A Humble ENDEAVOUR Of some Plain and Brief EXPLICATION OF THE Decrees and Operations of God, About the FREE ACTIONS of MEN: More Especially Of the Operations of DIVINE GRACE..  
Written by Mr. JOHN CORBET, late Minister of CHICHESTER.  
LONDON, Printed for Tho. Parkhurst, at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside, near Mercers-Chappel, 1683.   

THE PREFACE.  
THe things here discussed I have studied many years; and what, by the Writings of Learned Men, and by discoursing with them, and by my own ratiocination, grounded on the Holy Scripture, I have apprehended▪ nearest the Truth, which I have been feeling after, I have collected in this narrow Scantling. I have been led into this search, not out of vain Curiosity, but an honest Desire to gain as clear a Knowledge in these Points, as I can reach to, that I might be able with more assurance to unfold the same to others, as far as is requisite for their Edification.  
Though the Counsels and Ways of God cannot be found out unto Perfection, yet the Light, of Scripture and Nature leads us to think and speak of them so as is most agreeable to his Infinite Wisdom and Goodness, and so as his Justice and Truth may be cleared, and the freeness and largeness of his Mercy magnified, and that the glorious Power of his Grace, and the deplorable weakness of Fallen Man, may be acknowledged, and that penitent Sinners may be sufficiently encouraged, and that the impenitent may be evidently self-condemned.  
That which is set down in this Enquiry, is mostly in order to the clearing and confirming of the Principles here following.  
1. The help of Divine Grace is the prime and main Cause of all the Good that dwells in us, and that is done by us: But our own Wills are the main Cause of the Evil that is done by us, and of our abiding in that Evil State into which our Nature is fallen, and God is no Cause thereof at all.  
2. God doth decree to bring some to Salvation by his Free Grace and Love: And he doth not decree to damn any, but for sin, as the Cause of their damnation; which sin he doth not decree, nor effect▪ but foresee.  
3. God doth ascertain the Conversion and Salvation of his Elect; but he doth not effect it without their own concurrence in a subordinate way. I speak of those that attain to the use of Reason, not of Infants, Idiots, and Madmen, whose Case is of different and peculiar nature.  
4. Though Election doth infer a Certainty that the Elect shall attain to Grace and Glory; yet Nonelection doth infer no Necessity of the sin and damnation of the Non-elect, save only that which is called Necessitas consequentiae, or Necessity in order of Argumentation, and is Necessity but improperly so called, and implies no Necessitation of the Event.  
5. Though God doth not simply will the Event of the Conversion and Salvation of all, to whom the Gospel is made known; yet he wills it so far, and in such manner, as doth abundantly declare his good will towards men; and doth assure the diligent of good success in their endeavours; and doth convict the negligent of being inexcusable despisers of his Grace towards them.  
6. God hath given us all some help of grace, more or less, in order to our Spiritual Recovery. The said help may be improved by us to the obtaining of more▪ And it is not God's ordinary way to deny more help, or to withdraw what is given, but upon the abuse of what is given, and the resisting of what is offered, and for our not doing not only what we ought, but what we might do.  
According to these Principles I have proceeded. My endeavour hath been accompanied with a sense of my own great defectiveness in the Knowledge of these things: But I have done, as I was able, and am willing to know wherein soever I have erred. The perfect clearing of all things, and the solving of all doubts in these Mysterious Points, may be above the reach of mortal men. The great Apostle said, We know but in part. But Truths of the greatest Moment and Evidence may not be disbelieved or doubted of, because we cannot solve all Difficulties about lesser and obscurer Questions relating to those grand Truths.   

PART I. Of the Decrees of God about the Actions of Men.  

1. What the Divine Decree of an Event doth import.  
TO Decree a Thing, is to will and purpose its coming to pass; and it supposeth that the Thing is judged Convenient. If it be a sure Decree, it implies that the Decreer can and will so provide, that it shall infallibly come to pass.  
God's Decree of an Event, is a willing and purposing of it as Convenient. It's Convenience he knows by the knowledge of simple intelligence; and being decreed, he knows it as a Future Convenient, by the knowledge of Vision, and is pleased with it.  
As God's Efficience is concerned in the Event decreed, the Decree of the Event includes the Decree of the said Efficience. That whatsoever God doth in time, he hath eternally decreed to do, I suppose is unquestionable. And for as much as no Humane Act comes to pass without his concourse, he hath undoubtedly decreed the concourse that he yields to it. And there is the same reason of the Decree of whatsoever on God's part is antecedently necessary, as the giving of all Necessary Power, Preparatives, Means, Concauses, Objects, all which are unquestionably decreed of God.   

2. The Divine Decree doth not infer the Necessitation of the Event.  
THough the Existence of the Event depends upon God's Efficience, yet something thereof he may put under the Creatures undetermined Liberty. Under this Liberty he may put the comparative determination of the Will to act rather than not to act, and to act towards such an Object rather than another. Surely it is too high presumption for man to say, that God cannot Decree or firmly Will that humane act, which is in part suspended on man's Will; for instance, to say God could not decree Adam's Perseverance in the state of Innocence, if it were in any part left to his own liberty to stand or fall.  
Now if such an Assertion be an apparently presumptuous limitation of God, besides other great inconveniences to be objected against it, than it may more safely and rationally be held, that God's Decree of a humane act is very agreeable to the leaving of it in some part to the undetermined liberty of man's will, though to unfold the Agreement be very difficult to humane Understanding. In short, though the Decree cannot consist with the contrary Event, yet it may consist with the possibility of the contrary, and so it doth not in itself infer a Necessitation of the thing decreed.   

3. The Negation of the Decree doth not infer an impossibility of the Event.  
GOd's Decree is not necessary to an Event, by way of causation; Consequently the negation of the Decree, is not a negation of what is causally necessary thereunto; and so it doth not infer an impossibility thereof. As for Example, the Negation of God's Decree of the Persevering Obedience of some Angels, was not a negation of what was causally necessary thereunto, for then their Perseverance had been impossible, which a sober judgement will not admit. The nonexistence of a thing not decreed, follows the negation of the Decree, only by a necessity of logical illation, but not of causal deficiency, or by a negation of any necessary Cause.  
There is a Power properly so called, or an adequate Power to an act, wheresoever there is all the necessary causality of the first Cause, also the Object and its necessary Position, and the Capacity and necessary Predisposition of the Subject, and an aptitude of the Natural Powers, and the necessary concurrence of all Concauses. And all these necessary Antecedents to an Act may, and commonly do meet, where there is no Divine Decree of the Act, as is undeniable in the Case of the lapsed Angels, whose Perseverance was fully Possible, yet certainly not Future.  
As Man hath a power to do that which God foreknows he will not do, so he hath a Power to do that, which God hath not decreed that he shall do.  
As it is rightly said, that it Cannot come to pass that any Good will exist without the Divine Decree; so it is as rightly said, that it Cannot come to pass that any Good will exist without the Divine Prescience. But the Cannot in both Instances is in respect of Illation, not of Causation.   

4. The indetermination of Man's Will doth not infer the Uncertainty of God's Decree.  
A Thing may be certainly Future that is under the undetermined liberty of the Will. Man's Power and Liberty of doing otherwise than God hath decreed, doth no more infer a possibility of the frustration of his Decrees, than his Power and Liberty of doing otherwise, than God hath foreknown he will do, doth infer an uncertainty of God's foreknowledge. Now it is undeniable, that God can certainly foreknow, that a man will do that which he hath power not to do; and that he will not do that which he hath power to do. Adam had power to resist the Temptation, which God foreknew he would yield to.  
The Power itself to do otherwise than as God hath decreed, is foreknown and decreed; and it is also foreknown and decreed, That the said Power shall not do otherwise, God's Decree is according to his Foreknowledge, which is to us incomprehensible.   

5. God decrees all the Good that comes to pass.  
IT is the perfection of God, as God, to be the Author of all Good as well Moral as Physical, as well of common as of saving Grace. And to be the Author of it, is to decree and procure that it be done.  
As it is the perfection of the Divine Intellect to understand all that is Intelligible; so it is the perfection of the Divine Will to choose all that is eligible, or fittest to be chosen to come to pass.  
It is agreeable to the perfection of God's Providence, that all the Good that is done in the World, should be decreed, and infallibly brought to pass by him.  
As undoubtedly God doth effect every good Act that comes to pass, so undoubtedly he doth decree it. For whatsoever is the Object of Divine Operation is also the Object of Divine Volition.  
Every good Act is an End, or a Means to an End, in the Course of God's Providence; and therefore it is decreed of him. All the Ends of Providence are determined, and consequently the Means to be made use of for the same are likewise determined.  
Though I do not affirm, that God's Foreknowledge and Decree are of equal extent, yet it seems not congruous that his Foreknowledge should be active, and his Purpose or Will not active to any future Good.  
God's Foreknowledge of Evil infers, though not a Decree of it, yet a Decree about it, that it shall be so and so disposed of for good; so that by those, who do what he willeth not, he accomplisheth what he willeth.   

6. God doth not Will or Decree Sin.  
IT must needs be held that whatsoever God doth, he wills to do; and whatsoever is the Effect of his agency, he wills the same. Consequently, whatsoever he doth about a sinful Act, he wills to do it; and whatsoever is the Effect of his Agency about the said Act, he wills the same. Now there is a concourse of God, as the Universal Cause, to every Act, and therefore to every sinful Act as an Act; that is, to so much as is in the general Nature of the said act. And so much as this comes to, he wills, which is not Sin, but only the Substratum Peccati.  
But as he doth not concur to the sinful Act, as it is this Act in specie, and not the contrary; so he doth not Will and Decree the Act, as such in specie. How the Divine concourse is yielded to sinful actions, shall be explained in it proper place, under the Head of God's Efficience.  
God Permitteth Sin. But to Permit Sin is not to Will it, but only not to Prevent its coming to pass.  
God doth not Will the Essence, therefore he doth not Will the Event or Existence of sin. For the Existence of sin is but its Essence extra causas, or in actual being. To say that God doth not Will the Essence of sin, but that the Essence thereof exist, is very odd, and to me unintelligible. The Event or Existence of Sin is the Object of God's Hatred, therefore it cannot be the Object of his Will. For the doth not Will what he hates.  
If God willeth the Existence of Sin, he willeth the committing of it; and if he willeth the committing of sin, than the committing of Sin is the fullfilling of his Will; and if it be the fullfilling of his Will, it is the Object of his Complacence, and then he hath Complacence in the Violation of his Law.  
Sin hath no Good in it, and it works no good. 'Tis not sin, but the feeling knowledge of sin, that works Humillation and repentance.  
It is to be noted, That God doth not Will whatsoever he doth not Nill. Between Volition and Nolition there is a middle thing, viz. Non-volition.  
Though God doth not simply Nill the Existence of sin, yet he Nills it so far, as that he hates it, and severely forbids it, and gives Necessary Power to avoid it.   

