BAPTISMAL REGENERATION
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
with some editorial comments by David Cloud, Way of Life Literature
"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not
shall be damned." Mark 16:15,16
In the verse preceding this text, our Lord Jesus Christ gives us some little insight
into the natural character of the apostles whom He selected to be the first ministers of
the Word. They were evidently men of like passions with us, and needed to be rebuked even
as we do. On the occasion when our Lord sent forth the eleven to preach the gospel to
every creature, He "appeared unto them as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with
their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him
after he was risen."
From this we may surely gather that the Lord was pleased to choose imperfect men for
the preaching of the Word. Of themselves they were weak in the very grace of faith in
which it was most important that they should excel. Faith is the conquering grace, and is
of all things the main requisite in the preacher of the Word; and yet the honored men who
were chosen to be the leaders of the divine crusade needed to be rebuked concerning their
unbelief.
WHY WAS THIS?
Why, my brethren, because the Lord has ordained evermore that we should have this
treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of
us. If you should find perfect minister, then might the praise and honor of his usefulness
accrue to man; but God is frequently pleased to select for eminent usefulness men
evidently honest and sincere, but who have some manifest infirmity by which all the glory
is cast off from them and laid upon Himself, and upon Himself alone.
Let it never be supposed that we who are God's ministers either excuse our faults or
pretend to perfection. We labor to walk in holiness, but we cannot claim to be all that we
wish to be. We do not base the claims of God's truth upon the spotlessness of our
characters, but upon the fact that it comes from Him. You have believed in spite of our
infirmities, and not because of our virtues. If, indeed, you had believed our word because
of our supposed perfection, your faith would stand in the excellency of man and not in the
power of God. We come unto you often with much trembling, sorrowing over our follies and
weaknesses; but we deliver to you God's Word, and we beseech you to receive it, not as
coming from us--poor, sinful mortals--but as proceeding from the eternal and thrice-holy
God.
If you so receive it, and by its own vital force are moved and stirred up towards God
and His ways, then is the work of the Word sure work, which it could not and would not be
if it rested in any way upon man.
Our Lord having thus given us an insight into the character of the persons whom He has
chosen to proclaim His truth, then goes on to deliver to the chosen champions their
commission for the holy war. I pray you mark the words with solemn care. He sums up in a
few words the whole of their work, and at the same time foretells the result of it,
telling them that some would doubtless believe and so be saved, and some on the other hand
would not believe and would most certainly, therefore, be damned; that is, condemned
forever to the penalties of God's wrath.
The lines containing the commission of our ascended Lord are certainly of the utmost
importance and demand devout attention and implicit obedience, not only from all who
aspire to the work of the ministry, but also from all who hear the message of mercy. A
clear understanding of these words is absolutely necessary to our success in the Master's
work; for if we do not understand the commission, it is not at all likely that we shall
discharge it aright. To alter these words is more than impertinence; it would involve the
crime of treason against the authority of Christ and the best interests of the souls of
men. Oh for grace to be very jealous here!
Wherever the apostles went they met with obstacles to the preaching of the Gospel and
the more open and effectual was the door of utterance, the more numerous were the
adversaries. These brave men so wielded the sword of the Spirit as to put to flight all
their foes; and this they did not by craft and guile, but by making a direct cut at the
error which impeded them.
Never did they dream for a moment of adapting the Gospel to the unhallowed tastes or
prejudices of the people, but at once directly and boldly they brought down with both
their hands the mighty sword of the Spirit upon the crown of the opposing error.
This morning in the name of the Lord of Hosts, my helper and defence, I shall attempt
to do the same; and if I should provoke some hostility--if I should through speaking what
I believe to be the truth lose the friendship of some and stir up the enmity of more--I
cannot help it. The burden of the Lord is upon me, and I must deliver my soul. I have been
loath enough to undertake the work, but I am forced to it by an awful and overwhelming
sense of solemn duty. As I am soon to appear before my Master's bar [the Judgement Seat of
Christ], I will this day, if ever in my life, bear my testimony for truth, and run all
risks. I am content to be cast out as evil if it must be so; but I cannot, I dare not,
hold my peace.
The Lord knoweth I have nothing in my heart but the purest love to the souls of those
whom I feel imperatively called to rebuke sternly in the Lord's name.
Among my hearers and readers, a considerable number will censure if not condemn me; but
I cannot help it. If I forfeit your love for truth's sake I am grieved for you, but I
cannot, I dare not, do otherwise. It is as much as my soul is worth to hold my peace any
longer; and whether you approve or not, I must speak out.
Did I ever court your approval? It is sweet to every one to be applauded, but if for
the sake of the comforts of respectability and the smiles of men any Christian minister
shall keep back a part of his testimony, his Master at the last shall require it at his
hands. This day, standing in the immediate presence of God, I shall speak honestly what I
feel, as the Holy Spirit shall enable me; and I shall leave the matter with you to judge
concerning it, as you will answer for that judgement at the last great day.
1.BAPTISM WITHOUT FAITH CANNOT SAVE
I find that the great error which we have to contend with throughout England (and it is
growing more and more) is one in direct opposition to my text. It is well known to you as
the doctrine of baptismal regeneration [being born again through baptism]. We will
confront this dogma with this assertion: baptism without faith saves no one.
The text says, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved," but
whether a man be baptized or not, it asserts that "he that believeth not shall be
damned." So baptism does not save the unbeliever; nay, it does not in any degree
exempt him from the common doom of all the ungodly. He may have baptism, or he may not
have baptism; but if he believeth not, he shall be in any case most surely damned. Let him
be baptized by immersion or sprinkling in his infancy or in his adult age, if he be not
led to put his trust in Jesus Christ--if he remains an unbeliever --then this terrible
doom is pronounced upon him, "He that believeth not shall be damned."
