Speculum theologiæ in Christo, or, A view of some divine truths which are either practically exemplified in Jesus Christ, set forth in the Gospel, or may be reasonably deduced from thence / by Edward Polhill ..., Esq.

CHAP. X.

[Chap. 10] Touching Grace. The fountain of it Gods love. The streams supernatural gifts. The center Heaven. Its freeness, in that all perish not in the fall; Original sin meriting death, and Christ being a free gift. Its freeness in chusing a Church to God. Election not of all; no Legislative act, but a singling out of some to life in an infallible way, and meerly of Grace. Its freeness in the external and internal Call. The distin∣ction between the two Calls. The efficacy of Grace as to the Principles of Faith and other graces; with the manner of their production, as to actual believing and willing; with the proofs of it, as to perseverance in faith and holiness. The Habits of Grace defecti∣ble in themselves, but not in their dependence.

HAVING spoken of Original Sin, I shall next consider of Grace, which heals that deadly wound. Grace, in the primary notion of it, is the Love and Good-will of God towards sinners; and in a secondary sense, it is those saving-gifts which are derived from that Love. These are called Graces, be∣cause they lye in mans heart, as beams of that eter∣nal Grace which is in Gods; and tend to that Glory in Heaven which is Grace consummate. Gods will goes foremost, and works those Graces in mans, which make him meet for eternal happiness. The fountain of Grace is the free-love of God; the streams of it are supernatural gifts in men; the center of it is the glory of Heaven. These things shew us the true no∣tion of Grace.

1. The Fountain of Grace is Gods free Love, which moves it self, and gratuitously flows out in spiritual blessings; these issue out of love, and that is a motive to it self. Emphatical is that of the Apo∣stle, If by grace, then it is no more of works; other∣wise grace is no more grace: but if it be of works, then it is no more grace; otherwise work is no more work, Rom. 11.6. It is essential to Grace to be gratuitous; unless it be so, it loses its nature. Upon this account Pelagius, that Enemy of Grace, but for his counterfeit Recantation, had had in the Palestine Council a just Anathema for that saying, Gratiam dari secundum merita, That Grace was given according to merits or works. When the Pelagians said, Quia ego prior volui, Deus voluit, Because I first willed, there∣fore God willed; Saint Austin tells them, That they brought in Merit, that Grace was then no longer Grace: In omni opere sancto, saith he, prior est volun∣tas Dei, posterior liberi arbitrii; In every holy work Gods will is first in order, and then mans. Without this order, Grace cannot be Grace, nor God God. If he be not the Fountain of all good, if the least good start up and anticipate his will, he is not, as be∣comes him, the origine of all good. The Fountain of Grace must therefore be in his Love.

2. The streams of it are Supernatural Gifts. It's true, natural benefits are in some sense grace; but this is not the noted acception of the word in Scrip∣ture. This acception was but Pallium Pelagianorum, the Pelagians cloak under which they hid their He∣resie. Hence, when that question was asked, What that Grace was which Pelagians thought was given without any precedent merits? Answer was made,

That it was the humane nature, in which we were made; for before we were, we could not merit a be∣ing. Thus they confounded Grace and Nature to∣gether; but the gifts of Grace are above the sphear of Nature, and altogether undue to it. Indeed in Innocency righteousness was natural to man, not that it was a principle of Nature, or an emanation from thence; but that it was necessary and due to that Integrity, which God would set up the human nature in. God would make man very good, and how that could be without righteousness, I know not. Moral goodness, is that which is proper to a reasonable creature; neither can it be wanting, but there will be a maim in the creature. There was in man an Uni∣on of rational powers, in which he had communion with Angels; and sensitive, in which he had commu∣nion with Beasts. This Union could not be made in a perfect orderly manner, unless the sensitive powers, being the more ignoble, were subjected to the ratio∣nal, being the more excellent faculties; that subjecti∣on could not be without a righteousness. This is the rectitude and harmony of humane nature: without it all the parts and powers of the Soul must needs jangle into confusion. God would have man to serve and obey him in a perfect manner; And how could this be without a principle of holy love? Which way should there be actual righteousness without ori∣ginal? Without an internal rectitude, man could not love God, as he ought, amore amicitiae, with a love of friendship, for his own sake; and without such a love, referring all to God and his glory, all mans acts, a primo ad ultimum, must needs be sin. God would set before a man a most glorious end, the hap∣piness of the beatifical vision: And how should man

ever arrive at it without righteousness? Or want that righteousness which qualifies for it? Such a want would set him below the most contemptible creatures; none of which are destitute of that furniture, which is requisite for the reaching of their ends. In all these respects, righ∣teousness was natural, and in a sort due unto man in Innocency. But after mans fall and forfeiture of Origi∣nal righteousness, saving gifts are altogether supernatu∣ral; not only as being above the power of nature, but as being totally undue to it. To the state of Inno∣cency, righteousness was in a sense due; but to the state of Corruption, there was nothing due but wrath.

3. The center of it is the Glory of Heaven; Grace prepares a Kingdom for Believers. Hence God bids them, come and inherit the Kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the World, Matt. 25.34; it prepares them for the Kingdom. Hence that of the Apostle, Giving thanks to the father, who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, Col. 1.12. The first rise of Grace, is in the bosom of eternal love; the appearance of it in men, is in supernatural gifts: the period and center of it, is in the Glory of Heaven.

Two things in this point of Grace offer themselves to our consideration; the freeness of Grace, and the Divine efficacy of it.

First, The freeness of Grace is to be considered, and that in two or three particulars.

1. It is of Free-Grace, that all mankind doth not eternally perish in the ruines of the fall: That there is a possibility of Salvation for any one Son of Adam. When the Angels sinned but one sin, God turned them down into chains of darkness for ever: Might he not in justice have dealt so with fallen men? He

was not bound to repair the Angels, those golden Vessels, once inmates of Heaven; and who can, who dares conceive such a thought, That he was bound to repair men who are but Images of clay, dwelling in the lower World? I know many differences are as∣signed, Man sinned by seduction, Devils by self-mo∣tion; in the fall of Man, all the human nature fell; in the fall of Angels, all the Angelical nature fell not. The sin of Angels was more damnable than Mans, because their nature was more sublime than his. Men are capable of repentance, but Devils not; because whatever they once choose, they do will immovably. But alas! all these are but extra-Scriptural conjectures. Man, though tempted, was voluntary in the trans∣gression; all men were involved in the fall, but that's no apology for the sin: The sin of Man, if not so high as that of Angels, was yet a damnable one. It is a vain dream, to suppose, that Almighty Grace could not have wrought a gracious change in Devils. That which differences us from them, is, as the Scrip∣ture tells us, no other, than the meer Grace and Phi∣lanthropy of God towards us; he might justly have left us under that wrath, which our apostacy deser∣ved. Two things will make this evident.

1. Original sin, which reaches to all, is properly sin; and, being such, merits no less than eternal death. We all sinned in Adams sin, by that one man, sin entred into the world: The disobedience of that one, constituted all sinners; which unless it had been imputatively theirs, it could never have done. The want of Original righteousness is properly sin. because it is the want of that which ought to be in us; it ought to be in us, because the pure spiritual

Law calls for an holy frame of heart: it ought to be in us, or else we are not fallen creatures, but are as we ought to be: If it ought to be in us, then the want of it is properly sin. The Apostle proving that all are sinners, and short of the Glory of God, tells us, That there is none righteous, no not one; none that understandeth, none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become un∣profitable. There is no fear of God before their eyes, Rom. 3. Which words denote a want of that habi∣tual righteousness which ought to be in all, even in little Infants: That want is sin, else the Apostle could not from thence conclude, That all, Infants not ex∣cepted, have sinned and come short of the glory of God. To want habitual righteousness, which ought to be in us, is to be sinners, and short of our origi∣nal. That original concupiscence, which is in all, is properly sin; it is over and over called sin in Scrip∣ture, it is the root and black fountain of all impiety, it is opposite to the Law and Spirit of God, it impels to all sin, it fights against all graces, and particularly against that of love to God: where the creature is inordinately loved, there God is not loved with all the heart and Soul. These things make it appear, That Original sin is properly sin; and if so, it merits no less than death eternal. The Scripture abundant∣ly testifieth this, The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Rom. 6.23. In which we have a double An∣tithesis, Wages is opposed to Gift; and eternal Death to eternal Life. By one man sin entred into the world, and death by sin, Rom. 5.12: Not meer infelicity, but sin entred; not meer temporal death, but eter∣nal

followed upon it. Hence the Apostle tells us, That there was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, judgment unto con∣demnation, and that upon all men, vers. 16, and 18. We are by nature children of wrath, even as others, Eph. 2.3. He doth not say, by practise or custom; but by nature, we are Children of wrath, that is, worthy of it. Nature, as corrupted, is here opposed to Grace; which, as the Text after speaks, saves us: wrath appertains to nature, salvation to grace. This one Text is as a stroke of Lightning, to lay all men flat and prostrate before God: even little Infants, being unclean in themselves, cannot, if unregene∣rate, stand at Gods right hand, and enter into the holy Heavens; they must therefore stand at his left, and go into darkness. Hence St. Austin† tells the Pe∣lagians, who denied Original sin, That they must forge out of their Shop of Heresy, a middle place for such Infants, as are Aliens from the Grace of Christ: If Infants are unregenerate, they cannot en∣ter Heaven the place of bliss. If, as the Pelagians say, they are free from sin, they cannot go to Hell the place of misery. Tertium ignoramus, A third place I know not, nor can find any such in Scripture: They are therefore subject to eternal death for their Original sin. The sum of this Argument we have in Anselm, Si originale peccatum sit aliquod peccatum, ne∣cesse est omnem in eo natum, in illo non dimisso damna∣ri. If Original sin be sin, it is necessary, that every one born in it, should be condemned for it, unless it be pardoned; it being impossible, that any one should be saved, so much as with one unremitted sin. If Original sin be indeed sin, and do merit death eter∣nal, then God may justly inflict that death for it,

seeing he cannot be unjust in doing an act of justice, in inflicting that punishment, which is due to sin.

