10. § 44. Calling and Regeneration.
§ 44. Calling and Regeneration.
. By Word and Spirit God brings creation, and also re-creation, into being. By speaking, He calls all things out of nothing into existence.
Gen. 1, Ps. 33:6, Joh. 1:3, Hebr. [486] 1:3, 11:3; by the word of His power He raises up the fallen world again. He calls Adam, Gen. 3:9, Abram, Gen.
12:1, Jes. 51:2, Israel, Jes. 41:9, 42:6, 43:1, 45:4, 49:1, Hos. 11:1, Jer. 31:3,
Ezech. 16:6, and through His servants has invitations issued to repentance and life, Deut. 30, 2 Kon. 17:13, Jes. 1:16v., Jer. 3, Ezech. 18, 33 etc., Rom.
8:28, 29, 2 Cor. 5:20, 1 Thess. 2:12, 5:24, 2 Thess. 2:14, 1 Petr. 2:9, 5:10 etc. Because this calling of God comes to human beings in and through the Son and Christ is the acquirer of salvation, it is also specially ascribed to Him; just as the Father created all things through Him and yet He Himself is also the Creator of all things, so He Himself is also the One calling, Mt.
11:28, Mk. 1:15, 2:17, Luk. 5:32, 19:10, who drives laborers out into His vineyard, Mt. 20:1-7, invites to the wedding, Mt. 22:2, gathers the children as a hen her chicks, Mt. 23:37, appoints apostles and teachers, Mt. 10,
28:19, Luk. 10, Ef. 4:11, whose sound has gone out over the whole earth,
Rom. 10:18. Although the calling thus essentially proceeds from God or from Christ, He nevertheless makes use of human beings in it, not only in the narrower sense of prophets and apostles, pastors and teachers, but also in general of parents and relatives, of instructors and friends. Indeed, a speech comes to us from all the works of God's hands, from the courses of history, from the guidances and experiences of our life. Everything speaks of God to the pious. Even if the calling in the narrower sense also takes place through the word of the gospel, this nevertheless may not be separated from that which comes to us through nature and history. The covenant of grace is borne by the general covenant of nature. Christ, who is the mediator of the covenant, is the same One who as Logos created all things, who as light shines in the darkness and enlightens every human being, coming into the world. God leaves Himself without witness to no one, but does good from heaven and also fills the hearts of the Gentiles with food and gladness, Ps. 19:2-4, Mt. 5:45, Joh. 1:5, 9, 10, Rom. 1:19-21, 2:14, 15,
Hd. 14:16, 17, 17:27. Therefore, first of all a vocatio realis is to be distinguished, which comes to the human being not so much in clear words as rather in things (res), through nature, history, environment, guidances and experiences, which does not have the gospel as its means but the law and [487] through the law in family, society and state, in religion and morality, in heart and conscience calls the human being to obedience and submission, cf. Synopsis pur. theol. 30, 2. 3. Mastricht, Theol. VI 2, 15.
Witsius, Oec. foed. III 5, 7-15. Marck, Theol. 17, 10. Moor III 386. 387.
This calling is indeed insufficient unto salvation, because it does not know of Christ and His grace and thus can lead no one to the Father, Joh. 14:6,
Hd. 4:12, Rom. 1:16; the world, with it, in its folly and darkness has not known God, Joh. 1:5, 10, Rom. 1:21v., 1 Cor. 1:21, Ef. 2:12. But it is
nevertheless a rich concern of God with His creature, a testimony of the Logos, an operation of the Spirit of God, which is of great significance for humanity. To it is due that humanity, in spite of sin, has been able to continue to exist, that it has organized itself in families, societies and states, that there has still remained in it a sense of religion and morality and that it has not sunk away into bestiality. All things subsist together in Christ, who bears all things by the word of His power, Col. 1:16, Hebr. 1:13.
Specifically it also serves, in order both in the life of the peoples and in that of particular persons, to prepare the way for the higher and better calling through the gospel. Christ as Logos prepares His own work of grace beforehand through all kinds of means and ways. Therefore He Himself appeared in the fullness of times. When the world has not known God through its wisdom, it has pleased God, through the foolishness of preaching, to save those who believe, 1 Cor. 1:21. The gospel does not come at once to all peoples, but in the course of history continues its course through the world; it also comes to particular persons at that moment which has been prepared and determined by God Himself in His providence.
However important this vocatio realis may be, higher stands the vocatio verbalis, which comes to human beings not only through the revealed law but specifically also through the gospel. This calling does not nullify that through nature and history, but takes it up into itself and confirms it; only it goes far above it. For it is a calling which proceeds not from the Logos but specifically from Christ; which makes use not so much of the law as rather of the gospel as its proper means; which invites not to obedience to God's law but to faith in God's grace; [488] and which also is always accompanied by a certain working and testimony of that Spirit, whom
Christ as his Spirit has poured out in the church, Joh. 16:8-11, Mt. 12:31,
Hd. 5:3, 7:51, Hebr. 6:4. This calling is not universal in the sense of the old Lutherans, who with appeal to Mt. 28:19, Joh. 3:16, Rom. 10:18, Col. 1:23,
1 Tim. 2:4 asserted that in the time of Adam, Noah, and Christ the gospel had in fact been known to all peoples and through their own fault had again been lost, Form. Conc. bij Müller 709. Gerhard, Loc. VII c. 7. Quenstedt,
Theol. III 465-476; cf. also the Remonstrants and others in M. Vitringa III 167; but it may and must nevertheless be brought to all human beings without distinction. Scripture commands this expressly, Mt. 28:19, and moreover says that many who do not come nevertheless were called, Mt.
22:14, Luk. 14:16-18, but rejected the gospel, Joh. 3:36, Hd. 13:46, 2 Thess.
1:8 and therefore stand guilty precisely of the dreadful sin of unbelief, Mt.
10:15, 11:22, 24, Joh. 3:36, 16:8, 9, 2 Thess. 1:8, 1 Joh. 5:10. The universalists, however, object against the Reformed that these, on their standpoint, cannot accept such a general calling through the gospel; for Christ according to them has died not for all but only for the elect; and the preaching therefore cannot sound: Christ has made satisfaction for you, your sins are reconciled, only believe; but for the unconverted can contain only the demand of the law; if we maintain the general offer of grace, this is nevertheless on God's side not seriously meant and moreover useless and vain, cf. e.g. Arminius, Op. 661 sq. Conf. en Apol. Conf. Rem. c. 7.
