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Order of Contents

Summaries of Post-Reformation  3
Collections of Quotes  6
Quotes  30

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Summaries of the Reformation & Puritan Era  3

Order of Summaries

Hulse
Muller
Mastricht

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Erroll Hulse

“The Example of the English Puritans” (Reformation Today 153, Sept/Oct 1996)

“As we see from the Westminster Confession and the 1689 Baptist Confession the Puritans believed in the doctrines of grace such as election and particular redemption (Rom 8:28-30). They followed Calvin in resisting false human rationalisations. For instance they resisted the idea that God only loves the elect and hates the non-elect.  This error is called hyper-Calvinism. It is a very serious error which is recurring today.  The Puritans were experts in their understanding of the concept of common grace although they did not use that term.¹  Their teaching accords fully with the way in which the doctrine of Common Grace is expounded by Prof John Murray (cf Works). They believed that the Holy Spirit is constantly active in restraining evil and promoting good throughout society. The Puritans believed in the universal love of God for all mankind (1 Tim 2:1-6; 2 Peter 3:9). They believed in the universal provision of God for all mankind according to the covenant made with Noah as representative of the whole world (Gen 8:20-22 and Ps 145).

¹ [Webmaster’s note: This particular claim is not true.  Following Calvin’s use of the term ‘general grace’, the puritans did use the term ‘common grace’, as is affirmed by Dr. Richard Muller below on p. 130, and as is instanced by James Durham (who has a whole section on ‘common grace’ in his Revelation commentary), Stephen Charnock (below), and John Bunyan (below).]”

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Richard Muller, is one of the world’s preeminent, contemporary, reformed, historians.  Here he summarizes the majority reformed view of the 1500’s and 1600’s. 

Dictionary of Latin & Greek Theological Terms

p. 130, under gratia communis, “common grace“

“i.e., a nonsaving, universal grace according to which God in his goodness bestows his favor upon all creation in the general blessings of physical sustenance and moral influence for the good.  Thus, rain falls on the just and the unjust, and all men have the law engraved on their hearts.  Gratia communis is therefore contrasted by the Reformed with particular or special grace (gratia particularis sive specialis, q.v.).”

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p. 130, under gratia Dei, “the grace of God“

“viz., the goodness of God (bonitas Dei, q.v.) toward mankind manifest as undeserved favor and, specifically, the cleansing power of God which renews and regenerates sinners.”

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p. 31-32, under amor Dei, “the love of God“

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“Considered as a divine attribute, the amor Dei can be defined as the propensity of the divine essence or nature for the good, both in the sense of God’s inward, intrinsic, benevolentia, or willing of the good, and in the sense of God’s external, extrinsic, beneficentia, or kindness, toward his creatures.

The amor Dei, then is directed inwardly and intrinsically toward God himself as the summum bonum, or highest good, and among the persons of the Trinity, toward one another.  

Externally or extrinsically, the amor Dei is directed toward all things, but according to a threefold distinction.  

[1] The amor Dei universalis encompasses all things and is manifest in the creation itself, in the conservation and governance of the world;

[2] the amor Dei communis is directed toward all human beings, both elect and reprobate, and is manifest in the blessings, or benefits (beneficia), of God;

[3] and the amor Dei proprius, or specialis, is directed toward the elect or believers only and is manifest in the gift of salvation.

The amor Dei universalis is frequently called by the scholastics complacentia, or general good-pleasure; the amor Dei communis is understood to be benevolentia in the strict sense of goodwill toward human beings; and amor Dei specialis, is termed amicitia, i.e. friendship or sympathy toward believers. 

In the discussion of the divine attributes, the amor Dei is considered both as an ultimate essential characteristic of God determinative of the other attributes and as one of the affections of the divine will.  In the former sense, resting on the scriptural predication, “God is Love” (1 John 4:8), the scholastics can subsume the grace (gratia), mercy (misericordia), long-suffering (long animitas), patience (patientia), and clemency or mildness (clementia) of God under the amor Dei.  In the latter sense, the amor Dei together with these related attributes is viewed as an aspect of the divine willing and is juxtaposed with the wrath (ira) and hate (odium) of God against sin.”

