Theophilus Gale (1628–1678) on God Begging

1. Doth Christ assume sinners into such a blessed state of Friendship with himself? Hence then we may infer, what the infinie condescension, and Soverain Dominion of Free Grace, towards lapsed undone man is. What? Is it possible, that the great Jehovah should stoop so low, as to engage in such intimate friendship with his poor creature? Yea, that the most glorious, pure, and spotless Being, shoudl be content to mingle with impure, dirtie, sinful flesh and bloud? Yea, farther, that the ever-blessed God should court, and beseech his deformed creature, to enter into a strict bond of friendship with himself? what transcendent condescendence is this? Was it ever known, that Beautie courted Deformitie; that Riches begged friendship of Povertie; that Honor bended the knee to Reproche, and Disgrace; that the King beseeched the Malefactor to be reconciled to him; that Happiness wooed Miserie to be its Spouse? Yet, Lo! thus it is in this business of Friendship with Christ: the first, and supreme Beautie courts the most deformed sinner; the infinitely rich, and self-sufficient Being; the most Honorable Lord of Glorie wooeth his wretched, reproached, and captive rebel to be, not only reconciled to him, but his Spouse begs his poor nothing-creature to be friends with him. O the unparalleled, and admirable Soveraintie of this Divine, condescendent Grace! Who would ever have thought, or imagined, that such Al-Sufficient, and omnipotent Grace, should have stooped so low, to proud self-conceited, and rebellious sinners? What a wonder of wonders is this, that free-grace should pursue sinners with continued offers, yea, importunate desires of Friendship, when they pursue it with repeted Effronts, and Acts of Rebellion? O! How should the friends of Christ admire, and adore the Lengths, Breadths, Depths, and Heights of this Transcendent condescension of God?

Theophilus Gale, Theophilie: Or a Discourse of the Saints Amitie with God in Christ (London: Printed by R. W. for Giles Widdows at the Green Dragon in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1671), 236–237.

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H. Henry Meeter (1886–1963) on Common Grace

Meeter defines common grace as follows:

This influence of God whereby he through various means restrains vile passions and brings to pass many deeds of outward good by unregenerate men, contrary to the evil principle of sin in their hearts, making them do what their sinful hearts would otherwise not do, is what the Calvinist terms common grace. It is "common" because it is not confined to any unique group as is special grace, but is a grace which is given to all men, through not to all in equal measure. As one believer may have more of special grace than another, so one unbeliever may have more of common grace than another. Thus Calvin compares Camillus, a Roman in whom much common grace was found, with Catiline, in whom there was little of it [Institutes, 2.3.4].

H. Henry Meeter, The Basic Ideas of Calvinism, rev. Paul A. Marshall, 6th ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), 53.

He then asks:

Can These Acts Be the Result of Grace in God?

But can this influence of God, whereby he restrains evil passions and prompts to outward good, truly be called grace? What is grace? The Old Testament word chen and the New Testament word charis, which are translated by "grace" in our English Bible, have a wide variety of meanings, some of which are irrelevant to our purpose. It is of importance here to note that the word in the Bible may mean (1) an attitude of favor in God to any one; (2) undeserved favor; (3) favor which God works in the hearts of his people whereby he produces faith and conversion; (4) good things which we owe to the favor or grace of God.

The important question for us is this: Does God show any grace, any attitude of favor, and goodwill, any love, to unregenerate, specifically to such that are nonelect or reprobate sinners? We can begin by saying that as reprobate, as sinners, they are never the objects of God's favor, but always of his wrath. God is glorified in the administration of his justice as revealed in the eternal punishment of the wicked. There are many texts in the Bible which express the attitude of hatred of God to the wicked. Nevertheless, that same Bible does express an attitude of favor, even of love of God to nonelect sinners. In Romans 2:4 Paul speaks of the goodness of God to those who will be lost. "Goodness" here means not mere acts of goodness, but an attitude of goodness in God toward those addressed in that verse. This is clear, not only from the meaning of the word, which is "kindness," but also from the synonyms used there–"forbearance" and "long-suffering"–which also express attitudes in God. In Psalm 145:9 we read: "The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies [an attitude in God] are over all his works." Luke 6:35 instructs us: "Love ye your enemies . . . and ye shall be children of the Highest, for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil."

But how can God love and hate the same persons at the same time? If he hates the wicked, the reprobate, and will punish them for their sins, how can he be said in any sense to love them? According to strict supralapsarian logic, I suppose this is a real problem. For according to this view God, back in eternity, at the outset, decided as his very first decree to glorify himself in two of his attributes, his love and grace toward vessels of honor, the elect, and his punishing justice toward vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, the reprobate. Thereupon, as his second decree, God decided to create these vessels of honor and these vessels of wrath. Note that on this supralapsarian basis the reprobate are already conceived of in the decree of their creation as vessels of wrath. They never were considered objects of love in any sense. The infralapsarian view holds that God first decided to create human beings. As such they were all conceived as objects of his love. Then God decided to permit the fall and in his electing love to save some and to pass by others, the nonelect, and punish them in his wrath for their sins. On this basis it is possible for God to love the nonelect as creatures. A parallel instance would be the case of the righteous father whose heart bleeds for his lost son whose misdeeds demand his expulsion.

