CHAPTER 13.
OF THE POWER OF FREE-WILL
IN PREPARING US FOR OUR CONVERSION UNTO GOD.
The judgment
of the Arminians concerning the power of free-will about spiritual things in a
man unregenerate, merely in the state of corrupted nature, before and without
the help of grace, may be laid open by these following positions:—
First, That
every man in the world, reprobates and others, have in themselves power and
ability of believing in Christ, of repenting and yielding due obedience to the
new covenant; and that because they lost not this power by the fall of
Adam. [1]“Adam
after his fall,” saith Grevinchovius, “retained a power of believing; and so
did all reprobates in him.” [2]“He
did not lose” (as they speak at the synod) “the power of performing that
obedience which is required in the new covenant considered formally, as it is
required by the new covenant; he lost not a power of believing,
nor a power of forsaking sin by repentance.” And those graces that he lost not
are still in our power. Whence they affirm, that [3]“faith
is called the work of God only because he requireth us to do it.” Now, having
appropriated this power unto themselves, to be sure that the grace of God be
quite excluded, which before they had made needless, they teach,—
Secondly,
That for the reducing of this power into act, that men may become actual
believers, there is no infused habit of grace, no spiritual vital principle,
necessary for them, or bestowed upon them; but everyone, by the use of his
native endowments, doth make himself differ from others. [4]“Those
things which are spoken concerning the infusion of habits before we can
exercise the act of faith, we reject,” saith the epistle to the
Walachians. [5]“That
the internal principle of faith required in the gospel is a habit divinely
infused, by the strength and efficacy whereof the will should be determined, I
deny,” saith another of them. Well, then, if we must grant that the internal
vital principle of a supernatural spiritual grace is a mere natural faculty,
not elevated by any divine habit,—if it be not God that begins the good work in
us, but our own free-wills,—let us see what more goodly stuff will follow. One
man by his own mere endeavors, without the aid of any received gift, makes
himself differ from another. [6]“What
matter is it in that, that a man should make himself differ from others? There
is nothing truer; he who yieldeth faith to God
commanding him, maketh himself differ from him who will not have faith when he
commandeth.” They are the words of their Apology, which, without question, is
an irrefragable truth, if faith be not a gift received from above; for on that
ground only the apostle proposeth these questions, “Who maketh thee to differ
from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not
receive? now if thou didst receive, why dost thou
glory, as if thou hadst not received?” The sole cause why he denies anyone by
his own power to make himself differ from another is, because that wherein the
difference consisteth is “received,” being freely bestowed upon him. Deny this,
and I confess the other will fall of itself. But until their authority he equal
with the apostles’, they would do well to forbear the naked obtrusion of
assertions so contradictory to theirs; and so they would not trouble the
church. Let them take all the glory unto themselves, as doth
Grevinchoviua [7]“I
make myself,” saith he, “differ from another when I do not resist God and his
divine predetermination; which I could have resisted. And why may I not boast
of this as of mine own? That I could is of God’s mercy” (endowing his nature
with such an ability as you heard before); “but that I would, when I might have
done otherwise, is of my power.” Now, when, after all this, they are forced to
confess some evangelical grace, though consisting only in a moral persuasion by
the outward preaching of the word, they teach,—
Thirdly, That
God sendeth the gospel, and revealeth Christ Jesus unto men, according as they
well dispose themselves for such a blessing. [8]“Sometimes,”
say they in their synodical writings, “God calleth this or that nation, people,
city, or person, to the communion of evangelical grace, whom he himself
pronounceth worthy of it, in comparison of others.” So that whereas, Acts
18:10, God encourageth Paul to preach at Corinth by affirming that he had “much
people in that city” (which, doubtless, were his people then only by virtue of
their election), in these men’s judgments [9]“they
were called so because that even then they feared God, and served him with all
their hearts, according to that knowledge they had of him, and so were ready to
obey the preaching of St Paul.” Strange doctrine, that men should fear God,
know him, serve him in sincerity, before they ever heard of the gospel, and by
these means deserve that it should be preached unto them! This is that pleasing
of God before faith that they plead for, Act. Synod., p. 66; that [10]“preparation
and disposition to believe, which men attain by the law and virtuous
education;” that “something which is in sinners,[11]
whereby though they are not justified, yet they are made worthy of
justification.” For [12]“conversion
and the performance of good works is,” in their apprehension, “a condition
pre-required to justification,” for so speak the children of Arminius; which if
it be not an expression not to be paralleled in the writings of any Christian,
I am something mistaken. The sum of their doctrine, then, in this particular
concerning the power of free-will in the state of sin and unregeneration, is, That
every man having a native, inbred power of believing in Christ upon the
revelation of the gospel, hath also an ability of doing so much good as shall
procure of God that the gospel be preached unto him; to which, without any
internal assistance of grace, he can give assent and yield obedience; the
preparatory acts of his own will always proceeding so far as to make him excel
others who do not perform them, and are therefore excluded from farther grace;—which
is more gross Pelagianism than Pelagius himself would ever justify. Wherefore
we reject all the former positions, as so many monsters in Christian religion,
in whose room we assert these that follow:—
First, That we, being by nature dead in trespasses and sins, have
no power to prepare ourselves for the receiving of God’s grace, nor in the
least measure to believe and turn ourselves unto him. Not that we deny that
there are any conditions pre-required in us for our conversion, dispositions
preparing us in some measure for our new birth or regeneration; but we affirm
that all these also are the effects of the grace of God, relating to that alone
as their proper cause, for of ourselves, “without him, we can do nothing,” John
15:5. “We are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves,”
2 Corinthians 3:5, much less do that which is good. In respect of that, “every
one of our mouths must be stopped;” for “we have all sinned and come short of
the glory of God,” Romans 3:19, 23. We are “by nature the children of wrath,
dead in trespasses and sins,” Ephesians 2:1-3; Romans 8:6. Our new birth is a
resurrection from death, wrought by the greatness of God’s power. And what
ability, I pray, hath a dead man to prepare himself for his resurrection? Can
he collect his scattered dust, or renew his perished senses? If the leopard can
change his spots, and the Ethiopian his skin, then can we do good
who by nature are taught to do evil, Jeremiah 13:23. We are all “ungodly,” and
“without strength” considered, when Christ died for us, Romans 5:6; “wise to do
evil,” but “to do good we have no strength, no
knowledge.” Yea, all the faculties of our souls, by reason of that spiritual
death under which we are detained by the corruption of nature, are altogether
useless, in respect of any power for the doing of that which is truly good. Our
understandings are blind or “darkened, being alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in us, because of the blindness of our hearts,”
Ephesians
These are the
endowments of our nature, these are the preparations
of our hearts for the grace of God, which we have within ourselves. Nay,—
Secondly,
There is not only an impotency but an enmity in corrupted nature
to anything spiritually good: The things that are of God are “foolishness unto
a natural man,” 1 Corinthians
Thirdly, As a natural man, by the strength of his own free-will,
neither knoweth nor willeth, so it is utterly impossible he should do anything
pleasing unto God. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin,
or the leopard his spots? then can he do good,”
Jeremiah
S.S. |
Lib.