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p. 332, under voluntas Dei, “the will of God”

“The Reformed [of the 1500’s and 1600’s], by contrast [from the Lutherans], argue a hidden will of God to bestow special saving grace irresistibly upon the elect, a voluntas decreti sive beneplaciti arcana [will of decree or hidden good-pleasure], more ultimate than the revealed will of God to offer salvation to all by means of a universal grace…

The voluntas signi vel praecepti, the will of the sign or precept, is the voluntas revelata, or revealed will, of God and the voluntas moralis, or moral will, according to which God reveals in signs and precepts his plan for mankind both in the law and in the gospel.  Here, again, the Lutherans and Reformed differ insofar as the former [the Lutherans] deny [though the Reformed affirm] the contrast between a universally offered salvation revealed in the voluntas signi and a secret elective will in the voluntas beneplaciti.”

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p. 133, under gratia universalis, “universal grace“.  Note that universal grace was widely affirmed by the reformed in a certain sense in the call of the gospel, per the quote above.

“i.e., that grace of God in the universal call of the gospel according to which salvation is offered to all.”

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p. 329, under vocatio, “calling“

“specifically, the call of God to be his children, which occurs by the grace of the Holy Spirit, both generally in the government of the world and the manifestation of divine benevolentia (q.v.) toward all creatures, and specially in and through the proclamation of the Word.  Both Lutheran and Reformed scholastics make this distinction between the vocatio generalis, or universalis, and the vocatio specialis, or evangelica.  General or universal calling is sometimes termed vocatio realis, or real calling, because it occurs in and through the things (res) of the world, whereas special, or evangelical, calling is sometimes termed a vocatio verbalis, since it comes only through the Word (Verbum).  The Lutherans, however, argue that the vocatio specialis of the Verbum Dei [Word of God] (q.v.) is sufficient and effective for salvation and is presented equally to all with the divine intention that all be saved.  Against the Reformed distinction between an effective (efficax) and ineffective (inefficax) vocatio, the Lutherans hold the sufficiency of Scripture and the efficacious character of God’s call in all cases.  Failure to heed the call indicates no fault in the Word but rather in the hearer.  The Reformed, by contrast, distinguish vocatio specialis in vocatio externa, which is the universal call of the gospel to all men without distinction, and vocatio interna, which is the inward calling of the Spirit that creates the communion between man and God necessary for the vocatio externa also to be vocatio efficax.  Only the elect are therefore effectively called…”

[Note that Muller says that the Reformed of the Reformation age taught that God calls men indiscriminately to be his children, the call is gracious, and it is a manifestation of God’s good-will (benevolentia) toward all his creatures.  He also says that this universal call is a “real calling” and an aspect of it is ineffectual.]

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Peter van Mastricht

Theoretical Practical Theology  (1698; RHB), vol. 2, bk. 2, ch. 17, section 32, ‘3. Does the saving grace of God extend equally to each and every person?’, p. 367

“The Reformed commonly acknowledge a universal grace concerning natural things and a common grace concerning moral things, but saving grace concerning things that accompany salvation they do not allow, except as a grace proper to the elect: they acknowledge no saving grace that extends equally to each individual, not even that grace that they call objective.”

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Collections of Quotes  6 collections, 75+ quotes

At RBO

The Three-Fold Love of God  11 quotes

Reformed Christianity has historically distinguished three aspects of the love of God.  He loves (1) all creation because it is his creation, (2) all people, because they are made in his image, and (3) the elect who He superlatively loves with a full complacency.  Quotes from: Turretin, Leigh, Collinges, a Brakel, Jenkyn, Ussher, Gill, Hodge and Berkhof, Rutherford and Pictet.

The Westminster Standards & Divines on Common Grace

The doctrine of Common Grace is documented throughout the Westminster Standards and quotes from 8 members of the Westminster Assembly are excerpted from: Rutherford, Gillespie, Harris, Gataker, Ley, Burgess, Reynolds, & Manton.

Quotes on the Common Operations of the Spirit, by reformers and puritans, including the Spirit’s resistible influences in drawing people to Christ (which is consistent with Irresistible Grace).  46+ historic reformed writers are quoted.

The Atonement Provides Common Grace Benefits for the Reprobate  18+ quotes

Christ bought and intended non-saving benefits in the Atonement to the reprobate, as all the quoted reformed theologians affirm.  This doctrine is consistent with Limited Atonement which asserts that Christ paid for only the sins of the elect (and not the reprobate) in the Atonement.  For the Biblical proof of this doctrine, see the second section of this article.  For the clearest exposition of this doctrine, see Cunningham and Dabney.

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Off-Site

Kuiper, Herman – ‘Nadere Reformatie on Common Grace’  being a quote from his book, Calvin on Common Grace, Appendix, pp. i-iv.  Kuiper quotes van Mastricht, a Marck, a Brakel, Turretin & Witsius.

