The same applies to the elect of the second class. Altho we concede that the divine call
works upon such during their tender years, yet, while it prepares for conversion, it does not
prepare for regeneration, which it follows. The call is ineffectual unless the faculty of hearing
be first implanted. Only he that has an ear can hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches
and to his own soul. Hence, in this case, preparatory grace is scarcely perceptible. Surely
there are many agencies that imperceptibly prepare for his conversion; but this is different
from a preparing for regeneration, and we speak now only of the latter.
Properly speaking, preparatory grace in its limited sense is applied only to the third class
of elect persons. It comprehends their whole life with all its turns and changes, relations
and connections, heights and depths, events and adversities. Not as tho all these could pro-
duce the slightest germ of life or possibility of quickening. No; the germ of life can never
302spring from preparatory grace, any more than the preparation of ten cradles, of a dozen of
clothes baskets, and of closets full of expensive infant-garments can ever juggle a single infant
into any of those cradles. The vital spark is produced only by an act of the mighty God, in-
dependent of all preparation. But, from its birth, God guards that wild-vine and controls
the growth of its wild shoots, so that in the hour of His pleasure, when He shall graft upon
it the true vine, it may be all that it ought to be.
And this ends the discussion, for regarding the fourth class, by and by they will be sep-
arated from the wheat and blown away by the fan which is in His hand; hence preparatory
grace is out of the question.
And from this it is evident that the proper work of the Holy Spirit regarding preparatory
grace is scarcely perceptible.
Every feature of this work, so far presented, points directly not to the operation of the
Holy Spirit, nor to that of the Son, but almost exclusively to that of the Father. For the cir-
cumstances of the child’s birth—i.e.,the hereditary character of his family and more especially
of his parents, and the future course of his life until the moment of his conversion—belong
to the realm of the divine Providence. The appointed place of our habitation, our generation
and family, the formation of our immediate environment, the influences previously determ-
ined to affect us—all belong to the leadings of God’s providence, ascribed by Scripture to
the work of the Father. The Lord Jesus said: “No man can come unto Me, except the Father
draw him.” And altho this drawing of the Father has a higher aim and must be spiritually
understood, yet it indicates generally that the determining of those things, which afterward
regulates their direction and course, is attributed particularly to the First Person.
We notice a work of the Holy Spirit in this matter only as far as He animates all personal
life, since He is the Spirit of Life; and as He cooperates with the Father in that special
providence which refers to the elect. For, altho in our mind we can analyze the work of
XX. Its Course