Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley on the Objection Against the Gospel Call

2. The Objection against the Gospel Call

Just as some people have so emphasized the general gospel call as to severely downplay God’s sovereign election, others have so emphasized election as to minimize the gospel call. The various forms of this error are often called hyper-Calvinism. However, we must acknowledge that this label has difficulties. Often it is wrongly applied to legitimate forms of historic Reformed doctrine, such as unconditional election or eternal reprobation. The term is also misleading because, as Iain Murray writes, “Too often it has been supposed that the difference between Calvinism and Hyper-Calvinism is simply a question of degree.”⁵⁸ The problem is not too high a view of divine sovereignty but the denial of other biblical doctrines.

Some advocates of sovereign grace deny that the gospel call is an offer of Christ. The most relevant meaning of the verb offer in this case is “to present for acceptance or rejection.”⁵⁹ John Gill wrote, “The gospel is indeed ordered to be preached to every creature to whom it is sent and comes”; however, he also said, “That there are universal offers of grace and salvation made to all men I utterly deny; nay, I deny that they are made to any; no, not to God’s elect; grace and salvation are provided for them in the everlasting covenant, procured for them by Christ, published and revealed in the gospel, and applied by the Spirit.”⁶⁰ Yet we note that Gill could preach as follows: “Come to the Lord as humble penitents … let sensible sinners come to the person, blood and righteousness of Christ for justification and salvation.”⁶¹ Gill also encouraged preachers “fervently” and “boldly” to “set forth the lost and miserable estate and condition of men by nature, the danger they are in, the necessity of regeneration and repentance, and of a better righteousness than their own, and of faith in Christ; which things are blessed for the turning of men from darkness to light.”⁶² He commended preaching that is “very moving … striking … spiritual, savory, and evangelical having a tendency to awaken the minds of sinners to a sense of sin and danger, and to relieve and comfort the distressed.”⁶³ However, it does appear that Gill held to a mild form of hyper-Calvinism that discouraged churches from freely calling and commanding lost sinners to come to Christ, believe in him, receive him, and be saved.⁶⁴

The language of the free offer expresses biblical truth. Faith is receiving of Christ (John 1:11–12; Col. 2:6), but it is difficult to understand how Christ could be received if he were not offered to people in the gospel. Grace is a gift that must be received for salvation (John 1:16; Rom. 5:17). Christ offers the Spirit to the thirsty, and sinners receive the Spirit by faith in Christ (John 7:37–39; Gal. 3:1–2). The Spirit in his operations upon the believer is a “gift” that repentant sinners “receive.”⁶⁵

The free offer is affirmed in Reformed confessional statements. Calvin’s Catechism of 1537 (Art. 12) says, “Just as the merciful Father offers us the Son through the word of the Gospel, so we embrace him through faith and acknowledge him as given to us. It is true that the word of the Gospel calls all to participate in Christ, but a number, blinded and hardened by unbelief, despise such a unique grace. Hence, only believers enjoy Christ; they receive him as sent to them; they do not reject him when he is given, but follow him when he calls them.”⁶⁶ The Genevan Confession (Art. 11) states, “We believe the promises of the gospel and receive Jesus Christ as He is offered to us by the Father and described to us by the Word of God.”⁶⁷ The Canons of Dort (Head 3/4, Art. 9) say, “It is not the fault of the gospel, nor of Christ offered therein, nor of God, who calls men by the gospel and confers upon them various gifts, that those who are called by the ministry of the Word refuse to come and be converted.”⁶⁸

The Westminster Standards affirm the same. The Shorter Catechism (Q. 31) says that Christ is “freely offered to us in the gospel.”⁶⁹ The Larger Catechism (Q. 68) speaks of how God justly leaves in unbelief the wicked for “their willful neglect and contempt of the grace offered to them.”⁷⁰ The Westminster Confession of Faith (7.3) says, “The Lord was pleased to make … the covenant of grace; wherein He freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ; requiring of them faith in Him, that they may be saved.”⁷¹

The free offer of the gospel expresses God’s sincere desire for sinners to repent and be saved. Another relevant meaning of the word offer is “to declare one’s readiness or willingness.”⁷² The Word reveals the goodness of God to all people. God “is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” because of his “merciful” character (Luke 6:35–36; cf. Matt. 5:44–48).⁷³ When the gospel comes to people, he expresses his good desires for them in saying, “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!” (Deut. 5:29).

In Ezekiel 18:23, we read, “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” The words “have I any pleasure at all” render a grammatical construction that repeats the same Hebrew root for emphasis. Calvin said, “God desires nothing more earnestly than that those who were perishing and rushing to destruction should return into the way of safety.… And this is the knowledge of salvation, to embrace his mercy which he offers us in Christ.”⁷⁴ This is a revelation of the heart of God. Johannes Polyander said, “The impelling cause [of the gospel call], whereby God is moved internally by himself, is God’s grace, his good pleasure and favorably-inclined will to offer, in Christ, his salvation to wretched sinners.”⁷⁵

Does this teaching overthrow the Reformed doctrine of election? Herman Hoeksema said that to teach a “general love of God and desire to save sinners” is “Arminianism and Pelagianism.”⁷⁶ There is some tension in the Bible at this point, but no surrender of the doctrines of sovereign grace. In one sense, God desires all men to repent. In another sense, he desires to punish the wicked, and he sometimes gives them up to a hard and unrepentant heart. When Eli corrected his wicked sons, the Scriptures say that they did not listen and repent “because the Lord would slay them” (1 Sam. 2:25). Literally the verse says the Lord “was pleased to cause them to die,” using the same verb translated as “please” (khapets) as is used in Ezekiel 18:23.

Therefore, one text says that God is not pleased that sinners do not repent and so die; another text says that some sinners did not repent because God was pleased that they should die. How can we understand both of these texts together?

The answer lies in the manifold and complex display of God’s goodness to fallen sinners. God’s gracious character shows itself in his goodness and compassion to all his creation (Ps. 145:8–9). Therefore, he calls all who hear the gospel to repent and live, and desires that they do so. As John Murray said, “The full and free offer of the gospel is a grace bestowed upon all. Such grace is necessarily a manifestation of love or lovingkindness in the heart of God.”⁷⁷ However, God is also the sovereign and righteous King (vv. 13, 17). He is free to work as he sees fit (115:3) and always works consistently with his righteousness (33:4–5). The same goodness by which he delights in mercy (Mic. 7:18) is that by which he delights in justice (Jer. 9:24). In his sovereign freedom, he has chosen to be good to all people in temporal blessings, to graciously call many people to eternal joy, and to actually save only some (Matt. 22:14). He is patient and good to many in this life whom he has destined for destruction for their sins (Rom. 2:4–5; 9:22). This is the doctrine of reprobation.⁷⁸

Moïse Amyraut (1596–1664) misunderstood this to indicate two wills in God,⁷⁹ but Calvin spoke more wisely when he said that “his will is one and simple; but since our minds do not penetrate the abyss of secret election, in accommodation to the capacity of our weakness, the will of God is exhibited to us in two ways.”⁸⁰ Francis Turretin explained, “Now in calling God indeed shows that he wills the salvation of the called by the will of precept and good pleasure (euarestias), but not by the will of decree.… It teaches what is pleasing and acceptable to God and in accordance with his own nature (namely, that the called should come to him); but not what he himself has determined to do concerning man.”⁸¹ Therefore, we do not preach a two-faced God or a God of duplicity, but one God whose wisdom and will are infinitely beyond our understanding (Rom. 11:33–34), knowable only in part and then by his revelation alone.⁸² God’s purpose is not to confuse us but to assure us that he gladly receives every repentant sinner (Luke 15) and to call us to praise him for our salvation, for it is entirely of his gracious will (Eph. 1:3–6).

The combination of human responsibility, divine sovereignty, and the free offer of the gospel appears most beautifully in Jesus Christ, the perfect Image of God. The Lord Jesus Christ said of the Jews in Jerusalem who would soon kill him, “How often would I have gathered [you] together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not” (Matt. 23:37). Both occurrences of “would” translate the same Greek verb (thelō), which means to desire, to will, or to decide.⁸³ Christ was willing, but they were not willing.

Again, Christ said to a group of Jews, “These things I say, that ye might be saved” (John 5:34). The grammatical syntax (hina plus a subjunctive verb) indicates purpose. Hence, the Son of God made known his desire and the intention behind the message he communicated: that those who heard him would come to him by faith and have eternal life (v. 24)—though they were not willing to do so (v. 40). Christ’s words clarify matters for everyone who hears the gospel. Jesus wants them to be saved by faith in him; if they are unsaved, it is because of their unwillingness to come to him.⁸⁴

Similarly, in Matthew 11 we hear that Christ condemned the cities of Galilee for their rejection of the gospel and called everyone who was burdened to come to him and find rest (Matt. 11:20–24, 28–30). Yet sandwiched between these declarations of human responsibility and the free offer, we read that God has hidden the truth from some people according to his good pleasure, and that no one can know the Father except those to whom Christ chooses to reveal him (vv. 25–27). The Lord Jesus shows us that man’s responsibility for his sins, God’s sovereignty in saving whom he chooses, and the free offer of the gospel belong together.

