Thursday, April 11th, 1861
EDITOR'S NOTE: These messages are part of the inaugural ceremonies held at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, when it first opened. Spurgeon had already preached the first sermons there, beginning March 25, while the building was not yet quite finished. This, however, was the official opening ceremony, and Spurgeon presided, choosing several fellow pastors to expound the doctrines of Calvinism. This guide is offered the reader wishing to follow the familiar TULIP acronym:
Total depravity—"Human Depravity," by Evan Probert (message 2). Unconditional Election—"Election", by John Bloomfield (message 1). Limited Atonement—"Particular Redemption," by J. A. Spurgeon (message 3). Irresistible Grace—"Effectual Calling," by James Smith (message 4). Perseverance of the Saints—"The Final Perseverance of Believers in Christ Jesus," by William O'Neill (message 5).
The Rev. C. H. SPURGEON took the chair at 3 o'clock.
The proceedings were commenced by singing the 21st Hymn—
Saved from the damning power of sin,
The law's tremendous curse,
We'll now the sacred song begin
Where God began with us.
We'll sing the vast unmeasured grace
Which, from the days of old,
Did all his chosen sons embrace,
As sheep within the fold.
The basis of eternal love
Shall mercy's frame sustain;
Earth, hell, or sin, the same to move
Shall all conspire in vain.
Sing, O ye sinners bought with blood,
Hail the Great Three in One;
Tell how secure the cov'nant stood
Ere time its race begun.
Ne'er had ye felt the guilt of sin,
Nor sweets of pard'ning love,
Unless your worthless names had been
Enroll'd to life above.
O what a sweet exalted son
Shall rend the vaulted skies,
When, shouting, grace, the blood-wash'd throng
Shall see the Top Stone rise.
The Rev. George Wyard, of Deptford, offered prayer.
The REV. C. H. Spurgeon in opening the proceedings
said, we have met together beneath this roof already to set forth most of those truths in
which consists the peculiarity of this Church. Last evening we endeavoured to show to the
world, that we heartily recognised the essential union of the Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And now, this afternoon and evening, it is our intention, through the lips of our
brethren, to set forth those things which are verily received among us, and especially
those great points which have been so often attacked, but which are still upheld and
maintained,—truths which we have proved in our experience to be full of grace and
truth. My only business upon this occasion is to introduce the brethren who shall address
you, and I shall do so as briefly as possible, making what I shall say a preface to their
remarks.
The controversy which has been carried on between the Calvinist and the Arminian is
exceedingly important, but it does not so involve the vital point of personal godliness as
to make eternal life depend upon our holding either system of theology. Between the
Protestant and the Papist there is a controversy of such a character, that he who is saved
on the one side by faith in Jesus, dare not allow that his opponent on the opposite side
can be saved while depending on his own works. There the controversy is for life or death,
because it hinges mainly upon the doctrine of justification by faith, which Luther so
properly called the test doctrine, by which a Church either stands or falls. The
controversy again between the believer in Christ and the Socinian, is one which affects a
vital point. If the Socinian be right, we are most frightfully in error; we are, in fact,
idolaters, and how dwelleth eternal life in us? and if we be right, our largest charity
will not permit us to imagine that a man can enter heaven who does not believe the real
divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are other controversies which thus cut at the
very core, and touch the very essence of the whole subject. But, I think we are free to
admit, that while John Wesley, for instance, in modern times zealously defended
Arminianism, and on the other hand, George Whitfield with equal fervour fought for
Calvinism, we should not be prepared either of us, on either side of the question, to deny
the vital godliness of either the one or the other. We cannot shut our eyes to what we
believe to be the gross mistakes of our opponents, and should think ourselves unworthy of
the name of honest men, if we could admit that they are right in all things and ourselves
right too. An honest man has an intellect which does not permit him to believe that
"yes" and "no" can both subsist at the same hour and both be true. I
cannot say, "It is," and my brother point blank say, "It is not," and
yet both of us be right on that point. We are willing to admit, in fact, we dare not do
otherwise, that opinion upon this controversy does not determine the future of even the
present state of any man; but still, we think it to be so important, that in maintaining
our views, we advance with all courage and fervency if spirit, believing that we are doing
God's work and upholding most important truth. It may not be misunderstood, we only use
the term for shortness. That doctrine which is called "Calvinism" did not spring
from Calvin; we believe that it sprang from the great founder of all truth. Perhaps Calvin
himself derived it mainly from the writings of Augustine. Augustine obtained his views,
without doubt, through the Spirit of God, from the diligent study of the writings of Paul,
and Paul received them of the Holy Ghost, from Jesus Christ the great founder of the
Christian dispensation. We use the term then, not because we impute any extraordinary
importance to Calvin's having taught these doctrines. We would be just as willing to call
them by any other name, if we could find one which would be better understood, and which
on the whole would be as consistent with fact. And then again, this afternoon, we shall
have very likely to speak of Arminians, and by that, we would not for a moment insinuate
that all who are in membership with the Arminian body, hold those particular views. There
are Calvinists in connection with Calvinistic Churches, who are not Calvinistic, bearing
the name but discarding the system. There are, on the other hand, not a few in the
Methodist Churches, who, in most points perfectly agree with us, and I believe that if the
matter came to be thoroughly sifted, it would be found that we are more agreed in our
private opinions than in our public confessions, and our devotional religion is more
uniform than our theology. For instance, Mr. Wesley's hymn-book, which may be looked upon
as being the standard of his divinity, has in it upon some topics higher Calvinism than
many books used by ourselves. I have been exceedingly struck with the very forcible
expressions there used, some of which I might have hesitated to employ myself. I shall ask
your attention while I quote verses from the hymns of Mr. Wesley, which we can all endorse
as fully and plainly in harmony with the doctrines of grace, far more so than the
preaching of some modern Calvinists. I do this because our low-doctrine Baptists and
Morisonians ought to be aware of the vast difference between themselves and the
Evangelical Arminians.
HYMN 131, verses 1, 2, 3.
"Lord, I despair myself to heal:
I see my sin, but cannot feel;
I cannot, till thy Spirit blow,
And bid the obedient waters flow.
'Tis thine a heart of flesh to give;
Thy gifts I only can receive:
Here, then, to thee I all resign;
To draw, redeem, and seal,—is thine.
With simple faith on thee I call,
My Light, my Life, my Lord, my all:
I wait the moving of the pool;
I wait the word that speaks me whole."
HYMN 133, verse 4.
"Thy golden sceptre from above
Reach forth; lo! my whole heart I bow;
Say to my soul, Thou art my love;
My chosen midst ten thousand, thou."
This is very like election.
HYMN 136, verses 8, 9, 10.
"I cannot rest, till in thy
blood
I full redemption have:
But thou, through whom I come to God,
Canst to the utmost save.
From sin, the guilt, the power, the
pain,
Thou wilt redeem my soul:
Lord, I believe, and not in vain;
My faith shall make me whole.
I too, with thee, shall walk in
white;
With all thy saints shall prove,
What is the length, and breadth, and height,
And depth of perfect love."
Brethren, is not this somewhat like final perseverance? and what is meant by the next quotation, if people of God can perish at all?
HYMN 138, verses 6, 7.
"Who, who shall in thy presence
stand,
And match Omnipotence?
Ungrasp the hold of thy right hand,
Or pluck the sinner thence?
Sworn to destroy, let earth assail;
Nearer to save thou art:
Stronger than all the powers of hell,
And greater than my heart."
The following is remarkably strong, especially in the expression "force." I give it in full:—
HYMN 158
"O my God, what must I do?
Thou alone the way canst show;
Thou canst save me in this hour;
I have neither will nor power:
God, if over all thou art,
Greater than my sinful heart,
All thy power on me be shown,
Take away the heart of stone.
Take away my darling sin,
Make me willing to be clean;
Make me willing to receive
All thy goodness waits to give.
Force me, Lord, with all to part;
Tear these idols from my heart;
Now thy love almighty show,
Make even me a creature new.
Jesus, mighty to renew,
Work in me to will and do;
Turn my nature's rapid tide,
Stem the torrent of my pride;
Stop the whirlwind of my will;
Speak, and bid the sun stand still;
Now thy love almighty show,
Make even me a creature new.
Arm of God, thy strength put on;
Bow the heavens, and come down;
All my unbelief o'erthrow;
Lay th' aspiring mountain low:
Conquer thy worst foe in me,
Get thyself the victory;
Save the vilest of the race;
Force me to be saved by grace."
HYMN 206, verses 1, 2.
"What am I, O thou glorious God!
And what my father's house to thee,
That thou such mercies hast bestow'd
On me, the vilest reptile, me!
I take the blessing from above,
And wonder at the boundless love.
Me in my blood the love pass'd by,
And stopp'd, my ruin to retrieve;
Wept o'er my soul thy pitying eye;
Thy bowels yearn'd, and sounded, "Live!"
Dying, I heard the welcome sound,
And pardon in thy mercy found."
Nor are these all, for such good things as these
abound, and they constrain me to say, that in attacking Arminianism we have no hostility
towards the men who bear the name rather than the nature of that error, and we are opposed
not to any body of men, but to the notions which they have espoused.
And now, having made these remarks upon terms used, we must observe that there is nothing
upon which men need to be more instructed than upon the question of what Calvinism really
is. The most infamous allegations have been brought against us, and sometime, I must fear,
by men who knew them to be utterly untrue; and, to this day, there are many of our
opponents, who, when they run short of matter, invent and make for themselves a man of
straw, call that John Calvin, and then shoot all their arrows at it. We are not come here
to defend your man of straw—shoot at it or burn it as you will, and, if it suit your
convenience, still oppose doctrines which were never taught, and rail at fictions which,
save in your own brain, were never in existence. We come here to state what our views
really are, and we trust that any who do not agree with us will do us the justice of not
misrepresenting us. If they can disprove our doctrines, let them state them fairly and
then overthrow them, but why should they first caricature our opinions and then afterwards
attempt to put them down? Among the gross falsehoods which have been uttered against the
Calvinists proper, is the wicked calumny that we hold the damnation of little infants.
A baser lie was never uttered. There may have existed somewhere, in some corner of the
earth, a miscreant who would dare to say that there were infants in hell, but I have never
met with him, nor have I met with a man who ever saw such a person. We say, with regard to
infants, Scripture saith but little, and, therefore, where Scripture is confessedly scant,
it is for no man to determine dogmatically. But I think I speak for the entire body, or
certainly with exceedingly few exceptions, and those unknown to me, when I say, we hold
that all infants are elect of God and are therefore saved, and we look to this as being
the means by which Christ shall see of the travail of his soul to a great degree, and we
do sometimes hope that thus the multitude of the saved shall be made to exceed the
multitude of the lost. Whatever views our friends may hold upon the point, they are
not necessarily connected with Calvinistic doctrine. I believe that the Lord Jesus, who
said, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven," doth daily and constantly receive into
his loving arms those tender ones who are only shown, and then snatched away to heaven.
Our hymns are no ill witness to our faith on this point, and one of them runs thus:
"Millions of infant souls
compose
The family above."
"Toplady, one of the keenest of
Calvinists, was of this number. "In my remarks," says he, "on Dr. Nowell, I
testified my firm belief that the souls of all departed infants are with God in
glory; that in the decree of predestination to life, God hath included all whom he decreed
to take away in infancy, and that the decree of reprobation hath nothing to do with
them." Nay, he proceeds farther, and asks, with reason, how the anti-Calvinistic
system of conditional salvation and election, or good works foreseen, will suit with the
salvation of infants? It is plain that Arminians and Pelagians must introduce a new
principle of election; and in so far as the salvation of infants is concerned, become
Calvinists. Is it not an argument in behalf of Calvinism, that its principle is uniform
throughout, and that no change is needed on the ground on which man is saved, whether
young or old? John Newton, of London, the friend of Cowper, noted for his Calvinism, holds
that the children in heaven exceed its adult inhabitants in all their multitudinous array.
