the Grace of God is not given according to mans merit Another is that there is no man how great soever his righteousness be that lives without some sins The third is that men are born liable to the guilt of Adams first transgression De bon persev c. 2. The consequent of the second opinion that Election is ex praevisa fide of fore-seen faith is That although our good works are indeed the fruit onely oâ— Gods Spirit and to be ascribed to Gods grace yet must our frith upon which the Spirit or this grace is given or by which it is impetrated as that Father speaks be both in our own power and from our own will as being that and that alone in man that makes the difference between one and another or the reason why God should choose such a one to give him his grace and pass by the other And this doctrine with the Consequent of it must be acknowledged to be St. Augustine's in his first writings which he chose no doubt as the most moderate then in the Church which as we may judg by Prosper and Hilary's Epistles to him was never used to define election otherwise than secundum praescientiam according to foreknowledg till his dayes And this was the reason that those of Marsilia ad quorum authoritatem non sumus pares sayes one of those Epistles quia multum nos et vitae meritis antecellunt sacerdotis honore were so offended at that Father for his change And from hence does Arminius professe some-where Non stamus Augustino We stand not with Augustine for which this also as I remember is his reason Quia sibi ipse non stetit because he stood not to himself The Consequent of the other two doctrines which belong to Absolute election and come in this repect I have said bat to the same is on the contrary hand That neither our good works nor our faith it self nor indeed any good that is in man is of our selves but of the operation of God or of his Spirit who does at first excite our wills to Faith and a holy life by his continual assistance carry us on in perseverance unto the end that we may be saved so that the whole business of our salvation first and last must be ascribed to Him alone And if any ask the reason then why he gives not the same grace to others as to his Elect he shall find these words still in St. Augustine's mouth And who art thou that repliest agaâ—nst God May he not do what he will with his owne Hath not the Potter power over his clay O the depth of the knowledge and wisdome of God how unsearchable are his judgments and his wayes past finding out It were but jniury to quote a sentence or two out of the Father for this which is the designed contents of severall of his last books See de Praedestinatione gratia De correptione gratia De praedestinatione sanctoram De bono perseverantiae to name no more The great difficulty now in this Consequent of Election which appears does undoubtedly lye here If neither the faith nor good works of man do spring from his own free will but from the grace of God and Election then may the unbeliever and wicked excuse themselves and say It is not long of themselves that they believe not nor obey but the cause is in God who gives them not faith and obedience and they cannot help their own reprobation They will not say that Reprobation is any other than a negative decree which infuses no malice in them but it denyes them that grace which Election gives others and if it be not in their power to beleeve and repent without that grace How can they be condemned for their not beleeving and repenting This difficulty I am assured did stick so fast upon this Father in his first writings that I do hardly think him quite out of the gravell in any of his last Let us turn to his book De spiritu littera In his one and thirtieth Chapter he offers the question Whether faith be in mans power and determines that it is and must be so Upon this in his thirty third chapter he comes to another question which is put to the quick Whether the will whereby he believes be therefore of himself or of God If it be not of our selves sayes he but of Gods gift then may man say according to the objection proposed that he beleeved not because God gave him not the will If it be of our selves How can that text of the Apostle what hast thou O man thou didst not receive be true seeing this will to beleeve he hath of himself For the extricating us out of this distresse he yields to the first and seems convinced that faith must be both in our own power and of our selves for that reason Dicit Apostolus Idem Deus qui operatur omnia in omnibus nusquam autem dictum est Deus credit omnia in omnibus Quod ergo credimus nostrum est quod autem bonum operamur illius est qui credentibus dat Spiritum sanctum In his Exposition upon the Romans The Apostle sayes that God works all in all but never that he beleeves all in all That We beleeve therefore it is of our selves but that we do good works it is of him who gives his holy Spirit to them that beleeve To the last therefore he chooses to answer Liberum arbitrium naturaliter attributum a Creatore animae rationali illa media vis est quae vel intendi ad fidem vel inclinari ad infidelitatem potest Et idco nec istam voluntatem qua credit Deo dici potest homo habere quam non acceperit quandoquidem vocante Deo surgit de libero arbitrio quod naturaliter cum vocaretur accepit Vult autem omnes homines salvos fore in agnitionem veritatis venire non sic tamen ut eis adimat liberum arbitrium quo vel bene vel male utentes justissime judicentur The substance is that The will whereby we beleeve may be said to be received of God although it proceed from our selves because the faculty from whence it arises is received from him that is Because the nature we have is of our Creator the will which is of nature is of Him This does not satisfy me for these reasons 1. That which the Father sayes as to the voluntas qua credimus The will whereby we beleeve I take to be the same which Pelagius said as to the voluntas qua bene operamur The will whereby we doe good works But if this text and such as this be good against Pelagius they must be good against Augustine here that neither is our faith of our selves upon the same account The truth is The judgment of this Father while he wrot this book is this The Spirit is given to a man upon his beleeving This Spirit infuses grace charity or justification This
