ARTICLE XXVII

De Baptismo.

Baptismus non est tantum professionis signum ac discriminis nota, qua Christiani a non Christianis discernantur, sed etiam est signum Regenerationis, per quod tanquam per instrumentum recte baptismum suscipientes, ecclesiæ inseruntur, promissiones de remissione peccatorum atque adoptione nostra in filios Dei, per Spiritum sanctum visibiliter obsignantur, fides confirmatur, et vi divinæ invocationis, gratia augetur.

Baptismus parvulorum omnino in ecclesia retinendus est, ut qui cum Christi institutione optime congruat.

Of Baptism.

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 instrument, 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.

The baptism of young children is in any wise to be retained in the Church, as most agreeable with the institution of Christ.

THIS Article dates from 1553; but in the revision of Elizabeth's reign, ten years later, the last paragraph was rewritten, and the language on Infant Baptism was considerably strengthened. The earlier clause had simply stated that "the custom of the Church to christen young children is to be commended, and in any wise to be retained in the Church." The language of the Article

It should be mentioned that though the words "per Spiritum Sanctum" stand in the Latin edition of 1553, there is nothing to correspond to them in the English. The omission was rectified in the English edition of Jugge and Cawood in 1563.

has not been traced to any earlier source. There is nothing in the Confession of Augsburg1 or in the Thirteen Articles of 1538 suggesting its phraseology; nor is there any resemblance between its language and that of the Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum on the same subject.2

The object of the Article is to state the Church's teaching on Holy Baptism, in view of the errors of the Anabaptists, who (1) maintained an utterly unspiritual view of the sacrament, and (2) denied that Baptism ought to be administered to infants and young children.$ There are two main subjects which come before us for consideration

(1) The description of Baptism and its effects. (2) Infant Baptism.

I. The Description of Baptism and its Effects. Each phrase in the description requires separate consideration.

(a) Baptism is . . . a sign of profession. So much was admitted by Zwingli and the Anabaptists, who regarded Baptism as little more than this. The expression used in the Article may be illustrated by the language of the closing exhortation in the Office for the Public Baptism of Infants in the Book of Common Prayer, where it is said that "Baptism doth represent unto us our profession; which

1 The Article in the Confession of Augsburg (IX.) is this: "De Baptismo docent, quod sit necessarius ad salutem, quodque per baptismum 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,"

2 Ref. Legum Ecclesiast., De Sacramentis, cap. 3.

3 This, together with other errors on Baptism, is condemned in the Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum, De Hæres. cap. 18; and cf. Hermann's "Consultation," fol. cxlii.

is to follow the example of our Saviour Christ, and to be made like unto Him: that as He died and rose again for us, so should we who are baptized, die from sin and rise again unto righteousness; continually mortifying all our evil and corrupt affections, and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of living." This view of Baptism is based directly on the language of S. Paul in Rom. vi. 4, "We were buried with Him through baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life" (cf. also Col. ii. 12, "Having been buried with Him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, Who raised Him from the dead").

(b) It is a mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned from other that be not christened (a non Christianis). Just as circumcision was a mark distinguishing the Jews from all others, so also Baptism distinguishes Christians from non-Christians. It is the initial rite by which a man is, so to speak, made a Christian. But Baptism is much more than this. is to be regarded not only as a badge or mark, for,

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Cf. also the Collect for Easter Even (1662), "Grant, O Lord, that as we are baptized into the death of thy blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, so by continually mortifying our corrupt affections we may be buried with him; and that through the grave and gate of death we may pass to our joyful resurrection; for His merits," etc. Expression is also given to the same thought in the Reformatio Legum Ecclesiast., De Sacramentis, cap. 3: ‘Dum autem in aqua demergimur et rursus ex illa emergimus, Christi mors nobis primum et sepultura commendantur, deinde suscitatio quidem illius, et reditus ad vitam," etc. See also Bishop Lightfoot on Col. ii. 12: "Baptism is the grave of the old man, and the birth of the new. As he sinks beneath the baptismal waters the believer buries there all his corrupt affections and past sins; as he emerges thence, he rises regenerate, quickened to new hopes and a new life. . . . Thus Baptism is an image of his participation both in the death and in the resurrection of Christ." It is obvious how much the dramatic impressiveness of Baptism and its representative force is increased where immersion is the method employed.