Gill, a very champion of Calvinism, held the doctrine, that all dying in infancy are
saved. An intelligent modern writer, (Dr. Russell, of Dundee,) also a Calvinist, maintains
the same views; and when it is considered that nearly one-half of the human race
die in early years, it is easy to see what a vast accession must be daily and hourly
making to the blessed population of heaven."
A more common charge, brought by more decent people,—for I must say that the last
charge is never brought, except by disreputable persons,—a more common charge is,
that we hold clear fatalism. Now, there may be Calvinists who are fatalists, but
Calvinism and fatalism are two distinct things. Do not most Christians hold the doctrine
of the providence of God? Do not all Christians, do not all believers in a God hold the
doctrine of his foreknowledge? All the difficulties which are laid against the doctrine of
predestination might, with equal force, be laid against that of Divine foreknowledge. We
believe that God hath predestinated all things from the beginning, but there is a
difference between the predestination of an intelligent, all-wise, all-bounteous God, and
that blind fatalism which simple says, "It is because it is to be." Between the predestination
of Scripture and the fate of the Koran, every sensible man must perceive a
difference of the most essential character. We do not deny that the thing is so ordained
that it must be, but why is it to be, but that the Father, God, whose name is love,
ordained it; not because of any necessity in circumstances that such and such a thing
should take place. Though the wheels of providence revolve with rigid exactness, yet not
without purpose and wisdom. The wheels are full of eyes, and everything ordained is so
ordained that it shall conduce to the grandest of all ends, the glory of God, and the next
to that the good of his creatures. But we are next met by some who tell us that we preach
the wicked and horrible doctrine of sovereign and unmerited reprobation.
"Oh," say they, "you teach that men are damned because God made them to be
damned, and that they go to hell, not because of sin, not because of unbelief, but because
of some dark decree with which God has stamped their destiny." Brethren, this is an
unfair charge again. Election does not involve reprobation. There may be some who hold
unconditional reprobation. I stand not here as their defender, let them defend themselves
as best they can; I hold God's election, but I testify just as clearly that if any man be
lost he is lost for sin; and this has been the uniform statement of Calvinistic ministers.
I might refer you to our standards, such as "The Westminster Assembly's
Catechism," and to all our Confession, for they all distinctly state that man is lost
for sin, and that there is no punishment put on any man except that which he richly and
righteously deserves. If any of you have ever uttered that libel against us, do it not
again, for we are as guiltless of that as you are yourselves. I am speaking
personally—and I think in this I would command the suffrages of my brethren—I do
know that the appointment of God extendeth to all things; but I stand not in this pulpit,
nor in any other, to lay the damnation of any man anywhere but upon himself. If he be
lost, damnation is all of man; but, if he be saved, still salvation is all of God. To
state this important point yet more clearly and explicitly, I shall quote at large from an
able Presbyterian divine:
"The pious Methodist is taught that the Calvinist represents God as creating men in
order to destroy them. He is taught that Calvinists hold that men are lost, not because
they sin, but because they are nonelected. Believing this to be a true statement, it is
not wonderful that the Methodist stops short, and declares himself, if not an Arminian, at
least an AntiPredestinarian. But no statement can be more scandalously untrue. It is the
uniform doctrine of Calvinism, that God creates all for his own glory; that he is
infinitely righteous and benignant, and that where men perish it is only for their sins.
In speaking of suffering, whether in this world or in the world to come; whether it
respects angels or men, the Westminster standards (which may be considered as the most
authoritative modern statement of the system) invariably connect the punishment with
previous sin, and sin only. "As for those wicked and ungodly men whom God as a
righteous judge FOR FORMER SINS doth blind and harden, from them he not only
withholdeth his grace, whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings
and wrought upon in their hearts, but sometimes also with draweth the gifts which they
had, and exposeth them to such objects as their corruption makes occasion of sin;
and withal gives them over to their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power
of Satan, whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves even under those
means which God useth for the softening of others." The Larger Catechism, speaking of
the unsaved among angels and men, says, "God according to his Sovereign power and the
unsearchable counsel of his own will (whereby he extendeth or withholdeth favour as he
pleaseth) hath passed by and fore-ordained the rest to dishonour and wrath, to be for
their sin inflicted, to the praise of the glory of his justice." Again, "the
end of God appointing this day (of the last judgment) is for the manifestation of the
glory of his mercy, in the eternal salvation of the elect, and of his justice in the
damnation of the reprobate who are wicked and disobedient." This is no more
than what the Methodist and all other Evangelical bodies acknowledge—that where men
perish it is in consequence of their sin. If it be asked, why sin which destroys, is
permitted to enter the world, that is a question which bears not only on the Calvinist,
but equally on all other parties. They are as much concerned and bound to answer it as he;
nay, the question in not confined to Christians. All who believe in the existence of
God—in his righteous character and perfect providence, are equally under obligation
to answer it. Whatever may be the reply of others, that of the Calvinist may be regarded
as given in the statement of the Confession of Faith, which declares that God's providence
extendeth itself even to the first fall, and other sins of angels and men, &c.; "yet
so as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God, who,
being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin."
It is difficult to see what more could be said upon the subject; and if such be the
undoubted sentiments of Calvinists, then what misrepresentation can be more gross than
that which describes them as holding that sinners perish irrespective of their sin, or
that God is the author of their sin? What is the declaration of Calvin? "Every
soul departs (at death) to that place which it has prepared for itself while in
this world."
It is hard to be charged with holding as sacred truth what one abhors as horrid blasphemy,
and yet this is the treatment which has been perseveringly meted out to Calvinists in
spite of the most solemn and indignant disclaimers. Against nothing have they more stoutly
protested than the thought that the infinitely holy, and righteous, and amiable Jehovah is
the author of sin; and yet how often do the supporters of rival systems charge them with
this as an article of faith?
A yet further charge against us is, that we dare not preach the gospel to the
unregenerate, that, in fact, our theology is so narrow and cramped that we cannot
preach to sinners. Gentlemen, if you dare to say this, I would take you to any library in
the world where the old Puritan fathers are stored up, and I would let you take down any
one volume and tell me if you ever read more telling exhortations and addresses to sinners
in any of your own books. Did not Bunyan plead with sinners, and whoever classed him with
any but the Calvinist? Did not Charnock, Goodwin, and Howe agonise for souls, and what
were they but Calvinist? Did not Jonathan Edwards preach to sinners, and who more clear
and explicit on these doctrinal matters. The works of our innumerable divines teem with
passionate appeals to the unconverted. Oh, sirs, if I should begin the list, time should
fail me. It is an indisputable fact that we have laboured more than they all for the
winning of souls. Was George Whitfield any the less seraphic? Did his eyes weep the fewer
tears or his bowels move with the less compassion because he believed in God's electing
love and preached the sovereignty of the Most High? It is an unfounded calumny. Our souls
are not stony; our bowels are not withdrawn the compassion which we ought to feel for our
fellowmen; we can hold all our views firmly, and yet can weep as Christ did over a
Jerusalem which was certainly to be destroyed. Again, I must say, I am not defending
certain brethren who have exaggerated Calvinism. I speak of Calvinism proper, not that
which has run to seed, and outgrown its beauty and verdure. I speak of it as I find it in
Calvin's Institutes, and especially in his Expositions. I have read them carefully. I take
not my views of Calvinism from common repute but from his books. Nor do I, in this
speaking, even vindicate Calvinism as if I cared for the name, but I mean that glorious
system which teaches that salvation is of grace from first to last. And again, then, I say
it is an utterly unfounded charge that we dare not preach to sinners.
And then further, that I may clear up these points and leave the less rubbish for my
brethren to wheel away, we have sometimes heard it said, but those who say it ought to go
to school to read the first book of history, that we who hold Calvinistic views are the
enemies of revivals. Why, sirs, in the history of the Church, with but few exceptions, you
could not find a revival at all that was not produced by the orthodox faith. What was the
great work which was done by Augustine, when the Church suddenly woke up from the
pestiferous and deadly sleep into which Pelagian doctrine had cast it? What was the
Reformation itself but the waking up of men's minds to those old truths? However far
modern Lutherans may have turned aside from their ancient doctrines, and I must confess
some of them would not agree with what I now say, yet, at any rate, Luther and Calvin had
no dispute about Predestination. Their views were identical, and Luther, "On the
bondage of the will," is as strong a book upon the free grace of God as Calvin
himself could have written. Hear that great thunderer while he cries in that book,
"Let the Christian reader know then, that God foresees nothing in a contingent
manner; but that he foresees, proposes, and acts, from his eternal and unchangeable will.
This is the thunder stroke which breaks and overturns Free Will." Need I mention to
you better names than Huss, Jerome of Prague, Farrel, John Knox, Wickliffe, Wishart, and
Bradford? Need I do more than say that these held the same views, and that in their day
anything like an Arminian revival was utterly unheard of and undreamed of. And then, to
come to more modern times, there is the great exception, that wondrous revival under Mr.
Wesley, in which the Wesleyan Methodists had so large a share; but permit me to say, that
the strength of the doctrine of Wesleyan Methodism lay in its Calvinism. The great body of
the Methodists disclaimed Palagianism, in whole and in part. They contended for man's
entire depravity, the necessity of the direct agency of the Holy Spirit, and that the
first step in the change proceeds not from the sinner, but from God. They denied at the
time that they were Pelagians. Does not the Methodist hold as firmly as ever we do, that
man is saved by the operation of the holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost alone? And are not
many of Mr. Wesley's sermons full of that great truth, that the Holy Ghost is necessary to
regeneration? Whatever mistakes he may have made, he continually preached the absolute
necessity of the new birth by the Holy Ghost, and there are some other points of
exceedingly close agreement; for instance, even that of human inability. It matters not
how some may abuse us, when we say man could not of himself repent or believe; yet, the
old Arminian standards said the same. True, they affirm that God has given grace to every
man, but they do not dispute the fact, that apart from that grace there was no ability in
man to do that which was good in his own salvation. And then, let me say, if you turn to
the continent of America, how gross the falsehood, that Calvinistic doctrine is
unfavourable to revivals. Look at that wondrous shaking under Jonathan Edwards, and others
which we might quote. Or turn to Scotland—what shall we say of M'Cheyne? What shall
we say of those renowned Calvinists, Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Wardlow, and before them
Livingstone, Haldane, Erskine, and the like? What shall we say of the men of their school,
but that, while they held and preached unflinchingly the great truths which we would
propound to-day, yet God owned their word, and multitudes were saved. And if it were not
perhaps too much like boasting of one's own work under God, I might say, personally I have
never found the preaching of these doctrines lull this Church to sleep, but ever while
they have loved to maintain these truths, they have agonised for the souls of men, and the
1600 or more of whom I have myself baptized, upon profession of their faith, are living
testimonies that these old truths in modern times have not lost their power to promote a
revival of religion.
I have thus cleared away these allegations at the outset; I shall now need a few minutes
more to say, with regard to the Calvinistic system, that there are some things to be said
in its favour, to which of course I attach but little comparative importance, but they
ought not to be ignored. It is a fact that the system of doctrines called the Calvinistic,
is so exceedingly simple and so readily learned, that as a system of Divinity it is
more easily taught and more easily grasped by unlettered minds than any other. The poor
have the Gospel preached to them in a style which assists their memories and commends
itself to their judgments. It is a system which was practically acknowledged an high
philosophic grounds by such men as Bacon, Leibnitz, and Newton, and yet it can charm the
soul of a child and expand the intellect of a peasant. And then it has another virtue. I
take it that the last is no mean one, but it has another—that when it is preached
there is a something in it which excites thought. A man may hear sermons upon the
other theory which shall glance over him as the swallow's wing gently sweeps the brook,
but these old doctrines either make a man so angry that he goes home and cannot sleep for
very hatred, or else they bring him down into lowliness of thought, feeling the immensity
of the things which he has heard. Either way it excites and stirs him up not temporarily,
but in a most lasting manner. These doctrines haunt him, he kicks against the pricks, and
full often the word forces a way into his soul. And I think this is no small thing for any
doctrine to do, in an age given to slumber, and with human hearts so indifferent to the
truth of God. I know that many men have gained more good by being made angry under a
sermon than by being pleased by it, for being angry they have turned the truth over and
over again, and at last the truth has burned its way right into their hearts. They have
played with edge-tools, but they have cut themselves at last.
