A30345:718
A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the gradual breakings out of Gospel…A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the graduall breakings out of Gospel…
A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the gradual breakings out of Gospel grace from Adam to Christ are clearly discovered, the differences betwixt the Old and New Testament are laid open, divers errors of Arminians and others are confuted, the nature of uprightness, and the way of Christ in bringing the soul into communion with himself ... are solidly handled / by that faithful servant of Jesus Christ, and minister of the Gospel, John Ball ; published by Simeon Ash.A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the graduall breakings out of Gospel grace from Adam to Christ are clearly discovered, the differences betwixt the Old and New Testament are laid open, divers errours of Arminians and others are confuted, the nature of uprightnesse, and the way of Christ in bringing the soul into communion with himself ... are solidly handled / by that faithfull servant of Jesus Christ, and minister of the Gospel, John Ball ; published by Simeon Ash.
London: printed by G. Miller for Edward Brewster, 1645
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.
The second Question is, whether the efficacy of grace depend upon the liberty of will; not whether grace hath its intrinsical virtue to work after the manner of grace, or a supernatural agent from the liberty of the will; which all men deny. Though if grace incline the will to a vital and internal ac• it takes away some degrees of indifferency, and addeth some weight of disposition rather to will, then to nill. But the Question is, whether grace effectual do leave the will at liberty actually to resist it or no; or whether it be from grace, or the liberty of will that this man doth assent, and not another, why grace in the second act is1 effectual to the producing of conversion in Peter, and not in Judas. If grace take away the stony heart, then it removeth in us whatsoever should resist or make head against the Spirit: for the will cannot resist when corruption is removed, and to resist the application of grace sufficient, is no small part of a stony heart. A cause in power only, is not a cause, but a cause in act applied, which is then sufficient, and not potent only to do somewhat, when applied in act it bringeth forth effect; sufficient I say, not physically, but morally, presupposing the actual application of it to that purpose. And on the other side, if the heart of stone be not taken away, sufficient grace was not actually applied of God for that special effect: for a fleshy heart cannot be received by a stony, but the stony is removed by the fleshy: There is the same reason of that grace of conversion, and of the grace that followeth after conversion: but the grace following conversion borroweth not its efficacy from the liberty of the will. That which God promiseth to do, cannot be the condition of the thing promised, because the promise is precedent: but God promiseth to give a new heart, and to put his Spirit into the inner man, and that not ⟨p. 341⟩for their sakes, but of his free-grace. And this promise God did2 fulfil daily in the Church of the Jews, but more sparingly according3 to the measure of grace, the fullness whereof was reserved unto the times of the Messiah. That which the omnipotency of God is put forth to work in the creature, that the creature cannot resist. But God putteth forth his omnipotency, that by the effectual working thereof, he may bring us to believe.