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By Charles Spurgeon
Behold, the heaven and the heaven
of heavens is the Lord's thy God, the earth also, with all that
therein is. Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them,
and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it
is this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be
no more stiffnecked. - Deuteronomy 10:14-16
He who preaches the whole truth as it is in Jesus will labor under
continual disadvantages; albeit, that the grand advantage of having
the presence and blessing of God will more than compensate the
greatest loss. It has been my earnest endeavor ever since I have
preached the Word, never to keep back a single doctrine which I
believe to be taught of God. It is time that we had done with the
old and rusty systems that have so long curbed the freeness of
religious speech. The Arminian trembles to go an inch beyond
Arminius or Wesley, and many a Calvinist refers to John Gill or John
Calvin, as any ultimate authority. It is time that the systems were
broken up, and that there was sufficient grace in all our hearts to
believe everything taught in God's Word, whether it was taught by
either of these men or not. I have frequently found when I have
preached what is called high doctrine, because I found it in my
text, that some people have been offended; they could not enjoy it,
could not endure it, and went away. They were generally people who
were best gone; I have never regretted their absence. On the other
hand, when I have taken for my text some sweet invitation, and have
preached the freeness of Christ's love to man; when I have warned
sinners that they are responsible while they hear the gospel, and
that if they reject Christ their blood will be upon their own heads,
I find another class of doubtless excellent individuals who cannot
see how these two things agree. And therefore, they also turn aside,
and wade into the deceptive miry bogs of Antinomianism. I can only
say with regard to them, that I had rather also that they should go
to their own sort, than that they should remain with my
congregation. We seek to hold the truth. We know no difference
between high doctrine and low doctrine. If God teaches it, it is
enough. If it is not in the Word, away with it! away with it! but if
it be in the Word, agreeable or disagreeable, systematic or
disorderly, I believe it. It may seem to us as if one truth stood in
opposition to another, but we are fully convinced that it cannot be
so, that it is a mistake in our judgment. That the two things do
agree we are quite clear, though where they meet we do not know as
yet, but hope to know hereafter. That God has a people whom he has
chosen for himself, and who shall show forth his praise, we do
believe to be a doctrine legible in the Word of God to every man who
cares to read that Book with an honest and candid judgment. That, at
the same time, Christ is freely presented to every creature under
heaven, and that the invitations and exhortations of the gospel are
honest and true invitations—not fictions or myths, not
tantalisations and mockeries, but realities and facts—we do also
unfeignedly believe. We subscribe to both truths with our hearty
assent and consent.
Now, this morning it may be that some of you will not approve of
what I have to say. You will remember, however, that I do not seek
your approbation, that it will be sufficient for me if I have
cleared my conscience concerning a grand truth and have preached the
gospel faithfully. I am not accountable to you, nor you to me. You
are accountable to God, if you reject a truth; I am accountable to
Him if I preach an error. I am not afraid to stand before His bar
with regard to the great doctrines which I shall preach to you this
day.
Now, two things this morning. First, I shall attempt to set forth
God's Election; secondly, to show in practical bearings. You have
both in the text. "Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is
the Lord's thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. Only
the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose
their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this
day." And, then, in the second place, its practical bearings,
"Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more
stiffnecked."
I. In SETTING FORTH ELECTION, I must have you observe, first of all,
its extraordinary singularity. God has chosen to himself a people
whom no man can number, out of the children of Adam—out of the
fallen and apostate race who sprang from the loins of a rebellious
man. Now, this is a wonder of wonders, when we come to consider that
the heaven, even the heaven of heavens, is the Lord's. If God must
have a chosen race, why did he not select one from the majestic
orders of angels, or from the flaming cherubim and seraphim who
stand around his throne? Why was not Gabriel fixed upon? Why was he
not so constituted that from his loins there might spring a, mighty
race of angels, and why were not these chosen of God from before the
foundations of the world! What could there be in man, a creature
lower than the angels, that God should select him rather than the
angelic spirits? Why were not the cherubim and seraphim given to
Christ? Why did he not take up angels? Why did he not assume their
nature, and take them into union with himself? An angelic body might
be more in keeping with the person of Deity, than a body of weak and
suffering flesh and blood. There were something congruous if he had
said unto the angels, "Ye shall be my sons." But, no! though all
these were his own, he passes by the hierarchy of angels, and stoops
to man. He takes up an apostate worm, and says unto him, "Thou shalt
be my son," and to myriads of the same race he cries, "ye shall be
my sons and daughters, by a covenant for ever." "But," saith one,
"It seems that God intended to choose a fallen people that he might
in them show forth his grace. Now, the angels of course would be
unsuitable for this, since they have not fallen." I reply, there are
angels that have fallen; there were angels that kept not the first
estate, but fell from their dignity. And how is it that these are
consigned to blackness of darkness for ever! Answer me, ye that deny
God's sovereignty, and hate his election—how is it that angels are
condemned to everlasting fire, while to you, the children of Adam,
the gospel of Christ is freely preached? The only answer that can
possibly be given is this: God wills to do it. He has a right to do
as he pleases with his own mercy. Angels deserve no mercy: we
deserve none. Nevertheless, he gave it to us, and he denied it them.
