and that powerfully by the effectuall operation of his holy Spirit to which the Arminians oppose a seeming necessitie that they must needs be our owne acts contradistinct from his gifts because they are in us and commanded by him the head then of this contention betwixt our God and their Idol about the living child of grace is whether he can worke that in us which he requireth of us let us heare them pleading their cause It is most certaine that that ought not to be commanded which is wrought in us and that cannot be wrought in us which is commanded he foolishly commandeth that to be done of others who will worke in them what he commandeth saith their Apologie O foolish Saint Prosper who thought that it was the whole Pelagian heresie to say That there is neither praise nor worth as ours in that which Christ bestoweth upon us foolish Saint Augustine praying Give us O Lord what thou commandest and command what thou wilt foolish Benedict Bishop of Rome who gave such a forme to his prayer as must needs cast an aspersion of folly on the most high O Lord saith he teach us what we should do shew us whither we should goe worke in us what we ought to performe O foolish Fathers of the second Arausican Councel affirming that many good things are done in man which he doth not himselfe but a man doth no good which God doth not so worke that he should doe it And againe as often as we doe good God worketh in us and with us that we may so worke In one word this makes fooles of all the Doctors of the Church who ever opposed the Pelagian heresie in as much as they all unanimously maintained that we are partakers of no good thing in this kinde without the effectuall powerfull operation of the Almightie grace of God and yet our faith and obedience so wrought in us to be most acceptable unto him yea what shall we say to the Lord himselfe in one place commanding us to feare him and in another promising that he will put his feare into our hearts that we shall not depart from him is his command foolish or his promise false the Arminians must affirme the one or renounce their heresie but of this after I have a little farther laid open this monstrous errour from their owne words and writings Can any one say they wisely and seriously prescribe the performance of a condition to another under the promise of a reward and threatning of punishment who will effect it in him to whom it is prescribed this is a ridiculous action scarce worthy of the Stage that is seeing Christ hath affirmed that whosoever beleeveth shall be saved and he that beleeveth not shall be damned Matth. 16. 16. whereby faith is established the condition of salvation and unbeleefe threatned with hell If God should by his holy Spirit ingenerate faith in the hearts of any causing them so to fulfill the condition it were a meere mockery to be exploded from a Theater as an unlikely fiction which what an aspersion it casts upon the whole Gospel of Christ yea on all Gods dealling with the children of men ever since by reason of the fall they became unable of themselves to fulfill his commands I leave to all mens silent judgements well then seeing they must be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things inconsistent that God should be so righteous as to shew us our dutie and yet so good and mercifull as to bestow his graces on us let us heare more of this stuffe faith and conversion cannot be our obedience if they are worught in us by God say they at the Hague and Episcopius That it is a most absurd thing to affirme that God either effects by his power or procureth by his wisedeme that the elect should doe those things that he requireth of them So that where the Scripture cals faith the gift and worke of God they say it is an improper locution in as much as he commands it properly it is an act or worke of our owne And for that renowned saying of Saint Augustine that God crowneth his own gifts in us that it is not to be received without a graine of salt That is some such glosse as wherewith they corrupt the Scripture the summe at which they aime is that to affirme that God bestoweth any grace upon us or effectually worketh them in us contradicteth his word requiring them as our dutie and obedience by which means they have erected their Idol into the throne of Gods free grace and mercy and attribute unto it all the praise due to those many heavenly qualifications the servants of God are endowed withall for they never have more good in them no nor so much as is required all that they have or doe is but their dutie which how derogatorie it is to the merit of Christ themselves seeme to acknowledge when they affirme that he is no otherwise said to be a Saviour then are all they who confirme the way to salvation by preaching miracles martyrdome and example so that having quite overthrowne the merits of Christ they grant us to be our owne Saviours in a very large sense Rem Apol. fol. 96. All which assertions how contrary they are to the expresse word of God I shall now demonstrate There is not one of all those plaine texts of Scripture not one of those innumerable and invincible arguments whereby the effectuall working of Gods grace in the conversion of a sinner his powerfull translating us from death to life from the state of sinne and bondage to the libertie of the sonnes of God which doth not overthrow this prodigious error I will content my selfe with instancing in some few of them which are directly opposite unto it even in termes First Deuter. 10. 16. The Lord commandeth the Israelites to circumcise the fore-skin of their hearts and to be no more stiffe necked so that the circumcising of their hearts was a part of their obedience it was their dutie so to do in obedience to Gods commands and yet in the 30. Chapter vers 6. he affirmeth that he will circumcise their hearts that they might love the Lord their God with all their hearts So that it seemes the same thing in divers respects may be Gods act in us and our dutie towards him and how the Lord will here escape the Arminian censure that if his words be true in the latter place his command in the former is vaine and foolish ipse viderit let him plead his cause and avenge himselfe on those that rise up against him Secondly Ezek. 18. 31. Make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will you die O house of Israel The making of a new heart and a new spirit is here required under a promise of a reward of life and a great threatning of eternall death so that so to doe must needs be a part of their dutie and obedience
saw before in the examples of Pharaoh and Abraham Now the will of God in the first acceptation is said to be hid or secret not because it is so alwayes for it is in some particulars revealed and made knowne unto us two wayes First by his word as where God affirmeth that the dead shall rise we neither doubt not but that they shall rise and that it is the absolute will of God that they shall doe so Secondly by the effects for when any thing cometh to passe we may cast the event on the will of God as its cause and looke upon it as a revelation of his purpose Iacobs sonnes little imagined that it was the will of God by them to send their brother into Egypt yet afterward Ioseph tels them plainly it was not they but God that sent him thither Gen. 45. but it is said to be secret for two causes First because for the most part it is so there is nothing in divers issues declarative of Gods determination but only the event which while it is future is hidden to them who have faculties to judge of things past and present but not to discerne things for to come Hence Saint Iames bids us not be too peremptory in our determinations if we will doe this or that not knowing how God will close with us for its performance Secondly it is said to be secret in reference to its cause which for the most part is past our finding out his paths are in the deeps and his footsteps are not known It appeareth then that the secret and revealed will of God are divers in sundry respects but chiefly in regard of their acts and their objects First in regard of their acts the secret will of God is his eternall decree and determination concerning any thing to be done in its appointed time his revealed will is an act whereby he declareth himself to love or approve any thing whither ever it be done or no. Secondly they are divers in regard of their objects the object of Gods purpose and decree is that which is good in any kinde with reference to its actuall existence for it must infallibly be performed but the object of his revealed will is that only which is morally good I speake of it inasmuch as it approveth or commandeth agreeing to the Law and the Gospell and that considered only inasmuch as it is good for whither it be ever actually performed or no is accidentall to the object of Gods revealed will Now of these two differences the first is perpetuall in regard of their severall acts but not so the latter they are sometimes coincident in regard of their objects for instance God commandeth us to beleeve here his revealed will is that we should so do withall he intendeth we shall doe so and therefore ingenerateth faith in our hearts that we may beleeve here his secret and revealed will are coincident the former being his precept that we should beleeve the latter his purpose that we shall beleeve in this case I say the object of the one and the other is the same even what we ought to doe and what he will doe And this inasmuch as he hath wrought all our works in us Isaiah 26. 