Agency about Humane Actions and the Natural Liberty of Mans Will GOds part in all Humane Acts is to us unsearchable but this is sure that the way of his Operation on man is agreeable to the Nature of Man who is a free Agent The Natural Liberty of the Will is not a perfect Indifferency but an Indetermination with a Power of self-determining This self-determining Power of the Will makes us capable Subjects of Gods Moral Government by Laws And its present indetermination between Good and Evil is not a state absolutely best but most sutable to a Creature during his Probation in Order to a Future Confirmation 3. The Self-Determining Power of the Will is no Derogation from God THat which is ascribed to the Creature doth not always detract from the Creator For much of his Honour is in the nobleness of his Creature It his honour to make a Creature of so noble a Faculty as is this of self-determination And the Faculty and Exercise of it Exists no otherwise than as upheld and actuated by him The denying of this Self-determining Power in design of ascribing the more to God is clogged with these incongruities 1. Of limiting his Power as not able to make a Self-determining Creature 2. Of overthrowing his Moral Government by Laws Notwithstanding this noble Faculty mans will is not independently free but God is still Lord of it and disposeth it according to the counsel of his own will and can do with it as he pleaseth by a sapiential Government without a necessitating hand over it Yet that there may be and sometimes is a Divine Predetermination of it is not here denyed 4. Of Gods Physical and Moral Operation upon Mans Will IT is most congruous to the Nature of reasonable Creatures that the general course of Gods Government over them should be by Moral Means And it is also congruous that the Father of Spirits the God in whom we live move and have our being should have an inward and most intimate access tò our Spirits in his Operations God acts by his Essence and not by an Act that is an accident in him In his Physical Agency what there is between his Essence and mans Act effected by the said agency may be above the understanding of mortals to apprehend Some Express it by an inward urgency to the act whereby the mind is more disposed to it than it was before All that I can speak of it is this That the said urgency denotes no act of God besides his Essence but it is God himself so urging or influencing the mind of man without any alteration in himself 5. Of Commmon Concurse and Gracious Operation IT is most generally and safely said by Divines that Gods Acts on the part of the Agent are all one and all Eternal as being his Essence and that on the part of the Objects and Effects they are many and some of them new and temporary It is likewise wisely and humbly said that the comprehending of this passeth the understanding of mortal men In a sinners turning to God and in every holy act there is besides a common concurse from God as the Fountain of Nature a special Influence from him as the Fountain of Grace The diversity of the said Concurse and Influence is undiscernible by us in it self but in the Effects it is made manifest to us And that which on Gods part hath no difference is diversified to us in the Effect 6. God doth not Operate to the uttermost GOds Agency upon Mans will is not always in the same but generally in very different degrees For he doth not operate to the uttermost or to the infinity of his Power in every Effect that is wrought by him It is true that God is Infinite in Power and whatsoever he doth he doth it with an omnipotent facility But that his Power is equally or always irresistibly put forth in all his Agency on the Creature I apprehend not For if it were so it would follow that whatsoever is brought to pass comes under the highest Necessitation 7. God may so operate as to leave the Effect in part to Mans Will THat in some Cases God should Irresistibly Predetermine the Will to a good Act is not against its Essential Liberty For such Predetermination is not inconsistent with a Self-determining Power but only supposeth it to be subject to God's Omnipotence And it being to a good act it is a Premotion perfective of our Nature and to its well-being and therefore not unbecoming the Goodness of God Nevertheless the being of all Moral Good doth not necessarily require such Predetermination but God may so operate as to leave the Effect in part to the liberty of Mans Will Otherwise a man could do no good to which he is not necessitated Yet when man doth his part he doth it not independently on God but in a total subordination to him and by the Power and Liberty which God only gives upholds and actuates 8. How God is a Total and not a Partial Cause and wherein a Sole Cause THe Notion of a Partial Cause is properly applyed to that which is in coordination with other Causes and therefore not fit to be applyed to God to whom all things are wholly