2. As on Mans part there is a merit of eternal death; so on Gods, the mission of Christ to save us was an act of meer Grace. This is set forth in Scrip∣ture, God commended his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, Rom. 5.8. In this was manifested the love of God towards us, be∣cause he sent his only begotten son into the world, that we might live through him, 1 Joh. 4.9. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that who∣soever believeth in him, should not perish, but have ever∣lasting life, Joh. 3.16. We see here, the sending of a Saviour was an act of meer Grace; and Grace, be∣ing surely free and self-moving, might have suspended its own act; and that suspension, had it been, would have left all men in the ruines of the fall, and that without any colour of injustice at all in God. There is a vast difference between mercy in Man, and mer∣cy in God; Man shews it ex officio, out of duty, and in every failure he is unmerciful: but God shews it, ex arbitrio, out of Sovereignty, in such sort as he pleases; and to do more he is not obliged. Hence Gods Purpose and Grace are joined together, 2 Tim. 1.9. His Mercy, though an infinite Ocean, lets not out a drop towards fallen creatures, but according to his good pleasure: If God antecedently to his own decree and promise, was bound to send his Son to seek and to save that which was lost; then the send∣ing of him, was not an act of grace, but of justice and necessity: it must, it ought to be so; the Grace and Love revealed in the Gospel, is a meer nullity, a thing no way free or gratuitous: but if, as the truth

is, God were not bound to send a Saviour, then he might have suspended his own act, and left all man∣kind in the ruins of the fall.

No man who believes these two things, viz. That Original sin is sin, and merits wrath; That the Mis∣sion of a Saviour is Grace and self-moving; can pos∣siby have hard thoughts of Gods Decree in the point of Reprobation. We being by Original sin in a state of wrath, what might not God do with us? Might he not justly leave us in the corrupt Mass? Or might he not justly punish us there? If not leave us; then, as he would be just, he was bound to give a Savi∣our, and by consequence the giving of him (which is horrendum dogma) is no more Grace or Mercy, but Necessity: If not punish us, then as he would be just, he was bound not to do an act of Justice; I mean, not to inflict that death which is as due wages to every sin. To me it is clear, That God cannot be cruel or unjust, either in denying a Redemption purely gratuitous, or in inflicting a death justly due to a sin∣ful creature. St. Austin brings in the Pelagians mur∣muring thus: Injustum est in una eadem{que} mala causa, hunc liberari, illum puniri. And then answers, Nempe ergo justum est utrum{que} puniri, quis hoc negaverit! If Original sin be sin, and Grace Grace; if God may be just in punishing, or free in giving, then he might without any colour of injustice, have condemned all men; and if so, he might have reprobated all men, and then no scruple can be made touching the repro∣bating of some. Theodore Coruhert, who in his life wrote against Calvin and Beza touching Predestina∣tion, at his death confessed, That God might do his pleasure in saving or condemning him; there was no

reason of complaint either way. It is very observa∣ble, that those who deny Reprobation, do either in whole or in part deny Original sin, saying that it is no sin, or, which is all one, improperly such; or else they have no true notion of Grace in the freeness and self-motion of it. And to do either, what is it? To deny Original sin, is to contradict the Letter of Scrip∣ture, the judgment of the Church; nay, and the ex∣perience of all men who will but reflect upon them∣selves. To deny Grace to be free and self-moving, is to say Grace is not Grace, and to evacuate the Go∣spel, and to take away the glory of it. Neither of them may be done by any who calls himself Christi∣an. The true notion of Sin is, That it is such a vio∣lation of the Law, as merits death eternal. The true notion of Grace is, That it operates freely and of self-motion. God, though under no necessity, though he might have left faln men as well as faln Angels, under sin and wrath, was yet pleased out of his meer good pleasure to give a Saviour unto men, and to o∣pen a dore to them of salvation. This is free-Grace indeed, and for ever to be adored. Thus much touching the first thing.

2. It is of free-Grace that God chuses a Church and people to himself; that he designs some certain individual persons to the infallible attainment of Grace and Glory. And here I shall consider two things; first, That there is such an Election. And then, That it issues out of meer Grace.

1. There is such an Election of men unto Grace and Glory. Thus the Apostle, He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, Eph. 1.4. He predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus

Christ, ver. 5. In the clearing of this I shall lay down several things.

1. Election is not of all, but some. It's true, Hu∣berus asserted an universal election of all men: But this is directly opposite to Scripture. Few, not all, are chosen, Mat. 22.14. The elect are opposed to the blinded ones, Rom. 11.7; a clear distinction is made between vessels of honour and dishonour, between vessels of mercy and wrath, between those that are written in the book of Life, and those that are left out of it. Election is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 it separates and fingles out some to mercy in a way of choice. Were it of all, it could not be Election, there could be no∣thing of choice in it. The Elect are said to be cho∣sen out of the world, Joh. 15.19: but all are not chosen out of all, that's impossible. Election there∣fore is of some individual persons only: The Lord knoweth those that are his, 2 Tim. 2.19. Their names are all down in the book of life. Phil. 4.3, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, this individual person, this very Paul, who but now was breathing out blood against the Church, this is a ves∣sel of election, Acts 9.15, saith God to Ananias. The elect are called a remnant, Rom. 11.5, because it is made up of some individual persons specially singled out of the corrupt mass unto God. The will of Gods Complacence respects Graces without a distinction of persons; Every one that fears God, is accepted, Acts 10.35. A good man draws out favour from the Lord, Prov. 12.2. But the will of Gods Benevolence, such as Election is, is distinctive of persons; for this de∣crees certain blessings to certain persons, and not to all. Election therefore is not of all, but of some.

2. Election is not Legislation. The secret Coun∣sels

of Princes are not their Edicts; neither is Gods Election a Legislation. Election is an Eternal De∣cree, Legislation is in time. Election is but of some, Legislation extends to all. Election is that Decree, according to which God gives out spiritual blessings to some as a Benefactor: Legislation sets down that Rule, according to which God deals with all as a Rector who governs by Law. In the Covenant of Works, that [do this and live] was not Election; nei∣ther was the opposite member therein [transgress and dye] Reprobation. In the Covenant of Grace, that [believe and be saved] is not Election; neither is the opposite branch therein [believe not and be damned] Reprobation; for then all men, because they are un∣der both parts of the Evangelical Law, should be both elected and reprobated, which is impossible: nay, because they were in Adam their head under both parts of the first Covenant, they should be once before both elected and reprobated. It is one thing to prescribe the terms of salvation, another to chuse men to it: one thing to write down Laws for all, another to write down the names of some in the book of Life. That general Law, All that believe shall be saved, predestinates none in particular. It would stand true, if all men were left in unbelief and perdition; If there were no such thing as a Church in all the world, but elective; if it secure not a Church to God, is altogether insignificant. It is an election of none, that is, no election. Our Saviour sets down two wills of God as distinct; This is the will of him that sent me, That every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, Joh. 6.40. And in the precedent verse, This is the

Fathers will, which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing. In the one we have Gods legislative Will defining the terms of Salva∣tion for all; in the other, we have Gods elective Will designing some, that is, the elect, the given ones to it: The first without terms in it, would not be Legisla∣tion; the latter without persons in it, would not be Election.

3. Election, being a chusing, a singling out some to eternal life, must needs do some singular thing for them; it must confer upon them some distinguishing Grace, such as may reserve them out of the corrupt Mass unto God: And what Grace is that but Faith? If all men did believe, there would be no 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or difference among them; the righteousness of God would be upon them all, the rivers of living water would flow in them all, the Glory of Heaven would crown them all. But Faith is a differencing Grace, proper to Gods peculiar ones; it is not given to all, but to some; not out of common Providence, but out of Election: It is a choice, a prime Grace of Se∣cretion, and therefore in all congruity must needs is∣sue out of the great design of Secretion, that is, Ele∣ction. If God give alike to all, then he elects none, he differences none; however men may make themselves to differ, God doth no such thing, nor ever intended to do so: Thus Election is a meer nul∣lity. But if, as the truth is, there be any such thing as Election, then it bestows upon the chosen ones, those special love-tokens of Faith and Perseverance, which make them meet for Heaven and eternal Bles∣sedness.

4. Election is a sure infallible thing, such as never

fails: Hence it is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a Praedestination, or praedefinition, such as never misses the mark. Thus the Apostle, Whom he did predestinate, them he also called; whom he called, them he also justified; whom he justified, them he also glorified, Rom. 8.30. The words (whom and them) fasten every link to its precedent, and appropriate all throughout the whole chain to the same persons: every person, who is pre∣destinated and called within this Text, must be justi∣fied and glorified, or the golden chain of Grace is broken. The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, 2 Tim. 2.19. Election is a foundation, not an human one, but a foundation of God, laid in the Divine Will, standing in eternity, sure in immutability, sealed up with infallible knowledg and unvariable love towards the elect: Nothing is more momentous than this, That God have a Church, Christ a Body, and the Spirit a Temple. This is the highest of designs, the aim of the Sacred Trinity, the very thing upon which God hath set his eyes and his heart more than upon all the world besides; yet if Election be not sure and in∣fallible, that high and precious design may be fru∣strate and of no effect: And what a blot would this be to Providence? And how unbecoming would it be to the Holy one, who sits at the Stern and rules all? If so accurate a thing as Providence could, which it cannot without disparaging it self, stumble or faulter in the things of nature; yet surely it can∣not do so in its master-piece, in the high and precious concerns of Grace: Election therefore must be sure and infallible. That distinction of the Socinians (that there is a double Election in God, an infirm

one of those, who assent to the Gospel, and a firm one of those, who live according to the Gospel) is frivolous and blasphemous; it is in effect to say, that there is infirmity in God, that Gods choice is weak or rather none at all, and mans choice supplies and strengthens it. The great design of a Church could not be secured by such a choice as mans, nor by any thing less than Gods; his Election is a sure founda∣tion, his special call according to purpose, and his gifts without repentance. Hence it appears, That according to the opinion of the Remonstrants, there is indeed no such thing as Election. They say, that the object of Election is a Believer; and, whether there shall be a Believer or not, after all the opera∣tions of Grace, ultimately depends upon the Will of Man: And if so, How can God elect any one person in the world? The act of his Election depends upon the object, and the object upon the will of Man; Mans will must go foremost, and make the object; or else for want of one, Gods Will must stand still, and not chuse at all. It's true, God hath set down this Law or Rule, That believers should be saved; but no-where hath he said, that believers should be elect∣ed; for that would overthrow his own Election, supposing such a Law or Rule, That believers should be elected. If a Man did believe, and so was elect∣ed, it would not be Gods first Law or after-choice, but mans faith which determined the matter: he would be his own elector; God in the mean time would not be an Elector, but a Legislator only. But a little further, to consider the opinion of the Remonstrants: They set down the order of Gods Decrees in this manner; upon Adams fall, there was a merciful af∣fection

