CHAP. III.

THE PASSAGE OF ISRAEL THROUGH THE
RED SEA, TYPICAL OF THE LAVER OF
REGENERATION. NATURE OF REGENE-
RATION. IT RESTORES MAN TO THE
PRISTINE IMAGE OF ADAM. A TEN-
DENCY TO SIN EVEN IN THE REGENE-
RATE. THE NECESSITY OF REGENERA-
TION.

of the

through the

of

tion.

AMONG the various types, which occur The paffage in the facred volume of the Jewish Scrip- elites tures, there is one of fo peculiar a nature, Red Sea, and of fuch high importance, that it re- the laver of quires a more copious difcuffion, than thofe regenerawhich have hitherto been noticed. St. Paul afferts, that the paffage of Ifrael through the Red Sea is typical of the laver of regeneration. Moreover, brethren, I "would not that ye fhould be ignorant, "how that all our fathers were under the "cloud, and all paffed through the sea; " and were baptized unto Mofes in the cloud, and in the fea" In this cloud

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66

2 I Cor. x. .

the

II.

SECT. the Almighty himself was present, and thus guided the Ifraelites during the whole of their journey through the wilderness: but there was only one paffage through the fea, nor was there ever occafion to hazard the danger of a fecond.

In a fimilar manner, baptifm, the expreffive fymbol of fpiritual regeneration, neither is nor was ever defigned to be repeated. When the initiatory vow has once been made, it can never be made again; because it was originally plighted, without any limitation either of time or fervice. The Christian foldier, like the Carthaginian warrior, fwears an eternal and irreconcileable enmity with the world, the flesh, and the devil. No compromise is to be entered into; no treaty is to be subscribed. A tranflation, from the church militant to the church triumphant, is alone to terminate the conquest.

The allegory, or type, at prefent under confideration, is perfectly exact in every particular. Before we are admitted into the Christian covenant by the water of

Exod. xiv. 24.

baptifm,

baptism, we are expofed to all the malice CHAP.. of Satan, and liable to the punishment due to original fin: before the Ifraelites paffed through the waters of the Red Sea, they were exposed to all the fury of the enraged Egyptians, and in danger of being crushed beneath the tyrannical power of Pharaoh. For the Ifraelites, fituated as they were, there was no road to the earthly Canaan, and the temporal Jerufalem, except through the Red Sea: for us there is no road to the heavenly Jerufalem, except through the medium of regeneration, outwardly represented by the cleansing streams of baptifm. And as God was the fafeguard of the Ifraelites through the great deep; fo are we placed under the protection of the fame Almighty Being, when baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The Church of England defines the facrament of baptifm to be "the outward "vifible fign of an inward fpiritual grace." The external fymbol is water; the internal grace, a death unto fin, and a new "birth unto righteoufnefs." As the confe

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See Article ix.

crated

SECT. crated elements in the Lord's fupper are, II. by a common rhetorical figure, denominated the body and blood of Chrift: fo, by a fimilar mode of expreffion, baptism is frequently termed regeneration. And, as the washing away the filth of the flesh is emblematical of the communicated purity of a Chriftian; fo is external regeneration by baptism symbolical of internal regeneration by the Holy Spirit. The one admits the perfon duly baptized into the pale of the visible church; the other confers upon the fpiritual believer the privileges and bleffings of the invifible church. The one removes the stain of original fin; the other commences the arduous task of eradicating actual pollution; a task commenced indeed upon earth, but completed only in heaven.

Since the idea of regeneration is used by our Lord to defcribe that change of heart, which conftitutes the effential difference between a real and a nominal Chriftian; we are involuntarily led to conclude, that there must be fome analogy between the fpiritual and the natural birth. Ac

d Luke xxii. 19.

cordingly

cordingly we find, that St. John, in the CHAP. fame oriental vein of allegory, addreffes 111. himself severally to little children, young men, and fathers in the Gofpel. An infant grows in ftature; a pious believer in grace. An infant requires a fufficiency of genial warmth; a Chriftian has no lefs want of the cheering beams of the Sun of righteousness. And the constant inspirations of the Holy Ghoft are as neceffary for the support of the one, as those of his appointed emblem the air are for the maintenance of the other. Withdraw the natural spirit, and death is the certain confequence; withdraw the celeftial Spirit, and the fecond death is the fatal refult f

"The peculiar emblem of the Word, or fecond perfon, is the D or folar light; "and he is and does that to the fouls or

66

fpirits of men, which the material or "natural light is and does to their bodies. "The third perfon has no other diftinctive "name in Scripture, but 1 in Hebrew,

and Пveυua in Greek (both which words, "in their primary fenfe, denote the mate

e 1 John ii. 12.

f See Bp. Horne's Sermons, vol. ii. p. 174.

VOL. II.

H

"rial