I am not aware that any Protestant church in England teaches the doctrine of baptismal
regeneration, except one, and that happens to be the corporation which with none too much
humility calls itself the Church of England. This very powerful sect does not teach this
merely through a section of its ministers, who might charitably be considered as evil
branches of the vine, but it openly, boldly and plainly declares this doctrine in her own
appointed standard, the Book of Common Prayer, and that in words so plain that while
language is the channel of conveying intelligible sense, no process short of violent
wresting from their plain meaning can ever make them say anything else.
Here are the words--we quote them from the Catechism which is intended for the
instruction of youth, and is naturaly very plain and simple, since it would be foolish to
trouble the youth with metaphysical refinements. The child is asked its name and then
questioned, "Who gave you this name?"
The child is then to answer: "My godfathers and godmothers in my baptism; wherein
I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of
heaven."
Is not this definite and plain enough? I prize the words for their candor; they could
not speak more plainly. Three times over the thing is put, lest there should be any doubt
in it. The word regeneration may, by some sort of juggling, be made to mean something
else, but here there can be no misunderstanding. The child supposedly is not only made
"a member of Christ"--union to Jesus is no small spiritual gift--but he is made
in baptism "the child of God" also; and, since, the rule is, "if children,
then heirs," he is also made "an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven."
NOTHING CAN BE MORE PLAIN.
I venture to say that, while honesty remains on earth, the meaning of these words will
not admit of dispute. It is clear as noonday that, as the rubric [a rule printed in a
church book] hath it, "Fathers, mothers, masters and dames are to cause their
children, servants, and apprentices," no matter how idle, giddy, or wicked they may
be, to learn the Catechism, and to say that in baptism they were made members of Christ
and children of God.
The form for the administration of this baptism is scarcely less plain and outspoken,
seeing that thanks are expressly returned unto Almighty God be- cause the person baptized
is regenerated: "Then shall the priest say, 'Seeing, now, dearly beloved brethren,
that this child is regenerate and grafted into the body of Christ's church, let us give
thanks unto Almighty God for these benefits; and with one accord make our prayers unto
him, that this child may lead the rest of his life according to this beginning.'"
Nor is this all; for, to leave no mistake, we have the words of the thanks- giving
prescribed : "Then shall the priest say, 'We yield thee hearty thanks, most merciful
Father, that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this infant with thy Holy Spirit, to
receive him for thine own child by adoption, and to incorporate him into thy holy
church.'"
This, then, is the clear and unmistakable teaching of a church calling itself
Protestant. I am not now dealing at all with the question of infant baptism. I have
nothing to do with that this morning. I am now considering the question of baptismal
regeneration, whether in adults or infants, or ascribed to sprinkling, pouring, or
immersion.
Here is a church which teaches every Lord's Day in the Sunday school--and should,
according to the church dogma--that all children were made members of Christ, children of
God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven when they were baptized! Here is a
professedly Protestant church, which, every time its minister goes to the font [baptismal
pool], declares that every person there receiving baptism is there and then
"regenerated and grafted into the body of Christ's church."
"But," I hear many good people exclaim, "there are many good clergymen
in the church who do not believe in baptismal regeneration!" To this my answer is
prompt: Why then, do they belong to a church which teaches that doctrine in the plainest
terms? I am told that many in the Church of England preach against her own teaching. I
know they do, and herein I rejoice in their enlightenment, but I question, gravely
question, their morality. To take oath that I sincerely assent and consent to a doctrine
which I do not believe would to my conscience appear little short of perjury, if not
absolute, downright perjury; but those who do so must be judged by their Lord.
For me to take money for defending what I do not believe--for me to take the money of a
church, and then to preach against what are most evidently its doctrines--I say for me to
do this (I shall not judge the peculiar views of other men), for me or for any other
simple, honest man to do so, would be an atrocity so great that, if I had perpetrated the
deed, I should consider myself out of the pale [boundaries] of truthfulness, honesty, and
common morality.
Sirs, when I accepted the office of minister of this congregation, I looked to see what
were your articles of faith. If I had not believed them I should not have accepted your
call; and when I change my opinions, rest assured that, as an honest man, I shall resign
the office; for how could I profess one thing in your declaration of faith, and quite
another thing in my own preaching? Would I accept your pay, and then stand up every Sunday
and talk against the doctrines of your standards?
For clergymen to swear or say they give their solemn assent and consent to what they do
not believe is one of the grossest pieces of immorality perpetrated in England, and is
most pestilential in its influence since it directly teaches men to lie whenever it seems
necessary to do so in order to get a living or increase their supposed usefulness. It is
in fact an open testimony from priestly lips, that at least in ecclesiastical matters,
falsehood may express truth, and truth itself is a mere unimportant non-entity.
I know of nothing more calculated to debauch the public mind than a lack of
straightforwardness in ministers; and when worldly men hear ministers denouncing the very
things which their own Prayer Book teaches, they imagine that words have no meaning among
church men; and that vital differences in religion are merely a tweedle-dee and
tweedle-dum [totally unimportant things], and that it does not much matter what a man does
believe so long as he is charitable towards other people.
If baptism does regenerate people, let the fact be preached with a trumpet tongue, and
let no man be ashamed of his belief in it. If this be be really their creed, by all means
let them have full liberty for its propagation.
My brethren, those are honest Churchmen in this matter who, subscribing to the Prayer
Book, believe in baptismal regeneration, and preach it plainly.
God forbid that we should censure those who believe that baptism saves the souls,
because they adhere to a church which teaches the same doctrine. In this way they are
honest men; and in England, wherever else, let them never lack a full toleration.
