OF REGC t, Orationem bona Conscientia effundit qui potest di- . cere:" the prayer followeth; Tu nosti Domine quam Sanctæ et Purse et Mundas sint ab omni malitia, et sv iniquitate, et rapina quas ad to extend° menus. 't Quemadmodum justa et mundalabia et ab omni men. at dacio libera quihus offer° tibi Deprecationes, ut mihi a, miserearis." This prayer Pelagius taught a widow to make, as it was objected unto him in the Diospolitan synod, that is at Lydia in Palestine, cap. 6. only he taught her not to say that she had no deceit in her heart, as one among us doth wisely and humbly vaunt. that he knoweth of none in his, so every way perfect is the man. Only to balance this of Pelagius, I shall give these men another prayer, * not declaring whose it is, lest they should censure him to the gallows. Where- as therefore it,seems to be the doctrine of some, that we have no grace from Christ but only that of the gos- pel teaching us our duty, and proposing a reward; I know not what they have to pray for, unless it be riches, wealth, and preferments, with those things that depend thereon. Sect. 25.Fourthly; This kind of the operation of grace where it is solitary, that is, where it is assorted exclusively' to an internal physical work of the Holy Spirit, is not suited to effect and produce the work of regeneration or Conversion', unto God, in persons who are really in that state of nature which we have before described. The most effectual persuasions cannot pre- vail with such men to convert themselves, no more than arguments can prevail with a blind man to see, or with n dead than to rise from the grave, or with a lame man to walk steadily. Wherefore the whole description be- fore given from the scripture of the state of lapsed na- ture, must be disproved and removed out of the-way, before this grace can be thought to be sufficient for the ' ° O bone Domine testi, ersi ego adthisi ende me damnare potes, tú onde salvare soles.Vertun est Consciencia rnea meretur Dmnationem, et ptenitentia m sv n ffcit ad satisfactionem.Sed certuni est quad Misericordia tua superatomnem oftimsionenl. Pasé ergo mihi Domine, qui es salús veraet non vis martens peecatolis: mise- rere Demine peccatrici anima mea,solve vincula jes: sanavulnero itss. Ecce te,sericors Deus coram te exhiben anintam mean], virtutnm mun- eoibus dosolatam, catenis vitiorum ligatam, pondere peccatorumgrao - tam, delictornm serdibns ftedatam, discissam Votneribns Dmmommm, putidam et fmtidatn ulceribus criminum i his et albis grailiorlbus malis qua tu mellas vides quern ego,obstrictam, oppio. circumdatam, ob- eolutaro; bonorum omnium reievamine destittitam,&e. Zz NERATION. 185 'regeneration and conversion of men in that estate. But some proceed on other principles; men, they say, have by nature certain notions and principles concerning God,' and the obedience due unto him; which are demonstra- ble by the light of reason, and certain abilities of mind to make use of them unto their proper end. But they grant, at least some of them alo, that however these principles may be improved and acted by those abilities, . yet they are not sufficient, or will not eventually be ef- fectual to bring men unto the life of God, or to enable them so to believe in him, love him, and obey him, as that they may come at length unto the enjoyment of him; at least they will not do this safely and easily, but throughmuch danger andconfusion; Wherefore 0 God, out of his goodness and love to mankind, hath made a further revelation of himself by Jesus Christ in the gos- pel, with the especial way whereby his anger against sin is averted, and peace made for sinners, which men had before only a confused apprehension and hope about. Now, the things received, proposed, and prescribed in] the gospel, are so good, so rational, so every way suited unto the principles of our beings, the nature of our in- tellectual constitutions, or the reason of men, and those fortified with such rational and powerful motives, in the promises and threatenings of it, representing unto us, on the one hand, the chiefest good which our nature is capable of, and on the other the highest evil to be a- voided that weare obnoxious unto, that they can be re- fused or rejected by none, but out of a brutish love of sin, or the efficacy of depraved habits contracted by a vicious course of living. And herein consists the grace of God towards men, especially as the Holy Ghost is pleased to make use of these things in the dispensation of the gospel by the ministry of the church. For when ! rivada qua Christi papeles sumos hoccobibetur Limine nobiscum, et formara bane ascribitis-tili; Ut canelos vocii illaquidem invitetque, Hoque ottuso t'racteriens studeai communem adfcrrc salutem Omnibus, et tetina peccato absglvere Mnndnm. Sed proprioquenque Arbitrio parere v canti, Judicioque suo, me,o seestendere mente Ad lucent oblatam, quae se non substrubat alli; Sed cupidos recti jouet innstretquevolentes. Dino adjntoris Domini bonitate Magistra Croscere virtutun] studia, ut quid quisq,ie petentioat 'Vanda lsdidicitjugi secteturamare. Prosp. le Ingratis. cap. 10. 2I.
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