in fame for learning and devotion they not by any necessity or constraint but willingly stick to their commands and doctrines and refuse to embrace the truth that would endanger to their displeasure and reproach Hos 5.3 4 9 11. John 5.44 and 12.42 43. whence that Isa 51.12 13. Neither will this Plea help them or be found true their wills were so chained they could not chuse to accept the better part in this they were for want of liberty and freedom of will necessitated to chuse the worse part herein and whoever help them with this Plea God will reprove it Isai 5.1 4. Mic. 2.7 3. Some there are that for want of the right knowledge of Christ having dyed for all and the ends and virtues of his death stoop not to come in at that door wherein they will be found no better than others and chuse not that efficacie of the death of Christ that they might be quickned by him yet make some use though a wrong one of this liberty and freedom of will given them by Christ and that is this that being convinced of sin and their guiltiness of it by the Law and the wages to be death and so terrified by the Law with the apprehensions of Gods anger and judgement and so of hell and believing the Law to be holy just and good as indeed it is they set themselves to the Law and chuse to work sorrow on their hearts for their sins and so to leave them and to learn the knowledge of those righteous affections and services commanded by the Law hereby to get the righteousness of God and as by use and custom they attain to some inward frames and promptness in duties they would from thence conclude themselves alive to God but finding wants they will look to Christ as one that dyed for such that so what is wanting in them may be made up by him and being come to this they trust there are Christs they have faith they are righteous and have some free-will to that which is supernatural and spiritual good but in this they are not wise but farther off unjustified still 2 Cor. 10.7 11 12 13. Luke 18.11 Rom. 7.9 and 9.33 and 10.1 2 3 4. Job 9.30 33. And yet in this is something that is worse for they yet not knowing that which is indeed supernatural and spiritual good and so having as yet no freedom of will to chuse that But onely this freedom forementioned to that is morally good and all the zeal and exercise being an act of their will though helped by that freedom in it given by Christ to men yet this now they call an act of supernatural grace and say it is a begun freedom of will to that which is spiritually good and that it was wrought in them by the free grace and the almighty and unresistable power of God without which they say they could not have had it And they acknowledge it the work of his grace as did the Pharisee Luke 18.11 And of this act and fruit of their will they make a great Idol and mysteriously worship it for from hence they fetch their knowledge and on this they build their faith and hope that they are elect that Christ dyed for them that Christ is theirs and they his that the promises belong to them and that they shall have eternal life and can never fall away though they think and to others say Christ is their foundation yet the truth is the first and bottom matter is the foundation and that to them is this act produced by their will without which they know not whether Christ dyed for them or no so that they build that perswasion hereon also and hence is their assurance c. raised though every whit as much deceived as they Prov. 30.12 Luke 18.11 Rev. 3.17 18. 2 Cor. 10.12 And as high-thoughted of themselves as they Prov. 30.13 Isai 65.5 Yet do they blinde themseves and others from discerning this by earnest and zealous crying down all free-will in man to any such good as they have as if there be any it must needs be by nature and so as persuing others as magnifiers of nature and holding man hath free-will to that is spiritually good therefore you may be sure they are far from any such thing and yet all this while they have no more but that freedom of will that is by Christ given to all men though not so to work with and build on the Lord help such as are snared with it out of this mysterious Deceit that they may not be as those Prov. 30.12 13. or he Luke 18.11 Lamentable it is that so good and gracious a gift given to man should be so abused but it will leave at last the abusers excuseless 5. But I will now add the last consideration of the natural man and that is as Jesus Christ by the virtue of his death sacrifice and mediation doth by his spirit in and according to the Gospel visit and move the heart with some supernatural light and motion at some seasons striving with him that there are such seasons of gracious visitations and especially where the Gospel is plainly preached I need not in our Nation stretch my Assertion any farther is evident for the plain preaching of the Gospel is it self a gracious visitation to a people and the mean yea the choise if not the onely outward mean to enlighten mens mindes in make their wills free to chuse spiritual good things Luke 68 78 79. and 19.42 44. And Christ by his spirit is graciously present in such ministration of the Gospel Prov. 9.1 6. Matth. 