in God towards man; but, justice standing in the way, a Mediator was ordained to offer up a propitiatory Sacrifice to God. Hereupon God makes a general Decree, That all persevering believers shall be saved; and, because man cannot believe of him∣self, God decrees, media ad fidem, means to beget Faith; and as soon as men believe, there is a particu∣lar Decree for their Salvation; or a kind of incom∣pleat Election, such as rises and falls with their Faith; and when they arrive at the full point of perseve∣rance, the Election becomes compleat and perempto∣ry. This is their Scheme; here many things are ob∣servable, Here's a Mediator Decreed, without respect to that Church, which in Scripture is the choice mark aimed at in the work; here's a general Decree to save all persevering believers, and in that instant, no De∣cree of the media ad fidem, the means to beget Faith; here's a strange imperfection attributed to God, his Will in its eternal acts must be in succession, and make its gradual progresses from a general Decree to a per∣ticular, and from an incompleat Election (I tremble at the word) to a compleat one; and in its passage to that compleature, it must all the way vary, and turn about to every point, as the fickle will of man doth; that standing in Faith there is an Election, that falling there is none; and so, toties quoties, as often as it pleases man to shew himself variable, the Election will be something or nothing as it happens. This doth not indeed ascribe eyes and hands to God, as the gross Anthropomorphites did; but it assimu∣lates him to the silly turnings and variations of the creature, which cannot but be very unworthy of him. Here is such a particular Election as is temporal, and

totally superfluous: it is temporal; for if it depend upon persevering faith as its condition, then it must be suspended, and not in act, till that faith be in be∣ing. It's condition being temporal, it cannot pre∣exist or be eternal. It is also totally superfluous, there being a general Decree of saving all persevering believers once past, every individual man who is a persevering believer, must needs infallibly arrive at Heaven without any more ado; and then to what purpose is such a particular Election? Neither do I think, that the Remonstrants would ever have offered such an insignificant thing to the world, but that they were under a necessity to say somewhat to those many and famous expressions which are found in Scripture, touching the election and predestination of persons, which could not be satisfied with that general Law, That whosoever believeth should be saved: Here's an election of persevering believers; but in plain terms that is no election at all. Election must be to some∣thing, but this is to just nothing: not to Faith and Holiness, these are presupposed in the object; and there can be no election to that which is presupposed before. There is therefore no election to Grace at all. No, nor to Glory: That persevering believers had a right unto by the general Decree of saving such as they are; and there can be no election to that which they had an antecedent right unto. Thus all the great expressions in Scripture touching Election, vanish into nothing. In Election God severs and dif∣ferences one man from another in a way of choice: but according to the Remonstrants, he gives all in common. And how can God elect without a severing or differencing act? Or how can he do such an act,

who gives all in common? It's true, God severs final believers to life, and final unbelievers to death; but here is no choice of persons; some go to life, but all, if final believers, should do so: some go to death, but all, if final unbelievers, should do so. Here is no choice at all, but a meer judicial act, according to the Evangelical Law. When a Judg according to Law acquits one as innocent, and condemns another as guilty, it is not an act of choice, but of righteous judgment. No more is it in God to adjudg believers to life, and unbelievers to death. But I shall say no more touching the first thing, That there is an Ele∣ction.

2. Election is of meer Grace. It hath no other cause but the Divine pleasure only. We are predesti∣nated according to the good pleasure of his will, Eph. 1.5. To the praise of the glory of his grace, v. 6. God loves his people because he loves them, Deut. 7.8. He saith, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, Exod. 33.19. In which words we have will and grace doubled as the only reason of it self. Election is the primum indebitum; if that be not purely free in God, nothing can be so. Iniquus est, saith Seneca, qui muneris sui arbitrium danti non reliquit; He is unjust who leaves not a gift to the pleasure of the giver. All souls and graces are Gods, and he may dispose of them as he pleaseth. If he chuse any to himself, he chuses freely, else it is no choice at all: it is not, as the Apostle calls it, an election of Grace. Election is not built upon foreseen works, for then it would not be an election of Grace, but of Works; the elect would not be vessels of Mercy, but of Me∣rit: neither is it founded upon foreseen faith and

perseverance; these are given by God not to all, but to some; not out of common Providence, but out of the Decree of Election. Hence the Apostle, when he blesses God for the work of Faith in the Thessalo∣nians, elevates his praises up to Election, the first fountain of Grace, Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God, 1 Thes. 1.4. And, when he praises God, for blessing the Ephesians with all spiritual bles∣sings in Christ, he sets down the eternal rule of dis∣pensing them, According as he hath chosen us, Ephes. 1.3, 4. He doth not choose us according to our faith and perseverance, but blesses us with these blessings according to Election; he chuses us, not because we are holy, but that we should be such: Doth God foresee any good in men, when he willeth to them their first good? Or, Doth he foresee good in them, before he wills it to them? What need then of his purpose to give it? Or how can he possibly be the Donor of it? If he foresee it, they will infallibly have it, whether he Decree it or not; they will have it without his gift, which is impossible. Faith there∣fore and perseverance do not presuppose Election, but Election is the eternal spring of those graces. Unless this be granted, God doth but eligere eligentes, chuse those that first chuse him: Mans faith must be earlier than Gods Grace, he chuses before he is cho∣sen; loves before he is loved of God. And to assert this, What is it, but to lift up man above God, Mans Will above the Sovereign Will of his Maker? A vani∣ty it is, and a blasphemy against the fountain of Grace, which the Saints bless and adore, as the origine of all that good which is in them. Gods electing Grace, is pure Grace; his Love is meerly from himself:

Hence is that emphatical reduplication, The elect whom he hath chosen, Matt. 13.20. As if our Savi∣viour had said, in Election there is nothing but pure Election, nothing on mans part, all is from the good pleasure of God.

This Truth is notably set forth in our Saviour Christ, he was Gods chosen Servant, Matt. 12.18. The Lamb fore-ordained, 1 Pet. 1.20. And, as St. Austin stiles him, praeclarissimum lumen praedestinationis & gratiae, the most famous light of Praedestination and Grace. He was as man, predestinated to the su∣perlative glory of the Hypostatical Union; and that not out of any foreseen holiness in his human nature, for all that did flow out of that union, but out of meer grace: the human nature did not do or merit ought to be advanced into that ineffable excellency; neither may any man say, Cur non & ego? Why were not I so advanced? Nature is common, but Grace is singular. Here we have the Prototype and grand Ex∣emplar of Predestination: Christ was predestinated to be the Head, we are predestinated to be his members. He as man was predestinated, that by an admirable as∣sumption he should be the natural Son of God: We are predestinated, that we should be adopted ones. He was predestinated to be such without any prece∣dent merits or works: We are predestinated to be such without them. Hence the Apostle saith, That we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many bre∣thren, Rom. 8.29. Both Predestinations were free; and in our Predestination there was a kind of imita∣tion of his. Hence St. Austin saith, Et illum & nos Praedestinavit, quia in illo, ut esset caput nostrum, &

in nobis, ut ejus corpus essemus, non praecessura merita no∣stra, sed opera sua futura praescivit; He predestinated him and us: that he should be our Head, and we his Body, was not from our merit, but the work of God. It is certain, that the Members cannot be above the Head; they were not elected to a Beatifical Vision out of foreseen faith and perseverance, when the Head was elected to the Hypostatical Union out of meer grace.

3. It is of free grace that God calls men. There is a double call, an External and an Internal one; both are of grace.

1. The External call is of grace. The Gospel is not a debt, but a meer gift freely given to men. It may be substracted from a Nation for their sins, but it is never given to a Nation for their worthiness, for all men are unworthy of it. When God gives it to some, it is not for their dignity; when he denies it to others, there is always in them a concomitant in∣dignity of it. No natural man can be worthy of it. It is meerly of Gods good pleasure that the Sun of Righteousness shines in one part of the world, and not in another; that the Evangelical dew falls in some places, and not in others. Here the only soluti∣on is that of our Saviour, Even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight, Mat. 11.26. I know it is here said by some, That facienti quod in se est Deus non denegat gratiam; To him who doth what he can, God denies not grace. The promise is, Habenti dabi∣tur, To him that hath, that is, rightly useth what he hath, more shall be given. Upon the right use of na∣turals, the Pagans might have supernaturals. The Gospel in such a case should be revealed to them.

