October 7, 2014

Nathanael Ball (1623-1681) on Christ's Absolute and Conditional Will to Save

"1. There is an absolute willingness in Christ to save some sinners, and these sinners are those whom God hath, from all eternity, chosen to life; and who thereupon do come to Christ, that they might have life, being awakened and stirred up thereunto by the inward and effectual working of God's Spirit and Grace upon their hearts. Now there is in Christ an absolute willingness to save all such; he is fully resolved to be wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption to them, John 6:37.

2. There is a conditional willingness in Christ to save other sinners, yea all sinners, yea even those that shall never be saved; by which Christ stands ready to receive, and pardon, and embrace them, in case they come to him, and repent and believe the Gospel: which they never do, through the hardness and impenitency of their hearts, to which they are justly left, they are eternally lost, though Christ could have saved them, and would have saved them, if the Condition had been performed, Luke 13:34."
Nathanael Ball, Spiritual Bondage and Freedom (London: Printed for Jonathan Robinson, at the Golden Lion in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1683), 178-179.

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DNB

Credit to Travis Fentiman for bringing Nathanael Ball to my attention.

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