man 
 the better ; inwardly, it changeth no man ; but I call and preach to the 
 outward ear, I exhort unto penance [*'. e. repentance] ; and such as say 
 they do repent, and would change the old sinful life, I wash with water. 
 He that inwardly cleanseth, is stronger than I. His grace it is only, that 
 purifieth the soul. I baptize in penance, to say, [i. e. that is to say,] into 
 a new life. This new life cometh not, until such time as Christ be known 
 and received. Now to put on Christ is to live a new life. Such as be 
 baptized must remember, that penance and faith preceded this external sign, 
 and in Christ the purgation was inwardly obtained, before the external sign 
 was given. So that there are two kinds of baptism, and both necessary : 
 the one interior, which is the cleansing of the heart, the drawing of the 
 Father, the operation of the Holy Ghost : and this baptism is in man, when
 
 240 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 he believeth and trusteth that Christ is the only author of his salvation. 
 Thus be the infants examined, concerning repentance and faith, before they 
 be baptized wiih water ; AT THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE WHICH FAITH, 
 GOD PURGETH THE SOUL. Then is the exterior sign added, not to purge 
 the heart, but to confirm, manifest, and open unto the world that this child 
 is God's. And likewise baptism, with the repetition of the words, is a 
 very sacrament and sign, that the baptized creature should die from sin 
 all his life, as Paul writeth, Rom. vi. Likewise no man should condemn 
 nor neglect this exterior sign, for the commandment's sake : though it have 
 no power to purge from sin, yet it confirmeth the purgation of sin, and the 
 act of itself pleaseth God, for because the receivers thereof obey the will 
 of his commandment."* 
 
 Again, in his fifth Sermon on Jonah, he says, 
 
 "They [i:e. the Fathers] thought it best to name the Sacraments by 
 the name of the thing was represented by the Sacraments. Yet in many 
 places of their writings they so interpretate themselves, that no man, 
 except he will be wilfully blind, can say but they understood the Sacra- 
 ment to signify, and not to be the thing signified ; to confirm, and not to 
 exhibit grace ; to help and not to give faith ; to seal, and not to win the 
 promise of God, Rom. iv. ; to shew what we be before the use of them, 
 and not to make us the thing we declare to be after them ; to shew we are 
 Christ's to shew we be in grace, and not by them to be received into 
 grace ; to shew we be saved, and not yet to be saved by them ; to shew we 
 be regenerated, and not to be regenerated by them ; thus the old doctors 
 meant."! 
 
 * These sermons were preached during Lent 1550, before the 
 King and his Council ; and after they were ended he was ap- 
 pointed Bishop of Grloucester.t Three editions of the Ser- 
 mons appeared in the same year. 
 
 And in his " Confession of Faith," published in 1550, he 
 says, 
 
 " Of baptism, because it is a mark of our Christian Church, this I 
 judge after the doctrine of St. Paul, that it is a seal and confirmation of 
 justice or of our acceptation into the grace of God. For Christ, his inno- 
 cency and justice, by faith is ours, and our sins and injustice by his 
 obedience are his, whereof baptism is the sign, seal and confirmation. For 
 although freely by the grace of God our sins are forgiven, yet the same is 
 declared by the Gospel, received by faith, and sealed by the Sacraments, 
 
 * Declaration of Christ and his Office, (first published in 1547.) Early "Wri- 
 tings, P. S. ed. pp. 74, 75. 
 
 f Early Writings, P. S. ed. pp. 623, 524. 
 
 \ Sec his letter to Bullinger in " Original Letters relative to the Reformation," 
 P. S. ed. vol. i. p. 87:
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 241 
 
 which be the seals of God's promises, as it is to be seen by the faith of 
 faithful Abraham. ... As for those that say circumcision and baptism be 
 like, and yet attribute the remission of original sin to baptism, which was 
 never given unto circumcision, they not only destroy the similitude and 
 equality that should be between them, but also take from Christ remission 
 of sin, and translate it unto the water and element of baptism."* 
 
 JOHN BRADFORD ; 
 
 Appointed by Bishop Ridley a Prebendary of St. 
 Martyr 1555. 
 
 Of the character of John Bradford I have already given I 
 testimonies amply sufficient, I suppose, for the satisfaction of 
 the reader. A man of whom Bishop Ridley testifies, that he 
 was one " whom in my conscience I judge more worthy to be 
 a Bishop than many a one of us that be Bishops already to be 
 a parish priest," needs no further recommendation to the faith- 
 ful members of our Church. He is also said by Strype to 
 have been " a man of great learning, elocution, sweetness of 
 temper, and profound devotion towards God .... and one of 
 whose worth the papists themselves were so sensible, that they 
 took more pains to bring him off from the profession of reli- 
 gion than any other," $ and he, with Cranmer, Ridley, and 
 Latimer, are called by Strype " four prime pillars of the 
 Reformed Church of England."!! 
 
 Now the writings of Bradford supply us, I conceive, with 
 as complete a view of the doctrine of our Church in his day 
 on the subject of this work as can anywhere be obtained. 
 His general system of doctrine I have already noticed. IT But 
 I now come to his statements as to the doctrine of baptism in 
 particular. And the following extracts will show how far he 
 was from supposing that all infants indiscriminately were 
 regenerated in baptism. 
 
 "Our cecity or blindness and corrupt affections do often shadow the 
 sight of God's seed in God's children, as though they were plain reprobates : 
 
 Fathers of the English Church, vol. v. pp. 220-222. 
 
 f Strype's Eccles. Mem. iii. 1. 363. $ pp. 93, 94, above. 
 
 Eccles. Memor. iii. 1. 873, 364. { Ib. 423. 
 
 f pp. 90 et seq. above. 
 
 16
 
 242 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 whereof it cometh, that they praying according to their sense, but not 
 according to the truth, desire of God to give them again his Spirit, aa 
 though they had lost it, and he had taken it away ; which thing God never 
 doth indeed, although he make us to think so for a time ; for always he 
 holdeth his hand under his children in their falls, that they lie not still, as 
 others do which are NOT REGENERATE. And this is the difference between 
 God's children, which are regenerate and elect before all times in Christ, and 
 the wicked always, that the elect lie not still continually in their sin, as 
 do the wicked, but at the length do return again by reason of God's seed, 
 which is in them hid as a spark of fire in the ashes." * 
 
 " I believe that faith and to believe in Christ, (I speak not now of faith 
 
 that men have by reason of miracles but I speak of ihat faith which 
 
 indeed is the true faith, the justifying and REGENERATING FAITH.) I believe, 1 
 say, that this faith and belief in Christ is~the work and gift of God, GIVEN TO 
 
 NONE OTHER THAN TO THOSE WHICH BE THE CHILDREN OF GoD, THAT IS, TO 
 THOSE WHOM GOD THE FATHER, BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD, 
 HATH PREDESTINATED IN CHRIST UNTO ETERNAL LIFE." f 
 
 " That election is of some of Adam's posterity, and not of all. we may 
 plainly see it, if we consider, that he maketh the true demonstration of it, 
 believing, hoping, and having the earnest of the Spirit. . . . Who seeth not 
 that these are not common to all men ? All men have not faith, saith 
 Paul, 2 Thess. iii. None believed (saith Luke) but such as were ordained 
 to eternal life (Acts iii. ;) none believe but such as be born of God (1 John i. :) 
 none believe truly but such as have good hearts, and keep God's seed, to 
 bring forth fruits by patience (Matt, xiii.) So that it is plain (faith being 
 a demonstration of God's election to them that be of years of discretion) 
 that all men are not elect, because all men believe not ; for he that 
 believeth in the Lord shall be as Mount Sion, (Ps. cxxv.,) that is, he shall 
 never be removed ; for if he be removed, that is, finally perish, surely he 
 never truly believed." $ 
 
 " If he had not chosen you, as most certainly he hath, he would not 
 have so called you ; he would never have justified you. . . . If he have chosen 
 you .... then neither can you, nor ever shall you, perish." % 
 
 11 By faith in Christ. . . . we are members in very deed of the Catholic 
 and Holy Church of Christ. ... I would the poor Christian conscience, which 
 by baptism is brought into God's Church and made a member of the same 
 THROUGH FAITH, should not for his sin's sake, or for the want of any thing 
 he hath not, despair." || 
 
 But Bradford, like all the rest, when speaking of Baptism 
 
 * Richmond's Fathers of the English Church, vol. vi. pp. 177, 178. 
 f pp. 188, 189. \ Ib. pp. 376, 377. 
 
 Ib. p. 103. See also p. 586. 
 
 | Against the Fear of Death, ib. p. 414. See also Serm. on Lord's Supper, 
 ib. pp. 498, 499. *
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 243 
 
 in the abstract, speaks unhesitatingly of the blessings confer- 
 red in it. 
 
 Thus he says, 
 
 " As by baptism we are engrafted into Christ, so by the Supper we are 
 fed with Christ. ... As therefore in baptism is given unto us the Holy 
 Ghost, and pardon of our sins, which yet lie not lurking in the water, so in 
 the Lord's Supper, &c. . . . By baptism the old man is put off, and the new 
 man put on; yea, Christ is put on." * 
 
 Again exhorting his hearers to " discern betwixt signs 
 which signify only, and signs which also do represent, confirm, 
 and seal up, or (as a man may say) give with their significa- 
 tion," instancing of the former, that "an ivy bush is a sign of 
 wine to be sold," and other examples, which, he says, are 
 " signs significative and shew no gift," he adds, 
 
 " But in the other signs, which some call exhibitive, is there not only 
 a signification of the thing, but also a declaration of a gift, yea, in a certain 
 manner a giving also. As baptism signifieth not only the cleansing of the 
 conscience from sin by the merits of Christ's blood, but also is a very 
 cleansing from sin ; and therefore it was said to Paul, that he should arise 
 and wash away his sins, and not that he should arise and take only a sign 
 of washing away his sins." t 
 
 And he strongly insists upon a view very generally enter- 
 tained among our earlier divines, and which it is essentially 
 necessary to keep in mind as their doctrine, if we would under- 
 stand aright the language which they often use on the subject 
 of baptism, namely, that we who belong to the visible Church, 
 and profess faith in Christ, ought to believe that we are of the 
 number of God's elect children, and shall never finally perish, 
 u faith," as he says in a passage just quoted, " being a demon- 
 stration of God's election to them that be of years of discre- 
 tion." This reliance he considered to be one great mark and 
 characteristic of true faith. 
 
 We have already seen how strongly this view was set 
 forth even so early as the year 1537, in the " Institution of a 
 Christian Man ;" and Bradford's writings abound with passa- 
 ges to this effect. I will here give a few. 
 
 " Now, then, forasmuch as we see faith to be the ground, whereupon 
 <lependeth the whole condition of our justifying, let us discuss in like 
 
 Sera, on the Lord's Sapper, ib. p. 481, f Ib. pp 435, 486.
 
 244 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 manner what is this faith. ... He that believeth that God created all 
 things of nought, believeth truly .... so he that believeth that God hath 
 his election from the beginning, and that he also is one of the same elect and 
 predestinate, hath a good belief and thinketh well ; but yet this belief 
 alone, except it be seasoned with another thing, will not serve to salvation. . . 
 Only the faith which availeth to salvation is that whose object is the body 
 and passion of Jesus Christ crucified."* 
 
 Here we see that one part of justifying faith in a man is 
 considered to be the belief " that he is one of the elect and 
 predestinate." 
 
 Again in a " Meditation on the Lord's Prayer," God is 
 thus addressed, 
 
 " Thou wouldest I should be most assured, that thou of thine own good 
 will which thou barest to me-wards before I was, yea, before the world wasj 
 hast in Christ chosen me to be thy child, and through him art become my 
 most loving Father, (Eph. i.,) from whom I should look for all good things 
 .... so certain thou wouldest have me to be of this, that to doubt of it doth 
 most displease thee and dishonour thee."^ " Last of all, I am taught hereby 
 to see thy goodness towards me, which will deliver me from evil, and 
 from being overcome in temptations ; for thou wouldest not have me 
 to ask for that which 1 should not look for at thy hands certainly. By 
 reason wherebf thou wouldest have me to be in a certainty of salvation for 
 ever."$ " He would not have us to ask for deliverance from evil, if that 
 he would not we should certainly look for the same. If thou doubt of 
 final perseverance, thou dishonourest God."1) 
 
 Again, in another Meditation on the Lord's Prayer, he 
 
 says, 
 
 u In all dangers and perils of temptations, and in the midst of the 
 stormy tempests of tribulation, dear Father, make us, thy poor children, to 
 feel the consolation of the certainty of our eternal election in Christ Jesus 
 our Lord, and to perceive thy fatherly succour ready to help us.' 7 || 
 
 And in his "Defence of Election" he says, 
 
 " Doubt once of thy salvation, and continue therein, and surely he [the 
 Devil] will ask no more. It was the first thing wherewith he tempted 
 Christ : ' If thou be the Son of God,' &c. (Matt, iv.) It is the first and 
 principal dart that he casteth at God's elect; but as he prevailed not 
 against Christ no more shall he do against any of his members."^ 
 
 And in his Treatise " Against the Fear of Death," 
 " It is an article of our faith to believe, that is, to be certain that our 
 
 Letters, ib. p. 197. f Ib. p. 236. J Ib. p. 267. 
 
 Ib. pp. 268, 269. | Ib. p. 814. ^f Ib. p. 881.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 24$ 
 
 sins are pardoned ; therefore doubt not thereof, lest thou become an infi- 
 del."* 
 
 Again, in one of his Letters, this is very strongly put : 
 
 " If we did certainly believe we were members of Christ and God's 
 temples, how should we but fly from all impurity and corruption of the world 
 which cometh by concupiscence ? If we did certainly believe that God 
 indeed of his mercy in Christ is become our Father, in that his goodwill is 
 infinite and his power according thereto, how could we be afraid of man or 
 devil ? How could we doubt of salvation, or any good thing which might 
 make to God's glory and our own weal ? Now that we should be certain 
 and sure of this, that we are God's children in Christ, mark whether all 
 things teach us not. . . . Besides this, look on your Belief: do you not 
 profess that you believe in God, your Father Almighty, which wanteth no 
 power to help you, as he wanted no good will in Christ to choose you ? 
 Do you not say that you do believe remission of sins, resurrection of the 
 body, life everlasting, fellowship with the saints, &c. ? But how do you 
 say you believe this gear, and be not certain thereof? Is not faith a 
 certainty ? is not doubting, against faith ? as St. James saith. Pray in 
 faith, and doubt not ; for he that doubteth, obtaineth nothing. When 
 Peter began to doubt, he had like to have been drowned (Matt, viii.) ; 
 beware of it therefore."! 
 
 Such was the decided language used on this subject by 
 Bradford. And such for a long period was the prevailing doc- 
 trine in our Church. It may be added, that this (naturally 
 enough) was one of the first points in the then dominant system 
 of theology, to be afterwards assailed, this being the principal 
 point in which Barret in 1595 departed from the ordinary doc- 
 trine of his contemporaries, and for which departure he was 
 called to account. 
 
 The consequence of holding this doctrine we see remarkably 
 displayed in the following passages of Bradford relating to bap- 
 tism, which to one unacquainted with the nature of his doc- 
 trine on the subject of Assurance, as just pointed out, would 
 be almost unintelligible. For, maintaining as he did that, in 
 the case of the elect, regeneration was conferred in baptism, 
 and that it is our duty to feel assured of our being in the 
 number of God's elect, he considers that our baptism pledges 
 us to the exercise of such an appropriating faith in God, as 
 having a purpose of mercy towards us, as enables us to look 
 
 * Ib. p. 415. f Ib. pp. 692, 593. See also p. 93.
 
 246 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS, 
 
 upon ourselves as interested in all the blessings of his promised 
 work of redemption in his people. He remarks, 
 
 " I trust you see, that though the commodities of this life were such as 
 could cause us to love it, yet the brevity, vanity, and misery of it is such, 
 as should make us little to regard it, which believe and know death to be 
 the end of all miseries to them that are in Christ, AS WE ALL OUGHT TO 
 TAKE OURSELVES TO BE, being baptized in his name, (FOR OUR BAPTISM 
 
 REQUIRETH THIS FAITH UNDER PAIN OF DAMNATION,) although W6 have 
 
 not observed our profession as we should have done, if so be we now repent, 
 and come to amendment."* 
 
 Again while he tells us, 
 
 " Predestination is not without vocation in God's time and justification. . . 
 Unto the Romans the Apostle sheweth it most manifestly, in saying, 
 Whom he hath predestinated, them he calleth whom he calleth, them 
 he justifieth ; whereby we may see that predestination or election is not 
 universal of all, for all be not justified;"^ and justification "precedeth 
 regeneration, from which we may discern it, but not divide it, no more 
 than heat from the fire ;"$ 
 
 He also says, 
 
 " A man regenerate (which we ought to believe of ourselves, I mean that 
 we are so by our baptism, the sacrament thereof requiring no less faith) ; a 
 man, I say, regenerate, that is, born of God, hath the spirit of God."$ 
 
 Thus though he denies that, in fact, all are justified and 
 regenerated, (for he connects the two together,) yet at the 
 same time, he maintains that we ought each to believe ourselves 
 to be so ; the characteristic of true faith being, that it realizes 
 a personal interest in the blessings of the Covenant. 
 
 Similar passages occur elsewhere in his writings ; as for 
 instance the following : 
 
 " Think that you are regenerate by Christ's resurrection (wherof your 
 baptism requircth faith). . . Think that by faith which is God's seed, (for 
 they ivhich believe are born of God, and made God's children,) given to 
 to those that be ordained to eternal life ; think, I say, that by faith you 
 receive more and more the spirit of sanctification, through the use of God's 
 word and sacraments." || 
 
 " Thou wouldest that I should be born of Christian parents, brought 
 
 Against the Fear of Death, ib. p. 403. See also the same Treatise, p. 41&. 
 
 f Treatise on Election, ib. p. 878. 
 
 \ Ib. p. 889. ' Ib. p. 890. 
 
 | Godly Meditation, ib. p. 853.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 247 
 
 into thy Church by baptism, and called divers times by the ministry of 
 thy word into thy kingdom, besides the innumerable other benefits always 
 hitherto poured upon me j all which thou hast done of this thy good will 
 that thou of thine own mercy bearest to me in Christ and for Christ before 
 the world was made: THE WHICH THING AS THOU REQUIREST STRAITLY 
 THAT i SHOULD BELIEVE WITHOUT DOUBTING, BO in all my needs that I 
 should come unto thee as a Father, and make my moan without mistrust 
 of being heard in thy good time, as most shall make to my comfort."* 
 
 And so in the following remarkable passage, where, (if there 
 were any doubt as to its meaning,) the context (just quoted 
 above) would clear it up. 
 
 " A man that is regenerate and born of God (the which thing that every 
 one of us be, our baptism, the sacrament of regeneration, doth require, 
 under pain of damnation ; and therefore let every one of us with the Virgin 
 Mary say, Be it unto me, O Lord, according to thy word, according to the 
 sacrament of Baptism, wherein thou hast declared our adoption : and let 
 us lament the doubting hereof in us, striving against it, as we shall be 
 made able of the Lord) : a man, I say, that is regenerate, consisteth of two 
 men, (as a man may say.) namely of the old man and of the new man."f 
 
 Now whatever interpretation may be given to this passage, 
 it is obvious, that it is opposed to the notion of spiritual regene- 
 ration being always conferred in baptism, because it argues 
 that baptism requires our regeneration, "under pain of damna- 
 tion," and exhorts us to pray for it, and lament our doubting 
 whether or not we have it ; which (singular as the phrase- 
 ology is, and whatever may be its precise meaning) is clearly 
 inconsistent with the notion that it is invariably conferred 
 upon the infant as a passive recipient of it. And the context 
 shows that no such meaning was in his mind. For he 
 says, 
 
 " As inasmuch as he is an old man, he is a sinner and an enemy to 
 God, so inasmuch as he is regenerate, he is righteous and holy and a friend 
 to God, the seed of God preserving him from sin, so that he cannot sin. . . . 
 Always he holdeth his hand under his children in their fall, that they lie 
 not still, as others do which are NOT REGENERATE. And this is the differ- 
 ence between God's children which are regenerate and elect before all times 
 in Christ, and the wicked always, that the elect lie not still continually in 
 their sin, as do the wicked, but at the length do return again by reason of 
 God's seed, which is in them hid as a spark of fire in the ashes."! 
 
 Prayer for Remission of Sins, ib. p. 338. 
 
 f Letter, ib. p. 176. J Ib. pp. 177, 178.
 
 248 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 ARCHDEACON PHILPOT; 
 Archdeacon of Winchester. Martyr 1555. 
 
 Archdeacon Philpot also (writing against the Anabaptists) 
 grounds the title of infants of Christian parents to baptism on 
 the fact that they " be in the number or scroll of God's people, " 
 by promise, and therefore " why should the sign of the pro- 
 mise which is baptism in water be withdrawn from children ;" 
 "infants be beloved of God, and therefore want not the Spirit 
 of God, wherefore " they are to be baptised.* 
 
 BISHOP COVERDALE; 
 Bishop of Exeter from 1551 till deprived by Mary in 155& 
 
 Thus, again, speaks Bishop Coverdale, as to the intent and 
 effect of baptism : 
 
 " To use the Sacraments without faith profiteth not, but rather hurteth/ 
 to be loth to use them, declareth a compulsion and unbelief. For though 
 the water in baptism be an outward thing, and cannot cleanse the soul from 
 sin, yet the faithful do know right well, that Christ, the eternal Wisdom in 
 whom they believe, did not institute it in vain ; and therefore will not they 
 contemn or leave unexercised the ordinance of their Head, to whom they as 
 members are incorporated by faith. For they know, that Christ with these 
 outward tokens thought to couple and knit together the members of his holy 
 Church in obedience and love one towards another ; whereby they, knowing 
 one another amonj[ themselves, might by such exterior things stir and 
 provoke one another to love and godliness. They know also that sacraments 
 are evidences of the promise and grace of God, which they after a visible 
 and palpable manner do set forth, declare, and represent unto us. These 
 tokens of grace doth no man use more devoutly, and with more reverence, 
 than he that in himself is certified and assured of the gracious favor of God; 
 as we see in Cornelius, in Paul, and in Queen Candace's chamberlain."! 
 
 And with remarkable clearness in the following passage. 
 First, we have the usual statement as to the excellent 
 effects of baptism in the following words, 
 
 " As in baptism we are confirmed and settle ourselves in possession? 
 [? persuasion] of the promise of salvation to appertain unto us. God to be our 
 God, Christ to be our Christ, and we to be God's people ; the promise of the- 
 
 Philpot's Examinations, Ac. P. S. ed. See pp. 275-281. 
 f Coverdale's Writings, P. S. ed p. 411.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 249 
 
 word of God giveth and offereth, faith in us applieth and receiveth the same 
 and the sacraments do confirm and (as it were) seal up : baptism, that we 
 are regenerated with the Spirit of God, made his children, brethren to Christ, 
 and engrafted into him ; the supper, that we are fed with Christ spiritually," 
 &c.* 
 
 But then, afterwards, in the same page, we are told, 
 "In baptism is required God's election, if he be an infant, or faith, if 
 he be of ogc."t 
 
 THOMAS BECON; 
 Chaplain to Archbishop Cranmer. 
 
 Let us first observe how, like all the rest, he unhesitatingly 
 makes general statements, connecting regeneration with bap- 
 tism. 
 
 ^Although by Christ we be set again at liberty, and receive our 
 manumission and freedom from that captivity whereunto we were made bond 
 by the sin of Adam, so soon as we are regenerate and born anew by the 
 honorable sacrament of Baptism and the Holy Ghost, yet inasmuch," &c.$ 
 " By baptism is he your Lord God ; therefore will not he suffer you to perish. 
 By baptism is he your Father and you are born of him, and so become his 
 son. ... By baptism is the Holy Ghost given you : then are you the son of 
 God, and cannot perish," &c. Baptism " is called the clean and pure water, 
 the lavacre of our regeneration, or fountain of the new birth." || 
 
 But does he mean that all that are baptized are regenerated ? 
 Nothing of the kind, as we see from such passages as the 
 following. 
 
 "St. Paul saith, 'We are the workmanship of God' . . it doth follow, 
 ' created in Christ Jesus.' Behold here is a new creation. Here is another 
 birth. Here is a regeneration which far differeth from the old nativity. 
 Here are we made new creatures. In whom? In Moses by the law? Nay 
 verily, but in Christ by faith. By faith are we regenerate, born anew, created 
 again in Christ Jesits. n ^ 
 
 " Father. What is it to be baptized with the Holy Ghost? Sow. 
 To be regenerate, to be born anew, to be made of earthly heavenly, &C. . . 
 Father. Is this baptism of the Spirit necessary unto everlasting salvation? 
 Son. So necessary, that without it the baptism of water profiteth nothing. 
 As in the Old Testament the circumcision of the flesh profiteth the Jews 
 nothing at all without the circumcision of the Spirit, so likewise in the New 
 
 Coverdale's Remains, P. S. ed pp. 267, 268. t Ib. 268. 
 
 $ Works, P. S. ed voL 1. p. 178. Ib. vol. 3. p. 171. 
 
 | Ib. p. 612. ^ Ib. vol. 1. p. 81.
 
 250 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Testament the baptism of the water availeth nothing without the baptism 
 of the Spirit."* " Hereof then may we truly conclude, that, forasmuch as 
 the outward baptism which is done by water, neither giveth the Holy Ghost 
 nor the grace of God, but only is a sign and token thereof; if any of the 
 Christian infants, prevented by death, depart without baptism (necessity so 
 compelling,) they are not damned, but be saved by the free grace of God; 
 forasmuch as we tofore heard, they be contained in the covenant of grace, 
 they be members of God's Church, God promiseth to be their God," &c. f 
 " For, as many of the people of God are saved, which never received the 
 sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, so likewise are many saved, 
 though they were never outwardly baptized with water ; forasmuch as the 
 regeneration of a Christian consisteth rather in the spirit than in the flesh; 
 even as the circumcision also of the Jews consisted not in the letter, but in 
 the spirit, not in the circumcision of the flesh, but in the circumcision of the 
 heart."J 
 
 " What is baptism ? The washing of every believing Christian in water 
 that taketh upon him to profess the name of Christ; which water certifleth 
 our faith of the inward washing and cleansing of our souls by the Spirit of 
 God ; a token of our regeneration, of the mortification of our flesh, of our 
 burial with Christ, and of our resurrection unto a new life. If the believing 
 Christians only be baptized, according to this saying of Christ, ' he that 
 believeth and is baptised shall be saved,' why should the infants be baptized; 
 which for imperfection of age are not able to believe ? Though infants 
 have not power to believe or to confess their belief, yet have they faith 
 imputed unto them for the promise sake of God, because they be the seed of the 
 faithful ; as he said to Abraham, 1 1 will be thy God, and the God of thy 
 seed.' Seeing then that they also have the promise of salvation, why 
 should they be forbidden the promised pledge or seal of the same promise of 
 salvation ? The sacraments of the Jews diifered nothing from ours in effect, 
 but only in the outward element and form of executing the same : why then 
 should our infants be more forbidden baptism than the Jews' infants were 
 forbidden circumcision at the eighth day ?. . . What if the infants die before 
 they receive the sacrament of baptism? God's promise of salvation unto 
 them is not for default of the sacrament minished, or made vain and of no 
 effect. For the Spirit is not so bound to the water, .that it cannot work his 
 office, where the water wanteth, or that it of necessity must alway be there 
 
 where the water is sprinkled True Christians, whether they be old or 
 
 young, are not saved because outwardly they be washed with the sacra- 
 mental water, but because they be God's children by election through Christ, 
 yea, and that before the foundations of the world were laid, and are sealed up 
 by the Spirit of God unto everlasting life." 
 
 No remarks, I suppose, are necessary to explain Becon's 
 doctrine. 
 
 * Ib. voU2. pp. 202, 208. t Ib. vol. 2. p. 217. 
 
 $ Ib. p. 224. Ib. vol. 8. pp. 616, 617.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 251 
 
 DEAN W. TURNER; 
 
 Dean of Wells from 1550 to 1553, and from 1560 to 1568. 
 He was also Canon of Windsor in the time of Edward VI. 
 
 The work of Dean Turner* from which I am about to 
 quote is entitled, "The Old Learning and the New compared 
 together, whereby it may easily be known which of them is 
 better and more agreeing with the everlasting word of God. 
 Newly corrected and augmented by "William Turner." The 
 colophon of the edition used (from a copy in the British 
 Museum) is, " Imprinted at London by Robert Stoughton. . . . 
 1548." In 16mo. There was an earlier edition in 1538. The 
 work is a translation of one written in Latin by Urbanus 
 Regius, and though this is not mentioned in the title, it is 
 acknowledged in the heading of the Preface to be a translation, 
 in these words, " The Preface of the Translator unto the 
 Christian reader." 
 
 In that part of this work which treats " Of the Sacraments," 
 we have the following comparison. 
 
 "THE NEW LEARNING. 
 
 " It is enough and sufficient to receive the Sacraments effectually and 
 with fruit, to have no stop nor let of deadly sin. And there is not required 
 in a man a good motion within him which receiveth them, whereby of a 
 congruence or worthiness he may deserve grace ; for the Sacraments bring 
 grace with them of the work that is wrought by them, or by the work itself, 
 that is to say, because the work is showed and ministered as a sign or a 
 Sacrament. Thus saith the Master of Sentences, in the fourth book, in the 
 first distinction."! .... 
 
 * As Dr. Turner practised at one time as a physician, doubts have been raised 
 by Wood (ever glnd to find something to censure in such men) whether he was 
 ever ordained. It has been proved, however, by Baker, that he was in deacon's 
 orders in 1536, who adds that he was ordained priest by Bishop Ridley, Dec. 
 21, 1552. See Wood's Athen. Oxon. i. 361, ed. Bliss. Wood admits that he 
 was " a person had in much esteem for his two faculties [divinity and physic,] and 
 for the great benefit he did by them especially in his writings, to the Church and 
 Commonwealth." 
 
 f This is a mistake. No such passage occurs in the Master of the Sentences, 
 whose doctrine is much sounder than this. The passage referred to is probably 
 the following, in an Exposition of the Book of the Sentences written by Gabriel 
 Biel, two centuries later. 
 
 " Signum aliquod conferre gratiam dupliciter potest intelligi. Uno modo ex 
 ipeo signo eeu Sacramento, vel ut alii dicunt, ex opere operate ; ita quod eo ipso
 
 252 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 "THE OLD LEARNING. 
 
 " The Gospel witnesseth that we be saved, not by an holy sign but 
 through faith; Gen. xv., 'Abraham gave credence, and believed God. and 
 that was reckoned to him for righteousness.' Eom. iv. and x,, { If a man 
 believe from the heart, he shall be made righteous.' He saith not, that 
 with the body an holy sign is taken unto righteousness. Also, Habakkuk 
 ii. and Rom. i., ' The just shall live by his faith.' He saith not, he shall live 
 by the Sacraments. It followeth, therefore, after the Old Learning, that 
 faith is necessary to be had in him that receiveth the Sacrament with fruit. 
 The authors of this Learning that are the youngest wrote 1500 years ago: 
 then judge, I pray thee, good reader, whether our Learning, which was 
 taught only by the Prophets and Apostles so many years ago, ought rather 
 to be called Old Learning, or theirs whose writers wrote not above 500 
 years past." (fol. A iiii.) 
 
 LANCELOT RIDLEY ; 
 
 Made by Archbishop Cranmer in 1541 one of the six Preachers 
 at Canterbury Cathedral. 
 
 By the extracts already given from Lancelot Ridley,* it 
 appears that he held with Luther, that faith is necessary even 
 for infants in order to their being accepted by G-od in baptism. 
 The strong expressions therefore which he uses in the same 
 Treatise respecting the effects of baptism must of course be 
 understood with this condition. 
 
 DR. JOHN OLDE, 1550. 
 
 Dr. Olde is quoted with respect by Archbishop Bancroft in 
 his celebrated Sermon at Paul's Cross, in 1588, as " a very 
 learned man" who had written a work in Defence of the 
 Reformation of the Church by Edward VI. t The title of this 
 work is, " Acquittal or purgation of the most Catholic Christian 
 
 quod opus illud, puta signum aut Sacramentum, exhibetur, nisi impediat obex- 
 peccati mortalis, gratia confertur ; sic quod prater exhibitionem eigni foris exhi- 
 bit! non requiritur bonus mortus interior in suscipiente, quo de condigno vel de 
 congruo gratiam mereatur, Bed sufficit quod suscipiens non ponat obicem." (Re- 
 pertorium generate et succinct. <fec. content, in quat. collect. Qabrielis Biel super 
 quat. libr. Sen tent Lugd. 1619, fol. In libr. 4, dist. 1, quaest. 3.) 
 
 * See pp. 208, 204, above. 
 
 f See reprint of this Sermon in Hickes's Bibliotheca Scriptorum, <fec. Load. 
 1709. 8vo. p. 281.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 253 
 
 Prince Edward VI," printed at "Waterford in 1555, 16mo. In 
 it, speaking of baptism, he says, 
 
 " By this baptism we believe that all are baptized to be one body through 
 the Spirit of Christ, and that baptism doth always work effectually in 
 faithful believers ; for Christ doth always water the members of his body 
 with his own Spirit." (fol. E iv.) 
 
 Here it is evident that the effect of baptism is confined to 
 faithful believers and members of Chrisfs body. 
 
 And, again, in his " Confession of the most ancient and 
 true Christian Catholic Old Belief," (which professes to be 
 " imprinted in Sothewarke, by Christopher Truthal. In April 
 1556.") 16mo., commenting on the Creed, he says : 
 
 " Concerning the Ninth Article, I believe and confess, that all they 
 which truly believe in Christ throughout all the whole universal world, are 
 one body and one church of Christ, whom he sanctifieth by his Holy Spirit 
 in his own blood. And all they are with one only bond and knot of faith, 
 and through love, united and knit in Christ, and one to another, among 
 themselves, like members all of one body ; and principally they are made 
 partakers of the free grace and gifts of their head and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 This church is holy, this church is begotten and born of the word of God 
 recorded in the Holy Scriptures. . . . And because it is begotten and born of 
 the immortal seed the word of God, mentioned in the Scriptures, heareth the 
 voice of her head and shepherd, Jesus Christ, fleeth from the voice of all 
 strange doctrines and spirits," &c. (fol. C 2, C 3.) 
 
 ROGER HUTCHINSON, 1550. 
 
 Roger Hutchinson was a Fellow of St. John's College, 
 Cambridge, and, though a layman, yet of some ecclesiastical 
 learning. In 1550 he published a book entitled " The Image 
 of God, or Layman's Book," which he dedicated to Archbishop 
 Cranmer. From this work passages are sometimes quoted as 
 proving the universal efficacy of baptism to the production of 
 spiritual regeneration. And no doubt there are passages 
 which, speaking of baptism in general terms, connect regenera- 
 tion with it, as the most Calvinistic divines also do, as has been 
 already shown. But he also tells us that God " is not bound 
 to his Sacraments, but worketh what he will and how he vrill" 
 and that He "regardeth the heart, not the ceremony of minis- 
 tration" * 
 
 * Park. ed. Sbc. 108, 109.
 
 254 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 These words, then, show that his general expressions 
 respecting the effects of the sacraments are to be understood as 
 referring to those cases where the recipients are acceptable in 
 the sight of Grod. 
 
 A SHORT CATECHISM, 1550. 
 The full title is, 
 
 " A shorte Cathechisme. A briefe and godly bringinge up of youth, 
 in the knowlege and coramaundementes of God in fayth, prayer, and other 
 articles necessary to be knowen of all those that wil be partakers of the 
 kyngdom of Jesus Christ : set forth in manor of a Dialogue." 16mo. 
 
 The colophon is, 
 
 " Imprinted the yeare after the creation of the worlde 5525. And after 
 the byrthe of oure Saviour 1550." (Cambr. Univ. Libr. Q.* 13. 42.) 
 
 The author of this Catechism, in his Preface to the reader, 
 says, 
 
 " And because our country is great, and the preachers few, that the 
 word cannot by lively voice be taught in all places : I thought nothing 
 meeter to be set forth at this present time, than this brief Catechism, that 
 where as they can have no preacher, they may notwithstanding not lack a 
 teacher." 
 
 I have not been able to ascertain who was the author of 
 this Catechism, and therefore of course, as long as its author 
 remains unknown, its testimony is of a secondary value. But 
 the words of the Preface, just quoted, certainly seem to imply 
 that its author was one whose works would be at least freely 
 allowed to be used. 
 
 Thus it speaks on the subject of Baptism. 
 
 " T. [Teacher.J Is not baptism a washing away of sins, as Peter saith? 
 
 " Ch. [Child.] Not properly, but the Holy Ghost in the Holy Scripture 
 is oft wont to name the outward things, as if they were the things that 
 they betoken. As in the book of creation, circumcision is called a bundt 
 [covenant!, the which is but a token of the bundt. Likewise Moses calleth 
 the Easter-lamb a passing by, and yet it was but a sign of the passing by. 
 So baptism is sometime called a new bearing water, not that we be new 
 born through the outward water, but that it betokeneth the new birth and 
 regeration [regeneration]. Peter saith also : Baptism saveth us, of the 
 which manner of speaking there be many in Scripture." (fol. I iiii.) 
 
 The testimonies of BugER and PETER MARTYR, Regius
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 255 
 
 Professors of Divinity at Cambridge and Oxford in the reign 
 of Edward VI., I have given in oh. v., pp. 174 et seq. above. 
 
 I now pass on to the divines of the period of Q,ueen Eliza- 
 beth. And I would in the first place call the reader's attention 
 to the proofs already given in Chapter III. above, of the system 
 of doctrine generally embraced in our Church at that time. 
 Because, while it is impossible to obtain testimonies from 
 many of these divines on the particular subject of the effects 
 of baptism, from the circumstance of its not having been 
 anywhere treated of by them, yet the system of doctrine they 
 held is a sufficient proof of the general character of their views. 
 No man, holding the doctrine called Calvinistic, on the subject 
 of election and final perseverance, can consistently hold that 
 the universal effect of baptism in infants is to produce (in the 
 full and proper sense of the terms) spiritual regeneration. 
 And therefore the proofs already given of the " Calvinistic " 
 views of our Archbishops, Bishops, and University Professors, 
 on these points, are decisive, though indirect, evidences of 
 their general doctrine on the subject of Baptism. 
 
 From the cause just mentioned, however, I am compelled 
 to pass over many names of those whose general sentiments 
 are well known, and content myself with passages from those 
 who have happened to leave behind them some treatise or 
 incidental notice on the particular subject of our present 
 inquiry. And I commence with, 
 
 BISHOP JEWELL; 
 Bishop of Salisbury from 1559 to 1571. 
 
 The sanction given by Convocation to his "Apology" 
 entitles him to precedence. Now Bishop Jewell is a witness 
 adduced by the Bishop of Exeter, in his recent Charge, to 
 show that the Church of England " agrees with Rome " on 
 the doctrine of the gift of spiritual regeneration in baptism. 
 I will therefore first notice the reference made to his 
 writings in support of this view of the effects of baptism. 
 Bishop Jewell, we are told, "in his Apology for the Church 
 of England"
 
 256 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 " While he enlarges on every particular in which we differ from Rome, 
 disposes of baptism, in which we are agreed, [!] in a very few lines, merely 
 showing that on this point we hold the faith of the Catholic Church."* 
 
 And for proof of this we have the following extracts placed 
 before us. 
 
 '' Jewell (Apol. Eccl. Ang. par. II.) ' Baptismum quidem Sacramentum 
 esse remissionis peccatorum, et ejus ablutionis, quam habemus in Christi 
 sanguine ; et ab eo neminem, qui velit profiteri nomen Christi, ne infantes 
 quidem Christianorum homtnum, quoniam nascuntur in peccato, et pertinent 
 ad populum Dei, arcendos esse.' Again, Christum enim asserimus, vere 
 sese prsesentem exhibere in Sacramentis suis : in Baptismo, ut eum indu- 
 amus.' "f 
 
 The following passage also is quoted from his Treatise on 
 the Sacraments. "They are not bare signs: it were blas- 
 phemy so to say. The grace of God doth alway work with 
 his Sacraments." 
 
 To which is added the following note ; 
 
 "Jewell's Works, fol. Lond. 1609. (Treatise of Sacraments, p. 263.) 
 He adds : l Chrysostom saith, In nobis non simplex aqua operatur, sed, 
 cum accepit gratiam Spiritus, abluit omnia peccata. So saith Ambrose 
 also: Spiritus Sanctus descendit, et consecrat aquam. So saith Cyril. 
 So saith Leo, sometime a Bishop of Rome. Dedit aquae quod dedit Matri. 
 Virtus enim Altissimi et obumbratio Spiritus Sancti, quae fecit, ut Maria 
 pareret, eadem facit, ut regeneret unda credentem.' Presently afterwards, 
 in the' same treatise, p. 265, Jewell says ( I will now speak briefly of 
 the Sacraments in several, and leave all idle and vain questions, and only 
 lay open so much as is needful and profitable for you to know. Baptism, 
 therefore, is our Regeneration or new Birth, whereby we are born anew in 
 Christ, and are made the sons of God, and heirs of the kingdom of 
 heaven.' "$ 
 
 These are the passages upon which his Lordship grounds 
 his claim to the authority of Jewell in his favor. Now the 
 reader will at once perceive that there is nothing in this lan- 
 guage but what we have already met with in the works of the 
 most " Calvinistic" divines; and the passage from Leo, in 
 which he says, " regeneret unda credentem," is precisely in 
 accordance with the views which his Lordship adduces it to 
 refute ; and of course illustrates the meaning of the context. 
 The real views of Jewell must be ascertained by a comparison 
 of these with other passages in his works ; and such a compari- 
 
 Charge, 8d. ed. p. 11. f Ib. $ Ib.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 257 
 
 son will show us that the selection here made is altogether 
 partial and delusive. "We have Jewell's own testimony, as 
 we have already seen,* written in 1562, contemporaneously 
 with the " Apology," and just after the XXXIX Articles had 
 been agreed to, that he and his brethren in this country did 
 not in the least differ from the doctrine of Peter Martyr. 
 
 The Bishop of Exeter, quotes two passages from tha 
 *' Apology." But in the context he would have found others 
 that show at once in what sense they are to be understood. 
 
 Thus, it is there said, 
 
 " Recipimus sacramenta Ecclesise, hoc est, sacra qusedam signa, csere- 
 monias, quibus Christus nos uti voluit, ut illis mysteria salutis nostrae 
 nobis ante oculos constituent, et fidem nostram, quara habemus in ejus 
 sanguine, vehementis confirmaret, et gratiam suam in cordibus nostris 
 obsignarit." 
 
 That is, according to the translation Jewell himself inserted 
 in the " Defence " of the Apology, 
 
 " Moreover, we allow the Sacraments of the Church, that is to say, 
 certain hply signs and ceremonies, which Christ would we should use, 
 that by them he might set before our eyes the mysteries of our salvation, 
 and might more strongly confirm the faith which we have in his blood, and 
 might seal his grace in our hearts."t 
 
 And a little further on, in words not to be mistaken, he 
 says, 
 
 " Sine fide ne vivis quidem prodesse dicimus sacramenta Christi; 
 mortuis vcro multo minus." 
 
 " We say that the sacraments of Christ, without faitJi^ donot once profit 
 those that be alive : a great deal less do they profit those that be dead."$ 
 
 And in his Defence of the Apology we find the same doc- 
 trine repeatedly 'insisted on in the clearest terms. 
 
 t -. :. 
 
 ' Without faith of our part," he says, " Sacraments be not only 
 unprofitable to us, but also hurtful."^ 
 
 And he explains the phrase of grace being given in the 
 Sacraments in this way, 
 
 * See p. 106 above. 
 
 f Ch. lO.div. 1. in Defence of the Apology, p. 205. Works, 1611. fol. 
 
 j Ib. p. 282. 
 
 Defence of the Apology, p. 207. Worts, ed. 1611. fol. 
 
 17
 
 258 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 " Thus the grace of God is given unto us in the Sacraments, because H 
 is represented and laid before us in the Sacraments." 
 
 Again % 
 
 " The merits of Christ's death whereof we entreat, are conveyed unto 
 us by God, and received by us. God conveyeth them to us only of his 
 mercy, and we receive them only by faith. . . . Among other causes, the 
 Sacraments serve specially to direct and to aid our faith ; for they are, as 
 S. Augustine calleth them, ' Verba visibilia, Visible words,' and seals and 
 testimonies of the Gospel. All this notwithstanding, we say. It is neither 
 the work of the Priest, nor the nature of the Sacrament, as of itself, that 
 maketh us partakers of Christ's death, but only the faith of the receiver."* 
 
 And speaking of the statements of some of the Fathers 
 that an infant when baptized is accepted on account of the 
 faith of its parents or sponsors, he says, 
 
 " Nevertheless concerning the faith of the parents and others, the holy 
 doctors have sometime written otherwise. S. Augustine saith, Satis pie 
 recteque creditur, prodesse parvulo eorum fidem a quibus consecrandus 
 offeratur : It is good and godly to believe that the child is holpen by the 
 faith of them by whom he is offered or brought unto baptism. . . . The like 
 sayings might be alleged out of Justinus Martyr, S. Cyprian, S. Hierome, 
 and others. For thus they write ; How truly I will not say. But their 
 words be plain. The prophet Abacuc saith, Justus ex fide sua vivet : The 
 just man shall live, (not by the faith of his parents, but) by his own faith.' 1 ' 1 f 
 
 These words, of course, clearly show Jewell's own view of 
 the case. 
 
 Again in his Reply to Harding's Answer to the challenge 
 he gave the papists in his famous sermon at Paul's Cross in 
 1560, he maintains the same doctrine. 
 
 After having remarked, 
 
 " It is granted of all, without contradiction, that one end of all Sacra- 
 ments is to join us unto God :"| 
 
 He adds almost immediately after 
 " Howbeit, in plain speech, it is not the receiving of the Sacrament 
 
 * Ib. p. 284. 
 
 f Ib. p. 217. Jewell, doubtless, did not here mean to deny that an infant 
 dying in infancy receives benefit from the faith of a parent, but only that, in bap- 
 tism, one whom Ood foresees will grow up and remain impenitent and unbeliev- 
 ing is made a living member of Christ's mystical body, the true Church, through 
 a parent's faith. 
 
 \ Reply unto M. Harding's Answer, p. 20. Works, ed. 1611. fol.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 259 
 
 that worketh our joining with God. For whosoever is not joined to God 
 before he receive the Sacraments, he eateth and drinketh his own judgment. 
 The Sacraments be seals and witnesses, and not properly the causes of this 
 conjunction."* 
 
 Again, 
 
 " We confess that Christ by the Sacrament of Regeneration, as Chrys- 
 ostorne saith, hath made us flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bones, that 
 we are the members and he is the head. We confess also, that all the 
 faithful are one body, all indued with one spirit. And be that distance 
 never so great, yet are we one another's members. This marvellous con- 
 junction and incorporation is first begun and wrought by faith, as saith 
 Paulinus unto S. Augustine; Per fidem nostram incorporamur in Christo 
 Jesu Domino nostro : By our faith we are incorporate or made one body 
 with Jesus Christ our Lord. Afterward the same incorporation is assured 
 unto us, and increased in our baptism."^ 
 
 Here is a broad and general principle laid down, which of 
 course must apply in its measure to the case of infants as well 
 as to that of adults. Whether we suppose that the seed of 
 faith is implanted in the infant previous to baptism, or whether 
 we hold that the prevision of future faith and repentance avails 
 in the case of an infant, or whatever other theory may be 
 adopted, it is clear that upon the principle advanced here by 
 Jewell, a child is not necessarily regenerated and made a 
 member of Christ because it is baptized. 
 
 Again, he says, 
 
 " Our doctrine is, that the Sacraments of Christ, unto the godly are 
 the instruments of the Holy Ghost : and unto the wicked are increa&e of 
 further judgment."! 
 
 Again, 
 
 "Likewise in baptism, as the one part of that holy mystery is Christ's 
 blood, so is the other part the material water. Neither are these parts 
 joined together in place, but in mystery : and therefore they be oftentimes 
 severed, and the one is received without the other. ," 
 
 * Ib. p. 21. t Ib. p. 27. t Ib - P- 64 - 
 
 (j Ib. p. 285. Other passages are often quoted on the subject from this Work, 
 but they refer more particularly to a point which (though I have already observ- 
 ed with regret, pp. 35, 36, above, that it is not wholly without defenders among 
 us) I think it unnecessary to discuss, namely, whether the virtue of the Sacra- 
 ments is infused into the elements so as to be communicated physically by them 
 to the receiver. The great body of the Romanists for the last three or four 
 centeuries seem to have held the affirmative view. And consequently Jewell
 
 260 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 
 
 The same is the doctrine of Jewell's " Treatise of the 
 Sacraments," and the expressions quoted from it by the Bishop 
 of Exeter are nothing more than what are common in authors 
 of that period confessedly opposed to the Bishop's views. It 
 is quite admitted that the Sacraments are not bare signs, and 
 that God always works with his Sacraments, when the recipi- 
 ents are acceptable in his sight. And this limitation Jewell 
 himself constantly insists upon ; and if he had not, and the words 
 quoted by the Bishop were to be understood without any limi- 
 tation, they would be directly opposed to the 25th Article. 
 And so also, in the sense in which Jewel himself explains the 
 matter, baptism is admitted to be oar regeneration or new birth. 
 
 There is another passage in the same Treatise, still stronger 
 perhaps than those quoted by the Bishop, but the meaning of 
 which is, to one who is acquainted with the theology of the 
 period, perfectly clear. 
 
 " In baptism," he says, " the nature and substance of water doth remain 
 still : and yet is it not bare water. It is changed [i. e. in its character and 
 uses] and made the Sacrament of our regeneration. It is water consecrated r 
 and made holy by the blood of Christ. They which are washed therein, are 
 not washed with water, but in the blood of the unspotted Lamb. One thing 
 ife seen, and another understood. We see the water, but we understand the- 
 blood of Christ. Even so we see the bread and wine, but with the eyes of 
 our understanding we look beyond these creatures ; we reach our spiritual 
 senses into heaven, and behold the ransom and price of our salvation. We 
 do behold in the Sacrament, not what it is, but what it doth signify. When 
 we receive it with due reverence and faith, we say, as said Gregorius 
 Nyssenus, Ego aliam escam agnosco, qnac, &c. (Do crca. horn. cap. 20.) 
 
 earnestly opposes it. And when the Bishop of Exeter disclaims the view that 
 " the Sacraments, by power that they have of themselves, apart from the effec- 
 tual operation of God in and by them, contain the grace of which they are the 
 signs" (Charge, p. 11, Note,) I suppose he means to oppose the doctrine of whicb 
 we are speaking ; though his words might have been clearer. 
 
 On this account I have not quoted the following passage, because it is written 
 with reference to the point just mentioned. " Vorily to ascribe felicity, or remis- 
 eion of sin, which is the inward work of the Holy Ghost, unto any manner out- 
 ward action whatsoever, it is a superstitious, a gross, and a Jewish error." 
 (Reply to Harding, p. 482.) I must add, however, that to suppose that the 
 spiritual effect always accompanies the outward action, is rn fact much the same 
 as to suppose that the spiritual effect is always produced by the outward action, 
 because even in the latter case it is only supposed to take place through Divine 
 influence. For other passages, see Reply t IL'.rding, pp. 339 and 458.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 26l 
 
 * I know another kind of meat, bearing the likeness and resemblance of our 
 bodily meat, the pleasure and sweetness whereof passeth only into the soul,' 
 It goeth not into the mouth or belly, but only into the soul, and it feedeth 
 the mind inwardly, as the other outwardly feedeth the body."* 
 
 But who are thosq who are thus " washed in the blood of 
 the Lamb?" Are we to conclude from these words, because 
 the expressions are general, that everybody that comes to bap- 
 tism is so washed. No! no more than from the latter part of 
 the paragraph we should maintain that the bread and wine 
 41 feed the mind inwardly " of everybody that partakes of the 
 Lord's Supper. 
 
 The real character and use of the Sacraments, and the 
 limitations with which uch passages are to be understood, are 
 abundantly set forth in other parts of the same treatise : as 
 in the following passages. 
 
 ".Christ hath ordained them, [i. e. Sacraments,] that by them he might 
 set before our eyes the mysteries of our salvation, and might more strongly 
 {onfirm the faith which we have in his blood, and might seal his grace in our 
 
 hearts."t 
 
 "The signification, and the substance of the Sacrament, is to show us, 
 how we are washed with the passion of Christ, and how we are fed with 
 the body of Christ. . , . And because of this likeness which they have with 
 the things they represent, they be oftentimes termed by the names of the 
 things themselves. "$ 
 
 But, 
 
 " If any man have the outward seal and have not the faith thereof sealed 
 within his heart, it avalleth him not"^ 
 
 " When one that is unlearned, and cannot read, looketh upon a book, 
 be the book never so true, never so well written, yet because he knoweth 
 
 not the letters, and cannot read, he looketh upon it in vain So do the 
 
 faithful receive the fruit and comfort by the Sacraments, which the wicked 
 and ungodly neither consider nor receive." || 
 
 'It is the covenant and promise and mercy of God which clotheth us 
 with immortality ; assureth our resurrection, by which we receive regenera- 
 tion, forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. His word declareth his love 
 towards us : and that word is sealed and made good by baptism. Our faith, 
 ^rhich are baptized, and our continuance in the profession which we have 
 made, established in us this grace which we receive. As it is said : Verus 
 
 * Treatise of the Sacraments, p. 274. "Works, ed. 1611. foL 
 f Ib. p. 261. f Ib. p. 262. 
 
 Ib. p. 262, j Ib. p. 263.
 
 262 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Baptismus constat non tarn, &c. True baptism standeth not so much in 
 washing of the body, as in the faith of the heart. De consecrat. Dist. 4. 
 Verus. As the doctrine of the Apostles hath taught us, saying. ' By faith 
 purifying their hearts.' Acts xv. And in another place : ' Baptism saveth 
 us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the examining of a 
 good conscience before God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 1 Pet. iii. 
 Therefore Hierome saith: They that receive not baptism with perfect 
 faith, receive the water, but the Holy Ghost they receive not. In Eze. ca. 
 xvi."* 
 
 " The Sacrament maketh not a Christian, but is a seal and assurance 
 unto all that receive it of the grace of God, unless they make themselves 
 unworthy thereof, and that no man may despise this holy ordinance, and 
 keep back his infants from baptism, for in so doing he procureth his own 
 damnation. In time of ignorance many could see this, and acknowledge it, 
 that the outward baptism by water was not necessary unto salvation, so 
 that the children or others that died without were for lack thereof damned. 
 The Church hath always received three sorts of baptism : the baptism of 
 the Spirit, or of blood, or of water. If any were prevented by death, or 
 hindered by cruelty or persecution, so that they could not receive the Sacra- 
 ment of Baptism at the hands of the minister, yet having the sanctification 
 of the Holy Ghost, or making their faith known by their suffering, they 
 were born anew and baptized."^ 
 
 And then he adds words which evidently .show that he took 
 (as might be expected from his Letter to Peter Martyr, above 
 quoted) precisely the view of the foreign Calvinistic Reformers 
 on the subject. 
 
 "GOD HATH HIS PURPOSE IN US AND OUR CHILDREN. BEFORE WE BE 
 BORN, WHEN HE [WE] HAD DONE NEITHER GOOD NOR EVIL, HE HATH MERCY 
 AND COMPASSION ON US. JUDGMENT APPERTAINETH UNTO GoD. HE KNOWETH 
 WHO ARE HIS. No MAN KNOWETH THE THINGS OF GOD BUT THE SPIRIT OF 
 
 GOD ONLY. And thus much of the Sacrament of Baptism, which is the 
 badge and cognizance of every Christian. If any be not baptized, but 
 lacketh the mark of God's fold, we cannot discern him to be one of the flock. 
 If any take not the seal of regeneration, we cannot say, he is born the child 
 ofGod."* 
 
 With these passages I leave the testimony of Jewell in the 
 hands of the reader. 
 I pass on to, 
 
 Ib. p, 266. f Ib. p. 267. $ Ib. p. 267.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 263 
 
 DEAN NOWELL'S CATECHISM; 
 Dean of St. Paul's from 1560 to 1604. 
 
 I rank the testimony of Dean No well's Catechism next, 
 because it was revised and approved in the Convocation of 
 1562, and was formally sanctioned by a Canon of the Convoca- 
 tion of 1571; and may therefore be considered as a work 
 recognised by public authority as speaking the sentiments of 
 our Church. As such, it is referred to by the Bishop of Exeter 
 himself,* who (as I have pointed out in a former workt) being 
 entirely unconscious that great part of this work is taken 
 almost verbatim from Calvin's Catechism, has committed the 
 singularly infelicitous mistake of referring to words taken from 
 Calvin's Catechism as an undeniable proof that Nowell's Cate- 
 chism supports his views. In a former part of this work,! I 
 have given some extracts illustrating the general system of 
 doctrine advocated in Nowell's Catechism, which has been 
 shown to be that commonly called Calvinistic. I have now 
 to add that portion of the Catechism relating to the subject 
 of baptism. $ 
 
 I shall first give that part of it which has been quoted by 
 the Bishop of Exeter, as maintaining his view, annexing in a 
 parallel column the passages of Calvin's Catechism from which 
 it is taken. 
 
 NOWELL'S CATECHISM. CALVIN'S CATECHISM. 
 
 M. QUEB est arcana et spiritualis M. Quae est Baptism! significa- 
 
 gratia [in Baptismo] ? tio? 
 
 A. Ea duplex est; remissio vide- P. Eaduashabetpartes. Namibi 
 
 licet peccatorum, etregeneratio, quse remissio peccatorum, deinde spiri- 
 
 utraque in externo illo signo soli- tualis regeneratiofiguratur. 
 dam et expressam effigiem suam 
 tenent. 
 
 M. Quomodo? M. Quid similitudinis inest aqua 
 
 A. Primum, quemadmodum sordes cum his rebus, ut eas reprasentet? 
 
 corporis aqua, ita animse maculse per P. Peccatorum quidem remissio 
 
 remissionem peccatorum eluuntur; species est lavacri, quo aninut suis 
 
 * See his recent Charge, p. 1 1 . 
 
 f Vindication of Defence of XXXIX Articles, pp. 16, 17. 
 
 j See pp. 103-105 above. 
 
 I quote from the Edition by Bishop Cleaver, Ozon. 1795, 8vo. pp. 156-141.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 deinde regenerationis initium, id est, 
 naturae nostra? mortiftcatio, vel hn- 
 mersione in aqnam, vel ejus asper- 
 sione exprimitur. Postremo vero, 
 quum ab aqua, quam ad momentum 
 subimus, statim emergimus, nova^ 
 vita, quae est regenerationis nostrse 
 pars altera atque finis reprascntatur. 
 
 M. Videris aquam effigiem tan- 
 turn quandam rerum divinarum 
 efBcere. 
 
 A. Effigies quidem est, sed mini- 
 me inanis, aut fallax r ut cui rerum 
 ipsarum veritas adjuncta sit atque 
 annexa. Nam sicut i Deus peccatorum 
 condonationem, et vita novitatem 
 nobis vere in baptismo offert 7 ita a 
 nobis certo rccipiuntur. Absit enim, 
 ut Deum vanis nos imaginibus ludere 
 atque frustrari putemus. [The italics 
 here are the Bishop r s.\* 
 
 Upon these words his Lordship grounds this remark. " It 
 is impossible not to see in these words an exhibition of the 
 same truth as is expressed in the 27th Article, Signum regene- 
 
 maculis absterguntur, non secus atque 
 aqua abluuntur corporis sordes. 
 
 M. Quid de regenerations ? 
 
 P. Quoniam ejus initium est no- 
 turn nostra mortificatio, finis vero, ut 
 novs& creaturse simus : in eo nobi$ 
 proponitur mortis figura, qu6d capitj 
 aqua injieitur; novae autem vitae, in 
 eo quod non manemus sub aqua de- 
 mersi, sed ad momentum duntaxat 
 subimus, tanquam in sepulcrum 5 ut 
 atatim emergamus, 
 
 M, Verum, annon aliud aquae- 
 tribuis nisi ut ablutionis tantum sit 
 figura ? 
 
 P. SlC FTGURAM ESSE SENTIO UT 
 SJMUL ANNEXA SIT VERITAS. NEQUK 
 KNIM, SUA NOBIS DONA POLLICEND07 
 NOS DEUS FRUSTRATUR. PfiOINDE ET 
 PECCATORUM VENIAM ET VIT^ NOVI- 
 TATEM OFFERRI NOBIS IN BAPTISMO y 
 ET RECIPI A NOBIS CEHTUM EST. 
 
 * " M. What is the secret and spiritual grace [in Baptism] ? 
 
 " A. It is twofold ; namely remission of sins and regeneration, both which 1 
 have in that external sign their full and express representation. 
 
 "M. How so? 
 
 " A. First as the uncleannesses of the body are washed away with water, so- 
 the spots of the soul are washed away by the remission of sins ; then the com- 
 mencement of regeneration, that is, the mortification of our nature, is expressed 
 either by immersion in water, or by the sprinkling of it. But lastly, when wfr 
 presently rise up from the water, which we go under fbr a moment, the new life, 
 which is the other part and the end of our regeneration, is represented. 
 
 14 M. Thou seemest to make the water only a certain image of divine things. 
 
 *' A. It is indeed an image, but by no means one that is empty or fallacious, 
 inasmuch as the truth of the things themselves is joined and annexed to it. For aa 
 God truly offers to us in Baptism pardon of sins and newness of life, so are they 
 certainly received by us. For let ua iiot suppose that God mocks and deceive 
 us with vain images."
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 265 
 
 rationis, per quod, tanquam per instrumentum, &c."* Meaning, 
 of course, " the same truth" as he has affirmed this Article to 
 express. A more remarkable proof of his Lordship's misin- 
 terpretation both of the one and the other could not have been 
 afforded us. For the very words upon which he rests his 
 statements are, as we see, borrowed from Calvin. 
 
 But, to have a just view of the testimony of this Catechism 
 on the subject of baptism, we must proceed to that part 
 which his Lordship has not quoted. The Catechism proceeds 
 thus. 
 
 NOWELL'S CATECHISM. 
 
 M. Non ergo remissionem pecca- 
 torum externa aquae lavatione aut 
 aspersione coiisequimur ? 
 
 A. Minime: narn solus Christus 
 sanguine suo animarum nostrarum 
 maculas luit atque eluit. Hunc ergo 
 honorem externo elemento tribuere 
 nefas est. Verura -Spiritus Sanctus 
 conscientias nostra's sacro illo san- 
 guine quasi aspergens, abstersis 
 omnibus peccati sordibus, puros nos 
 coram Deo reddit. Hujus vero 
 peccatorum nostrorum expiationis 
 obsignationem atque pignus in Sacra- 
 mento habemus. 
 
 M. Regenerationem vero unde 
 habemus? 
 
 A. Non aliunde quam a morte 
 et resurrectione Christi; nam per 
 mortis SUBB vim vetus homo noster 
 quodammodo crucifigitur et mortifica- 
 tur, et naturae nostrse vitiositas quasi 
 sepelitur, ne amplius in nobis vivat 
 et vigeat: resurrectionis vero suae 
 beneficio nobis largitur, ut in novam 
 vitam ad obediendum Dei justitiae 
 reformemur. 
 
 M. An gratiam hanc omnes com- 
 muniter et promiscue consequantur ? 
 A. Soli fideles hunc fructum per- 
 
 CALVIN'S CATECHISM. 
 M. Num aquam esse animse lava- 
 crum censes? 
 
 P. Nequaquam. Hunc enim ho- 
 norem eripere Christi sanguini nefas 
 est, qui ideo effusus fuit, ut abstersis 
 omnibus nostris maculis. puros corara 
 Deo et impollutos nos redderet. 
 Atque hujus quidem purgationis 
 fructum percipimus, quum sacro illo 
 sanguine conscientias nostras Spiritus 
 Sanctus aspergit.: obsignationem verb 
 in Sacramento habemus. 
 
 M. Regeneratio autem unde ? 
 
 P. A morte Christi et resurrec- 
 tionesimul. Haec enim vis sub est 
 ejus morti, ut per earn crucifigatur 
 vetus homo noster, et naturae nostrsB 
 vitiositas quodammodo sepeliatur, ne 
 amplius vigeat in nobis. Quod autem 
 reformamur in novam vitam ad obe- 
 diendum Dei justitise, id est resur- 
 rectionis beneficium. 
 
 M. An promiscue in omnibus im- 
 pletur hac gratia ? 
 
 P. Multi, dum illi sua pravitate 
 
 Charge, 3d ed. p. 15.
 
 266 
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 NOWELL'S CATECHISM. 
 cipiunt : increduli vero oblatus illic a 
 Deo promissiones respucndo, aditum 
 sibi pr&cludenteS) inanes abeunt, non 
 tamen idea ejficiunt, ut suam Sacra- 
 mento, vim et naturam amittant. 
 
 M. Rectus ergo baptism! usus 
 quibus in rebus sit situs, breviter 
 edissere. 
 
 A. In fide et poenitentia. Pri- 
 mum euim Christi nos sanguine a 
 cunctis purgatos sordibus Deo gratos 
 esse, Spiritumque ejus in nobis habi- 
 tare, certafiducia cum animis nostris 
 statutum habere oportet. Deinde in 
 carne nostra mortificanda, obedien- 
 doque justitiae Divinae, assidue omni 
 ope et opera est enitendum, et pia 
 vita apud omnes declarandum nos in 
 baptismo Christum ipsum quasi in- 
 duisse, et ejus Spiritu donates esse. 
 
 M. Quum infantes haec, quse 
 commemoras, hactenus per setatem 
 praestare non possint, qui fit ut illi 
 baptizentur ? 
 
 A. Ut fides et poenitentia baptis- 
 jiiiini praecedant, tantum gn adultis, 
 qui per sstatem sunt utriusque capa- 
 ces, exigitur : infantibus vero promis- 
 sio ecclesiae facta per Christum, in 
 cujus fide baptizantur, in praesens 
 satis erit, deinde postquam adole- 
 verint, baptismi sui veritatem ipsos 
 agnoscere, ejusque vim in animis 
 eorum vigere, atque ipsorum vita et 
 moribus repraesentari omnino oportet. 
 
 CALVIN'S CATECHISM. 
 viam prachidunt, efficiunt ut sibi sit 
 inanis. Ita non nisi ad fideles solos 
 pervenitfructus. Verum : inde nihil 
 Sacramenti natures decedit. 
 
 [The last question and answer 
 precede in the Catechism those 
 which for the purpose of comparison 
 with Nowell's, I have placed before 
 them.] 
 
 M. Quomodo per Baptismum no- 
 bis haec bona conferuntur ? 
 
 P. Quia, nisi promissiones illic 
 nobis oblatas respuendo infructuosas 
 reddimus, vestimur Christo, ejusque 
 Spiritu donamur. 
 
 M. Nobis vero quid agendum est 
 ut rite Baptismo utamur ? 
 
 P. Rectus baptismi usus in fide 
 et poenitentia situs est : hoc est, ut 
 statuamus primum certa animi fidu- 
 cia, nos ab omnibus maculis, Christi 
 sanguine, purgatos, Deo placere : 
 deinde ut Spiritum ejus s.entiamus 
 ipsi in nobis habitare : atque id 
 operibus apud alios declaremus : 
 utque assidu& nos in meditanda turn 
 carnis mortificatione, turn justitise 
 Dei obedientia, exerceamus. 
 
 M. Si hsec requiruntur ad legiti- 
 mum Baptismi usum, qui fit ut in- 
 fantes baptizemus ? 
 
 P. Non est necesse ut Baptismum 
 semper fides et pomitentia praece- 
 dant : sed ab iis tanttim cxiguntur 
 qui per Eetatem jam sunt utriusque 
 capaccs. Satis ergo fuerit, si in- 
 fantes, postquam adoleverint. Bap. 
 tismi ibi vim exerant.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 2G7 
 
 NOWELL'S CATECHISM. 
 
 [Show-ing here, like Calvin, that 
 baptism has " eadem causa et ratio " 
 with circumcision, he thus pro- 
 ceeds : ] 
 
 M. Perge adhuc. 
 
 A. Cum infantes nostros vim et 
 qvasi substantiam baptismi commu- 
 nem nobiscum habere certum sit, 
 illis injuria fieret, si signum, quod 
 veritate est inferius, ipsis negare- 
 tur: eoque, quod ad testandam Dei 
 miscricordiam, confirmandasque ejus 
 promissiones plurimum valet, sub- 
 lato, eximia consolatione, qua veteres 
 fruebantur. Christiani fraudarentur 
 duriusque cum nostris parvulis in 
 Novo Testainento sub Christoagere- 
 tur, quam in veteri cum Judseorum 
 infantibus sub Mose actum fuerat. 
 Itaqucae quissimum est parvulis nos- 
 tris Divinao gratise atque salutis fideli- 
 um semini promissae hseredes se esse, 
 baptismo, impresso quasi sigillo, 
 testatum fiat. 
 
 M. Ecquid est amplius, quod de 
 hac re velis dicere ? 
 
 A. Quum Christus Dominus in- 
 fantes ad se vocet, edicat etiam ne 
 quis eos accessu prohibeat, ad se 
 venientes amplectatur, ad eos regnum 
 coeleste pertinere testetur.quos coelesti 
 palatio Deus dignatur, eos ab hom- 
 inibus primo aditu vestibuloque pro- 
 hiberi, et a Christiana Republica 
 quodammodo excludi, summa videtur 
 esse iniquitas.* 
 
 CALVIN'S CATECHISM. 
 
 * # # # 
 
 P. Quum satis constet vim sub- 
 stantiamque (ut ita loquar) Baptismi 
 infantibus esse communem, si illis 
 negaretur signum, quod veritate est 
 inferiiis. aperta illis injuria fieret. 
 
 [He had previously observed, 
 Signo sublato (quod ad testandam 
 Dei misericordiam et confirmaiidas 
 promissiones plurimum valet) deesset 
 nobis eximia consolatio, qua frueban- 
 tur veteres.] 
 
 M. Qua ergo conditione bapti- 
 zandi sunt infantes ? 
 
 P. Ut testatum fiat, benedictionis 
 fidelium semmi promissae ipsos esse 
 hseredes: ut agnita, postquam ado- 
 leverint, Baptismi sui veritate, fruc- 
 tum ex eo percipiant ac proferant. 
 (Calv. Catech., Op. Amst. 1667 
 et s. vol. viii. pp. 25, 26.) 
 
 * " M. Do we not therefore obtain remission of sins by external washing, or 
 sprinkling of water ! 
 
 " A. By no means : for Christ alone washes and cleanses away the spots of 
 our souls by his own blood. Therefore it is wicked to give this honor to the 
 external element. But the Holy Spirit, sprinkling as it were our consciences 
 with that sacred blood, having wiped away all the defilement of sin, renders us 
 pure before God. But of this expiation of our sins we have in the Sacrament a 
 teal and pledge. 
 
 " M. But whence have we regeneration ?
 
 268 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 From these passages, then, taken (as they must be) together, 
 the doctrine, of Nowell's Catechism, and consequently of the 
 Church of England, on this point is abundantly clear. In fact 
 it is obvious, that the very expressions in which the doctrine 
 is enunciated, in all its leading features, are taken from Calvin. 
 
 " A. From no other source than from the death and resurrection of Christ ; for 
 through the power of his death our old man is in a manner crucified and mortified, 
 and the corruptness of our nature is as it were buried, that it may no longer live 
 and flourish in us : but the blessed effect of his resurrection is to obtain for us, 
 that we may be formed anew to a new life to obey the righteousness of God. 
 
 " M. Do all universally and without distinction obtain this grace ? 
 
 " A. The faithful only partake of this fruit : but the unbelieving by rejecting 
 the promises there offered them by God, shutting the door of entrance against 
 themselves, go away empty ; yet they do not thereby cause the sacraments to lose 
 their power and nature. 
 
 " M. Explain then in a few words in what things the right use of baptism 
 consists. 
 
 " A. In faith and repentance. For first, we ought to have our minds convinced 
 with an unwavering confidence that we, being cleansed from all defilements by 
 the blood of Christ, are acceptable to God, and that his Spirit dwells in us. Then 
 we must labor assiduously with all our power and efforts in the mortification of 
 our flesh, and in obeying the righteousness of God; and by a life of piety it is to 
 be manifested before all that in baptism we have as it were put on Christ, and 
 have the gift of his Spirit. 
 
 " M. Since infants are not as yet able, on account of their age, to perform those 
 things which thou hast mentioned, how is it that they are baptized ? 
 
 " A. That faith and repentance should precede baptism, is required only in 
 adults who are of an age to be capable of them : but for infants the promise made 
 to the Church through Christ in whose faith they are baptized, will be for the 
 present sufficient ; then, after they have grown up, duty requires that they them- 
 selves should acknowledge the truth of their baptism, and that its power should 
 flourish in their souls, and be set forth in their life and conduct. 
 
 [Showing here, like Calvin, that baptism has " the same reason and design " 
 with circumcision, he thus proceeds : ] 
 
 "M Goon. 
 
 " A. Since it is certain that our infants have the power, and as it were the 
 substance, of baptism in common with us, it would be an injustice done them, if 
 the sign, which it inferior to the truth, should be denied them ; and if that were 
 taken away, which had much force for bearing witness to the mercy of God and 
 confirming his promises, Christians would be deprived of an excellent ground of 
 comfort which the ancients enjoyed ; and our infants would be dealt with more 
 hardly in the New Testament under Christ, than were the infants of the Jews in 
 the Old Testament under Moses. Therefore it is most just that testimony should 
 be borne to our little ones by baptism, as by the impress of a seal, that they 
 are heirs of divine grace, and of the salvation promised to the seed of the faithful 
 
 " M. Is there anything more which thou desirest to say on this matter t 
 
 ' A. Since Christ the Lord calls infants to him, commandeth also that no
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 269 
 
 It tells us distinctly that the promised grace pertaining to 
 baptism is received only by the faithful; and that the reason 
 why our infants are baptized is, that they have the power , and, 
 as it were, the substance of baptism, and therefore that it 
 would be wronging them to deny them the sign, which is infe- 
 rior to the reality which they possess: the 'very words of Cal- 
 vin.* And by the explanation here gi\cen of the nature and 
 effects of baptism, we must interpret the words which occur 
 in the first answer given on the subject of baptism. 
 
 " M. Quot in Ecclesia sua Sacramenta instituit Dominus ? 
 
 "A. Duo. 
 
 <: M. Quaj? 
 
 "A. Baptismum et sacram cocnam : quorum commiuiis est inter omnes 
 fideles usus. Altero enim renascimur, altero sustentamur ad vitam 
 ffiternam."t 
 
 We are regenerated by baptism, inasmuch as baptism 
 is the sign and seal of our new birth (and Sacraments are 
 called by the names of the things they represent; ) inasmuch 
 also as, if we are accepted in the sight of God, (a necessary 
 pre-requisite to the operation of God in his Sacraments,) we 
 are thereby form a Uy and publicly incorporated into the true 
 Church of Christ, and receive regenerating grace. To use 
 
 man forbid them access, embraces those that come to him, testifies that the king- 
 dom of heaven belongs to them, it seems to be a very great sin that those \vhom 
 God vouchsafes to receive in the heavenly palace should be prohibited by man 
 from the first entrance and porch, and be in a certain manner shut out of the 
 Christian Commonwealth." 
 
 * Had the Bishop of Exeter read these words, when in his recent Charge ho 
 referred to the words of the " Directory for Public Worship," in 1 644, that children 
 " are Christians, and federally holy before baptism, and therefore they are bap- 
 tized? as showing that his opponents agree with the doctrine of the Dissenters 
 in opposition to that of the Church of England ? (Charge, p. 12.) His Lordship 
 might as well have charged them with opposition to the Doctrine of the Church 
 of England, because they agree with Dissenters in holding the doctrine of the 
 Trinity. On which side is the dissent from the doctrine of the Church of Engknd 
 Nowell's Catechism very clearly shows. 
 
 f " M. How many Sacraments has God ordained in his Church f 
 
 "A. Two. 
 
 "M. What are they? 
 
 "A. Baptism and the Holy Supper: the use of which is universal among all 
 the faithful. For by the one we are born again, by the other we are nourished to 
 eternal life."
 
 270 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 the wortls of Peter Lombard himself, above quoted, ""We were 
 within before in the judgment of God, but now we are also 
 within in the judgment of the Church/' ("Ante intus eramus 
 judicio Dei, sed nuno etiam judicio Ecclesise.") And the 
 Church now (and not before) can say, in the. judgment of faith 
 and charity, (the only judgment which the Church is entitled 
 to pass,) that we are regenerate. And we are then regenera- 
 ted, inasmuch as the work of regeneration is then perfected, in 
 the same sense and way as a covenant is perfected by affixing 
 to it the seal. In fact, as we have already seen, (p. 167 above,) 
 the very same words are used in the Genevan Annotations on 
 the Neiu Testament. 
 
 And when the Catechism comes to explain, in the very 
 next answer, the nature of baptism, it again adopts the 
 expressions of Calvin. 
 
 NOWELL. CALVIN. 
 
 M. De Baptismo ergo primura 
 dip quid censeas. 
 
 A. Quum natura filii irso. id est, P. Baptismus veluti quidam in 
 
 alieni ab ecclesia, qua) Doi familia Ecclesiam aditus nobis est. Illic 
 
 est, simus, baptismus veluti aditus enim testimonium habemus, nos 
 
 quidam nobis est, per quern in earn quum alioqui cxtranei alienique 
 
 admittimur : unde et testimonium simus, in Dei familiam recipi, ut 
 
 etiam amplissimum accipimus, in inter cjus domesticos censeamur. 
 
 numero domesticorum adeoque (Catech.) Si eorum [infantium] est 
 
 filiorum Dei, nos jam esse: imo in regnum coelorum, cur signum ne- 
 
 Christi corpus quasi cooptavi atque gabitur, quo velut aditus aporitur 
 
 inseri, ejusquc membra fieri, et in in Ecclesiam, ut in earn cooptati, 
 
 uuum cum ipso corpus coalescere.* hseredes regni crelestis adscribantur. 
 
 (Inst. iv. c. 16, 17.) 
 
 In baptism, as Nowell says, regeneration " effigiem suam 
 tenet," or in the corresponding words of Calvin, " Spiritualis 
 regeneratio figuratur;"t but, as both say, it is a figure or 
 
 * " M. Say therefore first what thou thinkest of Baptism. 
 
 " A. Since we are by nature children of wrath, that is, aliens from the Church, 
 which is the family of God, Baptism is as it were a certain door of entrance to us, 
 by which we are admitted into it : whence also we receive a most decisive testi- 
 mony that we are now in the number of the household, and thus of the sons of God : 
 yen, that we are as it were admitted and ingrafted into the body of Christ, and aro 
 become his members, and are united into one body with him." 
 
 f So in his "Institutions," he says, that the "res figurata"in baptism is 
 "regeneratio." (Inst. iv. c. 16. 4. See also 17, 20, and 21.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 271 
 
 representation of such a kind, "ut annexasit veritas ; " because 
 God does not deal with his servants by empty signs. No ; 
 wherever the party is such as he accepts, (for whom alone 
 Sacraments were ordained at all,) God works with his Sacra- 
 ments, and they not merely seal, but give grace. But to 
 argue from this that God is bound to work with his Sacraments 
 upon the hearts of all to whom man chooses to give them, even 
 in the case of infants, is the extreme of presumption. 
 
 I will only add, that the general definition of a Sacrament 
 given in this Catechism is also precisely that of Calvin. 
 
 NOWELL. CALVIN. 
 
 M. . . . Quid cst Sacramentum ? M. Quid est Sacramentum ? 
 
 A. Est extcrna Divinse crga nos P. Externa Divinse erga nos 
 
 per Christum benevolentice bene- benevolentise testificatio, quse visi- 
 
 ficentiaeque testificatio, signo aspec- bili signo spirituales gratias figurat, 
 
 tabili arcanam spiritualemque gra- ad obsignandas cordibus nostris 
 
 tiam reprsDsentans, qua Dei pro- Dei promissiones, qud earum veritas 
 
 missiones de remissione peccatorum, melius confirmetur. 
 et roterna salute per Christum data, 
 quasi consignantur, et earum veritas 
 in cordibus nostris certius confir- 
 matur.* 
 
 BULLINGER'S DEC ADS. 
 
 Another book which received the sanction of public authority 
 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was Bullinger's Decads, 
 which, as I have already shown,! was then considered so 
 valuable an exponent of the doctrine of our Church, that "the 
 Archbishop and Bishops " assembled in Convocation in 4.586, 
 issued an order that the junior ministers should provide them- 
 selves with " a Bible and Bullinger's Decads in Latin or 
 English," and read one chapter in the Bible every day and 
 one sermon in the Decads every week, making notes on them 
 in a paper-book to be shown at stated times to a person 
 
 * " M . . . . What is a Sacrament ? 
 
 " A. It is an external testification of the Divine benevolence and beneficence 
 towards us through Christ, representing by a visible sign a secret and spiritual 
 grace, by which the promises of God of the remission of eins and eternal salva- 
 tion given through Christ are as it were sealed, and the truth of them is more 
 certainly confirmed in our hearts." 
 
 f See p. 110, above.
 
 272 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 appointed to examine them, who was to report to the Bishop 
 the way in which these exercises were performed. A more 
 emphatic sanction to a work it would be impossible to conceive. 
 I do not of course mean to assert that we are bound to receive 
 every thing that is said in this work as the established doctrine 
 of the Church of England; but it can hardly be denied, that 
 its general views of doctrine must have been considered as 
 agreeable to those of our Church by the Prelates who thus 
 adopted it for the instruction of young divines among us. 
 
 What, then, is the testimony of this work on the doctrine 
 of the effects of baptism ? The following extracts will, I think, 
 be amply sufficient to answer this question.* 
 
 His whole system of doctrine may at once be judged of 
 from the way in which he speaks of the doctrine of Predesti- 
 nation. 
 
 "The predestination of God," he says, "is the eternal decree of God 
 whereby he hath ordained, either to save or destroy men, a most certain 
 
 end of life and death being appointed unto them." " God, by his eternal 
 
 and unchangeable counsel, hath fore- appointed, who are to be saved, and 
 who are to be condemned. . . . God hath ordained and decreed to save all 
 how many so ever have communion and fellowship with Christ his only 
 begotten son : and to destroy or condemn all, how many so ever have no 
 part in the communion or fellowship of Christ his only son. Now the 
 faithful verily have fellowship with Christ, and the unfaithful are strangers 
 from Christ. For Paul, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, saith, ' God hath 
 chosen us in Christ before the foundations of the world were laid.' &c. 
 (Eph. i.) Lo, God hath chosen us, and he bath chosen us before the 
 foundations of the world were laid, yea. he hath chosen us, ' that we should 
 be without blame,' that is, to be heirs of eternal life : howbeit, ' in Christ,' 
 by and through Christ hath he chosen us. And yet again more plainer : 
 ' he hath predestinate us,' saith he, ( to adopt us into his sons.' but by 
 Christ, and that too hath he done freely, to the intent that to his divine 
 grace glory might be given. Therefore whosoever are in Christ, are 
 chosen and elected. . . . They are wrong that think those that are to be 
 saved to life, are predestinate of God for the merit's sake or good works 
 which God did forsee in them. For notably saith the Apostle Paul, ' He 
 hath chosen us in Christ, into himself, according to the good pleasure of 
 his will, that the glory of his grace might be praised. And again, ' It is 
 not in him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but in God that sheweth 
 
 * The English translation being sanctioned by the Bishops in the above 
 " Order," I have, for the convenience of the general reader, quoted from it instead 
 of the Latin original. Th edition I have used is that of Lond. 1577. 4to.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 273 
 
 mercy.' (Rom. ix.)" " First of all, verily, true faith is required in the 
 
 elect. For the elect are called, and being called, they receive their calling 
 by faith. . . . Furthermore, unless we be drawn of the heavenly Father, we 
 cannot believe." (pp. 642645.) 
 
 And his definition of " regeneration " is this, 
 
 "Let us now against this [i e. " the old man"] oppose or set the new 
 man, that is, the man which is regenerate by the Spirit of God, through 
 the faith of Jesus Chris!. Now regeneration is the renewing of the man, 
 by which, through the faith of Jesus Christ, we which were the sons of 
 Adam, and of wrath, are bom again the sons of God, and do therefore put 
 off the old man, and put on the new, which both in understanding and will 
 doth freely serve the Lord. This regeneration is the renewing of the mind, 
 not of the body : as we heard in another place out of the third chapter of 
 St John's Gospel. The author of this regeneration is the Holy Ghost, 
 which is from heaven given unto man, I mean to a faithful man. For 
 the gift of the Holy Ghost is given for Christ his sake, and that too unto 
 none but those that do believe in Christ. . . . And in this regeneration of 
 man, the will also doth receive an heavenly virtue, to do the good which 
 the understanding perceived by the Holy Ghost, so that it willeth, chooseth, 
 and worketh the good that the Lord hath shewed it : and on the other side 
 nilleth, hateth, and repelleth the evil that the Lord hath forbidden it." 
 (p. 590.) 
 
 The following is his definition of a Sacrament : 
 
 " Sacraments are holy actions consisting of words or promises of tho 
 Gospel, or of prescript rites or ceremonies, given for this end to the Church 
 of God from heaven, to be witnesses and seals of the preaching of tho 
 Gospel to exercise and try faith, and by earthly and visible things to 
 represent and set before our eyes the deep mysteries of God, to be short, to 
 gather together a visible Church or congregation, and to admonish them 
 of their duty." (p. 959.) 
 
 Stating in what Sacraments consists, he says, 
 
 " Now let us see in what things Sacraments consist. By the testimony 
 of the Scripture, and of all the godly men, they consist in two things, to 
 wit, in the sign and the thing signified, in the word and the rite, in the 
 promise of the Gospel, and in the ceremony, in the outward thing and the 
 inward, in the earthly thing (I say) and the heavenly. ... In baptism, 
 water, or sprinkling of water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost, and all that which is done of the Church is a- sign, 
 rite, ceremony, and outward thing, earthly and sensible, lying open, and 
 made plain to the senses : but remission of sins, partaking of (everlasting) 
 life, fellowship with Christ and his members, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, 
 which are given unto us by the grace of God through faith in Christ 
 Jesus, is the thing signified, the inward and heavenly thing, and that 
 
 18
 
 274 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 intelligible thing, which is not perceived but by a faithful mind." (pp, 
 968, 969.) 
 
 How the Sacraments are sanctified, 
 
 "There are some which think there is such force graffed of God into 
 the words, that if they be pronounced over the signs, they sanctify, change, 
 and in a manner bring with them, or make present the things signified, 
 and plant or include them within the signs, or at the least join them with 
 the signs. For hereupon are these kind of speeches heard, That the water 
 of Baptism by the virtue of the words doth regenerate." 
 
 And then proceeding to refute this notion, he adds, 
 
 " Therefore by the nature, will, deed, and commandment of God, and 
 not by the pronunciation of any words, are the Sacraments sanctified. To 
 which will of God, that it may be applied unto man, and do him good, the 
 faithful obedience of men is necessarily required." (pp. 971, 972.) 
 
 Separability of the sign and the thing signified, 
 
 " Many be partakers of the sign, and yet are barred from the thing 
 signified." (p. 981.) 
 
 " Many receive the visible sacraments, and yet are not partakers of the 
 invisible grace, which BY FAITH ONLY is RECEIVED." (p. 983.) 
 
 Of the Sacramental union ; 
 
 "Albeit either of the parts [of a Sacrament, the sign, and the thing 
 signified] without mixture do retain their own nature, yet those two agree 
 in one sacrament, and being joined together and not divided, do make one 
 perfect and lawful sacrament. . . . But here some move many and divers 
 questions touching the sacramental union, whether it be personal, real, or 
 rational. I, because I see nothing of this matter doubtfully delivered of 
 the Apostles, and that the thing being plain of itself, by such manner of 
 sophistications is made dark, doubtful, difficult and obscure, simply and 
 plainly say, that the sign and the thing signified are joined together in the 
 sacraments by God's institution: by faithful contemplation and use: to be 
 short, in signification and likeness of the things : but I utterly deny that 
 those two are naturally united together, so that the sign in the sacrament 
 beginneth to be that which the thing signified is in his own substance and 
 nature : 1 deny that the thing signified is joined corporally with the sign, so 
 that the sign remaineth still in his own substance and nature, and yet 
 nevertheless in the mean time hath the thing signified corporally joined 
 unto it, that thereby whosoever is partaker of the sign, should be also by the 
 sign or with the sign partaker of the thing itself. . . Furthermore, I say 
 that the sign and the thing signified are coupled together by God's institu- 
 tion, because he which instituted the Sacrament of Baptism and the Supper, 
 instituted it not to this end, that with water we might wash away the filth 
 of the body, as the custom is to do by daily use of baths, neither that we 
 nhould take our fill of the bread and wine, but that under visible signs he
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 275 
 
 might commend unto us the mysteries of our redemption and his grace, and 
 to be short, of eur salvation, by representing them to renew them, and by 
 sealing them to confirm them. My saying is, that they are coupled together 
 in a faithful contemplation, because they which partake the Sacraments reli- 
 giously, do not fasten their eyes on sensible things only, but rather on things 
 insensible, signified, and heavenly, so that THE FAITHFUL have in themselves 
 both twain coupled together, which otherwise in the sign or with the sign 
 are knit together with no bond. For corporally and sensibly they receive 
 the signs, but spiritually they possess, comprehend, renew, and exercise the 
 things signified. In signification and likeness of the things, I say, they are 
 
 coupled together, because the sign is a token of the thing signified 
 
 Moreover, in respect of the likeness of the sign and the thing signified, the 
 name of the one is given to the other , as I will prove by most evident testi- 
 monies of Scripture." 
 
 And then having referred to G-en, xvii, where circumcision 
 b called the Covenant, and Exod. xii. where the Lamb is 
 called the Passover, &c., for the Old Testament, he thus 
 proceeds, 
 
 " Now we are come also to the Sacraments of the New Testament, 
 whose signs also bear the names of the things signified. For Peter saith, 
 Acts ii., * Let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesu Christ for 
 the remission of sins,' And Paul also in the Acts of the Apostles heareth, 
 * Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins by calling on the name of 
 the Lord,' Therefore truly baptism is called a cleansing, or washing away 
 of sins. And Peter also elsewhere saith. ' Baptism saveth you, not that 
 thereby the filth of the flesh is put away, but ia that a good conscience 
 maketh request unto God. 1 And Paul also saith, (1 Cor. vi,) ' Ye are 
 washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
 and by the Spirit of God.' Therefore the due and right comparing of these 
 places between themselves doth manifestly prove, that to the sign of baptism, 
 which is water, is given the name of the thing signified." (pp. 986 989.) 
 
 Here we see that these passages of Scripture are explained, 
 not by supposing them to mean that the inward grace always 
 accompanies the outward sign, but from the name of the thing 
 signified being given to the sign. 
 
 On this latter point he further remark, 
 
 ' That we may yet at length make an end o this place, they ar* 
 sacramental and figurative speeches, when we read and hear that the 
 bread is the body of Christ. . . . also that they are purged from their sin* 
 and regenerated into a new life which are baptized in the name of Christ, 
 and that baptism is the washing away of all our sins. And after this 
 manner speaketh the Scripture, and this form of speech kept the old doctors 
 of the Church, whom for so -doing none that is wise doth dispraise, neither
 
 276 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 can one discommend any man which speaketh after this manner, so that 
 he also abide in the same sincerity wherein it is manifest that those holy 
 men of God did walk.. For as they did willingly and simply use those 
 speeches, so did they not roughly and rigorously strain the letter and 
 speeches ; they did interpret them in such sort, that none was so unskilful, 
 but that he might understand that the signs were not the thing itself which 
 they signified, but that the signs do take the names of the things, therefore 
 they used words significatively, sacramentally, mystically, and figurative' 
 ly." (p. 993.) 
 
 The Sacraments do not confer grace of themselves, 
 
 " To confer grace, what is it else than to give, or frankly and freely to 
 bestow something on a man which he had not before. Therefore if the 
 Sacraments do give grace to the receivers of them, then truly they give 
 those things which they signify, to them which had them not, I mean, 
 Christ with all his gifts, that is to say, they make them pleasant afcd 
 acceptable unto God. they justify and save, yea, and that of themselves, 
 insomuch as they are said to have received virtue to sanctify from the 
 passion of Christ, and not signify only or to help to commend or to further. 
 Yea. and they also attribute the receiving of grace to our work, whereby 
 we receive the Sacrament. But how contrary this doctrine is to the truth 
 of the holy prophets and apostles, will now declare.". ..." The Lord did 
 not institute Sacraments or Sacrifices, that being offered they might give 
 grace, or justify us, but to be witnesses of the grace of God, and that by 
 them his people might be kept and drawn in due order, &c." (pp. 1000, 
 1001.) 
 
 The thing signified is received only through faith. (This 
 has been already stated in a passage quoted above) : 
 
 a In Baptism and the Lord's Supper we practise no other faith than 
 whereby we believe, that we arc purged from our sins by the grace and 
 mercy of Christ, and that by his body given for us, and his blood shed for 
 us, we are redeemed from death, and become heirs of eternal life. Not 
 the Sacraments, but faith through the Holy Ghost applieth these things 
 unto us ; which thing all the writings of the Apostle do witness." (p. 
 1002.) 
 
 Maintaining that " the godly are. first justified andreceived 
 into favor before they be made partakers of the Sacraments" 
 he says, 
 
 " The holy and elect people of God are not then first of all partakers of 
 the first grace of God, and heavenly gifts, when they receive the Sacraments. 
 For they enjoy the things before they be partakers of the signs. For it is 
 plainly declared unto us, that Abraham our father was justified before he 
 was circumcised. And who gathereth [not}* thereby, that justification 
 
 * The original is, " Inde yero quis non colligat."
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 277 
 
 was not exhibited and given unto him by the sacrament of circumcision ; 
 but rather that that righteousness which he by faith before possessed, was 
 by the sacrament sealed and confirmed unto him ? And moreover who 
 will not thereof gather, that we which are the sous of Abraham are after 
 no other manner justified, than it appeareth that our father was justified, 
 and that our Sacraments work no further in us than they did in him ? 
 especially since the nature of the Sacraments of the people of the Old 
 Testament and ours is all one." 
 
 And he then proceeds to confirm this by the cases of the 
 Ethiopian eunuch, Cornelius, &c. (pp. 1006, 1007.) 
 
 THE SAME, HE TELLS US, IS TRUE IN THE CASE OF INFANTS : 
 
 " Forasmuch therefore as Cornelius with his household received the 
 Holy Ghost before they were baptised, it is manifest that he did not obtain 
 the Holy Ghost as given first by baptism or with baptism. Again, we 
 read in the Acts of the Apostles, 'They that gladly received the word of 
 Peter were baptised.' Therefore before they were baptised of Peter, they 
 had obtained the grace of God through faith. FOR WHY, I PRAY YOU, DO 
 WE BAPTISE OUR INFANTS ? It is because they believe with their heart, and 
 confess with their mouth ? I think not. Do we not therefore baptise them, 
 because God hath commanded them to brought unto him? because he hath 
 promised that he will be our God, and the God of our seed after us ? To 
 be short, BECAUSE WE BELIEVE THAT GOD OF HIS MERE GRACE AND MERCY 
 
 IN THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST. HATH CLEANSED AND ADOPTED THEM, AND 
 
 APPOINTED THEM TO BE HEIRS OF ETERNAL LIFE ? We therefore baptising 
 infants for these causes, do abundantly testify, that there is not first given 
 unto them in baptism, but that there is sealed and confirmed which they had 
 before." (p. 1007.) 
 
 Reply to those who object that the Sacraments are thus 
 deprived of their efficacy : 
 
 , They object, I know well enough, against these things .... that we do 
 evacuate and make of none effect the Sacraments, and that we teach that 
 the faithful receive in them or by them nothing but bare water, and bare 
 bread and wine ; and that by that means God by us is accused of falsehood 
 and lying. We briefly answer, If they set void or empty things (as I may 
 so say) against full things, so as they be void or empty, which have not 
 the things themselves included in them, truly I had rather confess them to 
 be void than full. But if they call them void or empty, and mean profane 
 or unholy things, that is to say, which differ nothing from profane signs ; if 
 by bare, they understand things of no force : we openly profess that we have 
 Sacraments which are holy and not profane ; effectual, and not without 
 force ; garnished from above, not naked ; and therefore full, not void or 
 empty. For they are holy things and not profane, because they are insti- 
 tuted of God. and for godly men. not for profane persons. They are effectual,
 
 278 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 and not without force; FOR IN THE CHURCH, WITH THE GODLY ANI> 
 
 FAITHFUL, THEY WORK THE SAME EFFECT AND END WHEREUNTO THEY 
 
 WERE ORDAINED OF GOD. Whereof more hereafter. They are also worthily 
 said to be beautified and adorned by God, and not bare things ; which have 
 the word [of]* God itself, wherewith they are most beautifully adorned. 
 And therefore also they are full, and not empty Sacraments, because they 
 have those things which make a perfect Sacrament." (p. 1008.) 
 
 How far, and in what way, the Sacraments are effica- 
 cious : 
 
 "He instituted Sacraments to be testimonies of his grace, and seals of 
 the truth of his promises. . . . Therefore as God is true, and cannot lie, so the 
 seals of his promises are most true. He hath promised that he will be ours, 
 and that in Christ he will communicate himself unto us with all hie gifts. 
 He therefore of a certainty sheweth himself such an one, and doth com- 
 municate himself unto us ; although he do it not now first of all when we 
 receive the Sacraments. ... As soon as we first believed, he began to shew 
 himself such an one unto us, and doth shew himself more and more through 
 the whole course of our life we receive him, and comprehend him spiritually 
 and by faith. Therefore when we are partakers of the Sacraments, he pro- 
 ceedeth to communicate himself unto us after a special manner, that is to 
 say, proper unto Sacraments, and so we, which before were made partakers 
 of Christ, do continue and strengthen that communion or fellowship spir- 
 itually and by faith, in the celebration of the Sacraments, outwardly sealing 
 the same unto ourselves by the signs." (p. 1009.) 
 
 " The chief end of Sacraments is this, that they are testimonies to 
 confirm the truth, by which the Lord in his Church even visibly doth testify 
 that the things now uttered by preaching of the Gospel, and by the promises 
 assured to the faithful from the beginning of the world, are in every point so 
 brought to pass, and are so certainly true, as they are declared and promised! 
 in the word of truth." ( p. 1010.) 
 
 " The bountiful and gracious Lord of his mere mercy receiveth mankind 
 into the partaking of all his good gifts and graces, and adopteth the faithful, 
 that now they be not only joined in league with God, but also the children 
 of God, which thing by the holy action of baptism, being instead of the 
 sign, or the very sign itself, is most evidently by representation laid before 
 the eyes of all men. For the minister of God standeth at the holy font to 
 whom the infant is offered to be baptized, whom he receiveth and baptizeth 
 into the name, or in the name, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost. For we may find both, ' Into the name,' and ' In the name.' 
 So that to be baptized ( Into the name of the Lord,' is to be sealed into hi& 
 virtue and power, (for the name of the Lord signifieth power,) into the favor, 
 mercy, and protection of God. yea, to be grafFed, and as it were to be fastened, 
 to be dedicated, and to be incorporated into God. To be baptized 'in the 
 
 * The original is, ' ipsum Dei verbum."
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 279 
 
 name of the Lord/ is by the commandment or authority of God to be 
 baptized, I mean by the commission or appointment of God the Father, the 
 Son, and the Holy Ghost, to be received into the company of the children of 
 God, and to be counted of God's household, that they which are baptized are 
 (for are read may be]* and be called Christians, and be named with the 
 name of God. being called the children of God the Father, &c. His speech 
 therefore doth somewhat resemble that which we read elsewhere, that ' The 
 name of God was called upon, over some one ;' which is in a manner as if 
 we should say, that one is called by the name of God, that is. to be called, 
 *The servant and Son of God.' THEY THEREFORE WHICH BEFORE BY 
 
 GRACE INVISIBLY ARE RECEIVED OF GOD INTO THE SOCIETY OF GoD, THOSE 
 SELFSAME ARE VISIBLY NOW BY BAPTISM ADMITTED INTO THE SELFSAME 
 
 HOUSEHOLD OF GOD BY THE MINISTER OF GOD, and threfore at that time 
 also receive their name, that they may always remember, that in baptism 
 they gave up their names to Christ, and in like manner also received a 
 name. After this manner, by a most apt analogy, the very sign resembleth 
 the thing signified. To be short, baptism is done by water. And water in 
 men's matters hath a double use. For it cleanseth filth, and as it were 
 reneweth man : also it quenches thirst, and cooleth him that is in a heat. 
 So also it representeth the grace of God, when it cleinseth his faithful ones 
 from their sins, regenerateth and refresheth us with his Spirit. Besides 
 this, the minister of Christ sprinkleth or rather poureth in water, or being 
 dipped taketh them out of the water: whereby it signified that God very 
 bountifully bestoweth his gifts upon his faithful ones : it signifieth also that 
 we are buried with Christ into his death, and are raised again with him 
 into newness of life. Pharro was drowned in the gulf of the Red Sea, but 
 the people of God passed through it safe. For our old Adam must be 
 drowned and extinguished ; butour new Adam day by day must be quickened 
 and rise up again (out of the water.) Therefore is the mortification and 
 vivificatioaof Christians very excellently represented by baptism." (p. 1018.) 
 
 " Sacraments therefore do visibly graft* us mto the fellowship of Christ 
 and his saints, who were invisibly graffed by his grace before we were par- 
 takers of the Sacraments : but by receiving of the Sacraments, we do now 
 open and make manifest, of whose body we would be and are members ; 
 the Lord with his signs or marks by his minister also visibly marking 
 us for his own household and for his own people." (p. 1621.) 
 
 " We are not first graffed Into the body of Christ (as we have often re- 
 peated already) by partaking of the Sacraments : but we which were before 
 ingraffed by grace invisibly are now also visibly consecrated." (p. 1023.) 
 
 Previous grace is necessary that the Sacraments may be of 
 any avail : 
 
 " If the inward anointing and sealing of the Holy Ghost be wanting, 
 
 The original is, " ut<baptizati siat et dicaatur Christiani."
 
 g80 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 % 
 
 the outward action will be counted but a toy to the unbelievers, neither 
 worketh the sealing of the Sacraments anything at all : but when faith, 
 the gift of the Holy Ghost, goeth before, the sealing of the Sacraments is 
 very strong and sure. Some also have said very well, If our minds be 
 destitute of the Holy Ghost, the Sacraments do no more profit us, than it 
 doth a blind man to look upon the bright beams of the sun." (pp. 1016, 
 1017.) 
 