Episcopius, Antidotum c. 9, Op. II 2 p. 38, Limborch, Theol. Chr. IV 3, 1218. These objections are undoubtedly of great weight, and have elicited from the side of the Reformed various answers. Some came to it, to preach to sinners only the law and to offer the gospel only to those who had already learned to know themselves and felt need of deliverance; others maintained the general offer of grace and justified it thereby, that Christ's offering was sufficient for all or that Christ nevertheless had also acquired
many and manifold blessings for those who would not believe in him, or that the gospel was offered to them only on condition of [489] faith and conversion; still others approached universalism and taught that Christ according to a first, general decree of God had made satisfaction for all, or that he had acquired for all the legal possibility to be saved and had brought all into a "salvable state," or even also that the acquisition of salvation was universal and the application particular, cf. above p. 395v. However much it could also seem that the confession of election and particular satisfaction demanded something else, nevertheless the Reformed as a rule maintained the general offer of grace.
2. And this quite rightly. For 1o Scripture leaves no doubt that the gospel may and must be preached to all creatures. Whether we can reconcile this with the particular outcome is another question. But the command of Christ is the end of all contradiction. The rule for our conduct is only the revealed will of God. The outcome of that preaching is fixed and certain, not only according to those who confess predestination, but also from the standpoint of those who acknowledge only the praescientia. God cannot be disappointed; for Him the result of world history cannot be a disappointment. And, said with reverence, it is not our task, but lies to God's account, to bring this outcome into agreement with the general offer of salvation. This alone we know, that that outcome, precisely according to God's decree, is bound to and is obtained through all those means and ways which have been prescribed to us. And among these also belongs the preaching of the gospel to all creatures. With the decree of election and reprobation we have nothing to do in this connection. The gospel is proclaimed to human beings, not as elect and reprobate, but as sinners, who all have need of deliverance. Administered by human beings, who do not
know the hidden counsel of God, the gospel cannot be otherwise than general in its offer. Just as a net, cast into the sea, catches good and bad fish, just as the sun shines on weeds as well as on wheat, just as the seed of the sower falls not only on good soil but also in stony and barren places, so the gospel in its administration comes to all human beings without distinction.
2o The preaching of that gospel does not say to [490] each human being, head by head: Christ has died in your place, all your sins have been atoned for and forgiven. For, although the universalists think they can and may say this to every human being without any further specification, yet upon some reflection it appears that even from the standpoint of the universalists this is by no means the case. For according to them Christ has only acquired the possibility of forgiveness and of salvation; in reality that forgiveness and salvation come only when the human being believes and continues to believe. Thus they too can preach only as the content of the gospel: believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
Now the Reformed say this likewise; they too thus offer the gospel to all human beings and can, may, and must do so. The forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation are there, but they become our portion only in the way of faith. But in this there is nevertheless an important difference between the universalists and the Reformed, which is entirely to the advantage of the latter. For among the former Christ acquired only the possibility of salvation; whether this actually becomes someone's portion depends on himself; faith is a condition, a work, which first makes the possible salvation actual, and always, up to death, leaves it uncertain. But among the Reformed Christ acquired the whole, full, actual salvation; faith is therefore not a work, not a condition, not an intellectual assent to the sentence: Christ has died for you, but a leaning on Christ himself, a trust in his sacrifice
alone, a living faith, much simpler than it can be among the universalists, and which brings salvation much more certainly than they can ever promise from their standpoint. The fault lies only with the human being, who is always inclined to reverse the order established by God: he wants to be certain of the outcome before he makes use of the means, and precisely in order to be exempted from the use. But God wills that we shall enter upon the way of faith, and then assures us in Christ infallibly of perfect salvation.
3o Therefore that offer of salvation on God's side is also seriously meant and sincere. For in that offer He does not say what He will do, whether He will grant faith or not. He has reserved that to himself and has not revealed it to us. He declares only what He wills that we shall [491] do, that we shall humble ourselves and seek our salvation in Christ alone. If it is objected against this that God then nevertheless offers salvation to such as He has decided not to grant faith and salvation, then this is an objection that remains equally valid from the standpoint of the opponents. For indeed God then also offers salvation to such as of whom He certainly, firmly, infallibly knows that they will not believe. For not only according to the Reformed but according to all confessors of Christ the outcome of world history stands eternally and unchangeably fixed, part II 352. The difference is only that the Reformed have dared to say: that outcome is in agreement with God's will and intention. What is and happens must God, even if we do not understand it, have been able to will, without prejudice to all his virtues and perfections; otherwise God would no longer be God. History cannot and may not be a party over against God. Furthermore therefore 4o that preaching of the gospel is also not vain or useless. If God out of ignorance or impotence by the general offer really intended the salvation of all, then it would indeed become useless and vain. For how few are they in whom this
goal is achieved! Then it itself includes an antinomy, which in order to be solved leads to ever further deviation from Scripture. For if the will and intention of God, if the satisfaction of Christ is absolutely general, then the offer of salvation must also be general without any limitation. And because it manifestly is not, one then comes to it, with the old Lutherans, to contradict history to its face and to assert that by the apostles the gospel has been brought to all peoples, or with many more recent theologians to assume a gospel-preaching also on yonder side of the grave, cf. e.g. W.
Schmidt, Stud. u. Krit 1887 S. 1-44, or worse still with rationalism and mysticism to believe that the law of nature or the inner light is sufficient unto salvation. The further, however, one in this way, in conflict with history, extends the calling, the weaker, more powerless and more vain it becomes; in quality and intensity one loses what one seemingly gains in quantity and extension; the conflict between God's intention and the outcome becomes greater and greater. 5o Even if then through the calling salvation becomes only the portion of few, as everyone must acknowledge
[492] it nevertheless therefore also retains for those who reject it its great value and significance. It is for all without distinction the proof of God's infinite love and seals the word that He has no pleasure in the death of the sinner but in this, that he turn and live; it proclaims to all that the sacrifice of Christ is sufficient for the atonement of all sins; that no one is lost because it is not rich and powerful enough; that no right of the law, no power of sin, no dominion of Satan stands in the way of its application; for not as the trespass, so is the gift of grace. Indeed it is often also for those who harden themselves in their unbelief the source of all kinds of blessings; enlightenment of the understanding, heavenly gift, fellowship of the H.
Spirit, enjoyment of the word of God, powers of the age to come have
sometimes even been the portion of those who later become apostate and despise Christ, Hebr. 6:4-6. And not only this, but 6o the external calling through law and gospel also attains the goal that God intends with it. Vain and useless is never what God does. His word does not return empty, it does all that pleases Him, it is prosperous in all that for which He sends it. But this is not only and not in the first place the eternal salvation of human beings but the honor of his own name. In the calling through law and gospel
God maintains the right over his creature. The sinner thinks by sin to become free from God and discharged from his service. But it is not so.
