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as shewed that the maintainers of regeneration in baptism could not deny the necessity of another quasi regeneration, at least where the supposed grace of baptism was considered to have been neglected and lost. But then came a third step; for while the majority of those who asserted baptismal regeneration dwelt little upon the need of a radical renewal of heart; and while those who dwelt upon the latter often expressed it by the term regeneration or newbirth, irrespective of the grace of baptism, other pious persons were found to symbolise with the second in their general views of doctrine, yet to agree with the former in the annexation of regeneration to baptism. Mr. Budd's work may be referred in a good measure to this head. The result has been so far remarkable, that baptismal regeneration is now no longer a badge of what was wont to be called" orthodoxy;" for some of the most zealous five-points men are among the most zealous sticklers for it: and as if extremes must ever meet, its warmest defenders at this moment are not what are called the high-church, but the new sect of the Morning-Watch school, the "Social duties school, the Irving school, the Miracle school. Mr. Irving is, or at least was when he published his "Homilies on the Sacraments," the Coryphæus of what used to be called orthodoxy in this matter. We copy a few passages from that work on the point.

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"The sealing is the last act of every covenant, and maketh it fast and sure. Now there are two seals connected with

our salvation, Baptism and the Lord's Supper; and therefore there must be two distinct things which they seal up, conclude, and determine. These two things are our justification and our sanctification; the former of which we came to the inheritance of in right of our fathers' faith, the latter of which is a work accomplished in and upon ourselves, in virtue of which we may transmit the holy seed to our children also."

"Here, then, is the mystery of baptism revealed unto all believers, and a most glorious mystery it is, that no sooner is a child born into this world of sinfulness and sorrow, by natural birth, than by a spiritual birth it is born into a spiritual

world of grace and blessedness.... Before the principle of ill hath gotten a hold, the principle of good is also implanted, to wrestle with and strangle it in the cradle."

"I mean always by baptism, not a sign, but the thing signified also; not a shell, but a shell with the kernel in it." "Is it not my part to speak to the baptized as to men pardoned, who have right to have the blessedness of those whose sins are forgiven, and whose iniquities are covered; and this not only of the pardon of sin, but of all the other blessings therein sealed to us?"

"Put me in no ifs, no conditionals of any sort; there are no such words in the decrees of God; I tell you it was not only worded in baptism, [that is, the death

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warrant of the natural man, &c.] but it was done, if only ye have faith to believe it; therefore go about the work of life and holiness, of resurrection life and holiness, as mighty men who are disincumbered of the clayey tabernacle, with all burdensome weights—these being wholly done away in baptism."

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Mr. Irving, indeed, limits these effects to the elect; but as the church cannot know who are elect, she ought, he adds, to believe them of all. Thus, however wickedly the child may turn out, whatever his conduct may be in the parent is never after life, still to doubt that a spiritual substance is in his child after baptism, and he is never to cease to pray, to hope, to speak, to act towards his child as one who so believeth; and whatsoever perversity, and obstinacy, and may dismalice, and wickedness, he cern in it, he may still pray and hope and act in the same holy spirit, because God hath no where said at what time of life he shall effectually call his own elect." He gets over this difficulty as follows:

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"Where is the faith of the church, if she cannot believe in the covenant of baptism made with a person, because that person seems hitherto to have been barren, and at present to be dead? or doth she think that she shall have the end of the promise upon the instant of its being given, as if she could trust God for a day, or a year, but not for ten, or twenty, or thirty years? or must she have sight to help out faith?"

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Our answer is, "By their fruits ye shall know them." If a man at thirty years " is living as an utter reprobate, it seems to us not "faith," but utter absurdity to account that 66 believer," a man whose man a

nature was actually, and not merely in hope or in judgment of charity, crucified to sin in his baptism. Mr. Irving proceeds:

"It is the duty of the church to believe most surely of every baptised child, that in the fulness of time fixed in his own counsels, God will fulfil his own covenant engagements to it."

