Ghost, and heirs of eternal happiness; they acquire a new name, a new hope, a new faith, a new rule of life. This great and wonderful change in the condition of man is as it were a new nature, a new state of existence; and the holy rite by which these invaluable blessings are communicated is by St. Paul figuratively called "Regeneration (q)," or New-birth. Many similar phrases occur in the New Testament, such as, "born of water and of the Spirit (r);" "begotten again unto a lively hope (s);" "dead in sins, and quickened together with Christ (t);" "buried with Christ in baptism (u);" "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible (r) :" these expressions all relate to a single act once performed upon every individual-an act essential to the character of a Christian, and of such importance that it is declared to be instrumental to our Salvation, "baptism doth now save us, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ (y);" "according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost (%);" except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (a)." "As we are not naturally

(9) Tit. c. 3. v. 5.
(s) I Pet. c. I. v. 3.
(u) Col. c. 2. v. 12.
(7) I Pet. c. 3. v. 21.

I

(r) John, c. 3. v. 5.
(t) Eph. c. 2. v. 5.
(x) 1 Pet. c. I. v. 23.
(z) Tit. c. 3. v. 5.
(a) John, c. 3. v. 3.

men

men without birth, so neither are we Christian men, in the eye of the church of God, but by new-birth; nor, according to the manifest ordinary course of divine dispensations, new-born, but by that baptism which both declareth and maketh us Christians. In which respect we justly hold it to be the door of our actual entrance into God's house, the first apparent beginning of life (b)." Christians then have, what Bishop Pearson calls "a double birth (c)," namely, a natural birth from Adam, and a spiritual birth from Christ. There cannot be two natural births, neither can there be two spiritual births. There cannot be two first entrances into a natural life, neither can there be two first entrances into a spiritual life. There cannot be a second Baptism, or a second Regeneration. Baptism conveys the promise of those privileges and blessings which God has been graciously pleased to annex to the profession of the Christian faith, and as "he is faithful that promised (d)," a repetition of the promise is never necessary; being once made by Him, "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning (e)," it continues in force for ever. The promise is indeed conditional; and if men neglect to perform the conditions, thay have no longer any claim

(b) Hooker, Book 5. (d) Heb. c. 10. v. 23.

(c) On the Creed, Art. 1.
(e) Jas. c. 1. v. 17.

claim to the privileges and blessings of the covenant into which they entered. Those Christians, who, in the primitive age, had fallen into error or relapsed into wickedness, are never in the New Testament exhorted to regenerate themselves, or taught to wait in a passive state for Regeneration by the Holy Ghost. They are called upon to be renewed, "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind (f);" "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind (g);" "The inward man is renewed day by day (h)," which indicates a progressive improvement, and not a sudden conversion. The restoring those who had departed from the truth as it is in Jesus, is not called regenerating them, but "renewing them again unto repentance (i)." St. John, in the Revelation, commands the churches, which held unsound doctrine, or were guilty of immoral practices, not to be regenerated, but to repent (j)." The word Regeneration therefore is in Scripture solely and exclusively applied to the one immediate effect of baptism once administered, and is never used as synonymous to the repentance or reformation of a Christian, or to express any operation of the Holy Ghost upon the human mind subsequent to baptism.

(f) Eph. c.4. v. 23.
(h) 2 Cor. c. 4. v. 16.
(j) Rev, c. 2. v. 5, & 16.

(g) Rom. c. 12. v. 2.
(i) Heb. c. 6. v. 6.
c. 3. v. 3, & 19.

baptism. "And the Christians did in all antient times continue the use of this name for baptism; so as that they never use the word regenerate or born again, but that they mean or denote by it baptism (k)."

We shall find this word used exactly in the same manner in our Liturgy, Articles, and Homilies. In the beginning of the service of Public Baptism of Infants, we pray, that the infant brought to be baptized "may be washed and sanctified with the Holy Ghost; may receive remission of his sins by spiritual Regeneration; may be born again; and that the old Adam may be so buried, that the new man may be raised up in him." Immediately after the priest has baptized the child by pronouncing the words commanded by our Saviour, and has signed him with the sign of the cross in token of his new profession, he proceeds to say, "Seeing now that this child is regenerate (1) and grafted into the

body

(k) Wall's Hist. of Inf. Bapt. Int. Sect. 6. (1) "There have been, says Dr. Nicholls on Common Prayer, some very unreasonable exceptions taken against this expression: as if all persons who are baptized were truly regenerate, whereas several of them prove afterwards very wicked. But this objection is grounded upon a modern notion of the word Regeneration, which neither the antient Fathers of the church,

body of Christ's church." And in the concluding prayer, the priest returns "thanks to God that it hath pleased him to regenerate this infant with the Holy Spirit, and to receive him for his own child by adoption, and to incorporate him into

his

nor the compilers of our Liturgy, knew any thing of. Indeed some writers of the last century run into this new fangled phrase, to denote conversion, or a returning from a lapsed state, after a notorious violation of the baptismal covenant, to an habitual state of holiness. But no antient writer that I know of, ever expressed this by the word Regeneration. Regeneration, as often as 'tis used in the Scripture books, signifies the baptismal Regeneration. There is but one word which answers to this in the New Testament, and that is Пaylevería, and that Пayleveσia refers to baptism, is plain, by having the word Arpov joined with it, According to his mercy he saved us, dià λrp Пayleverías, by the washing of Regeneration.'-Tit. c. 3. v. 5. Our Saviour indeed made use of the like expression before the Apostle to Nicodemus, Except a man yevlñ ävwbev be born again, hẹ cannot see the kingdom of God.'-John, c. 3. v. 3. But what he means by being born again, he explains, verse 5, by directing it positively to baptism; Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' Regeneration in the language of the Fathers constantly signifies the participation of the sacrament of baptism :" in proof of this he quotes passages both from the Greek and Latin Fathers, and adds, that the language of the schoolmen, and of "the most eminent divines of the Reformation," is exactly the same, the word keeping "the antient sense for 1600 years."