It has this singular virtue also—it is so coherent in all its parts. You
cannot vanquish a Calvinist. You may think you can, but you cannot. The stones of the
great doctrines so fit into each other, that the more pressure there is applied to remove
them the more strenuously do they adhere. And you may mark, that you cannot receive one of
these doctrines without believing all. Hold for instance that man is utterly depraved, and
you draw the inference then that certainly if God has such a creature to deal with
salvation must come from God alone, and if from him, the offended one, to an offending
creature, then he has a right to give or withhold his mercy as he wills; you are this
forced upon election, and when you have gotten that you have all: the others must follow.
Some by putting the strain upon their judgments may manage to hold two or three points and
not the rest, but sound logic I take it requires a man to hold the whole or reject the
whole; the doctrines stand like soldiers in a square, presenting on every side a line of
defence which it is hazardous to attack, but easy to maintain. And mark you, in these
times when error is so rife and neology strives to be so rampant, it is no little thing to
put into the hands of a young man a weapon which can slay his foe, which he can easily
learn to handle, which he may grasp tenaciously, wield readily, and carry without fatigue;
a weapon, I may add, which no rust can corrode and no blows can break, trenchant, and well
annealed, a true Jerusalem blade of a temper fit for deeds of renown. The coherency of the
parts, though it be of course but a trifle in comparison with other things, is not
unimportant. And then, I add,—but this is the point my brethren will take up—it
has this excellency, that it is scriptural, and that it is consistent with the experience
of believers. Men generally grow more Calvinistic as they advance in years. Is not that a
sign that the doctrine is right. As they are growing riper for heaven, as they are getting
nearer to the rest that remaineth for the people of God, the soul longs to feed on the
finest of the wheat, and abhors chaff and husks. And then, I add—and, in so doing, I
would refute a calumny that has sometimes been urged,—this glorious truth has this
excellency, that it produces the holiest of men. We can look back through all our annals,
and say, to those who oppose us, you can mention no names of men more holy, more devoted,
more loving, more generous than those which we can mention. The saints of our calendar,
though uncanonized by Rome, rank first in the book of life. The names of Puritan needs
only to be heard to constrain our reverence. Holiness had reached a height among them
which is rare indeed, and well it might for they loved and lived the truth. And if you say
that our doctrine is inimical to human liberty, we point you to Oliver Cromwell and to his
brave Ironsides, Calvinists to a man. If you say, it leads to inaction, we point you to
the Pilgrim Fathers and the wildernesses they subdued. We can put our finger upon every
spot of land, the wide world o'er, and say, "Here was something done by a man who
believed in God's decrees; and, inasmuch as he did this, it is proof it did not make him
inactive, it did not lull him to sloth."
The better way, however of proving this point is for each of us who hold these truths, to
be more prayerful, more watchful, more holy, more active than we have ever been before,
and by so doing, we shall put to silence the gainsaying of foolish men. A living argument,
is an argument which tells upon every man; we cannot deny what we see and feel. Be it
ours, if aspersed and calumniated, to disprove it by a blameless life, and it shall yet
come to pass, that our Church and its sentiments too shall come forth "Fair as the
moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners."
BY THE
OF MEARD'S COURT, SOHO
My dear Christian friends, those who best know my
cast of mind and ministry will readily believe me when I say I would rather have spoken on
the majesty and mystery of the person of Christ, or I would rather have spoken on the
perfection and intrinsic worth of the mediation of Christ, or on the great attraction of
Christ as a gracious and omnipotent Saviour, than on the subject that has been assigned to
me. The subject that has been given me is that of the doctrine of eternal and personal
election; I have to prove that the doctrine of election is a scriptural truth; and, at the
commencement of my few remarks on this profound subject, allow me to say that I hold and
firmly believe the Bible to be revelation from God, that the revelations of God's mind are
essentially and infallibly true, that its ancient historical records are of the greatest
value, that its prophecies are to be studied and to be venerated, that the doctrines of
the Bible are in harmony with the majesty, wisdom, holiness and goodness of their Author.
Now it should not be a point with us whether a doctrine is like or disliked, whether it is
believed or disbelieved, but whether it is a doctrine according to godliness, whether it
is the doctrine of the Word of God. Truth has never been popular in this world: Jesus
Christ when on earth was by no means popular. Truth never will be popular in this world
while men are influenced by sin, and enmity against God. Perhaps no doctrine has met with
such bitter opposition as the doctrine on which I have to speak. It has been fearfully
misunderstood for a want of prayerful and independent study of the Holy Scriptures, or
perhaps from the miserable misrepresentations that have been given of it by some public
men. It is a truth which has been bitterly opposed; we may oppose a doctrine which we
cannot with all our puny efforts depose. We may dispute in our blindness and enmity a
doctrine which we cannot refute. We believe firmly that the doctrine of election to
salvation in Jesus Christ is a doctrine of the Scriptures. We believe in sovereign love,
but not in sovereign hatred. We believe in salvation by the grace of God without works,
but not in damnation without sin. We believe firmly in election to salvation by faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, but we discard from our creed the miserable, wretched doctrine of
reprobation without sin. Is the doctrine of election a Scriptural doctrine? Can we prove
it from the word of God? It is one thing to believe it to be a doctrine of Divine
revelation, and it is another thing to have the sanctifying grace and power of it in our
hearts. The election we read of in the Scriptures is inseparably connected with holiness,
and we believe in no election to salvation without faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He who
has appointed salvation as an end has appointed the methods by which that end shall be
accomplished. Perhaps no man possessed of his reasoning powers questions the truth that
God has predestinated harvest as long as this world shall continue. But without sowing of
seed, without the agricultural labour that is given to the land, we should have no
harvest, because he who predestinated harvest predestinated the sowing of the seed as
much. And God has appointed us not unto wrath, but to obtain salvation through Jesus
Christ. I shall endeavour now to prove, from the quotation of a few Scriptures, that the
doctrine of eternal and personal election is a Scriptural and Divine truth. Jesus Christ
himself was said to be "chosen of God and precious." He is God's elect, for
Jehovah himself says, "Behold my servant, mine elect in whom my soul
delighteth." Angels that continue in their unfallen dignity and felicity are termed
elect angels. Elect angels are employed as ministering spirits to those that shall be
heirs of salvation. Elect angels will be employed in the gathering of God's elect into the
heavenly world. The Jewish nation was a chosen nation, and as such they were privileged
with the oracles of God, and stood as a representative people. They were chosen not
because of their personal worth, they were chosen not because of their goodness, but they
were chosen to be a separated people, a people that should be God's peculiar treasure, and
should be holiness unto the Lord; of them it was said, "For thou art a holy people
unto the Lord thy God—the Lord hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself,
above all people that are upon the face of the earth." Jesus Christ himself, in the
24th chapter of Matthew, speaks of certain days being shortened because of God's elect.
The Psalmist craved to be remembered with the favour that God was pleased to bear towards
his people, that he might see the good of his chosen. And Jesus Christ himself said to his
disciples, "Ye have not chose me, but I have chosen you." And the Apostle Paul
very often in his writings has brought out this great and profound doctrine. He says,
"There is a remnant according to the election of grace." He speaks to the
Ephesian Church, and says, "Ye are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world that ye may be holy, and that ye may stand before God without blame in love."
God hath in the exercise of his sovereignty chosen a people in Christ to salvation
before time began—it was before the foundation of the world, here is its
antiquity—it is in Christ according to the riches of God's grace, and it is to holiness
and salvation. He, in his addresses to the Church at Thessalonica, said he could but thank
God "that they were chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and the
belief of the truth." Peter speaks of the people of God as a chosen generation and a
royal priesthood. He wrote to the elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father. More Scriptures might be given upon this subject, but I think they would be
unnecessary. If we would only give our attention to the simple teachings of the Spirit of
God by the prophets, by the Psalmist, by Christ, and by the Apostles, we could not have
one moment's doubt as to the doctrine of Divine election being a Scriptural truth.
My second point is to show that God has chosen his people to the highest possible relation
to himself, and to the enjoyment of the most precious blessings in Christ. All spiritual
relations stand in Christ; all spiritual relations originated in God's grace; and all
spiritual relations are standing manifestations of the sovereignty of God's favour and of
the immutability of God's love. If we are the sons of God, what has constituted us the
sons of God? We are sons of God by God's sovereign love; it is by an act of adoption, it
is by an act of Jehovah's will, that we are constituted his sons and his daughters.
Adoption is relation established to which we have no natural right; adoption is one thing,
and the spirit of adoption is another. Now Christ is God's first-born, and all the family
are chose in him; Christ is the glorious Head of the Church, and all the family of God are
chosen members in him; Christ is the everlasting Priest of his Church, and he represents
all the family, just as the Jewish priest represented by his breast-plate and in the
fulfilment of his office the whole of the Jewish nation. All relation to God then stands
in Christ, originated in the sovereignty of Jehovah's will, and is expressive of the
infinite love of Jehovah's heart. We are chose to salvation—that is the end; the
means by which that end is accomplished is by the "sanctification of the Spirit, and
the belief of the truth." We are chose to usefulness; every Christian should seek to
be useful; every Christian in his right mind is a witness for God; every Christian, as he
is influenced by Christian principles, bears testimony to the dignity of the relation that
God has established, and bears testimony to the holiness of the principles by which his
heart is influenced; every Christian should be a living gospel, his life should bear
testimony to the holiness of that Christianity that he studies and is influenced by. We
are chosen to eternal life, but it is eternal life through Christ. Without faith there is
no evidence of interest in Christ, without faith there is no enjoyment of salvation by
Christ. Without faith, a man has no evidence of interest in the Lamb's Book of Life; but
he who believes in Christ, however weak and trembling his faith has evidence in his own
heart that his name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life; and his conduct corresponding
with the holiness of the gospel, he carries in his life a witness to his interest in all
the purposes of heaven, and in all the redemptive excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
great evidence of interest in election is holiness. A man to talk of believing in
election, and going to heaven, because he is one of God's elect, and yet living in sin,
and in enmity to God, this can never, never be. We are chosen unto salvation, it is said,
"through sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth;" and, without
this sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth, there is no holiness; and,
"without holiness, no man can see the Lord." Without holiness, no man would be
capable of serving God in heaven; without holiness, no man would be capable of beholding
the glories of Jesus Christ there; without holiness, no man can serve God with power and
success here; without holiness, no man can have fellowship with God, and so have
fellowship with us, for truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his son Jesus
Christ. It is only by practical life of consistency with faith in Christ Jesus, that we
have evidence of our interest in election. We are chosen, not because we are holy, but
that we might be holy; we are chosen, not because we are good, but that by the principles
of the everlasting Gospel, we might become so; we are chosen, not because we are saved,
but that we may be saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I hold, dear friends,
that the great doctrine of election should be preached. It should be preached, because it
is part of a grand system of truth. Truth is not one doctrine, but it is a grand system,
and you cannot leave out one part without impairing its beauty, nor leave out one part of
this system without weakening its strength. The beauty of truth lies in its perfection,
and in that harmony of its connection; the strength of truth lies in the unity of its
parts, and it is like gold dust—it is all precious. If Election be not a truth
inspired by the Spirit of the living God—if it be not a truth proclaimed by the
prophets that were inspired—if it be not a truth published by the Apostles—if it
be not a truth found in the teachings of the word of God, let us never say one word about
it; but if it was truth in the days of the Apostles, then it is no less a truth now. What
the Apostles preached, I hold, we ought to preach in the spirit of love, in the spirit of
faith, in the spirit of meekness, entirely depending on the power of the Holy Spirit to
give us success in the conversion of immortal souls. One moment longer, and I have done.
