at the second birth; and the life eternal in the presence of God, at the third birth. And he who dreams of entering the second kingdom, or coming under the dominion of Jesus, without the second birth, may, to complete his error, dream of entering the kingdom of glory without a resurrection from the dead!

"Grace precedes all these births-shines in all these kingdoms; but will be glorified in the third. Sense is the principle of action in the first kingdom; faith, in the second; and sight spiritual, in the third.

"The first salvation is that of the body from the dangers and ills of life, and God is thus the 'Saviour of all men;' the second salvation is that of the soul from sin; the third is that of both soul and body united, delivered from moral and natural corruption, and introduced into the presence of God, where God shall be all in all."*

"Regeneration literally indicates the whole process of new-creating man. This process may consist of numerous distinct acts; but it is in accordance with general usage to give to the beginning, or consummating act, the name of the whole process. For the most part, however, the name of the whole process is given to the consummating act, because the process is always supposed incomplete until that act is performed. For example: in the process of tanning, fulling, forging, etc., the subject of these operations is not supposed to be tanned, fulled, forged, until the last act is performed. So in all the processes of nature. In the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, the last act consummates the process. In the style of our American husbandmen, no crop nor animal is made until it come to maturity. We often hear them say of a good shower, or of a few clear days, 'This is the making of the wheat, or corn.' In the same sense it is that most Christians call regeneration THE NEW BIRTII; though being born is the last act in natural generation, and the last act in regeneration.

"In this way the new birth and regeneration are used indiscriminately by commentators and writers on theology; and by a figure of speech it is justified on well established principles of rhetoric,

"By the bath of regeneration' is not meant the first, se

* Christianity Resolved, p. 239.

cond, or third act; but the last act of regeneration, which completes the whole, and is therefore used to denote the new birth. This is the reason why our Lord and the apostle unite this act with water. Being born of water, in the Saviour's style, and the bath of regeneration, in the apostle's style, in the judgment of all writers and critics of eminence, refer to one and the same act, viz. Christian baptism. Hence it came to pass, that all the ancients (as fully proved in our first Extra on Remission) used the word regeneration as synonymous in signification with immersion." *

*

*

*

Another extract on the New Birth from the same essay, will farther manifest the great injustice done my views by the garbled extracts and corollaries of my too sanguine reviewer.

"We have already seen that the consummation of the process of regeneration, or creation, is in the birth of the creature formed. So is it in the moral generation, or in the great process of regeneration. There is a state of existence from which he that is born passes; and there is a state of existence into which he enters at birth. Now the manner of existence, or the mode of life, is wholly changed; and he is, in reference to the former state, dead; and to the new state, alive. So in moral regeneration. The subject of this great change, before his new birth, existed in one state; but after it, he exists in another. He stands in a new relation to God, angels, and men. He is now born of God, and has the privilege of being a son of God, and is consequently pardoned, justified, sanctified, adopted, saved. The state which he left was a state of condemnation, which some call the state of nature.' The state into which he enters is a state of favor, in which he enjoys all the heavenly blessings through Christ: therefore it is called the kingdom of heaven.' All this is signified in his death, burial and resurrection with Christ, or in his being born of water. Hence the ne

* The occasions of this usage among the fathers is explained by Pres. Beecher, in his article on Baptism, in our present No. p. 367. That this view of Baptism is contained in the Common Prayer Book of the Church of England, is no defence of Mr. Campbell. We therefore omit his quotation from that book in this place.-EDITOR.

cessity of being buried with Christ in water, that he may be born of water-that he may enjoy the renewal of the Holy Spirit, and be placed under the reign of Grace.

All the means of salvation are means of enjoymentnot of procurement. Birth itself is not for procuring, but for enjoying the life possessed before birth. So in the figureno one is to be baptized, or 'to be buried with Christ; no one is to be put under the water of regeneration for the purpose of procuring life, but for the purpose of enjoying the life of which he is possessed. If the child is never born, all its sensitive powers and faculties cannot be enjoyed; for it is after birth that these are fully developed, and feasted upon all the aliments and objects of sense in nature. Hence all that is now promised in the gospel can only be enjoyed by those who are born again and placed in the kingdom of heaven under all its influences. Hence the philosophy of that necessity which Jesus preached-Unless a man be born again he cannot discern the kingdom of heaven' ' unless a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into it.' But let no man think that in the act of being born, either naturally or metaphorically, the child purchases, procures, or merits either life or its enjoyments. He is only by his birth placed in circumstances favorable to the enjoyment of life, and all that makes life a blessing. To as many as received him, believing in his name, he granted the privilege of being children of God, who derive not their birth from blood, nor from the desire of the flesh, nor from the will of man, but from God." *

