step to salvation, but likewise as something sudden and miraculous; something which was evidenced, not only by its external fruits, but by the inward feelings of the person who was the subject of it; and something, consequently, so precise and definite, that the very moment when it was effected could be distinctly ascertained. The practical results of these opinions have been faithfully recorded, (as a matter too of triumph and exultation,) by the two great founders of Methodism; and it is impossible to read the pages, which contain them, without experiencing, to say the least, a most humiliating conviction of the weakness of human nature. We do not allude to those disgraceful scenes of enthusiasm and folly with a view of casting any imputation upon the persons whose doctrines occasioned them, but only for the sake of shewing the natural tendency of those doctrines themselves, when proposed and received as they were originally preached. Since the time indeed when they first experienced such an extensive promulgation in this country, they have been considerably modified and softened down; at the present period, we believe, the advocates of these opinions are not precisely agreed among themselves, as to the characteristics of the New Birth assigned to it by Wesley and Whitfield, which should be rejected and which retained; but, as we have no inclination to attribute to any one sentiments which he disavows, and may legitimately disavow, we are willing to adopt for our farther consideration that description of the nature of regeneration, which is given by its most rational and enlightened defenders in the present day. They tell us, then, that it is a change, a thorough and entire change of heart, and that it is indispensable to every one before he can see the kingdom of God; but that it may be gradual, that it may be attained by the ordinary influences of the Holy Spirit, and that one proof of its reality is to be sought for in the conduct of the person who is supposed to have undergone it. This definition deals much in negatives, and it is a

* Mr. Simeon, as above

matter of great inconvenience that our opponents on this point have not expressed themselves in language more decided and positive, which might have exhibited their sentiments in a more tangible shape, better accommodated to the purposes of examination and argument. The doctrine, however, thus stated, is certainly divested of many of its exceptionable characters, nor is it easy to perceive, at first sight, in what respect it differs from that fundamental article in the code of Gospel instruction, (concentrating in itself the essence of the whole,) which calls the sinner to repentance and reformation, and exhorts the Christian "as he has received Christ, so to walk in him," "perfecting holiness in the fear of God." Were this indeed the only meaning intended to be conveyed by the term Regeneration, according to the modern acceptation of it, we should still have to object to our evangelical brethren that the language they have selected for inculcating truth, is very likely to lead to error, even to the very same errors which they seem anxious to avoid.

For first, notwithstanding their concession that Regeneration or the New Birth may be gradual, the very term by which they express it implies the contrary; the metaphor, which they adopt to represent the nature of the moral change, is one, which directly and unavoidably leads to the conclusion that such a change must be wrought at once, and cannot possibly continue in a progressive state of operation during many years of a man's life. This is the impression which will be naturally left on the minds of the poor and ignorant, that is, the great majority of those who are the subjects of ministerial instruction, when they hear their spiritual teachers perpetually and energetically declaiming on the efficacy and necessity of what they denominate the New Birth. The word itself, indeed, is of scriptural origin, but in that application of it, which we are now considering, it has been wrested from the meaning attached to it in Scripture, as we shall see more fully hereafter.

And farther, as a change of heart when sudden and considerable, must be also an event perfectly definite, (and indeed very strongly marked,) and one, therefore, which the person

who suffers it cannot help perceiving at the very instant it takes place, it will follow that, as the term Regeneration includes in it the first of these qualities, it likewise necessarily comprehends the others. Now these three attributes of the New Birth, namely, its suddenness, its precision, and the internal cotemporary consciousness of its existence with which it must always be inevitably attended, are notions which at once open wide the door to all the extravagancies of enthusiasm; and such notions we contend the illiterate, at least, will be always likely to im bibe, when the doctrines of the Gospel, which exhort to holi ness of life, are laid before them in the phraseology, whose natural import we have been now considering.

