THOUGHTS UPON 214. QUESTIONS OF EXISTING CONTROVERSY, IN LETTERS TO A FRIEND, No. E.-Baptismal Regeneration. BY THE REV. JOSEPH BAYLEE, M. A., PRINCIPAL OF ST. AIDAN'S THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE, BIRKENHEAD. LONDON: HATCHARD & SON, 187, PICCADILLY. 1850. e. 10. BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. MY DEAR FRIEND, I gladly comply with your wish to give you a few thoughts upon some religious questions which now so greatly exercise the minds of all who take any interest in religious matters. I prefer the freedom of a letter, because it will enable me to deal with the subject rather in the way of popular statement than of strict scholastic discussion. At the same time I trust I shall not write the less accurately or carefully, feeling the solemnity of handling Divine Truth. I shall commence, then, with Baptismal Regeneration, because that topic is likely for a considerable time to occupy the mind of the Church, more almost than any other. It is very strange, and, I may add, very humbling to see how little Scripture is referred to on either side of this great controversy. It is equally strange that no one stops to define accurately what he means by the term Regeneration. The consequence is, as might have been anticipated, very disastrous. Let me therefore first draw your attention to the Scriptural meaning of the word Regeneration, or its equivalents. I say its equivalents because it is clear that to be Children of the Most High, Children of the Lord God, Sons of God, Brethren, and similar appellations, infers either generation or regeneration. The use of the phrases forbids their application in many cases to natural birth, and therefore they must be referred to a supernatural birth. Now I think I shall satisfy your mind that Scripture speaks of a twofold Regeneration, the one Ecclesiastical, the other a Real Renovation. In quoting Ps. lxxxii. 6, our blessed Saviour says Scripture cannot be broken." John x. 35. We may therefore appeal to that passage in illustration of Scriptural phraseology. Its words are, "I have said ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High." This harmonizes with the language of Moses in Deut. xiv. 1, "Ye are the children of the Lord your God." Nor is such language confined to the Old Testament, for our Lord says, "The children of the kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness." Mat. viii. 12. A similar phrase occurs in his conversation with Nicodemus : "Born of water." John iii. 5. How could they be children, if not born? And if born, was it a mere natural birth? Surely not. Our Lord tells us they were those "unto whom the word of God came." John x. 35. You will remember that I am now not interpreting those passages, but simply shewing one use which holy Scripture makes of Scriptural phrases. The unhappy men referred to in Mat. viii. 12, could not have been children of the kingdom, unless they had been born into the kingdom, and yet as their end is, to be cast into outer darkness, it cannot be reasonably denied that Scripture speaks of a regeneration which is not a renewal of nature, and which does not confer everlasting salvation. A farther inquiry is, whether Holy Scripture speaks of a regeneration of another kind. I have no hesitation in saying that it does, and that that regeneration is not necessarily connected with the former. The Regenerate spoken of in the First Epistle of St. John are not the baptized; that is, all the baptized have not that regeneration. For example: "If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him." Chap. ii. 29. "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the Sons of God! Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the Sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." Chap. iii. 1, 2. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." Chap. iii. 9, 10. "Every one that loveth is born of God." Chap. iv. 7. |