CHAPTER 28
OF BAPTISM
Section 28.1.—Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, [Matt 28:19; Mark 16:16] not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church, [1 Cor 12:13; Gal 3:27-28] but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, [Rom 4:11; Col 2:11-12] of his ingrafting into Christ, [Gal 3:27; Rom 6:5] of regeneration, [Titus 3:5] of remission of sins, [Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16; Mark 1:4] and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life: [Rom 6:3-4] which sacrament is by Christ's own appointment to be continued in his Church until the end of the world. [Matt 28:19-20]
Section 28.2.—The outward element to be used in this sacrament is water, wherewith the party is to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by a minister of the gospel, lawfully called thereunto. [Acts 8:36,38; Acts 10:47; Matt 23:19]
Section 28.3.—Dipping of the person into the water is not necessary; but baptism is rightly administered by pouring or sprinkling water upon the person. [Acts 2:41; Acts 16:33; Mark 7:4; Heb 10:10-21]
SC 94.—Baptism is a sacrament, wherein the washing with water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal our ingrafting into Christ, and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord's. LC 165.
In these sections we are taught the following propositions:
1st. Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, instituted immediately by Christ, and by his authority to continue in the Church until the end of the world.
2d. As to the action which constitutes Baptism, it is a washing of the subject with water (the manner of the washing not being essential), in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by a lawfully-ordained minister.
3d. It is done with the design and effect of signifying and sealing our ingrafting into Christ, our partaking of the benefits of his covenant, and our engagement to be his.
1st. Christian Baptism is an ordinance immediately instituted by Christ himself, and designed to be observed in the Church until the end of the world. Washing the body with water to represent spiritual purification and consecration, was a natural symbol which prevailed among all ancient Eastern nations, as the Persians, Brahmins (i.e. Hindus), Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, and preeminently among the Jews. Paul summarily describes the ancient ceremonial as consisting "in meats and drinks and divers baptisms." Heb 9:10. John, the forerunner of Jesus, came baptizing also. But this was not Christian Baptism. Because (a) John was the last Old Testament prophet, and not a New Testament apostle. Luke 1:17. (b) He did not baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (c) His baptism was unto repentance, not into the faith of Christ. (d) He did not by baptism introduce men into the fellowship of the Christian Church, as the apostles did at Pentecost. Acts 2:41,47. (e) Those baptized by John were baptized over again by
the apostles when they were admitted to the Christian Church. Acts 18:24; Acts 19:7. For analogous reasons we believe that the baptism performed by his disciples previous to the crucifixion of the Lord (John 3:22; John 4:1-2) was not the permanent Christian sacrament of Baptism, binding its subjects to the faith and obedience of the Trinity, and initiating them into the Christian Church, but that, on the contrary, like the baptism of John, it was a purifying rite, binding to repentance and preparing the way for the coming kingdom.
It is certain that we have the true warrant of the Christian sacrament of Baptism from the lips of the great Head of the Church in person, in Matt 28:18-20: "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."
Some, as the Quakers, have not understood that this command imposes the obligation of the perpetual observance of this ordinance. That the observance is to endure until the second coming of Christ, is plain—(a) From the universal maxim that every law continues binding until it is abrogated, or until the reason for it has ceased. But this command has never been recalled, and the reason for its observance remains precisely what it was when the command was given. (b) The plain terms of the command reach (1) to all nations, and (2) until the end of this world ({GK}). (c) The example
of the apostles. Acts 2:38; Acts 16:33. (d) The constant practice of all branches of the Christian Church from the beginning to the present time.
