Perkins: in the first conversion the will concurs with grace as a companion
Perkins takes care to make this point. 'We say,' he writes, 'that in the sinner's first conversion man's free choice concurs with grace in a certain way, as a partner and a co-worker. Three things are needed for conversion: the word, the Holy Spirit and man's will. Man's will is not simply and in every respect passive; it has some working of its own, even in the soul's first conversion.
When anyone is converted, God does it, but not by forcing an unwilling man; he so inclines his will that the man himself wills his own conversion. For when a man is being converted, he too wills his conversion, by the grace of God.'
A little later he adds: 'We must remember that even at the very first moment of conversion the working of the Holy Spirit's grace and man's will that desires it occur in man together. The difference is that the Spirit's working comes first in order and as cause, and moves and rouses the will; the will, once moved and roused to act by grace, then also moves itself and works.' The Reformed Catholic, controversy 1, chapter 1, conclusion 5.
Latin
XXXIX. Id sedulo monet Perkinsus. Dicimus, inquit, in prima peccatoris conversione liberum hominis arbitrium cum gratia certa quadam ratione concurrere, velut socium ac cooperans. Ad conversionem enim tria requiruntur: verbum, Spiritus Sanctus & voluntas hominis. Nam voluntas hominis non est saltem & omnimodo passiva; sed est etiam ipsius quaedam operatio, etiam in prima animae conversione. Etenim quum quis convertitur, fit id quidem a Deo; verum hominem non cogente invitum, sed ita voluntatem ejus inclinante, ut etiam ipse homo conversionem suam velit. Nam quum jam homo convertitur, vult etiam ipse ex Dei gratia suam conversionem. Et postea quibusdam subjunctis, Meminisse debemus, inquit, quod etiam in ipso primo momento conversionis, operatio gratiae Spiritus Sancti, ac voluntas hominis desiderans eam, in homine simul fiunt: hoc tamen discrimine, quod operatio Spiritus Sancti, quantum ad ordinem & causam attinet, prior est, ac voluntatem movet & excitat: haec vero mota & ad agendum excitata a gratia, deinceps seipsam quoque movet & operatur. In Catholico Reformato Controv. 1. cap. 1. Conclusione 5.