Let us oppose their teaching by all scriptural and intelligent means, but let us
respect their courage in plainly giving us their views. I hate their doctrine, but I love
their honesty; and as they speak but what they believe to be true, let them speak it out,
and the more clearly the better. Out with it, sirs, be it what it may, but do let us know
what you mean.
For my part, I love to stand foot to foot with an honest foeman. To open warfare, bold
and true hearts raise no objections but the ground of quarrel. It is rather covert enmity
[secret and subtle hatred and fighting] which we have most cause to fear and best reason
to loathe. That crafty kindness which inveigles [entices] me to sacrifice principle is the
serpent in the grass--deadly to the incautious wayfarer.
Where union and friendship are not cemented by truth, they are an unhallowed
confederacy. It is time that there should be an end put to the flirtations of honest men
with those who believe one way and swear another.
If men believe baptism works regeneration, let them say so; but if they do not believe
it in their hearts, and yet subscribe--and yet more, get their livings by subscribing to
words asserting it--let them find congenial associates among men who can equivocate and
shuffle, for honest men will neither ask nor accept their friendship.
THE BIBLICAL POSITION
We ourselves are not dubious on this point: we protest that persons are not saved by
being baptized. In such an audience as this, I am almost ashamed to go into the matter,
because you surely know better than to be misled.
Nevertheless, for the good of others we will drive at it. We hold that persons are not
saved by baptism; for we think, first of all, it seems out of character with the spiritual
religion which Christ came to teach, that He should make salvation depend upon mere
ceremony.
Judaism might possibly absorb the ceremony by way of type into her ordinances essential
to eternal life; for it was a religion of types and shadows. The false religions of the
heathen might inculcate salvation by a physical process, but Jesus Christ claims for His
faith that it is purely spiritual, and how could He connect regeneration with a peculiar
application of water?
I cannot see how it would be a spiritual Gospel, but I can see how it would be
mechanical if I were sent forth to teach that the mere dropping of so many drops upon the
brow, or even the plunging of a person in water, could save the soul. This seems to me to
be the most mechanical religion now existing, and to be on a par with the praying
windmills of Tibet, or the climbing up and down of Pilate's staircase to which Luther
subjected himself in the days of his darkness [while a Roman Catholic monk Luther tried to
find salvation through many such works].
The operation of water baptism does not appear even to my faith to touch the point
involved in the regeneration of the soul.
What is the necessary connection between water and the overcoming of sin? I cannot see
any connection which can exist between sprinkling or immersion, and regeneration, so that
the one shall necessarily be tied to the other in the absence of faith.
Used by faith, had God commanded it, miracles might be wrought; but without faith or
even consciousness, as in the case of babes, how can spiritual benefits be connected
necessarily with the sprinkling of water? If this be your teaching, that regeneration goes
with the baptism, I say that it looks like the teaching of a spurious [false] church,
which has craftily invented a mechanical salvation to deceive ignorant, sensual and
grovelling minds, rather than the teaching of the most profoundly spiritual of all
teachers, who rebuked Scribes and Pharisees for regarding outward rites as more important
than inward grace.
BAPTISMAL REGENERATION IS CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE
But it strikes me that a more forcible argument is that the dogma is not supported by
facts. Are all persons who are baptized children of God? Well, let us look at the divine
family. Let us mark their resemblance to their glorious Parent! Am I untruthful if I say
that thousands of those who were baptized in their infancy are now in our prisons? You can
ascertain the fact, if you please, by questioning prison authorities.
Do you believe that these men, many of whom have been living by plunder, felony,
burglary, or forgery, are regenerate? If so, the Lord deliver us from such regeneration.
Are these villains members of Christ? If so Christ has sadly altered since the day when He
was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. Has He really taken baptized
drunkards and harlots to be members of His body? Do you not revolt at the supposition?
What a detestable farce is that which is transacted at the open grave, when "a dear
brother" who has died drunk is buried in a "sure and certain hope of the
resurrection to eternal life," and the prayer that "when we shall depart this
life we may rest in Christ, as our hope is that this our brother does." He is
supposedly a regenerate brother, who, having defiled the village by constant uncleanness
and bestial drunkenness, died without a sign of repentance; and yet the professed minister
of God solemnly accords him funeral rites which are denied to unbaptized innocents, and
puts the reprobate into the earth in "sure and certain hope of the resurrection to
eternal life."
If old Rome in her worst days ever perpetrated a grosser piece of imposture that this,
I do not read things aright; if it does not require a Luther to cry down this hypocrisy as
much as Popery ever did, then I do not even know that twice two make four. Do we find--we
who baptize on profession of faith, and baptize by immersion in a way which is confessed
to be correct, though not allowed by some to be absolutely necessary to its validity--do
we, who baptize in the name of the Sacred Trinity as others do, do we find that baptism
regenerates?
WE DO NOT!
Neither in the righteous nor the wicked do we find regeneration wrought by baptism. We
have never met with one believer, however instructed in divine things, who could trace his
regeneration to his baptism. On the other hand, we confess it with sorrow but still with
no surprise, that we have seen those whom we have ourselves baptized, according to
apostolic precedent, go back into the world and wander into the foulest sin, and their
baptism has scarcely been so much as a restraint to them, because they have not believed
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Facts all show that whatever good there may be in baptism, it certainly does not make a
man "a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of
heaven," or else many thieves, whoremongers, drunkards, fornicators, and murderers
are members of Christ, the children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven.
Facts, brethren, are dead against this popish doctrine; and facts are stubborn things.
