' " Prima divini muneris gratia est, ut erudiat nos ad nostrse humilitatis confessio- nera, et agnoscere faciat, quod, si quid boni agimus, per ilium possumus, sine quo nihil possumus." — Prosp. Seutent. cv. ex August.
2 " Quicunque tribuit sibi bonum quod facit etiamsi videtur nihil mali manibus operari, jam cordis innocentiam perdidit in quo selargitori bononun praetulit."- — Hieron. in cap. xvi. Proverb.
* " 0 bone Domine Jesu, etsi ego admisi undo me damnare potes, tu non amisisti unde salvarc soles. — Vcrum est conscientia mca mcrctur damnationcm, et pcenitentia mea non sufiScit ad satislactionem. Sed certum est quod misericordia tua supci-at omnem offensioncm. Farce ergo mihi, Domine, qui es salus vera et non vis mortem peccatoiis : miserere, Domine, peccatrici animre me«, solve vincula ejus, sana vulnera ejus. Ecce misericors Deus coram te exhibco animara meam virtutum muneribus de- solatam, catenis vitiorum ligatam, pondere peccatoi'um gravatam, dclictorum sordibus focdatam, discissam vulneribus da^monum, putidam ct foetidam ulceribus criminum : his et aliis gravioribus malis qua3 tu melius vides quam ego obstrictam, oppressam, circumdatam, obvolutam, bonorum omnium relevamine destitutam," etc.
S14< THE NATURE, CAUSES, AND MEANS [BOOK III.
removed out of the way before tliis grace can be thonglit to be suf- ficient for the res'eneration and conversion of men in that estate. But some proceed on other principles, "Men," they say, "have by nature certain notions and principles concerning God and the obedience due unto him, which are demonstrable by the light of reason ; and certain abilities of mind to make use of them unto their proper end." But they grant, at least some of them do,^ that " however these prin- ciples may be improved and acted by those abilities, yet they are not sufficient, or will not eventually be effectual, to bring men unto the life of God, or to enable them so to believe in him, love him, and obey him, as that they may come at length unto the enjoyment of him ; at least, they will not do this safely and easily, but through much danger and confusion : wherefore God, out of his goodness and love to mankind, hath made a farther revelation of himself by Jesus Christ in the gospel, with the especial way whereby his anger against sin is averted, and peace made for sinners; which men had before only a confused apprehension and hope about. Now, the things received, proposed, and prescribed in the gospel, are so good, so ra- tional, so every way suited unto the principles of our being, the nature of our intellectual constitutions, or tlie reason of men, and those for- tified with such rational and powerful motives, in the promises and threatenings of it, representing unto us on the one hand the chiefest good which our nature is capable of, and on the other the highest evil to be avoided that we are obnoxious unto, that they can be re- fused or rejected by none but out of a brutish love of sin, or the efficacy of depraved habits, contracted by a vicious course of living. And herein consists the grace of God towards men, especially as the Holy Ghost is pleased to make use of these things in the dispensa- tion of the gospel by the ministry of the church; for when the rea- son of rnen is by these means excited so far as to cast off prejudices, and enabled thereby to make a right judgment of what is proposed unto it, it prevails with them to convert to God, to change their lives, and yield obedience according to the rule of the gospel, that they may be saved."
'■ " Gratia qua Christi populus sumus hoc cohibetur Limite vobiscum, et formam banc ascribitis illi, Ut cunctos vocet ilia quidem invitetque; neque viUum Prasteriens, studcat comtntmem adferre salutem Omnibus, et totum peccato absolvere inundmn. Sed proprio quemque Arbitrio parere vocanti, Judicioque suo, mota se extendere mente Ad lucem oblatam, quae se non substraliat ulli; Sed cupidos recti juvet, illiistretque volentes. Ilinc adjutoris Domini bonitate magisti-a Crescere virtutum studia, ut quid quisque petendum Mandatis didicit, jugi sectetur amore."
Prosp. de Ingrat. cap. x. 251-262.
CHAP, v.] OF REGENERATION. 315
And no doubt this were a notable system of Christian doctrine, especially as it is by some riietorically blended or theatrically repre- sented in feigned stories and apologues, were it not defective in one or two things : for, first, it is exclusive of a supposition of the fall of man, at least as unto the depravation of our nature which ensued thereon, and, secondly, of all real effective grace dispensed by Jesus Christ;^ which render it a fantastic dream, alien from the design and doctrine of the gospel. But it is a fond thing to discourse with men about either regeneration or conversion unto God by whom these things are denied.
Such a work of the Holy Spirit we must, therefore, inquire after as whereby the mind is effectually renewed, the heart changed, the affections sanctified, all actually and effectually, or no deliverance will be wrought, obtained, or ensue, out of the estate described; for notwithstanding the utmost improvement of our minds and reasons that can be imagined, and the most eminent proposal of the truths of the gospel, accompanied with the most powerful enforcements of duty and obedience that the nature of the things themselves will afford, 3''et the mind of man in the state of nature, without a super- natural elevation by grace, is not able so to apprehend them as that its apprehension should be spiritual, saving, or proper unto the things apprehended. And notwithstanding the perception which the mind may attain unto in the truth of gospel proposals, and the convic- tion it may have of the necessity of obedience, yet is not the will able to apply itself unto any spiritual act thereof, without an ability wrought immediately in it by the power of the Spirit of God; or rather, unless the Spirit of God by his grace do effect the act of will- ing in it. Wherefore, not to multiply arguments, we conclude that the most effectual use of outward means alone is not all the grace that is necessary unto, nor all that is actually put forth in, the rege- neration of the souls of men.