They are bound in chains, reserved for everlasting fire to the last
great day, but we are saved. Before thy sovereignty, I bow, great
God, and acknowledge that thou doest as thou widest, and that thou
givest no account of thy matters. Why, if there were any reason to
move God in his creatures, he would certainly have chosen devils
rather than men. The sin of the first of the fallen angels was not
greater than that of Adam. It is not the time to enter into that
question. I could, if opportunity were needed, prove it to be rather
less than greater, if there were degrees in sin. Had the angels been
reclaimed, they could have glorified God more than we; they could
have sang his praises louder than we can, clogged as we are with
flesh and blood. But passing by the greater, he chose the less, that
he might show forth his sovereignty, which is the brightest jewel in
the crown of his divinity. Our Arminian antagonists always leave the
fallen angels out of the question: for it is not convenient to them
to recollect this ancient instance of Election. They call it unjust,
that God should choose one man and not another. By what reasoning
can this be unjust when they will admit that it was righteous enough
in God to choose one race—the race of men, and leave another
race—the race of angels, to be sunk into misery on account of sin.
Brethren, let us have done with arraigning God at our poor fallible
judgment seat. He is good and doeth righteousness. Whatever he doth
we may know to be right, whether we can see the righteousness or no.
I have given you, then, some reasons at starting, why we should
regard God's Election as being singular. But I have to offer to you
others. Observe, the text not only says, "Behold, the heaven, even
the heaven of the heavens is the Lord's," but it adds, "the earth
also, with all that therein is." Now, when we think that God has
chosen us, when you, my brethren, who by grace have put your trust
in Christ, read your "title clear to mansions in the skies," you may
well pause and say in the language of that hymn—
"Pause, my soul I adore, and wonder!
Ask, 'O why such love to me?'"
Kings passed by and beggars chosen; wise men left, but fools made to
know the wonders of his redeeming love; publicans and harlots
sweetly compelled to come to the feast of mercy; while proud
Pharisees are suffered to trust in their own righteousness and
perish in their vain boastings. God's choice will ever seem in the
eyes of unrenewed men to be a very strange one. He has passed over
those whom we should have selected, and he has chosen just the odds
and ends of the universe, the men who thought themselves the least
likely ever to taste of his grace. Why were we chosen as a people to
have the privilege of the gospel? Are there not other nations as
great as we have been? Sinful a people as this English nation has
manifested itself to be, why has God selected the Anglo-Saxon race
to receive the pure truth, while nations who might have received the
light with even greater joy than ourselves, still lie shrouded in
darkness, and the sun of the gospel has never risen on them? Why,
again, I say, in the case of each individual, why is the man chosen
who is chosen? Can any answer be given but just the answer of our
Savior—"Even so, Father, for it seemeth good in thy sight!"
Yet one other thought, to make God's Election marvellous indeed. God
had unlimited power of creation. Now, if he willed to make a people
who should be his favourites, who should be united to the person of
his Son, and who should reign with him, why did he not make a new
race? When Adam sinned, it would have been easy enough to strike the
world out of existence. He had but to speak and this round earth
would have been dissolved, as the bubble dies into the wave that
bears it. There would have been no trace of Adam's sin left, the
whole might have died away and have been forgotten for ever. But no!
