thereby the Affections are sufficiently excited and quickened Nor is there any Depravation in the Mind but what may be cured by common Light such as the most corrupt and wicked men have That which admits so easie a Cure must needs be sleight and little and that little too which they acknowledge is with them neither Sin nor Punishment properly and so not evil at all unless there be some evil which is neither The Depravation of our Natures by the Fall however it be aggravated in Scripture is not in their account properly either our Sin or our Punishment but only our Infelicity and no great Infelicity neither since with them it can be neither spiritual Death nor mortal Disease no nor very considerable Weakness For if it were such a Weakness no Grace would repair it but that which communicates an answerable Strength But that Grace which they think sufficient to repair all gives not any strength at all but supposes there is Power enough in Nature to Recover it self if it be but excited This in a manner makes Christ of none effect The great end of his coming was to Restore our Natures fallen from God and made uncapable of honouring and injoying him Therefore he took our Nature and performed and suffered so much therein But what need all this waste if we can lick our selves whole by vertue of a little common Light and so little not needfull with some of them De Peccat Orig. c. 1â— The great Augustin reduces the whole Christian Doctrine to two Heads the Knowledge of the first Adam and the Knowledge of the Second What we suffered by Adam and what we gained by Christ But tho these be Fundamental in the Christian Doctrine how little they stand for in the Doctrine of Free-will we may hereby perceive And it will be further manifest by another Fundamental which depending on this now insisted on falls with it 5. By this Doctrine there is no need of Regeneration To be Regenerate is in the Language of the Holy Ghost to be born of God Joh. 1. 13. to be born again or born from above Joh. 3. 3. and that is to receive a Principle of Spiritual Life and Motion from God. Vid. Ham. in Joh. 1. 13. But no such Principle is necessary in the Will which indeed most needs it But no Habit of Holiness is planted there no good Quality created in it by the Spirit that they say is a necessitating Act and would be prejudicial to its Liberty The Image of God needs no repairing in the Heart or Will tho' that be the chief Receptacle and Subject of it even the Schoolmen making this the principal Seat of all Vertues It needs no such infused Principle or Quality to incline it to that which is good they will have it able of it self by its own native Power to embrace any good how supernatural soever which the Mind offers to it It can produce the best Acts without any inward Principle suitable or proportionable to them The Tree need not be good that the Fruit may be good or rather it is good enough already it is so naturally The Will or Heart of Man how naught soever the Scripture speaks it representing it to be desperately wicked Jer. 17. 9. and the Fountain of all Wickedness Mat. 15. 19. seems by their Doctrine to be as good by Nature as God can or will make it no worse than it was when first formed It lost no spiritual Qualities or Accomplishments by the Fall for it had none before Collat. Hâ—g p. 248. In spirituali morte non separantur propriè dona spiritualia ab hominis voluntate c. So that all regenerating Grace as to the Will is clearly cashiered Nor will they allow any new Qualities to be infused by the Spirit of Grace into the Mind or Affections Syn. Dor. 196. no more than into the Will for that they say is repugnant to the administration of the Means of Salvation All that they think requisite is common Light such as they deny not to the vilest men nor can well deny to Devils for they discern the truth and goodness of what is proposed in the Gospel by the â—are help of such Light their own Wills can regenerate them so far as they think any Regeneration needfull I find it no easie thing to discern what their Regeneration is The best I can make of it is this The Mind needs no new Birth or Life but what it has from common Light nor do the Affections need any exciting or quickening but what that same effects But tho they count this sufficient quickening they do not call it Regeneration for many thus quickened do live and dye unregenerate It is an act of the Will must do the work and for that the Will must be left to it self The Spirit of God must not touch it must not give it any Principle of Life must not act it by any special or immediate Influence but if of its own accord it turn it self to that which is good the Sinner is thereby born again So that Regeneration is compleated by a little common Light such as the Children of Darkness have and an act of Free-will without any further assistance any other work of the Spirit in or upon it Thus by this one act of Free-will at first they are regenerated actually and afterwards by repeated acts of Free-will they may be regenerated habitually for the Will by repeated Acts can beget gracious Habits and so help them to habitual Regeneration tho they deny the Spirit of Grace can work in them any such thing as Habits or Principles of Holiness Now this is to be born again of the Will of Man not of the Will of God Joh. 1. 