The Proper Means of Promoting Revivals and Conversions

In the doctrine of Nathaniel Taylor and Charles Finney, "A saving change involves nothing more than a choice of new means to gratify the same reigning principle or affection which prompted a life of sin. God is chosen and the world renounced, simply because the man "judges or estimates" this course most conducive to happiness. Hence it involves no renovation of the heart, or implantation of holy
principles and affections, or change of nature by the Holy Ghost, as prior to and causative of holy exercises. Thus regeneration, as the scriptures teach and divines have ever understood it, is done away. If man has no sinful nature by the first birth, there is no occasion for a new birth to produce a holy nature." Article in the Biblical Repertory for 1842 examining the theology of Nathaniel W. Taylor, and Charles Finney and "regeneration."