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
25. The Help of Divine Grace is inferr'd from the Law of Grace THe supposing of a matter to be our Duty doth not infer that we may in our Faln state reasonably expect a Sufficient Help to perform it It is our Duty to Keep Gods Law perfectly but Sufficient Grace thereunto is not given God may justly require of us what he once gave us Power to do after we gave sinfully lost that Power Yet when God hath made with men a Conditional Covenant of Grace and hath required of them the acceptance of his Covenant and the Performance of the Conditions upon a Promise of the Benefits let it be considered whether it doth not thence follow that it is agreeable to his Wisdom and Goodness to vouchsafe them that Help which is necessary thereunto By Necessary Help I mean that which is immediately or mediately sufficient that is to say either immediately to per from the Conditions themselves or to perform mediate Acts tending thereunto upon performance whereof more Help comes till it reach to an immediate Sufficiency Let it be considered whether it be agreeable to the Mercy of God declared in the Covenant of Grace to leave those to whom he hath propounded it under an impossibility of being saved by it And whether the Gospel-offer be an Act of Grace tending to Salvation towards those that are utterly destitute of that necessary Divine Help without which their Conversion and Salvation is morally impossible An offer of Mercy upon Impossible Terms one would think is no Mercy or no Offer If Grace necessary to the acceptance of the Gospel-Offer be utterly withholden let it be considered how the non-acceptance of that Offer can be a greater sin than the bare transgression of the Law of Works and be called the Condemnation or the great damning sin 26. The Duty of improving the Help of Grace proves the Sufficiency thereof IF God had not vouchsafed to Faln Man that Help that is necessary for his Recovery he had indeed been inexcusable in his abiding in sin as the Devils now are but I cannot see how he had been inexcusable for the neglect of his Recovery if he had been utterly destitute of that Necessary Help But now Gods giving of outward Means and inward Helps of Grace infers our Duty of improving them and our inexcusableness in the neglect of them and this seems to me necessarily to imply that they are in themselves improvable and that we have Power to improve them Every man is culpable in not fulfilling the whole Law without the least breach thereof because the unalterable Law of God and the Power that was once given but now lost obligeth him to it But no man is culpable for not improving the Help of Grace to that perfect fulfilling of the Law because no man hath received a Help Sufficient thereunto An unconverted person is culpable in not turning to God because the Law of God unalterably obligeth him to cease from sin But he would not be culpable for non-improvement of Helps and Means if they be not Improvable but utterly Insufficient thereunto Not Improving evidently notes ones not doing not only what he should but what he might do and that he is wanting to himself when nothing necessary is wanting Nothing is Improvable beyond its Sufficiency and Means in themselves Improvable are not Improvable with respect to us if we have no Power of Improving them If the case were such that men shall be condemned for the Non-Improvement of any Helps external or internal when they are destitute of a further Help without which it is impossible that they should Improve them any one would think that it were better for them to be without those Helps And indeed how can they be truly called Helps or Means to those that are under a Moral Impossibility of Improving them to that intent whereunto they are said to be vouchsafed 27. Of Gods Expostulation Isa. 5. 4. GOd in expostulating with his People saith What could I have done to my vineyard more than I have done in it this may be as well rendred What should I have done c. or what had I to do more This Expostulation is very congruous to the Covenant of Grace under which the Jews were And it supposeth that they had Sufficient or Necessary Grace to do the Good they did not and immediately sufficient to Acts tending to Conversion and mediately sufficient to Conversion and that they had Internal as well as External Help and that God did for them as much as was meet on his part in reference to the said Covenant 28. Of the different states of men in respect of Divine Help MAnifest Experience shews that all men have not Help immediately sufficient to Conversion and Salvation For many are under a present Moral Impossibility of performing any Saving Acts as Obdurate Sinners and such as are ignorant of things absolutely Necessary to be known and done Such may have had formerly more Help which now they have sinned away Nevertheless I conceive that all who have the use of Reason may have Help immediately sufficient to intermediate Acts tending to Conversion by the use whereof there may be advancement to further Help and a nearer approach towards Salvation Though the meer Non-donation of more special and abundant Grace be arbitrary with God yet the positive Denegation of further Necessary Grace is penal and the Act of a Righteous Judg towards those who neglect what they have received Isa. 6. 9. Matth. 13. 14. yet God may and not seldom doth remit that Penalty and vouchsafe that further Help which was forfeited according to the pleasure of his own Will Many that are in a state of Judicial Hardness are not destitute of Help Sufficient to many Acts materially good and to avoid many sins especially of the outward deed which if they would then make use of as they are able and hold on therein they might recover that greater Help that is withdrawn 29. The most hopeful Way of receiving more Grace THough God for the glory of his Free Grace and Rich Mercy sometimes converts those who have more willfully and heinously opposed his Grace yet the greater opposition doth not make Conversion more hopeful but more difficult and less hopeful though not desperate So far we are hopeful as we are yielding to God The gradual progress of earnest Care and Industry in using the Grace received is the very Way and the only ordinary way by which God effectually calls those who have attained to the use of Reason Even they who are Converted do before their Conversion in some degree resist the Spirit of God and some of them more heinously yet when God draws them by his Effectual Grace they come freely with heart and Good-Will And because there is a reluctancy in part in the very time or in the instant immediately before the Turning Act made by the opposite Principle Converts in turning do not only yield to God but earnestly reach after him with a striving
