" I rather," saith he, " conceive that ' regeneration,' which the Scripture makes appropriable only unto persons living to years of discretion, who generally in the days of their youth degenerate from the innocency of their childhood and younger years, and corrupt themselves with the principles and ways of the world, relates not to the natural generation as such, I mean as natural, but unto the spiritual estate and condition of men in respect of their natural generation and birth; in and upon which they are, if not simply and absolutely, yet comparatively, innocent, harmless, free from pride and malice, and, in respect of these qualifications, in grace and fa- vour with God, upon the account of the death and sufferings of Christ for them, as we shall afterward prove."
Here you have the sum of the design and the doctrine of rege- neration cleared from all those vain and erroneous opinions where- with it hath so long been clouded ! It is the returning of men unto the good state and condition wherein they were born, after they have degenerated into ways of wickedness. We thought it had been the " quickening of them who are by nature dead in trespasses and sins, their being begotten again by the will of God, the bestowing of a new principle of Spirit and life upon them, a translation from death to life, the opening of blind eyes, making them who were darkness to be light in the Lord." It seems we have all this while been in
554 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
the dark, and that regeneration indeed is only a returning to that condition from whence we thought it had been a deHvery. But let us a little see the demonstration of this new notion of regeneration.
1. He saith, " The Scripture makes it appropriable only to them who come to years of discretion." Sir, your proof; we cannot take your bare word in a thing of this importance. In the place your- self chose to mention as the foundation you laid of the inferences you are now making, our Saviour says it is a being " born of the Spirit;" doth the Scripture make this appropriable only unto men of discretion? Men only of discretion, then, can enter into the king- dom of God; for none not so born of the Spirit shall enter therein, John iii. 5, If none but men of discretion can be born of the Spirit, then infants have no other birth but only that of the flesh, and " that which is born of the flesh is flesh," verse 6, not capable of entering into the kingdom of heaven. Surely you better deserve the title of " Durus pater infantum" than he to whom of old it was given. Per- haps a grosser figment was never framed by a man of discretion.
2. It is true, infants are comparatively innocent in respect of actual transgressions, but equally nocent and guilty with sinners of discretion in respect of natural state and condition. They are no less obnoxious to that death from whence our regeneration is a delivery, by the bestowing of a new spiritual life, than a sinner of a hundred years old. A return to this condition, it seems, is a regene- ration. " Quantum est in rebus inane!"
3. The qualifications of infants not regenerated are merely nega- tive, and that in respect of the acts of sin, not the habitual seed and root of them, for in them dwells no good. That, in respect of these qualifications of innocency that are in them by nature, ante- cedent to any regeneration (all which are resolved into a natural im- potency of perpetrating sin), they are accepted in grace and favour with God, had been another new liotion, had not Pelagius and Soci- nus before you fallen upon it. " Without faith it is impossible to please God," Heb. xi. 6, and " his wrath abideth on them that believe not," John iii. 3G. That infants have or may have faith, and not be regenerated, will scarcely be granted by them who believe the Spirit of Christ to cause regeneration where he is bestowed, Tit. iii. 5, and all faith to be the fruit of that Spirit, Gal. v. 22, 23. Farther; for the qualification of infants by nature, how are they brought clean from that which is unclean? Are they not conceived in sin and brotight forth in iniquity? or was that David's hard case alone? If they are born of the flesh, and are flesh, if they are unclean, how come they to be in that estate, upon the account of their qualifica- tions, accepted in the love and favour of Him who is " of purer eyes tlian to behold iniquity? " If this be the doctrine of regeneration that Mr Goodwin preaches, I desire the Lord to bless them that belong
XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 555
imto him in a deliverance from attending thereunto. Of the effects of the death of Christ in respect of all children I shall not now treat. That they should be saved by Christ, and yet not washed in his blood, not sanctified by his Spirit (which to be is to be regenerate), is another new notion of the new gospel.
The countenance which Mr Goodwin would beg to his doctrine from that of our Saviour to his disciples, " Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven," reproving their ambition and worldly thoughts, from which they were to be weaned, that they might be fit for that gospel state and employment whereunto he called them, and wherein they were to serve him, does no more advantage him nor the cause he hath under- taken than that other caution of our Saviour to the same persons, to be " wise as serpents and harmless as doves," would do him that should undertake to prove that Christians ought to become pigeons or snakes.