Of Our Conversion To God
Chapter 14
OF OUR CONVERSION TO
GOD The Arminians assign little or nothing at all to the grace of God, in performing the great work of our conversion. It plainly appears from what I have shown already, that they ascribe it to our own free-will.
Thus I will briefly pass over what otherwise is so copiously delivered in the holy Scripture; that would require a far larger discussion. A prolix358 confirmation of the truth we profess does not suit so well my intention, which is merely to reveal their errors; so many are deceived and inveigled by not knowing the depths of them. In this great conjunction of grace and nature, the Arminians ascribe two things to free-will: first, a power to co-operate and work with grace to make it at all effectual; secondly, a power to resist its operation and make it altogether ineffectual. God in the meantime bestows no grace, but awaits an act issuing from one of these two abilities to have its corresponding effect. If a man co-operates, then grace attains its end; if he resists, it returns empty. To this end, they pretend that all the grace of God bestowed on us for our conversion is but a moral persuasion by his word, and not an infusion of a new vital principle by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, granting this, I will most willingly comply with them in assigning to free-will one of the endowments recited before – a power to resist the operation of grace; but instead of the other power, I must ascribe to our whole corrupted nature (and
Chapter 14: OF OUR CONVERSION TO GOD everyone that partakes of it) a universal disability to obey or couple in that work which God intends by his grace. If the grace of our conversion is nothing but a moral persuasion, then being dead in sin, we have no more power to obey it than a man in his grave has power in himself to live again, and to come out at the next call. God's promises and the saints' prayers in the holy Scripture seem to intend a grace that would give us a real internal ability to do what is spiritually good. But it seems there is no such matter; for if a man were to persuade me to leap over the Thames, or to fly in the air (however eloquent he might be), his persuasion makes me no more able to do it than before I ever saw him. If God's grace is nothing but a sweet persuasion (however powerful), it is an extrinsic thing; it proposes a desired object, but it gives us no new strength to do anything we did not have the power to do before. But let us hear their own pleading to each of these particulars concerning grace and nature –
First, for the nature of grace: "God has appointed to save believers by grace – that is, a soft and sweet persuasion, convenient and agreeable to their free-will – and not by any almighty action," says
Arminius.359 It seems strange, "the carnal mind being enmity against God," and the will being enthralled to sin, and full of wretched opposition to all his ways, that God would have no other means to move them to himself except some persuasion that is sweet, agreeable, and congruous to them in their current estate. It does little to exalt the dignity and power of grace, when the chief reason why it is effectual, as Alvarez observes, may be reduced to a well-digested supper or an undisturbed sleep; by these some men may be brought to a better temperament to comply with this congruous grace. But let us for the present accept this, and grant that God does call some by such a congruous persuasion, at the time and place he knows they will assent to it. I ask whether God calls all men this way, or only some? If all men are called this way, then why are not all converted? For the very granting of it to be congruous makes it effectual. If only some, then why them, and not others? Is it out of a special intention to have them
Chapter 14: OF OUR CONVERSION TO GOD obedient? Let them take heed, for this nearly establishes the decree of election; they will never be able to determine out of what other intention it should be. Therefore Corvinus denies that any such congruity is required for the grace by which we are converted. It is only required that it be a moral persuasion, which we may obey if we will, and so make it effectual.360 Yes, and Arminius himself, after he had defended it as far as he was able, puts it off from himself, and falsely attributes it to St. Austin. So that, as they jointly affirm, "they confess that no grace is necessary for the production of faith, but only what is moral;"361 one of them interprets this to be "a declaration of the gospel to us;" 362 – just like their old master Pelagius did. "God," he says,
"works in us to will what is good and to will what is holy, while he stirs us up with promise of rewards and the greatness of the future glory – though before we were given over to earthly desires, like brute beasts, loving nothing but present things, stirring up our stupid wills to a desire for God by a revelation of wisdom, and persuading us to all that is good."363 Both of them affirm that the grace of God is nothing but a moral persuasion, working by way of powerful, convincing arguments.
