Prevenient Grace (7)

Many people say things about what Calvinists believe that are untrue, and even when some of those things are true, they are only true in regard to some Calvinists, but not to all. This is true when people say -- "Calvinists believe that a person must be regenerated or born again before he can believe or have faith." It is also true when they say "Only Arminians believe in prevenient grace." Many Calvinists, like John Calvin himself, believe that sinners are born again by faith. Many Calvinists also believe in some form of prevenient grace or in pre-regeneration acts of providence that are prerequisites to regeneration, to some common operations of the Spirit. The great "prince of preachers," Charles H. Spurgeon, a Calvinist, in his sermon "Rain and Grace — A Parallel" (April 5th 1883) said:

"If you have nothing with which to entertain the grace, grace will bring its own company with it. It will come into your empty heart, and make you one of the “people prepared for the Lord.” Grace waits not for men, neither tarries for the sins of men. We call it prevenient grace, because it comes before it is sought, and God bestows it on a people who are utterly undeserving of it."

I cited Spurgeon in the first chapter of this series and showed where he advocated for prevenient grace or pre-regeneration operations of the word and Spirit that are intended to lead to regeneration. That is not to say that these Calvinists believed in prevenient grace in the same way as John Wesley. Rather, they believed in prevenient grace in the manner explained in previous chapters, by theologians like Spurgeon, Charles Hodge, John Owen, Stephen Charnock, and even Augustine (who believed in "Calvinism" centuries before Calvin). In this chapter we will add another Calvinist to the list of theologians who believed in prevenient grace and in preparations and some common operations of the Spirit in the hearts and minds of sinners prior to salvation. His name is Jonathan Edwards. In the "Works of Jonathan Edwards," Vol.1 SECT. II., under "The manner of conversion various, yet bearing a great analogy" (See here) Edwards wrote (highligting mine):

"I therefore proceed to give an account of the manner of persons being wrought upon; and here there is a vast variety, perhaps as manifold as the subjects of the operation; but yet in many things there is a great analogy in all.—Persons are first awakened with a sense of their miserable condition by nature, the danger they are in of perishing eternally, and that it is of great importance to them that they speedily escape and get into a better state. Those who before were secure and senseless, are made sensible how much they were in the way to ruin, in their former courses. Some are more suddenly seized with convictions—it may be, by the news of others’ conversion, or something they hear in public, or in private conference—their consciences are smitten, as if their hearts were pierced through with a dart. Others are awakened more gradually, they begin at first to be something more thoughtful and considerate, so as to come to a conclusion in their minds, that it is their best and wisest way to delay no longer, but to improve the present opportunity. They have accordingly set themselves seriously to meditate on those things that have the most awakening tendency, on purpose to obtain convictions; and so their awakenings have increased, till a sense of their misery, by God’s Holy Spirit setting in therewith, has had fast hold of them. Others who before had been somewhat religious, and concerned for their salvation, have been awakened in a new manner; and made sensible that their slack and dull way of seeking, was never like to attain that purpose."

The Great Awakening was a series of intense religious revivals that first swept through the American colonies in the 1730s–1740s and which was led by preachers like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards, both Calvinists. We have been speaking about what the Puritans called a sinner's "awakening" and how it was an experience of many lost sinners who have come under some conviction or sin and a realization that they were lost and hell bound. Britannica says the following about the "great awakening."

(You can read here; emphasis mine)

"The Puritan fervour waned toward the end of the 17th century, but the Great Awakening (c. 1720–50), America’s first great revival, under the leadership of Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and others, revitalized religion in the North American colonies."  

"The revival preachers emphasized the “terrors of the law” to sinners, the unmerited grace of God, and the “new birth” in Jesus Christ. They frequently sought to inspire in their listeners a fear of the consequences of their sinful lives and a respect for the omnipotence of God. This sense of the ferocity of God was often tempered by the implied promise that a rejection of worldliness and a return to faith would result in a return to grace and an avoidance of the horrible punishments of an angry God. There was a certain contradictory quality about Great Awakening theology, however. Predestination, one of the principal tenets of the Calvinist theology of most of the ministers of the Great Awakening, was ultimately incompatible with the promise that humans could, by a voluntary act of faith, achieve salvation by their own efforts."