subordinate and nothing coordinate Yet seeing there are other Causes evidently in conjunction with him their own share in producing the Effect may be ascribed to them without Impeachment of his honour But it must be also considered that they have all their Causation from him and in him God and nothing besides him is the Cause of his own Act and so far he is both a total and solitary Cause But he is not the sole Cause of Mans Act because man himself is a Cause thereof in Subordination to him Yet he is a total Cause of the Act done by man as it is an Act and of all that is laudable in the Act. For none is coordinate with him or assistant to him in his Agency And whatsoever man doth be it that wherein his Privilege is greatest viz. the determining of his own will he doth it altogether as therein upheld and actuated by God and dependent on him 9. Gods Agency is not determined or limited by the Creature MEn do variously receive Gods Agency but they do not determine or limit it any otherwise than the various terminating of it may be called a determining or limiting of it And the variation is not of Gods act absolutely considered but as variously terminated on men according to their various disposition God hath enabled men freely and variously to receive his Influx So that it is not the Creature but God himself that determines his Agency by the condition of the Creature according to his own Will And men do not limit Gods Will but only the Effect which Gods Agency would produce if mans will concurred 10. How Gods Operation on man is never without Effect IF the good Effect in man doth not follow the Operation of God that is
Example the Negation of Gods Decree of the Persevering Obedience of some Angels was not a negation of what was causally necessary thereunto for then their Perseverance had been impossible which a sober judgment will not admit The non-existence of a thing not decreed follows the negation of the Decree only by a necessity of logical illation but not of causal deficiency or by a negation of any necessary Cause There is a Power properly so called or an adequate Power to an act wheresoever there is all the necessary causality of the first Cause also the Object and its necessary Position and the Capacity and necessary Predisposition of the Subject and an aptitude of the Natural Powers and the necessary concurrence of all Concauses And all these necessary Antecedents to an Act may and commonly do meet where there is no Divine Decree of the Act as is undeniable in the Case of the lapsed Angels whose Perseverance was fully Possible yet certainly not Future As Man hath a power to do that which God foreknows he will not do so he hath a Power to do that which God hath not decreed that he shall do As it is rightly said that it Cannot come to pass that any Good will exist without the Divine Decree so it is as rightly said that it Cannot come to pass that any Good will exist without the Divine Prescience But the Cannot in both Instances is in respect of Illation not of Causation 4. The indetermination of Mans Will doth not infer the Vncertainty of God's Decree A Thing may be certainly Future that is under the undetermined liberty of the Will Mans Power and Liberty of doing otherwise than God hath decreed doth no more infer a possibility of the frustration of his Decrees than his Power and Liberty of doing otherwise than God hath foreknown he will do doth infer an uncertainty of Gods foreknowledg Now it is undeniable that God can certainly foreknow that a man will do that which he hath power not to do and that he will not do that which he hath power to do Adam had power to resist the Temptation which God foreknew he would yield to The Power it self to do otherwise than as God hath decreed is foreknown and decreed and it is also foreknown and decreed That the said Power shall not do otherwise God's Decree is according to his Foreknowledg which is to us incomprehensible 5. God decrees all the Good that comes to pass IT is the perfection of God as God to be the Author of all Good as well Moral as Physical as well of common as of saving Grace And to be the Author of it is to decree and procure that it be done As it is the perfection of the Divine Intellect to understand all that is Intelligible so it is the perfection of the Divine Will to chuse all that is eligible or fittest to be chosen to come to pass It is agreeable to the perfection of Gods Providence that all the Good that is done in the World should be decreed and infallibly brought to pass by him As undoubtedly God doth effect every good Act that comes to pass so undoubtedly he doth decree it For whatsoever is the Object of Divine Operation is also the Object of Divine Volition Every good Act is an End or a Means to an End in the Course of Gods Providence and therefore it is decreed of him All the Ends of Providence are determined and consequently the Meanes to be made use of for the same are