A treatise of original sin ... proving that it is, by pregnant texts of Scripture vindicated from false glosses / by Anthony Burgess.

SECT. V.

Of the Natural Servitude and Bondage of the Will, with a brief Dis∣cussion of the Point of Free-will.

¶. 1.

JOH. 8. 35.

If the Sonne therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

HItherto we have been discovering the vast and extensive pollution of the will, in its Originals and Naturals, both in the several operations and affections of it; The next thing in order is, To treat of the will in regard of its state, as in freedome of servitude, about which so many voluminous Controversies have been agitated: And indeed a sound judgement in the point of Free will is of admirable consequence to advance Christ, and the grace of the Gospel; For whosoever do obscure the glory thereof, they lay their foundation here; They praise nature to the dispraise of grace, and exalt God as a Creator, to the prejudice of Christ as a Redeemer.

Although it is not my purpose to go with this Point as many miles as the Con∣troversie would compel me, yet because the Doctrine of Free-will is so plausible to flesh and bloud, that in all Ages of the Church it hath had its professed Pa∣trons; And because the cause of Christ and the Gospel is herein interessed, and further, because it is of a great practical concernment to know what a slavery and bondage is upon the will of man to sin; it will be necessary and profitable (in some measure) to inlarge upon it; for there is scarce one in a thousand, but is pus∣sed up with his own power and strength, so that he feeleth not the want of grace.

¶. 2.

This last mentioned Scripture opened.

THis Text I have pitched upon will be a good and a sure foundation for the superstruction of our future Discourse; For Austin in his hot disputes with the Pelagians about the freedom of the will to what is good, doth often flie to this Text, as a sure Sanctuary: And Calvin (gravely upon this Discourse of our Saviour) saith, Eunt nunc Papistae (we may adde Arminians and Socinians) & liberum arbitrium factuosè extollunt, &c. Let them presumptuously exalt free will, but we being conscious of our own bondage, do glory in Christ onely our Redeemer: Though Maldonate is pleased to censure this expression of Cal∣vin, us Sententia digna verberibus, vel igne.

Let us therefore take notice of the Coherence, and we will go no higher then to the 30^th verse, where we have specified a blessed and fruitfull event upon Christs Discourse, concerning his Person and Office, For as he spake those words, many believed on him; not by their own natural ability and power, but the Fa∣ther did draw them by his omnipotent and efficacious grace: Christ while he spake

to the ear did also reach to the heart; he did not onely preach, but could inable the hearer also to believe, herein exceeding all Pastors and Teachers that ever were in the Church of God; Christ plants and watereth, and giveth the increase likewise all of himself; Yea Christ seemeth here to sow his seed upon the high way, and among thorns and stones, yet some seed cometh up and prosper∣eth well.

Upon this we have the love and care of Christ mentioned to these new Con∣verts, he immediately watereth these plants, and swadleth these new born In∣fants that they may not miscarry; This is seen in the counsel suggested to them, where you have, The Duty supposed, and the admirable Priviledge issuing from it▪ The Duty supposed, If ye continue in my Word; It is not enough to begin, unless there be perseverance. It is not enough to receive Christ and his Word, unless we abide therein and have our ears (as it were) boared, never to depart from such a Master; The neglect of this maketh all that dreadfull Apostasie, and those sad scandals to Religion, which in all Ages do terribly break forth, Except ye abide in Christ, as well as be in him, we shall fall short in the wilderness, and not be able to enter into Canaan.

It is also observable, that Christ saith, If ye abide in my Word; it must be the true Doctrine of Christ; it must be what he hath delivered, which denoteth two things:

1. That heresie and errour can no wayes make to our Christian-Discipleship, they cannot set us at liberty from any lust or sinne; and therefore no wonder if you see men of corrupt judgements at last fall into sinfull and corrupt practices; For the word of God is only the instrument and instituted means of sanctification, Sanctifie them by thy word, Joh. 17.

2. Hereby we see the necessity of the Ministry of it; by the preaching of Gods word they are first brought to believe, and after that are continually to depend on it; The Ministry is both for the begetting of grace, and the increase of it; Those that despise and neglect the Word preached, do greatly demonstrate they never got any good by it.

The consequent Priviledge upon this continuance in the Word, is to be Christs Disciples indeed; From whence we have a distinction of a Disciple in appearance and shew, or profession onely, and a Disciple indeed. There were many that became Christs Disciples in profession onely, they followed him for a season, but afterwards forsook him, which caused our Saviour so much in his Parables and Sermons to press them upon a pure. thorow and deep work of grace upon their souls: The title without reality will be no advantage. Musculus observeth, That Christ useth the Present tense, Then are ye my Disciples indeed; From whence he gathers,

That Continuance or Perseverance in grace doth not make the truth of grace, but the truth of grace maketh the perseverance, they do continue, and ther∣fore are Disciples indeed, but they are Disciples indeed, therefore they continue in Christs Word.

But Beza maketh 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as in other places; and if so, then it must be thus understood, That our Perseverance in grace doth not make grace to be true, but doth demonstrate and evidence the Truth; such will appear to be starres indeed fixed in the firmament, when others like blazing Comets will quick∣ly vanish away: But this is not all the Priviledge, there is a two-fold mentioned in the next verse,

First, Ye shall know the truth; when they did at first believe the Word, they did know the Truth in some measure, but now their knowledge should be more evident, clear, and encreasing; And indeed the godly they do so grow in know∣ledge about heavenly things, that they account their former knowledge even nothing at all.

The second Priviledge is, The truth shall make them free; Every man (till rege∣nerated) is in bondage and captivity, to blindness in his mind, to lust in hiswill;

And there is nothing can set us at liberty from this dungeon and prison, but the grace of God by the Word preached.

But no sooner is this Priviledge spoken of, then it stirreth up the Cavils and Objections of some that heard it, They answered him, We be Abrahams seed, and were never in bondage to any man, How then doest thou say, Ye shall be made free? Some think, That those who are said to believe did argue thus; But this seemeth very harsh; Therefore no doubt some others that were in the multitude, that did not believe, they were offended at this speech of our Saviours, and therefore dispute against it, arrogating to themselves both a Native freedom, We are A∣brahams seed; and also an actual one, We were never in bondage to any man. This expression exerciseth Interpreters very much, for whether by [We] they mean their Ancestours or Themselves, living at that time; It is plain, at first they were in bondage in Aegypt, afterwards in Babylon, and at that present in bondage to the Roman Empire, How then could they affirme such a notorious lie, that they were never in bondage to any man? Some say, They mean of such vassals and slaves, as sometimes in warre are taken and sold to others: Now (though the Israelites were often conquered, and brought under the power of others, yet) they were never sold slaves, and so not in bondage in that sense. Others say, They doe not speak of a Civil, or Publique, and State-Liberty, but (as it were) a religious and holy freedome; For, though they were in civil bondage, yet they glorified in Abraham's seed, and the religi∣ous freedome thereby in respect of Gods favour. So Hensius (in his Ari∣starchus Sacer. upon this place,) They (saith he) who spake this, did at∣tend to the Law and Covenant, for such who obeyed the Law, they called free. Hence they had a paradoxal Proverb, None unlesse he exercise himself in the study of the Law, is to be accounted a free man; And, Qui observat legem esse Regem, even as the Stoicks say of their wise man. Sixtus Senesis ma∣keth these words to be spoken by some of the Galileans, who would never owne any forreign power, but did chuse rather to die, then to make such an acknowledgement. That which many pitch upon is,

That the Jewes speak this to Christ from their pride and arrogancy, not willing to take any notice of their external subjection, but so that they may oppose Christ, care not what they say, though never so contrary to Truth.

Although Calvin well addeth, They might have a pretence for what they said, as if the Roman power did by force reign over them, and therefore that they were (de jure) free.

But our Saviour speaking of one kind of freedome and slavery, and they of another, he doth in the next verse more particularly open his meaning, and withall layeth a foundation to prove, That though they boasted and glo∣ried in their freedome, yet they were indeed servants and slaves; This he proveth by that universal Proposition, Whosoever committeth sinne is the ser∣vant of sinne; You must lay an Emphasis in that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, it is not to be understood of every actual committing of sinne, but of the wilfull, ha∣bitual and constant committing of it: And thus though great men may boast in their Sovereignty they have over many others; though they may glory in multitude of servants, yet if they be overcome by any one vice, they be the vilest slaves and vassals of all, Quot vitia, tot Domini, so many vices, so many Lords: Now original sinne that is a Lord and Master to every one, that reigneth over all mankind; some actual sinnes enslave one man, and some another; but original sinne doth every man; yea though the godly are (in some measure) freed from the dominion of it, yet it keepeth up a tyrannical dominion over the most holy, as appeareth Rom. 7. by that com∣plaint of Paul, He could not doe the good he would, because he was sold under sinne.