There is nothing in the doctrine of election that is discouraging to a penitent, seeking
sinner. There is everything in the Gospel to welcome the returning prodigal to his
Father's house; there is everything to meet the necessities of an awakened conscience;
there is everything in the Gospel to satisfy the longing of a penitent soul. I know some
may say, "I fear, Sir, I shall not be saved because I am not one of God's
elect." Art thou a sinner? art thou a penitent sinner? art thou a seeking sinner? If
thou art a seeking, penitent sinner, you cannot imagine how welcome you are to the
provisions of infinite love. Every truth in the Gospel is open to you; every promise in
the Gospel is open to you; every invitation in Scripture speaks to you. If thou art a
sinner seeking mercy, let this cheer thy heart—that God delighteth in mercy. If thou
art seeking salvation, Jesus is a willing and an able Saviour, and he has said, "All
that the Father giveth to me shall come to me, and him that cometh I will in no wise cast
out." There is nothing, dear friends, in the doctrine of election as it stands in the
Scriptures that should discourage any penitent in seeking after mercy through Jesus
Christ. I know, in the miserable misrepresentation of this great and glorious truth, men
might well be discouraged from seeking mercy through the Saviour. But see it in its
Scriptural connection; see it in the simplicity of it as it is put before us by the great
Apostles; see it in the teachings of the Saviour himself, and there is nothing in it but
that which welcomes a penitent sinner. It is a great encouragement to a seeking soul. Does
the farmer who sows his seed sow that seed with less or more encouragement because he
knows that God has ordained that harvest shall be? He sows his seed with a heart brimfull
with hope, because God has promised that a harvest shall be as long as the world
continues. Only let the means be used according to the Holy Scriptures; only let the poor
awakened, penitent sinner renounce everything but Christ and him crucified, mercy will
roll into his troubled heart and fill his spirit with peace, and he shall come off more
than conqueror, shouting, Victory through the blood of the Lamb—Victory, victory
through Jesus Christ.
BY THE
OF BRISTOL
My Christian friends, you are quite aware that the
subject which is to engage our further attention this afternoon, is HUMAN DEPRAVITY—a
subject about which there are different opinions, which I shall not attempt to examine at
the present time, but I shall confine myself to the teachings of God's word, which is the
only infallible rule of faith and practice, and from which we learn what man was when he
came from the hands of his Maker, and what he is now as a fallen creature. It is
explicitly declared by the sacred writers, that God made man upright, and therefore his
condition was one of perfect innocence and high moral excellence. There was no tendency to
evil in any part of his nature, nothing that deviated in the least from the rule of moral
rectitude. Whatever his duty was, it was to him his invariable and delightful employment.
But, alas! man in honour did not long continue. Through the insinuating wiles of the
devil, our first parents were induced to violate the positive command of their Maker, the
observance of which was the condition of their happiness, and, as punishment for their
transgression, they were driven out of Paradise, and became liable to be cut off by the
sentence of death, and consigned to everlasting misery; and, in consequence of our
connection with Adam, as our federal head and representative, we became subject to the
dreadful consequences of his fall. This is evident from the testimony of the Apostle Paul,
in the fifth Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. There we read, "By one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so that death passed upon all men, for that all
have sinned." And, again, "By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to
condemnation, and by the disobedience of one, many were made sinners." It is evident
from these passages that God viewed Adam in the covenant of works as the head and
representative of his natural posterity, and consequently, when he fell we fell in him,
and became subject to the tremendous consequences of his fall. Here it may be asked, what
are the consequences of his fall? what were they to him, and what are they to us? To
answer this question, we must ascertain what the Apostle means when he uses the words
death, judgment, and condemnation. I think that he uses these words in opposition to the
grace of God, to justification of life, and to the reign of the redeemed in life by Jesus
Christ. These are the benefits which result from the grace of God through Christ, and
which stand opposed to the evils which sin has introduced into our world; and, as it
cannot be supposed that these benefits relate to temporal life, or solely to the
resurrection of the body, it cannot be that the evils involved in the words, death,
judgment, and condemnation, relate simply to temporal death, but they must be considered
as including temporal, legal, and spiritual death.
From the very hour that Adam transgressed, he became mortal,—the sentence of death
was pronounced upon him, and the seeds of depravity were sown in his system; thus the fair
and beautiful and glorious creature began to fade, wither, and die, and all his posterity
became mortal in him, and have from that day to this come into the world dying. Whatever
the case of man might have been if he had not sinned we cannot say. This however we know,
that he would not have died; for death is the result of the federal failure of the father
of our race. "Dust thou are," God said to him, "and unto dust shalt thou
return." "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin."
"In Adam all died." So that it may be said to every one of Adam's sons and
daughters, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
But Adam by his transgression not only brought temporal death upon himself and his
posterity, he also brought legal death. Having violated the law that was given him to
observe, he became under the curse of that law, which involved not only temporal death and
expulsion from Paradise, but an exposure to suffer the just demerits of his transgression;
and, in consequence of our connection with him as our federal head, we are under the curse
of the same law—"By one man's disobedience judgment came upon all men to
condemnation;" and further, "By the offence of one many were made sinners."
The very moment our progenitor transgressed, all his descendants became subject to the
curse. The holy nature of God abhorred the apostate race; the curse of his holy and
righteous law has ever rested upon that race; judgment has been given and recorded against
us as a fallen world, in the court of Heaven, and unless it is reversed it must fall upon
us with all its tremendous consequences.
We are also, in consequence of Adam's transgression, become the subjects of spiritual
death, which consists not merely in the deprivation of the principle of life; but in
having become depraved creatures, all the faculties of our souls and members of our bodies
are depraved, so that it may be said of us, as the prophet says of the Jewish nation,
"The head is sick, the whole heart is faint; from the sole of the foot unto the head
there is no soundness." What! no soundness in any part? nothing good in any part?
nothing spiritually good? nothing if cherished and fostered that will not lead to God, to
Heaven, and to happiness? Nothing whatever. Let no one mistake me. I do not mean to say
for a single moment, that sin has destroyed any of the faculties of man's soul, for they
are all there. They all exist as they did when they were produced; but I mean to say, that
sin has deprived man of the principle of spiritual life, and made him a depraved and
debased creature; and we believe that we can prove this from the word of God, as well as
from observation.
First,—From the conduct of little children. Children begin to sin very early in life.
If there were any good in us, it would show itself in infancy, before good habits became
corrupted, and evil principles were produced by our connection with the world. But do
little children prefer good? Are they inclined to the good and the excellent? Do you see
from the earliest period of their existence that they are desirous of good? On the
contrary, I say, as soon as they begin to act, they prove by their action, that in them
there is a depraved nature, from which they act. "Madness," says a wise man,
"is bound up in the heart of a child," they go astray from the womb telling
lies. But it may be said, in the way of objection, that this may arise from the
unfavourable circumstance in which some children are placed. No doubt, unfavourable
circumstances have a bad influence upon the minds of children; but it is not so with the
whole race. Point out to me, one child who is disposed from infancy to seek that which is
good, that which is holy. And surely, if the tendency of infants from their earliest
history is to evil, it is a proof that it must arise from the evil propensities within
them, which grow with their growth, and strengthen with their strength.
Secondly,—We have further proof of human depravity from the aversion of sinners to
come to Christ. They are invited to come, persuaded to come, and are assured that they
shall find pardon, acceptance, and salvation. But they cannot be induced to come to him;
and why will they not come? Is it because he is not willing to receive them, or because
there is anything in him to prevent them? No, but it is because of the deep-rooted
depravity in their hearts. The heart is averse to all that is good, and therefore rejects
the Saviour and turns away from him. Hence he complained when in our world, "How
often would I have gathered you, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and
ye would not." "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." What more
needed to be added? Man turns away in proud disdain from all the blessings of the gospel,
and the glories of heaven brought before him, and rushes on with steady purpose to
damnation. "Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,
because their deeds are evil." Oh, to how many in this land may it be said,
"They hate knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord; they would none of his
counsel, they despised all his reproof."
Thirdly,—We have further evidence of native depravity from the testimony of
Scripture. In the first place, let me refer you to the fifth chapter of the Book of
Genesis, and the third verse. There we read, that Adam, after he had lived one hundred and
thirty years, begat a son in his own likeness after his image. Mind, the image in which
Adam was created was the image of God, but that image he had lost before he begat Seth;
therefore, the image in which Seth was born must have been the image of his progenitor, as
a fallen and depraved creature. Let me refer you, in the second place, to the third
chapter of the Gospel of John. "He that is born of the flesh," said the Saviour
to Nicodemus, "is flesh, and he that is born of the Spirit is spirit." To be
born of the flesh, according to the wisest interpretation of that passage, is to be born
of a depraved nature; to be born of the Spirit is to be born of the Holy Spirit of
God—which birth, the Saviour told Nicodemus he must experience before he could see
the kingdom of God. And again, we have several passages in proof of this point. In the
seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, at the fifth verse of that chapter, the
Apostle says, "When we were in the flesh, the motions of sin by the law which worked
in us to bring forth fruit unto death." "When we were in the flesh," means
this—when we were in an unrenewed depraved state. In the same chapter he says, at the
14th verse, "We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under
sin;" as if he had said, "I am as a sinner, a depraved creature." In
accordance with this the Apostle says, at the 18th verse of the same chapter, "In
me—that is, in my flesh—there dwelleth no good thing." No love to God, no
holy aspirations! No, none whatever. At the beginning of the eighth chapter the same
Epistle, we find the terms "flesh" and "Spirit" placed in opposition
to each other, "Who walk not after the flesh,' says the Apostle, describing
Christians, "but after the Spirit." To be in the flesh is to be in a depraved
state, to be in the Spirit is to be a partaker of his grace; to walk after the flesh is to
walk after the dictates of corrupt principles and propensities, to walk after the Spirit
is to be governed by spiritual principles and by the Holy Spirit of God; and the Apostle,
in writing to the Galatians, says to them, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfil the lusts of the flesh." These passages, I think, prove beyond all
contradiction, that man as a fallen creature, is a depraved creature, destitute of any
good. There are many other passages of Scripture that confirm this doctrine, such as the
following, "Who can bring a clean thing out of a unclean." Not one. What is man
that he should be clean, or the son of man that he should be just. "Behold,"
says a Psalmist, "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me." Read the account of man before the deluge, and there we find that every
imagination and the thought of his heart were only evil, and that continually. The same
account is given of him after the flood. The deluge could not wipe away the stains of
moral pollution, could not destroy in man the deep-rooted depravity of his heart.
"The heart," says Jeremiah, "is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked, who can know it." I think that what our blessed Lord said to the Jews of old,
is applicable to every unconverted man under heaven—"But I know you that ye have
not the love of God in you." Some of you may be more humane that others, more
benevolent than other, more compassionate than other, as men, and as women, but one has as
much of the love of God in him as others. "The carnal mind is enmity against
God," against the being of God, against the government of God, against the gospel of
God, against the purposes of God. The enmity of the human heart is unconquerable by any
human agency whatever. It is mortal enmity, it strikes at the being of God, and,
therefore, as President Edwards, of America, justly observes, "that when it found God
in our nature, in our world, it put him to death on the accursed tree." Such, my
brethren, is the enmity of the heart of man, such is its deeprooted depravity, that in him
there is no good thing. We can never speak too bad of what sin has done for us, and we can
never speak too much, or too well, of what God has done for us, in the person of his Son,
and in us, by the agency of his Holy Spirit.
