2 CORINTHIANS II 15

2 CORINTHIANS II. 15, 16.

"For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: to the one we are the savor of death unto death; and to the other savor of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?"
The term "savor," signifies literally, anything that affects the organs of taste or smell; a sweet savor, is that which has a pleasant odor or taste. The incense and perfumed offerings which were made under the law, were to signify such offerings as are acceptable to God, and things with which God is well pleased; and in this sense we understand it is used by the apostle in our text. In the preceding verse Paul says, "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place: for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ," &c. As the members of Christ, as his apostles, standing in him, by whom the savor of his knowledge is made known in every place, the apostles, their gifts and labors in the gospel, are well pleasing to God, not only in the effect produced on them that are saved, but also on them that perish. In drawing the line between the living and the dead, in feeding, comforting and building up the saints, and in exposing the hidden things of dishonesty, they draw down on themselves the wrath and persecution of the enemies of God and truth. So that in every place where they were called to labor, whether men would hear or forbear to hear, whether sinners were converted to God, or enraged by the testimony, in all cases God caused them to triumph, or made their ministry effectual, either by bringing to light those who have an ear to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, or in exposing those who were those who were of the opposite character; in no cases were their labors in vain in the Lord. "We are unto God a sweet savor of Christ." There was nothing in even the apostles, which was well pleasing unto God but what was of Christ. They, in themselves, were by nature children of wrath even as others, hence all that they possessed as the children of God, disciples of Christ, or apostles of the Lamb, was of Christ, and the savor of that treasure which was committed to them, as unto earthen vessels, was a savor of Christ unto God. Their election, their calling, their qualifications for the ministry, and their administrations, were acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ.
"To the one we are the savor of death unto death." That is to the one class, for they are presented in our subject as two classes, them that are saved, and them that perish. To the latter class, the apostle says we are the savor of life unto life. But how are we to understand this declaration? Does he mean that the preaching of the gospel is to them who perish the cause of their damnation, or of their perishing? That the gospel proposes to them terms, conditions, and proffers, and their rejection of them, or failure to comply with them, is the cause of their eternal death? Certainly not, for such is not the truth. Neither the gospel itself, nor the preaching of the gospel, can possibly injure any one. The gospel has no more power to damn, than the law has to justify and save. Condemnation and wrath is by the law, justification and immortality is by the gospel. The law is the administration of death, but the gospel administers life only to them that are saved, for those unto whom this life is administered cannot perish. Christ has said, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any pluck them out of my hands. How then, are these apostles the savor of death unto death in them that perish? We understand the matter thus. To them that are dead in trespasses and sins, the preaching of the gospel only comes in the letter, or external sound of it; it falls upon their deaf ears as a dead letter; it has no life in it to them, inasmuch as they being dead, cannot receive it in its spirit and life. Take a bird from the open air, and confine it in water, as its nature is not adapted to the water, this element is death to the bird, but it is life to the fish. But the water, although adapted to the nature of the living fish, can administer no life to the dead fish. So the preaching of the apostles was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness. The word can only come to the dead, in the oldness of the letter, and not in the newness of the Spirit. To them it comes in word only, not in power, or in the Holy Ghost, or in much assurance, as it comes to quickened sinners; to them, Christ who is the substance of the gospel, is as a root out of dry ground, having no form or comeliness, and they have no desire for a knowledge of his ways, and the preaching of the cross is to them foolishness. It being spiritual, and they being carnal, they cannot comprehend it, they cannot feast upon it, nor can they derive vitality from it until they are quickened by the Spirit, and born of God; for the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit; for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.
But to the other, that is to the living children of God, who possess life, the gospel is the power of God and the wisdom of God, it has life and comfort in it to cheer, sustain and animate that life that is in them. It is death to their carnal nature, to their outward man which perishes it has no life; but the inward man is by it renewed day by day. Every Christian must know in his own experience, that the gospel is full of life, joy and consolation to them, for they live upon it; it is Christ, and him crucified, and it is therefore the bread of heaven unto them. When the apostles and primitive ministers of the word were preaching, in all the examples recorded in the New Testament, there were some who gladly received the word, who fed upon it, and there were others who had no relish for it, who could not receive it, and who resisted and blasphemed. They preached Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and tot he Greeks foolishness, but unto them who are called, both Jews and Greeks, it was Christ, (and therefore life, for Christ is the Life) the power of God, and the wisdom of God. "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us what are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." Not them which do not believe, it is death to them, but the sheep of Christ, and they hear his voice, and they know his voice; but a stranger they will not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers.
"And who is sufficient for these things?" Who is sufficient to discriminate between the living and the dead, between them that are saved, and them that perish? Who is sufficient to pour forth into the hearts of God’s living children the streams of that river that makes glad the city of our God, to warm, revive, comfort and refresh them, while in their pilgrimage, and to bear the reproach, persecution, rage and violence of those unto whom the preaching of the word is foolishness? Those, and those only, whom God sustains, whom he causeth to triumph in Christ, as he did the apostles, are sufficient for the work whereunto the Holy Ghost has called them. Through him they can feed the flock of God, over the which the Holy Ghost has made them overseers, and through their God they can rush through a troop, and leap over a wall. But no part of the excellency of the power of the gospel is of them; it is of God, it is a sweet savor of Christ unto God, in them that are saved. The very fact that the gospel as preached by them does not feed, comfort or build up the unregenerate, that it is death unto death unto them that perish, is as irrefragable testimony that they are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, as when they are the messengers of joy and comfort to them that are saved. For the preaching of the cross, if preached in its purity, is just as sure to be foolishness to the ungodly, as it is to be the wisdom of God to them that are saved.
Middletown, N.Y., June 15, 1855 Elder Gilbert Beebe posted by KNH