This foundation then being laid, our Saviour shewing the difference between a servant and a sonne, doth in my Text suppose,

1. A necessity of every one till sanctified to be made free.

2. The Manner how. And

3. That this is freedom indeed.

The Necessity supposed is, If the Sonne make them free; Though he speaketh this to those Jews who were in a two-fold bondage to sinne, original and actual; natural and voluntary, yet this is to be applyed to every man that is not in the state of regeneration, He hath no liberty or freedome of will to do what is good, but is a vassal to all sinne; sinne is the lusts thereof do prevail-over him, so that he hath neither will or power to come out of this bondage.

2. There is the Manner how, or the Person by whom we obtain true liberty, If the Sonne make you free. In some Cities the elder brother had power to adopt sonnes, and so to make free, however Christ is therefore called the Redeemer, because he doth obtain spiritual freedome for his people, and that not onely in respect of the guilt of sinne freeing from that; which grace of Christ the Pela∣gians did acknowledge (and would constantly interpret my Text in this sense onely) but also the power of sinne by inherent Sanctification and Renovation of the whole man; and of this freedom the Text doth here principally speak, not so much the freedom from the guilt of sinne; by justifying grace, as from the power of sinne by sanctifying grace.

3. You have the Commendation of this spiritual liberty, it is called freedome indeed, implying, that though they had never so much civil freedom, never so much dominion and power, yet if servants to sinne, they were in the vilest bon∣dage that could be: Civil freedom is thought to be so great a good, that it can never be prized enough; Therefore the Rabbins have a saying, That if the Sea were ink, and the world parchment, it would never serve enough to contain the praises of liberty. The Scripture informeth us, how great an honour it was ac∣counted to be free of Rome, but if all this while men are captivated either to personal sinnes, or to sinnes of the nature, they remain in worse bondage, then ever any Gally-slaves were in; The people of Israel in their iron furnace and house of bondage did cry and groan for a Redeemer; but this is the un∣speakable evil of this soul-bondage, that we delight in it, that we rejoyce in it; all our indeavour and care is, that we may not be set at liberty, and have these chains taken off us. From this explication observe,

That no man hath any liberty or freedom of will to what is good, till Christ by his grace hath made him free. We do not by freedom of will obtain grace, but by grace we obtain freedom of will: So that by the Scripture we have not any true ground for a liberum, arbitrium, but a liberatum in spiritual things; There is no such thing as a free-will, but a freed will in a passive sense, and tunc est liberum, when it is liberatum, as Austin; Then it's actively free, when it is first passively made free, Rom. 6. 16. Being made free from sinne; He doth not say, you have made your selves free, but ye are made frre by the grace of Christ. And again, vers. 22. Ye are now made free from sinne; and Rom. 8. 2. The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sinne and death: By which expressions is implied, 1. That all men till sanctified are in an absolute vassalage and thraldom to sinne. And, 2. That it is onely the grace of Christ that doth deliver from this bondage. It is Christ not our own will that ma∣keth us free.

¶ 3

Of the several Kinds of Freedome which the Scripture speaketh of.

TO enter into the depths of this Doctrine, Consider, What kinds of free∣dome the Scripture speaketh of, and which is applicable to our purpose. The Schooles have vast disputes about liberty and free-will, What it is, whe∣ther a compounded faculty or a simple one; and whether a faculty, or ha∣bit, or act; especially they digladiate about the definition of free-will, what it is; but if any thing shall be thought necessary to be said in this point, it may be pertinently brought in, when we shall answer such Objections as the Patrons of nature do use to bring in the behalf of Free-will: only it is good to know, that in the Scripture we find a civil liberty and a spiritual liberty spoken of, a civil liberty; Thus bond and free are often opposed, Ephes. 6. 8. Col. 3. 11. 1 Cor. 7. 22. But this is not to the Text, nor to our purpose; Therefore the Scripture speaketh much of a spiritual freedome, and that is,

First, In the translating of us out from the dominion of sinne and Satan, into a gracious state of holiness; and this is called by Divines, Libertas gratia, or (as Austin) libertas à peccato. The freedome of grace of which those Texts speak that we mentioned before.

Secondly, There is the Evangelical and Christian liberty, whereby we are freed from many things of the law, not only the curse of the moral law and the spirit of bondage, which did accompany the legal administration thereof, but also from the obligation unto, and exercise of the ceremanial; This Evan∣gelical liberty is often commended in the Scripture, as the glorious priviledge of the Christian Church, which the legal Church wanted; of this legal servi∣tude, and Evangelical freedome the Apostle, Gal. 4, doth largely, and most di∣vinely treat, This Christian liberty also from Jewish rites, The Apostle, Gal. 5. 1. ••••horteth us to stand fast in, as being purchased for us by the death of Christ, as a glorious priveledge; only the Apostle Peter, 1 Pet. 2. 16, giveth good advice, That we turn not our liberty into licentiousness; It is true, the Apostle doth once use the word [free] abusively and improperly, Rom. 6. 20, where the servants of sinne are said to be free from righteousness, or to righteous∣ness, now this is improperly called a freedome; for as the service of God is the truest freedome, so freedome from holiness is the greatest slavery. Al∣though Austin doth from this Text make a division of liberty into two kinds, which he maketh perpetual use of, Libertas à peccate, and Libertas a justitiâ; The godly man hath the former liberty, the sinner hath the latter, but this latter is improperly called liberty.

Lastly, There is a spiritual freedome mentioned by the Scripture, as the utli∣mte and complete perfection of all, when the soul shall be freed not only from the dominion of sinne, but the presence of it, all the reliques and remainders of it, and the body shall be freed from death, pain, and all corroptibility, Rom. 8. 2. This is called, the glorious liberty of the sons of God; and for this every godly man is to groan and mourn, even as the woman in travel to be delive∣red; This is called by Divines libertas gloriae, and libertas à miserià. But we are to speak of the liberty of grace; and herein we are not to admire the Free∣will of man, but the free grace of God: man hath no free-will to do that which is spiritual and holy; Free-will is an Idol which the corrupt heart of man is apt to advance; he is unwilling to be brought out of himself, to be behold∣ing to the grace of Christ only; therefore Austin observed well, That this truth is to be found out by prayer and supplication, sooner then by disputati∣on; Did men commune with their own hearts; did they observe the Abyss and

depth of all evil that is in their corrupt will, how intangled and in slaved to the creature, they would quickly fall from disputation to humiliation, and turne arguments into prayers.

¶. 4.

The Names which the Scripture expresseth that by, which we call Free-Will.

THe next thing in our method that will be explicating of the Doctrine, is to take notice of, What names the Scripture useth to express this thing by, that we call Free-will; for free-will is not a Scripture name, but Ecclesialsical, yet the sence of it is in the Scripture; for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, is often used in the Scripture, to will, and that in such things wherein freedome is necessarily supposed, Luk. 22. 9. Where wilt thou, that we prepare a place? Joh. 9. 27. Wherefore would ye hear it again, will ye also be his Disciple? Act 7. 28, wilt thou kill me also, &c. and in many other places, hence 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is used for the free-will of a man, 1 Cor. 7. 37, and indeed it is disputed, whether to do a thing voluntariè, and liberè, voluntarily and freely be not all one, and so libertas, and voluntas, only voluntas denoteth the power and liberty, the qualification of it in its working. Jansenius is most consident, that in Austin's constant dispute with the Pelagians, liberum arbitrium, is no more then voluntas, and that to do a thing freely, is no more then to do it voluntarily; this he maintaineth against the Jesuites, and withall wonders at a late Writer of their own (whom he na∣meth not) which writeth, that the word servum arbitrium, was not heard in the Church of God for fifteen hundred yeares, It is Bellarmine that saith so, but our Divines had detected this falshood long before Jansenius. Howsoever Austin may use the word, yet the Scripture expresseth that which we call the will by, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. A second word to express liberty is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, liberty, yet this is not so much applied to the liberty of the will, as to the liberty of a man, as here in the Text, the sonne shall make you free, your persons not your wils; but because there is an universal bondage in all the powers of the soul to sinne, blindness in the mind, contumacy in the will; (for Quid est libertas sine gratiâ, nisi contumacia.) What is liberty in the will without grace, but contumacy against God, and a wilfull delight in evil wayes, Inordinacy in the affections: therefore the person is said to be made free, not but that the will is principally included in this, only the will is not all that is made free, 2 Cor 3. 17, where the spirit of the Lord is, thereby is liberty; It's from the Spirit of God we obtain liberty from sinne, and also from servile slavish feares. The Jesuites would have this liberty nothing to the purpose in the controversie de libero arbirio, for (say they) this is a spiritual mistical liberty, libertas à peccate, and they are treating of libertas naturae, which they make to consist in an indifferency to good or evil, but by their favour this is a proper liberty, and it is this that the Pelagians did most controvert about, and still the proper dis∣pute between the orthodox and their adversaries is in this particular, Whether there be any liberty or freedome in a mans will without grace to shake off the demi∣nion of sinne, so that they keep most properly to the state of the question, who are diligent in the opening of the nature of this liberty. Another word which the Scripture useth to express this free-will by, is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, 1 Pet. 5. 2, Phil. 1. 4, and this is very proper and full, when we do a thing not by constraint, or by a natural necessity, then we do it freely, therein we shew our liberty, so that liberty doth oppose coaction and natural necessity; It is im∣possible