Instead of making a new people, a pure people who could not sin,
instead of taking to himself creatures that were pure, unsullied,
without spot, he takes a depraved and fallen people, and lifts these
up, and that, too, by costly means; by the death of his own Son by
the work of his own Spirit; that these must be the jewels in his
crown to reflect his glory for ever. Oh, singular choice! Oh,
strange Election, My soul is lost in thy depths, and I can only
pause and cry, "Oh, the goodness, oh, the mercy, oh, the sovereignty
of God's grace."
Having thus spoken about its singularity, I turn to another subject.
Observe the unconstrained freeness of electing love. In our text
this is hinted at by the word "ONLY." Why did God love their
fathers? Why, only because he did so. There is no other reason.
"Only, the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he
chose their seed after them, even you above an people, as it is this
day." There was doubtless some wise reason for the Lords acts, for
he doeth all things after the counsel of his will, but there
certainly could not be any reason in the excellence or virtue of the
creature whom he chose. Now, just dwell upon that for a moment. Let
us remark that there is no original goodness in those whom God
selects. What was there in Abraham that God chose him? He came out
of an idolatrous people, and it is said of his posterity—a Syrian
ready to perish was thy father. As if God would show that it was not
the goodness of Abraham, he says, "Look unto the rock whence ye are
hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto
Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him
alone, and blessed him, and increased him." There was nothing more
in Abraham than in anyone of us why God should have selected him,
for whatever good was in Abraham God put there. Now, if God put it
there, the motive for his putting it there could dot be the fact of
his putting it there. You cannot find a motive for a fact in itself,
there must be some motive lying higher than anything which can be
found in the mere act of God. If God chose a man to make that man
holy, righteous, and good, he cannot have chosen him because he was
to be good and righteous. It were absurd to reason thus. It were
drawing a cause for an effect, and making an effect a cause. If I
were to plead that the rose bud were the author of the root, well! I
might, indeed, be laughed at. But were I to urge that any goodness
in man is the ground of God's choice, when I call to recollection
that that goodness is the effect of God's choice, I should be
foolish indeed. That which is the elect cannot be the cause. But
what original good is there in any man? If God chose us for anything
good in ourselves, we must all be left unchosen. Have we not all an
evil heart of unbelief? Have we not all departed from his ways? Are
we not all by nature corrupt, enemies to God by wicked works? If he
chooses us it cannot be because of any original goodness in us.
"But," saith one, "perhaps it may be because of goodness foreseen,
God has chosen his people, because he foresees that they will
believe and be saved." A singular idea, indeed! Here are a certain
number of poor persons, and a prince comes into the place. To some
ninety out of the hundred he distributes gold. Some one asks the
question, "Why did the prince give this gold to those ninety?" A
madman in a corner, whose face ought never to be seen, replies, "He
gave it to them because he foresaw that they would have it." But how
could he foresee that they would have it apart from the fact that he
gave it to them? Now, you say that God gives faith, repentance,
salvation, because he foresaw that men would have it. He did not
foresee it apart from the fact that he intended to give it them. He
foresaw that he would give them grace. But what was the reason that
he gave it to them? Certainly, not his foresight. That were absurd,
indeed! and none but a madman would reason thus. Oh, Father, if thou
hast given me life, and light, and joy, and peace, the reason is
known only to thyself; for reasons in myself 1 ne'er can find, for I
am still a wanderer from thee, and often does my faith flicker, and
my love grow dim. There is nothing in me to merit esteem or give
thee delight. It is all by thy grace, thy grace alone that I am what
I am. So will every Christian say; so must every Christian indeed
confess.
