state of sin and death which we have described ; which among others may be proved by the ensuing arguments. The principal arguments in this case will ensue in our proofs from the Scriptures, that there is a real, pliysical work of the Spirit on the souls of men in their regeneration. That all He doth, consisteth not in this moral suasion, the ensuing reasons do sufficiently evince." ^
It is too obvious to need I'emark that the word physical is used antithetically to moral. Any influence of the Spirit that is not simply moral by the way of argument and persuasion, is called physical. The word, perhaps, is as appropriate as any other; if there be a necessity for any discriminating epithet in the case. All that is important is, on the one hand, the negation that the work of regeneration is effected by the moral power of the truth in the hands of the Spirit ; and, upon the other, the affirmation that there is a direct exercise of almighty power in giving a new principle of life to the soul.
This doctrine both in what it denies and in what it affirms, is not peculiar to the older theologians. The modern German divines, each in the language of his peculiar philosophy, recognize that apart from the change in the state of the soul which takes place in the sphere of consciousness, and which is produced by God through the truth, there is a communication by his direct efficiency of a new form of life. This is sometimes called the life of Christ ; sometimes the person of Christ ; sometimes his substance ; some- times his divine-human nature, etc. They teach that man is passive in regeneration, but active in repentance.^ " Man is every moment unspeakably more than lies in consciousness," says Eb- rard.^ This is true, and it should teach us that there is much per- taining to our internal life, which it is impossible for us to analyze and explain.
Efficacious Grace Irresistible.
6. It will of course be admitted that, if efficacious grace is the exercise of almighty power it is irresistible. That common grace, or that influence of the S[)irit which is granted more or less to all men is often efflictuallv resisted, is of course admitted. That the true believer often grieves and quenches the Holy Spirit, is also MO doubt true. And in short that all those influences which are in their nature moral, exerted through the truth, are capable of
1 iii'euM-aToAoyia, Or a Discourse concerning the Holy Spirit, book ill. v. 18, 19, edit. London, 1674, p. 261.
2 See Ebrard, Dor/matik, m. i. 2, § 447 ; edit. Konigsberg, 1852, vol. ii. p. 328. 8 Jbid. § 444, vol. ii. p. 319.
688 ' PART m. Ch. XIV. — vocation.
being opposed, is also beyond dispute. But if tlie special work of regeneration, in the narrow sense of that word, be the effect of almighty power, then it cannot be resisted, any more than the act of creation. The effect follows immediately on the will of God, as when He said let there be light, and ligiit was.
The Soul passive in Regeneration.
6. It follows, further, from the same premises, that the soul is passive in regeneration. It is the subject, and not the agent of the change. The soul cooperates, or, is active in what precedes and in what follows the change, but the cliange itself is sometiiing experienced, and not something done. The blind and the lame who came to Christ, may have undergone much labour in getting into his presence, and they joyfully exerted the new power im- parted to them, but they were entirely passive in the moment of healing. They in no way cooperated in the production of that effect. The same must be true in regeneration, if regeneration be the effect of almighty power as much as the opening the eyes of the blind or the unstopping by a word the ears of the deaf.
Regeneration Instantaneous.
7. Regeneration, according to this view of the case, must be instantaneous. There is no middle state between life and death. If regeneration be a making alive those before dead, then it must be as instantaneous as the quickening of Lazarus. Those wlio re- gard it as a j)rotracted process, either include in it all the states and exercises which attend upon conversion ; or they adopt the theory that regeneration is the result of moral suasion. If the work of omnipotence,, an effect of a mere volition on the part of God, it is of necessity instantaneous. God bids the siiiner live ; and he is alive, instinct with a new and a divine life.
An Act of Sovereign G-race.
8. It follows, also, that regeneration is an act of sovereign grace. If a tree must be made good before the fruit is good ; the good- ness of the fruit cannot be the reason which determines him who has the power to change the tree from bad to good. So if works spiritually good are the fruits of regeneration, then they cannot be the ground on which God exerts his life-giving power. If, there- fore, the Scriptures teach the doctrine of efficacious grace in the Augustinian sense of those terms, then they teach that regenera-
'on is a sovereign gift. It cannot be granted on the sight or fore*