-all which motives are but temporary and perishable, touch only the understanding and passions, stir only the upper surface of the mind, reach not down to the deep under-current of the will, and therefore can produce but superficial transient incomplete results" not by corruptible seed, but by incorruptible," by that which has a never-dying vigour, and never becomes effete, even "the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever." "Christ saith," writes Bishop Latimer, "Except a man be born again from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' He must have Regeneration. And what is this regeneration? water, and nothing else. How is it to be expounded then? St. Peter showeth that one place of Scripture declareth another. For, saith St. Peter, 'We be born again :'-How? Not by a mortal seed but by an immortal. What is this immortal seed? 'By the word of the living God,'-by the word of God preached and opened. Thus cometh in our New birth." Just as St. Augustine says concerning the declaration of St. John, that every one who is born of God sinneth not because his seed remaineth in him, "He means the seed of God; that is, the word of God. Whence the Apostle says, I have begotten you through the Gospel."

It is not to be christened in

Such then are the Nature, the Necessity, and the

Means of Spiritual Regeneration. I cannot quit the subject without pressing on my readers a few words of Inquiry, of Direction, and of Encouragement.

Is not Inquiry, I would ask-personal inquiry of ourselves-pre-eminently necessary, after the consideration of a topic like this? It is not one of doubtful theory or curious investigation; it is one which concerns the very being of our piety and holiness. And can we then fail to turn round from it on ourselves, and ask with simple earnestness, Have I this indispensable new birth? I do not bid you point to any given moment of Spiritual birth. I do not ask for the chronology of Conversion. I do not even demand that the awakening of a filial disposition towards God should have been, in every case, marked enough to form an epoch in the life-though Dr. Paley hesitates not to say concerning those "who with the name of Christians have hitherto passed their lives without any internal religion," that "no one can be saved without undergoing a conversion which he must necessarily both be sensible of at the time, and remember all his life afterward. It is too momentous an event ever to be forgot. A man might as easily forget his escape from a shipwreck." But this I do ask-this I earnestly beseech you honestly to ask yourselves, -Have you now, at this moment,-whether its

development within you have been quick or slow, marked or unmarked-have you now that spirit of adoption which enables you to cry Abba, Father? Are you now at one with God? Is the thought of him delightful to you? Is his presence welcome; his will agreeable and such as you heartily accord with; his honour dear to you; his interest made your own; his Spirit dwelling in you? If not— Where are you? What are you? What is your condition? your character? your hope? Where is the benefit of your Christian privileges and education? What have you gained from your baptismal consecration? Wherein have you realized the access to God laid open to you, nourished the Spirit of God vouchsafed to you, fulfilled the vows to God which are upon you? Oh there is nothing in all this of doubtful speculation, to entitle you to hold back from its consideration; nothing of mere conflict of opinion, to permit you to return yourself a party answer; the question touches your character, your soul, your salvation. It sets before you life or death, blessing or cursing, heaven or hell! Sweep from you, for the moment, every shadow of a difference of doctrine and of school and of expression, still the practical inquiry cannot be shaken off; it cleaves inseparably to your very self; it asks with pertinacious earnestness, What still am I—myself—in life and character, and heart-before the eye of God?

Not, What are my opinions or the opinions of other men concerning me? Not, What is my standing in the church, my name my profession my reputation? But what am I-myself-before that heart-searching God with whom there is no respect of persons; and before whom not the hearers of the law are just, but the doers of the law-those who have the work of the law written in their hearts-shall be justified, in that day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ? This is my Inquiry. I pausethat up to God who seeth in secret, may be breathed in secret, by every one who reads it, the answer that his conscience dictates to its Judge!

But then, I pass on to a Direction, to such as can with trembling hope breathe this answer in the affirmative, and I remind them that just in the way in which their childlike state of mind towards God was first begotten in them it must be nourished from day to day. It is by "the word of God," by what you have heard and meditated on and pressed home to your own necessities, concerning His forgiving love in Christ, that you have been awakened to any measure of love to Him in return; and therefore if you desire this love to grow-nay to maintain its life—within you, it must be nourished by daily feeding upon that same word; by the continual remembrance and re-application of that same truth. The life of Regeneration must pass on into

that of daily Renovation. As you have begun you must go on. As you have been born you must grow. And this growth will form the only permanent and satisfactory evidence of that birth. As there cannot be growth in Holiness till the seed of Holiness has been quickened into life; so neither can this seed have been quickened if there be not growth. And therefore St. Peter writes; "Seeing that ye have purified your souls by obeying the truth, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever"-What then? is the Apostle's conclusion from these premises? Is it-Therefore sit down satisfied that the work of Piety is done? Therefore point to the record of a past Experience as the earnest of salvation? Therefore cry, "Once a saint always a saint ?"

What

Therefore answer all the accusations of our conscience with those memorable words, Now I am safe, for I am sure that I was once in a state of grace?' O no! nothing of all this is the conclusion of St. Peter; but just the very reverse-" Therefore laying aside all malice and all guile, and hypocrisies and envies and all evil-speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby." What if indeed we are born again; we are but babes still; and we need continual nourishment by that same word which was