the Grace of God is not given according to mans merit Another is that there is no man how great soever his righteousness be that lives without some sins The third is that men are born liable to the guilt of Adams first transgression De bon persev c. 2. The consequent of the second opinion that Election is ex praevisa fide of fore-seen faith is That although our good works are indeed the fruit onely oâ— Gods Spirit and to be ascribed to Gods grace yet must our frith upon which the Spirit or this grace is given or by which it is impetrated as that Father speaks be both in our own power and from our own will as being that and that alone in man that makes the difference between one and another or the reason why God should choose such a one to give him his grace and pass by the other And this doctrine with the Consequent of it must be acknowledged to be St. Augustine's in his first writings which he chose no doubt as the most moderate then in the Church which as we may judg by Prosper and Hilary's Epistles to him was never used to define election otherwise than secundum praescientiam according to foreknowledg till his dayes And this was the reason that those of Marsilia ad quorum authoritatem non sumus pares sayes one of those Epistles quia multum nos et vitae meritis antecellunt sacerdotis honore were so offended at that Father for his change And from hence does Arminius professe some-where Non stamus Augustino We stand not with Augustine for which this also as I remember is his reason Quia sibi ipse non stetit because he stood not to himself The Consequent of the other two doctrines which belong to Absolute election and come in this repect I have said bat to the same is on the contrary hand That neither our good works nor our faith it self nor indeed any good that is in man is of our selves but of the operation of God or of his Spirit who does at first excite our wills to Faith and a holy life by his continual assistance carry us on in perseverance unto the end that we may be saved so that the whole business of our salvation first and last must be ascribed to Him alone And if any ask the reason then why he gives not the same grace to others as to his Elect he shall find these words still in St. Augustine's mouth And who art thou that repliest agaâ—nst God May he not do what he will with his owne Hath not the Potter power over his clay O the depth of the knowledge and wisdome of God how unsearchable are his judgments and his wayes past finding out It were but jniury to quote a sentence or two out of the Father for this which is the designed contents of severall of his last books See de Praedestinatione gratia De correptione gratia De praedestinatione sanctoram De bono perseverantiae to name no more The great difficulty now in this Consequent of Election which appears does undoubtedly lye here If neither the faith nor good works of man do spring from his own free will but from the grace of God and Election then may the unbeliever and wicked excuse themselves and say It is not long of themselves that they believe not nor obey but the cause is in God who gives them not faith and obedience and they cannot help their own reprobation They will not say that Reprobation is any other than a negative decree which infuses no malice in them but it denyes them that grace which Election gives others and if it be not in their power to beleeve and repent without that grace How can they be condemned for their not beleeving and repenting This difficulty I am assured did stick so fast upon this Father in his first writings that I do hardly think him quite out of the gravell in any of his last Let us turn to his book De spiritu littera In his one and thirtieth Chapter he offers the question Whether faith be in mans power and determines that it is and must be so Upon this in his thirty third chapter he comes to another question which is put to the quick Whether the will whereby he believes be therefore of himself or of God If it be not of our selves sayes he but of Gods gift then may man say according to the objection proposed that he beleeved not because God gave him not the will If it be of our selves How can that text of the Apostle what hast thou O man thou didst not receive be true seeing this will to beleeve he hath of himself For the extricating us out of this distresse he yields to the first and seems convinced that faith must be both in our own power and of our selves for that reason Dicit Apostolus Idem Deus qui operatur omnia in omnibus nusquam autem dictum est Deus credit omnia in omnibus Quod ergo credimus nostrum est quod autem bonum operamur illius est qui credentibus dat Spiritum sanctum In his Exposition upon the Romans The Apostle sayes that God works all in all but never that he beleeves all in all That We beleeve therefore it is of our selves but that we do good works it is of him who gives his holy Spirit to them that beleeve To the last therefore he chooses to answer Liberum arbitrium naturaliter attributum a Creatore animae rationali illa media vis est quae vel intendi ad fidem vel inclinari ad infidelitatem potest Et idco nec istam voluntatem qua credit Deo dici potest homo habere quam non acceperit quandoquidem vocante Deo surgit de libero arbitrio quod naturaliter cum vocaretur accepit Vult autem omnes homines salvos fore in agnitionem veritatis venire non sic tamen ut eis adimat liberum arbitrium quo vel bene vel male utentes justissime judicentur The substance is that The will whereby we beleeve may be said to be received of God although it proceed from our selves because the faculty from whence it arises is received from him that is Because the nature we have is of our Creator the will which is of nature is of Him This does not satisfy me for these reasons 1. That which the Father sayes as to the voluntas qua credimus The will whereby we beleeve I take to be the same which Pelagius said as to the voluntas qua bene operamur The will whereby we doe good works But if this text and such as this be good against Pelagius they must be good against Augustine here that neither is our faith of our selves upon the same account The truth is The judgment of this Father while he wrot this book is this The Spirit is given to a man upon his beleeving This Spirit infuses grace charity or justification This
