you not merited punishment, but unmerited grace. If you wish to be excluded from grace, boast your merits." Again: "You are nothing of yourself; sins are yours, merits belong to God; you deserve punishment; and when you come to be rewarded, he will crown his own gifts, not your merits." In the same sense he elsewhere teaches that grace proceeds not from merit, but merit from grace. And a little after he concludes, that God with his gifts precedes all merits, that thence he may elicit his other merits, and gives altogether freely, because he discovers nothing as a cause of salvation. But what necessity is there for further quotations, when his writings are full of such passages? But the Apostle will even better deliver them from this error, if they will hear from what origin he deduces the glory of the saints. "Whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." (m) Why then, according to the Apostle, are the faithful crowned? Because by the mercy of the Lord, and not by their own industry, they are elected, and called, and justified. Farewell, then, this vain fear, that there will be an end of all merits if free will be overturned. For it is a proof of extreme folly, to be terrified and to fly from that to which the Scripture calls us: "If," says he, "thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" (n) You see that he divests free will of every thing with the express design of leaving no room for merits. But yet, the beneficence and liberality of God being inexhaustible and various, those graces which he confers on us, because he makes them ours, he rewards, just as if they were our own virtues.

III. They farther allege what may appear to be borrowed from Chrysostom, that if our will has not this ability to choose good or evil, the partakers of the same nature must be either all evil or all good. And not very far from this is the writer, whoever he was, of the treatise, On the calling of the Gentiles, which is circulated under the name of Ambrose, when he argues, that no man would ever recede from the faith, unless the grace of God left us the condition of mutability. In which

(m) Rom. viii. 29.

(n) 1 Cor. iv. 7.

it is surprising that such great men were so inconsistent with themselves. For how did it not occur to Chrysostom, that it is the election of God, which makes this difference between men? We are not afraid to allow, what Paul very strenuously asserts, that all, without exception, are depraved and addicted to wickedness; but with him we add, that the mercy of God does not permit all to remain in depravity. Therefore, since we all naturally labour under the same disease, they alone recover to whom the Lord hath been pleased to apply his healing hand. The rest, whom he passeth by in righteous judgment, putrefy in their corruption till they are entirely consumed. And it is from the same cause, that some persevere to the end, and others decline and fall in the midst of their course. For perseverance itself also is a gift of God, which he bestows not on all men promiscuously, but imparts to whom he pleases. If we inquire the cause of the difference, why some persevere with constancy, and others fail through instability, no other can be found, but that God sustains the former by his power that they perish not, and does not communicate the same strength to the latter, that they may be examples of inconstancy.

IV. They urge farther, that exhortations are given in vain, that the use of admonitions is superfluous, and that reproofs are ridiculous, if it be not in the power of the sinner to obey. When similar objections were formerly made to Augustine, he was obliged to write his treatise On Correction and Grace: in which, though he copiously refutes them, he calls his adversaries to this conclusion: "O man, in the commandment learn what is your duty; in correction learn, that through your own fault you have it not; in prayer learn whence you may receive what you wish to enjoy." There is nearly the same argument in the treatise On the Spirit and Letter, in which he maintains that God does not regulate the precepts of his law by the ability of men, but when he hath commanded what is right, freely gives to his elect ability to perform it. This is not a subject that requires a prolix discussion. First, We are not alone in this cause, but have the support of Christ and all the apostles. Let our opponents consider how they can obtain the superiority in a contest with such antagonists. Does Christ, VOL. I. 2 U

who declares that without him we can do nothing, () on that account the less reprehend and punish those who without him do what is evil? Does he therefore relax in his exhortations to every man to practise good works? How severely does Paul censure the Corinthians for their neglect of charity! (p) Yet he earnestly prays that charity may be given them by the Lord. In his Epistle to the Romans he declares that "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy:" (q) yet afterwards he refrains not from the use of admonition, exhortation, and reproof. Why do they not therefore remonstrate with the Lord, not to lose his labour in such a manner, by requiring of men those things which he alone can bestow, and punishing those things which are committed for want of his grace? Why do they not admonish Paul to spare those, who are unable to will or run without the previous mercy of God, of which they are now destitute? As though truly the Lord had not the best reason for his doctrine, which readily presents itself to those who religiously seek it. Paul clearly shews how far doctrine, exhortation, and reproof, can of themselves avail towards producing a change of heart, when he says that "neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but" that the efficacy is solely from "God that giveth the increase." (r) Thus we see that Moses severely sanctions the precepts of the law, and the prophets earnestly urge and threaten transgressors: whilst nevertheless they acknowledge, that men never begin to be wise till a heart is given them to understand; that it is the peculiar work of God to circumcise the heart, and instead of a stony heart to give a heart of flesh; to inscribe his law in men's minds; in a word, to render his doctrine effectual by a renovation of the soul.

