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TWO TRACTS, 
 
 INTENDED TO CONVEY CORRECT NOTIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 T 
 
 REGENERATION & CONVERSION 
 
 ACCORDING TO THE 
 
 SENSE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE, AND OF THE 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Extracted from the Bampton Lecture of 1812, 
 and published in a Form adapted for Circulation among the Community at large 
 at the Request of the Salop District Committee of the Society for 
 Promoting Christian Knowledge. 
 
 w 
 
 By RICHARD MANT, D.D. 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF DOWN AND CONNOR. 
 
 NEW EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed for the 
 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE ; 
 
 SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY, 
 
 GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS; 
 
 AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 [16-1] 
 
 1839 
 
: ; ' : ? ' • ,• " 
 
 * • 
 
 . : 
 
 
 . .. . 
 
 . . >■• 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ■ 
 
 Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John’s Square, London. 
 
TRACT I. 
 
 John iii. 5. 
 
 Jesus answered, Verily , verily, I say unto thee, Except 
 a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot 
 enter into the kingdom of God. 
 
 At the time that Almighty God first selected the 
 Jews for his peculiar people, he instituted the rite of 
 circumcision, whereby they were to be admitted into 
 covenant with him. This institution was designed not 
 only for an outward and visible mark to distinguish 
 those who professed their belief in the true God; but 
 at the same time for a memorial to remind them of his 
 covenant; and for a monument to incite them to per¬ 
 form their part of the covenant; and for a token that 
 God would perform his part. 
 
 This institution, which was designed for the Jews 
 as the chosen people of God, was extended to those 
 strangers also, who became proselytes to the true 
 faith. But in addition to this, another ceremony was 
 appointed by the Jews themselves, derived, as they 
 imagined, from the law of Moses, and certainly 
 stamped with the sanction of high antiquity. Proud 
 of their own peculiar sanctity, as the elect people of 
 God, and regarding all the rest of mankind as in a 
 state of uncleanness, they would not admit converts 
 into their church without washing, to denote their 
 being cleansed from their natural impurity. Prose¬ 
 lytes, thus purified and admitted into the Jewish 
 church by baptism, were said to be regenerated, or 
 
 a2 
 
4 
 
 Regeneration the 
 
 born again : nor was this a mere empty appellation ; 
 but being considered dead to their former relations, 
 they became entitled to rights and privileges, from 
 which by nature they were excluded. 
 
 The duration of God’s covenant with the Jews 
 being limited, the right of circumcision was of course 
 limited, and was to cease upon the completion of God’s 
 promise in the sending of Christ. God had now ac¬ 
 complished his covenant with Abraham by sending 
 that seed of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the 
 earth were to be blessed. And as there was no 
 longer to be any distinction in favour of the Jews, 
 the children of Abraham, above the other nations of 
 the world, the outward mark of distinction was no 
 longer useful. God was now to show no respect 
 unto persons, to the circumcised or to the uncircum¬ 
 cised ; but in every nation, among the Gentiles, as 
 well as among the Jews, he that feared God and 
 worked righteousness was equally to be accepted with 
 him. 
 
 But upon the introduction of the new covenant in 
 Christ, God was pleased to institute a new cere¬ 
 mony ; whereby mankind at large were to be ad¬ 
 mitted into covenant with him, as the Jews had been 
 by the rite of circumcision. For this purpose Christ 
 adopted baptism, which had been consecrated by 
 his brethren after the flesh to a similar use ; and or¬ 
 dained it as the rite, by which those, who believed in 
 him, should be admitted to the privileges of his re¬ 
 ligion. “ He kept the ceremony,” says Bishop Taylor, 
 <£ that they, who were led only by outward things, 
 might be the better called in, and easier enticed into 
 the religion, when they entered by a ceremony, 
 which their nation always used in the like cases ; and 
 therefore, without change of the outward act, he put 
 into it a new spirit, and gave it a new grace and a 
 proper efficacy : he sublimed it to higher ends, and 
 adorned it with stars of heaven: he made it to 
 signify greater mysteries, to convey greater bless- 
 
Spiritual Grace of Baptism , 5 
 
 ings, to consign the bigger promises, to cleanse 
 deeper than the skin, and to carry proselytes farther 
 than the gates of the institution. For so he was 
 pleased to do in the other sacrament: he took the 
 ceremony which he found ready in the custom of the 
 Jews, where the major-domo after the paschal sup¬ 
 per gave bread and wine to every person of his 
 family ; he changed nothing of it without, but trans¬ 
 ferred the rite to greater mysteries, and put his own 
 Spirit to their sign, and it became a sacrament 
 evangelical V* 
 
 It was to this sacrament of baptism, the institution 
 of which he was anticipating, that our Saviour al¬ 
 luded, when he declared to the Jewish Rabbi, who was 
 inquiring into the nature of his doctrine, <£ Verily, 
 verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God and when, in 
 reply to a farther inquiry, he repeated his former 
 declaration, and stated it in more limited and specific 
 terms, “ Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man 
 be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter 
 into the kingdom of God.” It should appear, I say, 
 that he was here alluding by anticipation to the sacra¬ 
 ment of baptism, which he intended to ordain ; and 
 to that supernatural grace, which was thereby to be 
 conferred through the instrumentality of water, and 
 by the agency of the Holy Ghost: adopting not only 
 the ceremony itself, which he meant to exalt to more 
 noble and spiritual purposes; but also the very term, 
 by which the Jews had described the change wrought 
 in the baptized, although he undoubtedly employed 
 it, in a similar indeed, but in an infinitely more 
 dignified sense. To the proselyte from heathenism 
 to the Jewish faith, baptism had been a death to his 
 natural incapacities, and a new birth to the civil 
 privileges of a Jew : to him, who should be ad¬ 
 mitted to a profession of the Christian faith, and who 
 
 1 Life of Christ, part i. sect. 9. 
 
 A 3 
 
6 
 
 Regeneration the 
 
 should be “ born not of blood, nor of the will of 
 the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God 1 it 
 was to be a death unto sin, and a new birth unto 
 those spiritual privileges, which should accompany 
 his deliverance “ from the bondage of corruption into 
 the glorious liberty of the children of God 2 .” The 
 Jewish proselyte had been baptized with water: the 
 Christian was to be baptized not with water only, 
 but with the Holy Ghost. “ Baptism,” says the 
 same pious and learned Prelate, to whom I just re¬ 
 ferred, asserting at the same time the doctrine, and 
 explaining the ground of it; “ Baptism is a new 
 birth, by which we enter into the new world, the 
 new creation, the blessings and spiritualities of the 
 kingdom. And this is the expression, which our 
 Saviour himself used to Nicodemus, Unless a man be 
 born of water and the Spirit. And it is by St. Paul 
 called the laver of regeneration. Por now we begin 
 to be reckoned in a new census or account; God is 
 become our father, Christ our elder brother, the 
 Spirit the earnest of our inheritance, the Church our 
 mother; our food is the body and blood of our Lord ; 
 faith is our learning ; religion our employment; and 
 our whole life is spiritual, and heaven the object of 
 our hopes, and the mighty price of our high calling. 
 And from this time forward we have a new principle 
 put into us, the Spirit of grace, which, besides our 
 soul and body, is a principle of action, of one nature, 
 and shall with them enter into the portion of our 
 inheritance. And because from henceforward we are 
 a new creation, the Church uses to assign new re¬ 
 lations to the catechumens, spiritual fathers and sus¬ 
 ceptors 3 .” 
 
 I make no scruple of considering the words of our 
 Saviour in the text, as indicating the sacrament of 
 baptism; because I believe it to be the doctrine of the 
 
 2 Rom. viii. 21. 
 
 3 Life of Christ, part i. sect. 9. 
 
 1 John i. 13. 
 
Spiritual Grace of Baptism. 7 
 
 Bible, and I am sure it is the doctrine of the Church 
 of England, agreeably to which I conceive it to be 
 the opinion of the generality of the national Clergy, 
 that by that sacrament we are made Christians, and 
 are born anew of water and of the Holy Spirit: or 
 that I may express myself in the words of the late 
 apostolical Bishop Wilson, that <c regeneration or 
 new birth is that spiritual change, which is wrought 
 by the Holy Spirit upon any person in the use of 
 baptism ; whereby he is translated out of his natural 
 state, as a descendant of Adam, to a spiritual state in 
 Christ; that is, to a state of salvation ; in which, if it 
 is not his own fault, he will be saved V’ This doc¬ 
 trine, however, has been virtually at least, if not ac¬ 
 tually denied ; and denied in terms, which charge the 
 maintainers of it with blindness and ignorance; with 
 innovating on evangelical truth ; with being opposers 
 of the doctrines of the Gospel, and patrons of a 
 heathenish superstition 1 2 . 
 
 As it may be important to prove, beyond the pos¬ 
 sibility of a suspicion to the contrary, that the accu¬ 
 sation which is to be made the subject of our present 
 inquiry implicates the Church of England as well as 
 the generality of her ministers, I shall venture to 
 show by the adduction of several passages in her 
 Liturgy, which it might be otherwise superfluous to 
 specify, that the doctrine of Regeneration by baptism 
 is most clearly asserted by her: or, in other words, 
 that “ she supposes, in strict conformity with the 
 Scriptures,” not merely “ that all real Christians are 
 regenerate by God’s Holy Spirit 3 ,” by which I un¬ 
 derstand all those who live a Christian life ; but that 
 those also are so regenerated who receive baptism 
 rightly, or, what in the case of infants, at least in a 
 Christian country, amounts to the same thing, to 
 whom baptism is rightly administered, notwithstanding 
 
 1 Works, vol. iv. p. 411, 8vo. 
 
 2 Whitefield’s Eighteen Sermons, quoted below, p. 23. 
 
 3 See Overton’s True Churchman, &c. p. 199. 
 
 A 4 
 
8 
 
 Regeneration the 
 
 by their future conduct they may forfeit the privileges 
 of their new birth. 
 
 The office wifh which I begin is the ministration 
 of public baptism to infants, which the priest f hav¬ 
 ing ascertained that the child has not been bap¬ 
 tized, is directed to commence in this form: “ Dearly 
 beloved; forasmuch as all men are conceived and 
 born in sin, and that our Saviour Christ saith, none 
 can enter into the kingdom of God, except he be 
 regenerate and born anew of water and of the Holy 
 Ghost: I beseech you to call upon God the Father, 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ, that of his bounteous 
 mercy he will grant unto this child that thing, which 
 by nature he cannot have, that he may be baptized 
 with water and the Holy Ghost, and be received into 
 Christ’s holy Church, and be made a lively member 
 of the same.” I give the address at length, because 
 it is placed at the very opening of the ministration of 
 baptism, and is designed to draw the attention of 
 the hearers to the purpose, for which baptism is ad¬ 
 ministered. It consists of two parts ; an admonition 
 to the people to pray, and a reason for the admoni¬ 
 tion : what they are to pray for partly is, that “ the 
 child may be baptized with water and the Holy 
 Ghostthe reason for their being called on so to 
 pray, is, “ forasmuch as Christ saith, none can enter 
 into the kingdom of God, except he be regenerate and 
 born anew of water and of the Holy Ghost.” Putting 
 these passages together, what else is the prayer that 
 the child may be baptized with water and the Holy 
 Ghost, than a prayer that by baptism he may be born 
 anew ? 
 
 Proceeding to the prayers, I do not rest on that 
 general expression in the first, where we pray God 
 “ to wash and sanctify the child with the Holy 
 Ghost;” but going forward to the second, I beg 
 your attention to that passage, wherein the priest is 
 directed to say, t( Almighty God, we call upon thee 
 for this infant; that he, coming to thy holy baptism, 
 
Spiritual Grace of Baptism. 9 
 
 may receive remission of his sins by spiritual rege¬ 
 neration.” The passage needs no comment: it will 
 only be recollected that the question is, what does 
 the Church of England understand by our Saviour’s 
 expression of being horn of water and of the Spirit ? 
 Nor is it necessary to make any other comment on 
 the following extracts, w r hile I point to that prayer, 
 where we entreat Almighty God to “ give his Holy 
 Spirit to the infant about to be baptized, that he 
 may be born again to the prayer of consecration, 
 where we entreat him to “ sanctify the water to the 
 mystical washing away of sin, and to grant that the 
 child, now to be baptized therein, may receive the 
 fulness of his grace, and ever remain in the number 
 of his faithful and elect children to the address 
 immediately following the baptismal rite, wherein 
 the priest calls on the congregation to give thanks 
 to Almighty God, expressly for this cause, “ seeing 
 that the child is regenerateand to the thanksgiving 
 that follows, wherein we are instructed to “ yield thee 
 hearty thanks, most merciful Father, that it hath 
 pleased thee to regenerate the infant with thy Holy 
 Spirit, and to receive him for thine own child by 
 adoption.” These words must be left to speak for 
 themselves. They admit of no illustration or expla¬ 
 nation. Language cannot be plainer. 
 
 Let us proceed to the ministration of private bap¬ 
 tism of children, where it may be first remarked, that 
 the prayers being the same as in the public baptism, 
 the same expressions of course occur, as those already 
 noticed. But when the child, that has been privately 
 baptized, is admitted into the public congregation, 
 the doctrine is repeated under several new forms of 
 expression. The child, being born in original sin, 
 is said to “ be now by the laver of regeneration in 
 baptism received into the number of the children of 
 Goda prayer is offered to Almighty God, to “ give 
 his Holy Spirit to the infant,” not, as in the former 
 office, that ye may he born again, but that he “ being 
 
 a 5 
 
10 Regeneration the 
 
 born again may continue God’s servantthe con¬ 
 gregation is required to give thanks to Almighty 
 God, for that the child “is by baptism regenerate 
 and in the same form of prayer as before, thanks are 
 yielded to our most merciful Father, for “ having 
 pleased to regenerate the infant with his Holy 
 Spirit, and to receive him for his own child by 
 adoption.’’ This great variety of expression, wherein 
 the same doctrine is so repeatedly conveyed, proves 
 to my mind most satisfactorily, how tenacious the 
 Church of England is of the doctrine of baptismal 
 regeneration, and how anxious she is to impress it 
 upon her members. 
 
 This variety we trace still further exemplified in 
 the ministration of baptism to such as are of riper 
 years; where, although the service is for the most 
 part the same as that for the baptism of infants, cer¬ 
 tain particulars are added, not immaterial to be spe¬ 
 cified in this inquiry. Thus instead of the Gospel 
 from the 10th chapter of St. Mark, which is adapted 
 to the condition of infants, but would be out of place 
 in the baptism of adults, the passage selected is the 
 conversation wherein Christ asserts to Nicodemus 
 the necessity of the new birth; and which is made 
 the foundation of the following exhortation: “ Be¬ 
 loved, ye hear in this Gospel the express words of our 
 Saviour Christ, that except a man be bom of water 
 and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom 
 of God. Whereby ye may perceive the great neces¬ 
 sity of this sacrament, where it may be had.” It 
 must be enough barely to quote this passage: it 
 would be an insult upon any man’s understanding to 
 attempt to make it clearer; and it would be super¬ 
 fluous to add more from the same office. If a bare 
 statement of this fact does not convince a man, 
 nothing, I am persuaded, can convince him, that it is 
 by baptism, in the judgment of the Church of Eng¬ 
 land, that a man is bom of water and of the Spirit. 
 
 I am afraid of fatiguing and wearing out your 
 
11 
 
 Spiritual Grace of Baptism . 
 
 patience by multiplying evidences of what must already 
 be so clear. Knowing, however, as I do, and as every 
 one at all acquainted with the state of religion in 
 this country must know, that there are persons, who, 
 not content with denying the doctrine of baptismal 
 regeneration themselves, w T ould fain fasten their own 
 private opinion upon the Church, and sedulously 
 labour to propagate it as hers: I must solicit your 
 attention whilst I proceed to show, by a still greater 
 accumulation of proof, what her doctrine is; and that 
 she does not confine her assertion of it to her baptis¬ 
 mal offices, but disseminates it over other parts of her 
 Liturgy. . - 
 
 After being baptized, the first religious duty in 
 which the Church requires a child to be engaged is 
 the learning of the Catechism ; and here, reminding 
 him of the privileges to which he was then admitted, 
 the very first thing that she teaches him is, that (i in 
 his baptism he was made a member of Christ, a child 
 of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.” 
 In his baptism he w r as made a child of God! Made a 
 child of God ; not formed so at his natural birth, but 
 made so by a second, a new, a spiritual birth; made 
 so at his baptism. As he proceeds, however, the 
 doctrine is more fully and explicitly revealed to him. 
 He is then instructed, that a sacrament is <f an out¬ 
 ward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace given 
 unto us and that it “ is ordained by Christ himself, 
 as a means whereby we receive the same” grace, 
 <f and as a pledge to assure us thereof.” He is in¬ 
 structed that baptism is a sacrament; and as such, 
 of course consisting of an outward and visible sign, 
 and of an inward and spiritual grace: he is instructed, 
 that the outward sign is “ water, wherein the person 
 is baptized in the name of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghostand being interro¬ 
 gated, what is its inward and spiritual grace, he is 
 instructed to answer “ a death unto sin, and a new 
 birth unto righteousness; for being by nature bom 
 
 a 6 
 
12 
 
 Regeneration the 
 
 in sin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby made 
 the children of gracehereby, that is, by baptism; 
 neither the argument nor the structure of the sentence 
 can admit of any other interpretation. What can be 
 plainer? Had it been the intention of the composers 
 of the Catechism, as indeed I doubt not it was, to 
 assert most unequivocally the doctrine of baptismal 
 regeneration, how could it have been more directly 
 asserted ? Plainer language cannot be found ? “ The 
 
 outward sign of baptism is water; the spiritual grace 
 is a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteous¬ 
 ness ; for we are hereby made the children of grace.” 
 