But, as Bishop Davenant observes, experience confutes this; Proferant ab orbe condito vel unius Pagani exem∣plum, saith he; Let them bring forth, if they can, the example of one Pagan since the world began, who by the right use of naturals attained to Evangelical Grace. One would think that such as Socrates and Plato might, if any, rightly use naturals; but they had not the Gospel manifested to them, which yet hath been revealed to the poor Americans, who com∣paratively to the other were brutish and barbarous. That of the Schools, Facienti quod in se est Deus non denegat gratiam, is (as Bishop Saunderson in his Ser∣mons calleth it) the rotten principle and foundation of the whole frame of Arminianism: ultimately it resolves all into nature; Salvation is resolved into Faith, Faith into the Gospel preached, that into the use of naturals. Nature may now lift up its hand, and touch the Crowns of Glory above. Grace may fall down to so low a rate, as to be earned at the fingers ends of Nature. And what is this but pure impure Pelagianism? In the Palestine Synod Pelagius, but for his counterfeit recantation, had had a just anathema for that saying, Gratiam dari secundum merita. Secun∣dum merita with the Fathers, is all one with secundum opera, and secundum opera all one with facienti quod in se est. The Apostle flatly opposes this opinion; He hath called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, 2 Tim. 1.9. The call is not according to works, or according to the use of naturals; but meerly, purely, totally from Grace. Rightly to use naturals, is to live up to the light of nature; that tells us, that God is the Supreme good, and therefore in all reason to be

loved with a supreme love. We should not give him part of the price, but all the mind, heart, soul, spirit, and that in pure perfection; and who, where is the Saint on earth that doth so? Their purest acts of love come forth ex laeso principio, out of an heart sanctified but in part; and in their egress from thence cannot but have a taint or tincture from the indwelling cor∣ruption: and may we imagine that God should offer the Pagans a Gospel on such terms as no Saint on earth ever arrived at? Or that he would have them go about by the way of perfection to enjoy a Gospel of Grace? It cannot be. But suppose that they may have it upon a sincere love of him; Can a Pa∣gan out of natural Principles truly love God? May true Love be without Faith the Root, or without the Spirit, the inspirer of all Graces? Or doth the Holy Spirit work in a supernatural way, without a Gospel or Ordinances? Or if it did, doth it work, and not effect so much as the first element in Christianity? I mean a sense of the want of Grace? May the Spi∣rit converse in those unclean places, where nothing appears but Error, Pride, Idolatry, Impiety, and Wickedness of all sorts? It is not reasonable to be∣lieve it. If Nature could lift up it self to a sincere love of God, the Spirit and the Gospel seem to be superfluous thereunto. And as for habenti dabitur, it speaks not to the point in hand, because it speaks not of the use of natural talents: not in Mat. 13, for there it is accommodated to the Parable of the seed, and given as an item to such as heard the Gospel; nor yet in the 25th chap. for there the use of the ta∣lents is remunerated with eternal life, ver. 21 & 23; which is a Crown too rich to be set upon meer na∣turals.

There the talents upon abuse are taken away; and by consequence, if it were meant of naturals, the abusers must lose their reason, and become fools; which experience denies. But whatever the talents are in that promise, it must be interpreted in eodem genere: If of talents of Nature, it runs thus; He that useth naturals, shall have more of them. If of talents of Grace, thus: He that useth Supernaturals, shall have more of them. But to stretch this promise a genere ad genus, from naturals to supernaturals, as if Nature might per saltum be crowned with Grace, is an interpretation very incongruous, and directly con∣trary to that of the Apostle, He hath called us, not according to our works, but according to his own grace. The end of this promise is to excite men to the good use of talents. But after such an unreasonable stretch of it, as makes Grace the reward of Nature, What can come of it? Where shall the fruit of it be? Not in the Church, there they have the Gospel-grace al∣ready; nor yet out of it, there it is not revealed: neither is it possible that those who want the Go∣spel, should be stirred up by any promise in it, to seek after it in the use of naturals. Thus we see, that the external call is not a debt to Nature, but a meer gift of Grace. Such as the great Gift is, such is the Charter. The great gift of Christ was purely, to∣tally gratuitous; therefore the Charter of the Go∣spel, which in the manifestation of it is the external Call, is so also.

2. The Internal call is of Grace: And here, be∣cause some oppose this call, I shall first shew, That there is such a call, and then that it is meerly of Grace.

1. There is such a thing as an internal call. Pela∣gius, at least in the first draught of his Heresy, placed Grace only, in libero arbitrio & doctrina, in Free-will and Doctrine; Free-will being Nature not Grace, Doctrine being Grace but not the all of it, he left no room at all for an Internal call, he allowed no Grace but that external one of Doctrine: and in this he spake very consonantly to his other opinions, de∣nying Original sin as he did, What need could there be of internal Grace? There being no spot or sinful defect in the Soul, Grace hath nothing to do within, all is well and whole there, and needs no Physitian; all is in order and harmony there, and nothing to be new-made or new-framed. Therefore St. Austin ob∣serves, that though Pelagius would sometimes talk of a multiform and ineffable Grace; yet it was but to put a blind, and cover over his heresy: Still he meant no more than meer Doctrine, and external Grace; denying Original sin, there was nothing within for Grace to do or rectify. Socinus, who with the Pelagians denies Original sin, makes little or no account of internal Grace, though in his Prae∣lections he speak of an interius anxilium, an inward aid; yet he saith, That Faith is generated, potissimum per externa, chiefly by externals; and again, That Faith is rather to be called Gods command than his gift. But that there is such a thing as an Internal call, and that distinct from the external, I shall propose three or four things.

1. All in the Church have an external call; but some are not so much as illuminated, it is not given to them to know the heavenly mysteries. Those by the way-side heard the word and understood it not;

Christ was a stumbling block to the Jews, and fool∣ishness to the Greeks; and both because he was not, though outwardly proposed, inwardly understood. Christ the power of God, if understood, could not have been a stumbling block to the Jews who looked after signs; Christ the Wisdom of God, if under∣stood, could not have been foolishness to the Greeks, who sought after Wisdom. Mr. Pemble relates this Story: An Old Man, of above 60 years of Age, a constant hearer of the Word, was after all so grosly ignorant, as upon Discourse to say, that God was a good old Man, Christ a towardly youth, the Soul a great bone in the body; and the happiness of man after death, was to be put into a pleasant green Mea∣dow. Such poor blind Souls have indeed an external call, but not so much as the first element of the inter∣nal one; Illumination, which is the initial thing therein, is wanting in them.

2. All in the Church have an external call; but some are for their iniquity judicially hardned under the means: the Word of Life is to them the savour of death; Christ the Corner-stone a stumbling-block: the light blinds them, the melting ordinances harden them. These men have an external call, but nothing of an internal one; it being impossible that the same persons, under the same means, should be illuminated and softened, which are the effects of an internal call, and at the same time should be blinded and hardened under the means, which cannot but have in them an external one.

3. Some under the Gospel have a wonderful work wrought in them, their eyes are opened upon the E∣vangelical Mysteries, their wills are melted into the

Divine Will. Gods Law is engraven in their heart; his image is the beauty and glory of their souls: A great work is done in them, a new-creation appears within; and how should this be, or which way should it be effected, but by that internal call which calls things that are not, as though they were, which in a glorious way calls Faith and other Graces into being? Hence the Apostle saith, That the Gospel came to the Thessalonians not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, 1 Thes. 1.5. Here's the true internal call; the word did not only outwardly sound to them, no, it was inwardly engrafted to the saving of the soul; it was strongly and sweetly set home upon the heart, so as to produce Faith and Love. It was not in meer notions, but it sprung up into a new-creature. This is the internal call. If a meer external one might have done it, Pelagius in the rudest draught of his Heresie had been in the right. He placed Grace in meer Doctrine and Free-will; but to the framing of the new-creature, an internal ope∣ration is requisite. Hence St. Austin saith, That be∣lievers have not only, as others, an outward Preacher, but an inward one: Intùs à patre audiunt, they hear and learn of the Father. He speaks to them inward∣ly in such words of life and power as produces the new-creature.

4. The Ministry of Christ was a very excellent one: He spake, did, lived, as never man did; there were Oracles in his mouth, Miracles in his hands, San∣ctity in his life. Never was there such an external call as here; yet would this do the work? Would this secure a Church or people to God? No; He tells them plainly, That except they were born of the

Spirit, they could not enter Heaven. That no man can come to him except the Father draw him. There must be an internal traction, or else there would be never a believer in the world. Trahitur miris modis ut velit ab illo, qui novit intus in ipsis hominum cordi∣bus operari; In this Traction there is a secret and ad∣mirable touch upon the heart to make it believe and receive Christ: This is an internal call indeed. Yet, as pregnant as the words are, the Socinians have an art to turn Gods. Traction into Mans Disposition; and the Divine energy, into human probity; Vis praecipua in audientium probitate consistebat, the chief force con∣sists in the probity of the auditors. Thus Socinus touching that Traction. Those who have probity of mind, who will do Gods Will; those honest Souls will embrace the Gospel. When God is said to touch the heart, 1 Sam. 10.26, the meaning is, they had tangible hearts, such as were inclinable to the Di∣vine Will; so Volkelius, And again, when God draws men, he proposes his Will; and the probi, the honest hearts are perswaded: so the same Author. Thus by an odd perverse interpretation of Scripture, the choicest operations of Grace are at last resol∣ved into nature and freewill. This more plainly appears by that explication which Volkelius in the place first quoted, gives us of probity. There are (saith he) in Man three things, Reason, Will, and Appetite; if the Will, the middle faculty, apply it self to Reason, there is probity; if to the Ap∣petite, there is improbity. We see here what pro∣bity is, the meer product of the Will; Faith is re∣solved into probity, and probity into the Will of man: There is no need of Grace, at least not of an

internal one. The probity requisite to Faith, is ac∣cording to these men much the same, as Aristotle re∣quires from the auditors of morality, that is, that they act 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, according to Reason: Thus accord∣ing to them there is nothing of Mystery or Grace in this Traction, but only a following the common principles of nature; out of this temper Faith will spring up. But do these men believe Scripture? There the natural unregenerate man is thus described: He is dead in sin, A corrupt tree which cannot bring forth good fruit, He perceives not spiritual things; His carnal mind is not subject to the Law, nor indeed can be; Without grace he cannot do good, no, nor so much as spend a thought about it; He is a stranger from the life of God, and blindness is upon his heart: and can there be any true probity in such an one? The Corinthians, at least some of them, were before their conversion, Fornicators, Idolaters, Adulterers, Effeminate, Abusers of themselves with Mankind, Thieves, Covetous, Drunkards, Revilers, Extor∣tioners, 1 Cor. 6.9, and 10. And what probity was in them? True probity, such as is towards God, is no other than sincerity; and sincerity is not one Grace, but the rectitude of all. And may such a thing go before Faith? Where true probity is, there is a pure intention to do Gods Will, and may it an∣tecede that Faith, which is the single eye, and works by love? Probity is not an off-spring of nature but of Grace; could Free-will elevate it self to it, there would need no traction, no influence of Grace at all. The Fathers in the Arausican Council, condemn those, who subordinate Grace to mans humility or obedience, as if humility and obedience were not

gifts of Grace: To conclude, the Fathers Traction doth not stand in mans probity, but in a Divine ener∣gy, such as produces faith in the heart.

