in them; nay, their whole nature
is a sort of seed of sin, therefore it cannot but be hateful and
abominable to God (_Instit._ bk. ii, ch. i. sect. 8).

To redeem man from this state of guilt, and to recover him from
corruption, the Son of God became incarnate, assuming man's nature
into union with His own, so that in Him were two natures in one
person. Thus incarnate He took on Him the offices of prophet, priest
and king, and by His humiliation, obedience and suffering unto death,
followed by His resurrection and ascension to heaven, He has perfected
His work and fulfilled all that was required in a redeemer of men, so
that it is truly affirmed that He has merited for man the grace of
salvation (bk. ii. ch. 13-17). But until a man is in some way really
united to Christ so as to partake of Him, the benefits of Christ's
work cannot be attained by him. Now it is by the secret and special
operation of the Holy Spirit that men are united to Christ and made
members of His body. Through faith, which is a firm and certain
cognition of the divine benevolence towards us founded on the truth of
the gracious promise in Christ, men are by the operation of the Spirit
united to Christ and are made partakers of His death and resurrection,
so that the old man is crucified with Him and they are raised to a new
life, a life of righteousness and holiness. Thus joined to Christ the
believer has life in Him and knows that he is saved, having the
witness of the Spirit that he is a child of God, and having the
promises, the certitude of which the Spirit had before impressed on
the mind, sealed by the same Spirit on the heart (bk. iii. ch. 33-36).
From faith proceeds repentance, which is the turning of our life to
God, proceeding from a sincere and earnest fear of God, and consisting
in the mortification of the flesh and the old man within us and a
vivification of the Spirit. Through faith also the believer receives
justification, his sins are forgiven, he is accepted of God, and is
held by Him as righteous, the righteousness of Christ being imputed to
him, and faith being the instrument by which the man lays hold on
Christ, so that with His righteousness the man appears in God's sight
as righteous. This imputed righteousness, however, is not disjoined
from real personal righteousness, for regeneration and sanctification
come to the believer from Christ no less than justifica