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On Faith
As faith is no way to be understood so well as by its effect, we cannot do better than trace it in its operations, for as it is a divine principle, emanating from God and taking possession of his beloved family, disposing them to love and serve God with all their hearts and souls, working in them both to will and to do of His own good pleasure; so it is a grace that human reason can never comprehend, nor fallen nature submit to, nor the will of man embrace, as this faith is the gift of God, Eph. 2:6, and without it it is impossible to please God, for what is not of faith is sin. Thus it appears that without this divine principle…
Further Study
“God Is For Me”
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Thoughts On Responsibility
It appears to me that on no subject are the religious professors of the present day more confused, yea, in the dark, than that of man’s responsibility, and often have I wished that some gifted servant of the Lord would take pen in hand and give a few thought on this important subject. The attempt made by the Rev letter-learned moderate Calvinists of the day, to reconcile God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility, viz, in the matter of salvation, is like searching for the philosophers stone, although a fruitless attempt to discover what, according to their view of the subject, has no existence; or to make two directly opposites meet together. In this, as in all other parts of the jumbled creed, the grand error evidently…
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A Blow At Fullerism
Does the moral law require faith in the Mediator? Or, does the moral law require the faith of God’s elect? That the above law requires faith, I will not deny. I well know that there is a faith, which is one of the great and weighty matters of the law; but what faith is it? Is it that which stands inseparably connected with eternal life and salvation? If it is, then we are saved through the Law: but the Apostle says we are saved through faith; now if the faith through which we are saved is a duty of the Law (as it must be if the law requires it) we must be saved through the law, and a work of it. But the truth…
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Notional Calvinism Versus Experimental Calvinism
Notional Calvinism is a plant of common growth in this our day of widely extended profession, whereas experimental Calvinism is just as scarce as ever it was. The former, like our present popular mode of travelling may be very perfect in machinery, but if the fire be wanting it is worse than useless. A bright morning ushered in the Sabbath of—. It was the anniversary of a place of worship, where the truth of God was sown in sorrow and watered with tears. The few who frequented it assembled at the usual hour, and the gathering was small. Numbers, however, have nothing to do with the operations of God’s Spirit, any more than instruments. It is nothing with Him to help, whether with many, or…
Further Study
The Two Preachers
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The Rev. Mr. Polwhele’s New Scheme Of Divinity
Dear Sir, You devolved on me a very unpleasant task, when you requested me to peruse the printed letter, which the Rev. R. Polwhele has addressed to Dr. Hawker of Plymouth, and to give you my decided opinion concerning its contents. You might as well have commissioned me to visit the plain of Colchis, and to employ myself in culling its noxious productions. It oftentimes affords a very high gratification to the mind of an author to indulge a vein of acrimony and malevolence, when he comes forward to expose the imagined error of a Christian brother, either in faith or manners. But this procedure, instead of recommending him to the favor of a judicious and candid reader, always excites the feelings of an honest…
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A Very Strange Sound In Our Ears
Strange things I've heard Reformed Baptists say: "We must believe like John Calvin, but evangelize like James Arminius!" "If it were not for Paedobaptism, I would be a Presbyterian!" "A church is at high risk of pastoral dictatorship unless more than one pastor is appointed." "Christians need the church like babies need milk...it is their nourishment for life." "Hyper-calvinists have no urgency to preach the gospel to dying sinners," said one while spending a day visiting with me in the sitting room, instead of urgently preaching the gospel to my neigbors. "It is the unbeliever's duty to believe on Christ, and the believer's duty to obey the [moral] law!" "God wants you to come to Christ; the only thing keeping you from salvation is your…
