€ 
 
 ^ PRINCETON, N. J. <<> 
 
 Presented by Mr Samuel Agnevv of Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 ^^7r2£^ (T^//. on Baptism, No. / (^ ^L^ Ji^ 
 
AN ESSAY 
 
 REGENERATION 
 
 BY THE RIGHT REV. HENRY U. ONDERDONK, D.D. 
 
 ASSISTANT BISHOP OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE 
 COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Isto raodo, quoiiiam homines moriales sunt, sint aliqui inraortales: etquo- 
 niam nascuntur in terra, nascantur et in aqua. • 
 
 Cic. de Nat. Deor. L.\.c. 39. 
 
 Pauci, quos .... 
 
 - . . ardens evexit ad sethera virtus, 
 Dis geniti .;.... 
 
 yEne?".i, L. 6. v. 129. - 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 JOHN C. PKCIIIN, 13 SOUTH FOUUTH STREET. 
 
 1835. 
 
WILLIAM STAVELY, PRINTER, 
 
 No. 12 Pear Street. 
 
CLERGY OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
 
 THE DIOCESES OF PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE, 
 
 ESSAY IS INSCRIBED, 
 
 THEIll AFFKCTIONATR FRrE^D ANn BUOTHKR, 
 
 THt: AUTHOR 
 
Digitized by the Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/essayonregeneratOOonde 
 
%^- O -yr a '-^f^ 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 
 At an early period of his ministry, and in a remote 
 situation where he had access to but few books, and to 
 almost none of the principal treatises on Baptismal Re- 
 generation, the author of the following pages was com- 
 pelled to write on that subject. He had been taught 
 that baptism is the only regeneration in this life, and 
 that the moral change from sin to holiness bhould be 
 termed conversion or renovation ; and he had passively 
 imbibed that opinion. His position however as a con- 
 trovertist, and his want of books, required him now to 
 argue the matter for himself, and to make the chief 
 source of his arguments the Bible, with but little help 
 from commentators and other authorities. Having ful- 
 filled hastily his task, he published, at the close of the 
 year 1818, a dissertation agreeing in doctrine with the 
 present one. In 1832, it was republished, much en- 
 larged, and after deeper reflection than could at first be 
 devoted to it, in the Protestant Episcopalian; and in 
 1834, with some further additions, in the Churchman. 
 The essay, thoroughly re-examined, is again submitted 
 to' the public, in a form yet more expanded, as well as 
 remodelled. 
 
 a2 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 The primary object of the author was, as intimated, 
 to argue the subject of baptismal regeneration ; and 
 hence, that of regeneration in the popular or moral sense 
 was not treated largely. Neither is it now ; though 
 some further arguments and practical observations are 
 inserted. As little also as possible are those doctrinal 
 points introduced, which are only incidentally connected 
 with the main discussion. 
 
 From private communications, and from some public 
 notices, the author has reason to believe that his produc- 
 tion has been well received; not of course to the extent 
 of effecting uniformity of opinion, or much approxima- 
 tion to it; yet sufficiently to justify him in devoting fur- 
 ther pains to its improvement, and again offering it to 
 notice. From the circumstances under which it was 
 first written, it was an attempt at an inductive investi- 
 gation of the subject, on the basis of scripture ; as such 
 an attempt the author still regards it : and if it fail in 
 leading to the certainty produced by that mode of rea- 
 soning, the failure must be ascribed to unskilfulness in 
 the execution. 
 
 Philadelphia, March, 1835. 
 
' tl "^ >^ '^% 
 
 r:o ^ r> y:^, -'' \ 
 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Change of State — Regeneration. 
 
 Sect. 1. Scriptural Proofs, - - - - 15 
 
 Sect. 2. Quotations from the Apocrypha, - - 22 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Change of Character — Regeneration. 
 
 Sect. 1. Scriptural Proofs. ... - 24 
 
 Sect. 3. Quotations from the Apocrypha, - - 30 
 
 Sect. 3. An Objection Answered, - - - 31 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Baptismal Regeneration. 
 
 Sect. 1. Scriptural Proofs, - - - - 41 
 
 Sect. 2. The Authority of the Fathers, - - - 46 
 
 Sect. 3. Other Human Authorities, ... 50 
 
 Sect. 4. Further Remarks on Baptismal Regeneration, - 58 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 JMoral Regeneration. 
 Sect. 1 . Scriptural Proofs, • - • . 65 
 
 Sect. 2. The Authority of the Fathers, - - - 73 
 
 Sect. 3. The Theory — No Regeneration but in Baptism, 77 
 
 Sect. 4. The Theory — that the Grace of Baptismal Re- 
 generation is of a Moral kind, - - 81 
 Sect, 5. The Theory of the Two Regenerations, - 87 
 Sect. 6. Moral Regeneration gradual, and capable of Re- 
 petition, - - - - - 96 
 Sect. 7. Practical Remarks on Moral Regeneration, - 105 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Theory of the Two Regenerations applied to the Standards and 
 Offices of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 
 
 Sect. 1. The Standards examined, - - - 114 
 
 Sect. 2. The Offices examined, - - - - 122 
 
 CONCLUSION, - 127 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Regeneration synonymous with Renovation or JYew Crea- 
 tion, ' - - - - - - 131 
 
^. tc.'^- 
 
 AN ESSAY ON REGET^'^^XtION. 
 
 4 V ^' '^ 
 
 vv? 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The word Regeneration is applied, as are also several kin- 
 dred expressions, to a certain change of state, and to a cer- 
 tain change of character. It is a figurative term, founded 
 on the natural birth or begetting of human beings. When 
 either of the changes takes place, the subject of it is said 
 to be born again, newborn, begotten again, or regenerated. 
 Our authority for giving the word this twofold signification, 
 is Scripture, in its obvious or just meaning. 
 
 The change of state alluded to, is the transition from 
 being out of the visible church to being within that body. 
 The change of character, is recovery from the dominion of 
 sin to victory over it ; and, when combined with the change 
 of state or union with the church, from the curse of sin to 
 pardon.^ 
 
 I Baptism is the seal of the covenant of pardon through Christ; it is not in 
 itself pardon or remission of sins, for the covenant requires repentance and 
 faith, or the change of character, as conditions. Neither the covenant nor 
 its seal, therefore, positively avail, till the conditions are fulfilled. When 
 ix)th the above changes exist in any person, he is in a state of pardon — which 
 however requires to be persevered in, and to be perfected. 
 
 Exception may perhaps be taken to the words state and character, as used 
 to distinguish these two changes, viz. that there is a change ofontuard charac- 
 ter in baptism, and of imvard state in the recovery from sin, and that they are 
 thus convertible terms. But we request that critical scruples be dis- 
 pensed with, as is done frequently in theological and other nomenclature, 
 and these expressions allowed as arbitrary designations of the two change* 
 to which we apply the name Regeneration. 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 That change of state which is the transition from being 
 out of the visible church to being within it, is, in the chris- 
 tian church, effected in baptism, and by the Holy Spirit, 
 the minister being his agent. And this operation of the 
 Spirit is, in scripture, called regeneration. Hence, chris- 
 tian baptism consists always of two parts, washing per- 
 formed by the minister, and regeneration effected by the 
 Holy Ghost. In every christian baptism, whatever be the 
 personal qualities of the individual baptized, both these 
 parts exist, washing and regeneration. 
 
 That change of character^ which is recovery from the 
 dominion of sin to victory over it, and, when combined with 
 baptism, from its curse to pardon, is ordinarily effected in 
 the use of the means of grace, yet by the Holy Spirit, by 
 his power only ; and the change is gradual and progressive. 
 The means of grace are various — union with the visible 
 church ; prosperous or adverse dispensations of Providence; 
 pious education ; the word of God, whether read in the Bi- 
 ble, or expounded and enforced in preaching, or in religious 
 books or conversation ; prayer, in all its branches; solemn 
 benedictions ; the sacraments, in baptism, as one of the 
 sacraments, devoutly received by an adult, piety is fur- 
 thered ; and, in both adults and infants, ' grace is increased 
 by virtue of prayer unto God :'^ this, however, being an 
 
 1 See Article xxvii. On this portion of ourArticle on Baptism, a few re- 
 marks may be made here. 1. Bishop Taylor, in his Sermons, {V. 2. p. 25;) 
 says, * baptism is but a prayer, and the holy sacrament of the Lord's supper 
 is but a prayer,' &c. This is rhetorical language. The sacraments are in- 
 deed of the nature of prayer, yet also more than prayer; as the outward act 
 of devotion is more than the essence of devotion, which is only in the 
 heart. Each of these outward acts, combined with inward devotion, re- 
 ceives a greater blessing than inward devotion does alone. 2. The' virtue' 
 of baptism as a' prayer' or act of devotion, or of the prayers added to the 
 rite, is no more infallible, we presume, than the * virtue' of other prayers 
 and devotions. Of course the ' increase of grace,' mentioned in the Article, 
 is not an absolutely certain consequence of the reception of that sacrament. 
 3. This language of the Article affords no countenance, as has been alleged, 
 
iNTRODucnorf. 
 
 9 
 
 element of the change of character, is not to be confounded 
 with the change of state then effected. The operation of 
 the Spirit in producing this change of character is often 
 called, in scripture, conversion or turning ; it is often called 
 renovation or renewing, which word means properly, not 
 mere refreshing, as is commonly imagined, but making 
 anew or neic -creating ; it is also called being born again or 
 regenerated. In two passages, the phrase ' born again' is 
 given in the margin 'born from above ;'^ and this latter 
 expression, referring to a birth different from the natural 
 birth, is equivalent to 'born again from above,' or 're- 
 generated from above.' In like manner, 'born of God' 
 means ' born again of God' — and ' begotten of God' 
 means ' begotten again of God' — both being the same as 
 ' regenerated of God.' The Vulgate has renatus in the 
 text, ' except a man be horn of water, and of the Spirit,' 
 &;c. ; and though the reading is deemed unauthorized, it 
 gives the true meaning, ' born again of water, and of the 
 Spirit,' or ' regenerated of water, and of the Spirit.' 
 
 As the term regeneration is applied to both the change 
 of state and the change of character, and as these two 
 changes are neither identical nor similar, we affirm that there 
 are two separable and separate regenerations, which we 
 distinguish as baptismal regeneration, and moral regenera- 
 tion. The word ' moral' is preferred to ' spiritual,' because 
 regeneration to the change of state is an operation of the 
 Spirit, and therefore a spiritual regeneration ; as regenera- 
 tion to the change of character is another operation of the 
 Spirit, and therefore also a spiritual regeneration : ' moral' 
 is thus a more perfectly distinctive term than ' spiritual.' 
 
 to those who tnake baptism, or what is conferred in that sacrament, the ini- 
 tiatory point in the moral change, or the germ or seed of moral regeneration. 
 The ' increase' of [moral] grace in or at baptism, obviously is not the begin- 
 ning of such gracious influences. 
 1 John iii. 3, 7. 
 
10 INTRODUCmON. 
 
 The phrases * sons of God,' * children of God,' and 
 others of like sense, are synonymous with * born of God' or 
 regenerated, when they imply either the change of state or of 
 character now before us : when used in any other connexion, 
 they have no direct relation to our subject. ' Adoption' is 
 also an equivalent term ; it expresses literally what ' born 
 again' expresses metaphorically.' 
 
 Such are the outlines of the doctrine of Regeneration to 
 be proved, from scripture, in this essay. But before pro- 
 ceeding to detail the proofs, some preliminary observations 
 will be offered. 
 
 Our first observation is this: When the doctrine of a 
 baptismal regeneration is. denied, its advocates adduce the 
 fact, that the very word regeneration, Tntxty-yivia-tx, is applied 
 in scripture to baptism only,^ not to the change of heart ; 
 and the argument is unanswerable in favour of a baptismal 
 new birth. Yet a new birth is implied also in the passages 
 which describe the morally changed as born or begotten of 
 God ; these expressions meaning, as has been stated, born 
 XM* begotten again ; they recognise a birth after the natural 
 one. The exact phraseology of scripture is clear evidence 
 of a baptismal regeneration ; while yet unavoidable infer- 
 ence gives also to the word a moral signification, and ap- 
 plies it to conversion from sin, the creation of the new 
 heart, the holy change of character. 
 
 Our next observation is of more importance. We trust 
 it will be perceived that, in the statement of our doc- 
 trine, a perfect distinction has been made between baptism 
 and the change of heart. The spiritual operation in each 
 
 1 See Pearson on the Creed,/oZ. ed. 1701, p. 140. 
 
 2 SeeTit. iii. 5. In Matt xix. 28, the only other passage in which the 
 word occurs, there is no clear reference to either change : ' in the regenera- 
 tion' may there mean ' in the resurrection :' it may also mean, ' in the visi- 
 ble church regenerated by the christian dispensation ;'and this latter interpre- 
 tation gives the word a connexion with baptism. 
 
INTRODUCTIOX. ll 
 
 of them is indeed called regeneration ; but it should be re- 
 membered, that there are 'diversities of operations of the 
 same Spirit,'^ and that some of his most conspicuous opera- 
 tions did not include a moral effect, as inherent in them. 
 ' Divers kinds of tongues' were a gift of the Spirit ; but it 
 v^as sometimes so abused, as to show that, even when acting 
 with full efficacy, it neither produced nor implied the moral 
 improvement of its possessor ; nay, he might be no better 
 than ' sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.' Another gift 
 of the Spirit was ' the working of miracles ;' but though a 
 man could thus * remove mountains,' he was ' nothing' if 
 without the better spiritual qualities. Another gift was 
 ' prophecy ;' yet its possessor also might be ' nothing :' and 
 this, not only in the case of inspired preaching, sometimes 
 called prophecy, but in that of predicting future events ; 
 for Balaam, who prophesied the coming of Christ, was a 
 bad man ; as also was Caiaphas, who prophesied his death. 
 The entire surrender of property into the common stock, 
 during the pentecostal period, and till inspiration ceased, 
 seems to have been the result of another extraordinary ope- 
 ration of the Spirit; but even this might be done, and yet 
 ' profit nothing.'^ All these effects were produced by ' one 
 and the selfsame Spirit;' while however another and very 
 different ' operation' was necessary for the moral change, 
 for that change of character, in which only, through the 
 Holy Ghost, these endowed persons could be restored from 
 sin to holiness, to ' charity,' or true and effectual love to 
 God and men. It is not probable indeed, that ungodly in- 
 dividuals often received the extraordinary gifts ; but the 
 plain import of scripture is that they might, and sometimes 
 did. And the bare possibility of working miracles, &;c. 
 without being reclaimed from evil, shows that these opera- 
 tions of the Spirit, even when producing their full spe- 
 
 1 1 Cor. xii. 4,6. 21 Cor. x\\. xiii. 1, 2, 3. Acts ii. 44. iv. 32. 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cific effect, were different from that in which he brings to 
 pass our moral change. 
 
 The gift of the ministerial office is another endowment 
 of the Holy Ghost, which may, in its completeness, be con- 
 ferred on men not renewed in the spirit of their minds, 
 and which, when conferred, does not of itself renew them. 
 When our Saviour bestowed this office, at least the highest 
 grade of it, on his Apostles, he said, ' receive ye the Holy 
 Ghost ;' and Paul declared to the elders of Ephesus, that 
 * the Holy Ghost had made them overseers (presbyter bi- 
 shops) over the flock :' ordination of course confers a spi- 
 ritual g\h', and Aaron and the levitical priesthood were 
 separated to their office by anointing, which ceremony im- 
 plied that their separation was an act of the Spirit, or had 
 his concurrence. But does this ' receiving of the Holy 
 Ghost' include, as inherent, a reception also of moral 
 grace? Let the conduct of the sons of Eli, and that of 
 many priests while our Saviour was on the earth, answer 
 for the line of Aaron. Let the conduct of Judas, who 
 was long ' a devil,' though a christian minister, that of the 
 early false teachers, and, alas, the experience of every age, 
 answer for the apostolic line.^ All these bad men receiv- 
 ed absolutely, from the Holy Spirit, and absolutely possess- 
 ed, the gift of the ministerial office; but they rejected his 
 converting or moral influences. As Mr. Baxter well re^ 
 marks, ' all that are ordained to the sticred ministry are re- 
 latively holy, as devoted and separated to that office : and 
 the well qualified are also really holy. '2 In the ministry 
 therefore, we have a perpetual case, proving incontestibly 
 that the Spirit confers on men certain gifts that are not 
 morale in their inherent effect, or specific nature. 
 
 All ecclesiastical privileges granted to the visible church 
 and its members, are spiritual ; but, though they may be 
 
 1 John XX. 22. Acts xx. 28. Exod. xl. 13, 15. 1 Sam. ii. 12. John vi. 70. 
 2Cor. xi. 13, 15. 
 
 2 Baxter's Pract. Works, fol. V.\. p. 712. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 accompanied with spiritual influences, they do not, of ne- 
 cessity, imply the possession of the latter, or any thing more 
 than the offer of them. Thus, in ordination the privilege 
 of office is conferred positively ; v/hile the influence of pe- 
 culiar grace, duly to fulfil the sacred work, is merely offered. 
 The one is a spiritual gift, ecclesiastical only, not moral ; 
 the other, when accepted, is, like all the influences from 
 above that improve the character, a moral gift. 
 
 Baptismal regeneration is, in our opinion, one of those 
 * operations' of the Holy Ghost which are spiritual, but not 
 moral ; and on this position is grounded the whole view of 
 the subject of Regeneration now submitted : it is an eccle- 
 siastical, sp\niua\ privilege, not a moral influence of the Sanc- 
 tifier. Though none can develope the mode in which di- 
 vine influence acts upon the human sou), it will yet be al- 
 lowed, we presume, that an intelligent being is sensible of 
 moral impressions when they are made : ' a correct disposi- 
 tion,* says Bishop White on this subject, ' is a matter of 
 sensibility, which cannot be unknown to the person of whom 
 it is descriptive.'^ There is a perception of holy impres- 
 sions, as the Spirit effects progressively our moral regenera- 
 tion ; but no such perception exists when he effects our 
 baptismal regeneration. This distinction between the two, 
 their affecting or not affecting our sensibility or conscious- 
 ness, is no mean argument for their being different opera- 
 tions of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Let the reader then be cautioned, expressly, against con- 
 necting the popular idea of regeneration with tli^t word as 
 applied, in this essay, to baptism. No moral or converting 
 influences of the Spirit, no formation of a germ, no depa- 
 siteof a seed, or leaven, intended to become active and re- 
 sult in such influences, or of the same sanctifying nature 
 with them, are here meant in that use of the word j but 
 
 1 1 Bp. While's Comparison, T'. 2 /•. 295. 
 B 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 only the ratifying, ascribed to the Holy Ghost, of our sepa- 
 ration from the world to the visible church, and of the grant 
 to us of its privileges, as made in that sacrament. All the 
 practical, converting, morally new-creating influences of the 
 Spirit, and all their elements, we include in the change 
 called moral regeneration. 
 
 We now proceed to the Scriptural Proofs of the seve- 
 ral propositions contained in this introductory statement of 
 our doctrine. As the main proposition, we have asserted 
 that in both the change of state and the change of charac- 
 ter^ the person who is the subject is said to be born again, 
 or regenerated. We shall examine, therefore, in the first 
 two chapters, the revealed evidence pertaining to each of 
 these heads — also some Apocryphal quotations, which have 
 a bearing on them, as showing that this mode of speaking 
 was common* Further views of the subject will then be 
 presented. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CHANGE OF STATE— REGENERATION. 
 SECTION 1. 
 
 SCRIPTURAL PROOFS. 
 
 By the change of state, or the transition from being out of 
 the visible church to being within that body, we acquire the 
 title born again, born of God, children of God, sons of God, 
 adopted ; all which expressions are equivalent to ' regene- 
 rated,' as has been shown in the Introduction.^ 
 
 Our first text shall be — ' and thou shallsay unto Pharaoh, 
 thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my first born : and 
 I say unto thee, let my son go, that he may serve me.' All 
 Israel were to go, 'young and old, sons and daughters.'^ 
 It is of course implied, that all Israel, the whole visible 
 Israelitish church, were ' sons' of God, that is, born of God., 
 or regenerate. It is also implied, that Pharaoh and his peo- 
 ple, not in the church, were not sons of God in this sense. 
 
 In agreement with this language, the Deity declares, 
 ' when Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my 
 son out of Egypt:' the primary application of the passage 
 is to the Israelitish church ; it has also a secondary appli'- 
 cation to our Saviour.^ Moses declares to that church, ' ye 
 are the children of the Lord your God.'* The same desig- 
 nation is given to that church in the age of the prophets; 
 'I am ^father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born' — ' is 
 
 1 See Introd. p. 9, 10. 2 Exod. iv. 22, 23, x. 9. 3 Hos. xi. J. Matt. ii. 15. 
 * Peut, xiv. 1. 
 
16 THE CHANGE OF STATE REGENERATIOlV. 
 
 Ephraim my dear son, is he a pleasant child' — the sword 
 *contemneth the rod of my son,''^ It is also thus given in 
 the New Testament; * the children of the kingdom shall 
 be cast out' — ' Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption ;' 
 other texts show the once exclusive right of their church 
 to this distinction ; * neither because they are the seed of 
 Abraham are they all children [of God.] but in Isaac shall 
 thy seed be called' — ' they which are the children of the 
 flesh, [IshmaeliteSj] these are not the children of God : but 
 the children of the promise [of Isaac] are counted for the 
 seed* of God — let it be particularly noticed, that Abraham's 
 children of the promise, his ecclesiastical progeny, are here 
 declared to be the children of God : this key will explain 
 many other passages in a similar way. The same 
 meaning is allowed by commentators generally in the de- 
 claration of our Lord, ' let the children first be filled ; for it 
 is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto 
 the dogs :' the Jews, as the church, regarded themselves as 
 God's children, and our Saviour recognized their claim.* 
 It is evident, from these passages, that a common appella- 
 tion of the visible church, or its members, is, sons or chil- 
 dren of God, in other words, born (again) of God, or re- 
 generate, or, more literally, adopted. 
 
 Such appellations are equally given to the christian church 
 visible. St. Paul, speaking of the calling of the Gentiles, 
 quotes the prophecy, < it shall come to pass, that in the place 
 where it was said unto them, ye are not my people, there 
 shall they be called the children of the living God :'^ that 
 is, Gentiles, coming into the church, shall thus become, 
 what they were not before, children of God, born of God, 
 or regenerate : the appellation descended from the Israel 
 itish to the christian church, and has the same meaning 
 with us as with them. That apostle applies such language 
 
 1 Jer. ixxi. 9, 20. Ezek. xxi. 10. 2 Malt. viii. 12. Rom. ix. 4. 7, 8,- 
 
 (where see Pople's Syn. and Grotius) Mark vii. 27. a Rom. ix. 26. 
 
THE CHANGE OF STATE REGENERATION. 17 
 
 to the Galatians, as of the visible church, not as renewed 
 or consistent christians ; for in this latter respect they were 
 so deficient, that he ' travailed in birth of them again until 
 Christ should be formed in them,' he 'stood in doubt of 
 them,' and even intimated that they might 'be fallen from 
 grace.' To such christians as these he writes, 'ye are all 
 the cJiildren of God by faith in Christ Jesus,' that is, by the 
 faith of a profession made in baptism, which is alluded to 
 in the next verse — again, ' that we might receive the adop- 
 tion of sons^ — ' because ye are sons^ — ' thou art no more a 
 servant, but a so?i' — and again, ' we, brethren, as Isaac was, 
 are the children of promise ;' and the children of the pro- 
 mise are, as we have already mentioned, the children of 
 God.^ All these expressions refer to the regeneration of 
 the Galatian converts merely as belonging to the visible 
 church ; for, besides that the many rebukes of the apostle 
 show that nothing better was meant, of no congregations, 
 and there were several of them in Galatia, could or can it 
 be said, that ' aW their members ' are the children of God' 
 in the higher sense. ^ Accordingly, the apostle further de- 
 clares to them, ' as many of you as have been baptized into 
 Christ have put on Christ' — ' ye are all one in Christ Je- 
 sus' — ' and if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed' — 
 elsewhere he says, ' Abraham, who is the father of us all ;* 
 and we have seen that Abraham's seed of the promise are 
 God's seed or children.^ Thus fully are we assured, by the 
 application of the ecclesiastical designations of the old 
 church to the new, descending from the one to the other, 
 as well as in more direct terms, that ' all' who are baptized, 
 
 1 Gal. iv. 19, 20. v. 4. iii. 26. iv. 5, 6, 7, 28 comp. Rom. ix. 8. 2 Gal. i. 2. 
 ♦ Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day,' (1 Thess. v. 5.) 
 refers to the profession of Christianity, and the knowledge of its truths, as 
 contrasted with the darkness of heathenism. (See Hammond, Poole's An* 
 not. Doddridge, Macknight.) 3 Gal. iii. 27, 28, 29. Rom. iv. 16. ix. 7, 8. 
 
 B 2 
 
IS THE CHANGE OF STATE REGE\ERATIOPr. 
 
 all who are in the church visible, are children of God, adopt- 
 ed, regenerate. 
 
 Sintiilar phraseology is applied to even the profession of a 
 false religion, idolatry — 'saying to a stock, thou art my fa- 
 ther, and to a stone, thou hast bi'ouglit me forth,'' or, as in 
 the margin, ' thou hast begotten me,' that is, hast begotten 
 me again, — ' ye sons of the sorceress. . . . children of trans- 
 gression, a seed of falsehood, enflaming yourselves with 
 idols. '^ It appears, then, that the profession of any religion 
 may be called a regeneration into that religion ; and bap- 
 tism is the appointed profession of Christianity. 
 
 Further illustration and proof of our position, that the 
 members of the visible church are, as such, born again, will 
 be found in several of the passages which speak of the 
 church as the spouse of her divine Head. The church re- 
 gards her members as her children; ' my children are gone 
 forth of me, and they are not,' they are dead — ' my children 
 are desolate, because the enemy prevailed' — yet these are 
 declared by Jehovah to be his children, ' thou hast taken 
 thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast home unto me, 
 and these hast thou sacrificed .... thou hast slain my chil- 
 dren'' — again, ' the blood of thy children'* — ' thou ar.t thy 
 mother's daughter, that loatheth her husband and her chil- 
 dren :'^ though the church be corrupt, the title ' children of 
 God' still belongs to her members. At a better period than 
 that described in these quotations, David both pleads and 
 praises, in his devotions, this covenant filial relation ; ' give 
 strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine hand- 
 fjiaid^ — ' O Lord, truly I am thy servant, and the son of 
 thine handmaid; thou hast loosed my bonds:' the 'hand- 
 maid' of Jehovah is his spouse, the church.^ The same 
 allusions occur in Isaiah ; ' there is none to guide her among 
 
 1 Jcr. ii. 27. Isa. Ivii. 3, 4, 5. a Jer. x. 20. Lam. i. 16. Ezek. ivi. 20, 
 81. S6. 45: see also Ezek. xxiii. 37. 3 Ps. Ixxxvi. 16. cxvi. 16: see Bp. 
 
 Horne. 
 
THE CHANGE OF STATE — REGENERATION". 19 
 
 all the sons whom she hath brought forth, neither is there 
 any that taketh her by the hand among all the sons that she 
 hath brought up' — ' thy sons have fainted' — * the children 
 which thou shalt have after Ihou hast lost the other^ — ' who 
 hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children^ — 
 * they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy davghters 
 shall be carried upon their shoulders' — ' I will save thy 
 children' — ' thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters 
 shall be nursed at thy side.' The children thus given to 
 the church are expressly acknowledged to be God's chil- 
 dren, ' I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee 
 from the west ; I will say to the north, give up; and to the 
 south, keep not back ; bring my sons from far, and my 
 daughters from the ends of the earth.' Very beautifully is 
 this metaphor enlarged upon, m the passage which repre- 
 sents the ' married' or Jewish church as giving place to the 
 once ' desolate' or Gentile church — 'sing, O barren, thou 
 that didst not bear .... for more are the children of the 
 desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the 
 Lord : enlarge the place of thy tent, [for the increasing 
 family of God,] .... thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles .... 
 thou shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood 
 any more : for thy Maker is thine husband, the Lord of 
 hosts is his name .... and thy children shall all be taught 
 of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children.'' 
 St. Paul quotes this prophetic allegory, to the same effect.* 
 The phrase, ^children of Zion,' may be added. ^ And a 
 similar interpretation must be given to at least two other 
 passages — 'Jerusalem which is above,' that is, the christian 
 church, called also ' heavenly places,' in which we are ' made 
 to sit' even here — ' Jerusalem which is above is free, which 
 is the mother of us all' — ' so then, brethren, we are children 
 
 1 Isa. li.18,20. ilix. 20, 21.22, 25. Ix. 4. xliii. 5, 6. liv. 1—5,13. Gal.iv. 27. 
 Ps. cxlix. 2. cxlvii. 13. Isa. hvi. 8. Joel ii. 23. 
 
20 THE CHANGE OF STATE REGENERATION. 
 
 of the free woman,' or the christian church:^ with these 
 texts the apostle connects the prophecy, just quoted, which 
 declares, 'thy Maker is thine husband,' and of course the 
 father of thy children. — From these many and clear scrip- 
 tures we argue, unanswerably we think, that all the mem- 
 bers of the visible church are, as being her children, the 
 children of God, born (again) of God, regenerate. 
 
 And these appellations belong to the members of the 
 visible church simply as such, simply in virtue of their 
 change of state, whether they have the change of charac- 
 ter or not, whether they are personally upright or wicked. 
 Most decisive as proofs of this assertion, are the passages 
 which denounce their sins and ungodliness, yet at the same 
 time regard them as continuing in the filial relation to God. 
 ' I have nourished and brought up children, and they have 
 rebelled against me ... . children that are corrupters' — 
 'wo to the rebellious children .... lying children, chil- 
 dren that will not hear the law of the Lord'—' return, [be 
 converted,] ye backsliding children'* — 'thy children have 
 forsaken me' — 'O foolish people and unwise, is not he thy 
 Father that hath bought thee .... of the Rock that begat 
 thee thou art unmindful .... he abhorred them, because of 
 the provoking of his sons and of his daughters .... chil- 
 dren in whom is no faith' — ' if then I be di father, where is 
 mine honour' — ' cursed children.''^ We ask particular no- 
 tice for the passage, ' turn, [be converted,] O backsliding 
 children, for I am married unto you,'^ to your church : their 
 church, though idolatrous, was still the church — their 
 personal transgressions, though of so great an amount as 
 to require their 'conversion,' did not destroy their privi- 
 
 1 Gal. iv. 26, 31 : comp. Eph. ii. 6. 
 
 8 Isa. i. 2,4. XXX. 1,9. Jer. iii. 22. v. 7. Deut. xxxii. 6, 13, 19, 20. Mai. 
 i. 6. 2 Pet. ii. 14. 3 Jer. iii. 14. 
 
THE CHANGE OF STATE— REGENERATIOJJ. 21 
 
 lege of being called children of God, or regenerate, as 
 long as they remained the visible covenant body. Their plea, 
 when in captivity for their sins — their plea, founded on this 
 privilege, is prophetically anticipated by Isaiah, ' doubtless 
 thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, 
 and Israel acknowledge us not,' though we are unworthy to 
 be owned by our faithful progenitors, Abraham and Israel 
 — ' thou, O Lord, art our Father — and again, ' but now, O 
 Lord, thou art our Father .... be not wroth very sore, 
 neither remember iniquity for ever :'^ as sons of God the 
 prophet regards them, great as was their ' iniquity.' To 
 the same effect is the exclamation of our Saviour, ' O Je- 
 rusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest 
 them that are sent unto thee, how often would /have gath- 
 ered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her hrood 
 under her wings, and ye would not :'^ the solicitude of the 
 Messiah here expressed \?, parental ; yet it is felt and ex- 
 pressed in behalf of the Jews, though killing prophets, 
 stoning God's messengers, and obstinately rejecting this 
 his parental care ; and they are recognised as ' children' 
 of Jerusalem, the church, and of course as children of God, 
 or regenerate. Very surely then may we affirm, that this 
 appellation, in the lower sense now unfolded, is wholly ir? 
 respective of personal character. 
 
