Scripture he punisheth Voluntary Hardness of heart with Judicial Hardness Nevertheless though to Punish be Gods Act yet he doth not properly cause the penal sin but in his Righteous Judgment he denies to give that help of Grace which is needful to keep a man from such sin and which is forfeited by the abuse of Grace already received He doth also justly expose the sinner to more and greater Temptations Hereupon the sin which is the Punishment of former sin certainly follows But there is no Causation or Agency of God to the effecting of the sin only by his Righteous Judgment it is ordered to be a Punishment of former sin 16. Sin doth not necessarily follow the permission of it IF the Humane Will had been bent to sin by a Natural Inclination as the fire burns sin must have necessarily followed upon the permission of it But first man sinned with Freedom and Choice and without any previous inclination to it and therefore the bare Permission of it which is no more than a Non-prevention doth not infer a Necessity of sinning Nor did it causally ascertain the Event of sin For it hath no Causation in it Yea the first man sinned not only by Free Choice and without a Previous Inclination to it but also against a Holy Inclination to Obedience called Original Righteousness This holy Inclination though it was not so natural as burning is to fire that is naturally inseparable yet it was necessary to Humane Nature in its right state and as it first came out of its Makers Hands and under the Necessary Influence of God which was with him it was so fully sufficient to his Perseverance in that state that his sin was a matter of inexcusable Ingratitude and high Contempt of the Divine Goodness towards him In the state of Fallen Nature the Will hath lost its Freedom to acts conformable to Gods Law and is enslaved to sin And while God permits him to abide in this state man sinneth Necessarily yet not by reason of Gods Permission but his own Vicious Inclination This Necessity of Sinning is not purely Natural but Moral which is also Voluntary being from no other Cause than the obstinate Depravedness of the Will it self which is not to be conquered by its own Power Moreover it is not a Necessity of the very particular sins which men run into as if they were inevitabe For ordinarily the particular sinful deeds committed might be forborn and the Duties omitted might be performed as to the outward deed But the meaning is whatsoever an unrenewed person doth hath necessarily in the manner of it a disconformity to Gods Law A Corrupt Tree cannot bring forth Good Fruit. PART III. Of the Operations of Divine Grace 1. What is signified by Divine Grace FOr the clearer understanding of all Points to be discussed touching Divine Grace it is requisite that the meaning of Grace in general and of all the kinds thereof be explained By Divine Grace in general is understood whatsoever is graciously vouchsafed on Gods part in order to mans Duty and Felicity whether it be the Divine Operation or the Effect hereof in man Sometimes men call the first saving Operation of God to the renewing of the Soul by the name of the First Grace but it is not so indeed For abundant and manifold Grace is vouchsafed before that Whatsoever is from God over and above Humane Nature and Faculties and his general concurse in themselves considered is to be comprehended under this Term. Nature and Gods upholding thereof in it self considered is not to be called Grace but Gods reprieving of Nature in order to its recovery is his Grace through-Christ and so the continuing of our Reason and Free Will and all our Faculties in this state of Tryal is of Grace And Nature in it self considered is the Subject that Grace works upon For Grace doth not put into us any such thing as we call a Natural Faculty but the Rectitude of the Faculty or that which tends thereunto And all the degrees of the healing and restoring of our depraved lapsed Nature are so many degrees of Grace obtained for us by Christ. In sum under Divine Grace in general may be comprehended Gods Ordinances Providences secret Influences and Eternal Purposes or the gracious Effects and Consequents thereof in man 2. The meaning of some Distictions of Grace that are commonly used THere is Grace Objective and Subjective By Objective Grace is meant the Law or Covenant of Grace which is stiled in Scripture the Grace of God that bringeth salvation together with all the external Signs and Evidences thereof either in the Works of God and the course of his Providence towards Mankind or in his written Word By Subjective Grace is meant all internal gracious operations of God on man over and above his general concurse together with the impression and disposition made thereby in the Soul There is Grace Common and Special By Common Grace many understand that which is common not to all but to more than the Elect and by Special Grace that which is peculiar to the Elect or to a state of Salvation But these terms are not necessarily restrained to this meaning For there is a common Grace not only as given