2d. As to the action which constitutes it, Baptism is a washing with water (the manner of washing being indifferent) in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by a lawfully-ordained minister. The reason that Baptism should be administered only by a lawfully-ordained minister has been considered under the last chapter. [WCF 27]
The Confession teaches that the command to baptize is a command to wash with water in the name of the Trinity. It is often, but erroneously supposed that the controversy between our Baptist brethren and the rest of the Christian Church with respect to Baptism is a question of mode; they affirming that the only right mode is to immerse—we affirming that the best mode is to sprinkle. This is a great mistake. The real Baptist position, as stated by Dr. Alexander Carson (p. 55), is that the command to baptize is a simple and single command to immerse, in order to symbolize the death, burial and resurrection of the believer with Christ. The true position maintained by other Christians is, that Baptism is a simple and single command to wash with water, in order to symbolize the purification wrought by the Holy Ghost. Hence the mode of washing has nothing to do with it. It is necessarily perfectly indifferent, so that it be decent. According to our view, the essential matter is the water, and the application of the water in the name of the Trinity. According to their view, the essential matter is the burial, total immersion, in water or sand as the case may be. The
evidence of the truth of the view entertained by the vast majority of Christ's Church is as follows:
(1.) The word {GK} (baptizo) in its classical usage means to dip, to moisten, to wet, to purify, to wash. Dr. Carson admits that he has all the lexicons against him.
(2.) In the Septuagint, {GK} and {GK} occur five times. Thus, Dan 4:33, Nebuchadnezzar is said to have been wet (baptized) with the dew of heaven. Ecclesiasticus 34:25: "He that baptizeth himself after the touching of a dead body," but this purification was performed by sprinkling. Num 19:9,13,20. See also 2 Kings 5:14, and Judith 12:7.
(3.) In the New Testament, {GK} is used interchangeably with {GK}, which only means to wash. Compare Mark 7:3-4; Luke 11:38; Matt 15:2,20; and observe (a) that to baptize is there used interchangeably with to wash. (b) The washing was to effect purification, for the unbaptized hands are called the unwashed and unclean hands. (c) The common mode of washing hands in those countries is to pour water upon them. The rich have servants to pour the water on their hands. The poor pour the water on their own hands.
(4.) When John's disciples disputed about baptism, it is expressly said to have been a dispute about purification. John 3:25; John 4:2.
(5.) The same idea is uniformly expressed by the word baptism or baptisms in the New Testament. In Mark 7:2-8 we read of the baptisms of cups, pots, brazen vessels and tables (couches upon which several persons reclined at table). These things could not be,
and were not, immersed. The whole object of the service was not burial, but purification. In Heb 9:10, Paul says that the first tabernacle "stood only in meats and drinks and divers baptisms;" and below, in Heb 9:13,19,21, he specifies some of these divers baptism: "For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh," and "Moses sprinkled both the book and all the people, and the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry."
(6.) Baptism with water is emblematical of baptism by the Holy Ghost, the object of which is spiritual purification. Matt 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:26,33; Acts 1:5; Acts 11:16. Spiritual baptism is called "the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Titus 3:5. Baptism with water symbolizes baptism by the Holy Ghost. But baptism by the Holy Ghost unites us to Christ, and makes us one with him in his death, in his resurrection, in his new life unto God, his righteousness, his inheritance, etc., etc. Spiritual baptism carries all these consequences, and water baptism represents spiritual baptism; therefore we are said to be baptized into Christ, into his death, into one body, to be buried with him, to rise with him, so as to walk with him in newness of life; to put on Christ (as a garment), to be planted together with him (as a tree), etc. None of these have anything to do with the mode of baptism, because it is simply absurd to suppose that the same action can at the same time symbolize things so different as burial, putting on clothes, and planting trees. The real order is, washing with water represents washing of the Spirit. Washing of the Spirit unites to
Christ—union with Christ involves all the consequences above mentioned.
(7.) Baptism of the Holy Ghost, of which water baptism is the emblem, is never set forth in Scripture as an "immersion," but always as a "pouring" and "sprinkling." Acts 2:1-4,32-33; Acts 10:44-48; Acts 11:15-16. Of the gift of the Holy Ghost it is said he "came from heaven," was "poured out," "shed forth," "fell on them." Isa 44:3: "I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed." Isa 52:15: "So shall he sprinkle many nations." Ezek 36:25-27: "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean," etc. Joel 2:28-29: "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh."