 The declaration that Abraham is the * father' of the 
 christian church, shows that the ecclesiastical designation 
 ' children of God' comes to it from the Jewish body, and 
 means the same as applied to both. Abraham is * the 
 father of all them that believe, though they be not cips 
 cumcised'— he is ' the father of us all' — ' they which are 
 of faith, the same are the children of Abraham' — ' if ye 
 be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed"* — and of course, 
 
 1 Isa. Ixiji. 16. Ixiv. 8, 9. 2 Luke xiii. 34. 
 
22 THE CHANGE OF STATE — REGENERATION. 
 
 as already shown, ' children of God.' John the Baptist ex- 
 pressly recognises the transition of this ecclesiastical title 
 from the Jews to christians — ' think not to say within 
 yourselves, we [as the Jewish church] have Abraham to 
 our father : for God is able of these stones [the heathen] 
 to raise up children unto Abraham' — God will provide him- 
 self other covenant children, if you prove unworthy to re- 
 main such.^ 
 
 More scriptural proofs could be found, we suppose, by a 
 more diligent search. Enough however have been adduc- 
 ed, to make as clear as any proposition drawn from holy 
 writ, the assertion, that by the change of state which is 
 the transition from being out of the visible church to being 
 within that body, we acquire the appellation born again — 
 born of God, sons or children of God, or of the church, 
 adopted, regenerate, being equivalent expressions. We 
 presume also, that if our application of some of the texts 
 be questioned, enough will remain to prove amply our doc- 
 trine. 
 
 CHAPTER I.— SECTION 2. 
 
 QUOTATIONS FROM THE APOCRYPHA. 
 
 Consulting the Apocryphal books, we shall find that de- 
 signating as children of God the members of the visible 
 church, was common. Of this fact they are competent evi- 
 dence. We introduce therefore, not as pertaining to our 
 argument from scripture, but merely as appended to it, a 
 few passages from these writings. 
 
 Judith prays for the temple, as 'the house of the posses- 
 sion of thy children.'' Ariaxerxes, in the apocryphal part 
 of Esther, declares, ' we find that the Jews .... be chil- 
 dren of the most high and most mighty living God.' The 
 
 1 Rom. iv. Jl, J6. Gal. iii. 7, 29. Rom. ix. 8. Matt. iii. 9, 
 
THE CHANGE OF STATE REGENERATION. 23 
 
 book of Wisdom, speaking of God's mercies to Israel, says, 
 ' thou hast made thy children to be of a good hope that 
 thou gi vest repentance for sins; for if thou didst punish 
 the enemies of thy children with such deliberation .... 
 with how great circumspection didst thou judge thine own 
 sons' — again, speaking of the manna, ' thy sustenance de- 
 clared thy sweetness to thy children .... that thy chil- 
 dren, O Lord, whom thou lovest might know that it is not 
 the growing of fruits that nourisheth man' — again, speak- 
 ing of the tyranny of the Egyptians, ' who had kept thy 
 sons shut up ... . upon the destruction of the first born, 
 they acknowledged this people to be the sons of God' — 
 again, speaking of their protection when passing the Red 
 Sea, * that thy children might be kept without hurt.' To 
 the same effect — ' Israel is the Lord's portion . . . h\s first- 
 horn'' — 'Israel, whom thou hast named thy first-born.^ In 
 other places we read, ' the mother that bare them saith unto 
 them, go your way, ye children, for I am a widow and for- 
 saken .... go your way, O my children, and ask mercy of 
 the Lord' — ' the mother of these children, which would not 
 keep my covenant' — ' fear not, thou mother of the children, 
 for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord' — *Zion our mother 
 is full of all heaviness' — 'O Jerusalem, the holy city, he 
 will scourge thee for thy children's works' — ' her own chil- 
 dren left her.'^ 
 
 We build nothing on these apocryphal extracts ; but they 
 certainly are worthy of notice. 
 
 1 Judith ix. 13. Eslh. xvi. 15, 16. Wisd. xii. 19, 20, 21. xvi. 21. 26. 
 xviii. 4, 13. xix. 6. Ecclus. xvii. 17. xxxvi. 12. 2 Esd. ii. 2, 4, 5, 17. 
 X. 7. Tob. xiii. 9< 1 Mac. i. 38. See also 2 Esd. ii. and Bar. iv. in many- 
 places. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CHANGE OF CHARACTER--REGENERATION. 
 SECTION I. 
 
 SCRIPTURAL PROOFS. 
 
 The several appellations we have had before us belong 
 in a higher sense to those persons who have undergone the 
 sanctifying change of charade?', to those who, from the do- 
 minion and the curse of sin, under which all men are by 
 nature, are recovered to victory over sin, and, if in the 
 church, to pardon. All the passages of scripture which 
 apply the expressions ' born of God, children of God,' &c. 
 to persons of an improved moral and pious standing, be- 
 long to this head of our subject, and are to be interpreted 
 of their moral regeneration. The passages also which 
 give those appellations to the saints in the resurrection,' 
 might perhaps be added, as in part of a kindred significa- 
 tion ; but, to save gratuitous discussion, we omit them. 
 
 As our first proof that moral regeneration is distinct from 
 the regeneration of mere church-membership, we cite the 
 passage in which the Jews allege, ' we have one Father^ 
 even God,' and our Saviour replies, ' if God were your 
 Father, ye would love me.'"^ The Jews were right in one 
 sense; they were 'children of God,' being Abraham's 
 'children of the promise,' to whom 'pertained the adop- 
 tion;' being also the 'children' of Jerusalem, the church, 
 
 1 Such as Luke xx. 36: see also 2 Esd. ii. 41. s John viii.41, 43. 
 
THE CHANGE OP CHARACTER — REGENERATION. 25 
 
 the spouse of God.* But our Saviour directs them to a 
 higher meaning of the language ; there was a sense in 
 which God was not their Father, in which they were not his 
 children ; such they could not be, in this better sense, 
 without ' loving' Christ ; nor could they love him without 
 repentance, faith, and obedience, or the change of heart. 
 He thus declares the necessity of moral regeneration, as 
 distinguished from the lower regeneration of a church es- 
 tate — adding the significant rebuke, ' why do ye not un- 
 derstand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my 
 word'^ — it required a spiritual mind, such as none have but 
 the morally regenerate, to comprehend this doctrine. 
 
 To the same effect, our Saviour distinguished the ' Pha- 
 risees and lawyers,' the * men of that generation,' Jews, 
 who 'rejected the counsel of God,' delivered by him, yet 
 who were ecclesiastically children of God, from the ' chil- 
 dren of Wisdom,' or the sons of God in the moral sense — 
 * Wisdom is justified of all her children,''^ The reviling 
 Jews were sacramentally regenerate; but morally so they 
 were not. 
 
 When Zaccheus manifested his penitence and holy dis- 
 positions, our Lord declared, ' this day is salvation come to 
 this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham,'* 
 that is, as already explained, a son of God. It is allowed 
 by commentators that Zaccheus was a Jew, and thus a son 
 of Abraham, or of God, in the visible church. But had 
 this been the meaning of our Saviour, salvation should 
 have come to his house before his conversion as much as 
 after it, and to all the Jews as much as to him. The pro- 
 per interpretation is, that this blessing was granted be- 
 cause he had now become the son of Abraham or of God 
 in the higher sense, and was morally regenerate. Again 
 
 1 Rom. ix. 7, 8, 4. Luke xiii. 34. 2 John viii. 43. 3 Luke vii. 30, 31, 
 35. 4 Luke xix. 9. 
 
26 THE CHAXGE OF CHARACTER — REGENERATIOxV. 
 
 therefore, we find our Lord distinguishing the regenera- 
 tion to holiness of character, from the regeneration of mere 
 church-membership. 
 
 In the parable concerning the wheat and the tares, our 
 Saviour calls the former 'the children o( the kingdom' or 
 church ; yet the latter, ' they which do iniquity,' are also 
 declared to be in that ' kingdom,' till ' gathered out' of it.* 
 Here then is a fourth instance of his using expressions 
 equivalent to children of God, in a higher sense tlian that 
 in which it is applied to ' all' in the kingdom of the Gos- 
 pel — a fourth instance of his discriminating very explicitly 
 between moral regeneration and the new birth to a church 
 estate. 
 
 On the same principle we must interpret the language 
 of Moses, in his parting song already quoted from. In 
 one verse, he says of the Israelites, when forsaking God, 
 ' their spot is not the spot of his children,^ or, as in the 
 margin, 'they are not his children' — yet in the next ver&e 
 he exclaims, ' is not he thy Father that hath bought thee," and 
 soon after, 'of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmind- 
 ful.'^ It is obvious that the relation of sonship to God is 
 here recognised to be of two kinds, the one founded on 
 belonging to the visible church, the other on serving God 
 faithfully. The latter is moral regeneration ,* of the want 
 of which Moses accuses the Israelites generally, though 
 they were ' begotten' of their ' Rock' ecclesiastically. 
 
 Equally to our purpose is an exhortation of St. Paul to 
 the Corinthians. These brethren were children of God in 
 the ecclesiastical sense, having been made such in bap- 
 tism. Yet, when he would dissuade them from being 
 ' unequally yoked together with unbelievers,' he declares, 
 as an encouragement, that they would thus become the 
 children of God, of course in a higher sense. ' Wherefore, 
 
 1 Matt xiii. 38, 41. 2 Deut. xxxii. 5, 6. 18. 
 
THE CHANGE OF CHARACTER REGENERATION. 27 
 
 come out from among them .... and I will be a Father 
 unto you, and ye shall be my sons and my daughters, saith 
 the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these 'promises, 
 dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves .... perfecting 
 holiness in the fear of God. '^ Here then we have — 1. the 
 Corinthian church baptismally regenerate — and 2. the 
 same Corinthians advised to come out from among un- 
 believers, and 'cleanse' themselves, and perfect their ' ho- 
 liness,' that God might he their Father, and they his sons 
 and daughters — in other words, that, improving the grace 
 they already had, they might become morally regenerate ; 
 or rather, as we shall see hereafter, that their moral re- 
 geneiation might be more complete, their ' holiness' more 
 'perfect.' Tiieir moral regeneration, or its increase, they 
 were taug^it to regard as one of God's ' promises' to them ; 
 and a regeneration promised to the baptized canr;ot be bap- 
 tismal regeneration, which fliey already possess. 
 
 Other proofs may be added. 'In the fear of the Lord 
 is strong confidence; and his children &\\?i\\ have a place 
 of refuge :' the parallelism makes the ' children of the 
 Lord' to be those who ' fear' him ; and such fear, or holy 
 reverence, indicates moral regeneration. ' As the apple- 
 tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among 
 the sons;' none but the pious, or moraZZj/ regenerate, we 
 may presume, belong to that class of the sons of God, 
 among whom precedence is thus claimed for Christ; the 
 ' brethren among whom he is thus the first-born' are those 
 who are, and will be more fully in the resurrection, ' con- 
 formed to his image.' The psalmist declares, if he should 
 argue that God was indifferent concerning virtue and vice, 
 or took no discriminating notice of them, inasmuch as the 
 wicked often prosper and the good are often afflicted — ' if 
 i say I will b;})eak thus, behold, I should offend against the 
 
 J 3 Cor. vi. 14, 17, IS. vii. }. 
 
28 THE CHANGE OP CHARACTER — REGENERATION. 
 
 generation of thy children,^ the godly, the morally rege- 
 nerate, who disallow such unworthy constructions of God's 
 providence. Similar, as applicable to the moral new birth, 
 are these other passages — ' the precious sons of Zion, com- 
 parable to fine gold' — ' the Lord shall count, when he 
 writeth up the people, that this man was horn there,' in 
 Zion : when the book of life shall be ' written up,' or finally 
 corrected, by having the names of the wicked ' blotted 
 out,' moral regeneration acquired in Zion, the church, will 
 be accounted very different from the regeneration of mere 
 visible membership, which those blotted out had once pos- 
 sessed, as well as those retained in that book.^ 
 
 In the sermon on the mount, our Lord says, ' blessed are 
 the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of 
 God' — '• love your enemies, bless them, do good to them, 
 pray for them, that ye may be the children of your Father 
 which is in heaven' — and elsewhere, * love ye your ene- 
 mies, and do good, and lend, <kc. and ye shall be the chil- 
 dren of the Highest.' St. Paul admonishes christians to 
 *do all things without murmurings and disputings, that 
 they may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, 
 without rebuke.' St. John declares, * every one that doeth 
 righteousness is horn of him' — ' every one that loveth is 
 horn of God' — ' whosoever believeth that Jesus is the 
 Christ is horn of God.' St. Peter exhorts, ' as obedient 
 children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former 
 lusts in your ignorance' — 'seeing ye have purified your 
 souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit .... see that 
 ye love one another with a pure heart fervently : being bom 
 again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible' — 
 Maying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and 
 
 1 Prov. xiv. 26. Songii. 3; comp. Rom. viii. 29. Ps. Ixxiii. 15. Lam. 
 iv. 2. Ps. Ixxxvii. 6 ; comp. Ps. Ixix. 28 ; Ezek. xiii. 9 : Rev. iii. 5 : xx. 12 : 
 xxi. 27. 
 
THE CHANGE OF CHARACTER REGENERATION. 29 
 
 envies, and all evil speakings, as new born babes, desire 
 the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.'^ 
 Surely the new birth which has these tokens — peace-mak- 
 ing, forgiving and loving enemies, doing good to them and 
 others, pious contentment, doing righteousness, divine love, 
 faith, obedience and the abandonment of former lusts, the 
 purifying of the soul in obeying the truth through the Spi- 
 rit, laying aside all evil dispositions and conversations — 
 surely the new birth which has these tokens, must be differ- 
 ent from that new birth which is ascribed to the baptised 
 indiscriminately, ' ye are all the children of God' — ' Abra- 
 ham is the father of us alV — ' Jerusalem is the mother of 
 us all.^ Such tokens indicate the moral regeneration 
 which is not possessed by all the members of the church. 
 
 View some kindred passages in another light. ' Who- 
 soever is born of God doth not commit sin,' habitually and 
 deliberately : the converse must also be true, ' whosoever 
 commits sin, habitually and deliberately, is ?iot born of 
 God,' in the sense here intended, though he is born of God 
 in the lower sense, as a member of the visible church. 
 Again, ' whosoever is begotten of God keepeth himself, 
 and that wicked one toucheth him not ;' he habitually 
 maintains his guard, and is watchful, as a christian soldier, 
 so that Satan does not wound him : the converse of this as- 
 sertion, equally true, is, that ' whosoever is not thus vigi- 
 lant, but habitually surrenders to that wicked one, is not 
 begotten of God,' as the apostle here means, though he is 
 ecclesiastically regenerate.^ How perfectly distinguished 
 from the baptismal, is the moral new birth ! 
 
 1 Matt. V. 9, 44, 45. Luke vi. 35. Phil. ii. 14, 15. IJohn ii. 29. iv. 7. 
 V. 1. 1 Pet. i. 14,22, 23. ii. 1, 2. On the latter pas.sage it may be remark- 
 e<], that as ' babes' do not desire the ' word,' that designation cannot, even 
 primarily, signify here infants proper, but means infants figurative, christian 
 disciples ' new born' of God. 
 
 2 1 John lii. 9. v. 18. 
 
 c 2 
 
30 THE CHANGE OF CHARACTER REGENERATION. 
 
 CHAPTER II.— SECTION 2. 
 
 QUOTATIONS FROM THE APOCRYPHA. 
 
 The Apocryphal books have shown that it was com- 
 mon to designate members of the visible church as chil- 
 dren of God, or of Zion. They attest also the usage of 
 giving such appellations to the godly, as distinguished from 
 others in the church. 
 
 Of Jacob and Juda, the church, and sons of God in that 
 relation, it is said, ' have I not prayed you .... that ye 
 would be my children, and I should be your Fathe?' .' those 
 who were already God's children, are prayed to become his 
 children, of course in the higher or mora/ sense. The ap- 
 pellation is given also to the departed righteous, not yet 
 'children of the resurrection,' 'remember thy children 
 that sleep, for I shall bring them out of the sides of the 
 earth, and show mercy unto them.' In the book of Wis- 
 dom, the ungodly say, ' let us lie in wait for the righteous, 
 because he is not for our turn, and is clean contrary to our 
 doings .... he calleth himself the child of the Lord .... 
 for if the just man be the son of God, he will iielp him.' 
 Speaking of the escape of those Israelites who looked to- 
 wards the brazen serpent, a type of Christ, while other 
 Israelites perished — ' but thy sons not the very teeth of ve- 
 nomous dragons overcame :' the Israelites destroyed and 
 those healed being both children of God, or regenerate, as 
 members of the visible church, the higher regeneration 
 must here be meant : The faith of these ' sons' of God ap- 
 pears to be recognized in the previous verses, where the 
 brazen serpent lifted up is called ' a sign of salvation,' and 
 it is said. ' he that turned himself towards it was not saved 
 by the thing that he saw, but by thee, that art the Saviour 
 of all.' The son of Sirach writes, ' be as a father unto the 
 
THE CHANGE OF CHARACTER REGENERATION. 31 
 
 fatherless .... so shall thou be as the son of the Most 
 High' — again, ' Wisdom exalteth her children,^ Wisdom 
 being one of the appellations of one or more of the Divine 
 Persons — and again, 'I [Wisdom] am the mother of fair 
 love, and fear, and knowledge, and holy hope : I there- 
 fore, being eternal, am given to all my children which are 
 named of him :' in other words, all these children of Wis- 
 dom, receiving by her love, fear, knowledge, and holy hope, 
 are morally regenerate.^ 
 
 Though apocryphal quotations add nothing material to 
 the argument, they at least tend to confirm our interpreta- 
 tion of the scriptures we have adduced. 
 
 CHAPTER II.— SECTION 3. 
 
 AN OBJECTION ANSWERED. 
 
 Should it be objected to the two-fold regeneration we 
 have maintained, the one baptismal, the other moral, that 
 the passages of scripture we have claimed for the higher 
 change, though desciiptive of holy qualities, refer all to 
 persons belonging to the visible church, and may be under- 
 stood merely of what is necessary to make good the appel- 
 lation, child of God, or regenerate, as given them on enter- 
 ing the church — should it be objected, in other words, that 
 baptism and godliness are component and essential parts of 
 one regeneration — the sacramental change being regene- 
 ration in only an imperfect or contingent sense, and re- 
 quiring holy and virtuous character, either at or after bap- 
 tism, to make it actual and positive regeneration, at least 
 
 I 2 Esd. i. 28, 29. ii. 31. Wisd. ii. 12, 13, IS. xvi. 10,6, 7. Ecclus. iv. 
 10.11. xxiv. 18. 
 
32 THE CHAPfGE OF CHARACTER REGENERATION. 
 
 in adults — we have several answers to the objection. And 
 we think they will prove that ecclesiastical regeneration is 
 totally distinct from the change to a new heart and life, or 
 moral regeneration ; and of course that the latter is totally 
 distinct from the former. We ask the reader's kind atten- 
 tion and patience. 
 
 As to the presumptive argument : It may perhaps be al- 
 leged, that as both the baptismal and the moral changes 
 have the one name regeneration, they must be presumed to 
 be only two constituent parts of one spiritual change. 
 But this does not follow. The name children of God is 
 given to magistrates, as such; of Israelitish judges, alrea- 
 dy children of God as belonging to the church, it is said, 
 that as rulers also they were ' all children of the Most 
 High :'^ here are two senses of that one appellation, ec- 
 clesiastical sonship and official sonship; the former, com- 
 mon to all Israel, not implying the latter, which was en- 
 joyed by only a few of them : why not then allow the two- 
 fold sense of the appellation in regaid to ecclesiastical 
 sonship and moral sonship? the burden of proof lies upon 
 the objector. Again: the phrases mentioned are applied 
 to the risen saints, ^children of God, being the children of 
 the resurrection' — ' the adoption, to wit, the redemption of 
 our body ;'^ and it is allowed, perhaps by all, that this re- 
 generation or adoption, that of the glorified saint, is dif- 
 ferent from the baptismal regeneration or adoption of the 
 saint on earth: where then is the presumptive argument, 
 against the distinction we have made, arising from there 
 being but one name for the two changes? why not make 
 the regeneration of baptism and the regeneration to a new 
 heart as perfectly distinguishable, as the regeneration of 
 visible earthly saintship and the regeneration of heavenly 
 
 1 Ps. Ixxxii. 6. 2 Luke xx. 36. Rom. viii. 23. See also Matt, xiii 
 43. Rev. xxi. 7. 2 Esd. ii. 41. Wisd. v. 5. 
 
THE CHANGE OF CHARACTER REGENERATION. 33 
 
 saintship? the burden of proof lies as before. Further ar- 
 gument to the same effect may be found in our Saviour's 
 being called the Son of God in various senses; as the only 
 begotten or the eternal Son, as conceived of the Holy 
 Ghost, as heir of all things, as inducted into his priestly 
 office, as raised from the dead ;^ five kinds of sonship, yet 
 all expressed by one name, or set of names: is it not then 
 nugatory, to allege the presumptive argument mentioned 
 against baptism and the new heart being distinct sonships, 
 distinct regenerations? Every one knows, indeed, that it 
 is not uncommon for scriptural, like many secular words,' to 
 have several meanings : the words angel and God are ap- 
 plied to the Deity, to created spirits, and to men ; and the 
 word elder, to both civil and sacred officers, and to all the 
 grades of the latter ; the context, or other applicable scrip- 
 tures, deciding who or which is meant in each case : and 
 surely the context and other applicable scriptures show as 
 fully a different sense of the word regeneration and its 
 synonymes, when connected with baptism, from their sense 
 when connected with godly character, as they do in the 
 several uses of the words angel, god, and elder. We dis- 
 miss therefore the presumptive argument before us, as hav- 
 ing no good foundation. 
 
 To proceed to the argument proper : We think it a pe* 
 titio p'incipii to allege that the unworthy are not absolute- 
 ly regenerated in baptism, or till they add piety to their 
 sacramental standing. For, though some texts may be in- 
 terpreted on that theory, they may as well be in- 
 terpreted on the other, that of the two regenerations we 
 have mentioned, and to claim a preference for either opin- 
 ion, without further proof, is obviously begging the ques- 
 tion. Let us look then to tjie further proof. There is no 
 
 1 John i. 14. Luke i. 35. Ps. ii. 7. Heb. i. 5 ; v. 5. Acts xiii. 33. 
 Rom. i. 4. 
 
34 THE CHANGE OP CHARACTER REGENERATION. 
 
 scripture which declares expressly that church-membership 
 without godliness is not regeneration ; unless it be taken 
 for granted that there is only the one regeneration, not the 
 two. But there are scriptures which recognise the regene- 
 ration of a mere church estate, independently of holy cha- 
 racter. We have seen that ' all' who are baptized are de- 
 clared to be ' children of God ;' the declaration being 
 positive, and not to be qualified without assuming the 
 point in question : and as it is agreed that not all the bap- 
 tized are pious, it follows that persons may be regenerated 
 in baptism without piety; such a conclusion is unavoida- 
 ble, if we would preserve from extenuation this absolute 
 assertion of scripture ! it also follows, that the passages 
 which make holy qualities essential to regeneration, must 
 be interpreted of another change, so distinct from the bap- 
 tismal, that the latter can exist, in its entireness, without 
 the former ; and this brings us to the two regenerations we 
 have described. We have likewise seen, that the appella- 
 tion 'children' of God is expressly given to members of 
 the church, who, in the same sentence, are as expressly 
 declared to be * rebellious, corrupters, abhorred of God, 
 unworthy of Abraham and Israel, cursed' — as expressly 
 rebuked for * backsliding,' and warned to be ' converted,' 
 and accused of ' killing the prophets,' and ' stoning' God's 
 messengf^rs : most surely then, if all this denunciation 
 proves not that that appellation has a full sense irrespective 
 of holy character, we must impute fallacy and uncertainty 
 to the clear language of scripture. That full sense is 
 the regeneration of mere church-membership, which in the 
 christian church is baptismal regeneration. And when 
 virtue and piety are made the tokens of being * born of 
 God,' another regeneration is recognised, moral regene- 
 ration, wholly distinct from the former. The theory of 
 two distinct regenerations takes nothing for granted, but 
 rests on an inductive investigation of scripture ; while 
 
THE CHANGE Or CHARACTER REGENERATION. 35 
 
 that of only the one mentioned is, we think, entirely de- 
 pendent on the assumption that neither of the two changes 
 is of itself a new birth. Our proofs have shown that 
 this high designation belongs to each of them separately. 
 
 Further : That all baptized infants are regenerate, is 
 allowed by those with whom we now argue. In their case 
 at least, therefore, regeneration is independent of personal 
 character, infants having none in any proper sense ; in the 
 language of scripture, they have ' done neither good nor 
 evil.' And if in them the baptismal new birth is com- 
 plete without godliness, it must be so in all ; or else, there 
 must be two kinds of baptismal regeneration, the one re- 
 quiring both baptism and piety, the other, baptism alone. 
 This latter is the view taken in effect, though verbally dis- 
 claimed, by many of those who allow only the one regene- 
 ration mentioned ; but it seems an inconsistent opinion. 
 We therefore prefer making, in reality as well as in words, 
 only one kind of baptismal regeneration, and regarding it, 
 in adults as in infants, as being complete in the perform- 
 ance of the sacrament, and thus perfectly distinct from 
 the moral cliange ; which also, it has been proved, is in 
 scripture called a regeneration. 
 
 Others, again, modify the opinion just rejected. They 
 maintain that baptism is regeneration when there is no- 
 thing in the person receiving it to prevent its being such ; 
 that in infants there is no obstacle ; but that unworthiness 
 in adults defeats the regenerating eificacy of the sacra- 
 ment, or postpones it till their unworthy character is 
 changed. To this theory, however, we find opposed the 
 many scriptures, already quoted, which fully recognise 
 bad persons as children of God, merely in virtue of their 
 church estate, and which thus decide that wickedness does 
 not prevent their being regenerated in baptism. This 
 scriptural disproof we regard as final. We would further 
 suggest, however, that this theory, instead of making god- 
 
36 THE CHANGE OF CHARACTER REGKNERATION. 
 
 liness a product of the grace of regeneration, appears to 
 make regeneration a result of godliness : whereas, it is 
 clearly declared, that the godly change of character, per- 
 sonal holiness, is the fruit of the grace of the new birth. 
 Take the strong assertion, * he cannot sin, because he is 
 born of God.' Take other passages, ' whosoever is born 
 of God sinneth not;' obviously because he is born of God 
 — 'he that is begotten of God keepeth himself;' plainly 
 because he is begotten of God. But this theory would re- 
 verse the sequence, and say, ' he is born of God, because 
 he cannot, or does not sin,' his reformation has allowed his 
 baptismal regeneration to take effect.^ We cannot but 
 think the doctrine of two distinct regenerations far pre- 
 ferable to that which leads, or seems to lead, to such a re- 
 sult. We believe that the baptismal new birth is always 
 complete at the font ; and that holiness of character is the 
 consequence, the fruit, of the grace which produces the 
 moral new birth. And we say further, on the strength of 
 this last proposition, that a pious adult coming to baptism 
 has the moral new birth, of which his piety is the fruit, 
 before he has the baptismal — another proof, based on scrip- 
 ture, that the two are distinct. — Perhaps however it will 
 here be objected, that we suppose the theory faulted to 
 imply, that regeneration is an irifuence, a seed at least of 
 
 1 1 John iii. 9 ; v. 18. Sometimes indeed this mode of speaking is not 
 adhered to, as ' love your enemies ... do good . . . that ye may be the chil- 
 dren of your Father which is in heaven :' but the meaning is, * that ye may 
 approve yourselves his children — that ye may show that regenerating grace 
 has taken effect.' In the theory however before us, regeneration is consi- 
 dered as taking place only when the impediment is removed, sinful 
 character, which obstructed it in baptism ; of course it is not regeneration 
 that removes the impediment. So it appears to us. If this however be de- 
 nied, and it be held that the regeneration of the unworthy does not take 
 effect at baptism, yet that regenerating grace does act in producing their 
 subsequent change of character, then it acts before that change, and thus 
 their unworthiness when at the font was not the impediment supposed : 
 which result is fatal to the theory. 
 
THE CHANGE OF CHARACTER — REGENERATION. 37 
 
 moral grace, for producing a moral effect, when it is rather 
 held to be only a privilege — if this objection be raised, we 
 ask, in what sense are the passages just quoted from St. 
 John to be understood 1 Will it be said that a person can- 
 not or does not sin, ' because' he has the privilege of being 
 in the church, or in the covenant, or in a state of pardon 7 
 or ' because' he has made that privilege availing, by forsak- 
 ing sin thus far ? Yet this must be said, if there is not 
 a moral change, the grace of which is an influence yield- 
 ing holy fruit, to which that apostle alluded when he spoke 
 of being ' born of God.' It is the gracious influence pro- 
 ducing, sustaining, and increasing moral regeneration, that 
 opposes sin . This appears to us rational as well as scrip- 
 tural. While to say. in effect, that a person cannot or does 
 not sin, ' because' he is baptized, is to make an assertion 
 which may perhaps stand in the letter, but not without ex- 
 plaining away the natural and obvious sense. And this 
 difficulty is of peculiar force in the case of adults who 
 were baptized in infancy — when they are allowed to have 
 been baptismally regenerated. 
 
 We add to the arguments now given, a direct scriptural 
 proof that persons not in the church may be (morally) re- 
 generate. It should however be remembered, that the 
 bible says little of the possible favour with the Deity of 
 those who belong not to his covenant society : we only read 
 some general assertions respecting them ; as, that those 
 who have not the law, are a law unto themselves, by the 
 light of nature and tradition ; that Christ tasted death for 
 every man ; and that he lighteth every man that cometh 
 into the world. We are not to expect, therefore, a clear 
 statement of the relations of such persons with the Holy 
 Spirit. Yet we are not without intimations on the sub- 
 ject. When the Jewish high priest ' prophesied that 
 Jesus should die for that nation,' he added, 'and not for 
 that nation only, but that also he should gather together in 
 
38 THE CHANGE OF CHARACTER REGENERATION. 
 
 one the children of God that were scattered abroad'^ 
 This refers to the Gentiles, who were not Jewish children 
 of God, and none of whom had become children of God 
 by initiation into the christian church. Yet 'children of 
 God' they were ; and it could have been in no other sense, 
 we think, than as being morally regenerate. Dr. Ham- 
 mond says — -^ the sons of God that are scattered abroad, 
 that is, all that are or shall be pious faithful servants of his 
 all the world over, that are qualified aright for the receiv- 
 ing of Christ when he preacheth to them.'" It follows that 
 persons maybe regenerate before baptism, before they are 
 * gathered together in one,' into the one visible church ; 
 men maybe morally regenerate before they are baptismally 
 regenerate. And we have largely proved, that persons 
 may be baptismally or ecclesiastically regenerate while 
 they are not godly or morally regenerate. The unavoida- 
 ble result is, that there are two distinct regenerations. 
 
 A very clear recognition of the distinction between bap- 
 tism and the moral new birth is found in the first epistle to 
 the Corinthians. Of these brethren, generally, St. Paul 
 declares that ' he had begotten them in Christ Jesus through 
 the gospel ;' yet he had reminded them, just before, that he 
 ' baptized none of them, but Crispus and Gains .... and 
 the household of Stephanas.'^ If this ' begetting,' or 
 
 i John xi. 52. 
 
 2 Hammond on 1 John iii. 10. noted. To the same effect is the passage, 
 'Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold :' sheep of Christ there were, 
 not in the Jewish fold, nor as yet in any fold ; and the sheep of God's pas- 
 ture are often identified with his ' people ;' and his people are identified 
 with his ' children,' ' surely they are my people, children that will not lie.' 
 Hence, to be sheep of Christ is to be children of God; yet not here in the 
 ecclesiastical sense, for those mentioned are declared not to be in the ' fold.' 
 They were morally his children or regenerate, while yet unconnected with 
 his church. — See John x. 16. Ps. xcv. 7 : c. 2. Isa. Ixiii. 8 : and also Hara- 
 inond on John x. note a, and on John vi. note d. 
 
 3 1 Cor. iv. 15. i. 14, 16. In Acts xviii. 8, we learn that ' many of the Co- 
 rinthians were baptized,' all who ' believed ;' but not by Paul himself. 
 
THE CHANGE OF CHARACTER REGENERATION. 39 
 
 bringing into the relation of sons of God, refer to the con- 
 version of the Corinthians, by Paul, to Christianity, before 
 they were baptized, then we have another scriptural asser- 
 tion of the existence of moral regeneration without the ec- 
 clesiastical. Or, if this * begetting' was the result of pas- 
 toral instruction subsequent to their baptism, still their 
 baptismal regeneration and their moral regeneration came 
 through different human agents; the former not by Paul, 
 the latter by Paul. Adopt either interpretation, and we 
 have proof positive that baptism is not, of itself, the be- 
 ginning of the spiritual life, or the implanting of a spiri- 
 tual germ, or the vehicle of spiritual vitality : also, proof 
 positive that there is a regeneration * through the gospel' 
 besides the sacramental one : and further, proof positive 
 that the two regenerations are so perfectly distinct, each 
 from the other, that they were in this case, as they often 
 are, effected through the agency of different ministers. 
 We cannot see how, in view of the premises, these con- 
 clusions can be evaded. 
 