God's right over the human being, even over the most deeply fallen, is inalienable and inviolable. The human being can, dismissing God's service, become deeply miserable, but he remains a creature, and thus dependent.
By sin he becomes not less but much more dependent; for he ceases to be a son, and becomes a servant, a slave, a powerless instrument, that is used by God according to his will. God never lets the human being go and never relinquishes his rights over him, over his service, over his complete devotion with understanding and will and all powers. And therefore He calls him through nature and history, through heart and conscience, through blessings and judgments, through law and gospel. The calling in the broadest sense is the preaching of God's right over his fallen creature. 7o As such it maintains in the human being and in humanity all those religious and moral [493] consciousnesses of dependence, reverence, awe, duty, responsibility etc., without which the human race could not exist. Religion, morality, law, art, science, family, society, state, they all have their root and foundation in that calling which goes out from God to all human beings.
Take it away, and there arises a war of all against all, the one human being becomes a wolf for the other. The calling through law and gospel restrains
sin, lessens guilt, and checks the corruption and misery of the human being; it is a gratia reprimens. It is a proof that God is God and is indifferent to nothing, that not only the Jenseits but also the Diesseits has value for Him.
However much the human being may then be inclined to hide behind his impotence, or with Pelagius and Kant to infer from his duty to his power; even in that he acknowledges that God's right and our duty remain unimpaired, and that he himself is inexcusable. But finally 8o the calling is not only a gratia reprimens but also a gratia praeparans. Christ has come into the world for a κρισις, for a fall but also for a rising, Mk. 4:12, Luk.
2:34, 8:10, Joh. 9:39, 15:22, 2 Cor. 2:16, 1 Pet. 2:7, 8. And the calling through law and gospel also intends, by all that it grants and works, to prepare in humanity and in the individual human being the coming of Christ. In the Remonstrant sense, Conf. en Apol. XI 4 such a gratia praeparans was decisively denied by the Reformed, Can. Dordr. I ref. 4.
Trigland, Antapol. c. 25 sq. Mastricht, Theol. VI 3, 19. 28. Witsius, Oec. foed. III 6, 9. The spiritual life that is implanted in regeneration is essentially different from the natural and moral life that precedes it; it comes about not through human activity or evolution but through a creative act of God. Some therefore preferred to call the activities that precede regeneration actus antecedanei rather than actus praeparatorii. But nevertheless in a good sense one can speak of gratia praeparans; over against all methodistic directions, which fail to recognize natural life, it is even of excellent value. For the confession of preparatory grace does not imply that the human being, by doing quod in se est, by diligently going to church, listening with earnestness to God's word, recognizing his sin, desiring deliverance etc., according to a meritum de congruo, can merit the grace of regeneration, or also can make himself receptive and capable for it.
But it implies that God is Creator, Sustainer and Ruler of all things and that He even from far beforehand in the generations orders the life of those whom He will in his time endow with faith. The human being on the sixth day did not arise by evolution from lower creatures but was created by God's hand; yet his creation may be called prepared by the preceding acts of God. Christ himself has come from above, but his coming was prepared for centuries. Nature and grace are distinct and may not be confused or mixed, but God establishes a connection between both. Creation, redemption and sanctification are economically ascribed to Father, Son and Spirit, but these three are the one and true God and together they bring the whole work of redemption to completion. No one can come to Christ unless the Father draw him; and no one receives the H. Spirit except he to whom the Son sends Him. And therefore there is a gratia praeparans. God himself in many ways prepares his work of grace in the hearts. He awakens in Zacchaeus the desire to see Jesus, Luk. 19:3, works contrition among the crowd that hears Peter, Hd. 2:37, causes a Paul to fall to the ground, Hd.
9:4, brings the jailer to perplexity, Hd. 16:27 and thus leads the life of all his children also before and up to the hour of their regeneration. Even if they are not yet on their side partakers of reconciliation and justification, even if they do not yet have regeneration and faith, they are nevertheless already objects of his eternal love, and He himself leads them through his grace to that Spirit who alone can regenerate and comfort. Everything therefore stands, according to God's ordering, in connection with their later bringing in and calling in the congregation. Conception and birth, household and lineage, people and land, upbringing and instruction, development of understanding and heart, preservation from dreadful sins, from the blasphemy against the H. Spirit above all, or also abandonment to
all kinds of wickedness and unrighteousness, disasters and judgments, blessings and benefits, preaching of law and gospel, contrition and fear of judgment, awakening of conscience and need of rescue, it is all a gratia praeparans to regeneration from the H. Spirit and to the place which the believer will later occupy in [495] the congregation. One indeed is the way to heaven, but many are the leadings of God, both before and on that way, and rich and free is the grace of the H. Spirit. Jeremiah and John the Baptist and Timothy are brought in another way than Manasseh or Paul, and each fulfills in the service of God a distinct task. Pietism and methodism fail to recognize those leadings, restrict God's grace, want to convert and form all according to one type. But Reformed theology respects the sovereignty of God and admires the richness of his grace. Cf. on the nature and fruit of the external calling, besides the earlier p. 211 mentioned litt. on common grace:
Twissus, Op. I 660 sq. Trigland, Opuscula I 430v. II 809v. Gomarus, Op. I 97 sq. Synopsis pur. theol. 30, 40-46. Voetius, Disp. II 256. Mastricht,
Theol. VI 2, 16. Turretinus, Theol. El. XV qu. 2 and also XIV 14, 51.
Witsius, Oec. foed. II 9, 4. III 5. 20. Heidegger, Corp. Theol. XXI § 9-11.
Alting, Theol. probl. 187. Moor III 1071. Hodge, Syst. Theol. II 641v.
Shedd, Dogm. Theol. I 451. II 482v. Candlish, The atonement 1861, p.
169v. A. Robertson, Hist. of the atonement controversy in conn. with the secession Church 1846. On the gratia praeparans one may consult:
Musculus, Loci C. §24. Martyr, L. C. 312. Ursinus on q. 88-90. Olevianus e. a. in Heppe, Dogm. d.d. Pr. II 372. Perkins, Works III 127v. Amesius,
Casus Consc. II 4 and disp. theol. de praepar. peccatoris ad conversionem, in Dr. H. Visscher, G. Amesius 1894 p. 125. British theologians at the Synod of Dort on the 3rd and 4th art. Synopsis 32, 6. Witsius, Oec. foed. III 6, 11-15. Voetius, Disp. II 402-424. Moor IV 482. Vitringa, Spiritual Life c.
