not rather objects of divine pity, than of wrath? And was it not worthy of the divine goodness to help their unavoidable infirmity, rather than to punish them fo feverely for what they could not help, and to impute that to the spirit of whore. dom in them, which was the natural result of the whoredom of their mother Eve? Moreover, Chrift charges the impenitency and unbelief of the Jews upon this account, faying, ye will not come unto me, that you may have life. Now if they could not have the will, their condemnation would not be just; if indeed it had once been poffible for them to be willing to come, or fuppofing their will good, it had been poffible for them to come without being irrefiftibly made to come, the fault might have been imputed to themselves; but if it were impoffible for them to be willing, how fhould they come? Or if it were impoffible for them to come if willing, to what end should they be willing? To fay, as fome do, that God's exhortations to men thus unable to return and yield obedience to him, and his promifes to pardon and to fave them if they will return, are very ferious; because he will pardon and fave them if they do thefe things, and only doth not do this because they will not turn unto him; is as if I fhould fay a man is ferious, when he exhorts a blind or a deaf man, who had contracted these disabilities by their own fault, to fee and hear, and promises them the highest advantages if they would do fo, because he will give them these advantages if they do fee and hear, and only doth not give them because they do not do fo; for if you fay that thefe men cannot fee and hear, and therefore will not, fo is it with every lapfed man according to this doctrine. Moreover it is certain, that what I know I cannot do if I would, I cannot rationally will to do because I cannot rationally will in vain; if therefore God hath taught the finner that he cannot turn to him, or hearken to his exhortations to repent and believe, were he never fo willing; he hath alfo taught him that he cannot rationally will to do fo, and therefore that he must be innocent in not having fuch a will. SECTION XII.-Argument 10. And lastly. Our opinion tendeth much more to the glory of God, than doth the contrary opinion; for feeing God is chiefly glorified by the acknowledgment and difcovery of his excellencies, and more particularly of thofe attributes which do inform us of our duty, and are propofed for our imitation, that doctrine which tends moft to the acknowledgment of those attributes, must moft directly tend to the advancement of God's glory. Now, 1. The wifdom of God is most glorified by that opinion which fuppofeth he acts with man in all his precepts, exhorta tions, invitations, promifes and threats, fuitably, to thofe faculties that he hath given us, and doth not attempt by them "to engage us to impoffibilities; for is it not à foul imputation upon the divine wifdom to fuppofe that he ufes and appointeth means for the recovery of mankind, which he knows cannot in the leaft degree be ferviceable to that end?" But fuch is the confequence of that opinion which makes it as impoffible for the finner to be converted, as for the dead to be raifed by any of thofe arguments or motives delivered by him in the fcripture to engage us to repent and turn unto him; for according to this hypothefis, he might as well fend minifters to preach to ftones, and perfuade them to be converted into men; for his Omnipotency can, upon their preaching, produce this change in thofe ftones; and according to this opinion, the converfion of a finner cannot be effected without a like act of the divine omnipotency. 2dly. Whereas according to our doctrine, the truth and faithfulness of God, and the fincerity of his dealings with men is unquestionable; according to the other doctrine, God feems to promife pardon and falvation to all men fincerely, and yet in truth intends it only to fome few perfons whom he defigned to convert by an irrefiftible power; leaving the falvation of the reft impoffible, because he never defigned to afford them this unfruftrable operation, inquiring why thofe men would die? Why they would not be made clean? Whom we knew could not avoid that death, or obtain that purgation without that divine impulfe he would not afford them; and faying he had purged them who were not purged, and had done all things requifite to make his vineyard bring forth good grapes, when he had withheld from them that unfruftrable operation without which they neither could be purged, nor bring forth good grapes. 3dly. Whereas the juftice of God fhines evidently from our doctrine, which afferts that God doth only punish men for wilful fins, which it was in their power to avoid; it never can be glorified by that doctrine which fuppofes that he puntheth men with the extremeft and most lafting torments, for not accepting thofe offers of grace tendered by the gospel, which it was not poffible for them to comply with, or embrace, without that farther grace which he purpofed abfolutely to deny them. Now fuch is the confequence of that opinion which refolves the converfion of finners into that unfruftrable operation which is vouchlafed only to a few, but is withheld from all the reft of mankind to whom grace is offered by the gospel. 