delphia: Fortress, 1978), 362.
Appendix 2
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) asks, "But does this doctrine [justification by faith] make men careless and profane?" and offers this answer: "No; for it is impossible that those who are implanted into Christ by true faith, should not bring forth fruits of thankfulness."16
The Canons of the Synod of Dort (1619) describe the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration:
He pervades the inmost recesses of the man; he opens the closed and soft - ens the hardened heart, and circumcises that which was uncircumcised; infuses new qualities into the will, which, though heretofore dead, he quickens; from being evil, disobedient, and refractory, he renders it good, obedient, and pliable; actuates and strengthens it, that, like a good tree, it may bring forth the fruits of good actions.17
The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) summarizes the doctrine of sanctification this way:
Th ey who are eff ectually called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them, are further sanctifi ed, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, by His Word and Spirit dwelling in them; the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortifi ed, and they more and more quickened and strengthened, in all saving graces, to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. . . . Although the remaining corruption, for a time may much prevail, yet, through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part doth overcome; and so the saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.18
Historic Protestant theology has seen and underscored the truth that practical righ teous ness is an essential and inevitable result of saving faith. Reformer Ulrich Zwingli viewed faith as an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the believer. Thus he believed true faith could never be slothful or inactive but would produce good works in every true Chris tian. Those works, Zwingli taught, were the proof of a believer's election and the necessary evidence of faith.19
16. Heidelberg Catechism (Freeman, S.D.: Pine Hill, 1979), 75. 17. Shaff , Creeds of Christendom, 3:590 – 91. 18. Ibid., 629 – 30. 19. Basil Hall, "Ulrich Zwingli," Hubert Cunliff e-Jones, ed., A History of Chris tian Doctrine (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978), 362.