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God's Will and Man's WillA Sermon (No. 442) Delivered on Sunday Morning, March 30th, 1862, by C. H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy."—Romans 9:16
To act or not: Necessity and Chance Approach not me, and what I will is fate. He created as it pleased
him; he made them as he chose; the potter exercised power over his
clay to make his vessels as he willed, and to make them for what
purposes he pleased. Think you that he has abdicated the throne of
grace? Does he reign in creation and not in grace? Is he absolute
king over nature and not over the greater works of the new nature?
Is he Lord over the things which his hand made at first, and not King
over the great regeneration, the new-making wherein he maketh all
things new?But take the works of
Providence. I suppose there will be no dispute amongst us
that in providential matters God ordereth all things according to the
counsel of his own will. If we should, however, be troubled with
doubts about the matter, we might hear the striking words of
Nebuchadnezzar when, taught by God, he had repented of his pride—
"All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; he doth
according to his will in the armies of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto
him, What doest thou." From the first moment of human history even
to the last, God's will shall be done. What though it be a
catastrophe or a crime—there may be the second causes and the action
of human evil, but the great first cause is in all. If we could
imagine that one human action had eluded the prescience or the
predestination of God, we could suppose that the whole might have
done so, and all things might drift to sea, anchorless, rudderless, a
sport to every wave, the victim of tempest and hurricane. One leak
in the ship of Providence would sink her, one hour in which
Omnipotence relaxed its grasp and she would fall to atoms. But it is
the comfortable conviction of all God's people that "all things work
together for good to them that love God;" and that God ruleth and
overruleth, and reigneth in all acts of men and in all events that
transpire; from seeming evil still producing good, and better still,
and better still in infinite progression, still ordering all things
according the counsel of his will. And think you that he reigns in
Providence and is King there, and not in grace? Has he given up the
blood-bought land to be ruled by man, while common Providence is left
as a lonely providence to be his only heritage? He hath not let slip
the reins of the great chariot of Providence, and think you that when
Christ goeth forth in the chariot of his grace it is with steeds
unguided, or driven only by chance, or by the fickle will of man?
Oh, no brethren. As surely as God's will is the axle of the
universe, as certainly as God's will is the great heart of providence
sending its pulsings through even the most distant limbs of human
act, so in grace let us rest assured that he is King, willing to do
as he pleases, having mercy on whom he will have mercy, calling whom
he chooses to call, quickening whom he wills, and fulfilling, despite
man's hardness of heart, despite man's willful rejection of Christ,
his own purposes, his won decrees, without one of them falling to the
ground. We think, then, that analogy helps to strengthen us in the
declaration of e text, that salvation is not left with man's
will.2. But, secondly, we
believe that the difficulties which surround the opposite theory are
tremendous. In fact, we cannot bear to look them in the face. If
there be difficulties about ours, there are ten times more about the
opposite. We think that the difficulties which surround our belief
that salvation depends upon the will of God, arise from our ignorance
in not understanding enough of God to be able to judge of them; but
that the difficulties in the other case do not arise from that cause,
but from certain great truths, clearly revealed, which stand in
manifest opposition to the figment which our opponents have espoused.
According to their theory—that salvation depends upon our own will—
you have first of all this difficulty to meet, that you have made
the purpose of God in the great plan of salvation entirely
contingent. You have the put an "if" upon everything. Christ
may die, but it is not certain according to that theory that he will
redeem a great multitude; nay, not certain that he will redeem any,
since the efficacy of the redemption according to that plan, rests
not in its own intrinsic power, but in the will of man accepting that
redemption. Hence if man be, as we aver he always is, if he be a
bond-slave as to his will, and will not yield to the invitation of
God's grace, then in such a case the atonement of Christ would be
valueless, useless, and altogether in vain, for not a soul would be
saved by it; and even when souls are saved by it, according to that
theory, the efficacy, I say, lies not in the blood itself, but in the
will of man which gives it efficacy. Redemption is therefore made
contingent; the cross shakes, the blood falls powerless on the
ground, and atonement is a matter of perhaps. There is a heaven
provided, but there may no souls who will ever come there if their
coming is to be of themselves. There is a fountain filled with
blood, but there may be none who will ever wash in it unless divine
purpose and power shall constrain them to come. You may look at any
one promise of grace, but you cannot say over it, "This is the sure
mercy of David;" for there is an "if," and a "but;" a "perhaps," and
a "peradventure." In fact, the reigns are gone out of God's hands;
the linch-pin is taken away from the wheels of the creation; you have
left the whole economy of grace and mercy to be the gathering
together of fortuitous atoms impelled by man's own will, and what may
become of it at the end nobody can know. We cannot tell on that
theory whether God will be gloried or sin will triumph. Oh! how
happy are we when come back to the old fashioned doctrines, and cast
our anchor where it can get its grip in the eternal purpose and
counsel of God, who worketh all things to the good pleasure of his
will.Then another difficulty
comes in; not only is everything made contingent, but it does seem to
us as if man were thus made to be the supreme being in the
universe. According to the freewill scheme the Lord intends
good, but he must win like a lackey on his own creature to know what
his intention is; God willeth good and would do it, but he cannot,
because he has an unwilling man who will not have God's good thing
carried into effect. What do ye, sirs, but drag the Eternal from his
throne, and lift up into it that fallen creature, man: for man,
according to that theory nods, and his nod is destiny. You must have
a destiny somewhere; it must either be as God wills or as man wills .
