A treatise of original sin ... proving that it is

And lastly, Therefore God doth use Commands, Because this way is suitable to man, who is a rational Agent; For although the work of grace is more than merely swasive, it is efficacious and really changing the heart, so that the Spirit of God doth far more in converting of a sinner, then the Devil doth in tempting to sin; yet God dealeth suitably to the nature of a man; We are not like stocks and stones, to whom it is ridiculous to preach, there being not in them a passive capacity of receiving the work of grace; Hence it is that the Word is preached, Miracles are wrought, powerful Arguments are used to draw off the heart; So that grace doth work Ethicophysically (as some express it,) Commands then and Threatenings are used, because grace is wrought in us after a rational manner, in an attempered manner to our constitution; The understanding being first wrought upon, that so the will and affections may more readily give up themselves.

And lastly, Therefore God doth use Commands, Because this way is suitable to man, who is a rational Agent; For although the work of grace is more than meerly swasive, it is efficacious and really changing the heart, so that the Spirit of God doth farre more in converting of a sinner, then the Devil doth in tempting to sinne; yet God dealeth suitably to the nature of a man; We are not like stocks and stones, to whom it is ridiculous to preach, there being not in them a passive capacity of receiving the worke of grace; Hence it is that the Word is preached, Miracles are wrought, powerfull Arguments are used to draw off the heart; So that grace doth worke Ethicophysically (as some expresse it,) Commands then and Threatnings are used, because grace is wrought in us after a rational manner, in an attempered manner to our constitution; The understanding being first wrought upon, that so the will and affections may more readily give up themselves.

Thirdly, If liberty be the same with voluntariness and no more, (as many learned men do contend, making voluntas and liberum arbitrium all one, as that which is opposed to coaction and natural necessity; yea if we add Aurtelus his opinion to this, that libertas was nothing but complacentia, liberty is the complacency and delight of the will in its object) then in this sense, (if rightly understood,) a man hath no freedom to what is holy. It is true indeed, the learned to show, that grace in converting doth not destroy the liberty of the will, (viz. the natural liberty) no more then the will it self; Grace doth not compel the will, or put an inherent natural necessity upon it; for if there could be coaction, the veil would be nolle, which is a contradiction; and if a natural necessity could be imposed upon it, it would not be appetitus rationalis, a rational appetite; so that though grace in converting of man doth insuperably, and invincibly change the will, making it of unwilling willing, so that there is a necessity (not natural,) but of immutability and unchangeableness; The will doth most certainly give it self up to the grace of God mollifying and fashioning of it for that purpose: This Iron (as it were) is put into the fire, and then it is made pliable to receive any form or impression, yet the essential liberty is not destroyed; For the Question about Free-will is not An sit? but Quid possit? And herein lieth the difficult knot in this whole point about grace and the will of man, How to assert the irresistible (as many call it, but others reject that expression, though the sense of those who use it, is very sound and significant enough) work of grace, insuperably determining the will to that which is good, and yet to be free from coaction or such a necessity as is destructive to liberty? The Quomodo. How these two are to be reconciled, is that which in all ages hath exercised the most learned and judicious; insomuch that some have advised to rest in it by faith, as in a mystery above our understanding, even as we do in many other Doctrines to be believed by us; But I am not to ascend this mountain at this time; This is enough for our purpose, to show, That if liberty be said to consist in willing a thing freely from coaction and necessity, even in this respect, we have not thus far liberty to good, because it is God that worketh in us to will.