being justified, would prove that adults may be and are justified persons in the sight of God, all such as are actually justified without a receiving of Christ as the Lord their righ

teousness.

The second objection is-that regeneration is an instantaneous work, or rather act of God; but to suppose it to be accomplished by the word, as the means or instrument, would make it to be the result of a process of reasoning in the mind of the regenerated person, and of a process of exercise upon the word, which could not comport with its being an instantaneous act. Supposing the word to be the instrument, it can only be so by a discovery both of the person himself, and of Christ the proper object of faith therein, in order that it may be operative in producing this change, if its instrumentality is at all to be admitted in the first work of regeneration. But it may be replied, that that discovery becomes a saving discovery, only when the person sees the excellence and suitableness of Christ, the glorious object of faith, his own welcome, with the heart's approbation of the object, and appropriation of him, which is faith, or a believing

sight, because it is a sight of Christ in the way of applying the revelation which is made of him in the gospel, to his own particular case; while all that is short of this is no more than what the natural man, by a natural and common work of the Spirit may attain. And, it is so much instantaneous, as that there is no intermediate condition between this saving sight of Christ, and what may be the mere fruit of a common operation of the Spirit. But, the moment he obtains it, the change passes upon him, and the word, in the hand of the Spirit, is the instrument."

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CHAPTER V.

EXTRACTS FROM SEVERAL APPROVED AUTHORS CONCERNING THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF THE WORD IN REGENERATION.

Why does the Spirit use the term calling? To denote the medium which God uses to convert men, namely, the voice of the gospel, and the proclamation of the word, than which nothing more suitable and convenient could be given to the rational creature.-De Vocatione et Fide. Quest. 1. Sect. 4.

Although the Spirit in effectual calling acts not without the word, nevertheless he acts not only mediately by the word, but also operates in the soul immediately with the word, that the call must necessarily take its effect.Quest. 4. Sect. 23.

On the Lord's opening of Lydia's heart, against the Remonstrants.

"It is in vain that it should be laid down here, that this opening of the heart can also be effected by the word, as it is elsewhere said, Acts xxvi. 18, That Paul was sent to the Gentiles to open their eyes, and convert them from darkness to light. Especially as it is

in such manner that it does not differ from [Lydia's] attention; but is used for one and the same thing, as God is said to have opened her heart, when she attended to the words of Paul: nothing else is intimated, than, that the preaching of Paul was efficacious, and that the praise of its efficacy must be ascribed to God, the first moving cause of all things. For although the opening of the heart is in this manner ascribed objectively to the word, as far as it can be done by a moral cause; because it is not accustomed to be done without the word, but according to its presence; and it is ascribed instrumentally to the ministers of the word, because they are the organs which God uses for this work. It cannot, however, be effected simply by the word, or by the word of God proposed by men, unless the Holy Spirit add a distinct internal power by the word. This intervention through the word externally proposed to the mind is received with faith by her. This Luke distinctly notices, when he says, she first heard Paul, that is, it [the opening of the heart] came between his preaching, and her receiving the word. Because, indeed, the preacher brings it in vain to the ears, unless the Creator open the heart, and the word knocks in vain against the door of the heart closed by unbelief and ignorance, unless, by the grace of God, it should be opened; therefore, he adds, that God opened her heart, that

she attended to the things taught by Paul; the end and effect of this opening is noted. And so three things are distinctly enumerated, which concur in effectual calling: first, the action of Paul preaching; the action of God opening the heart, and the action of Lydia with her heart opened, and embracing the word by faith; which three things flow spontaneously from the words of Luke.-Id. Quest. 4. Sect. 36.

In treating of the new birth, which he calls a creation, resurrection, regeneration, drawing, &c., he says, "it is also expressed by illumination, doctrine, persuasion; and that both these classes of words and similes are sweetly and efficaciously conjoined in the same places, as when the spouse joins running with drawingSong i. 2, 4." See also John vi. 44; 1 Cor. ii. 4; Eph. i. 18, 19; Jer. xx. 7;* Hosea ii. 14; 2 Cor. v. 14. After quoting these texts, he then adds: “Hinc idem evangelium, quo convertimur, et potentia, et sapientia vocatur." "Hence the same gospel by which we are converted, is called both the power and the wisdom of God." Id. Sect. 20.-Turretine.

But not one of them [the apostles of Christ] learned from his teaching to contemn the Divine word: they were rather filled with higher reverence for it; as their writings abundantly

* The word "deceived" in Jer. xx. 7, is enticed in the margin.