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work_n	bear_v	good_a	tree_n	8,220	5	10.2554	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20668	The collegiat suffrage of the divines of Great Britaine, concerning the five articles controverted in the Low Countries VVhich suffrage was by them delivered in the synod of Dort, March 6. anno 1619. Being their vote or voice foregoing the joint and publique judgment of that Synod.; Suffragium collegiale theologorum Magnae Britanniae de quinque controversis remonstrantium articulis. English.	Carleton, George, 1559-1628.; Synod of Dort (1618-1619)	1629 (1629)	STC 7070; ESTC S110099	65,063	183

owne proper lively act 1 IN order of time the worke of God converting man and the act of man turning himselfe to God can hardly be distinguished but in order of causality or efficiency Gods worke must needs goe before and ours follow An evill tree naturally bringing forth evill fruit must needs be changed into a good tree before it can beare any good fruit but the will of an unregenerate man is not onely as a bad but as a dead tree Therefore if it bring forth good fruit it doth it not that thereby it may be bettered or that by its owne cooperation it may be quickned but it doth it because it is already changed and quickned This is elegantly expressed by Saint Austin A wheele saith he doth not therefore run well that it may be round but because it is round So say we the will runnes well not that it may be regenerated but because it is already regenerated Hugo de sancto Victore to the same purpose Renewing grace saith he causeth a reformed will first to exist then gives power to this will to be moved first it works the will afterward it workes by the will 2 Secondly wee say that God doth not onely worked this habituall conversion wherby a man gets new spirituall ability to beleeve and convert but also that God doth by a certaine wonderfull efficacy of his secret operation extract out of our regenerated will the very act of beleeving and converting So the Scripture speaketh in divers places Iohn 6.66 The Father giveth us power to come unto the Sonne that is to beleeve Phil. 1.29 To you it is given to beleeve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very act of beleeving 2 Tim. 2.26 God giveth repentance But if God by infusing some strength into us should only give us a possibility or power of beleeving a possibility or power of converting and so leave the act to the free will of men surely we should all doe as our first father did by our free will we should fall from God neither should we ever bring this possibility into act This therefore is that excellent special grace granted to the elect in Christ wherby they not only can beleeve if they will but also will beleeve then when they can Phil. 2.13 God worketh in us the will and the deed This working grace the Fathers of the Catholick Church have maintained against the Pelagians God commands a man to wil but he also works in him this very thing namely he commands him to doe but also workes in him the doing Every one that hath learned of the Father hath not onely power to come but commeth indeed where there is both the progresse of our possibility the desire of our will and the very effect of action God effecteth our faith working in our hearts after a wonderfull manner to make us beleeve 3 Lastly this also we adde that this action of God in producing faith doth not hinder but rather is the cause that the will doth worke together with God and produce its owne act And therefore this act of beleeving howsoever it is sent from God yet because it is performed by man is attributed to man himselfe Rom. 10.10 With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse 2 Cor. 4.13 I beleeved therefore have I spoken It is God not who beleeveth all things in all men but who worketh all things in all men it is certaine we beleeve when we beleeve but it is God who brings to passe that we beleeve wee are they that worke but God workes in us the very working THE SECOND POSITION THis action of God doth not hinder the freedome of the wil but strengthen it neither doth it root out the vicious power we have to resist but it doth effectually and sweetly bestow on a man a resolute will to obey 1 HEre we deny two things first that by the divine operation there is any wrong offered to the will For God doth so worke in nature even when hee raiseth and advanceth it above its proper spheare that he doth not destroy the particular nature and being of any thing but leaves to every thing it s owne way and motion to performe the action When therefore God worketh in the wills of men by his Spirit of grace he makes them move in their naturall course that is freely and then doe they worke the more freely by how much they are the more effectually stirred up by the Spirit Iohn 8.36 If the Sonne shall make you free you shall be free indeed 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty Verily it seemeth incredible to us that God who made our wills and gifted them with liberty should not bee able to worke on them or in them after such a manner as that without hurting the natures of them he may freely to produce any good action by them He doth what he pleaseth with the wills of men and when he pleaseth having an all-sufficient power to incline mens hearts which way he listeth We so beleeve this more abundant grace to be powerfull that we withall deny it to be violent 2 A second thing which we here disclaime is the whole extirpation of corruption For although God in the very act of regeneration doth worke so powerfully upon the will that actually the present power to resist is suspended for that time yet doth hee not plucke up by the roots no not for that time the remote power of resisting which as the Schoolemen speake is potentia in actu primo posita a power of the first and youngest growth but hee suffers it to lurke and lye hid in the bitter root thereof For so long as that root of corrupt and corrupting concupiscence remaines in the soule of man certaine it is that there must needs be there withall not onely a possibility but also a pronenesse to resist the motions of the holy spirit Gal. 5.7 The flesh lusteth against the spirit But this reluctant power by reason of the most forcible and yet sweet or gentle motion of grace cannot in this case and at this time breake forth in actum secundum into present operation and exercise Pro. 21.2 The Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord he turneth it whithersoever it pleaseth him And consequently the hearts of other men lesse free This grace cannot be resisted because first it worketh in us to will that is not to resist for he can no farther resist from whom to will to resist is taken away as excellently writeth our Reverend late Bishop of Salisbury THE THIRD POSITION GOd doth not alwayes so move a converted and faithfull man to godly ensuing actions that hee takes from him the very will of resisting but sometimes hee suffers him through his owne weaknesse to stray from the direction of grace and in many particular actions to follow his owne concupiscence WEE must alwayes put a difference betweene those principall acts without which the Elect cannot

