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XX. Its Course
“No man can come unto Me, except the Father draw him.” —Johnvi. 44.
Fromthe preceding it is evident that preparatory grace is different in different persons;
and that distinction must be made between the many regenerated in the first days of life,
and the few born again at a more advanced age.
Of course, we refer only to the elect. In the non-elect saving grace does not operate;
hence preparatory grace is altogether out of the question. The former are born, with few
exceptions, in the Church. They do not enter the covenant of grace later on in life, but they
belong to it from the first moment of their existence. They spring from the seed of the
Church, and in turn contain in themselves the seed of the future Church. And for this
reason, the first germ of the new life is imparted to the seed of the Church (which is, alas!
always mixed with much chaff) oftenest either before or soon after birth.
The Reformed Church was so firmly settled in this doctrine that she dared establish it
as the prevailing rule, believing that the seed of the Church (not the chaff of course} received
the germ of life even before Baptism; wherefore it is actually sanctified in Christ already;
and receives in Baptism the seal not upon something that is yet to come, but upon that which
is already present. Hence the liturgical question to the parents: “Do you acknowledge that,
altho your children are conceived and born in sin, and therefore are subject to condemnation
itself, yet that they are sanctified in Christ, and therefore as members of His Church ought
to be baptized?”
In subsequent periods, less stedfast in the faith, men have shunned this doctrine, not
knowing what to make of the words “are sanctified.” This they interpreted to mean that as
children of members of the covenant they were counted as belonging to the covenant, and
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as such were entitled to baptism. But the earnest and sound common sense of our people
has always felt that this mere “counting in” did not do justice to the full and rich meaning
of the liturgy.
And if you should inquire into the meaning of these words of the office of Baptism, “are
sanctified,” not of the weaker epigones, but of the energetic generation of heroes who have
victoriously fought the Lord’s battles against Arminius and his followers, then you would
discover that those godly and learned theologians, such as Gysbrecht Voetius for instance,
never for a moment hesitated to break with these half-way explanations, but spoke out
plainly, saying: “They are entitled to Baptism not because they are counted as members of
the covenant but because as a rule they actually already possessthat first grace; and for this
reason, and this reason alone, it reads: ‘That ourchildren are sanctifiedin Christ, and
therefore as members of His bodyought to be baptized.’”
XX. Its Course
XX. Its Course