likewise determined Though I do not affirm that Gods Foreknowledg and Decree are of equal extent yet it seems not congruous that his Foreknowledg should be active and his Purpose or Will not active to any future Good Gods Foreknowledg of Evil infers though not a Decree of it yet a Decree about it that it shall be so and so disposed of for good so that by those who do what he willeth not he accomplisheth what he willeth 6. God doth not Will or Decree Sin IT must needs be held that whatsoever God doth he wills to do and whatsoever is the Effect of his agency he wills the same Consequently whatsoever he doth about a sinful Act he wills to do it and whatsoever is the Effect of his Agency about the said Act he wills the same Now there is a concurse of God as the Universal Cause to every Act and therefore to every sinful Act as an Act that is to so much as is in the general Nature of the said act And so much as this comes to he wills which is not Sin but only the Substratum Peccati But as he doth not concur to the sinful Act as it is this Act in specie and not the contrary so he doth not Will and Decree the Act as such in specie How the Divine concurse is yielded to sinful actions shall be explained in it proper place under the Head of Gods Efficience God Permitteth Sin But to Permit Sin is not to Will it but only not to Prevent its coming to pass God doth not Will the Essence therefore he doth not Will the Event or Existence of sin For the Existence of sin is but its Essence extra causas or in actual being To say that God doth not Will the Essence of sin but that the Essence thereof exist is very odd and to me unintelligible The Event or Existence of Sin is the Object of Gods Hatred therefore it cannot be the Object of his Will For the doth not Will what he hates If God willeth the Existence of Sin he willeth the committing of it and if he willeth the committing of sin then the committing of Sin is the fullfilling of his Will and if it be the fullfilling of his Will it is the Object of his Complacence and then he hath Complacence in the Violation of his Law Sin hath no Good in it and it works no good 'T is not sin but the feeling knowledg of sin that works Humillation and repentance It is to be noted That God doth not Will whatsoever he doth not Nill Between Volition and Nolition there is a middle thing viz. Non-volition Though God doth not simply Nill the Existence of sin yet he Nills it so far as that he hates it and severely forbids it and gives Necessary Power to avoid it 7. there is no need of holding that Sin is decreed of God IF the aforesaid Arguments be not strong enough to prove That God doth not decree Sin yet there is no need for any one in order to the salving of Gods Providence to hold that he doth decree it The Existence of Sin foreseen indeed but not decreed God makes advantage of for his Holy Ends it being under his Ruling Power He Wills the Good occasioned by Sin but he Wills not Sin as the occasion of Good All the Good that follows Sin not as the End follows the Means but as health follows the disease is decreed of God Seeing God over-rules all the Inclinations and Actions of
the Soul but also of External Means and Helps and an equal felicity of concurring Circumstances which make for that good which is to be effected thereby Yea that Grace may be in every respect equal there must be an equality of need in the persons receiving it For where there is more need the same degree of Divine Help is a lesser degree of Grace respectively considered than where there is lesser need as the same sum of money given to one that is more in want is a lesser ayd to him than to another that wants less A lesser degree of Divine Grace in one kind may be made up by a greater Degree thereof in another kind and so he that receives less in one kind than what another hath received in the same may be equal in the receiving of Grace with that other by receiving more than he in another kind It is not against the Righteousness or Goodness of God to vouchsafe a greater Degree of his Gracious Help to some more than to others whose condition towards him antecedently and in themselves is equal God considered as a Rector renders equally to all that are of equal merit or condition but as a Proprietor or Lord of his own he is not bound to equality For he may do with his own what he Will and none can challenge him for doing more for some than for others when he doth for all as much as is meet for him to do And thereupon he gives to some as he pleaseth such proportions of Grace to which he gave them no antecedent right by his Law of Grace or any Promise 11. Of unequal Proportions of Grace in respect of outward Means TO some the Gospel is revealed to others it is not revealed and yet the condition of them both antecedent to Gospel-Revelation was the same Of baptized Children of Christian Parents under the Turkish Tyranny being of equal condition towards God some