If there is no common grace..then there can be no special Grace or human responsibility...Dr. Robert Reymond... All unregenerate Sinners do not thus obstinately shut their Eyes against the Light. They are by common Grace prevailed with to make a better Improvement as to the Advantages they enjoy, than others do. Nor is the Sin of those that refuse Instruction, in this Way offered to them, unavoidable, so that they cannot come to the Knowledge os the Truth, but must necessarily remain Infidels or Unbelievers. 5. The Persuasion which some unregenerate Sinners do, in this Way, attain, is so firm and strong, that it has a great Influence on their Lives. They receive the Word with Joy, and do many Things that are required of them. Such a Persuasion as these have, or may have, of the Truth, is sufficient to produce “Repentance in Sackcloth and Ashes;” insomuch that such are sometimes said to have “escaped the Pollutions that are in the Worlds thro’ the Knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” 2 Pet. 2. 20, 21. and to have been enlightened and to have “tasted the heavenly Gift,” and to have been “made Partakers of the Holy Ghost and to have tasted the good Word of God, and the Powers of the World to come,” Heb. 6.4,5. Experience Mayhew, Grace Defended in a Most Plea For an Important Truth; Namely, That the offer of Salvation made to Sinners in the Gospel comprises in it an Offer of the Grace given in Regeneration (Boston: Printed by B. Green, and Company, for D. Henchman, in Cornhil, 1744), 115-116. [Some spelling modernized; underlining mine.] ...Unregenerate Persons may perform Actions that are materially good, tho’ they have no Love to God at all; yea, tho’ they have no Regard to him. It is not to be doubted, but that unregenerate Sinners may believe there is a God; and have a Fear and Dread of him, as well as Devils, Jam. 2. 19. And out of such a Fear of him they may yield Obedience to his Commands, tho’ they love him not. (2) Unregenerate Persons may have some Kind of Love to God, which may put them on doing many Things which he requires them to do. There be some unregenerate Persons that have a very considerable Respect and Veneration for the great God that made them, and continually preserves them. They therefore love not to hear his Name blasphemed; and the Kindness they may apprehend they have received from him, may influence them to do many Things, which they may think good in themselves, and pleasing in his Sight; and they may apprehend that God is so gracious as to reward them well for the good Works which they perform. There may be in the Unregenerate, a Kind of natural Love to God, answerable to the Apprehensions they have of some Goodness in him, as well as such a Love to their Neighbors; even common Grace may go thus far. (3) But no unregenerate Person ever loved and obeyed God, on the Account of the admirable Perfections of his Nature; so that his Persuasion of his infinite Goodness, arising from his own experimental Acquaintance with him, was the formal Reason of this his Love to him, and Desire to do that which would please him; fo that they would do the same, tho’ they themselves had no Benefit by it. I suppose. That he that cannot do thus, is still in a State of Nature, and does not know and love God in a gracious Manner: And has not, in the Sense of the Scripture, “tasted that the Lord is gracious,” 1 Pet. 2, 3. Psal, 34. 8. Experience Mayhew, Grace Defended in a Most Plea For an Important Truth; Namely, That the offer of Salvation made to Sinners in the Gospel comprises in it an Offer of the Grace given in Regeneration (Boston: Printed by B. Green, and Company, for D. Henchman, in Cornhil, 1744)...
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 19:44:20 +0000
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