are of riper years; where, although the service is for the most part the fame as that for the baptifm of infants, certain particulars are added, not immaterial to be specified in this inquiry. Thus inftead of the gospel from the 10th chapter of St. Mark, which is adapted to the condition of infants, but would be out of place in the baptifm of adults, the paffage felected is the converfation, wherein Christ afferts to Nicodemus the neceffity of the new-birth; and which is made the foundation of the following exhortation: "Beloved, ye hear in this gofpel "the exprefs words of our Saviour Christ, that except a man be born of water and of the

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Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of "God. Whereby ye may perceive the great "neceffity of this facrament, where it may be "had." It must be enough barely to quote this paffage: it would be an infult upon any man's understanding, to attempt to make it clearer; and it would be fuperfluous to add more from the fame office. If a bare statement of this fact does not convince a man, nothing, I am perfuaded, can convince him, that it is by baptifm, in the judgment of the Church of England, that a man is born of water and of the Spirit.

I am afraid of fatiguing and wearing out your patience by multiplying evidences of what must already be fo clear. Knowing

however as I do, and as every one at all ac quainted with the state of religion in this country must know, that there are perfons, who, not content with denying the doctrine of baptifmal regeneration themfelves, would fain faften their herefy upon our Church, and fedulously labour to propagate it as hers; I must folicit your attention whilst I proceed to fhow by a still greater accumulation of proof what her doctrine is; and that he does not confine her affertion of it to her baptifmal offices, but diffeminates it over other parts of her Liturgy.

After being baptized, the first religious duty in which the Church requires a child to be engaged is the learning of his Catechifm; and here, reminding him of the privileges to which he was then admitted, the very first thing that The teaches him is, that "in his baptifm he

was made a member of Chrift, a child of "God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of "heaven." In his baptifm he was made a child of God! Made a child of God; not formed fo at his natural birth, but made fo by a fecond, a new, a fpiritual birth; made fo at his baptifm. As he As he proceeds, however, the doctrine is more fully and explicitly revealed to him. He is then inftructed, that a facrament is "an outward vifible fign of an inward "spiritual grace given unto us" and that it

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"is ordained by Chrift himself, as a means whereby we receive the fame" grace, "and "as a pledge to affure us thereof." He is instructed, that baptifm is a facrament; and as fuch, of course confifting of an outward and vifible fign, and of an inward and spiritual grace :—he is instructed, that the outward fign is "water, wherein the perfon is baptized in "the name of the Father, and of the Son, and "of the Holy Ghoft;" and being interrogated, what is its inward and fpiritual grace, he is inftructed to anfwer, "a death unto fin, and "a new birth unto righteousness; for being

by nature born in fin, and the children of "wrath, we are hereby made the children of "grace" hereby, that is, by baptifm; neither the argument nor the ftructure of the fentence can admit of any other interpretation. What can be plainer? Had it been the intention of the Compofers of the Catechifm, as indeed E doubt not it was, to affert moft unequivocally the doctrine of baptifmal regeneration, how could it have been more directly afferted? Plainer language cannot be found. "The "outward fign of baptifm is water: the fpi❝ ritual grace is a death unto fin, and a new "birth unto righteoufnefs; for we are hereby “made the children of grace."

The next religious office, in which the child is engaged, is the order of Confirmation; where

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in he ratifies and confirms the vows made for him by his fureties at baptifm. We have here then of course an allufion to that holy institution; and as if it were cautiously provided, that the facramental character of the inftitution fhould be kept fteadily in view, we are reminded of the regeneration conveyed by it to the baptized. The Bishop who prefides at the office is thus directed to pray: "Almighty "and ever-living God, who haft vouchfafed to regenerate these thy fervants by water and "the Holy Ghoft, and haft given unto them. "forgiveness of all their fius; ftrengthen them, "we beseech thee, O Lord, with the Holy

Ghoft the Comforter." The affertion is plain and direct the Church affirms by the mouth of one of her Governors, and the af firms it in the moft folemn form of a prayer to the almighty and ever-living God, that he has vouchfafed to regenerate his fervants, who come now to be confirmed, by water and the Holy Ghost not, as hath been confidently alleged, "with a view to bleffings contingent upon their future endeavours," but with a wiew to thofe, which at baptifm they actually receive.

Hitherto we have feen frequent notice taken

See Overton, p. 104.

by the Church of the doctrine of regeneration; and it is remarkable, that the parts of the Common-Prayer-Book, which we have been hitherto examining, have either an immediate connection with, or an obvions relation to, baptifm. And I think it no lefs remarkable, that there is (if I am not ftrangely mistaken) only one place more in the whole Book of Common-Prayer, wherein the doctrine of regeneration or the new-birth is noticed; and there it is noticed in perfect conformity with her expreffions, that have been already cited, as an event already paffed, and one in which her members in general have partaken. In her collect for Christmas-day, the Church is led, from a mention of the birth of Chrift, to mention the fpiritual birth of those who are regenerated in him; who are made partakers of his nature, as he had condefcended to become partaker of theirs. The collect runs in this form: "Almighty God, who haft given "us thy only-begotten Son to take our nature ་ upon him, and as at this time to be born "of a pure virgin; grant that we, being re"generate, and made thy children by adoption "and grace, may daily be renewed by thy

Holy Spirit." The petition is exclusively for daily renovation: the notice of our regene ration, and of our adoption as the children of