What his fourth argument also is but a repetition of the same things before crudely asserted in other terms, let them apprehend that can: " If God work faith and love in the hearts of his saints, and support them in them to the end, what place is left for exhorta- tions?" I say. Their own proper place, the place of means, of means appointed by God to stir up his to perseverance, and which himself makes, by his Spirit and the immediate efficacy thereof, effectual to that end and purpose. And I know no use of that query, " Are ex- hortations effectual to persuade men to persevere after the end?" it being built only on his false hypothesis and begging of the thing in question, namely, " That if God work faith and love, and continu- ance of them, in our hearts effectually by his grace, there is no need, no use of exhortations," though God so work them by and with those exhortations.
And this is his first attempt upon the first member of the division made by himself, wherein what success he hath obtained is left to the judgment of the reader; and but that I shall not, — having now the part of one that answers incumbent on me, — turn aside unto the proof of things denied, I should easily confirm what hath been given
XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE KEFUTED. 445
in for the removal of his objections from the testimony of God, by innumerable places of Scripture.
He proceeds, then, sect. 6, and says, " Secondly, Neither can the latter of the said consequences stand. God doth not make use of the said exhortations to influence or affect the wills of the saints upon any such terms as thereby to make them infallibly, unfrustrably, ne- cessitatingly, willing to persevere, or to do the things upon which perseverance depend etli.
" For, first, If so, then one and the same act of the will should be both physical and moral, and so be specifically distinguished in and from itself For so far as it is produced by the irresistible force or power of the Spirit of God, it must needs be physical, the said irre- sistible working of the Spirit being a physical action, and so not proper to produce a moral effect. Again, as far as the said exhorta- tions are means to produce or raise this act of the will, or contribute any thing towards it, it must needs be moral, because exhortations are moral causes, and so not capable of producing physical, natural, or necessary effects. Now, then, if it be impossible that one and the same act of the will should be both physical and moral, — that is, necessary and not necessary, — impossible also it is that it should be produced by the irresistible working of God and by exhortations of this joint efficiency.
" It may be objected, ' They who hold or grant such an influence or operation of the Spirit of God upon the will which is frustrable or resistible, do and must suppose it to be a physical action as well as that which is irresistible. If so, then the act of the will, so far as it is raised by the means of this action or operation of God, must, ac- cording to the tenor of the former argument, be physical also, and so the pretended impossibility is no more avoided by this opinion than by the other."
" I answer, Though such an operation of God upon the will as is here mentioned be, in respect of God and of the manner of its pro- ceeding from him, physical, yet, in respect of the nature and substance of it, it is properly moral ; because it impresseth and affecteth the will upon which it is acted after the manner of moral causes, properly so called, — that is,persuadingly,not ravishingly or necessitatingly. When a minister of the gospel in his preaching presseth or persuadeth men to such and such duties or actions, this act, as it proceedeth from him, — I mean, as it is raised by his natural abilities of understanding and speaking, — is physical or natural, but in respect of the substance or native tendency of it it is clearly moral, namely, because it tend- eth to incline or move the wills of men to such or such elections without necessitating them thereunto; and so comports with those arguments or exhortations, in their manner of efficiency, by which he presseth or moveth them to such things. By the way, to prevent
446 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
stumbling aud quarrelliug, it no way follows from the premises that a minister in his preaching or persuading unto duties should do as much as God himself doth in or towards the persuading of men here- unto. It only follows that the minister doth co-operate with God (which the apostle himself aflfirms) in order to one and the same effect; — that is, that he operateth in one and the same kind of efficiency with God, morally or persuadingly, not necessitating; for where one necessitates and another only persuades, they cannot be said to co- operate or work the one with the other, no more than two, when the one runs and the other walks a soft pace, can be said to go or walk together. But when two persuade in one and the same action, one may persuade more effectually by many degrees than the other, may have a peculiar tact or method of persuading above the other."