12. they are our own works which he works in us his act in us and by us is ofttimes our dutie towards him he commands us by his revealed will to walke in his Statutes and keep his Laws upon this he also promiseth that he will so effect all things that of some this shall be performed Ezek. 36. 26 27. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walke in my statutes and you shall keepe my iudgements and doe them so that the selfe same obedience of the people of God is here the object of his will taken in either acceptation and yet the precept of God is not here as some learned men suppose declarative of Gods intention for then it must be so to all to whom it is given which evidently it is not for many are commanded to beleeve on whom God never bestoweth faith it is still to be looked upon as a meere declaration of our dutie its closing with Gods intention being accidentall unto it there is a wide difference betwixt doe such a thing and you shall doe it if Gods command to Iudas to beleeve imported as much as it is my purpose and intention that Iudas shall beleeve it must needs contradict that will of God whereby he determined that Iudas for his infidelitie should goe to his own place his precepts are in all obedience of us to be performed but doe not signifie his will that we shall actually fulfill his commands Abraham was not bound to beleeve that it was Gods intention that Isaac should be sacrificed but that it was his duty there was no obligation on Pharaoh to thinke it was Gods purpose the people should depart at the first summons he had nothing to doe with that but there was one to beleeve that if he would please God he must let them goe Hence divers things of good use in these controversies may be collected First That God may command many things by his word which he never decreed that they should actually be performed because in such things his words are not a revelation of his eternall decree and purpose but only a declaration of some thing where with he is well pleased be it by us performed or no in the forecited case he commanded Pharaoh to let his people goe and plagued him for refusing to obey his command hence we may not collect that God intended the obedience and conversion of Pharaoh by this his precept but was frustrated of his intention for the Scripture is evident and cleere that God purposed by his disobedience to accomplish an end farre different even a manifestation of his glory by his punishment but only that obedience unto his commands is pleasing unto him as 1 Sam. 15. 22. Secondly That the will of God to which our obedience is required is the revealed will of God contained in his word whose compliance with his decree is such that hence we learne three things tending to the execution of it First that it is the condition of the word of God and the dispensation thereof instantly to perswade to faith and obedience Secondly that it is our duty by all means to aspire to the performance of all things by it enjoyned and our fault if we doe not Thirdly that God by these means will accomplish his eternall decree of saving his elect and that he willeth the salvation of others inasmuch as he calleth them unto the performance of the condition thereof now our obedience is so to be regulated by this revealed will of God that we may sin either by omission
conjecture according to his guesse at mens inclinations and indeed this is the Helena for whose enjoyment these thrice tenne yeeres they have maintained warfare with the hosts of the living God their whole endeavour being to prove that notwithstanding the performance of all things on the part of God required for the production of any action yet the will of man remaines absolutely free yea in respect of the event as well as its manner of operation to doe it or not to doe it that is notwithstanding Gods decree that such an action shall be performed and his fore-knowledge that it will so come to passe notwithstanding his co-operating with the will of man as farre as they will allow him for the doing of it and though he hath determined by that act of man to execute some of his owne judgements yet there is no kinde of necessitie but that he may as well omit as doe it which is all one as if they should say our tongues are our owne we ought to speake who is Lord over us we will vindicate our selves into a libertie of doing what and how we will though for it we cast God out of his throne and indeed if we marke it we shall finde them undermining and pulling downe the actuall providence of God at the root and severall branches thereof For First for his conservation or sustaining of all things they affirme it to be very likely that this is nothing but a negative act of his will wherby he willeth or determineth not to destroy the things by him created and when we produce places of Scripture which affirme that it is an act of his power they say they are foolishly cited So that truely let the Scripture say what it will in their conceit God doth no more sustaine and uphold all his creatures then I doe a house when I doe not set it on fire or a worme when I doe not tread upon it Secondly for Gods concurring with inferiour causes in all their acts and working they affirme it to be onely a generall influence alike upon all and every one which they may use or not use at their pleasure and in the use determine it to this or that effect be it good or bad so Corrinus as it seemes best unto them in a word to the will of man it is nothing but what suffers it to play its owne part freely according to its inclination as they ioyntly speake in their confession observe also that they account this influence of his providence not to be into the agent the will of man whereby that should be helped or inabled to doe any thing no that would seeme to grant a selfe-insufficiencie but onely into the act it selfe for its production as if I should helpe a man to lift a logge it becomes perhaps unto him so much the lighter but he is not made one jot the stronger which takes off the proper worke of providence consisting in an internall assistance Thirdly for Gods determining or circumscribing the will of man to doe this or that in particular they absolutely explode it as a thing destructive to their adored libertie It is no way consistent with it say they in their Apologie so also Arminius The providence of God doth not determine the will of man to one part of the contradiction that is God hath not determined that you shall nor doth by any meanes over-rule your wils to doe this thing rather then that to doe this or to omit it so that the summe of their endeavour is to prove that the will of man is so absolutely free independent and uncontrouleable that God doth not nay with all his power cannot determine it certainly and infallibly to the performance of this or that particular action thereby to accomplish his owne purposes to attaine his owne ends truly it seemes to me the most unfortunate attempt that ever Christians lighted on which if it should get successe answerable to the greatnesse of the undertaking the providence of God in mens essence would be almost thrust quite out of the the world tantae molis erat the new goddesse contingencie could not be erected untill the God of heaven was utterly dispoyled of his dominion over the sons of men and in the roome thereof a home-bred Idol of selfe-sufficiencie set up and the world perswaded to worship it but that the building climbe no higher let all men observe how the word of God overthrowes this Babylonian tower First in innumerable places it is punctuall that his providence doth not onely beare rule in the counsels of men and their most secret resolutions whence the Prophet inferreth that he knoweth that the way of man is not in himself that it is not in man that walketh to direct his wayes Ierem. 10. 23. And Solomon that a mans heart deviseth his way but the Lord directeth his steps Prov. 16. 9. David also having laid this ground That the Lord bringeth the counsell of the heathen to nought and maketh the devices of the people to be of none effect but his owne counsell abideth for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all generations Psam 33. 10 11. proceedeth accordingly in his owne distresse to pray that the Lord would infatuate and make foolish the counsell of Achitophel 2 Sam. 15. 