General Principles
“Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace.’’ — Hen. xiii. 9.
My pear Frienp,
You seem bewildered amid the opinions of the day, almost as much as you would be in the midst of a company where each spoke in a different tongue. The difficulty of judging what is truth seems increasing, instead of disappearing. You know not what to think, nor which way to turn, in order to discover who is right, or where certainty is to be found; so many novelties stagger and amaze you. ‘There seem to be good men on both sides, and that perplexes you still more.
You long for peace amid the jar of these unruly elements, and for stability amid these shifting sands. Yet rest comes not. ‘There is no end of change. One novelty begets another, and that, in its turn, becomes equally productive. One error requires another to maintain it, this second must have a third or fourth to lean upon. One false step leads to twenty, or perhaps a hundred more. Who knows where all this is to end ?*
The changes are numerous. Every month produces some new doctrine, or at least some modification of the old. Fickle minds he in wait for something new. As the edge of one novelty wears down, another must be provided in its place to keep up the unhealthy excitement. Thus fickleness becomes doubly fickle by being gratified; novelties multiply, and the sore evil spreads. Men do not tremble at the thought of falling into error. ‘Io change opinions upon some casual impulse, or some shallow catch of an argument, is thought but a light thing; as if the falling into error were no great matter, instead of being a fearful calamity; or as if the entrance upon truth were an indifferent occurrence, instead of being the occasion of deep and solemn joy. Many who but lately were high Calvinists are now Arminians of the lowest grade, passing through the different levels with the most singular facility and flippancy, as easily and
* “They want something new, something which has a peculiar relish; old things have grown wearisome to them.”
—Dr. Merle D Aubigne on the character of the theologian.
airily as the musician runs up and down the scale with the finger or the voice.
How is all this? you will ask. It might be enough to answer that it is written, ‘‘ There shall come in the last days perilous times, when men shall be heady, high-minded, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth;”* ‘‘ when they shall not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and shall turn away their ears from the truth.”t But let us inquire a little farther. ‘There seem to be chiefly three reasons for this; first, the soul is not at rest; secondly, the conscience is not at work; thirdly, there is little “trembling at the word.” I might refer to others, but these are the prominent ones.
1. The soul is not at rest — There is a resting-place for the weary, — deep and broad, immovable and sure, — Jesus, the sin -bearing Lamb of God. But these unstable ones have not reached it. They speak much of it, talk as if they alone knew anything about it, as if none could state the gospel so freely as they; yet it is manifest that they have not yet real-
* 2 Tim. iii. 4, 7, +2 Tim. iy. 3.
ized that. stable peace which comes from the knowledge of the living Jesus. They are not at rest; and till the sowl be at rest, the mind cannot. It will always be making vain fetches after new opinions, in the hope that this or that new doctrine may perchance bring to it the peace which it has hitherto sought in vain. Be assured of this, that a mind not at rest bespeaks a sowl not at rest; and whatever men may affirm to you about their assurance or their peace, if you see them ever on the watch, ever on the wing for some new opinion, you may be sure there is little rest within. In many cases it may be vanity, attachment to a sect, desire for proselytizing others, or simply self-will; but in most cases I have no doubt that it is really in quest of peace that these poor souls are stretching out their weary hands, ready to embrace anything that will fill the dreary void, and pour over their souls that settled calm and sunshine, to which, in spite of all their profession, they are really strangers. ‘They are not fastened to the anchor cast within the veil, or else they have let go their hold; and hence they are drifting from place to place in quest of anchorage, but unable to find it. They try, by means of change, to allay the fever and fretfulness of an unsettled spirit, yet all the while they boast of their assurance, and perhaps censure you sorely if you cannot speak their language and assume their tone.
2. The conscience ts not at work. — The conscience has far more to do in receiving or rejecting opinions than many suppose. It should stand like a sentinel at the door of the mind, to try all truth before it enter. A tender conscience is cautious, and oftentimes very slow ia admitting truth, and, on this very account, most tenacious in holding it fast. Hence, a child of God, with a tender conscience, is often much slower in receiving truth than others. For it has to do with conscience in his case; it has to pass into the mind under a watchful eye, which fears to be rash and hasty, and trembles at the thought of giving entrance to error. A conscience asleep, or seared, or secure, makes quick work. A specious objection is presented to some old. truth, or a plausible argument in favor of some new opinion, and, forthwith, the former is thrust out, the latter taken in, without any resistance, or delay, or trembling on the part of conscience, or any light and guidance from God, sought and obtained upon the matter.