(8.) The universally prevalent manner of effecting the rite of purification among the Jews, from the analogy of which Christian Baptism was taken, was by sprinkling, and not by immersion. The hands and feet of the priests were to be washed at the brazen laver, from which water poured out through spouts or cocks. Exod 30:18-21; 2 Chron 4:6; 1 Kings 7:27-39. See also Lev 8:30; Lev 14:7,51; Exod 24:5-8; Num 8:6-7; Heb 9:12-22.
(9.) In 1 Cor 10:1-2, the Israelites are said to have been "baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." Compare Exod 14:19-31. But the Egyptians who were immersed were not baptized; and the Israelites who were baptized were not immersed. Dr. Carson (p. 413) says Moses got "a dry dip!" In 1 Pet 3:20-21, it is said that Baptism is the antitype of the salvation of the eight souls in the ark. Yet the very gist of their salvation consisted in their not being immersed.
(10.) Among all the recorded instances of baptism performed
by John the Baptist and the apostles, there is not one in which immersion is asserted, while there are many in which it was highly improbable—(a) Because the apostles baptizing and the early converts baptized were all Jews, accustomed to purify by pouring and sprinkling. (b) Because of the vast multitudes baptized at one time, and the known scarcity of water in Jerusalem and generally in the situations spoken of. The eunuch was baptized on the roadside in a desert country. Acts 8:26-39. Three thousand were baptized in one day in the dry city of Jerusalem, which depends upon rainwater stored in tanks and cisterns. [Acts 2:37-41] The vast multitudes swarming to John. Matt 3:5-6. The jailer was baptized in prison at midnight Acts. [16:25-33] Paul was baptized by Ananias right at his bedside. Ananias said, "standing up he be baptized," and "standing up he was baptized." Acts 9:18; Acts 22:16. (c) The earliest pictorial representations of baptism, dating from the second or third century, all indicate that the manner of applying the water to the body of the baptized was by pouring. (d) It is done in the same way universally by Eastern Christians at the present time.
That it is essential that this baptismal washing should be done in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is plain (1) from the explicit command to that effect expressed in the words of institution. [Matt 28:18-20] (2) From the fact that Baptism, as a seal of the covenant of grace, and as the divinely-appointed rite of initiation into the Christian Church, introduces the baptized into covenant with, and the public profession of, the true God, who is none other than the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.
3d. The design of Baptism is (1) to signify, seal and
confer, to those to whom they belong the benefits of Christ's redemption. Thus (a) it signifies or symbolizes the "washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost," whereby we are united to Christ and made participants in all his redemptive grace. (b) Christ herein seals the truth of his covenant, and thereby conveys to all the beneficiaries of that covenant the grace intended for them.
(2.) The design of Baptism is, that it be a visible sign of our covenant to be the Lord's and devoted to his service, and hence it is a public profession of our faith and badge of our allegiance, and hence of our formal initiation into the Christian Church, and a symbol of our union with our fellow-Christians. 1 Cor 12:13.
Section 28.4.—Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, [Mark 16:15-16; Acts 8:37-38] but also the infants of one or both believing parents, are to be baptized. [Gen 17:7-9; Gal 3:9,14; Col 2:11-12; Acts 2:38-39; Rom 4:11-12; 1 Cor 7:14; Matt 28:19; Mark 10:13-16; Luke 18:15]
As to the subjects of Baptism, our Standards teach—
1st. As to adults, "Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible Church, and so strangers from the covenant of promise, till they profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him." LC 166, and SC 95.
This is of course self-evident, since the intelligent and honest reception of Baptism itself obviously involves precisely this profession of faith in Christ and obedience to him. And in order to secure this, the usage of the Presbyterian Church requires that the pastors and church session should inform the applicant that only a person
who has experienced the grace of regeneration, and who has consequently truly repented of sin and exercised faith in Christ, can honestly do what all necessarily profess to do when they are baptized. And to this end the pastor and session must require of the applicant the evidence (a) of a competent knowledge of the fundamental truths of Christianity, and of the nature and binding obligation of Baptism; (b) of the fact that he makes a consistent profession of a personal experimental faith and promise of obedience to the Lord, and of due subjection to the constituted authorities of the Church; (c) of the fact that his outward walk and conversation do not belie his profession. After this, the entire responsibility of the step must lie upon the person making it. The church officers have no authority to sit in judgment upon the genuineness of his Christian character, because God has given to no class of men the ability to judge aright of such matters. Some churches, as, for instance, our Covenanting Presbyterian brethren, demand, as a condition of adult baptism—or, what is the same thing, admission to the Church—in addition to the profession of faith in the fundamental truths of the Gospel, adherence to certain "testimonies" embodying non-fundamental denominational peculiarities. This we believe to be entirely unauthorized. The Church is Christ's fold, designed for all his sheep. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are the common rights of all the Lord's people. If any man holds the fundamentals of the gospel and professes allegiance to our common Lord, and acts consistently therewith, we have no right to exclude him from his Father's house. It is just as presumptuous to make terms of communion which Christ has
not made as it would be to make terms of salvation which he does not require.
