Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/152

146 fact known to all," says Dr. Bushnell, "that the rite of baptism has been regarded by some as having a peculiar sacramental or magical power, and was understood to convey a grace immediately to the subject, washing away his sins and setting him in a regenerate state; and the language of the prayer-book [Episcopal] I suppose represents this opinion."

Contrary to all this, the New Church believes and teaches that regeneration is a complete but gradual change of the character wrought in man by the sovereign power of God, but not without the individual's voluntary coöperation. That it takes place in accordance with the revealed laws of the heavenly life, but only on condition that these laws be faithfully obeyed. In other words, it teaches that men are born saints or angels (that is, born into the new and higher life) very much as they are born artists, mechanics, farmers or engineers. They inherit the germs of, or the capability of becoming, either—though the germs of the higher life are for the most part implanted in infancy and childhood, and remain stored up in the interiors awaiting the vivifying influence in due time of the beams of the spiritual Sun. But they actually become neither the one nor the other without much self-imposed labor—without first