The position of John Preston, Doctor in Divinity ... concerning the irresistibleness of converting…The position of John Preston, Doctor in Divinity ... concerning the irresistiblenesse of converting…

1. We do not say, that Free-will, or the faculty of the Will, as to spiritual things, is half alive and half dead, as the Arminians would have it, Confer. Hag. p. 300. or that it is like the power of moving in one who is bound in fetters; or as the faculty of seeing in one who is shut up in a dark place, as the Papists say: But we hold, That the faculty of the Will, as it respects a truly spiritual good, is wholly extinct, as the power of life in a dead man of motion in a slain man, of sight in him whose eyes are put out.

1. We do not say, that Free-will, or the faculty of the Will, as to spirituall things, is half alive and half dead, as the Arminians would have it, Confer. Hag. p. 300. or that it is like the power of moving in one who is bound in fetters; or as the faculty of seeing in one who is shut up in a dark place, as the Papists say: But we hold, That the faculty of the Will, as it respects a truly spirituall good, is wholly extinct, as the power of life in a dead man of motion in a slaine man, of sight in him whose eyes are put out.

2. They also defend, That the Will is only stirred up by moral or assisting Grace, knocking at the door of it, and admonishing it, not that it is changed by habitual Grace, healing and renewing it: For these are their words, There is no reason why moral Grace, that is morally persuading, may not make a natural man spiritual. But we suppose, that the will is quickened and renewed by the infusion of habitual Grace, that is of a new quality imprinted on the Will, which is as an inward principle enlivening and changing the Will, from whence all good inclinations and operations do proceed.

2. They also defend, That the Will is onely stirred up by morall or assisting Grace, knocking at the doore of it, and admonishing it, not that it is changed by habituall Grace, healing and renewing it: For these are their words, There is no reason why morall Grace, that is morally perswading, may not make a naturall man spirituall. But we suppose, that the will is quickned and renewed by the infusion of habituall Grace, that is of a new quality imprinted on the Will, which is as an inward principle enlivening and changing the Will, from whence all good inclinations and operations do proceed.