A discourse of the saving grace of God

They will have the Lord to treat it as an Orator, not as a Sovereign Ruler. The Will (with them) seems to have a Sovereignty exempted from the Sovereignty of God; not subordinate to it, if not above it; not subjected to the Sovereign Government of God, further than to do what it list.

They will have the Lord to treat it as an Orator, not as a Soveraign Ruler. The Will (with them) seems to have a Soveraignty exempted from the Soveraignty of God; not subordinate to it, if not above it; not subjected to the Soveraign Government of God, further than to do what it list.

Hereby God is excluded from the Government of the World. Men are governed by their Wills, that is the Ruling, the Commanding Faculty; therefore if the Will be not under his Government, Men will not be under it, nor the rest of the World, so far as it is governed by Men. If he Dispose not of that which orders the rest, what is there left at his Disposal? All the Affairs of the World, which depend upon humane Conduct, will be governed more by the Will of Man, than by the Will, Power, and Providence ⟨p. 107⟩of God: By the Will of Man independently, as if he were God; but by the Lord of Heaven and Earth only Precariously, and at the Pleasure of Mans Will, as if he were a Subject, an Underling, an inferior Creature.

5. It denies the Almighty Power of God, will not admit him to be Omnipotent, and his Power Infinite: It is not Infinite, if it be bounded and limited; yet Mans Will bounds and limits the Divine Power. By their Principles, the Lord can no way deal with the Will, but so that it may resist him, and render all his Actings and Operations on it ineffectual: He cannot prevail with it in any thing so far, but that it may at once stand out and repel his Motions, render every Divine Attempt upon it successless: When he has done all that can be done by the Power of his Grace, the Will may be too hard for him; it must be always left to do what it list. He cannot Save a Man, how much soever he intends or desires it, unless it be the Wills Pleasure: Nor can he take any Course to make the Will pleased with it. He can neither so Change the Faculty, nor so represent the Object, but the Will may still reject it. He cannot