 The next religious office, in which the child is en¬ 
 gaged, is the order of confirmation ; wherein he ratifies 
 and confirms the vows made for him by his sureties 
 at baptism. We have here, then, of course, an allusion 
 to that holy institution; and, as if it were cautiously 
 provided, that the sacramental character of the in¬ 
 stitution should be kept steadily in view, we are 
 reminded of the regeneration conveyed by it to the 
 baptized. The bishop who presides at the office is 
 thus directed to pray: “ Almighty and everliving 
 God, who hast vouchsafed to regenerate these thy 
 servants by water and the Holy Ghost, and hast given 
 unto them forgiveness of all their sins; strengthen 
 them, we beseech thee, O Lord, with the Holy Ghost, 
 the Comforter.” The assertion is plain and direct: 
 the Church affirms by the mouth of one of her go¬ 
 vernors, and she affirms it in the most solemn form of 
 a prayer to the Almighty and everliving God, that he 
 has vouchsafed to regenerate his servants, who come 
 now to be confirmed, by water and the Holy Ghost; 
 not, as hath been confidently alleged, “ with a view 
 to blessings contingent upon their future endea¬ 
 vours V’ but with a view to those, which at baptism 
 they actually receive. 
 
 Hitherto we have seen frequent notice taken by 
 the Church of the doctrine of regeneration; and it 
 
 1 See Overton, p. 104. 
 
Spiritual Grace of Religion. 13 
 
 is remarkable that the parts of the Common Prayer 
 Book, which we have been hitherto examining, have 
 either an immediate connection with, or an obvious 
 relation to, baptism. And I think it no less remark¬ 
 able, that there is (if I am not strangely mistaken) 
 only one more place in the whole Book of Common 
 Prayer, wherein the doctrine of regeneration, or the 
 new birth, is noticed ; and there it is noticed in per¬ 
 fect conformity with her expressions, that have been 
 already cited, as an event already passed, and one 
 in which her members in general have partaken. In 
 her collect for Christmas-day, the Church is led, 
 from a mention of the birth of Christ, to mention the 
 spiritual birth of those who are regenerated in him; 
 who are made partakers of his nature, as he had con¬ 
 descended to become partaker of theirs. The col¬ 
 lect runs in this form :— <( Almighty God, who hast 
 given us thy only begotten Son to take our nature 
 upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure 
 virgin: grant that we being regenerate, and made 
 thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be 
 renewed by thy Holy Spirit.” The petition is ex¬ 
 clusively for daily renovation: the notice of our 
 regeneration, and of our adoption as the children of 
 God, is retrospective; and is the grateful acknow¬ 
 ledgment of a blessing, once conferred, and not to be 
 repeated. 
 
 From the Liturgy if we direct our attention to the 
 Articles of our Church, we shall [find a perfect har¬ 
 mony maintained about the doctrine in question. 
 In three of the Articles it is incidentally alluded to 
 in such a manner, as to show that the Church takes 
 for granted the connection between baptism and the 
 new birth. In the 9th it is laid down, that “ the 
 original infection of nature doth remain, yea, in them 
 that are regeneratedand by the context it appears, 
 that by the regenerate are intended “ they that be¬ 
 lieve and are baptized:” in the 15th, Christians uni¬ 
 versally are designated by the appellation of those 
 
14 
 
 Regeneration the 
 
 “ who are baptized and bora again in Christand 
 the 16th Article speaks of the condition of “ those, 
 who fall into sin after baptismthat is, according 
 to an equivalent expression, after they have ■“ re¬ 
 ceived the Holy Ghost.” But that, which is more 
 pointedly and more fully to our purpose, is the 27th 
 Article, which expressly sets forth the doctrine of 
 the Church concerning baptism:—“ Baptism is not 
 only a sign of profession, and a mark of difference, 
 whereby Christian men are discerned from others 
 that are not christened: but it is also a sign of rege¬ 
 neration, or new birth, whereby, as by an instru¬ 
 ment, they that receive baptism rightly are grafted 
 into the Church: the promises of forgiveness of sin, 
 and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the 
 Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed; faith is 
 confirmed, and grace increased by virtue of prayer 
 unto God.” I give the whole of the description: 
 the part of it, essential to our present inquiry, ex¬ 
 actly corresponding with the description in the Cate¬ 
 chism, which speaks of the outward visible sign and 
 the inward spiritual grace, is, that baptism, or the 
 washing with water, is a sign of regeneration, or new 
 birth; and that by it, as by an instrument, the pro¬ 
 mise of our adoption to be the sons of God by the 
 Holy Ghost, is visibly signed and sealed. 
 
 Such is the doctrine of our Church with regard to 
 regeneration: nor does she consider it as a matter 
 of mere abstract speculation; for in conformity with 
 this she requires her ministers to instruct the people, 
 that “ the baptism of their children ought not to be 
 deferred longer than till the first or second Sunday 
 after their birth 1 “ lest” (as one of her most highly 
 esteemed bishops hath observed) “ importune and 
 unnecessary delay occasion that the child die before 
 it is dedicated to the service of God, and the religion 
 of the Lord Jesus ; before it be bora again, admitted 
 
 1 Rubrick before the Office of Private Baptism. 
 
Spiritual Grace of Baptism. 15 
 
 to the promise of the Gospel, and reckoned in the 
 account of the second Adam V’ And she accord¬ 
 ingly pronounces, what gives to the doctrine, that I 
 am maintaining, its great practical importance, that 
 u it is certain by God’s word, that children, which 
 are baptized, dying before they commit actual sin, 
 are undoubtedly saved.” As to those, who do not 
 die in infancy, she teaches, that the privilege of sal¬ 
 vation, thus bestowed by God, through the regenera¬ 
 tion of baptism, is continued to them, if they grow 
 up in faith and obedience: if not, it is taken from 
 them, until they repent; for, as it is affirmed in the 
 16th Article, “ the grant of repentance is not to be 
 denied to such as fall into sin after baptism. After 
 we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart 
 from grace given, and fall into sin; and by the 
 grace of God we may arise again, and amend our 
 lives.” 
 
 I have thus stated the several passages in the Li¬ 
 turgy and Articles, wherein our Church notices re¬ 
 generation, or the being born again. I have not 
 knowingly omitted one. And I will now venture to 
 express my opinion, that a doubt can hardly exist 
 upon the mind of any reasonable inquirer, with re¬ 
 spect to the opinion entertained by our Church on 
 the question of baptismal regeneration. Indeed, so 
 unequivocal was her opinion upon this point under¬ 
 stood to be, that when, after the restoration of the 
 royal family and the regal government in Charles the 
 Second, it was enacted, that those ministers, who 
 had gained possession of any benefices during the 
 rebellion, should relinquish their preferment, unless 
 they conformed to the principles and doctrines of 
 the Church of England, the nonconformist ministers, 
 who quitted their stations, assigned this reason, in 
 common with others, for their nonconformity; that 
 “ the Church clearly teaches the doctrine of real 
 
 1 Bishop Taylor’s Advice to his Clergy. Enchir. Theol. vol. ii. p. 280. 
 
16 
 
 Regeneration the 
 
 baptismal regeneration 1 .” It is therefore with some 
 degree of pain and surprise, that I see any doubt of 
 the inward and spiritual grace of baptism expressed 
 by a living minister of our establishment, whose 
 moderation and Christian charity appear not to be 
 surpassed by his piety and zeal 2 3 ; and I esteem it 
 no gratuitous concession, which is made by the less 
 gentle advocate of a party in the Church, that “ she 
 speaks of every child that she has baptized, as rege¬ 
 nerate, as a partaker of the privileges of the Gos¬ 
 pel, and as in some sense called to a state of sal¬ 
 vation.” But it is an uncharitable and a cruel insi¬ 
 nuation, if he means to charge those whom he calls 
 his opponents with concluding hence, “ that our 
 Church knows of no distinction but that between 
 professed Christians and professed Heathens, Jews, 
 &c. and that she really considers all, who are her 
 nominal members, in such a sense in a state of salva¬ 
 tion, as that they will escape future punishment, and 
 obtain everlasting happiness, whatever he their cha¬ 
 racters God forbid that we should be justly exposed 
 to so formidable an accusation ! Let us rather trust, 
 that whilst, with the Church, we maintain the rege¬ 
 nerating efficacy of baptism to those who die before 
 they commit actual sin, with her also we consider, 
 in the language of the same author, that “ none who 
 have arrived at maturity, and are capable subjects, 
 are in such a sense Christians, as that they will ob¬ 
 tain happiness and heaven, except those who are in¬ 
 fluenced by Christian principles, and exhibit a Chris¬ 
 tian conduct; who are penitents, believers, and habi¬ 
 tual observers of God’s laws V’ 
 
 I have dwelt longer upon this point, and have 
 multiplied proofs to a greater extent than may 
 
 1 Nonconformist’s Memorial, Introd. p. 39. See Baxter’s Life, d 
 
 313, 327, 342. ’ F 
 
 2 See Zeal without Innovation, p. 109. 
 
 3 See Overton’s True Churchman, p. 102, TOO. 
 
17 
 
 Spiritual Grace of Baptism . 
 
 appear necessary to those who are contented to 
 take the plain declarations of our Church in their 
 plain and obvious meaning. To such persons it may 
 be matter of no small astonishment, that one of the 
 founders of Methodism l , who uniformly gloried in 
 his fidelity to the doctrines of the Church of Eng¬ 
 land, declared that “ baptismal regeneration might, 
 with all our best endeavours, be ineffectualaffirm¬ 
 ing of himself, that “ though he had used all the 
 means for twenty years, yet he was not a Christian 
 and adopting the authoritative language of our 
 Saviour, “ Verily, verily, I must be born again.” 
 To such persons it must be matter of astonishment, 
 that the other great leader of the schism, himself 
 also a minister of the national Church, declared, 
 that “ he would as soon believe the doctrine of tran- 
 substantiation, as that all people, who are baptized, 
 are born again 2 and pronounced, that (t baptismal 
 regeneration was the Diana of the present clergy 
 and of the present age 3 a groundless (I suppose) 
 and a wicked superstition, for which, like the idola¬ 
 ters of Ephesus, or the advocates of unassisted, 
 unenlightened reason, (for their conceits he also 
 denominates, (( that great and boasted Diana,”) we 
 renounce the articles of Christian faith, which at our 
 baptism we promised to believe. Of persons such as 
 these, regeneration is, as it were, inscribed on the 
 banners, and is one of the watchwords of their sect: 
 regeneration, not the fruit of Christ’s holy ordinance 
 of baptism, but the effect of their declamation ; not 
 the blessing of a soul, peacefully devoted to Christ’s 
 service, but the mark of one zealous in the cause of 
 their party. They who can be persuaded to embrace 
 the tenets of that party, are described as labouring 
 in the pangs and travails of the new birth, until 
 
 1 J. Wesley. 
 
 2 Whitefield’s Eighteen Sermons, p. 351. 
 
 3 Whitefield’s Works, vol. iv. p. 162, 241. vol. v. p. 205. 
 
18 Regeneration the 
 
 Christ be formed in them; whilst all who tread in 
 the sound paths of the Church, of Scripture, and of 
 antiquity, unseduced by their invitations, and un¬ 
 terrified by their threats, are represented, together 
 with their ministers, those blind leaders of the blind, 
 as unregenerate, unconverted sinners. 
 
 I will not retort upon our accusers the charges 
 which they lavish upon us. I will not even insist 
 more strongly upon the discrepancy, which prevails 
 between their tenets and those which the foregoing 
 quotations will have satisfactorily shown to be the 
 tenets of our Church. I will in this place do no 
 more than express my hope and belief, that the re¬ 
 marks which are now about to be offered, and which 
 shall be derived principally from holy Scripture, will 
 at least acquit us of the temerity of blindly sub¬ 
 scribing to a doctrine without an appearance of suf¬ 
 ficient evidence ; even should they fail of proving, 
 that the doctrine itself, unlike the image of the 
 Ephesian Diana, did really e( come down from 
 heaven.” 
 
 Now it is certain, that by being born again, of 
 which our Saviour speaks in such lofty language, 
 something is designed necessary to be attained by 
 those who would enter into the kingdom of God. It 
 is matter, therefore, not of mere idle speculation, but 
 of the nearest and dearest interest, that we examine 
 what is meant by being born again: in order that 
 we may “ be filled with all joy and peace in believ¬ 
 ing that we partake of it, if, as we apprehend, it is 
 conferred by the sacrament of baptism ; or, if not, 
 that we may be enabled to discover, what it is that is 
 thus necessary for our salvation ; and where, and 
 when, and how it is to be obtained. 
 
 . .^ ie pl ace then, we derive a strong proba¬ 
 bility in behalf of our supposition from this consi¬ 
 deration ; that if the work of regeneration is not 
 effected by baptism, it is almost impossible for any 
 sober man to say when and by what means it is: and 
 
19 
 
 Spiritual Grace of Baptism . 
 
 that we are thus left without any other guide, than 
 the very questionable criterion of our own imagi¬ 
 nations, or our own feelings, to determine, whether 
 we are in possession of that, which our Saviour has 
 pronounced to be an indispensable requisite of salva¬ 
 tion. A situation this of doubt, suspense, and anxiety, 
 with regard to our eternal welfare, to which it is 
 reasonable to believe that, with such a revelation of 
 his will as Christianity professes to be, “ the Father 
 of mercies and God of all comfort” would not expose 
 his humble creatures. 
 
 For, that I may prosecute a former observation, if 
 spiritual regeneration be not conferred by baptism, 
 when, (we may reasonably demand) and by what 
 means is it conferred ? In what other ceremony, and 
 at what other season, shall we find that joint opera¬ 
 tion of water and of the Holy Spirit, of which Christ 
 affirms we must be born ? I say that joint operation; 
 for surely those, which Christ himself hath joined 
 together, it is not for man to put asunder. 
 
 I am the more disposed to press this argument, 
 and to bring it forward in the most prominent point 
 of view, not only because it appears to me decisive 
 on the question; but also, because the importance 
 of the argument seems to be recognised by the silence 
 of our opponents, who in their zeal to enforce rege¬ 
 neration, the being born again, the being born of God, 
 the being born of the Spirit, studiously keep out of 
 sight the instrument whereby Christ says we must 
 be born again. But (e that we may be thus born of 
 the Spirit,” (I use the words of Bishop Beveridge,) 
 (( we must be born also of water, which our Saviour 
 here puts in the first place. Not as if there was any 
 such virtue in water, whereby it could regenerate us; 
 but because this is the rite or ordinance appointed 
 by Christ, wherein he regenerates us by his Holy 
 Spirit: our regeneration is wholly the act of the 
 Spirit of Christ. But there must be something done 
 
20 Regeneration the 
 
 on our parts in order to it; and something that is 
 instituted and ordained by Christ himself, which in 
 the Old Testament was circumcision, in the New, 
 baptism or washing with water; the easiest that 
 could be invented, and the most proper to signify 
 his cleansing and regenerating us by his Holy Spirit. 
 And seeing this is instituted by Christ himself, as 
 we cannot be born of water without the Spirit, so 
 neither can we in an ordinary way be born of the 
 Spirit without water, used or applied in obedience 
 and conformity to his institution. Christ hath joined 
 them together, and it is not in our power to part 
 them; he that would be born of the Spirit, must be 
 born of water also V’ 
 
 Upon this point the observation of one of our first 
 and most celebrated reformers is not unworthy of 
 attention. “ Like as Christ was born in rags,” says 
 the venerable Latimer, i( so the conversion of the 
 whole world is by rags, by things which are most 
 vile in this world. For what is so common as water? 
 every foul ditch is full of it: yet we wash out re¬ 
 mission of our sins by baptism ; for like as he was 
 found in rags, so we must find him by baptism. 
 There we begin : we are washed with water, and 
 then the words are added; for we are baptized 
 in the name of the Father, the - Son, and Holy 
 Ghost, whereby the baptism receiveth its strength. 
 Now this sacrament of baptism is a thing of great 
 weight; for it ascertained and assureth us, that 
 like as the water washeth the body, and cleanseth it, 
 so the blood of Christ our Saviour cleanseth and 
 washeth it from all filth and uncleanness of sins 1 2 .” 
 And so it is taught in King Edward’s Catechism, 
 that “ baptism doth represent and set before our 
 eyes that we are by the Spirit of Christ new born, 
 
 1 Beveridge’s Sermons, vol. i. p. 304. 
 
 2 Bp. Latimer’s Sermon, vol. ii. p. 770. 
 
21 
 
 Spiritual Grace of Baptism. 
 
 and cleansed from sin; that we be members and parts 
 of his Church, received into the communion of saints. 
 For water signifieth the Spirit V’ 
 
 For the purpose, therefore, of regeneration, we con¬ 
 ceive this union of water, as the instrument, with the 
 Spirit, as the efficient principle, to he necessary, 
 where it may be had; and although we acknowledge 
 with humble and grateful hearts, that the continued 
 and unceasing influence of the Spirit is requisite for 
 the welfare of our souls, and that we are daily renewed 
 by his sanctifying power, sometimes perhaps without 
 the instrumentality of outward means; still we are 
 justified in contending, that for the express purpose 
 of regeneration, not only is his operation necessary, 
 but that it must also (humbly speaking) be adminis¬ 
 tered through the mediation of water. It is not for 
 man to dispense with the ordinances of God. 
 
