Hence, according to this, in order that Free-will might stand, whatever is in the scriptures said against the ungodly, you are, by the figure synecdoche, to twist round to apply to that brutal part of man, that the truly rational and human part might remain safe. I have, therefore, to render thanks to the assertors of Freewill; because, I may sin with all confidence; knowing that, my reason and will, or my Free-will, cannot be damned, because it cannot be destroyed by my sining, but for ever remains sound, righteous, and holy. And thus, happy in my will and reason, I shall rejoice that my filthy and brutal flesh is distinctly separated from me, and damned; so far shall I be from wishing Christ to become its Redeemer !You see, here, to what the doctrine of Free-will brings us-it denies all things, divine and human, temporal and eternal; and with all these enormities, makes a laughing-stock

of itself!

Sect. CLXI. AGAIN, the Baptist saith, "A man can receive nothing, except it were given him from above."

Let not the Diatribe here produce its forces, where it enumerates all those things which we have from heaven. We are now disputing, not about nature, but about grace: we are inquiring, not what we are upon earth, but what we are in heaven before God. We know that man was constituted lord over those things which are beneath himself; over which, he has a right and a Free-will, that those things might do, and obey as he wills and thinks. But we are now inquiring whether he has a Free will over God,

that he should do and obey in those things which man wills: or rather, whether God has not a Freewill over man, that he should will and do what God wills, and should be able to do nothing but what he wills and does. The Baptist here says, that he "can receive nothing, except it be given him from above."-Wherefore, Free-will must be a nothing

at all!

Again, "He that is of the earth, is earthly and speaketh of the earth, he that cometh from heaven is above all."

Here again, he makes all those earthly, who are not of Christ, and says that they savour and speak of earthly things only, nor does he leave any medium characters. But surely, Free-will is not " he that cometh from heaven." Wherefore it must of necessity, be "he that is of the earth," and that speaks of the earth and savours of the earth. But if there were any power in man, which at any time, in any place, or by any work, did not savour of the earth, the Baptist ought to have excepted this person, and not to have said in a general way concerning all those who are out of Christ, that they are of the earth, and speak of the earth.

So also afterwards, chap. viii., Christ saith, "Ye are of the world, I am not of the world. Ye are from beneath, I am from above."

And yet, those to whom he spoke had Free-will, that is, reason and will; but still he says, that they are "of the world." But what news would he have told, if he had merely said, that they were of the world, as to their grosser affections?' Did not the whole world know this before? Moreover, what need was there

for his saying that men were of the world, as to that part in which they are brutal? For according to that, beasts are also of the world.

Sect. CLXII.-AND now what do those words of Christ, where he saith, "No one can come unto me except my Father which hath sent me draw him," leave to Free-will? For he says it is necessary, that every one should hear and learn of the Father himself, and that all must be "taught of God." Here, indeed, he not only declares that the works and devoted efforts of Free-will are of no avail, but that even the word of the Gospel itself, (of which he is here speaking,) is heard in vain, unless the Father himself speak within, "No one can, and teach and draw. "No one can (saith he) come:" by which, that power, whereby man can endeavour something towards Christ, that is, towards those things which pertain unto salvation, is declared to be a nothing at all.

Nor does that at all profit Free-will, which the Diatribe brings forward out of Augustine, by way of casting a slur upon this all-clear and all-powerful scripture that God draws us, in the same way as we draw a sheep, by holding out to it a green bough.' By this similitude he would prove, that there is in us a power to follow the drawing of God. But this similitude avails nothing in the present passage. For God holds out, not one of his good things only, but many, nay, even his Son, Christ himself; and yet no man follows him, unless the Father hold him forth otherwise within, and draw otherwise!-Nay, the whole world follows the Son whom he holds forth!

But this similitude harmonises sweetly with the

.

experience of the godly, who are now made sheep, and know God their shepherd. These, living in, and being moved by, the Spirit, follow wherever God wills, and whatever he holds out to them. But the ungodly man comes not unto him, even when he hears the word, unless the Father draw and teach within: which he does by shedding abroad his Spirit. And where that is done, there is a different kind of drawing from that which is without there, Christ is held forth in the illumination of the Spirit, whereby the man is drawn unto Christ with the sweetest of all drawing under which, he is passive while God speaks, teaches, and draws, rather than seeks or runs of himself.

Sect. CLXIII-I WILL produce yet one more passage from John, where, he saith, chap. xvi., "The Spirit shall reprove the world of sin, because they believe not in me."

You here see, that it is sin, not to believe in Christ: And this sin is seated, not in the skin, nor in the hairs of the head, but in the very reason and will. Moreover, as Christ makes the whole world guilty from this sin, and as it is known by experience that the world is ignorant of this sin, as much so as it is ignorant of Christ, seeing that, it must be revealed by the reproof of the Spirit; it is manifest, that Freewill, together with its will and reason, is accounted a captive of this sin, and condemned before God. Wherefore, as long as it is ignorant of Christ and believes not in him, it can will or attempt nothing good, but necessarily serves that sin of which it is ignorant.

In a word: Since the scripture declares Christ

every where by positive assertion and by antithesis, (as I said before), in order that, it might subject every thing that is without the Spirit of Christ, to Satan, to ungodliness, to error, to darkness, to sin, to death, and to the wrath of God, all the testimonies concerning Christ must make directly against Free-will; and they are innumerable, nay, the whole of the scripture. If therefore our subject of discussion is to be decided by the judgment of the scripture, the victory, in every respect, is mine; for there is not one jot or tittle of the scripture remaining, which does not condemn the doctrine of Free-will altogether!

.... But if the great theologians and defenders of Freewill know not, or pretend not to know, that the scripture every where declares Christ by positive assertion and by antithesis, yet all Christians know it, and in common confess it. They know, I say, that there are two kingdoms in the world mutually militating against each other.-That Satan reigns in the one, who, on that account is by Christ called "the prince of this world," and by Paul" the God of this world;" who, according to the testimony of the same Paul, holds all captive according to his will, who are not rescued from him by the Spirit of Christ: nor does he suffer any to be rescued by any other power but that of the Spirit of God: as Christ testifies in the parable of "the strong man armed" keeping his palace in peace.

In the other kingdom Christ reigns: which kingdom, continually resists and wars against that of Satan : into which we are translated, not by any power of our own, but by the grace of God, whereby we are delivered from this present evil world, and are snatched from the power of darkness. The knowledge and con