unfruftrably interpofe to determine the will of man before it determines itself, it is no more liable to an account for acting, or not acting than the earth is for standing still, or the heavens for moving; for this they do only because the will and action of God in putting that motion into the one, and not into the other, makes it neceffary for them fo to do. If then man can do nothing that is fpiritually good till this divine motion determine him fo to do, and then he cannot but do what he is thus moved to do; there is the fame neceffity for that which he doth, or doth not in this kind, as for the heavens to move, or the earth to stand still. To say there is yet a difference betwixt these two cafes, because man hath a remote capacity of doing otherwife, folves not the difficulty; for if that ca pacity cannot be exerted without this determining impulfe, it is as none at all without it, it being, as to our fpiritual interefts, the fame thing to have no capacity of doing good, as to

have none that we can exert.

That this is the true ftate of the question cannot be reason. ably doubted, if these things seriously be confidered.

f. That the contrary doctrines of the determining influx on the one hand, and the fuppofed difability which renders it neceffary on the other, without the fpecial grace of God, to be ftill doing evil, have no countenance from, nor firm founda tion in the holy Scriptures.

adly. That these new notions concerning the confiftence of a liberty that is rewardable, or penal, with neceffity, and a determination to one, and an invincible neceffity connate to fallen man, and rendering it impoffible for him to do what is commanded, or to avoid what is forbidden under the highest penalties, is evidently repugnant to the common fenfe and natural reafon of mankind, and as fuch hath been rejected by the chriftian writers. And,

3dly. That the chriftian world for four whole centuries condemned it as destructive of true liberty, of the nature of vice and virtue, of rewards and punishments, of the equity of the divine precepts and of a future judgment, and alfo contrary to the plain declarations of the holy fcripture. And,

ft. That the doctrine of the determining influx rendering faith, repentance and converfion in man unfruftrable and irrefiftible by man, when the divine influx comes upon him, and by plain confequence impoffible to him till it comes upon him, hath no foundation in the holy fcriptures, hath been fufficiently demonftrated in the third difcourfe concerning special and effectual grace; to which I fhall only add this one ob fervation, that fome of thofe fcriptures, which are now used to prove it, viz. God's promife to take away the ftony heart, and give us hearts of flesh; the apoftle's words, That it is not

of him that wills or runneth, but of God that fheweth mercy; and that it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do, were the very arguments ufed, faith (a) Origen, by them who deftroy free will, διὰ τὸ φύσεις εἰσάγειν ἀπολομένας ἀνεπιδέκτες το σώζεσθαι, καὶ ἑτέρας σωζομένας ἀδυνα τως ἐχέσας πρὸς τὸ ἀπολέσ Da, by introducing natures loft and incapable of being faved, and others faved which could not poffibly perish; which as we learn from (b) Clemens of Alexandria, was the doctrine of the Bafilidians and Marcionites, and which, faith he, makes faith involuntary, and unworthy of praife, or incredulity of difpraife, as προηγομένην ἔχειν φυσικὴν ἀνάγκην, depending on an antecedent neceffity; and by deftroying liberty overthrows, τὸν θεμέλιον της Σωτηρίας, the foundation of falvation, and renders all retribution unjust, and fo deftroys the doctrine of us chriftians, who have received from the fcriptures that God hath given (c) αἵρεσιν καὶ φυγὴν αυτοκρατορικήν, a power from ourfelves to choose one thing, and fly from another; and puts this plea into the mouths of wicked men, I did this unwillingly, and was compelled to do it.

me fall

SECTION VII. Again, that the doctrine which teacheth that man by the fall hath contracted fuch a difability to what is good; that, without the fpecial grace of God, he can do 188-195 nothing that is truly good, and is fallen under fuch a fervitude to fin, as renders it neceflary for him to be ftill doing evil, hath no foundation in the holy fcriptures, is alfo easy to demonftrate; this I fhall do, first, by laying down the doctrine of thofe divines who do maintain this opinion, as it is faithfully delivered by Le Blanc and then producing what they alledge from Jcripture to confirm it.

Now Le Blanc, in his thefes of the liberty of man in the ftate of lapfed nature to what is morally good, hath given us the doctrine of these reformers thus.

