November 2007 - Protestant Reformed Churches in America

Preparatory Grace in the Puritans
unto regeneration” but do not necessarily lead to it. 41 Those who
refuse to apply themselves in the use of means or who do not
“sincerely improve” what they have received in these preliminary
steps deserve to perish, and often do perish. 42 Such “faint not
merely for want of strength to proceed, but, by a free act of their
own wills, they refuse the grace which is farther tendered unto
them in the gospel.” 43
Other Puritans, by the advice they give to the unconverted,
show that they believe that the unregenerate can indeed desire
salvation. By this they mean more than the fact that the unregenerate
can desire to escape hell. No serious-minded unbeliever
who believes in the existence of a place called hell wants to go
there. That does not mean that the natural man desires the spiritual
blessings of salvation.
Thomas Manton (1620-1677) counsels the sinner to pray for
grace, but gives him no guarantee of success:
There is a great uncertainty, yet pray; it is God’s usual way to meet
with them that seek him … God is not engaged, but who knows what
importunity may do He may, and He may not, give grace; but usually
He doth. It is God’s usual way to bless industry, and yet all they
that labor have not an absolute certainty of success. 44
What a desperately gloomy message is this! How different
from Christ’s promise: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and
ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every
one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him
that knocketh it shall be opened “(Matt. 7:7-8).
Joseph Alleine (1634-1668), in his Alarm to the Unconverted,
makes appeals to the unconverted sinner that reveal how much
power he ascribes to the sinner’s preparations. Sinners, he says,
41. Owen, Works, vol. 3, p. 234.
42. Owen, Works, vol. 3, p. 236.
43. Owen, Works, vol. 3, p. 236.
44. Edward Hindson (Ed.), Introduction to Puritan Theology: A
Reader (Baker: Grand Rapids, MI, 1976), p. 100.
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