be under grace," to the latter signification,-that he is "under the law" who is governed and actuated by the guidance of the law, and that he is " under grace" who is governed and actuated by the guidance of grace. This will be rendered evident from the 14th verse of the sixth chapter, when accurately compared with the preceding and following verses of the same chapter; and from the 17th and 18th verses of the fifth chapter of the epistle to the Galatians, when they are properly applied to this matter. Yet if any one be desirous of extending these passages to the two-fold signification of each of the expressions, he has my free permission for such extensión; for it cannot prove the least hindrance in the inquiry and discovery of the truth of the matter which is the subject of our present discussion.

5. LET us now see about the regenerate and the unregenerate man. That we may define him with strictness, as it is proper to do in oppositions and distinctions, we say that a regenerate man is one who is so called, not from the commenced act or operation of the Holy Spirit, though this is regeneration, but from the same act or operation when it is perfected with respect to its essential parts, though not with respect to its quantity and degree: He is not one "who was once enlightened, and has tasted of the heavenly gift, and was made partaker of the Holy Ghost, and who has tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to, come:" (Heb. vi, 4, 5:) Because the explanation given by most of our divines to this passage, applies only to unregenerate persons. Neither is he one who "has escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and who has known the way of righteousness;" (2 Pet. ii, 20, 21;) for they explain this passage also as applicable solely to the unregenerate. Nor is it a man who "heareth the law, and has the work of the law written in his heart, whose thoughts mutually accuse or else excuse themselves, who rests in the law, makes his boast of God, knows his will, and approves the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law." (Rom. ii, 13-18.) Neither is he one who "has prophesied in the name of the Lord, and in his name cast out devils;" (Matt. vii, 22;) and who "has all faith, so that he could remove mountains.” (1 Cor. xiii, 2.) Nor is he one who acknowledges himself to be

"For sin shall not have dominion over you: For ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Romans vi, 14.)

"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: And these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law." (Gal. v, 17, 18.)

a sinner, mourns on account of sin, and is affected with godly sorrow, and who is fatigued and "heavy laden" under the burden of his sins; (Matt. xi, 28;) for such persons as these Christ came to call, and this call precedes justification and sanctification, that is, regeneration. (Rom. viii, 30.) Neither is it he who "knows himself to be wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked;" for this is the man whom Christ "counsels to buy" of Him the things necessary for himself: (Rev. iii, 17, 18:) This interpretation is not invalidated by the fact, that the church of Laodicea is said not to know herself; for the "counsel" or advice bestowed will never persuade her to buy those things of Christ, unless she have previously known herself to be such an one as is there described. Nor is he one who knows that a man cannot be justified by the works of the law, and who, from this very circumstance, is compelled to flee to Christ, that in Him he may obtain justification. (Gal. ii, 16.) Nor is he a man, who, acknowledging himself as being unworthy even to lift up his eyes to heaven, and who, smiting on his breast, has exclaimed, God be merciful to me a sinner!

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This has been well observed by Beza in his Refutation of the calumnies of Tilman Heshusius, where he makes a charming distinction between "the things which precede regeneration" and regeneration itself," and thus expresses himself: "It is one "thing to inquire by what methods God prepares us for repent❝ance or [renovationem] newness of life, and it is another to "treat on repentance itself. Let therefore the acknowledgment "of sin and godly sorrow be the beginning of repentance, but so "far as God begins in this way to prepare us for newness of life; "in which respect it was the practice of Calvin deservedly to call "this fear initial. Besides, in the description of penitence we "are not so accustomed as some people are, to call these dreadful "qualms of conscience the mortification of the flesh or of the old "man; though we know that the word of God is compared to a "sword, which in some manner slays us, that we may offer "ourselves for a sacrifice to God; and St. Paul somewhere calls "afflictions [mortificationem] the death of Christ which we carry "about with us in the body. For it is very evident, that by "the mortification or death of the flesh and of the old man, or of "our members, St. Paul means something far different: He "means not that efficacy of the Spirit of Christ which may

The passage occurs in 2 Cor. iv, 10; to which our translators have given this rendering :-" Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus."

terrify us, but that which may sanctify us, by destroying in us "that corrupt nature which brought forth fruit unto death. “Besides, we also differ from some persons on this point, not "with respect to the thing itself, but in the method or form of "teaching it, that they wish faith to be the second part of "penitence, but we say that eTavola, [a change of mind for the "better,] by which term we understand, according to Scripture

usage, renovation of life or newness of living, is the effect of "faith," &c. (Opuscula, tom. i, fol. 328.) Such are the sentiments of Beza: But how exactly they agree with those things which I have advanced, will be rendered very apparent to any man who will compare the one with the other.

Consonant with these is that which John Calvin says about Initial Fear, in the following words: "They have probably been deceived by this, that some persons are tamed by the qualms or terrors of conscience, or [formantur] are prepared by them for obedience, before they have been imbued with the knowledge of grace, nay, before they have tasted it. And this is that Initial Fear which some persons reckon among the virtues, because they discern that it approaches nearly to a true and just obedience. But this is not the place for discussing the various ways by which Christ draws us to himself, or prepares us for the pursuit of piety," &c.

