whom they preached were already born again in baptism. Wesley, who always looked at the practical side in preference to the theoretical, said, that although the Church of England teaches that all the baptised are regenerate, he saw no evidence of regeneration in the great multitude of the baptised, and he must go on preaching the necessity of being born again. There must be an actual regeneration in heart and life, men must realise that they are sons of God. Those of the Methodists who were Calvinists, that is the Evangelical clergy, denied that regeneration always accompanied baptism.

The controversy was renewed in 1812 by Richard Mant the Bampton Lecturer for that year. The substance of what he said was afterwards published in the form of tracts by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The first tract was called 'Regeneration, the Grace of Baptism,' the writer maintaining that the grace invariably, in all cases, accompanies the outward ceremony. Unbelievers and sinners, though made by baptism the members of Christ and children of God, must, in a certain sense, be converted if they would ultimately succeed to the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven. But this is only for unbelievers and sinners. It is not necessary for every baptised person to undergo a conversion in order to be saved. That has already taken place in baptism. If there be a falling away, the return is renovation or conversion in a secondary or improper sense. It is a

reconversion.

Mant was answered by John Scott1 and by T. T. Biddulph.2 They both took the same line of argument, maintaining that Mant's doctrine was not that of the Bible, nor of the Church of England, and that in itself it had a very dangerous tendency. Scott examined the texts quoted for baptismal regeneration. Jesus had said, 'He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved.' Scott added the next clause which Mant had not quoted, ' He that believeth not shall be damned.' The omission, 'is baptised' is not without design. It avoided making baptism essential to salvation, while it laid the main stress on believing. Faith is the essential Vicar of North Ferriby and Lecturer of Holy Trinity Church, Hull.

qualification. Another text was,' 'Buried with Him in baptism, ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God.' Here the stress is on faith. 'The washing of water' is interpreted by Mant as baptism giving sanctification and purity. Scott added the context, by the word.' It was not the mere baptism that gave purity but 'the washing of water by the word.' The text in St Peter 'baptism doth also now save us' was not quoted by Mant, but other writers had used it omitting the words, 'not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God.' 'He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost' is the only passage in the Bible in which regeneration seems applicable to baptism. The 'washing' and 'renewing' are separated by Waterland and others, but their connection is the same as that of water and Spirit. The one is the sign, the other the thing signified. The renovation is the first quickening. The Galatians were baptised, yet St Paul addressed them as little children of whom he travailed in birth again till Christ be formed in them. The Jews were said to be regenerated by circumcision, yet St Paul says, 'He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit;' in like manner he is not a Christian who is one outwardly, but he is a Christian who is one inwardly.

Mant admitted that to be born of God is the same as to be a son of God. On this, Biddulph quoted St Paul to the Galatians, 'Ye are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus,' but faith may exist previous to baptism and independently of it, as was the case with the converts on the day of Pentecost. From this it follows that men may be the children of God really though not manifestly before they are baptised. Baptism is the symbol of salvation. The outward washing is the figure of the inward. There is no other necessary effect following the symbol but that which is also symbolical. It is an evidence of God's favour if we possess the necessary qualification. It is the seal appended, conditional

1 Col. ii, 12.

2.Eph. v, 27.

as everything external in the dealings of God with man must be. Jesus was baptised-He needed no regenerating grace, but His baptism was a manifestation of his Messiahship, so our baptism is a declaration of our profession as Christians.

The question is then argued from the Church formularies. Biddulph quoted Article XIII, from which he infers that if grace is not received before baptism, works done then are not pleasant to God. Every candidate for baptism being unregenerate, his offering himself as a candidate cannot be pleasing to God, but must have the nature of sin. Faith and repentance are the necessary pre-requisites for baptism. Now true repentance' is a change of heart, and to have faith, according to St John, is to be born of God. In the baptismal service we pray that the 'child may be born again.' But the prayer may be granted or it may not. That depends on the condition of the person concerned. The Church speaks of the baptised as regenerate on the supposition that they are sincere in their profession. The regeneration is suspended on the stipulation. This hypothetical principle pervades all the services, and is the key to such expressions in the Epistles as 'faithful,' 'holy,' 'elect,' applied to whole churches.

The last head is that the doctrine of Mant has a dangerous tendency. It is a regeneration without effects. The mere act of baptism does not make people better than they were. Morcover it is the old doctrine of opus operatum of sacraments, against which our Reformation was a solemn protest.

