to Worms succeeds the Work of Creation But this special Decree of Predestination is not Extensive as the General is to all Individuals but is discriminating and particular as before and yet tho' it be not extended Ad singula generum yet is it Ad genera singulorum Though the Exception lay not in the Gospel which is to be preached to every Creature but in the Decree yet is the Decree an Extensive Thing as it extends it self 1. To all Ranks First To all Sorts and Ranks of Men to Princes and Peasants to High and Low to Rich and Poor to Bond and Free It extends it self to Kings 1 Tim. 2.4 for among them God hath his chosen Vessels his Davids and his Solomons Though the Scripture say Not many Noble and Mighty yet doth it not say not any for God hath had some great Ones to own his Ways in all Ages It extends it self to Servants also Tit. 2.9,11 for God bestows his Love on those in Rags as well as on those in Robes and the Poor do receive the Gospel Mat. 11.5 God is no Respecter of Persons 2. To all Sexes Secondly To all or both Sexes is the Decree extended to Male and to Female God hath his Elect Ladies 2 John 1. and both Male and Female are one in Jesus Christ Gal. 3.28 Electing Love hath appeared to both Sexes in the Old Testament and in the New 3. To all Ages Thirdly To all Ages To Young and to Old to Children and to those of Riper Years Yea to very Infants that lay in the Womb of the Eternal Decree before ever they come out of their Mother's Womb Jeremy was sanctified and ordained before he came from the Womb Jerem. 1.5 and John Baptist was filled with the Holy Ghost even from the Womb Luke 1.15 and 't is probable David did believe that his Child belonged to the Election of Grace and that its Soul was bound up in the Bundle of Life when he comforted himself with this I must go to it but he cannot come to me 2 Sam. 12.23 David's going to the Grave to it could yield him very little Comfort 4. To all Nations Fourthly To all Nations It is not immured in any one Nation but is extended to Jew and Gentile to Barbarian and Scythian Col. 3.11 some of every Nation under Heaven Acts 2.5 This Predestinating Love effectually calls its Sons out of all Quarters Isa 43.4,5,6 and threw down the Partition Wall betwixt Jew and Gentile saying I have other Sheep that I must gather John 10.16 Yea and while this Wall stood this predestinating Love brought over it sundry Proselites to the Church as Jethro who was the first Proselite that was added to the Church in the Wilderness as it became a Church and many others 5. To all Generations Fifthly To all Generations doth it extend it self Predestinating Love is like a River that runs under Ground and breaks out in certain Places above the Earth So fresh Veins of Election breaketh forth sometimes in One Generation and sometimes in another It is not bound up as to Time neither before the Law nor under the Law nor after the Law but in every Generation God hath his Church Visible on the Earth and the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against it As God is no Respecter of Persons so nor of Places Nations nor of Generations but hath his Hidden Ones to the Worlds End Consectaries 1. If predestinating Love extend it self to all Degrees then they which are poor of Wealth may be Rich of Faith and a Master's Servant may be the Lord's Freeman 2. If to both Sexes then the Weaker Vessel may be a chosen Vessel and may be in Christ before the Stronger Vessel as Priscilla was 3. If to all Ages then Believing Parents may have Faith for their dying Children they may belong to the Election of Grace and may be bound up in the Swadling Bands of the Covenant of Grace so they are not as without Hope for them 4. If to all Nations then the Ends of the Earth may look towards Christ the Serpent lift up on the Pole of the Gospel and be saved Isa 45.22 5. If to all Generations then predestinating Love is an Inexhaustible Fountain crying always Is there yet any of the House of Mankind that I may shew the Kindness of God unto 2 Sam. 9.3 as David's Love did CHAP. IX In which are contained Arguments against the Conditional Decree Objection First THE First Objection against this Doctrine of the Divine Decree is That it is a Conditional One upon the Foresight of Faith Works Perseverance c. Answ To this I answer that the Divine Decree of Predestination cannot be Conditional upon a Foresight of Faith c. for these following Reasons Argum. 