Samuel Willard (1640–1707) on God’s Common and Special Love

When the Scripture attributes love to God, it points to his good will in purposing good to be bestowed on them, and making them that are appointed thereto to partake therein: and this love is looked upon to be greater or less, according to the things that are willed in it, and the benefit received by them: and on this account, God is said to love some of his Creatures more than others, in that he hath done more for them, and prepared greater blessings to bestow on them. There is a common love of God, in which the whole Creation is a sharer, appearing in his benignity in bestowing on them these favours by which they are preserved, supplied, and comforted; to this is to be referred that, Acts 14 17 He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness; and Chap 17 25 He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things. But then there is a special love which God hath for some of his Creatures, and that was in appointing, providing, and opening this fountain for them, from which they may derive everlasting life. This therefore is mentioned in the Gospel with an Emphasis, as if it were the only love, 1 Joh. 4 9.

Samuel Willard, The Fountain Opened: Or, The Great Gospel priviledge of having Christ exhibited to Sinfull Men. (Boston in New-England: Printed by B. Green, and J. Allen, for Samuel Sewall Junior, 1700), 58.

...when God manifesteth his benignity to the Creature, we conceive him, in his so doing, to act as a cause by Counsel, and so ascribe it to his Benevolence, and call it his love. And from this consideration, there is a divers love that is assigned to him, according to the different effects of his good will, discerned in the fruits of his Beneficence to the Subject of it. There is a common love attributed to him, wherein the good and the bad do promiscuously partake; and it appears in that Goodness of his which he confers upon them, wherein he gives them large tastes of his bounty; and to this love we are pointed in, Psal. 145.9. The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works. And Acts 14.17. He left not himself without witness in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. And there is an Especial love of his that we are told of, which he bears only to some, and in comparison with which others are said to be hated, according to Rom. 9.13 Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated; and it appears in those peculiar favours which he hath laid in for, and bestows upon them; of which we have such observations, Joh. 3.16. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, &c. 1 Joh. 4 9. In this was the love of God manifested towards us, because God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him...

Samuel Willard, Love’s Pedigree. Or A Discourse Shewing the Grace of Love in a Believer to be of A Divine Original (Boston, in N.E.: Printed by B. Green, and J. Allen. Sold by Benjamin Eliot, at his shop under the west end of the town house, 1700), 7–8.

Every true believer is compassed with mercy.

DOCTRINE V.

Every true believer is compassed about with the mercy of God. We now come to take notice of the greatness of that mercy which is entailed upon him. The Antithesis is observable: he had said the Sorrows of the wicked are great and many; yet for the present they enjoy much mixture of mercy: but he doth not say great and many are the mercies of the Godly, but they compass him about: q. d. There is nothing but mercy that he shares in: several things may here be enquired into:

1. What mercy it is that compasseth them?

A. It was observed under the former Doctrine that Mercy is of two sorts, Common and Special: the former are called common because good and bad indifferently share in them, Matth. 5. 45. Godly men therefore have their share in these so far as infinite wisdom sees convenient. God will not begrutch[?] to his friends that which he can afford to his enemies; he will not deny that to a Child, if he needs it, which he gives to a Stranger: they are also called common, because they are ordinary inferiour things compared with the other; and so Godly men may well expect that he will not deny to favour them therewithal, as they have occasion for them; he who counts it not too much to bestow the greatest, cannot withold the least, if they want them, Rom. 8. 32. He that spared not his Son, &c. Common also they are called from the principle whence they proceed: there is a Common Benevolence which we ascribe to God, who in the day of his forbearance, allows such things to the vilest of men, though still they are the hated of the Lord: but then there is a peculiar love which he bears to his chosen, which never had beginning, Jer. 31. 3.

And shall never cease, Joh. 13. 1. And thus no mercy is common to a believer, but all that he enjoys proceeds from that fountain of love which hath designed his Salvation, and causeth all to work for good to him, Rom. 8. 28 Whereas all that wicked men enjoy works to their hurt, Psal. 92. 6. This then is the mercy that compasseth the true believer, viz That love of God whereby, pitying them in their miserable state which sin had brought them into, he doth freely, and for his own name sake, bestow grace and glory on them, and all that is good, Psal. 84:11; 103:17. So that all the providences that befall them in their way, as well as the glory they are brought to in the end of it, belong to this mercy, and a Child of God may read love in every passage he meets withal, whatsoever the outward face of it may be.

