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
Design whereof was eternally included in the very Decrees And the Order of the Decrees as to our apprehension of them is most safely and conveniently laid down according to the order of their Execution But to insist upon a Priority and Posteriority of Intention in the Divine Intellect and Will is found lubricous and incommodious and it is no way necessary 15. Divers Decrees have diversly qualified Objects IN the Divine Decrees diversified from their Objects the Objects are considered as diversly qualified Gods Decree to glorify a Person hath the Object otherwise qualified than the Object of his Decree of giving Faith it being certain that the condition which is necessary to Glorification is not necessary to effectual Vocation It is to be noted That though the divers Decrees have their special Objects considered or foreknown as diversly qualified yet none of them have any Exterior Cause It argues no more dependence of God on the Creature to terminate his Volition or Decree only on a Qualified Subject than to terminate his Efficient Power and Will on such a Qualified Subject and no other as it is most certain that he doth And that hereupon his Decree is not a thing in suspence hath been already shewed 16. Of Absolute Election THere is a Predestination or Absolute Election of Particular Persons to Eternal Life For God doth decree to give Eternal Life upon certain Conditions and he doth also Decree to give those Conditions to Certain Persons That God doth in Certain Persons effect all the Conditions of Salvation or that he gives and maintains in them from time to time that Grace that shall infallibly end in Salvation is undeniable by them who believe that any are saved And the Donation of such Grace doth evidently prove his Eternal Purpose thereof For nothing is more evident than that God Decrees whatsoever he Effects This Absolute Election proceeds according to Gods Foreknowledg I mean the Foreknowledg both of the infallible Efficacy of his own Grace which he hath purposed towards his Elect and also of the Free Determination of their Wills by the same Grace So that God foresees no Good in them but what he hath decreed to give them and it is also true that he Foresees that they will use their own Liberty under his Grace as they ought to do 17. Of a general Conditional Decree of Salvation GOd doth not decree the Salvation of those that are not saved To say that God doth decree the Salvation of all upon Condition is I think an improper way of speaking There is indeed a Decree that all without exception by whom God's Conditions are performed shall be saved But this is no other than the decreeing of the general Law of Grace and is wholly another thing than the Decree of Election General Election sounds as a Contradiction in the Terms 18. Of Non-Election FOr as much as God hath not decreed such Grace to all as doth infallibly end in Eternal Salvation there are some Non-Elect Meer Non-Election is no Decree It is not a Nolition to give that Grace which accompanieth Salvation but a bare Non-Volition thereof There is indeed something more than a bare not-willing even a nilling to give such Grace But then it is a positive will of a judicial Denying of Grace which never takes place but upon supposition of precedent wilfull sin and it is a thing much different from Non-Election 19. The Non-Election of some agreeable to the Wisdom and consistent with the Goodness of God IT is agreeable to the Wisdom of Gods Government to Decree the salvation of some but not of all And in not decreeing the salvation of all there is no want of Goodness in God For that any miss of Salvation it is not through any omission on God's part but through mens neglect to do their part That the Non-Elect are not under an impossibility of being saved is evident from the Position before proved That the negation of Gods Decree doth not infer an impossibility of the Event 20. Of Positive Reprobation POsitive Reprobation or the Decree of Damnation is not Arbitrary nor is it absolute in that sense as the Decree of Salvation or Election is For where God decrees to save he decrees likewise all the pre-requisite Conditions of Salvation But he decrees Damnation only upon foresight of final Impenitence or dying in a state of sin but that Impenitence or sinful state he doth not decree Indeed the Obduration that is Judicial God decrees yet not Arbitrarily but upon Foresight of mens Voluntary Impenitence and Hardness And in this Judicial Obduration I do not mean that God decrees the penal sin it self but his own Righteous Judgment upon which the sin follows There is no Positive Decree that Few shall be Converted only the Conversion of the greater number is not decreed Nor doth God Decree the Salvation of men upon such Conditions as make the Salvation of most men impossible but the Conditions of being saved are such as do abundantly testifie the Goodness of God in the salvability of men in general 21. In what sense God is said to Will the Conversion and Salvation of all THe Conversion and Salvation of men is sincerely designed in Gods Publick Declarations and Proposals as the nearest and proper End thereof That they should turn and live is pleasing to his Will by a simple complacency and he hath no complacence in their Sin nor in their damnation as in it self considered He is so far willing of the Event