Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/353

It will, I fear, to some good men seem invidious, to trace up the rejection of Baptismal regeneration to a peculiar tenet of Calvin, as it's primary source; and at this, one should be much grieved. But it cannot be avoided: for the character of our opinions will be much affected by the source from which they were originally derived, even although we hold them as detached from that source. The waters will be affected by the character of their fountain, although that may be removed out of our sight. It does, indeed, frequently happen, that we adopt maxims or practices, upon certain principles, which we afterwards forget; and habit supplies the place of the principle. In generations of men, the maxim or practice will often be inherited, when the original principles, upon which they are founded, have not only been forgotten, but partially abandoned, and, perhaps, no further retained than is implied virtually by the practice itself. And then it will seem invidious, if we appear to connect with men's acknowledged tenets other principles, which they are scarcely aware of holding. But, in truth, it is not so. Few persons follow out consistently their own principles; and, in these days especially, the different sets of religious tenets are, for the most part, put together out of shreds and patches of different systems, with no aim or thought of consistency or unity. But, though the individuals are not responsible for any tenet, except what they themselves hold, the tenet itself is much affected by its origin: it is part of a large system, which we, perhaps, cannot survey in all its details; but still it is a representative, as it were, of that system, and helps to maintain it, or to repress the contrary. Hence, one's objection to many tenets held by persons, of whom, in many respects, one thinks well; because the tenets are, in themselves, a part of Socianism or Rationalism (though, one would hope, not in these individuals); and, while it would be unfair to charge them in full with either heresy, it is charity to them, and a duty to our Church, to point out to what system these their tenets belong. So, again, it is useful (in the hope that we may come to truer and more consistent views), to show that, whereas the doctrine of the Baptismal regeneration of all infants belongs to the Catholic system, which supposes a free, full, and sufficient grace to be offered