13. The Scripture declares that they who are Regenerate are born of God 1 Joh. 3. 9. born of the Spirit Joh. 3. 8. but this is to be born of Free-will not of God nor of the Spirit unless Free-will be God or the Spirit The Apostle says of his own Will begat he us Jam. 1. 18. but they must say Of their own Wills they beget themselves Yet this is all the Regeneration which they count necessary and so make that New-birth a needless thing which the Scripture calls for and describes â—y other Characters and declares all access to the Kingdom of Heaven impossible without it 6. This takes Sinners off from that which is really saving and leads them to â—ake up with that which falls short of Salvation It teaches them to rest satisfied with such a Faith a Repentance a Conâ—ersion a Regeneration as common Light â—nd rational Proposals such as every one â—eets with in the Ministry of the Word â—re sufficient to effect But these alone can â—ever produce any saving Faith or Repenâ—ance any saving Regeneration or Conâ—ersion Those who perswade them that this is â—nough for those saving Effects go about â—o delude Sinners and if they look after â—o more their Souls are like to be ruined â—r
Man that thou visitest him And how exceedingly does this endear Free Grace that any of us should be separated from the rest of perishing Sinners that we should be Vessels of Mercy when others are Vessels of Wrath Lord what are we or what are our Fathers Why hast thou revealed thy self to us and not to the World Even so Lord because it pleased thee No other Reason can be assigned but meer Grace There needs no more to demonstrate that Salvation is to be ascribed to Grace only 1 Vse This condemns their Doctrine who will have us saved rather by Free-Will than by Grace which will have the Text inverted and read thus By Free-will are ye saved not by Grace but of your selves This has too many Patrons and those of greatest Name and Ability amongst the Opposers of Truth It 's the capital Errour of the Remonstrants the Foundation of their other Opinions that concern Grace and with which they all stand or fall The Socinians and the worst among the Papists the Jesuits joyn with them all following Pelagius condemned by the ancient Church as the Enemy of the Grace of Christ That we may the better understand them and what in them is to be condemned and avoided let us see 1. What Grace they own and count sufficient for something they must own under this notion who will not plainly renounce the Gospel 2. What they ascribe to Free-will 3. What is the Tendency of their Principles 4. What they object against the Doctrine of Free-Grace I. For the first They count no Grace necessary to bring a Sinner into a saving State and continue him in it but that which they call Morall Grace or Swasion This consists in a presenting of the Object to the Will with Motives and Arguments to embrace it Or thus in a Proposal of our Duty with rational Considerations to move him to yield to it leaving us to do as we please For Example To turn from sin to God and to Believe in Christ are Duties propounded in the Gospel the advantage of yielding hereto and the danger of refusing is there declared and so it is left to the Sinners choice whether he will comply or no. This is all the Grace which the Lord affords to save us It amounts to no more than a moral Excitement or a rational Proposal This Proposal is made with some light tending to excite Affection If it were altogether in the dark it would be in effect no Proposal Whether this Light be natural or supernatural they are not agreed Somâ— and those most followed would have the Light of natural Reason sufficient Others would rather have it counted a Light from the Spirit But all agree that it is no special Illumination but a common Light vouchsafed to all under the Gospel and so such as those have who live and dye in the gross Darkness of Ignorance and Wickedness they must not by their Principles deny to Heathens And those who will have it called the Light of the Spirit count it as weak and powerless as natural Light i. e. of no more power and efficacy to determine or sway the Will than the Light of Reason no nor so much as some Dictates of Reason are commonly thought to have The difference is so little if there be any as to the thing it self that those who call it the Light of the Spirit seem but to give it that Name and Title to decline the Odium of ascribing nothing at all to the Spirit of Grace However a common proposal with such light made in the Gospel unto Sinners is all the Grace which they count needful 1. They deny eternal Grace i. e. all Free Mercy in God to any particular persons from Eternity According to them he had no Mercy no purpose of it for any but what he was obliged to by the foresight of the good use of Free-will This is no Free Mercy and so no Grace 2. They deny all habitual Grace which is not of our selves They will have no such thing wrought in us by the Spirit of Holiness All gracious Qualities or