2. The internal call is meerly of Grace. The Spi∣rit breathes where it lists. God calls as he pleases: some are called according to purpose; all are not so. Every heart under the Evangelical means, is not open∣ed as Lydia's was. God works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure. If God be God, an infinite Mind, he must needs be free; if free in any thing, he must be so in acts of Grace, in his calling men home unto himself. It is true, that according to some, the Spirit is annexed to the Gospel, and works equally on all the Auditors. But this opinion labours under pro∣digious consequences; I mean, some such as these fol∣lowing are. The Holy Spirit, whose prerogative it is to breathe where he list, and divide to every one as he will, is here affixed to his own organ the Go∣spel, and must part out his Grace equally to all: The Ordinance of Preaching, as if it were no longer a meer Ordinance, or pendant on the Spirit, must con∣fer Grace, if not ex opere operato, yet in a certain pro∣miscuous way to all. The Minister, who uses to look up for the spirit and excellency of power to succeed his labours, may rest secure, all is ready and at hand. The peoples eyes, which ought to wait on the Lord, if peradventure he will give faith and repentance to them, will soon fall down and center on the Ordi∣nance, where they are sure without a peradventure to have their share of Grace. Those emphatical Scrip∣tures, which speak of singular Grace to some, must now run in a much lower strain. The opening of Lydia's heart, how remarkable soever, must be no sin∣gular

Grace, but common to the rest. The tractions and inward teachings of the Father, which make some to come to Christ, must be general favours, and extendible to those who come not to him. When the Apostle saith, That Christ is to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness; but to them that are called, the power and wisdom of God, 1 Cor. 1. 23, 24, How signal soever the difference in the Text be, the internal call must be all one; in those to whom Christ was a stumbling-block and foolishness, as in those to whom he was the power and wisdom of God. The called according to purpose, are called but as other men: Gods purpose is to call all a-like, mans only makes the difference. These are the conse∣quences of that opinion, and too heavy, I confess, for me to stand under. I rest therefore in that of the Apostle, He hath called us, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, 2 Tim. 1.9. Here purpose and grace are joined together; if his purpose be free, if his grace be gratuitous, then he calls as he pleases. In calling men home to himself, he acts purely, totally from Grace. I conclude with that of Bonaventure, Hoc piarum mentium est, ut nihil sibi tribuant, sed totum Dei Gratiae; The genius of pi∣ous minds, is to attribute nothing to themselves, but all to Grace. Thus far touching the first thing, The freeness of Grace.

The next thing proposed, is the power and efficacy of Grace. The Apostle speaks of an exceeding great∣ness of power towards those that believe, Eph. 1.19. So emphatical are the words there, that Camero is bold to say, Nemo, cui non periit frons, negare potest significare vim & potentiam; None, who hath not lost

his modesty, can there deny a force and power signi∣fied. Now touching the efficacy of Grace, I shall consider three things.

1. Its efficacy as to the Principle of Faith and o∣ther Graces.

2. Its efficacy as to actual believing and willing.

3. Its efficacy as to perseverance in the faith.

The first thing is its efficacy as to the Principle of Faith, and other Graces. By the Principle of Faith, I mean not the natural power of believing. God doth not command us to take down the Sun, for which we have no faculties; but to believe, for which we have an understanding and a will; no natural fa∣culty is wanting. Hence St. Austin saith, the posse of believing, is of nature. This power in faln man, be∣cause in conjunction with natural impotency, never arrives at the effect. The natural faculties are by the fall so vitiated, that though in a sense he can, yet he will not believe. Trahit sua quem{que} voluptas, one lust or other so attracts him, that he cannot a se impetrare ut velit, he cannot find in his heart to do it. He hath a kind of can in his natural faculties, but the corrup∣tion blasts the effect. Neither do I mean that power, which, as some Divines say, is supernatural, yet not an habit or vital principle of faith. Nature being fallen, Grace (say they) gives a second power to set the will in aequilibrio; but that power doth not, as an habit, incline or dispose a man to actual believ∣ving. This power, as I take it, is nothing but Na∣ture and Free-will. I see not how it should be di∣stinct from it. There are (as the Learned Doctor Twiss hath observed) three things in the soul; that is, Powers, Habits, and Passions. Powers may be the

subjects of Habits and Passions; but may a Power be the subject of a Power? A natural power of a su∣pernatural one? This looks like a Monster. By the same reason Habits may be the subjects of Habits, and Passions of Passions. And is this power of believing, free or not? If free, then it is not supernatural; it may be a principle of not believing, and that no∣thing supernatural can be. If not free, then it de∣termines the event, but to what? To not believing? then it is not supernatural. To believing? then all men (having, as these men say, the power) must in∣fallibly believe, which Scripture and experience deny. I mean therefore such a Principle of Faith, as is an habit and vital Principle; such as is seminally and virtually faith; such as hath the nature and essence of faith; such as inclines and disposes to actual be∣lieving, and before the act, denominates a man a be∣liever. When the act of faith comes forth into be∣ing, is it from a believer, or from an unbeliever? If from a believer, then there was an habit of faith be∣fore. If from an unbeliever, how unnatural is it, and how cross to the suavity of Providence? There must then be an act of faith, before a principle; a fruit, before a tree or seed. What shall we say of such an one? He is a believer in act, but in principle none; as soon as the act ceases, he is not at all a believer. There must therefore be an habit, a vital principle of faith: This in the use of means is infused or created, and that by the power of grace. To clear this, I shall lay down two or three things.

1. The Principle of Faith and other Graces, is not produced by meer suasion, by a meer proposal of the Evangelical object. In conversion there is a great

work wrought within; the deadly wound of Origi∣nal corruption must be healed, the new creature must be set up in us; and can suasion do this? Such a glo∣rious work must be done by an efficient cause, not by a meer allicient one, such as suasion is. A natural man is blind, nay dead in spiritual things; and what suasion can make the blind to see, or the dead to rise? Suasion is so far from giving a faculty, that it presup∣poses it. The use of it is not to confer a power, but to excite and stir it up into act. Satan uses suasion to subvert the souls of men; and doth God do no more to convert them unto himself? How then should he ever gather a Church to himself? Satans suasions run with the tide and stream of corrupt nature; but Gods are against it; and in all reason the balance will be cast rather on that side which hath Natures vote and free concurrence, than on that which hath Natures re∣pugnancy and contradiction. In this work there is more than meer suasion. God is not a meer Orator, but an admirable Operator; his word is not significa∣tive only, but factive, commanding those Divine Principles into being, vox imperativa abit in operati∣vam; he calls for a new heart, and it is so.

2. This holy Principle is not produced by assist∣ent Grace, as if a natural man did by Divine assist∣ance work it in himself. The Principle or power of believing, is either natural or supernatural; if natu∣ral, it is by creation; if supernatural, it is by infu∣sion or inspiration; neither way is it produced in a way of assistance. An assistance is not accommoda∣ted to a thing to produce a new power, but to bring forth an act from thence. The light is assistent to the eye in the act of vision, but it gives not the visive

power to it; assisting grace concurs to the act of believing, but it confers not a believing principle. The greatest Saint in the world stands in need of as∣sisting grace, that his gracious principles may come into actual exercise; he must have help from the holy one, a supply of the Spirit of Christ; the Heavenly roots do not cast forth themselves unless God be as dew to them; the sweet spices do not flow out actu∣ally, unless God breath upon them by auxiliary grace; still he wants assistance to the doing of good as he ought; the greatest Saint, though a man full of di∣vine principles, stands in need of assistance. And doth a natural man, one void of good, fraught with evil, need no more? Is regenerating quick∣ning, renewing, new-creating grace, nothing but an assistance only? May any one believe that the holy Spirit in Scripture should give such high stately titles to an assistance only? May a man be a co-operator, or co-partner with God in the raising up faith and a new creature in himself? It's true, a natural man may by a common grace enter upon preparatories; he may attend upon the means, but what can he con∣tribute to the work it self? he is meerly natural, the new creature is totally supernatural, and what can he do towards it? could he contribute ought, what would the new creature be? must it not be part na∣tural as from man, part supernatural as from God; part old as from nature, part new as from grace? Thus it must be if this great work be divided be∣tween God and man. Notable is that of Lactantius, Jovem Junonemque a juvando esse dictos Cicero inter∣pretatur, & Jupiter quasi Juvans Pater dictus, quod no∣men in Deum minimè congruit, quia juvare hominis est,

opis aliquid conferentis in eum qui sit egens alicujus be∣neficii: nemo sic Deum precatur, ut se adjuvet, sed ut servet, ut vitam salutemque tribuat; nullns pater dici∣tur filios juvare cum eos generat aut educat, illud enim levius est quam ut eo verbo magnitudo paterni beneficii exprimatur, quanto id magis est inconveniens Deo, qui verus est Pater, per quem sumits, cujus toti sumus, a quo fingimier, animamur, & illuminamur? And at last he concludes, Non intelligit beneficia divina, qui se juvari modo a Deo putat, He understands not divine benefits, who thinks himself only helped by God. Je∣hovah must not be transformed into a Jupiter, or a meer helper; man must not share with him in this great work, it is God who makes us new creatures, and not we our selves. We are his workmanship, not our own, Ephes. 2.10. Born not of the will of man, but of God, Joh. 1.13. As soon as a man is regenerate, it may be truly said of him, Hic homo jam na••ns est ex Deo, this man is now born of God; but to say, that he is in part born of mans will, is to blaspheme the Author of our spiritual being, and to crown Nature instead of Grace.

