An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ,…

Here are two things,¹ Baptism and Regeneration; both are not of a like necessity to make us Disciples of Christ, Regeneration is simply necessary, but so is not Baptism; unbaptized persons may be real believers, and if they die before Baptism, as Valentinian did, they enter into Bliss:² Impletur invisibiliter, cum mysterium Baptismi non contemptus religionis, sed articulus necessitatis excludit; saith St. Austin: Baptism may be administered by man, but Regeneration is the sole work of the holy Spirit, which breaths where it lists, and forms all those Graces, which make up the new creature; hence we are said to be born of the Spirit, and all the Graces in the new man are called the fruits of the spirit: Hence Fulgentius saith, ex eodem Spiritu renati sumus, ex quo natus est Christus: ³The very same Spirit which formed Christ in the womb, forms him in the heart. And S. Ambrose ⟨p. 205⟩speaking of the Gracious Image of God in us, saith, Pictus es ô homo, ⁴à Domino Deo tuo, bonum habes artificem atque pictorem: No other hand, but that of the holy spirit only, is able to draw such a picture of God, as is in the new creature; we who naturally lye in a Mass and Chaos of corruption, are not capable of doing any thing in it.

Here are two things,¹ Baptism and Regeneration; both are not of a like necessity to make us Disciples of Christ, Regeneration is simply necessary, but so is not Baptism; unbaptized persons may be reall believers, and if they die before Baptism, as Valentinian did, they enter into Bliss:² Impletur invisibiliter, cum mysterium Baptismi non contemptus religionis, sed articulus necessitatis excludit; saith St. Austin: Baptism may be administred by man, but Regeneration is the sole work of the holy Spirit, which breaths where it lists, and forms all those Graces, which make up the new creature; hence we are said to be born of the Spirit, and all the Graces in the new man are called the fruits of the spirit: Hence Fulgentius saith, ex eodem Spiritu renati sumus, ex quo natus est Christus: