When the grace of God is neglected through unbelief and evil works, one may fall away from the faith, and be blotted out of the Book of Life. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith. 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 Tim. 6:10.
“Which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.” Luke 8:13.
“One that returneth from righteousness to sin: the Lord prepareth such a one for the sword.” Syrach 26:28; Jer. 17:13; Prov. 3:21; Heb. 6:6.
“The Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.” Ex. 32:33; Rev. 3:5; Ps. 69:29; Isa. 1:2; 30:1; Jer. 18:7.
How infants are simple and ignorant, and that therefore neither faith nor unbelief may be imputed to them; but that they are well-pleasing to God through his grace, without any other means, read: “Moreover, your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.” Deut. 1:39; Matt. 19:14.
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” 1 Corinthians 13:11; Heb. 5:13.
“Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children.” 1 Corinthians 14:20; Eph. 4:14; Matt. 18:2; 19:13; Mark 10:13; Luke 18:15.
ARTICLE XIII.
Of regeneration and the new creature, we confess: Inasmuch as our first parents, Adam and Eve, through their transgression, separated themselves from God, and fell into temporal and eternal death, with all their posterity, and, consequently, lost the image of God, which is righteousness and true holiness; became depraved in their nature, and inclined to sin and wickedness from their youth; so that of all men none can attain unto faith and a godly conversation through the power of their first birth, which has sprung and proceeded from sinful seed; because that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and hence, carnally minded, and the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; therefore, all men, having come of the earth, shall return to dust and earth, and, in part, are also like to the corrupted earth, which of itself does not bring forth good grain, but must thereto be prepared anew, and sown with good seed. Thus also, all men, when they have passed their youth, and have come to understand and discern good and evil, we perceive, that their carnal hearts and earthly life, being conceived in sin, are inclined to sin, which conceives by its own lust, which awakens sin in them, and allures and moves them to actual sin; and thus they fall from grace,—to which they had been redeemed through the atonement of Christ—which plunges them into the death of sin.
Hence, God the Lord requires and demands through his word, of all men of understanding, a true reformation and a renewing from these their own actual sins; that is, that through the hearing of the word of God they receive the faith, become regenerated from above, of God, be created anew in the inner mind of the heart, according to the image of God, and circumcised, being translated from the carnal into the spiritual, from unbelief into faith, from that which is earthly-minded and like Adam into that which is heavenly-minded and like Jesus Christ; that they crucify and mortify their earthly members, and feel, prove, and taste that which is heavenly, and not that which is earthly. To this, God promises life, peace, and all heavenly riches; and it is the sanctification in the spirit of the mind, and the appropriation of all the benefits of Christ (which have been lost through our own actual sin), and has the promise of eternal salvation.