CHRIST THE ANTITYPEO

CHRIST THE ANTITYPE
OF ADAM

"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the sufferings of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." – Heb. ii. 9.
Our excellent brother, Elder David W. Patman, of Georgia, has made some very appropriate remarks on the above text, and in his conclusion expressed a desire to hear from us on the same subject. We have not the vanity to presume that we can improve upon what he has written on the subject, but feeling a desire to gratify him, we will attempt to offer a few remarks, in perfect harmony with what he has said. In this connection the inspired writer of the epistle shows that all the knowledge that mortals ever had, or ever can have, of the things of the eternal Spirit, is by revelation from God. God spake to the patriarchs and their children, under the old dispensation, by the prophets. The prophets spake as they were inspired by the Holy Ghost; and Peter says, The Spirit of Christ in them did signify the suffering he was to endure, and the glory which should follow. The same God who spake to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son. The whole fullness of the eternal Godhead being identified with and comprehended in Christ, the revelations of the Son are essentially the same, as to their emanation, as those which were made by the prophets. That is, they all came from God. But the apostle shows that there is a peculiar dignity attached to the communications made to us by the Son of God, on account of the superior greatness of the Son. The wide disparity between the prophets, or even the angels of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, is clearly set forth as a reason why we should give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard from him, than to the words spoken by angels, &c. Christ, who is absolutely God, as well as man, and Mediator between God and men, is worthy of more profound reverence, when speaking to us personally, than the angels, or prophets, by whose mouths God has been pleased to speak to the fathers.
In setting forth more clearly the supreme glory of the Mediatorial office of the Son of God, among other strong arguments, allusion is made to Adam, as the figure of him that was to come. Particularly in that dignity which the Creator bestowed on Adam, in setting him over the works of his hands, giving him dominion over the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the deep. In all this Adam was crowned with glory and honor, as the type of Christ. But man this being in honor, did not therein abide, and we see not all things put under him. But while we may now look in vain for that honor of Adam’s primeval state, we are in the gospel presented with the glorious antitype, in whom all that was said of Adam’s dignity is fully realized in its spiritual and prophetic allusion to the second Adam, which is the Lord from heaven.
"But we see Jesus." Who sees him? Not everybody; for this epistle was not written to everybody. It is addressed to "Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling," &c. None can see Jesus, especially in his exaltation and crowned with power and glory, unless they are taught of God. Paul says, When it pleased God, &c., to reveal his Son in me. Again, God who commanded the light out shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. John says, He was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. These are the only descriptions of characters to whom the address is made, or to whom these words apply.
"Who was made a little lower than the angels." Those unto whom a revelation of Christ is made, have a view of him in his glory, and in his humiliation. He is revealed to their faith as the Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace, and to them he is also made known as the man of sorrows, who was acquainted with grief. They see him, according to chapter first, and verse third, as the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person; as the Word that was with God, and the Word that was God. They see him made a little lower than the angels, by his incarnation; for the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He whose glory had filled the heavens from everlasting, was made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. "He took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham." And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
But why this humiliation?
"For the suffering of death." The assumption of the nature of angels would not have brought him under the law that his people had transgressed; it was necessary that he should take part of the same flesh and blood, in which his children had transgressed the law, that he might be legally identified with them in their law state. Hence it is written, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death," &c. As the great object of his incarnation was to redeem his people, by doing and suffering all that the law required; he was made lower than the angels. This by no means implies that the glory of his eternal Deity, or his ancient Mediatorial glory, which he had with the Father before the world began, had depreciated in the smallest degree; for though in his humiliation he was found in fashion as a man, and humbled himself and learned obedience, and became obedient even unto death, and that the ignominious death of the cross, was made sin for us who knew no sin, and was even made a curse for us. As it is written, "Cursed in every one that hangeth upon a tree"; yet at the same time he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, and was acknowledged by the Father in that equality, even in issuing his death-warrant, if so we may speak, "Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts." While hanging on his cross, all heaven glowed with the radiance of his unfading glory.
"Crowned with glory and honor." In his incarnation he was recognized by the law, by divine justice, by the eternal Father, and by all the shining hosts of heaven, as the Son of God. The darkened skies, the quaking earth, the rending rocks, the opening graves and the raising dead, together with the sundered veil of the temple, proclaimed in the most emphatic language, This was the Son of God! He was crowned as the antitype of Adam, with glory and honor; for all power in heaven and in earth was vested in him; and by virtue of his coronation, he hath power to lay down his life, and to take it up again. But in his suffering of death he is crowned with the glory and honor of complete success; the full accomplishment of all that was designed to be affected, his people completely redeemed, and by his one suffering perfected forever. A deathless victory was achieved over sin, death and hell, and all his enemies were vanquished forever.
"That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." It was only by the grace of God that a vicarious sacrifice could be admitted for the redemption of the people of God; that grace had reigned in righteousness in the counsel of eternity; in the election of grace; in the predestination of his members to salvation through him; in the love which the Father has bestowed on them, that hey should be called the sons of God, and heirs of immortality. Not by the merits or the works of men, but by the Grace of God, did he taste death for every man. That is, as explained in the next verse, "For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons into glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." To him was committed the work of redeeming many sons, and of bringing them to glory. In order to accomplish this he must of necessity taste death for them all. If one of them had been missed, and left to work his way from under the guilt of sin and the curse of the law, to glory, that one would have been lost forever, and the family of God could never have been complete. But it was the will of the Father, That of all he had given him, he should lose nothing, but raise them up at the last day; and it was the will of the Son, That all that the Father had given him should be with him, and see his glory, which he had with the Father before the world began.
Middletown, N.Y., Jan. 1, 1855 Elder Gilbert Beebe

A BAD SPIRIT

A BAD SPIRIT.
NEW VERNON, N. Y.December 10, 1834.

