Baptismal Exhortation (1928 BCP)

Baptismal Exhortation (1928 BCP) refers especially to the minister's address in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer before the baptismal questions for children and adults. In the Ministration of Holy Baptism it interprets the prayers already offered at the font and turns them into public renunciation, confession, obedience, Christian nurture, and preparation for Confirmation.

The exhortation is not a detached homily. It stands after the opening baptismal prayers, after one of the appointed Gospel readings, and after the people's thanksgiving for God's good will toward the child or adult. The questions that follow therefore answer a divine promise already proclaimed in Scripture and prayed in the Church, rather than beginning from a merely human pledge.

Place in the Baptism Office

The office first requires notice to the minister, readiness at the font, and examination and preparation for adults. The minister asks whether the person has already been baptized, reads one of the Gospel passages appointed for Baptism, and gives thanks for grace and faith. Only then does the address turn to the sponsors or the adult candidate.

Dearly beloved, ye have brought this Child here to be baptized; ye have prayed that our Lord Jesus Christ would vouchsafe to receive him, to release him from sin, to sanctify him with the Holy Ghost, to give him the kingdom of heaven, and everlasting life.

The address compresses the office's earlier petitions. "Receive him" echoes the Gospel of Christ receiving children; "release him from sin" and "sanctify him with the Holy Ghost" gather the petitions for remission and regeneration; "the kingdom of heaven, and everlasting life" sets Baptism within the promised inheritance of salvation.

Anthony Sparrow, a Restoration Anglican bishop and Prayer Book commentator, read this opening part of the Baptism office as deliberate scriptural instruction:

Therefore here in the beginning, she instructs out of holy Scripture concerning the necessity and efficacy of Baptism, as very briefly, so very pithily and fully.

Sparrow's comment explains why the 1928 rite places the exhortation after Gospel and prayer. The minister is not merely announcing that a rite will occur; he is interpreting Baptism through John 3, Mark 10, Matthew 28, and the Church's petitions for divine action.

Gospel and Prayer Before the Vows

The Baptism office provides three Gospel readings: Mark 10:13-16, John 3:1-8, and Matthew 28:18-20. Together they connect the font to Christ's reception of children, new birth by water and the Spirit, and the apostolic command to baptize in the Triune Name.

Jesus answered, 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.

The Gospel reading keeps the exhortation sacramental. The coming vows are real obligations, but they are framed by Christ's own language of new birth. This is why the office prays before the questions that the person to be baptized may receive remission of sin and spiritual regeneration.

M. F. Sadler's catechetical manual gives a nineteenth-century Anglican explanation of this same link between the outward sign and inward grace:

Because when the kingdom of God was actually set up, on the day of Pentecost, men were admitted into it by a Baptism in water.

This interpretation supports the office's order: the Church asks for faith and repentance, but not because Baptism is reduced to faith and repentance. The questions come after prayer for divine mercy, because the baptized life is both gift and vocation.

Renunciation and Christian Warfare

The first baptismal question turns the exhortation into renunciation. For infants, sponsors answer in the child's name; for adults, the persons to be baptized answer for themselves. In both forms, Baptism is framed as a transfer of allegiance from sin's dominion to Christ's service.

Dost thou, therefore, in the name of this Child, renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the sinful desires of the flesh, so that thou wilt not follow, nor be led by them?

The three enemies named here--the devil, the world, and the flesh--also appear when the baptized person is signed with the cross and called to fight under Christ's banner. The exhortation therefore makes Baptism ascetical as well as sacramental. It does not allow the font to become only a family ceremony; it teaches that baptismal grace begins a life of resistance to evil.

Sparrow described the interrogation of godparents as both ancient and reasonable because it belongs to the covenantal form of Baptism:

We have seen that it was Ancient. And that it is Reasonable we shall perceive, if we consider, that in baptism we are making or concluding a Covenant, the New Covenant of the Gospel.

The covenantal reading helps explain why the renunciation is public. The Church names the enemies of the baptized life and receives a spoken promise before witnesses. The promise is not treated as optional spirituality; it is part of the solemn shape by which the baptized person is marked for fidelity to Christ.

Faith, Creed, and Obedience

The second and third questions move from renunciation to positive confession. The baptized person is not only to reject evil, but to believe the faith and walk in God's commandments. The Apostles' Creed is named as the form in which the "Articles of the Christian Faith" are confessed.

Minister. Dost thou believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith, as contained in the Apostles' Creed?
Answer. I do.
Minister. Wilt thou be baptized in this Faith?
Answer. That is my desire.
Minister. Wilt thou then obediently keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of thy life?
Answer. I will, by God's help.

This structure connects the Baptism office to the Catechism and the Offices of Instruction. The Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments are not optional teaching materials added after the sacrament. They are the content toward which the baptismal promises already point.

