another so that the same Ship which brings in one Comfort into the Harbour of their Souls it carries out another But this eternal Reward it will put them into a permanent fixed way of enjoying all their Comforts together they shall not lose one Comfort by embracing another nor have need to divert their Thoughts from one comfortable Consideration to exercise them upon another Oh then what a Consideration is this to aggravate the blessedness of the Saints eternal Reward in Heaven where they shall have all the Positures of Joy rejoycing within and without above and beneath and on every (d) Gaudebunt supra se de visione Dei intra se de pace conscientiae infra se de evasione inferni circa se de hominum angelorum beata associatione side together They shall have Joy above them for the beatifical Vision of God Joy within them for the Peace of their own Consciences which now they find to be the best Feast Joy beneath them for their Deliverance from the Wrath to come and Joy round about on every side from their blessed Associates the Saints and glorious Angels with whom joyning as in an heavenly Quire they will warble out most melodiously the high Praises of God their Redeemer to all Eternity How these things should thus be I confess I cannot easily satisfy my self knowing what is the Finiteness of Man's Capacity and the Infiniteness of this eternal Reward But surely this must needs add much to our Happiness and make us to rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory when we shall not eat our Reward piece-meal but shall sit down to a full Table nor drink our Cordials one by one but having all the Joys of Heaven and Glory mingled together in one eternal Cup of Consolation shall drink them all at once and together 8 THE Râ—ward whereunto God allows his People a Respect in all their Obedience it 's a Grace-perfecting Reward The Perfection of all our Graces is indeed a thing earnestly to be pursued after whilst here we are working in God's Vineyard but yet never fully to be obtained till he comes to Crown us with our eternal Reward As there is Chaff about every Corn in a Field (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Homil. 16. pag. mihi 236. and bitterness in every Branch of Wormwood So by way of Adherency there is much Defilement in the best Works and much Imperfection in the most gracious Graces of the best of God's People The Works of God's Spirit upon us and the Graces of his Spirit within us as they come from him are pure But yet as clean Water passing through an unclean Channel receiveth a Tincture of that Uncleanness so Sinfulness cleaveth to our holiest Actions and as they come through our Hands they admit of much adhering Pollution How many Distractions Rovings Impertinencies and secular Intermixtures do we find mingling themselves with our most serious Performances How much Deadness Formality want of Relish and unspiritualness do we find inseparably cleaving to all our Services How dim-sighted is the Eye of our Faith when most discerning How cold is the Fire of our Love to God and his ways when most warm and flaming How full of trembling is the Hand of our Affiance how sadly bruised are the Shoulders of our Patience how lame are the Feet of our Obedience and how dangerously crack'd is the Anchor of our Hope though cast within the Vail (f) Heb. 6.19 Here our Graces are not without their Defects nor our Duties without their defaults Who sees not much Dross in his purest Gold much Smoke in his brightest Fire many blemishes upon all his Graces many failings in all his Duties and the print of his own unclean Hands to humble him upon every holy Work that he takes in Hand As the best actions of the Wicked through the want of right Principles and right Ends are turned into Sin For the best actions of the godly by reason of fleshly adherencies are always accompanied with Sin And as their evil works are both their own and purely evil So their good works are neither there own nor purely good (*) Phil. 3.7 8. This made that holy and imparadised Apostle St. Paul count all his own Righteousness in point of Justification where nothing but what is absolutely perfect will be accepted no better than loss and dung that he might win Christ Nor can it be said that the Apostle here intendeth no other Actions and Priviledges than what he enjoyed before his Conversion For he speaketh not only in the time past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I counted but likewise in the time present 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea doubtless and I do count all things but dung intending hereby the abdication of all his present Priviledges Graces and most glorious Performances as utterly insufficient by reason of adhering defilements to be the matter of his Justification in the sight of God A consciousness of the like defects in all Graces and holy Performances caused that (a) Isa 64.6 Nostra siqua est humilis justitia recta forsitan sed non pura Nisi forte meliores non esse credimus quam patres nostros qui non minus veraciter quam humiliter aiebant omnes justitiae nostrae tanquam pannus menstruatae mulieris Quomodo enim pura justitia ubi adhuc non potest culpa deesse Bern. in locum Evangelical Prophet of old to complain in the Person of the whole Church as both the Context and manner of speech do evince that they were all as an unclean thing and all their Righteousness as filthy Rags Here you see the Prophet acknowledgeth a Worm to be in their best fruit some sinful defects some pollutions and