2. As to infants, our Standards teach that an infant, one or both of whose parents are believers (WCF 28.4)—i.e., one or both of whose parents profess faith in Christ and obedience to him (LC 166)—is to be baptized. A bare outline of the abundant Scriptural evidence of this truth may be stated as follows:
(1.) In constituting human nature and ordaining the propagation of infant children from parents, God has in all respects made the standing of the child while an infant to depend upon that of the parent. The sin of the parent carries away the infant from God; so the faith of the parent brings the infant near to God.
(2.) Every covenant God has ever formed with mankind has included the child with the parent;—e.g., the covenants formed with Adam, Noah (Gen 9:9-17), Abraham (Gen 12:1-3; Gen 17:7), with Israel through Moses, (Exod 20:5), and again (Deut 29:10-13); and in the opening sermon of the New Testament dispensation men are exhorted to repent and believe, because the "promise (covenant) is to you and to your children," etc. Acts 2:38-39.
(3.) The Old Testament Church is the same as the New Testament Christian Church. (a) Paul says (Gal 3:8) that the covenant made with Abraham (Gen 17:7) is the "gospel;" and in the whole epistle to the Hebrews he shows that the Old Testament ritual was a setting forth of the person and work of Christ. See above, under WCF 7. (b) Faith was the condition of salvation then as well as now. Abraham
believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness (Rom 4:3), so that he was the great typical believer, "the father of all them that believe" (Rom 4:11), and all who believe in Christ "are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." Gal 3:29. See also Heb 11. All the Israelites, even those only "according to the flesh," professed to believe. And all "true" Israelites did believe. "He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew that is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter." Rom 2:28-29. (c) Circumcision, precisely in the same sense and to the same extent as Baptism, represented a spiritual grace and bound to a spiritual profession. This is taught in the Old Testament, as witness Deut 10:16; Deut 30:6. It was the seal of the Abrahamic covenant, which Paul says is the gospel. [Gen 12:3; Gen 17:7,10; Gal 3:8] It was the seal of the righteousness of faith. Rom 2:28-29; Rom 4:11. True circumcision unites to Christ and secures all the benefits of his redemption. Col 2:10-11. And Baptism has now taken the precise place of circumcision: "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, and if ye be Christ's, then ye are Abraham's seed and heirs, according to the promise." Gal 3:27,29. (d) This Church is identically the same with the New Testament Church. It has the same foundation, the same condition of membership, faith and obedience, sacraments of the same spiritual significancy and binding force. The ancient prophecies declare that the same old Church is to be enlarged, not changed. Isa 49:13-23; Isa 60:1-14. The ancient covenant which
was the fundamental charter of the Church included "many nations" (Gen 17:4; Rom 4:17-18; Gal 3:8), which was never fulfilled until after the expansion of the Church in the New Testament dispensation. And Paul says that the Jewish Church, instead of being abrogated, remains the same through all change—the Jewish branches being cut off, the Gentile branches being grafted in, and that hereafter the Jews are to be restored, not to a new Church, but "into their own olive tree." Rom 11:18-24. See also Eph 2:11-22.
