•
offices. (3.) That those who aspire to them are to be examined as to their call and qualifications. (4.) That if found competent they are to be set apart or ordained in an orderly manner to the office to which they deem themselves called. (5.) That the special functions of one class of these officers, are preaching and the administration of the sacraments. (6.) It follows from all this that for any one not thus called and ordained to undertake the exercise of either of these functions of the ministry, in a settled state of the Church, is wrong ; it is a violation of the divinely constituted order of Christ's Church. According to this view, lay preaching and lay administration of the ordinances (in ordi- nary circumstances) are equally wrong. But are they invalid ? That is a very different question. We know that Romanists, when they pronounce a sacrament invalid, mean that it is power- less. We know that when the old English law pronounced any marriage invalid if not solemnized by a man in holy orders, the meaning was, that the ceremony was null and void ; that the par- ties were not married. But what can be meant by lay preach- ing being invalid ? Is the Gospel invalid ? Does it lose its truth, authority, or power ? This cannot be. Neither its authority nor its power depend upon the clay lips by which it is proclaimed. Again, if a number of pious Christians assemble, where no min- ister can be had, to celebrate the Lord's Supper, in what sense is such a service invalid ? Do they not commemorate the death of Christ ? Are not the bread and wine to them the symbols of his body and blood ? If faith be in exercise, may they not receive those symbols to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace? Again, if baptism be a washing with water in the name of the Holy Trinity, to signify and seal our engrafting into Christ, does it cease to be, or to signify this if not administered by an ordained minister ? Does not the man thus baptized make a profession of his faith in Christ ? and does he not thereby become a member of that great body which confesses Him before men ? Can it, therefore, be any more invalid than the Gospel, when preached by a layman ?
What the Bible, therefore, seems to teach on this subject is, that Christ having appointed certain officers in his Church to preach his Word and to administer his ordinances, for any man, under ordinary circumstances not duly appointed, to assume the functions of the ministry, is irregular and wrong, because con- trary to the order of Christ's Church. Further than this the Reformed and Lutheran standards do not appear to have gone.
526 PART IH. Ch. XX. — THE MEANS OF GRACE.
•
§ 7. Baptism. •w Baptism is a sacrament, wherein the washing with water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal our engrafting into Christ and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord's." >
The Mode of Baptism.
According to the definition given above, baptism is a washing with water. By washing is meant any such application of water to the body as effects its purification. This may be done by im- mersion, affusion, or sprinkling. The command, therefore, to baptize is simply a command to wash with water. It is not specifically a command to immerse, to affuse, or to sprinkle. The mode of applying water as the purifying medium is unessential. The only necessary thing is to make such an application of water to the person, as shall render the act significant of the purification of the soul.
The first argument in favour of this view of the ordinance is an a priori one. As by common consent the design of the insti- tution is either to symbolize or to effect the cleansing of the soul from the guilt and pollution of sin, by the blood and spirit of Christ, it would seem to follow that washing with water, how- ever done, is all that is necessary to the integrity of the ordi- nance. The idea of purification is as clearly and as frequently signified by affusion as by immersion. Besides, to make anything so purely circumstantial as the manner in which water is used in the act of cleansing, essential to a Christian sacrament, which, according to some, is absolutely necessary to salvation ; and, ac- cording to others, is essential to membership in the visible Church of Christ, is opposed to the whole nature of the Gospel. It is to render Christianitv more Judaic than Judaism, even as understood by the Pharisees ; for they purified themselves, their offerings, and holy places and utensils, by immersion, affusion, or sprinkling as was most appropriate or convenient.
Use of the Word in the Glassies.
The second argument on this subject, is drawn from the usage of the word. In the Classics ; in the Septuagint and the Apoc- ryphal writings of the Old Testament ; in the New Testament ; and in the writings of the Greek fathers, the words /3a7rr<i>,
1 Westminster Shorter Catechism, Ques. 94.