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SECTION X.

OF REGENERATION.

REGENERATION, or New Birth,' is that 'grace of the Holy Spirit,' wherewith God is 'pleased to endue us,' in order to enable us to amend our lives

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according to His holy Word '.' For the Almighty gives us this 'grace, that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life ;' that, 'being by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath,' we may 'die from sin, and rise again unto righteousness; and that, being dead unto sin, and living unto righteousness,' we may crucify the old man, that is, continually mortify all our evil and corrupt affections; and, utterly abolishing the whole body of sinh,' we may daily proceed in all virtue and godliness of living'.'

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Now, forasmuch as all men are conceived and born in sin, and that our Saviour Christ saith, None can enter into the kingdom of God, except he be regenerate and born anew we may perceive the great necessity of this spiritual Regeneration. And because, through the weakness of our mortal nature, this is a change, which by' that nature we cannot have "', we need that God should bestow upon us the Holy Ghost,' that He should

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b Litany.

d Catechism.

Prayer, Baptism. h Prayer, Baptism. k Baptism.

*Note. The outward and visible sign or form' of Regeneration will be treated of in the Section on Baptism; the present Section confines itself to the inward and spiritual grace.'

1 Baptism of those in riper years.

m Collect, First Sunday after Trinity. Exhortation, Baptism.

n Baptism.

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'give us his Holy Spirit, that we may be born again, and be made heirs of everlasting salvation".' But after we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin ";" although born again in Christ, yet we offend in many things; still,' by the grace of God we may rise again, and amend our lives'.'

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Therefore we should constantly beseech the Almighty to'grant us the help of his grace,' and to keep us ever by' that help from all things hurtful"; that we, being regenerate, and made His children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by his Holy Spirit,' and be led to all things profitable to our salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord".'

PRAYER.

'We yield thee most hearty thanks, most merciful Father, that it hath pleased thee to regenerate us with thy Holy Spirit"," that we may be born again, and be made heirs of everlasting salvation *. Oh! grant that we, being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit, through our Lord Jesus Christ; that we may continue thy servants, and attain thy promise, through the same our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Spirit now and for ever.' Strengthen us, we beseech thee, O Lord, with the Holy Ghost the Comforter, and daily increase in us thy manifold gifts of grace, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and ghostly strength, the spirit of knowledge and god

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p Prayer, Baptism. s Article 16.

r Article 15.

9 Article 16.
Collect, First Sunday after Trinity.
Collect, Christmas Day.

y Collect, Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity. z Prayer after Baptism.

u Collect, Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity.

a

Thanksgiving before Baptism.

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b Collect, Christmas Day.

e

liness; that we may continue thine for ever, and daily increase in thy Holy Spirit more and more, until we come to thy everlasting kingdom ".' 'Let thy fatherly hand, we beseech thee, ever be over us; let thy Holy Spirit ever be with us; and so lead us in the knowledge and obedience of thy word, that in the end we may obtain everlasting life, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with Thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth, ever one God, world without end. Amen f

SECTION XI.

OF SALVATION.

(Including Predestination, Election, and Reprobation.)

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BEFORE the foundations of the world were laid,' it was the everlasting purpose of God,' 'who desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live ",'' to deliver from curse and damnation those whom He hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour.'

This is termed Predestination to life,' which God hath constantly decreed by His counsel, secret to us. By such his counsel, He hath knit together His elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of his Son ",' which is the blessed company of all faithful people'.' For Holy Scrip

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* Prayer, Confirmation.
h Absolution.

k Collect, All Saints.

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ture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved m.' For both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man".? Him did our almighty and heavenly Father, of his tender mercy, give to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption; who made there (by his one oblation of himself once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world;' and by His merits and death, and through faith in His blood, all his whole Church may obtain remission of sins, and all other benefits of his passion P;' for Almighty God, of his great mercy, hath promised forgiveness of sins to all them that with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto Him","

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This is the Gospel-call: for its requirements are, 1st, that we should renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh;' which implies, that we should REPENT us truly of our former sins, stedfastly purposing to lead a new life: 2ndly, that we should BELIEVE all the articles of the Christian faith:' and, 3rdly,-to shew that we have a LIVELY faith in God's mercy through Christ, with a thankful remembrance of his death-that we should keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same, all the days of our life;' being fruitful in all holy OBEDIENCE.

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'Whereforet,' those who believe and do these things ",'God hath chosen in Christ; they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to God's purpose by His Spirit

m Article 18.

n Article 7.

p

Prayer, Communion.

° Consecration, Communion. q Absolution, Communion.

Catechism. What did your godfathers,' &c.; and, 'What is required....Lord's Supper?'

Prayer, Gunpowder Treason.

u Catechism.

t Art. 17.

working in due season: they through grace obey the calling they be justified freely they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ: they walk religiously in good works; and, at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity."

This godly consideration of Predestination *, and our Election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing up their minds to high and heavenly things; as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal salvation to be enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God.'

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But, on the other hand, for curious and carnal persons, lacking the Spirit of Christ, to have continually before their eyes the sentence of God's Predestination,' has proved to many such, who have forgotten that CHARACTERS, and not CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS, lie under that sentence, a most dangerous downfall, whereby,' instead of their turning to God through Christ, in order to escape that sentence, 'the devil doth thrust them either into desperation, or into wretchlessness of most unclean living, no less perilous than desperation.'

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'Furthermore,' lest we should put a wrong construction upon this subject of Predestination, and, from particular texts, be led to be too confident, or to despair, in our own cases, of salvation, we must receive God's promises in such wise, as they be GENERALLY set forth to us in Holy Scriptures: and in our doings, that will of God is to be followed,

*Note.

'They that have done good, shall go into life everlasting.' Athan. Creed.

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Note. They that have done evil, shall go into everlasting fire.' Athan. Creed.

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