Speculum theologiæ in Christo, or, A view of some divine truths which are either…

1. The External call is of grace. The Gospel is not a debt, but a mere gift freely given to men. It may be subtracted from a Nation for their sins, but it is never given to a Nation for their worthiness, for all men are unworthy of it. When God gives it to some, it is not for their dignity; when he denies it to others, there is always in them a concomitant indignity of it. No natural man can be worthy of it. It is merely of Gods good pleasure that the Sun of Righteousness shines in one part of the world, and not in another; that the Evangelical dew falls in some places, and not in others. Here the only solution is that of our Saviour, Even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight, Mat. 11.26. I know it is here said by some, That facienti quod in se est Deus non denegat gratiam; To him who doth what he can, God denies not grace. The promise is, Habenti dabitur, To him that hath, that is, rightly useth what he hath, more shall be given. Upon the right use of naturals, the Pagans might have supernaturals. The Gospel in such a case should be revealed to them. ⟨p. 260⟩But, as Bishop Davenant observes, experience confutes this; Proferant ab orbe condito vel unius Pagani exemplum, saith he;¹ Let them bring forth, if they can, the example of one Pagan since the world began, who by the right use of naturals attained to Evangelical Grace. One would think that such as Socrates and Plato might, if any, rightly use naturals; but they had not the Gospel manifested to them, which yet hath been revealed to the poor Americans, who comparatively to the other were brutish and barbarous. That of the Schools, Facienti quod in se est Deus non denegat gratiam, ²is (as Bishop Saunderson in his Sermons calleth it) the rotten principle and foundation of the whole frame of Arminianism: ultimately it resolves all into nature; Salvation is resolved into Faith, Faith into the Gospel preached, that into the use of naturals. Nature may now lift up its hand, and touch the Crowns of Glory above. Grace may fall down to so low a rate, as to be earned at the fingers ends of Nature. And what is this but pure impure Pelagianism? In the Palestine Synod Pelagius, but for his counterfeit recantation, had had a just anathema for that saying, Gratiam dari secundum merita. Secundum merita with the Fathers, is all one with secundum opera, and secundum opera all one with facienti quod in se est.