barred from it invincibly, we do not, we dare not pass sentence of condemnation upon him; nor yet the Roman Catholics themselves. The question then is, whether the want of Baptism, upon invincible necessity, do evermore infallibly exclude from heaven?

Secondly, we distinguish between the visible sign, and the invisible grace; between the exterior sacramental ablution, and the grace of the sacrament, that is, interior regeneration. We believe that whosoever hath the former, hath the latter also, so that he do not put a bar against the efficacy of the sacrament by his infidelity or hypocrisy, of which a child is not capable. And therefore our very Liturgy doth teach, that a child baptized, dying before the commission of actual sin, is undoubtedly saved.

Thirdly, we believe that without baptismal grace, that is, regeneration, no man can enter into the kingdom of GOD. But whether God hath so tied and bound himself to His ordinances and sacraments that He doth not or cannot confer the grace of the sacraments, extraordinarily, where it seemeth good to His eyes, without the outward element: this is the question between us. HAMMOND, PRESBYTER, CONFESSOR, AND DOCTOR.-Sermon XV. -A New Creature.

It is observable, that our state of nature and sin is, in Scripture, expressed ordinarily by old age, the natural sinful man; that is, all our natural affections that are born and grow up with us, are called the old man; as if, since Adam's fall, we were decrepit and feeble, and aged as soon as born, as a child begotten by a man in a consumption never comes to the strength of a man, is always weak, and crazy, and puling, hath all the imperfections and corporal infirmities of age before he is out of his infancy. And, according to this ground, the whole analogy of Scripture runs; all that is opposite to the old decrepit state, to the dotage of nature, is new. The new covenant, Mark i. 27. The language of believers, new tongues, Mark xvi. 17. A new commandment, John xiii. 34. A new man, Eph. ii. 15. In sum, the state of grace is expressed by návтa kaià, all is become new, 2 Cor. v. 17. So that old and new, as it divides

the Bible, the whole state of things, the world; so it doth that to which all these serve, man; every natural man which hath nothing but nature in him, is an old man, be he never so young' is full of years, even before he is able to tell them. Adam was a perfect man when he was but a minute old, and all his children are old even in the cradle, nay, even dead with old age, Eph. ii. 5. And, then, consequently, every spiritual man, which hath somewhat else in him than he receiveth from Adam, he that is born from above, John iii. 3, yevvηon ävwoεv, (for it may be so rendered from the original, as well as born again, as our English read it), he that is by GoD's Spirit quickened from the old death, Eph. ii. 5, he is, contrary to the former, a new man, a new creature; the old eagle hath cast his beak and is grown young; the man, when old, hath entered the second time into his mother's womb, and is born again; all the grey hairs and wrinkles fall off from him, as the scales from blind Tobit's eyes, and he comes forth a refined, glorious, beauteous new creature: you would wonder to see the change. So that you find, in general, that the Scripture presumes it, that there is a renovation, a casting away the old coat, a youth and spring again in many men, from the old age and weak bedrid state of nature. Now that you may conceive wherein it consists, how this new man is brought forth in us, by whom it is conceived, and in what womb it is carried, I will require no more of you, than to observe and understand with me, what is meant by the ordinary phrase in our divines, a new principle, or inward principle of life, and that you shall do briefly thus. A man's body is naturally a sluggish, inactive, motionless, heavy thing, not able to stir or move the least animal motion, without a soul to enliven it; without that, it is but a carcase, as you see at death, when the soul is separated from it, it returns to be but a stock or lump of flesh; the soul bestows all life and motion on it, and enables it to perform any work of nature. Again, the body and soul together, considered in relation to somewhat above their power and 'activity, are as impotent and as motionless as before the body without the soul. Set a man to remove a mountain, and he will heave, perhaps, to obey your command, but in event will do no more towards the

displacing of it, than a stone in the street could do: but now, let an omnipotent power be annexed to this man, let a supernatural spirit be joined to this soul, and then will it be able to overcome the proudest, stoutest difficulty in nature. You have heard, in the Primitive Church, of a grain of faith removing mountains; and believe me, all miracles are not yet outdated. The work of regeneration, the bestowing of a spiritual life on one dead in trespasses and sins, the making of a carcase walk, the natural old man to spring again, and move spiritually, is as great a miracle as that......