7. there is no need of holding that Sin is decreed of God.  
IF the aforesaid Arguments be not strong enough to prove, That God doth not decree Sin; yet there is no need for any one, in order to the salving of God's Providence; to hold that he doth decree it.  
The Existence of Sin, foreseen indeed, but not decreed, God makes advantage of for his Holy Ends, it being under his Ruling Power. He Wills the Good occasioned by Sin, but he Wills not Sin as the occasion of Good. All the Good that follows Sin (not as the End follows the Means, but as health follows the disease) is decreed of God.  
Seeing God overrules all the Inclinations and Actions of his Creatures, his not decreeing of Sin doth not at all lessen his Providence about sinful Actions.   

8. A Decree to permit Sin is not necessary.  
TO Permit, is not to Act, and not to Act is nothing; and of nothing there is no Decree, at least there is no need of a Decree. No more is needful to a Not-being, than Gods not Willing and not Effecting. Consequently, there is no Decree of the Permission of Sin, at least, there is no necessity of holding such a Decree.  
It may be Objected, That a Nonesse is the Object of God's Will, when he wills that some Evil Action shall not come to pass. The answer is, That in such a case the thing that God properly wills, is his restraining and limiting of men's evil Inclinations and Actions, and the Nonesse of those Actions is said to be willed by him, but improperly and reductively, as being the Consequent of that which he properly Wills. And his Will is further terminated on the good Consequence of his preventing the said Evil Actions.  
It may be likewise objected, If a man may rightly say, I will or Purpose to permit, why may not God rightly say so? The answer is, that when a man makes such a Determination, it commonly means a Purpose of restraining the Inclination or Will, that is or may be in him, to hinder the thing; and the said Purpose is further terminated on the Consequents of the Permission, and the ordering of them. So God may be said to Will, or Purpose a Permission, as he wills or purposeth the limiting of his restraining Agency, and as this Will and purpose is also terminated on the Consequents of the thing permitted, and the disposal thereof by his Providence.   

9 The Effect of Sin may be the Object of God's Decree.  
THough God decree no man's sin, yet he may decree the Effect which sinners cause by sin. So God decreed the death of Christ, and the passive constupration of David's Concubines, but he decreed not the sin of the Actors. Accordingly such places of holy Scripture, as seem to import Gods Willing the sins of men, do indeed signify no more than the Effects of their sins as willed by him.  
Though sin hath no Good in it, and works nothing Good in itself, and cannot be willed of God as a thing convenient, or conducible; yet it may be an occasion of the greatest Good, and it may work an Effect, which, though bad in itself, (I mean Physically bad) may be conducible to Good, and so far the Effect may be willed as convenient.  
If it be objected, That a Decree of the Effect (one would think) doth imply a Decree of the Cause. The answer is, 1. That the mere decreeing of a thing, includes no more than a willing that it shall be, joined with a Knowledge of its convenience. And so a Decree of the Effect of sin, doth imply a Foreknowledge of the conducibility of that Effect to some Good; yet it no way implies a Decree of the sin, but only a Foreknowledge of it. 2. Though God doth not Decree man's sin, yet he decrees his own concourse to the Act in its general nature, but not as morally specified. He decrees also the disposing and ordering of all Concauses and necessary Antecedents of the Effect, which sinners accomplish▪ And this, with his Foreknowledge of the sin itself, sufficeth to a Decree of such an Effect   

10. Of the Futurition of Sin from Eternity.  
THat the Futurition of sin is from Eternity, is no Argument that God's Decree is the Cause thereof. For Futurition in not a real Being distinct from the thing future, but it is merely a respect of reason or conception of the mind about it; and it requires no distinct Cause from the Future thing itself. No real Being is Eternal, but God, and Eternal Futurition is but ens rationis; and an extrinsic denomination of the Divine Mind as conceiving it.  
The Cause whereby a thing doth exist in Time, is the Cause whereby it was Eternally Future; though the Cause did not exist from Eternity; as the Cause, whereby a thing sometime was, is the Cause why it shall be a thing past even to Eternity, though that Cause do not exist to Eternity.   

11. Of God's Eternal Prescience of Sin.  
GOd doth Foresee whatsoever is Future, and of determinate verity, by the mere Infinity and Eternity of his Understanding. And no other 'Cause is to be supposed necessary to his Foreknowledge of sin.  
That there can be no Futurity, of a determinate Verity, the Causes whereof are undeterminate, must be proved by the Asserters thereof. That a thing will be, sufficeth to the truth of its Futurity, without consideration from what Cause it will be. And who can say that Futurity is not by itself intelligible, or that God cannot Foreknow what a Creature, acting freely and contingently, will do? Let it be noted, that the thing under consideration is, what the Infinity of the Divine Understanding can reach unto.   

12. In what Sense Benefits are absolutely decreed of God.  
IN whatsoever Order God doth bring any thing to pass in Time, he decreed from Eternity to bring it to pass in the very same Order.  
There 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 use of Means requisite to the bringing to p●ss of that Good which is decreed; and God willeth also, that those Conditions shall be performed, and those Means used; and so in the issue he absolutely willeth all those Benefits that come to pass.  
That which God doth not, but upon conditions, he absolutely Decreed to do, and he absolutely Decreed to do it upon such Conditions. So that the Decree is absolute, though the thing Decreed be Conditional.   

13. Punishments are not alike absolutely Decreed, yet in some sense absolutely.  
THough the Favours and Benefits, that are given conditionally, be absolutely decreed, because the giving of the Conditions is decreed also; yet the Punishments, that are inflicted, are not alike absolutely decreed; because the sins, which are the Condition, or the Meritorious Cause thereof, are not decreed. But in regard of God's certain Foreknowledge of those sins, which merit the decreed Punishments, the Decree thereof doth not hang in suspense, and it may be rightly said, that the Punishments are so far absolutely decreed.  
He that certainly foresees the Condition of the decreed Event, absolutely willeth it, though he willeth not the Condition. And so God's Omniscience proves that he hath at no instant a will properly Conditional, that is, suspended upon a Condition, as to the Act itself, though the Event decreed be so suspended.   

14. Of the diversity and order of God's Decrees.  
ALl the Decrees of God are one, as in him; but they have a formal diversity in respect of the Objects and Effects, in which regard we must necessarily think and speak of them as divers.  
According to this diversity Predestination includes divers Decrees, among which these are notable, viz. a Decree of Redemption, a Decree of the first Saving Grace, or Conversion, a Decree of Perseverance, and a Decree of Glory.  
All the Decrees of God are executed in certain Order, the Design whereof was eternally included in the very Decrees. And the Order of the Decrees, as to our apprehension of them, is most safely and conveniently laid down according to the order of their Execution. But to insist upon a Priority and Posteriority of Intention in the Divine Intellect and Will, is found lubricous and incommodious, and it is no way necessary.   

15. Divers Decrees have diversely qualified Objects.  
IN the Divine Decrees, diversified from their Objects, the Objects are considered as diversely qualified. God's Decree to glorify a Person, hath the Object otherwise qualified, than the Object of his Decree of giving Faith; it being certain, that the condition which is necessary to Glorification, is not necessary to effectual Vocation.  
It is to be noted, That though the divers Decrees have their special Objects, considered or foreknown as diversely qualified, yet none of them have any Exterior Cause. It argues no more dependence of God on the Creature, to terminate his Volition or Decree only on a Qualified Subject, than to terminate his Efficient Power and Will on such a Qualified Subject, and no other, as it is most certain that he doth. And that hereupon his Decree is not a thing in suspense, hath been already showed.   

16. Of Absolute Election.  
THere is a Predestination or Absolute Election of Particular Persons to Eternal Life. For God doth decree to give Eternal Life upon certain Conditions, and he doth also Decree to give those Conditions to Certain Persons.  
That God doth in Certain Persons effect all the Conditions of Salvation, or that he gives and maintains in them from time to time that Grace that shall infallibly end in Salvation, is undeniable by them, who believe that any are saved. And the Donation of such Grace doth evidently prove his Eternal Purpose thereof. For nothing is more evident, than that God Decrees whatsoever he Effects.  
This Absolute Election proceeds according to God's Foreknowledge, I mean the Foreknowledge both of the infallible Efficacy of his own Grace which he hath purposed towards his Elect, and also of the Free Determination of their Wills by the same Grace. So that God foresees no Good in them, but what he hath decreed to give them; and it is also true, that he Foresees that they will use their own Liberty under his Grace as they ought to do.   

17. Of a general Conditional Decree of Salvation.  
GOd doth not decree the Salvation of those that are not saved. To say that God doth decree the Salvation of all, upon Condition, is, I think, an improper way of speaking. There is indeed a Decree, that all, without exception, by whom God's Conditions are performed, shall be saved. But this is no other than the decreeing of the general Law of Grace, and is wholly another thing than the Decree of Election. General Election sounds as a Contradiction in the Terms.   

18. Of Nonelection.  
FOr as much as God hath not decreed such Grace to all, as doth infallibly end in Eternal Salvation, there are some Non-Elect.  
Mere Nonelection is no Decree. It is not a Nolition to give that Grace which accompanieth Salvation, but a bare Non-Volition thereof.  
There is indeed something more than a bare not-willing, even a nilling to give such Grace. But than it is a positive will of a judicial Denying of Grace, which never takes place, but upon supposition of precedent wilful sin; and it is a thing much different from Nonelection.   

19 The Nonelection of some, agreeable to the Wisdom, and consistent with the Goodness of God.  
IT is agreeable to the Wisdom of God's Government, to Decree the salvation of some, but not of all; And in not decreeing the salvation of all, there is no want of Goodness in God. For that any miss of Salvation, it is not through any omission on God's part, but through men's neglect to do their part.  
That the Non-Elect are not under an impossibility of being saved is evident from the Position before proved, That the negation of God's Decree doth not infer an impossibility of the Event.   

20. Of Positive Reprobation.  
POsitive Reprobation, or the Decree of Damnation, is not Arbitrary; nor is it absolute in that sense as the Decree of Salvation or Election is. For where God decrees to save, he decrees likewise all the pre-requisite Conditions of Salvation. But he decrees Damnation only upon foresight of final Impenitence, or dying in a state of sin; but that Impenitence or sinful state he doth not decree.  
Indeed the Obduration, that is Judicial, God decrees, yet not Arbitrarily, but upon Foresight of men's Voluntary Impenitence and Hardness. And in this Judicial Obduration, I do not mean that God decrees the penal sin itself, but his own Righteous Judgement, upon which the sin follows.  
There is no Positive Decree that Few shall be Converted, only the Conversion of the greater number is not decreed.  
Nor doth God Decree the Salvation of men upon such Conditions, as make the Salvation of most men impossible; but the Conditions of being saved are such as do abundantly testify the Goodness of God in the salvability of men in general.   

