tions are still more and more complied with after baptismal regeneration, the renewing grows and improves through the whole course of the spiritual life. Therefore, though we find no Scripture exhortations made to Christians (for Nicodemus was a Jew) to become regenerated, yet we meet with several exhortations to them to be again and again renewed. For example; " Be ye trans"formed by the renewing of your mind f;" "Be renewed " in the spirit of your minds." The "inward man" is said to be "renewed day by day h." And when Christians have once fallen off, the restoring them again is not called regenerating them, but " renewing them again unto repentance." Of this renovation of the heart, we may best understand the phrase of " putting on the new mank,” amounting to much the same with "having on the breastplate of righteousness1;" and " putting on the armour "of light m," and " putting on bowels of mercies," with other Christian virtues or graces ". Of the same import

inhabitans, aliter inhabitans: nam nondum inhabitans adjuvat ut sint fideles, inhabitans adjuvat jam fideles. Augustin ad Xyst. ep. 194. p. 720.

In quibusdam tanta est gratia fidei quanta non sufficit ad obtinendum regnum cœlorum: sicut in catechumenis, sicut in ipso Cornelio antequam sacramentorum participatione incorporaretur Ecclesiæ: in quibusdam vero tanta est ut jam corpori Christi, et sancto Dei templo deputentur. Augustin de Divers. Q. ad simplicium, tom. vi. lib. 1. p. 89. ed. Bened.

• Hæc Spiritus donatio, quæ justificutionem sequitur, a gratia ejusdem Spiritus hominis conversionem præveniente et operante bifariam imprimis differt. Primo, Quod animæ jam a vitiis purgatæ Spiritus divinus arctius atque intimius quam antea unitur, in ipsam altius penetrat, pleniusque ejus facultates omnes pervadit. Unde in Scripturis dicitur Spiritus divinus ante conversionem hominis, quasi ad cordis ostium pulsare, post conversionem vero interiora domus intrare. Apoc. iii. 20. Deinde, quod sanctissimus ille Spiritus in anima, quam antea veluti inviserut tantum, et gratia sua præveniente in domicilium sibi præparaverat, jam habitat et quasi sedem suam figit; nunquam inde discessurus, nisi per peccatum aliquod gravius foras extrudatur. Bull. Apolog. contra Tullium, p. 15. alias p. 643.

f Rom. xii. 2.

* Ephes. iv. 23. or, by the spirit of your mind. See Bishop Bull's Posth. p. 1135, 1136.

is the phrase of putting on Christ; plainly in one of the places, and probably in the other also P: though some interpret the former of renovation, and the latter of regeneration 9. Lastly, the phrase of new creature may properly be referred to renovation also, and is so interpreted by the ancients generally or if it be referred to regeneration, as ordinarily including and comprehending renovation under it, that larger construction of it will not perhaps be amiss.

S

The distinction, which I have hitherto insisted upon, between regeneration and renovation, has been carefully kept up by the Lutheran Divines especially t, as of great use. And it is what our Church appears to have gone upon, in her offices of Baptism, as likewise in the Catechism. She clearly expresses it in one of her Collects, wherein we beg of God, that we being regenerate and made his children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by his Holy Spirit, &c.": such is the public voice of our Church. What the private sentiments of some Divines have been, or how far they have overlooked, or not attended to this so necessary distinction, is not material to inquire: but that it never has been lost amongst us may appear from the words of a very judicious Divine of this present age. The difference between these two may be competently understood from what has been al

• Rom. xiii. 14. See Whitby and Wolfius in loc.

P Gal. iii. 27. Vid. Wolfius in loc.

a Deylingius, Observ. Sacr. tom. iii. dissert. 42. p. 406.

2 Cor. v. 17. Gal. vi. 15. See Whitby and Wolfius; and Bishop Beveridge, vol. ii. serm. vii.

&c.

See the passages collected in Suicer, tom. ii. p. 178, 179.

↑ Vid. Gerhard, Loc. Comm. tom. iv. p. 495, 503, &c. conf. tom. iii. p. 713,

u Collect for Christmas-day.

"There is a mighty difference between regeneration and renovation : "we can be born but once, because we can live but once; and therefore Baptism, which gives life, cannot be repeated: but we can recover often, "and grow and be nourished often, because we can sink and droop often." Dean Stanhope, Boyle's Lect. serm. viii. p. 249. Compare Archbishop Sharpe, vol. iii. serm, xiii. p. 279.

1. Re

ready said: but to make it still clearer, it may be drawn out more minutely, in distinct articles, as follows. generation and renovation differ in respect to the effective cause or agency: for one is the work of the Spirit in the use of water; that is, of the Spirit singly, since water really does nothing, is no agent at all; but the other is the work of the Spirit and the man together. Man renews himself at the same time that the Spirit renews him and the renovation wrought is the result of their joint agency; man concurring and operating in a subordi

nate way. "It is God that worketh in us both to will "and to do y:" but still it is supposed, and said, that we both will and do. It is God that renews, cleanses, and purifies the heart2: and man also renews, cleanses, and purifies his own heart; that is, he bears his part in it, be it more or less. No man regenerates himself at all; that is, he has no part in the regenerating act, (which is entirely God's,) whatever he may have in the receptive: and if in this sense only it be said, that man is purely passive in it, it is true and sound doctrine. Nevertheless, he may and must be active in preparing and qualifying himself for it, and in receiving it, supposing him to be adult. He is not his own regenerator, or parent, at all, in his new birth for that would be a solecism in speech, and a contradiction in notion: he is, however, his own renewer, though in part only, and in subordination to the principal agent. 2. Another difference between regeneration and renovation (before hinted) is, that regeneration ordinarily is in or through Baptism only, a transient thing, which comes but once b: whereas renovation is before, and in,

Phil. ii. 13.