 Nay, for man to take upon him to dispense with 
 God’s ordinances, is not only generally an act of 
 presumption, but it is also in a particular manner to 
 derogate from the honour due to that Holy Spirit, 
 by whom we are sealed unto the day of redemption. 
 “ For a special prerogative” (saith Bishop Andrewes) 
 “ hath the Holy Ghost in our baptism above the other 
 two persons of the Trinity. That laver is his laver 
 properly, where we are not only to be baptized into 
 him, as into the other two; but also even to be bap¬ 
 tized with him, which is proper to him alone. For 
 besides the water, we are there to be born anew of the 
 Holy Ghost also, else there is no entering for us into 
 the kingdom of God V’ So that to deny the regene¬ 
 rating effect of baptism is in some sense to do despite 
 unto the Spirit of grace, and to rob him of his peculiar 
 honour. 
 
 And farther; not only is it presumptuous to at¬ 
 tempt to separate water from the Spirit, but it is at 
 the same time altogether unnecessary. If indeed it 
 
 1 Enchir. Theol. vol. i. p. 52. 
 
 2 Sevm. V. on the Holy Ghost, p. G41. 
 
22 
 
 Regeneration the 
 
 could be made appear that they never acted together, 
 we must be content, (how much soever it might seem 
 at variance with the express affirmation of our Sa¬ 
 viour,) still we must be content to admit the notion 
 of their distinct and independent operation. But 
 when baptism presents itself to our minds, as a rite 
 instituted by Christ for the admission of disciples into 
 his Church, and when it may be satisfactorily argued 
 from the highest authority, that baptism is the vehicle 
 of regeneration; why should we look for any other ? 
 Why should we resort to a forced, an unnatural and 
 a presumptuous construction, to supply us from a 
 distance with the uncertain shadow of a blessing, 
 when the plainest and most easy interpretation of our 
 Saviour’s words places the substance immediately in 
 our hands'? 
 
 That this blessing is conferred upon us by baptism, 
 I assert on the authority of Scripture. 
 
 It is the doctrine of the holy Scriptures, that we 
 are by baptism made heirs of salvation through Christ; 
 and it is the declaration of our Saviour, that we can¬ 
 not enter into the kingdom of God, which is equiva¬ 
 lent to the expression, that we cannot become heirs 
 of salvation, except we be born anew of water and of 
 the Spirit. If then we cannot become heirs of salva¬ 
 tion, except we be born of water and of the Spirit, 
 and if we be made heirs of salvation by baptism, I 
 see not how we are to evade the consequence, that the 
 outward washing of baptism is attended by the sanc¬ 
 tification of the Spirit, and that we are born of water 
 and of the Spirit, when we are baptized. Thus 
 when our Saviour, on giving his commission to the 
 Apostles to go, teach all nations, baptizing them, 
 accompanied it with the promise, that he that believed 
 and was baptized should be saved, it must clearly be 
 understood, that the communication of the Holy 
 Spirit and spiritual regeneration were to attend oil 
 baptism, which is here expressly represented as the 
 means of salvation. 
 
Spiritual Grace of Baptism. 23 
 
 A single text of Scripture, properly understood, 
 may serve for the foundation of a doctrine. “ Where 
 there are a multitude of affirmations in Scripture,” 
 said the learned reformer Bishop Ridley, “ and 
 where there is but one affirmation, all is one con¬ 
 cerning the truth of the matter: for that which any 
 one of the Evangelists spake, inspired by the Holy 
 Ghost, was as true as that which was spoken of all V* 
 But as the evidence will undoubtedly strike with 
 accumulated force, if a doctrine shall appear not to 
 rest on an insulated passage, but to be expressed or 
 implied under a variety of forms, and to diffuse its 
 leaven, as it were, through a large mass of the sacred 
 volume, I shall proceed to state several scriptural 
 authorities, on which the notion of our being rege¬ 
 nerated by baptism may be incontrovertibly main¬ 
 tained. 
 
 St. Paul, in his Epistle to Titus, having remarked 
 upon the depraved state of men before their con¬ 
 version to Christianity, thus proceeds : “ But after 
 that the kindness and love of God our Saviour to¬ 
 wards man appeared, not by works of righteousness, 
 which we have done, but according to his mercy he 
 saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and re¬ 
 newing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us 
 abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour: that 
 being justified by his grace, we should be made 
 heirs according to the hope of eternal life 2 by the 
 washing of regeneration, “ by the laver of rege¬ 
 neration,” as it is rendered in our baptismal office; 
 by “ the fountain of the new birth 3 ,” as one of 
 our Homilies expresses it. By comparing together 
 the several parts of this passage, it is evident that 
 baptism is here represented as the mean through 
 which, or the instrument by which the Holy Spirit 
 of God regenerates us ; and thereby makes us heirs 
 
 1 Ridley’s Life of Bishop Ridley, p. 437* 2 Tit. iii. 4—7* 
 
 3 Homily on the Nativity, p. 345. 
 
24 
 
 Regeneration the 
 
 of that eternal life, which the mercy of God our Sa¬ 
 viour hath provided for those whom he justifies and 
 saves. 
 
 The same apostle, in his first Epistle to the Corin¬ 
 thians, again representing as before the wretchedness 
 of unbelievers, immediately adds, with reference to 
 the Christian converts, whom he was addressing, 
 “ And such were some of you: but ye are washed, 
 but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name 
 of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God V’ 
 Where, as the Lord Jesus is mentioned as the meri¬ 
 torious cause of sanctification and justification, and 
 the Spirit of our God as the efficient and operating 
 cause; so also is the washing of baptism mentioned 
 as the instrument by which those blessings are 
 conveyed: for “ then it is,” saith Bishop Taylor, 
 (t that God pours forth, together with the sacramental 
 waters, a salutary and holy fountain of grace, to wash 
 the soul from all its stains and impure adherences 2 .” 
 It is true, that in this passage there occurs no such 
 expression as regeneration, or the being born again ; 
 but, as it was before argued, if a person must be born 
 again in order to be saved or justified, and if by bap¬ 
 tism he is saved or justified, it then necessarily follows 
 that by baptism he is born again. 
 
 The argument is more direct from what the same 
 apostle says to the Colossians: “ Buried with Christ 
 in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through 
 the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him 
 from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins, 
 and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quick¬ 
 ened together with him 3 .” What can be plainer or 
 stronger to the point? Dead in their sins, and buried 
 in baptism, by baptism also they were raised and 
 quickened by God. 
 
 To the Homans he employs the same figure, de- 
 
 2 Taylor’s Life of Christ, p, 199. 
 
 3 1 Col. ii. 12, 13. 
 
 1 1 Cor. vi. 11. 
 
Spiritual Grace of Baptism, %5 
 
 scribing baptism as a burial, wherein they were dead 
 unto sin and alive unto God: adding withal a parti¬ 
 cular, which confirms an opinion presently to be in¬ 
 sisted on, that no other than baptismal regeneration 
 is to be expected in this world. For having observed, 
 “ that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no 
 more : death hath no more dominion over him : for in 
 that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he 
 liveth, he liveth unto God 1 the Apostle immedi¬ 
 ately subjoins, “ Likewise reckon ye also yourselves,” 
 likewise, in a like or in the same manner, “ to be dead 
 unto sin. but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord.” Does not the language of the Apostle war¬ 
 rant the argument, that we are born anew in baptism ; 
 and in baptism exclusively? 
 
 In the epistle to the Ephesians, again, he takes for 
 the ground of an exhortation to conjugal affection, 
 that “ Christ loved the Church, and gave himself 
 for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the 
 washing of water by the word ; that he might present 
 it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or 
 wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be 
 holy and without blemish 2 ” Sanctification and 
 purity, unspotted and unblemished holiness, are 
 here attributed to the Church of Christ, as the effect 
 of the washing of water. But what water could 
 produce such an effect without the operation of the 
 Spirit? And what rite is performed by their joint 
 operation, but the sacrament of baptism ? And by 
 what appropriate scriptural term is the effect of their 
 united influence to be denominated, but by that of 
 regeneration ? 
 
 Similar questions arise from the affirmation of the 
 same Apostle to the Corinthians: “ By one Spirit 
 we are all baptized into one body 3 .” Allow the 
 baptism here spoken of to be used in a literal sense, 
 
 1 Rom. vi. 4. 11. 2 Eph> v 25, 26, 27. 
 
 3 1 Cor. xii. 13. 
 
 B 
 
 [ 184 ] 
 
2Q Regeneration the 
 
 and its spiritual, and in course its regenerating, in¬ 
 fluence follows. Maintain that the use of the term 
 is figurative, as the Quaker does in this and other 
 passages of the New Testament, and with him you 
 may renounce the sacrament of baptism; which per¬ 
 haps it were more consistent to do altogether, than 
 to retain the ceremony, and to divest it, as far as can 
 depend upon the denial, of that which gives it its 
 
 value. , 
 
 The same inference is to be drawn from St. Peter s 
 first exhortation to the Jews after our Saviours as¬ 
 cension ; i( Repent, and be baptized every one of you 
 in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, 
 and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost 1 . 
 The same inference follows from his language on his 
 first preaching to the Gentilest when, although the 
 Holy Ghost immediately fell on them, so that they 
 spake with tongues, and some might probably have 
 thought it unnecessary to baptize such as had al¬ 
 ready received the Holy Ghost, yet (says Bishop 
 Beveridge) “ the Apostle, considering that this gilt 
 of the Holy Ghost was only to enable them to speak 
 with tongues, not to regenerate them, inferred fiom 
 thence that they ought the rather to be baptized . 
 Can any man, said he, forbid water, that these 
 should not be baptized, who have received the Holy 
 Ghost as well as we ? And he therefore commanded 
 them to be baptized in the name of the Lord; 
 which he would never have done, if it had not been 
 necessary for them to be born of water and of the 
 Spirit 2 .” And such is the inference from Ananias s 
 admonition to Paul, after his miraculous conversion : 
 (i And now why tarriest thou ? Arise, and be bap¬ 
 tized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of 
 the Lord 3 .” 
 
 It may be here not unimportant to remark, that as 
 we argue for baptism being the vehicle of regenera- 
 
 1 Acts ii. 38. 2 Bishop Beveridge’s Works, vol. i. p. 305. 3 Acts u. 38. 
 
Spiritual Grace of Baptism, 27 
 
 tion, because it is the vehicle of salvation to which 
 regeneration is necessary; so also we may come to 
 the same conclusion from this consideration ; that all 
 Christians, all persons who have been baptized, are 
 indiscriminately said to have been regenerated. In 
 the passages already cited from several epistles of St. 
 Paul, it will have appeared, that he applies the term 
 to large societies of believers ; especially to the 
 churches at Pome and at Colosse. The language, 
 which he addresses to Titus upon that subject, ap¬ 
 pears to be at least equally comprehensive ; whilst 
 St. Peter and St. John, each in a catholic epistle, ad¬ 
 dressed to immense societies of Christians scattered 
 throughout the east, describe the persons whom they 
 address as “ sons of God V* “ begotten and born 
 again V’ But wherefore, unless their regeneration 
 was the effect of an ordinance, of which all Christians 
 in general partake ? And if so, of what ordinance but 
 of baptism ? 
 
 From these several authorities I apprehend it to 
 be established, as the general doctrine of the Gospel, 
 that the new birth or regeneration, which is pro¬ 
 nounced by our Saviour to be necessary to salvation, 
 or (as he expresses it) to seeing or entering into the 
 kingdom of God, is effected by the operation of the 
 Holy Ghost at baptism. To this purpose beautiful 
 and satisfactory is the illustration of the learned 
 Joseph Mede, where, speaking of St. Paul's text to 
 Titus, as making baptism and regeneration type and 
 countertype, he adds, “ The same was represented by 
 that vision at our Saviour’s baptism, of the Holy 
 Ghost descending upon him as he came out of the 
 water, in the similitude of a dove : for I suppose,” he 
 continues, iC that in that baptism of his the mystery 
 of all our baptisms was visibly acted ; and that God 
 says to every one truly baptized, as he said to him, in 
 a proportionable sense, Thou art my son, in whom I 
 
 1 1 John iii. 2. 2 1 Pet. i 3 2 
 
 B 2 
 
gg Regeneration the 
 
 am well pleased V’ Indeed, to deny the regenerating 
 influence of baptism is to deny its sacramental charac¬ 
 ter ; to strip it of that which makes it most taluable 5 
 and to reduce it to a mere “ beggarly element, a 
 form without substance, a body without spirit, a sign 
 without signification; it is as one sound Divine de¬ 
 scribes it, “ to make it no better than a piece of 
 solemn pageantry 1 2 or (to adopt the comparison of 
 the same learned writer to whom I lately referred) it 
 is “ to make of it an empty shell, whose kernel is 
 taken out; or a carcase whose soul is gone 3 . ’ Of the 
 folly of this conduct, and of the source from which it 
 proceeds, one of our excellent Reformers strongly ex¬ 
 pressed his opinion, when he said, that “ in all ages 
 the devil had stirred up some light heads to esteem 
 the sacraments but lightly, as to be empty and baie 
 si^ns 4 and of the tendency of this conduct we have 
 a memorable proof in the Calvinistic founder of 
 Methodism, who deprecated “ disputing about bap¬ 
 tism, and other non-essentials, as the effect of a nar¬ 
 row spirit, a party sectarian zeal 5 .” Strip the sacra¬ 
 ment of its spiritual character, and we see to what it is 
 
 avowedly reduced. . . . .. . 
 
 I am well aware, that no authority is admissible 
 for the foundation of a doctrine, except that of the 
 inspired writings. It is however sometimes of advan¬ 
 tage to know, and it affords a strong collateral sup¬ 
 port to a doctrine if we can learn, how controverted 
 expressions have been understood by those, who 
 were most likely to be acquainted with their proper 
 signification. The testimony of the ancient Fathers 
 was esteemed one of the best criterions of the sense 
 of the holy Scriptures concerning the sacraments, by 
 (i a worthy martyr of God, the glory of the English 
 
 1 Meae’s Works, Disc. xvii. 
 
 3 Examination of Tilenus, p. 267* 
 
 3 Mede’s Works, Book i. Disc, xliii. 
 
 4 Latimer. See Ridley’s Lite of Bishop Ridley, p. 4oJ). 
 
 3 Whitefield’s Works, vol. i. p. 394. 
 
Spiritual Grace of Baptism. 2d 
 
 Reformation,” who endured the flames in support of 
 the true evangelical doctrine of the Lord’s supper, 
 and whose opinion of the other sacrament, coinciding 
 with that of his brother in faith and martyrdom, al¬ 
 ready laid before you, is contained in his own declara¬ 
 tion, that “ ag the body is nourished by the bread 
 and wine at the communion, and the soul by grace 
 and spirit with the body of Christ; even so in bap¬ 
 tism the body is washed with the visible water, and 
 the soul is cleansed from all filth by the invisible Holy 
 Ghost V’ 
 
 It may therefore be useful to remark, and it will 
 be a curious remark to those who bear in mind the 
 assertion of one of our accusers about “ baptismal re¬ 
 generation being the Diana of the present age that 
 the opinions of the early Christians uniformly support 
 the doctrine, which I have been deducing from the 
 authority of Scripture. ii What Christ means by 
 being born of water and of the Spirit,” observed Bishop 
 Beveridge about 150 years ago, is now made a ques¬ 
 tion ; I say now; for it was never made so till ol late 
 years. For many ages together none ever doubted it, 
 but the whole Christian world took it for granted, that 
 our Saviour by these words meant only, that except a 
 man be baptized according to his institution, he can¬ 
 not enter into the kingdom of God: this being the 
 most plain and obvious sense of the words, forasmuch 
 as there is no other way of being born again of water 
 as well as of the Spirit, but only in the sacrament of 
 baptism V’ 
 
 Baptism indeed, and regeneration, the terms which 
 specifically denote the outward sign and the spi¬ 
 ritual grace, appear to have been employed by the 
 early Christians, as expressions of the same import. 
 “ Whoever,” says Justin Martyr, “ are persuaded and 
 believe that the things taught and said by us are 
 true, and undertake to live agreeably to them, are 
 