(4.) Infants were members of the Church under the Old Testament from the beginning, being circumcised upon the faith of their parents. Now as the Church is the same Church; as the conditions of membership were the same then as now; as circumcision signified and bound to precisely what Baptism does; and since Baptism has taken precisely the place of circumcision, it follows that the church membership of the children of professors should be recognized now as it was then, and that they should be baptized. The only ground upon which this conclusion could be obviated would be that Christ in the gospel explicitly turns them out of their ancient birthright in the Church.
(5.) On the contrary, Christ and his apostles uniformly, without exception, speak of and treat children on the assumption that they remain in the same church relation they have always occupied. Christ, speaking to Jewish apostles, who had all their lives never heard of any other than the old Paedobaptist Church, into which they had been themselves born and circumcised (and their infant circumcision was the only baptism they ever received), never once warns them that he had
changed this relation. On the contrary, he says, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven" (i.e., new dispensation of the old Church). Matt 19:14; Luke 18:16. He commissioned Peter to feed the lambs as well as the sheep of the flock (John 21:15-17), and all the apostles to disciple "all nations," by first baptizing and then teaching them. Matt 28:18-19. If only one of the parents is a Christian, the children are said to be "holy," or "saints," which is a common designation of church members in the New Testament. 1 Cor 7:14. In the old Jewish Church every proselyte from the heathen brought his children into the Church with him. So the Jewish apostles write the brief history of their missionary labours precisely as all modern Paedobaptist missionaries write theirs, and as no Baptist missionary ever wrote from the first rise of their denomination. There are only eleven cases of Baptism recorded in the Acts and the Epistles. In the case of two of these, Paul and the Ethiopian eunuch, there were no children to be baptized. Five of the cases were large crowds. After Stephanas was baptized with the crowd among "the many Corinthians," Paul baptized his household. Also were the households of Lydia, of the jailer, of Crispus, and probably of Cornelius, baptized. Thus in every case in which the household existed it was baptized. The faith of the head of the household is mentioned, but not that of the household itself, except in one case, and that as a general fact. The apostles also address children as members of the Church. Compare Eph 1:1 with Eph 6:1-3, and Col 1:1-2 with Col 3:20.
(6.) This has been the belief and practice of a vast majority of God's people from the first. The early
Church, in unbroken continuity from the days of the apostles, testify to their custom on this subject. The Greek and the Roman, and all branches of the Lutheran and the Reformed churches, agree in this fundamental point. The Baptist denomination, which opposes the whole Christian world in this matter, is a very modern party, dating from the Anabaptists of Germany, AD 1637.
Our Standards teach that precisely the same requirements are made the condition on the part of the parent of having his child baptized that are made the condition of approach to the Lord's table. SC 95: "Infants of such as are members of the visible Church are to be baptized." This is explained, LC 166: infants "of parents, one or both them professing faith in Christ;" and WCF 28.4: "infants of one or both believing parents." In the DPW 7, the minister is to require of the parents, among other things, "that they pray with and for (the child); that they set an example of piety and godliness before it, and endeavour by all means of God's appointment to bring up their child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." The General Assembly in AD 1794, in answer to an overture on the subject, declared that the above passage in the Directory is to be understood as bringing the parent under an express engagement to do as there required by the minister.[1]
Some have supposed, since the church-membership of the child follows from that of the parent, that every person who was himself introduced into the Church by Baptism in infancy has an indefeasible right
to have his children baptized, whether he professes personal faith in Christ or not. But this is manifestly absurd—(a) Because all members of the Church have not a right to all privileges of church-membership. Thus baptized members have no right to come to the communion until they make a profession of personal faith. Until they do this they are like citizens under age, with their rights held in suspension, as a just punishment for their refusal to believe. These suspended rights are those of communing and having their children baptized. (b) A person destitute of personal faith can only commit perjury and sacrilege by making the solemn professions and taking the obligations involved in the baptismal covenant. It is a sin for them to do it, and a sin for the minister to help them to do it.