1. That (d) there be fome moral precepts which man in this lapfed ftate cannot do at all, viz. that which faith negatively, thou shalt not covet; and that which faith positively, thou fhalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart; whence thefe things neceffarily follow, that God muft lay on lapfed man an obligation to impoflibilities, and muft command him under the fevereft penalties, to do what he could never do from his birth, and to avoid what he had never power to atoid; untéfs he had this power before he had a being, or any faculty at all; and confequently that he can only require thefe impoffibilities to increase his fin and enhanfe his damnation.

(a) Philoc. c. 21. p. 43, 44.1 (d) Part ii. Sec. ii. and 48.

(b) Strom. ii, p. 363

-(c) P. 40g.

H #

2dly. That according to the doctrine of the (e) Proteftants, thofe actions of theirs which are materially good, are yet for. mally fins, because they are neither done out of love to God as the principle, or for his glory as the end, and fo have two ef fential defects inconfiftent with the nature of an action morally good; whence it must follow, that by endeavoring to obey God's commands as well as they can, they muft formally fin. 3dly. That (f) moft Proteftants deny that man, in the State of lapfed nature, is free to choose what is morally good, and fo hath toft the freedom of his will as to thofe actions; and confequently, if God damn him for not doing what is morally good, he muft damn him for that which he could not have the will to do.

4thly. That therefore (g) he is fo far become the fervant of fin, that whatfoever he doth, non poffit nifi peccare, he cannot but fin; and then St. Auftin's definition of fin, that it is the will to do that, a quo liberum fuit abftinere, from which he could abstain, must be falfe; though he faith that the confciences of all men atteft the truth of it.

5thly. The (h) Proteftants, faith he, teach that the grace without which, nemo bene operari poteft, et vel unicum opus revera bonum efficere, effe ipfam gratiam regenerantem et juftificantem, no man can do what is good, or perform one good action, is regenerating and justifying grace; that is, without justifying faith, as he expounds them: (i) And this grace, faith he, hath its beginning, progress and completion from that efficacious grace, by which God in us doth abolish the dominion of fin: Whence it must follow, that no man can begin to do one good work till God vouchfafe that efficacious grace, which will end in his fanctification; and therefore all that hope, fear, grief for fin, love and imploration of the divine grace, which doth not end in this fanctification, muft be fin, or at leaft no good work.

Now to prove things fo abfurd and contrary to the firft principles of reafon, it is very reasonable to expect both plain and frequent teftimonies of the holy Scriptures, faying, that man is by the fall of Adam become utterly unable to do any thing that is good, or any thing that God requires of him in an acceptible manner: Yea that, by reafon of that fall alone, his faculties are fo horribly perverted, that he can do only what is evil, and cannot but do evil; whereas the whole feripture hath not one faying of this nature; it no where any farther charges the wickednefs committed in the world upon this fall than by faying that by one fin of one man, fin entered into the world, and death by fin; but doth ftill charge it either up

(e) From Section 11 to the 20th.(f) Section 43.-(g) Section 10, 11, 39. — (b) Section 25.—(i) Section 33.