THE BAPTISMAL COVENANT IS UNSCRIPTURAL
Yet further, I am persuaded that the performance-styled baptism by the Anglican Prayer
Book is not at all likely to regenerate and save. How is the thing done ? One is very
curious to know when one hears of an operation which makes men members of Christ, children
of God, and inheritors of the Kingdom of heaven, how the thing is done. It must itself be
a holy thing, truthful in all its details, and edifying in every portion.
Now, we will suppose we have a company gathered round the water, be it more or less,
and the process of regeneration is about to be performed. We will suppose them all to be
godly people. The clergyman officiating is a profound believer in the Lord Jesus, and the
father and mother are exemplary Christians, and the godfathers and godmothers are all
gracious persons. We will suppose this; it is a supposition fraught with charity, but it
may be correct. What are these godly people supposed to say ?
Let us look to the Prayer Book. The clergyman is supposed to tell these people,
"Ye have heard also that our Lord Jesus Christ hath promised in His Gospel to grant
all these things that ye have prayed for: which promise He, for His part, will most surely
keep and perform. Wherefore, after this promise made by Christ, this infant must also
faithfully, for his part, promise by you that are his sureties (until he come of age to
take it upon himself) that he will renounce the devil and all his works, and constantly
believe God's Holy Word, and obediently keep his commandments." This small child is
to promise to do this; or, more truly, others are to be taken upon themselves to promise,
and even vow that he shall do so.
But we must not break the quotation, and therefore let us return to the Book: "I
demand, therefore, dost thou, in the name of this child, renounce the devil and all his
works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the flesh, so
that thou wilt not follow, nor be led by them ?" Answer: "I renounce them
all."
That is to say, on the name and behalf of this tender infant about to be baptized,
these godly people, these enlightened Christian people, these who know better, who are not
dupes, who know all the while that they are promising impossibilities, renounce on behalf
of this child what they find it very hard to renounce for themselves--"all covetous
desires of the world and the carnal desires of the flesh, so that they will not follow nor
be led by them."
How can they harden their faces to utter such a false promise, such a mockery of
renunciation, before the presence of the Father Almighty ? Might not angels weep as they
hear the awful promise uttered? Then in the presence of High Heaven they profess on behalf
of this child that he steadfastly believes the creed, when they know, or might pretty
shrewdly judge, that the little creature is not a steadfast believer in anything, much
less in Christ's going down into hell.
Mark, they do not say merely that the babe shall believe the creed, but they affirm
that he does; for they answer in the child's name, "All this I steadfastly
believe." Not "we" steadfastly believe, but "I", the little baby
there, unconscious of all their professions and confessions of faith.
In answer to the question, "Wilt thou be baptized in this faith ?" they reply
for the infant, "That is my desire." Surely the infant has no desire in the
matter, or at the least no one has been authorized to declare any desires on his behalf.
But this is not all; for then these godly, intelligent people next promise on behalf of
the infant that "he shall obediently keep all God's holy will and commandments, and
walk in the same all the days of his life."
Now, I ask you, dear friends, you who know what true religion means, can you walk in
all God's holy commandments yourselves? Dare you make this day a vow on your own part,
that you would renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanities of this wicked
world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh? Dare you, before God, make such a promise as
that? You desire such holiness; you earnestly strive after it; but you look for it from
God's promise, not from your own. If you dare make such vows, I doubt your knowledge of
your own hearts and of the spirituality of God's law.
But even if you could do this for yourself, would you venture to make such a promise
for any other person?--for the best-born infant on earth? Come, brethren, what say you? Is
not your reply ready and plain? There is not room for two opinions among men determined to
observe truth in all their ways and words.
I can understand a simple, ignorant rustic, who has never learned to read, doing all
this at the command of the priest and under the eye of a squire.
I can even understand persons doing this when the Reformation was in its dawn and men
had newly crept out of the darkness of Popery; but I cannot understand gracious, godly
people standing at the font to insult the All- gracious Father with vows and promises
framed upon a fiction, and involving practical falsehood. How dare intelligent believers
in Christ to utter words which they know in their conscience to be wickedly aside from
truth ?
When I shall be able to understand the process by which gracious men so accommodate
their consciences, even then I shall have a confirmed belief that the God of truth never
did and never will confirm a spiritual blessing of the highest order in connection with
the utterance of such false promises and untruthful vows. My brethren, does it not strike
you that declarations so fictitious are not likely to be connected with a new birth
wrought by the Spirit of truth?
I have not done with this. I must take another case, and suppose the sponsors and
others to be ungodly; and that is no difficult supposition, for many cases we know that
godfathers and parents have no more thought of religion that that idolatrous hollowed
stone around which they gather [the baptismal font].
When these sinners have taken their places, what are they about to say?
Why, they are about to make the solemn vows I have already recounted in your hearing!
Totally irreligious they are, but yet they promise for the baby what they never did and
never thought of doing for themselves--they promise on behalf of this child, "that he
will renounce the devil and all his works, and constantly believe God's Holy Word, and
obediently keep His commandments."
My brethren, do not think I speak severely here. Really, I think there is something
here to make mockery for devils.
Let every honest man lament that ever God's church should tolerate such a thing as
this, and that there should be found gracious people who will feel grieved because I, in
all kindness of heart, rebuked the atrocity. [Amen!] Unregenerate sinners promising for a
poor babe that he shall keep all God's holy commandments, which they themselves wantonly
break every day! How can anything but the longsuffering of God endure this ? What! not
speak against it? The very stones in the street might cry out against the infamy of wicked
men and women promising that another should renounce the devil and all his works, while
they themselves serve the devil and do his works with greediness!