 "In them that believe not, the signs remain as they are without life: 
 therefore these things [he had been speaking of the consolations of reli- 
 gion] are brought to pass by the virtue or power of faith, and of the Spirit 
 working in the lawful use of the Sacraments : without faith and the Holy 
 Ghost they are not felt or perceived." (p. 1020.) 
 
 " That sacraments without faith profit not, it is easily proved. For it 
 is said that sacraments are seals of the preaching of the Gospel, and thing* 
 appertaining to the same. For if the preaching of the Gospel be heard with- 
 out faith, it doth not only profit nothing unto life, but it turneth rather 
 unto judgment (to him that heareth.") 
 
 And then, having quoted several passages in proof of this, he 
 adds, "Therefore without faith Sacraments profit nothing." 
 (p. 1026.) 
 
 Proceeding from this discussion on the nature of the 
 Sacraments in general, to treat of baptism in particular, he 
 thus defines baptism : 
 
 ' : We describing the nature of baptism more at large do say, That it is 
 an holy action instituted of God, and consisting of the word of God. and the 
 holy rite or ceremony, whereby the people of God are dipped in the water 
 in the name of the Lord : to be short, whereby the Lord himself doth re- 
 present and seal unto us our purifying or cleansing, gathereth us into one 
 body, and putteth the baptized in mind of their duty." (p. 1033.) 
 
 Here again he repeats, that Sacraments are not to be 
 considered as bestowing the first gifts of grace, remarking : 
 
 " As we deny not, that we are graffed into the body of Christ, by par- 
 taking of the Sacraments, (as we declared in our last sermon of Sacraments, 
 next and immediately going before this,) so we have elsewhere shewed, 
 and that too oftentimes already very largely, that the first beginning of our 
 uniting or fellowship with Christ, is not wrought by the Sacraments : but 
 that the same uniting or fellowship which was founded and grounded upon 
 the promise, and by the grace of God through the Holy Ghost was commu- 
 nicated unto us and ours, yea, before the use of the Sacraments, is continued 
 and sealed unto us by the participation or receiving of the Sacraments. 
 Although therefore an infant die without baptism, and being shut out by 
 necessity from having fellowship with Christ, so that he be neither par- 
 taker nor yet sealed by the visible sign of the Covenant, yet he is not alto-
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 281 
 
 f 
 
 gether an alien or stranger from Christ, to whom he is fastened with 
 the spiritual knot of the covenant by the virtue whereof he is saved." (pp. 
 1047, 1048.) 
 
 And hence he grounds the title of infants to baptism 
 partly on the fact that the Holy Spirit is given to infants, 
 and that consequently such have a right to baptism : 
 
 " St. Peter," he says, "could not deny them the baptism of water, to 
 whom he saw the Holy Ghost to be given, which is an assured token of 
 God's people. . . . Wherefore the holy apostle Peter denied not baptism to 
 infants. For he knew assuredly, even by the doctrine of his Lord and 
 Master (that I may speak nothing now of the everlasting covenant of God) 
 that the kingdom of heaven is of infants. No man is received into the 
 kingdom, unless he be the friend of God. And these are not destitute of 
 the Spirit of God. ' For he which hath not the Spirit of Christ, the same 
 is none of his.' (Rom. viii.) Children are God's; therefore they have the 
 Spirit of God. Therefore if they have received the Holy Ghost as well as 
 we ; if they be accounted among the people of God as well as we that be 
 grown in age ; who (I pray you) can forbid these to be baptized with water 
 in the name of the Lord?" (pp. 1055, 1056.) 
 
 On the force and effect of baptism he writes thus, 
 
 " The holy Scripture teacheth that we are washed clean from our sins 
 by baptism. For baptism is a sign, a testimony and sealing of our cleans- 
 ing. For God verily hath promised sanctification to his Church, and he 
 for his truth's sake purifieth his Church from all sins by his grace, through 
 the blood of his Sou, and regenerateth and cleanseth it by his Spirit, which 
 cleansing is sealed in us by baptism which we receive ; and thereof is it 
 called in the Scriptures, cleansing and remission of sins, purifying, new 
 birth., regeneration, and the laver or fountain of regeneration : as circum- 
 cision is called the covenant : and sacrifices, sins and sanctifications." 
 (p. 1060.) 
 
 ' Wherefore the promise, yea the truth of sanctification and free remis- 
 
 sion of sins, is written and engraven in our bodies when we are baptized. 
 
 For God by his Spirit, through the blood of his Son, hath newly regene 
 
 rated and purged again our souls, and even now doth regenerate and purge 
 
 them." (p. 1061.) 
 
 " Beside that, by baptism we are gathered together into the fellowship 
 of the people of God. Whereupon of some it is called the first sign or en- 
 trance into Christianity, by the which an entrance into the Church lieth 
 open unto us. Not that before we did not belong to the Church. For who- 
 soever is of Christ, partaker of the promises of God, and of his eternal cove- 
 nant, belongeth unto the Church. Baptism, therefore, is a visible sign, and 
 testimony of our ingraffing into the body of Christ. And it is rightly called 
 a planting, incorporating, or ingrafting into the body of Christ. For I said 
 in the general discourse of Sacraments, that we first by baptism were
 
 282 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 joined with Christ [i. e. he means, publicly and formally], and afterward 
 with all the members of Christ, our brethren. For Paul saith, ' All ye 
 that are baptized have put on Christ.' But to put on Christ, is to be 
 made one with him, as it were to be joined and incorporated in him, that 
 he may live in us and we in him. For he only by his Spirit regcnerateth 
 and reneweth us," &c. (pp. 1061, 1062.) 
 
 But who they are in whom (rod works by his Sacraments 
 he thus informs us, 
 
 " The godly, yea even at this day. do receive baptism as it were at 
 the hands of God himself, though they be baptized through the ministry 
 of men. For the Lord establishing [or, giving effect to, assistens] his 
 institutions by his Spirit, worketh salvation IN THE ELECT." (p. 1033.) 
 
 The importance of this work, from the public sanction 
 which it obtained in our Church, will, I conceive, be considered 
 as affording a very sufficient reason for these numerous 
 extracts. And certainly their testimony is clear and deci- 
 sive. 
 
 There are several other works of the foreign Reformers 
 which, from the way in which they were received in this 
 country, might also be fairly appealed to, and are entitled to 
 some consideration in our present inquiry ; particularly those 
 mentioned in the Decree of the University of Oxford in 1579, 
 given at p. 109, above. But I cannot but feel, that the domestic 
 authorities I am about to produce are sufficiently abundant to 
 render it quite unnecessary to seek for further evidence. 
 
 In proceeding to individual testimonies, I should have been 
 glad to have carried the investigation first through the whole 
 series of Archbishops and University Professors given in a 
 former chapter. But, after careful research, I can find but 
 the following among them who have left any direct testimony 
 of their views on the subject of our present inquiry. Arch- 
 bishops Whitgift and Sandys; Professors Abbot, Prideaux, 
 Westfaling, Calf hill, and Benefield, (of whom the four former 
 were also Bishops,) at Oxford ; and Professors Whitaker and 
 Davenant, (of whom the latter was also a Bishop,) at Cam- 
 bridge. But their testimony is unanimous, and, for the most 
 part, of the strongest and clearest kind, in our favor. And from 
 the known general theological views of nearly all the rest
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN" INFANTS. 283 
 
 (already pointed out*), there can be no doubt of their concur- 
 rence in the same doctrine. 
 
 The divines just mentioned I shall place first in the catena 
 of testimonies I am about to offer to the reader. And I would 
 beg him to observe, that the Archbishops of Canterbury and 
 York, and the Divinity Professors of the two Universities, are 
 the sole ex officio clerical members of the new Court of Appeal, 
 proposed in various Bills presented during the last few years to 
 the Upper House of Parliament, for the trial of charges of 
 heresy and false doctrine. 
 
 ARCHBISHOP WHITGIFT ; 
 
 Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge 1566, 1567 ; 
 Regius Professor of Divinity 1567 ; Master of Trinity 
 College 1567 to 1577 ; Bishop of Worcester from 1577 
 to 1583 ; Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to 1604. 
 
 In 1572 Dr. "Whitgift published an " Answer to a certain 
 Libel, entitled an Admonition to the Parliament;" which 
 having elicited a reply from Cartwright, he rejoined in 1574 
 in a "Defence" of the former work, in which the "Answer" 
 is reprinted. I quote the following passages from the " De- 
 fence."! 
 
 And first I must remind the reader of the passage already 
 quoted in a previous page,t in which he maintains that 
 God's government by his Spirit, in the hearts and consciences 
 of men, is " in the Church of the elect only"** 
 
 Further, he tells us, that it is known to God only who are 
 members of the Church ; which wholly and summarily excludes 
 the view that all infants are made by baptism members of the 
 true invisible Church of Christ. He says, 
 
 " You must of necessity admit this distinction (some be of the Church 
 and some be only in the Church,) else can you not make any visible Church ; 
 for we only know, who be in the Church; but who be of the Church is 
 known to him alone, who knoweth those that be his." \\ 
 
 See pp. 110-123 above. 
 
 f Defence of the Answer to the Admonition, against the Reply of T. 0. Lond. 
 1574. foL 
 
 $ See p. 112, above p;.80. | p. 179.
 
 284 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 But we find passages still more direct upon the subject. 
 As for instance, the following, 
 
 " You say, ' that we attribute to the sign that which is proper to the 
 work of God in the blood of Christ, as though virtue were in water to wash 
 away sin.' You know very well that we teach far otherwise, and that it 
 is a certain and true doctrine of all such as profess the Gospel, that the 
 outward signs of the Sacrament do not contain in them grace, NEITHER 
 
 YET THAT THE GRACE OF GOD IS OF NECESSITY TIED UNTO THEM : but Only 
 
 that they be seals of God's promises, notes of Christianity, testimonies and 
 effectual signs of the grace of God, and of our redemption in Christ Jesus, 
 by the which the Spirit of God doth invisibly work in us, not only the 
 increase of faith, but confirmation also. You understand likewise, that this 
 difference there is betwixt these external elements, being selected to be 
 Sacramental signs, (that is, betwixt water in baptism, and common water: 
 bread and wine in the Eucharist, and usual bread and wine,) that these 
 now be sacraments sanctified to another use, to a spiritual use, to the 
 nourishing of faith, and feeding of the soul, to be instruments of the Holy 
 Ghost, by the which as by instruments we be fed to eternal life. Further- 
 more, you cannot be ignorant, that whosoever contemneth these external 
 signs, and refuseth them, cannot be a member of Christ, neither yet be 
 saved. Last of all you have learned, that there is such a similitude be- 
 twixt the signs, and the thing signified, that they are not only in Scripture 
 usually called by the names of those things whereof they be Sacraments, 
 (as bread the body of Christ, and water regeneration,) but also that the 
 contumely or contempt done fo the one doth redound to the other, that is, 
 the contempt of the signs is the contempt of the things signified ; and there- 
 fore St. Paul saith, 1 Cor. ii., ' He that eateth,' &c. And Christ, John iii., 
 1 Except a man be born,' &c. These things being considered, it is no su- 
 perstitious toy, but a godly and true saying, that Christ hath sanctified all 
 waters (used in baptizing) to the mystical washing away of sin : not as- 
 cribing or attributing washing away of sin to the external element, any 
 otherwise than instrumentally, or IN ANY OTHER RESPECT THAN FOR THE 
 
 SIMILITUDE THAT SACRAMENTS HAVE WITH THE THINGS WHEREOF THEY BE 
 
 SACRAMENTS ; for we know that wicked men may receive these external signs, 
 and yet remain the members of Satan." * 
 
 Here, while, like all orthodox theologians, he maintains 
 that the Spirit of Grod works by the Sacraments, yet it is only 
 where he pleases to do so, and for the increase and confirma- 
 tion of previous gifts ; " the grace of (rod is not of necessity 
 tied unto them ;" nor is the washing away of sin to be attri- 
 buted to them " in any other respect than for the similitude 
 
 p. 788.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 285 
 
 that Sacraments have with the things whereof they be Sacra- 
 ments." 
 
 And he held it to be quite uncertain what the state of the 
 baptized is, whether adult or infant, as to the membership in 
 the true Church. For he says, 
 
 " I make the Holy Sacrament of Baptism no other kind of passage than 
 God himself hath made it, and the Church of Christ hath ever used it. 
 Good and evil, clean and unclean, holy and profane, must needs pass by it, 
 except you will in deed in more ample and large manner tie the grace of 
 God unto it, than ever did the Papists, and say that all that be baptized be 
 also saved ; or else join with the Anabaptists in this, that after baptism a 
 man cannot sin. Who can tell, whether he be holy or unholy, good or evil, 
 clean or unclean, elect or reprobate, of the household of the Church or not 
 of the Church, that is baptized, be he infant, or at the years of discretion ?"* 
 
 Now here it is evident that Whitgift held that what a person 
 was, when coming to baptism, whether adult or infant, that 
 he remained after baptism. 
 
 As additional illustrations of the general character of his 
 views on this subject, I may add, that he entirely rejects the 
 opinion that infants are not saved without baptism ; observing 
 in reply to Cartwright's remark, that the word " water " in 
 John iii. 5, does not mean the material water of baptism, but 
 represents the cleansing efficacy of the Spirit's influences, 
 
 "The place in the iii. of John by you alleged hath divers interpretation!!, 
 and the most part of the ancient writers do take water in that place for 
 material and elemental water: as Augustine, Chrysostom, Ambrose. Cyril, 
 and sundry others, even as many of the ancient Fathers as I have read 
 upon that text. But because I do mislike as much as you the opinion of 
 those that think infants to be condemned which are not baptized, therefore I 
 will not contend with you, either in the interpretation of that place, or in 
 any other thing that you have spoken touching this error" f 
 
 And he evidently holds, that the children of baptized per- 
 sons only are entitled to baptism.t 
 
 * p- 621. f p . sic. 
 
 \ See pp. 620 and 622. See also as to identity of John's baptism and tbat 
 of Christ, p. 563.
 
 286 .EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 ARCHBISHOP SANDYS; 
 
 Bishop of Worcester from 1559 to 1570 ; Bishop of London 
 from!570 to 1576 ; Archbishop of York from 1576 to 1588. 
 
 li Christ hath instituted and left in his Church, for our comfort and the 
 confirmation of our faith, two sacraments or seals; Baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper. In baptism, the outward washing of the flesh declareth the in- 
 ward purging and cleansing of the Spirit. ... If a prince gave out his 
 letters patent of a gift, so long as the seal is not put to, the gift is not fully 
 ratified ; and the party to whom it is given thinketh not himself sufficiently 
 assured of it. God's gift, without sealing, is sure ; as he himself is all one, 
 without changing. Yet, to bear with our infirmity, and to make us more 
 secure of his promise, to his writing and word he added these outward signs 
 and seals, to establish our faith, and to certify us that his promise is most 
 certain."* 
 
 BISHOP ROBERT ABBOT. 
 
 Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford from 1612 to 1615; 
 Bishop of Salisbury from 1615 to 1617. 
 
 The character given of him by Anthony "Wood has been 
 quoted p. 117 above. And he is called by Fuller, " One of 
 the honors not only of that See [Salisbury], but of the Church 
 of England." (Hist. bk. x. p. 72.) 
 
 The following clear and decisive passages on the subject 
 are taken from his reply to a treatise written by a person of 
 the name of Thomson on the loss of justification and grace. 
 It is appended to his work, De Gratia et Perseverantia Sanc- 
 torum. Lond. 1618. 4to. 
 
 " In like manner therefore it is to be held, that not all who are scaled 
 according to the flesh with the baptism of water are immediately justified 
 and sanctified, but that while the Sacrament is common to all, the power 
 and grace of the Sacrament belong only to the children of promise; and 
 that those only are inwardly baptized by God whom throughout all nations 
 God testified that he would give to Abraham. Meanwhile, whoever are 
 baptized are, to us and the Church, regenerated, justified, sanctified ; nor to 
 be looked upon in any other light, until they manifest themselves not t be 
 80 ; not even hypocrites, who come feignedly to the Sacramant, and are 
 altogether strangers to the reality of the Sacrament ; who nevertheless, 
 
 * Sandys'a Sermons and Pieces. Sermon 15, pp. 802, 803. P. Soc. ed.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 287 
 
 since they cannot be discerned by us, are holy so far as concerns admission 
 to the communion and rites of the Church; nor is it of any moment to us, 
 that we should discover what they are in the sight of God, being perhaps 
 not to be manifested until the sheep are to be separated from the goats 
 under the authority of Christ himself. Nor are the sayings of writers, 
 either ancient or modern, to be otherwise interpreted, or certainly they do 
 not give a correct view, if they attribute efficacy to the Sacraments other- 
 wise tharr according to the purpose of grace, according to the good pleasure 
 of the will of God." * 
 
 " The Holy Spirit is given in Baptism, and nevertheless since it is the 
 Spirit of promise, it cannot be given except to the sons of promise."! 
 
 '' But it is sufficiently clear, from what has been hitherto said, that 
 Sacraments, as they are seals of the grace and promise of God, so they put 
 forth their power spiritually in those only who are the sons of promise and 
 heirs of grace, whom God foreknew and predestinated to be made comformable 
 to the image of his Son. Although neither to them are Sacraments effica- 
 cious in one and the same way, but, the medicine being applied, it works 
 its effects in some at an earlier, in others at a later period ; and baptism, as 
 Augustine distinguishes, is sometimes possessed long before it is possessed 
 for any useful and saving purpose, according as it shall have seemed fit to 
 Him who alone has the power to produce the effect.":): 
 
 " He who sanctified Jeremiah from tb^ womb, and caused enmity in the 
 very womb between Jacob and Esau, and filled John the Baptist when not 
 
 * Perinde ergo sentiendum est, non mox justificatos et sanctificatos, quicunque 
 Becundum camera baptismo aquae consignati sunt, sed in comrnunitate sacramenti 
 tantum ad filios promissionis pertinere baptism! vim, et gratiam ; et intus Deo 
 tinctos non nisi illos, quos per omnes gentes Deus se Abraha? daturum testatus 
 est. Interim nobis et Ecclesise regenerati, justificati, sanctificati, quicunque 
 baptizati, neque aliter repntandi donee se alios produnt ; ne hypocritae quidem, 
 qui ficte ad sacramentum accedunt, et a re sacramenti prorsus alieni sunt, qui 
 tamen quia nobis cerni non possunt, ad commercia, et usus Ecclesiae sancti sunt 
 neque interest nobis, ut discutiamus quales Deo sint, fortasse non ante manifes- 
 tandi, quam oves ab hcedis, Christo authore, discriminandae sunt. Neque alites 
 sententiae Scriptorum, sive veterum, sive recentiorum, interpretandse sunt, aut 
 certe non recte sapiunt, si aliter sacramentis efficacitatem attribuunt quam secun- 
 dum proposition gratia, secundum bcneplacitum voluntatis Dei. (R. Abbot in 
 Thomson! Diatribam de intercisione Justif. et. Grat. c. 7, pg. 116, 117.) 
 
 \ Datur in baptismo Spiritus Sanctua, et tamen quia Spiritus promissionis 
 est, prtRterquam filiis promissionis dari non potest. (Ib. p. 117.) 
 
 \ Satis vero manifestum est, ex us quas hactenus dicta sunt, sacramenta 
 prout sigilla sunt gratis et prorsissionis Dei ita in illis tantum vim suam spir- 
 it unliter exercere, qui sunt filii promissionis, et haeredes gratia?, quos praescivit 
 Deus, et prsedestinavit conformes faciendos imagini Filii sui. Quanquam neque 
 illis sacramenta sunt uno modo efficacia, sed, apposita medicina, citius in aliia 
 effectum suum, in aliis operatur series; et habetur nonnunquam baptismus, ut 
 distinguit Atigustinus multo ante quam utiliter et salubriter, habeatur, prout ei 
 visum fuerit, quern penes unum effectus est. (Ib. p. 118.)
 
 288 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 yet born with joy, the Same also imbues infants according to his own 
 pleasure with the Holy Spirit, and with grace, of which the wonderful 
 effects are sometimes seen even from the very cradle ; so that we must not 
 doubt of the regeneration of those to whom he denies a prolonged enjoyment 
 of life. But I am astonished that the words of Luther are -here brought 
 forward by our author (although they are not Luther's, in the form in which 
 they are produced by him) whose object in those words, in that passage, is 
 to oppose that Papistical saying of the Scholastics, which is the foundation 
 of the opus operatum doctrine, WHICH HERE NEVERTHELESS is WITH INCON- 
 CEIVABLE AUDACITY LAID BOWN AS A DOCTRINE OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH, 
 
 l that Sacraments always confer their effect upon one that does not place a bar 
 in the way ; ' when on the contrary Luther maintained that the efficacy of 
 all Sacraments depends solely on faith."* 
 
 " But hence it is that baptism does not require iteration, because that 
 birth by which we are once born again from God is never destroyed ; inas- 
 much as the grace sealed and exhibited to us in baptism, can never be 
 blotted out so that of necessity it is to be maintained, that that impress of 
 the Holy Spirit is not received by the reprobate, and that they were never 
 partakers of the justification of the saints."f 
 
 "Many seem to us, and are called, faithful, fearing God, justified, 
 regenerate, sons of God, who yet in reality are not such ; and are already 
 known to God as being very different persons from what they seem to us to 
 be."t 
 
 Bishop Abbot's opinions on this subject are still further 
 illustrated in the 3rd part of his " Defence of the Reformed 
 Catholic " against Dr. Bishop. 
 
 * Qui Jeretniam ab utero sanctificavit, ct inter Jacob et Esau, in ipso utero 
 inimicilias fecit, et Joannem Baptistam nondum natum tantum gaudio peifudit> 
 idem quoque infantulos pro arbitrio suo Spiritu Saucto imbuit, et gratia, cujus ab 
 ipsis fere iucunabulismira interdum effecta cernuntur ; ut de illorum regeneratione 
 dubitanJuni non sit, quibus longiorem vita usuram negat. Miror vcro hie a nos- 
 tro Lutlieri verba profcrri, (quanquain Lutheri uon suut, ea forma qua poiumtur 
 ab illo,) cujus, in eo loco, in verbis illis negotium est, oppugnare Papisticum illud 
 Scholasticorum pronunciation, quod operis opcrati fundamcntum est, QUOD me 
 
 TAMEN NESCIO QUA FRONTK TANQUAM CATHOLICS FIDEI DOGMA PROPOXITUR, ' Sacm- 
 
 menla semper conferre sawn effectum, non ponenti obicem,' ubi e contra Lutherus 
 Sacramontorum omnium efficaciam tantum a fide pendere defendit. (pp. 118, 119.) 
 
 f Indc vero est quod baptismus iteratione non egeat, quia nunquam destrui- 
 tur ilia nativitas, qua semel ex Deo renati sumus ; quia obsignata nobis et exbibita 
 in Baptismo gratia deleri nunquam potest ; ut necessario tenendum sit, clmracterem 
 ilium Spiritus Sancti non cadere in reprobos, neque unquam illos justificationis 
 sanctorum f'uisse consortea. (p. 121.) 
 
 $ Mul'i vidfntur nobis, et dicuntur, fidoles, Drum timentes, justificati, regene- 
 rate, filii Dei qui tainon reipaa non stint tales, et Deo jam nunc longe alii sciun- 
 tur, qnam videntur nobis. (c. 8, p. 132.) 
 
 Lond. 1009, 4to.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 289 
 
 Replying to his Romish adversary he says, 
 
 " Whereas he saith that we ' extinguish the virtue and efficacy of those 
 two Sacraments,' it is only his blind conceit. We deny not but that the 
 Sacraments are instruments of grace and of remission of sins, and yet we 
 deny them to be so in that sort as is affirmed by the Church of Rome, 
 namely, as to give grace ex opere operato, for the very work wrought, as the 
 Schoolmen speak. It is worthily observed by St. Austin, that ' a Sacra- 
 ment is as it were a visible word." {in Joan. tr. 80.) because by it in way 
 of signification, God as it were speaketh the same to the eye and other 
 senses, which by the word he soundeth to the ear. Yea he affirraeth that 
 Uie outward element of itself is nothing, but it is by the word that it hath 
 whatsoever power it hath. ' Why doth not Christ say, Now are ye clean 
 by the baptism wherewith yc are washed, but by the word which I have 
 spoken to you, but because in the water it is the word that cleauseth ? Take 
 away the word, and what is water but water ? Whence is it that the 
 water hath so great power to touch the body and to wash the heart, but that 
 the word doth it ? ' and that ' not because it is spoken, but because it is 
 believed.' Now if the Sacrament have all his virtue and efficacy from the 
 word, and the word have his power, not for that it is spoken, but for that it 
 is believed, we must conceive the same of the Sacrament also, that the effect 
 thereof standeth not in being applied by the hand of the minister, but in 
 being believed by the faith of the receiver, God both by the one and by the 
 other ministering and increasing faith, and the holy Ghost accompanying 
 both the one and the other to do that that is believed. Thus is baptism a 
 sign of representation to the understanding, and seal of confirmation to faith, 
 effectually delivering to the believer through the Holy Ghost the grace of 
 God and the remission of all his sins. And why doth it trouble M. Bishop 
 that we make baptism in this sort only 'a sign and a seal,' when as though 
 signs and seals be not the things themselves, yet by signs and seals men 
 are wont to be entitled and invested to the things signified and sealed ? 
 And hath not the Apostle himself taught us thus to speak ? Gregory bishop 
 of Rome saith, that ' what the water of baptism doth with us, the same did 
 the mystery of circumcision with the seed of Abraham.' (Moral, lib. 4. c. 
 3.) But of circumcision the Apostle saith thus, 'Abraham received the 
 sign of circumcision as the seal of the righteousness of faith.' Rom. iv. 11.) 
 Baptism therefore must be to us the sign and seal of the righteousness of 
 faith." (pp. 172, 173.) 
 
 Again in another part of the same work, he speaks more 
 expressly with reference to the case of infant baptism. His 
 adversary Dr. Bishop, pointing out the (supposed) errors of the 
 Protestants on the article of the Creed relating to the forgive- 
 ness of sin, makes the following statement : 
 
 " It is not easy to find what is their settled opinion touching the forgive- 
 ness of original sin in infants. Some attribute it to Baptism ; but that 
 
 19
 
 290 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN IFFANTS. 
 
 cannot stand with their common doctrine, 'that sacraments have no virtue 1 
 in them to remit sins, or to give grace." Others say, that God without any 
 means doth then, when they be baptized, of himself immediately justify 
 them. But that cannot stand in their own doctrine, because infants want 
 the instrument of faith to lay hold on that justice then offered by God, and 
 therefore cannot, being so young, take it unto them. Others will have 
 infants sanctified in their mother's womb, by virtue of a covenant, which 
 they suppose God to have made with old father Abraham, and all his 
 faithful servants, that (forsooth) their seed shall be holy. But this is most 
 phantastical, and contrary to the Scriptures and daily experience : for Isaac- 
 was the son of promise, and yet Esau his son was a reprobate David's 
 father was a godly Israelite, and yet David affirmeth that he himself was 
 conceived in iniquities ; and we may see whole countries now turned Turks r 
 whose ancestors were good Christians : therefore not all the souls of the 
 faithful are sanctified in their mothers' wombs." (Ib. p. 266.) 
 
 To these statements Bishop Abbot replies thus : 
 
 " If we were as full of differences in our doctrine as M. Bishop's head is 
 full of idle fancies, it should be hard indeed to find any settled opinion 
 amongst ns, whereas now our opinion being settled, he out of sundry terms 
 and words that are used in the expressing thereof, dreameth of great differ- 
 ence and uncertainty amongst us. The matter is concerning the forgive- 
 ness of original sin in infants. ' Some,' saith he, ' attribute it to baptism/ 
 And whom, I marvel, doth he know that doth otherwise ? Who of us doth 
 not acknowledge baptism to be God's instrument for the actual application 
 of that grace which he hath intended towards us in Jesus Christ r before the 
 foundation of the world ? which notwithstanding has his effect, not by the 
 very work wrought, or by any virtue infused into the water, or by any power 
 given to the very words and syllables that are pronounced, but by the assisting 
 power of the Holy Ghost, accompanying the outward Sacrament to give 
 grace and forgiveness of sins, NOT INDIFFERENTLY OR GENERALLY, BUT 
 'ACCORDING TO THE PURPOSE OF THE GRACE OF GOD.' (Rom. iv. 5. vulgat, 
 Eph. i. 5, 9.) Now of this that we say, that it is the Holy Ghost which in 
 baptism worketh the effect of grace, he out of the abundance of his wit 
 frameth another opinion, which with us is no other but only the explication 
 of the former. As for his exception, that children have not the instrument 
 of faith to lay hold on the grace of God which is offered in baptism, it 
 svaileth nothing, because children are brought to baptism, though not in 
 their own faith, whereof they are incapable, yet in the faith of their parents, 
 vrho apprehending the promise of God according to the tenor thereof, both 
 for themselves and for their children (Gen. xvii. 7,) do thereby derive and 
 transport unto them an interest in the grace of God, whereby they are 
 Racrcd and holy unto God, and are therefore by baptism to be received 
 to be made partakers of that grace. Here again M. Bishop imagineth 
 a third opinion, whereas still there is nothing said but what is depen- 
 dent upon the first. And this third opinion he delivereth according
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 291 
 
 to his own absurd conceit thereof, and not acccording to that that by 
 us is intended. We say nothing but what the Scripture hath taught 
 us, that 'the children of faithful parents arc holy.' (1. Cor. vii. 14.) 
 He, betwixt his pride and ignorance, will take no knowledge that the 
 Scripture so speaketh, thereby to give a true sense and meaning of that it 
 saith, but scornfully derideth it, and out of his own distempered brains 
 bringeth a foolish reason to dispute against it. ' This is most phantastical,' 
 saith he, ' and contrary to the Scriptures and daily experience.' And how 
 so? Forsooth 'Isaac was the, son of promise, and yet Esau his son was a 
 reprobate, and many children of Christians afterwards become Turks : 
 therefore the children of the faithful are not sanctified in their mother's 
 womb.' But did not his eyes see that out of his own doctrine a man might 
 by the same argument overthrow the sanctification of baptism also ? For 
 in like sort a man may say. The children of many faithful become repro- 
 bates and castaways, therefore the children of the faithful are not sanctified 
 in baptism, which I suppose he will not admit.* Surely he knoweth that 
 by the doctrine of their schools sanctification once had may afterwards be 
 lost, and that many reprobates are for the time partakers thereof. It is 
 then no argument to say, that because many children of the faithful are 
 reprobates, therefore they were not sanctified in their mother's womb, be- 
 cause, as he will say of them, who arc sanctified in baptism, so it may be 
 answered him of them who are sanctified in their mother's womb, that by 
 apostasy they forego that which by grace they had received. / speak not 
 this to affirm that sanctification which he imagineth, but only to show him 
 the silliness of his argument whereby he impugneth it. His other instance, 
 as he setteth it down, is as weak as that. 'David's father was a godly 
 Israelite, and yet David affirmeth that he himself was conceived in iniqui- 
 ties.' For though David were conceived in iniquities, yet that letteth not 
 but that after his conception he might be sanctified in his mother's womb. 
 But we do not only make him say that he was 'conceived in iniquity,' but 
 also that he was 'born in sin,' (Ps. li. 5,) even as we confess generally of 
 all, that 'we are born guilty of the wrath of God,' (Aug. Enchir. ca. 33,) 
 'the children of wrath,' (Eph ii. 3,) and that unless the grace of Christ do 
 thenceforth relieve us, 'the wrath of God abideth upon us,' (John iii. 36.) 
 When therefore the Apostle saith, that the children of believing parents 
 are ' holy,' we do not thereby understand any inward endowment or gift of 
 holiness, but only that they are with us to be holden and accounted as 
 belonging unto God, and comprehended within his covenant, that therefore 
 we may not doubt but that the fellowship of the grace of God, as God him- 
 self hath ordained, is to be imparted unto them. We know that many 
 
 * This is an argumentum ad h&minem, showing Dr. Bishop that his argu- 
 ment would be fatal to a doctrine of his own. For the Papists holds that all 
 children are sanctified in baptism, and yet that some afterwards become repro- 
 bates, and therefore they cannot consistently say that because in after life they are 
 reprobates, therefore they were not sanctified in their mother's womb. ,
 
 292 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 things by the law were called ' holy,' which yet were not capable of inv 
 ward and spiritual holiness ; and therefore albeit we say by the Apostles* 
 phrase, that the children of the faithful are holy unto God, even from their 
 mother's womb ; yet is there no necessity to understand this holiness of any 
 grace of inward regeneration, as they wilfully understand it : it being suf- 
 ficient both to the Apostles' words, and to our meaning, that they be 
 reckoned as belonging to God's household, partakers of his vocation and 
 calling, designed to his use, and in case to be made partakers of his holi- 
 ness." (Ib. pp. 268, 269.) 
 
 And in another part of the same work he says, 
 
 "Many there are who are Christians in name, but not in deedf 
 Christians to men, but not to God, Christians by outward profession and 
 participation of sacraments, but not by inward regeneration and grace. 
 M. Perkins namely speaketh of them who are truly justified and sanctified, 
 who with a true heart and unfeigned faith do call upon the name of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. The rest speak prayers, but they do not pray : they 
 repeat words with the mouth, but the heart, where is the true seat of 
 prayer, hath no feeling of that they say. Now of them that are truly the 
 children of God, and do faithfully and truly pray, it is undoubtedly true 
 which M. Perkins saith, that never any doth wholly and finally fall away 
 from the grace of God." (Ib. p. 338.) 
 
 i 
 
 BISHOP JOHN PRIDEAUX; 
 
 Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, from 1615 to 1641 f 
 Bishop of Worcester from 1641 to 1650. 
 
 His character has been already given from Anthony Wood, 
 in p. 118 above. 
 
 In his "Fasciculus Controversiarum Theologicarum," (ed 
 2a Oxon. 1652, 4to,) he discusses the question " Whether the 
 Anglican Liturgy is agreeable to the Holy Scriptures," (An 
 Liturgia Anglicana sit Sacris Literis conformis,") (pp. 235 et 
 seq.,) defending of course the affirmative. And replying to 
 objections raised against it, he gives the following objection 
 and answer, 
 
 " Ob. In Baptism Regeneration is affirmed, as the effect, by the mere 
 work wrought, of the Sacrament ; which is Popish. 
 
 " Ana. Baptism promises only external and sacramental Regeneration: 
 and that this produces the internal regeneration of the Holy Spirit, THE 
 
 CkURCH PRONOUNCES IN THE JUDGMENT OF CHARITY."* 
 
 * Obj. In Baptismo regeneratio urgetur, ut opus Sacrament! operatum quod 
 est Papisticwn,
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 293 
 
 In another art of the same work, treating on the doctrine 
 of the Sacraments, (pp. 278 et seq.,) he discusses the ques- 
 tion, 
 
 " Whether the sacraments confer grace by the mere work wrought."* 
 
 And he replies, " I deny that they do, Because, 
 
 " 1 . Signs and seals contain nothing in themselves and confer nothing, 
 but only signify and seal the fact, that grace has been already given, or 
 even is afterwards to be given. But such only are sacraments, as is 
 evident from the 17th chapter -of Genesis compared with the fourth chapter 
 of the Epistle to the Romans. 
 
 "2. Abraham, the Father of those that believe, the Eunuch Snd 
 Cornelius received saving grace, and believed, before they were initiated 
 by any opus operatnm of the sacraments, as is clear from Gen. xv. 6; 
 Rom. iv. 10, 11; Acts x. 2. Therefore the sacraments that supervened 
 only sealed this grace to them, and did not confer it."f 
 
 He adds several other reasons. 
 
 He then proceeds to meet objections ; and among them are 
 the two following, and the answers. 
 
 ' Ob. 2. The Sacraments of the New Testament have supplied more than 
 those of the Old. But the latter were seals, sealing the grace given. 
 Therefore the sacraments of the New Testament confer grace, 
 
 " Sol. The efficacy of the Sacraments of both Testaments was one and 
 (he same ; not arising from the mere work wrought by the administrator of 
 the rite, and the fitness f the recipient, but from the goodwill of him who 
 bestows it."J 
 
 " Ob. 7. Baptism and the Eucharist are of the same efficacy : but the 
 baptized most certainly obtain salvation in water that is consecrated, as 
 
 Keep. Regenerationem tantum externam et sacrainentalem spondet Baptis- 
 mus, quara internam S. S. regenerationem perficere, EX CHAEITATK PRONUNCIAT 
 CCCLESIA. (p. 240.) 
 
 " An Sacramenta conferant gratiam ex opere operate ? 
 
 t Signa et sigilla nil in se continent, vel conferunt, sed gratiam jam fore 
 collatam, vel etiam postea conferendam, tantum significant et obsignant: 
 Talia autem mint tantum Sacramenta, ut patet ex Gen. 17, collate cum 4to. cap. 
 ad Roman. 
 
 2. Abraham pater credentium, Eunuchus, et Cornelius prius salutarem gra- 
 tiam receperunt, et crediderunt, quam Sacramentorum aliquo opere operato fuerunt 
 initiati, ut patet Gen. xv. 6 ; Rom. iv. 10, 11 ; Act x. 2. Ergo Sacramenta super- 
 Tenientia lianc illis gratiam obsignarunt tantum, non contulerunt. (p. 278.) 
 
 J Ob. 2. Plus pnestiterunt Sacramenta N. T. quam V. Ilia autem erant 
 sigilla, gratiam collatam obsignantia. Ergo Sacramenta N. T. gratiam conferunt. 
 
 Sol. Eadem erat Sacramentorum utriusque Testament! efficacia, non ex opere 
 operato administrantis, et recipientis habitudine, sed ex conferentis benianitate, 
 (p. 279.)
 
 294 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Jordan by the baptism of our Saviour, as is said in the Anglican Liturgy 
 concerning Baptism ; and they are efficacious signs of grace, through which 
 God acts upon us. Therefore when they are rightly administered, grace 
 is obtained from them by covenant. 
 
 " Sol. It is granted that the effect attends the work wrought, but not 
 that it is produced by the work wrought, but by His most free grace who 
 works all that is salutary in all, ACCORDING TO HIS OWN GOOD PLEASURE."* 
 
 Such is the testimony of one who for a quarter of a cen- 
 tury was Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, and was 
 appointed to a Bishopric even under the Archiepiscopate of 
 La,ud. 
 
 BISHOP HERBERT WESTFALING; 
 
 Margaret Professor, of Divinity at Oxford, from 1592 to 
 1563 ; Bishop of Hereford, from 1585 to 1601. 
 
 Unfortunately the subject of Baptism is only noticed inci- 
 dentally by Bishop "Westfaling, in a sermon on the Lord's 
 Supper. But so far as this notice goes, so far the doctrine 
 inculcated is of the same character as that of all his brethren 
 already referred to. He maintains a Spiritual presence in both 
 Sacraments, offering the blessing appropriate to each to the 
 faithful recipient, but not that the blessing is conferred upon 
 all comers ex opere operato, by the mere work wrought. 
 
 "By baptism," he says, "is sealed and OFFERED our new birth, and the 
 benefits thereto belonging."! " In such sort as the water in baptism is for- 
 giveness of sins and our spiritual regeneration; so, even so, in the Sacra- 
 ment of thanksgiving is the bread and wine the body and blood of our 
 Saviour ; that is to say, not in substance, but in signification." J 
 
 He then proceeds to show, that " the things signified " are 
 
 * Ob. 1. Ejusdem sunt efficacise Baptismus et Eucharistia: sed Baptizatt 
 certo certius salutem consequuntur, in aqua sanctificata, ut Jordan per Salvatoria 
 baptismuin, ut habetur in Liturgia Anglicana de Baptismo, et sunt signa efficacia 
 gratis, per quac Deus in DOS operatur. Ergo istis recte administratis gratia ex 
 pacto consequitur. 
 
 Sol. Conceditur effectum comitari opus operatum, sed non ab opere operato 
 effici, veriiin ab illinx gratia liberrima, qui operatur omnia salutaria in omnibus, 
 
 PKOUT 1P8I COMPLACUIT. (p. 281.) 
 
 f A Treatise of Reformation in Religion, Ac. Hereunto are added two Ser- 
 mons touching the Supper of the Lord. Lond. 1582, 4 to, fol. 100. 
 Ibid.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 29$ 
 
 " present with the things whereby they are signified," so far 
 as to be offered by them, and ready for reception by the spirit- 
 ual mind. 
 
 "When did he [God] by any sensible element make promise to give any 
 spiritual thing, but the same was offered, and TO BE RECEIVED was present 
 in deed? Tell me, I beseech you, who among all the Israelites sprinkled 
 their door-posts with the Paschal Lamb's blood in the great slaughter of 
 the ^Egyptians' first-born, and was not by the angel of the Lord certainly 
 passed over? Who according to God's will appeared before the Ark and 
 Propitiatory to ask or learn aught, and was not from time to time evermore 
 answered ? Who being stung with fiery serpents looked (as God appointed) 
 upon the serpent of brass, which he made to be erected, and was not pre- 
 sently healed ? Who circumcised the foreskin of his flesh, and was not 
 reckoned among God's people, and had not his grace verily offered unto 
 him ? To be short, who ever doubted, or what question can there be, but 
 that, together with the Dove, the Holy Ghost was present? With the fiery 
 and cloven tongues, knowledge of languages, and boldness of speech ? With 
 the washing of water in baptism, God's sanctifying spirit and remission of 
 sins? For this much the Scripture manifestly assureth us of, in that it 
 saith, when the Dove only was seen, the Spirit of God was seen (Matt, iii, 
 16); when tongues only appeared to come down upon the Apostles, the 
 Holy Ghost came upon them (Acts i. 8 and ii. 3.) ; when men were only 
 known to be outwardly baptized, they were justified, sanctified, and washed 
 from their sins (1 Cor. vi. 11.) For were not these things which were 
 signified so joined to the signs which did signify the same, as the receiver 
 of the sign EITHER did, or at leastwise MIGHT therewithal certainly receive 
 the thing signified too, never would the Holy Ghost have used these manner 
 of speeches, nor have given to the things signifying, the names of the things 
 signified thereby. Seeing then, in the Supper of the Lord, bread and wine 
 are offered us, not only to signify, that our Saviour's body crucified and 
 blood shed are the same to our souls, that bread and wine are to our bodies j 
 but also to assure us, that as verily as the bread and wine is then offered 
 to our bodies, so verily the body and blood of our Saviour is then offered to 
 our souls for the nourishment of the same ; how can it be, that the body 
 and blood of our Saviour should not also in the holy mysteries be present 
 indeed?"* 
 
 And having thus shown in what way he holds the things 
 signified to be present with the Sacramental signs, he proceeds 
 to show how they are received. And he commences with the 
 remark, 
 
 "Marvel it is, but some do look, that I should now confirm, that they 
 (. e. our Saviour's body and blood] are notwithstanding present to our 
 
 Ib. fid. 106, 107.
 
 296 EFFECTS OF BAPTIS-M IN INFANTS. 
 
 bodies, and so present with the Sacramental bread and wine, that every ont 
 receiving these signs of them together with the same verily receiveth them f 
 be he good or be he evil."* 
 
 But, 
 
 " Christ's body and blood are not so present with the Sacramental 
 signs that our body may be said to receive them, or that every one which 
 receiveth the Sacramental signs may be said to receive &em.' 7 f 
 
 Christ is received so far as he is " by our spirit and faith 
 made present unto us."t 
 
 " Thus present Christ is only received of those whom he maketh withal 
 partakers of life everlasting; but the other presence letteth such eat him 
 as nevertheless shall die the death. Thus present Christ is only received 
 of those that are INCORPORATED INTO HIM ; but the other presence letteth 
 him to be received of those that have no part with him. Thus present 
 CHRIST CANNOT BE RECEIVES BUT BY FAITH, a spiritual instrument : but 
 the other presence needeth only our mouth, a corporal instrument. " 
 
 Now he himself has before spoken of the nature of the 
 presence in the Sacrament of Baptism as identical with that 
 in the Eucharist, and consequently the reception of the bles- 
 sing offered is to be in the same way in both cases. And the 
 last extract contains words which indirectly but plainly show r 
 that he did not consider all that had been baptized in infancy 
 as " members of Christ," for he draws a distinction between 
 those who come to the Eucharist, (all of whom must have 
 been baptized,) intimating that some only are " incorporated 
 into Christ," and others " have no part with him.' 1 And so he 
 tells us elsewhere, that " faith " is " the mean whereby we 
 are graffed into Christ, as St. Paul teach eth us, Rom. xi. 
 22." II 
 
 So he says elsewhere, 
 
 " Christ I say himself as often as these holy mysteries be celebrated, 
 is most certainly offered unto all that come to feed upon them. . . . For 
 as God dealeth with us in one Sacrament, so he dealeth with us in another : 
 as he dealeth with us in the Sacrament of Baptism, whereby we are 
 received into his family, so he dealeth with us in the Supper of the Lord r 
 whereby hefeedeth us so received."^ 
 
 But as he said in the above extract, that those only were so 
 
 fol. 108. t fol. 109. $ Ib. 
 
 fol. 111. I fol. 94. | foL 90.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 297 
 
 fed in the Eucharist that were "incorporated into Christ," so 
 it follows, that he held that not all were received into God's 
 family by baptism; because all that come to the Eucharist 
 are baptized. 
 
 Hence when he says, 
 
 " In baptism not only is the sign given, but the thing signified also ; 
 not the figure only, but the thing and truth figured also ; not only water 
 to wash the body, but God's Holy Spirit also to wash and cleanse the 
 soul"* 
 
 Or again, 
 
 " There [t. e. in baptism] are we taught, not by hearing alone, but by 
 our sight also, and feeling (as it were) that we be as surely wash,ed from 
 our sins, received into favour and endued with God's Holy Spirit, as by 
 water the body's filth is cleansed, men's thirst quenched, and the ground 
 made fruitful "f 
 
 He is speaking only in the same way as we have so fre- 
 quently had to observe is common to all the Protestant divines, 
 that is, speaking of the Sacrament as it is when its full end 
 and purpose are realized. 
 
 And in the context he remarks, that this mode of speaking 
 is used by the Apostle, 1 Cor. x. 16 ; observing, 
 
 "Because the one [the sign] offered us witnesseth, that the other [the 
 thing signified] is offered us also, therefore the Apostle affirmeth the par- 
 taking of the sign to be a partaking of the thing itself. "$ 
 
 Hence he briefly describes the two Sacraments thus, 
 
 " Baptism instituted to assure us of our new birth, and receiving into 
 
 the favour andVamily of God." " The Supper of the Lord instituted to 
 
 assure us of our continuance in Christ, and of our nourishment after we 
 be received into the family of God." 
 
 But the spiritual effect is not to be assumed to be any 
 more realized in all comers in the former of these two cases 
 than in the latter. 
 
 The way in which the Sacrament of Baptism becomes 
 efficacious in the case of infants, consistently with this doctrine, 
 I shall point out hereafter, when considering the statements of 
 Bishop Davenant and others. 
 
 foL 0. f foL 100. $ foL 91. Margin. foL 100.
 
 298 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 DR. JAMES CALFHILL; 
 
 Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford from 1563 to 
 1565 ; Archdeacon of Colchester from 1565 to 1570 ; 
 died Bishop elect of Worcester 1570. 
 
 In his " Answer to the Treatise of the Cross," * written by 
 John Martial, he thus expresses himself; showing that he held 
 that children were baptized as those previously made partakers 
 of divine grace. 
 
 " As for the example of Christ, who embraced little children in his 
 arms, and, laying his hands upon their heads, blessed them, I answer, 
 that as every fact of Christ doth not serve for our imitation, but instruction ; 
 so must we not make a Sacrament of each of them. For so the breathing 
 upon his Apostles, whereby he gave them the Holy Ghost, should be a 
 Sacrament. Only this sign may be a precedent for us, that children 
 appertain to the kingdom of God ; that they ought not [to] be denied the 
 sign, which ARE PARTAKERS OF THE GRACE ; AND THEREFORE should be 
 baptized."^ 
 
 Again, observing that miracles wrought in confirmation of 
 the truth of a doctrine, " in some condition be like to Sacra- 
 ments," he adds, 
 
 "For both are added as assurances to promises, as seals to writings. 
 And as Sacraments do bring no comfort, unless they be received by faith; 
 BO miracles do not avail, except we have first a regard to doctrine. "| 
 
 DR. SEBASTIAN BENEFIELD; 
 
 Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford from 1613 to 
 
 1626. 
 
 1 quote from his work entitled, " The Sin against the Holy 
 Ghost discovered, and other Christian Doctrines delivered, in 
 Twelve Sermons upon part of Heb.x." Oxf. 1615. 4to. 
 
 " The general sanctity, [i. e. of the Church,] I call that by which the 
 Church visible and militant, consisting of good and evil, of dissemblers 
 and hypocrites as well as of the godly, is called, though not truly and 
 properly, yet **T^{<rT/c, a-vnufo^tx.^, in a figurative kind of speech, 
 tota sancta. the Holy Church. . . . Neither should this seem strange, that 
 
 * First printed, Lond. 1665. Reprinted for the Parker Society, Lond. 1846. 
 8va f Park. Soc. ed. p. 215. $ Ib. p. 320.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 299 
 
 hypocrites, dissemblers, and godless men are called holy. For whosoever 
 give their names to Christ and are baptized into his name, though all of 
 them be not truly grafted into Christ, nor all of them be truly baptized 
 into Christ's death and resurrection; that 'is, though all of them be not new 
 born and regenerate ; yet, in the Scripture phrase, after the custom of the 
 Scriptures, they are all called holy, and have other such titles given them, 
 as indeed may beseem the blessed of the Lord. In this sense, St. Paul 
 saith, that all the Romans are saints, beloved of God, Rom. i. 7. and that 
 all the Galatians are sons of God, Gal. iii. 26, and that all the Corin- 
 thians are washed, and sanctified and justified, 1 Cor. vi. 11." (p. 102.) 
 
 " It followeth, that the places now alleged must be understood of that 
 general sanctity, by which men may be said to be sanctified, justified, 
 cleansed, washed, and the like ; though not truly, not before God, yet in 
 the face of the Church, and before men ; as it were, sacramentally." (Ib. 
 P . 104.) 
 
 u How far a man may go in the profession of the Gospel, and yet be a 
 reprobate ? I answer thus in general : So carry thyself outwardly in the 
 profession of the Gospel, that no exception may be taken against thee ; let 
 thy life be such, as that the sons of God, which live with thee in the bosom 
 of the same Church, can judge no otherwise of thee than of a rightful heir 
 to eternal happiness ; be it, that they think of thee much better than of 
 themselves, yet will not all this exempt thee from being a reprobate. 
 What thou art inwardly and in the sight of God, God alone knoweth : he 
 alone is x.atpftsyiur'riic, and sees and knows thy heart. Since thou hast 
 given thy name to Christ, and hast had the washing of the new birth, the 
 Church IN CHARITY must judge of thee, as of one truly grafted into Christ, 
 and truly regenerate ; but (I say) what thou art inwardly and in the sight 
 of God. God knoweth; examine thou thyself." (pp. 104, 105.) 
 
 " This their knowledge of Christ is, in the elect, the beginning of 
 regeneration." (p. 105.) 
 
 DR. WILLIAM WHITAKER ; 
 
 Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge from, 1580 to 
 1595; Master of St. John's College from 1586 to 1595. 
 
 The high character of Dr. "Whitaker is too well known to 
 need any remarks respecting it. The following passages are 
 from his Lectures on the Sacraments when Regius Professor.* 
 The subject is here so fully handled, and the clear and decisive 
 statements in opposition to the modern "High Church" notions 
 
 * Prselectiones de Sacramentis in genere, et in specie de S. S. Baptismo et 
 Eucbaristia, Francof. 1624. 4 to.
 
 300 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 so numerous, that the only difficulty is, to make a selection 
 from them. The first portion of the Lectures is devoted to 
 the discussion of the doctrine of the Sacraments in general, 
 the second to the Sacrament of Baptism, and the third to the 
 Eucharist. I shall give the passages as they occur in the 
 work, beginning with the portion on the Sacraments; inter- 
 spersing some passages to show, that his denial of the universal 
 efficacy of Baptism, even in the case of infants, did not prevent 
 his entertaining a high view of its value and efficacy to worthy 
 recipients. 
 
 Sacraments not only signify, but also seal, and actually exhibit that 
 which they signify, when rightly used; so that he who comes to Baptism, 
 or to the Eucharist, rightly prepared, receives together with the signs the 
 things themselves: for they are not barren or empty signs."* 
 
 " We do not deny that Sacraments do in their measure work grace as 
 means and instruments, but inasmuch as they [i. e. the Papists] bind grace 
 to the Sacraments, and include it in the Sacraments, as if they brought 
 grace of themselves, we cannot approve of their views. For the Sacra- 
 ments are not appointed for that end that they should infuse grace through 
 their own nature or of themselves, or that they should have an intrinsic 
 secret power of sanctifying, permanently implanted in them, as they hold ; 
 so that although you should not believe the promises, yet the Sacraments 
 should cause you to believe, and justify you. But we say that the Sacra- 
 ments were instituted, not that they should impart faith, but that they 
 should confirm the faith before imparted, in its hold upon the promises, and 
 seal the same promises to us ; and we say that the force of the Sacraments 
 is this, that the Sacraments confer no grace on those who do not believe the 
 promises ; but on those who believe them, the greatest." f 
 
 * Sacramenta non modo significant, sed et obsignant, et actu cxhibent id quod 
 significant, in legitimo usu ; ut qui aut ad Baptismum aut ad Eucharistiam recte 
 praparatus accedit, is una cum signis res ipsas percipit: non enim aut vacua signa 
 aunt. (p. 6.) 
 
 t Sacramenta efficere gratiam ut media et instruraenta suo modo non nega- 
 mus, sed quia illi [t. e. Pontificii] gratiam ad Sacramenta alligant, et in Sacra- 
 mentis includunt, sic ut per se gratiam afferent, non possumus probare. Neque 
 enim instituta in eum finem Sacramenta sunt, ut gratiam infundant ex natura sua 
 et per se, aut ut in se vim arcanam sanctificandi habeant perpetuo insitam, ut 
 illi volunt, sic ut, licet non credas promissionibus, tamen Sacramenta faciant ut 
 credos, et te justificent. Nos vero Sacramenta instituta esse dicimus, non ut 
 fidem infundant, sed ut fidem antea infusam confirment in promissionibus, eas- 
 demque promissiones nobis obsignent ; et vim Sacramentorum earn esse dicimus, 
 ut iis, qui non credunt promissionibus, nullam gratiam Sacramenta conferant, iis 
 vero qui credunt, maximum, (p. 7.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 301 
 
 " CALVIN INDKED SAYS, AND CORRECTLY, THAT THE SACRAMENTS PROFIT 
 NONE BUT THE PREDESTINATE."* 
 
 " Calvin, says Bellarminc, understands it to be a naked sign, that is, one 
 which only signifies. But this is notoriously false. For Calvin always 
 maintains that he does not understand it to be a naked sign, but affirms that 
 the thing is always joined with the signs when they are rightly used ; and 
 the same we all say : but nevertheless they continue to misrepresent us."f 
 
 " A Sacrament is defined from its legitimate use and end, as Baptism is 
 called ' the lavcr of regeneration,' yet not all are regenerated who are washed 
 with the baptismal water, but it is so called on the part of God who offers the 
 blessing : and it is the fault of men that it is not to them the laver of regen- 
 eration, who play the hypocrite before God and men."$ 
 
 " That conscience is rightly mentioned in the definition of a Sacrament, 
 appears from the Apostle Peter, who teaches that there is required in 
 Baptism ' the answer of a good conscience toward God.' If a good con- 
 science is required in Baptism, much more is it required in the Eucharist. 
 But as to what Bellarmine says, that little children have not a conscience 
 nor actual faith, and so are not to be baptized this is an argument of the 
 Anabaptists. But the answer is easy ; that little children, although they 
 do not believe, nor have consciences, yet are baptized in respect of future 
 faith and repentance and a good conscience ; it is not always necessary, as 
 Calvin remarks, that the thing should precede the sign in the order of time; 
 therefore the promise of the Divine good-will is sealed to the consciences 
 of infants, not while they are infants, but afterwards when they have 
 grown up, and begun to have the use of reason."^ 
 
 Arr QUIDEM CALVIMJS, ET RECTE, PRODESSE NULLIS SACRAMEXTA, Nisi 
 
 IS. (p 8.) 
 
 \ Calvinus, inquit [Bellarminus,] intelligitnudumesse symbolum, id est, quod 
 Eolutn significet. At hoc insigniter falsum. Semper enim Calvinus se non nudum 
 Bymbolum intelligere profitetur, sed rem esse semper in recto usu cum symbolis 
 conjunctam affirmat; idemque omnes nos dicimus; et tamen isti pergunt calum- 
 niari. (p. 9.) 
 
 J Sacramentum definitur ex legitimo usu et fine, ut Baptismus xour^oy 
 ir3.\iyyttto-i3.t. t. e. lavacrum regenerationis dicitur.rww tamen regenerantur omnts 
 yui aqua Baptismali lavantur, sed ex parte Dei offerentis sic vocatur ; hominum 
 vero ctilpa est quod illis lavacrum regenerationis non sit, qui coram Deo et hom- 
 inibus simulant (p. 10.) 
 
 Conscientiffi mentionem recte fieri in sacramenti definitione, ex Apostolo 
 Petro patet, qui docet in Baptismo requiri <rtm/<JWea;f a.y<tB>i( tTrtfarTtip*. tic Qtsr 
 coDscienti:e bon;e stipulationem erga Deum. Si in Baptismo bona conscientia 
 reqniritur, multo magis in Eucharistia. Quod autem ait [Bellarminus,] parvulos 
 non habere conscientiam nee fidem actualem, ac proinde nou esse baptizandos; 
 hoc Anabaptistarum argumentum est. Sed responsio facilis est ; parvulos, etsi 
 non credant, nee conscientias habeant, tamen in futuram fidem et pcenitentiam et 
 conscientiam banam baptizari ; non nempe necesse est, ut Calvinus ait, rem esse 
 priorem signo temporis ordine ; ergo infautiuui consientiis divinaa benevolentiaB
 
 302 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 "What Bellarmine says is false, that infants are baptized among us only 
 in order that they may be members of the external Church, since neither 
 the infants of the Jews formerly were circumcised on that account only; 
 but that the sign of the Divine covenant may be impressed upon them, 
 
 WHICH, ALTHOUGH IT AVAILS NOTHING TO THOSE NOT BORN AGAIN AND 
 PREDESTINATED, NEVERTHELESS IS OF AVAIL TO THE ELECT IN A WAT 
 
 KNOWN TO GOD. For God renews elect infants, dying before they have 
 grown up, by the power of his Spirit ; but if their life happens to be pro- 
 longed, they are the more excited to desire renovation from the knowledge 
 that as infants they have received its symbol. Therefore although they are 
 baptized when infants, yet they will not always be infants, but at length, if 
 longer life is granted them, they will feel the power of that baptism which 
 they received as infants."* 
 
 "The adversaries say that tl<| Sacraments not only .confer .grace, but 
 even confer it from the mere work wrought. Here the grammarians must 
 pardon us : for sophists do not suffer themselves to be restrained by any 
 laws either of grammar or theology : nor do we blame the solecism of the 
 words so much as that of the sense ; for it is intolerable. And this 'work 
 wrought' (opus operatum) was unheard of by the antient Church, and was 
 lately invented by the Schoolmen by Scotus, I think j but now is approved 
 by the authority of the Council of Trent, so that it is now fully authorized, 
 and the Papists openly and fiercely contend for the 'work wrought.' "f 
 
 " The Papists maintain, that grace is conferred upan little children in 
 the Sacraments of the New Testament without faith, or any good motion. 
 This is to attribute a power to sacraments of themselves and by a virtue of 
 their own in the case of little children : which we say is false. For we assert 
 
 promissio obsignatur, non dura infantes sunt, sed postea cum adoleverint, et usum 
 rationis habere cceperint. (pp. 14, 16.) 
 
 * Falsura est quod ait Bellarminus baptizari apud nos infantes ea solum de 
 causa, ut sint membra Eccle.sioe externse, quemadmodum nee circumcisi olim in- 
 fantes Jurlaeorum sunt, ilia tantum de causa ; sed ut illis signum divini foederis 
 imprimatur, QUOD, KTSI NON RENATIS ET PR^EDSTINATIS NIL PRODEST, TAMEN ELECTIS 
 PROUEST EO MODO QUO DEUS NOViT. Nam infantes electos, morientes antequam 
 adoleverint, Deus virtute Spiritus sui renovat, si vero vitam longius propagare 
 illis contigerit, eo magis ad studium renovationis accenduntur, quod ejus tesseram 
 ae infantes accepisse sciunt. Ergo etsi infantes baptizantur, tamen non semper 
 infantes erunt sod tandem, si vita illis longior concedatur, vim ejus baptism! sen- 
 tient, quern infantes susceperunt. (p. 15.) 
 
 t Dicunt adversarii non mod6 conferre grntiam [sacramenta,] sed etiam ex 
 opere operate conferre. Hie nobis dent veniam Grammatici, necesse est : non 
 enim Sophistse ullis aut Grammaticae aut Theologiue legibus teneri se patiuntur; 
 neque nos tarn verborum quam sententia3 solcecismum reprehendimus ; est enim 
 intolerabilis. Et pviscne olim Ecclesiae inauditum hoc opus operatum fuit, a 
 Scholasticis nupor, Scoto, opinor, inventurn ; at mine authoritate Concilii Triden- 
 tini comprobatur, ut nunc sit plane legitimum, et Papist;e palam et acriter pro 
 opere operate dimicent. (p. 56.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 3Q3 
 
 that grace in not conferred by the Sacraments even upon little children from 
 the work wrought, so that all necessarily have grace that receive the Sacra- 
 ments."* 
 
 il What therefore do we say ? Do we take away all grace from the 
 Sacraments? Far from it; although they indeed falsely charge us with so 
 doing. For we say that they are most efficacious instruments of the Holy 
 Spirit, and are also instrumental causes of grace: and this they also say; 
 but they say it in one sense, we in another. We say that they are instruments, 
 taking that title in a wide sense, because God uses them in bestowing grace 
 upon us. . . . Therefore the Sacraments are not instrumental causes of grace 
 through their working anything of themselves, but because, when the Sacra- 
 ments arc applied, God works grace in the soul : therefore the Sacraments 
 effect nothing through the work wrought, that is, merely because they are 
 applied, not even in little children. ForQnot even little children partake of 
 grace merely because they are baptized ; and yet they are not baptized to no 
 purpose, because they are baptized in respect of future faith and repentance, 
 and because they are members of the Church, and holy by covenant, and there- 
 fore the sigh of the covenant is not to be denied them : but when grown up, 
 unless they believe the Gospel, they derive no benefit from the Sacraments : 
 and thus, all the virtue of the Sacraments depends upon faith." t 
 
 " Even if we grant that baptism is here [i. e. in John iii. 5,] treated of, 
 yet nothing can be deduced hence from which we can draw the conclusion 
 that Baptism justifies us by the work wrought. For water in Baptism is a 
 sacrament of our renovation and regeneration, and thus we are born again 
 of water, but only sacramentally, because the water signifies and seals 
 our new birth, which the Holy Spirit works in us."J 
 
 * Statuunt illi [i. e. Pontificii,'] conferri gratiam parvulis in sacramentis 
 Jfovi Testamrnti sine fide, aut ullo bono motu. Hoc est tribuere vim Sacramentis 
 per se et sua vi in parvulis ; quod nos falsum esse dicimus. Non enim ex opere 
 operate ne parvulis quidem gratiam conferri a Sacramentis affirmamus, ut necesse 
 sit habTe graliam omnes, qui sacramenta percipiunt. (p. 58.] 
 
 \ Quid ergo nos dicimis ? oranemne a sacramentis gratiam removemus ? 
 absit ; etsi illi quidem de nobis sic mentiuntur. Dicimus enim esse emcacissima 
 organ a Spiritus Sancti, et esse causas etiam instrumentales gratiae ; et hoc illi etiam 
 dicunt ; sed aliter illi, aliter no3. Nos dicimus esse instrument*, sumendo hoc noinen 
 large, quia Deus iis utitur in conferendo nobis gratiam. . . . Non ergo sunt sacra- 
 menta causiB instrumentales grati, aliquid per se operando, sed quia sacramentia 
 adhibitis Deus in anima gratiam operatur : ergo sacramenta nihil ex opere 
 operate efficiunt, id est, ob id tantum quia adhibentur, ne quidem in parvulis. Non 
 enim parvuli, eo tantum quod baptisantur, gratiam participant; nee tamen 
 frustra baptizantur, quia in futuram fidem et pcenitentiam baptizantur, et quia 
 membra sunt Ecclesiee, et sancti ex foedere, ideoque signum foederis iis negandum 
 non est : adulti vero nisi credant Evangelic, nullam ex sacramentis utilitatem 
 percipiunt; atque ita, omnis vis sacramentorum ex fide pendet, (Ib. pp. 62, 63.) 
 
 \ Etiamsi demus hie [Joh. iii. 5.] agi de Baptismo, tamen nihil hinc elici posse 
 \imle intelligamus Baptismum nos ex opere operate justificare. Nam aqua in
 
 304 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 " In Baptism we are said to be cleansed and saved, because Baptism is 
 a pledge and earnest of our salvation, and because in the right and legiti- 
 mate use of Baptism salvation is bestowed upon us, and remission of sins. 
 . . . God in Baptism, as he signifies the remission of sins and salvation, so 
 he really works them ; and the truth is joined with the sign IN THE ELECT."* 
 
 " Neither yet do the Fathers say anything else than what we say, that 
 we become in Baptism new men, and that our sins are remitted, and that 
 the Holy Spirit is efficacious. We grant all these things; but it does not 
 therefore follow, that the Sacraments confer grace by the work wrought, as 
 if, because they are efficacious instruments of the Holy Spirit, therefore 
 they are efficacious by their own power and by the work wrought, "f 
 
 " We do not deny that Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration, even 
 in little children : but not by the work wrought. God works freely, and in 
 Baptism sanctifies whom he please*' '$ 
 
 " We say that without faith the Sacraments are altogether useless. For 
 although we can receive the Sacraments without faith, yet we cannot re- 
 ceive the thing represented by the Sacrament, as the Schoolmen themselves 
 confess ; they are always Sacraments on account of the institution of Christ, 
 but they never profit without faith. Thus, as regards their being, the 
 Sacraments do not depend upon faith, but as regards their effect and benefit, 
 they do depend upon it." 
 
 " This promise [' I will be thy God and the God of thy seed '] belongs 
 to the seed : therefore to the children of the faithful, because they are the 
 children of the faithful : for God promises that he will be a God not only 
 to Abraham, but also to his seed ; whence any one of the posterity of 
 
 Baptismo est Sacramenttim renovationis et regenerationis nostrae, et sic ex aqua 
 renascimur, sed sacramentaliter tantum, quia aqua significat et obsignat novam 
 nostram nativitatem, quam in nobis Spiritus Sanctus operatur. (p. 65.) 
 
 * In Baptismo mundari et salvari dicimur, quia Baptismus pignus et arrha est 
 nostru; salutis, et quia in recto et legitimo usu Baptism! confertur nobis salua 
 et remissio peccatorum. . . . Dcus in Baptismo ut significat remissioViem 
 peccatorum et salutem, ita re operatur ; et veritas cum signo conjuncta est IN 
 ELECTIS. (p. 69.) 
 
 f Nee tamcn Patres aliud dicunt, quam quod nos dicimus, fieri nos in 
 Baptismo novos homines, et peccatn, nobis remitti, et Spiritum Sanctum esse 
 efficacem : omnia hsec nos damns; sed nos ideo sequitur, sacramenta conferre 
 gratiam ex opere operato, quasi quia sunt cfficacia organa Spiritus Sancti, ideo vi 
 eua et ex opere operato efficacia sunt. (p. 70.) 
 
 \ Baptismum esse pacramentum regenerationis, non negamus, etiam in 
 parvulis ; seel non ex opere operate. Deus operatur libere et in Baptismo sancti- 
 Jicat, quos vult. (p. 73.) 
 
 Sine fide inutilia prorsus sacramenta esse dicimus. Licet enim*sacramenta 
 posmimns percipcre pine fide, trnncn rem sacrameuti non possumus, ut ipsi 
 scholastic! fatentur: sacrami'iita semper sunt propter Christ! institutionem, sed 
 nunqnam prosunt sine fide. Ita quoad Bubstantiarn wvcramenta non pendent ex 
 fide, quoad fructum vero et Ix-neficium pendent, (p. 78.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 3Q5 
 
 
 
 Abraham can claim this promise : in like manner all the children of Chris- 
 tians can claim the same by right of birth, because they are the children 
 of believers. Thirdly, as to what Bellarmine says, that faith makes chil- 
 dren of Abraham ; that is, that those are to be reckoned true children of 
 Abraham, who are children, of his faith, not his flesh, and proves it from 
 Rom. iv. & ix., and from Gal. iii. & iv., I reply that that is not only now 
 true, but also was true under the Old Testament : for Isaac was his true 
 son, Ishmael a bastard ; for God says to Abraham. ' In Isaac shall thy 
 seed be called' (Gen. xxi. 12) ; not in Ishmael. As therefore under the Old 
 Testament this promise had its complete fulfilment only in the elect, so it is 
 also under the Ne& Testament. Fourthly, as to what he says, that we then 
 begin to be sons of Abraham, when we begin to be believers, which little 
 children do not do, until they are baptized j I answer ; that little children 
 are children of Abraham before they are baptized, even as soon as they are 
 born : for otherwise they ought not to be baptized. As formerly under the 
 Old Testament no infant was circumcised, except he was a child of Abra- 
 ham, because God made this promise, ' I will be thy God,' to none but the 
 seed of Abraham ; so now no one is brought to Baptism, except on account 
 of his being a child of Abraham : therefore they do not become in baptism 
 children of Abraham, but because they are children of Abraham, therefore 
 they are baptized ; as circumcision formerly did not make children of Abra- 
 ham, but because any one was a child of Abraham, therefore he was cir- 
 cumcised ; therefore to bring any one to baptism now, who is not a child 
 of Abraham, is to affix a seal to a false document. . . . Moreover therefore 
 since the privilege granted to Abraham and the covenant made with Abra- 
 ham belong to us, as all the children of Abraham were in the covenant, so 
 are all ours and as God was a God to all his children, even before the 
 eighth day. nay as soon as they were born, inasmuch as he said, ' I will be 
 thy God and the God of thy seed,' so also is he to our children before bap- 
 tism: and since the former promise, by the confession of Bellarmine, is one 
 of remission of sins and eternal life, therefore the latter promise belongs 
 by virtue of the Covenant to all the children of Christians, whomsoever 
 God shall have chosen.' 1 ''* 
 
 * Haec promissio [' Ero Dens tuus et seminis tui '] pertinet ad semen : ergo 
 ad liberos fidelium, eo quod fidelium liberi sint : Deus enim non modo sc Abrahae, 
 Bed et ejus Bernini se Deum fore promittit ; unde quivis e posteris Abrahu> potuit 
 hanc promissionem vendicare : similiter omnes Christianorum lib^i possunt 
 eandem jure natalium vendicare, quia ex fidelibus nascuntur. Tertio, quod ait 
 [BeHhrminusI fidem facere filios Abrahae, id est, eos pro veris filiis Abrahae 
 habendos, qi^pdei non carnis filii sunt, idque ex Romanorum 4 et 9 ; et ex Galat. 
 3 et 4. probat, dico illud non solum nunc verum esse, sed etiam in vetere Testa- 
 mento verum fnisse: nam Isaac ejus verus films, Ismael adulterinus fuit; Deus 
 enim Abrahse ait, In Isaaco vocabitur semen tuum (Gen. xxi. 12;) non in Ismaele. 
 Sicut ergo in vetere Tertamento non nisi in electis suum plenum complementum 
 habuit hcec promissio : similiter etiam in novo Testamento. Quarto, quod ait, 
 (urn nos incipere esse filios Abrahae, cum incipimus esse fideles, quod parvuli non 
 20
 
 306 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 " It appears, therefore, that express faith is required in adults, but that 
 it is sufficient for little children to have faith in an incipient state in its 
 principle and root, that is, the Holy Spirit, with which they are endued, 
 from which faith and the other virtues flow at their proper time : for infants 
 are cleansed hy the Holy Spirit, since they are in the Church and belong to 
 the Church: for Christ sanctified the Church, ' cleansing it with the laver of 
 water by the word.' If they belong to the Church, they are furnished with 
 the Spirit ; if they are received into heaven, they are cleansed from sin ; this 
 is done by the Holy Spirit without the act of faith : nor is this grace infused 
 in Baptism, as the Papists say, but sealed, since the infants of believers are 
 holy before baptism by the grace of God which is joined with his covenant. 
 Therefore infants are not baptised, that they may become holy, but because 
 they are holy, therefore they are baptised, that is, they receive the seal."* 
 
 Many other similar passages might be added; but these 
 are, I suppose, more than sufficient to show his views. 
 
 faciunt, nisi cum baptizantur ; respondeo : parvulos esse filios Abrahae, antequam 
 baptizantur, etiam ut primum nati sunt: alias enim non deberent baptizari. Ut 
 olim in vetere Testamento nullus infans circumcisus est, nisi qui fuit Abrahse 
 filius, quia Deus nulli nisi Abrahte semini hanc promissionem fecit, ' Ero Deus 
 tuus :' ita nunc nemo ad Baptismum adducitur, nisi quod Abrahse filius eit : non 
 ergo fiunt Abrahoc filii in Baptismo, sed quia sunt Abrahre filii, ideo baptizantur ; 
 ut circumcisio olim non fecit Abrahae filiorum [filios,] sed quia quis Abrahse 
 filius fuit, ideo est circumcisus ; ergo adducere aliquem ad Baptismum nunc, qui 
 non sit filius Abrahne, est sigilluni affigere falso diplomat!. . . . Jam ergo cum 
 privilegium Abrahoe et fcedus cum Abraha factum ad nos pertineat, sicut omnes 
 Abraho! liberi erant in foedere, sic nostri omnes ; et sicut Deus omnibus ejus 
 liberis erat Deus, etiam ante octavum diem imo ut primum nati sunt, quia dixit, 
 ' Ero Deus tuus et seminis tui,' sic et nostris liberis ante Baptismum ; et cum ilia 
 promissio confitente Bellarmino sit remissionis peccatorum et vita) seternse, ergo 
 promissio haec ad omnes Christianorum liberos, quoscunque Deus elegerit ex vi 
 fcederis pertinet. (pp. 233, 234.) 
 
 * Fidem igitur expressam requiri in adultis, in parvulis sufEcere fidem 
 inchoatam in suo principio et radice, id est, Spiritu Sancto, quo prsediti sunt, ex 
 quo fides suo tempore et virtutes alias manant: nam infantes a Spiritu Sancto 
 purgari, cum eint in Ecclesia et ad Ecclesiam pertineant ; Ecclesiam autem- 
 Christus sanctificavit, 'mundans earn lavacro aquae per verbum.' Si ad Ecclesiam 
 pertinent, Spiritu ornantur, si in cesium recipiuntur, a peccato purgantur; hoc 
 fieri a Spiritu Sancto sine actu fidei: neque, ut Papistce dicunt, infundi hanc 
 gratiam in Baptismo, sed obsignari, cum sancti sint infantes fidelium ante 9ap- 
 tismum Dei gratia, quee cum ejus foedere conjuncta est. Non ergo baptizantur 
 infantes, ut fiant sancti, sed quia sancti sunt, ideo baptizantur, id est, sigillunv 
 accipiunt. (p. 285.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 307 
 
 BISHOP JOHN DAVENANT; 
 
 * * 
 
 Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge from 1609 to 
 1621 ; President of Queen's College, Cambridge, from 
 1614 to 1621;- Bishop of Salisbury from 1621 to 1641. 
 
 Bishop Davenant, as Margaret Professor of Divinity at 
 Cambridge, delivered Lectures upon St. Paul's Epistle to the 
 Colossians. His doctrine as there delivered may be judged of 
 by the following extracts, I give first the passages in which 
 he speaks of baptism in general and in the abstract, where 
 the reader will observe that he speaks of it, without hesitation, 
 as it is when fulfilling its intended end and purpose in the 
 members of the true Church of Christ; not supposing, appa- 
 rently, that his words were likely to be construed as if they 
 implied, that the full baptismal blessing is imparted, even in 
 the case of infants, wherever the rite is administered. 
 
 " This spiritual resurrection is effected both sacramentally and really in 
 baptism : sacramentally, through the external administration of the mys- 
 tery; really, through the internal operation of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle 
 has embraced both, Tit. iii. 5, 'According to his mercy he saved us, by the 
 washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.' "* 
 
 " In the administration itself of baptism Christians are consecrated to 
 God ; through the internal operation of the Spirit they are renewed after the 
 Divine image : in respect of both they are called holy."f 
 
 Again, on the words, " Buried with him in baptism, 
 wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the 
 operation of Grod, &c.," he thus describes the benefits of 
 baptism : 
 
 " The spiritual benefits which are received in baptism ; namely, the 
 
 Hsec spiritualis resurrectio in baptismo et sacramentaliter et realiter effici- 
 tur ; sacramentaliter, per exteraam mysterii administrationem ; realiter, per 
 internam Sancti Spiritus operationem. Utrumque complexus est Apostolus, Tit 
 iii. 5. ' Secundum suam misericordiam salvos nos fecit, per lavacrum regenera- 
 tionis et renovationis Spiritus Sancti.' (Expos. Ep. Paul, ad Coloss. In c. 3. v. 1. 
 Ed. 3. Cant. 1639. fol. p. 262.) 
 
 f In ipsa baptismi administratione Christiani Deo consecrantur ; per Spiritus 
 internam operationem ad Divinam imaginem reformaotur ; utroque respectu sancti 
 vocantur. (Ib. ver. 12. p. 809.)
 
 308 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 burial of the old man, which they are accustomed to call mortification ; the 
 resurrection of the new, which they call a quickening."* 
 
 
 But then, proceeding to explain the words, " through the 
 
 faith, &c." he adds, 
 
 "We are now arrived at that instrument by whose help and assistance 
 the above-mentioned benefits of baptism are apprehended and possessed. For 
 if this faith is wanting, although the treasures of grace are OFFERED in the 
 Sacrament on the part of God, yet they are not RECEIVED on our part, but are 
 driven away by our unbelief. .... It is not in vain that faith is required by 
 the Apostle, that we may obtain the benefit of the spiritual resurrection. 
 For as in the baptism of adults previous faith is required, according to the 
 saying of our Saviour, Mar. xvi. 16, c He that believeth and is baptized^ 
 shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall b damned ' so FROM 
 
 THOSE WHO ARE BAPTIZED WHEN THEY ARE INFANTS, SUBSEQUENT FAITH 
 
 is REQUIRED; AND IF THEY DO NOT AFTERWARDS RENDER THIS, THEY 
 
 RETAIN ONLY THE EXTERNAL SANCTIFICATION OF BAPTISM, THE INTERNAL 
 EFFECTS OF SANCTIFICATION THEY HAVE NOT."f 
 
 And he adds here as a practical remark, under the head 
 " usus," 
 
 " Let us not, WITH THE PAPISTS, trust to the work wrought ; but let us 
 further inquire whether we have all the other things without which the 
 internal effects of baptism are not possessed." 
 
 And proceeding subsequently to answer the objection of 
 the Anabaptists, that if faith is required to render baptism 
 efficacious, it ought not to be administered to infants, who 
 cannot exercise faith, he shows in his reply how this doctrine 
 
 * Spiritualia beneficia quae percipiuntur in baptismo ; sepultura scilicet veteris 
 hominis, quam appellare solent mortificationem ; resuscitatio novi quam vivifica- 
 tionem appellant. (Ib. p. 205.) 
 
 t Perventum jam est ad instrumentum illud cujus ope et adminiculo supra dicta 
 baptismi beneficia apprchenduntur ct possidentur. Si enim hcec fides dcsit, quam- 
 vis OFFERANTUR thesauri gratia in Sacramento ex parte Dei, nort tamen RECIPIUN- 
 TUR ex parte nostra, scd rcpelluntur iufidelitate .... Non frustra cst quod fides 
 exigitur ab Apostolo, ut bcneficium spiritual!* resurrectionis obtineamus. Nam 
 ut in baptismo adultorura requiritur fides prsovia, juxta dictum Salvatoris, Mar. 
 xvi. 16. ' Qui crediderit, et baptizatus fuerit, salvus erit : qui non crediderit, con- 
 dernnabitur : ' sic AB ILLIS QUI BAPTIZATI CUM JAM INFANTES SUNT, REQUIRITUK 
 
 FIDES SUBSEQUKN8 ; QUAM 81 NON PR^STITERINT POSTEA, RETINKNT EXTERNAM TAN- 
 TUMMODO BAPTI8MI 8ANOTIFICATIONKM, INTERNA 8ANCTIFICATIONI9 KFFECTA N0!i 
 
 HABENT. (Ib. pp. 207, 208.) 
 
 J Ne open operate fidamue CUM PAPISTIS, sed inquiramus insuper an adsint 
 uobis caitera omnia sine quibus ioterua baptismi eftecta non habentur. (Ib. p. 208.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 309 
 
 V 
 
 of the necessity of faith is to be understood with respect to 
 them, in these words, 
 
 " If they speak of actual faith, of the actual desire and profession of 
 mortification and vivification, we say that those passages of Scripture which 
 require those things in the baptized must be restricted to adults : but as it 
 respects infants, inasmuch as they are sinners not by their own act but by 
 hereditary habit, it is sufficient that they have the mortification of sin and 
 faith, not exerting themselves in their proper acts, but included in a habitual 
 principle of grace. But no one in his senses will deny, that the Spirit of 
 Christ can and is accustomed to produce in them this habitual principle of 
 grace. Further, it is not necessary that the Sacraments should work all that 
 they represent in that very moment of time in which they are administered; 
 nay, by the confession of the Schoolmen themselves, a covenant admitting of 
 delay has place, when in the very act of making it there is an impediment in 
 the way of the fulfilment of its conditions. Moreover in infants the very 
 want of reason as far as it concerns its exercise, is an impediment that pre- 
 vents their having actual faith, or the actual desire of mortification."* 
 
 Here, then, are two ways mentioned in which the requisi- 
 tion of faith may be considered as applying to the case of 
 infants; first, that a habitual principle of grace, comprehending 
 faith seminally though not in act, may be given to infants by 
 the Holy Spirit previous to baptism, qualifying them to derive 
 an immediate salutary effect from it: which, he maintains, is, 
 beyond doubt, often given : secondly, that where this does not 
 take place, the salutary effect of baptism may be considered 
 as delayed to a subsequent period, that is, till the exercise of 
 actual faith and repentance in the adult for that it is not 
 necessary to suppose that the Sacraments, even where effica- 
 cious, should effect all that they represent at the very moment 
 when they are administered, the Schoolmen themselves 
 
 * Si loquantur de fide actual!, de actuali studio et professione mortificationis 
 et vivificationis, ilia Scripturae loca quae ha-c requirunt in baptizatis, ad adultos 
 ease restringenda dicimus: ad infantes autem quod attinet, quia peccatores sunt 
 non proprio actu sed hiereditario habitu, sufficit quod peccati mortificationem et 
 fidem habeant, non proprio actu sese exerentem, sed in habituali principle gratias 
 inclusam. Spiritum autem Christi principium hoc habituale gratiae in illis effi- 
 cere posse et solere nemo sanus negaverit. Porrd non necesse est ut Sacramenta 
 o ipso momento quo admlnistrantur efficiant ilia omnia qua figurant ; imo, con- 
 cedentibus ipsi Scholatici, pactio dilatoria locum habet, cum in ipsa susceptione 
 obex ponitur. Jam vero in infantibus ipse defectus rationis quoad actum est impedi- 
 mentum quo minus habere possint actualem fidem, vel actuale studium mortifi- 
 catioaia. (Ib. 209.)
 
 310 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 / 
 
 conceding, that a covenant admitting of delay in the per- 
 formance of its terms is admissible, when at the very 
 undertaking of it there exists an impediment to their immediate 
 fulfilment. 
 
 He maintains, then, that where grace has been previously 
 conferred, there, and there only, the full baptismal blessing is 
 immediately enjoyed ; but in other cases this effect is delayed, 
 till the period when by faith and repentance the party is quali- 
 fied for its reception. 
 
 - It appears, however, by another work of Bishop Davenant, 
 that while he thus held that spiritual regeneration, in its full 
 and proper sense, is not bestowed at Baptism, except in the 
 way and under the circumstances above described, he also held 
 that the guilt of original sin is remitted to all the infants of 
 believers when baptized, and consequently that there is a sense 
 in which they may be called, as infants, regenerated, justified, 
 and sanctified. That is, he maintains the view which I have 
 noticed in the first Chapter. His doctrine on this point 
 is to be found in a Letter he addressed, when Bishop of 
 Salisbury, (the precise date is not, I believe, known,) to Dr. 
 Ward, his successor in the Margaret Professorship, first pub- 
 lished in 1650 in the work mentioned below.* 
 
 In this treatise (for such it may be called) he maintains the 
 following among other propositions, 
 
 "Protestants do not grant that justifying faith, or charity uniting to 
 God, or regenerating grace, which renews all the faculties of the soul, are 
 imparted to infants in the very moment of baptism."! 
 
 "The Fathers acknowledge neither actual nor habitual faith or charity 
 to be given to little children in Baptism : they teach also that conversion, 
 or the creation of a new heart, which is properly to be called regeneration, 
 is not produced in them until they have, reached an age capable of 
 reason.''^ 
 
 * Vindiciae Gratia? Sacramentalis duobus tractat. comprehensae .... Quibus 
 prsefigitur Epistola Rev. Patr. <fcc. Joann. Davenant .... op, <fe stud. Tfhomse} 
 BJedford.] Lond. 1650. 12mo. It was reprinted, with strictures on it by T. 
 Gataker. Lond. 1654. 8vo. 
 
 f Protestantes non concedunt fidem justificantem, aut charitatem Deo unien- 
 tem, aut gratiam regencratricom, qua; reparat omnes animae facultates, in ipao 
 Baptism! memento infundi infantibus. (p. 6.) 
 
 I Patres neque actualum Deque babitualem fidem aut charitatem parvulia in
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 311 
 
 - But, 
 " All baptized infants are absolved from the guilt of original sin."* 
 
 And on this proposition he remarks, that infants may on 
 this account be said to be, as infants, regenerated, justified, 
 and adopted. And he thinks that this is what our Baptismal 
 Service refers to. 
 
 Nevertheless, 
 
 " The Justification, Regeneration, Adoption, which we grant to belong 
 to baptized infants, is not identically the same with that Justification, 
 Regeneration and Adoption which, in the question concerning the Perse- 
 verance of the Saints, we have maintained is never lost."f 
 
 And on this proposition, he observes, 
 
 " Nor is that which is called the Regeneration of a little child of the 
 same kind with this new creation, or spiritual new-birth of adults, which 
 we maintain to be never totally destroyed or lost, after that it has onee 
 been produced in the heart of a regenerate person by the power of the 
 Spirit. It is commonly said, ' The same subject does not admit of several 
 accidents of the same species.' But a Christian infant who is regenerated 
 in Baptism, acquires another regeneration, when, as an adult, he gives 
 credence to the Gospel. Therefore either he is twice regenerated, or thia 
 baptismal regeneration is not the same with that of adults, of which 
 James says, ' Of his own will, &c.' (Ja. i. 18.) and Peter, ' Being born 
 again, &c.' (1 Pet. i. 23.) and Paul, ' Put on, &c. ; (Eph. iv. 24.) "J 
 
 And he adds, that those who perish, 
 
 " Do not perish because they have lost the sacramental regeneration 
 suitable to the regeneration of little children : but because they have never 
 
 Baptismo donatam agnoscunt ; conversionem etiam sive novi cordis creationem, 
 fu<e proprie Regeneratio dicendia est, non nisi cum ad setatem rationis capacem 
 pervenerint, in iis produci decent, (p. 8.) 
 
 Omnes infantes baptizati ab originalis peccati reatu absolvuntur. (p. 12.) 
 
 f Justificatio, Regeneratio, Adoptio quam concedimus competere infantibua 
 baptizati?, non est univoce eadem cum ilia justificatione, r.egeneratione, et 
 adoptione, quam in quaestione, de Perseverantia Sanctorum nunquam amitti de- 
 fendimus. (p. 18.) 
 
 | Nee qu<B dicitur Regeueratio parvuli est ejusdem specie! cum hac nova 
 creationc, sive spiritual! renascentia adultorum, qnam defendimus nunquam totali- 
 t*r aboleri aut amitti, postquam Spiritus virtute semel producta fuerit in corde 
 regenerati. Vulgo dicitur, " non recipit idem subjectum plura accidentia ejusdem 
 speciei." At infans Christianus qui regeneratus sit in Baptismo aliam regenera- 
 tionem acquirit, cum adultus fidem adhibet Evangelio. Ergo aut bis regenerator, 
 ant regeneratio hsec baptismalis eadem non est cum ilia adultorum, de qua 
 Jacobus, " Voluntarie, Ac." (Jac. i. 18.) Et Petrus, " Renati, Ac." (1 Pet. i. 23.) 
 Et Paulas, " Induite, Ac." (Epb, iv. 24.) (p. 19.)
 
 312 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 had that other regeneration from the seed of the word, and the efficacy of 
 the Holy Spirit, which is necessary to effect the regeneration of adults."* 
 
 He maintains, therefore, that, 
 
 " The Justification, Regeneration, and Adoption of little children bap- 
 tized confers upon them a state of salvation ACCORDING TO THE CONDITION 
 
 OF LITTLE CHILDREN.' 7 ! 
 
 In commenting on this proposition, he remarks, 
 
 " From these things any one may see, that infants by baptism are indeed 
 placed in a state of salvation, but only relatively to that age and condition of 
 little children. They therefore who perish in adult age, with their baptismal 
 vow unfulfilled, do not lose the saving state which they possessed according 
 to the condition of little infants; but they lose the infantine state, and 
 when this is changed, that which by the Divine appointment was sufficient 
 for the salvation of the little child ceases to be sufficient for the salvation of 
 the adult."$ 
 
 Hence he adds the following proposition, 
 
 "They who in Baptism, according to the common condition of little 
 children, have been truly justified, regenerated, and adopted, are not, 
 according to the special condition of adults, justified, regenerated, or adopted, 
 when they arrive at the use of reason, unless by repenting, believing, 
 renouncing, they fulfil the vow solemnly pronounced at baptism.'^ 
 
 And he remarks on this, 
 
 "For although as well in little children as in adults, justification, 
 regeneration, and adoption imply acts of God ; yet these Divine acts, so far 
 as they relate to little children, do not require in them any precedent actions 
 of free will : but in adults they do by Divine appointment require them to 
 
 * Non pereunt, quod amiserint regenerationem sacrcnnentalem parvulis regen- 
 erandis idoneam ; sed quod nunquam habuerint regenerationem illam alteram ex 
 semine verbi, efficacia Spiritus Sancti, quae ad regenerationem adultorum efficicn- 
 dam necessaria est. (pp. 19, 20.) 
 
 f Parvulorum baptizaturum Justificatio, Regeneratio, et Adoptio confert illi 
 tatum salutis PRO CONDITIONK PARVULORUM. (p. 26.) 
 
 \ Ex hisce cuivis patere potest iufantes per Baptismum poni quidem hi stata 
 ealutis, sed respcctivl tanticm ad illam, tBtatem et conditionem parmdorum. Qui 
 igitur in adultiore ietate pereunt noii impleto Baptism! voto, non amittuut statum 
 flaliiiifcrmn, quern habuerunt pro conditione infanlulorum ; sed amittunt statum 
 uifantilem, quo mutato, cessat esse sujficiens ad salutem adulti, quod ex ordina- 
 tione divina sufficiens erat ad salutem parvuli. (p. 27.) 
 
 Qui in Baptismo pro communi conditione parvulorum verfc justificati, regen- 
 erati et adoptati fuerunt, pro special! conditione adultorum non existunt justifi- 
 cati, regenerati, aut adoptati, cum ad usum rationis pervenerint, nisi poenitendo^ 
 credendo, abrenuntiando, votum BaptUinate nuncupatum implevcrint. (pj* 
 27, 28.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 313 
 
 precede : nor do they in little children imply those spiritual effects, with the 
 absence of which in adults their justification, regeneration, and adoption can 
 'in no way consist."* 
 
 From these passages, then, it appears, that Bishop Dave- 
 nant admitted, that all the infants of believerst have in bap- 
 tism the pardon of original sin assured to them, so that in a 
 certain sense they may be called regenerated by it : but that 
 this regeneration is only a bare remission of sin, and is not 
 that spiritual regeneration which is requisite for all adults to 
 make them the children of Grod and members of Christ. As 
 I have already observed, this view was not received by a large 
 body of our early divines, who did not admit that even origi- 
 nal sin was, necessarily and in all cases, pardoned in infants 
 at their baptism. And it is admitted by Dr. Ward, (as we shall 
 see presently,) though he agrees with Bishop Davenant's view, 
 and perhaps carries it a little further, that " MOST of our 
 divines " have held, that, " ablution of infants from original 
 sin [in baptism] is only conditional and expectative, of which 
 they have no benefit till they believe and repent."t 
 
 This difference of view, however, among our divines, is 
 comparatively of little moment. The great and all-important 
 point to be contended for is, that an adult is not necessarily in 
 a state of spiritual regeneraton because he was baptized as an 
 infant ; that is, that such spiritual regeneration as is neces- 
 sary for an adult is not always conferred upon infants when 
 they are baptized. And this, as we see. Bishop Davenant 
 holds as firmly as any other Protestant divine. Spiritual 
 regeneration and justification are, by the doctrine of our 
 Church as well as Holy Scripture, indissolubly connected, in 
 adults, with faith. And where this truth is denied, the doc- 
 trine of justification by faith is plucked up by the roots. This 
 
 * Nam licet tarn in parvulis, quam in adultis, justificatio, regeneratio et 
 adoptio innuant actus Dei; tamen hi actus divini, quatenus spectant parvulos, 
 non requirunt in illis actiones aliqnas praecedaneas liberi arbitrii ; at in adultis ex 
 ordinatione divina prserequirunt ; NEQUK PONUNT IN PAEVULIS SPIHITUALIA ILLA 
 
 KFFECTA, QU.* IN ADULTIS 81 MINUS PONANTUE, ILLOttUM JUSTIFICATIO, REGENEBATIO, 
 KT ADOPTIO NULLO XODO POTEST CONSlSTERE. (p. 28.) 
 
 * I say of "believers," because his other writings clearly show that he held 
 auch only to be proper subjects for baptism. 
 
 f Letter to Abp. Usher, among Usher's Letters, quoted more fully below.
 
 314 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 we may clearly see in the remark of the Popish Bishop Gardi- 
 ner respecting Cranmer's Homily on Justification, quoted above, 
 (p. 187,) namely, that any such disquisition on the doctrine 
 of Justification is quite unnecessary, in a Church where all 
 are baptized as infants, " in which Sacrament of Baptism all 
 we be justified before we can talk of this justification we strive 
 for." Most justly, therefore, has Bishop Burnet, in his Expo- 
 sition of the XXXIX Articles, described the doctrine of sacra- 
 mental justification as one of the most pernicious errors of 
 the Church of Rome. 
 
 Having thus gone through the testimonies that remain to 
 us of the views of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, 
 and the Divinity Professors of our two Universities, up to, and 
 even beyond, the middle of the reign of James I., I must 
 request the reader to consider the weight of the testimony 
 thus produced in determining the doctrine of our Church. 
 The writers from whom I have been quoting, have not been 
 taken at random, nor selected as the adherents of any particu- 
 lar school, but are the witnesses remaining to us of the views 
 of that body of our divines, (namely, the succession- of our 
 Primates and the Divinity Professors of our Universities,) to 
 which any impartial person would probably at once look, as 
 forming the most unexceptionable referees for the dominant 
 theology of our Church in their day. What their evidence is, 
 I leave the reader to determine for himself. And he must 
 also recollect, how far the proofs given above, (in the third 
 chapter,) of the system of doctrine held by those of whose 
 sentiments on the particular subject of our present inquiry no 
 testimony is to be found, show that they also maintained the 
 same view as that taken by the writers just quoted. 
 
 I now proceed to the writings of other divines of the same 
 period; many of them of equal celebrity; almost all either 
 Bishops, or holding high and important offices in our Church 
 or Universities ; and all of them clearly entitled to an influ- 
 ential voice in such an inquiry as that in which we are now 
 engaged. 
 
 I give first a series of the Bishops of this period.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 315 
 
 BISHOP GESTE, or G-HEAST ; 
 
 Bishop of Rochester from 4559 to 1571; and of Salisbury 
 from 1571 to 1576. 
 
 Bishop Geste is justly described, in the Life of him recently" 
 published,* as having had the principal hand in preparing our 
 present Book of Common Prayer, as arranged at the commence- 
 ment of Queen Elizabeth's reign from the preceding Books 
 revised and corrected. Any testimony, therefore, on our present 
 subject, from such a quarter, is doubly valuable, 
 
 Now in -his " Treatise against the private Masse,"t published 
 in 1548, he distinctly adopts the view that the baptismal 
 blessing is to be considered as given to infants that are them- 
 selves " faithful." For he says, 
 
 " Christ, both God and man, with his Father and the Holy Ghost is 
 present at the baptism of FAITHFUL infants, where they become embodied 
 and incorporate thereto, it is to wete, where they eat his body and drink 
 his blood as really as we do at his Supper."t 
 
 Whether it is to be understood from this that he agreed 
 with Luther and his own contemporary Lancelot Ridley in 
 supposing that infants have actual faith, and are to be consid- 
 ered as coming to baptism as actual believers, or whether he 
 meant to refer to infants having a principle of Divine grace 
 including the seed of faith implanted in them by God's gift, 
 is a question of no moment. The doctrine involved in the 
 statement, as far as concerns the subject of our present inquiry, 
 is the same in both cases : and beyond all doubt clear enough. 
 
 In the same Treatise he also remarks, 
 
 " The right usage of God's word and his Sacraments is recounted their 
 due honour, as their abusion dishonour. The Word, Baptism and Absolu- 
 tion^ through mean of true and obedient faith and cleansed conscience be 
 
 * The Life and Character of Edm. Geste. By H. G. Dugdale, Esq. Lond. 
 1840. 8vo. The Appendix of this work contains a reprint of his Remains. 
 
 f A Treatise againste the prevee Masse in the behalfe and furlheraunce of the 
 
 mooste holye communyon 1548 .... imprinted by Thomas Raynold. 
 
 16mo. 
 
 t The Life and Character of Edm. Geste. Appendix, p. 116. 
 . If these words should be considered as making Absolution a Sacrament, it 
 must be remembered that the work was published in 1548, and that Cranmer
 
 316 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 condignly and accordingly received, without either crouching or kneeling," 
 &c. (p. 121.) 
 
 But Bishop Greste, like the rest, when speaking generally 
 of baptism, ascribes to it its appropriate effect. Thus he 
 $ays, " In baptism we put on Christ ;" but his words in the 
 immediate context show how much his meaning would be 
 misrepresented, if this passage was taken to imply that all 
 the baptized put on Christ. And the paragraph may be so 
 useful in meeting some views now, alas, rife among us, that 
 I will give the whole of it. 
 
 " Because it is thought sufficient to use but a surplice in baptizing, 
 reading, preaching, and praying, therefore it is enough also for the celebrat- 
 ing of the communion. For if we should use another garment herein, it 
 should seem to teach us, that higher and better things be given by it, than 
 be given by the other service, which we must not believe. For in baptism 
 we put on Christ. In the word, we eat and drink Christ, as Hierome and 
 Gregory write."* 
 
 Such, then, as eat and drink Christ in the word, put on 
 Christ in baptism. 
 
 BISHOP ALLEY ; 
 Bishop of Exeter from 1560 to 1570. 
 
 In the year 1560 Bishop Alley read in St. Paul's Cathedral, 
 London, "preelections" upon the first Epistle of St. Peter, 
 which were first published in 1562, and again in a revised 
 edition in 1571. 
 
 In this work he says, 
 
 " It may be easily proved, that neither the preaching of the Gospel, nor 
 receiving of the Sacraments, without faith, doth profit anything at all : for 
 St. Paul saith, ' Sine fide impossibile est placere Deo.' " f 
 
 And it is remarkable that the whole of the preceding part 
 of the paragraph from which these words are taken, describing 
 the nature of a Sacrament, is translated verbatim from Bullin- 
 
 himself published, in the same year, a Catechism in which it was so reckoned. 
 The doctrine of our Church on that point has been settled since the period of 
 these works. 
 
 * Letter to Sir W. Cecil, sent with the Service Book. Ib App. No. 4, p. 145. 
 
 t Ed. 1671. fol 183.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 317 
 
 ger's Decads. The first portion of it will be found at p. 968, 
 and the latter at pp. 981, 982, of the English edition of the 
 Decads above quoted. And, in fact, the passage just given, 
 with the Scripture reference on which it is founded, and what 
 follows to the end of the paragraph, are hardly more than an 
 abridgment of Bullinger's remarks in the same place. 
 
 Moreover, understanding " the Church to be the company 
 of true believers," those whom " Grod hath sanctified," and "in 
 whom he dwelleth, being his holy and peculiar house,"* he 
 thus defines it, 
 
 " We may call Ecclesiam, the Church, a company of them that believe, 
 and them that are regenerate, which God gathered in Christ by the word 
 and the Holy Ghost. ... It is called the body of Christ because all his 
 members take him for their head, of whom they take their increasing, and 
 do obtain life by the sending abroad of the Holy Ghost. And these members 
 are so fast joined to the head, that they be called flesh of his flesh and bone 
 of his bones. "f 
 
 Here is clearly a distinction between " the regenerate " and 
 mere nominal Christians. 
 
 BISHOP COOPER; 
 
 Dean of Christ Church from 1567, and of Gloucester from 
 1569 to 1570 ; Bishop of Lincoln from 1570 to 1583, 
 and of Winchester from 1583 to 1594. 
 
