§. XXVIII.
Of this Light therefore Augustine speaks in his Confessions, Lib. 11. Cap. 9. In this Beginning, O God! thou madest the Heavens and the Earth, in thy Word, in thy Son, in thy Virtue, in thy Wisdom, wonderfully saying, and wonderfully doing. Who shall comprehend it? Who shall declare it? Augustine trembled at the In-shinings of the Light unto him, and why?What is that which shineth in unto me, and smites my Heart without Hurt, at which I both tremble, and am inflamed? I tremble, in so far as I am unlike unto it; and I am inflamed in so far as I am like unto it: It is Wisdom, Wisdom which shineth in unto me, and dispelleth my Cloud, which had again covered me, after I was departed from it, with Darkness and the Heap of my Punishments. And again he saith, Lib. 10. Cap. 27. It is too late that I have loved thee, O thou Beautifulness, so ancient and so new! Late have I loved thee, and behold thou wast within, and I was without, and there was seeking thee! Thou didst call, thou didst cry, thou didst break my Deafness, thou glancedst, thou didst shine, thou chasedst away my Darkness.
Buchanan testifying to the Light.Of this also our Countryman George Buchanan speaketh thus in his Book De Jure regni apud Scotos: Truly I understand no other Thing at present than that Light which is divinely infused into our Souls: For when God formed Man, he not only gave him Eyes to his Body, by which he might shun those Things that are hurtful to him, and follow those Things that are profitable; but also hath set before his Mind as it were a certain Light, by which he may discern Things that are vile from Things that are honest. Some call this Power Nature, others the Law of Nature; I truly judge it to be divine, and am persuaded that Nature and Wisdom never say different Things. Moreover God hath given us a Compend of the Law, which in few Words comprehends the Whole; to wit, that we should love him from our Hearts, and our Neighbours as ourselves. And of this Law all the Books of the holy Scriptures, which pertain to the forming of Manners, contain no other but an Explication.
Jew and Gentile, Scythian and Barbarian, Partakers of the Salvation of Christ.This is that universal evangelical Principle, in and by which this Salvation of Christ is exhibited to all Men, both Jew and Gentile, Scythian and Barbarian, of whatsoever Country or Kindred he be: And therefore God hath raised up unto himself, in this our Age, faithful Witnesses and Evangelists to preach again his everlasting Gospel, and to direct all, as well the high Professors, who boast of the Law and the Scriptures, and the outward Knowledge of Christ, as the Infidels and Heathens that know not him that Way, that they may all come to mind the Light in them, and know Christ in them, the just one, [Greek: ton Dichaion: τον Δικαιον], whom they have so long killed, and made merry over, and he hath not resisted, James v. 6. and give up their Sins, Iniquities, false Faith, Professions, and outside Righteousness, to be crucified by the Power of his Cross in them, so as they may know Christ within to be the Hope of Glory, and may come to walk in his Light and be saved, who is that true Light that enlighteneth every Man that cometh into the World.
PROPOSITION VII.
Concerning Justification.
As many as resist not this Light, but receive the same, it becomes in them an holy, pure, and spiritual Birth, bringing forth Holiness, Righteousness, Purity, and all those other blessed Fruits which are acceptable to God: By which holy Birth, to wit, Jesus Christ formed within us, and working his Works in us, as we are sanctified, so are we justified in the Sight of God, according to the Apostle’s Words; But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God, 1 Cor. vi. 11. Therefore it is not by our Works wrought in our Will, nor yet by good Works considered as of themselves; but by Christ, who is both the Gift and the Giver, and the Cause producing the Effects in us; who, as he hath reconciled us while we were Enemies, doth also in his Wisdom save us and justify us after this Manner, as saith the same Apostle elsewhere; According to his Mercy he saved us, by the Washing of Regeneration, and the Renewing of the Holy Ghost, Tit. iii. 5.