THE Middle-Way In One Paper of ELECTION REDEMPTION With Indifferency between the ARMINIAN CALVINIST By J H Doing nothing by Partiality 1 Tim. 5.21 LONDON Printed for T. Parkhurst at the Three Bibles in Cheap-side 1673. OF Election or Predestination THe designe of these Papers is to offer to such as will consider and can tend to receive or cultivate what is offered some Notices of truth which lye upon my mind about severall matters that by the Communication of the little light I have I may fetch in more to my own understanding from others and also by the Partiality that appeares so often in the doctrine of the Orthodox I may promote some generall kind of condescension in all persons to a more favourable opinion of one another the proper consciousness of our own most miserable palpable blindness in most things and several points of Religion wherein many times we are indeed but the more blind because wee think we see being enough methinks to make every mortall even with shame and confusion to be ready either to have a little higher estimation of his Brother that differ from him or a little less indignation at any such difference or distance in his way and judgment I will begin with these heads Of Election and of Redemption It is the generall opinion of Divines that God from all eternity fore knows all things and That there are a certain number of persons determined by Him that shall be infallibly brought to glory For declaring this Decree they do go severall wayes In the generall they may be reduced to two the way of Absolute and the way of Conditionall Election Of either way there are two sorts In the Conditional way The first sort do conceive that God foresees who they be that will live godlily and keep his commandements and them he chooses to salvation while those he foresees will be wicked he decrees to damnation Vnde Apostolus say they Quos praescivit hos praedestinavit From whence the Apostle Whom he did foreknow them he also did praedestinate The second sort perceiving this to be contrary to Scripture with makes Election to be of grace not of works do say thus That God foresees who they be will beleeve and so choosing them as being in Christ through faith decrees to give them grace which will lead them to salvation and those that he foresees will not believe he decrees to leave them as out of Christ to Condemnation Non elegit Deus opera cujusque in praescientia quoe ipse daturus est sed fidem elegit in praescientia ut quem sibi crediturum praescivit Ipsum elegerit ut Spiritum sanctum daret ut bona operando etiam vitam aeternam consequerentur God did not choose the works of any in his foresight which himself was to give but he chose faith in his foresight that whom he foreknew would beleeve he might choose them to give the holy Spirit unto that by doing good works they might obtain eternall salvation Augustine in libro expositionis quarundum propositionum ex epistola ad Romanos Again Quos Deus suos fidei opere futuros esse praenovit hos praedestin̄avit ad gloriam Those who God foreknew would become his through their beleeving he elected unto glory De praedestinatione Dei c. 5. The former opinion is the way of the Pelagian the latter of the Arminian Which yet I set not down after the more subtle times of Arminius himself but those of Augustine according to these cited passages the one of which he afterwards expresly retracted and the book it self out of which I fetch the other I beleeve either to be spurious or to have got abroad from him unawares before he had reveiwed it The Orthodox therefore such as we account the Synod of Dort do declare for the Absolute way in opposition to both these To wit that God without consideration either of mans faith or good works but meerly according to the counsell of his own will not rendring his reason to us hath determined to give that grace to some persons whereby they shall effectually be saved and to leave others to the freedome of their own wills that they may be judged at the last Day according to their deserts In this way there are likewise two sorts of Doctors The one teach that God looks on men without any consideration of sin at all in their state before the Fall in this decree of his grace to some and not to others The other teach that God looks indeed on men all alike without consideration of desert but not without consideration of sin to wit in their faln estate and so decrees his mercy to some and justice to others Note here that our Divines of the former sort do not say that God decrees damnation to any without consideration of sin nor salvation indeed without consideration of faith and repentance but Decree's the giving or not giving saving grace to keep them from sin and damnation to whom he pleases without any consideration in man whatsoever For Predestination say they being an immanent and eternall act of the Divine understanding will cannot be conceived as dependent upon any foreseen temporall acts of mans free-will Note also that St. Augustine who was the first set up for the Absolute way and yet not till his latter writings doth declare for the second sort of this way Caeteri autem ubi nisi in massa perditionis justo divino judicio relinquantur The rest that are not elect are left according to Gods just judgment in the masse of those that are faln unto perdition De bono perseverantiae c. 14. The one of these opinions is called the Supralapsarian doctrine the other the Sublapsarian Which are names indeed may make a rumbling to many that know not what they signify but so long as they come into one and the same Consequent which alone is to be regarded the difference is not of moment to disturb any And what is the Consequent then of these Doctrines which is fit to be enquired The Consequent of the first doctrine that Election is ex praevisis operibus of works foreseen must be this that the good life or good works of men therefore do arise from their own free wills and that the grace of God is given according to their merits This was the main opinion doubtless which the Church condemned in Pelagius From whence indeed those two other followed that Man may therefore choose whether he will ever commit any sin and That he must be free from original corruption Tria sunt quae maxime adversus eos catholica defendit ecclesia Vnum est Gratiam Dei non secundum merita dari quoniam Dei dona sunt Alterum est in quantacunque justitia sine qualibuscunque peccatis neminem vivere Tertium est nasci homines peccato primi homnis obnoxios There are three things especially which the Catholick Church defends against the Pelagians One is that
