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Calvin and Calvinism » 2014 » January

Archive for January, 2014

8
Jan

John Yates (fl. 1612–1660) on Matthew 23:37

   Posted by: CalvinandCalvinism    in Matthew 23:37

Yates:

God is prepared to give faith to all that hear his Gospel.

Matt. 23:37. I would, ye would not. It is the will of God by the Gospel that all should be gathered unto him. Man’s will resists God’s will, and makes that Gospel of none effect that should be effectual unto all. God may add further grace and give men hearts to receive as freely, as his Gospel is offered unto them: but such grace is a royal prerogative, and reserved for some of many. All are beholding to God, but some find and feel the very riches of his grace, and are never able to be thankful enough, that they above others should receive so much. [Some spelling modernized and underlining mine.]

John Yates, The Saints Sufferings and Sinners Sorrows (Printed by T. Cotes, for N. Bourne, dwelling at the Royall Exchange, 1631), 198-199.

Credit to Tony for the find.

7
Jan

Ambrose (337-397): God is Good to All, With Reference to John 1:29

   Posted by: CalvinandCalvinism    in God is Good

Ambrose:

(2.4) Consider another point. “How good is God to Israel, to them that are right in heart!” Is God not good to all men, then? He is certainly good to all, because He is the Savior of all men, especially of the faithful. And so the Lord Jesus came that He might save what was lost;1 He came, indeed, to take away the sin of the world,2 to heal our wounds. But not all men desire the remedy, and many avoid it; else the sore may be stung by the drugs and lose its virulence. For that reason, He heals those that arc willing and does not compel the unwilling. Therefore, those who desire the remedy regain their health. But those who resist the physician3 and do not seek him out, cannot perceive his goodness, for they do not experience it. Now one who is healed is also restored to health, and thus the physician is good to those whom he has restored to health. Accordingly, God is good to those whose sins He has forgiven. But if someone has a sin that is incurable from a sore on his spirit, how can he value the physician as good, when he is avoiding Him? And therefore, as I said earlier, the Apostle aptly explained that God, who wishes all men to be saved,”4 is good to all men. And the special favor of God’s goodness is reserved most of all for the faithful, who receive the assistance of His good will and of His grace. But also, when the psalmist said, "How good is God to Israel, to them that are right in heart" he conveyed the sentiment of those who do not know how to entertain any other opinion concerning God, except that He is good toward all things and is in all.

Ambrose, “The Prayer of Job and David,” in Seven Exegetical Works, trans. Michael P. McHugh (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1972), 371-372.[Underlining mine; footnote values modified; footnote content original.]

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1Cf. Luke 19.10.

2Cf. John 1.29 .

3The motif of Christ as physician occurs very frequently in Ambrose. For a listing of the relevant passages, see Gryson 287 n. 157, and add the passing reference to the good physician in The Prayer of Job and David 2.3.10, above. Studies have been done on this theme as it appears, most notably, in Augustine, but none as yet on its use by Ambrose.

41 Tim. 2.4.

Aquinas:

[Objection:]

[26] Furthermore, if Christ made satisfaction enough for the sins of the human race, it seems unjust that men still suffer the penalties which were brought in, Scripture says, by sin. Summa Contra Gentiles 4.53.26.

[Rebuttal:]

[29] Granted, of course, that Christ has sufficiently satisfied for the sins of the human race by His death, as the twenty-sixth argument proposed, every single one, for all that, must seek the remedies of his own salvation. For the death of Christ is, so to say, a kind of universal cause of salvation, as the sin of the first man was a kind of universal cause of damnation. But a universal cause must be applied specially to each one, that he may receive the effect of the universal cause. The effect then, of the sin of the first parent comes to each one in the origin of the flesh, but the effect of the death of Christ comes to each one in a spiritual regeneration in which the man is somehow conjoined with Christ arid incorporated into Him. And for this reason each must seek to be regenerated through Christ, and must himself undertake to do those things in which, the power of Christ’s death operates. Summa Contra Gentiles 4.55.29. [Underlining mine and bracketed inserts mine.]

[1) For further explication, compare Ursinus, and Davenant, or Dabney. 2) In short, Aquinas here affirms that while Christ is the cause of salvation for all men, and in other places that Christ suffered for all men, nonetheless, the application of the benefit of Christ’s passion is conditional. Therefore, if someone for whom Christ suffers fails to meet the requisite condition, that man will be punished in his own person for his own sin. Hence, there is no injustice in the second punishment for the same sin.]