4thly. Is it not for God's glory that the praife of what good we do fhould be afcribed to his grace, and the fhame of our С с evil doings fhould rest upon ourselves, as our own conscience fhews it doth by the remorfe which follows the commiffion of fin; but what reafon can there be for this, unless we fuppofe it poffible for the wicked to have been converted, or to have ceased to do evil? If indeed you afcribe converfion and obedience to a caufe that tranfcends all the power of man under the gofpel difpenfation to perform, his evil actions may be his misfortunes, but how they fhould be his faults, it is not eafy to conceive. I should now proceed to fhew the concurrence of antiquity with this doctrine; but this will be fully done by me in the following difcourfe, where it will evidently be proved that the fathers in their confutation of the afferters of fate, and of the Herefes of the Valentinians, the Marcionites, the Bafilidians, the Manichæans, the doctrines of Origen, and upon many other occafions, ufe the very fame arguments in confutation of thofe Herefies and doctrines, which I have done in confutation of this doctrine. To this I fhall at prefent only add, That the fathers generally teach that God doth only perfuade, and by his fpirit affift thofe that are willing to be good, but leaves them fill under the power to neglect and refift his perfuafions, not laying them under a neceffity to be good, be caufe that would deftroy the virtue and reward of being fo. Ged, faith (a) Irenæus, redeems his from the apoftate fpirit, non vi, fed fuadelâ, not by force, but by perfuafion; quemadmodum decebat Deum fuadentem, et non vim inferentem accipere quæ vellet, as it became God to receive what he would by perfuafion, and not by force. He fent his Son into the world, faith (b) Fuftin Martyr, ws näidav & Bizloμeros, as perfuading, but not compelling men to be good. The wildom of God, faith (c) Cyril of Alexandria, thought fit to convert men rather by perfuafion, than by neceffity, that he might preferve the liberty of man's will; for becaufe, faith he, the maker of all things αὐτοκρατῆ τὸν ἄνθρωπον εἶναι βέλεται καὶ θελήασι ἰδίοις παρ δαλιοχᾶσθαι πρὸς τὰ πρακτέα, will have man to have power over his own felf, and be governed by his own will, in what he doth, it feemed good to our Savior, πειθοί μᾶλλον καὶ ἐκ ἀνάγκης ἐπης ρτημένης απαλλάττεσθαι μὲν τῶν αἴσχρῶν ἀνθέχεσθαι δὲ μᾶλλον τὰ duw, that man fhould be withdrawn from what is bad, and drawn to what is better, rather by perfuafion than by a neceffity laid upon him; for if having invincible power he had commanded all men to believe, πληροφορίας εκετι καρπὸς τὸ πιστεύειν ἦν, ἀναγκαίων δὲ μᾶλλον καὶ ἀφύκτων ἐπιταγμάτων. Faith would not have been the fruit of a full perfuafion; but rather of ne (a) Lib. 5. chap. 1. page 393. Ed. Ox. Col. 2.-———— -(b) Apol. 2. page 58. Vid. page 80, 81.—(c) Lib. 6. contra Jul. page 215. B. C. ceffary and unavoidable commands. And again, man, faith he, (α) αυτοκελεύστοις ἐπὶ ἄμφω φέρεται οπαῖς, is carried both to good and evil by free motions ; for αῤῥήτῳ τινὶ καὶ θεοπρεπεςάτῳ δυνάμει καὶ ἐνεργεία χρώμενος μετεκόμισε τὸν ἑκάτε νῦν εἰς ἀγαθαργί as, if God by using a divine energy and virtue (i. e. an unfruftrable operation) fhould turn the mind of every man to good works, his goodness would not be the fruit of counfel or praifeworthy, avayens de pãnλov, but rather of neceffity. And if God had dealt thus with man at the beginning, and afterwards (i. e. after the fall) fubjeded him, περιτροπαῖς ἀναγκαίαις καὶ οἷον τισι TREOVEžias aQúnTois, to neceffary turns (to vice or virtue) and unavoidable concupifcence or luftings, how can he be freed from blame? CHAPTER III. Anfwering the Arguments produced to prove, ift, that Man is purely paffive in the Work of Converfion, and that it is done by an irrefiflible or unfruftrable Act of Gud. THESE arguments, for method fake, may be reduced to From his difability, 3dly. Such as refpect God himself, he being reprefented either, ft, as 1. To difcern the things of God, Cor. ii. 14. 2. To think any thing, as of himself, 2 Cor. iii. 5. 3. To do any thing till he be first in Chrift, John xv. 5. 4. To come to Chrift till he be drawn by God, John vi. 44. 5. To bring forth good fruit, being an evil tree, Matth. vii. 18. 6. To be fubject to the law of God, Rom, viii. 7. Giving faith, Eph. ii. 8. Giving repentance to life, Acts xi, 18. 1. To circumcife the heart, Deut. xxx. 6. Or, 2dly, as promifing, 3. To write his law in our hearts, Jer. xxxi. Or, 3dly, as doing this work in us, it béing God, Or, 4thly, fuch as prove the abfurdity of the contrary affertion, that man cooperates with God in this work, and is not converted without the free confent of his own will; for if so it follows, 33. 4. To give us one heart, and one way, that 2. Who turns us to himfelf, Jer. xxxi. 18. SECTION I-Now before I come to a particular answer to thefe arguments, I think it proper to premife three things. 1ft. That it feems unreafonable to apply all thofe fayings of the fcripture which concern Heathen nations lying under the molt grofs idolatry, and under great darknefs and confu fion, into which the corrupt cuftoms of the Heathens, and the fubtility of Satan had reduced them to prove what is the natural eftate of all men, even of thofe who have the knowledge of the true God, and the light of the gofpel: For to place them under the fame difability with perfons funk into the dregs of Heathenifm, feems a very great abfurdity; it being in effect to fay, that men acquainted with all the inducements, arguments and motives which chriftianity affords to produce faith, repentance and converfion in them, have no more advantages towards repentance and converfion than the worft of Heathens, who to be fure cannot do lefs than nothing towards their converfion, and would as certainly be converted by an |