But it will be objected, " That every thing which is actually accom- plished was in potentia before; there must, therefore, be in us a power to believe before we do so actually." Ans. The act of God working faith in us is a creating act : " We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus," Eph. ii. 10; and he that is in Christ Jesus " is a new creature," 2 Cor. v. 17. Now, the effects of creating acts are not in potentia anywhere but in the active power of God ; so was the w^orld itself before its actual existence. This is termed potentia logica, which is no more but a negation of any contradiction to existence; not potentia pliysica, which includes a disposition unto actual existence. Notwithstanding, therefore, all these preparator}^ works of the Spirit of God which we allow in this matter, there is not by them wrought in the minds and wills of men such a next poiuer, as they call it, as should enable them to believe Avithout farther actual grace working faith itself. Wherefore, with respect to believ- ing, the first act of God is to work in us " to will :" Phil. ii. 13, " He worketh in us to will." Now, to will to believe is to believe. This God works in us by that grace which Austin and the schoolmen call gratia operans, because it worketh in us without us, the will being merely moved and passive therein. That there is a power or faculty
' " Quando Deus docet per Spiritus gratiam, ita docct ut quod quisqiie didiccrit nou tantum cognosceudo yidcat, sod ctiam volendo appctat agendoiiue pci-ficiat. Et ipso diATno docendi modo ctiam ipsa voluntas, ct ipsa opcratio non sola Tolendi ct operandi natui-alis possibilitas adjuvatur. Si cnim solum posse nostrum hac gratia juvarctur, ita diceret Dominus, Omnis qui audivit a Patre, et didicit, potest venire ad vie." — August, dc Grat. Christ, contra Pelagium, cap. xiv.
VOL. ITI. 21
S22 THE NATURE, CAUSES, AND MEANS [bOOK III,
of believing given unto all men unto wliom the gospel is preached, or who are called by the outward dispensation of it, some do pretend ; and that "because those unto whom the word is so preached, if they do not actually believe, shall perish eternally, as is positively declared in the gospel, Mark xvi. 16; but this they could not justly do if they had not received a power or faculty of believing."
Ans. 1. Those who believe not upon the proposal of Christ in the gospel are left without remedy in the guilt of those other sins, for which they must perish eternally. "If ye believe not," saith Christ, " that I am he, ye shall die in your sins," John viii. 24.
2. The impotency that is in men, as to the act of believing, is /contracted by their own fault, both as it ariseth from the original
depravation of nature, and as it is increased by corrupt prejudices and contracted habits of sin: wherefore, they justly perished of whom yet it is said that " they could not believe," John xii. 39.
3. There is none by whom the gospel is refused, but they put forth an act of the will in its rejection, which all men are free unto and able for: "I would have gathered you, but ye would not," Matt, xxiii. 37. "Ye will not come to me, that ye may have life," [John V. 40.]
I But the Scripture positively affirms of some to whom the gospel ' was preached that " they could not believe," John xii. 39 ; and of all natural men, that " they cannot receive the things of God," 1 Cor. ii. 14. Neither is it " given" unto all to " know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven," but to some only, Matt. xi. 25, xiii. 11 ; and those to whom it is not so given have not the power intended. Besides, faith is not of all, or " all have not faith," 2 Thess. iii. 2, but it is peculiar to the " elect of God," Tit. i. 1 ; Acts xiii. 48 ; and these elect are but some of those that are called. Matt. xx. 1 6.
Yet faither to clear this, it may be observed, that this first act of willing may be considered two ways : — ^1. As it is wrought in the will subjectively, and so it is formally only in that faculty ; and in this sense the will is merely passive, and only the subject moved or acted. And in this respect the act of God's grace in the will is an act of the will. But, 2. It may be considered as it is efficiently also in the will, as, being acted, it acts itself So it is from the will as its prin- ciple, and is a vital act thereof, which gives it the nature of obe- dience. Thus the will in its own nature is mobilis, fit and meet to be wrought upon by the grace of the Spirit to faith and obedience ; with respect unto the creating act of grace working faith in us, it is mota, moved and acted thereby; and in respect of its own elicit act, as it so acted and moved, it is movens, the next efficient cause thereof These things being premised for the clearing of the nature of the operation of the Spirit in the first communication of grace unto us,