A55299:257
An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ,…
An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ, and our union and communion with him by Edward Polhill ..., Esquire.
London: printed for Ben. Foster, 1675
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 condemned Pelagius would allow mere moral Grace;1 but if there be no more, what means the drawing, quickening, renewing, regenerating, creating, conquering Grace so signally set forth in Scripture? Or how should poor, lost, lapsed, corrupted man, dead in Sins and Trespasses, ever be raised up into the Divine life? Mere suasion operates only, as proposing an ⟨p. 240⟩object, and not as ingenerating a power or faculty; and were there no other Grace, how should the power of repenting and believing, which are things far above the Sphere of Nature, ever be produced? Or which way should the acts of repenting and believing ever come forth without a power? S. Austin is not content with mere suasory Grace, but would have such an one, Quâ Gloriae magnitudo non solùm promittitur, 2verum etiàm creditur, nec solùm revelatur Sapientia, verum etiam & amatur, nec suadetur solùm omne bonum, verùm & persuadetur: And a little after, he tells Pelagius, That he must confess such a Grace, if he would be a Christian.
The condemned Pelagius would allow meer moral Grace;1 but if there be no more, what means the drawing, quickning, renewing, regenerating, creating, conquering Grace so signally set forth in Scripture? Or how should poor, lost, lapsed, corrupted man, dead in Sins and Trespasses, ever be raised up into the Divine life? Meer suasion operates only, as proposing an ⟨p. 240⟩object, and not as ingenerating a power or faculty; and were there no other Grace, how should the power of repenting and believing, which are things far above the Sphere of Nature, ever be produced? Or which way should the acts of repenting and believing ever come forth without a power? S. Austin is not content with meer suasory Grace, but would have such an one, Quâ Gloriae magnitudo non solùm promittitur, 2verum etiàm creditur, nec solùm revelatur Sapientia, verum etiam & amatur, nec suadetur solùm omne bonum, verùm & persuadetur: And a little after, he tells Pelagius, That he must confess such a Grace, if he would be a Christian.