The Early Scots Reformed on Baptism

S. Joel Garver

The following is a brief survey of some major figures among the earlier (pre-Westminster) Scots Reformed theologians regarding their doctrine of baptism.

The place to begin, I suppose, is to recall what the 1560 Scots Confession of John Knox teaches regarding baptism. It states,

...so we utterly condemn the vanity of those who affirm the sacraments to be nothing else than naked and bare signs. No, we assuredly believe that by Baptism we are engrafted into Christ Jesus, to be made partakers of his righteousness, by which our sins are covered and remitted... (Chapter 21)
This is in keeping with, for instance, the teaching of Calvin who could write, in his 1547 Antidote to the Council of Trent,
We assert that the whole guilt of sin is taken away in baptism, so that the remains of sin still existing are not imputed. That this may be more clear, let my readers call to mind that there is a twofold grace in baptism, for therein both remission of sins and regeneration are offered to us. We teach that full remission is made, but that regeneration is only begun and goes on making progress during the whole of life. Accordingly, sin truly remains in us, and is not instantly in one day extinguished by baptism, but as the guilt is effaced it is null in regard to imputation. Nothing is plainer than this doctrine.
Of course, there are various qualifications one must make with regard to these assertions, for instance, they are not directed toward instances of utterly unbelieving reception of the sacraments. But the basic Reformed teaching is clear: Christ and his benefits are offered to us and received in the believing reception of baptism. Furthermore, it is a distinct question what effect the sacrament might have for those who receive it in unbelief or who only believe temporarily and later apostatize.

Whatever the theological complications, the outlook of Calvin and the Scots Confession is carried forward in the writings of the Scots divines who followed. There are five divines, in particular, whose views I'd like to briefly summarize: John Craig (1512-1600), Robert Bruce (1554-1631), Robert Rollock (1555-1599), Robert Boyd of Trochrig (1578-1627), and John Forbes of Corse (1593-1648).

John Craig, like Martin Bucer, had once been a Dominican Friar, but after his conversion to the Protestant cause, fled and returned to his native Scotland. He co-pastored with John Knox in Edinburgh and later became a chaplain to James VI. Craig is probably best known for his Catechisms of 1581 and 1592.

The larger Catechism of 1581 was approved by the Church of Scotland and, in the abridged form of 1592, remained the primary catechetical tool of the Scottish church until the publication of the Westminster Catechisms some 50 years later. Regarding the sacraments in general, the 1581 Catechism states:

Q: Do all men receive the favour of God by means of them?
A: No. Only the faithful receive it.

Q: How then are they true seals to all men?
A: They offer Christ truly to all men.
Like Calvin, Craig maintains the true objective offer of Christ in the Gospel ordinances of baptism and the eucharist, though only the reception of Christ unto salvation for those who receive him in the sacraments by faith. The Catechism continues futher on:
Q: What is the signification of baptism?
A: Remission of our sins and regeneration.

Q: What similitude hath baptism with remission of sins?
A: As washing cleanseth the body, so Christ's blood our souls.

Q: Wherein doth this cleansing stand?
A: In putting away of sin, and imputation of justice.

Q: Wherein standeth our regeneration?
A: In mortification and newness of life.

Q: How are these things sealed up in baptism?
A: By laying on of water.

Q: What doth the laying on of the water signify?
A: Our dying to sin and rising to righteousness.

Q: Doth the external washing work these things?
A: No, it is the work of God's Holy Spirit only.

Q: Then the sacrament is a bare figure?
A: No, but it hath the verity joined with it.
In light of what we have already seen, the basic affirmation here is the following: the remission of sins and regeneration are joined with the external washing of baptism, so that the Holy Spirit works remission, imputation, mortification, and newness of life for all those who receive the sacrament in faith. Note that "regeneration" here does not seem to be used so much in the narrower sense of later Reformed dogmatics (with reference to the initial, immediate, and instantaneous work of the Spirit) as it does in the sense that Calvin used in his Antidote to Trent (with reference to the ongoing process of mortification and sanctification).

Craig's 1592 Catechism also adds the following:

Q: How long, and by what way doth baptism work in us?
A: All the days of our life, through faith and repentance.
Here we see the common Reformed emphasis that baptism is efficacious not only when the water is upon us, but for our whole lives. As Calvin writes, "we are not to think that baptism was conferred upon us only for past time, so that for newly committed sins into which we fall after baptism we must seek new remedies of expiation in some other sacraments...But we must realize that at whatever time we are baptized, we are once for all washed and purged for our whole life" (Institutes 4.15.3).

Through Craig's Catechisms, then, the emphases of Reformed sacramental teaching and piety continued to be present within the Scottish church.

Robert Bruce of Kinnaird, an associate and friend of Andrew Melville, was a successor to John Knox in the pulpit of St. Giles in Edinburgh and several times moderator of the General Assembly of the Scottish Church. Most of his reflections on baptism appear in his series of sermons from 1591 that was later published as The Mystery of the Lord's Supper.

As is evident even from the title of the book, Bruce prefered the terminology "mystery" (as a translation of the Greek musterion) to that of "sacrament." He described the Christian mysteries as "hands appointed to deliver and convey the thing signified" (45) so that there is a "mystical and spiritual conjunction" between the sign and reality (52). With regard to both baptism and the eucharist, Bruce maintained that "the whole Christ, God and man, without separation of natures, and without distinction of his substance from his graces" is present and offered to those who receive the sacraments (45).