 We are gratified in seeing our argument in this com- 
 manding position, on two accounts — first, because the doc- 
 trine presents a clear and intelligible view of this depart- 
 ment of revealed truth — and secondly, because it most ex- 
 plicitly warns the careless member of the church, that his 
 being baptized does not imply that he has the new heart, 
 in any degree whatever, or in any whatever of its ele- 
 ments. Far from us however be the thought, that moral 
 regeneration may be supposed to exist, or to remain, in 
 those who wilfully reject baptism — we speak not of igno- 
 rance, or of involuntary error of any kind — but, these 
 apart, the icilful rejection of any appointment of Christ's 
 can be reckoned nothing less than unjustifiable presump- 
 tion, perverse disobedience. It indicates the most awful 
 presumption and perverseness, to reject knowingly the 
 settled covenant, into which God requires us to enter, if we 
 
40 THE CHANGE OF CHARACTER REGENERATION. » 
 
 would apply to ourselves any of the clear promises or ex- 
 press encouragements of scripture. And this wilful set- 
 ting at nought a divine commandment renders void, in 
 sound human judgment, the claim of being morally re- 
 generate. As Augustine says — ' Conversion of the heart, 
 though it may be where baptism is not had, cannot be 
 where it is contemned : for that is by no means to be call- 
 ed a conversion of the heart to God, where the sacrament 
 of God is contemned.'^ 
 
 1 Aug. contra Don. l- 4 : see Wall, 3d edit. V. I. p. 189. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 
 SECT [ON 1. 
 
 SCRIPTURAL PROOFS. 
 
 We asserted, in the Introduction, that the change of state 
 which is the transition from being out of the visible church 
 to being within that body, is, in the christian church, ef- 
 fected in baptism ; a washing with water being performed 
 by the minister ; and regeneration, baptismal regeneration, 
 being superadded by the Holy Spirit ; and that all who are 
 thus washed are thus regenerated. Some of these propo- 
 sitions have mingled with the argument already given ; 
 but it is proper to state them explicitly, and, as thus stated, 
 prove them from scripture. 
 
 Baptism introduces us into the visible church : for the 
 visible church is the * body of Christ,' and * baptized into 
 Christ,' ' baptized into Jesus Christ,' are the same as bap- 
 tized into the body of Christ. It is said also, ' they that 
 gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day 
 there were added unto them [the church] about three 
 thousand souls.' To the same effect — ' baptized into one 
 body.'^ 
 
 Baptism is to be performed by a christian minister, ac- 
 cording to the rule declared in scripture, that the priest- 
 
 i Eph. i. 22. Gal. iii. 27. Rom. vi. 3. Acts ii. 4i ; comp. 47. 1 Cor. xii. 13- 
 d2 
 
42 BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 
 
 hood is * ordained for men in things pertaining to God.'' 
 Hence its administration was committed to the apostles, 
 and the apostolic line, * go j/e, teach all nations, baptizing 
 them .... and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end 
 of the world.* And it is performed with water ; ' see, here 
 is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized V — < can any 
 man forbid water, that these should not be baptized ?'* 
 
 There is also in christian baptism an operation of the 
 Holy Spirit, * by one Spirit are we all baptized into one 
 body.* The appellation ' children of God,^ given to * all' 
 the baptized, has the same bearing ; it means children of 
 God by the Holy Spirit. So likewise, when it is not only 
 said, that * God hath set in the church apostles, and pro- 
 phets, and teachers,* but it is also said, * now hath God SQiihe 
 members every one of them in the body,' the agency of the 
 Spirit in baptism, as well as in ordination, ig recognised. 
 Thus again, the apostle declares the 'children of promise,' 
 of * air whom * Jerusalem is the mother,' in other words, 
 the members of the visible christian church, the ' children 
 of the free woman,* the baptized — the apostle declares 
 them to be * born of the Spirit.'' Hence, this operation of 
 the Holy Ghost, in the sacrament of the font, is called re- 
 generation or a new birth : hence the name of this rite is 
 not ' washing' merely, but, to distinguish it from ordinary 
 ablutions, * the washing of regeneration ;' hence also, in 
 the use of the baptismal water, we are * born of water,' 
 that is, this birth being different from the natural one, 
 * born again of water,' or ' new born of water.'^ That all 
 the baptized are thus baptismally regenerated, is evident 
 from passages already cited, * ye are all the children of 
 God' — * Jerusalem is the mother of us alV — * we are all 
 baptized by one Spirit.' 
 
 > Heb.v. 1. Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. Acts viii. 36; x. 47. 
 2 1 Cor. xii. 13. Gal. iii. 86. 1 Cor. xii. 28, 18. Gai. iv. 89, end context. 
 Tit. iii. 5. John iii. 5. 
 
BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 43 
 
 Under this head of the discussion, it is proper to defend 
 that construction of the phrases * washing of regeneration,' 
 
 * born (again) of water,' which applies them to baptism, 
 and which is their natural sense, as well as that in which 
 the early Fathers understood them, as we shall see. These 
 ore good rules of interpretation, and not to be disregarded 
 but for very cogent reasons. Yet by many divines they 
 are set at nought, and it is held that the expressions refer 
 to a merely spiritual work, which is not baptism, and 
 Bcarcely if at all connected with that rite. Some of these 
 maintain that the language is wholly figurative ; the 
 
 • washing' and the * water' meaning the Spirit, by a direct 
 metaphorical construction : but this is only a supposition, 
 gratuitous, not susceptible of proof; and the simple con- 
 tradiction of such an opinion is as valid as the assertion of 
 it. To prove language to be figurative, it must be shown 
 that its literal sense is absurd, or otherwise incongruous, 
 which cannot be alleged of these passages, without taking 
 
 for granted that it is absurd or incongruous to connect a 
 regeneration with baptism ; and that is begging the ques- 
 tion.^ Others reach the same point by asserting that, in 
 each of the passages, * washing of regeneration, and re- 
 newing of the Holy Ghost,' * born (again) of water, and of 
 the Spirit,' the word ' and' is exegetical, meaning * that is,' 
 and making the fornier clause in each passage equivalent 
 to the latter — the washing of regeneration, equivalent to 
 the renewing of the Holy Ghost — born again of water, 
 equivalent to born again of the Spirit. Here again, how- 
 ever, we reply that the construction is gratuitous. For it 
 
 1 T. Hartwell Home says—' The most simple sense is always that whieh 
 is the genuine meaning'—' we should be more willing to take a sense from 
 scripture than to bring one to it' — 'the plain, obvious, and literal sense of a 
 passage .... is ordinarily to be preferred to the figurative sense, and it is 
 not to be rashly abandoned, unless absolute and evident necessity require 
 such literal sense to be given up.' ( V. 2. p. 525, 526, 527 .- Lond, 1821.) 
 
44 BAPTISMAL REGENERATIOiV. 
 
 would be quite as logical to reverse this exegetical inter- 
 pretation, and say that to be born of the Spirit is only to 
 be born of water, and to be renewed by the Holy Ghost is 
 only to subnriit to the washing of regeneration ; the water 
 may as well exclude the Spirit from these passages, as the 
 Spirit the water : and when a hypothetical construction 
 and its opposite thus neutralise each other, neither can be 
 sound. This exegetical exposition, also, is contrary to the 
 rule, that such interpretations are not allowable till they 
 are shown to be necessary. It must be proved that wash- 
 ing and renewing, water and the Spirit, are, or must be, 
 not may possibly be, equivalent terms, and in these parti- 
 cular texts, before the word * and' be construed exegeti- 
 cally, and made to signify 'that is:' but this has never 
 been proved, and we do not believe that it ever will or 
 can be, since it can only be argued by taking for granted 
 that there is no regeneration or new birth in the sacrament 
 of baptism. It is idle, worse than idle, to contend for 
 such exegetical constructions on the ground of mere doc- 
 trinal fancies or assumptions, and before the necessity for 
 them is demonstrated. The unlearned may be bewildered 
 by such hypotheses, nay the learned also, and proselytes 
 may be gained ; but they obstruct the sound interpretation 
 of th^ word of God.^ 
 
 As this exegetical interpretation of the two assages 
 before us, is the principal, though but plausible, evasion of 
 their bearing on the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, a 
 
 1 ' I hold for a most infallible rule in expositions of sacred scripture,' 
 eays Hooker, ' that where a literal construction will stand, the farthest from 
 the letter is commonly the worst. There is nothing more dangerous than 
 this licentious and deluding art, which changeth the meaning of words, as 
 alchymy doth or would do the substance of metals, maketh of any thing 
 what it listeth, and bringeth in the end all truth to nothing. Or howsoever 
 such voluntary exercise of wit might be borne with otherwise ; yet in places 
 which usually serve, as this doth concerning regeneration by water and the 
 Holy Ghost, to be alleged for grounds and principles, less is permitted.'—- 
 {B. V. sect 59.) 
 
BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 45 
 
 few more remarks may be added. We appeal to every 
 candid and impartial mind, whether the mass of scriptural 
 proofs contained in our first chapter, showing that mere 
 membership in the visible church confers the appellation 
 sons of God, children of God, equivalent to born again of 
 God or regenerate, but not implying the moral change, 
 does not infinitely outweigh all that can be said in favour 
 of the exegetical sense of the word ' and' in those two 
 passages. The only valid argument for it would be their 
 incongruity with other passages, or with the general tone 
 of scripture, without that interpretation. But we have 
 shown, by a large array of texts, that the bible fully and 
 extensively recognises the regeneration of visible church- 
 membership ; and thus the whole argument, if argument 
 it can be called, for the exegesis in question, is overturn- 
 ed and extruded. Nay more ; were that exegesis conceded, 
 there would still remain scriptures enough to prove, in- 
 dependently of those two passages, that there is such a 
 regeneration. In a position thus doubly protected, our 
 doctrine is, we think, unassailable. 
 
 How entirely gratuitous is the exegetical construction in 
 either of these two passages, will appear by comparing 
 the views given of them by Calvin and Doddridge. Cal- 
 vin denies this construction in one of the texts, but asserts 
 it in the other; interpreting them respectively — 'the wash- 
 ing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost' — 
 ' born of water, that is, of the Spirit ;' nay, he connects 
 both regeneration and renewing with baptism, ' the washing 
 of regeneration and renewing.' Doddridge gives pre- 
 cisely the reverse — ' the washing of regeneration, that is, 
 the renewing of the Holy Ghost' — ' born of water, and of 
 the Spirit ;' he as strenuously argues against associating 
 regeneration with baptism, as Calvin is clear for connecting 
 both regeneration and renewing with that sacrament. The 
 one divine makes the former text refer decidedly to bap- 
 
46 BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 
 
 tism, and the latter not; while the other divine makes the 
 latter refer to that rite, and the former not, as decidedly as 
 his argument will allow.^ What an humiliating example 
 of the inconsistency into which learned and pious men 
 may be betrayed by their theories ! 
 
 CHAPTER III.— SECTION 2. 
 
 THE AUTHORITY OF THE FATHERS. 
 
 Our appeal to scripture, in proof of the doctrine of a 
 regeneration to the churcli estate effected in the christian 
 church by baptism, has, we trust, placed that doctrine be- 
 yond the reach of fair controversy. This being done, we 
 introduce some extracts from the Fathers, to show that the 
 connexion of regeneration with baptism was also the doc- 
 trine of the primitive church. First, however, we remind 
 the reader that some of the fathers use the words, renew- 
 ed, new formed or created, and the like, as synonymous 
 with regenerate, and often apply them indiscriminately to 
 
 1 And yet Dr. Doddridge has this paragraph — 'After all then, if any argu- 
 ment can be deduced from scripture in favour of the manner of speaking 
 now in debate, it must be from the general tenor of it ; according to which 
 it seems that all who are members of the visible church are spoken of as 
 regenerate ; from which it may be inferred, with some plausible proba- 
 bility at least, that baptism, by which they are admitted into that society, 
 may be called Regeneration : and I am ready to believe, as I hinted above, 
 that this was the chief reason why the ancients so often used the word in 
 the sense I am now opposing.' Dr. D. allows that scripture speaks of all 
 the members of the visible church as ' regenerate,' but, because he disap- 
 proved of the ' sense' given the word by the writers he was • opposing,' he 
 would set aside the use of the expression. — See Calvin and Doddridge 
 on Tit. iii. 5, and John iii. 5 : see also Calv. Instit. translated by Allen. 
 V. 3. p. 327, 330, 373 j and Doddr. on Regen. Postscript, p. xv.^c 
 
BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 47 
 
 baptism.^ We also apprise him, that it is not uncommon 
 for the fathers to regard the moral and the baptismal as one 
 regeneration, and connected with the sacramentof the font : 
 we adduce therefore their authority only for the applica- 
 tion of the word; for its meaning, or meanings, we go to 
 the living oracles. 
 
 Justin Martyr says of converts to Christianity — ' they 
 are led by us to a place where there is water, and in the 
 same way of regeneration in which we were regenerated, 
 they are regenerated ; for they are then washed in that 
 water in the name of God the Father and Lord of all, and 
 of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. For 
 Christ said, If ye be not regenerated, ye shall not enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven.' . . . . ' there is invoked over 
 him who is willing to be regenerated, and has repented of 
 his sins, the name of God the Father and Lord of all'. . . . 
 ' and this washing is called illumination.'^ 
 
 Iren^us. * When he gave his disciples the commission 
 of regenerating unto God, he said unto them. Go and 
 teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Fa- 
 ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.' The same 
 father says of our Lord — ' he came to save all persons by 
 himself: all, I mean, who by him are regenerated unto 
 God ; infants, and little ones, and youths, and older per- 
 sons.' Again : ' this generation of heretics has been sent 
 out by Satan for frustrating the baptism of regeneration 
 unto God.'^ 
 
 Clejient of Alexandria. * He that is once regene- 
 rated, as the name of that [sacrament] is.' Again, speak- 
 ing of a fancy of certain heretics concerning the baptism 
 
 1 See Suicer on AvctTtXetrts, AvuKuivi^ti, &c. : also, the Appendix (p. 72, 
 ^c.) to Dr. Jarvls' Convention Sermon, on Jolin iii. 9 : also, the Appendix to 
 this Essay. 
 
 2 Just. Mart. Apol. i. {tndg. ii.) sect. 79, 80. 
 
 3 Iren. adv. Haeres. /. 3. c. 19 : /. 2. c. 39 : 1 1. c. 18 : see Wall 
 
48 BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 
 
 of Christ — ' let us then ask these wise men, was Christ, as 
 soon as he was regenerated, perfect ? .... as soon as bap- 
 tized by John, he is perfect,' or perfectly initiated :^ as no 
 one can suppose that Jesus, who was without sin, under- 
 went the change of character, the regeneration here men- 
 tioned could have had no affinity with the moral new birth : 
 whether John's baptism was a regeneration, we do not 
 discuss. 
 
 Tertullian. ' Wh'ereas it is an acknowledged rule 
 (prgescribitur) that none can be saved without baptism; 
 grounded especially on that sentence of our Lord, unless 
 one be born of water he cannot be saved,' &;c. Again : 
 speaking of the command to baptize all nations, he pro- 
 ceeds — ' when to this law that rule is added, except one be 
 regenerated of water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into 
 the kingdom of heaven, it has bound up faith to a neces- 
 sity of baptism.''^ 
 
 Origen, speaking of the resurrection, says — ' For that 
 is a regeneration, being a new birth when a new heaven 
 and a new earth are made .... and the way to that regene- 
 ration is that which by Paul is called the laver of regene- 
 ration .... There is perhaps in our [natural] birth no one 
 clean from pollution, though his life be but of one day .... 
 but in the regeneration by the laver, every one that is bom 
 again of icater and the Spirit is clean from pollution ; 
 clean, as I may venture to say, as through a glass darkly 
 IV oivi-^fxccri. And in that other regeneration, when the Son 
 of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, every one that 
 attains to that regeneration in Christ is clean from pollu- 
 tion in the highest degree ; face to face. And it is by the 
 washing of regeneration that he comes to that other re- 
 generation.'^ 
 
 1 Clem. Alex. Psedagog. 1. 1. c. 6: see Wall. 
 
 2Tertul. de Bapt. c. 12, 13 : see Wall. 3 Comment. in Matt.: see Wall. 
 
BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 4S 
 
 Cyprian. * That the old man dies and the new is born 
 in baptism, the blessed apostle clearly proves, saying, He 
 saved us by the laver of regeneration. If however re- 
 generation is in the laver, that is, in baptism, how can 
 heresy beget sons to God through Christ?'^ 
 
 Athanasius. ' He who is baptized puts off the old 
 man, and is renewed, as being born again (or from above) 
 by the grace of the Spirit.'^ 
 
 Gregory Nazianzen. * The word teaches us that ge- 
 neration is threefold, that of our bodies, that of baptism, 
 and that of the resurrection.' Again, speaking of the 
 Arians — ' seek for somebody else to baptize you, or rather 
 drown you ; for I have no mind to divide the Deity, and at 
 the time of your new birth to bring death on you.'^ 
 
 Chrysostom. ' Because baptism is said to be a symbol 
 of death and resurrection, therefore it is also called a re- 
 generation. For, as one rising from the dead seems to be 
 born again, so is he who in baptism is regenerated ; as he 
 has first died in the ivater, so being raised thence by the 
 power of the Spi7'it, he is said to be regenerated.^ Again : 
 * For they are not only free, but saints ; nor saints only, 
 but justified ; and not only justified, but sons ; and not only 
 sons, but heirs ; not heirs only, but brothers of Christ ; not 
 only his brethren, but co-heirs; not co-heirs only, but 
 members of him ; not members only, but his temple ; and 
 not his temple only, but organs of his Spirit. You see how 
 many are the benefits of baptism.^* 
 
 Augustine. ' The force of that sacrament is such, 
 that he wlio is once regenerated by it,' &c. Again : ' Let 
 it not disturb you, that some persons do not bring their in- 
 
 1 Waterland on Regeneration, (Weller Tracts,) />. 6. 
 
 2 Suicer on Kvjlku.iviti':. 3 Orat. in Sanct. Bapt. : see Wall. 
 
 4 Siiif-er on Ava^«vv«3-/f : also a Homily cited by Augustine ; see Wall. In 
 Bp. Hobarl's Works, V. 2. p. 462, quotations are given to the same effect 
 from Basil and Theodoret. 
 
50 BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 
 
 fants to receive baptism that they may by spiritual grace 
 be regenerated to eternal life, but because they think by 
 this remedy to preserve or restore their temporal health ; 
 for they do not on that account fail to be regenerated.^ 
 Again: ' What christian can endure to hear it said, that 
 any person may come to salvation who is not regenerated in 
 Christ, which he has ordered to be done in baptism.^ Again : 
 ' Therefore the baptism of infants is no more than what is 
 necessary ; that they, who by their generation are subject 
 to that condemnation, may by regeneration be freed from 
 it.' Again : ' The guilt (of the law of sin) is removed in 
 the sacrament by which believers are regenerated.'' Again : 
 * The renovation after the image of God is not effected in 
 a moment, like that regeneration in baptism which is done 
 in a moment by the remission of sins.' Yet again : speak- 
 ing of his mother, ' she had lately begun to feel thy holy 
 love, and had been washed in the laver of regeneration ;' 
 and of Victorinus, ' he was not ashamed to become a child 
 of thy Christ, an infant of ih)' fountain, with his neck sub- 
 jected to the yoke of humility, and \\\^forehead subdued to 
 the reproach of the cross .... not long after he gave in 
 his name, that he might have the benefit of christian bap- 
 tism' . . . . ' well did it become thy sons to exult. '^ 
 
 CHAPTER III.— SECTION 3. 
 
 OTHER HUMAN AUTHORITIES. 
 
 We offer the following exhibition of authorities, be- 
 sides that of the Fathers, already given, to those who deny 
 
 1 Wall (3d Edit) V. 1. p. 89, 193, 281, and ch. 19. § 19. Calv. Instil. V. 2 
 p. 76. Bp. Inglis on Inf. Bapt. p. 4. Aug. Conf. abridged in Milner's Ch. 
 Hist. V. 2. p. 301, 336, 337, 338. 
 
BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 51 
 
 that baptism is, in any sense, regeneration, or connected 
 with a change bearing that name. Various Churches, and 
 Divines, of various creeds, allow this connexion in some 
 way or other. And some authors who deny that any re- 
 generation takes place in that sacrament, use such lan- 
 guage as appears, at least, to be inconsistent with their opin- 
 ion. These considerations are not, indeed, in themselves 
 imperative; yet they afford a strong argument in regard to 
 the due interpretation of Scripture on this subject. Our 
 authorities now to be adduced are later than the Primitive 
 Churgh, the testimony of which has been seen in that 
 of the Fathers. 
 
 The Church of Rome. * Baptism, by way of a new 
 birth; by which we are made children of God, and are 
 washed from sin.' — ' And let them hence understand the 
 happy effects of Baptism: in virtue whereof, 1. The gates 
 of heaven, shut against sinners, are open to them. 2. The 
 Holy Ghost descends upon them, making them in inno- 
 cence like doves. 3. They are made the adopted children 
 of God, and heirs apparent to the kingdom of heaven.'^ 
 
 The Greek Church. The following is quoted by Bi- 
 shop White from Smith's Account of it — ' the baptized 
 persons being regeiierated and made members of the body 
 of Christ.' In Pinkerton's Account of the Greek Church 
 in Russia, the new birth is represented as an effect of bap- 
 tism, yet contingent on the faith of the receiver.^ 
 
 We hasten on to the various Protestant Churches, 
 as these only are held to be authority by those to whom this 
 portion of our argument is addressed. And here we first 
 introduce a passage from Archbishop Tillotson. 'lean- 
 not imagine why so great a scruple should be made of 
 those expressions which our church useth in the office of 
 
 1 True Piety: approved by Bp. Kenrick. {Cummii>key,\S22.) ^j. 23. — 
 Layman's Ritual. {Neto-York, Doyle, 1834.) 7?. 9. 
 
 2 Bp. White's Corapar. V. 2. p. 324. Pinkerton, p. 14'^. 
 
62 BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 
 
 baptism . . .. being regenerated and horn again by bap- 
 tism, and being thereby made the children of God, and heirs 
 
 of eternal life I cannot see that our church, in her 
 
 highest expressions concerning the benefits and effects of 
 baptism, says any thing but what is very agreeable to both 
 the expressions and sense of scripture. And thus not only 
 the ancient Fathers spake of this matter, but so likewise 
 all the Liturgies of all the Reformed Churches, in the 
 offices and forms appointed by them for the administration of 
 baptism ; so that it seems a very affected singularity, to 
 take exception at such expressions as have constantly been, 
 and still are generally used in all christian churches.^ 
 
 The Protestant Episcopal Church, in England and 
 America, declares, after the baptism of every infant and of 
 every adult, that each of them is * regenerate and grafted 
 into the body of Christ's church ;' and the Thanksgiving 
 after baptism, in the respective cases, speaks to the same 
 effect. It is not said there that the church generally, or 
 any number of persons generally, are regenerate, but that 
 each baptized individual is regenerated at the font.^ 
 
 The Lutheran Church. ' This innate disease and 
 original sin is in reality subjecting all those to the eternal 
 wrath of God, who are not regenerated by baptism and the 
 Holy Spirit.' — ' For without the word of God, the water is 
 mere water, and no baptism ; but with the word of God, it 
 is a baptism, that is, a merciful v/aterof life, and a laver of 
 
 1 Tillot. Serm./oZ. V. 3. p. 290. 
 
 2 In the English form of receiving into the congregation infants that have 
 been privately baptized, it is declared, ' that this child is hy baptism regene- 
 rate' — and, in a previous part of the office, ' is now by the later of regenera- 
 tion in baptism, received into the number of the children of God, and heirs 
 of everlasting life.' These passages are not in our Prayer-book : and the 
 omission is judicious — 1. because, v\'hile the connection of baptism with [a] 
 regeneration is sufficiently declared elsewhere, there is avoided too close 
 and rigorous a definition, which furthers contrariety, rather than union in 
 doctrine — and 2. because it is not quite correct to say that a certain predi- 
 cate ' is now,' or may ' now' be made, which was true at a previous time. 
 
BAPTISMAL REGENERATIO.V. 53 
 
 regeneration in the Holy Ghost : as Paul says to Titus, iii. 
 
 The PuRiTAis's did not entirely renounce this doctrine. 
 Mr. Baxter says — ' We are sacramentally buried and risen 
 with Christ, as dead to sin, and made new creatures^ when 
 we are baptized ; therefore it is called the laver of regene- 
 ration.'^ The editors of the latter part of Poole's Annota- 
 tions, in asserting the identity of John's baptism with that 
 of Christ, remark — ' And baptism being an ordinance for 
 our regeneration and new birth, as we can be born but 
 once in the flesh, we can be but once also born in the Spi- 
 rit ; and no more may christians be baptized twice, than 
 the Jews could be twice circumcised :'^ this argument, it 
 will be seen, is built on the principle, that to be 'baptized' 
 and to be ' born in the Spirit' are the same — besides that 
 it is declared explicitly that baptism is for our new birth. 
 
 Presbyterian Churches. The Confession of Faith 
 calls the visible church the ^family of God:' that is, her 
 members are children of God, and of course born (again) 
 of God, or regenerate. It declares that 'there is in every 
 sacrament a . . . . sacramental union between the sign and 
 the thing signified' — and that' baptism is a sign and seal 
 .... of regeneration :' of course there is a sacramental 
 ' union' between baptism, the sign, and regeneration, the 
 thing signified. It further declares that, although ' grace' 
 is not so tied to baptism as that none can be ' regenerated' 
 without it, or so as that all are ' regenerated' who receive 
 it, or at the time of receiving it, 'yet notwithstanding, by 
 the right use of this ordinance the grace promised is not 
 only offered, but really exhibited and conferred by the 
 Holy Ghost, to such (whether of age or infants) as that 
 grace belongeth unto, according to the counsel of God's 
 
 1 Aug. Conf. Art. 2. Dr. Martin Luther's Catechism. {Pkila. 1828.) 
 
 2 Baxter's Pract. Works, /oZ. V. 4. p. 138. Poole's Annot. on Acts xix. 5. 
 
 e2 
 
54 BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 
 
 own will, in his appointed time :' this language is express : 
 and it means that, besides other benefits, regeneration is 
 conferred by baptism, either at the time, or in due season 
 afterwards, on all the elect who are baptized. The Notes 
 to the Confession, having the authority of the General As- 
 sembly, refer to baptism the texts, ' born of water, and of 
 the Spirit,' ' the washing of regeneration, and renewing of 
 the Holy Ghost.'^ 
 
 The Church of Geneva, in the Catechism written by 
 Calvin, teaches the catechumen to say. of the water of bap- 
 tism, 'I consider it to be a figure, but at the same time it 
 has the substance connected with it ; for God in promising 
 us his gifts does not deceive us; therefore as forgiveness 
 of sins and newness of life are offered to us in baptism, so 
 it is certain they are received by us.' The same document 
 speaks of ' regeneration,' the crucifixion of our old man, 
 the burial of our corrupt nature, our being begotten unto 
 a new life, as ' benefits conferred on us by baptism.'^ 
 
 In Scotch editions of the Bible, besides the metre 
 Psalms, there are metrical Paraphrases of scripture, which 
 are used, we infer, in the Church of Scotland. One of 
 these, a version of part of Rom. vi., contains the following 
 lines — 
 
 When to the sacred fount we came, 
 
 Did not the rite proclaim, 
 That, washed from sin, and all its stains, 
 New creatures we heeame? 
 
 The Church of Holland, in the Heidelberg Catechism, 
 says, ' the Holy Ghost calls baptism the washing of regene- 
 ration.'' In the Confession of the Synod of Dort, she de- 
 clares that the sacraments ' are visible signs and seals of 
 an inward and invisible thing, by means whereof God 
 
 1 Conf. Faith, ch. xxv. 2. xxvii. 2. xxviii. 1, 5, 6: see also the ' Minute' 
 at the end of the book. 
 
 2 Catech. of IheChh. of Gen. TransL by Waterman, p. 93, 94. 
 
BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 55 
 
 worketh in us by the power of the Holy Ghost' — that bap- 
 tism ' serves as a testimony unto us, that He will for ever 
 be our gracious God and Father' — and that we ought not 
 to be twice baptized, ' since we cannot be horn twice:' 
 which argument, as in Poole's Annotations already quoted, 
 is, in eflfect, that there is only one baptism, because there is 
 only one regeneration, and the two are most intimately 
 connected together. And, in the Form of administering 
 baptism, she asserts, ' when we are baptized in the name 
 of the Father, God the Father witnesseth and sealeth 
 unto us, that he .... adopts us for his children and 
 heirs,' &c.^ 
 
 The German Reformed Churches use the Heidelberg 
 Catechism,^ in which, as we have just seen, it is declared, 
 ' the Holy Ghost calls baptism the washing of regenera- 
 tion' 
 
 Presbyterian Divines. Macknight refers both * horn of 
 water' and the ' washing of regeneration' to baptism : 
 and he says of the Israelites, ' the honourable appellation 
 of the children of God was given them, because they 
 were God's visible church and people.' — Doddridge refers 
 * horn of water' to baptism. — Watts, in his Catechism for 
 children, refeis ' the washing of regeneration' to baptism. 
 Saurin, in his Sermons, docs the same. — Beza says, 'we 
 are peculiarly said to be incorporated witii the Lord in his 
 supper, but to be regenerated by his Spirit in baptism.'^ 
 
 Calvin. We give the language of this eminent divine 
 as we find it; some of it appears to be inconsistent with 
 his theory concerning regeneration and baptism. He 
 writes thus — ' Christ hath purified us in the laver of his 
 blood, and hath communicated this purification by baptism' 
 
 1 Ileid. Catech. Quest. 73. Conf. Dort, Art. 33, 34. 
 
 2 Prot. Kpis. for March, 1835, p. 103. 
 
 3 Macknight on Rom. ix. 8. Watts Catech. for Child. Quest. 55. Sau- 
 rin'sSerm. V'. 8. p. 245. Beza on 1 Cor. xii. 13. 
 
56 BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 
 
 — 'Baptism is a sign of initiation, by which we are admit- 
 ted into the society of the church, in order that being- in- 
 corporated into Christ we may be numbered among the 
 children of God' — ' by whom they (infants) were accepted 
 as his children by the solemn symbol of adoption, before 
 they were capable of knowing him as their Father"* — ' we 
 are the children of God, because we have put on Christ in 
 baptism'' — * of this regeneration we have an earnest in hap- 
 tismJ'^ These passages, though they may be explained in 
 accordance with Calvin's theory, seem to recognise a re- 
 generation at the font. Some other passages are so much 
 more decidedly to this effect, that we know not how to re- 
 concile them with the opinions of the author. He says — 
 * We conclude, therefore, that we are baptized into the 
 mortification of the flesh, which commences in us at hap- 
 tis7n, which we pursue from day to day, and which will be 
 perfected when we shall pass out of this life unto the 
 Lord :' the ' mortification of the flesh' here named, is that 
 practical subduing of our depravity which we are to ' pur- 
 sue' through life, and which is to be made ' perfect' in the 
 life tocome ; this moral change, says Calvin, ' commences in 
 us at baptism;' nothing is left figurative or contingent. 
 And regeneration, he elsewhere remarks, takes place at the 
 same time — ' they who receive baptism with the faith with 
 which they ought to receive it, truly experience the effi- 
 cacy of Christ's death in the mortification of the flesh, and 
 also the energy of his resurrection in the vivijication [new 
 life] of the Spirit.'^ These, argues Calvin in effect, if we 
 have ' faith' — both these, the practical victory over sin, and 
 the new life or new birth, ' commence in us at baptism.' 
 Doubtless he meant this language to be taken in conformity 
 with his theory of the matter ; and so, in justice, we must 
 
 1 Calv. Instit V. 2. p. 162. V. 3. p. 326, 355, 330. 
 
 2 Calv. Instit. V. 3. p. 335, 330. 
 
BAPTISMAL REGENERATlOJf. 57 
 
 understand him. Yet who can deny that his argument 
 outruns his doctrine, and brings an involuntary, though an 
 extravagant tribute, to the high character of the sacrament 
 of the font ? 
 