* Psal. xix. 12. li. 2, 10. Jer. xxiv. 7. Ezek. xi. 19. xxxvi. 26. Acts xv. 9. Tit. iii. 5. 1 John i. 9.

a Psalm cxix. 9. lxxiii. 13. Isa. i. 16. Ezek. xviii. 31. 2 Cor. vii. 1. James iv. 8. 1 Peter i. 22. 1 John iii. 3. Conf. Cyrill. Hierosol. Catech. i. p. 16, 17. ed. Bened.

b The late learned Regius Professor of Divinity, at Cambridge, Dr. Beaumont, in his MS. Commentary on Rom. xii. 2. writes thus:

Sed scrupulum hic injicies: nonne enim Apostolus commonefacit fratres

and after Baptism, and may be often repeated; continuing and increasing from the first preparations to Christianity, through the whole progress of the Christian life. So it is in adults: but in infants, regeneration commences before renovation; which again shows how distinct and different they are. 3. A third observable difference is, that regeneration once given can never be totally lost, any more than Baptism; and so can never want to be repeated in the whole thing; whereas renovation may be often repeated, or may be totally lost. Once regenerate and always regenerate, in some part, is a true maxim in Christianity, only not in such a sense as some moderns have taught. But a person once regenerated in Baptism can never want to be regenerated again in this life, any more than he can want to be rebaptized. So much for the difference between regeneration and renovation : let us next

suos, adeoque Christianos, per Baptismum regenitos, adeoque et avanaivoir istam adeptos? Quid opus igitur actum agere? Nil sane. Nec monet eos baptisma iterare: semel nascimur, renascimur semel: unus Dominus, una fides, unum baptisma, Ephes. iv. 5. Quoniam vero ipsi renati ex baptismali puritate non raro relabuntur ad veteris hominis inquinamenta, ex usu eorum est assidua per pœnitentiam renovatio. Hinc Chrysostomus, &c. Then he quotes Chrysostom's words on Rom. xii. 2. Hom. xx. p. 659. tom. ix. ed. Bened. and afterwards adds, Similia videas apud Photium et Theophylac

tum.

Those I mean who have taught that the regenerate can never finally fall from grace. See our Sixteenth Article on this head.

d Vossius distinguishes regeneration from renovation by what they respectively contain, thus:

Quemadmodum vero ad regenerationem, pressius sumptam, pertinet remissio peccatorum; ita ad renovationem refertur mortificatio veteris, et vivificatio novi hominis: quæ idcirco Baptismo tribuuntur. Voss. de Bapt. Disp. ix. Thes. 6. Opp. tom. vi. p. 270. Gerhard distinguishes nearly the same way in his Common-Places, tom. iii. p. 714. tom. iv. p. 495, 504.

Regenerationis vocabulum quandoque generale est, ipsam quoque renovationem in ambitu suo complectens: interim tamen, proprie et accurate loquendo, regeneratio a renovatione distincta est. Tom. iv. p. 495. Renovatio, licet a regeneratione proprie et specialiter accepta distinguatur, inviduo tamen et perpetuo nexu cum ea est conjuncta- -Per Baptismum homo non solum renascitur, (id est, peccatorum remissionem consequitur, justitiam Christi induit, filius Dei, et hæres vitæ æternæ efficitur,) sed etiam renovatur: hoc est, datur ipsi Spiritus Sanctus, qui intellectum, voluntatem, et omnes animi vires renovare incipit, ut amissa Dei imago in ipso incipiat VOL. VI.

A a

consider how far they agree, or how near they are allied. As one is a renewal of the spiritual state, and the other a renewal of the heart and mind, it must follow, that so far as a renewal of mind is necessary to a renewal of state, so far it is a necessary ingredient of the new birth, or an integral part of it. A grant is suspended, frustrate, as to any beneficial effect, while not properly received: and while there is an insuperable bar to the salutary reception of it, it cannot be savingly received or applied. Therefore in the case of adults, regeneration and renovation must go together otherwise the regeneration is not a salutary nor a complete regeneration, wanting one necessary ingredient of it, namely, a capacity or qualification.

:

But this may still be more clearly understood by applying those general principles to four special cases, which I shall next endeavour to do, and then shall take leave of this head. The four cases are: I. The case of grown persons coming to Baptism in their integrity, and so continuing afterwards. 2. The case of infants brought in their innocency, and leading the rest of their lives according to that beginning. 3. The case of such grown persons or infants so baptized, but falling off afterwards. 4. The case of grown persons coming to Baptism in hypocrisy or impenitency; but repenting afterwards and turning to God. The considering how the affair of regeneration or renovation may respectively stand in each of these cases, may perhaps serve to clear up the whole matter to greater satisfaction.

I. I begin with the case of grown persons, called adults, coming to Baptism fitly prepared by faith and repentance, and afterwards persevering to the end. This was a common case in the earliest days of Christianity, when the whole world wanted to be converted. Grown persons were then the most, and the most considerable candidates for

instaurari, &c. p. 504. Regenerationis vox quandoque sumitur yeuxās, ut et remissionem peccatorum, et renovationem simul complectatur; quandoque vero sidans accipitur, ut remissionem peccatorum ac gratuitam justificationem tantummodo designat. Gerhard, tom. iii. p. 714.