Richard Baxter's Catholic theology plain, pure, peaceable, for pacification of the dogmatical word-warriors who,…Richard Baxter's Catholick theologie plain, pure, peaceable, for pacification of the dogmatical word-warriours who,…

7. And it feigneth God to give men all that reprieval, and mercy which the reprobate have, from some other Cause and not by Christ; And so to make a kind of grace common in the World which the Scripture knoweth not, nor is according to the Covenant of Innocency or of Grace.

7. And it feigneth God to give men all that reprival, and mercy which the reprobate have, from some other Cause and not by Christ; And so to make a kind of grace common in the World which the Scripture knoweth not, nor is according to the Covenant of Innocency or of Grace.

8. Because God is Immutable, and too gross mutations are not without proof to be imputed to his Laws and Government: Therefore it seemeth ⟨p. 98⟩to me an injurious fiction to say as Jansenius, that God had such Laws as supposed mans self-determining will, and governed so as to use sufficient Grace or adjutorium sine quo non, to man and Angels, at the first, and tha• now he hath no such at all, but only a moving efficiency. I should sooner yield to the Dominicans and Hobbes that no other than necessitated Volitions are possible or ever were, than to hold as he, that there were other before the fall, and none ever since. For as to his great argument (vitiated nature) I answer it, 1. Man is man still; And therefore God ruleth him as man; And that in via. And if then man and Angels were supposed to have a self-determining free-will, that could do this or not do it, we have reason to think it is so still. Why is not grace merely sufficient as consistent with Lapsed as Innocent nature? (supposing that it is not the same help that is now sufficient to salvation as then.) 2. Consider the great difference between perfect Innocency, and some one commanded act: And 3. Consider that the helps afforded by grace are very great, and that Habitual Grace doth in some measure heal lapsed nature, or else what is it? He that is Habitually Prompt to Love and duty, hath some cure, and some ability: For to be prompt is more than to be able. And therefore it is an incredible thing, and a reproach of habitual grace, that Adam was more able to live and persevere without any sinful thought, word, or deed, than a Holy soul is to think one good thought, or speak one good word, or restrain one blasphemy or other sin. Therefore it is as credible that Christs repairing habitual Grace enableth godly men (and his commone grace common men) to think or do somewhat better than they do, as that Angels and Adam had no other grace, and could without other, live without any sin.