‘Turretin on Common & Special Grace’  at Calvin & Calvinism

In Turretin’s Institutes, 3rd Topic, ‘The One & Triune God’, Question 20, ‘On the Goodness, Love, Mercy & Grace of God’, p. 234, Turretin appears to teach a common goodness, love and mercy of God, but not a common grace of God, saying:

“Mercy attends upon the grace of God.  For as the latter exercises itself about man as a sinner (granting the pardon of his sin) so the former is exercised about man as miserable (relieving his misery).”

Yet this linked collection of Turretin quotes documents the many other places where Turretin teaches a common grace, in Institutes 1:381, 683-5; 2:510-11, 588, 609. 

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Order of Quotes  30

1500’s                                                           1700’s

Martin Bucer  †1551                                    Wilhelmus A’Brakel  †1711
John Calvin  †1564                                      Abraham Hellenbroek  †1731
John Knox  †1572                                       Gilbert Tennent  1744
Peter Dathenus  †1588                               James Fisher  †1775

1600’s                                                            1800’s – 1900’s

William Perkins                                            Charles Hodge  †1878
Amandus Polanus  †1610                            A.A. Hodge  †1886
Synopsis of Pure Theology  1625                Herman Bavinck  †1921
Hugh Binning  †1653                                    Geerhardus Vos  †1949
Joseph Hall  †1656                                       G.H. Kersten  †1948
John Trapp  †1669                                        Louis Berkhof  1951
Samuel Lee  1677                                         R.A. Finlayson
Matthew Poole  †1679                                   John Gerstner  †1996
Stephen Charnock  †1680                             D.A. Carson
Francis Turretin  †1687
John Bunyan  †1688
John Collinges  †1691
Matthew Mead  †1699

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Martin Bucer

Common Places of Martin Bucer, trans. & ed. D.F. Wright (England: Sutton Courtenay Press, 1972), Election, pp. 109-18  HT: David Ponter 

“The words ‘in love’ [in Eph. 1:4] allow of two senses: either of our kindness and love towards our neighbor through which imitating God Himself as best we can through his Spirit dwelling within us, we eagerly do good to all men; or of the love of us in an objective sense, the love wherewith God has loved us–so that we have a further mention of the cause of our election, which is solely the boundless love of God with which he embraces us in his Son.”

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John Calvin

John Calvin Quotes on Common Grace

John Calvin Quotes on God’s Love for all Mankind

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John Knox

The Works of John Knox, ed. David Laing (Wodrow Society, 1856), vol. 5, On Predestination, p. 87  HT: Tony Byrne

“After these common mercies, I say, whereof the reprobate are often partakers, he opens the treasure of his rich mercies, which are kept in Christ Jesus for his Elect.  Such as willingly delight not in blindness may clearly see that the Holy Ghost makes a plain difference betwixt the graces and mercies which are common to all, and that sovereign mercy which is immutably reserved to the chosen children.”

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“On Predestination” in The Works of John Knox, ed. David Laing (Edinburgh: J. Thin, 1895), 5:150-51

“Shortly after that the people of Israel, I mean the tribes of Juda, Benjamin, and Levi, were, by the miraculous work of God, after the bondage of seventy years, set at liberty and brought again to Jerusalem; in which they did re-edify the temple, repair the walls, and begin to multiply, and so to grow to some strength within the city and land; they fall to their old nature, I mean to be ungrate and unthankful unto God.  The people were slothful; and the priests, who should have provoked the people to the remembrance of those great benefits, were become even like to the rest.  The Lord therefore did raise up his Prophet Malachi (who was the last before Christ) sharply to rebuke, and plainly to convict this horrible ingratitude of that unthankful nation, who so shamefully had forgotten those so great benefits recently bestowed upon them.  And thus begins he his Prophecy: “I have loved you, sayeth the Lord,” in which words he speaks not of a common love, which in preserving and feeding all creatures is common to the reprobate, but of that love by the which he had sanctified and separated them from the rest of nations, to have his glory manifested.  But because they (as all ungrate persons do) did not consider wherein this his love towards them more then towards others did stand, he brings them to the fountain, demanding this question: “Was not Esau brother to Jacob? saith the Lord, and nevertheless Jacob have I loved, and Esau I have hated.”  And this he proves, not only by the diversity of the two countries which were given to their posterities, but also by that, that God continually showed himself loving to Jacob and to his posterity [which group of people included reprobates], reducing them again after long captivity; declaring himself, as it were, enemy to Edom, whose desolation he would never restore, but would destroy that which they should go about to build.”

