signs of spiritual life in the operations thereof, no more can they of their having a rational soul, for some time, and yet we know they have the power of reason within them; and since all infants are alike, either all do here receive a principle of new life, or none receive it; wherefore I see no reason why we may not believe as the ancients did, that God's grace (which is dispensed according to the capacity of the suscipient) is here given to infants to heal their nature, and that He bestowed on them such measures of His Spirit as they can receive; for the malignant effects of the first Adam's sin are not larger than the free gift obtained by the second Adam's righteousness. (Rom. v. 15, 18.) And if it be asked how it comes to pass then, that so many children do afterwards fall off to all impurity? I answer, so do too many grown persons also, and neither infants nor men are so regenerated in this life, as absolutely to extinguish the concupiscence: for the flesh still will lust against the Spirit: but thus God gives the Spirit also to lust against the flesh. (Gal. v.)

Ken, Bishop AND CONFESSOR.-Exposition of Church Catechism, p. 136.

Glory be to thee, O most indulgent Love, who in our baptism dost give us the Holy Spirit of Love, to be the principle of new life, and of love in us, to infuse into our souls a supernatural, habitual grace, and ability to obey and love thee, for which all love, all glory be to thee."

Glory be to thee, O compassionate Love, who, when we were conceived and "born in sin," of sinful parents, when we sprang from a root wholly corrupt, and were all "children of wrath," hast in our baptism" made us children" of thy own heavenly Father by adoption and grace; when we were heirs of hell, hast made us heirs of heaven, even joint heirs with thy own self, of thy own glory; for which, with all the powers of my soul, I adore and love thee.

PATRICK, BISHOP.-On Baptism, p. 441.

The sum of all is, that hereby we are regenerated and born again. It is the sacrament of the new birth, by which we are put into a new state, and change all our relations; so that whereas before we were only the children of Adam, we are now taken to be the children of GOD; such of whom He will have a fatherly care, and be indulgent and merciful unto. We have now a relation likewise to CHRIST as our Head, and to the Holy Ghost as the Giver of life and grace. Yea, herein He grants remission of sin, and we are sanctified, and set apart to His uses. We being hereby given to Him, and He accepting of us, do be

come His possession and proper goods, and cannot without being guilty of the foulest robbery, sin against GOD. We are made hereby the temples of the Holy Ghost, the place where He, and nothing else, is to inhabit; and being by this consecrated to Him, He likewise then enters upon His possession, and we are said thereby to receive the Holy Ghost; so that if we run into sin, we defile His house, and commit the greatest profaneness and impiety, and may be said very truly to do despite to the Spirit of GOD whereby we were sanctified.

BEVERIDGE, BISHOP AND DOCTOR.-On admission into the Church by Baptism. Vol. i. Serm. xxxv. p. 304.

By what he means by being "born of water and the Spirit," is now made a question: I say now, for it was never made so till of late years. For many ages together none doubted of it, but the whole Christian world took it for granted, that our Saviour, by these words, meant only that except a man be baptized according to His institution, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God; this being the most plain and obvious sense of the words, forasmuch as there is no other way of being born again of water, as well as of the Spirit, but only in the Sacrament of Baptism.

To understand what He means by being born again, we must call to mind what He saith in another place, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John xviii. 36.) though it is in this world, it is not of it; it is not a secular or earthly kingdom, but a kingdom purely spiritual and heavenly: "It is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost ;" (Rom. xiv. 17.) And therefore when a man is born into this world, he is not thereby qualified for the kingdom of GOD, nor hath any right or title to it, no more than as if he had not been born at all; but before he enter into that, he must be born again, he must undergo another kind of birth than he had before; he was before born of the flesh, he must now be born of the Spirit; otherwise he cannot be capable of entering into such a kingdom as is altogether spiritual. Thus our Lord himself explains his own meaning in my text, by adding immediately in the next words, "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh," &c. ... . As if He had said, He that is born, as all men are at first, only of the flesh, such a one is altogether carnal and sensual; and so can be affected with nothing but the sensible objects of this world. But he that is born of the Spirit of God, thereby becomes a spiritual creature, and so is capable of those spiritual things of which the kingdom of GoD consisteth, "even of righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." And he whose mind is changed, and turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, is truly said to be born again; because he is quickened with another kind of

life than he had before; and to be born of the Spirit of God, because it is by it that this new and spiritual life is wrought in him. So that he is now born into another world, even into the kingdom of GOD, where he hath God himself, of whom he is born, for his Father, and the kingdom of GOD for his portion and inheritance. And therefore it is, that except a man be thus born of the Spirit, it is impossible he should enter into the kingdom of GOD, seeing he can enter into it no other way, than by being born of the Spirit.

But that we may thus be born of the Spirit, we must be born also of water, which our Saviour here puts in the first place. Not as if there was any such virtue in water, whereby it could regenerate us, but because this is the rite or ordinance appointed by CHRIST, wherein to regenerate us by his Holy Spirit; our regeneration is wholly the act of the Spirit of CHRIST. But there must be something done on our parts in order to it, and something that is instituted and ordained by CHRIST himself, which in the Old Testament was circumcision; in the New, baptism, or washing with water; the easiest that could be invented, and the most proper to signify His cleansing and regenerating us by his Holy Spirit. And seeing this is instituted by CHRIST himself, as we cannot be born of water without the Spirit, neither can we, in an ordinary way, be born of the Spirit without water, used or applied in obedience and conformity to His institution, CHRIST hath joined them together, and it is not in our power to part them: he that would be born of the Spirit, must be born of water too.....

