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children, who cannot exercise faith, he at one time held that God by His prevenient grace works
faith in the unconscious child, but later on professed ignorance on this point. Later Lutheran
theologians retained the idea of an infant-faith as a precondition for baptism, while others
conceived of baptism as producing such a faith immediately. This in some cases led on to the
idea that the sacrament works ex opere operato. Anabaptists cut the Gordian knot of Luther by
denying the legitimacy of infant baptism. They insisted on baptizing all applicants for admission
to their circle, who had received the sacrament in infancy, and did not regard this as a re-
baptism, but as the first true baptism. With them children had no standing in the Church. Calvin
and Reformed theology proceeded on the assumption that baptism is instituted for believers,
and does not work but strengthens the new life. They were naturally confronted with the
question as to how infants could be regarded as believers, and how they could be strengthened
spiritually, seeing that they could not yet exercise faith. Some simply pointed out that infants
born of believing parents are children of the covenant, and as such heirs of the promises of
God, including also the promise of regeneration; and that the spiritual efficacy of baptism is not
limited to the time of its administration, but continues through life. The Belgic Confession also
expresses that idea in these words: “Neither does this baptism avail us only at the time when
water is poured upon us, and received by us, but also through the whole course of our
life.”[Art. XXXIV.] Others went beyond this position and maintained that the children of the
covenant were to be regarded as presumptively regenerated. This is not equivalent to saying
that they are all regenerated, when they are presented for baptism, but that they are assumed
to be regenerated until the contrary appears from their lives. There were also a few who
regarded baptism as nothing more than the sign of an external covenant. Under the influence
of Socinians, Arminians, Anabaptists, and Rationalists, it has become quite customary in many
circles to deny that baptism is a seal of divine grace, and to regard it as a mere act of profession
on the part of man. In our day many professing Christians have completely lost the
consciousness of the spiritual significance of baptism. It has become a mere formality.
D. THE PROPER MODE OF BAPTISM.
Baptists are at variance with the rest of the Christian world in their position that dipping or
immersion, followed by emersion, is the only proper mode of baptism; and that this mode is
absolutely essential to baptism, because this rite is intended to symbolize the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the consequent death and resurrection of the subject of
baptism with Him. Two questions arise, therefore, and it is best to consider them in the
following order: (1) What is the essential thing in the symbolism of baptism? and (2) Is
immersion the only proper mode of baptism? This order is preferable, because the former
question is the more important of the two, and because the answer to the second will depend
in part on that given to the first.