If it be as God wills, then Jehovah sits as sovereign upon his
throne of glory, and all hosts obey him, and the world is safe; if
not God, then you put man there, to say. "I will" or "I will not; if
I will it I will enter heaven; if I will it I will despise the grace
of God; if I will it I will conquer the Holy Sprit, for I am stronger
than God, and stronger than omnipotence; if I will it I will make the
blood of Christ of no effect, for I am mightier than that blood,
mightier than the blood of the Son of God himself; though God make
his purpose, yet will I laugh at his purpose; it shall be my purpose
that shall make his purpose stand, or make it fall." Why, sirs, if
this be not Atheism, it is idolatry; it is putting man where God
should be, and I shrink with solemn awe and horror from that doctrine
which makes the grandest of God's works—the salvation man—to be
dependent upon the will of his creature whether it shall be
accomplished or not. Glory I can and must in my text in its fullest
sense. "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that sheweth mercy."3. We think that the
known condition of man is a very strong argument against the
supposition that salvation depends upon his own will; and hence
is a great confirmation of the truth that it depends upon the will of
God; that it is God that chooses, and not man,—God who takes the
first step, and not the creature. Sirs, on the theory that man comes
to Christ of his own will, what do you with texts of Scripture which
say that he is dead? "And you hath he quickened who were dead in
trespasses and sins;" you will say that is a figure. I grant it, but
what is the meaning of it? You say the meaning is, he is spiritually
dead. Well, then I ask you, how can he perform the spiritual act of
willing that which is right? He is alive enough to will that which
is evil, only evil and that continually, but he is not alive to will
that which is spiritually good. Do you not know, to turn to another
Scripture, that he cannot even discern that which is spiritual? for
the natural man knoweth not the things which be of God, seeing they
are spiritual and must be spiritually discerned. Why, he has not a
"spirit" with which to discern them; he has only a soul and body, but
the third principle, implanted in regeneration, which is called in
the Word of God, "the spirit," he knows nothing of and he is
therefore incapable, seeing he is dead and is without the vitalizing
spirit, of doing what you say he does. Then again, what make you of
the words of our Saviour where he said to those who had heard even
him, "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life?" Where
is free-will after such a text as that? When Christ affirms that
they will not, who dare say they will? "Ah, but," you say, "they
could if they would." Dear sir, I am not talking about that; I am
talking about if they would, the question is "will they?" and
we say "no," they never will by nature. Man is so depraved, so set
on mischief, and the way of salvation is so obnoxious to his pride,
so hateful to his lusts, that he cannot like it, and will not like
it, unless he who ordained the plan shall change his nature, and
subdue his will. Mark, this stubborn will of man is his sin; he is
not to be excused for it; he is guilty because he will not come; he
is condemned because he will not come; because he will not believe in
Christ, therefore is condemnation resting upon him, but still the
fact does not alter for all that, that he will not come by nature if
left to himself. Well, then, if man will not, how shall he be saved
unless God shall make him will?—unless, in some mysterious way, he
who made heart shall touch its mainspring so that it shall move in a
direction opposite to that which it naturally follows.4. But there is another
argument which will come closer home to us. It is consistent with
the universal experience of all God's people that salvation is of
God's will. You will say, "I have not had a very long life, I
have not, but I have had a very extensive acquaintance with all
sections of the Christian Church, and I solemnly protest before you,
that I have never yet met with a man professing to be a Christian,
let alone his really being so, who ever said that his coming to God
was the result of his unassisted nature. Universally, I believe,
without exception, the people of God will say it was the Holy Spirit
that made them what they are; that they should have refused to come
as others do unless God's grace had sweetly influenced their wills.
