BAPTISMAL REGENERATION, AS IT HAS BEEN STATED IN SOME RECENT TRACTS, WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE OF THE SANCTUARY: IN THREE DIALOGUES, BY THE REV. THOMAS T. BIDDULPH, M. A., MINISTER OF ST. JAMES'S, BRISTOL. .STI BAPTISMI EFFECTUS NEQUAQUAM ABSOLUTE SUSPENDUNTUR AB EX- IT "THE WORD OF GOD IS THE ORDINARY MEANS OF OUR REGENERATION PUBLISHED BY R. B. SEELEY AND W. BURNSIDE : AND SOLD BY L. AND G. SEELEY, FLEET STREET, LONDON. MDCCCXXXVII. PREFACE. Ir may be proper to inform the reader of the following pages, that the discussion contained in them was, in substance, published in the year 1816, under a different title from that which it has now assumed, and under circumstances also differing from those which have occasioned its re-appearance. It was then published as "Remarks" on a Tract which had recently been placed on the list of "the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge;" of which Society the author of the "Remarks" had long been a member. This Tract he thought unscriptural, and unwarranted by the formularies of the Church to which he deems it an inestimable privilege to belong. He considered the sentiments therein taught, to be very detrimental to the Society and to the Church of England, and dangerous to the members of both; and this induced him, though conscious of his own disqualifications for the task, to enter the field of controversy. The danger to the Church appears to him to be greatly increased by the zeal and energy with which, what he contemplates as a vital error, is B now propagated among candidates for the ministry, and throughout the country, by the Tracts for the Times,' now in course of publication at Oxford. The increased exertion, in circulating the opinions maintained in these Tracts, has arisen at a period when earth and hell seem to be leagued together for the destruction of that Church, which has been, and is, the main pillar of the Reformed religion. Popery, to which the dogma of Baptismal regeneration, in the character which it has assumed, is too nearly allied, is bringing into renewed action all its artifices and energies for the overthrow of "the faith once delivered to the saints," as it was recovered and restored at the time of the blessed Reformation. The sentiments imbibed by those who are annually going forth from our Universities, to become the accredited Ministers of our venerated Church, are inseparably and awfully connected with its safety as an establishment; and also with the spiritual and eternal welfare of their hearers throughout the length and breadth of our beloved country. re The following pamphlet has been now modelled in its form, and curtailed in its length, with a hope of increasing its circulation. To the first publication an appendix was subjoined, containing numerous extracts from the body of Protestant Confessions of faith; from the writings of our eminent Martyrs and Reformers, and other |