Chapter 5: Who the Regenerate Are

Who are the regenerate — In what sense the baptized are regenerate — For what reasons they were so called by the ancients — Errors of the Papists noted — The truly regenerate never finally fall away — All the baptized are not truly regenerate — Not every reformation of life is regeneration — What sort of common work of the Holy Spirit exists in the non-regenerate — The office of ministers of the word — Description of the regenerate — All men are dead in sins — The pride of certain persons noted — The most miserable condition of the non-regenerate — The general nature and names of regeneration — God Himself the author, through the Spirit — Its degrees — Acknowledgment of the most miserable state — Dreams sent by God for the instruction of men, Job 33:15, 16 — Works of providence, the preached word, its ends and means — Very many recoil from this first effect of the word — The work of the law in the conversion of the sinner — And of the gospel — The nature and order of regeneration — The varied process of the Holy Spirit in regenerating sinners.

I. In our previous disputation we placed a fence around the privilege and possession of the regenerate, so that no one might make unauthorized claim to what belongs to another. But who exactly these regenerate persons are is not the same opinion among all. We will make haste through the thicket. Those who are sprinkled with baptismal water are, in the view of some, all regenerate. Evangelical baptism is indeed a symbol of spiritual regeneration. For this reason it seems that all the baptized can in some sense be said to be regenerate; and it is evident that many are born again. From the ambiguous use of the word in the writings of very many of the ancients, no small confusion has arisen. They pronounce virtually everywhere that all the baptized are regenerate. For since it was their duty to be born again, and they had obtained through the ceremony of renewal its symbol, there was no reason why they should not commonly be so called. For at that time, in the continuous progress and daily extension of the gospel, the state of affairs was far different from what it is today. The great majority of persons whose enrollment was made in the church were not admitted to baptism except after a public profession of true faith, a confession of sincere repentance, and a pledge of regeneration. Thus Justin Martyr, Apol. ii., expounds among others the admission of the faithful to baptism. "All," he says, "who are persuaded and believe that the things we teach and declare are true, and who promise that they can live accordingly, are taught to pray and to ask God, while fasting, for the forgiveness of their former sins — we praying and fasting together with them; then they are led by us to a place where there is water," etc. II. But now virtually everywhere in the world we are all baptized as infants. Therefore the situation of all who share in baptism is not at all the same. On account of that solemn profession of regeneration — which a manner of life approved among the good for some period of time, sometimes the space of many years, placed in the careful observance of the precepts of the gospel, showed to have been sincere and truly evangelical — made at the reception of baptism, and confirmed by that symbol according to the mind of Christ, most of the baptized were admitted into the register of the regenerate. Hence they were called the faithful, the saints, the enlightened. The pernicious opinion that it was necessary for a person to be born again from above by the virtue of the administration of baptism, or, as they say, ex opere operato, gradually prevailed. This dangerous error, though ancient, the more recent apostates covered over with one thing and another so that it would not leak out. By their help, from these beginnings the conclusion was reached that external baptism is absolutely necessary, that midwives serve as ministers, and that there is a Limbo of infants. But these men, while contending that the Spirit is bound to one thing, have lost Him altogether. The ancients were not so; yet in their writings that confusion very frequently occurs, to which their attribution — assigning to those who are regenerate only nominally what belongs to those truly regenerate — owes its origin. Augustine removes the equivocation in more than one place and teaches that very many are called sons of God by us on account of the sacrament of regeneration who are not in reality born of God. But from that same source there arises no less an error regarding the apostasy of the saints or of the regenerate. They admit it virtually everywhere with little circumlocution. And how indeed could it have been otherwise for those to whom it was customary to call all who had been admitted to the baptismal water regenerate, holy, and faithful? But that the true sons of God, united to Christ, partakers of the promised Spirit, can never finally fall away or yield to Satan's possession — this same thing we showed in the preface to our work on the Perseverance of the Saints.

III. Whether therefore the baptized — that is, those who have been made partakers of the sacrament of initiation in a proper manner and according to the mind of Christ — can by its benefit alone be said in some sense, namely sacramentally, to be regenerate, I do not wish to make my own controversy. But we absolutely deny that all the baptized, by the mere fact that they are baptized, are truly and savingly regenerate, unless there also supervenes that efficacious operation of the Holy Spirit upon their hearts which we are about to expound presently. Indeed, that anyone is born again by the force of external administration, and consequently that all who partake of it, or that God is unconditionally bound.