 Bishop Cooper was one of the principal writers against the 
 Puritans, and among the most learned divines of his day. In 
 1573 he published, in 4to., 
 
 "A brief Exposition of such Chapters of the Old Testament as are 
 usually read in the Church at Common Prayer on the Sunday." " There 
 was an endeavour," Strype tells us, " that this book should be had in every 
 parish church ; and for the forwarding this, the Archbishop [Parker] gave 
 his own testimonial to the Treasurer in June this year concerning the book ; 
 viz., ' That he thought it to be profitable for instruction, and necessary for 
 the unlearned minister, but most to the poor subjects, who were certainly 
 to be informed by the stability of this doctrine. And therefore he desired 
 his Lordship to signify the same unto her Majesty's Council, that they 
 might give some commendation thereunto ; which he supposed would do 
 well.' " $ 
 
 * FoL 145, and see fol. 186, 187, <fcc. f Fol. 147. 
 
 ; Life of Parker, il 367. Oxf. ed.
 
 318 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 In this work, commenting on Jer. v. 2, 3, he says, 
 
 "This place ought to teach us, that the name of the Church, or People 
 of God. the title of Christians, the external Sacraments of Christian religion, 
 are not sufficient to move the favour of God toward us, nor to make us his 
 people, unless the fear of God and true holiness be in our hearts." (fol. 281.) 
 
 But in 1580 he published a volume of Sermons,* in which 
 the subject of the Sacraments is treated at some length. 
 
 In the second Sermon, giving a brief view of the " fruitful 
 doctrine of the Protestants concerning baptism," he says, 
 
 " As touching baptism, we teach not only, as some falsely father upon 
 us, that it is signum initiale, a sign whereby we be first consecrated Chris- 
 tians ; but we add also, that we by faith, and the operation of the Holy 
 Ghost, do put on Christ as a garment, that is, that we have him so fas- 
 tened and appropriated to us, that he is ours, and we his, and that he hideth 
 and covereth our nakedness, according as S. Paul saith : l As many as are 
 baptized, have put on Christ.' We believe and teach, that Baptism is to 
 Christians the fountain of life, whereby our sins are washed away . . . [re- 
 ferring to Acts ii. 38, and xxii. 16.] Yet do we not attribute the operation 
 hereof to the water or outward element, but to the might of God's word, 
 and the power of the Holy Ghost, WORKING BY FAITH, as Augustine saith, 
 ' Quomodo fit quod aqua corpus tangat, et cor abluat, nisi faciente verbo, 
 non quia dicitur, sed quia creditur : ' i. e. ' How cometh it to pass, that 
 water toucheth the body and washeth the soul, but by the working of the 
 word, not because it is spoken, but because it is believed.' Where it is to 
 be noted, that it is not the sound of the words, uttered in the way of a 
 charm by the minister, but the words believed in the hearts of the faithful, 
 that makcth the promise of Christ and effect of the Sacrament to be fruitful 
 to the receiver. 'We believe moreover and teach, that the Sacrament of 
 baptism is, as it were, the womb of the Church of Christ, where we are 
 new born, and become of the children of wrath the children of God, and 
 are prepared by this our second birth to enter into the kingdom of God. [He 
 refers here to John iii. 5, and Tit. iii. 5.] We believe also and teach as 
 touching this Sacrament, that not only we, but our seed also, hath by it 
 the benefit of salvation, and therefore do we defend the baptizing of our 
 children, against the wicked heresy of the Anabaptists. They which con- 
 sider these things simply, and with a charitable Christian mind. I trust 
 will clear us of that odious report wherewith our adversaries slanderously 
 do burthen us, as though we contemned the Sacraments, and slightly taught 
 the fruits and benefits of them. Now, on the contrary part, let us consider 
 how corruptly the Church of Rome teacheth, as touching this Sacrament, 
 and how horribly they have abused it. First, they teach that baptism doth 
 confer grace and wash away our sins, ex opere operato, that is, even by the 
 
 * Certain Sermons wherein is contained the Defence of the Gospel now 
 preached, ttc. Loud. 1580. 4to. 
 
 I
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 319 
 
 very washing only of the water, though there be no good motion of faith or 
 belief in the heart of him that is baptized." (pp. 30, 31.) 
 
 And speaking of "what fruits have followed the preaching 
 of the Gospel," he reckons among them, 
 
 " That sundry points of doctrine be reformed. . . . principally, the 
 wholesome doctrine of the grace and merit of Christ, of remission of sins, 
 of eternal life, received by faith in Christ, and sealed and confirmed by his 
 Sacraments" (p. 113.) 
 
 Treating more fully of the Sacraments in another Sermon, 
 he thus defines the word " Sacrament :" 
 
 " A sacrament is a reverend and holy mystery ordained of God, wherein 
 he by his holy word and promise, doth both stir up and practise the faith 
 of his people, and by the operation of the Holy Ghost increase his grace in 
 them, and bestow his benefits and blessings upon them ; and we on the 
 other part testify our obedience toward him, and unity of faith among our- 
 selves." (p. 118.) 
 
 But, 
 
 " Indeed the hand of the receiver, being without faith, maketh the Sacra- 
 ments, that of themselves be good, to be unto him of no force because of his 
 unbelief." (p. 119.) 
 
 " By faith we begraffed into Christ, as branches into the root and stock, 
 so that we live now by him and by his Spirit, as the branches do by the 
 juice that cometh from the body of the tree. By faith we be so united unto 
 Christ, that we may justly say, whatsoever is his, is ours also : by faith we 
 are made the children of God and heirs of eternal life." (p. 146.) 
 
 ' Some perchance will say unto me, or will think with themselves in 
 their mind : If this doctrine be true, tffen are Sacramentsneedless. For we 
 may eat Christ by faith, spiritually, in such sort as you have said, without 
 any use of the Lord's Supper, [this passage occurs in a Sermon on the Lord's 
 Supper.! and therefore it may seem superfluous. God forbid that the most 
 perfect Christians and of strongest faith, should once think Sacraments to 
 be superfluous and needless. They be the blessed and holy ordinances of 
 Christ, by his mercy and goodness appointed for our great help and benefit, 
 as I have in the former sermon [which is on the two Sacraments] declared. 
 And yet I must confess to the great comfort of many godly persons, that the 
 faithful Christian may, and doth often feed upon Christ to salvation, beside 
 the use of the Sacrament. For the spiritual grace and benefits, which as 
 I have said before is the principal part of a Sacrament, is not of necessity 
 always so tied to the outward signs, that without them God cannot or doth 
 not sometime bestow the same. I doubt not but the thief upon the cross 
 without use of the Sacrament did eat the body and blood of Christ in such 
 sort, that he was the same day with him in Paradise. (Luke xxiii. 41.) 
 We see in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts x.) that Cornelius and his company
 
 320 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 ^ 
 
 were sealed with the Spirit of God, before the receiving of the outward 
 Sacrament, in such sort, that if he had then immediately departed out of 
 this life, he should have gone to heaven, which could not be, unless he had 
 spiritually by faith eaten the true food of everlasting life, that is, Christ 
 Jesus crucified, which he fed upon most assuredly while he heard St. Peter 
 preach Christ.''' (pp. 147, 148.) 
 
 Here, though his especial subject is the Lords' Supper, he 
 puts both Sacraments together, as being both ordinances of 
 precisely the same nature. And this, with several other pas- 
 sages in the context, may illustrate the phraseology of the 
 Twenty-fifth Article, where one sentence may seem only to 
 apply to one Sacrament, while the next uses the word Sacra- 
 ments in the plural number, and therefore was intended to 
 apply to both, the subject of the Article being the two Sacra- 
 ments. 
 
 Again, he says, 
 
 "The word of God teacheth that Sacraments are, as it were, seals to 
 confirm the truth of God's promises, and to strength [strengthen] our 
 faith. . . . The Scriptures teach that in the use of the Sacraments through 
 faith, we be united unto Christ, and ingraffed into his mystical body, so 
 that we live now only by him, and whatsoever is his, by the truth of his 
 promise, is ours also." (p. 151.) 
 
 But with this doctrine he is careful to connect that of the 
 efficacy of the Sacraments in the case of a right reception of 
 them. Thus he says : 
 
 " Wherefore the especial and principal part of the Sacrament is the 
 spiritual and internal thing, as in baptism (as I have said) regeneration 
 and sanctification." (p. 122.) 
 
 "We teach and believe that these spiritual effects are as certainly 
 wrought by the Holy Ghost in the Sacraments, as we see that the external 
 elements have their operation in the course of nature. For the Sacraments 
 are as the deeds and seals of Almighty God, whereby he doth in deed and 
 verily, not only by signification, but effectually, convey unto us the possession 
 of his spiritual blessings.' (p. 123.) 
 
 <( The right use and understanding of the Sacraments teacheth 
 
 us, that in Baptism we are all new born, children of God and graffed into 
 one body." (p. 127.) 
 
 " You hear us teach, and as you love the salvation of your souls, require 
 you to believe, that they [the Sacraments] be signs and figures indeed, but 
 such as most assuredly bring unto the faithful heart, verily and in truth, 
 the self-same things that they signify ; so that the faithful Christian receiver
 
 EFFE'CTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 321 
 
 may assure himself, that as truly as God is God, so truly he receiveth those 
 things which the outward Sacrament doth signify." (p. 128.) 
 
 And then, in the immediate context, he explains the mean- 
 ing of this language in these words : 
 
 " When we speak therefore of the Sacrament, we must speak AS IT is is 
 ITSELF, by the force of God's word, consisting of all three parts, [i. e. the 
 outward sign, the invisible grace, and 'the word of Christ's institution and 
 promise,'] and not as the boldness of men, or THE WEAKNESS AND IMPER- 
 FECTION OF OUR FAITH MAY MAKE IT UNTO US." (p. 128.) 
 
 Here is the explanation of all such passages as speak in 
 general terms of the value and force of the Sacraments. They 
 speak of them as they are when their full effects and purpose 
 are realized. They were intended by Grod to convey a spiritual 
 blessing, and invisible grace. But the faithlessness of man 
 may make them a mere external rite. To the true believer 
 baptism is effectual for his incorporation into the true (as dis- 
 tinguished from the nominal) Church of Christ, whether it 
 wrought this effect precisely at the period when it was bestowed, 
 or at some subsequent time. To the unbeliever it produces no 
 such effect. 
 
 BISHOP BABINGrTON; 
 
 Bishop of Llandaff from 1591 to 1594 ; of Exeter from 
 1594 to 1597 ; and of Worcester from 1597 to 1610. 
 
 In his " Notes on Genesis," first published in 1592, he 
 says : 
 
 " That the child was not circumcised before the eighth day, it teacheth 
 us that God hath not tied salvation to the Sacrament, for it had been a hard 
 thing in the Lord to defer it an hour if the child had perished without it. 
 This answereth the fear of some good ones, and the false boldness of some 
 bad ones, in these days, touching children that die without baptism, for God 
 is not worse to us under the Gospel, than he was to them under the Law; 
 neither less able to save now without baptism, than in those days he was 
 without circumcision, the seed of the faithful. This grace was not then free 
 and now bound, then more and now less, then stronger and now weaker; 
 far be it from us so to dream. David's child, when it died before the eighth 
 day, he yet for all that judged not damned, neither cried out for it as he did 
 for Absalom that was circumcised, but said that he should go to it. refreshed 
 himself, cheered his wife, and made his servants to wonder at his comfort. 
 And when he said he should go to it, we know that he meant not that it was 
 in hell, or any hellish Limbus. and that thither himself looked to go to it,
 
 322 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS". 
 
 but rather comfortably he conceived it was with the Lord, because the 
 promise extended itself both to the godly and to their seed. If further we 
 desire to think of this matter, consider we this and the like reasons. No 
 elect can be damned, we know it a principle, whatsoever foolish men do 
 prattle : but some unbaptized are elect, (a thing that no man will deny,)' 
 therefore some unbaptized cannot be damned which if it be true, then see 
 you plainly that salvation is not tied to baptism, as some imagine. Again, 
 'he^that heareth my word,' saith Christ, 'and believeth in him that sent 
 me, shall be saved,' cannot be damned, (John v. 24 :) but this may one do 
 before he be baptized : therefore, before a man be baptized, he may stand 
 in the state of salvation, and out of all danger of damnation. The assump- 
 tion is evident in the eunuch (Acts viii.) and others Are covenants 
 
 made by sacraments, or only sealed by them ? Did not the primitive Church 
 examine those of years in the faith before they baptized them ? Why so, I 
 pray you, but that they might shew it was the covenant, not the seal, their 
 faith and not the sacrament, which chiefly was to be regarded, though the seal 
 also in no case to be neglected, much less contemned. How many in times 
 past deferred their baptism for many years, as Constantine, Nazianzen, &c., 
 not therein doing so well as they ought, but yet evidently showing the faith 
 of the Church then, that God without baptism is able to save, and hath not 
 tied his grace to any sign."* 
 
 And in another work, entitled " An Exposition of the 
 Catholic Faith ; or The Twelve Articles of the Apostles' Creed 
 Expounded, &o." he clearly limits the gift of regeneration to 
 a portion of the visible Church. Commenting on the Ninth 
 Article, which he thus delivers, " I believe the Holy Catholic 
 Church, the Communion of Saints," he remarks : 
 
 " For the sense and meaning, it is as if I should say, I believe that God 
 ever hath had, ever hath, and ever shall have to the end of the world, a 
 certain flock gathered of all sorts of men, and chosen by him to eternal life, 
 which by his Holy Spirit and Word, agreeing in true faith, he gathereth, 
 defendeth, and prcserveth ; and I believe that of this Church I am a true 
 
 living member, and by his grace shall ever so remain [And citing 
 
 John x. 16, and Rom. xii. 5, he says] Both these Scriptures and the former 
 title in the Creed [i. e. ' Holy Catholic Church '] are to be understood not 
 of the visible, but of the invisible Church of the elect alone, which indeed 
 is called the body of Christ, because most nearly it is joined to Christ her 
 Head. It is called the Spouse of Christ, because it is loved of him, and 
 because by a spiritual matrimony Christ hath joined himself to her. It is 
 called the Sheepfold of Christ, because it heareth his voice. And when 
 you speak of a note or mark to know the Church by, you must understand 
 the visible Church consisting not of elect alone, but mixed with elect and 
 
 * Works of Bishop Babington. 1622. fol. Notes upon Genesis, p. 58.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 333 
 
 rtprobate together. . . . The Church is holy, 'quia accepit gratiam sancti- 
 tatis, gratiam Baptismi et remissionis peccatorum' (August, in Ps. 85:) 
 ' Because she hath received the grace of holiness, the grace of Baptism, and 
 the forgiveness of sins.' After this sort, I believe there is no death, no sin 
 in the Church, because such as believe in Christ are not sinners, are not 
 guilty of death, but just and holy, and lords over both sin and death in 
 Christ, appointed and assured of eternal life. But this holiness hitherto 
 spoken of is a note of the invisible Church, and therefore cannot be applied 
 to the visible) in which, though there be many that live holily, yet there be 
 many goats mingled, and holiness is known only to God." * 
 
 And in his comment on the next Article, " I believe the 
 forgiveness of sins," he expressly says : 
 
 " To whom doth God grant this mercy ? To all the company of his 
 elect, and to them only. So saith the Scripture; the people that dwell 
 therein, that is, in the Church, and so consequently are his sheep, and of 
 his fold, they, they shall have their sins forgiven." (Is. xxxiii. 24.)f 
 
 But still, precisely according to the language of our Liturgy 
 and Catechism, he held that one who professed himself to be 
 a true believer ought to consider himself as one to whom this 
 mercy has been granted, for he says : 
 
 " Now see the comfort of the Article. I believe the forgiveness of sinSj 
 that is, even of my sins, my sins, my sins, must every man say. For to 
 believe other men's to be pardoned, and not mine, is, not to believe the 
 Article." $ 
 
 And in his " Exposition on the Lord's Prayer," first pub- 
 lished in 1588, he thus describes " regeneration :" 
 
 " We are by nature the children of wrath, walking after the Prince that 
 ruleth in the air, that is. the devil. But the Lord is gracious, his mercy 
 endureth for ever : there remaineth therefore hope by a restitution or rege- 
 neration, which the Scripture teacheth us thus much of: namely, That 
 whereas Satan abuseth that corrupt nature of ours through the great power 
 which he hath over us for our sins, and driveth us from the word and all 
 religion into all blindness, ignorance, and errors ; thrusteth us into divers 
 miseries and calamities, and in the end into eternal death, there being, 
 where he ruleth, no true love of God or any grace, but sinning, without 
 sting, touch, or feeling : the Lord our God in a contrary course of love, 
 WHERE IT PLEASETH HIM, beginneth with that corruption of nature whereby 
 Satan before was strong, and taketh it away by little and little, begetting 
 tw anew to a better life, and restoring that image of his in us again, where- 
 
 " Works ; Expos, of the Catholic Faith, pp. 226, 228, 282. 
 f Ib. p. 249. $ Ib. p 249.
 
 324 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 unto we were first created, and which so fearfully we were fallen from. 
 Our mind he illuminateth with some heavenly light, whereby it beginneth 
 to know aright God, and by grace our will receiveth a new strength to em- 
 brace the word, to rest in it, and to incline itself to the testimonies of the 
 Lord. Our heart is purged and loveth the Lord T and all the members of 
 the body, before the weapons of unrighteousness unto sin, become by mea- 
 sure the weapons of righteousness unto God, So sin dieth, grace liveth, 
 and we love him, fear him, trust in him, pray to him often, and in all our 
 wants, with such like."* 
 
 Such is his account of " regeneration." Neither is there 
 any notice of baptism in it, nor does the description agree with 
 any universal effect produced by infant baptism. 
 
 BISHOP JOHN BRIDGES; 
 
 Dean of Salisbury from 1577 to 1603, and Bishop of Oxford 
 from 1603 to 1618. 
 
 The work from which the following extracts are taken, 
 entitled, " Defence of the Government Established in the 
 Church of England," was written by Bishop Bridges, when 
 Dean of Salisbury, in defence of the Church against the Puri- 
 tans. 
 
 ' Is it not then of sufficient virtue to baptize and clease the infant, when 
 besides the element of water, these words, In the name of the Father, of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that Christ hath commanded those to use, which 
 are his ministers appointed thereunto, besides the promise there declared 
 of washing away our sins, of newness of life, and that we shall be saved : 
 which promise, WHERE God's spirit worketh by his word, is annexed to the 
 element, is not all this sufficient and effectual to baptize an infant, except 
 a sermon also hereof be made at his baptism?" (Defence of Government 
 Estab.in Ch. of Engl. Lond. 1587. 4to. p. 564.) 
 
 To the objection of his opponents, that the Church, in 
 saying that baptism was to be ministered in private places, 
 " only in case of necessity," seemed to make baptism absolutely 
 necessary to salvation, he replies thus, 
 
 " What do our brethren here mean ? That there is no necessity at all 
 of baptism, although there be no such necessity ? Is there no necessity of 
 consequence, of condition, nor of conveniency, as well as absolute, simple, 
 and inevitable necessity ? If, generally, there were no necessity at all of 
 
 * Works ; Expos, of Lord's Prayer, pp. 140, 141.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 325 
 
 baptizing, then it were free, whether we would be baptized or no. But ii 
 is not free. Christ did institute baptism under flat commandment. There- 
 fore there is a necessity, and an important necessity of it. Did not baptism 
 succeed circumcision ? As Paul clearly setteth out, Col. ii. 11 and 12. In 
 whom also ye are circumcised, (saith he,) &c. And was there no necessity 
 at all of circumcision ? We grant this necessity was not so absolute, that 
 it reached to them before their time assigned no, nor yet after, was it so 
 absolute necessity, that it reached to them while they travelled in the 
 wilderness, God dispensing (for other manifold necessities) in that long 
 journey with the necessity of that sacrament. And yet God's command- 
 ment remaining entire : and they with such a necessity severely bound, 
 that they should not contemn on their parts the obedience and execution of 
 it. And therefore saith Zanchius in this very well, in his confession of 
 Christian Religion, concerning baptism, Cap. 15, Aphor. 5. ' We believe 
 that baptism is altogether necessary in the Church, as a sacrament instituted 
 of Christ, and which the Church can so little want, that where it is not, 
 when it may be had, there we may not acknowledge the Church of Christ. 
 Howbeit we think it needful unto salvation in this wise ; that notwith- 
 standing, if any, for the default of the minister, but not through contempt, 
 depart this life not sprinkled with the water, we believe not that he is 
 therefore damned, and wrapped in eternal destruction. For the children of 
 the faithful are therefore saved, because they are in the covenant ; but they 
 that be of ripe years, because they believe in Christ with a true laith, 
 which verily cannot suffer the contempt of Christ's commandment.' " 
 
 And having preceded to give some further quotations and 
 remarks, Dr. Bridges concludes thus, 
 
 " Neither do we urge this' absolute, simple, and inevitable necessity of 
 any of both the Sacraments themselves. Save in general, that they must 
 needs be had in the Church (as Zanchius said,) not only as necessary tokens 
 and demonstrances of the true Churches, but also as God's seals ordained 
 for the confirmation of our faith, and such parts of his covenant with us 
 and ours with him, as the whole Church is bound to have and use. But 
 when it comes to the particular use and application, we do not so necessarily 
 tie them to this or that person of or in the Church, that if they have them 
 not, be it not by their own default, the want of them may endanger their 
 salvation : the virtue whereof depends not upon any Sacrament, or is included 
 in it." (Ib. pp. 578, 579, and 587. See more, pp. 589, 590.) 
 
 A little further on, he speaks of, 
 
 The Pope^s "MANIFOLD AND HORRIBLE ERRORS OF DOCTRINE 
 
 CONCERNING BAPTISM." (Ib. 588.) 
 
 And his opponent having said, that the necessity of bap- 
 tism, intimated by the Church, " is nothing else but to affirm 
 with the Papist that Sacraments confer grace of the work
 
 326 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 wrought, and that the Sacrament of baptism is a Sacrament 
 of such necessity, that whosoever is not dipped in water must 
 be eternally condemned," he replies, 
 
 " This opinion of the Papists, as they now obstinately maintain the 
 same, is, I grant, heretical." (Ib. p. 590.) 
 
 And then he adds, in answer to the doctrine of his 
 opponents as to the necessity of a preacher to administer bap- 
 tism, 
 
 " Will not this heretical opinion of the Papists go near to creep in after, 
 of opus operatum, while we stand so necessarily on opus operantis ? " (Ib. 
 p. 594.) 
 
 And in another passage he distinctly maintains (though 
 incidentally, while treating on another point) Calvin's doctrine 
 on the subject. He is replying to the statement of his oppo- 
 nents pronouncing all to be lost that have not faith, and he 
 remarks that this is too unlimited a statement, observing, 
 
 "If there be no way of salvation but by faith, how well might we then 
 cry out indeed, Lord, how miserable is the state of all our infants, dying 
 not only before, but also after baptism in their infancy. The Papists, as 
 they pronounce that none are saved, but only such as are baptized, so, for 
 faith likewise, they hold this opinion, that there is no way of salvation but 
 by faith, albeit, adding other things thereto, and seeing their infants not 
 capable of faith, they affirm that they are saved, not by their own faith, but 
 by the Church's faith, and by the faith of their Godfathers and Godmothers 
 (as we call them,) that in baptizing undertake and answer for them. 
 
 "Luther and divers other following him, perceiving the grossnessof this 
 error (upon which sundry inconveniences depend,) to be saved by the faith, 
 not of himself, but of other, affirm that our infants have theirselves the 
 substance of faith, although it be not able in act to show itself: and that 
 (as Saint Paul saith out of Abakuk, ca. 2, The just liveth by his own faith) 
 they are likewise saved and justified by their own faith. 
 
 " But Calvin, seeing further into this matter, and that this properly and 
 in very deed is not faith, which requireth both an intellectual knowledge 
 and an actual assured persuasion and confidence on the truth of God's 
 promise and covenant in the mercies and merits of Christ Jesus, which act 
 of the mind infants have not ; and considering that salvation properly 
 dependeth not on the act or on the habit of our faith, but on GOD'S ETERNAL 
 ELECTION, and the performance of his promise ; and that faith being the gift 
 of God, is indeed the only means and way of salvation to those that are 
 capable to understand, and, by believing the same, apply the promise of 
 Christ his merits and salvation to themselves, but unto those that are not yet 
 grown to this capacity, their natural defect, or rather unripeness, maketh
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 327 
 
 jiot the promise of God frustrate, nor DEFEATETH THE ELECTION, THAT WAS 
 BEFORE THE CHILDREN WERE BORN, yea, ere the foundations of the world 
 were laid, purposed in God's eternal decree, and this foundation is sure, God 
 knows who are his ; Calvin therefore willeth us, not to apply these sen- 
 tences of Christ (that recommend faith unto us) unto the infants : but unto 
 those that are grown to capacity, by the gift of God in them, to understand 
 and apprehend the same. And for the infants of us which are faithful, 
 and so included in the covenant betwixt God and his people, admitting our 
 infants to receive the Sacrament of regeneration, because, though they be 
 not capable of knowledge and faith, yet are they capable of the thing signi- 
 fied, and of the favor of God the Father, and of the grace of Christ the Son, 
 and of the inspiration of the Holy Ghost ; yea, although they die before they 
 receive the outward sign, yet not to presume to judge them clean debarred 
 and bereft of these inward graces, but to rely upon the promise of the cove- 
 nant, that he will not only be our God, and so our Saviour, that have faith 
 in him, but the God and Saviour of our seed also, although yet they have 
 not faith in him, and that we and our seed shall be his people. Neither 
 only in an outward sanctification, whereby as the root, so the branches are 
 holy; but by the inward sanctification and by salvation, so FAR AS ACCORD- 
 
 ETH WITH HIS ETERNAL ELECTION IN CHRIST JESU." (Ib. pp. 482, 483.) 
 
 Here then we see plainly that in the opinion of Bishop 
 Bridges, the gift of the baptismal grace depends upon the 
 previous divine " election " of the child to salvation. 
 
 And I would just add, that while he denies that infants 
 can have actual faith, he holds at the same time that such 
 infants have " the seed of faith " in them, as appears from the 
 following words, 
 
 " In some respects, the Sacrament itself is more principal than is the 
 preaching of it. As in baptism, to incorporate the infant into the Church 
 of Christ, which infant is not properly as yet faithful, though he be the seed 
 of the faithful, and have (as Beza calleth it) the seed of faith, but not faith, 
 in him." (Ib. p. 594.) 
 
 BISHOP WILLIAM BARLOW; 
 
 Bishop of Rochester from 1605 to 1608, and of Lincoln from 
 1608 to 1613. He had previously been Chaplain to 
 Queen Elizabeth and to Archbishop Whitgift, a preben- 
 dary of St. Paul's, then of Westminster, and then of 
 Canterbury, and Dean of Chester. 
 
 The following extracts are from his " Defence of the Arti- 
 cles of the Protestants' Religion," published in 1601, in reply 
 to a work written by a Papist.
 
 328 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 The Papist brings the following charge (among others) 
 against the doctrine of the Protestants : 
 
 "The 3. Article is Remission of Sins, for they acknowledge no such 
 effect in the Sacrament of Baptism, but only account it as [an] external 
 sign of a prse-received grace or favor of God, by his eternal przedestina- 
 tion, against the express word of God: which therefore calleth the 
 Sacrament the laver of regeneration, (Tit. iii.,) for that in it the soul 
 dead by sin, is newly regenerated by grace." 
 
 To this Barlow, after complaining of the misrepresentation 
 here made of the doctrine of the Protestants, replies thus ; 
 
 11 The consent of our Church is, that Baptism is the indument of Christ r 
 Gal. iii. : an insition into Christ, Rom. vi. : as the ark of Noe, in the deluge 
 to save us, 1 Pet. iii. : the laver of regeneration to wash us, Tit. iii. : work- 
 ing a double effect, privately remissa culpa in washing us ; positively data 
 justitia in sanctifying us, 1 Cor. vi. 11 : whether we use it as the water of 
 Jordan by immersion, Matt, iii., or as the holy water in the law by asper- 
 sion, Numb. xix. : not regarding the heathenish distinction, between diving 
 and sprinkling in Macrob. (Sat. iii. c. 1.,} and therefore with Clemens 
 Alexandrinus we account it q&?/ua.*ov ir&tontY, the sovereign counterpoison- 
 against original venom ; with Nazianzen, the deluge of sin ; with Basil, 
 the mother of adoption ; with Chrysostom, the purgatory of life ; Ezechiel 
 his aqua munda, cleansing us from all our pollutions, Ezech. xxxvi. 
 Notwithstanding, we ascribe not this power either ad elementum or 
 momentum ; not to the element of water, as though it had vim ablutivam, 
 as Aquine speaketh, this scouring force ; or regenerativam, this renewing 
 power, as Lombard terms it; but unto the blood of Christ working invisibly 
 by the power of the Spirit, Tit. iii, Non enim aqua lavat anirnam, sed ipsa 
 prius lavatur a Spiritu, ut lavare possit spiritualiter, saith Jerome. Here- 
 upon the Fathers resemble it to the diving pool of Bethesda. John v. ; as 
 that being moved by the Angel had an healing power, so this consecrated 
 by the word and sanctified by the Spirit, hath a sovereign effect and opera- 
 tion ; and for that purpose, sometimes they call the water in baptism 
 rubram aquam, red water, the blood of Christ, having there his invisible 
 working. 
 
 " Why ? but the Protestants account it only an external seal of a pre- 
 received grace in God's predestination. [This is a quotation from his 
 opponent's charge, and he answers} He names none, yet Campian, whose 
 ape he is, quotes Calvin, (Rat. 8.) but cites him not; Durseus cites him 
 (Contra Whit. lib. 8,) but understands him not ; that word only is not the 
 first lie he hath coined. . . . The first fruit, which Master Calvin, among 
 these principal effects, noteth [Institut. lib. 4.] in this Sacrament is, that 
 it is symbolum nostrce purgationis, the very words of the Greek Scholiast 
 in 1 Pet. iii. <rv/u@t>Mx7rt a-Afna-Tne-n mroMeif yea of Pighius, a gross Papist, 
 Baptismus a peccatis ablutionis signum eat ; et instar signati diplomatis,
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 329 
 
 saith Calvin, and) as the King's letters patent under seal confirmeth our 
 commission : that as a prince, having purposed a favor to his subjects, grants 
 it by his patents of mere indulgence, and ratifies it by his seal for more 
 assurance ; so God HAVING PURPOSED IN HIS ETERNAL COUNSEL TO SAVE 
 SOME, which he cannot do before he has remitted their sins, therefore in Bap- 
 tism he both confers this grace and confirms it UNTO THEM ; for which cause 
 the Scriptures and Fathers do call it sigillum promissionis et remissionis 
 confers it, I say, as Campian [ubi sup.] confesseth it, veluti per canalem, 
 derivatively, not originally effectually, not effectively ; as by a brook not 
 as from a spring ; for this is Christ's blood, quia lotus Christi est latex sacra- 
 menti, saith S. Austin : as Allen the Cardinal speaketh [De sacra, chap. 3.,] 
 grace is wrought in baptism as a man writeth with a pen, powerfully, yet 
 instrumentally ; confirms it visibly, sealing that which [is] concealed. So, 
 that which was in his secret counsel, propositum, the purpose of his will by 
 predestination, in Baptism he makes it depositum, the pledge of our salvation, 
 and ONLY TO THE ELECT ; for, in dolis electis sacramenta efficiunt quod figurant, 
 saith S. Augustine, in the elect only the sacraments perform really, which 
 they present figuratively: (Aug. de bap. contra Donat, et citat. a Lomb. 
 lib. 4.)* and therefore that is no heresy nor fancy to call it THE SEAL OF A 
 PRJE-RECEIVED GRACE. For justification by faith, which oftentimes, in those 
 which are adulti, prevents Baptism, is a prce-accepted grace, and cannot 
 stand without a perfect remission of their sins which are so justified. What 
 fruit then brings Baptism to them ? even this, saith Lombard (ubi sup. F.j) 
 because he who thus justified cometh to baptism, is as the branch brought 
 by the dove into Noe his ark, Gen. 8. qui ante intus erat judicio Dei, sed 
 nunc etiam judicio Ecclesuz, who before was justified, and fully remitted in 
 God's secret judgment, but now by baptism is made a visible member of 
 the Church, the sacrament being the evidence of God's providence, and this 
 was Cornelius his case, Acts 10. Also we urge (Bilson, lib. 4. contr. Apol. 
 Jesuit.) the necessity of baptism, especially to infants, lest they should 
 seem either naturally innocent, or generally sanctified without it ; yet not 
 simply, but with a reservation, first, of God's omnipotency, who being agens 
 liberrimum, as the schoolmen speak, hath not tied his power to the Sacra- 
 ments, saith Lombard ; (ubi sup.;) secondly, of pre-eminence to Christ's 
 baptism, wherein not he, but we were washed, the waters drenching him, 
 but cleansing us : which made S. Augustine to cry out O misericordia, 
 the mercy and withall the power of God, Necdum eramus in mundo, et jam 
 abluebamur in Baptismo. (August, de temp. serm. 30.) Thirdly, with a 
 dispensation of that which the schoolmen call articulum necessitatis, there 
 being no contempt of religion, but either extremity disappointing, or death 
 suddenly preventing, as infants, and the thief crucified, Luke 23. Fourthly, 
 with a distinction of Baptismus voti, when there is a will in the parties, 
 but no opportunity for the action, volentes non valentes saith Lombard, as 
 
 * The citation here may be inaccurate, but of course this does not affect the 
 question of Barlow's doctrine, as maintained throughout the passage.
 
 330 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 in the case of Valentinian in S. Ambrose. (Anibros. orat. funeb. Valentin.) 
 Briefly, we so highly extol the dignity, necessity, and efficacy of Baptism, 
 that Duraus pleaseth himself triumphantly, in hope that some of our writers 
 are proved, in this opinion, Romanists, saving he misliketh our detestation 
 of that magical conceit of opus operatum. videlicet, that the very act of 
 Baptism, without either the parties faith, or the Spirit's power, should con- 
 firm grace of itself. (Durseus De Paradox, contr. Whitak.")* 
 
 Here again we see that the strongest terms may be used 
 as to the benefit of baptism, where nevertheless they are 
 understood as applicable only in those cases where Grod has a 
 purpose of mercy to accomplish in the recipient of baptism ; 
 where in fact there is a " prse-received grace ; " and that 
 Duraeus the Romanist "pleased himself triumphantly" in 
 those times, as some are inclined to triumph in these times, 
 in misinterpreting such phrases as intended to express the 
 Romish doctrine of Baptism. 
 
 And it is observable, that the Popish writer here replied 
 to, while he draws a distinction between the general body of 
 the Protestants of the Church of England and " the Puritans," 
 ascribing three errors respecting the Creed to both these 
 parties, and two more to the latter, puts down this error (as 
 he calls it) respecting baptism among the three held by both. 
 
 I may here add, that this work is dated by Barlow from 
 Lambeth Palace (he being then one of Archbishop Whitgift's 
 chaplains,) and dedicated by him to Dr. Bancroft, then 
 Bishop of London, and afterwards Whitgift's successor at 
 Canterbury. 
 
 BISHOP LANCELOT ANDREWS.; 
 
 Bishop of Chichester from 1605 to 1609 ; of Ely from 1609 
 to 1618 ; and of Winchester from 1618 to 1626. 
 
 Bishop Andrews, though not precisely of the same senti- 
 ments as the great body of his predecessors and contempora- 
 ries in our Church, on the subject of Predestination and its 
 
 * A Defence of the Articles of the Protestants' Religion, in answer to a libel 
 lately cast abroad, entitled, Certain Articles, or forcible reasons, discovering the 
 palpable absurdities, and most intricate errors of the Protestants' Religioa Lond. 
 1601, 4to. pp. 141-147.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 331 
 
 kindred points, is yet another witness against the doctrine 
 that spiritual regeneration is always conferred upon all infants 
 in baptism. And I need not say a word to prove that his 
 testimony is one entitled to great respect. 
 
 In his Sermons, " Of the Sending of the Holy Ghost," we 
 find the following passages : 
 
 "Howsoever it be, if these three, Prayer, the Word, the Sacraments, 
 be every one of them as an artery to convey the Spirit into us, well may 
 we hope, if we use them all three, we shall be in a good way to speed of 
 our desires. For, many times we miss, when we use this one, or that one, 
 alone ; where it may well be, God hath appointed to give it us by neither, 
 but by the third. It is not for us to limit or appoint him, how, or by what 
 way, He shall come unto us and visit us : but to offer up our obedience, in 
 using them all. (Serm. 1.)* 
 
 Again; 
 
 "Take Christ as a purchaser: the purchase is made, the price is paid; 
 yet is not the state perfect, unless there be investiture, or (as we call it) 
 liverie and seisin : that maketh it complete. Perquisitio, that very word is 
 Christ's : but the investiture is by the Spirit, 2 Cor. v. 5. If we come not, 
 we lack that : that, we may not lack, and so not lack him. What will ye, 
 that I say ? Unless we be joined to him, as well as he to us as he to us, 
 b/our flesh, so we to him, by his Spirit nothing is done. The exchange 
 is not perfect, unless, as he taketh our flesh, so he give us his Spirit : as he 
 carrie th up that to heaven, so he send this down into earth. Ye know, it 
 is the first question the Apostle asked : : Have ye received the Holy Ghost 
 since ye believed?' (Acts xix. 2.) If not, all else is to no purpose: with- 
 out it, we are still (as Jude calleth us) ' animales, Spiritum non habentes,' 
 natural men, but without the Spirit. (Jude, ver. 19.) And this is a certain 
 rule, 'Qui non habet,' he that hath not his Spirit is none of his; Christ 
 profiteth him nothing. (Rom. viii. 9.) Shall I let you see one inconvenience 
 more, of ' non veniet ? ' As nothing is done for us, so nothing can be done 
 by us, if he come not. No means on our part avail us ought. Not Bap- 
 tism; for, 'nwt ex Spiritu,' if he come not, well may it wash soil from 
 our skin, but no stain from our soul : no ' laver of regeneration,' without 
 'renewing of the Holy Ghost.' No Preaching, neither; for, that is but 'a 
 letter that killeth, 3 except the Spirit come too and quicken it. (2 Cor. iii. 6.) 
 No Sacrament ; we have a plain text for it : The ' flesh profiteth nothing,' if 
 'the Lord and giver of life' (the Spirit) be away. (John vi. 63.) To con- 
 clude, no Prayer; for 'nisi,' unless 'the Spirit help our infirmity.' and 
 ' make intercession with us,' we neither know how, nor what to pray. (Rom. 
 
 * Ninety-six Sermons by L. Andrews, late Bishop of Winchester. 2nd. ei 
 Lond. 1632. fol. p. 607.
 
 332 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 viii. 26.) So, the Spirit must come to all: and it goeth through; neither 
 can ought be done for us, or by us, without it." (Serm. 4.)* 
 
 Again, in words which clearly show the meaning of 
 passages that might at first sight, and separated from other 
 statements of the same author be taken as having an opposite 
 meaning : 
 
 " A third necessity there is, we receive him : for that, with him, we 
 shall receive whatever we want, or need to receive, for our souls' good. 
 And here fall in all his offices. By Him we are regenerate at the first, in 
 our baptism. (Tit. iii. 5.J By Him, after confirmed, in the imposition of 
 hands. (Heb. vi. 2.) By Him, after renewed to repentance, when we fall 
 away, by a second imposition of hands. (1 Tim. v. 22.) By Him, taught 
 all our life long, that we know not (John ii. 27); put in mind of what we 
 forget (John xiv. 26); stirred up in what we are dull (2 Cor. iii. 6); helped 
 in our prayers (Rom. viii. 26); relieved in our infirmities (John xiv. 16); 
 comforted in our heaviness : in a word, sealed to the day of our redemption 
 (Eph. iv. 30), and raised up again in the last day (Rom. viii. 11.) Go all 
 along, even from our Baptism to our very resurrection, and we cannot miss 
 him, but receive him we must." 
 
 Here, clearly, regeneration at baptism is spoken of pre- 
 cisely in the same way as the other spiritual gifts and bles- 
 sings here mentioned are spoken of, which confessedly are not 
 given universally. The word " we " evidently refers, not 'to 
 the whole professing Church, but to the true and faithful 
 members of Christ's body, as it is frequently used by other 
 authors, in passages which, from a misinterpretation of the 
 word, as if it included the whole body of nominal Christians, 
 are often quoted as proving the universal spiritual regenera- 
 tion of all in baptism. And the very next words that follow 
 in Bishop Andrews show that such is the case. For he pro- 
 ceeds, 
 
 " And on the other side, ' Si non recepistis,' without him received, re- 
 ceive what we will, nothing will do us good : receive the word, it is but ' a 
 killing letter;' (2 Cor. iii. 6.) receive baptism, it is but John's baptism; but 
 a barren element ; (Gal. iv. 9.) receive his flesh, it profiteth nothing; (John 
 
 vi. 63.) if we receive not Him, we be but 'animates, Spiritum non 
 
 habentes,' only men of soul, having not the Spirit, (Jud. 1.) 'Et animalis 
 homo,' the natural man that never received the Spirit, neither perceiveth 
 
 nor receiveth the things of God, hath nothing to do with them The 
 
 next point is, how to certify ourselves whether we have received this Spirit 
 
 Ib. p. 682.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 333 
 
 or no Of the Spirit, the signs are familiar. For if it be in us (as the 
 
 natural spirit doth) at the heart it will beat, at the mouth it "will breathe, 
 at the pulse it will be felt. Some one of these may, but all these will not 
 deceive us. At the heart we begin ; for that is first, ' Dabo vobis cor 
 novum et spiritum novum.' (Ezek. xxxvi. 26.) A new heart and a new 
 spirit we shall find. We shall be ' renewed in the spirit of our mind.' 
 (Ephes. iv. 23.) .... That a new spirit is received, no better way to know, 
 than by new thoughts and desires. That he that watches well the current 
 of his desires and thoughts, may know, whether, and what spirit it is he is 
 led by, old or new." (Serai. 5.)* 
 
 Here, evidently, it is taken for granted that baptism may 
 have been received without its being accompanied by the 
 regenerating influences of the Holy Spirit, and the test of 
 regeneration is placed in the state of the heart. 
 
 Again, in another Sermon on Luke iii. 21, 22, comment- 
 ing on the voice from heaven at our Lord's baptism, " This is 
 my beloved Son, &c." he speaks, if possible, more plainly to 
 the same effect. After having remarked, 
 
 " Such are we, by baptism, made to God in Christ, through the renewing 
 of the Holy Ghost" 
 
 He adds soon after, 
 
 " This voice, it came once more. Two several times it came. Once 
 here at his baptism : and again, after, at his transfiguration in the mount, 
 where he was not only said to be, but then and there showed to be, in glory, 
 as the Son of God indeed ; his face like the sun, his raiment like the light- 
 ning. And both of them pertain to us likewise : the first is spoken of us, 
 when by baptism we are received into Him, FOR THE POSSIBILITY AND HOPE 
 WE HAVE OP IT THEREBY. But time will come, when this second shall be 
 spoken, and verified of us, likewise." (Serm. 8.)f 
 
 Words cannot be plainer than these. 
 
 And agreeably to this we find him elsewhere, when 
 commenting on the words " have all been made to drink of 
 one Spirit/' (1 Cor. xii. 13,) which refers, he tells us, to the 
 Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, making this remark : 
 
 " That body which hath one beginning, and one nourishment, is one 
 body ; but all THE FAITHFUL have one beginning in the fountain of regen- 
 eration, that is, in baptism, and are all nourished with one nourishment ; 
 for they are all baptized into one body by one Spirit, and all made to drink 
 
 * Ib. p. 644, 646 f Ib. pp. 684, 685.
 
 334 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 of one Spirit : therefore they are all one body, and consequently should live 
 in unity one with another."* 
 
 He clearly confines the blessing in both Sacraments to 
 the faithful. As none but the faithful are spiritually nour- 
 ished in the Lord's Supper, so none but the faithful are 
 incorporated into Christ by baptism. 
 
 This principle is consistent with various shades of view as 
 to the effects of baptism in infants. It may be supposed by 
 some, that wherever there is an immediate effect from baptism, 
 there must have been a prevenient act of grace ; by others, 
 that the baptismal blessing may be conferred in anticipation 
 of future faith ; by others, that the salutary effect of baptism 
 is held in suspense until actual faith enables the party to 
 realize it, and so forth. All these views are consistent with 
 the adoption of this principle. But if this cardinal truth is 
 lost sight of, we sink at once into one of the worst errors of 
 Popery. The question at issue is not one as to the efficacy of 
 baptism, but as to the necessary bestowal by Grod of the full 
 blessing connected with baptism whenever man chooses to 
 administer the rite to an infant. 
 
 BISHOP HENRY PARRY; 
 
 Chaplain to Queen Elizabeth ; Dean of Chester from 1605 
 to 1616 ; Bishop of Rochester from 1607 to 1610 ; and 
 of Worcester from 1610^0 1616. 
 
 " He was reputed by all of his time," says Anthony 
 Wood,t " an able divine, well read in the Fathers," &c. 
 
 Now Bishop Parry translated and published, in 1591, the 
 Catechism of Ursinus, which I have quoted in p. 161 above,! 
 and which (as the reader has there seen) is written on the 
 most strict Calvinistic views. And in his preface to the 
 Reader (to which his name is attached) he mentions that he 
 had published this work especially for the instruction of the 
 clergy, adding this remark : 
 
 * Posthumous Lectures, Lond. 1657. fol. p. 615. 
 
 f Athen. Oxon. ii. 192. J See Wo od, ib. 19. 
 
 I quote from tho reprint of 1645. The title of the work is, " The Summe
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 335 
 
 " And if it shall seem so good and expedient to their Honours [i. e. the 
 Bishops,] to adjoin these my labours unto the pains and travels of many the 
 servants of God, who have with great praise endeavoured in the like matter, 
 on the like respects heretofore ; I make no doubt, but that out of this short 
 yet full Summe of Christian Religion, God adding his blessing thereunto, 
 they may in short time receive such furniture and instruction, as they shall 
 save both themselves and others, who both else are in case to perish ever- 
 lastingly." 
 
 BISHOP ARTHUR LAKE ; 
 
 Dean of Worcester from 1608 to 1616 ; Bishop of Bath 
 and Wells from 1616 to 1626. 
 
 Of Bishop Lake Anthony Wood says, 
 
 " In all these places of honour and employment, he carried himself the 
 same in mind and person, showing by his constancy that his virtues were 
 virtues indeed ; in all kind of which, whether natural, moral, theological, 
 personal, or pastoral, he was eminent, and indeed one of the examples of 
 his time. . . . He was also well read in the Fathers and Schoolmen, and had 
 such a command of the Scripture (which made him one of the best 
 preachers) that few went beyond him in his time."* 
 
 The following Extracts are from a volume of his Sermons, 
 published shortly after his death. t 
 
 "I must not omit to observe unto you, That if [of] God's election (I 
 speak not of the eternal Decree, but the manifestation thereof in the church 
 militant) there are two acts. The first is the admission of persons into 
 the outward congregation, and unto the sacramental obsignation; which is 
 nothing else but the outward profession of man, that he is a party to the 
 covenant of God ; and so Moses telleth the Israelites that God hath chosen 
 them to be his peculiar people : which is no more than that God hath given 
 them his Law, which he had not done to every nation. St. Paul addeth 
 more particulars of this kind (Rom. ix.:) and in this respect giveth the name 
 of elect to whole churches of the Gentiles. But besides this outward, there 
 is an inward act of election, and that is the operation of the Holy Ghost 
 giving unto us spiritual wisdom and holinesss ; making us God's children, 
 and members of the mystical body of Christ. And that Church which we 
 believe in the Creed is partaker of both these acts of election, as well the 
 inward as the outward ; and these latter are electi ex electis, whom Christ 
 doth design when he saith in the Gospel, ' Many are called, but few are 
 chosen.' Because there are none in this world actually of the Church 
 
 of Christian Religion delivered by Zacharias Ursinus first Englished by D. 
 
 Henry Parry, etc. Ac." Lond. 1645, fol. 
 
 * Athen. OXOD. ii. 399. 
 
 f Sermons, Ac. by A. Lake, late Bishop of Bath and Wells. Lond. 1629. fol.
 
 336 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 invisible, but those that are in the visible; and men cannot distinguish 
 between the persons that partake either only one or both of the acts of election ; 
 therefore in my text we will take the definition of a Church in the widest 
 sense, according to the rule of charity which the Scripture observes, although 
 the power of devotion doth properly concern the whole visible Body, by 
 reason of the better part thereof, those which are as well inwardly as out- 
 wardly of the Church. The use that we must make of this definition of the 
 Church is by the first word to be remembered of our Prerogative. If we 
 do partake only the outward act of election, how much are we better than 
 the heathen that ftnow not the true God, nor the Saviour of the world Jesus 
 Christ, and are destitute of all those means by which they may be saved? 
 But if, looking into our heart, we find saving grace there, (for God's Spirit 
 doth witness unto our spirit that we are the children of God,) when we 
 contemplate in ourselves this second act of election, we have reason to think 
 our prerogative much more improved, by how much an inward is better 
 than an outward Jew ; the circumcision of the spirit better than the circum- 
 cision of the flesh ; to be baptized with the Spirit better than to be baptized 
 with water ; to eat panem, Dominum, eat the flesh and drink the blood of 
 Christ, better than to eat only and drink only sacramental bread and wine."* 
 
 This, I suppose, is plain enough, and can hardly be mis- 
 construed. 
 
 Again, he says, 
 
 " The Sacraments are sufficiently sovereign for all ; not so, efficiently, 
 and yet efficiently for many. For although in comparison of unbelievers, 
 believers are but few, yet considered in themselves, believers are many, 
 both Jews and Gentiles." [Where he evidently limits the efficacy of Sacra- 
 ments to believers.l " A Sacrament is an annex unto doctrine, even as a 
 seal is set unto a pardon. The Sacraments of the Old Testament were so 
 annexed unto the ceremonial law; so are the Sacraments of the New 
 Testament unto the Gospel. As he that taketh the charter of pardon 
 without the King's seal, when he may have it, loseth the benefit of his 
 pardon ; so he will have but little benefit of the Gospel, that is a contemner 
 of the Sacraments: they must both go together until the world's end."f 
 
 Again ; 
 
 "The Dove did signify that Christ would baptize with the Holy Ghost, 
 and that he would communicate this power to none ; he would transfer the 
 ministry to men, but reserve the efficacy of baptism to himself, both while 
 he was on earth, and as he now reigneth in heaven. For certainly the 
 Sacring doth note this his possession and dispensation of the Holy Ghost ; 
 it is His Spirit, and he only giveth it ; he sanctifieth the waters of baptism 
 
 * Sermon at Paul's Cross, among " Sermons, Lond. 1629." fol. pp. 633, 634. 
 f Sermon on Matt. xxvi. 26-28, among " Sundry Sermons, De Temporc," 
 (in name vol.) p. 174.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 337 
 
 unto their sacred use, and by his Spirit added unto them doth regenerate 
 
 THOSE THAT ARE MEMBERS OF HIS CHURCH."* 
 
 Here we see who they are to whom alone, according to 
 Bishop Lake, baptism is the " laver of regeneration." 
 
 And he thinks that regeneration, where given, is " ordi- 
 narily " given in baptism. For he says : 
 
 "A prerogative the children of the faithful have, which St. Paul 
 toucheth at, Rom. xi. ' If the root be holy, so are the branches.' But this 
 holiness is in possibility rather than in possession, and there is a distance 
 between natural generation and spiritual regeneration. Though by their 
 natural birth-right, the children of the faithful have a right unto the 
 blessings of God's Covenant, yet do they not partake them, but by their 
 new birth, which ORDINARILY they receive in Baptism, which is therefore 
 called the Bath of Regeneration.''! 
 
 Again, he maintains that regeneration, when given, abides 
 for ever. He says : 
 
 " Mark that the Israelites are bid to wash their garments, not to change 
 them, though it appeareth, [Exod. xxxiii.] that they had change of raiment. 
 There is a mystery in it ; it signifieth that the children of God from the 
 time they are incorporated into Christ, though they have often occasion to 
 scour out the stains which their regeneration contracteth, yet they do not 
 *hift it; it slw.ll abide the same for ever, bettered in quality, but never altered 
 in substance. ,"$ 
 
 And his description of " regeneration," given in a com- 
 ment on Psalm li. 10, ("Create in me a clean heart, God, 
 and renew a right spirit within me,") is this : 
 
 " Our natural corruption is cured by grace, and grace doth cure it partly 
 by forgiving, and partly by regenerating : of the forgiveness you have heard 
 on the former verse, and on this verse you are to hear of the regeneration. 
 And that which you shall hear is first, What, then, Whence it is. In 
 opening, What it is, the text will lead me to show you, first in what part 
 we must have it, and secondly of what gifts it consists : the part is set 
 down first in general, it is our inwards, we must have it within : but within 
 we have many inwards, whereof here are two distinctly expressed, and they 
 ure two principal ones, the heart and the spirit, whereof the one noteth the 
 sovereign, and the other the active power of our soul, these are the parts 
 that are to be regenerated. Now the gifts whereof this Regeneration 
 consists, are Holiness and Stayedness ; Holiness of the sovereign power, and 
 
 Sermons preached at Court (in same vol.) p. 167. 
 f Expos, of Ps. li. (in same vol.) p. 116. 
 $ Expos, on Exod. xix. (in eame vol.) p. 439. 
 
 22
 
 339 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN" INFANTS. 
 
 \ 
 
 of the active, Stayedness ; the first we have if our heart be clean, and the 
 other, if our spirit be right. This is Regeneration." * 
 
 Whether this agrees with the notion of all infants being 
 spiritually regenerated in baptism, any one can judge. 
 
 He does not, however, (as we have seen,) deny the efficacy 
 of the Sacrament, but only its universal efficacy, its efficacy 
 in the case of those of whom Christ will say hereafter, " I 
 never knew you." Hence he says : 
 
 " Though Sacraments be ceremonies, yet are they ceremonies of efficacy. 
 Were they only of significancy, the Church might have some power to 
 ordain them : but being of efficacy, their ordination belongeth only to God : 
 because the efficacy floweth from his Spirit, and of his Spirit none can 
 dispose but himself." f 
 
 And he ascribes (as in a passage already quoted) our in- 
 corporation into Christ to baptism : 
 
 " As none might eat of the Paschal Lamb, but they that were cir- 
 cumcised, no more might any receive the Eucharist that was not baptized. 
 The reason is plain : no man can be nourished except he live, and live to 
 God no man can, but he that is incorporated into Christ, and incorporated 
 he is by baptism." $ 
 
 He gives therefore to baptism the full force, value, and 
 efficacy which can be ascribed to it ; but only where it is an 
 instrument in the hands of Him by whose power alone it can 
 ever be efficacious. 
 
 BISHOP GEORGE CARLETON ; 
 
 Bishop of Llandaff from 1617 to 1619 ; and of Chichester 
 from 1619 to 1628. 
 
 This learned prelate was one of the four representatives of 
 our Church at the synod of Dort, and an able defender of the 
 doctrine of our Reformers, against the innovations of the 
 Laudian party. 
 
 In his reply to Mountagu, one of the earliest leaders of 
 
 * Serm. on Ps li. (in same vol.) p. 149. 
 
 f Serm. on Matt. xxvi. 26-28 (in same vol.) p. 163. \ Ib. p. 172. 
 
 An Examination of those things, wherein the author of the late Appeal 
 holdeth the doctrines of the Pelagians and Arminians to be the doctrines of the 
 Church of England. 2nd Ed. revised. Lond. 1626. 4to.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 339 
 
 that party, he gives his judgment very clearly on the subject 
 of our present inquiry. 
 
 Mountagu (who was afterwards promoted through the in- 
 fluence of Laud to a bishopric) had objected, " Let this be 
 acknowledged the doctrine of our Church, that children duly 
 baptized are put into the estate of grace and salvation : but 
 many children so baptized, when they come to age, by a 
 wicked life do fall away from God, and from that estate of 
 grace and salvation wherein he had set them," from which he 
 deduced the conclusion that either those that are once in a 
 state of salvation may totally and finally fall away from it, 
 or that it must be said that all that are baptized are saved.* 
 
 To this Bishop Carleton replies thus : 
 
 " If our author had been pleased to have observed the judgment of the 
 ancients, he would not be thus troubled with novelties. This one poor 
 objection seemeth to trouble the man. Saint Augustine might easily have 
 satisfied him. For he observeth a great difference between them that are 
 regenerate and justified only Sacramento tenus. and those that are regenerate 
 and justified according to the purpose of God's election. Abraham received 
 the Sacrament of circumcision, as a seal of the righteousness of faith. The 
 Sacrament is good to them to whom it is a seal of the righteousness of faith, 
 but it is not a seal in all that receive the Sacrament; for MANY RECEIVE 
 THE SIGN, WHICH HAVE NOT THE THING. Then to proceed : Ismael was 
 circumcised, and so was Isaac ; but Ismael was born according to the flesh, 
 
 and Isaac according to the Spirit Now he was not justified, but only 
 
 Sacramento tenus, that was born according to the flesh: but he that was 
 born according to the Spirit, was justified truly. Saint Augustine saith, 
 ' Cum essent omnibus communia Sacramenta, non communis erat omnibus 
 gratia.' (August, in Ps. 77.) And again, 'Omnibus in nomine Patris et 
 Filii et Spiritus Sancti baptizatis commune est lavacrum regeneration's, sed 
 ipsa gratia, cujus ipsa sunt Sacramenta, qua membra corporis Christi cum 
 PUO capite regenerata sunt, non communis est omnibus :' that is, ' When as 
 the Sacraments are common to all, yet grace is not common to all.' And, 
 ' The fountain of regeneration is common to all that are baptized in the 
 name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; but that grace, whereof 
 these are Sacraments, whereby the members of the body of Christ are re- 
 generate with their head, is not common to all.' Israel was called to be a 
 people of God, yet all that were so called, were not so in truth : so all that 
 receive baptism are called the children of God, regenerate, justified : for to 
 us they must be taken for such in charity, until they show themselves other. 
 But the author afnrmeth, tUat ' this is not left to men's charity, as you,' 
 
 Appello Csesarem, Ac., by Richard Mountagu. Lend. 1625, 4to. pp. 35, 86.
 
 340 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 saith he, ' do inform the world, because we are taught in the Service Book 
 of our Church earnestly to believe, ' that Christ hath favourably received 
 these infants that are baptized, that he hath embraced them with the arms 
 of his rn^rcy, that he hath given unto them the blessing of everlasting life ; 
 and out of that belief and persuasion, we are to give thanks faithfully and 
 devoutly for it.' All this we receive and make no doubt of it : but when 
 we have said all, we must corae to this, that all this is nothing but the 
 charity of the Church : and what more can you make of it ? For where he 
 urgeth this, that children baptized are put in the state of salvation, and 
 this must be believed, I make no doubt of it. . . . Concerning this judgment 
 of charity, we do not inform the world any otherwise than St. Augustine 
 informed the Church long since against the Pelagians. The Pelagians 
 urged these things as you do, that they that were baptized were regenerate 
 and justified. St. Augustine answereth they are so for ought we know, and 
 until they themselves shew themselves to the contrary. Then so long as 
 we have no cause to the contrary, we judge them in charity, to be such as 
 we desire they should be : did we devise this ? or did we first inform the 
 world of this? it hath been of old received thus in the Church. We do 
 but say that which the ancient Fathers have said before us : and you follow 
 that which your Fathers the Pelagians have taught before you. But here 
 is great difference ; we following the ancient Fathers, follow the Church ; 
 and you following the Pelagians, follow the enemies of the Church. But 
 here he citeth in the margent, page 36, ' that all antiquity taught thus' I 
 pray you what did Antiquity teach ? That young children baptized are 
 delivered from original sin. We teach the same, and we doubt not. if they 
 die before they come to the practice of actual sins, they shall be saved, 
 But this is not so to be understood, that no children unbaptized can be 
 
 saved Of these who have received the Sacrament of regeneration, 
 
 and are judged by us to be regenerate and justified, many may proceed and 
 make a great progress in the Church, to be ' enlightened, to taste of the 
 heavenly gift, to be made partakers of the Holy Ghost,' (that is, of many 
 graces of the Holy Ghost,) ' to taste of the good word of God, and of tho 
 powers of the world to come,' (Heb. vi.,) and yet they may fall away totally 
 and finally. But they that are regenerate, justified, and called according 
 to God's purpose, fask not me who these are, it is enough that they are 
 known to God,) they may fall into divers temptations and sins, which bring 
 men under God's wrath but these never fall away either totally or finally. 
 This was expressed by D. Overall, in the Conference at Hampton Court. 
 By this distinction of men regenerate and justified sacramcnto tenus only r 
 and such as are so indeed according to God's purpose and calling, he might 
 easily and fairly have satisfied himself in all these objections, which he- 
 draweth out of the Book of Homilies and out of our Service Book. For first 
 lie hath not proved, that a justified man may fall away totally and finally; 
 neither doth that follow from any words by him produced. And if it were 
 proved in direct terms, how easy is the answer, that it is there meant of 
 such as are regenerate and justified sacramento tenus, and no further : for, 
 that such fall away, it was never doubted in the Church, as S. Austin
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 341 
 
 showeth. Anil therefore, when he saith that children duly baptized are 
 jrat into the estate of grace and salvation, I grant they are so to us : we 
 must esteem them so JUDICIO CHARITATIS."* 
 
 While I am quoting from this work, it may be worth while 
 to add an extract corroborative of a remark already made,t 
 that those called Puritans were not originally considered by 
 the authorities of our Church as differing from them in doctrine, 
 but only in discipline. It was the Laudin party that first 
 applied the term to matters of doctrine, and used it to stigma- 
 tize those who were attached to that true and genuine doctrine 
 of the Church of England which they laboured to eradicate. 
 Commenting on Mountagu's scoffing words when referring to a 
 passage in Bellarmine, "just your Puritan doctrine for final 
 perseverance," Bishop Carleton remarks ; 
 
 " This is the first time that ever I heard of a Puritan doctrine in points 
 dogmatical, and I have lived longer in the Church than he hath done. I 
 thought that Puritans were only such as were factious against the Bishops 
 in the point of pretended Discipline ; and so I am sure it hath been under- 
 stood hitherto in our Church. A. Puritan doctrine is a strange thing, because 
 it hath been confessed on both sides, that Protestants and Puritans have 
 held the same doctrines without variance. The Discipline varied in Eng- 
 land, Scotland, Geneva, and otherwere : yet the Doctrine hath been hitherto 
 held the same, according to the Harmony of the several Confessions of these 
 Churches. Not one 'doctrine of the Church of England, another of the 
 Church of Scotland, and so of others. What is your end in this, but to 
 make divisions where there were none ? And that a rent may be made in 
 the Church ? Forsooth ! that place may be given to the Pelagian and 
 Arminian doctrines. And then all that are against these must be called 
 Puritan doctrines."^. 
 
 And to the justness of these remarks we have certainly an 
 impartial witness in our modern historian Hume, who says 
 that " the doctrinal Puritans" " rigidly defended the specula- 
 tive system of the first Reformers."^ 
 
 And in another work, II Bishop Carleton expressly refutes 
 the notion, " that Sacraments confer grace through the work 
 wrought, even though there should be no good internal motion 
 
 * An Examination, 4c^ (as above,) pp. 193-208. 
 
 ) See p. 108, above. 
 
 j Ib.pp. 121, 122. 
 
 Hist of Eng ch. 61. a 1629. (vi. 272. ed. 1778. 
 
 | Consensus Ecclesise Catholic contra Tridentinos. Franc. 1613. Bvo.)
 
 342 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 in him who receives them, supposing that no impediment is 
 placed in the way ;"* which he speaks of as " an outlandish 
 and unreasonable notion ;"t and says that this doctrine seems 
 to have sprung up about the age of John Scotus : adding (in 
 a passage already quoted above,t) 
 
 " Aquinas seems to have added some stones to this building when he 
 taught, 'that the Sacraments of the New Law cause grace, after the manner 
 of an instrument.' (3 par. q. 62. Art. 1.) These words gave occasion to the 
 Sophists that followed to philosophize after their manner. But Aquinas 
 has nothing about the work done, or about a bar. . These things seem to 
 have been added by those that came after. And thus the Tridentine Creed, 
 like a patched coat made up of many and various rags, was at length put 
 together and became one. Before these times this opinion was unheard of 
 in the Church of Rome." 
 
 BISHOP GEORGE DOWNAME ; 
 Bishop of Derry from 1616 to 1634. 
 
 Bishop Downame is called by Wood a " learned and painful 
 writer." 
 
 The following extracts are taken from his " Treatise on the 
 Certainty of Perseverance,'' published in 1631. 
 
 ' All that are truly justified shall be glorified. Not all that are baptized 
 shall be glorified. Therefore not all that are baptized are truly justified. 
 For the better clearing of this point, we are to use divers distinctions; 1. 
 In respect of Baptism. For there is an outward Baptism, which is the 
 washing of the flesh (1 Pet. iii. 21) with water by the minister; and an 
 inward Baptism, which is the washing of the soul with the blood of Christ 
 by the Holy Ghost. The former is also the engrafting of the party baptized 
 into the body of the visible Church, which is the society of those who profess 
 the name of Christ: the other is the insition of him into the society of the 
 invisible Church, which is the mystical body of Christ and company of 
 the Elect : the former insition is wrought by the minister, the latter by 
 the Holy Ghost, by whom (1 Cor. xii. 13) we are baptized into one body. 
 But not every one that hath the outward baptism hath the inward : no more 
 than every one that had the external circumcision of the flesh, had the 
 inward circumcision of the heart (Rom. ii. 28, 29.). . . . Neither is every 
 
 * Sacramenta conferre gratiam ex opere operate, etiamsi in suscipieote non 
 at bonus interior motus, raodo non ponatur obex. (p. 412.) 
 t Peregrina et incondita sententio. (1 b.) 
 $ Se p. 229 above. Atben. Oxon. ii. 814.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 343 
 
 one that is a member of the visible Church a true member of Christ, or 
 of the Church invisible. Many being in the visible Church which are not 
 of the Church invisible, who are among the faithful and elect as tares among 
 the corn or chaff among the wheat. If it be said, that the visible Church 
 is the body of Christ, I answer, that it hath the denomination from the 
 better part, as a heap wherein is more chaff than wheat, is called a heap of 
 wheat, and a field wherein are more tares and other weeds than corn, is 
 also called a corn field. But if we will speak properly, that is not in deed 
 the body of Christ which shall not be with him for ever, as Augustine saith. 
 (De doctr. Christ, lib. 3. c. 33.) 
 
 " For if it were so, that every one that hath the outward baptism hath 
 also the inward, and that every one that is made a member of the Church, 
 is also made a true member of Christ, then it would also follow, that every 
 one that is baptized should be saved. For salvation is as well promised to 
 the baptized as either regeneration or justification. (Mar. xvi. 16; 1 Pet. 
 iii. 21.) NEITHER ARE ANY REGENERATED, BUT SUCH AS ARE ELECTED: 
 nor any justified, but such as shall be saved. If therefore it be true, that 
 not all which have the outward baptism have the inward, then it is as 
 certain, that not all that are baptized are justified, as, that not all that are 
 baptized shall be saved. 
 
 " Yea, but they that are baptized have put on Christ. 
 
 " Answ. Those that have been baptized into Christ, as the apostle 
 speaketh, (Gal. iii. 27,) that is, by baptism engrafted into him, have put on 
 Christ. But not all simply that have been baptized have put on Christ, 
 unless you mean sacramental ly. , . , . . 
 
 " Secondly, we are to distinguish the parties baptized, that they are either 
 udulti. such as [are] come to years of discretion, (of whom properly this con- 
 troversy is understood,) or infants wanting the use of reason. As for those 
 that are baptized after they are come to years of discretion, it is certain, 
 that no more are justified than do believe by a true justifying faith. For 
 Sacraments are as seals annexed to the letters patents of God's evangelical 
 promise, which assure or convey nothing but what is contained in the 
 promise, and upon the same conditions. And it is absurd to extend the 
 
 benefit of the Sacrament beyond the covenant Here therefore is 
 
 confuted that most pernicious doctrine of the Papists, that the Sacraments of 
 the Gospel which they call the New Law, do confer grace, and that ex opere 
 operate, to them in whom not only there is no grace (for then it were opus 
 operantis,) but not so much as any inward disposition or motion of grace 
 beforehand. By which doctrine they have turned Christian religion to a 
 mere outward formality, consisting in outward rites and observations, 
 without any truth or power of religion in them, according to that prophecy 
 of them. (2 Tim. iii. 5.) ... As touching infants, I say in the first place, 
 that this controversy is not understood of them, who neither are indued 
 with habit of grace, neither are able to produce the acts thereof, as no* 
 having as yet the use of reason. And therefore being neither justified by 
 faith, nor sanctified by the habits of grace, cannot be said to fall from them. 
 Secondly, it is not necessary that every one that is baptized should presently
 
 344 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 be regenerated or justified. But the Sacrament of Baptism is a seal unt 
 him of the righteousness of faith, which is the righteousness of Christ, 
 either to be applied by the Holy Ghost to the elect dying in their infancy, 
 or to be apprehended also by faith in them, who- living to years of discretion 
 have grace to believe. 
 
 " Thirdly, we are to distinguish of the effects of baptism, and of the 
 time thereof. For it is not the effect of baptism to begin. r to work faith, 
 which in those of years must go before baptism, neither can infants though 
 baptized, whiles they want the use of reason, actually believe, but to seal to 
 the baptized the righteousness of faith, and so to justify sacra-mentally, which 
 effect is not to be restrained to the time when baptism is administered, but 
 to be extended to the whole course of a man's life, whensoever he shall 
 believe and repent. As for the elect which die before the use of reason, the 
 sacrament of baptism is the seal and means of Christ's righteousness to be 
 applied to them by the Holy Ghost. For as some have been sanctified from 
 the womb, yea and some in- the womb, so it is not to be doubted, but that 
 those infants whom God in their infancy intendeth to glorify, he doth bestow 
 upon them his Spirit, which is the Spirit of faith, 2 Cor. iv. 13, and the 
 Spirit ot regeneration, whereby he doth illuminate their minds and sanctify 
 their hearts, and every way prepare and fit them for his own kingdom. 
 
 " Fourthly, we are to distinguish between THE JUDGMENT OF CHARITY 
 AND THE JUDGMENT OF CERTAINTY. For although in the general we know, 
 that not every one that is baptized is justified or shall be saved, yet, when 
 we come to speak of particulars,, we are to judge of them that are baptized 
 that they are regenerated and justified, and that they shall be saved, until 
 they shall discover themselves not to be such. AND so OUR BOOK OF COM- 
 MON PRAYER SPEAKETH OF THEM, AS THE SCRIPTURES ALSO TEACH us TO 
 
 SPEAK OF THEM THAT ARE BAPTIZED, THAT THEY ARE REGENERATED AND 
 ENGRAFTED INTO THE BODY OF CHRIST, THOUGH PERHAPS THEY BE REGENE- 
 RATED SACRAMENTO TENUS, AND ENGRAFTED- ONLY INTO THE BODY OF HIS 
 
 VISIBLE CHURCH. But this judgment of charity is no matter of certainty- 
 or of faith, but may be deceived. 
 
 " The like judgment of charity our Church conceiveth concerning all 
 those that die in the bosom of the Church, and depart this life in the 
 profession of the faith ; so that not all are justified before God, or sanctified 
 by saving grace, who to us, judging according to charity, seem to be 
 such. 
 
 " Lastly, the Papists themselves do teach, that the Sacraments do not 
 confer grace to him that cometh to the Sacrament in the guilt of mortal sin, 
 or, as they speak, ponenti obicem mortalis peccoti. But all that come to be 
 baptized are guilty (if not justified before) of mortal sin, not only adulti, 
 who are of years, and have to their original sin added their own personal 
 transgression ; but INFANTS ALSO, who besides their original corruption, in 
 respect whereof they are all naturally dead in sin, do also sta^id guilty of 
 Adam's most heinous transgression, which without doubt was a mortal 
 in. 
 
 " You will say, then, to what use doth baptism serve ? I answer, that
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 345 
 
 the blood of Christ doth purge us from all our sins, (1 John i. 7,) as well 
 mortal, as those which the Papists call venial ; that this washing of the 
 soul by the blood of Christ is res sacramenti, the thing signified by baptism, 
 whereof the outward baptism is a sacrament, that is, a sign to signify it, a 
 seal to assure it to them that believe, an instrument of the Holy Ghost to 
 apply it to the elect and heirs of promise. For their is no saving grace 
 given but according to God's purpose of grace given unto us in Christ 
 before all times, and according to the covenant of grace made with the 
 heirs of promise." (" A Treatise of the Certainty of Perseverance," 
 annexed to " The Covenant of Grace, or an Exposition upon Luke i. 73 
 75." Dublin, 1631. 4to. pp. 393 399.) 
 
 The following remarks, are made by Archbishop Usher, 
 and Dr. Samuel "Ward, on the doctrine of Baptism, as here 
 laid down by Bishop Downame. 
 
 Archbishop Usher, writing to Dr. Ward in 1630, says, 
 
 "My Lord of Derry hath a book ready for the press, wherein he 
 handlcih at full the Controversy of Perseverance and the Certainty of 
 Salvation. He there determineth that point of the efficacy of baptism far 
 otherwise than you do, accommodating himself to THE OPINION MORE 
 
 VULGARLY RECEIVED AMONG US." * 
 
 To which Dr. Ward replies, 
 
 " My Lord of Derry is a worthy man, and whom I do much reverence ; 
 yet I would wish his Lordship to be well advised. I doubt not but the 
 doctrine of perseverance may sufficiently be cleared, though we grant that 
 
 all infants baptized be free from original guilt I KNOW, MOST 
 
 OF OUR DIVINES do make the principal end and effect of all sacraments 
 to be obsignation, and all sacraments to be merely obsignatory signs ; and 
 consequently that ablution of infants from original sin is only conditional 
 and expectative, of which they have no benefit till they believe and repent ; 
 I cannot easily assent hereunto." f 
 
 ARCHBISHOP USHER; 
 
 Bishop of Meathfrom 1620 to 1624; Archbishop of Armagh 
 from 1624 to 1655. 
 
 t It would of course be superfluous to add a word here to 
 the name of Archbishop Usher, to show the claim which his 
 testimony has upon us as a witness to the doctrine of our 
 Church. 
 
 Usher's Life and Letters, by Parr. Lond. 1686, fol. Lett. 159, p. 434. 
 f Ib. Letter 160, p. 438.
 
 346 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 The first extract I shall give is from one of his letters, to 
 which there is no date, but which could not have been written 
 before 1618. 
 
 " Election being nothing else but the purpose of God, resting in his own 
 mind, makes no kind of alteration in the party elected, but only the execu- 
 tion of that Decree and purpose, which in such as have the use of reason is 
 done by an effectual calling, in all by spiritual regeneration, which is the 
 
 new birth, without which no man can see the kingdom of God I 
 
 wrote but even now, that God did execute his Decree of election in all by 
 spiritual regeneration : but if any shall say, that by all, thereby I should 
 understand the universality of all and every one in the world, and not THE 
 UNIVERSALITY OF ALL THE ELECT ALOjFE, he should greatly wrong my 
 meaning." * 
 
 This is decisive of the question, to whom Archbishop Usher 
 considered spiritual regeneration to be given. 
 
 The same doctrine is also taught in a Brief Catechism, 
 which, though it was first published without his consent, was 
 afterwards reviewed and published by the Archbishop himself, 
 under the title, "A brief method of the doctrine of Christian 
 Religion," with a preface acknowledging himself to be the 
 author, in 1653,t and since frequently reprinted. From a 
 reprint of this edition of 1653J I give the following extracts. 
 
 " Q. How doth he rule his subjects ? 
 
 "A. By making the Redemption which he hath wrought effectual in 
 the Elect : calling those, whom by his prophetical office he hath taught, to 
 embrace the benefits offered unto them; and governing them being called: 
 both by these outward ordinances which he hath instituted in his Church, 
 and by the inward operation of his blessed Spirit. 
 
 " Q. Having thus declared the Nature and Offices of Christ, the Media- 
 tour of the new covenant : What are you to consider in the condition of 
 mankind which hold by him ? 
 
 "A. Two things: the participation of the grace of Christ effectually 
 communicated by the operation of God's Spirit unto the Catholick Church, 
 which is the Body and Spouse of Christ, out of which there is no salvation : 
 and the outward means ordained for the offering and effecting of the same 
 vouchsafed unto the visible Churches. 
 
 Q. " How is the grace of Christ effectually communicated to the Elect, 
 of whom the Catholick Church doth consist? 
 
 >"A. By that wonderful union, whereby Christ and his Church are 
 
 * Ib. Letter 23, pp. 60, 51. 
 
 f Se Parr's Life of Usher; Lond. 1686, fol. p. 62. 
 
 $ Attached to his " Body of Divinity," 8th ed. Lond. 1702. 4to.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 347 
 
 made one : so that all the Elect, being ingrafted into him, grow up together 
 into one mystical body, whereof he is the head. 
 
 " Q. What is the bond of this union? 
 
 "A. The communion of God's Spirit: which being derived from the 
 Man Christ Jesus unto all the Elect, as from the Head unto the Members, 
 giveth unto them spiritual life, and maketh them partakers of Christ with 
 all his benefits. 
 
 " What are the benefits which arise to God's children from hence ? 
 
 "A. Reconciliation and Sanctification. 
 
 " Q. What is Reconciliation ? 
 
 '" A. That grace, whereby we are freed from God's curse, and restored 
 onto his favour. 
 
 " Q. What are the branches of this Reconciliation ? 
 
 " A. Justification and Adoption." 
 
 ******** 
 
 "Q. Is there no distinction to be made among them that thus receive 
 Christ ? 
 
 " A. Yes : for some are not capable of knowledge; as infants, and such 
 as we term naturals : other some are of discretion. In the former sort, we 
 are not to proceed further than God's election, and the secret operation of 
 the Holy Ghost. In the other there is required a lively faith, bringing 
 forth fruit of true holiness." 
 
 ******** 
 
 "Q. What is a Sacrament? 
 
 " A. A visible sign ordained by God to be a seal for confirmation of the 
 promises of the Gospel unto those who perform the conditions required in 
 the same. 
 
 " Q. How is this done by a Sacrament ? 
 
 " A. By a fit similitude between the sign and the thing signified, the 
 benefit of the Gospel is represented unto the eye, and the assurance of en- 
 joying the same confirmed to such as are within the Covenant. Wherefore 
 as the preaching of the Word is the ordinary means of begetting faith ; so 
 both it, and the holy use of the Sacraments, be the instruments of the Holy 
 Ghost to increase and confirm the same." 
 
 ****** 
 
 "Q. What are the Sacraments of this Ministry? 
 
 "A. The Sacrament of Admission into the Church is Baptism; which 
 sealeth unto us our spiritual Birth : the other Sacrament of our continual 
 Preservation is the Lord's Supper; which sealeth unto us our continual 
 nourishment." (pp. 421 425.) 
 
 There is also another work, which, though not to be strictly 
 considered as one which is in the state in which he himself 
 would have published it, must still be held as, in all impor- 
 tant points, expressing his views ; namely, that entitled, " A 
 Body of Divinity, or, the Sum and Substance of Christian
 
 348 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN- INFANTS. 
 
 Religion, catechistically propounded and explained." This 
 work was first published in 1645 by John Downame, (son of 
 George Downame Bishop of Chester, and brother of George 
 Downarne Bishop of Derry, and himself the author of several 
 excellent works,) as a work of Archbishop Usher's. The book 
 was published without the Archbishop's consent from a trans- 
 cript of a MS. lent by the Archbishop to some friends.* "We are 
 told, however, by his chaplain Dr. Nicholas Bernard, that 
 " indeed, he was displeased at the publishing of it, without 
 his knowledge, but hearing of some good fruit which hath 
 been reaped by it, he hath permitted zY."t Several other edi- 
 tions therefore were published in his life-time, and being thus 
 published with his permission, must of course be considered as, 
 in all important points of doctrine, representing his views. 
 The following extracts are taken from this work.t 
 
 " But is Christ and the cleansing power of his blood only barely signi- 
 fied in the Sacrament of Baptism ? 
 
 " Nay more : the inward things are really exhibited to the believer as 
 well as the outward ; there is that Sacramental union between them, that 
 the one is conveyed and sealed up by the other. Hence are those phrases 
 of ' Being born again of water and of the Holy Ghost J John iii. 5: of 
 'Cleansing by the washing of water J Ephes. v. 26, &c. : so, l Arise and be 
 baptized, and wash away thy sinsj Acts xxii. 16: so, Rom. vi. 3, ' We are 
 buried with Christ by baptism, fyc. : The Sacraments being rightly received, 
 do effect that which they do represent. 
 
 "Are all they then that are partakers of the outward washing of 
 Baptism, partakers also of the inward washing of the Spirit ? Doth this 
 Sacrament seal up their spiritual ingrafting into Christ to all who externally 
 receive it ? 
 
 " Surely no. Though God hath ordained these outward means for the 
 conveyance of the inward grace to our souls ; yet there is no necessity that 
 we should tie the working of God's Spirit to the Sacraments more than to 
 the Word. The promises of salvation, Christ, and all his benefits, are 
 preached and offered to all in the Ministry of the Word : yet all hearers 
 have not them conveyed to their souls by the Spirit; but those whom God 
 hath ordained to life. So in the Sacraments, the outward elements are 
 dispensed to all, who make an outward profession of the Gospel, (for in 
 infants their being born in the bosom of the Church is instead of an outward 
 
 See Parr's Life of Usher; Lond. 1686, foL p. 62. 
 
 f The Life and Death of Archbishop Usher. By Dr. N. Bernard. Lond. 1656. 
 8vo. pp. 41, 42. 
 
 The copy used is the 8th edition, Lond. 1702, 4 to.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 349 
 
 profession,) because man is not able to distinguish corn from chaff; but the 
 inward grace of the Sacrament is not communicated to all, but to those only 
 who are heirs of those promises whereof the Sacraments are seals. For 
 without a man have his name in the Covenant, the Seal set to it confirms 
 nothing to him. 
 
 "What is the advantage, then, or benefit of Baptism to a common 
 Christian? 
 
 " The same as was the benefit of circumcision to the Jew outward, Rom. 
 ii. 28; Rom. iii. 1, 2: there is a general grace of Baptism which all the 
 baptized partake as of a common favour; and that is their admission into 
 the visible body of the Church, their matriculation and outward incorpora- 
 ting into the number of the worshippers of God by external communion. 
 And so as Circumcision was not only a seal of the righteousness which is 
 by faith, but as an overplus God appointed it to be like a wall of separation 
 between Jew and Gentile : so is Baptism a badge of an outward member 
 of the Church, a distinction from the common rout of Heathen ; and God 
 thereby seals a right upon, the party baptized to his ordinances, that he may 
 use them as his privileges, and wait for an inward blessing by them. Yet 
 this is but the porch, the shell, and outside : all that are outwardly received 
 into the visible Church, are not spiritually ingrafted into the mystical body 
 of Christ. Baptism always is attended upon by the general grace, but not 
 always with this special. 
 
 " To whom then is Baptism effectual to the sealing up this inward and 
 special grace ? 
 
 " We must here distinguish of persons baptized. The Church doth not 
 only baptize those that are grown and of years ; if any such being bred 
 Pagans be brought within the place of the Church, and testify their com- 
 petent understanding of Christianity, and profess their faith in the Lord 
 Jesus and in God's precious promises of remission of sins by his blood ; and 
 their earnest desire to be sealed with Baptism for the strengthening of their 
 souls in this faith : but the Church also baptized her infants, such as being 
 born within her bosom of believing parents are within the Covenant, and 
 BO have right unto the seal thereof. 
 
 " Doth the inward grace always accompany the outward sign in those of 
 years baptized ? 
 
 "No; but only then when the profession of their faith is not outward 
 only and counterfeit, but sincere and hearty; they laying hold on Christ 
 offered in the Sacrament by a lively faith, which is the hand to receive 
 the mercies offered. Acts viii. 37, ' If thou believest with all thy heart, 
 thou mayest be baptized;' saith Philip to the Eunuch. For it were absurd 
 to extend the benefit of the seal beyond the Covenant. Now the Covenant 
 is made only in the faithful, John i. 12 ; Mark xvi. 16. 'He that believeth 
 and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not, whether he be 
 baptized or no, shall be condemned.' Simon Magus (Acts viii. 13) and 
 Julian, and thousands of Hypocrites and Formalists, shall find no help in 
 the day of the Lord by the holy water of their baptism, without it be to 
 increase their judgment.
 
 350 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 "But what say you of infants baptized that are born in the Church; 
 doth the inward grace in their baptism always attend upon the outward 
 sign? 
 
 " Surely no : the Sacrament of Baptism is effectual in infants, only to 
 those and to all those who belong unto the election of grace. Which thing 
 though we (in the judgment of charity) do judge of every particular infant, 
 yet we have no ground to judge so of all in general : or if we should judge 
 so, yet it is not any judgment of certainty; we may be mistaken. 
 
 " Is every elect Infant then actually sanctified and united unto Christ 
 in and by Baptism? 
 
 " We must here also distinguish of elect Infants baptized, whereof some 
 die in their infancy, and never come to the use of reason ; others God hath 
 appointed to live and enjoy the ordinary means of faith and salvation. 
 
 '' What is to be thought of elect Infants that die in their infancy, and 
 have no other outward means of salvation but their baptism ? 
 
 li Doubtless in all those the inward grace is united to the outward signs ; 
 and the Holy Ghost doth as truly, and really, and actually apply the merits 
 and blood of Christ in the justifying and sanctifying virtue unto the soul 
 of the elect Infant, as the Minister doth the water to its body, and the in- 
 visible grace of the Sacrament is conveyed by the outward means. 
 
 " But how can an Infant be capable of the grace of the Sacrament ? 
 
 "Very well. Though Infants be not capable of the grace of the Sacra- 
 ment by that way whereby the grown are, by hearing, conceiving, believing, 
 yet it followeth not that Infants are not capable in and by another way. 
 It is easy to distinguish between the gift conveyed, and the manner of con- 
 veying it. Faith is not of absolute necessity to all God's elect, but only to 
 those to whom God affords means of believing. It is the application of 
 Christ's righteousness that justifieth us, not our apprehending it : God can 
 supply the defect of faith by his sanctifying Spirit, which can do all things 
 on our part which faith should do. Do we not know that the sin of Adam 
 is imputed to children, and they defiled by it, though they be not capable 
 to understand it ; even so the righteousness of Christ may be, and is, by 
 God's secret and unknown way, to elect Infants : and so to those that are 
 born deaf, and fools, not capable of understanding. For though God tieth 
 us to means, yet not himself: he that hath said of Infants, To them belongs 
 the kingdom of God, knows how to settle upon them the title of the king- 
 dom. And we have no reason to think, but that even before, or in, at or 
 by, the act of Baptism, the Spirit of Christ doth unite the soul of the elect 
 Infant to Christ, and clothe it with his righteousness, and impute unto it 
 the title of a son or daughter by Adoption, and the image of God by sanc- 
 tification ; and so fit it for the state of glory. 
 
 "But what is to be thought of the effect of Baptism in those elect 
 Infants whom God hath appointed to live to years of discretion ? 
 
 " In them we have no warrant to promise constantly and extraordinary 
 work to whom God intends to afford ordinary means. For though God do 
 sometimes sanctify from the womb, as in Jeremy and John Baptist, some- 
 times in Baptism as he pleaseth ; yet it is hard to affirm (as some do) that
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 351 
 
 every elect Infant doth ordinarily, before or in Baptism, receive initial re- 
 generation, and the seed of faith and grace. For if there were such a habit 
 of grace then infused, it could not be so utterly lost or secreted as never to 
 hew itself but by being attained by new instruction. But we may rather 
 deem and judge that Baptism is not actually effectual to justify and sanc- 
 tify, until the party do believe and embrace the promises. 
 
 " Is not Baptism then for the most part a vain empty shew, consisting 
 of shadows without the substance, and a sign without the thing signified ? 
 
 " No : it is always an effectual seal to all those that are heirs of the 
 Covenant of grace : the promises of God touching Justification, Remission, 
 Adoption, are made and sealed in Baptism to every elect child of God ; then 
 to be actually enjoyed, when the party baptized shall actually lay hold 
 upon them by faith. Thus Baptism to every elect Infant is a seal of the 
 righteousness of Christ, to be extraordinarily applied by the Holy Ghost, if 
 it die in its infancy : to be apprehended by faith, if it live to years of dis- 
 cretion. So that as baptism administered to those of years is not effectual 
 unless they believe; so we can make no comfortable use of our Baptism 
 administered in our infancy until we believe. The righteousness of Christ 
 and all the promises of grace were in my Baptism estated upon me and 
 sealed up unto me on God's part : but then I come to have the profit and 
 benefit of them, when I come to understand what grant God in Baptism 
 haih sealed unto me, and actually to lay hold upon it by faith. 
 
 " Explain this more clearly. 
 
 " We know that an estate may be made unto an Infant, and in his 
 infancy he hath right unto it, though not actual possession of it until such 
 years. Now the time of the child's incapability, the use and comfort of 
 this estate is lost indeed ; but the right and title is not vain and empty, but 
 true and real, and stands firmly secured unto the child to be claimed what 
 time soever he is capable of it. Even so Infants elect have Christ and all 
 his benefits sealed up unto them in the Sacrament of Baptism ; yet through 
 their uncapableness they have not actual fruition of them, until God give 
 them actual faith to apprehend them. Is Baptism lost then which is 
 administered in our infancy ? Was it a vain and an empty ceremony ? No, 
 it was a complete and effectual Sacrament ; and God's invisible graces were 
 truly sealed up under visible signs. And though the use and the comfort 
 of Baptism be not for the present enjoyed by the Infant ; yet by the parent 
 it is, who believes God's promises for himself and for his see*d, and so by 
 the whole Congregation; and the things then done shall be actually 
 effectual to the. Infant, whenever it shall be capable to make use of them." 
 (pp. 366369.) 
 
 BISHOP WILLIAM BEDELL ; 
 
 Bishop of Kilmore from 1629 to his death in 1642. Pre- 
 viously Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. 
 
 The name of Bishop Bedell is too well known to need any
 
 352 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 introduction. But it may be remarked, that he was promoted 
 to the bishopric of Kilmore, " on the recommendation of Laud, 
 at that time Bishop of London."* 
 
 The following passages are from two of his letters to Dr. 
 Ward, written expressly on the subject of Baptism, and pre- 
 served among the letters of Archbishop Usher in Parr's Collec- 
 tion.! The second extract is a long one, but it appears to me 
 too valuable to be curtailed. 
 
 LETTER CLXT. 
 
 " Part of a Letter of the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore) 
 to Dr. Ward, Master of Sidney College, Cambridge, Anno 1630, out of 
 Bishop BedeWs Papers. 
 
 " A passage in my former Letters to Mr. Doctor Ward. 
 " I thank you for the two Treatises, that of my Lord of Salisbury, and 
 your own, which you were pleased to communicate to me. Concerning 
 which, to give you mine opinion shortly, for the present. This I do yield 
 to my Lord of Sarum most willingly, that the justification, sanctificationj 
 and adoption which children have in Baptism, is not, univocA, the same 
 with that which adulti have. And this I likewise do yield to you. that it is 
 vera solutio reatus, et veraciter, et in rei veritate performed, and all the like 
 emphatical forms, &c. But all these sacramentalit^r, and that is obsigna- 
 tivH ex formula et conditione faderis. Where you make Circumcision and 
 Baptism to be the remedy of Original Sin, I think it be too specially said, 
 which is true of all sin. And so much the text Acts ii. 38, with the rest 
 do show. I do think also that Reprobates coming to years of discretion^ 
 after baptism, shall be condemned for Original Sin. For their absolution 
 and washing in Baptism was but conditional and expectative, which doth 
 truly interest them in all the promises of God, but under the condition of 
 repenting, believing, and obeying, which they never perform, and therefore 
 never attain the promise. Consider well what you will say of women 
 before Christ, which had no circumcision, and of all mankind before circum- 
 cision was instituted ; and you will perceive, I think, the nature of sacra- 
 ments to be not as medicines, but as seals, to confirm the covenant, not to 
 confer the promise immediately. These things I write now in exceeding 
 posthaste, in respect that this bearer goes away so presently. I only give 
 sapienti occasionem. I think the emphatical speeches of Augustin against 
 the Pelagians, and of Prosper, are not so much to be regarded, (who say the 
 like of the Eucharist also) touching the necessity and efficacy in the case 
 of infants, and they are very like the speeches of Lanfranck and Guitmund 
 
 * Bishop Mant's History of the Church of Ireland. 2d. ed. Lond. 1841. VoL 
 1. p. 484. 
 
 f See letters CLXI. and CLXIII. in Parr's Life and Letters of Usher. Lond. 
 1686. fol.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 353 
 
 f Christ's presence in the Sacrament, opposing vcracittr et vert to saera- 
 mentalitfr j which is a false and absurd contraposition. Scd manum dt 
 Tabula. 
 
 " The right definition of a Sacrament in general will decide this ques- 
 tion." [p. 440.] 
 
 LKTTER CLXIII. 
 
 *' Part of a Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell, Bishop 
 of Kilmore, to Dr, Samuel Ward. 
 
 11 First, you say, If Sacraments be merely obsignatory, and the ablution 
 of sins in baptism only conditional and expectative, of which the baptized 
 have no benefit till they believe and repent, then infants baptized, dying in 
 infancy, have no benefit by baptism. This consequence methinks is not 
 good : for they are by baptism received into the visible Church, which is a 
 noble privilege of comfort to parents, and honour dfod profit to themselves. 
 Again, there is presently granted them an entrance into covenant with God, 
 as was anciently by circumcision with the God of Abraham, wherein God 
 promises pardon of sin and life eternal upon their faith and repentance : 
 and in this they have a present right, tho' the accomplishment be deferred. 
 Yet if God take them out of this world while the condition is in expectation, 
 most pious it is to believe that he takes the condition for performed : Like to 
 him that solemnizeth a marriage with her to whom he was betrothed sub 
 conditions And here, if the souls of Christians be endued with any actual 
 knowledge at all, so soon as they leave the body ; it seems the mystery of 
 redemption by Christ is revealed unto them, and faith is given them, whereby 
 they cleave to God by him, the author of their blessedness, although they 
 have no need now of the obsignation of the promise whereof they are in 
 present possession. 
 
 " The second reason. Non-elect infants living, shall thus have no 
 benefit at all by baptism. I answer. Where there be divers ends of one 
 and the same thing, the denial of one is not the denial of the rest. These 
 non-elect infants have offered by God the same with the other, viz., the 
 obsignation of the covenant, and aggregation to the Church. The same 
 that he hath also, qui fictus accedit ut ponit obicem gratis, as to the present 
 possession of it. All that come to the Sacrament, elect or non-elect, receive 
 the pardon of sin original and actual sacramentally : and whosoever per- 
 forms the condition of the covenant, hath the fruition of that, whereof before 
 he had the grant under seal. So as the sacraments are not nuda et ineffi- 
 cacia signa on God's part, to the one or other, 
 
 " Thirdly, (you say,) What necessity of baptizing infants, If their bap- 
 tism produce no effect till they come to years of discretion? Though the 
 most principal effect be not attained presently, the less principal are not to 
 be refused. So children were circumcised, which could not understand the 
 reason of it ; and the same also did eat the Passover. And so did also 
 children baptized in the primitive Church communicate in the Lord's 
 Supper. Which 1 know not why it should not be so still, de quo alias. 
 
 23
 
 354 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 "Fourthly, Our divines, you say, generally hold that the sacraments? 
 do offer and exhibit the grace which they signify, and in order of nature, 
 do first offer and exhibit before they assure and confirm. For God 
 doth r 
 
 " 1. Offer and exhibit grace promised in the sacraments. 
 
 "2. We exercise our faith, resting upon God promising and exhibit- 
 ing. 
 
 "3. So we receive the grace promised, 
 
 "4. Then the Sacraments assure us of the grace received. 
 
 "And this order yon endeavour to confirm out of the definition of a 
 Sacrament in our Catechism: you declare it in the Eucharist, and bring 
 divers testimonies of our writers to prove it. 
 
 " I answer. The grace which the Sacraments confer, is of three sorts. 
 The first is. The spiritual things which are proportionable to the outward. 
 The second, The effects of these. The third, The certification of the party 
 in the lawful use of the outward, of the enjoying the two former. As in 
 Baptism, 1. The blood and Spirit of Christ. 2. The washing of sin, and 
 new birth. 3. The obsignation to the party baptized, that by Christ's 
 blood his sins are cleansed. 
 
 "The first of these is signified in that common sentence, That sacra- 
 ments consist of two parts, an outward visible sign, and an inward visible 
 grace. 
 
 " The second is the most usual and common notion of the word Grace ; 
 meaning some spiritual favour, in order to salvation promised in the New 
 Covenant. The last is most properly the grace of the Sacrament itself. 
 For the two former (which our Catechism seems to reduce to one) are pro- 
 perly the grace of the Covenant, which God doth confirm and seal by the 
 Sacraments. 
 
 " As when the King's Majesty grants lands and tenements with certain 
 immunities and privileges thereunto appertaining, as in his Letters Patents 
 at large appeareth, and sets to the Great Seal : all the grants and articles 
 in the Patent are confirmed thereby materialiter et subjective, but the rati- 
 fication of the Patent is properly and formally that which the seal works : 
 which also, according to the form of the Patent, may be simple or condi- 
 tional, present, or ad diem, according as his Majesty is pleased. 
 1 "As touching the terms also of offering and exhibiting, they may be 
 taken two ways: either of the offering and propounding : so doth Calvin 
 take the word [exhibet] in the Covenant, and institution of the Sacraments ; 
 (Inst. iv. 17. 10.) or, 2, confirming in the use of them. These things thus 
 premised, it seems to me that the order is this : God doth, 
 
 " 1. Offer his Covenant (under the condition of faith and repentance) 
 and therein Christ and his benefits. 
 
 " 2. We accept of the Covenant according to the tenor of it. 
 
 " 3. God offers to confirm it with Sacraments proportional. 
 
 " 4. We receive them, and BO are certified of the performance of the- 
 Covenant, ami have the promises thereof conveyed by Covenant, and by 
 seal also unto us.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 355 
 
 " Where you say, ' In the Eucharist God doth first offer and exhibit 
 growth, and increase of grace, and a nearer and a faster communion of 
 Christ's body and blood, and all the benefits flowing from thence ; and then 
 it is a pledge to assure us thereof It seems to me that God having in the 
 New Testament (confirmed with Christ's blood) offered unto us life under 
 the condition of our receiving him would confirm to as many as receive 
 him that they have life. Therefore he hath instituted bread and wine, the 
 means of natural life, in a certain use, to be seals of spiritual life. We 
 now receiving them, they are pledges unto us, and do certify us of that 
 spiritual life which we have by receiving Christ. 
 
 " Where then you say, ' That the instrumental conveyance of the grace 
 signified, is as true an effect of a Sacrament as obsignation. and is prae- 
 existent in order of nature unto it' I do conceive that the setting of .Christ 
 and his benefits before us in the Gospel, (as the Bread that came down from 
 heaven,) and in the institution of the holy Supper, in the proportional crea- 
 tures of bread and wine, with condition that these, worthily received, shall 
 confer those, must needs go before any obsignation. But then our partak- 
 ing of these creatures duly, giveth unto us the possession of the former by 
 way of obsignation ; which in our purpose is the sole and only instrumen- 
 tal conveyance which the Sacraments have. 
 
 " You will ask, What is the due participation ? That which God requires. 
 There can be required no more of infants but the receiving of the outward 
 washing in baptism : they cannot prove themselves, nor repent and believe. 
 Very true. Have they then that obsignation ? Yes, doubtless, according 
 to the form of the Covenant. How is that? That repenting and 
 believing, their sins are washed away. Then, because they do not yet 
 repent and believe, nothing passes : Yes, this passes. The confirmation that 
 this Sacrament gives upon repentance and belief of all God's promises of 
 the New Testament. The same thing which passes to him quifictus accedit: 
 who when afterwards he doth indeed repent of his fiction, and receives 
 Christ by faith, hath also the actual enjoyment of the thing so confirmed 
 to him. 
 
 " The opinion of the Franciscans out of Scotus and Bernard, mentioned 
 in the Council of Trent, seems to be the true opinion; for they make the 
 Sacraments to be effectual, because God gives them, effectus regulariter 
 concomitantes ; and to contain grace no otherwise than as an effectual sign ; 
 and that grace is received by them as an investiture by a ring or staff, which 
 is obsignando. Which agrees also with Catharine's opinion, de intentione 
 ministri: and Eisingrens saith, that God only can give to sensible signs 
 virtue to confer grace. (Confess, c. 1.) Yet I believe they understand the 
 Imatter otherwise than I have before expressed. Their authority is of little 
 .moment either way. Beza, Ursine, and Calvin have no other meaning than 
 I have expressed. Mr. Hooker I have not. 
 
 " < Since infants (say you) are capable of baptism, why not of spiritual 
 ablution of original guilt ? which is the thing signified, though not of actual 
 obsignation of this, since they cannot interpose any impediment to hinder 
 the operation of the Sacraments.'
 
 356 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 " Questionless they are partakers of the actual obsignation of ablution 
 from original and actual guilt (say I.) Suppose they understand not this 
 obsignation, nor receive this ablution otherwise than sacramentally ? As ] 
 said before, the counterfeit convert also doth : though he put a bar to hit 
 present ablution of his sins, and consequently his own certification thereof, 
 
 " Where I said, ' The true definition of a Sacrament in general will 
 decide this question,' which you grant, and commend that of our Catechism 
 I do not disallow it, being well interpreted ; but do think incomparably 
 better that of the Apostle ; That they be seals of the righteousness of faith, 
 Or if we will include the Sacraments of the state of grace before the fall : 
 They be seals of God's Covenant concerning everlasting happiness. If yet 
 more generally we will include the rainbow, Gen. ix. : They be seals oi 
 God's Covenants. 
 