There are some hymns in Mr. Wesley's hymn-book which are stronger
upon this point than I could ever venture to be, for he puts prayer
into the lips of the sinner in which God is even asked to force him
to be saved by grace. Of course I can take no objection to a term so
strong, but it goes to prove this, that among all sections of
Christians, whether Arminian or Calvinistic, whatever their doctrinal
sentiments may be, their experimental sentiments are the same. I do
not think they would any of them refuse to join in the verse—
Because he first loved me. Nor would they find fault
with our own hymn,
That sweetly forced us in; Else we had still refused to taste, And perished in our sin. We bring out the crown and
say, "On whose head shall we put it? Who ruled at the turning-point?
Who decided this case?" and the universal Church of God, throwing
away their creeds, would say. "Crown him; crown him,
put it on his head, for he is worthy; he has
made us to differ; he has done it, and unto him be the
praise for ever and ever." What staggers me is, that men can believe
dogmas contrary to their own experience,—that they can hug that to
their hearts as precious to which their own inward convictions must
give the lie.5. But, lastly, in the way
of argument. and to bring our great battering-ram at the last. It
is not, after all, arguments from analogy, nor reasons from the
difficulties of the opposite position, nor inferences from the know
feebleness of human nature, nor even deductions from experience, that
will settle this question once for all. To the law and to the
testimony, if they speak not accord to this word, it is because there
is no light in them. Do me the pleasure, then, to use your Bibles
for a moment or two, and let us see what Scripture saith on this main
point. First, with regard to the matter of God's preparation, and
his plan with regard to salvation. We turn to the apostle's words in
the epistle to the Ephesians, and we find in the first chapter and
the third verse, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame
before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of
his will"—a double word you notice—it is according to the will of
his will. No expression could be stronger in the original to show
the entire absoluteness of this thing as depending on the will God.
It seems, then, that the choice of his people their adoption is
according to his will. So far we are satisfied, indeed, with the
testimony of the apostle. Then in the ninth verse, "Having made
known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself: that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in
him." So, then, it seems that the grand result of the gathering
together of all the saved in Christ, as well as the primitive
purpose, is according to the counsel of his will. What stronger
proof can there be that salvation depends upon the will of God?
Moreover, it says in the eleventh verse—"In whom also we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose
of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:" a
stronger expression than "of his will"—"of his own will," his free
unbiased will, his will alone. As for redemption as well as for the
eternal purpose—redemption is according to the will of God. You
remember that verse in Hebrews, tenth chapter, ninth verse: "Lo, I
come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he might
establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified." So that
the redemption offered up on Calvary, like the election made before
the foundation of the world, is the result of the divine will. There
will be little controversy here: the main point is about our new
birth, and here we cannot allow of any diversity of opinion. Turn to
the Gospel according to John, the first chapter and thirteenth verse.
It is utterly impossible that human language could have put a
stronger negative on the vainglorious claims of the human will than
this passage does: "Born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God." A passage equally clear is to
be found in the Epistle of James, at the first chapter, and the
eighteenth verse: "Of his own will begat he us with the word of
truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures."
In these passages—and they are not the only ones—the new birth is
peremptorily and in the strongest language put down as being the
fruit and effect of the will and purpose of God. As to the
sanctification which is the result and outgrowth of the new birth,
that also is according to God's holy will. In the first of
Thessalonians, fourteenth chapter, and third verse, we have, "This is
the will of God, even your sanctification." One more passage I shall
need you to refer to, the sixteenth chapter, and thirty-ninth verse.
