Willem Teellinck (1579–1629) on God Begging Lost Men in the Free Offer of Grace

God earnestly wants to save and bless lost people through this Redeemer. This earnestness of God is beautifully shown in the following ways. First, God extends the free offer of grace in Christ without distinction to all people who are brokenhearted and truly seek him (Isa. 55:1; Matt. 11:28; Rev. 22:17). The end of those who positively respond to his offer is wonderfully blessed, for no sooner does a person sincerely mourn and repent of his sins than salvation in Christ is immediately given to him. Second, this is such a serious matter that the Lord God himself begs and pleads with lost man to receive Christ in order to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:19). And third, God is so earnest about this that he becomes very angry and terribly offended when someone refuses his invitation to receive forgiveness in Christ (Luke 14:21; Rom. 10:21).

Willem Teellinck, The Path of True Godliness, trans. Annemie Godbehere, ed. Joel R. Beeke (Baker Academic, 2003), 225.

Bio:
Wiki

Teellinck has often been called “the father of the Dutch Further Reformation,” or the Nadere Reformatie. Teellinck spent nine months with the Puritan community in England and studied theology at Leiden. He trained there for two years under Lucas Trelcatius, Franciscus Gomarus, and Jacobus Arminius. In 1612, he was delegated by Zeeland to go to the Hague to lobby the States General for a national synod dedicated to resolving the growing problems associated with Arminianism. Homiletically, Teellinck was influenced by William Perkins, who advocated the Puritan “plain method” of preaching. After hearing Teellinck preach on a few occasions, Gisbertus Voetius wrote, “Since that time my heart’s desire has been that I and all other preachers of this land could duplicate this kind of powerful preaching.” See Joel R. Beeke and Randall J. Pederson, Meet the Puritans: With a Guide to Modern Reprints (Reformation Heritage Books, 2006), 782–91; or Joel R. Beeke, Randall J. Pederon, and Fraser E. Jones, Meet the Puritans: A Guide to Their Lives and Books, 2nd ed. (Reformation Heritage Books, 2025), 1032–39.

All of the men within the broadly Augustinian tradition who use the metaphor of God begging that I have documented so far are the following:

Augustine (Early Church Father), Isaac Ambrose (Puritan), Thomas Brooks (Puritan), Daniel Burgess (Puritan), Jeremiah Burroughs (Westminster divine), Richard Baxter (Puritan), John Calvin (Reformer), 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), Johannes Hoornbeeck (Puritan), Thomas Larkham (Puritan), Hugh Latimer (Early English Reformer), Thomas Lye (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), Willem Teellinck (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, Paul Washer, and Fred Zaspel.