But is it not all idle talk, even to controvert for a single moment,
with the absurd idea that man can fetter his Maker. Shall the
purpose of the Eternal be left contingent on the will of man? Shall
man be really his Maker's master? Shall free-will take the place of
the divine energy? Shall man take the throne of God, and set aside
as he pleases all the purposes of Jehovah—compelling him by merit to
choose him? Shall there be something that man can do that shall
control the motions of Jehovah? It is said by some one that men give
free-will to every one but God, and speak as if God must be the
slave of men. Ay, we believe that God has given to man a
free-will—that we do not deny, but we will have it that God has a
free-will also—that, moreover, he has a right to exercise it, and
does exercise it; and that no merit of man can have any compulsion
with the Creator. Merit, on the one hand, is impossible; and even if
we did possess it, it could not be possible that we could possess it
in such a degree as to merit the gift of Christ. Remember, if we
deserve salvation, man must have virtue enough to merit heaven, to
merit union with Jesus, to merit, in fact, everlasting glory. You go
back to the old Romish idea, if you once slip your anchor and cut
your cable, and talk about anything in man that could have moved the
mercy of God. "Well," saith one, "this is vile Calvinism " Be it so,
if you choose to call it so. Calvin found his doctrine in the
Scriptures. Doubtless he may have also received some instruction
from the works of Augustine, but that mighty doctor of grace learned
it from the writings of St. Paul; and St. Paul, the apostle of
grace, received it by inspiration from Jesus the Lord. We can trace
our pedigree direct to Christ himself. Therefore, we are not ashamed
of any title that may be appended to a glorious truth of God.
Election is free, and has nothing to do with any original goodness
in man, or goodness foreseen, or any merit that man can possibly
bring before God.
I come to the hardest part of my task this morning—Election in its
justice. Now, I shall defend this great fact, that God has chosen
men to himself, and I shall regard it from rather a different point
of view from that which is usually taken. My defense is just this.
You tell me, if God has chosen some men to eternal life, that he has
been unjust. I ask you to prove it. The burden of the proof lies
with you. For I would have you remember that none merited this at
all. Is there one man in the whole world who would have the
impertinence to say that he merits anything of his Maker? If so, be
it known unto you that he shall have all he merits; and his reward
will be the flames of hell for ever, for that is the utmost that any
man ever merited of God. God is in debt to no man, and at the last
great day every man shall have as much love as much pity, and as
much goodness, as he deserves. Even the lost in hell shall have all
they deserve, ay, and woe worth the day for them when they shall
have the wrath of God, which will be the summit of their deservings.
If God gives to every man as much as he merits, is he therefore to
be accused of injustice because he gives to some infinitely more
than they merit? Where is the injustice of a man doing as he wills
with his own? Has he not a right to give what he pleases? If God is
in debt to any, then there would be injustice. But he is indebted to
none and if he gives his favors according to his own sovereign will,
who is he that shall find fault? Thou hast not been injured; God has
not wronged thee. Bring up thy claims, and he will fulfill them to
the last jot. If thou art righteous and canst claim something of thy
Maker stand up and plead thy virtues, and he will answer thee.
Though thou gird up thy loins like a man, and stand before him, and
plead thy own righteousness, he will make thee tremble, and abhor
thyself, and roll in dust and ashes; for thy righteousness is a lie,
and thy best performance but as filthy rags. God injures no man in
blessing some. Strange is it that there should be any accusation
brought against God, as though he were unjust.
I defend it again on another ground. To which of you has God ever
refused his mercy and love, when you have sought his face? Has he
not freely proclaimed the gospel to you all? Doth not his Word bid
you come to Jesus? and doth it not solemnly say, "Whosoever will,
let him come?" Are you not every Sabbath invited to come and put
your trust in Christ? If you will not do it, but will destroy your
own souls, who is to blame? If you put your trust in Christ you
shall be saved; God will not run back from his promise. Prove him,
try him. The moment you renounce sin, and trust in Christ, that
moment you may know yourself to be one of his chosen ones, but if
you will wickedly put from you the gospel which is daily preached,
if you will not be saved, then on your own head be your blood. The
only reason why you can be lost is because you would continue in sin
and would not cry to be saved therefrom. You have rejected you have
put him far from you, and left to yourselves, you will not receive
him. "Well, but," saith one, "I cannot come to God." Your
powerlessness to come lies in the fact that you have no will to
come. If thou wert but once willing thou wouldst lack no power. Thou
canst not come, because thou art so wedded to thy lusts, so fond of
thy sin. That is why thou canst not come. That very inability of
thine is thy crime, thy guilt. Thou couldst come if thy love to evil
and self were broken. The inability lies not in thy physical nature
but in thy depraved moral nature. Oh! if thou wert willing to be
saved! There is the point—there is the point! Thou art not willing,
nor wilt thou ever be, till grace make thee willing. But who is to
blame because thou art not wining to be saved? None but thyself;
thou hast the whole blame. If thou refusest eternal life, if thou
wilt not look to Christ, if thou wilt not trust to him, remember thy
own will damns thee. Was there ever a man who had a sincere will to
be saved in God's way who was denied salvation? No, no, a thousand
times NO, for such a man is already taught of God. He who gives
will, will not deny power. Inability lies mainly in the will. When
once a man is made willing in the day of God's power, he is made
able also. Therefore, your destruction lies at your own door.
