A26923:657
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.
§. 39. We all confess, that God worketh by means, and we cannot name an Act on us, which he always or ordinarily doth without any means, or second Cause. And we acknowledge that there are gracious means, and that ordinarily these must have a sufficiency in their kind: But withal we must say, that God worketh immediately as to proximity of Causation, when he worketh not so immediately as without second Causes: And that whether by means, or without means (as he pleaseth) there must be such a Disposition communicated to a depraved, undisposed Soul, as shall be a moral power, and put it into an immediate capacity to consent (or act): And to dispute the sufficiency of the means, is one thing, and to dispute the sufficiency of this inward Disposition or Power, is another. And this must be the question.
§. 40. The common disputed question is, Whether all men have Grace sufficient to believe? which must be negatively answered; They have not. Those that never heard the Gospel, have not.
§. 41. But, 2. have all that hear the Gospel sufficient Grace to believe?
Ans. No: many of them are hardened by former sinning, so as to be set at a greater distance and enmity, than many Heathens.