4. Eenhoorn, Welleven I 220. Van Aalst, Geest. Mengelstoffen, 298. 369.
Comrie Catech. on q. 20-23. Owen, Justification by faith c. 1 p. 83v.
Kuyper, The work v. d. H. G. II 111.
3. Scripture and experience, however, testify that all these operations of the vocatio externa do not always and in all persons lead to sincere faith and salvation. Of itself, therefore, the question arises, what the deepest and ultimate cause of that different outcome is. To that, in the Christian church, in the main a threefold answer was given. Some said that that different outcome was due to the will of man, whether that will by nature [496] or by the grace of the Logos or by that in baptism or also by that in the calling had received the power to accept or to reject the gospel. On this standpoint there is no distinction of vocatio externa and interna, of vocatio sufficiens and efficax. Inwardly and essentially the calling is always and in all persons the same; it is called efficax only according to the outcome, if someone gives heed to it. After all that was said earlier, especially part II 355v. about Pelagianism, this answer no longer needs a prolix refutation. It is clear that it offers no solution. One can indeed in practice remain standing at the proximate cause and specifically ascribe unbelief to the will of man. One then also speaks truthfully, Deut. 30:19, Jos. 24:15, Jes. 65:12, Mt. 22:2,
23:37, Joh. 7:17, Rom. 9:32 etc.; the sinful will of man is the cause of his unbelief. But already in practice all the pious at all times and under all directions ascribe their faith and salvation only to God's grace, part II 351.
There is nothing that distinguishes them except that grace alone, 1 Cor. 4:7.
And therefore this distinction in the last instance cannot lie in the human will. If one nevertheless remains standing there as the last cause, then at once all the psychological, ethical, historical, and theological objections arise that at all times have been brought against Pelagianism. An
incalculable arbitrariness is introduced, sin is weakened, the decision about the outcome of world history is placed in the hands of man, the government of all things is withdrawn from God, his grace is nullified. Even if one ascribes the power to choose for or against the gospel to the restoration by grace, the matter is nevertheless not made better thereby. One then introduces a grace that consists solely and only in the restoration of the choice of the will, of which Scripture makes no mention with a single word, which actually already presupposes regeneration and yet must first bring it about after a good choice of the will, cf. Frank, Syst. d. chr. Wahrh. II 325.
Also, on this standpoint one becomes embarrassed with all those millions of people who have never heard the gospel or also died away as little children and who therefore were never placed in the opportunity to accept or to reject Christ. The free will of man therefore cannot be the ultimate cause of faith and unbelief. Another [497] answer was therefore given to the aboveposed question by Bellarminus; he rejected both the doctrine of Pelagius and of Augustine, sought to walk a middle way, and said that the efficacia of the calling depended on whether it came to someone at a suitable time, when his will was inclined to follow it (congruitas), de grat. et lib. arb. I 12.
IV 11, and so further the congruists, and in the Reformed church Pajon, Kleman and also Shedd, Syst. Theol. II 511-528, who calls salvation in the highest degree probable for everyone who makes serious and diligent use of the means of grace. But this answer too is unsatisfactory. There lies in the congruitas indeed an important truth, which, misunderstood by Methodism, comes into its own in the Reformed doctrine of the gratia praeparans. But it is wholly insufficient to explain the efficacia of the calling. For in itself it is nothing other than a suasio moralis, which by nature is powerless to create that spiritual life which according to Scripture arises in man through
regeneration; further, it presupposes that man at one moment is not, at another is, fit to accept grace, and thus seeks sin in the circumstances and weakens it in man; further, it places the decision in the will of man and thereby calls up again all the objections that were named above and were brought by Bellarminus himself against Pelagianism; and finally it places between calling and conversion only a connection of congruitas, which, as moral in nature, can always be broken by the will and therefore cannot guarantee the efficacia of the calling. Therefore by the Augustinians, the Thomists, and the Reformed the cause by which the calling bore fruit in the one and not in the other was sought in the nature of the calling itself. The former said that, in case the calling is efficacious, a delectatio victrix was added, which bestowed not only the posse but also the velle; the Thomists spoke of a physica praedeterminatio or actio Dei physica, which caused the posse agere, bestowed by the vocatio sufficiens, to pass over into an agere; but the Reformed had objections against these terms, especially against the description of the act of God in conversion as a physical one, and spoke rather of a vocatio externa and interna. This distinction already occurs in Augustine, de praed. [498] sanct. c. 8, was taken over from him by Calvin, on Rom. 10:16, Acta Syn. Trid. c. antidoto sess. 6, C. R. 35, 480. Inst. III 24, 8 etc., and then became established in Reformed theology. At first this twofold calling was also still sometimes called otherwise, namely vocatio materialis and formalis, signi and beneplaciti, communis and singularis, universalis and specialis etc., Polanus, Synt. VI c. 32, but the name of outward and inward calling gained the upper hand and has gradually displaced the others.
Although this distinction does not now occur with literal words in Scripture, it is nevertheless grounded upon it. It flows 1o already from the
fact that all men are by nature equal, condemnable before God's countenance, Rom. 3:9-19, 5:12, 9:21, 11:32, dead in sins and trespasses,
Ef. 2:2, 3, darkened in the understanding, 1 Cor. 2:14, Ef. 4:18, 5:8, not being able to see the kingdom of God, Joh. 3:3, slaves of sin, Joh. 8:34,
Rom. 6:20, enemies of God, Rom. 8:7, Col. 1:21, who cannot subject themselves to the law, Rom. 8:7, out of themselves able to think or do nothing good, Joh. 15:5, 2 Cor. 3:5, and, although the gospel is for man, nevertheless stand hostilely over against it and despise it as an offence or foolishness, 1 Cor. 1:23, 2:14. From man, therefore, the distinction is not to be explained which is to be observed after the calling. God alone and his grace makes a distinction, 1 Cor. 4:7. 2o The preaching of the Word is without more not sufficient, Jes. 6:9, 10, 53:1, Mt. 13:13v, Mk. 4:12, Joh.
12:38-40 etc.; already in the O. T. therefore the H. Spirit was promised, who would teach all and would bestow a new heart, Jes. 32:15, Jer. 31:33, 32:39,
Ezech. 11:19, 36:26, Joel 2:28; and to that end he was poured out on the day of Pentecost, in order with and through the apostles to bear witness of Christ, Joh. 15:26, 27, in order to convince the world of sin, righteousness and judgment, Joh. 16:8-11, in order to regenerate, Joh. 3:5v., 6:63, 16:13, and to lead to the confession of Jesus as the Lord, 1 Cor. 12:3. Therefore 3o the work of redemption, both subjectively and objectively, is wholly ascribed to God, and indeed not in a general sense, as he by his providence brings forth all things, but specifically also in that narrower sense, that he by special divine power works regeneration and conversion. It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy, Rom.