As baptizing necessarily implies the use of water, so our being made thereby disciples of CHRIST, as necessarily implies our partaking of His Spirit: For all that are baptized, and so made the disciples of CHRIST, are thereby made the members of His body; and are therefore said to be baptized into CHRIST, (Rom. vi. 5. Gal. iii. 27.) But they who are in CHRIST, members of His body, must needs partake of the Spirit that is in Him their Head. Neither doth the Spirit of CHRIST only follow upon, but certainly accompanies the Sacrament of Baptism, when duly administered according to His institution. For as St. Paul saith, "By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body." (1 Cor. xii. 13.) So that in the very act of baptism, the Spirit unites us unto CHRIST, and makes us members of His body; and if of His body, then of His Church and kingdom, that being all His body. And therefore all who are rightly baptized with water, being at the same time baptized also with the Holy Ghost, and so born of water and the Spirit, they are, ipso facto, admitted into the kingdom of GoD, established upon earth, and if it be not their own fault, will as certainly attain to that which is in heaven.

Ibid. p. 306.-This I would desire all here present to take spe

cial notice of, that you may not be deceived by a sort of people risen up among us, who being led, as they pretend, by the light within them, are fallen into such horrid darkness, and damnable heresies, that they have quite laid aside the Sacrament of Baptism, and affirm, in flat contradiction to our Saviour's words, that they may be saved without it. I pray GoD to open their eyes, that they may not go blindfold into eternal damnation. And I advise you all, as you desire not to apostatize from the Christian religion, and as you tender your eternal salvation, take heed that you be never seduced by them, under any pretence whatsoever; but rather, if you be acquainted with any of them, do what you can to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto GOD again; that they may obtain forgiveness of their sins, and inheritance among them who are sanctified by faith in Him, who saith, "Except a man be born of water," &c.

Not only a man, in contradiction to a child, or a woman, but as it is in the original, sav μn sis, except any one, any human creature whatsoever, man, woman, or child, "except he be born of water," &c. .... So that our Lord is so far from excluding children from baptism, that He plainly includes them, speaking in such general terms, on purpose that we may know that no sort of people, old or young, can ever be saved without it. And so He doth too, where He commands, as was observed before, that "All nations should be made disciples by being baptized in the name of," &c. ... For, under all nations, children must needs be comprehended, which make a great, if not the greatest part of all nations. And although these general expressions be sufficient to demonstrate the necessity of Infant Baptism, yet foreseeing that ignorant and unlearned people would be apt to wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction, He elsewhere commands children particularly to be brought unto Him, saying, "Suffer the little children," &c. (Mark x. 14.) But if the kingdom of God consist of children, as well as other people, they must of necessity be baptized, or born of water and the Spirit; for otherwise, He Himself saith, "They cannot enter into the kingdom."

Hence it is, that we find the Apostles baptizing whole families, children, if any, as well as others: and the whole Catholic Church, in all places and ages ever since, hath constantly admitted the children of the believing parents into the Church, by baptizing them according to the institution and command of our Saviour; none ever making any question of it, but all Christians, all the world over, taking it for granted that it ought to be done, till of late years.

SHARP, ARCHBISHOP.-Vol. v. Sermon v. p. 71.

There is the same relation between CHRIST and Christians,

that there is between the vine and the branches; the same necessity of communication of vital influences from the root to the branch in the one as in the other which communication of influences is made by the Holy Spirit of GoD, derived from CHRIST, and diffusing Himself into every particular member of the whole body of Christians. Hence it is Christians are so frequently called the Temples of the Holy Ghost. "Know ye not,” saith St. Paul," that ye are," &c.; and, again, " Know ye not," that your bodies are the members, &c. which he explains presently after thus: "Know ye not that your bodies are the Temples," &c. And the same St. Paul, in the eighth to the Romans, lays the foundation of our relation to CHRIST, and our hopes of eternal life, in the very thing, viz. the Spirit of GOD his dwelling in us; as may be there seen more at large.

This, then, being the privilege of all Christians, that by their being consecrated to CHRIST, they have a right to the continual presence of the Holy Ghost in their souls; or, if you will, GOD hath so great a right and property in them, that He sends down His Holy Spirit to take possession of them, in order to the securing and sealing them for His own in the other world; we may easily, from hence, gather what it is to grieve the Holy Spirit, (which is the thing we are now inquiring into,) viz.: We then grieve Him, when being already Christians in profession, we either will not vouchsafe Him a lodging in our hearts, which He doth desire; and, in order to the obtaining it, makes frequent applications to our souls by His holy motions; or, when we have already given Him entertainment, we carry ourselves so unbecomingly towards Him, as to tempt Him to forsake us. We then grieve the Holy Spirit, when, having taken upon ourselves the covenant of Baptism, and thereby consecrated and consigned ourselves to GOD, we either refuse to admit the Spirit to take possession of us, or having admitted Him, do not show that respect, nor observe that decency, nor express that kindness, that is due to so worthy a guest; but by our rude, and unmannerly, and illnatured behaviour towards Him, put such affronts upon Him as highly provoke Him to quit his habitation.

SCOTT, PRESBYTER.-Christian Life, chap. ii. sect. i. p. 354.

Second sort of the Holy Ghost's operations, viz. that which He ordinarily doth, and always hath done, and will always continue to do; for, upon the cessation of these His miraculous operations, the Holy Ghost did not wholly withdraw Himself from mankind, but He still continues mediating with us under CHRIST, in order to the reconciling our wills and affections to GOD, and subduing that inveterate malice and enmity against Him, which our degenerate nature hath contracted. For it is by