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
posse and in this regard that Rule posita causa in actu sequitur effectus is not here gainsaid For sufficient Grace where the good Act doth not follow is causa in actu only of the posse or moral Power which Effect exists and so the Operation is not without Effect And the good Act doth not follow because the Moral Power given by sufficient Grace is in act of Existence only but not of Causation 7. Of Grace sufficient to Conversion that doth not effect it THat grace may be sufficient for one which is not sufficient for another And that is properly Grace sufficient to Conversion which is thereunto sufficient with respect to the persons particular condition and necessity There may be Grace sufficient to certain Acts tending to Conversion which is not immediately sufficient to Conversion it self And there may be grace sufficient to Acts more remotely and in a lower degree tending to Conversion which is not sufficient to acts more nearly and in a higher degree tending to it Grace sufficient to an Act tending to Conversion may be called grace mediately sufficient thereunto And if so be that upon the improvement of it more grace from time to time gradually follow it may end in Grace immediately sufficient If Grace immediately sufficient were given to Adam for his Perseverance which did not effect it if the like be given to the Regenerate whereby they are enabled to do more good in the saving kind than they do and to the unregenerate also whereby they may do more good in the Common Kind than they do I discern no Reason why there may not also be Grace immediately sufficient to Conversion which doth not effect it I grant that a sinners Conversion may be an Effect of greater grace than Adam's Perseverance would have been and than the good Acts of the Regenerate are For there was in Adam and there is in the Regenerate an active holy Principle or Disposition I grant that Man in his fallen state doth need a change of the Will which Adam before his fall did not and the Regenerate do not need But this Change of the will is no other than Conversion it self And why there may not be sufficient grace to change the Will when it is not changed I cannot discern If any shall say there is no such Grace he ought to prove it from the Evidence of Scripture or from the impossibility of the thing 8. Whether the Holy Habit be effected before the first Act of turning to God IT may be objected That the effecting of the Habit Inclination or Principle in the Soul wherein man is meerly passive is first in order of Nature and the Soul's act of turning to God is consequent to it And consequently there can be no Sufficient Grace to Conversion but that which doth effect it and no man hath a Power to turn to God before the Holy Principle is infused To this I answer That this Hypothesis to say the least is unnecessary and unproved In what the Nature of a Habit doth consist is not easy to be understood as whether it be the firmness and vigor of the natural Faculty to such acts or a secret inperceptible constant act in the soul. But whether it be the one or the other there is no reason why it must needs go before the act I apprehend that the Act of turning to God is before that Holy Habit or fixed Principle which is called the New Nature at least that it may be so and that most ordinarily This way is more congruous to Gods Means of Conversion which work in the Nature of Moral Causes that do not immediately beget the Habit but the holy act or acts and the habit by the mediation thereof And in this case the influx and impress of Divine Grace is instead of the holy habit And the habit may be said to be infused when the Spirit of God doth excite the soul to the act and by that act or acts bring it to a setled habit Any other way of infusing habits I confess I am not able to apprehend If the Will doth without a precedent habit move to a spiritual good by the influx of the Holy spirit it doth not follow that a man moves without a Principle meerly by an extrinsick agency For the Will it self excited by Divine Grace is an intrinsick principle of Motion As a man moves himself by the locomotive faculty so he wills the Object by the volitive faculty and the act of Conversion is not by Gods extrinsick agency alone but also by an intrinsick Principle the will it self It is not necessary that the Will of a drunkard be habitually changed from drunkenness to sobriety before any acts of sobriety can be performed by him And though there be a greater change in sanctifying than in civilizing a man yet as a civil or common act may precede a habit so may a holy act If a man may commit a sinful act without a previous sinful Habit as Adam did and that from the intrinsick Principle of his own Free Will why may he not by the assistance of Divine Grace bring forth a Holy Act without a previous Holy Habit 9. The actual Prevalence of sin doth not gainsay the Sufficiency of Grace WHen mans evil Inclination hinders the good Effect that might come to pass through Divine Grace it is not because the evil Inclination is in it self stronger than the Grace which we call sufficient but because the Will makes not use of that sufficient help In this case the Will is not so far weak or obnoxious to depraved Inclination but that by the assistance of the Grace given it might prevail against it and effect the Good that is designed in that Assistance God giveth sufficient Help and they to whom it is given neglect it and give way to the prevalence of Corruption which might have been overpower'd by it Though none will say that Medicaments are Sufficient which are not Effectual when they are duly applied yet sufficient Medicaments when not duly applied may prove uneffectual If it be objected That the will it self resists the Divine Help that is given and as stronger than it overcomes it I answer that which is here called Resistance is not the Wills reaction upon the Divine Help or a breaking of its force but it is partly its wilful aversness from making use of that Help and it s not acting according to it and partly its willful rejecting of it and hardening it self against it In the mean time the said Divine Help is in its full force and vertue and sufficient to the designed Good and so remains till God withdraws it in his just indignation against the sinners wilful neglect and abuse of it 10. Equal Grace is not given to all whose condition towards God antecedently is equal THe measure and proportion of Divine Help given whether it be alike to all is to come under consideration In equal Grace there is not only an equality of Divine Influx on
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
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