 1 Ridley’s Life of Bp. Ridley, p. 684, 669, 620. 
 
 2 Beveridge’s Works, vol. i. p. 304. 
 
 B 3 
 
30 Regeneration the 
 
 led by us to a place where there is water, and are 
 regenerated in the same manner, in which we were 
 regenerated : for they are washed in the name of God 
 the Father and Lord of all, of our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. For Christ said, If 
 ye are not regenerated, ye shall not enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven.” And it is the doctrine of 
 Austin, whose opinion will doubtless weigh with 
 those, who represent his doctrines as the model of 
 their own, that “ they, who partake of the sacrament 
 of baptism, die unto sin, as Christ also died unto sin, 
 that is, unto the flesh, the image of sin ; and live, by 
 being born again of the laver, as he by rising from 
 the grave.” And this doctrine he maintains without 
 any limitation, or rather excepting against every 
 limitation, in point of age. “ For,” (he subjoins) 
 “ from the infant newly born, even to the decrepit old 
 man, as no one is to be prohibited from baptism, so 
 there is no one who does not die unto sin in baptism; 
 but infants die only to original sin, adults to all their 
 sins, whatsoever they have added by their evil lives 
 to that which they contracted at their births.” But 
 not to multiply quotations to this effect from the 
 writers of antiquity, I observe in the words of a 
 learned and sound Divine of the last century, that, 
 4< it has been well proved at large, beyond all reason¬ 
 able contradiction, that both the Greek and Latin 
 Fathers not only used the word regeneration for bap¬ 
 tism, but so appropriated it also to baptism, as to ex¬ 
 clude any other conversion or repentance, not con¬ 
 sidered with baptism, from being signified by that 
 name ; so that according to the ancients, regenera¬ 
 tion or new birth was either baptism itself (including 
 both sign and thing); or a change of man’s spiritual 
 state, considered as wrought by the Spirit in and 
 through baptism V* 
 
 1 Waterland on Regeneration. See Churchman ’3 Remembrancer, 
 No. I. p. 9. 
 
Spiritual Grace of Baptism, 31 
 
 The doctrine being thus generally established, it 
 rests with those who contend for any other regene¬ 
 ration, to show either the exception to its taking 
 place at baptism; or that having then taken place, 
 it may afterwards be repeated. We have, as I be¬ 
 lieve, and, as I trust hath been sufficiently demon¬ 
 strated, scriptural authority for asserting, that bap¬ 
 tism is the vehicle of the new birth; so that although 
 I dare not make, I could not controvert the assertion, 
 if made in the language of Bishop Hopkins, without 
 the limitations with which he qualifies the proposition, 
 “ that baptismal regeneration must be acknowledged 
 by all, that will not wilfully shut their eyes against 
 the clear evidence of Scripture V* And if ever the 
 new-birth be not conveyed by baptism, rightly re¬ 
 ceived ; or if, when once regenerated, it be (I will not 
 say necessary, but) possible for any one to be born 
 again, doubtless there is scriptural authority to that 
 purpose. Let the authority then be adduced. Let it 
 be shown from Holy Writ, that any person, by whom 
 baptism was rightly received, was not regenerated; 
 let it be shown that any person having been once 
 baptized, is described under any circumstances what¬ 
 ever of repentance, reformation, renovation, or con¬ 
 version, to have been again regenerated: let it be 
 shown, that the Apostles, who are perpetally exhort¬ 
 ing their Christian converts to changes such as 
 these, do once exhort them to become regenerate; 
 do once enforce the necessity of it; or even affirm, or 
 at least insinuate, its possibility ; and we may then 
 perceive some reason for wavering in our belief. It 
 will then be ample time to condemn us for error, 
 when we can be convicted from the oracles of truth: 
 meanwhile, standing, as we trust we do, on the 
 unshaken rock of the Gospel, let us not be accused 
 of an heathenish superstition, until the Gospel can be 
 brought to confute us. 
 
 1 Works, vol. ii. p. 423. 8vo. ed. 
 B 4 
 
32 Regeneration the 
 
 The error of our accusers appears to have arisen 
 from disregarding the outward form of regenera¬ 
 tion ; from an inattention to the union intended 
 by our Saviour when he said, that we must be born 
 of water and of the Spirit; an inattention of which 
 Calvin set the example by contending, that the ex¬ 
 pressions <c water and the Spirit mean- only the Spirit, 
 who cleanses after the manner of waterand from 
 a consequent confusion between regeneration and re¬ 
 novation or conversion, with which it has often been 
 identified, but from which it ought clearly to be dis¬ 
 tinguished. Let me not be esteemed presumptuous, 
 or insensible to the authority of a venerable name, 
 if I observe, that a celebrated Prelate, who ranks 
 especially high in the estimation of certain members 
 of our Church, appears to have been under the 
 influence of this confusion; for he unequivocally 
 avers-, that in many places of Scripture regeneration 
 is ascribed to the holy ordinance of baptism, as one 
 of the effects of it, and explains the bath of rege¬ 
 neration, mentioned by St. Paul, to signify that bap¬ 
 tismal water, wherein we are buried with Christ; 
 and nevertheless considers this baptismal regenera¬ 
 tion, as merely admitting us members of the visible 
 Church, and not as entitling us to eternal life: and 
 contends for another regeneration, independent of 
 the washing by water, and identified by him with 
 conversion, renovation, and the like x . Such a 
 change of heart may be wrought either before, or 
 after baptism ; in persons either regenerate or un¬ 
 regenerate ; it qualifies them for regeneration, if 
 unbaptized; it restores them to the privileges of 
 baptism, which they may have forfeited by being 
 hardened in sin ; it accompanies those who are, 
 humanly speaking, good, through the whole course 
 of the Christian life. St. Paul was converted three 
 days before he was baptized; the incestuous Co- 
 
 1 See Bishop Hopkins’s Works, vol. ii. p. 402, 4G8, 476. 
 
Spiritual Grace of Baptism . 33 
 
 rinthian, who had been excommunicated from the 
 society of his brethren, was restored to them on his 
 repentance; and Simon Magus, “ who” (as Bishop 
 Wilson says) “ had received the washing of regene¬ 
 ration, and so was entitled to pardon upon his 
 repentance 1 ,” was exhorted by the apostle to re¬ 
 pent of his wickedness, and to “ pray God, if per¬ 
 haps the thought of his heart might be forgiven 
 and all of us are instructed to pray, agreeably to 
 apostolical language, that “ being regenerated and 
 adopted for the children of God, we may be daily 
 renewed by his Holy Spirit.” But where are we 
 instructed to pray after baptism for regeneration ? 
 Where is it intimated that the Corinthian was born 
 again, subsequently to his fall? Where was Simon 
 Magus admonished of the necessity of undergoing 
 another new birth? Or where is St. Paul described 
 as regenerated, until Ananias baptized him and 
 washed away his sins ? That he was converted, and 
 that his heart was renewed, is evident from the lan¬ 
 guage, which he uttered when he had fallen to the 
 earth, and from the obedience, which he paid to the 
 voice from heaven. That he was not regenerated 
 until a later period is equally evident; for when 
 Ananias called on him to be baptized, he was still 
 under the pollution of his sins. I am aware, indeed, 
 that we shall be told, that during the intermediate 
 time he was experiencing the pangs and agonies of 
 the new birth. The assertion may be permitted to 
 pass ; for a gratuitous assumption needs not to be 
 seriously confuted. More deserving of our attention, 
 and better calculated to give us correct notions, 
 because more agreeable to the representations of 
 Scripture, is the following statement of the learned 
 and judicious Hooker:—“ As we are not naturally 
 men without birth, so neither are we Christian men 
 in the eye of the Church of God, but by new birth; 
 
 1 See Wilson’s Works, vol. iv. p. 412. 
 ■r /» 
 
o4 Regeneration the 
 
 nor, according to the manifest ordinary course of 
 divine dispensation, new born, but by that baptism, 
 which both declareth and maketh us Christians. In 
 which respect we justly hold it to be the door of our 
 actual entrance into God’s house, the first apparent 
 beginning of life ; a seal perhaps to the grace of elec¬ 
 tion before received, but to our sanctification here, a 
 step that hath not any before it V* 
 
 It has been judged, that the error, which I am 
 combating, derives support from the words of St. 
 John, that “ whosoever is born of God doth not 
 commit sin, for his seed remainetli in him; and he 
 cannot commit sin, because he is born of God 1 2 .” 
 Whence it is contended, that as baptismal regenera¬ 
 tion does not secure a man from sin, another greater 
 and better new birth must be added to supply the 
 defect. 
 
 I shall not detain you at present by insisting on 
 the impossibility of any man attaining to a state of 
 sinless perfection, which these words, if strictly in¬ 
 terpreted, assert. But I shall be satisfied with con¬ 
 tending, that the conclusion is absurd, from a 
 consideration of the words themselves, and of their 
 context. 
 
 It will, I presume, be admitted, that the appel¬ 
 lation of “ born of God,” and “ the sons of God,” 
 are convertible terms; that if they occur in the same 
 composition, and especially within a few sentences 
 of each other, they must be understood of the same 
 description of persons; at least, that what may be 
 affirmed generally of the one, cannot be denied of 
 the other. Now, in the passage before us, the 
 Apostle affirms, that “ whosoever is born of God 
 cannot sinand a few verses before he affirms, 
 “ Beloved, now are we the sons of God;” so that 
 connecting the two assertions together, he will be 
 
 1 Ecclesiastical Polity, book v. chap. lx. vol. ii. p. 249. Oxf. edit. 
 
 2 1 John iii. 9. 
 
Spiritual Grace of Baptism. 35 
 
 made to affirm, that all the persons, to whom his 
 epistle was addressed, were incapable of sinning; a 
 hazardous affirmation this, if it be considered, that 
 the epistle was certainly addressed to large societies 
 of Christians; probably to those who were dispersed 
 throughout the provinces of the greater and the Lesser 
 Asia h 
 
 The truth appears to be, that St. John intended 
 to give a description of those persons, who, having 
 been regularly adopted for the sons of God by the 
 appointed means, continued to act in a manner wor¬ 
 thy of their adoption, by striving to profit by the 
 grace of God, which would then effectually preserve 
 them from the commission of the grosser sins. 
 “ Every regenerate person,” says Bishop Taylor, in 
 a passage which well explains the meaning of the 
 Apostle, “ is in a condition, whose very being is a 
 contradiction and an opposite design to sin. When 
 he w r as regenerate and born anew of water and of 
 the Spirit, the seed of God, the original of piety 
 was put into him, and bidden to increase and mul¬ 
 tiply. The seed of God in St. John is the same 
 with the word of God in St. James, by which he 
 begat us; arid, as long as this remains, a regenerate 
 person cannot be given up to sin: for when he 
 is, he quits his baptism, he renounces the covenant, 
 he alters his relation to God in the same degree 
 as he enters into a state of sin 1 2 .” The words 
 of the Apostle, therefore, are to be considered as a 
 caution to the regenerate, not to rely on their admis¬ 
 sion into filiation with God, as sufficient to secure 
 their eternal happiness; but to live up to their high 
 vocation, lest they should ultimately lose the pri¬ 
 vileges of their adoption by disobedience or unbe¬ 
 lief, and become as though they had not been born 
 again. 
 
 1 See Preface to Pyle’s Paraphrase. 
 
 2 Bishop Taylor’s Life of Christ, part ii. sect. 12. 
 
 B 6 
 
36 
 
 Regeneration the 
 
 Such was partly the design of the epistle, which 
 was directed against the errors of the Nicolaitans, and 
 other heretics, who taught, that the mere external 
 profession of the Christian faith, and the privilege of 
 being begotten into the true Church, would bring 
 men to happiness, whatever were their lives and prac¬ 
 tices h And such appears to be the proper import of 
 the particular passage that I have quoted. But 
 neither it, nor any other passage in St. John, nor any 
 other text of Scripture, appears to me to authorize 
 the doctrine of a second, or of any other distinct from 
 baptismal regeneration. 
 
 Under the limitation here contended for, we may 
 admit the position of an acute writer, that “ the 
 views, dispositions, and conduct of real Christians in¬ 
 variably characterize the regenerate children of God 
 in Scripture V’ Under the same limitation, too, may be 
 admitted that other position, by which discredit is 
 sometimes attempted to be brought on the doctrine of 
 baptismal regeneration, that “ there is an infallible 
 connexion between regeneration and salvation, so 
 that all, that were baptized in their infancy, must 
 necessarily be saved 3 . Positions, which are true, 
 precisely to the same extent as the assertion of the 
 Apostle, that “ by baptism we are dead unto sin, and 
 are freed from sinand as the promise of our Sa¬ 
 viour, that “ he that believeth, and is baptized, shall 
 be savedin other words, they are true of those per¬ 
 sons, who are preserved by faith and obedience in the 
 possession of those privileges, to which by baptism 
 they were admitted : but in a more extended signifi¬ 
 cation they are by no means correct; and in the un¬ 
 qualified terms, wherein they are often conveyed, are 
 calculated to perplex and mislead. 
 
 If now what has been advanced be true, it must 
 
 1 Preface to Pyle’s Paraphrase. * Overton, p. 409. 
 
 3 See Allein’s Alarm to the Unconverted, 1805, p. 39. Simpson’s 
 Plea for Religion, p. 56 . Whitefield’s Eighteen Sermons. 
 
Spiritual Grace of Baptism . 37 
 
 be an error for persons baptized in their infancy to 
 describe any subsequent period of their lives as i{ a 
 season of unregeneracy 1 ,” and to call upon men once 
 baptized to become regenerate: for no other new 
 birth can take place in this world. In fact, we 
 know of only three lives, and three correspondent 
 births. Once we are born into the natural life, 
 being born of Adam : once we are born into the spi¬ 
 ritual life, being born of water and of the Spirit: 
 and once also, if we take care to profit by our bap¬ 
 tismal privilege, we may be born into a life of glory, 
 being born of the resurrection at the last day. Into 
 our spiritual life, with which we are at present con¬ 
 cerned, as into the others also, we are born once : 
 to say that we are born into it more than once, has 
 no foundation in reason, no analogy in nature, nor 
 (what is much stronger to the purpose) has it any 
 warrant in Scripture. The condition of the Christian 
 life is well described by one of our Reformers, in a 
 work bearing the sanction of authority, where he dis¬ 
 tinguishes the uses of the sacraments; that “ as in 
 baptism we have been once born again, so by the 
 Lord’s supper we are perpetually nourished and sup¬ 
 ported to a spiritual and eternal life 2 .” It is indeed 
 in our spiritual, as in our natural life: as we may be 
 ill in health, and may grow better and recover, but 
 born again we cannot be; so we may be spiritually 
 ill, and again be renewed or reformed; but in that 
 case we still hope for everlasting salvation upon the 
 ground of the covenant, into which we were origi¬ 
 nally baptized: for inasmuch as there is but “ one 
 baptism,” so there is but one regeneration in this 
 world ; and as we cannot be baptized again, so cannot 
 we be a second time regenerated, or a second time 
 be born again. 
 
 Let it not be supposed that the present argument 
 
 1 Hawker’s Zion’s Pilgrim, p. 3. 
 
 3 Noel, Catech. Enchir. Theol. II. 222. 
 
38 Regeneration the 
 
 is a mere question of words; far indeed, very far 
 from it. The abuse of words in this, as in many 
 other cases, leads to material errors in opinion, and 
 to serious evils in practice. 
 
 Let us figure to ourselves a man, educated accord¬ 
 ing to the principles of the Church of England, but 
 seduced from “ the words of truth and soberness,” 
 which she delivers on the subject of regeneration ; 
 and enticed or terrified into the popular belief that 
 he is no Christian, and is not in a state of salvation 
 until he feel the pangs of the modern new birth. No 
 violence will be done to nature and probability, if we 
 suppose him reasoning with himself in some such 
 manner as the following: 
 
 ‘ When an infant, I was baptized according to the 
 order of the national Church; and the Minister 
 pronounced by her directions, that I was regenerated 
 by the Holy Spirit, and received by our most merci¬ 
 ful Father as his own child by adoption. As soon as 
 I was able to learn, I was taught what a great bless¬ 
 ing was then conferred upon me ; and that, by hav¬ 
 ing been admitted to baptism, I had been made a 
 child of God, and had undergone a death unto sin 
 and a new birth unto righteousness. When I had 
 been sufficiently instructed to be confirmed by the 
 Bishop, I heard from him a repetition of the com¬ 
 fortable assurance, that God had vouchsafed to rege¬ 
 nerate me by water and the Holy Ghost, and to give 
 me forgiveness of all my sins. And I have since 
 periodically joined with my brother Christians in 
 making our grateful acknowledgments to Almighty 
 God for being regenerate and made his children by 
 adoption and grace.* 
 
 ‘ The Church has thus uniformly instructed me 
 to look back upon regeneration as a thing which 
 is past; she has never taught me to look forward 
 to it, as a thing which is to come; she has never 
 bid me desire and pray for it, as a thing necessary; 
 she has never warned me to expect it, as a thing 
 
39 
 
 Spiritual Grace of Baptism. 
 
 expedient; she has never led me to regard it, as a 
 thing possible. I am not, however, convinced, not¬ 
 withstanding her assurances, comfortable as they 
 were, and her instructions, sound and scriptural as 
 they appeared to be, that Verily, verily, I must be 
 born again. 
 