[499] 9:16; the calling is realization of the election, Rom. 8:28, 11:29. It is God, who renews the heart and writes his law in it, Ps. 51:12, Jer. 31:33,
Ezech. 36:26, who gives enlightened eyes of the understanding, Ps. 119:18,
Ef. 1:18, Col. 1:9-11 and opens the heart, Hd. 16:14, who makes his Son known as Christ, Mt. 11:25, 16:17, Gal. 1:16 and leads unto him with spiritual power, Joh. 6:44, Col. 1:12, 13, who causes the gospel to be preached, not only in words, but also in power and in the H. Spirit, 1 Cor.
2:4, 1 Thess. 1:5, 6 and himself gives the increase, 1 Cor. 3:6-9, who in one word works in us both the willing and the working according to his good pleasure, Phil. 2:13, and thereto employs a power which is like the working of the strength of his might, when he raised Christ from the dead and set him at his right hand, Ef. 1:18-20. 4o The act itself, whereby God brings about this change in man, is often called regeneration, Joh. 1:13, 3:3v., Tit.
3:5 etc., and the fruit thereof is indicated as a new heart, Jer. 31:33, καινη κτισις, 2 Cor. 5:17, θεου ποιημα, κτισθεντες ἐν Χριστῳ Ιησου, Ef. 2:10, το ἐργον του θεου, Rom. 14:20, his οἰκοδομη, 1 Cor. 3:9, Ef. 2:21 etc., that is, what is brought to pass in man by grace is far too rich and too great for it to be able to be explained from a suasio moralis of the word of preaching.
Finally 5o Scripture itself speaks of the calling in a twofold sense. More than once it speaks of a calling and invitation, which is not followed, Jes.
65:12, Mt. 22:3, 14, 23:37, Mk. 16:15, 16, etc., and then it can say, that God has done everything on his side, Jes. 5:4, and that men through their unwillingness have not believed and have resisted God's counsel, the H.
Spirit, the calling, Mt. 11:20v., 23:37, Luk. 7:30, Hd. 7:51. But it also knows a calling, which has God as author, realization of the election and is always efficacious; thus specifically with Paul, Rom. 4:17, 8:30, 9:11, 24, 1
Cor. 1:9, 7:15v., Gal. 1:6, 15, 5:8, Ef. 4:1, 4, 1 Thess. 2:12, 2 Tim. 1:9, cf. also 1 Petr. 1:15, 2:9, 5:10, 2 Petr. 1:3; the believers can therefore simply as κλητοι, Rom. 1:7, 1 Cor. 1:2, 24, κλητοι Χριστου, or κλητοι ἐν κυριῳ, 1
Cor. 7:22, i.e. called by God, who belong to Christ and live in his
communion, be designated. Alongside that Paul does indeed know a preaching [500] of the gospel to such as reject it, but to them the gospel is a foolishness, 1 Cor. 1:18, 23, an odour of death unto death, 2 Cor. 2:15, 16, they do not understand it, 1 Cor. 2:14. As a power of God, 1 Cor. 1:18, 24, it proves itself to those who are called by God according to his purpose, Rom.
8:28, 9:11, 11:28, Ef. 1:4, 5.
4. This calling, understood in Paul's sense, thereby of itself comes to stand in the very closest connection with what elsewhere is called regeneration. This is already evident from the fact that Paul, always taking calling as efficacious, speaks of regeneration almost not at all. Only once does he make use of this word, when in Tit. 3:5 he says that God has not saved us out of our works, but in accordance with his mercy δια λουτρου παλιγγενεσιας και ἀνακαινωσεως πνευματος ἁγιου, i.e. by means of the bath of regeneration and renewal wrought by the H. Spirit. Regeneration is here connected with renewal, because it is the beginning and the principle of it; together they are ascribed to the H. Spirit; and both are conceived as a bath, in which the H. Spirit has immersed the believers and out of which He has caused them to rise as new men. According to Rom. 6 this takes place in baptism as sign and seal of the covenant of grace. When the elect, namely, are called, then they immediately receive through faith justification and adoption as children in the juridical sense, Rom. 3:22, 24, 4:5, 5:1, Gal.
3:26, 4:5, etc., but at the same time therewith also communion with Christ, Rom. 6:3v., glorification according to his image, Rom. 8:29, 30, 1 Cor.
4:15, 2 Cor. 3:18, Gal. 4:19, and thus, because Christ himself is life-giving Spirit, 1 Cor. 15:45, 2 Cor. 3:17, the Spirit of Christ as principle of a new life, Gal. 3:2, 4:6, so that the believers are now spiritual, new men, 1 Cor.
2:15, 2 Cor. 5:17, Gal. 6:15, Ef. 2:15, 4:24, Col. 3:10, walking in, led by,
and being temples of the H. Spirit, Rom. 8:14, 1 Cor. 6:19, Gal. 5:25 etc.
The word regeneration may therefore occur with Paul only once; in substance, however, it nevertheless underlies with him the new life, of which the called person becomes partaker in communion with Christ.
Related is the representation with Peter, who I 1:23 exhorts the believers [501] to love one another, because they are ἀναγεγεννημενοι οὐκ ἐκ σπορας φθαρτης ἀλλα ἀφθαρτου, δια λογου ζωντος θεου και μενοντος, i.e. by God, cf. 1:3, born again, not out of perishable seed, as in the first birth, but out of imperishable seed, i.e. the word of God, as it is implanted in man through the calling of God, a λογος ἐμφυτος, Jak. 1:21 and becomes the principle of a new life, and that by means of the living and abiding word of God proclaimed to them cf. vs. 25. Likewise James 1:18 says that God, according to his will, has begotten, brought us forth, ἀπεκυησεν, through the word of truth, in order that we, Christians, should be the firstfruits of God's creatures, i.e. the true Israel, the special possession of God, the rightful heirs of the promise. Everywhere here regeneration is conceived as beginning, principle, ground of sanctification, inwardly wrought by God or his Spirit, and taking place by means of the calling through the word. But John considers regeneration from another point of view. What is born of flesh, that is flesh, 3:6 and stands hostile over against God. Such as are born only in a natural way, 1:13, are out of, 8:23, 15:19 and belong to the world,
14:17, 19, 22 etc., are from below, 8:23, out of the devil, 8:44, do not comprehend the light of the Logos, 1:5, do not receive Him, 1:11, have the darkness dearer than the light, 3:19, 20, do not hear, 8:47, do not know God,
8:19, 15:21, do not see the kingdom of God, 3:3, walk in the darkness, 12:35, hate the light, 3:20, and are servants of sin, 8:34. They also cannot see the kingdom of God, 3:3, cannot believe, 5:44, 12:39, cannot hear the
word of God, 8:43, cannot come to Christ, 6:44, cannot receive the H.