vitiosity in all their Righteousnesses Which resenting with holy shame he so far disgraceth whatever Duties whatever Performances they had as to compare them stain and abhorred defilement for with the unclean garment of a removed Woman For this cause it was that Aaron the high Priest a Type of Christ must bear the iniquity of their holy things that all the People might know there was that imperfection and blemish in their most holy Performances that they could no otherwise find acceptance with God than only through the Worthiness and satisfactory Merits of Christ the promised Messias Though then we do not say as our Adversaries of the Romish Faction faitly calumniate that the good Works of God's People are Sins and ex natura rei culpable Yet we say that their best Works are imperfect their Graces very defective and their most holy Performances attended with some adhering Pollution Their Graces how weak soever are not Sins but it 's their Sin that their Graces are no stronger Their holy Performances are Sins But it 's their Sin that so many distractions sinister respects so much deadness formality and irreverence are mingled with them So that we must still distinguish betwixt sinful Actions and Sin in the Actions The
way fâ—â—e and gratuitous in the rise of it as proceeding wholly from the instigation of God's goodness and not depending upon any antecedent Condition in us as the impulsive Cause thereof Yet since the promise of Life eternal doth bear in it the nature of a Reward which hath always relation in the accomplishment of it to some presupposed Performances we must therefore know that it will never be made good to us but with dependance upon Duties in us that may fit and qualify us to receive so glorious a Promise First we must do the Work and then receive the Reward First we must get Grace and then God will give us Glory first we must finish our Course ¶ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Hom. 4. ad pop Ant. and then we shall receive a Crown of Righteousness first we must Sow to the Spirit and then we have the Promise of God for our Security that of the Spirit we shall Reap Life everlasting We must not therefore anticipate and perturb that comely and blessed Order which God hath put in his Promises expecting that God should glorify us in Heaven before we have glorified his Name on Earth For be the promises of Life and Glory never so free and absolute in their Rise yet they are conditionate in their Accomplishment so that unless by the due and faithful performance of the Conditions annexed thereto we be qualified for them we can never receive them Amongst many other Conditions and Provisoes upon which God hath made us the Promise of eternal Life this is not the least that by patient continuance in well-doing we should seek after it For saith the Apostle to them that by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality God will render eternal Life Rom. 7. As God when he bad promised deliverance unto Israel Ezek. 36.37 yet tells them that for this he will be enquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them So though the Lord hath given us a promise of eternal Life and Glory yet he will have us seek it by patient continuance in well-doing before ever he will Crown us with it In vain shall we think to find eternal Life if we seek it not in the first place giving diligence to lay hold upon it For when Promises have the Condition annexed to them we cannot take any Comfort in the Promise till we are sure of the Condition To say then that we may not have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of Reward to Eternal Life and Glory which is one grand condition specified in the Promise thereof is to render this glorious Reward altogether unfeasable and indeed to reflect dishonourable Blasphemy upon God himself as if he had Promised Eternal Glory with such a Promise as may not lawfully be seen unto with such an unrighteous condition as can never be performed without Sin But dare we say that the Infinitely Holy God will make us tenders of Life and Glory upon any other terms than what shall be Holy and Just and Good Hath the Lord threatned that without Holiness we shall never see him and will he then make disingenuity and unholiness the way leading to him Doth this pure indeficient Fountain which is always one and the same send forth such sweet and such sower Water Is the God who hath promised us Life and Glory Holy and dare we think that he would suspend the Promise thereof upon any unholy and Sinful condition Doubtless since the Good and Holy God hath made a respect to the Recompence of the Reward a condition of our receiving the Promise of Life Everlasting we need not fear the doing any thing unlawful but may well have a full Plerophory that what we do must be Holy and Just and Good whilst by Patient continuance in well-doing we seek to make sure of Heaven and Glory 7. WE may Lawfully have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward because otherwise we should not exercise nor have many of our Graces conversant about their proper Objects The Lord doth not only require that we should have an harmonious compages and an universal complexion of all saving Graces in our Souls but also that every Grace should be acted upon and regularly conversant about it's own Object which yet without a due respect had to the Recompence of the Reward cannot possibly be For how can Faith be the Substance of unseen Glory how can desire long after it or hope expect it if it be not a thing