A worthy correspondent of ours in New Jersey, reiterated the language of thousands when he informed us that the doctrine advocated in our paper was substantially the truth of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ; and the systems which we oppose were and are anti-christian; but still, he regretted to add, ‘the spirit of the paper was bad.’ This gentle rebuke, so far from breaking our bones, has proved to us an excellent oil, inasmuch as it has led us in the serious, and we trust, prayerful contemplation of the subject, to search the statute book of our King, for a rule by which to try the spirits; for if we are found propagating truth through a bad spirit, we must of necessity be classed with those who “hold the truth in unrighteousness.” Truly, this appears to us a fearful subject; especially when we consider our own natural propensity to err, the inbred corruption of our nature, lest we should ourself prove a cast-away. Therefore with watchfulness and prayerfulness, we request our readers, as a party concerned, to follow us in the investigation of this important subject.
The good book informs us, 1 John, iv, that there are a plurality of spirits, and that these spirits are not all good; hence the inspired apostle exhorts his brethren to “try the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out in the world.” Lest we should try them by such standards as, “I feel, I think, and I believe,” which, to say the least, are but very imperfect rules, he has given the following infallible criterion, which must hold good until our divine Legislator shall come again without sin unto salvation. viz: “Hereby know we the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God: and this is that spirit of anti-christ, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already it is in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world; therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.”
By this divine rule, we arrive at the unavoidable conclusion, that there are but two classes of religious spirits in the world. The one is emphatically called the Spirit of truth; “Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.” - John xiv. 17. The other is the spirit of error. - 1 John iv. 6. And this is the spirit of anti-christ. - Verse 3. “A lying spirit,” &c. - 1 Kings xxii. 22, 23, and 2 Chron. xviii. 21, 22. We are informed by our Lord Jesus Christ, Matt. vii. 18, “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit;” and this text is applied by the Master to the very point now under consideration. Again, Luke vi. 43-45, “For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit; for every tree is known by its own fruit: for of thorns men do not gather figs; nor of a bramble-bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things.”
From these scriptures, it is plain that our paper cannot be filled up with the truth of the everlasting gospel, and yet be the product of a bad spirit. If then, our paper breathes a bad spirit, it is anti-christian; and consequently its spirit is the spirit of falsehood; and if such be the case, it cannot utter the truth as it is in Jesus, but must produce fruit which is of the nature of the tree. Hence the statement of our correspondent is evidently incorrect.
We would not be understood to contend that our periodical is free from imperfection; it does not pretend to be; nor do we ourself feel at liberty to look for absolute perfection in any uninspired writing; yet our aim and design is to publish nothing but truth in the name of the Lord, for the edification of his flock, and for the exposing of error by the light of truth. We do consider the fact somewhat remarkable, that among the numerous objections urged against the “Signs of the Times,” by our opponents, no one has attempted to prove by the word of God that our doctrinal views were anti-scriptural; our most inveterate foes have generally been content to say, “The doctrine is good, but the spirit of the paper is bad.” We can refer probably to several hundred instances where this sentence has been repeated by the enemies of this paper. If we are indeed advocating a bad cause, we would wish to desist; but upon what are we to conclude? Our enemies tell us that our doctrine is true; our experience tells us it is true; and our bible assures us that it is true. If in the agreement of so much testimony our cause is established, why are we charged with having a devil, or of being under the influence of a bad spirit, since by the fruit the tree is known? But, say our opponents, you are too censorious, too uncharitable; you denounce as antichristian, and as of the devil, many things which are highly esteemed among men; such, for instance, as Baptist Theological and Sunday Schools, Missionary and Tract Societies, protracted meetings, anxious benches, &c., merely because they do not accord with your own narrow contracted views. Just so. But if, as our enemies say, we advocate truth, all that stands in opposition to our cause is error. We therefore plead justification; for no lie is of the truth, but is and must be of anti-christ; and it is our business to expose it and oppose it with all our might.
But again, we enquire, is it not possible that we may be under the influence of the Spirit of truth, and yet be rejected, reviled and persecuted, as possessing a bad spirit? Again we take our reader back to the bible on this point; and here we learn that our divine Lord and Master was accused in a similar manner; when after the most scrutinizing search into his life, conversation, miracles and doctrine, they could “find no fault in this just man,” - which is not our case - yet because he did not join their Temperance Society, they called him a wine-bibber; because he did not eat as did the Pharisees, they called him a gluttonous man; because he joined not in their society, but chose poor ransomed sinners as his associates, they called him a friend or publicans and sinners; and because he reproved them, they said he had a bad spirit, a devil; because he promulgated the doctrine of the everlasting gospel, they called him a blasphemer; and because he rejected the Jewish Church and State religion, and forbade any amalgamation of his kingdom with the political legislation of nations, they nailed him to a tree, and pierced his heart with a spear. Christian readers, were these things so? The Son of God declares, “If they have done these things in the green tree, they will repeat them in the dry;” and if they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, a bad spirit, they will much more them of his household. Search the subsequent history of the church of God, the ground and pillar of the truth. Begin with John the Baptist; they said he had a devil, a bad spirit; his head was carried from the prison in a charger, leaving his body behind. Peter and John were unlearned men; much learning had made Paul mad. They were whipped, imprisoned, and finally slaughtered. Stephen: on a charge of blasphemy went to heaven amidst a shower of stones. John, for not uniting with the world, when boiling oil could not execute the hellish purpose of his enraged foes, was banished to the Isle of Patmos. The crimson track of slaughtered thousands of the dear disciples of the Lamb, both under the Papal and Pagan government of ancient Rome, Papal Europe, and Protestant America responds to the declaration of the Great High Priest of our profession, “They have done these things in the dry tree.” But did we mention America? Yes: verily the non-conformists of New England, as well as the Waldenses of the valleys of Piedmont, on the charge of having a bad spirit, have stained the earth with their hearts’ blood, which they deemed less precious than the cause for which they contended, and in which they dared to die. The voice in which our martyred brethren’s blood cryeth to heaven in testimony on this subject, mingling with the expressions of the souls mentioned in the apocalypse, lying under the alter, crying continually, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth.”
But it is objected again, that the “Signs of the Times” make divisions, and that too among the Baptists, therefore the spirit of the paper must be bad.
To meet this question, we would enquire, If the tendency of the “Signs of the Times” to divide the Baptists is an argument that its spirit is bad, will not the same rule apply with equal force to the popular institutions of the day? Very few are so ignorant of the Baptist history as not to be aware, that from the abolition of church and state establishments in our States, until the rage of modern popular society frenzy commenced among them, the Baptists of America were the happiest people on the earth. But alas! they have gone down to Egypt for help; they have desired a king, that they may be like the nations (denominations) around them; and without pity for those who have chosen rather to remain on the old apostolic platform, have thrust with side and shoulders until they have carried their point, and have set up their idols on every high hill, and under every green tree, until Zion has been rent asunder, and the lame turned out of the way. If the argument is good, the conclusion is irresistible. The popular institutions of the present day among the Baptists are anti-christian, and ought to be opposed and exposed.
Again, was not the same objection raised against the gospel of our Lord when preached by himself and advocated by his inspired apostles? Jesus says, “Think not that I am come to send peace upon earth. I tell you nay. I am come to set a man at variance with his father,” &c. Of the apostles it was said, These that turn the world upside down have come hither also. And when they preached in truth and righteousness, sonic believed, and some believed not; hence there were divisions caused by the preaching of the gospel of Christ. Was the spirit of the gospel then a bad spirit because it made divisions? That the spirit of the truth contained in the “Signs of the Times” is a discriminating and a dividing spirit, we cheerfully admit; but that this spirit separates the lovers of bible truth and gospel simplicity, remains to be proved. The gospel will indeed separate the precious grain from the chaff, the sheep from the goats, or the nominal from the real children of God; while other doctrines, whether they be of men or devils, will have a tendency to scatter the people of God, and at the same time to intermingle the precious with the vile.
But it is urged again, The spirit of the paper must be bad, for it is opposed to the circulation of the bible. This we deny. This paper is not, neither has it ever been, opposed to the circulation of the bible; but it has constantly recommended that holy book as the only infallible rule of faith and practice to the saints of God.
But the, “Signs of the Times,” say they, is opposed to the circulation of tracts, and yet is itself only a volume of tracts; hence it acts inconsistently with its own peculiar sentiments, and must therefore be of a bad spirit. But, reader, this statement is not true; we wish the press to remain forever unshackled, and every individual of mankind the privilege of publishing and defending his sentiments upon his own responsibility; then truth will have an infinite advantage over error. But against Tract societies we have entered our solemn protest; because as God has authorized but one religious society on earth, under the present dispensation, the Tract Society is anti-christian.
Again, it is said our spirit is bad, and we oppose an educated ministry. This also we deny; we are neither opposed to an educated or an uneducated ministry, where either the one or the other are called of God to the work of preaching Christ and him crucified; but to the Baptist abomination called Theological Seminaries, or Colleges, to prepare young men to preach, we are decidedly opposed. We have given, and if spared, shall again give our reasons for such decided opposition.
But once more: It is said we are opposed to the general spread of the gospel; and if this charge is true, our spirit must be bad; but this charge our opponents have themselves refuted; for they admit that we publish the solid truth of the gospel, and that we manifest a zeal worthy of a better cause. The only grounds upon which we are charged as being anti-mission is, first, we refuse to be called the sons of Pharaoh’s daughter, by hiring ourself to their societies and traveling under their commissions; second, by refusing to give our money to support such as they send out to convert the heathen and evangelize the world; and third, because we disclaim all fellowship with their God-dishonoring and heaven-daring inventions; finally, they say we are enemies to temperance, because we refuse to countenance and join their Temperance Societies, and we must have a bad spirit. We hardly need deny this charge, and will only say, should we ever find that the religion of Jesus Christ which we profess, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, and the fear of God before our eyes, are not sufficient to deter christians from drunkenness, that a written pledge on paper, and an association with reformed drunkards would be a more effectual preventative, we may then, but not fill then, join your phalanx.
On the whole, notwithstanding we are reviled, and charged with having an evil spirit, yet we are disposed to go on, knowing that our labor is not in vain in the Lord. Brethren of the Old School, what say you?
Elder Gilbert Beebe,Editorials of Gilbert BeebeVolume 1, pages 184-191

ABSOLUTE PREDESTINAT

ABSOLUTE PREDESTINATION

The Old School or Primitive Baptists in former years have been very definitely identified and distinguished from all other religious or ecclesiastical organizations as Predestinarian Baptists, and as such have borne reproach and vituperation from those who hold more limited views of what we regard as the absolute and all pervading government of God over all beings, all events, and all worlds...To us it has been a comforting thought that God has set the bounds of our habitation on the earth, and the number of our months is with Him, and our days are appointed to us as the days of an hireling, who cannot pass His bounds; but what assurance of safety would that afford, if He has left murderers and blood-thirsty men or devils unrestricted by His predestinating decree? To our mind, either everything or nothing must be held in subjection to the will and providence of God. Even the wickedness of ungodly men is restricted by predestination, so that "the wrath of man shall praise God, and the remainder of wrath He will restrain." - Elder Beebe

