Joseph Hussey, God’s Operations Of Grace But No Offers Of His Grace (Complete)

The bowels of Jesus Christ are the greatest bowels to sinners, Phil. 1:8, and therefore let us understand what the bowels and mercies are, Phil. 2:1, and understand what the mind and will of the Lord is, Eph. 5:17, in exhortations.

An exhortation plainly differs from an invitation, {though we see that men have mismatched them, as if they understood not the property of them,} and likewise is the difference from an offer of Grace. It is sheer ignorance in the thoughts of any men to take them up promiscuously; that is, without order or consideration, without any regard or respect to difference. An offer, as I’ve have shown, is before a person, and an invitation is of a person, and is sent out after a person to be a guest, Lk. 14:16-17 & Matt. 22:3-4; and so is an outward call of that person absent, to come and be present. An exhortation is of one that is, to hand, and their stands present upon the spot. The exhortation also is that the person standing present would perform some other act than that first act of his coming to means upon invitation.

Objection: “As for exhortations to unbelievers, all you allow, if I mistake you not, is to exhort them unto an attendance upon the means of Grace, or things of that nature, but I confess that ministers should be careful as that they rob not Christ, so that they rob not the Spirit; and though the work of faith, repentance, etc., is the Spirit’s, yet the acts are ours. So that it doth not exhort to take his work into the creature’s hand. It doth but direct the way of duty, and leave the issue to the Spirit. It is prophesying indeed to the dry bones, but therewith and thereby may life be conveyed. John the Baptist doctrine, {repent and believe the Gospel,} was not to believers only; nor Peter’s exhortation in Acts chapter two; for sinners as sinners must be exhorted to come to Christ, etc.” Says this defence, which as appears by the confusion of it, the defender himself never understood.

Answer: When ministers exhort unbelievers and unregenerate sinners, or sinners as sinners, I Tim. 1:7, to come to Christ for what they call Union, Justification, Adoption, Sanctification, &c., they must be supposed to exhort them to come to Christ, either in a mere act of the unregenerate nature, or by an act of that nature apprehended of Christ Jesus. Phil. 3:12. Let them take which side they will to defend their own thought. If they take the one side; that is, if ministers exhort sinners to come to Christ by an act of the nature apprehended of Christ Jesus, then they are not unregenerate persons after that Apprehending Act, nor are they sinners as sinners, but are Sanctified through Christ Jesus, Jn. 17:17, even when they so exhort them to come to Christ, to use their own phrase. They are persons through the Apprehending Act of Christ Jesus previously or beforehand influenced in the Election Union, in the Justification, in the Adoption, in the Sanctification, &c., as it stands for them in the Mediator between God and Christ; and also as it hath passed upon them by vital and efficacious influences of the Spirit’s work through Christ, I Jn. 4:9 & Rom. 5:9 & Eph. 2:18; and so they cannot be now unregenerate, nor sinners as sinners under this Salvation Grace. The reason is, the apprehending act of Christ Jesus doth under it certainly bestow the Holy Spirit, who instantaneously works spiritual life, as himself becomes the secret earnest in their natures of all that had passed for them federally, or in the Everlasting Covenant for them, Jer. 31:3, between God and Christ in and by Christ Jesus, and so by an Operating Conveyance, Christ from the Father through the Spirit, Eph. 2:22, hath passively wrought the change. My meaning is, the regenerate object hath been passive under the Spirit’s work, antecedently to the exhortation, Acts 10:42-43, and not consequently thereunto. Again, if ministers take the other side, and exhort these persons as unregenerate and sinners as sinners to come to Christ, to believe in Christ; and also if they mean in exhorting them that they come certainly, and come through all seen difficulties, then unavoidably, and contrary to their own first principles, they make faith to be but coming into a report of Christ, Isa. 53:1, as we all admit touching the capacity of an unregenerate nature, and not “into” the Person of Christ, nor “into” Christ, as the original phrases signify. {“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name;” Jn. 1:12; that is, “into his name.” “How then shall they call on him in whom they…

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Having handled the matter of this treatise through the Father’s Donation of Christ, and through the Spirit’s Operation with Christ, I have beaten down, as an instrument in the Lord’s hand, the minister’s dishonourable oblation of Christ. The substance hath been to show, that whilst an offerer of Christ preaches Christ {as he calls it} immediately for acceptance, a faithful steward of the mysteries of Christ {not handling the word of God deceitfully, but workmen like, II Cor. 4:2,} preaches Christ first of all in the Father’s preparations, next in the Son’s procurements, and last of all, under the same communications of the anointing, he preaches Christ in the Spirit’s principles to discern and receive him. I now therefore come to some brief account of the invitation of sinners to come to Christ.

