5. All things belonging to the new creature the scripture ascribeth to God. Take that noted place, Phil. ii. 13, ' For God worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure ; ' all that we will and all that we do in the spiritual life is of God. Mark here —
[1.] He did not only give us the natural faculties at first. God, «s the author of nature, must be distinguished from God as the author of grace ; that is another sphere and order of beings ; it is one thing to make us men, another thing to make us saints or christians. We have imderstanding, will, and affections, and senses, as men, but we are sanctified as christians : 1 John v. 20, ' He hath given us an under- standing, that we may know him that is true.'
[2.] God doth not only concur to the exercise of these faculties, a*' a general cause, as he doth to all the creatures, Acts xvii. 28. We cannot stir nor move without him ; general providential assistance is necessary to all things, or else they could not subsist ; as the fire could not burn the three children, though he did not destroy the being or property of it, only suspend his influence. So God is said to give the seeing eye and the hearing ear ; not only the rational faculty, but the exercise ; but this is not enough ; as the act is from God, so the graciousness of the act.
[3.] To come more closely to the thing in hand. God doth not only work merely by helping the will, but giving us the will, not by curing the weakness of it, but by sanctifying it, and taking away the sinfulness of it, and sweetly drawing it to himself. If the will were only in a swoon and languishment, a little excitation, outward or in- ward, would serve the turn : but it is stark dead ; thev do but flatter
246 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. [SeR. XXXIII.
nature that say of it as Christ of the damsel — * She is not dead but sleepeth.' Gods grace is not only necessary for facilitation, that we may more easily choose and pursue that which is good ; as a horse is requisite, that a man may pass over his journey more easily, which otherwise he might do on foot with difficulty. No, it is impossible, as well as difficult, till God giveth us the will and the deed.
[4.] God doth not only give a power to will if we please, or a power to do if we please, but he giveth to will and to do, the act of willing and doing. Adam had posse quod vellet, but we have velle quod i^os- simus — he had a power to avoid sin if he would, but we have the will itself; but he worketh powerfully and efficaciously, that is to say, the effect succeedeth : Ezek. xxxvi. 27, ' A new heart will I give to you, and a new spirit will I put into you, and cause you to walk in my ways.' If this were all the grace given to us for Christ's sake, that we might be converted if we would, divers absurdities would follow.
(1.) That Christ died at uncertainties, and it is in the power and pleasure of man's will to ratify and frustrate the end of his death ; for it is a contingent thing whetlier a man will turn to God, yea or no. No, it is not so left ; it doth not depend upon man's mutable will : John vi. 37, ' All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.'
(2.) Man would be the principal cause of his own conversion, and so would rob God of the glory of his free grace, and put the honour of it on the liberty of man's will ; for grace giveth an indifferency, he may or he may not ; but free will hath the casting voice. A power to repent or believe he hath from God, but the determining act is from himself, which is more noble ; for he doth more that doth will and work, than he that giveth a power to will and work ; as it is a more perfect thing to understand than to be able to understand ; the act is more perfect than the power ; actus secundus est nohilior quam j^rimus. We should then expect from God no otlier grace but a power to repent and believe ; but it is left to our wills to make it effectual or frustrate ; is this all ? No ; God doth not only give a power to believe, but faith ; a power to repent, but repentance itself ; not such grace as is effectual only as man's will is pleased to use it, or not to use it, but victorious gi-ace, such as conquereth the heart of man, and sweetly subdueth it to God.
(3.) Look to the prayers of the faithful dispersed everywhere in the holy scriptures, and they understand this of effectual grace : ' Create in me a clean heart,' saith David, Ps. li. 10 ; and Paul prayed, Heb. xiii. 21, 'The Lord make you perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight.' Grace effectual by itself is prayed for, not a grace that giveth the possibility only, but the effect ; not only such as doth invite and solicit us to good, but such as doth incline and determine us to good.