to more than the Elect but as given to all men And there is a Special Grace wherein God freely favours one man more than another and yet it may be below that which is peculiar to a state of Salvation Grace of the same kind may be considered as given to several persons in equal or unequal measure There is also Grace Sufficient and Grace Effectual Sufficient Grace is that by which we can do the Good to which it is said to be sufficient and without which we cannot do it and therefore it is also called Necessary Grace Effectual Grace is that which as such doth take Effect and is never frustrate 3. Of Vniversal Grace I Think the Notion of Grace ought not to be restrained to Favours or Benefits vouchsafed to some and not to others but whatsoever God gives which in his Justice according to the Law of Works he might refuse to give is truly called Grace though it be given to all And the most Common Grace is so far of free-choice as that God might justly have refused to give it That there is an universal Objective Grace appears by the general Law of Grace or the Conditional Grant of Life and Salvation to all Mankind The Grace of the external Signes and Evidences of the said General Grant is likewise Universal in some degree For in the course of Gods Providence towards Mankind his mercy to sinners is very legible particularly his Reconcileableness to them upon their Repentance The Mercy of God towards men in general tends to lead them to Repentance and seeking after God Act. 17. 27. And this supposeth God to be reconcileable otherwise there were no ground for Repentance If there be such Universal Objective Grace what hinders that there should not
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
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
A Humble ENDEAVOUR Of some Plain and Brief EXPLICATION OF THE Decrees and Operations of God About the FREE ACTIONS of MEN More Especially Of the Operations of DIVINE GRACE Written by Mr. JOHN CORBET late Minister of CHICHESTER LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel 1683. THE PREFACE THe things here discussed I have studied many years and what by the Writings of Learned Men and by discoursing with them and by my own ratiocination grounded on the Holy Scripture I have apprehended nearest the Truth which I have been feeling after I have collected in this narrow Scantling I have been led into this search not out of vain Curiosity but an honest Desire to gain as clear a Knowledge in these Points as I can reach to that I might be able with more assurance to unfold the same to others as far as is requisite for their Edification Though the Counsels and Wayes of God cannot be found out unto Perfection yet the Light of Scripture and Nature leads us to think and speak of them so as is most agreeable to his Infinite Wisdom and Goodness and so as his Justice and Truth may be cleared and the freeness and largeness of his Mercy magnified and that the glorious Power of his Grace and the deplorable weakness of Fallen Man may be acknowledged and that penitent Sinners may be sufficiently incouraged and that the impenitent may be evidently self-condemned That which is set down in this Enquiry is mostly in order to the clearing and confirming of the Principles here following 1. The help of Divine Grace is the prime and main Cause of all the Good that dwells in us and that is done by us But our own Wills are the main Cause of the Evil that is done by us and of our abiding in that Evil State into which our Nature is fallen and God is no Cause thereof at all 2. God doth decree to bring some to Salvation by his Free Grace and Love And he doth not decree to damn any but for sin as the Cause of their damnation which sin he doth not decree nor effect but foresee 3. God doth ascertain the Conversion and Salvation of his Elect but he doth not effect it without their own concurrence in a subordinate way I speak of those that attain to the use of Reason not of Infants Ideots and Mad-men whose Case is of different and peculiar nature 4. Though Election doth infer a Certainty that the Elect shall attain to Grace and Glory yet Non-election doth infer no Necessity of the sin and damnation of the Non-elect save only that which is called Necessitas consequentiae or Necessity in order of Argumentation and is Necessity but improperly so called and implies no Necessitation of the Event 5. Though God doth not simply will the Event of the Conversion and Salvation of all to whom the Gospel is made known yet he wills it so far and in such manner as doth abundantly declare his good will towards men and doth assure the diligent of good success in their indeavours and doth convict the negligent of being inexcusable despisers of his Grace towards them 6. God hath given us all some help of grace more or less in order to our Spiritual Recovery The said help may be improved by us to the obtaining of more And it is not Gods ordinary way to deny more help or to withdraw what is given but upon the abuse of what is given and the resisting of what is offered and for