Christopher Bethell, Bishop of Bangor, treated the subject historically and controversially in 1822, and more fully in 1845. He distinguished between baptismal regeneration as taught in the Church of Rome, and as taught in the Church of England. In the one it was the Sacrament which regenerated by an inherent virtue, in the other it was God through the Sacrament. The regeneration too was different. In the one the very essence and being of original sin was removed, but with the latter the corruption of nature remains, even in the regenerate. Bethell found Dr Pusey's idea of regeneration to approach the Roman Catholic, if not to be identical with it, while he states his own in these words, 'Though that principle of life contains the germs of those graces, which are the

ordinary fruits of the Holy Ghost, we do not conceive that any actual development of them or any certain conversion of the heart to God takes place at that time in the souls of infants.”1

Bethell adopts the distinction made by Waterland between regeneration and renovation. The former is in baptism, the latter is a change of mind or disposition. In adults this is the qualification or capacity for regeneration, in infants regeneration takes place without renovation.

Baptism is not

only an engagement to lead a new life, but a change wrought in the soul by a benefit infused through the joint operation of water and the Spirit. It is a seal, not as a legal seal to a document, but the baptised are sealed and stamped, as the Jews had the outward mark of circumcision. Though made children of God in baptism, they might cease to be numbered among God's children.

The Anglo-Calvinistic idea of regeneration in baptism as set forth by Hooker was revived by Edward Irving. Opposition to the Roman Catholic doctrine of regeneration led some persons naturally to the denial of the doctrine in any sense. God works through His ordinances, but His grace is not tied to them, is the position taken up by Calvin. The most pronounced form of this view is found with Edward Irving, who fell back on the old standards of the Church of Scotland, of which he was a minister, where he found these words, 'We utterly condemn the vanity of those who make the Sacraments to be nothing but naked and bare signs.' He confesses to having had his mind directed to the subject by Hooker, 'the venerable companion of his early studies.' Though many who were washed in infancy with the water of baptism grow up children of the evil one, yet we are not to overlook the meaning of the ordinance to those who continue steadfast in the right way. As the seeds of a corrupt nature are derived from parents, so those who are baptised into Christ have the seeds of a spiritual nature conveyed to them. To separate the effectual washing of the Spirit from baptism, is to make void the ordinances of the visible Church. On the other hand, we are not absolutely and necessarily to connect the washing with the administration of baptism. To do this would be to take the gift out of the electing love of the Father

and fix it on the outward act of the priest. Regeneration is conversion, baptism introduces 'believers and their children into the inheritance of the Holy Ghost.' It is only believers and the children of believers who are to be baptised, and the benefits of baptism, even with those who are baptised are received only by the elect, for on them as the Westminster Confession says Privileges and benefits are conferred by baptism.' These are, 'Ingrafting into Christ, regeneration and remission of sins.' 1 All who are children of God, or the elect, are regenerated at their baptism, but all who are baptised are not regenerated.

In 1850, the final effort was made to expel Calvinism from the Church of England. This was in the great Gorham case promoted by Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter. The signal failure of Bishop Marsh with his eighty-seven questions might have been a warning, but it was not. George Cornelius Gorham was Vicar of St Just in the diocese of Bishop Phillpotts. Like many of the Evangelical clergy at this time he was a Calvinist in doctrine, and was therefore not in high esteem with his diocesan. In 1847 he was presented to the living of Brampford Speke. It was a custom with the Lord Chancellors when giving preferment, to require testimonials signed by three beneficed clergymen and countersigned by the bishop. These were obtained, but the Bishop after countersigning added a note casting doubts on Gorham's orthodoxy. The Lord Chancellor presented, but the Bishop refused to institute until he had examined the presentee as to his soundness in the faith, according to the Bishop's view of what is sound. The examination lasted for six days, and the questions were one hundred and forty-nine. The first question was 'Prove that baptism and the Lord's Supper are necessary to salvation.' The answer was 'Scripture nowhere says that they are.' The next question was if they were generally necessary, to which the answer was 'Yes, certainly.' The point at which the

1 This Confession is very strong on the baptismal regeneration of the elect. It says that in baptism grace is not only offered, but exhibited and conferred by the Holy Ghost. Art. XXVIII.

2 In the Church of Scotland in 1717 an attempt was made by the Presbytery of Auchterarder to impose a test in addition to