STATED AND EXPLAINED

ACCORDING TO

SCRIPTURE AND ANTIQUITY.

TIT. iii. 4, 5, 6.

BUT AFTER THAT THE KINDNESS AND LOVE OF GOD OUR SAVIOUR TOWARDS MAN APPEARED, NOT BY WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, WHICH WE HAVE DONE, BUT ACCORDING TO HIS MERCY HE SAVED US, BY THE WASHING OF REGENERATION, AND RENEWING OF THE HOLY GHOST; WHICH HE SHED ON US ABUNDANTLY THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR SA

VIOUR.

ST. Paul in these words has briefly taught us God's method of saving both Jew and Gentile, under the Christian dispensation. He did it, and does it, of free grace, and according to the riches of his pure mercy; not for or by any righteousness which we have done, or do, by our own unassisted abilities*, but by the washing, or laver, of regenera

Si quæras cujusmodi opera a justificatione & salute excludat apostolus, clare hic respondet ipse: A swinger us, pronomines emphatice addito: Quæ fecimus ipsi, h. e. ex pro

tion, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; that is to say, by the sacrament of Christian baptism, considered in both its parts, "the outward visible sign," which is water, and "the inward things signified" and exhibited, viz. " a death unto sin, and a new birth "unto righteousness," therein wrought by the Holy Spirit of God. I interpret the text of waterbaptism, as the ancients constantly did*, and as the rules of true criticism require. For, though some moderns have endeavoured to explain away "the outward part," resolving all into "the inward part or thing signified," namely, the grace of the Spirit; yet with how little reason or success they

have attempted it, is well known to the more judicious, who have abundantly vindicated the ancient construction*. The latter part of the text is nearly parallel to those words of our Lord: Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heavent, And the general doctrine both of our Lord and St. Paul in those texts is, that water applied outwardly to the body, together with the grace of the Spirit applied inwardly to the soul, regenerates the mant: or, in other words, the Holy Spirit, in and by the use of water-baptism, causes the new birth. But it is observable, that while our Lord's words make mention only of the new birth, that is, of regeneration, the apostle here in the text distinctly speaks both of a regeneration and a

* See Whitby on the text.-Wolfii Cur. Crit. in loc.

t John iii. 5. That this text also was anciently understood of water-baptism, and ought to be so, has been abundantly proved by the best-learned moderns, viz. Hooker, b. v. n. lix. p. 225.-Maldonate in loc.-Lightfoot, tom. i. p. 571, &c.Wall, Inf. Bapt. part. i. p. 6, 22. part ii. 165. Defence, p. 11, 24, 153, 237.-Wolfii Cur. Crit. in loc. yol. i. p. 811, Beveridge's Sermons, vol. iii. serm. xi. p. 327, &c.

ritus

&C.

‡ Aqua igitur exhibens forinsecus sacramentum gratiæ, & Spioperans intrinsecus beneficium gratiæ, solvens vinculum culpæ, reconcilians bonum naturæ, regenerant hominem in uno Christo, ex uno Adamo generatum. Augustin. Epist. ad Bonifac. xcviii. p. 264. edit. Bened.-Conf. Origen. in Johann. p. 124, 125. ed. Huet.

renovation, as two things, and both of them wrought ordinarily in one and the same baptism, here called the laver of regeneration, and of renewing. Indeed, the words of the original may be rendred, by the laver of regeneration, and by the renewing; and so some have translated, or interpreted them*. But the common rendring appears to be preferable, as best warranted by the reading, and by the ancient versions, and by the general doctrine of the New Testament in relation to baptism, as ordinarily carrying with it, in adults at least fitly prepared, both a regeneration and a renovation; which, though distinct in name and notion, (as appears from this text, and from several other texts of the New Testament, to be hereafter mentioned,) are yet nearly allied in end and use, are of one and the same original, often go together, and are perfective of each other., In discoursing farther, my design is,

I. To explain the name and notion of regenera. tion, shewing what it is, and what it contains; as also what concern it has with Christian baptism, called the laver, or fountain of it.

II. To consider what the renewing mentioned in the text means, and how it differs from, or agrees with regeneration; and what connexion both have either with baptism here, or with salvation hereafter.

III. To draw some proper inferences from the whole, for preventing mistakes in these high matters, and for our better improvement in Christian knowledge and practice.

I. I propose to treat of regeneration, shewing what it means, and what it contains, and what relation it bears to Christian baptism, called the laver, or fountain of it. Regeneration, passively considered, is but another word for the new birth of a Christian: and that new birth, in the general, means a spiritual change wrought upon any person by the Holy Spirit, in the use of baptism; whereby he is translated from his natural state in Adam, to a spiritual state in Christ. The name, or the notion, probably, was not altogether new in our Lord's time: for the Jews had been used to admit converts from Heathenism into the Jewish church, by a baptism of their own; and they called the admission or reception of such converts by the name of regeneration, or new birth; as it was somewhat like the bringing them into a new world. Such proselytes were considered as dead to their former state of darkness, and born anew to light, liberty, and privileges, among the children of Israel, and within the church of God. The figure was easy, natural, and affecting; and therefore