V. What then, it will be inquired, is the use of exhortations? I reply; if the impious despise them with obstinate hearts, they will serve for a testimony against them, when they shall come to the tribunal of the Lord; and even in the present state they wound their consciences; for however the most audacious person may deride them, he cannot disapprove of them in his heart. But it will be said, what can a miserable sinner do,

if the softness of heart, which is necessary to obedience, be denied him? I ask, what excuse can he plead, seeing that he cannot impute the hardness of his heart to any one but himself? The impious therefore, who are ready if possible to ridicule the Divine precepts and exhortations, are, in spite of their own inclinations, confounded by their power. But the principal utility should be considered in regard to the faithful, in whom as the Lord performs all things by his Spirit, so he neglects not the instrumentality of his word, but uses it with great efficacy. Let it be allowed then, as it ought to be, that all the strength of the pious consists in the grace of God, according to this expression of the prophet, "I will give them a new heart, that they may walk in my statutes." (s) But you will object, Why are they admonished of their duty, and not rather left to the direction of the Spirit? Why are they importuned with exhortations, when they cannot make more haste than is produced by the impulse of the Spirit? Why are they chastised, if they have ever deviated from the right way, seeing that they erred through the necessary infirmity of the flesh? I reply, Who art thou, O man, that wouldest impose laws upon God? If it be his will to prepare us by exhortation for the reception of this grace, by which obedience to the exhortation is produced, what have you to censure in this œconomy? If exhortations and reproofs were of no other advantage to the pious, than to convince them of sin, they ought not on that account to be esteemed wholly useless. Now since by the internal operation of the Spirit, they are most effectual to inflame the heart with a love of righteousness, to shake off sloth, to destroy the pleasure and poisonous sweetness of iniquity, and on the contrary to render it hateful and burdensome; who can dare to reject them as superfluous? If any one would desire a plainer answer, let him take it thus: The operations of God on his elect are twofold; internally by his Spirit, externally by his word. By his Spirit illuminating their minds and forming their hearts to the love and cultivation of righteousness, he makes them new creatures. By his word he excites them to desire, seek, and obtain the same renovation. In both he

(s) Ezek. xi. 19, 20.

displays the efficacy of his power, according to the mode of his dispensation. When he addresses the same word to the reprobate, though it produces not their correction, yet he makes it effectual for another purpose, that they may be confounded by the testimony of their consciences now, and be rendered more inexcusable at the day of judgment. Thus Christ, though he pronounces that " no man can come to him, except the Father draw him," and that the elect come when they have "heard and learned of the Father;" (t) yet himself neglects not the office of a teacher, but with his own mouth sedulously invites those, who need the internal teachings of the Holy Spirit to enable them to derive any benefit from his instructions. With respect to the reprobate, Paul suggests that teaching is not useless, because it is to them "the savour of death unto death," but "a sweet savour unto God." (v)

VI. Our adversaries are very laborious in collecting testimonies of Scripture; and this with a view, since they cannot refute us with their weight, to overwhelm us with their number. But as in battles, when armies come to close combat, the weak multitude, whatever pomp and ostentation they may display, are soon defeated and routed; so it will be very easy for us to vanquish them with all their multitude. For as all the passages, which they abuse in their opposition to us, when properly classed and distributed, centre in a very few topics, one answer will be sufficient for many of them; it will not be necessary to dwell on a particular explication of each. Their principal argument they derive from the precepts; which they suppose to be so proportioned to our ability, that whatever they can be proved to require, it necessarily follows we are capable of performing. They proceed therefore to a particular detail of them, and by them measure the extent of our strength. Either, say they, God mocks us, when he commands holiness, piety, obedience, chastity, love, and meekness, and when he forbids impurity, idolatry, unchastity, anger, robbery, pride, and the like: or he requires only such things as we have power to perform. Now almost all the precepts, which they collect, may be distributed into three classes. Some require the first conversion to God;