 Calvin has also the following passage — 'But as our pre- 
 sent design is to treat of the visible church, we may learn 
 even from the title of mother^ how useful and even neces- 
 sary it is for us to know her ; since there is no other way 
 of entrance into life, unless we are conceived by her, born 
 of her, nourished at her breast, and continually preserved 
 under her care and government till we are divested of this 
 mortal flesh and become like the angels.' He adds, in the 
 same section — ' the paternal favour of God, and the pe- 
 culiar testimony of the spiritual life, are restricted to his 
 Jlock, to teach us that it is always fatally dangerous to be 
 separated from the Church,^^ 
 
 Congregational Churches. The Saybrook Platform de- 
 clares, that by the right use of this ordinance the grace 
 promised is really conferred by the Holy Ghost' — that bap- 
 tism is a ' sign of regeneration /' which shows what ' grace' 
 is ' conferred' in that rite — and that it is the means of in- 
 troducing us into the ' family' of God, i. e. to the circle of 
 his children.^ 
 
 The Methodist Church, after a baptism is performed, 
 returns thanks to God for ' receiving the infant for his own 
 child by adoption:'' — the child of God is of course born 
 (again) of God, or regenerate. 
 
 Dr. A. Clarke says, on one of the texts pertaining to this 
 discussion — ' by the washing o{ regeneration : Undoubtedly 
 the apostle here means baptism, the rite by which persons 
 were admitted into the church .... baptism is only a sign, 
 and therefore should never be separated from the thing sig- 
 nified ; but it is a rile commanded by God himself, and 
 
 1 Calv. Instil. V. 3. p. 9, 10. 2 Sayb. Plat. ch. 29. 
 
58 BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 
 
 therefore the thing signified should never be expected 
 without it.' 
 
 We have not adduced these Authorities to support the 
 doctrine of baptismal regeneration as maintained in this 
 essay : some of them differ from us very widely : and we 
 rest the claims of our doctrine on scripture only, leaving 
 the decision to those who will impartially examine what 
 we have adduced in its favour from that holy volume. Yet 
 we cannot but think, that the quotations offered in this 
 section, present a powerful argument for so interpreting 
 scripture, as in some way to connect [a] regeneration with 
 the initiating sacrament of the christian church. 
 
 CHAPTER III.— SECTION 4. 
 
 FURTHER REMARKS ON BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 
 
 As there is but one means of baptismal regeneration, 
 water applied in the name of the Trinity, this operation of 
 the Spirit cannot, we presume, be increased. Neither do 
 we suppose it to be diminished or lost, while the person who 
 has received it is in the church, or is not finally separated 
 from it. It will, however, be cancelled in those whose 
 * part God shall take away out of the book of life, and out 
 of the holy city,' the church.^ 
 
 This regeneration, to membership in the visible church, 
 is not, at least to human penetration, a moral endowment 
 of the Holy Ghost. Hence it is said, 'all the house of 
 Israel [circumcised in the flesh] are uncircumcised in the 
 heart.' The Jews also rebuked by our Saviour, though 
 children of God in the ecclesiastical sense, as we have 
 seen, were in the moral account, ' of their father the devil.' 
 
 1 Rev, xxii. 19. iii. 5. Ps. Ixix. 29. 
 
BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 59 
 
 So likewise the christian body consists of both * tares and 
 wheat ;' and though the tares are baptized into that body 
 by the washing of regeneration, and are in that sense, as 
 are * all' the baptized, children of God, yet being morally 
 unregenerate, they are in that other sense ' children of the 
 wicked one.' In that body, * all' the members of which 
 are baptismally the children of God, there was and is the 
 distinction, founded on the higher meaning of the phrase — 
 the distinction of righteous and unrighteous, by which ' the 
 children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.' 
 Satan is said to be * transformed into an angel of light, and 
 his ministers into ministers of righteousness :' and, inclose 
 analogy, his children receive by baptism the name and rank 
 of children of God — the Spirit ratifying the baptism of the 
 latter, as he does the ordination of the former.^ This mix- 
 ture in the earthly church is constantly declared in scrip- 
 ture. But mere church privileges are no substitute for 
 moral and pious attainments : in heaven there will be no 
 mixture. 
 
 Baptism, taking the place of circumcision, is the seal of 
 the great covenant, by which God, for Christ's sake, en- 
 gages to confer on us all the benefits purchased for us by 
 Christ, more especially pardon and full grace here, and 
 glory hereafter ; our title to pardon, grace and glory, is 
 thus sealed, or made complete on God's part, so that it will 
 hold good if the conditions on our part are fulfilled. As a 
 covenant implies obligations on both the parties, no man 
 has other than a conditional title to these blessings. The 
 condition is, that we so improve the grace of the Spirit as 
 it is given, as to exercise 'repentance towards God and 
 
 I Jer. ix. 26. Malt. xiii. 24, 25, 38 ; (the expression, * ihe field is the world,' 
 means, ' is the church in the world ;' see Macknight: — ' the visible church, 
 scattered all the world over ;' see M. Henry.) John viii. 34. 1 John iii. 10. 
 2 Cor. xi. 14, 15. 
 
60 BAPTISMAL REGENERATlOlSr. 
 
 faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,' and * walk worthy of the 
 vocation wherewith we are called.' 
 
 Baptism, again, as the means of our baptismal regenera- 
 tion, confers on us the title mentioned — the grant, both of 
 the title and of possession under it, being only for the sake, 
 and through the merits of the Saviour. Our investiture 
 with the appellation, so?is of God, makes us ^ heirs of God 
 through Christ.' An heir, in the proper sense of the word, 
 though its meaning is not always thus restricted, is not in 
 present possession of his inheritance, but only has a right 
 to expect it, and that perhaps conditionally: it is in this 
 sense that baptism, in making us children of God, makes 
 us heirs of heaven. Heirship, however, may devolve pre- 
 sent advantages on the heir, or place them within his im- 
 mediate reach, some smaller estate and lower dignity ; and 
 hence we are said to have ^obtained an inheritance in 
 Christ,' the blessings of the christian dispensation, the light 
 of the gospel, the ordinances, renewing grace, moral re- 
 generation, access to the Father, peace and hope through 
 the Spirit ; while yet all this is only ' the earnest of our 
 inheritance,' the greater inheritance to come with ' the re- 
 demption of the purchased possession.'^ Having this title, 
 
 1 Gal. iv. 7. Eph. i. 11, 14 : see also Gal. iii. 29. Eph. iii. 6. Theodoret 
 has the expression, ' the baptism of immortaUly and regeneration :' Serrn.l ; 
 see Suicer. Augustine, as we have seen, says that by baptism infants are 
 ' regenerated to eternal Life.' And Origen makes baptismal regeneration the 
 ' way' to the regeneration in glory.— ft may be asked, whether moral re- 
 generation, making a person the child of God, does not, without baptism, 
 make him an heir, and give him the covenant seal and title? We answer — 
 that though it makes the baptized heirs, in virtue of that other relation lo 
 God, the moral new birth ; as St. Paul saj-s of such, ' if children, then heirs ;' 
 (Rom. viii. 17.) yet there is no scripture for calling heirs the «?<baptized, who 
 are thus ' the children of God' (John xi. 52 ) — and further, we reply that mo- 
 ral regeneration does not give to any one the covenant seal and title. A 
 title must be verifiable and certain ; but moral regeneration is a matter of 
 hope, of confidence, not of positive certainty. A seal or token must be a 
 thing visible, which moral regeneration is not. Outward circumcision, not 
 the inward, was the old covenant seal ; and so baptism, taking its place, is 
 
BAPTISMAL REGENERATION-. 61 
 
 being thus heirs, in virtue of our baptism, and through the 
 merits of Christ, it rests with us, by the help of the Spirit, 
 to make sure the eternal possession : for actual ultimate 
 possession is not always guarantied with the grant of a 
 right or title. The pope, and several European kings, be- 
 stowed on certain persons a title to portions of America ; 
 but it rested with these persons to subdue or remove the 
 natives, and so make their title effectual : and baptism 
 seals our right to an inheritance in the heavenly country, 
 yet to make that right availing, we must, through Christ 
 and his Spirit, overcome the enemies and obstacles that 
 interpose between the grant and the possession. The 
 Israelites who left Egypt had a divine title to the land of 
 Canaan ; but becoming afraid of their enemies, * they could 
 not enter in because of unbelief :' and christians are warned, 
 ' lest, a pro7nise being left them of entering into God's 
 rest, any of them should seem to come short of it.'* 
 
 To the church is granted the covenant of salvation ; 
 which covenant is made with her individual members in 
 baptism, as it is renewed and perpetuated in the eucharist. 
 The hopes of the heathen, of Mahomedan and like infidels, 
 and of all who are not baptized into the visible body of 
 Christ, are vague and general ; for they do but argues or 
 we in their behalf, that God may be merciful to them : but 
 the hopes of the members of that body are built on the 
 covenant, on the express stipulation of God, made with 
 each of them, that he will, for Christ's sake, bring them to 
 heaven, if they are truly penitent believers. Hence it is 
 
 the title, not the change of lieart. It must be remarked also, that the moral 
 regeneration of the baptized, is so much fulfilled of the conditions under 
 which the title is held, and shows the heirship to be so far availing, the 
 possession so far acquired, and the final inheritance so much more sure: this 
 may be all the apostle meant in the consoling language just quoted. 
 
 1 Exod. vi. 8. Numb. xiii. xiv. Heb. iii. 19. iv. 1. The chosen line of 
 Abraham always had the title to Canaan, (Gen. xvii. 8.) but never gained 
 possession of it till under Joshua. 
 
 F 
 
62 BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 
 
 declared, that it is ' the church of God which is purchased 
 with his own blood :' for, although the death of Jesus 
 was a ' propitiation for the sins of the whole world,' and 
 though many will be saved, we trust, by that propitiation 
 who are ignorant of it, yet there is no engagement on the 
 part of Heaven with individual persons out of the church, 
 that they shall be finally ransomed by it : whereas, in the 
 church, a specific covenant is made with each of its mem- 
 bers individually, that they shall remain in God's favour 
 through Christ everlastingly, if they walk worthy of their 
 vocation, if they rely on the Saviour, and love him, and 
 keep his commandments. Nothing definite is declared 
 concerning the benefits Christ may have purchased for those 
 good persons who are not in his visible fold : but the ran- 
 som of the good within that fold is clear and certain. 
 
 On the subject of the benefits of baptism, our baptismal 
 offices recognize, in that rite, the 'promise' of God to be- 
 stow remission of sins or pardon, the Holy Ghost or moral 
 regeneration, and everlasting life. And our Article xxvii. 
 declares that ' baptism is a sign of regeneration or new 
 birth,' by ^vhich sign ' the 'promises of the forgiveness of 
 sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy 
 Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed :' the two filial relations 
 to God are here set forth, the one existing in virtue of bap- 
 tism, the other 'promised ;' and baptism, in conferring the 
 former, seals the promise of the latter, as also of the for- 
 giveness of sin, and of the everlasting bliss in order to 
 which they are granted.^ Such is the title conferred or 
 sealed in this sacrament. 
 
 The doctrine of the baptismal title is fully recognized 
 by Calvin — ' it resembles a legal instrument, properly at- 
 tested, by which the Lord assures us that all our sins are 
 cancelled, effaced, and obliterated' — ' at whatever time we 
 
 ' See further, Chap. v. Sect. 1. of this Essay. 
 
BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 63 
 
 are baptized, we are washed and purified for the whole of 
 life : whenever we have fallen, therefore, we nnust recur 
 to the rernennbrance of baptism, and arm our minds with 
 the consideration of it, that we may be always certified and 
 assured of the remission of our sins' — ' the faithful, when- 
 ever in any part of their lives they are distressed with a 
 consciousness of their sins, may justly have recourse to the 
 remembrance of baptism, in order to confirm themselves 
 in the confidence of their interest in that one perpetual ab- 
 lution which is enjoyed in the blood of Christ.'^ A pas- 
 sage in Dr. Paley's Clergyman's Companion, gives a just 
 view of remission or pardon, as granted under the baptis- 
 mal title — 'although forgiveness of sins is consigned to us 
 in baptism, and baptism is but once ,* yet, forgiveness of 
 sins being the special grace of the gospel, it is secured to 
 us for our life, and ebbs and flows according as we discom- 
 pose or renew the performance of our baptismal vow-'^ 
 Bishop Taylor declares to the same effect — ' he that is bap- 
 tized has for ever a title to the promises, and a possibility 
 of repentance, and a right to restitution, until he renounces 
 all, and never will or can repent.'^ Equally sound is the 
 language of Bishop Seabury — 'The kingdom of God is the 
 church of God, the same church both in this world and the 
 next, for God has but one church, the body of Christ. By 
 baptism we are made members of this church ; and if we 
 continue faithful members till death, shall in it obtain a 
 happy resurrection, and everlasting life — shall continue 
 members of it to all eternity.'* 
 
 It is a reflection full of comfort to the christian, that he 
 always bears about him, in virtue of his baptism, a title to, 
 and, fulfilling his part of the covenant, will actually obtain, 
 
 1 Calv. Inst. Allen's transl. v. 3. p. 327, 328, 329. 
 
 2 Paley's Works, v. 5. p. 329. 3 Taylor's Serm. v. 3. p. 323. 
 4 Seabury's Disc. v.l. p. 105, 
 
64 BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 
 
 all that God has promised on his part — pardon, all needful 
 grace, and the eternal weight of glory. ^ 
 
 1 It has been objected, that we make baptism an ' outward spiritual grace,' 
 instead of an ' inward' one, which the Catechism declares it to be. Not so. 
 We deny that any deposite is given in baptism, such as may be figuratively 
 called a seed, germ, or leaven, of moral grace, as essentially connected with 
 the rite. But, is this the only sense of the phrase ' inward grace V if it be, 
 then some of the most accepted writers on the subject, with the many who 
 have adopted their opinions, will be under the imputation of contradicting 
 the Catechism. Is not however the covenant title to moral grace, itself a 
 grace — is not the title to forgiveness of sins, and to heaven, a grace — and is 
 it not conferred on the soul — and is not this gift to the soul ' an inward grace,' 
 truly and properly — an inward spiritual grace, ' given unto us' by the ' one 
 Spirit who baptizes us all into the one body ?' What would make the sup- 
 posed deposite of baptism ' an inward grace,' but its connexion with the soul ? 
 We regard therefore the objection as gratuitous. — The attempt however has 
 been made to strengthen it, by alleging that this kind of grace in baptism 
 does but resemble the outward spiritual grace of ordination. But who does 
 not perceive, that the operation of the Spirit in ' making men overseers' of 
 the flock is inward ? The soul, the entire person, of a minister is ordained 
 or set apart by the Holy Ghost, through human agents; as the soul, the en- 
 tire person, is ecclesiastically regenerated, or set apart by the Spirit, from the 
 world to the church, in baptism, though the outward washing is performed 
 by the agency of the minister. Hence, in both rites, the grace is inward as 
 well as spiritual. Yet, as both baptism and ordination are valid and com- 
 plete in even wicked persons, the essential inward grace of neither is of the 
 moral kind. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 SCRIPTURAL PROOFS. 
 
 We proceed to the consideration of the change of cha- 
 racter mentioned. We are to prove, from scripture, that 
 it is recovery from the dominion of sin to victory over it, 
 and, in the baptized, from the curse of sin to pardon ; 
 that it is ordinarily effected in the use of means of grace, 
 yet by the power of the Holy Ghost; that it is called con- 
 version, renewing or new creating, or (moral) regenera- 
 tion ; and that it is gradual and progressive. 
 
 This change of character is recovery from the dominion 
 of sin to victory over it — ' the new man which is created 
 in righteousness and true holiness'^ — ' whatsoever is born of 
 God overcometh the world' — ' he that is begotten of God 
 keepeth himself,' like a soldier in self-defence, ' and that 
 wicked one toucheth hlmnot,^'- 
 
 This change of character is, in members of the church 
 visible, recovery from the curse of sin to pardon — ' repent 
 and be converted, that your sins may be blotted ouf — 
 ' there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus 
 who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit' — ' against 
 such there is no law.'' As this and all similar language is 
 
 I Eph. iv. 24. 1 John v. 4, 18. 
 
 f2 
 
66 MORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 spoken of persons baptized, or about to be so, the recep- 
 tion of that sacrament must always be included among the 
 conditions of pardon on scriptural principles, besides that 
 it is also its seal. We add, to the same effect — ' he that 
 believeth and is baptized shall be saved' — 'repent and be 
 baptized^ every one of you, for the remission of sins' — 
 * be baptized, and wash away thy sins' — ' let us draw near 
 .... in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprin- 
 kled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with 
 pure water J'^ Of the same purport are the passages — ' ex- 
 cept a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot 
 enter into the kingdom of God' — ' he saved us, by the 
 leashing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost.' 
 
 This change takes place in the use or enjoyment of the 
 means of grace : union with the visible church — '^ye are 
 builded together [into the church] for an habitation of 
 God through the Spirit ;' adverse providences — ' before I 
 was afflicted I went wrong, but now have I kept thy word :' 
 prosperity — ' doth Job fear God for nought V pious educa- 
 tion — ' bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the 
 Lord ;' the word of God — ' all scripture is profitable .... 
 that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished 
 unto all good works :' preaching — ' the preaching of the 
 gospel .... is the power of God :' religious books are ap- 
 pendages to either education or preaching ; godly conver- 
 sation — ' that [communication out of your mouth'\ which 
 is good, to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace 
 unto the hearers :' prayer — ' your heavenly Father will 
 give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him :' solemn bene- 
 dictions — ' without all contradiction, the less is blessed of 
 the better:' baptism, as devoutly received by adults, and 
 as devoutly reflected on by all — * wc are buried Avith him 
 
 1 Acts iii. 19. Rom. viii. 1. Gal. v. 23. Mar. xvi. 16. Acts ii. 38. xxii. 
 16. Heb. X.22. 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 67 
 
 by baptism .... that we should walk in newness of life :' 
 the holy supper — ' he that eateth my fesh, and drinketh 
 my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.'^ 
 
 This change is effected by the Holy Spirit — * it is God 
 which [by his Spirit] worketh in you both to will and to 
 do of his good pleasure' — ' walk in the Spirit, and ye shall 
 not fulfil the lust of the flesh' — ' if ye through the Spirit 
 do mortify the deeds of the body' — ' and I will put my 
 Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, 
 and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.'^ 
 
 The change of character we speak of is called conver- 
 sion or turning, the two words being synonymous — ' turn 
 thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned^ — ' turn 
 ye even to me with all your heart' — ' except ye be convert- 
 ed and become as little children.'^ It is also called renew- 
 ing or new creating, these words likewise being synony- 
 mous — * create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right 
 spirit within me' — ' be ye transformed by the renetcing of 
 your mind'—' make you a neiv heart and a new spirit' — ' be 
 renewed in the spirit of your mind' — 'put on the new man, 
 which after God is created in righteousness and true ho- 
 liness.'* It is further spoken of as a [moral] regeneration : 
 and here many texts already cited, (ch. 2. sect. 1) are ap- 
 plicable — those who fear the Lord, the peace-makers, 
 those who love their enemies, and do good, the contented, 
 blameless and harmless, the obedient who abandon their 
 former lusts, are denominated children of God — those who 
 do righteousness, have divine love, and believe that Jesus 
 is the Christ, who do not commit sin, but overcome the 
 
 1 Eph. ii. 22. Ps. cxix. 67. Job i. 9. Eph. vi. 3. 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. 
 ICor. i. 18. Eph. iv. 29. Luke xi. 13. Heb.vii. 7. Rom. vi. 4. John 
 vi. 56. 
 
 2 Phil. ii. 13. Gal. v. 16. Rom. viii. 13. Ezek. xxxvi. 27. 
 
 3 Lam. v. 21. Joel ii. 12. Matt, xviii. 3. 
 
 4 Ps. Ii. 10. Rom. xii. 2. Ezek. xviii. 31. Eph. iv. 23, 24. 
 
68 MORAL REGENERATION". 
 
 world, and keep themselves that the wicked one touch 
 them not, are declared to be horn or begotten of God — 
 those who through the Spirit have purified their souls in 
 obeying the truth, and who lay aside all malice, guile, and 
 evil dispositions and conversations, are recognised as horn 
 again of incorruptible seed, as new horn. All such de- 
 signations are, as we have shown, equivalent to regene- 
 rated. To these proofs we add the following — ' as many 
 as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God' 
 — ' the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that 
 we are the children of God ;'^ which latter passage refers 
 to the persuasion, which, when soundly examined, and 
 found concurring with the humble yet candid testimony of 
 our good conscience, we are allowed to regard as the tes- 
 timony of the Holy Ghost, that we are morally regene- 
 rate. 
 
 Without noticing some other passages, the application 
 of which, whether to baptism, or to the change of heart, 
 or perhaps to both, need not here be investigated, we will 
 only add a brief exposition of the conversation of our Lord 
 with Nicodemus. That ruler has so much of a right mind, 
 as to acknowledge Jesus to be ' a teacher come from God.' 
 Our Saviour admonishes him that his mind and affections 
 must undergo a more thorough change, before he can 'see,' 
 that is, enjoy, or gain possession of, ' the kingdom of God' 
 in heaven ; and calls this change being ' born again,' or 
 ' born (again) from above.' The ruler comprehends this 
 figurative expression as meaning a very great change in 
 the heart and character ; but, though a master in Israel, 
 and though his own scriptures might have taught him bet- 
 ter, he does not agree to the doctrine it implied ; and he 
 therefore objects, that so entire a new creation of man's 
 nature and habits is as improbable as his actual and na- 
 
 1 Rom. viii. 14, 16. 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 69 
 
 tural new birth. Our Lord then replies more fully, that he 
 must not only be thus morally born again, but also, by the 
 new birth of baptism, assume the christian covenant, and 
 enter the christian church, which was henceforth to be the 
 especial channel of the grace producing and furthering 
 moral regeneration — he must be born again of water, as 
 well as born again of the converting influence of the Spi- 
 rit, in order to an entrance into the kingdom of God in 
 heaven. Then, our Lord returns to the subject of the 
 moral new birth.* This is the key we prefer for this highly 
 important conversation. The necessity of the change of 
 character was the first, and is throughout the principal to- 
 pic. But the necessity of baptism also is declared — bap- 
 tism, as well as moral regeneration, is required for our 
 admission into the celestial kingdom — is ordinarily ne- 
 cessary — incapacity, ignorance, involuntary error, and want 
 of opportunity, being perhaps the only known exceptions 
 to the rule so plainly enjoined by our Lord himself. 
 
 Lastly : This change, moral regeneration, is gradual and 
 progressive ; it admits of increase, decay, renewal, repe- 
 tition; it is not only the commencing point of sanctifica- 
 tion, but includes also its several stages, to the highest ; 
 and each stage is fresh regeneration. This part of our 
 subject we deem of peculiar importance, as it has been 
 
 1 John iii. Various interpretations are given of this converdation, each 
 perhaps consistent with itself, yet contradicting the rest. We prefer the 
 one given above, because of its entire congruity vvith the numerous scrip- 
 tures adduced and arranged in this essay, and particularly because it agrees 
 accurately with the declaration, ' he saved us, by the washing of regene- 
 ration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.' — It has been objected, that our 
 Lord mentions only o?ie regeneration to Nicodemus : but this remark, as ap- 
 plied to verse 5, is only assumption; he there speaks of two regenerations, 
 as plainly as he does elsewhere of one. Besides, the whole force of the 
 scriptural investigations we have now made, declare in favour of our Lord's 
 recognising, in that place, the iv;o new births. 
 
70 MORAL REGENERATION, 
 
 too generally overlooked or misapprehended. To establish 
 our proposition, we again appeal to the holy volume. 
 
 We have seen that St. Paul declared to the Corinthians 
 generally, whom he styles his ' beloved sons,'' that ' in 
 Christ Jesus he had begotten them through the gospel ;' and 
 that this must refer to their moral regeneration, as he had 
 baptized but a very few of the members of their church. 
 Morally regenerate therefore they were, generally. Yet in 
 the epistle written afterwards, as we have also seen, though 
 he still says, * I speak as unto my ckild7'en,' he exhorts 
 them, in the name of God, to be separate from unbeliev- 
 ers and idolaters, ' and I will be a Father unto you, and ye 
 shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.'^ 
 In other words, he assures them that this improvement of 
 their religious principles and conduct would indicate that 
 they were newly regenerated, in the moral sense. 
 
 Another passage to our purpose is — ' my little children, 
 of whom I travail in birth again Ttauv, until Christ be form- 
 ed in you.'^ St. Paul terms the Galatians 'little chil- 
 dren,' because their moral regeneration was, as we have 
 hinted, at a very low ebb. He had thus ' travailed' for 
 them once, and he now does it again ; himself being the 
 instrument, and the Holy Spirit the efficient agent, in both 
 cases; and his travailing being for their new birth each 
 time. And, each time, the moral regeneration of these 
 converts was the object desired, that new birth which gra- 
 dually * forms Christ in us.' This regeneration therefore 
 may be repeated, and indeed must be as often as we have 
 occasion for it. 
 
 1 1 Cor. iv. 14,15. 2 Cor. vi. 13,18. 
 
 2 Gal. iv. 19. Poole's Synopsis, on this verse, has the following passage, 
 ' Foetus physicus non nisi semel gestari ct edi potest; fcetus rnoralis saepius :' 
 and, concerning the forming of Christ in us, the following, ' Foetus pau- 
 latira in utero formam suam accipit.' 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 71 
 
 A further, and perhaps stronger confirmation of this part 
 of our subject, will be found in another class of scriptures. 
 New birth and new creation (or renewing) are obviously 
 convertible terms, since our natural birth or begetting is 
 our only natural creation : this proposition is, we repeat, 
 obvious.* Hence, the expression ' the inward man is re- 
 newed [new created ctvctnuivcvraij day by day,' is equivalent 
 to ' the inward man is regenerated day by day :' its moral 
 regeneration is daily increased, and repeated if it has de- 
 cayed. Again : David was unquestionably morally regene- 
 rate in youth ; yet, after his grievous fall, he beseeches 
 God to ' create in him a clean heart,' in other words, to re- 
 store him by new regeneration. Again : We have the pas- 
 sage, * the new man, which is renewed [wqw created] in 
 knowledge after the image of him that created him :' i. e. 
 the new man is ' created,' and afterwards is ' renewed' or 
 new created ; in other words, the new man is formed by 
 moral regeneration, and then is formed again by further 
 moral regeneration. Yet again : To frequent or habitual 
 new creation, or moral regeneration, refers also the passage, 
 ' that ye put on the neic man, which after God is created in 
 righteousness and true holiness :' the apostle had before 
 said of these persons, the Ephesian church, generally, 'we 
 are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus junto good 
 works ;' yet he exhorts them, again, nay again and again, 
 to put on the new created man, that is, to be created anew 
 again and habitually; and this is synonymous with being 
 regenerated anew and habitually in the moral sense.^ 
 
 Moral regeneration is thus not a single act or operation 
 of the Holy Spirit, producing only the first movement in 
 the change to godliness; but an act or operation that may 
 
 1 That renovation or new creation, and regeneration, are synonymous 
 terms, will be farther shown in the Appendix to this essay. 
 
 2 2 Cor. iv. 14. Ps. li. 10 • (see also Calv. Instit. V. 3. p. 35.) Col. iii. 
 10. Eph. iv. 24: comp. ii. 10. 
 
72 MORAL REGENERATIO.V* 
 
 be repeated, and for the repetition or increase of which we 
 are to pray, and do pray, as will be seen in a future chap- 
 ter, in several parts of our Liturgy : even the best of chris* 
 tians require this advancement in grace. The moral new 
 birth, also, being imperfect in this life, is subject to dimi- 
 nution and even extinction, and therefore requires in- 
 crease, improvement, iteration. Not till death are we 
 freed from sin ; not till death does the regenerating cure 
 of sin have its complete effect, perhaps not until the re- 
 surrection. And it is only, we think, to those who shall 
 be thus perfectly and unchangeably regenerated, that the 
 declaration applies in all its force, ' they cannot sin, be- 
 cause they are born of God :' to the pious yet in this life 
 the declaratiou applies only in a qualified sense, as did that 
 of Joshua to the Israelites, ' ye cannot serve the Lord.' It 
 is strictly true, that the perfectly regeneiate ' cannot sin.' 
 And, according to the degree to which we have advanced 
 in moral regeneration, is it proportionally true, that we 
 ' cannot sin' — the riper v/e are in this new birth, the great- 
 er is the improbability of our falling.* 
 
 1 1 John iii.9. Jo?h. xxiv. 9.— Tlie only passage of scripture which may 
 seem to favour the opinion that moral regeneration is a single act, not to be 
 increased or repeated, is — ' though ye have ten thousand instructers in 
 Christ, yet have ye not many faUiers ; for in Christ Jesus 1 have begotten 
 you through the gospel.' (1 Cor. iv. 15.) It may be alleged, that Paul here 
 denies the paternal relation to a christian of all pastors but the one who 
 was the means of producing his first effectual movement in godliness. But 
 we have seen that he speaks of the improvement of the morally regene- 
 rate as fresh moral regeneration: and this may as well come through the 
 ministry of other pastors, as through that of the first successful one. We 
 conclude, therefore, that the apostle here claims to be their only spiritual 
 father merely by way of eminence ; as when our Lord said, ' call no man 
 your father upon the earth, for one is your Father, which is in heaven.' 
 (Matt, xxiii. 9.) God is especially our Father, yet men also are our fathers, 
 both naturally and spiritually : and Paul was especially the spiritual father 
 of the Corinthian brethren, yet other' instructers' might also be their spiri- 
 tual fathers. This seeming objection to our doctrine amounts then to no- 
 thing. And we know of none other in scripture — which, on the contrary, 
 declares /or it very largely. 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 73 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— SECTION 2. 
 
 THE AUTHORITY OF THE FATHERS. 
 
 We quoted the Fathers to show that the doctrine of a 
 baptismal regeneration is primitive ; a similar appeal will 
 prove that applying the word regeneration, and its synony- 
 mes renewing and new creation, to the moral change we 
 have described, is primitive also. Though the latter use 
 of the word is far from being so common in the fathers as 
 the former, there are some examples. — It will perhaps be 
 alleged, that several of our extracts indicate rather a casual, 
 than a common mode of speaking ; but even in that case, 
 they attest the truth of the doctrine of this essay, though 
 it does not appear to have been then developed in a full 
 and orderly manner. Others of the citations show a de- 
 liberate use of these terms in their distinctively moral 
 sense. 
 
 Clement of Rome. ' Noah beino- proved to be faithful, 
 did by his ministry preach regeneration TrAxiyymo-uv to the 
 world.' The word regeneration, obviously, does not here 
 mean baptism. It is interpreted by some of the renova- 
 tion of the world after the flood : but, though the coming 
 destruction of the woild would naturally have been a topic 
 in warning sinners, there appears to be little appropriate- 
 ness in preaching of its renovation. We rather deem the 
 expression equivalent to that of St. Peter, ' Noe, a preach- 
 er oi righteousness' or moral regeneration. It is equivalent 
 also to those of Clement himself in previous sections — 
 ' Noah preached repentance' — ' all the ministers of the grace 
 of God have spoken by the Holy Spirit of repentance' — 
 * desiring that all his beloved should come to repentance ;' 
 these passages afford us the author's own interpretation of 
 
74 MORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 his assertion, * Noah did by his ministry preach regenera- 
 tion to the world.'* 
 
 Barnabas. * He has put us into another frame, that we 
 should have souls like those of children, /orTni/ig" us again 
 [or regenerating us avx7r\a(r<ro^ivovi'^ himself by the Spirit.' 
 Again : ' ye see how we are again formed anew [or regene- 
 rated uvu7rvr\ci(rfAiBa] . , . 1 will take from them, that is, from 
 those whom the Spirit of the Lord foresaw, their hearts of 
 stone, and I will put into them hearts of flesh.' The change 
 referred to is obviously a moral one — souls like those of 
 children — hearts changed from stone to flesh : and it is 
 called being formed or created anew, which is synonymous 
 with being regenerated.^ 
 
 Clement of Alexandria — says of a sinful woman, ' when 
 she has repented, or is bor?i again avayrmBiKrct by a change 
 of her life, she has the regeneration 7rA\iyymo-ictv of life ; the 
 former unchaste woman being dead, she has come again to 
 life, being born (again) yiwuBuo-iis by repentance. '^ 
 
 EusEBius — speaking of a youth converted by St. John, 
 and baptized «<t>aT/crs, ^rjjQ afterwards ' renounced the salva- 
 tion of God,' and became a robber, but was again reclaimed 
 by the apostle — says of him at this latter period, he 'ex- 
 hibited a great example of true repentance, a great trial of 
 new birth ■n-AxiyymTtct.?, and a singular token of the visible 
 resurrection.'* This passage, being quoted by Eusebius 
 
 J Clem. Rom. Epist. seel. 9 ; also sect. 7, 8 : comp. 2 Pet. ii. 5. 
 
