Chap. 10. gifts of Grace: To conclude, the Fathers Traction doth not ftand in mans probity, but in a Divine energy, fuch as produces faith in the heart. 2. The internal call is meerly of Grace. The Spirit breathes where it lifts. God calls as he pleases: fome are called according to purpose; all are not fo. Every heart under the Evangelical means, is not opened as Lydia's was. God works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure. If God be God, an infinite Mind, he must needs be free; if free in any thing, he must be so in acts of Grace, in his calling men home unto himself. It is true, that according to fome, the Spirit is annexed to the Gospel, and works equally on all the Auditors. But this opinion labours under prodigious confequences; I mean, fome fuch as thefe following are. The Holy Spirit, whofe prerogative it is to breathe where he lift, and divide to every one as he will, is here affixed to his own organ the Gofpel, and must part out his Grace equally to all: The Ordinance of Preaching, as if it were no longer a meer Ordinance, or pendant on the Spirit, muft confer Grace, if not ex opere operato, yet in a certain promiscuous way to all. The Minister, who uses to look up for the fpirit and excellency of power to fucceed his labours, may reft fecure, all is ready and at hand. The peoples eyes, which ought to wait on the Lord, if peradventure he will give faith and repentance to them, will foon fall down and center on the Ordinance, where they are fure without a peradventure to have their share of Grace. Thofe emphatical Scriptures, which speak of fingular Grace to fome, must now run in a much lower ftrain. The opening of Lydia's heart, how remarkable foever, must be no fin gular gular Grace, but common to the rest. The tractions Chap. 10 and inward teachings of the Father, which make fome to come to Christ, must be general favours, and extendible to thofe who come not to him. When the Apostle faith, That Chrift is to the Jews a stumblingblock, and to the Greeks foolishness; but to them that are called, the power and wisdom of God, 1 Cor. 1. 23, 24, How fignal foever the difference in the Text be, the internal call must be all one; in those to whom Chrift was a ftumbling-block and foolishness, as in those to whom he was the power and wisdom of God. The called according to purpose, are called but as other men: Gods purpofe is to call all a-like, mans only makes the difference. These are the confequences of that opinion, and too heavy, I confefs, for me to ftand under. I reft therefore in that of the Apoftle, He hath called us, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, 2 Tim.1.9. Here purpofe and grace are joined together; if his purpose be free, if his grace be gratuitous, then he calls as he pleafes. In calling men home to himfelf, he acts purely, totally from Grace. I conclude with that of Bonaventure, Hoc piarum mentium eft, ut nihil fibi tribuant, fed totum Dei Gratia ; The genius of pious minds, is to attribute nothing to themselves, but all to Grace. Thus far touching the first thing, The freeness of Grace. The next thing propofed, is the power and efficacy of Grace. The Apostle fpeaks of an exceeding greatnefs of towards those that believe, Eph. 1.19. power So emphatical are the words there, that Camero is cam. oper fol. bold to fay, Nemo, cui non periit frons, negare poteft 343. fignificare vim & potentiam; None, who hath not loft Chap. 10. his modefty, can there deny a force and power fignified. Now touching the efficacy of Grace, I shall confider three things. De Præd, c. 5. 1. Its efficacy as to the Principle of Faith and other Graces. 2. Its efficacy as to actual believing and willing. 3. Its efficacy as to perfeverance in the faith. The first thing is its efficacy as to the Principle of Faith, and other Graces. By the Principle of Faith, I mean not the natural power of believing. God doth not command us to take down the Sun, for which we have no faculties; but to believe, for which we have an understanding and a will; no natural faculty is wanting. Hence St. Auftin faith, the poffe of believing, is of nature. This power in faln man, because in conjunction with natural impotency, never arrives at the effect. The natural faculties are by the fall so vitiated, that though in a sense he can, yet he will not believe. Trabit fua quemq; voluptas, one lust or other fo attracts him, that he cannot a fe impetrare ut velit, he cannot find in his heart to do it. He hath a kind of can in his natural faculties, but the corruption blafts the effect. Neither do I mean that power, which, as fome Divines fay, is fupernatural, yet not an habit or vital principle of faith. Nature being fallen, Grace (fay they) gives a fecond power to fet the will in aquilibrio; but that power doth not, as an habit, incline or difpofe a man to actual believ ving. This power, as I take it, is nothing but Nature and Free-will. I fee not how it fhould be diftinct from it. There are (as the Learned Doctor Twifs hath obferved) three things in the foul; that is, Powers, Habits, and Paffions. Powers may be the fub fubjects of Habits and Paffions; but may a Power be Chap. 10. the fubject of a Power? A natural power of a fu pernatural one? This looks like a Monster. By the fame reafon Habits may be the fubjects of Habits, and Paffions of Paffions. And is this power of believing, free or not? If free, then it is not fupernatural; it may be a principle of not believing, and that nothing fupernatural can be. If not free, then it determines the event, but to what? To not believing? then it is not fupernatural. To believing? then all men (having, as these men say, the power) must infallibly believe, which Scripture and experience deny. I mean therefore fuch a Principle of Faith, as is an habit and vital Principle; fuch as is feminally and virtually faith; fuch as hath the nature and effence of faith; fuch as inclines and disposes to actual believing, and before the act, denominates a man a believer. When the act of faith comes forth into being, is it from a believer, or from an unbeliever? If from a believer, then there was an habit of faith before. If from an unbeliever, how unnatural is it, and how cross to the fuavity of Providence? There must then be an act of faith, before a principle; a fruit, before a tree or feed. What shall we fay of fuch an one? He is a believer in act, but in principle none; as foon as the act ceafes, he is not at all a believer. There must therefore be an habit, a vital principle of faith: This in the use of means is infufed or created, and that by the power of grace. To clear this, Ishall lay down two or three things. 1. The Principle of Faith and other Graces, is not produced by meer fuafion, by a meer propofal of the Evangelical object. In converfion there is a great work Chap. 10. work wrought within; the deadly wound of Original corruption must be healed, the new creature must be fet up in us; and can fuafion do this? Such a glorious work must be done by an efficient caufe, not by a meer allicient one, fuch as fuafion is. A natural man is blind, nay dead in fpiritual things; and what fuafion can make the blind to fee, or the dead to rife? Suafion is fo far from giving a faculty, that it prefuppofes it. The ufe of it is not to confer a power, but to excite and stir it up into act. Satan ufes fuafion to fubvert the fouls of men; and doth God do no more to convert them unto himself? How then should he ever gather a Church to himself? Satans fuafions run with the tide and stream of corrupt nature; but Gods are against it; and in all reafon the balance will be caft rather on that fide which hath Natures vote and free concurrence, than on that which hath Natures repugnancy and contradiction. In this work there is more than meer fuafion. God is not a meer Orator, but an admirable Operator; his word is not fignificative only, but factive, commanding those Divine Principles into being, vox imperativa abit in operativam; he calls for a new heart, and it is fo. 2. This holy Principle is not produced by affiftent Grace, as if a natural man did by Divine affiftance work it in himself. The Principle or power of believing, is either natural or fupernatural; if natural, it is by creation; if fupernatural, it is by infufion or infpiration; neither way is it produced in a way of affiftance. An affiftance is not accommodated to a thing to produce a new power, but to bring forth an act from thence. The light is affiftent to the eye in the act of vifion, but it gives not the visive |