21. In what sense God is said to Will the Conversion and Salvation of all.  
THe Conversion and Salvation of men is sincerely designed in God's Public Declarations and Proposals, as the nearest and proper End thereof.  
That they should turn and live is pleasing to his Will by a simple complacency; and he hath no complacence in their Sin, nor in their damnation, as in itself considered.  
He is so far willing of the Event, as that he doth most earnestly and strictly command it, and persuade it by most powerful and gracious Motives, and gives such a measure of help, as will make them happy, if they make use of it; and leaves them without excuse, if they do it not. And nothing is lacking on his Part, that is meet for him to do towards it, in point of Justice or Grace.  
But it is certain that he doth not simply and absolutely Will the Event, that never comes to pass. Nor is it congruous to his Government of men in their state of trial, in order to a Future State of Recompense, that he should absolutely Will the Event of all that he commands to be done.  
Nevertheless Gods will is effectual to that which he willeth, so far as he willeth it. His will of the Event is always effectual, as to the Event. His Will of Command, Counsel, and Persuasion is always effectual as to the making of Duty, and to the unfeigned signification of his Grace towards men, and of his simple Complacence in their Happiness.    

PART II. Of the Operations of God about the Actions of Men.  

1. God is the Cause of all Good.  
AS there is a Divine Decree, so there is a Divine Efficience of all the Good, as well Moral as Physical, as well of common as of saving Grace, that ever comes to pass. It is the perfection of God, as God, to be the Author of all Good; and to be the Author of it, is to Decree and Effect it.   

2. Of God's Agency about Humane Actions, and the Natural Liberty of Man's Will.  
GOds part in all Humane Acts is to us unsearchable; but this is sure, that the way of his Operation on man is agreeable to the Nature of Man, who is a free Agent.  
The Natural Liberty of the Will is not a perfect Indifferency, but an Indetermination with a Power of self-determining.  
This self-determining Power of the Will makes us capable Subjects of God's Moral Government by Laws. And its present indetermination between Good and Evil is not a state absolutely best, but most suitable to a Creature during his Probation in Order to a Future Confirmation.   

3. The Self-Determining Power of the Will is no Derogation from God.  
THat which is ascribed to the Creature, doth not always detract from the Creator. For much of his Honour is in the nobleness of his Creature. It his honour to make a Creature of so noble a Faculty as is this of self-determination. And the Faculty and Exercise of it Exists no otherwise, than as upheld and actuated by him.  
The denying of this Self-determining Power, in design of ascribing the more to God, is clogged with these incongruities; 1. Of limiting his Power, as not able to make a Self-determining Creature. 2. Of overthrowing his Moral Government by Laws.  
Notwithstanding this noble Faculty, man's will is not independently free, but God is still Lord of it, and disposeth it according to the counsel of his own will, and can do with it as he pleaseth, by a sapiential Government, without a necessitating hand over it. Yet that there may be, and sometimes is, a Divine Predetermination of it, is not here denied.   

4. Of God's Physical and Moral Operation upon Man's Will.  
IT is most congruous to the Nature of reasonable Creatures, that the general course of God's Government over them should be by Moral Means. And it is also congruous that the Father of Spirits, the God in whom we live, move, and have our being, should have an inward and most intimate access tò our Spirits in his Operations.  
God acts by his Essence, and not by an Act, that is an accident in him. In his Physical Agency what there is between his Essence and man's Act, effected by the said agency, may be above the understanding of mortals to apprehend. Some Express it by an inward urgency to the act, whereby the mind is more disposed to it, than it was before. All that I can speak of it is this, That the said urgency denotes no act of God besides his Essence, but it is God himself so urging or influencing the mind of man without any alteration in himself.   

5. Of common Concourse and Gracious Operation.  
IT is most generally and safely said by Divines, that God's Acts on the part of the Agent are all one, and all Eternal, as being his Essence; and that on the part of the Objects and Effects they are many, and some of them new and temporary. It is likewise wisely and humbly said, that the comprehending of this passeth the understanding of mortal men.  
In a sinners turning to God, and in every holy act, there is besides a common concourse from God, as the Fountain of Nature, a special Influence from him, as the Fountain of Grace. The diversity of the said Concourse and Influence is undiscernible by us in itself, but in the Effects it is made manifest to us. And that, which on God's part hath no difference, is diversified to us in the Effect.   

6. God doth not Operate to the uttermost.  
GOds Agency upon Man's will is not always in the same, but generally in very different degrees. For he doth not operate to the uttermost, or to the infinity of his Power, in every Effect that is wrought by him. It is true, that God is Infinite in Power, and whatsoever he doth, he doth it with an omnipotent facility. But that his Power is equally or always irresistibly put forth in all his Agency on the Creature I apprehend not. For if it were so, it would follow, that whatsoever is brought to pass, comes under the highest Necessitation.   

7. God may so operate as to leave the Effect in part to Man's Will.  
THat in some Cases God should Irresistibly Predetermine the Will to a good Act, is not against its Essential Liberty. For such Predetermination is not inconsistent with a Self-determining Power, but only supposeth it to be subject to God's Omnipotence. And it being to a good act, it is a Premotion perfective of our Nature, and to its well-being, and therefore not unbecoming the Goodness of God.  
Nevertheless the being of all Moral Good doth not necessarily require such Predetermination, but God may so operate, as to leave the Effect in part to the liberty of Man's Will. Otherwise a man could do no good, to which he is not necessitated. Yet when man doth his part, he doth it not independently on God, but in a total subordination to him, and by the Power and Liberty which God only gives, upholds, and actuates.   

8. How God is a Total, and not a Partial Cause, and wherein a Sole Cause.  
THe Notion of a Partial Cause is properly applied to that which is in coordination with other Causes, and therefore not fit to be applied to God, to whom all things are wholly subordinate, and nothing coordinate. Yet seeing there are other Causes evidently in conjunction with him, their own share in producing the Effect may be ascribed to them, without Impeachment of his honour. But it must be also considered, that they have all their Causation from him and in him.  
God, and nothing besides him, is the Cause of his own Act, and so far he is both a total and solitary Cause: But he is not the sole Cause of Man's Act, because man himself is a Cause thereof in Subordination to him. Yet he is a total Cause of the Act done by man, as it is an Act, and of all that is laudable in the Act. For none is coordinate with him or assistant to him in his Agency. And whatsoever man doth, be it that wherein his Privilege is greatest, viz. the determining of his own will, he doth it altogether as therein upheld and actuated by God, and dependent on him.   

9 God's Agency is not determined or limited by the Creature.  
MEn do variously receive God's Agency, but they do not determine or limit it, any otherwise than the various terminating of it may be called a determining or limiting of it. And the variation is not of God's act, absolutely considered, but as variously terminated on men, according to their various disposition. God hath enabled men freely and variously to receive his Influx. So that it is not the Creature, but God himself, that determines his Agency by the condition of the Creature, according to his own Will. And men do not limit God's Will, but only the Effect, which Gods Agency would produce, if man's will concurred.   

10. How Gods Operation on man is never without Effect.  
IF the good Effect in man doth not follow the Operation of God that is designed thereunto, yet that Operation is not without Effect. For by it there is wrought in man a Power or Capacity for that Effect, which doth not follow. And that the Power in Man is not brought into act, it is for want of Self-excitation.  
God doth act wisely, and suitably to his Government over man, in giving him Power to such Effects as come not to pass I mean a Power properly so called, and which is adequate to ' the Effect.   

11. God in giving ●e Power gives the Act, whensoever the Act follows.  
GOd giveth the very Will and Deed, in giving the Power to will and to do. If any have devised this Distinction, that the Power of Willing and Doing is from God, but that the very Willing and Doing is from men themselves, it is a Distinction that I understand not. For, the Act is from him that gives the adequate Power to it, more than from the Immediate Agent.  
The Power here supposed to be given, is seated in the Will; and the Will by it is supposed to be fully enabled and sufficiently excited to act. For God to give to will and to do, I cannot comprehend what it is, more than to give that complete Power by which man doth will and do; that is, to give man the Faculty, and rightly to dispose the Faculty to act, and to sustain it in acting; and likewise to ascertain the Act by his Decree, according to his Prescience, in a way unsearchable to us.  
Though the power be one thing, and the Act itself another thing, yet undoubtedly he that gives the said Power, doth therein give the Act itself. He that gives the Power of Self-excitation to the Act, and of all other Endeavour, gives that very Self-excitation and Endeavour, when it is in Act. And how God should have an Influx upon the Act otherwise, than by his Influx on the Agent, to give him active Power and Virtue, I cannot conceive.   

12. Of God's Agency about Sinful Acts.  
GOd, as the Universal Cause, doth concur to that which is the Substratum of Sin, but is not Sin, viz. to the Act as an Act, or considered in the mere Nature and Physical being of an Act. This is not so to be understood, as if the Effect of God's Concourse were a Non-Existent Universal, but a singular Act only, according to its general Nature; and as such, it hath no morality or sinfulness  
In the Hatred of God, the Physical Entity of Hatred is not Sin, but as it is unduly terminated on God. The Morality of a sinful Act (or if you please to call it Immorality) is as it is exercised on an undue Object, and in undue Circumstances, and as such God doth not concur to the effecting of it.  
To concur to the effecting of the Act, as having an undue Object, Order, End, etc. and not the contrary, is to effect it as sinfully qualified, or according to its moral specification, and the formale Peccati. For it is to effect the fundamentum of the Relation of disconformity to God's Law, which Relation is called the formale peccati, and follows the said fundamentum by a bare Resultancy, without any further Causation. But no sober judgement will ascribe to God the Causation of the formale peccati.   

13. Gods not Effecting the sinful Act, as morally specified, infers not the Creatures Independency.  
THe denying that God by his Efficience causeth man's Will to choose the Forbidden Object, and Refuse the contrary, or to Will rather than to Nill the forbidden Object; and the affirming that the sinful Act, as morally specified, or exercised upon the undue Object, or in undue Circumstances, rather than the contrary, is to be resolved into Man's Will, as the first Determining Principle, not predetermined, is less to be dreaded from the imagined Consequence of the multiplication of Deities, or the Creatures Independency, than the contrary Opinion is from those Consequences which really and palpably follow upon it.  
The truth is, that Faculty, which cannot act without an irresistible Predetermination to all its Acts, is not a Self-determining Faculty. And was it ever proved a contradiction or utter impossibility for God to make a Creature with a self-determining Faculty?  
Duly to consider how much every action of the Creature is from God, and what that is which is left to undetermined liberty, would not make one judge that it doth infer the Creatures Independency on God. Let it be noted, That Action is very much held to be not properly ens, as distinct from the Agent, but only a Mode of the Agent. But however that be held, the thing that is now in debate, is not so much as Action qua Action, but a Mode of Action. And be it considered, whether in such a Mode of Action the Humane Will may not be the first determining Principle, without the multiplying of Independent Being's, when the very self-determining Faculty, and its Power of acting in such a Mode, is wholly of God, and is conserved in active power by him in every Instance; and when God doth concur to that Act in genere Actus, and that, which is left to the Self-determining Will of Man, is no Physical Being, but only a comparative circumstantiated modifying of a Being. In loving or hating an undue Object, rather than a due, there is no Physical Entity, which is not in loving or hating a due Object rather than an undue. In both there is no more Natural Entity than what is in the general nature of Love or Hatred as such.   

