Secondly, That concerning which I gave one special instance, in whose production the Arminiaus attribute much to free-will, is faith. This they affirm (as I showed before) to be inbred in nature, every one having in him from his birth a natural power to believe in Christ and his gospel ; for Episcopius denies that ^ " any action of the Holy Spirit upon the understanding or will is necessary, or promised in the Scripture, to make a man able to believe the word preached unto him." So that it seems every man hath at all times a power to believe, to produce the act of faith upon the revelation of its object: which gross Pelagianism is contrary, —
First, To the doctrine of the church of England, affirming that a man cannot so much as prepare himself by his own strength to ftiith
' " Au uUa actio S. S. immcdiata iu jueiitcm aut voluntatcm neccssaria sit, aut in Scriptura promittatur ad hoc, ut cjuis credere possit verbo extrinsccus proposito, ne- gativam tuebimur." — Episcop., Disput. Privat.
OF FREE-WILL AS PREPARING FOR CONVERSION. 123
and calling upon God, until the grace of God by Christ prevent him, that he may have a good will. — Artie, x.
Secondly, To the Scripture, teaching that it is " the work of God that we do believe," John vi. 29. It is " not of ourselves ; it is the gift of God," Eph. ii. 8. To some " it is given to know the mys- teries of the kingdom of heaven," Matt. xiii. 11. And what is pecu- liarly given to some cannot be in the power of every one : " To you it is given in the behalf of Christ to believe on him," Phil. i. 2,9. Faith is our access or coming unto Christ ; which none can do " except the Father draw him," John vi. 44; and he so draweth, or "hath mercy, on whom he will have mercy," Rom. ix. 18. And although Episcopius rejects any immediate action of the Holy Spirit for the ingenerating of faith, yet St Paul affirmeth that there is no less effectual power required to it than that which raised Christ from the dead ; which, sure, was an action of the almighty Godhead. " That ye may know," saith he, " what is the exceeding greatness of his power to US-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead," Eph. i. 18-20. So that, let the Arminians say what they please, recalling that I write to Christians, 1 will spare my labour of farther proving that faith is the free gift of God ; and their opposition to the truth of the Scripture in this particular is so evident to the meanest capacity that there needs no recapitulation to present the sum of it to their understandings.
CHAPTER XIII.
Of the power of free-will in preparing us for our conversion unto God.
The judgment of the Arminians concerning the power of free-will about spiritual things in a man unregenerate, merely in the state of corrupted nature, before and without the help of grace, may be laid open by these following positions: —
First, That every man in the world, reprobates and others, have in themselves power and ability of believing in Christ, of repenting and yielding due obedience to the new covenant; and that because they lost not this power by the fall of Adam. ^ " Adam after his fall," saith Grevinchovius, "retained a power of believing; and so did all reprobates in him." ^" He did not lose" (as they speak at the synod)
1 " Adamus post lapsum potentiam credendi retinuit, et reliqui reprobi etiam in illo." — Grevinch. ad Ames., p. 183.
- " Adamus non amisit vires earn obedientiam prcestandi qu£e in novo foedere exi- gitur, prout puta ea consideratur formaliter, hoc est, prout novo foedere exacta est, nee potentiam credendi amisit ; nee amisit potentiam, per resipiscentiam, ex peccato resu*- gendi." — Rem. Declar. Sent, in Synod., p. 107.
124 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
*' the power of performing that obedience which is required in the new covenant considered formally, as it is required by the new covenant; he lost not a power of believing, nor a power of forsaking sin by re- pentance/' And those graces that he lost not are still in our power. Whence they affirm, that ^" faith is called the work of God only be- cause he requireth us to do it/' Now, having appropriated this power unto themselves, to be sure that the grace of God be quite excluded, which before they had made needless, they teach, —
Secondly, That for the reducing of this power into act, that men may become actual believers, there is no infused habit of grace, no spiritual vital principle, necessary for them, or bestowed upon them; but every one, by the use of his native endowments, doth make himself differ from others. ^" Those things which are spoken con- cerning the infusion of habits before Ave can exercise the act of faith, we reject,'' saith the epistle to the Walachians. ^" That the internal principle of faith required in the gospel is a habit divinely infused, by the strength and efficacy whereof the will should be determined, I deny," saith another of them. Well, then, if we must grant that the internal vital principle of a supernatural spiritual grace is a mere natural faculty, not elevated by any divine habit, — if it be not God that begins the good work in us, but our own free-wills, — let us see what more goodly stuff will follow. One man by his own mere en- deavours, without the aid of any received gift, makes himself differ from another. *" What matter is it in that, that a man should make himself differ from others? There is nothing truer; he who yieldeth faith to God commanding him, maketh himself differ from him who will not have faith when he commandeth." They are the words of their Apology, Avhich, without question, is an irrefragable truth, if faith be not a gift received from above; for on that ground only the apostle proposeth these questions, " Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? noAv if thou didst receive, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received ?" The sole cause why he denies any one by his own power to make himself differ from another is, because that wherein the difference consisteth is " received," being freely bestowed upon him. Deny this, and I con- fess the other will fall of itself But until their authority be equal