Sword & Trowel 2019: Issue 1
application of ‘So run, that ye may ob- tain’ (1 Corinthians 9.24), closes with ‘If thou dost not know the way, inquire at the Word of God; if thou wantest company, cry for God’s Spirit; if thou wantest encouragement, entertain the promises. But be sure thou beginnest betimes; get into the way, run apace, and hold out to the end, and the Lord give thee a prosperous journey.’
THOMAS GOODWIN ‘Preach the Gospel to every crea- ture: yet this is not the Gospel to be preached – that God hath promised to save every creature; though upon promulgation of them, it becomes the duty of every one to come to Christ, and a command is laid on men to do it’ (1680 – Vol. 8, p. 245).
THOMAS MANTON ‘Fire burneth where it meeteth with matter combustible, but a reasonable creature needeth to be exhorted to perform acts agreeable to his principle’ (1670 – Vol. 19, p. 247).
DAVID CLARKSON ‘It is our duty to endeavour what is impossible by our endeavours to at- tain – so sin has made it; to avoid all sin, to perform perfect obedience, to love God with all the heart’ (Associate pastor with John Owen – 1682 – Vol. 2, p. 131).
JOHN FLAVEL ‘But you will say, if unregenerate men be dead men, to what purpose is it to persuade them to arise and stand up?…This difficulty is solved in this very text (Ephesians 5.14): though the duty is ours, yet the power is God’s’ (1680 – Vol. 2, p. 423).
JOHN HOWE ‘It is the known duty of a sinner under the Gospel to turn to God through
page 18 Duty Faith – by A W Pink
Christ; and it is also declared in the same Gospel…that none can of them- selves turn to God and believe in his Son without the help of special effica- cious grace; it must hereupon be a man’s duty also to pray for that grace which may enable him thereto’ (1690 – Vol. 2, p. 346).
HERMANN WITSIUS ‘This [Gospel] call contains the com- mand of faith by which all men without exception, to whom God vouchsafes the same, are enjoined to believe in Christ, in that way and manner which is revealed in the Gospel: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 45.22)’ (1690 – Vol. 3, p. 353).
WALTER MARSHALL ‘Neither will this assertion make it a vain thing to preach the Gospel to nat- ural people, and to exhort them to true repentance and faith in Christ for their conversion and salvation’ (1692 – The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, so highly commended by James Hervey, p. 121).
JOHN GILL ‘And even not coming to Christ, and believing in him in this spiritual manner, when he is revealed in the external ministry of the Word, as God’s way of salvation, is criminal and blameworthy, notwithstanding men’s want of both will and power’ (1735 – The Cause of God and Truth, p. 87).
We could add quotations from others, but the above are from well-known, representative, sound, Calvinistic divines; several of them high Calvinists. Yet their holding firmly to the spiritual inability of the natural man, to unconditional elec- tion, particular redemption, and the
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