Sole Instrument

“Faith is the sole instrument by which a person may receive the blessing of Christ’s righteousness imputed to him. Now when we say ‘sole instrument’ we do not mean that no other instruments are involved, but that no other instruments are involved in the way that faith is . . . the only instrumental cause of justification that leaves no remainder is faith.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, pp. 799-800

The Halfway Covenant

“What do you do? You have a baptized man and woman, professing faith in Jesus and in the truth of the Christian religion, who are living sober and decent lives, and w ho could join any Calvinist church in Europe. They want to have their child baptized. What do you do? The Halfway Covenant said okay, all right already.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 791

How Visible Is the Heart?

“If it is true that not every member of the visible church will be in glory, and it is true, then there must be a demarcation between those covenant members who are going to Heaven and those who are not. That demarcation is called heart conversion, or regeneration. All genuinely Reformed believers acknowledge the reality of this The practical, pastoral issue concerns whether that true heart conversion is measurable by human beings. Can we detect it in a certain enough way to be confident that we are letting only the regenerate come to the Table (or, in baptistic churches, to baptism), and are successfully keeping the ‘not known to be regenerate’ away from the Table?”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 790