The Canons of Dort (Head 1, Art. 5) say, “The cause or guilt of this unbelief, as well as of all other sins, is no wise in God, but in man himself; whereas faith in Jesus Christ and salvation through Him is the free gift of God.”⁸⁵ Calvin said,

If we see and acknowledge, therefore, the principle on which the doctrine of the Gospel offers salvation to all, the whole sacred matter is settled at once. That the Gospel is, in its nature, able to save all I by no means deny. But the great question lies here: Did the Lord by His eternal counsel ordain salvation for all men? It is quite manifest that all men, without difference or distinction, are outwardly called or invited to repentance and faith. It is equally evident that the same Mediator is set forth before all, as He who alone can reconcile them to the Father.… The mercy of God is offered equally to those who believe and to those who believe not, so that those who are not divinely taught within are only rendered inexcusable, not saved.⁸⁶

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58 Iain H. Murray, Spurgeon and Hyper-Calvinism: The Battle for Gospel Preaching (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1995), 40.
59 Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, s.v. “offer.”
60 John Gill, The Doctrine of Predestination Stated, and Set in Scriptural Light: In Opposition to Mr. Wesley’s Predestination Calmly Considered, in Sermons and Tracts (1815; repr. Streamwood, IL: Primitive Baptist Library, 1981), 3:117–18.
61 John Gill, The Watchman’s Answer to the Question, What of the Night?, in Sermons and Tracts, 1:59; cf. John Gill, The Glory of God’s Grace Displayed, In Its Abounding over the Aboundings of Sin (London: Aaron Ward, 1724), 38.
62 Gill, Body of Divinity, 931–32.
63 John Gill, Funeral sermon for Samuel Wilson (1750), cited in S. H. Cone, “Biographical Sketch of the Author,” in Samuel Wilson, A Scripture Manual or a Plain Representation of the Ordinance of Baptism, in The Baptist Library: A Republication of Standard Baptist Works, ed. Charles G. Sommers, William R. Williams, and Levi L. Hill, 3 vols. (Prattsville, NY: Robert H. Hill, 1843), 1:29–30.
64 Gill said that the gospel obligates men to historical faith—that is, to assent that the historical events reported in the gospel are true—but does not obligate them to saving faith in Christ. John Gill, The Cause of God and Truth (1855; repr., Paris, AK: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1992), 31–32. Therefore, it is not man’s immediate duty to trust in Christ upon hearing the gospel. “Though I think the judgment should still be surrounded with cautions and caveats, there may be compelling evidence that Gill held to the distinctive hyper-Calvinist tenet.” Tom J. Nettles, “John Gill and the Evangelical Awakening,” in The Life and Thought of John Gill (1697–1771): A Tercentennial Appreciation, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 153n60. “Gill was shaped by the rationalism of his day.… Gill’s theology did hamper passionate evangelism and outreach.” Michael A. G. Haykin, “Remembering Baptist Heroes: The Example of John Gill,” in Ministry by His Grace and for His Glory: Essays in Honor of Thomas J. Nettles, ed. Thomas K. Ascol and Nathan A. Finn (Cape Coral, FL: Founders, 2011), 29.
65 Acts 2:38; 8:19–20; 10:45, 47; 11:17.
66 Reformed Confessions, 1:365–66.
67 Reformed Confessions, 1:397–98.
68 The Three Forms of Unity, 143. On the meaning of offero in the Canons of Dort and other Reformed orthodox writings, see R. Scott Clark, “Janus, the Well-Meant Offer of the Gospel, and Westminster Theology,” in The Pattern of Sound Doctrine: Systematic Theology at the Westminster Seminaries, Essays in Honor of Robert B. Strimple, ed. David VanDrunen (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2004), 169–73.
69 Reformed Confessions, 4:357. See also Q. 86 on “faith in Jesus Christ” (4:365).
70 Reformed Confessions, 4:312.
71 Reformed Confessions, 4:242–43.
72 Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, s.v. “offer.”
73 See chap. 2.
74 Calvin, Commentaries, on Ezek. 18:23.
75 Polyander, Walaeus, Thysius, and Rivetus, Synopsis Purioris Theologiae, 30.12 (2:213).
76 Hoeksema, A Triple Breach in the Foundation of the Reformed Truth, 32.
77 Collected Writings of John Murray, 4 vols. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1982), 4:132. This article (pp. 113–32) was a committee report authored by Murray for the General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. It is available at http://www.opc.org/GA/free_offer.html.
78 On God’s good delight in repentance and retribution, see RST, 1:845–46. On reprobation, see RST, 1:989–97.
79 On Amyraldianism, see RST, 1:1024, 1026.
80 Calvin, Commentaries, on Matt. 23:37. On Calvin and Amyraut’s misinterpretation of him, see Muller, Calvin and the Reformed Tradition, 107–25.
81 Turretin, Institutes, 15.2.15 (2:507). On God’s preceptive will and decretive will, see RST, 1:764–67.
82 On the importance of recognizing the vast difference between God’s theology (archetypal) and our theology (ectypal) as image bearers, particularly our theology as pilgrims on earth who have not arrived, see Clark, “Well-Meant Offer,” in The Pattern of Sound Doctrine, ed. VanDrunen, 149–68, 174–79.
83 TDNT, 3:44–46.
84 Willard, A Compleat Body of Divinity, 438. On John 5:34, see Samuel E. Waldron, The Crux of the Free Offer of the Gospel (Greenbrier, AR: Free Grace Press, 2019), 19–34.
85 The Three Forms of Unity, 121.
86 John Calvin, On Eternal Predestination, in Reformed Confessions, 1:751, emphasis original.

Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology: Spirit and Salvation, vol. 3 of Reformed Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 299–305; italics original.

John Flavel (1630–1691) on Christ’s Willingness to Receive Sinners

Quest. 13. But how may it appear that he is willing to receive me?

Answ. Make trial of him thyself. If thou didst but know his heart to poor sinners, you would not question it. Believe what he saith in the gospel; there thou shalt find that he is a willing Saviour; for therein thou hast, first, his most serious invitations, Mat. 11:28. “Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy laden.” Isa. 55:1. “Ho! every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters.” These serious invitations are, secondly, backed and confirmed with an oath, Ezek. 33:11. “As I live, I desire not the death of a sinner.” Thirdly, Amplified with pathetical wishes, sighs and groans, Luke 19:42. “Oh! that thou hadst known, even thou, at least, in this thy day.” Fourthly, Yea, delivered unto them in undissembled tears, Matt. 23:37, 38. “He wept over it, and said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!” Fifthly, Nay, he hath shed not only tears, but blood, to convince thee of his willingness. View him in his dying posture upon the cross, stretching out his dying arms to gather thee, hanging down his blessed head to kiss thee; every one of his wounds was a mouth opened to convince thee of the abundant willingness of Christ to receive thee.

John Flavel, “A Sober Consideration of the Sin of Drunkenness,” in The Whole Works of the Reverend John Flavel, 6 vols. (London; Edinburgh; Dublin: W. Baynes and Son; Waugh and Innes; M. Keene, 1820), 5:337. In question 9, on page 336, Flavel described sinners not yet damned as saying to themselves, “I have the [may be’s] of mercy, and they [the damned] have not. Oh! what would they give for a possibility of salvation?”

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Benjamin Keach’s (1640–1704) Notes Related to Matthew 23:37

THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST TO SINNERS UNDER THE SIMILITUDE OF A HEN

“How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a Hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” Matt. 23:37.

The Lord Jesus shows by these words his great compassion and affection to the Jews, who refused the offers of his love and infinite favour.

Three things are considerable in the text.
1. Christ’s grace and good intention to them, “How often would I have gathered thy children together,” &c.
2. The way or manner which he took in order to the accomplishing his gracious design and purpose touching them,—“As a Hen gathereth her chickens under her wings.”
3. The Jews’ obstinacy; “Ye would not.”
The Lord condescends very low in making this simile of a Hen; the nature and property of which creature take as follows, so far as it will hold parallel to the case in hand.

SIMILE.
PARALLEL.

I. Nullum enim animal circa pullos suos tanta compassione movetur, &c., saith Bernard [Bern. de pass. Dom. cap. v.], “There is no creature that is moved with so much compassion towards her young ones, as the Hen.”
I. The Lord Jesus was moved with the greatest compassion imaginable towards the poor Jews and Jerusalem, which he was first sent to, and came to seek and to save. This is signified abundantly by that wonderful passion, that seized upon his Spirit, when he came near the city, and by his expressions in the text, &c., it is said, “He wept over it,” &c., and cried out with a mournful voice, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” &c., Matt. 23:37, Luke 19:41, 42.

II. The Hen is observed to fly in the very face of such ravenous birds as strive to destroy her chickens; she strives to save and defend them with all her might, though with the utmost hazard of her life.
II. The Lord Jesus Christ to save and defend the offspring of Israel, and the poor sinners of the Gentiles, did not refuse to encounter with the greatest of their enemies: he resisted the devil, who sought to make a prey of them, &c., Matt. 4:6, 8. No enemy that strove to devour us, but Christ endeavoured to defend us from him.

III. Such is the Hen’s care of, and affection towards her chickens, that she for their sakes is made weak in all her members, and brought to extreme faintness. Hoc genus animantis magnum affectum in filios habet, ita ut eorum infirmitate affecta, &c., (saith Austin) “this creature shows great affection towards her young ones, that being affected with their weakness, she also is made weak.”
III. Christ, that he might save poor perishing sinners, by taking man’s nature upon him, was made weak in the same sense, as it is said he became poor: such was the greatness of his love and affection towards us, that “he bare our sickness, and carried our sorrows,” Isa. 53:4. To what extremity of faintness was he brought, when “he sweat as it were great drops of blood!” And when the ponderous cross was laid upon him, as they led him to Golgotha, it is said, “He fainted,” Luke 22:44. “He was touched with the feelings of our infirmities, being made like to us in all things, sin only excepted,” Heb. 4:15.