are educated under their Parents in the Faith of Christ and others are taken from them in their Childhood and educated in Mahometan Infidelity In a place where true Religion is established and the true knowledg of God is taught two Females of equal condition may in their first Childhood be taken the one into a most Religious Family and there educated the other into a house of common Whoordoms and there educated There are innumerable such instances of different Grace toward those whose condition towards God antecedently was not different 12. Of unequal Proportions of Grace in respect of Divine Influx on the Soul IF it be so evident that unequal or special Grace in respect of external means is given in this manner what hinders but that Special Grace may be given in respect of Divine Influx on the Soul and such secret distinguishing Providences as are past our finding out And that there is a special Divine Grace towards some more than others under the same outward means seems clearly deducible from the Scripture Our Saviour gives this reason why some of his Hearers did understand and receive his Doctrine and others not because to some of them it was given to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom and to others it was not given Mat. 13. Of those that hear the same Doctrine of Salvation they only that obey the Doctrine are said to be taught of God and their being taught of God is set forth as the special Reason of their Obedience and a peculiar Benefit whereby they are discriminated from those that obey not Joh. 6. There was therefore a special teaching of them that obeyed different from the teaching of them that did not obey though both had the same outward means The Father 's drawing of some to Christ and not others of those that heard him preach Joh. 6. must needs be understood of such Divine Grace vouchsafed to some as was not to others For our Saviour renders this Reason of the different Effect of the same Word preached among his hearers that some were drawn to him by the Father and others not 13. A Stock of Grace is ordinarily given in unequal Proportions and arbitrarily THough every one hath some stock of Divine Grace to be improved yet I conceive that it is Gods ordinary way to give the same in unequal proportions and arbitrarily according to that distribution of the Talents in the Parable Mat. 25. without respect to antecedent different worthiness But as the Lord did arbitrarily distribute the Talents so he did it according to discretion In like manner doth the Wisdom of God guide him in the free distribution of the different Measures of his Grace Herein the depth of the Riches of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God is wonderful his judments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out There are unconditional Favours and in the arbitrary bestowing of them in unequal Measures God proceeds most agreeably to his own Absolute Dominion as also to the state of Sinful Man who can merit no such favour from him 14. Of the Notion of Effectual Grace THe denomination of Effectual Grace is not to be taken meerly from the Event but from the State and Quality of the Grace it self Now this term Effectual thus taken needs explication 1. It may signifie that which hath sufficient Power to effect For sufficiens ad esse est efficax ad posse In this sense Sufficient and Effectual Grace is all one 2. That which in the Nature of it hath a necessary connexion with the Effect as necessitating Causes 3. That which as such doth infallibly produce the Effect and is never frustrate 15. Conversion is the Effect of Grace qua talis effectual THere is such Divine Grace and that consisting not only in the preaching of the Word and other External Means but also in the Internal Operation of the Spirit as is rejected by men and becomes in vain to them There is also such grace as is qua talis effectual and doth infallibly produce the Effect for which it is given And all Moral Good more especially mans Conversion is an Effect of such Grace being an Operation of God proceeding from an Absolute Will that it shall not be made void God saith Ezek. 11. 19. I will put a new Spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh This promise signifies that God will effect the Change by an Operation that shall not fail and which implies the removing of any Obex that mans Will lays against it St. Paul saith Phil. 2. 14. It is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his own good Pleasure These words of working to will and to do of his own good pleasure can import no less than his infallible producing of the Effects of Willing and Doing Here note That for God to cause our act of willing and so of turning to him is to cause our Faculty so to will by a gracious influx upon it which shall not fail Our Lord Christ saith Joh.