 " The definition of Scotus, (In 4 dist. 1. 9. 2.) ' Signum sensibile gratiam 
 Dei ejus efiectum gratuitum ex institutione divina efficaeit&r signans, ordina- 
 tum ad salutem hominis viatoris,' methinks is a good definition, especially 
 declaring ejjicaciter as he doth, ' et in hoc efficacit&r ' (saith he) ' includitur 
 tarn certitudinalit^r, quam prognostice.' I know that he acknowledges no 
 Sacrament pro statu innocentia, but without all reason, and the definition 
 will serve well enough for both states ; where he and the other Schoolmen 
 require since the Fall some remedy for original sin; and I perceived the 
 same form in your determination, ' Certum esse Christum Sacramentum 
 Baptismi instituisse in remedium originalis peccati et ad reatus ejusdem 
 veram solutionem ' I conceived you meant to make that the proper effect 
 of baptism : which seemed also to be implied in the explication of the ques- 
 tion in the first sentence, and after, ' Cumq ; Baptismus potissimum institutus 
 sit ad solutionem originalis peccati,' &c. You know what it ia to demon- 
 strate specially of one sort of triangles that which is true in all ; which 
 made me a little touch upon that point. But verily, I think this conceit of 
 Sacraments to make them medicines, is the root of all error in this matter; 
 and that it is good to take light from the Tree of Life, and that of the 
 knowledge of good and evil, that they are sea/5 only to God's promises. In 
 my last to you, as I remember, I gave you occasion a little to consider the 
 case of women under the law, and of all mankind before circumcision. 
 Methinks it is very inconvenient to say, that the males should have a remedy 
 against sin, and the females' none. And the Schoolmen when they will first 
 lay down their own conceit, that such a remedy there must be, and then 
 divine what it must be : they make Bellarmine ridiculous, who from the 
 silence of Holy Scripture herein, labours to shew the Scriptures are insuffi- 
 cient, (De verb, non scr. c. 4,) and yet he cannot help us here by any 
 traditions. This inconvenience is well avoided by making the Sacraments 
 to confer grace only by obsignation of God's promises, and the end of them 
 to be certioration. For so long as God would have men rest upon his mere 
 word and promise without a seal, his word alone was to suffice : when he 
 gave a seal, that was to have validity as far as he extended it. Now he 
 extended circumcision to all Abraham's seed, males and females, yea to the 
 males and females f all that were adjoined to Abraham, though but bought
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 357 
 
 wifli his money: And the circumcision of the males was an obsignation of 
 God's Covenant to the females also. Lastly: in the New Testament, 
 willing to make more ample demonstration of his love, and more abundantly 
 to confirm the truth of his promises, he hath appointed the obsignation of 
 them even to both sexes, and to every several person : Whereby he hath not 
 made their condition worse, who without contempt do want it, but theirs 
 better which are partakers of it. Which I speak in regard of the imagined 
 necessity of baptism to infants to salvation, as if it were indeed a medicine 
 to save life, whereas it is only an assuring that Christ gives life. 
 
 " Consider how Baptism was given to them who had remission of sins 
 and the gifts of the Holy Ghost also before, who therefore could have no 
 other intention therein but certification only, and adjoyaing to the Church. 
 Acts x. 44. 
 
 " Consider how it hath force about sin, not only going before it, but 
 following also ; yea even to them that at the time of the outward receiving 
 it do ponere obicem, else such ought to be re-baptized. 
 
 " Consider that if the faith of the parents, er the Church, were effectual 
 before circumcision was instituted for the taking away of original sin from 
 infants, or under the law from female children ; it is no less effectual at the 
 present under the Gospel. And this presupposing that some mean must 
 come between to make them partakers of Christ. Wherefore the same 
 mean yet standing, the effect of Baptism needs not to be assigned justifica- 
 tion, or ablution from sin, but testification to the receiver^ when he repents 
 and believes, that he is washed from sin. 
 
 " Consider that if you will aver that Baptism washes away otherwise 
 than sacr^nentally, that is, obsignatorily, original sin; yet you must allow 
 that maer of washing for future actual sins. And you must make two 
 sorts of justification, one for children, another for adulti : and (which passes 
 all the rest) you, must find some promise in God's covenant, wherein he binds 
 himself to wash away sin without faith or repentance (for that children have 
 these I think you will not say.) You seem also to break the chain of the 
 Apostle, Rom. viii. 30, Whom he hath justified, he hath glorified. 
 
 "Lastly; by this doctrine, you must also maintain that children do 
 spiritually eat the flesh of Christ, and drink his blood, if they receive the 
 Eucharist, (as for divers ages they did, and by the analogy of the Passover 
 they may, perhaps ought,) since they do not ponere obicem contraries cogi- 
 tationis aut prava operationis. And sith the use of this Sacrament toties 
 quoties must needs confer grace it seems it were necessary to let them 
 communicate, and the oftener the better, to the intent they might be stronger 
 in grace. Which opinion, though St. Austine and many more of the an- 
 cients do maintain, I believe you will not easily condescend unto, or that 
 children dying without baptism are damned : which if baptism be the re- 
 medy that takes away original sin, I see not how you can avoid, (pp. 449 
 -445.) 
 
 These remarks of Bishop Bedell are well worth the atten- 
 tion of the reader, both from the character of the author, and 
 their intrinsic value.
 
 358 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 I now add, lastly, a series of testimonies from the works 
 of a few eminent theological writers of the same period. 
 
 DR. WALTER HADDON, 1577. 
 
 Dr. Haddon, though a civilian, may yet, from the way in 
 which he was employed, well claim to be heard as a witness 
 of the doctrine of our Church at the period at which he wrote. 
 As I have already observed,* he was employed by Archbishop 
 Cranmer, in conjunction with Peter Martyr and others, to draw 
 up the "Reformation Legum ;"f and subsequently, when filling 
 the post of "Master of Requests" to Queen Elizabeth, he 
 defended the Reformatio of the Church of England from the 
 attacks of Osorius, a Portuguese bishop. His first work in this 
 controversy was a letter in reply to one of Osorius, addressed 
 to Q,ueen Elizabeth ;t which having been answered by Osorius, 
 he commenced a rejoinder, part of which only he had finished at 
 the time of his death in 1571. John Fox, the Martyrologist, 
 however, having completed it, it was published in 1577, (4to,) 
 under the title " Contra Hieron. Osorium, ejusque odiosas insec- 
 tationes pro Evangelicse veritatis necessaria Defensione, 
 Responsio Apologetica." Strype, when speaking of these works, 
 calls Dr. Haddon "a man of great abilities in learning, and 
 experience of the state and affairs of this nation," and ^bnsid- 
 ers that he was employed by Secretary Cecil to draw them up. 
 Now in this work, and in the portion of it written by Dr. 
 Haddon, we have the following remarks on the doctrine of 
 our Church as to the Sacraments. 
 
 " But you persist, and desire to know, what the Sacraments are. If 
 you know, and feign that you do not, why will you trifle in a grave matter ; 
 if you are ignorant^ what sort of a theologian must I account you. who 
 understand not the elements of religion ? ' Nay,' say you, ' I have 
 no difficulty as to the scholastic Sacraments, but I know nothing of your 
 bare images by which ye deny that the grace of God is obtained.' Oso- 
 rius, in these few words how many faults are there ! For first, who besides 
 yourself ever called the Sacraments images? Some have called them signs 
 of sacred things; others, marks; some, pledges of our salvation; some 
 symbols; and others otherwise. But you first devised images in the Sacra- 
 ments. But as far as words are concerned, let us be lenient, although you 
 
 * See p. 75 above. t Strype's Cranmer, i. 1 92. Oxf. ed. 
 
 J See bis " Lucubrntiones," 1667, 4to. Annals, ch. 37, I, ii. 69 et 8.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 359 
 
 are most difficult to please with respect to them ; let us attend to things. 
 You say that ' bare images are brought forward by us as sacraments.' How 
 bare, Jerome ? We agree with Augustine, that the Sacraments are signs 
 of sacred things : or, in other words, are visible signs of an invisible grace. 
 For you will grant me the same liberty of words which you take yourself. 
 We admit, that in baptism we are regenerated to eternal life. We grant, 
 that in the Eucharist the Lord Jesus is truly exhibited to those that believe 
 by the spirit and faith. By all which it is proved, that those on our side 
 do not take the Sacraments for bare signs, but for things most efficacious, 
 for things most divine, for things altogether necessary to our salvation. 
 They are most holy mysteries of our religion, they are most certain instru- 
 ments of heavenly grace : yet nevertheless God our Father, who formed us 
 of clay, is not tied to his own instruments, nor in bondage to creatures; 
 but has compassion on whom he will have compassion, and pardons our sins, 
 not for the sake of the Sacraments, but for his own sake. Finally, life 
 eternal is not from the Sacraments, but is the gift of God through Jesus 
 Christ. Therefore we reject and repudiate your spurious and bare images, 
 as idle dreams of your own brain, and we use the true Sacraments as 
 things most sacred, as assurances to faith and pledges of our salvation : 
 yet nevertheless we do not attribute so much to them, as that through them, 
 as through channels, from the mere work wrought, the grace of God should 
 be necessarily imparted to us. We remit this impiety to your schoolmen, from 
 whom this poison first flowed. For the inheritance is given OF FAITH accord- 
 ing to grace. The Sacraments are signs to be reverenced of the Divine 
 favour, they are noble memorials of our religion, they are most perfect tes- 
 timonies of our salvation. But if you cannot be contented with these 
 praises of the Sacraments, heap up more, to your Liking ; we will willingly 
 admit of them ; if only you do not affix the grace of God of necessity to 
 these signs. For we are not saved by the reception of the Sacraments. But 
 if we shall confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in 
 our hearts that God hath raised him from the dead, by that of itself we 
 shall be saved. The Emperor Julian was baptized into the name of Christ, 
 and yet he died in open blasphemy. Judas Iscariot fed upon the Sacra- 
 ment of the Eucharist, and yet he passed from the table directly to the 
 enemies of the Lord Jesus, and betrayed the innocent blood. What need 
 is there of many words ? The Sacraments are most precious signs of the 
 Divine favour, but they do not obtain the Divine favour. The Sacraments 
 are excellent memorials of piety, but they do not produce piety. He who 
 boasts must not boast in the Sacraments, but in the Lord. Since we are 
 of God in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righte- 
 ousness, and sanctification, and redemption."* 
 
 No oiie can doubt what is the doctrine of the words I have 
 here given in Italics. 
 
 * Sed instas, et scire vis, quid slnt Sacramenta. Si scis, et dissimnlas, cur 
 in re seria jocari libet ; si ignoras, cujusmodi te Theologum statuam, qui religion!* 
 elementa nan tcnes ! ' Imo,' inquis, ' in sacramentis scbolasticis non haereo, vestnw
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 DR. ROBERT SOME, 1582 : 
 
 " Master of Peter House College, Cambridg-e, (on the nomi- 
 nation of the College confirmed by the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury,) from 1581 to 1608.* 
 
 The following extracts are taken from Dr. Some r s Treatise 
 on the Sacraments, published in 1582. 
 
 rion novi nudas imagines, quibus negatis Dei gratiam conciliari.' Pancissimis 
 Terbis. Osori, quot peccata ! Nam primum, sacraraenta praeter te quis unquam 
 imagines appellavit ? Signa quidarn rerum sacrarura> alii notas, nonnulli arra- 
 bones nostrae salutis, nonnulli tesseras, et alii aliter. Sed imagines in sacramentia 
 tn primus es arcbitectatus. Verum in verbis faciles simus, licet tu sis in illis ssepe 
 morosissimus, res persequamur. ' Nudas imagines a nost ris pro sacramentis- 
 afferri.' Quomodo nudas. O Hieronyme-? Cunv Augustino conseatimus, sacra- 
 menta rerum sacrarum esse signa : vel aliter : esse signa visibilia gratiae no 
 visibilis. Dabis eniro mihi earn veniam verborum, quam tu ipse tibi sumis, 
 Concedimus, in baptismo nos ad seternam vitam regenerari. Largiinur in Eucha- 
 ristia dominum Jesum spiritu et fide credentibus vere exhiberi. Quibus omnibus 
 efficitur, nostros sacramenta pro nudis signis non accipere, sed pro rebus effica- 
 cissimis, pro rebus divinissimia, pro rebus ad salutem nostram prorsus necessariis, 
 Mysteria saerosancta sunt nostrae religionis, instnimenta coelesti gratise sunt cer- 
 tissima: nee tamen Dens Pater, qui nos ex luto finxit, instrumentis suis est 
 alligatus, nee creaturis mancipatus : sed miseretw quorum misereri vult, et peccata 
 nostra condonat, non propter sacramenta, sedpropter se. Postremo, non ex sac- 
 ramentis, sed donum Dei est vita sterna per Jesum Christum. Nos igitur com- 
 mentitias et nudas imagines, tanquam otiosa cerebri tui somnia respuimus et 
 repudiamus, et veris sacramentis utimur, ut rebus sacratissimis, ut fidei pignoribua 
 et obsidibus nostrse salutis: nee tamen illis tantem tribuimns,ut per ilia, tan- 
 quam per canales, ex opere operato, gratia Dei necessario infundatur. Hanc impie- 
 tatem ad fcholastico* tuos relegamus, unde virus Jwc primum dimanavit. Nam 
 xx FIDK datur hareditas aecundum gratiam. Sacramenta divint favoris signa 
 sunt veneranda, religionis nostrae monumenta sun-t magnifica, testimonia sunt 
 noslr:i: salutis perfectissima. Quod si non potes-his sacramentorum laudibus esse 
 contentus, plures accumula, tuo arbitratu; libenter admittemus : tnodo Dei gra- 
 tiam his signis necessario non affigas. Non enim perceptione Sacramentorum 
 tervamitr. Sed si confessi fuerimus ore nostro dominum Jesum, et credideremus 
 in cordibus nostris, quod Deus ilium excitavit e mortuis, eo uno salvi erimus. 
 Julianus Imperator in Christ! nomen baptizatus fuit, et tamen in aperta blasphe- 
 mia mortuus est. Judas Iscariotes Eucharistine sacramento rescebatur, et tamer* 
 a mensa statim ad inimicos Domini Jesu traneilnit, et sanguinem innocentem pro- 
 didit. Quid multis opus est ? Sacramenta signa sunt pretiosissima divini favoris, 
 ted divinum favorem non conciliant. Sacramenta sunt egregia pietatis monu- 
 menta, sed pietatem non efficiunt. Qui glonatur, non in sacramentis glorietur, sed 
 in Domino. Quoniam ex Deo nos sumus in Christo Jesu, qui factus fuit nobi 
 apientia a Deo, justitiaque, et sanctifkatio, et redemptio. (Lib. 2, fol. 38, 39.) 
 See Le Neve's Fasti, p. 421.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 361 
 
 " Circumcision was to the Israelites a sacrament of regeneration : Bap- 
 tism is so to us. By circumcision, the Israelites were incorporated into God's 
 risible Church : so are we by baptism. Circumcision was to them a sign 
 of God's covenant : so is baptism to us." (R. Some's Godly and Short 
 Treatise of the Sacraments. Lond. 1582. 16mo. B 7. The book is not 
 paged. Trin. Coll. Cam. Libr. G. 13, 38.) 
 
 " The sign must not be confounded with the thing signified in the sacri- 
 fice [sacrament.]* 
 
 "For not every one that receiveth the sign is partaker of the thing 
 signified. This is clear in Simon Magus for baptism, and in the traitor 
 Judas for the Lord's Supper. 
 
 " The water of baptism is one thing: the blood of Christ signified by 
 the water is another thing : the water purgeth our bodies, Christ's blood 
 purgeth our souls: without partaking of baptism (so that contempt 
 be absent) we may be saved, without Christ's blood we can never be 
 saved. 
 
 " The bread of the Sacrament is one thing, the body of Christ is 
 another; the bread entereth only into the bodily mouth, Christ's flesh 
 entereth only into the soul : without eating the bread of the sacrament (so 
 that contempt be absent) we may be saved, without eating of Christ's 
 flesh we can never be saved. 
 
 It is miserable bondage of the soul, to take the signs (in the sacra- 
 ments) for the things signified by them. (Aug. de doct. Christ, lib. 5, 
 cap. 5.) 
 
 " I confess that the name of the thing signified is given sometime to the 
 sign. Circumcision is said to be the covenant between God and Abraham 
 (Gen. ch. 17, ver. 10,) when notwithstanding it was not the covenant but 
 the sign of God's covenant. The Lamb is called the Lord's Passover 
 [Exod. ch. 12, ver. 11.,] but the Lamb was not the passage itself [of the 
 Israelites out of Egypt] but remembered unto them the benefit of that 
 great deliverance of theirs out of Egypt. The bread in the Lord's Supper 
 is called the body of Christ, but it was only a figure and sign of Christ's 
 body : [Aug. contra Adimant. cap. 12.] and yet the worthy receiver which 
 brings faith and repentance with him to the Lord's Supper, is partaker as 
 of the bread and the wine, so of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus." 
 [Ib. B8, C 1.] 
 
 " The sacramental signs offer grace unto all, but do not of their own 
 nature confer grace unto all that do receive them. 
 
 " Many have been partakers of the sacraments, which notwithstanding 
 were very ungracious. Many of the Jews received circumcision of flesh 
 without circumcision of the heart. Simon Magus received baptism but not 
 regeneration : Judas received the bread of the supper, but not the body of 1 
 Christ. 
 
 The " Table" at the beginning " shows that sacrifice" is a typography*! 
 erratum for " sacrament"
 
 362 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 li The Sacraments do bring to pass that which they do figure, only in tht 
 elect. (Aug. de bapt. parvul.)* 
 
 " We neither do nor may attribute forgiveness of sins "to the external 
 element otherwise than instrumentally. We must by no means say that 
 grace is contained essentially in the Sacraments, as water in a vessel, or as 
 medicine in a box, but the Sacraments are said to contain grace, because 
 they be signs of grace. 
 
 11 It is a certain truth that the Sacraments do always retain their nature. 
 Baptism is a laver of regeneration. (Tit. ch. 3. ver. 5.) The Lord's 
 Supper is the communion of Christ's body and blood, (1 Cor. ch. 10, ver. 
 16,) though no spark of faith remained in the world : but we receive not 
 the grace which is offered by the Sacraments, unless we bring faith to the 
 partaking of the Sacraments. 
 
 " If any ask me, why the infants of the faithful, which have not faith, 
 are presented to baptism, I answer, that though they have not faith, yet 
 they arc under God's covenant, whereof baptism is to us a sure warrant 
 and confirmation. 
 
 " Objection. The Church is cleansed by the washing of water through 
 the word, (Eph. ch. 5, ver. 26,) therefore baptism doth confer salvation. 
 
 " Answer. The apostle joins together the word of life and the washing 
 of water ; as if he should say, by the Gospel the message of our washing 
 and sanctification is delivered unto us, and by baptism the same message 
 is sealed up unto us." (Ib. C 2, C 3.) 
 
 " The Sacraments are not naked and bare signs. 
 
 " In baptism, the efficacy of God's Spirit is present to wash and regene- 
 rate THOSE WHICH APPERTAIN UNTO GOD. 
 
 * # # # * * * 
 
 " The Sacraments are not bare signs, because we have the Lord's insti- 
 tution : they are seals of righteousness and tokens of grace, they are sure 
 warrants of God's promises, whereby God bindeth himself unto us and we 
 likewise stand bound to his Majesty, so that God is our God and we are his 
 people." (Ib. C 3, C 4.) 
 
 " God's children receive great benefit by baptism, for all that are bap- 
 tized into Christ have put on Christ. (Gal. c. iii. v. xxvii.)" (Ib. C 5.) 
 
 1 ' It is a common and a very sound speech, that not the want, but the 
 contempt of baptism bringeth condemnation." (Ib.) 
 
 " What good we receive by the Sacraments. 
 
 " We are put in mind by the Sacraments of Christ's inestimable bene- 
 fits, which by the laver of water purgeth us in baptism, and by his flesh 
 feedeth, and by his blood refresheth our souls in the Lord's Supper : our 
 faith is confirmed and increased by the Sacraments : we are by them stirred 
 up, to perform great duty and thankfulness to Almighty God ; we are 
 severed by the Sacraments (as by a partition wall) from all such, as are not 
 
 * The reference here is to the passage quoted by Peter Lombard aa from 
 Augustine, but which is not now to be found in any printed edition of his works. 
 The quotation, however, equally illustrates Dr. Some's view.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 363 
 
 entered into the profession of Christianity, and we are by the Sacraments 
 more surely linked together amongst ourselves." (Ib. C 7.) 
 
 " Baptism is a Sacrament of regeneration consisting of water and the 
 Spirit by the word of God, whereby we have forgiveness of sins and ever- 
 lasting life according to Christ's promise. 
 
 " The infants of the Israelites were circumcised when they were eight 
 days old : our baptism is come into the place of their circumcision. . . . 
 
 "The children of the faithful are holy, [1 Cor. c. vii. v. 14,] they are 
 under God's covenant [which covenant is contained in these words, I will 
 be thy God and the God of thy seed, Acts ch. ii. ver. 39,] therefore they 
 may not be barred from baptism, which is a seal of God's covenant." 
 [Ib. C 8.] 
 
 " All that die before baptism are not damned, because we are Christians 
 before we are baptized. 
 
 " Abraham was justified before he was circumcised) otherwise circum- 
 cision could not have been called by Saint Paul a seal of the righteousness 
 of faith. [Rom. ch. iv. ver. 11. ; Acts ch. 2, ver. 38, 39.] 
 
 " God's promise belongs to Christian infants before their baptism [other- 
 wise baptism, which is a seal of this promise, should be denied them:] 
 therefore they are children of the promise, and consequently Christians 
 before they are baptized. 
 
 "If infants dying before baptism are damned, two gross absurdities 
 would follow : first the salvation of our infants should rest not upon God's 
 covenant, which is the groundwork of our salvation, but upon the seal which 
 is put to the covenant : secondly, the salvation and damnation of infants 
 should consist in the diligence and negligence of their parents, &c. 
 
 " Baptism was ministered in Thessalia only on Easter day, and in 
 Carthage, in Tertullian's time, only at Easter and Whitsuntide. (Socrat. 
 lib. 5. cap. 22. Tertull. de Baptis.) If the infants of the faithful be not 
 Christians before their baptism, what shall we say of the infants of Thes- 
 salia and Carthage, which died before Easter ? 
 
 '' The Papists themselves, when they baptize one of years, ask these 
 questions of him before his baptism : Dost thou believe, dost thou renounce 
 the devil? The party answers, I believe, I renounce the devil. Whereby 
 it is clear, that he either is indeed, or at the least is esteemed of them to 
 be a Christian before he is baptized, and so consequently admitted by them 
 to the partaking of that Sacrament. 
 
 " Plain men of the country do mark only those sheep for their own, 
 which they either know or at the least do take to be their own. Baptism 
 is one of God's seals. The Church doth only mark those with this seal, 
 whom they either know or at the least do take before the administration 
 of baptism to be God's lambs and sheep. If they which are offered to bap- 
 tism, are God's sheep and lambs before their baptism, it is a clear case that 
 they are Christians before they are baptized, and consequently that baptism 
 is not the cause but a seal of our conjunction with Almighty God. 
 
 ********
 
 364 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 " Objection. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can- 
 not enter into the kingdom of God. (John ch. 3, ver. 5.) 
 
 ' : Answer. If we understand this of baptism, what shall we say of the 
 Emperor Valentinian which went to Ambrose the Bishop of Mediolanum 
 to be baptized, and was slain in his journey before he came to Ambrose : 
 shall we condemn him for want of baptism, because Christ said to Nico- 
 demus, Except a man be born, &c. ? This dealing were very peremptory. 
 If answer be made, that Valentinian's desire of baptism is a sufficient de- 
 fence, I grant it was so : and, if the Emperor's desire keep him out of the 
 compass of condemnation, why may not God's promise be sufficient to de- 
 liver the infants of the faithful from condemnation if they die unbaptized : 
 for not the want but contempt of baptism doth condemn us. Besides our 
 Saviour Christ's speech was with Nicodemus, which was of good years, 
 and might have at his pleasure the use both of water and a minister for 
 this godly purpose. 
 
 " Question. If the infants of Christians be under God's covenant before 
 they be baptized, their baptism seems to be superfluous : why are they 
 baptized ? 
 
 "Answer. God's commandment must be fulfilled. He commanded 
 both circumcision and baptism, and punished the contempt of circumcision 
 sharply in the Israelites, and will punish the contempt of baptism grievously 
 in us. Besides God's promise which pertaineth to our infants (Acts ch. 2, 
 ver. 38, 39.) must be confirmed with the outward seal of baptism, that we 
 may be always mindful of God's promise. Lastly, the godly prayers of the 
 minister and of them which offer the child to baptism, do greatly profit the 
 infant, and the congregation which is then present at the administration of 
 baptism receives some instruction touching their salvation." (Ib. D 2 D 5.) 
 
 Maintaining that "baptism must not be iterated," he ob- 
 serves, 
 
 " To be once regenerate, and to have once entered into Christ's Church, 
 is sufficient, neither is any of God's elect cast out at any time : for he that 
 is once endued with the spirit of sanctification is always endued with the 
 same spirit of sanctification. My reasons are these. 
 
 "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. (Bom. ch. 11, 
 ver. 29.) 
 
 " The word of God whereby we are regenerate, is immortal seed, (1 Pet. 
 ch. 1, ver. 23,) that is to say, never dieth in his children. The shield of 
 faith may be wounded, but it cannot be stricken through. 
 
 " Whatsoever is born of God sinneth not, for his seed remaineth in him, 
 neither can he sin, because he is born of God. (1 John, ch. 3. ver. 9, and 
 ch. 5. ver. 18.) The Apostle John meaneth, not that sin dwelleth not in 
 God's children, but that it hath not dominion over them : and therefore 
 Paul saith not, Let not sin dwell, but, Let not sin reign in your mortal 
 bodies. (Rom. eh. 6, ver. 12.) 
 
 " David dealt very strangely with Urias and with the Lord's army : (2
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 365 
 
 Sam. ch. 11, ver. 4, 15, 24.) his faith seemed to be quenched, but he waa 
 not clean spoiled of all sparks of grace : there remained as it were a quick 
 coal in the ashes : otherwise the prophet Nathan had not so easily and 
 speedily awaked him. (2 Sam. ch. 12, ver. 13.) 
 
 " Christ's resurrection is a notable pillar of our faith, and the very lock 
 and key of all religion. The Apostle Thomas doubted so much of it, that 
 he uttered these words : Except I see in his hands the print of the nails, 
 
 &c (John ch. 20, ver. 25.) This sin of Thomas was so gross, that it 
 
 might be felt with the fingers ; and yet faith was not clean extinguished in 
 him, as appeareth by his answer to Christ, My Lord and my God. (John 
 ch. 20, ver. 28.) 
 
 " They which think, that they are utterly void of God's Spirit in whom 
 the fruits of the Spirit do not always appear, are like unto them which think 
 there is no fire where there is no flame, and that trees are dead in winter, 
 because they bring forth neither fruit nor leaves in winter." (Ib. D 7, 
 D8.) 
 
 DR. JOHN PRIME, 1582; 
 Fellow of New College, Oxford ; and Vicar of Adderbury. 
 
 The following extracts are from Dr. Prime's Treatise on 
 the Sacraments, published in 1582. 
 
 "A Sacrament is a sensible sign to the eye, instituted of God to be con- 
 tinued in his Church, for the further assurance and increase of spiritual 
 grace in the faithful. Of which sort is Baptism and the Supper, and only 
 these two, even as they are jointly specified by the Apostle to the Corin- 
 thians. (1 Cor. x.) 
 
 " In the general may be observed these four notes chiefly. 1 . The insti- 
 tution to be of God. 2. The sign visible in sense and resemblance conve- 
 nient. 3. The graces secret and mystical, but singular benefits to the faith- 
 ful man. 4. The continuance is the Church's duty, rightly to use and to 
 enjoy his ordinances as beseemeth the Church of God. 
 
 * * * # # * # 
 
 " Every Sacrament hath ever these two members, the outward sign and 
 the inward grace, and without the sign is no grace sacramentally signified 
 at any time, neither is the show of a sign sufficient, it must be material 
 and able in a convenient proportion, to demonstrate and declare to man's 
 frail capacity, the grace implied and signified, as shall better appear in the 
 specials afterward. 
 
 " The signs barely looked upon in themselves, they are base matters, 
 earthly elements, common and ordinary : but put once the prince's stamp to 
 the metal, the seal to the wax, the wax and seal to the Lord's promise, the 
 case is altered. For earthly, common, and usual elements, that a little 
 before were, do put now upon them, and are endued with divine considera- 
 tions : yet still in substance remaining the same, but in efficacy, virtue, 
 service, ends, signification and representation of graces, base things become
 
 366 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 beautiful and marvellous, being thus sequestered by God himself to so high 
 and holy purposes, and therefore are usually termed by the very names that 
 the graces themselves are called by. And this is also a common rule 
 amongst the Fathers. See it so in exam pies out of 'the Scriptures. Circum- 
 cision is the covenant, the Lamb the Passover, the ark the Lord, Baptism 
 our burial, Christ the rock, the Bread his body, the Cup his blood, because 
 the analogy of these things is lively, the proportion plain, the signs signifi- 
 cantly ordained of God : and being thus uttered, they more affect our faith, 
 and touch our affections. 
 
 " Thirdly, the graces (that is, the inward part of the Sacraments) are 
 though singular in consolation, yet secret in the mystery of their operation. 
 
 GOD WORKETH HOW HE LISTETH, AND ON WHOM HE PLEASETH The 
 
 graces we reap and receive by Christ in the Sacraments (so great and gra- 
 cious are they) they may be termed graces of graces : as namely, remission 
 of sins, imputation of righteousness, sanctification of life, and a special ap- 
 plication of our Saviour Jesus. Neither yet for all this (which is diligently 
 to be noted) do we tie or bind his goodness so hereby, that he must needs work 
 with, or cannot work without, these means, by his Spirit, the salvation of 
 them whom he had chosen and destinated to eternal life before all worlds. 
 .... Salvation is neither kneaded into the dough, nor mingled with water, 
 no more than with the word, which is as Hierom (in Psal. 147. iii. cap. 
 eccle.) saith more truly Christ, but proceedeth from God, and is conveyed 
 by ordinary means of either word or outward signs, where they are not 
 contemned, but may conveniently be had, and are reverently used as they 
 ought." (J. Prime's Treatise on the Sacraments. Lond. 1582. 16mo. fol. 
 A 4, A 7, A 8, B 1. The pages are not numbered. Cambr. Univ. Libr. G 
 15. 80.) 
 
 But when proceeding to speak of Baptism generally he 
 has no hesitation in describing it as, 
 
 " The Sacrament of regeneration in water, whereby our sins are 
 cleansed, we clad with Christ, endued with his Spirit, our names entered 
 among the number of Christian professors, in the name of the blessed 
 Trinity." (Ib. fol. B3-X 
 
 DR. WILLAM FULKE. 15831589. 
 
 Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, from 1578 till 
 his death in 1589. 
 
 Dr. Fulke's general view of the character of the Sacra- 
 ments may be seen from the following passage, 
 
 " That the Sacraments help nothing toward our salvation, is another 
 of Martin's slanders, no assertion of ours. For seeing we hold that the
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 367 
 
 Sacraments are seals of God's promises, to confirm our faith by which we 
 are justified before him, how can we affirm that they help nothing to sal- 
 vation."* 
 
 Bat he has spoken elsewhere more expressly on the particu- 
 lar point which is the subject of our present inquiry. 
 
 In his Confutation of the Annotations on the New Testa- 
 ment by "the Papists of the traitorous Seminarie at Rhemes," 
 first published in 1589, he thus speaks on the subject of Bap- 
 tism. 
 
 On the words, " We are buried together with him by bap- 
 tism into death," in Rom. vi. 4, the Rhemists had given this 
 comment: "Remission of sin, new life, sanctification and 
 justification are given by baptism, because itresembleth in us 
 and applieth to us in Christ's death and resurrection, and 
 engraffeth us into him.'' Upon which Dr. Fulke remarks, 
 
 " Baptism is a seal of the justification by faith, and therefore assureth 
 us of remission of sin. renovation and sanctification, that God giveth unto 
 us being justified. The application of Christ's death, burial, and resurrec- 
 tion, is the proper work of the Holy Spirit, by whom we are regenerate, 
 which is resembled and ratified by the external seal of baptism, which 
 testifieth that we are ingraffed into the similitude of his death and resur- 
 rection.''! 
 
 Again, on the words, "We that are baptized &c." in verse 
 3, the Rhemists gave the following annotation : " That which 
 before he challenged from the law of Moses to faith, is now 
 attributed to baptism, which is the first Sacrament of our faith 
 and the entrance to Christian Religion, whereby it is plain that 
 he meaneth not only faith to justify, but the Sacraments also, 
 and all Christian Religion, which he calleth the Law of spirit, 
 grace, and faith." On which Dr. Fulke remarks, 
 
 " St. Paul ascribeth our justification before to faith without works, 
 therefore he doth not now make baptism a cause thereof: but of the ends 
 and effects of baptism, he proveth that sanctification and renovation is 
 necessary, for all that are justified freely by the grace of God, through 
 faith in Christ. The same argument may be drawn from circumcision, to 
 prove, that the Jews before Christ ought to bring forth the fruits of sancti- 
 
 * Defence of the Sincere and True Translation of the Holy Scriptures into 
 the English tongue against G. Martin. [First published in 1583.] P. S. ed. p. 450. 
 
 f Fulke's Confutation of Rhemish Annotations on the New Testament. Load. 
 1617, fol p. 453.
 
 368 EFFECTS OP BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 fication and renovation. Yet the Apostle by express words excludeth cir- 
 cumcision from being a cause of justification, because Abraham was justified 
 before he was circumcised, ' Who is the form of justification of all men,' 
 as S. Ambrose saith. (Com. inep. ad Gal. cap. 3.) And baptism succeeding 
 in the place of circumcision, is a seal of justification by faith, in all Chris- 
 tians, as circumcision was in Abraham, not a cause thereof. Neither can 
 justification before God by baptism, or any works of Christian Religion^ be 
 concluded out of this text."* 
 
 Again, on the following chapter, he speaks still more plainly 
 as to who those are in whom alone baptism is effectual. The 
 note of the Rhemists on the words, "You also are made dead," 
 in verse 4, is this : " being now baptized and dead to sin, and 
 engraffed in Christ's mystical body, you are discharged of the 
 Law of Moses, and are free in Christ," On which Dr. Fulke 
 says, 
 
 " Baptism in the elect is a seal of Iheir incorporation and conformity 
 unto the death and resurrection of Christ, but not a cause thereof. For all 
 are not incorporate to Christ's mystical body, but only the true members 
 thereof."! 
 
 And the note of the Rhemists on the words, "Newness of 
 spirit, &c." in verse *6, being, " By Baptism we have not 
 Christ's justice imputed unto us, but an inward newness of 
 spirit given us and resident in us;" Dr. Fulke observes, 
 
 " By faith we have Christ's justice imputed unto us, whereof baptism 
 is a seal : and the newness of spirit which is resident in us, is the work of 
 the Holy Ghost, not of the external act of baptism : for then it should be in 
 all that are baptized, but IT is ONLY IN THE ELECT OF GOD. For the repro- 
 bate, though they have the external seal of baptism, yet they have not renova- 
 tion of the Spirit, neither are they regenerate to be God's children, for if 
 they were his children, they should be his heirs, Rom. viii. 17."$ 
 
 It would be easy to add other passages to the same effect 
 from Dr. Fulke's writings.^ But the above are too clear to 
 make this at all necessary, and are extracted from his latest 
 writings. 
 
 Ib. p. 454. f Ib. p. 456. $ Ib. p. 457. 
 
 g See for instance his " Answer to a Popish Apology," p. 84 ; and bis " Con- 
 futation of the doctrine of purgatory, Ac." p. 85, in " Two Treatises agaiust the 
 Papista," 1677, 8vo
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 369 
 
 RICHARD HOOKER, 1597. 
 
 The name of Hooker is a sufficient introduction to any- 
 thing that comes from his pen. 
 
 In a preceding page we have seen what his views were on 
 the points called Calvinistic, and these are decisive (unless we 
 suppose great inconsistency) as to his opposition to the notion, 
 that spiritual regeneration is always conferred upon infants in 
 baptism. 
 
 The following passage however goes directly to the point, 
 and while it shows that he held that original sin was always 
 pardoned in infants at baptism, clearly maintains that the 
 language of our Church respecting the spiritual regeneration 
 of infants at baptism is founded on the supposition that they 
 are " elect." 
 
 "\Yere St. Augustine," he says, "now living, there are which would 
 tell him for his better instruction, that to say of a child, ' it is elect,' and to 
 say it doth believe, are all one, for which cause, sith no man is able pre- 
 cisely to affirm the one of any infant in particular, it followeth that 
 'precisely' and 'absolutely 7 we ought not to say the other. Which 
 ' precise ' and ' absolute terms ' are needless in this case. We speak of 
 infants as the rule of piety alloweth both to speak and think. They that 
 can take to themselves in ordinary talk a charitable kind of liberty to name 
 men of their own sort God's dear children (notwithstanding the large reign 
 of hypocrisy) should not methinks be so strict and rigorous against the 
 Church for PRESUMING as it doth of a Christian innocent. For when we 
 know how Christ in general hath said that of such is the kingdom of heaven, 
 which kingdom is the inheritance of God's elect, and do withal behold how 
 his providence hath called them unto the first beginnings of eternal life, 
 and presented them at the well-spring of new birth wherein original sin is 
 purged, besides which sin there is no hindrance of their salvation known 
 to us, as themselves will grant; hard it were that having so many fair 
 inducements whereupon to ground, we should not be thought to utter at the 
 least a truth as probable and allowable in terming any such particular 
 infant an elect babe, as in presuming the like of others, whose safety 
 nevertheless we are not absolutely Able to warrant." * 
 
 Here, no doubt, as elsewhere,! he seems to maintain that 
 the infant is purged from the guilt of original sin ; but the 
 terms applying to it as an " elect " child are used only in the 
 
 Eccl. Pol. V. Ixiv. ed. Keble. Oxf. 1836, ii. 398, 399. 
 
 f Ib bcii., and Answer to Christian Letter in Keble'a ed. Vol. 2, p. 701. 
 
 24
 
 370 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS, 
 
 spirit of charity. And true spiritual regeneration Hooker 
 believed to be given only to the elect.* 
 Again ; he says that, 
 
 " Sacraments .... contain in themselves no vital force or efficacy, 
 they are not physical but moral instruments of salvation, duties of service 
 and worship, which unless we perform as the Author of grace requireth, they 
 are unprofitable. FOR ALL RECEIVE NOT THE GRACE OF GOD WHICH 
 RECEIVE THE SACRAMENTS OF HIS GRACE : neither is it ordinarily his will 
 to bestow the grace of sacraments on any, but by the Sacraments ; which 
 grace also they that receive by sacraments or with sacraments, receive it from 
 him and not from them." f 
 
 And while he speaks of baptism as " the door of our actual 
 entrance into God's house," and " to our sanctification here a 
 step that hath not any before it," he in the same sentence 
 takes care not to represent it as the first act of grace towards 
 the child, by speaking of it as " the APPARENT beginning of 
 life," and as " a seal perhaps to THE GRACE OF ELECTION BE- 
 FORE RECEIVED. "J 
 
 We may thus at once clear up Mr. Keble's difficulty as to 
 Hooker's views, expressed in his Preface to his Works, p. 102. 
 After supposing that Hooker had a scruple about receiving the 
 fifth Lambeth Article, (for which supposition there is no valid 
 ground,) he adds, 
 
 " It may be, that when he came to weigh more exactly his own doctrine 
 of the Sacraments, he felt that it could not well stand with the supposed 
 indefectibility of grace. For how could or can any person, beholding what 
 numbers fall away after baptism, hold consistently, on the one hand, that 
 real sanctifying grace can never be finally forfeited ; on the other, that it 
 is given at baptism? which latter Hooker unquestionably holds : for these 
 are his words (E. P. V. Ix. 2.) ' Baptism is a sacrament which God hath 
 instituted in his Church, to the end that they which receive the same 
 might thereby be incorporated into Christ, and so through his most precious 
 merit obtain as well that saving grace of imputation which taketh away 
 all former guiltiness, as also that infused Divine virtue of the Holy Ghost 
 which giveth to the powers of the soul their first disposition towards future 
 newness of life.' This is one passage among many attributing to baptism 
 wrhen not unworthily received, and THEREFORE in all cases to infant bap- 
 tism, HO less than justifying or pardoning grace, together with the first 
 infusion of that which sanctifies. It is for those who suppose the writer 
 
 * See passages given above, pp. 128, 124. 
 
 \ Ib. ch. Ivii. 4 ii. 329. \ Ib. ch. Ix. 3. ii. 841,
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 371 
 
 n uncompromising Calvinist, to explain how these representations can be 
 reconciled with Calvin's doctrine of the absolute perpetuity of justifying 
 and of the first sanctifying grace. It is not here meant to deny that such 
 reconciliation may be possible, but the Editor has never yet met with it. 
 And until some way be discovered of clearing up this difficulty, it will be 
 at least as fair in the advocates, as they are called, of free-will, to quote 
 Hooker's doctrine of the Sacraments, as in predestinarians to insist on his 
 doctrine of final perseverance." 
 
 Now it. appears to me that Mr. Keble's difficulty is easily 
 removed. For it arises from this, that he has assumed a 
 principle as to the universal worthiness of Infants to receive 
 in baptism the full baptismal grace, which is entirely opposed 
 to Hooker's system of theology, and then interpreting Hooker's 
 statements by- this principle, he knows not how to reconcile 
 them. His conclusion, that because Hooker's words attribute 
 certain effects to baptism, " when not unworthily received," 
 " therefore '' they attribute them " in all cases to infant bap- 
 tism," even " no less than justifying or pardoning grace, &c.," 
 is thoroughly unfounded, nothing less in fact than a petitio 
 principii. It is clear from various passages in Hooker's 
 works, that he held that " the elect " only experienced such 
 benefit from baptism, for he expressly maintains that such a 
 blessing is never lost. Mr. Keble has himself quoted the first 
 three passages of those given above to this effect from his 
 works ; and then somewhat naively adds, " It is not quite 
 clear why a person holding such an opinion as this should 
 scruple to receive the fifth Lambeth Article : yet Hooker it 
 seems had such a scruple." It is indeed very far from clear ; 
 and the fact is, that the only ground which Mr. Keble has for 
 telling us that " it seems " he had a scruple, is, that in a 
 paper of Hooker's, drawn up in reply to the " Christian 
 Letter," and published from the MS. in Trin. Coll. Dublin, by 
 Mr. Keble, in his edition of Hooker, there is a statement of 
 his views on the subject, drawn up in eight brief articles, 
 which do not adopt the precise words of the Lambeth Articles. 
 But if Mr. Keble will look again, he will find in the immediate 
 context of these articles the passage which I have quoted 
 above from that paper, as edited by himself, and which I need 
 hardly say is quite as strong as the 5th Lambeth Article 
 itself.
 
 372 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 We may observe, however, that Mr. Keble himself inter- 
 prets his general statements as to the benefits conferred by 
 baptism, as meaning that such benefits are conferred by it 
 only " when not unworthily received." 
 
 DR. ANDREW WTLLET. 1600. 
 
 Prebendary of E/y, and afterwards Chaplain to Prince 
 Henry, eldest son of James I. 
 
 " Dr. Willet," Chalmers tells us, 
 
 " Was usually called a living library, from the great extent of his read- 
 ing and of his memory. He was also not less admired as a preacher, not 
 only in his parish, but at Court. He also obtained a great degree of 
 celebrity by his numerous publications, particularly his i Synopsis Papismi. 
 or a General View of Papistry, 7 a work dedicated to the Queen, which, 
 although a folio of 1300 pages, passed through five editions, and was much 
 admired in both Universities, and by the clergy and laity at large, as the 
 best refutation of Popery which had then appeared. 77 * 
 
 The third edition of this work was published in 1600, the 
 fourth in 1613, and the fifth in 1634. That of 1634 was a 
 reprint of the edition of 1613, and was published after his 
 death, (which took place in 1621,) " by the authority of his 
 Majesty's Royal Letters Patent," as the title states. In 
 this Patent it is declared, that Dr. Willet was " very painful 
 on the behalf of the Church," and that his Synopsis had been 
 " seen and allowed by the Bishops, in great esteem in both of 
 the Universities, and much desired by all the learned both of 
 the Clergy and Laity throughout the King's dominions."* 
 
 * Chalmers's Biograph. Diet. 
 
 t The Patent is given at length in Rymers Fcedera; from which I give the 
 following extract, where the reader will observe the language in which the work 
 is spoken of. 
 
 " De licentia special: Paulo Willett Clerico pro impressione libri intitulati 
 Synopsix Papismi" (Pat. 6 Car. I. [1630] p. II, n. 27.) 
 
 M Charles, <tc. . . . Whereas our well beloved subject Paule Willet, Clark, 
 Master of Arts, hath by his humble petition shewed unto us, that his late Father 
 Doctor Willet deceased, was known to be very painful on the behalf of our 
 Cliurck, and amongst the rest of his labors left behind him a Book intituled Sy- 
 nopsis Papismi, four several times dedicated to our late Royal Father King James, 
 (of ever blessed memory,) whose princely and discerning wisdom approved and
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 373 
 
 The following extracts are taken from this edition of 1634. 
 
 First, on the question, " Whether the Sacraments be seals 
 of the promises of God" he thus speaks. 
 
 To the objection of Bellarmine, that " if the Sacraments 
 are appointed to be seals of the promises of God for the in- 
 crease and strengthening of our faith, then children should 
 not be baptized at all, because they have no faith to be 
 strengthened ; " he replies, 
 
 " Although in children the seal goeth before, and righteousness of faith 
 followeth after, as Circumcision was to Isaac, as Augustine sheweth, and 
 they as yet, when they are baptized, have no faith to make present use of 
 the Sacrament, yet when they come to years of discretion, they are provoked 
 and stirred up, by the remembrance of the seal of faith given in Baptism j 
 which was indeed received but once, but the use and benefit thereof remaineth 
 all the life long : so that this notwithstanding, the Sacraments are seals of 
 faith, whether the seal go before faith or follow after."* 
 
 Then proceeding to give the doctrine of " the Protestants " 
 on this point, he states it thus, 
 
 " That the Sacraments are ordained of God, to be pledges and seals of his 
 promises made unto us in Christ ; that as verily as the external elements 
 are applied to the outward man, so our souls spiritually are refreshed with 
 an assured hope of the remission of our sins in Christ, and so the Sacra- 
 ments to be seals only of the righteousness of faith, and not givers or 
 workers of grace in us: it is evident out of the Scripture. . . . Abraham 
 received the sign of circumcision, as the seal of the righteousness of faith. 
 Circumcision then was to Abraham a seal of the righteousness of faith, 
 that is, that he was justified by faith : ergo, so are all other Sacraments. . . 
 {And then, replying to the objection, that though it was so in the case of 
 Abraham, who was just before, yet it followeth not that it was so in all ; 
 for in Isaac his son, and so consequently in the rest, the Sacrament went 
 
 constantly patronaged the same; and that it hath been seen and allowed by the 
 Lords, the Reverend Bishops, and hath also ever since been, in great esteem in 
 both of our Universities, and also much desired by all the learned both of our clergy 
 and laity throughout our Dominions ; and that the Stationer who heretofore had 
 the copy thereof, being not able, or at least not willing, to disburse or expend so 
 much monies as the charge of reprinting the same will require, hath utterly 
 relinquished the same, and that thereupon few or none at all of the said Books 
 are to be had and gotten ; and that also, by reason of the great price and value 
 of the said Book, many of the clergy of this our kingdom are not able to purchase 
 or procure the same ; wherefore the said Paule Willet," <fec., concluding with 
 granting him the " privilege for the sole reprinting thereof," for 21 years, (Ry- 
 mer's Fffidera, vol. xix pp. 161, 162.) 
 Controv. xi. Quest 1. pt 4. p. 638.
 
 374 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 before, and justice followed he adds, among other remarks,] Although 
 Isaac with many other were first circumcised and after justified, yet this is 
 perpetual : they were no more justified by circumcision, than Abraham, who 
 was justified before he was circumcised, but by faith only : and therefore 
 the Sacraments are seals of the justice of faith, whether the justice of faith 
 go before or follow after."* 
 
 Again, on the question, whether the Sacraments OF THEM- 
 SELVES do give or confer grace," he thus speaks, 
 
 The Popish doctrine, he says, is, that " the sacraments 
 give grace, ex opera operato, by the work wrought, that is, by 
 force and virtue of the work and word done and said in the 
 Sacrament. Rhemist. Act. 22. sect. 1. So that not faith only 
 justifieth, but the Sacraments also, and other works of religion. 
 Rhemist. Rom. 6. sect. 5. The Sacraments, then, are imme- 
 diate instruments and efficient causes of our justification', not 
 mediately, as they nourish and increase our faith, but pro- 
 perly and in themselves"^ &c. 
 
 And one of their arguments for this, he tells us, is, **' St. 
 Paul saith, He hath cleansed his Chusch by the laver of water 
 in the word, Ephes. v. 26. Ergo, Baptism is an instrumental 
 cause of our justification:" to which he thus replies, 
 
 " It is not unusual in the Scripture to call the sign or Sacrament by the 
 thing signified, as Exod. xii. 11, the Paschal Lamb is called the Passover^ 
 Whereas it was but a sign and memorial thereof. So Baptism is called, 
 ( The laver of regeneration.' Tit. iii. 5, because it is a sure sign of our 
 regeneration by the Holy Ghost. Secondly, the Apostle in this place 
 expoundeth himself : for he saith, that we are washed by water in the word : 
 that is. the outward clement doth send and refer us to the word and the 
 promise of God, whereof it is a seal."| 
 
 He then proceeds to state the doctrine of the Protestant* 
 on this point in the -following words, 
 
 "The Sacraments have no power to give or confer grace to the receiver: 
 [that is, he means, u of themselves"] neither are they immediate instru- 
 ments of our justification : instrumental means they are to increase and 
 confirm our faith in the promise of God : of themselves they have no 
 operation, but as the Spirit of God worketh by them, our internal sense* 
 being moved and quickened by those external objects. Neither do we say, 
 that the Sacraments are bare and naked signs of spiritual graces : but they 
 do verily exhibit and represent Christ to as many as by faith are able and 
 
 * Controv. xi. Quest. 1, p. 659. t Ibid. Quest. 2. pt. 1. p. Mft. 
 
 $ Ibid, p. 541.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 375 
 
 meet to apprehend him. So to conclude, look how the word of God worketh 
 being preached, so do the Sacraments; but the word doth no otherwise 
 justify us, but by working faith at the hearing thereof : so Sacraments do 
 serve for the increase of our faith. . . . The just shall live by faith : ergo, he 
 liveth not, that is, he is not justified by any work wrought, as by the sacra- 
 ments, but only by faith: faith therefore giveth life and efficacy to the 
 sacraments. . . . The apostle sheweth, Rom. iv. 10. 11. that righteousness 
 was imputed to Abraham by faith, before he was circumcised, and that cir- 
 eumcision was added afterward as a seal of the righteousness of faith : ergo, 
 as Abraham was not justified by circumcision, but by faith, no more are we 
 by the sacraments."* 
 
 On the question " of the difference of the Old and New 
 Sacraments," he says, among other remarks, 
 
 " The sacraments of the New Law are no more able by any efficacy 
 in themselves to justify us, than the sacraments of the Old : it is the pro- 
 perty of faith only to justify us, Bom, iii. 28, and chap. v. 1 . l Being jus- 
 tified by faith, we are at peace with God.' Where it cannot te answered, 
 that faith justifieth but in part, for that is perfect justification which worketh 
 peace of conscience in us but faith bringeth such justification ; ergo, it 
 justifieth perfectly. Therefore in this respect, the sacraments differ not, 
 because neither of them justify, but are seals only of the righteousness of 
 faith, Rom. xi. 4."t 
 
 " We do hold and constantly affirm and teach, that the Fathers in the 
 Law received no less the truth and substance of Christ by faith in their 
 Sacraments than we do in ours : although in respect of more clear and 
 lightsome signification, our Sacraments do far exceed theirs, and so also 
 may more lively stir up our faith : yet the substance and effect both of 
 their Sacraments and ours was all one and the very same."J 
 
 " We say not that circumcision caused remission of sins : for then the 
 effect could not go before the cause ; but that it was a seal of the righteous- 
 ness of faith, as tlie apostle saith, Rom. iv. 11, and of remission of sins: 
 and so it may "be, wliether righteousness go before circumcision, as in Abra- 
 ham, or follow after, as in Isaac. So we read, Acts x. 47, that the Holy 
 Ghost went before, and then Baptism followed : the thing signified appeared 
 first, and then the sign or seal was added. " 
 
 In noticing the view of the Sacrament of Baptism imprint- 
 ing a character or badge upon the soul, he remarks, 
 
 " Baptism is not reiterable, that is, to be iterated or repeated, not be- 
 cause it leaveth an indelible character in the mind of the baptized, whih 
 is but a mere device and fancy ; but because, as it sufficeth once to be born 
 
 * Controv. ri. quest. 2, p, 541. 
 t Ib. p. 5*4. 
 
 f Ib. pt, 2. p. 543. 
 Ib. p. 548.
 
 376 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 in the flesh, so once to be born again, and to be regenerated by the Spirit 
 (of the which regeneration Baptism is a seal and pledge,) it is sufficient."* 
 
 On the question " of the necessity of the Sacraments," he 
 remarks, 
 
 'Though the sacraments being appointed for our comfort are necessary 
 and profitable as wholesome means to be used for the increase of our faith, 
 and much to be desired and sought for: yet God hath not laid such a ne- 
 cessity upon any of them, as that the want of them should cause hazard 
 
 of salvation A necessity of the sacraments we grant, as also of other 
 
 profitable means, as of preaching the word, of prayer, or the like : but m> 
 simple and absolute necessity, as we have said ; neither are the sacraments 
 necessary at all to any such purpose (being ordained for no such use) as to- 
 be a means to faith, as St. Paul concludeth, Rom, iii. 28, that a man 'is 
 justified by faith only, without works of the Law : r yea, all works what- 
 soever are excluded, as destroying grace. Rom. xi. ver. 6. The sacraments 
 are profitable instruments to stir up the gift of faith, and other graces in 
 us, but not by their proper work to justify us."f 
 
 Further ; treating more expressly on the subject of Bap- 
 tism, he first takes up the question "of the name and defini- 
 tion of Baptism ;" and he says, 
 
 "They (the Papists) define Baptism to be a Sacrament of regeneration 
 by water in the word : that is, not which signifieth and sealeth unto us our 
 regeneration, and assureth us of remission of sins; but actually justifieth 
 and regenerateth us. Bellarm. lib. 1. de Baptism, cap. 1. 
 
 " Argum. Bcllarmine groundeth his definition upon those words of our 
 Saviour, John iii. 5, L Except a man be born of water and the Spirit : ' and 
 Ephes. v. 26, ' That he might sanctify it by the washing of water through 
 the word.' Hence he would infer that we are sanctified by the water in 
 Baptism. Bellarm. ibid. 
 
 " Ans. It is manifest by those places, where the Spirit and the word 
 are joined to the outward washing by water, that the efficacy is not in the 
 water but in the Spirit, and the word or promise of God which is appre- 
 hended by faith: these places prove that baptism is a Sacrament, sign and 
 
 seal of regeneration, but no efficient Or working cause thereof. If 
 
 they will be tried by Tertullian, he is against them : in that book alleged 
 he saith, ' quam fides impetrat, obsignata in Patre, Filio, et Spiritu Sancto r 
 which (washing away of sins) faith obtaineth, being sealed in the name of 
 the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, &c.' He ascribeth the washing away of 
 ins not to the water, but to faith : and yet more evidently in another place, 
 'lavacrum illud obsignatio est fidei,' that lavacre is a sealing of faith: 
 'non ideo abluimur ut delinquere desinamus, sed quia desiimus: quia corde 
 jam loti sumus :' wo arc not therefore washed that we may leave off to 
 
 Controv. xi. quest. 2, pt 3, p. 647. f Ibid, quest. 3, pt. 4, p. 661.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 377 
 
 in, tut because we have left already, because we are washed in heart, &c. 
 Baptism then doth not actually justify or regenerate, seeing such as come to 
 be baptized, believed and were regenerated already. 
 
 11 We (the Protestants) rather, according to the Scriptures, define Bap- 
 tism to be a sign or seal of our regeneration and new birth, whereby we 
 are assured, that as verily by faith in the blood of Christ we are cleansed 
 from our sins, as our bodies are washed with water, in the name of the 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; so that baptism doth not actually bestow 
 remission of sins by the work wrought, but is a pledge and seal of the 
 righteousness of faith, as Saint Paul saith of circumcision, Rom. iv. 11. 
 For it is not the washing of the flesh by water, but the establishing of the 
 heart with faith and grace, that saveth us, 1 Pet. iii. 21."* 
 
 On the question " of the necessity of Baptism," he writes 
 thus, 
 
 "We acknowledge no greater necessity in Baptism, than in the other 
 Sacrament : both which we grant to be necessary as helps and props, and 
 profitable means to increase our faith : but not so simply necessary, as that 
 without them (there being no neglect, or contempt had of them) it were 
 
 impossible to be saved The children of the faithful are holy already, 
 
 even before they be baptized : for they are within the covenant, and to them 
 also belongeth the promise. The Lord saith, I will be thy God, and the 
 God of thy seed, Genes, xvii. 7. And Saint Paul saith, that the children 
 of the faithful are holy, 1 Cor. vii. 14. If the Lord then be the God also 
 of children, and if they be holy, being born of the righteous seed, how can 
 they possibly perish, although they die unbaptized ?"f 
 
 "Neither Circumcision then, nor Baptism now, is a remedy against 
 original sin, but a sign only and seal of our spiritual washing by the blood 
 of Christ."* 
 
 On the question " of such as are to he admitted to Bap- 
 tism," he writes thus ; 
 
 " Baptism they [the Papists] say, giveth grace and faith to the infant 
 that had none before, Rhemist. Galat. 3. sect. 6. This then is their opinion, 
 that infants, though actually and fully they have not faith as other have, 
 yet there is a certain habit of faith and hope infused into them in Baptism ; 
 BO that partly they do believe of themselves, and partly by the faith of 
 others, namely, of them that bring them to Baptism. Bellarm. lib. 1, de 
 baptism, cap. 11. 
 
 "Argum. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Heb. xi. 6; 
 Rom. iii. 28. We hold that a man is justified by faith : ergo, children, if 
 they have no faith, are neither justified, neither yet do please God : (Ephes. 
 
 * Controv. xii. quest. 1. pp. 561, 662. t Ibid, quest 3. p. 565. 
 
 $ Coutrov. xii. quest 3, p. 567-
 
 378 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 iii. 1.) Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith: but he dwelleth in chil- 
 dren ergo, they have faith. Bellarm. 
 
 " Ansiv. First, these places do as well prove that children have an ab- 
 solute, perfect, and actual faith (for it is a perfect faith that justifieth us, 
 and maketh us acceptable to God :) which I am sure our adversaries will 
 not yield unto. Secondly, the justification and salvation of children de- 
 pendeth of the free election of God, Rom. xi. 11, that the purpose of God 
 might remain according to election, saith the Apostle. And that which faith 
 worketh in those that are of understanding, the Spirit of God is able to 
 effect in infants, by some secret way best known to himself."* 
 
 " Infants are not justified, nor relieved, or helped forward towards their 
 salvation by the faith of their parents or godfathers, when they are bap- 
 tized : for the Scripture saith, The just shall live by faith, Rom. i. 17, that 
 is, by his own faith, not the faith of another. 
 
 " Bellarmine answereth, that they do not affirm that children are justi- 
 fied, or do live by the faith of their parents, and of others, but that their 
 faith is profitable to the infants, being by this means brought unto Baptism, 
 and because they do profess their faith in Baptism by the mouth of others. 
 Bellarm. cap. 11. propos. 5. 
 
 " Contra. First, that it is a benefit to be born of faithful parents, who 
 are careful to bring their infants to be baptized, and to see them well 
 brought up, we grant : but what is this to the state of infants before God ? 
 Secondly, the confession of their faith by others is profitable, to put them 
 afterward in remembrance of their solemn promise made in Baptism : but 
 before God, they are no more helped by the confession of another's mouth, 
 -than by the belief of another's heart : wherefore it is not either the faith 
 of the parents, or the confession of the witnesses, that supplyeth the lack 
 of both in infants, but the grace of God inwardly working."^ 
 
 On the question, "Whether in Baptism our sins be clean 
 taken away," occurs the following remark : 
 
 " Wherefore the elect in Baptism find remission of sins for ever, so that 
 their sins are no more imputed unto them ; the rest do not at all obtain 
 that grace." $ 
 
 Lastly, on the question, " Whether Baptism serve only for 
 remission of sins past, and not for the sins also to come," he 
 makes the following, among other statements : 
 
 " The external act of Baptism neither wipeth away sins going before, 
 nor coming after : but it is the inward working of the Spirit of God, which 
 [is] by the virtue of Christ's death testified and showed forth in Baptism, 
 that washeth away our sins. And Baptism is a seal of remission of sins, 
 for the confirmation of our faith, even of those which are committed after 
 
 * Ibid, quest. 6, p. 674. t Controv. xii. quest. 5. p. 674. 
 
 $ Ibid, quest. 6. pt 1. p. 678. Ibid, quest. 6. pt. 2. p. 679.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 379 
 
 Baptism, as well as of sins done before : and although the ceremony of 
 Baptism be not repeated, yet the virtue of God's grace testified thereby 
 remaineth to our lives end. 
 
 "Argum. 1. Mark xvi. 16: 'He that shall believe and be baptized 
 shall be saved.' We reason thus, Baptism is a seal of that faith whereby 
 men are saved, or to the which salvation is promised : but that faith 
 believeth remission of all sins both past and to come : therefore Baptism 
 also sealeth unto us the remission of all our sins, going before or following 
 after. And here is no other thing required, but for a man to believe, and 
 to apprehend God's covenant made in Baptism." * 
 
 " Argum. 2. The promise of Baptism is, ' That we being justified by 
 his grace, should be made heirs of eternal life/ Tit. iii. 5, 7. But this 
 promise of justification is general against all sins before Baptism, and after : 
 ergo, so is Baptism. 
 
 " Bellarmine answereth, that justification by Christ is promised as well 
 in the Eucharist as in Baptism ; and therefore it followeth not, that they 
 which after their fall are justified by Christ, are justified by Baptism. 
 
 " Contra. We grant that justification by Christ is exhibited in both 
 the Sacraments, and that both of them, as Sacraments, are remedies 
 against sins committed afterward : so then the argument thus followeth 
 very well. Justification by Christ is a remedy against all our sins what- 
 soever : Baptism is a seal of Justification by Christ : ergo, it is available 
 for remission of all sins. We do not infer Baptism only as a seal thereof, 
 which Bellarmine supposeth, neither do we conclude, that Baptism only is 
 available : it is sufficient that Baptism hath this virtue and efficacy, 
 together with other helps and remedies, as to extend itself to the sins of 
 the whole life. 
 
 " Argum. 3. Baptism is a sign and seal of our mystical washing in 
 the blood of Christ : but all our sins both before and after are washed away 
 by the blood of Christ : ergo, Baptism doth assure us of a perfect remission 
 of all our sins. 
 
 **##*### 
 
 "Bellarmine answereth. . . . that Baptism, though not immediately, 
 yet mediately serveth to purge sins done afterward, because he that is bap- 
 tized, by that grace which he received in Baptism, obtaineth remission of 
 sins. c. 18, lib. 1. de baptism. 
 
 " Contra. First, neither do we say, that Baptism worketh immediately, 
 for the sacraments are instruments and means of grace, and so mediate 
 workers. Secondly, as he confesseth the sins following to be remitted in 
 Baptism, no otherwise are the sins past, but by the grace of Christ sealed 
 unto him that is baptized in baptism." f 
 
 The doctrine expressed, directly or indirectly, in all these 
 passages, on the subject of our Dresent inquiry, is of course 
 too clear to need any remark. 
 
 Ibid quest 6 pt 2. p. 579. t Ibid p. 580.
 
 380 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 THOMAS ROGERS. 1607. 
 Chaplain to Archbishop Bancroft. 
 
 The following extracts are from his Exposition of the 
 Thirty-nine Articles, published with a dedication to Archbishop 
 Bancroft in 1607,* and which the Archbishop directed all the 
 parishes in his Province to supply themselves with.\ This 
 work, therefore, must be considered as having had a certain 
 degree of public authority given to it. It is the earliest Ex- 
 position of the Articles ever published. 
 
 From the exposition of the 25th Article. 
 
 The third proposition he deduces from this Article is the 
 following : 
 
 " By the sacraments God doth quicken, strengthen, and confirm our faith 
 in him." (p. 146.) 
 
 On which he remarks, 
 
 "Howbeit this faith is not necessarily tied unto the visible signs and 
 sacraments. For, 
 
 " Without the sacraments many have lived and died who pleased God, 
 and are no doubt saved. . . . 
 
 " Some have faith for [afore] they receive any of the sacraments. . . . 
 
 " Some neither afore, nor at the instant, nor yet afterward, though daily 
 they receive the sacraments, will have faith. . . . 
 
 " In some the sacraments do effectual work in process of time, by the 
 help of God's word read or preached, which engendereth faith : such is the 
 estate principally of infants elected unto life and salvation and increasing in 
 years.' 1 ' 1 (p. 147.) 
 
 t* There was an earlier edition of the work in 1585-1587, but there were 
 many alterations and additions in the work as published in 1607 and dedicated 
 to the Archbishop. The doctrine, however, remained precisely the same. The 
 title of the first edition was, "The English Creede, consenting with the true 
 Auncient Catholique and Apostolique Church in al the Points and Articles of 
 Religion which everie Christian is to knowe and beleeve that would be saved, 
 Ac. Lond. J. Windet. 1585." fol. The same. Part 2. Lond. R. Waldgrave. 1587. 
 fol. The First Part contains the first XIX Articles ; the Second Part contains 
 the remainder. The title of the enlarged edition, published in 1607, with the 
 dedication to Archbishop Bancroft, and frequently reprinted, is, " The Faith, 
 Doctrine, and Religion professed and protected in the Realm of England and 
 dominions of the same, expressed in XXXIX Articles, Ac., the same Articles 
 analyzed," Ac. " Perused, and by the lawful authoritie of the Church of England 
 allowed to be publike." 4 to. 
 
 t See p. 114 above.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 381 
 
 41 Therefore do they err, which teach or hold, that 
 
 "They never go to heaven which die without the seals of the covenant; 
 so think the Papists of infants which die unbaptized. 
 
 " The sacraments give grace ex opere operato, and bring faith ex opere 
 operate. (Test. Rhem. An. Mar. p. 357.) 
 
 " The sacrament of Baptism is cause of the salvation of infants. (Ib. 
 An. 1 Pet. v.21.") (pp. 147, 148.) 
 
 The llth proposition he draws from this Article is, 
 
 " All which receive the sacraments receive not therewithal the things 
 signified by the sacraments." (p. 159.) 
 
 On which he observes, 
 
 " We read in the Holy Scripture, that some persons do receive the sacra- 
 ments, and the things signified by the sacraments, which are the remission 
 of sins and other spiritual graces from God. . . . 
 
 "Some again receive the sacraments, but not the things by them 
 signified. . . . 
 
 " And some receive not the sacraments at all, and yet are partakers of 
 the things by the sacraments signified. . . . 
 
 " Furthermore it is apparent, how salvation is promised to such as are 
 baptized, yet not simply in respect of their baptism, but if they do believe 
 
 "The Papists therefore be in a wrong opinion which deliver that 
 "The sacraments are not only seals, but also causes of grace, and 
 " The sacraments do give grace even because they be delivered and 
 received, ex opere operato." (pp. 159, 160.) 
 
 From the exposition of the 27th Article. 
 He considers this Article as containing the following pro- 
 positions : 
 
 "1. Baptism is a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby 
 Christians are discerned from other men that be no Christians. 
 
 " 2. Baptism is a sign or seal of the regeneration or new birth of 
 Christians. 
 
 " 3. Infants and young children, by the word of God, are to be baptized." 
 (p. 165.) 
 
 On the second proposition he observes, 
 
 "Baptism of St. Paul is called the washing of the new birth, of others 
 the sacrament of the new birth, to signify how they which rightly (AS ALL 
 DO NOT) receive the same (see afore, art. 25, prop. 11)* are engrafted into 
 
 * The proposition here referred to is one quoted above, namely, that " all 
 which receive the sacraments receive not therewithal the things signified by the 
 sacraments," .a proposition he deduces from the 25th Article.
 
 382 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 the body of Christ, as by a seal be assured from God, that their sins be 
 pardoned and forgiven, and themselves adopted for the children of God, 
 confirmed in the faith, and do increase in grace, by virtue of prayer unto 
 God. 
 
 " And this is the constant doctrine of all Churches, Protestant and 
 Reformed." (p. 167.) 
 
 " We also condemn the opinion 
 
 " Of the Russies, that there is such a necessity of baptism, as that all 
 that die without the same are damned. 
 
 * * ***** 
 
 " And lastly of the Papists, who maintain that, 
 
 "Baptism bringeth grace, even ex opere operato." (pp. 167, 168.) 
 
 And in his commentary upon the 17th Article, deducing 
 from the Article the proposition that " they which are predes- 
 tinate unto salvation cannot perish," he observes, 
 
 " Wander then do they from the truth which think, That the regenerate 
 may fall from the grace of God, may destroy the temple of God, and bft 
 broken off from the vine Christ Jesus." (p. 74.) 
 
 This passage of course proves, that he held, that all that 
 are once spiritually regenerated are saved. 
 
 DR. THOMAS SPARKE. 1607. 
 
 The following extracts are from a work written to pro- 
 mote unity and uniformity, and " seen, allowed, and com- 
 manded by public authority to be printed ;"* 
 
 First, let us observe his views of the nature of Sacraments 
 generally, where we shall find that he quite admits their 
 efficacy in the case of worthy receivers of them. 
 
 " All Sacraments by Christ's own ordinance not only signify the spiritual 
 things whereof they are Sacraments, but also are God's ordinary means, 
 whereby he doth offer, deliver, and seal the delivery thereof, to all the 
 
 * Dr. Sparke had appeared at the Hampton Court Conference as one of the 
 defenders of the parties objecting to some parts of the Prayer-Book, but satisfied 
 with the alterations then made and the arguments there adduced, he afterwards 
 wrote the work quoted above in defence of unity and uniformity, which came out 
 under the sanction of public authority, and therefore is of course of considerable 
 weight. He is spoken of by Wood (Ath. Ox. ii. 189.,) no friend to his views, as 
 " a learned man and solid divine," and '' much esteemed for his profoundness, 
 gravity, and exemplary life and conversation." More particulars respecting him 
 will be found in my " Vindication of the Thirty-nine Articles," 2nd ed App.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IK INFANTS. 383 
 
 worthy receivers of the same/" (Dr. T. Sparke's Brotherly Persuasion to 
 Unity and Uniformity. Seen allowed and commanded by public authority 
 to be printed. Lond. 1607, 4to. p. 30. Cambr. \Jniv. Libr. Ff, 13.34.) 
 "Sacraments properly taken are not only signs of some spiritual grace, 
 but of saving grace in Christ Jesus : and they are means also to offer, to 
 deliver, and to seal the delivery of the same, to the right receivers thereof." 
 (Ib. p. 74.) 
 
 The following passages will show his view of the meaning 
 of the Baptismal Service for infants ; a view authorized, we 
 must recollect, by public authority. 
 
 'Immediately before the act of the baptizing of it [i. e. 'the child'], 
 the minister prayeth that whosoever there shall be dedicated unto God by 
 his office and ministry (meaning in baptizing them) may be endued with 
 heavenly virtues, and everlastingly rewarded through his mercy : and then 
 having baptized it or them, in faith and hope that this prayer is heard, and 
 so, that they are by, and in baptism, substantially and effectually dedicated 
 unto God, Amen is said : after follows the minister's and people's admit- 
 tance of them, and singing of them, as aforesaid : which is nothing but an 
 approving of the former dedication as much as lies in them, and a declaring 
 of their hope and expectation by that which they do, that in time they will 
 show and manifest themselves to be dedicated to his service indeed, in faith- 
 fully serving of him both in belief and life." (Ib. pp. 28, 29. See also 
 pp. 23, 24.) 
 
 ' : Thus therefore in the name of the child they, [the Godparents] pro- 
 fessing and desiring, what is it but, in the true meaning of the book in 
 Christian charity and hope so to do, for thftt they are persuaded that if the 
 child were of age, it would even so do, profess, and desire ? And therefore 
 that they in the meantime, do so in the name thereof, in full expectation, 
 that when it shall, it will account that by them itself so did, that so the 
 covenant betwixt God and it, may in this Sacrament stand ratified therein. 
 And yet in some sense according to Christ's saying, Matth. 18, it might 
 well be defended, that such little ones believe in him, as habitually they 
 are reasonable, not actually : or for that it may well be hoped, they have 
 the seed of faith, or the spirit of sanctification, disposing and preparing 
 them thereunto, though secretly, yet effectually working the same." (Ib. 
 p. 59.) 
 
 And meeting the objection to the statement that the Sa- 
 crament of Baptism is generally necessary to salvation, he 
 says, 
 
 " Only hereby would the State take order as much as might be (which 
 was very necessary) to prevent all contempt or neglect thereof, if it could 
 in time be had : for as the one extreme is to be avoided, so doubtless was 
 and is the other : and so for any thing our Church hath done in this point, 
 the ancient doctrine that always hath in this case been held and received
 
 384 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 of and in the Churches of Christ, since the first institution of the Sacra- 
 ments, namely, not the want thereof simply, but the contempt or neglect 
 thereof to be damnable, is held here still, and therefore this of baptism is 
 to be counted so necessary to salvation, as that by all means when and 
 where (as is aforesaid) it may be had, it is most carefully and diligently to 
 be sought for." (Ib. pp. 72, 73.) 
 
 And on the rubric that children dying in their infancy after 
 baptism are undoubtedly saved, he observes, 
 
 " Now whereas I hear that some stumble at that, that the child dying 
 after baptism before yet it can be confirmed, it is said in the book (imme- 
 diately before the Catechism, in a rubric there) that such a child hath all 
 things necessary by the word of God to salvation, and is undoubtedly saved, 
 gathering thereupon that the meaning of our Church therein is absolutely 
 and simply so to tie salvation to baptism, that whosoever once is outwardly 
 baptized cannot but be saved : surely this is as hard a collection and con- 
 struction of this as may be. For first it is evident that there the speech is 
 of baptized children only dying before they be confirmed ; and that of pur- 
 pose it is there so set down, to the comfort of Christian parents in that case, 
 and plainly to teach us all, howsoever our Church thinks it fit to retain the 
 use of confirmation in sundry good respects, yet it holds it not to be of the 
 same nature with the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, nor 
 so necessary to salvation. And what reason is there to the contrary, but 
 that we may and ought, in Christian charity, so hope and persuade our- 
 selves of all Christian children so baptized, dying in their childhood, as 
 that Book speaketh?" (Ib. p. 73.) 
 
 LORD CHANCELLOR BACON; died a. 1626. 
 
 I will add one more testimony, from the writings of one of 
 tne greatest minds this or any other country ever gave birth 
 to, FRANCIS BACON. 
 
 Thus he speaks in his " Confession of faith ;' 
 
 " That he [God] chose (according to his good pleasure) man to be that 
 creature, to whose nature the Person of the eternal Son of God should be 
 united : and amongst the generations of men elected a small flock, in 
 whom (by the participation of himself) he purposed to express the riches 
 of his glory ; all the ministration of angels, damnation of devils and re- 
 probates, and universal administration of all creatures, and dispensation 
 of all limes, having no other end, but as the ways and ambages of God, to 
 be further glorified in hir; saints, who are one with their Head the Mediator, 
 who is one with God." 
 
 " That the sufferings and merits of Christ, as they arc sufficient to do 
 away the sins of the whole world, so they are only effectual to those which
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 335 
 
 are regenerate by the Holy Ghost ; WHO BREATHETH WHERE HE WILL OF 
 FREE GRACE ', which grace, as a seed incorruptible, quickeneth the spirit 
 of man, and conceiveth him anew a son of God and member of Christ ; so 
 that Christ having man's flesh, and man having Christ's spirit, there is an 
 open passage and mutual imputation ; whereby sin and wrath was con- 
 veyed to Christ from man, and merit and life is conveyed to man from 
 Christ : which seed of the Holy Ghost first figureth in us the image of 
 Christ slain or crucified, through a lively faith ; and then reneweth in us 
 the image of God in holiness and charity ; though both imperfectly, and in 
 degrees far differing even in God's elect, as well in regard of the fire of the 
 Spirit, as of the illumination thereof ; which is more or less in a large pro- 
 portion : as namely, in the Church before Christ ; which yet nevertheless 
 was partaker of one and the same salvation with us, and of one and the 
 same means of salvation with us . 
 
 " That the work of the Spirit, though it be not tied to any means in 
 heaven or earth, yet it is ordinarily dispensed by the preaching of the word, 
 the administration of the Sacraments, the covenants of the fathers upon the 
 children, prayer, reading, the censures of the Church, the society of the 
 godly, the cross and afflictions, God's benefits, his judgments upon others, 
 miracles, the contemplation of his creatures : all which, though some be 
 more principal, God useth as the means of vocation and conversion of his 
 elect ; not derogating from his power to call immediately by his grace, and 
 at all hours and moments of the day, that is, of man's life, according to his 
 good pleasure." 
 
 * * ***** 
 
 " That there is an universal or Catholic Church of God, dispersed over 
 the face of the earth, which is Christ's spouse and Christ's body; being 
 gathered of the Fathers of the old world, of the Church of the Jews, of the 
 spirits of the faithful dissolved, and the spirits of the faithful militant, and 
 of the names yet to be born, which are already written in the book of life. 
 That there is ALSO a visible Church, distinguished by the outward works of 
 God's covenant, and the receiving of the holy doctrine, with the use of the 
 mysteries of God, and the invocation and sanctification of his holy name."* 
 
 Here we find the powerful and acute mind, not of a divine, 
 but of a lawyer, and that lawyer Lord Chancellor Bacon, taking 
 precisely the same view of the doctrine of Holy Scripture and 
 the Church of England, that is now ridiculed under the name 
 of Calvinism. He draws a marked distinction between the 
 Catholic Church, which is Christ's true body, and the visible 
 Church ; and holds the members of the former only to be re- 
 generated by the Holy Spirit, who " breatheth where he will, 
 of free grace." 
 
 Works, ed. Lond. 1819. 8vo. voL 2. pp. 482 and 486. 487. 
 
 25
 
 386 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Here I close my list of authorities for the doctrine of the 
 Reformed Church of England during this, the first, and in this 
 inquiry the most important period of her existence. And I 
 need hardly say, that our Articles and Formularies, as it 
 respects the subject before us, remaining to this day, (with 
 unimportant exceptions,) the same as they were during the 
 time when the above testimonies were written, the doctrine 
 which they have delivered as the doctrine of our Church, has, 
 to say the least, the best claim upon our acceptance. And 
 while there is, no doubt, some difference in the precise views 
 of the divines from whom I have quoted, on the subject of 
 Baptism, (agreeing with the remarks I have made above in 
 the first chapter of this work) yet there is not one of them 
 that holds that spiritual regeneration is, in all cases, conferred 
 upon infants in baptism. And almost all of them take what 
 is called the " Calvinistic " view, and make the gift of such 
 regeneration to depend altogether upon (rod's free mercy ; the 
 leading doctrines of the "Calvinistic" system of theology, 
 (speaking generally,) being, as I have already proved, the 
 dominant theology in our Church at that time. 
 
 That a party holding different views arose in our Church 
 afterwards, -and that, under the guidance of such men as Laud 
 and Mountagu and others, they introduced among us a totally 
 different system of doctrine, and consequently a totally differ- 
 ent mode of interpreting our Formularies, is very true. True 
 also is it, that when this party had begun to prevail in the 
 Church at the beginning of the 17th century, especially when 
 they had power to make their interpretation of its Formularies 
 the rule of orthodoxy, the phraseology of the Baptismal Ser- 
 vice became (and not till then, be it observed, did it become, 
 in the point now in question^) the object of suspicion and dis- 
 like to some among us. Before this period, we do not find the 
 Puritans themselves complaining of the phrases to which they 
 afterwards so strenuously objected. The sense in which they 
 were understood by the authorities of the Church was well 
 known, and probably also the approval of such men as Martyr 
 and Bucer to their insertion in the Liturgy clearly remem- 
 bered, and therefore they gave rise to no scruple, no remon- 
 strance. But when the prevailing tone of doctrine in our
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 387 
 
 Church began to change, and it was found that these expres- 
 sions were taken in an orthodox sense, then the feeling respect- 
 ing them was very naturally changed. And as a new gene- 
 ration rose up, many of whom knew little of the literature of 
 a preceding age, it was likely enough that some should be 
 misled by expressions capable of different interpretations, and 
 imagine the doctrine of our Church to be different from what 
 it really is ; especially when they found a certain sense affixed 
 to these expressions by a large party in the Church, and were 
 themselves perhaps not disinclined to find the Church guilty 
 of false doctrine. True also is it, that when, after the Great 
 Rebellion, the Laudian party were again in the ascendant, the 
 Bishops that met at the Savoy Conference in 1661, not only 
 refused the request of those who afterwards became Noncon- 
 formists to alter those expressions, but to a certain extent vin- 
 dicated the Laudian and Romanizing interpretation of these 
 phrases ; and that from that day to this there may have been 
 a considerable body of our divines, (though after all only a 
 portion,) who have taken the same view. All this is, no doubt, 
 very true. But what does it amount to ? Simply that during 
 a long period in the later history of our Reformed Church, our 
 Formularies have been interpreted by a portion, and sometimes 
 the dominant portion, of our divines, in a different way from 
 what those who drew them up intended they should be. How 
 far this may go to justify those who place such a sense upon 
 them, is a question into which I shall not enter. But which 
 interpretation has the best claim upon the members of our 
 Church for their acceptance, cannot (I submit) admit of a 
 doubt. Had new Formularies been drawn up by Convocation 
 at that time, and such new Formularies been accepted and 
 sanctioned by Parliament, the case would have been wholly 
 different. But the Formularies (with exceptions unimportant 
 as far as this point is concerned) remained the same ; and 
 were sanctioned by Parliament as such. For the Act of Uni- 
 formity expressly sanctions the Book of Common Prayer, AS 
 
 THE BOOK DRAWN UP " IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE LATE Q,UEEN 
 
 ELIZABETH," with a few "additions and alterations" made 
 by the Convocation then sitting. All that we are here con- 
 concerned with was confirmed by Parliament as Queen Eliza-
 
 388 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 beth's Prayer Book, and, for aught we know, confirmed in the 
 sense in which it was originally adopted. 
 
 Nor indeed have we any declaration of the Convocation of 
 1662, as to the sense of any part of the Liturgy. What passed 
 at the Savoy Conference, was merely an expression of the 
 judgment of the few bishops and divines appointed to conduct 
 the Conference, a Conference which broke up without effecting 
 anything. Neither Convocation nor Parliament did anything 
 more than re-issue Queen Elizabeth's Book of Common Prayer 
 with a few additions and alterations. 
 
 The proofs for this statement I shall supply in a future 
 chapter. 
 
 I now proceed, in the following chapters, to consider the 
 language of our Articles, Homilies, and Book of Common 
 Prayer, relative to the point of doctrine discussed in this work.
 
 CHAPTER VIH. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES, AND THE BOOK 
 OF HOMILIES, ON THE SUBJECT OF THIS WORK. 
 
 4 1. The doctrine of the Thirty -nine Articles. 
 
 IN proceeding to consider the testimony of the Thirty-nine 
 Articles, I would first call the attention of the reader to the 
 mode in which they deal with the subject of our present inquiry. 
 It will be found that they have treated it precisely as Holy 
 Scripture has treated it. They have laid down the general 
 doctrine on the subject of Baptism, in words more expressly 
 referring to the case of adults, leaving the case of infants to 
 be deduced therefrom by analogy. 
 
 The case of adults was that with which the first teachers 
 of Christianity had more especially to deal, and to which there- 
 fore their words more particularly refer. Our Church here, as 
 in other matters, follows closely the footsteps of Holy Scripture, 
 confining her determinations to what is there plainly expressed. 
 This is proved by the phraseology used, as I shall immediately 
 show. And the general doctrine on the subject having thus 
 been laid down, agreeably to the declarations of Holy Scripture, 
 the particular case of infants is left to be inferred therefrom. 
 The doctrine of the effects of baptism in infants is not left unde- 
 termined, so far as regards certain limits being placed to our 
 views, both on one side and the other, respecting it. For the 
 general doctrine has been clearly laid down ; and our view 
 of this particular case must be agreeable thereto. A salutary 
 reception of the Sacraments being limited, by the 25th Article,
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. J 
 
 to a worthy reception, our theory, whatever it may be, touching 
 the case of infants, must be founded upon this view. But as 
 there are various ways in which the case of infants may be 
 viewed in perfect consistency with this general doctrine, so 
 there is scope left by the Articles for some variety of view as 
 to the operation of Baptism in the case of infants. And how 
 far this latitude extends, I have already endeavored to show 
 in the first Chapter.* It appears to me that our Reformers 
 have expressly avoided giving any precise dogmatic statement 
 as to the way in which baptism works in infants : for in the 
 only passage in the Articles in which the subject of Infant 
 Baptism is alluded to, all that is stated is, that " the baptism 
 of infants is to be retained ;"f and this after a general state- 
 ment of the doctrine of Baptism, which in some at least of 
 its terms, can hardly be more than inferentially and analogi- 
 cally applied to the case of infants. 
 
 Let us observe the phraseology of Articles 25, 26, and 27. 
 In Article 25, it is said, 
 
 "Sacraments ordained of Christ be not only badges or tokens of 
 Christian men's profession, but rather they be certain sure witnesses and 
 effectual signs of grace and God's good will towards us, by the which he 
 doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen 
 and confirm, our faith in him. ... In such only as worthily receive the 
 same, they have a wholesome effect or operation : but they that receive 
 them unworthily purchase to themselves damnation, as St. Paul saith." 
 
 Now here, not only do the words show,! that the case 
 more particularly in view was that of adults, but the joint 
 reference in these words to both the Sacraments renders it 
 necessary so to understand them, because, in our Church, 
 adults only partake of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 
 The effect of baptism in the case of infants can only be 
 deduced inferentially from these words. 
 
 The same course is pursued in the next Article, entitled. 
 
 See pp. 25-28, aboTe. t See Art. 27. 
 
 $ I say the words show this, because although a few divines at the earliest 
 period of our Reformed Church did, clearly, adopt the view of Luther, that infante 
 might have faith, yet it will, I suppose, be universally admitted, that this was 
 not the view of those principally concerned in drawing up our Articles. It is of 
 course admissible under our Articles, hut that is a different question.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 391 
 
 "Of the unworthiness of the ministers, which hinders not the 
 effect of the Sacraments," where it is said, 
 
 "Neither is the effect of Christ's ordinance taken away by their wicked- 
 ness, nor the grace of God's gifts diminished from such as by faith and 
 rightly do receive the Sacraments ministered unto them, which be effectual 
 because of Christ's institution and promise, although they be ministered by 
 evil men." 
 
 Here again, some of the words used apply more particu- 
 larly to the case of adults, but the statement involves that of 
 infants, and the doctrine is of most importance in respect of 
 their case. For, almost all being baptized in infancy, it is of 
 more importance to know that the unworthiness of the minis- 
 ter does not hinder the effect of baptism in them, than that it 
 does not in the case of adults. The words therefore must be 
 applied, so far as the analogy of the two cases will bear out 
 the application, to the case of infants. 
 
 The phraseology of the 27th Article, " Of baptism," is 
 clearly of the same kind. It runs thus, 
 
 "Baptism is not only a sign of profession, and mark of difference, 
 whereby Christian men are discerned from other that be not christened ; 
 but is also a sign of regeneration or new birth, whereby, as by an instru- 
 ment, they that receive baptism rightly are grafted into the Church ; the 
 promises of the forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of 
 God, by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed : faith is confirmed 
 and grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God." 
 
 And then it is added with respect to Infant Baptism, . 
 
 " The baptism of young children is in any wise to be retained in the 
 Church, as most agreeable with the institution of Christ." 
 
 Now the " confirmation of faith," in the strict and full 
 sense of the words, can only take place in adults. 
 
 But still, here is a certain doctrine laid down, which in its 
 general principles, includes the case of infants as well as 
 adults. As there is a right or worthy, and an unworthy, 
 reception of baptism in the case of adults, so there is a corres- 
 ponding 1 difference of reception in the case of infants ; whether 
 we adopt the supposition of the difference arising from the 
 grace of election or the grace of sanctification having been 
 oestowed on some, while others are left in that state of guilt 
 and condemnation and consequent unfitness in which all are
 
 392 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 by nature ; or whether we suppose the difference to arise from 
 the foreknown difference of the reception given in after life to 
 the 'declarations and promises of the Gospel ; or whether we 
 take any other view of the matter. And to say, in direct 
 opposition to these general statements of the Church's doctrine 
 on the subject of Baptism, that all infants are worthy recipi- 
 ents, and necessarily have spiritual regeneration given them in 
 baptism, when all are declared .by our Church to be by nature 
 the children of wrath, is to make an assertion directly opposed 
 to the express dogmatic teaching 1 of the Articles. A general 
 doctrine on the subject of the Sacraments is laid down by them, 
 without any exception of the case of infants (which neverthe- 
 less was in their contemplation) from its operation, and there- 
 fore their case must be determined agreeably to the principles 
 upon which that doctrine is founded. 
 
 But let us note the Bishop of Exeter's criticism upon this 
 Article. He tells us that " in the 27th Article we read, that 
 ' they that receive baptism rightly ' have the whole spiritual 
 grace of the Sacrament ;" and in a note, that " the word 
 rect& manifestly refers to baptism having been rightly minis- 
 tered to the baptized," that is, (as he goes on to explain,) with 
 the right words and matter ; and he adds, " This point is fur- 
 ther illustrated by the words of the Latin Article 19, ' Sac- 
 ramenta .... juxta Christi institutum recte administrantur } 
 1 duly ministered,' English Article 19."* 
 
 Now I will not stop to point out the (as it appears to me) 
 very '' manifest " error of making the word right, when con- 
 nected with the reception of the Sacrament, refer to the mode 
 of ministration, and deducing an argument for this from the 
 use of the word when used in connexion with one relating to 
 the ministration of the Sacrament ; but I would at once ask 
 his Lordship how he can thus commit himself to a view which 
 expressly contradicts both his own statement elsewhere and 
 the 25th Article. If all those to whom baptism is admin- 
 istered with the right words and matter "have the whole 
 spiritual grace of the Sacrament," then all adults so receiving 
 baptism have that grace, contrary to his Lordship's own doo- 
 
 4 
 
 * Charge, 3rd ed. pp. 41, 4&. 

 
 EFFECTS 01 BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 393 
 
 trine* and to the 25th Article. So that the explanation is in 
 every way most unfortunate. The very assertion made by the 
 Bishop himself, that the Article says that " they that receive 
 baptism rightly have the whole spiritual grace of the Sacra- 
 ment," necessitates the understanding of the word " recte," 
 " rightly," as applying to the state of the party receiving, not 
 the mode of administration. And such I humbly think (inde- 
 pendently of this) is the sense which alone the words " right 
 reception' 11 will bear. 
 
 And so they are explained by all the earlier Expositors of 
 the Articles. 
 
 Thus Rogers,! paraphrasing the Article, says, 
 
 " Baptism of St. Paul is called the washing of the new birth, of others 
 the Sacrament of the new birth, to signify how they which rightly (AS ALL 
 DO NOT) receive the same, are ingrafted into the body of Christ," &o. (On 
 Art. 27.) 
 
 So Welch man (whose exposition of the Articles has always 
 been in the highest repute) explains the words, " they that 
 receive baptism rightly " (" recte baptismum suscipientes,") 
 " that is, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 
 together with a solemn profession of faith and repentance" 
 (" i. e. in nomine Patris, Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, una cum 
 seria fidei et resipiscentiee professione") (p. 28. ed. 1713.) 
 
 And this exposition is repeated from Welch man by Ford 
 and Veneer, the next annotators on the Articles. And the 
 same view is clearly implied in the Exposition of Bishop Bur- 
 net, who says, 
 
 " Since it is the answer of a good conscience only that saves, then an 
 .answer from a bad conscience, from a hypocritical person, who does not 
 inwardly think or purpose, according to what he professes outwardly, 
 cannot save, but does on the contrary aggravate his damnation. Therefore 
 our Article puts the efficacy of baptism, in order to the forgiveness of our 
 sins, and to our adoption and salvation, upon the virtue of prayer to God ; 
 that is, upon those vows and other acts of devotion that accompany them : 
 so that when the seriousness of the mind accompanies the regularity of the 
 
 * See Charge, 3rd ed. p. 41. 
 
 t The Faith, Doctrine, and Religion of England, expressed in the XXXIX 
 Articles, <fec. The edition used is that of Loud. 1625. 4 to.
 
 394 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 action, then both the outward and inward effects of baptism are attained 
 by it." * 
 
 I doubt if any but very recent expositors of the Articles 
 can be found who give the words any other meaning. 
 
 And this sense alone makes them agree with the latter 
 part of the sentence, where it is said that "faith is CON- 
 FIRMED," &c. 
 
 But there is also a very remarkable piece of philological 
 criticism with which his Lordship has favored us on the mean- 
 ing of the word suscipientes, which he tells us implies "simple 
 reception even passive and unconscious susception" and is 
 used for the purpose of expressing the reception of the rite by 
 infants, and he contrasts it with the use of the word percipere, 
 " involving both action and intention," which is always ap- 
 plied (he says) to the reception of the Lord's Supper, which 
 belongs to adults only who can exercise faith, &c. Now the 
 most obvious answer to his Lordship may be derived from his 
 own explanation of the words ; for the word percipere, " involv- 
 ing action" is clearly not so correct a word to express the 
 reception of baptism, (where in all cases the action is only on 
 the part of the administrator,) as a phrase which implies mere 
 or passive reception. Whether therefore adults or infants are 
 spoken of, susclpientes is clearly more strictly correct than 
 percipientes. 
 
 It is impossible to conceive a statement more entirely in 
 accordance with the views of those whom the Bishop of Exe- 
 ter is opposing, than that made in this Article. Let us proceed 
 to analyze it. 
 
 We are told first that baptism is not only a sign of pro- 
 fession, &c., but also a sign of regeneration or new birth. 
 Now this is what Calvin himself says of it. He tells us that 
 the " thing represented " (" res figurata ") in baptism is 
 "regeneration" (" regeneratio ") (Inst. iv. 16. 4. ;) and that 
 in baptism "spiritual regeneration is represented" ("spiritu- 
 alis regeneratio figuratur.") (Catechism.) 
 
 And he observes, 
 
 " They who think that baptism is nothing else but a symbol and mark 
 
 On Art. 27. p. 879. ed. 1746.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 395 
 
 by which we make profession of our religion among men, just as soldiers 
 bear upon them the insignia of their commander as a mark of their pro- 
 fession, have not well considered what was the first principle in Baptism. 
 And that is, that it is to be received by us in connexion with this promise, 
 ' Whosoever shall believe, and be baptized, shall be saved.' "* 
 
 And in his Catechism, answering the question, " Do you 
 attribute nothing else to the water than that it is only a figure 
 of Baptism ?" (" Annon aliud aquae tribuis nisi ut ablutionis 
 tantum sitfigura?") he says, 
 
 " I consider it to be a figure in such a way as that the reality is joined 
 tnth it. For God, in promising his gifts to us, does not trifle with us. 
 Therefore it is certain, that the pardon of sins and newness of life are both 
 offered to us, and received by us, in baptism."f 
 
 It is added, that by this sign, " as by an instrument, they 
 that receive baptism rightly " are made partakers of certain 
 spiritual blessings, which are described to be these ; first, they 
 "are grafted into the Church;" secondly, "the promises of 
 the forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of 
 God, by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed;" 
 thirdly, " faith is confirmed and grace increased by virtue of 
 prayer unto God." Far from telling us that Baptism is always 
 accompanied by spiritual regeneration, it speaks of it as the 
 sign of regeneration, and that by it in certain specified cases 
 a particular effect is wrought ; which effect moreover, as it 
 concerns the inward and more important part of the work of 
 regeneration, is described by the words sealing, confirming, 
 and increasing, not bestowing. Now these are precisely the 
 blessings which even Calvin himself ascribes to baptism when 
 so received. He says, 
 
 " Baptism is the sign of initiation by which we are admitted into the 
 society of the Church, that being engrafted into Christ, we may be reckoned 
 among the sons of God. . . . But Baptism brings three things to our faith. 
 
 * Quibus visum est Baptismum non aliud esse quam tesseram ac notam qua 
 religionem nostrum apitd homines profitemur, quo modo Imperatoria sui insignia 
 praeferuDt milites in suse professionis notam, ii quod pritnum erat in Baptismo noo 
 perpenderunt. Id vero est, quod a nobis accipiendus sit cum hac promissione, 
 Quicunque crediderint, et baptizati fuerint, salvos fore. (Inst. iv. 15. 1.) 
 
 t Sic figurarn esse sentio ut simul annexa sit veritas. Neque enim, sua nobis 
 dona pollicendo, nos Deus frustratur. Proinde et peccatorum veniam et vitae 
 novitatem offerri nobis in baptismo, et recipi a nobia certum eat
 
 396 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 .... This is the first thing that is set forth to us by the Lord, that it should 
 be a symbol and testimony of our purgation : or (to express my meaning 
 better) the representation of a sealed deed, by which he assures us that all our 
 sins are so blotted out, covered over, obliterated, as never to come into his sight 
 nor to be remembered, nor imputed. For he wills that all who shall believe 
 
 be baptized for the remission of sins." " It brings us also another fruit, 
 
 which shows us our mortification in Christ and our new life in him. ... As 
 the graff derives its substance and nutriment from the root into which it is 
 ingrafted, so they who receive Baptism with the faith with which they ought 
 to receive it, are truly sensible of the efficacy of the death of Christ, in 
 the mortification of the flesh, as also at the same time of his resurrection, 
 
 in the quickening of the Spirit." "Lastly, our faith receives also this 
 
 profit from Baptism, that it assuredly testifies to us, that we are not only 
 implanted into the death and life of Christ, but so united to Christ himself 
 as to be partakers of all his blessings," &c.* 
 
 "Unless we render the promises there offered to us of no avail by 
 rejecting them, we are clothed with Christ 3 and have the gift of his 
 Spirit.'^ 
 
 Here, then, are precisely the same blessings attributed to 
 baptism when " rightly received," which our Article attributes 
 to it when so received. And I quote purposely from Calvin, 
 in order to give, at once, a decisive proof that such expressions 
 do not favor the Bishop's doctrine. There is not one syllable 
 in the whole Article that favors the view that all infants neces- 
 sarily receive in baptism the blessing of spiritual regeneration. 
 
 But in the application of these words to the case of infants, 
 there is, and always will be, a difference of opinion in the 
 
 * Baptismus signum eat initiationis quo in Ecclesia cooptamur societatem, ut, 
 Christo insiti, inter filios Dei censeamur. . . . Tria autem adfert fidei nostrae 
 Baptismus. . . . Hoc primum es quod nobis a Domino proponitur, ut symbolum 
 sit nostrae purgationis ac documentum : vel (ut melius explicem quod volo) instar 
 tignati cvjusdam diplomatis, quo nobis confirmet peccata nostra omnia sic deleta, 
 itid iii-tii, obliterata esse, ne unquam in conspectum suum veniant, ne commemo- 
 rentur, ne imputentur. Vult enim omnes qui crediderint baptizari in remissio- 
 
 nem peccatorum. Alterurn etiam fructum affert, qui nostram in Christo morti- 
 
 ficationem nobis ostendit et novatn in eo vitam. . . . Quemadmodum surculus 
 substantiam alimentutnque ducit a radice cui insitus est, ita qui Baptismum ea 
 qua debent fide accipiunt, vere efficaciam mortis Christi sentiunt, in mortificatione 
 
 carnis suu; ; simul etiam resurrectionis, in vivificatione Spiritus. Postremo et 
 
 hanc e Baptismo utilitatem fides nostra accipit, qu6d certo nobis testificatur, non 
 modo in mortem et vitam Christi nos insitos esse, sed sic ipsi Christo unitos ut 
 omnium ejus bonorum participes simus, <fec. (Instit. iv. 15. 1, 5, and 6.) 
 
 f Nisi promissiones illic nobis oblatas respuendo infructuosas reddimus, vesti- 
 mur Christo, ejusque Spiritu donamur. (Catech.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 397 
 
 Church. Neither Scripture nor our Articles have ruled the 
 point so as to shut up the ministers of our Church to one 
 view ; and herein, to my humble apprehension, our Reformers 
 have shown both their wisdom and charity. They have left 
 the point where Scripture has left it. At the same time, enough 
 is said in the Articles, as in Scripture, to show that we are not 
 justified in assuming that all infants are necessarily regene- 
 rated in Baptism. Our Articles distinctly maintain that the 
 Sacraments have a wholesome effect only in those that receive 
 them worthily. This general doctrine then, we must keep in 
 view, when we come to consider the case of infants. No 
 infants are of themselves worthy. They are born in sin and 
 the children of wrath. Their Christian parentage no doubt 
 renders them, in one sense, proper recipients of the rite of 
 baptism, but only in the same way that the parentage of the 
 children of the Jews entitled them to circumcision, and the 
 outward privileges of (rod's chosen people. They are no more 
 necessarily acceptable in the sight of Grod when coming to 
 baptism, than Esau was when he was circumcised. "We 
 cannot, then, consistently with our Articles, which confine the 
 grace of the Sacraments to worthy recipients, so tie the grace 
 of Grod to the Sacrament of Baptism when administered to an 
 infant, as to maintain that all infants must necessarily be 
 regenerated by it. And in considering the question, What 
 corresponds in infant recipients of baptism to worthiness in 
 adult recipients, men will take different views, according to 
 the system of theology which they may adopt. The principal 
 of these views I have already noticed in my first chapter, and 
 therefore shall not again advert to them here. 
 
 But besides the statements in those Articles that are 
 expressly on the subject of the Sacraments, there are also inci- 
 dental notices relating to Baptism in other Articles which call 
 for consideration, especially as they are pressed by the Bishop 
 of Exeter and others as supplying evidence in favor of their 
 view. 
 
 Thus in the 9th Article the words " them that believe and 
 are baptized" are in the Latin " renatis et credentibus ;" and 
 in the English translation of the Articles published previously
 
 398 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 to our present authorized one, the word " renatis" in the former 
 part of the Article (now translated " regenerated ")was trans- 
 lated " baptized." The comment of the Bishop of Exeter 
 upon this, I give entire, in his own words. 
 
 tl There remains one passage in the ninth Article, ' original or birth sin,' 
 of which it should seem impossible, that any one not wilfully blind, should 
 fail to see, (whether he will or will not acknowledge,) that in the contem- 
 plation of its compilers the terms ' regenerated ' and ' baptized ' were 
 convertible or equivalent. We read in the English Article, as it now stands, 
 'This infection of nature doth remain, yea in them that are regenerated. . . . 
 And although there is no condemnation for them that believe and are bap- 
 tized,' &c. (Even here, Baptism is implied to be necessary to regeneration.) 
 But in the English Article of 1562, the word in the former clause, as well 
 as in the latter, was 'baptized,' not 'regenerated;' it was the same in the 
 English Article of 1552. Yet, in all these six instances, the word in the 
 Latin is uniformly ' renatis,' which is, as we have seen, in the English 
 rendered literally 'regenerated' but once, and baptized five times. Is it 
 possible to resist the manifest inference, that the compilers of the Articles 
 regarded 'baptized' and 'regenerated' as both implying the same thing?" 
 (Charge, 3rd ed. pp. 16, 17.) 
 