But a regenerate man is one who comprises within himself all the particulars which I shall here enumerate: "He has put off the old man with his deeds; and has put on the new man, who is renewed in knowledge, which agrees with the image of Him who created him." (Col. iii, 9, 10.) He has received from God "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation through the knowledge of Him, the eyes of his understanding being illuminated " or opened. (Ephes. i, 18.) He has put off, "concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and he is renewed in the spirit of his mind, and has put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." (Ephes. iv, 22-24.) He, "with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, is changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor. iii, 18.) He is "dead to sin; his old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth he should not serve sin; he is freed from sin, and is alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. vi, 2, 6, 7, 11.) "He is crucified with Christ: Nevertheless he lives; yet not he, but Christ liveth in him; and the life which he now lives

in the flesh, he lives by the faith of the Son of God.” (Gal. ii, 20.) Being one of Christ's followers, "he has crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts, and now lives in the Spirit." (v. 24, 25.) "By our Lord Jesus Christ, the world is crucified unto him, and he unto the world." (vi, 14.) In Christ Jesus the Lord he is also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." (Coloss. ii, 11.) "In him God worketh both to will and to do." (Phil. ii, 13.) "He is not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in him; through the Spirit, he mortifies the deeds of the body; he is led by the Spirit of God, and does not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Rom. viii, 4, 9, 13, 14.)

Uniting in a brief manner all the parts and fruits of regeneration into one summary, we say, A regenerate man is he who has a mind freed from the darkness and vanity of the world, and illuminated with the true and saving knowledge of Christ, and with faith;-who has affections that are mortified, and delivered from the dominion and slavery of sin, that are inflamed with such new desires as agree with the Divine Nature, and as are prepared and fitted for newness of living;-who has a will reduced to order, and conformed to the will of God;-who has powers and faculties able, through the assistance of the Holy Spirit, to contend against sin, the world, and Satan, and to gain the victory over them, and to bring forth fruit unto God such as is meet for repentance; - who also actually fights against sin, and, having obtained the victory over it, no longer does those things which are pleasing to the flesh and [concupiscentia] to unlawful desires, but does those which are grateful to God; that is, he actually [declinat] desists from evil and does good,—not indeed perfectly, but according to the measure of faith and of the gift of Christ, according to [modulo] the small degree of regeneration, which, begun in the present life, must be gradually improved or increased, till at length it is perfected after this short life is ended, not with respect to essential parts, but with respect to quantity, as we have already declared,-not always without interruption, (for he sometimes stumbles, falls, wanders astray, commits sin, grieves the Holy Spirit, &c.,) but generally and for the most part he does good.

6. BUT an unregenerate man is,-not only he who is entirely blind, ignorant of the will of God, knowingly and willingly contaminating himself by sins without any remorse of conscience, affected with no sense of the wrath of God, terrified with no

compunctious visits of conscience, not oppressed with the burden of sin, and inflamed with no desire of deliverance;-but it is also he who knows the will of God but does it not, who is acquainted with the way of righteousness but departs from it;-who has the law of God written in his heart, and has thoughts mutually accusing and excusing each other, who receives the word of the Gospel with gladness, and for a season rejoices in its light;who comes to baptism, but either does not receive the word itself in a good heart, or, at least, does not bring forth fruit ;-who is affected with a painful sense of sin, is oppressed with its burden, and who sorrows after a godly sort ;-who knows that righteousness cannot be acquired by the law;-and who is therefore compelled to flee to Christ.

For all these particulars, in what manner soever they be taken, do not belong to the essence and the essential parts of penitence or repentance, which are mortification, and vivification or quickening; but they are only things preceding, and may have some place among the beginnings, and, if such be the pleasure of any one, they may be reckoned the causes of penitence and regeneration; as Calvin has learnedly and nervously explained them in his Christian Institutes. (Lib. iii, cap. 3.) Besides, even true and living faith in Christ precedes regeneration strictly taken, and consisting of the mortification or death of the old man, and the vivification of the new man; as Calvin has, in the same passage of his Institutes, openly declared, and in a manner which agrees with the Scriptures and the nature of faith. For Christ becomes ours by faith, and we are ingrafted into Christ, are made members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones, and, being thus planted with Him, we co-alesce or are united together, that we may draw from Him the vivifying power of the Holy Spirit, by which power the old man is mortified and we rise again into a new life. All these things cohere together with each other in a certain order, and must thus also be considered, if any one be desirous of knowing them not confusedly but distinctly, and of explaining them well to others. But we are not, in this place, treating about all the unregenerate in general, but only about those in whom the law has exerted all its efficacy, and who are, on this account, reciprocally said to be under the law.

II. THE CONNEXION OF THE SEVENTH

SIXTH.

CHAPTER WITH THE

1. THE Design of the Apostle in the Sixth Chapter.-2. A Short Disposition of this Argument.-3. Four Enunciations of it.— 4. This distribution is treated in order [in the seventh Chapter.]