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The sacraments
by Francis Joseph Hall
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Excerpt:
1 Cf. The Church and the Sacramental System, ch. x. § 4, fin.
2 Cf. Idem, ch. x. § 3; and § 12, below. See Darwell Stone, ch. ix and notes on pp. 261-266.
regeneration and conversion was disregarded. We have no space to describe these departures in detail;1 but to-day the more orthodox Protestants regard Baptism as a sign and pledge of grace rather than as an instrument, and many treat it as merely a ceremony of dedication, edifying but not really necessary. These lower conceptions have induced much laxity in the method of administering the sacrament, with consequent uncertainty in many instances as to its validity. Fortunately the Anglican reformation left the catholic doctrine and method of Baptism plainly expressed and prescribed in the Church Catechism and in the appointed forms of ministration of this sacrament; and the twenty-seventh of the Articles of Religion agrees therewith.2
§ 3. For an adequate understanding of the place and function of Baptism in the dispensation of Christian grace it is needful to reckon with certain antecedent truths set forth in the New Testament.
(a) The first of these is the doctrine of the second Adam.3 Men are social beings, and historically this appears in the genetic relation of all men to the first Adam. His loss of grace caused him to revert to unassisted nature's moral weakness and mortality, and it was this natural weakness and liability to death which he transmitted to his posterity. All have sinned, and in Him all die.1 The method by which God saves us from these consequences, and renews our progress towards the destiny for which mankind was created, is in line with our racial solidarity in Adam. That is, a new race has been constituted, one that is bound together in a second Adam, whose redemptive victory over death and fulness of grace redounds to the regeneration, moral renewal and sanctification of His members.2 In Christ shall all be made alive, for He is our quickening Spirit.3 This is also incidental to making good the original and eternal purpose of God that Christ should have the preeminence, that in Him all fulness should dwell, and that in His Body He should be our Mediator with God, and the source to us of the grace of eternal life and glory.4 To this end Christ identified Himself with us by taking our nature, and perfected His Manhood for saving and sanctifying functions by victory over sin, suffering and death, and by enthroning it in the heavens. There it becomes at once a perpetual oblation to the Father for us, and the source to His members of quickening, saving and sanctifying grace.5
1 See K. R. Hagenbach, § 270; Hastings, Encyc. of Religion, s.v. "Baptism (Later Christian)," pp. 400-406.
2 See A. P. Forbes on art. xxvii; Darwell Stone, pp. 58-64. A useful Anglican catena is given in Tracts for the Times, No. 76.
3 On which, see Passion and Exaltation, pp. 115-117; Archd. Wilberforce, Doctr. of the Incarnation, chh. ii—III, x-xi; M. F. Sadler, Second Adam, ch. ii. The chief N. T. passages are Rom. v. 12-21; 1 Cor. xv. 20-22; Ephes. 1. 3-11; Col. i. 12-22. The doctrine of our recapitulation in Christ for redemption and curative grace is seen in St. Irensus, c. Hcer., III. xvi. 6; xviii. 1, 7; xxi. 10; xxii. 2-3; V. xiv. 1-2; and St. Athanasius, de Incarn., 4-9.
1 See Creation and Man, pp. 277-279 and ch. ix. * Ephes. iv. 7-16. '1 Cor. xv. 20-21, 45.
1 Col. i. 18; ii. 0-10; 1 Tim. ii. 5; 1 St. John v. 11-12. 6 Cf. Passion and Exaltation, pp. 105-106.
(6) The efficient cause of all that the Saviour doeth for us is the Holy Spirit; but the method of the Spirit's operation is conditioned by that of redemption, and is both corporate and sacramental, the entire mystery of redemption and grace being accommodated to human nature. Therefore it is in and from the glorified Manhood of Christ that the Spirit operates.1