 Now I will not stop to comment on the phraseology of this 
 passage. The public are by this time so accustomed to the 
 mode in which the Bishop of Exeter is in the habit of announ- 
 cing his views, that his charges of " wilful blindness," &c., 
 have not, I suspect, much weight. How far they are just on 
 the present occasion, a very few words will demonstrate. The 
 fact is, that the change of the word " baptized" to " regene- 
 rated" in the former part of the Article, affords a strong argu- 
 ment against the Bishop's view, and the conclusion drawn 
 from the latter part as to the "convertibility or equivalence" 
 of the words "baptized " and " regenerated," proves too much, 
 and therefore falls to the ground, as I shall now proceed to 
 show. 
 
 The object of the former part (here referred to) of the 
 Article, is to show that the infection of nature remains even 
 in those that have received the full grace of baptism, full 
 spiritual regeneration. Now, in the English translations of 
 the Latin Articles, published previously to our present authori- 
 zed translation (which was received and sanctioned by the 
 Convocation of 1571, and legalized by an act of Parliament 
 of the same year,) none of which had any authority, the very
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 399 
 
 names of the translators being, I believe, unknown, the words 
 " Manet etiam in renatis hsec naturae depravjitio," were trans- 
 lated, " and this infection of nature doth remain, yea, in them 
 that are baptized." But when the convocation of 1571 had 
 to present to Parliament a translation of the Articles authori- 
 zed by the Church, the word " baptized" here was changed to 
 "regenerated." Now, it is obvious, that if in respect to the 
 full sense of the word "regenerated," the words "baptized" 
 and " regenerated " are " convertible or equivalent," such a 
 change would have been wholly unnecessary. But here we 
 see that when the full sense of the word " renatis " is wanted, 
 the word " baptized" is not considered sufficient to express it, 
 but it is struck out, and the word " regenerated " put in its 
 place. This change therefore affords us remarkably strong 
 evidence that the Bishops of that day did not hold his Lord- 
 ship's views. 
 
 The conclusion which the Bishop derives from the latter 
 part of the Article proves too much, and therefore at once falls 
 to the ground. He says, the words " renatis et credentibus " 
 are translated " them that believe and are baptized," and there- 
 fore "baptized" and "regenerated" are "convertible or 
 equivalent" terms, and "both imply the same thing." This 
 (if we use the word " regenerated " as implying spiritual 
 regeneration, which is the subject of the controversy) is obvi- 
 ously inadmissible. Nay, the bishop himself does not hold it, 
 for he is compelled to admit, that in the case of adult baptism, 
 the assertion of the adult being then regenerated, is only the 
 language of " Christian charity." (Charge, 3rd ed. p. 41.) 
 And if he did not admit it, he would be immediately convicted 
 of holding doctrine opposed to the 25th Article, which declares 
 that " in such only as worthily receive the Sacraments, they 
 have a wholesome effect or operation." There is an end at 
 once, therefore, to the assertion, that the words "regenerated " 
 (in the sense of spiritual regeneration] and "baptized" are 
 "convertible or equivalent." In fact it is perfectly astounding 
 that any Bishop of our Church should have ventured to put 
 his name to such a proposition ; the statement of Hooker, 
 that " all receive not the grace of God that receive the Sacra- 
 ments of his grace," being so notoriously the doctrine of our 
 Church.
 
 400 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 There is, no doubt, a sense in which all that are baptized 
 may be called regenerated, i. e. on account of their having 
 received the Sacrament of regeneration, (which is necessarily 
 the meaning of the Article,) and this is a sense common enough 
 in the writings of our divines ; just as they would speak of 
 a man who had partaken of the Sacrament of the Lord's Sup- 
 per as one who had partaken of the Body and Blood of Christ, 
 although "the wicked," as our 29th Article tells us, "in no 
 wise are partakers of Christ, but rather to their condemnation 
 do eat and drink the sign or sacrament of so great a thing." 
 
 The next passage to be noticed occurs in the 15th Article, 
 which, singularly enough, is quoted by the Bishop in favor of 
 his view, although, as far as its testimony goes, it is clearly 
 opposed to it. But the Bishop has actually altered the punc- 
 tuation of the Article so as to make it speak his doctrine. 
 The misquotation is rather remarkable, but I cannot suppose 
 it to be more than a culpable instance of haste and careless- 
 ness. The Bishop gives the passage thus. I quote it with 
 his own italics and punctuation. 
 
 " Thus the 15th, after speaking of ' Christ alone without sin,' says ' All 
 we the rest (although baptized and born again in Christ) yet offend in many 
 things.'" (p. 15.) 
 
 Now even taking it thus, it does not follow that the expres- 
 sions "baptized" and "born again in Christ " are equivalent, 
 although there being no comma after " baptized," the reader 
 might be in doubt whether the two expressions did not refer to 
 the same act. But if a comma be placed after the word " bap- 
 tized," the doubt is at once cleared up, and the two expres- 
 sions stand separate and independent, Now what is the fact ? 
 / can find no edition of the Latin Articles, nor any of the 
 English of our present authorized translation, in which a 
 comma is not placed after "baptized."* In fact it is quite 
 clear, that wherever the Sacrament of Baptism is spoken of 
 in general terms, applying to adult as well as infant baptism, 
 the words "baptized" and "regenerated" (in the sense of 
 spiritual regeneration) cannot, by those at least who believe 
 
 * The words in latin are, " Scd nos reliqui etiam baptizati, et in Chriato 
 regenerati, in multis tamcii offendimus omncs."
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 4Q1 
 
 that in adults the Sacrament has a " wholesome effect or ope- 
 ration " in " those only who worthily receive it, be used as 
 equivalent. 
 
 There remains one more Article to be n6ticed, the 16th, in 
 which the Bishop's interpretation labors under the same objec- 
 tion, as in those we have just been noticing, namely, that it. 
 makes a general statement respecting baptism apply to every 
 case in which baptism is administered, and thus, as before, is 
 opposed to the 25th Article and the Bishop's own doctrine. 
 " Not every deadly sin," says the 16th Article, " committed 
 after Baptism is sin against the Holy Ghost and unpardonable." 
 Upon which the Bishop remarks, 
 
 " How could such an imagination have entered into the mind of anyone, 
 unless it were a known and acknowledged truth, that the Holy Ghost is the 
 special and appropriate gift in Baptism?" (p. 16.) 
 
 Be it so ; but what then ? It does not follow that this 
 " special and appropriate gift " is always bestowed upon every 
 recipient of baptism ; and the 25th Article maintains that it 
 is not. These words therefore do not help his Lordship in the 
 smallest degree. The Bishop adds, " The very phrase ' deadly 
 sin ' implies that there was ' Life, spiritual Life,' in the soul 
 before the sin was committed." This can only be considered 
 a lapsus of the pen, as it is obvious that the epithet " deadly," 
 which is merely descriptive of the character of the sin. cannot 
 prove that all that commit such a sin had spiritual life in them 
 before the commission of it. A sin may be a deadly sin, 
 though committed by one in a state of spiritual death. 
 
 But, further, any impartial person reading the Article itself, 
 will see at once that the sentence to which the Bishop hero- 
 refers is merely intended as a denial of the doctrine of those 
 who maintain that sin after baptism was sin against the Holy 
 Ghost and unpardonable. It runs thus, 
 
 " Not every deadly sin willingly committed after baptism is sin against, 
 the Holy Ghost and unpardonable. Wherefore the grant of repentance is 
 not to be denied to such as fall into sin after baptism." 
 
 Now it signifies not what " entered into the mind "(to use 
 the Bishop's phrase) of those who maintained such an error. 
 They may perhaps have supposed that the Holv Ghost was 
 26
 
 402 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 always given in baptism. But with that our Reformers had 
 nothing to do. They found the error maintained, and they 
 contradicted it. But to assume from that, that they held the 
 view which the Bishop considers as a necessary foundation 
 upon which to ground the error they refuted, is of course alto- 
 gether unwarrantable. 
 
 And the very next words are inconsistent with the suppo- 
 sition that they did so. For it follows, as a distinct sentence, 
 "After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart, 
 from grace given and fall into sin," &c., which, according to 
 the Bishop of Exeter's interpretation (loc. c.) means, "After 
 we have been baptized, we may fall into sin." But the Arti- 
 cle has just before been speaking of the commission of sin 
 after baptism, and saying that it was not unpardonable, of 
 course making its possible existence a matter of no doubt. Ib 
 would have been absurd therefore to add here a formal announce- 
 ment that it may exist after baptism. We here again there- 
 fore see, in the very words which the Bishop would fain press 
 into his service, an argument against his view. For the Ar- 
 ticle, after having taken for granted the possibility of sin after 
 baptism, adds, as something- distinct, the possibility of sin 
 being committed after the Holy Grhost has been received. 
 
 We do not find, then, one shred of evidence in any one of 
 the Articles in support of the notion that spiritual regenera- 
 tion is conferred upon, all infants in baptism. And on the con- 
 trary, we do find a general doctrine laid down in the Articles 
 on the subject of baptism altogether opposed to such a view. 
 
 And before I close this review of the sense of the Articles 
 on the subject, I would remind the reader, how utterly incon- 
 sistent they would be, if there was in them any statement of 
 such a doctrine. For not only would the Articles I have already 
 quoted be opposed to one another on such a hypothesis, but the 
 acknowledged purpose of the 17th Article, to admit those 
 holding what are called " Calvinistic " views, would be entirely 
 defeated. In speaking thus of the 17th Article, I am taking 
 much lower ground than I might fairly take, but it is suffi- 
 cient for my argument to take the matter as it is admitted to 
 be by all reasonable men on both sides, and consider the Article 
 as drawn up so as to allow of the maintenance of " Calvinis"
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 403 
 
 tic " views. Bishop Burnet, in his Comment on the Article, 
 freely admits, though holding himself Arminian views, that 
 " the Calvinists have less occasion for scruple [i. e. in sub- 
 scribing the Article,] since the Article does seem more plainly to 
 favor them."* Such being the case, then, it is absurd to sup- 
 pose that in the very same Articles a doctrine would be inserted 
 directly opposed to such views. It is a fundamental tenet in 
 the " Calvinistic " system, that none are ever spiritually re- 
 generated, and made truly the children of God by spiritual 
 adoption, and grafted into Christ's Body as true members, but 
 those who will ultimately be saved. But the doctrine of the 
 universal spiritual regeneration of infants in baptism is entirely 
 opposed to this view. And consequently its introduction into 
 the Articles would have been fatal to the comprehensive policy 
 upon which they are supposed to have been drawn up. And 
 I think impartial readers of the third Chapter of this work 
 will agree with me in thinking, that before we can adopt the 
 " High Church " view of the Articles, we must suppose that 
 our Reformers and early divines voluntarily drew up Articles 
 speaking doctrine contrary to their own. 
 
 The Bishop of Exeter has quoted,! in defence of his views, 
 a passage from Dr. Jackson. I am quite ready to admit the 
 claims of Dr. Jackson to a respectful hearing; though I do 
 not think an obiter dictum, such as the Bishop has quoted from 
 him, is quite the sort of testimony to rest much upon. The 
 Bishop truly cites him as saying, "that infants are by bap- 
 tism regenerated, we may not deny, v unless we will take upon 
 us to put another sense upon the Articles than they will natu- 
 rally bear."t 
 
 Now if the sense which the Bishop has extracted from this 
 passage were the correct one, still what he has to prove is, not 
 merely that some individuals took this view, but that it was 
 sanctioned by such a weight of authority as to make it the 
 only view fairly admissible in our Church. 
 
 * Expos, of XXXIX Articles. On Art. 17. 5th ed. Lond. 1746. p. 221. 
 f Charge, p. 20. 
 
 \ On the Creed, Bk. xi. c. 17. Works, Hi. 471. How is it that the Bishop 
 gives no reference to the place where this passage occurs ?
 
 404 ''.EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 But the earliest Commentary upon our Articles, that by 
 Rogers, and one that was enjoined for us upon all the clergy 
 of his province by Archbishop Bancroft, takes (as we have 
 seen) a different view ; and this work (to mention no more) is 
 clearly a better authoijity than Dr. Jackson's opinion, espe- 
 cially in the cursory way in which it is given. 
 
 The fact, however, is, that Dr. Jackson's view, as a whole, 
 is very different from that of the Bishop, for he holds that in- 
 fantine regeneration is such as does not last beyond the age 
 of infancy. He says, 
 
 " The same measure of regeneration which sufficeth children or infants 
 dying before they come to the use of reason, will not suffice such as attain 
 to the use of reason or years of discretion He that affirms them to- 
 be truly regenerated or sanctified in their infancy must yield to us in this; 
 That such children or infants as have been formerly regenerated in a 
 measure sufficient to their salvation outgrow this measure of regeneration 
 or sanctineation after they come to the use of reason or years of discretion, 
 as they do their apparel or clothes which were fit for them whilst they were 
 infants."* 
 
 "What he means by regeneration, then, in infants, is very 
 different from what the Bishop means by it. For he here 
 distinguishes himself from those who affirm them to be truly 
 regenerated or sanctified." His view, in fact, is much the 
 same as that of Bishop Davenant. And I will add two more 
 passages from him, further explaining his doctrine on regene- 
 ration. He says, 
 
 "But here some have questioned whether this chapter [Rom. vii.] be 
 meant of the regenerate or unregencratc man. A captious interrogatory; 
 [as] if regeneration were but one act, or a resultance of some few acts or 
 conflicts between the flesh and the Spirit. But seeing regeneration in true 
 theology includes acts almost numberless, or a combat somewhat longer 
 than mortification doth : this chapter, if we speak of Christians, must be 
 meant not of the man truly regenerated or perfectly mortified, but of a man 
 inter regcnerandum, during the intermediate acts or conflicts betwixt the 
 beginning and consummation of his regeneration. (See the 9th Art. of the 
 Church of England.")f 
 
 " The utmost of my endeavours is to direct myself, and the height of my 
 desires in this work is, to advise others what we are to do for ourselves, or 
 
 Jackson on the Creed, Bk. x. c. 27. iii. 100. 
 Ib. bk. x. c. 10. iii. 26.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 405 
 
 what is to be done for us, after Baptism or Confirmation, that we may be 
 thoroughly regenerated, or which is in effect all one, make our election 
 
 sure."* 
 
 Our modern "High Church " divines will gain but little 
 real help from Dr. Jackson, as they will clearly see, if they 
 will peruse his Treatise on the Church in the latter part of 
 his Exposition on the Creed. He has no sympathy with 
 those who call all adults regenerate that have been baptized 
 in infancy ; and here lies the great and all important point of 
 distinction between the two prevailing systems of doctrine on 
 the subject. 
 
 The true interpretation, then, of the Articles on the ques- 
 tion of the effects of Baptism is, I submit, what has been 
 given above. And I would add, that as the Exposition of 
 Thomas Rogers (already frequently quoted) is the best and 
 most authentic Commentary upon them, in giving us the views 
 of our Church at the very period of their last revision in 1571, 
 (for the first edition of his work was published only fourteen 
 years after, and received on its second impression Archbishop 
 Bancroft's express sanction,) so the Commentary of Bishop 
 Burnet (which I shall quote hereafter) is a fair proof of the 
 views of at least a large body of our divines at a later period, 
 when the current theology of our Church had become of a 
 somewhat different character. And it will be found, that as 
 the first interprets the Articles entirely upon the " Calvinistic" 
 view of doctrine, so the latter, while giving the preference 
 to the " Arminian " system, yet clearly opposes the notion 
 that spiritual regeneration is given to all infants at their 
 baptism. 
 
 2. The doctrine of the Book of Homilies. 
 I have next to review the testimony of the Book of Homi- 
 lies on the effects of Infant Baptism. Here, as in the case of 
 the Articles, certain passages have been selected by the Bishop 
 of Exeter, and, with a hasty zeal for the maintenance of his 
 favorite theory on the subject of Infant Baptism, put forward 
 
 * Ib. bk. x. c. 13. iii. 37.
 
 406 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 by him as supporting a doctrine inconsistent with his own 
 view on the subject of Adult Baptism. 
 
 Remarking that the llth Article refers to the Homily on 
 Salvation in words which " amount to adopting the doctrine 
 of that Homily on the particular specially set forth " in the 
 Article, (in which remark I cordially concur with his Lord- 
 ship,) he tells us, that we have here " another proof of the 
 inherent and essential grace of Christian baptism." * The 
 INHERENT and ESSENTIAL grace of baptism ! What a specimen 
 of the theology of a Bishop of a Protestant Church ! Here is 
 a doctrine which even the later scholastic divines would have 
 repudiated. For their doctrine, notoriously, was, that the 
 grace of God is not tied to the Sacraments. But if grace is 
 "INHERENT and ESSENTIAL " to baptism, it is so tied to it that 
 it is impossible for one to be separated from the other. It is 
 difficult to account for such language. And as my object is 
 to meet arguments that have a show of plausibility, I omit 
 any further notice of such a statement as this. 
 
 The proof derived from the Homily, for this doctrine, is 
 thus stated : 
 
 " You will see/' says the Bishop, (: in the Homily, that : the true under- 
 standing of this doctrine [i. e. of justification by faith] includes the acknow- 
 ledgment of the remission of original sin in Baptism.' You will also see 
 that the word 'baptized' is used as equivalent to 'justified,' and to being 
 ' made Christ's members.' " 
 
 And the passages quoted in proof of this are the following. 
 
 " Justification is the office of God only, and is not a thing which we 
 render unto him, but which we receive of him ; not which we give to him, 
 but which we take of him, by his free mercy, and by the only merits of his 
 most dearly beloved Son, our only Redeemer, Saviour, and Justifier, Jesus 
 Christ. So that the true understanding of this doctrine, We be justified 
 freely by faith without works, or that we be justified by faith in Christ 
 only, is not, that this our own act to believe in Christ, or this our faith in 
 Christ which is within us, doth justify us, and deserve our justification unto 
 us (for that were to count ourselves to bo justified by some act or virtue that 
 is within ourselves;) but the true understanding and meaning thereof is, 
 that although we hear God's word and believe it, although we have faith, 
 hope, charity, repentance, dread and fear of God within us, and do never so 
 
 * Charge, 3d cd. p. 18.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 4Q7 
 
 many good works thereunto ; yet we must renounce the merit of all our 
 said virtues, of faith, hope, charity, and all our other virtues and good 
 deeds, which we either have done, shall do, or can do, as things that be far 
 too weak, and insufficient, and imperfect, to deserve remission of our sins, 
 and our justification : and therefore we must trust only in God's mercy and 
 that sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour Christ Jesus the Son of God 
 once offered for us upon the cross, to obtain thereby God's^grace and remission, 
 as well of our original sin in baptism, as of all actual sin committed by us 
 after our baptism, if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly to him again." 
 (Second Part of Homily of Salvation.)* 
 
 ' You have heard the office of God in our justification, and how we 
 receive it of him freely by his mercy, without our deserts, through true and 
 lively faith. Now you shall hear the office and duty of a Christian man 
 unto God what we ought, on our part, to render unto God again for his 
 grace, mercy, and goodness. Our office is. not to pass the time of this 
 present life unfruitfully and idly after that we are baptized or justified, not 
 caring how few good works we do to the glory of God and profit of our 
 neighbours. Much less is it our office, after that we be once made Christ's 
 members, to live contrary to the same." (Third Part of same' Homily.)f 
 
 Now, in the first place, it is not a little remarkable, that if 
 such is the true meaning of this Homily, namely, that we are 
 justified by baptism, Bishop Gardiner should have so strongly 
 objected to it on the very ground that we are all justified as 
 infants in the Sacrament of Baptism.J And if we want to 
 know what Cranmer (who was the author of the Homily) 
 meant by our being by baptism " made Christ's members," 
 we may satisfy ourselves on this point by a reference to the 
 quotations given above $ from the "Institution for a Christian 
 Man," which, though written ten years before, (in 1537,) con- 
 tains, in this matter, a very explicit refutation of the Bishop of 
 Exeter's views. We shall there see, that he draws a very 
 clear and decided distinction between those who are nominally 
 and outwardly Christ's members, by being in outward com- 
 
 * The Bishop adds to this extract, " Jewell, in like manner, eays (Defence 
 of Apol. p. 96,] ' We be justified before God only by faith ; that is to say, only 
 by the merits and cross of Christ.' " The relevancy of this quotation to the Bap- 
 tismal question, I am unable to see. Its apparent object is, to make use of these 
 words of Jewell for the eversion of the great Protestant doctrine of justification 
 by faith. Valeat quantum. 
 
 f I quote from the Christian Knowledge Society's edition of the Homi- 
 lies, 1833. 
 
 $ See p. 198 above. See pp. 208-211 above.
 
 408 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 munion with his Church, and those who are so verily and in 
 truth. Further, whatever may be the view intended to be 
 inculcated by the remark as to the remission of original sin 
 in baptism, whether it means that the guilt of original sin is 
 always, remitted to infants in their baptism, or whether it 
 speaks only (as is frequently the case in such passages written 
 at that period) with reference to the case of the true members 
 of Christ, still this is entirely different from the gift of spiritual 
 regeneration. Many who hold that original sin is always 
 remitted to the infants of Christians in baptism, whollv deny 
 that they are universally made by that rite partakers of 
 spiritual regeneration ; as for instance Bishop Carleton, as 
 above quoted. 
 
 Lastly, to interpret the words "baptized or justified" as 
 showing that the word "baptized" is considered as equivalent 
 to "justified," is not merely to assume a particular meaning 
 for the word " or," when it is at least quite as open to another 
 sense, but to give an interpretation to the words entirely 
 opposed both to Cranmer's known sentiments and the doctrine 
 of the other part of the Homily. The argument which Cran- 
 mer adduced to Gardiner in defence of the doctrine of this 
 very Homily, as quoted above,* shows that such a meaning is 
 entirely opposed to the view he intended to inculcate. 
 
 Unless also it be assumed (which we have no right to 
 assume) that the passage refers only to infant baptism, the 
 Bishop of Exeter himself will not stand to his own interpreta- 
 tion of the passage, for he does not believe that baptism is 
 equivalent to justification in the case of adults. And if it 
 refers only to infiants, then the word "justified,'' even if used 
 as the Bishop contends it is used, must be taken in some 
 limited sense which makes it refer only to the infantine state, 
 (signifying perhaps the remission of original sin,) and there- 
 fore does not touch the question of the gift of spiritual regen- 
 eration; for the direct and express object which the Homily 
 has in view is to inculcate the doctrine that all capable of faith 
 are justified by faith only. Nothing that took place in bap- 
 
 * See pp. 197, 108, above.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 409 
 
 tism is referred to as having any efficacy for the justification 
 of an adult. 
 
 Further, there is another passage in this Homily where 
 the baptism of infants is spoken of, in which the phraseology 
 made use of is worthy of especial notice. After speaking of 
 the Sacrifice made by Christ for our sins, it adds, 
 
 " Insomuch that infants, being baptized and dying in their infancy, are 
 by this sacrifice washed from their sins, brought to God's favour, and made 
 his children, and inheritors of his kingdom of heaven."* 
 
 Now according to the views of those who hold, that all 
 infants receive spiritual regeneration in baptism, and are made 
 thereby true members of Christ and inheritors of the kingdom 
 of heaven, the words " and dying" in their infancy " are 
 superfluous and delusive. It is impossible not to see, that in 
 this passage there is a careful limitation of any positive and 
 definite statement as to the benefit of baptism in particular 
 infants, to the case of infants " dying in their infancy ;" where 
 I readily allow that the're is ground to maintain their universal 
 acceptance. And still further, be it observed, the blessing 
 of ablution from sin and being made (rod's children is attrib- 
 uted, not to baptism, but to Christ's sacrifice, applied to those 
 that arc "baptized and die in their infancy;" but not 
 necessarily even to them in or by baptism. 
 
 Another passage is quoted by his Lordshipt from the 
 Homily "of Common Prayer and Sacraments," which runs 
 thus : 
 
 " As for the number of them [i. e. the Sacraments,] if they should be 
 considered according to the exact signification of a Sacrament, namely, for 
 the visible signs expressly commanded in the New Testament, whereunto 
 is annexed the promise of free forgiveness of sins and joining in Christ, 
 there be but two, namely, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord." 
 
 But how this passage can prove the universal efficacy 
 of baptism in the case of infants, I am quite unable to see. 
 For not only do the expressions used refer to Baptism in 
 the abstract, and therefore as much to the case of adults 
 as to that of infants, (in the former of which it is admitted 
 that the gift of grace does not always accompany "the minis- 
 
 * Homily of Salvation, Part 1. tntt f Charge, 3rd ed. p. 20.
 
 410 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 tration of the outward rite) but to both the Sacraments ; and 
 none suppose that the grace of the Sacrament, in the case of 
 the Lord's Supper, is given to any but a worthy recipient. 
 
 And the same answer applies to other passages that are 
 sometimes quoted from the Homilies on this subject ; and in 
 fact to a vast number of passages that are often heaped up 
 from various quarters on this subject, which speak only of 
 the great value and blessed effects of Baptism in the abstract. 
 All these phrases apply as much to the baptism of adults as to 
 that of infants. They no more prove therefore. that Baptism 
 is universally efficacious in the latter case, than that it is so 
 in the former. 
 
 I am not aware of any passage in the Book of Homilies 
 that has been quoted on this subject, (besides those above 
 noticed,) to which this general remark does not supply a 
 complete answer. 
 
 And though there are no passages directly defining the 
 doctrine of our Church on the subject* of our present inquiry 
 (which indeed we could hardly expect in a volume of practical 
 sermons,) we shall find several containing statements incon- 
 sistent with the view that the mere act of baptism confers 
 spiritual regeneration upon all infants. Thus in the Homily 
 " Of Swearing" it is said ; 
 
 " By holy promises, with calling the name of God to witness, we be 
 made lively members of Christ, when we profess his religion, receiving the 
 Sacrament of Baptism." 
 
 The doctrine also of the following passage cannot easily be 
 mistaken. Speaking in the second part of the Homily " of 
 Alms-deeds," of the meaning of such phrases as that alms 
 wash away our sins, it is said, 
 
 " They mean this, and this is the understanding of those and such like 
 sayings, that God of his mercy and especial favour towards them whom he 
 hath appointed to everlasting salvation, hath so offered his grace especially, 
 and they have so received it fruitfully, that although, by reason of their 
 sinful living outwardly, they seemed before to have been the children of 
 wrath and perdition yet now the Spirit of God mightily working in them, 
 unto obedience to God's will and commandments, they declare by their 
 outward deeds and life, in the shewing of mercy and charity, (which cannot 
 come but of the Spirit of God, and his special grace,) that they are the un- 
 doubted children of God appointed to everlasting life. And so, as by their
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 411 
 
 wickedness and ungodly living they shewed themselves according to the 
 judgment of men, which follow the outward appearance, to be reprobates 
 and cast-aways j so now, by their obedience unto God's holy will, and by 
 their mercifulness and tender pity, (wherein they shew themselves to be like 
 unto God, who is the fountain and spring of all mercy,) they declare openly 
 and manifestly unto the sight of men, that they are the sons of God, and 
 the elect of him unto salvation." 
 
 Moreover, in the first part of the Homily for Whitsunday, 
 we have passages directly bearing upon the subject. This 
 Homily expressly treats on Regeneration, and throughout all 
 that is to be found in it on this point, not the slightest refe- 
 rence is made to baptism. 
 
 Its language is as follows : 
 
 " As for the works of the Spirit, the fruits of faith, charitable and godly 
 motions, if we have any at all in him, they proceed only of the Holy Ghost, 
 who is the only worker of our sanctification, and maketh us new men in 
 Christ Jesus. . . . And who can choose but marvel to consider, that Peter 
 should become of a simple fisher, a chief and mighty Apostle ? Paul of a 
 cruel and bloody persecutor, a faithful disciple of Christ, to teach the 
 Gentiles ? Such is the power of the Holy Ghost to regenerate men, and as 
 it were to bring them forth anew, so that they shall be nothing like the men 
 that they were before. Neither doth he think it sufficient inwardly to work 
 the spiritual and new birth of man, unless he do also dwell and abide in 
 him. . . . But how shall I know that the Holy Ghost is within me ? some 
 man perchance will say. Forsooth, as the tree is known by its fruit, so is 
 also the Holy Ghost. . . . Here is now that glass, wherein thou must be- 
 hold thyself, and discern whether thou have the Holy Ghost within thee or 
 the spirit of the flesh. If thou see that thy works be virtuous and good, 
 consonant to the prescript rule of God's word, savouring and tasting not of 
 the flesh, but of the Spirit, then assure thyself that thou art endued with 
 the Holy Ghost : otherwise, in thinking well of thyself, thou dost nothing 
 else but deceive thyself." 
 
 Such is the language in which this Homily speaks of re- 
 generation. "Whether it is consistent with the notion that all 
 receive this regeneration who are baptized in infancy, may 
 safely be left to the judgment of the impartial reader.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE BOOK OP COMMON PRAYER ON THE 
 SUBJECT OF THIS WORK. 
 
 1. Examination of the Baptismal Services for Infants, and 
 proof of the principle on which they are constructed, by 
 a comparison of them with the other Services in the Book 
 of Common Prayer. 
 
 THE stronghold of those who maintain that our Church 
 teaches that all infants are spiritually regenerated in baptism, 
 is in certain expressions found in the Services for the adminis- 
 tration of that rite. That the popular mind should be misled, 
 in the present day, by the phraseology there used, is not per- 
 haps matter for much surprise ; but that it should be delibe- 
 rately asserted, by those who profess an acquaintance with the 
 early history of our Reformed Church, that such was the 
 meaning intended to be affixed to these expressions by our 
 Reformers and early divines, is what may well excite our 
 wonder. The evidence given above of the doctrine of our 
 Church in their day, as shown by the writings of her chief 
 guides and brightest ornaments, must have gone far, I should 
 conceive, to settle the point already in the mind of the reader ; 
 or at least to show him, that there must have been some ex- 
 traordinary and unaccountable inconsistency between their 
 own doctrine and that which they inculcated in the Formularies 
 they drew up for the Church, if they meant those Formularies to 
 bear the sense which has been attributed to them. But the 
 majority of our modern divines, attached to a very different 
 school of theology from that of our Reformation, contemplate 
 our Services from a totally different point of view, and in con-
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 413 
 
 nexion with a different system of theology from that of those 
 who first drew them up and used them ; and, slighting the 
 writings of the very men to whom we are indebted for them, 
 and consequently ignorant of the meaning of the phraseology 
 of that period, naturally misconstrue them. 
 
 An impartial review, however, of the Prayer Book itself, 
 as a ivhole, is, alone, sufficient to dispel the delusion ; the 
 whole Book, in all its Services, being drawn up precisely upon 
 the same principle, namely, that of supposing that all inte- 
 rested in its Services are the true and living members of 
 Christ's Body, the Church. Explained upon this principle, 
 all the Services in the Book are intelligible, and consistent 
 with each other, and upon no other principle are they so. If 
 this method of interpretation is departed from, all is confusion 
 and inconsistency. And they who are clamoring the loudest 
 for the application of a contrary principle of interpretation in 
 the case of the Baptismal Services for Infants,' are themselves 
 compelled to admit that other Services must be so understood. 
 
 In proceeding, then, to examine the Baptismal Services for 
 Infants, I commence with the remark that I give the highest 
 sense to the blessing spoken of both in the prayers and thanks- 
 givings offered. I do not believe that the blessing there meant 
 is only an introduction into the visible Church, or anything 
 less than spiritual regeneration ; that is, a grafting into the 
 Body of Christ of his true members by that rite which he has 
 himself appointed as the external and visible mode of perfect- 
 ing that union. But the whole Service proceeds upon the 
 hypothesis, that the party baptized is, in the eye of Grod, 
 (which takes in all time and events as present} one of his ac- 
 cepted ones. In all such cases baptism (whether its sensible 
 effects be immediate or in abeyance and future} is efficacious. 
 
 First, let us consider the Form for Public Baptism. 
 
 The proof that this hypothetical system of interpretation is 
 that intended to be affixed to the Service, must of course be 
 mainly derived from a comparison of it with other parts of the 
 Prayer Book, and the known sentiments of those who drew up 
 the Form, or originally sanctioned and approved of it, and 
 such like considerations. But the Service itself supplies us 
 with some evidence on the subject, and particularly in one
 
 414 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 passage, HALF of which is often quoted by those who take a 
 contrary view, as favoring their mode of interpretation. It is 
 said that, in the Exhortation, those who bring the child are 
 thus addressed, " Doubt ye not, therefore, but earnestly be- 
 lieve, that he will likewise favourably receive this present 
 infant," and therefore that the acceptance of the infant ought 
 to be a matter of faith, and no doubt entertained about it. 
 This is urged by the Bishop of Exeter.* Now it is only ne- 
 cessary to go to the end of the sentence, to see that this pas- 
 sage is in fact strongly confirmatory of the view that the 
 hypothetical principle of interpretation is the correct one. For 
 the whole sentence is this, " Doubt ye not, therefore, but 
 earnestly believe, that he will likewise favourably receive this 
 present infant ; that he will embrace him with the arms of 
 his mercy ; that HE WILL GIVE UNTO HIM THE BLESSING OP 
 
 ETERNAL LIFE, AND MAKE HIM PARTAKER OF HIS EVERLASTING 
 
 KINGDOM." So that with precisely the same sort of assurance 
 that we are exhorted to believe that Grod will then favorably 
 receive the infant, are we exhorted to believe' that he will 
 ultimately save him and admit him into heaven. No words 
 could show more clearly what is the nature of the confidence 
 required ; namely, that it is that of charitable hope and pre- 
 sumption. 
 
 Further; as we proceed in the Service, it is required that 
 certain stipulations and promises be made in the name of the 
 child, to be performed as soon as he is of age to perform them. 
 And these promises are reckoned as the promises of the child, 
 and made a most important part of the Service, as we see in 
 the words, "After this promise made by Christ, this infant 
 must also faithfully, for his part, promise by you that are his 
 sureties, (until he come of age to take it upon himself,) that 
 he will renounce," &c. And our Catechism expressly tells us, 
 that baptism is given to infants, " BECAUSE they promise faith 
 and repentance by their sureties, which promise, when they 
 come to age, themselves are bound to perform." To infants, 
 then, who reach adult age, the Church (if she were able to 
 foresee whether or not this would be the case) would not give 
 
 " Charge, p. 40.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 415 
 
 baptism if she knew that this promise never would be fulfilled. 
 For otherwise the stipulation is a nullity and an absurdity. 
 It is replied, that the Church allows baptism to be adminis- 
 tered to infants not likely to live, without any such stipula- 
 tions, and considers the baptism valid. Doubtless she does ; 
 nor would she reiterate baptism in the case of any child bap- 
 tized without sponsors. Such sponsions are not necessary to 
 make the rite valid, but their requisition shows the sense our 
 Church entertains of fhe nature of the rite. And this is what 
 we want to know. And in the case of sick children, she 
 ministers the rite, without sponsions, as to those who are about 
 to die m their infancy r , and never to be capable of faith and 
 repentance ; whom she believes to be saved as being in the 
 same covenant with their parents, assuming them (as she is 
 bound to do,) to be the children of true believers. But imme- 
 diately the condition of the infant is changed, she requires 
 these stipulations to be entered into for him before he is for- 
 mally recognized as a member of the Church. It is impossible 
 for her, in the nature of things, to do more to show her sense 
 of the necessity of certain engagements being entered into in 
 behalf of any child about to reach adult age, before it is recog- 
 nized even outwardly as a member of Christ. It must ever 
 be recollected, that Baptism is a rite in which a covenant- 
 engagement -is entered into between God and man ; in which, 
 therefore, the engagement on (rod's part is to be met by a 
 corresponding engagement on the part of man ; and where the 
 baptized party is too young to make this promise in his own 
 person, it is made by others for him; and baptism is adminis- 
 tered on this vicarious pledge, in order that (rod's children 
 (whom we cannot discern from the rest at that age) may not 
 lack the seal of the covenant, and that rite which has been 
 appointed by God for the formal and visible incorporation of 
 men into his family as his adopted children. 
 
 Thus then an engagement is entered into on behalf of the 
 child, and baptism given on that condition. Now if this en- 
 gagement is never fulfilled by the child, (which is foreseen by 
 God from the first,) what right have we to say that he is ever 
 made a partaker of the full baptismal blessing ? Either this 
 engagement is a perfect nullity and mockery, or it indicates
 
 416 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 a belief on the part of the Church that the baptismal blessing 
 is only to be expected, in ihe case of infants that reach adult 
 age, when what is then promised is performed. In such cases, 
 and in such only, can she consider baptism to be efficacious. 
 
 But such an engagement having been entered into, and 
 our duty being (as she conceives) "not to doubt" that the 
 infant is one of those whom God will accept and ultimately 
 save, a thanksgiving is offered after the child has been bap- 
 tized, for the bestowal of the full baptismal blessing. And 
 this thanksgiving is of course offered in the same sense in 
 which we are exhorted not to doubt that the child will be 
 saved. It may be that our earnest and undoubting hope that 
 the child is one whom G-od will accept, and who will fulfil the 
 promises made for him, is not well-founded, and the applica- 
 bility of the thanksgiving of course depends upon this. But 
 it being presumed that such is the case, the Church offers a 
 thanksgiving for the bestowal of the blessing which in such 
 cases is connected with the rite. 
 
 And to illustrate the case where the Baptismal blessing is 
 not immediate but expectative, let us consider an example of 
 a similar kind (so far as human things can be compared with 
 Divine) among men. A wealthy individual promises to make 
 over an estate to an infant to be possessed by him when he 
 comes to years of discretion, on condition of a very small 
 payment being made by him at that period, and agrees to 
 sign and seal the deeds on condition of a promise being made 
 for the child by certain sureties that he will pay what is 
 required at the proposed time. All the parties come together 
 publicly to ratify this covenant. In what terms will the 
 sponsors for the child address the generous friend who has 
 made the transfer, when the deeds are completed ? Will they 
 turn their back upon him, and say, we will offer you no thanks 
 for your kindness, for we know not whether the child may not, 
 after all, refuse to give the mite required to put him in posses- 
 sion of the estate, and so derive no benefit from the covenant ? 
 Or will they emphatically thank him for his bounty, as a gift 
 already bestowed ? There can be but one answer to such a 
 question. Thanks would be returned in similar language to 
 what would be employed if the party to whom the gift was
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 417 
 
 made was of age, and had already made the payment re- 
 quired. 
 
 Now this case, so far as concerns the question of thanks- 
 giving for a gift which is yet conditional, and may never be 
 realized, is very similar to that before us. There are of course 
 points in which the two cases are dissimilar, but the question 
 of the propriety of a thanksgiving in a case where the enjoy- 
 ment of the gift is only conditional and presumed, is, I think, 
 forcibly illustrated by the example mentioned. I do not here 
 touch the question whether true faith and repentance are, or 
 are not, only given to certain individuals chosen by God as 
 heirs of salvation. That is a distinct subject of inquiry. 
 
 Our Reformers and early divines clearly uSed the thanks- 
 giving in the Baptismal Service, under the notion, that we are 
 to presume, that the infant baptized is one of the elect, and so 
 is interested in the Divine favor, and will fulfil the terms of 
 the covenant. But that is not the only sense in which the 
 thanksgiving may be used. It is the appropriate language of 
 all who believe that a covenant has then been made by God 
 with the child, in which the blessing of being received as a son 
 of God, that is, spiritually regenerated, is made over to the 
 child, to be enjoyed by him whenever his moral state cor- 
 responds with the conditions of the covenant. 
 
 Our Church clearly requires in adults faith and repentance 
 as the necessary qualifications for being made in baptism sons 
 of God, and in infants that stipulation of future faith and 
 repentance which shows that in their case she makes her 
 expectation of the gift of full spiritual regeneration to rest 
 upon the supposition of these acts being ultimately produced. 
 And in both cases the thanksgiving for the bestowal of regene- 
 ration and adoption is properly offered when the covenant is 
 signed and sealed in Baptism. Just as in the case above 
 mentioned, whether the party to whom the gift of the estate 
 is made be an adult, who renders at once what is required, or 
 whether he be an infant for whom others undertake that it 
 shall be paid by him, the thanksgiving is offered to the donor 
 when the deed of transfer is signed and sealed. 
 
 The key to the right understanding of this subject lies in 
 the contemplation of Baptism as the act in and by which the 
 27
 
 418 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Gospel covenant between God and man is signed and sealed. 
 And when we view it in this light, we see at once the justice 
 of Bishop Davenant's remark,* that " it is not necessary to 
 suppose that the Sacraments effect, at the moment of their 
 administration, all they represent, the schoolmen themselves 
 allowing, that a covenant admitting of delay in its fulfilment 
 has place, when, in the very act of making it, there is an 
 impediment to the fulfilment of its conditions." 
 
 In the above remarks I have of course been more especially 
 contemplating the case where the Baptismal blessing is future. 
 There may however be, if it please God, an immediate effect 
 from the rite of baptism in the case of infants. The seeds of 
 faith and repentance may be implanted in the heart by God at 
 the earliest age, and adoption into God's family take place in 
 the fullest sense at baptism. Or if we take the Calvinistic 
 view, such adoption may take place at baptism in the case of 
 all the elect. But still even in these cases it must be observed, 
 that, as respects those who live to adult age, such adoption 
 takes place in the prospective contemplation of the acts of 
 faith and repentance following in their due season. So that 
 in all cases the bestowal of the blessing has in view the fulfil- 
 ment of the promises made. But the moral condition of the 
 party baptized, whether adult or infant, is not always made in 
 or by Baptism such as to put him in possession of the blessings 
 of the covenant. 
 
 And it is observable, that in this Service, as originally 
 drawn up, and as it remained up to 1662, there was some 
 very expressive words, strongly indicative of the views of the 
 original compilers ; and though the Laudian divines of 1662 
 threw them out, they could not by that means get rid of the 
 argument with which they supply us as to the interpretation 
 originally put upon the other part of the Service. In the first 
 Liturgy of 1549, there were two prayers having reference to 
 the water used for baptizing.f The first commenced thus, 
 "0 most merciful God our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hast 
 
 * See p. 808, 309, above. 
 
 f They are placed in this Liturgy at the end of the Office for Private 
 Baptism.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 419 
 
 ordained the element of water for the regeneration of THY 
 FAITHFUL PEOPLE .... sanctify this fountain of baptism." &c. 
 This prayer of consecration was left out in the Liturgy of 1562, 
 apparently at the instance of Bucer, who objected to such a 
 consecration of the water* But the views of those who drew 
 up the Service as to the character of the parties benefited by 
 the Sacrament, even in the case of infants (which is what we 
 want to ascertain,) are remarkably illustrated by it. 
 
 The other prayer, (which remained in the Service unaltered 
 till 1662,) was this, 
 
 " Almighty, everliving God, whose most dearly beloved Son Jesus 
 Christ, for the forgiveness of our sins, did shed out of his most precious side 
 both water and blood, and gave commandment to his disciples that they 
 should go teach all nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father, 
 the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; regard, we beseech thee, the supplications of 
 thy congregation, and grant that all THY SERVANTS which shall be baptized 
 in this water, prepared for the ministration of thy holy Sacrament, may 
 receive the fulness of thy grace, and ever remain in the number of thy 
 faithful and elect children, through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
 In the Review in 1662, the words, "And grant, &c.," are 
 changed to, " Sanctify this water to the mystical washing away 
 of sin, and grant that this child now to be baptized therein may 
 receive, &c." Here (besides the restoration of the consecration 
 of the water, which is immaterial to our present subject) an 
 alteration is made in the language of the prayer, the reason of 
 which is obvious. But the alteration cannot effect any change 
 in the sense in which the Service is to be understood. It is a 
 very apt specimen of the way in which the Laucftan divines 
 of 1662, not daring openly to re-model the Formularies after 
 their own views, contrived to slip in a few words in one place, 
 and leave out a few in another, and alter a few in? a third, so 
 as to take off the edge of expressions that might tell against 
 them, and introduce what might serve as an unsuspected foun- 
 dation on which to build their doctrines.f But, providentially, 
 their power was not equal to their will for mischievous changes 
 of this kind, and therefore our Formularies speak precisely 
 
 * See his " Censnra," in his Scripta Anglicana, pp. 481, 482. 
 | This has been fully admitted by recent writers of similar views. But this 
 is not the place to enlarge upon this point
 
 420 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 the same doctrine they -did before. I shall show presently 
 that no openly Laudian changes were likely to have passed 
 the House of Commons. 
 
 But what is most pressed, perhaps, in this Service, by 
 those who take a contrary view to that here maintained, is 
 the following rubric at the end of it. 
 
 " It is certain by God's word, that children which are baptized, dying 
 before they commit actual sin, are undoubtedly saved." 
 
 This rubric was inserted at the Review in 1662,* at the 
 end of the office for the Public Baptism of Infants, instead of 
 one which occurred in the previous Books at the commence- 
 ment of the Or^er for Confirmation in the following words : 
 
 " And that no man shall think that any detriment shall come to children 
 by deferring of their Confirmation, he shall know for truth, that it is certain 
 by God's word, that children being baptized, have all things necessary for 
 their salvation, and be undoubtedly saved." 
 
 This rubric 'was open to exception, because it might seem 
 to intimate, that even after the children were old enough to 
 commit sin, they might be saved by their baptism. The 
 saving clause in our present rubric, " dying before they com- 
 mit actual sin," removes, to my mind, all reasonable ground 
 of objection to it. It must be remembered, that our Church 
 administers baptism to infants, as those who, in their infantine 
 state, are included in the same covenant with their parents, 
 who are supposed to be true believers. This has been already 
 so clearly proved in the extracts given above from Nowell's 
 Catechism! and our early divines, that I think it unnecessary 
 to quote further evidence. Now few, if any, have denied 
 salvation to such infants dying in their infancy. And, to 
 serve for all, I beg the reader's attention to the following 
 passage from the Decrees of the famous Calvinistic Synod of 
 
 Dort. 
 
 \ 
 
 " Since we must judge of the will of God from his word, which testifies 
 that the children of the faithful are holy, not indeed by nature, but by the 
 benefit of a gratuitous covenant in which they are comprehended with their 
 
 I use the date 1662, because the Review was not completed till that period. 
 \ See pp. 266, 266 above.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 421 
 
 parents, pious parents OUGHT NOT TO DOUBT of the election and salvation of 
 their children whom God calls out of this life in infancy."* 
 
 It may perhaps be replied, But our Church says, that such 
 infants being " baptized" are saved. I answer, No doubt she 
 does, because it is not for her to dispense with G-od's sacra- 
 ments, and pronounce a definite decision on those who die 
 without them, whatever hope she may entertain on the sub- 
 ject. But it is admitted that she does not consider the Sacra- 
 ment of Baptism v in such a case necessary to salvation, and 
 therefore does not tie G-od's saving grace to it.f While at the 
 same time, in the case of all the children of true believers, 
 dying in their infancy, baptism would be freely admitted by 
 all to be ultimately salutary. But still, grace is given, even 
 in this case, not necessarily in or by Baptism, but when Qod 
 pleases. 
 
 Thus Peter Martyr, in his Lectures at Oxford, says of in- 
 fants dying unbaptized, " I hope well of the state of such 
 infants, inasmuch as I see them to be born of faithful parents :" 
 but of those that die baptized he says, "It is to be firmly 
 believed that children dying who have been baptized, arc 
 saved."| 
 
 And it must be observed, that since our Church adminis- 
 ters baptism to infants as the children of true believers, this 
 rubric must be understood accordingly ; otherwise our system 
 of theology is thrown into utter confusion. Ho who makes 
 this rubric extend to other children, does so suo periculo, and 
 not in accordance with the doctrine of our Church. 
 
 I proceed to the Service for Priyate Baptism, where again 
 half a sentence is urged against the view for which I am here 
 contending, while the whole sentence directly supports it. 
 The child who had been privately baptized being brought to 
 
 * Quandoquidem de voluntate Dei ex verbo ipsius nobis est judicandum, quod 
 testatur liberos fidelium esse sanctos, non quidem natura, sed beneficio fcederis 
 gratuiti, in quo illi cum parentibus comprehenduntur, pii parentes de electione et 
 salute suorum.liberorum, quos Deus in infantiaex hac vita evocat, dubitare non 
 debent. c. 1. art. 17. Acta Syn. Dordrecht. Dordr. 1620. 4to. p. 282. 
 
 f See Laurence's Bampton Lect. pp. 69-72 ; and p. 217 above. 
 
 J De hujusmodi parvulis bene spero, quod illo3 videam ex fidelibus parentibna 
 notos," ''pueros decedentes cum baptismo salvos esse confidendum est." {In 
 1 Cor. Til 14.)
 
 422 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 the church, the minister is directed to say, "Doubt ye not, 
 therefore, but earnestly believe, that he hath likewise favour- 
 ably received this present infant; that he hath embraced him 
 with the arms of his mercy :" showing', it is said, that we 
 must believe as a matter of certainty that the full baptismal 
 blessing was given to it. But how does the sentence proceed ? 
 " and (as he hath promised in his holy word) will give unto 
 him the blessing of eternal life, and make him partaker of his 
 everlasting kingdom." So that we are as undoubtingly to 
 believe that the child will be ultimately saved, as that the full 
 baptismal blessing has been bestowed upon him, and of course 
 therefore our belief of both is not more than a charitable per- 
 suasion. And in the Books of Common Prayer previous to 
 1662, the words afforded, if possible, a still stronger illustra- 
 tion of the meaning of those that preceded them. For they 
 were, " that he hath given unto him the blessing of eternal 
 life, and made him partaker of his everlasting kingdom." This 
 phraseology, to one who is versed in such matters, betrays at 
 once the character of the theology of those who originally 
 drew up this Service. But I notice this only incidentally. 
 The reason why I refer to the words is to show the true mean- 
 ing of the words that precede them. And the alteration in 
 1662 leaves the argument for so understanding the previous 
 words untouched ; which would only have been removed by 
 the insertion of a condition in the latter part of the sentence. 
 Consistently, then, with this exhortation not to doubt that 
 the child had been accepted by (rod in its baptism, the Minis- 
 ter is directed to "receive him as one of the flock of true 
 Christian people,"* (the words are to be observed,) as one who 
 " is now, by the laver of regeneration in baptism, received inta 
 the number of the children of Grod and heirs of everlasting 
 life ;" and the declaration is made, that he is "by baptism 
 regenerate." Nor (Joes any one deny, that if the child was 
 accepted of God in its baptism, (which we are exhorted not 
 to doubt, that is, as I have shown the words to mean, charita- 
 bly to feel assured of,) this is the proper language to be used. 
 
 In the Books of Common Prayer previous to 1662, the words 
 true Christian people." '
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 423 
 
 And I shall show immediately that these very expressions 
 have been borrowed from a Liturgy where, from the known 
 sentiments of the author, this interpretation must be given. 
 
 And be it observed, that though promises are not formally 
 made for the child thus baptized in haste, the recognized nature 
 of the act, as a covenanting act, shows that they are implied. 
 
 And the same explanation applies to the similar declaration 
 in the Office for Confirmation, where also the language has 
 been taken from the same Liturgy. Here, indeed, there is 
 another and a stronger reason for the use of such language, 
 because the words are used after the party to be confirmed has 
 in his own person ratified his baptismal promises. 
 
 But thq most remarkable proof that the hypothetical prin- 
 ciple is that upon which the Services of our Prayer Book are 
 constructed, is, that when in 1662, at the last review of the 
 Prayer Book, it seemed desirable to add an Office for the Bap- 
 tism of Adults, this Service could only be brought into con- 
 formity with the rest of the Book by being drawn up on this 
 principle. The same parties that would probably* have con- 
 tended for the affirmatory interpretation of this Service for 
 Infant Baptism as the only admissible one, joined in drawing 
 up a Service for the Baptism of Adults on the hypothetical 
 principle. That such is the principle upon which this Service 
 is constructed, the Bishop of Exeter himself admits.! He 
 distinctly says, (and if he did not say so, the 25th Article 
 would at once convict him of teaching doctrine contrary to 
 that of our Church,) that when the baptized adult is spoken 
 of as " being now born again," it is the language of " Chris- 
 tian charity." Here then the principle for which we contend 
 is yielded. And as to what his Lordship urges, that in the 
 
 * I say probably, because this was never actually laid down as a principle, 
 even in the Savoy Conference. On one side, the phraseology of the Service, 
 coupled with the interpretation which the dominant party in the Church had then 
 for many years given to it, led many imprudently to affix a sense to it which a 
 little historical research upon the subject would have shown them was not the 
 sense intended by those who put it forth ; while, on the other side, this sense was 
 gladly accepted, and the doctrine involved in it defended. But there was no 
 peremptory declaration that this was the only sense which the words admitted. 
 
 f Charge, 3rd ed. p. 41.
 
 424 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 former part of the Service it is intimated, that those only wht> 
 come with true repentance and faith will be accepted, which 
 is not the case in the Service for Infant Baptism, that does 
 not effect the principle upon which the thanksgiving is founded, 
 which is, that of charitable presumption. And the applica- 
 tion o'f this principle, when granted, cannot be regulated by 
 the dictum of any individuals. 
 
 The only shadow of an argument for saying, that the Ser- 
 vices show, that the thanksgiving in the case of adults is hy- 
 pothetical, and affirmative in that of infants, is one which falls 
 to the ground immediately it is examined. The Bishop gives 
 it thus, 
 
 " In the former [the Service for Infant Baptism,] 1 the blessing is assured 
 to the baptized infant without reserve : the people are bidden to ' doubt not^ 
 but earnestly believe, that God will favourably receive this present infant :' 
 and this is all : while, in the case of adults, the words run. ' doubt ye not, 
 but earnestly believe, that God will favourably receive these present persons, 
 truly repenting and coming unto him with faith. 1 "* 
 
 Now, as we have already seen, the words here quoted from 
 the Service for Infant Baptism are far from being " all." The 
 sentence is cut short in the middle, though the latter part 
 shows, that the whole is but an exhortation to the indulgence 
 of a charitable persuasion that so it would be. For the end of 
 the sentence bids us not to doubt of the child being ultimately 
 saved. And the only difference is, that our Church, confining 
 herself within the limits of Scripture teaching, does not, in 
 the case of infants, state the precise grounds of their accep- 
 tance, as she is enabled to do from Scripture, in the case of 
 adults. 
 
 The criticism which the Bishop offers upon the difference 
 in the phraseology of the thanksgivings, I cannot conceive to 
 be worthy of a serious refutation.! A thanksgiving is dis* 
 
 Charge, p. 40. 
 
 \ I have already noticed it in my reply to the Charge, entitled, " A Vindicar 
 tion of the Defence of the XXXIX Articles, Ac." But I do not enter upon the 
 matter again here. It is with unwillingness, and only in a case of necessity, 
 that I touch the addresses of a Bishop to his Clergy ; but few, I suppose will 
 hesitate to admit that, in the present case, I was more than justified in publish- 
 ing a reply.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 425 
 
 tinctly offered in the Service for Adults for the gift of spiritual 
 regeneration, where the bestowal of that gift is only a matter 
 of charitable presumption ; and that is all with which, in this 
 argument, we are concerned. 
 
 But while we may thus derive, from an examination of 
 the Baptismal Services themselves, evidence that, our prayers 
 and thanksgivings are offered in the spirit of charitable hope 
 and persuasion, an examination of the other parts of the 
 Prayer Book will show us, that the whole Book is drawn up 
 on this principle, and that the Baptismal Services would be 
 drawn up differently from all the other Services in it, if they 
 were not worded with a view to those cases where the full bap- 
 tismal blessing is experienced. Every Service in the Book is 
 drawn up on the supposition that the party interested in it is 
 one who is accepted by God. All the prayers and thanksgivings 
 in the Book proceed upon this presumption. 
 
 Let us take, for instance, the Burial Service. 
 
 In this Service the minister is required in every case to 
 give thanks to Grod that it has pleased him to take unto him- 
 self the soul of our dear brother departed, and that he has 
 delivered him out of the miseries of .this sinful world. The 
 whole Service proceeds upon the presumption that the party 
 buried is a true and faithful servant of Christ. Here of 
 course it is impossible to deny that the language is only that 
 of charitable hope and presumption. But it is as definite and 
 express as that used in the Service for Infant Baptism. 
 
 Hence the Nonconformists who objected to the Baptismal 
 Service on the ground of its affirming the spiritual regenera- 
 tion of all infants, equally objected to the Burial Service as 
 affirming the salvation of all that were buried.* 
 
 * Thus Calamy, in his Life of Baxter, states the objections of the Noncon- 
 formists to this Service. " They could not consent to pronounce all saved that 
 
 are buried except the unbaptized, excommunicate, and self murtherers 
 
 Whereas the Scripture saith expressly, that neither adulterers, nor fornicators, 
 nor drunkards, shall ever go to heaven, yet hereby must they have obliged them- 
 selves, in perfect opposition, when they buried any known adulterer, fornicator, 
 or drunkard, to declare and avouch that his soul was assuredly gone thither. 
 They could not see how charity would excuse dangerous errors and falsehood," 
 Ac- Ac. Calamy's Life of Baxter. 2d ed. 1713. vol. 1, pp. 224 226.
 
 426 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 And yet, strangely enough, they who know, or ought to 
 know that the Nonconformists and their modern successors 
 have objected equally and on the same grounds to both the 
 Baptismal and Burial Services, while they cannot but admit 
 that the objections thus made are unfounded in the case of 
 the latter, urge the objections made against the former as 
 showing that those Services really mean what the Dissenters 
 charge them with meaning.* 
 
 Take again the Office for the Visitation of the Sick. How 
 are we to understand the words, "I absolve thee from all 
 thy sins?" Clearly as spoken on the charitable presumption 
 that the professions of faith and repentance have been sincere. 
 
 So in the Offices for the Solemnization of Matrimony and 
 the Churching of Women, we find these declarations respect- 
 ing the state of mind of the parties concerned, put into the 
 mouths of those present, " who put their trust in thee " 
 "Who putteth her trust in thee." Is this the language of 
 certainty or charity ? Are we bound to believe that every 
 body married, and every woman churched, is a true believer ? 
 
 And such instances might be multiplied to almost any 
 extent. 
 
 Even the Laudian divines in the Savoy Conference were 
 compelled to adopt this mode of explaining some expressions 
 in the Prayer Book that were objected to. Thus, after 
 defending the words in the Confirmation Service, "Who 
 hast vouchsafed to regenerate these thy servants," &c., they 
 add, 
 
 "And it is CHARITABLY PRESUMED that notwithstanding the frailties and 
 slips of their childhood they have not totally lost what was in baptism con- 
 ferred upon them ; and THEREFORE adds, ' Strengthen them, we beseech 
 thee, Lord, with the Holy Ghost the Comforter, and daily increase in them 
 their [thy] manifold gifts of grace.' "f 
 
 Again, in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick, to the 
 request that the words, " I absolve thee," may be changed to, 
 "I pronounce thee absolved if thou doest truly repent and 
 believe," they reply, 
 
 * See the Bishop of Exeter *8 Charge, pp. 51, 52. 
 f Cardwell's Conferences, 2d ed. 1841. p. 859.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 427 
 
 " The form of absolution in the Liturgy is more agreeable to the Scriptures 
 than that which they desire, it being said in St. John xx., ' Whose sins you 
 remit, they are remitted, 7 not, Whose sins you pronounce remitted ; and 
 the condition needs not to be expressed, being always necessarily UNDER- 
 STOOD/'* 
 
 Again, in the Office for the Burial of the Dead, to the 
 objection to the words, " Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty 
 God to take unto himself," &c., they reply, 
 
 " We see not why these words may not be said of any person whom wo 
 dare not say is damned, and it were a breach of charity to say so even of 
 those whose repentance we do not see ; for whether they do not inwardly and 
 heartily repent, even at the last act, who knows ? And that God will not 
 even then pardon them upon such repentance, who dares say ? It is better 
 to be CHARITABLE AND HOPE THE BEST, than rashly to condemn."! 
 
 And yet in the face of all this, a party among us, finding it 
 convenient for the inclination of their own peculiar views, to 
 interpret the prayers and thanksgivings of one particular 
 Service as speaking the language of certainty, not of charitable 
 presumption, talk (to use the language of one of their leaders) 
 of " the truly precise, and accurate, and plain teaching of the 
 Prayer-book, "J and deduce from those prayers and thanksgiv- 
 ings so understood, (in opposition to the principle of interpreta- 
 tion which they are themselves compelled to apply to other parts 
 of the same Book,) articles of faith which they call upon all the 
 clergy, at the peril of being denounced as dishonest, to maintain 
 and defend. And they assert, that dogmatical inferences so 
 raised out of the Liturgy are to form the rule of interpretation 
 by which the Articles, drawn up as a dogmatical standard of 
 faith, are to be construed ! 
 
 Nothing can show more plainly than this attempt to set up 
 certain passages in one part of the Prayer Book, (understood by 
 a different principle of interpretation from what is applied in 
 another,) as a standard of faith, how utterly unfit a Liturgical 
 Book is to serve such a purpose. That the doctrine of a Church 
 is indirecly and to a certain exteqj illustrate^ by her devotional 
 books, in their broad and evident features, is no doubt very true. 
 But to turn the verbal expressions of prayer and praise into a 
 
 Ib. p. 361. t Ib. pp. 861, 862. $ Charge, Sd ed. p. 44.
 
 428 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 confession of faith, is to apply the Liturgy to a purpose for which 
 it was never intended, and for which it is utterly unfit. 
 
 2. The judgment of Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr, upon 
 our Baptismal Service for Infants. 
 
 One of the most direct and satisfactory proofs of the meaning 
 intended to be attached to our Liturgical Services in the point 
 now under consideration, would obviously be, some evidence of 
 the light in which they were regarded, at the time of their 
 publication, by those whose doctrinal sentiments are beyond 
 dispute. Fortunately, then, it so happens that we have clear 
 and distinct evidence of the judgment of Martin Bucer and 
 Peter Martyr respecting them. And their doctrine has been so 
 fully placed before the reader, that no doubt can remain on his 
 mind respecting its real nature. 
 
 In the year 1551, Martin Bucer, then by Cranmer's appoint- 
 ment Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, was requested 
 by Cranmer critically to review the Book of Common Prayer, (of 
 course of the edition of 1549,) and place before him his animad- 
 versions upon it. That judgment, carefully and elaborately 
 drawn up, in the form of a full critical commentary upon every 
 part of the book, still exists.* The question then immediately 
 occurs, Does he, holding the views we know he did respecting 
 baptism, make any remark upon the Baptismal Service as 
 opposed to sound doctrine in the point here in question, or suggest 
 any alteration (as he had been requested to do wherever he 
 thought it necessary) in the passages which the Bishop of Exeter 
 maintains admits no other interpretation than what he gives 
 them ? The answer is, that he does nothing of the kind. He 
 treats the whole of them as perfectly consistent with his views, 
 so far as regards the point now in question, and offers not one 
 word of suggestion for the alteration of any one of them, while 
 the minuteness of Jiis criticism on other parts of the Service 
 shows how fully his attention had been directed to it. 
 
 On the contrary, he makes such remarks as the following. 
 
 It occupies pp. 456-603 in Buceri Scripta Anglicana. Basil. 1577. foL
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 429 
 
 Urging the administration of baptism at the time when the 
 congregation is likely to be the largest,' he says, 
 
 " Whoever recognize the influence of regeneration and the amplitude of 
 the divine blessing which is conferred by baptism, "will readily approve of 
 this."* 
 
 And, recommending simplicity in the Baptismal rites, he 
 remarks, 
 
 " It is the part of Christians to worship the Lord in spirit and in 
 truth, and nowhere to act inconsiderately and with levity, but least of 
 all, at the so holy mysteries of our redemption and regeneration to eternal 
 K/e."t 
 
 There are several other passages of the same kind,$ all of 
 which, if understood according to the Bishop of Exeter's mode 
 of interpreting such statements, would imply that all infants 
 indiscriminately were regenerated at baptism ; an interpreta- 
 tion entirely at variance with his real views. 
 
 He adopts fully, therefore, the language of the Baptismal 
 Service, but the sense in which he understood it is apparent 
 from the extracts I have given above from his contemporary 
 writings. 
 
 And accordingly, in his comment on the Confirmation 
 Service, when advising that children that have been baptized 
 should not be admitted to the Communion merely on the 
 ground of their being able to repeat the Catechism, but 
 those only who exhibit some marks of regeneration, he ob- 
 serves, 
 
 " Those more backward ones, IF so BE THEY ARE BORN OF GOD, 
 would be the better excited seriously to learn the things that are Christ's 
 by the example of those who for their merit should be placed before 
 them."$ 
 
 * Hoc facile probaverint, quicunque vim regenerationis et amplitudinem 
 divini beneficii, quod baptismate confertur, agnoscent. Cens. in Ord. Eccles. 
 Inter Scripta Anglic, p. 477. 
 
 t Ib. p. 478. 
 
 t As for instance the folio-wing, Caeteri habeantur in Catechumenis dum 
 se catechizare patiantur, dumque ipse Dominus daret suam in baptismate obla- 
 tam regenerationem solide recipere, atque in vita quoque proferre. (p. 484.) 
 
 Tardiores illi, siquidem nati ex Deo sint, exemplo horutn qui eis suo 
 merito anteponerentur, ad serio discendum quae Christi sunt magis excitarentur.
 
 430 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Here then we see, at the very period when the Baptismal 
 Service was first put forth, an able and experienced divine, 
 the man selected by Cranmer to give his judgment upon that 
 formulary with the rest of the Prayer Book, knowing the 
 meaning intended by it, and holding that certain infants only 
 are regenerated in baptism, and the rest never regenerated at 
 all, giving nevertheless his voluntary and complete approval 
 to it. Are we then to be now told, that none can honestly use 
 it but those that believe that all infants are regenerated in 
 baptism ? "With all impartial persons, this fact alone is suffi- 
 cient to settle the question. 
 
 But we have also another testimony of the same unan- 
 swerable kind to the meaning of our Baptismal Service; 
 namely, the approval of it by Peter Martyr. 
 
 I have already observed, that Peter Martyr was made by 
 Cranmer, in 1548, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford. 
 Shortly after the publication of the Book of Common Prayer 
 in 1549, it was submitted to him as well as to Bucer for his 
 censure;! and we learn from his Letter to Bucer on this sub- 
 ject, that having been supplied with a Latin version of it by 
 Cheke, he sent to the Archbishop some " Annotations " upon it; 
 and having afterwards found, on the receipt of Bucer's " Gen- 
 sura y on the book, that the translation he had used was 
 imperfect, he shortly after sent to the Archbishop a few addi- 
 tional " Brief Articles," showing his agreement with Bucer in 
 the remarks he had made. Unfortunately these " Annota- 
 tions " and " Articles " do not seem to have been preserved, 
 but his letter to Bucer, fully supplies the place so far as our 
 present subject is concerned. For in it he states his full agree- 
 ment with Bucer in the matters he had objected to, and adds 
 
 (Ib. p. 483.) He remarks also in a previous page, " Nihil igitur in his nlysteriis 
 stint panis et vinura .... quam signa corporis et sanguinis Domini : sed lion 
 absentium omnino : verum hujusmodi signa, quibus Christus Dominus una cum 
 verbis suis seipsum nobis iterum prsebet, communicat, unit ; non minus quam . . 
 tinctio baptismatis signum est ablutionis a peccatis, qua? baptisma rite suscipien- 
 tibus tarn certd traditur et percipitur (sed fide) quam corpus ipsam percipit aquae 
 ablutionem." (Ib. p. 476.) 
 
 * See Martyr's Letter to Bucer in Strype's Cranmer; Documents, No. 61.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 431 
 
 words which show that there was only one point of impor- 
 tance which had struck him as objectionable which Bucer had 
 passed over, namely, a regulation respecting the Communion 
 of the Sick.* But, if the Baptismal Service had been opposed 
 to his views, he must necessarily have found fault, and great 
 fault, with Bucer, for omitting to object to this. All parties 
 will agree that it was far too important a point to be lightly 
 passed over. It is clear, therefore, that Peter Martyr also, like 
 Bucer, approved of the Service. 
 
 Now, certainly, after the evidence of his sentiments given 
 in a previous chapter, there can be no question in what sense 
 Peter Martyr, when requested by Archbishop Cranmer to re- 
 view and pass his judgment upon the Book of Common Prayer, 
 gave his approval to our Baptismal Service, and therefore no 
 question about the intended meaning of that Service. 
 
 And it is worth remembering, that it was Peter Martyr, 
 whom Cranmer selected to aid him, when publicly offering, at 
 the commencement of Mary's reign, to defend the Book of 
 Common Prayer in a public disputation. 
 
 " Though that many," he says, " do maliciously report of Mr. Peter 
 Martyr, that he is a man of no learning, and therefore not to be credited, yet, 
 if the Queen's Highness -will grant it, I with the said Mr. Peter, and other four 
 or five which I will choose, will by God's grace take upon us to defend, that 
 not only the Common Prayers of the Church, the ministration of the Sacra- 
 ments, and other rites and ceremonies, but also that all the doctrine and 
 religion set forth by our sovereign lord King Edward the Sixth, is more 
 pure and according to God's word, than any other that hath been used in 
 England these thousand years : so that God's word may be the judge, and 
 that the reasons and proofs upon both parties may be set out in writing."! 
 
 So that Cranmer himself, knowing well Peter Martyr's 
 views on the point, selects him to be joined with himself in 
 defending the Scriptural character of that very Service which 
 
 * In prioribus adnotationibus omnia ferme quae te offenderunt a me fuerunt 
 
 adnotata Tantum sum miratus, quomodo prseterieris de Communione 
 
 segrotorum id reprehendere, <fec. . . . ff<ec sunt qu<z putavi alicujus mcnnenti, et 
 cur omiseris, non satis intelligo. In omnibus autem, quae censuisti emendanda, 
 tuse sententife scripsi. 
 
 f Declaration of Abp. Cranmer respecting untrue report, <fec. Works, P. S. 
 ed Vol. 1. p. 429.
 
 432 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 we are now told cannot be interpreted in conformity with 
 Peter Martyr's doctrine. 
 
 And these cases of Peter Martyr and Bucer prove much 
 more, we must observe, than merely their view of the Service, 
 and that such a view is tenable. They go far to prove that 
 this was the view of those that put forth the Service ; for it is 
 incredible that, knowing as they must the views and intentions 
 of those who put it forth, if it had been intended that it should 
 be understood in the sense affixed to it by the Bishop of Exeter, 
 they should not, with their views on the subject, have proposed 
 some alteration. Their approval, under the circumstances in 
 which it was given, goes far to show the sense in which the 
 Service was intended to be understood by those who drew it up. 
 Whatever may be said as to the probability of Cranrner's draw- 
 ing it up so that it might admit of more than one sense, and 
 no doubt there was a desire to retain as much of the old bap- 
 tismal form as possible, in order to give no unnecessary offence 
 to the Romanists and the popular mind, (and we are now suf- 
 fering from that policy, though perhaps right at the time,) 
 one thing is perfectly clear, that if the Service had been drawn 
 up with the intention of excluding the notion that some infants 
 are not regenerated in baptism, Peter Martyr and Bucer must 
 necessarily, with their views, have objected to it. 
 
 3. Luther's Service for Infant Baptism, expressed in simi- 
 lar terms to ours, and understood by him in the hypothe- 
 tical sense. 
 
 In a preceding page* I have given some extracts from 
 Luther's Larger Catechism, first published in 1529, showing 
 his views as to the character in which infants are to be pre- 
 sumed to come to the font, and obtain the blessing. "We 
 bring a child," he says, " to a minister of the Church to be 
 baptized, in this hope and persuasion, that it certainly be- 
 lieves." And he maintains that baptism is profitable only 
 when there is faith, in the case both of children and adults. 
 
 * Seep. 170, above.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 433 
 
 I do not stop to discuss the question of the correctness of 
 such doctrine, because it is immaterial to the argument I am 
 about to draw from Luther's view on this point. But I would 
 observe, that though the early divines of the Protestant 
 Churches did not generally adopt precisely his view, and ex- 
 press themselves as if they considered an infant capable of the 
 acts of faith, (which Luther seems to have held,) they did 
 speak of an infant as capable of the seed, or principle, or in- 
 cipient stage of faith. 
 
 But the question with which we are here concerned, is, 
 What was the nature of the Baptismal Services sanctioned by 
 Luther at the time he published these views ? This question 
 we are fortunately able to answer. In 1523, Luther published 
 in Grerman a Form for the Baptism of Infants, of which he 
 put forth a second and revised edition in 1524 ; and this second 
 edition remained ever after, as far as he was concerned, the 
 standard Formula for the Churches of his communion. 
 
 Now in this Baptismal Service the following prayer (almost 
 identical with that in the old form) is directed to be used after 
 the child has been baptized: 
 
 " Almighty God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who HATH 
 
 REGENERATED THEE BY WATER AND THE HOLY GHOST, ARD FORGIVEN 
 
 THEE ALL THY SINS, confirm thee by his grace unto eternal life."* 
 
 Here, then, as in our own Form, spiritual regeneration is 
 affirmed to have taken place. But this is the form of one who 
 himself expressly tells us at the same time, that children are 
 brought to be baptized in the hope and persuasion that they 
 believe, and that without such faith baptism is of no avail. 
 
 It is impossible to deny, then, that this the earliest Protestant 
 Form, was understood by him ivho drew it up, in the sense 
 which we maintain is that which ought to be attributed to our 
 own. 
 
 Nor is it any answer to the argument we derive from this 
 
 * For the convenience of the reader, I have placed the whole of this little tract 
 of Luther, according to the Latin translation of it first published in 1526, and 
 reprinted by Chancellor Pfaff; in his edition of the Symbolical Books of the 
 Lutheran Church, at the end of this volume. See the first four pages of the 
 Appendix. The original German of both editions may be found in the 10th voL 
 of Welch's Edition of Luther's Works. 
 
 28
 
 434 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 case, to say, that our Reformers did not hold the precise view 
 held by Luther, as expressed in his Catechism. This is a point 
 immaterial to the question. I adduce this Form merely to show 
 the admissibility of the hypothetical principle of interpretation 
 in such a Service, and to prove that one of the most eminent of 
 the Reformers adopted it. And our Reformers may have drawn 
 up a Service on the same principle, though taking a somewhat 
 different view of the cause qualifying infants for the reception 
 of Divine grace in baptism. 
 
 Nor again, is it of any importance what doctrine the Luther- 
 ans subsequently held as to the effects of infant baptism. I am 
 quite prepared to admit, that the followers of Luther subse- 
 quently took a different view from that of Luther himself, as 
 to this matter, (as they did in several others*) and herein differed 
 from the " Reformed," as the other Protestant Churches were 
 called, and our own among them. But viewing the Service as 
 connected with Luther himself, a -comparison of it with his 
 Catechism shows, that he must have understood the words, 
 affirming spiritual regeneration to have taken place, in a hypo- 
 thetical sense. 
 
 And before I pass on, I would point the reader's attention to 
 a passage in Luther's prefatory remarks to this Form, as afford- 
 ing us something like a key to the solution of the difficulty (if 
 difficulty there be) in understanding why such phraseology 
 should have been adopted by men holding such views as those 
 of Luther. He says, 
 
 " I did not wish to alter many things, though I could have -wished that 
 the Form was better furnished. For it had careless authors who did not 
 sufficiently consider the importance of Baptism. But I leave the most part 
 unchanged, lest weak consciences complain, that I have instituted a new 
 Baptism, and lest those already baptized complain that they are not rightly 
 baptized. For, as has been observed, human additions are not of much 
 consequence, so that Baptism itself is administered with the word of God, 
 true faith, and earnest calling upon GW."t 
 
 On the difference of Luther's views on various points from those of a large 
 number of his followers, see Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. Cent. xvi. Sect. iii. Pt. II. 
 ch. 1. 27 et seq. And the note of Dr. Maclaine in hia translation of Mosheim 
 on 30. (Ed. 1826. iv. 283.) 
 
 t See third page of Appendix.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 435 
 
 Here we see, distinctly expressed, the motive for originally 
 retaining in the first Protestant Form (a Form, which, as I 
 shall show presently, exercised, through the Cologne Liturgy, 
 an influence upon our own) as much as possible of that which 
 had long been in use in the Church ; namely, a charitable 
 regard for the feelings of those who might have misconstrued 
 the effects of the change. And where Protestant doctrine was 
 sincerely embraced, there no danger was apprehended of these 
 statements being interpreted in the Romish sense ; the words 
 being as capable of being understood in a sense different from 
 the Popish as the words of our Ordination Service ; the Pro- 
 testant interpretation of which is, as Archbishop Whitgift tells 
 us,* very different from the Popish. 
 
 Thus, even supposing the words to present a difficulty, the 
 Romanizing party among us would be availing themselves of 
 language left in such Formularies by the conciliatory policy and 
 charitable feelings of the Reformers to wards those who were not 
 quite emancipated from the errors of Romanism, to turn out of 
 the Reformed Church those who hold the sentiments of the 
 Reformers themselves. 
 
 $ 4. The meaning of the Baptismal Service demonstrated by 
 a compai ison of it with a similar Formulary, drawn up 
 by Bucer h ; mself, in a Liturgy from which our own Office 
 is admitted {0 be " freely borrowed." 
 
 In a preceding chapter I have very fully shown what were 
 the views held by Bucer on the question of the effects of baptism 
 in infants, and we have already seen how important ig the 
 evidence deducible from a proof of his doctrine, to show the 
 doctrine of our own Church on the subject. He was placed by 
 Archbishop Cranmer as Regius Professor of Divinity at Cam- 
 bridge ; he was extolled by Archbishops Parker and Whitgift 
 as a most able and sound theologian ; our Baptismal Service 
 was submitted to him for his remarks upon it, and he approved 
 of it in all matters affecting the question now before us. 
 
 * Defence of the Answer to the Admonition, pp 227, 228.
 
 436 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 But there is another circumstance connected with his case, 
 which affords a still more conclusive argument in favor of the 
 position for which I am here contending. 
 
 A Liturgy remains, of which nearly the whole, including 
 the Baptismal and Confirmation Offices, was drawn up by 
 Bucer ; and it appears by a comparison of this Liturgy with 
 our own, that our Liturgy closely followed that of Bucer, and 
 was freely borrowed from it. Every single expression in our 
 own Baptismal Service that has ever been quoted as evidence, 
 that our Church maintains the doctrine of spiritual regeneration 
 invariably accompanying the administration of baptism to 
 infants, is to be found (and in some places even stronger lan- 
 guage is found) in the Liturgy of Bucer. 
 
 This Liturgy occurs in a work drawn up by Bucer in 1543, 
 at the request of Herman, Archbishop of Cologne. A few 
 words on the history of this transaction may be useful to the 
 general reader. Herman de Wida, Archbishop of Cologne, 
 becoming dissatisfied with the corrupt doctrines and practices 
 of the Church of Rome, about the year 1539 or 1540, invited 
 Bucer and Melancthon to his Palace at Bonn, to aid him in 
 the work of Reformation. Melancthon was at that time un- 
 able to comply with his request, but Bucer went and took up 
 his abode with him at Bonn for a time, at the end of the year 
 1541, and was commissioned by the Archbishop to draw up a 
 book for the reformation of the Doctrine and Offices of the 
 Church.* "While this work was proceeding, he was joined, at 
 the commencement of 1543, by Melancthon, who assisted him 
 in the prosecutjon of his labors. But the portions drawn up 
 by each may be learnt from the following extract of a letter 
 from Melancthon to Caspar Cruciger. 
 
 " I wrote to you before, that the Bishop intended to follow the Nurem- 
 berg form ; and the book was commenced before my arrival, the Nuremberg 
 Liturgy being taken as the model. Bucer retained the greater part, and 
 enlarged some of the Articles, as he is diffuse. After I had read over the 
 whole, he committed to me the Articles, Concerning three Hypostases, 
 Concerning the Creation, Concerning original sin, Concerning the righteous- 
 
 * " Scripta ad historiam Reformationis Coloniensis pertinentia recenset 
 Saligius P. l.Histor. Aug. Conf. p. 541, seq." Camerarii Vita Melancth. 59, 
 Halse 1777. 8yo. p. 203.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 437 
 
 ness of faith and of works, Concerning the Church, Concerning repentance. 
 I have hitherto been engaged upon these, and I have read what he himself 
 has composed concerning the ceremonies of Baptism and the Lorffs Supper."* 
 
 Hence we learn that the Baptismal Service in this work 
 was not only approved by Bucer, but drawn up by him, the 
 Nuremberg form being taken as the ground-work. 
 
 This work was published in German in 1543, under the 
 title, " Von Grottes genaden miser Hermans Ertzbischoffs zu 
 Coin, &c. einfaltigs bedencken, &c."t 
 
 A Latin translation was also published at Bonn,"in 1545, 
 fol. under the title, " Nostra Hermanni, ex gratia Dei Archi- 
 episcopi Coloniensis et Principis Electoris, simplex ac pia 
 Deliberatio, qua ratione Christiana et in verbo Dei fundata 
 Reformatio docflHnae, administrations divinorum Sacramento- 
 rum, ceremoniarum, totiusque cures animarum, et aliorum 
 ministeriorum Ecclesiasticorum, apud eos qui nostrae pastorali 
 curse commendati sunt, tantisper instituenda sit, donee Domi- 
 nus dederit constitui meliorem, vel per liberam et Chris- 
 tianam Synodum, sive generalem sive nationalem, vel per 
 Ordines Imperil Nationis Germanicae in Spiritu Sancto con- 
 gregates." t 
 
 A translation of this work into English (made apparently 
 from the Latin) appeared in this country in 1547, and a 
 second and revised edition in 1548, under the following title, 
 " A Simple and Religious Consultation of us Herman, &c., &c. 
 [as in the Latin.] Perused by the translator thereof, and 
 amended in many places. 1548. Imprinted at London by 
 John Daye and William Seres." A summary of its contents 
 is given by Strype ; who remarks, 
 
 * " Scrips! vobis antea, Episcopum secuturum esse formam Noribergensem : 
 eratque ante meum adventum instilutux liber ad exemplum Noribergense. Re- 
 tirntit pleraque Bucerus, quosdam articulos auxit, ut est copiosus. Mihi, cum 
 omnia relegissem, attribuit articulos irept TfietY v7roo-Tx.7ia>i, de creatione, de 
 peccato originis, de justitia fidei, et operum, de Ecclesia, de poenitentia. In his 
 consumpsi tempus hactenus, et legi de ccremoniis Baptismi et Ccence Domini, 
 qua ipse composuit." Melancthon. Epistolse. Lond. 1642. fol. col. 546, 547. 
 
 f " Prima editio in lucem prodiit Buschovii [BussEbven,] secunda Bonnas 
 a. 1543, tertia ibidem a. 1544, latina ejus translatio etiam Bonnne a. 1545. Sed 
 Qermanica tamen clarior est et amplior." Fabric. Hist. Biblioth. Fabric. Pt 4. 
 p. 188. Wolfenb. 1721, 4to. 
 
 J Copies are in the Cambridge University Library, O. 9. 20. <tc. 
 Memor. II. 1. 42-44. Oxf. ed.
 
 438 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 "This book shewed itself in this kingdom at this juncture, undoubtedly, 
 by the means of Archbishop Cranmer, and probably of the Protector, as a 
 silent invitation to the people of the land to a reformation, and as a motive 
 to incline them to be willing to forsake the old superstition, when they 
 should see the beauty of a reformed Church so lively laid before them in 
 this book. And perhaps it was intended to serve as some pattern to the 
 heads and governors of this Chufch, whereby to direct their pains they 
 were now ere long to take about the emendation of religious worship."* 
 
 And before I pass on, I would observe, that the Nuremberg 
 Form here alluded to, is that published in 1533 by the Mar- 
 quis of Brandenburg, for the States of Brandenburg and 
 Nuremberg, in which the Baptismal Service is verbatim that 
 of Luther according to the second edition published in 1524 ; 
 which we have just been considering. 
 
 In consequence of the great rarity of thdse Liturgies, I 
 have inserted in the Appendix to this work, the Baptismal and 
 Confirmation Services of the Cologne Liturgy, as given in the 
 Latin edition mentioned above, and also a translation of the 
 Baptismal Service of the Nuremberg Liturgy of 1533. The 
 reader, therefore, may there see the whole of these Services, 
 as they stand in the original works. 
 
 The most convincing proof, perhaps, to all parties of the 
 correctness of the reference I am now making to this Cologne 
 Liturgy, in illustration of the meaning of our own, will be 
 found in an extract from Archbishop Laurence's Bampton 
 Lectures, in which, through a remarkable mistake as to Bucer's 
 doctrine, and a supposition of his being a Lutheran, and there- 
 fore participating in the sentiments generally adopted by the 
 followers of Luther, the Archbishop has (most unfortunately 
 for his own argument) referred to this Liturgy in support of 
 his own view of the meaning of our Baptismal Service. I 
 quote the passage as proving, upon the testimony of an 
 adversary, the complete identity in the tone of the Cologne 
 Liturgy and our own on tho question we are now discussing; 
 and that, in fact, our own, particularly in the Baptismal Office, 
 was (to use the Archbishop's own words) "freely borrowed" 
 from the Cologne. 
 
 In the eighth Sermon of his Bampton Lectures, he remarks 
 
 lb. p. 41.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 439 
 
 that those who contend that in our Baptismal Service the 
 thanksgiving for regeneration is "the judgment of charity," 
 " forget, or perhaps do not know," " that the Office of our own 
 Church '^principally borrowed from that of the Lutherans, 
 whose well-known sentiments on the subject it is unnecessary 
 to repeat." (p. 183. 3d ed.) 
 
 And in his note upon these words, after quoting the pas- 
 sage given above from Melancthon's Letters, to show that the 
 Nuremberg Liturgy was taken as the groundwork of the 
 Cologne Liturgy, and remarking that the Baptismal Service 
 in the former was taken verbatim from Luther's Baptismal 
 Service as published in a second edition in 1527, (he should 
 have said in 1524,) he proceeds to say, 
 
 ' Our Offices bear evident marks of having been freely borrowed from 
 the Cologne Liturgy ; liberally imitating, but not servilely copying it. Jn 
 Our Baptismal Service the resemblance between the two productions is par- 
 ticularly striking; NOR IN THE COLOGNE FORM is THE DOCTRINE OF 
 
 UNIVERSAL REGENERATION AND ELECTION IN BAPTISM LESS PROMINENT 
 THAN IN OUR OWN." 
 
 And then giving some extracts in proof of this (which I 
 shall notice presently,) he auds, 
 
 '' That these passages express something more than the language of 
 hope, will not, perhaps, be controverted. It should, however, be recollected, 
 that when the Lutherans [!] spoke thus certainly of the regeneration and 
 election of every infant in Baptism, they attributed nothing to the sacra- 
 mental efficacy, but all to the Divine promise. Hence our Church strongly 
 urges that promise as the sure and only ground of our confidence." (pp. 
 378, 380.) 
 
 A more unfortunate reference, so far as the Archbishop's 
 views are concerned, never was made ; for, as we have already 
 seen, Bucer's doctrine was entirely inconsistent with the inter- 
 pretation thus given to the Baptismal Service inserted by him 
 in the Cologne Liturgy; and we have the Archbishop's own 
 confession, that that Service was precisely similar to ours in 
 the very point now in question. And how our respected 
 Prelate could have put down Bucer as a Lutheran, when it is 
 so notorious that he belonged to the " Reformed " party, I 
 cannot understand. To say nothing of the extracts which 
 have been already given from his works, we have seen that he 
 appeared at the Conference at Wittemberg, in 1536, between
 
 440 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 the Lutherans and the Reformed, at the head of the Reformed 
 divines. And his works are placed by the great theological 
 bibliographer of Germany, J. Gr. Walchius, (in his " Biblio- 
 theca Theologica,") among those of the " Reformed " divines 
 as distinguished from the "Lutheran." 
 
 Nor does the fact that the Cologne Baptismal Service has 
 borrowed from the Nuremberg Form, and so from the Form 
 originally drawn up by Luther, (for the Archbishop has spoken 
 quite correctly in saying that the two latter are identical,) 
 make the slightest difference in favor of the Archbishop's ar- 
 gument. For that Form was, as we have already seen, un- 
 derstood by Luther on the hypothetical principle. And in 
 fact, the Archbishop's own quotations are from passages wholly 
 due to Bucer's pen, no trace of them occurring in the Nurem- 
 berg Form. 
 
 In short, the Archbishop has made a series of mistakes, 
 and, in consequence, landed himself upon ground where all 
 that is left to him is to surrender at discretion. He has ima- 
 gined Bucer to be a Lutheran; he has confounded the views 
 of Luther on the subject with those afterwards adopted by his 
 followers ; and then, supposing himself to be on safe ground, 
 triumphantly pointed to the evident proofs of our Liturgy 
 having been freely borrowed from the Cologne, as showing 
 that his interpretation of our Liturgy is the true one, when 
 they in fact clearly prove the direct contrary. 
 
 Bearing in mind, then, the views of Bucer, it will be desi- 
 rable to compare certain expressions in the Cologne Form with 
 similar ones in our own; as nothing can more strongly show 
 the absurdity of contending, that certain passages in our Ser- 
 vice must be interpreted in the sense which our opponents 
 affix to them, than the use of similar language, by Bucer, in 
 that very Baptismal Formula from which our own has " freely 
 borrowed " them. 
 
 And I know not that I can do better than give first the 
 passages which Archbishop Laurence has selected to prove, 
 that our Service is mainly derived from the Cologne ; only 
 taking the liberty of occasionally making the extracts and 
 references (of which the latter are singularly faulty) more 
 accordant with the original.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 441 
 
 The Archbishop quotes from the Latin copy, and ob- 
 serves, 
 
 " The sense of the following passages cannot easily be mistaken : ' Bap- 
 tismus est Sacramentum regenerationis, quo Christo Domino inserimur, 
 incorporamur. sepelimur in mortem ejus, induimur eo [the original has ea, 
 probably by a misprint,] et [atque] efficimur per eum filii et heeredes Dei.' 
 Nostra Hermanni, &c., simplex ac pia Deliberatio, &c , p. 69. [fol. 68.] ed. 
 1545. ' Sed Deus Pater, pro inefiabili sua [dementia et] misericordia erga 
 genus humanum, Filium suum misit, ut mundum servaret, quare etiam et } 
 hos infantes servatos vult. Ille peccata totius mundi tulit, et tarn parvulos, 
 quam nos adultos, a peccatis, morte, diabolo, et aeterna damnatione [con- 
 demnatione] liberavit, et salvos fecit, qui voluit sibi offerri parvulos, ut iis 
 benedictionem impartiretur. Quare pro immensa [dele immensa] Christiana 
 pietate vestra, hunc puerum assumite, et ad Christum adducite, et offerte 
 piis vestris precibus, quo peccatorum suorum ab illo consequatur remissionem, 
 transferatur in regnum gratise, ereptus e [a] tyrannide Satanae, et consti- 
 tuatur hseres aeternse salutis. Et vobis certissimum sit, Dominum nostrum 
 Jesum Christum hoc opus charitatis vestrse erga hunc infantem clementissime 
 respecturum.' p. 78. [fol. 70.] 'Wherefore we being thus persuaded of the 
 good will of our heavenly Father towards this infant, declared by his Son 
 Jesus Christ, and nothing doubting, but that he favourably alloweth this 
 charitable work of ours,' &c. ' His verbis et huic facto Domini nostri Jesu 
 Christi super illos fidem habete, nee dubitate eum et vestros infantes sic in 
 sacro baptismate suscepturum, et complexurum esse ulnis misericordise suse, 
 et benedictionem vitae sDternse, et sempiternam regni Dei communionern iis 
 [eis] collaturum.' p. 72. [fol. 74.] ' Doubt ye not therefore, but earnestly 
 believe, that he will likewise favourably receive this present infant : that he 
 will embrace him with the arms of his mercy ; that he will give unto him 
 the blessing of eternal life; and make him partaker of his everlasting 
 kingdom.' ' Itaque ex baptismate certo statuimus, nos Deo acceptos et 
 fcedere gratiae sempiterno ei conjunctos esse.' p. 71. [fol. 71.] 'Debent pas- 
 tores subinde accuratius et solidius explicare et eicutere ratum habere 
 Deum baptisma infantium nostrorum, infantes per baptismum adoptare in 
 filios, et constituere haeredes gratiae suae et vitas aeternae.' p. 75. [Both 
 passage and reference are here very incorrectly given. I quote the following 
 
 from the original. ' Ita et dogmata ilia debent pastores subinde 
 
 accuratius et solidius explicare et excutere, ut de peccato original!, de bap- 
 tismate infantum, de justicia fidei ; et haec ex Scripturis sacris docebunt, ut 
 
 de peccato originis, quam horrendum malum sit, Item ratum habere 
 
 Deum,' &c. (as above.) fol. 64. The words "ratum habere," &c. are con- 
 nected with "docebunt" in the part omitted.] 'Quod cum fecerint, ne 
 dubitent infautem suum vere baptizatum, peccatis ablutum, in Ghristo 
 renatum, et filium haeredemque Dei factumesse.' p. 77. [fol. 76.] 'Ex hjs 
 ergo Christi verbis certi sumus infantes, quicunque Christo juxta verbum 
 ejus offeruntur, pertincre ad regnum Dei, esse filios Dei, membra Christi.' 
 Ibid. [fol. 77.] 'Hunc igitur infantulum filium et haeredem Dei, fratrem et
 
 442 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 cohseredem Christi, membrum Christi, et vestrum in Christo,' &c. p. 78. 
 [fol. 77.] Tliat these passages express something more than the language 
 of hope, will not perhaps be controverted." (pp. 378, 380.) 
 
 These passages, then, clearly show, what strong expres- 
 sions may be used on this subject in a sense wholly different 
 from that which some modern divines would attach to them, 
 and moreover that they were so used in the Liturgy from 
 which our own has confessedly borrowed them. And the re- 
 marks of Archbishop Laurence upon them, written under an 
 erroneous impression as to the views of their author, are the 
 best testimony we could have, to show the groundlessness of 
 similar confident assertions as to the meaning of our own 
 Service. Words used by Bucer from the conviction that it is 
 our duty to treat all infants, in the spirit of charitable hope, 
 as belonging to (rod's elect people who will all finally be saved, 
 are interpreted by the Archbishop as maintaining the doctrine 
 that all infants are equally partakers of God's grace ; and 
 hence his extraordinary mistake that Bucer meant by these 
 passages to assert " universal regeneration and election in 
 Baptism," a doctrine which Bucer would have entirely repu- 
 diated. 
 
 Further, \fre often find the following words of the Prayer 
 in the Confirmation Service urged as a proof of our Church 
 holding the universal regeneration of infants in Baptism, 
 "Almighty and ever-living God, who hast vouchsafed to re- 
 generate these thy servants by water and the Holy Ghost, and 
 hast given unto them forgiveness of all their sins, strengthen 
 them, we beseech thee, Lord, with the Holy Ghost the 
 Comforter, and daily increase in them thy manifold gifts of 
 grace," &c. 
 
 Now let us observe the similar Prayer in the Confirmation 
 Service of the Cologne Liturgy. 
 
 " Almighty and merciful God, heavenly Father, which only workest in 
 us to will and to perform the things that please thee, and be good indeed, 
 we beseech thee for these children whom thou hast given to thy Church 
 
 and HAST BEGOTTEN AGAIN TO THYSELF BY HOLY BAPTISM, (tibi SacrO Bap- 
 
 tismate regenerati) and in whom thou hast poured that light, that they 
 acknowledge and confess before the congregation thy grace. . . . confirm this
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 443 
 
 thy work, which thou hast wrought in them, increase in them the gift of 
 thy Spirit,' &c. (fol. 179. Lat. fol. 81, 82.)* 
 
 Of the two the latter is the strongest, by its specific refe- 
 rence to " baptism." And it may show us how utterly use- 
 less is another reference often made by our opponents, namely, 
 that to the words that occur in the Service headed " Private 
 Baptism," where it is said that the child is " by the laver of 
 regeneration in baptism received into the number of the chil- 
 dren of God," &c. We have indeed- very similar phraseology 
 in the corresponding prayer of the Cologne Liturgy. 
 
 ' Lord God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hast begotten 
 again this infant of water and the Holy Ghost, and hast given him in holy 
 baptism remission of all sins, confirm the same with thy grace, and guide 
 and further this new life which thou hast given, and finish it up, whereunto 
 thou hast bound [obsignastil the infant with this holy sacrament." (fol. 
 171. Lat. fol. 77.) 
 
 And while noticing this Service, I would direct the reader's 
 attention to some expressions occurring in what I may call 
 the rubrical part of it, which are much stronger than any in 
 our own Services. After directing a sick infant to be baptized 
 at once with merely the necessary words accompanying the 
 act, it is added, 
 
 " Which done, let them not doubt but that their infant is truly baptized, 
 washen from sins, born again in Christ, and made the son and heir of God; 
 let them then give thanks to God for this his so great benefits," &c. 
 
 " Further, if it chance that the infant so baptized at home do live, it is 
 convenient that he be brought afterward to the temple of his parents, kins- 
 folks, and godfathers, which must come with a good company, and religiously, 
 as men that ought to give thanks for this exceeding great benefit of regen- 
 eration ministered to their infant, and to offer him to God and his Saviour 
 in the congregation. The pastors then shall ask these men after what sort 
 and with what words they baptized the infant, &c. . . . which if they shall 
 answer that they called God upon the child, and prayed for him. and baptized 
 in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and that they believe 
 that he is truly cleansed from sins and born again to God, the pastors must 
 confirm them in this belief, and in no wise baptize such an infant again." 
 (fol. 168, 169. Lat. fol. 76.) 
 
 So that the parties bringing the infant who had been pri- 
 
 * I quote from the English Edition of 1548, as the reader will find the Latin 
 in the Appendix to this work.
 
 444 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 vately baptized, were actually to testify their belief that he 
 was thus " truly cleansed from sins and born again to God." 
 But in the immediate context the minister is directed to 
 utter words which show at once that the proper effect of the 
 Sacrament was only to be expected after the prayer of faith. 
 For it is added ; 
 
 " For in what place soever they that believe in him come together in hia 
 name, he is present in the midst of them, and when he is called upon through 
 faith, he worketh in his word and sacraments, [invocatus fide efficax est in 
 verbo et sacramentis suis] and he performeth in deed "whatsoever he offereth 
 in his sacraments and promiseth in his words." (fol. 170. Lat. fol. 
 77.) 
 
 But, earnestly desirous to keep in view the appropriate 
 blessing-s of this Sacrament, Bucer speaks of them continually 
 in the strongest terms. He says ; 
 
 " The parents and godfathers shall be diligently warned by the 
 
 pastors of the exceeding benefit of regeneration in Christ, which they 
 desire to their children. Item of the horrible fall and guilt, from which 
 the infants are delivered in baptism through Christ." (fol. 154. Lat. fol. 
 69.) 
 
 " The pastors shall labour, as much as is possible, that this most holy 
 sacrament of baptism, which is the first adoption receiving and enteririg 
 into the kingdom of Christ, be not administered and received, but before 
 the whole congregation with great gravity and reverence." (fol. 155. 
 Lat. fol. 70.) 
 
 " Baptism. ... is the first entrance into all the benefits of God, and to 
 the blessed fellowship of all saints." (fol. 158. Lat. fol. 71.) 
 
 And after the act of baptism the Same prayer occurs as 
 that given in Luther's Service already quoted, (and which is 
 very similar to the prayer ordinarily found in the Romish 
 Rituals in the same place,) containing a declaration as to the 
 regeneration of the child by water and the Holy Ghost having 
 taken place. 
 
 " The Almighty everlasting God, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who hath begotten thcc again with water and the Holy Ghost, and hath 
 forgiven thee all thy sins, confirm thee with his grace unto everlasting 
 life."* (fol. 167. Lat. fol. 75.) 
 
 * Omnipotens oeternus Deus, et Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christ!, qui regenu.it 
 te aqua et Spiritu Sancto, remisitgue tibi omnia peccata tua, confirmet te ?ua 
 gratia, ad vitam aeternam. Amen. (fol. 76.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 445 
 
 This prayer, which is nearly verbatim the old Roman Ca- 
 tholic form, was retained by Bucer as altogether consistent 
 with his own view, and with those portions of the Service of 
 which he was the author, but in a sesne different from that in 
 which it was used by Romanists. % 
 
 And in our first Liturgy of 1549, the prayer used in this 
 place was precisely that which had been previously in use ; 
 which in 1552 was exchanged for the thanksgiving which now 
 stands there, which of course cannot be considered as stronger 
 in favor of the actual regeneration of all the baptized than the 
 declaration contained in this prayer. 
 
 After a review of these passages, then coupled with a know- 
 ledge of Bucer's views, it is surely impossible for the most scep- 
 tical opponent of the hypothetical principle of interpretation to 
 deny any longer its applicability to Services so constructed; 
 and that our own were drawn up on this principle.* 
 
 But the evidence derived from this Cologne Service is of so 
 much importance, that, to prevent any doubts as to its testi- 
 mony, I shall add here some extracts from other parts of the 
 work in which it occurs, showing the views inculcated in that 
 work itself, on the doctrine of regeneration.t And we shall 
 thereby see that Archbishop Laurence, when quoting the Ser- 
 vice which seemed to him to favor his views, cannot have made 
 himself acquainted with the doctrine maintained even in the 
 context of what he quotes. 
 
 "We cannot enter into the kingdom of God except \ve be born again. 
 (John iii.) And this regeneration consisteth not in mortal seed, but in 
 immortal seed, and everlasting, that is to say, in the word of God, who 
 liveth and abideth for ever as Peter witnesseth. . . . Seeing then the begin- 
 ning, the middle, and the end of our new life, that is to say our regeneration 
 
 * Various other pnssnges might be pointed out showing the way in which our 
 Baptismal Service has been borrowed from the Cologne. Thus, for instance the 
 prayer, " Almighty and everlasting God, heavenly Father, we give thee humble 
 thanks," Ac. occurs verbatim in the Cologne Liturgy. ^And these coincidences 
 show that what is similar to the Form of Luther in our Liturgy was derived to 
 us through the Cologne Liturgy. 
 
 t The English is from the English edition of 1648 above mentioned, with 
 the spelling modernized ; and references are given to the Latin edition of Bonne 
 in 1545.
 