Plea#1. “I find that you do not so express about the Invitation of sinners to Christ; but surely an Invitation of sinners to Christ stands or falls with the former about offers of Christ. So I have learned from, II Cor. 5:18-20, that there are two parts of a minister’s work. 1. A declaration concerning what God and Christ have done in reconciliation made by Christ, verses 18 & 19. 2. An invitation and earnest exhortation to accept it, verse 20, it is the ministry committed to them before they preached to the Corinthians, and which had been their work in preaching to them, whereof he puts them in mind; as though God did beseech you by us {as for instance while we speak to you} be you reconciled to God. This is your work and message, thus to sinners.”

Reply. Since I have learned Christ, Eph. 4:20, I have never understood that that place, II Cor.5:18-19, was an exhortation to sinners, distinct from Saints and apart from the New Born. I’ve never took it since Conversion, I Jn. 2:20, to be spoken of the elect’s first coming to Christ, or of their coming to Christ as a Priest in his Righteousness and Blood, to receive the atonement. {“And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” Rom. 5:11.} Indeed before my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, Eph. 3:3, {for this was the ground of my Conversion to Christ} I had taken it so as others do, while they profess conversion to Christ, but through Free Grace rectifying the mistake, I now see to take it otherwise. My arguments are these.

First Argument: Though the first argument hath been laid down already, yet I’ll just here reinforce it. The words are spoken as part of the Epistle, and that under the same style, as it was directed in the salutation. But the style of salutation was not to sinners, as it was directed unto the Church of God at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia, I Cor. 1:2; whereas if this had been an Invitation of Grace to sinners, or an Invitation of Christ to men’s first coming unto Christ {who while invited were not yet Saints} then it would not have been to the…

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Plea #1. “This point in your book of Offers, Invitations and Exhortations, I must take some notice of, having prepared some manuscripts which I know not but I may publish, to justify my own and the practice of others, or rather the Gospel itself.”

Reply. It’s a pity that it was not thought on by this writer, that neither he nor his practice should have been taken notice of to be justified, but that the Lord alone was to be exalted. For it is plain he brings down the Gospel to himself and his practice, who should have brought up himself and his practice to the Gospel, had he pleaded in the light and teachings of the Lord the Spirit. It is certain that our own and other men’s practices without the Spirit of Christ, is none of the Gospel, call it what we will; but an eclipse of the Gospel that darkens the sun at noonday. It’s a veil hung up before the Gospel; and if ever the holy of holies be made manifest, this veil must antecedently be rent, and the pieces of it, like the curtains of the Jewish night, must be all laid by, when we come to see that every veil is done away in Christ. {“But their minds were blinded; for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ.” II Cor. 3:14.} We are poor things in preparing manuscripts before the Holy Ghost hath prepared our hearts; and what evidence is it that he hath prepared our hearts, where the preaching of Election and of God’s Effectual Grace, God’s Choice and God’s Power, are made so slight of through all these pleas?

Plea #2. “We ought to preach Christ without concerning ourselves whether we preach him to the elect or the non-elect.”

Reply. Marvelous darkness! Who would not think that this man was pleading for Christ under an eclipse of the sun? Do not the Scriptures tell us of Christ, that God hath made a Covenant with his chosen, Psal. 89:3, that Christ is the living stone, chosen of God and precious, I Pet. 2:4, that Christ is his servant whom he hath chosen, Isa.43:10, Matt. 12:18, that Christ is his elect in whom his soul delighteth, Isa. 42:1; all which was very eminently shadowed out in the choice of David, in opposition to Saul. The Lord chose me before thy Father, II Sam. 6:21, says David to Michal, when she despised him for dancing before the ark, verse 16; and says the LORD, “I chose David to be over my people,” II Chron. 6:5,6, and again, “David whom I chose;” and “he chose David his servant.” Psal. 78:70. Well now, is all this spoken of the Head, and hath our profession and learning of Christ brought us no further among the members, than to plead that we ought to preach him without concerning ourselves whether we preach Christ to the elect or the non-elect? Are not Christ {chosen} and they that are chosen in Christ, both of one piece of Free Grace? Is it not the Father’s Free Grace to choose Christ the Head of the members, and to choose the elect the members of Christ? Sure then, if we believe that God hath chosen the…

