2. We come then to the particular case of the state-
ment before us; and there meets us at the very outset
an obstacle to the literal interpretation of it—an obstacle
certainly which is not of our own making, because it hes


Cuap. 1.1 “ηέογφγοίαξεογι considered. 279


upon the very surface of Scripture, and consists in the
meaning itself of the word “ regenerate,” or “ born of
God,” as employed in Scripture. In its apparent Scrip-
tural meaning this term implies actual goodness; but
can we say, in consistency with simple facts, that all
infants are made actually good, or have a pious and
virtuous character implanted in them in baptism? Here
then is not a gratuitous but a natural obstacle to the
literal interpretation of this statement.
But, without assuming this sense of the word as the
true one, however conspicuous in Scripture and supported
by the obvious and natural sense of the language of
Scripture, the issue is still the same. The Church no-
where defines the sense of the term “regenerate: she
leaves it open then to any one to understand the word
in the sense just mentioned, implying actual goodness:
she leaves it open even to any one to understand it in
the Calvinistic sense, as implying indefectible goodness.
But the liberty to hold these senses is the liberty to hold
that construction of this statement which inevitably goes
along with them.