Then let me ask another question. You say it is unjust that some
should be lost while others are saved. Who makes those to be lost
that are lost? Did God cause you to sin? Has the Spirit of God ever
persuaded you to do a wrong thing? Has the Word of God ever
bolstered you up in your own self-righteousness? No; God has never
exercised any influence upon you to make you go the wrong way. The
whole tendency of his Word, the whole tendency of the preaching of
the gospel. is to persuade you to turn from sin unto righteousness,
from your wicked ways to Jehovah. I say again, God is just. If you
reject the Savior proclaimed to you, if you refuse to trust him, if
you will not come to him and be saved, if you are lost, God is
supremely just in your being lost, but if he chooses to exert the
supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit upon some of you, he is
surely just in giving the mercy which no man can claim, and so just
that through eternal ages there shad never be found anew in his acts
but the "Holy, Holy, Holy " God shall be hymned by the redeemed, and
by cherubim and seraphim, and even the lost in hell shall be
compelled to utter an involuntary bass to that dread song, "Holy
Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth."
Having thus tried to defend the justice of Election, I now turn to
notice the truth of it. I may possibly have here some godly men who
cannot receive this doctrine. Well, my friend, I am not angry with
you for not being able to receive it, because no man can receive it
unless it is given him from God; no Christian will ever rejoice in
it unless he has been taught of the Spirit. But, after all, my
brother, if you are a renewed man, you believe it. You are coming
up-stairs to controvert with me. Come along, and I will allow you to
controvert with yourself, and before five minutes have passed you
will out of your own mouth prove my point. Come, my dear brother,
you do not believe that God can justly give to some men more grace
than to others. Very well. Let us kneel down and pray together; and
you shall pray first. You no sooner begin to pray than you say, "O
Lord, be pleased, in thy infinite mercy, to send thy Holy Spirit to
save this congregation, and be pleased to bless my relatives
according to the flesh." Stop! stop! you are asking God to do
something which, according to your theory, is not right. You are
asking him to give them more grace than they have got; you are
asking him to do something special. Positively, you are pleading
with God that he would give grace to your relatives and friends, and
to this congregation. How do you make that to be light in your
theory? If it would be unjust in God to give more grace to one man
than to another, how very unjust in you to ask him to do it! If it
is all left to man's free-will why do you beg the Lord to interfere?
You cry, " Lord, draw them Lord, break their hearts, renew their
spirits." Now, I very heartily use this prayer, but how can you do
it, if you think it unrighteous in the Lord to endow this people
with more grace than he does the rest of the human race. "Oh!" but
you say, "I feel that it is right, and I will ask him." Very well;
then, if it is right in you to ask, it must be right in him to give,
it must be right in him to give mercy to men, and to some men such
mercy that they may be constrained to be saved. You have thus proved
my point, and I do not want a better proof. And now, my brother, we
will have a song together, and we will see how we can get on there.
Open your hymn book, and you sing in the language of your Wesleyan
hymn-book,
"Oh, yes, I do love Jesus
Because he first loved me."
There, brother, that is Calvinism. You have let it out again. You
love Jesus because he first loved you. Well, how is it you come to
love him while others are left not loving him? Is that to your honor
or to his honor? You say, "It is to the praise of grace; let grace
have the praise." Very well, brother; we shall get on very well,
after all, for, although we may not agree in preaching, yet we
agree, you see, in praying and praising. Preaching a few months ago
in the midst of a large congregation of Methodists, the brethren
were all alive, giving all kinds of answers to my sermon, nodding
their heads and erring, "Amen!" "Hallelujah!" "Glory be to God!" and
the like. They completely woke me up. My spirit was stirred, and I
preached away with an unusual force and vigor; and the more I
preached the more they cried, "Amen!" "Hallelujah!" "Glory be to
God!" At last, a part of text led me to what is styled high
doctrine. So I said, this brings me to the doctrine of Election.
