If asked what is regeneration according to this system, the proper answer would probably be, that it is an obsolete term. There is no room for the thing usually signified by the word, and no reason for retaining the word itself. Regeneration is a work of the Holy Spirit. But this system in its integrity does not acknowledge the Holy Spirit as a distinct person or agent. And those who are constrained to make the acknowledgment of his personality, are evidently embarrassed by the admission. What the Scriptures and the Church attribute to the Spirit working with the freedom of a personal agent, when and where he sees fit, this system attributes to the " theanthropic-life " of Christ, work- ing as a new force, according to the natural laws of develop- ment.1
The impression madfe upon the readers of the modern theolo- gians of this school, is that made by any other form of philosoph- ical disquisition. It has not, and from its nature it cannot have anything more than human authority. This system may be adopted as a matter of opinion, but it cannot be an object of faith. And therefore it cannot support the hopes of a soul con- scious of guilt. In turning from such writings to the Word of God, the transition these theologians would have us believe, is from yvSoris to Trio-™? ; but to the consciousness of the Christian, it is like the transition from the confusion of tongues at Babel, where no man understood his fellow, to the symphonious utter- ance of those "who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." y y
Doctrine of Ebrard.
Of the writers who belong to the general class of " speculative " theologians, some adhere much more nearly to the Scriptures
i Mystical Presence, edit. Philadelphia. 1846, pp. 225-229.