Apostolical zeal. Mere words prove nothing. When was a Universalist minister ever known to weep over his hearers because they would not believe? When, to exclaim with one, "Oh! that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people?" Who among them all could ever say— 'Remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears?' Not one. The principal aim of nearly all their sermons appears to be to cheer up their hearers with the notion, that there is no hell for the wicked after death, and that all will go to heaven at last. But hear Mr. Skinner further. "How can it be otherwise when they see that the happiness of their friends, and the prosperity of their country depend upon the attention paid to religion ?-What misery is to be compared with that arising from the wickedness of our friends? Is it strange, then, that there should be tears, and prayers, and watchings, and trials, in laboring to restore a sinner? Surely there is something that can fill the mind with anguish, besides the fear that we, or our friends shall drop into endless woe!" But why all this for friends only? It was not so with Christ, nor with the apostles. Gentiles as well as Jews shared in the sympathies of Paul, and his tears were shed mostly for poor heathen. Let us have something more than words. A wellorganized and well-conducted system of missions to the heathen, patronized by the whole sect, would do more True source of their zeal. to convince the world of their sincerity, than the loudest professions. "No wild enthusiast ever yet could rest, Till half mankind were like himself possess'd. From ev'ry hair-brain'd proselyte he makes;" And therefore prints. Himself but half deceiv'd, Till others have the soothing tale believ'd." CHAPTER XVIII. THE NEW BIRTH. The New Birth-Not necessary to future happiness-Regeneration not a change of nature-Not a superhuman work— No change but that of the Resurrection needful for entrance to Heaven-The New Birth really denied-Common doctrine ridiculed-Mysteriousness of Regeneration deniedThe fact of Regeneration easily known-To be hereafter experienced by all-Regeneration nothing more than Reformation, or a change of party-Experience of all the saints contradicted. "And is the soul indeed so lost? one cries, Assert the skies and vindicate her due."-COWPER. In a former chapter, it was shown that Universalists maintain the native purity of every human being. They teach that man comes into the world as free from taint as the spotless snow. He forms his own character en No room for regeneration. None needed here for a future state. tirely, unaffected by the fact that he is born of woman. If he sins, (and who, that knows his right hand from his left, does not ?) his sins are the work of the flesh ; the mind never of its own accord defiles itself-never consents to sin. It is the flesh that is to blame. With such notions of man, how can the Universalist receive the common doctrine of Regeneration, or the New Birth? In such a system, what place can be found for what is called a change of heart? The heart, surely needs no change, if neither originally, nor totally depraved. All that is needed is, for the mind to be enlightened, divested of prejudice and ignorance, and then, the pathway of happiness being laid open, the man will enter and run the race with joy. Nor, as we have seen, is such a change needed in order to be happy hereafter, if this life be, in no sense, a state of probation for another. In that case, it will profit nothing in the world to come, to have been born again, or regenerated here. Paul, with all his holiness of heart, his untiring zeal, and self-denying labor in the service of his Master, will occupy a seat in heaven by the side of the traitor Judas. His conversión, his new birth, his being a new creature, will do him no good there. Ahab, and Judas, and Nero, having laid aside their corruptions in the grave, will in the resurrection rise as pure and glorious, as David, Paul, or John. The reader must not, therefore be surprised to find that Universalists affirm that Supernatural agency denied. Their views of the new birth. XX. REGENERATION IS MERELY A CHANGE OF PARTY. In denying the doctrine of the Trinity, they, of course, deny the personality and divine agency of the Holy Ghost, as commonly received by the orthodox. Consequently, they cannot admit a doctrine, which attributes to this divine agent, as distinct from the Father and the Son, a renewing, or regenerating, of the human soul, mind, or spirit, so making all things new. From all that can be learned by means of their writings, preaching, and discourse, they are entire strangers to any such change of the heart. They even ridicule those for it, who profess to have experienced such a change. Those revivals of religion, too, in, and by means of, which so many profess to have been made experimentally acquainted with this great change, they scoff at, as altogether the work of deluded and deceitful men. It is, by no means, intimated, that Universalists deny in words the doctrine of the new birth. This would never answer, without a new translation and an emendation of the original Scriptures. Accordingly, we fiud Mr. Le Fevre very anxious to throw off such an imputation. "It has been erroneously supposed," he says, ("Gospel Anchor,' I. 61,) "that the advocates of Universalism do not believe in a new birth, or regeneration. This is a very gross mistake; they consider it as necessary as any class of Christians; but their views of it may materially differ from those generally entertained." "Let no one accuse the Universalists of denying a change, regeneration, or the new birth. |