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Peter Dathenus

The Pearl of Christian Comfort, trans. Arie Blok  (d. 1588; Reformation Heritage Books, 2005), p. 58

“Thus [in God’s blessing Ishmael] we see God’s great mercy—yes even to the evil and the ungrateful (Matt 5:45).  If, however, we involve ourselves in that subject matter, we would never exhaust it…”

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William Perkins  d. 1602

Quoted in David Silversides, The Free Offer of the Gospel, p. 94

“The benefits proper unto men are of two sorts: some are common to all men both good and bad, and some proper to the elect and faithful.”

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Amandus Polanus

Syntagma Theologiae Christianae, 2.122, quoted by Heinrich Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics: Set Out & Illustrated from the Sources, p. 95.  The large quote is from Heppe, the small quotes inside it are Polanus’.  HT: R. Andrew Myers

“‘The love of God is the essential property or essence of God, whereby delighting Himself in it, He wishes it the good which He approves.’  To be distinguished are ‘the general love of God’, the object of which is creation generally, so that ‘no one either of men or even of demons may say that he is not loved by God’;  God hates the sin in the godless, but loves the nature created by Him — and the ‘special love of God, by which He peculiarly pursues the separate elect.'”

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Synopsis of Pure Theology  1625

J. Polyander, Disputation 30, ‘On the Calling of People to Salvation’  in Synopsis of Pure Theology  (Brill, 2016), vol. 2

pp. 217-19

“Therefore they are idle dreamers who extend God’s gracious calling to each and every human being [such as Arminians].  For they mix up God’s love towards humanity (whereby God embraces all people as his own creatures) with the love whereby He has ordained to take into his grace a select number of people from the common crowd of sinners who are perishing for their own wickedness, and to guide them in Jesus Christ, the Son in whom He delights.”

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pp. 225-27

“46. The highest goal of both callings (shared by both the ineffective and the effective one) is the manifestation of God’s mercy towards those whom He calls.  The subordinate goal of the effective calling, and [the goal] proper to it, is the saving imparting of God’s grace; but the accidental goal of the ineffective calling is the conviction of stubborn disobedience and complete inexcusableness in the hearts of those who impudently withstand and interrupt the Holy Spirit as He speaks through the mouths of the preachers.† 

† [Editor: …The finis accidens is not essential to the goal but as it were a side effect of it.]”

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Hugh Binning 

Christian Love  (Banner of Truth, 2004), p. 6

‘God hath a general love to all the creatures’

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Joseph Hall

Contemplations on the Historical Passages of the Old & New Testaments  (d. 1656; Old Paths Gospel Press), vol. 1

p. 23

“Those that care not to please God, yet care for the outward favors of God [such as Esau], and are ready to murmur if they want [lack] them; as if God were bound to them and they [were] free.  And yet so merciful is God, that He has second blessings for those that love Him not, and gives them all they care for.  That one blessing of special love is for none but Israel; but those of common kindness are for them that can sell their birthright.  This blessing was more than Esau could be worthy of…”

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p. 261

“There is no earthly proof of God’s love to any nation, comparable to the substitution of a wise and pious governor…”

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John Trapp 

Commentary on the Bible, 2 Peter 1:7

“And to brotherly kindness, &c.  Love we must all men, but especially the family of faith; as our Saviour loved the young man, but not so as he did Lazarus, Mark 10:21; John 11:3.”

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Samuel Lee

Eliothriambos: Or the Triumph of Mercy in the Chariot of Praise (London: John Hancock, 1677), 1, 2, 11  as quoted in Day by Day with the English Puritans: Selected Readings for Daily Reflection, ed. Randall J. Pederson  (Hendrickson, 2004), p. 202

“The infinite goodness of God bestows more mercies upon us in the method of prevention, than of answer to particular prayers.  We enjoy most things before we ask, and often more excellent in kind and more abundant in measure than we ask… He makes his sun to rise every morning upon the unjust, and his moon to fill her orb with light upon the ungodly crescent [Muslims].  His paths in the clouds drops fatness upon the fields of bloody tyrants, and His ocean is open, and sweet western gales often swell the sails of rambling and roving pirates.  The earth is full of his goodness.  He spread and filled the tables of Heliogabalus with His hidden treasures.  There is no inhabitant but is laden with his benefits, however abused to their luxury, pride, and wantonness.  His mercies are over all his works; He makes the out-goings of the morning and evening to sing.  He preserves the goings out and the comings in of all the children of Adam.”