14. Of the Consequences that follow Physical Predetermination to all Humane Acts.  
THough I have a veneration for some men, both for their Learning and Godliness, who held Physical Predetermination to all Humane Acts, as well bad as good; yet I cannot receive the Opinion in regard of its Consequences. For from this Opinion it will follow, that all the sin that is done in the world can no more be avoided, than Omnipotence be overcome; that a man could no more do that Good Act, whereof his sin is the Privation, than he could make the world; that all the sinful Deficiency that is in the world inevitably comes from the Negation of that Divine Efficience, which is absolutely necessary to prevent it; that the Covenant made with Adam in innocence, and all the Laws of God that have been violated, were impossible to be observed; that when God hath Necessitated the Violation of his Law, he Punisheth that Violation with Everlasting Punishments.  
I do not charge those that held the Opinion, but the Opinion itself, with these Consequences. And in this case, to say that man sins Voluntary and upon Choice, and therefore deservedly incurs the Punishment, is but to put off a very harsh matter with fair words. For if it be a Choice, it is such a Choice as is made under an Invincible Necessitation. And if this be not to sin under a mere Natural Necessity of sinning, what is?   

15. Whether God doth Cause sin as it is a Punishment.  
THat God doth punish sin with sin, is undeniably evident from the Scripture; he punisheth Voluntary Hardness of heart with Judicial Hardness. Nevertheless, though to Punish be God's Act, yet he doth not properly cause the penal sin; but in his Righteous Judgement he denies to give that help of Grace, which is needful to keep a man from such sin, and which is forfeited by the abuse of Grace already received; He doth also justly expose the sinner to more and greater Temptations. Hereupon the sin, which is the Punishment of former sin, certainly follows. But there is no Causation or Agency of God to the effecting of the sin; only by his Righteous Judgement it is ordered to be a Punishment of former sin.   

16. Sin doth not necessarily follow the permission of it.  
IF the Humane Will had been bend to sin by a Natural Inclination, as the fire burns, sin must have necessarily followed upon the permission of it. But first man sinned with Freedom and Choice, and without any previous inclination to it, and therefore the bare Permission of it, which is no more than a Non-prevention, doth not infer a Necessity of sinning. Nor did it causally ascertain the Event of sin. For it hath no Causation in it.  
Yea, the first man sinned not only by Free Choice, and without a Previous Inclination to it, but also against a Holy Inclination to Obedience, called Original Righteousness. This holy Inclination, though it was not so natural, as burning is to fire, that is, naturally inseparable, yet it was necessary to Humane Nature in its right state, and as it first came out of its Maker's Hands; and under the Necessary Influence of God, which was with him, it was so fully sufficient to his Perseverance in that state, that his sin was a matter of inexcusable Ingratitude, and high Contempt of the Divine Goodness towards him.  
In the state of Fallen Nature the Will hath lost its Freedom to acts conformable to God's Law, and is enslaved to sin. And while God permits him to abide in this state, man sinneth Necessarily; yet not by reason of God's Permission, but his own Vicious Inclination. This Necessity of Sinning is not purely Natural but Moral, which is also Voluntary, being from no other Cause, than the obstinate Depravedness of the Will itself, which is not to be conquered by its own Power. Moreover, it is not a Necessity of the very particular sins which men run into, as if they were inevitabe. For ordinarily the particular sinful deeds committed might be forborn, and the Duties omitted might be performed, as to the outward deed. But the meaning is, whatsoever an unrenewed person doth, hath necessarily, in the manner of it, a disconformity to Gods Law. A Corrupt Tree cannot bring forth Good Fruit.    

PART III. Of the Operations of Divine Grace.  

1. What is signified by Divine Grace.  
FOr the clearer understanding of all Points to be discussed touching Divine Grace, it is requisite that the meaning of Grace in general, and of all the kinds thereof, be explained.  
By Divine Grace in general is understood, whatsoever is graciously vouchsafed on God's part, in order to man's Duty and Felicity, whether it be the Divine Operation or the Effect hereof in man. Sometimes men call the first saving Operation of God to the renewing of the Soul, by the name of the First Grace; but it is not so indeed. For abundant and manifold Grace is vouchsafed before that. Whatsoever is from God over and above Humane Nature, and Faculties, and his general concourse, in themselves considered, is to be comprehended under this Term.  
Nature, and Gods upholding thereof, in itself considered, is not to be called Grace; but Gods reprieving of Nature, in order to its recovery, is his Grace through-Christ; and so the continuing of our Reason and Free Will, and all our Faculties in this state of Trial, is of Grace. And Nature, in itself considered, is the Subject that Grace works upon▪ For Grace doth not put into us any such thing as we call a Natural Faculty, but the Rectitude of the Faculty, or that which tends thereunto. And all the degrees of the healing and restoring of our depraved lapsed Nature, are so many degrees of Grace obtained for us by Christ. In sum, under Divine Grace, in general, may be comprehended Gods Ordinances, Providences, secret Influences, and Eternal Purposes, or the gracious Effects and Consequents▪ thereof in man.   

2. The meaning of some Distictions of Grace, that are commonly used.  
THere is Grace Objective and Subjective. By Objective Grace is meant the Law or Covenant of Grace, which is styled in Scripture, the Grace of God that bringeth salvation, together with all the external Signs and Evidences thereof, either in the Works of God and the course of his Providence towards Mankind, or in his written Word. By Subjective Grace is meant all internal gracious operations of God on man, over and above his general concourse, together with the impression and disposition made thereby in the Soul.  
There is Grace Common and Special. By Common Grace many understand that which is common, not to all, but to more than the Elect; and by Special Grace that which is peculiar to the Elect, or to a state of Salvation. But these terms are not necessarily restrained to this meaning. For there is a common Grace, not only as given to more than the Elect, but as given to all men. And there is a Special Grace, wherein God freely favours one man more than another, and yet it may be below that which is peculiar to a state of Salvation.  
Grace of the same kind may be considered as given to several persons in equal or unequal measure.  
There is also Grace Sufficient and Grace Effectual. Sufficient Grace is that, by which we can do the Good, to which it is said to be sufficient, and without which we cannot do it; and therefore it is also called Necessary Grace. Effectual Grace is that, which, as such, doth take Effect, and is never frustrate.   

3. Of Universal Grace.  
I Think the Notion of Grace ought not to be restrained to Favours or Benefits vouchsafed to some and not to others; but whatsoever God gives, which in his Justice according to the Law of Works he might refuse to give, is truly called Grace, though it be given to all. And the most Common Grace is so far of free-choice, as that God might justly have refused to give it.  
That there is an universal Objective Grace, appears by the general Law of Grace, or the Conditional Grant of Life and Salvation to all Mankind.  
The Grace of the external Signs and Evidences of the said General Grant is likewise Universal in some degree. For in the course of God's Providence towards Mankind, his mercy to sinners is very legible, particularly his Reconcileableness to them upon their Repentance. The Mercy of God towards men in general tends to lead them to Repentance, and seeking after God. Act. 17. 27. And this supposeth God to be reconcileable, otherwise there were no ground for Repentance.  
If there be such Universal Objective Grace, what hinders that there should not be Universal Subjective Grace proportionable thereunto? viz. some Help from God to dispose the Minds of Men to own and accept his Mercy, and to seek to be reconciled to him. Yea, I think that the former is in vain without the latter, because it cannot be made use of. So far am I from apprehending that Universal Grace is a repugnancy.  
It may be further noted, That in this Unversal Grace, that Notion of Free-choice in preferring one before another, takes place so far, as that it is vouchsafed only to Fallen Men and not to Angels.   

4. Every one hath a Stock of Divine Help to be improved.  
SOme help of Divine Grace is given to all, more especially to all those, who live under the Revelation of the Gospel; and this is to be made use of by all in order to their spiritual recovery. The Divine Help already given is a Talon that may be improved for the obtaining of more Help. The diligent using of Gods appointed Means of Grace, is a part of the improving of Divine Help already received. The exercise of present strength in doing good and shunning Evil, and stirring up of every Gift and Endowment given us of God, is another part of improving Divine Help.  
This improving of the Help of Grace already received is the ordinary way of obtaining more, and none have any ground to expect it otherwise, whatever God may do as a free Benefactor and Arbitrary Disposer of his own Gifts.  
I see no Heresy in saying that God will not deny more Help to him, who doth what in him lies from the Help already given. If we suppose that those words of our Saviour, [To him that hath shall be given] are to be understood only in eodem genere, even than he that improves the more Common or Preparatory Grace, shall receive more in that kind, and he that improves Renewing Grace, shall receive more in that kind.  
Many do not improve the Divine Help already received, and they do not attain to that more abundant Help, that would enable them to do Actions savingly good, because they are wanting to themselves. A Price is put into the Hand of a Fool for the gaining of Wisdom, and he hath no heart to it. So that men perish for the neglect and abuse of those Helps which they have received, and for want of those further Helps which they have resisted and rejected.   