 446 ^ EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 into the said life, the increase of it and victory against Satan, standeth in 
 God's words, the feeders of congregations may easily see, into what danger 
 of God's wrath they run, if any be not partakers of this regeneration through 
 their negligence. . . . Wherefore they that have this office must ever with all 
 diligence continue in reading, doctrine, prayer, and other exercises spiritual." 
 (fol. 14.) 
 
 " For by reason of original sin all men are born under the wrath of God, 
 and tyranny of the devil. Wherefore if God, to show us his just judgment, 
 leave the children of the ungodly in the power of Satan, and therefore 
 through their own mischievous acts bring upon themselves so horrible 
 punishments, that the very world perceiveth the ungodliness of the parents 
 to be punished in the children also, yet no wrong is done to those children, 
 neither is God to be accused of iniquity, seeing that . they be evil, and the 
 children of wrath by nature, to whom God can owe nothing but everlasting 
 punishment. So if God through his unspeakable mercy in Christ Jesu, 
 deliver through his Son the children of them that loved him, from all per- 
 dition, whcreunto they were born, and adorn them with excellent godliness 
 through the gift of his Spirit, and so heap so many benefits upon them, that 
 every godly man may easily judge that in them both their own and their 
 parents' godliness is recompensed, and that it is declared, how dear they 
 were to God ; the unmeasurable goodness of God ought to be embraced, 
 and magnified therein, and therefore God is more to be loved, and his word 
 to be received more desirously, but the unsearchable judgments of his 
 mercy ought not to be sought out, the deep bottom of his goodness must not 
 be pored into, much less ought we to blame this his so great bounteousness, 
 who doeth with his own as pleaseth him." (fol. 22, 23.) 
 
 " The visible Church of God in this life, is a company of persons truly 
 believing the word of God delivered unto us by Christ and the Apostles, 
 and of persons born again through the Holy Ghost. In which company 
 many abide in this life NOT BORN AGAIN, having sins against their conscience, 
 and yet consenting in doctrine and true use of the Sacraments. As in Paul's 
 time there were at Corinth, and in other places among Christians, both 
 godly men having the Holy Ghost, and also some that sinned agamst their 
 conscience, which nevertheless spake not against the true doctrine and right 
 use of the Sacraments, but took them with other in the congregation. And 
 it is received by custom, that the godly be called the quick n.embers of the 
 Church, and the ungodly the Church's dead members." (fol. 101.) 
 
 This last passage was particularly objected to by the divines 
 of Cologne in their " Antididagma,''* published in answer to 
 
 * Antididagma, scu Christian* et Catholicaj Religwtiis per Rev. et Illtwtr. 
 dominos Canonicos Motropolitanae Ecclesim Colon, propugnatio, adversus librum 
 quendam universis Ordinibus seu Statibus Dicecesis ejusdem nnper Bonnie titulo 
 Reformationia exhibitum, ac postea (mutatis quibusdam) Consultorise delibera- 
 tionis nomine impressum, Ac. Colon. 1544. fol.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 447 
 
 the work from which I have been quoting. And the reply of 
 Bucer (given in his " Defensio,"*) to the objection, is so clear 
 and decisive a proof of his views, and otherwise so valuable, 
 that I shall here add it. 
 
 " First of all they oppose the description of the Church laid down in the 
 'Book of Reformation,' namely, that the visible Church of God is an 
 assembly of those who truly believe the word of God delivered to us by 
 Christ and his Apostles, and are regenerated by the Holy Spirit : in which 
 assembly many remain in this life not born again, having sins against their 
 conscience," &c. 
 
 . " The Adversaries find fault with this description, first in that they say, 
 that it includes only the living members of the Church ; nay that it is more 
 properly a description of that invisible Church. 
 
 "The answer. 
 
 " That description which is given in the Book is taken verbatim from the 
 Holy Scriptures and therefore cannot be blamed by any one. For the Holy 
 Spirit says, that the true Church is the Body of Christ,' that is, 'the con- 
 gregation of those who live in Christ, and Christ in them, of whom he is 
 the Head, and they his living members, flesh of his flesh, and bone of his 
 bones.' Ephes. 4 & 5. But ONLY THOSE THAT ARE BORN AGAIN ARE SUCH. 
 And the Lord refers to this Church only when he says, Matth. 16, 'Upon 
 this rock will I build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it.' But certainly whoever aYe not born again, over them the gates 
 of hell yet rule. This Church is the only ftock of Christ, and the congre- 
 gation of those sheep of Christ, ' which know him and his voice, and follow 
 him,' John 10. And what need is there to quote many passages of Scripture ? 
 Since we confess in the Apostles' Creed, which is the compendium and sum 
 of Scripture, 'that we believe the Holy Church,' that is, ' the congregation 
 and communion of saints.' ' But no one is holy, but he who lives in Christ, 
 and is sanctified by his Spirit. But they who are not regenerate, such 
 have not the Spirit of Christ, and are not Christ's.' Rom. 8. Wherefore 
 neither are they of the Church and Body of Christ, although in this life 
 they arc mingled with the faithful in external communion of doctrine and 
 the sacraments, as chaff with the wheat. 
 
 " The definition of the Church taken from the Holy Scriptures. 
 *###### 
 
 " From these and all the other passages of Scripture respecting the 
 Church of Christ, any Christian man may clearly perceive, that Holy 
 Scripture gives the title of the true Church of Christ to nothing else than 
 
 * Constans Defensio ex S. Scriptura et vera Catholica doctrina atque obser- 
 vations Universalis Christianas Ecclesiae Deliberationis de Christiana Reforma- 
 tions, quam Rev. <tc. Hermannus Archiep. Colon. <tc. jam ante publicavit. 
 Auctore D. Martino Bucero. Nunc primum e MS. Buceri in lucem editua. 
 Oenev. 1613. 4to.
 
 448 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 the congregation of those that are born again : with whom nevertheless, in 
 this life, by external communion and communication, are mingled also those 
 that are NOT BORN AGAIN. 
 
 " This Church is also a visible Church : for since it is the congregation 
 of the faithful, and the faithful may easily be discerned, as those who still 
 live in this world, although they are not of this world, it follows, that this 
 Church may be seen and easily known, namely by its fruits, to wit, the true 
 confession of Christ and communication with all the members of Christ in 
 the word the sacraments and discipline. 
 
 " ' The world truly knows them not, since neither did it know God,' 1 
 John 3. Nor can the faithful behold any one's heart. 'For man sees those 
 things that are without,' says Samuel, ' but God beholds the heart,' 1 Sam. 
 xvi. Further, Christians ought not to judge any one rashly and before the 
 time, until the time when ' the Lord shall bring to light the hidden things 
 of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts.' 1 Cor. iv. Yet 
 nevertheless Christians can so recognize each other by the fruits of faith, 
 as to know where to find the Church of Christ, and with whom they ought 
 to keep up Christian communication, and with whom they ought not. 
 1 Good and bad works are partly manifest beforehand, partly are made 
 known by the judgment, and cannot be hid.' 1 Tim. v. Wherefore when 
 the Book describes the Church to be the congregation of those who truly 
 believe God, it describes not the invisible but the visible Church of Christ. 
 Therefore the objection of the adversaries is only an empty calumny. 
 
 " Further, under that description are comprehended not only the living, 
 as the adversaries cavil, but als*o the dead members, which are yet mingled 
 in external communion with the living. For it is expressly laid down : ' In j 
 which assembly many remain in this life not born again, having sins against 
 their conscience.' But just as Holy Scripture, so also this description of the 
 Book of Reformation comprehends members of the Church of both kinds, 
 and that in terms that make a distinction between them, according as also 
 they differ, as far as possible, from one another. For those alone that are 
 born again are the true sons of God, the true flock and congregation of 
 Christ, as has been proved from Holy Scripture. But since also those not 
 born again are in external communion with those that are born again, by a 
 false show before men, by the word, the sacraments and discipline, therefore 
 the Book added, ' In which assembly many remain that are not born again. 
 
 " But as to what the Adversaries object, ' That these words are con- 
 trary to those that precede them, for if the Church is the congregation of 
 those only who truly believe the word of God, and are regenerated, how 
 can many be and remain in that same Congregation who are not regenerated 
 agairt the Adversaries do not deal faithfully. For the Book of Reformation 
 has not the word (only,) but that is added by themselves. And even if it 
 had added this word, yet it would not have laid down or uttered anything 
 contradictory. For these two speeches, that the true Church and Body of 
 Christ is the congregation only of those born again and the living members 
 of Christ, and that nevertheless there remain in that assembly those that
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 449 
 
 are not born again, are quite reconcileable with each other : since it is 
 evident, that Scripture uses this phrase (to be and remain in the Church) 
 in two senses : one of which is according to the judgment of man, the other 
 according to the judgment of God." 
 
 And after quoting some Scriptural proofs, he adds, 
 
 " In the same way the Lord says also, John 1 5, ' Every branch in me 
 that beareth not fruit he taketh away.' Likewise, ' He that abideth in me, 
 and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. If any man abide not in 
 me, he is cast forth, &c.' By which words the Lord shows a double mode 
 of remaining in him. One, by which the man always brings forth fruit : 
 such are born again in the Lord. The other, by which a man brings forth 
 no fruit at all, which is, to be in the Lord only apparently and before men, 
 not in truth and before God. 
 
 ' From all these things it is clear, that the true Church of Christ is the 
 congregation of those only that are born again. For they who are not 
 regenerate, such are not Christ's, and therefore are not of his Church. Yet 
 nevertheless, before men, and so far as relates to the external co-participation 
 of the Church, the profession of Christ and the use of the Sacraments, there 
 are and remain among that body of persons born again some also that are 
 not regenerate. 
 
 ##'##*# 
 
 " The blessed Apostle Paul, when he commended the Churches to the 
 Ephesian elders, although he well knew, that it might be that among them 
 some that were not born again might lie concealed, yet nevertheless he 
 applies the word 'Church' strictly to those alone that were born again, 
 when he says, ' Give heed therefore to yourselves and to all the flock over 
 which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God 
 which he hath purchased with his own blood.' 
 
 " He treats the matter also in a similar way, when he writes to Timothy, 
 and enjoins upon him the right performance and administration of the Epis- 
 copal office in the Church. : These things I write to thee,' he says, ' hoping 
 to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how 
 thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the 
 living God. the pillar and ground of the truth.' 
 
 ' ; But certainly to be purchased with the blood of Christ, to be the flock 
 and house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth, that belongs properly to 
 the regenerate a/one."* 
 
 * " Primum omnium oppugnant descriptionem Ecclesiac propositam in Libro 
 Reformationis, nempe quod visibilis Ecclesia Dei sit oongregatio illorum, qui ver- 
 bum Dei nobis per Christum et Apostohw commendatum veraciter credunt, et 
 per Spiritum S. sunt regenerati : in quo ccetu multi ruanent in hac vita non reiiati, 
 babentes peocata contra conscientiam." etc. 
 
 " Hanc descriptionem reprehendunt Adversarii primum in eo qudd dicunt, 
 
 29
 
 450 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 These passages, then, clearly show, that Bucer was far 
 enough from intending to imply, by his expressions in the 
 Cologne Liturgy, that regeneration always takes place in in- 
 fants at their baptism. 
 
 Nevertheless, considering the true nature and purpose of 
 
 illam viva tantum Ecclesiee membra complecti : imo verius esse descriptionem 
 invisibilis illius Ecclesiae. 
 
 " Responsio. 
 
 " Descriptio ilia quoo habetur in Libro est ex S. Scripturis ad verbum desumpta, 
 quare a nemine vituperari potest. Eteuim Spiritus S. dicit, ' veram Ecclesiara 
 Dei esse Corpus Christi,' hoc est, ' congregation em illorum qui in Christo vivunt, 
 et Christus in ipsis, quorum ipse caput est, illi vero viva ejus membra, caro de 
 carne ejus, et os de ossibus ejus.' Ephes. 4 et 5. Tales vero sunt SOLI RENATI. 
 Et hanc tantum Ecclesiam intelligit Dominus cum inquit, Matth. 16, 'Super 
 hanc petrain eedificabo Ecclesiam meam, et portae inferorum non prsevalebunt 
 illi.' Jam vero quicumque renati non sunt, illis dominantur adhuc porta? in- 
 ferorum. H<EC Ecclesia est unicus grex Christi et congregatio illarum ovium 
 Christi, ' qua? ipsum et vocem ejus agnoscunt, eumque sequuntur.' Joan. 10. 
 Et quid opus est multarum Scripturarum citatione ? Cum fateamur in symbolo 
 Apostolico, quod compendium est et suinma Scripture, ' nos credere sanctam 
 Ecclesiam,' hoc est, ' congregatioriem et communionem sanctorum.' ' Nemo autem 
 sanctus est, ni?i qui vivit in Christo, et per Spiritum ejus sanctificatus est. Qui 
 vero regenerati non sunt, ii Spiritum Christi non habent et non sunt Christi.' 
 Rom. 8. Quare neque sunt de Ecclesia et corpore Christi, etiamsi in externam 
 communionem doctrine et sacramentorum fidelibus sint in hac vita admixti, 
 quemadmodum palese tritico. 
 
 "Definitio Ecclesia sumpta ex S. Literis." 
 ********* 
 
 " Ex his et omnibus aliis Scripturis de Ecclesia Christi, quivis Christianus 
 liqnido cognoscere potest, S. Scripturam nihil aliud vocare veram Ecclesiam 
 Christi, quam congregationem renatorum : quibus tamen in hac vita per externam 
 conversionem [ ? conversation em] et communicationem admixti sunt etiam NON 
 KBNATI. 
 
 " Ha;c Ecclesia est etiam visibilis Ecclesia : cum enira sit congregatio fidelium, 
 fideles autem facile cerni possint, ut qui adhuc in hoc mundo vivunt, etiamsi de 
 raundo non sint, consequitur, hanc Ecclesiam videri facileque agnosci posse, nempe 
 ex fructibus ejus, vera videlicet confessione Christi, et communicatione cum 
 omnibus mp.mbris Christi in verbo Sacrameutis et disciplina. 
 
 " ' Mundas quidem non novit illis, siquidem nee Deum novft.' 1 Joan. 3. 
 Nee possunt fideles cujusquam cor intueri. ' Homo etenim videt ea quse foris 
 Bunt,' inquit Samuel, ' Deus autem inspicit cor.' 1 Sam. 16. Adhaec non debent 
 Christiani queinquam tomere et anto tempus judicare, quoad usque ' Dominus 
 ahscondita tenobrarum illuminabit, et manifestabit consilia cordium.' 1 Cor. 4. 
 Nihilominus tamen possunt Christiani so invicem ex fructibus fidei ade6 cognos- 
 cere, ut sciant ubi Ecclesiam Christi invenire, et cum quibus communicationem 
 Christi servan> <1r-b"nnt, cum quibus ver6 non item. ' Bona et mala opera partim
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 451 
 
 this rite, as it operates in the true children of God, he in the 
 same work uses such language as the following. 
 
 : It must needs be that they playily know not the gospel of Christ, and 
 communion of saints .... whosoever they be that will not have our infants 
 
 aiitea manifesta, partim per judicium cognoscuntur, et occultari non possunt-' 1 
 Timoth. 5. Quapropter cum Ecclesiam Liber describat esse congregationem 
 vere credentium Deo, non invisibilem sed visibilera Ecclesiam Christi describit. 
 Est igitur Advcrsariorum objectio nihil aliud nisi inanis calumnia. 
 
 " Adluec sub ilia descriptione non viva tantum, ut Adversarii cavillantur, sed 
 etiam mortua membra, quae vivis adhuc in externa communicatione admixti sunt, 
 comprehenduntur. Expresse enim positum est; In quo ccetu multi manent in 
 liac vita non renati, habentes peccata contra conscientiam. Sed quemadmodum 
 8. Scriptura, ita etiam haec Libri Reformationis descriptio utriusque generis 
 membra Ecclesise comprehendit, idque distincte, sicut etiam maximo a se invicem 
 discrimine distant. Soli enim renati sunt veri Jilii Dei, verus grex Christi et 
 congregatio, quemadmodum ex S. Scriptura probatum est. Quare ponitur in 
 Libro, Ecclesiam Dei ccetum renatorum. Quoniam vero etiam non renati falsa 
 coram hominibus specie cum renatis extcrne communicant, in verbo, Sacramentis, 
 et disciplina, ideo Liber apposuit, In quo ccetu multi manent non renati. 
 
 u Quod vero Adversarii objiciunt : Hire verba praecedentibus esse eontraria, 
 ei enim Ecclesia sit congregatio illorum tantum qui verbo Dei veraciter credunt, 
 euntque regenerati, quomodo possunt in eadem ilia congregatione esse etmanere 
 plurimi, qui non simt regenerati, rursus non fideliter agunt Adversarii. Liber 
 enim Reformationis vocabulum (tantum) non habet, sed ab ipsis appositum est. 
 Et quamvis etiam hanc vocem addidisset, nihil tamen posuisset aut dixisset con- 
 trarium. Nam hae du locutiones, quod vera Ecclesia et corpus Christi sit 
 congregatio tantum renatorum et vivorurn memborum Christi, et quod nihilominus 
 in isto ccetu maneant, qui regenerati non 8unt,juxta. se invicem optimfe consistere 
 possunt : quandoquidem constat, Scripturam hunc loquendi modum (In Ecclesia 
 esse et manere) duplici sensu usurpare : quorum alter est secundum judicium 
 humanum, alter secundum judicium Dei." 
 
 ********* 
 
 "Eodem modo dicit Dominus etiam Joan. 15. ' Omnem pahnitem in me non 
 fc-rentem fructum tollit.' Item, ' Qui manserit in me, et ego in eo, hie fert fructum 
 inultum. Si quis in me non manserit, ejectus est foras,' <tc. Quibus verbis 
 Dominus geminam manendi in se rationem ostendit. Unam, per quam homo 
 perpetuo fert fructum: tales sunt renati in Domino. Alteram, qua homo nullos 
 omnino fructus profert, quod est tantum in speciem, et coram hominibus in 
 Domino esse, non in veritate et coram Deo. 
 
 " Ex his hominibus [omnibus] perspicuum est, veram Ecclesiam Christi esse 
 congregationem tantum renatorum. Nam qui regenerati non sunt, ii non sunt 
 Christi, atque idcirco neque de Ecclesia ejus. Nihilominus tamen sunt et manent 
 inter istos renatos coram hominibus, et quantum ad externam Ecclesise communi- 
 cationem pertinet, professionis Christi et usus Sacramentoritm, etiam non 
 
 regenerati. 
 
 ********* 
 
 M Beatus Apostolus Paulus, cum presbyteris Ephesinis Ecclesias oomrnendabat,
 
 452 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 to be purged from sins with the Sacrament of Regeneration, and to be 
 planted in the Church of God, seeing that it behoved infants of the old 
 people to be sanctified, and planted into the body of Christ which is the 
 Church, with that Sacrament that God then gave them for this purpose. 
 For why should our infants pertain less to the kingdom of God than theirs, 
 seeing that through Christ we be grafted in the holy root of that people, and 
 made partakers of the blessed fatness of this olive. (Rom. xi.) Furthermore 
 we have given unto us a mightier spirit. (Rom. viii.) But we be gotten in 
 sins, as well as the Jews, and have need to be delivered from sins through 
 Christ, and so be brought unto the life of God, and that in Christ's Church. 
 For there is not salvation without the Church, where neither the Word nor 
 Sacrament is. Infants then must be planted into the Church, and we must 
 give them the sign that witnesseth that the promise perfaineth unto them. 
 And forasmuch as in this time the Gospel, the grace of God, and redemption 
 of Christ be more clearly and effectuously exhibited and preached in the 
 Church both with words and Sacraments, than among the old people, every 
 man surely being rightly warned hereof, except he be a very ungodly person, 
 shall acknowledge that our infants also must be washed from sins by bap- 
 tism, which is the Sacrament of Regeneration, and that they must be planted 
 in Christ our Lord, in his Church, in which Church Christ worketh through 
 his Word and Sacraments, as Paul saith that Christ loveth the congregation, 
 and gave himself for it, to sanctify it, and cleanse it, with the laver of water, 
 &c. He describeth not the congregation without signs, and without the word. 
 Wherefore he saith also in another place, One body, one Spirit, one Lord, 
 one faith, one baptism. Which things surely do testify, that they which 
 pertain to the congregation, be planted into the same with some outward 
 sign also."*) fol. 145. Lat. fol. 65.) 
 
 " Baptism is a Sacrament of Regeneration, whereby we be planted and 
 incorporated into Christ the Lord, and be buried into his death, and put on 
 the same, and be made through him the sons and heirs of God." (fol. 153. 
 Lat. fol. 68.) 
 
 quamvia probe sciret, fieri posse ut in eis nonnulli etiam non renati laterent, 
 nihilominus tamen Ecclesire vocabulum ad solos renatos proprie refert, cum 
 inquit, ' Attendite igitur vobis et cuncto gregi, in quo vos Sp. S. posuit Episcopos 
 ad regendam Ecclesiam Dei, quam acsivit [acquisivit] sanguine suo.' 
 
 " Ad eundem modum facit etiam, cum ad Timotheum scribit, eique munus 
 Episcopale rite in Ecclcsia obeundum et administrandum imponit. ' Haec scribo 
 tibi,' inquit, ' sperans fore ut veniam ad te cito. Quod si tardius venero, ut noris 
 quomodo oporteat in domo Dei versari, qute est Ecclesia Dei viventis, columns 
 ct stabilimentum veritatis.' 
 
 " Jam ver6 per sanguinem Christi acquisitum esse, gregem et domum Dei 
 csse, columnam et stabilimentum veritatis, id regeneratis tantitm proprie 
 convenit. (Buceri Constans Defensio, Ac. pp. 105-109. See also pp. 110-112.) 
 
 * Qune certe testantur, hos qui ad Ecclesiam pertinent, signo etiam aliquo 
 exteruo Ecclesue insertos esse.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 453 
 
 But it is through faith that the Sacraments are held to be 
 thus efficacious. 
 
 " They [the Anabaptists] withdraw [i. e. detract, " detrahunt Sacra- 
 mentis"] from the Sacraments, which they will to be nothing else, than 
 outward signs of our profession and fellowship, as the badges of Captains be 
 in war, they deny that they be works and ceremonies instituted of God for 
 this purpose, that in them we should acknowledge, embrace, and receive 
 through faith the mercy of God, and the merit and communion of Christ, 
 and that God worketh by these signs, and exhibiteth unto us [it should be, 
 unto believers] the gifts in deed, which he offereth with these signs."* (fol. 
 142. Lot. fol. 64.) 
 
 And the views under the influence of which the Baptismal 
 and other Services in this Cologne Liturgy were drawn up as 
 they are, seem to me plain from other parts of the work, 
 especially from the remarks on the subject " Of Christian 
 Prayer." 
 
 " This," it is said, " is to pray truly in the name of Christ, neither can 
 it be but that we shall be heard, as often as we pray with such a mind and 
 such a sure confidence, as John witnesseth. (1 John v.) This is the trust 
 that we have towards God, that if we shall ask a thing according to his will, 
 he heareth us, &c. Therefore the preachers shall declare to the people 
 diligently, what a great sin doubting in prayer is.f For seeing that our 
 prayer hath the promise of God laid before it, it followeth, that he which 
 doubteth, whether he be heard or no, doubteth also whether God be true, 
 whether he perform the thing that he promiseth. And there can be no 
 greater shame done to God, than if we doubt whether he be true. And 
 therefore the prayer of a man that doubteth can obtain nothing, as James 
 teacheth. He that doubteth is like the waves of the sea, which be tossed 
 with the winds. Let not a doubting man think, that he shall receive any- 
 thing of the Lord." (fol. 109, 110. Lat. fol. 48, 49.) 
 
 And hence we see the meaning of those words in the Bap- 
 tismal Service, which have been transferred almost verbatim 
 to our own, where the minister, addressing " the parents, 
 godfathers, and kinsfolk," says,' 
 
 " Ye have renounced Satan and the world, ye have confessed the faith of 
 Christ, and ye have promised obedience to Christ, and the congregation, and 
 ye have required of God the Father, that for his Son's sake, our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, he will deliver these infants from the kingdom of darkness, and 
 
 * Deum per ha;c in animis nostris operari, et ea quse his signis dona offert, 
 tiam re ipsa prsestare credentibus. 
 
 t Quantum pwcatum sit in oratione dubitatio.
 
 454 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 settle them in the kingdom of his beloved Son. You must remember these 
 things, and doubt nothing but that we shall receive all these things that we 
 require, if we believe. Therefore lifting up your minds unto the Lord, appear 
 ye here with all religion, as in the sight of Almighty God, the Father, the 
 Son, and the Holy Ghost, and receive ye with sure faith AND THANKSGIVING 
 the benefit of regeneration and adoption into everlasting life, of the one God 
 himself, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And because the Lord 
 himself commanded us to baptize, in the name of the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy Ghost, undoubtedly God himself baptizeth our infants, cleanseth 
 them from sins, delivereth them from everlasting death, putteth upon them 
 his own righteousness, and giveth them life eternal. We must acknowledge 
 with true faith, and ever magnify these exceeding benefits of God." (foL 
 165. Lat. fol ; 74.) 
 
 The words which I have put in italics in the latter part of 
 this passage, are necessarily only the language of charitable 
 hope, and such therefore is the meaning of the context. 1 need 
 hardly remind the reader of the similar language in our own 
 Service. " Doubt ye not therefore, but earnestly believe, that 
 he will likewise favourably receive this present infant, that he 
 will embrace him with the arms of his mercy, that he will 
 give unto him the blessing 1 of eternal life, and make him par- 
 taker of his everlasting kingdom." Here is an " earnest 
 belief" inculcated of that of which we can only have, as it 
 respects the mass, a charitable hope. 
 
 And so thoroughly is this view carried out in the Cologne 
 Service, that a declaration is required from the Godparents 
 that they do believe what this exhortation commends to their 
 belief. For one of the questions put to them is this : 
 
 "Out of this confession [i. e. the Creed] do you believe that the Holy 
 Ghost will be your Teacher and Comforter, and the Teacher and Comforter 
 of this child, and that you be the true members [vera membra] of the body 
 of Christ our Lord, and of his Church, and that this child by baptism shall 
 be a true member of Christ, and his Church, wherein he shall have remis- 
 sion of sins, a sure hope of resurrection, and [of] life everlasting? Answ. 
 We believe." (fol. 162. Lot. fol. 72, 73.) 
 
 And so, again, in the Exhortation it is said, 
 
 " Therefore through baptism we determine certainly, that we are accep- 
 table unto God and joined unto him with an everlasting covenant of grace, 
 so that nothing can separate us from him or condemn ws."* (fol. 159. Lat. 
 fol. 71.) 
 
 * " Itaque ex baptismate ccrto statuimus, nos Deo acceptos, et foedere gratia
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 455 
 
 These words, of course, cannot apply to all that, are bap- 
 tized. 
 
 And in another part of the Service there is added a prayer 
 that the parties that present the child may be enabled to exer- 
 cise this spirit of faith and thanksgiving as to the spiritual 
 benefit conferred upon the child (a prayer which, if regenera- 
 tion is conferred necessarily, or ex opere operato, would be 
 most improper,) in these words, 
 
 " Grant us also that after Baptism we may acknowledge them for thy 
 children, and members of the body of thy Son, that we may godly bring 
 them up in the fear of thee unto thy glory," &c. (fol. 166. Lat. fol. 75.) 
 
 We may here see, then, some of the reasons which induced 
 Bucer, notwithstanding the view he held as to the doctrine of 
 election, to adopt the language he has used in his Baptismal 
 Service. While he held that (rod worked according to his own 
 will, he also held that secret things belong unto God, but those 
 that are revealed to us; and therefore that we are bound to 
 put our faith in the promises of (rod, and act in the belief that 
 the prayer of faith will be heard. And it is the want of a 
 realizing apprehension of the view of Divine truth to which 
 such doctrine tends, that leads theologians of a different school 
 into misapprehensions as to the real meaning of the expressions 
 of such men as Bucer, and frequently to complaints of the 
 ambiguity and self-contrariety of their statements ; as for 
 instance, Archbishop Laurence, in the work I have just quoted, 
 complains of Calvin, that " no man perhaps was ever less 
 scrupulous in the adoption of general expressions, but perhaps 
 no man adopted them with more mental reservations, than 
 Calvin," (p. 375,) an observation which he seems to think 
 particularly applicable to his remarks respecting baptism. (See 
 pp. 263 265.) Had he read more of Bucer, he would have 
 found (as we have seen) precisely the same course adopted, 
 and as the Scriptural one. 
 
 It appears however to me to have been held by Bucer, that, 
 
 eempiterno ei conjunctos esse, adeo ut nihil ab ipso tfjungere et damnarc point." 
 It -will be observed, that the former part of this sentence was quoted by Arch- 
 bishop Laurence, but the latter part (which carries the meaning too far to accord 
 with the Archbishop's views) omitted.
 
 456 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 in the case of the elect, the act of baptism is the formal act 
 of incorporation into the true mystical body of Christ, and that 
 consequently a spiritual regeneration may be truly said to- 
 take place in it in such cases. It is also clear, however, that 
 he (like others) sometimes uses this word, regeneration, with 
 reference solely to an inward change or renovation of the 
 mind and affections. 
 
 The testimony of this Cologne Liturgy, then, is really con- 
 clusive of itself against the supposition that our Baptismal 
 Service is (to say the least) not open to the hypothetical sys- 
 tem of interpretation. I put the argument in its lowest form, 
 as sufficient for my present purpose. But I think that any 
 impartial reader will have no hesitation in pronouncing, that 
 the case of the Cologne Liturgy proves much more than this; 
 that it, in fact, demonstrates, that the hypothetical sense was 
 that intended to be affixed to our Baptismal Office by those 
 who drew it up. 
 
 Whether it was the most judicious course to pursue, and 
 whether all the reasons that seem to have influenced the minds 
 of the Reformers in adopting the phraseology used in this Ser- 
 vice are valid, are questions which I do not feel it to be ne- 
 cessary to discuss. My present object is to point out the facts 
 of the case.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CATECHISM ON THE SUBJECT OF THIS 
 
 WORK. 
 
 THE same theological system which we have hitherto found 
 to pervade the works, both public and private, of our early 
 divines, is of course, observable in the Catechism they drew 
 up for children. And the discrepancy between their theology 
 and that of the larger and (politically considered) more influ- 
 ential portion of their successors after the lapse of about half 
 a century, that has caused their Liturgical Services to be mis- 
 construed, has, of course, had the same effect in the case of 
 the Catechism. The argument as to the meaning is in both 
 cases one and the same. And the proofs stand or fall together. 
 
 Certain words, disconnected from the known sentiments of 
 the men to whom we are indebted for them, are appealed to as 
 conclusive in favor of the "High Church" doctrine on the 
 subject. The argument is in fact very similar to that of the 
 Roman Catholics for the doctrine of transubstantiation from 
 the words " This is my body." 
 
 It is only necessary, however, to go to the works of our 
 early divines, and make ourselves acquainted with their general 
 theological views, to see that such an interpretation is entirely 
 contrary to their doctrine. The phraseology of the Catechism 
 is precisely in accordance with that used in the Baptismal 
 Offices, the meaning of which we have already seen. 
 
 As in the Baptismal Service we are led to the expression, 
 of our presumptive belief that the child baptized is accepted 
 by God, so in the Catechism, the child, not yet arrived at the 
 years of responsibility, is taught to use respecting itself the 
 language appropriate to one who has been so accepted. No
 
 458 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 one really conversant with the views and phraseology of our 
 early divines would expect any other language to be put into 
 the mouth of the child. Hence the child, speaking of its bap- 
 tism, is taught to say, "Wherein I was made a member of 
 Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of 
 heaven." 
 
 But immediately the current theology among our divines 
 began to change, and not till then, these words were fixed upon 
 as containing an affirmation that every child necessarily re- 
 ceived at its baptism thfe full baptismal blessing of spiritual 
 regeneration and incorporation into the true Church of Christ. 
 
 These words are insisted upon as a dogmatical declaration 
 of the Church as to her views on the effects of Infant Baptism. 
 
 I shall now proceed, therefore, to consider the meaning of 
 these words, as shown both by other parts of the Catecism and 
 by contemporary writings. My remarks are principally directed 
 to this passage, because it alone affords any plausible ground 
 for saying that the Catechism is opposed to the view I am here 
 maintaining of the doctrine of our Church. The quotations 
 sometimes made from the latter part of the Catechism, (which 
 was added after the Hampton Court Conference, and which, 
 though put in its present form by Overall, is chiefly taken 
 from Nowell's smallest Catechism,) are entirely and obviously 
 misapplied. The description there given of the nature of a 
 Sacrament, as consisting properly of two parts, applies as 
 much to the case of adults as to that of infants ; and therefore, 
 as in the case of adults both Sacraments may be administered 
 without being accompanied by the grace of the Sacrament, so 
 no evidence can be adduced from the nature of the Sacrament 
 of Baptism as consisting properly of two parts, to prove that 
 all infants must necessarily have received both parts in their 
 baptism. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper consists of 
 two parts, but " the wicked " (our Article tells us) " are in no 
 wise partakers of Christ" in receiving it, but only " eat and 
 drink the sign or Sacrament of so great a thing." And so, 
 though baptism has properly two parts, and one is spiritual 
 regenerating grace, an infant may receive it and yet receive 
 only the sign or sacrament of that grace. A conclusive argu- 
 ment, no doubt, may be derived from these passages against
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 459 
 
 those who affirm that the Sacrament of Baptism is a bare and 
 empty sign, to which, even in the case of the worthy recipient, 
 no special grace is attached by Divine promise. But the ques- 
 tion as to the character and qualifications necessary in those 
 who receive the inward grace as well as the outward sign in 
 baptism, both as it respects adults and infants, is not touched 
 by the statements here made as to the nature and effects of 
 baptism. 
 
 The only passage, then, calling for explanation, is the one 
 I have already quoted : " Baptism wherein I was made a 
 member of Christ, the child of Grod, and an inheritor of the 
 kingdom of heaven." And from this passage is deduced the 
 doctrine that every child is in baptism spiritually regenerated ; 
 born again by a new and spiritual birth, such as cannot be 
 repeated, and which makes a man a spiritually regenerate man 
 for the rest of his life. Whatever a man's conduct may be, if 
 he was baptized in his infancy, he is a regenerate man. There 
 may never be from first to last any faith or repentance exerci- 
 sed by him. But nevertheless, if he has been baptized as an 
 infant, all this must be predicated of him to the end of his life. 
 Such is the doctrine maintained. 
 
 Now the best proof of the sense in which these words were 
 used, is to be derived from other works of the same period. 
 But I must first observe, that the Catechism itself supplies us 
 with amply sufficient evidence against such an interpretation 
 of the words as that just mentioned. I will not now dwell upon 
 the general character of the replies put, throughout, into the 
 mouth of the child, as appropriate only to one whose mind is 
 in the condition in which we could desire it to be ; though this 
 fact ought to be carefully observed. For instance, when the 
 question is asked, " Dost thou not think that thou art bound to 
 believe and do as thy godfathers and godmothers promised for 
 thee at thy baptism," the reply is, " Yes, verily, and by (rod's 
 help so I will," &c ; words which it would be absurd to take 
 as affirmatory of the state of mind of every child, and the 
 proper subjects (as the Bishop of Exeter and others would 
 make the Catechism) of dogmatical inferences* 
 
 * From such passages as this the Bishop of Exeter may see the absurdities
 
 460 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 But there are two passages in the Catechism which afford 
 conclusive evidence on the subject. 
 
 The first occurs in the former part of it, and was in the 
 Catechism as originally published, and shows clearly both the 
 doctrinal views, and the principle, upon which the Catechism 
 is constructed. In speaking of the Holy Grhost, the Catechu- 
 men is instructed to say, " who sanctifieth me and all the elect 
 people of Grod;" words which evidently and directly teach 
 him to regard himself as one of " the elect people of Grod." 
 And who " the elect people of God" were, in the view of our 
 Reformers and early divines, can har*dly be a question with 
 any one who will take the trouble to consult their writings. 
 And I have already given so many proofs on this point, that I 
 think it needless to add to them here. But as these words, 
 understood in such a sense, obviously supply us with an irre- 
 sistible argument in favor of the view for which I am here 
 contending, I would direct the reader's attention to two con- 
 temporary documents of public authority of a similar kind, 
 which settle the question beyond dispute. 
 
 The first is the Catechism published by Cranmer himself 
 in 1553, called Edward VI. Catechism, as having been issued 
 by his authority. To the question respecting the Holy Spirit, 
 " Cur Sanctus appellatur," the reply is " Non tantum ob suam 
 ipsius sanctitatem, sed quod per eum electi Dei et membra 
 Christi sancta efficiantur." Or as it is expressed in the English 
 edition ; " Not only for his own holiness ; but for that by him 
 are made holy the chosen of God and members of Christ"* 
 Now in this Catechism, as we have already seen,t the "electi 
 Dei," or "chosen of Grod," are those members of the visible 
 church that are " steadfast in the faith," and "predestinate 
 and appointed out to everlasting life before the world was 
 made," through the gratuitous " goodness and love of Grod." 
 And this Catechism was, as I have said, published by Cranmer 
 himself nearly at the same time that he gave the Church the 
 little one we are now considering. 
 
 into which his notion of " the precise dogmatic teaching " of the Catechism (see 
 his Charge, p. 46) would lead those who followed it out. 
 
 * Liturgies of Edward VI., Park. Soc. ed. pp. 662 and 514. 
 
 t See pp. 87, 88, above.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 461 
 
 The second document is Nowell's Catechism, publicly sanc- 
 tioned by our Church at the time at which our Prayer Book 
 was re-established at the commencement of Queen Elizabeth's 
 reign. The same words that I have just quoted from Edward 
 VI. Catechism are repeated in this.* And after the proofs 
 given above of the connexion between this Catechism and 
 that of Calvin,f it would be mere trifling to discuss the ques- 
 tion, who he meant by the elect or chosen of God. 
 
 The answer put into the mouth of the child, then, as to 
 the effects of Baptism, is at once explained. The child who 
 was taught to consider himself one of " the elect people of 
 God," was also taught that, being such, he had (according to 
 the theology of that period) received in baptism the full bap- 
 tismal blessing. Whatever other sense the words of the Cate- 
 chism may in themselves be capable of receiving, (and I have 
 no wish to limit them to the " Calvinistic " view,) this was 
 certainly the sense in which they were originally understood. 
 And this original meaning it is necessary to bear in mind, if 
 we would take an intelligent view of the case as it really is. 
 Even taking the words in what would now be called the 
 "Arminian" sense, (that is, that the election spoken of is the 
 result of foreseen faith and holiness,) one thing would still be 
 clear, that the language put into the mouth of the child must 
 be understood as applicable, not to every member of the visible 
 Church without distinction, but only to a certain portion of it. 
 And so clearly did Archbishop Laurence see this, that (to 
 make good his ground) he adopted the monstrous position, that 
 all the members of the visible Church are regarded by our 
 Church as the elect. Such a notion does not deserve a serious 
 refutation. 
 
 In fact, apart from any question of the meaning of the 
 word " elect," the phrase, " who sanctifieth me," shows that 
 the words must not be understood as descriptive of the condi- 
 tion of all. For, are all thus sanctified ? 
 
 Again, a passage in the latter part of the Catechism (which 
 though added at a later period, must be taken now in con- 
 nexion with the former,) directly opposes the notion that the 
 
 * See Ed. of Ox 1795. 8vo. p. 94, t See pp. 102-105 above.
 
 462 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 full baptismal blessing is necessarily conferred upon all infants. 
 For not only is it said that "repentance and faith" are neces- 
 sary in an adult coming to baptism, in order that he may profit 
 by it, but in answer to the question, " Why then are infants 
 baptized, when by reason of their tender age they cannot per- 
 form them," the reply is, " Because they promise them both 
 by their sureties, which promise when they come to age them- 
 selves are bound to perform." Now I have already said, that 
 these words are not to be taken as meaning, that baptism is 
 not valid unless these promises are made. But the require- 
 ment of these promises by our Church shows her sense of the 
 nature of the Sacrament of Baptism even in the case of infants; 
 namely, that it is a federal act involving conditions to be ful- 
 filled in the state of the child before it realizes the full blessing 
 of the Covenant. But suppose the state of the child neither 
 is, nor ever should be, such as to correspond with what is pro- 
 mised for it. Are we to presume to say, that the full blessing 
 of the covenant is nevertheless given ? Here, then, at once, 
 is a limitation to the " wholesome effect" of baptism in infants. 
 Without touching upon the case of those who die in infancy, 
 which is peculiar, the case of those who live to grow up, 
 clearly comes under this condition. And when the Catechism 
 lays it down as necessary, that repentance and faith should 
 be promised for the child, it is clear that such repentance and 
 faith are considered as having some connexion with the bap- 
 tismal blessing ; and therefore that that blessing is not neces- 
 sarily, and as a matter of course, bestowed upon every infant 
 baptized. 
 
 It is obvious that if the view of our opponents had been 
 that of the Church, the answer to the question, " Why, then, 
 are infants baptized, &c. ?" would have been, Because all 
 infants are without exception worthy recipients, and receive 
 necessarily, as not being able to place any impediment in the 
 way, the full baptismal blessing. But as I have already no- 
 ticed this point in the preceding chapter, I will not enlarge 
 further upon it. 
 
 But, perhaps, the most conclusive proof of. the principle on 
 which the Catechism is drawn up, may be derived from the 
 language of other works of and near the same period ; and I
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 463 
 
 would first point the reader's attention to the language even 
 of the " Institution of a Christian Man," published in 1537, as 
 shown in the following extracts. I do not of course quote this 
 work as any authority for the doctrines of our Protestant 
 Church, but there is an a fortiori argument derivable from it 
 in such questions as that now before us, which is certainly of 
 considerable weight. 
 
 " I believe also and profess, that ho is my very God, my Lord, and my 
 Father, and that I am his servant and his own son, by adoption and grace, 
 and the right inheritor of his kingdom." (p. 31.) 
 
 ' I believe also, and profess, that Jesu Christ is not only Jesus, and 
 Lord to all men that believe in him, but also that he is my Jesus, my God, 
 and my Lord. For whereas of my nature I was born in sin, and in the 
 indignation and displeasure of God. and was the very child of wrath, 
 
 &c Jesu Christ, by suffering of most painful and shameful death 
 
 upon the cross, &c. . . . hath now pacified his Father's indignation 
 towards me and hath reconciled me again into his favor, and that he hath 
 loosed and delivered me from the yoke and tyranny of death, of the Devil, 
 and of sin, and hath made me so free from them, that they shall not finally 
 hurt or annoy me, and that he hath poured out plentifully his holy Spirit 
 and his graces upon me, specially faith, to illumine and direct my reason 
 and judgment, and charity, to direct my will and affections towards 
 God. . . . Besides all this, he hath brought and delivered me from dark- 
 ness and blindness to light, from deatfy to life, and from sin to justice, and 
 he hath taken me into his protection, and made me as his own peculiar 
 possession and he hath planted and grafted me into his own body and made 
 me a member of the same, and he hath communicated and made me partici- 
 pant of his justice, his power, his life, his felicity, and of all his goods : so 
 that now I may boldly say and believe, as indeed I do perfectly believe, 
 that by his passion, his death, his blood, &c. ... he hath made a sufficient 
 expiation or propitiation towards God, &c. . . . and that I am so clearly 
 rid from all the guilt of my said offences, and from the everlasting pain due 
 for the same, that mither sin, nor death, nor hell, shall be able, or have any 
 power, to hurt me or to let me, but that after this transitory life I shall 
 ascend into heaven, there foreign with my Saviour Christ perpetually in 
 glory and felicity" (pp. 34, 35.) 
 
 And the Catholic Church having been described as consist- 
 ing of the true members of Christ and such as will finally be 
 saved, it is added, 
 
 " And I believe and trust assuredly, that I am one of the members of 
 this Catholic Church, and that God of his only mercy hath not only chosen 
 and called me thereunto by his Holy Spirit, and by the efficacy of his word 
 and Sacraments, and hath inserted and united me into this universal body
 
 464 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 or flock, and hath made me his son and inheritor of his kingdom j but also 
 that he shall of his like goodness, and by the operation of the Holy Ghost, 
 justify me here in this world, and finally glorify me in heaven." (pp. 
 66, 57.) 
 
 " It is also further to'be noted and considered, that it is not only very 
 necessary for all true Christian men to learn and know the certain notes 
 and marks whereby the very true Church of Christ is discerned from the 
 Church or congregation of the wicked, which God hate th, and also what is 
 the principal cause whereby they be made to be the very quick members of 
 the Church of Christ, but it is also one of the greatest comforts that any 
 Christian man can have, to believe and trust for certain, that there is such 
 a congregation, which containeth the very lively members of Christ's 
 mystical body, and that he is a member of the same congregation : specially 
 considering the great and excellent promises which Christ himself hath 
 made unto the said congregation, being his own mystical body, and his own 
 most dear and tenderly beloved spouse. And for these causes and con- 
 siderations, and such other, it is (no doubt) to be thought, that this ninth 
 Article was added and put into this Creed, specially and principally to 
 describe and declare the Church, as it is taken in the said second manner 
 of signification." (This second manner of signification being, when it is 
 taken "for the Catholic congregation, or number of them only which be 
 chosen, called, and ordained to reign with Christ in everlasting life," as 
 distinguished from its other signification of " the whole congregation of 
 them that be christened and profess Christ's gospel.") (pp. 77, 78.) 
 
 The view here taken, then, clearly was, that as it was the 
 duty of every man to be a true believer, so (true faith being an 
 appropriating faith, involving, it was supposed, a belief of per- 
 sonal acceptance and final salvation,) it was right that he 
 should consider himself one of those "chosen, called, and or- 
 dained to reign with Christ in everlasting life." After this 
 the language of the Catechism can hardly, it might be thought, 
 offer any difficulty. 
 
 But, what is of still more importance, we find Nowell's 
 Catechism (publicly approved by the Convocations of 1562 and 
 1571) directing the Catechumen to use language of the same 
 kind respecting himself, where it obviously applies only to a 
 portion of the members of, the visible Church. Thus, in a 
 passage already quoted, the catechumen is taught to say, 
 
 "But they who are firm, stable, and persevering in this faith, these 
 were elected, appointed, and (as we say) predestinated to this great felicity 
 before the foundations of the world were laid : and of this they have the 
 Spirit of Christ within in their souls as a witness, the author as well as 
 the most assured pledge of this confidence. And by the teaching of this
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 465 
 
 
 
 Divine Spirit, I most certainly assure myself that I myself also, by the 
 blessing of God through Christ, am freely made a citizen of this blessed 
 city [i. e. the Church."] * 
 
 Hence, throughout, Nowell uses the word " us," (" nos,") 
 to express those whom God had elected to salvation. " God 
 loved and elected us in Christ before the foundations of the 
 world were laid."t While, at the same time, speaking of the 
 visible Church, he says, " Many hypocritically and by the simu- 
 lation of piety join themselves to this society, who are as far 
 as possible from being true members of the Church. "| 
 
 And in the part treating expressly on the subject of Bap- 
 tism, the following words are used, 
 
 " M. Explain then in a few words in what things the right use of baptism 
 consists. 
 
 "A. In faith and repentance. For first we ought to have our minds 
 convinced with an unwavering confidence that we, being cleansed from all 
 defilements by the blood of Christ, are acceptable to God, and that his Spirit 
 dwells in s." 
 
 While, nevertheless, in the question and answer imme- 
 diately preceding, the reply to the question whether all the 
 baptized receive the grace of baptism, is, "The faithful only 
 partake of this fruit." I! 
 
 And if we look to the private writings of our early divines, 
 we shall see that this language of assured belief of being a 
 true and living member of Christ's Church, was strongly in- 
 sisted on as the proper language of every professed Christian, 
 
 * Qui autem sunt in hac fide finni, stabiles atque constantes, hi electi atque 
 designate et (ut nos loquimur) praedestinati erant ad hanc tantam felicitatem 
 ante posita mundi fuudamenta : cujus rei testem ipsi intus in animis habcnt 
 Spiritual Chrisli, fiduciae hujus authorem pariter et pignus certissimum. Cujus 
 Divini Spiritus instinctu, mihi etiam certissime persuadeo meipsum quoque beata 
 hac civitate, Dei per Christum beneficio, gratuito donatum ease. (See pp. 102, 
 10-1 above.) 
 
 t Nos Deus .... ante mundi jacta fundamenta in Christo dilexit atque elerjil. 
 (See p. 105 above.) 
 
 f Multi per hypocrisin et simulationem pietatis, in hanc se societatem adjun- 
 gunt, qui nihil minus quam vera ecclesiae membra sunt. (See p. 103, 104 above.) 
 
 M. Rectus ergo baptismi usua quibus in rebus sit situs, breviter edissere. 
 
 A. In fide et pffinitentia. Primum enira Christi nos sanguine a cunctis pur- 
 gatos sordibus Deo gratos esse, Spiritumque ejus in nobis habitare, certa fiducia 
 cvm animis nostris statutiem habere oportel, (See p. 266 above.) 
 
 I Soli fideles hunc fructum percipiunt. (See p. 266 above.) 
 
 GO
 
 466 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 though in strict fact applicable only to a portion of the mem- 
 bers of the visible Church. 
 
 I have already pointed out how clearly this is manifested 
 in the writings of the eminent martyr John Bradford.* I will 
 not, therefore, repeat the extracts and remarks there given. 
 
 So also in the writings of Bishop Babingtgn.t And I will 
 add here one extract from him on this point to that already 
 given. In his " Exposition of the Catholic Faith," he says, 
 
 " True faith is not only a knowledge whereby I firmly assent unto all 
 things which God in his word hath opened unto us, but also a sure trust 
 raised up in my heart by the Holy Ghost through the Gospel, whereby I rest 
 in God certainly persuaded, that remission of sins, eternal righteousness 
 and life is given, not only to others, but also to me, and that freely of the 
 mercy of God, for the merit of Christ only."$ 
 
 And, as we have seen, Rogers, in his Exposition of the 
 Articles, publicly sanctioned by Archbishop Bancroft, lays it 
 down as one of the errors of the Papists, that they teach, "that 
 none are to think or persuade themselves that they are of the 
 number of the predestinate unto salvation, but to be ever 
 doubtful thereof."^ 
 
 How strong, indeed, was the feeling on the subject of this 
 doctrine, in Q,ueen Elizabeth's time at least, may be judged 
 of from the case of Barret at Cambridge in 1595, the particu- 
 lars of which have been given above. II In a letter of Dr, 
 Whitaker, the Regius Professor of Divinity, to Archbishop 
 Whitgift, on this case, the learned Professor says, 
 
 " That a true faithful Christian man ought to believe remission of his 
 gins and his salvation; and that he is sure and certain thereof by infallible 
 testimony of the Holy Ghost, is the doctrine of the Scriptures, as your Grace 
 knoweth right well : and is confirmed by the Fathers, and by sundry School- 
 men and Popish writers acknowledged."^ 
 
 And this doctrine was laid down in the sixth Lambeth 
 Article.** 
 
 But this they believed to be the case only in " the elect ;" 
 
 * See pp. 241-247 above. f See p. 823 above. 
 
 \ Works, 1C22. fol. Expos, of Cath. Faith, p. 173. See p. 118 above, 
 
 || See pp. 1 24 et seq. above. 
 
 ^f Strype's Whitgift, App. Bk. iv. No. XXT. ; iii. 88% 
 
 *Seep. 131 above.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 467 
 
 and that to them only baptism was efficacious.* Neverthe- 
 less, considering this language of assurance to be the proper 
 and befitting language of professed Christians, they could not 
 consistently have put into the mouth of a catechumen any 
 other language than such as is found in the Catechism. 
 
 And this interpretation of the words of the Catechism is 
 confirmed by a comparison of them with those of a Catechism 
 notoriously drawn up on Calvinistic principles ; namely, the 
 Heidelberg Catechism.t 
 
 For in the Heidelberg Catechism, we find the catechumen 
 instructed to say, 
 
 " I believe that the Son of God doth, from the beginning of the world to 
 the end, gather, defend, and preserve unto himself by his Spirit and word, 
 out of whole mankind, a company chosen to everlasting life, and agreeing in 
 true faith : and that I am a lively member of that company, and so shall 
 remain for ever." J 
 
 And the spirit in which this answer is conceived runs 
 through the Catechism. For instance : 
 
 "Q. 52. What comfort hast thoubythe coming again of Christ to judge 
 the quick and the dead ? Answ. That in all my miseries and persecutions, 
 I look with my head lifted up for the very same who before yielded himself 
 unto the judgment of God for me and took away all malediction from me, 
 to come Judge from heaven to throw all his and mine enemies into ever- 
 lasting pains, buUo translate me with all his chosen unto himself into celestial 
 joys and everlasting glory." 
 
 "Q. 53. What believest thou concerning the Holy Ghost? Answ. First, 
 that he is true and co-eternal God with the eternal Father and the Son. 
 Secondly, that he is also given to me, to make me through a true faith par- 
 taker of Christ and all his benefits, to comfort me and to abide with me 
 for ever."|| 
 
 Many other of the answers are of a similar kind. Every 
 person catechized, therefore, was taught to answer as if he 
 himself was certainly one of "the elect," and had thus re- 
 ceived the full benefit of baptism. And this was done from 
 
 * See their testimonies in c. vii. above. f See p. 160, above. 
 
 $ See p. 161, above. 
 
 The Sum of Christian Religion, Ac., by Z. TJrsinus. Lond. 1645. foL p. 326. 
 I quote purposely from Bishop Parry's translation. 
 | Ib. p. 335.
 
 468 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. - 
 
 the belief that every one ought to feel assured that he was one 
 of God's elect, as Ursinus himself (the author of this Cate- 
 chism) explains it in his Commentary upon it: 
 
 "Of our own election every of us not only may, but also ought to be 
 in special certain and assured. And verily thereof we shall be certain by 
 the eifects thereof, namely, by conversion ; that is, by true faith and repen- 
 tance. For that we may believe and know that we are certainly chosen to 
 eternal life, we are bound to believe in Christ and to believe also eternal 
 life. But this we cannot believe, except we have true faith and repentance. 
 And as every one ought to have both these, so every one ought certainly to 
 hold that he is of the number of the elect ; otherwise they shall accuse God 
 of lying."* 
 
 Hence the only language they thought fit to put into the 
 mouth of the person catechized, was that of one who felt as- 
 sured that he was one of (rod's elect. Not that they would 
 have encouraged the presumptuous hope of the sinner. Far 
 from it. But they felt it to be their duty not to put any other 
 language into the mouths of professing Christians, but what 
 was applicable to the true child of (rod. And no doubt they 
 hoped that such language might lead the sinner, though a 
 child, to reflection and repentance, when he felt its unsuita- 
 bility to his state. 
 
 And so far as our Catechism is concerned, it must be re- 
 membered that it was intended only for children, whom it was 
 ' no doubt thought to be of prime importance to teach the lan- 
 guage of the true child of God. 
 
 And now the reader (whatever may be his own views) will, 
 I think, at once see, how little force there is in the argument 
 derived from the use of such words in the Catechism, as if 
 they showed what was considered to be necessarily the state 
 of every one using the Catechism, and were not (as is the 
 fact) used for the purpose of keeping the mind fixed upon the 
 blessings which belong to the true child of God. 
 
 "Whether it is desirable that such documents should be 
 drawn up on such a principle, and what are its advantages 
 and disadvantages, are questions which I shall not here stop 
 to discuss. The mistakes and misconstructions to which the 
 adoption of this principle has led would probably be now con- 
 
 * Ib. p. 858.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 469 
 
 sidered as affording strong reasons against it. My own view 
 would, even in theory, apart from the experience of the results, 
 be adverse to the use of such language ; while, knowing the 
 meaning intended to be affixed to it by those who applied it 
 in our Formularies, and that it was not intended to be under- 
 stood as dogmatically affirming the state of all the baptized, ] 
 have not the smallest difficulty in accepting it. And I must 
 add, that our Formularies, taken as a whole, appear to me to 
 allow, and to have been intended to allow, a certain latitude 
 for a difference of views in those called upon to subscribe 
 them. But what I am here concerned with is, the doctrine of 
 those who drew them up, and which they were evidently in- 
 tended to favor. This is the first point to be settled in any 
 inquiry as to the meaning which they were intended to admit. 
 
 Further, the Catechism that is, that part of it with which 
 we are here more particularly concerned was, like the rest 
 of the Prayer-book, submitted to the consideration of Bucer 
 and Peter Martyr, for their remarks upon it,* and equally 
 with the Baptismal Service received their approval, calling 
 forth no remark or expression of a desire for any alteration.! 
 And what their views were, has been abundantly demonstrated. 
 This is another clear proof how the words were understood at 
 the time when the Catechism was first put forth. 
 
 Lastly, as in the case of the Baptismal Service, so in that 
 of the Catechism, we derive the strongest arguments for the 
 interpretation here put upon it from the Cologne Liturgy. 
 Here, again, Bucer's Form in that liturgy led the way to the 
 expressions used in our own. 
 
 In the Catechism inserted in the Cologne Liturgy at the 
 commencement of the Office of Confirmation (and this was 
 the original position of our own,) we find the following ques- 
 tions and answers : 
 
 " Dem. Dost thou then surely believe all these things ? 
 " Answ. I believe them all, and I pray God, that he will vouchsafe to 
 increase this faith in me. 
 
 * See the second section of the preceding chapter. 
 t See Buceri Scripta Anglic, pp. 482-486.
 
 470 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 " Dem. What Ought this faith to work in thee ? 
 
 " Answ. That I doubt nothing, [nihil dubitem] but that God, and the 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which with this his Son sent us his word, 
 and gave us all things, is the only true God, that he made all things of 
 nothing, that he only worketh and giveth all good things, and that he will 
 show himself a father unto me also, for the same his Son's sake our Lord 
 Jesus Christ,* that he washed me from sins with holy baptism, that he gave 
 me his Holy Spirit, that he incorporated me to his dear Son 7 and so received 
 me into his Church, and adopted me to be his son and heir, that also he will 
 keep me in his congregation, give me in the same repentance, and remission 
 of sins, and the communion of his Son, that through him I may ever call 
 upon his name with children's trust, and that in the renewing of myself I 
 may profit daily unto his image ; furthermore I believe that through his 
 word and Sacraments he will confirm and increase the same in me, so that I 
 shall study continually to sanctify his name, and to serve his congregation 
 with all manner of good works, till he take me out of this world unto heavenly 
 joys and the blessed resurrection. All which things I acknowledge that they 
 be performed unto me, and shall be through the only free mercy of the 
 heavenly Father and through the estimable merit of his Son our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 " Dem. God and our heavenly Father increase and confirm this thy faith, 
 through his Son our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Dost thou think then, and 
 dost thou acknowledge in this faith that thou art verily the son of God and 
 his heir, the brother and joint heir of our Lord Jesu Christ, and therefore 
 a member of his body, which the congregation is ? 
 
 " Answ. I think so and acknowledge, trusting in the most certain 
 promise of God's benevolence and in the merit of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 ******* 
 
 " Dem. How wast thou first adopted of God to be his son, and to be 
 received into his congregation ? 
 
 " Answ. By holy baptism. 
 
 "Dem. What is baptism? 
 
 " [Answ.] Tfie laver of regeneration, WHEREBY I AM WASHED FROM 
 
 SINS AND GRAFTED IN CHRIST THE LORD, AND HAVE PUT HIM UPON ME. 
 
 " Dem. Wilt thou continue in this communion of Christ unto the end ? 
 "Answ. I will by the help of our Lord Jesus Christ.' 7 (fol. 175, 177. 
 Lai. fol. 80.)f 
 
 Such is a portion of the Catechism drawn up by Bucer for 
 the Cologne Liturgy. I will only ask, can any one read it, 
 and then say, that our own can only be interpreted as affirm- 
 
 Abluisse me a peccatis Sacro Bapt-ismate, donasse Spiritu Sancto, Filio suo 
 dilccto incorporasse, atque ita in Ecclesiam suam assumpsisse, et in filiuni atque 
 hffiredem adoptasse, conservaturum etiam esse in Eeclesia, Ac. 
 
 \ The Latin may be seen in the Appendix.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 471 
 
 ing the real condition of every child that uses it, while this is 
 open to a different construction ? It cannot be denied, that the 
 affirmations put into the mouth of the child in the Cologne 
 Form are as strong and explicit as those in our own. While we 
 know well what the meaning and object of Bucer were in so 
 wording them : and that he meant nothing less than that all 
 children indiscriminately were spiritually regenerated in bap- 
 tism. 
 
 Before I conclude this chapter, I would further direct the 
 reader's attention to an Exposition of the Catechism which 
 was published not long after it had attained its present form, 
 subsequently to the Hampton Court Conference. This Expo- 
 sition was written by Dr. John Mayer,* and the third, fourth, 
 and fifth editions, (published respectively in 1623, 1630, and 
 1635, 4to.,) if not the earlier ones, are stated in the title page 
 to be " published by command," and have the Royal arms pre- 
 fixed, showing that they had received the highest sanction. 
 This exposition is, as far as I am aware, the first Exposition 
 of the Catechism as it now stands, and certainly the first of 
 any kind that had any degree of public sanction given to it. 
 
 The testimony, therefore, of this Exposition is certainly 
 entitled to considerable weight in any inquiry as to the doctrine 
 of our Church. It can hardly be said, at any rate, that 
 doctrine formally supported by this Exposition is inadmissible. 
 The last edition above-mentioned, it will be observed, was 
 published after the accession of Archbishop Laud to the Prima- 
 cy, whose censorship of the press is known to have been suffi- 
 ciently rigid ; and, therefore, whatever came out under his 
 permission, can scarcely be now charged by his modern fol- 
 lowers as irreconcileable with the doctrine of our Chnrch. 
 And remarkable it is, that in this fifth edition of the work, 
 alterations and additions are inserted, admitting a greater effi- 
 cacy in infant baptism than had been maintained in the pre- 
 vious editions, which, nevertheless, (as I have said) were 
 "published by command." Even with the corrections of this 
 fifth edition, however, the testimony of the work is entirely 
 
 * The English Catechism Explained, or, a Commentary on the Short Cate- 
 chism set forth in the Book of Common Prayer, etc., by John Mayer, D. D.
 
 472 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 opposed to the views of our modern " High Churchmen." For 
 all that is admitted in this edition is, that original sin is par- 
 doned in all infants at their baptism, and that they are thus 
 far regenerate ; while in the context a distinction is expressly 
 drawn between this regeneration and " spiritual regeneration." 
 I shall now, therefore, give the interpretation of the words, 
 "Wherein I was made a member of Christ," &c., as it stands 
 in the edition of 1630, "published by command;" adding 
 afterwards the alterations introduced in that of 1635. He 
 says, speaking of these words ; 
 
 " Which is not so to be understood, as though the outward washing of 
 water did make the baptized partaker of these so excellent benefits : for it 
 is true of the Sacraments of the New Testament, which was said of them 
 of the Old ; ' It is impossible, that the blood of bulls and goats should take 
 away sin.' (Heb. x. 4.) And in another place : ( Circumcision availeth 
 nothing, but a new creature.' (Gal. vi. 15.) That the same maybe said of 
 Baptism, see in the Pharisees coming to John his Baptism : ' generation of 
 vipers (saith he,) who hath forewarned you to fly from the wrath to come?* 
 (Luke iii. 7.) Where he sheweth baptism to be a means of escaping God's 
 wrath after an implicit manner ; but withall requires virtue, which being 
 away, baptism availeth not. And our Lord having commanded baptism to 
 all, excepteth yet, saying, ' He that believeth not shall be damned.' (Mark 
 xvi. 16.) The case herein is divers. First, in those that are of ripe years 
 and understanding, there is required of them a due disposition of repentance 
 and faith, actually performed by and in themselves. But in infants it is 
 enough [that is, as he explains it in a subsequent part of his Exposition, 
 enough to entitle them to receive the sign and seal of the Covenant] that 
 they pertain to the Covenant, being born in the bosom of the Church, and 
 presented to the participation of gracious adoption by virtue of the faith of 
 their parents. 
 
 " The right understanding then of this is, that in our baptism we are 
 SACRAMENTALLY, or INSTRUMENTALITY, made the children of God ; and REALLY 
 AND TRULY when we are together baptized with the Holy Ghost ; if thou 
 believe and be baptized, thou art made inheritor of the kingdom of heaven : 
 and this is ascribed unto baptism. { Except a man be born of water and the 
 Spirit,' &c. (John iii. 5 :) as converting, begetting unto Christ, and building 
 men up in grace, is ascribed unto the officers of God's Church. Wherefore 
 let no man mistake this matter, thinking himself safe, when he is baptized, 
 for he may, nay, infinite members do, notwithstanding perish. Baptism 
 confers not grace, ex opere operato, as the Church of Rome teacheth : but ever 
 in men of years as they were found in grace, they were thought fit to be 
 baptized. Read of the Eunuch, of Cornelius and his company, of the 
 converts amongst the Jews at Peter's preaching. Now then consider, 
 whether this be thy case or no? Art thou endued with grace ? Art thou
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 473 
 
 baptized with the Holy Ghost ? Art thou baptized into Christ ? Believest 
 thou with all thy heart ? Repentest thou with a true and due compunction ? 
 If it be thus, thou hast put on Christ, thou art ' buried with him by bap- 
 tism into his death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead, so also 
 thou shouldest walk in newness of life.' (Rom vi. 2.) well is thee, 
 that thou art a member of Christ, and inheritor of heaven. If otherwise, 
 thou hast been admitted to the water in vain, thou art still in thy sins. But 
 thou wilt say, wherefore serves the remembrance of our baptism then ? I 
 answer, to confirm that grace, which is begun in a man's heart ; if he 
 believeth, he shall be hereby more confirmed ; if he be a true Christian, he 
 shall be hereby registered in the Catalogue of true Christians, and all the 
 fiends of hell shall not be able to blot him out again. If it be further 
 demanded, how can it be said of all baptized that they are members of Christ, 
 seeing there are many hypocrites, who bear only the badge of Christ, but fight 
 under the banner of Satan; I answer, that our Church doth not usurp the 
 gift of prophecy, to take upon her to discern which of her children BELONG 
 
 TO GOD'S UNSEARCHABLE ELECTION, but IN THE JUDGMENT OF CHARITY 
 
 embraceththem all, as God's inheritance; and hereby teacheth every of us so 
 to believe of ourselves by faith, and of others by charity. St. Paul in his 
 salutations styleth the whole visible Churches to whom he writes by the 
 title of Saints, and yet it is likely that by his extraordinary discerning spirit 
 he could have differenced the goats of his flock from the sheep. How much 
 more ought we, WITH OUR BLESSED MOTHER THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AT 
 ALL CHASTENINGS [CHRISTENINGS] PRESUME that Sacramental grace doth 
 like a soul enquicken the body of the outward element, and receive those for 
 our true fellow-members of Christ, who have been made partakers of the 
 same laver of regeneration ?' (pp. 5, 7.) 
 
 Thus the passage stood in at least three of the first four 
 editions of this work so " published by command." 
 
 But in the edition of 1635, much of this is wholly omitted; 
 but the latter portion, from the words, "our Church doth not 
 usurp, &c." to the end, is RETAINED verbatim (except that 
 " baptizings " is put for " christenings,") and then these words 
 follow : 
 
 " And this is true touching those that are Of years of discretion, but 
 infants being baptized, because there is certainly in them whatsoever may 
 be expected in regard of their tender age, must needs be regenerated and 
 born anew by this Sacrament, and if they die in their infancy, they are 
 undoubtedly saved. For either they are all saved, or else baptism is in 
 vain administered to some of them, seeing there can be nothing in an inno- 
 cent child to hinder the efficacy thereof. Original sin then, of which only 
 they stood guilty, is now done away by the blood of Christ working herein, 
 although not so, but that it still remaineth in their nature, as appeareth by 
 the breaking forth again, as they grow up, yet so, as that it is not imputed ;
 
 474 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 and from the wrath to which they were hereby made subject, they are by 
 baptism delivered, thus becoming new creatures and vessels of mercy." 
 (p. 19.) 
 
 Here, clearly, baptism is considered to be always effica- 
 cious in infants for bringing the pardon of original sin ; and so 
 that they might thus far be considered as regenerated and 
 born anew by it. But, meeting in the context the objections 
 which he foresaw would be raised against this doctrine, he 
 shows that he means only by such regeneration the change 
 produced by the pardon of original sin, which in the case of 
 infants he considered might be called regeneration. For thus 
 he speaks, 
 
 u Ob. If it be demanded, how then is it taught, that a man cannot fall 
 from grace ? ' the gifts and calling of God are without repentance,' and 
 ' they that are born of God sin not, neither can they.' 
 
 " Sol. I answer, This is to be understood either of election, he, to 
 whom in the eternal decree of election, grace is given unto salvation, 
 cannot fall from it: or, of actual grace, intimated in the word 'calling:' 
 he that is effectually called to grace by the preaching of the word, WHICH 
 is A SPIRITUAL REGENERATION, cannot fall from this grace again, of the 
 child of God to become the child of the Devil : for because there is regene- 
 ration in the word, as well as in baptism, God is said to have begotten us 
 by the immortal seed of the word. (Jam.i. 18.) It is not to be understood 
 then of SACRAMENTAL REGENERATION, that they which are THUS born 
 again and stated in grace cannot sin and be damned. 
 
 " Ob. If it be said, Then there is no certainty in God's election, because 
 the same man whom he hath chosen to grace in baptism, if he happen to 
 die in his infancy, shall be saved, but if he liveth still, he may perish. 
 
 " I answer, The election of God yet remaineth sure : for although to us 
 the living and dying of a child be accidental, yet it is certainly determined 
 by the Lord, and so although he remitteth his sins in his baptism, yet 
 knowing, that he shall live and sin, and be impenitent in his sins in his 
 riper age, he elccteth him not, but ordaineth him to the deeper damnation." 
 (pp. 20, 21.) 
 
 The doctrine here advanced seems very similar to that of 
 Bishop Davenant, noticed above.* And it is clear that he 
 makes a great distinction between what he calls the regene- 
 ration of an infant in baptism by the pardon of original sin, 
 and " spiritual regeneration." His doctrine avoids all the 
 serious consequences that attach to the fiction of our modern 
 
 See pp. 311, 812, above.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 475 
 
 "High Church-men" as to what takes place in the baptism 
 of infants. The great question at issue is not affected by his 
 concession in this 5th edition, (whether it be his own or not,) 
 as to the gift of the pardon of original sin. Bishop Carleton 
 and many others have held this, who have entirely denied the 
 universal spiritual regeneration of infants in baptism. 
 
 A few more extracts may confirm the view given above of 
 the doctrine laid down in this work ; and I shall continue my 
 quotations from the 5th edition. 
 
 " If \ve consider the state of the faithful , they are regenerate and born 
 again of God ; wherefore they can no more be uuborn, but the seed of God 
 abideth in them, and therefore they cannot come into the condition of the 
 seed of the serpent : if they sin, the Lord will correct them, but he will not 
 take his mercy from them for ever. As he that is heir to any man. to 
 whom he hath assured his estate, cannot but inherit, so God's heir shall 
 certainly inherit his kingdom." (p. 31.) 
 
 Observing that "the children of believing parents" ought 
 to be baptized, as federally holy, he says, 
 
 " There is so near relation of the child unto the parents, that what the 
 state of the parents is. such is the estate of the child reputed to be, until 
 that it cometh to reason and discretion. . . . Howsoever in their infancy 
 before they do good or evil, their parents' estate is reckoned theirs, as hath 
 been said, yet in their elder age they are taken as distinct persons subsisting 
 by themselves, and standing or falling to themselves. If therefore in this 
 due time they do not actually believe and repent, their baptism is made 
 frustrate and vain unto them." (pp. 34, 35.) 
 
 " The invisible Church of God, viz. all true believers, are accepted for 
 holy in Christ Jesus, at the very first act of their conversion unto the true 
 faith, though before they were most unclean by sin. . . . Through faith 
 all true believers are accepted for holy in Jesus Christ at the very instant 
 of their conversion : this appeareth plainly, because that faith justifieth, 
 that is, makes a man just and holy : faith ingrafteth into Jesus Christ, 
 and maketh us partakers of his holiness : faith maketh, that Christ dwelleth 
 in our hearts." (pp. 206, 207 .), 
 
 Other passages might be added, but these are sufficient to 
 show the doctrine of the work. 
 
 And this fifth edition was, as I have said, "published by 
 command," under the primacy of Archbishop Laud.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 ON THE SAVOY CONFERENCE, AND THE SUBSEQUENT REVIEW AND 
 RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER BY 
 CONVOCATION AND PARLIAMENT IN 1662. 
 
 THE weighty testimony which may be produced from our 
 early divines, against the views of the Laudian party on the 
 subject of baptism and their representation of the doctrine of 
 our Church, has caused some of our opponents to take refuge 
 in an argument of this kind. Be it so, that your interpreta- 
 tion of the Prayer Book may have been that originally sanc- 
 tioned and intended, and long held in the Church. But we 
 owe our present Prayer Book to the leading divines of the 
 period of the Restoration. The Book was accepted from them 
 by Parliament, and sanctioned as their Book. And therefore 
 we are bound to receive it now in the sense which they affixed 
 to it. 
 
 I shall not waste much time in replying to such an argu- 
 ment, nor will I complain of drowning men catching at straws. 
 But a few words to show the reader the true state of the case 
 may be useful. 
 
 In the first place, then, the only document of a public kind 
 we have, to show the sense which was affixed by any of these 
 divines to the Prayer Book, is an anonymous account of the 
 proceedings of the Savoy Conference published under the title, 
 ' An Account of all the Proceedings of the Commissioners of 
 both persuasions appointed by his sacred Majesty, according 
 to Letters Patent, for the review of the Book of Common 
 Prayer, &c. London, printed for R. H. 1661." 4to. Of this 
 Book Richard Baxter says,
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 477 
 
 '' All these being surreptitiously printed, save the first piece, [that is, 
 the Exceptions of the Nonconformists.] by some poor men for gain, without 
 our knowledge and correction, are so falsely printed, that our wrong-by it is 
 very great. Whole lines are left out; the most significant words are 
 perverted by alterations, and this so frequently, that some parts of the 
 papers, especially our large reply, and our last account to the King, are 
 made nonsense and not intelligible." * 
 
 "We have not, then, a very trustworthy authority to go to 
 for what did pass at the Savoy Conference. For such a pro- 
 duction as that here spoken of may be as incorrect on one side 
 as on the other. 
 
 But supposing the account to be correct, and that the lead- 
 ing divines of the party opposed to the Nonconformists took 
 the ground they are represented as taking, (which in all pro- 
 bability they did, as the remaining leaders of the previously 
 dominant Laudian party, t) what does it amount to ? Simply 
 this, that when at the Restoration the King appointed a Com- 
 mission of certain divines to discuss the objections brought 
 
 * Life by Sylvester, B. i. P. 2. p. 379. I give the passage from Cardwell's 
 Conferences connected with the Book of Common Prayer. 2d ed. Oxf. 1841. 
 8vo. p. 263. 
 
 f The views of the leading Episcopal divines in this Conference are so well 
 known, that it is hardly necessary to say, that on the question now before us as 
 to the effects of baptism in infants, their views were those of the school of Moun- 
 tagu and Laud, to which they owed their elevation. Thus, to the objection, 
 " We cannot in faith say that every child that is baptized is regenerate," they 
 reply, " 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." (Cardwell's Conferences, p. 356.) This of course was the 
 view which they took of the matter ; and I could have also pointed those who 
 adduce it to an earlier and (to my mind) better testimony (though onlv that of 
 an individual) to the same effect. But what is that, to the host of opponents 
 which the doctrine has among our earlier divines ? I believe that not one single 
 testimony to this effect could be produced in the writings of our divines previous 
 to the early part of the 17th century. And I have already shown what the 
 amount of testimony is against it And I say, with our learned Bishop Abbot, 
 Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, and Bishop of Salisbury, " Papisticum 
 illud Scholasticorum pronunciatum, quod operis operati fundamentum est, .... 
 nexcio qua fronte tanquam catholicae fidei dogma proponitur, ' Sacramenta sem- 
 per conferre suum effectum non ponenti obicem.' " (See p. 288 above.) And with 
 our learned Bishop Carleton, that it is " peregrina et incondita sententia," and 
 before the time of the later scholastic divines unheard of even in the Church of 
 Rome. (See p. 342 above.)
 
 478 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 against the Book of Common Prayer, the surviving bishops, 
 being of course inclined to Laudian views, maintained in the 
 Conference that interpretation of the Prayer Book which was 
 consistent with their theological system. 
 
 For, the review of the Prayer Book which preceded its re- 
 establishment by the Act of Uniformity, was not made at the 
 Savoy Conference, (as is often eroneously stated,) but after- 
 wards in Convocation. 
 
 The Commission that sat at the Savoy was appointed for 
 only four months ; and the whole of that time having been 
 spent in useless altercation between the opposing parties, it 
 came to an end without producing any result of any kind ;* 
 terminating on the 24th of July, 1661. t 
 
 In the meantime, namely, early in May, the Convocation 
 had met, and proceeded at once with a review of the Liturgy, 
 which review was not finished until the following December ; 
 but, " on the 20th of December, 1661, the Book of Common 
 Prayer [so revised] was adopted and subscribed by the Clergy 
 of both Houses of Convocation and of both Provinces.'^ In 
 the following March, after a further slight revision, this book 
 was printed, $ and was accepted as it stood by both Houses of 
 Parliament. 
 
 But neither were any alterations or additions made that 
 can affect the question we are now considering, nor have we 
 any record of the sense affixed to the Prayer Book by Convo- 
 cation, much less any declaration that the Prayer Book was to 
 be understood according to a certain mode of interpretation. 
 There is not the slightest pretext for saying that Convocation 
 ever contemplated anything of the kind. And though the 
 probability is, that, in the circumstances under which that 
 Convocation met, the Laudian party formed the majority, there 
 is also every reason to think, that there was a considerable and 
 respectable body of its members, who would have been entirely 
 opposed to any such proceeding. 
 
 Further, that Parliament sanctioned the Book of Common 
 Prayer as the Book of the Convocation of that period, and in 
 
 * See CardwelPs Conferences, pp. 264-266. f Ib. p. 869. 
 
 t Ib. p. 872. Ib. p. 378.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 479 
 
 their view of its meaning, is not merely a groundless assertion, 
 but directly opposed to the testimony of facts and of the Act 
 itself by which the Book was confirmed, that is, the Act of 
 Uniformity. 
 
 For we find that the House of Commons (however indis- 
 posed to favor the violent Nonconformists) were very jealous of 
 any alterations being made in the Book by Convocation, lest 
 they should introduce into it Laudian views. So little were 
 they inclined to defer to the views of Convocation about the 
 Prayer Book, that on the 9th of July, 1661, before Convo- 
 cation had had time to make any progress in their revision 
 of the Book, " a ' Bill for the uniformity of public Prayer and 
 administration of the Sacraments,' was read for the third time, 
 and, together with a copy of the Prayer Book, printed in 1604, 
 was passed and sent to the Upper House;"* the book of 1604 
 being selected, Dr. Card well supposes in order to avoid any 
 alterations by Archbishop Laud. The consideration of this 
 Bill was deferred by the Lords, and its first reading did not 
 take place till the 14th of February, 1662. "Three days 
 afterwards it passed through the second reading, and was 
 placed in the hands of a select committee. The Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer, however, [that is, the Book as revised by Convo- 
 cation] was not yet delivered to them ; and the Committee 
 having inquired on the 13th of February, with strong symp- 
 toms of impatience, whether they should still wait for it, or 
 should 'proceed upon the book brought from the Commons,' 
 they received a Royal message on the 25th of the same month, 
 together with an authentic copy of the corrected Prayer Book 
 confirmed under the Great Seal."t This revised Book having 
 been substituted for the other, and some other amendments 
 introduced into the Bill, the Bill passed the House of Lords on 
 the 9th of April, 1662, and was returned to the House of 
 Commons. The House of Lords was satisfied with the altera- 
 tions made, and passed them sub silentio ; but as to the sense 
 in which the Book was understood, each member of course 
 acted upon his own view of it. And it is very clear that they 
 did not consider themselves bound to abide by what took place 
 
 Ib. p. 876. f Ib. p. 877.
 
 480 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 in Convocation, for they preceded as far as the Committee 
 with the Book of 1604, when they must have known that Con- 
 vocation had completed a revision of the Book, and were evi- 
 dently inclined to have brought the matter to a conclusion upon 
 that Book, if the revised Book had not been at once submitted 
 to them. 
 
 But the feeling with which the House of Commons acted 
 in the matter is still more strongly marked ; for when the Bill 
 was returned to them from the Lords with the revised Book 
 of Common Prayer, "it appears," says Dr. Cardwell, "that 
 the Commons were jealous of the preference given to the cor- 
 rected Book of Common Prayer over the edition of 1604, and 
 suspecting that some differences might have been introduced 
 between the two periods when the books were respectively 
 printed,* directed a close comparison to be made between them. 
 On the 16th of April, they proceeded so far in their fear of 
 change, as to make it a question whether they should not re- 
 consider the corrections made in Convocation; and though they 
 decided to adopt them without further examination, the divi- 
 sion was only of ninety-six to ninety in their favor. In 
 order to save the dignity of the House, they afterwards divided 
 on the question whether they had the power of reconsidering 
 such corrections, and then obtained a vote in the affirmative."! 
 And Dr. Cardwell adds, that " the fear, ivhich the Commons 
 seem to have contracted, that occasion would be taken for in- 
 troducing into the Liturgy the religious sentiments of Arch- 
 bishop Laud and his school of theologians, was not altogether 
 without foundation. "t G-lad enough, no doubt, would the 
 Laudian party have been, if they could have introduced various 
 alterations into our Formularies at this time. But, providen- 
 tially, the power of doing so was not in their hands. 
 
 So much, then, for the feelings with which the Houses of 
 Parliament were actuated on this occasion. 
 
 But, finally, what are the words of the Act itself of Uni- 
 formity ? 
 
 * Dr. Cardwell observes in a note, that " the corrected book was probably a 
 copy of the printed edition of 1634, (at which time Laud was Archbishop of 
 Canterbury,) with the corrections [made in Convocation] inserted." 
 
 f Ib. p. 878. \ Ib. p. 889.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 481 
 
 The first clause of it runs thus, 
 
 " Whereas in the first year of the late Queen Elizabeth there -was one 
 
 uniform order of Common Sendee, &c set forth in one book, 
 
 intituled The Book of Common Prayer, &c and whereas by the 
 
 great and scandalous neglect of Ministers in using the said Order or Liturgy 
 so set forth and enjoined as aforesaid, great mischiefs and inconveniences, 
 during the times of the late unhappy troubles, have arisen and grown, 
 
 &c his Majesty hath been pleased to authorize and require the 
 
 Presidents of the said Convocations, and other the Bishops and Clergy of 
 the same, to review the said Book of Common Prayer, and the Book of the 
 Form and Manner of the making and consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and 
 Deacons : and that after mature consideration they should make such addi- 
 tions and alterations in the said books respectively, as to them should seem 
 meet and convenient .... since which time they, the said Presidents, 
 &c. . . have made some alterations .... all which his Majesty having 
 duly considered, hath fully approved and allowed the same, and recom- 
 mended to this present Parliament, That THE SAID BOOKS of Common 
 Prayer, and of the Form of Ordination and Consecration of Bishops, Priests, 
 and Deacons, with the alterations and additions which have been so made 
 and presented to his Majesty by the said Convocations, be the Book which 
 shall be appointed to be used, &c be it enacted," &c. 
 
 Here, then, it is expressly stated, that the Book sanctioned 
 by the Act, is the Book of Queen Elizabeth WITH certain al- 
 terations and additions. The alterations and additions only 
 are received from Convocation. The Book, otherwise, is re- 
 cognized as the Book previously in use from the days of Eliza- 
 beth, and authorized as such. 
 
 It would be abusing the patience of the reader to dwell 
 longer on this point. 
 
 31
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 TESTITONIES FROM OUR DIVINES SINCE THE RESTORATION, CHIEFLY 
 OF THE ARMINIAN SCHOOL, ON THE SUBJECT OF THIS WORK. 
 
 THE reason for my closing the series of authorities cited in 
 a previous chapter, at a particular period of the history of our 
 Church, was, that about that time the school of our Reformers 
 and early divines was superseded in the high places of the 
 Church by a party of very different theological views. Little 
 could be learnt from the statements of such men as Laud and 
 Mountagu, and their adherents, as to the intended meaning 
 of the Formularies of our Church. And great reason have we 
 for thankfulness, that it was not permitted them, either during 
 their first enjoyment of power in the reign of Charles I., or 
 when they partially regained the ascendancy on the restora- 
 tion of Charles II., to make any material alterations in the 
 Formularies bequeathed to us by our martyred Reformers. 
 These remaining, there remained among us under all circum- 
 stances the seeds of truth. In them the Church has ever had 
 within her witnesses to the truth, whose voice could not bo 
 altogether stifled. 
 
 But the success of the Romanizing school of Laud and his 
 party, was such as completely to overwhelm for the time the 
 influence of the school of the Reformers, and turn the current 
 theology of our Church into a very different channel. 
 
 In the early part of the seventeenth century, indeed, there 
 was a considerable movement among the Protestant Churches 
 generally, both in this country and on the Continent, which 
 issued in the formation of different schools of theology within 
 their several communions. And their Formularies, in some
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 483 
 
 eases left open, to a certain extent, to different modes of inter- 
 pretation, were claimed by all parties as at least admitting the 
 sense they wished to assign to them. 
 
 From that period the ministers of our Church have become 
 the followers of several different theological systems. And the 
 prevailing schools have no doubt been the Arminian and the 
 Romanizing, the former developing itself occasionally into what 
 has been called the Latitudinarian. And political events in 
 the time of James II. having caused the secession of the 
 leaders of the latter school, to form what was called the Non- 
 juring party, the former remained for more than a century in 
 almost exclusive possession of the high places of the Church. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the language in 
 which the great majority of our more modern divines have 
 spoken on such subjects as that before us, should be very dif- 
 ferent from that which we find in our early writers. And they 
 who class our leading divines of different periods together, and 
 put their statements side by side, as if they all belonged to 
 the same school of theology, and always meant the same thing 
 when using the same words, are likely to run into the most 
 mistaken notions as to the meaning of their testimonies. 
 
 Bat nevertheless, on the subject of our present inquiry, it 
 will be found, that the great body of the Arminian divines, up 
 to a very recent period, were, on the main point of the contro- 
 versy, agreed with our early writers. For though they speak 
 of regeneration as universally taking place in infants in bap- 
 tism, it was not generally held by them to be that spiritual 
 regeneration by which a new principle of life is implanted 
 in the soul, but a regeneration of a peculiar and inferior kind, 
 either meaning only an admission into the visible Church, and 
 to the enjoyment of its privileges, or at most including only, 
 in addition, the pardon of original sin, and thus placing them 
 in a state of acceptance so long as their infantine state lasted. 
 
 That this is a correct representation of their views, is proved 
 both by their direct statements to this effect, and also by their 
 almost universal practice of admonishing adults of the neces- 
 sity of their being regenerated to their having any ground of 
 hope before God, and placing the sole and necessary evidences 
 of that regeneration in their bringing forth the fruits of the
 
 484 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Spirit. The testimonies which might be produced from their 
 works to this effect are innumerable. But I shall not trouble 
 the reader with more than a few from certain well-known au- 
 thors, whose names will probably be considered as affording 
 sufficient evidence of the extensive prevalence of the views 
 they maintained. 
 
 I now proceed therefore to give a few testimonies from the 
 works of our later divines : not absolutely excluding all who 
 speak the same language as that of our early divines, but con- 
 fining myself almost entirely to writers of the Arminian school. 
 
 BISHOP W. NICOLSON; 
 Bishop of Gloucester from 1660 to 1672. 
 
 Bishop Nicolson is said by Anthony Wood to have been "a 
 right learned divine, well seen and read in the Fathers and 
 Schoolmen."* And it must be observed, that he formed one 
 of the Upper House of Convocation at the Review of the Lit- 
 urgy in 1661 and 1662. 
 
 The following extracts are from his Exposition of the 
 Church Catechism. 
 
 On the words, " a member of Christ," he observes, 
 
 "That is, to be reckoned Christians: for Christ is the head of the 
 Church, and all Christians the body, of which every one that professeth 
 Christian religion is a part, and is so to be esteemed. But these parts are 
 of two sorts, 1st, Either (Equivocal parts, so taken and reputed by us, such as 
 are a glass eye, or a wooden leg to a man, which are so called, but truly are 
 not such: and whosoever profess the supernatural verities revealed by 
 Christ, and make use of the Holy Sacraments, may in this sense be called 
 the members of Christ, because they are reckoned for parts of his visible 
 body. 2nd, Or univocal parts, That in name and nature are true believers, 
 which are indeed the true members of Christ, and do belong unto his 
 mystical body, and receive from him as from their Head, life, sense, and 
 motion. They are united to him, live in him, and are informed by his 
 Spirit. They are washed and regenerated by his blood. And they have 
 his righteousness imputed unto them, by which they are freed from the 
 guilt and punishment of sin. This the Apostle teacheth, 1 Cor. i. 30. 
 ' But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us, wisdom, 
 
 * Athen. Oxon. yol. 8. coL 951.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 485 
 
 righteousness, sanctification, redemption.' And to these last only the two 
 next privileges belong : " * that is, to be " the child of God and an inheritor 
 of the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 Speaking of the Sacraments, he says, 
 
 "All receive not the grace of God, that receive the sacraments of grace. 
 But by them grace is offered to all the Church, though exhibited only to 
 the faithful." f 
 
 On the answer that children are baptized because they 
 promise faith and repentance by their sureties, he says, 
 
 "This is an excellent answer, and being well examined will prove 
 satisfactory. For it shows, 
 
 " 1. How children perform this promise for faith and repentance. 
 
 "2. That they are bound to perform the promise, when they come to 
 age, if they mean to have a part of the grace promised by God in baptism. 
 
 " 1 . For the first, children perform not this promise in baptism at that 
 time actually, that is, they do not then actually repent and believe ; neither 
 is it necessary they should. For baptism is not the covenant, but the seal 
 of it ; and the seal may be set where these are wanting. This is evident in 
 the case of circumcision," $ 
 
 "Repentance is a firm resolution of amendment of life; faith an 
 apprehension of God's promises : for the performance of which the sureties 
 engage ; but not absolutely that the child shall do it, for that is beyond 
 their power to undertake ; but conditionally, that he shall do it, or else 
 have no benefit by their engagement." 
 
 BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR ; 
 
 Bishop of Down and Connor from 1660 ; and of Dromore 
 from 1661 to 1669. 
 
 " Although, by the present custom of the Church, we are baptized in 
 our infancy, and do not actually reap that fruit of present pardon which 
 persons of a mature age in the Primitive Church did ; (for we yet need it 
 not, as we shall when we have past the calentures of youth, which was the 
 time which the wisest of our fathers in Christ chose for their baptism, as 
 appears in the instance of St. Ambrose, St. Austin, and divers others ;) yet 
 we must remember that there is a baptism of the Spirit as well as of 
 
 * " A plain but full Exposition of the Catechism of the Church of England," 
 pp. 16, 16, of the first ed. printed Lond. 1655. 4to. The author published a 
 2nd ed. (a reprint, except in immaterial points, of the first) in 1661, when he wag 
 Bishop of Gloucester, and dedicated it to Dr. Sheldon, then Bishop of London, 
 and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. It has been frequently reprinted, 
 f Ib. p. 169. | Ib. pp. 179, 180. Ib. p. 187.
 
 486 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 voter : and whenever this happens, whether it be together with that baptism 
 of water, as usually it was when only men and women of years of discretion 
 were baptized ; or whether it be ministered in the rite of confirmation, which 
 is an admirable suppletory of an early baptism, and intended by the Holy 
 Ghost for a corroborative of baptismal grace, and a defensative .against 
 danger or that lastly, it be performed by an internal and merely spiritual 
 ministry, when we, by acts of our own election, verify the promise made in 
 baptism, and so bring back the rite, by receiving the effect of baptism : that 
 is whenever the ' filth of our flesh is washed away,' and that we have 
 'the answer of a pure conscience towards God,' which St. Peter affirms to 
 be the true baptism, and which, by the purpose and design of God, it is 
 expected we should not defer longer than a great reason or a great necessity 
 enforces: when our sins are first expiated, and the sacrifice and death of 
 Christ is made ours, and we made God's by a more immediate title, 
 (which at some time or other happens to all Christians that pretend to 
 any hopes of heaven,) then let us look to our standing and ' take heed lest 
 we fall.' " * 
 
 This passage is decisive of the question, whether Bishop 
 Taylor held that the baptism of the Spirit always accompanied 
 the baptism of water in the case of infants. 
 
 To the sam|j effect he speaks frequently in his Sermons, as 
 may appear by the following extracts. 
 
 11 The first great instrument of changing our whole nature into the state 
 of grace, flesh into the spirit, is a firm belief, and a perfect assent to, and 
 hearty entertainment of the promises of the Gospel."f 
 
 " Our hearers make use of sermons and discourses evangelical but to fill 
 up void spaces of their time, to help to tell an hour with, or pass it without 
 tediousness. The reason of this is a sad condemnation to such persons r 
 they have not yet entertained the Spirit of God, they are in darkness : they 
 were washed in water, but never baptized with the Spirit ; for these thing* 
 are spiritually discerned. They would think the preacher rude, if he should 
 say they are not Christians, they are not within the covenant of the Gospel : 
 but it is certain that the Spirit of manifestation is not yet upon them ; and 
 that is iho first effect of the Spirit, whereby we can be called sons of God, or 
 relatives of Christ."$ 
 
 And he adds at the conclusion of the same sermon, 
 " The sum is this : an animal man, a man under the Law, a carnal man 
 
 Life of Christ, Pt. 2. 12. disc. 9. Works, ed. Heber, 8d ed. 1839. Vol. 2. 
 pp. 408, 409. 
 
 + Serm. on Matt ixvi. 41, on "the flesh and the Spirit." Sermons, ed. 1674 
 fol. p. 76. 
 
 j Serm. 1. for Whiteunday, on Rom. viii. 9, 10. Ib. p. 202,
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 487 
 
 (for as to this they are all one) is sold under sin But a spiritual 
 
 man, a man that is in a state of grace, who is born, anew of the Spirit, that 
 is regenerate by the Spirit of Christ, he is led by the Spirit, he lives in the 
 Spirit." &c.* 
 
 Other similar passages might easily be added. 
 
 BISHOP EZEKIEL HOPKINS; 
 
 Bishop of Raphoe from 1671 to 1681 ; and of Derry from 
 1681 to 1690. 
 
 Bishop Hopkins, in his "Doctrine of the two Sacraments," 
 enters fully upon the question of the effects of the Sacrament 
 of Baptism, both in the case of adults and infants. 
 
 The following extracts will show his views on the subject. 
 
 " There are two ways of dedication unto God ; whereby his title takes 
 place, and what is so devoted becomes his. The one external, by men : as 
 in the instances before cited : whereby there was no change at all wrought 
 in the nature of the thing thus dedicated, but only a change in the relation 
 and propriety of it. ... The other dedication is inter^l, and wrought by 
 God himself. And thus he is said to separate or dedicate persons to himself, 
 when, by the effectual operation of the Holy Ghost upon them, he endows 
 them with those habits which enable them to do him service. . . . 
 
 "" As there is this twofold dedication or separation, so there is also a two- 
 fold sanctification. There is an external relation, or ecclesiastical sanctifi- 
 cation; which is nothing else, but the devoting or giving up of a thing or 
 person unto God, by those who have a power so to do. There is an internal, 
 real, and spiritual sanctification : and, in this sense, a man is said to be 
 sanctified, when the Holy Ghost doth infuse into his soul the habits of divine 
 grace, and maketh him partaker of the divine nature, whereby he is inwardly 
 qualified to glorify God in a holy life. .. . . 
 
 11 In applying this distinction to Baptism, and to show you how it 
 is that Baptism doth sanctify, I shall lay down these following propo- 
 itions. 
 
 " I- Baptism is the immediate means of our external and relative sancti- 
 fication unto God. 
 
 " By this Holy Sacrament, all that are partakers of it are dedicated and 
 separated unto him. 
 
 "There are, if I may so express it, but two regiments of men; the one 
 is of the world ; the other is of the Church, And in one of these all man- 
 kind are listed and do march. . . . 
 
 f Ib. p. 215.
 
 488 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 "This Church of Christ may be considered, either as visible or invisible. 
 The visible Church of Christ on earth, is a sort of people who profess the 
 name of Christ, and own his doctrine; joining together in a holy society 
 and communion of worship, where it can be enjoyed. The invisible Church 
 of Christ on earth is a number of true believers who have internal and 
 invisible communion with Jesus Christ by their faith and his Spirit. The 
 visible Church is of a much larger extent than the invisible ; for it compre- 
 hends hypocrites, and too many ungodly persons ; yea, all those who have 
 given up their names unto Christ, and make a visible profession of his 
 doctrine, though by their lives and practice they deny it. ... 
 
 " From this distinction it follows, 
 
 "(1) That all, that are of the visible Church of Christ Jesus, are taken 
 out of the world ; so that it may truly be said of them, that they are not of 
 the world. 
 
 ******* 
 
 " (2) Hence it follows, that all those who are members of the visible 
 Church, may truly be called saints, and members of Christ, and the children 
 and people of God; because, by being taken into the Church, they are taken 
 out of the World ; and so become God's portion, and the lot of his inheri- 
 tance. 
 
 [He here proceeds to show that so Scripture speaks of 
 such.] ^ 
 
 "(3) But to bring this home to OUT present subject of Baptism : from all 
 this it evidently follows,, that those who are baptized may, in this ecclesi- 
 astical and relative sense, be truly called saints, the children of God, 
 and members of Christ; and, thereupon, inheritors of the kingdom of 
 heaven. 
 
 " Doubtless, so far forth Baptism is a means of sanctification, as it is the 
 solemn admission of persons into the visible Church ; as it separates them, 
 from the world, and from all false religions in it, and brings them out of the 
 visible kingdom of the devil into the visible kingdom of Jesus Christ. For, 
 if all that are admitted into the visible Church are thereby, as I have proved 
 to you, dignified with the title of Saints and the children of God, then, by 
 baptism, which is the solemn way of admitting them into the Church, they 
 may, with very good reason, be said to be made Saints, the children of God 
 and members of Christ. But this is only a relative sanctity, not a real : and 
 many such saints and sanctified men there are, who shall never enter into 
 
 heaven This sanctification, regeneration, and. adoption, conferred 
 
 upon us at our admission into the visible Church, is external and ecclesi- 
 astical : and though it alone will suffice to the salvation of infants, because 
 they are thereby as holy as their state can make them capable of: yet it 
 will not suffice to the salvation of grown and adult persons, if they contra- 
 dict it by the course of a wicked life. . . . 
 
 " &. Another position is this, That Baptism is not so the means of an 
 internal and real banctificatiou, aa if all to whom it is administered were
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 489 
 
 thereby spiritually renewed, and made partakers of the Holy Ghost in hia 
 saving grace. 
 
 " Though an external and ecclesiastical sanctification be effected by 
 Baptism, ex opere operate, by the mere administration of that Holy Sacra- 
 ment; yet so is not an internal and habitual sanctification: and that, whether 
 we respect adult persons or infants. 
 
 ***** 
 
 " Baptism was not instituted to any such purpose that it should be an 
 instrument of working a real change upon infants : for neither can it work 
 this change by any immediate and proper efficacy, since the washing of the 
 body cannot thus affect the soul, nor infuse any gracious habits into it 
 which itself hath not ; neither can it work morally, by way of suasion and 
 argument, because infants have not the use of reason to apprehend any such. 
 Again, if this Baptismal Regeneration be real, by the infusion of habitual 
 grace, how comes it to pass, that the greater part of those who have received 
 it lead profane and unholy lives, and too many perish in their sins ? They 
 who have the seed of God in them shall never sin unto death; and the 
 perseverance of those who are inwardly and effectually sanctified, is safe 
 and certain : for, surely, true grace is saving, and true and saving grace is 
 the effect of our election unto eternal life ; for ' whom he did predestinate, 
 them he also called.' Rom. viii. 30. And therefore I judge it unsound 
 doctrine to affirm, that Baptism doth confer real sanctification upon all 
 infants, as well as upon some adult persons, who are made partakers of it. 
 
 " But here may some say, ' If Baptism doth not confer a real and 
 internal regeneration on infants, who partake thereof, how then is it, that 
 the Church hath appointed a prayer in the Office of Baptism, wherein we 
 bless God, that it hath pleased him to regenerate the baptized infant with 
 his Holy Spirit?' 
 
 " To this I answer, that the Baptismal regeneration of infants is external 
 and ecclesiastical 
 
 ''But how then are infants said, in Baptism, to be regenerated by 
 the Holy Spirit, if he doth not inwardly sanctify them in and by that 
 ordinance ? ' 
 
 " I answer : Because the whole economy and dispensation of the king- 
 dom of Christ is managed by the Spirit of Christ; so that those who are 
 internally sanctified, are regenerated by hi effectual operation j and those 
 who are only externally sanctified are regenerated by his public institution. 
 Infants therefore are in Baptism regenerated by the Holy Ghost, because 
 the Holy Spirit of God appoints this ordinance to receive them into the 
 visible Church, which is the regenerate part and state of the world. . . . 
 
 " 3. It is not so the means of sanctification, as if none could be inter- 
 nally and really sanctified, who are necessarily deprived of that holy 
 ordinance. 
 
 ******** 
 ^ "4. The last position is this, That Baptism is an ordinary means 
 appointed by Christ, for the real and effectual sanctification of hi* 
 Church.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 " For, this is the great end of all Gospel ordinances, that, through them, 
 might be conveyed that grace which might purify the heart and cleanse the 
 life. And, though I do not affirm that baptism doth effect this in all to 
 whom it is rightly applied : not in infants, who. while such, are incapable 
 of that work; nor in many adult persons, who, though baptized, may 
 remain still in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity : yet this I do 
 affirm and maintain, that there is no reason to doubt the salvation of any, 
 who, by this holy ordinance, are consecrated unto God, until, by their actual 
 and wilful sinning, they thrust away from them those benefits which God 
 intends them by it 
 
 " From all this that hath been said on this subject, I shall draw this 
 one deduction, and so conclude. Hence we may learn what to judge, and 
 what to hope, concerning the state of infants who die baptized. 
 
