Afterthought
Puritan Board Senior
Does prevenient grace exist in the Calvinistic system? Or to put it another way, is the Calvinist distinctive merely that the prevenient grace is irresistible, rather than a denial of prevenient grace? Is irresistible grace a kind of prevenient grace? What about common grace? Doesn't regeneration "come before" and could be seen as a prevenient grace? And if there is some sort of preparatory work before conversion, would common grace then be seen as prevenient grace?
For example, we see,
"II. This effectual call is of God’s free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man; who is altogether passive therein, until, being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it."
So it would seem the person is passive until acted upon by grace, and then the person is active, either by himself or cooperating (?) with grace at that point?
For example, we see,
"II. This effectual call is of God’s free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man; who is altogether passive therein, until, being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it."
So it would seem the person is passive until acted upon by grace, and then the person is active, either by himself or cooperating (?) with grace at that point?