Concerning baptism in particular, Bruce states that "the fruits of the sacrament are remission of sin, mortification, the slaughter of sin, and the sealing of our adoption to life everlasting" (74). Bruce, however, distinguishes between the "substance" of the sacrament (which is offered to all men who receive the sacrament) and the "fruit" of the sacrament (which is enjoyed by those who receive it in faith). In baptism, "the substance from which these fruits flow is the blood of Christ," and yet we must "distinguish between the blood, which is the substance, and the remission of sins, the washing, and regeneration, which are the fruit that flow from his blood" (74-5).

Again, as with Calvin and Craig, there is here an affirmation that Christ and his benefits are truly offered and presented in baptism and therefore given unto remission and regeneration for those who receive the sacrament in faith. It is also evident, again, that "regeneration" takes the broader meaning of dying unto sin and growing in newness of life.

After graduating from St. Andrews and serving briefly as the regent there, Robert Rollock was appointed to what would later be the University of Edinburgh, where he soon became a professor of theology. He preached at the East Kirk and, later, several other parishes, as well as serving on various committees of the General Assembly and once as its moderator.

In his Select Works, Rollock defines baptism as "the laver of regeneration or washing of our new birth or regeneration of the Holy Ghost" (vol. I, 443). Rollock distinguishes between outward and inward washings in baptism. The outward washing of baptism is one "in which God puts out his hand to save us" and, as such, is "an instrument that God takes in his hand and whereby he applies to us inward washing of the Holy Spirit (Col 2:12; Rom 6:4)" (443-44). Rollock adds that "If this outward means is despised, there will be no regeneration" (444).

Moreover, Rollock emphasizes the permanence of our baptismal washing, the benefits of which are not tied to the moment of administration. Rollock writes,

It is vanity to think that the force of baptism consists in the administration of the action only. No, it never leaves us from the time we have received it until we are placed with Jesus Christ. Have your eye still on baptism for it is a means by which the Lord will save you (444)
Like his predecessors, then, Rollock sees baptism as a means by which regeneration (again, construed broadly) is offered and received, not only when the water is upon us, but also for our whole lives.

Robert Boyd of Trochrig, after studying under Rollock at Edinburgh, went to France where he studied and taught in several schools of the Reformed Church there, including the theological schools of Sedan and Samaur. After his return to Scotland, Boyd was made principal and professor of divinity at Glasgow University, though he later taught at Edinburgh for a time before his death.

In general, Boyd saw the sacrament of baptism as an "efficacious seal and instrument" by which God "confers and applies" what he signifies (Commentary on Ephesians 753). Thus, according to Boyd, in baptism God

applies Christ's blood to our hearts and consciences first by sealing in us the remission of sins, then by renewing us in Christ's image, both by mortifying the old man in us by the efficacy of his resurrection and life or by inspiring us to new life with Christ. Thus, without the blood of Christ, we cannot obtain regeneration, and without the Spirit of Christ, his righteousness is not imputed to us. (753)
As with other Reformed divines, we see here that baptism confers a two-fold benefit: remission of sins and regeneration. Again, "regeneration" refers not so much to the initiation salvation in some discrete act of the Spirit, but the ongoing death to sin and renewal of life in Christ. Indeed, Boyd appears to place regeneration, in this sense, logically or temporally subsequent to remissions of sins.

As a young man John Forbes of Corse studied in the Netherlands, gaining a profound knowledge of the church fathers, and where he was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry. Forbes was later a professor of divinity at the University of Aberdeen and considered one the most prominent Reformed scholastics of his day. During the conflicts involving the Covenanters, Forbes fled to the Netherlands where he completed his most celebrated work, Instructiones Historico-theologicae.

In this treatise he gives some attention to the sacraments and baptism. He refers to the sacraments as "means of salvation and instruments enjoined by Christ" (Lib. X, cap. 4). Much of what Forbes says regarding baptism echoes his Scottish predecessors, but with regard to regeneration in relation to baptism, he makes a three-fold distinction (which has parallels in some of the continental Reformed divines).

First, there is a federal holiness enjoyed by those born of families within the covenant and on the basis of which such children are to be baptized. Second, Forbes speaks of a "sacramental and visible regeneration" with regard to those who are "regenerated and holy through baptismal regeneration and sanctity." Third, there is a spiritual and invisible regeneration that entails interior renovation and salvation.

According to Forbes, not all who enjoy sanctification and regeneration in either or both of the first two senses necessarily enjoys it in the third sense. As an example of a person who received only sacramental and visible regeneration, but not spiritual regeneration, Forbes points to Simon Magus. This baptismal regeneration is the "sanctification" of which Hebrews 10:29 speaks.

Nonetheless, regeneration in the third sense is not to be abstracted from the second, for it is by means of baptismal regeneration, received in faith, that spiritual regeneration is received and wrought. Thus Forbes maintains that we, therefore, should not doubt the salvation of one who receives baptismal regeneration and perseveres in the covenant by faith to the end.

This brief survey establishes the shape of historic Scots Reformed teaching regarding baptism from the time of the Scots Confession up until the Westminster Assembly. The picture is clear: Christ and his benefits are offered to us and received in the believing reception of baptism and these benefits include remission of sins and regeneration unto newness of life.