Here we find that the preservation, the perseverance, the
resurrection, and the eternal glory of God's people, rests upon his
will. "And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all
which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up
again at the last day; and this is the will of him that sent me that
every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him, may have
everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." And
indeed this is why the saints go to heaven at all, because in the
seventeenth chapter of John, Christ is recorded as praying, "Father,
I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I
am." We close, then, by noticing that according to Scripture there
is not a single blessing in the new covenant which is not conferred
upon us according to the will of God, and that as the vessel hangs
upon the nail, so every blessing, we receive hangs upon the absolute
will and counsel of God, who gives these mercies even as he gives the
gifts of the Spirit according as he wills. We shall now leave that
point, and take the second great truth, and speak a little while upon
it.II. MAN'S WILL HAS ITS
PROPER PLACE IN THE MATTER OF SALVATION. "Whosoever will let him
come and take the water of life freely." According to this and
many other texts the Scripture where man is addressed as a being
having a will, it appears clear enough that men are not saved by
compulsion. When a man receives the grace of Christ, he does not
receive it against his will. No man shall be pardoned while he
abhors the though forgiveness. No man shall have joy in the Lord if
he says, "I do not wish to rejoice in the Lord." Do not think that
anybody shall have the angels pushing them behind into the gates of
heaven. They must go there freely or else they will never go there
at all. We are not saved against our will; nor again, mark you, is
the will taken away; for God does not come and convert the
intelligent free-agent into a machine. When he turns the slave into
a child, it is not by plucking out of him the will which he
possesses. We are as free under grace as ever we were under sin;
nay, we were slaves when we were under sin, and when the Son makes us
free we are free indeed, and we are never free before. Erskine, in
speaking of his own conversion, says he ran to Christ "with full
consent against his will," by which he meant it was against his old
will; against his will as it was till Christ came, but when Christ
came, then he came to Christ with full consent, and was as willing to
be saved—no, that is a cold word—as delighted, as pleased, as
transported to receive Christ as if grace had not constrained him.
But we do hold and teach that though the will of man is not ignored,
and men are not saved against their wills, that the work of the
Spirit, which is the effect of the will of God, is to change the
human will, and so make men willing in the day of God's power,
working in them to will to do of his own good pleasure. The work of
the Spirit is consistent with the original laws and constitution of
human nature. Ignorant men talk grossly and carnally about the work
of the Spirit in the heart as if the heart were a lump of flesh, and
the Holy Spirit turned it round mechanically. Now, brethren, how is
your heart and my heart changed in any matter? Why, the instrument
generally is persuasion. A friend sets before us a truth we did not
know before; pleads with us; puts it in a new light, and then we say,
"Now I see that," and then our hearts are changed towards the thing.
Now, although no man's heart is changed by moral suasion in itself,
yet the way in which the Spirit works in his heart, as far as we can
detect it, is instrumentally by a blessed persuasion of the mind. I
say not that men are saved by moral suasion, or that this is the
first cause, but I think it is frequently the visible means. As to
the secret work, who knows how the Spirit works? "The wind bloweth
where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but thou canst
not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth: so is every one that
is born of the Spirit;" but yet, as far as we can see, the Spirit
makes a revelation of truth to the soul, whereby it seeth things in a
different light from what it ever did before, and then the will
cheerfully bows that neck which once was stiff as iron, and wears the
yoke which once it despised, and wears it gladly, cheerfully, and
joyfully. Yet, mark, the will is not gone; the will is treated as it
should be treated; man is not acted upon as a machine, he is not
polished like a piece of marble; he is not planed and smoothed like a
plank of deal; but his mind is acted upon by the Spirit of God, in a
manner quite consistent with mental laws. Man is thus made a new
creature in Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and his own will is
blessedly and sweetly made to yield.Then, mark you,—and this
is a point which I want to put into the thoughts of any who are
troubled about these things,—this gives the renewed soul a most
blessed sign of grace, insomuch that if any man wills to be saved by
Christ, if he wills to have sin forgiven through the precious blood,
if he wills to live by a holy life resting upon the atonement of
Christ, and in the power of the Spirit, that will is one of the most
blessed signs of the mysterious working of the Spirit of God in his
heart; such a sign is it that if it be real willingness, I will
venture to assert that that man is not far from the kingdom. I say
not that he is so saved that he himself may conclude he is, but there
is a work begun, which has the germ of salvation in it. If thou art
willing, depend upon it that God is willing. Soul, if thou art
anxious after Christ, he is more anxious after thee. If thou hast
only one spark of true desire after him, that spark is a spark from
the fire of his love to thee. He has drawn thee, or else thou
wouldest never run after him. If you are saying, "Come to me,
Jesus," it is because he has come to you, though you do not know it.