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Matthew Poole

Annotations  on Psalm 105:25, “He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtilly with his servants.”

“Not by putting this wicked hatred into them, which is not consistent either with the holiness of God’s nature, or with the truth of His word, and which was altogether unnecessary, because they had that and all other wickedness in them by nature; but partly by withdrawing the common gifts and operations of the his Spirit, and all the restraints and hindrances to it, and wholly leaving them to their own mistakes, and passions, and corrupt affections, which of their own accord were ready to take that course; and partly, by directing and governing that hatred, which was wholly in and from themselves, so as it should fall upon the Israelites rather than upon other people.”

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Stephen Charnock  †1680

Works, vol. 3, pp. 215-19

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Francis Turretin

Institutes of Elenctic Theology

vol. 1, 17^th Question, VII, p. 396-97

“VII. (2) The question [at hand to be discussed] is not whether God is born by a general love and philanthropy (philanthropia) towards men as his creatures, and also bestows upon them various temporal benefits pertaining to the things of this life (ta biotika).  We do not deny that God has never left Himself without witness (amartyron) with regard to this (Acts 14:17).  And we readily grant that there is no one who does not owe some gratitude to God and who, whatever he is or can do, is not bound to give thanks to his Creator.  But the question concerns the special and saving love which tends to spiritual benefits, and by which God willed to have mercy upon them to salvation.  We think this is particular to the elect alone, not universal and common to all.”

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On Providence  HT: Joseph Nally

“…we believe that all things without exception are under divine providence: whether heavenly or sublunary, great or small, necessary and natural or free and contingent.  Thus nothing in the nature of things can be granted or happen which does not depend on it.  The reasons are:

(1) God created all things, therefore He also takes care of all things.  For if it was glorious for God to create them, it ought not to be unbecoming in Him to take care of them.  Nay, as He created, He is bound to conserve and govern them continually, since He never deserts His own work, but ought to be perpetually present with it that it may not sink back into nothingness.”

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1:381  HT: David Ponter

“VI. The negative act includes two: both preterition, by which in the election of some to glory as well as to grace, he neglected and slighted others (which is evident from the event of election); and negative desertion, by which he left them in the corrupt mass and in their misery. However this is so to be understood: (that the are not excepted from the laws of common providence, but remain subject to them; nor are they immediately deprived of all God’s favor [Latin: gratia, or grace], but only of the saving and a vivifying (which is the fruit of election)”

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John Bunyan

Reprobation Asserted, ch. 4, ‘Of the Causes of Reprobation’

“Thirdly, another cause of eternal reprobation is the act and working of distinguishing love, and everlasting grace: God has universal love, and particular love; general love, and distinguishing love; and so accordingly does decree, purpose, and determine: from general love, the extension of general grace and mercy; but from that love that is distinguishing, peculiar grace and mercy: Was not Esau Jacob’s Brother?  Yet I loved Jacob, says the Lord, that is, with a better love, or a love that is more distinguishing: As he further makes appear in his answer to our Father Abraham, when he prayed to God for Ishmael: As for Ishmael, says He, I have heard thee; behold, I have blessed him, and will also make him fruitful: but my Covenant will I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear unto thee.  Touching which words, there are these things observable: Mal. 1:2; Gen. 17:18,19, etc.

1.  That God had better Love for Isaac, than he had for his Brother Ishmael.  Yet,

2.  Not because Isaac had done more worthy and goodly deeds, for Isaac was yet unborn.

3.  This choice Blessing could not be denied to Ishmael because he had disinherited himself by sin; for this Blessing was entailed to Isaac, before Ishmael had a being also.  Rom. 4:16-19; Gen. 15:4-5; Gen. 16.

4.  These things therefore must needs fall out through the working of distinguishing love and mercy, which had so cast the business, that the purpose of God according to Election might stand.

Further, Should not God decree to show distinguishing love and mercy, as well as that which is general and common, He must not discover his best love at all to the sons of men.  Again, if He should reveal and extend his best love to all the World in general, then there would not be such a thing as Love that does distinguish; for distinguishing love appears in separating between Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, the many called, and the few chosen.  Thus by virtue of distinguishing love, some must be reprobate: For distinguishing love must leave some, both of the angels in Heaven, and the inhabitants of the Earth; wherefore the decree also that does establish it, must needs leave some.”