3. The holy principles of Grace are produced by an act of Divine power: God lays the foundations of faith and the new creature, as it were in mighty wa∣ters, in the very same heart in which there is a foun∣tain and torrent of corruption; and no power less than the Divine can put back the stream of nature, and set up the Heavenly structure of Grace in such an heart. The production of gracious principles is in Scripture set forth in glorious titles, such as do im∣port power; 'tis called a Transtation, Col. 1.13. it transplants and carries us away out of a state of sin in∣to

a state of grace. 'Tis a Generation, Jam. 1.18. it begets us to a participation of the Divine Nature. 'Tis a Resurrection, Ephes. 2.5. It quickens us and in∣spires into us a Supernatural life, of which the fall had left no spark or relick at all. 'Tis a Creation, Eph. 2.10. it raises up a new creature out of nothing, and gives us a spiritual being, which before we had not; and if these things do not speak power, nothing can. Hence the Apostle speaks of the Gospel coming in power, 1 Thes. 1.5. Nay, that in the success of it there is an excellency of power, 2 Cor. 4.7. and an exceeding greatness of power towards Believers, Eph. 1.19. The work of faith is said to be fulfilled with power, 2 Thes. 1.11. How much more must it be an act of power to lay the Primordials and first princi∣ples of faith in a fallen unbelieving creature? When there was nothing appearing in our lapsed nature, but a vacuum, a chaos of sin, a spiritual death and nullity, only the Divine power was able to repair the ruins of the fall, and rear up the Heavenly life and nature in us. This great truth was notably set forth in the conception of our Saviour Christ; it was not in the course of nature, his Mother knew not a man, but the Holy Ghost came upon her; the power of the highest overshadowed her, that the holy thing might be born of her, Luk. 1.35. In like manner when Christ is formed in the heart, when the new-creature is set up in us, it is not in the way of nature; we know not the humane power in this work, here is no less than dextra excelsi, the right hand of the most High to effect it; here are vestigia spiritus sancti, the footsteps of the holy Spirit to bring it to pass: the same power and spirit which formed Christ in the

womb, formes him in the heart: as in his participati∣on of the humane nature there was a Supernatural operation, so is there in our participation of the Di∣vine. This is the first efficacy of Grace, it new creates the heart, and imprints the Divine image there; it inspires holy Principles, and so lays a foundation for obedience.

2. There is an efficacy of Grace as to actual believing and willing. St. Bernard asks the question, Quid agit liberum arbitrium? What doth Free-will do? and then answers, Salvatur, it is saved. And Agatho in his Epistle lays down this as a rule, Quod a Christo non susceptum est, nec salvatum est, si ab eo humana vo∣luntas suscepta est, & salvata est; That which was not assumed by Christ, is not saved by him. If an humane will was assumed, then it is saved; and it is saved, first in that principles of holy rectitude are instilled into it, and then in that those principles are drawn forth in actual willing: both these are necessary, the first implants the vital principles of Grace in the heart, the second makes them blossom and bring forth pre∣cious fruit; without those vital principles the will, however assisted ab extra, is internally in it self but a faculty meerly natural and void of spiritual life; it hath no proportion to the vital supernatural acts of Faith and Love. Neither is it possible, that any such should issue out from thence, no, not by any extrin∣secal assistance whatsoever: an act if vital and super∣natural, must be from an internal principle that is such. Again, unless those vital principles bring forth actual believing and willing, they must needs lie dead, and come to nothing. And yet if we estimate things according to their worth and excellency, we cannot but think it much more easie and eligible for the wise

and good God to suffer an abortion in all the seeds and principles of nature, than in those precious and admirable ones of Grace, which do not, as the o∣ther do, carry the meer footsteps, but the very image and resemblance of his holy nature.

Pelagius would at least in some sense own, that the posse, the meer power of believing, is from God; but he would not have the velle, the actual willing and believing, to be so. He saith, that God worketh all things; that is, he gives to them the operative power. He distinguishes three things, Posse, Velle, Esse; Posse in natura, Velle in arbitrio, Esse in effectu: Power, Willing, Being: Power is in nature, Willing in the free faculty, Being in the effect. The Power, saith he, is properly from God; but the other two are from our selves, as descending de arbitrii fonte, from the fountain of Free-will. Hence St. Austin tells him, That according to his opinion, which attributed to Grace not willing or believing, but a power only, he could not be a true Christian. A power of believing (whether it be as Pelagius would have it, a meer na∣ked power, and no more; or whether it be such a power as is an habit or vital principle of Grace,) is not all that Grace operates; a meer naked power is not all. To entertain such a thought, is highly to di∣sparage Grace. A power of believing is from God; and is not a power of sinning, so too? If Free-will, which includes in it a power of sinning, be a crea∣ture, it must be so. If a power of sinning be from God, and no more but a meer power of believing be from him, then how is God the author of actual be∣lieving, more than of actual sinning? Pelagius say∣ing, That God is said to operate all things, because

he gives the operative power; Bellarmine from thence infers this just consequence, That then God operates all sin, because he gave a Free-will, by which all sin is wrought: Therefore if God be not the author of actual sin, as he is not, nor cannot be; then neither is he author of actual believing, by giving a power to believe. Both powers are from God; and how hard a thing, and how contumelious to Grace is it to say, That he produces as much towards sinning, as to∣wards believing? And yet we must say so, if there be no more than a meer power to both. Neither is such a power, as is a habit or vital principle of Grace, all that Grace operates; those precious Seeds and Prin∣ciples, were never let down from Heaven to sleep and lye hid in the root, but to spring up in actual Graces sutable and congruous thereunto. There is a Divine vigor in those Principles; and when auxiliary Grace stirs them up, and becomes an heavenly dew unto them, they will spring up as a well of living water, and shoot forth as the seed of God. There is a special Providence watching over these; to make them come up in a crop of holy fruits.

Some Divines express themselves thus: Grace gives a supernatural power, and so puts the will in aequili∣brio, in an even balance, that it may believe or not believe, as it pleaseth. But what a thing is this? An 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or indifferency towards such a precious ob∣ject as Christ is, looks very ill, and like a sin; and how should. it come from Grace? If Grace work only a kind of indifferency, it doth far less than meer Moral virtue doth: Moral virtue is, as the Phi∣losopher speaks, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, an habit of act∣ing according to right reason; it earries in it a

promptitude and inclination to virtuous actions; it renders them easie, and in a sort natural: and may we, can we, suppose that Grace, a Principle much more sublime, and of far higher extraction, should only put the soul into an aequilibrious state, no more propending to good than evil? If Grace operate only a kind of indifferency, then the comfort of Christians is departed; they are afraid of nothing more than of themselves; the vanity and corruption in their own hearts is terrible to them: yet in this case the greatest of fears, I mean, to be left to them∣selves, falls upon them. They are not to look up to God to fix their hearts upon himself; no, nor so much as to incline them that way; their life must not be a life of faith or dependence upon God the fountain of Grace; there is no warrant for such a thing; Grace only works a state of indifferency, and then leaves the Will to do the rest: if they will depend upon any thing, it must be upon their own Will, that is, upon Vanity; nothing else determines the great concern of their salvation.

Now here I shall first prove, That Grace works the actual willing and believing; and then, That it doth it in a way of power.

1. Grace works the actual willing and believing: And here I shall lay down several things.

1. The Scripture is very pregnant. God worketh to will and to do of his good pleasure, Phil. 2.13, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, he worketh efficaciously, not a meer power of wil∣ling, but the very willing: Neither doth he work the willing conditionally, if we will; for then the willing should be a condition to it self, which is im∣possible, and should be before he work•• it, which is

directly opposite to the Text; but he works it ab∣solutely of his own good pleasure. His work doth not depend on mans consent, but it causeth it; nei∣ther doth he work it so, as that man in whom he worketh the willing, might actually not will: for a man who wills, must needs will; and a man in whom he works the willing, must needs do so. If a man do not will, then God doth not work the willing; for a willing which is not, is not wrought: in this case nothing is wrought but the power of willing, which satisfies not the Text. If the man in whom he works, do will, the thing is infallible; for a man cannot will and nill both at once: but he worketh the willing so, as that mans willing doth certainly fol∣low upon it. Neither doth he work the willing as a partial concause, for then he should be a cause only ex parte, and do but something towards it, the rest must be not from him, but only from mans will as the author of it; which is to ascribe to mans will, not a merit only, but a kind of Deity, as if it were the sole author of some supernatural good. But he works the willing as a total supreme cause; he causeth man to will: Mans will doth not co-operate, but subope∣rate under the sweet power of Grace, moving it to will. It is true, man willeth, but it is causally from Grace that he doth so. Mans will is the principium quod which produces the willing; but Gods Grace is the principium quo which causeth it. Hence St. Austin, Nos nolumus, sed Deus in nobis operatur & velle; nos operamur, sed Deus in nobis operatur & ipsum operari pro bona voluntate: We will and work, but God works both in us. And afterwards the same Father adds, Hoc est pium, hoc verum, ut sit humilis con∣fessio

ut detur totum Deo: This is pious and true, that there may be an humble confession, and the whole may be ascribed to God. Again, the Scrip∣ture tells us, that Faith is not of our selves, but the gift of God, Ephes. 2.8; that the very actual belie∣ving is freely given to us, Phil. 1.29. We see here, Faith is a meer gift, it is not from our selves, but from God; And what can be more emphatical? It is not said that Faith is offered, but given; external things, which exist before they are given and receiv∣ed, may be said to be offered; but Faith which ex∣ists not before it be given and received, cannot pro∣perly be said to be offered. A Faith, which is not given and received, is a non-entity; and a non-enti∣ty is not a gift. Faith is Gods gift, not where it is not, but where it is. That cannot be properly said to be given, which is not received. Giving and re∣ceiving relate mutually each to other; therefore when Grace gives Faith, it gives the very reception, it causes a man to believe; and when it causes a man to believe, he doth infallibly do so; and if he do not do so, the gift is not a gift of Faith which the Apostle speaks of; but of a power only to believe, which answers not to the Text. Hence it appears, That actual believing is meerly from Grace.

2. If God only give a power of believing, and that in common to all, the actual believer makes himself to differ from others. God gave him only the common Grace, but the improvement of it is from himself; God gave him only a power, but the act (which hath more of actuality, and so of like∣ness to God, and indeed is the very end and center

of the power) is from himself. Man may now glo∣ry in himself, as contributing of his own, that which is perfective of that power, which is from God. After Grace hath done its utmost, Mans Will is made the umpire, whether the operations of Grace, shall be something or nothing: God made the heart, and the wheels therein; but the motion is mans own, he only must determine this great concern. Grace begins to build the new creature, but man must finish the work, or else it can never be done. Grace fets the Will in aequilibrio, and that's all it; must move no further, but leave the event to the lottery of mans Will. Thus God is debased, and man ex∣alted; Free-grace is dethroned, and Free-will is crowned: But if we, as we ought, must glory in the Lord; if we have nothing but what we have received, then we must confess, that the actual wil∣ling and believing is from Grace: acknowledging with St. Cyprian, In nullo gloriandum, quando nostrum nihil est.