charity is that which disposes to good works Good works therefore he counts must be of grace and Gods spirit and to follow justification which is with him this infused grace But as for beleeving which is the first thing upon which the Spirit it self is given to infuse this grace from whence our good works doe spring this must arise he accounts from mans free will or else the fault will not be in himself which is the argument convinces him but it must lye on the will of God onely that he hath not the spirit and so no grace and so does not well and is not saved Whether this argument be irrefragable or no we shall see by what will follow 2. There are two questions raised together by the Apostle Who maketh thee to differ from another and What hast thou O man that thou didst not receive The chief difficulty lyes in answering the former question for by that is the second to be regulated Now if that we have from God is onely this middle faculty which we may use to beleeve or not Who is it makes the difference in one mans using it to faith and another's to infidelity That which is the less the Posse velle The power to will shall be of God that is of Nature and so of God but the Ipsum velle The will or willing it self which is the greater and which indeed saves us shall be of our selves 3. The Scripture is express concerning faith and that not of our selves it is the gift of God If the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there referrs to the whole sentence we have other texts No man cometh to me that is beleeveth in me unless the Father draw him To you it is given not only to believe but to sufther for his name This is the work of God that you beleeve Who hath first given to him Of him and to him are all things I obtained mercy That I should be faithfull not Because I was faithfull But ye beleeve not because ye are not of my sheep Again As many as were ordained to salvation beleeved It seems here that the cause why some beleeve and some beleeve not is their being or not being of the number of those who are ordained to be of his flock The like text in reference to works as these to faith is that to the Ephesians He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy It is not therefore mans faith or holiness is the cause of Gods Election but it is Gods election is the cause of mans holiness and faith A prime and eternal cause say our Divines cannot depend upon the self same temporal effects which are thereby caused If therefore the Ordination of God be the cause from whence mans faith and holiness are derived his foreseen-faith or foreseen-works are not to be imagined antecedent causes merits conditions or motives unto the Divine Predestination 4. We have St. Augustine acknowledging himself to have bin herein in an errour So that these arguments must be no longer against Augustine but against those who have taken up that opinion he forsook In nullo gloriandum est dixit Cyprianus quoniam nostrum nihil sit Quod ut ostenderet adhibuit Apostolum Quid autem habes quod non accepisti Quo praecipue testimonio convict us sum cum errarem putans fidem qua in Deum exedimus non esse donum Dei sed a nobis esse in nobis per illam nos impetrare Dei dona quibus temperanter juste pie vivamus in hoc seculo Quem errorem nonnulla opuscula mea satis indicant It was the saying of blessed Cyprian that we may glory in nothing because that which is ours is nothing This he proved by the words of the Apostle By which testimony I was first convinced when I erred thinking that faith was of our selves and then good works obtained by it Which errour several of my former pieces do sufficiently shew De praedestinatione sanctor c. 3. I wish he had mentioned the book here which I am citing as he does one or two other that I might have known his solution to the difficulty which himself hath urged but left unanswered upon our hands To return then to the Father's question Whether the Voluntas qua credimus The will whereby we beleeve be of our selves or God's gift I must not choose the first with him in that book but the last according to other of his works Nevertheless we must carefully distinguish the two things whereof he hath made two questions Vtrum fides in nostra constituta sit potestate Whether faith be in our power in one chapter and Vtrum voluntas qua credimus donum sit Dei an ex libertate arbitrii Whether the will whereby we do beleeve be the gift of God or the effect of our own liberty in another I do apprehend here that both these two things are to be held That faith is in our power and That the will whereby we beleeve is not of our selves but of Gods grace or gift The holding both these is that which cuts the thread of all difficulties in this matter For the one That faith is in mans power we are beholding verily to that Father A thing is in a mans power which he may do if he will Hane dicimus potestatem ubi voluntati adiacet facultas faciendi When he accounts Faith then to be in mans power he understands this That he may beleeve if he will And this is a truth of great necessity yet hath difficulty But when he proceeds hereupon so farre as to make the will therefore whereby we beleeve to be of our selves it was a step which himself saw need to draw back There are many things that are possible which yet never shall be as this Father himself gives instances of upon another occasion in the first chapter of this book There are likewise many things which a man can do that yet he never will or is like to do without some speciall cause moving him to it Such is the business of mans Conversion There is no man we are to hold with him but he may beleeve I will adde repent and be saved if he will yet is this to be known and held also That there is no man for certain ever will unless it be from that one special cause which is Gods grace or the Spirit 's motion that works his heart thereunto Now then Shall a man remain an unbeleever and impenitent and perish the fault shall lye upon himself and God shall be just because we place faith in his own power He may believe and repent and be saved if he will If God would and he will not he may thank himself Again if he do believe and repent and is saved he shall have no cause to boast or glory in himself because that though he might believe and repent if he would yet would he never have repented while the world lasted