5. Of Grace sufficient to that Good which is not Effected by it.  
THat is sufficient Grace, which gives a Power, properly so called, that is to say, an adequate Power to that Good, which should be effected by it. A Physical without a Moral Power, that is, a Natural Faculty without a due disposedness, and much more with an obstinate depravedness, is not an adequate Power to a morally good Act, that is, to an Act conformable to Gods Law. But he hath a Power adequate to a good Act, who is able to move his Will to it, and to bring it forth without the addition of more Power, or more antecedent Help of Grace, and whose indisposition to it, or disposition to the contrary, is no other, but what may be, and sometimes is overcome by that Power.  
The Grace, that gives the Power here described, is rightly called sufficient Grace. The existence of this Grace doth well consist with these Principles, that God is the Author of all Good, as well Moral as Physical; and that there is a Divine Predefinition and Efficience of all the Good that ever comes to pass. But it supposeth also, that all Moral Good doth not depend on God's Physical Predetermination, or Necessitating Premotion of Man's Will thereunto, but that good Acts may be effected without the said Predetermination or Premotion.  
If there be no such Divine Grace or Help, as is sufficient to some Good, which is not effected by it, than no man hath or ever had a Power, properly so called, to do more Good than he doth, and to avoid more Evil than he doth, for lack of further Necessary Help from God. And if no man hath or ever had Power to do more Good, or to avoid more Evil than he doth, for lack of something to be given him of God, as causally necessary thereunto, than all sin of Omission and Commission is resolved at least into God's Non-Volition and Non-efficience, as the prime Reason thereof, in the Negation of his Necessary Help.  
Though God's Providence towards his Rational Creatures be a Depth unfadomable, yet who would easily admit such a Position, the evident Consequence whereof will be the resolving of all sin into the Will of God? Nor may that be admitted for the only way of Divine Efficience on Man's Will, the continued existence whereof is repugnant to the Wills defectibility, and the Negation whereof infers a Necessity of its Defection, and so brings all its Acts under a Kind of Fatality. I doubt not but God hath afforded us so much light into his mysterious ways, as to clear them from any such Consequences.   

6. Some undeniable Instances of Grace sufficient.  
THat Adam had Divine Help, and a Moral Power sufficient to his Perseverance, though he did not persevere, must be granted, or else it will follow, that God antecedently to his Fall was wanting to him in Necessaries, and that he fell, because he had not Power to stand, which Consequence is intolerable. His posse stare si vellet, could be no less than a posse velle stare.  
Whether Adam's Original Righteousness were to be called Natural or Supernatural, it makes no difference in our Inquiry. For most certainly it was the Gift of God, and his Workmanship, and it was upheld in him, while it remained, by God's Conserving Influence; and God gave him that Inherent Rectitude, and that assistant Influence which was sufficient for him. And though it was not remedying Grace, which is proper to fallen man, yet it was Divine Help, which sufficeth to the point here in question. And it may be properly called Grace, because it came from God, not as the Fountain of Nature only, but of Grace.  
It is more than can be proved, that Adam had not that Assistant Grace, and that Power, which had the same proportion for his perseverance, with that Grace and Power, which the Elect Angels had for their Perseverance before their Confirmation. Yea, it cannot be proved that the Elect Angels had more Help of Grace from God before their Confirmation, than the Reprobate Angels had before their Fall. But how ever it be, the Reprobate Angels unquestionably had sufficient.  
Regenerate persons have that Help of Grace, whereby they are enabled to do more Good in the Saving Kind, than they do. And the unregenerate have that Help of a moer Common Grace, whereby they may do more Good in the Common Kind, than they do. Both Regenerate and Unregenerate have not only a Physical but a Moral and adequate Power to many good Acts of Saving or Common Grace, which are not done.  
In the aforesaid Instances it is to be noted, that the sufficient Grace is efficax ad posse; and in this regard that Rule, posita causa in actu sequitur effectus, is not here gainsaid. For sufficient Grace, where the good Act doth not follow, is causa in actu only of the posse or moral Power, which Effect exists, and so the Operation is not without Effect. And the good Act doth not follow, because the Moral Power given by sufficient Grace is in act of Existence only, but not of Causation.   

7. Of Grace sufficient to Conversion that doth not effect it.  
THat grace may be sufficient for one, which is not sufficient for another. And that is properly Grace sufficient to Conversion, which is thereunto sufficient, with respect to the persons particular condition and necessity.  
There may be Grace sufficient to certain Acts tending to Conversion, which is not immediately sufficient to Conversion itself. And there may be grace sufficient to Acts more remotely, and in a lower degree tending to Conversion, which is not sufficient to acts more nearly, and in a higher degree tending to it.  
Grace sufficient to an Act tending to Conversion may be called grace mediately sufficient thereunto. And if so be, that, upon the improvement of it, more grace from time to time gradually follow, it may end in Grace immediately sufficient.  
If Grace immediately sufficient were given to Adam for his Perseverance, which did not effect it, if the like be given to the Regenerate, whereby they are enabled to do more good in the saving kind than they do, and to the unregenerate also, whereby they may do more good in the Common Kind than they do, I discern no Reason why there may not also be Grace immediately sufficient to Conversion, which doth not effect it.  
I grant, that a sinner's Conversion may be an Effect of greater grace, than Adam's Perseverance would have been, and than the good Acts of the Regenerate are. For there was in Adam, and there is in the Regenerate an active holy Principle or Disposition. I grant, that Man in his fallen state doth need a change of the Will, which Adam before his fall did not, and the Regenerate do not need. But this Change of the will is no other than Conversion itself. And why there may not be sufficient grace to change the Will, when it is not changed, I cannot discern. If any shall say there is no such Grace, he ought to prove it from the Evidence of Scripture, or from the impossibility of the thing.   

8. Whether the Holy Habit be effected before the first Act of turning to God.  
IT may be objected, That the effecting of the Habit, Inclination, or Principle in the Soul, wherein man is merely passive, is first in order of Nature, and the Soul's act of turning to God, is consequent to it. And consequently there can be no Sufficient Grace to Conversion, but that which doth effect it, and no man hath a Power to turn to God before the Holy Principle is infused.  
To this I answer, That this Hypothesis (to say the least) is unnecessary and unproved. In what the Nature of a Habit doth consist is not easy to be understood, as whether it be the firmness and vigour of the natural Faculty to such acts, or a secret inperceptible constant act in the soul. But whether it be the one or the other, there is no reason, why it must needs go before the act. I apprehend that the Act of turning to God is before that Holy Habit or fixed Principle which is called the New Nature; at least that it may be so, and that most ordinarily. This way is more congruous to God's Means of Conversion, which work in the Nature of Moral Causes, that do not immediately beget the Habit, but the holy act or acts, and the habit by the mediation thereof. And in this case the influx and impress of Divine Grace is instead of the holy habit. And the habit may be said to be infused, when the Spirit of God doth excite the soul to the act, and by that act or acts bring it to a settled habit. Any other way of infusing habits, I confess, I am not able to apprehend.  
If the Will doth, without a precedent habit, move to a spiritual good by the influx of the Holy spirit, it doth not follow, that a man moves without a Principle, merely by an extrinsic agency. For the Will itself, excited by Divine Grace, is an intrinsic principle of Motion. As a man moves himself by the locomotive faculty, so he wills the Object by the volitive faculty; and the act of Conversion is not by God's extrinsic agency alone, but also by an intrinsic Principle, the will itself.  
It is not necessary that the Will of a drunkard be habitually changed from drunkenness to sobriety, before any acts of sobriety can be performed by him. And though there be a greater change in sanctifying than in civilising a man, yet as a civil or common act may precede a habit, so may a holy act.  
If a man may commit a sinful act, without a previous sinful Habit, as Adam did, and that from the intrinsic Principle of his own Free Will, why may he not by the assistance of Divine Grace bring forth a Holy Act, without a previous Holy Habit?   

9 The actual Prevalence of sin doth not gainsay the Sufficiency of Grace.  
WHen man's evil Inclination hinders the good Effect that might come to pass through Divine Grace, it is not because the evil Inclination is in itself stronger than the Grace, which we call sufficient, but because the Will makes not use of that sufficient help. In this case the Will is not so far weak or obnoxious to depraved Inclination, but that by the assistance of the Grace given it might prevail against it, and effect the Good that is designed in that Assistance. God giveth sufficient Help, and they to whom it is given, neglect it, and give way to the prevalence of Corruption, which might have been overpowered by it. Though none will say that Medicaments are Sufficient, which are not Effectual when they are duly applied; yet sufficient. Medicaments when not duly applied, may prove uneffectual.  
If it be objected, That the will itself resists the Divine Help that is given, and as stronger than it overcomes it: I answer, that which is here called Resistance is not the Wills reaction upon the Divine Help, or a breaking of its force; but it is partly its wilful averseness from making use of that Help, and it's not acting according to it, and partly its wilful rejecting of it, and hardening itself against it. In the mean time the said Divine Help is in its full force and virtue, and sufficient to the designed Good, and so remains, till God withdraws it in his just indignation against the sinners wilful neglect and abuse of it.   

10. Equal Grace is not given to all, whose condition towards God antecedently is equal.  
THe measure and proportion of Divine Help given, whether it be alike to all, is to come under consideration. In equal Grace there is not only an equality of Divine Influx on the Soul, but also of External Means and Helps, and an equal felicity of concurring Circumstances, which make for that good which is to be effected thereby. Yea that Grace may be in every respect equal, there must be an equality of need in the persons receiving it. For where there is more need, the same degree of Divine Help is a lesser degree of Grace, respectively considered, than where there is lesser need; as the same sum of money given to one, that is more in want, is a lesser aid to him, than to another that wants less.  
A lesser degree of Divine Grace in one kind, may be made up by a greater Degree thereof in another kind; and so he that receives less in one kind, than what another hath received in the same, may be equal in the receiving of Grace with that other, by receiving more than he in another kind.  
It is not against the Righteousness or Goodness of God to vouchsafe a greater Degree of his Gracious Help to some more than to others, whose condition towards him antecedently, and in themselves, is equal. God, considered as a Rector, renders equally to all that are of equal merit or condition; but as a Proprietor, or Lord of his own, he is not bound to equality. For he may do with his own what he Will, and none can challenge him for doing more for some than for others, when he doth for all, as much as is meet for him to do. And thereupon he gives to some, as he pleaseth, such proportions of Grace, to which he gave them no antecedent right by his Law of Grace, or any Promise.   

11. Of unequal Proportions of Grace in respect of outward Means.  
TO some the Gospel is revealed, to others it is not revealed, and yet the condition of them both antecedent to Gospel-Revelation was the same.  
Of baptised Children of Christian Parents, under the Turkish Tyranny, being of equal condition towards God, some are educated under their Parents in the Faith of Christ, and others are taken from them in their Childhood and educated in Mahometan Infidelity.  
In a place, where true Religion is established, and the true knowledge of God is taught, two Females of equal condition may in their first Childhood be taken, the one into a most Religious Family, and there educated; the other into a house of common Whoordoms, and there educated. There are innumerable such instances of different Grace toward those, whose condition towards God antecedently was not different.   

12. Of unequal Proportions of Grace, in respect of Divine Influx on the Soul.  
IF it be so evident that unequal or special Grace, in respect of external means, is given in this manner, what hinders but that Special Grace may be given in respect of Divine Influx on the Soul, and such secret distinguishing Providences, as are past our finding out. And that there is a special Divine Grace towards some more than others, under the same outward means, seems clearly deducible from the Scripture.  
Our Saviour gives this reason, why some of his Hearers did understand and receive his Doctrine, and others not, because to some of them it was given to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom, and to others it was not given. Mat. 13.  
Of those that hear the same Doctrine of Salvation, they only that obey the Doctrine are said to be taught of God, and their being taught of God is set forth as the special Reason of their Obedience, and a peculiar Benefit, whereby they are discriminated from those that obey not. Joh. 6. There was therefore a special teaching of them that obeyed, different from the teaching of them that did not obey, though both had the same outward means.  
The Father's drawing of some to Christ, and not others, of those that heard him preach, Joh. 6. must needs be understood of such Divine Grace vouchsafed to some, as was not to others. For our Saviour renders this Reason of the different Effect of the same Word preached among his hearers, that some were drawn to him by the Father, and others not.   