Section 28.5.—Although it be a great sin to contemn or neglect this ordinance, [Luke 7:30; Exod 4:24-26] yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it as that no person can be regenerated or saved without it, [Rom 4:11; Acts 10:2,4,22,31,45,47] or that all that are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated. [Acts 8:13,23]
Section 28.6.—The efficacy of baptism is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered; [John 3:5,8] yet notwithstanding, by the right use of this ordinance, the grace promised is not only offered, but really exhibited and conferred by the Holy Ghost to such (whether of age or infants) as that grace belongeth unto, according to the counsel of God's own will, in his appointed time. [Gal 3:27; Titus 3:5; Eph 5:25-26; Acts 2:38,41]
Section 28.7.—The sacrament of baptism is but once to be administered to any person. [Titus 3:5]
These sections teach—
1st. That grace and salvation are not so inseparably united to Baptism that only the baptized are saved, or that all the baptized are saved.
2d. That, nevertheless, it is a great sin to contemn or neglect this ordinance, for that its observance is commanded, and, in the right use of it, the grace promised is not only offered, but really exhibited and conferred by the Holy Ghost to such (whether of age or infants) as the grace belongeth unto.
3d. That the efficacy of Baptism, even in cases in which the grace signified is really conveyed, is not tied down to the moment of time wherein the sacrament is administered, but is conveyed to the recipient according to the counsel of God's own will, in his appointed time.
4th. The sacrament of Baptism is to be administered but once to any person.
The ground taken here is intermediate between two opposite extremes—(1) The extreme held by Papists and Ritualists of baptismal regeneration. (a) This is not taught in Scripture. The language relied upon to prove it (John 3:5; Acts 2:38) is easily explained, on the principle that, in virtue of the sacramental union between the sign and the grace signified, what is true of the one is metaphorically predicated of the other. There is nothing said of the efficacy of Baptism which is not likewise said of the efficacy of the truth. James 1:18; John 17:19; 1 Pet 1:23. But the mere hearing of the truth saves no one. (b) Baptism cannot be the only or ordinary means of regeneration, because faith and repentance are the fruits of regeneration, but the prerequisites of baptism. Acts 2:38; Acts 8:37; Acts 10:47. (c) Universal experience in Romanist and Ritualistic
communities prove that the baptized are not generally regenerated. Our Saviour says, "By their fruits ye shall know them." Matt 7:20.
(2.) Our Standards oppose the other extreme, that Baptism is a mere sign of grace and badge of Christian profession. Their doctrine is—
(a.) That Baptism does not only signify, but really and truly seal and convey, grace to those to whom it belongs according to the covenant—that is, to the elect.
(b.) But that this actual conveyance of the grace sealed is not tied to the moment in which the sacrament is administered, but is made according to the precise provisions as to time and circumstance predetermined in the eternal covenant of grace. So property may be sealed and conveyed in a deed to a minor, but the minor may not actually enter into the fruition of it until such time and upon such conditions as are predetermined in his father's will.
(c.) The efficacy of the sacrament is not due to any spiritual or magical quality communicated to the water.
(d.) But this efficacy does result (1) from the moral power of the truth which the rite symbolizes. (2) From the fact that it is a seal of the covenant of grace, and a legal form of investing those persons embraced in the covenant with the graces promised therein. (3) From the personal presence and sovereignly gracious operation of the Holy Spirit, who uses the sacrament as his instrument and medium.
(e.) That through these channels the grace signified is really conveyed to the persons to whom, according to the divine counsel, it truly belongs, yet this grace and the influences of the Holy Ghost are not so tied to the
sacrament that they are never, or even infrequently, conveyed in any other way. The very grace conveyed by the sacrament must be possessed by the adult as a prerequisite to Baptism, and is often subsequently experienced through other channels.
(f.) Hence the necessity for being baptized arises (1) from the divine command. Obedience is of course necessary where there is knowledge. (2) It is the proper and only efficient method of making a profession of faith and allegiance to Christ. (3) It is eminently helpful as a means of grace.
That Baptism is never to be administered more than once to any person appears (1) from the symbolical significance of the rite. It signifies spiritual regeneration—the inauguration of the divine life. Of course it can have but one commencement. (2) It is the rite of initiation into the Christian Church, and as there is no provision made for getting out of the Church when once in, so there is no provision made for coming in more than once. (3) The apostles baptized each individual but once.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the first proposition taught in the first three sections of this chapter? [WCF 28:1-3]
2. What is the second proposition there taught?
3. What is the third proposition there taught?
4. What was the origin of ceremonial washing, and the extent to which its observance was diffused?
5. State the evidence that the baptism of John was not Christian Baptism.
6. Give your reason for believing that the baptisms performed
by the disciples of Christ, previous to his resurrection, were not the same with the permanent Christian sacrament of that name.