28.20 whence it is called a ministration of life spirit and righteousness 2 Cor. 3.7 8 9. And yet moreover at some seasons more than others and sometime to one and sometime to another he doth more clearly and forcibly visit with some supernatural light and motion discovering his goodness to the heart and moving it with convincement and alurement so striving with them by his spirit as appears Rev. 3.20 1 Pet. 2.12 John 16.8 13. And in such seasons he is making the will free laying grace and life before it moving with loving alurements so as they might be free to chuse and have then an opportunitie to receive that freedom yea in one season or other before he leave striving with them he takes off the yoke of thraldom that there is so much freedom given to the will I say not that they shall necessarily by constraint but that they might in that season while his presence is so with them even chuse life yea spiritual good things though many undervaluing it do not as is evident Hos 11 4. Ezek. 24.13 Isa 5.1 4. I say not this freedom wrought in the will of the natural man is abiding or dwelling in him but onely that it is given into his will at and in such a season of visitation and yet that this mercy of God given in such seasons is by many
diversly abused is too evident 1. By some in a willing withdrawing and turning aside after such knowledge and operations of truth given a fearfull and dangerous evil Hos 11.1 4 7. Ezek. 24.13 Prov. 1.24 2. By others though not prevailed with to receive the love of the truth to save renew and cleanse them yet lifting up themselves to high conceits of themselves as more excellent than others because of such visits shines and motions and even on that ground also boasting of their enjoyments of free grace and peculiar favour a dangerous evil Prov. 30.13 Jude 5.6 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. the Lord give such timely repentance 3. Yet lastly that we may fully and rightly understand this business there is one thing more to be considered namely how long any is to be reckoned in the number of natural men and that according to Scripture account is untill by the grace of God in Christ discovered they be brought in to believe in Jesus Christ and then they are something else and better than meer natural men or till for persisting in resisting this grace they be left and so given up and reprobated of God and then they be something else and worse than meer natural men the first of these have a begun freedom of will not onely to chuse spiritual good things for that they have already but also to pursue abide in and follow after the same which no meer natural man hath and the latter have lost that freedom they have before given them to moral good things and attention to mediums for spiritual good being void of judgement therein and till men become one of these two sorts they even all men besides both rich and poor wise and simple learned and unlearned in offices ecclesiastical or civil and out of office within or without the pale of the profest Church Jews or Gentiles civil or deboyst idolatrous superstitious devout or profane and scoffers meek or furious chaste or unchaste liberal or covetous c. They are all of them natural and but natural men untill as is said 1. That by the love or grace of God in Christ that dyed for sinners discerned and believed they be brought to deny and disown themselves their own sins purposes and ways so as they believe on God in Christ therein accepting this grace to save comfort renew and guide them the bent of their heart being set to depend on God to enjoy honour and please him waiting on him for preservation and eternal life these though men and in a sense natural men still Acts. 14.15 yet also indeed and in truth they are something else more and better than natural men even the Sons of God by faith Gal. 3.26 Born of God John 1.12 13. of water and the spirit John 3.3 5. By the grace and spirit of God in and by Christ Rom. 5.6 8 10. Tit. 3.4 5 6. 1 Pet. 1.21 And so all that by the freeness of Gods love appearing in the death of Christ are brought to believe in Christ and so have him by his Word and Spirit abiding in them and they by faith and love abiding in him these all these whether babes strong men or fathers all are the sons of God members of Christ and in some degree spiritual yea though by reason of some weakness and oppositions of flesh and world some be more carnal than spiritual Rom. 7.14 1 Cor. 1.2 3. So that such believers all and every one of them have not onely such a freedom of will as that they might chuse that is good according to their understanding in things natural and moral and attention to the outward mediums for spiritual good things and so such a light or spirit as God by Christ and for his sake giveth to every one that cometh into the world but they have received an oyntment from the holy One even the word of grace therein the spirit of grace into their spirit and so have a new heart a new spirit and so have not onely that by which attending their will might be made free or an opportunity in which they might have it or such a freedom onely in some spiritual visit that they might chuse life and spiritual good things but much more for by the election grace hath made in their hearts they have chosen life and spiritual good things Isai 56.45.1 Thes 2.13.2 Thes 1.10 And now have in their heart by the operation of God a begun freedom not onely to chuse yea and to will but even also to do spiritual things Phil. 2.12 13. And it is behoofull and gainfull for them to walk out in this grace as they have received Col. 2.6 Phil. 2.12 13. And in this freedom they are differenced from all natural men and much more from them that are worse than natural namely 2. Those who by continual lifting up their own understandings thinking to be wise and preferring their own thoughts purposes and lusts before the receiving and retaining the knowledge and