the will should in its immediate elicite acts be compelled, for then it should be voluntas and noluntas, at the same time; then velle would be nolle, which is an high contradiction: Therefore liberty doth necessarly oppose constraint, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, doth also oppose a natural necessity (I say) a natural necessity (for there are other necessities that liberty doth consist with, yea and the more necessary the more free, as in time is to be shewed.) Thus though the stone hath an inclination to descend downwards, yet because the stones motion is from a natural necessary principle, therefore it is not free: Beasts likewise though, they exceed the inanimate creatures, yet they do not agere 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, voluntarily. They do act spontaneously, but not voluntary, because a natural principle of sence doth determine them. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 indeed, Heb. 10. 26, is translated wilfully, If we sinne wilfully after we have known the truth; but there it signifieth an high degree of the obstinacy of the will, and a confirma∣tion in evil against great light and knowledge; but commonly it signifieth doing a thing, so as not to be constrained to it. Platonical Philosophers call free-will 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, too proud a word to be given to a creature; and there∣fore the ancient Greek Fathers being many of them Platonists, did greatly obscure the glory of grace by receiving Platonical words, of which this is one: Indeed they gave to God 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, but yet 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, is too much for a crea∣ture, which hath a necessity of subordination to God, and dependency on him. The Stoicks they express free-will by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that which is in our own power. The Aristotelians express it by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which is the Scripture expression like∣wise; Though the Scripture and Aristotelians differ as much as light and dark∣ness about the nature of liberty, As the Ancients by following Platonical Phi∣losophy: so the Neotericks (especially the Jesuites by following Aristotle,) have greatly prejudiced the Doctrine of free-grace, setting up free-will in the room thereof. There is one expression more, and the Scripture hath it but once, which is the most emphatical in describing of this liberty, and that is 1 Cor. 7. 37. Having power over a mans own will, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, for liberty lieth in some kinds of some dominion to have our own will; hence in liberty we may conceive something Negative and something Positive; Negative, and that is not to be compelled, not to be constrained, not to be inslaved: Positive, and that is to have some power and dominion over the actions of our will, as the Apostle instanceth in him, who had decreed to keep his virgin from marriage, This man is said to have power over his own will. By these Scripture words we may come to understand in a great measure, what liberty and freedome of will is.

¶. 5.

Some Observations concerning the Promoters of the Doctrine of Free-Will, how Unpleasing the contrary Doctrine is to flesh and blood, with some advice about it.

SEcondly take notice, That it is the great purpose and design of some to go con∣trary to the plain intent of the Scripture; For many in all ages of the Church have (with all their learning and parts) endeavoured to set up this Idol of Free-will, whereas the great drift of the Scripture is to advance and set up the free grace and free gift of God: The Apostles they write to debase man and to exalt the grace of God; Erronious persons, they dispute, and write, to exalt the will of man, and to take off from the grace of God; What a loud trumpet is Paul in his Epistles to sound forth the praises of free grace, not only

free grace in justification, but free grace also in sanctification? It's the grace of God that doth not only pardon the guilt of sinne, but conquer the power of it: Consider then whether it be better, to set up Dagon or the Ark, the free-will of man, or the free gift and grace of God. Truly it is a very uncomfortable task, to be disputing against that grace, which yet we must wholly rely upon, when we come to die. It is one thing what men write while they are in health, what cobweb-distinctions they please themselves with in their voluminous writings, and another thing when they are in the agonies of death, and are to appear at the tribunal of a righteous God. It was that (which that famous Champion for the grace of God) Bradwardine comforted himself with, when he undertook the cause of God against Pelagians, That he could pray for the grace of God, to help him in his undertakings, to be present with him, and to direct him, whereas his adversaries could not do so. And indeed how can an Arminian, or a Pelagian with any of those Naturists, cordially pray for the grace of God to assist them, while they write against grace, and patronize free-will? Let them sacrifice to their own nets, to their own parts and abilities; It's from their will that grace is efficacious. This arrogancy is like that of the Heathens, whose saying was, Ignavis opus est auxilio Dei, It is only the sluggish that need the help of God: Yea Tully argueth the case, That we are not beholding to God for our vertue; therefore (saith he) our ancestors have praised the gods for their success and outward advantages, but never for their vertues; Happily it is awe and reverence that men bear to the Christian Religion, that keepeth them from such blasphemous expressions; yet even in Christian Writers (pleading for the power of nature) instances might be given of proud and swelling expressions.

Thirdly, It is good to observe, That even in all those whose end avour hath been to advance the free-will of a man to what is truly good, there hath appeared some guiltiness (as it were) in them, therefore they have often changed, (if not their minds yet their words) thus they have removed from the mountaines to the valleys: The Pelagians did incrustate their opinions often, and the Papists speak sometimes so plausibly, that you would think Bellarmine and Calvin did imbrace each other. Pelagius did at last come to use the word grace, yea did anathematize such as should not hold the grace of God requisite to every good act; by which crafty guiles he did deceive the Eastern Bishops, and still in the serpents-skin do the Jesuites and Arminians appear; They think it the greatest calumny that can be cast upon them, to say, they are against the grace of God; hence they use the word of grace often, as well as of free-will, but all this ariseth from guilt; they do use the word grace ad frangendam invidiam, to decline, envy, to insinuate more into the hearts of credulous hearers: so that men sacrilegiously advance the will of man' make man to have the greatest praise in converting himself, in saving himself; and whereas Paul said, Not I, but the grace of God with me; They will on the contrary affirm, Not the grace of God, but I; yet for all this they would be thought to advance the grace of Christ, but that is a true rule of Austins, Gratia non est gratia ullo modo nisi sit gratuita omni modo; Grace is not grace any way, unless it be free and gra••uitous every way; Therefore the inconstancy, the changes and shifts all such are put to, who plead for this liberty of the will, argue they are not in the Truth, but like thieves do hate the light, and change their garments often, that they may not be discovered; They are afraid of the Scripture, and would more gladly have the controversie ended by Aristotle, then by Paul; so that this Pelagian error hath had Cain's curse (as it were) upon it, a trembling, lest every place of Scripture it, does meet with) should kill it.

Fourthly, To maintain the slavery of the will to sinne, and to deny any liberty

to that which is holy and godly, is a truth so unpleasing to flesh and blood, doth so reproach (as it's thought) mankind, that it hath alwayes in the Church of God, (by some heretical persons or others) been spoken against; It hath been judged very scandalous and offensive, as that which did lay the axe to the root of all Religion and holiness; But yet experience hath taught us, that none have expressed so much holiness in their lives, as those who have had this truth of Christs grace incorporated into them; and on the other side, the Pelagian Doctrine hath left upon mens spirits, like leaven, à cornu & tumorem, a sowreness and bitterness, as also a tumor and vaunting confidence in them∣selves; So that if the denying of free-will and exalting the grace of God be so prophane an opinion in its genius and inclination (as some calumniate,) it's a miracle, that from such a poisoned fountain such sweet streames should flow, and from such thornes so pleasant grapes should grow. But the reason of this offence to flesh and blood, is the self-love and self-fullness that is in every man by nature; spiritual pride and self-confidence do reign in all men by nature; hence it is that though they be naked, yet they are not ashamed of it, which in Adam (while innocent) did come from his integrity, but in cor∣rupt man from his senslesness and stupidity. No wonder then if this Doctrine of grace be not justified cordially, and as it ought to be, but by the sonnes of grace, who have felt the power and efficacy of it upon their hearts, who have ex∣perimentally found the grace of God freeing their will from all that bondage it was in to sinne and Sataen.