1 Of this edition, vol. xi. — Ed.

To the communication of life-giving grace through the dispensation of the sacrament — this appears to be the opinion of those to whom the gospel is hidden. Nor indeed could the father of lies himself easily devise a more pernicious dogma, or one that would administer a more present poison to the souls of sinners. For while wretched men who are dead in sins flatter themselves that they were regenerate in baptism, and sleep carelessly on both ears, treating as a matter of indifference the absolute and indispensable necessity of the spiritual renewal of the whole man, they neglect to acknowledge their most miserable state and to flee to the life-giving grace of Christ, and so, lulled to sleep by the most destructive security, they perish eternally. Here indeed, as everywhere, the papists flounder miserably. They hold that all the baptized are regenerate ex opere operato, as they say. But are they also holy? They will scarcely concede this; for what will become of that canonization by which the pope enrolls into the number of the saints whomever he pleases? But in the evangelical sense all the regenerate are holy. By no means, they say. Why? Because they do not perform miracles. But that the working of miracles is a criterion of evangelical regeneration or holiness, no one will ever affirm except one who is utterly ignorant of both regeneration and holiness, and of the whole gospel besides.

IV. Therefore the mere reception of an external rite makes no one regenerate. If to it there is added an upright ordering of life, a change of morals for the better, a renunciation of the vices that produce scandal, a profession of true faith or orthodox doctrine, and an observance of the institutions of Christ among those parties which one follows — he at least in whom these things are present will be held by the votes of many to be regenerate. Where indeed these things are not present, there is no regeneration; for "he who is born of God performs the works of God." But that all these things can exist where there is no regeneration, he will concede who has been taught by God what it is "to be born again." For just as faith that is alone, without good works, will never justify anyone before God, so good works done without faith will never prove that anyone has been justified. This sort of reformation of past life and reduction to good conduct was very frequent in the schools of the ancient philosophers. Thus Pythagoras, thus Socrates, thus Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Cleanthes, Epictetus, Apollonius led very many who were wallowing in the filth of vices back to the path of virtue. But among those who use the word of God in any manner, such corrections of morals are daily occurrences where there is no new creation of the heart or saving renewal of the mind. Moreover, the degrees of these changes — with respect to the vices which sinners renounce and the obedience they embrace — are varied, and their causes varied as well. To enumerate all of these here would take too long. For there is an efficacious operation of the Spirit of Christ through the word upon the hearts of non-regenerate men, which is not regeneration. He illuminates their minds especially with the light of the gospel. Hence they are called enlightened (Hebrews 6:4). That is, by some special gift He sharpens their understanding and imparts to it a peculiar keenness for understanding the will of God as revealed in the Scriptures. By the power of this light He stirs and stimulates their consciences to perform their natural duty diligently; and He affects some with a sense of sin, and with grief and repentance on account of sins committed; He pricks and strikes the heart, does not allow it to sleep securely in its vices, and moreover allures it with the sweetness of the word, and with some fleeting taste and foretaste of heavenly things and of future joys, so that in many they become hearers of the word of God spoken. He also brings them into a kind of bondage, casting into them a fear of death and hell; from which they are vexed, tormented, and filled with horror, binding themselves with vows to perform obedience, following the righteousness of the law, performing the duties prescribed, sometimes giving themselves over to wicked superstitions, and earnestly seeking deliverance by every means. These things and others of the same kind, the faithful ministers of God among us recount at length to the people, confirm with testimonies and examples, and diligently warn the Christian people not to allow themselves to be deceived by a shadow or phantom of regeneration. But to pursue this further here does not belong to the purpose of the work undertaken.