The same article mentions both George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards as two leading ministers who took the lead in the great awakening. Of the latter Britannica says:

"Jonathan Edwards was the great academician and apologist of the Great Awakening. A Congregational pastor at Northampton, Massachusetts, he preached justification by faith alone with remarkable effectiveness. He also attempted to redefine the psychology of religious experience and to help those involved in the revival to discern what were true works of the Holy Spirit."

In the above opening citation from Edwards we note particularly his statement that "persons are first awakened with a sense of their miserable condition by nature, the danger they are in of perishing eternally" and how he said that those awakenings were by the Holy Spirit. It is obvious that Edwards, like John Owen, did not believe that such awakenings were evidence of regeneration but were often steps towards salvation.

Benjamin Franklin went out to hear Whitefield preach and made these observations (emphasis mine):

"In 1739 arriv’d among us from England the Rev. Mr. Whitefield, who had made himself remarkable there as an itinerant Preacher. He was at first permitted to preach in some of our Churches; but the Clergy taking a Dislike to him, soon refus’d him their Pulpits and he was oblig’d to preach in the Fields. The Multitudes of all Sects and Denominations that attended his Sermons were enormous and it was [a] matter of Speculation to me who was one of the Number, to observe the extraordinary Influence of his Oratory on his Hearers, and how much they admir’d and respected him, notwithstanding his common Abuse of them, by assuring them they were naturally half Beasts and half Devils. It was wonderful to see the Change soon made in the Manners [behavior] of our Inhabitants; from being thoughtless or indifferent about Religion, it seem’d as if all the World were growing Religious; so that one could not walk thro’ the Town in an Evening without Hearing Psalms sung in different Families of every Street." (See here for citation) 

What is meant by "awakening" in the "great awakening" is an increased interest in religion and in the Christian message and an awareness of God and the need of salvation. It was just what we have stated in previous chapters, that being "awakened" was an experience of sinners coming under conviction of sin and discovering that they were lost and on their way to hell. I find it ironic, however, that the Hyper Calvinists during both the first and second great awakenings often viewed the conversions that occurred during those times of revival as not genuine and yet argued that such awakening of sinners was a result of a prior regeneration or quickening. 

Edwards wrote further:

"These awakenings when they have first seized on persons, have had two effects; one was, that they have brought them immediately to quit their sinful practices; and the looser sort have been brought to forsake and dread their former vices and extravagancies. When once the Spirit of God began to be so wonderfully poured out in a general way through the town, people had soon done with their old quarrels, backbitings, and intermeddling with other men’s matters. The tavern was soon left empty, and persons kept very much at home; none went abroad unless on necessary business, or on some religious account, and every day seemed in many respects like a Sabbath-day. The other effect was, that it put them on earnest application to the means of salvation, reading, prayer, meditation, the ordinances of God’s house, and private conference; their cry was, What shall we do to be saved? The place of resort was now altered, it was no longer the tavern, but the minister’s house that was thronged far more than ever the tavern had been wont to be."

Here we see where Edwards sees these awakenings as preliminary experiences that may lead to salvation through the divinely appointed means of salvation.

Edwards wrote further:

"There is a very great variety, as to the degree of fear and trouble that persons are exercised with, before they attain any comfortable evidences of pardon and acceptance with God. Some are from the beginning carried on with abundantly more encouragement and hope than others. Some have had ten times less trouble of mind than others, in whom yet the issue seems to be the same. Some have had such a sense of the displeasure of God, and the great danger they were in of damnation, that they could not sleep at nights; and many have said that when they have laid down, the thoughts of sleeping in such a condition have been frightful to them; they have scarcely been free from terror while asleep, and they have awakened with fear, heaviness, and distress, still abiding on their spirits. It has been very common, that the deep and fixed concern on persons’ minds, has had a painful influence on their bodies, and given disturbance to animal nature."

Again, we see where Edwards sees a sinner's awakening not as an evidence of salvation but as an instance of prevenient grace and pre-regeneration workings of the word and Spirit of God upon the consciences of lost sinners.