Fifthly, From this it is, that a gracious heart is required to study this point, as well as a learned head. Experience of regeneration, of being made a new creature, of the conflict between the flesh and the spirit, will excellently direct in this controversie. I wonder not to see a man, though come out of Egypt loaden with Egyptian gold, to make a molten-calf for a god and to worship it: men of great learning, and it may be of great external civility (as they say of Pelagius) if not humbled by the grace of God, and throughlyu emptied of themselves, how can they stoop and yeeld all up to Christ? It was therefore Austin's wish, That the Pelagians would turne their disputations into prayers, for it is the heart as well as the head that is usefull in this point. Though all Divinity be practical, and practice is the end of knowledge, yea in Scripture language, Tantum scimus quantum operamur, we are said to know no more then we do; yet some truths have a more immediate influence into practice then others, whereas some opinions do stand in the Court (as it were) others enter into the holiest of holiest: Now this truth about the grace of God, and free-will is practice (practice) as I may say, what some do of the ultimate dictate of the understanding; This truth lieth in the vitals of Religion, and therefore the experience of all the godly is justly brought after Scripture ar∣guments to confirme this great truth; Therefore humble your selves more, commune with your own hearts, be much in prayer and self-emptiness, and you will quickly find the light of this truth shining into your hearts; Come and tast, Come and see, what you hear with your eares; pray that God would grant you an experimental knowledge of grace, and then you will quickly confess not unto your own free-will, but to the free grace of God, all praise, and glory doth belong.

Sixthly, This truth therefore being so contrary to flesh and blood, It is by the grace of God that we come to acknowledge the grace of God. Error in mind is part of our bondage, as well as lust in our heart; It is therefore by th•• grace of God that we are delivered from both these thraldoms; we have a freed mind from ignorance, and a freed will from concupiscence; It is the Spirit of God that leadeth us into all truth, called therefore the Spirit of truth, John 14. 17. It is by the grace of God that thou fallest not in this errour of advancing free-will;

It's by the grace of God that thou art no Pelagian or Arminian; It is this that maketh thee to differ from them; Thy judgment, thy heart would be self-confident herein, did not the Spirit of God teach thee.

Lastly, Consider that the grace of God is necessary to guide us in this point, Because this Question hath alwayes seemed very difficult. Austin acknowledged it so; Hence he saith, That when grace is defended, we are thought to destroy free-will, and when a free-will is acknowledged (though in some sense onely) we are thought to deny free-grace. Indeed the Truth is not so difficult (viz.) that we have no spiritual liberty to what is good, or that grace onely maketh the will free; but how to reconcile this with the natural liberty of the will, that it shall not be as a stock or stone, that hath seemed to some even insoluble, and therefore they advise to captivate our understandings in this point, as we doe in the Doctrine of the Trinity; however whether soluble or insoluble, the diffi∣culty argueth the necessity of Gods assistance, while we preach, and you hear about it.

¶. 6.

The first Demonstration of the slavery of the Will is from the Necessity of sinning that every man is plunged into.

SEveral particulars being premised as introductory to our intended matter, our next work is to shew, Wherein this servitude & slavery of the will doth consist; Not that you are to conceive of the will, as some prisoner who is chained up in a dunge∣on, that hath power to walk and run, only those external impediments do hinder him, which is Bellarmine's similitude about the inability of a natural man to su∣pernatural good: So the will hath some inward power and ability to do that which is holy, onely there are lusts, which are vincentes and vincientes, as Au∣stin expresseth, conquering and binding this will, that it cannot actually perform what internally it hath a power to do, here is no such thing, for we must con∣ceive of this habitual depravation and defilement of the will in its state and con∣dition more inward and deeply rooted in it.

First therefore, That the will of man is destitute of any freedome to what is good, appeareth, In the Necessity of sinning that every man is plunged into, that he cannot but sinne in all that he doth; That as the Angels and Saints in Heaven have Beata Necessitas, a blessed necessity of loving of God, and delighting in him, so that no temptation in the world can draw them off: Thus every man by nature is in an unhappy and wretched necessity of sinning, Dura Necessitas, as Austin called it. Insomuch that though the Scripture doth represent the things of Heaven in a most glorious manner to affect us, yet we cannot be taken off from our sinne to love that; Hence it is that every man till regenerated is com∣pared to an evil tree, and Tit. 1. they are said to be unclean, and every thing made unclean to them; The person being not accepted, neither can any duties be: This is our sad and miserable condition by nature, But whose heart is throughly affected with it? Thy eating, thy drinking, thy buying and selling, yea thy praying and all other duties, as they come from a man not sanctified by grace are sinnes in the eyes of God. Think then to what an infinite aggravation they will arise, and whether thou mayest not truly complain, they are more then the sands upon the Sea-shore; so that as the Toad and Serpent do necessarily vent what is poison, and can never do that which is sweet and wholsom: Thus no man in his natural estate can ever do any thing but be sinning, and so damning of himself all the day long; Onely when we say it is thus naturally necessary to a man to sinne

in all things he doth, you must know, that we do not herein make him absolutely like a bruit beast, which is not capable either of vice or virtue; for this necessity is voluntarily brought by man upon himself, he did wilfully strip himself of all power and ability to do that which is good, and so having shut out the light from himself, he doth necessarily remain in the dark, having chaced away the Spirit and presence of God from his soul, which is the life thereof, he becometh spiri∣tually dead, and so in a necessity of sinning: But it is not thus with Serpents and Toads; for whether they were at first created solely, with such a poisonous nature, or whether upon Adam's fall it was inflicted upon those creatures as a curse, it is plain, that these creatures could not with any will or consent bring themselves into this estate, but man did voluntarily at first, having no seed of evil, or inward propensity to sinne transgress the Commandment, whereupon his soul became more shamefully naked then his body. This necessity therefore whereby he is de∣termined onely to sinne, ariseth from his own free and voluntary impiety; As a man that hath wilfully put out his own eyes must blame himself for ever if he can∣not see: If then this bondage be upon thee, that in all things thou sinnest, what∣soever thou undertakest, evil is presently over ruling of thee, blame not God, or any providence of his, no nor the Devil neither, for though he doth tempt, yet he doth not necessitate to sinne, but thy own self, for from thy own bowels this destruction doth arise.

¶. 7.

That a Necessary Determination may arise several wayes, some where∣of are very consistent with Liberty, yea the more necessary the more free.

IT is good to observe, and it may clear many difficulties in this point, That a necessary determination may arise several wayes, some whereof are very consi∣stent with liberty, yea the more necessary the more free. Thus God himself doth ne∣cessarily will that which is good, and yet freely also: And if you ask, Whence doth it arise that God is thus determined to what is good? I answer, It is from the infinite and absolute perfection of his holinesse, whereby he is not, nor cannot be a God that willeth iniquity. Arminius indeed maketh it little lesse than bla∣sphemy to say, God is liberè bonus, but that is, because he cannot part with his Helena, or Dalilah (viz.) That liberty consists in an indifferency to good and evil, and in this sense to say, God doth so freely will good, that he can as freely will evil, would be blasphemy; but to will evil is no part at all of freedome, it is a defect in a mutable creature, as is to be shewed. Such a determination to good only was in Christ also from his perfection, and is likewise in the Angels confirm∣ed, and Saints glorified; here is no power to sinne, yet have they liberty in an eminent degree, though determined to good onely: On the contrary, the De∣vils and damned men they are necessarily determined to that which is evil, they cannot but hate God, they are not able to have one good thought, or one good desire to all eternity, yet all this is done freely by them; Now as the determina∣tion to good did arise from perfection, from the strong principles of holinesse within, so in these their necessary determination to evil doth arise from that pow∣er of iniquity and sinne they are delivered up unto: In this necessity of sinning are all natural men (till regenerated) absolutely plunged into, and that from the dominion which sinne hath over them; Onely herein they differ from the Devils and damned men, they are in their termino, in their journeys end, and so are not in a capacity of being ever freed from this necessity and thraldome to

sinne: There will never be a converted Devil, or a converted man in hell, their state is unchangeable, and they can never be recovered, but with wicked men in this life, God hath dealt in many plentifull wayes of mercy, so that though for the present determined only to evil all the day long, though for the present under the chains and bonds of sinne, Yet the grace of God may deliver them out of this prison, and set them at liberty, but till this be, they are as the Devils carried out necessarily in all hatred unto God, and this determination to one is from imper∣fection.

