791 / 802
ARMINIANISM.
69
died for us,
Rom. v..
6.
wife
to
do
evil, but to
do good we have no
firength,
no know-
ledge. Yea,
all
the
faculties
of
our fouls, by reafon
of
that fpiritual death underwhich
we are detained
by
the
corruption
of
nature,
are
altogether
ufelefs
in
refpe£t
of
any
power
for
the
doing
ofthat
which
is
truly
good
;
our uuderfiandingsare
blind
or dark-
ened,
being
alienated
gram
the
life
of
God, through the ignorance
that
is in
w,
becaufe
of
the
blindnefs
of
our
hearts,
Ephef
iv. 18.
whereby
we become even darknefs
it
felt;
chap.
v.
8.
fò
void
is
the
underfianding
of true
knowledge,
that the
natural
man
receiveth net
the things
that
are
of
God,
they
are
feoliihmefs
unto
him,
e
Cor. ii.
14.
nothing
but
coo
-
founded and amazed at fpiritual things, and
if
he
doth
not mock,
can do
nothing
bur
wonder, andfay,
What
meanerh this
?
Ads
ii.
rz,
13.
We
are not only blind
in
our un-
derfiandings, but captives
alfo
to
fin in
our
wills,
Luke iv. 18.
whereby
we
are fervanes
to
fin, John viii. 34. free only
in
our obedience
to
that tyrant,
Ram.
vi.
yea,
all
our,
alfe&ions
are
wholly
corrupted, for
every
imagination
of
the thoughts
of
the
heart ofmania
evil
continually,
Gen. vi.
5.
while
we
are
in
the
flefh
the
motions
of
fin
do workin our
members, to bringforth fruit unto death,
Rom..
vii.
y.
Thefe
are the endowments
of
our nature, theft: are the preparations
of
our hearts
for
the
grace
of God, which
we have within
our
felves.
Nay,
(z.) There
is
not only
an
impotency, but
an
enmity
in
corrupted nature,
to
any.
thing fpiritually
good. The
things
that
are
of Ged,
are
foelifhne
s
unto
anatural man,
1
Cor.
ii.
14.
and
there
is
nothing
that
men do more hare, and contemn,
than
that
which
they account
as
folly.
They
mock
at
it
asa
ridiculous drunkennefs,
dtls
ii.
e
3.
and
would
to
God our daysyielded
us
not too evident
proofs
of
that
univerfal oppofition,
that
is
between
light
and darknefs, Chrifi and
Relial,
nature and grace,
that
we
could
not
fee
every day
the
prodigious
iffues
of
this
inbred corruption,
fwellirig
over
all
bounds, and breaking
forth
into
a
contempt
of the
Gofpel,
and
all
ways
ofgodlinef
r
fo
true
it
is,
that the
carnal
mind is enmity againfi God,
it
is
not fubjett
unto his
lam, neither
indeedcan
it
be,
Rom. viii.
7. fo
that,
(3.)
As
a
natural
man by
the firength
of
ilia
own
free
will,
neither
knotveth; nor
willeth,
fò
it
is
utterly
impolfible
he
fhould do any
thing
pleating untoGod.
Can
the
Ethiopian
change
hisskin,
or rho leepnrd his
foes?
'Men can
be do
geed,
Jeremy xiii.
an
evil
tree
cannot bring forth
good,
fruit,
without
faith
it
io
impoJfble to pleafe
God,
Heb.
xi:
6.
and that
is
not
of
our
[elves,
it
is
the
gift of
Gad,
Ephef.
ii.
lò
that though almighty God,
according
to the
unfearchablenefs
of
his wifdom,
worketh
divers ways,
and
in
fundry
manners, for the tranflating
of
his chofen ones from
the
power
'of-
darknefs
to
his
marvellous
light,
calling
fame
.powerfully h
the
midi
of theirmarch
in
the
ways
of
ungedlinef,
as
he did Paul,
preparing others
by
outward means, and helps
of
comniotr
ref raininggrace, moralizing nature before
it be
begotten
anew
by
the
irmnortal feed
of
the
word
;
yet
this
is
certain.,
that
all
good
in this
kind
is
from
his
free grace,
there
is
nothing
in
our
felves, as
of
our felves, but
fin
:
yea, and
all
thofe previousdifpofitions,
wherewith our hearts are prepared by virtue
of
common grace, do not
at
all
enable us
to
concur
by
any vital operation,
with
that
powerful bleffed renewing grace
of
regene-
ration, whereby
we
become
the
foes
of
God.
Neither
is
there
any difpofition unto
grace fo
remote,
as
that
pofiibly
it
can
proceed from
a
meer faculty
of
nature, for
every
fuels
difpoition, midi
be
ofthe
fame
order with
the
form
that
is
to
be
introduced;
but
nature
in
relpe£i
of
grace,
is a
thing
of
an
inferiour
allay, between which
there
is
no proportion
;
a
good ufe
of
gifts may have
a
promife
of
an
addition
of
more,
provi-
dedit
be
in
the
lame kind.
There
is
no
rule,
law,
or promife,
that
fhould make grace
due,
-upon
the good ufe
of
natural endowments.
you
will
fly,
here l quite
hver-
throw
free will,
which before
I
feemed
to
grant
;
to which
1
anfiver
i
that
in
regard
of
of that
objet,
concerning which now we
treat,
a
natural man hash na
fùch
thing
as
free
will
at
all,
if
you take
it
fora
power
of
doing
that
which
is
good and wellpleating:
untoGod
in
things fpiritual, for
an
ability
of
preparing our hearts untofaith and
calling
upon God,
as
our church article
fpeaks,
a
home-bred felf-fufficieocy, preceding
the
change
of
our
wills by
the almighty
grace
of
God, whereby
any good fhould be fold
to
.
dwell in us, and
we
utterly
deny
that there
is
any fuch
thing
in
the
world.
The
will,
though in
it
felf
radically free, yet
in
refpe£t
of
the
term or
obje&,
to which
in
this
regard
it
Mould
tend,
is
corrupted, enthralled,
and under
a
miferablebondage, tied to,
fucha
neceffìty
of
finning
in general,
that though
unregenerate men are not refirained,
to
this,
or
that
fin
in particular,
yet
for
the
main,
they can
do
nothing but
fin.
All
their altions wherein
there
is
any
morality, areattended with iniquity,
an evil
tree can-
not bring
forth
good
fruit,
even
the
[artifice
of
the wicked
is
an abomination
to
the
Lord.
Ù
There