Arbit. |
“Of ourselves we can do nothing,” John 15:5. “We are not sufficient
of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves,” 2 Corinthians 3:5. “We are
by nature the children of wrath, dead in trespasses and sins,” Ephesians
2:1-3. |
“We retain still after the fall a power of believing and of
repentance, because Adam lost not this ability,” Rem. Declar. Sen. in Synod. |
“Faith is not of ourselves: it is the gift of God,” Ephesians 2:8. |
“Faith is said to be the work of God, because he commandeth us to
perform it,” Rem. Apol. “There is no infusion of any habit or spiritual vital
principle necessary to enable a man to believe,” Corv. |
“Who maketh thee to differ from another? and
what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if
thou didst receive, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received?” 1
Corinthians 4:7. |
“There is nothing truer than that one man maketh himself differ from
another. He who believeth when God commandeth, maketh himself differ from him
who will not,” Rem. Apol. |
“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the
leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, who are
taught to do evil,” Jeremiah 13:23. |
“I may boast of mine own, when I obey God’s grace, which it was in my
power not to obey, as well as to obey,” Grevinch. |
“Believing on him that justifieth the ungodly,” Romans 4:5. “Being
justified freely by his grace,” Romans 3:24. |
“True conversion and the performance of good works is a condition
required on our part before justification,” Filii Attain. |
“I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto
babes. Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight,” Matthew 11:25,
26. |
“God sendeth the gospel to such persons or nations, that in
comparison of others may be said to be worthy of it,” Rem. Apol. |
ENDNOTES:
[1] “Adamus post
lapsum potentiam credendi retinuit, et reliqui reprobi etiam in
illo.”—Grevinch. ad Ames., p. 188.
[2] “Adamus non
amisit vires eam obedientiam praestandi quae in novo foedere exigitur, prout
puta ea consideratur formaliter, hoc est, prout novo
foedere exacta est, nec potentiam credendi amisit; nec amisit potentiam, per
resipiscentiam, ex peccato resurgendi.”—Rem. Declar. Sent.
in Synod., p. 107.
[3] Fides vocatur opus Dei, quia
Deus ipse id a nobis fieri postulat.”—Rem. Apol., cap. 10. p. 112.
[4] “Ea quae de
habituum infusione dicuntur, ante omnem fidei actum, rejiciuntur a
nobis.”—Epist, ad Wal., p. 67.
[5] “Principium
internum fidei a nobis in evangelio requisitum, esse habitum quendam divinitus
infusum, cujus vi ac efficacitate voluntas determinetur; hoc negavi.”—Grevinch,
ad Ames., p. 324.
[6] “Quid in eo positum est, quod homo discriminare seipsum dicitur?
Nihil verius; qui fidem Deo praecipienti habet, is discrimiunt se ab eo qui Deo praecipienti fidem habere non vult.”—Rem. Apol.,
cap. 14. p. 144.
[7] “Ego meipsum
discerno, cum enim Deo ac divinae praedeterminationi resistere possem, non
restiti tamen. Atqui in eo quidni liceat mihi tanquam
de meo gloriari? Quod enim potui Dei miserentis est,
quod autem volui cum possem nolle, id meae potestatis est.”—Grevinch, ad Ames., p. 253.
[8] “Interdum
Deus hanc vel illam gentem, civitatem, personam, ad evangelicae gratiae
communionem vocat, quam ipse dignam pronuntiat comparative,” etc.—Rein. Declarat. Sent. Synod.
[9] “Illi, in
quorum gratiam, Dominus Paulum in Corinthum misit, dicuntur Dei populus, quia
Deum turn timebant, eique, secundum cognitionem quam de eo habebant, serviebant
ex animo, et sic ad praedicationem Pauli,” etc.—Corv. ad
Molin. 3. sect. 27.
[10] “Per legem,
vel per piam educationem vel per institutionem—per haec enim hominem praeparari
et disponi ad credendum, planissimum est.”—Rem. Act. Synod.
[11] “Praecedit
aliquid in peccatoribus, quo quamvis nondum justificati sunt, digni efficiantur
justificatione.”—Grevinch, ad Ames., p. 434.
[12] “Tenendum est, veram
conversionem praestationemque bonorum operum esse conditionem praerequisitam
ante justificationem.”—Filii Arm. Praef. ad cap. 7. ad Rem.