1. That which the Scripture faith is the Cause and Ground of our Election that and that only must be the Cause and Ground thereof but the Scripture propounds the Good Pleasure of God as the only Cause and Ground of our Election not any Fore-sight of Faith c. therefore c. that the Scripture doth so appears in Eph. 1.5,9,11 Mat. 11.26 Rom. 9.11,15 11.5 't is an Election of Grace Exod. 33.16,17 2 Tim. 1.9 all those Places quoted do shew us that this Divine Decree floweth only from the Absolute Will and good Pleasure of God Argument 2. That which makes Election an Action of Debt ought not to be received but this Doctrine of the Conditional Decree doth so Ergo c. the Proposition is proved thus an Action of Grace and an Action of Debt are contradictory Terms if Election be an Act of Grace as those Scriptures forecited evidence and as the whole Work of Man's Salvation a capite ad calcem hath been prov'd to be wholly and solely from Free-grace Chap. 6. Argum. 2. then 't is abominable and to be rejected to make it an Act of Debt The Assumption is prov'd thus If the Decree be Conditional upon Foreseen Faith and Perseverance then is it an Act of Debt and not of Grace an Act of Justice and not of Mercy Ex debito et necessitate non ex Dei bsneplacito a Decree of giving Glory to Believers persevering as their Reward must be nothing else but Remunerative Justice Argument 3. That which makes God go out of himself in his Immanent and Eternal Actings ought not to be received but the Doctrine of the Conditional Decree doth so Ergo the Assumption is proved For it makes God look upon this or that in the Creature upon which the Will of God is determined this makes Man to be Author of his own Salvation and not God and to assign a Cause of God's Will extra Deum is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but blasphemously ungods the great God and makes as it were a Mortal Man of an Immortal God For this Doctrine of the Conditional Decree sets God upon his Watch-Tower of Fore-knowledge to espy what Men will do whether they will
believe and that Esau would not believe therefore the One was loved and the other hated Thus Arminius's School teacheth deeper Divinity than what Paul learnt in the Third Heaven And they do not only with the Socinians gratifie the Pride of Man's Reason but also the Pride of Man's Will in Extenuating both the Guilt and Filth of Original Sin as Popery their Elder Sister doth gratifie the Pride of Outward Sense Hence Dr. Laighton Sion's Plea pag. 234. calls Arminianism the Pope's Benjamin the Last and Greatest Monster of the Man of Sin the Elixir of Antichristianism the Mystery of the Mystery of Iniquity the Pope's Cabinet and such a fine-spun Thread of Popery that it can scarce be discerned the Quintessence of Equivocation and Spain's New-found Passage into Brittany and the Low Countries And Famous Mr. Fuller saith Fuller's Chur. Hist cent 17. b. 10. pag. 61. We must sadly confess that since the Synod at Dort many English Souls have taken a Cup too much of Belgick Wine in a Spiritual Sense whereby their Heads have not only grown dizzy in Matters of lesser Moment but their whole Bodies do stagger in the Fundamentals of their Religion Alike hereunto Mr. Rous the Master of Eaton-Colledge addeth saying Arminianism is the Spawn of Popery which the Warmth of Favour may easily turn into the Frogs of the Bottomless Pit And what are the New Arminians but the Varnish'd Off-spring of the Old Pelagians that makes the Grace of God to lacquey it at the Foot or rather at or to the Will of Man that makes the Sheep as it were to keep the Shepherd that puts God into the same Extremity with Darius in Dan. 6. who would gladly have saved Daniel but could not What else can their Doctrine De Scientiâ mediâ signifie Which they say is a Praescience in God whose Truth depends not on the Decree of God but on the Free-will of the Creature this is to make the Creature have no Dependance on the Creator and to fetter Divine Providence Thus that fatal Necessity which they from our absolute Decree would lay at our Doors unavoidably remains at theirs and God must say thus to Miserable Man Oh! my poor Creature Ferenda non flenda est quae vos laesit fortuna fatalis c. Rhaetor-fort de divina Gratiâ Ep. Dedicat pag. 6. That fatal Fortune which hath harm'd you must be endur'd more than bewailed for it was from all Eternity before my Providence I could not hinder I could not but consent to those fatal Contingencies unavoidable Fate hath whether I will or no pronounc'd the Inevitable Sentence This is to make God like the Heathen Jupiter who himself could not deliver his Sarpedon out of his Bonds when he earnestly desired it as Homer gives us the Relation What else is this but to overthrow all those Graces of Faith Hope Patience Thankfulness c. to expectorate Religion and to pull the great Jehovah himself out of his Throne of Glory setting up Dame Fortune to be worshipp'd in his stead These and many other great Abominations have been discover'd in the Chambers