Yet here Pelagius seems to ascribe a greater efficacy to it than the Arminians, granting that it works on us when, after the manner of brute beasts, we are fixed merely on earthly things. But, as they confess, for the production of faith, it is necessary that such arguments be proposed on the part of God to which nothing can probably be opposed, as for example, why they should not seem credible. So, they say, a pious docility and probity of mind is required on our part. So that all the grace of God bestowed on us consists in persuasive arguments out of the word; which, if they meet with teachable minds, may work their conversion.364
Secondly. Having thus extenuated the grace of God, they affirm, "that in the operation of grace, the efficacy of it depends on free-will."
So the Remonstrants say in their Apology.365 "And to speak confidently," says Grevinchovius, "I say that the effect of grace, in an ordinary course, depends on some act of our free-will."366 Suppose,
Chapter 14: OF OUR CONVERSION TO GOD then, that two men are made partakers of the same grace – that is, they both have the gospel preached to them by the same means. One is converted and the other is not. What may be the cause of so great a difference? Was there any intention or purpose in God that one should be changed rather than the other? "No," they say. "He equally desires and intends the conversion of all and every one." Did, then, God work more powerfully in the heart of the one by his Holy Spirit than in the heart of the other? "No," they say. "The same operation of the Spirit always accompanies the same preaching of the word." But was not one, by some almighty action, made partaker of real infused grace, which the other did not attain to it? "No," they say. "For that would destroy the liberty of his will, and deprive him of all the praise of believing."
How, then, did this extreme difference of effects come about? Who made the one differ from the other? Or what does he have that he did not receive? "Why, all this proceeds merely from the strength of his own free-will yielding obedience to God's gracious invitation, which (like the other) he might have rejected. This is the immediate cause of his conversion, for which all praise is due." And here the old idol may boast to all the world that if he can only get his worshippers to prevail in this, he has quite excluded the grace of Christ, and made it nomen inane, a mere title – but in fact there is no such thing in the world.
Thirdly. They teach that, notwithstanding any purpose and intention of God to convert and thus to save a sinner – and notwithstanding the most powerful and effectual operation of the blessed Spirit, with the most winning and persuasive preaching of the word – it remains in man's power to frustrate that purpose, and to resist that operation, and to reject that preaching of the gospel. I do not need to prove this, for it is what they directly plead for; it is also what they must do, if they are to comply with their previously mentioned principles. For granting all these things have no influence on any man except by way of moral persuasion, we must not only grant that God's grace may be resisted, but we must also utterly deny that it can be obeyed. We may resist it, I say, because we have both a disability
Chapter 14: OF OUR CONVERSION TO GOD to do good and we have a repugnancy against it. As for obeying it, unless we would deny all inherent corruption in us, and all depravation in our nature, we cannot attribute any such sufficiency to ourselves.
Now, concerning this weakness of grace (that it is not able to overcome the opposing power of our sinful nature), one testimony of Arminius will suffice: "It always remains in the power of free-will to reject grace that is given, and to refuse what follows; for grace is no almighty action of God which free-will cannot resist."367 I would not assert, in opposition to this, such an operation of grace as to violently overcome the will of man, and force him into obedience; that would be prejudicial to our liberty. I would only assert that it consists in such a sweet and effectual working as to infallibly promote our conversion, to make those willing who before were unwilling, and to make those obedient who were not obedient – a working that creates clean hearts and renews right spirits within us.
What we assert, then, in opposition to these Arminian heterodoxies, is that the effectual grace which God uses in the great work of our conversion, by its own nature – being the instrument and intent of God for that purpose – surely and solely produces the intended effect, without successful resistance, and without any considerable co-operation of men's own wills, until they are prepared and changed by that very grace.
The infallibility of its effect depends chiefly on the purpose of God.
When he intends a man's conversion by any means, those means must have such an efficacy added to them as to make them fit instruments to accomplish that intention, so that the counsel of the Lord may prosper, and his word may not return empty. But the manner of its operation – that it requires no human assistance, and it is able to overcome all repugnance – is proper to the act in which grace consists.