intend in that expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is as much as to say The Law in that through the weakness of the flesh none is able to perform it cannot possibly justifie any The impossibility lying on us in regard to the performance not in it True it were possible through such an extraordinary measure of the Spirit as the Man-Christ had not to leave Augustine quite but that measure being not to be given to any body else it is best said to be Impossible even by the strength of Nature by Grace according to its ordinary measure on Earth Impossible when yet as for the terms of the Law of Faith I hold it fit still to say they are Possible to all though there is none do perform them but by Grace Upon this there is one thing needs must yet be spoken to for it hath stuck some time upon my self It is this when Augustine is telling us that Faith is in our power he offers us this Reason Because a man may believe or not believe he accounts what he will Hoc quisque in potestate habere dicitur quod si vult facit si non vult non facit Vide nunc utrum quisquam credat si noluerit aut non credat si voluerit That every man is said to have in his power which if he will he does and if he will not he does not Consider now whether there be any that believe if they will not or do not believe if they will The contrary to this I judg is certain that there are some things I cannot believe though I would and some things that I cannot but believe though I would not never so fain From whence I should oppose therefore that Faith then whatsoever else is cannot be in mans Power no more than it is of his own Will For satisfaction to which I acknowledg that there are Doctrines or Propositions which are true that many a man cannot believe if he will nay perhaps some Articles that the Ancients have imposed as necessary to Salvation I say I acknowledg that a man cannot make himself to believe what he will nor otherwise than he does believe nevertheless I do apprehend that that-Faith which is the condition of the covenant of grace is indeed in mans power I apprehend that whereas the conditions of the Covenant of grace are and must be such as are possible there is no man who believes as much as he can but his will shall be accepted for whatsoever is required more which he cannot and which is not given Or else we had a good have bin left still to the covenant of works The condition then of the Covenant of grace or those â—erms which remain of necessity of salvation does not lye in an assent to every doctrine and article which is true in the Christian religion but to so much as serves to bring a man unto Christ or unto God Without faith it is impossible to please God for he that comes unto him must beleeve that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him And such a faith as this will the light of Nature instruct every man to Though where the Gospel is preached the beliefe of Christ also in his person offices word and works will and must necessarily follow seeing To whom much is given of him shall much be required Ye beleeve in God beleeve also in mee Vnless ye beleeve I am he ye shall dye in your sins Now let us bring that faith a man has to the test If my beleeving of God or Christ that he will be good to me if I repent does produce this repentance then is my faith saving and effectual if it do not then is the fault in my will When it lyes on my will then it is in my power yet if I will I must hold it to be still of the grace of God Huc valere debet tota Dei notitia sayes Calvin ut omne bonum ab illo petere illi acceptum ferre discamus To this purpose does the whole knowledge of God which is taught us in Scripture conduce that we should learne to seek all our good at his hands and live in the return of our thank-fulness to him When God made man he must know the end of his work He must foresee what man will do what his posterity will do all that they will do the end of all When God foresees the actions of man it must be conceived in the order of nature that they will be before he foresees them and if they will be they must have some cause and that cause must depend on the first Cause and so all be resolved into God's will It is true that he foresees also what is possible as well as future but a thing is possible only because he will it not future because he wills it I say not that this inferrs a Physical determinate influx into every act of man which proceeding from his free will is sometimes good and sometimes evill it is sufficient that there is such a complexion of circumstances provided as that a vaga moralis infallibilitas a morall indetermined certainty as to the event shall arise out of the whole together according to his eternal counsel As for sin or evill it is a defect of Entity or good a privative no positive thing and so is of our selves and not of Him as Augustine against the Manichees and the Schools after him have it What followes now upon this but that there is not an act of a mans whole life or will so farre as either sub genere Entis or sub genere Morum it is good but it must be of God And what then is there to mate that Father's doctrine of Election as it is laid on this fonndation Let us give the mind its greatest liberty One may think As there are some things which are not possible it is no derogation to Gods power to say he cannot do them so may there be some things non scibilia not knowable it shall not derogate from his Omnisciency to say he foreknows not them Such things as are left altogether to the will of a free agent may be thought such There are some things depend on mans will which God determines and here hee foreknows mens wills because he knowes as well as does whatsoever he will and there are some things depend on mans will which we are to conceive that he determines not but will have contingent and here to make God such a one as that he must foresee every thing whether he will or no and that a contingent to him shall be impossible though he would have a contingent does seem to be an affront to his Majestie rather than a perfection To this purpose we read that when God saw that the thoughts of mans heart were evill continually it is said it repented him that he made man And we have many expressions of the like import O