He has sought you as a lost sheep, and therefore you have sought him
like a returning prodigal. He has swept the house to find you, as
the woman swept for the lost piece of money, and now you seek him as
a lost child would seek a father's face. Let your willingness to
come to Christ be a hopeful sign and symptom.But once more, and let me
have the ear of the anxious yet again. It appears that when you have
a willingness to come to Christ, there is a special promise for you.
You know, my dear hearers, that we are not accustomed in this house
of prayer to preach one side of truth, but we try if we can to preach
it all. There are some brethren with small heads, who, when they
have heard a strong doctrinal sermon, grow into hyper-Calvinists, and
then when we preach an inviting sermon to poor sinners, they cannot
understand it, and say it is a yea and nay gospel. Believe me, it is
not yea and nay, but yea and yea. We give your yea to all truth, and
our nay we give to no doctrine of God. Can a sinner be saved when he
wills to come to Christ? Yea. And if he does come, does he
come because God brings him? Yea. We have no nays in our theology
for any revealed truth. We do not shut the door on one word and open
it to another. Those are the yea and nay people who have a nay for
the poor sinner, when they profess to preach the gospel. As soon as
a man has any willingness given to him, he has a special promise.
Before he had the willingness he had an invitation. Before he had
any willingness, it was his duty to believe in Christ, for it is not
man's condition that gives him a right to believe. Men are to
believe in obedience to God's command. God commandeth all men
everywhere to repent, and this is his great command, "Believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." "This is the
commandment, that ye believe in Jesus Christ whom he has sent."
Hense your right and your duty to believe; but once you have got the
willingness, then you have a special promise—"Whosoever will let him
come." That is a sort of extraordinary invitation. Methinks this is
the utterance of the special call. You know how John Bunyan
describes the special call in words to this effect. "The hen goes
clucking about the farm-yard all day long; that is the general call
of the gospel; but she sees a hawk up in the sky, and she gives a
sharp cry for her little ones to come and hide under her wings; that
is the special call; they come and are safe." My text is a special
call to some of you. Poor soul! are you willing to be saved? "O,
sir, willing, willing indeed; I cannot use that word; I would give
all I have if I might but be saved." Do you mean you would give it
all in order to purchase it? "Oh no, sir, I do not mean that; I know
I cannot purchase it; I know it is God's gift, but still, if I could
be but saved, I would ask nothing else.
Only ease me of my guilt; Suppliant at thy feet I lie, Give me Christ, or else I die. Why, then the Lord speaks
to you this morning, to you if not to any other man in the chapel, he
speaks to you and says—"Whosoever will let him come." You cannot
say this does not mean you. When we give the general invitation, you
may exempt yourself perhaps in some way or other, but you cannot now.
You are willing, then come and take the water of life freely. "Had
not I better pray?" It does not say so; it says, take the water of
life. "But had not I better go home and get better?" No, take the
water of life, and take the water of life now. You are standing by
the fountain outside there, and the water is flowing and you are
willing to drink; you are picked out of a crowd who are standing
round about, and you are specially invited by the person who built
the fountain. He says, "Here is a special invitation for you; you
are willing; come and drink." "Sir," you say, "I must go home and
wash my pitcher." "No," says he, "come and drink." "But, sir, I
want to go home and write a petition to you." "I do not want it," he
says, "drink now, drink now." What would you do? If you were dying
of thirst, you would just put your lips down and drink. Soul, do
that now. Believe that Jesus Christ is able to save thee now. Trust
thy soul in his hands now. No preparation is wanted. Whosoever will
let him come; let him come at once and take the water of life freely.
To take that water is simply to trust Christ; to repose on him; to
take him to be your all in all. Oh that thou wouldest do it now!
Thou are willing; God has made thee willing. When the crusaders
heard the voice of Peter the hermit, as he bade them go to Jerusalem
to take it from the hands of the invaders, they cried out at once,
"Deus vult; God wills it; God wills it;" and every man plucked
his sword from its scabbard, and set out to reach the holy sepulchre,
for God willed it. So come and drink, sinner; God wills it. Trust
Jesus; God wills it. If you will it, that is the sign that God wills
it. "Father, thy will be done on earth even as it is in heaven." As
sinners, humbly stoop to drink from the flowing crystal which streams
from the sacred fountain which Jesus opened for his people; let it be
said in heaven, "God's will is done; hallelujah, hallelujah!" "It is
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
sheweth mercy;" yet "Whosoever will let him come and take the water
of life freely."