It

on mens' want of confideration, or their unwillingness to do what they know to be their duty, or on the corrupt difpofitions they had contracted through a long courfe of fin. faith indeed that (k) no man can bring a clean thing out of an unclean; that is, that from parents obnoxious to in, wil Ipring forth children, that when they come to difcern betwixt good and evil, will be obnoxious to fin alfo; for in many things we offend all, and therefore cannot be juftified before God, but by an act of grace; for (1) how can man be just before God, or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? And therefore when the Encratites ufed thefe words of Job and his friends againft marriage, as introducing a polluted feed, (m) Clemens of Alexandria, and the (n) author of the questions and answers afcribed to Fufin Martyr, fay to them, thefe things you can, ὧδε νἱ τρόπῳ αρμόζειν τους βρέφεσι, όν πο means apply to children, as if they were finners. David faith) alfo, behold I was shapen in wickedness, and in fin did my mother conceive me; that is, fay (0) Clemens of Alexandria, Chryfoftom and Theodoret, he peaks this of his mother Eve, and our first parents, whofe pofterity was begotten after they had finned; and faith not, as the Encratites, avontos STÉbanov, foolishly interpreted thefe words. The Jews and (q) Ifidore interpret this of his mother's conceiving him in profluviis, which, fay they, usually produced, owμa è natapov, nai tumpaTov, a body impure, illtempered, and fubject to evil paffions. But, 2dly. The ufual interpretation, (without that hyperbole which Grotius, and before him Hefychius, noted in thefe words, comparing them with thofe of the fame Pfalmift, (r) #, the wicked go aftray from the womb, as loon as they are born Speaking lies; and thofe of the prophet Ifaiah concerning rael, thou waft called a tranfgreffor from the womb; where, faith the judicious Gataker, he cannot mean from their natural birth, this paffage implying fomething not common to all, but peculiar to that people) doth indeed make him fay what (t) Clemens of Alexandria abfolutely doth gainfay, to wit, that he was born in fin; but doth not in the leaft fay, or hint that he could therefore do nothing that was truly good, or that it was neceffary for him to do that, or any other evil that he did.

3dly. Some urge to this effect the complaint of God againft the finners of the old world, whofe (u) imaginations

(k) Job xiv. 4.- -(1) Job ix. 2. XV. 14. XXV. 4• -(m) Strom.) P. 468. D.(n) Qu et Refp. 88. p. 445, 446. -fo) Ib. p. 469. (p) Vide Muis in Locum.- (q) Ifidor. Caten. in Mat. c. 8. p. 293. (r) Pfal. lviii. 3.- -(S) ila. xlviii 8.) He was born when his parents were finners, ἀλλ' ἐκ αυτὸς, ἐν ἁμαρτίᾳ, Strom. ii, p. 469, Α -(u) Gen. vi. 5.

and thoughts of heart, faith he, were evil, and only evil con tinually; therefore man in his lapfed ftate, fay they, can on Ty do evil.

Anfwer. This is almoft the continual mistake of these men, that they afcribe that to man's lapfed ftate which belongs only to the worft of men who had corrupted themselves by a long courfe of continual impiety: For infance, they make all men (u) children of wrath, from thofe words of the apoftle to the Ephefians, which plainly relate to their former state when they lived in their abominable idolatries, and under the government of the prince of darkness, as the word gore, and the context plainly fhews; fee the note there. And fo was it here, God himself declaring that the deluge came upon the old world, not for the fin of Adam, but for the wickednefs of men grown (v) great upon the earth, and continued in after the warnings of his prophets, and his longfuffering exercifed towards them for 120 years; and whereas, to ftrengthen this argument they add, that after the flood the fame thing is affirmed more emphatically of mankind in general in the promife made to Noah, viz. I will not mite the earth any more for man's fake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Gen. viii. 21.

1. Thefe words will very well bear a quite different sense, viz. I will not thus fmite man upon the earth any more, though the imagination of his heart be (again) evil from his youth, as before the flood it was: That the particle chi thus often fignifies, will appear from feveral places in which we fo tranflate it, viz. Ex. xiii. 17. God led them not through the land of the Philistines, chi, although it was near. Deut. xxix. 19. If any man fay Shall have peace, chi, though I walk in the imagination of my heart. Jofhua xvii. 18. Thou Jhalt drive out the Canaanites, chi, though they have iron char• iots, and chi, though they are strong fo the word chi is used thrice in one verse. Jer. iv. 30. Though thou clotheft thyself with crimfon. See Noldius de Partic. Hebr. P. 399. Or elfe retaining the common fenfe of this particle, the words may bear this fenfe, I will not any more fmite the earth for this, or upon this account, that the imaginations of their hearts are evil.

2dly. The word Mineorihu doth not fignify from their birth, but only from their youth; for he speaks of the ima ginations of their hearts, and fo only of the time, when they are able to entertain and profecute the thoughts of their evil hearts. Nor doth the phrafe fignify an original, but only a

(u) Eph. ii. 2, 3.) Gen. vi. 3, 11, 12.-1 Pet. iii. 20.-Jud. xiv. 15.