3. How comes the same act or operation in respect of its man- ner of proceeding from its agent to be physical, and in respect of its substance to be moral? or, is any act moral in respect of its sub- stance, or is its morality an adjunct of it, in respect of the regard it hath to some rule and farther end ? It is an easy thing for any to heap up such crude assertions, and in the meantime not to know what they say nor whereof they do affirm. But the reason why the acts of God intimated are moral is, " because they persuade the will only, or work persuadingly, not ravishingly or necessitatingly." That is, in plain terms, there is no operation of the grace or Sisirit of God in the w'orking of any good in the hearts or wills of men, but only what consisteth in persuasion of them thereunto. For any real effi- ciency as to the communication of strength in " working in us to will and to do," it is wholly excluded. God only persuades, men have the power in themselves, and of themselves they do it, let the Scrip- ture say what it will to the contrary. For those terms of " ravishingly or necessitatingly," which are opposed to this moral persuasion, where- unto the operations of God for the production of any good in us are tied up and confined, we have been now so inured to them that they do not at all startle us. When Mr Goodwin shall manifest that God cannot, by the greatness of his power, work in us to will without ravishing our wills, if we guess aright at the intendment of that ex- pression, he will advance to a considerable success in this contest, not only against us, but God himself.
But an objection presents itself to our author, which he sees a necessity to attempt the removal of, lest an apprehension of its truth should prove prejudicial to the receiving of his dictates; and this is, " That if it be so, that God worketh on the will of man by the way of persuasion only, he doth no more than the ministers of the gospel do, who persuade men by the word to that which is good." To this he tells you, " That it indeed follows that God and ministers work on the will of man in the same way, with the same kind of efficiency; but yet in respect of degrees, God may persuade more effectually than a minister."
1. That all really efficient, internal, working grace of God was denied by Mr Goodwin, was before discovered; here only it is more plainly asserted: "All the workings of God on the wills of men unto
452 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
good are merely by persuasion." Persuasion, we know, gives no strength, adds no power, to him that is persuaded to any thing. It only provokes him and irritates him to put forth, exert, and exercise, the power which is in himself unto the things whereunto he is per- suaded, upon the motives and grounds of persuasion proposed to him ; and the whole effect produced, on that account, is in solidum to be ascribed to the really efficient cause of it, howsoever incited or stirred up. Whereas, then, men by nature are dead, blind, unbelieving, enemies to God, he only persuades them to exert the power that is in them, and thereby to live, see, believe, and be reconciled to him. And this is to exalt the free grace of God by Jesus Christ ! We know full well who have gone before you in these paths, but shall heartily pray that none of the saints of God may follow after you into this contempt of the work of his grace. But, —
2. If nothing but persuasion be allowed to God in the work of men's conversion, and in the carrying on of their obedience to the end, wherein doth the persuasion of God consist, in distinction from the persuasion used in and from the word by ministers, which it is pretended that it may excel (though it is not affirmed that it dotli) by many degrees? Let it be considered, I say, in what acts of the will, or power of God, his persuasion, so distinct as above mentioned, doth consist; let us know what arguments he useth, by what means he applies them, how he conveys them to the wills of men, that are not coincident with those of the ministry. I suppose at last it will be found that there is no other operation of God in persuading men, as to the ends under consideration, but only what lies or consists in the persuading of the word by the ministers thereof, God looking on without the exerting of any efficacy whatever; which is indeed that which is aimed at, and is really exclusive of the grace of God from any hand in the conversion of sinners or preservation of believers.
3. He doth not, indeed, assert any such persuading of God, bub only tells you that from what he hath spoken " it doth not follow that God doth no more than ministers in persuading men, and that when two persuade to one and the same action, one may be more effectual in his persuading than another;" but that God is so, or how he is so, or wherein his peculiar persuasions do consist, there ia not in his discourse the least intimation.