charity is that which disposes to good works Good works therefore he counts must be of grace and Gods spirit and to follow justification which is with him this infused grace But as for beleeving which is the first thing upon which the Spirit it self is given to infuse this grace from whence our good works doe spring this must arise he accounts from mans free will or else the fault will not be in himself which is the argument convinces him but it must lye on the will of God onely that he hath not the spirit and so no grace and so does not well and is not saved Whether this argument be irrefragable or no we shall see by what will follow 2. There are two questions raised together by the Apostle Who maketh thee to differ from another and What hast thou O man that thou didst not receive The chief difficulty lyes in answering the former question for by that is the second to be regulated Now if that we have from God is onely this middle faculty which we may use to beleeve or not Who is it makes the difference in one mans using it to faith and another's to infidelity That which is the less the Posse velle The power to will shall be of God that is of Nature and so of God but the Ipsum velle The will or willing it self which is the greater and which indeed saves us shall be of our selves 3. The Scripture is express concerning faith and that not of our selves it is the gift of God If the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there referrs to the whole sentence we have other texts No man cometh to me that is beleeveth in me unless the Father draw him To you it is given not only to believe but to sufther for his name This is the work of God that you beleeve Who hath first given to him Of him and to him are all things I obtained mercy That I should be faithfull not Because I was faithfull But ye beleeve not because ye are not of my sheep Again As many as were ordained to salvation beleeved It seems here that the cause why some beleeve and some beleeve not is their being or not being of the number of those who are ordained to be of his flock The like text in reference to works as these to faith is that to the Ephesians He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy It is not therefore mans faith or holiness is the cause of Gods Election but it is Gods election is the cause of mans holiness and faith A prime and eternal cause say our Divines cannot depend upon the self same temporal effects which are thereby caused If therefore the Ordination of God be the cause from whence mans faith and holiness are derived his foreseen-foreseen-faith or foreseen-works are not to be imagined antecedent causes merits conditions or motives unto the Divine Predestination 4. We have St. Augustine acknowledging himself to have bin herein in an errour So that these arguments must be no longer against Augustine but against those who have taken up that opinion he forsook In nullo gloriandum est dixit Cyprianus quoniam nostrum nihil sit Quod ut ostenderet adhibuit Apostolum Quid autem habes quod non accepisti Quo praecipue testimonio convict us sum cum errarem putans fidem qua in Deum exedimus non esse donum Dei sed a nobis esse in nobis per illam nos impetrare Dei dona quibus temperanter juste pie vivamus in hoc seculo Quem errorem nonnulla opuscula mea satis indicant It was the saying of blessed Cyprian that we may glory in nothing because that which is ours is nothing This he proved by the words of the Apostle By which testimony I was first convinced when I erred thinking that faith was of our selves and then good works obtained by it Which errour several of my former pieces do sufficiently shew De praedestinatione sanctor c. 3. I wish he had mentioned the book here which I am citing as he does one or two other that I might have known his solution to the difficulty which himself hath urged but left unanswered upon our hands To return then to the Father's question Whether the Voluntas qua credimus The will whereby we beleeve be of our selves or God's gift I must not choose the first with him in that book but the last according to other of his works Nevertheless we must carefully distinguish the two things whereof he hath made two questions Vtrum fides in nostra constituta sit potestate Whether faith be in our power in one chapter and Vtrum voluntas qua credimus donum sit Dei an ex libertate arbitrii Whether the will whereby we do beleeve be the gift of God or the effect of our own liberty in another I do apprehend here that both these two things are to be held That faith is in our power and That the will whereby we beleeve is not of our selves but of Gods grace or gift The holding both these is that which cuts the thread of all difficulties in this matter For the one That faith is in mans power we are beholding verily to that Father A thing is in a mans power which he may do if he will Hane dicimus potestatem ubi voluntati adiacet facultas faciendi When he accounts Faith then to be in mans power he understands this That he may beleeve if he will And this is a truth of great necessity yet hath difficulty But when he proceeds hereupon so farre as to make the will therefore whereby we beleeve to be of our selves it was a step which himself saw need to draw back There are many things that are possible which yet never shall be as this Father himself gives instances of upon another occasion in the first chapter of this book There are likewise many things which a man can do that yet he never will or is like to do without some speciall cause moving him to it Such is the business of mans Conversion There is no man we are to hold with him but he may beleeve I will adde repent and be saved if he will yet is this to be known and held also That there is no man for certain ever will unless it be from that one special cause which is Gods grace or the Spirit 's motion that works his heart thereunto Now then Shall a man remain an unbeleever and impenitent and perish the fault shall lye upon himself and God shall be just because we place faith in his own power He may believe and repent and be saved if he will If God would and he will not he may thank himself Again if he do believe and repent and is saved he shall have no cause to boast or glory in himself because that though he might believe and repent if he would yet would he never have repented while the world lasted