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The first text mistaken is Rev. 22:17, “and the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” This text is of another tendency than that in John 7:37, “if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink,” which text I have opened in my last book. “Let him that is athirst come.” Athirst for what? It’s plain, for the “pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Rev. 22:1. Athirst, when? Why, this is also plain, ‘tis when that pure river of the water of life runs. {“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” Rev. 21:6.} Nothing is said of it now so distinctly, so as to make the children of God {set in opposition to the dogs, verse 15, &c.,} to thirst for it. No. Such drink under muddy preachers, and are almost everywhere satisfied with mingled streams. But, when the day spoken of comes, it will be otherwise. Then men will find all sermons and waters they have hitherto had, did not satisfy their thirst. And the reason is, they will know that the New Jerusalem Glory is come, all old things and mixtures are passed away, and behold all things are become new, Rev. 21:5, and eminently this same pure river of the water of life in the paradise of God, is ever new; but there is a time coming when the church of God will drink more largely of the waters of life without mixture, than ever she has done yet. The waters that now make glad the city of our God, Psal. 46:4, have some mixtures of our own in them, and the River is not yet seen that’s to be as clear as a crystal. John was here shown such a pure river as had never yet flowed. No; not in the days of the Apostles themselves. It is therefore no offer of Grace in our sermons to sinners to believe on Jesus Christ, but it is an invitation of the glorious church at the later day, to the members of the…

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Having beaten down the dream of an effectual offer, by setting against it the Effectual Operation of God, in producing the new creature, in effecting God’s husbandry, and in raising God’s building, I now come to the Fourth resolution of the question. Do you ask, how must we preach, if we do not offer Christ to sinners? I answer, we must preach the Gospel evangelically, so as, if possible, to stain the pride of all glory in the creature, for we are to “preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake,” II Cor. 4:5, and if you preach not yourselves, then these offers will certainly return from the pit from whence they were raised by men’s clever misconstruction of God’s free grace in Christ.

Offers always tend towards creature-glorying, for when you should be evangelizing, how God is rich in mercy, and how full in Grace and Power through the Lord our Righteousness, Eph. 2:4, you begin proposing some creature-act; and so Christ is now and then brought in, by the bye, only upon the courtesy of your offers. Here his name is made to stoop to your wickedness, and to serve with your sins. Thus offers are fitted to exalt the creature, for when you should be preaching all that exalts God, in contriving, preparing, sending, and revealing Salvation by Christ, also in bestowing and conveying these truths into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, men instead of it, depart from the truth, I Tim. 4:1, giving heed to a seducing spirit that carries them away to glory in offers; and when offers come to town, what do they do? Alas, they evidently lessen God and greaten man in the people’s eyes that are open. I never saw an offer mentioned in any book, but therein is an evident debasing of God, even below the character of the creature. And I believe an experimental, enlightened Christian, led into the mystery of God, and having a living communion with God in his soul, could never hear the offer drop in a sermon, without lessening in his mind all which was said before.

Tenders of Salvation, i.e., offers of Grace are not calculated to exalt God in his Person, his covenant of Grace, or his Operation of Grace; and is this good news? No, then never preach thus, to follow the multitude, Exod. 23:2, into their offer-language. Offers give God the lie by bringing glory to the creature, and so to make the…

