Remember Your Baptism

John Willison, A Sacramental Catechism, pp. 56-59:

Q. How is it, that we ought to improve our baptism?

A. 1. Be sensible of the greatness of the privilege and dignity conferred upon you, in being baptized in the name of Christ, and sacramentally sprinkled with his blood for the remission of sin; and think much upon it. Alas, there are many who never think on Christ, or his blood, and put no value upon their baptism. I have read of Lucian a scoffing Atheist, when he apostasized from the profession of Christianity, he mocked at his baptism, saying, 'He got nothing by it, but a syllable to his name; he was Lucian before, and at baptism was called Lucianus.' And what do many get by their baptism, but a name? Why, they undervalue their baptism, never think on it, nor study any way to improve it.

2. You ought personally and explicitly to renew your covenant and solemn dedication to God sealed at baptism. It is not enough that you are Christians by your parents dedication, but you must be so by your own also, by ratifying your parents deed, when ye are of age; otherwise your baptism will profit you nothing; nay, instead of profiting you, it will be a witness against you, if you do not personally transact with God in Christ, and give away yourselves to the Lord in truth and sincerity.

3. Improve your baptism, by labouring to secure and clear up your interest in the pardon of sin, adoption, sanctifying grace, and other blessings sealed to you in that sacrament. Remember, that these blessings were only sealed to you conditionally, upon your believing in Christ; and that they are not actually conferred, till you be sensible of sin, and close with Christ and his righteousness. Go then, O penitent sinner, apply to the blood of Christ by faith, which was sacraementally applied to you at baptism as a strong argument for it, say, "Lord, have I not thy seal, as well as thy promise for my pardon? God I not a pledge of it from thee at my baptism? Behold thy ring and thy bracelets; are they not thine? Lord, make good thy word, thy sealed promise;" I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.

4. Press also for the joyful sense of this benefit of pardon sealed to you in baptism; the having whereof, is the most comfortable thing in the world. We see the Eunuch, when he had got this seal of baptism, "went on his way rejoicing: O now (thought he) my case is blessed, I am a pardoned man, God hath received me into his family, and taken me into covenant with himself, and implanted me a member of his mystical body: I that was the plant of a strange vine, am now ingrafted into a noble stock: and shall I not be glad and rejoice in his salvation?" Thus, O believer, improve the seal of baptism, in order to your growing up to the comfortable assurance of your pardon of sin, and adoption into God's family: seeing these blessings are irreversibly promised and sealed to you in that sacrament.

5. Improve your baptism as a spur to holiness and diligence in Christ's service; forget not him whose name you bear, whose livery you wear, and whose colours you are sworn to. Seeing you are solemnly dedicated to God, and all you have is consecrated to him at baptism; O then live as these who are not your own; spend your strength and time, not in serving sin and the world, but in worshipping of God, in loving, praising and glorifying him, whose you are, and whom you ought to serve. Alas, there are many, who lift themselves into God's service by baptism, and yet turn deserters, and go over to the devil's camp, taking on to fight against their King and Lord to whom they are sworn. They live as if they had been solemnly devoted to, and baptized in the name of the cursed trinity of hell, the devil, the world, and the flesh, instead of the ever blessed and glorious Trinity of heaven: Alas, they live as if they had renounced that, and not the other; which is certainly a most fearful guilt, and cannot miss to be attended with a severe doom.

6. Be humbled for your manifold pollutions, your falling so much short of the grace of baptism, and walking unsuitably to your solemn engagements. Have you not cause to lament before God, for forgetting and slighting the free love of God manifested to you in baptism; and for having so little recourse to the fountain that was opened to you therein, for sin, and for uncleanness; and that you feel so little of the efficacy of the precious blood of your Redeemer (which was represented and applied to you in that ordinance) for melting of your hearts, cleansing you from sin, and quickening you to holiness.

7. Improve your baptism as a shield against Satan's temptations; 1. Are you tempted to despairing thoughts of mercy, or troubled with perplexing doubts and fears? Then remember the seal of free love you got in baptism. Christ himself was tempted after his baptism, to doubt of his filiation and sonship; but gave Satan a peremptory repulse; teaching us thereby to do the same. Luther saith, that all his answer to the devil, when he tempted him to despair, was, baptizatus sum, et credo in Christum, I am baptized into the belief of Christ. 2. Are you at any time tempted to sin? Then remember your baptism: Luther also tells of a holy virgin, that when she was tempted to sin, replied, baptizata sum, I am baptized. And indeed this is a sufficient answer to all Satan's temptations, "I am baptized and dedicate[d] solemnly to God; I am not my own but the Lord's; I am sworn to Christ, and how shall I serve the devil?" Profanity in a Christian is apostacy from Christ, and on the matter a renouncing of his baptism, which is a fearful, nay, a devilish sin.