Let us therefore say briefly, in the next place, according to the measure of understanding which we have received, and that light however small which God will have graciously deigned to bestow upon us from His own light, who these regenerate persons are whom we assert to be alone capable of this divine wisdom. The Holy Spirit openly testifies that all men are born in a state of sin — that is, destitute of natural righteousness, infected with the corruption of a depraved nature, and therefore liable to the punishment of sin, which is the eternal wrath of God. Against His most evident testimonies, relying on the disguise of the most frigid little distinctions, some resist; but ungratefully and foolishly. These are so far held by a blind self-love — arising from a most profound ignorance of the spiritual state of their own hearts against God, of the nature of the law of God, and of evangelical grace — that they deny that they are polluted by the stain of natural corruption or held by the bonds of spiritual inability and indeed of depravity to such a degree that they can neither understand, nor will, nor receive anything good. We have judged that these persons are to be simply disregarded here. Yet I fear that "because they say they see, their sin remains," and that on account of sin the most just wrath of God is to be revealed at the appointed time (John 3:36, 9:41). All evangelical theology rests upon this premise concerning the most miserable natural state of all men; nor can it be understood or observed without the acknowledgment and most weighty sense of it. For what? Do the healthy need a physician — the righteous need repentance — the pure need sanctification — the living need a life-giving Spirit — the innocent need satisfaction — those who see need eye-salve — those who are of themselves sufficient to render the obedience due, need the saving grace, mercy, and effectual power of God — the friends of God need reconciliation — or the blessed need to be freed from a curse? I recently read disputants of this sort, for whom one feels genuine pity. Do not allow, Lord Jesus, in Your infinite mercy, that I — the least and greatest of sinners — should spend even a moment's effort in proving that I am bound to You by fewer obligations than I truly am, or than it would be more desirable to me with all my life and soul to be! What sort of persons all men are in the state of nature can be understood from those arguments by which we proved above that the unregenerate are incapable of this theology. They are dead, blind, stupid, haters of God and obstinate enemies, empty of all saving grace and light, slaves of Satan, prone to every vice, and most alienated from every spiritual good. But in this state, however much very many of them are greatly pleased with themselves and are at ease, they neither will nor can please God. This is the kingdom of Satan, this is the power of darkness, from which all who are to be regenerate by the grace of God must be transferred into the glorious kingdom of Christ and His admirable light. That transfer is regeneration; which is also variously designated as new creation, or new creature, renewal, resurrection from the dead, opening of eyes, circumcision of the heart, quickening — according to whether it has regard to God as the author of the work or to man as the subject of it. The author of the work is God Himself. Hence to be born again and to be begotten of God are the same. Now God accomplishes this His work through the Spirit and the word: born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the living word of God (1 Peter 1:23); that is, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5); and so sinners are regenerated not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:13).

Now there are as it were two parts of this most miserable condition and state in which we are all born. For in it there is misery on account of sin committed, and therefore the loss of all communion with God; and there is a total inability for every spiritual good, arising from the loss of the practical principle — sufficient for doing well and spiritually the things that are of God — which is accompanied by an inseparable bond of habitual propensity toward every evil. Hence the whole man is misery and sin, and nothing else. Appointing a double remedy for this double evil, God from a double efficacious operation produces a double effect, opposed to each of those evils. We will show what this is. Not to know one's natural misery is itself a part of natural misery. From that ignorance arises pride and self-conceit. Every sinner naturally persuades himself by a kind of dreaming that he is, or can be, or will be at some future time when he chooses, in the best state and condition, or at least not the worst; or he counts all these things as nothing. Here if anyone, as very often happens, even in those places where freedom is granted to evangelical preaching — of which alone the present disputation treats — should happen upon a teacher of his own kind, who, puffed up with some academic knowledge of theological matters, passes himself off as a minister of the new testament, while in truth destitute of the Spirit of Christ and of all saving knowledge of the will of God and of the mystery of the gospel, that teacher will so soothe the man's mind, and by removing the hope of obtaining eternal salvation in the state in which he clings will lure him into a trap, so that, having cast aside all care for saving renewal, he will not only sleep carelessly on both ears.

But will not hesitate to rage against others who, by suggesting healthier counsels from the word of God, would seek to bring him back to better conduct. Hence among certain teachers and their disciples, regeneration is almost a laughingstock even in this very light of the gospel. Yet it is here that God first places the sinner who is to be regenerated. He rouses the sinful soul through His word to a serious sense of itself and of the state in which it lives before God, the Ruler of all and the most just Judge. Hence the first knowledge of God takes hold in the practical judgment, not without the horror of death and the fear of eternal punishment. But it is no small matter to awaken a man who is dead in sins, full of self, enslaved to vices, and secure concerning eternity, to the point where he would institute a serious examination of himself in view of the final judgment. But in the modes and means He uses in producing this effect, the most free will of God and His infinite wisdom reveal themselves. Before the word was committed to writing, it was His custom to impress upon men the testimonies of His justice and terror through divinely sent dreams. This the holy man teaches us in Job, ch. 33:15-17: "In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then He will reveal the ear of men, and will seal their instruction, to turn man away from his deed, and to cover pride from man, that He may keep back his soul from the pit." From there

For even a dream comes from Zeus. — Iliad i. 68.