For the third question, when this new principle enters: first you are to know, that it comes into the heart in a threefold dition; first, as an harbinger; secondly, as a private secret guest; thirdly, as an inhabitant or housekeeper. As it is an harbinger, so it comes to fit and prepare us for itself; trims up, and sweeps, and sweetens the soul, that it may be readier to entertain him when he comes to reside; and that he doth (as the ancient gladiators had their arma prælusoria) by skirmishing with our corruptions, before he comes to give them a pitched battle; he brandishes a flaming sword about our ears, and as by a flash of lightning, gives us a sense of a dismal, hideous state; and so somewhat restrains us from excess and fury; first, by a momentary remorse, then by a more lasting, yet not purifying flame, the spirit of bondage. In sum, every check of conscience, every sigh for sin, every fear of judgment, every desire of grace, every motion or inclination toward spiritual good, be it ever so short-winded, is præludium spiritus, a kind of John Baptist to CHRIST, Something that God sent before" to prepare the ways of the LORD." And thus the Spirit comes very often; in every affliction, every disease, (which is part of God's discipline, to keep us in order,) in brief, at every sermon that works upon us at the hearing: then, I say, the lightning flashes in our eyes; we have a glimpse of his Spirit, but cannot come to a full sight of it and thus he appears to many, whom he will never dwell with. Unhappy men, that cannot lay hold on him, when he comes so near them! and yet somewhat more happy than they that never came within ken of him; stopt their ears when he spake to them

even at this distance. Every man in the Christian Church hath frequently, in his life, a power to partake of God's ordinary preparing graces and it is some degree of obedience, though no work of regeneration, to make good use of them; and if he without the inhabitance of the Spirit, cannot make such use as he should, yet to make the best he can and thus, I say, [i. e. in a parallel way] the Spirit appears to the unregenerate, almost every day of our lives. 2ndly, when this Spirit comes a guest to lodge with us, then he is said to enter; but till by actions and frequent obliging works, he makes himself known to his neighbours, as long as he keeps his chamber, till he declare himself to be there, so long he remains a private secret guest, and that is called the introduction of the form, that makes a man to be truly regenerate; when the seed is sown in his heart, when the habit is infused, and that is done sometimes discernibly, sometimes not discernibly, but seldom, as when Saul was called in the midst of his madness, Acts ix., he was certainly able to tell a man the very minute of his change, of his being made a new creature. Thus they which have long lived in an enormous Antichristian course, do many times find themselves strucken on a sudden, and are able to date their regeneration, and tell you punctually how old they are in the Spirit. Yet because there be many preparations to this Spirit, which are not this Spirit, many presumptions in our hearts false grounded, many tremblings and jealousies in those that have it, great affinity between faith natural and spiritual: seeing it is. a Spirit that thus enters, and not as it did light on the Disciples, in a bodily shape, it is not an easy matter for any one to define the time of his conversion. Some may guess somewhat nearer than others, as remembering a sensible change in themselves; but, in a word, the surest discerning of it is in its working, not at its entering. I may know that now I have the Spirit, better than at what time I came to it. Undiscernibly God's supernatural agency interposes sometimes in the mother's womb, as in John Baptist springing in Elizabeth at Mary's salutation, (Luke i. 41.) and perhaps in Jeremy, (Jer. i. 5.) " Before thou camest out of the womb, I sanctified thee," and (in Isa. xlix. 5.) "The LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant." But

this divine address attends most ordinarily till the time of our Baptism, when the Spirit, accompanying the outward sign, infuses itself into their hearts, and there seats and plants itself, and grows up with the reasonable soul, keeping even their most luxuriant years within bounds; and as they come to an use of their reason, to a more and more multiplying this habit of grace into holy spiritual acts of faith and obedience; from which it is ordinarily said, that infants baptized have habitual faith, as they may be also said to have habitual repentance, and habits of all other graces, because they have the root and seed of those beauteous, healthful flowers, which will actually flourish there when they come to years. And this, I say, is so frequent to be performed at Baptism, that ordinarily it is not wrought without that means, and in those means we may expect it, as our Church doth in our Liturgy, where she presumes, at every Baptism, that it hath pleased GOD to regenerate the infant by his Holy Spirit. And this may prove a solemn piece of comfort to some, who suspect their state more than they need, and think it impossible that they should be in a regenerate condition, because they have not as yet found any such notable change in themselves, as they see and observe in others. These men may as well be jealous they are not men, because they cannot remember when their soul came to them if they can find the effects of spiritual life in themselves, let them call it what they will, a religious education, or a custom of well-doing, or an unacquaintedness with sin; let them comfort themselves in their estate, and be thankful to GoD who visited them thus betimes; let it never trouble them that they were not once as bad as other men, but rather acknowledge God's mercy, who hath prevented such a change, and by uniting them to Him in the cradle, hath educated and nursed them up in familiarity with the Spirit.

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TAYLOR, BISHOP, CONFESSOR, AND DOCTOR.-Life of Christ, sect. 9.-On Baptism, part ii. 16.

Thirdly, in baptism we are born again; and this infants need in the present circumstances, and for the same great reason that men of age and reason do. For our natural birth is either of