already if he would use them He that only shews another what he has to doe and offers reason to perswade him to do it not taking any other course to strengthen him for it takes it for granted that he is afore-hand able for it Now this is all that their Moral Grace pretends to it shews the Sinner that it is his Duty to turn to God c. and uses Arguments to move him to it but gives no other strength for it than what this Advice includes which as Perswasion or Advice does indeed give none at all but plainly supposes it in being They say a Sinner under the Influence of this Moral Grace is able to Convert and Regenerate himself to beget himself to a New Life But if he be able his Ability is from Nature and the Power of his natural Faculties was not from Grace seeing this their Grace is not for the giving of Ability where it is not but only for exciting it where it is before 2. As the Power for these great Concerns of Salvation is not from God or his Grace so neither is the Act from him For 1. That which gives or works the Act determins the Will or causes it to determin it self but the Lord by this Grace which is all they own brings it only to the Wills choice and leaves it to do as it list and so plainly leaves the Act to it self so that if the Soul do actually Believe or Repent or turn to God this is of it self their Grace leaves the Will indifferent to act or not to act and so no more works the one than the other and is no more the Cause that it acts than that it acts not It leaves it to the Will either to yield or refuse if it yield it is not from Grace but the Will. Grace leaves it in the Power of the Will to resist if it resist not it is from the Will not from Grace The Lord by his Power works not the Will to turn to God to love to embrace Christ to yield to the Spirit but leaves it indifferent to turn to God or against him to love God or to hate him to embrace Christ or reject him to yield to the Spirit or resist him It must be left indifferent as to either Grace turns not the Scales but leaves the Will at an equal poise that the Will of Man not the Grace of God may have the casting weight if Grace should weigh it down the Liberty of the Will they say would be violated and its Nature desâ—oyed 3. Nay their Grace is so far from working the Will to actual Faith or Holiness that by their account it seems to lead a man into Sin and leave him in it for it is a Sin for a man to be Indifferent whether he Believe or Believe not whether he accept Christ or reject him whether he love or hate him But all that this Grace does to the Will is to bring it to such an Indifferency and so the Grace of God with them does no other no better Office for a Sinner than to bring his Soul into a wicked Posture and in that Posture it does and must leave the Will to it self and there left if the Will be no better to it self than Grace is or can be it shall never come into a better Posture Nay further the Lord is so far from Determining the Will and so from causing the Act by making it willing that it is impossible for him to do it They say as was shewed before that the Will cannot be determined by God himself without destroying it they will have it an Inconsistency and to imply a Contradiction And thus the Lord is so far from being the Worker or real Cause of actual Faith Conversion Sanctification that it is impossible he should be the Cause thereof he is so far from actually working these that he cannot do it Let me but add one Argument more This Grace is given equally to all and effects no more in one than another and therefore can be no more the Cause of actual Conversion in those that turn to God than in those that are never converted works Regeneration no more in those that are sanctified than in the unregenerate i. e. works it not at all is no Cause of it The Lord by vertue of this Grace gives actual Faith and Repentance no more to those that Believe and Repent than to such as persevere in Impenitency and Unbelief gave Faith no more to Paul than to Judas Repentance no more to Peter than to Simon Magus i. e. he gives it not at all This is the clear consequence of their Doctrine The Lord is not the Author and Finisher of our Faith or of our Repentance nor the real Cause of Conversion or Sanctification and other saving Blessings and so not the Author of Salvation It is not by his Grace but of our selves both as to the Power and the Act in direct opposition to the Text and the whole strain of the Gospel And it is as reconcileable with Scripture and the Perfections of God to say he is not the Creator of the World or the Author of any thing as to say he is not the Author or real Cause of those great Concerns of Salvation 4. This leads them to deny Original Sin. They must of necessity make little or nothing of the Corruption of our Nature since they will have their Swasive Grace to be a sufficient Relief against it as if all the Sin in mans Nature could be argued out of him without more adoe and all the Power of Corruption natural and contracted too might be effectually subdued and crucified by rational Advice whereas this Moral Swasion is of it self of no Efficacy at all for this purpose and appears to be so in that it effects no such thing in far the greatest part of those who partake of it as much as any but leaves them altogether as corrupt as it found them I cannot discern that they will acknowledge any corruption at all to be in the Will tho Scripture and Experience shew that it is most of all there The Will seems to be now as sound by their Doctrine as it was in Innocency nor stands it in need of more help by Grace than Adam before the Fall for then he had and needed Swasive Grace In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Here is the Duty propounded and the Proposal inforced with a powerful Motive by God himself that is the sum of Swasive Grace which the Lord seeing needfull for our first Parents did thus administer it as far from Corruption as it was then And if the Will need no more now it is as free from Corruption as it was then Thus for the Affections there must be no more Corruption in them than in the Will these being but the Acts and Motions of it Or if they will consider them as in the Sensitive Appetite yet common Illumination is enough to heal it there for