teachings of God by nature or Scripture to turn at his reproof but follow the delusions of Satan till they have closed their eyes and stopped their ears and hardened their hearts in resisting the spirit and blotting out the light which God by Christ had given them and so resisted the truth declared and the holy Ghost in his visits and strifes therein till they be left and given up to Satan and so reprobated and given up of God these and all and every of these though in a sense they be natural men still yet they are also some thing else and more and worse than natural men even the Sons of Belial of the wicked one the seed of the Serpent emphatically the reprobate and wicked indeed that now cannot believe Prov. 1.24 36. Ezek. 24.13 Jer. 6.16 30. Gen. 4.5 13. with 1 John 3.12 Rom. 1.18 28. John 12.38 40. And these having lost that light they had despited the spirit that would have given them more and for that given up of God they are not onely destitute of all freedom of will to spiritual but even to moral good and set with a full resoluteness in their will to do the works of their father the devil being void of all right judgement John 8.41 44. Rom. 1 24 28. And in this they are differenced not onely from believers but from all other men that are reckoned in the number of natural men And now having been so large in opening this business let all this be brought together let the will be considered as one of the faculties of the soul and the freedom for a libertie not from a command or lawfullness but in it self to chuse the one or the other in things proffered let the things be considered as distinct natural and moral and spiritual and of what and to which is spoken in any affirmation let the natural man be considered as he was righteous but is fallen in and through Adam and redemption wrought for him by Christ and some light given him
stand or be in that first estate he was in these being no part nor priviledge of the first creation that is now old but a new creation of things belonging to the second and spiritual man 1. Cor. 15.45 So that of these heavenly supernatural and spiritual good things as they were not known so there could be in man no will much less free will to them and so Adam not having it could not loose it nor could we loose such free will in his fall as we never had in him in his standing so that thus far I hope none will say we magnifie the nature of man For that freedom he had in his will to natural moral and spiritual good was not deserved nor acquired by him but freely given and wrought in him by God whose the praise is But that which is indeed freedom of will to that which is supernatural and spiritual good he had not and the knowledge of this will help to understand that which follows 2. In the second consideration as man by his abuse of free will did in his transgression make himself he not abiding a night in honour became like the beast that perisheth Psal 49.12 20. His soul was not annihilated no more than his body but his understanding will and affections he had still but the Image of God therein the uprightness and holiness thereof was lost and many evil inventions found by him and us all in him Eccles 7.29 Yea he and we as far as could be in a publick one did in him become sinfull and guilty of death and by virtue of Gods sentence condemned and in that respect dead Rom. 5.12 18. And by nature and according to this consideration such we come forth from him Rom. 5.19 So that all men by nature and as considered in Adam and as come forth from him in respect of all we receive from him and so are and have by nature are all ungodly sinners enemies to God void of judgement in that which was truly good and therefore destitute of will much more of freedom of will to it yea dead in treaspasses and sins Rom. 3.9 19 and 5.6 and 6. Eph. 2.1 2. And they that rightly believe Jesus Christ to have dyed for all do therein and therewith believe all to have been thus dead 2 Cor. 5.14 And therefore in respect of any thing by nature or from Adam wholly destitute of any freedom of will to that which is truly good much more destitute of any free will to that which is supernatural and spiritual good which nature never had in the first Adam nor can have but by some higher and more glorious grace than was conferred on him in his first estate So that sure in affirming this is no exaltation of nature and such as talk of free will to that is truly and spiritually good in men by nature must have it in man thus considered or not at all Object But here I fear some that with many words cry down free will in man to good by nature will yet be offended at me as abasing nature too much and object against me that in Rom 2.14 15. That the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the law c. And shew the work or effect of the Law written in their heart where if by nature they mean the nature of man as from Adam and by the work of the Law written they mean the Law it self as some do and the bringing it in for such an end would argue such a sense to be meantt hen and so to this Objection I answer Answ Though I reverence their learning and godliness yet I receive not their sense of this place because I finde the word nature otherwise used sometime than for the nature of man and the nature of man in another consideration also than hitherto set forth And I finde a great difference between the law and the work or effect of the law in the heart and the taking the words here in such a sense would contradict many plain sayings of Scripture For those that