after they turned themselves to Him, and corrected their ways. (Isaiah i, 15-20.)-When the sacraments are considered only in the light of sealing to us the promises and the grace of God, but not as binding us to the performance of our duty and admonishing us of it, [tractatio] the discussion of them is not only defective, but it may also, through such defect, be accounted injurious to the work of personal piety." Believers and the regenerate are still prone and inclined to every evil;" and, "The most holy among them have only the small beginnings of the obedience which is required:" These are phrases which describe, in a manner far too low and weak, the efficacy of the new creation, and they are therefore xaтa тоv pnтov in reality exceedingly dangerous: For the former of these phrases seems entirely to remove all distinction between the regenerate and the irregenerate; while the latter seems to place such minutiae of obedience in the regenerate, as will induce a man, who has been accustomed to bless himself if he perceives even the slightest thought or motion about the performance of obedience, immediately to conclude himself to be a partaker of true regeneration.

When the continued imperfection of the regenerate, and the impossibility of keeping the law in this life, are urged unseasonably and beyond measure, without the addition of what may be done by holy men through faith and the Spirit of Christ; the thought is apt to suggest itself to the mind even of the most pious of their hearers, that they can do nothing which is at all good. Through this erroneous view it happens, that sometimes far less is attributed to the regenerate than the unregenerate are themselves able to perform. The ancient church did not reckon the question about the impossibility of performing the law among those which are capital: This is apparent from St. Augustine himself, who expresses a wish that Pelagius would acknowledge it possible to be performed by the grace of Christ, and declares that peace would then be concluded. The apostles of Christ were themselves occupied in endeavouring to convince men, when placed [extra gratiam] out of the influence of grace, of their incapability to perform obedience: But about the imperfection and impotency of the regenerate you will searcely find them employing a single expression. On the contrary, they attribute to believers the crucifying of the flesh and the affections, the mortification of the works of the flesh, a resurrection to a new life, and walking according to the Spirit; and they are not afraid openly to protest, that by faith they overcome the world. The acknowledgment of their imperfection was but a small matter,

because that was a thing previous to Christianity: But the glory of Christians lies in this,-that they know the power of the resurrection of Christ, and, being led by the Spirit of God, they live according to the purest light of the Gospel. The distribution of Theology into GOD and the Acts of God, introduces to us a speculative religion, and is not sufficiently well calculated to urge men to the performance of their duty. To this may be added that too subtle disquisition, which is an invention unsanctioned by Scripture, about the relations of those acts which are performed by us.

As unsuitable for the promotion of piety seems likewise that deduction or [œconomia] dispensation of our religion, by which all things are directed to [fiduciam] the assurance of special mercy as the principal part of our duty, and to the consolation which is elicited from it against the despair that is opposed to it; but in which all things are not directed to the necessary performance of obedience in opposition to security. It derives its origin from the idea, that greater fear ought to be entertained respecting despair than respecting security; when the contrary to this is the truth. For in the whole history of the Old and New Testament, which comprises a period of so many thousand years, only a single instance occurs of a person in despair, and that was Judas Iscariot, the perfidious betrayer of his Saviour,the case of Cain being entirely out of the question: While, on the contrary, as the world was formerly, so is it now, very full of persons in a state of security, and negligent of the duty divinely imposed on them; yet these men in the mean time sweetly bless their souls, and promise themselves grace and peace from God in full measure.

To proceed further: To these and all other delusions of a similar nature, we ought to oppose a soul truly pious, and most firmly rooted in the faith of God and Christ; exercising much solicitous caution about this,-not to be called off from the serious and solid study of piety, and not to yield ourselves up to sins or to take delight in them, either through the deceptive force of any conceits, such as have now been enumerated or any others, or by the incautious use of any phrases and the sinister distortion [tractationum] of particular subjects; but, on the contrary, denying all ungodliness, let us sedulously and constantly walk in the paths of virtue: And let us always bear in mind the very serious admonition which the Apostle Paul propounds to the Ephesians; having dehorted them from indulging in impurity and other crimes, he says: "Let no man deceive you with vain

words" or reasons: 66 For, because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." (Verse 6.) It is worthy of observation, how significantly the hypotheses and arguments on which men depend when they bless themselves in their vices, are designated as "vain speeches:" For "vain" they truly are; that is, false and deceitful are those reasons with which men are deceived while they are in bondage to their lusts, and persuade themselves that they are in a state. of grace and salvation, when, on the contrary, they are in a state of wrath and eternal perdition ;-than which, no other more capital imposture or deception can be produced.

But, beside those things of which we have made previous mention, and which place obstructions to the progress of piety, another also occurs, which particularly belongs to the subject on which we are now treating; that is, the depraved and perverted interpretation of certain passages of Scripture, by which in general either all attention to good works is superseded, or in particular some part of it is weakened. This kind of hindrance ought undoubtedly to be reckoned among those which are the greatest: For thus either evil itself seems to be established by divine authority, or a more remiss pursuit of good, which, of the two, is without exception the greater evil. Wherefore as all those persons deserve praise who endeavour to overturn every kind of hypothesis that is injurious to piety, so those among them are worthy of the highest commendation who try to give a correct interpretation, and such as is agreeable to "the form of sound words," of those passages which are through common abuse generally so explained as, by such exposition, either directly or indirectly to countenance a disorderly course of life,-to free them from such a depraved interpretation,—and to act as torchbearers, in a thing so useful and necessary, to Christian people and chiefly to the pastors of the church. Many are those passages which are usually distorted to the injury of godliness; and from which we shall in this place select only the three following.

