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ON BAPTISMAL REGENERATION.

The following Dialogues are supposed to have taken place between an Undergraduate member of the University of Oxford. returned home to his Native Village for the long Vacation, and the Clergyman of his parish, who had been his Tutor in his earlier years.

DIALOGUE I.

CLERGYMAN. Ah, my young friend, I am truly glad to see you once more returned home, and apparently in the enjoyment of health. I am led to hope by your looks, that you have not suffered by too close an application to study.

UNDERGRADUATE. I am truly glad to have another opportunity of paying my respects to you, my dear Sir, to whom I am so deeply indebted.

C. Allow me also to congratulate you, on having passed the final examination for your degree and that with so much credit to yourself,

U. Sir, I again thank you; but whatever credit my examination has gained for me is due, under God, to you, for the wholesome discipline and instruction of my younger years. Your kindness and wisdom, in conducting my education, can never be erased from my memory.

C. Well, my young friend, it becomes us both to give Him thanks, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works proceed.' Have you brought us any news from Alma Mater? You know we must always feel interested in a place endeared by recollections of our youthful days, and whose welfare is so intimately connected with that of our beloved and venerated Church.

U. You know, Sir, that a college life furnishes very little variety: and that the routine of its business is the same, day after day. But I suppose that your question adverts to a subject, which has certainly engrossed no inconsiderable degree of attention, and produced great excitement, especially among many of the junior members of the university. I mean the publications entitled Tracts for the Times.'

C. My question had a special reference to these tracts, together with some other intelligence from Oxford, which has reached even this distant part of the kingdom. You say that these tracts have engaged great attention, and produced great excitement.

U. They have; and perhaps one principal cause of that excitement has been the character of the persons from whom they have proceeded.

C. The character of an author, so far as it is known, must have an effect on the productions of his pen, either recommendatory or otherwise. And this is more particularly the case, with respect to religious publications. The piety of the man pleads strongly in favour of his orthodoxy. But I hardly need remark, that this argument must not be pushed too far. The best of men have erred, and may err. There is only one safe criterion of truth. You recollect perhaps, the article of our Church, which speaks on this subject.

Sufficiency of the

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U. You mean that on the Scriptures. It is as follows. 'Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.'

C. This is a very important decision, which we should carry with us through every inquiry we may institute in answer to the question, "What is truth?" There is but one standard.-Among the various topics which have been discussed in the Tracts for the Times," which appears to you of the greatest importance?

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U. I should select the doctrine of Baptismal

Regeneration. And one of the benefits which I have anticipated in my return home, has been your opinion on this subject. And as it has long been a subject of controversy, you, my dear Sir, must have maturely considered it, and made up your mind on it.

C. I am quite ready to state to you the decision on this controversy, to which my mind has been brought, and the reasons on which it is founded. But you must be aware of the importance of a clear and comprehensive definition, in all controversial discussion, of the subject to be discussed, and of adhering closely to that definition. And this is particularly necessary in discussing the subject which you have started, as many of those who have written on it have varied their definition, to suit the course of their own argument, or to parry that of their opponents. I could produce many instances of this illogical mode of arguing. Now, the subject which we are at present to discuss, is the doctrine of Regeneration, the inward and spiritual grace, of which the divinely-instituted rite of

1 Whenever this phrase is used in the following pages, it is used to designate the doctrine, that a' death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness,' our church's definition of the inward and spiritual grace of which baptism is a 'sign and pledge, always accompany the due administration of the rite of baptism, so that no one is dead to sin and new born to righteousness who has not been baptized with water; and that every one, who has been baptized, has thereby become 'dead to sin, and born again unto righteousness.'

Baptism is the sign and seal. How shall we define the term? We cannot, I think, do this better than by using the words of the Church Catechism. Will you recite the questions and answers which relate to the subject of Baptism?

U.

ment?'

What meanest thou by this word Sacra

ANS. 'I mean an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, given unto us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof.' QUES. 'How many parts are there in a Sacra

ment?'

A. Two: the outward visible sign, and the inward spiritual grace.'

Q. What is the outward visible sign or form in Baptism?'

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A. Water, wherein the person is baptized, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'

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Q. What is the inward spiritual grace?'

A. 'A death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness: for being by nature born in sin and the children of wrath, we are HEREBY1 made the children of grace.'

1 "HEREBY" most clearly refers and is limited to the inward spiritual grace, the immediate antecedent, and not to the outward visible sign or form. This word has been grie. vously misapplied.

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