 ‘ What can I think of such a Church ? Can I re¬ 
 gard her as a pillar and ground of the truth ? Can I 
 reverence her, who so grossly deluded me by a vision¬ 
 ary regeneration, and threw an impenetrable veil over 
 that which alone is effectual ? Who taught me to 
 think that I was in the way of salvation, when I had 
 not yet passed the threshold ? Who made me be¬ 
 lieve I was a child of God, when I was still a child 
 of the devil ? Who treated me as a Christian, when 
 I was nothing but a “baptized heathen?” Away 
 with such an unscriptural Church! With such a 
 mother of deceit and falsehood ! Away with such a 
 monster from the earth ! 
 
 ‘ What too shall I think of the Minister, who in¬ 
 structed me, according to the Liturgy and Articles of 
 that Church, of which he is too faithful a son ? He 
 recited to me her opinions in words of her own pro¬ 
 viding ; and he pretended to support them from the 
 pulpit, on the authority of the Bible. But he is 
 blind; he is ignorant; he saw for me visions of peace, 
 when there was no peace ; he spoke of my having 
 been quickened by the Holy Spirit, who had infused 
 into me a new principle of life, when I was still dead 
 in trespasses and sins. Can such an one be a 
 preacher of the Gospel ? 
 
 ‘ What again shall I think of baptism; of that 
 which I have been wont to consider as the laver of 
 regeneration; of that, which I have been taught is a 
 sacrament, consisting of an outward visible sign, and 
 an inward spiritual grace ? Truly it doth not rege¬ 
 nerate ; it conveys no effectual regeneration; it is 
 destitute of an inward spiritual grace; it is no sa¬ 
 crament ; it is a non-essential.’ 
 
 7 j 
 
40 Regeneration the 
 
 i 
 
 It will not have appeared perhaps that a syllable 
 has been here suggested, more than would probably 
 be uttered, or than probably has been in effect uttered, 
 by persons in the situation that I have supposed. 
 And if a man can bring his mind to think thus 
 meanly of baptism, ordained as it was by Christ 
 himself, with a promise of salvation annexed to its 
 legitimate administration; what will he think of 
 Christ’s other ordinances ? What of the other sacra¬ 
 ment, the holy communion of Christ’s body and 
 blood ? If the spiritual part of baptism be denied, 
 why should the spiritual part of the communion be 
 allowed ? If water be not really the laver of regene¬ 
 ration, why should bread and wine be spiritually the 
 body and blood of Christ, and convey strength and 
 refreshment to the soul? Surely it is not too much 
 to affirm, that the stripping of one of God’s ordi¬ 
 nances of that, which constitutes its essential value 
 has a natural tendency to bring the efficacy of the 
 others into question, and to diminish at least, if not 
 to annihilate, a man’s respect for them as means of 
 spiritual grace. 
 
 In this condition perhaps he will continue, some¬ 
 times exulting in hope, and sometimes sunk in de¬ 
 spondency : waiting for an extraordinary impulse of 
 the Holy Spirit, and neglecting the means of procur¬ 
 ing his ordinary sanctifying graces; until the moment 
 approach, in which, under the influence of some 
 powerful preacher, whose word is sharper than a 
 two-edged sword, he is to undergo his mysterious 
 regeneration; a regeneration, wherein, instead of 
 being born himself of water, and of the Spirit, 
 Christ is to be “ born in his heart as he was born in 
 the Virgin’s womb 1 a regeneration, without un¬ 
 dergoing the pangs of which he is taught that “ he 
 may flatter himself that he may go to heaven, but 
 will certainly find himself miserably mistaken in 
 
 1 Whitefield’s Eighteen Sermons, p. 307- 
 
41 
 
 Spiritual Grace of Baptism . 
 
 the end 1 ;” when, having experienced a st$te of 
 horror, agony, and despair, which mocks the language 
 of description, and which it were too painful, if it 
 were possible, to describe; a state of pangs and tra¬ 
 vails, which is necessary to be sustained by every one 
 ere Christ be formed in him ; a state, which has been 
 compared by those who have felt its horrors, to the 
 agonies of death, the pains of hell, and tortures in¬ 
 flicted by infuriate devils 2 ; he fancies that he is be¬ 
 gotten again ! that he is born of the Holy Spirit of 
 God! 
 
 What will be the future life of a man thus regene¬ 
 rated, I do not venture to pronounce. But in no¬ 
 ticing some evil consequences of a doctrine, which, 
 for the spiritual grace attendant upon the holy ordi¬ 
 nance of Christ, substitutes a wild and fanciful rege¬ 
 neration of man’s invention, we may be allowed to 
 speculate on the effects likely to be produced in one 
 thus initiated to the new birth. To speculate, did I 
 say, on probable effects ? Rather to call to mind 
 effects which have notoriously ensued, and to consi¬ 
 der whether they are not such as sober reason might 
 have foreseen. 
 
 The history of some popular modern sects does 
 strictly tally with the expectations of reason ; and if 
 among the regenerated of later days, who have been 
 thus tormented into the new birth, may have subse¬ 
 quently been driven through every species of extra¬ 
 vagance to the very extreme of irrecoverable, mad¬ 
 ness 3 ; if many, after a temporary exultation in the 
 love of God shed abroad in their hearts, have le- 
 lapsed into intolerable perplexities, distraction, and 
 despair 4 ; if many, after fancying themselves puri- 
 
 1 Whitefield’s Works, vol. i. p. 18. 
 
 2 Wesley’s Journals, and Enthusiasm of Methodists, &c. vol. in. p. 
 23, and following pages. 
 
 3 See an instance in Wesley’s Journals, No. V. p. 81. Enthusiasm 
 of Methodists, &c. vol. iii. p. 11—14. 
 
 4 Enthusiasm of Methodists, &c. vol. ii. p. 3, 140. 
 
42 Regeneration the Spiritual Grace of Baptism. 
 
 fied even as Christ is pure, have turned back and 
 become twofold more the children of hell than be¬ 
 fore 1 ; if many, who pretended to be conformed to 
 the image of Christ, have at that very instant conti¬ 
 nued under the dominion of grievous sins ; if many, 
 who imagine themselves thoroughly renewed in the 
 image of the meek and lowly Jesus, swell with pha- 
 risaical pride, thanking God that they are not as 
 other men are ; and if almost all regard their less 
 favoured brethren with scorn, and say “ stand by 
 thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than 
 thouand condemn those who admit not their pre¬ 
 tensions, and discountenance their conceits, as uncon¬ 
 verted unregenerate sinners ; it is no more than might 
 have been expected from men, who depreciate God’s 
 holy ordinance, deny its sanctifying efficacy, and con¬ 
 vert the workings of a feverish brain, or the impulse 
 of visionary feelings, into the operation of the Spirit 
 of truth. 
 
 Such a doctrine the Enthusiast may teach, and the 
 deluded multitude may follow. But it was a very 
 different regeneration, for which Paul prepared the 
 Gentiles, when he was sent to “ open their eyes, and 
 to turn them from darkness, to light, and from the 
 power of Satan unto God 2 and it was a very differ¬ 
 ent vision, to which he was obedient, when he repelled 
 the charge of insanity by speaking forth the words of 
 truth and soberness ; and forced from the royal Jew 
 that memorable and disinterested confession, “ Al¬ 
 most thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” 
 
 Now unto God the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 Ghost, three persons in the unity of one Godhead, 
 be all honour and glory for ever. Amen. 
 
 1 Wesley’s Farther Appeal, p. 130. 
 
 2 Acts xxvi. 18. 
 
TRACT II. 
 
 Matt, xviii. 2, 3. 
 
 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in 
 the midst of them, 
 
 And said , Verily I say unto you , Except ye be con - 
 verted , and become as little children , ye shall not enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 All the dispensations of Providence are tempered by 
 an harmonious principle ; and in the moral, as well as 
 in the natural world, every effect has an evident rela¬ 
 tion to its cause. In operations, whether intellectual 
 or material, it is irrational to expect similar results in 
 cases, between which an important difference prevails, 
 as to the powers of the agent, the disposition of the 
 patient, and the numerous contingent circumstances 
 by which they are respectively modified. 
 
 Eye-witnesses of the life, miracles, and resurrection 
 of Christ; capable from their personal observation of 
 demonstrating the fulfilment of ancient prophecies; 
 armed themselves also with miraculous power, and 
 endued by the Holy Ghost with the faculty of speak¬ 
 ing the language of every nation under heaven; the 
 Apostles preached the doctrines of Christianity to 
 men, whose senses bore testimony to the supernatural 
 endowments of the preachers ; and thus, “ in the de- 
 
44 A special and instantaneous Conversion 
 
 monstration of the Spirit and of power,” they con¬ 
 verted multitudes to a stedfast belief in Christ, and 
 to consequent holiness of living. But therefore to 
 suppose that the eloquence of a mere human preacher, 
 assisted only by the ordinary visitations of divine grace, 
 is to be followed by the immediate conversion of mul¬ 
 titudes of sinners, to whom the truths of the Gospel 
 have been long familiar, to uniform habits of Christian 
 purity, were as gross an absurdity as to suppose, 
 that a peasant could verify the boast of Archimedes, 
 and move the earth ; or that an astronomer could 
 realize the fiction of romance, and divert the sun from 
 its orbit. 
 
 The doctrine of conversion, as it is delivered by 
 some of our modern sectaries, is so much at variance 
 with the more sober, more rational, and (I trust) 
 more evangelical doctrine of the national clergy ; 
 and it is so vehemently enforced as absolutely neces¬ 
 sary to salvation, and the preaching of it is repre¬ 
 sented as so indispensable a criterion of the preaching 
 of the Gospel x , that it requires to be carefully exa¬ 
 mined ; and it is so closely connected, and by some 
 persons so thoroughly identified with regeneration, 
 which was examined in the preceding discourse, that it 
 naturally presents itself for the subject of our present 
 reflections. 
 
 Conversion, according to our notions, may not 
 improperly be said to consist of a rational convic¬ 
 tion of sin, and sense of its wretchedness and dan¬ 
 ger ; of a sincere penitence and sorrow of heart, at 
 having incurred the displeasure of a holy God ; 
 of stedfast purposes of amendment with the bless¬ 
 ing of the divine grace ; of a regular and diligent 
 employment of all the appointed means of grace ; 
 and of a real change of heart and life, of affections 
 and conduct, and a resolute perseverance in well¬ 
 doing. 
 
 1 See Whitefield’s Eighteen Sermons, p. 130. 
 
not necessary for Christians, 45 
 
 The triumph of such conversion as this is not 
 attended by alternations of extreme joy and despond¬ 
 ency ; of the most ecstatic rapture, and the most 
 gloomy despair; sometimes by heavenly exultation, 
 and sometimes by the agonies of hell. It has little 
 of what is brilliant and dazzling to decorate ; little 
 of what is magnificent and imposing to dignify and 
 exalt it. It cannot be described as intended by the 
 Lord to set the world in a flame 1 : the minister, 
 who is God’s instrument to effect it, cannot be pom¬ 
 pously represented to be carried as on eagle’s wings 2 ; 
 or be elevated in comparison with Joshua, going from, 
 city to city, and subduing the devoted nations: its 
 direction cannot be said to be marked out by a sign 
 from heaven, as the cloud employed by Providence to 
 conduct the people of Israel on their march through 
 the wilderness 3 : its progress cannot be described to 
 be terrible as an army with banners 4 : its effects 
 cannot be extolled into a rivalry with the success of 
 the victorious and imperial Constantine 5 . But if its 
 operations are slow, they are certain ; if its effects 
 are milder, they are more secure : if its conquests 
 are less extensive, and it draws a less numerous 
 crowd of suppliants at its chariot wheels, it exerts a 
 more permanent dominion over those whom it has 
 subdued. Unambitious of earthly distinction, and 
 contented with doing good, its throne is the humble 
 and contrite spirit, and its sceptre is righteousness and 
 peace. 
 
 But I am anticipating remarks, which might ap¬ 
 pear more pertinent after the comparison, which I 
 purpose to institute in the present discourse, be¬ 
 tween the scriptural and methodistical notions of 
 conversion. The result will probably authorize us to 
 conclude, that by declining to adopt the latter, and 
 
 1 Whitefielcl’s Works, vol. i. p. 200. 2 Ibid. vol. i. p. 367- 
 
 3 Ibid. vol. i. 370, 407, 451, 477- 4 Ibid. vol. i. p. 398. 
 
 5 Wesley’s Farther Appeal, p. 92. 
 
46 A special and instantaneous Conversion 
 
 by representing conversion with a very different com¬ 
 plexion from those artificial colours, with which it 
 has been _ disguised by the enthusiast, we are ascrib¬ 
 ing to it its legitimate character, and maintaining the 
 simplicity of the Gospel and “ the truth as it is in 
 Jesus” 
 
 f< Except ye be converted, and become as little 
 children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of 
 heavensuch was our Saviour’s warning to the 
 unbelieving Jews; and it was a warning highly ne¬ 
 cessary to be impressed, not upon them alone, but 
 upon men of every description to whom the Gospel 
 was originally preached. The Gospel militated 
 against the prejudices, the pride, and the corrupt 
 passions of all men: nor, unless they were subdued 
 and superseded by humility, docility, modesty, sim¬ 
 plicity, and that comparative innocence, which are 
 the most distinguishing qualities of childhood, could 
 it be effectually received. Among the Jews, he 
 who obstinately resisted, and he who more actively 
 persecuted, the faith of Christ; the Pharisee, who 
 commended his own righteousness, and trusted to 
 an exact performance of the ritual ordinances of the 
 law; the Sadducee, who denied a resurrection ; the 
 Scribe, who was zealous for the Mosaic institutions; 
 even the disciple, who was ambitious of sitting on 
 the right hand or on the left of his Master, in what 
 he expected would be a temporal kingdom; and 
 generally every child of Abraham, who was habitually 
 and fondly attached to the national belief of the 
 perpetuity of their exclusive privileges: among the 
 Gentiles, those who were spoiled and seduced by 
 philosophy . and vain deceit; the sceptic, who 
 doubted, and the infidel, who denied the existence 
 or the providence . of a Supreme Being; and the 
 idolater, who worshipped the creature more than the 
 Creator, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible 
 God into an image made like to corruptible man : 
 and universally, both among Jews and among Gen- 
 
not necessary for Christians, 47 
 
 tiles, those who were living under the dominion of 
 sin, or were not duly convinced of the necessity of a 
 Redeemer: every man, who was subject to prepos¬ 
 sessions such as these, (and they comprise almost 
 every soul of man that breathed,) must have been 
 converted from his errors whether in principle or in 
 practice : his heart must have been opened, and soft¬ 
 ened, and rendered capable of receiving fresh and to¬ 
 tally different impressions, before he could become a 
 believer in the truth, or a performer of the duties of 
 the Gospel. 
 
 Every man, who now also is under the influence 
 of similar prepossessions, must now also undergo a 
 similar change. Every unbeliever and every sinner, 
 although made by baptism a member of Christ and 
 a child of God, must be, in a certain sense, con¬ 
 verted, if he would ultimately succeed to his inhe¬ 
 ritance of the kingdom of heaven. But to fanc^ 
 that every Christian whatever must experience a 
 conversion in order to be in a state of salvation ; 
 —to assert, with the Arminian Founder of Me¬ 
 thodism, that “ he who knows no time, when he had 
 need of such a vast and mighty change as a change 
 from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto 
 God, from death unto life, may by this also know, if 
 he give himself leave to think, that he is not born of 
 the Spirit, that he has never yet known God, but has 
 mistaken the voice of nature for the voice of God . 
 —to suppose, with his Calvinistic competitor, that 
 in every Christian congregation there are two sorts 
 of people, some that know Christ, and some that 
 do not know him, some that are converted, and 
 some that are strangers to conversion 3 and to 
 assert that “ every person must be converted or be 
 damned, and that they who die in an unconverted 
 state must be damned for ever 3 to contend, as is 
 
 1 Wesley’s Sermons, vol. i. p. 157- 
 
 2 Whitefield’s Works, vol. v. p. 338. 
 
 3 Whitefield’s Eighteen Sermons, p. 124, 292. 
 
48 A special and instantaneous Conversion 
 
 stated to be the opinion of our self-denominated 
 evangelical brethren by their Apologist, that “ in 
 order to a state of salvation, a change of mind, of 
 views, and dispositions must be effected in every 
 person , wherever born, however educated, or of what¬ 
 ever external conduct 1 —this is a conceit which 
 
 revelation warrants not, and which reason and expe¬ 
 rience disclaim. 
 
 That no man, however near he may approach to 
 the perfection of the Christian character, and how¬ 
 ever lovely an example he may exhibit of the beauty 
 of holiness, is absolutely perfect and free from the 
 dominion of sin, I readily admit. Every man has 
 been undoubtedly guilty of “ sins, negligences, and 
 ignorances,” for which he will be brought to ac¬ 
 count, and will need the atoning blood of the Re¬ 
 deemer. But some humble Christians also un¬ 
 doubtedly there are, who, having been once rege¬ 
 nerated by water and the Holy Spirit, have so fol¬ 
 lowed his heavenly motions, and improved his 
 sanctifying graces; have so pursued the calm and 
 blameless ten our of their way ; have preserved that 
 childlike simplicity of character, and that childlike 
 innocence of conduct, that their angels may not blush 
 to behold the face of their heavenly Father. 
 
