onemaster,
1. You need to update your Signature per the board requirements.
2. I would not presume to be so "smug" about what is and isn't denied according the the Confessions here. I don't play games, flaming Scots aside, with people who come into this board and presume to correct the group about the
real Confessional understanding. I frankly found your statement that the Confessions teach Baptismal Regeneration to be quite facile.
3. The Reformed Confessions universally confess a
distinction between the sign and the thing signified. They also clearly affirm that the grace conferred is not tied to the actual announcement of the Promise during its administration:
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VI. The efficacy of Baptism is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered;16 yet, notwithstanding, by the right use of this ordinance, the grace promised is not only offered, but really exhibited, and conferred, by the Holy Ghost, to such (whether of age or infants) as that grace belongs unto, according to the counsel of God's own will, in His appointed time.17
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In other words, the grace that is promised in the sign may be conferred at a
later time. The Sacrament itself has complete efficacy in this case, however, because the Minister does not
confer grace in the administration of the Sacrament but announces the promise of God.
Frankly, you initial statement reveals somewhat Baptistic thinking in conflating the sign with the thing signified even for the elect. The Confessions do
not teach that, for the Elect, regeneration is annexed to Baptism. That the Promise is announced during Baptism makes the sign and thing signified inexorably joined in terms of the relationship between Promise and fulfilment but that does not make Baptism the instrument of regeneration.
This relationship between the sign (Promise) and thing signified (actual union with Christ) can be seen from the Heidelberg:
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Question 69. How art thou admonished and assured by holy baptism, that the one sacrifice of Christ upon the cross is of real advantage to thee?
Answer: Thus: That Christ appointed this external washing with water, (a) adding thereto this promise, (b) that I am as certainly washed by his blood and Spirit from all the pollution of my soul, that is, from all my sins, (c) as I am washed externally with water, by which the filthiness of the body is commonly washed away.
Question 70. What is it to be washed with the blood and Spirit of Christ?
Answer: It is to receive of God the remission of sins, freely, for the sake of Christ's blood, which he shed for us by his sacrifice upon the cross; (a) and also to be renewed by the Holy Ghost, and sanctified to be members of Christ, that so we may more and more die unto sin, and lead holy and unblamable lives. (b)
Question 71. Where has Christ promised us, that he will as certainly wash us by his blood and Spirit, as we are washed with the water of baptism?
Answer: In the institution of baptism, which is thus expressed: "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost", Matt.28:19. And "he that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned.", Mark 16:16. This promise is also repeated, where the scripture calls baptism "the washing of regenerations" and the washing away of sins. Tit.3:5, Acts 22:16. (a)
Question 72. Is then the external baptism with water the washing away of sin itself?
Answer: Not at all: (a) for the blood of Jesus Christ only, and the Holy Ghost cleanse us from all sin. (b)
Question 73. Why then does the Holy Ghost call baptism "the washing of regeneration," and "the washing away of sins"?
Answer: God speaks thus not without great cause, to-wit, not only thereby to teach us, that as the filth of the body is purged away by water, so our sins are removed by the blood and Spirit of Jesus Christ; (a) but especially that by this divine pledge and sign he may assure us, that we are spiritually cleansed from our sins as really, as we are externally washed with water. (b)
Question 74. Are infants also to be baptized?
Answer: Yes: for since they, as well as the adult, are included in the covenant and church of God; (a) and since redemption from sin (b) by the blood of Christ, and the Holy Ghost, the author of faith, is promised to them no less than to the adult; (c) they must therefore by baptism, as a sign of the covenant, be also admitted into the christian church; and be distinguished from the children of unbelievers (d) as was done in the old covenant or testament by circumcision, (e) instead of which baptism is instituted (f) in the new covenant.
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Finally, thank you to Wayne Wylie for pointing out, correctly, the early use of the term regeneration that later theologians distinguished in more detail. You cannot merely port your language into Calvin. You have to read his definitions much more carefully before you conclude that he taught Baptismal Regeneration.