Adam in the child may be so buried, that the new man be raised up in him; and that all things belonging to the Spirit may live and grow in him; and lastly, that he may have power and strength to have victory, and to triumph against the devil, the world, and the flesh." And in the Catechism, in answer to the question, "What is the inward and spiritual grace" of Baptism? it is replied, "A death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness; for being by nature born in sin and the children of wrath, we are hereby (by inward and spiritual grace) made the children of grace;" and this agreeably to the saying of St. Paul, "We are buried with Him (Jesus Christ) by Baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory, or the glorious power, of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Similar language to this has been held by the most estimable Divines of the English Church from the æra of the Reformation. And the last century, and the latter part of the preceding, produced theological writers the most remote possible from the + fanciful and the mystical of a * Rom. vi. 4. The writer begs to say, that he does not allude to such men as Archbishop Leighton, Bishops Pearson, Sanderson, and Beveridge, or Wilkins, Baxter, Bates, Clarke, Doolittle, Flavel, Howe, Owen, and Charnock, and a host of Divines, whose works will be read and former age. There were among them Divines justly eminent for soundness of judgment, accuracy of expression, and real piety. If they erred at all, they erred in being too dry, and stiff, and scholastic. If they wanted any thing, they wanted the life and energy of their less critical predecessors. If they were inferior to them, it was in this-they were less spiritual. It will not, therefore, be uninteresting to the reader to see how they expressed themselves upon a subject which some later writers have egregiously misunderstood. On a reference to their works, it will appear, that they countenance the author in his opinion respecting the meaning of the term Regeneration. "The benefit of Regeneration implies our entrance into a new state and course of lifeour being endued with new faculties and dispositions and capacities of soul-our becoming new creatures, and new men, as it were renewed after the likeness of God in righteousness and true holiness-our being sanctified in our hearts and lives, being mortified to fleshly lusts and worldly admired, so long as sound Theology, and Christian Eloquence and ardent Piety, shall be valued. *The reader need scarcely to be reminded, that "the Fathers of the English Church" considered "Regeneration," and "Newbirth," to be synonymous terms.-See Legh Richmond's edition, or that published in parts by "The Religious Tract Society." ↑ Barrow on the Sacraments. B affections, being quickened to a spiritual life and heavenly conversation; in short, becoming in relation and disposition the children of God." "Regeneration is a metaphor which the Scripture useth to express our translation and change from one state to another, from a state of sin and wickedness to a state of grace and holiness, as if we were born over again and were the children of another father, and from being the children of the devil, did become the children of God. "The vigour that is in every part of the body, to do its office, is a certain evidence and manifestation of a spirit of life within, and that maketh it a living organical body; so those gifts and graces and abilities which are to be found in the members of the mystical body of Christ, are a strong manifestation that there is the powerful Spirit of God within." St. Paul, in two different places, makes our Baptism to represent our being dead to sin and buried with Christ, and our being risen and quickened with Him, and made alive unto God, which are words that do very plainly import Regeneration. "Here flesh and spirit do plainly denote two * Abp. Tillotson, Sermon 109. + Bp. Bull, third Sermon "ad clerum." § Bp. Wilson on John iii. states of man by nature and grace. That which is born of the Spirit partakes of the properties of that Spirit by which he is regenerated. The birth of the Spirit is as real as the birth of the flesh." "This Spirit is the Spirit of life by which we are made free, that is, by which we are regenerated in Christ Jesus and set at liberty from the heavy yoke of sin. The Spirit of adoption is the Spirit by which we are born in Christ; of which birth an Evangelical temper is not the cause, but the effect." "It is called a birth here agreeably to the opinions of the Jews, who were used to call Baptism, attended with a change of heart, a new birth." "The efficacy of the Spirit is to be judged of by its fruits. Its immediate effects are upon the dispositions. A visible outward conduct will ensue." "We are said to be born again of water and the Spirit, which are frequently mentioned together, the one applied externally, and the other operating internally. || Baptism, there* Bp. Sherlock, Vol. 1. p. 234-5. + Bp. Pearce, Comm. on John iii. 5. Paley's Sermons, Vol. vii. p. 387. Edit. 7. Bp. Tomline. See D'Oyly and Mant's Commentary on Rom. vi. 11. When accompanied by the Spirit: otherwise it is a mere badge of profession. See Rom. ii. 28, 29. fore, is not a mere external badge or token of our being Christians: it is a new birth from the death of sin, and a Regeneration to a new life in Christ: it is a change and renovation of nature by the Spirit and grace of God: it is an infusion of spiritual life into the soul, by which it is made capable of performing spiritual actions, and of living unto God." This is sound theology. It is the doctrine of Christ, and "according to Godliness." It convinces and satisfies the understanding. It may be safely depended upon: and it is, perhaps, entitled to the more credit, as being the deliberate opinion of men, who were as far from that unthinking, ignorant, blind zeal, which is vulgarly called Enthusiasm, as the poles of the earth are from each other; and they were as learned Divines as are to be met with in any age. How incomparably preferable is it to the opinion which Waterland unfortunately adopted, and to every unsafe definition, which, "darkening counsel by words without knowledge," describes Regeneration as any thing but what it is-such a work of the Spirit in man as prepares him to "deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts," and disposes him to "live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world"-a work, which *Titus ii. 11-15 |