we attach too strong a meaning to her language, listen to a statement contained in the charge, which the present bishop of Exeter delivered to his clergy in the year 1836. “The church,” says he, “is a visible body, into which its members are admitted by a visible sign, the sacrament of the new life; in baptism is regeneration; without it we have no warrant of scripture to affirm that the new birth takes place at all; without it we are yet in our sins, in a state of spiritual death, of enmity with God, and of fellowship with the arch enemy in his hatred, and in its everlasting punishment!” Now, in the first place, this doctrine of baptismal regeneration is _unscriptural_, and utterly subversive of the gospel of Christ. No writer in the New Testament ascribes spiritual efficacy to water baptism. John declares that he could baptize with water only, and that Christ alone could baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Paul thanks God that he had baptized but few of the Corinthians, and declares that Christ sent him not to baptize but to preach the gospel, which certainly would not have been the case if baptism effected regeneration. There is indeed a baptism, emphatically called the “one baptism,” which does regenerate and save; but it is not water baptism; it is not “the putting away the filth of the flesh;” it is not ceremonial purification; but it is “the renewing of the Holy Ghost,” and “the answer of a good conscience toward God.” What has been said of circumcision, may, therefore, with equal propriety, be said of baptism; “He is not a Christian who is one outwardly; neither is that baptism which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Christian who is one inwardly; and baptism is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” Secondly, the doctrine of baptismal regeneration is _injurious to the souls of men_. There is a strong tendency in the depraved heart of man to exalt ceremonies above morals, and to substitute ritual observances for spiritual religion. This has been done, both with circumcision and with baptism. Some of the Jews taught circumcisional regeneration, and declared that every circumcised man was safe. Precisely the same error has been connected with baptism; and equally injurious consequences follow. By thus substituting a ceremony for faith and for divine influence, and by ascribing to that ceremony what the Spirit of God alone can secure, the word of God is made of none effect; spiritual religion is reduced to a merely mechanical operation; the worldly-minded and the immoral are taught to regard themselves as pardoned and saved, because they have been baptized; and thus thousands perish, whose blood will be required at the watchman’s hand. And thirdly, this doctrine, independently of other circumstances, renders our _nonconformity with the Church of England_, _and our dissent from its services_, _a solemn and imperative duty_.