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"of all was truly taken by our Lord, all are rightly faid "to be Redeemed; all notwithstanding are not freed I from Captivity, &c. That cup of Immortality which "was prepared with respect to our infirmity, and God's "Gracious affiftance, hath enough in it to profit all, but "if it be not drunk off, it is nothing Beneficial. And no lefs to our purpofe is that of our Church's fecond Homily on the Death and Paffion of our Saviour Chrift, concerning the great Mercy and Goodness of our Saviour Chrift, in fuffering Death univerfally for all Men, &c. And again, But to whom did God give his Son? He gave him to the whole World, namely to Adam and all that should come of him. And af terwards, It remaineth that I flew you how to apply Christ's death to our comfort, as a medicine to our wounds, fo that it may work the fame Effect in us, wherefore it was given, namely the Health and Salvation of our Souls. For as it profiteth a Man nothing to have Salve unless it be well applyed to the part infected; fo the death of Chrift shall stand us in no ftead, unless we apply it to our felves in fuch fort as God hath appointed.

СНАР. Х.

Of Free-will.

HIS Title now a daies is in great Disgrace and Envy; the name being rendered odious by Men whose paffionate Zeal we could wifh would confine it felf at leaft to decency of expreffion. For there hath been a time, when the Church of Chrift ftood and ftrove as earneftly in the defence

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* Ille vero, (Thompfonus fcilicet,) hic meretriculam fuam, Arbitrii libertatem, quam commendaverat ante timidius, in theatrum Ecclefia productam palàm exofculatur. Abbot. Epifc. Salisbur. in Thompsoni Diatribam, pag. 143.

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of Freewill, as being the handmaid of Grace, against the Manichees and other Hereticks, as any do now against it: Which when learned Men do find in Ireneus, Origen, Chryfoftom, and other great Fathers, I can but wonder they fhould be fo careless of their lavish terms. As alío I marvel they should be fo mindful of the one part of a wife faying; If God giveth no Grace, how shall he fave the World? And fo forgetful of the other; If Man hath no freedom of Will, how fall God judge the World? when they find both in the fame * Authors. But be it as it will; If the thing be of God, I will not fear the envy of the name; and my defence thereof fhall be with fuch caution, as by God's help I will not offend against his Grace.

Freewill is a natural Power in a reasonable Creature, whereby it can will or nill this or that, chufe it, or refuse it, be it Good, be it Evil.

Of Freewill to Good.

Freewill to Good was put into the firft Man by God at his Creation, a faculty of his reasonable Soul created Good; it was corroborated and guarded then by an affiftance of fupernatural Grace, given by God to make him will Good more cheerfully, conftantly, and the higheft eminent kind of Good. But by the fall of Adam this fupernatural Grace, fortifying the will to Good, was utterly loft, and the very freedom to any good of the fuperiour kind, that is, any thing Spiritual; as to love God above all, to work the righteoufnefs of the Law, as the Law is Spiritual; to do any A& fuitable or equal to thefe, as to repent, to believe in Chrift, &c. This freedom to Good is wholly

August Ep. 46. Valentino. Hieronym. &c.

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loft. Some freedom to human, natural, civil, and moral good Acts is only remaining, and freedom to the outward good acts of Religion, as to go to Church, to hear, to attend, to confider, to compare the things delivered by the Preacher of God's word, as a Man can do the rules or definitions of any Art or Science in the Schools, &c. If then we feek for a Freedom of Will to Spiritual, and fupernatural Good in the nature of Man now fallen, we fhall not find it there, unless we find it reftored and renewed by the Grace of Chrift that goeth with the Gofpel. If the Son maketh as free we shall be free indeed: but without 'Grace, Freewill to Good is not once to be imagined in fallen Man.