 " Certainly, since they are in covenant with God ; since they are the 
 members of Christ, being members of his Body, the Church ; since they are 
 sanctified and regenerated, so far forth as their natures are ordinarily 
 capable of, without a miracle ; we have all the reason in the world com- 
 fortably to conclude, that all such die in the Lord, and are for ever happy 
 and blessed with him. 
 
 " With very good reason, therefore, and upon very clear evidence, hath 
 our Church determined, that ' it is certain, by God's word, that children 
 which are baptized, dying before they commit actual sin, are undoubtedly 
 saved.' Rubric after Baptism 
 
 " Yea, let me add, that not only infants baptized, but all infants of 
 believing parents, though they should unavoidably die before baptism, yea 
 before they see the light, are in the same safe and blessed condition, for 
 they are in the same gracious covenant. For since the promise is made to 
 believers and to their children, God will not falsify his promise, where they 
 break no conditions." * 
 
 BISHOP JOHN PEARSON ; 
 Bishop of Chestar from 1673 to 1686. 
 
 Bishop Pearson's " Exposition of the Creed " has long 
 been a standard work among us. The following passages will 
 show his views on the question before us. 
 
 "The whole Church of God, as it containeth in it all the persons 
 which were called to the profession of the faith of Christ, or were baptized 
 in his name, may well be termed and believed holy. . . The Church, as it 
 embraceth all the professors of the true faith of Christ, containeth in it not 
 
 "~ "~ 
 
 * Works of Bishop Hopkins, ed. by Pratt Lend. 1809, 8vo. roL M. 
 pp. 417-429.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 491 
 
 only such as do truly believe and are obedient to the word, but those also 
 
 which are hypocrites and profane Of these promiscuously contained 
 
 in the Church, such as are void of all saving grace while they live, and 
 communicate with the rest of the Church, and when they pass out of this 
 life die in their sins, and remain under the eternal wrath of God ; as they 
 were not in their persons holy while they lived, so are they no way of the 
 Church after their death, neither as members of it, nor as contained in it. 
 Through their own demerit they fall short of the glory unto which they 
 were called : and being by death separated from the external communion 
 of the Church, and having no true internal communion with the members 
 and the Head thereof, are totally and finally cut off from the Church of 
 Christ. On the contrary, such as are efficaciously called justified and 
 sanctified, while they live are truly holy, and when they die are perfectly 
 holy; nor are they by their death separated from the Church, but remain, 
 united still by virtue of that internal union by which they were before con- 
 joined both to the members and the Head." * 
 
 Commenting on the words, " The Communion of Saints." 
 he says, 
 
 " Because though the Church be holy, yet every person contained in it is 
 not truly so, therefore is added this part of the Article, which concerneth 
 those who are truly such. . . . All such persons as are called from the vulgar 
 and common condition of the world unto any peculiar service or relation unto 
 God, are thereby denominated holy, and in some sense receive the name of 
 Saints. The penmen of the Old Testament do often speak of the people of 
 Israel as of a holy nation, and God doth speak unto them as to a people holy 
 onto himself; because he had chosen them out of all the nations of the 
 world, and appropriated them to himself. Although therefore most of that 
 nation were rebellious to him which called them, and void of all true, 
 inherent, and actual sanctity ; yet because they were all in that manner 
 separated, they were all, as to the separation, called holy. In the like 
 manner those of the New Testament, writing to such as were called, and 
 had received and were baptized in the faith, give unto them all the name 
 of Saints, as being in some manner sucLby being called and baptized. For 
 being baptism is a washing away of sin^ind the purification from sin is a 
 proper sanctification ; being every one who is so called and baptized is thereby 
 separated from the rest of the world which are not so, and all such separa- 
 tion is some kind of sanctification ; being, though the work of grace be not 
 perfectly wrought, yet whenthe means are used, WITHOUT SOMETHING APPEAR- 
 ING TO THE CONTRARY, WE OUGHT TO PRESUME OF THE GOOD EFFECT^ 
 
 threfore all such as have been received into the Church, may be in some 
 sense called holy. But because there is more than an outward vocation, 
 and a charitable presumption, necessary to make a man holy ; therefore we 
 must find some other qualification which must make him really and truly 
 
 * On Art. ix. ed. Dobson, Lond. 1832. 8vo. pp. 616, 516.
 
 492 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 such, not only by an extrinsical denomination, but by a real and internal 
 affection. What this sanctity is, and who are capable of this title properly, 
 we must learn out of the Gospel of Christ ; by which alone, ever since the 
 Church of Christ was founded, any man can become a Saint. Now by the 
 tenor of the Gospel, we shall find, that those are truly and properly saints, 
 which are 'sanctified in Jesus Christ.' (1 Cor. i. 2.) First, In respect of 
 
 THEIR HOLY FAITH, BY WHICH THEY ARE REGENERATED ] for, ' WhoSOCVCr 
 
 believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God;' (1 John v. 1.;) by which 
 they are purged. God himself 'purifying their hearts by faith,' (Acts xv. 
 9.,) whereby they ' are washed, sanctified, and justified, in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus;' (Cor. vi. 11.;) 'in whom also, after that they believe, they are 
 sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.' (Eph. i. 13.) Secondly, In respect 
 of their conversation," &c.* 
 
 DEAN DUREL; 
 
 Dean of Windsor from 1677 till his death in 1683. Pre- 
 viously Prebendary of Windsor and Durham, and Chaplain 
 to the King: 
 
 Dr. John Durel is spoken of by Anthony "Wood, (a contem- 
 porary, and, beyond all doubt, one of the highest of " High 
 Churchmen,") in the following terms, 
 
 " He was a person of unbiassed and fixed principles, untainted and 
 steady loyalty, as constantly adhering to the sinking cause and interest of 
 his sovereign in the worst of times who dared with an unshaken and un- 
 daunted resolution to stand up and maintain the honor and dignity of the 
 English Church, when she was in her lowest and deplorable condition. 
 He was very well versed, also, in all the controversies on foot between the 
 Church and the disciplinarian party ; the justness and reasonableness of 
 the established constitutions of the former no one of late years hath more 
 plainly manifested, or with greawr learning more successfully defended 
 against its most zealous modern oppugners than he hath done, as by his 
 works following is manifest."! 
 
 He then gives a list of his works, of which the principal is 
 that which I am about to quote, entitled, " Sanctse Ecclesise, 
 Anglicanae adversus iniquas atque inverecundas Schismatico- 
 rum criminationes Vindiciae, &c. Lond. 1669." 4to.t 
 
 * Ib. pp. 627, 628. f Athen. Oxon. iv. 89. ed. Bliss. 
 
 J Some copies of this work occur with the following title, " Historia rituum 
 S. Ecclesue Anglicanae ex omni antiquitate eruta, Ac. Load. 1672."
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 493 
 
 The subject of the 26th chapter of this work is, " On the 
 Efficacy of Baptism, Whether in the Anglican Liturgy it is 
 esteemed greater than it really is." ("De Efficacia Baptismi, 
 An major juxta Liturgiam Anglicanam quam par est, habea- 
 tur.") And it is written in reply to the objection of the Non- 
 conformists, that our Baptismal Service for Infants implies 
 that all infants are spiritually regenerated in baptism. I re- 
 gret that it is impossible, from the space required, to transfer 
 the whole chapter to these pages, as the charge is most ably 
 met and refuted. I must content myself with the following 
 extracts. 
 
 " Inasmuch as Baptism is a sacrament or visible sign and most certain 
 pledge of that invisible grace which embraces both blessings, namely, the 
 washing away of guilt and the cleansing from corruption, as being that 
 which was appointed by God, to signify, seal, and instrumentally exhibit 
 it, therefore, not only in that sentence of our Liturgy which the Apologist 
 here attacks, but among all the approved authors among the Reformed, 
 where that sacred laver is treated of, phrases occur of such a nature that 
 IGNORANT MEN may easily conclude from them, that that grace of the 
 Holy Spirit with which Baptism when administered to those who have right 
 dispositions, is always attended, is the effect of the Sacrament itself. 
 Such is this saying of Calvin, ' We assert that Baptism is God's ordinary 
 instrument to wash and renew us, in a word to communicate salvation ;' 
 (Antid. cap. de Bapt. can. 5. ;) which if the Apologist should read in the Book 
 of Common Prayer, he would immediately be altogether horrified at it. For 
 why should he not infer from it, equally as from any words that occur in 
 that Book, ' that there is ascribed to the Sacrament of Baptism a power to 
 renew and necessarily save all men that are initiated by it.' And yet 
 similar speeches are frequently found in the same author and the other Re- 
 formed writers, which is known to those who have paid the slightest atten- 
 tion to their works. Nor ought any one to be surprised at that, since Holy 
 Scripture has in various passages gone before them in this matter, Rom. 
 vi. 3, 4: Gal. iii. 27 ; Tit. iii. 5; Eph. v. 26. 
 
 " Then as to what he says. ' that no one can be a minister of the 
 Reformed Church of England who is not certainly persuaded of the regen- 
 eration of every infant baptized,' neither also is that true. The minister 
 truly gives thanks to God after each infant has been baptized, that it hath 
 pleased God to regenerate him with his Holy Spirit. But it does not thence 
 follow, that he ought to be certain of the regeneration of every infant bap- 
 tized. For it is sufficient if he is persuaded of the regeneration of some 
 on/i/, for instance of elect infants, or, if you like, even of some only of their 
 number, that on that account he may be able, nay ought, to give God thanks 
 for each and all baptized. Since who is elected, he knows not ; and since it 
 is but just, that he should, BY THE JUDGMENT or CHARITY, PRESUME, that
 
 494 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 as many as he baptizes are elect, and, if any are regenerated in Baptism 
 (which none but a Socinian or other Catabaptist will deny,) regenerated. 1 '* 
 
 And then observing, that all the Reformed Churches, in- 
 cluding the Anglican, declare that the wicked, when partaking 
 of the, bread and wine in the Eucharist, are by no means par- 
 takers of Christ, he adds, 
 
 " But since as many as come to that sacred feast with right dispositions, 
 such feed spiritually, that is by faith, upon the most holy body and blood of 
 Christ, the minister rightly, when the holy Eucharist has been celebrated, 
 gives thanks to God, that he has refreshed all the communicants (although 
 he is not and cannot be certain of each) with that heavenly food. Why 
 should he not therefore do the same after the administration of holy baptism 
 to every infant ? Why, I say, should he not give thanks to God for the 
 
 * Quia gratiae illiua invisibilis, quse utrumque beneficium, reatus ablutionem 
 scilicet et maculae purgationem complectitur, sacrameutum seu signum visibile 
 atque pignus certissimum baptismus est, ut qui ad illam significaiidam, obsig- 
 nandamque, atque instrumentaliter exhibendam a Deo institutus fuit : ideo, non 
 tantum in ea periodo Liturgies nostrae, quam hie oppugnat Apologista, Bed apud 
 omnes probates Reformatorum authores, ubi de sacro illo lavacro agitur, occurrunt 
 ejusmodi locutiones, ut ex iis facile inferant HOMINES IMPEBITI gratiam illam 
 Spiritus Sancti quam Baptismus rite dispositis administrates semper habet comi- 
 tem, esse ipsius Sacramenti effectum. Talis est haec Calvini locutio : " Nos 
 Baptismum ordinarium Dei instrumentum asserimus ad nos lavandos, et reno- 
 vandos, ad salutem denique communicandam." (Antid. cap. de Baptism, can 6.) 
 Quam si in libro Liturgico legeret Apologista, ad earn statim totus cohorresceret. 
 Quidni enim ex ea, scque atque r.x ullis verbis qua in illo libro occurrunt, iuferat, 
 " Sacramento Baptism! vim ascribi omnium hominum, qui eo initiantur, regenera- 
 tivam ac necessario salvificam ?" Attamen similes locutiones apud eumdem 
 authorem.aliosque Reformatoa Scriptores frequentes reperiuntur, quodnoruut qui 
 eorum libros vel levi manu versavere. Neque id mirum cuiquam esse debet, 
 cum iis eft in re praeiverit Scriptura sacra variis locis, Rom. vi. 3, 4 ; Gal. iii. 27 
 Tit. iii. 6 ; Ephes. v. 26 
 
 Deinde quod ait, " Nerninem posse esse ministrum Reformat Ecclesiae An- 
 glicanio, qui uon certo persuasus sit de regeneratione cujuslibet infaiitia baptizati," 
 neque id etiam verum est. Deo quidem gratias agit Minister post baptizatum 
 unumqnemque parvulum, quod Deo placuerit cum Spiritu suo regenerare. Sed 
 non inde soquitur cum de cujuslibet parvuli baptizati regeneratione certum esse 
 debere. Sufficit enim si dequorumdam tantum, electorum infantum puta, aut si 
 vis etiam aliquorum duntaxat ex eorum numero, regeneratione persuasm sit, ut eo 
 nomine possit, imo debeat, Deo gratias agere pro omnibus et singulis baptizati*, 
 Qitippe cum quis sit electus, ipsum latent ; cumque par sit, eum, quotquot bap- 
 tizat, KX JUDICIO CHARITAXIS, electos, et at qui in Baptismo regenerantur, (quod 
 nemo nisi Socinianus aliusve Catabaptista, negavcrit) regenerator PRA:SUMJERK." 
 (p. 230.)
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 495 
 
 regeneration of each one whom God has vouchsafed to admit to the laver of 
 regeneration ? Certainly the reason is the same in both cases."* 
 
 " Moreover Ames himself grants, ' that God infuses a habit or principle 
 of grace into some while they are baptized.' (Bellarm. enerv. torn. S.disp. 
 14. quaest. 3. th. 2. sect. 3.) And since the Church is ignorant who they are 
 to whom God vouchsafes that grace, AND OUGHT TO PRESUME IT IN THE 
 JUDGMENT OF CHARITY OF EVERT ONE BAPTIZED, I ask the Adversaries 
 themselves, with whom Ames is in such great esteem, what just fault can 
 be found with that prayer in which it gives thanks to God for the regeneration 
 of infants baptized?"^ 
 
 And in the same chapter he shows, that the doctrine of the 
 rubric as to the salvation of baptized infants dying in their 
 infancy is that of all the Reformed Churches. 
 
 DR. W. FALKNER, 1677. 
 
 Dr. Falkner published several works in vindication of tho 
 doctrine and rites of our Church, against the Dissenters. They 
 are recommended by (among others) Dr. W. "Wotton, in his 
 " Thoughts concerning a Proper Method of Studying Divinity,"$ 
 and by the late Bishop Cleaver in his "List of Books recom- 
 mended to the Clergy of the Diocese of Chester."^ 
 
 One of these is entitled, " Libertas Ecclesiastica ; or, a 
 Discourse vindicating the lawfulness of those things which are 
 
 * Quoniam vero quotquot ad sacras illas epulas rite dispositi accednnt, ii 
 sacratissimo corpore sanguineque Christi spiritualiter, per fidem scilicet, vescun- 
 tur, recte minister, sacra Eucharistia celebrata, Deo. gratias agit, quod omnes 
 communicantes (quanquam de singulis certus non est, nee vero esse potest) 
 ccelesti illo pabulo refecerit Quidni igitur idem faciat post administratum cuili- 
 bet infanti sacrum baptisma ? Quidni, inquam, Deo gratias agat pro uniuscu- 
 josque regeneratione quern dignatus est Deus ad regenerationia lavacrum 
 admittere? Certe utrobique par ratio est (pp. 290, 291.) 
 
 f Quin ipse etiam Amesiua concedit, ' Deum quibusdam, dum baptizantur, 
 habitum vol principium gratiae infundere.' (Bellarm. Enerv. torn. 3. disp. 14. 
 quaest. 3. th. 2. sect 3.) Qui vero ill! pint, quos Deus ea gratia dignatur, cum 
 ignoret Ecclesia, DEBEATQUE ID EC JUDICIO CHAKITATIS DE QUOLIBKT BAPTIZATO 
 FB.KSUMERE, qutero ab ipsis adversariis apud quos tanto in protio est Amesius, 
 quid jure reprebendi possit in ea precatione in qua Deo gratias agit ob infantum 
 baptizatontm regenerat ionem ? " (pp. 296, 297.) 
 
 t First printed Lond. 1734. 8vo. Reprinted by Dr. H. Cotton, Ox 
 1818. 8vo. 
 
 Oxf. 1791. 8vo.
 
 496 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 chiefly excepted against in the Church of England ;" and from 
 it* I quote the following passages. 
 
 Replying to the objections of the Dissenters to the Baptis- 
 mal Service, he says, 
 
 " I suppose it evident, that if it can be certainly proved, that every bap- 
 tized infant is savingly regenerated, or if on the other side all the expres- 
 sions in the Liturgy can be fairly and probably interpeted of a federal 
 regeneration, which is generally acknowledged, there can be then no doubt but 
 all these expressions may be fitly and allowably used. I shall treat of both 
 these senses, because THEY BOTH PLEAD AN ALLOWANCE IN OUR CHURCH. "f 
 
 He then proceeds to give the arguments for supposing that 
 every baptized infant is savingly regenerated, where, however, 
 he commences with the remark that such regeneration is very 
 different from that of an adult. He says, 
 
 " It must be here noted, that by the saving regeneration of baptised 
 infants, it is not intended that their understandings or wills are guided to 
 an high esteem and love of God and the Christian life, which the infant 
 state is not capable of: but this regeneration is mainly relative, so that 
 being regenerated by Baptism, they are no longer the children of wrath, 
 and under the curse due to original sin ; but are brought into a new state, 
 to be members of the body of Christ, and thereby partakers of the favour 
 of God. And though some small seeds of gracious disposition MAY BE in 
 infants, who are capable thereof in the same manner as they are of corrup- 
 tion; yet that regeneration or renovation of an infant in Baptism, whereby 
 he is received into a state of remission and salvation, is very different from 
 the regeneration of an adult person, whereby his soul and life arc moulded 
 according to the form of the Christian doctrine, and brought into a con- 
 formity to the image of God."$. 
 
 11 To persevere in the Infant-regeneration which is chiefly relative, is no 
 sufficient qualification for the acceptance of the adult, in whom ANOTHER 
 KIND OF REGENERATION (by inward real conversion and gracious qualifica- 
 tions and exercises) is necessary"^ 
 
 So that the highest view which he conceived could be taken 
 with respect to the regeneration of infants spoken of in the 
 Baptismal Service, fell far short of what our modern " High 
 Church-men" tell us is the only view honestly tenable. He 
 had no idea of an adult being said to be regenerate, because 
 he might have been, in a sense, justly called so as an infant. 
 
 * Sd.ed. 1677. 8vo. t p. 229. 
 
 $ Ib. pp. 281, 232. Ib. p. 256.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 497 
 
 -His " saving regeneration" of an infant, was not that " Spiri- 
 tual regeneration" by which a new principle of life is im- 
 planted in the soul, producing the sanctification of the reci- 
 pient. 
 
 Proceeding then to treat of the other sense, namely, a 
 *' federal regeneration," he says, 
 
 " There is another notion of Baptismal regeneration to be considered, 
 That baptism doth certainly admit persons into communion with the Church 
 of Christ, and to visible membership with him; and that every baptized 
 person, whether he be adult or infant, hath thereupon such titles belonging 
 to him, that he is to be called ' regenerate, a child of God, a member of 
 Christ,' upon the account of his being then admitted into the Christian 
 Society, and being received by Baptism to the profession of Christianity, 
 and under the Covenant of grace, whereby he is visibly such. . . . This 
 notion as it is extended to infants, as understanding them in this sense to be 
 regenerated in Baptism, WAS EMBRACED BY SOME IN OUR CHURCH FROM 
 KING EDWARD'S REIGN, and seemeth probably favored by some expressions 
 of Bishop [Archbishop] Whitgifl, and is more particularly expressed by 
 Bishop Carleton, and divers others." * 
 
 " Bishop Carleton declareth himself to this purpose. ' That young 
 children baptized are delivered from original sin we doubt not, and if they 
 die before they come to the practice of actual sins, they shall be saved :' 
 and ' that children baptized are put into the state of salvation, I make no 
 doubt of it, but,' saith he, ' this we must believe ex judicio charitatis.* 
 Which phrase of believing by the judgment of charity (which some have 
 thought improper) is, T conceive, the same with those words of St. Paul, 1 
 Cor. xiii. 7 : ' Charity believeth all things ;' that is, where there is nothing 
 that can determine us to the contrary, Christian charity requireth us to 
 entertain the most favorable apprehension, and to judge and hope the best. . . . 
 And they who entertain these apprehensions do acknowledge, that all bap- 
 tized infants or orthers are regenerated and justified Sacramento tenus; or 
 they are visibly such so far as concerneth their profession, and the applica- 
 tion of the means of grace ; and they may be affirmed to be such, according 
 to the usual language of the Holy Scriptures concerning Sacraments, and 
 the dispensation of the grace of God. 
 
 " And this notion, as it is very true, so it is made use of and manifestly 
 allowed in our Liturgy, in the Office for them who are baptized in riper 
 years : ' where every person then baptized is said to be c regenerated and 
 grafted into the body of Christ's Church, to be born again and made an 
 heir of everlasting salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, and to havo 
 now by Baptism put on Christ, being made a child of God and of the light.' 
 Yet it is not hereby intended to be dogmatically declared, that every adult 
 
 Ib. pp. 256, 257. 
 
 32
 
 498 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 person receiving baptism is thereby in a certain state of salvation, because 
 true faith and repentance which some such persons may possibly want are 
 in them necessary in order to the spiritual efficacy of the Sacraments, and 
 is so acknowledged by the doctrine of our Church. For as our Articles 
 declare, that ' those who receive baptism rightly, are thereby as by an 
 instrument graffed into the Church, and obtain remission of sins ' (Art. 
 27. ;) so they also assert concerning Sacraments, that ' in such only 
 who worthily receive the same, they have a wholesome effect and opera- 
 tion." * 
 
 BISHOP BURNET: 
 Bishop of Salisbury from 1689 to 1714. 
 
 Bishop Burnet, in his Comment on the 27th Article, thus 
 states the nature and effects of Baptism : 
 
 "The salvation that we Christians have by baptism, is effected by that 
 federation into which we enter, when upon the demands that are made of 
 our renouncing the devil, the world, and the flesh, and of our believing in 
 Christ, and our repentance towards God, we make such answers from a 
 good conscience as agree with the end and design of baptism ; then by our 
 thus coining into covenant with God, we are saved in baptism. So that 
 the salvation by baptism is given by reason of the federal compact that is 
 made in it. Now this being made outwardly, according to the rules that 
 are prescribed, that must make the baptism good among men, as to all the 
 outward and visible effects of it. But since it is the ' answer of a good 
 conscience ' only that ' saves,' then an answer from a bad conscience, from a 
 hypocritical person, who does not inwardly think or purpose, according to 
 what he professes outwardly, cannot save, but does on the contrary aggravate 
 his damnation. Therefore our Article puts the efficacy of baptism, in order 
 to the forgiveness of our sins, and to our adoption and salvation, upon the 
 virtue of prayer to God ; that is, upon those vows and other acts of devotion 
 that accompany them. So that when the seriousness of the mind accompa- 
 nies the regularity of the action, then both the outward and inward effects 
 of baptism are attained by it : and we are not only ' baptized into one Body,' 
 but are also { saved by baptism.' So that upon the whole matter, Baptism 
 is a federal admission into Christianity, in which, on God's part, all tho 
 blessings of the Gospel are made over to the baptized ; and on the other 
 hand, the person baptized takes on him, by a solemn profession and vow, to 
 observe and adhere to the whole Christian religion. So it is a very natural 
 distinction to say, that the outward effects of baptism follow it as outwardly 
 performed ; but that the inward effects of it follow upon the inward acts. 
 
 Ib. pp. 268-260.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 499 
 
 But this difference is still to be observed between inward acts and outward 
 actions, that when the outward action is rightly performed, the Church 
 must reckon the Baptism good, and never renew it. But if one has been 
 wanting in the inward acts, those may be afterwards renewed, and that 
 want may be made up by repentance." * 
 
 And having, in his Comment on the latter part of the 
 Article, proceeded to show the reasons for the Baptism of in- 
 fants, he makes these remarks, 
 
 " The office for baptising infants is in the same words with that for per- 
 sons of riper age ; because infants being then in the power of their parents, 
 who are of age, are considered as in them, and as binding themselves by 
 the vows that they make in their name. Therefore the office carries on THE 
 SUPPOSITION OF AN INTERNAL REGENERATION } and in that helpless state 
 the infant is offered up and dedicated to God ; and provided that when he 
 comes to age he takes those vows on himself, and lives like a person so in 
 covenant with God. then he shall find the full effects of baptism ; and if 
 he dies in that state of incapacity, he being dedicated to God, is certainly 
 accepted of by him ; and being put in the second Adam, all the bad effe'cts of 
 his having descended from the first Adam are quite taken away."f 
 
 Here, clearly, the inward effect of Baptism is connected 
 with future faith and repentance ; and " internal regenera- 
 tion" is said to be only "supposed" 
 
 ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON; 
 Archbishop of Canterbury from 1691 to 1694. 
 
 Among the works of Archbishop Tillotson are five Sermons 
 on " the nature of Regeneration and its necessity in order to 
 justification and salvation."! The following few extracts, 
 taken from a multitude of passages of the same kind, will fully 
 show the doctrine maintained in them : 
 
 " Regeneration is the change of a man's state from a state of sin to a 
 state of holiness ; which, because it is an entrance upon a new kind or 
 course of life, it is fitly resembled to regeneration, or a new birth ; to a 
 new creation, the man being as it were quite changed, or made over again, 
 
 Exposition of the XXXIX Articles, 6th ed. Lond. 1756. 8vo. pp. 879, 880. 
 
 t Ib. p. 383. 
 
 t Vol. 2 of the folio edition. They occur in pp. 324-349 of 5tli ed. 1785.
 
 500 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 so as not to be, as to the main purpose and design of his life, the same man 
 he was before."* 
 
 " As for others who are visibly reclaimed from a notorious wicked 
 course, in these we likewise frequently see this change gradually made, by 
 strong impressions made upon their minds, most frequently by the word of 
 God ; sometimes by his Providence whereby they are convinced of the evil 
 and danger of their course, and awakened to consideration, and melted into 
 sorrow and repentance, and perhaps exercised with great terrors of con- 
 science, till at length by the grace of God they come to a fixed purpose and 
 resolution of forsaking their sins and turning to God, and after many strag- 
 glings and conflicts with their lusts, and the strong bias of evil habits, this 
 resolution, assisted by the grace of God, doth effectually prevail, and make 
 a real change both in,the temper of their minds, and the course of their 
 lives; and when this is done, and not before, they are said to be re- 
 generate."^ 
 
 And when, in another place, he is describing the nature of 
 Baptism, he speaks of it thus, 
 
 " Baptism is a solemn rite appointed by our Saviour for the initiating 
 persons into the Christian religion. "J 
 
 ARCHBISHOP SHARP; 
 Archbishop of York from 1691 to 1714. 
 
 In one of his sermons he says, 
 
 " As for those that either through the occasion of a bad education, or 
 by the abusing of a good one, have engaged themselves in vicious courses, 
 and accordingly, from the time they came to years of discretion, have lived 
 in a state of sin and ungodliness ; these persons ARE NOT YET IN THE 
 REGENERATE STATE (if we speak as to the inward spiritual part of it,) and 
 must, if ever they mean to be saved, some time or other undergo a real 
 change and transformation, both in their principles and their course of 
 living."* 
 
 And he adds at the latter part of the sermon a notice of 
 " the marks and signs of regeneration," to enable a man to 
 "discern that he is in a regenerate condition;" and after 
 mentioning several, he concludes, " the truest mark is that 
 of our Saviour, The tree is known by its fruits. "|| 
 
 * pp. 841, 842. f Ib - PP- 842 348 - 
 
 I Ib. Serm *70. p. 452. 
 
 Sermons, vol. 8. serin. 18. p. 294. ed. 1729. 8vo. 
 
 | Ib. pp. 299-806.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 501 
 
 This shows that though he speaks of infants as being re- 
 generated by baptism, (p. 280,) he means, so far as he is 
 speaking of them universally, only in some qualified sense ; 
 for he maintains, that adults who have not experienced a 
 spiritual renewing of the mind, "are not yet regenerate," 
 though baptized in infancy. And in the commencement of the 
 sermon (which is on Rom. xii. 2, " Be ye transformed by the 
 renewing of your minds,") he describes regeneration as con- 
 sisting of two parts : 
 
 " The being transformed," he says, " by the renewing of our minds, 
 which is here spoken of, though it be commonly understood to be the whole 
 of regeneration, yet it is really but one part of it, though indeed it be THE 
 PRINCIPAL PART. For regeneration, or the new birth, consists of two parts, 
 an outward profession of Christ's religion, and an inward sanctification or 
 holiness of heart and life." (p. 279.) 
 
 BISHOP JOHN WILLIAMS; 
 Bishop of Chichester from 1696 to 1709. 
 
 In his " Brief Exposition of the Church Catechism," we 
 have the following question and answer, in which Baptism 
 and the New Birth are distinctly spoken of as separable. 
 
 "Q. Is baptism alone sufficient to salvation? 
 
 " A. No ; not alone without the New Birth thereby signified, unless we 
 are dead unto sin, and alive unto God through Jesus Christ. Rom. vi. 3, 4, 
 11."* 
 
 And the words, " made a member of Christ, &c.," he evi- 
 dently considers as equivalent to being made a member of the 
 visible Church. 
 
 WILLIAM BURKITT, 1693 ; d. 1703. 
 
 Mr. Burkitt, Vicar of Dedham, Essex, is the well-known 
 author of a highly esteemed Commentary on the New Testa- 
 ment. Of the work I am about to quote, entitled "A Help 
 and Gruide to Christian Families," first published in 1693, I 
 
 * 13th ed. Lond. 1701. 8vo. p. 68. Camb. Univ. Lib. C. xii 17.
 
 602 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 need only say that it has been for many years on the list of 
 the " Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge." In this 
 work he writes thus : 
 
 " Q. When may you be said to be regenerate? 
 
 "A. When (together with a new name conferred upon me in baptism) 1 
 there is a new nature, by the sanctifying Spirit of God, wrought in me r 
 enabling me to bring forth the fruits of sobriety, righteousness, and godli- 
 ness, in my daily conversation. 
 
 " Q. What occasion is there for such a renovating change to be wrought 
 in you ? 
 
 " A. Very much ; namely, to restore my depraved nature to its primi- 
 tive integrity. Accordingly, I need the Spirit of God's assistance, in concur- 
 rence with my own endeavours, to enlighten my dark understanding, to 
 conquer the rebellion of my will, to rectify the disorders of my affections, 
 to subdue the violence of my unruly passions and appetites, and to reduce 
 those rebellious powers under the government and dominion of reason and 
 religion. 
 
 " Q. Why is such a regenerating change absolutely necessary ? 
 
 " A. In order to our being made partakers of the benefits of the covenant 
 of grace, as also to qualify us for, and entitle us to the kingdom of glory; 
 for ' except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' (Jolnv 
 iii. 3.} 
 
 ******* 
 
 " Q. What is baptism ? 
 
 " A. An holy institution of Christ, for the benefit of believers and their 
 seed, wherein, by washing with water, in the name of the Father, Son, and 
 Holy Ghost, is signified the inward purification of the soul by the blood and 
 Spirit of Christ. 
 
 " Q. Is baptism in infancy to be reiterated and repeated when a person 
 comes to riper years ? 
 
 "A. By no means; this being the Sacrament of our initiation, or 
 entrance into the visible Church, is, and ought to be, but once per- 
 formed. 
 
 "Q. Who are to be baptized? 
 
 " A. Not only believers, but their infant offspring, who are taken into 
 covenant with God, together with themselves. Gen. xvii. 7, 19."* 
 
 DR. THOMAS BRAY, 1699 ; d. 1730. 
 
 Dr. Bray was the well-known and respected founder of the 
 Society still called, " The Associates of Dr. Bray," which from 
 
 - * Pp. 192-210 of the edition printed Lond. Whittaker, 1824. 12mo.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 5Q3 
 
 the first has always received the highest Ecclesiastical sanc- 
 tion in our Church. About 1696, he published a Course of 
 Lectures on -the Catechism, of which his biographer says, 
 
 u It was esteemed by many of the first distinction in the Church as the 
 most accurate performance extant on the subject ; and was dedicated to that 
 very learned prelate, Bishop Lloyd, by whose persuasion it was published, 
 and of whose favour and esteem Mr. Bray had a more than ordinary 
 share."* 
 
 The third edition of this work appeared in 1699,f and 
 from it I take the following extracts. 
 
 In Lecture VI., on " The Privileges of being Members of 
 Christ's Church," he says, 
 
 " All these forementioned privileges do belong to the members of Christ's 
 Church, to such as have been baptized and professed themselves to be 
 Christians. To understand which rights and privileges the better, you 
 mifet know, that as there are * two sorts of members in the visible Church, 
 so there are two kinds of priviledges that belong to each sort,' as one rightly 
 states this matter, * each having those privileges, which are proper and 
 peculiar to them, according to the relation they bear to the Head and their 
 fellow-members.' 
 
 " First, * There are members only by foederal or covenant holiness, such 
 as are only born of water, when, by baptism, they are united to Christ and 
 the Church, and take upon them the profession and practice of the Christian 
 religion. Now the privileges that do belong to these are of the same make 
 with their Church-membership, outward, and consist only in outward and 
 public communion with the Church in word and ordinances," . 
 
 " Secondly, ' There are members by real and inherent holiness, such aa 
 are not only born of water, but of the Spirit also, when by the inward opera- 
 tion of the Holy Ghost their souls are renewed after the image of God, and 
 made partakers of a divine nature. And the privileges that do belong to 
 these are not only the forementioned ones, but together with them, others 
 that are suitable to their more spiritual relations inward," &c. (p. 77.) 
 
 Again, in Lect. vii., on the meaning of the phrase " child 
 of Grod," in the Catechism, he writes thus, 
 
 " There are those who are the children of God by spiritual regeneration, 
 by being renewed in the spirit of their minds, and by being created anew 
 
 Life and designs of the Rev. Dr. Bray. 2nd ed. Loud. 1808, 8vo, p. 4. 
 
 f A Course of Lectures upon the Church Catechism, in four volumes. Vol. 1. 
 8ded. By T. Bray, D. D. Amsterdam, 1699. 8vo. The title of this edition 
 differs from those of the two preceding editions, and the work is much enlarged. 
 Dr. Bray was in Holland part of the year 1699, which accounts for the place 
 where it was printed The other vols. were never published. %
 
 504 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 in righteousness and true holiness. . . . They are such, who are born, not only 
 of water, but also of the Spirit, that is, who have not only been baptized into 
 the Christian Church, but have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and have 
 their whole natures and dispositions so altered for the better, that from vicious 
 and ungodly, they are changed to virtuous and holy disposition and inclina- 
 tions. And such a vast change wrought in our natures by the Word and 
 Spirit of God, may very justly give those who enjoy it the title of the children 
 of God. . . . But then all who are the children of God, either in the sense of 
 Scripture, or of your Catechism, are not actually thus regenerate. As to the 
 sense of Scripture, it is plain. . . . And as to the meaning of a child of 
 God here in your Catechism, it is also plain that it is not only such as are 
 renewed in the spirit of their minds and do imitate God, that are there to be 
 understood ; for every one who is catechized is required to answer, that ' in 
 his baptism he was made a child of God, 7 whereas many catechumens are not 
 actually as yet renewed and really converted, and by their own fault many 
 will never be ; so that a child of God by spiritual regeneration and a god- 
 like imitation, expresses rather the duty of every one, what he ought to be r 
 than the notion and nature of a privilege, which many may enjoy, who. in 
 the mean time are not over dutiful. So that a child of God by spiritual 
 regeneration^ or a Godlike imitation, is a meaning of the word as much too 
 narrow to be the sense of it here in your Catechism, as a child by creation 
 was too wide. (pp. 88, 90.) 
 
 BISHOP THOMAS WILSON; 
 Bishop of Sodor and Man from 1697 to 1755. 
 
 The following passages are from this Apostolie Bishop's 
 " Maxims of Piety and of Christianity;" a work circulated by 
 the " Society for promoting Christian Knowledge." 
 
 " A regenerate person cannot sin. (1 John iii . IK) 
 " That is. he has by faith and the grace of God got such an habit of holi- 
 ness, such an inclination to virtue, that he cannot, upon any temptation, 
 knowingly consent to transgress the laws of God. Having overcome the 
 world, that is, all those temptations by which men are led to commit sin r 
 he is dead to sin ; that is, he can no more sin deliberately than a dead man 
 can breathe. 
 
 " Regeneration. 
 
 " The only certain proof of regeneration is victory. ' He that is born 
 of God overeometh the world.' (1 John v. 4.) When we live by faith; 
 when faith has subdued the will, hath wrought repentance not to be re- 
 pented of, (2 Cor. vii. 10,) hath conquered our corruptions; then, to him 
 that overcometh, will God give to eat of the tree of life."* 
 
 " Works. Bath. 1796. 8vo. vol 4. p. 278.
 
 EFFECTS OP BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 505 
 
 BISHOP WILLIAM BEVERTDGE; 
 Bishop of St. Asaph from 1704 to 1708. 
 
 Bishop Beveridge is often quoted as an advocate of the 
 doctrine that spiritual regeneration, in the full sense of the 
 phrase, is invariably bestowed in Baptism. We have seen, 
 however, ample reason to be cautious how we allow an au- 
 thor's doctrine to be determined by a few passages taken apart 
 from his other statements on the same subject. There is no 
 other point of doctrine on which this caution is so necessary, 
 as that under our consideration in these pages. And we shall 
 find that Bishop Beveridge's works, as a whole, entirely nega- 
 tive such a view. 
 
 Thus, his defence, in his Commentary on the Articles, of 
 the word regeneration, as connected with baptism, is quoted 
 as if it meant that regeneration was always conferred in Bap- 
 tism, whereas in the context we read, 
 
 '' In baptism our faith is confirmed, and grace increased not by virtue 
 of the water itself, but by virtue of prayer, whereby God is prevailed with 
 to purify our souls by his Spirit, as our bodies are washed with the water."* 
 
 And at the end of his remarks he says, 
 
 " We must pray for God's presence in the Sacrament ; for without that 
 we can receive no blessing from it ; but with that there is no blessing but 
 we may have in it."f 
 
 And in the same place, we may observe, he expressly limits 
 the right of infants to baptism to the children of believers, on 
 account of baptism being the seal of the covenant. He says, 
 
 " Seeing all disciples are to be baptized, infants, the children of believ- 
 ing parents, amongst the rest, must be baptized too ; for that they are dis- 
 ciples is clear, from theif being circumcised under the Law : for that argued 
 they were in covenant with God, otherwise they could not have had the seal 
 of the covenant administered to them ; and if they were in the covenant 
 with God, they must needs be disciples ; to be a disciple, and to be in 
 covenant with God being one and the same thing. So that all that are ia 
 covenant with God are his disciples ; and all that are his disciples are in 
 covenant with him. And again of children our Saviour saith, 'Of such 
 is the kingdom of God.' Mark x. 14. And therefore they must needs be 
 
 * Discourse upon the XXXIX Articles. Oxf. 1646. Sro. p. 456. 
 t Ib. p. 459.
 
 <fi06 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 disciples, unless such as are not disciples should be thought to belong unto 
 the Kingdom of God. But I need not insist any longer upon this, to prove 
 little children to be disciples, if their parents be. For so long as children, 
 they are looked upon as parts of their parents, and therefore what their 
 parents are they must needs be ; if their parents be heathens, the children 
 are heathens: if their parents be Christians, the children are Christians 
 too."* 
 
 So in his Exposition of the Church Catechism, it would be 
 easy to quote passages which would seem to imply that spiri- 
 tual regeneration always accompanied Baptism ; but the pas- 
 sages obviously prove too much when so interpreted, because 
 they would show that all adults are necessarily regenerated in 
 baptism, and therefore they must be received as applying to 
 those cases in which baptism works its full end and purpose, 
 whether in respect to adults or infants. In this very Exposi- 
 tion he says, 
 
 " When a person is to be baptized, he is first asked in the name of God, 
 and in the presence of the congregation, as witnesses of it, whether he doth 
 renounce and will forsake all manner of sins ? To which he answereth, ' I 
 renounce them all.' And if he makes this answer heartily, sincerely, and 
 wtih a good conscience, so AS AFTERWARDS TO PERFORM WHAT HE THEN 
 PROMISED, he partakes of the grace signified in this sacrament, and is cer- 
 tainly saved by it ."f 
 
 And commenting on the question, " Why then are infants 
 baptized," &c., he says, 
 
 " The reason is, Not only because they have the seeds of repentance 
 and faith in them, which may afterwards grow up to perfection ; but chiefly, 
 because they then ' promise to perform them :' which is as much as we 
 know adult persons or those of riper years do. They only profess and 
 promise to repent and believe : but whether they really do so, OR EVER 
 WILL, is known only to God. SO infants make the same profession and 
 promise though not in their persons, yet by their sureties or guardians, 
 which do it in their name and stead. And when they come to age, they 
 are as much bound to perform what they so promised, as if they had done 
 it themselves in their own person." | 
 
 From this it would appear, that he held that in the case of 
 infants, there was a similar condition to that required for 
 adults. 
 
 * Ib. pp. 426, 463. 
 
 f The Church 'Catechism explained. 4th ed. Lend. 1709. 12mo. pp. 126,129. 
 
 $ Ib. pp. 129, 130.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 Again, in his Sermons, he thus expresses his views : 
 
 " We may here observe, that the saints and servants of the most High 
 
 God, such as Peter was, are begotten again of him How this 
 
 wonderful work is effected, is past our reach to apprehend ; we know not, 
 how we were formed at first, much less how we are born again ; only in 
 general we may observe, that all men that proceed naturally from the first 
 Adam are conceived and born in sin, their nature is corrupted and depraved, 
 so that they are prone of themselves to do evil, and unable to do anything 
 that is truly good ; but WHEN A MAN BELIEVES IN CHRIST THE SECOND 
 ADAM, and so is made a member of his Body, he is quickened and animated 
 by his Spirit, which being the principle of a new life in him, he thereby 
 becomes a new creature, another kind of creature, from what he was before, and 
 therefore is properly said to be born again, ' not of blood, nor of the will of 
 the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' John i. 13." 
 
 " The new man or new creature is acted and governed by the Spirit of 
 God himself, which is infinite; and whereas other men are born only of the 
 flesh, such a one is regenerate, or born again of the Spirit ; and so there i 
 the same difference between him and them, as there is between spirit and 
 flesh, according to that remarkable saying of our blessed Saviour, ' that 
 which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' 
 John iii. 6. For everything being of the same nature with that from 
 whence it proceeds, as they who are born (as all men by nature are) of the 
 flesh are carnal and sensual, so they are carnal and sensual like the flesh 
 they are born of; so they are born again, being then born of the Holy 
 Spirit of God, are thereby made holy and spiritual, of the same nature with 
 him from whom they receive their new birth."f 
 
 "He [Christ] having suffered death for our sins, and being raised again 
 from the dead, was exalted to the right hand of God, and made the media- 
 tor between him and us ; by virtue of which mediation he sends down his 
 Holy Spirit upon all that believe in him, to regenerate or beget them again 
 and make them the children of God : and so it is written, ' as many as re- 
 ceive him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them 
 that believe in his name.' John i. 12. He gives them this power by giving 
 them his Holy Spirit to accomplish this great work in them ; that as he is 
 the only begotten Son of God, begotten- of his essence from all eternity, so 
 they who believe in him may be begotten again of God, and so made his 
 children by adoption and grace, which he could not have done if he had 
 not been raised from the dead."| 
 
 Again, in a Sermon on John i. 12, entitled, " Faith in 
 Christ our title to the privilege of Sonship," he writes thus : 
 
 " What it is properly to be the sons of God, is the next thing to be con- 
 
 * Works, 1720. 2. vols. foL or 2d ed. 1729. Senn. 73. Vol. I p- 609. 
 tlb.p.610. '|Ib.pc61L
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 sidered. And we need not go far for the understanding of it, having it 
 explained in the words following my text ; where these sons of God are 
 said to be ' born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will 
 of man, but of God ; ' that is, they are the sons of God, not in a carnal but 
 spiritual sense j not as they were born of their natural parents, but as 
 being born again of God himself: born, not properly begotten; for that is 
 peculiar to Christ, who is therefore called the only-begotten of the Father, 
 and is never said to be born, but only begotten of him : whereas others are 
 said to be born of him, not by eternal generation, as Christ was, and none 
 but he ever was, or can be, from the Essence of his Father, but by spiritual 
 regeneration, through the mighty power and efficacy of the Holy Ghost, 
 renewing the spirit of their minds, and so infusing into them a principle of 
 new life, whereby they become new creatures, and have the image of God 
 enstamped again upon them, so as to be partakers of his divine nature, and 
 holy in their capacities as he is holy. . . . But here we must observe the 
 condition upon which Christ gives those who received this power or privi- 
 lege to become the sons of God, even because they believe in his name ; for 
 so the words in the original plainly import, and may be thus rendered ' But 
 as many as received him, to them, as believing in his name, he gave power 
 to become the sons of God.' So that it is upon the account of their believing 
 in him, that he is pleased to confer this honor upon them. And so indeed 
 by the Gospel tenure, all our right and title to the great blessings which 
 Christ hath purchased for mankind, is founded upon our believing in him. 
 It is by that our sins are pardoned, our persons justified, and our souls 
 
 saved And so particularly our being REGENERATE, or made the sons 
 
 of God, that, as I have observed, is wrought in us, and for us, by the Spirit 
 
 of God ; but that is given only to those who believe in Christ Hence 
 
 it is, that as St. John expressly tells us, ' Whosoever believeth that Jesus is 
 the Christ, is born of God,' 1 John v. 1, because by his believing in Jesus 
 Christ, he receives the Spirit of God, whereby he is regenerate and born 
 again of him. And to the same purpose St. Paul saith, c Ye are all the 
 children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.' Gal. iii. 26. From whence it 
 is manifest, that as we are made the children of God only by Christ, we 
 are made so by him, only upon our believing in him." * 
 
 Now, there is no meaning in words, if these passages do 
 not signify, that no man is a spiritually regenerate person who 
 has not been made so through a true and living faith. How- 
 ever, then, the Bishop may in other places appear to connect 
 the spiritual birth with Baptism, (and I grant that such pas- 
 sages are to be found,) here are his own words to balance such 
 statements ; and whatever we may determine his precise view 
 
 Serm. 81. VoL 2. pp. 82-84.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 509 
 
 to have been,* the above passages are, to a certain extent, 
 clear and decisive. 
 
 JOSEPH BINGHAM, 17061722 ; d. 1723. 
 
 Mr. Bingham, in his "Antiquities of the Christian Church," 
 has given us an account of the names applied to Baptism by 
 the Fathers. These names we sometimes hear quoted as 
 showing what Baptism works, wherever it is administered. 
 In fact, the names applied to Baptism, and the descriptions 
 given of its effects, seem to be the principal arguments pro- 
 ducible for the notion I am here opposing of spiritual regene- 
 ration being always conferred by it. Such phrases, however, 
 (as I have already remarked,) can prove nothing as to its effects 
 in particular cases, because it is admitted, that adults do not 
 universally receive the full baptismal blessing, and therefore 
 these phrases must be understood conditionally. It may be 
 well, however, to point out that our learned Bingham, when 
 enumerating these names, remarks more than once, that such 
 titles are only descriptive of what Baptism works in the case 
 of worthy recipients. 
 
 Thus, speaking of its being called "Indulgence," or "Ab- 
 solution," he says 
 
 <c Whenever the ancients call baptism by the name of { Absolution,' or 
 ' Indulgence,' they are to be understood with this limitation, that it is so 
 only to those who are worthy receivers of it." f 
 
 Again, speaking of other titles, 
 
 " Such honorable titles and appellations did the ancients give to this 
 Sacrament of Baptism, taken from the noble effects which it was supposed 
 to confer on all those who were worthy partakers of it." J 
 
 " Another sort of names given to Baptism, were taken from the condi- 
 tions required of all those that received it, which were the profession of a 
 true faith and a sincere repentance. . . . Whence we may observe, what 
 
 * Probably we should not be far wrong in considering his view to have been 
 much like that of Dr. Jackson and others, distinguishing between an infantine 
 and an adult regeneration; and holding that though the expressions "regen- 
 erated " and " born of the Spirit," might properly be, in a sense, applied to 
 baptized infants, yet that this regeneration was not that spiritual regeneration 
 spoken of in Scripture as necessary for adults. 
 
 t Book, xi. c. 1. 2. Works, ed. 1843. vol. ill p. 401. 
 
 \ Ib. 5. p. 406.
 
 510 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 $ie ancients mean, when they speak of penance and absolution, or remis- 
 sion of sins, as a Sacrament. For they themselves explain their own 
 meaning to be baptism, which is a Sacrament requiring repentance as a 
 condition, and granting absolution as an effect and privilege to all worthy 
 receivers.'' # 
 
 But in his work entitled, " The French Church's Apology 
 for the Church of England," he makes some remarks still 
 more pertinent to our present subject. One of the chapters 
 of that work is devoted to the defence of the rubric of our 
 Church as to the salvation of baptized infants dying in their 
 infancy, against the censures of Mr. Baxter. And he there 
 tells us, that as to the effect of Baptism in infants, " The 
 Church of England," and "the French and other Reformed 
 Churches," 
 
 l( All speak and mean the same thing, which is no more than this : that 
 all children who have a just right to baptism, and are truly qualified for tY, 
 and are lawfully and duly baptized, are thereby put into a solvable condition, 
 in which if they die without committing actual sin, thev will certainly be 
 saved." f 
 
 Now certainly if our Church speaks and means the same 
 thing with the French, (in which, as Bingham adds, every 
 minister at that time subscribed and swore to believe and 
 maintain the decrees of the Synod of Dort,) and other Re- 
 formed Churches, there can be no doubt that she does not hold 
 that every child is spiritually regenerated in Baptism. 
 
 And he goes on to say, that the rubric " speaks only of the 
 children of believers, who have a right to baptism, and no 
 others;" and shows that the doctrine of the rubric, so under- 
 stood, was the doctrine of Calvin, Beza, Peter Martyr, and 
 the French National Synod held at Charenton in 1623.1 
 
 BISHOP BRADFORD; 
 
 Bishop of Carlisle from 1718 to 1723 ; and of Rochester 
 from 1723 to 1731. 
 
 Bishop Bradford, when Rector of St. Mary-le-Bow, previous 
 
 * Ib. $ 8. p. 410. f Bk. iii. c. 18. Works, voL 9. p. 168. 
 
 t Ib. pp. 168, 169.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 611 
 
 to his being raised to the Episcopal office, published a little 
 treatise entitled, " A Discourse concerning Baptismal and 
 Spiritual Regeneration" which was adopted by the Society 
 for Promoting Christian Knowledge, as one of their tracts; 
 and has remained for more than a century on their list of 
 books, the seventh edition being published by them in 1810, 
 with the following "Advertisement" appended to it. "This 
 seventh edition is published at a time, when it is hoped that 
 so judicious and scriptural a discourse may be of service to 
 settle the minds of good Christians, in some present disputes 
 concerning baptismal and spiritual regeneration." 
 
 The discourse is on the text, Tit. iii. 47, particularly on 
 the words, " He saved us by the washing of regeneration and 
 the renewing of the Holy Grhost," in verse 5. And having 
 pointed out, that "the washing of regeneration " signifies bap- 
 tism, by which they are "regenerated into a new state" by 
 admission into the Church, and that the " renewing of the 
 Holy Ghost" is "what in the Prophet Ezekiel is represented 
 oy God's 'giving to men a new heart and a new spirit,'" &c., 
 and "what our Lord himself means in his discourse with 
 Nicodemus by ' being born of the Spirit ;' " he proceeds, in his 
 fourth division, to show, 
 
 " That the washing of regeneration may be separated from the renewing 
 of the Holy Ghost ; and that if it be so, the end for which it is used, namely, 
 our salvation, cannot be obtained, the latter being absolutely necessary in 
 order to our being saved in the complete sense of that word." * 
 
 And upon this head he remarks, 
 
 " It is the way of the Scriptures to speak to and of the visible members of 
 the Church of Christ, under such appellations and expressions as may seem 
 at first hearing to imply, that they are all of them truly righteous and holy 
 persons. Thus the Apostles style those to whom they write, in general, 
 ' saints ;' speak of them as ' sanctified in Christ Jesus, chosen of God, buried 
 with Christ in baptism, risen again with him from the dead, sitting with 
 him in heavenly places :' and particularly St. Paul in my text says, ' they 
 were saved by the washing of regeneration,' &c. The reason of which is, 
 that they were visibly by obligation and by profession all this ; which was 
 thus represented to them, the more effectually to stir them up and engage 
 them to live according to their profession and obligation. But yet it is too 
 
 * Christian Knowl. Soc. ed. of 1836. p. 25.
 
 512 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 evident, from divers passages in their writings, and experience has confirmed 
 to us the same thing, that both in their times, and ever since, there have been 
 many who have enjoyed 'the washing of regeneration,' whose temper and 
 manners have demonstrated that they were not also ' renewed by the Holy 
 Ghost.' .... I take it for granted that I need not insist upon any proof of 
 this matter ; but only further observe that Baptismal regeneration, when 
 separated from the renewing of the Holy Ghost, must necessarily be ineffec- 
 tual to the salvation of men's souls. St. Paul in my text joins them together, 
 as concurring in the work of our salvation ; and our Saviour, in the place 
 before cited, makes the being, ' born of the Spirit,' as well as of l water,' 
 necessary to ' the entering into the kingdom of God.' St. Peter in like 
 manner, where he mentions baptism as saving us, adds, to prevent all mis- 
 take, 'not the putting away the filth of the flesh, (not that merely,) but the 
 answer of a good conscience towards God,' 1 Pet. iii. 21, that also is 
 necessary to salvation: namely, when the baptized person's heart, and 
 consequently his life, agree with his profession and obligation. What St. 
 Paul says of the Jews, may be repeated with respect to Christians also, 
 with a little variation of the words ; ' He is not a Christian, which is one 
 outwardly ; neither is that regeneration (namely, such as will be effectual 
 to salvation) which is outward in the flesh ; but he is a Christian which is 
 one inwardly : and regeneration is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not 
 in the letter; whose praise is not of men but of God. Rom. ii. 28, 29."* 
 
 And his last head is, 
 
 " To inquire how those persons, who have had ' the washing of regen- 
 eration,' but are not yet ' renewed by the Holy Ghost, may attain to this 
 renovation."! 
 
 HENRY STEBBING, 1722; d. 1763; 
 
 Chancellor of Salisbury. 
 
 Mr. Stebbing published in 1772 " Discourses upon several 
 Subjects," of which the first is on " Regeneration, or the New- 
 birth." This discourse is partly an abridgment of some re- 
 marks of the excellent Dr. Clagett, so that we see in it the 
 view of both these divines. The discourses are dedicated to 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 The following passages will show the views inculcated in 
 this work. 
 
 " There will be little room to doubt what is meant by being regenerate, 
 * Ib, pp. 26-27. f Ib. p. 2.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 513 
 
 when we have seen how our Saviour himself has explained that phrase. 
 After having told Nicodemus, John iii. 3, that ' except a man be born again, 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God,' he adds, ver. 5, ' 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.' This latter verse, you see, sets forth the particu- 
 lars of that new-birth which in the former our Saviour had spoken of under 
 general terms. So that if the.se particulars do constitute the whole of what 
 is meant by being a true disciple of Jesus Christ, and no more ; it will 
 follow (Christ himself being his own interpreter) that to be regenerate 
 signifies no more than being a true disciple of Jesus Christ. And that this 
 is the truth of the case, I shall now endeavour to make appear, by shewing. 
 First, that to be ' born of water ' signifies the being received or admitted as 
 proselytes to Christ by baptism. And, Secondly, That to be ' born of the 
 
 Spirit' DENOTES THAT LOVE AND SUBMISSION TO CHRIST WROUGHT IN US 
 BY THE SPIRIT, WHICH LEADS TO OBEDIENCE TO ALL HIS COMMAND- 
 MENTS."* 
 
 " To be ' born of God,' or to be ' born of the Spirit,' denotes such a 
 faith in Jesus Christ, as begets a conformity of mind to his laws and com- 
 mandments ; which will appear yet further from the words of St. Paul, 
 Gal. vi. 15. 'In Christ Jesus,' says he, 'neither circumcision availeth 
 anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature" .... Who sees not 
 here that this new creature, this spiritual birth, is equivalent to that faith 
 which worketh by love to the keeping the commandments of GW?"f 
 
 " You see now what is the true and full import of being regenerate or 
 born again; viz., That it implies, 1. A state of prosclytism to Christ by 
 baptism ; and 2. A state of conformity to his doctrine and precepts, which 
 is that which our baptism engages us to. Now though this is the only 
 complete and adequate notion of regeneration, yet you cannot but have 
 observed in going along, that to be regenerate, and those other phrases 
 equivalent to it, are frequently used in a more confined sense, and have a 
 peculiar, or at least a more principal relation, sometimes to the one of the 
 above-mentioned particulars, and sometimes to the other. In the texts 
 cited in the foregoing paragraph, to be ' born of God,' and to be 'a new 
 creature,' do certainly denote that submission or subjection to the will 
 of Christ, which the Spirit works in the heart of every true disciple. For 
 this is that, and that only, which both enables us to ' overcome the world,' 
 and makes it impossible for us (so long as it lasts) to be overcome by it. 
 But when St. Paul speaks of the ' Laver of regeneration,' Tit. iii. 5., there 
 the word ' regeneration ' peculiarly signifies that state which we are ad- 
 mitted to by our baptism; i. e. the state of proselytism or discipleship, 
 which is here expressly distinguished from the a.v*x*.tvu<rte nttfjat.ro; nyicu, 
 the ' renewing of the Holy GhostJ or that inward change of mind which 
 leads us to obedience. "$ 
 
 * Discourses upon several subjects, p. 4. in Polemical Tracts by H. Stebbing. 
 Cambr. 1727. fol. 
 
 f Ib. p. 5. t Ib. p. 6. 
 
 33
 
 '514 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 And observing that the remarks he had been making re- 
 specting regeneration, applied more particularly to the case of 
 adults, he adds, 
 
 " It is under this view that it is most commonly treated of in Scripture. 
 The first preachers of the Gospel were principally concerned with those 
 who were to be brought over from Judaism, or Heathenism, to the faith of 
 the Gospel. When therefore they speak of regeneration, they speak of it 
 generally as it relates to such. But there is a sense of regeneration, in which 
 it is common to all baptized persons, infants as well as adult ; as well 
 as a sense in which it is peculiar to the adult only. The adult only can 
 be said to be regenerate, as that word implies under it a change of mind 
 from evil to good, or a conformity of the will and affections to tne com- 
 mandments of Christ. But the word regenerate (as has been shown) 
 is in Scripture sometimes used to denote that relative state which a man 
 stands in towards God as the disciple of Jesus Christ : and consequently, 
 THUS FAR, OR IN THIS SENSE, every disciple of Jesus Christ, i. e. every 
 person who has been received as a member of Christ's Church by baptism^ 
 is regenerate." * 
 
 Here the regeneration attributed to baptism is clearly con- 
 fined to the notion of an introduction into the visible Church ; 
 which of course is in all cases the effect of baptism. 
 
 THOMAS STACKHOUSE; 
 Vicar of Beenham, Berks; died 1752. 
 
 This "learned and laborious divine," as Chalmers calls 
 him, was the author of several well known works of good re- 
 pute, and much esteemed, both in their day and since ; par- 
 ticularly his "History of the Bible." Among other works, he 
 published a " Body of Divinity," in folio, in 1729, which passed 
 through four editions in the course of a few years. 
 
 In this work, regarding baptism as "the instrument of 
 making men members of Christ's visible Body,"* he thus 
 speaks on the subject of Regeneration : 
 
 "From what has been said on this subject, thus far pursued, we may 
 plainly perceive, that regeneration is that change and alteration in a man, 
 whereby his nature, which is corrupted by sin, is sanctified and purified; 
 whereby his iniquities are purged away ; and he, by God's Spirit, endued 
 
 Ib. pp. 12, 13.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 515 
 
 with true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. And we come now to 
 show the absolute necessity of it, in order to our future happiness. St. Paul, 
 speaking of some who desired to make a fair show in the flesh, and con- 
 strained others to be circumcised, tells us expressly, that in Christ Jesus, 
 neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new 
 creature. Circumcision, we know, was an ordinance of God's own institu- 
 tion, the seal of the covenant between him and his people, a mark of 
 distinction between them and other nations, and a symbol of inward purity, 
 or sanctity of mind ; and yet the Apostle tells those that held themselves 
 obliged to the observation of it, that all its supposed privileges and preroga- 
 tives, without a renovation of their nature, availed nothing. And by 
 parity of reason, he must be interpreted to say to us, that our sacramental 
 washing in baptism, our spiritual gifts and endowments, our profound 
 knowledge and learning, our observation of the ordinances of Christ, and 
 our outward acts of religious worship, will all avail us nothing, unless we 
 have A NEW PRINCIPLE implanted in MS, such as influences our lives and 
 produces evangelical obedience. 11 f 
 
 " And he then proceeds to point out the " difference be- 
 tween the regenerate and unregenerate," that we may know 
 "whether we are regenerate or no;" and closes with the re- 
 mark, 
 
 If ye experimentally find, that the grace of God's Holy Spirit has begun 
 the work of regeneration in your souls, has renewed your mind, and tamed 
 your passions, and changed your lives, rejoice and be exceeding glad, because 
 your renovation, being thus happily commenced, is a good pledge and reason 
 to hope, that your names shall be written in the Book of Life."t 
 
 ARCHBISHOP SECKER; 
 
 Bishop of Bristol from 1734 to 1737; of Oxford from 1737 
 to 1758 ; Archbishop of Canterbury from 1758 to 1768. 
 
 The following extracts are from the Archbishop's Lectures 
 on the Catechism. 
 
 Speaking of the promises made for the infant, he says, 
 
 " If Baptism had been administered to children, without anything said 
 to express its meaning, it would have had too much the appearance of an 
 insignificant ceremony or a superstitious charm. And if only the privileges, 
 to which it intitled, had been rehearsed ; they might seem annexed to it 
 absolutely, without any conditions to be observed on the children's part. It 
 
 2d ed. Lond. 1734. fol. p. 721. t Ib. pp. 969, 970- $ Ib. pp. 970, 971.
 
 516 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 was therefore needful to express the conditions also. Now it would naturally 
 appear the strongest and liveliest way of expressing them, to represent the 
 infant as promising by others then, what he was to promise by and for 
 himself, as soon as he could. So the Form, used already for persons grown 
 up, was applied with a few changes, to children also. And though, by such 
 application, some words and phrases must appear a little strange, if they 
 were strictly interpreted ; yet the intention of them was and is understood 
 to be a very proper one ; declaring in the fullest manner what the child is 
 to do hereafter, by a figure and representation made of it at present."* 
 
 Here the enjoyment of the full baptismal blessing, even in 
 the case of infants, is expressly made to depend on the per- 
 formance of the conditions. 
 
 Again, in the latter part of his Lectures, speaking to the 
 same point, after having observed, 
 
 " Indeed the mere outward act of being baptized is, as St. Peter, in the 
 words already mentioned, very truly expresses it, the mere ' putting away of 
 the filth of the flesh;' unless it be made effectual to save us, as he teaches, 
 in the same place, it must, by ' the answer of a good conscience towards 
 God ;' that is, by the sincere stipulation and engagement of ' repentance 
 whereby we forsake sin, and faith, whereby we believe the promises of G ( od 
 made to us in that sacrament;' " 
 
 he adds, respecting the case of children, that although they 
 cannot exercise repentance and faith, yet, 
 
 "In the mean time baptism may very fitly be administered; because 
 God, on his part, can certainly express by it, both his removing, at present, 
 the disadvantages which they lie under by the sin of Adam : and his 
 removing hereafter, on proper conditions, the disadvantages which they 
 may come to lie under by their own sins. And though they cannot, on their 
 parts, expressly promise to perform these conditions, yet they are not only 
 bound to perform them, whether they promise it or not ; but (which is the 
 point our Catechism insists on) their sureties promise for them, that they 
 shall be made sensible, as soon as may be, that they are so bound ; and 
 ratify the engagement in their own persons : WHICH WHEN THEY DO, IT 
 THEN BECOMES COMPLETE. For it is by no means necessary, that a covenant 
 should be executed by both the parties to it, at just THE SAME TIME: and 
 as the Christian covenant is one of the greatest equity and favour, we 
 cannot doubt, to speak in the language of our Liturgy, 'but that God favour- 
 ably alloweth the charitable work of bringing infants to his holy baptism. 7 
 For the promise of the Covenant being expressly said to belong to us and to 
 our children, without any limitation of age ; why should they not all, since 
 
 Abp. Seeker's Lectures on the Catechism, 3d ed. Lond. 1771. 8vo. p. 26. 
 Ib. p. 295-297.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 517 
 
 they are to partake of the promise, partake also of the sign of it ? especially 
 since the infants of the Jews were, by a solemn sign, entered into their 
 Covenant : and the infants of proselytes to the Jew by this very sign, 
 amongst others, of baptism ? '* 
 
 " To the only valuable purpose of God's favour and eternal happiness, 
 he is not a Christian, which is one outwardly; neither is that Baptism 
 which is outward in the flesh ; but he is a Christian, which is one inwardly ; 
 and baptism is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter ; whose 
 praise is not of men but of God. (Rom. ii. 28, 29.")f 
 
 BISHOP EDMUND LAW; 
 Bishop of Carlisle from 1779 to 1787. 
 
 The following extracts are from a tract of Bishop Law's, 
 entitled, "A Dissertation on the nature and necessity of Cate- 
 chising/' which was for many years circulated by the " Society 
 for Promoting Christian Knowledge." I quote from an edition 
 printed by the Society in 1803. 
 
 " These foundations [i. e. of religion] are laid when we commence 
 Christians, and this we do, properly, when in our owr persons we engage 
 to perform our part of the baptismal covenant, . . . I have therefore placed 
 the commencement of Christianity, not so much in any dedication of us, or 
 stipulation for us, in our infancy, as in our actual entrance on the Christian 
 life; when the religion of Christ begins in some degree to affect our under- 
 standing and direct our conscience ; when it becomes our own choice rather 
 than the effect of chance, of the constitution, or custom, of the country 
 wherein we were born : which with the generality in our Church is to be 
 dated from their Confirmation. What efficacy the administration of bap- 
 tism may have upon those who die before they come to the use of reason, 
 or what necessity there is for the administering it to such, are questions 
 which I do not meddle with at present ; but only beg leave to observe, that 
 in what circumstances soever this rite is administered, in order to make it 
 a reasonable service, such an Office as that of Confirmation seems very fit 
 to follow, and a good deal of instruction should attend them both as closely 
 as possible. For that Baptism which has an effect on our salvation, must 
 have it, as the Apostle (1 Pet. iii. 24) plainly shows us, not in itself, by 
 virtue of the external act and as depending on any certain person, matter, 
 or form, or as operating like a charm ; but in a moral intellectual manner, 
 and so as to affect the heart, and influence the temper. It is ' not the putting 
 away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward 
 
 * Ib. pp. 295-297. t Ib P- 298 '
 
 518 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 God.' For it includes a solemn contract between God and us, whereby we 
 engage to devote ourselves to Christ, and to become his true disciples. 
 Upon our performing which engagement, God promises to forgive us our 
 offences, and bring us to eternal life ; and consequently it implies a sincere 
 conscientious declaration of our faith and resolution, as to those several 
 articles of belief and practice, concerning which we are there properly in- 
 terrogated. Now, as something like this is supposed to be done for us in 
 our infancy, and of course, all is transacted in our stead by proxy, the subse- 
 quent right of confirmation comes in very properly to supply the unavoid- 
 able defects of such a transaction, to constitute this primary religious 
 office of a piece with all the rest, and to make it, what each one's religion 
 ought to be, a personal thing, to render us complete members of the Christian 
 Church, and to fulfil the general institution which our Lord has left for 
 making his disciples." (pp. 4 6.) 
 
 " The reply given to the 2nd and 3rd questions in our Catechism will 
 admit almost as many queries to unfold it as it contains principal words. 
 Nor should the privileges, immediately annexed to Baptism in the former, 
 ever be recited without carefully inculcating those duties mentioned in the 
 latter, as conditionally implied in itj or strictly connected with it, and 
 
 WITHOUT WHICH IT IS AN EMBLEM OF REGENERATION RATHER THAN 
 THE THING ITSELF." (pp. 13, 14.) 
 
 BISHOP SAMUEL HORSLEY; 
 
 Bishop of St. David's from 1788 to 1793 ; of Rochester from 
 1793 to 1802 ; and of St. Asaph from 1802 to 1806. 
 
 u The connection is necessary and constant between a good life and a 
 regenerate mind ; and where there is a conscience void of offence, there is the 
 sanctifying Spirit of the Lord."* 
 
 " We have the express declaration of Him who sends the Spirit into the 
 hearts of his disciples, that its operation is no otherwise to be perceived than 
 in its effects."! 
 
 " Conscience attesting that the life is innocent and the heart sincere, 
 Faith draws the conclusion that this upright heart and blameless conduct ia 
 the work of the Holy Spirit of God. And thus, in the sensible effect of a 
 reformed life and regenerate mind, it discovers a token of God's present 
 favour."J 
 
 * Serin, on Eph. iv. 30. Among his " Nine Sermons on the Resurrection and 
 other subjects." Quoted from the edition of his Sermons in 2 vols. 8vo. Load 
 1829. See vol. 2. p. 431. 
 
 f Ib. t Ib. p. 485.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 519 
 
 BISHOP SHUTE BARRINGTON; 
 
 Bishop of Llandaff from 1769 to 1782 ; of Salisbury from, 
 1781 to 1791 ; of Durham from 1791 to 1826. 
 
 In a Charge delivered to his Clergy at Durham in 1801, 
 Bishop Barrington thus expresses himself. 
 
 "To the regenerate Christian, to the 'new man' 'created in Christ 
 Jesus to good works,' ' created after God in righteousness and true holiness,' 
 the yoke of Christ is certainly easy, and his harden light; hut to the 
 corrupt passions of mere animal nature, to the selfish inclinations of the 
 'old man.' nothing can he more irksome and painful." * 
 
 " It is true, indeed, that whom God is willing to justify, he sanctifies; 
 and he sanctifies whom he will ; ' for he hath mercy on whom he will 
 have mercy; and whom he will, he hardeneth; ' that is, he leaves the 
 sinner to the natural corruption of his own heart, and the unsuhdued power 
 of sin. The sinner who is thus left, continues in an unrewarded [? misprint 
 for, unrenewed,] unre.generate and unsanctified, that is, in a reprobate and 
 lost state." f 
 
 " In a state of sincere repentance and true faith the mind has acquired 
 that newness of spirit, and rectitude of heart, which CONSTITUTES THE NEW 
 BIRTH, and is the source of every spiritual comfort here, and all our hopes 
 hereafter." $ 
 
 Such are a few out of the mass of testimonies that might 
 be produced from our more modern divines against the doc- 
 trine, that spiritual regeneration, in the proper sense of the 
 words, invariably accompanies Baptism when that rite is ad- 
 ministered to infants. And certainly not more than two of 
 those from whom the extracts are given Bishop Hopkins and 
 Dean Durel had any tendency to " Calvinistic" views. The 
 clear declarations of Holy Scripture as to the indispensable 
 characteristics of those who are " born again" by the Spirit, 
 have convinced the great majority of our divines (whatever 
 might be the theological system to which they had attached 
 themselves.) that no man can be Scripturally said to have ex- 
 perienced a spiritual regeneration but one who brings forth the 
 
 * Sermons, Charges, and Tracts. By Shute, Bishop of Durham. Lend. 181L 
 8vo. pp. 297, 298. 
 
 f Ib. p. 310. $ ft. p. 312.
 
 20 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 fruits of the Spirit. And, under God, we owe this continu- 
 ance of at least a Scriptural nomenclature among us to that 
 first principle of our Church's creed, the supremacy of Holy 
 Scripture as the sole Divine rule of faith. So long as we re- 
 verence Holy Scripture, so long must we refuse to pronounce 
 any one to be spiritually born again, who does not exhibit the 
 Scriptural evidences of that new birth. 
 
 It is not for us to undertake to pronounce, in the case of 
 individuals, that this change has not taken place, except where 
 the want of it is too plainly evinced to admit of a doubt in any 
 mind, but it is our duty to point out what are the necessary 
 and essential tests of that change having taken place, and to 
 keep to Scriptural language in our expressions respecting it. 
 
 Hence the great majority of our divines of the Arminian 
 school, wishing to affix an affirmative sense to our Baptismal 
 Service for Infants, have (as well as some Calvinists) under- 
 stood the terms used in those Services, describing the blessings 
 connected with the rite, in a qualified sense, as merely refer- 
 ring either to introduction into the visible Church with its at- 
 tendant privileges, or to what may be called infantine regene- 
 ration. They have thus been enabled to interpret the Service 
 as speaking affirmatively, without adopting a view directly 
 opposed to the testimony of Scripture. 
 
 But such an interpretation of the terms clearly involves 
 some difficulties, for the expressions evidently favor the notion 
 of their referring to the full baptismal blessing. And this has 
 been felt by others, who we,re however equally, or more, un- 
 willing to resort to the original and intended meaning of the 
 Service. Hence a class of divines has arisen among us, who 
 assert that spiritual regeneration, in the proper sense of the 
 words, is always conferred upon all infants in their baptism ; 
 and consequently, that in the case of those baptized in their 
 infancy, the word regeneration must never be used except to 
 describe what took place at their baptism. And they endea- 
 vour to avoid the difficulty arising from the subsequent state 
 of sin and disobedience of a vast number of those baptized as- 
 infants, by maintaining, that, though spiritually regenerated, 
 they need generally in after life conversion or renovation^ 
 which they distinguish from regeneration. Such phraseology,
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. &21 
 
 however, is manifestly unauthorised by Holy Scripture, and 
 certainly unknown to the majority of our best divines, even 
 of the last century ;* and seems to be adopted merely to get 
 over a difficulty. In fact, all the disputes and all the per- 
 plexities that have troubled the minds of members of our 
 communion on this subject, have arisen, either from an un- 
 consciousness of the original meaning of our Services, or an 
 unwillingness to understand them in that sense. For, as we 
 have seen, so long as this original sense was remembered and 
 sanctioned in our Church, so long even the Calvinistic Puritans 
 found no fault with our Services on the point now in question. 
 
 Nor must I omit to observe, that there is often much con- 
 tradiction and confusion observable, in the writings of those 
 divines who speak most strongly in favor of the doctrine that 
 the word regeneration ought to be used only to signify what 
 takes place in Baptism. 
 
 Thus, for instance, Dr. Nicholls, while, in his Commentary 
 upon the Baptismal Service, he gives a long note (in which, by 
 the way, he refers for proof to authors who are directly against 
 him) limiting the word regeneration to what takes place in 
 baptism, he himself, in his Commentary on the Catechism, 
 tells us that the phrase "child of Gfod" does not mean "one 
 who is a child of God by spiritual regeneration and actual 
 holiness. "t 
 
 So again, in Dr. Waterland's treatise, entitled, " Regene- 
 ration stated and explained." He is perhaps the principal au- 
 thor of the last, century, who labored to confine the use of 
 the word regeneration to baptism ; and his reasons may be 
 seen in this treatise. But his statements, when examined, 
 will be found to turn more upon words than things. For he 
 
 * It is observable, that one of the most strenuous supporters of this view, the 
 late Archdeacon Daubeny, is compelled to acknowledge, that " it has been no 
 uncommon thing for divines of eminence to speak of bad Christians as being un- 
 regenerate men." (Considerations on Doctrine of Regeneration, p. 41.) The 
 difficulty would be to produce any comparatively respectable catena of our 
 divines who have not done so. The extracts given above (and they might be 
 added to, to any extent) show, that the words " conversion " and " renovation " 
 have been constantly used by our best divines as synonymous with adult regen- 
 eration, or, at least, as necessarily included in it. 
 
 f Comment on the Book of Common Prayer. 1710. foL
 
 $22 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 uses the word regeneration in two senses, making renovation 
 a part of regeneration in adults, admitting that in all who 
 have the use of reason regeneration " takes in renovation to 
 make it complete,"* but considering infants incapable of reno- 
 vation, he makes their regeneration different, and says, that 
 "regeneration maybe granted and received, as in infants, 
 where that renovation has no place at all, for the time being ;"\ 
 and while he admits that renovation does not always accom- 
 pany baptism in adults, he would nevertheless, even in their 
 case, limit the use of the word "regeneration" to what takes 
 place at their baptism, though compelled to add, 
 
 " Their regeneration begun in Baptism, and left unfinished (like an 
 indenture executed on one side only, or like a part without a counterpart) 
 comes at last to be complete, that is, actually salutary ; not by a formal 
 regeneration (as if nothing had been done before) but by the repentance of 
 the man, and by the sanctification or renovation of the heart and mind 
 through the Spirit, which had been hitherto wanting."^ 
 
 But if, as he maintains, renovation is a part of regenera- 
 tion, (and it must certainly be the most important part.) a 
 man cannot properly be said to be wholly regenerated without 
 it, and therefore still needs to be regenerated in the full and 
 proper sense of the word. 
 
 And all that he ventures to assert as to the inward part 
 of regeneration, connected with the baptism of infants, is, 
 
 " It may reasonably be PRESUMED, that from the time of their new birth 
 of water and the Spirit, (which at the very moment is a renewal of their 
 STATE to God- ward.) the renewing also of the HEART MAY come gradually 
 on with their first dawnings of reason, in such measures as they shall yet 
 be capable of; in a way to us imperceptible, but known to that Divine 
 Spirit who regenerates them, and whose temple from thenceforth they are, 
 till they defile themselves with actual and grievous sin. In this case, it is 
 to be noted, that regeneration precedes, and renovation can only follow 
 after."$ 
 
 So that after all, it is only a "reasonable presumption" 
 with him, that what he himself admits to be a necessary part 
 of "regeneration" in adults, ever does take place in those 
 baptized in infancy. All that he supposes to take place at 
 
 * Works, ed. 1843. voL 4. p. 444. t Ib. p. 483. 
 
 t Ib. p. 444. Ib. p. 440.
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 523 
 
 their baptism, is " a renewal of their state," and he thinks it 
 " may reasonably be presumed," that a " renewing of the 
 heart MAY" follow. The fact is, that Waterland had too much 
 good common sense and knowledge of Scripture to be self- 
 cfcsistent in handling the notion he had imbibed on the sub- 
 ject of Baptism. He saw that where Scripture speaks of the 
 new birth, it describes it as something which has a transform- 
 ing effect upon the heart and conduct, and therefore that it 
 must include renovation ; he saw that multitudes of infanta 
 from the first dawn of reason exhibited no signs of such reno- 
 vation, and therefore he is compelled virtually to deny in one 
 place, what he asserts in another, and when he comes to the 
 point in the case of infants, involuntarily shrinks from taking 
 the ground which consistency required. 
 
 The controversy which has now for so many years, during 
 the present century, agitated our Church on this subject, was 
 mainly caused by the introduction of a Tract in 1815, written 
 by the late Bishop Mant, among the publications of the 
 Christian Knowledge Society. And so completely opposed 
 was the doctrine of this Tract to the previous publications of 
 the Society for more than a century, that an attempt was 
 secretly made to introduce alterations in the phraseology of 
 some of the oldest Tracts on the Society's list, to make them 
 consistent with the doctrine of the new Tract. Thus in Nel- 
 son's Companion for the Festivals and Fasts, the word " rege- 
 neration" was (without notice) changed into "renovation." 
 And Bishop Bradford's Tract on " Baptismal and Spiritual 
 Regeneration," which I have quoted above, and which in 1810 
 the Society had pronounced to be "judicious and Scriptural," 
 somehow became " out of print," until a reclamation repro- 
 duced it, when it appeared without the "Advertisement" 
 previously attached to it. The late excellent Mr. Biddulph, 
 in his reply to Dr. Mant's Tract,* gave extracts from forty- 
 eight of the Society's publications, (among which nine were 
 by Archbishops and Bishops,) opposing the doctrine of the new 
 Tract. The doctrine of Dr. Mant, however, was with some 
 
 * Baptism a seal of the Christian Covenant By T. T. Biddulph, M. A, Ac. 
 Lond. 1816, Svo.
 
 524 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM IN INFANTS. 
 
 parties at that time the more popular of the two, and from 
 that day to this the most strenuous efforts have been made by 
 its supporters to get it recognized as the doctrine of our Church. 
 Dr. Mant's Tract was a fitting pioneer for its Oxford succes- 
 sors just twenty years after ; and it is a remarkable indicatiUh 
 of the progress of the Romanizing current in our Church, that 
 what was then carefully vindicated from the charge of having 
 a Homeward tendency, is now unblushingly put forward by a 
 Bishop of our Church as a doctrine in which " we are agreed 
 with Rome." 
 
 The authorities given in the preceding pages have, how- 
 ever, I trust, amply vindicated our Church from such a charge. 
 And by them I leave the reader to determine the true doctrine 
 of the Church of England on this important subject.
 
 No. I. 
 
 Luther's Form for the Baptism of Infants, according to the second edition 
 published by him in German in 1524, and translated and published in 
 Latin in 1526.* 
 
 Libellus de Baptizandis Infantibus, per D. Mart. Lutherum adornatus, 
 
 Anno Domini 1526. 
 
 Martinus Lutherus Christiano Lectori gratiam et pacem in Christo, Domini 
 nostro. 
 
 Cum videam et audiam quotidie, quanta negligentia et quam exigua 
 severitate, ne dicam levitate, sublime, sanctum ac salutare Sacramentum 
 Baptismi infantium tractetur : cujus quidem rei et haec una causa est, 
 quod assistentes non intelligunt quid ibi vel dicatur vel agatur: uon tantum 
 utile. sed ncccssarium quoque mihi videtur, ut in vernacula lingua admin- 
 istretur. Quse igitur latino idiomate fiebant hacteuus, in vernaculam lin- 
 guam transtuli, ac coepi germanicis verbis baptizare : ut susceptores in- 
 fantum ac reliqui assistentes, ad majorem fidem, et severiorem intentionem 
 exsuscitarentur, atque ipsi pastores administrantes baptismum, propter 
 auditores plus diligentiae adliiberent. 
 
 Rogo autem ex Christiana fide omnes, turn baptizantes, turn suscipien- 
 tes, ipsos infantes, aut alioquin assistentes, ut hoc summum opus, remquo 
 seriam, qute hie comprehenditur, perpendant. Audis enim in verbis 
 istarum precationum quantis querelis, quantaque severitate infans ab 
 Ecclesia afferatur, quamque constantibus et indubiis verbis coram Deo 
 fateatur, eum Diabolo obsessum, ac filium peccati atque irac esse quarn- 
 que ardenter auxilium et gratiam per Baptizmum, ut Filius Dei fiat, 
 postulet. 
 
 Cogites itaque, nequaquam esse ludum, contra Diabolum agere. cumqne 
 r.on solum ab infante propulsare, sed tarn potentem hostem contra infantem 
 
 * Taken from the reprint attached to Ecclesue Evangelicfe Libri Symbolic!. 
 Ed. C. M. Pfaff. Tubing. 1730, 8vo. By whom the Latin translation was made, 
 I do not know. The first edition of the original German wa* published by 
 Luther in 1523. and differs a little from the second. A reprint of both will be 
 found in Walch's edition of Luther's work*, Magdeb. 1744. 4to. vol. x. col. 
 2624-37. Archbishop Laurence (Bampton Lectures, p. 378) incorrectly ascribes 
 the date of 1527 to the second edition of this Form.
 
 526 APPENDIX. 
 
 irritare, ut necessitas summa exigat, toto pectore, et fide valida infant! 
 auxilium prasstare, et seria intentione preces facere. ut mm tantum huno 
 infantem Deus, ut sonant verba orationis, potestate Diaboli liberet, sed 
 etiam corroboret, ut contra ipsum turn vivenstum moriens, fortiter dimicare 
 et subsistere valeat. Equidem vereor, hanc ipsam esse causam, cur tarn 
 multi pest baptismum degenerent, quia tarn frigide ac negligenter baptis- 
 mus est tractatus, ac sine omni severitate preces recitatae sunt. 
 
 Quare scias. haec externa in actione baptismi, omnium esse minimi mo- 
 menti, utpote flare in faciem, insignire cruce. salem ori inserere, sputum et 
 lutum allinere auriculis et naribus, oleo in pectore et scapulis ungere, et. 
 crismate verticem tangere, indusiolum induere, faculam ardentem hi manus 
 praebere, et si qua sunt alia ejusmodi, quee ab hominibus ad ornandum 
 Baptismum sunt adjuncta. Nam absque istis omnibus Baptismus conferri 
 potest, nee sunt res illse potissimse, quas Diabolus abhorret autfugit. Nam 
 hislonge majora fastidit. Necesse est hie serio rem geri. 
 
 Des igitur operam, ut in vera fide hie assistas, verbum Dei audias, et 
 serio Deum invoces. Quando enim Minister verbi inquit, Oremus ; te 
 quoque exsuscitat, ut una preces facias. Eadem quoque verba, quae 4 
 Ministro recitantur, in corde susceptores infantis simul recitent, et qui alio- 
 quin circumstant. Eamque ob causam Minister eas precationes clare et 
 tarde pronunciet, ut susceptores audire ac percipere queant, ut et ipsi sus- 
 ceptores unanimi spiritu cum Ministro orent, causam infantis Deo serio ex- 
 ponant, totisque viribus contra Diabolum pro infante pugnent, atque per 
 omnia so gerant, ut qui serio agant, siquidem etiam Diabolo non est lusus. 
 
 Et propter istas causas sequum ac justum est, ne ad Baptismum ebrii 
 aut profani Ministri admittantur, neque ad officium susceptorum homines 
 leves vocentur, sed potius pii, modesti ac graves Ministri et pratini adhibe- 
 antur, de quibus earn possimus habere persuasionem, qudd earn rem summo 
 studio et vera fide sint effecturi : Ne hoc sublime Sacramentum ludibrio 
 exponatur Diabolo, et Deus contumelia afliciatur, qui in Baptismo nos tarn 
 immcnsis et inexhaustis divitiis gratiae perfundi, ita ut ipsemet regenera- 
 tionem nominet, ut & tyrannide Diaboli erepti, & peccato, morte, inferno li- 
 berati, fiamus filii vita;, ac hseredes omnium bonorum Dei, imo ipsius Dei 
 liberi ac fratres Christi efficiamur. Non igitur optimi Christian! tarn neg- 
 ligenter, tarn inenarrabile Dei donum tractemus. Nam Baptismus unica 
 nostra consolatio est, et introitus ad coclestia bona, et ad societatem omnium 
 sanctorum, ad quam nos Deus deducat, Amen. 
 
 Non autem volui mutare multa, licet optarim melius armatam esse istam 
 formam. Nam negligentes habuit autores, qui dignitatem Baptismi non 
 satis perpenderunt. Verum pleraque sic relinquo, ne infirmoe conscienti 
 querulentur, me novum Baptismum instituere, neve hactenus baptizati 
 criminentur quasi non sint recte baptizati. Nam, ut dictum est, in adjecti- 
 onibus humanis non multum est situm, inodo ipse Baptismus verbo Dei, 
 vera fide, et seria invocatione Dei administretur. Deo te commendo, 
 Amen. 
 
 Baptizans dicat : 
 
 Exi spiritus immunde, et locum pracbe Spiritui sancto.
 
 APPENDIX. 527 
 
 Postea facta cruce in fronte et pectore, dicat : 
 Accipe signum crucis, turn in fronte, turn in pectore. 
 
 Oremus : 
 
 Omnipotens aeterne Deus, Pater Domini nostri Jcsu Christi, invoco te 
 super isto N. servo tuo, petenti baptism! tui dona, et gratiam tuam aeternam 
 per spiritualem regenerationem flagitanti : suscipe eum Domine, et sicut 
 dixisti : Petite et accipietis, quaerite et invenietis, pulsate et aperietur : 
 praebe igitur bonum petenti, aperi ostium pulsanti, ut hujus coGlestis lavacri 
 benedictionem consequatur, et promissum regnum gratise tuae accipiat. per 
 Christum Dominum nostrum, Amen. 
 
 Oremus : 
 
 Omnipotens aeterne Deus, qui pro judicio tuo servero, mundum infidelem 
 diluvio perdidisti, et fidclern Noah cum octo animabus pro tua magna 
 misericordiacustodivisti, et Pharaonem induratum cum suo exercitu in mari 
 rubro submersisti, et populum tuum siccis pedibus traduxisti, quibus historiis 
 lavacrum hoc Baptismi praefigurasti : ct baptismo tui dilectissimi Filii 
 Domini nostri Jesu Christi, Jordanem omnesque alias aquas, in salutare 
 diluvium, et copiosam ablutionem peccatorum consecrasti et instituisti : Ta 
 oramus, ut ex inexhausta misericordia tua, hunc N. propitius respicias, 
 veraque fide per Spiritum sanctum dones, ut hoc salutari diluvio in ipso 
 submergatur et intereat, quidquid ex Adam in ipsum propagatum est, et 
 ipsemet addidit, utque ex infidelium numero ereptus, in area sanctae Eccle- 
 siae tuae tutus conservetur, indesinenter spiritu fervens, ac spe gaudens, 
 nomini tuo serviat, ut cum fidelibus omnibus juxta tuam promissionem 
 vitam aeternam adipiscatur, per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum. 
 
 Adjuro te impure spiritus, in nomine Patris f et Filii f et Spiritu* 
 sancti f ut exeas et discedas ab hoc servo Jesu Christi N. Amen. 
 Audiamus Evangelium S. Marci: (Marc. 10. 13.) 
 
 Et offerebant ei parvulos, ut tangeret eos. Discipuli autem commina-. 
 bantur offerentibus. Quos cum videret Jesus, indigne tulit, et ait illis : 
 Sinite parvulos venire ad me, et ne prohibueritis eos : Talium enim est 
 regnum ccelorum. Amen dico vobis : Quisquis non receperit regnum Dei 
 velut parvulus, non intrabit in illud. Et complexans eos, et imponens 
 maims super eos, benedicebat eis. 
 
 Post hsec imposita manu in caput infantis, cum susceptoribus oret flexis 
 genibus : 
 
 Pater noster qui es in co:lo. Sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat 
 regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua sicut in coelo, et in terra. Panem nos- 
 trum quotidianum da nobis hodie. Et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et 
 nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem. Sed 
 libera nos malo, Amen. 
 
 Postea deducatur infans ad baptisma, et Minister dicat : 
 
 Dominus custodiat introitum et exitum tuum, ab hoc et in seculum. 
 Deinde Minister jubeat infantem per susceptores renuniciare et dicat : 
 
 N. Renuncias diabolo? 
 Responsio, Ita. 
 
 Et omnibus operibus ejus ?
 
 528 APPENDIX. 
 
 Responsio, Ita. 
 Et omnibus pompis ejus? 
 Responsio, Ita. 
 
 Postea interroget : 
 Credis in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, creatorem coeli et terrae ? 
 
 Responsio^ Ita. 
 
 Credis in Jesum Christum Filium ejus unicum, Dominum nostrum, 
 natum et passum, &c. 
 Responsio, Ita. 
 
 Credis in Spiritum sanctum, sanctam Ecclesiam Christi, communionem 
 sanctorum, remissionem peccatorum, resurrectionem carnis, ac postmortem 
 vitam aeternam ? 
 
 Responsio, Ita. 
 Visne baptizari? 
 
 Responsio, Ita. 
 
 Hie accipiat infantem, eumque immergens in aquam, dicat : 
 Baptizo te in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus sancti. 
 Ibi susceptores infantulum apprehendant, ac Minister donee album 
 
 indusium induit, dicat : 
 
 Omnipotens Deus, et Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi, qui te per aquam 
 et Spiritum sanctum regenuit, et omnia peccata tibi remisit, confirmet te 
 per gratiam suam ad aeternam vitam, Amen. 
 
 Pax tecum. 
 Responsio, Amen. 
 
 No. II. 
 
 The Order and Form of Baptism, (including the Prefatory Remarks on the 
 subject of Baptism,) inserted in the Brandenburg and Nuremburg Liturgy 
 0/1533.* 
 
 OF BAPTISM. 
 
 IN all ecclesiastical usages we must diligently mark what God has 
 commanded and instituted, and what men have added thereto, in order 
 that we may hold the divine as the essential part, and diligently practise 
 it, and on the other hand judge the human additions, whether or not they 
 are things indifferent, and if indifferent, whether they are also useful or 
 not, in order that what is contrary to God's word, or otherwise "unprofitable, 
 may be done away. 
 
 Now God himself has instituted and ordained Baptism, that we should 
 
 * Kirchen Ordnung, In raeiner gnedigen herrn der Marggraven zu Branden- 
 burg, und . . der Stat NUrmberg, Ac. 1533, fol. The above translation from this 
 work lias been made for me by a friend. 
 
 It will be seen, by a comparison of the Form of Baptism here given, with the 
 preceding by Luther, that they are identical.
 
 APPENDIX. 529 
 
 baptize with water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost. But men have added of their own accord Prayer, (recitation 
 of the) Gospel, sponsors, chrisom-cloth, blessing of the font, oil, salt, and 
 spittle, &c. Now, whatever of these things tends to profit and improve- 
 ment should for the present be suffered to remain; but whatever is 
 unprofitable and causes offence, should be suffered to fall into disuse. 
 
 Now, the saying of Prayer thereat, arid the reading of the Holy Gospel, 
 is not only allowable, but also useful and good ; therefore it should be 
 suffered to remain. In like manner also sponsors, especially on account of 
 the Anabaptists, who now-a-days pretend that they do not know whether 
 they be baptized or not ; in order that the sponsors principally, together 
 with other persons, may give testimony, and in the mouth of two or three 
 witnesses, every matter may be established. (Deut. xix.) Also in order 
 that some one may answer for the child, and if he should be prematurely 
 deprived of his parents by death, they may remind the children what they 
 have engaged on their behalf at their baptism, and keep a strict watch over 
 them that they may fulfil it, and learn God's Commandments, Creed, and 
 Prayer. 
 
 But the blessing of the font, oil, salt, and spittle, &c. darken rather than 
 advance the essential parts of baptism, and only serve to superstition. 
 Moreover, the prayer and blessing with which the font, salt, and oil are 
 consecrated, have no foundation in God's word, but are in many respects at 
 variance with it. Moreover, inasmuch as the holy Christian Church from 
 the beginning has not considered such things as necessary, but has always 
 acknowledged them to be indifferent, and that if a child be baptized with 
 simple common water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
 the Holy Ghost, although all the other additions have been omitted, yet 
 nothing has in this case been done amiss, but the child is rightly baptised, 
 therefore these things ought at this time to be omitted. 
 
 And since Baptism is the sign of the covenant with us Christians under 
 the New Testament, just as Circumcision was of that with the Jews under 
 the Old Testament, young children ought, on the request of their parents, 
 to be baptised, at as early a period as possible : for even young children 
 wert circumcised, according to God's commands, as early as the eighth 
 day. And Christ says, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God ; and Paul calls baptism a lavcr of 
 regeneration. Now young children, however tender their years, have need 
 to be regenerated, if they are to enter into the kingdom of God. Moreover, 
 we believe that the Apostles baptised children, inasmuch as they baptised 
 whole households, and are sure that no one can prove any other or contrary 
 conclusion from the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 Pastors and ministers, however, must give all diligence, that for such 
 necessary' work of Christian baptism, intelligent sponsors be chosen, who 
 know to what cud they are there present, in order that the baptism may be 
 conducted with true devotion, sobriety, and propriety. They ought, loo, 
 themselves to take good heed that they be not light-minded, inconsiderate, 
 in an unsuitable frame of mind, or the worse for wine, in order that they 
 
 34
 
 530 APPENDIX. 
 
 may pronounce the Christian prayers, and above all, the word on which 
 baptism principally depends, distinctly and seriously, that they may not 
 move the audience that stand by to levity, or otherwise offend them, but 
 rather give occasion to devotion and good Christian thoughts. In like 
 manner they shall enjoin the people who are present, especially the 
 children, to avoid all levity, indecency, and scandal, and on the contrary, 
 devoutly to pray for grace, salvation, faith, and everlasting happiness, in 
 behalf of the baptised child ; inasmuch as Christ has given us so com- 
 fortable a promise, that whatsoever we ask in his name He will give 
 unto us. 
 
 And such decency, seriousness, and devotion will doubtless follow, not 
 only in the ministers of the Church ; but also in the surrounding audience. 
 if we diligently lay to heart the exceeding great benefit which the Father 
 of all compassion, of his mere mercy, bestows upon us through our dear 
 Lord Jdsus Christ in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, and the great and 
 salutary work which he by the power of his eternal word then and there 
 worketh in us. For thereby we are incited to praise, to invoke, and freely 
 to confess his holy and divine name. For not the minister, nor any 
 creature, but God himself, here worketh eternal life and happiness. Where- 
 fore also our dear Lord Jesus Christ has commanded to baptise, not in our 
 own, nor yet in the name of any saint or angel, but in the name of Goer the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 But in order that we may contemplate this work of God with deeper 
 feeling and in a more orderly way. we must first diligently consider in how 
 great misery and wretchedness, according to the testimony of Divine Scrip- 
 ture, we are all alike involved. Secondly, what great mercy God has 
 shewn towards us through our Lord Jesus Christ, in that he has delivered 
 us from it by baptism. And thirdly, how we should bear in mind such 
 grace of baptism at all times, but especially in trouble, and praise and 
 glorify God for the same. 
 
 First. 
 
 We must, seriously consider that we are all fallen, by Adam's trans- 
 gression, through the envy of Satan, under the wrath, curse, displeasure, 
 and malediction of God, and were taken captives under the power of sin, 
 and death, and under the dominion of tfie ^evil and hell, so that we were 
 all by nature the children of wrath, and with all our powers, works, prac- 
 tices, and piety, could do nothing pleasing to God, right, good, and salutary 
 to ourselves; but every thing that we could, did, or worked, was, from our 
 corrupt nature, accursed, sinful, and worthy of death, damnable, and sub- 
 ject to the devil. For because our birth from Adam (of whom we are born 
 to [this] natural earthly life,) is guilty of transgression and accursed of 
 God, so that all men must die in him, and bear his earthly image in the 
 mortal body of sin ; it follows that all our actions and whole life, which 
 flows from such natural birth, must be damnable and accursed, however 
 great, holy, wise, and good it may appear before men. For whatsoever is 
 born of the flesh is flesh, damnable, accursed, merely dead, sin, and worthy
 
 APPENDIX. 531 
 
 of hell. Wherefore also flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. 
 For that which is flesh lives carnally, is carnally minded, at enmity with 
 God, not subject to the law of God. For they that are in the flesh cannot 
 please God; carnal wisdom is death. Wherefore Christ our dear Lord, 
 speaking to Nicodemus, decides thus: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 
 Except a man be born anew of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the 
 kingdom of God, nor enter therein." 
 
 Secondly. 
 
 We must diligently reflect how great mercy and compassion God shews 
 us in baptism, in manifesting toward us his condescension and loving- 
 kindness, and saving us, not for the righteousness of works which we have 
 done, but according to his mercy, by the laver of regeneration and renewing 
 of the Holy Ghost. For he then and there, by virtue of the word, kills, 
 destroys, and washes away by his Spirit whatsoever makes us sinners, 
 defiled, or accursed, just as in the Red Sea he drowned the enemies of his 
 people, and destroyed in the deluge all flesh except eight souls who were 
 preserved. So also this laver saves us by the word of God^.not the putting 
 away of the filth of the flesh, as is done outwardlv in corporal washing, 
 but the covenant of a good conscience with God, by the resurrection of 
 Jesus Christ, whereby in virtue of the Divine Covenant we are purged and 
 assured in our consciences, both with God's word and outward token, that 
 all which can defile or condemn us is taken away, dead, annihilated and 
 forgiven. We are also free and unburdened in conscience, and sure that 
 we are united in covenant with God, who will reckon nothing to our con- 
 demnation. On the other hand, we, on our parts, must avoid the sins 
 which have been forgiven, and be, as it were, dead to them ; for all we 
 who are baptised into Jesus Christ, are baptised into his death. Therefore 
 we are buried with him by baptism into death, and thus are dead to sin 
 and all our old life, and set at rest, so that nothing can condemn us, or se- 
 parate us from the grace of God for he that is dead is justified from sin, 
 and is no longer subject to the power of the devil, death, and sin ; and, 
 although he still feels sin in the flesh, yet it is not reckoned to his con- 
 demnation, on account of the justification of the Spirit. Besides all this, 
 baptism works in us a new divine life, with which God is well pleased. 
 For like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, 
 so must we also walk in newness of life. But as we have been planted 
 together with him to a like death, so shall we also partake in a like resur- 
 rection to eternal life. Therefore we must reckon ourselves to be dead 
 unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord, in whom we 
 are also circumcised by the putting off of the sinful body of the flesh, being 
 buried with him by baptism, in which also we are risen by faith. For 
 God, who raised him up from the dead, has also together with, him quick- 
 ened us, who were dead in sins, and in the uncircumcision of our flesh or 
 carnal life, which is the true uncircumcision. Now, although our life is 
 for the present hid with Christ in God, yet when Christ who is our life 
 shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory, as those whom
 
 532 APPENDIX. 
 
 God has according to his great mercy begotten to a living hope through the 
 resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, 
 unden'led, and that fadeth not away ; not of corruptible seed, but of incor- 
 ruptible, viz., by the living word of God, in which word the water or out- 
 ward baptism is contained, and really works in us with power all the 
 things above mentioned. 
 
 Thirdly. 
 
 We ought at all times, with gratitude towards God, to take comfort from 
 this gracious gift of our baptism and the more pain and great misery we 
 experience, the more certainly ought we. to believe that God is secretly 
 working in us, in virtue of baptism, by his word and Spirit, the mortifica- 
 tion of our old life of sin, and renovation of the same. Therefore we 
 should be comforted and joyful in our conscience, and assured that our 
 works please God ; and if suffering or temptation befall us. we should re- 
 member that we are baptised, and that God, in virtue of the covenant of 
 Baptism, has slain and is yet daily slaying by affliction all evil in us, by 
 the death of Christ ; and on the other hand is working renovation of the 
 spirit, by virtue of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore we are now 
 justly bound to thank God and praise him for his unspeakable grace and 
 moreover earnestly and devoutly to beseech him that he would accomplish 
 the work he has begun in us, and in all those who are called and brought 
 to Christian baptism. 
 