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The First resolution of the question. We must preach the Gospel, as it agrees with the Reconciliation of God to sinners, and sinners to God, through the gift by Grace, Rom. 5:15, in the Imputation of the Righteousness of God in Christ to them; for not as the offence, so also is the Free gift; it is a gift by Grace, and that by one Man, even by Jesus Christ, abounding unto many. Let me begin and make out the doctrine of Imputation from Rom. 4:22-23. “And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him.” It? What was this it? Abraham’s act of faith say some. No; I answer, the “it” was the Object of that act of faith, called the promise, or the hope of Israel. Acts 26:6-7. {Gen.15:6, “and he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness,” along with Gal.3:6, “even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness;” the “it” being the “faith” of verse 7, “faith” there being the Gospel, as verse 8, “foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham,” and as in Gal. 1:23, “but they had heard only, that he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed,” the faith of the Gospel being preached, “that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith,” or the Gospel, or more particularly Christ, who is the Promise of Acts 26:6- 7, or the ONE that is promised.} For, the Scriptures do everywhere in an analogy, lay the stress of the matter upon the Object; that is to say, upon Christ, upon his Righteousness and Blood to justify; and therefore that Object must be the matter of the Imputation here meant. If any will forcibly wrest it to mean faith, because of the coherence, verse 18, Abraham “who against hope believed in hope,” also the context speaks, verse 19, of his being “not weak in faith,” and verse 20, of his staggering not “at the promise of God through unbelief;” likewise, verse 20, of his being “strong in faith,” and verse 21, of his being “fully persuaded,” Heb. 11:13, all which bespeaks faith, and that this faith is the “it” which was imputed; I must still answer and say, that faith was not the “it” which was imputed. One place must be expounded by many, not many places by one. Therefore, by the “it” is to be understood that the thing he had in his eye was imputed; as if I should say, my sight tells me, then the…

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I need not speak much by way of recapitulation, having so much to add by way of enlargement. And yet I shall not utterly reject all coincidence neither. Well then, we must preach the Gospel as the things of the Gospel are, and not as the things of the Gospel are not. We must preach the Gospel and lay open the things of God, to the glory of God in Christ, and to the glory of God by Christ, and to the glory of God through Christ. In Christ, in the deeds and settlements of God the Father. By Christ, in the purchase and conveyance by God the Mediator; and through Christ, in the springs of influences by God the Comforter; which influences through Christ, by the Spirit, are quite distinct from all manner of speculations concerning Christ.

We must preach the Gospel as the things of it are in Christ, by a Settlement of God the Father. We must preach the Gospel so as to honour and commend the Father’s love, Matt. 11:27, and that in his choosing the elect in Christ before the foundation of the world. {“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” Eph. 1:4.} Here is a special sort of union in God’s act. Now preaching the Gospel is carrying the Gospel altogether, as it stands in all parts of it, fulfilling of our ministry, Acts 20:24, with this election-union. Offers agree not with election-union; for though men who talk of offers may hold election faintly, Jer. 2:19, yet it is very little they hold, and none of it in the strength of Christ; neither do they live by the doctrine they pretend to hold, notwithstanding all their pretended temptations they have to drop it; as men so warped, did for forty years of the last century, who only prepared matters for this generation for men to deny election, and hate it the more in the present day; and very few of these offering-men who pretend to hold election do seek heartily to take part with God therein, Rom. 16:17; but men sleep and nod, till perhaps the noise of a book is got out among them, that lays the sleepy disease for a time, Matt. 25:5, and in a few weeks it all wears off, and then to nodding again. Whatever it be, it’s plain that some who pretend to hold election, do it half-heartedly; for they insist not upon election-union, or the election of Grace, as it stands in the Everlasting Covenant in Christ Jesus. And then as if a creature could be chosen in Christ before believing on Christ, and yet that there could be no Election-Union of that creature, nor Justification, and other Grace given him comprehensively in Christ, before his believing on him. {“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” II Tim. 1:9.}

The term “in Christ” is used in scripture, under a diversity of comprehensive phrases, as in II Tim. 2:1, “thou therefore, my son, be strong in the…

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Objection: Sir, we are sorry you have struck at the ministry of wise, great, and learned men, far beyond yourself. Pray, if we are not to follow them in this method of the ministry, how must we preach? And for my part, says one, I cannot preach the Gospel if I do not propound the offer of the Gospel to sinners; nor can I reckon that I do preach the Gospel, unless I tender Salvation to all whom I am called to preach; nor dare I do otherwise.

