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Rh in the decisiveness wherewith this theory is spoken out in the confessions of the several branches of the Reformed Church, and their Liturgies: only these are obviously surer tests of belief, since confessions are often modified for the sake of harmony; prayer would express by its omissions as well as by its actual petitions. The comparison consequently of the old, and the Lutheran, and our own Liturgy on the one hand, with the Reformed Liturgies on the other, is very instructive as to the tenets of the several Churches.

Into our own country this theory was introduced partly by Peter Martyr, partly by the intercourse with the Swiss reformers: one might instance Bishop Hooper, as one who inclined, in outward things, to the school of Geneva, and in whose statement of the Sacraments scarcely a vestige of any spiritual influence remains. It appears, also, very prominently in the early controversies with the Romanists. Upon this system it was idle to speak of the connection of Regeneration with Baptism, since Baptism conferred upon infants no spiritual grace. The new birth being separated from ordinance, it was natural to