ch of England Prayer Book--not
this or that preacher--say is the teaching of the Church of England?
In the case quoted, this is the Prayer Book answer: "Seeing now, dearly
beloved brethren, that _this child is regenerate_".[8] Here is
something clear, crisp, definite. It is the authorized expression of
the belief of the Church of England in common with the whole Catholic
Church.

{52}

Or, I hear two sermons on conversion. In one, conversion is almost
sneered at, or, at least, apologized for; in another, it is taught with
all the fervour of a personal experience. What am I to believe? What
does the Church of England teach about it? What does the Prayer Book
say? Open it at the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, or at the
third Collect for Good Friday, and you will hear a trumpet which gives
no uncertain sound.

Or, I am wondering and worried about Confession and Absolution. What
does the Church of England teach about them? One preacher says one
thing, one another. But what is the Church of England's authoritative
utterance on the subject? Open your Prayer Book, and you will see: you
will find that, with the rest of the Christian Church, she provides for
both, in public and in private, for the strong, and for the sick.

This, at least, is the view an honest onlooker will take of our
position. A common-sense Nonconformist minister, wishing to teach his
people and to get at facts, studies the English Prayer Book. This is
his conclusion: "Free Churchmen," he writes, "dissent from much of the
teaching of the Book of Common Prayer. In {53} the service of Baptism,
expressions are used which naturally lead persons to regard it as a
means of salvation. God is asked to 'sanctify this water to the
mystical washing away of sin'. After Baptism, God is thanked for
having 'regenerated the child with His Holy Spirit'. It is called the
'laver of regeneration,' by which the child, being born in sin, is
received into the number of God's children. In the Catechism, the
child is taught to say of Baptism, 'wherein I was made the child of
God'. It is said to be 'generally necessary to salvation,' and the
rubric declares that children who are baptized, and die before they
commit actual sin, are undoubtedly saved'."[9] What could be a fairer
statement of the Prayer-Book teaching? And he goes on: "In the
visitation of the sick, if the sick person makes a confession of his
sins, and 'if he heartily and humbly desire it,