Fourthly—The doctrine of human depravity may be proved from those passages which
assert the universal necessity of redemption by Jesus Christ. "Thou shalt call his
name Jesus," said the angel, "because he shall save his people from their
sins," "In him we have redemption through his blood," says St. Paul,
"even the forgiveness of sin according to the riches of his grace." Now, the
work of redemption pre-supposes the sinful state of man, and implies a deliverance from
that state and from the punishment to which man is exposed. Hence it is said of Christ,
that he came into the world to save sinners, to seek and to save that which was lost, and
that he died—the just for the unjust—that he might bring us to God. Now, if
redemption by Christ is necessary, it is evident that man is a sinner; and, if man is a
sinner, it is evident that man has a depraved nature. You cannot make anything else of it.
Say what you like about man and about his excellencies, you must come to this conclusion,
that he is a condemned and a depraved creature, or else he would not need redemption
through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Fifthly,—The passages that assert the universal necessity of the new birth prove this
very truth—"Except a man be born of water," said the Saviour, "and of
the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I said unto you, ye must be
born again." But if a man has some good in him, and if that good could be cherished,
and be increased, and worked up so as to make men fit for heaven, what need of the new
birth? what need of the Spirit of all grace to renew him in the spirit of his mind?
Whenever, my brethren, you pray to God for the Spirit to change the human heart, whether
you believe the doctrine or not, you imply it in your petition before the mercy-seat. They
are represented by the sacred writers as having been called from darkness into light, as
having an unction from the Holy One whereby they know all things, and those of them who
have been called readily acknowledge that they were once foolish, once deceived and
deceiving, once depraved — very depraved; and not only so, but the very best of
Christians in the world confess with humility the depravity of their hearts, and I believe
that the man who knows himself best is the man who is most ready to confess this and to
humble himself before God—"Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death?" And while Christians feel this, their language is,
"Create within me a clean heart, oh God! and renew a right spirit within me; purge me
with hysop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." Apply the
blood of sprinkling to my guilty conscience, and let the Spirit of all grace work in my
polluted and depraved heart, and form me to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, and meeten
my immortal spirit for the inheritance of the saints in light, and of angels in glory. My
dear friends, I need not say more. I should not think there is an individual here this
afternoon who is not disposed to agree with me, when I say that man is fallen creature, is
a depraved creature, is a condemned creature: he is under the curse of God's righteous
law, and at the same time the subject of the reigning power of depravity, the subject of
the effects of sin throughout his whole nature; and that, as a sinner, let it be recorded
in high heaven there is no good in man's nature until God puts it there, and you will
never be brought, by beloved hearers, into a right state of mind before God, until you are
brought to feel that you have nothing, and that you must have all in the Lord Jesus
Christ. "Oh! Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself!" But here are blessed tidings,
"But in me is their help found." Does not this subject, my hearers, teach us, in
the first place, the amazing long suffering of God towards our race. God might, as soon as
man sinned, without the least imputation of injustice to his character, have cut him down,
because the fall was the result of his criminal choice, and attended by the most
aggravating circumstances; but God has borne with us, and is bearing still, which shows
that he has no pleasure in the death of the sinner, but rather that he should turn from
his ways and live. "Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die, oh! house of Israel?"
And does not the subject teach us also the helplessness of man as a sinner? He is unable
to atone for his sins or to renew his heart. Many attempts have been made to atone for
human transgression, and to cleans and purify the human heart, but they have all failed,
not one has succeeded. No sacrifice, short of an infinite one, could satisfy Divine
justice and magnify the broken law. No power, short of the omnipotent energy of the
Eternal Spirit, can renew the human heart. But, while man is a helpless creature he is not
a hopeless creature. We do not say to him there is no hope. Oh, no! I rejoice in that
thought at this very moment. God has remembered us in our lowest state, he has laid help
upon one that is mighty, one who, by his passive and active obedience, has magnified the
law and made it honourable, satisfied the claims of Divine justice, so that God can be
just, and the justifier of him that believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ; and while he made
atonement for our transgressions, he has procured for us the Spirit of all grace to renew
our nature, to transform us into the likeness of himself, and to prepare us in the use of
means for the inheritance of the saints in light. Those of us who are made partakers of
the Holy Ghost, and, I trust, most of us are—would to God that I could believe that
we all are—let us pray for a larger measure of the Spirit, upon ourselves,
individually, and upon the world around us. Surely, my hearers, my dear brother who has to
occupy this platform, and who has to unfurl to you the banner of the cross, will need a
large measure of the Holy Spirit. May He come upon his head, and upon his heart; and may
he never ascend this platform but in His strength, and under His guidance, and in His
light; may he never preach a sermon without its being blessed to the conversion of souls,
and the building up of the Church; and may you, as a Christian Church, continue earnest in
prayer for the Spirit to come, and it is the Spirit will reconcile us to each other, the
Spirit will remove differences between Arminians and Calvinists, the Spirit will bring us
to see, by-and-by, eye to eye, and this world will be filled with the glory of God. May
the Lord command his blessing upon these remarks, for his name's sake. Amen.
The Meeting then adjourned till half-past six. After
the friends had assembled—
The REV. C. H. SPURGEON said, I wish to make one or two observations before I introduce to
you the speakers of this evening. Controversy is never a very happy element for the child
of God: he would far rather be in communion than engaged in defence of the faith or in
attack upon error. But the soldier of Christ knows no choice in his Master's commands. He
may feel it to be better for him to lie upon the bed of rest than to stand covered with
the sweat and dust of battle; but as a soldier he has learned to obey, and the rule of his
obedience is not his personal comfort but his Lord's absolute command. The servant of God
must endeavour to maintain all the truth which his Master has revealed to him, because, as
a Christian soldier, this is part of his duty. But while he does so, he accords to others
the liberty which he enjoys himself. In his own house of prayer he must and will maintain
that which he believes to be true. He does not feel himself at all out of temper or angry
when he hears that in other places there are some holding different views of what the
truth is, who as honestly, and perhaps as forcibly, endeavour to maintain their views. To
our own Master we stand or fall; we have no absolute judge of right or wrong incarnate in
the flesh on earth to-day. Nor is even the human judgment itself an infallible evidence of
our being, for since the fall, no powers of mortals are free from imperfection. Our
judgment is not necessarily a fully enlightened one, and we ourselves therefore let
another man's judgment also be his guide unto God; but we must not forget that every man
is responsible to the Most High for the use of that judgment, for the use of that mental
power which God has given him, by which he is to weigh and balance the arguments of either
side. I have found commonly that, with regard to the doctrine of grace which we preach,
there are a great many objections raised. One of the simplest trades in the world is the
raising of objections. You never need, if you wish to set up in that line of business, to
look abroad for capital or resources; however poor and penniless a man may be, even in
wits, he can easily manufacture difficulties. It is said "that a fool may raise
objections which a thousand wise men could not answer." I would not hesitate to say
that I could bring objections to your existence to-night, which you could not disprove. I
could sophisticate and mystify until I brought out the conclusion that you were blind, and
deaf, and dumb, and I am not sure that by any process of logic you would be able to prove
that you were not so. It might be clear enough to you that you could both speak, and see,
and hear. The only evidence, however, I suppose that you could give, would be by speaking,
and seeing, and hearing, which might be conclusive enough; but if it were left to be a
mere matter of word-fighting for schoolmen, I question whether the caviller might not
cavil against you to the judgment-day in order to dispute you out of the evidence of your
very senses. The raising of difficulties is the easiest trade in all the world, and,
permit me to add, it is not one of the most honourable. The raising of objections has been
espoused, you know, by that great and mighty master of falsehood in the olden times, and
it has been carried on full often by those whose doubts about the truth sprung rather from
their hearts than from their heads. Some difficulties, however, ought to be met, and let
me now remove one or two of them. There are some who say, "Provided the doctrines of
grace be true, what is the use of our preaching?" Of course I can hardly resist a
smile while I put this splendid difficulty—it is so huge a one. If there are so many
who are to be saved, then why preach? You cannot diminish, you cannot increase the number,
why preach the Gospel? Now, I thought my friend Mr. Bloomfield anticipated this difficulty
well enough. There must be a harvest,—why sow, why plough? Simply because the harvest
is ordained in the use of the means. The reason why we preach at all is because God has
ordained to save some. If he had not, we could not see the good of preaching at all. Why!
we should come indeed on a fool's errand if we came here without the Master's orders at
our back. His elect shall be saved—every one of them,—and if not by my
instrumentality or that of any brother here present, if not by any instrumentality, then
would God sooner call them by his Holy Spirit, without the voice of the minister, than
that they should perish. But this is the very reason why we preach, because we wish to
have the honour of being the means, in the hand of God, of calling these elect ones to
himself. The certainty of the result quickens us in our work, and surely it would stay
none but a fool in his labour. Because God ordains that his word shall not return unto him
void, therefore, we preach that word, because, "as the rain cometh down and the snow
from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth and maketh it to bring
forth and bud, even so doth the word of the Lord accomplish his purpose;" therefore,
we would have our doctrine to drop as the rain and distil as the dew, and as the small
rain upon the tender herb. But, there are some again who say, "To what purpose after
all, is your inviting any to come, when the Spirit of God alone constrains them to come;
and why, especially, preach to those whom believe to be so depraved that they cannot and
will not come?" Ay, just so, this is a serious difficulty to everything except faith.
Do you see Ezekiel yonder; he is about to preach a sermon. By his leave, we will stop him.
"Ezekiel, where are you about to preach?" "I am about," saith he,
"to preach to a strange congregation—dead, dry bones, lying in a mass in a
valley." "But, Ezekiel, they have no power to live." "I know
that," saith he. "To what purpose, then, is your preaching to them? If they have
no power, and if the breath must come from the four winds, and they have no life in
themselves, to what purpose do you preach?" "I am ordered to preach," saith
he, "commanded;" and he does so. He prophesies, and afterward mounting to a yet
higher stage of faith, he cries, "Come from the four winds, oh breath, and breathe
upon these slain, that they may live." And the wind comes, and the effect of his
ministry is seen in their life. So preach we to dead sinners; so pray we for the living
Spirit. So, by faith, do we expect his Divine influence, and it comes,—cometh not
from man, nor of man, nor by blood, nor by the will of the flesh, but from the sovereign
will of God. But not withstanding it comes instrumentally through the faith of the
preacher while he pleads with man, "as though God did beseech them by us, we pray
them in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God." But if ten thousand other objections
were raised, my simple reply would be just this, "We can raise more objections
against your theory, than you can against ours." We do not believe that our scheme is
free from difficulties; it were uncandid if we were to say so. But we believe that we have
not the tithe of the difficulties to contend with that they have on the opposite side of
the question. It is not hard to find in those texts which appear to be most against us, a
key, by which they are to be harmonized; and we believe it to be utterly impossible,
without wresting Scripture, to turn those texts which teach our doctrine, to teach any
other thing whatsoever. They are plain, pointed, pertinent. If the Calvinistic scheme were
the whole sum and substance of all truth, why then surely, if it held everything within
some five or six doctrines, you might begin to think that man were God, and that God's
theology were less than infinite in its sweep. What are we, that we should grasp the
infinite? We shall never measure the marches of eternity. Who shall compass with a span
the Eternal God, and who shall think out anew his infinite thoughts? We pretend not that
Calvinism is a plumb-line to fathom the deeps; but we do say, that it is a ship which can
sail safely over its surface, and that every wave shall speed it onwards towards its
destined haven. To fathom and to comprehend is neither your business nor mine, but to
learn, and then, having learned, to teach to others, is the business of each Christian
man; and thus would be do, God being our helper. One friend kindly suggests a difficulty
to me, which, having just spoken of, I shall sit down. That amazing difficulty has to do
with the next speaker's topic, and, therefore, I touch it. It says in the Scriptures, that
Paul would not have us destroy him with our meat for whom Christ died. Therefore, the
inference is—only mark, we don to endorse the logic—the inference is, that you
may destroy some with your meat for whom Christ died. That inference I utterly deny. But
then, let me put it thus. Do you know, that a man may be guilty of a sin which he cannot
commit. Does that startle you? Every man is guilty of putting God out of existence, if he
says in his heart, "No God." But he cannot put God out of existence; and
yet, the guilt is there, because he would if he could. There be some who crucify the Son
of God afresh. They cannot,—he is in heaven, he is beyond their reach. And yet,
because their deeds would do that, unless some power restrained, they are guilty of doing
what they can never do, because the end and aim of their doings would be to destroy
Christ, if he were here. Now, then, it is quite consistent with the doctrine that no man
can destroy any for whom Christ died, still to insist upon it that a man may be guilty of
the blood of souls. He may do that which, unless God prevented it,—and that is no
credit to him,—unless God prevented it, would destroy souls for whom Jesus Christ
died. But, again I say, I have not come here to-night to anticipate and to answer all
objections; I have only done that, that some troubled conscience might find peace. This
was not a meeting of discussion, but for the explaining of our views, and the teaching
them simply to the people. I now shall call upon my beloved brother to take up the point
of particular redemption.
