by the former clause. The Apostle would then be made to say, We are saved by the washing of regeneration, and also by the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Which amounts to saying, We are saved by regeneration and by regeneration. This argument can only be met by making regeneration mean the commencement, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, the progress and development of the new life. But this is contrary to the analogy between this passage and that in John iii. 5.1
1 Bishop Ellicott refers to "the able treatise on this text by Waterland, a tract which, though extending only to thirty pages, will be found to include and to supersede much that has been written on this subject." The treatise thus commended furnishes an excellent illustration of the difficulty of those understanding each other, who differ seriously in their modes of thinking and in their use of terms. To Waterland himself, and to those who agree with him in his theory of religion and in his use of words, this tract doubtless appears well ordered and consistent; by the majority of evangelical Christians of our day it can hardly fail to be regarded as full of confusion and contradictions. (This treatise may be found in Waterland; Works, edit. Oxford, 1843, vol. iv. pp. 425-458.) Waterland begins by say- ing, (1.) That Titus iii. 5, teaches that under the Christian dispensation, God saves men "by the sacrament of Christian baptism, considered in both its parts, the outward visible sign, which is water, and the inward things signified and exhibited, namely, a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness, therein wrought by the Holy Spirit of God." (Page 427.) (2.) The passage distinctly speaks both of a regeneration, and of a renovation, as two things, and both of them wrought ordinarily in one and the same baptism, here called the laver of regeneration and of renewing. (3.) " Regeneration," he says, " passively consid- ered, is but another name for the new birth of a Christian : and that new birth, in general, means a spiritual change wrought upon any person, by the Holy Spirit in the use of bap- tism; whereby he is translated from his natural state in Adam, to a spiritual state in Christ." (Page 429.) Most persons in our day would understand this to mean that re- generation is a subjective change in the state of the soul ; a change from spiritual death to spiritual life. This, however, is afterwards denied. Regeneration is not a change of mind. It is a change of state. It is a change in the relation which the sinner bears to God. " A translation from the curse of Adam into the grace of Christ. This change, translation, or adoption, carries in it many Christian blessings and privileges, but all reducible to two, namely, remission of sins (absolute or conditional), and a covenant claim, for the time be- ing, to eternal happiness." (Page 433.) " Regeneration on the part of the grantor, God Al- mighty, means admission or adoption into sonship or spiritual citizenship : and on the part of the grantee, namely, man, it means his birth, or entrance into that state of sonship, or citizenship." (Page 432.) In this sense regeneration implies no subjective change. The soul remains precisely in the same inward state in which it was before. Adoption does not change a man's inward state. Waterland, therefore, maintains that Simon Magus was re- generated although it did him no good, leaving him in "the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." Sonship was granted him, but he did not accept it. He did not, how- ever, need a second regeneration, but only to repent, then his regeneration or adoption in baptism would take effect. (Pages 442-444.) In this sense also he teaches that renovation or "the renewing of the Holy Ghost," must precede baptism, as well as attend and follow it. It must precede it to produce faith and repentance, without which regeneration or adoption does no good. (Page 434.) In infants, "their innocence and incapacity are to them instead of repentance, which they do not need, and of actual faith which they cannot have." (Page 439.) Infant baptism, however, effects no inward or subjective change. It leaves the soul in the same condition, not in the same state or relative position in which it was before. On page 433, in stating the difference between regeneration and renovation, the renewing of the Holy Ghost, he says, "Regeneration is itself a kind of renewal; but then it is of the spiritual state considered at large; whereas renovation is a "renewal of heart or mind," a "renewal, namely, of the inward frame, or disposition of the man." In proof of this difference between regeneration and renovation he says: "Regeneration
598 PART HI. Ch. XX. — THE MEANS OF GRACE.
Thirdly, if the doctrine of baptismal regeneration can be shown to be thoroughly anti-scriptural, then it cannot be taught in Titus iii. 5. If any passage admit of two interpretations, one opposed to the analogy of Scripture, and the other in harmony with it, we are bound to adopt the latter.
The same remark applies to Acts xxii. 16, where it is recorded that Ananias said to Paul, " Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." If it were the clear doctrine of the Bible that baptism does wash away sin, that
may be granted and received (as in infants) where that renovation has no place at all, for the time being: and therefore, most certainly, the notions are very distinct." Baptismal regeneration, therefore, involves no change "of heart or mind," no change "of the inward frame or disposition." On page 443, in justifying the assumption that Simon Magus was regenerated by his baptism, he makes the benefits of baptism merely outward. He says that "As the Holy Spirit consecrates and sanctifies the waters of baptism, giving them an outward and relative holiness : so He consecrates the persons also in an outward and rela- tive sense, whether good or bad, by a sacred dedication of them to the worship and service of the whole Trinity: which consecration is forever binding, and has its effect; either to the salvation of the parties, if they repent and amend, or to their greater damnation if they do not."
Thus we have three, if not four different definitions of regeneration mixed up together in this treatise, and interchanged one for the other to suit emergencies. First, the word is taken in the sense which it now usually bears. It is the new birth, a change of heart, the commencement of spiritual life in the soul ; a change from a state of spiritual death to that of spiritual life. The Christian is said to be the subject of three births. " Once he is born into the natural life, born of Adam ; once he is born into the spiritual life, born of water and the Spirit; and once also into a life of glory, born of the resurrection at the last day." (Page 432.) In this sense regeneration and renovation differ as the commencement and the development of life differ; or, as in ordinary language, regeneration and the life-long proc- ess of sanctification differ. Secondly, regeneration is made to mean " the death unto sin." Romanists teach that in baptism there is the removal of sin both as to its guilt and power, and an infusion of new habits of grace. Waterland, on page 427, appears to confine it to the death of sin, which on page 439 he explains by the words " plenary remission." In words already quoted, God saves us "by the sacrament of Christian baptism considered in both its parts, the outward visible sign, which is water, and the inward things signified and exhibited, namely, a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness." It will be ob- served he says "inward things," a death and a new birth, which he after distinguishes as regeneration and renovation. In baptism, therefore, we have simply "remission of sin," renovation precedes and follows it. Thirdly, he makes baptism to confer a covenant claim to the privileges or blessings all included under the heads of remission of sins and a title to eternal happiness. These are granted to adults conditionally, ». e., provided they have faith and repentance ; and to infants absolutely, because in their case innocence supplies the place of faith and repentance. This implies no subjective change. It is simply adop- tion, such as Paul says, in Romans ix. 4, pertained to the Jews as a nation. And fourthly, he teaches that baptism confers on the recipient, whether good or bad, an outward and rel- ative holiness, by consecrating him to the worship and service of God. (Page 443.)