regeneration, seem to imply the quite contrary; as, that we are in "bondage," Heb. ii. 15; "dead in sins," Eph. ii. 1, and so "free from righteousness," Rom. vi. 20; "servants of sin," verse 17; under the "reign" and "dominion" thereof, verses 12,14; all "our members being instruments of unrighteousness," verse 13; not "free indeed," until "the Son make us free." So that this idol of free-will, in respect of spiritual things, is not one whit better than the other idols of the heathen. Though it look like "silver and gold,” it is the "work of men's hands.” "It hath a mouth, but it speaketh not; it hath eyes, but it seeth not; it hath ears, but it heareth not; a nose, but it smelleth not; it hath hands, but it handleth not; feet, but it walketh not; neither speaketh it through its throat. They that made it are like unto it; and so is every one that trusteth in it. O Israel, trust thou in the LORD," etc., Ps. cxv. 4–9. That it is the work of men's hands, or a human invention, I showed before. For the rest, it hath a mouth unacquainted with the "mystery of godliness," "full only of cursing and bitterness," Rom. iii. 14; "speaking great swelling words," Jude 16; "great things, and blasphemies," Rev. xiii. 5; a "mouth causing the flesh to sin," Eccles. v. 6;—his eyes are blind, not able to perceive those things that are of God, nor to know those things that are "spiritually discerned," 1 Cor. ii. 14; "eyes before which there is no fear of God," Rom. iii. 18;-his" understanding is darkened, because of the blindness of his heart," Eph. iv. 18; "wise to do evil, but to do good he hath no knowledge," Jer. iv. 22; so that without farther light, all the world is but a mere "darkness," John i. 5;-he hath ears, but they are like the ears of the " deaf adder" to the word of God, " refusing to hear the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely," Ps. lviii. 5; being dead" when his voice first calls it, John v. 25; ears stopped that they should not hear," Zech. vii. 11; "heavy ears" that cannot hear, Isa. vi. 10;--a nose, to which the gospel is "the savour of death unto death," 2 Cor. ii. 16;—“ hands full of blood," Isa. i. 15; and "fingers defiled with iniquity," chap. lix. 3;-feet, indeed, but, like Mephibosheth, lame in both by a fall, so that he cannot at all walk in the path of goodness; but "swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in his ways, and the way of peace hath he not known," Rom. iii. 15-17. These, and divers other such endowments and excellent qualifications, doth the Scripture attribute to this idol, which it calls "The old man," as I shall more fully discover in the next chapter. And is not this a goodly reed whereon to rely in the paths of godliness? a powerful deity whereunto we may repair for a power to become the sons of God, and attain eternal happiness? The abilities of free-will in particular I shall consider hereafter; now only I will, by one or two reasons, show that it cannot be the sole and proper cause of any truly good and spiritual act, well-pleasing unto God.

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First, All spiritual acts well-pleasing unto God, as faith, repentance, obedience, are supernatural; flesh and blood revealeth not these things: "Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man; but of God," John i. 13; "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," chap. iii. 6. Now, to the performance of any supernatural act it is required that the productive power thereof be also supernatural; for nothing hath an activity in causing above its own sphere. "Nec imbelles generant feroces aquilas columbæ." But our free-will is a merely natural faculty, betwixt which and those spiritual, supernatural acts there is no proportion, unless it be advanced above its own orb, by inherent, habitual grace. Divine, theological virtues, differing even in the substance of the act from those moral performances about the same things to which the strength of nature may reach (for the difference of acts ariseth from their formal objects, which to both these are diverse), must have another principle and cause above all the power of nature in civil things and actions morally good, inasmuch as they are subject to a natural perception, and do not exceed the strength of our own wills. This faculty of free-will may take place, but yet not without these following limitations:-First, That it always requireth the general concurrence of God, whereby the whole suppositum in which free-will hath its subsistence may be sustained, Matt. x. 29, 30. Secondly, That we do all these things imperfectly and with much infirmity; every degree, also, of excellency in these things must be counted a special gift of God, Isa. xxvi. 12. Thirdly, That our wills are determined by the will of God to all their acts and motions in particular; but to do that which is spiritually good we have no knowledge,

no power.

