Thomas Manton (1620–1677) on God Begging

[3.] There are excellent enforcements to encourage us to embrace this salvation. God is very impatient of being denied, now he speaks in the gospel, and useth all kinds of methods. As a man who cannot undo a door, and having a bunch of keys in his hand, tries one after another, till the lock doth fly open, so the Lord tries all kind of methods, beseecheth, threateneth, promiseth, that the heart of the sinner might fly open. He beseecheth; God falls a-begging to his own creature, and deals with us as importunately as if the benefit were his own; thus doth he pray us to be reconciled. And then God threatens eternal death, to stir us up to take hold of eternal life; he tells us of a pit without a bottom, and a worm that never dies. Sometimes he seeketh to work upon our hope, and sometimes upon our fear. He not only tells us of the loss of happiness, which is very grievous to an ingenuous spirit: Heb. 12:14, ‘Follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord;’ but he tells us of those eternal torments that are without end and ease, of a worm that never dies, and of a fire that shall never be quenched. Oh! whose heart doth not tremble at the mention of these things? Then, on the other side, we have promises as great as heart can wish for, and more: 2 Peter 1:4, ‘Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.’ It hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive of these things. Who ever hired a man to be happy, or a thirsty man to drink, or a hungry man to eat? Salvation is so acceptable, and the heavenly and blessed hope so glorious, that we should purchase it at any rate; but God taketh all methods to awaken man. Thus the gospel may well be said to be a powerful instrument of our salvation, because it hath a powerful tendency that way.

Thomas Manton, “Several Sermons upon Titus ii.11–14,” in The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, D.D., 22 vols. (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1874), 16:57.

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See also my posts on Spurgeon's Begging God and God Begging?

Thomas Manton (1620–1677) Affirms Common Grace

There is a common and inferior sort of grace, which is made known to all the world. The whole earth is full of his goodness, but this grace that bringeth salvation, that is peculiar to the elect, to a few poor base creatures in themselves, a little handful whom God hath chosen out of the world; John 14:22, ‘How is it that thou wouldst manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?'

Thomas Manton, “Several Sermons Upon Titus II: 11–14: Sermon I,” in The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, D.D., 22 vols. (London: James Nisbet, 1874), 16:48.

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Notice the connection he makes between God's goodness and common grace. He rightly interprets the sense of the Psalms and the overall biblical witness. His "goodness" is not merely speaking of God's delight in ethical purity in the way he treats all of humanity, but it speaks to his loving interest in their well-being. David Silversides, in his criticism of Hoeksemian doctrine, notes that:

It must also be borne in mind that elsewhere Hoeksema's definition of the word 'goodness' is very different from the meaning commonly given to it by Reformed writers [such as Manton above] and, more particularly, its usage in the Westminster Standards. For example, in Answer 4 of the Shorter Catechism, we read, 'God is a Spirit, infinite eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth'. The Shorter Catechism has been criticised by some at this point for not using the terms 'grace, mercy, love', but it must be recognised that in the minds of the Westminster Assembly the term goodness included all of these. This explains why the term 'goodness' is expanded in the Larger Catechism as equivalent to 'most merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness' (Ans. 9) and in the Westminster Confession as 'most loving, gracious, merciful, longsuffering, abundant in goodness...forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him...' (ch. II,i).

The terms 'good' and 'goodness' (Heb. tob) are consistently linked to God's mercy or faithful love (Heb. chesed), for example in Psalms 23:6, 25:7-8, 86:5, 100:5, 145:9 etc., and when Psalm 34:8 is referred to in 1 Peter 2:3, the term is rendered 'gracious' (Gk. chreestos: A.V. 'kind'). No doubt this explains why the term is rendered 'gracious' in the 1650 Metrical Psalter⁷ rendering Psalm 86:5.

7. This version, though known as the 'Scottish Psalter', was initially the work of the Westminster Assembly and sent to the Scottish General Assembly for scrutiny and finalisation.

David Silversides, The Free Offer: Biblical & Reformed (Glasgow, Scotland: Marpet Press, 2005), 16–17.

Thomas Manton (1620–1677) on James 1:5 and God's Proposals of Grace

The proposals of God's grace are very general and universal. it is a great encouragement that in the offer none are excluded. Why should we, then, exclude ourselves? Matt. 11:28, 'Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden.' Mark, poor soul, Jesus Christ maketh no exceptions. He did not except thee that hast a heavy load and burden of guilt upon thy back: 'Come, all ye.' So here; the lack is general, 'If any;' and the supply is general, 'He giveth to all men.' God never told thee that this was never intended to thee, and that thy name was left out of the Lamb's book. And it is a base jealousy to mistrust God without a cause.