BY THE
OF SOUTHAMPTON
I think it is well that the death of Christ and its consequent blessings should occupy one
place in our discussion here to-night; for not only is it the central truth in the
Calvinistic theory, but the death of Christ is the centre point of all history and of all
time. The devout of all ages have stood and gazed with anxious glance into these deep
mysteries, searching what, or what manner of things the Holy Spirit did by them testify
and reveal; and we know that hereafter, in yon world of glory, the redeemed shall sing of
these things for ever, and shall find in the Redeemer and in his work, fresh matter for
love and for praise as eternity shall roll on. We take our stand between the two, and I
think the language of our hearts to-night is akin to all ages of the Church of
Christ,—"God forbid that we should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ."
Now the grand result of the death of our Lord—though not the only result—the
grand result of that death, so far as man is concerned, is the redemption which it
ultimately achieves; and, with regard to the extent of that redemption, we believe the
Scriptures are plain and speak most clearly, when they tell of a final day of
manifestation, when the redeemed from amongst men shall take their stand before the
Redeemer, to sing of him who, as the good shepherd, hath laid down his life for his sheep,
and has purchased unto himself a peculiar people—his body, the Church. Now, we
believe that, in reaching that grand and final result there are many steps that must be
taken, and we think that, from these preliminary steps, there are multitudes that gain
rich handfuls of blessings who shall not however reap the full harvest of glory. We
believe that the whole world is flooded with blessings, and that the stream rolls broad
and clear from the hill-foot of Calvary, and laves the feet alike of the godly and of the
ungodly, the thankful and the thankless. But from the riven side of Christ there comes
forth one stream—the river of life, whose banks are trodden only by the feet of the
multitude of believers, who wash and are clean, who drink and liver for evermore. We speak
to-night of Christ's death in its various relations, so as to touch upon and include
sundry things which cannot be properly classed under the title of particular redemption;
but we feel we are driven to this course, so as to be able to do justice to ourselves and
to our leading theme.
Now, we have three sets of truths before us, and these three sets of truths we must deal
with. (1.) We have, first of all, a God holy and righteous, loving and gracious, a God who
has been most grievously wronged and injured, and a God who must be honoured alike by the
giving him all the glory of which he has been robbed, and by the bearing of his just
expression of holy indignation at the wrong that has been done unto him. We have a God
jealous in the extreme, and yet, strange enough, declaring that he passes by iniquity and
forgiveth transgression and sin. We have a God truthful, who has sworn "that the soul
that sinneth it shall die," and who yet speaks to those souls, and says, "Turn
ye, turn ye; for why will ye die." A God whom we know must be just, and must execute
upon the ungodly that which they have justly merited, and who yet strangely says,
"Come and let us plead together, and though your sins be as scarlet I will make them
as wool, and though they be like crimson I will make them white as snow." That is one
set of truths—strange, and apparently contradictory. Then we have another. (2.) We
have a world lost, and yet swathed in an atmosphere of mercy. We have a world dark with
the darkness of death, and yet everywhere we find it more or less under the influence of
the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, which came a light unto darkness, that did not and
could not comprehend it. And we have, moreover, a world rebellious, and serving another
master than the right one, and yet nevertheless beneath the feet of him who has been made
Head over all things for his body's sake, which is the Church. (3.) And then, once more,
we have a Church peculiar in its unmerited privileges, chose from before all time to
inherit the kingdom given to it before the world began—a kingdom that can never be
trodden upon save by the spotless and the deathless; and yet the inheritors are by nature
dead in trespasses and in sins—lost, ruined—without a God and without a hope in
the world. How are all those strange and apparently contradictory things to be solved? One
clue, we find, is in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The work involves its ultimate
end, which is redemption, and of that work we are about to speak here to-night.
We speak first of those blessings which come from the death of Christ, and are for all
men; the whole world is under a mediatorial government, the whole spirit of which is a
government of long-suffering, graciousness, tenderness, and mercy, such as could not have
been exercised had Christ never died. A government there might have been, but it must be,
we think, a government akin to that which is found in the place where those are found who
make their bed in hell. We find, moreover, that the direct and indirect influences of the
Cross of Christ have pervaded the whole world, and none can tell how full oft its gentle
spirit has come like oil upon the troubled waters; or what man, with his wild passions,
would have been without the ameliorating influence of the Cross. We possibly may be able
to tell, when we look across the impassable gulf into a Gehenna beneath, and see sin
unchecked working out its dire results; and, we believe that whatever comes short of that
darkness, whose very light is darkness, is due to that light which radiates from the Cross
of Christ, and whatever is short of hell streams from Calvary. And then, further still, we
have a Bible, a revelation filled with the love and mercy of God to man—a Bible in
which our Lord himself could show, beginning at Moses, and in all the prophets, that which
did testify concerning himself; and, apart from Jesus Christ and his death, there could
have been no such revelation of God's character unto the human race. A revelation there
might have been, but it would have been a revelation of Sinai's horrors and terrors,
without even the spark of hope which comes forth from that dispensation there set forth.
There might have been a revelation, I say, but it would have been a revelation that would
not have wound up as this does with a blessing. It would have ended like the Old Testament
with a curse; it would have begun with the same. It would have been worse than Ezekiel's
roll of woes which is filled all over with terrible lamentation, and with awful sorrow and
woe. And again, there is a positive overture of mercy, a true and faithful declaration of
good tidings unto every creature, and we do believe that it is our duty to preach
the Gospel unto every creature; and the Gospel runs thus—"Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, for he who believeth and is baptized shall be
saved." That overture we hold to be no mockery, but made in good faith; and that
overture is not the overture of a shadow, but the presentation of solid, substantial
blessings; and for the rejection of that, not God, but man is answerable, and for the
rejection of that he will be lost. "For this the condemnation, that they have not
believed on him whom God hath sent." And, then, lastly, we find that as the purchase
of the death of Christ there is a Church, and that Church is sent forth into the world
with orders to bless it and to do good unto all men. It is bidden to go forth as a light
in the midst of darkness; it is bidden so to live as to be the salt of the whole earth.
Now, we say that each one of these blessings is no small gift from God to man—no mean
result of the death of our Master; and, combined, we think they would form a boon worthy
of a God; and, as we put our hand upon it, we think we can give a full and true
expression, and with an emphasis surpassed by none, to that glorious text—"God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." And we think, upon our
system, and upon ours alone, we can give full truthfulness and emphasis to the
remainder—"That whosoever believeth in him shall have everlasting life."
Now, upon redemption proper, the latter part of our theme, we will pass on to speak. And,
first, what do we mean by redemption? Most certainly we do not mean the POSSIBILITY OF
REDEMPTION, for we have learned to distinguish between the possibility of a thing and a
thing itself. We feel this, that we do not preach and cannot preach, gathering our
teaching from the Bible, a possibility of redemption. We proclaim a redemption. Nor do we
mean by redemption a contingency of redemption, which, again, is contingent upon a third
thing. We have learned to distinguish between a contingency and a certainty. We proclaim a
certain redemption, and we speak of that which is not possible but positive, not
contingent but certain. Neither do we mean by redemption such an outgrowth of the man's
own power or goodness as shall enable him to burst his way through every bondage and to
get forth free; such an elevation of human nature, whether by the education of others, or
by his own works, as to enable him at last to stand free. If we meant that, we should use
the word escape, but not the word redemption. And again, if we meant, as some, alas! have
seemed to mean, God's foregoing his claim upon man; God's waiving man's liabilities, and
God's giving up that which we believe, as a holy God, he cannot surrender; if we meant
that, we should speak of emancipation—of pure pardon and forgiveness. But we do not.
We mean redemption. And then, again, we do not mean by redemption the meeting of the
debts, either in prospective or in the present. We do not mean that the man shall, either
in the present or in the future, bear any part of the penalty; and, by some goodness,
either in the present or foreseen, satisfy God's claim upon him. If we meant that, I think
we should use altogether another word than the word redemption. What do we mean by
redemption? We mean, by redemption, the work of one being which is done for another, but
generally a helpless one, in order to give him a perfect freedom. And when we speak of
redemption, mark you, we speak of a thing that is the result of that work. We distinguish
between redemption and redemption work. What we mean, by redemption, is just this—the
grand result and end of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ; and we could as well speak of
redemption apart from the redeemed, as we could speak of life apart from a living
creature. Life and living creatures are co-extensive, and so is redemption and the
redeemed. If you take down any book that will give you an explanation of the word
"redemption," I think you will find three things put therein. It is a ransom, a
rescue, and a release. Now, I take the whole three words to be the fulness of the meaning
of one word. It is such a ransom, and such a rescue, as result in a complete and full
release. Whatever stops short of that thing, is, of course, not the thing itself; the
thing itself that we mean, is the positively being redeemed and made free. Now, just by
way of simplifying the subject, let me speak of the Redeemer, and of the redemption work,
and of those who are redeemed.
First, the Redeemer, who is he? We believe him to be the Word that was with God, equal
unto God, and was God,— who became flesh and dwelt among us. At the same time, the
flesh did not become, in any sense, Deity, neither did the Deity, in any sense, become
carnal. They formed another person, and that person the God-man, Jesus Christ, our
Redeemer. Now, what is he? And here I just ask that question, in order to meet some
objections, and, if I can, to put on one side two or three theories that seem to fight
against ours. I hear a voice, saying, in reply to that question, what is he? Why, he is
God's idea of humanity; he is God, who has taken up humanity from its fallen state, raised
it up not only to the place where he first put it, but, beyond, even to the height to
which he hoped it would ascend, or possibly something beyond it. And, now, from
henceforth, such is the union betwixt common humanity, that the lost, in their
degradation, have but to look to their common humanity exalted, realize their identity
with it, and to feel themselves, by that deed, raised to the same standard, and redeemed,
and free for evermore. To which, we reply, there is enough of truth in that lie to keep it
alive, and that is all. We do believe that our Master did lay hold of humanity; we do
believe that he has honoured and dignified the human race, by taking that upon him, and by
becoming flesh like unto ourselves. But we cannot see how that the gazing upon that can
open blind eyes, unstop deaf ears, give live to the dead, and procure the discharge of our
sins, any more than we can see how that the gazing upon an Olympic game would give to the
physically lame, physical strength, or could give to those who were physically dead, life
from their physical death.
And, again, I hear other voices replying to that question. They say, "he is the great
example of self-denial, and of the submission of the human will to the Divine. And what
redemption is, is this—that man now can look to that great display of selfdenial, can
catch of its spirit, and can imitate it, and by that deed of subjection, making the will
to succumb to the will of the Divine, they may, at least, emancipate themselves, and go
forth free." To which we reply, once more, there is enough of truth in that just to
cement the error together, and to give it a plausible appearance to the sons of men, but
there is nothing more. It is true that our Saviour was the Sent One of the Father. It is
true, he came, saying, "Lo! I come to do thy will." He declares he was not doing
his own will, but the will of him that sent him. And he winds up by saying, "Not my
will, but thine be done." But, after all, we cannot, and dare not accept that
submission of Christ's will to the Father, as being a satisfaction for sin; neither can we
see, how, by the imitation of that, we can, in any sense, wipe away the sins of the past,
or free ourselves from the penalty that is yet to come.