IV. The Hen clucks often, and with a mournful voice, as it were, calls her chickens to her, when she perceives they are in danger by the kite, or any other enemy, to be destroyed.
IV. Christ calls to poor helpless and impenitent sinners very often, with a mournful voice, and tears in his eyes, “O that thou hadst known, in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace; but now they are hid from thine eyes! O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!” why, what is the matter? An enemy is at hand, ruin is at the door; “Why will you die, O house of Israel?” Ezek. 18:31. Now it is to England, yea, to London: O that they would once hear Christ’s call before it is too late, and the things that concern their peace be hid from their eyes! &c.

V. The Hen stands ready prepared to receive her chickens under her wings, to defend them against all violence that may happen to them.
V. The Lord Jesus stands with his arms and heart open, ready to receive all true penitent sinners, that come unto him; “I have spread out my hands all the day long,” &c. Isa. 65:2. “Come unto me all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” &c. Matt. 11:28, 29.

VI. The Hen is very desirous to gather all her chickens together, and cover them with her wings; she would not have one of them wanting.
VI. The Lord Jesus hath such bowels of pity and compassion to sinful mankind, that he would have none of them perish, “But come to the knowledge of the truth, and be saved,” 1 Tim. 2:2, 3, 4. How desirous is he to get them all under his wings of grace and protection; “Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die, O house of Israel? turn and live, saith the Lord,” Ezek. 18:31, 32. “How often would I have gathered thy children together!” &c.

VII. The Hen gathers her chickens to her; and that they may have food as well as nourishment and shelter, she looks about and scratches to get them meat.
VII. The Lord Jesus calls to sinners, that they may have the bread of life. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,” Isa. 55:1. “Eat ye that which is good; yea, the bread that never perisheth,” John 6:27. Christ gives bread that never perisheth.

VIII. The Hen succours, refreshes, and makes lively such chickens that are weak and hang down their wings, and can scarce go; she soon recovers them when she gets them under her wings.
VIII. All sin-sick and diseased souls that are weak and hang down their heads, or their wings, and go drooping all the day, as it were, half-dead, no sooner are they got under the wings of Christ, but he graciously succours and refreshes them, making them brisk and very lively.

IX. The Hen, it is observed, if she find any crumbs, corn, or any other good thing, she gives it to her chickens, though she want it herself: she spares out of her own mouth, and puts it into theirs.
IX. Christ out of his infinite bowels to his people, finding no other meat was so good and excellent for them, gave them food from heaven, even his own body, “My flesh is meat indeed,” &c., John 6:55.

SIMILE.
DISPARITY.
I. The Hen cannot save and defend her chickens under her wings, When she hath gathered them to her, being a poor, weak, inconsiderable creature.
I. The Lord Christ is strong and able to save, hide, and defend all his people that come to him, under his wings, being the most high, omnipotent, eternal Jehovah: “The Father and I am one:” “He thought it no robbery to be equal with God,” Phil. 2:6, 7.

II. The Hen, when her chickens are grown up, cares not for them; she will (it is noted) rather strike at them, and beat them from her.
II. Our blessed Saviour will never cease to take care of, and provide for his poor children; his eye is as well upon the oldest and strongest Christians as upon the weakest and youngest: “Cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you,” &c.

III. The Hen loses oftentimes her chickens; the kite gets them away from her, and makes a prey of them.
III. The Lord Jesus Christ cannot, will not lose one of them that the Father hath given him, “Those that thou hast given me I have lost none, but the son of perdition,” &c. John 17:12, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish,” &c. John 10:28.

IV. A Hen soon forgets her chickens, which she hath bred and brought up.
IV. Christ never can, nor will forget his saints, “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, she may, but I will not forget thee,” Isa. 49:15, 16.

INFERENCES

I. What great encouragement doth this similitude afford to all, yea to the vilest of sinners? O what compassion is there in Christ’s heart towards you, how willing is he to gather you to himself!
II. It also informs us of that great blindness and horrid obstinacy which is in the hearts of wicked men; “How often would I have gathered Israel, and they would not be gathered! I would, but ye would not!” how dare sinners then to charge their eternal overthrow, perishing, and ruin upon the Lord Jesus Christ? “Know, O sinner, thy destruction is of thyself,” Hos. 13:9.
III. It also truly informs us, that all safety and salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Under his wings we must get if we would be secure from the enemy of our souls, and be delivered from eternal danger: “Unto him shall the gathering of the people be,” Gen. 49:10.
IV. Of what amazing nature was the great condescension of the blessed Jesus, who made himself of no reputation! became weak, poor, and sensible of our infirmities, touching the flesh, that we might be strong, rich, and partake of his perfections, and glorious fulness, Phil. 2:7.
V. Here is also very much comfort to all true believers, whoever they be, that are gathered by the word and Spirit unto Christ: he will succour, guide, revive, and defend them for ever. He infinitely out-doth the Hen; his bowels exceed the bowels of the tenderest mother to her sucking child. He is strong enough also, as well as tender, not only willing but able. Fear not Satan, “he hath swallowed up death in victory.” The kite hath (as one observes) as it were an aching tooth at the chickens, fain would he make a prey of them: so would the devil of believers. Christ knows how to preserve them, by gathering them all under his wings. Soul, fear not, if thou art under the protection of the Lord Jesus Christ, thou art in safety from all temporal aud spiritual dangers.
VI. If Christ be so tender and compassionate unto sinners, and seeks to gather them unto him; who will pity them if they perish at last and are damned, when all is from their own vile, stubborn, and wilful obstinacy?
VII. If the Lord Jesus Christ be so tender of, and kind to his saints which he hath gathered to himself, and sheltered under his wings; then let this doctrine teach Christians in an especial manner to be kind one to another, and tender one of another, and to do their utmost endeavour to defend one another in this evil day, from the common enemy both of body and soul.
VIII. This may serve for seasonable reproof to all those, who profess the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and hope for preservation by him, and shelter under his wings, yet, instead of endeavouring to the utmost to help one another, revile, backbite, and persecute one another, for small and circumstantial differences in profession, and thereby give the common enemy advantage over them both, “A divided house cannot stand,” Mark 3:25.

Benjamin Keach, Tropologia: A Key to Open Scripture Metaphors (London: William Hill Collingridge, 1856), 458–60.

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The MacArthur Study Bible Note (and Commentary) on Matthew 23:37 As Expressing A Wish of God and A Well-Meant Appeal

23:37 I wanted…but you were not willing! God is utterly sovereign and therefore fully capable of bringing to pass whatever He desires (cf. Is. 46:10)—including the salvation of whomever He chooses (Eph. 1:4, 5). Yet, He sometimes expresses a wish for that which He does not sovereignly bring to pass (cf. Gen. 6:6; Deut. 5:29; Ps. 81:13; Is. 48:18). Such expressions in no way suggest a limitation on the sovereignty of God or imply any actual change in Him (Num. 23:19). But these statements do reveal essential aspects of the divine character: He is full of compassion, sincerely good to all, desirous of good, not evil—and therefore not delighting in the destruction of the wicked (Ezek. 18:32; 33:11). While affirming God’s sovereignty, one must understand His pleas for the repentance of the reprobate as well meant appeals—and His goodness toward the wicked as a genuine mercy designed to provoke them to repentance (Rom. 2:4). The emotion displayed by Christ here (and in all similar passages, such as Luke 19:41) is obviously a deep, sincere passion. All Christ’s feelings must be in perfect harmony with the divine will (cf. John 8:29)—and therefore these lamentations should not be thought of as mere exhibitions of His humanity.

John MacArthur, ed., The MacArthur Study Bible (Nashville: Word Bibles, 1997), 1437–38. “…I personally bear full responsibility for all the notes in The MacArthur Study Bible because they all have come from me and through me…” (ibid., xi).

It was never God’s ultimate plan and desire for His people to be punished but for them to return to Him in faithfulness and devotion. “How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,” Jesus lamented. He longed to draw Israel to Himself and protect her just as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings to protect them from a storm that would batter them or a hawk that would devour them. There was a beautiful intimacy and tenderness in Jesus’ words and no doubt in His voice as He mourned over His people. He had come “to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11).

David exulted, “How precious is Thy lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Thy wings” (Ps. 36:7). It was God’s great desire that all men, especially His beloved children Israel, would take refuge under His wings. At many times and in many forms Jesus had often given invitations such as, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:28–29).

But you were unwilling, He said. He came to His people in truth and light and love and offered them the kingdom God had long promised, but they rejected the King and forfeited the kingdom. Instead of inheriting the blessing God proffered for their faith, they inherited the judgment He promised for their unbelief.

Nothing in Scripture is more certain than the truth that God is sovereign over all things; but God’s Word nowhere teaches determinism, as this verse makes clear. God was abundantly willing for Israel and all men to receive and follow His Son, but most of them were unwilling. They did not turn from Christ because of fate but solely because of their own unwillingness. When a person rejects Christ, it is never God’s desire or God’s fault but always his own.

John F. MacArthur Jr., Matthew, vol. 3 of MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1985), 401.

Robert Murray McCheyne (1813–1843) on God’s Wish for All to be Saved

Question: Does God not wish men to be saved? Answer: O yes; God willeth all men to be saved. I believe there is not one soul that the Saviour does not yearn over as he did over Jerusalem; and the Father says [in Psalm 81:13]: ‘O that they had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!’ But still, when Jerusalem resisted the word of Christ, Chirst said: ‘Now they are hid from thine eyes.’ And if you refuse the Word of Christ, and neglect this great salvation, I firmly believe that he shall soon come to you with Isaiah‘s dreadful message: ‘Hear ye indeed, but understand not.’

