N01056:82
Free-grace, maintained & improved. Or, The general offer of the Gospel, managed with considerations…
Free-grace, maintained & improved. Or, The general offer of the Gospel, managed with considerations of the great things done by special grace, in the election and redemption and vocation of those who embrace that offer. And the illustrious doctrines of divine predestination and humane impotency, rescued from the abuses, which they too frequently meet withal; and rendered (as they are) highly useful to the designs of practical piety. : In two brief discourses; published at the desire of some, who have been greatly apprehensive of growing occasions for such treatises.
Boston: printed by B. Green, 1706
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.
By these Principles the Redemption of a Glorious CHRIST, has unsufferable Indignities cast upon it. Upon them, No Regenerate person may say, My Lord Jesus Christ has purchased for me, that Faith, that Repentance, that Holiness, which are the greatest Blessings that ever Heaven bestowed upon me! ⟨p. 31⟩Christian, Thy Soul upon due Deliberation, cannot but abhor the Thoughts of this; That when Spiritual Blessings have Enriched thee, there should nothing be ascribed unto the Purchase of the Lord JESUS CHRIST on that occasion? That such Spiritual Blessings, must be no more than mere Contingencies! Yea, if it must be, as these would have it, The Blood of the Lord JESUS CHRIST hath not certainly purchased the Salvation, of any one Person in the World. Tho' the Blood of the Lord have been offered up, yet, it seems, there is no certainty, that any One Person shall ever have any Saving Advantage by it. The Uncertain Will of Man alone, must have the Honour to Determine it.
By these Principles the Redemption of a Glorious CHRIST, has unsufferable Indignities cast upon it. Upon them, No Regenerate person may say, My Lord Jesus Christ has purchased for me, that Faith, that Repentance, that Holiness, which are the greatest Blessings that ever Heaven bestow'd upon me! ⟨p. 31⟩Christian, Thy Soul upon due Delibration, cannot but abhor the Thoughts of this; That when Spiritual Blessings have Enriched thee, there should nothing be ascribed unto the Purchase of the Lord JESUS CHRIST on that occasion? That such Spiritual Blessings, must be no more than meer Contingencies! Yea, if it must be, as these would have it, The Blood of the Lord JESUS CHRIST hath not certainly purchased the Salvation, of any one Person in the World. Tho' the Blood of the Lord have been offered up, yet, it seems, there is no certainty, that any One Person shall ever have any Saving Advantage by it. The Uncertain Will of Man alone, must have the Honour to Determine it.
What an Affront is given by these Principles, to the Holy SPIRIT? They allow Him to do nothing for us, but only to dispense unto us a Common Light, such as is enjoyed even by the Children of Darkness; And that Light so ineffectual, that the Will is not Effectually Inclined by it. No more for Him to do but this! Oh! Do not so Disparage the Holy Spirit, unto whom our Obligations are Infinite!