 Such was the conversation even under the Jewish 
 law of Zacharias and Elizabeth, “ who were both 
 righteous before God, walking in all the command¬ 
 ments and ordinances of the Lord blameless 2 .” 
 And if the ministration of Moses, which was in 
 comparison a ministration of death, was thus glorious, 
 how shall not the ministration of Christ, which is 
 the ministration of the Spirit, be rather glorious ? 
 How shall not the covenant of God be established, 
 wherein he hath bound himself by an oath to Abra¬ 
 ham, that he would grant us a power to “ serve him 
 
 1 Overton’s True Churchman, &c. p. 160. 
 
 2 Luke i. 6. 2 Cor. iii. 7, 8. 
 
not necessary for Christians . 49 
 
 in holiness and righteousness all the days of our 
 life 1 ■?” 
 
 And are we to be told that Christians such as 
 these, must experience an entire change of heart, a 
 thorough conversion of their ways ? It is not to 
 ascribe any merit to their righteousness ; it is no 
 prejudice to the precious efficacy of the Redeemer’s 
 blood, or to the all-sufficiency of the Holy Spirit, 
 (God forbid!) to say that they need no conversion. 
 By that blood they have been purified from the 
 original corruption of their nature ; by that blood 
 they have been cleansed of their actual sins ; by the 
 Holy Spirit of God they have been regenerated ; his 
 preventing grace hath conducted them ; his assisting 
 grace hath co-operated with, and given effect to 
 their zealous endeavours to persevere in the course 
 of piety and virtue ; his sanctifying influence renews 
 and invigorates them day by day. Let God have 
 all the glory of their continuance in their Christian 
 career; but let it not be judged necessary that 
 they should undergo “ a change of mind, of views, 
 and dispositions,” when that change must be from 
 holiness unto sin ; let them not be subject to a con¬ 
 version, which must be the very reverse of turning 
 them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan 
 unto God. 
 
 It is the remark of a learned prelate, to whose 
 labours in the discharge of a weighty and important 
 office many of us have been indebted for instruction 
 in sound theology 2 , that “ we are not told in Scrip¬ 
 ture, as we are now imperiously called upon, to 
 divide our hearers, being believers in Christianity in 
 common, into the classes of converted and uncoil- 
 
 1 Luke i. 76. 
 
 2 It may be necessary to observe, in explanation of this allusion, 
 which is the only one of a local or occasional nature retained in the 
 present edition of these Sermons, that they were delivered in Oxford, 
 where the venerable Bishop of London, lately deceased, had long filled 
 the station of Regius Professor of Divinity, with great honour to him¬ 
 self, and benefit to the University. 
 
 [164] 
 
 c 
 
. 50 A special and instantaneous Conversion 
 
 verted. There is indeed a conversion from infidelity: 
 or a conversion from sin, or from any particular sin, 
 or course of sinning. He which converteth a sinner 
 from the error of his way (so saith St. James most 
 divinely in a far other strain, and in the true spirit of 
 Christianity) shall save a soul from death, and shall 
 hide a multitude of sins. But that among men, 
 baptized as Christians, taught from their infancy to 
 believe the doctrines and practice the duties of 
 Christianity, a special conversion also at some period 
 of their life is necessary to stamp them true Christ¬ 
 ians, is an unheard-of thing in the Gospel, and is 
 plainly a novel institution of man. Thus taken it is 
 a spurious substitute for the true hinge of Christi¬ 
 anity, repentance ; with which in Scripture we find it 
 conjoined as one and the same: Repent, and be con¬ 
 verted, that your sins may he blotted out V’ 
 
 To represent conversion, then, as universally ne¬ 
 cessary to all Christians, because it was universally 
 necessary to all men, before they became Christians, 
 or because it is necessary to all, who, whether through 
 unbelief or impiety, have become apostates, as it were, 
 from the religion which they professed, is a distin¬ 
 guished and fundamental error in the methodistical 
 creed. And it is likely to redound very little either 
 to the advancement, or to the honour, of genuine 
 Christianity, thus to confound those who are estranged 
 from that faith or obedience, which are the duty of its 
 professors, with those,' * who having remembered their 
 Creator, and devoutly submitted to be taught of him 
 from their youth up, have conscientiously endeavoured 
 both to believe and to live, as it becometh the follow¬ 
 ers of Christ. 
 
 In describing conversion as necessary to every pro¬ 
 fessor of the Gospel, some of our self-denominated 
 evangelical brethren appear - to err in common with 
 our more extravagant accusers: for, notwithstanding 
 
 1 Bishop Randolph’s Charge at Bangor, 1808, p. 16. 
 
not necessary for Christians. 51 
 
 the more sober and qualified language of one, who 
 seems to step forward as the advocate of their cause, 
 and whom I always wish to mention with honour 
 for his Christian moderation \ their professed, and 
 (if I mistake not) their more accredited advocate 
 affirms, that “ in order to a state of salvation such 
 a change must be effected in every person, where- 
 ever born, however educated, or of whatever ex¬ 
 ternal conduct.” In the nature of the thing, however, 
 and in the method of its being effected, where 
 previous habits of irreligion and worldly-mindedness 
 render it necessary, I trust we do not materially 
 differ ; for my own part, considering it in the light, 
 in which it is represented by the former of these 
 writers, or understanding with the latter, that it 
 consists in (t the actual reformation of the heart, and 
 character; that the author of this happy change is 
 the Holy Spirit, but that it is generally effected, and 
 is always to be sought after, in the diligent use of 
 the appointed means of grace ; that it is no instan¬ 
 taneous operation, which finishes the whole business 
 of religion at once, but that it is the serious com¬ 
 mencement of a work, which it requires the vigor¬ 
 ous exertions of the whole life to complete 1 2 : con¬ 
 sidering conversion, I say, in this light, 1 can cheer¬ 
 fully concur with our brethren in maintaining the 
 necessity of such a change to every one, who is 
 satisfied with mere nominal Christianity, or with any 
 thing short of true Christian holiness both of heart 
 and life ; although I cannot but be of opinion that 
 we are adhering more closely to the simplicity of 
 evangelical truth, whilst, with our venerable Church, 
 we impress the necessity of such a change upon our 
 hearers by the appellation of a true repentance; 
 and that we are at the same time more free from 
 causing perplexity in the minds of those, who are of 
 
 1 See Zeal without Innovation, pages 96, and following. 
 
 2 Overton, p. 162, 163. 
 
 c 2 
 
52 A special and instantaneous Conversion 
 
 themselves little capable of discrimination ; and that 
 we more unequivocally discountenance the unwar¬ 
 ranted conceits, by declining the phraseology, of en¬ 
 thusiasm. 
 
 To proceed: as the Methodists err in respect 
 of the extent, by multiplying the subjects, of con¬ 
 version : they err no less in respect of the rapidity, 
 with which it is to be effected. It is represented as 
 an operation, which is completed always suddenly; 
 very frequently in a moment; instantaneously, and 
 with the rapidity of lightning. “ The Gospel',” said 
 one of their leaders, “ like its Author, is the same 
 yesterday, to-day, and for ever; and if preached as 
 it ought to be, will prick numbers to the heart, and 
 extort the cry of the trembling gaoler, What must I 
 do to be saved? as surely now, as it did seventeen 
 hundred years ago. These are the sudden and 
 surprising effects I always desire to have; and I 
 heartily pray God,” he adds, addressing himself to 
 a contemporary Prelate, “ your lordship and all your 
 clergy may always see such effects in consequence 
 of their preaching V’ And more fully, in order that 
 the notion of an instantaneous change may not 
 appear deficient in parallels, and unsupported by the 
 authority of Scripture, we are informed by the other 
 great leader of the schism, who once entertained 
 doubts concerning the doctrine, of which he after¬ 
 wards became a determined advocate, “ I could not 
 comprehend what was meant by an instantaneous 
 work; I could not understand, how this faith could 
 be given in a moment; how a man could at once 
 be turned from darkness to light; from sin and 
 misery to righteousness and joy in the Holy Ghost. 
 
 I searched the Scriptures again, touching this very 
 thing, particularly the Acts of the Apostles; but 
 to my utter astonishment found scarce any other 
 instances there of other than instantaneous con- 
 
 7 Whitefield’s Works, vol. iv. p. 13. 
 
not necessary for Christians. 53 
 
 versions ; scarce any other so slow as that of St. 
 Paul, who was three days in the pangs of the new 
 birth V* 
 
 Now that we may not lose by such a summary 
 reference to Scripture the benefit of that light, which 
 a more ample examination of the instances there re¬ 
 corded is admirably calculated to supply; we will take 
 a view of some of the most striking examples, which 
 it contains, of sudden and instantaneous conversion; 
 carrying with us at the same time this, not unimport¬ 
 ant, remark, that the conversions there recorded are 
 for the most part, if not entirely, conversions of Jews 
 and Heathens, that is, of unbelievers, to a belief in the 
 Christian revelation ; and not of hardened sinners to 
 habits of piety and virtue. Their conversion indeed 
 was followed by the fruits of a Christian faith ; but 
 the conversion itself was a turning from darkness unto 
 light; from the obscurity of heathen superstition, or 
 the comparative twilight of the Jewish revelation, to 
 the Christian dayspring which visited them from on 
 high : which first enlightened their understandings, and 
 then guided their feet into the way of peace. 
 
 In the first place then, I observe, that, where the 
 conversion was sudden or instantaneous, it was the 
 consequence of miraculous evidence to the truth. 
 When the preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost 
 added to the Church three thousand souls, they were 
 men, who had been “ amazed and confounded” by 
 the effusion of the Holy Ghost, and the supernatural 
 gift of tongues 1 2 . When five thousand men believed 
 the word preached by Peter and John, it was whilst 
 they were “ filled with wonder and amazement” at 
 the restoration of him, who had been lame from his 
 mother’s womb 3 . It was the sight of the paralytic, 
 who had been restored to health by the word of Peter, 
 
 1 Wesley’s Journals, No. II. p. 92. Coke’s Life of Wesley, p. 443. 
 
 2 Acts ii. 3 Ibid. iii. iv. 
 
 c 3 
 
54 A special and instantaneous Conversion 
 
 which occasioned all the people of Lydda and Saron 
 to “ turn unto the Lord 1 .” It was the blindness in¬ 
 flicted by Paul on Elymas the sorcerer, which made 
 the Proconsul of Asia “ believe, in astonishment at 
 the doctrine of the Lord 2 .” It was the supernatural 
 earthquake, and the composure, little less super¬ 
 natural, of Paul and Silas, which forced from the 
 jailor at Philippi his earnest inquiry, “ Sirs, what 
 shall I do to be saved 3 ?” It was “ the light from 
 heaven above the brightness of the sun,” and the 
 voice of “ the heavenly vision,” which converted Paul 
 himself from an active persecutor, into a most zealous 
 propagator, of the truth 4 . Such are the most strik¬ 
 ing examples, which the evangelical history affords, 
 of sudden or instantaneous conversions. And need 
 I insist more fully on the causes, to which they are 
 to be immediately referred ? Need I repeat a former 
 observation, that, where such causes do not exist, such 
 effects are not to be expected ? And am I not war¬ 
 ranted in affirming, notwithstanding the pretensions 
 which some of the abettors of modern enthusiasm 
 have advanced, that such causes do not at present 
 exist ? 
 
 In cases such as these, the chain of interrogatories 
 employed heretofore by the Puritan, and now 
 adopted by the Methodist, might easily have been an¬ 
 swered ; and the convert might have distinctly speci¬ 
 fied the place, the year, the month, the day, nay, the 
 very hour of the day, wherein he was wrought upon 
 by the divine grace. But even in the primitive ages 
 of the Church, we perceive the justice of our blessed 
 Lord’s remark, that “ the kingdom of God cometh 
 not with observation 5 and that more frequently it 
 is “ as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and 
 should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed 
 
 1 Acts ix. 2 Ibid. xiii. 
 
 4 Ibid. ix. xxii. xxvi. 
 
 3 Ibid. xvi. 
 5 Luke xvii. 20. 
 
not necessary for Christians. 55 
 
 should spring and grow up, he knoweth not 
 how V* i 
 
 Agreeable to this, it is to be noticed, secondly, that 
 some of the conversions specified in the Acts of the 
 Apostles were more gradually effected than those 
 which have now been cited. And it is equally worthy 
 of notice, and it is precisely what a sober inquirer 
 would expect, that those are the very conversions, 
 which were not wrought by the immediate interposition 
 of miraculous power, but were the consequence of a 
 cool and deliberate attention to less overbearing evi¬ 
 dence. If the conversion were wrought by a miracle, 
 it must, one would suppose, be instantaneous: if re¬ 
 sulting from the deductions of reason, it must in course 
 be slower and more gradual. 
 
 Impressed with the “ word of exhortation” de¬ 
 livered by St. Paul, but perhaps not thoroughly per¬ 
 suaded by his doctrine, the Gentiles of Antioch “ be¬ 
 sought that the same words might be preached unto 
 them the next sabbath-day 2 .” The interval was pro¬ 
 bably employed in meditations and inquiries on the 
 subject of his discourse ; and when, on the appointed 
 day, the Apostle resumed his argument, and tendered 
 to the Gentiles the same salvation in Christ, which he 
 had offered to the Jews, we read that “ they were 
 glad, and glorified the word of the Lord; and as many 
 as were ordained to eternal life, believed as many 
 as were disposed by previous preparation for eternal 
 life ; as were fit or well disposed for the kingdom of 
 heaven 3 . When Paul preached in the synagogue of 
 Thessalonica, some Jews believed; not instantly, upon 
 his first addressing them; but when on three sabbath- 
 days he had reasoned with them out of the Scriptures; 
 opening and alleging, that u Christ must needs have 
 suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this 
 
 i Mark iv. 26, 27. 
 
 2 Acts xiii. 
 
 c 4 
 
 3 Luke ix. 62. 
 
56 A special and instantaneous Conversion 
 
 Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ 2 .” And 
 at Berea they received the word with readiness of 
 mind, and “ searched the Scriptures daily, whether 
 those things were so. Therefore many of them be¬ 
 lieved not suddenly, for that their conviction was 
 gradual, the passage unquestionably indicates ; not 
 being “ brought to God by force,” as Whitefiekl af¬ 
 firms of his modern converts 2 ; not “ finding God 
 irresistibly acting upon their soul,” as Wesley pro¬ 
 nounces of believers, that “ the grace which brings 
 faith and thereby salvation into the soul is irresistible 
 at that moment 3 ;” not wrought upon by the Spirit of 
 God, operating independently of, and in a manner 
 distinguished from evidence, and argument, and moral 
 suasion ; but subsequently to, and in consequence of, 
 their daily investigation of the Scriptures, and ingenu¬ 
 ous comparison between them and the doctrine of the 
 Apostle. 
 
 These examples may, I trust, be regarded as just 
 specimens of the conversions which prevailed in the 
 primitive ages of Christianity, and which are recorded 
 in the Acts of the Apostles ; nor are they mutilated, 
 or distorted, to give colour to a favourite system. To 
 me they appear to mark out a very evident line of 
 distinction between two different kinds of conversion; 
 the one being rapidly effected by the overbearing evi¬ 
 dence of the finger of God ; the other being the slow 
 and progressive result of a deliberate attention to the 
 ordinary methods of conviction, and a willing and 
 rational acquiescence in that result. This kind of 
 conversion best agrees with the testimony of Irenseus, 
 that “ God redeems men from the apostate spirit not 
 by force, but by persuasion ;” and with the notion, 
 which others of the ancient Christians give of faith, 
 consisting of a deliberate assent of the understand- 
 
 1 Acts xvii. 2 Whitefield's Eighteen Sermons, p. 9-1. 
 
 3 Wesley’^ Journals, No. V. p. 107- 
 
not necessary for Christians. 57 
 
 ing, and a free consent of the will. “ Faith, saith 
 Clement of Alexandria, is a spontaneous acceptance 
 and compliance with divine religion.” And “ To 
 be made at first,” saith Justin Martyr, was not in 
 our power: but God persuadeth us to follow those 
 things which he liketh, choosing by the rational 
 faculties which he hath given us; and so leadeth us to 
 faith.” 
 