lawful for a Christian to look after and to have respect unto it Faith saith the Apostle is the Substance of things hoped for the Evidence of things not seen Betwixt ¶ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecumen Faith and Hope there is a very near affinity and they stand mutually related to one another each of them having respect to the other as the two Cherubims looked one towards the other over the Mercy Seat Faith layes the Foundation of Happiness and Hope builds upon that Foundation a glorious prospect of it Faith leaning upon the Promise of God concerning Eternal Life puts strength into Hope and Hope looking for that Eternal Life which God hath Promised pours the Oyl of gladness into Faith That Good which Faith sees Hope patiently waits for Faith fixeth an Eye upon future Glory and Hope tarrieth for it till it becomes present Faith in believing the Joys of Heaven gives Hope a sight of them and Hope in expecting of them makes Faith to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of Glory Faith believes it shall end in Salvation 1 Pet. 1.9 and Hope bids the Soul be patient and wait to the end that it may be saved Faith discovering a weight of Glory makes strong the hands of Hope and Hope climbing up thereby into the Mount of Transfiguration makes the face of Faith to shine with the reflexions of the same Glory upon it Fides accipit praesentia dei beneficia vel etiam in spe posita repraesentat ac veluti oculis subijcit Polan Syntag. Lib. 9. cap. 9. Pag. 3851. In a word what Hope looks upon as future Faith gives it a present subsistency reallizing those things to the Soul which have now no other being than what is in the Promise so that Faith steadfastly believing Hope cannot but with Patience expect that Crown of Life that Heavenly Kingdom that Eternal Happiness and Glory which God hath Promised Thus whilst we have respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward these Graces of Faith and Hope they are exercised about their proper objects the one believing the Promise of Eternal Life and the other waiting to receive it which otherwise they could never do but must either act irregularly embracing those objects which they ought not so much as to glance upon or else must be perpetually cloystered up in the Soul devoting themselves to an unprofitable Lethargical unactive Life and so antidating a supersedeas from their
deum ordinata est For God himself is the Centre of all Good and Holiness from which the Lines of all Moral Rectitudes and Divine Virtues are drawn according to which they are regulated in which they are conserved and into which returning they must ultimately resolve themselves SINCE Holiness then is nothing else but an harmonious Conformity with and a Transcript of his righteous Will concerning us Why should we count our having a Respect to eternal Glory any Forfeiture of our Holiness ¶ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Catech. Mystag 5. pag. 244. or go about to censure that Practice as Unlawful for which we have God's own Fiat Were not this to make more Sins than God ever made and to go about by a kind of Interpretative Blasphemy to impeach the infinitely Holy God of giving not only his Imprimator but his Fiat also to unholy Practises commanding Men to seek after Heaven and Glory from the beholding whereof they should according to what some †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Hier. Cat. 6. p. 55. â— Dogmatize turn away their eyes as the greatest Vanity But dare we say That Mens walking in the Light of the Sun is Darkness to them Or That Conformity with God's Righteous Will is the cause of any unrighteous Practise Sirs to question the Legality and Holiness of Duties commanded is to question his Holiness and the Lawfulness of his Authority who commanded them How dare we then say that is Bitter in the Fruit which we know to be Sweet in the Root How can we count that Impure in the Streams which we dare not but confess to be Pure in the Fountain How dare we traduce that as Sinful in the Practise which we know to be Holy and Just and Good in the Precept How dare we to be short look upon Christians as Disingenuous and Transgressing in that which they purely Act in Obedience to God's Commands If God Christian bid thee by patient continuance in well-doing seâ—k for Heaven and Glory do not doubt but his Command will sufficiently secure thee from the Censure of a Legalist or Mercenary in so doing before Men and Angels For Who shall lay any thing to the Charge of God's Elect in those Precepts which are justified by the Holy Precepts and Commandments of God himself injoyning them Rom. 8.33 2. WE may lawfully have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward because the most Eminent of God's faithful Servants have done so before us We have not only Precept but President to warrant our Practise in this case there being none of the People of God but by striving to enter in at the strait Gate by laying up for themselves a Treasure in Heaven by Suffering with Christ that they might be Glorified together with him have clearly Commented and Paraphrased upon those and the like Portions of Holy Scripture that we knowing thus the mind of God therein may go and do likewise Thus David a Man after God's own Heart Psalm 119.112 and therefore surely no Mercenary he inclin'd his Heart to perform God's holy Statutes alway as expecting in the end the Reward of eternal Glory In the Original it is even to the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fructus