66

proportion of faith" or trust reposed

in us.

66

4. Calvinists define conversion to be "an “actual turning from vice to real virtue*, "a practical, radical, and general change of “character',” derived from the agency of the Holy Spirit. It is the conversion of an “he"reditary profession into actual practice "and experiencem," and not the conversion "of persons already called Christians to the profession of Christianity"." In its scriptural use, however, conversion does generally mean, the conversion of Jews and Gentiles from their hereditary profession to the belief and obedience of the Gospel": and the sense, which is now both arbitrarily and ambiguously imputed to it, is more properly expressed by repentance, as far as the individual, and by renovation, as far as the Holy Spirit is concerned P.

i Rom. xii. 6. k Williams, p. 28. 177. m Ibid. p. 161, 162. n Ibid. o Matt. xiii. 15. 15. xv. 3. xix. 26.

i. 9. 1 Peter ii. 25.

I Overton, P.

John xii. 40. Acts iii. 19. xi. 21. xiv. xxvi. 18. 20. 2 Cor. iii. 16. 1 Thess.

Р "Repentance or conversion (as it implies actively

5. Some Calvinists "would not be soli. "citous about the term regeneration, pro“vided the idea or scriptural truth, which" they "mean to express by it, be allowed!: neither do they "confound regeneration "with conversion; for by the former" they "understand an immediate operation of "God the Holy Ghost in the mind, but by "the latter the voluntary act of the mind "in turning from all forbidden objects and "pursuits to God and holiness by Jesus "Christ, as the consequence of regenera❝tion. The important change expressed by regeneration is the work of God, and 66 may take place in an infant; but conver❝sion implying a voluntary act upon con"viction, cannot take place in an infant "minds."

66

"Modern Calvinists admit the term re"generation in three acceptations, principally according to the connection: first,

66

"turning unto God) is wholly the act of the penitent: “ but to work in us both to will and to do is the act of "God alone." Scott, vol. i. p. 107.

9 Williams, p. 417. s Williams, p. 65.

I See Scott, vol. i. p. 177.

66

"as denoting figuratively baptism; secondly, the immediate effect of divine in"fluence upon the mind; thirdly, the for"mation of Christian tempers and graces'." "To limit either regeneration or conver❝sion to any period of human life, or as "the effect of any external rite, while the "will of God is sovereign in dispensing "blessings, and the will of man is free from "constraint," they "regard as enthusias"tic"." Thus they "use the word rege❝neration, to express something different " from baptism *,” “ quite distinct and se"parable from baptism;"" and although in their judgment it can never be proved, "that baptismal regeneration communi"cates quickening grace," they nevertheless concede, that " baptism may be, "but not without the voluntary concur"rence of the subject, the means of this "regeneration, because it may be the "occasion of forming knowledge, faith,

66

t Williams, p. 64. u Ibid. p. 66. Compare Scott, vol. i. p. 162. * Williams, p. 63. y Vaughan's Account, p.

308.

z Williams, p. 79.

66

66

charity, &c. in a mind born of the

Spirit a."

66

What then, we ask, is the meaning of the unperverted doctrine of our Lord concerning the necessity of being "born of water and "the Spirit"?" or of that of his Apostle concerning the divine method of our salvation, through the laver "of regeneration and re"newal of the Holy Spirit"?" or concerning Christ's having sanctified his Church with the laver or "washing of water" ?" How is it that we are all the children of "God by faith in Jesus Christ," but because "as many of us as have been baptized ❝ into Christ have put on Christe?" How is it that “we have all been baptized into "one body, and made to drink into one Spirit?" or how, except in baptism, were the Corinthians "washed, sanctified, "and justified in the name of the Lord "Jesus, and by the Spirit of our Gods?" What is meant by God's "

66

giving the

b John iii. 5.

e Galat. iii. 26, 27.

66

"earnest of the Spirit in our heartsh," by his having sealed them who believed in Christ with the "Holy Spirit of promise, "which is the earnest of our inheritance "until the redemption of the purchased possession?" or by our being ❝ buried "with Christ in baptism, wherein also we "are risen with him, through the faith of "the operation of God, who raised him "from the dead?" When the texts which relate to baptism and to regeneration as distinct from renovation are examined with candour, and explained without perversion, the doctrine of baptismal regeneration shall be vindicated from every exception, and shewn not to depend on the force of "Jewish and Popish preju"dices1."

6. "The Calvinists do not confound re"generation in any sense of the term with "indefectible grace. If at any time they ❝ use the word indefectible as a property of grace, they distinguish between the act of

66

h 2 Cor. i. 22. Romans vi. 4.

i Ephes. i. 13, 14. I Williams, p. 52.

k Coloss. ii. 12.