By the very fact of baptism men are incorporated into the one Church of Christ. A large number of Christians, it is true, do not consider themselves members of the Mother Church. Yet all those who were baptised in the name of the triune God outside the pale of the Catholic Church belong to her. Everyone wishing to baptise and doing so in the prescribed way, baptises validly, and anyone may do so in case of emergency. The Council of Trent has laid down that whoever denies that baptism, even if administered by heretics, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, with the intention of doing what the Church does, is true baptism, shall be anathema. Anyone who has been validly baptised is and remains a member of the Apostolic Church. A son does not cease to be the child of his parents though he grows up far from his home. In like manner the character of regeneration and of membership in Christ, bestowed by baptism, is not obliterated, though a man be brought up in ignorance of Mother Church, without her instruction, and without receiving her other sacraments.

It has been said that baptism gives grace to live according to the precepts of the Gospel. Our separated brethren bear witness to this fact, in as much as they faithfully adhere to the Apostolic Creed, believe in the divinity of Christ, and keep the ten commandments; devoutly pray the Our Father, and in simplicity of heart make the teaching of Scripture the foundation of their lives.