"But one of the most satisfactory evidences of regeneration is an aversion to sin, and an ardent desire for an entire conformity to the purity of the Divine nature, which every renewed man feels--an aversion which is not directed exclusively against open immoralities, but which extends to the principles of evil which lie concealed in the recesses of the heart. Hence, his prayer will be--Cleanse thou me from secret faults; keep back thy servant from presumptuous sin; let no iniquity have dominion over me; lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from all evil. But the renewed man is not more anxious to be preserved from the dominion of sinful passions and principles, than he is to become holy, even as God is holy. And as he knows that this assimilation can be produced only by immediate intercourse with God, he walks in a state of habitual communion with him; and though he is not always conscious of his presence, nor always favoured with the sensible manifestations of it, yet he cleaves to him in the purposes of his heart. Now, I appeal to you, if such a change in the character, in the views, and in the tastes of a man, is not a powerful evidence of his having undergone that internal renovation or regeneration which the Scriptures represent to be indispensably necessary to fit us for the kingdom of heaven." _Rev. Mr. Roscoe._--"Why, I must confess that such a change is a more rational evidence of regeneration than the simple fact that the baptismal ceremony has been performed; but how few of those who have been baptized possess any such evidence of their being the children of God, and the inheritors of the kingdom of heaven." _Mr. Roscoe._--"This is too true; and, alas! what an appalling truth!" Mrs. John Roscoe, who listened with profound attention to the whole of this discussion, on rising with her niece to take a stroll in the garden, said, "What a burlesque on the sanctity of our pure and sublime faith, to see an immoral man, when reproved for his vices, and warned to flee from the wrath, deliberately appeal to the fact of his having been baptized, to prove that he is a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven! Can we conceive of anything more puerile, or more calculated to encourage persons to riot in sin, fearless of the fearful consequences? It is quite time this fatal heresy was driven out of our church, and torn out of our prayer-book." "I think so too, aunt; but what commotion would be excited amongst our church-going people if any legal attempt were made to substitute the simple and significant baptism of the New Testament for this delusive papal ceremony of baptismal regeneration. Why, many would rather have their Bibles mutilated than their prayer-book. The Bishop of Oxford calls it a Churchman's blessed inheritance, which ought to be preserved entire; no change in a book which is so perfect." ON CONVERSION.