J.H. Newman preaches about the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration, emphasizing that Baptism is not merely a symbolic act but a means of grace where the soul is admitted to the benefits of Christ's Atonement, including forgiveness of sin, reconciliation to God, and adoption into God's kingdom. The doctrine holds that Baptism is rightly received when there are no hindrances like impenitence or unbelief, making infants suitable recipients. Various questions arise regarding the grace given in Baptism, the conveyance of blessings, the role of Baptism in forgiveness of sins, and the state of infants dying unbaptized. The doctrine also explores the instantaneous work of Regeneration in Baptism, the indelible change in the soul, and the suspension of grace on the condition of fulfilling the covenant.

CONSIDERING the confidence and zeal with which modern and unscriptural views on the subject of Christian Baptism are put forth at the present time, it will not be unseasonable to present the reader with some testimonies from the writings of Anglican Divines in behalf of the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration. By this doctrine is meant, first, that the Sacrament of Baptism is not a mere sign or promise, but actually a means of grace, an instrument, by which, when rightly received, the soul is admitted to the benefits of CHRIST's Atonement, such as the forgiveness of sin, original and actual, reconciliation to GOD, a new nature, adoption, citizenship in CHRIST's kingdom, and the inheritance of heaven,--in a word, Regeneration. And next, Baptism is considered to be rightly received, when there is no positive obstacle or hindrance to the reception in the recipient, such as impenitence or unbelief would be in the case of an adult; so that infants are necessarily right recipients of it, as not being yet capable of actual sin. So much as these two positions is certainly held by every one of the authors of the following passages, though it is impossible to bring out their full meaning in such brief extracts, however carefully selected. There is a variety of questions connected with the subject beyond the two positions above set down, on which the writers under review differ more or less from each other, but not so as in the slightest degree to interfere with their clear and deliberate maintenance of these. Such, for instance, as the following:--Whether grace be given in and through the water, or only contemporaneously with it. Again, whether Baptism, strictly speaking, conveys the blessings annexed to it, or simply admits into a state gifted with those blessings, as being the initiatory rite of the covenant of mercy. Or, again, whether or not Baptism, besides washing away past sin, admits into a state in which, for sins henceforth committed, Repentance stands in place of a Sacrament, so as to ensure forgiveness without specific ordinance; or whether the Holy Eucharist is that ordinance; or whether the full and explicit absolution of sin after Baptism is altogether put off till the day of judgment. Or, again, there may be difference of opinion as to the state of infants dying unbaptized. Or, again, whether Regeneration is an instantaneous work completed in Baptism, or admits of degrees and growth. Or, again, whether or not the Holy Spirit can utterly desert a soul once inhabited by Him, except to quit it for ever. Or, whether the change in the soul made by Baptism is indelible, for good or for evil; or may be undone, as if it had never been. Or, how far the enjoyment of the grace attached to it is suspended on the condition of our doing our part in the covenant. All these are questions, far from unimportant, but which do not at present come into consideration; the one point, maintained in the following extracts, being, that infants are by and at baptism unconditionally translated from a state of wrath into a state of grace and acceptance for CHRIST's sake. List of Authors cited. 1. Jewell. 2. Hooker. 3. Andrews. 4. Donne. 5. Field. 6. Jackson. 7. Laud. 8. Bramhall. 9. Hammond. 10. Taylor. 11. Heylin. 12. Allestrie. 13. Barrow. 14. Thorndike. 15. Pearson. 16. Bull. 17. Comber. 18. Ken. 19. Patrick. 20. Beveridge. 21. Sharp. 22. Scott. 23. Jenkin. 24. Sherlock. 25. Wall. 26. Potter. 27. Nelson. 28. Waterland. 29. Kettlewell. 30. Hickes. 31. Johnson. 32. Leslie. 33. Wilson. 34. Bingham. 35. Skelton. 36. Horne. 37. Jones. 38. Heber. 39. Jebb. 40. Van Mildert. 41. Mant. NB. It would be easy to extend this list, were it necessary: vid. Cosin's Devotions, Stanhope's Boyle Lectures, &c. JEWELL, BISHOP.--Treatise on Sacraments. "They (the sacraments) are not bare signs; it were blasphemy so to say. The grace of GOD doth always work with His sacraments; but we are taught not to seek that grace in the sign, but to assure ourselves by receiving the sign, that it is given us by the thing signified. We are not washed from our sins by the water, we are not fed to eternal life by the bread and wine, but by the precious blood of our Saviour CHRIST, that lieth hid in these sacraments." p. 263. For this cause are infants baptized, because they are born in sin, and cannot become spiritual but by this new birth of the water and the Spirit. They are the heirs of the promise; the covenant of GOD's favour is made unto them. GOD said to Abraham, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee." "Therefore," saith the Apostle, "If the root be holy, so are the branches." And again, "The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; else were your children unclean; but now are they holy." When the disciples rebuked those that brought little children to CHRIST, that he might touch them, he said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of GOD." And again, "Their angels always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." p. 265. "The water wherein we are baptized doth not cleanse the soul;" but, "the blood of JESUS CHRIST his Son doth cleanse us from all sin." Not the water, but the blood of CHRIST reconcileth us unto GOD, strengtheneth our conscience, and worketh our redemption. We must seek salvation in CHRIST alone, and not in any outward thing. Hereof saith Cyprian, "Remissio peccatorum, sive per baptismum, sive per alia sacramenta donetur, proprie spiritus sancti est. Verborum solemnitas," &c. "The remission of sins, whether it be given by baptism, or by any other sacraments, does properly appertain to the Holy Ghost. The solemnity of the words, and the invocation of GOD'S holy Name, and the outward signs appointed to the ministry of the priest by the institution of the Apostles, work the visible outward sacrament. But touching the substance thereof, it is the Holy Ghost that worketh it." St. Ambrose also saith, "Vidisti fontem, vidisti sacerdotem," &c. "Thou hast seen the water, thou hast seen the priest, thou hast seen those things which thou mightest see with the eyes of thy body, and with such sight as man hath: but those things which work and do the deed of salvation, which no eye can see, thou hast not seen." "Such a change is made in the sacrament of baptism. Through the power of GOD'S working the water is turned into blood. They that be washed in it receive the remission of sins; their robes are made clean in the blood of the Lamb. The water itself is nothing; but by the working of GOD'S Spirit, the death and merits of our Lord and Saviour CHRIST, are thereby assured unto us. "A figure hereof was given at the Red Sea. The children of Israel passed through in safety; but Pharaoh and his whole army were drowned. Another figure hereof was given in the ark. The whole world was drowned, but Noah and his family were saved alive. Even so in the fountain of baptism, our spiritual Pharaoh, the devil, is choked: his army, that is, our sins are drowned, and we are saved. The wicked of the world are swallowed in concupiscence and vanities, and we abide safe in the ark: GOD hath chosen us to be a peculiar people to Himself; we walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, therefore we are in CHRIST JESUS, and there is now no condemnation unto us. "Now touching the minister of this sacrament, whether he be a good man or an evil man, GODly or GODless, an heretic or a Catholic, an idolater or a true worshipper of GOD: the effect is all one, the value or worthiness of the sacrament dependeth not of man, but of GOD. Man pronounceth the word, but GOD settleth our hearts with grace; man toucheth or washeth us with water, but GOD maketh us clean by the cross of CHRIST. It is not the minister, but CHRIST Himself which is the Lamb of GOD that taketh away the sins of the world." p. 266. Ibid.