I will briefly confirm this nature and efficacy of grace, in opposition to the assertions of an indifferent influence of the Holy Spirit, or a metaphorical motion, or working by way of moral persuasion – or to that grace which only proposes a desirable object that is easy to be
Chapter 14: OF OUR CONVERSION TO GOD resisted, and is not effectual unless it is helped by an inbred ability of our own; for this is the Arminian grace. I will premise these few things:
First. In their conversion, God does not use the wills of men as malign spirits use the members of men who are having a fit, by a violent wrested motion. Rather he uses them sweetly and agreeably to their own free nature. Yet, in the first act of our conversion the will is merely passive; it is a capable subject of such converting work, but it does not at all concur cooperatively in our turning. The will is not, I say, the cause of the work, but the subject in which it is wrought, having only a passive capability to receive that supernatural being which is introduced by grace. The beginning of this "good work" is merely from God, Phil 1:6. Indeed, faith is ascribed to grace, not by way of conjunction with our wills, but in opposition to them: "Not of ourselves; it is the gift of God," Eph 2:8. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves; our sufficiency is of God," 2 Cor 3:5. "Turn us to you, O
LORD, and we shall be turned," Lam 5:21.
Secondly. The will of man confers nothing to the infusion of the first grace, but subjectively receives it. Yet in the very first act that is wrought in and by the will, it most freely cooperates (by way of subordination) with the grace of God; and the more effectually it is moved by grace, the more freely it works with it. Man being converted, converts himself.
Thirdly. We do not affirm that grace is irresistible, as though it came upon the will with such an overflowing violence as to beat it down before it, and subdue it by compulsion to what it is not inclined to in any way. But if that term must be used, it denotes, in our sense, only such an unconquerable efficacy of grace as to always and infallibly produce its effect; for who can "withstand God?" Acts 11:17 – as it may also be used on that part of the will which will not resist it: "All that the Father gives to Christ shall come to him," John 6:37. The operation of grace is not resisted by a hard heart because it mollifies the heart itself. It does not so much take away a power to resist, as give a will to obey, whereby the powerful impotency of resistance is removed.
Chapter 14: OF OUR CONVERSION TO GOD Fourthly. Concerning grace itself, it is either common or special.
Common or general grace consists in the external revelation of the will of God by his word, with some illumination of the mind to perceive it, and a correction of affections not to contemn it too much. This, in some degree or other (to some more and to some less), is common to all who are called. Special grace is the grace of regeneration, which comprehends special grace, adding more spiritual acts to it, but especially presupposing the purpose of God on which the efficacy of grace chiefly depends.
Fifthly. This saving grace, by which the Lord converts or regenerates a sinner, translating him from death to life, is either external or internal. External consists in the preaching of the word, etc., which operates by way of moral persuasion, when we beseech our hearers by it "in Christ's stead, so that they would be reconciled to God," 2 Cor
5:20. This is the instrumental organ of our conversion. It may be said to be a sufficient cause of our regeneration, inasmuch as no other cause of the same kind is necessary. It may also be resisted in sensu diviso,368 when considered separately from being the instrument of God for such an end.
Sixthly. Internal grace is distinguished by divines into the first (or preventing) grace, and the second following (or cooperating) grace. The first is that spiritual vital principle that is infused into us by the Holy
Spirit; it is that new creation and bestowing of new strength by which we are made fit and able to produce spiritual acts, to believe and yield evangelical obedience: "For we are the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus for good works," Eph 2:10. By this God "gives us a new heart, and he puts a new spirit within us;" he "takes the stony heart out of our flesh, and gives us a heart of flesh;" he "puts his Spirit within us, to cause us to walk in his statutes," Ezekiel 36:26-27.