Answer: I might take notice that this is poor arguing, when set in the face of the three former chapters, the strength of which is founded on God’s Word and Spirit. Heb. 4:12 – Psal. 33:6 – Jn. 1:1 – Rev. 19:13. Nevertheless, if men are at a loss how to preach, unless they go on in the old road, let me solve the inquiry more fully. I must divide my answers into one general resolution of the case, how preaching the Gospel must be, and to what end without offers of Salvation; and thereupon enter into many particulars to resolve this point. The one general solution to the question is this, we must preach the doctrine of Salvation to all sinners openly within the hearing; and must preach Salvation included in the doctrine, which is the gift of God, to the elect alone, who are hid among them. But as to propounding an offer, either of the Doctrine or Salvation, it is a form of man’s devising; and because of the evil nature of it, as I shall show hereafter, we must do it in no respect. This in the general, men must preach the Word of God, and the testimony held; that is, they must so preach as to fulfil the Scriptures, Rev.6:9, which everywhere speaks of evangelizing, or of preaching the Gospel, or, what is in its own nature good news and glad tidings, which, likewise, in the whole analogy of faith do give us light to expound the preaching of the Gospel according to the above distinctions, but do nowhere speak of propounding an offer, or tendering either Doctrine or Salvation. As to preaching the doctrine of the Gospel to all, though the Salvation of it reach but to the elect alone, the advantage, so far as intended in the Scripture, is much every way, as the apostle says; chiefly, because the wisdom of God, the government of Christ, the interest of the Church, and the sword of Justice, are all magnified, by the preaching of the doctrine of the Gospel to all sinners, without offers of Grace, or proposals of Salvation made.

From the wisdom of God I argue the solution of the question, how must we preach the Gospel to sinners, if we do not offer the Gospel to sinners? We must preach the Gospel in the doctrine. This is to be made known in the letter, or external revelation to all, because of the wisdom of God in that doctrine, Deut. 32:2, hath engaged to confound the wisdom of this world. “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the…

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How strangely do men run beyond the bounds of truth and modesty, while their zeal towards the doctrine of the offer, precipitates {or drives} them into this foolish assertion, which afterwards causes them confidently to utter among the common sort of people, namely, that a gift and an offer are both one. How is that Scripture fulfilled, “there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.” Isa.30:28. {“Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding.” Job 39:17.} Let these who offer God’s Grace in Christ blush! The transport of their pride does most wretchedly expose their judgment, while it causes me some doubt, whether they can fairly tell me what their Free offers even mean. Besides, it can proceed from no regular chain of thought in men to trump up this identity. It is mere confusion; for a gift and an offer are never one sort of act, nor one sort of thing acted. To make one thing identically of two, that are so different one from the other, is certainly a very inexcusable fiction of the brain.

I will begin to disprove this error from the Scriptures. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,” I Cor. 2:14, as the Holy Ghost teaches us by the Apostle Paul. Consequently a natural man’s notion of them, will spoil a spiritual man’s apprehension of them, I Cor. 2:12, while the spiritual man forsakes the light of the Scriptures, to dress up the matter of a gift of God in his thoughts, which must be according to the assistance he receives from a natural man about it, who is both dark and blind. My meaning, to speak home to this matter is this, that he who goes by the mere help of his dictionary in this matter, will soon injure his concordance in the very doctrinal parallels of his Bible, and that in very fundamental truths too, by this promiscuous confusion of drawing forth gifts into offers. For what though the infinitive verbs, {dare, donare, proebere, &c.,} be promiscuously or as mixed together be rendered, to offer or proffer, by grammarians; yet still our holy well-ordered Bible admits of none of this blind confusion. Nay, if we consult natural men themselves in the turning of words, and do weigh some texts against it, we may find advantage sufficient on the Gospel’s side.

We are told in Latin that offero is to offer or tender, to proffer or propose, and that the phrase oblatio pecuniae signifies a tendering of money. Now let us bring this to some pecuniary instances {or money instances} in the Bible and see what will come of it. Where can we find that the Scriptures afford us evidence to conclude that an offer and a gift are both one? Is a tendering of money the gift of money? Is a tendering of any other human reward the gift of that reward too? I say a human reward, for in this I begin to fall on humanity, because it is humanity here that has corrupted divinity. And besides, in a mere offer of this instance something may be learned to carry further .