As a climax to all this, I am asked to believe that God accepts that wicked promise
and, as the result of it, regenerates that child. You cannot believe in regeneration by
this operation, whether saints or sinners are the performers. Take them to be godly, then
they are wrong for doing what their conscience must condemn; view them as ungodly, and
they are wrong for promising what they know they cannot perform. In neither case can God
accept such worship, much less infallibly append regeneration to such a baptism as this?
IT HAS A HARMFUL, DAMNING INFLUENCE
But you will say, "Why do you cry out against it?" I cry out against it be-
cause I believe that baptism does not save the soul, and that the preaching of it has a
wrong evil influence upon men. We meet with persons who, when we tell them that they must
be born again, assure us that they were born again when they were baptized. The number of
these persons is increasing, fearfully increasing, until all grades of society are misled
by this belief.
How can any man stand up in his pulpit and say "Ye must be born again" to his
congregation when he has already assured them, by his own "unfeigned assent and
consent" to it, that they are themselves, every one of them, born again in baptism?
What has he to do with them? Why, my dear friends, the Gospel then has no voice; they have
rammed this ceremony down its throat, and it cannot speak to rebuke sin.
The man who has been baptized or sprinkled says, "I am saved; I am a member of
Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. Who are you, that you
should rebuke me? Call me to repentance? Call me to a new life? What better life can I
have? I am a member of Christ--a part of Christ's body. What! rebuke me? I am a child of
God. Cannot you see it in my face? No matter what my walk and conversation is, I am a
child of God.
Moreover, I am an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. It is true I drink and swear, and
all that, but you know I am an inheritor of heaven; for when I die, though I live in
constant sin, you will put me in the grave, and tell everybody that I died 'in sure and
certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life'."
Now, what can be the influence of such preaching as this upon our beloved England--upon
my dear and blessed country? What but the worst of ills? If I loved her not, but loved
myself most, I might be silent here; but loving England, I cannot and dare not be silent.
And having soon to render an account before my God, whose servant I hope I am, I must free
myself from this evil, as well as from every other, or else on my head may be the doom of
souls.
IT IS A STEPPING STONE TO ROMANISM
Here let me bring in another point. It is a most fearful fact, that, in no age since
the Reformation has Popery made such fearful strides in England as during the last few
years. I had comfortably believed that Popery was only feeding itself upon foreign
subscriptions, upon a few titled perverts, and imported monks and nuns. I dreamed that its
progress was not real. In fact, I have often smiled at the alarm of many of my brethren at
the progress of Popery. But, my dear friends, we have been mistaken, grievously mistaken.
If you will read a valuable paper in the magazine called "Christian Work,"
those of you who are acquainted with it will be perfectly startled at its revelations.
This great city is now covered with a network of monks and priests and sisters of mercy,
and the conversions made are not by ones or twos, but by scores, till England is being
regarded as the most hopeful spot for Romish missionary enterprise in the whole world. At
the present moment there is not a Roman mission which is succeeding to anything like the
extent which the English mission is. I covet not their money, I despise their sophistries,
but I marvel at the way in which they gain their funds for the erection of their
ecclesiastic buildings.
It really is an alarming matter to see so many of our countrymen going off to that
superstition which as a nation we once rejected, and which it was supposed we should never
again receive. Popery is making advances such as you would never believe, though a
spectator should tell it to you. Close to your very doors, perhaps even in your own
houses, you may have evidence ere long of what a march Romanism is making.
And to what is it to be ascribed? I say, with every ground of probability, that there
is no marvel that Popery should increase when you have two things to make it grow. First
of all, the falsehood of those who profess a faith which they do not believe, which is
quite contrary to the honesty of the Romanist, who does through evil report and good
report hold his faith.
Then you have second, this form of error known as baptismal regeneration, and commonly
called Puseyism which is not only Puseyism, but Church-of- Englandism, because it is in
the Prayer Book, as plainly as words can ex- press it. [Pusey was the leader of the Oxford
movement, a movement which sought to bring the Anglican Church closer to the Roman
Catholic Church] We have this baptismal regeneration preparing stepping stones to make it
easy for men to go to Rome.
I have but to open my eyes a little to forsee Romanism rampant everywhere in the
future, since its germs are spreading everywhere in the present.
[What an amazing prophecy this was, spoken, as it was, 120 years ago. Today we indeed
see Romanism rampant everywhere! Oh, that preachers in this twentieth century could see as
clearly as this nineteenth century man could see.] In one of our courts of legislature,
just last Tuesday, the Lord Chief Justice showed his superstition by speaking of "the
risk of the calamity of children dying unbaptized!" Among Dissenters [another
movement in the Church of England in Spurgeon's day] you see a veneration for structures
[church buildings], a modified belief in the sacredness of places, which is all idolatry;
for to believe in the sacredness of anything but of God and of His own Word is to idolize,
whether it is to believe in the sacredness of the men, the priests, or in the sacredness
of the bricks and mortar, or of the linen, or what not, which you may use in the worship
of God.
I see this coming up everywhere--a belief in ceremony, a trusting in ceremony, a
veneration for altars, fonts, and church buildings--a veneration so profound that we must
not venture upon a remark, or straightway we are considered chief of sinners! Here is the
esence and soul of Popery, peeping up under the garb of a decent respect for sacred
things.
It is impossible but that the Church of Rome must spread, when we who are the watchdogs
of the fold are silent, and others are gently and smoothly turfing the road, and making as
soft and smooth as possible, that converts may travel down to the nethermost hell of
Popery.