True, if it can be proved, that God really did make such a covenant engagement on his part in baptism, where there was no faith in the adult, or the faith charitably presumed by the sponsors for the infant never takes place. The writer continues: "Baptism is the most solemn act, whereby a soul is introduced into the full inheritance of Christ's purchased redemption."" Though the persons who presented us at the laver of regeneration, and the priest who washed us therein, and the people who were witnesses thereof, had been all faithless and idolaters, and the

little one made but a cold, unfathered, un

befriended entrance into the church; yet

within the covenant it is now found.' "The baptised person must be believed to be a justified person, otherwise the baptism is a hollow falsehood."" If any one say, I am sure I had no faith till such or such a period of my life, (my conversion to God,) and without faith there is no gift of the Spirit; I answer, But art thou sure, thou boaster in thy shame, [we do not perceive any boasting in the above remark,] that thy father had none, or thy mother, or the church which received thee as her child?"-" Baptism joins us to Christ, and bestows upon us the Holy Spirit."" This solemn covenant apprehends us altogether sunk in sin, and destitute through every infirmity; and apprehending us thus, doth, of free grace, endue us with the forgiveness of sins, and the powers of the Holy Ghost.... To doubt (after baptism) of our forgiveness at any time, or for any sin (except the sin against the Holy Ghost), is to doubt the covenant of God.... The faith of a baptized person is, that he himself is forgiven, and every thing short of this is to make void the covenant."

We have quoted these passages as a striking example of the little dependence to be placed, in judging of men's sentiments, upon the supposed school to which they may he considered to belong, or upon any imagined cognate train of doctrinal views. It used to be said, when these matters were not so well understood as at present, that such men as Mr. Simeon were not ortho

dox, not truly Church of England, in their views respecting baptismal regeneration; it might as justly be said that they were not disciples of Mr. Irving. The link by which such extremes have been brought to meet seems to us to be, that whereas some intended opponents of fanaticism resolved regeneration into baptism in order to get rid of what they considered the enthusiastic notion of the Holy Spirit's influences in conversion; so the members of the new school of fanaticism have advanced to a yet higher grade of the same sentiment, because it so strongly coincides with their enthusiastic propensities, by making the new birth, which, according to the interpretation of such men as Mr. Simeon, is a doctrine as rational as it is scriptural, a mystic operation, in its effects, and visionary as to any unaccountable in its origin, unseen spiritual and practical purpose.

what the Holy Spirit will work in Mr. Simeon next goes on to shew us "in order to our being Christ's; " namely, that he will convince us of sin; reveal Christ to us as the appointed and only Saviour; and lead us to an unreserved surrender of ourselves to God; in other words, he will work in us repentance, faith, and obedience. This notification of what the Holy Ghost does in us "in order to our being Christ's," is followed up by what he does in

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"when we are Christ's;" under which head, also, we find a tripartite division; he will teach, sanctify, and comfort. The author's meaning is evident, and the two heads which he uses to convey it flow from the wording of his text; but when followed out into a discussion they soon begin to run into each other; for how can there be repentance, faith, and obedience, without some portion of Divine teaching and sanctification? and how can sanctification be a new work when obedience has been already in operation? It seems to us that it is hazardous to attempt to define with over accuracy exactly what

is requisite as preliminary to our being Christ's, as distinguished from what follows when we are Christ's; for call the turning point what we may, whether election, adoption, regeneration, or conversion, no moment can be pointed out in which there exist repentance, faith, and obedience, without some measure of Divine teaching, sanctification, or comfort: nay, we should almost have felt disposed to transpose two, at least, of the terms, obedience and sanctification; making the latter, if we must distinguish them, antecedent to the former rather than posterior, just as life precedes action. But the instruction intended to be conveyed is so clear and scriptural that we readily pass over what may not be perfectly accurate in definition; especially as the inaccuracy, if it be one, arises from the nature of the subject, which does not well admit of the nice line and plummet of technical theology*.