13. A Stock of Grace is ordinarily given in unequal Proportions and arbitrarily.  
THough every one hath some stock of Divine Grace to be improved, yet I conceive that it is Gods ordinary way to give the same in unequal proportions and arbitrarily, according to that distribution of the Talents in the Parable, Mat. 25. without respect to antecedent different worthiness. But as the Lord did arbitrarily distribute the Talents, so he did it according to discretion. In like manner doth the Wisdom of God guide him in the free distribution of the different Measures of his Grace. Herein the depth of the Riches of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God is wonderful, his judments are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out. There are unconditional Favours, and in the arbitrary bestowing of them in unequal Measures, God proceeds most agreeably to his own Absolute Dominion, as also to the state of Sinful Man, who can merit no such favour from him.   

14. Of the Notion of Effectual Grace.  
THe denomination of Effectual Grace is not to be taken merely from the Event, but from the State and Quality of the Grace itself. Now this term Effectual thus taken needs explication. 1. It may signify that which hath sufficient Power to effect. For sufficiens ad esse est efficax ad posse; In this sense Sufficient and Effectual Grace is all one. 2. That which in the Nature of it hath a necessary connexion with the Effect, as necessitating Causes. 3. That which as such doth infallibly produce the Effect, and is never frustrate.   

15. Conversion is the Effect of Grace qua talis effectual.  
THere is such Divine Grace, and that consisting not only in the preaching of the Word, and other External Means, but also in the Internal Operation of the Spirit, as is rejected by men, and becomes in vain to them. There is also such grace, as is qua talis effectual, and doth infallibly produce the Effect, for which it is given. And all Moral Good, more especially man's Conversion, is an Effect of such Grace, being an Operation of God proceeding from an Absolute Will, that it shall not be made void.  
God saith, Ezek. 11. 19 I will put a new Spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh. This promise signifies that God will effect the Change by an Operation that shall not fail, and which implies the removing of any Obex that man's Will lays against it.  
St. Paul saith, Phil. 2. 14. It is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his own good Pleasure. These words of working to will and to do of his own good pleasure, can import no less than his infallible producing of the Effects of Willing and Doing. Here note, That for God to cause our act of willing, and so of turning to him, is to cause our Faculty so to will, by a gracious influx upon it, which shall not fail.  
Our Lord Christ saith, Joh. 6. 37. All that the Father giveth me, shall come unto me. Also, v. 45. Every man that hath heard, and learned of the Father cometh to me. It is here plain, that all and every one without exception, who is so given to Christ, and so taught of God, as is there meant, do certainly come to him.  
It will never come to pass, that he, who receives this Effectual Grace, should continue averse or in suspense, but he will surely determine himself to act according to that Grace. The partakers of this Effectual Grace are they that are said, Rom. 8. 28. to be called according to God's purpose, which is his purpose according to Election, Rom. 9 11.   

16. The Position of this Effectual Grace is not repugnant to the Sufficient Grace before spoken of.  
FRom the former Position there seems an Objection to lie against the existence of a Sufficient Grace, which is not effectual. If Conversion be the Effect of that Grace only, which infallibly produceth it, it seems that no other grace is sufficient to it. And it may be further said, how can that Grace be sufficient, which never produceth the Effect. To this it is answered;  
1. That something be Sufficient to an Effect, and yet not produce it, is no repugnancy; and that God should give a Sufficient Grace to some, and more than merely sufficient to others, is no inconvenience.  
2. Who knows but that in some Instances the same Divine Influx and External Means may be only Sufficient in some, and Effectual in others? And to them, in whom it is Effectual, it may be said to be formally and in itself Effectual, and not Eventually only; it being certain, that whensoever the Grace given takes effect, it doth so according to God's Preordination and Decree; and that Decree is according to his foreknowledge, the way whereof is to us incomprehensible.  
3. That Grace, that ascertains the Effect, is not necessary to make it possible. The negation of the Decree of the Effect in some doth not make it impossible to be in them, as hath been before proved. The negation of the decree of Adam's Perseverance did not make it impossible.  
4. There is no repugnancy that something be sufficient to an Effect, and yet never produce it. For if the Effect may not follow in one instance, it may possibly not follow in a thousand, or ten thousand instances of the same Reason. This holds undoubtedly in Effects produced in Free Agents, and to which their free concurrence is requisite; and that the Effect doth not follow, it comes not from any antecedent Necessity, or because something necessary to the producing thereof was wanting.   

17. Grace Sufficient is not altogether in vain, where the Effect follows not.  
WIthout Sufficient Grace, there is not a Moral and adequate Power to a Good Act; and when it is given, the Good Act is fully possible, and thereunto God hath done his part to the full.  
The aforesaid Doctrine of Sufficient Grace, is an encouragement and engagement to all to stir up themselves to do their part in hope of good success.  
That the Salvation of the Impenitent was not impossible for lack of something necessary to it, in way of Causation on God's part, makes for the unexceptionable clearness of his Proceedings with them.   

18. Grace more than merely Necessary is not needless.  
IT cannot be said that whatsoever is more than simply necessary to an Effect, is needless or superfluous. For God may delight, where he pleaseth, to facilitate the Effect, and to give not only what is enough, but more abundant, and therein glorify his Wisdom and Goodness. And we are to pray not only for help of grace merely necessary to the Good we are called unto, but for more abundant help, that we may do it more freely and perfectly.   

19 In what manner of Operation Grace formally Effectual doth consist.  
EFfectual Grace is a special Operation of God on the Soul, by Internal Influx, in conjunction with all suitable means, (wherewith the Infinite Divine Wisdom is furnished to every purpose) by which the Effect is ascertained. But what is the special manner of this Operation is not easily to define. God can work effectually in divers Ways, and by us incomprehensible.  
I cannot say, that his Physical Predetermination, or Necessitating Premotion of the Will to a good act, and particularly to Conversion, cannot in any case be, nevertheless it need not be insisted on, because by a way of Moral Agency God can infallibly cause the Will to determine itself.  
In this way of Moral Agency God can put forth an insuperable Efficacy of Divine Grace, so as therein to take away the Moral, though not the Physical Power to the contrary. Which to do is not against the Liberty of the Will, but makes it more perfect. For an indetermination of the Faculty to Will or not to Will, the Good that ought to be willed, is but its liberty in a state of trial.  
Moreover God can work effectually by such a degree or manner of Operation, as leaves in the Will a Moral Power to the contrary, or which leaves the Effect in part to the un determined Liberty of the Will. And in this manner he can certainly bring to pass man's Conversion. Who can say that God could not have infallibly effected Adam's Perseverance by such an Operation, as should leave the Effect in part to his Will, or that he did not in that manner effect the Perseverance of the Elect Angels before their Confirmation?  
That a thing should be ascertained, to the Opposite whereof the Will of man will determine itself, is indeed a repugnancy. But it is no repugnancy that a thing should be ascertained, to the Opposite whereof the Will of man may determine itself.   

20. Of congruous Vocation.  
THat Divine Grace, which effects man's Conversion, not by a naturally necessitating Premotion, but by Moral Agency, may be conceived to lie ordinarily in a certain contemporation of the Divine Call and freewill, which being put, the Effect follows infallibly. This is by some called congruous Vocation, in which there is a Divine gracious Influx upon the Faculty, and the powerful Motives of the Gospel presented to it, with all concurring suitable Providences, by which the Will is infallibly carried to the saving Effect, by a free and sweet Motion, without any proper Necessitation.  
The Doctrine of congruous Grace is not to be rejected for the Jesuits sake, if it cannot otherwise be discovered to be erroneous. Nor am I hereby compelled to rest upon their Notion of Scientia media; and whether it be any way satisfactory to their intendment, it is not necessary to be examined in this place.  
Against the explication of Effectual Grace here given, if it be Objected, That the supposed Grace, which takes not effect, must be judged incongruous; it may be thus answered, that by congruous is meant that which is so thoroughly adapted to the Effect, that it will follow infallibly, though freely; but Grace, merely sufficient, may be ordinarily not so throughly adapted to the Effect, being not in so high a degree or specialty of Convenience to such a particular Will; and yet it may not be simply incongruous, but so far congruous, as to be fully so much as is necessary and sufficient to produce the Effect, though it follow not.   

21. Grace Effectual, and merely Sufficient, are variously diversified.  
THough in Effectual Grace God so operates, as that the Effect shall follow, yet it cannot be proved that there is always a difference, ex parte influxus divini, between that which effects, and that which effects not; It may lie in the different congruity of the Means and circumstantial Helps, and in the different receptivity of the person. And it is to be noted, That the said congruous Means, circumstantial Helps, and Receptivity of the Person, are all of Gods own Ordaining and Effecting.  
By Receptivity here, I mean not the soft heart, opposite to the heart of Stone, which is the Effect of Grace effectual, and which is no other than Conversion, or the heart turning itself; but an antecedaneous disposition, which is also the Gift of God, and may be a considerable while before Conversion, or only in the instant immediately foregoing it: and it is a better disposedness to the using of Divine Helps both Internal and External.   

22. Of men's ordinary Preparedness for Grace Effectual.  
I doubt not but Effectual Grace may take hold of a less prepared Subject, I mean less prepared even in the instant immediately before Conversion; also that it may work by less suitable means. Yet I believe, that as in the Works of Nature, so in the Works of Grace, God doth more ordinarily work upon the more prepared Subjects, and by the more congruous ways and means.  
That Scripture, Tit. 3. 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, expressly speaks of Salvation, and not of the first Conversion. And it doth not intend the excluding of Faith, Repentance, and Obedience in order to Salvation, but the Works of Legal Righteousness. If the first Conversion be comprehended in the Salvation there spoken of, yet it doth not intend the excluding of Necessary Preparedness, but it may intend to exclude the necessity of the Works of Natural Righteousness, and that kind of Virtue that is in mere Natural Men, and was found in many Heathens.  
As for Paul's Conversion, it is an extraordinary Instance, and may not be urged against what is done in Gods ordinary way. Towards unprepared Souls, suddenly converted, there is an extraordinary Operation of God, both in respect of the Internal Impress on the Soul, and the extraordinary Outward Means. Moreover, none can disprove a more special preparedness in Paul or Manasse, or other most heinous Offenders, in some instant of time before the Saving Change.  
Receptivity and Congruity for Grace doth not always-lye in men's fair carriage, or more orderly behaviour, or in being less notorious sinners. Our Saviour said that Publicans and Harlots should enter into the Kingdom of Heaven before Scribes and Pharisees, as having a greater aptness than they to close with Grace, not by reason of their greater sinfulness, but their Conviction and Humiliation occasioned by the review thereof.   