that my people had bin thus and thus or would be thus and thus Thou art a gracious God and mercifull slow to anger and of great kindness and repentest thee of the evill And why may we not frame our notion of God from such texts of Scripture as these as well as from others and rather than from the definition of the Schools Especially if we can make God more lovely to our selves more adorable than by their conceptions There is nothing that God does will now but what he did decree always And why so Because the Schools say there will else be composition in God the composition of an essence and accident and God is a pure act ens simplicissimum But what if the Conceptions of those holy men who would have God like to man in regard of the Scripture expressions wherein they were so zealous as we have a famous Ecclesiastical story about it should not be so injurious on one hand to the Almighty as such Conceptions as these on the other which do quite puzzle our Intellectuals and leave us without any quick sense at all of him It is certain that God is Good Righteous Vnchangeable but we must have a Conception of goodness righteousness and unchangeableness and that which is agreeable to that herein which we esteem perfections in our selves before we attribute them to him When we make God then to be always gracious to those that do well and displeased with evil and so brings or determines to bring a Judgment on one and bestows a Blessing on another according as he sees at the present the Provocation of the one and Obedience of the other without any other determination before besides that of his Law why is not this an Vnchangeableness more worthy the Divine Excellence than that by which he being conceived a pure act must be made never to will any thing else than what he wills at once from all Eternity Upon the like Hypothesis as this one may also propose a sutable notion of Praedestination To wit that the Scripture being skanned to the bottom Election perhaps may be found indeed nothing else but Gods determination to save Men and Women by the Covenant of Grace and not by the Covenant of our Greation or by the Righteousness of God declared in the Gospel and not by the Righteousness of Works This definition should be founded on such Texts where the purpose of God according to Election is said to be not of Works but of him that calleth And He hath called us not according to our works but according to his purpose and Grace It should be founded also on the instances of Isaack and Jacob in whom the Children of the Promise are Elected in opposition to the Children of the flesh that is those that look for Justification by the deeds of the Law And thus have we the example of the Jews rejection upon that account And thus when a Pharisee hath lived so Righteously that as to the whole Law he is blameless and so trusts to his Righteousness shall say And why am I rejected for all this and such a Publican onely for his repenting and trusting on the mercy of God through Christ is accepted it may be answered the reason is plain because it is God that makes the difference by decreeing and appointing what terms he pleases upon which one shall be saved and not another Hath not the Potter power over his Clay of what sort he will to make Vessels of honour and dishonour so that it is not of him that Willeth or Runneth it is not upon such terms as a man himself sets or would set of works but it is of Grace of him that sheweth mercy Well! But what would be the Consequent of such Doctrine as this Why the Consequent no doubt must be the same in effect with the Pelagian which is Vniversal Grace and Free will to purpose But I confess my self to have imbibed the Doctrine of St Augustine from my younger years that I am convinced by it believing that nothing can be set up against it with any strength which is short of Vorstius while Pelagius and Vorstius both are names we know that do so male audire Are of such ill report in the Church as the Arminians themselves will not bear For our apprehensions then of God according to the Schools it must be acknowledged that he is said in holy Scripture to dwell in the Clouds and thick darkness and into such darkness or those Clouds will I account indeed that he is put while he is made to be actus purus and wrapt in their notions which if they served no other they do yet serve this end even most reverendly and exceedingly to hide him from us and render him thereby but as he is very truly incomprehensible to us To reflect then back on the difficulty before as to the Consequent of Election our way if any say they are not satisfied with what I have said because a power never produced into act is as good as none I answer if I propose that which they would have and it be all can be had there is a measure in things which when we have set in any point so as the Determination cannot be passed but we shall run into the extreams on one side or the other which we seek to avoid we ought to be satisfied Especially when such a power alone as this which in the effect without Grace is none will do our work If we allow not a power to man how shall God be just how shall God condemn any which is that lyes at bottome still of of what is said for not doing that which was not in his power or which was not possible If when a man hath Power he does also exert that power and wills of himself how shall such Scriptures be true which have been urged It is God that makes us to differ Of him we have the Will and the Deed Nay such Texts more especially as speak expresly of a Cannot when the true intent and meaning of them is this that we do not and never will as I have had it before till God prevents us by his effectual Grace Without Christ we can do nothing All our sufficiency is of God No man can come to him unless he be drawen Si non est liberum arbitrium quomodo Deus judicabit mundum Si est liberum arbitrium quomodo salvabit mundum If man have not Free-will how shall God judg him If he have how shall he save him This is the difficulty of the Father If then there be such a liberum arbitrium to be found out which quodam modo is sine libero arbitrio such a power as in the effect is no power that is such as without Grace which also is efficacious comes to nothing then can we decide this business for him Suppose a Magistrate for some fault shall cut off a Malefactors hands and then command him to write and promise him great