And there was a particular class of dreams which the ancients called divinely sent. Eustathius in Iliad, Book 1, says that these properly gave rise to the name of the dream: as if to say, derived from Zeus, finding and declaring the truth; and therefore such a dream was called divine, because the dream appeared.

VII. The same effect is produced by the external works of providence, by which God executes either His goodness and mercy, or His judgments and wrath. Thus the holy man in the passage already cited, vv. 19-28: "He is chastened with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with pain, and his life abhors bread, and his soul desirable food. His flesh is consumed so that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen are laid bare; and his soul draws near to the pit, and his life to the destroyers. Then," etc. The Psalmist also (Psalms 78:33, 34): "He consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror. When He slew them, they sought Him." The prophet has similar things (Isaiah 26:10, 11). For dispensations of divine providence of this kind very often so affect the minds of sinful men that, though they "have brass and triple iron around their hearts," they cannot restrain themselves from trembling earnestly before God and from dreading the coming judgment. But for the most part this is the work and effect of the preached word of God. So the apostle teaches us (1 Corinthians 14:24, 25), and the prophet (Hosea 6:5).

We will daily see the same power or energy accompanying the preaching of the word. Vol. 17. 28

VIII. For the sinner who turns these anxieties over in his breast, amid the inmost reasonings of the heart, a keen suspicion arises whether he has God as an enemy or not. He begins at last to understand "that it is an evil and bitter thing that he has sinned against God" (Jeremiah 2:19). Restoring perhaps the memory of very many sins long buried in oblivion, he is entangled in the secret gnawings of conscience and troublesome thoughts. "What have I done," he says, "what am I doing, or what am I about to do again? I do not know which way to turn. What if I should experience God as angry, and so fall into eternal punishments? What if these hopes with which I have hitherto nourished my sick soul should fade and be found to be deceptive? I must without doubt adopt another rule of life, unless I would rather perish." These things, I say, and things of this kind, sinners who are as it were stunned by the power of the divine word turn over in their inmost hearts. But of those who are so variously touched by the sense of their own condition, many — overcome by the force of innate blindness, which still prevents spiritual things from being seen in their own light and splendor, by carnal concupiscence, by the desire of earthly things, by satanic temptations, and by the company of evil men — recoil again and fall back into their former insensibility. Hence their recovery to good conduct is difficult, and the end is very often worse than the beginning (Jeremiah 8:9).