Spirit, 14:17. And therefore regeneration is necessary. This is a γεννηθηναι ἀνωθεν, i.e. from above, 3:3, cf. 3:31, 8:23, 19:11, 23, ἐκ θεου, 1:13, I 2,
20, 3:9 etc., out of water and Spirit, 3:5, i.e. out of the Spirit, 3:6, 8, whose cleansing activity has its image in the water, cf. Ezech. 36:25-27, Mt. 3:11, mysterious and wondrous, so that no one knows its origin and essence, 3:8.
This regeneration is therefore with John also not brought into connection with the word or with the calling, but rather precedes it. For Christ as Logos also already worked before his incarnation, 1:1-13; He shone [502] as light in the world, but this did not know Him, 1:5, 9, 10. He came to his own, to Israel, and his own did not receive Him, 1:11; but yet even then his coming was not wholly fruitless, for as many as received Him, already then received the power to become children of God. And those were such as had been born of God, 1:12, 13 cf. 1 Joh. 5:1. Before men come to Christ and believe in Him, they are already out of God, 8:47, out of the truth, 18:37; they are given by the Father to the Son, 6:37, 39, 17:2, 9; He draws them to Christ, 6:44; and all who thus come to Christ, He does not cast out and He does not lose, but He keeps to eternal life, 6:39, 10:28, 17:12. Christ comes, in order to bring those, who as sheep already are, given to Him by the Father, 10:27, in order to make them hear his voice and follow and to gather into one flock, 10:16, 11:52; in order to grant to them, who already in a certain sense are children of God, 11:52, the ἐξουσια, the right and the competence, to become it, to manifest themselves as such, as those born of God, as τεκνα του θεου, and especially to show this in brotherly love, i.e. in love toward those who likewise are born of God, 1 Joh. 5:1. From all this it appears that John thinks of regeneration not in the first place as an ethical, but as a metaphysical act of God, wrought by his Spirit in a wondrous
manner, immediately, in order that those thus regenerated should precisely believe in Christ and as children of God should be manifested in brotherly love.
This doctrine of John is wrongly reduced by some to a gnostic dualism, Scholten, Het Ev. naar Joh. 1864 bl. 89v. Holtzmann, Neut. Th. II 468 f. For it is not a dualism that exists by nature, for all things were originally created by the Logos, 1:3; the world wholly in general is the object of God's love,
3:16; God gave his Son, not to condemn the world but to save it, 3:17, 12:47. By nature, however, all men belong to the world, which hates the light, because its works are evil, 3:19, 20. Thus it therefore depends on faith, whether someone receives eternal life, 3:15, 16, 36. That faith is a ἐργον, 6:29, it is a coming, 5:40, 6:35, 37, 44, 7:37, a receiving, 1:11, 12,
3:11v., 5:43, a thirsting and drinking, a hungering and eating, 4:13-15, 6:35, 50v., 7:37, [503] it does not bypass understanding and will but has its root therein, 7:17. Unbelief is therefore also ascribed to the unwillingness of man, 5:40, 8:44; man remains responsible for it, 3:19, 9:41, 12:43, 15:22,
24. And even if it is also the case that believers can no longer be lost, 10:28,
29, they are nevertheless admonished to remain in Christ and in his word, because otherwise they cannot bear fruit, 15:4-10. Although John thus traces the antithesis of faith and unbelief back to an act of God, whereby He gives to the one what He withholds from the other, he by no means intends thereby to nullify the self-activity and the responsibility of man; rather he lets both stand alongside each other, Holtzmann II 494 f. With all difference in presentation, there is therefore agreement in the matter between Paul and John. There is difference in this, that Paul regards regeneration as the ethical beginning of a new, holy life and has it come about through the efficacious calling of God; John apprehends it from its metaphysical side
and explains from it the fact that many hear and receive Jesus' word, go to Him by faith and receive eternal life. In a corresponding way, in the first period of the Reformation regeneration was taken in a broader sense for the entire renewal of man, while in later time it was restricted to the infusion of the principle of the new life, which preceded the act of faith. If we now add to this still the word of Jesus in Mt. 19:28, then it appears that Scripture speaks of regeneration in a threefold sense: as principle of the new life, which is planted in man by the Spirit of God before faith, as the moral renewal of man through the word and the Spirit of Christ, and finally, as restoration of the whole world in its original perfection. Thus regeneration comprises the whole work of re-creation from its very first beginning in man onward to its completion in the new heaven and the new earth. This whole re-creation has in Christ, specifically in his resurrection, its ground, 1
Petr. 1:3, its principle in the word and the Spirit of Christ, its author in Christ himself, who is the reformer of creation.
From this the connection also becomes clear, which exists between regeneration [504] and calling. 1o There is no regeneration without calling.
Just as God in the beginning created all things by speaking and still upholds all things by the word of his power, so also Christ brings the re-creation to pass by the power of his word. 2o This calling has as its content not a word of God in general, but specifically the word of Christ. He has by his suffering and death acquired the right to the re-creation of all things. He has in his resurrection realized it in principle; when Christ as mediator speaks, everything obeys his word and life appears out of death; He makes alive whom He will, Joh. 5:21, 25, 28v. The content of the calling is therefore the gospel, the glad message of Christ; by that alone are all things renewed. 3o
This word of Christ, leaving aside for a moment whether it is brought
outwardly, audibly by men or not, must in any case become a λογος ἐμφυτος, Jak. 1:21. Only when it is implanted in man, in the creatures, does the new life appear from it as ἐκ σπορας ἀφθαρτου, 1 Petr. 1:23. 4o The gospel, the word of Christ, to proclaim in such a way that it is not only brought to the creatures but implanted in them, can only the H. Spirit. Just as the creation took place through Word and Spirit, so also Christ accomplishes the re-creation through his word and his Spirit. He himself has become into a life-making Spirit, 1 Cor. 15:47, 2 Cor. 3:17, and recreates all things, speaking through the Spirit, Rom. 8:9v. 5o This regeneration by no means presupposes the conscious life and the active willing. It has, as restoration of the creation in Mt. 19:28, even the irrational creature as object; it occurs, as some examples in Scripture show, in children, before they have come to years of discernment; indeed infant baptism is also built on the presupposition that children without their knowing can be accepted in Christ unto grace; according to John's gospel it precedes the coming to and believing in Christ. In all these cases there is a regeneration only through inward, without outward calling. 6o Also when it temporarily coincides with or takes place after the outward calling, δια λογου ζωντος θεου και μενοντος, 1 Petr. 1:23, it itself is nevertheless always immediate, because it does not proceed from the preached word, but ἐκ πνευματος, Joh. 3:5, 6, 8, ἐκ σπορας ἀφθαρτου, 1 Petr. 1:23. The H.
