Regeneration does not consist in an Act of the Soul.
Regeneration does not consist in any act or acts of the soul. The word here, of course, is to be understood not as including conversion, much less the whole work of sanctification, but in its restricted sense for the commencement of spiritual life. The opposite view, which makes regeneration, even in its narrowest sense, an act of the soul, has been held by very different classes of theologians. It is, of course, involved in the Pelagian doctrine which denies moral character to everything except acts of the will. If "all sin is sinning," and " all love loving," then every moral change in man must be a change from one form of voluntary activity to another. As the later Remonstrants held the princi- ple in question they made regeneration to consist in the sinner's own act in turning unto God. The influence exerted on him was one which he could yield to or resist. If he yielded, it was a voluntary decision, and in that decision his regeneration, or the beginning of his religious life, consisted.
Dr. Emmons'' s View.
Dr. Emmons, holding that all sin and holiness consist in acts, which acts, whether sinful or holy, are immediately created by God, makes regeneration to consist in God's giving rise to the commencement of a series of holy acts. In his discourse on Re- generation, the first proposition which he undertakes to establish is, " that the Spirit of God, in regeneration, produces nothing but love." This is maintained in opposition to those who say that the Spirit produces a new nature, principle, disposition, or taste. " Those in the state of nature," he says, " stand in no need of having any new power, or faculty, or principle of action produced in them, in order to their becoming holy. They are
just as capable of loving as of hating God This is true of
all sinners, who are as much moral agents, and the proper sub- jects of moral government, before as after regeneration. When- ever, therefore, the divine Spirit renews, regenerates, or sanctifies them, He has no occasion of producing anything in their minds besides love." 1 " The love which the Spirit of God produces in regeneration is the love of benevolence, and not the love of com- placence." 2 " Though there is no natural or necessary connection between the first exercise of love and all future exercises of grace, yet there is a constituted connection, which renders future exer-
1 Sermon 51; Works, edit. Boston, 1842, vol. v. p. 112. a Ibid. p. 114.
8 PART m. Ch. XV. — regeneration.
cises of grace as certain, as if they flowed from a new nature, 01 holy principle, as many suppose." 1 His first inference from the doctrine of his sermon is, " If the Spirit of God produces nothing but love in regeneration, then there is no ground for the distinc- tion which is often made between regeneration, conversion, and sanctification. They are, in nature and kind, precisely the same fruits of the Spirit. In regeneration, He produces holy exercises ; in conversion, He produces holy exercises ; and in sanctification, He produces holy exercises." 2 Secondly, " If the Spirit of God in regeneration produces nothing but love, then men are no more passive in regeneration than in conversion or sanctification. Those who hold that the divine Spirit in regeneration produces something prior to love as the foundation of it, that is, a new nature, or new principle of holiness, maintain that men are pas- sive in regeneration, but active in conversion and sanctification. .... But if what has been said in this discourse be true, there is no new nature, or principle of action, produced in regeneration, but only love, which is activity itself." 8
Professor Finney's Doctrine.
Professor Finney, in his " Lectures on Systematic Theology," teaches : (1.) That satisfaction, happiness, blessedness, is the only absolute good; that virtue is only relatively good, i. e., good as tending to produce happiness. (2.) That all virtue lies in the intention to promote the happiness of being, that is, of universal being. There is no virtue in emotion, feeling, or any state of the sensibility, for these are involuntary. Love to God even is not complacency in his excellence, but " willing him good." (3.) All sin is selfishness, or the choice of our own happiness in preference to the good of universal being. (4.) Every moral agent is always " as sinful or holy as with their knowledge they can be." (5.) " As the moral law is the law of nature, it is absurd to suppose that entire obedience to it should not be the unalterable condition of salvation." 4 (6.) Regeneration is an " instantane- ous " change " from entire sinfulness to entire holiness." 6 It is a simple change of purpose.
The system of Professor Finney is a remarkable product of relentless logic. It is valuable as a warning. It shows to what
l Sermon 51; Works, edit Boston, 1842, vol. v. p. 116. » Ibid. p. 116.
« Ibid. pp. 117, 118.
* Lectures on Systematic Theology, by Charles G. Finney, edit Oberlin, Boston, and New York, 1846, p. 364. « Ibid. p. 500.