through the mode of moving to mercy, it is the unhappy condition of sinners, whom the Devil holds captive in the snares of iniquity, and who will perish, by their own demerits according to the condition of the Law, and necessarily according to the will of God manifested in the Gospel, unless they repent. (John iii, 16; Ezek. xvi, 3-63; Luke xiii, 3, 5; Isai. xxxi, 6; Jer. iii, 14; Psalm cxix, 71; in the Prophets passim; Rom. vii, 6, 17.)

VI. The Proximate yet less Principal Cause is, man himself, converted and converting himself by the power and efficacy of the grace of God and the Spirit of Christ. The External Cause inciting to repent is, the miserable state of the sinners who do not repent, and the felicitous and blessed state of those who repent,— whether such state be known from the law of Moses or from that of nature, from the Gospel or from personal experience, or from the examples of other persons who [inciderunt in] have been visited with the most grievous plagues through impenitence, or who through repentance have been made partakers of many blessings. (Rom. ii, 5; Acts ii, 37.) The Internal and inlymoving Cause is, not only a consciousness of sin and a sense of misery through fear of the Deity who has been offended, with a desire to be delivered from both, but it is likewise [an incipient] faith and hope of the gracious mercy and pardon of God.

VII. The Instrumental Causes which God ordinarily uses for our Conversion, and by which we are solicited and led to Repentance, are the Law and the Gospel. Yet the office of each in this matter is quite distinct, so that the more excellent province in it is assigned to the Gospel, and the Law acts the part of its servant or attendant. For, in the first place, the very command to repent is evangelical; and the promise of pardon, and the peremptory threat of eternal destruction unless the man repents, which are added to it, belong peculiarly to the Gospel. (Matt. iii, 1; Mark i, 4; Luke xxiv, 47.) But the Law proves the necessity of Repentance, by convincing man of sin and of the anger of the offended Deity; from which conviction arise a certain sorrow and a fear of punishment, which in its commencement is servile or slavish solely through a regard to the Law, but which in its progress becomes a filial fear through a view of the Gospel: (Rom. iii, 13, 20; vii, 7:) From these also proceed, by the direction [loco motiva] of an inducement to remove, or repent, a certain external abstinence from evil works, and such a performance of some righteousness as is not hypocritical. (Matt. iii, 8; vii, 17; James ii, 14-26.) But as the Law does not proceed beyond "the ministration of death and of the letter,"

the services of the Gospel here again become necessary, which administers the Spirit, by whose illumination, inspiration and gracious and efficacious strengthening, Repentance itself in its essential and integral parts is completed and perfected. Nay the very conviction of sin belongs in some measure to the Gospel, since sin itself has been committed against the command both concerning Faith and Repentance. (Mark xvi, 16; John xvi, 8-15.)

VIII. There are likewise other Causes aiding or auxiliary to Repentance, some of which are usually employed by God himself, and others of them by those who are penitent. (1.) For God sometimes sends the cross and afflictions, by which, as [stimulis] with goads, He excites and invites to Repentance: At other times, He visits them with the contrary blessings, that He may lead them, after having been invited, by goodness and lenity to Repentance. (1 Cor. xi, 32; Jer. xxxi, 18; Psalm lxxx & lxxxv,) (2.) The Causes employed by penitents themselves are Watching, Fasting, and other corporal Chastisements, as well as Prayers which are of the greatest efficacy in obtaining and performing Repentance. The other Causes employed by men are likewise serviceable in exciting the ardour of these Prayers. (Psalm cxix; Rom. ii, 4; v, 3, 4; xii, 11, 12.) It is possible for this relation to exist between these Auxiliary and the preceding Instrumental Causes, [§ VII,] that the Auxiliary Causes are subservient to the Instrumental, since they excite men to a serious and assiduous meditation on the Law and the Gospel, and by the grace of God obtain yet more and more a right understanding of both.

return.

IX. The Form of Repentance is the Uprightness of the turning away from evil, and of the return to God and to righteousness: It is conformed to the rule of the Divine command, and [informata] is produced by an assured faith and hope of the Divine Mercy, and by a sincere intention to turn away and to As the Penitence of Saul, Ahab and Judas was destitute of this Uprightness, it is unworthy to be reckoned under this title. (1 Sam. xv, 24, 25; 1 Kings xxi, 27; Matthew xxvii, 3.) But since the mind of the penitent is conscious to itself of this Rectitude, or Uprightness, no necessity exists for such a man anxiously and solicitously to examine whether it be so great, either intensively, extensively, or appreciatively, as the rigour of Justice might demand.

X. The Fruits of Repentance, which may also have the relation of Ends, are, (1.) On the part of God, the Remission of sins according to the condition of the covenant of grace in Christ,

and on account of his obedience, and through faith in Him. (Luke xxiv, 47; Acts v, 31; Rom. iii, 24.)-(2.) On our part, the fruits are good works, which are "meet for repentance," (Matt. iii, 8: Luke iii, 8;) and "which God fore-ordained," that believers and penitents, who are "created in Christ Jesus unto good works, should walk in them." (Ephes. ii, 10.) The Ultimate End is the glory of God the Redeemer, who is at once just and merciful in Jesus Christ our Lord: (Rev. xvi, 9:) It results not only from the gracious and efficacious act of God, who bestows Repentance and converts us to himself; but likewise from the act of the penitents themselves, by which turning themselves away from sins and returning to God, they "walk in newness of living" all the days of their life. It also results from the very intention of Repentance itself.