Now, this first grace is not properly and formally a vital act, but causal only; it is a principle that motivates such vital acts within us. It is the habit of faith bestowed on a man so that he may be able to elicit and perform the acts of faith. This grace gives new light to the
Chapter 14: OF OUR CONVERSION TO GOD understanding, new inclinations to the will, and new affections to the heart. It is the infallible efficacy of this grace that we plead for against the Arminians. And I will make use only of a very few of those innumerable places of holy Scripture which confirm this truth, reduced to these three heads:
First. Our conversion is wrought by a divine, almighty action, which the will of man will not, and therefore cannot resist. The impotency of the will ought not to be opposed to this omnipotent grace which will certainly effect the work for which it is ordained. This gracious action is not inferior to the greatness of God's "mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead," Eph
1:19-20. And shall not that power which could overcome hell, and loose the bonds of death, be effectual to raise a sinner from the death of sin, when by God's intention it is appointed to that work? He accomplishes "the work of faith with power," 2Thes 1:11. It is "his divine power that gives us all things that pertain to life and godliness,"
2 Peter 1:3. Surely a moral, resistible persuasion would not often be termed the "power" of God, which denotes an actual efficacy which no creature is able to resist.
Secondly. What consists in real efficiency is not at all efficient unless it actually works what it intends, when and where it intends it. It cannot be said without contradiction that it may be so resisted that it will not work, for its whole nature consists in such a real operation.
Now, it may be proved that the very essence of divine grace consists in such a formal act by all those places in Scripture which affirm that God by his grace, or that the grace of God, actually accomplish our conversion. For example, Deut 30:6, "And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, so that you may live." The circumcision of our hearts, so that we may love the Lord with all our hearts, and with all our souls, is our conversion, which the Lord affirms here that he himself will do. He will not only enable us to do it, but he himself will really and effectually accomplish it. And
Chapter 14: OF OUR CONVERSION TO GOD again, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts," Jer 31:33. "I will put my fear in their hearts, so that they will not depart from me," Jer 32:40. He will not offer fear of him to them, but will actually put it into them. And most clearly, Ezekiel 36:26-27:
"A new heart I will also give you, and a new spirit I will put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes." Are these expressions of a moral persuasion only? Does God affirm here that he will do what he intends only to persuade us to, and which we may refuse to do if we will? Is it in the power of a stony heart to remove itself? What an active stone this is, in mounting itself upwards! How does it at all differ from that heart of flesh that God promises? Shall a stony heart be said to have a power to change itself into such a heart of flesh that it will cause us to walk in God's statutes? Surely, unless men were willfully blind, they must perceive here that such an action of God is denoted as to effectually, solely, and infallibly work our conversion; "opening our hearts, so that we may attend to the word," Acts 16:14; "giving us in behalf of Christ to believe on him," Phil 1:29. Now, these and similar places prove that the nature of God's grace consists in a real efficiency, and its operation is certainly effectual.
Thirdly. Our conversion is a "new creation," a "resurrection," a "new birth." Now, the one who creates a man does not persuade that man to create himself, nor could he if he desired to; nor does he have any power to resist the one who would create him – that is (as we take it here), who would translate him from something that he is, to what he is not. What arguments do you think would be sufficient to persuade a dead man to rise? Or what great aid can he contribute to his own resurrection? Nor does a man birth369 himself; a new real form has never yet been introduced into any matter by subtle arguments.
These are the terms the Scripture is pleased to use concerning our conversion: "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature," 2 Cor 5:17.
The "new man is created after God in righteousness and true holiness,"
Chapter 14: OF OUR CONVERSION TO GOD Eph 4:24. It is our new birth: "Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," John 3:3. "Of his own will he birthed us with the word of truth," James 1:18. And so we become "born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever," 1 Peter 1:23. It is our vivification370 and resurrection: "The Son makes alive whom he will," John 5:21, even those "dead," who "hear his voice and live," verse 25. "When we were dead in sins," we are "made alive together with Christ by grace," Eph
2:5; for "being buried with him by baptism, we are also raised with him through faith in the operation of God," Col 2:12. And "blessed and holy is he that has part in that first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." (Rev 20:6)
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