Spirit does work [505] with and through, but his working is not enclosed within the preached word; He himself by the inward calling makes it into a λογος ἐμφυτος and causes the new life to appear from it. 7o Because the new life, however, never proceeds nor can proceed except from the implanted word and the Spirit of Christ, it is, as soon as it awakens to consciousness, bound to the objective, outward word of Christ, which has
the same gospel as content as that inward one. Rule of doctrine and life is only the H. Scripture. 8o Inward calling and regeneration stand in relation as seed and plant, 1 Petr. 1:23, as a speaking through and a hearing and learning of the Father, Joh. 6:45, as drawing and following, 6:44, as giving and receiving, 6:65, as offering and (passive) acceptance of salvation,
Amesius, Med. Theol. I 26, 7v. Voetius, Disp. II 452. 463 sq. Heidegger, Corp. Theol. 21, 61. While thus to regeneration there always precedes a speaking of God, a λογος ἐμφυτος, neither Scripture nor experience offers us sufficient data at hand to determine whether regeneration in adults as a rule also takes place after and through the outward calling, or whether it precedes it, Voetius Disp. II 461. From the gospel and the letters of John it can be inferred that it logically, but yet not that it also temporally precedes it; and Paul, Peter, and James always keep outward and inward calling with one another in the closest connection.
5. Against this internal calling and regeneration, however, the objection is always raised from the Pelagian side, that it introduces a physical compulsion into the spiritual, is in conflict with the nature of a rational being, makes man wholly passive, undermines moral freedom and responsibility. Pelagianism is therefore always intent on maintaining the resistibility of the calling and on letting regeneration, conversion, sanctification, perseverance, etc. depend on a decision of the will.
Regenerated and justified is he alone who beforehand voluntarily fulfills one or another condition, believes, repents, is disposed to keep God's commandments, etc. It thereby at once entangles itself in a multitude of insoluble difficulties. If man is by nature capable of fulfilling those conditions, he is so good that [506] there is no need at all of regeneration in the sense of Scripture; some moral education and improvement is then more
than sufficient. If man must beforehand receive the power, to accept or not accept the gospel, through the gratia praeveniens in baptism or calling, then here too a gratia irresistibilis precedes believing, for the gratia praeparans is bestowed upon all without their willing or knowing; then in fact regeneration already takes place before the decision of man, for operari sequitur esse, the act follows upon the capacity, the will, which enables the acceptance of the gospel, is according to the gospel of John already a renewed and reborn will. Only then it is not to be seen how, after all that, a free choice of the will is still possible; the will, after all, has already been determined toward the good by the good power bestowed upon it apart from its own doing, and determined toward the good precisely in the same measure as it received power for a good choice; the more one lets the will be weakened by sin and the more power one lets be bestowed upon it in the gratia praeveniens, the more and in the same measure its indifferent freedom also ceases. Besides, it is enigmatic for what such a free choice of the will is still necessary; if God, after all, must already beforehand and irresistibly renew man to such an extent that he can choose for the gospel, to what end does the maintenance of indifferent freedom of the will then still serve otherwise than only to nullify God's grace again, to make his covenant of grace again just as shaky and unstable as that of works before the fall, and to represent Christ as even more powerless and less loving than
Adam? For He has accomplished everything and acquired everything, but when He wills to apply it, his power and his love are thwarted by the will of man, indeed a will equipped with new powers! Only in order to save an apparent freedom of man, God is robbed of his sovereignty, the covenant of grace of its firmness, Christ of his royal power.
And even if one were to gain something by it; but in fact one loses everything by it. Not only is indifferent freedom of the will in adults saved only in appearance. But in children the whole doctrine proves insufficient and unmerciful itself. For one of two things: the gratia that is bestowed upon the children is sufficient unto salvation and opens to them, if they die early, the gate [507] of heaven—and then they are saved without their doing and without having themselves chosen and decided; or it is not sufficient, but then all little children are lost who died early, before they could choose; and of the children who grow up, again thousands upon thousands fall away through free choice of the will. Pelagianism in its various forms seems to be merciful; but it is nothing other than the mercy of the Pharisee, who does not concern himself with the publicans. In order to save freedom of the will in a few thousands of adults, and then only in appearance, it, proportionally, gives millions of little children over to damnation. In the end it remains a riddle what Pelagianism can have against this, that God glorifies his efficacious grace in sinners. If it raised the question why God bestows that grace only upon many and not upon all, it would find a benevolent ear with everyone. Who has not felt that question arise within himself and who has not been moved by it to the deepest part of his soul? But that question returns again from every standpoint and is answered by Pelagius no more than by Augustine; all without distinction must rest in the good pleasure of God. The confessors of God's sovereignty are in no case in a more unfavorable condition here than the defenders of free will. For, as was shown above, the gratia externa according to the Reformed bestows upon all who live under the gospel at least as much grace as, according to the Pelagians, is granted to them in the so-called gratia sufficiens and is judged by them to be sufficient for a free choice for or against the gospel. The
doctrine of the inward calling takes away from the outward calling not a single blessing and benefit which, according to Pelagianism or Semipelagianism, according to Roman Catholics, Lutherans, or Remonstrants, is also granted by God. From a Reformed standpoint all who are outwardly called objectively remain in the same condition in which they find themselves according to other confessions. The assertion of the Reformed is only that all that rich grace to and in man, if it is not specifically grace of regeneration, is insufficient to bring man to a free, decisive acceptance of the gospel. In order to believe in Christ, according to the clear teaching of the Gospel of John, no less than regeneration is necessary, an operation of God's [508] power as in the raising of Christ, Ef.