Edwards wrote further:

"Persons are sometimes brought to the borders of despair, and it looks as black as midnight to them a little before the day dawns in their souls. Some few instances there have been, of persons who have had such a sense of God’s wrath for sin, that they have been overborne; and made to cry out under an astonishing sense of their guilt, wondering that God suffers such guilty wretches to live upon earth, and that he doth not immediately send them to hell. Sometimes their guilt doth so stare them in the face, that they are in exceeding terror for fear that God will instantly do it; but more commonly their distresses under legal awakenings have not been to such a degree. In some, these terrors do not seem to be so sharp, when near comfort, as before; their convictions have not seemed to work so much that way, but to be led further down into their own hearts, to a further sense of their own universal depravity and deadness in sin."

Again, Edwards does not view "legal awakenings" as evidence of a saved state, but as what is a necessary preparation for salvation, and these type preparations are instances of God's grace and activities of the Spirit upon sinners as a means to bring them to Christ.

Edwards wrote further:

"But in some other instances, where persons have been much terrified at the sight of such wickedness in their hearts, God has brought good to them out of evil; and made it a means of convincing them of their own desperate sinfulness, and bringing them off from all self-confidence."

Edwards does not believe that everyone who is awakened or experiences prevenient grace actually comes to be saved by those means. Does that mean that he believed that grace will not always be efficacious or irresistible? That not all preparations of the Spirit succeed in saving sinners? About those questions we will have more to say later.

Edwards wrote further:

"The drift of the Spirit of God in his legal strivings with persons, have seemed most evidently to be, to bring to a conviction of their absolute dependence on his sovereign power and grace, and an universal necessity of a mediator. This has been effected by leading them more and more to a sense of their exceeding wickedness and guiltiness in his sight; their pollution, and the insufficiency of their own righteousness; that they can in no wise help themselves, and that God would be wholly just and righteous in rejecting them and all that they do, and in casting them off for ever. There is however, a vast variety, as to the manner and distinctness of such convictions."

This process is what Wilson Thompson spoke about, how sinners go from Mt. Sinai to Mt. Zion, of going from law to gospel, how they go from efforts to try to save themselves by their efforts at reformation to Christ as mere beggars and asking Christ to do what they have been unable to do.

Edwards wrote further:

"Under the sense which the Spirit of God gives them of their sinfulness, they often think that they differ from all others; their hearts are ready to sink with the thought, that they are the worst of all, and that none ever obtained mercy who were so wicked as they."

Notice that Edwards rightly affirms that sinners becoming sensible of their sinfulness is a work of the Holy Spirit and one that precedes salvation in some but not in others. Surely this work of the Spirit is gracious and so is an example of prevenient grace.

Edwards wrote further:

"When awakenings first begin, their consciences are commonly most exercised about their outward vicious course, or other acts of sin; but afterwards, are much more burdened with a sense of heart-sins, the dreadful corruption of their nature, their enmity against God, the pride of their hearts, their unbelief, their rejection of Christ, the stubbornness and obstinacy of their wills; and the like. In many, God makes much use of their own experience, in the course of their awakenings and endeavours after saving good, to convince them of their own vile emptiness and universal depravity."

As I have stated before in this series, I had several awakenings while I was lost in sin and before I received Christ by faith. Notice that Edwards sees awakenings as involving a process and often a period of time. 

Edwards wrote further:

"Very often under first awakenings, when they are brought to reflect on the sin of their past lives, and have something of a terrifying sense of God’s anger, they set themselves to walk more strictly, and confess their sins, and perform many religious duties, with a secret hope of appeasing God’s anger, and making up for the sins they have committed. And oftentimes, at first setting out, their affections are so moved, that they are full of tears, in their confessions and prayers; which they are ready to make very much of, as though they were some atonement, and had power to move correspondent affections in God too. Hence they are for a while big with expectation of what God will do for them; and conceive they grow better apace, and shall soon be thoroughly converted. But these affections are but short-lived; they quickly find that they fail, and then they think themselves to be grown worse again."

Again, notice his reference to "first awakenings." Oftentimes sinners are awakened by the word and Spirit of God but go back to sleep, into a stupor. Then, they are awakened again, and again, until they either become hardened with a seared dead conscience or are saved and risen from spiritual death never to die or go back to sleep again.