To instance in Naaman the Syrian’s offer to Elisha, who plainly, among other natural good things, which Naaman calls a blessing, II Kings 5:15, tendered him bags of money, as appears by the sequel of the matter in comparing verses 22 & 23. “Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in…

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This proposition is a direct reverse, or quite contrary theme to the triumphs of the plea about offers; yea; it’s contrary to the very mending clause of their article suggested so plausibly before in favour of offers. The emendation of defects discovered in their article is this, that while the offer of Christ, say they, is propounding in the external means to sinners, the Spirit of Christ may be working an internal ability in these sinners to close in savingly with the offer. {“And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed; for I know their imagination which they go about, even now.” Deut. 31:21.} I design, if the Lord will, in this chapter, a direct confutation of this vain confidence. For it is an error injuriously vented to the dishonour of Free Grace. {“This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the LORD; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.” Jer. 13:25.} And it is also a corrupt principle of some men very wrongfully held to the dishonour of the Holy Spirit and his work! Psal. 29:2.

Now the arguments I shall bring against this false opinion, in order to pull down so specious a piece of old Adam, are such scriptural proofs of the Free Gift of Grace, as by the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, may be carried on in this chapter. These blessed truths may be wrought up sweetly, higher and higher, unto what surmounts all the Doctrine of your offers in the low lands of this waste wilderness. {“For we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.” Isa. 28:15.} And in hope that God peradventure will give men repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, II Tim. 2:25, a few things shall be made known, which may prove Effectual of God to wound and slay the sore-plea, I Thes. 2:13, which is so injurious to the Grace of God.

Argument 1. Offers of Grace and tenders of Salvation are no means of a saving ability to close in with Christ,[1] because they are neither means of Christ’s Institution, nor of the Holy Spirit’s Operation. God hath appointed the preaching of the Gospel, and Christ hath commanded it, II Tim. 4:2, to preach the Word, and to bear his name, Acts 9:15, but neither hath God appointed, nor Christ commanded, the propounding of the Gospel, as the means to work his Grace. And however God the Spirit works upon the preaching, yet he works not upon a proposal, nor fills up an offer of Grace with any of his own presence of Grace, to accompany such a pretended offer to the saving change of a sinner. The Gospel is no means of working by a proposal, but it is a means of working in the…

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Do you look, Sirs, upon your Free offers of Grace, &c., {as you call them} to be preaching the Gospel? Yes surely, you will say, we look upon these, especially if we look only one way, to be both one and the same. That is, we look upon them, that albeit all preaching of Christ to sinners is not an offer of Christ to them, yet every free offer of Christ to sinners is preaching the Salvation of Christ to them. Nevertheless I tell you the truth, that offers of Salvation are a thing that falls far short of preaching the Gospel; and a thing that falls far shorter than preaching the Salvation of the Gospel unto sinners. For observe, the power of the Gospel attends preaching the Gospel, and Salvation attends the preaching of Salvation, but neither the power of the Gospel, nor Salvation, attend the offer as they attend the preaching of the Gospel. {“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.” Eph. 1:13.} But here I shall begin my disproof of their vain scheme, and enter upon an overthrow of their doctrine of the offer, as an anti- evangelical form of corrupting the Word of God; being the first thesis of three laid down about offers; and prove from God’s Word that to propound the offer of Salvation to sinners, as it is an unscriptural thing, so it is not preaching the Salvation of the Gospel unto sinners. Offers are not preaching the Gospel, nor preaching its Salvation.

1. I argue first from the practice of the apostles. Their practice was to preach Christ, not to offer him. The apostles preached the word of the Lord everywhere, in every city, and in every province, whither they came, Acts 15:36, at Thessalonica, at Berea, &c., everywhere preaching the word. But they nowhere tendered or offered the Salvation of that word.

2. I argue from their ordination to the said practice. Paul was ordained a preacher, I Tim. 2:7, and never ordained a propounder of an incompetent and useless offer of Grace, as it is termed. He was to keep to a free proclamation of the truth as it is in Jesus, Eph. 4:21, and not to warp, as men do in our times, all into some free proposal, whereby sacred Gospel truths are bartered away for all to latch hold upon.