HOW CAN A JUST GOD

HOW CAN A JUST GOD
JUSTIFY GUILTY MAN?
Rom. 3:26

C. H. Spurgeon

When I was under conviction of sin I had a clear and sharp sense of the justice of God. Sin, whatever it might be to other people, became to me an intolerable burden. It was not so much that I feared the wrath to come, but that I feared sin. I knew myself to be so horribly guilty that I remember feeling that if God did not punish me for sin, he ought to do so. I felt that the judge of all the earth ought to condemn such sin as mine. I sat on the judgment seat and I condemned myself to perish; for I confessed that, had I been God, I could have done no other than send such a guilty creature as I was down to the lowest hell. All the while, I had upon my mind a deep concern for the Honor of God's name and the integrity of His moral government. I felt that it would not satisfy my conscience if I could be forgiven unjustly. The sin that I had committed must be punished. But then there was the question how God could be just and yet justify me who had been so guilty. I asked my heart, "How can He be just and yet the Justifier?" (Rom. 3:26). I was worried and wearied with this question: neither could I see any answer to it. Certainly I could never have invented an answer which would have satisfied my conscience.
The doctrine of the atonement is to my mind one of the surest proofs of the divine inspiration of Holy Scripture. Who would or could have thought of THE JUST RULER dying for the UNJUST REBEL? This is no teaching of human mythology or dream of poetical imagination. This method of expiation is only known among men because it is a fact. Fiction could not have devised it. God Himself ordained it. It is not a matter which could have been imagined.
I had heard the plan of salvation by the sacrifice of Jesus from my youth up, but I did not know any more about it in my innermost soul than if I had been born and bred a Hottentot. It came to me as a new revelation, as fresh as if I had never read the scripture, that Jesus was declared to be "the propitiation for our sins" (I John 2:2), that God might be just.
When I was anxious about the possibility of a just God pardoning me, I understood and saw by faith that He who is the Son of God became man and, in His own blessed person, bore my sin in His own body on the tree. I saw the chastisement of my peace was laid upon Him, and that with His stripes I was healed (Isa. 55:5). HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THAT? Have you ever understood how God can be just to the full, not remitting penalty nor blunting the edge of the sword, and yet can be infinitely merciful and can justify the ungodly who turn to Him? It was because the Son of God, supremely glorious in His matchless person, undertook to vindicate the law, by bearing the sentence due me, that therefore God is able to pass by my sin. The law of God was more vindicated by the death of Christ than it would have been had all transgressions been punished forever. For the Son of God to suffer for sin was a more glorious establishment of the government of God than for the whole race to suffer.
JESUS HAS BORNE THE DEATH PENALTY ON OUR BEHALF! Behold the wonder! There He hangs upon the cross! This is the greatest sight that you will ever see: Son of God and Son of man! There He hangs, bearing pains unutterable—the Just for the unjust—that He might bring us to God. Oh, the glory of that sight! The Innocent, suffering! The Holy One, condemned! The Everblessed, made a curse! The Infinitely Glorious, put to a shameful death! The more I look at the sufferings of the Son of God, the more sure I am that they must meet my case. Why did He suffer, if not to turn aside the penalty from us? If, then, He turned it aside by His death, it is turned aside, and those who believe in Him need not fear it. It must be so that, since expiation is made, God is able to forgive without shaking the basis of His throne or in the least degree blotting the statute book. Conscience gets a full answer to her tremendous question. The wrath of God against iniquity, whatever that may be, must be beyond all conception terrible. Well did Moses say, "Who knoweth the power of thine anger!" (Psalm. 90:11). Yet, when we hear the Lord of Glory cry, "Why hast Thou forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1), and see Him yielding up the ghost, we feel that the justice of God has received abundant vindication by obedience so perfect and death so terrible, rendered by so divine a person. If God Himself bows before His own law, what more can be done? There is more in the atonement by way of merit than there is in all human sin by way of demerit. The great gulf of Jesus' loving self-sacrifice can swallow up the mountains of our sin, all of them. For the sake of the infinite good of this one representative Man, the Lord may well look with favor upon other men, however unworthy they may be in and of themselves. It was a miracle of miracles that the Lord Jesus Christ should stand in our stead and "bear, that we might never bear, His Father's righteous are." But He has done so. "It is finished" (John 19:30). God will save the sinner because He did not spare His Son. God can pass by your transgressions because He laid those transgressings upon His only begotten Son.
WHAT IS IT TO BELIEVE IN HIM? It is not merely to say, "He is God and the Saviour," but to trust Him wholly and entirely, and take Him for all your salvation from this time forth and forever—your Lord, your Master, your All. If you will have the Lord Jesus, He has you already. If you believe on Him, I tell you, you cannot go to Hell, for that were to make the perfect sacrifice of Christ to none effect. If the Lord Jesus Christ died in my stead, why should I die also? Every believer by faith has laid his hands on the sacrifice, and made it his own, and therefore may rest assured that he can never perish. The Lord would not receive this offering on our behalf and then condemn us to die. The Lord cannot read our pardon written in the blood of His own Son and then smite us. That were impossible. Oh, that you may have Grace given you at once to look away to Jesus, Who is the fountainhead of mercy to guilty man! Will you come into this lifeboat just as you are? Here is safety from the wreck. Accept the sure deliverance. Leap for it just as you are, and leap now!
I will tell you this thing about myself to encourage you. My sole hope for heaven lies in the full atonement made upon Calvary's cross for the ungodly. On that I firmly rely. I have not the shadow of a hope anywhere else. You are in the same condition as I am; for we, neither of us, have anything of our own worth thinking of as a ground of trust. Let us join hands and stand together at the foot of the cross and trust our souls once for all to Him Who shed His blood for the guilty. We will be saved by one and the same Saviour. If you perish trusting Him, I must perish too. What can I do more to prove my own confidence in the Gospel which I set before you?