 2 Barn. Cath. Epist. sect. 6 : consult Suicer on KvctTrKATu ; some of his re- 
 marks are quoted in our Appendix : comp. also Matt, xviii. 3. 
 
 3 If, in this passage, 'she has the regeneration of life' were allowed to 
 mean 'she has been baptized,' still her repentance would be twice called a 
 new birth. But Suicer, on TlA-Kiyytvio-ia, places the passage under head I. 
 referring to regeneration simply ; and puis regeneration as connected with 
 baptism under head II. distinct from the former. Dr. Jarvis (p. 73 of his Ser- 
 mon and Appendix) says, ' Clemens Alexandrinus evidently uses the term 
 regeneration in the sense which is now affixed to renovation.' 
 
 4 Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 3. c. 23. Mr. Crus^ translates the passage thus 
 — -' Affording a powerful example of true repentance, and a great evidence 
 of a regeneration, a trophy of a visible resurrection.' p. 107. 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 75 
 
 from Clement of Alexandria, gives us the authority of both 
 these fathers for the moral sense of the word regeneration, 
 for its being synonymous with ' repentance,' and for its 
 taking place long after baptism, and the conversion which 
 preceded and accompanied that sacrament. 
 
 Gregory of Nyssa. *That we receive a salutary birth 
 ytvns-iv by the renovation and change of our nature, is mani- 
 fest to all.'^ This ' birth' is of course a new birth or re- 
 generation ; and, as is usual with the fathers, it is here 
 made equivalent to renovation. The new ' birth' obvious- 
 ly means the moral change. 
 
 Augustine — in a passage before quoted, uses the word 
 renovation as equivalent to regeneration — ' the renovation 
 after the image of God is not effected in a moment, like 
 that regeneration in baptism, which is done in a moment :' 
 the language implies that ' renovation after the image of 
 God' is a ' regeneration,' yet a different one from * that re- 
 generation' which is conferred at the font ; it also declares 
 that our moral regeneration, here called renovation, is 
 gradual, * not effected in a moment.' In another place, he 
 says, 'in baptized infants, the sacrament of regeneration 
 goes before ; and if they persevere in christian piety, con- 
 version of heart will follow, the mystery [or symbol] of 
 which was previously received in the body :' in this pas- 
 sage, the ' sacrament' is the same as the * mystery,' and 
 * sacrament of regeneration' is the same as ' mystery of con- 
 version ;' elsewhere, he uses the very phrase ' sacrament of 
 conversion ;' hence, Augustine is to be understood as say- 
 ing, that in baptized infants the sacrament or mystery goes 
 before, and regeneration or conversion follows ; in other 
 words, the moral change is regeneration, regeneration is 
 conversion, and, in infants, comes after its sacrament in 
 baptism. To the same effect, he says that this change pre- 
 
 1 Suicer on Av:<Jti/v/jr^of, 
 
76 MORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 ceded baptism in the case of Cornelius ; * spiritual sanctifi- 
 cation by the gift of the Holy Spirit went before, and the 
 sacrament of regeneration by the laver of baptism came 
 after :' the meaning of the passage is, Cornelius first un- 
 derwent the moral change of ' regeneration' or ' spiritual 
 sanctification,' and then received the 'sacrament' of that 
 change.^ It seems clear, from these extracts, that Augus- 
 tine regarded regeneration as separable from its sacrament, 
 as a moral change, as identical with renovation, conversion, 
 spiritual sanctification, and as a gradual process, while yet 
 he speaks of a regeneration in baptism effected in a mo- 
 ment. We do not say that he held the doctrine of regene- 
 ration as we do ; other passages contradict, or seem to con- 
 tradict, that idea ; but we may justly argue, that his falling 
 spontaneously into such language as we have quoted, is a 
 confirmation of our views of the subject. 
 
 1 Inglis on f nf. Bapt. 7). 4. Wall, V. 1. p. 188. That Augustine distin- 
 guished and separated the sacrament from the regeneration, the sign from 
 the thing signified, is evident in other places. ' And that which is not done 
 on that day, but was done a long time ago, is spoken of as done on that day, 
 because the sacrament of it is then celebrated. Was not Christ in his own 
 person offered up once for all? and yet in the sacrament he is offered among 
 the people, not only every Easter, but every day ; nor does he lie, who being 
 asked, says, He is offered. For sacraments woiild not be sacraments, if they 
 had not a resemblance of those ildngs whereof they are the sacraments : and 
 from this resemblance they commonly have the names of the things themselves. 
 As therefore the sacrament of Chri.st's body is after a certain fashion (secun- 
 dum quondam modum) Christ's body, and the sacrament of Christ's blood is 
 Christ's blood ; so the sacrament of faith is faith ; and to believe is nothing 
 else but to have faith. And so when an infant that has not yet the faculty 
 [affectum, disposition] of faith, is said to believe; he is said to haxe faith, 
 because of the sacrament of faith ; and to turn to God, because of the sacra- 
 
 ment of conversion as he is said to believe, so he is called a believer, 
 
 not from his having the thing itself in his mind, but from his receiving the 
 sacramentof it.' (Aug. ad Bonif see Wall, V. l.p. 201.) 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 77 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— SECTION 3. 
 
 THE THEORY — NO REGENERATION BUT IN BAPTISM. 
 
 Many divines regard baptismal regeneration as the only 
 one in this life. Previous piety, or the repentance 
 and faith required, is not considered as regeneration till 
 baptism is performed. An unworthy adult is supposed to 
 have his regeneration suspended, till, through repentance 
 and faith, he becomes godly. And in infants, as they are 
 incapable of godliness, regeneration is held to be complete 
 without it, in virtue of baptism alone : as Bishop White 
 remarks, ' no considerate person supposes, that in infant 
 baptism, any moral change is wrought on the mind of the 
 infant.'^ Some add to this theory the further one, that the 
 seed of sanctification, the first principle, or * beginning of 
 the spiritual life,' to grow or die subsequently as the event 
 may prove, is deposited by the Spirit in baptism, which de- 
 posite is regeneration. To the latter opinion we do not 
 accede, because the seed of sanctification has already been 
 deposited and has grown, the spiritual (though not the 
 covenant) life has already begun, in all who come to bap- 
 tism with repentance and faith, as is required of adults. 
 And from the whole theory we dissent, because it makes 
 this regeneration a difi'erent thing in the adult, from what 
 it is in the infant ; in the one, requiring personal religious 
 character, as an essential ingredient ; in the other, dispens- 
 ing with that ingredient, infants having no personal charac- 
 ter, whether good or bad. For this reason, besides others 
 already mentioned, we prefer the theory of two distinct 
 regenerations, the baptismal and the moral. 
 
 I Lect. on the Calech.p. 218. 
 
 g2 
 
78 MORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 But our object, in recurring to this topic, is to show that 
 the divines who restrict the term * regeneration' to baptism, 
 are far from disallowing the necessity of a change of cha- 
 racter, in all baptized persons who do not walk worthy of 
 their christian profession. They call this change renova- 
 tion, or conversion, and sometimes come very near calling 
 it regeneration. So far the difference between them and 
 the present writer is but in words. 
 
 Bishop Mant, conspicuous as an advocate for regenera- 
 ration in baptism exclusively, says of conversion — 'Every 
 unbeliever and every sinner, although made by baptism a 
 member of Christ and a child of God, must be, in a cer- 
 tain sense, converted, if he would ultimately succeed to 
 his inheritance of the kingdom of heaven.' Again — ' In 
 the nature of the thing, and in the method of its being ef- 
 fected, where previous habits of irreligion and worldly- 
 mindedness render it necessary, I trust we do not materially 
 differ — understanding that it consists in ' the actual re- 
 formation 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 re- 
 ligion at once, but that it is the serious commencement of 
 a work, which it requires the vigorous exertions of the 
 ■whole life to complete, — considering conversion, I say, in 
 this light, I can cheerfully 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.'^ 
 
 Bishop Seabury, who remarks, ' we are regenerate and 
 born, or adopted into the family or church of God by bap- 
 
 I Manl's Appeal to the Gospel, p. 395, 400 : also Mant's Tracts, p. 60, 65. 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 79 
 
 tism,' and calls it * the sacrament of regeneration,' and de- 
 clares * there is no other way of being born again made 
 known to us, but what Christ has instituted, baptism with 
 water and the Spirit' — addresses thus his baptized hearers 
 — ' If what hath been said serves, in any degree, to impress 
 on you the necessity of that spiritual circumcision, or 
 change of heart and life which is meant by the new crea- 
 ture make this a New Year in the christian sense of 
 
 that word, by becoming new creatures, by putting on the 
 new man, which after God is created in righteousness and 
 true holiness.'^ 
 
 Bishop White says — ' What would be a falling away in 
 an adult subject of baptism, Avould be the same in him [an 
 infant growing up :] and in either case there is required a 
 renewing unto repentance.^ Again: 'The author of these 
 remarks gives a caution against the misunderstanding of 
 them, as though there were denied the hereditary corrup- 
 tion of human nature, or as though there were aiBrmed any 
 holy affection or desire in man, otherwise than through the 
 operation of the Divine Spirit ; effecting what is called 
 ' the putting off' the old man wMth his deeds, and the putting 
 on of the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after 
 the image of him who created him.^ 
 
 Bishop Inglis, the first bishop of Nova Scotia, thus writes 
 of baptism — ' In that ordinance indeed our state is changed ; 
 but our nature must be changed also. I called that change 
 of state by the name of regeneration ; but mistake me not, 
 as if I meant by that a renovation of the heart, without 
 which a change of our state will avail nothing to salvation. 
 I gave it that name, because I judged it most agreeable to 
 the style of scripture, and the language of the primitive 
 christians, and of our reformers. But I am not anxious 
 about names. Call this inward change, this growth in 
 
 1 Seabury's Serm. {edit 1815) V. \.p. 105, 109, 111. V. 2. p. 174, 176. 
 % Lect. on the Catech. p. 219. 
 
80 MORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 grace, by the name of regeneration, renovation, or what 
 else you please, I am content. If you have but the thing 
 itself, you may express it by what word you think most 
 suitable.'^ 
 
 Bishop Hobart thus writes, on the distinction, made by 
 him and other divines, between regeneration and renova- 
 tion. * Episcopalians maintain baptismal regeneration in 
 this sense, that the baptized person is born again, not in the 
 affections of his soul, but into a new state, in which he re- 
 ceives conditionally a title to the blessings of the gospel 
 covenant. But do Episcopalians, therefore, deny the ne- 
 cessity of the * renewing of the mind V God forbid ! No ; 
 they maintain, that unless in the baptized person, by the 
 power of that Holy Spirit a title to which is conferred in 
 baptism, the ' old man be buried and the new man raised 
 up ;' unless * all sinful affections die in him, and all things 
 belonging to the Spirit do live and grow in him ;' unless 
 the ' old man be crucified, and the whole body of sin abol- 
 ished ;' unless he ' die from sin, and rise again unto righte- 
 ousness ;' unless he thus be ' renewed by the Holy Ghost,' 
 his baptismal regeneration will only aggravate his guilt and 
 increase his condemnation. The advocate of baptismal 
 regeneration may, therefore, consistently maintain the ne- 
 cessity of the new birth in its strongest spiritual sense. '^ 
 
 In Bishop Hobart's Works, published since his decease, 
 there is a sermon on baptism, in which it is explicitly and 
 repeatedly declared, that, though ' born again' in that sacra- 
 ment, christians must aZso be 'born again' to a new life, 
 * born again' after relapsing into sin, nay, 'born again' to 
 every growth or stage of holy living. This unquestiona- 
 bly is moral regeneration, and moral regeneration repeated 
 again and again, under scarcely another name. And it is 
 
 1 Inglis on Inf. Bapt.;?. 173. - Hobart's Apol. ;?. 238. 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 81 
 
 declared, under the name of * renewing,' to be ' entirely 
 distinct from the regeneration of baptism.'^ 
 
 On this subject we need not multiply quotations. The 
 necessity of a change of the heart and life, from sin to 
 holiness, whether called conversion, renovation, regenera- 
 tion, or by other names, is fully and always asserted, as by 
 christians generally, so by all Episcopalians. Those who 
 will not believe this, are * willingly ignorant.' — We ask 
 leave to use the name moral regeneration, both because it 
 is substantially scriptural, and because it sets in the strong- 
 est scriptural light the necessity of this change : but we 
 do not permit ourselves to feel the slightest alienation 
 from our brethren, who use a different nomenclature, or 
 who use this otherwise than as we do. 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— SECTION 4. 
 
 THE THEORY — THAT THE GRACE OF BAPTISMAL REGENERATION 
 IS OF A MORAL KIND. 
 
 Of those who make baptism the only regeneration in 
 this life, some regard that grace as only a privilege ; while 
 others deem it an influence, or at least a deposite which is 
 figuratively termed the seed or germ of moral influence. 
 
 1 Hobart's Works, V. 2.p. 60, 61, &c. It is possible that this sermon, con- 
 taining a phraseology so entirely at variance with Bp. Hobart's matured 
 opinions on the subject, as set forth in the sermons on Regeneration and 
 Renovation at the end of the volume, may have been one of his early pro- 
 ductions : as was also his Apology. — In Serm. 32. V. 3. p. 390, he says, ' To 
 be bom of the Spirit, she [the church] lays down as the characteristic of all 
 the true children of God.' In an editorial introduction to a reprint of Bp. 
 Bradford on Regeneration, in the Churchman's Magazine, (F. 5. p. 125,) it 
 is said of our church — 'On the authority of scripture and primitive writers, 
 she distinguishes between baptismal regeneration and spiritual regeneration, 
 or more properly, between regeneration and renovalion.' 
 
82 MORAL RKGEi\ERATIOr»r. 
 
 which seed or germ is the beginning or first principle of 
 the spiritual life.^ On the former opinion, enough has been 
 said in Chapter II. sect. 3. To the latter, there are the 
 obvious objections — 1. That in unworthy adults, baptized, 
 and continuing unworthy, and in persons innumerable bap- 
 tized in infancy, there is no ei^icZe/ice whatever of any mo- 
 ral influence, or seed of such influence, being deposited in 
 the soul — and 2. That when worthy adults are baptized, 
 their good character shows that they have the seed or germ 
 of moral influence before baptism ; their spiritual life has 
 begun before they reach the font. 
 
 The first objection is — that in unworthy adults, baptized, 
 and continuing unworthy, and in persons innumerable bap- 
 tized in infancy, there is no evidence whatever of any mo- 
 ral influence, or seed of such influence, being deposited in 
 the soul. This objection is sometimes met with the reply, 
 that such persons rebel against the grace given in bap- 
 tism, or fall from it, either entirely, or for a season ; being 
 afterwards restored. But the point is, was the seed of mo- 
 ral grace given in baptism? this is not to be taken for 
 granted: what then is the proof? Obviously there is none 
 of a practical kind, to be gathered from the life and con- 
 duct.^ Is it then to be found in scripture? we there learn 
 
 1 Lord Bacon, in his Confession of Faith, (Schol. Arm. V. \.p. 6.) says — 
 ' which seed of the Holy Ghost firsl Jjgureih in us the image of Christ, slain 
 or crucified, through a lively faith ; and then renevveth in us the image of 
 God in holiness and charity.' The illustration ' figureth' is beautiful as a 
 metaphor; (see Isa. xliv. 13.) but whether it be accurate or fallacious we 
 cannot say, because it is metaphor only. If applied to baptism, it relieves 
 perhaps the theory bef(>re us of the notion of a moral iiifiueiice deposited in 
 that rite. But we know not that any of its advocates have adopted the il- 
 lustration, or whether such a metaphor could be allowed. 
 
 2 Bishop Hobart says (Works V. 3. p. 383.) — * We know the operation of 
 the wind only by its effects. In like manner, according to this analogy, 
 which our blessed Lord employed, the operations of the Holy Spirit are in- 
 scrutable, and to be known only by their fruits. This is a standard of judg- 
 ment which cannot deceive us. The possession of the fruits of the Spirit is 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 83 
 
 only that the Spirit baptizes us ; but whether he acts, in 
 that rite, by depositing a moral infiuence^ or the seed of it, 
 or by conferring only the spiritual privilege of initiation 
 into the church and covenant, is not expressly declared. 
 If we proceed further, to inferences from scripture, we 
 see, we have largely seen, that holy character is not essen- 
 tial to the new birth of baptism ; of course moral grace, to 
 produce holy character, is not essential to it. The result 
 is, that there is no evidence that moral influence, or the 
 seed of it, is the grace of baptismal regeneration. 
 
 The other objection is, if possible, more decidedly fatal 
 to the theory under consideration. An unbaptized adult, 
 long pious in all matters except conforming to the sacra- 
 ments, and concerning that branch of duty in involuntary 
 error, comes to baptism — and he is told that then, and not 
 before, he begins the ' spiritual life.' What is he to un- 
 derstand by this language? Were not his previous re- 
 pentance and faith, and obedience and love, spiritual acts, 
 acts indicating that his 'spiritual life' had commenced? If 
 not, the word 'spiritual' is used in the lower sense; and 
 the ' spiritual life' must mean only the covenant life, or 
 the title estate, described in this essay — it being added, 
 that the deposite of the moral germ is necessary to the co- 
 venant title. But the question then recurs, has not the 
 phrase 'spiritual life' a higher sense, besides this lower 
 one? Surely it has: the phrase is not from scripture, 
 but of usage only ; and usage gives it the higher significa- 
 tion, as well as the lower. The result is, that a man may 
 be well advanced in that ' spiritual life' which is the pro- 
 gresssive change from sin to holiness, before he has begun 
 thaf" spiritual life' which is the covenant estate : this would 
 
 an infallible evidence of his sanctifying presence in our souls. By no other 
 criterion can we determine whether we are led by the Spirit.' — By parity of 
 reasoning, it is clear that the only evidence of the deposite of the seed of mo- 
 ral grace in baptism, is the production oi fruit. On all subjects but this one, 
 such reasoning is deemed incontrovertible, by all except fanatics. 
 
84 MORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 be almost the same as the theory maintained in this essay, 
 though in other words. But the further result is, that the 
 seed of moral grace has been planted, and has grown 
 largely, in the one ' spiritual life,' yet that the seed of mo- 
 ral grace must again be planted, to produce the other 
 * spiritual life.' And this we deem an incongruity fatal to 
 the theory. 
 
 May we be allowed to suggest, without incurring the im- 
 putation of arrogance, that much of the obscurity that has 
 involved the subject of regeneration, has arisen from con- 
 fused notions of the ' operation' of the Holy Ghost in bap- 
 tism ? That sacrament is. called regeneration in scripture ; 
 regeneration is a work of the Spirit ; and the action of the 
 Spirit must be — what? of a morally sanctifying tendency, 
 it was generally thought. Yet the incongruity was per- 
 ceived between this doctrine and notorious fact, in multi- 
 tudes of the baptized. Hence, on the one hand, Jerome, 
 true to scripture, declares — ' there is no baptism without 
 the Holy Spirit' — ' there is no baptism of the church without 
 the Holy Spirit' — ' there is no baptism of Christ without 
 the Holy Spirit' — ' the Holy Spirit, whom we assert to be 
 given in true baptism.' Hence, on the other hand, Augus- 
 tine, yielding to the apparent counter evidence of fact, 
 concedes — ' that even may be baptism from which the 
 Holy Spirit is absent' (se aufert, takes himself away) — yet 
 he says, * if baptism may not be without the Spirit, even 
 heretics have the Spirit .... and so have the covetous' — 
 but he further says, ' if however the covetous have not the 
 Spirit of God, and yet have baptism, baptism may be with- 
 out the Spirit' — while he nevertheless affirms, that the 
 'sanctity' of baptism is not polluted by even the grossest 
 unworthinessof both the minister and the person receiving 
 it.* This discrepancy between Jerome and Augustine, 
 
 1 These quotations from Jerome and Augustine, are in Waterland on Re- 
 generation, p. 22. (Welier Tracts.) 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 85 
 
 and of Augustine with himself, appears to have drawn 
 forth from Waterland the following, among other re- 
 marks — ' It is certain in the general, that the Holy 
 Spirit, sotne tvay or other ^ has a hand in every true 
 and valid baptism' — ' As the Holy Spirit consecrates 
 and sanctifies the waters of baptism, giving them an 
 outward and relative holiness ; so he consecrates the 
 persons also in an outward and relative sense, whether 
 good or bad, by a sacred dedication of them to the worship 
 and service of the whole Trinity : which consecration is 
 for ever binding, and has its effect :'^ this consecration how- 
 ever, by the Spirit, he regards as different from regenera- 
 tion. Shall we be deemed presumptuous in expressing 
 the opinion, that Augustine and Waterland offer but con- 
 fused ideas of the agency of the Spirit in baptism ? The 
 obscurity of the former appears to have arisen from the be- 
 lief that the spiritual effect of baptism was of a moral kind. 
 But Waterland allovv^s an act of the Spirit which is not 
 moral, in that sacrament. Where however is the authority 
 for distinguishing the baptismal ' consecration' by the Spi- 
 rit, from baptismal regeneration ? Where the authority, 
 for connecting essentially two acts of the Spirit with bap- 
 tism? Where the authority, for saying that this baptismal 
 ' consecration,' as distinguished from baptismal regenera- 
 tion, ' is for ever binding, and has its effect?' And if the 
 Spirit ' dedicates' the person, who gives himself up to be 
 dedicated by the minister, i. e. if the Spirit ratifies or ac- 
 cepts this dedication, then we must ask, what is the kind 
 of dedication intended by the minister, and ratified by the 
 Holy Ghost? it is, argues Waterland, to the duties implied 
 in * the worship and service of the whole Trinity.' True ; 
 but are there no privileges in that service — to be a member 
 of Christ — to be the child of God and of the light, born 
 
 1 Waterland on Regen. p. 23. 
 H 
 
86 MORAL REGENERATIOK'. 
 
 again^-to be an heir of everlasting salvation ? And is not 
 * dedication' to the duties, 'consecration' also to the privi- 
 leges? If not, to what else is a person 'consecrated' by 
 the Spirit in baptism? If such however be the baptismal 
 dedication and consecration, then the doctrine is acknow- 
 ledged, in other words, that all the baptized, ' whether good 
 or bad,' are children of God. To the doctrine thus involun- 
 tarily conceded — may we not say so ? — to that doctrine we 
 refer, as the solution of all difficulties. We affirm, with 
 Jerome, that there is no true baptism without the Holy 
 Spirit. And we think we scatter the obscurities of the 
 subject, besides agreeing with scripture most abundantly 
 adduced, by asserting, that the 'operation' of the Spirit in 
 that sacrament is not a moral one — that baptismal regene- 
 ration has no affinity, in nature, v.'ith the grace which 
 changes the heart. 
 
 To finish this argument : How can we believe that moral, 
 converting, sanctifying, renovating grace comes through 
 various means, and yet restrict the seed of that grace, its 
 initial principle, to baptism ? A Pagan receives the Bible, 
 reads also its doctrines in a summary or liturgy, hears those 
 doctrines from a Frumentius not ordained, believes them, 
 prays, repents, obeys as far as he can, but has no access to 
 baptism : what is his case ? has his ' spiritual life' begun ? 
 is he transformed, in any degree, by the renewing of his 
 mind ? If not, what more would he be, in the moral sense, 
 by immediate baptism? If, however, through the word of 
 God and prayer, he be thus entered and advanced in things 
 spiritual, baptism cannot have been the commencement, 
 the seed, the germ, the first principle, the principle in any 
 sense, of his regenerate change of character. 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 67 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— SECTION 5. 
 
 THE THEORY OF THE TWO REGENERATIONS. 
 
 The doctrine of the two distinct regenerations, which, 
 adopting expressions already in use, we have termed ' bap- 
 tisn^al' and ' moral,' is not exactly new.^ Though ap- 
 proached only, and in a confused manner perhaps, by some, 
 and held by others in a v/ay not fully coincident with what 
 we deem the accurate exposition, it has been both so ap» 
 proached and so maintained as to secure us from the charge 
 of innovation. This position we are now to illustrate. 
 
 Those who maintain that baptized infants are regenerate, 
 independently of personal character, yet that adults coming 
 to baptism are not regenerate without holy personal charac- 
 ter, allow in effect that there are two kinds of regeneration, 
 though they ascribe them both to baptism. 
 
 It is conceded by Waterland that the word regeneration 
 has a < stricter' and a ' larger' sense; and these two senses 
 
 J * Baptismal Regeneration' is a common phrase : that of * Moral Regenera- 
 tion' occurs in Paley's Works, V. 4. p. 345. — On the subject of new develop- 
 ments in theology, may the author be permitted to offer the following ex- 
 tracts from Abp. Wiiately ? (on St. Fan], p. 17, 19.) After remarking that 
 the love of novelty or originality is one obstacle to the love of truth, he sub- 
 joins — ' Others again, and they are more numerous, are unduly biassed by 
 an excessive respect for venerated authority; — by an undue regard for any 
 belief that is ancient, — that is established, — that has been maintained by 
 eminent men: they are overpowered, in short, by the ' argumentum ad ve- 
 recundiam.' I mean not, of course, that the judgment of able men, and that 
 of numerous independent authorities, furnishes no valid argument; only, 
 that it should not supersede argument: — that every other description of evi- 
 dence should be called in; — and that we should not think ourselves bound 
 
 to adopt an opinion merely because it has been held by many before us' 
 
 ' True wisdom would tell us not to receive one opinion because it is oW, and 
 another because it is new ; but to receive and reject none on either ground, 
 and to inquire sedulously in each case what is true.' 
 
88 MORAL REGENERATION* 
 
 he exemplifies from Augustine. May we not ask, whether 
 using a word in two senses is not generally equivalent to 
 using that word for two things ? ' St. Austin followed the 
 stricter sense when he said, Simon the sorcerer was born of 
 water and the Spirit. In another place, he followed the 
 larger sense, which takes in renovation .... He who is 
 born of God has charity [love] — let him see whether he 
 have charity, and then let him say, I am born of God. — 
 Let him have charity ; otherwise he may not say that he 
 is born of God.'^ 
 
 Bishop Taylor has the following passage — '• There are in 
 scripture noted two births besides the natural ; to which 
 also by analogy we may add a third. The first is to be born 
 of water and the spirit. It is one thing signified by two 
 substantives, water and the spirit, that is, spiritus aqueus, 
 the spirit moving upon the waters of baptism. The second 
 is to be born of spirit and fire, for so Christ was promised 
 to baptize us with the Holy Ghost and with fire ; that is, 
 cum spiritu igneo, w^ith a fiery Spirit, the Spirit as it de- 
 scended in Pentecost in the shape of fiery tongues. And 
 as the watery spirit washed away the sins of the church, 
 so the spirit of fire enkindles charity and the love of God. 
 The spirit is the same under both the titles, and it enables 
 the church with gifts and graces. And from these there 
 is another operation of the new birth, but the same spirit, 
 the spirit of rejoicing, or sph'itus extdtans, spiritus laeiiiias,^^ 
 Bishop Taylor here makes, at least oratorical ly, three re- 
 generations, one apparently mixed, botli baptismal and 
 moral, the second moral only, the third relating to the hap- 
 piness produced by the m.oral change. For calling the 
 third a new birth, there is no scriptural authority : and 
 Bishop Taylor adds it only * by analogy.' And the first 
 two of these new births are either the same with those we 
 
 1 Walerland on Justification, p. 46. (Weller Tracts.) 
 
 2 Taylor's Serm. V. 2. p. 15, 16. 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 89 
 
 have described, or may, we think, be resolved into them, 
 with great advantage on the score of perspicuity. 
 
 Whitfield allows the distinction between the birth of 
 water, and that of the Spirit. ' Now a person may be said 
 to be ' in Christ' two ways. First, only by an outward pro- 
 fession : and in this sense, every one that is called a chris- 
 tian, or baptized into Christ's church, may be said to be 
 ' in Christ.' But that this is not the sole meaning of the 
 apostle's phrase now before us, (2 Cor. v. 17.) is evident, 
 because then * every one that names the name of Christ,' 
 or is baptized into his visible church, would be ' a new 
 creature,' which is notoriously false ; it being but too plain, 
 beyond all contradiction, that comparatively but {q\w of 
 those that are horn of water, are horn of the Spirit likewise.''^ 
 
 Doddridge applies the passage, ' born of water and of the 
 Spirit,' to baptism and renewing, and says — ' being born of 
 the Spirit, he will also be solicitous that he may be horn of 
 water, and so fulfil all righteousness' — again, ' when a bap- 
 tized person is destitute of true religion, that hirth which 
 he had by water, seems to me as it were an evanescent 
 thing.' He allows a birth by water, as well as a birth of 
 the Spirit \ yet he does seem to be aware that the former 
 must be a new birth as well as the latter, both being differ- 
 ent from the natural birth ; and accordingly he does not 
 hold baptism to be regeneration.^ We regard the baptis- 
 mal change as more than a birth by water; * we are all 
 baptized by the Spirit;' and Doddridge allows the 'adop- 
 tion' of the Israelites (Rom. ix. 4,) to have been a * spirit- 
 ual adoption.' But, his deficiency on that point excepted, 
 we claim this divine as bearing adminicular testimony to 
 our doctrine. 
 
 A similar claim we have to the authority of Macknight ; 
 who says — ' except a man be horn of water, that is, hap- 
 
 1 Whitfield's Sermons, V. l.p. 3. (24mo. Phila. B. FranUin, 1740.) 
 
 2 Doddridge on John iii. 5 ; and on Regen. PosUeripUp. xiii. xii 
 
 h2 
 
90 MORAL REGENERATION^. 
 
 tizedy and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom 
 of God ; unless a man has a new nature given him by the 
 Spirit, which is being born of the Spirit^ and publicly re- 
 ceive the christian religion when offered to him, which is 
 being horn oficater, he cannot be a subject of God's king- 
 dom here, nor have a share in his glory hereafter.' The 
 two births are distinctly recognized, though they are not 
 called new births or regenerations. Like Doddridge also, 
 Macknight forgets the agency of the Spirit in the birth of 
 water. In the following extract, commended by T. H. 
 Home, Macknight makes a much nearer approach to our 
 doctrine ; but he does not use the word regenerate, or refer 
 to the Spirit as conferring church-membership. ' The high 
 titles above mentioned ; namely, the sons of God, the 
 children of God, the elect of God, the adoption of sons, the 
 election, saints, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, and a 
 peculiar people, were anciently given to the Israelites as a 
 nation, merely on account of their being the visible church 
 and people of God, without any regard to the personal 
 character of the individuals of whom that nation was com- 
 posed. Under the gospel the saine high titles were be- 
 stowed on whole churches, merely on account of their pro- 
 fession of Christianity, without any regard to the personal 
 character of the individuals who composed these churches. 
 But these high titles, with some others of greater impor- 
 tance, such as, the begotten of God, the heirs of God, the 
 adoption, were given in an appropriated sense to individu- 
 als likewise, on account of ihe'ir faith and holiness. When 
 given to whole churches, these titles imporiGd nothing 7no?'e 
 but that the society to which they were given was a chvrch 
 of Christ ; and that the individuals of which that society 
 was composed were entitled to all the privileges belonging 
 to the visible church and people of God. But when ap- 
 propriated to individuals, these titles implied that the par- 
 sons to whom they were given were really partakers of the 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 91 
 
 nature of God by possessing his moral qualities, and that 
 they were the objects of his paternal love, and heirs of his 
 felicity .... When John saith in the verse before us, Every 
 one who doeth righteousness hath been begotten of God, by 
 restricting the title to individuals of a specific character, 
 he teaches us that the persons of whom he speaks are sons 
 of God in the highest sense, and heirs of eternal life.'^ — 
 The approach to our doctrine is very near ; but Dr. M. 
 seems to have avoided calling baptism an actual regenera- 
 tion. We do not perceive that ' begotten of God' is a title 
 ' of greater importance' than ' sons of God,' or ' the adop- 
 tion of sons' than ' the adoption ;' and the title, ' heirs of 
 God through Christ,' is given, we have seen, to the Gala- 
 tian churches, though severely censured for being defi- 
 cient in moral regeneration. We find therefore, in this ex- 
 tract, nothing to weaken our doctrine ; and it certainly goes 
 far to confirm it. 
 