We want John Knox back again. Do not talk to me of mild and gentle men, of soft manners
and squeamish words; we want the fiery Knox; and even though his vehemence should
"ding our pulpits into blads," it were well if he did but rouse our hearts to
action. We want Luther, to tell men the truth unmistakably, in homely phrase. The velvet
has got into our ministers' mouths of late, but we must unrobe ourselves of soft raiment,
and truth must be spoken, and nothing but truth; for all lies which have dragged millions
down to Hell, I look upon this as being one of the most atrocious -- that in a Protestant
church there should be found those who swear that baptism saves the soul. Call a man a
Baptist, or a Presbyterian, or a Dissenter, or a Churchman--that is nothing to me; if he
says that baptism saves a soul, out with him, out with him. He states what God never
taught, what the Bible never laid down, and what ought never to be maintained by men who
profess that the Bible, and the whole Bible, is the religion of Protestants.
I have spoken thus much, and there will be some who will say, spoken thus much
bitterly. Very well; be it so. Medicine is often bitter, but it shall work well, and the
physician is not bitter because his medicine is so, or if he be accounted so, it will not
matter, so long as the patient is cured.
At all events, it is no business of the patient whether the physician is bitter or not;
his business is with his own soul's health. There is the truth, and I have told it to you.
If there should be one among you, or if there should be among the readers of this
sermon when it is printed, who is resting on baptism, or resting upon ceremonies of any
sort, I do beseech you, shake off this venomous faith into the fire as Paul did the viper
which fastened on his hand. I pray you do not rest on baptism.
"No outward forms can make you clean: The leprosy lies deep within."
I do beseech you to remember that you must have a new heart and a right spirit, and
baptism cannot give you these. You must turn from your sins and follow after Christ. You
must have such a faith as shall make your life holy and your speech devout, or else you
have not the faith of God's elect, and into God's kingdom you shall never come. I pray you
never rest upon this wretched and rotten foundation, this deceitful invention of
antichrist. Oh! may God save you from it, and bring you to seek the true Rock of refuge
for weary souls.
I come with much brevity, and I hope with much earnestness, in the second place, to say
that,
II. FAITH IS THE INDISPENSABLE REQUISITE TO SALVATION
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be
damned."
Faith is the indispensable requisite for salvation. What is this believing?
Believing consists in two things. First, there is the believing of the testimony of God
concerning His Son who came into the world and was made flesh; that He lived on earth for
men's sake; that after having spent His life in holiness, He was offered up a propitiation
for sin; that upon the cross He there and then made expiation--so made expiation for the
sins of the world that "whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have
everlasting life."If you would be saved, you must believe this testimony which God
gives concerning His own Son.
Having received this testimony, the next thing is to trust in it. Indeed, here lies, I
think, the essence of saving faith: to rest yourself for eternal salvation upon the
atonement and the righteousness of Jesus Christ, to have done once for all with all
reliance upon feeling or upon doings, and to trust in Jesus Christ and in what He did for
your salvation.
This is faith: receiving of the truth of Christ: first knowing it to be true, and then
acting upon that belief. Such a faith as this--such real faith as this--makes the man
henceforth hate sin. How can he love the thing which made the Savior bleed? It makes him
live in holiness. How can he but seek to honor that God who has loved him so much as to
give His Son to die for him?
This faith is spiritual in its nature and effects; it operates upon the entire man; it
changes his heart, enlightens his judgement, and subdues his will. It subjects him to
God's supremacy, and makes him receive God's Word as a little child, willing to receive
the truth upon the lease edict of the Divine One. It sacrifices his intellect, and makes
him willing to be taught God's Word. It cleanses within; it makes clean the inside of the
cup and platter, and it beautifies without. It makes clean the exterior conduct and the
inner motive, so that the man, if his faith be true and real, becomes henceforth another
man to what he ever was before.
Now that such a faith as this should save the soul, is, I believe, reasonable; yea,
more, it is certain, for we have seen men saved by it in this very house of prayer. We
have seen the harlot lifted out of the Stygian [dark and dreadful] ditch of her sin, and
made an honest woman. We have seen the thief reclaimed. We have known the drunkard, in
hundreds of instances, to be sober. We have observed faith to work such a change that all
the neighbours who have seen it have gazed and admired, even though they hated it. We have
seen faith deliver men in the hour of temptation, and help them to consecrate themselves
and their substance to God. We have seen, and hope still to see yet more widely, deeds of
heroic consecration to God and displays of bearing witness against the common current of
the times, which have proved to us that faith does affect the man, does save the soul.
My hearers, if you would be saved, you must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me
urge you with all my heart to look nowhere but to Christ crucified for your salvation. Oh!
if you rest upon any ceremony, though it be not baptism--if you rest upon any other than
Jesus Christ--you must perish, as surely as this Book is true. I pray you believe not
every spirit, but though I, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other doctrine than this,
let him be accursed. For this, and this alone, is the soul- saving truth which shall
regenerate a man--"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."
Away from all the ritualism, wax candles, and millinery [religious garments made of
silk] of Puseyism! Away from all the gorgeous pomp of Popery! Away from the fonts of
Church-of-Englandism! We bid you turn your eyes to the naked cross, where hangs as a
bleeding man the Son of God.
"None but Jesus, none but Jesus Can do helpless sinners good."
There is life in a look at the Crucified; there is life at this moment for you.
Whosoever among you can believe in the great love of God towards man in Christ Jesus, you
shall be saved. If you can believe that our great Father desireth us to come to Him--that
He panteth for us--that He calleth us every day with the loud voice of His Son's wounds;
if you can believe now that in Christ there is pardon for transgressions past, and
cleansing for years to come; if you can trust Him to save you, you have already the marks
of regeneration. The work of salvation is commenced in you, so far as the Spirit's work is
concerned; it is finished in you, so far as Christ's work is concerned.