of Imagery in our Days which indeed are nothing but the Frothy Exuberancies of Wanton Wits measuring supernatural Mysteries and the abstrusest Points of Divinity with the Crooked Metewand of Degenerate Reason Luther This Word Quare saith Luther hath undone many a Soul that must know a Reason of all God's Actings yea of those too high for us and wherein Reason is a Fool thus saith he Men put themselves between the Door and the Hinges in searching into the Secret Counsels of God But in these Points it was once well said Da mihi baptizatam Rationem Give me a mortified Reason for to prescribe to God's infinite Understanding and to allow him no Reasons to guide his Determinations by but what we are acquainted withal is Extreamly Arrogant and Supercilious Stulta Dei sunt credenda as sond Man calls them et Impia Dei sacienda to wit such as Carnal Reason accounteth foolish and wicked Reason saith Ex nihilo nihil fit but Faith says Ex nihilo omnia Reason must neither be the Rule to measure Faith by nor the Judge We may give a Reason of our Believing to wit because it is Written but not of all Things believed as why Jacob was loved and Esau hated before they had done either Good or Evil this was the Counsel of God's own Will Touching such sublime Mysteries our Faith stands upon Two sure Bottoms the First is that the Being Wisdom and Power of God doth Infinitely transcend Ours so may reveal Matters far above our Reach The Second is That whatsoever God reveals is undoubtedly true and to be believed although the Bottom of it cannot be sounded by the Line of our Reason because Man's Reason is not absolute but variously limited perplexed with its own Frailty and Defective in its own Actings CHAP. II. Of Predestination which is the First Point in Controversie The Definition of it PRedestination is the Decree of God whereby according to the Counsel of his own Will he fore-ordained some of Mankind to Eternal Life and refused or passed by others for the Praise of his Glorious Mercy and Justice Rom. 9.22,23 Some are Vessels of Mercy and others are Vessels of Wrath In a great House various Vessels are for Use and Ornament both Vessels of Honour and Vessels of Dishonour 2 Tim. 2.20 and the Master of the House can wisely use all his Vessels For this cause did I raise up thee c. God hath his Use even of Pharaoh and of the Churches greatest Enemies if it be but Skullion work to brighten Vessels of Mercy by them and God hath not appointed us to Wrath but to obtain Salvation 1 Thes 5. 9. It is call'd Destination as it comprehends a Determined Order of the Means to the End Destinatus ad finem destinatus etiam ad media and 't is call'd Predestination because God appointed this Order in and with himself before the Actual Existence of those Things so ordered The Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a Fore-separating for God's special Use as Israle was separated from among all the Nations of the World to be God's peculiar Inheritance So God tells them Levit. 20.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hibdalti which the Septuagint read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have separated you to wit in fulness of Time so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have separated you from the common Mass of sinful Mankind to become Vessels of Mercy Members of Christ and Temples of the Holy Ghost before all time even from all Eternity As Divine Prescience is sometimes largely taken for Predestination Rom. 11.2 God hath not cast off his People whom he did foreknow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is whom he did predestinate So Augustine de bono perserveran cap. 18. urges against the Pelagians In like manner Predestination is taken strictly and Synechdochically for Election it self Rom. 8.30 Eph. 1.5
Decree of Love it self Therefore we are said to be Elected in Christ but never for Christ for Christ is an Elect One himself as is shewed before God willeth to save us for Christ but not for Christ willeth he us to be saved according to that Thesis in the Schools Deus vult hoc esse propter hoc non propter hoc vult hoc Christ indeed was the first chosen for the Head comes first out of the Womb of Predestinating Love and then the Members yet though he be first chosen to that Glory which became him as an Head he is not the Cause why we are also chosen Even as the first Alam is not the Cause why God did love me so that I should be a Man and have this Natural Being though in and through him I come to have this Being So Christ is not the Cause why God did love me so that I should be a Christian and have a Super-natural Being a Life above Nature even the Life of Grace though I attain to it and receive it through