--Reply to M. Harding's Censure, p. 249. And forasmuch as these two sacraments, being both of force like, these men [the Romanists] to advance their fantasies in the one, by comparison so much abase the other: and specially for the better opening of Chrysostom's mind, I think it good, briefly and by the way, somewhat to touch what the old Catholic Fathers have written of GOD'S invisible working in the Sacrament of Baptism. Dionysius generally of all mysteries writeth thus: "Angeli Deum," &c. "The angels being creatures spiritual, so far forth as it is lawful for them, behold GOD, and his godly power, But we are led as we may, by sensible outward tokens," (which he calleth images) "unto the contemplation of heavenly things." The Fathers, in the Council of Nice, say thus: "Baptism must be considered, not with our bodily eyes, but with the eyes of our mind. Thou seest the water; think thou of the power of GOD, that in the water is hidden. Think thou that the water is full of heavenly fire, and of the sanctification of the Holy Ghost." Chrysostom, speaking likewise of baptism, saith thus: "Ego non aspectu judico ea, quas videntur, sed mentis oculis," Sec. "The things that I see, I judge not by sight, but by the eyes of my mind. The heathen, when he heareth the water of baptism, taketh it only for plain water: but I see not simply, or barely, that I see; I see the cleansing of the soul by the Spirit of GOD." So likewise saith Nazianzenus: "Mysterium (baptismi) majus est, quam ea quas videntur:" "The mystery of baptism is greater than it appeareth to the eye." So St. Ambrose: "Aliud est, quod visibiliter agitur; aliud quod invisibiliter celebratur:" "In baptism there is one thing done visibly to the eye; another thing is wrought invisibly to the mind." Again he saith, "Believe not only the bodily eyes (in this sacrament of baptism): the thing that is not seen, is better seen: the thing that thou seest is corruptible; the thing that thou secst not is for ever." To be short, in consideration of these invisible effects, Tertullian saith, "The Holy Ghost cometh down and halloweth the water." St. Basil saith, "The kingdom of heaven is there set open." Chrysostom saith, "GOD himself in baptism, by his invisible power, holdeth thy head." St. Ambrose saith, "The water hath the grace of CHRIST; in it is the presence of the Trinity." St. Bernard saith, "Let us be washed in his blood." "By the authorities of thus many ancient Fathers, it is plain, that in the sacrament of baptism, by the sensible sign of water, the invisible grace of GOD is given unto us." HOOKER, PRESBYTER AND DOCTOR.--On Ecclesiastical Polity. Book v. 60. Unless as the Spirit is a necessary inward cause, so water were a necessary outward mean, to our regeneration, what construction should we give unto those words wherein we are said to be new born, and that ex udatoV, even of water? Why are we taught, that with water GOD doth purify and cleanse His Church? Wherefore do the Apostles of CHRIST term baptism a bath of regeneration? What purpose had they in giving men advice to receive outward baptism, and in persuading them it did avail to remission of sins? If outward baptism were a cause in itself possessed of that power, either natural or supernatural, without the present operation whereof no such effect could possibly grow, it must then follow, that seeing effects do never prevent the necessary causes out of which they spring, no man could ever receive grace before baptism: which being apparently both known, and also confessed to be otherwise, in many particulars, although in the rest we make not baptism a cause of grace; yet the grace which is given them with their baptism, doth so far forth depend on the very outward sacrament, that GOD will have it embraced, not only as a sign or token what we receive, but also as an instrument or means whereby we receive grace, because baptism is a sacrament which GOD hath instituted in His Church, to the end that they which receive the same might thereby be incorporated into CHRIST; and so through His most precious merit obtain, as well that saving grace of imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness, as also that infused divine virtue of the Holy Ghost which giveth to the powers of the soul their first disposition towards future newness of life. There are that elevate too much the ordinary and immediate means of life, relying wholly upon the bare conceit of that eternal election, which notwithstanding includeth a subordination of means, without which we are not actually brought to enjoy what GOD secretly did intend; and therefore, to build upon GOD'S election, if we keep not ourselves to the ways which He hath appointed for men to walk in, is but a self.deceiving vanity. When the Apostle saw men called to the participation of Jesus CHRIST, after the Gospel of GOD embraced, and the sacrament of life received, he feareth not then to put them in the number of elect saints; he then accounteth them delivered from death, and clean purged from all sin. Till then, notwithstanding their preordination unto life, which none could know of, saving GOD, what were they, in the Apostle's own account, but children of wrath, as well as others, plain aliens, altogether without hope, strangers, utterly without GOD in this present world? So that by sacraments, and other sensible tokens of grace, we may boldly gather, that He whose mercy vouchsafeth now to bestow the means, hath also sithence intended us that whereunto they lead. But let us never think it safe to presume of our own last, and by bare conjectural collections of his first intent and purpose, the means failing that should come between. Predestination bringeth not to life without the grace of eternal vocation, wherein our baptism is implied. For as we are not naturally men 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 new born, but by that baptism which both declareth and maketh us Christians. In which respect, we justly hold it to be the door of our actual entrance into GOD'S house, the first apparent beginning of life, a seal perhaps to the grace of election before received; but to our sanctification here, a step that hath not any before it. Ibid. 64. Were St. Augustine now living, there are which would tell him for his better instruction, that to say of a child, it is elect, and to say, it doth believe, are all one; for which cause, sith no man is able precisely to affirm the one of any infant in particular, it followeth that precisely and absolutely we ought not to say the other. Which precise and absolute terms are needless in this case. We speak of infants as the rule of piety alloweth both to speak and think. They that can take to themselves in ordinary talk, a charitable kind of liberty to name men of their own sort GOD'S dear children, (notwithstanding the large reign of hypocrisy,) should not, methinks, be so strict and rigorous against the Church, for presuming as it doth of a Christian innocent. For when we know how CHRIST in general hath said, of such is the kingdom of heaven, which kingdom is the inheritance of GOD'S elect; and do withal behold how His providence hath called them unto the first beginnings of eternal life, and presented them at the well-spring of new birth, wherein original sin is purged, besides which sin there is no hindrance of their salvation known to us, as themselves will grant; hard it were that having so many fair inducements whereupon to ground, we should not be thought to utter, at the least, a truth as probable and allowable in terming any such particular infant an elect babe, as in presuming the like of others whose safety, nevertheless, we are not absolutely able to warrant. ANDREWS, BISHOP AND DOCTOR.