It is remarked in one of the St. Davids' Prize-Essays, "In tracing the origin and progress of religion in the human soul, it is impossible to reduce it to a series of precise and invariable operations, and to allot to each of our faculties and powers its definite share in the general process. It seems indeed to be the ordinary course of the Holy Spirit, in his agency on the heart and mind of man, first to illuminate and convince then to convert-then to sanctify; or, in other words, first to lead men to a perception of their natural condition, and of the character of the Gospel; to teach them their sinfulness and spiritual inability; and to pour into their hearts the grace of contrition and penitence; then to guide them, as conscious transgressors, to the Great Sacrifice of Calvary, to repose by faith in the death and merits of the Saviour alone for pardon and acceptance with God; and then to bestow upon them that peace which accompanies a true and lively faith-to sanctify them by his gracious influences-and to render them fruitful in every good word and work, as becometh those who being bought with a price are not their own, but are bound in point of duty, and are also anxious in conformity with their renewed nature, to live no longer unto themselves, but unto Him who loved them, and gave himself for them. But the successive stages of this spiritual process do not always follow each other in the strict order assigned to them by artificial systems of theology.

Under each of the divisions and subdivisions will be found a strain of remark, faithful, spiritual, discriminating, and scriptural, and well calculated, by the blessing of that Divine Agent to whose glory these discourses are dedicated, to shew the Christian his high privilege, not only of "having the Spirit," but of "being filled with the Spirit." The author has followed a practice which was very rare some years since in academical sermons, and is not now so common as is desirable, of inserting a distinct pointed application to the hearts and consciences of his hearers, in each of his discourses. We might quote with much satisfaction from these and other portions of these valuable addresses; but we have already written and extracted suffi cient, we doubt not, to incite our readers to peruse the whole for

Sometimes the understanding, sometimes the will, sometimes the affections, seem to take the lead. The graces of love, joy, faith, zeal, humility, vigilance, knowledge, though co-existing in the heart of every true Christian, do not always unite in equal proportions, or follow each other at accurately defined intervals. They mutually act and re-act, augmenting each other by their reciprocal influence; so that what was originally an effect, becomes in its turn a cause, and gives birth to new causes and effects in perpetual succession.

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"These remarks apply in an especial manner to the three Christian graces of knowledge, faith, and obedience. Strictly speaking, there must be some degree of knowledge before there can be faith: he that cometh to God must first know that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.' There must also be faith before there can be genuine obedience; for faith is the only true source of Christian virtue. Yet, on the other hand, our Lord teaches us, that if any man will do the will of God,'-that is, will commence a course of humble and ingenuous obedience, he shall know of the doctrine:' his practical attention to duty shall prove the harbinger of new accessions of spiritual information: and not of information only, but of faith also; for the Scriptures accurately trace up the want of faith to a moral as well as merely mental obliquity: they speak of an evil heart of unbelief,''-an expression which, however peculiar it may seem, will, upon investigation, be found perfectly philosophical, and consistent with the phenomena of daily fact and experience."

themselves. Were this much-vene- sion of schools of every class, and

rated Christian instructor-to whom so many successions of students have looked up with reverence and affection, and who has effected more, under the blessing of the Holy Spirit of whom he writes, towards promoting truly scriptural piety in the Church of England, than, perhaps, any man now living,-never more to preach or pen a single line, these discourses, in connexion with his former publications, would remain an honourable and valued testimony to his soundness of doctrine, his judicious discrimination, and his truly scriptural moderation of statement, combined with the most ardent zeal for the glory of God and the souls of men. We understand that these discourses have excited much attention at Cambridge, not only from their great intrinsic value and seasonable adaptation to the circumstances and inquiries of the times, but from the peculiar fervour and unction which characterised their delivery, and rivetted in breathless attention an overflowing academical auditory. May they be abundantly blessed to a still larger number in their present form, and add to those seals and testimonies of his ministry which are the highest reward of those who, like our revered friend, covet souls for their hire.

Remarks on Clerical Education. By the Rev. H. RAIKES, A.M. Chancellor of the Diocese of Chester. 1 vol. 12mo. 1831.

