Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/361

Rh to an active) principle of grace; i.e. they would express that the incorruptible seed was then planted in the human heart, which, if not choked, or if continued contumacy provoked not  to withdraw it, would hereafter yield fruit unto life eternal. And with this might agree, I would hope, the modern and colder expression, that "Baptismal Regeneration is a change of state," a virtual, I suppose, as opposed to an actual change of heart—a state of holiness and acceptableness towards, as derived from our incorporation into the  of , and the consequent participation of His holiness, and yet in a manner contrasted with the fuller and complete actual sanctification of the believer, who has grown up in his Baptismal privileges. This view is very clearly expressed by Hooker. "The grace which is given them with their Baptism, doth so far forth depend on the very outward Sacrament, that  will have it embraced, not only as a sign or token what we receive, but also as an instrument or means whereby we receive grace, because Baptism is a Sacrament which  hath instituted in His Church, to the end that they which receive the same might thereby be incorporated into ; and so through His most precious merit obtain as well that saving grace of imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness, as also that infused Divine virtue of the , which giveth to the powers of the soul their first disposition towards future newness of life."

In which passage Hooker, while he expresses the same truth, happily avoids the danger arising from all illustration in Divine things, viz. that the metaphor must in some respects be