Oh! I would plead with you, lay hold on Jesus Christ. This is the foundation; build on
it. This is the rock of refuge; fly to it. I pray you fly to it now. Life is short; time
speeds with eagle's wing. Swift as the dove pursued by the hawk, fly, fly, poor sinner, to
God's dear Son. Now touch the hem of His garment; now look into that dear face, once
marred with sorrows for you; look into those eyes, once shedding tears for you. Trust Him,
and if you find Him false, then you must perish; but false you never will find Him while
this Word standeth true, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he
that believeth not shall be damned."
God give us this vital, essential faith, without which there is no salvation. Baptized,
re-baptized, circumcised, confirmed, fed upon sacraments, and buried in consecrated
ground--ye shall all perish except ye believe in Him. The Word is express and plain; he
that believeth not may plead his baptism, may plead anything he likes, "But he that
believeth not shall be damned." For such a one there is nothing but the wrath of God,
the flames of Hell, eternal perdition. So Christ declares, and so must it be.
But now to close, there are some who say, "Ah! but baptism is in the text; where
do you put that?" That shall be another point and then we have done.
III. THE BAPTISM IN THE TEXT IS ONE EVIDENTLY CONNECTED WITH FAITH
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." It strikes me there is no
supposition here that anybody would be baptized who did not believe; or if there be such a
supposition, it is very clearly laid down that his baptism will be of no use to him, for
he will be damned, baptized or not, unless he believes.
The baptism of the text seems to me, my brethren--if you differ from me I am sorry for
it, but I must hold my opinion, and out with it--it seems to me that baptism is connected
with, nay, directly follows belief. I would not insist too much upon the order of the
words; but for other reasons, I think that baptism should follow believing. At any rate,
it effectually avoids the error we have been combating.
A man knows that he is saved by believing in Christ does not, when he is baptized, lift
his baptism into a saving ordinance. In fact, he is the very best protester against that
mistake, because he holds that he has no right to be baptized until he is saved. He bears
a testimony against baptismal regeneration because he professed to already have been a
regenerate person before he was baptized.
Brethren, the baptism here meant is a baptism connected with faith, and to this baptism
I will admit there is very much ascribed in Scripture. Into that question I am not going;
but I do find some very remarkable passages in which baptism is spoken of very strongly. I
find this: "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of
the Lord." (Acts 22:16) I find similar statements elsewhere.
I know that believer's baptism itself does not wash away sin, yet it is so much the
outward sign and emblem of it to the believer that the thing visible may be described as
the thing signified. Just as our Savior said, "This is my body," when it was not
His body, but bread; yet, inasmuch as it represented His body, it was fair and right
according to the usage of language to say, "Take, eat, this is my body." And so,
a baptism to the believer represents the washing of sin; not that it is actually so, but
that it is to saved souls the outward symbol and representation of what is done by the
power of the Holy Spirit in the man who believes in Christ.
What connection has this baptism with faith? I think it has just this:
baptism is the avowal of faith. The man has already through faith become Christ's
soldier, but now in baptism he puts on his regimentals [military uniform]. The man
believed in Christ, but his faith remained between God and his own soul. In baptism he
says to the baptizer, "I believe in Jesus Christ." He says to the church,
"I unite with you as a believer in the common truths of Christianity." He saith
to the onlooker, "Whatever you may do, as for me, I will serve the Lord." It is
the avowal of his faith.
Next, we think baptism is also to the believer a testimony of his faith. In baptism he
tells the world what he believes. "I am about," saith he, "to be buried in
water. I believe that the Son of God was metaphorically [symbolically] baptized in
suffering; I believe He was literally dead and buried." To rise again out of the
water shows to all men that the one being baptized believes in the resurrection of Christ.
There is showing forth in the Lord's Supper of Christ's death, and there is a showing
forth in baptism of Christ's burial and resurrection.
It is a type, a sign, a symbol, a mirror to the world--a looking glass, in which
religion is as it were reflected. We say to the onlooker, when he asks what is the meaning
of this ordinance, "We mean to set forth our faith that Christ was buried, and that
He rose again from the dead; and we avow this death and resurrection to be the ground of
our trust."
Again, baptism is also Faith's taking her proper place. It is, or should be, one of her
first acts of obedience. Reason looks at baptism and says, "Perhaps there is nothing
in it; it cannot do me any good."
"True," says Faith, "and therefore I will observe it. If it did me some
good, my selfishness would make me do it; but inasmuch as to my sense there is no good in
it, since I am bidden by my Lord thus to fulfill all righteousness, it is my first public
declaration that a thing which looks to be unreasonable and seems to be unprofitable,
being commanded by God, is law to me. If my Master had told me to pick up six stones and
lay them in a row I would do it, without demanding of Him, "What good will it
do?" "Cui bono" [a Latin expression meaning "what benefit"] is no
fit question for soldiers of Jesus. The very simplicity and apparent uselessness of the
ordinance should make the believer say, "Therefore I do it because it becomes the
better test to me of my obedience to my Master."
When you tell your servant to do something, and he cannot comprehend it, if he turns
round and says, "Please, sir what for?" you are quite clear that he hardly
understands the relation between master and servant. So when God tells me to do a thing,
if I say, "What for?" I cannot have taken the place which Faith ought to occupy,
which is that of simple obedience to whatever the Lord hath said. Baptism is commanded,
and Faith obeys because it is commanded, and thus takes her proper place.
One more, baptism is a refreshment to faith. While we are made up of body and soul as
we are, we shall need some means by which the body shall sometimes be stirred up to
co-work with the soul. In the Lord's Supper my faith is assisted by the outward and
visible sign. In the bread and in the cup I see no superstitious mystery; I see nothing
but bread and the fruit of the vine, but in those elements I do see an assistant to my
faith.
Through the sign my faith sees the thing signified.