him in him and for his fake The Love of God as immediately cometh from himself to me as to Christ he was fore-ordained to be our Head 1 Pet. 1.20 as we to be his Members Thus we are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3 22,23 as the Effect of his Love to his Elect from all Eternity Reason 2. The Second Argument to prove the Freeness of the Divine Decree is that which the Word of God affirms to be a Free Act an Act of Grace and not of Debt an Act of Love and Special Favour founded upon the meer good Pleasure of God must be accordingly believed to be so by us but the Word of God doth all this Ergo Mat. 11.26 Even so O Father it pleased thee Luke 12.32 It pleaseth your Father to give you the Kingdom 2 Tim. 1.9 It was a Gracious Purpose in God from all Eternity Eph. 1.5,9,11 Paul's repeated Epiphonema is the Pleasure of his own Will the Pleasure of his own Will the Counsel of his own Will but more fully in that Rom. 9.13,15 exemplifying this Truth in Jacob and Esau Both the Prophet and the Apostle makes this Instance the fullest Exemplification of Free Election Mal. 1.3 Rom. 9.11 They do not bring in for an Instance that of Cain and Abol in the beginning of the Old World or that of Shem and Ham in the beginning of the New World but this of Jacob and Esau For 1. These two were Fratres Utero yet not Animo at one and the same time they laid together in the same Womb and were born at the same time for Jacob took hold of Esau's Heel so the contrary Disposal of these two doth more illustrate the free Predestination of God than of any other two whatsoever 2. In Jacob there began to be a distinguished People from all the World even a Church unto God as of Esau sprang also a persecuting Seed yet before they had done either Good or Evil Jacob was loved and Esau hated God had no regard to Faith in the one or Infidelity in the other whereby they might be differenced the One from the Other they were at that time when God's Oracle pass'd upon them already conceiv'd in Sin in their Mother's Womb and if there were any Preheminence Esau had it as being the First-born What then did cast the Ballance Nothing else but the good Pleasure of God Thus the Apostle determines it according to that Wisdom given to him 2 Pet. 3.15 God will have Mercy on whom be will have Mercy and whom he will be hardeneth Indeed Carnal Reason says It was because God foresaw what they both would be But if that had been the Cause the Apostle Divinely Inspired would have answered this Objection v. 16. Is there then Unrighteousne's with God according to that Hypothesis which would not have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 2 Pet. 3.16 but easie to be understood and would not have resolved all as he doth into the Unsearchable Will of God And as Jacob's Person was thus loved freely so was his Posterity not because they were ex xnmeliori luto but God loved them because he loved them Deut. 7.7,8 It was choosing Love that he bare to them and that is the best of the Kind that is the Favour which God bears to his People As a Man loves his Goods and his Servants with a common Love but his Wife and Children with a Special Love and though Malachy instances only the Defolation of Esau's Country as the Evidences of God's Hatred to Esau yet the Apostle saw more in it than the spoiling of his Earthly Inheritance for in that very Desolation as an Outward Pledge he reads God's Eternal Hatred towards him in the Decree of Reprobation Reason 3. The Third Argument to prove the Freeness of the Divine Decree is If God in all Ages hath given us Examples of his free Receiving or Rejecting some out of Mankind then the Divine Decree must needs be free but the Antecedent is true Ergo the Consequent This Assumption is plain in Scripture History for of Adam's three Sons Cain Abel Seth the Eldest was rejected Of Noah's three Japhet Shem and Ham the Youngest was rejected It appears that Ham was the Youngest Gen. 9.24 and Japhet the Eldest Gen. 10.21 but of Terah's three Sons Abraham Nahor and Haran the Middlemost was rejected for Nahor was an Idolater and Laban sware by his Idol Gen. 31.53 Not by the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac but by the other Gods which Nahor served Josh 24.2 Now why is this Picking and Choosing this Receiving and Rejecting Eldest at one time Youngest at another time the Middlemost at a Third Time but to shew that neither Birth nor Age nor any Thing either foreseen or existing in the Creature can make any Claim but all lies in the Free Election of God We cannot give a Reason why Pharaoh and Mebuchadnezzar both being engag'd in the same Cause of Warring against Israel the Church of God had differing Dispensations of Heaven upon them