Secondly, That concerning which I gave one special instance, in whose production the Arminians attribute much to free-will, is faith. This they affirm (as I showed before) to be inbred in nature, every one having in him from his birth a natural power to believe in Christ and his gospel; for Episcopius denies that 1" any action of the Holy Spirit upon the understanding or will is necessary, or promised in the Scripture, to make a man able to believe the word preached unto him." So that it seems every man hath at all times a power to believe, to produce the act of faith upon the revelation of its object: which gross Pelagianism is contrary,

First, To the doctrine of the church of England, affirming that a man cannot so much as prepare himself by his own strength to faith

"An ulla actio S. S. immediata in mentem aut voluntatem necessaria sit, aut in Scriptura promittatur ad hoc, ut quis credere possit verbo extrinsecus proposito, negativam tuebimur."-Episcop., Disput. Privat.

and calling upon God, until the grace of God by Christ prevent him, that he may have a good will.-Artic. x.

Secondly, To the Scripture, teaching that it is "the work of God that we do believe," John vi. 29. It is "not of ourselves; it is the gift of God," Eph. ii. 8. To some "it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven," Matt. xiii. 11. And what is peculiarly given to some cannot be in the power of every one: "To you it is given in the behalf of Christ to believe on him," Phil. i. 29. Faith is our access or coming unto Christ; which none can do "except the Father draw him," John vi. 44; and he so draweth, or "hath mercy, on whom he will have mercy," Rom. ix. 18. And although Episcopius rejects any immediate action of the Holy Spirit for the ingenerating of faith, yet St Paul affirmeth that there is no less effectual power required to it than that which raised Christ from the dead; which, sure, was an action of the almighty Godhead. "That ye may know," saith he, "what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead," Eph. i. 18-20. So that, let the Arminians say what they please, recalling that I write to Christians, I will spare my labour of farther proving that faith is the free gift of God; and their opposition to the truth of the Scripture in this particular is so evident to the meanest capacity that there needs no recapitulation to present the sum of it to their understandings.

CHAPTER XIII.

Of the power of free-will in preparing us for our conversion unto God.

THE judgment of the Arminians concerning the power of free-will about spiritual things in a man unregenerate, merely in the state of corrupted nature, before and without the help of grace, may be laid open by these following positions:—

First, That every man in the world, reprobates and others, have in themselves power and ability of believing in Christ, of repenting and yielding due obedience to the new covenant; and that because they lost not this power by the fall of Adam. " Adam after his fall," saith Grevinchovius, "retained a power of believing; and so did all reprobates in him." "" He did not lose" (as they speak at the synod)

1 "Adamus post lapsum potentiam credendi retinuit, et reliqui reprobi etiam in illo." -Grevinch. ad Ames., p. 183.

2" Adamus non amisit vires eam obedientiam præstandi quæ in novo fœdere exigitur, prout puta ea consideratur formaliter, hoc est, prout novo fœdere exacta est, nec potentiam credendi amisit; nec amisit potentiam, per resipiscentiam, ex peccato resurgendi."-Rem. Declar. Sent. in Synod., p. 107.

"the power of performing that obedience which is required in the new covenant considered formally, as it is required by the new covenant; he lost not a power of believing, nor a power of forsaking sin by repentance." And those graces that he lost not are still in our power. Whence they affirm, that "faith is called the work of God only because he requireth us to do it." Now, having appropriated this power unto themselves, to be sure that the grace of God be quite excluded, which before they had made needless, they teach,

Secondly, That for the reducing of this power into act, that men may become actual believers, there is no infused habit of grace, no spiritual vital principle, necessary for them, or bestowed upon them; but every one, by the use of his native endowments, doth make himself differ from others. "Those things which are spoken concerning the infusion of habits before we can exercise the act of faith, we reject," saith the epistle to the Walachians. "That the internal principle of faith required in the gospel is a habit divinely infused, by the strength and efficacy whereof the will should be determined, I deny," saith another of them. Well, then, if we must grant that the internal vital principle of a supernatural spiritual grace is a mere natural faculty, not elevated by any divine habit,-if it be not God that begins the good work in us, but our own free-wills,-let us see what more goodly stuff will follow. One man by his own mere endeavours, without the aid of any received gift, makes himself differ from another. "What matter is it in that, that a man should make himself differ from others? There is nothing truer; he who yieldeth faith to God commanding him, maketh himself differ from him who will not have faith when he commandeth." They are the words of their Apology, which, without question, is an irrefragable truth, if faith be not a gift received from above; for on that ground only the apostle proposeth these questions, "Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received?" The sole cause why he denies any one by his own power to make himself differ from another is, because that wherein the difference consisteth is "received," being freely bestowed upon him. Deny this, and I confess the other will fall of itself. But until their authority be equal