But now to answer for ourselves. What is our Lord Jesus Christ? And we say, that in life
he is the great example and copy; in death, he is the substitute; and in both, the federal
head—the elder brother and kinsman of his Church.
But now time warns me that I must pass on to the second thought—the work of
redemption. First of all, we gaze at that part of the work which is Godward, and that we
call atonement; and, when you ask me—What is the character of the atonement? I
reply—It has a twofold nature, to correspond with the twofold character of sin. Sin
is a transgression of the law, and a consequent insult to him who is the lawmaker. But it
is something more than that: the power by which he has transgressed has been perverted; it
was given to him to obey the law that he might glorify God. And to make, therefore, a
satisfaction for sin, there must be a bringing to the law obedience; there must be the
bearing of the sanction because of the disobedience; there must be the rendering to God
the glory due to him; and there must be the bearing of his just displeasure and the
expression of his holy wrath and indignation. That Christ has done: he came, and his whole
life was obedience to the law, for he was obedient even unto death; and in that death he
bore the sanction of the law—for he was made a curse, it being written, "Cursed
is every one that hangeth on a tree." His whole life was spent to glorify God, and at
its close he could say, "I have glorified thee, and I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do:" and his death was the bearing of the just displeasure of God
towards the sinner, and in the agony of his heart he cried, "My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?" In these things we behold, therefore, the presentation of the
obedience due, the giving to God the glory due, the bearing of God's displeasure, and the
enduring of the curse of the law. And now the question would be put to me as to the value
of atonement. We believe that its value depends not so much upon the Being appeased, nor
upon the beings to be atoned for, as upon the Being who makes the atonement. The value of
Christ's atonement is the value of himself. He gave himself for us. If he had stood as the
surety for the whole world, he could not be more. He gave himself; what more could he
bestow? The value of the atonement is the value of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his flesh he
can take man's place, and by his Divinity he can give, and must give anyhow, an infinite
value to the work that he, in mortal flesh, performs. For one soul, therefore, it must be
infinite—for more or less it cannot be. Infinite it is, and infinite it must be, and
we have no part or parcel with those who would say, that if Judas was to have been saved,
Judas' amount of penalty would have had to have been paid, in addition to what has been
borne and paid by Christ. He took the place, the room, and stead of the church, and then
all that he was worth went in that church's place and stead. More he could not do, if he
had taken the place of the whole world. But, you ask me, is there any limit to the
atonement at all? I say I think there is; and the limit seems to be, not in the value, but
in the purpose. The limit seems to be this theory—for whom did he die? in
whose place and stead did he stand? If he stood in the place and stead of the whole world,
then he made atonement for the sins of the whole world, and the whole world will be saved.
If he stood in the place and stead of his Church, then he made atonement for his Church,
and the whole Church will be saved. We believe that Christ took the place and stead of
every believer, that the believer's sin was put on him, and thus the ex-sinner can go
forth free. But I hear a voice saying, "I challenge substitution, and I object to
that." So be it. I ask you, did Christ die for sin at all? It must be
answered,—Yes. Then for whose sin did he die? If his own, then he suffered
righteously. Did he die for the sins of the whole world? then justice cannot demand this
again. Did he die for part of the sins of the whole world? then the rest of the sins will
still condemn the world; then must have Christ died in vain. We believe that he took all
the sins of some men. It was not a fictitious condemnation; it was not a fancy sin made
for the occasion; it was a positive sin that had been committed by God's people, and is
transferred from them to him who laid down his life for his sheep; loving us, and giving
himself for and in the stead or in the place of his people.
But, then, we say this work of redemption comprised something more than thus paying down
the ransom, and the bearing of the penalty. It is, moreover, a rescue; for sin has not
only made men this to have insulted God and broken God's law, it has transferred them unto
bondage under the allegiance of one—"the strong man armed." They must be
freed from that. Christ came, has destroyed death, and through death him also who has the
power of death, even the devil; making an open show of them upon his cross, ascending up
on high a victor, leading captivity captive. And then, I think, there is yet something
further. Sin has affected the man himself, made him to need in his own person a releasing
from the dominion, power, and corruption of sin. This Christ has secured by his covenant
with the Father. But that which I take to comprise effectual calling and final
perseverance, I shall leave to my brethren who shall speak afterwards. And now as to the
persons redeemed—who are they? The Church, we say, whether you look at the Church as
elect from all eternity, or the Church believing in time, or the Church as glorified
hereafter. We look at them all as one, and we say these are the redeemed, these are they
for whom redemption has been procured. We cannot add to their number, we cannot diminish
them; for we believe that those whom God foreknew, he did predestinate; that those whom he
did predestinate, he also called: for whom he calls he justifies, for whom he justifies he
also glorifies; the whole are one,—and for these redemption has been made.
Now, if I may be permitted the time, I will just touch upon one or two, objections, and
then I will conclude. I hear some one saying, "But by that, sir, you surely must
limit God's love." I reply, is God loving when he punishes any and doth not save all?
Then is he loving also when he purposes to do that, for whatever justifies the deed
justifies the purpose which gives the morality to the deed. And then I hear another
objection—"How can you, sir, upon that theory, go to preach the Gospel unto
every creature?" You have heard that answered—we have got the order; but, I
reply yet further: I could not go and preach the Gospel upon any other theory, for I dare
not go on that fool's errand of preaching a redemption that might not redeem, and
declaring a salvation that might not save. I could not go and say to a man, "Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." And he would answer me, "Do
you think you are going to heaven?" "Yes." "Why?" "Because
Christ died for me." "But he died for us all, and my chances therefore are as
good as yours." And he might reply to me after he had accepted my declaration, and
after he had believed, and begun to rejoice, after all he might say, "Is there any
real reason why I should rejoice, some for whom Christ died are in hell, and I may also go
there. I cannot begin to rejoice in your news till I feel myself in glory. It is rather a
faulty piece of good news, because it is nothing positive; it is a grand uncertainty you
have proclaimed to me." Now, what we preach, is the Gospel to every creature, and
that we take to be this—If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you shall be saved;
if you do not, you will be lost, and lost for ever. You are not redeemed—you are not
saved,—there is not, in another word, salvation and redemption for those who are lost
for ever. But we add, "We are what we are by Divine grace; we have believed; if you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you will be as we are—will be able to boast as we
do, humbly in the Lord our God;" or in other words—If you believe, and are
baptized, you will be saved; if you do not believe, you will be lost, and lost for ever.
BY THE
OF CHELTENHAM
My Christian friends, our minds have been occupied to-day with some of the loftiest
subjects that can engage the thoughts of man. Our attention has been directed to the
infinitely wise and true God, and we have been endeavouring to conceive of him as the
great, the infinite, the eternal; the great, the infinite, the eternal intellect, who, of
himself, conceiveth the grandest schemes, and infallibly provides for their
accomplishment, so that there can be no mistake, no failure. We know that every wise
intellect forms its plan before it provides its mean, or attempts to carry out the idea
conceived in the mind.
And the great doctrine of election, to which our attention was directed this afternoon,
answers to the formation of the plan in the infinite mind of God. He foresaw, clearly,
that the whole human race, represented by the first man, would fall into sin, and left to
themselves, would certainly perish. To prevent a catastrophe so fearful, he determined in
his infinite mind, to have a people for himself, a people that would comprise the vast
majority of the fallen inhabitants of this world. They were all present before his mind;
their names were registered in his book, which book was delivered into the hands of the
Lamb, the Son of God, who accepted the book at the hands of his Father, and, as it were,
signed it with his own name, so that it has been designated, "The Book of Life of the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." And Jesus looked upon this act as the
committing of the people to himself, on purpose that he might take the charge of them, on
purpose that he might carry out the Father's will respecting them, and gain eternal
laurels and honours to himself, by placing them in splendor, majesty, and glory before his
Father's face for ever. We therefore find him frequently when speaking with his Father,
and referring to this act in the eternal counsels, saying, "Thine they were and thou
gavest them me. Keep those whom thou hast given me by thine own name, that they may be one
as we are." But election interferes not with man as standing in Adam, but with man as
under sin the result of Adam's fall. It ensured their restoration, but it did not
interfere with their fall, and consequently the elect, with the rest, all fell in the
first man. The entire mass of human nature became depraved, polluted, rotten to the
heart's core; so depraved, so polluted, so rotten, that nothing could effect a change but
the omnipotent energy of the omnipotent God. There is that in depravity in every form,
that defies the touch of any one but the Infinite; that refuses to succumb to anything but
to Omnipotence itself. The heart of man is foul as the heart of Satan; the nature of man
is foul as the nature of Satan; and the sin of man is worse than the sin of Satan. Satan,
the great archangel, that fell from heaven, did a tremendous deed when he set mind in
opposition to Deity; but man set not merely mind, but matter with mind, in opposition to
the eternal God. God could once look upon the world and say, "Though mind is in
rebellion, matter is not in opposition;" but after the fall of man, mind and matter
alike were corrupt, were depraved, were in opposition to the Eternal. Every man's heart
steams with enmity against God; every man's spirit rises in rebellion against God; and, as
you have heard tonight, the verdict of every man's conscience in its fallen state is,
"No God, no God;" and if the Eternal could be voted out of existence by the
suffrages of his fallen creatures, every hand would be up, every heart would give its
verdict, and every voice would vote for the annihilation of the Most High. The will of man
strong, the will of man stern, the will of man determined, and opposed to the will of God,
will yield to nothing but that which is superior to itself; it laughs at authority, it
turns with disgust from holiness, it refuses to listen to invitation, and, in this state,
man—universal man, is found. In this state, man, the entire mass of man, with the
exception of those who had been saved on credit, and had been changed by the sacred
influences of the Spirit—in this state man was found when Christ came into our world.
He came and, as ye have heard, assumed humanity, and united it with Deity. The two natures
constituted the one person of the glorious Mediator; that glorious Mediator stood the
representative of his people; that Mediator stood the Surety of his family; that Mediator
stood the Substitute of the multitude of his fallen ones. That Mediator came to be the
sacrifice to which sin was to be transferred, by which sin was to expiated and removed out
of the way, that God's mercy might freely flow, and from the sinner's conscience, that he
might have peace and joy.