33. which also the Lord did by working in the heart of Absolom to hearken to the crosse counsell of Hushai But also secondly that the working of his providence is effectuall even in the hearts and wils of men to turne them which way he will and to determine them to this or that in particular according as he pleaseth The preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord saith Solomon Prov. 16. 1. which Iacob trusted and relied on when he prayed That the Lord would grant his sonnes to finde favour and mercy before that man Gen. 43. 14. whom then he supposed to be some Atheistical Aegyptian whence we must grant if either the good old man beleeved that it was in the hand of God to incline and unalterably turne and settle the heart of Ioseph to favour his brethren or else his prayer must have had such a senslesse sense as this Grant O Lord such a generall influence of thy providence that the heart of that man may be turned to good towards my sons or else that it may not being left to its own freedome a strange request yet how it may be bettered by one beleeving the Arminian doctrine I cannot conceive Thus Solomon affirmeth that the heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord like the rivers of water he turneth it which way he will Pro. 21. 1. If the heart of a King who hath an inward naturall libertie equall with others and an outward libertie belonging to his state and condition above them be yet so in the hand of the Lord as that he alwaies turneth it to what he pleaseth
CHAP. V. Whether the will and purpose of God may be resisted and he be frustrate of his intentions BY the former steps is the Altar of Ahaz set on the right hand of the Altar of God the Arminian Idol in a direct opposition exalted to an equall pitch with the power and will of the most high I shall now present unto you the spirit of God once more contending with the towring imaginations of poore mortals about a transcendent priviledge of greatnesse glory and power for having made his decrees mutable his prescience fallible and almost quite devested him of his providence as the summe and issue of all their endeavours they affirme that his will may be resisted he may faile of his intentions be frustrate of his ends he may and doth propose such things as he neither doth nor can at any time accomplish and that because the execution of such acts of his will might haply clash against the freedome of the wills of men which if it be not an expression of spirituall pride above all that ever the devill attempted in heaven divines doe not well explicate that sinne of his now because there may seeme some difficultie in this matter by reason of the severall acceptations of the will of God especially in regard of that whereby it is affirmed that his law and precepts are his will which alas we all of us too often resist or transgresse I will unfold one distinction of the will of God which will leave it cleare what it is that the Arminians oppose for which we count them worthy of so heavy a charge Divinum velle est eius esse say the Schoolemen The will of God is nothing but God willing not differing from his essence secundum rem in the thing it selfe but only secundum rationem in that it importeth a relation to the thing willed the essence of God then being a most absolute pure simple act or substance his will consequently can be but simply one whereof we ought to make neither division nor distinction if that whereby it is signified were taken alwayes properly and strictly for the eternall will of God the differences hereof that are usually given are rather distinctions of the signification of the word then of the thing In which regard they are not onely tolerably but simply necessary because without him it is utterly impossible to reconcile some places of Scripture seemingly repugnant in the 22. Chapter of Genesis v. 2. God commandeth Abraham to take his onely sonne Isaac and offer him for a burnt offering in the land of Moriah Here the words of God are declarative of some will of God unto Abraham who knew it ought to be and little thought but that it should be performed but yet when he actually addressed himself to his dutie in obedience to the will of God he receiveth a countermand vers 12. that he should not lay his hand upon the childe to sacrifice him the event plainly manifesteth that it was the will of God that Isaac should not be sacrificed and yet notwithstanding by reason of his command Abraham seemes before bound to beleeve that it was well-pleasing unto God that he should accomplish what he was enjoyned if the will of God in the Scripture be used but in one acceptation here is a plaine contradiction Thus God commands Pharaoh to let his people goe could Pharaoh thinke otherwise nay was he not bound to beleeve that it was the will of God that he should dismisse the Israelites at the first hearing of the message yet God affirmes that he would harden his heart that he should not suffer them to depart untill he had shewed his signes and wonders in the land of Egypt to reconcile these and the like places of Scripture both the ancient Fathers and Schoolemen with moderne Divines doe affirme that the one will of God may be said to be divers or manifold in regard of the sundry manners whereby he willeth those things to be done which he willeth as also in other respects and yet taken in its proper signification is simply one and the same the vulgar distinction of Gods secret and revealed will is such as to which all the other may be reduced and therefore I have chosen it to insist upon The secret will of God in his eternall unchangeable purpose concerning all things which he hath made to be brought by certaine means to their appointed ends of this himselfe affirmeth that his counsell shall stand and he will doe all his pleasure Isaiah 46. 10. this some call the absolute efficacious will of God the will of his good pleasure alwayes fulfilled and indeed this is the only proper eternall constant immutable will of God whose order can neither be broken nor its law transgressed so long as with him there is neither change nor shadow of turning The revealed will of God containeth not his purpose and decree but our dutie not what he will doe according to his good pleasure but what we should doe if we will please him and this consisting in his word his precepts and promises belongeth to us and our children that we may doe the will of God now this indeed is rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which God willeth then his will but tearmed so as we call that the will of a man which he hath determined shall be done This is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the sonne and beleeveth on him may have everlasting life saith our Saviour Ioh. 6. 40. that is this is that which his will hath appointed hence it is called voluntas signi or the signe of his will Metaphorically only called his will saith Aquinas for in as much as our commands are the signes of our wils the same is said of the precepts of God This is the rule of our obedience and whose transgression makes an action sinfull for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sinne is the transgression of a law and that such a law as is given to the transgressor to be observed now God hath not imposed on us the observation of his eternall decree and intention which as it is utterly impossible for us to transgresse or frustrate so were we unblameable if we should a Master requires of his servant to doe what he commands not to accomplish what he intends which perhaps he never discovered unto him nay the commands of superiours are not alwayes signes that the commander will have the things commanded actually performed as in all precepts for triall but only that they who are subjects to this command shall be obligd to obedience as farre as the sense of it doth extend hoc clarum est in praeceptis divinis saith Durand c. and this is cleere in the commands of God by which we are obliged to doe what he commandeth and it is not alwayes his pleasure that the thing it selfe in regard of the event shall yet be accomplished as we