Nothing is more needed in our inquiries after truth, than the watchful jealousy of a tender conscience. Yet how little is there of conscience at all in these last days! ‘There is what is called independence of mind, or thinking for one’s self; but that is not conscience. There is a spurning of creeds, and catechisms, and all olden theology, but that is not conscience. It is not waiting upon God for teaching. It is trusting our own heart, ‘ and taking the guidance of our own eyes. It is not ‘ceasing from man,” but the mere pretence of it. It is ceasing from one man in order to trust in another, from one age to trust in another, from one book to trust in another, from one heart to trust in another, and that other perhaps the most deceitful of all, — our own. Hence there is such running after novelty, such readiness to receive any plausible error, such instability of opinion and fickleness of spirit; such self-willedness and headstrong precipitancy of judgment; such high-mindedness, pride, and censoriousness of others; so little thought of our own foolishness and fallibility; so slender a sense of the awful responsibility we:are under to God, for what we believe for ourselves, and propagate among others, as his precious and eternal truth.
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3. There ts little trembling at the word. — It is a solemn thing for man to be spoken to by God, the God of heaven and earth. Each word coming from His lips should be listened to and received with profoundest reverence. ‘The Lord has spoken” is enough for us. There is no room for questions or cavil where His voice is heard. Each word in the Bible is to be dealt with as a sacred thing, a vessel of the sanctuary, not to be lightly handled or profanely mutilated, but to be received just as it stands. There may be passages difficult to reconcile, doctrines which apparently conflict with each other. But let us beware of smoothing down, or hammering in pieces, one class of passages, in order to bring about a reconciliation. Let us be content to take them as they are. We shall gain nothing by explaining them away. God has spoken them. God has placed them there. ‘They cannot really be at variance with each other. The day is coming when we shall fully understand their harmony. Let us wait till then, and meanwhile tremble at the thought of misinterpreting or distorting so much as one jot or tittle. Most assuredly we shall not bring about the agreement in any such way. We are only widening the breach, and opening out new difficulties.*
If I am asked, how can you preach a free gospel, and yet believe in election? I answer, I believe in both, and preach both, because I find both in the Bible. I have no authority for preaching an unconditional gospel but what I find in the Bible; and I have the same authority for preaching an unconditional personal election. God has told me that both are true; and woe be to me if I profanely attempt to mutilate either the one or the other. If one man refuses to take the simple meaning of election,” another may refuse to take the simple meaning of “gospel.” And were I called upon to say which is the worse, the more profane of the two, I should say the former. I should, indeed, tremble at the thought of denying either election or the gospel; but I confess that I think the denial of the latter a less direct, and a less daring insult to the soverelgn majesty of Jehovah. It would be a shutting out of his grace, a closing up of all the manifestations of his character which have
* “The mind of that man has a strong bias to scepticism, who insists on having every difficulty satisfactorily explained before he will apply the sacred truths to himself.”” — Henry
(of America) Letters regarding the difficulties of an anxious inquirer; Letter LX.
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come out to us since Adam sinned; and it would be drawing a dark cloud over our eternal prospects, — but it would not be taking the ceins of government out of his hands, — it would not be the usurpation of his throne, — it would not be giving the right hand of fellowship to atheism.
But there is no need of any such comparison. Perhaps it was wrong to make it. I have done so, however, in order that you may be led to see that election belongs to the highest and most sacred order of truths — that it’ is not a doctrine to be concealed and muffled as if we were either ashamed or afraid of it, but to be firmly held, and faithfully preached, whether men will hear or forbear. Mere philosophy might tell men that, if there be a God, he must be entirely and absolutely sovereign in all things. Mere philosophy might expose the shallowness and selfishness of those who trample on God’s free will, in order to establish man’s — even if theology and Scripture were silent on the matter.
Why do I believe in a free gospel? Is it because reason has revealed it? Is it because I find it suits me best? No. It 1s because God has declared it; that is my sole authority. Why do I believe in election? Just because
God has made it known. I may find that reason confirms this. I may see that there can be no really free gospel without election; but still my ground for believing it is because I find it most plainly revealed.