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Works, vol. 3:449  HT: Tony Byrne

“Now the book of life in this place must not be so strictly taken as if it included those only that were elect of God to eternal life, but must be understood of that book wherein are recorded the rules and bounds of visible church-communion; and so all those that, through the gifts and operations of special or common grace, do fall within the compass of those rules and bounds.  Thus it was in the type at the return out of captivity, none were to be admitted entrance into the church but those that could show their privileges by genealogy and the records of the church; and to others it was said that they had neither portion, nor lot, nor memorial, in Jerusalem (Ezr. 2:62,63; Neh. 7:64,65; 2:20).”

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John Collinges

From Matthew Poole’s English Annotations on the Holy Bible  HT: Tony Byrne

“As your heavenly Father has a common love, which he extends to all mankind, in supplying their necessities, with the light and warmth of the sun, and with the rain; as well as a special love and favor, which He exercises only toward those that are good, and members of Christ; so ought you to have: though you are not obliged to take your enemies into your bosom, yet you ought to love them in their order.  And as your heavenly Father, though he will one day have a satisfaction from sinners, for the wrong done to his majesty, unless they repent; yet, to heap coals of fire on their heads, gives them good things of common providence, that he might not leave them without witness, yea, and affords them the outward means of grace for their souls: so, although you are bound to seek some satisfaction for God’s honor and glory from flagitious sinners, and though you may in an orderly course seek a moderate satisfaction for the wrong done to yourselves, yet you ought to love them with a love consistent with these things; that so you may imitate your heavenly Father, and approve yourselves to be his children.”

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Matthew Mead

Quoted by David Silversides, The Free Offer of the Gospel, p. 106, The Sermons of Matthew Mead (d. 1699; Soli Deo Gloria, 1991), p. 338 ff.

“Upon the stage of this world, mercy acts in part and shows itself in more objects, and in more instances, than the judgment of God does; that must have its course and triumph in the next world; here all sinners share, more or less, in the mercy of God.  “The Lord is good to all” (Ps. 145:9)  “He makes his rain to fall, and his sun to shine upon the just and the unjust.”  (Matt 5:45).”

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Wilhelmus A’Brakel

The Christian’s Reasonable Service, trans. Bartel Elshout  (Soli Deo Gloria, 1992) 1:122-23   HT: David Ponter

“Goodness is the very opposite of harshness, cruelty, gruffness, severity, mercilessness–all of which are far removed from God.  How unbecoming it is to have such thoughts about God!  Such sinful emotions are found in man.  The goodness of God, on the contrary, is the loveliness, benign character, sweetness, friendliness, kindness, and generosity of God.  Goodness is the very essence of God’s being, even if there were no creature to whom this could be manifested. “The good LORD pardon every one” (2 Chr.30:18); “Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will He teach sinners in the way” (Psa. 25:B); “There is none good but one, that is, God” (Mat. 19:17).

From this goodness issues forth lovingkindness and an inclination to bless His creatures.  This is to the astonishment of all who take note of this, which explains why David exclaims twenty-six times in Ps. 136, “For His Mercy endureth for ever.”  In the following texts we read likewise. “Also unto Thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy” (Psa. 62:12); “All the paths of the LORD are mercy” (Psa. 25:10).  From goodness and benevolence issues forth the doing of that which is good.  “Thou art good, and doest good” (Psa. 119:68); “Rejoice the soul of Thy servant: and attend unto the voice of my supplications.  For Thou Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee” (Psa. 86:4, 6, 5).

This goodness is of a general nature in reference to all God’s creatures, since they are His creatures.  “The LORD is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all is works” (Psa. 145:9); “The earth is full of the goodness of the LORD” (Psa. 33:5); “For He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mat. 5:45).  The goodness which is of a special or particular nature as it relates to God’s children is thus expressed: ‘Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as arc of a clean heart” (Psa. 73:1); “The LORD is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him” (Lam. 3:25).  This goodness of God is the reason why a believer, even after many backslidings, is motivated by renewal to return unto the Lord. “The children of Israel shall return… and shall fear the LORD and His goodness” (Hosea 3:5); “But I have trusted in Thy mercy” (Psa. 13:5).  This is why they call the Lord “the God of my mercy” (Psa. 59:10, 17) . In this goodness they rejoice and this goodness they magnify.  “I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever” (Psa. 89:1); “Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever” (Psa. 106:1).”