A Defence of Calvini

A Defence of Calvinism

by C. H. Spurgeon

The old truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach to-day, or else be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth; I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again.
It is a great thing to begin the Christian life by believing good solid doctrine. Some people have received twenty different "gospels" in as many years; how many more they will accept before they get to their journey's end, it would be difficult to predict. I thank God that He early taught me the gospel, and I have been so perfectly satisfied with it, that I do not want to know any other. Constant change of creed is sure loss. If a tree has to be taken up two or three times a year, you will not need to build a very large loft in which to store the apples. When people are always shifting their doctrinal principles, they are not likely to bring forth much fruit to the glory of God. It is good for young believers to begin with a firm hold upon those great fundamental doctrines which the Lord has taught in His Word. Why, if I believed what some preach about the temporary, trumpery salvation which only lasts for a time, I would scarcely be at all grateful for it; but when I know that those whom God saves He saves with an everlasting salvation, when I know that He gives to them an everlasting righteousness, when I know that He settles them on an everlasting foundation of everlasting love, and that He will bring them to His everlasting kingdom, oh, then I do wonder, and I am astonished that such a blessing as this should ever have been given to me!
"Pause, my soul! adore, and wonder!
Ask, 'Oh, why such love to me?'
Grace hath put me in the number
Of the Saviour's family:
Hallelujah!
Thanks, eternal thanks, to Thee!
I suppose there are some persons whose minds naturally incline towards the doctrine of free-will. I can only say that mine inclines as naturally towards the doctrines of sovereign grace. Sometimes, when I see some of the worst characters in the street, I feel as if my heart must burst forth in tears of gratitude that God has never let me act as they have done! I have thought, if God had left me alone, and had not touched me by His grace, what a great sinner I should have been! I should have run to the utmost lengths of sin, dived into the very depths of evil, nor should I have stopped at any vice or folly, if God had not restrained me. I feel that I should have been a very king of sinners, if God had let me alone. I cannot understand the reason why I am saved, except upon the ground that God would have it so. I cannot, if I look ever so earnestly, discover any kind of reason in myself why I should be a partaker of Divine grace. If I am not at this moment without Christ, it is only because Christ Jesus would have His will with me, and that will was that I should be with Him where He is, and should share His glory. I can put the crown nowhere but upon the head of Him whose mighty grace has saved me from going down into the pit. Looking back on my past life, I can see that the dawning of it all was of God; of God effectively. I took no torch with which to light the sun, but the sun enlightened me. I did not commence my spiritual life-no, I rather kicked, and struggled against the things of the Spirit: when He drew me, for a time I did not run after Him: there was a natural hatred in my soul of everything holy and good.
Wooings were lost upon me-warnings were cast to the wind- thunders were despised; and as for the whispers of His love, they were rejected as being less than nothing and vanity. But, sure I am, I can say now, speaking on behalf of myself, "He only is my salvation." It was He who turned my heart, and brought me down on my knees before Him. I can in very deed, say with Doddridge and Toplady-
"Grace taught my soul to pray,
And made my eyes o'erflow."
and coming to this moment, I can add-
"Tis grace has kept me to this day,
And will not let me go."
Well can I remember the manner in which I learned the doctrines of grace in a single instant. Born, as all of us are by nature, an Arminian, I still believed the old things I had heard continually from the pulpit, and did not see the grace of God. When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this. I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in my own soul-when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a babe into a man-that I had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God. One week-night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher's sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment- I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, "I ascribe my change wholly to God."
I once attended a service where the text happened to be, "He shall choose our inheritance for us;" and the good man who occupied the pulpit was more than a little of an Arminian. Therefore, when he commenced, he said, "This passage refers entirely to our temporal inheritance, it has nothing whatever to do with our everlasting destiny, for," said he, "we do not want Christ to choose for us in the matter of Heaven or hell. It is so plain and easy, that every man who has a grain of common sense will choose Heaven, and any person would know better than to choose hell. We have no need of any superior intelligence, or any greater Being, to choose Heaven or hell for us. It is left to our own free- will, and we have enough wisdom given us, sufficiently correct means to judge for ourselves," and therefore, as he very logically inferred, there was no necessity for Jesus Christ, or anyone, to make a choice for us. We could choose the inheritance for ourselves without any assistance. "Ah!" I thought, "but, my good brother, it may be very true that we could, but I think we should want something more than common sense before we should choose aright."
First, let me ask, must we not all of us admit an over-ruling Providence, and the appointment of Jehovah's hand, as to the means whereby we came into this world? Those men who think that, afterwards, we are left to our own free-will to choose this one or the other to direct our steps, must admit that our entrance into the world was not of our own will, but that God had then to choose for us. What circumstances were those in our power which led us to elect certain persons to be our parents? Had we anything to do with it? Did not God Himself appoint our parents, native place, and friends? Could He not have caused me to be born with the skin of the Hottentot, brought forth by a filthy mother who would nurse me in her "kraal," and teach me to bow down to Pagan gods, quite as easily as to have given me a pious mother, who would each morning and night bend her knee in prayer on my behalf? Or, might He not, if He had pleased have given me some profligate to have been my parent, from whose lips I might have early heard fearful, filthy, and obscene language? Might He not have placed me where I should have had a drunken father, who would have immured me in a very dungeon of ignorance, and brought me up in the chains of crime? Was it not God's Providence that I had so happy a lot, that both my parents were His children, and endeavoured to train me up in the fear of the Lord?
John Newton used to tell a whimsical story, and laugh at it, too, of a good woman who said, in order to prove the doctrine of election, "Ah! sir, the Lord must have loved me before I was born, or else He would not have seen anything in me to love afterwards." I am sure it is true in my case; I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love. So I am forced to accept that great Biblical doctrine. I recollect an Arminian brother telling me that he had read the Scriptures through a score or more times, and could never find the doctrine of election in them. He added that he was sure he would have done so if it had been there, for he read the Word on his knees. I said to him, "I think you read the Bible in a very uncomfortable posture, and if you had read it in your easy chair, you would have been more likely to understand it. Pray, by all means, and the more, the better, but it is a piece of superstition to think there is anything in the posture in which a man puts himself for reading: and as to reading through the Bible twenty times without having found anything about the doctrine of election, the wonder is that you found anything at all: you must have galloped through it at such a rate that you were not likely to have any intelligible idea of the meaning of the Scriptures."
If it would be marvelous to see one river leap up from the earth full-grown, what would it be to gaze upon a vast spring from which all the rivers of the earth should at once come bubbling up, a million of them born at a birth? What a vision would it be! Who can conceive it. And yet the love of God is that fountain, from which all the rivers of mercy, which have ever gladdened our race-all the rivers of grace in time, and of glory hereafter-take their rise. My soul, stand thou at that sacred fountain-head, and adore and magnify, for ever and ever, God, even our Father, who hath loved us! In the very beginning, when this great universe lay in the mind of God, like unborn forests in the acorn cup; long ere the echoes awoke the solitudes; before the mountains were brought forth; and long ere the light flashed through the sky, God loved His chosen creatures. Before there was any created being-when the ether was not fanned by an angel's wing, when space itself had not an existence, when there was nothing save God alone-even then, in that loneliness of Deity, and in that deep quiet and profundity, His bowels moved with love for His chosen. Their names were written on His heart, and then were they dear to His soul. Jesus loved His people before the foundation of the world-even from eternity! and when He called me by His grace, He said to me, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."
Then, in the fulness of time, He purchased me with His blood;
He let His heart run out in one deep gaping wound for me long ere I loved Him. Yea, when He first came to me, did I not spurn Him? When He knocked at the door, and asked for entrance, did I not drive Him away, and do despite to Ms grace? Ah, I can remember that I full often did so until, at last, by the power of His effectual grace, He said, "I must, I will come in;" and then He turned my heart, and made me love Him. But even till now I should have resisted Him, had it not been for His grace. Well, then since He purchased me when I was dead in sins, does it not follow, as a consequence necessary and logical, that He must have loved me first? Did my Saviour die for me because I believed on Him? No;
I was not then in existence; I had then no being. Could the Saviour, therefore, have died because I had faith, when I myself was not yet born? Could that have been possible? Could that have been the origin of the Saviour's love towards me? Oh! no; my Saviour died for me long before I believed. "But," says someone, "He foresaw that you would have faith; and, therefore, He loved you." What did He foresee about my faith? Did He foresee that I should get that faith myself, and that I should believe on Him of myself) No;
Christ could not foresee that, because no Christian man will ever say that faith came of itself without the gift and without the working of the Holy Spirit. I have met with a great many believers, and talked with them about this matter; but I never knew one who could put his hand on his heart, and say, "I believed in Jesus without the assistance of the Holy Spirit."
I am bound to the doctrine of the depravity of the human heart, because I find myself depraved in heart, and have daily proofs that in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing. If God enters into covenant with unfallen man, man is so insignificant a creature that it must be an act of gracious condescension on the Lord's part; but if God enters into covenant with sinful man, he is then so offensive a creature that it must be, on God's part, an act of pure, free, rich, sovereign grace. When the Lord entered into covenant with me, I am sure that it was all of grace, nothing else but grace. When I remember what a den of unclean beasts and birds my heart was, and how strong was my unrenewed will, how obstinate and rebellious against the sovereignty of the Divine rule, I always feel inclined to take the very lowest room in my Father's house, and when I enter Heaven, it will be to go among the less than the least of all saints, and with the chief of sinners.
The late lamented Mr. Denham has put, at the foot of his portrait, a most admirable text, "Salvation is of the Lord." That is just an epitome of Calvinism; it is the sum and substance of it. If anyone should ask me what I mean by a Calvinist, I should reply, "He is one who says, Salvation is of the Lord." I cannot find in Scripture any other doctrine than this. It is the essence of the Bible. "He only is my rock and my salvation." Tell me anything contrary to this truth, and it will be a heresy; tell me a heresy, and I shall find its essence here, that it has departed from this great, this fundamental, this rock-truth, "God is my rock and my salvation." What is the heresy of Rome, but the addition of something to the perfect merits of Jesus Christ-the bringing in of the works of the flesh, to assist in our justification? And what is the heresy of Arminianism but the addition of something to the work of the Redeemer? Every heresy, if brought to the touchstone, will discover itself here. I have my own Private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith, without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having once believed in Jesus. Such a gospel I abhor.
"If ever it should come to pass,
That sheep of Christ might fall away,
My fickle, feeble soul, alas!
Would fall a thousand times a day"
If one dear saint of God had perished, so might all; if one of the covenant ones be lost, so may all be; and then there is no gospel promise true, but the Bible is a lie, and there is nothing in it worth my acceptance. I will be an infidel at once when I can believe that a saint of God can ever fall finally. If God hath loved me once, then He will love me for ever. God has a mastermind; He arranged everything in His gigantic intellect long before He did it; and once having settled it, He never alters it, 'This shall be done," saith He, and the iron hand of destiny marks it down, and it is brought to pass. "This is My purpose," and it stands, nor can earth or hell alter it. "This is My decree," saith He, "promulgate it, ye holy angels; rend it down from the gate of Heaven, ye devils, if ye can; but ye cannot alter the decree, it shall stand for ever." God altereth not His plans; why should He? He is Almighty, and therefore can perform His pleasure. Why should He? He is the All-wise, and therefore cannot have planned wrongly. Why should He? He is the everlasting God, and therefore cannot die before His plan is accomplished. Why should He change? Ye worthless atoms of earth, ephemera of a day, ye creeping insects upon this bay-leaf of existence, ye may change your plans, but He shall never, never change His. Has He told me that His plan is to save me? If so, I am for ever safe.