designed thereunto yet that Operation is not without Effect For by it there is wrought in man a Power or Capacity for that Effect which doth not follow And that the Power in Man is not brought into act it is for want of Self-excitation God doth act wisely and sutably to his Government over man in giving him Power to such Effects as come not to pass I mean a Power properly so called and which is adequate to ' the Effect 11. God in giving â—e Power gives the Act whensoever the Act follows GOd giveth the very Will and Deed in giving the Power to will and to do If any have devised this Distinction that the Power of Willing and Doing is from God but that the very Willing and Doing is from men themselves it is a Distinction that I understand not For the Act is from him that gives the adequate Power to it more than from the Immediate Agent The Power here supposed to be given is seated in the Will and the Will by it is supposed to be fully enabled and sufficiently excited to act For God to give to will and to do I cannot comprehend what it is more than to give that compleat Power by which man doth will and do that is to give man the Faculty and rightly to dispose the Faculty to act and to sustain it in acting and likewise to ascertain the Act by his Decree according to his Prescience in a way unsearchable to us Though the power be one thing and the Act it self another thing yet undoubtedly he that gives the said Power doth therein give the Act it self He that gives the Power of Self-excitation to the Act and of all other Indeavour gives that very Self-excitation and Indeavour when it is in Act. And how God should have an Influx upon the Act otherwise than by his Influx on the Agent to give him active Power and Vertue I cannot conceive 12. Of Gods Agency about Sinful Acts. GOd as the Universal Cause doth concur to that which is the Substratum of Sin but is not Sin viz. to the Act as an Act or considered in the meer Nature and Physical being of an Act. This is not so to be understood as if the Effect of Gods Concurse were a Non-Existent Universal but a singular Act only according to its general Nature and as such it hath no morality or sinfulness In the Hatred of God the Physical Entity of Hatred is not Sin but as it is unduly terminated on God The Morality of a sinful Act or if you please to call it Immorality is as it is exercised on an undue Object and in undue Circumstances and as such God doth not concur to the effecting of it To concur to the effecting of the Act as having an undue Object Order End c. and not the contrary is to effect it as sinfully qualified or according to its moral specification and the formale Peccati For it is to effect the fundamentum of the Relation of disconformity to Gods Law which Relation is called the formale peccati and follows the said fundamentum by a bare Resultancy without any further Causation But no sober judgment will ascribe to God the Causation of the formale peccati 13. Gods not Effecting the sinful Act as morally specified infers not the Creatures Independency THe denying that God by his Efficience causeth mans Will to chuse the Forbidden Object and Refuse the contrary or to Will rather than to Nill the forbidden Object and the affirming that the sinful Act as morally specified or exercised upon the undue Object or in undue Circumstances rather than the contrary is to be resolved into Mans Will as the first Determining Principle not predetermined is less to be dreaded from the imagined Consequence of the multiplication of Deities or the Creatures Independency than the contrary Opinion is from those Consequences which really and palpably follow upon it The truth is that Faculty which cannot act without an irresistible Predetermination to all its Acts is not a Self-determining Faculty And was it ever proved a contradiction or utter impossibility for God to make a Creature with a self-determining Faculty Duely to consider how much every action of the Creature is from God and what that is which is left to undetermined liberty would not make one judg that it doth infer the Creatures Independency on God Let it be noted That Action is very much held to be not properly ens as distinct from the Agent but only a Mode of the Agent But however that be held the thing that is now in debate is not so much as Action qua Action but a Mode of Action And be it considered whether in such a Mode of Action the Humane Will may not be the first determining Principle without the multiplying of Independent Beings when the very self-determining Faculty and its Power of acting in such a Mode is wholly of God and is conserved in active power by him in every Instance and when God doth concur to that Act in genere Actus and that which is left to the Self-determining Will of Man is no Physical Being but only a comparative circumstantiated modifying of a Being In loving or hating an undue Object rather than a due there is no Physical Entity which is not in loving or hating a due Object rather than an undue In both there is no more Natural