XI. The parts of Repentance, as is abundantly evident from the preceding Theses, according to its two boundaries, (both that from which it commences, and that towards which it proceeds and in which it terminates,) are two, An Aversion or turning away from the Devil and sin, and a Conversion or returning to God and righteousness. (Psalm xxxiv, 14; Jer. iv, 1.) They are united together by an indissoluble connection; but the former is preparatory to the latter, while the latter is perfective of the former. The Papists, however, make Penitence to consist of three parts; and seem to derive greater pleasure from employing the word Penitence about this matter, than in the use of the terms Repentance and Conversion. Their three parts are, the Contrition of the heart, the Confession of the mouth, and the Satisfaction of the work; about which we make two brief affirmations. (1.) If these be received as parts of the Penitence which is necessary before God;-then no Contrition can be so great, either intensively or appreciatively, as to be in any wise either meritorious or capable of obtaining remission of sins:-No Confession of the mouth, not even that which is made to God, (provided the Confession of the heart only be present,) is necessary to receive remission; much less is the Confession which is made to any man, even though he be a Priest:-And there is no satisfaction, except the obedience of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the Justice of God can be satisfied either for sin or for its punishment, even for the very least of either. (Acts iv, 12; Heb. x. 10, 14; 1 Cor. i, 30.)-(2.) If these be received as parts of the Penitence to which, before the church, that man submits who has injured her by scandal, that he may render her satisfaction and may [serviat] contribute to her edification; then indeed VOL. II.

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those words [Contrition, Confession and Satisfaction] may bear an accommodated sense, and such a distribution of them may be useful to the church.

XII. The contrary to Repentance is Impenitence, and a pertinacious Perseverance in sinning: Of which there are two degrees, one the Delay of Penitence, the other Final Impenitence unto Death. The latter of them has a certain expectation of eternal destruction, even according to the most merciful will of God revealed in Christ and in the Gospel; lest any one should persuade himself, that the Devils themselves, and men who have passed their lives in impiety, will at length experience the mercy of God. The former of them, the Delay of Penitence, is marvellously dangerous, for three reasons: (1.) Because it is in the power and hand of God to make even the delay of a single hour to be a final impenitence, since to Him belongs the dominion and lordship over our life and death. (2.) Because after a habit of sinning has been introduced by daily exercise, a man is rendered avaintos, incapable of feeling, and his conscience becomes "seared with a hot iron." (1 Tim. iv, 2.)-(3.) Because, after the gate of grace has by the just judgment of God been closed on account of a malicious continuance in sins, no passage is open for the SPIRIT, who is necessarily the Author of Repentance. Therefore let these words always resound in our ears, "To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." (Heb. iii, 7, 8; Psalm xcv, 7, 8.) And this exhortation of the Apostle, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Phil. ii, 12, 13.) May this be graciously granted to us by God the Father of mercies, in the Son of his Love, by the Holy Spirit, of both of them! To whom be praise and glory for ever! AMEN.

COROLLARIES.

It is not a correct saying, that "to those who relapse after having been baptized, Penitence is a second plank [for their escape] after shipwreck."

Those persons act harshly who, from the example of God not pardoning sins except to him that is penitent, refuse to forgive their brother unless he confesses his fault, and earnestly begs pardon.

* See the note vol. 1, pp. 576, 577.

DISPUTATION XVIII.

ON THE CHURCH AND ITS HEAD.

Respondent, GERARD, THE SON OF HELMICHIUS.

As it is of the greatest utility to hold a right belief about the church of God and its Head, and as there is at present a great controversy between the Orthodox and the Papists respecting this matter, it appears to us that we shall not be unprofitably occupied, if we treat of the Church and of its Head, in a few Theses.

I. THE Church, ecclesia, is a word of Greek origin, used in the Greek version of the Old Testament for the Hebrew word SP, "the assembly;" (Deut. xxiii, 2; Judges xx, 2;) and properly signifies "a congregation of persons called out," from the very etymology of the word and from the most frequent usage of the Sacred Writings, without any distinction of the small or the great number of those who belong to such an assemblage. For sometimes it signifies the universal assembly of all those who have been called out; (Acts xx, 28; Eph. i, 22;) at other times, an extraordinary multitude; (Acts ii, 41, 47;) and at other times, only a few persons, comprised in a single family. (Rom. xvi, 5.) This diversity in its application is made on account of one essential reason in all of them; and as this reason belongs equally to an assembly of few persons, of many, and of all, these several assemblages equally partake of the name of "the Church," with this difference alone,-that a congregation consisting of numerous members is called a greater church, but not more a church, according to the axiom of the Logicians, "A substance does not receive more and less.

II. According to this very general notion, the church of God is defined, "A congregation of men called forth by God, out of their own nature, into the supernatural dignity of adoption as sons of God to his glory, and of those who answer this call of God." For the act of vocation, as proceeding from God who calls, and as properly received by those who are called, completes his church. Under this definition are likewise comprehended those angels who are called in Scripture "the elect;" (1 Tim. v, 21;) whether they be considered as an assembly separated from men, or as belonging to one church with men. (Psalm lxviii, 17; Jude 14; Rev. v, 11; Heb. xii, 22.) According to this