§. 1. AS I said before about Sufficient Grace, so here about Effectual; the first thing to be done by Disputers, is, to agree what that is which they here call [Grace] as the Subject of the Question. And as I there showed, 1. It cannot or must not be God's essential Will or Power, for that is simple and immutable, and not in it self (save relatively) distinguishable into sufficient and effectual. 2. An Efflux or vis, which is neither God nor the Effect, there is none, or none provable. 3. It is not Faith it self that is meant here by Grace, for it is the Grace that effecteth Faith; and it were absurd to ask what Faith is effectual to make or cause it self: This is true both of the Act and Habit. The meaning is not, what Habit ⟨p. 182⟩of Faith is effectual to the Act, nor what Act to the Habit or it self, but what Grace of God is effectual to cause both Act and Habit. 4. Therefore there is nothing left to be meant by Grace, but the two things before mentioned, viz. 1. The gracious Means or second Causes appointed by God to cause our Faith. 2. The first moving Impress on the Soul, as it is antecedent to Act and Habit, (supposing that such there is, *though some deny that there is any such thing.)
§. 1. AS I said before about Sufficient Grace, so here about Effectual; the first thing to be done by Disputers, is, to agree what that is which they here call [Grace] as the Subject of the Question. And as I there shewed, 1. It cannot or must not be God's essential Will or Power, for that is simple and immutable, and not in it self (save relatively) distinguishable into sufficient and effectual. 2. An Efflux or vis, which is neither God nor the Effect, there is none, or none proveable. 3. It is not Faith it self that is meant here by Grace, for it is the Grace that effecteth Faith; and it were absurd to ask what Faith is effectual to make or cause it self: This is true both of the Act and Habit. The meaning is not, what Habit ⟨p. 182⟩of Faith is effectual to the Act, nor what Act to the Habit or it self, but what Grace of God is effectual to cause both Act and Habit. 4. Therefore there is nothing left to be meant by Grace, but the two things before mentioned, viz. 1. The gracious Means or second Causes appointed by God to cause our Faith. 2. The first moving Impress on the Soul, as it is antecedent to Act and Habit, (supposing that such there is, *though some deny that there is any such thing.)
- *Some say, that God's mere will causeth man's act, as willing it, without any other Influx or Impress on Man's Will, save our Act it self effected: But though it be only God's essential will, which is the first Cause, yet the thing received by us from God seemeth to be a certain Impress, Impulse, or vis, or Disposition to act in order of Nature, before the act it self, which Impress sometime is made uneffectual by a prevalent Indisposition or Resistance of the Will.Some say, that God's meer will causeth man's act, as willing it, without any other Influx or Impress on Man's Will, save our Act it self effected: But though it be only God's essential will, which is the first Cause, yet the thing received by us from God seemeth to be a certain Impress, Impulse, or vis, or Disposition to act in order of Nature, before the act it self, which Impress sometime is made uneffectual by a prevalent Indisposition or Resistance of the Will.
