Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

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Thus, on John iii. 5. our Author writes in this
" We have all received this new
dangerous manner :
and heavenly birth, wherein God himself, by the vir-
tue of his Holy Spirit, is to us as a father ; and the
church, represented by the water, receives us into
her bosom as our mother. Baptism gives us a right
to the kingdom of God, provided we live like chil-
dren of God and members of Christ, in being obe-
dient to his Spirit."
But this language is not pushed ; it is not made
prominent;—the moment an occasion is given, the
language relapses into the most holy and scriptural
strain ; which shows, that it is a confusion of ideas,
not any fundamental error which pervades his di-
vinity. In the very verse but one after that on
which the preceding expressions occur, he writes thus
beautifully :— " Adam being a sinner could beget
only sinners, and propagate no other inclinations but
such as tend to sin. It belongs to thee, O holy Jesus,
as the principle of our new life, to give us thy Spirit,
and to inspire into us thy spiritual and holy inclina-
tions. He who is thoroughly sensible of the corrup-
tion of the heart of man, is far from wondering that
it is necessary for him to be changed into a new
man, and that he must receive a new spirit, a new
heart, and a new principle of life and action.'*
Another point where the want of a right division
of the word of truth is apparent, relates to heretics
and schismatics, and what he considers the unity of
the church. His mind is so possessed with the Roman
Catholic exposition of the doctrine of the church,
the keys, the power of absolution, the primacy of
Peter, the limits of grace and non-salvation out of the