*

nant. For the true state of the case is thus. Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration; we believe that in that sacrament, to all who duly receive it, the grace and power of God's Holy Spirit is in such manner conveyed, that the baptized person, being now in covenant with God, becomes, by virtue of covenanted mercy and power, capable of subduing the natural corruption of his heart, and of doing works pleasing and acceptable to God. This is the beginning of the new life; it is, as one of our great divines expresses it, a step to our sanctification that hath not any before it. The Christian thus baptized is said to be born again. That is to say, man is now by baptism born to the purposes of holiness, grace, and eternal life; whereas by the former birth, which was the beginning of the natural life, he was born only to wickedness, wrath, and condemnation. "As we are not naturally men," says Hooker †, "without birth, so neither are we Christian men in the eye of the Church of God but by new birth; nor, according to the manifest ordinary course of divine dispensation, newborn, but by that Baptism which both declareth and maketh us Christians."

Hooker, Eccl. Pol. V. 60.

+ Id. ibid.

But though the seed of grace be first sown, though the capacity of holy thoughts and purposes be first given at the due reception of baptism; the Apostolical ministry of Confirmation seems to have been instituted, in order that further grace might be sought and obtained, before the new disciple was considered as firmly rooted and established in the faith.

For proof of this as matter of fact, we may allege the following narrative of St. Luke: "When the Apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (for as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost *."

On this passage it has been justly remarked:"These converts had received all the benefits conferred by Baptism. If some additional ministration had not been necessary, for what reason is it to be supposed that two Apostles should have gone from Jerusalem to lay hands upon those who had been baptized in Samaria † ?”

Acts viii. 14-17.

Shepherd on the Common Prayer.

The natural impression suggested by the words is, that something further was necessary to these Samaritan converts. It is, therefore, a matter of the deepest interest to ascertain: What was the nature of that additional benefit of which they stood in need? For we believe, that they were already born again of water and of the Holy Spirit; this is merely applying to their case the doctrine of Scripture and of the Catholic Church respecting the grace of baptism: nevertheless we are expressly told, that as yet the Holy Spirit had fallen upon none of them.

In order to the explanation of this subject it will be well to declare, so far at least as our present purpose is concerned, what the effect of Baptism is. In doing this, I will confine myself to that brevity which the occasion requires; and I will aim at that simplicity, from which, in treating this matter, I think it dangerous to depart. For as to all attempts at defining the precise manner of the Holy Spirit's regenerating operation, I cannot but think that they are strongly discountenanced by those words of our Saviour: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit *." Sure I am, that

• John iii. 8.

such exact and perfect knowledge cannot be needful to us for multitudes who have been regenerated, have afterwards grown in grace and been consummated in glory, though they never aspired to any such accurate comprehension of the benefit which they had obtained.

Respecting the grace of baptism, we may safely affirm this: it bestows a capacity of holiness. Of holiness man is by nature incapable: and the removal of this natural incapacity is an appropriate benefit of baptism. For this sacrament is the appointed means of our first obtaining remission of sin of our first deliverance from the wrath of God: of our being adopted into his favour: of being qualified for his sanctifying influences: of being entitled by covenant to the grace from which by nature we were excluded.

These advantages regeneration confers: but in order to our everlasting happiness, there is required something farther, which it does not confer.

For, besides the capacity of holiness, it is necessary to true sanctification, that there be the active power of it working upon a man's soul, actually prompting him to that which is good in thought, desire, and action. That every case of regeneration is attended with this active power, is a position

which, if we admit the validity of infant baptism, seems to contradict all our knowledge; and it certainly contradicts those constructions of Scripture language which have been sanctioned by the general approbation of the Christian Church *.

If it be thought that I have here expressed myself in too strong terms, I would beg the reader's attention to the following passage from a learned writer; and I am the more desirous of doing so, because it imbodies the sentiments of an illustrious father of the Church, whom the modern disciples of Calvin look upon, I believe, with great veneration. It ought to be premised, that this author is here discussing the effect of baptism: that effect being, on his view, one and the same thing with regeneration. When I say that it is so on his view, I am far from inclined to stamp on it the notion of peculiarity; for I do not find that any different view was ever acknowledged by any community of professing Christians earlier than about the middle of the sixteenth century. "Most of the pædobaptists," says he, "go no farther than St. Austin does; they hold that God, by his Spirit, does, at the time of baptism, seal and apply to the infant that is there dedicated to him, the promises of the covenant of which he is capable, viz. adoption, pardon of sin, translation from the state of nature to that of grace, &c. On which account the infant is said to be regenerated of [or by] the Spirit. Not that God does by any miracle at that time illuminate or convert the mind of the child. And, for original sin, or the corruption of nature, they hold that God, by his covenant, does abolish the guilt of it, receives the child to his mercy in Christ, and consigns to him, by promise, such grace as shall afterward, by the use of means, if he live, be sufficient to keep it under, but not wholly to extirpate it in this life. It is left as the subject of