strikingly is this truth seen in those who live under the dispensation of the gospel, and yet believe not. They violate conscience enlightened by the written word, and despise the very word by which it has been enlightened. Hence the powerful effect of the word upon the natural conscience; by means of which sinners are made a terror to themselves, Jer. xx. 4; nay, they are consumed with terrors, Ps. lxxxiii. 19. "Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish," Acts xiii. 41. Two things, then, are necessary to constitute a natural man righteous: 1. A removal of the depravity of the conscience and its restoration to a right and faithful exercise. "The conscience is purged," Heb. ix. 14. 2. A standard by which it operates, which is the word of God; a true knowledge of which is communicated to the soul in the regenerating act, "I will write my law in their hearts," Jer. xxxi. 33. Thus the soul is made righteous, judges righteous judgment, and performs righteous works.

XXIV. Regeneration includes the holiness of the truth. This holiness is a moral character the opposite of sin, which is the founda

tion of a holy life.

And although imperfect

in degree, it is nevertheless the impress of Jehovah's own likeness upon the soul. Hence the regenerate are said to be "partakers of the divine nature." 2 Pet. i. 4. As God is glorious in holiness, so this holiness is the glory of the new-born soul. It adds a brilliant lustre to the gifts and graces of the Spirit, and becomes henceforth, to the new man, the object of supreme desire, and ardent pursuit; because, as it increases in degree, by the right and diligent use of divinely appointed means; so, in this manner, it gradually arrives to a full, active conformity to the image of God. Thus its capacity for the enjoyment of God is enlarged, tilk it "come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Eph. iv. 13.

XXV. Regeneration includes saving faith, as to its principle in the soul: its exercise, being the instantaneous effect of its implantation, in the regenerating act. This is evident from several scriptures: but let one passage answer the present purpose: "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his

name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John i. 12, 13.

XXVI. It also includes all the saving graces of the Holy Spirit, as to their being in the soul. A perfect new creature has been produced, which, in the use of suitable means, will go on to perfection, till it enter the mansions of the blessed, and appear in the presence of God, in a glorified state. "Generation gives the whole shape of the child, unless it be monstrous. God doth not produce monsters in grace.

XXVII. Finally, the mystical union between Christ and believers is effected by, and included in the regenerating act. For although the legal union between Christ and his people is eternal, still they are born "children of wrath even as others," Eph. ii. 3: "Having no hope, and without God in the world," Eph. ii. 12, till regenerated in their effectual calling. This is the day of their espousal to Christ; the beginning of a new and holy life; the dawn of heavenly glory upon the soul. Of this mys

* Charnock.

tical union, the scriptures speak explicitly in numerous places. "We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." Eph. v. 30. "This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the church," v. 32. "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one." John xvii. 22, 23. In regeneration this union is formed: Christ unites himself to the soul by his lifegiving Spirit in the regenerating act, and the soul unites itself to Christ by faith. Thus the union is reciprocal, because the parties concerned are mutually united; spiritual, in its own nature, because it is effected by the Holy Ghost; and mystical, because it cannot be comprehended by us. we feel its effects.

We know it is revealed;

But who shall declare this secret work of God upon the souls of the redeemed? If his works of providence are a profound mystery; (Ps. lxxvii. 19,) much more his works of grace.

XXVIII. "Here, as much as any where, we have great cause to acknowledge with the apostle, that "without controversy, great is the

mystery of godliness," even so great, that it could not have entered into "the heart of man to conceive of it," if God had not made it known, in the gospel, by supernatural revelation.

"One great mystery is, that the holy frame. and disposition whereby our souls are furnished and enabled for immediate practice of the law, must be obtained by receiving it out of Christ's fulness, as a thing already prepared and brought to an existence for us in Christ, and treasured up in him; and that as we are justified by a righteousness wrought out in Christ, and imputed to us; so we are sanctified by such a holy frame and qualifications as are first wrought out and completed in Christ for us, and then wrought in us. And as our natural corruption was produced originally in the first Adam, and propagated from him to us; so, our new nature and holiness is first produced in Christ, and derived from him to us, or as it were propagated. So that we are not all to work together with Christ, in making or producing that holy frame in us, but only to take it to ourselves, and use it in our holy practice, as made ready to our hands. Thus we have fellowship