Nathaniel Heywood (1633–1677) on Christ Knocking and Begging

3. Shake off sloth, ease and security; indulge not yourselves, love not your carnal ease, be not drunken with the pleasures of the flesh, nor forfeit with the profits of the world, nor intoxicated with pomp and honors; set not your affections on things below, let not down your watch, be not secure nor high-minded, Rom. 3:3. [In] Cant. 5:2–6.  you have there Christ knocking at the door of her heart, with importunity, and tender vehemency; for admission, and he moves and solicits, Open my sister, my spouse, &c. every word an argument, a talent weight of love; and does Christ, call and knock, and beg at the door of our souls to enter? O what vile ingratitude is it to shut him out! Doth he solicit and entreat so many ways by his Word and Ordinances, Rod, and admonitions, and motions of his Spirit, what inexcusable obstinate madness is it to drive him away! Is anything so worthy to be harbored there as he? and is it not incomparable honor that he should vouchsafe to come under our roof?

Nathaniel Heywood, Christ Displayed, as the Choicest Gift, and Best Master (London: Printed for Tho. Parkhust at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside, near Mercers-Chappel, 1679), 112.

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), Hugh Latimer (Early English Reformer), Isaac Ambrose (Puritan), Thomas Brooks (Puritan), Daniel Burgess (Puritan), Jeremiah Burroughs (Westminster divine), Richard Baxter (Puritan), 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), Thomas Larkham (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), 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, and Fred Zaspel.

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