Thomas Manton, The Epistle of James (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1988), 42.

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Thomas Manton (1620–1677) on Jude 4

You will say, Who are those that deny Christ his Lordship? I answer:--

(1.) They that will not hear his voice, that slight his calls. He inviteth them and prayeth them that they will look into their hearts, consider their eternal condition, but they quench the Spirit, smother light, resist all these motions; these will not hear Christ's voice. He entreateth, prayeth, that we will come and put our souls under his government; and we in effect say, 'We are lords, and will not come at thee,' Jer. ii. 31. We are well enough, and shall do well enough without any such care and strictness.

Thomas Manton, Commentary on Jude (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1988), 166.

According to Manton, Christ himself is calling, inviting, entreating and motioning for those denying His Lordship (even the non-elect) to put their souls under his government, i.e. to be saved.

John Knox (c.1514–1572) on Common Grace

After these common mercies, I say, whereof the reprobate are often partakers, he openeth the treasure of his rich mercies, which are kept in Christ Jesus for his Elect ... Such as willingly delight not in blindness may clearly see that the Holy Ghost maketh a plain difference betwixt the graces and mercies which are common to all, and that sovereign mercy which is immutably reserved to the chosen children...

John Knox, "On Predestination," in The Works of John Knox, ed. David Laing (Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, Edinburgh, 1856), 5:87.

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If John Knox calls men blind who can't see the difference between 1) the grace/mercy which is common to all and 2) the sovereign grace/mercy that is reserved for the elect alone, then surely he would call those blind who can't even see the very existence of such a thing as common grace itself.

Samuel Rutherford (1600–1661) on Common Grace and Universal Love

All preparations even wrought in us, by the common and general restraining grace of God, can have no effectual influence to produce our conversion.

Samuel Rutherford, Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners To Himself (London, 1647), 240. Or see Samuel Rutherford, Christ Dying, and Drawing Sinners to Himself (Glasgow: Printed by Niven, Napier & Krull; for Samuel and Archibald Gardner, 1803), 276. The above quote was found in David Silversides, The Free Offer: Biblical & Reformed (Glasgow, Scotland: Marpet Press, 2005), 20.

We are hence taught to acknowledge no love to be in God, which is not effectual in doing good to the creature; there is no lip-love, no raw well-wishing to the creature which God doth not make good: we know but three sorts of love, that God has to the creature, all the three are like the fruitful womb; there is no miscarrying, no barrenness in the womb of divine love;

1. He loves all that he has made; so far as to give them a being, to conserve them in being so long as he pleaseth: he had a desire to have Sun, Moon, Stars, Earth, Heaven, Sea, Cloud, Air; he created them out of the womb of love, and out of goodness, and keeps them in being…

2. There is a second love and mercy, in God, by which he loves all Men and Angels; yea, even his enemies, makes the Sun to shine on the unjust man, as well as the just, and causes dew and rain to fall on the orchard and fields of the bloody and deceitful man, whom the Lord abhors; as Christ teacheth us, (Matt. 5:43-48). Nor doth God miscarry in this love, he desires the eternal being of damned angels and men; he sends the Gospel to many reprobates, and invites them to repentance and with longanimity and forbearance suffereth pieces of froward dust to fill the measure of their iniquity, yet does not the Lord’s general love fall short of what he willeth to them.

3. There is a love of special election to glory; far less can God come short in the end of this love…

Christ Dying and Drawing, op. cit. p. 476f. (some copies, p. 440f., due to faulty numbering) Or see Samuel Rutherford, Christ Dying, and Drawing Sinners to Himself (Glasgow: Printed by Niven, Napier & Krull; for Samuel and Archibald Gardner, 1803), 549–50. Also cited in David Silversides, The Free Offer: Biblical & Reformed (Glasgow, Scotland: Marpet Press, 2005), 46–47.

James Durham (1622–1658) on God's Desire

God the Father, and the King’s Son the Bridegroom, are not only content and willing, but very desirous to have sinners come to the marriage. They would fain (to speak with reverence) have poor souls espoused to Christ.

James Durham, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ (Repr.; Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 2002), 44.

Make no mistake. By "sinners," Durham means all sinners, not merely the elect. He's affirming God's universal saving will in very strong, classically Calvinistic terms.