our not doing not only what we ought but what we might do According to these Principles I have proceeded My indeavour hath been accompanied with a sense of my own great defectiveness in the Knowledge of these things But I have done as I was able and am willing to know wherein soever I have erred The perfect clearing of all things and the solving of all doubts in these Mysterious Points may be above the reach of mortal men The great Apostle said We know but in part But Truths of the greatest Moment and Evidence may not be disbelieved or doubted of because we cannot solve all Difficulties about lesser and obscurer Questions relating to those grand Truths PART I. Of the Decrees of God about the Actions of Men. 1. What the Divine Decree of an Event doth import TO Decree a Thing is to will and purpose its coming to pass and it supposeth that the Thing is judged Convenient If it be a sure Decree it implies that the Decreer can and will so provide that it shall infallibly come to pass Gods Decree of an Event is a willing and purposing of it as Convenient It s Convenience he knows by the knowledg of simple intelligence and being decreed he knows it as a Future Convenient by the knowledg of Vision and is pleased with it As Gods Efficience is concern'd in the Event decreed the Decree of the Event includes the Decree of the said Efficience That whatsoever God doth in time he hath eternally decreed to do I suppose is unquestionable And for as much as no Humane Act comes to pass without his concurse he hath undoubtedly decreed the concurse that he yields to it And there is the same reason of the Decree of whatsoever on Gods part is antecedently necessary as the giving of all Necessary Power Preparatives Means Concauses Objects all which are unquestionably decreed of God 2. The Divine Decree doth not infer the Necessitation of the Event THough the Existence of the Event depends upon Gods Efficience yet something thereof he may put under the Creatures undetermined Liberty Under this Liberty he may put the comparative determination of the Will to act rather than not to act and to act towards such an Object rather than another Surely it is too high presumption for man to say that God cannot Decree or firmly Will that humane act which is in part suspended on mans Will for instance to say God could not decree Adam's Perseverance in the state of Innocence if it were in any part left to his own liberty to stand or fall Now if such an Assertion be an apparently presumptuous limitation of God besides other great inconveniences to be objected against it then it may more safely and rationally be held that Gods Decree of a humane act is very agreeable to the leaving of it in some part to the undetermined liberty of mans will though to unfold the Agreement be very difficult to humane Understanding In short though the Decree cannot consist with the contrary Event yet it may consist with the possibility of the contrary and so it doth not in it self infer a Necessitation of the thing decreed 3. The Negation of the Decree doth not infer an impossibility of the Event GOd's Decree is not necessary to an Event by way of causation Consequently the negation of the Decree is not a negation of what is causally necessary thereunto and so it doth not infer an impossibility thereof As for
his Creatures his not decreeing of Sin doth not at all lessen his Providence about sinful Actions 8. A Decree to permit Sin is not necessary TO Permit is not to Act and not to Act is nothing and of nothing there is no Decree at least there is no need of a Decree No more is needful to a Not-being than Gods not Willing and not Effecting Consequently there is no Decree of the Permission of Sin at least there is no necessity of holding such a Decree It may be Objected That a Non-esse is the Object of Gods Will when he wills that some Evil Action shall not come to pass The answer is That in such a case the thing that God properly wills is his restraining and limiting of mens evil Inclinations and Actions and the Non-esse of those Actions is said to be willed by him but improperly and reductively as being the Consequent of that which he properly Wills And his Will is further terminated on the good Consequence of his preventing the said Evil Actions It may be likewise objected If a man may rightly say I will or Purpose to permit why may not God rightly say so The answer is that when a man makes such a Determination it commonly means a Purpose of restraining the Inclination or Will that is or may be in him to hinder the thing and the said Purpose is further terminated on the Consequents of the Permission and the ordering of them So God may be said to Will or Purpose a Permission as he wills or purposeth the limiting of his restraining Agency and as this Will and purpose is also terminated on the Consequents of the thing permitted and the disposal thereof by his Providence 9. The Effect of Sin may be the Object of Gods Decree THough God decree no mans sin yet he may decree the Effect which sinners cause by sin So God decreed the