"Faith does not distinctly and appreciably precede regeneration, but accompanies it. It is not an instrument, a cause, or an effect of regeneration, but an invariable concomitant or condition of its process. Regeneration, as we have already seen, is God's sovereign act, accomplished through the agency of the Holy Spirit and the instrumentality of truth. To suppose that justifying or sovereign faith is an effect of regeneration, or that, according to Andrew Fuller, it must arise from a disposition of the heart and can come only from a holy heart, is to suppose not only that a man may be regenerated without the instrumentality (i. e.,without truth which can effect him only through faith, may be created anew otherwise than in Christ Jesus); but that, being regenerated, he may yet be under condemnation, and the wrath of God may still be on him until his new disposition shall lead him to faith in Christ. But that faith accompanies regeneration, and the latter does not occur without the former, is evident when we remember that we are begotten, i. e., regenerated," by the word of truth,"—language which can have no other meaning than that we are changed by the instrumentality of truth applied through the medium of faith. That such is the true relation of faith and regeneration seems to be taught clearly in Jno., 3:5, 6, 10-15. Thi& is clearly exhibited in 2 Peter, 1: 3 ; cf. 1 Jno., 5 : 1. If such is the true relation of faith to the heart, then the subjective view should not be lost sight of."
"By faith in the divine promises- we are made partakers of the divine nature, 2 Peter, 1: 4." (pg. 337, 38)
Christian theology
By Ezekiel Gilman Robinson
Published by Press of E.R. Andrews, 1894
Original from Harvard University
See here
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