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he great controversy
which for many ages has divided the Christian Church has hinged upon
the difficult question of "the will." I need not say of that
conflict that it has done much mischief to the Christian Church,
undoubtedly it has; but I will rather say, that it has been fraught
with incalculable usefulness; for it has thrust forward before the
minds of Christians, precious truths, which but for it, might have
been kept in the shade. I believe that the two great doctrines of
human responsibility and divine sovereignty have both been brought
out the more prominently in the Christian Church by the fact that
there is a class of strong-minded hard-headed men who magnify
sovereignty at the expense of responsibility; and another earnest and
useful class who uphold and maintain human responsibility oftentimes
at the expense of divine sovereignty. I believe there is a needs-be
for this in the finite character of the human mind, while the natural
lethargy of the Church requires a kind of healthy irritation to
arouse her powers and to stimulate her exertions. The pebbles in the
living stream of truth are worn smooth and round by friction. Who
among us would wish to suspend a law of nature whose effects on the
whole are good? I glory in that which at the present day is so much
spoken against—sectarianism, for "sectarianism" is the cant phrase
which our enemies use for all firm religious belief. I find it
applied to all sorts of Christians; no matter what views he may hold,
if a man be but earnest, he is a sectarian at once. Success to
sectarianism, let it live and flourish. When that is done with,
farewell to the power of godliness. When we cease, each of us, to
maintain our own views of truth, and to maintain those views firmly
and strenuously, then truth shall fly out of hand, and error alone
shall reign: this, indeed, is the object of our foes: under the cover
of attacking sects, they attack true religion, and would drive it, if
they could, from off the face of the earth. In the controversy which
has raged,—a controversy which, I again say, I believe to have been
really healthy, and which has done us all a vast amount of good—
mistakes have arisen from two reasons. Some brethren have altogether
forgotten one order of truths, and then, in the next place, they have
gone too far with others. We all have one blind eye, and too often
we are like Nelson in the battle, we put the telescope to that blind
eye, and then protest that we cannot see. I have heard of one man
who said he had read the Bible through thirty-four times on his
knees, but could not see a word about election in it; I think it very
likely that he could not; kneeling is a very uncomfortable posture
for reading, and possibly the superstition which would make the poor
man perform this penance would disqualify him for using his reason:
moreover, to get through the Book thirty-four times, he probably read
in such a hurry that he did not know what he was reading, and might
as well have been dreaming over "Robinson Crusoe" as the Bible. He
put the telescope to the blind eye. Many of us do that; we do not
want to see a truth, and therefore we say we cannot see it. On the
other hand, there are others who push a truth too far. "This is
good; oh! this is precious!" say they, and then they think it is good
for everything; that in fact it is the only truth in the world. You
know how often things are injured by over-praise; how a good
medicine, which really was a great boon for a certain disease, comes
to be despised utterly by the physician, because a certain quack has
praised it up as being a universal cure; so puffery in doctrine leads
to dishonor. Truth has thus suffered on all sides; on the one hand
brethren would not see the truth, and on the other hand they
magnified out of proportion that which they did see. You have seen
those mirrors, those globes that are sometimes hung in gardens; you
walk up to them and you see your head ten times as large as your
body, or you walk away and put yourself in another position, a then
your feet are monstrous and the rest of your body is small; this is
an ingenious toy, but I am sorry to say that many go to work with
God's truth upon the model of this toy; they magnify one capital
truth till it becomes monstrous; they minify and speak little of
another truth till it becomes altogether forgotten. In what I shall
be able say this morning you will probably detect the failing to
which I allude, the common fault of humanity, and suspect that I also
am magnifying one truth at the expense of another; but I will say
this, before I proceed further, that it shall not be the case if I
can help it, but I will endeavor honestly to bring out the truth as I
have learned it, and if in ought ye see that I teach you what is
contrary to the Word of God, reject it; but mark you, if it be
according to God's Word, reject it at your peril; for when I have
once delivered it to you, if ye receive it not the responsibility
lies with you.