things if he will and threaten him if he do not write can we think this Magistrate serious Is this becoming a righteous and good man If you grant not man to have power why do you Preach why do you Exhort If you will give him more than this I must persist why do you Pray why do you ask Grace of God what is it to ask his Grace but that God would incline the will Alunt quorsum vocare hominem ad praestandam conditionem quam implere nequeat It is objected why are men called to that condition they cannot perform Respondeo posse non posse eam implere Non possunt nisi datur posse possunt tamen quia quod non possunt pravitati eorum debetur I answer sayes Conyer They cannot if it were not given that which is onely of Nature is given but they can because it is to be attributed to their wickedness alone that they cannot They can and they cannot Thus others say They can and they wont I say Onely in regard this wont is never changed in any but by special Grace the Scripture I have said calls it a can't That is it is a can in it self but a can't in the effect it being in effect all one when you never will as if you could not What when the Scripture sayes they can't do I then say they can yes because my can and never will I affirm is the Scriptures can't But there are some of you believe not Therefore I said unto you that no man can come unto me except it be given him Some of you notwithstanding all my Preaching and Miracles believe not therefore I said unto you you can't And this interpretation I must adde accords with the Ancients Non potuerunt hoc est noluerunt It a nonnunquam potestate pro voluntate utitur Chrysostome on Jo. 12.39 So Augustine Non poterant quia nolebant quippe eorum voluntatem praevidit Deus Hoc autem quod dicit non potuerunt credere significat noluerunt Nam malus improbus homo non potest credere quam diu talis fuerit mala scilicet eligent volens Thophylact Mundus odisse vos non potest Quomodo potestis bona loqui cum sitis mali Quo pacto quidquam horum impossibile est nisi quod voluntas repugnat Nazienzen Impossibile dicitur quod rarissime contingit according to one quod difficilime per ficitur according to another See Ruiz on that head Impossibilitatem bene operandi Patres abhorrent etiam quamdiu illam sonat expresse cortex Scripturae Ad quest 23 24. Ex parte prima S. Thomae Disp 39. Sec. 8. And here I cannot but insert the mention of a late Discourse about Natural and Moral Impotency or Natural and Ethical power which terms do express this can and cannot with so much dexterity though my self use them not because my Papers were on the Anvil before that book came out And there is somthing therefore I find I have already and after puts me in mind of two things I want in that singular pretty Tract One is a little more tenderness in that inculcated assertion The more moral Impotency the more inexcusable I believe the Author was himself of a healthfull mind and not sensible of those imbred inclinations and sickliness which some soul are born with no strivings against it will utterly subdue till death There are besides certain impressions and wounds sometimes on the imagination that are incurable I do not doubt now but God who is most wise and good who knoweth our frame as the Psalmist speaks and remembreth we are but Dust will consider the several Conditions Complexions and Temptations that every man is obnoxious to in this life and that there will be grains of allowance for some moral Impotency at the last day Non sine magna nostra utilitate relinquitur nobis materia certaminum ut humilietur sanctitas dum pulsatur insirmitas It is not without our great benefit that God does leave in his Children matter for their spiritual Combat that they may be humbled in their Piety while they are assaulted with their infirmity Ambrose De vocatione gentium The other thing I want is a distinction in regard to that principle of his and indeed foundation which he insists so much upon throughout the book That which is our duty must be possible It is certain that perfection is still our duty and it is enough for us onely to make whatsoever is necessary to our Salvation to be in our power Distinguish we must therefore between the Law of Works and the Covenant of Grace We are indeed to maintain the condition of the one to be possible for good reason but as for what is required in the other though it be still our duty and must remain so eternally for Good and Evil according to Nature can never be changed we are not to deny in our falne state to be impossible Which hath been before Noted To return There is a point near a kinn to the matter in hand of great difficulty what part the will of man does bear in our good acts That the beginning of all that is good comes from God who by his preventing Graee works in us at first as the Schools speak without us and That when the will is excited he does work also with us by his operating or co-operating Grace as the principal cause still and consequently That the whole good which is done upon that account is to be attributed to him we shall find yeilded by the School men as well as tendred by St. Augustine Prosper Fulgentius and the like Fathers Totum bonum est Deo tribuendum quia totum Dens operatur See Ruiz De Deo operante libero arbitrio Sec. 1. On the other hand That being acted we act and so concur with Gods Grace That it is we Believe Repent and not God We that work out our Salvation though he gives the will and the deed We who walk in his Statutes though he puts his fear in our hearts to do it and so We accordingly who are bid to make our selves new hearts which is his work out of question this is also undeniable in Scripture Deus est qui operatur cum procul dubio si homo ratione utatur non possit credere sperare diligere nisi velit nec pervenire ad palmam nisi voluntate cucurrerit It is God works in us when beyond doubt there is no man uses his Reason but it is himself also that wills Aug. Enchir. c. 32. Vt velimus suum esse voluit nostrum suum vocando nostrum sequendo in another book It is God then according to the determination of the schools that is the principal cause and the will of man the less principal partiall secundary cause of our good actions His part indeed is such to which all the glory is due and yet ours such as the good works are reckoned ours and we shall be
