Archive for April 21st, 2009
Mayhew:
1) 2. Another Thing wherein, I think, the good Actions of the Regenerate differ from the best: that can be performed by any unregenerate Persons, is this, that they are performed out of such a Love to God, as has his infinite Perfections for the formal Reason and Ground of it. Here I shall observe, (i) That 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), 66. [Some spelling modernized; underlining mine.]
2) That those spoken to are said to have obtained the Faith mentioned “thro’ the Righteousness of God, and our Savior Jesus Christ,” is a great Truth, whether the Faith intended be of one of the Kinds mentioned, or the other; for common Grace, as well as that which is saving, is an Effect of the Merits of Christ’s Righteousness. But if his Faithfulness in fulfilling his Promises may be intended by the Righteousness here spoken of Verse 1, as some suppose, this would seem to favour the Hypothesis for which I plead. 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), 91. [Some spelling modernized; underlining mine.]
3) I further observe fifthly, that the Time when those here spoken to may by the mentioned Promises be made Partakers of the divine Nature intended, is when they have “escaped the Corruption that is in the World thro’ Lust:” For thus the Words run, Having escaped., &c. Which escaping the Corruption that is in the World, is not effected by Regeneration, but by a Work, in the Nature of it, preparatory to it; and of which Persons not savingly converted may be the Subjects, as evidently appears in Chap. 2. Verse 20, 21, 22, of the same Epistle; where such as had “escaped the Pollution of the Worlds thro’ the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” are yet mentioned as finally miscarrying. Now I am not here discoursing with such as hold, that true Saints may fall from Grace. In the Words therefore under Consideration, it is plainly intimated, that God will not ordinarily, at least, make Persons Partakers of the divine Nature ’till they have first reformed their Lives, in such a Manner and Degree as Persons may before they are born again. And this is plainly intimated to us in other Texts of Scripture, as in Prov. i. 22, 23. And I Cor, 6. 9. as I shall afterwards more fully shew. Men have no Reason to expect, that God will pour out his Spirit upon them, to. their saving Conversion, that will not repent and reform their Lives, in such a Manner as by the Help of common Grace they may. This, I say, is necessary in order to Men’s being “made Partakers of the divine Nature.” 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), 91-92. [Some spelling modernized; underlining mine.]