as would be advanced, were we to maintain, that a man's having through carelessness or neglect lost a valuable privilege, proves that he never had been in possession of it; in other words should we say, that the circumstance of a baptized person not actually living in the way, in which it was intended that a regenerate person should live, is a proof that the party in question had never been regenc rated; or, to make use of an allusion which has been lately pressed into the service by a maintainer of the novel doctrine in question, but which appears to conclude against him; should we say, that the circumstance of the sow's wallowing in the mire, furnished demonstrative proof that she never had been washed. Whereas, 1 conceive, the force of the Apostles' reasoning turned, on the circumstance of the sow's returning to her foulness, after her having been washed; as a parallel case to that of those Christians, who, after having been cleansed from their natural corruption by the sacramental washing in baptism," the washing of Regeneration," (as St. Paul calls it,) afterwards return to the pollu pollutions of the world, and of the natural man. Whilst that species of Regeneration, which by some divines has been thought necessary to supply the supposed spiritual defect of baptism, may be called a Regeneration sui generis; having the ima gination only for it's support. Extraordinary impulses, emotions, and experiences, may be singularly gratifying to persons of a peculiar cast of mind. But they are certainly calculated to mislead and under no circumstances are they, in themselves, sufficient to furnish convincing evidence of the truly spiritual condition of the party concerned in them. At the same time it must be observed, that there is not, as it appears, a single text in Scripture, rightly interpreted, in conformity with its context, and other parts of the divine word, which refers the act of Regeneration to internal impulses, or other similar sensations, as the special tokens of the party in question, at the time of such extraordinary appearances, being born into a state of actual salvation. And when it is considered, how easily persons, possessing warm conceptions and lively imaginations, persuade them themselves that they really feel what they wish to feel; and at the same time how much all internal feelings depend on the present state of the animal system; on bodily health and constitution; it must be regarded as a striking instance of divine mercy, that God has not made the proof of the most important subject to depend on internal impressions or animal sensations; which are at best both dubious and uncertain; and are calculated, according to their presence or absence, to generate either groundless confidence, or groundless despair. NOTE. NOTE. TO those acquainted with the language of the Fathers on the subject of Regeneration, or who have paid attention to the plain sense of words, as applied by our Reformers, in the different parts of our Liturgy, to this particular point, further enlargement upon it may appear to be unne cessary. But, as there is a description of Divines now, it is to be feared, increasing among us, who are at least introducing into the Church the erroneous and fanciful doctrines of those visionary enthusiasts, who, at different times, have disgraced the cause in which they appeared to be zealously engaged; it may not be amiss to remind the Divines here. alluded to, that that doctrine of Regeneration, which they are in the habit of pressing upon their hearers, is certainly not the doctrine, either of the Scripture, of the primitive Church, or of that Church to which we have the happiness to belong. Would these Divines but read, without prejudice on their minds, those parts of Scripture which bear on this point, together with what has been so copiously advanced upon it by those writers who have expressly handled the subject in question; exclusive of what may be found in the pages of those numberless other writers of established authority, who have occasionally touched upon it; it might be presumed, that there could not, among Divines of the same Church, be a difference of opinion, ou the point under present notice. For it may be confidently affirmed, that the term Regeneration is, in Scripture, defi nitively |