praemium eò quod fructus postremum et finis laboris est and so our own Translation renders it But yet the same Word doth also signify a Reward which is not usually given before the end of our Works clearly implying That David having an Eye to the Recompence of the Reward did more Cheerfully run the way of God's Commandments David was willing to take pains in God's Vineyard spontaneously inclining his Heart to perform God's holy Statutes all his dayes as expecting at the evening of his Death to receive the Penny of eternal Life and Glory in God's heavenly Kingdom This also we find to be the Practice of holy Paul a man so Ambitiously desirous to promote God's Glory that through an holy Transport of Love thereto he once wished himself suspended and put apart from the Comforts of Christ in the Jews stead that God might but be glorified thereby Rom. 9.3 And yet he hath an Eye in all his Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward putting forth himself with the greatest Intenseness of Zeal and Diligence imaginable for the Price of his High-calling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graece quod magnam habet Emphasim significat enim manus totumque Corpus protendere ad scopum ut eum apprehendas ante quam pedibus eum attigeris A lapide in locum He did not grudge to Spend and be Spent in the Service of but stretching forward and extending himself usque ad extremum virium he pursues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Aim which he had taken the Reward set before him so the Original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth as impatiently desiring to be seized of God's Kingdom and Glory to which he was called And though he was a man daily exposed to Reproach Persecutions and greatest Dificulties in Heaven's way for the cause of Christ 2 Cor. 4.18 yet whilst he looked at the things which are not seen making Heaven and Glory the scope and end of his Life as the Original may well import he was incouraged thereby with cheerfulness and alacrity of Spirit to encounter them all not thinking his Life dear if by any means he might win the Crown and be landed safe at the Haven of eternal Rest So that the Respect which this holy Apostle had to the Recompence of Reward it was instead of a Cordial to comfort him amidst all his Afflictions it was a strong Incentive with him to Obedience putting Life and Vigour into all his Endeavours and from this he took Incouragement most gladly to Spend and be Spent in the Service of God Heb. 10.32 The like we may say of those Primitive Christians mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews who though they were encountred with a whole Army of Afflictions though they were spoiled in their Goods by wicked men as so many Harpies preying upon them at their pleasure though they were Theatriz'd and brought forth upon the Stage not only as Spectacles of Scorn and Reproach but also as Objects of Persecution for wicked men to exercise their Malice and Cruelty upon from whom they received not only bitter Words but also hard Blows Yet they joyfully underwent it all enduring the Cross and despising the Shame as Christ their Redeemer had done before them and all this because they had an Eye to the Recompence of Reward believing themseves to have in Heaven an induring Substance a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory that would abundantly make amends for all their Sufferings So that the grand Reason inducing these Primitive Christians to indure Afflictions and take joyfully the spoyling of their Goods on Earth was their Hope of a better and more induring Substance when they came to Heaven Besides these many pregnant Instances might be given
and to do of his (e) Phil. 2.13 own good pleasure implying clearly that nothing less than the almighty Power of God's own Grace exciting inclining and determining the Will can suffice unto any good Work The Assertours of free Will those grand Parasites of Nature do count it indeed the first born of Absurdities to teach that the Grace of God hath any such determining Influence upon the Will as shall effectually work it to a closure with what is good Hence they affirm that God himself cannot without wrong to the proper Crasis and Constitution of the Will without committing a Rape upon her Virgin-freedom act otherwise upon it than after all he hath done or can do to leave her the precious priviledge of resisting his Grace rejecting the Tenders of his Love and destroying himself Thus whilst they would seem tender of the Creatures Liberty they proclaim themselves Traytors to Heaven encroaching upon God's Prerogative-royal while they would make the World believe that the essential and characteristical Property of the Will must be destroyed unless we give her a Power to bafflâ— nonplus and conquer the Almighty Spirit and Grace of God at her pleasure But we must know God doth so accommodate his Concourse with the Will of Man in his Conversion that no Violence is offered to the Will 's intrinsique Frame nothing done inconsistent with her essential Constitution Necessitate God doth but never compel the Will to what is good he doth determine but not force hâ—r he doth not destroy but give her liberty rescuing her from under the Bondage of Sin that she may be free to choose to embrace to delight greatly in himself As when Water which naturally descendeth inclining downward is transelemented and changed into Air then it doth naturally ascend contending upward So when the Will of Man which by Nature