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Subsections
Repentance
Faith
Union with Christ
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Order of Contents
Elect before Conversion 1
Handicapped 2
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Articles
1500’s
Ursinus, Zachary
The Sum of Christian Religion: Delivered… in his Lectures upon the Catechism… tr. Henrie Parrie (Oxford, 1587)
1. What Conversion is
2. In what the conversion of the godly differs from the repentance of the wicked
3. What are the parts of Conversion
4. What are the causes of conversion
5. What are the effects of conversion
14. Of Man’s Conversion in Rules & Axions of Certain Chief Points of Christianity in A Collection of Certain Learned Discourses… (Oxford, 1600)
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1600’s
Perkins, William – A Dialogue of the State of a Christian Man, gathered out of the writings of Masters Tyndale & Bradford an appendix to A Golden Chain (Cambridge: Legat, 1600)
Rogers, Richard
Two Sermons on Conversion from Isa. 55:1-2 (1612; RBO, 2014) 29 pp.
Rogers’ (1551-1618) famed reply to the scoffer, ‘I serve a precise God’, gave the occasion for the puritans to be called ‘precisionists’. These two very experientially rich sermons on conversion lay the entrance to God’s kingdom sweetly low: to any that thirst for it. Rogers, with a discerning and soft hand, reproves worldly minded persons who do not desire the best things (even their own salvation), shows that the way to be saved is to thirst for it (for those that desire what God offers), and assures those that do thirst that God will surely make good his end of the deal. It is in thirsting that the Christian continues in this life to receive the best spiritual graces from God for everything that he or she needs.
Two Sermons on Conversion from Dt. 5:28-29 (1612; RBO, 2014) 21 pp.
Alsted, Johann H. – 3-4. ‘On the Grace of God & the Conversion of Man’ in Polemical Theology, exhibiting the Principal Eternal Things of Religion in Navigating Controversies, pt. 2, 4-6 (Partial) tr. by AI by Onku (Hanau, 1620; 1627), pt. 6, sect. 1, Of the Dogmas of Jacob Arminius & his Disciples, pp. 115-18 Latin
Rutherford, Samuel – ch. 11, ‘On the Mode of Conversion’ in Examination of Arminianism tr. by AI by Monergism (1639-1642; Utrecht, 1668; 2024), pp. 427-68
1. Whether grace irresistibly brings about conversion? We affirm against the Remonstrants and Jesuits.
2. Whether every act of God in conversion is simply moral, not real and physical? We deny against the Remonstrants.
3. Whether God indeed internally calls all whom He externally calls, so that there is therefore a strength to obey in them if they so will? We deny against the Remonstrants.
4. Whether absolutely no grace, not even common grace, accompanies the word of the gospel? We respond with a distinction.
5. Whether the essence of conversion lies in a sole, free act of assenting to and believing the Word, or rather in the giving of a new heart? We deny the former; we affirm the latter against the Remonstrants.
6. Whether only the power of believing is from God and the free act of believing from man, and yet the particular work of conversion is from God? We deny against the Remonstrants.
7. Whether, because God converts with irresistible force, the will is therefore coerced and freedom overturned? We deny against the Remonstrants.
Whether because God infallibly determines the will to one thing, He overturns liberty?
8. Whether only the elect are internally called? We affirm against the Remonstrants.
9. Whether the efficacy of grace and of conversion (rather than non-conversion) depends upon actual, determining grace? We affirm against the Remonstrants.
10. Whether non-conversion should be attributed to God denying efficacious grace, rather than to man refusing to believe? We deny against the Remonstrants.
11. Whether it is from free will that supernatural acts of believing and repentance be stronger or weaker, not from the nature of grace? We deny against the Remonstrants.
12. Whether God joins with active grace in supernatural works for this reason, because the created will joins in? We deny against the Remonstrants.
13. Whether the irresistibility of grace conflicts with precepts, promises, and threatenings? We deny against the Remonstrants.