IX. Now this is as it were the first skirmish of the Spirit of God against the power of darkness in the hearts of sinners; the first attempt, as it were, in destroying the works of Satan, when He who is stronger girds Himself to bind the strong man armed. Upon these follow more powerful and more efficacious sallies of spiritual power. We have so far shown only the vague and unstable reasonings by which the contemplative soul stirs itself to perform some sort of examination of itself. Such tend to be the fruits of the first admonitions — the uncertain stirrings, as it were, of those beginning to awake. There are other "sharp arrows" of Christ (Psalm 45:5, 6), which He so embeds in the hearts of sinners that they cannot shake them out, however much they might wish. Using these, He pricks, wounds, and terrifies the consciences and minds of men with a sense of sin, the fear of death, and a dreadful foreboding of the coming judgment. See Acts 24:25. For exposing the nature, guilt, and baseness of sin in the inmost recesses of the soul, and moreover recalling to the sinner's mind the multitude of sins of which he himself is conscious, and the innumerable circumstances of sins that accumulate guilt, He denounces upon him the punishment of death, cuts off all hope of escape, and compels him to feel himself utterly miserable on every side and about to perish immediately. And now whatever is horrible, terrible, and sorrowful that human nature can conceive, that stands continually before the eyes of the sinner: Hebrews 2:15, through the fear of death they were throughout all their life subject to bondage. Now this is the special effect of the word or the doctrine of the law: Romans 7:7, I would not have known sin except through the law; for the knowledge of sin is through the law — of such a kind, namely, from which practical conviction, or the practical sense of sin, arises; by which God casting His net upon sinners compels them to descend like birds of the heavens (Hosea 7:12). For after He has as it were compelled the sinful soul earnestly to weigh the nature and guilt of its sin by the powerful and efficacious force of His word, and has provided it with understanding by which it can contemplate its depravity and desert in the mirror of the law — which the apostle ascribes to "the coming of the law" (Romans 7:9) — and has awakened the conscience to perform its duty diligently; with legal grief, fear, sadness, anxiety, and other emotions afflicting human nature — often greater ones than words suffice to express — He so affects the very inmost chambers of the heart that it is never free from the greatest distress (Acts 2:37, they were pierced in their heart). "What shall I do now," says the sinner, "unexpectedly discovered by myself in the most miserable state? I am tormented in my soul; no counsel at all stands firm in my breast. God, whom I dreamed to be easy and favorable toward me, I find to be the most hostile enemy; and the law also, to which I had previously paid no regard, not only holy and pure, but also fiery and powerful, whose transgressions can all be expiated only by death, and that eternal; horror, darkness, and the pains of hell surround me, torment me, and tear me to pieces." So the apostle in Romans 7:9: I was alive once without the law; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. I reckoned myself alive, healthy, just, and acceptable to God; but with the coming of the law that hope perished and was cut off. From this arises a desire for liberation and an anxious expectation of the outcome, closer to despair than to hope Acts 2:37, What shall we do? ch. 16:30, What must I do to be saved?. Here again prayers from the inmost heart, tears and sighs, divine and human duties performed diligently — for they resolve to obtain righteousness before God by any means (Romans 9:31). Yet when it has come to this point, the work of conversion to God is not always carried through to completion. For many, ensnared again by the lures of pleasures, shaking out of their breasts this whole beginning of divine work, whatever it may be, return again to the wallowing of vices, to perish eternally (2 Peter 2:20, 21). Some are pleased with a righteousness as it were from works of law (Romans 9:32), and while they strive to establish this righteousness — which is the crime and folly of corrupt nature and has passed into an ecclesiastical dogma among very many — they do not submit to the righteousness of God (Romans 10:8). And so amid attempts to reach heaven, often the most strenuous and sometimes horrible and cruel ones (Micah 6:6, 7), they hasten to hell. For though they run toward the bites and pricking goads of conscience, those who run outside the paths of the sun of righteousness must necessarily perish. For those whom God wills efficaciously and graciously to bring to the saving knowledge of Christ, the case is different. For first, through His Spirit working powerfully in their hearts, He causes them to acknowledge and confess the sentence of the law pronounced against them to be most just and equitable — not only with respect to their actual sins but also with respect to their entire condition and natural state (Romans 7:12, 13); then also that they justify God Himself as the author of the law (Romans 3:20), and that they stop their mouths by the sense of their guilt, v.