 In Poole's Annotations, two adoptions are mentioned — 
 one, making all Israel the children of God — the other, pro- 
 ducing the moral change, and its joys and consolations. 
 So likewise in Matthew Henry. ^ 
 
 Dean Comber says — ' And because persons, come to age 
 before their conversion, are first taught and persuaded by 
 the word of God, the language of holy writ enlarges the 
 metaphor, and saith, such are ' begotten by the word of 
 God,' (1 Cor. iv. 15,) and then born again oi regenerated in 
 or by baptism.'^ 
 
 The authorities thus far quoted do but furnish approxi- 
 mations to our doctrine. There is another class of di- 
 vines who have held it very nearly, perhaps, as we do — we 
 
 1 Macknight on John iii. 5; and on 1 John ii. 29: see also on Rora. viii. 
 14. Tit. iii. 5. 
 
 2 Poole's Annot. on Rom. ix. 4. viii. 15 : and M Henry on the same texts. 
 
 3 See Bishop BrowncU's Prayer-book. 
 
92 xMORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 cannot agree with the first two, however, in calling bap- 
 tismal regeneration ' external.' 
 
 Of this class we name first Bishop Hopkins, of Ra- 
 phoe. * There is an external, relative, or ecclesiastical sane- 
 tification ; which is nothing else, but the devoting or 
 giving up of a thing or person unto God, by those 
 who have power so to do. There is an internal, real, and 
 spiritual sanctification : and in this sense, a man is said to 
 be sanctified, when the Holy Ghost doth infuse into his 
 soul the habits of divine grace, and maketh him partaker 
 of the divine nature, whereby he is inwardly qualified to 
 glorify God in a holy life.' — ' Baptism is the immediate 
 means of our external and relative sanctification unto 
 God .... as it is the solemn admission of persons into the 
 visible church ; as it separates them from the world, and 
 from all false religions in it, and brings them out of the 
 visible kingdom of the devil, into the visible kingdom of 
 Jesus Christ .... But this is only a relative sanctity, not a 
 real : and many such saints and sanctified men there are, 
 who shall never enter into heaven ; but by their wicked 
 lives, forfeit and lose that blessed inheritance to which 
 they were called .... Such a baptismal regeneration as 
 this is must needs be acknowledged by all that will not wil- 
 fully shut their eyes against the clear evidence of scrip- 
 ture.' ' The apostle tells us, that to the Israelites as they 
 were a church, pertained the adoption : now adoption is 
 making men sons of God : yet, certainly, they did not all 
 of them enjoy the heavenly and effectual adoption, which 
 would bring them all to the heavenly and glorious inhe- 
 ritance.' ' The whole economy and dispensation of the 
 kingdom of Christ is managed by the Spirit of Chiist: so 
 that those, who are internally sanctified, are regenerated 
 by his effectual operation : and those who are only exter- 
 nally sanctified, are regenerated by his public institution. 
 Infants, therefore, are in baptism regenerated by the Holy 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. d3 
 
 Ghost, because the Holy Spirit of God appoints this ordi- 
 nance to receive them into the visible church, which is 
 the regenerate part and state of the world.' ' Those who 
 are baptized may, in this ecclesiastical and relative sense, 
 be truly called saints, the children of God, and members of 
 Christ, and thereupon inheritors of the kingdom of hea- 
 ven.'^ 
 
 Bishop Bradford, in his sermon on Tit. iii. 5. has the 
 following passages. * The wortis born and born again 
 plainly answer to regeneration in my text; as water a.nd 
 the Spi?'it answer to the washing o( regeneration and re- 
 neioing of the Holy Ghost.' — ' This inquiry .... will lead 
 us to the understanding of the true notion of regeneration, 
 both when it is applied to baptism (as it frequently is) and 
 when it particularly denotes the renewing of the mind by 
 the divine Spirit. This inquiry will also serve to convince 
 us that external regeneration^ unless accompanied with the 
 internal^ with the renewing of the Holy Ghost, will not 
 avail us to the end for which it is designed.' — * There can be 
 no great doubt, that our Saviour and St. Paul used the ex- 
 pressions, born again of water, and the washing of regene- 
 ration, in the very same sense.' — ' This change [renewing] 
 is what our Lord himself means by born of the Spirit as 
 well as water, in order to entering into the kingdom of 
 God-' — ' What St. Paul says of the Jews may be applied to 
 christians also, with a little variation of the words. He is 
 not a christian which is one outwardly ; neither is that re- 
 generation (namely, such as will be effectual to salvation) 
 which is outward in the flesh ; but he is a christian which 
 is one inwardly ; and regeneration is that of the heart, in 
 the spirit and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men 
 but of God.' We are aware that Bishop Bradford is some- 
 times clainjed by those who allow but the one regeneration 
 
 1 Bp. Hopkins' Works. {Lo^vlon, 1809) V. 2. p. 418—418, 425-422-426 
 —423- 
 
94 MORAL REGENERATIO^. 
 
 of baptism, and call the change of heart by other names ; 
 and the greater part of his discourse is certainly to that ef- 
 fect. But as certainly he applies the name regeneration to 
 the moral change, in these extracts ; and the title, ' A Dis- 
 course concerning Baptismal and Spiritual Regeneration,' 
 decides that by the latter he meant renewing.^ 
 
 The Society [in England] for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge published several editions of the sermon just 
 mentioned : that of 1810 had prefixed to it the following 
 advertisement — ' This seventh edition is published at a 
 time, when it is hoped that so judicious and scriptural a 
 discourse may be of service to settle the minds of good 
 christians, in some present disputes concerning baptis7nal 
 and spiritual regeneration.'^ Subsequently, the Society 
 abandoned this tract, and appear to have changed their 
 theory of regeneration. Their previous sanction however, 
 of Bishop Bradford's sermon, shows that the doctrine of 
 the two regenerations is not new, but had, for a long time, 
 most respectable authority. 
 
 Mr. Baxter says — ' All that the minister warrantably 
 baptizeth are sacramentally regenerate, and are, inforo ec- 
 clesicB, members of Christ, and children of God, and heirs 
 of heaven. But it is only those that are sincerely deliver- 
 ed up in covenant to God in Christ, that are spiritually 
 and really regenerate, and are such as shall be owned for 
 members of Christ and children of God, inforo cobU.'''^ 
 
 The phrase ' put on Christ' is equivalent to ' put on the 
 new man,' and that means renewing or the new creation, 
 which is synonymous with regeneration. Now, the apos- 
 tle says in one passage, 'as many as have been baptized 
 
 1 Churchman's Magazine, V. 5. p. 128, 129, 131, 282, 125. The republi- 
 cation of the discourse in this Magazine vouches for its authority (in 1808) 
 among Episcopalians in this countr}'. It deserves another reprint among us, 
 
 2 J. Scott on Baptism, p. 205. 
 
 3 Baxter's Pract. Works, V. 1. p. 559. 
 
MORAL REOENERATION. 95 
 
 into Christ have put on Christ ;' yet in another place he ex- 
 horts the baptized, ^ put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.' 
 This is well interpreted by St. Augustine, ' Christ is some- 
 times put on as far as the reception of the sacrament, and 
 sometimes [put on] unto the sanctiiication of the life ; the 
 former is common to the good and the wicked, the other 
 is peculiar to the good.' When it is thus said that a bap- 
 tized person has put on Christ, and yet must put on Christ, 
 what is it but declaring, in other words, that there are two 
 regenerations, the one in baptism, the other the moral 
 change.* 
 
 We suppose the meaning of Dr. Jarvis is similar, when 
 after sugg-esting that resurrection and regeneration are con- 
 vertible terms, he says — ' In the largest acceptation of the 
 word, all baptized persons are risen with Christ. They are 
 made members of his body, the church. They have risen 
 from an uncovenanted, to a covenanted state. They are 
 translated into God's kingdom. From being aliens and 
 foreigners, they are admitted to be fellow-citizens with the 
 saints, and of the household of God. They are allowed to 
 partake of all the means of grace, and if they have come 
 with right motives, all the hopes of glory. In a less exten- 
 sive sense, or rather in the most complete acceptation of 
 the metaphor, they only are risen with Christ who are risen 
 from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness. This 
 spiritual resurrection of our nature, through the powerful 
 assistances afforded us under the new covenant, must take 
 place in this life, or we shall never attain unto that final 
 and proper resurrection, in which our souls shall be for 
 ever united to bodies fashioned like unto the glorious body 
 of our Redeemer.' ' It has been shown that the word re- 
 surrection, and consequently its synonyme regeneration, is 
 a complex term ; that it denotes not only the outward and 
 
 1 Gal. iii. 27. Rom. xiii. 14. Waterland.p. 22. J. Scott, p. 192 
 
96 MORAL REGENEKATJON. 
 
 visible resurrection from an uncovenanted to a covenanted 
 state, but also that process of spiritual renovation, by which 
 our nature is figuratively said to die unto sin, and live 
 again unto righteousness.' ' To be born of water, is equi- 
 valent to the outward and visible resurrection, in baptism, 
 by which men are admitted into the kingdom of God on 
 earth, the visible church ; to be born of the Spirit, is equi- 
 valent to that inward and spiritual resurrection, which is 
 effected in our souls by the Spirit of God, and without 
 which we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.' ' So 
 we his members are first declared to be the sons of God at 
 our baptism. In a higher sense we are in this life declar- 
 ed to be the sons of God by the fruits of the Spirit in our 
 lives. In the highest sense, we shall be declared to be 
 the sons of God when we shall become the children of the 
 resurrection.'^ 
 
 Under the sanction of such authority, we have felt amply 
 sustained in offering again to the members of our church, 
 and to christians generally, the doctrine of two regenera- 
 tions, baptismal and moral, each of a distinct nature from 
 the other. 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— SECTION 6. 
 
 MORAL REGENERATION GRADUAL, AND CAPABLE OF REPETITION. 
 
 Much evil has arisen from regarding regeneration, in the 
 now popular or moral sense, as a single act of the Holy 
 Spirit. Although christians of a calm disposition judge 
 chiefly by the life and conversation whether that act has 
 occurred, enthusiasts appeal rather to the feelings, and re- 
 quire in these a token, usually of strong agitations, often 
 
 I Dr. Jarvis' Serm. &c.p. 63, 64, 12, 65, 61. 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 97 
 
 of terrors, ending in rapture, before they allow a person to 
 be considered as regenerate. And this token once per- 
 ceived, the individual is unreservedly classed among the 
 pious ; and calvinists add, that he is now, to human judg- 
 ment, marked for final perseverance. We prefer however, 
 the doctrine that personal religion is di gradual attainment, 
 a spark that may often appear and disappear ere it is ef- 
 fectually kindled, and which may often require, for its per- 
 petuation, and the more perfect refining away of our dross, 
 kindling anew from heaven. Such a view of moral regene- 
 ration, that it includes the commencoment, the whole pro- 
 gress, and the completion, of our holy change, we have 
 proved from scripture. We now adduce authorities to 
 strengthen this interpretation of the inspired declarations 
 on the subject. 
 
 Archbishop Tillotson, after asserting that ' regeneration 
 and sanctification are but difl^erent expressions of the self- 
 same tiling,' proceeds thus — ' It is said that regeneration 
 only signifies our first entrance into this state [of grace and 
 holiness,] and sanctification our progress and continuance 
 in it. But this is a great mistake. For though it be true 
 that regeneration doth signify our first entrance into this 
 state, yet it is not true that it only signifies that; for it is 
 used likewise in scripture to signify our continuance in 
 that state.' Again — 'It is said that one of the main dif- 
 ferences between regeneration and sanctification is this, 
 that regeneration is incapable of degrees, and all that are 
 regenerate are equally so ... . whereas sanctification is a 
 gradual progress from one degree of holiness to another, 
 and of them that are truly sanctified and holy, one may be 
 more sanctified and holy than another. But this likewise 
 is a mere fancy and imagination, without any real ground. 
 For as an unregenerate state does plainly admit of degrees, 
 so likewise doth the regenerate, and for the same reason 
 .... they that are more holy, and more like God, are 
 
 I 
 
98 MORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 more the children of God j and to be more a child of God, 
 is surely to be more regenerate.' Again — ' all the diffi- 
 culty 1 know of in this matter is a mere nicety, that there 
 is an instant in which every thing begins, and that there- 
 fore regeneration is in an instant; so that the instant be- 
 fore a man arrived at this state, it could not be said that 
 he was regenerate ; and the instant after he is in this state, 
 it cannot be denied that he is so. But this is idle subtilty ; 
 just as if a man should prove that a house was built in an 
 instant, because it could not be said to be built till the in- 
 stant it was finished; though for all this, nothing is more 
 
 certain than that it was built by degrees All the 
 
 while the man is tending towards a regenerate state .... 
 the work of regeneration is going on.'^ 
 
 Stackhouse, in his Body of Divinity, and under the 
 head of Regeneration, which he there identifies with re- 
 novation, has the following passages. ' We must not ima- 
 gine that because the author of our regeneration is an 
 Almighty agent, the effects of his operations upon our 
 minds are either instantaneous or irresistible .... this is a 
 work which cannot be done in an instant, but requires ti^ne, 
 as well as pains, to bring it to perfection.^ — ' If ye experi- 
 mentally find that the giace of God's Holy Spirit has begun 
 the work of regeneration in your souls, has renewed your 
 mind, and tamed your passions, and changed your lives, 
 rejoice and be exceeding glad, because your renovation 
 being thus happily commenced, is a good pledge, and rea- 
 son to hope, that your names shall be written in the book 
 of life.'^ 
 
 In one of the former tracts of the (English) Society for 
 Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Collect for Christmas- 
 day is called 'A Prayer for Regeneration' — which implies 
 
 1 Tillotson's Serm./o/. V. 2. p. 340, 341, 342. 
 a Slackhouse's Body of Divinity, p. 983, 985. 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 99 
 
 that regeneration is constantly renewed, increased, or re- 
 peated. In another, the title of one of the sections is, 
 
 * The Beginnings of Regeneration' — indicating that it is a 
 gradual work.* 
 
 Dr. Hole, though an advocate for baptismal regeneration, 
 takes the same view of the collect for Christmas-day — it 
 
 * teaches us to pray, that as he [Ciirist] was born of our 
 flesh, so we may he regenerated and born again of his Holy 
 Spirit ; and as he by his incarnation partook of our human 
 nature, so we by spiritual regeneration may he partakers of 
 his divine nature.' This exposition of the collect implies 
 that it is a prayer for a perpetually progressive regenera- 
 tion. We might also have adduced it as an approach, at 
 least, to the doctrine of the two new births: for it repre- 
 sents those who are regenerate in baptism as praying to be 
 regenerated afterwards. 
 
 In Bishop Hobart's Bible, on Tit. iii. 5, though the ap- 
 plication of the word regenerate to the change of heart is 
 not approved, the following sentence occurs in a note — ' re- 
 generation, if it be applied to the whole and entire change 
 of a man, is a progressive state, the perfection of which is 
 in another world, the commencement and degrees in this.' 
 
 Archdeacon Daubeny says — ' The more restrained, to- 
 gether with the more extended use of the term regenera- 
 tion, in its application to the first communication of divine 
 grace in baptism ; to the continued supplies of it in subse- 
 quent stages of the christian life ; to the renewal of it after 
 forfeiture ; or to some more than ordinary manifestations of 
 it under particular circumstances ; constitute that compre- 
 hensive doctrine of the Church of England on this im- 
 portant subject, which all her sound divines hold in sub- 
 stance, under whatever terms, or by whatever distinctions, 
 they at different times have thought proper to describe it.'^ 
 
 1 J, Scott on Bapt. p. 201, 202. 2 J. Scott on Bapt.p. 298. 
 
100 MORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 Dr. Jarvis speaks to the same effect — ' If the renovation 
 
 of our nature be but another term to express its resurrec- 
 tion or regeneration from the death of sin to the life of 
 righteousness, then it will be seen that our spiritual rege- 
 neration is the process of our whole mortal life. It is be- 
 gun when the Holy Spirit begins to operate upon our minds. 
 It is promoted by the use of all the means of grace, by the 
 preaching and reading of the word of God, by prayer, by 
 the administration of the sacraments, by our very trials and 
 afflictions. While the seeds of sin remain in our nature, 
 our inner man must be renewed from day to day. We must 
 be for ever engaged in purifying our bodies and our souls, 
 and continually becoming more and more perfect until this 
 mortality shall be swallowed up of life.'^ 
 
 Of writers not of our denomination, it will suffice to 
 present the opinion of Calvin, that moral regeneration is a 
 gradual process. He says — ' In one word, I apprehend re- 
 pentance to be regeneration, the end of which is the resto- 
 ration of the divine image within us in this re- 
 generation we are restored by the grace of Christ to the 
 righteousness of God, from which we fell in Adam ; in 
 which manner the Lord is pleased completely to restore all 
 those whom he adopts to the inheritance of life. And this 
 restoration is not accomplished in a single moment, or day, 
 or year ; but by continual, and sometimes even tardy ad- 
 vances, the Lord destroys the carnal corruptions of his 
 chosen, purifies them from all pollution, and consecrates 
 them as temples to himself; renewing all their senses to 
 real purity, that they may employ their tvhole life in the ex- 
 ercise of repentance, and know that this warfare will be 
 terminated only by death .... Thus, therefore, the chil- 
 dren of God are liberated by regeneration from the servi- 
 tude of sin,' &c. Again — ' Therefore, in the whole course 
 
 1 Dr. Jarvis' Serm. &LC.p. 74,75. 
 
MORAL REGENERATION-. 101 
 
 of regeneration, we are justly styled God's workmanship, 
 created unto good works, which God hath before ordained 
 that we should walk in thenri.'* 
 
 Another argument to our purpose is this. Although 
 some divines, Waterland for example, who maintain only 
 one regeneration, deny that it can be * totally lost,' others 
 appear to hold a different opinion. And those who speak 
 of a fall from the state of regeneracy, without denying a 
 recovery to that state before death, allow something very 
 like a further regeneration, or a repetition of that act. 
 Archdeacon Daubeny approves of calling ' bad christians 
 unregenerate men.'^ Bishop Taylor represents the lapse 
 from the regenerate state in very strong terms, yet without 
 intimating that it was beyond recovery — saying to his bap- 
 tized hearers — ' the question is, whether any man that is 
 covetous or proud, false to his trust, or a drunkard, can at 
 the same time be a child of God 7 no, certainly he cannot' 
 — ' he is not a child of God, that knowingly and delibe- 
 rately chooses any thing that God hates. '^ Yet if such 
 persons savingly repent, they again become children of 
 God. Now, can the regeneration of an adult baptized in 
 sincerity, whether called baptismal or moral, after being 
 lost by his falling into deliberate and continued sin, so that 
 he becomes unregenerate and is no longer a child of God, 
 be the same regeneration which makes him again a child of 
 God on his final repentance? We see not how this can be. 
 We therefore think, that writers who use such language 
 tacitly allow that regeneration may be repeated ; or at least, 
 that, as Dr. Paley says of pardon, it ebbs and flows, which 
 precludes the idea of its being an instantaneous operation 
 of the Spirit, complete in a moment. 
 
 As related to this branch of our subject, the following 
 extracts from Bishop Taylor are valuable — ' a righteous 
 
 1 Calv. Inslit. V. 2. p. 73, 88. 2 J. Scott on Bapt. p. 298. 
 
 3 Taylor's Serm. V. 3. p. 51, 54. 
 
 l2 
 
102 MORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 man is justified when he is saved ; and a weak christian is 
 justified when his imperfect services are accepted for the 
 present, and himself thrust forward to more grace ; and he 
 that is justified may be justified more ; &;c. . . . when the 
 faith is such that justification is the product and correspond- 
 ent, as that faith may be imperfect, so the justification is 
 but begun, and either must proceed further, or else, as the 
 faith will die, so the justification will come to nothing.' 
 Again — ' No man's sins are pardoned, but in the same mea- 
 sure in which they are mortified, destroyed and taken away ; 
 so that if faith does not cure our sinful natures, it can 
 never justify, it never can procure our pardon.'^ 
 
 Having sustained — we trust sufficiently — our interpreta- 
 tion of the scriptures on which we base this part of our 
 doctrine, we proceed to some further remarks. 
 
 By regarding moral regeneration as a gradual, not an in- 
 stantaneous change, the moment of its commencement be- 
 comes a subject of far less importance, .than it is made by 
 some divines who apply the word to that moment only, and 
 call the subsequent stages of the renewing process, sanc- 
 tification, or the like. Doubtless there is a point of time 
 at which gracious influence first becomes successful, and 
 the holy change begins ; it is known in all cases to the 
 Searcher of hearts ; and occasionally, perhaps, it may be 
 discerned by the person so changed. And if the change 
 continue and go forward, that may be called the moment 
 of passing from a state of moral unregeneracy to the state 
 of moral regeneration. But the moment is so seldom ascer- 
 tained by men, that it is of little importance in a practical 
 view. And for theoretical or doctrinal use, the importance 
 of the commencing moment is nearly merged in the far 
 superior importance of the graces that open as the good 
 work proceeds, repentance, faith, obedience, love; for only 
 
 I Taylor's Serm. V. 3. p. 68,75. 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 103 
 
 by these graces can it be known that the new creation has 
 indeed begun. Whatever be the doctrine, not fanatical, 
 built on there being an initial moment of the change, it 
 presumes the fact of the change to be tested by subsequent 
 fruits : and why may not the same doctrine be as well 
 founded on the beginning and progress, unitedly called mo- 
 ral regeneration, or on the progress alone, having that 
 name, as on the mere first moment, with that appellation 
 confined to it, yet requiring this progress as the test? Such 
 a doctrine, whatever it be, is built on the presumed fact 
 that moral regeneration has occurred ; but the fact is not 
 presumed, reasonably, without the evidence of a due mea- 
 sure of practical godliness : it may therefore be justly said, 
 that the practical godliness so produced is the real basis of 
 the doctrine, since on that alone is founded the presump- 
 tion that there has been the first moment of moral regene- 
 ration. 
 
 It is not the purpose of this essay to notice particularly 
 the theories or doctrines that have been connected with 
 the application of the word ' regeneration' to the moral 
 change. The writer may however be permitted to state, 
 that, in his opinion, baptism is the only scriptural title to 
 all the mercies of God through Christ; to the purifying 
 influences of the Holy Spirit ; to pardon or justification ; 
 to his consoling influences; to his sustaining influences; 
 to heaven. Baptism is called pardon, or justification, or 
 remission of sin, because it is the conditional title to that 
 blessing. And moral regeneration, or the change of heart, 
 in the outset, and in every subsequent stage, may, in the 
 baptized, be called pardon, justification, remission of sin, 
 because it is, so far, a fulfilment of the conditions, and 
 consequently so far making good the title. But it is ob- 
 vious, that at the first moment much less is fulfilled of the 
 conditions, and much less made good, than there is when 
 the fruits appear and ripen. Hence, the first moment of 
 
104 MORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 moral regeneration may justly be deemed, for all purposes 
 under human cognisance, of importance vastly inferior to 
 the after stages. 
 
 So likewise baptism may be called salvation, because it 
 is the conditional title to it. And the same term may be 
 applied to every stage of moral regeneration, because it is, 
 so far, a fulfilment of the conditions, and making good the 
 title.i 
 
 Should it be objected that this viev(^ of the subject 
 amounts to the error of justification by works, the reply is 
 obvious. All who believe in the real liberty of the human 
 will, as well as the sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost, 
 agree that in the first moment of the change from sin to 
 holiness, there is a surrender of the will, whether with a 
 clear consciousness or rot, to the movings of the Spirit ; 
 of course that surrender is a work: and thus the doctrine 
 of justification at that moment is as much connected with 
 that work, as the doctrine of progressive justification is 
 with the works of a progressive moral regeneration. But 
 the connexion of justification with works — and who does 
 not connect the two 1 — by no means implies justification 
 hy works in either case. Faith being connected with 
 works, and justification being by faith, justification is un- 
 avoidably connected with works — 'faith without works is 
 dead,' it is not faith — faith, argues St. James, is the ' body,' 
 
 1 Under this construction, we agree with Matthew Henry. (On Tit. iii. 5.) 
 I Here is salvation begun, which will be growing and increasing to perfec- 
 tion ; therefore it is said, He saved us ... . we must be initially saved now 
 by regeneration, if on good ground we would expect complete salvation in 
 heaven; the change then will be but in degree, not in kind ; grace is glory, 
 and glory is but grace in its perfection. How few mind this ? Most carry 
 it as if they were afraid to be happy before the time ; they would have hea- 
 ven, they pretend, at last, yet care not for holiness now, i. e. they would 
 have the end without the beginning ; so absurd are sinners : but without 
 Regeneration, that is the first resurrection, no attaining the second glorious 
 one, the resurrection oi the just.' 
 
MORAL REGENERATION^. 105 
 
 works the * spirit' — ' by works is faith made perfect.' The 
 work of a surrender of the will at the initial moment, in 
 the former scheme, is a token of faith ; and so are the 
 further works, in the latter. And thus both schemes con- 
 form to the doctrine of justification by faith. Neither of 
 them allows to either faith or works the least merit before 
 God. Merit is in Christ only — faith accepts his merits — 
 works show the faith to be genuine. 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— SECTION 7. 
 
 PRACTICAL REMARKS ON MORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 It would require a volume to present a full practical il- 
 lustration and enforcement of the subject of moral regene- 
 ration. The limits of this essay will admit, as indeed 
 its purpose requires, only a few select remarks, intended 
 chiefly to guard against misconception and abuses. 
 
 We hold the universal necessity of moral regeneration, 
 or the change of heart, in order to an entrance into the 
 kingdom of God in heaven. We hold it as we do the en- 
 tire doctrine of our Saviour, in his conversation with Nico- 
 demus, ' except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, 
 he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' Infants dying 
 unbaptized, persons ignorant of the gospel, or not having 
 access to baptism, or omitting it through involuntary error, 
 are exceptions, we doubt not, to the requirement to be 
 * born of water.' And we further believe that dying in- 
 fants, as they are not subjects for the moral change we are 
 describing, enter the kingdom of heaven without it :* at 
 
 1 Bishop Hopkins, of Raphoe, has ihe following remarks—' It alone [bap- 
 Jiwnal or ecclesiastical regeneration] will suffice to the salvation of infants, 
 
106 MORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 least, we account this a just view of that part of scripture 
 — without entering on the mysterious question, how origi- 
 nal sin, ' the infection of nature,' is in them expunged? 
 Beyond the case however of young children, (and idiots,) 
 we are not at liberty to except any human being from the 
 necessity of moral regeneration : for scripture teaches, as 
 we have shown, that even among the heathen there are 
 those who are (morally) ' the children of God.'^ To all 
 therefore we declare, ' except a man be born again, he can- 
 not see the kingdom of God.' 
 
 Passing by the effects of this holy change on the will, 
 the affections, and the understanding, which are illustrated 
 in various works, we are to notice that its Jinal test is a 
 holy life. The passages of scripture, on which is founded 
 the application of the term regeneration to the change of 
 heart, refer all of them to godliness in practice and in 
 principle. The only other test would be, feelings, whe- 
 ther mere perceptions or strong emotions : but not one of 
 the passages intimates that these are required in moral re- 
 generation. This fact is highly important; for enthusias- 
 tic teachers dwell much on the necessity of violent pangs, 
 in order to the accomplishing of the new birth, and not 
 only justify on this ground many improper excesses, but 
 require the calmer christian to force himself into a similar 
 excitement, under the penalty of being accounted void of 
 true piety. But, so far as the metaphor is concerned ; be- 
 sides that the pangs are not in the infant born, there is no 
 more necessity for them in the moral new birth, than in 
 the baptismal, which is wholly unconnected with them. 
 And as to the scriptural tests ; they are, we repeat, prac- 
 tical only, including conduct and principles— those who 
 
 because they are thereby as holy as their state can make them capable of.' 
 — ' For infants, it is not easy to be conceived, what inward work can, in an 
 ordinary manner, pass upon them.' (W^orks, V. 2. p. 423, 424.) 
 1 John xi. 52: see ch. 2. sect. 2. of this essay. 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 107 
 
 fear the Lord, and cultivate peace, and love their enemies, 
 and are benevolent, piously contented, blameless and harm- 
 less, those who practise righteousness, and habitually avoid 
 sin, and overcome the world, and keep themselves from 
 the touch of the evil one, those who have laid aside their 
 former lusts, malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies, and evil 
 speakings, and have purified their souls in obeying the 
 truth, those who exercise love to God and men, and faith in 
 Jesus as the Christ, and are led by the Spirit, and have his 
 witness, the humble persuasion that they are sanctified, 
 concurrent with the witness of their good conscience — 
 these, if scripture is to decide, are children of God, born 
 of God, morally regenerate. This reasoning, however, is 
 not intended to disconnect piety and sacred feelings, and 
 courses of feeling : far from us be such an error. Sound 
 christian experience is of prime importance, and a discri- 
 minating perception of it is also of great value. Sound 
 penitent experience is based on the general rule, that our 
 sorrow for sin should be proportioned to the amount of 
 sin or neglect that has been indulged in ; subject however 
 to an almost unlimited variation, produced by our differ- 
 ent degrees of sensibility, by the tone of our religious 
 opinions, by the influence of our pious company, and by 
 other incidental causes. But, while we thus appreciate 
 godly experience, nay, should it be estimated ever so ex- 
 travagantly, there is no evading the fact, that where scrip- 
 ture applies the phrases born of God, sons of God, born 
 again, new born, and the like, to those who have under- 
 gone the change of heart, it recognises as such those who 
 are practically reclaimed from depravity, whether natural 
 or habitual, without a single allusion to pangs, as essential 
 to the change.^ 
 
 1 St. Paul says to the Galatians, ' my little children, of whom 2 travail in 
 birth again :' this may intimate pangs in the apostle in behalf of the Gala- 
 tians, but it certainly does not refer to any in them in their own behalf; all 
 
lOS MORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 The lest of moral regeneration being a holy life, a 
 * walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the 
 Lord,' there need be no predominant anxiety as to the 
 particular workings of the mind that have attended this 
 change. If the fruit be good, it may not be doubted that 
 God has made the tree good. If there be in any person, 
 true repentance and obedience towards God, a deep and 
 ardent faith in the merits of Christ, and a watchful de- 
 pendance on the Holy Spirit, with a faithful waiting upon 
 the several means of grace — in such a person the Most 
 High is effecting the great transformation which is prepar- 
 ing him for heaven, be what they may the operations on 
 the feelings in or by which the Spirit has begun or conti- 
 nues it. In regard to these feelings, penitent exercises of 
 the mind, the fundamental rule, liable as we remarked to 
 various exceptions, is, that they be reasonably proportioned 
 to the amount of sin that has been indulged in, including 
 both wickedness and neglect — the estimate to be made in 
 the spirit of candour, humility, and a tender conscience, 
 not in the spirit of self-excuse — conviction should be pro- 
 portioned to transgression.* And this rule may be illus- 
 trated under three heads. 1. Many of the pious enter on 
 their happy course in the earliest periods in which their 
 minds begin to form ; being soon taught, and taught ef- 
 fectually, the fear of God and the love of the Saviour. 
 They thus give their fallen nature little indulgence; some- 
 
 that can be inferred from this language is, the apostle's anxiety for them, 
 not their anxiety for themselves. 
 
 1 We can discern no principle on which it can be alleged that the feeling 
 of conviction should be equal in all persons, or rfisproportioned to the 
 amount of wickedness or neglect, that will not lead to the inference, that 
 those who have transgressed much and those who have transgressed little 
 are equal in transgression— and to the further inference, that there is no dis- 
 tinction, as our Lord says there is, between being forgiven much and forgi- 
 ven little. (Luke vii. 42, 43, 47.) 
 