Edwards wrote further:

"And then it may be they set themselves upon a new course of fruitless endeavours, in their own strength, to make themselves better; and still meet with new disappointments. They are earnest to inquire, what they shall do? They do not know but there is something else to be done, in order to their obtaining converting grace, that they have never done yet. It may be they hope, that they are something better than they were; but then the pleasing dream all vanishes again. If they are told, that they trust too much to their own strength and righteousness, they cannot unlearn this practice all at once, and find not yet the appearance of any good, but all looks as dark as midnight to them. Thus they wander about from mountain to hill, seeking rest, and finding none. When they are beat out of one refuge, they fly to another; till they are as it were debilitated, broken, and subdued with legal humblings; in which God gives them a conviction of their own utter helplessness and insufficiency, and discovers the true remedy in a clearer knowledge of Christ and his gospel."

Again, this is what we have spoken about in preceding chapters, how many awakened and alarmed sinners will begin to find peace and salvation by "going about to establish their own righteousness" rather than receiving by faith the righteousness of God by imputation. They will often try to save themselves by law keeping and by their own power and self willing and self determinations, and they will always fail. This failure often brings desperation and realization and leads the sinner at last to fall at the feet of Jesus and plead for mercy, forgiveness, and a new life.

Edwards wrote further:

"God has of late abundantly shown, that he does not need to wait to have men convinced by long and often repeated fruitless trials; for in multitudes of instances he has made a shorter work of it. He has so awakened and convinced persons’ consciences, and made them so sensible of their exceeding great vileness, and given them such a sense of his wrath against sin, as has quickly overcome all their vain self-confidence, and borne them down into the dust before a holy and righteous God."

Edwards wrote further:

"There have been some who have not had great terrors, but have had a very quick work. Some of those who have not had so deep a conviction of these things before their conversion, have much more of it afterwards. God has appeared far from limiting himself to any certain method in his proceedings with sinners under legal convictions. In some instances, it seems easy for our reasoning powers to discern the methods of divine wisdom, in his dealings with the soul under awakenings; in others, his footsteps cannot be traced, and his ways are past finding put. Some who are less distinctly wrought upon, in what is preparatory to grace, appear no less eminent in gracious experiences afterwards."

I think it is particularly true with young children who believe in Jesus that they experience "much more" deep conviction of sins after they have believed and been saved. Not only that, but in many cases it is not the preaching of the law that reveals to a sinner his depravity and guilt, but it is seeing the cruelty of Calvary, and understanding the beauty and greatness of Christ and his salvation. When a person sees the beauty of Christ and God's righteousness, he will at the same time see his own moral and spiritual ugliness. Sinners are often first slain by the law before they are brought to life by the gospel. 

Notice also that Edwards speaks of "what is preparatory to grace," meaning what is preparatory to saving grace, for he does not exclude what is preparatory as also being instances of prevenient grace.

Edwards wrote further:

"There is in nothing a greater difference, in different persons, than with respect to the time of their being under trouble; some but a few days, and others for months or years. There were many in this town, who had been, before this effusion of the Spirit upon us, for years, and some for many years, concerned about their salvation. Though probably they were not thoroughly awakened, yet they were concerned to such a degree as to be very uneasy, so as to live an uncomfortable disquieted life. They continued in a way of taking considerable pains about their salvation; but had never obtained any comfortable evidence of a good state."

Notice that Edwards sees the great awakening as a time when there was an "effusion of the Spirit" upon the people which awakened them and made them sensible and attentive to the message of the gospel, and which effusion came before sinners were saved and thus were acts of grace preceding their salvation. He also says that many who are awakened are not "thoroughly awakened" and "never obtained evidence of a good state" of salvation.

Edwards wrote further:

"As to those in whom awakenings seem to have a saving issue, commonly the first thing that appears after their legal troubles, is a conviction of the justice of God in their condemnation, appearing in a sense of their own exceeding sinfulness, and the vileness of all their performances."

Awakenings do not always end with a sinner's salvation, though God intends that they do. They do cause sinners to begin to seek peace and salvation.

Edwards wrote further:

"That calm of spirit that some persons have found after their legal distresses, continues some time before any special and delightful manifestation is made to the soul of the grace of God as revealed in the gospel. But very often some comfortable and sweet view of a merciful God, of a sufficient Redeemer, or of some great and joyful things of the gospel, immediately follows, or in a very little time: and in some, the first sight of their just desert of hell, and God’s sovereignty with respect to their salvation, and a discovery of all-sufficient grace, are so near, that they seem to go as it were together."

In the next chapter we will continue to look at what Edwards said further on this subject.