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righteousness], according to the same mode of regeneration [baptism] by which we ourselves were regenerated [baptized], for they are then 'washed with water in the name of the Father ' of the universe and the Lord God, and of our 'Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Ghost. "For Christ said, "Except ye be born again, ye 'shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."’* On this passage his Lordship remarks, that it decidedly proves what was the doctrine of regeneration in the primitive church of Christ.' With due deference to his Lordship, I must also remark upon it, that this passage only proves how JUSTIN used the term "regeneration" in this connexion, but not the doctrine. It is indeed agreeable to our Lord's words, that without baptism there is no entering into his kingdom, the church; and it is equally true, that no one shall enter into the spirituality of that kingdom without being "born of the Spirit."

§ 37. It is worthy of remark that JUSTIN does not confine the term "regeneration," or being "born again," to the ordinance of baptism. In his Dialogue with TRYPHO the Jew, he observes: "Jesus commanded us to love even our enemies which Isaiah also declared in many words, (εν οις και το μυστήριον παλιν της γενεσεως)

* Refut. p. 297.

in which [words of Isaiah] is the mystery of our regeneration, and in like manner [the regeneration] of all those who expected Christ's appearance in the [celestial] Jerusalem, and who had laboured to please him by their works.' The words to which he alludes are in Isa. lvi. 511. Neither in Isaiah nor in JUSTIN is there any allusion to baptism, but a totally different kind of regeneration, even a spiritual renovation; a regeneration of which they were partakers who had gone to heaven, from age to age, prior to Christ's ascension.

§ 38. There is one passage in JEROME which, at first sight, seems to militate against our view of election, but in truth, when properly understood, accords with our sentiments. "Paul a

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servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ,

according to the faith of God's elect; that is, ' of those who are not only called, but elected. There is also a great difference in the elect themselves, according to the variety of works, sentiments, and words. Nor does it follow that the elect of God either possesses faith according [in equal proportion] to election, or has the knowledge of truth according to [proportioned to the reality of] faith. Whence our Saviour 'said to the Jews who had believed in him,' If

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JUSTINI Opera, p. 312. Ed. 1686.

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ye continue in my word, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.' The 'evangelist testifies that he spoke these things 'to those who did believe, but who did not know the truth, which they would have in their power to obtain, if they would remain in his word, and being made free, they would cease to be slaves."'* The whole drift of this passage clearly shews, that what JEROME intended to assert, was simply this,-that among God's elect there are different degrees of faith, and among believers there are different degrees of knowledge. Is there any Calvinist to be found who would dispute this?

§ 39. I am unwilling to prosecute this exposure of his Lordship's misconceptions farther lest my readers should begin to complain of weariness. At the same time they must bear in mind that the catalogue is by no means complete. It would be easy, indeed, to produce several scores of pages out of those very quotations, which the Bishop has triumphantly brought forward as opposed to the tenets of Calvinism,' which, if fairly examined, have no real opposition to our sentiments, and which derive even the semblance of opposition from a peculiarity of expressions and phrases familiar

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to them, but seldom used by us,-expressions and phrases which may be very generally accounted for, by a careful consideration either of the prevailing errors of their day, which they laboured to subvert, or of the truths which they were solicitous to establish.

SECT. IV.

Quotations from the Fathers that are Unscriptural both in Language and Sentiment.

1. Remarks on the Christian Fathers as Teachers.

§ 2. Quotations respecting Man as the cause and preserver of his own goodness, from IRENÆUS. 3. From ORIGEN. 4. From ATHA

NASIUS. 5, 6. From CHRYSOSTOM. 7. From CLEMENT of Alexandria. §8. On the cause of difference and variety in creatures, from ORIGEN,

§ 9. On Free-Will ceasing with this life, from HILARY.

§ 10. On redemption, from HILARY.

§ 11. On the permission of good, from JEROME,

§ 12-14. On God being good not of necessity, from JEROME,
15. On Free-Will being weakened by grace, from JEROME.
§ 16, 17. On no one being born without Christ, from JEROME.
18, 19. On a middle life and a middle sentence, from JEROME,
20-25. Qn the doctrine of Election, from JEROME.

§ 26-28.-On Baptism conferring grace, from CHRYSOSTOM.
29. On graces given having no crowns, from CHRYSOSTOM.
§30-33. On grace not preventing our choice, from CHRYSOSTOM and
THEODORET.

§ 1. THE Christian Fathers did not propose themselves to the church of Christ as infallible teachers; in this respect, they occupied the same rank with Christian ministers in subsequent ages, those of the present day not excepted. They professed only to explain the sacred oracles, and their explanations have no claim of exemption from being brought to the test of liberal criticism and sound principles. There was a time, indeed, when the ipse dixit of a canonized

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