(3.) The practice of the Apostles accords with these doctrinal statements. They always assumed regeneration in baptized professors until sad facts proved the contrary; but there was a limit to this assumption. And when these sad facts occurred, they declared in language the most explicit that such characters were not regenerate by God. The language of St. Peter to Simon Magus in Acts viii, 21, is not addressed to him as to a regenerate man in a state of inconsistency; but to an unregenerate man in a state of false profession. In one sense Simon had believed. Like the devils he had been convinced, but he had no union with his Saviour either before his baptism or after it; and though on the principle of assumption the inspired Apostle had sanctioned his baptism on his profession, on the principle of Christian truth he pronounced him reprobate on the manifestation of his sin. “Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter; for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.” The language of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians is of the same character. In 2 Cor. xiii, 5, he says, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” The word here rendered “reprobate” is the word which would be applied to false coinage when tested and found wanting. Those, therefore, who were not in the faith were regarded by St. Paul not as regenerate persons who were inconsistent, but as base metal; persons who bore the outward sign of Christianity, but who were not really regenerate, and were, therefore, enjoying no real union with the Lord Jesus.