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I muft illuftrate this by diftinguishing the Spiri tual Good to which Freedom is reftored by Grace; there is the Spiritual Good commanded by the Law as Righteoufnefs, and true Holiness. To this Good Freewill is loft, and is not reftored by Grace at first and immediately, but late, after a Man is justifyed, and made a new Creature by Grace. There is another kind of Spiritual good, not fimply Good but Good (as Ariftotle faith of Verecundia) when Men have done amifs, that is, Compunction, Fear, Confcience acçufing, Senfe of Guiltinefs. The Freedom of Will to this Good remaineth commonly in a Sinner after his Fall, nay fometimes he is fmitten with terror, will he, nill he; as Adam when he had finned, feared and fled, and hid himfelf. But if by cuftom in Sin this also be loft, the Spirit of God in the Law fetteth upon the Will to free it from the bondage of this fecurity, and under the Law the Will is free to fear. Befides these there is a third kind of Spiritual Good commanded by the Gofpel,

* εἴη δ ̓ ἂν ἡ αἰδὼς ἐξ ἐπιθέσεως ἐπιεικές, εἰ γὰρ πράξαι, αἰγύνολο v. Ethic. Nicomach. Lib. 4. cap. 9.

viz. to Repent, and to believe in Chrift; to these the will of Man is not free of it felf, but the fame Gofpel that commands them, bringeth to the Will a freedom to them; which may be conceived poffible to be done by two manner of ways.

1. By framing the commandments of the Gospel fo eafy, and accomodate to the Weakness and Mifery of the Will of Man, that there may be a proportion between the Will of a Sinner, and the commandments of the Gofpel; and then the Grace of the Gofpel fhall lie in this defcending to the imbecillity of the Will, and in accommodating the Work to the Workman, the Task to the Labourer.

2. By bringing and giving to the Will fo much power and help, as is requifite to make a Sinner able to do the commandments of the Gofpel, admitting the commandments to lay on him a work as hard and as heavy, as the works of the Law.

I will not be fo stiff in maintaining the first way, as the fecond; although to repent of Sin, to believe in the Mercy of God, to reft in the merits of the Son of God, feem to be Aas and Duties very Mercifully prepared by God, as tendring the Weakness and Mifery of a Sinner, and fitted to his Eftare. But I maintain that the Grace which reftoreth Freedom to the Will, to Will the good of the Gofpel, cometh with the Gospel, which preventeth Man's Will, and prepareth it by infufing into it the Power to Will the fpiritual Good things required by the Gospel, in that order and procefs which was declared before in the Doctrine of calling. Deprefs the Nature of Man as much as you will, call his Will enslaved, or what fervum aryou lift; it will thence be the more evident that bitrium. I magnify the Grace of God, which is proportioned and fitted in Goodnefs and Power to quicken the Dead, to ftrengthen the Impotent, to loofen

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the captive and moft miferable Will of Man, This be ing the very Grace of the Gofpel, that it maketh the Commandments of it poffible to be obeyed by Man fallen, which the Law doth not; fo that no Man, under the Gofpel, can be excufed in his Difobedience to it from his want of Power, or Impotency to repent or believe. And this is fo clearly fet forth in the New Teftament, that I had a principal refpect to this part of my difputation, when I chofe to Entitle this Tract, an Appeal to the Gofpel.

Freedom of Will I contend for; but it is on the left fide, as I may call it, it is to will Evil; that is, under the Grace of God, or notwithstanding the Grace of God whereby I may will Good, I may decline to Evil, and leave the Good. This was in Adam before his Fall, a fingle, innocent poffibility to decline to Evil: nor fhould it feem ftrange that a Creature fhould be mutable, or that it fhould be proper to God to be unchangeably Good, or that the very fupernatural Grace that Adam had for his corroboration to Good, did not render his Will immoveable to Evil. This natural Freedom to Evil is called refiftentia connata, which Dr. Ward confeffeth is not taken away by Grace, nor perhaps is it defirable that it fhould be, fince it is the root of the praife of human righteoufnefs; for he is to be commended that could tranfgrefs and would not, not he that was Good and could be no other. Nor ought the Example of the unalterably holy and righteous God to be objected against this, fince he is above and out of all Predicaments wherein we are.

This natural Freedom to Evil remaineth in Man fallen, and there is now come to it over and above, Refiftentia adnata, a precipitate proneness unto Evil, out of our Thraldom to the Dominion and Tyranny of Satan.

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