R. M. McCheyne, “God Let None of His Words Fall to the Ground,” in From the Preacher’s Heart (Additional Remains, 1846; repr. Geanies House, Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland, UK: Christian Focus Publications, 1993), 94.

Notice that not only did McCheyne teach that God “wishes” all men to be saved, but he alluded to Matthew 23:37 for support. Moreover, it is not merely Jesus (or merely Jesus in His human nature), but the Father also (and so the entire Godhead, in Trinitarian harmony), who “yearns” over every soul according to Psalm 81:13.

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William Attersoll (d.1640) on God’s Desire for the Conversion and Repentance of Men

[Doctrine. God is desirous to have sinners brought to repentance.]

We learn hereby, that the Lord is very desirous to have sinners converted and brought to repentance, that so he may save them, Isa. 65:2. Ezek. 33:11. and 18:31, 32. Matt. 23:37. 2 Cor. 5:20. Peter preaches repentance to them that killed the Prince of life and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go, Acts 3:13, 15. Even to these that murdered and betrayed the Son of God, did the Lord offer salvation. To this end he is of such great patience, because he is not willing that any should perish, 2 Pet. 3:9. The reasons.

Because first, they are his creatures and his workmanship, and therefore there is great reason, why he should desire their good. Natural parents do desire to save and keep in health their children. They that belong to God are dear children, Isa. 49:15, 16. He loves Israel as his first born. Secondly, he has not only created them when they were not, but also redeemed them when they were lost, and that with no less price, then with the blood of his own Son, Col. 1:20. 1 John 1:7. Rom. 5:9, 10. If then he has done this for them, doubtless he will go forward with his love toward them: he will raise up them that are fallen, seek them that are lost, quicken them that are dead, and bring them home that are strangers to him. Thirdly, it is more honor to God to convert and save, then to destroy and cast away his people. Doubt not, but be well assured, that God will do that which tends most to his own glory, Rom. 11:1, 2. Justice and judgement causes him to be feared, but his mercy and love is that which makes him to be honored of men.

The uses remain. Has God an earnest desire to convert and save men? Then it ought also to be our desire to be like in this to our heavenly Father, that is, to labor to convert and bring him others unto God, that go astray from him: for in so doing we shall follow the footsteps and example of God; dealing with our brethren in mercy and compassion as God has dealt with us. Let the husband labor to convert the wise, and the wife to win her husband; the parents their children, and the children their parents: and every one to convert his brother. A duty most acceptable to God, and most profitable to others. An argument of love and charity, greater love then this can no man show. So says Christ to Peter, When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren, Luke 22:32. James 5:19, 20.

Secondly, this serves to condemn the practice of many men in our times, and to testify that they are far from God, and can have no assurance to themselves that they are his children and bear his image. God is desirous to seek out and to save them that are lost [Luke 19:10], like the good Shepherd [in Luke 15:4] that leaves the 99 [sheep] in the wilderness, and this was the end of the coming of Christ. But we are for the most part careless in this duty: few do think it to belong unto them. Others are so far from seeking to convert, that they rather seek to subvert others: and of these the number is far greater than of the former, who do cross by all the means they can, the purpose and desire of God. He labors to save, and they do destroy; he to build, and they to pull down; he to plant, and they to root up; he to bring to heaven, and they to hell. These are of their father the devil, and his lusts they do: they join with him, they labor for him, they advance and enlarge his kingdom, and they seek to bring more unto him. This is a fearful sin, which we must repent of, or else we shall repent of it when it is too late.

Lastly, this must teach every one to have a special care of his own salvation, seeing God is so desirous of it. For every man should be more careful of his own good, than another, or of another’s. It is so in the body, it ought also to be so in the soul. We cannot be more careful of our own salvation than God is: & therefore seeing he is so desirous of it, let every man labor to do what in him lies toward his conversion, that so God may accept of him.

William Attersoll, A Commentarie upon the Fourth Booke of Moses, called Numbers (London: Printed by William Iaggard, 1618), 678. Some of the English has been modernized.

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Credit to Travis Fentiman for originally finding and posting this material at Reformed Books Online.

Asahel Nettleton (1783–1844) on Revelation 3:20

Christ knocks “at the door of they heart, O sinner. Though invisible to mortal eyes, he is here, whether you regard it or not.

He knocks. But how?

By his word—by a preached gospel—by the admonitions of conscience—and by the strivings of his Spirit. Nor is this all.

He calls. “Unto you O men, I call, and my voice is unto the sons of men.” He calls by all the invitations of mercy contained in the Bible.

Asahel Nettleton, “Sermon 41: Christ Standing at the Door (Revelation 3:20),” in Asahel Nettleton: Sermons from the Second Great Awakening (Ames, IA: International Outreach, 1995), 377. Also in Asahel Nettleton, “Sermon XXV: Christ Standing at the Door,” in Remains of the Late Rev. Asahel Nettleton, D. D., ed. Bennet Tyler (Hartford: Published by Robins and Smith, 1845), 297.

He does not knock at the door of his friends merely, but at the door of his enemies. He knocks at the door of the vilest of sinners. . . .

3. Behold the extent of his willingness to receive sinners. The sinner sometimes says, I am willing to receive Christ, but he is not willing to receive me. But what says the text? “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” Does not this imply his readiness and willingness to come in? Nor is this all—He calls, open unto me—open unto me. Nor is this all—He says, “if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in.” He positively declares that he is willing. Nor is this all—you may say, I am such a great sinner—I have rejected him so long, that he will not receive me now. But what says the Saviour? “If any man hear my voice”—vile as he may be, if he is on the side of hell—“if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me.”

If you are not now a Christian, permit me to say that you have never heard his voice, nor opened the door, nor been willing to receive him. You have never complied with the invitation in the text. The Saviour is ready and willing, but you will not come to him that you might have life.

4. Behold your danger. The Saviour stands at your door. He does not sit. He stands ready to enter or ready to depart . . . He may say, as he once said to the Jews, “I go my way. Ye shall see me, and shall die in your sins.” How often “I would,” and “ye would not.”

Nettleton then quotes a hymn that includes these words:

O lovely attitude, he stands,
With melting heart and loaded hands,
O matchless kindness, and he shows
This matchless kindness to his foes.

Ibid., 380–382; Ibid., 300–302.

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Arthur W. Kuschke’s (1913–2010) Response to the Minority Report on the Free Offer of the Gospel

To give the reader some context, there was a dispute in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church over the ordination of Gordon H. Clark in the 1940’s. It is sometimes called the Clark/Van Til controversy, but there were many more people involved. This dispute included 1) a legal question on the OPC meeting in which Clark was ordained, 2) the issue of divine incomprehensibility, 3) matters of the intellect, will and emotions, both in God and in man, 4) divine sovereignty and human responsibility, as well as 5) the free offer of the gospel. These are brought up both in the Complaint and in the Answer. It is the last topic that is the focus of this post. In Kuschke’s response below, he mentions both the committee report and the minority report. These are both contained in the original journal article, if one wishes to read them for further context.

THE FREE OFFER OF THE GOSPEL

“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:17). Salvation is to be received freely, and it is offered freely by Him who says, “Look unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else” (Isa. 45:22).

There is no dispute among us [in the Orthodox Presbyterian Chuch] about the facts of election and reprobation. From the foundation of the world God has chosen some unto salvation in Christ. Others He has passed by and ordained to eternal wrath. But since these things are so, how is it that God freely offers salvation to all, both elect and reprobate, and with the offer reveals a desire that all should be saved? Here lies the question at issue in our church [the OPC]. Some say that in His universal offer God does reveal Himself as truly desiring the salvation of all, although for His own wise and holy reasons He does not decree to bestow salvation upon all. Others have been reluctant to use the word “desire”; they say God commands all men to come, but they question whether He in any way wills or desires that all should come.

The Committee Report

The committee report says plainly, “The full and free offer of the gospel is a grace bestowed upon all. Such grace is necessarily a manifestation  of love or loving kindness in the heart of God . . . The grace offered is nothing less than salvation in its richness and fullness. The love or loving kindness that lies back of that offer is . . . the will to that salvation.”

And does God in some sense will the salvation of those whose salvation He does not decree? This is the very truth revealed to us, for example, in Matthew 23:37, in our Lord’s lament over Jerusalem: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” The report says that we have here “the most emphatic declaration on the part of Christ of His having yearned for the conversion and salvation of the people of Jerusalem.” Moreover His will to bless them is sent in contrast with their will: “I have willed—ye have not willed.” The will of Christ is opposed to that which actually occurred, and He “therefore willed (or wished) the occurrence of that which God had not secretly or decretively willed.”

Ezekiel 33:11, according to the report of the committee, does not reflect upon the hidden will of God’s decree, but upon His will as made known to us in the gospel: “As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no delight (or pleasure) in the death of the wicked, but rather in his turning from his way and that he live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, and why will ye die, O house of Israel?” It is an oath-supported declaration of God’s will toward sinners, that He takes pleasure in or desires their universal repentance and life. The Committee report decides after a full discussion, that the same expression of God’s benevolence and lovingkindness toward mankind as a whole, both elect and reprobate, is also taught in II Peter 3:9—“The Lord . . . is longsuffering on your account, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

The Minority Report

The minority report, though brief, takes up many points, and it does not seem needful to consider them all here. But two of the positions adopted call for serious attention: the view that “God has not a will that can be frustrated as well as one that cannot be,” and the view that, “the gospel offer . . . is conditional or hypothetical.”