There was a deep drawing of breath. "Now, my friends, you believe
it," they seemed to say. "No, we don't." But you do, and I will make
you sing "Hallelujah!" over it. I will so preach it to you that you
will acknowledge it and believe it. So I put it thus: Is there no
difference between you and other men? " Yes, yes; glory be to God,
glory!" There is a difference between what you were and what you are
now? "Oh, yes! oh, yes!" There is sitting by your side a man who has
been to the same chapel as you have, heard the same gospel, he is
unconverted, and you are converted. Who has made the difference,
yourself or God? "The Lord!" said they, " the Lord! glory!
hallelujah!" Yes, cried I, and that is the doctrine of Election;
that is all I contend for, that if there be a difference the Lord
made the difference. Some good man came up to me and said, "Thou'rt
right, lad! thou'rt right. I believe thy doctrine of Election; I do
not believe it as it is preached by some people, but I believe that
we must give the glory to God, we must put the crown on the right
head." After all, there is an instinct in every Christian heart,
that makes him receive the substance of this doctrine, even if he
will not receive it in the peculiar form in which we put it. That is
enough for me. I do not care about the words or the phraseology, or
the form of creed in which I may be in the habit of stating the
doctrine. I do not want you to subscribe to my creed, but I do want
you to subscribe to a creed that gives God the glory of His
salvation. Every saint in heaven sings, "Grace has done it;" and I
want every saint on earth to sing the same song, "Unto him that
loved us, and washed us from our sins in his blood, to him be the
glory for ever and ever." The prayers, the praises, the experience
of those who do not believe this doctrine prove the doctrine better
than anything I can say. I do not care to prove it better, and I
leave it as it is.
II. We now turn to ELECTION IN ITS PRACTICAL INFLUENCES.
You will see that the precept is annexed to the doctrine: God has
loved you above all people that are upon the face of the earth,
therefore, "circumcise the foreskin of your hearts and be no more
stiffnecked." It is whispered that Election is a licentious
doctrine. Say it out loud, and then I will answer you. Election is a
licentious doctrine! How do you prove it? It is my business to prove
to you that it is the very reverse. "Well but," cries one, "I know a
man that believes in Election and yet lives in sin."Yes, and I
suppose that disproves it. So that if I can go through London and
find any ragged drunken fellow, who believes a doctrine and lives in
sin, the feet of his believing it disproves it. Singular logic,
that! I will undertake to disprove any truth in the world if you
only give me that to be my rule. Why, I can bring up some filthy,
scurvy creature, that doubts the universal bounty of God. Then, I
suppose that will disprove it. I might bring up to you some wretch
that is lying in sin, who yet believes that if he were to cry "Lord,
have mercy upon me, a sinner," from his heart, he would he saved,
even though he was on his dying bed; I suppose his believing that,
disproves it—does it? No! You know very well, though you use such
logic as that against us, you would not use it against yourself. The
fact is, that the bad lives or the good lives of some individuals
cannot be taken as a proof either for or against any set of
doctrines. There are holy men that are mistaken; there are unholy
men who receive truth. That may be seen any day by any man who will
candidly make the observation. If, however, any one sect were
peculiarly full of ungodly professors and hypocrites, then would I
admit the force of your argument. But I defy you to the proof. The
men that have believed this doctrine have been the wide world
over—though perhaps, it is not my place to say it, except that I
will glory in it as Paul did—have been the most zealous, most
earnest, most holy men. Remember, sirs, ye that scoff at this
doctrine. that ye owe your liberties to men who held it. Who carved
out for England its liberties? I do not hesitate to give the palm to
the strong arms of the Ironsides and the mighty will of Oliver
Cromwell. But what made them dash to battle as they did but a firm
belief that they were God's chosen ones, and could sweep everything
before them, because the Lord their God was with them? It was said
in Charles the Second's time that if you wanted to find believers in
Arminianism, you could find them in every pot-house; but if you
wanted to find those who believed the doctrine of grace you must no
into the dungeons where the saints of God were shut up, because of
the rigidity of their lives and the peculiar straitness of their
conversation. Never were men more heavenly-minded than the Puritans;
and what Puritan can you find that holds my other doctrine than that
which I preach today? You may find some modern doctor who teaches
the reverse, but march through centuries, and with few exceptions,
where are the saints who denied the Election of God? The banner has
been passed from one hand to the other. Martyrs died for it! they
sealed the truth with their blood. And this truth shall stand when
rolling years shall cease to move; this truth which shall be
believed when every error and superstition shall crumble to the dust
from which they sprang.
