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present shall dip or pour," &c. In 1603, however, the Puritan divines at the Hampton Court Conference objected strongly to these words, as giving scope to the laxity of both Roman and Protestant sectaries, and they were accordingly changed to their present form, viz. "The Minister of the parish, or any other Lawful Minister;" Archbishop Whitgift and others declaring that this had always been their meaning. (Cardwell, p. 174.)

16. But even if these words did sanction Lay Baptism, still it was only as (a) an exceptional act (6) done by Church authority (c) in extreme peril (d) by a loyal Churchman acting as Bishop's deputy; it being utterly impossible to stretch one of them that be present" (in the natural course of things) so as to include, much less, give particular authority to, a Dissenting Preacher-not dreamed of when the Rubric was made—not a member of the family, but summoned expressly for the occasion, when the "Lawful Minister" of that or some other adjacent parish might just as readily have been called in.

17. The word "Lawful" refers of course to the ancient law of the CHURCH, not the modern law of the STATE. For whereas the Legislature in former days consisted of Churchmen only, it now includes "Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics," and therefore does not hesitate to legalize Adulterous Marriages and other violations of the law of God.

18. The law of the Church on this point may be gathered very clearly from the Ordination office and Articles 23, 26, 36, 37; according to which a "Lawful Minister" means one who has been ordained by a Bishop, and thus admitted into the line of Apostolic Succession, which alone can convey to men now that Royal Commission or warrant to "go and do this," which Christ gave 1800 years ago.

19. Our Office of Private Baptism makes this still more plain. When the child is brought to Church for public recognition (as a convalescent recruit appears on parade for his brother soldiers to see him and be assured that he was properly enlisted in private), the Minister of the Parish is to "certify" the congregation, that to his own knowledge as officiant, the three essentials of Baptism were duly supplied. If, however, in his absence, some "other Lawful Minister" was procured to officiate, the first interrogation is about this strange Priest or Deacon -who he was, &c. When his "Lawful" identity has been fully established, and the primary question of the Minister" is thus satisfactorily settled, then, and not till then, is “further” inquiry to be made about the " Matter" and the "Words," which are (not the essentials, but) "essential parts of Baptism," equally with the "Lawful Minister" himself.

20. "Uncertain answers" about the Lawful Minister, just as about the Lawful Matter and Words, are provided for by the Conditional Rubric at the end.

21. Canons 68 and 69 (A.D. 1603) take it for granted that if the "lawful Ministers" neglect their duty, children will die unbaptized.

22. There are no instances of "Lay Baptism” properly so called, in the Early Church, for several centuries. The historical cases that are cited as such, were baptisms ministered by real Priests who had received true Ordination, but from heretical Bishops like Colenso and Cummins; and were consequently counted nothing more than mere Laymen by all those who held that Orders were invalidated by Heresy.

23. It is noteworthy, that in the ancient con

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troversies, the point in Baptism, but Ordination. agreed, that if the men Ordained by heretical Bishops did not become Priests but remained Laymen still, their Baptism, being only Lay Baptism, would be ipso facto null and void, and must be rectified by a new ministration of unquestioned Priestly character.

24. But in any case, all this has no reference to Baptism by Dissenting Preachers, for the simple reason that there were none such during the first 1,500 years of the Christian era; no one having ever dreamed of getting up a "Religious Club" without Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, until the Reformation.

25. The hackneyed "Factum valet” quotation is also quite inappropriate, since it begs the question by coolly assuming the "Factum," which is the very point in debate! And the usual illustration of "childbirth out of wedlock" is equally inapplicable, inasmuch as no Divine law was ever enacted making Marriage an "essential " preliminary to Child-bearing.

26. Nor is it possible that Confirmation can remedy a Baptism that is radically defective. For the two things are totally distinct. A tree must be planted before it can be propped; a wall must be built before it can be buttressed; a child must be born before it can be strengthened; and Confirmation supplies only the strength, the buttress, and the prop. Nothing but Baptism can supply the planting, the building, the birth. And the Laying on of hands" in the Early Church, that is often adduced in support of the remedial theory, was not "Confirmation" at all, but Reconciliation"; being the same kind of act as our Bishops employ now, when

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receiving a convert from Rome into the English branch of the Catholic Church.

27. Deserters or Rebels may admit recruits to their own corps, but not to the Royal Army. Oddfellows can make new Oddfellows, but not Freemasons; and vice versa. Similarly, a Dissenting Preacher, by his quasi Baptism, adds new members, not to the "One, Holy, Catholic Church of Christ," but to his own little Sect or Club, and to that only; so that persons "baptized" by a Methodist or Independent, for example, become simple Methodists or Independents, and nothing more.

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28. At first glance, it seems singularly anomalous, that Nonconformity should ape the very thing from which it professes to differ most widely, so that sects or clubs become "Churches," and Preachers become Reverends," &c. ; yet nothing is more natural, when we bear in mind Man's instinctive belief in the "Sacerdotal Principle," diffused and maintained as it has been from Patriarchal times, among not only Christianized nations, but the remotest tribes of Heathenism. For Dissent, like Mahometanism or Mormonism, is purely Human in its origin, and knows well that it has no Divine warrant, but is obliged, nevertheless, to_pretend to it, in order to gain adherents. Brummagem metal" would not imitate Silver, unless the intrinsic worth of silver were generally acknowledged. Hence Dissent imitates the Church, for the sake of gaining credit with the world for what the Church has, and itself has not; thus unconsciously testifying to the fact that the Church is right, and itself wrong, after all!

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29. As the whole value of Sacraments depends upon the promise of Christ's Presence with the Minister, and as that promise was certainly not

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given to Laymen, much less to "Imitation Par," the Sacraments in Dissenting hands must of necessity be merely "Imitation Sacraments"-just as fictitious as the "Ministers" themselves, i.e., no Sacraments at all, and as much a mockery and delusion as Grace without meat, a Shell without a kernel, or a Knife without a blade.

30. In short, the Baptism of Dissenting Preachers, who are merely Laymen, acting not only without, but in direct opposition to, the authority of Christ's Church, can at best be placed no higher than the Jewish Baptism of Proselytes in the old Testament, or S. John's Baptism in the new; ie., it is "only a badge of religious profession" made in public, which introduces the baptized persons into the baptizer's Association, but conveys no more Divine grace or strength to keep the vow, than a Temperance Pledge does at the present moment; and must needs, therefore, be superseded at the first opportunity, by the only true baptism of the Holy Catholic Church, which alone can convey mission of sins" to the recipient. (Acts xix. 3-5.)

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