Church by regularly ordained ministers of God, and with all outward propriety of means, cannot but be recognised by the Church, and that, therefore, they must be called Christians, they have too often omitted to observe that this is really only the objective view of the sacrament of Baptism-that view in which it is seen as it is in itself, or, rather, in the good intention of God towards us-free, as yet, from those combinations in which it is involved, when mixed up with the imperfect state of preparation of the hearts of individuals. For a true faith and a real repentance, amounting, in one not yet a Christian, to a conversion from sin and Satan to God, are the indispensable pre-requisites, according to our Church's own view, of a beneficial reception of Baptism: there is no period of the Church in which this has not been fully acknowledged, in all its formularies that bear upon the subject and it was, or should have been, obvious to remark, that where there is no living faith, though the Baptism is still valid, and the man is to be called a Christian, because God's mercy holds the door open to him, and as soon as the pre-requisites are fulfilled, the whole benefits become his; yet, in fact, the benefits (or some of them) are at present suspended, for want of one of the necessary conditions of the grant. If the indispensable pre-requisites never were had at all previously to the Baptism, then Baptism was not, in one of its parts, rightly received, however it may have been rightly administered; and, as Waterland justly remarks, "a grant is suspended, frustrate, as to any beneficial effect, while not properly received and while there is an insuperable bar to the salutary reception of it, Baptism cannot be savingly received and applied."*

On the other hand, if faith and repentance had really done their work of preparation in the heart previously to the celebration of the holy sacrament of Baptism, and so the individuals concerned were once savingly brought into the Church of Christ, and if such persons fall away, still," their baptismal consecration and their covenant state, consequent upon it, abide and stand, but without their saving effect for the time being because, without present renovation," (that which is called conversion previously to Baptism being, in its repetition and reparation from time to time after Baptism, called renovation, or renewal,) "the new birth, or spiritual life, as to salutary purposes, is, in a manner, sinking, drooping, ceasing." +

And this is so simple and so plain, so much in accordance with the consistent spirituality of the whole doctrine of Christ, as well as so entirely warranted by the formularies of our own Church, ("Doubt not, but earnestly believe, that He will favourably receive these present persons, truly repenting, and coming unto Him by faith"-Office for Baptism of such as are of riper years,) that there should have been no hesitation in vindicating the insulted purity and affection of the

* Waterland, vol. vi., p. 354.

+ Ibid, p. 358.

Church, by declaring of those whose renovation has ceased, that they will not receive "the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls;" for that, though the outward framework of their consecrated state may stand, and never require to be renewed, yet, being wholly unfurnished with the necessary requisites, it is not an adequate shelter, or house, for them; and though God stands in Christ ever ready and waiting to be gracious to them, yet that, so long as they have nothing but the name of Christian, and the promises (inapplicable as yet to them), to show for their connexion with Christ, they cannot claim salvation through that only Name under Heaven whereby we must be saved.

But now, the zealous and ever-active portion of the Church alluded to, omitting to observe these things, and stricken with a kind of terror lest it should become established that the unconverted and unrenewed within the Church are, through Baptism, in a present way to final salvation, as well as the holy and the lovers of God (which, indeed, had been apparently asserted in the objective view of Baptism which the Fathers and our own Altitudinarian Church people do so delight to take), and being, for the most part, disinclined to enquire into the history of the terminology of our Church, and therefore ignorant of its true force, struck out an unfortunate method of relieving themselves from their fears, and (as they considered it) the Church from her embarrassment: for, seeing that it did not occur to them how they might deny Baptism to be duly received by any to whom it had been rightly administered (as they should have done), they set themselves about to deny what they believed to be asserted (but which was not, at least authoritatively) concerning the extent of the value and usefulness of Baptism itself when duly administered; and proceeded to attack the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration, or the New Birth in Baptism; in doing which, they conceived that they were attacking a doctrine which maintained that all such change of the natural heart and disposition of man as is needful to his salvation, is effected by the Holy Spirit in Baptism, is necessarily and indissolubly united with the sacramental grace of Baptism duly administered, and is restricted to that point of time at which the ceremony of Baptism is performed. Whereas, in truth, as regeneration, or the new birth in Baptism, never had that meaning in the eye of the Church, their attack turned out to be made against the legitimate use and instrumentality of the sacrament of Baptism, in translating the individual from his "natural state in Adam, to a spiritual state in Christ-a work of God's mere mercy, which has been the acknowledged instrumental function of Baptism ever since there has been a Christian Church, and divested of which it could no longer fill the place of the initiatory Christian rite.

