in the United States. The gatherings for this
purpose are often really 'christening parties,'
and are festive occasions.
Although the administration of baptism is properly restricted, under ordinary circum- stances, to the regular ministry of the Church, even the most rigid sacerdotal communions, like the Roman Catholic, have always held that in cases of necessity it might be administered by any one, a woman, or an imbeliever. The reason of this apparent laxity is the belief in the ne- cessity of the ordinance to salvation. Protestant churches, which do not liold this belief, generally insist upon the participation of the ordained ministry in the ceremony, and often look with disfavor upon baptisms in private houses, or positively forbid them. But all Christians now generally hold the validity of any baptism which is seriously done in the name of the Holy Trinity.
The effect of baptism is taught by the Roman Catholic Church to consist in the forgiveness of all sins before baptism and the removal of the guilt of original sin. (See Sacraments.) Some Protestant churches teach, or favor, this doctrine of baptismal regeneration. {See Regeneration.) But the great Ijody of the Reformed Protestant churches teach that baptism is a sign of the ne- cessity of regenerating grace, a pledge upon the part of God to forgive the sins of the penitent, and an act of consecration and dedication upon the part of parents, and of profession of faith on the part of adults. It thus is the sign of some- thing effected, rather than the instrument for effecting anything.
Consult: J. V. Dale's three books. Classic Baptism (Philadelphia. 1867), Judaic liiiptism (1871), Christie and Patristic Baptism (1874), and the reply, D. B. Ford, Iftudies on the Bap- tism Question (Boston, 1879).
BAPTISM, Infant. The New Testament is silent upon this subject. The biblical ai-gument in its favor is confessedly inferential. Starting generally from the institution of the family, it points out the fact that the ancient s^ystem of the Old Testament inchuled children with their par- ents in the same covenant, of which circumcision was the seal. It declares that the same essential relations of covenant remain under the New Testament. And it, therefore, argues the pro- priety of a similar seal, which it finds in bap- tism. This is, it is true, an ordinance of 'faith,' but no more so than was circumcision (Rom. iv. 11), which was indisputably applied to chil- dren. Silence about it is as natural as the long silence of the Old Testament about circumcision, whereas discussion would have been aroused if no seal of the new covenant had been provided to take the place of the old. Eipially inferential is the argument against it. This starts from the proposition that baptism is a profession of faith (Acts ii. 38 1, and since faith is impossible to in- fants, denies the appropriateness of their bap- tism. IreniPus in the early Church gives e.- plicit testimony of infant baptism, as does a letter of Saint Cyprian and U4 l)ishops in council assembled. By the time of Tertullian it was evidently in general use.
The development of infant baptism in the Church is closely connected with the development of the idea of the necessity of baptism to salva- tion. The Second Century generally ascribed three effects to baptism: Forgiveness of all pre- vious sins, connnunication of the Holy Spirit, and the impartation of a living power carrying immortality with it. The tendency was to as- i-ribe this efficiency to the baptism as an external transaction. Faith was not forgotten, but was left unadjusted to this really inconsistent prem- ise. Hence the argument went unhindered for- ward to the assertion of baptismal regeneration. But if regeneration was effected by ba])tism, bap- tism is necessary to salvation. And hence in- fants, so many of whom die in infancy, must be baptized if they are to be saved. The entire Christian Church was soon united upon this rea- soning.
Two tendencies were soon marked. The Greek Church emphasized moi-e the effect of baptism upon the future, the impartation to the child of tlje gift of immortality, and the implanting in him of spiritual power. The Latin Church looked hack rather upon the past, and hence baptism was held to effect the forgiveness of original sin. The turning-point in the history of the subject was made by the teachings of Augustine. While there are two distinct periods in his doctrine, lie is steadily more and more influenced by his doctrine of the Church. Membership in the visi- ble Church is viewed by him as necessary to the reception of grace, and so to salvation. There- fore baptism, as the door of the Church, is neces- sary to salvation. It is the sacrament of regen- eration. At first. Augustine taught that only actual sins were forgiven in baptism, but later he said that the guiit of original sin was also forgiven. Conversion, however, is necessary as well as baptism, and in his earlier treatises there is a degree of liberality in asserting the saving power of the former where the latter was invol- untarily omitted. Later the necessity of baptism was more uncompromisingly asserted. Children must therefore be baptized, and in their case re- generation is wrought in baptism by the faith of the whole Church. While unbaptized children do not gain eternal bliss, they suffer no punishment. .t the Reformation the effort was made to ex- tricate the doctrine from the externalisiu which had become fixed and intensified in the Roman Church, and to give a due place to the idea of faith. Luther held that faith was wrought in children; Melanchthun, that faith must conic later to perfect the sacrament. The Anabaptists, who sought the most radical reform of the Church upon the basis of the New Testament alone, re- jected infant baptism as not mentioned in Scrip- ture and inconsistent with the requirement of faith. The same view of the subject arose among the radical element of the English Reformation, the Congregationalists, who divided in Holland upon this issue. Soiiie of them, returning in Kill, formed the first Baptist Church in London. (See Bapti.sts.) The large extension of the Baji- tists in the United States and their constant ex- position of their position against infant ba|)tisni has led to a considerable neglect of it in de- nominations that still maintain and generally liractice it. The necessity of baptism to salva- tion is now maintained only by the Roman Catholic Church and by the sacramentarian party of the Lutheran and English churches. (Consult the books mentioned under Baptism, to which add the classical work W. Wall, History of Infant Baptism (n.c. Oxford, 1802, 2 vols.).
BAPTISM BY HER'ETICS. See Hebetio Baptism.
