OF OUR CONVERSION TO GOD.
129
S. S.
" Of ourselves we can do no- thing/' John XV. 5. " We are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves/' 2 Cor. iii. 5. "We are by nature the children of wrath, dead in trespasses and sins/' Eph. ii. 1-3.
" Faith is not of ourselves : it is the gift of God/' Eph. ii. 8.
"Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive, Avhy dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received?" 1 Cor. iv. 7.
" Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? then may ye also do good, who are taught to do evil," Jer. xiii. 23.
" Believing on him that justi- fieth the ungodly," Rom. iv. 5. " Being justified freely by his grace," chap. iii. 24.
" I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast re- vealed them unto babes. Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight/' Matt. xi. 25, 26.
Lib. Arbit. " We retain still after the fall a power of believing and of re- pentance, because Adam lost not this ability," Rem. Declar. Sen. in Synod.
"Faith is said to be the work of God, because he coramandeth us to perform it," Rem. Apol. " There is no infusion of any habit or spiritual vital principle necessary to enable a man to be- lieve," Corv.
" There is nothing truer than that one man maketh himself differ from another. He who be- lieveth when God commandeth, maketh himself differ from him who will not," Rem. Apol.
" I may boast of mine own, when I obey God's grace, which it was in my power not to obey, as well as to obey," Grevinch.
" True conversion and the per- formance of good works is a con- dition required on our part before justification," Filii Armin,
" God sendeth the gospel to such persons or nations, that in comparison of others maybe said to be worthy of it/' Rem. Apol.
CHAPTER XIV.
Of our conversion to God.
How little or nothing at all it is that the Arminians assign to the (trace of God, in performing the great work of our conversion, may VOL, X. 9
130 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
plainly appear from what I have showed already that they ascribe to our own free-will, so that I shall briefly pass that over, which otherwise is so copiously delivered in holy Scripture that it would require a far larger discussion. A prolix confirmation of the truth we profess will not suit so well with my intention ; which is merely to make a discovery of their errors, by not knowing the depths ■ whereof so many are deceived and inveigled.
Two things, in this great conjunction of grace and nature, the Ar- minians ascribe unto free-will: — first, A power of co-ojyeration antl Avorking with grace, to make it at all effectual ; secondly, A poiver of resisting its operation, and making it altogether ineffectual; God in the meantime bestowing no grace but what awaits an act issuing from one of these two abilities, and hath its effect accordingly. If a man will co-operate, then grace attains its end; if he will resist, it returns empty. To this end they feign all the grace of God be- stowed upon us for our conversion to be but a moral persuasion by his word, not an infusion of a new vital principle by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit. And, indeed, granting this, I shall most willingly comply with them in assigning to free-will one of tlie endowments before recited, — a power of resisting the operation of grace; but instead of the other, must needs ascribe to our whole corrupted nature, and every one that is partaker of it, a universal disability of obeying it, or coupling in that work which God by his grace doth intend. If the grace of our conversion be nothing but a moral persuasion, we have no more power of obeying it in that estate wherein we are dead in sin, than a man in his grave hath in himself to live anew and come out at the next call. God's promises and the saints' prayers in the holy Scripture seem to design such a kind of grace as should give us a real internal ability of doing that which is spiritually good. But it seems there is no such matter ; for if a man should persuade me to leap over the Thames, or to fly in the air, be he never so eloquent, his sole persuasion makes me no more able to do it than I was before ever I saw him. If God's grace be nothing but a sweet persuasion (though never so powerful), it is a thmg extrinsical, consisting in the proposal of a desired object, but gives us no new strength at all to do any thing we had not be- fore a power to do. But let us hear them pleading themselves to each of these particulars concerning grace and nature. And, —
First, for the nature of grace: ^" God hath appointed to save be- lievers by grace, — that is, a soft and sweet persuasion, convenient and agreeing to their free-will, — and not by any almighty action," sahh