The doctrine of the Church is, that "repentance whereby men forsake sin, and faith whereby they stedfastly believe the promises of God made to them in that sacrament," which are together equivalent to conversion, are the necessary preparation of heart previously to being brought to Baptism; so that conversion, in adults at least, is prior in point of time to Baptism, and consequently prior to regeneration.

The parties to whom we have referred thought that, in attacking the doctrine of Baptismal regeneration, they were impugning an asserted change of heart limited by their opponents to the moment of Baptism; whereas they were really attacking an asserted, and a justly asserted, change of state and condition before God. The change of heart, which is conversion, being required in persons capable, to have taken place (in some competent measure, at least) previously to the celebration of that sacrament, (for who would think of baptising a heathen before he was converted?) to be present in the sacrament, and to endure, in kind at least, (though it then becomes more properly called renovation) in the following life, after the sacrament has been performed; or, whenever it actually dies away, or is dormant, we must expect that the beneficial effects of the sacrament must be dormant likewise.

But it is a matter of fact, and a matter of history, that the term regeneration has not been, though it formerly (i. e., before it was appropriated to another use) might have been, used by the Church to signify a change of heart, or conversion, but that it has been used, and is used, to signify that spiritual change which is a translation from the natural family of Adam to the spiritual family of Christ, and to the beneficial effecting of which this conversion of which we have been speaking is ordinarily (i. e., where persons are capable of it) an essential pre-requisite.

And, anxious though we are, and must ever be, to guard against any undue limitation in our minds of the channels and ducts by which the grace of God may please to bring salvation to us, yet we are bound to maintain, and will maintain, this doctrine of Baptismal regeneration rightly understood, or, rather, will not cease to explain the meaning in which this doctrine is to be maintained; for this is the only effectual means of preventing Christian Baptism from falling back into an estimation no higher than that of the Baptism of John, as well as (though this is a much less important consideration) of hindering an inextricable confusion from overwhelming the meaning of our Baptismal services and other offices, which have all been framed upon the understanding here developed. John baptised with water: Jesus baptised with the Holy Ghost. John's Baptism was for the remission of sins, (for conversion to God,) though it does not appear that it was a pledge of such remission (Burnet, Art. xxviii.); whilst "he said to the people, that they should believe on Him who should come after." John's Baptism did not admit those who partook of it into the family of Jesus, though converted to God. The Baptism of Jesus, which ought to have found men ready prepared by the preaching of John and repentance, did admit them into His family, gave them a distinct pledge of remission, and made them heirs of the kingdom of Heaven: i. e., it regenerated them, or gave them a new birth; though it is to be observed, that during our Lord's own life-time the Baptism administered by his disciples was probably somewhat similar to that of John.

It need not be denied, that in ancient times, it is more than probable, the Baptism of John "unto repentance" (Matt. iii., 11) would have been called regeneration, as well as that of Jesus for the entrance into the state of salvation; but all we are concerned to show, is that the Christian Church has ever considered our being "made members of Christ, children of God, and heirs of the kingdom of Heaven," by Baptism, to be our regeneration or second birth, as contrasted with our first or natural birth into this world, which took place in sin and wrath, in which, at all events, there was nothing spiritual-" that which is born of the flesh is flesh;" which regeneration is an effect of God's mere mercy, of which our repentance and faith (i. e., our conversion to God) are not co-efficient factors with the Holy Spirit, though they certainly are, as we have abundantly stated already, the essential prerequisites.

We will not here go over the ground which has been so amply and ably filled by Dr. Wall, in proving (which he does most undeniably) that "the Baptism of proselytes to Judaism was called their new birth, their regeneration, or being born again;"* though it cannot be altogether useless, to our complete understanding of the subject, to know what modes of expression were commonly in use about Baptism in the time of our Lord; and the following sentence, for instance, cannot but assist to open the eyes of some to the truth of this matter. "The Talmudical doctors do, indeed, carry on this metaphor of the new birth too far, in all reason; they determine that it is no incest for such an one" as is baptised as a proselyte, "to marry any of his nearest kindred, because, upon his being new born, all former relations do cease. But it is more to the purpose to remark these words of the same author, relating to the Ancient Christians: "And the Christians did in all ancient times continue the use of this name" (regeneration or new birth) " for Baptism; so that they never use the word regenerate or born again, but that they mean or connote by it Baptism: of which I shall produce no proof here, because almost all the quotations which I shall bring in this book will be instances of it." (Infant Bap., i., 32.)