regeneration do not carie themselves so but that for their negligence and resistance they may justly be relinquished and forsaken of God but such is the speciall mercy of God towards them that though they doe for a while repell and choake the grace of God exciting or enlightning them yet God doth urge them againe and againe nor doth he cease to stirre them forward till hee have throughly subdued them to his grace and set them in the state of regenerate sonnes IOhn 6.37 Whatsoever my Father gives me shall come to me and him that commeth unto mee I will in no wise cast out Ier. 14.7 O Lord though our iniquities testifie against us doe thou it for thy names sake for our backslidings are many And 32.39 I will give them one heart and one way that they may feare me for ever Philip. 1.6 He that hath begunne a good worke in you will performe it untill the day of Iesus Christ. But if God should not goe on thus to follow even those that hold off and retire from him no calling would bee effectuall there would be no filiall adoption and even election it selfe grounded upon the good pleasure of God would be frustrated Since the fall of man God would have it ascribed to his grace that a man doth come unto him neither will he have it ascribed to any thing but his grace that a man doth not goe from him THE SEVENTH POSITION THose that are not elected when they resist the Spirit of God and his grace in these acts foregoing regeneration and extinguish the initiall effects of the same in themselves by the fault of their own free-will are justly forsaken by God whensoever it pleases him whom by their owne fault so forsaken we truly pronounce to remaine by the same demerit hardened and unconverted WE thinke it to be without all doubt that no mortal man doth so cary himselfe toward God but that either by omitting that which he should have done or committing that which hee should not have done he deserves to have the grace taken frō him which hee hath Which ground being forelayed it is cleere that God without all injustice and cruelty may take from such men that grace which hee hath extended to them and leave them to the hardnesse of their own hearts Rom. 9.18 Hee hath mercy on whom hee will have mercy and whom hee will hee hardeneth God oweth this to no man that when he resists enlightening exciting grace and serves his own lusts he should then soften and mollifie him by that speciall grace which no hard heart doth resist Rom. 11.35 Who hath first given unto him and it shall be recompenced unto him againe Againe he that is thus forsaken being not converted perishes through his owne fault Iohn 5.34.40 I say these things that yee might be saved and ye will not come unto me that ye might have life Acts 28. The heart of this people is waxed grosse lest they should be converted and I should heale them Of conversion as it designes the immediate worke of God regenerating men THE FIRST POSITION GOd doth regenerate by a certaine inward and wonderfull operation the soules of the elect being stirred up and prepared by the aforesaid acts of his grace and doth as it were create them anew by infusing his quickning spirit and seasoning all the faculties of the soule with new qualities HEre by regeneration we understand not every act of the holy Spirit which goes before or tends to regeneration but that act which as soone as it is there we conclude presently this man is now borne of God This spirituall birth presupposes a minde moved by the spirit using the instrument of Gods Word whence also wee are said to bee borne againe by the incorruptible seed of the word 1 Pet. 1.23 Which must be observed lest any one should idlely and slothfully expect an Enthusiasticall regeneration that is to say wrought by a sudden rapture without any foregoing action either of God the Word or himselfe Furthermore wee conclude that the spirit regenerating us doth convey it selfe into the most inward closset of the heart and frame the minde anew by curing the sinfull inclinations therof by giving it strength and infusing into it a formall originall cause or active power to produce spirituall actions tending to salvation Ephes. 2.10 We are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus to good works Ezek. 36.26 I will take away your stony heart and give you an heart of flesh From this worke of God commeth our ability of performing spiritual actions leading to salvation As the act of beleeving 1 Iohn 5.1 Whosoever beleeves that Iesus is the Christ is borne of God Of loving 1 Iohn 4.7 Every one that loveth is borne of God Lastly all works of piety Iohn 15.5 Without me ye can doe nothing Prosper saith that Grace creates good in us The Schoolemen doe not deny so manifest a truth Thomas Aquinas affirmes that this grace of which we speake doth give a certaine spirituall being to the soule that it is a certaine supernaturall pertaking of the divine nature that it is in respect of the soule as health is in respect of the body THE SECOND POSITION IN this worke of regeneration man is meerly passive neither is it in the power of mans will to hinder God regenerating thus immediately IOhn 1.13 Which were borne not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God For if in the naturall creation it be true that God made us and not we ourselves much more in the spirituall recreation Ier 13.23 If the Ethiopian cannot change his skin neither can man defiled with sinne correct his naturall corruption In the will depraved there is the passive power to receive this supernaturall being comming from without but not the active to produce it of it selfe or with another Ier. 17.14 Heale me O Lord and I shall be healed In quickning of men God doth expect no beginning from mans will but hee quickneth the will it selfe by making it good What doth freewill I answer briefly It is saved This worke cannot be effected without two one by whom it is done the other in whom it is done God is the Author of salvatiō freewil is only capable of it Our creation in Christ was made into the freedome of the will and without us if into freedome then not out of freedome If without us then it is not in us to hinder this worke of God When God determineth to save no will of man resisteth Of Conversion as it imports what man himselfe doth in turning to God by faith and saving repentance THE FIRST POSITION VPon the former conversion followeth this our actual conversion wherein out of our reformed will God himselfe draweth forth the very act of our beleeving and converting and this our will being first moved by God doth it selfe also worke by turning unto God and beleeving that is by executing withall its