Calvin takes this position when he raises the very question here discussed: "Wherefore in a wonderful and divine manner He both hated and loved us at the same time. He hated us, as being different from what He made us; but as our iniquity had not entirely destroyed His work in us, He could at the same time in every one of us hate what he had done, and love what proceeded from himself." [Institutes, 2.16.4, quoting Augustine] Likewise in his replies to the calumnies made against his view of the secret providence of God, Calvin states in reply to Calumny I:

Proofs of the love of God towards the whole human race exist innumerable, all which demonstrate the ingratitude of those who perish or come "to perdition." This fact, however, forms no reason whatever why God should not confine His especial or peculiar love to a few, whom He has, in infinite condescension, been pleased to choose out of the rest. When God was pleased to adopt unto Himself the family of Abraham, He thereby most plainly testified that He did not embrace the whole of mankind with an equal love. . . . And in the next place, if God does love His own, it does not the less follow that He has a right to reject as a just Judge those to whom He has in vain shown His love and indulgence throughout their whole lives as the kindest Father [John Calvin, Calvin's Calvinism: A Treatise on the Eternal Predestination of God (London: Sovereign Grace Union, n.d.), pp. 26, 269–270.]

Thus from the writings of Scripture and from the teachings of Calvin, we learn that God does have an attitude of favor, or grace, to the nonelect, and that this common grace will one day add to their punishment, because it did not lead them to repentance and life for God.

Ibid., 54–56.

See also H. Henry Meeter, Calvinism: An Interpretation of Its Basic Ideas. Volume 1: The Theological and the Political Ideas (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1939), 73–76.

About this book, Louis Berkhof said, "No other work in the English language offers us such a concise, and yet complete and thoroughly reliable resume of the teachings of Calvinism." Cited in John J. Timmerman's Promises to keep: a centennial history of Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1975), 59. This quote also appears on the back cover.

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H. Henry Meeter (1886–1963) taught for thirty years in the Bible department of Calvin College. He had graduated from the same college and from Calvin Theological Seminary before obtaining a B.D. degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. He subsequently earned his Th.D. degree from the Free University of Amsterdam.

John Bunyan (1628–1688) on the Mercy and Love of God

Mercy and love are seen, in that God gives us rain and fruitful seasons, and in that he filleth our hearts with food and gladness; from that bounty which he bestoweth upon us as men, as his creatures.

John Bunyan, "Light for Them That Sit in Darkness," in The Works of John Bunyan (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1977), 1:432.

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Notice how Bunyan associates the mercy and love of God shown in the general bounties He grants to men as his creatures. For Bunyan, the mercy of God shown to all men is a kind of love. This shows a contrast between Bunyan and some modern bible readers who think God is merciful to all, but does not love all. Such a dichotomy is not only foreign to scripture, but it is foreign to the Puritans, whom they claim as heroes.

John Bunyan (1628–1688) on the Power of Christ

Jesus Christ also made manifest his eternal power and Godhead, more by bearing and overcoming our sins, than in making or upholding the whole world; hence Christ crucified is called ‘the power of God.’ 1 Cor. 1:23, 24.

John Bunyan, “Light for Them That Sit in Darkness,” in The Works of John Bunyan, 3 vols. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1977), 1:432.

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Carl F. H. Henry on God's Sincere and Strong Wish for Human Salvation

Verses that imply God's sincere and strong wish for human salvation are not necessarily inconsistent with the divine election of only some to eternal life.

Carl F. H. Henry, God, Revelation and Authority (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1983), 6:106.

After citing Matt. 18:14; John 3:16, 17; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; 1 Tim. 2:4, 6; Heb. 2:9; 1 John 2:2 and 1 John 4:14, Henry says, "To explain the terms 'world' and 'all' in these verses as meaning 'all the elect' seems contrived," even though Henry argues that 2 Peter 3:9 has the elect in view. Ibid.

God's Love, Goodness, Kindness and Mercy Interrelated in Luke 6:35–36

Luke 6:35–36: 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. 36 "Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.

I just realized the connection of ideas in this brief passage. Notice how "love," "goodness," "kindness" and "mercy" are all interrelated here. We are told to love (i.e., to be good, kind and merciful) to our enemies, and thus to image/imitate the Father as "sons" this way. Some want to argue that God is good, kind and/or merciful to all, but does not love all. This passage alone refutes those strange divisions.

Thomas Scott (1747–1821) on the Death of Christ for All and Presumption

There is a sense in which Christ may properly be said to have died for all; and the infinite sufficiency of his merits and atonement, with the general proposals made in the Scripture, authorise and require the ministers of Christ, to call on all that hear them without exception, to repent and believe the gospel. But sober Christians, even if they hesitate as to some deep points of doctrine, will scarcely contend, that Christ died with an express intention of saving all men; yet this express intention alone could warrant a sinner, while an entire stranger to "the things which accompany salvation," confidently to believe, that Christ died for him, and will assuredly save him. Such a confidence, therefore, is entirely destitute of any scriptural foundation, and is a most unwarrantable presumption.

Thomas Scott, "The Warrant and Nature of Faith in Christ," in The Theological Works of the Rev. Thomas Scott (Edinburgh: Peter Brown and Thomas Nelson, 1830), 580.

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Isaac Watts (1674–1748) on Jesus’s Love for the Rich Young Ruler

3rdly, Some natural good wishes for his welfare are implied in this love. There is in every wise and good man, a hearty desire of the happiness of his fellow-creatures, he loves them all in this sense, even the foolish and the wicked. Human nature that has any goodness in it, is ready to wish well to any person, though he be an utter stranger, and unknown, especially if he has some agreeable qualities. There may be an innocent inclination to see all men happy, though we know this shall not be brought to pass; for the word of God declares that the most part of men walk in the broad way, and shall go down to hell. You know how passionately St. Paul longed for the salvation of all his countrymen the Jews. This is called a love of benevolence; and it is evident, by the following particulars, that the Lord expressed this good-will toward the young man in my text.

Isaac Watts, “Sermon VII: A hopeful Youth falling short of Heaven,” in Sermons on Various Subjects (London: Printed by A. Macpherson, 1811), 1:160.

On page 158, Watts argues against the notion that Jesus only loved him in His [Jesus'] human nature.

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