One distinct and clear proof from an early Christian writer, in a public exposition of the principles of the Christian religion, may (considering our limits) stand in the place of many; and be it recollected, that to testify to customs of their own day is the undeniably legitimate province of the Ancient Christian Fathers: Justin Martyr says distinctly on that longer Apology, which was presented to Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and the Caesars, which is commonly called the second, but which is now entirely agreed to be the first,

Ὅτοι ἂν πεισθῶσι κ, πιστέυωσιν ἀληθῆ ταῦτα τὰ ὑφ ̓ ἡμων διδασκόμενα κ λεγόμενα εἶναι, καὶ βιοῦν οὕτως δύνασθαι ὑπωχνῶνται, εὔχεσθαί τε καὶ αἰτειν νηστεύοντες παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ των προημαρτημένων ἄφεσιν διδάσκονται, ἡμῶν συνευχομένων και συννηστευόντων αὐτοῖς· ἔπειτα ἄγονται ὑφ ̓ ἡμῶν ἔνθα ύδωρ

* Infant Baptism, vol. i., pp. 31, 32, Oxford ed., 1836.

ἐστί, και τροπον ἀναγεννήσεως ὃν καὶ ἡμεῖς αὐτοί αναγεννήθημεν ἀνεγεννῶνται· ἐπ ̓ ὀνόματος γὰρ τοῦ πατρὸς τῶν ὅλων και δεσποτεθεῖ, καὶ τὸ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ιησέ Χρυςτᾶ, και πνεύματος αγίω, τὸ ἐν ὕδατι τότε λετρὸν ποιοῦνται. καὶ γὰρ ὁ Χριστὸς εἶπεν, ̓Αν μὴ ἀναγεννηθῆτε, οὐμὴ εἰσέλθητε εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐραῶν:-(ὅτι δὲ κι ἀδύνατου εἰς τὰς μήτρας τῶν τεκεσῶν τοὺς ἅπαξ γεννωμένες ἐμβῆναι, pavepòa nã oiv kori.) (Justin Martyr, Apol. vulgo secunda, ed. Sylburg, 1593, p. 73, l. 27.)

"They who are persuaded, and do believe, that those things which are taught and said by us are true, and do undertake that they are to live according to them, are taught first to pray, and ask of God with fasting the forgiveness of their former sins; and we also pray and fast together with them. Then we bring them to some place where there is water; and they are regenerated by the same way of regeneration by which we were regenerated: for they are then washed with water in the name of God, the Father and Lord of all things, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. For Christ says, Unless ye be regenerated, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven' and everybody knows it is impossible for those that are once born to enter again into their mother's womb."

We cannot but observe, in passing, how very closely the custom of our own Church at present tallies with regard to the Baptism of adult persons with that of the Primitive Church as it is here detailed by Justin. The "belief that the things taught by us are true, and the promise to live according to those things," are strictly ascertained and exacted in all our Baptismal services; whilst the direction to "pray, and seek of God with fasting the remission of their sins," is corresponded to, almost in terms, and entirely in spirit, in the Rubric preceding the office "for the Baptism of such as are of riper years," which enjoins that timely notice of any such intended Baptism shall be given to the bishop, "that so due care may be taken for their examination, whether they be sufficiently instructed in the principles of the Christian religion; and that they may be exhorted to prepare themselves with prayers and fastings for the receiving of this holy sacrament."

It is quite clear that, both in the Ancient Church and our own, the conversion was held to be a necessary preparation for the Baptism; and yet that the remission of former sins was held by both not to be actually conferred upon the converted person, but by the intervention and instrumentality of the sacrament of Baptism: that is, (as our Church and the Ancient unite in understanding it,) remission of sins is a part of that function of Baptism which was called regeneration; the being translated from a state of wrath into a state of favour and grace; as it is clearly stated in our office for persons of riper years, and consequently persons capable of conversion and believed to be already converted: "We call upon Thee for these persons, that they, coming to Thy Holy Baptism, may obtain remission of their sins by spiritual regeneration." Mr. Bingham says (Eccles. Antiq., vol. i., p. 462, fol. ed.), "Every Christian was supposed to be born again with the waters of Baptism,