' " Fides vocatur opus Dei, quia Deus ipse id a nobis fieri postulat." — Rem. Apol., cap. X. p. 112.
!* " La (iu;e do liahituum infusione dicuntur, ante omncm fidei actum, rcjiciuntur a nobis."— Ejiist. ad Wiil, p. 07.
3 II Principium iutcriivim tidei a nobis in evangelic rcquisitum, esse liabitum quendam divinitus intusum, cujus vi ac cfficacitate voluntas dcterminetui- ; hoc negavi." — Gre- vinch. ad Ames., p. 324.
< " Quid in co positum est, quod liomo discriminare seipsum dicitur? Nihil vcrius; fjui fidem Deo piweipienti liahet, is discriminat se ab co qui Deo pnvcipienti lideui habeie non vult." — Ivem. Apol., cap. xiv. p. 1-14.
OF FREE-WILL AS PREPARING FOR CONVERSION. 125
with the apostles', they would do well to forbear the naked obtrusion of assertions so contradictory to theirs; and so they would not trouble the church. Let them take all the glory unto themselves, as doth Grevinchovius. ^ " I make myself," saith he, " differ from another when I do not resist God and his divine predetermination ; which I could have resisted. And why may I not boast of this as of mine own? That I could is of God's mercy" (endowing his nature with such an ability as you heard before) ; "but that I would, when I might have done otherwise, is of my power," Now, when, after all this, they are forced to confess some evangelical grace, though consisting only in a moral persuasion by the outward preaching of the word, they teach, —
Thirdly, That God sendeth the gospel, and revealeth Christ Jesus unto men, according as they well dispose themselves for such a bless- ing. ^"Sometimes," say they in their synod ical writings, "God calleth this or that nation, people, city, or person, to the communion of evangelical grace, whom he himself pronounceth worthy of it, in comparison of others." So that whereas. Acts xviii. 10, God en- courageth Paul to preach at Corinth by affirming that he had " much people in that city" (which, doubtless, were his people then only by virtue of their election), in these men's judgments ^"they were called so because that even then they feared God, and served him with all their hearts, according to that knowledge they had of him, and so were ready to obey the preaching of St Paul." Strange doctrine, that men should fear God, know him, serve him in sin- cerity, Ijefore they ever heard of the gospel, and by these means deserve that it should be preached unto them ! This is that pleas- ing of God before faith that they plead for. Act. Synod., p. 60 ; that ^"preparation and disposition to believe, which men attain by the law and virtuous education;" that "something which is in sinners,^ whereby though they are not justified, yet they are made worthy of justification." For *"' conversion and the performance of
' " Ego mcipsum discerno, cum enim Deo ac divinae prEedeterminationi resistere possem, non restiti tamen. Atqui in eo qiiidiu liceat milii tanquam de meo gloriari ? Quod enim potui Dei miserentis est, quod autcm volui cum possem nolle, id laese potes- tatis est." — Grevinch. ad Ames., p. 253.
2 " Interdum Deus banc vel illam gentem, civitatem, personam, ad evangelicse gratise commtmionem vocat, quam ipse dignam pronuntiat comparative," etc. — Rem. Declarat. Sent. Synod.
3 " lUi, in quorvmi gratiam, Dominus Paulum in Corinthum misit, dicuntur Dei po- pulus, quia Deum tum timebant, eique, secundum cognitionem quam de eo habebant, serviebant exauimo, et sic ad prtedicationem Pauli," etc. — Corv. ad Molin. iii. sect. 27.
* " Per legem, vel per piam educationcm vel per institutionem— per btec enim bomi- nem praeparari et disponi ad credendum, planissimimi est." — Rem. Act. Synod.
5 " Prascedit aliquid in peccatoribus, quo quamvis nondum justificati simt, digni effi- ciantur justificatione."- — Urevincb. ad Ames., p. 434.
* " Tenendum est, veram conversionem prajstationemque bonorum operum esse con- ditionem pvasrcquisitam ante justificationcm." — Filii Arm. Prasf. ad cap. vii. ad Rem.
126 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
good works is," in their apprehension, " a condition pre-reqiiired to justification," for so speak the children of Arminius; which if it be not an expression not to be paralleled in the Avritings of any Chris- tian, I am something mistaken. The sum of their doctrine, then, in this particular concerning the power of free-will in the state of sin and unregeneration, is, That every man having a native, inbred 2')ower of believing in Christ upon the revelation of the gospel, hath also an ability of doing so much good as shall jjrocure of God that the gospel be preached unto him; to which, vjithout any internal assistance of grace, he can give assent and yield obedience; the pre- paratory acts of his oivn will always p>roceeding so far as to make him excel others ivho do not perforin them, and are therefore ex- cluded from farther grace ; — which is more gross Pelagianism than Pelagius himself would ever justify. Wherefore Ave reject all the former positions, as so many monsters in Christian religion, in whose room we assert these that follow: —
First, That we, being by nature dead in trespasses and sins, have no power to prepare ourselves for the receiving of God's grace, nor in the least measure to believe and turn ourselves unto him. Not that we deny that there are any conditions pre-required in us for our conversion, dispositions preparing us in some measure for our new birth or regeneration ; but we affirm that all these also are the effects of the grace of God, relating to that alone as their proper cause, for of ourselves, " without him, we can do nothing," John xv. 5, " We are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of our- selves," 2 Cor. iii. 5, miich less do that which is good. In respect of that, " every one of our mouths must be stopped ; " for " we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God," Rom. iil 19, 23. We are " by nature the children of wrath, dead in trespasses and sins," Eph. ii. 1-3 ; Rom. viii. 6. Our new birth is a resurrection from death, wrought by the greatness of God's power. And what ability, I pray, hath a dead man to prepare himself for his resurrection? Can he collect his scattered dust, or renew his perished senses? If the leopard can change his spots, and the Ethiopian his skin, then can we do good who by nature are taught to do evil, Jer. xiii. 23. We are all " ungodly," and " without strength" considered, when Christ died for us, Rom. v. 6 ; " wise to do evil," but " to do good we have no strength, no knowledge." Yea, all the faculties of our souls, by rea- son of that spiritual death under which we are detained by the cor- ruption of nature, are altogether useless, in respect of any power for the doing of that which is truly good. Our understandings are blind or " darkened, being alienated from the life of God tlirough the ignorance that is in us, because of the blindness of our hearts," Eph. iv. 18 ; whereby we become even " darkness" itself, chap. v. 8. So void