forasmuch as the One was hardened and the other was humbled under the Mighty Hand of God Nor why Pharaoh's Baker was hang'd and yet his Butler restored to his Office again Why two Men shall be in one Bed the One taken and the Other left Why two Women shall be grinding at one Mill the One taken and the Other left Why Aaron's Rod of all the Twelve only blossomed These and many more Instances do sufficiently demonstrate the Reason of all those Differences is not any thing that can be found in the Creature but 't is only the Free Election of God Reason 4. The Fourth Argument is If the Fruits of the Divine Decree be freely given then the Decree it self must be a Free Decree but the Antecedent is true Ergo the Consequent is true also The Proposition is Evident for if I give a Book or a Piece of Money freely then I must needs
foreseen to believe and persevere This answer would not have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or â—ard to be understood 2 Pet. 3.16 Neither would it carry in it the least Shew of Unrighteâ—usness but Paul was a Fool and these Men are wiser than the Holy Ghost that tells us our â—lection procedeth from the Will of the Elector 〈◊〉 from any thing in the Elected the Soveâ—eign Will of God is the Supream Rule of all â—ighteousness He will have Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Had foreseen Faith and Perseverance been the Antecedaneous Causes and Conditions of Election â—here had been no Mystery in it Argument 10. That Election which is shaâ—owed out to us in God's Love to Jacob both â—erson and Nation is the Election according â—o Truth but that Election was not upon foreâ—een Faith or Works Ergo. 1. Jacob the Person Rom. 9.12,13 was under Electing Love all foresight of Faith and Works being excluded to love Jacob is to will unto him the greatest Good even Eternal Salvation and all things that do accompany it this was before there was any difference between him and Esau for they were both alike in the Womb ut suprà conceived in sin had it been upon a foresight of their Works that they had God's Electing Love and Rejecting Hatred then were they themselves Carvers out of their own Eternal Conditions which depended on their Willing and Running and by this Hypothesis not upon the primitive Good Pleasure of God upon which our willing running and obtaining hangs as the Apostle asserteth 2. Jacob the Nation Our Election is Typifyed by Gods Election of Israel which plainly appears to be no Election upon foresight of any worthiness in Israel but all such being excluded the Reason is rendred I loved thee because I loved thee which is not the Reason of a weak Woman but of a strong God Deut. 7.7,8 Not for thy Righteousness Deut. 9.5 Argument 11. That which sets up the rotten Dagon of Man's Free-will before or above the Ark of God's special predestinating Grace ought to be rejected but this Conditional Decree doth so Ergo. That it does so appears inasmuch as their Doctrine of the Conditional Decree is grounded upon a Fore-sight of our Wills receiving or rejecting of Grace proposed and so Man's Will is made the Primum Mobile and advanced above God's Will and the Act of Predestination is put in Potestâ—… Predestinati not Predestinantis Hereby â—he power of Ordering Man's Salvation is as â—t were wrested out of God's Hands and put into the Hands of our Free-will then Salvation is the Work of the Saved not of the Saver and to will and to do is not of God's good Pleasure Phil. 2.13 Thus Men wickedly think that God is such a One as themselves Psal 50.21 floating and fluctuating in his Counsels and hanging in pendulous Suspences yea taking up pro re natâ new Consultations as depending on the Will of Men and the Contingent Acts flowing from thence Argument 12. That which inferreth a Succession of Acts in God may not be admitted but Election upon Foresight doth so Ergo. This is apparent in the Proposition for God is one Act and in him there can be no Succession for then he would not be I am Deus est Naturâ simplex nihil omnino admistionis aut Successionis habens sed ex omni parte 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Origen The Assumption is plain for a Foresight of Faith doth necessarily presuppose a foregoing Decree concerning the Being of that Faith foreseen For 1. God must decree Faith to be 2. He foresees that Faith 3. Then decrees to save upon that Fore-sight So that this Foresight comes necessarily betwixt two decrees the First before it and the Second after it Argument 13. That Doctrine of Election which stateth God as a Potter framing his Clay according to his meer pleasure ought to be admitted and the contrary to it rejected but the Conditional Decree doth not so sed e contrà Ergo. The