rewarded for them at the last day When Calvin therefore seems here to oppose I find him thus treated Supponebat haereticus hominis arbitrium itae divina praedestinatione regi ut quamvis operetur spontanee nihil tamen agat ciun potestate non agendi sed agatur Dei operatione That heritick Calvin saies the now named learned Jesuit out of Stapleton supposed the free will of man to be so governed by praedestination that though it does act spontaneousty yet it acts not with a power of not acting but it is acted by the operation of God Well! what is the difference between them Does Calvin indeed go to evacuate that free-will man hath by nature no such matter Does he make the will to act so by Gods operation as to have no operation of its own I think not so But I will tell you where the water sticks It sticks between the Schools and Calvin where it does between the Arminians and Calvinists and that is upon the point altogether of resistibility or irresistibility The work of grace is understood by Calvin and the Calvinists to be such as leaves not any power in the will to resist or of not acting They doe stand so much on the bare term of Gods drawing us as it leads them to speak with excess The truth therefore is to be thus decided We are to hold with the Schools and Arminians that the will hath still power to resist or not to act for mans nature is destroyed else but we are to hold with the Calvinist that though it hath power it never will or does resist but will most certainly act when it is acted by Gods electing grace As in the case before of the Reprobate I have said a man hath Power to beleeve and repent so that it is his fault and he is justly condemned if he do not when yet he never will for want of this grace So in the case of the Elect a man hath power to resist and not to act but he will beleeve and repent infallibly and never resist when he is wrought upon by it The reason is because God by his praedestination of such a person to life does prepare a Vocation so Fit and suited to his temper condition and the circumstances he is in as it shall inevitably carry the will which by the way does reconcile the Certainty of the one with the Liberty of the other according to St. Augustine's intention when the same means shall be used to a person not elect but being not suited to his state they have no such event Even as the same physick given to two bodys diversly disposed hath an operation upon one and does the other no good In short the grace of God is resistible with the Arminians in regard of power it is irresistible with the Calvinists in regard of the effect The will does ever retain its Physical power to act or not act when yet it is made Ethically impotent to use once the Authour before to resist Quisquis andet dicere habeo ex me ipso fidem non ergo accepi profecto contradicit apertissimae veritati non quia credere vel non credere non est in arbitrio voluntatis sed in electis praeparatur voluntas a domino If any dare say I have faith of my self and therefore did not receive it he does for certain contradict the truth Not because that to believe or not beleeve is not in the power of the will but in the Elect the will is prepared of God Aug. De Praedes Sanc. c. 5. We may add St. Ambross or Prosper rather Qui ad obediendum sibi ipsum velle sic donat ut etiam a perseveraturis illam mutabilitatem quae potest nolle non auferat In one of his two books De vocatione gentium The summ is where a man beleeves repents and is converted the difference is made between him and the reprobate This is acttuall or created praedestination Man concurrs in this work nevertheless in regard that it is not through his own strength or through that grace which is universal or common to the Reprobate with the Elect but through that grace which is peculiar and prepared by increated predestination for him it is not of himself but of God that he is made to differ And if it be granted that it is in his power to hinder the difference while grace is making of it seeing it is in his power still not to act but yet be asserted also that the decree working infallibly carrys the will that it never is or shall be hindered when that works I do not see but this controversie about Gods operation and mans free will may be agreed How is it said sayes Augustine it is not of him that willeth or runneth but of God that sheweth mercy If it were to be understood onely because it is of both then might we say it is not of God likewise that sheweth mercy but of him that willeth and runs But when no Christian dare say so it remains sayes he to be so understood Vt totum Deo detar qui homini voluntatem bonam praeparat adjuvandam adjuvat praeparatam That the whole be given to God who both fits the will for his help then helps it being made fit Enchiridion ad Laurentium c. 32. As for the way of the Papists that is which the Trent Councel does tread it seems to me verily an invented forced way They would avoid the censure of Augustine and former Councels which condemned Pelagius yet in effect do entend but the same thing They say therefore that God does vouchsafe his grace to all with this grace some co operate and some do not Those that will co-operate with it God fore-sees and praedestinates them those that co-operate not he rejects and condemns By this means they will avoid making their own works to be the cause of their Election seeing they can attribute all to this sufficient assistance when yet the consequent of their opinion comes to one that it must lye in the will of man which co operates or co-operates not with this assistance to make the difference why one is chosen and saved and not the other That which is said by the Pelagian placing Grace only in Doctrine or the Gospel is more single I take it than this It is true there are some others besides the Papists are willing to hold Election to be of Works or of Faith foreseen who will yet deny the Consequent that our Faith and and good Works therefore must arise from our own free wills and be meritorious because they will suppose them so foreseen which the Papist I suppose say too as to be wrought in us or performed by Gods grace But let me ask then what they mean by this Grace If they mean such as in effectual and determins the will and so is peculiar to the Elect Lo here the Doctrine of absolute Election If they mean such only as leaves the will in