Principles planted in the Heart by the Spirit they reject under the notion of infused habits 3. They deny actual Grace i. e. any operation of the Spirit to determine the Will. All gracious influences whatever that will or can certainly incline it to act or incline it any more to act than not to act Grace with them only proposes to the Will and leaves the determination to it self it must be left indifferent to act or not to act as it likes No other Grace than this of proposing none habitual or actual was designed for any Person in the eternal Counsel of God or purchased for any by the Blood of Christ or administred to any by the Spirit of Grace It is enough that it be propounded to the Will to turn to God and Arguments offered to that purpose such as the Gospel contains and are managed in the Ministry of it So that all the Grace which they count necessary is no special sufficient Grace 1. It is no special but only common Grace afforded equally to those that are damned as to any that are saved No other Grace than that which suffers the far greatest part of those who partake of it to perish eternally That Grace wherewith any man may be damned as soon as saved If any be saved in their way it is without special Grace It is ten to one for any Grace the Lord vouchsafes to Sinners they will never be saved 2. It is not sufficient Grace unless Nature has Power enough for Saving Acts without the least access of Strength from Grace for their Grace gives not the least degree of Strength to the Will but only rouses its native Power as Dalilahs voice gave Sampson no more strength when she said The Philistins are upon thee but only excited him to use the strength he had When they will have this swasive Grace to be sufficient they commend not Grace at all but magnifie the Power of Nature as being great indeed when it needs so little help for Acts of the highest quality and importance If any be saved in their way it must be without any Grace sufficient to Salvation 3. It is not effectual Grace This is plain by the former There can be no pretence that that will be effectual which is not sufficient But suppose it were sufficient as they without ground would have it accounted yet it is not of it self effectual The Efficacy of it by their Doctrine is not from its own Nature and Vertue nor from the Spirit of Grace but from the Will of Man. If he will it is efficacious if he will not it is of no Effect So that if it should prove Effectual to save any yet that is to be ascribed to Free Will and not to Grace to that which makes it Effectual when otherwise it would be of no effect In short it is not saving Grace takâ— it in any of their Senses As
ever Moral Grace may perhaps preâ—ail for some Morality but this alone can â—ever be effectual to turn a Heart of stone â—to a Heart of flesh to turn the Enmity of the Will into Love to Christ to turn Sinners from the Power of Satan unto God to raise the Soul to Life that is spiritually dead to make them new Creatures c. These are not the Effects of â— gentle Swasion but of an Almighty Power They mean something else than Scripture intends by these Expressions whâ— make these saving works so low commoâ— and easie things and so much in the Power and at the beck of a Sinners corrupteâ— Will. Nothing more ruines Souls thaâ— resting in that as saving which is not so and when Divines promote the Delusioâ— how pernicious is it like to prove 7. It destroyes holy Obedience inwaâ— and outward Leaves no place for thâ— exercise of Grace in the Heart or worâ— truely good in the Conversation It plucâ— up these by the roots taking away hâ— bitual Regeneration which is the root â— them the exercise of Grace in the actiâ— of an inward gracious Principle but the say there is no such Principle planted â— the Heart or Will by the Spirit of Hâ—liness and where the Principle is not â— cannot be acted There can be no vitâ— Acts where there is no vital Principle that which is not alive cannot put forâ— Acts of life Or to use the terms wherein Christ expresses it the Fruit is not good unless the Tree be good No good Acts can be produced by the Heart or Will till it self be good It is not it cannot be good when there are no good Qualities in it It had no good no holy Qualities planted in it by the Spirit of Grace that with them only acts Morally and does no more sanctifie those that are holy than those that are profane So that if the Will have any goodness any thing that is holy in it it has it from it self not from the Spirit of Holiness Thus the Fruits of the Spirit will be no other than the Fruits of Free-will of Free-will unsanctified unless it sanctifie it self and the acts of Obedience will be no other than the acts of natural Morality such as Mans degenerate Will can produce by its natural Power without any assistance but that of Moral or swasive Grace which begets no good Qualities gives no inward strength affords no help of any kind more to those who do most than to those who do nothing at all We need not wonder if those of this Perswasion should satisfie themselves and would have others satisfied with such a Morality their Principles do afford and can require nothing