Potter doth set apart several Lumps of Clay for several Uses out of his mere Will he doth not say if all his Clay-lumps be fit to receive Noble Forms he will fashion them accordingly and if not he will turn them otherwise for then the difference would proceed from the Quality of the Clay not from the Will of the Potter Argument 14. I might add many more as Foreseen Faith can have no place in dying Infants yet of such is the Kingdom of God and the Names of some are writ in the Book of Life Rev. 20.12 and if glorified they muâ—… be predestinated for Rom. 8.30 is reciprocaâ—… and of Equal Extent Believers cannot be the Object of Election for there be many Believers that are not elected as those with Faith temporary and many elected that are not Believers as Infants Argument 15. Christ foresaw the Men of Tyre and Sidon would have repented c. Mat. 11. 21. yet no decree depended on it Argument 16. A Conditional Decree makes a Conditional God seeing the Decree is God himself decreeing Argument 17. Then Salvation of any is uncertain for a Conditional Proposition affirms not any thing certainly CHAP. X. Objections against the Absolute Decree THE Objections which the Arminians raise against this Doctrine follow to be answered They deal with this Doctrine as the Heathen Emperors did with the Primitive Christians in the Ten first Persecutions who wrapp'd them up in the Skins of Beasts and then expos'd them to be torn in pieces by their fierce Band-Dogs So do the Arminians with this great Truth first dress it up in an ugly Shape with their own false Glosses upon it and then le ts fly at it one Cynical Sarcasm after another saying This is to accuse God not only of Injustice but also of Cruelty and of Dissembling Hypocrisie Objection 1. Of Injustice in giving to Equal Persons Vnequal Thing and if so there is Respect of Persons with God Answer 1. This is Objected against Paul's Doctrine Rom. 9.14 and seeing the Apostle brings it in as the Cavil of Carnal Reason against God's Decree in that we have sufficient Ground to reject it God must not lose the Honour of his Righteousness because the Reason of it appears not to our shallow Understandings We may not reprehend what we cannot comprehend his Justice must not be measur'd by the Standard of our Reason what is this but a speaking wickedly for God Job 13.7 and a plain robbing him of all Righteousness that is not Consonant to our Model We must not devise a Righteousness for God that is the Work of his own Will which is never sever'd from his Wisdom much less draw it down to the Determinations of God's greatest Enemy to wit Carnal Reason 2. God is Righteousness it self and Darkness may sooner come from the Sun which is the Fountain of Light then any Unrighteous Aâ—… from God who is the Abstract of Righteousness as he is the Summum Bonum so he is
Working this is the fourth Gradation then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies such strength as is in the Arms of Valiant Men that can do great Exploits is the fifth Lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Power that can do all things his Power an Omnipotent Power and surely had there been an Internum Principium in us towards this great Work or any Free-will to Good Paul would not have used all those Gradations nor such a lofty Emphatical Heap of most Divine and Significant Expressions This Work of Regeneration would not then have required the effectual forcible Power of the Valiant Arm of God even such a Power as raised up Christ from the dead whereby he was declared to be the Son of God Acts 2.24 Rom. 1.4 Cadaver fricatione nudâ seipsum nòn resuscitat I need say nothing of the raising up of Ezekiel's dry Bones wherein the Spirit was the Favonian Wind that wholly and solely caused new Life in them Nor of the raising of Lazarus out of the Grave which cost Christ a Prayer above all his other Miracles working and Lazarus contributed no thing to the Work Argument 7. If Moral Perswasion be altogether insufficient of it self to recover Man from his fallen Estate then fallen Man hath no Free-will to good but the Antecedent is true Ergo The Consequent This appears because then God would be only a Moral Cause of Man's Conversion but Man needs more from God and God therein is more to Man therefore c. Then Faith would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Easie Work and not require such Mighty Power as Eph. 1.19 c. Causes are of three Sorts 1. A Moral Cause which is Improperly and Metaphorically only a Cause because it produceth not properly an Effect only it proposeth Arguments to induce and perswade 2. A Physical Cause which really and truly produceth and Effect this the Schools call an Effectual-Cause 3. A Miraculous