8. Improve it as an argument to courage and resolution in time of danger or persecution. Stedfastly adhere to the doctrine of the Trinity, in whose name you are baptized; be not ashamed of Christ or his truths, seeing his name is called upon you, and you solemnly owned him before the whole congregation. "He that is ashamed of me (saith Christ) and of my words, in this sinful and adulterous generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels," Mark viii. 38. Dionysia, encouraged Majoricus her son, an African martyr, when he was going to die, with these words, "Remember, son, that thou was baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

Lastly, Do not trust to your baptism, and your having the name of Christ called upon you: an empty name and profession of Christianity will not save you; Simon Magus was baptized, and yet perished: many go with baptismal water on their faces, and sacramental bread in their mouths to hell at last. Kings have both their common and privy seals. Rest not in the outward seal, but seek the inward seal of God's Spirit, changing your natures, and applying the blood of Christ for cleansing your souls.

A Solitary Christian is a Contradiction

James Bannerman, The Church of Christ, Vol. 1, pp. 19-21:

We may assert, therefore, that that Christian society which we call the Church of Christ is a society formed by Divine appointment, even did we see in it nothing more than a body of men brought together by the constraint of the same faith and same affections wrought in them by the Spirit of God. But there is much more than this intimated in Scripture, on which we ground the assertion that the Church of Christ is a divinely instituted society. There are express commands in Scripture, leaving the believer no alternative in the matter, and requiring him to unite together with other believers in the outward and public profession of his faith before the world. He is not left at liberty to hide that faith within his own heart, and himself to remain alone and separated from his fellow-believers. It is the office of the Christian society to be a witness, by means of an outward and public profession, for Christ on the earth; and it is not a matter of choice, but of express obligation, with a Christian man to join with others in that public profession. The command is "to confess Christ before men;"1 and upon the ground of the command, then, is laid the foundation of a society, each member of which is called upon, whether he will or will not, to lift up a public testimony for his Saviour jointly with other believers; and that public profession is one to be made not merely with the lips, uniting with others in a common declaration of the faith believed. The outward ordinances of the Christian society are so framed and devised as to be themselves a significant profession of faith on the part of those who join in them; and communion in ordinances is with Christians not a matter of choice, but of express command. Christ has judged it proper to appoint that His disciples shall be solemnly received into His Church by the initiatory rite of baptism; so that the very entrance of life, or, at all events, the admission into the Christian society, shall be itself a public testimony to Him. He has enjoined the public and open commemoration of the central and most characteristic doctrine of His faith, by the celebration, at stated intervals, of the Lord's Supper; and as often as the first day of the week returns, the disciples are commanded "not to forsake the assembling of themselves together," but to unite in the outward and joint worship of the Saviour. In short, in the whole divinely appointed institutions and ordinances of the Christian society we see the provision made for, and the obligation laid upon, His disciples to be joined together into one outward body, and to form a common society of professing believers. That community is one, therefore, of Divine institution; and in the duty laid upon them, not as a matter of choice, but of express command, to become members of it, we see the ordinance of God for the existence and permanent establishment of a Church on earth. A solitary Christian is seen to be a contradiction in terms, if you view merely his faith as a principle of affinity naturally destined to draw to it the faith of other believers. A solitary Christian is worse than a contradiction, he is an anomaly, standing out against the express institution of God, which has appointed the fellowship of believers in one Church, and made provision in its outward ordinances for their union and edification. The Christian society is a kingdom, set up by express Divine appointment, and differs from every other society on earth in this remarkable fact, that the builder and maker of it is God.

1 Matt. x. 32; Luke xii. 8; John xii. 42; Rom. x. 9.

Validity of Roman Catholic Baptism

The question of the validity of Roman Catholic baptism has been a thorn in the American Presbyterian Church since

James Henley Thornwell in the 19th Century squared off against Charles Hodge in an extensive debate that started on the floor of the Presbyterian (Old School) General Assembly and spilled over later into the Princeton Review, the Watchman and Observer, and the Southern Presbyterian Review. Thornwell rejected Roman Baptism, while Charles Hodge accepted its validity.

Before that time, the general consensus of the Reformed Church was that the Roman Catholic Church had indeed become apostate, but was in some sense still a church. Antichrist was correctly identified as the Papacy by the Reformed Church, in part because the man of sin "sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. 2.4).

(Both Thornwell and Hodge agreed that the Roman Papacy was Antichrist. The Westminster Confession's affirmation of this doctrine was not removed until 1903, when the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (the Northern Presbyterian Church, or PCUSA) did so.)

Peru Mission was forced to address this issue because of its missionary efforts in Roman Catholic territories, and having investigated the question of whether re-baptism is required of converts from Catholicism, is to be commended for publishing the fruits of its research as The Reformed Churches and Roman Catholic Baptism: an Anthology of Principle Texts. I commend this work as a valuable resource for those who may wish to study the issue for themselves. It cites both pre- and post-Council of Trent Reformed writers who addressed and affirmed the validity of Roman baptism, addressing also the subject of the Roman mass, and Roman ordination, in the context of Rome as an apostate church which is yet a church materially considered. Those who wish to delve into these questions will do well to study this anthology.