So in baptism there is no mysterious efficacy in the baptistry or in the water. We
attach no reverence to the one or to the other; but we do see in the water and in the
baptism such an assistance as brings home to our faith most manifestly our being buried
with Christ, and our rising again in newness of life with Him. Explain baptism thus, dear
friends, and there is no fear of Popery rising out of it. Explain it thus, and we cannot
suppose any soul will be led to trust to it; but it takes its proper place among the
ordinances of God's house.
To lift it up in the other way and say men are saved by it--ah! my friends, how much of
mischief that one falsehood has done and may do, eternity alone will disclose. Would to
God another George Fox would spring up, in all his quaint simplicity and rude honesty, to
rebuke the idol worship of this age; to rail at their holy bricks and mortar, holy
lecterns, holy altars, holy surplices [the white robes worn by clergy and choirs in
churches such as the Anglican], right reverend fathers, and I know not what. These things
are not holy. God is holy; His truth is holy.
Holiness belongs not to the carnal and the material, but to the spiritual.
Oh that a trumpet tongue would cry out against the superstition of the age!
I cannot, as George Fox did, give up baptism and the Lord's Supper [Fox founded the
Quaker, or Society of Friends]; but I would infinitely sooner do it, counting it the
smaller mistake of the two, than perpetrate and assist in perpetrating the uplifting of
baptism and the Lord's Supper out of their proper place. Oh my beloved friends, the
comrades of my struggles and witnessings, cling to the salvation of faith, and abhor the
salvation of priests.
If I am not mistaken, the day will come when we shall have to fight for a simple
spiritual religion far more than we do now. We have been cultivating friendship with those
who are either unscriptural in creed or else dishonest; who either believe baptismal
regeneration, or profess that they do, and swear before God that they do when they do not.
The time is come when there shall be no more truce of parley between God's servants and
timeservers. The time is come when those who follow God must follow God, and those who try
to trim and dress themselves and find out a way which is pleasing to the flesh and gentle
to carnal desires, must go their way. A great winnowing-time is coming to God's saints,
and we shall be clearer one of these days than we now are from union with those who are
upholding Popery, under the pretence of teaching Protestantism. We shall be clear, I say,
of those who teach salvation by baptism, instead of salvation by the blood of our blessed
Master, Jesus Christ.
Oh, may the Lord gird up your loins! Believe me, it is no trifle. It may be that on
this ground Armageddon shall be fought. Here shall come the great battle between Christ
and His saints on the one hand, and the world and forms and ceremonies on the other. If we
are overcome here, there may be years of blood and persecution, and tossing to and fro
between darkness and light; but if we are brave and bold, and flinch not here, but stand
to God's truth, the future of England may be bright and glorious. Oh for a truly reformed
Church of England, and a godly race to maintain it!
[O Timothy Editor's note: It seems that Brother Spurgeon, a Baptist preacher, got
carried with patriotism at this point in his message! If the Church of England were indeed
truly reformed according to the New Testament pattern it would cease entirely to be the
Church of England!]
The world's future depends on it under God; for in proportion as truth is marred at
home, truth is maimed abroad. Out of any system which teaches salvation by baptism must
spring infidelity which the false church already seems willing to nourish and foster
beneath her wing. God save this favored land from the brood of her own established
religion. Brethren, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and be
not afraid of any sudden fear nor calamity when it cometh; for he who trusteth to the
Lord, mercy shall compass him about, and he who is faithful to God and Christ shall hear
it said at the last, "Well done, good and faithful servant:enter thou into the joy of
the Lord."
May the Lord bless this word, for Christ's sake.
[O TIMOTHY EDITOR'S NOTE: It is with fear and trembling
that we have read this amazing sermon, preached 120 years ago. All of the prophecies made
by Mr. Spurgeon have been frightfully fulfilled. The world has indeed become full of
Romanism. Protestantism is indeed joining hands with Romanism. Just within the last two
years the pope has, for the first time in history, visited Britain and was received with
wild enthusiasm. England has been utterly corrupted in its Christianity and has, since
Spurgeon's day, fallen from its exalted place among the nations to become a weak, broken
kingdom.
Let other nations take warning. Proverbs 11:11 tells us
plainly that "by the blessing of the upright the city is exalted." When those
who call themselves Christians live in disobedience to the Bible, the entire nation
suffers. On the other hand, when Christians live godly, obedient, zealous lives--when the
churches are faithful to the New Testament--God blesses the entire nation for their sake.
The history of the past 1900 years tells us that the destruction of a nation quickly
follows when its Christians become apostate from the will of God. Germany is gone. England
is gone. America follows rapidly along the same awful path.
It is very probable that World War II was a judgment upon
an apostate Christianity in Europe. Every eastern European country now under the heel of
communism was first the home of an apostate Christianity. Russia is a key example. The
dominate Christianity of Russia prior to the October Revolution of 1917 was the Greek
Orthodox Church--a totally false Christianity. The same is true for Poland,
Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia. In all these countries, the
dominant Christianity before the takeover by communism was either Roman Catholicism or
Greek Orthodox, both of which are apostate and false.
May God indeed raise up fiery preachers of the holy Word
of God to call Christians to repentance and obedience. God, give us men! If they were
needed in Spurgeon's day, how much more today.] (O Timothy, Volume 1, Issue 6, 1984, 1219
N. Harns Rd., Oak Harbor, WA 98277. (360) 675-8311).
Visit the O' Timothy home page of
David Cloud for an outstanding series of articles for Bible-believers today.
For other articles on the heresy of
baptismal regeneration, refer to:
Heresies
Exposed - Baptismal Regeneration
Baptismal Regeneration and the
Use of Vow
Baptismal
Regeneration
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