The first assertion appears to do violence to the fact that there is a will in God which is grievously rejected by sinners. This is His revealed or preceptive will. And surely it is with this rather than His secret or decretive will that we are dealing in the doctrine of God’s universal offer of the gospel. The surprising failure to take note of this fact apparently accounts for a number of errors in the minority report. It condemns the idea that God has what it calls “frustrable desires,” as though God’s desires to save all were decretive. Samuel Rutherford’s admirable polemic, against the Arminian notion that it is God’s “intention or decree” to save all, is quoted; but such “intention” respects God’s decretive will, not His revealed will. That God desires the salvation of the reprobate is said to be “not . . . precedented by the language of Reformed theologians”; but Rutherford and Turretin, to mention only two, use this language when dealing with God’s preceptive or revealed will. The Complaint is alleged to say that “there is a logical conflict between the gospel and reprobation,” and to “assert or suggest that the Lord’s will is irrational” to us, but the Complaint does not take these positions and again, a failure in the minority report to discern between God’s decretive will and His revealed seems to account for such a misunderstanding. And yet the committee report makes the distinction plain in numerous places. In the exegesis of Isaiah 45:22, for example, the committee report says that it is surely God’s “pleasure that all repent and be saved. Obviously, however, it is not his decretive will that all repent and be saved. While, on the other hand, he has not decretively willed that all be saved, yet he declares unequivocally that it is his will, and, impliedly, his pleasure that all turn and be saved. We are again faced with the mystery and adorable richness of the divine will. It might seem to us that the one rules out the other. But it is not so. There is multiformity to the divine will that is consonant with the fullness and richness of his divine character, and it is no wonder that we are constrained to bow in humble yet exultant amazement before his ineffable greatness and unsearchable judgments. To deny the reality of the divine pleasure directed to the repentance and salvation of all is to fail to accept the witness borne by such a text as this to the manifoldness of God’s will and the riches of his grace.”

Is God’s Free Offer Conditional?

At the beginning of the minority report it is asserted that “God desires the salvation of sinners.” but later this expression is interpreted to mean that “God desires that if any sinner repent he be saved . . . The gospel offer, in other words, is conditional or hypothetical and as such it is universal.”

Here a serious confusion is obvious. To be sure there is a conditional element in the external call of the gospel: the promise of salvation is granted only on condition that the sinner repent and believe. God says, If you repent, I promise salvation. The promise on God’s part, and the enjoyment of salvation on the sinner’s part, do not hold good and do not go into effect without the conditions of repentance and faith. But is God’s command conditional? No, it holds good as a command regardless of the sinner’s obedience. The same is true with God’s offer; it is unilateral, its validity to sinful man does not depend upon reciprocal action on man’s part. God does not say, If you are in the position of accepting it, then I am in the position of offering you salvation. He says, I offer you this salvation: accept it. He says, Come to the waters, Take of the waters, look unto me and be saved.

The topic in view moreover is not just the offer, but the free offer, and the minority report in its title and at other places uses the word “the free offer.” To describe God’s offer as “free” is to follow the language of the Westminster Standards: “God freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ” (Confession, VII, 3) and “he freely provideth and offereth to sinners a Mediator, and life and salvation by him” (Larger Catechism, Q. 32). The meaning of the word “free” as ascribed to God is given in Confession II, I, where in a list of God’s perfections He is said to be “most free,” and the Scripture proof is Psalm 115:3, “But our God is in the heavens, He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased.” God is independent of man. His gospel offer, as “free,” does not depend upon man and is not conditioned upon man’s acceptance. It is unilateral and unconditional. He makes the offer to all men in their sins before they think of accepting it. To describe His free offer as conditional or hypothetical, as does the minority report, is a contradiction in terms.

It is also a grave impoverishment of the gospel proclamation. The very fact that the divine offer is free and unconditional reveals that salvation must be entirely by God’s power and by God’s initiative. His free offer does not bestow salvation and does not promise efficacious grace. But it is a valid universal offer. And as free that offer is itself a lovingkindness upon all; and it opens our eyes to God’s desire, so plainly declared in His word, that all should be saved.

Arthur W. Kuschke, Jr., “Further Study of the Doctrines Committee Report: The Free Offer of the Gospel, and the Effect of Regeneration on the Intellect,” The Presbyterian Guardian 17.8 (May 10, 1948): 125–127.

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Richard Vines (c.1600–1656) on God’s Earnest Offers of Grace

Now having said this, concerning the grace put forth and exercised in the act of Conversation; and shown that Converting grace flowing from the purpose of God, is in the act of Conversion victorious over the resistance of the corrupt heart, and though it do not suddenly extirpate all the degrees of habitual perverseness and rebellion, yet it binds up the actual resistance at that time, as that it is imprevalent to divert the work of so powerful grace: I come to the point wherein the resistance offered to the grace of God doth lie; and that is, the grace that is promisciously offered unto man in the Ministry of the Gospel or other external means, though it be carried [on?] by great enlightenings, moral suasions, sweet invitations, loud pulsations, or knockings at the door of security: and though by these means there be wrought some common graces that are common in elect and reprobate, like the joy in the stony ground: I say though these be, yet both these offers of grace, which being received would make a man happy, are resisted and opposed: and these shallow graces are but like some winter [page 120 begins] fruit, that never ripen, and come to maturity, as the blade in the thorny and stony ground never came to ear well and so to harvest: so these graces may be finally choked, and from them a man may finally fall away: this is the point of resistance of this grace offered; which before I give the reasons of, I shall premise three things to be handled:

First, Concerning these offers of grace, I shall say three things.
Secondly, Show the entertainment of these offers is with opposition and recusancy.
Thirdly, The dangerous case that man falls into by this refusal;

As concerning the offers of grace that God makes you in the Gospel, know three things:

First, That the Gospel tenor or terms may be propounded to every creature; that’s the phrase of Christ, Mark 16:15. Go preach the Gospel to every creature; that is, in the dialect of Christ which was the received form of speech used at the time by the Jewish Rabbis, every man, every human creature, for it belongs not to the Angels that sinned, though they be sinful creatures; these Gospel proposals do not belong to them, but every human creature, which is expounded by Matthew, Go and Baptize, that is Disciple all Nations, Matt. 28. and what’s the meaning properly of all Nations and every creature? this, that whereas the Jewish Pale was but of one Nation, they were the Church of God impaled, and there was a wall of partition, and the several is made common; now go preach to every creature: that is, the Jews only are not the subjects of Gospel promises, but all and every [page 121 begins] man, to them it may be proposed: and what are those Gospel terms? he that believes and is baptized, shall be saved; he that believes not, shall be damned: but is this Gospel? he that believes not, shall be damned.

To this I answer, you must consider the meaning of it: under the Law there was a curse [that] went out against every man for every sin: there could not be an idle word or thought but the curse of the Law went out against: In Gal. 3:10 Cursed is everyone, &c. Now mark, though this curse may go forth against every sin by the sentence of the Law, yet it is dissolved and taken off from believers, and abides only because of unbelief, John 3, ult. Believing takes off every score; and that only.

About these offers of the Gospel consider two things, they are made with Invitations and with Encouragement.

First with Invitation of such as could not expect to be at the marriage feast of a King’s Son; Go out saith the King, to the high-ways and hedges, and invite the meanest and most remote creatures, Matt. 22:4. and they called in both good and bad, and furnished the feast with guests: all sorts may have these Gospel proposals made to them. And,

Secondly, It’s made with Encouragement, and that to the most crimson and scarlet sinners, Isa. 1:16–18. Wash you, make you clean, &c. None that came to Christ for cure were dismissed without healing, though they were Samaritans and not Israelites: therefore no man can say, that God by the tenor of the Gospel hath excluded him, or shut the door against him; for in Isa. 56:5, 6. the Prophet Isaiah gives in words of Encouragement; Let not the son of the stranger say I am cast out; nor the Eunuch, I am a dry tree (for both the son of the stranger, the Proselyte, and the Eunuch had a mark of disgrace upon them) for if they fear the Lord, they shall enjoy the privileges [page 122 begins] of children and favorites; his meaning is, there is no man so alien, so remote from God and his favor, that hath all the marks of disparagement upon him; but if he will come in and believe, the invitation is made to him: I confess we read in the Scripture, that the Spirit of God forbade the lantern-bearers of the Gospel to go into some Countries, and the providence of God at all times and at this time so regulates the sun of the Gospel, as that some people are as in night: but this I say, that no man is excluded by the Gospel tenor from the offer of grace that is propounded in the Gospel, by any national bar as in former time: And then,