understand not Do no good are ungodly and enemies to God and by nature dead in trespasses and sins have not the holy and righteous law written in their hearts nor do freely by their own nature the things contained in the law which if they had and did then had they free will indeed by nature yea and which is more freedom and power of doing also and this is strange that such as cry down free will in words and accuse others to hold it should by their own interpretations in doctrine so highly avouch and teach it But it is clear enough if the Apostles business and scope from chap. 1.16 to this chap. 2.16 be well viewed and understood which was to set forth the goodness of God according to Gospel testimonie and the means he used for men to to know it that believing they might be justified and sanctified by his grace and the equity of his proceedings against those that willingly disobey against goodness so made known about making forth his knowledge he tels us of two mediums or books the book of creatures God in and by natural things created and ordered by him manifesting his power goodness c. and giving them in some measure to know and calling and moving to repentance Rom. 1.19 20 21. and 2.1 2 3 4. and God teaching by these mediums it is in respect of the instruments used called the teaching of nature or natures teaching and the other is the book of Scriptures which was not by nature or natural mediums but by a spiritual revelation from God so the law to and by Moses and the Prophesies and the Gospel as now come forth Rom 1.16 17. which to whomsoever it comes it brings more clear revelation of the minde of God than can be seen in nature or those visible works of God in creation and providence and it is not the enjoyment of greater or lesser means but the yeilding up thereto according to the light therein vouchsafed be it more or less in which goodness is received again if we minde the Scripture and man in the first consideration we shall finde that man in his innocency had the Law that is the knowledge and love of God and man writ in his heart but sinning he lost this and became as the beasts in that respect Yet though man lost his uprightness God and his Law lost not his authority man by the Law was as much obliged still to know and love God and his neighbour for the grace he had conferred on him by creation c. And such the force power and authority of God in this Law that it entered into the heart of man convincing him as bound to it and that it was his duty to adore God and love man though he had neither light nor strength nor will to either yet according to what he conceived himself to do right or wrong his conscience or thoughts within would excuse or accuse and
that they might discern and attend the means in which his goodness is testified and his Spirit working And he knoweth that if such mediums abide unclouded and unperverted before them and that if they according to the light given them do in seeing see and attend to that discovered in the means The grace discovered would enlighten their mindes draw their attentions and work willingness and desires in their hearts to receive and God would convert and heal them Therefore this enemy of Mankinde exerciseth his malice in many wiles to withdraw men from beholding and attending the truth as presented in those mediums especially in the Gospel And this he doth sometime like himself as an Angel of darkness with presentation of necessities or worldly honours and riches or persecutions but sometime counterfeiting as if he were an Angel of light pretending light holiness and greater attainment and for this cause hath his Ministers appearing as Ministers of righteousness to oppose the Testimony of Christ as set forth in the plain sayings of the Gospel also in the extent of it knowing if that be hid from men the door of saving knowledge the foundation of sound repentance and faith the medium to set their will at liberty and make free to choose life is hidden from them then they are liable to be taken in his snares and seducements But that he 's mischievous end may not be seen and that he may prevail to put men by attending to such plain declaration of the Gospel he will colour over his business with a pretence of magnifying free and particular grace in a more excellent way and cry down the plain Testimony of the Gospel if received in the plain import of the words as exalting the nature of Man and attributing free-will thereto to the derogation or abating the honour of the grace of God and so scare men from attending that in which they might meet with life For the preventing of which mischievous design and removing that false aspersion cast on the truth and lovers thereof I have writ these ensuing lines which I desire may be read and the homeliness of the stile pardoned but the things themselves tried and received so far as they appear consonant to the Testimony and sayings of the Gospel and no farther The Lord in mercy sill us with the blessing of the Gospel and make us of one minde therein as prayeth the Well-willer in Christ THO MOOR A TREATISE About the will in Man and what freedom is in it to any thing truly good and whence that comes THe great love of God to fallen mankinde in giving his own Son to take the nature of man yea to be the publick man and under the law for and in the room of all men and so to dye for them all that first and accursed Death in which all mankinde had else for ever perished And Gods being so well pleased with this Death of one for all that he hath raised and exalted him and made