--On the Holy Ghost. Serm. viii. Now CHRIST is baptized. And no sooner is He so, but He falls to His prayers, Indigentia mater orationis, (we say) want begets prayer: therefore, yet there wants somewhat--a part, and that a chief part of baptism is still behind. There goes more to baptism, if it be as it should be, than baptismus fluminis, yea, (I may boldly say,) there goes more to it, if it be as it should, than baptismus sanguinis. CHRIST "came in water and blood, not in water only, but in water and blood:" that is not enough, except the "Spirit also bear witness." So baptismus flaminis is to come too. There is to be a Trinity beneath,--1. water, 2. blood, and 3. the Spirit, to answer to that above: but (the Spirit's baptism coming too) in the mouth of all three, all is made sure, all established thoroughly. This is it, He prays for, as man. For the baptism of blood that was due to every one of us, (and each of us to have been baptized in his own blood, to have had three such immersions,) that hath CHRIST quit us of. When he was asked by the prophet, "How his robes came so red?" He says, "He had been in the wine press;" but there He had been, and that "He had trod alone, and not one of the people with Him;" none but He there; in that, spare us in that. But the other two parts He sets down precisely to Nicodemus (and in him, to us all,)--1. water, 2. and the Holy Ghost.... St. Paul tells us (Col. ii.) that besides the circumcision, that was the manufacture, there was another made without hands. There is so in baptism, besides the hand seen, that casts on the water, the virtue of the Holy Ghost is there, working, without hands, what here was wrought. And for this CHRIST prays; that then it might, might then, and might ever, be joined to that of the water. Not in his baptism only, but in the people's; and (as he afterwards enlarges His prayer) in all others that "should ever after believe in His name:" that what in His (here) was, in all theirs might be; what in this first, in all following; what in CHRIST'S, in all Christians; heaven might open, the Holy Ghost come down, the Father be pleased to say over the same words, toties quoties, so oft as any Christian man's child is brought to his baptism. CHRIST hath prayed, now, See the force of His prayer. Before it heaven was mured up, no dove to be seen, no voice to be heard, Altum silentium. But straight upon it (as if they had but waited the last word of His prayer) all of them follow immediately. Heaven opens, first. For, if when the lower heaven was shut three years, Elias was able with his prayer to open it, (it is our Saviour in the next chapter following,) and bring down rain; the prayer of CHRIST (who is more of might than many such as Elias) shall it not be much more of force, to enter the Heaven of heavens, the highest of them all, and to bring down thence the waters "above the heavens," even the heavenly graces of the Holy Spirit? For so, when our Saviour cried, (John vii.) "If any thirst," &c. "This (saith St. John) He spake of the Spirit." For the Spirit and His graces are the very supercelestial water; one drop whereof, infused into the waters of Jordan, will give them an admirable power to pierce even into the innermost parts of the soul: and to baptize it, (that is) not only to take out the stains of it, and make it clean; but further, give it a tincture, lustre, or gloss; for so is baptism properly of baptw, taken from the dyer's fat, and is a dying or giving a fresh colour, and not a bare washing only. Always, the opening of heaven, opens unto us, that no baptism without heaven open: and so, that baptism is de caelo non ab hominibus, from heaven, not of men. So was it here; so is it to be holden for ever. 2. And from heaven; not clanculum (as Prometheus is said to get his fire), but anewcqhnai, orderly, by a fair door set open, in the view of much people; for all that were present saw the impression in the sky. Which door was not mured up again; for we find it still open, (Apoc. iiii.) and we find that keys were made, and given of it, after this. 3. And all this, that there might not only be a passage for these down, but for us up. For heaven gate, ab hoc exemplo, doth ever open at baptism; in sign, he that new cometh from the fount hath then right of entrance in thither. Then (I say) when by baptism he is cleansed; for before, Nihil inquinatum, nothing defiled can enter there. DONNE, PRESBYTER.--Serm. xxxi. p. 309. The water of Baptism, is the water that runs through all the Fathers; all the Fathers that had occasion to dive or dip in these waters (to say anything of them) make these first waters, in the creation, the figure of baptism. Therefore Tertullian makes the water, Primam sedem Spiritus Sancti, the progress, and the settled house, the voyage, and the harbour, the circumference, and the centre of the Holy Ghost. And therefore St. Hierome calls these waters, Matrem mundi, the Mother of the world; and this in the figure of baptism. The waters brought forth the whole world, were delivered of the whole world, as a mother is delivered of a child; and this, in figura baptismi, to foreshew that the waters also should bring forth the Church; that the Church of GOD should be born of the Sacrament of Baptism. So says Damascen, and he establishes it with better authority than his own. The divine Basil said, (saith he) "The Spirit of GOD wrought upon the waters in the creation, because he meant to do so after, in the regeneration of man. And therefore, Pristinam sedem recognoscens conquiescit, till the Holy Ghost have moved upon our children in baptism, let us not think all done that belongs to those children; and when the Holy Ghost hath moved upon those waters, so in baptism, let us not doubt of His power and effect upon all those children that die so. We know no means how those waters could have produced a minnow, a shrimp, without the Spirit of GOD had moved upon them; and by this motion of the Spirit of GOD, we know they produce whales, and leviathans. We know no ordinary means of any saving grace for a child but baptism; neither are we to doubt of the fulness of salvation, in them that have received it. And for ourselves, mergimur et emergimus, in baptism we are sunk under water, and then raised above the water again; which was the manner of baptizing in the Christian Church, by immersion, and not by aspersion, till of late times: Affectus et amores, (says he,) our corrupt affections, and our inordinate love of this world is that, that is to be drowned in us; Amor securitatis, a love of peace, and holy assurance, and acquiescence in GOD's ordinance, is that that lifts us above water. Therefore that Father puts all upon the due consideration of our baptism: and as St. Jerome says, Certainly he that thinks upon the last Judgment advisedly, cannot sin thus; so he that says with St. Augustine, Let me make every day to GOD, this confession: Domine, &c. O Lord my GOD, O holy, holy, holy Lord my GOD; I consider that I was baptized in thy name, and what thou promised me, and what I promised thee then, and can I sin this sin? can this sin stand with those conditions, those stipulations which passed between us then? The Spirit of GOD is motion, the Spirit of GOD is rest too; and in due consideration of baptism, a true Christian is moved, and settled too; moved to a sense of the breach of his conditions, settled in the sense of the mercy of his GOD, in the merits of his CHRIST, upon his GODly sorrow. So these waters are the waters of baptism. FIELD, PRESBYTER.--Of the Church, book i. chap. xii. This was the fault of sundry in the Primitive Church; and which was yet more to be condemned, many did therefore defer and put off their baptism, that so whatsoever evil things they did in the mean time, might in that laver of new birth be washed away, thereby taking greater liberty to offend, for that they had so present means of full remission, and perfect reconciliation; so making that which was ordained against sin, and for the weakening and overthrow of it, to be an encouragement thereunto, and to give life and strength unto it. JACKSON, PRESBYTER AND DOCTOR.