(c) It is also a sign of regeneration or new birth. Here it must be remembered that sacraments have been already defined in Article XXV. as "effectual signs of grace," and therefore, since "Regeneration" is the word which the Church has ever used to describe the grace of Baptism, and to sum up the blessings conveyed in it, we must interpret "sign" in this clause as an effectual sign; and thus the whole expression will mean that in Baptism the blessings of regeneration are not only represented, but are also conveyed to the recipient. The word Regeneration is expanded in the Church Catechism into "a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness," and explained in the following words: "For being by nature born in sin and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace." has been selected by the Church, not only because of its use by S. Paul, who speaks in Titus iii. 5 of a "laver of regeneration” (λουτρόν παλιγγενεσίας),1 in a connection in which it can only refer to Baptism, but also because, previously to this, expression had been given to the thought of a "new birth" as requisite by our Lord Himself in His conversation with Nicodemus, where, after saying, "Except a man be born anew (or from above, avw0ev) he cannot see the kingdom of God," He explains His words by adding the statement that a man must be

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1 The only other passage in the New Testament in which the word Taλyyeveola occurs is S. Matt. xix. 28, where it has no reference to Baptism.

2 Thus among the Greek Fathers dvayévvnois occurs from the days of Justin Martyr onwards (Apol. I. lxi. : Επειτα ἄγονται ὑφ' ἡμῶν ἔνθα ὕδωρ ἐστί, καὶ τρόπον ἀναγεννήσεως, ὃν καὶ ἡμεῖς αὐτοὶ ἀνεγεννήθημεν, ἀναγεννώνται). (Cf. Irenaeus, Adv. Hær. I. xiv. 1 : εἰς ἐξάρνησιν τοῦ βαπτίσε ματος τῆς εἰς Θεὸν ἀναγεννήσεως). Indeed it is more common in this connection than waλıyyeveσía. For these two words the Latins have but the one equivalent, Regeneratio, which is apparently first found of Christian Baptism in Tertullian, De Resurr. Carnis, xlvii. (its use in De Carne Christi, iv., is ambiguous).

"born of water and the Spirit" (è§ üdaтos kaì ПIvevuaтós), S. John iii. 3, 5.1

But though the word Regeneration sums up the special grace of Baptism, yet the precise blessings conveyed by it may seem to demand more explicit statement, and therefore the Article proceeds to define them, and to state them under at least three distinct heads.

1. By it (Latin per quod, i.e. by the signum regenerationis), as by an instrument, they that receive Baptism rightly (recte) are grafted into the Church. So in the Church Catechism (dating in this part from 1549), the child is taught to speak of "my Baptism wherein I was made a member of Christ," that is, a member of His mystical body, the Church; and the language of the Article is capable of abundant illustration from the Baptismal Offices in the Book of Common Prayer, which frequently speak of admission to the Church as one of the blessings of Baptism. Most pertinent are the words of the declaration of Regeneration to be used after the actual Baptism, which, as they date from the revision of 1552, are almost exactly contem

1 Since exception is sometimes taken to the reference of these words to Christian Baptism, it may be well to remind the reader of Hooker's forcible vindication of the Catholic interpretation of them, and the three arguments by which he supports it. (1) Where a literal construction will stand, the farthest from the letter is commonly the worst; (2) of all the ancients, there is not one that can be named that did ever understand it except of Baptism; and (3) "where the letter of the law hath two things plainly expressed, water as a duty on our part, the Spirit as a gift which God supplieth, there is danger in presuming so to interpret it as if the clause concerning ourselves were more than needeth. By such rare expositions we may perhaps in the end attain to be thought witty, but with ill advice."-Eccl. Pol. bk. V. c. lix.

2 Tho phrase tanquam per instrumentum was perhaps suggested by the Confession of Augsburg, which says (Article V.) that "per verbum et sacramenta, tanquam per instrumenta, donatur Spiritus Sanctus." But the expression is not uncommon in contemporary writings. See Hardwick, p. 414.