as that he doth most earnestly and strictly command it and perswade it by most powerful and gracious Motives and gives such a measure of help as will make them happy if they make use of it and leaves them without excuse if they do it not And nothing is lacking on his Part that is meet for him to do towards it in point of Justice or Grace But it is certain that he doth not simply and absolutely Will the Event that never comes to pass Nor is it congruous to his Government of men in their state of tryal in order to a Future State of Recompence that he should absolutely Will the Event of all that he commands to be done Nevertheless Gods will is effectual to that which he willeth so far as he willeth it His will of the Event is always effectual as to the Event His Will of Command Counsel and Perswasion is always effectual as to the making of Duty and to the unfeigned signification of his Grace towards men and of his simple Complacence in their Happiness PART II. Of the Operations of God about the Actions of Men. 1. God is the Cause of all Good AS there is a Divine Decree so there is a Divine Efficience of all the Good as well Moral as Physical as well of common as of saving Grace that ever comes to pass It is the perfection of God as God to be the Author of all Good and to be the Author of it is to Decree and Effect it 2. Of Gods
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
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
against the opposite Principle 30. Incouragement to wait on Gods Grace in his Way COmmonly men are forward to venture great matters in the world upon hopeful yet uncertain Issues Therefore none should grudg to venture their care and pains in waiting on Gods Grace in his way To do our uttermost in the use of Means for Conversion is manifestly our Duty and we are sure to be no losers by it which men are not sure of in their great Adventures and Undertakings for the things of this world A man 's continued making use of that Moral Power which he hath towards Conversion from one degree of Preparatory Grace to another will at length terminate in Grace immediately sufficient if he live And I incline to believe that God will not by death cut off a person that continues Indeavours in some good measure answerable to his Help to advance towards Conversion before he becomes a Convert though his Indeavours be mingled with some Defects 31. Whether God hath promised Grace Effectual to those that use Grace received GOds Command to use Means for any End contains an Incouragement to use the same in hope that it shall not be in vain And if we be to use Means in hope towards God that it shall not be in vain it is supposed to be not a groundless but a grounded Hope And every grounded Hope rests upon some signification of Gods Will for the obtaining of the Thing hoped for If Gods Positive Denegation of further Grace be penal why may not his conferring of further Grace be premial according to a conditional Promise Our performing of the Condition of such a promise depends primarily on Gods Preventing Grace yet subordinately it may depend on our own well-disposedness which is always the Effect of a former Preventing Grace The Indeavours of a man yet unconverted which are not accepted of God immediately unto his Justification may be accepted according to their degree namely unto the bestowing of Benefits tending to Conversion and Justification and so may be the Condition of obtaining such Benefits It doth not derogate from the Honour of Divine Grace nor tend to beget arrogance in men that God should ordinarily give further Grace upon the good use of former Grace For it is not the value and worth but the congruity and meetness of what is done by man for the receiving of more Grace that is here considered And it is very congruous that the acts of Divine Grace towards men should not be perfected at once but by degrees as men make use of the former degrees 32. Equal help of Grace may have different Effects WHere equal Help of Grace is vouchsased to several Persons it is possible that the good Act for which it is given may follow in one of them and not in the other And where equal Help is given to the same person at several times it is possible that the good act may follow at one time and not at another Otherwise whensoever a good Act is done a greater help than that which is given when it is not done is supposed necessary And if greater Divine Help than what is given be causally necessary to all those injoyned Acts which are not done all sinful omissions would be ultimately resolved into Gods not giving what is necessary to the opposite Good Acts which to admit is as I suppose a great inconvenience From this supposition that the same Grace sometimes takes effect and sometimes not it doth not follow that the same Efficience is not the same For as the term Efficience connotes the following act it is not the same Efficience that doth and that doth not take effect Yet it may be said the same Efficience if the word be taken for the operation in se and not respectively with connotation of the Effect 33. Whether any be Converted by such Help of Grace as leaves some Vnconverted THat there is Grace sufficient to Conversion which doth not effect it hath been already argued And that more Grace than what is immediately sufficient is not necessary to it the very terms do make plain And if it be not in the nature of the thing necessary that more be given than what is immediately sufficient who can prove that God doth always give more where Conversion follows If in several Persons or People receiving Equal Grace unto common Good Acts the Events have been different as to that kind of Good I do not understand why in several Persons receiving Equal Grace to saving Good Acts the Events may not be different as to that kind of Good But indeed I judg that in this case we are not so much concern'd to know what is done as what may be done and what would be done if men were not wanting to themselves It may seem by our Saviours words Mat. 11. 