' "Illud certlssimum est, nee jubendum esse quod efficitur, nee efficiendum quod jubetur. Stulte jubet et vult ab alio fieri aliquid, qui ipse quod jubet in eo efficere vult." — Eem. Apol, cap. ix. p. 105, a.
- " At exigua conclusione pene tu totum Pelagianum dogma confirmas, dicendo, nullius laudis esse ac meriti; si id in eo Cliristus quod ipse donaverat pi'tetulisset." — Prosp. ad CoUat., cap. xxxvi.
* " Da, Domine, quod jubes, et jube quod vis." — Aug.
* " 0 Domine, doce nos quid agamus ; quo gradiamur o.stende ; quid efficiamus ope- rare." — Ben. Pap. in Concil. Legunstad.
« " Multa in homine bona fiunt, quae non facit homo : nulla vero faeit homo bona, ^use non Deus prgestet ut faciat." — Consil. Aran. ii. can. 20. " Quoties enim bona agimus, Deus in nobis et nobiscum, ut operemur, operatur." — Can. 9.
104 A DISPLAY OF AEMINIANIS:\L
renounce their heresy. But of this, after I have a httle farther laid open tliis monstrous error from their own words and writings.
^" Can any one," say they, " wisely and seriously prescribe the per- formance of a condition to another, under the promise of a reward and threatening of punishment, who will effect it in him to whom it is prescribed? This is a ridiculous action, scarce worthy of the stage." That is, seeing Christ hath affirmed that " he that believeth shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned," Mark xvi. 16, whereby faith is established the condition of salvation, and unbelief threatened with hell, if God should by his Holy Spirit ingenei'ate faith in the hearts of any, causing them so to fulfil the condition, it were a mere mockery, to be exploded from a theatre as an unlikely fiction ; which, what an aspersion it casts upon the whole gospel of Christ, yea, on all God's dealings with the children of men ever since, by reason of the fall, they became unable of themselves to fulfil his commands, I leave to all men's silent judgment. Well, then, seeing they must be accounted atfuorara, things inconsistent, that God should be so righteous as to show us our duty, and yet so good and merciful as to bestow his graces on us, let us hear more of this stuff. ^" Faith and conversion cannot be our obedience, if they are wrought in us by God," say they at the Hague ; and Episcopius, ®" That it is a most absurd thing to affirm that God either effects by his power, or procureth by his wisdom, that the elect should do those things that he requireth of them." So that where the Scripture calls faith the gift and work of God, they say it is an improper locution, inasmuch as he commands it ; properly, it is an act or work of our own. And for that renowned saying of St Augustine, that *" God crowneth his own gifts in us,'" " it is not to be received without a grain of salt;" that is, some such gloss as wherewith they coiTupt the Scripture. The sum at which they aim is, that to affirm that God bestoweth any graces upon us, or effectually worketh them in us, contradicteth his word requiring them as our duty and obedience. By which means they have erected their idol into the throne of God's free grace and mercy, and attribute imto it all the praise due to those many heavenly qualifications the servants of God are endowed withal, for they never have more good in them, no, nor so much, as is
» " Anne conditionera quis scrio ct sapicnter pra?scribct altcri, sub proniisso prreniii et poena; gvavissinitc comniinatione, qui cam, iu co cui procscribit efficerc vult? Ilacc actio tota ludici-a, ct vix sccna digna est." — Rem. Apol., cap. ix. p. 105, a.
» "Fides ct convcvsio non possunt esse obedientia, si tantum ab aliquo, in alio, efliciantur." — I'cni. (kdl. llsig., p. 19(5.
» " Absurdem est statuerc Deuni ant cfficci'e per potentiam, aut procurare per sa- pientiam, ut clccti ca faciant, quas ab ipsis, ut ipsi ea faciant, esigit ct postulat." — Ilpiscop., Di.sp. Pri. viii. tlies. 7.
♦ Apol., cap. ix. ubi. sup. — "Dcura dona sua in nobis coronare, dictum hoc Augustim nisi cum grano salis accipiatur, neutiquara est admittendum.'' — Idem, ibid p. 115.
OF THE CAUSE OF FAITH. 105
required ; all tliat they have or do is but their duty ; — which, how derogatory it is to the merit of Christ, themselves seem to acknow- ledge, when they affirm that he is no otherwise said to be a Saviour than are all they who confirm the way to salvation by preaching, miracles, martyrdom, and example. So that, having quite over- thrown the merits of Christ,^ " they grant us to be our own saviours in a very large sense," Rem. Apol., fol. 96. All which assertions, how contrary they are to the express word of God, I shall now demonstrate.
There is not one of all those plain texts of Scripture, not one of those innumerable and invincible arguments, whereby the effectual working of God's grace in the conversion of a sinner, his powerful translating us from death to life, from the state of sin and bondage to the liberty of the sons of God, which doth not overthrow this pro- digious error. I will content myself with instancing in some few of them which are directly opposite unto it, even in terms: —