Upholding the Efficacy of the Sacrament of Baptism

Bishop Henry U. Onderdonk was the second Bishop of Pennsylvania after the great William White. Onderdonk was a high-churchman of the pre-Tractarian, Hobartian sort. (Hobart was a Philadelphian, and also a student of William White.)

Onderdonk in 1818 wrote an essay in defense of the concept of Baptismal regeneration - defending that which the Book of Common Prayer has always taught - namely - that in concert with ancient practice and apostolic tradition - that the sacramental baptism by water and the Holy Spirit is synonymous with the 'new birth' (regeneration) by which persons enter into the Body of Christ. (Click to read my long thesis on the baptismal regeneration controversy in Anglicanism.)

He writes:

We are "baptised into one body by the Spirit," (1 Cor. 12: 13.) Into what "one body?" the (mystical body of Christ; that is, the church. And there is but "one baptism" (Eph. 4:5) into that church...

Admission to the church-estate is a birth; for persons in the church as said to be children (or born) of God. Thus Moses says of the Israelites, "the church in the wilderness,"--"ye are the children of the Lord your God;" (Deut. 14: 1)--he excludes none of the people. St. Paul likewise speaks of the Galatians (4:5) as having received "the adoption of sons;" which he explains afterwards (4: 31) as their being "children of the free woman," or church, the spouse of Christ; and yet he speaks of them as not fully changed in heart, "my little children of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you" (4: 19).--To enter the church therefore, is to become, in some sense, "children of the Lord our God;" it is to receive an "adoption of sons." Very natural then is the language of our Saviour, that we must be "born" of water before we enter into the "kingdom of God" (upon earth); as also that of St. Paul, the "washing of regeneration."--The outward adoption to the earthly church, is, however, very different from the inward adoption to the heavenly church. And the two births must of course be different.

Both the adoptions or births are attributed to the Spirit; "by one Spirit we are all baptized," or born of water; "the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God." In the latter case, the Spirit works by moral influences on our spirit. In the former, he does not.--The Spirit operated in men to produce inspiration; and yet Balaam was a wicked man. The Spirit was given to men for miraculous powers; and yet a man might "remove mountains, be a prophet, speak with the tongues of men and angels, and be nothing." (1 Cor. 13:) The Spirit was bestowed when the apostles were ordained. (John 20:22); "receive ye the Holy Ghost, whose soever sins ye remit, &c.; that is, they received a commission or separation from the Spirit--were set apart by Him to the priestly office. So Aaron was set apart by anointing, and the Levitical priesthood, in him; which rite signified spiritual designation. Christian ministers have always been set apart by laying on of hands; and thus the commission, "receive the Holy Ghost" continues "to the end of the world." And yet, among both Jewish and Christian priests, (having this separation of the Spirit) there have been bad men. Of course, among the "diversities of operations" of the Spirit, there are some which do not imply his moral influence on the heart.

... Baptism is a separating ordinance: the Holy Spirit, through his minister, separates us from the world, and adopts us into the "one body" of Christ. By this adoption we become "sons of the free woman," the church (Gal. 4 : 31) and, of course, sons of Him who is her "Husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name," (Isa. 54: 5.)

This adoption or regeneration however, brings us only to that field in which both tares and wheat grow together until the harvest. The church, although one, has several enclosures; which were typified in the Mosaic tabernacle. The tabernacle represented heaven; (Heb. 9: 24) the holy of holies, or inner chamber, being the immediate dwelling-place of God; the holy place, or outer chamber, being for the priests: The court, which did not represent heaven, was for all Israel. The whole represents the one church in heaven and on earth. By baptism, we are separated from the world to the general body of Israel, in the court of the tabernacle; we are adopted, or born again, into that family of which it is said "ye are the children of the Lord your God" (Deut 14 : 1). By being "born of the Spirit," or "renewed by the Holy Ghost," or "conformed to the image of God's Son," we are fitted to come to the "church (the tabernacle-chamber) of the first-born," who were sanctified to God," (Numb. 3: 12) in the holy place; by this sanctification, our "names are written in heaven," and we are made "priests unto God."

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[If this be not true, then either we should reject the notion of baptismal regeneration or accept that] baptismal regeneration as a mystery; revealed in scripture, but not to be explained by men.