21. If the mighty works which have been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago c. That some would certainly have been converted by that very Help of Grace if it had been given them which did not convert others to whom it was given His upbraiding the People to whom he spake as more unyielding to God than others would have been doth shew that an Equal Help of Grace would have converted others I mean equal in it self but whether it might be called equal respectively to their need I confess I cannot say For they might need a greater Help than others to prevail against their greater aversness Yet this may be rationally hence inferred That in some instances by that Help of Grace which is in it self Equal some may be and actually are converted and not others by reason of the unequal disposedness of the Persons Whether some be converted and others not by that Help of Grace which is Equal not only in it self but also respectively to the need of both if we know not there is no great need to know But I think it is hard for any to shew cause why it cannot be so and that it never is so In this Case the undetermined Liberty of the Will sufficeth to make a diversity of the Cause to a diversity of the Effect in the several Persons notwithstanding the same Disposedness the same Object the same Helps the same Impediments and all other Circumstances the same Howbeit none are Converted whose Conversion is not antecedently ascertained of God For this if any thing must not be left to uncertainty Here it is to be noted that the non-ascertaining of an Event doth not render it impossible And the non-ascertaining of Conversion doth imply no necessity of Non-Conversion but that which is called necessitas consequentiae or of Logical Inference and imports only a Certainty and no proper Necessity of the thing inferred God doth ascertain Conversion by the vouchsafement of such Grace as doth infallibly produce it according to his Foreknowledg and Decree Gods gracious Efficience proceeding from an absolute Decree of the Success is the formalis ratio
of Effectual Grace 34. In mans Conversion and in all Good God is always Chief yea all in all GRace always takes effect according to the pleasure of the Divine Will And mans Conversion to God and Perseverance in Grace and whatsoever good is done by the Creature which way soever it be brought to pass is to be referred not to the Created Will as the origo or first rise thereof but to the Decree of God ordaining and his Providence disposing the whole traduction of a sinner from death to life All Good is intirely the Gift of God and mans Will doth it as wholly thereunto impower'd of God The undetermined Liberty of the Will and the different success of equal Grace is not derogatory to the interest of Divine Grace in all good acts For though the Will be a Self-determining Principle yet it is under the Soveraignty of God who hath the Hearts and Ways of all men in his own hand and can in innumerable ways to us unknown ascertain all Good Events that are Decreed by him 35. Of St. Paul's Question Who made thee to differ from another WHen one is converted and not another if there be a specialty or inequality of Divine Help in any Kind vouchsafed to the Convert more than to the other the Cause of the difference is clear and unquestionable viz. that special or more abundant Help whatsoever it be but if the Help vouchsafed to both be altogether equal it requires some disquisition to assign the Cause of the difference Here it is to be considered that difference or dissimilitude is a Relation and hath no other Cause than the Cause of its fundamentum from which it ariseth by bare resultancy In the present case as there be two Subjects there are two dissimilitudes to each whereof there is its proper fundamentum The Believer differs from the Unbeliever by believing that is his believing is the fundamentum of the dissimilitude on his part Now of his believing God is the Chief Cause and he himself is the Subordinate Cause totally dependent on God and consequently God is the Chief Cause and he himself but the Subordinate Cause of the relation of dissimilitude on his side The Unbeliever differs from the Believer by Unbelief that is unbelief is the fundamentum of the dissimilitude on his part Now of his Unbelief he himself is the Chief Cause and God is no Cause thereof at all and consequently he himself is the Chief Cause of the relation of dissimilitude on his side and God is no Cause thereof at all This Solution is not so curious as plain and evident In this Case God giving Equal Help to both all that can be said by an Objector is That the difference on the Believers part comes not from Gods different help But withall it is manifest that it comes from his Gracious Help as