23. How the Effect of Grace, left in part to undetermined freewill, can be ascertained.  
WHatsoever Contingency be in the Created Will, and uncertainty thereupon in the Created Intellect, with God there can be no Uncertainty, no nor Contingency, any otherwise than as it denotes Liberty.  
To remove Uncertainty about Events from God, I conceive it is not necessary to hold either a naturally necessitating Premotion, or an insuperable Moral Operation upon Free Agents to all their Acts. All that I can say in this difficulty is, That God can and doth, in a way past our understanding, ascertain Events left in some part to man's Undetermined Liberty.  
It is undeniably evident as concerning sin, that though God cannot be said to ascertain it, because he doth not decree nor effect it, yet he doth certainly foreknow it, though man's Will doth freely and contingently determine itself to it. Surely the Scantling of our narrow Apprehensions, and our manner of Knowledge, is no Rule or Standard whereby we may confidently determine of the Ways of his Foreknowledge, whose Understanding is Infinite, Eternal and Unchangeable.  
It is most certain that God foreknew the Fall of Mankind, and of some Angels, which was contingent in itself, and from no Necessitating Cause, in respect of any Creature, or any Divine Decree or Operation. And if God hath the Foreknowledge of one Future Contingent, by the same Reason he hath the Foreknowledge of a World of them.  
In this incomprehensible Divine Foreknowledge, and ascertaining of what is left to the undetermined Liberty of the Will, there is no repugnancy in Reason; nor do there follow from it any such Inconveniences in God's Government, as do evidently follow either a necessitating or an insuperable Premotion of the Human Will to all its Acts.   

24. Man's Will doth not that which is more and greater than what Divine Grace doth, when the Effect is in some part left to it.  
THere is an Objection, which though somewhat curious, must be taken notice of. The Act of Repenting and Believing is something more and greater, than the Ability or Power to Repent and Believe, and is more conducing to Salvation. Now though the Power of Repenting and Believing be made the Effect of Grace, yet the Acts themselves are made the Effects of Man's Will, if they be left in part to the undetermined Liberty thereof. To this it is answered,  
1. Though the Acts of Repenting and Believing be more and greater, than to have Power to the said Acts; yet to give the whole Power, which is God's part, is more and greater than both the Power, and the consequent Acts. Therefore, though in actual Repenting and Believing a man doth more to salvation than in having the Power; yet God in giving the Power, as a total Cause thereof, doth that which is more and greater in order to Salvation, than Man himself doth, who receives the Power, and acts according to it. The Glory and Praise of an Act is infinitely more to be ascribed to God, who as a total Cause gives the whole Power to do it, than to man that doth it. And so the glory of Man's Salvation, yea and of his Conversion, is infinitely more to be ascribed to God than to man.  
2. In the present case, the actual willing to Repent and Believe, though it be of the Will formally, as its Act, yet it is of God effectively as his Work. And so in every good Act, though man be the subject of Willing and Doing, yet it is God that worketh in man to Will and to Do. I cannot comprehend what it is for God to work in us to will and to do, more than to be the total Cause of all that Power by which we will and do. And I do not understand any other immediate influence of God into the Act itself, than that which is into the Agent Power.   

25. The Help of Divine Grace is inferred from the Law of Grace.  
THe supposing of a matter to be our Duty, doth not infer that we may in our Fallen state reasonably expect a Sufficient Help to perform it. It is our Duty to Keep God's Law perfectly, but Sufficient Grace thereunto is not given. God may justly require of us, what he once gave us Power to do, after we gave sinfully lost that Power.  
Yet when God hath made with men a Conditional Covenant of Grace, and hath required of them the acceptance of his Covenant, and the Performance of the Conditions, upon a Promise of the Benefits, let it be considered, whether it doth not thence follow, that it is agreeable to his Wisdom and Goodness, to vouchsafe them that Help which is necessary thereunto. By Necessary Help, I mean that which is immediately or mediately sufficient; that is to say, either immediately to per from the Conditions themselves, or to perform mediate Acts tending thereunto, upon performance whereof more Help comes, till it reach to an immediate Sufficiency.  
Let it be considered, whether it be agreeable to the Mercy of God declared in the Covenant of Grace, to leave those, to whom he hath propounded it, under an impossibility of being saved by it; And whether the Gospel-offer be an Act of Grace, tending to Salvation, towards those that are utterly destitute of that necessary Divine Help, without which their Conversion and Salvation is morally impossible. An offer of Mercy upon Impossible Terms, one would think is no Mercy or no Offer.  
If Grace necessary to the acceptance of the Gospel-Offer be utterly withholden, let it be considered, how the non-acceptance of that Offer can be a greater sin than the bare transgression of the Law of Works, and be called the Condemnation, or the great damning sin.   

26. The Duty of improving the Help of Grace, proves the Sufficiency thereof.  
IF God had not vouchsafed to Fallen Man that Help that is necessary for his Recovery, he had indeed been inexcusable in his abiding in sin, as the Devils now are; but I cannot see how he had been inexcusable for the neglect of his Recovery, if he had been utterly destitute of that Necessary Help. But now Gods giving of outward Means and inward Helps of Grace, infers our Duty of improving them, and our inexcusableness in the neglect of them; and this seems to me necessarily to imply, that they are in themselves improvable, and that we have Power to improve them.  
Every man is culpable in not fulfilling the whole Law, without the least breach thereof, because the unalterable Law of God, and the Power that was once given, but now lost, obligeth him to it: But no man is culpable for not improving the Help of Grace to that perfect fulfilling of the Law, because no man hath received a Help Sufficient thereunto.  
An unconverted person is culpable in not turning to God, because the Law of God unalterably obligeth him to cease from sin: But he would not be culpable for non-improvement of Helps and Means if they be not Improvable, but utterly Insufficient thereunto. Not Improving evidently notes ones not doing not only what he should, but what he might do, and that he is wanting to himself, when nothing necessary is wanting. Nothing is Improvable beyond its Sufficiency; and Means in themselves Improvable, are not Improvable with respect to us, if we have no Power of Improving them.  
If the case were such, that men shall be condemned for the Non-Improvement of any Helps external or internal, when they are destitute of a further Help, without which it is impossible that they should Improve them, any one would think that it were better for them to be without those Helps. And indeed how can they be truly called Helps or Means to those that are under a Moral Impossibility of Improving them to that intent whereunto they are said to be vouchsafed.   

27. Of God's Expostulation. Isa. 5. 4.  
GOd in expostulating with his People, saith, What could I have done to my vineyard, more than I have done in it? this may be as well rendered, What should I have done, etc. or what had I to do more? This Expostulation is very congruous to the Covenant of Grace under which the Jews were. And it supposeth that they had Sufficient or Necessary Grace to do the Good they did not, and immediately sufficient to Acts tending to Conversion, and mediately sufficient to Conversion, and that they had Internal, as well as External Help; and that God did for them as much as was meet on his part, in reference to the said Covenant.   

28. Of the different states of men in respect of Divine Help.  
MAnifest Experience shows that all men have not Help immediately sufficient to Conversion and Salvation. For many are under a present Moral Impossibility of performing any Saving Acts, as Obdurate Sinners, and such as are ignorant of things absolutely Necessary to be known and done. Such may have had formerly more Help, which now they have sinned away. Nevertheless, I conceive that all, who have the use of Reason, may have Help immediately sufficient to intermediate Acts tending to Conversion, by the use whereof there may be advancement to further Help, and a nearer approach towards Salvation.  
Though the mere Non-donation of more special and abundant Grace be arbitrary with God, yet the positive Denegation of further Necessary Grace is penal, and the Act of a Righteous Judge towards those who neglect what they have received, Isa. 6. 9 Matth. 13. 14. yet God may and not seldom doth remit that Penalty, and vouchsafe that further Help which was forfeited, according to the pleasure of his own Will.  
Many, that are in a state of Judicial Hardness, are not destitute of Help Sufficient to many Acts materially good, and to avoid many sins, especially of the outward deed, which if they would then make use of, as they are able, and hold on therein, they might recover that greater Help that is withdrawn.   

29. The most hopeful Way of receiving more Grace.  
THough God, for the glory of his Free Grace and Rich Mercy, sometimes converts those who have more wilfully and heinously opposed his Grace, yet the greater opposition doth not make Conversion more hopeful, but more difficult and less hopeful, though not desperate. So far we are hopeful, as we are yielding to God. The gradual progress of earnest Care and Industry in using the Grace received, is the very Way, and the only ordinary way, by which God effectually calls those who have attained to the use of Reason.  
Even they, who are Converted, do before their Conversion in some degree resist the Spirit of God, and some of them more heinously, yet when God draws them by his Effectual Grace, they come freely with heart and goodwill. And because there is a reluctancy in part, in the very time, or in the instant immediately before the Turning Act, made by the opposite Principle, Converts in turning do not only yield to God, but earnestly reach after him with a striving against the opposite Principle.   

30. Encouragement to wait on God's Grace in his Way.  
COmmonly men are forward to venture great matters in the world upon hopeful, yet uncertain Issues. Therefore none should grudge to venture their care and pains in waiting on God's Grace in his way. To do our uttermost in the use of Means for Conversion is manifestly our Duty, and we are sure to be no losers by it, which men are not sure of in their great Adventures and Undertake for the things of this world. A mans continued making use of that Moral Power, which he hath towards Conversion, from one degree of Preparatory Grace to another, will at length terminate in Grace immediately sufficient, if he live. And I incline to believe that God will not by death cut off a person, that continues Endeavours, in some good measure answerable to his Help, to advance towards Conversion, before he becomes a Convert, though his Endeavours be mingled with some Defects.   

31. Whether God hath promised Grace Effectual to those that use Grace received.  
GOds Command to use Means for any End, contains an Encouragement to use the same in hope that it shall not be in vain. And if we be to use Means in hope towards God that it shall not be in vain, it is supposed to be not a groundless but a grounded Hope. And every grounded Hope rests upon some signification of Gods Will for the obtaining of the Thing hoped for.  
If Gods Positive Denegation of further Grace be penal, why may not his conferring of further Grace be premial, according to a conditional Promise? Our performing of the Condition of such a promise depends primarily on Gods Preventing Grace, yet subordinately it may depend on our own well-disposedness, which is always the Effect of a former Preventing Grace.  
The Endeavours of a man yet unconverted, which are not accepted of God immediately unto his Justification, may be accepted according to their degree; namely, unto the bestowing of Benefits tending to Conversion and Justification; and so may be the Condition of obtaining such Benefits.  
It doth not derogate from the Honour of Divine Grace, nor tend to beget arrogance in men, that God should ordinarily give further Grace upon the good use of former Grace. For it is not the value and worth, but the congruity and meetness of what is done by man for the receiving of more Grace, that is here considered. And it is very congruous, that the acts of Divine Grace towards men should not be perfected at once, but by degrees, as men make use of the former degrees.   