3. I argue from instances of preachers. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, II Pet. 2:5, the Holy Ghost does not say, Noah was a Free propounder of righteousness; that is, a poor, low, earthly thing that would degenerate and sink the preaching of the Gospel into another form, having nothing of the true glory of the…

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The order of this little writing will consist principally of three points. 1. Concerning offers of Grace. 2. Concerning invitation of sinners to come to Christ. 3. Concerning exhortations to sinners to come to Christ. And albeit I may insist mostly {if the Lord will} upon the first branch of these three laid down, thereby, through the Lord’s assistance, to rectify the mistaken doctrine about offers of Grace, and to advance the true doctrine of Free Grace Operations working efficaciously upon the elect of God; yet I may likewise add something, though very briefly, which belongs to the other two branches. To begin by laying down the method of handling the first, viz., the offers of Grace and Salvation.

I. To show how men do verbalize their offers of Christ, in name and thing.

II. To disprove them, and overthrow their scheme, as an ill, anti-evangelical state of the matter, and that by manifesting three principal points in the debate. 1. That to offer Christ to sinners, is not to preach Christ to sinners. 2. That to propound such an offer in the external means, is no means of the Spirit’s working an internal ability in sinners, to close savingly with any such offer. 3. That to suggest an offer of Christ, and a gift of Christ to be both one thing, is a barefaced error. {“Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds; lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.” Deut 22:9.}

III. To resolve the puzzling question, how then must we preach the Gospel unto sinners, if we do not propound an offer of Salvation to them? In the resolution of which doubt, proffers of Grace, offers of Christ, tenders of Salvation, etc., will be withstood and overthrown, as unscriptural and powerless forms.

IV. To make some reply unto the mis-adapting of divers texts of Scripture that are commonly mistaken upon this argument.

V. Lastly, to make a further reply to the more common and current pleas, used by weak men, for want of better arguments.

We begin and show, how these men state the doctrine of their offer.

1. As to the name, men have stored it with a show of wisdom and will worship as the Apostle says, Col 2:23, in a sufficient increase of their own procuring. {“Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?” Jer 2:17.} For the word “offer” is not to be found in Scripture in any other sense than to sacrifice; and to be sure, when these men offer Christ, they do not mean that they…

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Reader, having met with very gracious dealings from my God, not only in carrying me through a large tract formally,^[1] but in blessing the publication thereof to so many souls far and near, as holy and savoury testimonies {of their experience upon this argument by me in manuscript} do witness; and since there are very few copies of the 500 books printed, now remaining, which are not sold off, my heart has been again drawn forth to publish a new labour.

As to my former volume I’ll add one caveat to the reader, to take off an undo aspersion, for it hath been insinuated, as if I had there stolen what hath been confessed to be excellent about eternal things, out of Dr. Goodwin’s volume two, and part one. I am bound to declare, that this is utterly false! For all those things were meditated in my own thoughts, digested into the form they appear in, and were all printed off before ever I saw the Doctor’s treatise, where there is said to be such a harmony. Nor had I seen it then, but that providentially I heard it spoken to me, concerning what the doctor had written. If I had seen him, it is very probable my thoughts might have been carried to another subject; for I do not choose to write the same things which I know to have been well done before. I do not know to this day, that there is anything in it like plagiarism or book-stealing. If it appears to be another, let the parallel decide it. Let the…

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To the Brethren in the Ministry of Christ, of all Persuasions, even as many as have put on our Lord Jesus Christ in their Ministerial Office.

Brethren,

Grace, Mercy, and Truth be with you; even Peace from God our Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord. My heart is stirred up to write a few things to you, not as patrons of the author, but as possessors of the Truth as it is in Jesus; which truth, you are called by Him to hold forth to others. What cause have you to thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled you, for that He has counted you faithful, putting you into the ministry! Many of you who are poor and despised, yet count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Some few of you who are learned in part, {as to what men value in learning,} put your highest proficiency in this, that you have learned Christ; and as to any other learning too, you could never have received it, except it had been given you out of Christ’s Nature-Fulness from above. Christ is a more learned Person than ever any else hath been who hath attained unto the…

