A26923:653
An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches
An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches by reconciling explication without much disputing. Written by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Salusbury, 1691
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
§. 35. III. The Grace therefore meant in this Question can be no other than either some effect on the Soul, as tending to a further effect, or the aforesaid comprehension of necessary extrinsic means. If the former be meant (as it is by almost all Schoolmen and Disputers of this Case) then, 1. It must be enquired, Whether such a thing be? and, 2. What it is if it be?
§. 35. III. The Grace therefore meant in this Question can be no other than either some effect on the Soul, as tending to a further effect, or the aforesaid comprehension of necessary extrinseck means. If the former be meant (as it is by almost all Schoolmen and Disputers of this Case) then, 1. It must be enquired, Whether such a thing be? and, 2. What it is if it be?
§. 36. 1. Bradwardine, and some that go his way, do deny the being of any such thing as we now dispute of; and say, That God's essential will, as a will, is the immediate Efficient, and the Act of Man is the Effect, (e. g. Faith,) and because God willeth that Act, it doth immediately exist, as the World did, by his creating will: And so here is no place for the Dispute of Sufficient Grace: For God's Will is certainly sufficient to cause what he will cause: And Man's Act either is existent or not: ⟨p. 169⟩And there is no Grace antecedent to it, to be called insufficient, unless you will vainly say, that Gods essential Will is sufficient to nothing but what he produceth, which is a Dispute unfit for sober men.
§. 36. 1. Bradwardine, and some that go his way, do deny the being of any such thing as we now dispute of; and say, That God's essential will, as a will, is the immediate Efficient, and the Act of Man is the Effect, (e. g. Faith,) and because God willeth that Act, it doth immediately exist, as the World did, by his creating will: And so here is no place for the Dispute of Sufficient Grace: For God's Will is certainly sufficient to cause what he will cause: And Man's Act either is existent or not: ⟨p. 169⟩