CHAPTER XI.

APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION IDOLIZES BAPTISM.

No ordinance more excellent than Baptism--Bible does not say so-Puseyism does,-faith, not baptism, means of regeneration the term sacrament unauthorized transubstantiation persons should be regenerate before baptism-and may be so without it-baptismal regeneration a fearful doctrine-infants may go to hell by a mere accident-cruel to parents-delusion about the spiritual state of the baptized-baptism no use without the clergy, say the Puseyites-but ecclesiastical courts say it is as much use without them as with them-Apostolic succession the sine qua non of baptism, and of every good thing.

Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.-Paul.

THEN the proper conclusion is, that preaching is more important than baptizing. Both indeed are divine ordinances; but it hath pleased God through the medium of the former; and not through the medium of the latter, to save them that believe. Here, again the Puseyites are at direct variance with the bible:-for with them baptism is everything; and preaching, or praying, or any other religious ordinance, or religious exercise compared with it, is nothing. They assert most clearly-and most emphatically, and most incessantly, that baptism and regeneration are perfectly synonymous, and that whoever is apostolically bap

tized is christened,-is converted,―is sanctified, is justified, is affiliated to God, is everything that a christian ought to be, and is made meet for the kingdom of Heaven!*

Now the great question is,-what scriptural authority have they for this doctrine? None whatever. It is true that our Lord did say,

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except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God;" but no one can prove that the water of baptism is here intended: our Lord was not speaking of baptism at all in his discourse with Nicodemus on this occasion; and besides, he that would insist on a literal interpretation of this text, might, with equal propriety, insist upon a literal interpretation of another text which says, “ He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." In both cases these elements are connected with the name of the Spirit-to teach us, or, at least to remind us of his searching and purifying operations in the soul of man.

It must be admitted that God has not only provided a religion for mankind; but that he has also provided the means for bringing them

* By the doctrine of baptismal regeneration is meant, first, that the sacrament of baptism is not a mere sign or promise, but actually a means of grace; an instrument by which, when rightly received, the soul is admitted to the benefits of Christ's atonement: such as the forgiveness of sin, original and actual, reconciliation to God, a new nature, adoption, citizenship in Christ's kingdom, and the inheritance of heaven, in a word ;regeneration. Tract 76, p. 1.

Do all the promises and descriptions of baptism apply to infant baptism? Certainly: unless they did in effect, infant baptism were wrong. Tract 63.

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into beneficial and saving contact with it. But what are these means? Puseyism says, the "sacraments, not preaching, are the sources of divine grace," and that, "it may be set down as the essence of sectarian doctrine to consider faith, and not the sacraments as the instrument of justification and other gospel gifts." But the Bible says, "being justified by faith, we have peace with God," and, "of his own will begat he us by the word of truth;" and not of the will of the priest begat he us by the water of baptism, which might have been said if this doctrine of baptismal regeneration were according to the word of God. Puseyism teaches individuals to say, "In my baptism I was made a child of God;" but the bible says,

ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Baptismal regeneration teaches wicked and depraved children that they are born of God; but the bible says, "whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin," yet tens of thousands of the baptized community

* The word sacrament as a designation of baptism, or the Lord's supper, is quite unauthorized in the word of God.

What is said in this chapter about the succession giving efficacy to baptism, will apply with equal force to the holy supper for according to Puseyism, though there should be the presence of faith, and hope, and charity, at the table of the Lord; yet, if there is not the presence of an episcopally ordained minister, eating the bread, or drinking the wine, is only an unmeaning ceremony, worse than useless to the parties concerned in it!

It would be most difficult to say wherein the Puseyite notion of this ordinance differs from the doctrine of transubstantiation: for they say, that there is a true, real, and spiritual presence of Christ at the holy supper, more real than if we could with Thomas, feel him with our hands, or thrust our hands into his side." "Our church holds with Rome the reality of the communication of the body and blood of Christ through the holy Eucharist." Dr. Pusey, to Bishop of Oxford.

Gal. iii.-17.

commit sin, and commit it wilfully and willingly, and in all its vilest forms!

Puseyism asserts that all the baptized are necessarily regenerate, and that none are regenerate without it; but it is quite evident that the man of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians-and Lydia, a seller of purple-and Cornelius, the centurion, and the jailer at Philippi, and many other scriptural examples were all regenerated before they were baptized: and it is likewise equally evident that Simon, the sorcerer, was never regenerated though he was baptized: for after his submission to that ordinance, Peter said to him "I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.” If then this man went to hell with baptism, and the dying thief went to heaven without it, then we must inevitably conclude that baptism and regeneration are not only not identical; but that they are not even necessarily connected with each other. Baptism is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace; but it belongs to Puseyism to make use of the sign without the thing signified, and perceiving no difference between them, to attribute that to a mere form which ought to be attributed to the power of the spirit of God.*

*If Balaam's ass instructed Balaam, what is there fairly to startle us in the church's doctrine, that the water of baptism cleanses from sin. Tract 85, p. 90.

What could the writer be thinking of, to introduce Balaam's ass into this discussion? As an argument it is inconclusive and utterly worthless; and as a matter of taste it is ludicrous in the extreme.

But after all, unreflecting persons may be disposed to ask,-what harm is there in teaching, or in believing this doctrine? Harm! Why it makes the eternal welfare of your children to depend on a mere accident. A little infant is not expected to live; the parents, fearing lest it should die unchristened, and consequently unsaved, send for the clergyman to make it a child of God. But he is not at home, or he is so occupied that he cannot immediately attend. In the mean time the child dies. Now if Puseyism is true, that child is shut out of heaven because the clergyman happened to be out of town; or,because,through other engagements, he was unable to administer that rite which procures regeneration and eternal felicity in Heaven!*

What harm is there in baptismal regeneration? Is it no harm and no cruelty to parents, and no dishonour to Almighty God to say, or to insinuate that a dear little babe is eternally lost for want of baptism. This is said or in

*There is also another accident which may exclude the child from the kingdom of Heaven, and that is, the inability of the parents to defray the expenses of that rite which procures an entrance into it: for many have been denied baptism for want of that money qualification, which, in too many cases, is essential to its administration. Since, however, the passing of the registration Act, some of the clergy have proposed to baptize gratuitously.

Very recently, Dr. Phillimore, in the ecclesiastical court, avowed his belief that the infant daughter of Mr. Titchmarsh died a heretic, because she had only received dissenting baptism. On this account, he likewise contended that her remains were unfit to be interred in consecrated ground! Oh! the evils of bigotry and of priestly intolerance. I am unacquainted with Dr. P.; but I feel persuaded that in no O