Lastly, There is a determination to one from principles of Nature without rea∣son and judgement, and where such is there cannot be any liberty, for reason and judgement is the root of liberty, though it be formally in the will.

By this then you see, That this necessity of sinning doth not take away the natural freedome that is in the will, so that a man and a beast should be both alike. Luther (De Servo Arbit.) indeed wished that the word Ne∣cessity might be laid aside; Neither doth Bradwardine like that expression, Ne∣cessitas immutabilitatis, as applied to man, but in the sense all that are Orthodox do agree.

¶. 8.

The second Argument of the Servitude of the Will is its being carri∣ed out unto sinne voluntarily, and with delight.

SEcondly, This necessity of sinning doth not at all take off from the volunta∣rinesse and delight therein, but every natural man is carried out so volun∣tarily and readily unto every sinne suggesting it self, as if there were no ne∣cessity at all. Hence man by nature is said To swallow down iniquity like water, Job 15. 16 Even as the feavorish or Hydropical man is never satiated with wa∣ter; Therefore the necessity of sinning is never to be opposed to his willingness and freedom; for though a man hath no freedom to good, yet he hath to evil, Eoque magis libera, quo magis Ancilla, the more he is subject to sinne, the more enslaved to it by his delight therein, the freer he is to act it; We must not then imagine such a necessity of sinning in a man, as if that did compel and force a man against his inclination and desire: You must not think that it is thus with a man, as if he could say, O Lord, my will is set against sinne, I utterly abhorre and detect it, but I am necessitated to do it; for the will being corrupted, doth with all propensity and delight rejoyce in the accomplishing of that which is evil.

¶. 9.

3. The Bondage of the Will is evident by its utter impotency to any thing that is Spiritual; And wherein that inability consists.

THirdly, This bondage of the will to sinne is evidently manifested in its utter impotency and inability to any thing that is spiritual. It's like Samson, that hath lost its strength, God made man right, whereby he had an ability to do any thing that was holy, there could not be an instance in any duty, though in the highest degree, which Adam had not a power to do, and now he is so greatly

polluted, that there is not the greatest sinne possibly to be committed by the vilest of men, but every man hath the seed and root thereof within him, for this rea∣son man by nature is not onely compared to the blind and deaf, but also to such who are wholly dead in sinne: So that as the dead man hath no pow∣er to raise himself, so neither hath a man who is spiritually dead in his sinnes.

That this Truth may greatly humble us, Let us consider, wherein this ab∣solute impotency to what is holy, is in every man, for this is a great part of the demonstration of our spiritual bondage to sinne and Satan. And

First, Such is the thraldom of the will, That a man by nature cannot resist the least temptation to sinne, much lesse the greatest, without the special grace of God helping at that time. We matter not those Pelagian Doctors who hold a man by his own power may resist lesse temptations, yea more grievous ones, though not continually; for when our Saviour teacheth us to pray, That we may not be lead into temptation, doth not that imply, whatsoever is a temptation, whether it be small or great, if the Lord leave us thereunto, we presently are overcome by it. Certainly, if Adam while retaining his integrity in a temptation, and that about so small a matter comparatively, for want of actual corroborating grace, was overtaken by it: Is it any wonder that we who have no inward spiri∣tual principle of holiness within us, but are filled with all evil and corruption, that we are reeds shaken with every wind? The rotten Apple must fall at every blast: Know then that it is either sanctifying or restraining grace, that keeps thee from every snare of sinne thou meetest with; Thou wouldst every hour fall into the mire did not that uphold: These Dalilahs would make thee sleep in their laps, and then as Jael to Sicera, so would they do to thee. Herein is our bondage discovered.

Secondly, Our thraldome is manifested, In that we are not able of our selves to have one good thought, in reference to our eternal salvation; But if any serious apprehension, if any godly meditation be in thy soul, it is the grace of God that doth breath it into thee; The wilderness of thy heart cannot bring forth such ro∣ses: Thus the Apostle, We are not able of our selves (2 Cor. 3. 5.) to think any thing as of our selves; Though the Apostle speaketh it occasionally in his mini∣sterial imployment, yet (it holdeth generally true of every one, of thy self) then thy heart is like a noisome dung-hill, nothing but unsavoury thoughts doe arise from it; but if at any time any good motion, any sad and serious thought stirreth within thee, know this cometh from without, it is put into thee, as the cup of gold in Benjamin's sack; and therefore this must greatly debase us.

Thirdly, We are not able of our selves to have the least desire or longing after grace, and a state of holinesse. Not only Pelagianism, but Semi-pelagianism is a dangerous rock to be avoided: The later made our desires to begin, and then Gods grace to succeed and accomplish; But there is not so much as the least groan, the least desire can arise in thy heart: Oh that God would change me! Oh that I were in the state of those that do truly fear God! And the reason is, because the Scripture describeth us by nature to be dead in sinne, and compareth the work of grace to a spiritual resurrection: Oh how great is thy bondage which doth so farre oppress thee, that thou canst not so much as long for any freedom! Oh hopeless and wretched man, if left to himself!

Fourthly, From this followeth the next demonstration of our vassalage and spiritual impotency, That we cannot pray to God, that he would deliver us out of this misery. No natural man can pray, it is the grace of God that doth inable thereunto, he may utter the words of prayer, he may repeat the expressions, but (alas) he doth not, he cannot pray, as God requireth, and so as he will ac∣cept of it. The Apostle is clear for this, Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit helpeth our in∣firmities,

for we know not what to pray for as we ought; Is not this unspeakable misery, who needeth to pray more then thou, and yet thou canst not pray? Thou art sinning, thou art dying, thou are damning, and yet canst not pray: Is not thy heart like an adamant, if this break thee not?

Fifthly, Such is our impotency and bondage, That we are not able to affect our selves with the fear and terrour of the Law, thereby to be convinced and humbled in our selves. If we cannot do the preparatories for grace, much lesse grace it self; if we cannot do the lesse, How shall we do the greater? Now one great preparatory work is, To have a divine and powerfull fear in our souls, by reason of the Law, whereby we are afraid of hell, of the day of Judgement, and can∣not have any rest in our spirits, because of this. Now this is wrought by the Spirit of God in a preparatory way, Rom. 8. 15. It is called The Spirit of bon∣dage: And Joh. 14. The Spirit doth convince the world of sinne; So that in and through the preaching of the Law, and discovery of sinne, the Spirit of God doth awaken and terrifie the conscience of a man, maketh him afraid, that he cannot eat, or drink, or take the delight he used to do. It is true, the slavish sinfulness of this fear the Spirit of God doth not work, but the heart being like a mudded pool, when it is moved, such slavish fears will arise likewise; But how farre is every natural man from this, he is secure and jolly, blessing and applaud∣ing himself, crying peace, peace, all is at quiet within him, because the strong man doth keep the house? It is the voice of the Lord only that can make these mountains to quake and melt.

Sixthly, Such is our weakness, That we cannot barden or soften our hearts in the least manner, but they remain obdurate and like brasse and iron. Thy heart is like a stone within thee, and thou art no wayes able to mollifie it; Therefore God maketh it his work, and he graciously promiseth, I will take away the heart of stone (Ezek. 11. 19.) and give an heart of flesh; As if God had said, I know this work is above you, you are not able to do it: And certainly, if the godly themselves (because of the remainders of original corruption doe complain of the hardnesse of their hearts,) cannot mollifie or soften them, as they desire; Is it any wonder if the wicked man be not able to remove the stone from him.

Seventhly, A man cannot by the power of nature believe, no not so much as with an historical faith, till grace prepare the heart therein. Now faith is the first foun∣dation-stone, Heb. 11. He that cometh to God must believe he is, and so he must believe the truth about Christ; But we see by the Pharisees, who heard Christ preach, saw the wonderfull miracles he did, yet in stead of believing in him did deride and oppose him; so that all the acts of faith, whether dogmatical or sa∣ving, we are enabled unto only by the grace of God, Matth. 13. 11. To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but not to them: Thus Act. 18. 27. the Disciples are said to believe through grace, faith then is the gift of God, not the work of mans free-will.) And if he cannot do this, it is plain, he cannot move one foot of himself towards Heaven.

