New-Birth
New-Birth [1]
is the technical expression frequently used instead of regeneration to express the change from a natural or irreligious to a Christian living. The Church of England theology defines it as "That thing which by nature a human being cannot have;" "that he may be baptized with water and the Holy Ghost, and received into Christ's holy Church, and be made a lively member of the same." "A death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness." In short, it is that change of the moral nature which is requisite for salvation. This requirement, made by the Protestant Church in Christ's name, is undertaken by the person to be baptized. In the Anglican and Lutheran churches, in the case of infants to be baptized, the sponsor or parent assumes the responsibility of so training the candidate for baptism that when, "having come to years of discretion," he recognises the vows of his baptism, and "lives soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." An ambiguity has arisen from the difference of sense in which the term "new-birth" is at different times employed. It is used by some (in a sense allied to the above statement) to denote the admission to the privileges with which the Christian Church is endowed: namely, that grace whose tendency is to place us in the way of salvation; by others, to signify the state of mind suitable to those who are born of (God, and are in the path that leads to eternal life. (See Conversion See Justification); (See Regeneration); (See Salvation).
