be made evident in the sequel. The other definitions will be shewn to be open to great objections; and more than one of them is mischievous in its practical tendency.

Now a mistake in a great religious question, if persisted in, may be fatal. For if a person fails very much in the estimate he makes of a mercy, he runs the risk of neglecting to appropriate it; especially if he misunderstands its bearing and effect. And if Regeneration be the Sanctification of the soul in its incipient state, should a very different opinion be entertained of it's nature; especially, should the opinion prevail that it is almost nothing, and that every nominal Christian is regenerate, there is great reason to fear, that the person who is led away by this error, will fall short of that blessing without which he can neither glorify GOD upon earth, nor be received up into heaven. Hence it will be proper not to proceed, until the definitions which are supposed to be erroneous have been examined. And should a somewhat extended notice of them be taken, the importance of the subject will justify, it is hoped, the remarks which will be made.

1. Of Regeneration, considered as Baptismal Regeneration, and expressive of a person's qualification for admission into the visible Church.

This seems to be as improper an explanation

of the term as could well be given one is surprized that sensible men ever had recourse to it. Observation led them unwarily to doubt the strict propriety of some expressions in the Baptismal service; and adopting a very highly objectionable term, though sanctioned by some authority, they conceived that they had overcome the difficulty, which in fact was only to be overcome by the consideration, that the Reformers, when they pro nounced a person "regenerate by Baptism," supposed, that prayer, faithful prayer, had been made by him or for him. The excellent men who overlooked this plain fact, proposed to describe the invariable effect of Baptism, if spiritual Regeneration be withheld. Now their Baptismal Regeneration, being destitute of every spiritual communication, amounts to a mere "badge of profession," or at most only to such an external relation to the Church of God, as entitles the subject of it to join the public congregation in prayer and hearing the word-a relation to the Church which an unbaptized person almost has. And this, perhaps, is all the definition was intended to signify. But how inconsistent is it with * that Regeneration, which our Saviour urged upon the attention of a "master in Israel!" Now they do not mean this Regeneration. But that this is

Joh. iii. 3-7.

REGENERATION AND BAPTISM.

CHRISTIANITY the more it is understood, the more it is devoutly admired. It is adapted to the moral condition of young and old. It is the law of Divine Charity-the almost infinite expression of "good will towards men." It is a perfect system of REMEDIES, and is provided for the use of all. It is provided, to "restore the soul" to its original Righteousness, "to comfort all that mourn," to "deliver the prisoners from him that worketh in the children of disobedience," and to prepare them for that state of "Eternal Redemption which the blessed Jesus + obtained for them by His precious Bloodshedding.'

"The Son of man," the second Adam, is the Mediator of the System, having "given Himself a ransom for all.” By whatever outward means Salvation has been granted to the guilty and depraved during all past ages of the world, He

upon

was the Saviour" the doer of the good that was done the earth." And the means of grace which He was pleased to institute were always such as the state and circumstances of His people and of the world required. He never instituted empty ceremonies. His positive institutions were in some way, directly or indirectly, the Channels

* Joh. iii. 16. Ma. x. 14.

A

Heb. ix, 11, 12.

the only Regeneration Scripture knows, is

rent.

*

appa

Regeneration may be separated from Baptism, it must be allowed. In such an event, it were improper to use the term Regeneration to denote either the state or the condition of the baptized person. There can be no such thing as Baptismal Regeneration apart from spiritual Regeneration. In no instance whatever is Regeneration attributed to water alone. And mayεvería assuredly expresses the result of a Divine operation. But even were we, for the sake of argument, to suppose the existence of two kinds of Regeneration, (a distinction in theology nearly new and wholly + inadmissible,) the use of the term Baptismal Regeneration would not remove the difficulty its advocates meet with in a part of the Baptismal Service for Infants. For nothing can be more clear than that the + Baptismal Service, throughout, supposes but one Regeneration: and, moreover, Regeneration by the Spirit, is made the express subject of Prayer. There can be no doubt, therefore, that when the Reformers de

*Act. viii. 21-23. marks on Ezek. xvi. 4.

Rom. ii. 28, 29.-See also, Jerome's Re

† yevvάoμai, nascor. I am born. Vid. Schleusner. Lex. in voc. where see its application in the New Test. I am either born again in the use of the appointed mean, or I am not. Baptismal and Spiritual Regeneration are identical in fact.

Public Baptism of Infants.