1 "Fides vocatur opus Dei, quia Deus ipse id a nobis fieri postulat.”—Rem. Apol, cap. x. p. 112. Ea quæ de habituum infusione dicuntur, ante omnem fidei actum, rejiciuntur a robis."-Epist. ad Wal., p. 67.

2

3 "Principium internum fidei a nobis in evangelio requisitum, esse habitum quendam divinitus infusum, cujus vi ac efficacitate voluntas determinetur; hoc negavi."-Grevinch. ad Ames., p. 324.

"Quid in eo positum est, quod homo discriminare seipsum dicitur? Nihil verius; qui fidem Deo præcipienti habet, is discriminat se ab eo qui Deo præcipienti fidem Labere non vult."-Rem. Apol., cap. xiv. p. 144.

with the apostles', they would do well to forbear the naked obtrusion of assertions so contradictory to theirs; and so they would not trouble the church. Let them take all the glory unto themselves, as doth Grevinchovius. I make myself," saith he, "differ from another when I do not resist God and his divine predetermination; which I could have resisted. And why may I not boast of this as of mine own? That I could is of God's mercy" (endowing his nature with such an ability as you heard before); "but that I would, when I might have done otherwise, is of my power." Now, when, after all this, they are forced to confess some evangelical grace, though consisting only in a moral persuasion by the outward preaching of the word, they teach,

Thirdly, That God sendeth the gospel, and revealeth Christ Jesus unto men, according as they well dispose themselves for such a blessing. "Sometimes," say they in their synodical writings, “God calleth this or that nation, people, city, or person, to the communion of evangelical grace, whom he himself pronounceth worthy of it, in comparison of others" So that whereas, Acts xviii. 10, God encourageth Paul to preach at Corinth by affirming that he had "much people in that city" (which, doubtless, were his people then only by virtue of their election), in these men's judgments 3" they were called so because that even then they feared God, and served him with all their hearts, according to that knowledge they had of him, and so were ready to obey the preaching of St Paul." Strange doctrine, that men should fear God, know him, serve him in sincerity, before they ever heard of the gospel, and by these means deserve that it should be preached unto them! This is that pleasing of God before faith that they plead for, Act. Synod., p. 66; that "" preparation and disposition to believe, which men attain by the law and virtuous education;" that "something which is in sinners, whereby though they are not justified, yet they are made worthy of justification." For "" conversion and the performance of

1 Ego meipsum discerno, cum enim Deo ac divinæ prædeterminationi resistere possem, non restiti tamen. Atqui in eo quidni liceat mihi tanquam de meo gloriari ? Quod enim potui Dei miserentis est, quod autem volui cum possem nolle, id meæ potestatis est."-Grevinch. ad Ames., p. 253.

2 Interdum Deus hanc vel illam gentem, civitatem, personam, ad evangelicæ gratiæ communionem vocat, quam ipse dignam pronuntiat comparative," etc.-Rem. Declarat. Sent. Synod.

3 Illi, in quorum gratiam, Dominus Paulum in Corinthum misit, dicuntur Dei populus, quia Deum tum timebant, eique, secundum cognitionem quam de eo habebant, serviebant ex animo, et sic ad prædicationem Pauli," etc.-Corv. ad Molin. iii. sect. 27.

“Per legem, vel per piam educationem vel per institutionem-per hæc enim hominem præparari et disponi ad credendum, planissimum est.”—Rem. Act. Synod.

Præcedit aliquid in peccatoribus, quo quamvis nondum justificati sunt, digni efficiantur justificatione."-Grevinch. ad Ames., p. 434.

• "Tenendum est, veram conversionem præstationemque bonorum operum esse conditionem prærequisitam ante justificationem."-Filii Arm. Præf. ad cap. vii. ad Rem.