and again: "He must trust only in God's mercy, and that sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour Christ Jesus the Son of God once offered for us upon the Cross to obtain there by God's grace remission as well of our original sin in Baptism as of all actual sin committed by us after our Baptism, if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly to Him again" (Ibid. p. 23). In the Homily on Repairing and Keeping Clean of Churches occur the words, "the fountain of our Regeneration is there presented unto us" (Ibid. p. 244). In the Homily on Fasting, Baptism is described as "the sacrament of our Regeneration or new birth" (Ibid. p. 258). In the Homily on the Passion it is said that "we be therefore washed in our Baptism from the filthiness of sin, that we should live afterwards in pureness of life" (Ibid. p. 369). In the Homily on Swearing we find "By holy promises, with calling the name of God to witness, we be made lively members of Christ when we profess His religion, receiving the sacrament of Baptism" (Ibid. p. 64).

The conclusions drawn by Bishop Bethell respecting the teaching of the Liturgy, Articles, and Homilies, are as follows:

"1. They maintain the doctrine of Regeneration. in Baptism in the most decided manner, grounding it on the same texts of Scripture from which the ancient Christians have deduced it; including under it forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy

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BISHOP BETHELL'S CONCLUSIONS.

Ghost, and the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, and never introducing the word itself except in conjunction with Baptism.

"2. They teach, in common with the writings of the early Christians, the necessity of faith and repentance as qualifications for the salutary effects of Baptism. But they never contemplate any person, however qualified, as regenerate till he is actually baptized.

"3. They suppose that infants, who are necessarily free from actual sin, are duly qualified for Baptism, and are looked on by God precisely in the same light as penitents and believers; and they unequivocally assert that every baptized infant, without exception, is born again.

"4. They suppose that all baptized persons, whether infants or adults, contract a solemn engagement to holiness and newness of life; and that their continuance in a state of salvation depends on their future conduct.

"5. They lay down a very plain and broad distinction between this grace of Regeneration, and Conversion, repentance, renovation, and such Christian virtues and changes of the inward frame as require the concurrence of man's will and endeavours, imply degrees, and are capable of increase." (Doctrine of Regeneration in Baptism.)

Whether these conclusions of Bishop Bethell require any modification or not, we have not yet considered.

CHAPTER II.

We have seen that, according to the mind of the Church of England, there is a connexion in the way of cause and effect between Baptism and Regeneration. Indeed, I believe that there is no authoritative document of the Church of England which uses the word Regeneration or regenerate in any other relation, unless it may perhaps be the Homily for Whit-Sunday, where the word appears to be employed in a looser and more popular acceptation. But what does the Church of England mean by the term Regeneration, when she thus connects it with the Sacrament of Baptism?

1. She does not mean by it any conscious or active co-operation on the part of the subject with God the Holy Ghost. She does not mean a fierce struggle with sin ending in an assurance of peace. She does not mean self-condemnation, abhorrence of sin, penitence, nor again faith, belief, confidence, hope. In the case of the adult, indeed, repentance and faith are required as qualifications for Baptism, without which Regeneration will not be effected, but they are not themselves that gift of Regeneration which they qualify the adult candidate for Baptism to receive. The Church of England never confounds the two spiritual processes of Regeneration and Conversion.

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WHAT REGENERATION IS NOT.

2. She does not include renovation under the term Regeneration. Both Regeneration and renovation are the work of the Holy Ghost, but Regeneration is an act once for all accomplished; renovation is a process year by year, day by day, hour by hour, continued; beginning after the act of Regeneration has been accomplished, and required by the Christian for his constant support throughout his life.

3. She does not mean by Regeneration the implantation of new habits in the soul, so that he that was before a mass of corruption, incapable of apprehending or desiring that which was good, becomes suddenly changed into a spiritual man, with chastened feelings and dispositions and formed habits of religion.

4. She does not mean by it a sensible change, felt at the moment by the individual who undergoes it, and wrought amidst the excitement of high-strung feeling and strong crying.

5. She does not mean by it such a gift of the Holy Ghost as necessarily implies a continued advancement in well-doing, and final perseverance on the part of those who receive it. If she meant any of these things by the term Regeneration, she could not hold that Regeneration was an effect of Baptism.

The grace of Baptism, which in one word is called Regeneration, is considered by the Church of England to consist of (1) Remission of sins,

WHAT REGENERATION IS.

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original and, if so be, actual. (2) The gift of the presence of the Holy Spirit. (3) The conditional, but only conditional, assurance of eternal life. So much appears from the expressions of the Baptismal services. Further, it comprises (1) Engrafting into the body of Christ. (2) Adoption into the family of God. (3) A present position within God's kingdom on earth and a prospective inheritance of the blessings of His kingdom hereafter. For, in the words of the Catechism, each of us is "herein made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.” This grace is supposed by some to constitute merely a change in the federal relation towards God entered into by the baptized; by others it is supposed to imply a spiritual change or change of condition; by others, a moral change, or change of disposition. That a federal relation is entered into seems clear, for it is by Baptism that we are admitted into covenant with God. Before Baptism we were not in covenant with Him. Baptism is the formal act which admits us. The fact of being in covenant with God must clearly create a federal relation between God and man. But this is not all. It is plain, too, that a spiritual change must be effected, for one who has become a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven, is not in the same spiritual condition in which he was before. But a moral change is not included in the idea of Regeneration,