Edward Hoare

“ It is of the utmost importance that all should bear in mind that this is the great, grand gift to be sought in baptism. The Bible says not a word of the implanting of a principle which may or may not grow in after life; it speaks of nothing short of a union with our Lord in its highest, holiest, and most efficacious sense. If the grace be really given, in the fullest sense in which the words can be used we are made members of the body of our Lord. The same appears from many other passages. ”

“ We are all baptized upon a profession of our faith, and all meet in the house of God in the character of baptized believers; the Church, therefore, as a public body, is bound to assume our profession real. This it does in all its services; so that there is not a single prayer throughout the Liturgy which is not drawn up on the principle of assumption. Upon this principle persons are supposed at their burial to have been believers, as they are assumed in their confessions to be repentant, and at their baptism to be regenerate. ”

“ As there are some passages where baptized believers are addressed, so there are others in which the doctrines of the gospel are defined and taught. The former correspond to the Liturgy, the latter to the Articles of our Church. It is very important to observe this distinction; for in the different classes of passages different modes of expression must be expected. Of course the whole of sacred Scripture, being inspired by the same Spirit, speaks the same truth; but it is one of the perfections of the Bible that it conveys truth in every form both of statement and application. ”

“ Peter to Simon Magus in Acts viii, 21, is not addressed to him as to a regenerate man in a state of inconsistency; but to an unregenerate man in a state of false profession. In one sense Simon had believed. Like the devils he had been convinced, but he had no union with his Saviour either before his baptism or after it; and though on the principle of assumption the inspired Apostle had sanctioned his baptism on his profession, on the principle of Christian truth he pronounced him reprobate on the manifestation of his sin. ”

“ But on turning to the Service of Baptism for Adults, we find the very same words used as are employed for infants, “Now that this person is regenerate.” It must be obvious to any man, that if these words are to be understood as a positive doctrinal assertion of invariable regeneration in adults, they are in flat contradiction to the Articles. If they are intended to assert the doctrine that every baptized adult is regenerate, they are in exact and direct opposition to the passages quoted above, which teach most carefully that every baptized adult is not regenerate. ”

“ If this be the real meaning of our Service, the Prayer Book, in this matter, flatly contradicts itself. If, on the other hand, the passage in the Baptismal Service be the language of assumption, all is harmonious. In its statement of doctrine, the Church gives the caution; in its application to the individual, it confidently and unreservedly assumes the gift. In the case of adults, therefore, the language must be that of assumption, not assertion. But there is an exact identity between the words used for infants and adults. ”

“ It says nothing where the Bible gives no guide, and therefore makes no distinction between adults and infants; it assumes where the Bible assumes, and therefore speaks of all baptized persons as regenerate; and with the Bible as its authority, it asserts, in language the most unequivocal and explicit, that baptized persons are not invariably regenerate, for that the gifts of divine grace are not invariably connected with either of the sacraments which God has appointed in His Church. ”

“ Hence, as the Church declares all dying children to be saved, she teaches thereby that all baptized children are regenerate.” The unsoundness of such an argument is best seen by following it to its conclusions: for it would be quite as sound reasoning to say that if justified they must be believers, and if believers, possessed of judgment and responsibility. The fallacy lies in this: it is taken for granted that God applies the saving blood of Christ in the same way, and the same way alone, to unconscious infants and responsible adults. ”

“ I. What is the inward and spiritual blessing connected with the sacrament of baptism in Scripture?
II. What is the nature of the connexion?
I. That there are certain high and rich gifts connected with baptism in sacred Scripture must be acknowledged by all who study it in a childlike spirit. Men may entertain different opinions as to the connexion, and even as to the nature of the gifts, but that there are such gifts it is surely impossible to deny. Few words may suffice to shew that the sum and substance of these gifts is a saving union with our Lord Jesus Christ. ”

“ In such passages it is laid down as a general law of God’s kingdom that no outward ordinances whatever can invariably convey divine p. 14grace. It is our privilege, as believers, to expect His presence while in the way of His judgments we wait for His blessing; but “God is a Spirit and they that worship must worship Him in spirit and in truth,” nor are we anywhere warranted in asserting that any act on man’s part is invariably accompanied with any gift on God’s part. He does not bind His gifts to our actions, even if those actions be hallowed by His own authority. ”

“ Again, In all the doctrinal passages of Scripture the new birth is said to be invariably accompanied by holiness of personal character.
Only refer to the first epistle of St. John, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, p. 18for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” (1 John iii. 9, 10.) “Everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God ”

“ They were born on the same day, and of the same parents; they were circumcised by the same persons under the same circumstances, and we leave it to those who believe God’s gifts to become invariable through the moral innocence of infants to explain the words of God himself, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” ”

“ Now it is obvious we should naturally look for the principle of assumption in that class of passages in which our baptismal privileges are made the subject of personal appeal. If regeneration were not assumed, the appeal would be altogether powerless. ”

“ There are some acknowledged difficulties in these passages; but we make a fearless appeal to any unprejudiced mind: do they not teach beyond the possibility of controversy that the man without faith and without love is not born of God, and that we have no scriptural warrant for calling those regenerate who grow up in sin, who spend their strength in sin, and who go to the grave with the curse of unrepented sin upon their heads?
(3.) The practice of the Apostles accords with these doctrinal statements. They always assumed regeneration in baptized professors until sad facts proved the contrary ”

“ While, therefore, in their hortatory addresses the inspired Apostles always assumed the gift to have been imparted whenever the sacrament had been received, in their doctrinal statements of Divine truth they taught plainly that baptized unbelievers are not to be regarded as regenerate, and that in accordance with the general law of God’s kingdom the outward sign of Baptism may be unaccompanied by the inward gift. ”

“ Paul not as regenerate persons who were inconsistent, but as base metal; persons who bore the outward sign of Christianity, p. 20but who were not really regenerate, and were, therefore, enjoying no real union with the Lord Jesus. ”

“ It cannot be believed, with the 25th and 27th Articles before us, that our Church asserts the invariability of regeneration in all adults who are p. 32baptized. No language could be more decisive or distinct than theirs. ”