his life for his friends for his sheepe for them that were given him of his Father but now it should seeme he was ordained to be a King when it was altogether uncertaine whether he should ever have any subjects to be a head without a body or to such a Church whose collection and continuance depends wholly and solely on the will of men These are doctrines that I beleeve searchers of the Scripture had scarse ever been acquainted withall had they not lighted on such Expositors as teach that the only cause why God loveth or chooseth any person is because the honesty faith and pietie wherewith according to Gods command and his own dutie he is endued are acceptable to God which though we grant it true of Gods consequent or approving love yet surely there is a divine love wherewith he looks upon us otherwise when he gives us unto Christ else either our giving unto Christ is not out of love or we are pious just and faithfull before we come unto him that is we have no need of him at all against either way though we may blot these testimonies out of our hearts yet they will stand still recorded in holy Scripture viz. that God so loved us when we were his enemies Rom. 5. 8. sinners vers 10. of no strength that he sent his only begotten Sonne to die that we should not perish but have life everlasting Ioh. 3. 16. but of this enough Fourthly Another thing that the Article asserteth according to the Scripture is that there is no other cause of our election but Gods own counsell it recounteth no motives in us nothing impelling the will of God to choose some out of mankinde rejecting others but his own decree that is his absolute will and good pleasure so that as there is no cause in any thing without himselfe why he would create the world or elect any at all for he doth all these things for himselfe for the praise of his own glory so there is no cause in singular elected persons why God should choose them rather then others he looked upon all mankinde in the same condition vested with the same qualifications or rather without any at all for it is the children not yet borne before they do either good or evill that are chosen or reiected his free grace embracing the one and passing over the other yet here we must observe that although God freely without any desert of theirs chooseth some men to be partakers both of the end and the means yet he bestoweth faith or the means on none but for the merit of Christ neither doe any attaine the end or salvation but by their own faith through that righteousnesse of his the free grace of God notwithstanding choosing Iacob when Esau is rejected the only antecedent cause of any difference betweene the elect and reprobates remaineth firme and unshaken and surely unlesse men were resolved to trust wholly to their own bottomes to take nothing gratis at the hands of God they would not endeavour to rob him of his glory of having mercy on whom he will have mercy of loving us without our desert before the world began if we must claime an interest in obtaining the temporall acts of his favour by our own indeavours yet oh let us grant him the glory of being good unto us only for his own sake when we were in his hand as the clay in the hand of the potter what made this piece of clay fit for comely service and not a vessell wherein there is no pleasure but the power and will of the framer it is enough yea too much for them to repine and say why hast thou made us thus who are vessels fitted for wratth let not them who are prepared for honour exalt themselves against him and sacrifice to their own nets as the sole providers of their glory but so it is humane vilenesse will still be declaring it selfe by claiming a worth no way due unto it of a furtherance of which claim if the Arminians be not guiltie let the following declaration of their opinions in this particular determine We confesse say they roundly that faith in the consideration of God choosing us unto salvation doth precede and not follow as a fruit of election so that whereas Christians have hitherto beleeved that God bestoweth faith on them that are chosen it seemes now it is no such matter but that those whom God findeth to beleeve upon the stocke of their own abilities he afterwards chooseth Neither is faith in their judgement only required as a necessary condition in him that is to be chosen but as a cause moving the will of God to elect him that hath it as the will of the Iudge is moved to bestow a reward on him who according to the law hath deserved it as Grevinchovius speaks which words of his indeed Corvinus strives to temper but all in vaine though he wrest them contrary to the intention of the Author for with him agree all his fellows the one only absolute cause of election is not the will of God but the respect of our obedience saith Episcopius At first they required nothing but faith and that as a condition not as a cause then perseverance in faith which at length they began to call obedience comprehending all our dutie to the precepts of Christ for the cause say they of this love to any person is the righteousnesse faith and pietie wherewith he is endued which being all the good works of a Christian they in effect affirme a man to be chosen for them that our good works are the cause of election which whither it were ever so grossely taught either by Pelagians or Papists I something doubt And here observe that this doth not thwart my former assertion where I shewed that they deny the election of any particular persons which here they seeme to grant upon a fore-sight of their faith and good workes for there is not any one person as such a person notwithstanding all this that in their judgement is in this life elected but onely as he is considered with those qualifications of which he may at any time divest himselfe and so become againe to be no more elected then Iudas The summe of their Doctrine in this particular is laid by one of ours in a Tract intituled Gods love to mankinde c. a Booke full of palpable ignorance grosse sophistrie and abominable blasphemie whose Authour seemes to have proposed nothing unto himselfe but to rake all the dunghils of a few the most invective Arminians and to collect the most filthy scumme and pollution of their railings to cast upon the truth of God and under I know not what selfe-coyned pretences belch out odious blasphemies against his holy name The summe saith he of all these speeches he cited to his purpose is That there is no decree of saving men but what is built on Gods fore-knowledge of the good actions of men No decree no
Counsels edicts decrees of Emperours wherein that hereticall doctrine of denying this originall corruption is condemned cursed and exploded now amongst those many motives they had to proceed so severely against this heresie one especially inculcated deserves our consideration viz. That it overthrew the necessitie of Christs coming into the world to redeeme mankinde it is sinne onely that makes a Saviour necessary and shall Christians tollerate such an errour as by direct consequence inferres the coming of Iesus Christ into the world to be needlesse my purpose for the present is not to alleadge any testimonies of this kinde but holding my selfe close to my first intention to shew how farre in this Article as well as others the Arminians have Apostated from the pure doctrine of the word of God the consent of Orthodox Divines and the Confession of this Church of England In the ninth Article of our Church which is concerning originall sinne I observe especially foure things First that it is an inherent evill the fault and corruption of the nature of every man Secondly that it is a thing not subject or conformable to the Law of God but hath in it selfe even after Baptisme the nature of sinne Thirdly that by it we are averse from God and inclined to all manner of evill Fourthly that it deserveth Gods wrath and damnation all which are frequently and evidently taught in the word of God and every one denyed by the Arminians as it may appeare by these instances in someof them First That it is an inherent sinne and pollution of nature having a proper guilt of its owne making us responsable to the wrath of God and not a bare imputation of anothers fault to us his posteritie which because it would reflect upon us all with a charge of a native imbecillitie and insufficiency to good is by these self-idolizers quite exploded Infants are simply in that estate in which Adam was before his fall saith Venator Neither is it all considerable whether they be the children of beleevers or of heathens and infidels for infants as infants have all the same innocency say they joyntly in their Apologie nay more plainly it can be no fault wherewith we are born in which last expression these bold innovators with one dash of their pens have quite overthrowne a sacred verity an Apostolike Catholike fundamentall Article of Christian Religion but truly to me there are no stronger Arguments of the sinfull corruption of our nature then to see such nefarious issues of unsanctified hearts let us looke then to the word of God confounding this Babylonish designe First That the nature of man which at first was created pure and holy after the image of God endowed with such a rectitude and righteousnesse as was necessary and due unto it to bring it unto that supernaturall end to which it was ordained is now altogether corrupted and become abominable sinfull and averse from goodnesse and that this corruption or concupiscence is originally inherent in us and derived from our first parents is plentifully delivered in holy writ as that which chiefly compels us to a self-deniall and drives us unto Christ Behold I was shapen in iniquitie and in sinne did my mother conceive me saith David Psal 51. 