--On CHRIST's exercise of his everlasting Priesthood, ch. i. (vol. iii. p. 271.) It is no part of our Church's doctrine or meaning, that the washing, or sprinkling infants' bodies with consecrated water, should take away sins by its own immediate virtue. To affirm thus much implies, as I conceive, a contradiction to that apostolical doctrine. "The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward GOD) by the resurrection of Jesus CHRIST, who is gone into heaven," &c. 1 Pet. iii. 21. The meaning of our Church intends no further than thus: That if this sacrament of Baptism be duly administered, the blood, or bloody sacrifice of CHRIST, or (which is all one) the influence of His Spirit doth always accompany, or is concurrent to this solemn act. But whether this influence of His Spirit or virtual presence of His body and blood be either immediately or only terminated to the soul and spirit of the party baptized, or have some virtual influence upon the water of Baptism as a mean to convey the Grace of Regeneration unto the soul of the party baptized, whilst the water is poured upon him, is too nice and curious a question, in this age, for sober Christians to debate or contend about. It may suffice to believe that this sacramental pledge hath a virtual presence of CHRIST's Blood, or some real influence from his Body, concomitant, though not consubstantiated to it, which is prefigured or signified by the washing or sprinkling the body with water. But it will be, or rather is objected, but only by private or some saucy spirits, That if the doctrine of our Church were true and sound, then all that be rightly baptized should be undoubtedly saved, being once washed or cleansed from their sins. The objection were of some force, if the Church of England did hold or maintain such doctrine or tenets as they do which make or favour it; to wit, That the sins of the elect only are remitted by Baptism, or by Sacrament of CHRIST's Body and Blood; or, that sins once remitted cannot be remitted afresh; or, that the party which is once pardoned for his sins, before committed, cannot afterwards be condemned. The orthodoxal truth is, That albeit the original sin of children truly baptized in the name of CHRIST, or the actual sins of young or elder men so baptized, and the sins of their forefathers (so far as it concerns men of riper years to repent them of both) be so truly remitted in Baptism, that neither young men nor old may be baptized again; yet the stipulation of a good conscience, wherein the internal Baptism (as St. Peter tells) doth consist, may and ought, by the law of GOD and of CHRIST's Church, to be reiterated. And this stipulation of every Christian, male or female, though baptized after they have passed their nonage for civil contracts, ought to be resumed or reacknowledged as often as they intend to receive the sacramental pledges of CHRIST's Body and Blood, either privately or in the public congregation. But for all such as have been baptized in their infancy, the personal resumption or ratification of that vow, which their fathers and mothers in GOD did make for them at the sacred laver, is to be exacted of them, ore tenus, in some public congregation, before they can be lawfully admitted to be public communicants of CHRIST's Body and Blood. Ibid.--Ch. lv. (p. 298.) If either the actual sins of all men, or the sins of the elect in special, had been so remitted by CHRIST's death, as some conceive they were, that is, absolutely pardoned before they were committed, there had been no end or use of CHRIST's Resurrection in respect of us; no need of Baptism: yet was Baptism, from the hour of His resurrection, necessary unto all that did believe in His death and resurrection. The urgent and indispensable necessity of Baptism, especially in respect of actual believers, is not anywhere more emphatically intimated than in St. Peter's answer to the Jews, whose hearts were pierced with sorrow that they had been the causes of CHRIST's death. They in this stound or sting of conscience demand, "Men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter answered them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus CHRIST for the remission of sins. And they that gladly received the word were baptized the same day." Acts ii. 37, 38. 41. These men had been deeply tainted with sin, not original only, but with sins actual of the worst kind; guilty they were, in a high degrees of the death of the Son of GOD, yet had they as well their actual as their original sins remitted by baptism. It is then unsound and imperfect doctrine, that sin original only is taken away or remitted by Baptism; for whatsoever sins are remitted or taken away by CHRIST's death, the same sins are in the same manner remitted and taken away by Baptism into His death; actual sins are remitted, in such as are guilty of actual sins when they are baptized, though only sin original be actually remitted in those which are not guilty of actual sins, as in infants. Now man's sins are actually remitted before he be actually guilty of them. The question is, how either sin original is remitted, or how any work of Satan is dissolved by Baptism; and this question, in the general, is rightly resolved, by saying, "They are remitted by faith." But this general resolution sufficeth not, unless we know the object of our faith in this particular. Now the particular object of our faith, of that faith by which sins (whether by Baptism or otherwise) are remitted, is not our general belief in CHRIST; even our belief in CHRIST dying for us in particular, will not suffice, unless it include our belief of the everlasting virtue of His bloody sacrifice, and of His everlasting priesthood for purifying and cleansing our souls. No sins be truly remitted unless they be remitted by the office or exercise of His priesthood; and whilst so remitted they are not remitted by any other sacrifice than by the sole virtue of His body and blood, which He "once offered for all," for the sins of all. It is not the virtue or efficacy of the consecrated water in which we were washed, but the virtue of His blood which was once shed for us, and which, by Baptism, is sprinkled upon us, or communicated unto us, which immediately cleanseth us from all our sins. From this everlasting virtue of this His bloody sacrifice, faith, by the ministry of Baptism, is immediately gotten in such as had it not before. And in such as have faith before they be baptized, the guilt of actual sins is remitted by the exercise or act of faith, as it apprehends the everlasting efficacy of this sacrifice, and by the prayer of faith, and supplication unto our High Priest. Faith, then, is as the mouth or appetite by which we receive this food of life, and is a good sign of health; but it is the food itself received, which must continue health and strengthen spiritual life in us; and the food of life is no other than CHRIST's body and blood; and it is our High Priest himself which must give us this food. Baptism, saith St. Peter (1 Pet. iii. 20.), doth save us. What Baptism doth save us? not the putting away the filth of the flesh, (yet this is the immediate effect of the water in Baptism,) but the answer (or stipulation) of a good conscience towards GOD! But how doth this kind of Baptism, or this concomitant of Baptism save us? The Apostle, in the same place, tells us, "by the resurrection of Jesus CHRIST." "The answer or stipulation of a good conscience," includes an illumination of our spirits by the Spirit of GOD; a qualification by which we are made sons of light, being before the sons of darkness. But, that by this qualification we become the sons of light; that this qualification is, by Baptism, wrought in us; that by this qualification, however wrought in us, we are saved from our sins; all this is immediately from the "virtue of CHRIST's Resurrection." That is, as you have heard before, he was consecrated by the sufferings of death to be an everlasting Priest, and by his resurrection from death, his body and blood became an everlasting propitiation for sins, an inexhaustible fountain of grace by which we are purified from the dead works of sin. Ibid.