Lastly, Such is our impotency, That when grace is offered and tendered to us, the will of it self hath no power to consent to it, or make improvement of it. It can, and oft doth resist and refuse grace, but of it self it cannot imbrace it. It is true, Papists and Arminians plead hard for this power of the will, but this is to give more to mans will then to Gods grace, this is to make man to differ himself from others.

It might be thought, that the will indeed cannot chuse Christ, or receive him as a Lord, because there is no revelation or manifestation of a Christ; They are a people happily who sit in darkness, and have no light; and therefore though they may have an inward power to see, yet for want of light to actuate the me∣dium they cannot; so that the defect ariseth not from the power within, but the

manifestation of the object without: And this indeed is gratly to be consider∣ed, whether an Infidel or Pagan (for example) doth not believe, because there is no proposition of the object in the Ministry, otherwise if he enjoyed that, then he had power over his own to assent to it. Now even the Pelagians themselves, and their followers, yea even all that give not grace its full due, yet thus farre they do acknowledge there must be a doctrinal revelation by the Spirit of God, of the truths to be acknowledged; and when this light is set (as it were) upon the Can∣dlestick, then a man of his own self is able to see; but such is the corruption of man, that not only grace must bring in the light, but it must also give the eye to see; So that the work of Gods grace is both objective and subjective, objective in revealing the object, and subjective in preparing and fitting the subject; It being the Lord who doth give the seeing eye, and the hearing ear, Prov. 20. 12. Yea the Arminians go further, acknowledging that grace doth irresistibly work upon the understanding of a man, for it being a passive faculty it cannot with∣stand its illumination, but the will that retaineth its indifferency, when grace hath done all it will do: This therfore is granted, That without the grace of God enlightning and revealing, we are not able to believe the mysteries of Christ Kingdom; but though all this be granted, yet we say, That without further grace (even grace regenerating and sanctifying the will.) we are not able to cleave to that which is good: You must not then conceive, as if God only offered grace in the Ministry, and then the will of man by its own self doth love and delight in it; No, the heart of stone is first to be removed, we are to be new born, and made new creatures, before we can put forth any spiritual life at all; Not that a man is converted without his will, or that he doth not believe or repent, but the grace of God, only God changeth the will, he quickneth it, and enliveneth it so, that whereas it was like Sarah's dead womb before, now it was made fruitfull. The grace of God doth not compel the will, but change it; As if water which natu∣rally descendeth be turned into air, then it doth as naturally ascend; Indeed this is a physical change, but the moral change by grace in the will, is as notable to its operations. To consent therefore to grace is the work of grace; It is grace that maketh us to will and receive grace: Hence we see by experience of those many who enjoy the means of grace, how few do effectually and powerfully im∣prove them: Whence is this difference? Is it because one doth use his free-will better then another? Surely this would attribute farre more to free-will, then to Gods grace; for it's the will of man that maketh grace effectual, not grace that maketh the will of man pliable: By this Peter should be no more beholding to the grace of God then Judas; nor David then Saul, seeing (ex parte Dei) all had grace alike, onely one used this grace of God by his own power better then another, and thus we shall have something that we did not receive, and we shall make our selves to differ from other; How derogatory and injurious is this to the grace of God?

¶. 10.

That man naturally loves his Thraldome to Sinne, and contradicts the Means of Deliverance from it; is a great Aggravation of the Bon∣dage and Servitude of the Will.

SEcondly, The miserable bondage of the will to sinne, is the more to be aggra∣vated, In that it loveth this thraldome, delights to be in this drudgery, even as the Swine doth in its mire; yea it doth vehemently oppose and contradict all the means of deliverance from it. Austin complained, Velle meum inimicus capti∣vum tenebat: Our will is kept captive; So that if the grace of God come to set us free, we love our bondage better then liberty; we had rather be in our prison with chains upon us, then abide in Gods palace: So that this vassalage of the will to sinne, is not like a bodily one, which is troublesome and very grievous to those that are detained therein, as we see it was to the Israelites groaning under the yoke, but naturally we delight in this slavery, and look upon that freedom which grace would procure for us, as the greatest misery, and this maketh us unspeak∣ably miserable, according to that known Rule, Quid miserius misero, non mi∣serante seipsum, What is more miserable then that wretched man, who doth not, who cannot pity himself? You must not therefore conceive of the will of man thus captivated to sin, as if it were against its inclination, as if of it self it did endea∣vour to cast off this yoke, as it is with some people, who being over-powered, are forced to submit, but yet they wait for, and long for an opportunity to set them∣selves at liberty: No, but the will doth delight and rejoyce in this servitude: A man doth willingly give his ears to be boared by his lusts, resolving never to go from this Master, unless grace change him, and make him a new creature all over.

¶. 11.

The Bondage of the Will is seen in its Concupiscential Affection to some Creature or other, never being able to lift its selfe up to God.

THis want of freedom to any thing that is good, is seen, In the concupiscen∣tial affection to some creature or other, never being able to lift it self up to God: And certainly, if you ask, Wherein doth the bondage of the will to sin consist? We may in the general say, in its creature affection, so that the will, which while entire and sound did love God as the chiefest good, and all creatures in reference, and with subordination to him, is now so debased that it creepeth upon the ground, and is not able at all to love any thing but it self and the creature; So that now every one taketh up that request Psal. 4, Who will shew us any good? Any temporal good, they desire the Devils offer; So that if he would shew them the glory of the world, and bestow it on them, they would presently fall down and worship: Oh the unhappy and miserable change that sinne hath now made upon the will! being in absolute subjection to every thing that he was made lord over; God put all things under his feet, and now all things have put man under their feet: It's the love of the world, and the things of the world, that is the Iron chain about the will, as that about Nebuchadnezzar's stump of the Tree;

so that it can never lift it self up to what is Heaven: This maketh the will like that woman, who was bowed down with her infirmity, and could not look up, till Christ healed her, and made her straight: This maketh the necessity of a spiri∣tual resurrection, that so we may set our affections upon things above. This love of the world, and the things thereof, is the Summe of all those particular wayes, whereby we are thus wretchedly enslaved; Therefore grace when it com∣eth doth loosen these bonds, and make us free, by working in us a contrary love, and a contrary sweetness and delight; So that now all the world, with the dain∣ties thereof, are but as so many husks in comparison of that manna he now feed∣eth upon; And as he that stedfastly beholds the Sunne for a while, his eyes are so dazeled, that he cannot for a season behold any thing else: Thus when grace hath so sanctified and affected the will, that it findeth no greater sweetness and delight then in holy things, this presently maketh him throw away all those bonds that were upon him.

¶. 12.

Herein is the Bondage of the Will seen, That when it doth indeavour to overcome any sinne, it is by falling into another.

FOurthly, Herein is the bondage of the will seen also, That when it doth endea∣vour to overcome any sinne, it is by falling into another. So that the Argument usually brought to prove, that the will hath some freedome to what is good doth indeed more confirm the servitude of it to sinne; For it is often objected, That if the will be thus in absolute bondage to sinne, How cometh it about that even Hea∣thens have by their own strength reformed their lives, and have abounded in justice, fortitude and chastity even to admiration? Is not that instance of Polemon famous, who though a drunkard, yet coming to hear Xenocrates his Lecture about tempe∣rance, was so immediately perswaded thereby, that he presently forsook that beastly sinne? In this Argument Julian the Pelagian did often triumph; But Austin's answer was good, and justifiable by Scripture, That when they left one sinne, they fell into another, they did cure one lust by another lust, a carnal one by a spiritual one; for when they did abstain from such sinnes, it was not in re∣ference to God, and from faith in Christ, but it was either from vain glory, or to be sure a sinfull confidence, and resting upon themselves; and therefore even the Stoicks, who pretended the highest, viz. That we were to do virtuous actions for virtues sake, yet they came too short of the right mark; for virtue is not to be loved ultimately for virtues sake, but that thereby we might draw nearer to God, and be made happy in enjoying of him; Therefore the Stoicks opinion did teach a man nothing but self-confidence and self fulness, which sinnes are forbidden by the Word of God, as well as Epicurean and grosse sinnes: Oh then the unspeak∣able bondage of the will to sinne! That as the bird in a net, the more she stri∣veth to get out, the more she intangleth her self: Thus it is with the natural man, the more he striveth of himself to come out of this mire, the faster he stic∣keth in: Thou then who art a natural man, though such a sinne and such a sinne be left, yet see if when the Devil was cast out, a worse did not come in the room thereof; See if it be not with thee, as in that representation to the Prophet, Thou hast broken a woodden yoke, and an iron one is made in stead thereof; Thou hast cured a carnal sinne by a spiritual one; For you must know, That not onely grace doth expell sinne, but sometimes one lust may expel another, as the Phari∣sees spiritual pride, and self-righteousness did make them abhorre the Publicans sinnes; so that even then the natural man cannot but sinne, while he is casting

off sinne. Therefore though unregenerate persons may do that which is materi∣ally good, and for the substance of the act, yet they can never do that which is formally so; or as Austin expressed it of old, we must distinguish between the Officium, the Duty it self, and Finis, the end of the Duty: Now the end of all till regenerated, can never be right or pure, it never ascends high enough even to God himself, because they want faith; So that though Aristides was just, yet he was not the Scriptures just man, that liveth by faith; None of the renowned Hea∣thens were chaste by faith, charitable by faith, temperate by faith, and therefore their glorious actions were only splendid, glistering sinnes, they had a pompous appearance, but were indeed real vices, which were so farre from profiting them as to eternal happiness, that they were an hinderance to them, for hereby they trusted in themselves; The Epicurean he said, It is good for me frui carne, To enjoy the body; The Stoick he said, It was good for me frui mente; But David he said, It was good for him to draw nigh to God.