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Abraham Hellenbroek  (1658-1731)

A Specimen of Divine Truths  HT: R. Andrew Myers

“Q. 35. How many kinds of grace are there?

A. It is common, in regard to all men, (Matt. 5:45), or particular and saving in regard to the elect only, (Rom. 3:24).”

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Gilbert Tennent

Myers, Andrew – ‘Three Kinds of Grace, According to Gilbert Tennent’  2020  6 paragraphs  The quote from Tennent is from his Twenty-Three Sermons on Man’s Chief End (1744); it is also in Archibald Alexander’s Sermons of the Log College (1855).

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James Fisher & Ebenezer Erskine

Fisher’s Catechism  HT: Andrew Myers

Q. 138.  How is the goodness of God manifested in his providence?

A. In preserving his creatures, and making bountiful provision for them, Psalm 145:9,15,16.

Q. 139.  How is this goodness distinguished?

A. Into common and special goodness.

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Charles Hodge

Systematic Theology (Eerdmans, 1997), vol. 2, pp. 654-75  HT: Joesph Nally

“That there is a divine influence of the Spirit granted to all men, is plain both from Scripture and from experience… To the general influence of the Spirit (or to common grace) we owe: 1. All the decorum, order, refinement, and virtue existing among men…  2. To the same divine agent is due specially that general fear of God, and the religious feeling which prevail among men…,  3. The Scriptures refer to this general influence of the Spirit those religious experiences, varied in character and degree, which so often occur where genuine conversion, or regeneration does not attend or follow.”

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Herman Bavinck

Our Reasonable Faith: A Survey of Christian Doctrine  trans. Henry Zylstra (Eerdmans, 1956), ch. 20, ‘The Christian Calling,’ pp. 415-20

“And, in the third place, this external calling is not without results.  In general it can be said of it that God achieves His purpose by means of it…

Among the heathen there is great difference between the ways in which they react to the calling of nature.  Socrates and Plato are not to be named in one breath with Caligula and Nero.  And so it is by no means the same thing whether the gospel is mocked and blasphemed, on the one hand, or accepted with an historical or temporary belief, on the other.  True, between these two kinds of faith and a saving faith of the heart there is an essential difference.  But that is not to equate them with total unbelief.  On the contrary, they are fruits of God’s common grace and they carry with them many temporal blessings.”

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A.A. Hodge

Outlines of Theology  (1879), pp. 451-52

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Geerhardus Vos

The Scriptural Doctrine of the Love of God  in The Presbyterian & Reformed Review 13:1-37  (1902)

p. 11

“In point of fact, the Old Testament has a great deal to teach on the benevolent side of God’s self-revelation to the world at large.  The strongest of terms are used on occasion to emphasize this truth.  Even the covenant conception is not deemed too sacred to be employed for the purpose of describing the solemn manner in which God pledged to the whole of creation, in the day of Noah, His abundant, ever-flowing kindness in the sphere of natural life, His longsuffering in the view of universal sin, His common grace working for the restraint of sin.  It is attributed to His righteousness, universally revealed, that He keeps this covenant and preserves man and beast.  As Jonah took pity on his gourd, so He pities and spares the Ninevites and their cattle. His mercy is wider and deeper than the ocean of human misery.”

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p. 17

As a positive fact, on the other hand, Paul distinctly recognizes the universal character which the manifestation of the divine love in its various aspects has assumed.  The benevolence pertaining to the sphere of common grace has received its classical description in the words that God has not left Himself without witness, in that He does good and gives from heaven rain and fruitful seasons, filling the hearts of all men with food and gladness (Acts 14:17). There is a general goodness of God adapted to lead men to repentance. [Rom. 2:4]

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G.H. Kersten

Reformed Dogmatics  HT: Andrew Myers

vol. 1, pp. 72-73

“Common Grace

Although, as we stated, special grace receives the prime emphasis, nevertheless we can speak of grace in a broader sense, hence of common grace.  The Word of God gives us liberty to do so, when it speaks of grace being bestowed upon the ungodly, which does not lead to salvation. “Let favor (Dutch: genade, which is grace) be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness”. (Isa. 26:10)  “Turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.” (Jude: 4)

The confessions also speak of common grace, although they do not use that name.  Thus in Article 14 of the Belgic Confession of Faith, the innate knowledge of God is called a few remains of the image of God in which man was created.  These few remains are left in all men after the fall.  Common grace is also indicated in Article 35, where we read, “Now those, who are regenerated, have in them a twofold life, the one corporal and temporal, which they have from their first birth and is common to all men.”  Also the Canons of Dort speak of common grace under the Third and Fourth Heads of Doctrine, Art. 4.  Calvin was the first in this, and was followed by a long line of orthodox theologians, with which God has richly blessed the Church of the Netherlands.  Also the Walcheren Articles deal with common grace in the first chapter.  There is therefore no objection to speaking of common grace, provided that we insist against all those that hold the universal doctrine of redemption, that the blood of Christ was shed only for the elect, and the application of it was given only to the elect.”

