' "Deus statuit salvarc ercdcutcs per grutiani, id est, leiiom ac sxiavcm liberoquo ipsovuin ai'bitrio convenieuteni sen congruam suasioucm, non pcv ouinipotentem actio- nem sou motionem." — Armin. Autip , p. 211.
OF OUR CONVERSION TO GOD. 131
Arminius. It seems somethinof strange, that " the carnal mind bein^i' enmity against God/' and the will inthralled to sin, and full of wretched opposition to all his ways, yet God should have no other means to work them over unto him but some persuasion that is sweet, agreeable, and congruous unto them in that estate wherein they are. And a small exaltation it is of the dignity and power of grace, when the chief reason why it is effectual, as Alvarez observes, may be reduced to a well-digested supper or an undisturbed sleep, whereby some men may be brought into better temper than ordinary to comply with this congTUOus grace. But let us for the present accept of this, and grant that God doth call some by such a con- gruous persuasion, at such a time and place as he knows they will assent unto it. I ask whether God thus calleth all men, or only some? If all, why are not all converted? for the very granting of it to be congruous makes it effectual. If only some, then why them, and not others? Is it out of a special intention to have them obe- dient? But let them take heed, for this will go near to establish the decree of election ; and out of what other intention it should be they shall never be able to determine. Wherefore ^Corvinus denies that any such congTuity is required to the grace whereby we are converted, but only that it be a moral persuasion ; which we may obey if we will, and so make it effectual. Yea, and Arminius him- self, after he had defended it as far as he was able, puts it off from himself, and falsely fathers it upon St Austin. So that, as they jointly affirm, ^"they confess no grace for the begetting of faith to be necessary, but only that which is moral;'' which one of them in- terpreteth to be ^" a declaration of the gospel unto us;'"' — right like their old master, Pelagius. " God," saith he, ■"' worketh in us to will that which is good and to will that which is holy, whilst he stirs us up with promise of rewards and the greatness of the future glory, who before were given over to earthly desires, like brute beasts, loving nothing but things present, stirring up our stupid wills to a desire of God by a revelation of wisdom, and persuading us to all that is good." Both of them affirm the grace of God to be nothing but a moral persuasion, working by the way of powerful, convincing argu- ments ; but yet herein Pelagius seems to ascribe a greater efficacy to
1 Corv. ad Molin. — " His ita expositis ex mente Augustini," etc. — Armin. Antip. De Elec.
2 " Fatemur, aliam nobis ad actum fidei eliciendum necessarian! gratiam non agnosci quam movalem." — Rem. Act. Synod, ad Art. iv.
3 " Annuntiatio doctrinse evangelic^e." — Popp. August. Port. p. 110.
* " OpcratuT in nobis velle quod bonuni est, velle quod sanctum est, dum nos terrc- nis cupiditatibus deditos mutorum more animalium, tantummodo prtEsentia diligcnt^s, faturne glorise magnitudine et prcemionim pollicitatione, succendit: dum revclationo sapientice in desideriuni Dei stupentem suscitat Toluntatem, diuu nobis suauet omne quod bonmn est."— Pelag., ap. Aug. de Grat. Cii. cap. x.
132 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
it than the Arminians, granting that it Avorks upon us when, after the manner of brute beasts, we are set merely on earthly things. But these, as they confess that, for the production of faith,^ it is ne- cessary that such arguments be proposed on the part of God to which nothing can probably be opposed why they should not seem credible ; so there is, say they, required on our part a pious docility and probity of mind. So that all the grace of God bestowed on us consisteth in persuasive arguments out of the word; which, if they meet with teachable minds, may work their conversion.
Secondly, Having thus extenuated the grace of God, they affirm, ^" that in operation the efficacy thereof dependeth on free-will:" so the Remonstrants in their Apology. '"And to speak confidently," saith Grevinchovlus, " I say that the effect of grace, in an ordinary course, dependeth on some act of our free-will." Suppose, then, that of two men made partakers of the same grace, — that is, [who] have the gospel preached unto them by the same means, — one is con- verted and the other is not, what may be the cause of this so great a difference? Was there any intention or purpose in God that one should be changed rather than the other? " No; he equally desireth and intendeth the conversion of all and every one." Did, then, God work more powerfully in the heart of the one by his Holy Spirit than of the other? " No ; the same operation of the Spirit always accom- panieth the same preaching of the word." But was not one, by some almighty action, made partaker of real infused grace, which the other attained not unto? "No; for that would destroy the liberty of his will, and deprive him of all the praise of believing." How, then, came this extreme difference of effects? who made the one differ from the other? or what hath he that he did not receive? "' Why, all this pro- ceedeth merely from the strength of his own free-will yielding obe- dience to God's gracious invitation, which, like the other, he might have rejected: this is the immediate cause of his conversion, to which all the praise thereof is due." And here the old idol may glory to all the world, that if he can but get his worshippers to prevail in this, ho hath quite excluded the grace of Christ, and made it " nomen inane," a mere title, whereas there is no such thing in the world.