MORAL REGENERATION^. 109 
 
 times, as little as is possible with beings, who, with their 
 best and earliest efforts, are yet not free from sin. And 
 from such persons as these, it would be folly to ask a 
 strongly marked or very painful repentance. They are 
 changed from the carnal to the spiritual mind ; but the 
 change began so early, and has proceeded so gradually and 
 so calmly, that none but the Searcher of hearts could dis- 
 cern its outset or its stages. These, the early pious, though 
 undergoing little of the exercises of the mind called ex- 
 perience, are usually among the best of christians.* — 
 2. Others, after a youth of folly or levity, of neglect, or of 
 youthful sins, begin their more considerate years with a 
 better course; resolving then, through the preventing 
 grace of the Spirit, to serve God, instead of being devoted 
 to mammon or iniquity. The holy change of these per- 
 sons may be expected to be more perceptible, yet not 
 
 1 ' We have encouragement to believe there are a considerable number 
 who are, as it were, sanctified from the womb, and in whom the seeds of 
 divine grace are sown, before they grow up to a capacity of understanding 
 the public preaching of the word : a remark, which Mr. Baxter carried so 
 far as to say, ' ihat he beheves if the duties of religious education were con- 
 scientiously discharged, preaching would not be God's ordinary method of 
 converting souls: but the greater part would be wrought upon before they 
 were capable of entering into the design of a sermon.' And indeed it seems 
 to me, that children may early come to have some apprehensions of what 
 is most important in religion. They may have a great reverence for God, 
 and a love for him, as that great Father who made them, and that kind 
 Friend who gives them every thing that they have; and though it is not so 
 easy for them to understand the doctrines peculiar to a Redeemer, yet when 
 they hear of Christ as the Son of God, who came down from heaven to 
 teach men and children the way thither; who loved them, and did them 
 good every day, and at last died to deliver them from death and hell ; their 
 little hearts may well be impressed with such thoughts as these, and they 
 may find a growing desire to be instructed in what Christ is, and what he 
 taught and did, and to do what shall appear to be his will. And wherever 
 this is the prevailing disposition, it seems to me that the seeds of holiness 
 are sown in ihat soul, though but small proficiency may be made in know, 
 ledge, and though the capacities for service may be very low.' (Doddridge 
 on Regen. Serm. 8.) 
 
 K 
 
110 MORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 ordinarily attended with very strong agitations — marked 
 enough to be duly noticed, distinctly perceived and stu- 
 died, but probably not attended, or at least not often at- 
 tended, with deep gloom, or uncontrollable terrors of spi- 
 rit. 3. After these two classes, we name those others 
 among the converted — alas, there are too few of them — 
 who, having gone into deep vice, or dishonourable courses, 
 or, having persevered long and obstinately in worldliness, 
 neglect, deadness to religion, see at last the error of their 
 way, and turn to God before they have sinned past reco- 
 very. Here are the cases, in which strong feeling and 
 agitation, perhaps amazement and terror, though of va- 
 rious degrees, are usually to be expected : for the more 
 firmly men have riveted themselves to sin, the greater will 
 be the struggle of their emancipation from it. 
 
 In applying the rule thus illustrated, it must be remem- 
 bered, that the three classes we have assumed run into 
 each other — some persons may begin the pious change he- 
 tioeen early childhood and early manhood,^ and some be- 
 tween early manhood and the age when worldliness or 
 wickedness have confirmed and entire sway. Of course 
 the penitent feelings may be expected to vary, propor- 
 tionally, from the several standards we have attempted to 
 describe. We must repeat, also, that there will often be 
 other undefinable variations from them, arising from dif- 
 ference of temperament especially, difference of habits, 
 
 1 'These operations, where there is a religious education, often begin 
 very early : but then, in some degree, the impressions wear off from the 
 weak and flexible mind ; and perhaps there are various instances in which 
 they alternately revive and decay again. And this vicissitude of affection- 
 ate applications to religion under moving ordinances, afflictions, or deliver- 
 ances, and of backslidings and remissness in it, may .... with respect to 
 many .... continue for a long time. At length, under the various methods 
 of providence and grace, the soul arrives to greater steadiness, and a more 
 habitual victory over the remainders of indwelling sin.' (Doddridge on Re- 
 generation, Serm. 8.) 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. Ill 
 
 diiFerence of education, difference in doctrinal views, and 
 the differing influences of religious friends and compan- 
 ions. 
 
 But, besides a difference in the feelings which penitents 
 undergo, there is a great difference in their taking notice 
 of them, themselves respectively, and also in their dispo- 
 sition to speak of them to other persons. 
 
 Not all take the same notice of their feelings. Some« 
 who have studied but little tiie nature of christian experience, 
 will seldom examine their feelings, and seldom reflect 
 upon them ; and thus, what may actually have occurred 
 within them will have been so imperfectly noticed, that 
 they cannot give a clear or connected account of it.^ — 
 Others, who have heard these things much dwelt upon, will 
 describe their feelings in ample detail, and sometimes per- 
 haps with not a little unconscious exaggeration : and, in 
 this spirit, those who have committed none of the grosser 
 offences, or been obstinate in neglect, nay, those even who 
 have been in the calmer walks of piety, may excite their 
 hearts, and then magnify the agitations so produced, till 
 they imagine the dark self-convictions of the greatest pro- 
 fligate. Now, both these classes of christians are, we 
 doubt not, sincere ; and, their faith and obedience being 
 
 X ' I will add, that christians of a very amiable and honourable character 
 may express themselves but in a dark, and something of an improper man- 
 ner, concerning the doctrine of regeneration, and may, in conscience, scru- 
 ple the use of some phrases relating to it, which we judge to be exceeding 
 suitable; and yet, that very scruple which displeases us may proceed from a 
 reverence for God and truth, and from such a tenderness of heart as is the 
 effect of his regenerating grace .... I remember good Dr. Owen, whose can- 
 dour was, in many respects, very remarkable, carries this so far as some- 
 where to say, ' that some may, perliaps, have experienced the saving influ- 
 ences of the Holy Spirit on their hearts, who do not in words acknowledge 
 the necessity, or even the reality of those influences.' Judging men's hearts, 
 and judging their states, is a work for which we are so ill qualified, that we 
 have reason to be exceeding thankful it is not assigned to us.' (Doddridge 
 on Regen. Serm. 8.) 
 
112 MORAL REGENERATION. 
 
 sound, they both rank as morally regenerate. But they 
 both have their mistake ; the former, the mistake of too 
 much coldness ; the latter, the mistake of an artificial fer- 
 vour. We would not indeed have any one to be sparing 
 of his penitent feelings : no, the spirit of self-justification 
 is the spirit of delusion ; and none but deep humility is 
 genuine ; none but that always tender humility before God, 
 which bears constantly in mind the searching question, 
 * who can tell how oft he offendeth V we only mean to say, 
 that there is no scriptural authority for requiring those who 
 have indeed sinned comparatively little, to undergo, 
 through an over-anxious stimulation, the appalling terrors 
 of those who have been hardened in carelessness or im- 
 mersed in deep guilt. 
 
 Different also is the inclination to speak to others con- 
 cerning our religious feelings. Some are naturally of a 
 communicative disposition ; others, naturally reserved — 
 some converse freely of their ordinary feelings and ordi- 
 nary affairs ; others confine them very much within their 
 own bosoms. It may often be the case, therefore, that two 
 persons shall have undergone the same religious emotions, 
 who yet do not appear to have done so : the silent man, in- 
 deed, may compare his own with those of the communica- 
 tive, but of his nothing will be known. Here, of course, 
 we are left entirely to the rule, which should always be the 
 ultimate rule, of estimating character by the life. If the 
 life be holy, we must believe the heart to have been made 
 holy by grace. God only can discover whether it be other- 
 wise. To men, who can but imperfectly search their own 
 hearts, and much less those of others, the life is the only 
 evidence within reach.* 
 
 1 Bp. TayJor remarks — ' Religion is like the breath of heaven ; if it goes 
 abroad into the open air, it scatters and dissolves like caraphire : but if it 
 [be improved] in secret, it is strong and mighty, and comes forth with vigour 
 and great effect in the days of death and judgment.' (Serm. V. 3. p. 296.) 
 
MORAL REGENERATION. 113 
 
 We include then, among the morally regenerate, all 
 christians whose principles and conduct afford the due evi- 
 dence, whether their conception and description of the 
 change be vivid or obscure — and also, whatever has been 
 the process by which the Spirit has effected it — whether by 
 the gentlest and most unperceived operations of grace, 
 proving successful at the outset of life — or, by operations 
 more marked, in those whose early years have been lost in 
 sin, or worldliness, or neglect — or, by those strong conflicts 
 which overcome the hardened oflender. The test is holy 
 living. In all the cases, there is the change from depra- 
 vity to holiness, from the dominion of sin to victory over it. 
 In all the cases, the duty of the font having been perform- 
 ed, the conditions of pardon through Christ, according to 
 the covenant and seal of baptism, are so far made good ; 
 and the title will continue to be availing so long as this 
 holy character, and the progress in holy character, are 
 maintained. 
 
 To the same effect, Bp. Hopkins, of Raphoe-^' As the ground that is fullest 
 of precious mines, hath least grass growing upon it ; so is it, many times, 
 with the children of God in holy duties: where the heart is most full of 
 grace, and where there are many precious affections in it stirring towards 
 God, yet there are the least flourishings of expressions in their words.' 
 (Works, V. 2. p. 516.) We quote these remarks, not to insinuate that the 
 disposition to converse much on one's religious state is a reason for suspect- 
 ing him, when there are the due practical tests ; but only in defence of a va- 
 luable class of the brethren, who either have no such inclination, or, if they 
 have, do not indulge it. 
 
 k2 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE THEORY OF THE TWO REGENERATIONS APPLIED TO 
 THE STANDARDS AND OFFICES OF THE PROTESTANT 
 EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 SECTION L 
 
 THE STANDARDS EXAMINED. 
 
 That the substance of this theory, a regeneration in bap- 
 tism, insufficient for salvation without tiie change of the 
 heart and affections, was held by the English Reformers 
 who framed our standards and offices, there can be no 
 doubt. Yet it is questionable whether their views of the 
 quaestio in hac re celata were precise — may we not say so ? 
 — as they were appealed to on both sides in the controver- 
 sy, some twenty or thirty years ago, in England. As even 
 the Fathers wrote on the subject in a manner that requires 
 theological analysis — be the theory of regeneration what 
 it may- — we do the Reformers no discredit, in supposing that 
 they likewise might so present it as not to preclude further 
 inquiry. As, also, various explanations are now given of 
 the connexion of baptism with regeneration, so probably 
 there were among the Reformers : and hence it may not 
 always be clear, that any particular explanation of these 
 parts of our Prayer-book, with reference to their opinions, 
 excludes all others. With this qualifying remark — and we 
 
STANDARDS AND OmCES OF THE CHURCH. 115 
 
 see not how any expositor of that volume can reject it — we 
 shall endeavour to show, that our key fits the standards and 
 offices of the Episcopal church readily and without vio- 
 lence. We first look to the Standards : the reader will 
 please take up his Prayer-book, and examine each passage 
 as we proceed. 
 
 We turn to the Articles, and begin with the xxviith, on 
 Baptism. ' Baptism is not only a sign [signuni] of profes- 
 sion, and mark [nota] of difference, whereby christian men 
 are discerned from others that be not christened : but it is 
 also a sign [sigmiin] of Regeneration or new birth.' This 
 passage relates to what is proved or betokened by bap- 
 tism : and it declares this rite to be evidence of three 
 things — it is a ' sign' of the profession of Christianity — it 
 is a ' mark' distinguishing members of the visible church 
 from others — and it is a ' sign' of regeneration : of course, 
 there is the same proof, in that sacrament, that the baptiz- 
 ed are regenerate, as that they are under their ' profession,' 
 or receive the ' mark of difference' from the unbaptized ; 
 in other words, their baptism is the visible and full proof 
 of their baptismal regeneration. We may argue the same 
 point another way. The ^vord ' sign,' here applied to bap- 
 tism as a * profession,' means obviously that it is absolute 
 evidence of that profession, not a mere emblem of it, if 
 there be such a thing: the same, of course, must that 
 word, 'sign,' be presumed to mean, when applied, in the 
 same sentence, to baptism as indicating 'regeneration ;' it 
 does not signify that the rite is a mere emblem of new 
 birth, but the proof of its existence, just as it is the proof 
 of the baptismal ' profession ;' and it hence follows, that 
 baptism is declared, in the Article, to be absolute evidence 
 of a change which has the name ' regeneration or new 
 birth :' if any deny this, on them lies the burden of proof. 
 We proceed with this line of argument. Baptism is ab- 
 solute evidence of a change called regeneration ; but it is 
 
IIG STANDARDS AND OFFICES OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 not absolute evidence of the gift of grace to produce the 
 holy change of character ;^ the baptismal change there- 
 fore must be something different. And this brings us to 
 the baptismal regeneration we have described, the mere 
 ' engrafting into the church,' and endowment with its pri- 
 vileges, as the Article immediately adds — ' whereby, as by 
 an instrument, they that receive baptism rightly are graft- 
 ed into the church.' 
 
 But it further adds a recognition of the higher regene- 
 ration we have mentioned, the moral new birth, under two 
 of the synonymous expressions. The Article declares, 
 that by this sign, baptism, ' the promises of the forgiveness 
 of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the 
 IIolv Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed.' Now, as we 
 before intimated,- that regeneration, of the actual effect- 
 ing of which baptism is complete and absolute evidence, 
 cannot be the same as the regeneration promised, in that 
 rite, under the equivalent language ' adoption to be the 
 sons of God by the Holy Ghost.' The interpretation here, 
 of the thing ' promised,' must be the same as in the passage 
 we referred to relating to the Corinthians — of whom, 
 though baptismally regenerate, St. Paul declared that they 
 had the ' promise' that God would be a ' Father' to them, 
 and that they should become his ' sons and daughters:'^ 
 they had the ' promise,' in other words, of moral regenera- 
 tion, or further moral regeneration, the baptismal being 
 theirs already. We regard, therefore, the ' adoption to 
 be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost,' which the 
 Article declares to be 'promised' in baptism, as the pro- 
 gressive moral change we have illustrated. The influence 
 of the Spirit to produce the moral new birth, and to re- 
 generate more and more those whose moral regeneration 
 
 1 See Chap. IV. Sect. 4. of this Essay. 2 See Chap. III. Sect. 3. of this 
 Essay. 3 2 Cor. vii. 1. vi. 18 : see Chap. III. SecU 1. of this Essay. 
 
STANDARDS AND OFFICES OF THE CHURCH. 117 
 
 has begun, is ' promised,' not peculiarly conferred, in that 
 sacrament. 
 
 Should it be alleged, that this * promised' regeneration 
 means our resurrection and glorification in both soul and 
 body — we reply that these are not, in any clear scripture, 
 ascribed to the Holy Ghost especially ; and therefore the 
 Article, in speaking of our becoming ' sons of God by the 
 Holy Ghost,' does not probably refer to them, but rather to 
 our new heart and new spirit, which are produced by his 
 peculiar influences. Should it be alleged, on the other 
 hand, that this ' adoption to be the sons of God' means the 
 baptismal ' regeneration' before mentioned in the Article 
 — we further reply, that the mode of expression should 
 then have been, ' the promises . - . . are visibly fulfilled^'' 
 instead of ' signed and sealed.' To sign and seal a ' pro- 
 mise' implies that it has yet to be made good. A promise 
 fulfilled is no longer a promise ; and its signature and seal 
 then become empty, their function being discharged. The 
 clause therefore cannot allude to baptismal regeneration, 
 conferred absolutely at the font: it implies that there is 
 another ' adoption,' which is there only 'promised' or cove- 
 nanted for; and this can be none other than the moral 
 adoption or regeneration, the change of character. 
 
 Our doctrine, then, appears to be more than a key to this 
 Article ; we think it is here recognised as the very doc- 
 trine of the church. Nor do we see how this claim can 
 be refuted. Two regenerations are plainly set forth; of 
 one of which baptism is the ' sign' or evidence ; while of the 
 other it is only the ' promise' or conditional title. And 
 if any one of our Standards is to be regarded as of pre- 
 eminent authority in this matter, it must be this Article, 
 treating expressly of 'Baptism.' 
 
 The xxvth Article, in declaring that the sacraments have 
 a ' wholesome effect in such only as worthily [digne] re- 
 ceive them,' means, as referring to baptism, not that the 
 
118 STANDARDS AND OFFICES OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 sacramental regeneration of which that rite is the ' sign' 
 or absolute evidence, may not take place at the font, but 
 that the ' promised' and other contingent benefits of the 
 ordinance are withheld from the unworthy. They must no 
 longer resist the Holy Spirit, they must yield to his ge- 
 neral influences moving within their souls, before they 
 will ripen into his morally regenerating influences, and 
 bring them to repentance and faith — before they will ob- 
 tain or secure any of the greater blessings through Christ 
 to which baptism is their covenant title. 
 
 The ixth Article declares that original sin, or the ' in- 
 fection of nature doth remain, yea, [etia??!,] in them that 
 are regenerated;^ which assertion is true of both the bap- 
 tismally and the morally regenerate, but is most naturally 
 interpreted of the latter. In a subsequent passage, it is 
 declared, ' there is no condemnation for them that believe 
 and are baptized,' that is, for the morally regenerate who 
 are baptized — this rite being our covenant title to the par- 
 don implied in the phrase ' no condemnation :' the Latin 
 copy gives renaiis for ' baptized,' but the translation is ob- 
 viously correct; and the English is of equal authority. 
 
 The xvth Article says — ' all we the rest (although [etiam] 
 baptized and born again in Christ) yet offend in many 
 things.' This assertion is true of those who are only bap- 
 tismally regenerate ; but it most naturally applies to those 
 who are regenerate in both senses — even these ' offend in 
 many things.' 
 
 The xvith Article, ' of sin after baptism,' contains two 
 principal propositions. 1. ' Not every deadly sin willingly 
 committed after baptism, is sin against the Holy Ghost and 
 unpardonable.' 2. ' 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.' The first proposition means, in effect, that the 
 baptized do not renounce their baptism, its regeneration 
 
STANDARDS AND OFFICES OF THE CHURCH. 119 
 
 by the Spirit, its covenant title to pardon, by every wilful 
 deadly sin. The second proposition may also have this 
 meaning; but we prefer extending the signification of the 
 phrases, * received the Holy Ghost,' and 'grace given,' so 
 as to include tlie moral regeneration of the baptized : the 
 baptized, who also 'receive the Holy Ghost' in this sense, 
 and thus have ' grace given' them, though they fall into 
 sin, may yet arise and amend their lives, by the further 
 ' grace of God' restoring their moral regeneration. And 
 those are to be condemned, adds the Article, who say that 
 the evil deeds of such persons are not sins ; and those also 
 who deny them forgiveness when they repent. 
 
 The xviith Article says, of those who are predestinated 
 to life, that they are called, and obey the call, and are jus- 
 tified freely, and are ' made sons of God by adoption,^ and 
 are ' made like [efficiunfur conformes] the image of his 
 only begotten Son Jesus Christ,' <k,c. The expression 
 ' made sons of God by adoption' may have either interpre- 
 tation — made sons of God by adoption, in baptism — or 
 made sons of God by adoption, in the sense of moral re- 
 generation. If either of the phrases ' called' or 'justified 
 freely' means baptized, or includes baptism, the sonship 
 and adoption cannot be the baptismal change. If not, the 
 sonship and adoption must refer to baptism — for it can 
 scarcely be that the Article omits all notice of that sacra- 
 ment — and then the moral change of the elect is asserted 
 in the clause, ' they be made like the image of his only be- 
 gotten Sun Jesus Christ.' 
 
 We next proceed to the Catechism. Each catechumen 
 is taught that in baptism he was made ' a child of God, and 
 an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven,' and was ' called to 
 a state of salvation :' this refers of course to only baptismal 
 regeneration, the ecclesiastical change of ' state.' — A sa- 
 crament is said, in another part of the Catechism, to be 
 
120 STANDARDS AND OFFICES OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 *an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual 
 grace given unto us.' This language has two construc- 
 tions — 'given' absolutely, and 'given' conditionally. In 
 the Lord's supper, the inward and spiritual grace, the re- 
 ception of the body and blood of Christ, is 'given' only 
 conditionally, only to the ' faithful.' Of the inward and 
 spiritual grace of baptism, however, no such limitation is 
 mentioned; and we therefore regard the 'death unto sin' 
 and the ' new birth unto righteousness,' of which that sa- 
 crament is ' a means and pledge,' as having the lower in- 
 terpretation, and signifying only becoming baptismally re- 
 generate. That such is the meaning of the words, will ap- 
 pear on referring to the thanksgiving after the baptism of 
 infants, which recognizes even infants as 'dead unto sin, 
 and living unto righteousness :' this, in a moral sense, they 
 cannot be ; their death unto sin and new birth unto righ- 
 teousness is only a translation from the world, which is the 
 kingdom of * sin,' to the kingdom of God, the church, 
 which is the kingdom of ' righteousness.' And what those 
 words mean in the case of infants, they must mean in all 
 cases, since nothing is said of more than one kind of 
 grace as 'given' in baptism. — We are further to notice, 
 that the Catechism declares what is given to us in this sa- 
 crament to be ' an inward and spiritual grace* — it is not a 
 merely external donation or distinction. To this declara- 
 tion our theory fully conforms. Baptism confers a ' grace,' 
 in conferring a title to all the blessings of the christian 
 covenant — it confers an ' inward' grace, in conferring it 
 on the souls of men; for the soul, the entire person, is ec- 
 clesiastically regenerated at the font — and it confers a ' spi- 
 ritual' grace, because it is the Holy Spirit who, with hu- 
 man ministers as his agents, ' baptizes us into the one 
 body,' the church, and so bestows the ' grace,' through 
 which we are baptismally ' born of the Spirit,' and by 
 
STANDARDS AND OFFICES OP THE CHURCH. 121 
 
 which ' God [through his Spirit] sets the members every 
 one of them in that body.'^ 
 
 The Homilies are among our Standards, as * containing 
 godly and wholesome doctrine' — a mode of expression 
 which leaves the degree of their authority undetermined^ 
 but which precludes the rejection of their leading or more 
 conspicuous doctrinal contents. In none of them, so far 
 as we recollect, is there any mention of the regeneration 
 of baptism, except in the Homily for the Nativity, where 
 baptism is called, ' the fountain of the new birth ;' and ex- 
 cept also where is quoted the passage, ' unless a man be 
 born anew, of water and the Spirit,' in the Homily for 
 Whitsunday : that point they seem to have left to the Ar- 
 ticles, Catechism, and Offices ; for as all the people were 
 then baptized in infancy, so that the Form of Adult Bap- 
 tism was not set forth till long afterwards, there was little 
 occasion, perhaps, for discourses on the subject. In the 
 Homily for Whitsunday, with the slight exception men- 
 tioned, regeneration is every where regarded as a moral 
 change. The only question, we suppose, is this — does the 
 Homily presume the regeneration it speaks of to have been 
 effected in baptism ] We judge not : for, in the conclu- 
 sion of the first Part, the baptized hearers are invited to 
 join in a prayer thus expressed — ' humbly beseeching him 
 so to work in our hearts by the power of this Holy Spirit, 
 that we being regenerate and newly born again in all good- 
 ness, righteousness, sobriety, and truth, may in the end be 
 made partakers of everlasting life,' &c. The prayer is, 
 that the Spirit may so work in the heart as to effect (or re- 
 new) the regeneration to holy character : this is the kind 
 of grace here prayed for. And that this sort of grace was 
 not already given in baptism, seems evident from the bap- 
 
 1 See Chap. iii. Sect. 1. — and iho Note at the conclusion of Chap. iii. 
 Sect 4 — of this Essay. 
 
122 STANDARDS AND OFFICES OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 tized being desired to pray for it : or, if the contrary be 
 held, it must also be held, to agree at all with the Homily, 
 that a moral regeneration is given in baptism, and that 
 another moral regeneration may afterv/ards be given ; yes, 
 another and another, every time the Homily is read. We 
 know of no divine who maintains such a theory^ — neither 
 is it a theology worth maintaining, so far as we can per- 
 ceive — neither do we regard it as consonant with scrip- 
 ture. We conclude therefore, that though the Homilies 
 say little of baptismal regeneration, they assert a moral 
 new birth which is not effected in that sacrament. 
 
 CHAPTER v.— SECTION 2. 
 
 THE OFFICES EXAMINED. 
 
 In the Offices of Baptism, the repetition of our Lord's 
 declaration to Nicodemus means of course what that de- 
 claration itself did — ' none can enter the kingdom of God, 
 except he be regenerate and born anew of water and of 
 the Holy Ghost ;' none can enter the heavenly church, ex- 
 cept he be both baptismally and morally regenerate. The 
 next passage, however, ' baptized with water and the Holy 
 Ghost,' refers to baptismal regeneration only, since there 
 is but *one baptism,' and that 'by the Spirit.' The pas- 
 
 1 Those who consider baptismal regeneration as the implanting of a seed 
 of moral grace, affirm that there is no other regeneration, none before, and 
 none after baptism. Those again, who allow only one regeneration, and 
 view it as a mere privilege, not an influence, once only to be conferred, and 
 made complete in infants at the font, will recollect that all the congregation 
 were, at that period, baptized in infancy, and were regenerate; and, on their 
 theory, they were never again to be regenerated in this life : yet the Ho- 
 mily invites them to pray for a regeneration, and that of the moral kind — 
 every Whitsunday. 
 
STANDARDS AND OFFICES OF THE CHURCH. 123 
 
 sage in the second prayer, * receive remission of sins by 
 spiritual regeneration,' is also to be understood of the bap- 
 tismal change only; the * remission of sins' being else- 
 where called ' the mystical [or sacramental] washing away 
 of sin.* In the third prayer, * give thy Holy Spirit .... 
 that he may be born again, and be made an heir of everlast- 
 ing salvation,' alludes only to baptismal regeneration : and 
 so does ' bestow upon them the Holy Ghost,' in a para- 
 graph just before this prayer, in the office for adults. With 
 these petitions for the sacramental blessing, are combined 
 others, for ' coming to the land of everlasting life,' for the 
 ' everlasting benediction of the heavenly washing,' for 
 ' coming to the eternal kingdom.' The petition, that * the 
 old Adam may be so buried that the new man may be rais- 
 ed up,' refers to moral regeneration ; but it is not implied 
 that it takes place in baptism, any more than that ' all sin- 
 ful affections die, and all things belonging to the Spirit 
 live and grow,' in the performance of that rite: besides, 
 that petition is repeated after its performance, in the 
 words, ' may crucify the old man ;' and the duty is declar- 
 ed, near the close of the service, ' we, who are baptized, 
 should die from sin, and rise again unto righteousness :' it 
 is clear, therefore, that the regeneration expressed in these 
 equivalent terms is not supposed to take place at the font 
 — it is the moral kind. In other passages, however, each 
 individual of the baptized is declared absolutely to be 're- 
 generate,' to be ' regenerated with the Holy Spirit,' and 
 ' received for God's own child by adoption' — or, to be 
 ' born again,' and ' made the child of God and of the light' 
 — all which phrases must allude, of course, to baptismal 
 regeneration only. 
 
 While on the offices of Baptism, it may be proper to 
 state, that we deem them clear on the point — that a re- 
 generation is always effected in that rite — whether the 
 moral change be called by that name, or not. Each indi- 
 
124 STANDARDS AND OFFICES OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 vidual, whether infant or adult, is declared to be * regene- 
 rate.* This, as we have already intiniated, is very differ- 
 ent from the assertion that the church generally, as a body, 
 is regenerate, sanctified, holy. A general assertion admits 
 of exceptions ; a particular one does not. We may say, 
 the people of the United States are free, intelligent, and 
 well educated ; but we cannot declare this of each indivi- 
 dual of the people — for there are millions of slaves, and 
 many in prisons — besides that numbers of them are stu- 
 pid, and can neither read nor write. What the church, 
 therefore, declares of her individual members, she must 
 mean fully and explicitly, without any reservation or hy- 
 pothesis — every baptized person is baptismally regenerate, 
 and is declared to be so the moment he is baptized. 
 
 One of the exhortations at the time of administering the 
 Holy Communion has the w^ords, ' that he might make us 
 the children of God, and exalt us to everlasting life.* 
 Either the baptismal covenant sense, or the moral sense, 
 may be given to the phrase 'children of God;' or, indeed, 
 both senses. Perhaps, however, its connexion with the 
 rest of the passage, and the fully declared requisites for 
 partaking worthily of the eucharist, give the preference to 
 the construction which makes it signify morally regene- 
 rate. 
 
 In the Office for the Sick, the exhortation quotes the pas- 
 sage from the epistle to the Hebrews, ' whom the Lord 
 loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he re- 
 ceiveth : if ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you 
 as with sons.' The 'sons' who are 'received' by God, as 
 distinguished from sons not received by him, are the mo- 
 rally regenerate. And the sick person is encouraged to 
 endure and improve his affliction, with the hope that such 
 is his character, sustained by the further hope, that God is 
 'chastening him for his profit, that he may be a partaker 
 (more fully) of His holiness.' 
 
STANDARDS AND OFFICES OF THE CHURCH. 125 
 
 In the Confirmation service, there is an allusion to re. 
 generation ; and, as confirmation is the repetition of the 
 baptismal vow, and the maturing of the baptismal standing-, 
 we refer il to baptismal regeneration only — ' hast vouch- 
 safed to regenerate these thy servants by water and the 
 Holy Ghost, and hast given unto them forgiveness of all 
 their sins.' The language means, wiquestionably, what is 
 meant in the similar expressions that occur in the office 
 for baptizing persons of riper years — the sacramental new 
 birth, the sacramental forgiveness of sins. 
 
 In one other place allusion is made to regeneration, un- 
 der that name — in the Collect for Christmas-day — and 
 there also, we think, the baptismal sense must be given 
 the words ' being regenerate and made thy children by 
 adoption and grace.' Moral regeneration is prayed for in 
 the next clause, *may daily be renewed by thy Holy 
 Spirit.' 
 
 In the Collect for the Circumcision, moral regeneration 
 is prayed for in the words, ' grant us the true circumcision 
 of the Spirit.' In that for Ash-Wednesday, the same is 
 meant in the petition, create and 7nake in us new and con- 
 trite hearts.' And in that for Easter-Even, the prayer that 
 * by continual mortifying ouv corrupt affections, we may be 
 buried with Christ,' is to similar effect. All these expres- 
 sions signify moral regeneration — as do likewise these 
 others — ' give us an heart to love and fear thee' — ' put upon 
 us the armour of light' — ' turn thou us, O good Lord, and 
 so shall we be turned' — ' g^oft in our hearts the love of thy 
 name.' And all these prayers, besides the others in which 
 we ask for grace in more general terms, recognise both the 
 frequent repetition of our moral new birth, and its conti. 
 nual increase. 
 
 The Collect for the sixth Sunday after the Epiphany has 
 an expression, to which may be assigned either or all of 
 the three meanings — regenerate in baptism, morally re» 
 
 l2 
 
126 STANDARDS AND OFFICES OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 generate, regenerate in heavenly glory — ' whose blessed 
 Son was manifested that he might .... make us the sons 
 of God, and heirs of eternal life.' The words may sig- 
 nify — the sons of God by the sacramental new birth, and 
 heirs of eternal life by the consequent sacramental title — 
 the sons of God by the change to a sanctified heart, and 
 heirs having this ' earnest' of our eternal inheritance — the 
 sons of God being the children of the resurrection, and 
 heirs taking possession of eternal life. The Son of God 
 was manifested for all these purposes, and either may be 
 the sense of this beautiful Collect. Nor do we perceive 
 any objection to keeping the whole three interpretations 
 in mind when offering it up : rightly understood, the lan- 
 guage is thus rich and comprehensive, and will fully sus- 
 tain this intermingled devotional effusion of pious thoughts. 
 It resembles, in this respect, the petition, ' thy kingdom 
 come,' in the Lord's prayer — thy kingdom, the visible 
 church ; may it extend and be completed — thy kingdom 
 in our hearts ; may they be more and more surrendered to 
 thy gracious dominion — thy kingdom in eternity; hasten 
 its coming, O Lord God ! 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 Our main discussion having expanded itself into some 
 collateral investigations, it may be proper, in concluding, 
 to bring again the subjects of the former into clear notice. 
 We remind the reader, therefore, that we have endeavoured 
 to prove — that Scripture recognises the two regenerations, 
 to the change of state, and to the change of character — that 
 the former is the mere separation to the visible church es- 
 tate, and its privileges, especially the great privilege of the 
 covenant title to pardon, grace, and glory, and is, under 
 the gospel, effected in baptism, and by the Holy Spirit, 
 being independent however of all his converting influ- 
 ences — and that the latter change, includes the whole sanc- 
 tifying process, by which the heart is reclaimed from its 
 natural love of depravity, and restored from its natural 
 subjection to it, the principles and conduct made holy, and 
 the baptismal title made good to pardon and acceptance 
 with God. Both the regenerations, and all their benefits, 
 are vouchsafed to us through the merits only of the Re- 
 deemer. 
 
 As a defence of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in 
 applying the word regeneration to baptism, this essay need 
 scarcely perhaps be offered. There are several theories 
 sufficient for that purpose; most, if not all christian deno- 
 minations speak of the sacrament of the font in similar 
 terms ; and no well informed divine raises the objection, 
 unless when he degrades himself to the work of a caviller. 
 To those, however, who from want of information speak 
 evil of us in this matter, these pages are respectfully sub- 
 mitted. 
 