moves downward is graciously changed and freed from her native Viciousness then she readily moves upward and is wonderfully carried out after God after Christ after Heaven and Glory taking a sweet Complacency in every good Word and Work So that to consent to the Grace of God â—o accept of his graciouâ— help and to long for it this is wholly from God himself (f) Ut ergo desideremus adjutorium gratiae hoc ipsum quoque opus est gratiae ipsa namque incipit infundi ut incipiat posci ipsa quoque amplius infunditur cum poscentibus datur Quis verò potest gratiam poscere nisi velit Sed nisi Deus in eo ipsam voluntatem operetur velle null◠〈◊〉 poterit Fulg. ad Theod. ep 6. p. 555. invincibly sanctifying the Will and by an act of â—lmighty Power determining it to what is supernaturally good It is not enough to provide the means but God himself must strongly apply them he must afford the blessed Operation and powerful Concurrence of his own Spirit the Revelation of his own Arm and Might upon the Soul or he will never consent no not to her own Happiness upon Terms of Grace And truly if in Nature Man cannot determin himself nor exert any vital Actions unless premoved and determined thereunto by the immediate Influx of God upon him as the first cause how much less in things Spiritual 'T is much controverted I know whether Men have not a Sufficiency of Power within themselves to act move and do all things agreeable to their Nature which God hath given them without any further help from him to actuate that Power to premove and determine them to every physical Action that proceedeth from them The dependance of all Creatures upon God for the Support and Continuation of their Beings is by most acknowledged But that there should be the same necessity of dependance upon God for their Workings there are many Men both of great Learning and of singular Holiness who deny it those especially who side with the Jesuites against the Domâ—nâ—eans in this Controversy making an active indifferency to Good or Evil at (g) Deus non est causa liberi arbitrii nisi quia liberum arbitrium abâ— ipso est conservetur Durand in 2. Sent. d. 1. q. 5. d. 37. q. 1. least an undeterminateness in the Will to be of the Essence of Liberty Durandus his Opinion in this Case is sufficiently known who would not have God to concur otherwise with his Creatures in any of their Actions which they exert than by way of Conservation so as to continue their several respective Beings and energetical Powers to them Austin speaks of some in his Time that were of the same Mind (h) Sunt qui arbitrantur tantummodo mundum ipsum factum à Deo caetâ—ra fieri â—â—mundo sicut â—â—â—e ordinavit jussit Deum autem nihil operari Aug. lib. 5. de Gen. ad lit cap. 20. Magna Dei conditoris fuit impotentia imprudentia qui naturam ita condere non potuit ut sola quod suum esset facere non possit officium Taur de rer aetern part 2. p. 461. Voluntas autem creata non est purus actus sed habet libertatem participatam quae includit aliquid potentialitatis ideo ut exeâ—t in actum necesse est ut pramoveatur Alvar. Disp 9â— n. 13. referente Amesio affirming that God having Created the great Organ of the World did forthwith leave it to play upon it self and to make all sweet and harmonious melody not by any further powerful touch from God but by virtue of its first Composure Above all others Taurellus is most dogmatical averring that it would degrade the great God from that Wisdom Dignity and Power which of right doth belong to him to think that he should so make his Creatures as not to be able to discharge their respective Offices without being prompted thereto by his almighty Help and immediate praedetermining Influence But to speak my Thoughts in one word I see not how the Will of Man which is not a Power simply and absolutely active as Bellarmin would have it but a mixed having much of Potentiality in it should be reduced into act otherwise than â—y some powerful impress of God upon it who is a most pure Act. Besides shall we give the Will of Man a creative Power in reference to its own elicite Acts which have surely some physical Being Or acknowledging him the Author and first cause of all Actions as such shall we deny him to praedetermine Man's Will in the producing of them when every Cause is always before the Effect at least in order of Nature Are not all things below God owned for second Causes not because they had their Being (i) Omnes res creatae dicuntur causae secundae unde verò hoc nisi quod in agendo dependeant à primâ quae Deus est Maccov from him for so as a learned Man observeth they are dependeant Beings not Causes but because in their Operations they wholly depend upon him and are predetermined by an immediate Influx of his Power