 Pastors and Preachers too ought to be diligent in instructing the peo- 
 ple, at convenient times, in their sermons, concerning Baptism, in such 
 wise that they may lead them to the above understanding and consideration 
 thereof. 
 
 And inasmuch as a laudable and well-grounded custom has hitherto 
 been observed among Christian people, that in case of necessity any 
 Christian person, but especially the midwives, have baptised young chil- 
 dren, which has then been called private baptism, pastors ought most dili- 
 gently to instruct and warn midwives, that they take baptism in hand 
 seriously and in the fear of God, but chiefly that they know how to recite 
 the word, (I baptise thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
 of the Holy Ghost,) quite distinctly and orderly. And moreover those 
 women who attend upon the pregnant and lying-in women, and are also 
 present at the private baptism, should be admonished to pay careful and 
 reverent attention to the matter, in order to guard against all impediment 
 or error. 
 
 And whosoever has received the private baptism above mentioned ought 
 to rest therein, and there is no need to baptize him a second time, (sub con- 
 ditionc,) according to the needless abuse of former times, chiefly to avoid 
 giving great occasion thereby to the error of the Anabaptists. 
 
 Pastors and Preachers ought also to instruct women in child-bed, that 
 they are not under the power of the devil, as has hitherto been imagined, 
 not without singular prejudice to consciences, and with gross error. And 
 although they are more liable than other sick persons to strange visions and
 
 APPENDIX. 533 
 
 dreams, yet this ought not by any means to terrify them, for such may be the 
 effect of remaining weakness of body. And although perhaps Satan may 
 presume to assail woman in child-bed more than other people, he does so no 
 doubt, as his manner is, in order thereby to bring into contempt the estate 
 of matrimony, which God has blessed, and God's work, as though it were 
 impure, whereas on the contrary it is holy, and even the principal vocation 
 of women, by which they please God, as Paul speaks: " She shall be saved 
 in child-bearing, if she continue in faith and love and holiness, with 
 sobriety." (1 Tim. ii.) 
 
 Therefore also the benediction after childbed is unnecessary. For it 
 springs from mere superstition, just as if they were desecrated by the birth, 
 which comes from God's blessing. Yet they should nevertheless keep at 
 home for a proper time, that they may avoid injuring themselves or the 
 infants in their health, which is not well pleasing to God. 
 
 Order of Baptism. 
 
 First, the Priest shall enquire whose is the child, what is to be its name, 
 and whether it have not been privately baptized ? 
 
 If it be found that the infant has, in a case of necessity, been baptized 
 by the midwife, or by some other person, or, as it is called, privately bap- 
 tized, it is by no means to be baptized again, but commended to the Christian 
 congregation who are assembled together with the child in the church, as 
 follows : 
 
 First, the Minister shall read, from the prescribed Form, the second and 
 third Article. And he shall begin the second thus : Dearly beloved, consider 
 how great grace and mercy. &c. And the third thus : Therefore we ought. &o. 
 And at the end he shall conclude thus : But especially in this his servant 
 N., or in this his handmaid N., whom he hath called and brought to the 
 grace of his baptism. Repeat the Lord's Prayer. After that he shall read 
 the Gospel, and finally conclude thus : The Lord preserve thy going out and 
 thy coming in, from henceforth even for ever. Peace be with thee : 
 Amen. Or : The Almighty God, &c., as is written at the end of the Order 
 of Baptism. 
 
 If however the child has not been privately baptised, the Minister shall 
 eay the following exhortation, and by no means omit it through neglect, 
 except in a time of necessity, if the child be in danger of death, for in such 
 a case he may act according to circumstances, as has been sufficiently 
 explained above. 
 
 Dearly beloved, I charge and entreat you all who are assembled here 
 present, by your Christian charity and faith, that you would in the first 
 place lay to heart and diligently consider this excellent work of God, and 
 the great importance that belongs to it and is expressed therein. For by the 
 words of this prayer you hear, and also see by the work, in how wretched 
 and miserable an estate the Christian Church brings this infant hither, and 
 confesses thus constantly and publicly before God, that the same infant is a 
 child of wrath, of sin, and of displeasure, and therefore begs so earnestly 
 for help and mercy, that it may become by baptism a child of God. Consider
 
 334 APPENDIX. 
 
 also diligently, that it is no jest or child'lfplay to perform this good Christian 
 work, which opposes the devil, and not only drives him from the child, but 
 also obliges the child to contend with him all his life long as against an 
 unceasing determined enemy. Hence it is highly necessary devoutly to pray 
 with a strong faith and hearty confidence toward God, that God Almighty 
 would not only deliver the infant from the power of the devil, but also 
 would so strengthen it, that living and dying it may make and maintain 
 continual resistance to the enemy. Therefore take good heed to yourselves, 
 that in a right faith, yc stand here, listen to the word of God, and devoutly 
 call upon and beseech him ; for we arc here exhorted to prayer not in vain, 
 but in a matter of necessity, that God may acknowledge our earnestness 
 and the full confidence of our hearts ; and also that this venerable Sacra- 
 ment may not by our means be exposed to the scorn of the devil, and God 
 Almighty be dishonoured, who therein pours out upon us such an abundant 
 treasure of his grace, that he himself calls baptism a new birth, so that we 
 are thereby made free from all tyranny of the devil, also of sin. death and 
 hell, children of life, heirs of all good things of God, and joint-heirs with 
 Christ. Wherefore let us, in God's name, treat such exceeding riches of 
 divine grace, not contemptuously, but with all due gratitude, for truly this 
 venerable Sacrament of Baptism is our only consolation and entrance to all 
 divine good things and the fellowship of all saints. 
 
 Now the Form of Administering baptism is as follows : 
 
 The pastor or baptizing minister shall say, 
 Go out thou unclean spirit, and give place to the Holy Spirit. 
 After this he shall make the sign of the cross on his (the infant's, or 
 
 baptized person's) forehead and breast and say, 
 
 Receive the sign of the Holy Cross, both in thy forehead, and in thy 
 breast. 
 
 Let us Pray. 
 
 Almighty and Everlasting God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 I call upon thce in behalf of this N. thy servant, who asks for the gift of 
 thy baptism, and desires thine everlasting mercy through spiritual regener- 
 ation. Receive him, Lord, and as thou hast said : u Ask, and ye shall 
 receive; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you;" 
 so extend now, Eternal God thy goodness and grace to him who asks, and 
 open the gate unto him that knocks, that he may obtain the everlasting 
 benediction of this heavenly laver, and receive the promised riches of thy 
 gift, through Christ our Lord : Amen. 
 
 Let us Pray. 
 
 Almighty and Everlasting God. who according to tny severe judgment 
 didst condemn the unbelieving world by the flood, but of thy great mercy 
 didst preserve faithful Noah the eighth person ; who didst drown in the 
 Red Sea hardened Pharoah with all his army, while thou didst lead thy 
 people Israel on dry land through the midst of it, and didst also figure and
 
 APPENDIX. 535 
 
 represent thereby for future time this laver of thy holy baptism ; and like- 
 wise by the baptism of thy dear child our Lord Jesus Christ didst sanctify 
 and ordain the Jordan and all other waters for a salutary flood and the 
 abundant, washing away of sins : we pray thee by the same thine unfa- 
 thomable mercy that thou wouldest mercifully look upon this N., and 
 endue and strengthen him with right faith in the Spirit, that by this 
 wholesome deluge all [sin] that he has received by birth from Adam, and 
 he himself has added thereto, may be drowned in him and perish, that he 
 may also be separated from the number of unbelievers, and preserved dry 
 and safe in the holy ark of Christendom, ever to serve thy name, fervent in 
 spirit and joyful in hope, that he may be counted worthy, with all the 
 faithful, to attain thy promise of everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord: Amen. 
 
 I command thee, thou unclean spirit, in the name of the Fatherf, and 
 of the Sonf, and of the Holy Ghostf, to come out and depart from this 
 servant of Jesus Christ, N. Amen. 
 
 Let us hear the Holy Gospel of St. Mark. 
 
 At that time they brought young children to Jesus that he should touch 
 them, but the disciples rebuked those that brought them. When Jesus saw 
 it he was displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come 
 unto me. and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven Verily 
 I say unto you, Whosoever receiveth not the kingdom of God like a little 
 child, shall not enter therein. And he took them in his arms, put his hands 
 upon them, and blessed them. 
 
 Then let the Priest lay his hands upon the head of the child, and repeat the 
 Lord's Prayer, together with the Godfathers and Godmothers, all kneel- 
 ing. 
 
 Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom 
 come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our 
 daily bread : and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead 
 us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. 
 
 Then let the child be brought to the font, and the Priest say, 
 
 The Lord preserve thy coming in and thy going out, from henceforth 
 even for evermore. 
 
 Then shall the Priest cause the child by his sponsors to renounce the Devil, 
 and shall say. 
 
 N. Dost thou renounce the Devil ? Answer. Yes, \ I renounce 
 
 And all his works? Answer. Yes, > [him, or, \ 
 
 And all his actions? Answer. Yes, ) them.] 
 
 / 
 
 Then he demands, 
 
 Dost thou believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and 
 earth? Answer: Yes, I believe.
 
 536 APPENDIX. 
 
 Dost thou believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was con- 
 ceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontiua 
 Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, on the third day risen again from 
 the dead, ascended into heaven, sitting on the right hand of God the heavenly 
 Father, from whence he will come to j udge the quick and the dead ? Answer : 
 Yes, I believe. 
 
 Dost thou believe in the Holy Ghost, a Holy Catholic Church, the Com- 
 munion of Saints, Forgiveness of sins, Resurrection of the flesh, and ever- 
 lasting life after death? Answer: Yes, I believe. 
 
 Wilt thou be baptized ? Answer : Yes, I will. 
 
 Then let him take the child and dip it in the Font, and say, 
 
 And I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Then shall the Godfathers and Godmothers hold the child in the Font, and the 
 Priest shall say, while he is putting on the chrisom, 
 
 Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath 
 regenerated thee by water and the Holy Ghost, and hath forgiven thee 
 all thy sins, strengthen thee with his grace to everlasting life. Amen. 
 
 Peace be with thee. Answer: Amen. 
 
 After the baptism the Pastor or Minister shall exhort the Godfathers 
 and Godmothers nearly as follows : I exhort you by the Christian charity 
 which you have now shewn in behalf of the infant at his baptism, that if 
 it should lose its parents by death or other accident before it come to the use 
 of reason, you should carefully and faithfully instruct and teach it : First, 
 the ten Commandments, that it may learn thereby to know the will of God 
 and its own sin : Secondly, the Christian faith, by which we obtain grace, 
 forgiveness of sins, and the Holy Ghost ; Lastly, also the Lord's Prayer, that 
 it may be able to call upon God, and pray for help, to resist Satan, and to 
 live a Christian life, until God accomplish in him what he has now begun 
 in baptism, and he come to everlasting life. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 The Forms and Orders for Baptism and Confirmation, with the accompanying 
 observations, drawn up and inserted by Bucer, in the Liturgical work 
 published in 1543. by Herman Archbishop of Cologne* 
 Fd. IxTlii. De Sacrosanctis Sacraraeniis in genere. 
 
 tier*. 
 
 Pastores et Doctores Ecclcsiarum meminerint esse officii sui, magnacura 
 populum docere et instituerc, non solum in ipsa Sacramentorum adminis- 
 
 * Originally published by him in German at Bonne in 1543, but the above 
 Latin translation was also published at Bonne, and therefore of course under 
 hia sanction, in 1545. The title is, Nostra Hermann! ex gratia Dei Archiepis-
 
 APPENDIX. 537 
 
 tratione, sed etiam subinde in concionibus, cum locus postulauerit. quid in 
 tractatione, et dispensation cuiusq; Sacramenti agatur, ct exhibeatur, 
 Quomodo se homines ad percipienda Sacramcnta praeparan* debeant, qua 
 item fiducia ilia sumere necesse sit, et in quo fiduciam percipiendi beneficii 
 diuini in Sacramentis ponere oporteat, quantumq; studii et Religionis ad 
 Sacramentorum tractationem requiratur, non solum ab iis, qui ipsiutuntur 
 Sacramentis, sed etiam ab iis, qui administration! eorum, et dispensation! 
 intersunt, maxim& uero & Ministris, qui Sacramenta aliis exhibent et distri- 
 buunt. 
 
 In primis uero et sedulo monebunt populum, ut ne existimet consequi se 
 posse gratiam Dei, et communionem cum Christo in Sacramentis, ex ui et 
 merito operis externi, siue eius, qui Sacramenta administrat, siue eius. qui 
 ea sumit, sed tantum uirtute Dei, et merito Christi, qui in suo uerbo et 
 Sacramentis efficax esse uult, et iis qui sacramenta iuxta uerbum suum 
 fide percipiunt, omnia ea indubitato praestare, quse Sacramentis suis exhibit, 
 ct uerbis suis testatur. 
 
 De Baptismo. 
 
 Baptismus est sacramentum regenerationis, quo Christo Domino inseri- 
 mur, incorporamur, sepelimur in mortem eius, induimur ea [ ? eo.] atq ; 
 efficimur per eum filii, et haeredes Dei. Quare sacramentum hoc oportet 
 summa reuerentia et Religione tractare et percipere, Ac propterea ea ratio 
 administrandi hoc sacramentum ineundum, et eiusmodi tempus, quo admin- 
 istretur, ordinandum est, ut omnia seruiant ad excitandam et augendam 
 reuerentiam et religionem, quo sacrosanctum hoc sacramentum pie et salu- 
 tariter administretur et percipiatur. 
 
 Apud ueteres duobus^antum anni temporibus, Paschse scilicet et Pente- Fo >- ! 
 costes, Baptisma publice administratum est, Quam constitutionem, quia 
 difficile forsitan sit reuocare, uolumus ut Baptisma non nisi Dominicis et 
 Festis diebus, quibus tota conuenire Ecclesia solet, administretur, siquidem 
 non obstiterit imbecillitas infantium, de quibus metuendum, ne non super- 
 esse possint ad proximum diem Festum, qu6 Eucharistise tractatio cum 
 Baptismate coniungatur, et ii, qui infantes ad Baptismum attuleruut, 
 corpore et sanguine Domini nostri Jesu Christi, ex more et institute primi- 
 tiuae Ecclesiae utantur. 
 
 Vt autem religiose et ruerenter omnia cum administrentur, turn perci- 
 piantur in hoc Sacramento, parentes infantium Pastoribus Ecclesiarum id 
 
 copi Coloniensis et Principis Electoris, <tc. Simplex ac pia Deliberatio, qua 
 ratione, Christiana et in verbo Dei fundata Reformatio, Doctrine, Administra- 
 tionis divinorum Sacraraentorum, C:i>remoniarum, totiusq ; canv aniinarum, et 
 aliorum Ministeriorum Ecclesiasticorum, apud eos qui nostre Patorali curae 
 commendati aunt, tantisper instituenda sit, donee Dominus dederit constitui 
 meliorem, uel per liberam et Christianam Synodum, siue Generalem siue Nation- 
 alem, uel per Ordines Imperii Nationis Germanicae in Spiritu Sancto con<*regato8. 
 Bonnae 1545. fol. The copy used is one in the Cambridge University Library. 
 0. 9. 20.
 
 538 APPENDIX. 
 
 maturius significare, et ab iis Baptismum una cum susceptoribus, infanti- 
 bus suis petere humiliter' debent. Vt si uel parentes, uel susceptores, uel 
 utrique obnoxiisunt manifest-is criminibus. a Pastore uel corrigiantur, si 
 modo correctionem admiserint, uel si incorrigibiles sunt, & communione 
 Baptismi arceri possint, ne ad iudicium, et cum periculo offendendae Ec- 
 clesae tarn diuinae actioni adsteiit. Tarn enim reos se faciunt corporis et 
 mortis Christi, qui huic Sacramento Baptismi indigne adstant, et infanti- 
 bus suis non uera fide in Christum illud expetunt, quam qui corpus et san- 
 guinem Domini sumunt indigne, id est. non iuxta institutionem Christi, 
 absque uera scilicet pGenitentia et fide in Christum. Quare si ad Pastores 
 ueniant petitum Sacrum Baptisma, uel parentes infantium, uel eorum sus- 
 ceptores, qui manifestis criminibus et flagitiis contaminati sunt, hos ad 
 pcenitentiam adhortabuntur, et ut hac uice non intersint administrationi 
 huius Sacramenti admonebunt, ne et sibi ipsis iudicium Dei accersant, et 
 Ecclesiae sint scandalo. Tales enim propter flagitia sua non habent par- 
 tern in regno Dei, neque ad Sacramentorum communicationem admittendi 
 sunt, nisi publice poenituerint. Si uero parentes in talibus criminibus de- 
 prsehensi fuerint, cognates suos, uel alios amicos, qui Ecclesias uera et 
 uiua adhuc membra sunt. rogabunt, ut in eorum loco infantibus suis Bap- 
 tismum petant. Si susceptores indigni Ecclesia iudicentur, alii rogandi 
 erunt, de quibus bonum extiterit testimonium. 
 
 Fol. ixix. i n petitione uero Baptismi, rogabunt Pastores, an non Baptismum in- 
 fantes iam receperint, quod fieri solet, dum recens natis mors imminere 
 creditur. Si enim Baptizati fuerint, turn Pastores ea quae paulo post de 
 huiusmodi infantibus subiicientur, facere debent. Sed si baptizati non 
 sint, uel non certo, uel non ut oportet, baptizati, et parentes et susceptores 
 non rei fuerint criminum eorum, propter quae essent Baptismo arcendi, 
 moneri & Pastoribus diligenter debent, de immense beneficio regenerationis 
 in Christo, quod pueris expetunt, item de horribili lapsu et reatu, unde 
 infantes per Christum lesum in Baptismo liberantur. Deinde hortabuntur 
 illos, ut religiose*adsint primum Exorcismo et Catechismo. deinde etiam 
 administrationi Baptismi, Postremo, ut simul utantur Sacramento Corporis 
 et Sanguinis Domini, Hoc enim fieri decet non ideo tantum, qudd membra 
 sunt Christi, et asymbolos adesse mensse Domini non oporteat. uerum etiam, 
 qu6d indignum sit infantibus communionem Christi petere, et suscipere in 
 Baptismate, et sibiipsis non earn sumere Sacramento, quo ilia ipsis quoq ; 
 offertur, Non enim, si uera fide communionem Christi infantibus in Baptis- 
 mate petunt et percipiunt, poterunt sibiipsis candem non petere, et oblatam 
 in Sacramento non cupide excipere. 
 
 Veteres hoc Sacramentum Caenae Domini etiam infantibus una cum 
 Baptismo administrabant, scd cum non sine causa mos ille exoleuerit, con- 
 gruit, et omnino ex officio est pietatis, parentes un^ cum susceptoribus et 
 cognatis, qui sanctissimum Sacramentum regenerationis suis infantibus 
 accipiunt, coma Domini singular! Spiritus desyderio uti, ut et sibi Christi 
 communionem accipiant, quam pro infantibus in Baptismo susceperint. 
 Quod et ad aliorum, imo totius Ecclesise aadificationem confert, et Sacram 
 Christi communionem caeteris commendat.
 
 APPENDIX. 539 
 
 Vt ergo diligentius et maiore religione omnia in administratione Sacri 
 Baptismatis gerantur et pcrficiantur, uolumus, ut ubicunque id commode 
 fieri poterit, Catechismus parentum, et susccptorum, item Exorcismus 
 infantum exhibeatur. pridie eins Festi. uel Dominici diei. quo Baptisma 
 exhibendum erit. Cum' enim Baptisma administrari debeat in summa 
 Liturgia. dum tola Ecclesia collecta est, conuenit in his Sacris actionibus Fol. 
 utriusque Sacrameuti. cam adhiberi modcrationem, quce conducat religion! rtt 
 populi excitandae. non prebeat prolixitate occasionem aliquam negligentise 
 uel pio animi ardori mimiendo. Quare ubi id licebit, utile fuerit actionem 
 Catechismi et Exorcismi, more ueterum, ab actione Baptismi tempore 
 seiungere. At ubi populo. uel quod plerique & templo longius habitant, 
 uel alia iusta de caussa. commodum adesse non fuerit, ibi licebit Catechis- 
 mum et Exorcismum cum Baptismo simul administrare. - 
 
 Istud tamen Pastores. quantum omnino fieri potest, studebunt, ut sanctis- 
 simum hoc Sacramentum Baptismi. quod est prima adoptio, susceptio. et 
 ingressus in regnum Christi, non nisi coram uniuersa Ecclesia, et summa 
 cum grauitate et religione administretur et percipiatur.- 
 
 Quando igitur' Catechismus ct Exorcismus, pridie quAm Baptismus 
 administretur. habebuntur. infantes deferantur ad uespertinum conuentum, 
 in quo alioqui populus propter instans festum, uel celebrationem Dominicse 
 diei adcs^e solet. parentes et cognati exemplo Sanctorum ueterum cum 
 susceptoribus adesse simul, et deducere ad templum suos infantes debent, 
 Quibus congregatis et aliis, debent Pastores et Ministri. his, qui infantes 
 attulerint, ct toti reliquo populo. singular! grauitate et religione, primum 
 exponere perspicue mysterium S. Baptismatis, et ingentia Dei bencficia, 
 quae in illo cxhibentur. Deinde exhortabuntur illos ad piam et fidelem 
 perceptionemtanti Sacrameiiti, et benencioBm Christi adeoinsestimabilium. 
 Turn requirent parentibus, et susceptoribus infantium renunciationem 
 Satanas et mundi, et confessionem praecipuorum articulorum Fidci, et 
 Religionis nostrse, quam illi confessionem, et renunciationem clare et 
 grauiter coram uniuersa Ecclesia facere debent. 
 
 FORMA CATECHISMI. HOC EST, INSTITVTIONIS. EXHORTATIOMS, ET INTERRO- 
 GATION-CM AD S0SCEPTORES, ET OMNES EOS QUI INFANTES AD SACRUM 
 
 BAPTISMA ADFERUNT. 
 
 Primum omnium Pastor adstantibus sibi reliquis Ministris ita eos, qui 
 infantes ad Baptismum offerunt. exhortabitur. 
 
 Dilccti in Christo lesu, quotidie ex uerbo Dei audimus, et propria 
 experientia discimus, tam in uita, qum in morte, iam inde ab Ada; lapsu 
 iios omnes concipi, et nasci in peccatis, esse reos irse Dei. et damnalos Fo 
 propter Adae delictum, nisi liberemur morte, et meritis Filii Dei Christi 
 lesu, nostri unici liberatoris. Cum itaq ; praesentes hi infantes communi 
 nobiscum sorte nati sint, dubium non est, quin et ipsi peccato et originali 
 morbo commaculati sint, atq : obnoxii seternse morti, et damnationi. Sed 
 Deus Pater pro ineffabili sua dementia, et misericordia erg* genus 
 humanum, Filium suum misit, ut mundum seruaret, quare etiam et hos 
 infantes seruatos uult. Ille peccata toti us mundi tulit. et tam paruulos, 
 qu^m nos adultos A peccatis, morte, Diabolo, et seterna condemnatione
 
 540 APPENDIX. 
 
 liberauit ct saluos fecit, qui uoluit sibi offerri paruulos, ut iis benedictionera 
 impartiretur. Quare pro Christiana pietate uestra hunc puerum assumite, 
 et ad Christum adducite, et ofFerte piis uestris precibus, quo pcccatorum 
 suorum ab illo consequatur remissionem, transferatur in regnum gratiae 
 ereptus tyrannide Satanae, et constituatur hares aeternae salutis. Et uobis 
 certissimum sit, Dominum nostrum lesum Christum, hoc opus charitatis 
 uestrae erga hunc infantem clementissime respecttirum, et preces uestras 
 exauditurum, quia ipse suo uerbo mandauit, Sinite paruulos uenire ad me, 
 talium est enim regnum coelorum. Quapropter dilecti hortor et obsecro 
 uos, quotquot adestis, ut magnitudinem huius actionis, atqile operis. quod 
 agimus, religiose uobiscum expendatis, Videtis, enim, quam miserabiliter 
 Ecclesia infantulos istos imbecilles, et'omni uirtute destitutes, hue supplex, 
 sed tamen constanter afferat, Quo sane opere clare confitetur eos esse filios 
 irae Dei, peccati. et aeternae mortis, Proinde piis uotis, et ardenti oratione pro 
 eis orat, gratiam et auxilium Dei impetrare eis cupiens, qu6 per Baptismum 
 renati ex Deo, filii Dei efficiantur. Ne putetis igitur leue quiddam, et 
 puerile quid tractari in hac Sacrosancta actione, qua bellum suscipitur cum 
 Satana, qua non tantum ille ab infante expellitur, sed infans Sacramento 
 astringitur, quod cum hoc semper, ut currf Regis sui Christi hoste belligerari 
 debeat, ad extremum usque Spiritum summa contentionepugnare. Quare 
 magna cum fiducia, et ardentissimis precibus inuocandus est Deus, ut non 
 modo e potestate Sataaae liberare, sed et confimare, et defendere uelit hunc 
 infantem, ut in omni uita, et maximd in ipso mortis articulo consistere, et 
 fortiter repugnare illi possit. 
 
 Quamobrem et uos animos uestros tollite, et cogitate hie prcecipua reli- 
 Foi.lxxi. gione uerbum Dei uobis audiendum esse, uiua fide inuocandum Deum, et 
 grauissima de causa ad orationem hie inuitari uos. Ita ergo agite, ut Dcus 
 religionem uestram uideat, eamq; approbet, nee committite, ut sacratissi- 
 mum hoc Sacramentum Baptismatis per vios indigne tractetur, et Satanae 
 ludibrio fiat, atq ; Deus contumelia adficiatur, qui tantas hie diuitias gratiae 
 susB efFundit. Nam ipse uocat hoc Sacramentum lauacrum regenerationis, 
 quo nos e tyrannide Diaboli, peccati, mortis, et inferni ereptos, filios suos 
 efficit, et haeredes uitse aeternae participes omnium beneficiorum suorum, quia 
 coheredes Christi sui. 
 
 Quar6 per Deum, et salutem uestram uos obtestor, ut tarn superabun- 
 dantem gratiam Dei ; quae hoc Sacramento exhibitur, dign6 acsti metis et 
 cum summa animi gratitudine amplectamini, quandoquidern Baptismus 
 magna est nostra consolatio in periculis, et afflictionibus, estq ; aditus 
 primus ad omnia beneficia Dei, ad beatam sanctorum omnium societatcm. 
 
 Vt igitur praesentiore animo, et religione maiore inefiabile hoc Dei 
 bcneficium expendamus, initio uidendum nobis est, in quanta mala nos 
 Adir, lapsus coniecerit, Et e contra, qu^m immensam gratiam Deus humano 
 generi per Filium suum exhibuerit in eo, qu6d per Baptismum nos ab iis 
 redemcrit, Et tertio. qufkm semper nobis in conspectu esse debeat in omni- 
 bus periculis tanta Dei miscricordia, quantisque cum laudibus celebrari 
 conveniat Dei gratiam, quam per Baptismum accepimus. 
 
 Primum erg6 diligentissime expendendum est, omnes nos per peccatum
 
 APPENDIX. 541 
 
 Adce. et Satanss inuidiam obnoxios irse Dei, ade6q ; damnatos nos esse, sub 
 potestate et reguo Diaboli, detineri sub morte, peceato, et inferno captiuos, 
 ade6 ut nos natura filii ira3, nullis uiribus humanis, nullis uirtutibus, uel 
 operibus Deurn placare potucrirnus. Quicquid enim in nobis, item omnia 
 opera nostra, propter uitiatam naturam maledicta sunt A Deo, et subiecta 
 tyrannidi Satanao. 
 
 Cum enim per inobedientiam primi parentis Adae (a. quo in naturalem 
 hanc, et terrenam uitam progeniti sumus) omnes rei et maledicti & Deo 
 nascamur, adeo ut omnes in eo mori necesse sit, et terrenam irnaginem eius 
 in mortali hoc corpora circumferamus, sequitur totam uitam, et omnes 
 actiones naturao nostrae ita corruptae, damnatas a Deo esse quantumuisetiam 
 speciosissimaB et sanctissimae coram hominibus appareant. Quicquid enim 
 ex carne natum est. caro est, hoc est, alienum a Deo, repugnans Spiritui, 
 et addictum morti, et gehennae. Quapropter caro et sanguis non assequen- 
 tur regnum Dei. Quicquid enim caro est, carnalia sapit, et uiuit, Est p j. \ 
 inimicurn Deo, nam Legi Dei non subditur. Quare qui carnales sunt, Deo vertm 
 placere non possunt, Sapientia carnis mors est. Quare Dominus noster 
 Christus cum Nicodemo disputans ita concludit, Amen amen dico tibi, nisi 
 quis renatus fuerit ex aqua et Spiritu, non potest introire in regnum Dei. 
 
 Secundo cogitandum quam opulenta sit gratia diuina collata nobis in 
 Baptismo, in quo uer6 apparet eius erga nos benignitas, et ?/A.otfl/>ai5r<*, 
 quod non ex operibus iusticiae, quae nos fecissimus, sed secundum suam 
 misericordiam per lauacrum regenerationis, et renouationis Spiritus Sancti 
 saluos nos faciat. Hie enim uirtute uerbi sui abluit, et extinguit, quicquid 
 reos nos facit et damnat, Quemadmodum olim in mari rubro" hostes populi 
 eui submersit, atq; per diluuium perdidit totum humanum genus, exceptis 
 octo animabus, quae in area seruatse sunt Ita lauacrum hoc aquae, nos per 
 uerbum saluat, non ablutione sordium in came, uti in aliis lotionibus fieri 
 eolet) sed stipulatione bonae conscientise erga Deum, per resurrectionem 
 Jesu Christi, Virtute enim pacti diuini in conscientiis mundamur, et certi 
 reddimur et uerbo et externo signo, peecata quae nos polluebant et damna- 
 bant, omnia esse plan6 abolita, quia remissa et mortua. Itaq ; ex Baptis- 
 mate cert6 statuimus, nos Deo acceptos, et focdere gratise sempiterno ei 
 coniunctos esse, ade6 ut nihil ab ipso seiungere et damnare possit. Quare 
 porrd non modo fugere peecata, sed etiam extimescere, et abhorrere ab eis 
 debemus, non aliter atque ab inferno, ut qui peccatis mortui sumus, Omnea 
 enim, teste Paulo, qui in Christum lesum baptizati sumus, in mortem eius 
 baptizati sumus, consepulti cum illo per Baptismum in mortem, Proinde 
 peccatis, et toti ueteri homini mortui sumus, et perducti in Christo e6, ut 
 nihil condemnare, uel A gratia Dei separare nos possit, Qui enim mortuus 
 est, justificatus est & peceato. non amplius tyrannidi peccati mortis et inferni 
 subiectus, etiamsi adhuc peccati in carne reliquias sentiat, tamen eae non 
 imputantur ad condemnationem, propter iustificationem Spiritus in Christo. 
 
 Prajterea Baptismus nouam uitam operatur in nobis, et acceptam Deo, 
 Vt enim a mortuis resuscitatus est per gloriam Patris, ita efficit suo in nobis 
 Spiritu, ut et nos in nouitate uitae ambulemus, Nam si insiticii facti sumus 
 illi per similitudinem mortis eius, certe et resurrectionis participes erimus
 
 542 APPENDIX. 
 
 Fol. ixxii. in uitam seternam, illud scicntcs qu6d uetus illc homo cum illo crttcifixus 
 est, ut aboleretur corpus peccati, ut posthac non serniamus peccato. 
 
 Quare reputemus nos peccatis reuera mortuos esse, et Deo uiuere in 
 Christo Domino nostro, in quo ct circuncisi sumus, circuncisione, quse fit 
 sine manibus. dum exuimus corpus peccatorum, per circuncisionem Christi, 
 Cum illo sepulti sumus per Baptismum, in quo sirnu^ etiam cum illo 
 resurreximus per fidem opcratioais Dei. Deus etenim qui Christum a 
 mortuis resuscitauit, nos una cum eo conuiuificauit cum peccatis etiam 
 mortui essemus per praeputium carnis nostrse, sou carnalis uitse. Quan- 
 quam enim uita nostra in Deo abscondita sit cum Christo, tamen cum 
 Christus uita nostra apparuerit, tune et nos simul cum illo manifestabimur 
 in gloria, ut quos pro ingenti sua misericordia clernenter rcgenuit Deus in 
 spem uiuam. per resurrectionem lesu Christi ex morruis [mortuis,] in 
 hsereditatem incorruptibilem, incontaminatam, et immarcessibilcm. non ex 
 semine corruptibili, sed incorruptibili, uerbo scilicet Dei uiuo, per quod 
 Baptismus consistit, et omnia iam dicta efficaciter et reuera in nobis 
 operatur. 
 
 Tertio, de tanta amplitudine gratiae Dei, et beneficiis per Baptismum 
 collatis nos consolabimur, et semper gratias Deo agemus, idq ; eo studio- 
 sius, quo grauioribus premamur calamitatibus, confirmantes hinc fidem 
 nostram Deum quamquam non uisibili modo, tamen uirtute Baptismi per 
 uerbum et Spiritum efficacem esse in nobis. mortificare ueterem, et instau- 
 rare nouum hominem. Quare confirmemus conscientias nostras, nos Deo 
 curnc, et ei propter meritum Filii sui gratos et charos esse, ct cum rebus 
 aduersis agitamur, et exercemur uariis sBrumnis, cogitandum erit baptizatos 
 nos esse, ct Baptismo per meritum Christi omnia peccata et mala nostra 
 deuicta et mortua esse, indiesq; magis ac magis per crueem, et uarias 
 afflictiones, quas nobis Dominus mittit, confici et aboleri, et nouum 
 horninem in nobis uirtute resurrectionis Christi, continue renouari, et 
 instaurari. Merito itaq; Deo pro tarn incfFabili sua misericordia agendas 
 gratire sunt, atq; simul orandum, ut opus suum, quod cocpit in nobis, et 
 omnibus, quos ad Baptismum uocauit, semper promouere, ac perficere 
 tandem dignetur. Tales exhortationes uel breuiores, uel longiores, pro 
 temporis ratione concionatores habebunt, ex dictis et aliis Scripturae locis, 
 quibus subiicientur interrogationes sequentes. 
 
 INTERROGATIONES AD SUSCEPTORES ET PARENTES INFANT1VM. 
 
 Foi.ixxiL Creditis tiera esse, quae modo uobis ex uerbo Dei proposita sunt, de 
 
 vera ' corruptione naturae per pcccatum originalc,. de regenerationc in Christo 
 
 Domino nostro. ct cornmunione asterna cum Deo, quae exhibetur per Sacrum 
 Baptisma? 
 
 Respond. Crcdimus. 
 
 Petitis ergo ex animo et uera fide, infantem hunc uestrum, per uos 
 Christo adductuin et oblatum, A tali naturan corruptione, per meritum et 
 uirtutern Christi in Baptismate liberari, rcconciliari Deo. et in nouamatq; 
 perpetuam uitam regonerari ? 
 
 Respond. Potimus.
 
 APPENDIX. 543 
 
 Renunciatis igitur et uestro et infantis nomine Diabolo, atq ; omnibus 
 cius operibus ? 
 
 Respond. Ptenunciamus. 
 
 Etiain mundo, et omnibus concupisccntiis eius? 
 
 Respond . Renunciamus. 
 
 Crcditis in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, creatorem eoeli et terras ? 
 
 Respond. Credimus. 
 
 Et creditis Dcum uelle et uobis, et huic infanti, cum baptizatus fuerit, 
 esse Patrem, ct omnipotent! sua uirtute, sapientia, et misericordia uelle 
 uos ab omni malo seruare, atqu ; omnibus beneficiis cumulare, ac propterea 
 supra omnia uobis timendum eum. et diligendum esse ? 
 
 Respond. Credimus. 
 
 Creditis in Dominum nostrum Icsum Christum Filium eius unicum, 
 qui, ut redimerct nos, factus homo est. passus, et mortuus, atq; & morte 
 resuscitatus est, ascendit in ccelos, scdetq ; ad dextram Patris, ac regit inde 
 Ecclesiam suam, uirtute omnipotenti, rediturus in fine mundi omnibus 
 conspicuus, iudex uiuorum et mortuorum ? 
 
 Respond. Credimus. 
 
 Ex hac fide Dominurn nostrum lesum Christum etiam uestrum, et huius 
 pueri Saluatorem esse confitemini, qui morte sua uestra quoq ; peccata 
 expiauerit, et Resurrectione sua uos Deo reconciliauerit, atq ; iustificauerit, 
 et Spiritu suo omni tandem peccato perpurgatis, diuinam in uobis imaginem, 
 et uitam plene perfecturus sit ? 
 
 Respond. Confitemur. 
 
 Creditis et in Spiritum Sanctum, sanctam et Catholicam Ecclesiam, 
 Communionem Sanctorum, Remissionem peccatorum, Carnis resurrec- 
 tionem, et uitam seternam ? 
 
 Respond. Credimns. 
 
 Et ex hac confessione creditis Spiritum sanctum etiam uestrum. et 
 infantuli huius doctorem, et consolatorern uelle esse, et uos uera corporis 
 Christ! Domini nostri, atqufe Eeclesiae eius membra esse, et puerum huic 
 *?hunc] per Baptismum, Christ! atq; Ecclesise membrum fore, in quorect. 
 liabiturus sit remissionem peccatorum, certam spem resurrectionis, et uitse 
 aeternam ? 
 
 Respond. Credimus. 
 
 Vultis ergo infantem Baptismo suscipere, et habere pro uero filio Dei, 
 fratre et membro Christi, atq ; primum ubi ad usum rationis peruenerit, si 
 forte parentibus orbatus fuerit, uel ill! hac in re negligeiEiores extitcriut. 
 curam eius habere, quo Decalogum, et articulos Fidei, et orationem Domini- 
 cam, Sacramenta, perdiscat, turn domi turn in Ecclesia, quo & primis statim 
 annis mysterium Baptisrni, et collata sibi in eo Christi beneficia intelligere 
 incipiat, ac inde cum de Religione Christi satis institutus fuerit, fidem 
 suam in Ecclesia suo ore confiteatur, et se communicatione Christi. obcdi- 
 entiae erga Deum atq ; Ecclesiam ipse addicat ? 
 
 Respond . Vol umus . 
 Hie rursus Pastor parcntes et circumstantem multitudinem adhortabitur. 
 
 Quod igitur dilecti hie in conspectu Dei, et Christi Seruatoris, qui inter
 
 544 APPENDIX. 
 
 nos est, et coram Ecclesia eius sancta promisistis, id summa fide et diligentia 
 memineritis prsestandum.esse.Vosq ; singuli, parentes, susceptores, etcosteri 
 adstantes, infantulum hunc post acceptum Baptismum ut filium Dei 
 agnoscite, ut membrum Christi lesu habete, cui Angeli ministri adsint, et 
 inseruiant, nee dubitate, quicquid aut boni, aut mali, huic qudmuis infirmo 
 infantulo exhibueritis, hoc uos Deo, et Christo Domino exhibere. Nullius 
 ergo laboris uos pigeat, quin quisque pro suo loco, pro sanguinis coniunc- 
 tione, et uocatione hunc curet Domino pi6 et religiose educandum, et inst? 
 tuendum, qu6 seruare tandem possit omnia, quee Christus Seruator nobis 
 pnEcepit. Pertinet igitur ad uos, qui A Deo dati estis huic infanti parentes. 
 cognati aut susceptores, ubi primum excreuerit, curare, ut ad scholas, ut in 
 i Ecclesiam ducatur, qu6 in Christi mysteriis, et in aliis instituatur plenius, 
 
 quo gratiam et immensa Dei beneficia, in Baptismo collata intelligat, suse fidei 
 rationem coram Ecclesia reddat, Diabolo et mundo cum omnibus concu- 
 piscentiis, ipsa re renunciet, Christo Domino nostro, et Eeclesiae eius, sese 
 consecrare in omnem obedientiam studeat, iuxta Euangelium eius, atq: ita 
 in Christo Domino nostro, usq ; in finem perseueret, atq ; in nouitate uitae 
 perpetuo proficiat, ut uiuum Christi membrum, et in uita hac palmes 
 r* baCUL facundus fructum copiosum ferat omnium bonorum operum, ad laudem Dei, 
 et Ecclesiae aedificationem. 
 
 SEQVITVR EXORCISMVS. 
 
 Hie Pastor adferri infantem propius iubebit, et de nomine interrogabit, 
 quo cognito dicet, Edico in nomine Domini nostri lesu Christi omnibus malis 
 Spiritibus, ut ab hoc infante recedant, et nihil mali illi ullo modo inferat. 
 
 Post pollice signata in fronte, et in pectore figura Crucis, dicat. 
 Accipe signum sanctae Crucis in fronte, ut nuriquam te Dei, et Christi 
 tui Seruatoris, uel Eiiangelii eius pudeat, accipe et in pectore, ut uirtus 
 Christi crucifixi tibi perpetuo praesidio sit, et certa in omnibus rebus pro- 
 tectio. 
 
 Hinc addat ad populum. 
 Dominus uobiscum. 
 
 Respondent populus. 
 Et cum Spiritu tuo. 
 
 Pastor. 
 
 Oremus. Omnipotcns, et seterne Deus, Pater Domini nostri lesu Christi, 
 inuoco te super hoc N. famulo aut famula tua, cui Ecclesia Sacramentum 
 Baptismi, et in co gratiam tuam et regenerationem spiritualem petit, Et ut 
 dixisti, Petite, ct accipietis, queerite, et inuenietis, pulsate, et aperietur uobis. 
 ita impartias huic gratiam, et misericordiam tuam, quemadmodum Ecclesia 
 tua orat, ut conscquatur redemptionem Filii tui, et hsereditatem osterna; et 
 beatBG uitse, quarn ci Ecclesia tua per Baptismum quaerit, Aperi ei ostium 
 regni tui, ad quod pro eo Ecclesia tua pulsat, p6r Christum Dominum 
 nostrum. Amen. 
 
 Oremus. Pater omnipotcns Deus, qui olim impium mundum horribili 
 iadicio tuo per diluuium perdidisti, et solam familiam pii Noe, octo tantum
 
 APPENDIX. 545 
 
 animas, pro ineffabili misericordia tua conseruasti, et qai obduratum Aegyp- 
 tiorum Regent Pharaonem cum omnibus copiis, et uirtute eius bellica sub- 
 mersisti in mafi rubro. populumq ; tuum Israheliticum siccis pedibus transiro 
 fecisti, et in his lauacrum regenerationis Sacrum Baptisma adumbrare 
 uoluisti, Praeterea Baptismate filii tui Christi lesu lordanem, et caeteras aquas 
 ad sanctam demersionem, atq ; ablutionem peccatorum consecrasti. Rogamus 
 te pro immensa misericordia tua, infantem hunc propitius respice, ueram 
 illi fidem, et Spiritum Sanctum tuum dona, ut per hoc sacro8anctum poLta . 
 diluuium in eo submergatur et pereat, quicquid ex Adamo sordium con- * 
 traxit, ut ex impiorum numero segregatus, in sancta Ecclesiae tuae area tutus 
 seruari possit, et nomen tuum alacri, et feruenti Spiritu semper confiteri, 
 et sanctificare, et regno tuo constanti fiducia, et certa spe inseruire, quo 
 tandem cum piis omnibus : promissionem aeternae uitae asequatur, per lesum 
 Christum Dominum nostrum, Amen. 
 
 Pastor. Dominus uobiscum. 
 
 Populus. Et cum Spiritu tuo. 
 
 Audite Sacrosanctum Euangelium Domini nostri lesu Christi. 
 Marci X. 
 
 In illo tempore, Attulerunt ad lesum pueros, ut tangeret illos. Discipuli 
 uero increpabant eos, qui adducebunt [adducebant.] Cum uidisset autem 
 lesus. indignatus est, et dixit illis, Sinite paruulos uenire ad me, ne prohi- 
 bete illos. talium enim est regnum Dei. Amen dico uobis, quicunq; non 
 acceperit regnum Dei tanquam puer, haudquaquam ingredietur in illud. 
 Et cum coepisset [cepisset] eos in ulnas, impositis raanibus super illos, 
 benedixit illis. 
 
 His uerbis et huic facto Domini nostri lesu Christi super illos, fidern 
 habete, nee dubitate, eum et uestros infantes sic in sacro Baptismate susccp- 
 turum, et complexurum esse ulnis misericordias suae, et bencdictionem uitaa 
 aeternae, et sempiternam regni Dei communionem eis collaturum, Hanc uobis 
 fidem confirmet, et augeat idem Dominus, et Seruator noster lesus Christus, 
 Amen. 
 
 Post fuse Pastor manus super pueri caput imponet, et susceptores 
 tangentes puerum ) una cum eo orabunt. 
 
 Pater noster qui es in coslis, &c. 
 
 Turn et symbolum recitabunt. 
 
 Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, &c. 
 
 Post fuec canet Ecclesia Psalmum CXIIII. item CXV. et. CXXXVT. 
 
 In exitu Israhel. Non nobis. item, Laudate nomen Domini, Laudati 
 
 serui Dominum. 
 
 Pastor. Dominus uobiscum. 
 
 Populus. Et cum spiritu tuo. 
 
 Oremus. Omnipotens et seterne DCUR, Pater crelestis, gratias 
 
 tibi aeternas, quod ad hanc agnitionem gratias tuae, et fidei erga te nos 
 uocare dignatus es. Auge et confirma hanc fidem in nobis perpetuo, Dahuio 
 infanti Spiritum tuum, quo regeneretur, et hoeres fiat aeternas salutin, quam 
 Ecclesiae tuae saneta, pueris simul et senibus propter Christum ex gratia et 
 
 35
 
 546 APPENDIX. 
 
 misericordia tua promisisti, per Dominum nostrum lesum Christum, qui 
 tecum uiuit et regnat mine c-t in perpetuum, Amen. 
 
 Ita Ecclesiam data benedictions dimittat, 
 
 DE ADMINISTRATIONS BAPTISMI. 
 
 Sequent! die infantes pridie exorcisati, iterum ad Ecclesiam sub officium 
 ccenae Domini adferantur, quos ibi Pastor post recitatum et enarratum 
 Euangelium, et decantatum symbolum iubebit ad baptisterium exhiberi, et 
 sequent! modo parentes, susceptores, et reliquos eognatos astantes, sirou! et 
 nniuersam Ecclesiam adhortabitur. 
 
 Dilecti in Christo, hesterno die gratia Dei audiuimus, qustm immensa et 
 ineffabilis misericordia in Baptismo exhibeatur. Satanse et mundo renun- 
 ciastis, fidem Christi estis eonfessi, et obedientiam Christo et Ecclesia? 
 promisistis a Deo Patre, ut propter Filium suum Dominum nostrum lesum 
 Christum, infantes hos eripiat & regno tenebrarum, et constituat in regno 
 Filii sui dilecti, Horum meminisse nos oportet, et non dubitare, nos haee 
 omnia, quce petimus certo esse accepturos, si credimus. Tollentes ergo nunc 
 mentes ucstras ad Dominum, summa religione hio apparete, tanqu&m in 
 conspectu Dei omnipotentis, Patris, Filii, et Spiritus sancti. beneficiumq 
 regenerationis. atq adoptionis in uitam aeternam ab ipso uno Deo, et Serua- 
 tore nastro, Patre, Filio, et Spiritu sancto, certa fide et cum gratiarum 
 actione excipite. Et quoniam ipse Dominus iustit baptizare nos in nomine 
 Patris 7 et Filii, et Spiritus sancti, indubie ipse Deus noster infantes nostros 
 _ baptizat, A peceatis emundat, ab seterna morte liberat, sua ipsius iustitia 
 
 rt induit, et donat seterna uita. Haec immensa Dei beneficia uera fide agnos- 
 
 cenda nobis, et perpetno celebranda sunt, Quare qu6 fidem, atq ; animo* 
 nostros excitemus, audiamus hac de re uerba D. Pauli sequentia. 
 Ad Titum capite III. 
 
 At postquam bonitas, et erga homines amor apparuit Seruatoris nostri 
 Dei, non ex operibus iusticiae, quae faciebamus nos, sed secundum misericor- 
 diam suarn saluos nos feeit per lauacrum regenerationis, et renouationis 
 Spiritus sancti, quern effudit in nos opulenter, per lesum Christum Serua- 
 torem nostrum, ut iustificati illius gratia, hoaredes efficeremur ivuta spem 
 uitae aetcrna3, Indubitatus hie sermo est. 
 
 Pastor. Dominus uobiscum. 
 
 Populus. Et cum Spiritu tuo. 
 
 Ex Euangelio Matthei Capite ultimo. 
 
 Dixit Dominus lesus discipulis, Data est mihi omnis potestas in co?lo, et 
 in terra, Euntes ergo in uniuersum orbem, predicate Euangelium omni 
 creaturae, et docete onmes gentes, baptizantes eos in nomine Patris, et Filii, 
 et Spiritus sancti, docentes eos seruare crania, quaecunq; praecepi uobis. 
 Qui crediderit, et baptizatus fuerit, saluus erit, qui uero non crediderit, 
 condemnabitur, Et ecce ego uobiscum sum omnibus dieb us usq; ad consum- 
 matioiicm sxculi. 
 
 Pastor. Dominus uobiscum. 
 
 Populus. Et cum Spiritu tuo. 
 
 Oremus. Omnipoteas et miserioora Deus, et Pater, tu Abrahamo,
 
 APPENDIX. 547 
 
 nostro et omnium credentium patri. et in eo nobis quoq ; filiis eius promisisti, 
 te nobis et semini nostro uelle csse Dcurn. Quare ut infantes ueteris populi 
 tui per Circumcisionem in gratiam. et in populum tuum recepisti, Et Filius 
 tuus Christus lesus, Dominus et Seruator noster. paruulos oblatos sibi 
 clementer admodum admisit et benedixit, testatus talium esse regnum CCB!O- 
 rum, Ita uoles nostros quoq; infantes regenerare, et adoptare tibi in filios, 
 in consortium uitae aeternae per Sacramentum Baptismatis. Da ergo ccelestis 
 Pater, ut tantas diuitias gratiae in Baptismo propositas, pro his infantulis ex 
 animo petamus, et uerbo et Sacramento tuo oblatas uera fide agnoscamus, F O J. I XZT> 
 et excipiamus, perpetuo tibi pro his gratias agamus, et te celebremus. Et vert ' 
 ne imputes his paruulis peccatum Adas in eis per parcntes propagatum, et 
 innatum, neq ; parentum ipsorum, et totius huius populi, sed ualeat in illis 
 mors et meritum Filii tui Domini nostri lesu Christi, et huius iusticiam 
 atq ; obedientiam eis imputa, Insere eos morti, et resurrection! eius, Fac 
 eos corporis eius membra, eo illos indue, ut filii et haeredes tui fiant, et 
 perseuerent in seternum. Dona etiam nobis, ut post Baptismum, eos pro 
 filiis tuis, et corporis Filii tui membris agnoscamus, in timore tui ad gloriam 
 tuam pie educemus, in omnibus rebus corporalibus et spiritualibus adiuue- 
 mus, ut etiam per eos Nomen tuum sanctum magis celebretur, Regnum 
 Filii tui propagetur, Voluntas tua in hac terra fiat, quemadmodum in coelo. 
 Ad haec conserua eos incolumes, communica eis benigne necessaria uitse, et 
 custodi eos ab omni malo, per Christum Dominum nostrum, Amen. 
 Hac finita oratione iubeat Pastor sibi dari infantes, inter roget nominaqua 
 imponi eis debeant, et baptiset eos dicens, 
 
 Baptizo te, N., in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus sancti. 
 
 Max susceptores infantem Baptismo suscipiant, dicente Sacerdote ita 
 tit sequitur. 
 
 Omnipotens aeternus Deus, et Pater Domini nostri lesu Christi, qui 
 regenuit te aqua et Spiritu sancto, remisitq; tibi oinnia peccata tua, 
 confirmet te sua gratia, ad uitam Eeternam, Amen. 
 
 Pastor. Pax Domini sit semper uobiscum. 
 
 Respond. Amen. 
 
 Hicab uniuersa Ecclesia cantetur Germanice, Grates nunc omnes 4"c., 
 uel Psal. Deus misereatur nostri. Post pergat Pastor in qfficio 
 Canef Domini. 
 
 QVOMODO ALIIS TEMPORIBVS ADMINISTRANDVS BAPTISMVS SIT. 
 
 Si autera infantuli infirmiore fuerint ualetudine, ut periculum sit, non 
 uicturos esse uel ad proximum Dominicum, uel Festum diem, aut si propter 
 grauiores causas illis diebus Baptismus conferri non possit, admonebunt 
 Pastores populum, ut Baptizandos infantes suos, illis tamcn horis adierre 
 uelint, quibus de more Ecclesia ad uerbuin Domini audiendum conuenit, 
 Quod si neque istud fieri potest, Baptisma interim oblatis ad id infantibus Fo , j^ 
 negari non debet, quocumque tandem tempore adferantur. Nam commit- < 
 tendum non est, quantum in nobis fuerit, ut absq ; Baptism! Sacramento, 
 ex hac uita ulli homines decedant, Quandoquidcm Dominus instituit 
 Baptisma, ut sit nobis Sacramentum regeneratioiiLs, et ablutionis pecca-
 
 548 APPENDIX. 
 
 torura, 4 quibus nemo hominum in hac uita liber est, ne infans quidem 
 unius diei. Nostrum enim est agere in omnibus rebus, secundum uerbum 
 Domini, et dona et beneficia eius suscipere eo modo, et ratione, quam ipse 
 nobis praescripsit. 
 
 Quando ergo profestis diebus administrandum Baptisma fuerit, Pastores 
 Catechismum, et Exorcismum, et Administrationem Baptismi ordine 
 coniungant, et pro ratione coetus, et ualetudine infantis modum adhibebunt 
 adhortationum, et orationum. Si enim infantem uideant de uita periclitari, 
 et coetum exiguum adesse, breuibus omnia complectentur, Et primam modo 
 partem ex admonitione, quam supra posuimus ante Catechismum praemit- 
 tendam, usurpabunt ad ea usq ; uerba. Quapropter dilecti hortor et obsecro, 
 &c. Sic ex inlerrogationibus cuiusq; capitis primam tantum adhibebunt, 
 Ita in Exorcismo, unam modo precationem, cum oratione Dominica, 
 Symbolo, et Euangelio, Quibus praemissis infantem statim baptizent, et 
 parentes, susceptores, atq; alios astantes hortentur, ut certo statuant 
 infantulum siue uiuat, siue mox moriatur, esse filium Dei, et hseredem 
 uitae aeternee, et ut ad pietatem, et Dei gloriam, si uita comes fuerit, rect6 
 curent institui, iuxta adhortationem supra positam, quae incipit, 
 Postquam ergo dilecti, &c. 
 
 DE BAPTISMO RECENS NATIS COLLATO PROPTER PERICVLVM UIT.E. 
 
 Pro concionibus docendus et admonendus erit populus, ne facile diuinis- 
 simum hoc Sacramentum priuatim administrare prsesumat. In Ecclesia 
 enim et per sues Ministros summa grauitate, et rcligione administrari 
 dignum est, idq; maxime interest ad id, ut salutariter dispensetur, et 
 Folburrt. percipiatur, Sed si extrema necessitas urserit, turn qui adsunt periclitanti 
 infantulo, iungant sese in Domino, pie sublatis ad Deum animis, miseri- 
 cordiam eius in Christo Domino nobis promissam et cxhibitam super 
 infantulo implorent, eumq; dicta oratione Dominica baptizent, In nomine 
 Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti. Quod cum fecerint, ne dubitent infantem 
 euum uere baptizatum, peccatis ablntum, in Christo renatum, et Filium 
 haeredemq ; Dei factum esse. Pro hoc ergo tanto Dei beneficio, gratias 
 agant Deo, et ne putent Baptisma iterandum in pueris ita baptizatis. Quia 
 in omnibus rebus, quoad licet, ad earn rationem agere debemus, quam 
 Dominus praescripsit, si pius aliquis uir turn adfucrit, cum infans extreme 
 laboraucrit. euis ministerio ad Baptismum utendum est. 
 
 Porr6 si ita baptizatum domi infantem superuiucre contingat, deferri 
 ad templum postea sequum est, suis parentibus, cognatis, et susceptoribus, 
 quos frcqucntes et religiose adesse conuenit, ufqui gratias agere pro im- 
 menso hoc regenerationis beneficio infantis suo collate, et offerrc cum Deo 
 et Seruatori suo in Ecclesia dcbent. Hos ergo Pastores interrogabunt, qua 
 ratione, et quibus uerbis infantem baptizarint, an ita ut praceepit Dominus, 
 in aqua, et in norninc Patris, ct Filii, et Spiritus sancti. Qui si responderint 
 Be super infantem inuocassc Deum, rogasse pro illo, et in nomine Patris, et 
 Filii, et Spiritus sancti baptizasse. et credere se ucre peccatis mundatum, 
 et Deo renatum esse, Debent Pastores cos in hac fide confirmare, et infan- 
 tem eiusmodi ncquaquam rcbapti/arc, Et ut homines magis consolentur, et
 
 APPENDIX. 549 
 
 tanli Sacramenti celebratio magis augeatur, et commendetur Christ! bene- 
 
 ficium per Baptismum in puerum collatum, compvobabunt id in Ecclesia, 
 
 adhibita lectione sanctione sancti Euangelii, et precatione ad hunc modum. 
 
 Pastor, cum adfuerint qui talem infantem adferunt Domino, primum 
 
 interrogabit eos. 
 
 Dilecti in Christo, Qandoquidem omnes in peccato et ira Dei nati simus 
 rei aeternae mortis, atq ; condemnations, nee alia ratione consequi remis- 
 sionem peccatorum, iustitiam, et uitam seternam possimus, qu&m per fidera 
 in Christum, Et his malis, mortis scilicet et irae Dei, cum hie quoq; infans 
 obnoxius natus sit, interrogo uos num Christo ablatus sit, eiq ; per Baptis- 
 mum insertus ? 
 
 Si respondeant se ita credere, Interrogabit praterea, per quern hoe 
 factum sit, et quibus prasentibus. Cumq ; has nominarint, rogabit Fo 
 eum, qui Baptizasse infantem dicetur, si adest, out alias qui turn 
 adfuerint, an inuocatum sit nomen Domini super eo, et habita oratio 
 pro eo ? 
 Vbi respondebunt et hoc factum esse. Rogabit, Quomodo baptizatus 
 
 infans sit. 
 
 Si turn respondeant, In aqua, et cum hac uerborum forma, Baptizo tt 
 in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus sancti. Postremum interro- 
 gabit, 
 
 An certo sciant se uerbo Dei rite uses esse. iuxta institutionem Domini, 
 quod si respondeant se meminisse et scire. 
 
 Addat Pastor, 
 
 Qvandoquidem dilecti in Christo, omnia in nomine Dei, et iuxta insti- 
 tutum eius facta circa Baptisma huius infantis audio, in nomine Christi 
 rectd uos fecisse pronuncio, Egent enim gratia Dei infantes, quam non 
 denegat eis Seruator noster Christus, ubicumque ilia pueris iuxta uerbum 
 eius petitur, nee enim alligauit beneficium redemptionis SUED ullis locis, 
 temporibus, uel personis, Nam quocumque in loco credentes ipsi in eius 
 nomine conueniunt, medius ipse illis adest. et inuocatus fide efficax est, in 
 uerbo et Sacramentis suis, atque prsestat solide, quicquid Sacramentis suis 
 offert, et uerbis suis pollicetur. Ad confirmandam uero hanc fidem, et ad 
 excitandum nos ad gratias agendas Domino, pro tanto eius beneficio, quod 
 huic infantulo per Baptisma collatum est, audiamus ex Euangelio, quo- 
 modo Dominus uelit infantes sibi adferri, et benigne benedicere sibi 
 oblatis. 
 
 Marci X. 
 
 Et attulerunt ad ilium pueros, ut tangeret illos, Discipuli uere increpa- 
 bant eos, qui adducebant. Curn uidisset autem Jesus indignatus est, et 
 dixit illis, Sinite pueros uenire ad me, nee prohibite illos, talium enim est 
 regnum coelorum. Amen dico uobis, Quicumq : non acceperit regnum Dei 
 tanquam puer, haudquaquam ingredietur in illud. Et cum (XEpisset 
 [cepisset] in ulnas, impositis manibus super illos benedixit eis. 
 
 Ex his ergo Christi uerbis certi sumus infantes quicumq ; Christo iuxta 
 Verbum eius offeruntur, pertinere ad regnum Dei, esse Filios Dei, membra 
 Christi, his angelos adesse ministros, et subiectam ad inseruiendum eia
 
 550 APPENDIX. 
 
 omnem creaturam mundi. Quarc singular! studio ministrare talibus, ut in 
 Christo rite cdnceutur, et grandcscant oportet, quicumq ; Christi sunt, qui- 
 bus illos Dominus peculiariler copulauit, quales uos parentes, cognati, 
 susceptores, et alii necessarii, atque omnes. qui de huius nostrae Ecclesiaj 
 Pol. baTiL corpore estis. Hunc igitur uobis infantulum, filium et haeredem Dei, fratrem 
 et cohaeredem Christi, membrum Christi, etuestrumin Christo, fidei uestraa 
 et curse in Domino eommitto et commendo, ut eurn Domino, in quern renatus 
 est, et Regno Dei, in quod renatus est, quam diligentissime fouendum,. 
 educandum, instituendum curetis, quisque pro sua uocationeet facultate, ut 
 ubi primum per setatem poterit, discat seruare, qusecumque Christus seru- 
 ando nobis prsecepit. Quare uobis parentibus, cognatis, et susceptoribus 
 prsecipu^ incumbit (quamquam ad id et caeteri omnes, qui in hac Ecclesia 
 uiuunt, et ad quoscunq ; uenerit Christianos. suam operam et opem conferre 
 debeant) efficere, ut hie infans Dei. ubi primum per setatem liceat, ad 
 Scholam et Ecclesiam deducatur, et Dei mysteriis ibi summa fide institua- 
 tur, quo amplissima Dei beneficia in Baptismo percepta agnoscere discat, et 
 celebrare. Vt deinde in Ecclesia fidem suam ipse profiteatur, Satanae et 
 mundo cum omnibus eius illecebris et operibus, sua ipsius uoce coram 
 uniuersa Ecclesia Dei renunciet, Christo et Ecclesiae sese in omnem obedi- 
 entiam addicat, et in ea ad finem usq ; perseueret, ut uiuum Christi mem- 
 bram, et palmes in Christo manens. fructum adferens eopiosum, ad laudera 
 et gloriam Dei. aedificationemq : Ecclesiaeeius. 
 
 Post hac subiiciat imposita manu infanti. 
 
 Dominus uobiscum. 
 
 Responso. Et cum spiritu tuo. 
 
 Oremus. Domine Deus Pater Domini nostri lesu Christi, qui regenuisti 
 hunc infantem ex aqua et Spiritu sancto, et peccatorum omnium remis- 
 sionem ei sacrosancto Baptismate contulisti, confirma hunc tua gratia, et 
 regas prouehasq ; hanc nouam .uitam, quam donasti, et perficias earn, ad 
 quam infantem sacro hoc Sacramento obsignasti, Da etiam parentibus ipsius r 
 et nobis omnibus, ut in eo curando fideliter et diligenter tibi inseruiamus, 
 ut per ipsum et nos omnes indies magis sanctificetur nomen tuum, ac reg- 
 num tuum promoueatur, ad plenam usq; perfruitionem foelicitatis, per 
 Christum Dominum nostrum, Amen. 
 
 Si uero ii qui infantem offerunt, non satis constanter respondere possunt 
 ad dictas interrogationes, adeo ut fateantur se haud satis scire, quid cogi- 
 FoLIxxviiL tarint, ant fecerint baptizando, perturbati scilicet praesenti periculo, ut fieri 
 non rare solet, tune omissa anxia disputatione, Pastor talem infantem 
 nondum baptizatum iudicet, et ea omnia perficiat, quae ad istam actionem 
 pertinent, qualia supra descripta sunt, admonitionem, et Catechismum ad 
 eos qui infantem adferunt, Exorcismum infantis, communem confessionem 
 fidei, et caetera omnia, quibus peractis baptizet infantem, et citra condi- 
 tionom. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus sancti.
 
 APPENDIX. 551 
 
 DE CONFIRMATIONE BAPTIZATORVM, KT SOLEMNI PROFESSIONE FIDEI 
 
 m CHRISTUM, ATQ ; OBEDIEMTI.K CHRISTO ET ECCLESI* EIUS PRJES- 
 
 TAND.E. 
 
 Et in uetcri, et in nouo Testamento mos hie obseruatus est ex institute 
 Dei. ut qui priraa infantia recepti essent in gratiam Domini, apud ueteres 
 per Circuncisionem, in DOUO populo per Baptisma, ubi primum aceeptum 
 hoc Dei beneficium cognouissent, et fidem in Deum solidara concepissent, 
 ipsi fidem suam in Ecclesia proftterentur. et se ipsi obedientiae Dei atq ; 
 Ecclesiae addicerent. Ad quam confessionem fidei, et obedientiae in Eccle- 
 sia professionem, oonfirmari etiam in religione ab Ecclesia solemniter 
 solebant, per orationem et aliquod diuiniae corroborationis Symbolum, quod 
 sub Mose certis sacrificiis constabat, et oblationibus, Florente Euangelio, 
 impositioae manuum, et communione Coenae Domini. Est enim haec uerso 
 uiuseq; fidei natura, ut quisq; singularia Dei beneficia sibi praestita cupiat 
 prsedicare, et celebrare, seseq Deo inuicem ad glorificandum nomen eius, 
 omni officio pietatis offerre, et consecrare. Vnde Psal. XXII. canit. De 
 te laus mea in Ccclesia magna, in medio Ecclesiae laudabo te. Et 
 Psal. XXXV. Confitebor tibi in Ecclesia magna, in populo frequentl 
 laudabo te. 
 
 Deinde per Baptisma Christo inserti, et corporis eius, id est, Ecclesiae 
 facti membra, et ita reliquis Christi membris in Christo coniuncti et addict! 
 sumus, ut omnibus, quibuscum aliqua nobis incident uitae consuetudo, aut 
 ulla officiorum communicatio, inseruire debeamus, praecipu^ quidem ad 
 omnem pietatem et religionem, Deinde autcm etiam ad huius uitae praesentia 
 necessitatem, ut singuli scilicet nos inuicem agnoscamus, et syncera chari- 
 tate complctamur in Christo, et primum doceamus, moneamus. corrigamus, 
 consolemur, adhortemur in his, quae sunt nouse uitas in Christo. Deinde Fol. txxvta 
 
 vert. 
 
 etiam adiuuemus nos inuicem in rebus uitae praesentis, consilio, opera, et 
 opere. Haec itaq ; uitae utriusq; in Christo Domino communio, et officio- 
 rum uicissitudo poscit, ut quisque se ipse quoq ] Ecclesias Christi ad hanc 
 interni et externi hominis societatem. et officiorum communicationem palam 
 offerat et dedat. Cum igitur haec fidei confessio, et in obedientiam atque 
 communicationem Christi et Ecclesiae, propria consecratio, et deditio, quam 
 ipsa fidei natura, et necessitas huius communicationis Christi possit, In 
 Baptismo fieri non possit, cum baptizantur infantes, necesse est ut ea ab 
 iis, qui in infantia baptizati fuerint, fiat, cum ipsa de religione utcunq; 
 instituti fuerint, et sum ma ilia beneficia in Baptismo collata, aliquantulum 
 intellexerint. 
 
 Quando uero hi fidem suam et obedientiam coram Ecclesia solenniter 
 profitentur, rursus ipsum fidei ingenium postulat, ut Ecclesia pro eis prece* 
 solenniter fundat. et incrementa eis oret Spiritus sancti, ut in fide Christi, 
 et obedientia Ecclesiae, eos ipse confirmare. conseruare atque in omnem 
 ueritatem perpetu6 inducere uelit. Cumq; huiusmodi oratio facta in 
 nomine Christi, et fiducia promissionum eius, non possit non efficax esse, 
 ad ministerium Ecclesiae pertinet, eos pro quibus Ecclesia orauit, con- 
 firmatione Spiritus sancti corroborare. Ad hanc itaq; ueteres, Christi
 
 552 APPENDIX. 
 
 et Apostolorum exemplum imitati, symbolum adbihuerunt impositionis 
 manuum. 
 
 Haec igitur ceremonia fide Christi obseruata, quia indubie fidei et 
 charitatis Christianas offioium est, modis omnibus, uerbis, et institutis 
 Domini consentanea. et certae aedificationis in Religione Christi, uolumus 
 earn in pium et salutarem usum in Ecclesia restitui, submotis omnibus 
 abusibus, qui in locum huius Ceremoniae inuaserunt, qui qu&m fuerint 
 fadi et noxii nostrse religioni, cuiuis Christiano facile iudicare est. 
 
 Hactenus ministerium hoc Confirmationis peculiare opus fuit Suffra- 
 ganei, Cacterum cum in Ecelesia omnia ad communem Christianorum 
 utilitatem referri, institui, et fieri debeant, uolumus deinceps hoc Confirma- 
 tionis ministerium, si per Suffraganeum commode administrari non posset, 
 aut non ita ut oportet administraretur, per uisitatores fieri, duabus per 
 Fof.bnix. annum uicibus, in preecipuis solemnitatibus. Cum enim initio solis 
 **** Episcopis commendaretur munus confirmandi, Episcopatus tm ampli non. 
 
 erant, qnikm nunc sunt, nee enim diocaeses ampliores erant, qu&m ut Epis- 
 copi singulas parochias per annum semel uisitare, et Catechizatos pueros 
 ipsi audire et confirmare possent. At mine multo aliter se res habet, et 
 longe alia ratio est Episcopatuum, ita ut uni Episcopo. aut Suffraganeo in 
 tota Diocaesi sua iusto tempare administrare hanc Confirmationem impossi- 
 bile sit. In Ecclesiis enim singulis adoleseunt quotannis aliqui, quos fidem 
 suam profited, et Confirmari solenniter deceat. Quare cum singulae 
 Ecclesise opus habeant annua inspectione et uisitatione, etiam eorum qui 
 eo setate et cognitione Christi promoueruat, solenni professione fidei, et 
 Confirmatione ipsa, nos necessaria procuratio gregis Dominici nobis crediti 
 cogit, ut prouideamus, ne Ecclesiis idoneum ad hsec ministerium desit. 
 Nee enim personis ministrorum salus ouium Christi, sed saluti harum 
 personae seruire debent ministrorum, ut omnia fiant iuxta illud. Omnia 
 uestra sunt siue Paulus, siue Apollo, siue Cephas. 1 Corinth, iii. 
 
 Et teste Hieronymo non ideo Confirmatio haec propria quondam Epis- 
 coporum functio fuit, qudd aliis earn adrninistrare non licerit, cum Baptis- 
 mum Sacramentum longe praestantius, uulgares etiam ministri, imoquilibet 
 Christianus. si ordinarii Ministri deessent, administrare possit. Sed ea de 
 causa Episcopis peculiariter commendata fuit, ut Episcopi singularum 
 Ecclesiarurn, qua) cuiq; creditae essent, certiorem assequerentur noticiam,. 
 ot curam magis salutarem gererent, dum ipsi singulis annis cognoscerent r 
 qua fide et diligeiitia Pastores cum reliquos, turn praecipue pueritiam 
 Christi instituerent. 
 
 Ad maiorcm etiam religionis conseasionem, ct erga Sacrum ministerium 
 reuerentiam, atq; obediontiam couseruandam faciebat, cum unusquisqj 
 fidem suam, et obedientiam Qhristi uni Episcopo profiteretur. 
 
 Cum autem tain multae EcclcsisD curae unius Episcopi concreditas eint, 
 ut pej unum Episcopum ueJ Suffraganeum inspici singulae quotannis nou 
 qneant, necesse sane est, hoc inspectionis et Confirmationis munus, quod 
 ultra annum differri sine grandi Ecclesiarum incommode, et religionis peri- 
 calo non potest, curare perficiendum opera plurium, dum nequit per
 
 APPENDIX. 553 
 
 In singulis tamen Ecclesiis Paroclii una cum Symmystis suis, aliauot 
 diebus ante aduentura Visitatorum, pueros, quos Confirmation! offerre sta- 
 tuerint, ad confessionem fidei, et professionem Christianas communicationis 
 et obedientise decenter faciendam, diligenter prseparabunt, Quae ad hunc Fol 
 modum ab eis facienda est. 
 
 Interrogatio. Profiteris te Christianum? 
 
 Respond. Profiteer. 
 
 Interrogatio. Quid est esse Christianum? 
 
 Respond. In Christo renatum esse, et habere per eum remissionem 
 peccatorum, et Communicationem uitae aeternae. 
 
 Interrogatio. Vndeconfidis tibi haec esse collata? 
 
 Respond. Qu6d Baptizatus sum in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus 
 sancti. 
 
 Interrogatio. Quid credis de Deo Patre, et Spiritu sancto? 
 
 Respond. Hoc quod articuli symboli nostri complectuntur. 
 
 Interrogatio. Recita illos. 
 
 Respond. Credo in Deum omnipotentem, &c. 
 
 Hie puer articulos Symboli omnes dare et distincte recitet. 
 
 Interrogatio. Quid intelligis dum inquis, Credo in Deum Patrem, in 
 Filium, et Spiritum sanctum ? 
 
 Respond. Tres esse personas unius essentiae, potentiae, et unum tamen 
 Deum. 
 
 Interrogatio. Cur inquis Deum omnipotentem, et Creatorem cceli et 
 terras ? 
 
 Respond. Quia credo, qu6d Deus, ut omnia ita et me ipsum ex nihilo 
 creauit, per unicum Filium suum Dominum nostrum lesum Christum, et 
 per eundem solum conseruat, atq ; gubernat, ubiq ; praesto adest, et operatur 
 omnia bona in omnibus, solo suo semper sapienti consilio, et iusta uoluntate. 
 
 Interrogatio. Quo pacto intelligis secundum articulum de Christo 
 Domino nostro ? 
 
 Respond. Agnosco ex eo naturam nostram lapsu Adae adeo corruptam 
 esse, ut nullus nee Angelorum, nee hominum expiare peccata nostra, et 
 satisfacere pro eis potuerit, adeo ut necesse fuorit uerbum aeternum Filium 
 Dei fieri hominem, conceptum de Spiritu sancto, natum ex Maria uirgine, 
 uerum quidem hominem, sed sine peccato, qui morte sua satisfecit pro peccatis 
 nostris, et resurrectione atq ; ascensione sua in coelos, collocauit nos 
 secum in coelestibus, cui Pater omnem dedit potestatem in coelis et terrris, 
 ut regat nos, restituat in nobis imaginem suam, et tandern, cum suo tempore 
 uenerit ad iudicandum uiuos et mortuos, resuscitet a. mortuis, et ad imaginem Fol 
 suam perfecte reformatos, donct adire hercditatem aeternss foclicitatis in reet - 
 coelis, alios uero, qui ipsum pertinaciter contempserint, tradat puniendos 
 igni aeterno. 
 
 Interrogatio. Quae est sententia tertii articali ? 
 
 Resp. Haec est, qudd Christus Dominus donauerit nobis Spiritum 
 sanctum, qui per ministerium Euangelii credentes in Ecclesiam suam 
 congregat, in qua excitari perpetuo debent ad poenitentiam, et fidem, et 
 accipere remissionem peccatorum, per uerbum Dei, et Sacrarnenta Com-
 
 554; APPENDIX. 
 
 munionis Christi, ac ita bona conscientia uiuendo uitam piara, sanctam, et 
 utilem proximis, expectare Christum Seruatorem, qui eos ex hoc saeculo ad 
 66 assumat in COB!OS, et corpora quoque eorum in die iudicii ad uitam 
 ccBlestem resuscitet. 
 
 Interrogatio. Credis ergo hsecomnia firmiter? 
 
 Eesp. Credo omnia, oro autem Dominum, ut hanc fidem augere in me 
 dignetur. 
 
 Interrogatio. Quid autem debet hsec fides in te efficere ? 
 
 Resp. Vt nihil dubitem Deum, & Patrem Domini nostri lesu Christi, 
 qui nobis cum hoc suo Filio misit uerbum suum, et donauit omnia } esse 
 solum uerum Deum, condidisse omnia ex nihilo, solum efficere, et largiri 
 bona omnia, ac uelle et mihi se Patrem prsestare, propter eundem Filium 
 suum Dominum nostrum lesum Christum, abluisse me a peccatis Sacro 
 Baptismate, donasse Sjpiritu Sancto, Filio suo dilecto incorporasse, atq ; ita 
 in Ecclesiam suam assumpsisse, et in filium atq: hoeredem adoptasse, 
 conseruaturum etiam esse in Ecclesia sua, posnitentiam et remissionem in 
 ea daturum, Communionemq ; Filii sui, et per eum nomen ipsius filiali 
 fiducia semper inuocem, et innouatione mei ad imaginem eius quotidie 
 proficiam, per uerbum, et Sacramenta in me perpetuo confirmaturum, et 
 aucturum, quo sanctificare nomen ipsius, et inseruire Ecclesiee eius omni 
 genere bonorum operum indesinenter studeam, donee me ex hoc saeculo ad 
 coalestia gaudia, et beatam resurrectionem assumat. Quse omnia prasstita 
 mihi agnosco, et praestanda ex sola gratuita misericordia Patris coelestis, et 
 inaestimabili merito Filii sui Domini nostri lesu Christi. 
 
 Interrogatio. Hanc tibi fidem augeat, et confirmet Deus, et Pater noster 
 coslestis, per Filium suum Dominum nostrum lesum Christum, Amen. 
 Sentis igitur te, et agnoscis in hac fide uere filium esse, et haeredem Dei, 
 fratrem et cohaeredem Domini nostri lesu Christi, ac ideo etiam unum 
 membrum corporis sui, quod est Ecclesia ? 
 
 Respond. Sentio et agnosco fretus certissimis diuinae beneuolentiae 
 promissionibus, et merito Domini nostri lesu Christi. 
 
 Fol. lixx. Interrogatio. Ergo placet tibi, ratumq; habes, et adiutus Spiritu 
 Domini in eo perseuerabis, quod tui susceptores nomine tuo ad Sacrum 
 Baptisma promiserunt et professi sunt, cum pro te renunciarunt Satanae, 
 et mundo, et addixerunt te Christo et Ecclesise eius iu solidam Euangelii 
 obedientiam ? 
 
 Respond. Hasc rata habeo, et in eis adiuuante me Domino nostro lesu 
 Christo permanebo usq ; ad finem. 
 
 Interrogatio. Et nunc ipse etiam tuo corde et ore hie in conspectu 
 Dei, et'coram sancta eius Ecclesia, renuncias Satanse ct cunctis operibus 
 eius? 
 
 Respond . Renuncio . 
 
 Interrogatio. Et mundo atq; cunctis concupiscentiis eius? 
 
 Respond. Renuncio. 
 
 Interrogatio. Et tradis te atq ; consecras in omnem obedientiam Christo 
 et Sanctee Ecclesise eius ? 
 
 Respond. Tradp me et conaecro.
 
 APPENDIX. 555 
 
 Interrogatio. Quomodo es primum 4 Deo in filium adoptatus, et in 
 Ecclcsiam eius assurnptus? 
 
 Respond. Per S. Baptisma. 
 
 Interrogatio. Quid cst Baptisma ? 
 
 Respond. Lauacrum regenerationis, quo & peccato ablutus, et Christo 
 Domino insertus sum, et eo indutns. 
 
 Interrogatio. Vis in hac communione Christi perseuerare usque in 
 finem? 
 
 Respond. Volo cquidem fretus auxilio Domini nostri lesu Chrisji. 
 
 Interrogatio. Quid requirit ista communio Ecclesiaj Christi ? 
 
 Respond Vt perniancam in doctrina hac, quam confessus sum, et in 
 omnibus articulia fidei nostrae. credamq; remissionem me habere pecca- 
 torum in Christo Domino, et propter hunc Filium dilectum. non proprio 
 merito iusticiie esse iustificatum, et acceptum Deo haeredemq ; uitae seternae, 
 Turn uiuere etiam studeam secundum omnia placita Dei. Atq ; quo in hac 
 agnitione Dei, et obedientia proficiam ut uerbum Dei praecipue autem 
 diebus Festis et Dominicis, & Ministris Ecclesiae diligenter audiam, et si 
 Presbyteri Ecclesiae, aut alii, quicunq ; hoc mihi dilectionis officium praes- 
 titerint, arguant pcccati, ut id boni consulam, et ad uitae emendationem 
 Buscipiam, et ego proxirnos meos itidem, quos male et inordinate se gerere 
 uidero, ex syncero studio Christi, et salutis ipsorum moneam, et emendem, 
 si liceat, sin minus, ut alios adhibeam, quos sperauero plus effecturos apud Fol. IXXZL 
 illos. qubdsi neq; hos audierint, ut ad Presbyteros Ecclesiarum rem omnem rect " 
 deferam, quos si audire contempserint, ac propterea excommunicati fuerint, 
 ut eos habeam pro Ethnicis et publicanis, eorumq; consuetudinem uitem, 
 quantum feret uocatio nostra, st coniunctio cum ipsis ciuilis, et necessitas 
 ipsorum secundum uerbum Dei. 
 
 Interrogatio. Quid amplius requirit communio Ecclesia Christi ? 
 
 Respond. Ilequirit etiam, ut cum reliquis Christianis, ad quoscunq ; 
 uenero, uel apud quos habitauero, communicem Coenae Domini, ut cum 
 quibus unus panis, et unum corpus sim in Christo. 
 
 Interrogatio. Quid est hoc Sacramentum ? 
 
 Respond. Est communicatio corporis et sanguinis Christi quae nobis in 
 ccena Domini, cum ilia iuxta institutum Domini celebratur, cum pane et 
 uino uer exhibentur. 
 
 Interrogatio. In quern usum sumis corpus et sanguinem Domini ? 
 
 Respond. Vt fides mea in ipsum, et fiducia noui et aeterni testamenti, 
 gratiae Dei, redemptionis Christi, atq; Communionis cum ipso, magis ac 
 magis in me conftrmetur, et minus mihi, sed magis in ipso uiuam, et ipse 
 in me uitam nouam et sanctam instauret, Nam quod ad meam camera 
 et sanguinem attinet, nihil quAm peccare, et impiam agere uitam possum. 
 
 Interrogatio. Quid praeterea requirit communio Ecclesiae? 
 
 Respond. Vtad publicas Ecclesiae preces, meas studiose addam, conu- 
 eniam, et ibi oblationes, et eleemosinas liberaliter conferam in usus paupe- 
 rum, sicq ; in omnibus me geram, uti membrum Christi, in Christo coniunc- 
 tum, et cohserens cum piis omnibus, eosq; quos Dominus Ecclesiis suis 
 Pastores, curatores animarum, et presbyteros praefecerit, in omnibus libenter
 
 Fol. Ixxxi. 
 vers. 
 
 556 APPENDIX. 
 
 agnoscam, et colam, sicut decet filium Dei, Deo morigerum, et gratum esse 
 pro immensis istis beneficiis, Euangelio, et communione Filii eius Domini 
 nostri lesu Christi. 
 
 Interrogatio. Vis autem haec omnia bona fide prsestare, et obseruare, 
 quemadmodum iam professus es ? 
 
 Respond. Volo, fretus auxilio Domini nostri lesu Christi. 
 
 Postquam uero unus ex pueris eonfessionem fidci pleniorem recitauerit, et 
 obedientiam Christi plenius professus fuerit coram omni Ecclesia, satis- 
 fuerit pueros c&teros interrogare ordine, isto modo. 
 
 Interrogatio. Credis et confiteris et tu fili, ac uis te tradere et consecrare 
 in communionem et obedientiam Christi et Ecclesiae eius, ita ut modo audi- 
 uisti istum puerum credere, et confessum esse, sese Christo et Ecclesiae 
 Christi in obedientiam Euangelii addixisse ? 
 
 Hie satis erit pro se singulos respondere^ ita. 
 
 Credo, Confiteor, et me Christo et Ecclesiae eius consecro, fretus gratia 
 et ope Domini et Seruatoris nostri lesu Christi. 
 
 Vbi uero non fuerint pueri tarn exercitati in Religionis cognitione, ut ad 
 formam praescriptam respondere memoriter possint, debet Visitator, qui 
 Confirmationem administrabit, talibus pueris responsiones omnes preelegere, 
 et satis erit, si simplici responsione praelecta se credere testati fuerint, ita 
 tamen declarare eis omnia studebit, ut intelligant, quid ibi agatur, et quid 
 confiteantur, et profiteantur. Monendi tamen diligenter sunt, ut cogitent 
 se stare in conspectu Dei, quern fallere non possint, qui cor intuetur. Quare 
 summa religione curandum eis, ut uita ipsa declarent. quod ere profitentur, 
 et corde sentiunt. 
 
 Singuli tamen pueri, ut ante monuimus, septimana prascedenti, per 
 Ministros et Seniores cuiusq ; Ecclesiae, exerceri ad hasc debent, et diligenter 
 explorari, et Pastores et Presbyteri nullos pueros confirmandos Visitatori 
 sistere debent, nisi de quibus confidant, quod summam Religionis teneant, 
 et Christo uere credant. Vt scite respondeant pueri, qudd ad uerba attinet, 
 non est anxie rcquirendum, nee enim raro fit, ut qui scientia fidci instructi- 
 ores sint, uel pudore, uel alia imbecillitate animi impediti, qua; pi sentiunt, 
 minus commode ualeant eloqui, prsesertim in publico. Quare magis spec- 
 tandum. qui pueri, quse Religionis sunt, uere intelligant, quam qui ualeant 
 ea uerbis scite explicare, qua in re ii saepe prsestant, qui animos minus 
 pietate imbutos habcnt. Porr6 cum pueri confirmandi,fidem suamconfessi 
 fuerint, et Euangelii obedientiam professi, Ecclesia admonenda est, ut pro 
 his pueris Deum suppliciter oret, Cuiusorationem Pastor huiusmodi Collecta 
 Domino offeret. 
 
 COLLECTA. 
 Foi.ixxxiL Omnipotens et misericors Deus, Pater coclestis, qui solus in nobis efficis, 
 
 rect. 
 
 ut uchmus ac pcrficiamus, quse tibi placita sunt, ac uere bona, rogamus to 
 pro his pueris", quos Ecclesiae ture donasti, atque tibi Sacro Baptismate 
 regenuisti, quibusq : earn lucem infudisti, ut gratiam et beneficia tua erga 
 se, redemptionem* suara in Christo lesu, et agnoscere, et coram Ecclesia
 
 APPENDIX. 557 
 
 COnfiteri, seq ; ipsi tibi, et Ecclesiae tuae in obedientiam praeceptorum tuo- 
 rum dcdere et consecrare uoluerint, Confirma hoc opus tuum quod in eis 
 operatus es. auge ipsis donum Spiritus tui, ut in Ecclesia tua agnitione et 
 obedientia Euangelii tui semper proficicntcs, ad finem usq; perseuerent, 
 neq : unqam perucrsa aliqua doctrina seducti, uel cupiditatibus carnis im- 
 pulsi, ab ea lide et Euangelii obedientia. quam confessi modo et professi 
 sunt, uspiam declinent, Largire eis, ut in Filio tuo Domino uostro lesu 
 Christo, communi omnium nostrum capite, focliciter ad adolescentcs, cres- 
 cant in cum, donee perueniant ad plene uirilem et perfectam setatem, in 
 omni sapientia, sanctitate. atq; iustitia, ut te Patrem, ct filium tuum 
 Dominum nostrum cum Spiritu sancto semper plenius cognoscat, ardentius 
 diligant, et coram proximis suis. et uerbis, et omni uita sua grauius et effica- 
 cius confiteantur, celebrent, atq ; glorificent, Et quemadmodum nobis pol- 
 licitus es, quicquid petierimus A te in nomine Filii tui dilecti, te hoc nobis 
 daturum esse, et sicut Filius tuus prornisit te nobis rogantibus spiritum 
 bonum multo promptius daturum esse, quam Patrem qucmuis inter nos 
 bonum aliquod rogantibus nliis suis, ita tribue his tuis pueris, quod te per . 
 Christum Filium tuum rogamus, ut cum illis modo in tuo nomine maims 
 imponemus, et per hoc signum certos eos reddemus, paternam manum tuam 
 semper fore super eos extentam, Spiritum sanctum tuum, qui eos in uia 
 salutis, in uita uere Christiana conseruet, ducat, et regat, nunquam defu- 
 turum, Tribue inquam tu eis, ut haec uera fide agnoscaut, et certo credant 
 te ipsos omnipotent! dextera tua semper protecturum, et ab omnia malo 
 custoditurum, et liberaturum, et ad omne bonum ducturum et perducturura 
 tuumq ; Sanctum Spiritum ab eis nunquam ablaturum, per Dominum 
 nostrum lesum Christum, Amen. 
 
 Hie Pastor impositis super eos manibusdicet. 
 
 Domine lesu Christe Fili Dei, qui in Euangelio dixisti. Si uos igitur 
 eum sitis mali, nostis dona bona dare nliis uestris, quanto magis Pater dabit 
 Spiritum sanctum petentibus se? Item, si duo consenserint in terra de 
 omni re, quamcunq; petierint, net illis & Patre meocoslesti, Confirma hunc 
 seruum tuum N. Spiritu sancto tuo, ut in obedientia Euangelii tui perseu- Fo] 
 erct, Diabolo et propriao infirmitati fortiter resistat, neq; contristet Spiritum cer 
 sanctum, aut scandalis perturbet, uel offendat Ecclesiam tuarn, sed ut tota 
 eius uita ad laudem gloriae tua}. propriam salutem, et communem Ecclesiae 
 tuse utilitatem, tota deseruiat, quemadmodum nobis praecepisti, ct daturum 
 te rogantibus pollicitus es, Amen. 
 
 Post fuse canatur Hymnus, Grates nunc omnes tyc. 
 
 In Confirmation pridem signum olei adhiberi consueuit, uernm quoniam 
 hoc signo supcrsticiosissim& abusi sunt, et apud Christianos non tarn signa 
 et umbrae Spintualium rcrum, quam res et ueritas spectari et ualcre debet, 
 fiatisfuerit in ista actione Symbolum impositionis manuum, quod et Apos- 
 tolis atq ; antiquioribus Patribus satisfuit. 
 
 Vtuero Ceremonia hsec maiore grauitateet religionc, et uberiore fructu, 
 cum puerorum, turn totius Ecclesise peragatur. Decani cum Visitatoribus
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 aut Parochis singularum Ecclesiarum talem aliquem locum in templis ad 
 istam Ceremoniam ministrandam deligent, unde confessio et professio 
 puerorum, et reliqua, quae cum illis agenda sunt, & tota Ecclesia clare 
 exaudiri et intelligi possint. 
 
 ADDENDA, &c. 
 
 P. 99. It may be worth while to give an illustration of what is here 
 referred to. Thus, then, we find Bishop Hooper quoted as an opponent of 
 the Calvinistic view of election, because he has said in his Preface to his 
 " Declaration of the Ten Commandments," that " The cause of rejection or 
 damnation is sin in man, which will not hear, neither receive the promise 
 of the Gospel." Now this might fairly be adduced against the notion that 
 it was not sin, but God's decree, that caused man's damnation ; but it does 
 not touch the question of the cause of election ; and in the context of this 
 very passage, Bishop Hooper tells us, " The cause of our election is the 
 mercy of God in Christ, Rom. ix. Howbeit he that will be partaker of 
 this election must receive the promise in Christ by faith. For therefore we 
 be elected, because afterward we are made the members of Christ. Eph. i.; 
 Rom viii." (Works P. S. ed. p. 264.) That is, he maintains that it is 
 God's mercy, not foreseen holiness, that is the cause of our election. Bishop 
 Hooper's views have been similarly misrepresented on other points by giving 
 extracts from his writings, adverse to certain extreme views on the subject 
 of the Divine Decrees, as showing his adherence to what is now called 
 Arminian doctrine. But I must content myself with putting the reader on 
 his guard against such misconceptions of the views of our early divines, as 
 it would occupy considerable space to notice them at length. 
 
 Pp. 119 and 282. In giving the names of the Regius Professors of 
 Divinity at Cambridge. I have followed Le Neve in his " Fasti Ecclesioo 
 Anglicanfe, 1716," fol., (a work of the highest reputation^ whose list is, I 
 understand, borne out by the University Register. John Fox, however, in 
 his " Acts and Monuments,''' (ed. 1583, p. 1966,) tells us, that, at the restora- 
 tion of the bones of Buccr and Paul Fagius to an honorabe burial, " M. 
 James Pilkinton the Queencs reader of the Divinity Lecture, going up into 
 the pulpite, made a sermon upon the iii. Psalmc," &c. His case, if he is to 
 6e added to the list, only affords further evidence of the correctness of the 
 view already deduced from the works of his contemporaries as to the 
 theology of our Church at that period ; bolfr as it respects its general 
 character, and its nature on the particular subject of baptism. 
 
 For the former, tho following passage may suffice. 
 
 " And why will God thus save them ? for any goodness in them, which 
 had so long forgotten him and his house ; or for their good works who had 
 so long been so disobedient? No; but even 'because I have chosen thee,
 
 APPENDIX. 559 
 
 saith the Lord.' This is the first and chiefcst cause, why he bestoweth hi 
 goodness upon any people ; even because he hath chosen them in Christ afore 
 the world was made : and for this cause he continuelh bestowing his blessing 
 
 to the end, upon them whom he hath once chosen 'I have 
 
 chosen you, and ye have not chosen me.' said Christ to his disciples and 
 apostles. And as he thus chose them, so he chooses all which be chosen: 
 and so he will declare his free grace, love, and mercy, to all which be his, 
 freely, even because it pleased him to choose them, and they deserved not to 
 be chosen of him, but rather to be cast away from him." (Expos, upon 
 Aggeus. Ch. 2, ver. 20-23. Works, P. S. ed. pp. 194, 195.) 
 
 For the latter (if any is necessary after the passage just cited,) we may 
 take the following observations on the Sacraments : 
 
 "Under this name of a seal, he commendeth unto us also both his 
 outward visible Sacraments, and the inward grace of the Holy Ghost, work- 
 ing in our consciences by them. St. Paul calleth circumcision (a Sacrament 
 of the old law) ' the seal of the righteousness of faith : ' and as that was a 
 seal in that time to our fathers of righteousness, so be our Sacraments to 
 us in these days seals of God's promises unto us, and all have one strength 
 and virtue. The Scripture of God is the indenture betwixt God and us, 
 wherein is contained both the promises, grace, and mercy, that God offereth 
 to the world in his Son Christ, and also the conditions which he requires 
 to be fulfilled in our behalf: the Sacraments are the seals set to his inden- 
 ture, to strengthen our faith, that we do not doubt. For as it is not enough 
 to write the conditions of a bargain in an indenture, except it be sealed; 
 so God for our weakness thought it not sufficient to make us promise of his 
 blessings in writing in his Scripture : but he would seal it with his own 
 blood, and institute his Sacraments as seals of the same truth, to remain to 
 be received of us in remembrance of him and strengthening our faith." 
 (Ib. p. 192.) 
 
 P. 220. I. 7. The necessity of consulting the works of our early 
 divines to ascertain what is the true meaning of their Formularies (the 
 principle here contended for.) is thus distinctly acknowledged by Bishop 
 Bethell : " Several solutions have been proposed in order to get rid of this 
 discordance between the language of our own Church, and the opinions of 
 some Churchmen. But in the meantime it seems to have been forgotten, that 
 the true sense of these compositions must be ascertained by investigating their 
 genealogy, and endeavouring to discover the opinions of their compilers, and 
 the principles on which they were really constructed." (Bp. Bethell's Gen. 
 View of doctr. of Regen. in Baptism. 4th ed. 1845. pp. 98, 99.) 
 
 Notice of Archdeacon Wilberforce 1 s Answer to the preceding Worlt. 
 
 While this sheet was passing through the press, Archdeacon Wilber- 
 force' s Answer to the preceding Work has been placed in my hands. It is, 
 of course, impossible for me to do much more here than to state my inten-
 
 560 APPENDIX. 
 
 tion of replying to it at as early a period as my other engagements -will 
 permit. I avail myself, however, of the opportunity just to notice one or 
 two, out of several like, points, which have struck me in the course of a 
 rapid glance through it. The Work commences with as singular a mistake 
 as can easily be found. Mr. Scott has justly stated, that " the question 
 -whether spiritual regeneration is, or is not, inseparable from baptism," 
 has not " any necessary connexion with the doctrines of absolute predes- 
 tination, and indefectible grace;" justly, because many Arminians deny that 
 it is. But this assertion the Archdeacon strangely metamorphoses into an 
 assertion, that " the theory of Calvin and the doctrine of Baptismal Grace 
 are not so practically irreconcilcable, that those who adhere to the one must 
 forego the other;" and finding that my Work maintains that Calvinism and 
 the doctrine that spiritual regeneration is inseparable from baptism are 
 irreconcileable, he thus concludes, "Thus does he [Mr. Goode] take for 
 granted, as the very basis of his position, that which Mr. Scott had so 
 emphatically denied." (pp. 2, 3.) This is but an unpromising commence- 
 ment ; especially when we find the Archdeacon himself telling us in p. 
 179, that " a belief that any gifts of grace are bestowed where there is no 
 certainty of salvation, is inconsistent with the fundamental principles of 
 the theory of Calvin;" a statement which of itself answers a considerable 
 portion of his volume, and is a stronger statement than I have ever made, 
 or Jhink consistent with fact. But then again, towards the close of his 
 Work, in direct contradiction to this, the Archdeacon spends some 20 pages 
 in proving that certain "Calvinists" did hold the doctrine of invariable 
 spiritual regeneration in infant baptism, referring to Davenant, Ward, and 
 even Usher (!) as testifying against me, concluding in triumph that "Mr. 
 Goodc is utterly put out of Court by his own witnesses." (p. 292.) Of 
 course the Archdeacon is " put out " also, at the same time, and by himself. 
 And the Archdeacon's triumph will be very short with one who consults 
 the writings of the parties he has named. But he seems to have no idea of 
 the essential difference of their views from his own system. As to Usher, 
 it is difficult to conceive how he could venture to name him for such a 
 purpose. The view of Davenant, as stated in his letter to Ward (and this 
 is what the Archdeacon alludes to) every reader of my Work knows that 1 
 have given fully, and I think I have sufficiently shown its uselessness for 
 proving what the Archdeacon would derive from it. But what will the 
 reader say when I inform him, that the Archdeacon actually represents the 
 matter as if I had concealed it, and writes thus, " The reader will see 
 that on these .facts it would not be difficult to found a charge of disingenu- 
 ous conduct against Mr. Goode. Why not tell his readers plainly the purpose 
 of DavenanCs letter ? Why not state more fully the sentiments of Dr. 
 Ward, &c." (p. 272.) And he then takes credit for not implying such an 
 imputation, adding a note of reproof for my speaking of the disingenuous- 
 ness of the Tractarian party ! And in several passages in other parts, he 
 complains as if I had not spoken with sufficient respect of Archbishop 
 Laurence, &c. I certainly am not aware that such is the case. The 
 charge against the Tractarian party is too well founded to permit me to
 
 APPENDIX. 561 
 
 withdraw it. But one thing I would earnestly press upon the Archdeacon's 
 attention, that before he, at least, indulges in criticism of this kind, he must 
 expunge from his own book insinuations that his opponents itse expressions 
 which they disbelieve, and promise to teach a system which they intend to 
 ontradict, $c. (p. 55, 6.) when he well knows, that they believe and teach 
 arhat in their minds is the true meaning of the language as much as him- 
 self. Such language is reprehensible in the highest degree, but neverthe- 
 less but too common in the mouths of many of those who think with him. 
 
 In p. 264, I find the following statement, " He finds the system of 
 Calvinism not only in Abbot and Downame, but in Andrews and Hooker." 
 (p. 264.) The fact is just the reverse as to Andrews, who is mentioned 
 and quoted as opposed to it. (See pp. 136, 137.) 
 
 The Archdeacon informs his readers that Mr. Goode " opens his histori- 
 cal statements with the startling assertion that Peter Lombard is on his 
 side, and that in the blooming period of the Scholastic philosophy it was 
 an open question whether ' grace was always conferred upon infants in 
 baptism,' p. 52." (p. 192.) And he frequently repeats the words, as if the 
 denial was as to any grace being conferred. Now first, I particularly 
 guard myself against the supposition that I quote Peter Lombard as "on 
 my side; ); and secondly, the Archdeacon would see in p. 38 of Appendix, 
 that I limited the word "grace" by adding "sanctifying," and I leave 
 any one to read the passages I have quoted, and judge for himself whether 
 or not the passages I have given from Peter Lombard do not fully bear 
 out what I have said respecting them. The way in which the Archdea- 
 con would explain these passages is not reconcileable with the language 
 used in them. And I may say the same as to the authorities from the 
 Canon Law quoted in p. 52, commented upon by the Archdeacon in pp. 
 206. 206 ; except that the Archdeacon is perfectly right in saying that I 
 should have quoted the latter as the Council of Vienne, not (as I called it 
 by the Latin name) Vienna. The Latin names, however, are frequently 
 used in such cases, but here certainly it might lead to a mistake. But 1 
 shall meet the observations of the Archdeacon on these passages more fully 
 hereafter. 
 
 I shall notice now but one more point. The Archdeacon is of course 
 very anxious to get rid of the argument derived from the Baptismal Service 
 in the Cologne Liturgy, and to rescue Archbishop Laurence from the 
 charge of making a mistake about it or the views of its author. In my 
 humble apprehension, he might as well have attempted to prove that two 
 and two make five. The fact is plain and undeniable. Bucer belonged to 
 the Reformed party, and is proved to have held views inconsistent with the c 
 notion of invariable spiritual regeneration in Baptism, and he drew up the 
 Baptismal Service in the Cologne Liturgy. Consequently that Service is 
 at least open to an interpetation consistent with his views. The fact that 
 Melancthon gave his assent to the Service does not at all affect the argu- 
 ment. The Archdeacon's anxiety, however, on this point, has led him 
 actually to deny that the Abp. u puts down Bucer as a Lutheran," and 
 even to go so far as to say that the charge " is grounded only upon the fact 
 36
 
 562 APPENDIX. 
 
 that Laurence speaks of the langtiage of Herman's Service as Lutheran." 
 (p. 236.) ! ! I leave the reader to judge from the passages I have quoted 
 how far this is correct, (p. 438, 439.) 
 
 The above remarks will probably show the reader the necessity of 
 caution in reading the Archdeacon's Work. A more extended reply I must 
 reserve for another opportunity.
 
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