his efforts great, and terrible, and unceasing; but the very cause from which they spring, ought to form one of your strongest grounds of encouragement.

6

"You have the assurance of your God, that Satan can do nothing without his permission. If not a sparrow fall to the ground without your Father,' then most certainly shall not his children stumble or fall without his providential permission. While you seek him, he has declared that your footsteps shall not slide.' While you serve him his word is pledged to you,' I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.'

"Whatever, therefore, be the efforts of Satan against the welfare of your soul, you are secure of these two most blessed facts; that your God, who has pledged himself not to‘suffer you to be tempted above what you are able, but with the temptation to make a way to escape,' is aware of your trial, and that he is present during your trial; what more can you desire or need?

"It is true that you may not feel sensible of these most comforting truths, at the moment you need them most, but then you must not blame God for this; you must say with David, this is mine infirmity;' they are equally the immutable truths of God, and if you forget them, or derive no consolation from them, it neither alters their truth nor their stability, for the foundation of the Lord standeth' equally sure,' and his promises shall not fail. You may indeed lose sight of him by the way; this depends upon yourself; but you shall assuredly find him at the journey's end, for that depends upon God, whose covenant is an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. Therefore, brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might; take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.'

"Let every tried and tempted soul among us throw aside all other dependencies, and rest calmly and contentedly upon these two, the strongest and the best, God's promises and God's omnipotence, pledged as they are to us, through Jesus Christ, for every hour of trial or of suffering. In this blessed and comforting, and soul-satisfying assurance, we shall obtain fresh grace, fresh strength, fresh resolution, torun with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith;' who has not only placed his own foot upon that serpent's head, but will, in his good time, place there in triumph the foot of the weakest and the tenderest of his redeemed and purchased people; to Him, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever and ever."-(pp. 182-186.)

BAPTISMAL REGENERATION opposed by the Word of God and the Standards of the Church of England. By the Rev. CAPEL MOLYNEUX. London: Seeleys. 1843.

THE BAPTISM OF JESUS CHRIST VINDICATED, in Reply to the Rev. Capel Molyneux. By AQUILA. London: Groombridge. 1843.

BAPTISMAL REGENERATION compared with the Word of God and the Standards of the Church of England, in Reply to the Rev. Capel Molyneux. By PRESBYTER. London: B. Fellowes. 1843.

THE BAPTISMAL REGENERATION OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH EXPLAINED. By the Rev. G. BUGG. London: Seeleys. 1843.

THESE are four small pamphlets on the vital and ever-debated question of baptismal Regeneration. The subject has already come before us more than once in this review; but while so much confusion and doubt hang over it in the minds of many pious churchmen, no excuse can be needed for another attempt to throw light on its perplexities. The tract of Mr. Molyneux, at the time, produced a considerable impression. The two which follow are anonymous replies, of the high-church school; while Mr. Bugg's 'Key to Modern Controversy" is an attempt to explicate both the Scripture doctrine and the teaching of the Church, on principles in some degree peculiar to the author. We will first explain briefly the line of thought in each, with a few comments; and then endeavour to clear away the mist from the whole subject, by some concise remarks, more in the form of aphorisms than of a continuous review. By this means we hope to compress the substance of the controversy into a narrow compass, and by varying the form and manner of inquiry, to relieve the tedium of a discussion which may seem to be worn threadbare.

Mr. Molyneux begins by assuming regeneration to denote a vital, spiritual change in the heart of man, a new birth to righteousness, and a new creation in Christ Jesus. Starting from this definition, he argues that baptism is not the specially-appointed means of this change, from the practice of Christ, the time when baptism was instituted, the practice of the Apostles, and the Scripture statements on the means, and on the fruits of regeneration. Those whom our Lord baptized had faith, and therefore were regenerate before their baptism. The event which marked the appointment

of the ordinance was not the first gift of regeneration, but the first institution of the visible church. The apostles baptized believers, that is, those who were previously regenerate. The fruits, also, invariably ascribed to regeneration are such as never appear in many of the baptized, and in very few until after a long interval; whereas regeneration must soon manifest itself by the fruits of righteousness.

Under the fourth head, Mr. Molyneux shows that the word of God is declared to be the means of regeneration. He further argues that baptism is never declared to be the means, and explains the three leading texts, 1 Pet. iii. 21, John iii. 5, Titus iii. 5, as follows. The words of St. Peter imply that not outward baptism, but confession of the faith, the fruit of a previous regeneration, is that which saves us. Those of our Lord imply that both baptism and the birth of the Spirit are needful, but assert no necessary connexion between them. And those of St. Paul do not refer to baptism; or if they do, will by no possible construction prove it a certain and invincible means of regenerating grace. The pamphlet closes with an explication of the Church formularies, on the hypothetical view; that the infant is viewed as professing faith and repentance, that is, spiritual regeneration, and baptized on this supposition alone.

Of the two replies to this tract, the one by Aquila is the shorter, and the less worthy of notice. He begins in his preface by laying down two maxims, that we ought to renounce private interpretation for the teaching of the Catholic church, and next, that the Church holds the invariable connexion of baptism and spiritual regeneration. The first of these maxims Aquila proves by his own private interpretation of four texts, Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; 1 Pet. iii. 16; 2 Tim. i. 13; 1 Tim. iii. 15; an interpretation, based in the last instance upon false grammar, and in all the others refuted by the context. The other maxim, in the preface, he assumes as selfevident. In his first chapter he endeavours to prove Mr. Molyneux inconsistent with himself by eleven instances. The objections, however, are frivolous cavils rather than serious reasoning, as one example may show.