5. Where for the praise of Gods goodnesse towards him he begins with the confession of his native perversenesse and of the sinne wherein he was wrapped before he was born neither was this peculiar to him alone he had it not from the particular iniquitie of his next progenitors but by an ordinary propagation from the common parent of us all though in some of us Satan by this Pelagian attempt by hiding the disease hath made it almost incurable for even those infants of whose innocency the Arminians boast are uncleane in the verdict of Saint Paul 1 Cor. 7. 14. if not sanctified by an interest in the Promise of the Covenant and no uncleane thing shall enter into the kingdome of heaven The weaknesse of the members of infants is innocent and not their souls they want nothing but that the members of their bodies are not as yet ready instruments of sinne they are not sinfull only by an externall denomination accounted so because of the imputation of Adams actuall transgression unto them for they have all an uncleannesse in them by nature Iob 14. 4. from which they must be cleansed by the washing of water and the word Ephes 5. 20. their whole nature is overspread with such a pollution as is proper only to sinne inherent and doth not accompany sinne imputed as we may see in the example of our Saviour who was pure immaculate holy undefiled and yet the iniquity of us all was imputed unto him hence are those phrases of washing away sinne Acts 22. 16. of cleansing filth 1 Pet. 3. 21. Titus 3. 5. something there is in them as soone as they are borne excluding them from the kingdome of heaven for except they also be borne againe of the spirit they shall not enter into it Ioh. 3. 5. Secondly The opposition that is made between the righteousnesse of Christ and the sinne of Adam Rom. 5. which is the proper seat of this doctrine sheweth that there is in our nature an inbred sinfull corruption for the sinne of Adam holds such relation unto sinners proceeding from him by naturall propagation as the righteousnesse of Christ doth unto them who are borne againe of him by spirituall regeneration but we are truly intrinsecally and inherently sanctified by the spirit and grace of Christ and therefore there is no reason why being so often in this Chapter called sinners because of this originall sinne we should cast it off as if we were concerned only by an externall denomination for the right institution of the comparison and its Analogie quite overthrows the solitary imputation Thirdly All those places of Scripture which assert the pronnesse of our nature to all evill and the utter disabilitie that is in us to doe any good that wretched opposition to the power of godlinesse wherewith from the wombe we are replenished confirmes the same truth but of these places I shall have occasion to speake hereafter Fourthly The flesh in the Scripture phrase is a qualitie if I may so say inherent in us for that with its concupiscence is opposed to the spirit and his holinesse which is certainly inherent in us now the whole man by nature is flesh for that which is borne of the flesh is flesh Ioh. 3. 6. it is an inhabiting thing a thing that dwelleth within us Rom. 7. 17. in briefe this vitiosity sinfulnesse and corruption of our nature is laid open First by all those places which cast an aspersion of guilt or desert of punishment or of pollution on nature it selfe as Ephes 2. 1 2 3. We are dead in trespasses and sinnes being by nature children of wrath as well as others being wholly incompassed by a sinne that doth easily beset us Secondly by them which fixe this
and yet Chapter 36. vers 36. He affirmeth that he will doe this very thing that here he requireth of them a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you an heart of flesh and I will cause you to walke in my statutes c. In how many places also are we commanded to feare the Lord which when we doe I hope none will deny to be a performance of our dutie and yet Jerem. 32. 40. God promiseth that he will put his feare in our hearts that we shall not depart from him Thirdly those two against which they lay particular exceptions faith and repentance are also expresly attributed to the free donation of God he granteth unto the Gentiles repentance unto life Acts 11. 18. and of faith directly it is not of our selves it is the gift of God Ephes 2. 8. To which assertion of the holy Spirit I shall rather fasten my beliefe then to the Arminians affirming that it is no gift of God because it is of our selves and yet this hindereth not but that it may be stiled Our most holy faith Iude 20. Let them that will deny that any thing can properly be ours which God bestoweth on us the Prophet accounted them not inconsistent when he averred that God worketh all our workes in us Isa 26. 12. They are our workes though of his working the Apostle laboured though it was not he but the grace of God that was with him 1 Cor. 15. 10. He worketh in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his good pleasure Philip. 2. 13. and yet the performance of our dutie may consist in those acts of our wils and those good deeds whereof he is the Authour so that according to Saint Austins counsell we will still pray that he would bestow what he commandeth us to have Fourthly 1 Cor. 4. Who made thee differ from another or what hast thou that thou hast not received Every thing that makes us differ from others is received from God wherefore the foundation of all difference in spirituall things betweene the sonnes of Adam being faith and repentance they must also of necessitie be received from above In briefe Gods circumcising of our hearts Colos 2. 11. His quickning us when we are dead Ephes ◠1. 2. Begetting us anew Iohn 1. 13. Making us in all things such as he would have us to be is contained in that promise of the New Covenant Jerem. 32. 40. I will make with them an everlasting Covenant that I will not turne away from them to doe them good but I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from me and is no way repugnant to the holy Scripture declaring our dutie to be all this that the Lord would have us and now let all men judge whether against so many and cleere testimonies of the holy Ghost the Arminian reasons borrowed from the old Philosophers be of any value the summe of them all you may finde in Cicero his third Booke De Natura Deorum Every one saith he obtaineth vertue for himself never any wise man thanked God for that for our vertue we are praised in vertue we glory which might not be were it a gift of God and truely this in softer termes is the summe of the Remonstrants Arguments in this particular Lastly observe that this errour is that which of all others the Orthodox Fathers did most oppose in the Pelagian heretiques yea and to this day the more learned Schoolemen stoutly maintaine the truth herein against the innovating Iesuits with some few of the testimonies of the Ancients I will shut up this discourse It is certaine that when we doe any thing we doe it saith Saint Augustine but it is God that causeth us so to doe and in another place Shall we not account that to be the gift of God because it is required of us under the promise of eternall life God forbid that this should seeme so either to the partakers or defenders of grace where he rejecteth both the errour and the sophisme wherewith it is upholden So also Coelestius Bishop of Rome in his Epistle to the Bishops of France So great saith he is the goodnes of God towards men that he will have those good things to be our good duties he cals them merits according to the phrase of those dayes which are his owne gifts to which purpose I cited before two Canons out of the Arausican Councel and Saint Prosper in his Treatise against Cassianus the Semipelagian affirmeth it to be a foolish complaint of proud men that Free-will is destroyed if the beginning progresse and continuance in good be said to be the gifts of God and so the imputation of folly wherewith the Arminians in my first Quotation charge their opposers being retorted on them by this learned Father I referre you to these following excerpta for a close S. S. Circumcise the fore-skinne of of your hearts and be no more stiffe necked Deut. 10. 16. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seede Chap. 30. 6. Make you a new heart and a new spirit O house of Israel Ezek. 18. 31. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you Chap. 36. 36. If you will feare the Lord and serve him then shall you continue following the Lord your God 1 Sam. 12. 14. And I will put my feare into your hearts that ye shall not depart from me Ierem. 32. 40. He hath wrought all our workes in us Isa 26. 12. He worketh in us both to will and to doe of his good pleasure Philip. 2. 13. He hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in him Ephes 1. 3. To you it is given in the behalfe of Christ to beleeve in him Philip. 1. 29. The bloud of Christ purgeth our consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 14. Lib. Arbit This is most certaine that that ought not to bee commanded which is wrought in us hee foolishly commandeth that to be done of others who will worke in them what he commandeth Rem Apol. It is absurd to affirme that God either worketh by his power or procureth by his wisedome that the elect should doe those things which God requireth of them Episcopius Faith and conversion cannot be acts of our obedience if they are wrought by God in us Rem Col. Hag. That God should require that of us which himselfe will worke in us is a ridiculous action scarce fit for a stage Rem Apol That saying of Augustine that God crowneth his owne gifts in us is not easily to be admitted Ibid. There is nothing more vaine and foolish then to ascribe faith and regeneration to the merit of Christ Idem CHAP. XI Whether Salvation may be attained without the knowledge of or Faith in Christ Jesus I Shall shut up
