Because 1. If we believe all our hearers _regenerated_, (for
they are generally all baptised) even those whose life presents not the
least evidence of piety, and many proofs to the contrary; we still
must believe them in some sense the children of God, as they are born
again! We cannot tell them that they are in the gall of bitterness and
bonds of iniquity; because we profess to believe them regenerated--
therefore children of God in some sense.
2. We cannot exhort the impenitent baptised, though apparently dead in
trespasses and sins, to pray for a _new heart_ and a new spirit; for
these, as regenerated persons, they have obtained.
3. The minister who believes in baptismal regeneration, cannot with
Paul proclaim, "If any man be in Christ Jesus and is a new creature,
old limits are passed away, behold all things have become new;" for his
ungodly baptised hearers are all new creatures by baptism, and yet their
old sinful habits _have not passed away_, and all things have not become
new to them.
4. He cannot consistently preach, that those who have put on the new man
(Ephes. iv. 24,) are created in righteousness and true holiness; for the
majority of those said to be regenerated, or to have put on the new man
by baptism, continue in sin and are destitute of righteousness and trim
holiness.
5. He cannot, with the blessed Master, preach, "by their fruits ye shall
know them; for here, on his theory, are regenerate souls bringing forth
the fruits of death, good (regenerate) trees bringing forth rotten
fruits," which is as incredible as thorns producing grapes, and thistles
yielding figs.
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