3. It is a good Rule of Celestine Bishop of Rome, Lex supplicandi facit legem credendi, Our Prayers teach us what we are to believe about Grace. For what do we pray to God? Is it not to have our hearts inclined to his commands, and united to his fear? Is it not to have our Wills bowed to obedi∣ence and swallowed up in the Divine Will? What can be more congruous for man, more pious towards God than this? Yet, if the willing and believing be not from Grace, it is but irriseria petitie, a kind of mock-devotion: There can hardly be a more un∣accountable vanity than this, To beg of God, that

which is not within the line of Grace to bestow; which is wholly turned over to the power and will of man to effect. We may here say with Seneca, Quid votis opus est? What need any prayers for that which we may have from our selves? If the thing be not from God but from our selves, we do not in∣deed pray, but dissemble a prayer; we make as if the thing were a gift of God, when there is no such matter. The Philosopher (saith Epictetus) expects all 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, from himself, and so may the Christian too in the point of willing and believing; if these be not Grace, he need not look up to God for them. Again, for what do the Saints praise God? Is it not for touching and opening their hearts to Christ, for making them willing in the day of his power? Is it not for putting his spirit within them, and causing them to walk in his statutes? What can be more due to God, more proper for a Saint than this? Hence they glorified God in the repenting Gentiles, Acts 11.18. And again, they glorified God in con∣verting Paul, Gal. 1.24. When David and his people offered willingly to God, he falls into an ho∣ly extasie, Who am I, and what is my people, 1 Chr. 29.14? All things, saith he, are of thee, not only our gold and our silver, not only our hearts and wills, but our very actual willingness also; yet if the willing and believing be not of Grace, all these are but mockeries and false Hallelujahs: They who glorifie God in Converts, offer but a blind sacrifice, and glorify but an Idol of their own fancy. If God do not do the thing, Why should we praise him for it? How can we do so in truth, when the matter

will not bear it? Indeed we do but dissemble a praise, making as if he were the author of that which is not from him. Thus we see, that willing and believing must be from Grace, or else we utterly evacuate those prayers and praises which are offered up to God touching the same. Thus much touching the first thing, That Grace works the willing and believ∣ing.

2. Grace works it in a way of power. St. Paul speaking of the success of the Gospel, saith, That the excellency of the power is of God, 2 Cor. 4.7. And again, he prays for the Thessalonians, That God would fulfil the work of faith with power, 2 Thes. 1.11. If faith be fulfilled, as it is, by the acts of it, then those acts are produced by the power of Grace: Gods peo∣ple are willing in the day of his power, Psal. 110.3. When the Disciples wonder'd how a Camel should go through a Needles eye, how a rich man should be saved; our Saviour solves the knot by the power of God, With him all things are possible, Luk. 18.27. The power of Grace can fetch off the World, the Camels∣bunch, from the heart, and make it pass (as it were) through the Needles eye into Heaven. It's true, man wills, man believes, but it is from the strong and sweet gales of Grace that he doth so. The willing and believing are voluntary acts in regard of mans will, but acts of power in regard of Gods Spirit, which touches and moves the heart thereunto. It may be thought by some, that there needs no expence of power towards willing and believing; that a power of willing and believing is enough for us. But should God give us only a power to will and believe, and

leave the rest to our will, we have great reason to think that we should all do, as innocent Adam did, fall from God, and never reduce that power into act. The Divine Principles in Adam were pure and without mixture; but the power of believing and willing in us, hath in the same heart where it dwells, an Inmate of corruption, which continually counter∣works it. In innocency the temptation stood with∣out, a-courting the senses; but after the fall it makes nearer approaches, as having a party within ready to open and betray every faculty. To me it looks like a proud thought for any to imagine, that under such a disparity he could act his part better than Adam did. If then the foundation of God must stand, if the election must obtain, if Christ must have a seed, if the Spirit must have a temple, it is no less than necessary, that the power of Grace should secure that willing and believing, without which those high and great designs of Heaven cannot take effect.

3. There is an efficacy of Grace as to persever∣ance in Faith and Holiness. Perseverance, wherever it is, is from Grace. The inherent Graces in the Saints are but creatures; no creature, no, not the most spi∣ritual, doth or can preserve it self. All depend upon their Original in their being and duration; hence, as St. Jerom observes, God is always a-working, al∣ways a-giving; Non mihi sufficit, saith he, quod semel donavit, nisi semper donaverit: It is not enough for me, that he once give, unless he always do so. Hence that of St. Austin, Non ita se debet homo ad Domi∣num convertere, ut, cum ab eo fact us fuerit justus, ab∣scedat, sed it a ut ab illo semper siat: Man ought not

to convert to God, that being made just he might depart from him; but that he might be always made just by him. The Physician heals and departs, but God doth not do so; he is still a-healing and new∣making us by the continual spirations of his Spirit and Grace, that we may persevere unto the end. Were not perseverance from Grace, there could be no such thing as a life of Faith; it would be utterly needless to hang upon Promises, or to look up for in∣fluences of Grace, or with David to pray that God would keep the good frame in the heart, or hold up our goings in his paths. Perseverance being from our selves, we may center and safely lye down there. We may say as Laodicea, We are rich, and have need of nothing, no, not of God the Fountain of Grace. We may do what St. Jerom charges on the Pelagians, that is, bid God depart, he is no more necessary to us. It's true, he gave us a stock of power and free∣will; but now we can stand upon our own bot∣tom, all is in our own hand, there is no room for a life of faith, no, nor for any true gratitude for our standing in Grace. It is St. Austins observation, That the Angels who stood, were amplius adjuti, more helped than those who fell; therefore they cast down their Crowns before God, ascribing their standing, not to themselves, but to Grace. Should they do, what they cannot do, ascribe it to themselves, they could not be thankful. In like manner holy men who persevere, attribute nothing to themselves, but all to Grace; Quodcun{que} in suo rivulo fluit, as St. Jerom speaks, ad fontem refert, Whatever flows in his rivulet, he refers to the great fountain; that he faul∣ters

and lapses, is of his own; that he stands and perseveres, is of Grace. Were it not so, the praise and glory should be ascribed not to God, but to our selves, which would be to turn Gratitude into Pre∣sumption.

The Graces of the Saints may be considered in the act, or in the habit. The acts have their too fre∣quent pauses and interruptions; but the habit, the vital principle, is a seed of immortality, and never dyes. In the saddest falls of a Saint, it may be said of him as it was of Eutychus, His life is in him. He that is born of God, doth not commit sin; nay, he cannot sin, 1 Joh. 3.9. Doubtless he can sin sins of infirmi∣ty; nay, and gross sins too, as appears in the falls of David and Peter; but he cannot sin so as totally to unframe the new-creature, and lay himself in an un∣regenerate state. This is clear by the reasons in the Text, For his seed remaineth in him, and he is born of God. Could he by sin extinguish the very principles of Grace, he might sin to all intents and purposes, contrary to the express letter of the text; nay, and his seed might not remain, and he might ceafe to be born of God, contrary to the reasons in the text. If the Divine seed and birth do not preserve him from regnant sin, such as would overthrow him, it pre∣serves him from no sin at all; the text and reason are altogether insignificant. But if, as the text and truth is, it preserves him from regnant sin, then the Divine Principles are not extinguished when he falls into sin.

The habits of Grace may be considered meerly in themselves, or in their dependence. In themselves

they are but defectible creatures, and might total∣ly fail; their being is not from themselves, no more is their duration; in their dependance they cannot possibly fail, because they are supported by some∣what greater than themselves. Remarkable is the dif∣ference between the case of Adam and that of belie∣vers; in Adam, one act of sin expelled perfect holi∣ness; so that upon the fall, there was not left in him so much as the least relick of sanctity, or spark of spiritual life: he, and after him, all his posterity be∣came spiritually dead in sin, not in part only; for then the new-creature should be new but in part; but totally, every thing in fallen man wants quick∣ening. But in believers, not one, not many sins are able to drive out the principles of Grace, though those principles are imperfect in themselves, and dwell together with much inherent corruption, yet are they not driven out: and the reason of this difference is, Adam had the stock of holiness in his own hands; but the graces of the believers depend upon somewhat greater than themselves. Now touching this Dependence, I shall lay down three or four things:

1. The Graces of Saints depend upon Election; though Election be in it self from all eternity, yet it buds and blossoms in time. He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him, Eph. 1.3, 4. Divine Graces, which are choice spiritual blessings, issue not out of common providence; but, as St. Bernard speaks, ex abysso aeternitatis, out of the great fountain of Election: The eternal Love, which

lay in Gods bosom, comes forth in the production of those Graces: Nay, and in the duration of them, God fulfills all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of Faith with power, 2 Thes. 1.11. Whom he did predestinate, them he also called; whom he called, them he also justified; whom he justified, them he also glorified, Rom. 8.30. We see clearly, Predestination carries them through the other links unto glory. It is observable, that when God ex∣presses his fresh mercies to his people, he doth it thus, I will yet chuse Israel, Isa. 14.1. God gives such supplies of Grace to his Saints, to make them persevere, That it is, as if he chose them again; When the Saints are drooping and dying, as it were, away, electing love gives them another visit, and makes them live; when their love cools and slacks, his love is ever the same, and inflames theirs afresh; And how should their Graces fail? The purpose of God according to election doth stand, Rom. 9.11. The foundation of God standeth sure, 2 Tim. 2.19. And how should the rivulets or superstructures of Grace fail? They can no more do it than the great design of a Church can; their lamp never goes out, their seed never dies, the false Christs and false Pro∣phets cannot seduce them, Mark. 13.22. The Can∣ker of Hymeneus and Philetus, cannot eat into them, 2 Tim. 2.19. Election, which is the fontal love, still gives a fresh supply of Grace.