You can only get rid of election by getting rid of the Bible. And hence you will find, among those who deny election and the work of Christ for his church, a great dislike at those passages of Scripture which allude to these topics. They pass them by, they turn away from them, they are anery if another even quotes them, though without a comment. Now I ask, would they do and feel thus, if they believed that these passages really contained the meaning which they put upon them? If these passages are quite in harmony with their views, why do they shrink from quoting them, or hearing them quoted? Is not this the plainest of all proofs, that they feel that theirs is not the honest interpretation? Does it not show that they themselves are secretly persuaded that these passages do teach unconditional election, and the absolute sovereignty of Jehovah? They feel that they have twisted them from their plain sense, and that the mere reading of them is enough to expose their distortions. They feel that they have not dealt fairly with the word of God, and that their one-sided dealings cannot bear the light of day.
Let us learn to ‘tremble at the word.” Let us take it plainly and honestly in its simple sense. Let us not be afraid of its apparent contradictions. Let us not think ourselves capable of reconciling and harmonizing all its declarations. We see here but through a glass darkly. ‘he day of light and harmony is coming. All shall then be plain. God will solve our difficulties. Meanwhile, let us reverence every jot and tittle of his holy word. Let us trust our own hearts and reasonings less, and God’s word more. Let us not be so anxiously asking, how can this be? how can we reconcile God’s sovereignty with man’s responsibillty? how can we harmonize the Spirit’s free agency with man’s free agency? Let us leave difficulties in the hands of God; and let us beware of making those difficulties greater by our miserable attempts to reach at things too high for us, or our more miserable efforts to pervert and mutilate the simple word of the God who cannot lie.
I do not mean, by any of these remarks, to imply that there is not the most perfect harmony between all the different doctrines taught us in the Bible. Nor do I mean to say that this harmony is incapable of being discerned here. I believe, on the one hand, that all is harmony in the truths of God, and that that harmony is discernible and demonstrable even now. But still there is an apparent jar. ‘To a certain extent we can reconcile every one of the supposed discordances. Yet there are dif: ficulties connected with them which no theory can solve, and which will remain difficulties till the great day. To attempt to remove or reconcile these by denying the plain and natural sense of Scripture is sinful and pernicious. It accomplishes nothing. It only takes away one difhiculty to replace it with a greater. There are doubtless other causes of the evils over which we mourn; but these are the three chief roots of bitterness. ‘To these may be traced more of the manifold errors of our day than many may be willing to allow. Till these are removed, I have little hope that the instability of the times will die out, or cease to operate for the, injury and subversion of the truth. Till the soul gets rest — not the name, but the reality — and till the conscience is awake and sensitive, and till the Word of God is reverenced and honestly interpreted, I see small prospect of an end to these changes, if, indeed,
GENERAL PRINCIPLES. au
we may venture to hope that such can be until the Lord shall come.
Yet be not amazed. Jehovah changes not; neither does his word. It abideth forever, firm as the rocks of earth, undimmed as the azure of the heavens. Seek unto God for light, and to his Word for wisdom. Take his Holy Spirit as your teacher. Heed not the jar of men’s warring opinions. Let God be true, and every man a liar. The Bible is the Bible still. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God. Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
Do not be alarmed, as if all this were some new thing in the earth. Many speak as if truth had never arisen among men till they arose to teach it. But the errors of the day are those of former times. ‘They have shot up once and again, and been so often silenced and put to shame. They are old and worn-out errors, though, perhaps, more daringly set forth now than heretofore; for the time seems at hand in which “the earth shall reel to and fro. like a drunkard,” and when false teachers and prophets shall deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. Yet do not suppose the attainment of truth to be a hopeless thing. ‘ The Son of Ged hath come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true.” It was He who taught the multitudes in the days of his flesh; and it is he who teacheth the multitude still. If he teaches not, all is vain and false; if he teaches, all is true, all is blessed. Light and knowledge are with him; and how willing is he that all that light and knowledge should be yours! Learn of me, he says, for [am meek and lowly; and to what teacher can a foolish, erring soul betake himself, like this meek and lowly one, who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way? He received gifts for men, when he ascended on high, even for the rebellious; and to whom can you go, save to him who has the Holy Spirit, with all his gifts and graces so freely to bestow? I am yours, &c.
THUS SAITH THE LORD:
“Holding faith and a good conscience; which some having put away, concerning faith haye made shipwreck.” — 1 Tim. i. 19.
“Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women, laden with sins, led away with divers lusts; ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” — — 2 Tim. iii. 6.
“The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears; and they shall turn away from the truth, and shall be turned into fables.” — 2 Tim. iv. 3.
“There are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers.” — Titus i. 10.
“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” — Eph. iv. 14.