--Of CHRIST's session at the right hand of GOD. ch. xvii. p. 170. [St. Paul] saith, "that all that are baptized are dead to sin;" that is, first, they are "dead unto it by solemn vow or profession." Secondly, they are said to be "dead unto sin, or sin to be dead in them," inasmuch as they in Baptism receive an antidote from GOD by which the rage and poison of it might easily be assuaged or expelled, so they would not either receive that grace or means which GOD in Baptism exhibits unto them in vain, or use it amiss. So we may say that any popular disease is quelled or taken away, after a sovereign remedy be found against it, which never fails; so men will seek for it, reasonably apply for it, and observe that diet which the physician, upon the taking of it, prescribes unto them. Some in our times there be (and more, I think, than have been in all the former) which deny all baptismal grace. Others there be which grant some grace to be conferred by Baptism, even unto infants; but yet these restrain it only to infants elect. And this they take to be the meaning of our Church's Catechism, wherein children arc taught to believe [That as CHRIST, the second person in the Trinity, did redeem them and all mankind; so the Holy Ghost (the third person) doth sanctify them and all the elect people of GOD.] But can any man be persuaded that it was any part of our Church's meaning, to teach children when they first make profession of their faith, to believe, that they are of the number of the elect; that is, of "such as cannot finally perish?" This were to teach them their faith backwards, and to seek the kingdom of heaven not ascendendo, by ascending, but descendendo, by descending from it. For higher than thus St. Paul himself, in his greatest perfection, could not possibly reach; no, nor the blessed angels, which have kept their first station almost these 6000 years. Yet certain it is, that our Church would have every one, at the very first profession of his faith, to believe that he is one of the elect people of GOD. LAUD, ARCHBISHOP AND MARTYR. Conference with Fisher, § 15. First, that Baptism is necessary to the salvation of infants (in the ordinary way of the Church, without binding GOD to the use and means of that sacrament, to which he hath bound us) is expressed in St. John iii. "Except a man be born of water," &c. So, no baptism, no entrance. Nor can infants creep in any other ordinary way. And this is the received opinion of all the ancient Church of CHRIST. And, secondly, That infants ought to be baptized, is first plain by evident and direct consequence out of Scripture. For if there be no salvation for infants in the ordinary way of the Church but by Baptism, and this appear in Scripture, as it doth, then out of all doubt, the consequence is most evident out of that Scripture, that infants are to be baptized, that their salvation may be certain. For they which cannot help themselves, must not be left only to extraordinary helps, of which we have no assurance, and for which we have no warrant at all in Scripture, while we, in the mean time, neglect the ordinary way and means commanded by CHRIST. Secondly, it is very near an expression in Scripture itself. For when St. Peter had ended that great Sermon of his, Acts ii., he applies two comforts unto them, verse 38, "Amend your life," &c. And then, v. 39, he infers, "For the promise is made," &c. The promise; what promise? What? why the promise of sanctification by the Holy Ghost. By what means; Why, by Baptism. For it is expressly, "Be baptized, and ye shall receive." And as expressly, "This promise is made to you and to your children." BRAMHALL, ARCHBISHOP AND CONFESSOR.--Of persons dying without Baptism, p. 979. The discourse which happened the other day, about your little daughter, I had quite forgotten till you were pleased to mention it again last night. If any thing did fall from me, which gave offence to any there present, I am right sorrowful, but I hope there did not; as, on the other side, if any occasion of offence had been given to me, I should readily have sacrificed it to that reverend respect, which is due to the place your table, anciently accounted a sacred thing, and to the lord of it, yourself. This morning, lying musing in my bed, it produced some trouble to me, to consider how passionately we are all wedded to our own parties, and how apt we are all to censure the opinions of others before we understand them, while our want of charity is a greater error in ourselves, and more displeasing to Almighty GOD, than any of those supposed assertions which we condemn in others; especially when they come to be rightly understood. And to show this particular breach is not so wide, nor the more moderate of either party so disagreeing, as is imagined, I digested these sudden meditations, drawn wholly, in a manner, from the grounds of the Roman schools; and so soon as I was risen, I committed them to writing. First, there is a great difference to be made between the sole want of Baptism upon invincible necessity, and the contempt or wilful neglect of Baptism when it may be had. The latter we acknowledge to be a damnable sin, and, without repentance and GOD'S extraordinary mercy, to exclude a man from all hope of salvation. But yet if such a person, before his death, shall repent and deplore his neglect of the means of grace, from his heart, and desire, with all his soul, to be baptized, but is debarred from it invincibly, we do not, we dare not pass sentence of condemnation upon him; nor yet the Roman Catholics themselves. The question then is, whether the want of Baptism, upon invincible necessity, do evermore infallibly exclude from heaven? Secondly, we distinguish between the visible sign, and the invisible grace; between the exterior sacramental ablution, and the grace of the sacrament, that is, interior regeneration. We believe that whosoever hath the former, hath the latter also, so that he do not put a bar against the efficacy of the sacrament by his infidelity or hypocrisy, of which a child is not capable. And therefore our very Liturgy doth teach, that a child baptized, dying before the commission of actual, sin, is undoubtedly saved. Thirdly, we believe that without baptismal grace, that is, regeneration, no man can enter into the kingdom of GOD. But whether GOD hath so tied and bound himself to His ordinances and sacraments that He doth not or cannot confer the grace of the sacraments, extraordinarily, where it seemeth good to His eyes, without the outward element; this is the question between us. HAMMOND, PRESBYTER, CONFESSOR, AND DOCTOR.--Sermon XV.--A New Creature. It is observable, that our state of nature and sin is, in Scripture, expressed ordinarily by old age, the natural sinful man; that is, all our natural affections that are born and grow up with us, are called the old man; as if, since Adam's fall, we were decrepit and feeble, and aged as soon as born, as a child begotten by a man in a consumption never comes to the strength of a man, is always weak, and crazy, and puling, hath all the imperfections and corporal infirmities of age before he is out of his infancy. And, according to this ground, the whole analogy of Scripture runs; all that is opposite to the old decrepit state, to the dotage of nature, is new. The new covenant, Mark i. 27. The language of believers, new tongues, Mark xvi. 17. A new commandment, John xiii. 34. A new man, Eph. ii. 15. In sum, the state of grace is expressed by panta kaina, all is become new, 2 Cor. v. 17. So that old and new, as it divides the Bible, the whole state of things, the world; so it doth that to which all these serve, man; every natural man which hath nothing but nature in him, is an o]d man, be he never so young, is full of years, even before he is able to tell them. Adam was a perfect man when he was but a minute old, and all his children are old even in the cradle, nay, even dead with old age, Eph. ii. 5. And, then, consequently, every spiritual man, which hath somewhat else in him than he receiveth from Adam, he that is born from above, John iii. 3, gennhqh anwqen, (for it may be so rendered from the original, as well as born again, as our English read it), he that is by GOD'S Spirit quickened from the old death, Eph. ii. 5., he is, contrary to the former, a new man, a new creature; the old eagle hath cast his beak and is grown young; the man, when old, hath