 Examples of the latter kind it is surely most rea¬ 
 sonable to expect, in times subsequent to the age 
 of iniracles. Where the miraculous testimony has 
 ceased, it is to be expected, that the instantaneous 
 effect should cease also: and as to the particular ex¬ 
 ample of St. Paul, which we have already seen cited, 
 and on which the supporters of this novel doctrine 
 of conversion are much disposed to dwell, I adopt the 
 remark of an invaluable writer on this and its kindred 
 topics,_ that, “ the conversion of St. Paul was not 
 according to the common way and rule, but extra¬ 
 ordinary ; in regard whereof he may very w r ell style 
 himself an abortive. For the ordinary course is not 
 for the kingdom of heaven to offer violence to us, 
 and take us by force ; but for us to do so by it V’ 
 
 “ The dispensation of the Gospel,” says the same 
 judicious writer, “ which is the ministration of the 
 Spirit, goes forth doubtless with a mighty power of 
 conviction; but how far it works upon particular 
 persons affected under the influence of it, is not so 
 easily to be resolved. There are in the conversion 
 of sinners cases extraordinary, which must not be 
 drawn into example, nor prejudice the general rule, 
 as in St. Paul, Austin, &c. But ordinarily, that there 
 is some disposition and temper of mind, more apt 
 than others to receive the effectual impressions of it, 
 is most certain. Such is the honest and good heart 
 in the parable ; such are the honest and meek, and 
 the poor in spirit; such as do the truth and the will 
 
 1 Examination of Tilenus, p. 373. 
 
 c 5 
 
58 A special and instantaneous Conversion 
 
 of God, so far as their information serves them ; such 
 are the weary, and heavy-laden, and the like ; they 
 are resembled to sheep, and to babes ; and are said to 
 be of God, to have learned the Father, and to know 
 him. These are said to be ordained, that is, disposed, 
 and in a lit posture for eternal life; and of this in¬ 
 genuous and noble temper were the people of Berea. 
 They were, as it were, in the suburbs or coniines, 
 not far from the kingdom of God; and upon the first 
 call by the word of grace, they obeyed and stept into 
 
 it V’ 
 
 Not that I would be understood to assert, that Pro¬ 
 vidence may not perhaps, even in the present day, be 
 sometimes pleased to interpose in a manner more awful 
 and impressive, than is agreeable to the ordinary course 
 of his proceedings; and to arrest the sinner in his career 
 of infidelity or wickedness, and to turn him from dark¬ 
 ness unto light. 
 
 But it is the error of enthusiasm to invert the 
 order of God’s proceedings ; and to mistake that for 
 the rule, which in reality constitutes the exception. 
 Under the influence of Methodism, which has been 
 again and again represented by its founders and its 
 disciples as an extraordinary dispensation of Pro¬ 
 vidence, “ in favour of which God wrought a new 
 thing upon the earthsupported by the evidence 
 of even “ greater things than the raising of dead 
 bodies to life 5 !” and such, that “ if men will not 
 believe the evidence God has given that he sent it, 
 neither would they believe though one rose from the 
 dead 1 2 3 ,” men are taught to expect these instantaneous 
 and irresistible conversions as matters of course and 
 of necessity. “ Are not all these things,” demands 
 its Calvinistic founder, after giving his own colour¬ 
 ing to the examples of miraculous conversion re- 
 
 1 Womack on False Principles, p. 227- 
 
 2 Wesley’s Sermons, vol. vi. p. 66 . 
 
 3 Whitefield’s Works, vol. iv. p. 18. vol. i. p. 50. 
 
not necessary for Christians. 59 
 
 corded in tlie Acts, “ Are not all these things written 
 for our learning ? Is not God the same yesterday, 
 to-day and for ever ? And may he not now, as well 
 as formerly, reveal his arm, and display his power, in 
 bringing sinners home to himself, as suddenly and 
 instantaneously as in the first planting of the Gospel 
 Church 1 ?” The consequence must naturally be, a 
 carelessness about growing in grace, and a neglect 
 of the outward regular means : and this carelessness 
 and neglect are augmented by their being ostenta¬ 
 tiously reminded of those, who are said to have been 
 recovered from the most settled despair and the 
 most excruciating horror by a kind of supernatural 
 interposition, after having in vain habitually practised 
 all the means of grace 2 ; and of others, who are said 
 to have been impelled to wean themselves from inve¬ 
 terate wickedness, and to embrace a religious life, by 
 a strong preternatural agency, without having practised 
 those means at all 3 . 
 
 It is true, we hear them telling their deluded fol¬ 
 lowers, that they ought to be converted; expostulat¬ 
 ing \yith them for not choosing to be converted, and 
 for putting off their conversion, for not turning to 
 God directly; intreating them to repent and be con¬ 
 verted. Yet wherefore? when in almost the same 
 breath they tell them, that the author of this conver¬ 
 sion is the Holy Ghost; that it is not their own free 
 will; it is not moral suasion ; that nothing short of the 
 influence of the Spirit of the living God can effect 
 this change in their hearts 4 . 
 
 Yet it was by outward and ordinary means, by 
 evidence and arguments and moral suasion, that con¬ 
 versions of the ordinary kind were effected by the 
 Apostles themselves. Such we have seen to be the 
 
 1 Whitefield’s Works, vol, iv. p. 161. 
 
 2 Wesley’s Journals, No. III. p. 15. 32. 54. 
 
 3 See Enthusiasm of Methodists, &c. vol. ii. p. 146.—Wesley’s Jour¬ 
 nals, No. III. p. 109. 
 
 4 Whitefield’s Eighteen Sermons, page 118, and following. 
 
 c 6 
 
60 A special and instantaneous Conversion 
 
 case with respect to the Gentiles of Antioch, and the 
 Jews of Thessalonica and Berea. And such was the 
 mode adopted by Paul, when “ the Lord opened the 
 heart” of Lydia of Thyatira, not to believe, but “ to 
 attend to the things spoken by” the Apostle 1 : and 
 by Philip, when he unfolded to the Ethiopian eunuch 
 the memorable orophecy of Isaiah, and £< began at 
 the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus 2 .” 
 
 Even when miraculous attestations were conferred 
 in immediate aid of their ministry, the Apostles em¬ 
 ployed sound and sober arguments to convince the 
 reason ; and directed their efforts to enlighten the 
 understandings, rather than to excite the passions and 
 feelings, of their hearers. The Sermon of Peter, which 
 was occasioned by the astonishment consequent upon 
 the miraculous gift of tongues, was occupied in con¬ 
 vincing the inquiring multitude, that there was no 
 allusion in their claim to inspiration ; that it was a 
 completion of one of their ancient prophecies, several 
 others of which had also been fulfilled in the person 
 of Christ ; and in pressing on their minds the mira¬ 
 culous acts of his life, and his resurrection, and ascen¬ 
 sion into heaven. It was with similar arguments, 
 that he wrought upon the minds of the five thousand, 
 who flocked together on the cure of the lame man. 
 And the conversion of Cornelius, the first fruits of the 
 Gentile world, which had been begun by a superna¬ 
 tural vision, vouchsafed him in consideration of his 
 acts of devotion and charity, correspondent to the 
 proportion of knowledge which he possessed, was pro¬ 
 moted by Peter bearing witness to the miracles and 
 resurrection of Christ 3 . 
 
 Very unlike these words of truth and soberness 
 is the character of that preaching, which the mission¬ 
 ary of Methodism, protesting as he does against the 
 operation of moral persuasion upon the soul 4 , em- 
 
 1 Acts xvi. 2 Ibid. viii. 3 Ibid. x. 
 
 4 Whitefield’s Works, vol. i. p. 113. 
 
not necessary for Christians. 61 
 
 ploys for the instrument of his instantaneous conver¬ 
 sions. Reason is left to slumber on her post; and 
 her authority is superseded at least, if not annihilated, 
 while, with language the most portentous, enforced 
 by the most vehement articulation and the wildest 
 extravagance of gesture, he gives the rein to the ima¬ 
 gination, alarms the feelings, and stimulates the pas¬ 
 sions ; now exciting an ecstatic love for Christ in terms 
 of rapture, of which it hath been truly observed, that 
 “ enthusiasts and pious mystics have been remarkably 
 fond 1 ,’’ but which more become a preacher of the 
 Koran, than of the Gospel; now dwelling with hor¬ 
 rible delight on the terrors of God’s wrath, and figur¬ 
 ing to the shrinking mind, with a minute and fright¬ 
 ful particularity, the agonies of hell and the torments 
 of the damned. 
 
 The effect corresponds with its cause. But I dare 
 not lay before your eyes specific and detailed exam¬ 
 ples of those formidable symptoms, which accom¬ 
 pany the conversion of the disciple, and testify the 
 efficacious power of the teacher. Alternate extremes 
 of weeping and of laughter; sobs and shrieks and 
 groans and wailing and gnashing of teeth ; the voice 
 now stifled by agony, and now bursting forth in tones 
 of execration, blasphemy, and despair; tremors and 
 faintings and dropping to the ground, as if struck by 
 lightning and thunder; paleness and torpor; convul¬ 
 sions and contortions, as in the pangs of death, as out 
 of the belly of hell; things terrible to behold, too 
 terrible to be borne, and which words cannot de¬ 
 scribe : such are the symptoms of conversion, which 
 the very preachers, who have excited them, have glo¬ 
 ried to survey, have exulted and triumphed in enu¬ 
 merating 2 . 
 
 A scene more melancholy hardly presented itself 
 
 1 Jortin’s Remarks on Eccl. Hist. vol. ii. p. 81. 
 
 2 See Wesley’s Journals, No. III. p. 32. 36. 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 
 56. 61, 62. 71- 74, 76. 73. 82. 95. 98, &c. &c. Enthusiasm of Metho¬ 
 dists, &e. vol. iii. p. 23, and following pages. Ibid. p. 135, 136. 
 
62 A special and instantaneous Conversion 
 
 to the powerful imagination of Milton*, when he 
 described, as the most loathsome consequence and 
 most compendious testimony of human corruption, his 
 visionary lazar-house, 
 
 --- wherein were laid 
 
 Numbers of all diseas’d; all maladies 
 Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, qualms 
 
 Of heartsick agony,- 
 
 Convulsions, epilepsies,- 
 
 Demoniack phrenzy, moping melancholy, 
 
 And moonstruck madness- 
 
 Dire was the tossing, deep the groans ; despair 
 Tended the sick, busiest from couch to couch. 
 
 But they are very different sensations from those of 
 triumph and exultation, which he attributes to the 
 conscious author of such misery, when he represents 
 him exclaiming, 
 
 O miserable mankind, to what fall 
 Degraded, to what wretched state reserved ? 
 
 ■-Can thus 
 
 - The image of God in man, created once 
 So goodly and erect, though faulty since, 
 
 To such unsightly sufferings be debas’d, 
 
 Under human pains ? Why should not man, 
 
 Retaining still divine similitude, 
 
 In part from such deformities be free, 
 
 And for his Maker’s name exempt ? 
 
 Such sentiments have undoubtedly passed through 
 the minds of many considerate men, on perusing the 
 annals of modern enthusiasm; and contemplating their 
 nature, fallen indeed and corrupted, but renewed, and 
 repaired, and rendered capable of being conformed 
 again to the image of Christ, thus cruelly debased to 
 the extreme point oi degradation. 
 
 And are we to be referred to Scriptures for pa¬ 
 rallels to such extravagances as these ? Are we to 
 be sent to Scripture for examples of men in a state of 
 intellectual desolation, reduced to a level with the 
 
 1 This paragraph was not delivered from the pulpit. 
 
not necessary for Christians. 63 
 
 very beasts that perish, in order that they may be 
 clothed with sinless perfection, and revel in the 
 assurance of happiness? Is not this more like 
 making them pass through fire to Moloch, than lead¬ 
 ing them with willing steps to rest upon God’s holy 
 hill ? J 
 
 The Bible, however, is. before us : let us turn to 
 the cases of conversion which it commemorates : and 
 let us take them for the criterion of our opinions* 
 And what resemblance to these enormities, which 
 are described as the frequent proofs and symptoms of 
 conversion; or even to those pangs and travails of 
 soul, which, we are taught, that all experience before 
 a thorough conversion is effected in the heart 1 ;— 
 to those “ dreadful conflicts,” that “ plowing up of 
 the heart 2 ,” which the enthusiast tells us “ must 
 take place in us, or we shall never be prepared for 
 the kingdom ot heaven;”—what resemblance to 
 these extravagances shall we discover in the com¬ 
 punction of the converts on the day of Pentecost, 
 which led to the rational inquiry, “ Men and 
 brethren, what shall we do ?” and was followed by 
 their “ gladly receiving the word, and being imme¬ 
 diately baptized ?” What resemblance to these ex¬ 
 travagances do we perceive in the alarm of the keeper 
 of the prison, which filled him indeed with a trem¬ 
 bling anxiety for his salvation, but which did not 
 disable him from listening to the word of the Lord, 
 and attending carefully on its preachers and em¬ 
 bracing the Gospel on a conviction of its truth ? 
 'What symptom of an alienated mind do we discern in 
 the considerate behaviour of Sergius Paulus ? or in 
 the collected language and calm joy of the Ethiopian 
 eunuch? or in the reasoning and investigations of 
 the Jews at Thessalonica and Berea ? or in the exul¬ 
 tation and praises of the lame man, or in the won- 
 
 1 Whitefield’s Short Account of God’s Dealings with the Rev. 
 George Whitefield, p. 73. 
 
 2 Whitefield’s Eighteen Sermons, p. 94. 
 
64 A special and instantaneous Conversion 
 
 der and amazement of those who beheld his cure, 
 at Jerusalem ? or in the gladness and thanksgivings 
 of the Gentiles at Antioch ? or in the attention and 
 humility of Lydia of Thyatira ? or in the temperate 
 conduct of the centurion and his household at 
 Caesarea, or of the multitude at Lvdda and Saron ? 
 Or, that we may meet the enthusiast on his favourite 
 and strongest ground, what features of resemblance 
 can we trace between the conversion of the disciples 
 of Methodism, and that of the Apostle St. Paul ? 
 We have authority for affirming, that, after Paul had 
 recovered from the instantaneous effect of 11 the 
 heavenly vision,” which met him on the way, and 
 lie was led by the hand and brought into Damascus, 
 “ he was three days without sight, and neither did 
 eat nor drinkthat he prayed; and that he was 
 visited with a supernatural notice of the approaching 
 restoration of his sight. But on what authority is it 
 affirmed, that during these three days he continued 
 not only sick in body, hut “ under great agonies of 
 soul Y’ labouring (according to the phraseology 
 of enthusiasm) in the pangs and travails of the new 
 birth? That the repentance of St. Paul for his per¬ 
 secution of the Gospel was sincere and perfect, and 
 that the distress of mind which he experienced on a 
 discovery of his error, however “ verily he had 
 thought with himself” that he had been in the line of 
 his duty, was intense, no man perhaps in his senses 
 will doubt. That his repentance was of that cha¬ 
 racter, which is intended by great agonies of soul, 
 and by the pangs and travails of the new birth; 
 much less that it was accompanied with those fright¬ 
 ful symptoms, to which we are seeking a scriptural 
 parallel, hardly any one in his senses, with the plain 
 narrative of the Scripture before his eyes, would 
 venture to affirm. Nor does it redound to the credit 
 of that man’s soundness of understanding, or piety 
 
 1 Enthusiasm of Methodists, &c. vol. iii. p. 135. 
 
not necessary for Christians. 65 
 
 and humility of heart, who could deliberately compare 
 a young female enthusiast struck down by the power 
 of God’s word k by which the relater meant to denote 
 the efficacy of his own preaching, to Paul arrested in 
 the career of his perscutions by a supernatural light, 
 and falling to the earth under the piercing expostula¬ 
 tions of the Almighty. 
 
 On the presumption of this comparison, consist¬ 
 ent as it is with the general style of its employer, I 
 forbear to enlarge. The comparison itself, however, 
 natural!) induces a reflection as to the characters of 
 those peisons, of whom the converts recorded in 
 the evangelical history consisted, and of those, who 
 have swelled the catalogue of the victims of modern 
 delusion. 
 
 It was the observation of Origen, that, “ if any one 
 would candidly consider the Christians, they could 
 produce him more who had been converted from a 
 life not the worst, than from a very wicked course : 
 for they, he adds, “ whose consciences speak favour¬ 
 ably in their behalf, are disposed to wish that our 
 doctrine concerning the future rewards of goodness 
 may be true ; and so are more ready to assent to the 
 Gospel than profligate men.” And Jortin, who quotes 
 the observation, judiciously remarks upon it ; “ I 
 know it may be said, that among the first Christians 
 there were several, who had led bad lives before : but 
 there are many degrees of wickedness ; and there is 
 no reason to suppose that these sinners were for the 
 most part of the worst sort; and though some per¬ 
 sons, who have been very wicked, may become very 
 gnod, and such were found amongst the first Chris¬ 
 tians, yet where the exceptions are few, the general 
 observation is not affected by them ; for thus much is 
 certain, that an honest mind is a great help to under¬ 
 stand the truth; that the practice of morality leads 
 
 1 Whitefield. See Enthusiasm of Methodists, &c. vol. iii. p. 135. 
 
66 A special and instantaneous Conversion 
 
 to the practice of Christianity : and that, since con¬ 
 version is brought about by steps, and revealed re¬ 
 ligion is founded on natural religion, he who is moved 
 to embrace the Gospel, must be first sensible of the 
 difference between good and evil, truth and falsehood, 
 virtue and vice ; must love the one and abhor the 
 other; must repent of his former transgressions, and 
 receive the sacred knowledge which is offered to him 
 with gratitude, and a firm resolution of performing his 
 duty. He therefore who can call evil good, and good 
 evil, who is totally corrupted in heart and understand¬ 
 ing, is removed to an infinite distance from God and 
 righteousness, has no ears to hear, and no eyes to see, 
 not even to see miracles, so as to be instructed and 
 amended by them V* 
 
 Agreeably to this sound remark, which is well wor¬ 
 thy the attention of those who are for depreciating 
 moral goodness, and entertaining favourable hopes of 
 the hardened sinner, St. Luke has incidentally men¬ 
 tioned certain traits in the characters of the primitive 
 converts, which will materially assist the proposed 
 comparison. We find them respectively described 
 as “ devout men,” “ worshipping God ;' 5 diligent in 
 t( searching the Scriptureswilling to be guided in 
 the search by the well-informed ; listening to reason; 
 and “ receiving the word with all humility and readi¬ 
 ness of mind.” The Proconsul of Asia was a prudent 
 man, as well as desirous of hearing the word of God. 
 The Ethiopian eunuch, whose probity and wisdom 
 are attested by the great authority delegated to him, 
 and the unlimited confidence reposed in him by his 
 sovereign, (t had come to Jerusalem for to worship, 
 and was returning, and sitting in his chariot read 
 Esaias the prophetan employment, undoubtedly 
 indicating a religious and a reflecting mind. Cornelius 
 was <{ a devout man, and one that feared God with all 
 
 1 Jortin’s Discourses and Remarks, vol. i. p. 7* 
 
not necessary for Christians. 67 
 
 his house : which gave much alms to the people, and 
 prayed to God alway.” The life of Paul, whom it is 
 the practice with certain religionists to represent as 
 on a level with “ drunkards, sabbath-breakers, whore¬ 
 mongers, adulterers, unclean wretches as ever trod oil 
 the ground 1 2 and who has been somewhat coarsely 
 and irreverently stigmatized as “ that notorious per¬ 
 secutor Saul 3 ;”as “ a flagrant rebel,” and as “ a devil 
 incarnate 3 ;” had been “ strict according to the straitest 
 sect of his religiontouching the righteousness which 
 is in the law, he was blameless ; “ continually living 
 in all good conscience before God,” and even in the 
 persecution of the Church of Christ acting under a 
 false, but still a sincere, persuasion, that he was en¬ 
 gaged in the execution of his duty, his heart was fer¬ 
 vent and zealous, his mind capacious, vigorous, and 
 well-stored. 
 