Taught therefore to look for all things from the most free grace and good pleasure of God, they strive to depend wholly upon His will, and not to seek in a troubled or impatient manner the remedies for their evils for which they long (Habakkuk 1:2–4). That consternation of soul, that dejection of spirit, that fear and trembling of heart, that confusion of speech, that shame of countenance, that despair within themselves — by all of which they are all but overwhelmed — allow nothing but a humble and submissive waiting upon the divine sentence concerning themselves (Luke 17:13; Psalm 130). This alone they seem to hold as fixed and settled: that even if it should please God to slay them, they will by no means forsake Him. And now the soul, laboring under the burden of sins, groaning and sinking, gasps more and more daily for deliverance, for welcome mercy, for righteousness, for acceptance before God. The Holy Spirit was therefore promised by Christ to call back to mind and to suggest to sinners those things which pertain to spiritual consolation (John 14:26). He begins again and again secretly and effectively to insinuate some word of the gospel into the heart of the faltering sinner — such as that word in Psalm 130:4, "With You is forgiveness itself, O Lord, that You may be feared." The conscience of the sinner immediately protests, and likewise the law itself; both forbid him to hope for any forgiveness or pardon whatever; both cry out loudly and persistently that no sinner will find any such thing with God. "It is not possible," they say, "that so great a sinner could obtain pardon from a most holy and most just God; die therefore, as the law commands: 'For the wages of sin is death,' Romans 6:23." But here, when the sinner seems again reduced to his last extremity, that very Spirit, who up to this point had brought the aid of the law and of his own conscience against him and had rendered them effective and powerful for crushing his hard and stubborn heart and for shaking out every opinion of his own righteousness — now stands on the other side, and against the accusations and stings of conscience, the sentence of the law, and the temptations of Satan, strengthens, sustains, and establishes him — now nearly faltering, indeed often defeated and yielding — by various supplied supports of hope and patience. For when sinners, burdened with the sense of their sins and of divine wrath, strive to flee to divine mercy, they do not at once feel themselves embraced with favor and grace, but rather feel themselves sent far away by God as unworthy — lest, by Satan's craftiness — who most eagerly seizes upon that very repulse which they fear, though without cause, and turns it to his own advantage — they should be plunged into the abyss of despair: the Holy Spirit gradually and imperceptibly, through various means, administers general supports. Here proclamations have their place (Isaiah 55:1; John 7:37); declarations (John 3:16; Psalm 130:4); exhortations (Jonah 1:38); invitations (Matthew 11:28, 29; Revelation 22:17); and gospel promises. Of all of these the Holy Spirit makes use in the translation of the sinner "from the power of darkness into the marvelous light of Christ." At length, moreover, the same Spirit causes Christ Himself — who was perhaps long since proclaimed, but on account of blindness of mind, hardness of heart, love of sin or of one's own righteousness, was neglected, or at least not held in honor with the submission of soul that is fitting — to be observed by these sinners before their eyes in the promises of the gospel. When, moreover, the wretched, lost, weary, and accursed behold Him lifted up on high, as it were "from the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 45:22), and see that propitiation has been set forth in His blood for the declaration of God's righteousness in the forgiveness of sins (Romans 3:24, 25); and that He was made a curse so that the blessing of faithful Abraham might come upon believers (Galatians 3:13, 14); and they see and acknowledge God appeased in Him and reconciling the world to Himself — they seek Him alone, and flee to Him just as those formerly guilty of death fled to the cities of refuge. They believe that He has abundantly satisfied the justice of God for their sins, however great, all of them, and that through His own blood He obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12); and thus that God has made Him righteousness and redemption for all who believe in Him (1 Corinthians 1:30). From this arise shame, love, self-displeasure, humiliation, renunciation of one's own righteousness, and repentance; and having received Christ by faith alone, they likewise receive Him as One to be loved and worshiped, trust in Him, and commit themselves entirely to Him to be taught, governed, sanctified, corrected, and saved. In the meanwhile, as these things are being transacted between God and the sinful soul through the word, God Himself, in His infinite mercy in Jesus Christ, when and how He wills, by a manner altogether ineffable yet powerful and effective, through His most holy Spirit, bestows new spiritual life upon the soul previously dead in sins, and with a new heart opens its blind eyes, and shines wonderfully throughout the whole of it, to provide the light of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Thus the whole man is made a new creature, fit and capable for rendering proper obedience to God according to the norm of the new covenant (Jeremiah 32:39; Ezekiel 11:19, 36:26; Acts 26:18; Romans 7:2, 11; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 2:2–5, 4:23, 24; 2 Corinthians 5:17). The sinner, thus brought back to life and born again through God's grace, equipped with spiritual powers or with the infused habit of grace, united to Christ now indwelling through the Spirit — in accordance with the will of Him who works all things in all — gives and consecrates himself to evangelical obedience and to good works, for the diligent performance of which he was created in Christ (John 14:16, 17; Romans 6:2, 6; Ephesians 2:10; Titus 2:11, 12; 1 John 3:3). "And thus he who is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). But these things do not proceed in the same manner in all who are to be regenerated. There are also many things in this wonderful work whose manner we do not know; very many things which we feel but cannot express: "The wind blows where it will; so also is everyone who is born of the Spirit." This one the same Spirit delivers sooner, that one later, from the straits of the new and spiritual birth. One He strikes, pierces, and presses with sharp pain; another He treats more gently, as seems good to Him. But enough of these things.