Entity than what is in the general nature of Love or Hatred as such 14. Of the Consequences that follow Physical Predetermination to all Humane Acts. THough I have a veneration for some men both for their Learning and Godliness who held Physical Predetermination to all Humane Acts as well bad as good yet I cannot receive the Opinion in regard of its Consequences For from this Opinion it will follow that all the sin that is done in the world can no more be avoided than Omnipotence be overcome that a man could no more do that Good Act whereof his sin is the Privation than he could make the world that all the sinful Deficiency that is in the world inevitably comes from the Negation of that Divine Efficience which is absolutely necessary to prevent it that the Covenant made with Adam in innocence and all the Laws of God that have been violated were impossible to be observed that when God hath Necessitated the Violation of his Law he Punisheth that Violation with Everlasting Punishments I do not charge those that held the Opinion but the Opinion it self with these Consequences And in this case to say that man sins Voluntary and upon Choice and therefore deservedly incurs the Punishment is but to put off a very harsh matter with fair words For if it be a Choice it is such a Choice as is made under an Invincible Necessitation And if this be not to sin under a meer Natural Necessity of sinning what is 15. Whether God doth Cause sin as it is a Punishment THat God doth punish sin with sin is undeniably evident from the
posse and in this regard that Rule posita causa in actu sequitur effectus is not here gainsaid For sufficient Grace where the good Act doth not follow is causa in actu only of the posse or moral Power which Effect exists and so the Operation is not without Effect And the good Act doth not follow because the Moral Power given by sufficient Grace is in act of Existence only but not of Causation 7. Of Grace sufficient to Conversion that doth not effect it THat grace may be sufficient for one which is not sufficient for another And that is properly Grace sufficient to Conversion which is thereunto sufficient with respect to the persons particular condition and necessity There may be Grace sufficient to certain Acts tending to Conversion which is not immediately sufficient to Conversion it self And there may be grace sufficient to Acts more remotely and in a lower degree tending to Conversion which is not sufficient to acts more nearly and in a higher degree tending to it Grace sufficient to an Act tending to Conversion may be called grace mediately sufficient thereunto And if so be that upon the improvement of it more grace from time to time gradually follow it may end in Grace immediately sufficient If Grace immediately sufficient were given to Adam for his Perseverance which did not effect it if the like be given to the Regenerate whereby they are enabled to do more good in the saving kind than they do and to the unregenerate also whereby they may do more good in the Common Kind than they do I discern no Reason why there may not also be Grace immediately sufficient to Conversion which doth not effect it I grant that a sinners Conversion may be an Effect of greater grace than Adam's Perseverance would have been and than the good Acts of the Regenerate are For there was in Adam and there is in the Regenerate an active holy Principle or Disposition I grant that Man in his fallen state doth need a change of the Will which Adam before his fall did not and the Regenerate do not need But this Change of the will is no other than Conversion it self And why there may not be sufficient grace to change the Will when it is not changed I cannot discern If any shall say there is no such Grace he ought to prove it from the Evidence of Scripture or from the impossibility of the thing 8. Whether the Holy Habit be effected before the first Act of turning to God IT may be objected That the effecting of the Habit Inclination or Principle in the Soul wherein man is meerly passive is first in order of Nature and the Soul's act of turning to God is consequent to it And consequently there can be no Sufficient Grace to Conversion but that which doth effect it and no man hath a Power to turn to God before the Holy Principle is infused To this I answer That this Hypothesis to say the least is unnecessary and unproved In what the Nature of a Habit doth consist is not easy to be understood as whether it be the firmness and vigor of the natural Faculty to such acts or a secret inperceptible constant act in the soul. But whether it be the one or the other there is no reason why it must needs go before the act I apprehend that the Act of turning to God is before that Holy Habit or fixed Principle which is called the New Nature at least that it may be so and that most ordinarily This way is more congruous to Gods Means of Conversion which work in the Nature of Moral Causes