(1.) In the Proverbs of Solomon it is said, "A just man falleth seven times:" This sentence is in the mouth of every one, with this gloss superadded, " in a day," which is an interpolation to be found in the Latin Vulgate. This passage ought to be understood of falling into misfortune; yet it is most perversely interpreted to signify a fall into sin, and thus contributes to nourish vices.

(2.). In the prophecy of Isaiah, when the Jewish church, after having been defiled by manifold idolatries, by her defection from VOL. II.

I I

God, and by other innumerable crimes, was severely punished for all these her foul transgressions; in a tone of lamentation, complaining of the heaviness of her punishment, and at the same time making humble confession of her sins, she acknowledges, amongst other things, that "her righteousnesses are as the cloth of a menstruous woman," designating by this phrase the best of those works which she had performed during her public defection. This passage, by a pernicious contortion, is commonly corrupted; for it is very constantly quoted, as if the sense to be inferred from it was, that each of the excellent works of the most eminent Christians, and therefore that the most ardent prayers poured forth in the name of Christ, deeds of charity performed from a heart truly and inwardly moved with mercy, and the flowing of the blood of Martyrs even unto death for the sake of Christ,that all these are as the cloth of a menstruous woman, filthy, detestable and horrid things, and thus mere abominations in the sight of God. And as this name is in the Scriptures bestowed only on flagitious crimes and the greatest transgressions, it further follows [from this mode of reasoning] that the best and most excellent works differ in no respect from the most dreadful wickedness. When a man has once thoroughly imbibed this conceit, will he not cast away all care and regard for piety? Will he not consider it of no great consequence whether he leads a bad or a good life? And will he not, in the mean time, indulge in the persuasion, that he can, notwithstanding all this, be a true disciple of Christ Jesus? The reason undoubtedly seems to be evident, since, according to this hypothesis, the best works are equally filthy with the worst crimes in the sight of God.

(3.) In this number of abused passages is included the Seventh Chapter of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, from the fourteenth verse to the end of the chapter; that is, if the apostle be understood, in that chapter, to be speaking about a man who is regenerated. For then it will follow, that a renewed man is still "carnal, and sold under sin," that is, the slave of sin; that "he wills to do good, but does it not; but the evil which he wills not, that he does;" nay, that he is conquered, and "brought into captivity to the law of sin," that is, under the power and efficacy of sin. From this view it is further deduced, that, if any one be regenerate, it is sufficient for him " to will that which is good," though with a will that is incomplete, and that is not followed by action; and "not to will that which is evil," though he actually perpetrates it. If this view of that chapter be correct, then all attention to piety, the whole of new obedience, and thus the entire

new creation, will be reduced to such narrow limits as to consist not in effects, but only in affections or feelings. Every man, at first sight, perceives how languid, cold and remiss such a belief will render all of us, both in our abstaining from evil, and in the performance of that which is good. Those indeed who defend this opinion have their subterfuges and palliatives; but they are of such a kind, that the comment is generally repugnant to the text on which it is founded. With respect to the exercise of piety, it is dangerous for men to have this conceit previously impressed on their minds," This chapter must be understood about regenerate persons:" For they who hold it as a foundation, in other things wander wherever they are led by their feelings, and never recollect the glosses proposed by their teachers. This effect was observed by St. Augustine, and, being afraid of giving offence, in the more early period of his Christian career, he interpreted the passage as applicable to a man under the law, but in his latter days he applied it to a man under grace; but he held this opinion in a much milder form than it is now maintained, and almost without any injury to godliness. For "the good" which the apostle says "he willed but did not," St. Augustine interprets into a refraining from concupiscence;" and "the evil" which the apostle declares" he willed not and yet did," he interprets as "an indulgence in concupiscence;"-though his novel interpretation involves a wonderful mixture of the preceptive and prohibitive parts of the law. Modern interpreters [among the Calvinists] understand it as relating to actual good and evil: A most notable distinction! But as our venerated father laboured with all diligence in removing the other hindrances of piety, so did he principally expend much toil and unwearied study in searching out the true meaning of such passages of Scripture as were imperfectly understood, particularly if they placed a stumbling-block in the way of those who were studious of piety. If in that species of labour he ever had eminent success, it must undoubtedly be confessed that it was in his attempts on this Seventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans: For he wrote a commentary on it of great length, which with the greatest accuracy he prepared and finished, and which we now publish.

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When he returned from Geneva to his native country, he understood this very chapter as it is now commonly explained; having been instructed in that view of it by his teachers, whose authority was so great among the students, that not one of the latter durst even inquire about any thing which they uttered. But when, in the exercise of his ministry in the church of Amster