plicable; and in this instance, that by this contrast of initial with actual regeneration, it might seem as if there were two regenerations, or rather that regeneration meant two things—1st, the act of the new-birth bestowed by God; 2d, the spiritual life conformable thereto; whereas in Scripture, and by the ancient Church, the latter is regarded as included in the former; as (if one may compare earthly things,) the ripened corn in the seed, the future intellectual man in the babe.
And thus St. Augustine[1], while (according to Tit. 3.) he asserts both regeneration and renovation to be the fruits of Baptism, yet distinguishes alike in adults and infants, between that renewal which takes place at once in Baptism, by the abolition of the old man, and that entire transformation and complete conversion of the whole mind to God, effected by the finished formation of the "new man" within us, which "having been put on" in Baptism, is day by day "renewed in knowledge after the likeness of Him who created him." (Col. iii. 10.) "Of a truth this renewal does not take place at the one moment of his conversion, as doth in one moment that renewal in Baptism by the remission of all sins; since not even one sin, however small, remains, which is not remitted. But as it is one thing to be freed from fever, another to recover from the sickness caused by fever: one thing to remove a weapon fixed in a body, another by a second cure to heal the wound which it has made; so the first cure is to remove the cause of the weakness, and this is through the forgiveness of all sin; the second is to cure the weakness itself, and this is by gradual progress in the renewal of this image—by daily accession in the knowledge of God, and righteousness and holiness of truth. He who from day to day is being renewed by his continual progress, transfers his love from things temporal to eternal—from visible to invisible—from carnal to spiritual, and diligently presses on to rein in and diminish his desire to these, and to bind himself to those by love." Only we must beware that we relax not our notions of Christian holiness, by applying to
- ↑ De Trin. l. 14. § 23.