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There have been many shifts in the sands of theological issues and terminology since the days of Fuller, Rushton, and Joseph Hussey, but the basic issues remain the same. In his Defence of Particular Redemption, William Rushton expressed the truth, that to be clear on the doctrine of election and the atonement, is more important than preaching the Gospel; that is, we must first understand the foundation principles of the good news;-then may follow the proper manner of presenting that good news. The erroneous and unscriptural teaching of a universal atonement by the sacrifice of Christ, inevitably leads to the equally erroneous proclamation of a universal offer of Salvation. The vital issue, then, still remains, namely, Did Christ make atonement for the sins of the human race? Is the good news or Gospel, to be preached as a means to secure eternally the subjects of that universal atonement? Was the utility or purpose of the Gospel to “save” all the lost, or to “call out” or convert only the redeemed elect? The so-called Free-offer system was another by-product of the doctrine of universal atonement. It was the manner of preaching adapted by those men who not only believed that Christ died to save all men, but also that men by nature, possess a Free-will ability whereby they may…

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To the Godly in Christ Jesus. Respecting Mr. Hussey’s treatise on God’s Operations of Grace, permit me to say, that in every age Satan has had his engines planted against mount Zion “the church of the living God, the beloved city,” either to distress or to destroy her. Among others, false apostles, false ministers, false doctrines, were none of the least, in order to pervert the right ways of the Lord, and to turn aside the simple from the paths of understanding.

In the days of Mr. Hussey, the author of this precious and experimental treatise, they abounded. Ministers of Satan transformed into angels of light, appear to him more detestable and more dangerous to the church and fold of Christ, than open opposers of the truth as it is in Jesus. Such wolves in sheep’s clothing had crept in unawares, not merely to spy out, but, if possible, to root out the liberties and privileges of the children of God.

These base ends they endeavoured to accomplish, not by fair, open, avowed opposition to the truth, but by holding it in unrighteousness; walking in craftiness, and half-heartedness, and hypocrisy; by feigned words, making merchandise of the simple and their experiences, holding the letter of the word, but denying the spirit thereof; holding the form, but denying the power, from such he turned away.

Their business was to aim oblique strokes at Christian experience and confound the marks of sound Conversion; so that the hope of the righteous is removed. These base ends were to be accomplished, by calling an…

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The Sovereign love of God the Father, the free gift of his Son Jesus Christ, the saving, irresistible and abiding operations of the Holy Ghost, together with the revelation and application of them to the mind, and consciences of his own elect, and none other, irrespective of any worth, worthiness, state, or condition whatever, are the truths testified and maintained in this work, in opposition to pretended Calvinistic preachers of the Gospel; who in his, as well as our days, are the greatest opposers of the cross of Christ, for instead of being content to stand in the counsel of God, and point sinners to Christ; as John did, with “behold the Lamb of God,” or, as the Apostles did, showing the way of Salvation; or as the Spouse did, describing Christ’s beauty, till someone falls in love with him, leaving our Lord to make his own choice.

They, under pretense of extra-liberality, go a step, one awful step further, than the Counsel of God, by offering Christ to all their hearers; and very often, that none may mistake their presumptuous generosity, will then intently urge upon their hearers, one in all, to accept, and not to miss, but at that very moment to accept their offer of Christ.

How men came by such authority I know not, and how the transfer can be made without the Holy Ghost, who is generally left out of the question on such occasions, would be as difficult for me to explain, as for them to perform. If this is not spiritual wickedness in high places, and Popery in the abstract, I know not what is!

Such conduct, such offers, such proffers, may very well agree with the traders of Rome, who have Christs in wood and in stone, hanging at the girdle of every popish priest. Such Christs as these, such preachers may offer and proffer to all men; such men may and can accept such Christs, and may as easily part from them again, when they have got them.

A popish Christ is a Christ of wood, a false preacher’s Christ is…

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God’s Operations Of Grace But No Offers Of His Grace

To which are added two brief treatises. The one about invitation, and the other about exhortation of sinners to come to Christ; both examined and consistently stated with the glory of free grace, to rectify some common and prevailing mistakes in ministers, who now with time, are running in the present generation.

By Joseph Hussey

A Poor Despised Servant of JESUS CHRIST, and Pastor of the Congregational Church of Christ at Cambridge.

Ezekiel 4:1-2

1707

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