But I come back to my proof. It is laid down as a matter of theory
that this doctrine is licentious. We oppose that theory. The fitness
of things proves that it is not so. Election teaches that God hath
chosen some to be kings and priests to God. When a man believes that
he is chosen to be a king, would it be a legitimate inference to
draw from it—"I am chosen to be a king, therefore I will be a
beggar; I am chosen to sit upon a throne, therefore I will wear
rags." Why, you would say, "There would be no argument, no sense in
it." But there is quite as much sense in that as in your
supposition, that God has chosen his people to be holy, and yet that
a knowledge of this fact will make them unholy. No! the man, knowing
that a peculiar dignity has been put upon him by God, feels working
in his bosom a desire to live up to his dignity. "God has loved me
more than others, says he; "then, will I love him more than others.
He has put me above the rest of mankind by his sovereign grace, let
me live above them: let me be more holy: let me be more eminent in
grace than any of them." If there be a man that can misuse the
dignity of grace which Christ has given hint, and pervert that into
an argument for licentiousness, he is not to be found among us. He
must be something less than man, fallen though man be, who would
infer, from the fact that he has become a Son of God by God's free
grace, that therefore he ought to live like a son of the devil; or,
who should say, "Because God has ordained me to be holy, therefore I
will be unholy." That were the strangest, oddest, most perverted
most abominable reasoning that ever could be used. I do not believe
there is a creature living that could be capable of using it.
Again, not only the fitness of things, but the thing itself proves
that it is not so. Election is a separation. God has set apart him
that is godly for himself, has separated a people out of the mass of
mankind. Does that separation allow us to draw the inference
thus:—"God has separated me, therefore, I will live as other men
live." No! if I believe that God has distinguished me by his
discriminating love, and separated me, then I hear the cry, "Come
out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean
thing, and I will be a Father unto you." It were strange if the
decree of separation should engender an unholy union. It cannot be.
I deny, once for all in the name of all who hold the truth—I deny
solemnly, as in the presence of God, that we have any thought that
because God has separated us, therefore we ought to go and live as
others live. No, God forbid. Our separation is a ground and motive
for our separating altogether from sinners. I heard a man say once,
"Sir, if I believed that doctrine I should live in sin." My reply to
him was this, "I dare say YOU would! I dare say YOU would! " "And
why," said he, "should I more than you?" Simply because you are a
man, and I trust I am a new man in Christ Jesus. To man that is
renewed by grace, there is no doctrine that could make him love sin.
If a man by nature be as a swine that wallows in the mire, turn him
into a sheep, and there IS no doctrine you can teach that can make
him go and wallow in the mire again. His nature is changed. There is
a raven transformed into a dove. I will give the dove to you, and
you may teach it whatever you like, but that dove will not eat
carrion any mine. It cannot endure it: its nature is entirely
changed. Here is a lion roarings for its prey. I will change it into
a lamb; and I defy you to make that lamb, by any doctrine, go and
redden its lips with blood. It cannot do it—its nature is changed. A
friend on board the steamboat, when we were coming across from
Ireland, asked one of the sailors, "Would you like a nigger song?"
"No," said he, "I do not like such things." "Would you like a
dance?" "No," said he, "I have a religion that allows me to swear
and be drunk as often as ever I please, and that is never: for I
hate all such things with perfect hatred." Christian men keep from
sin because their nature abhors sin. Do not imagine we are kept back
from sin because we are terrified with threats of damnation, we have
no fear, except the fear of offending our loving Father But we do
not want to sin—our thirst is for holiness and not for vice. But if
you have a kind of religion that always keeps you in restraint, so
that you say, "I should like to go to the theater to-night if I
dare,"—if that is what you say, depend upon it, your religion is not
of much value. You must have a religion that makes you hate the
thing you once loved, and love that which you once hated—a religion
that draws you out of your old life and puts you into a new life.
