BAPTISM, LAY, baptism administered by uncr- ddntd persons. In ordinary practice, the Christian Church has always held that baptism should lie per- formed by ordained ministers (see above, Ministi rs of Bapt ism). Nevertheless, in case of necessity, baptism may be performed by any Christian, and is valid if performed according to Christ's order in Matt, xxviii, 19. It would be clearly wrong to assert that lay bap- tism is, under all circumstances, as regular as that by a minister; but it is also very difficult to decide that lay baptism is invalid where the services of a minister cannot be procured. The principle upon which this view of the case rests has been thus fairly stated by Hooker (Eccl. Polity, bk. v, Ixii, 19) : "The grace of baptism cometh by donation from God alone. That God hath committed the ministry of baptism unto spe- cial men, it is for order's sake in his church, and not to the end that their authority might give being, or add force to the sacrament itself. That infants have right to the sacrament of baptism we all acknowledge. Charge them we cannot as guileful and wrongful pos- sessors of that whereunto they have right, by the man- ifest will of the donor, and are not parties unto any defect or disorder in the maimer of receiving the same. And, if any such disorder be. we have sufficiently be- fore declared that, 'delictum cum capite semper am- bulat,' men's own faults are their own harms." From this reasoning (which appears to be just), the inference is, that in the case of lay baptism, infants are not de- prived of whatever benefits and privileges belong to that sacrament, the administrator, in any instance, be- ing alone responsible for the urgency of the circum- stances under which he performs the rite. By the rubrics of the second and of the fifth of Edward VI it was ordered thus: "The pastors and curates shall often admonish the people, that without great cause and necessity they baptize not children at home in their houses ; end when great need shall compel them so to do, that then they minister it in this fashion: First, let them that be present call upon God fir his grace, and say the Lord's Prayer, if the time will suf- fir; and then cne of them shall name the child and dip him in the water, or pour water upon him, saying these words : I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." But in the revision of the Prayer-boc k after the Hampton Court Conference (1604), the nil rics were altered so as to exclude entirely this authority for lay baptism. Still, such baptism is not decided to be invalid. The Ro- manists admit its validity. Sec Procter On Common Prayer, p. 378, 382 ; Bingham, Orig. Eccl. Ik. xvi, ch. i, § 4. On the practice of the Church of England with regard to lay baptism, sec Bingham, Scholastical His- tory of Lay Baptism (1712, 2 vols.), ch. iii, § 5, ex- tracted in Henry, Compendium of Christian Antiquities, Appendix. See also Waterland, Letters on Lay Bapt t'sm ( Works, vol. x) ; Hagenbach, History of Doctrines, § 137 ; Summers On Baptism, ch. iv. The Presbytc
BAPTISM
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BAPTISM
nan Directory for Worship declares that "baptism is not to I"' unnecessarily delayed; nor to be adminis- tered in any case, by any private person, but by a minister of Christ, called to be the steward of the mys- ,..,.; ,a of God" (ch. vii, § 1). The Reformed Confes- sions, so fir a- they speak on this point, generally oppose 1 ly baptism : see t 'onf //< In t. ii, 20 ; Conf. Sco- tica xxii. Comii. also Calvin, Institutes, bk. iv, ch. xv,
BAPTISM FOE THE DEAD (vrrip tSjv vtupCov, 1 Cor. xv. 29). This difficult passage has given rise to multitudinous expositions. Among them are the following (see also Am. Presb. Rev, Jan. 18G3):
1. The Corinthians i according to Suicer), and after them the Marcionites and other heretics, practised a sort of vicarious baptism in the case of those who had died unbaptized; that is, they caused a relation or friend of the dead person to be baptized in his stead, in the belief that such baptism would operate to ob- tain the remission of the sins of the deceased in the other world (< 'hrysostom, Horn, xl in 1 Cor., and Ter- tullian c ntra Marcion, lib. v, cap. 10). The apostle then drew an argument from the heretical practice to prove their belief in the resurrection.
2. Chrysostom, however, declares that Paul refers to the declaration made by each catechumen at his baptism, of his belief in the resurrection of the dead, meaning to say this : " If there is, in fact, no resurrec- tion of the dead, why, then, art thou baptized for the de el. i. e. the body?" An improvement, perhaps, upon thi- interpretation would be to consider the ancient martyrs to be referred to, over whose remains the churches were often built (probably, however, not as yet), in which such vows were taken.
.'i. Among the best interpretations is that of Span- h 'ni i see Wolf, Cur. in N. T. in loc), which considers '"the dead" to be martyrs and other believers, who, by firmness and cheerful hope of resurrection, have given in death a worth)' example, by which others were also animated to receive baptism. Still, this meaning would he almost too briefly and enigmatically express- ed, when no particular reason for it is known, while also the allusion to the exemplary death of many Christians could chiefly apply to the martyrs alone, of whom there were as yet none at Corinth. This inter- pretation, however, may perhaps also be improved if ch 1st be considered as prominently referred to among these deceased, by virtue of whose resurrection all his followers expect to be likewise raised.