all received the symbolical books, and understood their import, we may
regard the charge of the Platform as established beyond contradiction,
that this tenet was a part of Symbolic Lutheranism.

_Influence of this Doctrine on the Pulpit_.

Now the influence of this doctrine on the ministrations of the pulpit,
is of the most deleterious nature. The word of God represents all
mankind as by nature dead in trespasses and sins. Paul tells us that
"there is none righteous, no not one, for all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God:" and affirms that the carnal mind is enmity against
God. The faithful ambassador of Christ must therefore announce the
command of God, "that all men every where should repent: and that unless
they do repent, they shall all likewise perish. He must divide his
congregation into two classes, the friends and the enemies of God, those
who are for the Saviour and those who are against him: and he must
insist upon judging not by their profession, "Lord, Lord, but by the
question, whether they _do the will of our Father in heaven_." Thus when
the faithful servant of Christ represents all as unconverted, and
exposed to the curse of the divine law, who do not give evidence of
regeneration in their walk and conversation; careless sinners become
alarmed and feel the necessity of fleeing from the wrath to come, by
repenting and turning to God, by seeking pardon and a new heart, and
consecrating all their powers of mind and body to the service of God.

But all this the believer in baptismal regeneration cannot consistenly
[sic] do. Because 1. If we believe all our hearers _regenerated_, (for
they are generally all baptised) even those whose life presents not the
least evidence of piety, and many proofs to the contrary; we still
must believe them in some sense the children of God, as they are born