death of Christ and the passive constupration of David's Concubines but he decreed not the sin of the Actors Accordingly such places of holy Scripture as seem to import Gods Willing the sins of men do indeed signifie no more than the Effects of their sins as willed by him Though sin hath no Good in it and works nothing Good in it self and cannot be willed of God as a thing convenient or conducible yet it may be an occasion of the greatest Good and it may work an Effect which though bad in it self I mean Physically bad may be conducible to Good and so far the Effect may be willed as convenient If it be objected That a Decree of the Effect one would think doth imply a Decree of the Cause The answer is 1. That the meer decreeing of a thing includes no more than a willing that it shall be joyned with a Knowledg of its convenience And so a Decree of the Effect of sin doth imply a Foreknowledg of the conducibility of that Effect to some Good yet it no way implyes a Decree of the sin but only a Foreknowledg of it 2. Though God doth not Decree mans sin yet he decrees his own concurse to the Act in its general nature but not as morally specified He decrees also the disposing and ordering of all Concauses and necessary Antecedents of the Effect which sinners accomplish And this with his Foreknowledg of the sin it self sufficeth to a Decree of such an Effect 10. Of the Futurition of Sin from Eternity THat the Futurition of sin is from Eternity is no Argument that Gods Decree is the Cause thereof For Futurition in not a real Being distinct from the thing future but it is meerly a respect of reason or conception of the mind about it and it requires no distinct Cause from the Future thing it self No real Being is Eternal but God and Eternal Futurition is but ens rationis and an extrinsick denomination of the Divine Mind as conceiving it The Cause whereby a thing doth exist in Time is the Cause whereby it was Eternally Future though the Cause did not exist from Eternity as the Cause whereby a thing sometime was is the Cause why it shall be a thing past even to Eternity though that Cause do not exist to Eternity 11. Of Gods Eternal Prescience of Sin GOd doth Foresee whatsoever is Future and of determinate verity by the meer Infinity and Eternity of his Understanding And no other Cause is to be supposed necessary to his Foreknowledg of sin That there can be no Futurity of a determinate Verity the Causes whereof are undeterminate must be proved by the Asserters thereof That a thing will be sufficeth to the truth of its Futurity without consideration from what Cause it will be And who can say that Futurity is not by it self intelligible or that God cannot Foreknow what a Creature acting freely and contingently will do Let it be noted that the thing under consideration is what the Infinity of the Divine Understanding can reach unto 12. In what Sense Benefits are absolutely decreed of God IN whatsoever Order God doth bring any thing to pass in Time he decreed from Eternity to bring it to pass in the very same Order There 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 use of Means requisite to the bringing to pâ—ss of that Good which is decreed and God willeth also that those Conditions shall be performed and those Means used and so in the issue he absolutely willeth all those Benefits that come to pass That which God doth not but upon conditions he absolutely Decreed to do and he absolutely Decreed to do it upon such Conditions So that the Decree is absolute though the thing Decreed be Conditional 13. Punishments are not alike absolutely Decreed yet in some sense absolutely THough the Favours and Benefits that are given conditionally be absolutely decreed because the giving of the Conditions is decreed also yet the Punishments that are inflicted are not alike absolutely decreed because the sins which are the Condition or the Meritorious Cause thereof are not decreed But in regard of Gods certain Foreknowledg of those sins which merit the decreed Punishments the Decree thereof doth not hang in suspence and it may be rightly said that the Punishments are so far absolutely decreed He that certainly foresees the Condition of the decreed Event absolutely willeth it though he willeth not the Condition And so God's Omniscience proves that he hath at no instant a will properly Conditional that is suspended upon a Condition as to the Act it self though the Event decreed be so suspended 14. Of the diversity and order of Gods Decrees ALl the Decrees of God are one as in him but they have a formal diversity in respect of the Objects and Effects in which regard we must necessarily think and speak of them as divers According to this diversity Predestination includes divers Decrees among which these are notable viz. a Decree of Redemption a Decree of the first Saving Grace or Conversion a Decree of Perseverance and a Decree of Glory All the Decrees of God are executed in certain Order the
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
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