better But whether the Acts of it be those gracious Acts those Fruits of the Spirit those good works which the Scripture so much calls for and makes the Way to Salvation let those consider who are concerned indeed in the Way to Salvation Tâ—â—y charge their Opposers for not pressing Moral Duties If they mean thereby Practical Christianity there are none in the World press it more But we are not for a Pagan but a Christian Morality and think it not adviseable to press external Acts alone without minding the Principle and Root from whence all that is truely Christian must spring We count it absurd and preposterous to look for Fruits where there is no Root for gracious Acts where Grace is not planted in the Heart They may deck a May-pole with as many Garlands as they please and set off a Mast with Flags and Streamers but they will never thereby make them Fruit-trees The Lord will condemn those who bring not forth good Fruit and those also who lead them in a way where they are never like to be truely fruitfull without better conduct 8. This stifles Love to God takes away that which is the Foundation and Ground of a special transcendent Love to him That which is the rise of our Love to God is his Love to us 1 Joh. 4. 19. it is this that kindles our Affection to him and raises Love into a Flame But he that believes and considers that God had no more thoughts of Love for him from Eternity than he had for those who are under his everlasting Hatred and that Christ had no more Love for him in the work of Redemption did Obey Suffer Satisfie Purchase no more â—or him than he did for those who were in Hell when he Suffered and that the Spirit of Grace does no more for him in order to his Salvation than he does for the Vessels of Wrath sitted for Destruction will scarce find any thing in the Love of God on this Consideration to engage his Soul to a special Love for God He will be in danger to Love God with no more than a common Love such as a carnal Man may have who believes that the Lord loves him no more than he loves those who are to be tormented for ever with the Devil and his Angels He will â—ind a Motive from hence to hug and love himself rather than God For when that which they call Love in God seems but an indifferent respect not intending more good to one than another but as themselves determine it he had got no special benefit no particular advantage by that Love if he had not been better to himself The Lord as they represent him whatever is pretended concerning the greatness and universality of his Love to Mankind seems indifferent as to Love or Hatred as to the Happiness or Misery of Man. The Lord left it indifferent in his eternal Purpose whether any should be Saved or no and Christ in the Work of Redemption left it indifferent whether any should be actually Redeemed or no and the Spirit in Calling Sinners leaves it indifferent whether any be effectually Called or no There was no Affection in all this but what might have ended in Love or Hatred i. e. in the Damning of all as soon as the Saving of any That which determines this indifference and makes it prove Love is the Sinner himself the good use of his Free-will Had it not been for this for any Love that God had for him for any expression of it from Father Son or Spirit he had been one of the Children of Wrath in the same Condemnation with others So that the plain tendency of their Doctrine is to lead Sinners to reflect affectionately on themselves but with Indifferency upon God. Such is the general Love which they will have in God to Mankind it is but an indifferent respect to all which proves Love or Hatred as the Sinners Will determines it But when they ascribe any particular Love to God it is no other than what arises from the Sinners Love to him He foresaw that we would believe and so love him and therefore he intended Life for us He foresaw that we would embrace and choose Christ and therefore did he choose us So that God did not Love us first but we him whatever
Saving Grace is peculiar to the saved so it is far from being saving In this respect it is no more saving than damning if so much since the most incomparably that have it are damned Or if we take saving Grace for that which is sufficient for Salvation it is not saving unless there be a Power in mans degenerate Nature to save it self Power enough in the worst for saving acts such as needs nothing but exciting Or if we take it for that which is Effectual to Salvation it has no such Efficacy from it self or from God it is only from the Will of man that it is effectual to Salvation if ever it prove so So that in their way either there is no Grace at all that is saving or none that is saving at a better rate than the Will of man can make it so when it has no saving vertue of it self or from God. There needs no other Arguments against this Doctrine no Artifice to ingage us against it but a true and plain discovery of it If we be saved by Grace this Doctrine tends to lead us out of the way of Salvation II. Let us see what they ascribe to Free-will And that in general is a Power to be willing or unwilling as to any Motion that is made any Object that is