But as the election of the Father did not interfere with the falling of man's nature, so
the redemption of the Son did not change the nature that had fallen. It was therefore
necessary, that as the Father sent the Son, the Son should send the Comforter; and as it
required an infinite victim to atone for man's guilt, it required an infinite agent to
change man's fallen nature. As to the Father, the atonement must be made as the moral
governor, as the maintainer of the rights of the eternal throne; so from the Father,
through the Son, must the Holy Spirit descend to renew, to transform, to remodel, to fit
human nature to gaze upon the unveiled glories of Deity, and to render to God the homage
due unto his name. And this just brings me to my point—EFFECTUAL CALLING. This
implies, that there is a calling that may not be effectual. Yes, there is a call that
extends to the whole human family. As it is written, "Unto you, O men, I call, and my
voice is unto the sons of men." There is a call that refers to humanity as sinful,
and to sinners as such, however fallen and depraved they may be. Repentance or a change of
mind, repentance and remission of sins, are to be preached amongst all nations, and the
disciples were to begin at Jerusalem; and, beginning at Jerusalem the slaughter-house of
the Son of God, and the slaughter-house of the prophets, and of the saints,—beginning
there, they said, "Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when
the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." But the people
were like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, and refuseth to hear the voice of the
charmer—charm he never so wisely. The Baptist had come and cried, "Repent,"
and sternly, and impressively he preached, but they paid little regard,—at least,
little regard that tended to life. And the Son of God, with all that was soft, and
winning, and captivating, came and preached; but they turned away, and he said, "To
whom shall I like the men of this generation—they are like unto children sitting in
the markets, and calling to their fellows—We have piped unto you, but ye have not
danced, and we have mourned unto you, but ye have not lamented." Now, this call must
be given, because God commands it; this call must be given, because God works by it. In
giving the general, the universal call to all that hear the gospel, we obey the high
mandate of the Eternal God; we do honour and homage to the authority of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and we employ an instrument—a weapon, if you please—by which the Spirit
of God operates upon the human mind; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but
are mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds, and the casting down of
imaginations, and every high thing, and the bringing into subjection every thought to the
obedience of Christ. The general call leads to the special, to the particular, or what we
designate, the "effectual call." We speak to me as men, and we reason with them;
we speak to sinners as sinners, and we expostulate with them; but while we reason, and
while we expostulate, we have the promise of the presence of the Master—"I am
with you;" we have the promised presence of the Eternal Paraclete, who was sent to
empower, sent to accompany, and sent to work by the Lord's servants; and, while we speak
and give the call as we are commanded and commissioned, the Holy Spirit works—the
infinite power of the Eternal Spirit comes into contact,—direct, immediate contact,
with the mind of man. There is a power that goes with the word—distinct from the
word—when it is accompanied by the energy of the Eternal Spirit; and that power
produces in the heart, life—a spiritual, a Divine, an immortal life—a life that
man dead in sin had not; a life which a man once having loseth not, for it is eternal; a
life that was given us in Christ before the world was; a life preserved for us by Christ
all through the past ages that have rolled away; a life that is communicated from the
loving heart of Him who is the great depository of grace, and conducted by the Holy Ghost
into the heart that is called by grace. Has the Spirit accompanying the word produced
life? From that life springs conviction: not the cold conviction awakened occasionally in
the mind of man, by the reasoning of man, by reflecting upon his past misconduct, or by
the flashing of the forked lightnings of the law; but a conviction that is produced by the
Holy Spirit bringing the law into contact with the conscience—the Gospel into contact
with the heart. In the sinner's conscience God erects a tribunal, in the sinner's
conscience God sits as judge, and to the tribunal, before the just judge, man is summoned
to appear; and in the heart, in the soul, in the nature of man, there is a miniature of
the judgment that is to take place at the completion and winding up of the present
dispensation. The man is arraigned as a sinner, the man is convicted as a culprit, the man
is condemned as a criminal; he stands before God, and he has nothing to say; every excuse
has withered like the leaves of autumn, every excuse is carried away like the chaff from
the summer's threshing-floor, every rag that the man boasted of is torn from him, and he
stands, a naked sinner, before a heart-searching God. The penetrating eye of the
Omniscient darts into the innermost recesses of his soul, and the gentle fingers of the
Spirit turns over one fold of the heart after the other; the process may be long, or the
operation may be quick, but sooner or later the man is brought to this.—"In me,
that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." He had once started at the Scriptural
representation of man's fallen and depraved nature; he had once wondered that from the lip
of truth had proceeded the startling words, "From within, out of the heart, proceed
murders, adulteries, blasphemies, false witnesses, and abominable idolatries." He
never could have thought that evil so dreadful, he never could have thought that sins so
fearful, he never could have thought that principles so diabolical, could have been found
in a nature like his; but there they are, and he has nothing to object—but, under the
power of the deep conviction that is produced, he is filled with terrible alarm. If he
casts his eye back, there are the crimes of his life; if he casts his eye forward, there
is the tremendous judgment; if he lifts up his eyes to Heaven, there is the pure and holy
God that he has insulted; and if he turns his eyes within, all is dark and vain and wild.
He is filled with alarm—alarm that perhaps keeps him awake by night, and haunts and
harasses him by day, until he is prepared to do anything, prepared to go anywhere, if he
may but escape the just judgment of his God. He is by this discipline prepared to submit
to God's method of salvation; he is prepared to give up proposing conditions according to
which he would be saved; he no longer goes about to work out a righteousness of his own,
but he is ready to submit himself to the righteousness of God. Being, therefore, conscious
of his criminality, burdened with his guilt, trembling at the prospect of his destiny, he
falls prostrate before the high throne of the Eternal, smites upon his breast, and cries
"God be merciful to me a sinner," as if no such a sinner had ever appealed to
God's mercy, as if no such culprit had ever stood before God's throne; before God he says,
"If there can be mercy in thy heart sufficient to reach a case so dismal and so
desperate, God be merciful to me;" and after having pleaded with earnestness, after
having supplicated with intense emotion, and after having, perhaps, become a little bold,
he is startled at his own temerity, and receding, as it were, from the position that he
had taken, he cries—
"Depth of mercy, can there be
Mercy in thy heart for me,
O God of spotless purity?"
And, perhaps, like David, he groans in his heart, and mourns in his soul, until his bones wax old, through his roaring all the day long. But, no relief, no help is found, until, at length, he begins to make confession of his sin, and, as he confesses, the Spirit of God unveils and unfolds the gospel mystery, and, as in the days of the law, when the victim was brought to the Priest, and the man placed his hand upon its head, between its horns, and pressed with his might and confessed over it all his transgressions, all his iniquities, and all his sins, so the man lays his hand of faith upon the victim's head, and there confesses his sin. As he confesses, a change takes place in his feelings, the burden begins to disperse, a little bright light in the cloud attracts his attention, and, as he looks upward, he seems to catch the loving Father's eye, and feels an encouragement within him to approach unto God; and, as he approaches, still confessing, still pleading, still deploring, still resting his hand upon the victim's head, and trusting in the atonement you have heard of, and on that alone, he seems to hear strange music, delightful melody, and that music is the commencement of the sound of the trump of the Jubilee, when the oppressed one is to go free, and as he listens to the sound the chains drop from his hands, and the burden from his shoulders, the trouble is removed from his heart, and he lifts up his eyes, streaming perhaps with tears, to heaven, and says, "Oh Lord, I will praise thee, for though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me:" and looking around, on those about him, in the language of wonder, astonishment, and gratitude, he says, "Behold, behold a mystery, behold a miracle, behold one of the greatest wonders of the universe; behold, God is my salvation. I will trust, and not be afraid, for Jah Jehovah is my strength, and my song, he also is become my salvation." He has now peace flowing into his heart like a river, he has now a consciousness that God has accepted him in the beloved, and he now experimentally knows the truth, tastes the sweetness, and feels the power of the apostolic testimony, "Being justified by faith we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access into this grace, wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." He has now experienced the effectual call. It has been a call from darkness into marvellous light, from bondage into glorious liberty; out of prison the man comes to reign; from the dunghill he is lifted up to sit among the princes, even among the princes of God's people. And, now, as I must conclude, just observe, the origin of this call is the free, the sovereign, the distinguishing grace of God. It originates, not in man's will, nor in man';s disposition, nor in man's station in society, but of His will, and of His will alone, who is the great sovereign ruler of the universe, is this change effected; of man it cannot be, for it includes a new creation; a resurrection; and the inhabitants of God. Generally speaking, the instrumentality by which God works is the gospel, but in every instance the agent that produces the change is the holy and eternal Spirit of God. He quickens the soul dead in trespasses and sins, he enlightens the understanding that was in the midnight darkness of nature, he disposes the will which before ran counter to the will of God; he teaches the understanding that was once averse to everything pure and holy, and then gently, and lovingly, and sweetly he leads the soul to the Cross to gaze upon the wondrous Sufferer, he then leads the soul to the Church to confess Christ and him crucified, and then leads it in the paths of righteousness for his own name's sake. The calling is high, for it is from the High and Holy One; it is heavenly, in contrast with the earthly calling of the descendants of Abraham of old; it is an evidence of distinguishing love; and thanks, eternal thanks to God, it is irreversible; for the gifts and the callings of God are without repentance. From death to life we pass; from darkness into light we come; out of bondage into liberty we spring; from sin to the knowledge and enjoyment of holiness we are introduced; then at last from earth to heaven. Into the grace of Christ we are called, and we stand in his favour. Into the fellowship of Christ we are called, and when Christ who is our life shall appear, we also shall appear with him in glory. The Father draws; the Spirit quickens; the Son receives; and when locked in the arms of the Son of God, our effectual calling is realized and enjoyed. Its author, is God; its subjects, are the elect; its nature, is holy; and its end, is glorious. Thus, you perceive, my friends, all originated in God's thought, which thought sprung into a perfect plan, to carry out which plan provision was made, and this plan will be perfectly carried out to the praise of the glory of his grace. Thus, whether you think of election, whether you think of redemption, or whether you think of effectual calling,
> "Give all the glory to his
holy name,
For to him all the glory belongs;
Be your's the high joy still to sound forth his praise
And crown him in each of your songs."
The REV. C. H. SPURGEON.—I think it was John Newton, who, speaking about good Calvinistic doctrine compared it to lumps of sugar; but he said, he did not so much give to his people the lumps of sugar, as diffuse the whole of it throughout his sermons; just as people do not eat sugar, but put it in their tea. Now, some of you have not yet grown patient enough to listen, I think, to a doctrine, however fully it may be brought out. Our people want anecdotes, illustrations, parables, and metaphors; even the best and sublimest things keep our minds on such a stretch when we listen to them, that there is good need that illustrations should yield us some relief. To-day was set apart that these doctrines might be fully brought out; this has been done, and there remains but one, and that my friend Mr O'Neil is to take, namely the final perseverance of the saints. Before he speaks, just one or two words. Has it never struck you that the scheme of doctrine which is called Calvinistic has much to say concerning God? It commences and ends with the Divine One. The angel of that system stands like Uriel in the sun; it dwells with God; he begins, he carries on, he perfects; it is for his glory and for his honour. Father, Son, and Spirit co-working, the whole Gospel scheme is carried out. Perhaps there may be this defect in our theology; we may perhaps too much forget man. I think that is a very small fault, compared with the fault of the opposite system, which begins with man, and all but ends with him. Man is a creature; how ought God to deal with him? That is the question some theologians seem to answer. The way we put it is—God is the Creator, he has a right to do as he wills; he is Sovereign, there is no law above him, he has a right to make and to unmake, and when man hath sinned, he has a right to save or to destroy. If he can save, and yet not impair his justice, heaven shall ring with songs; if he destroy, and yet his goodness be not marred, then hell itself with its deep bass of misery, shall swell the mighty rollings of his glorious praise. We hold that God should be most prominent in all our teachings; and we hold this to be a gauge by which to test the soundness of ministers. If they exalt God and sink the sinner to the very dust, it is all well; but if they lower the prerogatives of Deity, if he be less sovereign, less just, or less loving than the Scripture reveals him to be, and if man be puffed up with that fond notion that he is anything better than an unclean thing, then such theology is utterly unsound. Salvation is of the Lord, and let the Lord alone be glorified.
BY THE
MINISTER OF NEW BROAD STREET CHAPEL, LONDON
My dear Brethren and Friends.
Most unexpectedly did the kind invitation of my esteemed brother, Mr Spurgeon, come to me,
to take part in the present service of this beautiful house. And after I had engaged to
come I sincerely wished that I had not. I felt, however, that it would not be proper to
retire from the engagement, but seek to meet in a becoming spirit, both towards God's
truth and God's people. I will now try to do this. I utter here, of course, my own
sentiments. As I am not responsible for anything that has been or may be said by another
speaker, so I alone am responsible for what I shall say. But though I am not the delegate
or representative of any church, denomination, or community, I doubt not that my
declaration of faith on the matter at hand will be, in all substantial points, that of a
very large number who love Jesus and are living in His service. That I desire to believe
what the Bible teaches, and that I am sincere in my convictions, I know to be true:
but that there are thousands of excellent Christians on the other side admits of no doubt,
and should not be questioned by