entered the second time into his mother's womb, and is born again; all the grey hairs and wrinkles fall off from him, as the scales from blind Tobit's eyes, and he comes forth a refined, glorious, beauteous new creature: you would wonder to see the change. So that you find, in general, that the Scripture presumes it, that there is a renovation, a casting away the old coat, a youth and spring again in many men, from the old age and weak bedrid state of nature. Now that you may conceive wherein it consists, how this new man is brought forth in us, by whom it is conceived, and in what womb it is carried, I will require no more of you, than to observe and understand with me, what is meant by the ordinary phrase in our divines, a new principle, or inward principle of life, and that you shall do briefly thus. A man's body is naturally a sluggish, inactive, motionless, heavy thing, not able to stir or move the least animal motion, without a soul to enliven it; without that, it is but a carcase, as you see at death, when the soul is separated from it, it returns to be but a stock or lump of flesh; the soul bestows all life and motion on it, and enables it to perform any work of nature. Again, the body and soul together, considered in relation to somewhat above their power and activity, are as impotent and as motionless as before the body without the soul. Set a man to remove a mountain, and he will heave, perhaps, to obey your command, but in event will do no more towards the displacing of it, than a stone in the street could do: but now, let an omnipotent power be annexed to this man, let a supernatural spirit be joined to this soul, and then will it be able to overcome the proudest, stoutest difficulty in nature. You have heard, in the Primitive Church, of a grain of faith removing mountains; and believe me, all miracles are not yet outdated. The work of regeneration, the bestowing of a spiritual life on one dead in trespasses and sins, the making of a carcase walk, the natural old man to spring again, and move spiritually, is as great a miracle as that...... For the third question, when this new principle enters: first you are to know, that it comes into the heart in a threefold condition; first, as an harbinger; secondly, as a private secret guest; thirdly, as an inhabitant or housekeeper. As it is an harbinger, so it comes to fit and prepare us for itself; trims up, and sweeps, and sweetens the soul, that it may be readier to entertain him when he comes to reside; and that he doth (as the ancient gladiators had their arma praelusoria) by skirmishing with our corruptions, before he comes to give them a pitched battle; he brandishes a flaming sword about our ears, and as by a flash of lightning, gives us a sense of a dismal, hideous state; and so somewhat restrains us from excess and fury; first, by a momentary remorse, then by a more lasting, yet not purifying flame, the spirit of bondage. In sum, every check of conscience, every sigh for sin, every fear of judgment, every desire of grace, every motion or inclination toward spiritual good, be it ever so short-winded, is praeludium spiritus, a kind of John Baptist to CHRIST, something that GOD sent before "to prepare the ways of the Lord." And thus the Spirit comes very often; in every affliction, every disease, (which is part of GOD'S discipline, to keep us in order,) in brief, at every sermon that works upon us at the hearing: then, I say, the lightning flashes in our eyes; we have a glimpse of his Spirit, but cannot come to a full sight of it: and thus he appears to many, whom he will never dwell with. Unhappy men, that cannot lay hold on him, when he comes so near them! and yet somewhat more happy than they that never came within ken of him; stopt their ears when he spake to them even at this distance. Every man in the Christian Church hath frequently, in his life, a power to partake of GOD'S ordinary preparing graces: and it is some degree of obedience, though no work of regeneration, to make good use of them; and if he without the inhabitance of the Spirit, cannot make such use as he should, yet to make the best he can: and thus, I say, [i. e. in a parallel way] the Spirit appears to the unregenerate, almost every day of our lives. 2ndly, when this Spirit comes a guest to lodge with us, then he is said to enter; but till by actions and frequent obliging works, he makes himself known to his neighbours, as long as he keeps his chamber, till he declare himself to be there, so long he remains a private secret guest, and that is called the introduction of the form, that makes a man to be truly regenerate; when the seed is sown in his heart, when the habit is infused, and that is done sometimes discernibly, sometimes not discernibly, but seldom, as when Saul was called in the midst of his madness, Acts ix., he was certainly able to tell a man the very minute of his change, of his being made a new creature. Thus they which have long lived in an enormous AntiChristian course, do many times find themselves strucken on a sudden, and are able to date their regeneration, and tell you punctually how old they are in the Spirit. Yet because there be many preparations to this Spirit, which are not this Spirit, many presumptions in our hearts false grounded, many tremblings and jealousies in those that have it, great affinity between faith natural and spiritual: seeing it is a Spirit that thus enters, and not as it did light on the Disciples, in a bodily shape, it is not an easy matter for any one to define the time of his conversion. Some may guess somewhat nearer than others, as remembering a sensible change in themselves; but, in a word, the surest discerning of it is in its working, not at its entering. I may know that now I have the Spirit, better than at what time I came to it. Undiscernibly GOD'S supernatural agency interposes sometimes in the mother's womb, as in John Baptist springing in Elizabeth at Mary's salutation, (Luke i. 41.) and perhaps in Jeremy, (Jer. i. 5.) "Before thou earnest out of the womb, I sanctified thee," and (in Isa. xlix. 5.) "The LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant." But this divine address attends most ordinarily till the time of our Baptism, when the Spirit, accompanying the outward sign, infuses itself into their hearts, and there seats and plants itself, and grows up with the reasonable soul, keeping even their most luxuriant years within bounds; and as they come to an use of their reason, to a more and more multiplying this habit of grace into holy spiritual acts of faith and obedience; from which it is ordinarily said, that infants baptized have habitual faith, as they may be also said to have habitual repentance, and habits of all other graces, because they have the root and seed of those beauteous, healthful flowers, which will actually flourish there when they come to years. And this, I say, is so frequent to be performed at Baptism, that ordinarily it is not wrought without that means, and in those means we may expect it, as our Church doth in our Liturgy, where she presumes, at every Baptism, that it hath pleased GOD to regenerate the infant by his Holy Spirit. And this may prove a solemn piece of comfort to some, who suspect their state more than they need, and think it impossible that they should be in a regenerate condition, because they have not as yet found any such notable change in themselves, as they see and observe in others. These men may as well be jealous they are not men, because they cannot remember when their soul came to them: if they can find the effects of spiritual life in themselves, let them call it what they will, a religious education, or a custom of well-doing, or an unacquaintedness with sin; let them comfort themselves in their estate, and be thankful to GOD who visited them thus betimes; let it never trouble them that they were not once as bad as other men, but rather acknowledge GOD'S mercy, who hath prevented such a change, and by uniting them to Him in the cradle, hath educated and nursed them up in familiarity with the Spirit. TAYLOR, BISHOP, CONFESSOR, AND DOCTOR.--Life of CHRIST, sect. 9.