(HT: Donald J. MacLean)

Update on 3-9-15:

7. Consider further, how our Lord Jesus seeks, and presses for this satisfaction from you; he sends forth his friends and ambassadors, to woo in his name, and to beseech you to be reconciled, and told you, that it will not be thousands of rams, nor your first-born, that will do the business, but that ye must humble yourselves, and walk with God, which necessarily supposeth the use-making of Christ: if there had not been such sin, in not improving his satisfaction, but when he pleads so much, and so often for this, and entreats every one in particular to satisfy him, saying, as it were, let me see of the travail of my soul, let me have this much satisfaction for all my sufferings, that ye will make use of my righteousness; and when he is so very serious, in beseeching and entreating, it should, no doubt make us more willing to grant him what he seeks. 8. Ye should look upon this, not only as a discourse in the general to sinners, but ye should also look on it, as addressed to every one of you in particular; and therefore remember, that ye will all be called to give an account of this matter, and it will be asked you, what became of such and such an offer of grace, and whether ye gave him the satisfaction that he called for, or no: According to that word, Acts xvii. 31. 'He hath appointed a day, wherein he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance to all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.' He would have judged the world through Christ had not come; but he will have a day wherein he will call all the hearers of the gospel to an account, especially as to this, to wit, what welcome they have given to Christ; and seeing such a day is coming, when people will be called to an account, what use they made of him, with what face will many come before him, when it shall be told them, that he craved no more satisfaction from them, for all that he suffered, but that they would have improved his sufferings for their own good, and that yet they would not satisfy him so much? Doth not this say, that there is need, that we should look well what what fruit there is of his sufferings, that there may be more than if he had not suffered at all.

James Durham, Christ Crucified: Or, the Marrow of the Gospel, 2 vols. (Glasgow: Printed by Alex Adam, for John Johnston, in the Caltoun of Glasgow, 1792), 2:224–225.

The Fifth Observation was, that Christ the Bridegroom and his Father are very willing to have the match made up and the marriage completed, therefore doth he send forth his servants with a strict commission, not only to tell sinners that all things are ready, but to bid them come to the Marriage: yea he not only wills them to tell them that all things are ready, & to invite, but to Compel them (as Luke hath it chap. 14.23.) to come in: to stir them up and press them to it: to threaten them if they come not, and to accept of no refusal or nay-say: the evidences of his willingness are many, which I will not now insist upon: as that he hath made the feast, and such a feast, and prepared so for it, and given himself to bring it about, and keeps up the offer and Proclamation of the Marriage, even after it is slighted: all these and many more tell plainly that the Father and Son are most heartily willing: therefore they expostulate when this Marriage is refused, O! Jerusalem, Jerusalem how often would I have gathered you, but you would not: Matt. 23. O! Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if thou even thou, hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace; Luk. 19. All these sad complaints, that Israel would not hearken to his voice, and his people would have none of him, Psal. 81.7. That he came to his own and his own received him not, Joh. 1.11. And that they will not come to him that they might have life. Joh. 5.4 make out his willingness abundantly and undenyably.

James Durham, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ (Edinburgh, Printed by the Heirs and Successors of Andrew Anderson, Printer to his Most Excellent Majesty, 1696), 56–57.

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William Perkins (1558–1602) Quotes from David Silversides’s Book on the Free Offer

The benefits proper unto men are of two sorts: some are common to all men both good and bad, and some proper to the elect and faithful.

‘An Exposition of the Creed,’ in The Works of That Famous and Worthie Minister of Christ, in the Universitie of Cambridge, M. W. Perkins, (John Legat, Cambridge, 1605), 324; also in William Perkins, “An Exposition of the Symbol, or Creed of the Apostles,” in The Works of William Perkins, 10 vols., ed. Ryan Hurd, Joel R. Beeke, and Derek W. H. Thomas (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2017), 5:309.

…but the bond is conditional, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace: for we are bound to believe in Christ, if we would come to life everlasting…

‘A Discourse of Conscience,’ Works op. cit., 628; also in William Perkins, “A Discourse of Conscience,” in The Works of William Perkins, 10 vols., ed. Ryan Hurd, Joel R. Beeke, and Derek W. H. Thomas (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2017), 8:24. The editors of the 2019 edition noted that in the 1631 edition of his Works, the following paragraph is included: “I answer again that whatsoever a man is bound to believe is true, yet not always in the event, but true in the intention of God who binds. Now the commandment of believing and applying the gospel is by God given to all within the church, but not in the same manner to all. It is given to the elect, so that by believing they might indeed be saved, God enabling them to do that which He commands. To the rest, whom God in justice will refuse, the same commandment is given not for the same cause, but to another end, that they might see how they could not believe, and by this means be bereft of all excuse in the day of judgment. God does not always give commandments simply that they might be done, but sometimes for other respects, that they might be means of trial, as the commandment given to Abraham of killing Isaac. Again, that they might serve to keep men at the least in outward obedience in this life, and stop their mouths before the tribunal seat of God.”

and seriously bethink thyself of Christ, as he is revealed in the history of the Gospel, and as he is offered to thy particular person, in the ministry of the word and sacraments.

