A26923:711
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.
§. 13. The first Impress on the Soul moving it toward the Act (e. g. Faith) is the first Grace internal (sub ratione effecti): And this God himself worketh on man as on a mere Patient; tho' not antecedently to all former acts of Man, or all preparative dispositions, (usually) yet antecedent to that Act of Man to which it moveth: So that as to this, 1. Man is passive, 2. and the Divine Operation (or the powerful Will of God) is not only sufficient but effectual; for that Impress or Motus is effected.
§. 13. The first Impress on the Soul moving it toward the Act (e. g. Faith) is the first Grace internal (sub ratione effecti): And this God himself worketh on man as on a meer Patient; tho' not antecedently to all former acts of Man, or all preparative dispositions, (usually) yet antecedent to that Act of Man to which it moveth: So that as to this, 1. Man is passive, 2. and the Divine Operation (or the powerful Will of God) is not only sufficient but effectual; for that Impress or Motus is effected.
§. 14. Though God being a Spirit moveth not by such Contact as Bodies do on each other, yet must we conceive of his motion, and the motion of all Spirits on Bodies, as analogous to corporeal Contact, and as a motion by Efflux and eminent Contact of Virtue and Essence, according to the more excellent nature and operation of Spirits; or else we cannot conceive positively of them.
§. 15. It is already proved, that God useth various degrees of Impress or Motion on Souls; of which some do by their proper power or degree so ascertain the effect, that the Argument is always ⟨p. 187⟩good as a causa, [where-ever God doth so move, there the Effect (that is the Act, e. g. Faith or Consent) followeth: And this Grace is effectual ex propria vi vel virtute: But that God sometime operateth by a less Impress or Motion, which doth not from its own force infer the effect, but so far disposeth the Mind or Will to the Act, that the man can do it without any more grace; which is it that is called Sufficient Grace, as aforesaid.