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Louis Berkhof 

Systematic Theology  (Eerdmans, 1968), pp. 432-46  HT: Joseph Nally

“The origin of the doctrine of common grace was occasioned by the fact that there is in the world, alongside of the course of the Christian life with all its blessings, a natural course of life, which is not redemptive and yet exhibits many traces of the true, the good, and the beautiful.  The question arose, How can we explain the comparatively orderly life in the world, seeing that the whole world lies under the curse of sin?  How is it that the earth yields precious fruit in rich abundance and does not simply bring forth thorns and thistles?  How we can we account for it that sinful man still retains some knowledge of God, of natural things, and of the difference between good and evil, and shows some regard for virtue and for good outward behavior?  What explanation can be given for the special gifts and talents that with which the natural man is endowed, and of the development of science and art by those who are entirely devoid of the new life that is in Christ Jesus?  How can we explain the religious aspirations of men everywhere, even of those who did not come in touch with the Christian religion?  How can the unregenerate still speak truth, do good to others, and lead outwardly virtuous lives?”

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See also Berkhof’s The Three Points [of Common Grace] in all Part Reformed and the chapter in his Systematic Theology entitled Common Grace.

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R.A. Finlayson  was a professor in the Free Church of Scotland in the 1900’s

Reformed Theological Writings of R.A. Finlayson  (Christian Focus Publications, 1996), p. 253

Chapter 5, The Benefits of the Covenant – Efficacious Grace in the Westminster Confession of Faith

“1. What is meant by Efficacious Grace?

The [Westminster] Confession makes a distinction between ‘common grace’ and ‘efficacious grace’.  We are not justified, however, in making this a distinction in kind as if common grace was different in quality from saving grace.  Both are the free unmerited favor of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Any distinction that we know of is the result of its operations.  The ministry of the Spirit of God in common grace is often ineffective and fruitless insofar as actual salvation is concerned, whereas effectual grace is an operation of the Spirit which invariably without fail results in salvation.”

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John Gerstner

“Singing the Words God Has Put in Our Mouths” (originally published in The Hymn, January 1953), in John H. Gerstner: The Early Writings, vol. 1, pp. 204-5  HT: Andrew Myers

“The third theological foundation of the Genevan Psalter was the doctrine of common grace. By this it was recognized that there are two types of divine gifts — supernatural and natural. The former are the virtues wrought in the soul by a special work of grace; the latter are those which pertain to secular matters and are distributed to all, not to saints only; as a matter of fact, often to sinners. But, wherever they were, Calvin recognized these and used them for his purposes. Skill in music is a natural rather than a supernatural skill, but Calvin was ever on the alert to capture this for the worship of God. Thus, at his Academy in Geneva, he made music required four hours each week. The choir thereby trained in this skill was to lead the people so they could, under its leadership, cultivate the same skill. Acting on this same principle, Calvin was quick to appreciate the able — though not excessively orthodox — Marot, and to stand by the gifted composer, Bourgeois, who was thrown into prison for breaking some of the rigid disciplines of Geneva of which Calvin was himself the main author. Abraham Kuyper, in his admirable Lectures on Calvinism, so aptly remarks, “Music…would flourish, henceforth, not within the narrow limitation of particular grace, but in the wide and fertile fields of common grace.””

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D.A. Carson

The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God  (Crossway, 2000), pp. 23, 75, as quoted by Ian Murray, The Cross: the Pulpit of God’s Love  (n.d.), p. 20

“We must not view these ways of talking about the love of God as independent, compartmentalized, loves of God… as if each were hermetically sealed off from the other… If you absolutize any one of these ways in which the Bible speaks of the love of God, you will generate a false system that squeezes out other important things the Bible says, thus finally distorting your vision of God.”

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Related Pages

Common Grace

The Sincere Free Offer of the Gospel

John Calvin Quotes on the Fatherhood of God over all Men