"In page 9. Conversion-and hence regeneration.

"In page 32. To convert or regenerate men's souls.

"In the first passage conversion and regeneration are two perfectly distinct things, one springing out of the other. In the second they are one and the same thing, which (as mathematicians say) is absurd."

We would refer this lynx-eyed logician to his own pamphlet, pp. 27, 29, and then desire him to digest as he can, his own argu

ment, by which he makes himself aver that a teacher and a Church are the same thing, and that to misinterpret a text is to omit it altogether.

The second chapter is employed in confounding regeneration with the "baptism of the Holy Ghost," two things entirely distinct, as allowed, we believe, by all sound divines. And further, if the identity were proved, it would be fatal to his own argument; for in no one instance was that baptism the direct result of baptism with water, but of prayer only on the day of Pentecost, or of the imposition of the Apostle's hands after baptism, or of prayer before baptism, as with Cornelius. The rest of the tract is occupied with remarks on baptismal remission of sins, and on the offices of the Church, with some unsound verbal criticisms, to which we may presently recur.

The pamphlet of Presbyter is more serious and weighty. The writer treats first of the Articles, and lays great stress on the words sure witnesses and effectual signs of grace, while he urges that Mr. Molyneux reduces the ordinance to an empty and ineffectual sign. From Article ix. he infers, by comparison with the Latin, that the Church uses baptized and regenerate as synonymous,-an argument urged also, if we remember, by the Bishop of London in his charge. He then proceeds to the Liturgy, and argues that the Church speaks with positive certainty of the promise, as performed at the time; that there is no hope expressed, but a giving of thanks for God's goodness. In the other services also, there is no prayer, he contends, for regeneration: it is always presupposed. In reply to the distinction of Mr. Faber and Mr. Molyneux, between a means of grace, and the means, the exposition is offered, a means of grace in general, but the means of baptismal grace or regeneration. But this ingenious turn has no warrant in the catechism. "A means whereby we receive the same" must clearly refer to the definite grace signified in the ordinance itself. The words imply that the grace is definite, but baptism not the sole or exclusive means for receiving it.

In the rest of his tract, Presbyter follows the order of the pamphlet to which he replies. He maintains that neither the patriarchs, nor the Apostles in the lifetime of Christ, were regenerate; that the first converts and St. Paul were baptized for the remission of sins; and that the words, John iii. 15, 1 Pet. ii. 15, prove the certain connexion of baptism with regeneration. The close is occupied with a strenuous argument for the final apostasy of true believers.

Mr. Bugg's "Key to Controversy" is of a very different chaHis main principle is that there is a twofold sense of

racter.

regeneration, and each of them recognized by Scripture and the Church. Simple regeneration is a vital, permanent change of the heart and will, the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. Complex regeneration is the former combined with baptism, being thus composed of two elements. This latter is the regeneration designed in the formularies of the Church, which are hypothetical, and presuppose simple regeneration, which can never be separated from faith and repentance. We will give the author's own summary, to explain his view more completely.

"I. The conclusion, therefore, to which we may now come, without fear of confutation, is the view with which we set out, that is, that

"1. Our offices and catechism treat not of regeneration in its simple and spiritual character, but in the complex and ecclesiastical meaning.

2. That complex regeneration, as there employed, embraces repentance, faith, and baptism.

"3. That repentance and faith are required before baptism, and in order to it; and form the inward and spiritual grace' of the sacrament of Christ's Church, and are essential to it.

"4. When, therefore, repentance and faith are not present at baptism, the inward and spiritual grace is wanting.

"5. But providing repentance and faith are both enjoyed, they constitute indeed simple or spiritual regeneration; but they do not constitute complex or ecclesiastical regeneration without baptism, which is equally, with repentance and faith, an essential part of such regeneration.

"II. We must further notice especially, that though repentance and faith, in other words, the birth of the Spirit, be required and professed in order to baptism, this requirement and this profession do not secure or ensure repentance and faith, any more than the requiring and professing loyalty to a sovereign, secures obedience to the laws of the sovereign.

1. If indeed any law, human or divine, ensured its own fulfilment, there could be no breach of the requirement, and need therefore be no penalty.

2. We find, therefore, as in every moral obligation, the profession of repentance and faith is often without the reality. In such cases, therefore, no complex regeneration can take place at baptism, because one essential qualification, the new birth, is wanting.

"3. Nevertheless, as persons are admitted to baptism by the external profession which is known, and not by the internal graces which are not known, it is plain that all the blessings attached to legitimate baptism must be pronounced on all persons alike. For baptism is administered on the PROFESSION, and therefore on the assumption of sincerity. They who lack it must answer for it, and suffer accordingly.

4. This is what makes complex regeneration at baptism, hypothetical: that is, conditional; as it necessarily depends on the presence of repentance and faith,' which to us are always uncertain.

“III. Thus, then, we have explained our baptismal offices, and find"1. That they teach (under the terms of renunciation, of repentance, and faith), if not in plain words, yet certainly in plain meaning, the requirement and necessity of the birth of the Spirit,' or 'simple regeneration,' BEFORE baptism, and in order to the beneficial effects of baptism, which benefits are suspended upon that holy change of nature by which baptism can only be duly received. For (as the 25th Article states respecting the sacrament) In such only as worthily (viz. by faith and rightly) receive the same, they have a wholesome effect or operation: but they that receive them unworthily, purchase to themselves damnation, as St. Paul saith.

"2. That they teach complex regeneration by baptism, which consists of