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A34535 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 ... Corbet, John, 1620-1680. 1683 (1683) Wing C6253; ESTC R233166 37,069 64

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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