him Lord of all and given them all over into his dispose and born witness of him and set him forth in the Gospel to be the propitiation for the sins of the whole world that whosoever believeth in him may receive forgiveness of sins and have eternal life and that such as when means are used towards them rebell willingly against him may be justly judged by him This is fully and plainly recorded in Scripture and declared as the ground and foundation of repentance faith love to God and men of preaching the Gospel to all of asserting the Resurrection of all and of Christ his judging all as is plain in the Scripture and hath thereby been clearly proved by many Yet by some and such also as are in esteem both for learning and godliness this truth is not onely opposed with many subtilties cavils and invention of absurdities to fasten on it but even the clear contrary Assertion affirmed as to say that God never loved all men Christ did not dye for all men he is not the propitiation for the sins of the whole world of mankinde calling these their negations Truth and the contrary affirmations of the holy Ghost Error and Heresie and although the best of them can finde but carnal weapons as misreporting the words they should answer wrong and cloudy stating the question multiplying queries scholastical flourishes Rhetorical chidings scoffings pervertion and wresting of Scripture-sayings not one plain saying of the holy Ghost to avouch and countenance their negation withall but such expositions limitations and exceptions as tend as much to deny Gods creation of all men by Christ his making all men righteous in the first publick man that all have sinned that there is any cause for or door of repentance for all men That there is any real truth in the Gospel to be preached to all men that all men are obliged to Jesus Christ for any saving good why they should live to him or that they shall all rise and come to judgement before him nor have they any clearer testimony in the Scripture for these or any of these than for that which they deny I hope God will one day give them to see so bring them from opposing to acknowledging the truth and for that cause I have writ these few lines if it may be to remove one of their great pretended stumbles in answer to a groundless slander which is this that such as believe Jesus Christ to have dyed for all men do also therewith hold that men have free will by nature and so magnifie the nature of man and free will in man Derogating thereby from the honour of the rich and free grace of God By what reason or learning this should be raised to be a consequent of the belief of Christ his having dyed for all men I know not nor believe that any can shew but I shall endeavour to clear that part of opposed truth from giving any cause at all or having so much as any shew for such an absurdity to be cast upon it and I am sure many believing the truth are slandered And for the clearing the truth and them I desire that these four things may be considered and what the Scripture saith of them may be believed 1. The distinction the Scripture holdeth forth between that which Jesus Christ as the publick man distinct from all other men undertook to do and hath done in his own personal body with God for men without reference to the knowledge will or acting of other men and as and while they were enemies and that which as the publick man by virtue of that done in his own bodie being filled with power authority offices and spirit he hath undertaken to do doth and will do for to and in men that they might know will act and enjoy the virtue and blessing of that he hath done in his own body The first of these being done perfect compleated without the knowledge will or act of any other man in his
undertaking and Gods acceptance and whether men know and believe it or not yea while they are enemies and declared that men might know and so will act and enjoy and so demonstrates men by nature dead enemies and wanting both knowledge of and will to any spiritual good before the other to be after done and where begun yet not compleated fully till the visible return of Jesus Christ in glorie 2. Cor. 5.14 15 19 21. 1 Pet. 2.24 and 3.18 Col. 1.20 21. and 1. John 3.1 2. which things having largely discoursed into Treatises now publick I forbear here onely I mention this to shew that the right understanding and belief of Jesus Christ the free gift of God and his death for all men and that while enemies and his ascending to receive and send forth spirit in the Gospel to make the same known that men might discern believe will and doth wholly oppose and deny any knowledge of or free will in any man by nature to that which is truly and spiritually good And such conceits of free will proceed from want of the right knowledge and belief of the death of Christ for all men And so I shall here onely enlarge in the other three things following 1. What will or free will in man is 2. What divers considerations of men yet natural the Scripture affordeth 3. When men are other and more than natural and what difference then 1. The will of man or mans will is one of the faculties of the soul of a man The soul as I conceive may be comprehended in these three heads viz. 1. The understanding or minde of a man by which he knoweth discerneth and judgeth of things good or bad true or false real or imaginarie and so inventeth or inferreth all which may be called Reason 2. The will of a man that is his bent and inclination leading to elect and chuse or to reject and refuse with purpose and resolution