The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1870-03-09
BAPTIsMAL REGENERATION.
WHAT OTHERS THINK OF IT.


1t would be great mistake on the part Of any
to suppose that the number of those who object
to the doctrine we have been criticising is small
Outside of the Episcopal Church nearly the whole
Protestant world, except ultra Latherans and the
Complexities, utterly reject it. When John
Wesley prepared the ritual of the Methodist
Church he purged it of this Popish leaven, al
though this ritual was drawn from that of the
Church of England.
Two or three years ago Mr.. Sturgeon preached
two sermons on this very subject to his church in
London, the following extracts from which will
show in what light the teaching of the Prayer
Book is viewed by that renowned preacher. Re-
ferring to the Cateehism, he says:
THE child is asked its name, and then ques-
toned, Who gave you this nameP No god
fathers and god-motherS an my baptism, 10hereiR
loas made a member Of Christ the child of God,
and an iRheritOr Of the Kingdom Of heaUen.
Upon this Mr. Sturgeon remarks
us not this definite aud plain enough? prize
the words for their eandOr they could not speak
more plainly. Three times over the thing is put,
lest there should be any doubt in it. The word
regeneration may, by some sort of juggling be
made to mean something else; but here there can
be no misunderstanding. The child is not only
made a member of Christ'-union to Jesus is no
mean spiritual gift-but he is made in baptism
the child Of God also; and since the rule is, OF
children then heirs, he is also made an inherltor
of the Kingdom of heaven. Nothing can be more
plain | venture to say that while honesty re-
mains on earth the meaning of these words will
not admit of dispute. 1t is clear as noon day that,
as the Rubric hath it, Fathers, masters, and
danes are to cause their children, servants and
apprentices, no matter how idle giddy or wicked
they may be, to learn the Catechism, and to say
that in baptism they are made members Of Christ
and children of God F"
Here is church which teaches every Lord S
Day in the Sunday School, and should, according
to the Rubric, teach openly In the church, all
children that they were made members of Christ,
children of God, and inheritorS of the kingdom Of
heaven when they We're baptized. Here is pro-
feSsed Protestant Church, which every time Its
minister goes to the font declares that every per-
son there receiving baptism is there and then re.
generated and grated into the body of Christ S
Church.
In another place he quotes Rounded Palmer s
Book of Praise, so much admired and used by
EpiscOpaLanS, in which we have the following the
oogy taught in poetry. Rounded Palmer refer
ring to an infant baptism tells how it received a
new nature, by the easy process Of applying holy
t0ater e. sacred bathing to it.
'Though thy conception was in sin,
A sacred bathing thou hast had;
And though thy birth uncean has been,
A blameleSs babe thou now art made
Sweet baby, then forbear to weep;
Be still, my DEAR sweet baby, sleep"
In another place, quoting that passage of the
Prayer Book, in which the minister gives thanks
that it has pleased God to regeaerate this itaat"
the author remarks:
ave are told we do not understand the mean
ing Of regeneration as it is used In the services of
the Anglican Church. &c. The meaning of this
passage lit is Said) Is historical, hypothetical, &C.
clesiastcal and We know not what The words
to be born again, did not formerly seem to US to
be so very difficult to understand, nor do they APP
pear so now as they stand in Scripture for we find
in them the one regeneration which has renewed
us in the spirit of our mind. and we cannot consent
to use these words In any other sense. Well,
whether regeneration be or be not very equivo-
cal word we simply ask, Is there thus saith the
Lord for the assertion that a sprinkled infant is
therefore regenerate In any sense In the world
Will any person find US a text in the ScriptureY
1.-The process of regeneratlng babies by occult In
fuenees conveyed by water Is pure-nO, an i'm
pure-inyentiOn OF prlestcratt.
Again, referring to the progress POpery has been
making among EpiscOpalians in England, he asks,
ito what is it to be asoribed? One of the causes
Mr. Spurgeon assigns is, this form oferror known
as baptismal regeneration, and commonly called
Puseyism, which is not Puseyism but Churchof
Eugandism, because it is in the Prayer Book, as
plainly as words can express it. You have this
baptismal regeneration, preparing stepping stones
to make it easy for men to go to Rome
We have already referred to Bishop Meade S
great dissatisfaction with the language of the
PRAYER Book, his anxiety to have change, declar
ing that he never used that service without pain
because its plain msaning eontradicted his belief,
The Rev. DR.. Andrews also, in his able treatise
expresses his earnest desire to have the Book re-
vised. After defending (unsuceessfully we think
the Professionalism of the Baptisma service, on the
hypothetieal theory, he pleads for a revision, and
says concerning this service that "two very extra
ordinary facts are notorious F."
Q.) "This service is received not only without
scruple, but with exultation by those who repudi-
ate Protestantism-even those who, like DR.. Lit
tedae, are so lost TO all shame as to trad-ce the
Reformers, and side in the quarrel with their
murderers.
(2.) To a great and growing number of those
who venerate those holy men, and maintain in this
ace the very Ife-prneiples of their work, this ser
vice is a grief, and burden, a stumbGng-blOck, and
rock of ofFense. And he reads the signs of the
times amiss who does not see that this number is
bound to increase. The burden will become more
and more intOlerable in proportion as vigorous
and healthy conscience comes to take knowledge Of
the fact not only that this service IS misunder
Stood but Of the moral certainty that it will con-
tiaue to be misunderstood, &c.
1t is we'll known that a convention Of EpiscOpa-
ians was held in Chicago last year in favor of re
vising the Prayer Book AID that revision of this
part Of it was specially desired. Such has been
the pressure of this demand that seven Bishops
Those commonly called Low, Church, few months
ago addressed formal communication to the other
Bishops, fayoring such change as would allow
those who wish it to use a different form from the
one now in use, and which gave Bishop Meade so
much pain. From the high tone Of Bishop Pot