Journal: Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal
Volume: DBSJ 06:1 (Fall 2001)
Article: Andrew Fuller’s Response To The “Modern Question”—A Reappraisal Of The Gospel Worthy Of All Acceptation
Author: Gerald L. Priest

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DBSJ 6 (Fall 01) p. 45

Andrew Fuller’s Response To The “Modern Question”—A Reappraisal Of The Gospel Worthy Of All Acceptation

Gerald L. Priest^a

Can and should the gospel of salvation be offered to sinners without distinction? Is unregenerate man under moral obligation to repent of sin and believe in Christ upon hearing the gospel? Is there any sense in which he is able to do so? And is the minister of the gospel obligated to call upon the unregenerate to exercise faith and repentance? These queries collectively constitute the so-called “modern question” of Andrew Fuller’s day, which we can reduce to simply—is faith a duty?1 The question was first raised by the Congregational minister Joseph Hussey (1660–1726) in 1707 with his publication of God’s Operations of Grace: but No Offers of His Grace,2 in which he took the hyper-Calvinist3 position that to offer the gospel indiscriminately would

DBSJ 6 (Fall 01) p. 46

imply that the natural man had the innate ability to respond to it. Hussey admitted that, as far as he was able to determine, no authorities had raised the question before, but he felt constrained to do so in the face of Arminianism4 and its rationalist counterparts, Deism and Socinianism. All of these humanistic systems, Hussey believed, were a major threat to the doctrines of grace. The following quote from Hussy’s work reflects the high Calvinism that prompted an evangelical response from more moderate Particular Baptists, such as Andrew Fuller (1754–1815):5

By offers of grace, tenders and proffers of salvation, it is evident, men do thereby imply that free grace and full salvation is [sic] propounded, tendered, and offered to all sinners within the sound [of the gospel]… Is not this a piece of robbery against the Holy Spirit?…does not the plea confine the operation of the Holy Spirit to common and eternal workings? Wherein does your plea give Jehovah the Spirit His due honour in the internal and mighty workings

DBSJ 6 (Fall 01) p. 47

of His grace on sinner’s hearts, that sinners may believe, repent, and be saved?6

The main problem of the gospel’s indiscriminate offer for Hussey is that it failed to consider the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the elect, who alone could respond in faith: “The Spirit will not, and cannot honourably work without the imputation ...

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