does no good at all. — I see no possibility of avoiding tlu'sc con- sequences, however little some pei sons who hold the inseparability of baptism and regeneration may intend them. Happily I have the comfort of thinking that there is an utter want of logic in some hearts which have much grace.
(e.) Fifthly, if " born of water an d of the Spirit " was meant to teach Nicodemus that baptism is the ordinary means of con- veying spiritual regeneration, it is very difficult to understand why our Lord rebuked him for not knowing it. " Knowest thou not these tilings?" How could he know them? That there was such a thing as baptism, he knew as a Pharisee. But that baptism was the appointed means of conveying "new birth," he could not know. It was a doctrine nowhere taught in the Old Testament. It is a doctrine, on the showing of its own advocates, peculiar to Chi istianity. And yet Nicodemus is rebuked for not knowing it ! To my mind this is inexplicable. The necessity of a thorough change of heart, on the contrary, Nicodemus might have known from the Old Testament Scriptures. And it was for ignorance of this, not for ignorance of baptismal regeneration, that he was rebuked.
(/.) Sixthly and lastly, if it be true that "to be born of water" means baptism, and that baptism is the ordinary means of conveying the grace of regeneration, it is most extraordinary that there is so little about baptism in the Epistles of the New Testament. In Romans it is only twice mentioned, — and in 1st Corinthians, seven times. — In Galatians, Ephesians, Colos- sians, Hebrews, and the 1st Peter we find it named once in each Epistle. In tliirteen of the remaining Epistles it is neither named nor referred to. In the two Pastoral Epistles to Timothy, where we might expect something about baptism, if anywhere, there is not a word about it ! In the Epistle to Titus the only text that can possibly be applied to baptism is by no means clearly applicable. (Titus iii. 5.) Nor is this all. In the one Epistle which mentions baptism seven times, we find the writer saying that " Christ sent him not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel," and actually " thanking God," that he had " baptized none of the Corinthians, save Crispus and Gains." (1 Cor. i. 14, 17.) He would surely never have said this, if all whom he baptized were at once born again. Imagine St. Paul saying, '' I thank God I regenerated none of you !" Moreover, it is a star- tling fact, that this very same Apostle, in the very same Epistle, says to these same Corinthians, " I have begotten you through the Gospel." (1 Cor. iv. 14.) My deliberate! conviction is, that St. Paul would never have written these sentences, if he had believed that the only way to be born of the Spirit was to be baptized.
I give these reasons with a sorrowful feehng that to many