The Work of the Holy Spirit

conversion, as, e.g., the canons of Dort use it now and then, regeneration is not a moral
working in the soul.
It is not simply a case of misunderstanding, the sinner’s will being still uncorrupt, so
that it requires only instruction and advice to induce it to choose rightly. No; such advice

308

and admonition are wholly out of the question regarding the unborn son of Zacharias; and
the thousands of infants of believing parents, of whom at Dort it was correctly confessed
that they may be supposed to have died in the Lord, i.e.,being born again; and regarding
those regenerated before Baptism but converted later in life.
For this reason it is so necessary to examine regeneration (in its limited sense) in an
infant, and not in an adult, in whom it necessarily includes conversion.
The following reasoning can not be disputed:

1. All men, infants included, are born dead in trespasses and sins.


2. Of these infants many die before they come to self-consciousness.


3. Of these gathered flowers the Church confesses that many are saved.


4. Being dead in sin, they can not be saved without being born again.


5. Hence regeneration does actually take place in persons that are not self-conscious.
   These statements being indisputable, it is evident, therefore, that the nature and character
   of regeneration can be determined most correctly by examining it in these still unconscious
   persons.
   Such an unborn infant is totally ignorant of human language; it has no ideas, has never
   heard the Gospel preached, can not receive instruction, warning, or exhortation. Hence
   moral influence is out of the question; and this convinces us that regeneration is not a
   moral, but a metaphysical act of God, just as much as the creation of the soul of an unborn
   child, which is effected independently of the mother. God regenerates a man wholly without
   his foreknowledge.

What it is that constitutes the act of regeneration can not be told. Jesus Himself tells us
so, for He says: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou Nearest the sound thereof, but
canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the
Spirit.”^13 And, therefore, it is befitting to investigate this mystery with the utmost discretion.
Even in the natural kingdom the mystery of life and its origin is almost entirely beyond our
knowledge. The most learned physician is entirely ignorant concerning the manner in which

309

a human life comes into existence. Once existing, he can explain its deveopment, but of the
inception that preceeds all else he knows absolutely nothing. In this respect he is just as ig-
norant as the most innocent peasant boy. The mystery can not be penetrated, simply because
it lies beyond our observation; it is perceptible only that life exists.

13 [John iii. 8]

XXI. Regeneration the Work of God.