the Chief Cause upon which Mans Will the subordinate Cause is wholly dependent and the praise of this difference must go accordingly In short Mans Will is the subject of the difference on both sides and on the Believer's side God is the Chief and man the Subordinate Cause but on the Unbelievers side man is Chief and God is no Cause at all of the difference As for the Apostles words Who made thee to differ they may be well thus expounded who gave thee that by which thou differest as he himself expounds it in the words following what hast thou that thou hast not received 36. Special and more abundant Grace may be ordinarily vouchsafed to the Elect and wherein it lies IT is probable that God gives from time to time a more special and abundant Help of Grace for the more abundant securing of the Salvation of the Elect though it be not necessary to make their Salvation possible nor for ought I know to make it certain I say this is probable For who can absolutely determine of the manner and degree of the Operations of God And who can say how much he must necessarily do if he will ascertain an Effect It sufficeth us to know that God doth effectually what he will have to be done though we know not the way and manner of it And who can tell whether this more special and abundant Help here supposed to be probable be given always in the same way or in divers instances in divers ways There may be in it for ought we know a specialty of Divine Impress on the Soul and for ought we know the Divine Impress being equal with that on others the specialty of the said Help may consist in more thoroughly congruous Means and happily concurring Providences Seasons and Circumstances all which depend on Gods wise disposal of all for the Salvation of his Elect according to his Eternal Purpose Because we cannot trace the Almighty in the ways of his Infinite Power and Wisdom we cannot find out wherein the special differencing Grace doth in various Instances consist 27. In what respect there is always a specialty of Grace towards the Elect. WHatsoever equality of Divine Help in respect of Internal Influence on the Soul and the congruity of External Means and all concurring Providences may be imagined towards several persons in some of whom the saving Effects follow and in others not nevertheless there is always a specialty of Grace towards the Elect in respect of the Divine Decree Gods gracious Purpose of the Saving Effect is comprehended under the term Grace The Scripture mentions the Election of Grace Rom. 11. 5. Gods purpose and grace 2. Tim. 1. 9. And being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will Eph. 1. 11. Whomsoever God saves he Eternally decreed to save them For it is undeniable that whatsoever God doth in Time he Eternally purposed to do the same and in the same order Though the Decree of God which never faileth doth ascertain the Salvation of the Elect yet the negation of the Decree as hath been before shewed is not the negation of any thing causally necessary to the Event and doth not make the Salvation of others impossible any more than the negation of his Prescience doth And God hath not discouraged any by telling them they are not Elect but he hath put all men upon a fair Tryal in hope 38. It becomes God to ascertain the Salvation of some but not of all UPon the great performance of Christ in the Redemption of the World that some should be saved is evidently congruous to the Divine Wisdom and Goodness and thereupon that he hath Eternally Purposed the salvation of some is as evident He hath indeed Eternally Willed all the Good that comes to pass and therefore more especially the Salvation of them that are saved It is also evident that according to that Purpose he doth ascertain their Salvation by such an Operation of Grace towards them as shall infallibly effect it whatsoever degree of Free Agency under Divine Grace they themselves have about it From how absolute a Decree soever the salvation of the Elect doth proceed yet it is effected no other way in those that have the use of Reason than upon their performing the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace Though the Perseverance of the Elect be absolutely decreed I mean absolutely in the sense before given under the Head of Election yet this Crowning Gift is received upon condition of their care and diligence both to prevent their Falls and Backslidings and when they have faln or slidden back to recover themselves But the Wisdom and Goodness of God doth not lead him to ascertain the Salvation of all It sufficeth that his Goodness hath made all men Salvable but it is very agreeble to his holy and wise Government of men in a state of tryal that there should be various measures of the Gracious Helps and Means that he affords and that there should be various Events and Issues thereof That few comparatively shall be Saved is Christs own assertion and that it is so it is not through any omission on Gods part who hath amply provided for the Salvation of those to whom the Gospel is published and to the rest of the World the Justice of his Grace is not wanting They have the Natural Revelation of Gods Reconcileableness to Sinners upon their Repentance and Conversion to him which if they were not wanting to themselves might be improved to the obtaining of Supernatural Revelation or at least such greater Helps as might be sufficient for them FINIS