7. Where do we find the true act of institution and warrant for this sacrament?
8. State the proof that it is designed to be perpetually observed until the second coming of our Lord.
9. What is the precise action indicated in the command to baptize?
10. Why may only lawfully-ordained ministers baptize?
11. What is the true statement of the Baptist position with respect to the act intended in the command to baptize?
12. What is the precise statement of our view of the subject?
13. What is essential according to their view, and what according to our view?
14. What is the classical usage of the word baptizo?
15. How often does it occur in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, and in what sense?
16. In what sense is baptizo used in the New Testament?
17. In what sense was the term baptism used by the disciples of John?
18. In what sense is the term "baptism," or "baptisms" used generally in the New Testament?
19. Of what is water baptism emblematic?
20. What consequences does baptism by the Holy Ghost carry with it?
21. Why are we said to be "buried with Christ in baptism," etc., etc.?
22. In what terms is baptism by the Holy Ghost expressed in Scripture? as an immersion or as a "pouring" and a "sprinkling?"
23. What was the generally prevalent mode of effecting the rite of purification among the Jews?
24. What light do 1 Cor 10:1-2, and 1 Pet 3:20-21, throw upon this subject?
25. Is it ever said that John the Baptist or the apostles of Christ baptized by immersion?
26. Taking all the recorded circumstances of the several baptisms
into account, on which side and to what degree is the balance of probability?
27. Why is it essential that the rite should be performed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost?
28. What is the first design of Baptism?
29. What is the second design of Baptism?
30. What do our Standards teach are the prerequisites for Baptism on the part of adults?
31. What are the pastor and church session competent to require and to judge?
32. Upon whom ultimately must the responsibility rest?
33. What do some churches require of applicants for Baptism, in addition to a credible profession of Christianity?
34. How can you show that such requirements are unwarrantable?
35. What do our Standards teach as to the rights of infants to Baptism?
36. State the argument derived from the constitution of human nature and the ordinary providence of God.
37. Do the same from the fact that all God's covenants with mankind include the children with the parents.
38. Prove that the Gospel Church existed under the Old Testament.
39. Prove that faith was the condition of salvation then as now.
40. Prove that Circumcision had the same spiritual meaning that Baptism now has.
41. Prove that Baptism has taken the precise place of Circumcision.
42. Prove that the Church under the new is identically the same with the Church under the old dispensation.
43. Prove that infants were recognized as members of the ancient Church from its very beginning, and show how infant baptism follows as a necessary consequent.
44. Show that Christ and his apostles always spoke of and treated children on the assumption of their church membership.
45. Show from the record that the apostles always baptized the households of believers wherever they existed.
46. What has been the faith and practice of the Christian Church, and what is the force of that argument?
47. Whose children, according to our Standards, are to be baptized?
48. What does the DPW require of parents bringing their children forward for baptism; and what conclusion follows?
49. What is the position and what the rights of those adults who, having been baptized in infancy, have never professed personal faith in Christ?
50. Why ought such parties to be denied the privilege of having their children baptized?
51. What is the first proposition taught in the fifth, sixth and seventh sections?
52. What is the second proposition there taught?
53. What is the third proposition?
54. What is the fourth?
55. Between what two extremes is the doctrine as to the efficacy of the sacraments held by our Church?
56. What is the Romish and Ritualistic doctrine on the point?
57. Show that the doctrine of baptismal regeneration cannot be true.
58. State the different points involved in the doctrine of our Standards as to the efficacy of the sacraments.
59. From what sources does this efficacy result?
60. Show that Baptism presupposes as well as conveys grace, and draw the necessary inference.
61. On what ground and to what extent is Baptism necessary?
62. Show that it is to be administered to the same person but once.