Moreover, if such a change from sin to holiness be conceived to be no less definite than it is complete, it will be naturally expected that a counterchange, if it ever should occur, will be equally palpable; nor will any one, who supposes that be has been at once translated from darkness into light, be willing to believe that he has again entered into the regions of the dead, except evidence of the fact be afforded him as sensible and satisfactory in the latter case as in the former. And woe to him who will never believe himself a sinner, till he can discern some sudden and violent deterioration of his character, for such an one may be on the very brink of perdition before he is aware of his danger. Alas! the spiritual enemy of mankind is too well acquainted with our nature to grant us any overwhelming proof of his presence and his power; his charac◄ ter is that of a deceiver, and therefore when he is leading a captive soul down to his own place," he chuses not a road where his hapless victim would at every step be reminded of the rapid descent, by the precipitous abruptness of the path, and the inharmonious contrasts of the surrounding objects, but one which sinks by an uniform and gentle declivity, suffi cient neither to create fatigue, nor forcibly to attract attention, and where the deepening shades imperceptibly melt into each other, till at length they terminate in the horrid blackness of eternal night.

Again this doctrine, when firmly believed in the sense, in which its very name requires that it should be, is very apt to engender that pernicious temper of mind, a feeling of religious security; for suppose a person convinced of the fact that he has already experienced a sudden and striking transformation from sin to holiness, will he not think that the one thing needful in the Christian life is in his case perfectly attained; that his warfare is accomplished, his iniquity pardoned, and that he is no longer, like others, a candidate for heaven, but in possession of an authentic title to it, confirmed, and ratified, and miraculously sealed by the finger of God himself? And where will be then the necessity for the exercise of those virtues, which most properly belong to a probationary state, and are implied in the profession of the Christian name? for caution, and vigilance, and labour, and all those numberless and daily-recurring acts of spiritual discipline, by which the sober-minded Christian endeavours continually to "mortify his members which are upon the earth," and to rise, by slow, perhaps, but sure gradations, to "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Opinions therefore of this kind will have a tendency in a great degree opposed to all the practical principles of the Gospel, by tacitly representing the great act of Regeneration performed once for all, as a substitute for the habits of repentance and renovation, which are required of a Christian through the whole course of his life. We do not affirm that the doctrine before us, (unless indeed when it is conjoined with that of Final Perseverance,) involves such a conclusion as a logical consequence; we are only pointing out the feelings it is likely to produce on minds, either incapable of reasoning much on religious subjects, or unaccustomed to found their opinions on a regular process of cool and careful argument,

But the misapprehension and mischief likely to ensue from an improper use of the term Regeneration, will be further augmented by certain particulars comprized in the doctrine itself. The mighty change, which it imports, is commonly represented as vastly superior to the capacity of all human power, and one in which the Iloly Spirit is not only a concurrent,

but the sole Agent;* and hence it will follow that they, who are sitting beside this modern Bethesda, will have no inclination to bestir themselves for the purpose of stepping into the healing pool, from an imagination that the Angel, who troubleth the water, is the only being that can help them into it; in other words, they, who are waiting for, what they sometimes call, the Baptism of the Spirit, will be deprived of every motive and inducement to virtuous exertion of their own, as long as they believe that their labour must be utterly ineffectual, and that no attempts, which they can make in their unregenerate state, to do the will of their Maker, can possibly be acceptable in his sight.

Indeed we do not think it would be going too far to assert that the doctrine in question may in one way operate as a direct encouragement to sin. For let us suppose a person of uncultivated understanding, little capable of forming opinions for himself, and placing an implicit confidence in those of his spiritual instructors; and let us farther suppose that, with little other learning, he has been acquainted from a child with the Holy Scriptures, and has uniformly endeavoured in singleness of heart to conform his life to their directions, as far as he has been able to comprehend them. Now preach to such a man for the first time the modern doctrine of Regeneration ; let him hear from a pulpit, whose decisions he considers as oracular, a discourse informing the auditors that they, even every individual of them, must be born again before he can see the kingdom of God: in taking a restrospect of his own spiritual progress, which has been going on from day to day

* Thus Mr. Scott in speaking of his own conversion : Man I am persuaded could not have done it, but this hath God wrought, and I am not more a wonder to others than myself:”—and again"the Lord having made me willing in the day of his power, I was forced to confess, O Lord, thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed.""

"Scott's Theological Works," Vol. 1. p. 98—99.