Cause is that which worketh above the Course of Nature in producing Effects God in Man's Conversion cannot be only a Moral Cause for these Reasons Reason 1. Then the Working of Faith in us needs not the putting forth of any such Energetical Power as was in raising of Christ from the dead God did more to Christ than Morally perswade him to come out of the Grave and Christ did more to the raising of Lazarus Besides as such like Swasions are alone Ineffectual so dead Carcasses are incapable of them alone in Christ's saying Lazarus come forth there was a mighty Power went along with the Command Dixit sactum est God doth not Verba dare sed rem Reason 2. Moral Perswasions cannot be sufficient to bring sorth super-natural Effects Qualis causa tale causatum as when a Child hath an Apple held out by its Father to come to him the Child is only allured but not enabl'd thereby to come 't is not enough to perswade a Prisoner to come forth but his Chains must be struck off and the Prison Doors must be opened Acts 12.6,7,10 so must have a Physical Cause also Phil. 2.13 Reason 3. Yet Man is more than a Prisoner and stands therefore in need of a better Plaister for his Sore than a Moral Swasion which is not so much as a Removens prohibens which is only a Causa sine quâ non and so no proper Cause at all for he is dead in sin so must not have only Gratiam excitantem et moraliter suadentem but also Gratiam sanantem et vivificantem an healing and quickening Grace which this can never do Nemo fortunoe suae faber est nifi subordinate Reason 4. Then God hath no greater Influence in converting Man than Satan hath in perverting him to his Destruction he hath a perswading Slight but no Enforcing Might he may sollicit but he cannot compel Infirmus hostis est qui non potest vincere nifi volentem saith Hierom hence we are bid to resist him with peremptory Negatives and then he cannot touch us tactu qualitativo with his deadly touches Now to ascribe no more Power to the Creator than to his Creature Satan is to narrow it below Divine Majesty and to derogate exceedingly from Omnipotency Argument 8. The Eighth Argument further illustrates this Truth that more than a Moral Swasion is necessary to recover fallen Man if Christ be All in All in Matters of Salvation to us then Man is nothing in himself as to that Work and hath not a Free-will to Good so must stand in need of more than moral Swasions but the Antecedent is true Col. 3.11 Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ergo the Consequent This is manifest for these Reasons following Reason 1. Christ's first Work in order to Salvation is to bore the Ear which is stopped like the Adders to the Charms of the Charmer Psal 58.4,5 Christ gives the Understanding Ear Deut. 29.4 Psalm 40.6 Job 36.10 Isâ—… 50.4 This moral Perswasion cannot alone remove we naturally reject the Counsel of God Luke 7.30 Reason 2. Christ opens not only the Ear but also the Heart Acts 16.14 The Lord open'd the Heart of Lydia not she her own Heart which she might have done if she had a Free-will to Good the Key of the Heart as doth the Keys of the Heavens of Hell and of the Womb hangs at Christ's Girdle He soutteth and no Man can open no not our selves our own Hearts Much less will moral Swasion be effectual Reason 3. Besides Christ there is no Saviour but this Hypothesis makes Man a Co-Saviour with Christ as if there were an halfing of it 'twixt the Grace of Christ and the Will of Man and the latter dividing the Spoil with the former yea deserving the greater share for if Christ be only a Monitor and perswade to Good then Man 's own Will is the principal Author of its own Goodness and he makes himself to differ from others hath something that he receiv'd not at Conversion 1 Cor. 4.7 and whereof to boast of before God Rom. 11.18 Swasion leaves the admonish'd Will to its own Indifferency not changing it at all so Man becomes his own Saviour not Christ or however not Christ only how then is Christ All in All Then Christ is not our Creditor but we are Debtors to Free-will Argument 9. The Ninth Argument still adding more Lustre and Light to the former is If fallen Man must be drawn to Goodness then hath he no Free-will to Good and moral Swasion cannot be sufficient alone but the former is true John 6.44 12.32 Cant. 1.3 Ergo the latter The Antecedent is prov'd Drawing is a Bringing of any thing out of its proper Course and Channel by a Violent and Over-pouring Influence from without and not from an Innate Power or Principle from within Jet draws Straw the Load-stone Iron and the North-pole the Sea-man's Compass so the Sun the Heliotrope It is not said Lead but Draw in Drawing there is less Will and more Violence than in Leading and though