each particular Herein saith Arminius consisteth the libertie of the will that all things required to enable it to will any thing being accomplished it still remaines indifferent to will or not and all of them at the Synode There is say they accompanying the will of man an inseparable propertie which we call libertie from whence the will is termed a power which when all things prerequired as necessary to operation are fulfilled may will any thing or not will it that is our free-wils have such an absolute and uncontrollable power in the territory of all humane actions that no influence of Gods providence no certaintie of his decree no unchangeablenesse of his purpose can sway it at all in its free determinations or have any power with his Highnesse to cause him to will or resolve on any such act as God by him intendeth to produce take an instance in the great worke of our conversion All unregenerate men saith Arminius have by vertue of their free-will a power of resisting the holy Spirit of reiecting the offered grace of God of contemning the counsell of God concerning themselves of refusing the Gospel of grace of not opening the heart to him that knocketh What a stout Idol is this whom neither the holy Spirit the grace and counsell of God the calling of the Gospel the knocking at the doore of the heart can move at all or in the least measure prevaile against him Woe be unto us then if when Gods cals us our free-will be not in good temper and well disposed to hearken unto him for it seemes there is no dealing with it by any other waies though powerfull and Almightie For grant saith Corvinus all the operations of grace which God can use in our conversion yet conversion remaineth so in our owne free power that we can be not converted that is we can either turn or not turne our selves where the Idol plainly challengeth the Lord to work his utmost and tels him that after he hath so done he will doe what he please his infallible prescience his powerfull predetermination the morall efficacie of the Gospel the infusion of grace the effectuall operation of the holy Spirit all are nothing not at all availeable in helping or furthering our independent wils in their proceedings well then in what estate will you have the Idol placed In such a one wherein he may be suffered to sin or to do well at his pleasure as the same Authour intimates it seemes then as to sinne so nothing is required for him to be able to doe good but Gods permission No For the Remonstrants as they speake of themselves doe alwaies suppose a free power of obeying or not obeying as well in those who doe obey as in those who do not obey that he that is obedient may therefore be counted obedient because he obeyeth when he could not obey and so on the contrary where all the praise of our obedience whereby we are made to differ from others is ascribed to our selves alone and that free power that is in us now this they meane not of any one act of obedience but of faith it selfe and the whole consummation thereof For if a man should say that every man in the world of beleeving if he will and of attaining salvation and that this power is settled in his nature What Argument have you to confute him saith Arminius triumphantly to Perkins Where the sophisticall Innovator as plainly confounds grace and nature as ever did Pelagius that then which the Arminians claime here in behalfe of their free-will is an absolute independence on Gods providence in doing any thing and of his grace in doing that which is good A selfe-sufficiencie in all its operations a plenarie indifferencie of doing what we will this or that as being neither determined to the one nor inclined to the other by any over-ruling influence from heaven so that the good acts of our wils have no dependence on Gods providence as they are acts nor on his grace as they are good but in both regards proceed from such a principle within us as is no way moved by any superiour Agents Now the first of these we deny unto our wils because they are created and the second because they are corrupted their creation hinders them from doing any thing of themselves without the assistance of Gods providence and their corruption of doing any thing that is good without his grace a selfe-sufficiencie for operation without the effectuall motion of Almightie God the first cause of all things we can allow neither to men nor Angels unlesse we intend to make them Gods and a power of doing good equall unto that they have of doing evill we must not grant to man by nature unlesse we will deny the fall of Adam and fancie our selves still in Paradice but let us consider these things apart First I shall not stand to decipher the nature of humane libertie which perhaps would require a larger discourse then my proposed Method will beare it may suffice that according to my former intimation we grant as large a freedome and dominion to our wils over their owne acts as a creature subject to the supreame rule of Gods providence is capable of endued we are with such a libertie of will as is free from all outward compulsion and inward necessitie having an elective facultie of applying it selfe unto that which seemes good unto it in which its free choice notwithstanding it is subservient to the decree of God as I shewed before Chapter 4. Most free it is in all its acts both in regard of the object it chooseth and in regard of that vitall power and facultie whereby it worketh infallibly complying with Gods providence and working by vertue of the motion thereof but surely to assert such a supreme independency and every way unbounded indifferencie as the Arminians claime whereby all other things requisite being presupposed it should remaine absolutely in our owne power to will or not to will to doe any thing or not to doe it is plainly to deny that our wils are subject to the rule of the most High It is granted that in such a chymaericall fancied consideration of free-will wherein it is looked upon as having no relation to any act of Gods but onely its creation abstracting from his decree it may be said to have such a libertie in regard of the object but the truth is this divided sense is plaine nonsense a meere fiction of such an estate wherein it never was nor ever can be so long as men will confesse any Deitie but themselves to whose determinations they must be subject untill then more significant termes may be invented for this free power in our nature which the Scripture never once vouchsafed to name I shall be content to call it with Prosper a Spontaneous appetite of what seemeth good unto it free from all compulsion but subservient to the providence of God and
of a new vitall principle by the powerfull working of the holy Spirit And indeed granting this I shall most willingly comply with them in assigning to Free-will one of the endowments before recited a power of resisting the operation of grace but instead of the other must needs ascribe to our whole corrupted nature and every one that is partaker of it an universall disabilitie of obeying it or coupling in that worke which God by his grace doth intend If the grace of our conversion be nothing but a morall perswasion we have no more power of obeying it in that estate wherein we are dead in sinne then a man in his grave hath in himselfe to live a new and come out at the next call Gods promises and the Saints prayers in the holy Scripture seeme to designe such a kinde of grace as should give us a reall internall abilitie of doing that which is spiritually good but it seemes there is no such matter for if a man should perswade me to leape over the Thames or to flye in the Ayre be he never so eloquent his sole perswasion makes me no more able to doe it then I was before ever I saw him If Gods grace be nothing but a sweet perswasion though never so powerfull it is a thing extrinsecall consisting in the proposall of a desired object but gives us no new strength at all to doe any thing we had not before a power to doe But let us heare them pleading themselves to each of these particulars concerning Grace and Nature and first for the nature of Grace God hath appointed to save beleevers by grace that is a soft and sweet perswasion convenient and agreeing to their free-will and