in numberless other passages, so particularly in his conversation with Nicodemus ; when, instructing him in the mysterious doctrine of regeneration, he required a full assent to it upon the testimony of his own word. May we bow to his authority, while we consider,
I. The nature of regeneration —
The mistakes which very generally obtain respect- ing this subject being first rectified, the truth will be more clearly seen —
Many suppose that baptism is the same with rege- neration—
[In the early ages of Christianity these terms were often used as synonymous, because it was taken for granted that none but truly regenerate persons would submit to a rite which engaged them to separate themselves from an ungodly world, and exposed them to the most imminent peril of their lives. But there is a wide difference between the two ; regeneration being absolutely necessary to salvation, while baptism, as in the case of the dying thief, may under some circumstances be dispensed with. Besides, it was doubtless the great design of our Lord and his Apostles to regenerate and convert men : but were they so intent on administering the rite of baptism ? Our Lord, we are told, " baptized no man;" and it is said of Paul, that " God sent him not to baptize ;" yea, he himself " thanks God that he had baptized none but Crispus and Gains :" but if he had regenerated none other, would he have thought that a proper ground for thanksgiving? Again, if baptism and regeneration be the same thing, we may use them altogether as synonymous terms : now it is said that " Whoso- ever is born of God overcometh the world a," and that " he neither doth sin nor can sin, because he is born of GodV But if we should say the same of all that are baptized, would not the worldly and sinful lives of many flatly contradict us ? It appears then from the superior importance of regeneration, from the design of Christ and his Apostles respecting it, and from the properties ascribed to it in Scripture, that it neither is, nor can be, the same with baptism. Baptism is an outward work of man upon the body ; regeneration is an inward work of God upon the soul.]
Others think that regeneration imports no more than an outward reformation, or at most, a partial change of the inward man —
» 1 John v. 4. h 1 John iii. 9.