128 CONCLUSION. 
 
 As furthering a theological analysis of matters worthy 
 of solution — as an exposition of scriptural truth, clearer, 
 in our apprehension, than those commonly held on the 
 subject of regeneration, our remarks will not, we hope, be 
 without value. 
 
 As setting forth, on secure grounds, not liable to either 
 misapprehension or the imputation of extravagance, the 
 high character of baptism, as our introduction, by the 
 Holy Spirit, into the covenant of God's mercy through 
 Christ, with the exalted appellation and privileges of sons 
 of God, our argument and illustrations may prove seasona- 
 ble ; for the tendency of the present age is to depreciate 
 the ordinances. 
 
 As furnishing, from scripture, a class of very strong to- 
 pics for the conversion of the sinner, and the restoration 
 of the erring disciple — without detracting from the regene- 
 rating and spiritual grace of baptism — we take the liberty 
 of recommending our views of the moral new birth. They 
 offer ' reproof, rebuke, and exhortation,' to such persons 
 from the many scriptures which require them to be morally 
 ' born of God ;' which assure them, that without holy graces 
 and virtues they are not morally the ' children of God,' 
 but, though baptismally regenerate, the ' children of the 
 devil;' and which announce to them the consolations of 
 ' the Spirit of [the moral] adoption,' when he ' beareth wit- 
 ness with the spirit' of those in whom he dwells. What 
 pleas more urgent and more insinuative can be addressed 
 to men ! 
 
 As affording the encouragements to persevere, and the 
 holy comforts, which flow from the humble persuasion of 
 being morally the sons of God — of being embraced in his 
 deepest paternal affection — of being sustained by his pa- 
 ternal hand — our doctrine will, we believe, be further be- 
 neficial. Such considerations have a powerful sway in 
 the pious bosom. 
 
CONCLUSION, 129 
 
 As exposing the very mistaken opinion, that the moral 
 new birth is to be tested by strong feelings, we hope that 
 our paragraphs on that subject will prove advantageous. 
 
 And, should our instruction correct the opposite mistake 
 — we hope there are few that hold it — that there is no mo- 
 ral regeneration, no absolute change of nature from de- 
 pravity to holiness, producing a new nature in us — that 
 there is no such a renewal, gradual or speedy, according to 
 the several cases, early or deferred, gentle or severe, from 
 the mere buds of sinfulness, or from its fruits, expanding, 
 ripening, ripe, or ripest — that there is no change of this 
 sort, required in each and every human being, past child- 
 hood, and of sane mind — should so dark an error be coun- 
 teracted by this little work, the author will thank the 
 Father of mercies, that his labours have had so great a 
 blessing. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 REGENERATION SYNONYMOUS WITH RENOVATION OR NEW 
 CREATION. 
 
 The distinction between Regeneration and Renovation 
 we deem factitious— the former word having its critical 
 sense. The distinction is of course factitious, if the mo- 
 ral sense be allowed to that word. True ; arbitrary defini- 
 tions may be given to the two designations, and they may 
 stand for what we have called baptismal regeneration and 
 moral regeneration : and if this were the whole result of 
 appropriating those terms, it would be but a verbal con- 
 test to question it. But the question has a bearing on the 
 interpretation of many scriptures, and may be extended to 
 matters of practical theology. We deem it therefore 
 worthy of as full an investigation as we are able to give it. 
 
 We introduce this topic with a quotation from the pam- 
 phlet of Dr. Jarvis, already referred to in the essay — 
 this Sermon, with tlie Appendix, we recommend to all 
 who wish to understand the point in discussion. He says 
 — * A distinction has of late years been made by many able 
 divines between the terms regeneration and renovation ; 
 but it deserves to be seriously considered, whether this dis- 
 tinction is well founded ; and whether it is not likely to 
 produce the same confusion of thoughts, and the same in- 
 terminable disputes, which have arisen from the opposite 
 limitation of the new birth, to the incipient sanctification 
 of the soul.'^ 
 
 It has been argued, in the essay, (C/t. iv. sect. 1,) that 
 as our natural birth or begetting is our only natural crea- 
 tion, the two are equivalent, and that therefore our new 
 
 1 Dr. Jarvii'S«rra. and Append, j?. 72. 
 
132 APPENDIX. 
 
 birth and new creation must be equivalent also. And we 
 think this argument settles the point before us, so far as it 
 can be decided by obvious reason, or justness of definition. 
 But this consideration may be greatly strengthened, by 
 showing that Scripture recognises the equivalency of the 
 expressions, born and created, and the like. And as cus- 
 tom, not always reason, is the law of language, it will be 
 proper to inquire how custom or use, among writers unin- 
 spired, determines the case. To Scripture then — and to 
 human authorities — we refer. 
 
 1. Scripture uses birth for natural creation in the pas- 
 sage, 'Before the mountains were brought forth'' — also, by 
 construction, in the clause, ' before the hills was I brought 
 forth.'^ It uses also creation for natural birth, ' The Lord 
 that made thee, and formed thee from the womb'' — again, 
 ' he that for7ned thee from the womV — again, * thou send- 
 est forth thy Spirit, they are created,"^ i. e. new generations 
 of creatures are born. Natural birth and natural creation 
 are used also as synonymous, ' This shall be written for 
 the generation to come : and the people which shall be 
 created shall praise the Lord :' so convertible indeed are 
 the ideas, that the Prayer-book translation of this verse 
 gives ' born' for ' created.' To the same effect, St. Paul 
 argues, that, as God ' hath rnade of one blood all nations 
 of men,' they ' are the offspring of God :'^ his relation as 
 Father of all, and Creator of all, is one and the same. 
 
 We find also, in Scripture, that new birth and new crea- 
 tion are synonymous — as in the passages, ' Bring my sons 
 from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth ; 
 even every one that is called by my name : for I have cre- 
 ated him for my glory, I have formed him, yea, I have made 
 him' — again, ' Of the Rock that begat thee thou art un- 
 mindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee'— again, 
 *Let Israel rejoice in him that made him; let the children 
 of Zion be joyful in their king' — again, ' Have we not all 
 one Father ? hath not one God created us ? why do we ... . 
 profane the covenant of our fathers?' — again, ' Thus saith 
 the Lord, the Holy one of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me 
 of things to come concerning my sons ; and concerning 
 
 iPs.xr. 2. Prov. viii. 25. Isa. xliv. 9. 24. Ps. civ. 30. cii. 18. Acts 
 xvii. 26,29. 
 
APPENDIX. 13B 
 
 the work of my hands command ye me.' The same key 
 will apply to all passages which regard the Deity as the 
 Creator, in a peculiar sense, of Israel, or of christians — - 
 ' the Creator of Israel' — ' we are his worJcmanshipj created 
 in Christ Jesus unto good works :"^ the meaning is the 
 same as — the Father of Israel ; we are his children by re- 
 generation. 
 
 The repeated prayers of the psalmist to be * quickened"^ 
 are, in effect, prayers for moral regeneration. He had 
 been already ' quickened,' yet he asks the same blessing 
 again, and continually. This prayer not only intimates 
 that moral regeneration is to be repeated, but also that it is 
 the same as new creation, the ' renewing' which advances 
 or is reiterated ' day by day.' The prayer-book translation 
 says, in several places, ' quicken me, as thou art wont."^ 
 
 We do not dwell on these passages, as their bearing on 
 the point we are investigating seems clear. They afford, 
 we think, ample scriptural proof that to be made anew 
 and to be new born are expressions entirely equivalent. 
 And as Scripture is the final authority in matters of doc- 
 trine, we might here rest the argument, and claim a de- 
 cision in our favour. But, to show that our opinion is 
 sustained by those of other writers, and that the law of 
 custom declares for this convertibility of the terms, we 
 proceed to the other head proposed. 
 
 2. Human authorities, almost without number, acknow- 
 ledge, in various ways, the identity of regeneration and 
 renovation or new creation. We draw our proofs from the 
 Fathers, and from later divines. 
 
 Barnabas. In a passage of which we have already quo- 
 ted a part, he says — ' seeing therefore he has renewed 
 am>c:Livi<r'M us by the remission of our sins, he has put us 
 into another frame, that we should have souls like those of 
 children,' iSi;c.^ The word ' renewed' here refers to bap- 
 tism, which is the sacramental ' remission of sins.' And 
 
 1 Isa. xliii. 6, 7. Deut. xxxii. 18. Ps. cxlix. 2. M.il. ii. 10. Isa. xlv. 11. 
 xliv. 15. Eph. ii. 10: the margin of a Scotch edition of the Bible refers, at 
 this last passage, to John iii. 3, 5. 
 
 2 Ps. Ixxx. 18. cxix. 25, 37, 40, 88, 149, 154, 156, 159. cxliii. 11 : see Bp, 
 Homo on Ps. cxix. 25. 
 
 3 Barn. Epist. sect 6. 
 
 M 
 
134 APPENDIX. 
 
 as baptism ia commonly regarded as regeneration, by the 
 fathers, and indeed as no other meaning can here be as- 
 signed the word, it follows that the ' renewing' of this pas- 
 sage is synonymous with the regeneration of the font. — 
 The ' putting us into another frame,' and ' forming us 
 again,' refer to moral regeneration. 
 
 Justin Martyr. We will state also in what manner we 
 are created anew ic^ivoTrom^ivrii by Christ, and have dedicat- 
 ed ourselves to God .... we lead them to a place where 
 there is icater, and there they are regenerated uvsLymmTctt 
 as we also were.'^ It is evident that renewing or new cre- 
 ation, baptism, and regeneration, were held synonymous by 
 Justin — and were thus understood currently. 
 
 Athanasius. Referring to the expression (Heb. vi.) ' re- 
 new them again unto repentance,' this father says — ' he de- 
 clares that there is one renovation by baptism, not a se- 
 cond .... the baptized person is reneiced, as horn again 
 by the grace of the Spirit.'^ The words ' renewed' and 
 ' born again' are expressly made equivalent. And ' reno- 
 vation by baptism,' or baptismal renovation, is obviously 
 the same as ba.ptismal regeneration. Whether referring 
 the passage to baptism is its just interpretation, it is not 
 our province to inquire. Again : We have quoted from 
 this father the declaration, ' he who is baptized puts 
 off the old man, and is renewed^ as being horn again by the 
 grace of the Spirit' — to be * renewed' and to be ' born 
 again' are interchangeable expressions. 
 
 Gregory of Nyssa. ' We receive a salutary [new] hirth 
 by the renovation and change of our nature.'^ Moral re- 
 generation and moral renovation are plainly made the same 
 thing. 
 
 Ambrose. ' St. Ambrose, speaking of baptism, expresses 
 himself thus: By baptism we are reneived, by which also 
 we are horn again.""^ If we understand the passage, re- 
 novation is here identified with new birth. 
 
 Augustine. ' The renovation after the image of God is 
 
 1 Just. A pel. (Press Edit.) sect. 79. p. 183. 
 
 2 Suicer on Avaxa/v^r/f. In Bp. Hobart's Bible, on Tit. iii. 5. one of the 
 ■writers quoted allows that ' sometimes indeed renovation is used for the 
 new birth, as Heb. vi. 4, 6.' 
 
 3 Suicer on KvdiKa.i\i<T/ui.o?. 
 
 4 See Dr, Nieholls, in Bp. Brownell's Prayer-book. 
 
APPENDIX. 135 
 
 not effected in a moment, like that regeneration in bap- 
 tism, which is done in a moment.' We have quoted the 
 passage twice in the essay. It shows that Augustine con- 
 sidered renovation and regeneration as synonymous — may 
 we not say, in both the baptismal and the moral senses of 
 those words respectively ? May we not regard this pas- 
 sage as an adumbration of our entire doctrine? 
 
 On the authority then of the Fathers, we may securely 
 affirm regeneration and renovation to be identical. And 
 hence, according to the developements of our essay, reno- 
 vation or new creation may, like regeneration, be regarded 
 as of two kinds, baptismal renovation, and moral renova- 
 tion. The results we need not point out, further than to 
 suggest, that a certain text may be read four ways with the 
 same meaning — washing of regeneration, and renewing of 
 the Holy Ghost — washing of renewing, and regeneration 
 of the Holy Ghost — washing of regeneration, and regene- 
 ration of the Holy Ghost — washing of renewing, and re- 
 newing of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The following statement of the mode of speaking of the 
 Fathers, on this subject, is from a standard writer on the 
 Liturgy. ' The Greeks have a variety of words to express 
 regeneration by : not only ctvAytn^ft?, which is an exact 
 translation of it; but ctva.>tAiviTfA.o^, renovation; h-vaktio-k, re- 
 creation ; civuMiccTt?, renewing ; ctvai^Txo-i;, resurrection ; ^6t£</2o\», 
 the change; f^irctTroiMcris, the refitting; 7raKiyym<nx, t^e being 
 born again; ttakivtokia, the begetting again : all which ex- 
 pressions are used of baptism, and seldom or never of the 
 rise after a lapse. '^ That some of these expressions are 
 applied by the Fathers to the moral change, and even to the 
 rise after a lapse, we have shown in ch. iv. sect. 2. We 
 produce the extract only to confirm our proposition, that re- 
 generation and renovation are perfectly convertible modes 
 of expression. 
 
 By referring to Suicer's Thesaurus, further evidence, 
 drawn from the Fathers, will be found that these expres- 
 sions are synonymous. The word Hctxiyyma-ix, regeneration, 
 he defines, ' to be born again or renewed.'' Of the word 
 Av:txxm3-^ic, renovation, he says, 'It is frequently used for 
 baptism, which seals to us regeneration by the Spirit .... 
 
 1. Dr. Nichols, as quoted in Bp. Brownell's Prayer-book, 
 
136 APPENDIX, 
 
 hence the laver of regeneration is called renovation by the 
 laver.' Of the word avukhivi^uv he says, * it means to renew ; 
 it is elegantly used for regeneration.^ On Arnvsacr/f — « it 
 means renovation, restoration, regeneration.^ On AvxTrxcta-K 
 — ' among ecclesiastical writers, it means new formation, 
 regeneration, which Is effected in baptism : or simply re- 
 generation, which is effected by the Holy Ghost.' But we 
 need not multiply quotations. It will be sufficient to add, 
 with Dr. Jarvis, who first, we believe, among late writers, 
 invited attention to this department of the subject of re- 
 generation — this work contains ' full proof that the words 
 resurrection, renovation, and regeneration, were, in a meta- 
 phorical sense, used anciently as convertible terms.' 
 
 ' Hesychius explains Tixhtyyevmct regenerauon, as meaning 
 to be boim again or renewed.^ 
 
 Parkhurst, on Ti^xxiyyivia-ici, says — ' a being born again, a 
 new birth, regeneration, renovation'' — again, on Matt. xix. 
 28, ' if the words si' t» TraKiyyma-in [in the regeneration'] be 
 construed as in our translation . . . they will denote that 
 great spiritual renovation which began to take place on the 
 
 preaching of John the Baptist but if those words 
 
 be connected . . . with the subsequent ones «T«tv K-x^io-ii, &;c., 
 they may then be most easily and naturally referred to that 
 greater and more signal renovation which commenced after 
 the resurrection and ascension of the Redeemer,' &c. 
 
 A host of divines of the church of England may be ad- 
 duced in confirmation of the identity of renewing and the 
 new birth. 
 
 Archbishop Cranmer says — ' whosoever cometh to that 
 water, being of the age of discretion, must examine him- 
 self duly, lest if he come unworthily, (none otherwise than 
 he would unto other common water,) he be not reneived in 
 Christ, but instead of salvation receive his damnation.'^ 
 Baptism duly received and ' renewing' are here connected ; 
 and this makes the ' renewing' the same as regeneration. 
 
 Bishop Taylor says — ' Baptism is a new birth, by which 
 we enter the new world, the new creation"* — ' and because 
 from henceforward we are a new creation, the church uses 
 to assign new relations to the catechumens, spiritual /of/iers 
 
 1 J. ScottonBapt.j). 182. 
 
APPENDIX. 137 
 
 and susceptors.'^ Again — 'the natural man cannot choose 
 but do evil ; but it is because he will do so; he is not born 
 in the second bi?'th, and renewed in the baptism of the 
 Spirit.' Again — ' so hath God done in the 7iew creation ; 
 all the world was concluded under sin, it was a corrupt 
 mass, all mankind had corrupted themselves ; but yet were 
 capable of divine influences, and of a nobler forrn, produ- 
 cible in the neiv birth: here then God's Spirit moves upon 
 the waters of a divine birth,'' &;c.^ He speaks of the baptis- 
 mal new birth, and regards it as a new creation or renovation. 
 
 Bishop Pearson — ' which regeneration is, as it were, a 
 second creation, for we are God's workmanship, created in 
 Christ Jesus unto good works .... and he alone who did 
 create us out of nothing, can beget us again, and make us 
 of the new creation.^ Again — ' The second part of the of- 
 fice of the Holy Ghost in the sanctification of man, is the 
 regeneration and renovation of him . . . [then are quoted 
 Tit. iii. 5, John iii. 5, 1 Cor. vi. 11 ; and it is added] . . . 
 The second part then of the office of the Holy Ghost is the 
 
 renewing oimdin in all the parts and faculties of his soul 
 
 If we live in the Spirit, quickened by his renovation, we 
 must also walk in the Spirit.'^ He makes ' renewing' in- 
 clude ' regeneration and renovation ;' and he regards ' re- 
 novation' as that which ' quickens' the sinner, his resurrec- 
 tion, or new begetting. 
 
 Dr. Barrow says — ' In baptism, the gift of God's Holy 
 
 Spirit is conferred with the laver of regeneration 
 
 St. Paul joineth the renovation of the Holy Ghost.' Again: 
 ' With those gifts [in baptism] is connected the benefit of 
 regeneration, implying our entrance into a new state and 
 course of life ; being endowed with new faculties, disposi- 
 tions and capacities of souls, becoming new creatures and 
 new men, as it were renewed after the likeness of God in 
 righteousness and true holiness,' &;c. Again : he speaks 
 of ' that work which is styled the regeneration, renovation, 
 vivification, new creation, resurrection of man.'-* 
 
 Archbishop Tillotson says — ' sometimes the condition of 
 
 1 Taylor's Life o{ Chn?,i, part 1, sect. 9. We take these two extracts from 
 Bishop Mant; who, if we mistake not, appropriates the term ' conversion,' 
 oftener and mdeed rather than renovation, to the moral change. 
 
 2 Taylor's Serm. V. 3. p. 42, 303. 3 Pearson on the Creed, p. 27, 328. 
 4 Weller Tracts, 2>. 11, 12: Works, F. 2. Serm. 34. 
 
 m2 
 
138 APPENDIX. 
 
 the gospel is expressed by repentance, conversion, 
 
 regeneration, renovation, sanctification, the new creature 
 [or creation,] the new man.'^ 
 
 Bishop Burnet. ' Our Saviour had this ordinance in his 
 eye, when he spake to Nicodemus, and told him that except 
 a man were ho7'n again, he could not see the kingdom of 
 God : by which he meant the entire change and renovation 
 of a man's mind,' &c. Again : ' our Saviour answered 
 more fully, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be 
 horn of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the 
 kingdom of God. The meaning of which seems to be this, 
 that except a man came to be renewed, by an ablution like 
 the baptism which the Jews used, that imported the outward 
 profession of a change of doctrine and of heart ; and with 
 that, except he were inwardly changed by a secret power 
 called the Spirit, that should transform his nature, he could 
 not become one of his disciples, or a true christian.'^ In 
 the former of these extracts, ' renovation' is made the same 
 as being ' born again.' In the latter, ' renewed' corresponds 
 with being ' born of water,' while" the operation of ' the 
 Spirit' appears to be regarded as a different change, though 
 a part of the same regeneration. A critic might see two 
 renovations in these passages. 
 
 Dr. Whitby — ' except a man be horn again, that is, re- 
 newed in his mind, will, and affections, by the operation of 
 the Holy Spirit, and so become a new creature.'' Again — 
 ' hath quickened us together with Christ, not only by giving 
 us a neiD hirth, or renovation of life, but an assurance also 
 of eternal life.'^ 
 
 Bishop Hopkins, of Raphoe — ' There is indeed a bap- 
 tismal regeneration, whereby all that are made partakers of 
 that ordinance, are, according to scripture language, sancti- 
 fied, renewed, and made the children of God.'^ 
 
 Bishop Bradford adverts, as we have seen in the essay, 
 to the 'true notion oi regeneration, both when it is applied 
 to baptism, and when it particularly denotes the renewing 
 of the mind by the Divine Spirit.' 
 
 1 Tillotson V. 2. p. 325. 
 
 2 On the xxviith Article. 
 
 3 Whitby on John iii. 3. Eph. ii. 5 : as quoted in Bp. Hobart's Bible. 
 
 4 Hopkinis' Works, V. 2. p. 468. 
 
APPENDIX. 1 39 
 
 Stackhouse, we have shown, {ch. iv. sect. 6,) makes re- 
 generation and renewing synonymous. 
 
 Dr. Waterland, as quoted in our essay, {ch. iv. sect. 5,) 
 allows that regeneration, * in the larger sense, takes in 
 renovation,'^ 
 
 Dr. Hole, on the gospel for Trinity Sunday, says 
 
 * God the Holy Ghost, who moving upon the waters of baj)- 
 tis7n, effects a neio creation, as he did by moving upon the 
 face of the waters in the old creation.' By ascribing the 
 
 * new creation' or renovation to ' baptism,' he makes it the 
 same as regeneration. 
 
 Dean Comber — ' As it was in the first creation and gene- 
 ration of all things, so is it in the new creation and regene- 
 ration of a christian : the Spirit moving upon the waters 
 of baptism, giveth light and life,' &c. Again — ' our cor- 
 rupt nature is changed in baptism, and there is a renovation 
 effected thereby, both as to the mortification of the old af- 
 fections, and the quickening of the new, by the Holy 
 Spirit, which is hereby given to all that put no bar or im- 
 pediment to it.'^ Renovation effected in baptism is of 
 course the same as baptismal regeneration. 
 
 Dr. Bennett — ' To be born of water signifies, to be bap- 
 tized with water ; and to be born of the Spirit signifies to 
 be reneived in the inner man, to be sanctified or made holy 
 by the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit. And this 
 birth of water and of the Spirit is a new birth, and is dis- 
 tinguished from that old former birth of nature by which 
 we enter into the world. '^ This writer comes very near 
 making two new births. He certainly makes regeneration 
 by the Spirit to be synonymous with renovation. 
 
 Wheatly — ' when we are admitted into the church we 
 are first baptized, whereby the Holy Ghost cleanses us from 
 the pollutions of our sins, and renews us unto God,' iScc. 
 Again — 'those who are dead to God through sin, are born 
 again by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the 
 Holy Ghost.' Again — ' this new name is given us at our 
 baptism, to remind us o^ ouxnew birth, when, being washed 
 in the laver of regeneration, we are thereby cleansed from 
 
 1 Quoted in Bp Brownell's Prayer-book. 
 
 2 See Bp. BrowneJl's Prayer-book. 
 
140 APPENDIX. 
 
 our natural impurities, and become in a manner new creo' 
 tures.''^ 
 
 Skelton — ' it had been far better for them never to have 
 been, than not to have been reclaimed and regenerated ; 
 because, without their second creation^ the first must have 
 put them unavoidably in the way of everlasting misery.'^ 
 
 Bishop Home — 'The first portion of sanctifying grace is 
 given at baptism .... the sinner being then sacramentally 
 buried with Christ into his death, arises with him . . . . re- 
 netved unto holiness by the operation of his Spirit. This 
 total renetval, as first conferred by the baptismal laver, is 
 styled 7'e generation, and answers, in things natural, to the 
 birth of an infant.'^ 
 
 Dr. Paley says of repentance — ' it is called in scripture, 
 a state of regeneration, or new birth ; a conversion from sin 
 to God ; a being renewed in the spirit of our minds ; a 
 putting ofl[*the old man, which is corrupt according to the 
 deceitful lusts of the flesh, and a putting on the new man, 
 which is created in righteousness and true holiness.'^ 
 
 Bishop Porteus, on Matt. xix. 28, says — 'Our translators 
 .... supposed that word [regeneration] to relate to the 
 first preaching of the gospel, when those who heard and 
 received it were to be regenerated, or made new crea- 
 tures.'' 
 
 Bishop J. B. Sumner, in a note on the same passage, 
 containing the word ^ re generatio?i,^ says — 'In ihe renova- 
 tion or restoration of all things.' 
 
 Bishop Ravenscroft — ' In the primitive church, immedi- 
 ately after the days of the apostles, the word baptism was 
 hardly ever used, but instead thereof some word which ex- 
 pressed its spiritual accompaniments — such as regenera- 
 tion, re-creation, renovation, resurrection, renewal, with 
 many others.'^ All these therefore were convertible terms, 
 and were equivalent to each other in meaning. 
 
 1 Wheatly on the Office of Baptism. In the second of these extracts, an 
 approximation may be seen to the doctrine of two regenerations ; the one 
 being ' the washing of regeneration;' the other, the being ' born again' by 
 that regeneration together with the ' renewing of the Holy Ghost.' In an- 
 other passage, Wheatly says, of ' born again to God,' that it is 'a phrase, 
 which in most ecclesiastical writers, and especially in Irenaeus, is generally 
 used to signify that regeneration, which is the effect of baptism.' 
 
 2 See Bp. Hobart's Bible, on John iii. 6. 
 
 3 Discourse xviii. on Eph. iv. 7. {Lond. 1824,/). 224.) 
 
 4 Paley's Clerg. Corap. (Works, V. 5. p. 311.) 5 Works, V. I. p. 476. 
 
APPENDIX. 141 
 
 Besides these authorities from our own denomination, 
 for this identity of regeneration and renovation or new 
 creation, we adduce some from the non-episcopal school. 
 
 Calvin — ' I apprehend repentance to be regeneration . . . 
 the apostle teaches us ... . be ye renewed in the spirit of 
 your mind.' Again — ' in the whole course of regenera- 
 tion, we are justly styled God's workmanship, created unto 
 good works. '^ 
 
 Baxter, as quoted in our essay — we are ' made new crea- 
 tures, when we are baptized; therefore it is called the 
 laver of regeneration,'' 
 
 Matthew Henry, on Tit. iii. 5. — ' Here is the formal 
 cause of salvation, or that wherein it lies, the beginnings 
 of it at least, in regeneration, or spiritual renewing, as it 
 is here called.' 
 
 Doddridge, in his sermon on Tit. iii. 5,6 — ' the apostle Paul 
 here adds, that we are saved by the reneioing of the Holy 
 Ghost : by which I can by no means understand something 
 entirely distinct from, and subsequent to his regenerating 
 influences ; for ... . none can be regenerated who are not 
 renewed.'' 
 
 Campbell, on Matth. xix. 28, gives ' renovation' for re- 
 generation — ' ye which have followed me, in the regenera- 
 tion,' &;c. He adds, ' a renovation, or regeneration, of 
 heaven and earth, when all things shall become new.' 
 
 Macknight, on Tit. iii. 5, says — ' the real change in the 
 nature of a believer, which entitles him to be called a 
 son of God, is not effected by baptism, but by the renew- 
 ing of the Holy Ghost.' In other words, regenerating 
 grace is renewing grace — the two are identical — of course, 
 the words regenerate and renew mean the same thing. 
 
 If then custom, the law of language, is to decide, we 
 may securely affirm that regeneration and renovation are 
 equivalent terms, are expressions perfectly interchangea- 
 ble. Some writers indeed give the words distinct mean- 
 ings. But we have, on the other side, Faihers, critics, and 
 learned divines, too numerous to be overmatched. We 
 have also in our favour, the Scriptures. We have, more- 
 over, the reason of the thing — the natural sameness of the 
 birth and the creation of men. 
 
 1 Calv. Instit. V. 2. p. 73, 8a 
 
142 APPENDIX. 
 
 Many of the passages we have quoted, from uninspir- 
 ed authors, are built on the theory, that the seed or first 
 element of the moral and converting influences of the 
 Spirit is deposited at baptism : that opinion we have dis- 
 claimed. Some, also, of the quotations, present a mode of 
 speaking singularly incautious, and very liable to misre- 
 presentation and perversion : indeed we have been aston- 
 nished, while transcribing them, that Bishop Mant should 
 have been so much upbraided for his comparatively unob- 
 jectionable tracts, while these earlier writings were not 
 recalled to notice for yet greater censure. With this 
 further disclaimer, concerning the tone of some of our ex- 
 tracts, we remind the reader, that we have adduced them 
 merely to sustain our proposition, that renewing or new 
 creation is synonymous with regeneration. 
 
 We know of but one objection to this part of our theory. 
 It is alleged, that when Scripture and our Prayer-book use 
 the words regenerate and renew in an appropriate or dis- 
 tinctive sense, the former means conferring the baptismal, 
 and the latter the moral change. But the question is, does 
 the scripture, or does our prayer-book, give an appropriate 
 sense to these words'? We think not — and for these rea- 
 sons : 1. There is but one passage, in each of the books, 
 in which this appropriate sense can even be supposed ; 
 
 * the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost;' ' grant that we, being regenerate, may daily be re- 
 newed ;^ and one passage only is not sufficient to establish 
 or to denote usage : this appropriation therefore of the 
 respective words is taken for granted, not proved. 2. If 
 we go beyond the very words to their synonymes, we find 
 that scripture often applies to the moral change expres- 
 sions equivalent to regeneration, as our essay has largely 
 shown ; and we find that ' renew' in Heb. vi. is by sonie 
 interpreted of the regeneration of baptism ; nay, we find 
 some incorporate with it the ' renewing of the Holy Ghost,' 
 in Tit. iii. We also find, that our iVrticle xxvii. speaks of 
 a regeneration or new birth' of which baptism is the 
 
 * sign' or token, and of an * adoption to be the sons of 
 God' which is only ' promised' in that sacrament. These 
 facts show that the sense of the two words in question is 
 
 i Tit iii. 5 ; and the Collect for Christmas day. 
 
APPENDIX. 143 
 
 not appropriated, as alleged ; and this affords the strongest 
 presumption that the words themselves are not, in either 
 scripture or the prayer-booii. 3. The argument for this 
 appropriation depends, not only on those books, but also 
 on the interpretation of them by good authorities ; and we 
 have adduced enough of these, in behalf of our views, to 
 neutralise, at the least, the authorities that are against us. 
 We conclude therefore, that neither Scripture nor the 
 Prayer-book use the words regeneration and renewing in 
 an appropriated sense. Individual divines may do so, if 
 they think fit, for their own arguments and illustrations; 
 but private usage is widely different from the establish- 
 ment of an usage by scripture or the church. 
 
 Our proposition then we regard as beyond fair objection 
 — renewing or new creation and regeneration are terms 
 equivalent and convertible. 
 
 The chief, though not the only bearing of this proposi- 
 tion, of this fact, as far as our essay is concerned, is on 
 the further proposition, that moral regeneration is a pro- 
 gressive change, capable of increase and repetition. We 
 must be ' renewed or morally regenerated day by day."* 
 Daily must we ' put on the new man, which after God is 
 created in righteousness and true holiness.' We must 
 ' come out from among' sinners, and from sin, continually, 
 that God may be more and more ' a Father to us,' and we 
 more and more ' his sons and his daughters.' And if we 
 fall into great sin, compromitting or forfeiting our moral 
 new birth, we must, like David beseech our Maker to ' cre- 
 ate or again regenerate in us a clean heart.' So likewise 
 must the pastor, who believes that he has been the instru- 
 ment of the moral new birth of any of his flock — should 
 he have reason to fear that they have swerved from this 
 holy change — ' travail in birth for them again,'' yes, again 
 and again, till he may trust that ' Christ is formed in them,' 
 that they are steadily 'changing into the image of the 
 Lord, from glory to glory.' 
 
 Let such improvement be made of the principle main- 
 tained in this Appendix, and the value of that principle 
 will be established, beyond reasonable dispute. As the 
 necessity of the moral new birth is the strongest of all 
 topics in changing a sinner, so the necessity of the perpe- 
 tual continuance of this regenerating process, or of its re- 
 
144 APPENDIX. 
 
 petition if it has decayed or been lost, must, by parity of 
 reasoning, afford the most impressive exhortation to the 
 worthy disciple to persevere, and to the erring disciple to 
 return to his fidelity. And by identifying regeneration 
 and renovation or new creation, we add to the number and 
 the force of the scriptural arguments on which these edi- 
 fying pleas are built. This doctrine therefore is beneficial, 
 as well as consonant with truth. 
 
 FliVIS.