Secondly, As the Gospel offer, and the proposals thereof may be made to every man without any other consideration than that he is a sinner. Art thou a sinner? for thee Christ is a Saviour: that as the brazen Serpent was set upon the pole for the wounded and bitten with fiery Serpents: So is grace offered in the Gospel, to them that are sinners without any other consideration for the offer of it: understand me right: but for the promise of the Gospel, that’s made to everyone that comes to Christ for the grace promised; and here is no condition of worthiness, but of fitness and meetness, whereby a man may be in a nearer capacity, but hath no more merit or worth, as I shall here show you: The Gospel makes the Proclamation of pardon to all men that are in actual rebellion: that as a Prince by his pardon charms the sword out of the hands of a Rebel: so if your iron hearts were softened to understand the grace of God, upon his Proclamation you might have the sword of rebellion charmed out of your hands, and be brought into submission unto Christ: but the Gospel makes the promise of pardon and grace to a believer in Christ, and to every believer without any respect to what he hath been in times past; [page 123 begins] whether he be a Barbarian or Scythian, bond or free; for the righteousness of God is upon all and unto all that believe; for there is no difference, Rom. 3:22. Mark and be invited I beseech you that have so long stood it out and resisted the grace of God: Oh! be you invited to come in; the promise is to every one that thirsteth, Isa. 55:1. All that are weary and heavy-laden with the burden of their sins and miseries, Matt. 11:28. And whosoever will (viz. is willing) let him come and take of the water of life freely, Rev. 22:17. Every one that believeth in Christ, shall not perish, but have eternal life, John 3:15, 16. So that you see the Proclamation is general, the invitation of the thirsty to water, wine & milk, of the loaden and weary unto rest, of the willing unto the water of life; and the Promise is general to all and every believer, and that of eternal life; and therefore you may conclude, there is an offer of grace made to sinful and wicked men by the Gospel; for thou (saith the Psalmist of Christ) hast received gifts for men; yea for the rebellious also that God may dwell amongst them, Psa. 69:18. And then,

Thirdly, Which binds all the rest, whomsoever God doth call to faith and Conversion by the invitations of his Word, and by the pulsations or knockings of his Spirit, he calls and invites them seriously and in good earnest: what think you? when Christ saith, how often would I have gathered you! and when God saith, Ezek. 14:13. I purged thee and thou wast not purged: are these things spoken in jest? we must not judge that grace is not offered in good earnest by the event that it hath in us, for it may be frustrate and without success, but judge by the nature of the benefit offered, by the excitements afforded, and the aids and motions supplied, and by the tendency of them what they mean, and in their nature drive at; even at the bringing of you to Christ Jesus: [page 124 begins] let no man think with himself that God Tantelizeth man with the offers of his grace, and that he is not really minded that they should be received; but let this principle be settled and thoroughly fixed in your hearts, that God is in good earnest and means seriously, when he wooes and invites you to repentence; for this principle is of great use; for that induces the acceptance, the reality of the offerer: no man will look on a bargain that is offered him in jest: look after a gift though never so rich that is holden forth in a pretense and simulation; this will not induce a man to look after grace, if he hath this persuasion that God Tantalizeth him with it: what man living under the Gospel can stand out and say? Lord, I would, but thou wouldest not; I put forth my hand and thou drewest back thine; let no man think this to excuse himself upon God; this was intended by a Parable, Luke 19:20. of him that had a talent given him who laid it up and did not use it, thinking to excuse himself on the temper, the austerity of the Master, so to put off all blame from himself, whereby our Savior signifies that men would put the fault upon God; saith he, Master, I knew you were a hard man, that reapest where thou didst not sow; therefore I laid up the talent that thou mightest have thy own; the Master speaks to him, calling him [an] evil servant, and retorts the objection upon himself, if I were a hard man, thou oughtest to have put forth thy talent rather: he is deceived that thinks to clear his neglect by fastening a reason for it upon God: for there are four things in the Scripture that seem to me to prove these offers of grace in the Gospel to  be serious; I know not how others may interpret them.

First, The pathetical form that is used of inviting sinners, so low sometimes that God doth beseech us to be reconciled; God and Christ doth beseech you by us that [page 125 begins] are his Ministers and Ambassadors, 2 Corinthians 5:20.

Secondly, By the frequent exhortations: and amongst the rest (for I should speak the whole Bible in a manner to name all) that 2 Cor. 6:1. we beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vain (for its not offered to you in vain) for he saith there is a day of Salvation and that is now. And then,

Thirdly, By the expostulations with careless negligent men for not coming in, neglecting or abusing these offers; I wonder that you are so soon perverted and carried away to another Gospel, in Gal. 6:1. And then,

Fourthly, By the promises made and holden forth, Rev. 3:20. I stand at the door and knock, if any man will open to me, I will come and sup with him: and do not all these forms of dealing with man prove sufficiently the reality of the offers of grace to a sinner? yea verily, and that he doth not dally with men: For else,

First, God should seem hereby to deceive men, to offer them in the Name of his Son Christ, and never mean or intend that this grace should be by them received.

Secondly, The messengers whom God sends forth to be woers of chast virgins unto Christ, and to bespeak the espousals as the Word is, 2 Cor. 11:1, 2. they should be found false witnesses; for what would you take him to be that should speak to a man to bespeak a virgin for him, whom he never intends or means to have, if she would have him? And then,

Thirdly, The neglect of this grace might more excusably be made a great deal, and would have a greater color of excuse; for they would say, there was indeed grace holden forth to them in mockery, without any reality that they should receive it; but now God finds fault with men and blames them for not acknowledging [page 126 begins] or not considering that his goodness should lead them to repentance, and therefore do despise it as the phrase is, Rom. 2:4. And therefore it must be a plain case, that the drift and scope of that goodness is to lead men to repentance, and so the whole army of providential dispensations, the offers made in the Word, the excitements of the Spirit of God, as well as other goodness, do all speak and tend to the clearing of God of simulation or mere pretense: I would it were believed, that though you were never so remote and far from this grace, and seem to despair that you cannot have it, and think that God doth but dally when he makes the offer to you, or whatever your apprehensions be, settle it in your hearts, the offer is real, and God is serious and in good earnest when he offers Christ and grace in the Gospel. one great objection there is in this point.

Quest. How can these offers of grace be serious or in earnest, when so many thousands called by the Word are not absolutely converted? how doth God deal in good earnest in the offer of grace, when he doth not absolutely give it and work this Conversion? if God had a serious will, it would be absolute by power to work that he calls men unto; if God were in good earnest that I should be converted and believe in Christ, then God by his absolute and peremptory will would give me this grace and work it in me?

Answ. But we answer that the will of God may be serious, though it be not absolute and peremptory; God may by his serious will will that you repent, and yet by his absolute will work it not: The great instance in this point is: God had a serious will that Adam should stand, for God was not in jest in that business; but God had not an absolute will that he should stand, so as to work and confirm him in that estate; so as to cause Adam to stand [page 127 begins] in his integrity; so the will of God may be serious in commanding of a man to repent, and yet not absolute and peremptory to work it in that man if he refuse to obey the command; when God commands a man to make him a new heart, to circumcise his heart, or to obey his holy Laws, in all these God is serious and in good earnest, notwithstanding he doth not absolutely work these in all: In the Elect of God whom he hath chosen he doth indeed not only command, but works it: In all he doth not: And the reason is, because God is serious in his conditional promises or Covenant, when he speaks to man to believe, and thereupon promises pardon, he is in good earnest; for he would have men to believe, and it is their sin not to do it; and then if they do, the connection between faith and pardon is sure: a man earnestly persuades his servant or friend to be cut of the stone; they will not; the man takes his child and binds him, cuts and cures him; he goes further with his child then he did with his friend or servant; yet he did seriously persuade them, though he did not go so far with them, nor had he reason, but leaves them to themselves; not that a similitude should run on four feet, but take it in the general meaning; God doth persuade with men to break the stone, and to plough up the fallow ground of their hearts: but he takes them that belong to the Election of his grace, and whereas they refuse this grace as well as others, he takes away the heart of stone from them; I will take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh, and therefore when the Lord saith thus in Ezek. 18:31, 32. Cast away  your transgressions, make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die Oh house of Israel! I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, therefore turn yourselves and live: be assured God is in good earnest with you, this is his serious will, this God calls upon man [page 128 begins] for, notwithstanding he doth not work this new heart in all, but in some: for he saith in Ezek. 36:27. a new heart I will give you; he bids them to circumcise, and saith, I the Lord will circumcise, Deut. 30:6. man’s duty is made God’s act, that which God requires in man seriously, is made God’s act to perform in man graciously: in the mean time by his calling and offering of life, he hereby shows you what is his will or approbation, that is, what is the acceptable and perfect will of God, Rom. 12:3. there is an acceptable will and an effective will of God: the acceptable will of God is seen in this call and offer of grace: the effective will of God is that of his purpose which is effective of the work, works the work upon you: now God is serious when he speaks according to his acceptable will, though he doth not effect it absolutely and peremptorily.

Richard Vines, God’s Drawing and Man’s Coming to Christ (London: Printed for Abel Roper, at the Sun against St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street, 1662), 119–128.

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Nathaniel Heywood (1633–1677) on God’s Offer of His Son

If thou knewest the gift of God, and what it is that is offered thee, thou wouldest scorn the highest honors, the sweetest pleasures, the greatest riches, yea trample upon all the Crowns and Kingdoms of this world for it. It’s en inestimable privilege that thou art a creature capable of so vast a happiness; it’s the astonishing wonder of Heaven and Earth, that God would give a Son, such a Son to be thy Saviour! what could he give more or better? and it’s a special favour that the Gospel hath been sent to thee, to reveal this great mystery, to offer this excellent gift to thee; and now when it is tendered, wilt thou refuse it? Wilt thou neglect and undervalue Christ?

Nathaniel Heywood, Christ Displayed as the Choicest Gift, and Best Master (London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside, near Mercers-Chappel, 1679), 41.