‘A Declaration of the True Manner of Knowing Christ Crucified,’ Works op. cit., 751; also in William Perkins, “A Declaration of the True Manner of Knowing Christ Crucified,” in The Works of William Perkins, 10 vols., ed. Ryan Hurd, Joel R. Beeke, and Derek W. H. Thomas (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2017), 9:5.

Q. But to whom will this blessed King communicate all these means of salvation? A. He offereth them to many, and they are sufficient to save all mankind; but all shall not be saved thereby, because by faith they will not receive them.

‘The Foundation of Christian Religion,’ Works op. cit. p. 768; also in William Perkins, “The Foundation of Christian Religion Gathered into Six Principles,” in The Works of William Perkins, 10 vols., ed. Ryan Hurd, Joel R. Beeke, and Derek W. H. Thomas (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2017), 5:499.

There is but one will in God: yet doth it not equally will all things, but in divers respects it doth will and nill the same thing. He willeth the conversion of Jerusalem, in that he approveth it as a good thing in itself: in that he commands it, and exhorts men to it: in that he gives them all outward means of their conversion. He wills it not, in that he did not decree to effectually work their conversion.

‘A Treatise of God’s Free Grace and Man’s Free Will,’ Works op. cit. p. 876. Or see William Perkins, A Treatise of God’s Free Grace, and Man’s Free Will (Cambridge: Printed by John Legat And are to be sold at the signe of the Crowne in Pauls Churchyard by Simon Waterson, 1601), 44–45. Also in William Perkins, “A Treatise on God’s Free Grace and Man’s Free Will,” in The Works of William Perkins, 10 vols., ed. Ryan Hurd, Joel R. Beeke, and Derek W. H. Thomas (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2017), 6:403.

…the desolation of Jerusalem may be a glass to every one of us, who in these days of God’s merciful visitation, set the ministry of the Gospel at naught.

William Perkins, ‘A Treatise of God’s Free Grace and Man’s Free Will,’ Works op. cit. p. 900; also in 

These quotes can be found in David Silversides’s book The Free Offer: Biblical & Reformed (Glasgow, Scotland: Marpet Press, 2005), 94–95; also in William Perkins, “A Treatise on God’s Free Grace and Man’s Free Will,” in The Works of William Perkins, 10 vols., ed. Ryan Hurd, Joel R. Beeke, and Derek W. H. Thomas (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2017), 6:441.

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One may gather from these quotes that Perkins believed:

1) God gives some “benefits” to all mankind, even the non-elect. This is the idea of common grace.
2) The covenant of grace is conditional, because we must believe to gain eternal life, i.e., faith may be called a condition.
3) Christ is “offered” through the Gospel to all those that hear it proclaimed, even to the non-elect.
4) The means of salvation, which must include Christ’s sacrifice, is “offered” to all and is “sufficient to save all mankind.”
5) There are distinctions in God’s will, such that he can be said to both will and not will the same thing in different respects.
6) God willed the “conversion” of all of Jerusalem, which included the non-elect Jews.
7) The gospel is God’s “merciful visition” to all that are exposed to it.
8) Some “set the ministry of the gospel at naught.”

Observe the following points as well:

9) While Perkins says God’s will is “one,” there is complexity in it, such that it does “not equally will all things.”

10) God is said to both “will and nill the same thing,” but in different senses, i.e., he wills and also nills the conversion of Jerusalem.

11) Perkins says that God wills “the conversion (which is the same as salvation) of Jerusalem,” and he does not think of all in that group as elect, since he says God “did not decree to effectually work their conversion.”

12) God does not merely command their conversion, but he exhorts them to it, and gives outward means in order to convert them.

Nota Bene: God himself is the ultimate or remote cause (by willful permission) of the inefficacy of his revealed will, but disobedient men are the immediate and blameworthy cause; that is to say, God willfully decrees to permit men to act contrary to his preceptive will.