Samuel Willard, The Truly Blessed Man: Or, The Way to be Happy Here; and For Ever: Being the Substance of Divers Sermons Preached on Psalm XXXII (Boston in N.E.: Printed by B. Green and J. Allen, for Michael Perry, 1700), 568–70.

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Samuel Willard (1640–1707) on God's Good Will in the Gospel Offer

"And what greater discovery of good will could there be?

3. In the free offers that he maketh of it to men. He hath not only made way for it, by the Obedience of his Son, who paid the price for our Redemption, but published it in the Gospel, and tendered it to all that come within the sound of that Proclamation: And there are two things that set forth his readiness to apply this forgiveness to Sinners.

1. That he maketh offer of, and invites Sinners to accept it. He hath ordered that man be told that he hath forgiveness, and that they be bidden to come for it. He doth not wait till miserable Sinners cry to him for it; which yet would be a rich favour, if so they might find it at his hands, but because they sought it not, nor ever would have done so, he sends them an Embassy about it, Isa. 65:1, 2. 2 Cor. 5:20. And would he do so, did he not delight in pardoning?

2. That he offereth it freely. And if he did not do so, the Sinner must forever go without it, for he had nothing to purchase it with. The Gospel Invitations come as freely as can be supposed, Isa. 55:1. Rev. 22:17. If it be here objected; you teach that there are Gospel Conditions on which it is only to be had; how then can it be said to be free? it may readily be replied; there are no other Conditions required in the Gospel, but what among men are required in order to receiving and being invested with the freest gift that can be: there is nothing but acceptance of this gift, and acknowledgment of the kindness of the bestower; faith is the hand that receiveth it, whereas unbelief puts it away; and is it not meet that he who would have the benefit of a gift, do accept of it? or doth such acceptance derogate from the grace of the Giver? and what is our Obedience, but our thankfulness to God for so unspeakable a gift? and shall any say the gift was not free, because I was thankful for it? the Sinner was worthy of death, and deserved no pardon, and yet he may have it for receiving, and is not God willing? 

3. In the urgent entreaties he useth with men to accept of this forgiveness. He not only offers it, but pleads and is very urgent and importunate with them, as if it were a kindness done him to take it of him, as well as to them in their having it; he useth all sorts of arguments to persuade them by; he tells them what need they stand in of it, that their eternal welfare depend upon it, that they are condemned and going to Execution, and must need perish, if they be not pardoned, and therefore how much they will stand in their own light, and be guilty of their own blood if they refuse it, Ezek. 33:11. He acquaints them how much it cost his own Son to purchase it, else they had been hopeless; and hence how great an affront it will be to all that kindness of his, to despise it: It will be to trample on that precious blood, and to make their escape desperate, Heb. 2:3. He urgeth on them the consideration of the vanity of all other objects, and course[?] from saving them from the Wrath to come, and that these refuges of lies will leave them naked and exposed to God's Indignation: he telleth them how acceptable it will be to him, if they take hold of this offer, and make their peace with him, and how much his grace will be illustrated thereby: he puts them in mind how gracious and merciful he is, Jer. 3:13. Obviates all the discouragements that Satan and a misgiving heart offer to throw in the way to make them despair of obtaining pardon: and he doth all this with greatest urgency, beseeching them to be reconciled, 2 Cor. 5:10."

Samuel Willard, The Truly Blessed Man (Boston in N.E.: Printed by B. Green, and J. Allen, for Michael Perry, 1700), 254–257.

