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
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
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
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
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
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
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.