4. Consider how God offers this gift to thee; his manner of dealing with thee in this is wonderful; he offers Christ most really, means what he speaks, and most tenderly and affectionately: He not only offers Christ to thee, but invites thee to him; what canst thou desire more in a gift or benefit, than to have it heartily offered, and be invited to take it? He offers Christ without grudging, falsehood, or equivocation; with an open heart, that he may show how willing and cordial he is to part with this gift. He invites us to take him, Rev. 22:17, Let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely: Nay, he shouts and calls aloud, Isa. 55:1, Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea come buy wine and milk, without money, and without price. Had he once tendered Christ, it had been infinite mercy; but to entreat us to accept him, to persuade and move us, as one that would not be denied, that’s admirable. 2 Cor. 5:20, We are ambassadors for Christ; as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. And he commands us to receive Christ his Son, and makes this the chief, and (as it were) the only thing he requires of us, 1 John 3:23; and enforceth his just command with most severe threatenings, Heb. 12:25, See that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. Sometimes he expostulateth with men, Wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread? Isa. 55:2, and adds protestations of his loathness that any soul should perish, Why will you die? anger is not in me: why should the flame consume the stubble? what could I do more? what iniquity have ye found in me, &c? He complains and laments most sadly, when men neglect and slight this offered gift, Why will ye not come to me, that ye may have life? He came to his own and they received him not, John 1:11. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Matt. 23:37. Yea, with very vehement passions he bewails and weeps over them that pity not themselves, Luke 19:42, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace, &c. Those tears and mournings over Jerusalem for her hard heart and contempt, have been, and are still over thee. He upbraids men with nothing so much as this, and threatens no such woes in all the Scripture, as against such as refuse Christ, Matt. 11:20, Woe unto thee Chorazin, woe unto thee Bethsaida, &c. Jer. 13:17, Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be? He is never so angry with any, as with them that despise this love, and refuse this offer, Luke 14:21. Matt. 22:7. He was very wroth when the invited guests would not come. So Mat. 21:40, with those Husbandmen that took his Son and killed him; and those Citizens (Luke 19:27.) that would not have him reign over them, are destroyed as enemies. And when all this will do no good, men will not be persuaded nor allured, but hang off and keep at a distance; he goes away (as it were troubled) and wishing it had been better. He swears and pawns his life on it, that he would not have them perish, has no pleasure in their destruction, Ezek. 33.11. O that they had hearkened to my commandments, then had their peace been as a river, and their righteousness as the waves of the sea. Isa. 48:18 Psalm 81:11. But my people would not hearken to my voice, Israel would none of me. O that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways, I would soon have subdued their enemies, I would have fed them with the finest of the wheat, with honey out of the rock would I have satisfied them. O the compassionate pangs of God’s bowels of infinite mercy towards poor sinners! O quam stupenda pieatas! quam mira Dei dignatio! quem regare debuimus, ut nos recipere dignaretur: ab ipso rogamur, ut ad eum venire dignemur.

It were (one would think) enough to prevail with us to accept this gift with joy and thankfulness to consider how incomparably excellent the gift itself is.—But God adds unspeakable benefits with him to draw us to this acceptance; as life and favour with God, Prov. 8:35. Whoso findeth me, findeth life, and obtaineth favour of the Lord. Recovery of God’s image, freedom from bondage, communion with God, liberty of will, pardon of sin, power against sin, deliverance from Satan, peace and joy, adoption of Sons, John 1:12. acceptance of persons and services, audience of prayers, a sanctified use of comforts and crosses, victory over death, assurance of heaven, the fair inheritance of all things, fullness of joy and happiness, pleasures for evermore.

5. Consider, why God offereth Christ unto thee; for what end is he thus solicitous about thine acceptance of this gift; do not mistake me, nor deceive thy self by thinking that because God out of his infinite pity to his miserable creatures, is instant and urgent with them to accept of Christ, therefore he hath any need of thee, or seeketh his own happiness therein. I tell thee, if thou hadst no more need of Christ than he hath of thee, thou mayest let him alone. No, it’s purely for thy good, for thy real and eternal good that he offers his Son to thee. He needs thy service no more than he doth the service of the Damned, or of the Devils; and he knows how to make use of thee for his own glory as he doth of them, if thou foolishly reject this offer of his Son to save thee. Had he a work to do, he needs not thy help; he might have made nobler creatures than the present race of mankind to glorify his Grace, and execute his will, and have left thee and all Adam’s posterity to glorify his Justice. Thy righteousness will not help him, Job 22:2, 3. Nor thy wickedness hurt him, Job 35:2. He expects no gain by thee, looks for no requital; he offers this gift to thee, not that he may be blessed by thee, but that he may be bountiful to thee; it’s thy good, not his own that he looks at: The felicity of accepting is thine own, and the misery of neglecting is thine own. Prov 9:12, If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thy self; but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it. Men call Customers to them, and press them with many arguments and entreaties to buy, that they may enrich themselves by their Customers; but God calls men to buy of him, not to enrich himself (he is as rich, and perfect, and happy as he can be) but to enrich themselves. I counsel thee (saith Christ to his lukewarm Church) Rev. 3:18, to buy of me gold tried in the fire (Why? that he might get something by him and enrich himslf? No) that thou mayest be rich, that thou, not I may be rich. Now Brethren ponder it seriously, it is wholly for your own good, that you may escape wrath and death, that you may attain Heaven and life, that God is pleased once more to offer Christ to you. He gives his Son to this end, that you may be saved, to bring you into the state of Sons, and into a right to Heaven and Glory. Had he given Christ only to rule over you with his Scepter of righteousness, it would have been an excellent gift, and no small privilege to be Subjects to such a Prince, especially for such as were bondslaves of Satan by nature; but he gives Christ to save and redeem us. Something, yea very much of God is in the Creation, much of God in his common providence; but most of all, yea whole God in the redemption of man. If a Physician should come to us who would heal us of all our diseases (suppose we were an Hospital of unsound persons) would he not be most acceptable to us? What more acceptable to a poor man than wealth? or a naked man than clothes? or to an hungry man than bread? a slave than freedom? all this and infinitely more is Christ to us. Now all that is required of us in order to the obtaining of all these benefits, is to believe in Christ; and what is believing, but receiving Christ, as he is offered to us in the Gospel? John 1:12. What is thy mind now about this offer? what dost thou resolve on? wilt thou have Christ this Gift of God, or not? Is there any thing unreasonable in his demands? any thing defective in this offer, or in the gift? is not Christ fair, or good enough? is he not rich and honourable enough? is there any want of love or loveliness in Christ for thee? What hath been said of him, will silence all these and the like objections. What canst thou say? is it an indifferent matter whether thou take this or not? doth not thy eternal felicity depend on thine acceptance of him? what sayest thou? shall Christ be thy Lord, or the Devil? One of these will reign over thee. Consider what thou dost, thy Soul is immortal, and must either take God, and Christ, and Heaven to be thy portion for ever; or Hell, and Death, and Wrath, and Devils for thy portion for ever: one of these two is the portion of all the Sons and Daughters of Adam. If thou wilt still prefer the world before Christ, and love the creature above Christ, and please thy flesh more than Christ, thou goest without him; and however thou mayest shift in this world, yet when once thou appearest in another world, God will rain fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest, and this will be the portion of thy cup, Psalm 11:6. But if now thou acceptest of this gift of God, Jesus Christ, when all thy friends shall leave thee, and dearest relations forsake thee, yea, when thy flesh and thy heart shall fail thee, Christ will be the strength of thy heart, and thy portion for ever. Well, consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding, that thou mayest know when thou art well offered, and be wise on this side the other world.

I know not what other answer you can rationally make to all that hath been said, to persuade your acceptance of this gift of God, but that either you have it already, or desire to know how you may make it your own; I shall therefore, to prevent mistakes in the one, and to give assistance to the other, first direct you to try your selves, whether Christ be yours or not, and then how to attain propriety in this excellent gift, whereby you may be happy to all eternity.

Ibid., 50–58.

I shall add a word of admonition and serious warning, to them who have not yet, nor are now resolved to accept this incomparable gift of God; and that in the words of the Apostle, See that ye refuse not him that speaks from heaven, Heb. 12:25, yea that came down from Heaven to seek and save your lost souls. Now that Christ is freely offered to you by the Gospel, if you set at naught his counsel, and make light of his invitations, and receive the Grace of God in vain, it had been better for you, that you had never been born, or never heard the Gospel. Now that God hath proclaimed terms of peace, and showed himself so unwilling that ye should perish, that he gave his only begotten Son for you, and to you, and exacted nothing from you but acceptance, that ye might have in him eternal life: If you still refuse this gift, and reject this counsel, remaining under unbelief, it doth exeedingly aggravate your sin and judgment, it makes your sin above measure sinful; your sin inexcusable, your condemnation unavoidable; and your punishment will be intolerable. Consider what you do, and be wise before it be too late; you exceedingly dishonour God, undervalue Christ, gratify Satan, Sin most inexcusable, and undo yourselves utterly.

1. If you do not receive and improve this gift when offered in the Gospel, you do exceedingly dishonour God; What greater reproach is there amongst men, than to refuse a gift offered freely out of love, without any ground, motive, or occasion, from the party that is to have it? or deny to accept of an invitation to a great feast, or fair estate, if entreated and solicited to take it? ‘Tis a sour unmannerliness, and saucy proud presumption, to prescribe on what terms they will have, or when they will not be beholding to their superiors. ‘Tis a great dishonour to God, that vile sinful dust and ashes, will not accept of his gracious offer of his Son. If a King should come to a Prisoner condemned by the Law to death, and lying in Chains, and offer to set him free, or put his Son in his stead, &c. but he so loves his bondage, and hugs his chains that he will not be delivered. You cast dishonour upon all the glorious Attributes of God, His Truth; He that receives Christ, gives as much glory to the Truth of God as possibly he can; he sets to his seal that God is true, John 3:33. But he that receives not this gift, believes that God, and so makes him (who is truth itself) a liar, because he believes not the record which God gave of his Son, 1 John 5:10. O what horrid indignity is this to the most faithful God!

