John Trapp (1601–1669) on Christ Begging

For mine head is filled with dew] i.e. I have suffered much for thy sake, and waited by leisure a long while: and must I now go look my lodging? Dost though thus requite (repulse) thy Lord O thou foolish woman and unwise? Is this thy kindness to thy friend? Woe unto thee O Jerusalem: wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be? [Jer. 13:27] It is the ingratitude that makes the Saints sins so heinous; which otherwise would be far less then other mens; fith [sic; since] his temptations are stronger, and his resistance is greater. Oh when God's grace shall come suing to us, nay kneeling to us; when Christ shall come with Hat in hand, and stand bare-headed as here, and that in foul weather too, begging acceptance, and beseeching us to be reconciled, and we will not, what an inexcusable fault is this!

John Trapp, Solomonis ΠΑΝΑΡΕΤΟS: Or, a Commentarie Upon the Books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs (London: Printed by T.R. and E.M. for John Bellamie, 1650), 3:271.

As though God did beseech you] God’s grace even kneels to us. En flexanimam suadae medullam; who can turn his back upon such blessed and bleeding embracements? [comment on 2 Cor. 5:20]

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the New Testament, 2nd. edition (London: Printed by R. W. and are to be sold by Nath. Ekins, at the Gun in Pauls Church-yard, 1656), 716.

Thou shalt surely die.] Certissime citissimeque morieris, saith Zuinglius; thou shalt surely and shortly, or suddenly, die. And without doubt every man should die the same day he is born: the wages of death should be paid him presently. But Christ begs their lives for a season. For which cause he is said to be “the Saviour of all men” (1 Tim 4:10), not of eternal preservation, but of temporal reservation. In which respect, also, God is said “so to have loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,” &c. (John 3:16) It was a mercy to all mankind that the Messiah was promised and provided, “sealed and sent into the world,” that some might be saved, and the rest sustained in life, for their sakes. Symmachus renders it, Thou shalt be mortal.

John Trapp, A Commentary on the Old and New Testament, ed. W. Webster and Hugh Martin, 5 vols. (Grand Rapids: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2022), 1:13 (Gen 2:17).

Neither shall wickedness deliver.] No; it is righteousness only that delivereth from death. The wicked may make “a covenant with death” (Isa 28:15), but God will disannul it. “Shall they escape by iniquity?” saith the Psalmist. What! have they no better mediums? No; “in thine anger cast down the people, O God” (Psa 56:7). Every man should die the same day that he is born; the wages of death should be paid him presently; but Christ begs their lives for a season, he is the “Saviour of all men” (1 Tim 4:10), not of eternal preservation, but of temporal reservation, that his elect might lay hold on eternal life, and reprobates may have this for a bodkin at their hearts one day: I was in a fair possibility of being delivered.

John Trapp, A Commentary on the Old and New Testament, ed. W. Webster and Hugh Martin, 5 vols. (Grand Rapids: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2022), 3:196 (Eccl 8:8).

Ver. 5. Your fathers, where are they?] Is not the grave their house? have they not made their beds in the dark? are not they gone down to the congregation of all living? Job 30:23. Every man should die the same day as he is born; as being born a child of death; the wages of sin is death, and this wages should be paid him down presently. But Christ begs their lives for a season, 1 Tim 4:10; he is the Saviour of all men, not of eternal preservation, but of temporal reservation. But what a sad thing is it for men to die in their sins, as these in the text and their nephews did, John 8:21; John 8:24. How may such men, on their deathbeds, say to their sins, as Charles V did of his honours, victories, riches, Abite hinc, abite longe, Go, go, get you out of my sight (Mornaeus); or as Cornelius Agrippa, the conjuror, did to his familiar that used to accompany him in the shape of a dog, Abi a me perdita bestia, quae me perdidisti, Begone, thou wretched beast that hast wrought my ruin (Joh. Manl.). Petrius Sutorius speaks of one that, preaching a funeral sermon on a religious man (as he calls him), and giving him large commendations, heard at the same time a voice in the church, mortuus sum, iudicatus sum, damnatus sum, I am dead, judged, and damned. The devil preached Saul’s funeral, 1 Sam 28:19, though David made his epitaph, 2 Sam 1:19–27.

John Trapp, A Commentary on the Old and New Testament, ed. W. Webster and Hugh Martin, 5 vols. (Grand Rapids: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2022), 4:391 (Zech 1:5).

Who is the Saviour of all men] Not of eternal preservation, but of temporal reservation. For every man should die the same day he is born, the wages of death should be paid him presently; but Christ begs wicked men’s lives for a season, saith one. Sin hath hurled confusion over the world, brought a vanity on the creature. And had not Christ undertaken the shattered condition of the world to uphold it, it had fallen about Adam’s ears, saith another divine.

John Trapp, Trapp’s Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 2010), 832 (1 Tim 4:10); John Trapp, A Commentary on the Old and New Testament, ed. W. Webster and Hugh Martin, 5 vols. (Grand Rapids: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2022), 5:643 (1 Tim 4:10). By “saith one,” Trapp likely has in mind Thomas Shepherd [Shepheard], The Sincere Convert Discovering the Paucity of True Believers; And the Great Difficulty of Saving Conversion (London: Printed by T. P. and M. S. for Humphrey Blunden , at the Castle in Cornhill, 1641), 74.

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Other men within the Augustinian tradition who use the metaphor of God begging are the following:

Augustine (Early Church Father), Hugh Latimer (Early English Reformer), Isaac Ambrose (Puritan), Daniel Burgess (Puritan), Jeremiah Burroughs (Westminster divine), Richard Baxter (Puritan), Joseph Caryl (Westminster divine), Thomas Case (Puritan), Stephen Charnock (Puritan), John Collinges (Puritan), John Flavel (Puritan), Theophilus Gale (Puritan), William Gearing (Puritan), Andrew Gray (Puritan), William Gurnall (Puritan), Robert Harris (Westminster divine), Nathaniel Heywoood (Puritan), Thomas Larkham (Puritan), Thomas Manton (Puritan), John Murcot (Puritan), George Newton (Puritan), John Oldfield (Puritan), Anthony Palmer (Puritan), Edward Reynolds (Westminster divine), John Richardson (Puritan), Samuel Rutherford (Westminster divine), John Shower (Puritan), Richard Sibbes (Puritan), Sydrach Simpson (Westminster divine), William Strong (Westminster divine), George Swinnock (Puritan), John Trapp (Puritan), Ralph Venning (Puritan), Nathaniel Vincent (Puritan), Thomas Watson (Puritan), Daniel Williams (Puritan), Samuel Willard, Benjamin Wadsworth, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Solomon Stoddard, Samuel Davies, Ralph Erskine, Charles Spurgeon, Thomas Chalmers, Walter Chantry, Erroll Hulse, John MacArthur, Steve Lawson, and Fred Zaspel.