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The “Old School Baptists” In America
Gospel Standard Magazine No. 102 — June, 1844 — Vol. 10, Pages 161-165 [The letters below were written to our departed friend W. Gadsby, and would have appeared earlier but from the pressure of other matter. Mr. Booth's letter will, we think, be found to contain an interesting account of our American brethren. We do not mean to say that we approve of all that is contained in it; but we did not consider ourselves at liberty to alter or omit. It is to the "Old School Baptists"[1] that James Osbourn, whose experience we have reviewed, belongs; and in several of his works which we have read, (and we believe we possess them all,) he frequently speaks of them, and seems to be fully united…
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Chapter 12: Of Exhortation To Sinners To Come To Christ, In Preaching The Gospel, Examined.
The bowels of Jesus Christ are the greatest bowels to sinners, Phil. 1:8, and therefore let us understand what the bowels and mercies are, Phil. 2:1, and understand what the mind and will of the Lord is, Eph. 5:17, in exhortations. An exhortation plainly differs from an invitation, {though we see that men have mismatched them, as if they understood not the property of them,} and likewise is the difference from an offer of Grace. It is sheer ignorance in the thoughts of any men to take them up promiscuously; that is, without order or consideration, without any regard or respect to difference. An offer, as I’ve have shown, is before a person, and an invitation is of a person, and is sent out after…
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Chapter 11: Of the Invitation of Sinners to Come to Christ.
Having handled the matter of this treatise through the Father’s Donation of Christ, and through the Spirit’s Operation with Christ, I have beaten down, as an instrument in the Lord’s hand, the minister’s dishonourable oblation of Christ. The substance hath been to show, that whilst an offerer of Christ preaches Christ {as he calls it} immediately for acceptance, a faithful steward of the mysteries of Christ {not handling the word of God deceitfully, but workmen like, II Cor. 4:2,} preaches Christ first of all in the Father’s preparations, next in the Son’s procurements, and last of all, under the same communications of the anointing, he preaches Christ in the Spirit’s principles to discern and receive him. I now therefore come to some brief account of…
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Chapter 10: A Reply Made Unto Sundry Pleas Urged Against What Is Written
Plea #1. “This point in your book of Offers, Invitations and Exhortations, I must take some notice of, having prepared some manuscripts which I know not but I may publish, to justify my own and the practice of others, or rather the Gospel itself.” Reply. It’s a pity that it was not thought on by this writer, that neither he nor his practice should have been taken notice of to be justified, but that the Lord alone was to be exalted. For it is plain he brings down the Gospel to himself and his practice, who should have brought up himself and his practice to the Gospel, had he pleaded in the light and teachings of the Lord the Spirit. It is certain that our…
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Woe Is Me – No Wait
“Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.”—Micah 7:1 It is always encouraging to discover we are not alone when we face a problem or have to struggle with a challenge in life. For believers in Christ the scriptures provide practical examples of men and women who have travelled the pilgrim’s way before us, learning and experiencing what it is to be a stranger in a strange land. When Micah said “Woe is me” at the beginning of chapter seven in his little prophecy he was declaring effectively, “What a miserable man I am. How wearisome my life has become.” It…
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Chapter 9: Some Texts Of Scripture That Are Evidently Mis-applied To Uphold Offer Preaching, Set Right To Confute The Offer-Way
The first text mistaken is Rev. 22:17, “and the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” This text is of another tendency than that in John 7:37, “if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink,” which text I have opened in my last book. “Let him that is athirst come.” Athirst for what? It’s plain, for the “pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Rev. 22:1. Athirst, when? Why, this is also plain, ‘tis when that pure river of the water of life runs. {“I…