32. Equal help of Grace may have different Effects.  
WHere equal Help of Grace is vouchsased to several Persons, it is possible that the good Act, for which it is given, may follow in one of them, and not in the other. And where equal Help is given to the same person at several times, it is possible that the good act may follow at one time, and not at another. Otherwise whensoever a good Act is done, a greater help, than that which is given when it is not done, is supposed necessary. And if greater Divine Help, than what is given, be causally necessary to all those enjoined Acts, which are not done, all sinful omissions would be ultimately resolved into Gods not giving what is necessary to the opposite Good Acts; which to admit, is, as I suppose, a great inconvenience.  
From this supposition that the same Grace sometimes takes effect, and sometimes not, it doth not follow that the same Efficience is not the same. For as the term Efficience connotes the following act, it is not the same Efficience that doth and that doth not take effect. Yet it may be said the same Efficience, if the word be taken for the operation in se, and not respectively with connotation of the Effect.   

33. Whether any be Converted by such Help of Grace, as leaves some unconverted.  
THat there is Grace sufficient to Conversion which doth not effect it, hath been already argued. And that more Grace, than what is immediately sufficient, is not necessary to it, the very terms do make plain. And if it be not in the nature of the thing necessary, that more be given than what is immediately sufficient, who can prove that God doth always give more, where Conversion follows?  
If in several Persons or People receiving Equal Grace unto common Good Acts, the Events have been different as to that kind of Good, I do not understand why in several Persons receiving Equal Grace to saving Good Acts, the Events may not be different as to that kind of Good. But indeed I judge, that in this case we are not so much concerned to know what is done, as what may be done, and what would be done, if men were not wanting to themselves.  
It may seem by our Saviour's words, Mat. 11. 21. If the mighty works, which have been done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repent long ago, etc. That some would certainly have been converted by that very Help of Grace, if it had been given them, which did not convert others, to whom it was given. His upbraiding the People to whom he spoke, as more unyielding to God than others would have been, doth show that an Equal Help of Grace would have converted others; I mean equal in itself; but whether it might be called equal respectively to their need, I confess I cannot say. For they might need a greater Help than others to prevail against their greater averseness. Yet this may be rationally hence inferred; That in some instances, by that Help of Grace, which is in itself Equal, some may be, and actually are converted, and not others, by reason of the unequal disposedness of the Persons.  
Whether some be converted, and others not, by that Help of Grace, which is Equal not only in itself, but also respectively to the need of both, if we know not, there is no great need to know. But I think it is hard for any to show cause why it cannot be so, and that it never is so. In this Case the undetermined Liberty of the Will sufficeth to make a diversity of the Cause to a diversity of the Effect in the several Persons, notwithstanding the same Disposedness, the same Object, the same Helps, the same Impediments, and all other Circumstances the same.  
Howbeit, none are Converted, whose Conversion is not antecedently ascertained of God. For this, if any thing, must not be left to uncertainty. Here it is to be noted, that the non-ascertaining of an Event doth not render it impossible. And the non-ascertaining of Conversion doth imply no necessity of Non-Conversion, but that which is called necessitas consequentiae, or of Logical Inference, and imports only a Certainty, and no proper Necessity of the thing inferred.  
God doth ascertain Conversion, by the vouchsafement of such Grace, as doth infallibly produce it, according to his Foreknowledge and Decree. God's gracious Efficience, proceeding from an absolute Decree of the Success, is the formalis ratio of Effectual Grace.   

34. In man's Conversion and in all Good God is always Chief, yea all in all.  
GRace always takes effect according to the pleasure of the Divine Will. And man's Conversion to God, and Perseverance in Grace, and whatsoever good is done by the Creature, which way soever it be brought to pass, is to be referred not to the Created Will, as the origo or first rise thereof, but to the Decree of God ordaining, and his Providence disposing the whole traduction of a sinner from death to life. All Good is entirely the Gift of God, and man's Will doth it as wholly thereunto impower'd of God.  
The undetermined Liberty of the Will, and the different success of equal Grace, is not derogatory to the interest of Divine Grace in all good acts. For though the Will be a Self-determining Principle, yet it is under the Sovereignty of God, who hath the Hearts and Ways of all men in his own hand, and can in innumerable ways, to us unknown, ascertain all Good Events that are Decreed by him.   

35. Of St. Paul's Question, Who made thee to differ from another?  
WHen one is converted and not another, if there be a specialty or inequality of Divine Help in any Kind vouchsafed to the Convert more than to the other, the Cause of the difference is clear and unquestionable, viz. that special or more abundant Help, whatsoever it be; but if the Help vouchsafed to both be altogether equal, it requires some disquisition to assign the Cause of the difference.  
Here it is to be considered, that difference or dissimilitude is a Relation, and hath no other 'Cause than the Cause of its fundamentum, from which it ariseth by bare resultancy. In the present case, as there be two Subjects, there are two dissimilitudes, to each whereof there is its proper fundamentum. The Believer differs from the Unbeliever by believing, that is, his believing is the fundamentum of the dissimilitude on his part. Now of his believing God is the Chief Cause, and he himself is the Subordinate Cause, totally dependent on God; and consequently God is the Chief Cause, and he himself but the Subordinate Cause of the relation of dissimilitude on his side. The Unbeliever differs from the Believer by Unbelief, that is, unbelief is the fundamentum of the dissimilitude on his part. Now of his Unbelief he himself is the Chief Cause, and God is no Cause thereof at all; and consequently he himself is the Chief Cause of the relation of dissimilitude on his side, and God is no Cause thereof at all.  
This Solution is not so curious as plain and evident. In this Case, God giving Equal Help to both, all that can be said by an Objector, is, That the difference on the Believers part comes not from God's different help. But withal it is manifest that it comes from his Gracious Help, as the Chief Cause, upon which Man's Will the subordinate Cause is wholly dependent; and the praise of this difference must go accordingly.  
In short, Man's Will is the subject of the difference on both sides; and on the Believer's side God is the Chief and man the Subordinate Cause: but on the Unbelievers side man is Chief, and God is no Cause at all of the difference.  
As for the Apostles words, Who made thee to differ, they may be well thus expounded, who gave thee that by which thou differest? as he himself expounds it in the words following, what hast thou, that thou hast not received?   

36. Special and more abundant Grace may be ordinarily vouchsafed to the Elect, and wherein it lies.  
IT is probable that God gives from time to time a more special and abundant Help of Grace, for the more abundant securing of the Salvation of the Elect, though it be not necessary to make their Salvation possible, nor (for aught I know) to make it certain. I say this is probable. For who can absolutely determine of the manner and degree of the Operations of God? And who can say how much he must necessarily do, if he will ascertain an Effect? It sufficeth us to know that God doth effectually what he will have to be done, though we know not the way and manner of it.  
And who can tell, whether this more special and abundant Help, here supposed to be probable, be given always in the same way, or in divers instances in divers ways? There may be in it (for aught we know) a specialty of Divine Impress on the Soul; and (for aught we know) the Divine Impress being equal with that on others, the specialty of the said Help may consist in more thoroughly congruous Means, and happily concurring Providences, Seasons, and Circumstances, all which depend on God's wise disposal of all for the Salvation of his Elect according to his Eternal Purpose. Because we cannot trace the Almighty in the ways of his Infinite Power and Wisdom, we cannot find out wherein the special differencing Grace doth in various Instances consist.   

27. In what respect there is always a specialty of Grace towards the Elect.  
WHatsoever equality of Divine Help in respect of Internal Influence on the Soul, and the congruity of External Means, and all concurring Providences, may be imagined towards several persons, in some of whom the saving Effects follow, and in others not; nevertheless there is always a specialty of Grace towards the Elect, in respect of the Divine Decree, God's gracious Purpose of the Saving Effect is comprehended under the term Grace. The Scripture mentions the Election of Grace, Rom. 11. 5. God's purpose and grace, 2. Tim. 1. 9 And being predestinated according to the purpose of him, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, Eph. 1. 11.  
Whomsoever God saves, he Eternally decreed to save them. For it is undeniable, that whatsoever God doth in Time, he Eternally purposed to do the same, and in the same order. Though the Decree of God, which never faileth, doth ascertain the Salvation of the Elect, yet the negation of the Decree (as hath been before showed) is not the negation of any thing causally necessary to the Event, and doth not make the Salvation of others impossible, any more than the negation of his Prescience doth. And God hath not discouraged any, by telling them they are not Elect: but he hath put all men upon a fair Trial in hope.   

38. It becomes God to ascertain the Salvation of some, but not of all.  
UPon the great performance of Christ in the Redemption of the World, that some should be saved is evidently congruous to the Divine Wisdom and Goodness; and thereupon that he hath Eternally Purposed the salvation of some, is as evident. He hath indeed Eternally Willed all the Good that comes to pass, and therefore more especially the Salvation of them that are saved. It is also evident, that according to that Purpose, he doth ascertain their Salvation by such an Operation of Grace towards them, as shall infallibly effect it, whatsoever degree of Free Agency under Divine Grace they themselves have about it.  
From how absolute a Decree soever the salvation of the Elect doth proceed, yet it is effected no other way in those that have the use of Reason, than upon their performing the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace. Though the Perseverance of the Elect be absolutely decreed (I mean absolutely in the sense before given under the Head of Election) yet this Crowning Gift is received upon condition of their care and diligence, both to prevent their Falls and Backslidings, and when they have fallen, or slidden back, to recover themselves.  
But the Wisdom and Goodness of God doth not lead him to ascertain the Salvation of all. It sufficeth that his Goodness hath made all men Salvable; but it is very agreeble to his holy and wise Government of men in a state of trial, that there should be various measures of the Gracious Helps and Means that he affords, and that there should be various Events and Issues thereof.  
That few comparatively shall be Saved is Christ's own assertion, and that it is so, it is not through any omission on God's part, who hath amply provided for the Salvation of those, to whom the Gospel is published; and to the rest of the World the Justice of his Grace is not wanting. They have the Natural Revelation of God's Reconcileableness to Sinners upon their Repentance and Conversion to him, which, if they were not wanting to themselves, might be improved to the obtaining of Supernatural Revelation, or at least such greater Helps as might be sufficient for them.  
FINIS.