Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/311

 BAPTISM BAPTISTERY 291 styled "conditional baptism," in cases where there is any doubt as to the fact of the person having been before baptized. The Latin church holds baptism to be a sacrament by which all previous offences, including the taint of original sin, are washed out, so that the person bap- tized stands free from all sin, whether actual or original, up to the time of baptism. Many Protestant denominations maintain that it is merely a ceremony of initiation into church membership. Between these two extremes lies every possible shade of sentiment. The gen- eral idea of different churches respecting the ordinance of baptism may be best expressed in the words of their own formularies. The idea of the Latin and Greek churches is clear : bap- tism is a washing out of all previous sin ; the person baptized commences thenceforth a new life. Article xxvii. of the Anglican and of the American Episcopal church reads: "Baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of dif- ference whereby Christian men are discerned from others, but it is also a sign of regenera- tion, or new birth, whereby, as an instrument, they that receive baptism rightly are grafted into the church : the promises of the forgive- ness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed; faith is confirmed, and grace in- creased by virtue of prayer unto God. The baptism of young children is in any wise to be retained in the church as most agreeable with the institution of Christ." The Augsburg Con- fession says that baptism is " a necessary ordi- nance, a means of grace, and ought to be ad- ministered also to children, who are thereby dedicated to God and received into his favor." The Westminster Confession affirms that it is " a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admis- sion of the party baptized into the visible church, but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life ; which sac- rament is, by Christ's own appointment, to be continued in his church until the end of the world. Not only those that do actually pro- fess faith in and obedience to Christ, but also the infants of one or both believing parents, are to be baptized. Although it be a great sin to contemn or neglect this ordinance, yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed nnto it as that no person can be regenerated or saved without it, or that all that are bap- tized are undoubtedly regenerated." In article xvii. of the Methodist Episcopal church, it is declared that " baptism is not only a sign of profession, and mark of difference whereby Christians are distinguished from others that are not baptized, but it is also a sign of regen- eration or the new birth. The baptism of young children is also to be retained in the church." The Baptist churches in America, being congregational in form, have no abso- lutely fixed formula. Two not very dissimilar ones are generally accepted, the " Now Hamp- shire Confession of Faith" in the north, and the " Philadelphia Confession " in the south. The article on baptism in these two confessions is essentially the same, varying only in phrase- ology. In the Philadelphia Confession article xxii. reads: "Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ to be unto the party baptized a sign of his fellow- ship with him in his death and resurrection ; of his being ingrafted unto him ; of remission of sins ; and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to live and walk in newness of life. Those who do actually profess repent- ance toward God, and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ, are the only proper subjects of this ordinance. The outward element to be used in this ordinance is water, wherein the party is to be immersed in the name of the Fa- ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." BAPTISTERY (Gr. [iaxTiorfpiov), originally, a bathing place or swimming bath ; later, and in ecclesiastical usage, a place set apart for per- Baptistery at Novara. forming the rite of baptism. At first the bap- tistery was an exedra or structure outside of the proper church ; later the porch, and still later a part of the consecrated edifice, was so em- ployed. As separate edifices, several baptis- teries, notably those at Rome, Florence, and Pisa, are fine structures. The baptistery at No- vara is one of the most curious buildings of this class, being largely composed of the remains of an ancient Roman temple, with an antique urn for a baptismal font. The introduction of the baptistery as a part of a church edifice dates from the 6th century. Ancient baptisteries were sometimes styled ^unariipia, either be- cause baptism was considered as a $uTiafi6<; or illumination, or because they were places where the catechumens were enlightened in the first