Preaching we confess for the most part to be such men that their Vertues do deserve no less Epist contr Walach p. 44. For those who have the Gospel God is ready to give further Grace to them if they would be worthy Hearers as they may be if they would use their Free-will well in hearing But there are some worthy hearers of the Gospel and some unworthy says Corvinus and sufficient Grace is not given to all promiscuously who hear sed iis qui digni sunâ— evangelii auditores but to those In Twiss 387. who are worthy hearers Which is in effect as tho' he spoke out and said It is given according to Merit which is all point blank against the Apostle 2 Tim. 1. 9. Tit. 3. 4. This they extend to the Fountain of all the eternal Purpose of God. All the Grace which is comprized in the Election of Grace will be ordered according to Merit Election of particular Persons depends upon their Faith or Works foreseen The Lord foresees who will believe and because they will believe upon the account of this good act he does elect them so they are elected according to Merit But does he not purpose from Eternity to give Faith in time No by no means for if he had decreed this they would be under some Necessity to believe and such Necessity is not consistent with the Liberty of mans Will. Therefore it must be left to their Free-will whether they shall believe or no and when God foresees that they shall make so good use of their Free-will as to believe then upon that account he elects them In plain English he chooses those whom he foresees will merit the Election of Grace by the good use of Free-will Nay all the Grace in the great and precious Promises and in the whole Covenant of Grace will be according to Merit For they will have the accomplishment of all suspended upon some Condition such a condition as is to be performed meerly by the power of Free-will assisted by no Grace at all but that gentle excitement which they call Swasion which enables not the Will to perform the Condition but plainly speaks it able before hand Such a condition performed is indeed a Cause a moving and engaging Cause and no less Merit than that which the ancient Church condemned in Pelagius For it is a good Act performed by our own strength upon the account of which the Grace of the Covenant is vouchsafed which a Jesuit will not deny to be the Merit that is under the Curse and Execration of Synods and Fathers twelve hundred years agoe Their other Principles overthrow the Grace of God and lay it prostrate but this quite destroyes it and makes it no Grace if the Apostles arguing be good Reason Rom. 11. 6. 3. This Doctrine which owns no more Grace and ascribes so much to Free-will makes God not to be the workeâ— or real Cause of the spiritual and saving blessings of Conversion and Regeneration nor the Author and Giver of Faith Repentance Holiness These are rather to be ascribed to Man than unto God. This will appear 1. In general Conversion Regeneration Sanctification Perseverance and what else of this nature is required to our Salvation is to be attributed to a mans self more than the Spirit of Grace they are the Effects and Aâ—chievements of Free-will rather than of Grace A man Converts and quickens himself Regenerates and begets himself Creates himself so far as he is a New Creature and upholds himself when he is created This seems strange and uncouth not to say absurd and horrid but there is plain Reason for it such as may convince any who will yield to evident Reason Grace however considered either in Election or Redemption or the Holy Spirits Operations does no more for the quickening and Regenerating of those who are converted than it does for those who are never converted therefore it is not Grace but something else that does the work If the Lord had done no more for the making of this World than for making of other Worlds that were never made the Creation of the World could never have been ascribed to him If Christ had done no more to raise Lazarus from the dead than he did to raise others who continued dead in their Graves he could not have been said to raise him to Life He that does no more towards the effecting of a thing than when it is not done at all he cannot be said to do it Now Grace does no more for the quickening of those that are alive to God than for those who are still dead and will be so for ever Therefore it is not Grace that does the work it must be ascribed to something else not to the Spirit of Grace but to a mans self and his own Free-will This is evident in the Nature visible in the very Complexion of their Moral Grace This which is all the Grace they own consists in Swasive Proposals Now he that only perswades or propounds the doing of a thing does not thereby do it at all but would have you to do it your selves and supposes you can if you will. So that this is the plain Import of their Doctrine that men can convert and quicken themselves and do it if it be done However any be said to be born of God yet they may beget themselves However they be said to be the Lords Workmanship created of Christ Jesus unto good works ver 10. yet they are their own Workmanship and make themselves new Creatures However the Apostle saith ver 1. You hath he quickned yet indeed they raise themselves to life And since they do it themselves to themselves they may in all reason ascribe it and accordingly glory in it The Crown is not to be cast at the seet of him who sits on the Throne Grace is to have neither Throne nor Crown that is to have the Crown which does the work Free-will does it and this must wear it 2. More particularly it is manifest that they make not God to be the real cause of those saving works or the giver of those Spiritual Blessings because by their Doctrine neither the Power nor the Act can be ascribed to him For they say he does nothing to this purpose but by vertue of Moral Grace And it is evident that this or He by this gives neither the Power nor he Act c. 1. Swasive Grace or the Lord by swaâ—ive Proposals gives no man power to beâ—ieve or turn to God it rather supposes that he has it already before or without this Grace The vertue of it of all the Grace they own is only that of Advice or Suasion and no man reasonably perswades or advises another to be able but only to be willing to use what already he has He that holds forth a Light to a Man lying on the ground and moves him with Arguments to rise and walk does not thereby give him Legs and Strength but supposes he has these
