flesh', these phrases are in their opinion equivalent to the words New Birth, or being born again. It is evident that so far as Regeneration implies repentance and the renewal of the inner man, so far it implies the creation of a new heart, a new spirit, and a heart of flesh. But this renewal of the heart and spirit is described in these texts, compared with one another, as the joint work of God, or the Holy Ghost, and of man himself: as a gift or blessing bestowed on us by God, and as a duty which we owe to him and ourselves. On the other hand, Regeneration, though it requires certain previous qualifications in those who are capable of possessing them, is entirely the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit: a change in which the principle of self-action implanted in man bears no part.

In truth, there is no more than an apparent parallelism between these expressions. For those phrases, according to the customary usage of the sacred language, imply nothing more than a great change for the better, the reformation and improvement of the religious principles and behaviour. Whereas to be born again is a metaphor founded on a comparison of a different kind, and, on the common principles of figurative language, leads to the notion of a distinct change of condition; a passage, if I may so express myself, from one state of existence

Ezekiel xi. 19.-xxxvi. 26, 27. Jer. xxxii. 39.

to another. This is the sense in which the Fathers understood it; and accordingly they speak of three births incident to Christians: the Natural Birth, the New Birth of Baptism, and the Regeneration of the Body in the last day.

In addition to the argument deduced from the etymology of the word, and the natural force of the metaphor, every research which has been made into the history of this expression, confirms the sense which the Catholic Christians affixed to it; and the illustrations which this sense has received are derived from the most unsuspected sources'. In

1

Non solum Judæis sed gentibus etiam solenne fuit, sacrorum initiationem regenerationis vocabulo significare. Apuleius Met. XI. "Nam et inferûm claustra, et salutis tutela in Deæ manu posita; ipsaque traditio ad instar voluntariæ mortis, et precariæ salutis celebratur. Quippe cum transactis vitæ temporibus jam in ipso finitæ lucis limine constitutos, quîs tamen tutò possent magna religionis committi silentia, numen Deæ solet eligere, et suâ providentiâ renatos ad nova reponere rursus salutis curricula."

Apuleius diem initiationis natalem sacrum vocat, et Sacerdotem, a quo fuerat initiatus, appellat patrem suum— -" Stipatum me religiosâ cohorte deducit ad proximas balneas, et prius sueto lavacro traditum, præfatus Deum veniam, purissime circumrorans abluit." Justinianus Novell. 73. "Si quis manumittens

servum aut ancillam suam cives denuntiaverit Romanos, sciat ex hac lege, quod qui libertatem acceperit, ἕξει παρεπόμενον εὐθὺς καὶ τὸ τῶν χρυσῶν δακτυλίων, καὶ τὸ τῆς παλιγγενεσίας δίκαιον.” Servus manumissus natalibus restituitur, in quibus initio omnes homines fuerunt. Ergo ex jure Romano adoptionis et regenerationis voces interpretandæ sunt. Wetstein in John iii. 3.

All these usages of the word itself, or of equivalent phrases,

And

the writings of Pagans the word has been used to signify the act of initiation into their mysteries, when the votary, after much previous discipline and preparation, was supposed to pass into a new state of religious being, and to contract a new relation to the Deity. In the Roman law, the same phrase was applied to the manumission of a slave, his passage that is, from a servile to a free condition. there is little reason to doubt that the same figure of speech was applied by the Jewish doctors to the initiation of their proselytes into their law and religious polity. It is well ascertained that Baptism formed a part of this act of religion: and it appears both' from the conduct of John, and from 2 the questions which were put to him by the Pharisees, that Baptism was understood to be a sign of initiation, and a token of entrance into a new state of life, and new professions and engagements of a religious nature. Our Saviour therefore seems to have adopted the same mode of speaking in his conversation with the learned Jew, Nicodemus; intimating to him that if he wished to enter into the

serve to illustrate the meaning of the word Regeneration. In eo (says the learned Dodwell) versatur universa ferè Novi Testamenti argumentatio, ut quæcunque essent sive apud Judæos, sive apud Gentiles, privilegia de quibus gloriarentur, ea Christianis potiori præstantiorique ratione convenire probarentur. Diss. Cyp. 13.

1 Matt. iii. Mark i. Luke iii. John i.

2 John i. 19, &c.

kingdom of God, it was no less necessary for him to become his proselyte, to be initiated into the privileges and undertake the engagements of his religion, than it was for the Gentile to be initiated into the privileges and undertake the engagements of the Mosaic law, if he wished to partake of the civil and religious advantages of the Jewish polity'.

Hence, though in all these cases the New Birth implies a change of inward dispositions and habits, both as a qualification for it in capable subjects, and as a duty to which it binds the regenerated person, the change itself is distinct in theory from that change of habits and manners. But this distinction, to which the etymology of the word, the nature of the metaphor, and the history of the expression obviously conduct us, explaining and confirming that interpretation which was put upon it by the ancient Christians, will be rendered more apparent, when we institute an inquiry into those passages of Scripture which allude to this question, and lead us to conclude that such a change as we denominate Regeneration does actually take place in Baptism.

1

Baptism may be likewise styled Regeneration, or a New Birth, in a moral sense, because it is that point from whence we contract a solemn engagement to lead new or holy lives, and become new men by promise and profession.

CHAPTER IV.

AN INQUIRY INTO THE SCRIPTURAL AUTHORITY ON WHICH THIS DOCTRINE OF REGENERATION IN BAPTISM IS GROUNDED.

HAVING stated the reasons which appear to justify the appropriation of this word Regeneration to Baptism, I proceed to inquire into the Scriptural authority on which the doctrine, expressed by this term and other words of the same family, is grounded. I entertain no doubt that the ancient Christians understood these words in their proper signification, and departed neither from accurate phraseology, nor sound doctrine, when they used them in this limited and appropriate sense, to signify that sacramental and initiatory change which is described in the New Testament under a considerable variety of phrases. But the main point to be proved is, that such a change as they usually designate by the word Regeneration, a mysterious