Now, if a man has a new nature, what doctrine of Election can make
that new nature act contrary to its instincts? Teach the man what
you will, that man will not turn again to vanity. The Election of
God gives a new nature: so, even if the doctrine were dangerous, the
new nature would keep it in check.
But once more, bring me hither the man—man shall I call him?—bring
me the beast or devil that would say, "God has set his love upon me
from before all worlds; my name is on Jesus' heart; he bought me
with his blood; my sins are all forgiven; I shall see God's face
with joy and acceptance, therefore, I hate God, therefore I live in
sin." Bring me up the monster, I say, and when you have brought up
such-an-one, even then I will not admit that there is reason in that
vile lie, that damnable calumny, which you have cast upon this
doctrine, that it makes men live in licentiousness. There is no
truth that can so nerve a man to piety as the fact that he was
chosen of God ere time begun. Loved by thee with an unlimited love
that never moves, and that endures to the end—O my God! I desire to
spend myself in thy service,
"Love, so amazing, so divine,
Demands my life, my soul, my all,"
and gratitude to God, for this rich mercy constrains us, compels us
to walk in the fear of God, and to love and serve him all our lives.
Now, two lessons, and then I will send you away.
The first lesson is this: Christian men and women, chosen of God and
ordained unto salvation, recollect that this is a doctrine
everywhere spoken against. Do not hide it, do not conceal it, for
remember Christ has said, "He that is ashamed of my words, of him
will I be ashamed." But take care that you do not dishonor it. Be ye
holy, even as he is holy. he has called you; stand by your calling,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Put on as the
elect of God, bowels of compassion, holiness and love, and let the
world see that God's chosen ones are made by grace the choicest of
men, who live nearer to Christ, and are more like Christ, than and
other people upon the face of the earth. And let me add to you, if
the world sneers at you, you can look your enemy in the face and
never tremble. For this is a degree of nobility, a patent of divine
dignity which you never need blush for but which will keep you from
ever being a coward, or bowing your knee before pomp and station,
when they are associated with vice. This doctrine has never been
liked, because it is a hammer against tyrants. Men have chosen their
own elect ones, their kings, dukes, and earls, and God's election
interferes with them. There are some that will not bow the knee to
Baal, who hold themselves to be God's true aristocracy, who will not
resign their consciences to the dictation of another. Men rail, and
rave, and rage because this doctrine makes a good man strong in his
loins, and will not let him bend his knee, or turn back and be a
coward. Those Ironsides were made mighty because they held
themselves to be no mean men. They bowed before God, but before men
they, could not and would not bow. Stand fast, therefore, in this
your liberty, and be not moved from the hope of your calling.
One other word of exhortation; it is the second lesson. There are
some of you who are making an excuse out of the doctrine of
Election, an excuse, an apology for your own unbelieving and wicked
hearts. Now remember the doctrine of Election exercises no
constraint whatever upon you. If you are wicked you are so because
you will be so. If you reject the Savior you do so because you will
do so. The doctrine does not make you reject him. You may make it an
excuse, but it is an idle one; it is a cobweb garment that will be
rent away at the last day. I beseech you lay it aside, and remember
that the truth with which you have to do is this, "Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." If you believe, you are
saved. If you trust Christ, be you who you may, or what you may, the
wide world over, you are a saved man. Do not say, "I will not
believe because I do not know whether I am elected." You cannot know
that until you have believed. Your business is with believing.
"Whosoever"—there is no limitation in it—"Whosoever believeth in
Christ shall be saved." You, as well as any other man. If you trust
Christ, your sins shall be forgiven, your iniquities blotted out. O
may the Holy Spirit breathe the new life into you. Bowing the knee,
I beseech you, kiss the Son lest he be angry. Receive his mercy now,
steel not your hearts against the gracious influence of his love;
but yield to him, and you shall then find that you yielded because
he made you yield; that you come to him because he drew you; and
that he drew you because he had loved you with an everlasting love.
May God command his blessing for Jesus' sake. Amen.
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