A26923:448
An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches
An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches by reconciling explication without much disputing. Written by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Salusbury, 1691
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
§. 25. Antecedent Mercies are some common to all men, and some proper to some Countries, Ages and Persons, as the free Benefactor pleaseth.
§. 26. Of the former sort is the Sustentation of Nature, reprieval from deserved miseries, the Law of Grace, as to the tenor, and some degree of promulgation, with all the common Mercies, Means, Duties which tend to Recovery. Of the later sort are the greater degrees of such mercies and means, ⟨p. 98⟩which God freely giveth to some more than others.
§. 26. Of the former sort is the Sustentation of Nature, reprival from deserved miseries, the Law of Grace, as to the tenor, and some degree of promulgation, with all the common Mercies, Means, Duties which tend to Recovery. Of the later sort are the greater degrees of such mercies and means, ⟨p. 98⟩which God freely giveth to some more than others.
§. 27. Therefore we must not say that Infidels or wicked men have no Mercies, or no Right to what they do possess as from God, as being no Consenters to the Covenant or Performers of it: Because there are Antecedent Mercies given before such Consent or Performance; not as to Covenanters but as to miserable men, invited to enter Covenant with God in Christ. Though these are so forfeited by their refusal, that they have no assurance of their continuance, but God may soon take them all away.