that do not immediately beget the Habit but the holy act or acts and the habit by the mediation thereof And in this case the influx and impress of Divine Grace is instead of the holy habit And the habit may be said to be infused when the Spirit of God doth excite the soul to the act and by that act or acts bring it to a setled habit Any other way of infusing habits I confess I am not able to apprehend If the Will doth without a precedent habit move to a spiritual good by the influx of the Holy spirit it doth not follow that a man moves without a Principle meerly by an extrinsick agency For the Will it self excited by Divine Grace is an intrinsick principle of Motion As a man moves himself by the locomotive faculty so he wills the Object by the volitive faculty and the act of Conversion is not by Gods extrinsick agency alone but also by an intrinsick Principle the will it self It is not necessary that the Will of a drunkard be habitually changed from drunkenness to sobriety before any acts of sobriety can be performed by him And though there be a greater change in sanctifying than in civilizing a man yet as a civil or common act may precede a habit so may a holy act If a man may commit a sinful act without a previous sinful Habit as Adam did and that from the intrinsick Principle of his own Free Will why may he not by the assistance of Divine Grace bring forth a Holy Act without a previous Holy Habit 9. The actual Prevalence of sin doth not gainsay the Sufficiency of Grace WHen mans evil Inclination hinders the good Effect that might come to pass through Divine Grace it is not because the evil Inclination is in it self stronger than the Grace which we call sufficient but because the Will makes not use of that sufficient help In this case the Will is not so far weak or obnoxious to depraved Inclination but that by the assistance of the Grace given it might prevail against it and effect the Good that is designed in that Assistance God giveth sufficient Help and they to whom it is given neglect it and give way to the prevalence of Corruption which might have been overpower'd by it Though none will say that Medicaments are Sufficient which are not Effectual when they are duly applied yet sufficient Medicaments when not duly applied may prove uneffectual If it be objected That the will it self resists the Divine Help that is given and as stronger than it overcomes it I answer that which is here called Resistance is not the Wills reaction upon the Divine Help or a breaking of its force but it is partly its wilful aversness from making use of that Help and it s not acting according to it and partly its willful rejecting of it and hardening it self against it In the mean time the said Divine Help is in its full force and vertue and sufficient to the designed Good and so remains till God withdraws it in his just indignation against the sinners wilful neglect and abuse of it 10. Equal Grace is not given to all whose condition towards God antecedently is equal THe measure and proportion of Divine Help given whether it be alike to all is to come under consideration In equal Grace there is not only an equality of Divine Influx on
so high a degree or specialty of Convenience to such a particular Will and yet it may not be simply incongruous but so far congruous as to be fully so much as is necessary and sufficient to produce the Effect though it follow not 21. Grace Effectual and meerly Sufficient are variously diversified THough in Effectual Grace God so operates as that the Effect shall follow yet it cannot be proved that there is always a difference ex parte influxus divini between that which effects and that which effects not It may lye in the different congruity of the Means and circumstantial Helps and in the different receptivity of the person And it is to be noted That the said congruous Means circumstantial Helps and Receptivity of the Person are all of Gods own Ordaining and Effecting By Receptivity here I mean not the soft heart opposite to the heart of Stone which is the Effect of Grace effectual and which is no other than Conversion or the heart turning it self but an antecedaneous disposition which is also the Gift of God and may be a considerable while before Conversion or only in the instant immediately foregoing it and it is a better disposedness to the using of Divine Helps both Internal and External 22. Of Mens ordinary Preparedness for Grace Effectual I doubt not but Effectual Grace may take hold of a less prepared Subject I mean less prepared even in the instant immediately before Conversion also that it may work by less sutable means Yet I believe that as in the Works of Nature so in the Works of Grace God doth more ordinarily work upon the more prepared Subjects and by the more congruous ways and means That Scripture Tit. 3. 