not by any Almighty action saith Arminius It seemes something strange that the carnall minde being enmitie against God and the will inthralled to sinne and full of wretched opposition to all his wayes yet God should have no other meanes to worke them over unto him but some perswasion that is sweet agreeable and congruous unto them in that estate wherein they are and a small exaltation it is of the dignitie and power of grace when the chiefe reason why it is effectuall as Alvarez observes may be reduced to a well digested supper or an indisturbed sleepe whereby some men may be brought into better temper then ordinarie to comply with this congruous grace But let us for the present accept of this and grant that God doth call some by such a congruous perswasion at such a time and place as he knows they will assent unto it I aske whether God thus calleth all men or onely some if all why are not all converted for the very granting of it to be congruous makes it effectuall If onely some then why they and not others Is it out of a speciall intention to have them obedient but let them take heed for this will goe neere to establish the decree of election and out of what other intention it should be they shall never be able to determine Wherefore Corvinus denies that any such congruitie is required to the grace whereby we are converted but onely that it be a morall perswasion which we may obey if we will and so make it effectuall Yea and Arminius himselfe after he had defended it as farre as he was able puts it off from himselfe and falsly fathers it upon Saint Austine So that as they joyntly affirme they confesse no grace for the begetting of faith to be necessary but onely that which is morall which one of them interpreteth to be a declaration of the Gospel unto us Right like their old Master Pelagius God saith he worketh in us to will that which is good and to will that which is holy whilest he stirs us up with promise of rewards and the greatnesse of the future glory who before were given over to earthly desires like bruit beasts loving nothing but things present stirring up our stupid wils to a desire of God by a revelation of wisedome and perswading us to all that is good Both of them affirme the grace of God to be nothing but a morall perswasion working by the way of powerfull convincing arguments but yet herein Pelagius seemes to ascribe a greater efficacie to it then the Arminians granting that it workes upon us when after the manner of bruit beasts we are set meerely on earthly things but these as they confesse that for the production of faith it is necessarie that such arguments be proposed on the part of God to which nothing can probably be opposed why they should not seeme credible so there is say they required on our part a pious docilitie and probitie of minde So that all the grace of God bestowed on us consisteth in perswasive arguments out of the word which if they meet with teachable mindes may worke their conversion Secondly having thus extenuated the grace of God they affirme That in operation the efficacie thereof dependeth on Free-will so the Remonstrants in their Apologie And to speake confidently saith Grevinchovius I say that the effect of grace in an ordinary course dependeth on some act of our free-will Suppose then that of two men made partakers of the same grace that is have the Gospel preached unto them by the same meanes one is converted and the other is not What may be the cause of this so great a difference Was there any intention or purpose in God that one should be changed rather then the other No He equally desireth and intendeth the conversion of all and every one Did then God worke more powerfully in the heart of the one by his holy Spirit then of the other No The same operation of the spirit alwayes accompanieth the same preaching of the word But was not one by some Almightie action made partaker of reall infused grace which the other attained not unto No for that would destroy the liberty of his will and deprive him of all the praise of beleeving How then came this extreme difference of effects Who made the one differ from the other or what hath he that he did not receive Why all this procedeth meerly from the strength of his owne free-will yeelding obedience to Gods gracious invitation which like the other he might have reiected This is the immediate cause of his conversion to which all the praise thereof is due And here the old Idol may glory to all the world that if he can but get his worshippers to prevaile in this he hath quite excluded the grace of Christ and made it nomen inane a meere title whereas there is no such thing in the world Thirdly they teach That notwithstanding any purpose and intention of God to convert and so to save a sinner notwithstanding the most powerfull and effectuall operation of the blessed spirit with the most winning perswasive preaching of the word yet it is in the power of a man to frustrate that purpose resist that operation
and reiect that preaching of the Gospell I shall not need to prove this for it is that which in direct tearmes they plead for which also they must doe if they will comply with their former principles For granting all these to have no influence upon any man but by the way of morall perswasion we must not onely grant that it may be resisted but also utterly deny that it can be obeyed We may resist it I say as having both a disability to good and repugnancie against it but for obeying it unlesse we will deny all inherent corruption and depravation of nature we cannot attribute any such sufficiency unto our selves Now concerning this weaknes of grace that it is not able to overcome the opposing power of sinfull nature one testimony of Arminius shall suffice It alwaies remaineth in the power of Free-will to reiect grace that is given and to refuse that which followeth for grace is no Almightie action of God to which Free-will cannot resist Not that I would assert in opposition to this such an operation of grace as should as it were violently overcome the will of man and force him to obedience which must needs bee prejudicial unto our libertie but onely consisting in such a sweet effectuall working as doth infallibly promote our conversion make us willing who before were unwilling and obedient who were not obedient that createth cleane hearts and reneweth right spirits within us That then which we assert in opposition to these Arminian Heterodoxies is that the effectuall grace which God useth in the great worke of our conversion by reason of its owne nature being also the instrument of and Gods intention for that purpose doth surely produce the effect intended without successefull resistance and solely without any considerable co-operation of our owne wils untill they are prepared and changed by that very grace The infallibilitie of its effect depends chiefely on the purpose of God when by any meanes he intends a mans conversion those meanes must have such an efficacie added unto them as may make them fit instruments for the accomplishment of that intention that the counsell of the Lord may prosper and his word not returne empty But the manner of its operation that it requires no humane assistance and is able to overcome all repugnance is proper to the being of such an act as wherein it doth consist Which nature and efficacie of grace in opposition to an indifferent influence of the holy Spirit a metaphoricall motion a working by the way of morall perswasion onely proposing a desireable object easie to be resisted and not effectuall unlesse it be helped by an inbred abilitie of our owne which is the Arminian grace I will briefly confirme having promised these few things First although God doth not use the wills of men in their conversion as maligne Spirits use the members of men in enthusiasmes by a violently wrested motion but sweetly and agreeably to their owne free nature yet in the first act of our conversion the will is meerely passive as a capable subject of such a worke not at all concurring co-operatively to our turning It is not I say the cause of the worke but the subject wherein it is wrought having only a passive capabilitie for the receiving of that supernaturall being which is introduced by grace The beginning of this good worke is meerely from God Phil. 1. 6. Yea faith is ascribed unto grace not by the way of conjunction with but of opposition unto our wils not of our selves it is the gift of God Ephes 2. 8. Not that we are sufficient of our selves our sufficiency is of God 2 Cor. 3. 5. Turne thou me O Lord and I shall be turned Secondly though the will of man conferreth nothing to the infusion of the first grace but a subjective receiving of it yet in the very first act that is wrought in and by the will it most freely co-operateth by the way of subordination with the grace of God and the more effectually it is moved by grace the more freely it worketh with it Man being converted converteth himselfe Thirdly we doe not affirme grace to be irresistible as though it came upon the will with such an over-flowing violence as to beat it downe before it and subdue it by compulsion to what it is no way inclinable but if that terme must be used it denoteth in our sense onely such an unconquerable efficacie of grace as alwaies and infallibly produceth its effect For Who is it that can withstand God Acts 11. 