(iii.) The Baptists reject infant baptism, and main- tain that the ordinance is only to be administered to persons making a profession of faith in Christ. The arguments by which they seek to maintain this view are substantially as follows, viz. :
1. The commission of Christ to the disciples (Mark xvi, 15, 16) fixes instruction in the truths of the Gos- pel and belief in them as prerequisites to baptism.
2. The instances of baptism given in the N. T. are adduced as confirming this view. "Those baptized by Jobn confessed their sins (Matt, iii, 6). The Lord Jesus Christ gave the command to teach and baptize (Matt, xxviii, 19; Mark xvi, 15, 16). At the day of Pentecost, they who gladly received the word were bap- tized, and they afterward continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship (Acts ii, 41, 42, 47). At Samaria, those who believed were baptized, both men and women (Acts viii, 12). The eunuch openly avowed his faith (in reply to Philip's statement, If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest), and went down into the water and was baptized (Acts viii,
I 35, 39). Saul of Tarsus, after his sight was restored, and he had received the Holy Ghost, arose and was baptized (Acts ix, 17, 18). Cornelius and his friends
! heard Peter, received the Holy Ghost, and were bap- tized (Acts x, 44-48). Lydia heard Paul and Silas ; the Lord opened her heart, and she was baptized, and her household."
3. The Baptists farther assert that the N. T. affords no single example of infant baptism. They explain the baptisms of "households" by the assumption that none of their members were infants.
4. They argue that if infant baptism be a Christian ordinance, it must be expressly enjoined in Scripture, which is not the case.
5. They argue, finally, that as "Christian faith is a personal matter, its profession ought to be a matter of free conviction and choice, which cannot be the case with infants."
V. The Minister of Baptism. — The administration by baptism is a function of the ministerial office (Matt, xxviii, 16-20). But it is the general opinion, both of the Roman and Protestant churches, that the presence of an ordained minister is not absolutely essential to
i the ordinance, and that, in extreme cases, it is lawful for lay persons to baptize. At the present day, not only lay baptism, but baptism administered by here- tics, schismatics, and even women, is held to be valid by the Greek and Roman churches. The Lutherans also hold the same view. Baptism by mid wives was admitted by the Church of England in extreme cases down to the Great Rebellion. Not that it was believed that laymen have the right to baptize, but that, the baptism having been once performed, it is valid to such an extent that rebaptism is improper. See Bap- tism (Lay).
VI. Repetition of Baptism.— -In the third century the question arose whether the baptism of heretics was to be accounted valid, or whether a heretic who returned to the Catholic Church was to be rebaptized. In op- position to the usrge of the Eastern and African churches, which was defended by Cyprian, the princi- ple was established in the Roman Church under Ste- phen, that the right of baptism, if duly performed, was always valid, and its repetition contrary to the tradi- tion of the church. In the next age Basil and Gregory of Nazianzen followed Cyprian's view, but by the in- fluence of Augustine the Roman view became the prevalent one ; but the Dcnatists maintained that her- etics must be rebaptized. See Donatists (Hagen- bach, Hist, of Doct. § 72 and 137, and references there). After the Reformation, the Roman Church, compelled by its old usage and principle, continued to acknowledge the validity of Protestant baptisms, while Protestants, in turn, admit the validity of Roman Catholic baptism.
VII. Sponsors or Godfathers. — Sponsors (called also godfathers and godmothers) are persons who, at the baptism of infants, answer for their future conduct, and solemnly promise that they will renounce the devil and all his works, and follow a life of purity and virtue ; and by these means lay themselves under an indispen- sable obligation to instruct them and watch over their conduct. In the Roman Church the number of godfa- thers and godmothers is reduced to two ; in the Church of England, to three; formerly the number was not limited. It is prohibited, in the Roman Church, to sponsors to marry their godchildren, or each other, or either parent of their godchild; nor may the baptizer many the child baptized or its parent. The custom of having sponsors is not in use among the dissenting denominations in England, nor among the evangelical churches in America. The parents are held to be the proper persons to present their children for baptism, and to train them up afterward; indeed, while they live, no other persons can possibly take this duty from them. In the earh' church the parents were com. inonly the sponsors of infants. The duty of those who undertook the office of sponsor for adult persons was
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not to answer in their names, but to admonish and in- struct them, both before and after baptism. In many churches this office was chiefly imposed upon the dea- cons and deaconesses. The only persons excluded from this office by the ancient Church were catechu- mens, energumens, heretics, and penitents; also per- sons not con firm d are excluded by some canons. An- ciently one Bponsor only was required for each person to be baptized, who was to be of the same sex as the latter in the case of adult persons; in the case of in- fant.- the sex was indifferent. The origin of the pro- hibition of sponsors marrying within the forbidden de- grees of spiritual relationship appears to have been a law of Justinian, still extant in the Codex (lib. v, tit. I. lh Suptiis, !.<<;. xxvi). which forbade a godfather tn marry the woman for whom he had stood sponsor at baptism. The council in Tndlo extended this pro- hibition to the marrying the mother of the baptized in- fant (can. 53); and it was subsequently carried to such an extent that the council of Trent (Sess. xxiv, Be. Reform. Matrimon. cap. ii) was compelled to relax it in some degree. — Bingham, xi, viii. See Sponsors.