2. Their Graces depend upon Christs merit and intercession. Christ prays for Peter, that his Faith may not fail, Luk. 22.32; neither doth it concern Peter only. In his solemn praier on earth, which was

the Canon and pattern of his intercession in Heaven, he prays to his Father for all believers thus, keep them from evil, Joh. 17.15. If they are kept from evil, they do not fall away, which is the greatest of evils; if they are not kept from evil, Christs intercession ceases, or becomes powerless, neither of which can be; cease it cannot, because he ever lives to make intercession; become powerless it cannot, because he is a Priest after the power of an endless life: what he intercedes for must be done. And this is yet the stronger, if we consider for whom he thus intercedes, It is for believers, parts and pieces of his Mystical body, such as he cannot tell how to part from. Notable is that of the Apostle, The God of peace, who brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus, make you perfect, Heb. 13.20, 21. That God who would lose nothing of Christs human nature, no, not in the Grave, will perfect believers as mystical parts of him, not suffering their Graces to see corruption in an ut∣ter decay; nor leaving their souls in the hell of A∣postacy: This is another foundation of perseverance. Hence Bishop Davenant saith; Amor Dei in renatos non fundatur in illorum perfectione aut omnimodâ puri∣tate, sed in Chrisio Mediatore: The love of God to∣wards the regenerate, is not founded in their per∣fection or absolute purity, but in Christ the Media∣tor: As long as he intercedes, their Graces fail not.

3. Their Graces depend upon the holy Spirit, and that upon a double account: the one is this, The Spirit dwells in believers, it is an abiding Unction, such as abides with them for ever, Joh. 14.16. It is as a Well of water springing up to everlasting life,

Joh. 4.14. Continual irrigations of Grace issue from it to cherish the heavenly nature in them: The Holy Spirit will enliven them, as being parts of Christ. Hence our Saviour saith, Because I live, ye shall live also, Joh. 14.19. As long as the Spirit of life is upon the head, it will flow down upon the members; and whilst it is there, there can be no such thing as Apostacy, but on the contrary a sweet li∣berty to all the holy ways of God. The other is this, The Spirit witnesses to believers, at least to some of them, That they are the Children of God, and by consequence heirs of him, Rom. 8.16, 17. And how high an evidence is this? May such a Te∣stimony fail or be reversed? Or may believers cease to be children, and fall short of the inheritance? Far be it from that holy Spirit. The Apostle calls the Spirit, the earnest of our inheritance, not for a time, but till the redemption of the Church be compleated, Eph. 1.14. till the whole sum be paid in glory: the earnest goes along with the believer to Heaven, his Graces therefore cannot fail by the way: This is another ground of perseverance.

4. Their Graces depend upon the promises: In the Covenant of works there was no promise of per∣severance; but in the Covenant of Grace there are many such: God shall confirm you unto the end, 1 Cor. 1.8. He will put his fear in your hearts, that ye shall not depart from him, Jer. 32.40. He which did begin the good work in them, will perform it till the day of Christ, Phil. 1.6. He will put his spirit into them, and canse them to walk in his statutes, Ezek. 36.27. In such promises as these, the believers state of Grace

is secured: Shall we now say, that all these promises are conditional, If we will persevere, or, which is all one, do our duty? Is not this to turn the Cove∣nant of Grace into that of Works? Is it not to evacuate all these promises touching perseverance, as if God spoke in such contradictory terms as these, If you persevere, I will make you persevere; as if perseverance could be the condition of it self? After these promises, the believers are but where they were before. Without these promises it would have been true, That if they persevere, they do so; and with them so interpreted, what have they more? What do they contribute to believers, when the main stress of perseverance is laid on mans will, and not on Gods grace. These promises were penned to be great comforts to believers, that God would establish them by his grace: but what comfort can they take in them, if the matter be left to their own lubricous will? It is in effect as if God should say, I will preserve you from all evils and dangers, only for that greatest evil of all which is in your own hearts and wills, I will not undertake. What is this but to take away the spirit and life of the promises, to leave the Saints in a dead and comfortless condition? Our Saviour tells us to our comfort, That his sheep shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of his hand, Joh. 10.28: not unless they themselves will, saith Socinus: but what is this but to nullifie the promise? They cannot possibly be plucked out of Christs hand with∣out their own voluntary consent. So the promise runs thus: They shall not be plucked out of his hand but only in such a way as the same is possible to be

done: that is, the words are absurd, and signifie just nothing. But if the promises made to Saints, were thus conditional, what are those made to Christ? Hath not God said, That Christ should have a seed, nay, and be satisfied in it, Isa. 53.10, 11? Hath he not said, nay, sworn to Christ, That his seed (such as believers are) should endure for ever; that his throne (a chief part of which is in their hearts) should be as the Sun, Psal. 89.35, 36? And are these promises conditional also? It's true, that there was a condition on Christs part, That he should obey and suffer for us: but was there any on ours? Must these promi∣ses run thus, Christ shall have a seed and a throne if man will? No, the promises are absolute; no mention at all is made of mans will. But if the Gra∣ces of the Saints may fail, so may these promises also. Christ might have no seed, at least no enduring one, such as may satisfie him. His throne, at least that choice part of it which is in the hearts of the Saints, may utterly fail and come to nothing. If the matter be left to the Lottery of mans will, How is God true to his Son Christ? Possibly there might be no feed of new-creatures at all; or if there were, they might flie away from the birth in an utter apostacy. Nay, what if the event did hit right, and answer the promise, yet God is never the truer for that; neither can we say, that he fulfilled his promise in that event, which was never secured by his grace, but came to pass as it happened by the lucky hit of mans will. To conclude, Upon the whole matter it appears God hath taken believers into his own hand; their Graces shall not fail, because his Truth and Faithfulness can∣not;

their standing is sure, because his promises can∣not fall to the ground.

To add no more: We see here how we ought in all humility to give Grace its due; and this we can∣not do, unless we give it all. Non est devotionis de∣disse prope totum Deo, sed frandis retinuisse vel mini∣mum, saith Prosper: To give Nine hundred ninety nine parts to Grace, and reserve one only to mans will, is more than true devotion will bear: it's just to give the whole unto God. The Jewish Rabbins say, That he who receives any good thing in this world without a benediction, is a robber of God: but the greatest sacriledg of all is, when we own not the Grace of God in supernatural blessings which re∣late to the world to come; Verè humiles totum Deo reddunt, True humble souls render all to God. Let us then acknowledg with Jacob, We are less than the least of all his mercies. We were naturally undone, unclean creatures, proper objects of wrath. Why did God send his Son in the flesh to seek that which was lost, wash us in a laver of his own blood, and bring us into favour with him? We might have been born in the dark places of the earth where Christ is not named, where the Sun of Righteousness shines not in Pardons and Graces. Why did God place us in a Region of Evangelical light, and set Jesus Christ with all his beauties and treasures evidently before us? Un∣der the Gospel there are many blind eyes and hard hearts, many poor souls dead and buried in a grave of sin. Why did he open our eyes upon heavenly my∣steries, and melt our hearts into the Divine will? Why did he raise us up out of our spiritual graves,

and quicken us unto a Divine life? There is still cor∣ruption within, and temptation without us. Our Gra∣ces are weak, and in themselves defectible creatures. Why doth he supply us with fresh influences of grace, and maintain the new-creature in us? Why are we not swallowed up in temptations and corruptions, but kept and preserved to the heavenly Kingdom? Here we must glory in our God, and cry out, Grace, Grace. All the good we have, is from that Fountain. Thus St. Paul ascribes all to Grace; I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. I labour, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. He acknow∣ledges no I-ness, but ascribes all his spiritual being and working to Grace. I will shut up all with that of Bonaventure, Furti reus est, qui sibi aliquid reti∣net, cum Deus dicat, gloriam meam alteri non dabo; He is guilty of Theft, who retains any thing to him∣self, when God hath said, My glory I will not give to another. All glory therefore be to him alone.

Notes

• Aust. Hyp. l. 3.
• Si vel tantil∣lum boni a Deo non est, jam non om∣nis boni essec∣tor est. eo{que} nec Deus. Bu∣cer.
• Aust. Epist. 105.
• Hoc uno verbo, quasi fulmine, totus homo, quantus quantus est, prosternitur: Bez. in Loc.
• †

  Finge Pela∣giane locum, ex officina perversi dog∣ina••is tui, ubi alieni a Christi gratia vitam requiei & glo∣riae possidere parvuli pos∣sint. Aust. Hyp. l. 5.
• De conc. Virg. cap. 27.
• Epist. 105.
• Integrum Deo est, servare vellet an re∣probare, nil esse quod con∣queratur.
• Volk l. 5. c. 17. de praedest.
• Cons. ad Pol. cap. 29.
• De bono per∣sever. l. 2. c. 24.
• Determ. f. 236.
• Serm: printed An. Dom. 1632. fol. 286.
• Quid juvat Pe∣lagium, quia diversis verbis eandem rem dicit, ut non intelligatur in lege at{que} do∣ctrina gratiam constituere? de Grat. Chri∣sti. cap. 9. De. serv. pars 4. c. 12. Dial. de just. fo. 13.
• De Praedest. l. 1. cap. 8.
• Aust. ad Bon. lib. 1. cap. 19.
• Prael. Theol. cap. 12.
• De Vera Rel. l. 4. cap. 1.
• De Ver. Rel. lib. 5. cap. 18.
• Eth. l. 1. c. 3.
• Qui humili∣tati & obedi∣entiae humanae subjungunt gratiae adjuto∣rium, nec, ut obedientes & humiles simus, ipsius gratiae donum esse consentiunt, resistunt Apo∣stolo diceenti, quid habes, quod non ac∣cepisti? Gra∣tiâ Dei sum quod sum. Conc. Araus. 2. can. 6.
• cam. oper sol. 343.
• De Praed. c. 5.
• De fal. Rel. Lib. 1. Cap. 11.
• De Lib. Arbit. & Grat.
• 6. Gen. Conc. Act. 4.
• Aust. de Grat. Christ. cap. 4.
• De Grat. Christi, c. 10.
• De Grat. & Lib. Ar. lib. 4. cap. 4.
• De dono per∣sever. cap. 13.
• Epist. ad Epise. Gall. c. 10, 11.
• Irrisoria pe∣titio est, cum id •• Deo peti∣tur, quod sci∣tur ipsum non dare, sed, ipso non donante, esse in homi∣nis potestate. Aust. de don. persev. cap. 2.
• Ad Ctesiph. cap. 3.
• De Gen. ad. Lit. lib. 8.12.
• Ad Ctes. cap. 3.
• De Civ. lib. 12. cap. 9.
• Ad Ctes. cap. 3
• De just. hab. 226.
• Prael. Theol. cap. 12.