¶. 13.

The more Means of Grace to free us, the more our Slavery appears.

FIfthly, Herein is our miserable bondage to sinne manifested, That the more we have the means of grace to set us at liberty, the more doth our slavery disco∣ver it self: So that whatsoever good and holy thing we meet with, it draweth out our corruption the more. This the Apostle complaineth of, as part of that capti∣vity he groaned under, Rom 7. That the Law which was for good, wrought in him all manner of evil: Thus the Gospel, yea Christ preached, is the occasion of more wickedness and impiety in unregenerate men, then otherwise they would be guilty of; And if this be so, though our heads were fountains of water, yet we could not weep enough for the guilt and wretchedness we are in by this means, for our remedies make our diseases greater, light increaseth our darkness, life causeth death; Insomuch that did not God work by his own power mightily in the use of these means, they might be no longer the means of grace, but of anger and judgement, and the preaching of the Gospel, because of the sad effects which it hath through the wilfull indisposition of many who hear it, might be as much trouble to us, as the presence of the Ark was to the Philistims: Therefore the clearer light, the more powerfull means of salvation a people do enjoy, the more is the impiety and wickedness of such (whom grace doth not convert) daily increased; insomuch that the Gospel shining upon such men, is like the Sunne shining upon a noisome dunghill, which maketh it the more loathsome; How then can there be free-will in a man to good, when if left to himself all helps are an hindrance to him, and all remedies are more destructive? Hence the Scripture calleth it, making of the heart fat, Isa. 6. an allusion to beasts, which are prepa∣red to destruction by their best pastures.

¶. 14.

The Necessity of a Redeemer demonstrates our thraldome to sinne.

LAstly, That the will is inthralled irrecoverably unto sinne, appeareth, In the necessity of Grace, and of Christ as a Redeemer, if we were not in bondage, what need we have a Redeemer? Let not then the common expression in the

Schooles be liberum arbitrium, but liberatum, which is a phrase we seldome meet within them; It is good to know the full latitude of that glorious title of our Saviour, (viz.) a Redeemer; he is so called, not only, because he redee∣meth us from the curse of the law, and the guilt of sinne, but also because we were under the power and dominion of sinne and Satan, daily fulfilling the works of the flesh, so that his death was not only to obtain remission of sinnes, but to make us a peculiar people zealous of good works, Tit. 1. 14. And hence also he is said, to offer himself a sacrifice, that he might present to God, a Church without spot or wrinckle, Eph. 5. 27, which will be compleatly perfected in heaven. To set up free-will then, is to pull down our Redeemer, as much as we give to that, we deny to Christ, we make him but a half-Saviour, and an half-Redee∣mer, while we maintain, that we set our selves at liberty from the power of Satan: Oh then let the name of a Redeemer for ever make thee blush and asha∣med to speak of a free-will.

¶. 15.

An Examination of the Descriptions and Definitions of Freedome or Liberty of Will which many give it; Shewing, that none of them are any wayes competent to the Will unsanctified.

WE proceed therefore to make a further discovery of the bondage of the will to sinne, and that it hath no liberty, no power or ability to do any thing that is truly godly; If we take notice of all those wayes, wherein learned men do place liberty or freedome of will, we shall find evidently, that none of these descriptions, or definitions are any wayes competent to the will, while it is unsanctified; For,

First, if that opinion be received, (which Bellarmine and others follow) That liberty is radically in the understanding, though formally in the will, (that is) the reason of the wils liberty is from the understanding, which doth propound several objects, and thereupon the will is indeterminate, whereas in beasts their appetite is plainly limited, because they want reason; as it is arbitrium, so (they say) it is in intellectu, as liberum so in voluntate. Now (I say) let this be received (for I do not dispute the truth of it) then we must say, The will hath no liberty to what is good, because it faileth in the root; The streame cannot runne, when the spring is dried up; for if we take the understanding in respect of spiritual, and heavenly things, so it is altogether darkened and blinded; Therefore there is the grace of illumination required that it may know and believe the things of God, without which men love and delight in darkness rather then light: The things of God are said to be foolishness to a natural man; so that all the while a man hath no more then nature in him, he is like those birds that can see in the night, but are blind in the day; They have quick and sharp appre∣hensions in worldly and earthly matters, but are altogether stupid and sensless in regard of heavenly; How then can the will be free, when the mind is alto∣gether dark; for God in conversion, when he will set the will and affections at liberty from sinne, begins first in the understanding, light in the mind is first created, there are holy thoughts and spiritual convictions wrought in the soul, and by this light the other parts of the soul they come to be sanctified; now then if there be not so much as this antecedaneous work upon the mind, the will is as yet very farre from the Kingdom of heaven? Wonder not then if ye see unregenerate men walking and stumbling in the dark; that you see them so captivated unto every lust; you may as soon remove a mountain out of its

place, as take them off from their iniquities; For how can it be otherwise while the will hath no guid to lead it, none to informe it concerning the evil and danger of those wayes it is going in? If there be no light in the mind, there is no liberty in the will; so that hereby both horse and rider are (as it were) thrown into the sea.

Secondly, If to be that liberty doth consist in an active indifferency to good or evil, then the will is not free, because the former part of this description (upon Scripture-grounds) can no wayes be accommodated to the will. This description is gene∣rally received and applauded by Arminians and Jesuites as the best, (though Gibieus saith it is the worst) making the very formal nature of liberty to consist herein, that when all requisites to an action are supposed, yet the will can do, or not do; and this they extend even to spiritual objects, to that great work of conversion, affirming, when grace doth assist and help all it can; (so that Ex parte Dei, all things are ready that do concurre to our conversion;) yet the will, because it is free, retaineth an active indifferency, either to accept of this grace offered, or to reject it. This description we do no wayes acknowledge, as that which depriveth God, Christ, and the glorified Saints from liberty; and besides, liberty being perfection, and so in the most perfect manner in the most perfect subjects, this doth debase it making a defect part of this perfection: It is wholly absurd to make a power to sinne part of liberty: Indeed this was a concomitant of Adam's liberty, but not because liberty, but because his will was mutable and changeable, so that if he had been corroborated and confirmed in grace, he had not put forth any such experience of his liberty: well though we cannot assent to it, yet let it be supposed to be true; The Scripture is very clear and pregnant, That a man hath no such indifferent power in him to good or evil; Indeed to evil, that he is carried out unto with all delight, he can of himself kill himself, but he cannot of himself give life to himself: But as for the other part, to be able to love what is good, to believe and to turn himself unto God, this is above his power, for the order of nature and of grace differ as much, as the order of sense and reason; so that as the sensitive faculty cannot put forth acts of reason, (the eie cannot discourse and reason,) so neither can the rational faculties put forth the acts of grace, which come from a divine na∣ture, and that which is borne from above; All these places which describe man in a spiritual sense to be blind in mind, deaf in eares, and hardned in understan∣ding, yea which say, he is dead in sinne; and therefore the work of conversion is compared to regeneration, and to a resurrection; all these do plainly declare, that the will hath no activity at all as to the first beginnings of grace. It is true indeed, there are commands to repent, to be converted, yea we are bid to choose life and death, but there are none of these duties commanded, which in other places are not made the gracious gifts of God; so that to repent, to be con∣verted, they are promised by God as the workings of his grace, whereby they are both duties and gifts; Although the Arminian thinketh that impossible: They are duties because we are the people who do believe and do repent, and are commanded thereunto; They are also gifts because it is the grace of God alone that doth enable thereunto; when therefore you read of such commands, you must not think, that they imply our power and ability, for then grace would be wholly excluded, seeing these Texts speak absolutely, as if a good work were wholly done by our own power; whereas the Ar∣minian and Papist will not wholly exclude grace, and so these Texts would prove more then they contend for; But such commands are still imposed upon us by God, to shew what doth belong to him; what he may justly expect from us; for seeing he created man with full power and ability to keep these commands, if man wilfully cast himself into an utter impotency, God hath

not thereby lost the right of commanding, though we have the power of obeying.

