Baptized at Serampore, Dec. 1800. Engraved for the Baptist Magazine. London, Published by W.Button & Son, Paternoster Row, July 1816. THE Baptist Magazine. JULY, 1816. REMARKS ON THE CONTROVERSY IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, RESPECTING BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. THE subject discussed in several pamphlets, lately published, relates entirely to the sentiments inculcated in the Articles, Homilies and Liturgy of the Church of England; and our readers may say, What is it to us? Let churchmen settle the sense of their own church as they think best; all that concerns us, is, what is the intention of the New Testament? This is true, to a certain point. We do not mean to interfere as parties in the debate; but we cannot look upon ourselves as entirely unconcerned. The discussion before us has two important bearings: one, on the subject of Baptism; and the other, on Church Establishments. Our readers in general will allow, that in these two subjects we are deeply in terested. In the works now before us, Dr. Mant maintains, that, "Regeneration" is "the spiritual grace of Baptism:" and that the Church of England "supposes, in strict conformity VOL. VIII. with the scriptures, not merely that all real Christians are regenerate by God's Holy Spirit, by which I understand all those, who live a Christian life; but that those also are so regenerated, to whom baptism is rightly administered, notwithstanding, by their future conduct, they may fulfil the privileges of their new birth." (Mant's first Tract, pp. 10, 11.) Yet Dr. Mant clearly states, that, “ every unbeliever, and every sinner, al though made by baptism a member of Christ, and a child of God, must be, in a certain sense, converted, if he would ultimately succeed to his inheritance of the kingdom of heaven." (Second Tract, p. 60.) sentiment he frequently states. In his view, Regeneration and Baptism are convertible terms; and he maintains, that both the scriptures and the establishment assert, that he who is baptized is regenerated; still granting, when fairly understood, that conversion is neces 2 P This sary for the enjoyment of eter- | salvus erit." (He who believeth, nal life. His opponents, as we shall have farther occasion to observe, think, that he has misrepresented both the sentiments of the scriptures and of the church. But, before we examine their arguments, we think it may be useful, to take a short view of the state of opinion on the subject of Baptism at the time of the Reformation, and, for a short while after that period, as the means of ascertaining what was then considered to be the sense of the expressions used respecting Baptism in the Articles, Homilies, and Liturgy of the English Church. At the dawn of the Reformation, in the days of Henry VIII. the Convocation, which sat in 1536, published a of "Articles about Religion," by the authority of the King. In the article respecting Baptism, it is said, "the sacrament of Baptism was instituted and ordained in the New Testament by our Saviour Jesus Christ, as a thing necessary for the attaining of everlasting life, according to the saying of Christ," (quoting the passage in Latin,) except a man be born of water, and of the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of HeaItem, that it is offered unto all men, as well infants as such as have the use of reason, that by baptism they shall have remission of sins, and the grace and favour of God, according to the saying of St. John, Qui crediderit, et baptizatus fuerit, ven.* and is baptized, shall be saved.) Again" infants, innocents, and children-ought therefore and must needs be baptized; and that by the sacrament of Baptism they do also obtain the remission of their sins, the grace and favour of God, and be made thereby the very sons and children of God, insomuch as infants and children dying in their infancy, shall UNDOUBTEDLY be saved thereby, OR ELSE NOT. Item, that infants must needs be christened because they be born in original sin, which sin must needs be remitted; which cannot be done but by the sacrament of baptism, whereby they receive the Holy Ghost, which exerciseth his grace and efficacy in them, and cleanseth and purifieth them from sin, by his most secret virtue and operation.' " And farther, referring to the Baptism of the adult, it is said,-that they "shall, by the virtue of that Holy Sacrament, obtain the grace and remission of all their sins, if they shall come thereto perfectly and truly repentant, &c.-or else not. And, finally, if they shall also have firm credence and trust in the promise of God, adjoined to the said sacrament, that is to say, that, in and by this said sacrament which they shall receive, God the Father giveth unto them, for his son Jesus Christ's sake, remission. of all their sins, and the grace of the Holy Ghost, whereby *So it reads in the Vulgate Latin. Nisi quis renatus fuerit exaqua et Spiritu Sancto, non potest intrare in Regnum Cælorum. pas they be newly regenerated, and made the very children of God, according to the saying of Christ, and his apostle Peter, Acts, ii. 38, and also according to the saying of St. Paul, Titus, iii. 5, 6, 7." The sages are quoted in Latin. See Burnet's History of the Reformation, vol. i. Addenda to the Collections, pp. 307, 308. It will be said, that this convocation issued Articles, that had a large portion of popery in their nature, and are by no means to be considered as a specimen of the present church of England. Granted: the language which they used was different, in many points, from that which was afterwards adopted; and the progress of sentiment was marked by the change. But where the same or similar expressions are continued, the inference is perfectly fair, that the ideas were not altered. If we examine the "Fathers of the English church," we shall find that the sentiments stated above, by the convocation, are confirmed; so that it is manifest how the Articles and Liturgy must have been understood when first published, and how they were intended to be understood by those concerned in drawing them up. Dr. Lancelot Ridley, a relative of Bishop Ridley, and promoted by Archbishop Cranmer to the office of one of the six preachers in the Cathedral Church of Canterbury, defended the cause of the Reformation with great energy, in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. In 1540, he published A Commentary on the Ephesians. In his observations on chap. v. ver. 25-27, he enters into a long disquisition on the subject of Baptism. We shall transcribe a few passages for the purpose of showing what an eminent reformer considered the efficacy of Baptism. "Here is shewed, how Christ hath purged his Church truly, in the fountain of water, by his word. Although God, of his mere mercy and goodness, without all man's deserts, or merits, only for Christ's sake, hath washed and purged man from sin; yet he useth a mean, by the which he cleanseth men from sin, which is by baptism in water, by the word of God; and so in baptism are our sins taken away, and we, from our sins, purged, cleansed, and regenerated in a new man, to live a holy life, according to the spirit and will of God. It is not the water that washes us from our sins, but Christ by his word and his spirit, given to us in baptism, that washeth away our sins, that we have of Adam by carnal nature. N "In that the apostle saith, that Christ hath cleansed his church in the fountain of water by the word; he showeth plainly, that baptism is a mean, whereby Christ taketh away original sin, and maketh all them that be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, according to Christ's institution, (Matt. xxviii.) to be cleansed from all the sin of Adam. And if they be of age, they be baptized through faith, in the promise of God, by his word, taking upon them baptism; as many, in the |