As I related in a previous posting, I had a Hardshell tell me that the Puritans believed in regeneration apart from faith and the means of the preached word. I told him to send me the proof of that assertion. I of course did not receive that proof. Here is what the Puritan Owen wrote on the subject (emphasis mine):
"The work of the Spirit of God in regenerating the souls of men is diligently to be inquired into by the preachers of the gospel, and all to whom the word is dispensed. For the former sort, there is a peculiar reason for their attendance unto this duty; for they are used and employed in the work itself by the Spirit of God and are by him made instrumental for the effecting of this birth and life. So the apostle Paul styles himself the father of them who were converted to God or regenerated through the word of his ministry."
Owen, in his “Discourse on the Work of the Holy Spirit” (1674), page 226, in The Works of John Owen (London: Banner of Truth, 1966), III, 121ff., has regularly refuted such insinuations by Samuel Parker, author of “Defence and Continuation of the Ecclesiastical Polity” (1671).
(See here for source)
Very clear, hey? That also has been the historic view of Baptists, excepting the Hardshells of course. Also, note how Owen makes "conversion" to be "regeneration," saying "converted to God or regenerated." Notice further how this conversion or regeneration is accomplished by the Spirit's use of "the word" that is preached.
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