Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." To Avhich may be added, Jer. xxiv, 7, " I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord : and they shall be my people, and I will be their God : so they shall return unto me with their whole heart." As also, Isa. xliv. 3-5, " I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods
CHAP, v.] OF REGENERATION. 325
upon the dry ground : I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses. One shall say, I am the Lord's," etc. So Jer. xxxi. 83, " I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.'" I shall first inquire two things about these concurrent testimonies: —
1. Is it lawful for us, is it our duty, to jivay that God would do and effect Avhat he hath promised to do, and that both for ourselves and others? — [We may pray] for ourselves, that the work of our conversion may be renewed, carried on, and consummated in the way and by the means whereby it was begun, that so " he which hath begun the good work in us may perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ," Phil. i. 6 ; for those who are converted and regenerated, and are persuaded on good and infallible grounds that so they are, may yet pray for those things which God promiseth to work in their first conversion. And this is because the same work is to be preserved and carried on in them by the same means, the same power, the same grace, wherewith it Avas begun. And the reason is, though this work, as it is merely the work of con- version, is immediately perfected and completed as to the being of it; yet as it is the heginning of a work of sanctification, it is continually to be renewed and gone over again, because of the remainder of sin in us and the imperfection of our grace. [And we may pray] for others, that it may be both begun and finished in them. And do we not in such prayers desire that God would really, powerfully, effectually, by the internal efficiency of his Spirit, take away all hinderances, op- positions, and repugnancy in our minds and wills, and actually col- late upon us, give unto us, and work in us, a new principle of obe- dience, that we may assuredly love, fear, and trust in God always? or do we only desire that God would so help us as to leave us ab- solutely undetermined whether we will make use of his help or no? Did ever any pious soul couch such an intention in his supplications? He knows not how to pray who prays not that God would, by his own immediate power, work those things in him which he thus prayeth for. And unto this prayer, also, grace effectual is antece- dently required.^ Wherefore, I inquire, —
2. Whether God doth really effect and work in any the things which he here promiseth that he will work and effect? If he do not, where is his truth and faithfulness? It is said that "he doth so, and will so do, provided that men do not refuse his tender of grace nor re- sist his operations, but comply with them." But this yields no relief, —
' " Semper quidcm atljutoriura gratia) nobis est a Deo poscendum, sed nee ipsum qttod possumus viribxis uostris assigucm. Neque cnim liabcri potest ipse saltern ora- tionis aft'ectus nisi divinitus fuerit attributus. Ut ergo desideremus adjutoriiim gratios, hoc ipsum quoque est gratiae, ipsa namque incipit efl'undi ut incipiat posci." — Fulgent. Epist. yI. ad Theod.
326 THE NATUKE, CAUSES, AND MEANS [BOOK III.
For, (1.) What is it oiot to i-efuse the grace of conversion, but to comply with it? Is it not to beheve, to obey, — to convert ourselves? So, then, God promiseth to convert us, on condition that we convert ourselves; to work faith in us, on condition that we do believe; and a new heart, on condition that we make our hearts new ourselves! To this are all the adversaries of the grace of God brought by those conditions which they feign of its efficacy to preserve the sovereignty of free-will in our conversion, — that is, unto plain and oj)en contra- dictions, which have been charged sufficiently upon them by others, and from which they could never extricate themselves. (2.) Where God promiseth^ thus to work, as these testimonies do witness, and doth not effectually do so, it must be either because he cannot or because he will not. If it be said that he doth it not because he will not, then this is that which is ascribed unto God, — that he pro- miseth indeed to take away our stony heart, and to give us a neiu heart with his law written in it, but he will not do so ; which is to overthrow his faithfulness, and to make him a liar. If they say it is because he cannot, seeing that men oppose and resist the grace whereby he would work this effect, then where is the wisdom of promising to work that in us which he knew he could not effect without our compliance, and which he knew that we would not com- ply withal? But it will be said that God promiseth to work and effect these things, but in such a way as he hath appointed, — that is, by giving such supplies of grace as may enable us thereunto, — which if we refuse to make use of, the fault is merely our own. Ans. It is the things themselves that are promised, and not such a communication of means to effect them as may produce them or may not, as the consideration of the place will manifest ; whereof observe, —