Ibid., 78–79.

4. If you refuse Jesus Christ offered in the Gospel, you are guilty of the greatest sin and folly that can be. Though for most part, men think not so of it, and accordingly lay it not to heart, yet it is the greatest sin, the sin of sins, and in some sort the only sin of the world. Men commonly think murder, adultery, theft, drunkenness to be very heinous sins, and so indeed they be, but unbelief far worse; for it is the mother of these, and all other evils. Take all the sins that ever were committed against any of God’s just laws, and none is like to this, no greater sin can be laid to one’s charge than to refuse willfully, and trample under foot the Son of God. Christ promises to send his Spirit, the Comforter into the world, and he shall convince the world of sin, because they believe not on him, John 16:9. he means this sin alone (saith Austin) as if not believing in the Son of God were the only sin: Indeed it is the main and master-sin. O beloved, little do you think, who daily sit under the Ministry, unwrought on by the Word of God, what a grievous and fearful sin you commit, and dreadful guilt you carry home with you, in neglecting from day to day so great Salvation, in forsaking your own mercy, and in judging yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, when Jesus Christ this most precious gift is offered to you, by choosing rather to cleave to a lust, than to Christ blessed forever; and rather to wallow in the mire and mud of earthly riches and swinish pleasures, than to receive this most pleasant and excellent gift; rather to cast away your time in idleness, pride, worldliness and sensuality, than in seeking after this transcendent favor; rather make choice of a life made up of drunkennesss, whoredoms, railing at godliness.

Ibid., 88–89. On page 90, Heywood adds that it is “a sin against light and much knowledge, a sin against love and special mercies.”

The time will come, when you shall remember what the Minister said, O how fain would he have had me to escape these torments, how earnestly did he entreat me! With what love and tender compassion did he beseech me! how did his bowels yearn over me! yet I did but make a jest of it, and hardened my heart against all! how glad would he have been after all his studies, prayers, and pains, if he could have persuaded me cordially to accept Christ, he would have thought himself well recompensed for all his labours, he would have laid his hands under my feet, and have fallen down on his knees to beg of me obedience to his message; and all the entreaties of Ministers are the entreatings of God. O how long did he wait! how freely did he offer! how lovingly did he invite! how importunately did he solicit! how long did Christ stand knocking at my door, crying, open to me, sinner: why sinner, are thy lusts and pleasures better than me? is earth better than heaven? why then dost thou delay or deny? wilt thou not be made clean, when shall it once be? O that thou wouldest hearken to my voice, and obey my Gospel! O that they were wise! As one that is loath to take a denial, would not be repulsed. O how would he have gathered thee, and thou wouldest not! shall the God of heaven and earth follow thee in vain from one place to another? Turn ye, turn ye, why willl ye die? I would not have you perish. If you go on with your refusal of Christ, you may expect that the hellish gnawing of conscience for this one sin, will hold scales with all the united horror of all the rest; you will then cry out, O fools and idiots that we were, when we refused so excellent a gift, so blessed a Saviour! we could then see no beauty in him; nor comeliness wherefore we should desire him; but now how fair and glorious is he, whom we see upon the white Throne! how desirable is his Sacred Majesty! O how amiable is his countenance! how doth he shine with incomparable splendor, above the brightness of ten thousand Suns! What wrong have we done our souls, that we have deprived of so beautiful and delightful an object, as this most sweet and glorious Savior! If now we had time and leave to make our choice, we would prefer the enjoyment of him, (whom we once contemned) before ten thousand worlds. But alas we cannot, the term of mercy is expired, and the time of justice, wrath, and vengeance, so much spoken of by our faithful Pastors, is now come, and now we must be judged to the easeless, endless, and remediless torments of the infernal pit. And all our pleasure and delights are gone; O that we had never been born; O that we had been so happy as our horses or swine, which die but once, and feel no more pain forever; whereas we must be ever dying, and never free from pain and misery. Woe, woe, woe unto us, that ever we were born to see this day, and to die this death, and to live this life, which will be a never dying death. We that accounted such an one a precise fool, for his care to receive and improve this gift of God, shall groan out this sad complaint, in the anguish or our spirits: This was he whom we had sometimes in derision, and a Proverb of reproach; we fools counted his life madness, and his end to be without honour: now he is numbered among the Children of God, and his lot is among the Saints. Therefore we have erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness hath not shined upon us; and as for the way of the Lord we have not known it. What hath pride profited us? or what good have riches with our vanity brought us? all these things are passed by as a shadow, and as a Post that hafts away. O with what infinite horror and restless anguish, will this conceit rent the heart in pieces, and gnaw up the conscience, when he considers in hell, that he hath lost heaven for a lust, and Christ for a mere shadow! whereas he might at every Sermon, had even the Son of God his own for the very taking, and with him for ever unspeakable joy and glory, yet then neglecting so great Salvation, must now be crying out therefore against himself, as the most raging Bedlam that ever breathed, lie down in unquenchable flames, without remedy, ease or end.

Ibid., 93–95.

3. Thus Christ himself invites us to apply and improve him: Come eat of my bread, and drink of my wine which I have mingled, Prov. 9:5. Come partake of those good things my Father would have me to communicate unto you. Isa. 55:1. Ho everyone that thirsteth come ye to the waters, &c. John 7:37. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Matt. 11:28. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. By these and such like passages in Scripture, you see what warrant you have to apply Christ, and persuade yourselves, that if you make use of him, he will do for you that which shall be for your good. Christ’s call gives you a warrant to go to him, that you may possess these privileges in Christ without intrusion or usurpation, this is that you have to show to Conscience, you do not presume: Why dost thou, vile wretch, go to Christ for such a blessing? how durst thou that art a sinner look him in the face? lay hold on Christ? make use of Christ? why? I was invited and called. If it should be asked of the guests that came in a wedding garment, Friends, how durst ye come hither and approach the Presence-chamber of the King’s Son? they might answer, We were bidden to the Wedding, Matt. 22:10, 12. The Scripture doth not call us by name, thou John and Thomas, though the offer be propounded generally, yet when God by his messenger speaks directly to my case, and I am included, here’s a dish for my hungry soul, intended for me.

Ibid., 127.

Take heed how you refuse him that speaks from heaven; do not (as you want Christ) despise this loving invitation, and make light of this gracious offer, lest his wrath be kindled in his breast, and you perish. He that hath so long held forth his Scepter of Grace, yet stands waiting for your return, yet stretcheth forth his arms to embrace you, yet opens his very heart to entertain you: Hark, he bids you come and lodge your souls in his warm bosom; yet he calls by his Word, yet he strives by his Spirit; and follows you with checks of conscience, and renews his mercies on you every morning; would fain draw you with cords of love, if it would be. But it will not be always thus, his patience will not always wait, his Spirit shall not always strive with man; the door of mercy shall not always stand open; When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us; then ‘tis too late, Luke 13:25. O come to Christ now or never, do it this day, or you may never be invited again: Hear now Christ bespeaks and woos thee, sinner; Cast down thy weapons of rebellion, surrender thy soul to me; give me thy heart, submit to my government; I will pass by all thy former resistance, and put up all the wrongs thou hast done me, I will remember thy iniquities no more, but pass an act of everlasting oblivion upon them; O look unto me and be ye saved.

Ibid., 230–231.

4. Surrender yourselves to this great Lord, for he desires you; yea, that you would be his, as he hath been yours, is all he desires; you cannot bestow a better gift upon him than yourselves; others may give him their goods, their estates, &c. but he that gives Christ himself, can give no more, no better. He desires you, not that he hath any need of you, or make advantage of you; but that he may restore you better to yourselves than he receives you: He will put his grace into your hearts, repair his image in your minds, and make you wise unto salvation.

Ibid., 236.

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Note: Joseph Alleine; Richard Alleine; William Attersoll (A Commentarie vpon the fourth booke of Moses, called Numbers […] [London: Printed by William Laggard, 1618], 92); alternatively titled: Pathway to Canaan; Continuation of the Exposition of the Booke of Numbers; Thomas Watson (“Sermon VII,” in The Select Works of the Rev. Thomas Watson, Comprising His Celebrated Body of Divinity, in a Series of Lectures on the Shorter Catechism, and Various Sermons and Treatises [New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1855], 677); Thomas Barnes (Sions Sweets [London: Printed by I. D. for Nathaniell Newbery, 1624], 10); Thomas Doolittle, A Complete Body of Practical Divinity; Being a New Improvement of the Assembly’s Catechism […] (London: Printed for John and Barham Clark […], 1723), 196; Nathaniel Heywood; Oliver Heywood; James Janeway; Daniel Rogers (Naaman the Syrian His Disease and Cure [London: Printed by Th. Harper for Philip Nevil, 1642], 580); John Rogers (The Doctrine of Faith [London: Printed by I. D. for Nathanael Newbery and Henry Overton, 1633], 93); Solomon Stoddard (The Efficacy of the Fear of Hell, to Restrain Men from Sin […] [Boston in New-England: Printed by Thomas Fleet, for Samuel Phillips, at the Three Bibles and Crown in King-Street, 1713], 125); George Swinnock; and Nathaniel Vincent also, when speaking to the lost, tell them they are “well-offered” in the gospel.