Sunday, July 25, 2010

The God of All Grace

Thomas Taylor (1576-1632), English Puritan, wrote a commentary on Titus (described by Joel Beeke and Randall Pederson, Meet the Puritans, p. 579, as "the most famous and safest guide on Titus"), in which he speaks of the types of grace bestowed by God upon man, p. 280 (1612, 1980):

By "grace" in scripture are sometimes meant the gifts of grace, that is, any good gift which proceeds from the favour and love of God towards man, whether privative (in withholding evils deserved, or good things which we would abuse) or positive. These gifts of grace may be general and common, given to the elect and reprobate alike, as the gift of tongues, learning, prophecy, miracles, etc.; or they may be more spiritual, given only to the saved and used to distinguish them from others. Among the latter we may mention the first and eternal grace of election, and the second grace by which those who are elected and given to the Son, are in due time (by effectual vocation, justification, and sanctification) led to glory and salvation. All these are of His grace, and Peter calls Him "the God of all grace."

No comments:

Post a Comment