576 APPENDIX TO PART III

fiery defences of ecclesiastical authority and Apostolic succession. Look to it, for in these the evil must lie. Consider with yourselves whether God ever commands anything impossible. He has commanded you to be at peace with one another, yet you say you cannot be; and He has commanded you to prove all things and hold fast the good,¹ and yet you deliberately allow, and expect, schism to take place concerning points of serious-well-nigh of saving-belief; tacitly thereby accusing God of having made the Scripture so obscure that it cannot be understood, or of withholding the help of His Spirit from those who ask it. Either the Bible must be a lie altogether, or else whatsoever is necessary to Salvation in heaven and to peace on earth may be gathered therefrom, by every man who asks and desires God’s help as he reads. Dispute about a serious point of doctrine, and you prove the Bible false, or yourselves hypocrites-conscious or unconscious-for pretending to believe it when you do not. For if it be true, what is necessary for your Life may be found in it; and, touching what is unnecessary, it has told you not to dispute.

§ 6. Hypocrites, or else culpably, inconceivably careless; careless either to discern the true meaning of what you read, or to receive in patience the sense of your opponent’s terms. At least one half of the dint and violence of every religious dispute between people commonly honest depends upon their not understanding, not choosing to understand each other’s language. And this evil I may surely take so much upon myself as to endeavour to lessen. I have neither authority nor knowledge for this handling of doctrine. I have neither time nor strength for the attack of prejudice. But I may at least plead with you for the prudence, and prove to you the ease, of receiving each other’s words in the sense in which they are used. There is war enough in the world without the additional and heavier calamity of war of the fold of Christ; and there are some questions, even of principles and Faith, which I believe we might well for a time suffer to remain at rest; but if any of our disputes arise out of false acceptation of terms, and might be calmed in an instant if men did but understand each other, how imperative is the duty to make our thoughts clear, and our expressions simple!

§ 7. Now the whole question of Baptismal Regeneration is one which I could be well pleased to see left at rest. The great question for every man-”Whether he be Now serving God or not?”-is one as easily answered as it is rarely asked. If he be, it matters little whether he were converted at his Baptism or after it. If he be not, whatever the Grace bestowed on him in Baptism might have been, he is now in need of more. It is a questionless fact that the greater number of baptized persons are serving the World and the Devil: it is of more importance to teach them what grace it is still in their power to receive, than how much they have hitherto received in vain.

I could wish, then, that this question were left at rest, but if this cannot be, at least let us take care that we do not dispute about the Term “regeneration,” a term occurring twice only in the Bible, and then in two different senses.² The greater number of persons who hotly deny the doctrine

¹ [1 Thessalonians v. 21.]

² [Matthew xix. 28: “Ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye shall also sit upon thrones.”]

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