Nature or Covenant of Works and in Christs redeeming the Jewes from it as given by Moses he does redeem the World from that covenant which it represented and there I say does lye the cheif point of our Redemption That very thing then or that great immediate effect or benefit which accrewes to man from Christs dying for him is his having other terms procured upon which he may be justified and saved than those which by the Covenant of nature were due from him to obtain that end For God so loved the World that he gave his onely begotten son that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life What is the immediate end here of God's giving his Son That must be the Immediate fruit of Christs coming dying and redeeming the World And what is that but that Whosoever beleeveth in him may not perish That is The delivery of him from the law of Works and bringing him under the Covenant or law of Faith that upon the performance only hereof who could not have it else without perfect doing he may obtain everlasting life And whether this favour of Christs procuring new terms upon which man may be saved does belong to the Elect only or to all the world there will need no more but to ask To whom the Gospel is to be preached to decide that question It is true that the freedom of the Jewes from the Mosaical law the breaking down the partition-wall thereby for the Gentiles to be incorporated into one Church visible and a power in Christ himself to dispense all assistances necessary to both for their obedience to the Gospel as also a discharge of mankind from damnation for Adams sin onely are fruits of Christs death which may be said too immediate and universal but the great benefit which indeed comprehends these and the like in it and appeares so notorious in the whole New Testament is The reconciliation of the world unto God by his death or Redemption And what else such a reconciliation can eminently consistin but that I have named I leave to the understanding to give judgment Neither are we to forget that our Redemption in Scripture is said to be from Sin and the Devil as well as from the Law for the one is the Foundation of the other When man fell from God the Devil obtained a right and dominion over him This was not a right as Lord and Proprietour but as Goaler and Executioner that is by vertue of that sentence which the Law as the Covenant of works passed on him When Christ then by his Satisfaction to the Justice of God did put an end to that Covenant this Right which the Devil held thereby must cease with it In the Cessation of this Right As the Slave who is redeemed from his slavery is redeemed also from the work which he lives in as a Slave So must all Mankind be redeemed from sin only this Redemption must be distinguished in regard of Title and in regard of Possession It follows not because the World lies in Wickedness and the Prince of the Air still rules in the Children of Disobedience that Christ hath not done His part in their Redemption No while the Law which held them under an impossible Duty that is the Law of Sin and Condemnation is taken off and the New Law is such as every one is capable to perform the Terms of it if he will It is not for want of Right to come out of this slavery it is not for want of Power but it is because they are not willing to come out of it because they love their sins that the Devil keeps them still in Possession Even as the Hebrew Servant when the Jubile came if he said he loved his Master and would not go out free he was to have his Ears boared to the Door-posts of the House and remain his Slave for ever There is a double work therefore Christ has to do as our Lord-Redeemer The one is to procure Deliverance if we are willing that is our Redemption in regard of Title And the other is To make us Willing which is to put us also in Possession The one of these is that which is properly the work of our Redemption and Universal The other is peculiar to the Elect and hath another name in Scripture that is our Vocation Effectual Calling or Conversion Unless when this Possession comes to be perfectly compleat that is at Death and then it is again called the Day of Redemption Whom he did predestinate saith the Apostle them he also called and whom he called them he also justified And whom he justified them he also glorified If Redemption were not of a larger extent than Election Vocation Justification and Glory then would the Apostle have said Whom he did predestinate he redeemed And whom he redeemed he called But when we find no such Link in this Chain it is a convincing Argument to my understanding for the Vniversalitie of Redemption It is said of Christ that he is the Saviour of the world especially of his own body In that Sentence we have both universal and special Grace together and the one is Applicatory not Destructive to the other The Redemption of Christ is universal The Grace whereby a Man savingly believes and repents and so becomes one of his Body is special and belongs to Election The Death of Christ may be considered as it redounds to the purchasing Remission of Sin and Salvation upon condition or as it redounds to the purchasing the Condition for Remission and Salvation In the first sense Christs Redemption and Grace of the Gospel is universal Doctor Twisse and the like Divines will say twenty times over In the second sense they will have it for his Elect only For my own part I must go from them here and account That the work of Christs Redemption and whole Mediation upon Earth does terminate in the former consideration The business of a Mediatour between parties does lie in this To bring them to some New terms wherein they may be agreed when they were at odds before The business of Christs Mediation Redemption Reconciliation Propitiation Satisfaction or whatsoever word out of Scripture or Orthodox Writers is used does lie I account in this altogether That he hath taken that course with the Father that he shall not deal with the world according to the Covenant of our Creation which requires such terms as no Man now thereby can be justified or saved but according to the Covenant of Grace which is such that whosoever he be that trusting in his Mercy and Goodness through Christ does repent and walk sincerely before him though imperfectly shall be Pardoned Accepted and Saved and yet he be Righteous in so doing This I say is the res ipsa as I take it the thing it self intended in all these sorts of words with the connotations only of the modus also the mode or qualification thereof according to such several Expressions Here then