"My name from the palms of His hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impress'd on His heart it remains,
In marks of indelible grace."
I do not know how some people, whobelieve that a Christian can fall from grace, manage to be happy. It must be a very commendable thing in them to be able to get through a day without despair. f I did not believe the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints, I think I should be of all men the most miserable, because I should lack any ground of comfort. I could not say, whatever state of heart I came into, that I should be like a well- spring of water, whose stream fails not; I should rather have to take the comparison of an intermittent spring, that might stop on a sudden, or a reservoir, which I had no reason to expect would always be full. I believe that the happiest of Christians and the truest of Christians are those who never dare to doubt God, but who take His Word simply as it stands, and believe it, and ask no questions, just feeling assured that if God has said it, it will be so.
I bear my willing testimony that I have no reason, nor even the shadow of a reason, to doubt my Lord, and I challenge Heaven, and earth, and hell, to bring any proof that God is untrue. From the depths of hell I call the fiends, and from this earth I call the tried and afflicted believers, and to Heaven I appeal, and challenge the long experience of the blood-washed host, and there is not to be found in the three realms a single person who can bear witness to one fact which can disprove the faithfulness of God, or weaken Ms claim to be trusted by His servants. There are many things that may or may not happen, but this I know shall happen-
"He shall present my soul,
Unblemish'd and complete,
Before the glory of His face,
With joys divinely great"
All the purposes of man have been defeated, but not the purposes of God. The promises of man may be broken-many of them are made to be broken-but the promises of God shall all be fulfilled. He is a promise-maker, but He never was a promise- breaker; He is a promise-keeping God, and every one of His people shall prove it to be so. This is my grateful, personal confidence, "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me"-unworthy me, lost and ruined me. He will yet save me; and-
"I, among the blood-wash'd throng,
Shall wave the palm, and wear the crown,
And shout loud victory"
I go to a land which the plough of earth hath never upturned, where it is greener than earth's best pastures, and richer than her most abundant harvests ever saw. I go to a building of more gorgeous architecture than man hath ever builded; it is not of mortal design; it is "a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens." All I shall know and enjoy in Heaven, will be given to me by the Lord, and I shall say, when at last I appear before Him-
"Grace all the work shall crown
Through everlasting days;
It lays in Heaven the topmost stone,
And well deserves the praise"
I know there are some who think it necessary to their system of theology to limit the merit of the blood of Jesus: if my theological system needed such a limitation, I would cast it to the winds. I cannot, I dare not allow the thought to find a lodging in my mind, it seems so near akin to blasphemy. In Christ's finished work I see an ocean of merit; my plummet finds no bottom, my eye discovers no shore. There must be sufficient efficacy in the blood of Christ, if God had so willed it, to have saved not only all in this world, but all in ten thousand worlds, had they transgressed their Maker's law. Once admit infinity into the matter, and limit is out of the question. Having a Divine Person for an offering, it is not consistent to conceive of limited value; bound and measure are terms inapplicable to the Divine sacrifice. The intent of the Divine purpose fixes the application of the infinite offering, but does not change it into a finite work. Think of the numbers upon whom God has bestowed His grace already. Think of the countless hosts in Heaven: if thou wert introduced there to-day, thou wouldst find it as easy to tell the stars, or the sands of the sea, as to count the multitudes that are before the throne even now. They have come from the East, and from the West, from the North, and from the South, and they are sitting down with Abraham, and with Isaac, and with Jacob in the Kingdom of God; and beside those in Heaven, think of the saved ones on earth. Blessed be God, His elect on earth are to be counted by millions, I believe, and the days are coming, brighter days than these, when there shall be multitudes upon multitudes brought to know the Saviour, and to rejoice in Him. The Father's love is not for a few only, but for an exceeding great company. "A great multitude, which no man could number," will be found in Heaven. A man can reckon up to very high figures; set to work your Newtons, your mightiest calculators, and they can count great numbers, but God and God alone can tell the multitude of His redeemed. I believe there will be more in Heaven than in hell. If anyone asks me why I think so, I answer, because Christ, in everything, is to "have the pre-eminence," and I cannot conceive how He could have the pre-eminence if there are to be more in the dominions of Satan than in Paradise. Moreover, I have never read that there is to be in hell a great multitude, which no man could number. I rejoice to know that the souls of all infants, as soon as they die, speed their way to Paradise. Think what a multitude there is of them! Then there are already in Heaven unnumbered myriads of the spirits of just men made perfect-the redeemed of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues up till now; and there are better times coming, when the religion of Christ shall be universal; when-
"He shall reign from pole to pole,
With illimitable sway,"
when whole kingdoms shall bow down before Him, and nations shall be born in a day, and in the thousand years of the great millennial state there will be enough saved to make up all the deficiencies of the thousands of years that have gone before. Christ shall be Master everywhere, and His praise shall be sounded in every land. Christ shall have the pre-eminence at last; His train shall be far larger than that which shall attend the chariot of the grim monarch of hell.
Some persons love the doctrine of universal atonement because they say, "It is so beautiful. It is a lovely idea that Christ should have died for all men; it commends itself," they say, "to the instincts of humanity; there is something in it full of joy and beauty." I admit there is, but beauty may be often associated with falsehood. There is much which I might admire in the theory of universal redemption, but I will just show what the supposition necessarily involves. If Christ on His cross intended to save every man, then He intended to save those who were lost before He died. If the doctrine be true, that He died for all men, then He died for some who were in hell before He came into this world, for doubtless there were even then myriads there who had been cast away because of their sins. Once again, if it was Christ's intention to save all men, how deplorably has He been disappointed, for we have His own testimony that there is a lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, and into that pit of woe have been cast some of the very persons who, according to the theory of universal redemption, were bought with His blood. That seems to me a conception a thousand times more repulsive than any of those consequences which are said to be associated with the Calvinistic and Christian doctrine of special and particular redemption. To think that my Saviour died for men who were or are in hell, seems a supposition too horrible for me to entertain. To imagine for a moment that He was the Substitute for all the sons of men, and that God, having first punished the Substitute, afterwards punished the sinners themselves, seems to conflict with all my ideas of Divine justice. That Christ should offer an atonement and satisfaction for the sins of all men, and that afterwards some of those very men should be punished for the sins for which Christ had already atoned, appears to me to be the most monstrous iniquity that could ever have been imputed to Saturn, to Janus, to the goddess of the Thugs, or to the most diabolical heathen deities. God forbid that we should ever think thus of Jehovah, the just and wise and good! There is no soul living who holds more firmly to the doctrines of grace than I do, and if any man asks me whether I am ashamed to be called a Calvinist, I answer- I wish to be called nothing but a Christian; but if you ask me, do I hold the doctrinal views which were held by John Calvin, I reply, I do in the main hold them, and rejoice to avow it. But far be it from me even to imagine that Zion contains none but Calvinistic Christians within her walls, or that there are none saved who do not hold our views. Most atrocious things have been spoken about the character and spiritual condition of John Wesley, the modern prince of Arminians. I can only say concerning him that, while I detest many of the doctrines which he preached, yet for the man himself I have a reverence second to no Wesleyan; and if there were wanted two apostles to be added to the number of the twelve, I do not believe that there could be found two men more fit to be so added than George Whitefield and John Wesley. The character of John Wesley stands beyond all imputation for self-sacrifice, zeal, holiness, and communion with God; he lived far above the ordinary level of common Christians, and was one "of whom the world was not worthy." I believe there are multitudes of men who cannot see these truths, or, at least, cannot see them in the way in which we put them, who nevertheless have received Christ as their Saviour, and are as dear to the heart of the God of grace as the soundest Calvinist in or out of Heaven.
I do not think I differ from any of my Hyper-Calvinistic brethren in what I do believe, but I differ from them in what they do not believe. I do not hold any less than they do, but I hold a little more, and, I think, a little more of the truth revealed in the Scriptures. Not only are there a few cardinal doctrines, by which we can steer our ship North, South, East, or West, but as we study the Word, we shall begin to learn something about the North-west and North-east, and all else that lies between the four cardinal points. The system of truth revealed in the Scriptures is not simply one straight line, but two; and no man will ever get a right view of the gospel until he knows how to look at the two lines at once. For instance, I read in one Book of the Bible, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Yet I am taught, in another part of the same inspired Word, that "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." I see, in one place, God in providence presiding over all, and yet I see, and I cannot help seeing, that man acts as he pleases, and that God has left his actions, in a great measure, to his own free-will. Now, if I were to declare that man was so free to act that there was no control of God over his actions, I should be driven very near to atheism; and if, on the other hand, I should declare that God so over-rules all things that man is not free enough to be responsible, I should be driven at once into Antinomianism or fatalism. That God predestines, and yet that man is responsible, are two facts that few can see clearly. They are believed to be inconsistent and contradictory to each other. If, then, I find taught in one part of the Bible that everything is foreordained, that is true; and if I find, in another Scripture, that man is responsible for all his actions, that is true; and it is only my folly that leads me to imagine that these two truths can ever contradict each other. I do not believe they can ever be welded into one upon any earthly anvil, but they certainly shall be one in eternity. They are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the human mind which pursues them farthest will never discover that they converge, but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring.
It is often said that the doctrines we believe have a tendency to lead us to sin. I have heard it asserted most positively, that those high doctrines which we love, and which we find in the Scriptures, are licentious ones. I do not know who will have the hardihood to make that assertion, when they consider that the holiest of men have been believers in them. I ask the man who dares to say that Calvinism is a licentious religion, what he thinks of the character of Augustine, or Calvin, or Whitefield, who in successive ages were the great exponents of the system of grace; or what will he say of the Puritans, whose works are full of them? Had a man been an Arminian in those days, he would have been accounted the vilest heretic breathing, but now we are looked upon as the heretics, and they as the orthodox. We have gone back to the old school; we can trace our descent from the apostles. It is that vein of free-grace, running through the sermonizing of Baptists, which has saved us as a denomination. Were it not for that, we should not stand where we are today. We can run a golden line up to Jesus Christ Himself, through a holy succession of mighty fathers, who all held these glorious truths; and we can ask concerning them, "Where will you find holier and better men in the world?" No doctrine is so calculated to preserve a man from sin as the doctrine of the grace of God. Those who have called it "a licentious doctrine" did not know anything at all about it. Poor ignorant things, they little knew that their own vile stuff was the most licentious doctrine under Heaven. If they knew the grace of God in truth, they would soon see that there was no preservative from lying like a knowledge that we are elect of God from the foundation of the world. There is nothing like a belief in my eternal perseverance, and the immutability of my Father's affection, which can keep me near to Him from a motive of simple gratitude. Nothing makes a man so virtuous as belief of the truth. A lying doctrine will soon beget a lying practice. A man cannot have an erroneous belief without by-and-by having an erroneous life. I believe the one thing naturally begets the other. Of all men, those have the most disinterested piety, the sublimest reverence, the most ardent devotion, who believe that they are saved by grace, without works, through faith, and that not of themselves, it is the gift of God. Christians should take heed, and see that it always is so, lest by any means Christ should be crucified afresh, and put to an open shame.