approving or condemning according to the judgement of the minde concerning things good or bad 3. The affections of love joy desire c. Which in a right tempered soul follow the verdict of the understanding and so the choise or rejection of the will But if the appetite and sensual part get victory over the affections and so lead the will the soul is in a distemper and it is a troublesome evil like that Prov. 30.22 23. So that without these three there is not as I conceive a whole soul the will being as I conceive the middle part to be governed by the understanding and to govern the affections that all may agree in one now the freedom of the will is that liberty and freeness it hath in it self above any discoveries objects and proffers to incline to or from to chuse or reject according to what the understanding discerneth good or bad without any force or violence to constrain it one way or other without any necessitating enforcement or band withholding but onely as that seen in the object and approved or disaproved by the judgement doth move and so far is the will free ended and so the heart and minde make free and willing and such a free ready unconstrained will or willingness is free will indeed and so far the will is free in it self and so accounted in Scripture-language also Exod 25.2 and 35.5 21 22.29 2 Cor. 8.3 12. Yet here is to be noted that discovery of objects giving forth of commands and directions layeth no constraint or hindereth but that the will of it self inclining is still free and so accounted in the Scripture Lev 1.3 and 19.5 and 22.19 26. Nor doth want of power to do or avoid and so accomplish according to the purpose inclination and choice of the will hinder the freedom of the will But that the will may be free and freely willing when yet there is not power to do or attain that which is willed Matth. 26.41 Ioh. 21.18 Rom. 7.18 So that freedom of will is one thing and power of doing another and so let us hold close to our business in minding what is free will and in what sense the will is said to be free whether in things that are lawfull or unlawfull good or bad that we mistake not freedom here for liberty or Authority given of God for he gives none to evil nor for power of acting which is another thing But for that freedom from constraint or necessity In which the will as it is a will doth or may incline and chuse or reject more need not be said of the will what it is 2. But now it is meet to ponder and rightly to conceive of man according to the divers and manifold considerations given us of him by the Scripture of which I shall point out five considerations of man as yet a natural man and they are these 1. As God made him in his creation of him when he made all men in one publick man whom also he made male and female and called their names Adam 2. As man by eating the forbidden fruit in sinning made himself 3. As man through the propitiation made by Jesus Christ the second publick man hath his natural life a time preserved and mercies extended 4. As by the virtue of the death sacrifice and mediation of Jesus Christ man hath some light understanding and disposition given unto him by Jesus Christ 5. As Jesus Christ doth by his Spirit with some supernatural light and motion at some seasons visit a man and touch his heart striving with him and in all these considerations we have several things to acknowledge about the will of man and the freedom of it 1. In the first consideration we finde God made man upright even in his soul according to his own Image in righteousness and holiness Ecles 7.29 Gen. 1.26 Col. 3.10 Eph. 4.24 Then was man indeed a living soul and in honour and had his understanding clear to discern the minde of God in what appertained to man and his will free and at liberty in it self though by the command of God bound to the best to chuse one way or other and his affections suitable no sober man that I know denying and so and then man had freedom of will to that which was natural good and to that which was morally good and to that which was spiritually good and all had the same in him as in a Root out of which they were to spring and as in a publick man that stood in their room else they could not have lost it in his fall and loss But for those things that are since mans fall called in Scripture supernatural and spiritual good as the spiritual man the Lord from heaven the quickning spirit life from the dead remission of sins through the bloud of the Son of God enjoying his righteousness union with him and conformity to him in death and resurrection in his holiness priviledges and glory these things were unknown to the first Adam in his Innocency nor could they
such an effect or work of the Law is more or less in every mans conscience till he by custom of sinning and hardning his heart be seared so past feeling Rom. 2.5 Ephes 4.18 so that in all this is no such commendation of the nature of man that he hath the Law writ in his heart and so by nature doth the things of the Law the contrary being largely testified in the first chapter and in the beginning of this But now for our understanding what that Doing the things of the Law by that light extended by nature or natural mediums even by such as have no distinct revelation of Christ is which is here spoken of It is needfull that we first receive the Gospel-testimonie that Christ dyed for all men and extends by virtue of his death some light to all and so consider man in some other consideration than as fallen in the first Adam namely as redeemed in the second and