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Samuel Willard (1640–1707) on the Conscience of the Damned Remembering the Day of Grace

(1.) The Soul shall be tormented with a never dying worm. And this contains in it all the spiritual plagues which shall then seize upon it; and is mainly contained in those terrible agonies, and horrors of conscience which will then fill the soul. Some sinners, and at some times, have terrible gripings of this in this world: though for the most part sinners now rock their consciences asleep, or get them benummed or seared: and yet this worm is all the while insensibly, though continually growing out of the filth and corruption which they lie wallowing in: but then it shall be quick and active, and fearfully torment them; when it shall look back, and put them in remembrance of all the sins that ever they committed, with all the awful aggravations of them: shall remind them of all the mercy and goodness of God which they abused; of a day of grace they once enjoyed; of all the calls, and counsels, and warnings that God had been giving them; of all the patience of God, and strivings of his Holy Spirit, and fair probabilities they were in of Salvation; of all the offers of grace which they despised, and inward motions which they quenched; and so of the righteousness of their own condemnation: and then look forward, and see nothing before it, but those fearful miseries which it suffers, and from whence it must never expect release: what horrors, what despair, must needs be hereby produced? The girds, and stings, and reverberations of such a conscience must needs be a torment inexpressible.

Samuel Willard, A Compleat Body of Divinity in Two Hundred and Fifty Expository Lectures on the Assemby's Shorter Catechism (Boston in New-England: Printed by B. Green and S. Kneeland for B. Eliot and D. Henchmand, and Sold at their Shops, 1726), 240–241. See also the first point under Use 1 on p. 249. Edward Pearse has similar language concerning "fair probabilities of salvation."

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Samuel Willard (1640–1707) on God Begging

(2.) FROM this treaty they are brought to proceed to entreaty. They mutually ask peace one of the other. God, who in the law had breathed threatnings of wrath and ruine against the sinner, held no correspondence with him, and had sentenced him to hell, and destruction, now condescends to sollicit, beg, entreat, pray the sinner to be reconciled, and accept of his peace, which he freely makes tender of to him, and sends his Ambassadors to treat about it. 2 Cor. 5.20. Yea comes with his Spirit, swears that he delights not in his death, begs of him to turn, tells him he is a God of mercy. Ezek. 33.11. Jer. 3.12. And with these entreaties the sinners heart is broken, and he is melted, and falls down at God’s foot full of shame and confusion, freely confessing the unreasonable affronts and wrongs he hath offered to God, and begs of him for Christ’s sake to pardon and pass them by, and accept him in the beloved, and be at peace with him.

Samuel Willard, A Complete Body of Divinity in Two Hundred and Fifty Expository Lectures on the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism (Boston in New England: Printed by B. Green and S. Kneeland for B. Eliot and D. Henchman, and sold at their shops, 1726), 309–10.

Use. Let the Consideration of these things call on us all, on Children in particular, to labour to make sure of the Adoption. Let this be your great Ambition, to be the Children of God: And that, not by an outward relation in the Gospel Covenant only, but by that which is introduced by Faith in Christ, thro' whom only you can obtain Sonship & Heirship to this incorruptible and never fading Inheritance. Your Earthly Parents must dye shortly, if they are not gone already, and it is a poor Portion, which they can bestow on you, which can never make you happy. But if God once be your Father in Christ, you are happy indeed: He will be your Father in Heaven. He lives for ever, He will take care of you, He will never fail nor forsake you; He will keep you safe through an evil World, and bring you without fail to his Heavenly Kingdom: He will do more for you, then you can ask or think. He offers this to you, and begs of you to accept it. Receive Christ for your Spouse, and his Father will be your Father, his God your God, and nothing shall ever seperate you from his Love. [February 14 1698]

Samuel Willard, A Complete Body of Divinity in Two Hundred and Fifty Expository Lectures on the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism (Boston in New England: Printed by B. Green and S. Kneeland for B. Eliot and D. Henchman, and sold at their shops, 1726), 490–91.

7. In the grief he expresseth when men after all wilfully reject his tendered forgiveness. He speaks after the manner of men, when he tells us of his Spirit being grieved at such carriages, Psal. 95.10. And what is this but a grief of compassion, extended to such as are in misery! he might justly be enraged at mens despising of such favour offered them, and fall on them in his fury; and may in time be provoked to it by their obstinacy; but how often doth he express such compassion, as Christ did, in Mat. 23.37. Luke 19.41, 42. And this shows how ill God takes it, when men refuse him the glory of his Grace in forgiving them, by disregarding it, when he comes and begs their entertainment of it.

Samuel Willard, The Truly Blessed Man (Boston in N.E.: Printed by B. Green, and J. Allen, for Michael Perry, 1700), 259–260.

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