THE importance of specific clerical education is becoming every hour more extensively felt and acknowledged. Almost every Dissenting community has its theological seminary; the various missionary institutions have similar establishments; and the advanced state of public information, the progress of Socinianism, Popery, infidelity, and literary irreligion, the inroads of extravagance and fanaticism, and the extenCHRIST, OBSERV. No. 361.

the general features and demands of the age, as well as the just expectations of pious and well-informed minds, all require high professional as well as spiritual competency in the clergy of the Established Church. And yet to this hour there is no appointed seat of theological training for our clerical candidates. The universities afford the basis of a solid education, and require such a general knowledge of sacred literature as may be expected from lay as well as professional students; but they go no further, and the graduate must glean, where and how he best can, the great mass of what is necessary to the efficient discharge of his sacred function. The word of God says, "not a novice;" but novices, so far as respects any public provision for instruction, must be not a few of our candidates for holy orders; and as the bishop can ordain only the best he can get, novices are every day thrust into our parishes to take the oversight of souls, and often with less scriptural information even to compose a sermon, or to follow up the detail of pastoral duties, than falls to the share of many a well-taught national-school boy.

True it is, that to the blessed influences of the Holy Spirit we must trace up all that is beneficially effected for the conversion of sinners, and the edification of the faithful; but this Divine Agent is pleased to work by the means which he has himself appointed: and how can we expect his blessing if we systematically neglect them, as we do in one most essential particular if we admit into the sacred office those who having never learned cannot be "apt to teach ?"

It is not enough that a young man is even pious and diligent-though these are essential prerequisites, and by Divine grace will, in the end, lead the way to larger measures of knowledge and ability, he requires, besides these, time to learn, and a suitable teacher to instruct him; and these ought to be amply secured in the ordinary arrangements for the clerical function. Even were it ne

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cessary to keep him some months longer than at present, before he receives holy orders, he would still not wait so many years as his Saviour did before he opened his Divine commission; but this delay would not be necessary if the whole course of his training at an earlier period were specifically directed to his intended profession.

We do not mean to say that educational training is every thing, or that it will be any thing without higher qualifications. The main basis must be laid in the heart and the affections; and it is a mournful fact, that too many young men commence their ministry with a more slender stock of piety than even of theology; nay, many who really are in the main sincere servants of God, begin with very low and inadequate views of the nature of the ministerial office, and of the heights and lengths and breadths and depths of true religion. But without a basis of solid piety, a firm and sustained devotion, a yielding of the heart to God, and the faculties to his service and glory, there are no materials on which to erect the superstructure either of the Christian or the ministerial character. Yet, even where this foundation is laid, helps and instruction are still desirable and necessary; and a sound theological training should have respect to each class of qualification; taking in the offices of the heart and the understanding, so that both may co-operate to build up the well-furnished scribe in the kingdom of God.

We have often invited the attention of our readers to this important subject; it has also been touched upon times without number, in sermons, charges, and pamphlets; and the public mind, we trust, at length, has become fully ripe for its discussion but to the pious and judicious author of the publication now in our hands, are we indebted for bringing it before the friends of the church in a detailed and practical form, and with at least one feasible suggestion towards supplying what is needed.

Mr. Raikes commences his work

with shewing, that though there have never been wanting in the Church of England, divines of the highest attainments, chiefly self-taught and volunteers, who are an imperishable honour to our communion, yet that there has been no regular system of instruction for the great mass of clerical candidates. A comparatively few have attained eminence, but a large number have been lamentably incompetent: scholarship has been abundant, and religion has found an ample supply of public champions; but there has been a grievous defect in carrying its truths and its consolations with zeal and efficiency to our hamlets and cottages.

To supply in some measure this deficiency, without a larger sacrifice of time and expense than at present to the student, Mr. Raikes proposes that the universities should permit young men intended for the ministry, during the last two years of their residence, to substitute studies more purely professional for the usual pursuits of the place. This, he suggests, would allow of their attaining such a degree of acquaintance with the original languages in which the Scriptures are written, with ecclesiastical history, and with the principles of exegetic divinity, as might give a character to their future labours, and greatly increase their usefulness. This plan, if left optional on the part of the student, would not interfere with the pursuits of those who wished to obtain university distinctions and rewards in the ordinary course, intending to devote themselves to theological reading after taking their degree; but it would supply a useful employment to others who had not the desire or ability to grasp at academical honours, and wished simply to qualify themselves for usefulness as parochial ministers. Of these, a large number do little or nothing during half their college life; and a most beneficial thing it would be if their studies were directed to what is infinitely valuable and profitable.

We confess that we still feel so

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