--On Baptism, part ii. 16. Thirdly, in baptism we are born again; and this infants need in the present circumstances, and for the same great reason that men of age and reason do. For our natural birth is either of itself insufficient, or is made so by the fall of Adam, and the consequent evils, that nature alone, or our first birth, cannot bring us to heaven, which is a supernatural end, that is, an end above all the power of our nature as now it is. So that if nature cannot bring us to heaven, grace must, or we can never get thither; if the first birth cannot, a second must: but the second birth spoken of in Scripture is baptism; "a man must be born of water and the Spirit." And therefore baptism is loutron paliggenesiaV, "the laver of a new birth." Either then infants cannot go to heaven any way that we know of, or they must be baptized. To say they are left to GOD, is an excuse, and no answer; for when GOD hath opened the door, and calls that the "entrance into heaven," we do not leave them to GOD, when we will not carry them to Him in the way which He hath described, and at the door which Himself hath opened: we leave them indeed, but it is but helpless and destitute: and though GOD is better than man, yet that is no warrant to us; what it will be to the children, that we cannot warrant or conjecture. And if it he objected, that to the new birth are required dispositions of our own, which are to he wrought by and in them that have the use of reason; besides that, this is wholly against the analogy of a new birth, in which the person to be born is wholly a passive, and hath put into him the principle that in time will produce its proper actions; it is certain that they that can receive the new birth, are capable of it. The effect of it is a possibility of being saved, and arriving to a supernatural felicity. If infants can receive this effect, then also the new birth, without which they cannot receive the effect. And if they can receive salvation, the effect of the new birth, what hinders them but they may receive that, that is in order to that effect, and ordained only for it, and which is nothing of itself, but in its institution and relation, and which may be received by the same capacity, in which one may be created, that is, a passivity, or a capacity obediential? Fourthly; concerning pardon of sins, which is one great effect of baptism, it is certain that infants have not that benefit, which men of sin and age may receive. He that hath a sickly stomach, drinks wine, and it not only refreshes his spirits, but cures his stomach: he that drinks wine, and hath not that disease, receives good by his wine, though it does not minister to so many needs; it refreshes, though it does not cure him: and when oil is poured upon a man's head, it does not always heal a wound, but sometimes makes him a cheerful countenance, sometimes it consigns him to be a king, or a priest. So it is in baptism: it does not heal the wounds of actual sins, because they have not committed them; but it takes off the evil of original sin: whatsoever is imputed to us by Adam's prevarication, is washed off by the death of the second Adam, into which we are baptized. HEYLIN, PRESBYTER AND CONFESSOR.--On the Apostles' Creed. Art. x. Chap. vi. In which, [Article the 27th] lest any should object, as Dr. Harding did against Bishop Jewell, that we make baptism to be nothing but a sign of regeneration, and that we dare not say, as the Catholic Church teacheth, according to the Holy Scriptures, "That in and by baptism, sins are fully and truly remitted, and put away," we will reply with the said most reverent and learned prelate, (a man who well understood the Church's meaning,) That we confess, and have ever taught, that in the Sacrament of Baptism, by the death and blood of CHRIST, is given remission of all manner of sins; and that not in half, or in part, or by way of imagination and fancy, but full, whole, and perfect of all together; and that if any man affirm, that "Baptism giveth not full remission of sins," it is no part nor portion of our doctrine. To the same effect also saith judicious Hooker, "Baptism is a Sacrament," &c. [quoted above]......But because these were private men, neither of which, for aught appears, had any hand in the first setting out of the Book of Articles, (which was in the reign of King Edward the Sixth,) though Bishop Jewell had in the second edition, when they were reviewed and published in Queen Elizabeth's time; let us consult the Book of Homilies, made and set out by those who composed the Articles; and there we find, that by GOD's mercy and the virtue of that sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour CHRIST JESUS, the Son of GOD, once offered for us upon the cross, we do obtain GOD'S grace, and remission, as well of our original sin in baptism, as of all actual sin committed by us after baptism, if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly unto Him again. Which doctrine of the Church of England, as it is consonant to the Word of GOD in Holy Scripture, so is it also most agreeable to the common and received judgment of pure antiquity. For in the Scripture it is said expressly by St. Peter, &c. &c. This also was the judgment of the ancient writers, and that too long before the starting of the Pelagian heresies, to which much is ascribed by some as to the advancing of the efficacy and fruit of baptism, by succeeding Fathers. For thus Tertullian; "Now (saith he) do the waters daily preserve the people of GOD, death being destroyed and overthrown by the washing away of sins; for where the guilt is taken away, there is the punishment remitted also." St. Cyprian thus; "That the remission of sins, whether given in baptism, or by any other of the sacraments, is properly to be ascribed to the Holy Ghost." The African Fathers in full Council do affirm the same, and so doth Origen also for the Alexandrian, of both which we shall speak anon in the point of Paedobaptism. Thus Nyssen for the Eastern churches: "Baptism (saith he) is the expiation of our sins, the remission of our offences, the cause of our new birth and regeneration." Thus do the Fathers in the Constantinopolitan Council profess their faith in one baptism (or being only once baptized) "for the remission of sins." And finally, that this was the doctrine of the Church in general, before Augustine's time, who is conceived to be the first that did advance the power and efficacy of baptism to so great a height, in opposition to the Pelagian heresies, appears by a byword grown before his time into frequent use; the people being used to say, when they observed a man to be too much addicted to his lusts and pleasures, Let him alone to take his pleasure, "for as yet the man is not baptized." More of this we shall see anon in that which follows. Nor is this only Primitive, but good Protestant doctrine, as is most clear and evident by that of Zanchius, whom only I shall instance in, of the later writers. "When the minister baptizeth, I believe that CHRIST with his own hand, reacheth as it were from heaven, besprinkleth the infant with his blood to the remission of sins, by the hand of that man whom I see besprinkling him with the waters of baptism." So that I cannot choose but marvel how it comes to pass, that it must now be reckoned for a point of Popery, that the "Sacraments are instrumental causes of our justification," or of the "remission of our sins," or that it is a point of learning, of which neither the Scriptures, nor the reformed religion, have taught us anything. So easy a thing it is to blast that with Popery, which any way doth contradict our own private fancies. ALLESTRIE, PRESBYTER.