Proceed, however, a step further, and observe that it is not water baptism which the HOLY oracles speak of as the mean, instrument, or channel, of spiritual baptism or regeneration, but _the Holy Scriptures themselves_ without it; and immediately the general _separation_ of the two is as clear as the distinction between them. “Of His own will,” saith St. James, “begat He us with _the word of truth_.” {24c} “Being born again,” saith St. Peter, “not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by _the word of GOD_, which liveth and abideth for ever.” “And this is the word, which by the Gospel, (not water-baptism,) is preached unto you.” {25a} And add to this, concerning the thousands of outwardly baptized sinners, the testimony of St. John, that “_whosoever is born of GOD doth not commit sin_; _in this_ the children of GOD are manifest, and the children of the devil, _whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of GOD_;” {25b} and the proof is conclusive, that in the formal baptism of these thousands upon thousands, who do so commit sin, no regeneration of GOD was ever experienced at all. The separation is clear. Men are born, without water-baptism, by the SPIRIT and the word; multitudes have it, and are never born of GOD at all. {25c} Against all this, however, the system of the Anglo-catholics speaketh on this wise:—“The Scriptures, the Church, and the Fathers declare, with united voice, that regeneration takes place at baptism. But they go farther; they tell us very definitely what regeneration is; they tell us that it is an engrafting into CHRIST; a new creation in CHRIST; and by consequence, that all the gifts of grace are actually and really imparted to us in baptism; that in short we are justified, sanctified, quickened, crucified with Christ, planted together in the likeness of His death, risen with Him by the power of His resurrection, and seated with Him in heavenly places; and that all this is effected by baptism.” {26} This is in a sermon entitled “Nehushtan, or an Attempt to break the Trifle of Brass.” And this Nehushtan is the doctrine of justification by faith; concerning which I refer you to the glory of our Articles, the eleventh; and then I close this point with the plain question, _Who_ are the true members of the Church of England; and with whom is the SPIRIT of the Holy Scriptures, the SPIRIT of the martyrs of the Reformation, the SPIRIT of the living GOD, the HOLY GHOST? He cannot be with both.