2. From the Nature of God's Work, which is not merely by helping the Will, but by giving us the Will it self, or the Act of Volition of it; not by curing the Weakness of it, but by sanctifying it, and taking away the Sinfulness of it, and inclining it to himself. If the Will were only in a Swoon and Languishment, a little moral Persuasion and Excitation, outward or inward, by the Word and Spirit, would serve the turn; but we cannot say of it as Christ of the Damsel, She is not dead, but sleepeth. No, the Scripture saith, We are dead in Trespasses and Sins, Eph. 2. 1. God's Grace is not only ⟨p. 382⟩necessary for facilitation, that we may more easily pursue and choose that which is good; as a Horse is necessary, that a Man may pass on his Journey more easily, which otherwise he might perform on foot with Difficulties: No, 'tis impossible as well as difficult to escape the Carnal Life without God, Mat. 19. 26. He doth work such a Change on a carnal Man's Heart, that he contemns the World, and seeks after Heavenly Things. Nay, he doth not only give us a remote Power to will if we please, or a remote Power to do if we please; but he giveth to will and to do, Phil. 2. 13. the Will it self, and the Deed it self. Thus is God's Operation set forth, he reneweth the Faculties, and exciteth the Act of willing and doing, by his powerful and victorious Influence, Ezek. 36. 26, 27. Otherwise if Grace did only give us an Indifferency, so that a Man may or may not, then Man would be the principal Cause of his own Conversion, and God lose the Glory of his Grace, and the Honour of it be ascribed to the Liberty of Man's own Will. God doth not give a power to repent and believe, and leave it to the Determination of Man's Will to make it effectual; but he giveth Faith it self, and Repentance it self. Faith is his Gift, Eph. 2. 8. To you it is given to believe, Phil. 1. 29. The Redeemer was raised, to give Repentance, Acts 5. 31. This is the Grace which the Saints pray for, Faith it self, Repentance it self. Psal. 51. 10. Create in me a clean Heart. Heb. 13. 21. The Lord make you perfect to do his Will, working in you that which is pleasing in his Sight. We pray not only for a Grace that gives the Possibility, but the Effect; not only for such as doth invite and solicit us to Good, but such as doth incline and determine us to Good.
2. From the Nature of God's Work, which is not meerly by helping the Will, but by giving us the Will it self, or the Act of Volition of it; not by curing the Weakness of it, but by sanctifying it, and taking away the Sinfulness of it, and inclining it to himself. If the Will were only in a Swoon and Languishment, a little moral Perswasion and Excitation, outward or inward, by the Word and Spirit, would serve the turn; but we cannot say of it as Christ of the Damsel, She is not dead, but sleepeth. No, the Scripture saith, We are dead in Trespasses and Sins, Eph. 2. 1. God's Grace is not only ⟨p. 382⟩necessary for facilitation, that we may more easily pursue and chuse that which is good; as a Horse is necessary, that a Man may pass on his Journey more easily, which otherwise he might perform on foot with Difficulties: No, 'tis impossible as well as difficult to escape the Carnal Life without God, Mat. 19. 26. He doth work such a Change on a carnal Man's Heart, that he contemns the World, and seeks after Heavenly Things. Nay, he doth not only give us a remote Power to will if we please, or a remote Power to do if we please; but he giveth to will and to do, Phil. 2. 13. the Will it self, and the Deed it self. Thus is God's Operation set forth, he reneweth the Faculties, and exciteth the Act of willing and doing, by his powerful and victorious Influence, Ezek. 36. 26, 27. Otherwise if Grace did only give us an Indifferency, so that a Man may or may not, then Man would be the principal Cause of his own Conversion, and God lose the Glory of his Grace, and the Honour of it be ascribed to the Liberty of Man's own Will. God doth not give a power to repent and believe, and leave it to the Determination of Man's Will to make it effectual; but he giveth Faith it self, and Repentance it self. Faith is his Gift, Eph. 2. 8. To you it is given to believe, Phil. 1. 29. The Redeemer was raised, to give Repentance, Acts 5. 31. This is the Grace which the Saints pray for, Faith it self, Repentance it self. Psal. 51. 10. Create in me a clean Heart.
