BAPTISMAL REGENERATION.

IN making the doctrine of the church of England, whatever it may be, the basis of the succeeding inquiries, I am anxious not to invest myself with the character of a disputant in behalf of the opinions of any man, or set of men whatever; on the contrary, I only wish to extricate the real truth from a mass of surrounding controversy and mistake; and should any of the expressions used by the church in her articles or baptismal service, when taken in their plain. and obvious meaning, prove to be unwarranted by scripture, neither the authority of her name, nor the bias of private inclination shall prevent my withholding my assent, either to the expressions themselves, or to the tenets they are intended to convey. The authority of her name gives her a pre

scriptive right to have her opinions made the basis of argument, but it does nothing more; neither the greatness of a name nor the approbation of ages will sanctify a departure from the simplicity of revealed truth.

The subject of regeneration in baptism has already been briefly alluded to in the course of the foregoing work.* I there stated it as my decided opinion, that a cer- | tain regenerating influence of the Spirit does accompany the rite when duly and properly administered. Neither have I since become aware of any reason for an alteration in my sentiments, nor does the argument on which the doctrine was made to depend, namely, the example afforded us in the circumstances of Christ's baptism, seem to me less satisfactory than before. Since, however, it is very far from probable, that any single argument should be satisfactory to all parties, it appears to me that the subject requires a more full and lengthened consideration; and more so, because much variety of opinion as to the meaning and extent of the term, regeneration in baptism,

• See notes to Lectures i. and ii.

I exists, even among those by whom, as members of the church of England, the doctrine itself is, at least, formally embraced. On these grounds I am desirous both of establishing more fully the scriptural doctrine on the subject, and also of ascertaining what the meaning of the church is when she speaks of baptized persons being regenerate.

On referring to the article on baptism,* and to the service appointed for the public baptism of infants, we find it declared in the first, that "baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of difference, whereby Christian men are distinguished from others that are not christened, but it is also a sign of regeneration or new birth, whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive baptism rightly are grafted into the church;" in the second, we find the minister assuring the congregation that the baptized child "is regenerate," and also returning thanks to God" that it hath pleased him to regenerate the infant with his Holy Spirit, and to receive him for his own child by adoption." Here the doctrine appears to be plain and express, and yet there are not * Article xxvii. of the church of England.

wanting varieties of acceptation even of these few and simple words. Some subscribe to them according to the exact letter of the assertion, believing that every rightly baptized person is at once and absolutely regenerate; others affirm, that facts make it evident that, in order to preserve the spirit of the assertion, we must not hold too closely to the letter. According to the views of the latter, two explanations of the words are usually given, which, if I comprehend them rightly, are as follows:

1. It is evident from scripture that Christ intended baptism to be a sign and means of regeneration by the Spirit, and, accordingly, whenever the regenerating spirit is vouchsafed, it is by and through the instrumentality of that divinely appointed rite. But the subsequent lives of many baptized persons prove that they cannot have received the adoption of sons of God, therefore the church does not intend to make an unqualified assertion that every baptized infant is regenerate, but providing for the due administration of the rite charitably supposes that fitness in the recipient, which is also necessary to make the rite effectual.