1:19, 20. All lesser grace, however rich and glorious, is insufficient; a grace which, without regenerating, nevertheless restores the will so far that it can choose for the gospel, is taught nowhere in Scripture and is also a psychological absurdity. Even if this their confession were also incorrect,
(which no), it brings absolutely no change to the disadvantage in the condition of those who, according to the confessions of all Christians, in the end are lost on account of their unbelief. But above the advocates of free choice of the will, those of the Reformed religion in any case have this advantage, that God's counsel shall stand, that his covenant of grace does not waver, that Christ is truly and completely Savior, that the good i.e. w. once infallibly shall triumph over the evil. What serious objection can be raised against that? If we can, without our knowing, partake of damnation in Adam—a fact that no one can deny—why then should we not much more, without our knowing, be accepted by God in Christ unto grace? For there is no question of compulsion in this grace. To speak strongly for a moment, if this grace by virtue of its nature did not exclude compulsion and
God actually used compulsion; who then would still at the end have the right or even the desire to complain, if he were thus snatched from eternal ruin and transferred into eternal life? Who would give the man right, who complained about it that, without respecting his freedom of the will, one had saved him from mortal danger? But it is not so; there is in the inward calling and regeneration no compulsion with God, βια οὐ προσεστι τῳ θεῳ, Ep. ad Diogn. 7. Not a single pious person, of whatever confession, has spoken of compulsion in the work of grace, even though he was plucked as a brand from the fire. Rather it would be his wish that God with more power broke sin in him and, without the long path of struggle, made him partake of salvation. But God does not do so in grace; all compulsion is in conflict with its essence.
For grace is not a physical power. The Thomists spoke of a physica praedeterminatio, the Romanists conceived the image of God more and more as a substantial addition to the nature of man. But the Reformed did not speak thus. Not only did they regard the image of God [509] as essentially proper to man, but they even refused to describe the grace of God in the vocatio interna as something physical; it was indeed not purely ethical or moral, but it was also not of a physical nature, and therefore is best determined as supernaturalis and divina. For it does not in any respect introduce any new substance into the existing creation, as Manicheans and Anabaptists teach, M. Vitringa III 224 sq. It does not do that objectively, insofar as with grace the person and the work of Christ can be indicated, for Christ, though conceived of the H. Spirit, assumed his human nature from Mary and did not bring it with him from heaven. But it also does not do it in a subjective sense. Grace never creates, it recreates. Regeneration, which it brings about, signifies neither in its first, nor in its second, nor in its third
meaning, that from without any substance is added to man or world or carried into them. They are the same men, who formerly were darkness, Ef.
5:5, dead in sins and trespasses, Ef. 2:2, robbers, covetous persons etc., 1 Cor. 6:11, and who now are washed, sanctified, and justified. The continuity of the I remains maintained. And so it is also the same heaven and the same earth, which at the end of days will be renewed. Christ is not a new, second
Creator, but Recreator, Reformer of all things. Since sin is not a substance but has affected and destroyed the forma of things, therefore the recreation cannot consist in creating any substance, but must consist in a restoration of the forma, in reformation. Already by this every thought of physical compulsion in grace is excluded. But there is more. Not only does it introduce no new substance into creation, but it also takes nothing essential away from it, nothing that is essentially proper to it (although indeed "by nature"). Sin does not belong to the essence of creation. And grace takes nothing else away from us than sin alone. It does not suppress, it restores nature; non tollit sed restituit et perficit voluntatem. It takes away from our understanding the darkness, from our will the weakness, the powerlessness.
It gives back to us what we, according to our essence, according to the idea, ought to have had but have lost through sin. It recreates us according to the image of him who created us. It is true that it, just as [510] on the one hand it does not consist in the implanting of a new substance, so on the other hand does not amount to an external, moral improvement of disposition and deeds. It is not merely a reformatio vitae, as the Socinians described it, M.
Vitringa III 225 cf. 227; Scripture speaks of regeneration in far too strong terms for that; already the O. T. designates it as a circumcision of the heart,
Deut. 30:6, a creating of a clean heart and renewing of a steadfast spirit, Ps.
51:12, a taking away of the stony and giving of a fleshy heart, Jer. 31:33v.
Ezech. 11:19, 36:25, and the N. T. uses the words: birth from above, Joh.
3:3, from God, 1:13, from the Spirit, 3:5, 6, 8, regeneration, Tit. 3:5, and says that those who received this benefit thereby are a new creature, 2 Cor.
5:17, God's workmanship, Rom. 14:20, Ef. 2:10, new men, Ef. 2:15, 4:10, 24, have become one plant with Christ in his death and resurrection, Rom.
6:5, live and walk in Christ or in the H. Spirit, etc. The benefit of regeneration is therefore far too great for it to be able to be produced by a suasio moralis of the word of preaching; it rather presupposes a divine almighty power, Ef. 1:19, 20; and it is also too rich for it to consist only in a change of the deeds or expressions of the human faculties. For sin, though having begun with an act, has penetrated into the nature of man itself; it is no substantia but also not an actus alone; it is an inner corruption of the whole man, not only of his thoughts and words and deeds, but also of his understanding and will, and again not only of these but also of his heart, from which all unrighteousnesses proceed, of the innermost, the core, the root of his being, of the I of man himself. And therefore regeneration is such a wholly supernatural, most powerful, hidden and inexpressible working of God, whereby He penetrates into the innermost parts of man, opens the closed heart, softens the hard, circumcises the uncircumcised, pours new qualities into the will and makes it from dead living, from evil good, from unwilling willing, from rebellious obedient, Can. Dordr. III 11.
12. New qualities are therefore indeed what regeneration implants in man, but they are nevertheless no others than those which belong to his essence, habits, dispositions, inclinations, which originally were included in the image of God and corresponded with God's law, and which free fallen, sinful human nature from its darkness and slavery, from its death and misery. Even if it is the case, then, that grace, which works regeneration, is
rightly called irresistibilis or better still insuperabilis, because it overcomes all resistance of sinful man; even if it is a gratia operans, which works in man without any cooperation of his will; yet it is and remains a potentissima simul et suavissima operatio, which does not work in men as in stocks and blocks, does not take away the will and its properties nor compel it with violence, but makes it spiritually alive, heals, improves, and bends it in a manner that is sweet and at the same time powerful. Cf. Can.
Dordr. III IV and the judgments of the delegates concerning the 3rd and 4th art. of the Remonstrants, furthermore the works on grace, cited above p.
479, and further still Trigland, Antapol. c. 23-33. Voetius, de statu electorum ante conversionem, Disp. II 402-432, de regeneratione, ib. 432468, an Christus electis et salvandis specialem gratiam regenerationis et fidei sit meritus, ib. V 270-277. Turretinus, Theol. El. XV qu. 3-6.
Spanhemius, Elenchus controv. de religione, Op. III 875 sq. Id. Disp. theol. de quinquarticulanis controversiis, Op. III 1167-1188. Hoornbeek, Theol. pract. lib. 6. Moor IV 442-534 etc.