 Now in all these traits of character (and they apply 
 in different degrees to most, if not all of the cases 
 which have been passing before us) there is no ten¬ 
 dency to irregular and enthusiastic feelings; no pre¬ 
 dominance of the imagination over the judgment; no 
 deficiency in natural understanding: no want, or con¬ 
 tempt, of intellectual improvement; no weakness in 
 short to encourage a suspicion, that persons, endowed 
 with such qualities, would be seduced by insufficient 
 argumentation to embrace a new religion ; or be im¬ 
 pelled by a terrified conscience to a precipitate adop¬ 
 tion of the faith in a moment of desperation, and to 
 take refuge from the wages of sin in a groundless or 
 imperfect conversion. 
 
 Had the characters of the primitive converts in¬ 
 deed been such as we are supposing, and as they are 
 sometimes fondly represented ; had they consisted of 
 “ savage jailors and felons in prison 4 ,” (whereas in 
 
 1 Whitefield’s Eighteen Sermons, p. 177* 
 
 2 Whitefield’s Works, vol. v. p. 367- 
 
 3 Evangelical Magazine, July 1806, p. 298,299. 
 
 4 Evangelical Magazine, July 1808, p. 201. 
 
68 A special and instantaneous Conversion 
 
 truth it does not appear from the sacred narrative, 
 that there was any savageness in the disposition of 
 the jailor at Philippi, or that any felons at all were 
 converted,) there might have been occasion for that 
 stricture upon the body at large, which Zosimus 
 passed upon Constantine, that he chose Christianity 
 as the only religion which promised impunity and 
 pardon for his enormous practices 1 . What was 
 really the case with respect to their characters, we 
 have seen upon the testimony of Origen, correspond¬ 
 ing with the representations of Scripture. The in¬ 
 struction, delivered by our Saviour to his Apostles, 
 <c into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire 
 who in it is worthy 2 ,” is well illustrated by the cir¬ 
 cumstances of the primitive converts; for it was not 
 without reason that Pothinus, the immediate suc¬ 
 cessor of Irenaeus, when the Praefect demanded of 
 him, Who was the Christian’s God ? replied, If thou 
 be worthy, thou shalt know: intimating that the mys¬ 
 teries of the kingdom of heaven were made known 
 to those who were by previous habits of piety, pro¬ 
 portioned to their opportunities, and by the ingenuous¬ 
 ness and docility of their tempers, well disposed to re¬ 
 ceive it 3 . 
 
 The persons, who have been most affected by the 
 impulses of modern enthusiasm, and who constitute 
 a large proportion of its converts, are probably of a 
 different description, in point either of intellect, or 
 of previous habit, or of both. They have been 
 arranged in several divisions by an author, who 
 made an ample inquiry, and possessed a clear in¬ 
 sight into the nature of the case : I shall therefore 
 adopt his classification in supposing them to consist 
 in a great measure of “ young persons, who are 
 arrived neither to ripeness of reason, nor solid con¬ 
 stitution of body; women, who (notwithstanding 
 
 1 Barrow’s Works, vol. ii. p. G3. 2 Matt. x. 11. 
 
 3 See Barrow’s Works, vol. iii. p. 337. 
 
not necessary for Christians. 69 
 
 some exceptions) may without offence be called the 
 weaker vessels ; persons of a fickle and inconsistent 
 humour; persons, though piously inclined, yet of 
 weak judgment or weak nerves; persons disordered 
 with hypochondriac fumes, and melancholy vapours, 
 and divers other peculiar distempers ; persons of 
 lively parts and brisk fancy, though in a perfect 
 state of health, yet deficient in a solid and settled 
 judgment; persons of an amorous complexion ; per¬ 
 sons of bad principles, as hypocrites, those of a vain 
 and ambitious mind, or of an impertinent and 
 unwarrantable curiosity; and lastly, persons of 
 profligate lives and libertine sentiments V* Such 
 persons appear most adapted, both by constitution 
 
 a.nd by ha.bits, for being wrought on by the modern 
 methods, and for experiencing the modern symptoms, 
 or conversion ; and such persons the annals of en¬ 
 thusiasm enumerate amongst the most prominent of 
 its converts. 
 
 If among this description of persons, and especially 
 if among those in the last division, some have been 
 effectually,. sincerely, and permanently converted to 
 pious sentiments and virtuous lives, God forbid I 
 should endeavour to detract from the credit of those 
 to whose exertions it may be due. Enthusiasm, in- 
 deed, and schism, special delusion and religious fac- 
 tions are laden with too monstrous an accumulation 
 
 °n if 1° su ^* er me to entertain a wish, that they 
 should be robbed of whatever commendation they 
 may. incidentally merit. Yet I cannot withhold an 
 opmion, that. little is gained to the cause of pure 
 Christianity, if men are rescued from sins of one 
 character, only to fall into those of another ; if con¬ 
 version from sensual wickedness is followed by 
 spnitual pride, calumny, detraction, presumption ; by 
 mutual jealousies, disputes, and divisions within their 
 
 1 Bishop Lavington’s Euthusiasm of Methodists and Papists 
 pared, part in. p. 190—204. * 
 
 com- 
 
70 A special and instantaneous Conversion 
 
 own societies, and an overweening scorn and intoler¬ 
 ance towards those that are without. 
 
 It is however to be feared that methodistical con¬ 
 version does not always terminate in consequences no 
 more mischievous than these ; but that, whilst it in¬ 
 grafts the spiritual, it fails of lopping aw r ay the sensual 
 sins. Impulses suddenly and violently impressed upon 
 the feelings, where the reason is not engaged in their 
 support, are naturally evanescent; and will probably 
 yield to the reviving opposition of early, favourite, and 
 inveterate habits. 
 
 It is painful, and it may appear uncharitable, to 
 dwell upon such a topic as this; but the cause of 
 pure religion is promoted by an exposure of the mis¬ 
 chief and erroneous pretensions of superstition. It 
 might be fruitless also to attempt exposing them, 
 and to deny the efficacy of methodistical conversion, 
 if I trusted the cause to less exceptionable evidence 
 than that of the Founders of Methodism themselves. 
 But surely no objection can he made to the acknow¬ 
 ledgment of Whitefield x , that there were among 
 his followers “ many mushroom converts, many 
 persons that are always happy, happy, happy, and 
 never were miserable ; who hear the word with joy, 
 and in a time of temptation fall away; that made 
 him cautious now, which,” says he, “ I was not 
 thirty years ago, of dubbing people converts so 
 soonthat “ there were others, who, although they 
 may have been converted twenty or thirty years ago, 
 were perverted then, and stood in need of a further 
 conversion to close Christianity with God;” and 
 others, “ who although they were really converted, 
 were still conformed to the world, were still luke¬ 
 warm, had ten thousand things that their own hearts 
 must tell them they wanted to be converted from; 
 who could go to a public-house, and play at cards, 
 and the like, and yet bless God they were converted ; 
 
 1 Whitefield’s Eighteen Sermons, p. 87, 134, 246. 
 
not necessary for Christians . 71 
 
 who had been arrested by God’s grace, even after 
 conversion, when they were damning their own 
 souls —nor can any reasonable exception be taken 
 against the equally plain confession of Wesley, that 
 there were among his disciples “ sinners of every 
 kind, and the great stumbling-block by them that 
 say and do not. Such I take for granted,” he says, 
 “ will be among us, although we purge them out as 
 fast as we can : persons, that talk much of religion; 
 that commend the preachers, perhaps are diligent 
 in hearing them; it may be, read all their books and 
 sing their hymns; and yet no change is wrought in 
 their hearts. Were they of old time as lions in their 
 houses? They are the same still. Were they (in 
 low life) slothful, intemperate? Were they tricking 
 or dishonest, over-reaching or oppressive ? or did 
 they borrow and not pay ? The Ethiopian hath not 
 changed his shin , Were they (in high life) delicate, 
 tender, self-indulgent? Were they nice in furniture 
 or apparel? Were they fond of trifles, or their own 
 dear persons ? The leopard hath not changed her spots . 
 Others there are, in whom there was a real change. 
 But it was only for a season. They are now turned 
 back, and are twofold more the children of hell than 
 before V’ 
 
 Nor is the effect upon the mind more beneficial 
 than that upon the heart. The understanding not 
 having been enlightened previously to conversion, 
 still continues under a cloud of darkness, which the 
 opinion of enjoying exclusive spiritual privileges, 
 and the contracted notions, to which that opinion 
 gives birth, with respect to the merciful dispensa¬ 
 tions of Providence, are not calculated to remove. 
 The Spirit converted their hearts; and the Spirit 
 will guide their understandings into all truth. The 
 means of instruction are as little prized as the 
 means of grace. They are wiser than their uncon- 
 
 1 Wesley’s Farther Appeal, p. 130. 
 
72 A special and instantaneous Conversion 
 
 verted teachers; and as for human learning, they 
 detest and abhor it as a diabolical invention, at en¬ 
 mity with the wisdom that is from above. Prejudice 
 supplies an answer to every argument; and pride is 
 an insurmountable barrier against conviction. In 
 love with error, and closing their eyes against the 
 truth, an insulated text of Scripture, torn perhaps 
 from its context, imperfectly understood, and vio¬ 
 lently distorted into a correspondence with their 
 confined prepossessions, is sufficient to intrench a 
 favourite doctrine, and to serve as an impregnable 
 bulwark against the whole accumulated force of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 For the mind to be thus perverted is a case of 
 ordinary occurrence; experience confirms the posi¬ 
 tion by daily examples of its truth. Sometimes 
 however the shock is more disastrous ; and instead 
 of partially obstructing, or contracting the current 
 of the understanding, has forcibly wrested it from 
 its channel. Irrational and unchristian, not to say 
 unnatural, doubts and perplexities; a disbelief of 
 God and of Christ; madness, sometimes expatiating 
 in unbridled licentiousness, and sometimes convulsed 
 with laughter amid severest woe ; visions of despair, 
 wherein the patient believes himself rejected by God, 
 plunged into utter darkness, and actually tormented 
 in hell; or visions of exultation, in which he fancies 
 that he is plunged into the Deity, and identified 
 with God 1 : such is the intellectual desolation, the 
 darkness and the bondage, into which the con¬ 
 verted have been betrayed ; a darkness, which hath 
 been felt by every faculty of the inward man, and a 
 bondage wherein the iron hath entered deep into the 
 soul. 
 
 But let us throw a veil over these gloomy images 
 
 i .. 
 
 1 See Wesley’s Journals, No. I. III. p. 133. No. III. p. 109. No V. 
 p. 81. Account of Samuel and Thomas Hitchens, p. 4. 12. 18, 19. 
 Enthusiasm of Methodists, part ii. p. 112. part iii. p. 7, 8, 9. 45, 46. 
 88. 93. 4, 5, 6. 
 
73 
 
 not necessary for Christians. 
 
 of the corruption, the perverseness, and the infatua¬ 
 tion of human nature. Necessary as they are to be 
 exhibited as fatal examples of the pernicious ten¬ 
 dency of error, they are too melancholy to be con¬ 
 templated with composure. The mind recoils from 
 contemplating them ; and seeks repose and consola¬ 
 tion in that scene of harmony, and gladness; of 
 gratitude, and devotion; of sober delight, and 
 rational exultation ; of “ love, peace, and joy in the 
 Holy Ghost,” which is represented in the page of 
 the Evangelist; when “ they that gladly received 
 the word were baptized, and continued stedfastly in 
 the Apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in break¬ 
 ing of bread, and in prayerwhen “ the multitude 
 of them that believed were of one heart and of one 
 soul;” and “ continuing daily with one accord in 
 the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, 
 did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of 
 heart ; praising God, and having favour with all the 
 people.” 
 
 The foregoing comparison will, I trust, have made 
 it appear that there are few points of resemblance 
 between that instantaneous and violent conversion, 
 which the Methodists consider as necessary to salva¬ 
 tion ; and that sort of conversion recorded in the 
 Acts of the Apostles, to which the Methodists them¬ 
 selves refer, as affording authorities and parallels to 
 their conceit. 
 
 In the first place then, we are furnished by this 
 comparison with a strong negative argument against 
 such conversions. For if they were not wrought in 
 the early ages of the Gospel, it is surely reasonable 
 to infer, and the inference I apprehend would be con¬ 
 ceded by their advocates, that in the present age they 
 are neither necessary nor profitable. 
 
 The argument, however, which the foregoing 
 comparison supplies, is not merely negative; for, 
 secondly, the reflections, to which it gives • rise, 
 authorize us positively to contend, that neither the 
 [ 164 ] 
 
74 A special and instantaneous Conversion 
 
 rapidity of such conversions; nor the means em¬ 
 ployed to effect them; nor the symptoms by which 
 they are accompanied; nor the dispositions to which 
 they are peculiarly adapted; nor the consequences 
 by which they are followed; are agreeable to the 
 general economy of Providence in his dealings with 
 mankind. 
 
 We may therefore hold ourselves acquitted of any 
 dereliction of evangelical truth, if we decline en¬ 
 forcing instantaneous conversion as necessary to the 
 salvation of Christians. And if, on the contrary, we 
 warn our hearers against being deluded by such 
 fanciful, irrational, and unscriptural conceits; if we 
 address them as beings, formed in the image, after 
 the likeness of God, and although lamentably fallen 
 indeed, and partakers of a nature essentially corrupt, 
 yet still endowed with reason, the glorious inherit¬ 
 ance derived from their gracious Creator; if we 
 endeavour to convince their understandings, and 
 thereby to alarm their fears, and animate their 
 hopes ; if we labour to persuade their minds of the 
 necessity of a Redeemer to reconcile them to their 
 offended God, and fill their hearts with a devout 
 affection and veneration for Him, who paid the price 
 of their redemption ; if we impress on them the awful 
 truth, that the wages of sin, notwithstanding the 
 sacrifice of Christ, and notwithstanding their ad¬ 
 mission into his Church, will eventually be death, 
 unless it be heartily repented of, through faith in 
 the blood of the Redeemer, and followed by refor¬ 
 mation and amendment of heart and life; if we per¬ 
 suade them not to rely on strong internal impulses, 
 but to make diligent use of the appointed means of 
 grace; and if we thus encourage and assist them, 
 not to expect a sudden change of heart, but, under 
 the guidance of the revealed will of God, and with 
 the preventing and assisting grace of the Holy Spi¬ 
 rit, gradually to build themselves up in faith and 
 holiness, and so to grow unto an holy temple of the 
 
not necessary for Christians. 75 
 
 Lord: we may then indulge the pleasing reflection of 
 a good conscience, that we are preaching the doctrine 
 of Peter, who called upon the Jews to “ repent and be 
 converted, that their sins might be blotted outthat 
 we are imitating the example of Paul, who was sent 
 unto the Gentiles “ to open their eyes, and to turn 
 them from darkness unto light, and from the power of 
 Satan unto Godand that we are fulfilling the in¬ 
 tention of our blessed Saviour, when he required that 
 sinners should “ be converted, and become like little 
 children, if they would enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven.” 
 
 Now unto “ the blessed and only Potentate, the King 
 of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, 
 dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; 
 whom no man hath seen, nor can see; to him be honour 
 and power everlasting. Amen.” 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Gilbert & Kivington, Printers, St. John’s Square, London. 
 

 
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