The Doctrine of the Saints' Perseverance

Secondly false, charging a crime on the Doctrine which he doth oppose whereof it is not guilty; Neither it, nor they that maintain it, affirming that there is a necessitation upon the wills of men by the Grace of God, such a necessitation as should in the least prejudice their freedom, or cause them to elicit their acts as principles Natural and necessary; All the necessity ascribed by them to the efficacy of the operation of the Grace of God, respects only the event; They say 'tis necessary that the good be done, which God works in us by his Grace, when he works it in us; but for the manner of its doing, they say, tis wrought suitably to the state and Condition of the Internal principle whence tis to proceed, and doth so, and of the Agents whereby tis wrought, which are free; Neither do they say that good is not wrought by any Native and inward Principle that is in men, unless they will allow no principle to be Native but what is in them by nature; And then indeed they say, that though Naturally and Physically there is, yet Morally and Spiritually there is not in them any Native principle to that which is Spiritually good; seeing, in that sense no good thing dwells in men. But if it may suffice to evince that they work from a Native inward principle, that their wills which are their Natural faculties, quickened, improved and heightened, by inward, indwelling habits of Grace, properly theirs when bestowed on them, are the principles of all their actings, then they assert them to work no less from a native internal principle than Christ himself did; So that notwithstanding this diversion given in to supply the Absence of an Answer, the instance as to that alone, wherein the parallel was intended, stands unmoved, and Mr Goodwin's whole charge of folly and inconsistency on the proceeding of the Holy Ghost falls to the ground, which is the issue of his eight Argument in this case; His last follows.

Secondly false, charging a crime on the Doctrine which he doth oppose whereof it is not guilty; Neither it, nor they that maintaine it, affirming that there is a necessitation upon the wills of men by the Grace of God, such a necessitation as should in the least prejudice their freedome, or cause them to elicite their acts as principles Naturall and necessary; All the necessity ascribed by them to the efficacy of the operation of the Grace of God, respects only the event; They say 'tis necessary that the good be done, which God workes in us by his Grace, when he workes it in us; but for the manner of its doing, they say, tis wrought suitably to the state and Condition of the Internall principle whence tis to proceed, and doth so, and of the Agents whereby tis wrought, which are free; Neither do they say that good is not wrought by any Native and inward Principle that is in men, unlesse they will allow no principle to be Native but what is in them by nature; And then indeed they say, that though Naturally and Physically there is, yet Morally and Spiritually there is not in them any Native principle to that which is Spiritually good; seeing, in that sence no good thing dwells in men. But if it may suffice to evince that they worke from a Native inward principle, that their wills which are their Naturall facultyes, quickned, improved and heightned, by inward, indwelling habits of Grace, properly theirs when bestowed on them, are the principles of all their actings, then they assert them to worke no lesse from a native internall principle than Christ himselfe did; So that notwithstanding this diversion given in to supply the Absence of an Answer, the instance as to that alone, wherein the parallell was intended, stands unmoved, and Mr Goodwin's whole charge of folly and inconsistency on the proceeding of the Holy Ghost falls to the ground, which is the issue of his eight Argument in this case; His last follows.