as mercies and means are extended by and through that second publick man even Jesus Christ and those means made effectual in him also by Jesus Christ though for want of the Gospel and spiritual revelation he have no distinct knowledge of this Jesus Christ through whom he receiveth all this and by whom he is now more accepted of God than such as enjoy those greater and spiritual means that give the distinct knowledge of Christ and are not prevailed with thereby as is to be seen in the example of Cornelius Act. 10.1 4 31 34 35. And the following part of this whole chapter Rom. 2. So that in all this the grace of God shewn in greater or smaller means by spiritual or natural mediums is magnified but the nature of man that which of himself as Adams Son he willeth and Doth is reproved and abased as is evident throughout chapter 1. and 2. and 3. 3. But now in the third consideration of man as Christ the second and publick man hath in his stead and for his sins dyed and so wrought a redemption and made a peace for him and by virtue thereof doth preserve his life for a time and in that time extendeth mercies and means to him that he might repent Rom. 2.4 and seek him Acts. 17.27 and live to him 2 Cor. 5.15 and so participate of the redemption peace Here in this consideration of man as his soul and body is preserved in the natural life by Christ Psal 75.3 Col. 1.16 17. John 1.4 5. We have something else to consider about the will in man being one of the faculties of the soul of the soul so preserved For man in the former consideration was so fallen and dead that he was so shut out that there was no liberty to him for any good to chuse nor yet for evil to chuse or refuse for he was necessitated to it and so his will wholly imbondaged but now through this redemption wrought by Christ and grace given by God in him and manifested through him that necessity of perishing and impossibility of being saved that which stood cross against man in the mid-way between God and man is removed and that which held man captive is by Christ captived Col. 2.14 Ephes 2.13 16. and 4.8 and here is remission of sins and eternal life prepared for men and given by God in Christ that in receiving him men might receive it and this set forth in the Gospel that men might chuse life Joh. 3.14 15. Act. 13.38 39. 1 Joh. 5.11 12. So that now the winter is past and here is good spiritual good to be chosen and liberty from God to chuse the same Deut. 30.19 Joh. 6.27 29. but yet nature blinded cannot see and so the will is not moved nor free to chuse this spiritual good unless some supernatural light be given into it Joh. 1.4 5. but now in natural things suitable to the good and well-being of the natural life which is preserved by Christ the will is also herein so preserved by Christ as there is some freedom in it touching natural things and here I may say the will hath as much power or freedom to chuse or refuse as the man hath light or understanding to discern what is good or evil in things tending to the natural life and this I gather from that change of expression where knowledge and knowing to chuse or refuse are put one for another Isa 8.4 with Isa 7.16 and so in and about things and actions natural and humane for the preservation safety and well-being of the natural life and suitable profits pleasures and honours with that contrary thereto according to that which the understanding and minde of a man judgeth to be good or bad best or worst the will of the natural man is free and doth freely chuse or refuse Gen. 6.2 and 11.3 6. and 13.9 10 11. Although through a deluded judgement he may be mistaken in his choise Act. 27.11 12 13. yea and though he want power to attain and do or to avoid all that he chuseth or refuseth which may befall in this to spiritual men also Joh. 21.18 so that in fallen man that is yet natural and of himself inclined and imbondaged to his own ruine and harm he is yet through the grace of God by Christ so preserved that there is such a freedom in his will about things natural as is said the holding of which perswasion attributeth nothing to the exaltation of nature no worth no desert no power for good but abaseth it and magnifieth the grace and power of God in Christ to such weak unworthy ones to whom in their distress he also so speaketh What wilt thou that I should do unto thee Matth. 20.32 yet is this freedom of will many ways abused by natural men to their harm 1 Some not knowing the grace of God through Christ that dyed for them and bought them and so preserveth this freedom of will in them as they count their tongues their own Psal 12.4 so their will and this liberty and freedom they finde in it to be of themselves and so what they attain of things they chuse and pursue tending to furnish their natural life they attribute to themselves and so sacrifice to their own wisdom choise endeavours c. And make idols thereof which if they knew and believed the death of Christ for all with the ends and virtues thereof they would not do Ezek. 28 2 6 17. Hab. 1.15 16. An evil that God warns his people to beware of Deut 8.11 12.14 17. Jer. 9.23 2. Some through the same Ignorance and unbelief yet finding this liberty of will not knowing whose gift it is and to what end given do yet in self-love and desire of riches and honour chuse that which to them apeareth the best and so chuse a sober and temperate use of the creatures and a civil and modest behaviour in converse with men about them and then in a secret hypocrisie pretend this temperance sobriety c. to be for God and to