A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

Simeon, Charles, 1759-1836 • SECTION 244

192.1 Excellency Of The Liturgy. 257

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be expressed by the term Regeneration. After thanking God for regenerating the infant by his Holy Spirit, we are taught to pray, " that he, being dead unto sin, and living unto righteousness, may crucify the old man, and utterly abolish the whole body of sin .-" and then declaring that total change to be the necessary mean of his obtaining salvation, we add, " So that finally, with the residue of thy holy Church, he may be an inheritor of thine everlasting kingdom." Is there, I would ask, any person that can require more than this ? or does God in his word require more ? There are two things to be noticed in reference to this subject ; the term, Regeneration, and the thing. The term occurs but twice in the Scriptures ; in one place it refers to baptism, and i* distinguished from the renewing of the Holy Ghost ; which however is represented as attendant on it : and in the other place it has a totally distinct meaning unconnected with the subject. Now the term they use, as the Scripture uses it; and the thing they require, as strongly as any person can require it. They do not give us any reason to imagine that an adult person can be saved without experiencing all that modern divines have included in the term Regeneration ; on the contrary, they do, both there and throughout the whole Liturgy, insist upon the necessity of a radical change both of heart and life. Here, then, the only question is, not, whether a baptized person can be saved by that ordinance without sanctitication ; but, whether God does always accompany the sign with the thing signified ? Here is certainly room for difference of opinion : but it cannot be positively decided in the negative ; because we cannot know, or even judge, respecting it, in any instance whatever, except by the fruits that follow : and therefore in all fairness it may be considered only as a doubtful point : and, if we appeal, as we ought to do, to the Holy Scrip- tures, they certainly do in a very remarkable way accord with the expressions in our Liturgy. St. Paul says, "By one Spirit are we all baptized into one vol. n. s

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