6

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I am no less travestied and caricatured-no less misrepresented on the subject of remission of sins as connected with baptism, than on the subject of baptism as connected with the whole process of regeneration. "Mr. Campbell and his friends teach that immersion in water is absolutely essential to forgiveness of sins." The most charitable construction I can put upon this, is that Mr. L. does not understand his own language, or select his terms with discrimi nation. Absolutely essential to forgiveness! This is equal to no baptism, no forgiveness' in time or to eternity, for man, woman, or child. I never formed, uttered, or wrote such an idea.

Have I not repeatedly said, "neither faith, repentance, nor baptisin is absolutely essential to the future and eternal salvation," for then infant salvation would be impossible? But faith, repentance, baptism, are necessary to our present enjoyment of the grace of God-to the present assurance and enjoyment of the remission of our sins and adoption into the family of God. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." "Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins.""The like figure whereunto baptism doth also now save us." Mr. Landis has given us a string of propositions, syllogisms, and corollaries that really confound me. Listen, reader, to

a few of them :

1. "The faith which the Campbellites contend for has, confessedly, no connection whatever with regeneration. They are truly separate." p. 109.

2. "Faith has no real connection with pardon." p. 109. 3. "Mr. Campbell repeatedly ridicules the idea of the agency of the third person of the Trinity, either in the exercise of saving faith or in regeneration." p. 109.

Never, Mr. Landis-no, never! Why should Mr. Landis have noticed a system so preposterous? Surely, it could not subsist one year. But hear him farther :

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Infants, who die in infancy, are either lost, or, if saved, they are saved without being regenerated." p. 110.

On the two points of regeneration and remission, I have written two Extras, two full essays, which have been so de finite and intelligible, at least, as to impart the same views to many thousands of all sects and persuasions; and of great variety of natural endowments, as well as educational prejudices. But never have I seen such a misconception of any two pieces as that matured and exhibited on the pages of the Biblical Repository.

To prevent, as I imagined, the charge of Neologism, or wanton innovation, and all mistake, too, about my meaning, I concluded the last edition of my Extra on Remission with the following collection of witnesses, most of whom have at sundry times before appeared in my writings. Ten confessions of faith, and eight of them Protestant, are summoned.*

* The quotations here furnished by Mr. C., and which we omit, are from the Confessions of the Baptists, of Bohemia, SECOND SERIES, VOL. III. NO. II.

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With these documents, now for years before the public, I leave it to the good sense of my readers to say, why should I be thus slandered for saying sometimes less, and never more, than has been said by the wisest and best portions of the Christian church, in her purest and most undegenerate days! We do go farther than the theory: we practise what we preach. This is our greatest error in this age of empty professions and idle speculations.

6. "All mankind, therefore, according to the Campbellites, who are not immersed, perish for ever."

p. 111. We cannot but thank Mr. Landis for this consummation of his ridicule. It caps the climax well, and renders a serious and grave refutation wholly unnecessary. Any one who can believe that we could teach, and tens of thousands believe such a doctrine, is not worthy of being rescued from such a voluntary delusion.*

We have not room for a formal consideration of his expositions of John 3: 5, Titus 3: 5, Acts 22: 18, Mark 18: 18, Acts 2: 38. We must refer the curious reader to our Review of his Review.†

After all, it is some consolation, and rather a singular incident, that Mr. Landis comes to the same conclusions with myself, so far as theory is concerned, even on the most obnoxious point-the indispensable necessity of baptism to remission, in certain cases. We shall hear him affirm his own theory and views in his own language. On Acts 2: 38, Mr. Landis writes:

"I have no objections to allow that in the case of the persons here spoken of, baptism may have been essential to

of Augsburg, of Saxony, of Wittemburgh, of Helvetia, of Sueveland, of the Westminster Assembly, of the Roman Catholic and Greek churches, also some passages from Calvin and Westley. But as Mr. Campbell renounces all creeds but the Bible, and as he has not told which of these varying creeds on the point before us he would adopt as his own, we cannot see how their quotation here avails any thing in his defence. He will therefore excuse us for omitting them.-EDITOR.

* An easy way this of answering an alleged slander. We advise the reader to examine Mr. Landis' grounds for the assertion here referred to.-EDITOR.

† Mill. Harbinger Vol. III.