IF SOME ARE ELECT WH

IF SOME ARE ELECT WHY PREACH?
By C. H. SPURGEON

Text ------ John 17:20
"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word."

Captious and cavilling persons will object, "You say that God loves His people, and therefore they will be saved; then what is the good of preaching?" What is the good of preaching? When I say that God loves a multitude that no man can number, a countless host of the race of men, do you ask me what is the good Of preaching?
What is the good of preaching? To fetch these diamonds of the Lord out of the dunghill; to go down to the depths, as the diver does, to fetch up God's pearls from the place where they are.
What is the good of preaching? To cut down the good corn, and gather it into the garner.
What is the good of preaching? To fetch out God's elect from the ruins of the fall, and make them stand on the rock Christ Jesus, and see their standing sure.
Ah, ye who ask what is the good of preaching, because God has ordained some to salvation, we ask you whether it would not be a most foolish thing to say, because there is to be a harvest, what is the good of sowing? There is to be a harvest, what is the use of reaping? The very reason why we do sow and reap is, because we feel assured that there is to be a harvest.
And if, indeed, I believed there was not a number who must be saved, I could not go into a pulpit again. Only once make me think that no one is certain to be saved and I do not care to preach. But now I know that a countless number must be saved; I am confident that Christ shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days. I know that, if there is much to dispirit me in my ministry, and I see but little of its effects, yet He shall keep all whom the Father has given to Him; and this makes me preach. I come into this chapel tonight with the assurance that God has some child of His, in this place, not yet called; and I feel confident that He will call someone by the use of the ministry, so why not by me? I know there are not a few souls whom God has given me through my ministry, not only hundreds, but thousands. I have seen some hundreds of those who profess to have been brought to God through my preaching at Park Street, and elsewhere; and with that confidence I must go on. I know that Jesus must have a seed. His people must increase, and it is the very purpose of the ministry to seek them out, and bring them into God's fold. Our Saviour tells us the use of the ministry is, that they may believe on me through their word.
There is one peculiarity about this. Christ says, They shall believe on me through their word. Have you never heard people call out about running after men? They say, "You are all running after such-and-such a man." What then, would you have them run after a woman? You say, "The people go after one particular man." Whom else shall they go after? Some persons say, "We went to such-and-such a place, and the people there love their minister too much." That would be very dreadful, but it is not so. As for ministers being in danger of being ruined by too much love in any particular place, they get too much of the reverse somewhere else. If we get a little sweet, somebody else is sure to put in much that is bitter. Is it not singular that Christ should say, They shall believe on me through their word?
Now, do God's people believe on Christ through the word of the ministry? We know that our faith does not rest on the word of man, but on the Word of God. We do not rest on any man, yet it is through their word; that is, through the word of the apostles, and through the word of every faithful minister.

