Baptism
Baptism is one of the two sacraments of the Gospel in the teaching of the Church of England, by which a person is washed with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and so admitted into the Church of Christ. Together with the Supper of the Lord, it is one of the two sacraments ordained by Christ himself in the Gospel, whose doctrine is set out in Articles XXV and XXVII of the Thirty-nine Articles and in the Catechism of the Book of Common Prayer.
A sacrament of the Gospel
Article XXV, "Of the Sacraments," teaches that there are "two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel, that is to say, Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord." Baptism is therefore not an invention of the Church but a rite appointed by Christ, who commanded his disciples to baptize "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt. 28:19). Like the other sacrament of the Gospel, it is a "certain sure witness, and effectual sign of grace," by which God works invisibly in those who receive it rightly.
The teaching of Article XXVII
The doctrine of Baptism is treated at length in Article XXVII, "Of Baptism," of the Thirty-nine Articles:
- Baptism is not only a sign of profession, and mark of difference, whereby Christian men are discerned from others that be not christened, but it 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 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.
The Article thus holds together two truths: Baptism is the outward mark by which Christians are distinguished from those not christened, and it is also a means of spiritual grace, by which those who receive it rightly are grafted into the Church, signed and sealed with the promise of forgiveness and adoption. It directs that infant baptism be retained, as agreeable to Christ's institution. For a fuller commentary, see Browne on Article XXVII.
The Catechism on Baptism
The Catechism teaches the child that in Baptism he was made "a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven," and that his godparents promised and vowed three things in his name: that he should renounce the devil and all his works, that he should believe all the articles of the Christian faith, and that he should keep God's holy will and commandments.
The Catechism gives the outward visible sign or form in Baptism as "Water: wherein the person is baptized, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," and the inward and spiritual grace as "a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness: for being by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace." What is required of persons to be baptized is repentance and faith. Infants, who cannot themselves perform these requirements, are baptized because their sureties promise them both in their name — a promise which, when they come to age, they themselves are bound to perform.
The baptismal offices of 1662
The 1662 Book of Common Prayer provides three distinct offices for Baptism. The first is the ministration of public baptism of infants, to be used in the church, in which the sponsors make the promises and vows on the child's behalf. The second is the ministration of private baptism of children, in houses, for cases in which the child is in danger of death and cannot be brought to the church. The third is the ministration of baptism to those "of riper years," and able to answer for themselves: this office was added to the Prayer Book in 1662, in part for converts from non-Christian lands and those grown up unbaptized in the disturbances of the mid-seventeenth century.
Baptism in all three offices is celebrated with water and in the name of the Trinity.
Baptismal regeneration and the Gorham controversy
The Prayer Book language, by which the baptized child is declared to be made "a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven," has given rise to dispute over baptismal regeneration — the relation of regeneration to the rite of Baptism. The most famous dispute was the Gorham case of 1849–50. The Rev. George Cornelius Gorham, an evangelical clergyman, was presented to the vicarage of Brampford Speke in Devon, but Henry Phillpotts, the Bishop of Exeter, refused to institute him, judging that Gorham's views on baptismal regeneration were not in agreement with the doctrine of the Church of England. Gorham appealed first to the Court of Arches, which in 1849 upheld the Bishop, and then to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which in March 1850 reversed that decision and ordered his institution.
The Privy Council held, in substance, that a clergyman of the Church of England was not required to believe that regeneration invariably accompanies the act of baptism, and that such opinions were not contrary to the doctrine of the Church as set out in the Articles, Formularies, and Rubrics. The judgment was protested by High Churchmen, some of whom seceded from the Church of England as a result, while others defended it as allowing a legitimate latitude of belief.
See also
References
- The Book of Common Prayer (1662), the baptismal offices, the Catechism, and Articles XXV and XXVII.
- Maxwell E. Johnson, The Rites of Christian Initiation, Liturgical Press, 1999.