2. Whence ariseth the disjunctive force of this argument, " Either by immediate actings upon their wills, or he maketh use of those exhortations?" as though the one way were exclusive of the other, and that the Scripture did not abundantly and plentifully ascribe both these unto God ; both that he exhorts us to know him, love him, believe in him, and gives us an understanding and a heart so to do, working faith and love in us by the exceeding efficacy of his power and Spirit. I say, then, that God works immediately by his Spirit in and on the wills of his saints; that is, he puts forth a real physical power that is not contained in those exhortations,
XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTEINE EEFUTED. 443
though he doth it by, and in, and with them. The impotency that is in us to do good is not amiss termed ethico-physica, both natural and moral; and the applications of God to the soul in their doing good are both really and physically efficient and moral also, the one consisting in the efficacy of his Spirit, the other lying in the exhor- tations of the word, yet so as that the efficacy of the Spirit is exerted by and with the moral efficacy of the word, his work being but grace or the law in the heart, the word being the law written. So that all the ensuing reasonings are bottomed upon things male di- visa, that stand in a sweet harmony and compliance with each other.
But Mr Goodwin tells you, " That if God work by his S23irit and his gi'ace immediately on the wills of men, to cause them to perse- vere, then are exhortations no means of their perseverance."
Why so, I pray? It seems we must have no internal effectual grace from God, or no outward exhortations of the word ; but he tells you it must be so, " Because if the will be ph5^sically and irresistibly acted and drawn by God to do such and such things, it needeth no addition of moral means; such are exhortations thereunto." That is, if the will be effectually inclined to the ways of God by his grace, there is then no need of the exhortations of the word. But yet, —
1. The Spirit of God, though he has an immediate efficacy of his own by and with those exhortations, yet by those exhortations he also inclines the will; and as he works on the will as corrupt and impotent by his grace, so he works on the will (as the will, or as such a faculty, is apt to be wrought upon by a mediation of the un- derstanding) by exhortations.
2. To say, " Obedience would have been produced and wrought had there been no exhortations," is not required of us, what efficacy soever we ascribe to grace, unless we also deny exhortations to be appointed of God and to be used by the Spirit of God for the pro- ducing of that obedience. Neither, —
3. Doth God work upon the will as a distinct faculty alone of it- self, without suiting his operations to the other faculties of the soul ; nor is grace to be wrought or carried on in us merely as we have wills, but as we have understandings also, whereby the exhortations he is pleased to use may be conveyed to the will and affect it in their kind. In a word, this is but repeating what was said before, " If there be any effectual grace, there is no use of exhortations ; or if exhortations be the means of continuing or increasinsf grace, what need the efficacy of grace or immediate actings of the Spirit, ' working in us to will and to do of God's good pleasure?'" What validity there is in these inferences will be easily discerned. God worketh grace in men as men, and as men impotent and corrupt by sin. As men he works upon them by means suited to their rational being, — by precepts and exhortations; but as men impotent and corrupt by
444 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PEESEVERANCE. [CHAP.
sin, they stand in need of his effectual power to work that in them which he requireth of them. Of the terms wherewith his arguing in this case is clouded and darkened, enough hath been remarked already.
His second argument to this purpose, namely, " That the inclina- tion of the will to good and to persevere in a saint must be after his being inade a saint," is as weak and no less sophistical than the former. That inclination is radically wrought in every believer at his conversion, the Spirit being bestowed on him, which shall abide with him for ever, and the seed of God laid in his heart, that shall remain and never utterly fail, with an habitual inclination to the exercise of all those graces wherein their persevering doth consist. Actually this is wrought in them according to the particular duties and actings of grace that are required of them ; which they are carried forth unto by the daily influence of life, power, and grace, which they receive from Christ their head, without whom they can do nothing.
Neither is the third exception of any more validity, being only a repetition of what was spoken before, rendered something more impe- dite, dark, and intricate, by the terms of " physically," " irresistibly," and " necessitated;" which how far and wherein we do allow hath been frequently declared. The sum of what is spoken amounts to this, " God's real work in and upon the soul by his Spirit and grace is inconsistent with exhortations to obedience;" which we have before disproved, and do reject it as an assertion destructive to all the efficacy of the grace of God and the whole work of it upon the souls of men.