Note 12 — BAPTISMAL REGENERATION A FICTION.

Some of the Tractarians speak in more guarded, yet in more ambiguous terms, on the regenerating power of baptism; but the majority of them entertain the belief which is expressed by the Rev. W. J. E. Bennett, in the following quotation from one of the last sermons he preached at St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, see page 193:—"Here is a great mystery; that by water in holy baptism is given a regenerating and life-creating grace—that by water we go down into the font foul and leprous; by grace we rise pure, spotless, and sound—that by water we go down into the font dead in trespasses and sins; by grace we rise up from the font alive in Christ."