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 BAPTISM

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BAPTISM

all, unless we be bom again of water and the Holy Ghost, we cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven, as Truth Himself has told us. The matter of this sacrament is true and natural water; and it is in- different whether it be cold or hot. The form is: I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. We do not, however, deny that the words: Let this servant of Christ be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; or: This person is baptized by my hands in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, constitute true baptism; because since the principal cause from which baptism has its efficacy is the Holy Trinity, and the instru- mental cause is the minister who confers the sacra- ment exteriorly, then if the act exercised by the min- ister be expressed, together with the invocation of the Holy Trinity, the sacrament is perfected. The minister of this sacrament is the priest, to whom it belongs to baptize, by reason of his office. In case of necessity, however, not only a priest or deacon, but even a layman or woman, nay, even a pagan or here- tic can baptize, provided he observes the form used by the Church, and intends to perform what the Church performs. The effect of this sacrament is the remission of all sin, original and actual; likewise of all pimishment which is due for sin. As a conse- quence, no satisfaction for past sins is enjoined upon those who are baptized; and if they die before they commit any sin, they attain immediately to the king- dom of heaven and the vision of God."

(b) The negative document we call the canons on baptism decreed by the Council of Trent (Sess. VII, De Baptismo), in which the following doctrines are anathematized: "The baptism of John (the Pre- cursor) had the same efficacy as the baptism of Christ. True and natural water is not necessary for baptism, and therefore the words of Oirr Lord Jesus Christ 'Unless a man be bom again of water and the Holy Ghost' are metaphorical. The true doctrine of the sacrament of baptism is not taught by the Roman Church. Baptism given by heretics in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost with the intention of performing what the Church performs, is not true baptism. Baptism is free, that is, not necessary for salvation. A baptized person, even if he wishes it, cannot lose grace, no matter how much he sins, unless he refuses to beheve. Those who are baptized are obliged only to have faith, but not to observe the whole law of Christ. Baptized persons are not obliged to observe all the precepts of the Church, written and traditional, imless of their own accord they wish to submit to them. All vows made after baptism are void by reason of the promises made in baptism itself; because by these vows injury is done to the faith which has been professed in baptism and to the sacrament itself. AH sins committed after baptism are either forgiven or rendered venial by the sole remembrance and faith of the baptism that has been received. Baptism although truly and properly administered, must be repeated in the case of a person who has denied the faith of Clirist before infidels and has been brought again to repentance. No one IS to be baptized except at the age at which Christ was baptized or at tlie moment of death. Infants, not being able to make an act of faith, are not to be reckoned among the faithful after their baptism, and therefore when they come to the age of discretion they are to be rebaptized; or it is better to omit their baptism entirely than to baptize them as beheving on the sole faith of the Church, when they themselves cannot make a proper act of faith. Those baptized as infants are to be asked when they have grown up, whether they wish to ratify what their sponsors had promised for them at their bap- tism- and if they reply that they do not wish to do SO, they are to be left to their own will in the matter

and not to be forced by penalties to lead a Christian life, except to be deprived of the reception of the Eucharist and of the other sacraments, imtil they reform. " The doctrines here condemned by the Council of Trent, are those of various leaders among the early reformers. The contradictory of all these statements is to be held as the dogmatic teaching of the Church.

II. Etymologt. — The word Baptism is derived from the Greek word, pa-n-Tui, or ^anTl^w, to wash or to immerse. It signifies, therefore, that laving is of the essential idea of the sacrament. Scripture u.<;es the term baptize both literally and figuratively. It is employed in a metaphorical sense in Acts, i, 5, where the abundance of the grace of the Holy Ghost is signified, and also in Luke, xii, 50, where the term is referred to the sufferings of Christ in His Passion. Otherwise in the New Testament, the root word from which baptism is derived is used to designate the laving with water, and it is employed when speaking of Jewish lustrations, and of the baptism of John, as well as of the Christian Sacrament of Baptism (cf. Heb., vi, 2; Mark, vii, 4). In ecclesiastical usage, however, when the terms Baptize, Baptism are em- ployed without a quaUfj-ing word, they are intended to signify the sacramental washing by which the soul is cleansed from sin at the same time that water is poured upon the body. Many other terms have been used as descriptive sjmonyms for baptism both in the Bible and Christian antiquity, as the laver of regenera- tion, illumination, the seal of God, the water of eternal life, the sacrament of the Trinity, etc. (cf. Bingham, Antiq. Eccl., IV). In English, the term christen is famiharly used for baptize. As, however, the former word signifies only the effect of baptism, that is, to make one a Christian, but not the manner and the act, moralists hold that "I christen" could prob- ably not be substituted vahdly for "I baptize" in conferring the sacrament (Sabetti, n. 657; Lehmkuhl, n. 63; Amer. Eccl. Rev., V, I).

III. Definition. — The Roman Catechism (Ad pa- rochos,Debapt.,2, 2, 5) defines baptism thus: Baptism is thesacrament of regeneration by water in the word {per aquam in verba). St. Thomas Aquinas (III, Q. Ixvi, a. 1) gives this definition: " Baptism is the exter- nal ablution of the body, performed with the pre- scribed form of words. " Later theologians generally distinguish formally between the physical and the metaphysical defining of this sacrament. By the former they understand the formula expressing the ac- tion of ablution and the utterance of the invocation of the Trinity; by the latter, the definition: "Sacrament of regeneration " or that institution of Christ by which we are reborn to spiritual hfe. The term "regenera- tion" distinguishes baptism from every other sacra- ment, for although penance revivifies men spiritually, yet this is rather a resuscitation, a bringing back from the dead, than a rebirth. Penance does not make us Christians; on the contrarj^, it presupposes that we have already been bom of water and the Holy Ghost to the hfe of grace, while baptism on the other hand was instituted to confer upon men the very beginnings of the spiritual hfe, to transfer them from the state of enemies of God to the state of adoption, as sons of God. The definition of the Roman Catechism com- bines the physical and metaphysical definitions of baptism. "The sacrament of regeneration" is the metaphysical essence of the sacrament, while the physical essence is expressed by the second part of the definition, i. e. the washing with water (matter), accompanied by the invocation of the Holy Trinity (form). Baptism is, therefore, the sacrament by which we are bom again of water and the Holy Ghost, that is, by which we receive in a new and spiritual life, the dignity of adoption as sons of God and heirs of God's kingdom.

IV. Types. — Ha^^ng considered the Christian