CHAP, v.] OF EEGENEPvATIOF. 323
and tlie will's compliance therewithal, we return unto our arguments or testimonies given unto the actual collation of faith ^ upon us by the Spirit and grace of God, which must needs be effectual and irre- sistible; for the contrary implies a contradiction, — namely, that God should " work what is not wrought : " — Phil. i. 29, " To you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake." To "believe on Christ" expresseth saving faith itself. This is "given" unto us. And how is it given us? Even by the power of God " working in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure," chap. ii. 13. Our faith is our coming to Christ. "And no man," saith he, " can come unto me, except it be given unto him of my Father," John vi. Q5. All power in ourselves for this end is utterly taken away: "No man can come unto me."^ However we may suppose men to be prepared or disposed, whatever arguments may be pro- posed unto them, and in what season soever, to render things con- gTuous and agreeable unto their inclinations, yet no man of himself can believe, can come to Christ, unless faith itself be " given unto him," — -that is, be wrought in him by the grace of the Father, Phil, i. 29. So it is again asserted, and that both negatively and posi- tively, Eph. ii. 8, " By grace are ye saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God." Our own ability, be it what it wall, however assisted and excited, and God's gift, are contradistin- guished. If it be "of ourselves," it is not " the gift of God ;" if it be " the gift of God," it is not " of ourselves." And the manner how God bestows this gift upon us is declared, verse 10, " We are his w^orkmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." Good works, or gospel obedience, are the things designed. These must proceed from faith, or they are not acceptable with God, Heb. xi. 6. And the way whereby this is wrought in us, or a principle of obedi- ence, is by a creating act of God : " We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus." In like manner God is said to " give us repent- ance," 2 Tim. ii. 25; Acts xi. 18. This is the whole of what we plead : God in our conversion, by the exceeding greatness of his power, as he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, actually worketh faith and repentance in us, gives them unto us,
' " Si qiais sine gratia Dei credentibus, volentibus, desiderantibus, conantibus miseri- cordiam dicit conferri divinitus; non autem ut credamus, velimus, per infusionem et inspirationem Spiritus Saucti in nobis fieri confitetui', anatliema sit." — Cone. Arausic. ii. can. 6.
'• Datur potestas iit filii Dei fiant qui credunt in eum, cum hoc ipsum datur ut cre- dant in eum. Quae potestas nisi detur a Deo nulla esse potest ex libero arbitrio, quia nee libenim bono erit quod liberator non liberaverit." — August, lib. i. cent. Duas Epist. Pelag. cap. 3.
2 " Rcstat ut ipsam fidem undo omnis justitia sumit initium, non humane, quo isti extolluutur, tribuamus arbitrio, nee ullis precedentibus meritis, quoniam inde incipiunt bona cjurecunque sunt merita, sed gratuitum Dei douum esse fateamur, si gratiam veram, id est, sine meritis cogitaraus." — August. Epist. cv.
324 THE NATUEEj CAUSES, AND MEAKS [BOOK III.
bestows them on us; so that they are mere effects of his grace in us. And his working in us infalhbly produceth the effect intended, be- cause it is actual faith that he works, and not only a power to believe, which we may either put forth and make use of or suffer to be fruit- less, according to the pleasure of our own wills. '
Secondly, As God giveth and worketh in us faith and repentance, so the luay whereby he doth it, or the manner how he is said to effect them in us, makes it evident that he doth it by a power in- fallibly efficacious, and which the will of man doth never resist; for this way is such as that he thereby takes away all repugnancy, all resistance, all opposition, every thing that lieth in the way of the effect intended; Deut. xxx. 6, "The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Loed thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live," A denial of the work here intended is expressed chap. xxix. 4, " The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day." What it is to have the heart circum- cised the apostle declares. Col. ii. IL It is the "putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ," — that is, by our conversion to God. It is the giving " an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear," — that is, spiritual light and obedience, ■ — by the removal of all obstacles and hinderances. This is the imme- diate work of the Spirit of God himself No man ever circumcised his own heart. No man can say he began to do it by the power of his own will, and then God only helped him by his grace. As the act of outward circumcision on the body of a child was the act of another, and not of the child, who was only passive therein, but the effect was in the body of the child only, so is it in this spiritual circumcision, — it is the act of God, whereof our hearts are the subject. And whereas it is the blindness, obstinacy, and stubbornness in sin that is in us by nature, with the prejudices which possess our minds and affec- tions, which hinder us from conversion unto God, by this circum- cision they are taken away ; for by it the " body of the sins of the flesh is put off." And how should the heart resist the work of grace, when that whereby it should resist is effectually taken away?