and their reconciliation with certain other Bible statements and with facts in daily life.

Take two instances.

St. John, in his First General Epistle, lays down the ideal of the regenerate state as perfect freedom from sin— "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin.' Now, taking this as it stands, it is not merely at variance with certain parts of our Service, but, first of all, with the fact that no sect or party has ever asserted, and no sane man has ever believed, that a man, from the time of his conversion, is absolutely free from sin; and, in the second place, St. John here is apparently at issue with his brother Apostle, St. Paul; for the highest state of grace which St. Paul recognises is that of а member of Christ:" and we have seen how St. Paul considers the sin of some among his converts the more sinful because they had once been made members of Christ.

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The Church of England, in the matter of Baptism and Baptismal Grace, adheres to the language of St. Paul, and, I may say also, to that of St. Peter and St. James; for all these three Apostles contemplate the possibility of the regenerate man sinning. (See above pages 68-70.)

If she did not, she would commit the absurdity of making one or two difficult statements of one short Epistle to supersede the plain teaching of all the rest of the New Testament.

I have gone fully into the interpretation of the expressions in St. John's General Epistle, in the 14th chapter of

my "Second Adam and New Birth," and I have there shown that St. Augustine's interpretation is the true one, being the only one by which they can be reconciled with the statements of the other Apostles, and with those of St. John himself. I only mention them now to show

that the use which some have made of these expressions docs not affect the statements of the Prayer-book, but those of the Bible.1

1 St. Augustine's words are," He that is born of God sinneth not; for were this nativity by itself alone in us, no man would sin; and, when it shall be alone, no man will sin. But now we, as yet, drag on that corrupt nature in which we were born; although, according to that into which we are new-born, if we walk aright from day to day, we are renewed inwardly." (Contra Mendacium.)

In these words St. Augustine recognises that there are two births, or rather two "men," in the Christian. To the one-the old-sin is natural: to the other-the new-sin is impossible. So far as we abide in the new we sin not. If we could perfectly abide in Him, we should never sin. Whensoever we sin, we fall from Him. Sin and the new nature are so opposite the one to the other that they cannot co-exist. If a man is "in sin" he is "out of Christ" till restored. So far as he is in Christ, he is out of sin.

It is not to be supposed for a moment that St. John's view of the regenerate state as a seed which, if it abides, casts out all sin, is less important than St. Paul's view of the same state as inherence in the mystical body of Christ. I do not enter upon its consideration here, because our Baptismal offices have to do with the commencement, rather than with the perfection, or continuance, of the Christian state, or new life.

It must be remembered that a sinful man, though baptized, is not regenerate, if, that is, you look at his present state. But why? Because that which he once had does not remain in him, or he does not abide in that into which he has once been engrafted. (1 John ii. 28.)

Be it remembered that men who hold the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration most strongly, speak of the true Christian only as the regenerate man.

But the question between the man who holds Church doctrine and his opponent really is, "To what are we to attribute the fact that a man, duly baptized, does not (so often) lead a regenerate life? The Calvinist attributes it to the fact that God has withheld His grace from the man. The Churchman, on the contrary, will assign any reason rather than this.

With respect to every such case presented to his notice, the

Take a second instance.

There are certain statements in the 17th Article asserting Predestination, Election, and the Final Perseverance of those who, by a decree "secret to us," have been designed by God to receive everlasting life. There are also certain statements which the Church directs to be made respecting each person who has been admitted into her fellowship, that he is "grafted into the body of Christ's Church," i.e., regenerate, and certainly, for the time being, in the favour of God.

These two statements, which are assumed to be contradictory, are the counterpart of certain statements in the New Testament.

There are statements in the Scriptures which imply an election to eternal life. There are other statements, far more numerous, which assert that all in the visible Church

Churchman would rather assume that the man has "fallen from grace" (Gal. v. 4), or has through his own fault not retained a seed, or not continued in the goodness of God (Rom. xi. 22; 1 John ii. 27, iii. 15), and he has the most solid Scripture grounds for such an assumption, as we have shown in pages 72-75.

Let it be also remembered that it is most needful that we should set forth at a time like the present, when fanatical views of eonversion are so rife, the marks of Regeneration as laid down by St. John; for the marks of the New Birth given us by this Apostle in no way correspond with the popular view of "conversion." The term "conversion" is now restricted to a change of views and feelings respecting the work of Christ: whereas the New Birth, as described by St. John, is absolute freedom from sin, and the love of our brethren.

We cannot imagine a greater contrast than that between St. John's view of spiritual illumination and that which is current amongst us now; for St. John says, "He that loveth his brother abideth in the light. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes." (1 John ii. 10, 11.)

are, or have been, in the actual grace of God, and which imply that there is no degree of grace from which man cannot fall away. The difficulty is not in reconciling the statements in the Prayer-book respecting Election with those respecting Grace bestowed upon all the baptized, but in reconciling with one another the corresponding statements in the Scriptures upon both these topics.

The difficulty lies wholly in the Scriptures. The statements in the Prayer-book, either on the one side or on the other, are the mere echo of the statements of Holy Scripture.

SECTION VI.

THE HYPOTHETICAL VIEW.

Before concluding this subject, I must consider briefly a construction put upon these Services by a large number of clergymen. I mean the hypothetical interpretation: sometimes designated as the view of "hope and charity."

On this principle we are supposed to pronounce the child regenerate, not absolutely, but hypothetically, i.e., if certain conditions are fulfilled, of which fulfilment we are ignorant; as, for instance, if he belong to God's Secret Election, or if his parents, or god-parents, are true Christians, or have exercised faith. We are supposed to assume charitably that these conditions have been fulfilled, and, not knowing anything to the contrary, we give the

The reader will find these two sets of passages placed side by side in parallel columns in the "Second Adam and New Birth," page 246.

child the benefit of the doubt, and pronounce him re generate.

Of late a very high place in the exposition of Scripture has been demanded for this "hypothetical view." It has been said to pervade the whole word of God. By it we are called upon to qualify all God's addresses to His people. In particular the mode of address adopted by the Jewish prophets in addressing all the Children of Israel as "children of God," and a "holy people," and the same language taken up by the Apostles in addressing all their converts as "members of Christ," and "children of God," is asserted to be capable of rational (1) explanation only on this hypothetical principle. The Israelites are on this view assumed to be "children of God," because some of them were so. The Corinthian Christians are assumed to be "members of Christ," because some among them had been so made, and the glory of the few is supposed to be transferred to the many.

The terms of grace applied by the Apostles to the whole Church are not to be got rid of on this principle. It creates far more difficulties than it solves; indeed, I do not know that it solves one difficulty, whilst it creates the enormous one of obliging us to maintain that the language of the inspired writers in addressing the Church is deceptive, and has to be qualified before it can be received.

Assuming, however, for argument's sake, the truth of this theory, let it be carefully remembered that the Bible and the Prayer-book are in precisely the same position with reference to it. If the hypothetical principle is required to reconcile certain statements in the Prayerbook with certain facts or theories, it is equally required to reconcile corresponding statements in the Bible with the same facts or theories.