14. Whether the efficacy of grace depends upon a congruent calling? We deny against the Jesuits and Remonstrants.
Leigh, Edward – ch. 3. Of Conversion & Free-Will in A System or Body of Divinity… (London, A.M., 1654), bk. 7, pp. 491-99
Rijssen, Leonard – ch. 13, ‘Conversion & Faith’ in A Complete Summary of Elenctic Theology & of as Much Didactic Theology as is Necessary tr. J. Wesley White MTh thesis (Bern, 1676; GPTS, 2009), pp. 144-59
Rijssen (1636?-1700?) was a prominent Dutch reformed minister and theologian, active in theological controversies.
van Mastricht, Peter – ch. 4, ‘The Conversion of those to be Redeemed’ in Theoretical Practical Theology (2nd ed. 1698; RHB), vol. 5, pt. 1, bk. 6
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1800’s
Vos, Geerhardus – ch. 3, ‘Conversion’ in Reformed Dogmatics tr: Richard Gaffin 1 vol. ed. Buy (1896; Lexham Press, 2020), vol. 4, ‘Soteriology’, pp. 668-82
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Quotes
1600’s
William Pemble
Vindiciæ gratiæ. = A Plea for Grace, More especially the Grace of Faith… (London: 1627), p. 135
“[Arminian Error:] 7. That man’s conversion is properly nothing but the act of believing the promise of grace.
This restraint of our conversion unto so narrow a compass as first to bring it from the habit [inward power] of faith to the act of believing, and then to appropriate it to that act without so much as once mentioning any other graces: this narrow conceit touching our conversion is that which has filled the writings of many learned about this point with much darkness and confusion.
They so speak and write of conversion as if it began in that one and only action of man’s will consenting to the promise of mercy in Christ. But this is without all ground. To convert is not only to believe, but to repent, to love God and our neighbor, to abstain from every evil way, to practice all duties of piety and goodness: these acts are as proper and immediate parts of true conversion, as faith.
Nor does the Scripture so much as intimate any such limitation, as to appropriate our conversion to the act of faith: nay, tis manifest that the Scriptures when they speak of man’s turning unto God, do join repentance and other godly acts together with faith: as appears by that solemn invitation of men unto God, ‘Repent and believe the Gospel,’ so often used in the New Testament.”
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Samuel Rutherford
Christ Dying & Drawing Sinners to Himself… (London, 1647), p. 464
“Assertion 2. The soul or its faculties are not destroyed in conversion: Peter’s will which he had when he was young, was the same when converted, but renewed, Jn. 21:18; the saints that Peter writes to are not to run to the same excess of riot as of old they wrought the will of the gentiles, 1 Pet. 4:3-4. Paul and Titus were the same men, when disobedient and serving diverse lusts, and when converted, and now washen, regenerated and justified heirs, Tit. 3:1-4. Paul: the same man, a persecuter and an apostle, but grace made a change, 1 Cor. 15:9-10, the same mind and spirit remains in nature, but they are renewed in the spirit of the mind, Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23. It is the same heart, but turned to the Lord, 2 Cor. 3:15-16. Christ but removes the scum and the dross, and the false metal, and frames the man a new vessel of mercy.”
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Latin
1600’s
Rutherford, Samuel – ch. 11, ‘On the Manner of Conversion’ in The Examination of Arminianism ed. Matthew Nethenus (1639-1643; Utrecht, 1668), pp. 453-98
Voet, Gisbert – 31. Appendix, ‘On the Second Moment of Conversion’ in Select Theological Disputations (Utrecht: Waesberg, 1655), vol. 2, pp. 465-68
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On the State of the Elect before Conversion
Latin
1600’s
Voet, Gisbert
Syllabus of Theological Problems (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 2, tract 3 Abbr.
2. The Subject & Antecedents of the Application, that is, of the State of the Elect before Conversion
. Some Problems More Hypothetical
27. ‘Of the State of the Elect Before Conversion’ in Select Theological Disputations (Utrecht: Waesberg, 1655), vol. 2, pp. 402-24
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On those Handicapped such that they cannot receive the Gospel by Rational Faculty
See also ‘On the Salvation of Infants’ and on the Lord’s Supper, ‘What about the Mentally Handicapped?’.
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Latin Articles
1600’s
Voet, Gisbert
Appendix: Of Retards, the Insane & the Deaf in Syllabus of Theological Problems (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 2, tract 3 Abbr.
28. ‘Appendix of Questions on the Deaf & Lunatics’ in Select Theological Disputations (Utrecht: Waesberg, 1655), vol. 2, pp. 424-32
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