tation, the key of which the Committee of Privy Council, by their judgment in the Gorham case, permitted the use, for the interpretation of the same language in the baptismal service.

And now I will conclude with only asking the opponents of the Gorham judgment these questions. And, I would remind them, I do not say that Scripture does not contain other language counter to that to which these questions apply. I only ask them whether Scripture does not, without or with other language, contain that language.

Are they prepared to deny then,—

1. That Scripture contains the doctrine that God has from all eternity predestinated certain persons to eternal life, and, as a consequence of this, to the qualifications for that life, i. e. to holiness, to righteousness, and to be conformed to the image of His Son?

2. That Scripture consequently represents in one department of its language, holiness, righteousness, and the conformation of the human character to the image of Christ, as a Divine gift and a Divine creation; a disposition of the soul gained not by man's own strength, but imparted by Divine grace solely?

3. That Scripture employs a certain class of terms, in accordance with and upon the basis of this doctrine, such as "elect," "predestinate," "new creature," — terms involving actual holiness and goodness either present or in the long run, in those to whom they are applied; elect and predestinate by implication, the eternal life to which they express destination implying such qualifications for it; new creature expressly?

4. That the term regenerate is one of, and belongs to, this class of Scripture terms; this term involving, in its Scriptural sense, actual holiness and goodness, while, by the force of the

term itself, it represents such holiness and goodness as a Divine gift and creation simply; inasmuch as no man can give birth to himself, either a first birth or a second one.

Are the opponents of the Gorham judgment prepared to disown this as a department of Scripture doctrine and language? If they are, I can only express my conviction that they are engaged in a hopeless contest with the natural sense of Scripture. If they are not, they have no ground for dissenting from the Gorham judgment, and should no longer protest against it.

I do not wish to be understood, however, as throwing out a challenge, or inviting controversy on this subject. All I mean to say is, that I think this question should be reconsidered; and that I cannot but believe that, in proportion as it is reconsidered, some of those gifted and religious minds, whose disinterested zeal to defend what they thought the plain meaning of our formularies, engaged them in the Gorham contest, will see cause for receding from the ground which they took on that occasion.

d

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

The primitive Sense of the Term Regeneration as ascertained from the Scriptural and Patristic Use of it

CHAPTER II.

The primitive Sense of the Term Regeneration as ascertained from the Rite of Baptism

CHAPTER III.

On the Hypothetical Form, or the Rule of Supposition, as applied to the Characters of Men in their Social, Political, and Religious Relations

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