and so without more adoe is Converted and Regenerated There is the rise of Holiness afterwards by determining it self again and again it acquires a habit and that is a free and permanent Quality That the Will exercises Hoorâ—b tom 1. p. 316. increases strengthens and confirms Holiness as it began it by determining it self It has Power to do this in and of it self and nothing else does or can do it The Spirit neither by this Light nor by any other gracious Influence does or can determine it Nor does the Will need any thing for the exercise of its Power but only Light to make a sufficient discovery of the Duty or Object propounded Thus all the Motions Operations Assistances of the Spirit of Grace are confined to this Light All its healing strengthening quickening and establishing Vertue amounts to no more than this The Soul neither has nor needs any spiritual Life Health Strength or Motion either first or last but what this does effect and yet it effects no such thing in far the most that have it For those have it no less than others who are in the style of Scripture not only in the dark but Darkness And if it have any more effect upon others than it has upon the Children of darkness yet this efficacy it must have from Free-will not of it self nor of the Spirit whom they call its Author otherwise it would be equally effectual in all since all have it equally and the Spirit is supposed to give it equally to all And if the Spirit of Christ give it not its Efficacy and Vertue but it owes this only to Free-will it is of no worth as iâ— proceeds from the Spirit of no more value than a fruitless and ineffectual thing of no Vertue and so of no value but what it derives from Mans Will. Now what Honour is it to the Spiriâ— of Christ to ascribe to him a fruitless a worthless thing They seem to honour the Spirit as much who will borrow no light at all from him but count the light of Reason with the help of the written Word sufficient And what great difference is there betwixt them who ascribe nothing at all to the Spirit and those that ascribe to him that which is nothing worth That which is fruitless and ineffectual of no Vertue of no Value but but what it owes to Mans Will may as well be ascribed to humane Reason aâ— the divine Spirit 17. It tends to destroy the Mediation of Christ That liberty which they make essential to Mans Will makes Christ uncapable of being the Mediator between God and Man and so tends to ruine all the concerns of God and Man in Christs Mediation For either the Will of Christ was undeclinably fixed upon that which is Good and Holy so that it could not to Disobedience and Wickedness And if so it had not that indifferency to good and evil in which they place the liberty of Mans Will and count it essential thereto so that it cannot be a humane Will without it and then Christ wanting that which is essential to humane Nature was not indeed a Man nor did assume our Nature consequently could not be the Mediator between God and Man being not the Man Christ Jesus Or if his Will was not undeclinably fixed on that which was good but left in a state of indifferency to that or the contrary so that he might have observed his Fathers Will or not observed it might have loved him or not loved him might havâ— fulfilled all righteousness or not fulfilled it And if he might have sinned or not sinned then he was not God for he that is God cannot sin So that as they state the freedom of Mans Will either he was not Man or he was not God and either way he could not be Mediator who must be both Thus all the advantages Sinners have by his Mediation perish and all the Glory the Lord designed to himself thereby is blasted by the extravagant Doctrine of Free-will 18. It defaces Redemption by Christ and leaves little or no place or no necessity either of Satisfaction or Merit in his Obedience and Sufferings 1. He did not merit Faith or Regeneration or Holiness or Perseverance for all or for any particular Persons They declare expresly that it is foolishly said that Christ procured Faith or Regeneration for any Their Principles ingage them to maintain this for if he merited these for any it would have been necessary that these should have been wrought in some of the Redeemed it would have been necessary that some or other of them should be Believers regenerate and sanctified and stedfast unto the end but all such necessity they deny as inconsistent with that freedom of Mans Will which they contend for It must not be under any necessity either from the Decree of God or the Purchase of Christ Faith Repentance Sanctification Perseverance must be meer Contingencies in respect of those former Causes or else they could not be free Acts in respect of the Will their next Cause Christ by his Death and Merit must not be the Author or Cause of these though there be no Pardon or Life without them so much must not be ascribed to his Merits lest too little be left to Free-will 2. Upon the same Account Christ did not Merit Pardon or Salvation for any one certainly and so his Death makes neither the Means nor the End certain After he had done and suffered so much been obedient unto Death made his Soul an Offering for Sin and obtained Eternal Redemption by his Blood yet there was no Necessity that any one Sinner should have Pardon and Life no Certainty that any one would be Pardoned and Saved Christ left this altogether uncertain and not to be determined but by Mans Free-will After Christ had finished the Work of Redemption as all might have been Saved so all might have been Damned There was no Value Efficacy Merit or Satisfaction in Christs Death or Obedience to make more sure Work It was left at uncertainty as it were at hap hazard whether Salvation or Damnation should carry it and Free-will alone must have the honour to determine it Christ they say procured Grevincov in Ames Coron p. 142. by his Death a Power to destroy Unbelievers So that he no more Purchased Salvation than Damnation he is by Vertue of his Death and Obedience no more a Redeemer than a Destroyer of Mankind Whether he should prove a Saviour of any or a Destroyer of all is left to the arbitrement of Free-will There was they say Idem no other Necessity nor Advantage nor Value in the Death of Christ but what might have been perfectly salved though all the Redeemed had Perished Eternally They declare for an Universal Redemption and that equally extended to all and every one and so would seem to magnifie it more than others Yet indeed it is no other Redemption of all but such as is very well consistent with the Damnation of