---Serm. ii. p. 23. In our Israel by our covenant there is as much of this required, for we were all initiated into our profession by washing, "regenerated in a laver," and "born again of water," becoming so Tertullian's sanctitatis designati, set aside for holiness, consecrated to cleanness, and made the votaries of purity: how clean a thing then must a Christian be who must be washed into the name? nor is he thus washed only in the font, there was a more inestimable "fountain opened for sin and uncleanness." (Apoc. xi. 5.) "Jesus CHRIST hath washed us in his own blood;" and Heb. ix. 14. "The blood of CHRIST did purge our consciences from dead works to serve the living GOD." How great is our necessity of being clean, when to provide a means to make us so, GOD opens his Son's side, and our laver is drawn out of the heart of CHRIST. Yet we have more effusions to contribute to it. (1 Cor. vi. 11.) "But ye are washed," &c. and we must "be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire." A laver of flame also to wash away our scurfe as well as sallages, and beyond all these, some of us have been purged too with the fiery trial, and molten in the furnace of affliction, to separate our dross and purify us from alloy, that we may be clean and refined too, may become Christians of the highest carrect. BARROW, PRESBYTER AND DOCTOR.--Of the Holy Ghost. Serm. xlv. vol. iii. p. 370. The memorial therefore of that most gracious and glorious dispensation, [of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, &c.] the Christian Church wisely and piously hath continually preserved, obliging us at this time peculiarly to bless GOD for that incomparable and inestimable gift conferred then most visibly upon the Church, and still really bestowed upon every particular member duly incorporated thereinto. I say bestowed upon every particular member of the Church, for the evangelical covenant doth extend to every Christian; and a principal ingredient thereof is the collation of this Spirit, which is the finger of GOD, whereby (according to the Prophet Jeremy's description of that covenant) "GOD'S law is put into their inward parts, and written in their hearts!" inscribed (as St. Paul allusively speaketh) not with ink, but by the Spirit, &c.; not only as the Jewish law, represented from without to the senses, but impressed within upon the mind and affections; "whence GOD'S Spirit is called the Spirit of promise, the donation thereof being the peculiar promise of the Gospel; and the end of our Saviour's undertaking is by St. Paul declared, "that we might receive the promise of the Spirit by faith;" that is, by embracing Christianity might partake thereof, according to GOD'S promise; and the apostolical ministry or exhibition of the Gospel is styled "the ministration of the Spirit," and tasting "of the heavenly gift, and participation of the Holy Ghost," is part of a Christian's character; and the inception of Christianity is described by St. Paul, "But we are bound to give thanks," &c. (2 Thess. ii. 13.) and our Saviour instructed Nicodemus, that no man can enter into the kingdom of GOD (that is, become a Christian, or subject of GOD'S spiritual kingdom,) without being regenerated by water and by the spirit, that is, without baptism, and the spiritual grace attending it, according as St. Peter doth in the words adjoining to our text imply, that the reception of the Holy Spirit is annexed to holy baptism; "Repent (saith he) and be baptized every one," &c.... "for the promise (that great promise of the Holy Ghost) is unto you," &c.....that is, the Holy Spirit is promised to all, how far soever distant in place and time, whoever shall be invited unto, and shall embrace the Christian profession. St. John also maketh it to be a distinctive mark of those, in whom CHRIST abideth, and who dwell in CHRIST, that is, of all true Christians, to have this Spirit; "Hereby [saith he] we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit," &c..... and St. Paul denieth him to be a good Christian who is destitute thereof. "Now (saith he) if any man have not the Spirit," &c.... "and know ye not, (saith he to the Corinthians) that ye are the temple," &c........that is, Do ye not understand this to be a common privilege of all Christians, such as ye profess yourselves to be? And the conversion of men to Christianity he thus expresseth, "After the kindness and love of GOD our Saviour," &c. (Tit. iii. 4.). And all pious dispositions qualifying us for entrance into heaven and happiness (faith, charity, devotion, every grace, every virtue) are represented to be the fruits of the Holy Spirit. And the union of all Christians into one body; the Catholic society of all truly faithful people, doth, according to St. Paul, result from this one Spirit, as a common soul animating and actuating them: "For (saith he) by one Spirit are they all baptized," &c..... In fine, whatever some few persons, or some petty sects (as the Pelagians of old, the Socinians now) may have deemed, it hath been the doctrine constantly, and with very general consent, delivered in the Catholic Church, that to all persons by the holy mystery of baptism duly initiated to Christianity, or admitted into the communion of CHRIST'S body, the grace of GOD'S Holy Spirit certainly is bestowed, enabling them to perform the conditions of piety and virtue then undertaken by them; enlightening their minds, rectifying their wills, purifying their affections, directing and assisting them in their practice; the which holy gift (if not abused, ill treated, driven away, or quenched by their ill behaviour) will perpetually be continued, improved, and increased to them; it is therefore by Tertullian (in his prescriptions against heretics,) reckoned as part of that fundamental rule which was grounded upon the general tradition and consent of the Christian Church, that "CHRIST had sent the virtue of the Holy Ghost, in his room, which doth act believers;" to which that article doth answer of the Apostolical creed, in which we profess to believe the Holy Ghost, meaning, I suppose, thereby, not only the bare existence of the Holy Ghost, but also its gracious communication and energy. THORNDIKE, PRESBYTER.--Book iii. Chap. viii. It is demanded in the second place, what is that regeneration by that Holy Ghost, and wherein it consists, whereof infants that are baptized can be thought capable. For the wild conceits of those that imagine them to have faith in CHRIST (which without actual motion of the mind, is not), require miracles to be wrought of course, by baptizing, that the effect thereof may come to pass. And if the state of grace (which the habitual grace of GOD'S Spirit either supposeth or inferreth) is not to be attained but by the resolution of embracing the covenant of grace, (as, by all the premises, it is not otherwise attended), it will be every whit as hard to say what is that habitual grace, that is said to be poured into the souls of infants that are baptized, being nothing else but a facility in doing what the covenant of Grace requireth. But, if we conceive the regeneration of infants that are baptized to consist in the habitual assistance of GOD'S Spirit, the effects whereof are to appear, in making them able to perform that which their Christianity requires at their hands, so soon as they shall understand themselves to be obliged by it; we give reason enough of the effect of their baptism, whether they die or live, and yet become not liable to any inconvenience. For supposing the assistance of GOD'S Spirit, assigned them by the promise of baptism, to take effect when their bodily instruments enable the soul to act as Christianity requireth; if the soul, by death, come to be discharged of them, can any thing be said why original concupiscence, which is the law of the members, should remain any more, to impeach the subjection of all faculties to the law of GOD'S Spirit? Or will it be any thing strange, that when they come to be taught Christianity, the same Spirit of GOD should be thought to sway them, to embrace it of their own choice, and not only in compliance with the will of their parents? Yet is this no more, than the regeneration of infants by water and the Holy Ghost importeth; that the Spirit of GOD should be habitually present, to make those reasons which GOD hath given to convince the world, that they ought to be Christians, both discernible to the understanding, and weighing down the choice; whereas, those that are converted from being enemies to GOD, (that is to say, at those years, when no man can be converted to GOD, that is not His enemy before), though the Spirit of GOD knock at their hearts without, striving to cast out the strong man that is within doors, and to make a dwelling for itself in the heart, are possessed by a contrary principle, till the