N01056:72
Free-grace, maintained & improved. Or, The general offer of the Gospel, managed with considerations…
Free-grace, maintained & improved. Or, The general offer of the Gospel, managed with considerations of the great things done by special grace, in the election and redemption and vocation of those who embrace that offer. And the illustrious doctrines of divine predestination and humane impotency, rescued from the abuses, which they too frequently meet withal; and rendered (as they are) highly useful to the designs of practical piety. : In two brief discourses; published at the desire of some, who have been greatly apprehensive of growing occasions for such treatises.
Boston: printed by B. Green, 1706
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.
And, first, Can it be any other than a thing full of Danger unto the Souls of Men, to be so Insensible of the Wounds which Original Sin has given unto all the Faculties of our Souls, and particularly unto our Wills? While men say, [as the Successors of the ancient Enemies of Grace, do expressly say, and therein indeed wax worse and worse than the Old Pelagians,] That no immediate Operation of the Spirit upon the Mind or Will, is needful for any one, that he may believe: they proclaim, that they have little Sense of any Corruption in the Will of Sinful Man. If the Will of a Sinner, needs nothing but the Setting of an Object before it, wherein is it more Corrupt or Feeble, than the Will of an Angel? Certainly, very Defective is that Repentance, in which the Corruption of the Will, is no more Considered!
And, first, Can it be any other than a thing full of Danger unto the Souls of Men, to be so Insensible of the Wounds which Original Sin has given unto all the Faculties of our Souls, and particularly unto our Wills? While men say, [as the Successors of the ancient Enemies of Grace, do expressly say, and therein indeed wax worse and worse than the Old Pelagians,] That no immediate Operation of the Spirit upon the Mind or Will, is needful for any one, that he may believe: they proclame, that they have little Sense of any Corruption in the Will of Sinful Man. If the Will of a Sinner, needs nothing but the Setting of an Object before it, wherein is it more Corrupt or Feeble, than the Will of an Angel? Certainly, very Defective is that Repentance, in which the Corruption of the Will, is no more Considered!
These men say, That the Preaching of the Gospel is granted mostly unto those whose Virtues deserve it; and all other Grace is granted still unto the worthy Hearers of the Gospel. Any good Act which a man did of himself, on the account whereof Grace is vouchsafed, was counted Merit, in the Sense of ⟨p. 26⟩the Primitive Church, who branded all pretences to it, with an Anathematizing Detestation. According to these men, all Grace is given according to Merit. Wretched Inconsistency! Sirs, If it be of Merit, it is no more of Grace? According to them, The Great God can from all Eternity Choose none, but those, who He foresees, that by the Good Use of their Free-Will they will Merit the Election of Grace. Yea, All the Promises in the Covenant of Grace also, are Suspended on a Condition, of something to be performed by the Power of our Free-Will, assisted by no Grace at all but only a Persuasion, or Proposal, which does nothing to Enable it. And how destructive will such a Proud conceit of our own Merit be, unto that Humility, which is the peculiar Spirit and Glory of Christianity!