17. As also it may be used on the part of the will it selfe which will not resist it all that the Father gives unto Christ will come unto him Ioh. 6. 37. The operation of grace is resisted by no hard heart because it mollifies the heart it selfe It doth not so much take away a power of resisting as give a will of obeying whereby the powerfull impotencie of resistance is removed Fourthly Concerning grace it selfe it is either common or speciall common or generall grace consisteth in the externall revelation of the will of God by his word with some illumination of the mind to perceive it and correction of the affections not to much to contemne it and this in some degree or other to some more to some lesse is common to all that are called speciall grace is the grace of regeneration comprehending the former adding more spirituall acts but especially presupposing the purpose of God on which its efficacy doth chiefly depend Fifthly This saving grace whereby the Lord converteth or regenerateth a sinner translating him from death to life is either externall or internall externall consisteth in the preaching of the word c. whose operation is by the way of morall perswasion when by it we beseech our hearers in Christs stead that they would be reconciled unto God 2 Corinth 5. 20. and this in our conversion is the instrumentall organ thereof and may be said to be a sufficient cause of our regeneration in as much as no other in the same kinde is necessary it may also be resisted in sensa diviso abstracting from that consideration wherein it is looked on as the instrument of God for such an end Sixthly internall grace is by Divines distinguished into the first or preventing grace and the second following cooperating grace the first is that spirituall vitall principle that is infused into us by the holy Spirit that new creation and bestowing of new strength whereby we are made fit and able for the producing of spirituall acts to beleeve and yeeld Evangelicall obedience For we are the workmanship of God created in Christ Iesus unto good workes Ephes 2. 10. By this God gives us a new heart and a new spirit he puts within us he taketh the stony hearts out of our flesh and gives us a heart of flesh he puts his spirit within us to cause us to walke in his statues Ezek. 36. 26 27. Now this first grace is not properly and formally
a vitall act but causaliter only in being a principle moving to such vitall acts within us It is the habit of faith bestowed upon a man that he may be able to elicate and performe the acts thereof giving new light to the understanding new inclinations to the will and new affections unto the heart For the infallible efficacie of which grace it is that we plead against the Arminians and amongst those innumerable places of holy Scripture confirming this truth I shall make use only of a very few reduced to these three heads First Our conversion is wrought by a divine Almighty action which the will of man will not and therefore cannot resist the impotency thereof ought not to be opposed to this omnipotent grace which will certainly effect the worke for which it is ordained being an action not inferiour to the greatnesse of his mightie power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Ephes 1. 19 20. and shall not that power which could overcome hell and loose the bonds of death be effectuall for the raising of a sinner from the death of sinne when by Gods intention it is appointed unto that worke He accomplisheth the worke of faith with power 2 Thess 1. 11. It is his divine power that gives unto us all things that appertaine to life and godlinesse 2 Pet. 1. 3. surely a morall resistible perswasion would not be thus often tearmed the power of God which denoteth an actuall efficacie to which no creature is able to resist Secondly That which consisteth in a reall efficiency and is not at all but when and where it actually worketh what it intendeth cannot without a contradiction be said to be so resisted that it should not worke the whole nature thereof consisting in such a reall operation Now that the very essence of divine grace consisteth in such a formall act may be proved by all those places of Scripture that affirme God by his grace or the grace of God actually to accomplish our conversion as Deut. 30. 6. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soule that thou mayest live The circumcision of our hearts that we may love the Lord with all our hearts and with all our souls is our conversion which the Lord affirmeth here that he himselfe will doe not only enable us to doe it but he himselfe really and effectually will accomplish it And againe I will put my Law into them and write it in their hearts Ierem. 31. 33. I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Chap. 32. 39. he will not offer his feare unto them but actually put it into them and most clearely Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give you a new spirit will I put within you and I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walke in my statutes Are these expressions of a morall perswasion only doth God affirme here he will doe what he intends only to perswade us to and which we may refuse to do if we will is it in the power of a stony heart to remove it self what an active stone is this in mounting upwards what doth it at all differ from that heart of flesh that God promiseth shall a stony heart be said to have a power to change it selfe into such a heart of flesh as shall cause us to walke in Gods Statutes Surely unlesse men were wilfull blind they must needs here perceive such an action of God denoted as effectually solely and infallibly worketh our conversion opening our hearts that we may attend unto the word Acts 16. 14. Granting us on the behalfe of Christ to beleeve in him Philip. 1. 29. Now these and the like places prove both the nature of Gods grace to consist in a reall efficiency and the operation thereof to be certainly effectuall Thirdly our conversion is a new creation a resurrection a new birth Now he that createth a man doth not perswade him to create himselfe neither can he if he should nor hath he any power to resist him that will create him that is as we now take it translate him from some thing that he is to what he is not What arguments doe you thinke were sufficient to perswade a dead man to rise or what great aid can he contribute to his own resurrection neither doth a man beget himselfe a new reall forme was never yet introduced into any matter by subtle arguments These are the tearmes the Scripture is pleased to use concerning our conversion If any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. The new man after God is created in righteousnesse and holinesse Ephes 4. 24. it is our new birth Except a man be borne againe he cannot see the kingdome of God Ioh. 3. 3. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth Iam. 1. 18. and so we become borne againe Not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1. 23. it is our vivification and resurrection The sonne quickeneth whom he will Ioh. 5. 21. even those dead who heare his voice and live vers 25. When we were dead in sins we are quickned together with Christ by grace Ephes 2. 5. For being buried with him by Baptisme we are also risen with him through the faith of the operation of God Coloss 2. 12. and blessed and holy is he that hath part in that first resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be Priests of God and of Christ and shall raigne with him a thousand yeers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sleid. Com. Greg. Naz. Profitentur Remonst hasce ad promotionem causae suae artes adhibere ut apud vulgus non ulterius progrediantur quam de articulis vulgo notis ut pro ingeniorum diversitate quosdam lacte diualant aliis solidiore cibo c. Festus Hom. praestat ad specimen Con. Bel. Hieron Zanch. ad Holderum Res Miscel a Ephes 4. 18. Iohn 1. 5. 1 Cor. 2. 14. b Iohn 6. 42. and 7. 52. Natura sic apparet vitiata ut hoc majoris vitii sit non videre Aug. Pelag Semipelag Scholastico In hac causa non judicant secundum aequitatem sed secundum affectum commodi sui Luth. de erv Arbit Psal 50. Phil lib quod sit Deus immutabilis a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quaedam sunt quae omnem actum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quaedam quae 〈◊〉 cap. 5. see 1. pag 67. b Certum est Deum quaedam velle quae non velle niâ—i aliqua 〈◊〉 humana antecederet Aâ— min. Antipe kâ—p 211. c Multa tamen arbitror Deum velle quae non vellet adeoque nec justâ— velle posset nisi aliqua actio creatuâ—â—