Resisting the Devil

Resisting the Devil
by Arthur W. Pink

"Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you"-James 4:7

HIS brings before us an aspect of the Truth concerning which many Christians are largely ignorant. Oftentimes they are unaware that it is "the Devil" who is attacking them and needs to be resisted. Many suppose that Satan's assaults are confined unto tempting us to sin. Not so; in many cases his object is to oppose and hinder us in the doing of that which is good. Frequently he makes use of human beings to annoy and harass us. For example, he will send a caller to the door, or someone to ring on the telephone, when we are engaged in prayer. He will move worldly relatives to visit us on the Sabbath-day and thus prevent our spending the time quietly with the Lord. Or, he will shape our "circumstances" to hinder our spiritual good, multiplying our duties and tasks so that we have not leisure or are too weary for study. Few of God's children appear to know that it is their privilege and right to be victorious over Satan's attacks. The Lord has not left His people here at the mercy of their great Enemy, helpless to overcome him. No, He has told us in His Word how we may defeat him.
To begin at the beginning: "Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you." This is a Divine command, it is a duty which the Lord has laid upon us. Our first responsibility concerning it is to give it our best attention, to fix it in our minds, to ponder its terms, to desire and determine to obey. Probably some will say, I wish that I could, but I know not how. Then our second responsibility concerning it is to acknowledge this, asking God to enlighten, begging Him to teach us how to obey it. Tell Him you want to do as He has bidden, and for Him to grant instruction and enablement thereunto.
Yet necessary and important as this is, it is not enough. Prayer was never designed by God to relieve us of our responsibilities and encourage laziness. It is not sufficient for me to pray that God will grant us a fruitful garden this summer-though I should pray about this, as about "everything": Philippians 4:6. No, I must dig and plant, water and weed it. So it is here: the answer to my prayer for enlightenment for heeding the exhortation of James 4:7 must come to me through the Scriptures. Hence, my third responsibility is to search the Scriptures, asking the Holy Spirit to graciously guide me into the Truth. This means that I must come to the Bible with a definite object, aiming to discover just what it teaches about the Christian's "resisting the Devil" so that he "flees" from him.
Let us begin our "search" of God's Word on this important practical subject by looking closely at the immediate context of the command found in our text. First, we note that it is found in the second half of the verse: "Submit yourselves therefore to God; resist the Devil." Ah, how can I expect to do the second until I have done the first? To "submit" myself unto God means that my own wisdom, will and wishes must be entirely set aside, and His Word and will rule me in all things. To submit to God means that I recognize His claims upon me, that I am His creature, His child, to be controlled by Him as One having absolute right to my complete subjection.
But let us look more closely at and ponder the first half of this verse: "Submit yourselves therefore to God." This at once tells me that I need to look back to the previous verse, for the word "therefore" always points to a conclusion based upon and drawn from something going before. Turning back, then, to verse 6, I read, "But He giveth more grace. Wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." Ah, that is encouraging, that stimulates faith and hope. The One unto whom I am to "submit" myself is no harsh Tyrant, no merciless Despot, but the "God of all grace." He has already given me saving grace, and "He giveth more grace" to the humble, and "more grace" is exactly what I need, if I am to successfully "resist the Devil."
"Wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." God resisteth the proud, because the proud resist Him. The essence of pride is self-sufficiency: it is that spirit which disdains help from another, confident that I am fully able to manage for myself. Spiritually, pride is that awful conceit that I can get along without God. It is a fearful delusion begotten and fostered by the Devil. Contrariwise, "humility" is a being emptied of self-sufficiency: it is the heart realization that I am completely dependent upon God for everything. Humility, grace, and victory over the Devil are inseparably connected! But nothing is more offensive to Satan than humility, for he is a proud spirit, and his desire is to puff us up and get us to walk and act independently of God.
"Submit yourselves therefore to God." The word "submit" signifies to place myself under another. There must be a subjection of the whole man to the whole law of God; a giving up of ourselves to be governed by Him; our thoughts, desires, actions regulated strictly by the rules laid down in His Word. Submission to God also denotes an unrepining acquiescence to the dispositions of His providence, an unmurmuring disposal of ourselves to His sovereign pleasure. Thus, there must be a complete surrender of myself and my life to God, to be ordered and disposed of by Him.
Now there is a double relation or connection between the two halves of James 4:7. First and most obviously, I must "submit" to God if ever I am to successfully "resist" the Devil. How can it be otherwise? I cannot prevail over the great Enemy in my own strength, and God will not give me of His "grace" while I am resisting Him! Thus, I must cease resisting God before I can hope to resist the Devil-chiefly to make me proud, self-sufficient, independent. The prayerless soul is a proud one, for his refusal to receive strength from God is tantamount to saying that he can get along through the day without Him. It was by pride Satan fell, and he would feign have more company, and draw us into his snare. His bait is easily swallowed, for it is natural to us. Our first parents caught readily at the suggestion "Ye shall be as gods."
But what is meant by "resist the Devil?" First, that I am not to be terrified at him. Satan has no enforcing power: he cannot prevail over me without my consent. Second, that I am not to even listen to his suggestion: "resist" actively, saying "I will not": take that attitude, and firmly stand your ground. Third, quote Scripture to him, a pertinent and suitable one which meets his particular suggestion. Count upon the power of God's Word, expect it to drive him away. Fourth, plead God's promise in the text: "resist the Devil and he will flee from you." Yes, he will "flee," for he is not only a conquered foe, but an arrant coward as well. "Flee from you," yet only, "for a season"; he will return and renew the fight; and so must you.
But let us now resume our searching of God's Word to find out what it has to teach us on this subject of resisting the Devil. We have already discovered enough to encourage us, so let us continue our quest for further light and help. This means that I must turn to a concordance and look up, slowly and carefully, every verse having in it the word "Devil" or "Satan." This calls for patience, but if it be prayerfully exercised, God will reward it. I come now to 1 Peter 5:8 and read, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; whom resist, steadfast in the faith." Surely this is very graphic and impressive. If you knew that a lion had escaped from a local circus, that it was a fierce and hungry one, that it was loose and roaming the streets, and your daily duties obliged you to go abroad, how cautiously and carefully would you proceed! Ah, dear friends, my supposition is neither imaginary nor overdrawn. There is one, more powerful and cruel than any animal lion, which is abroad, seeking to devour your soul and mine. How little we really believe this! How halfhearted is the heed we give to this Divine warning!
Let us glance for a moment at the context of this verse: "Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you" (1 Peter 5:7). Here the tried and troubled children of God are invited to roll upon the Lord the whole burden of their anxiety, being assured of His compassion for them. Yes, but that privilege and assurance of His tender care must not tempt us to be careless and reckless. Here, as every where in Scripture, the promise and the command are joined together. Note what immediately follows. First, "Be sober." In common speech "soberness" is the opposite of drunkenness. But let us bear in mind that there are many other things besides wine and whiskey which intoxicate. "Be sober" means, Be temperate in all things, put a curb on your every desire and appetite, particularly be "sober" in your use of and expectations from the world.
"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2). If the eye of faith measures earthly things in the light of God's Word it will be seen that they are temporary, unsatisfying, worthless. The pleasures of sin are only "for a season" (Hebrews 11:25), and a brief one at that! Remember too there must be "soberness" of mind, before there will be soberness of body. O the importance of forming right estimates of earthly and heavenly things. If I truly receive into my heart the declaration of God's Word that "all under the sun" is but "vanity and vexation of spirit," soberness will indeed be promoted.
Second, "be vigilant," not careless, nor rash and presumptuous. I must be watchful, alert, wideawake. Here again I must start with the inner man: I shall never be "vigilant" about external temptations till I have learned to "gird up the loins" of my mind (1 Peter 1:13), and to "rule my own spirit" (Proverbs 16:32). Let us then seek grace to be "vigilant" over our minds and bring "into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5). Let us seek to be "vigilant" over our moods, watchful lest Satan should gain an advantage. If depressed, he will seek and tempt me to despondency and despair. But I must "resist" that inclination. If light and giddy, he will tempt to fleshly mirth and hilarity, which ill-becomes a follower of Christ. But remember that I must first be "sober," if I am to be "vigilant"!
Third, "whom resist steadfast. " Resist his efforts to prejudice your heart against God, and instill into your mind evil thoughts about Him. He will try to make you doubt His love, murmur against the severity of His providences and the strictness of His commandments. Resist his enticements to draw you unto the place of temptation, remembering that God has said "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness" (Ephesians 5:11). Resist his efforts to lead you into active sinning: saying with Joseph, "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God!" (Genesis 39:9).
Our resistance must be earnest and zealous. If a madman attacked and you were fighting for your very life, you would put forth every effort. So it must be here: it is your own soul he is seeking to destroy. Eve's resistance was faint and half-hearted: she dallied with his evil solicitations. Be warned from her fall. By "earnest" I mean, Be indignant at his first suggestions-for example, to laze in bed on the Sabbath morning. Our resistance must be thorough. The approaches of Satan to the soul are gradual: he asks us to yield but a little at first. Many promise themselves they will stop after they have conceded a trifle, but when a stone at the top of the hill starts rolling down, it is hard to stop. We see this principle forcibly illustrated in the case of gamblers and drunkards. Take heed unto thyself. Our resistance must be constant and continuous: not only against his first attack, but his whole siege. The Devil is very persevering, and we must be so too.
Let these three considerations bestir unto this imperative duty of resistance. First, the Devil cannot overcome without your consent: but where there is not a powerful dissent, there is a virtual consent. Take a positive attitude against the great Enemy of souls. Second, think much of the blessedness of victory: this will more than compensate you for all the diligence and strenuous efforts you make. The pleasures of sin are only for a season, but the pleasures and gains of self-denial are eternal: read Mark 10:29, 30. Third, remember that God's grace is promised unto the one who resists. God delivers, but we "keep ourselves" (1 John 5:18). It is via our watchfulness and prayer that God makes such resistance effectual. There is no promise that God will keep a careless and lax soul.
"Whom resist steadfast in the faith." Probably there is a double reference here in the expression "the faith." First, the analogy of faith, or Word of God-compare Jude 3; second, the exercise of the grace of faith. Satan is "the power of darkness" (Luke 22:53), and only the light of God can expose and expel him. Satan uses error to deceive souls, and the truth of God is needed to deliver us. We are to resist him in the faith, by believing, receiving, and acting out the Holy Scriptures. We are also to resist the Devil by the exercise of the grace of faith. Our hearts must lay hold of the precepts and promises of God. A blessed example of this has been left us by Christ: "He resisted the Devil steadfastly in the faith," using against him naught but the Sword of the Spirit.
"Whom resist steadfast in the faith." When we stagger through unbelief, we are powerless to stand before our great Enemy. It was through doubting God's threat that Eve fell. But we can only successfully resist the Devil "steadfast in the faith" as there is a personal appropriation of Christ's victory. It is written, "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb" (Revelation 12:11). Plead that blood before God for deliverance from Satan's temptations. Count upon its efficacy to deliver you. Shelter beneath it when you realize that Satan is shooting his fiery darts at you.
Finally, let it be pointed out that, either we must overcome the Devil, or be overcome by him. There is no third alternative! If we are completely overcome by him, the result will be fatal. He is not merely seeking to wound us, but to "devour" (1 Peter 5:8)! And how is this to be harmonized with the eternal security of God's people? Easily: if we be real Christians, we shall, by Divine grace, resist and overcome the Devil. But if we continue heeding his suggestions and yielding to his temptations and are thoroughly overcome by him, then no matter how much Scripture we know in our heads, or what our profession, we belong to the Devil, and are his lawful captives.
This article available in tract form.