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us expresly speaks of Salvation and not of the first Conversion And it doth not intend the excluding of Faith Repentance and Obedience in order to Salvation but the Works of Legal Righteousness If the first Conversion be comprehended in the Salvation there spoken of yet it doth not intend the excluding of Necessary Preparedness but it may intend to exclude the necessity of the Works of Natural Righteousness and that kind of Vertue that is in meer Natural Men and was found in many Heathens As for Paul's Conversion it is an extraordinary Instance and may not be urged against what is done in Gods ordinary way Towards unprepared Souls suddenly converted there is an extraordinary Operation of God both in respect of the Internal Impress on the Soul and the extraordinary Outward Means Moreover none can disprove a more special preparedness in Paul or Manasse or other most heinous Offenders in some instant of time before the Saving Change Receptivity and Congruity for Grace doth not always-lye in mens fair carriage or more orderly behaviour or in being less notorious sinners Our Saviour said that Publicans and Harlots should enter into the Kingdom of Heaven before Scribes and Pharisees as having a greater aptness than they to close with Grace not by reason of their greater sinfulness but their Conviction and Humiliation occasioned by the review thereof 23. How the Effect of Grace left in part to undetermined Free-will can be ascertained WHatsoever Contingency be in the Created Will and uncertainty thereupon in the Created Intellect with God there can be no Uncertainty no nor Contingency any otherwise than as it denotes Liberty To remove Uncertainty about Events from God I conceive it is not necessary to hold either a naturally necessitating Premotion or an insuperable Moral Operation upon Free Agents to all their Acts. All that I can say in this difficulty is That God can and doth in a way past our understanding ascertain Events left in some part to mans Undetermined Liberty It is undeniably evident as concerning sin that though God cannot be said to ascertain it because he doth not decree nor effect it yet he doth certainly foreknow it though mans Will doth freely and contingently determine it self to it Surely the Scantling of our narrow Apprehensions and our manner of Knowledg is no Rule or Standard whereby we may confidently determine of the Ways of his Foreknowledge whose Understanding is Infinite Eternal and Unchangeable It is most certain that God foreknew the Fall of Mankind and of some Angels which was contingent in it self and from no Necessitating Cause in respect of any Creature or any Divine Decree or Operation And if God hath the Foreknowledg of one Future Contingent by the same Reason he hath the Foreknowledg of a World of them In this incomprehensible Divine Foreknowledg and ascertaining of what is left to the undetermined Liberty of the Will there is no repugnancy in Reason nor do there follow from it any such Inconveniences in Gods Government as do evidently follow either a necessitating or an insuperable Premotion of the Human Will to all its Acts. 24. Mans Will doth not that which is more and greater than what Divine Grace doth when the Effect is in some part left to it THere is an Objection which though somewhat curious must be taken notice of The Act of Repenting and Believing is something more and greater than the Ability or Power to Repent and Believe and is more conducing to Salvation Now though the Power of Repenting and Believing be made the Effect of Grace yet the Acts themselves are made the Effects of Mans Will if they be left in part to the undetermined Liberty thereof To this it is answered 1. Though the Acts of Repenting and Believing be more and greater than to have Power to the said Acts yet to give the whole Power which is Gods part is more and greater than both the Power and the consequent Acts. Therefore though in actual Repenting and Believing a man doth more to salvation than in having the Power yet God in giving the Power as a total Cause thereof doth that which is more and greater in order to Salvation than Man himself doth who receives the Power and acts according to it The Glory and Praise of an Act is infinitely more to be ascribed to God who as a total Cause gives the whole Power to do it than to man that doth it And so the glory of Mans Salvation yea and of his Conversion is infinitely more to be ascribed to God than to man 2. In the present case the actual willing to Repent and Believe though it be of the Will formally as its Act yet it is of God effectively as his Work And so in every good Act though man be the subject of Willing and Doing yet it is God that worketh in man to Will and to Do. I cannot comprehend what it is for God to work in us to will and to do more than to be the total Cause of all that Power by which we will and do And I do not understand any other immediate influence of God into the Act it self than that which is into the Agent Power