Sadler explains why the promise to believe is attached to Baptism in the Triune Name:

Because I was then baptized into the name of the Ever Blessed Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The 1928 rite follows the same theological logic. Trinitarian Baptism carries Trinitarian faith with it. The baptized person is not initiated into undefined religion, but into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and therefore into the creed that confesses that Name.

Sponsors and Catechesis

When the office is used for children, the exhortation also binds sponsors to Christian nurture. The Prayer Book allows parents to serve as sponsors if desired, but the office still requires an ecclesial promise that the child will be taught the faith and brought to the bishop for Confirmation.

Having now, in the name of this Child, made these promises, will ye also on your part take heed that he learn the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, and all other things which a Christian ought to know and believe, to his soul's health?

The promise guards infant Baptism from becoming passive. The child receives Baptism before mature instruction, but the Church immediately promises that instruction will follow. The same logic appears in the next question:

Will ye take heed that this Child, so soon as sufficiently instructed, be brought to the Bishop to be confirmed by him?

The exhortation therefore treats Baptism, catechesis, and Confirmation as one ordered pastoral movement. Baptism gives sacramental incorporation; catechesis teaches the baptized to understand and own the promises; Confirmation asks the bishop to strengthen the baptized with the Holy Ghost and admit them to fuller participation in the Church's sacramental life.

Sadler's discussion of infant Baptism makes the same pastoral point about sponsors and later instruction:

The Church requires that at their Baptism their godparents should promise repentance and faith in their name.

That sentence explains why the 1928 office can ask sponsors to answer before the child can answer personally. The sponsors do not replace the child's later discipleship; they pledge that the child will be brought up into the repentance, faith, and obedience named at the font.

Adult Form

The 1928 office also provides a direct form for adults. It retains the same theological summary but changes the address: adults have come desiring Baptism and answer the questions personally. This change matters because the adult form explicitly joins sacramental reception to conscious preparation, examination, prayer, fasting, and personal profession of Christ.

Well-beloved, you have come hither desiring to receive holy Baptism. We have prayed that our Lord Jesus Christ would vouchsafe to receive you, to release you from sin, to sanctify you with the Holy Ghost, to give you the kingdom of heaven, and everlasting life.

For adults the Prayer Book adds questions about believing in Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, and accepting him as Saviour and Lord before asking for confession of the Apostles' Creed.

Minister. Dost thou believe in Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God?
Answer. I do.
Minister. Dost thou accept him, and desire to follow him as thy Saviour and Lord?
Answer. I do.
Minister. Dost thou believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith, as contained in the Apostles' Creed?
Answer. I do.

That addition is not a replacement of the Creed, but a sharper personal confession within the same creedal frame. The adult candidate explicitly names Christ before confessing the whole baptismal faith, so personal trust and catholic doctrine are held together.

Regeneration and the Baptized Life

After the Baptism itself the office declares the baptized person regenerate and grafted into the body of Christ's Church. The exhortation before the baptismal act must therefore be read with the thanksgiving and prayer after the act: the vows anticipate a sacramental gift, and the thanksgiving prays that the baptized life will continue according to that beginning.

Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that this Child (or this Person) is regenerate, and grafted into the body of Christ's Church, let us give thanks unto Almighty God for these benefits; and with one accord make our prayers unto him, that this Child (or this Person) may lead the rest of his life according to this beginning.

Sadler uses similar language to connect the baptismal vows with the sacramental act itself:

My Baptism, quite independently of the vows then made on my behalf, laid me under the greatest obligations to believe and live as a Christian.

This is why the baptismal exhortation should be read with both sacramental confidence and moral seriousness. It does not reduce Baptism to a human pledge, because the prayers ask God to do what only divine mercy can give. It also does not separate sacramental grace from discipleship, because the same rite immediately commands the baptized life to be taught, believed, and lived.

Use in Worship and Teaching

In parish worship the exhortation functions as public catechesis at the font. Sponsors, parents, adult candidates, and the congregation hear what Baptism requires before the water is administered. In teaching, the passage is best read alongside Baptism (1928 BCP), Baptismal Sponsors in the 1928 BCP Catechism, Sponsors and Godparents in the 1928 BCP, Confirmation (1928 BCP), Catechism (1928 BCP), and Sacraments in the 1928 BCP.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Occasional Offices (1928 BCP)
• Baptism (1928 BCP)
• Baptismal Sponsors in the 1928 BCP Catechism
• Confirmation (1928 BCP)
• Catechism (1928 BCP)

External Links

• The Ministration of Holy Baptism in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Anthony Sparrow, A Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer: Of Baptism
• Michael Ferrebee Sadler, The Church Teacher's Manual of Christian Instruction