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Title:  Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the morall law and the covenants, from the errours of Papists, Arminians, Socinians, and more especially, Antinomians in XXX lectures, preached at Laurence-Jury, London / by Anthony Burgess ...
Author: Burgess, Anthony, d. 1664.
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Why, if those Promises of God converting us do prove conversion to be his act, should not other places also, which bid us turn unto the Lord, prove that it is our Act? The answer is easie: none deny, but that to beleeve, and to turn unto God, are our acts; we cannot beleeve without the minde and will. That of Austin is strong and good, If, because it's said, Not of him that willeth and runneth, but of him that sheweth mercy, man is made a partiall cause with God, then we may as well say, Not in him that sheweth mercy, but in him that runneth and willeth.But the Question is, Whether we can doe this of our selves, with grace? Or, Whether grace onely enable us to doe it? That distincti∣on of Bernards is very cleere: The heart of a man is the sub∣jectum in quo, but not à quo; the subject in which, not from which this grace proceedeth: Therefore you are not to conceive, when grace doth enable the mind and will to turn unto God, as if those motions of grace had such an impression upon the heart, as when the seal imprints a stamp upon the wax, or when wine is poured into the vessell, where the subject recipient doth not move, or stirre at all: Nor is it as when Balaam's Asse spake, or as when a stone is thrown into a place, nor as an enthusiasticall or arreptitious motion, as those that spake oracles, and under∣stood not; Nor as those that are possessed of Satan, which did many things, wherein the minde and will had no action at all: but the Spirit of God inclineth the Will and Affections to their proper object.Nor is the Antinomians similitude sound, that (as you heard) makes God converting of a man, to be as when a Physician poureth down his potion into the sick-mans throat, whether he will or no: For it is most true, that the Will, in the illicite and im∣mediate acts of it, cannot be forced by any power whatsoever: It's impossible that a man should beleeve unwillingly; for to beleeve, requireth an act of the Will. The School-men dispute, Whether fear, or ignorance, or lust do not compell the will; and they do rightly conclude, that it cannot: Therefore, though a mans con∣version be resisted by the corrupt heart & will of a man, yet when it is overcome by the grace of God, it turneth willingly unto him. Therefore this argument, though it seem strange, yet we may say of it as he in another case, Hoc argumentum non venit à Dea Suada.0