DOCTRINE OF REGENERATION.

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who live Christian life; but that those also are so regenerated who receive Baptism rightly, or, what in the case of infants, at least in a Christian country, amounts to the same thing, to whom Baptism is rightly administered, notwithstanding by their future conduct they may forfeit the privileges of their new birth." (Bampton Lecture.)

So far, we see that the Church of England does hold a doctrine of Regeneration in Baptism, but she does not hold that which is vulgarly understood by the title Baptismal Regeneration. For she does not hold, with Calvinists, that whoever is regenerate cannot fail of obtaining eternal salvation; nor does she hold with the majority of modern Separatists, that Conversion and renovation. constitute a part of Regeneration; nor does she hold, with the more fanatical of uninstructed Christians, that Regeneration suddenly takes place in some great crisis of the spiritual life, creating a revolution in the soul and implanting habits of piety by supernatural means. But she holds that the person regenerated, having been previously out of the favour of God, is thereby justified in His sight, being delivered from the guilt, and, in some degree, from the power of sin, and regarded with favour which could not previously have been extended to him. She holds that he is adopted in Christ into the family of God, being made a member of Christ's mystical body and united with Him as his mystical Head. She holds that God

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DOCTRINE OF REGENERATION.

the Holy Spirit is given to him, but given in such a way that His presence will be unavailing for sanctification unless and until the human will shall yield itself up to the influences of the Sanctifier.

It remains still to be seen whether this doctrine of Regeneration, as distinct from the popular misconceptions entertained about it, can, or cannot, be justified.

CHAPTER III.

THE test which the Church of England uses to prove the truth of her doctrines is Holy Scripture; and to show that her understanding of Holy Scripture is right, she appeals to the witness of the primitive Church. My present purpose, therefore, will be to show that the doctrine of Regeneration really held by the Church of England, as distinct from that which is often attributed to her, is in accordance with the plain statements of Scripture, and no other than that which was understood by the early Church to be the sense of those passages of Scripture which do not bear on their face their own interpretation.

1. I would first notice that a correction made in the translation of the Epistles by the writers of the Speaker's Commentary and by the Revisers of the New Testament, has thrown a light, new to those acquainted only with the English version, on the connexion of Baptism with Regeneration and salvation. This correction consists in the right rendering of the aorist tense, which the translation of 1611 always represents by a perfect. So remarkably does this aorist point to a definite act which took place at a particular time, that the Bishop

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SCRIPTURAL TEACHING.

of Derry calls it by the singular but forcible name of "St. Paul's baptismal tense" (Col. iii. 1). I will illustrate what I mean by a passage or two from the Epistle to the Ephesians. In the Authorised Version, in chap. ii. 5, we read, "God, . . . even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved), and hath raised us up together." In the Revised Version the rendering is, "God, . . even when we were dead through our trespasses, quickened us together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved), and raised us up with Him." The Authorised Version teaches that the Ephesian Christians had been transferred from the unregenerate state of death, when they were children of wrath, to a state of life and spiritual resurrection; but the Revised Version teaches further, that this took place at a definite moment. Not only had they been given life at some time indefinitely designated, but they were given it when by grace they were admitted into that state of salvation in which they still continued. Again, in chap. ii. 13, according to the Authorised Version, St. Paul, after describing the state of alienation in which they had been, says, "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were afar "off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Here the contrast between their non-Christian and their Christian state is marked, but in the original the aorist (eyevýŋte) being used, shows that St. Paul was contemplating a definite point of time at which

FORCE OF THE AORIST TENSE.

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'they were made nigh," that is to say, the moment when, "having believed, they were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" (i. 13).

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Again, the expression "The Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption (iv. 30, A. V.) implies that the Ephesian converts had been sealed by the Holy Ghost, but "in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption " (R. V.), designates a special act and moment by and in which the sealing was effected. So in the Epistle to the Colossians, note the change of "If ye be risen with Christ" (A. V.) to "If ye were raised with Christ" (R. V.); and of "ye are dead" to "ye died" (ch. iii. 1, 3); on which the Bishop of Derry comments, "Ye were raised once for all (St. Paul's baptismal tense-the aorist). Rising from death. is expressed in Baptism, and wrought out in each individual life which is true to baptismal grace."

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In like manner the following changes of rendering are significative in this direction: Rom. vi. 4, "We are buried with Him by Baptism into death" (A. V.); "We were buried with Him by Baptism into death" (R. V.): Ibid. 6, "Our old man is crucified with Him" (A. V.); "Our old man was crucified with Him" (R. V.): Ibid. 8, "If we be dead with Christ" (A. V.); "If we died with Christ” (R. V.): 1 Cor. xii. 13, "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit" (A. V.); "For in one Spirit