Besides by these Commands, as we are to know our duty, so thereby also we are provoked to be deeply humbled under our great inability, seeing our selves treasuring up wrath every day, and preparing more torments for our selves, un∣lesse the grace of God doth deliver us; Yea by these commands God doth work grace, they are practical and operative means, whereby he doth communicate life unto us.

And lastly, Therefore God doth use Commands, Because this way is suit∣able to man, who is a rational Agent; For although the work of grace is more than meerly swasive, it is efficacious and really changing the heart, so that the Spirit of God doth farre more in converting of a sinner, then the Devil doth in tempting to sinne; yet God dealeth suitably to the nature of a man; We are not like stocks and stones, to whom it is ridiculous to preach, there being not in them a passive capacity of receiving the worke of grace; Hence it is that the Word is preached, Miracles are wrought, powerfull Arguments are used to draw off the heart; So that grace doth worke Ethicophysically (as some expresse it,) Commands then and Threat∣nings are used, because grace is wrought in us after a rational manner, in an attempered manner to our constitution; The understanding being first wrought upon, that so the will and affections may more readily give up themselves.

Thirdly, If liberty be the same with voluntariness and no more, (as many learn∣ed men do contend, making voluntas and liberum arbitrium all one, as that which is opposed to coaction and natural necessity; yea if we adde Aurtelus his opinion to this, that libertas was nothing but complacentia, liberty is the complacency and delight of the will in its object) then in this sense, (if rightly understood,) a man hath no freedom to what is holy. It is true indeed, the learned to shew, that grace in converting doth not destroy the liberty of the will, (viz. the natural liberty) no more then the will it self; Grace doth not compel the will, or put an inherent natural necessity upon it; for if there could be coaction, the velle would be nolle, which is a contradiction; and if a natural necessity could be imposed upon it, it would not be appetitus rationalis, a rational appetite; so that though grace in converting of man doth insuperably, and invincibly change the will, making it of unwilling willing, so that there is a necessity (not natural,) but of immu∣tability and unchangeableness; The will doth most certainly give it self up to the grace of God mollifying and fashioning of it for that purpose: This Iron (as it were) is put into the fire, and then it is made pliable to receive any form or impression, yet the essential liberty is not destroyed; For the Question about Free-will is not An sit? but Quid possit? And herein lieth the difficult knot in this whole point about grace and the will of man, How to assert the irresistible (as many call it, but others reject that expression, though the sense of those who use it, is very sound and significant enough) work of grace, insuperably deter∣mining the will to that which is good, and yet to be free from coaction or such a necessity as is destructive to liberty? The Quomodo. How these two are to be reconciled, is that which in all ages hath exercised the most learned and ju∣dicious; insomuch that some have advised to rest in it by faith, as in a mystery above our understanding, even as we doe in many other Doctrines to be belie∣ved by us; But I am not to ascend this mountain at this time; This is enough for our purpose, to shew, That if liberty be said to consist in willing a thing freely from coaction and necessity, even in this respect, we have not thus farre liberty to good, because it is God that worketh in us to will. Indeed when we doe will, we are not compelled by the Grace of God, onely we cannot will till the Grace of God enable us thereto; It is

not of him that willeth, but of God that sheweth mercy; Neither are, we born of the will of man, but of God; It is grace then onely that maketh us to will the good things tendered to us, though the will in eliciting of this is not com∣pelled, but doth it freely, yea grace giveth this freedome to it, so that grace doth not destroy, but give liberty; And therefore Austin of old urged,

That they denied Liberum arbitrium, who would not have it Liberatum;

They cannot hold free-will in a true sense, that doe not hold free and ef∣ficacious grace, which giveth the will all the strength it hath to what is good: Thus liberty, if it be the same with willingness, we have it not of our selves, till the grace of God bestow it upon us.

Fourthly, If liberty consist in having dominion and power over our actions, then also the will cannot be said to be free, as to doe holy things; For al∣though the will, when it doth will, is the subordinate cause under God of its own action, and as a cause, so also may be said to have dominion over it, yet because the actual willing of what is good, doth not arise or exist by the strength of the will, but by the grace of God, therefore it is that (in re∣spect of good things) the will cannot be said to have the dominion over them. This Definition of liberty (viz.) [to have a dominion over our own actions,] is by Jansenius asserted to be the true and proper meaning of Augustine, that his judgement is, then the will is said to be free, when it hath dominion and power over what it doth; and if so, no wonder then the will be so often said to be captivated and enslaved, that it hath no freedom to what is holy; For what power can the will have over holy actions, when it is corrupted and defiled, that no holy thought, or holy motion is under the power of it. It was Ambrose his complaint of old, That Cor nostrum non est in nostrâ potestate; Our heart is not in our power, but sinnefull and evil workings of soul rise up in us, which we are no wayes able to extin∣guish.

Fifthly, If liberty be (as Anselme of old defined it, to which some Ne∣otericks doe adhere, viz) Facultas servandi rectitudinem, propter rectitudi∣nem ipsam, That it is a power to observe that which is right, for righteous∣nesse sake, then this doth evidently proclaime, That man hath no Free-will, for to observe that which is holy and righteous for holinesse sake, which must needs argue a man regenerated and borne again; And indeed liberty in this sense is nothing but the Image of God repaired in a man, and so is no more then to be like God himself; And now that every man by nature hath lost this Image of God, is so plain, that the experience of every man concerning his distance from God may fully confirme it. If to this be ad∣ded Aquinas his Description, That it is, Vis electiva mediorum servato or∣dine ad finem. A power to chuse means with a due order and respect to the end (yet still freedome in the will to what is good cannot be found) For as (saith he) The understanding which is an apprehensive faculty, hath its simple and bare apprehension of a thing (viz. of the first principles) And then it hath another act, which is to Reason and Discourse, and that is pro∣perly of Conclusions to be deduced from those principles; So what princi∣ples are in respect of conclusions to the Understanding, the same the end is, in respect of the means to the will; And therefore as the understanding doth necessarily erre, when it doth not discourse suitably to the first prin∣ciples; So the will, which is the appetitive part of a man, must necessarily sinne, when it doth not chuse means with a due order to the end: Now God being the chief end of all our actions, how impossible is it for the will corrupted as it is, to will riches, health, learning, or any creature in reference to God as the end.

Lastly, If liberty consist (as Gibieuf would have it) in an amplitude of spirit and independency upon the creature, so that it is above every created ob∣ject with an eminent magnanimity of spirit adhering to God alone, and resting in him as the chiefest good, then it is plain also, That by nature the will of man is utterly impotent to this thing, for the love of the creature is so predominant that we live and doe all things in reference to that; So that whereas grace maketh us to doe all things of God, and through God, and to God; Now the creature doth so reigne in our hearts, that we move on∣ly in all the workings of our soul to it. Aristotle observeth, That some

are slaves by nature, and such have no reason of their owne to guide them, that doe Sentire rationem magìs quàm habere, Feele Reason rather then make use of it:

And if we speak in a spiritual sense, we are all thus borne slaves and vassals, not being able to put forth the actings of true and right reason, but do follow the lusts of our own soul, and are taken captive by the De∣vil at his will.

Thus we have at large discovered the bonds and chaines of sinne our wils are fastened in; Oh that in the reading of this, God would breathe into the souls of such wretched sinners, strong desires and ardent groans to be redeemed from this thraldome! Shall the ungodly say, (Psal. 2.) concern∣ing Christ, Let us break his bonds, when yet they are bonds of love, which are for our eternal happiness? And wilt not thou rather cry out, concern∣ing these bonds, and these yokes, which are for thy eternal damnation, Let us break them and rend them asunder? Doth not the senslesnesse and stupi∣dity of men, while they hear these things too sadly evidence the state of thraldom we are in to sinne?