able and learned work: Lay Baptism Invalid.[1] The book was assailed by Dissenters, because the author had reduced their ministers to mere laymen, which was most distasteful to the body: it was also attacked by some members of the Church of England. He fully, as I conceive, establishes the position, that Lay Baptism is not recognized by the Anglican Church, whatever may be the decisions of the ecclesiastical courts respecting the right, which Dissenters have to the performance of the Burial Service, in the case of those who are baptized by their own ministers. Two Sermons were preached at Salisbury, by Burnet, in 1710, in which Lawrence's positions were assailed. This circumstance led him to publish, in reply, his work on the Sacerdotal Powers.[2] A few years later there appeared another volume on Dissenters' Baptisms.[3]
- ↑ Lay Baptism Invalid. An Essay to prove that such Baptism is null and void, when administered in opposition to the divine right of the Apostolic succession. Third Ed. With an Appendix: wherein the boasted unanswerable objection of the B. of S. and other new objections are answered. By a Lay-hand. 8vo. London, 1712.
The Second Part of Lay-Baptism Invalid: Shewing, that the Ancient Catholick Church never had any Ecclesiastical Law, Tradition or Custom, for the Validity of Baptism performed by persons, who never were commissioned by Bishops to baptize. London, 1713.
- ↑ Sacerdotal Powers: or the Necessity of Confession, Penance and Absolution, together with the Nullity of Unauthorized Lay-Baptism asserted in an Essay occasioned by the publication of Two Sermons, Preached at Salisbury the 5th, and 7th of November, 1710. By the Author of Lay-Baptism Invalid. 8vo. London, 1711.
- ↑ Dissenters and other unauthorized Baptisms null and void, by the Articles, Canons and Rubrics of the Church of England, in Answer to a Pamphlet, called the Judgment of the Church of England, in the case of Lay-Baptism, and of Dissenters' Baptism. By the Author of Lay-Baptism Invalid. 8vo. London, 1713.