Nature and into what inconveniences especially in reference to our Prayers they must be lead that maintain it I shall not be able to say presently Cur admonemur orare pro inimicis nostris vtique nolentibus pie vivere nisi ut Deus in illis operetur velle Item cur admonemur petere ut accipiamus nisi ab illo fiat quod volumus a quo factum est ut velimus Again Cur petitur quod ad nostram pertinet potestatem si Deus non adjuvat veluntatem Why are we bid to Pray for our Enemies whose Hearts we know are Averse Why are we bid to ask any thing which is in our own Power but that it is God who turns the Will Augustine Enchir ad Laur. c. 31. Item De Gra. alibi passim It is certain that St. Austine speaking of what Grace Adam had and what We have De correptione Gratia c. 11. does ascribe the Posse permanere si vellet The power of standing if he would unto Grace Prima gratia quae dâ—…a est Adam est qua fit ut habeat homo justitiam si velit Secunda ergo plus potest qua etiam fit ut velit Again Posse permanere si vellet quia dederat adjutorium per quod posset He could have stood if he would because God vouchsafed help whereby he could I must confess I should have judged it not to be of Grace that Adam had his Posse perseverare his strength to persenere but of Nature or his Original Righteousness And that Grace which he calls Adjutorium is proper to our falne Estate for the relieving of Nature But if it were of Grace that Adam had the posse only when he had not the velle then may we assert universal Grace with the more Authority while we say that there is a posse now in Man falne as to the performance of the Covenant of Grace no less than in Adam at first as to his keeping the Covenant of Works when yet the velle which is of special Grace is not vouchsafed There may be here indeed a most difficult Demand and that must not be baulked Whether the Power which is universal be of Nature or Grace And I must profess it is an Entanglement to my Thoughts to distinguish Nature at all from that Grace which is universal Although for the sake I suppose of some Texts which attribute our sufficiency our can our power as well as our will and deed to God when they say too it is not of our selves Divines do it There is that Concourse or Operation of God with Us as reaches to the Endowing us with Power or that which reaches to the Endowing us with the Will The last of these only if I might choose I would have called Grace Yet seeing Divines speak otherwise whether the former also be called Grace or Nature so long as it be held universal I desire to move no Contention And you see me speak as one indifferent in it If we consult the Schools we shall find them giving as little to the strengh of nature as any others can doe Nullum initium justificationis potest fieri sine gratia Sive lllud initium sit causa sive meritum condigni aut congrui sive impetratio dispositio conditio ad quodlibet aliquid quocunque modo per se ratione sui conducens ad justificationem There is nothing that we can doe of our own strengh without grace that is any cause merit disposition condition or occasion of our justification or the beginning of it Ruiz De praedestinationis exordio Trac 3. Disp 17. By justification they understand in effect regeneration and they distinguish of an occasion which is active or given of men and passive or taken of God They will allow indeed that what we doe may be a Passive occasion or opportunity to God for the infusing his grace which is with them to justify us but no Active Illae occasiones perse ratione sui nullam Physican nec moralem causalitatem exercent ad obtinendam miscriocordiam Dei sed Deus pro sua intriuscca bonitate Sapientia ex illis occasionem accipit Jb. Dist 16 Sec. 2. The sum is that whatsoever man does by the strengh of nature conduces to his effectuall conversion onely as a removens prohibens by removing the hindrance which otherwise we might put if we with drew from the means that God hath appointed to obtain his grace Licet cuim aliquis per motum liberi arbitris divinam gratiam nec promercri nec acquirere possit potest tamen seipsum impedire ne eam recipiat sayes Aquinas Though a man by the motion of his freewill cannot merit or procure the divine grace yet can he hinder himself from receiving it They said unto God Depart from us we desire not the knowledg of thy ways Quilibet acius qui a nobis eliciatur per vires naturae sine anxilio gratiae nihil ad gratiam justificantem nee ad auxiliatricem gratiam insluit nihilue conducit aut confert perse ratione sui sed soluwnmodo quasi causa per accidens remonendo prohibens aut tanquam occasio opportunitas passiua a Deo accepta non ab hominibus data Jb. Dist 20. Having gon thus far in abasing the strengh of nature we shall find how they make it up again with advancing an universall Sufficient grace by the help of which lever the free will of man shall be lifted into the same throne from whence before they threw it down For when that grace which they set up must be such only as gives a next power to beleeve and repent if we will but leaves the will undetermined and uninclined and this being Supposed to be vouchsafed to all according to the condition they are in whether Elect or Reprobate alike it is apparent that mans free will by the cooperation with this grace or refusal is that which begins or puts by his own justification and causequently makes the differenee in the upshot between him that is saved and him that is damned Supponimus omnibus adultis nullo excepto dari auxilia sufficientia ad salutem non impedita sed ita expedita ut in potestate cujusque sit illis cooperando ulteriora auxilia obtinere quanrvis per vires naturae non possint obtinere auxilia gratiae Again Barbari ignorantissimi per interiorem gratiam moventur ad cognoseendum non explicite sed implicite virtualiter non certo sed subdubio non in particulari sed in universali aliquid supernaturale atque ad illud desiderandum Idque sufficit ut illustrationes inspirationes siut quidditative supernaturales sufficientes ad justificationis initium Idem ib Disp 25. Now what my thoughts are of this I have offered as I pass and more particularly at the end upon the first Head of Election There is universal Grace consistent with the Special Grace of Gods Elect Or inconsisient with it The