Let us not unsubordinate the Creatures to God their Creatour And make that independent in its Workings which we know to be otherwise in its Being To me it seems little less than to divest the great God of his Prerogative-Royal and to set the Crown upon the Head of the Creature when acknowledging him for the first Cause we will (k) Acts 17.28 grant that we live and have our Being from him but not that we are moved by him The profound Bradwardine the learned Twisse the acute Ames the Judicious Zanchy Neither they with many others of our Protestant Divines nor (l) Nihil praeter primum motorem movet agitve nisi motum actum Zan. de lib. Arb. thes 2. pag. 116. he could yet bear such Doctrin who lays down this as a sure Maxim that nothing but God the first mover doth either move or act if not moved and acted And indeed its hard to say how they who deny the Will of Man to be physically determined of God make not Man the first mover not moved the (m) Quod si haec hominis determinatio non praedeterminetur à Deó physicè primum erit homo determinans in genere entis physicè non determinatum primum movens non motum primum agens non actum ab alio ideoque determinationis suae prima causa primum principium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 independens Et quia primum movens propterea duo prima erant sic Deus non erit ens absolute primum D. P. de Trad. hom peccat ad glor pag. 15. first Agent not acted by any other So that he shall be the first cause of determining his own Will yea independent and without any other cause than himself For we may not think that God only offers his Creatures a certain indeterminate common and indifferent concourse which is either like a Laquy subsequent to their determining themselves and comes in at the close of the day actum agere or like a Lesbyan Rule which (n) Novum istud commentum Jesuitarum solide refutatur à Thomistis quia facit providentiam Dei confusam imperfectam à creaturâ pendentem ut ab ea proficiatur Ames Dâ—llar Enervat tom 4. lib. 1. p. 31. they may incline determine and bend either to good or evil as they please This Devise of the Jesuites is confuted at large by the Thomists and most of our own Divines in the Doctrin of Providence who reject it as that which makes the divine Providence confused dependent imperfect and such as is capable of receiving its ultimate Perfection from the Creature Though Similes prove nothing yet they may illustrate and therefore to give you a perfect understanding in this case I shall shut up with the Simile of a learned Divine whereof the most of our English Divines in their Discourses about Providence make use telling you with him that God set up the World as a fair and goodly Clock to strike in time and to move it in an orderly manner not by its own Weights by fresh Influence from himself by that inward and intimate Spring of immediate Concourse that should supply it in a most uniform and proportionable manner This great Organ of the World he turned it yet not so as that it could play upon it self or make any Musique by virtue of its own Composure as Durandus fancies but that it might be fitted for the Finger of God himself and at the presence of his powerful touch might sound forth the praise of its Creatour in a most sweet and harmonious way So then if where Man hath a Power he cannot act unless determined thereto of God how much less is he able to act graciously in spiritual Concerns without the immediate predetermining Work of God's Grace upon him Thou can'st not stir a foot nor move an Hand without God and can'st thou then run the way of his Commandments or touch the golden Scepter of his Grace without him Never think to come to God without strength from God nor to come to Heaven if God carry not thy Soul thither in the triumphant Chariot of his own Grace The Lord breathed into Adam the Breath of Life and then he became a living Soul So the Lord must breath into thy Soul the enlivening Breath of his own free Grace and then thou wilt no longer be dead but alive unto God If Christ will draw her †Cant. 1.4 the Spouse doth then promise that she will run after him Thus thou wilt never run after Christ nor love Christ nor have the least desire to Christ if first he draw thee not by his own Spirit sweetly over-powering thy will to embrace to chuse to love the best things ¶ John 1.13 Sicut in nativitate carnali omnem nascentis hominis voluntatem praecedit operis divini formatio sic in spirituali nativitate nemo potest habere bonam voluntatem motu proprio nisi mens ipsa reformetur à Deo Fulg. de gâ—â— lib. arb p. 758. The Power and Wisdom of God forming the Babe in the Womb that prevents and goes before all thought that the Child could have of its own formation Thus those that have the happiness to be conceived in the Womb of free Grace the Spirit of regeneration that prevents them with a principle of life before ever they could have so much as a thought of or a will to or the least groan of desire after their new Birth Lazarus he had never come out of the Grave at Christ's call if the Lord had not first put life into him Thus our good Works can never come out of the Grave of our unclean Hearts 'till God do first of all * Isa 26.12 work them in us Not that we are to think he doth formally believe repent and as one Person with us exert other vital actions of Grace according to that wild Opinion of some Libertines But that he as the Author doth by the efficacy of his own Holy Spirit working in us enable us to perform whatever Duties whatever Services whatever Conditions himself hath required as necessary to our Salvation * Certum est nos velle cum volumus sed ille facit ut velimus bonum de quo dictum est Deus est qui operatur in nobis velle operari Certum est nos facere cum facimus sed ille facit ut faciamus praebendo vires efficassimas voluntati qui dicit faciam ut in justificationibus meis ambulâ—tis judicia mea observetis faciatis August de liber arbitr Grat. cap. 4. Gratia non credit non resipiscit non sperat â—â—n obtemperat Deo sed homo per gratiam idem In the conversion of a lost Sinner unto God 't is Man that doth believe repent and will whatever is good and pleasing in the sight of God But yet 't is God as the sole donour of every such good and perfect gift that doth first bestow a renewed will and