offered to it It has a Power of it self and by its own natural Constitution either to choose or refuse either to imbrace or reject whatever Object is propounded however it be propounded The Will they say is never determined ad unum never so set upon one thing good or bad but that by rational inducement i. e. by Motives and Arguments it may be led to the contrary and never so moved by such inducements but that it may reject the motion Never so set upon Sin but that by swasive Proposals it may be moved to leave not only the Acts but the State of Sin nor ever so moved by that or any thing else but that it may repell the motion and quite stifle it We may view it more distinctly in these two branches 1. A Power to choose whatever good is offered They will have it able of it self to imbrace any good Object of what Nature soever not only natural or moral but what is supernatural of the highest Nature and Quality and the imbracing of it saving such as will pass a man into a saving State. It has a Power to repent of sin to believe in Christ to turn to God to love fear and delight in him Not only a capacity but an active Power for these c. Only these things must be propounded to it with some clearness and earnestness as the Gospel propounds them to all under its Ministry And that such a Proposal is required signifies no inability in the Will it self for these great things for the most sufficient Faculty imaginable cannot act upon an object that it discovers not and the Faculty of greatest Power may in some cases need exciting And so it is requisite the will have Light to discover its Object and some Arguments to commend it at least when the Soul is under the disadvantage of rooted prejudices or habitual and inveterate wickedness However all the help they think needfull for the Will is so far from denying its Power and Sufficiency for those great concerns of Salvation that it supposes the Will to have it in and of it self if saving things be but represented to it as necessary and worthy of its choice and embraces 2. A Power to refuse any Object however it be offered with what advantage soever it be propounded by the Spirit of God or the Ministry of man. For the Liberty they make essential to the Will consists they say in an indifferency either to choose or refuse either to act or not to act And it must be left indifferent in all cases so that nothing in Heaven or Earth can determine it but it self God himself they say cannot without fail determine it to the choice of this or the other without destroying it Voluntas hominis ad actus suos motione irresistibili determinari non potest ne ab ipso Deo quidem Syn. Dor. 212. He cannot Vid. Ames rescript p. 129. incline the will irresistably he cannot by any Divine Motion of unwilling make it willing Whatever Power he does or can put forth for this purpose the Will may and can resist it and render it of no effect If the Lord do desire and intend to Convert a Sinner and do what can be done by the Power of his Grace in order thereto yet the Will may hinder him Take it in their own words A man may hinder his own regeneration when God has a mind to have him regenerated and it is his will to regenerate him Coll. Hag. 282. Corvinus the most subtile and cautious of their writers says expresly Positis omnibus ad agendum Vid. Hickm p. 33. requisitis c. when all the Operations of Grace in order to Conversion are past upon the Will yet it is still in the free power of the Will to convert or not to convert it self So that when God has done his utmost to bring a Sinner into a saving State yet it is in the power of the Will to defeat and hinder him In plain terms when God has done what he can the Will may do what it list They will have the Will to be so free as that it can be under no necessity of any sort not only such as is natural or compulsive or absolute which is granted but such as is only respective and that in reference to God himself So that â—f it be needfull in respect of the Decree and Purpose of God or in respect of his Will and Desire or in respect of his Word and Ingagement or in respect of his Design and Intention that the Will should move this way and not the other yet it may incline and determin it self the other way and so may act counter to God in â—hese his Concerns defeat him in them â—ll and carry it against him The Purâ—ose the Promise the Providence the Grace of God the Undertaking of Christ â—he Operations of the Spirit may be fruâ—rated unavoidably by mans Will. So great a Power they give it The Lord shall not have his Will nor make good his Word nor make his Grace prevalent nor accomplish his greatest Designs if mans Will comply not and it is never under any necessity to comply but may always resist when the Lord has done what he can to bring it to a complyance This is the true Visage of their Doctrine if you will see it plain and naked There needs no ill Language to render it ugly But as to our present Purpose The first Branch of this Power ascribed to the Will makes the Grace which we stand in most need of to be needless For if the Will can embrace any Object in order to Salvation upon a common proposal there needs no