KenH
Well-Known Member
O the blessed happiness, I say, and anxiously desired love, unspeakable value, and delight-shedding completeness and perfection that there are in Jesus Christ to the eye of hope in a man who is thoroughly in the right way, by the Spirit of God killed experimentally to every shadow of hope from the cursing and damning law of works! For Arminianism and self-righteousness beset and distress the child of God most dreadfully and craftily. The old monster and snake, self-righteousness, puts on the garment of sanctification. It says, "Christ's imputed righteousness will justify you." "But you must be sanctified as well," says self-righteousness. "Sanctification must be wrought in you," self-righteousness says. Thus, by hook or crook, Jesus Christ comes to be turned out of doors by this cursed tiger, self-righteousness. Thus, the poor in spirit are distressed. Thus, the gospel is slighted. Thus, the old heresy of grace and works is again brought up, and error stalks about, as over a field, in the regenerate soul. And if it were possible, the cursed mixture of part works, part grace, would destroy thus the work of God in our souls.
"That goodly Tree, the Lord Jesus Christ, from Him our fruit is found." He is our Law-fulfiller; He is our sanctification, our holiness, our inward as well as outward holiness imputed! "The king's daughter is all glorious within, as well as her raiment outwardly of wrought gold and of the finest needle work." (Psalm 45:13-14) "The old leaven of self-righteousness, new christened holiness", as Mr. Romaine says, grows plentifully in these would-be days of false free-grace doctrines. And, alas! such refined Arminianism is very apt to lay hold of the spiritual man too. "The sanctification of the elect in the sight of a most holy God, through the imputation of the inherent holiness, as well as of the active obedience of the immaculate Lamb;" this is denied more or less by swarms of mongrel free-grace mere professors. "We are accepted of God for Christ's sake alone, irrespectively of all renovation in ourselves." A spiritual, and feeling, and experimental faith in Christ's imputed holiness, inwardly and outwardly, to the elect person does not lead to carelessness, licentiousness, presumption, or negligence, as is the case in mere heady professors of these truths. But in the elect possessor, the Holy Spirit, who revealed these doctrines in his soul, keeps every thing straight.
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O the everlasting completeness, perfection, and finished work of salvation that there are in Jesus Christ our God and Saviour to each one of the chosen seed! But it is to be observed that "He sent the multitude away." (Mark 6:45-46) And so He does now; He feeds them with the bread of providence, the bread that perisheth, and then sendeth them away into the next world, where they have one that judgeth them. "Whither I go ye cannot come", says Christ to all the non-elect.
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Head-knowledge Calvinists and the gross abomination called "Arminianism" are, equally, one as the other, worthless, as regards the least morsel of salvation by Christ. Yes, and there are plenty of false experiences too, as Ahithophel's and Balaam's to wit; plenty of false ones, both parsons and hearers.
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Paul says a novice is not to preach (I Timothy 3:6); that is, one newly brought to the faith. How much less, then, should empty professors and proud and puffed-up natural youngsters and praters be permitted to say one word concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, "Understanding neither what they speak nor whereof they affirm;" "doting, striving about words". For any one not having experience, and pretending to direct people in religion is like a man born stone-blind saying to one on a dark night in a strange place, "I pray you let me show you the way." And any one mumping about experience when he has none, is only like a child's whistle, blown by pride and presumption, or like dragging a child's go-cart full of feathers to mend and keep the blazing fire in on a bitingly frosty day. Or rather may not one say that all knowledge of Jesus Christ which does not stand the shock of death, the roar of hell, get the victory over the yells of devils, awaken the spawn of the carnal mind, and the hatred of the whole non-elect world, is not worth one penny-piece to die with! Many a gilded lamp of talkers and praters about Jesus Christ is clean put out at the hour of death. The horse and rider are over thrown, if not before, in the sea of wrath.
- excerpts from an article written by John Kay of Abingdon, England, entitled "Jesus Christ", in May, 1838, in "The Gospel Standard", a magazine started by William Gadsby in 1835.
"That goodly Tree, the Lord Jesus Christ, from Him our fruit is found." He is our Law-fulfiller; He is our sanctification, our holiness, our inward as well as outward holiness imputed! "The king's daughter is all glorious within, as well as her raiment outwardly of wrought gold and of the finest needle work." (Psalm 45:13-14) "The old leaven of self-righteousness, new christened holiness", as Mr. Romaine says, grows plentifully in these would-be days of false free-grace doctrines. And, alas! such refined Arminianism is very apt to lay hold of the spiritual man too. "The sanctification of the elect in the sight of a most holy God, through the imputation of the inherent holiness, as well as of the active obedience of the immaculate Lamb;" this is denied more or less by swarms of mongrel free-grace mere professors. "We are accepted of God for Christ's sake alone, irrespectively of all renovation in ourselves." A spiritual, and feeling, and experimental faith in Christ's imputed holiness, inwardly and outwardly, to the elect person does not lead to carelessness, licentiousness, presumption, or negligence, as is the case in mere heady professors of these truths. But in the elect possessor, the Holy Spirit, who revealed these doctrines in his soul, keeps every thing straight.
...
O the everlasting completeness, perfection, and finished work of salvation that there are in Jesus Christ our God and Saviour to each one of the chosen seed! But it is to be observed that "He sent the multitude away." (Mark 6:45-46) And so He does now; He feeds them with the bread of providence, the bread that perisheth, and then sendeth them away into the next world, where they have one that judgeth them. "Whither I go ye cannot come", says Christ to all the non-elect.
...
Head-knowledge Calvinists and the gross abomination called "Arminianism" are, equally, one as the other, worthless, as regards the least morsel of salvation by Christ. Yes, and there are plenty of false experiences too, as Ahithophel's and Balaam's to wit; plenty of false ones, both parsons and hearers.
...
Paul says a novice is not to preach (I Timothy 3:6); that is, one newly brought to the faith. How much less, then, should empty professors and proud and puffed-up natural youngsters and praters be permitted to say one word concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, "Understanding neither what they speak nor whereof they affirm;" "doting, striving about words". For any one not having experience, and pretending to direct people in religion is like a man born stone-blind saying to one on a dark night in a strange place, "I pray you let me show you the way." And any one mumping about experience when he has none, is only like a child's whistle, blown by pride and presumption, or like dragging a child's go-cart full of feathers to mend and keep the blazing fire in on a bitingly frosty day. Or rather may not one say that all knowledge of Jesus Christ which does not stand the shock of death, the roar of hell, get the victory over the yells of devils, awaken the spawn of the carnal mind, and the hatred of the whole non-elect world, is not worth one penny-piece to die with! Many a gilded lamp of talkers and praters about Jesus Christ is clean put out at the hour of death. The horse and rider are over thrown, if not before, in the sea of wrath.
- excerpts from an article written by John Kay of Abingdon, England, entitled "Jesus Christ", in May, 1838, in "The Gospel Standard", a magazine started by William Gadsby in 1835.
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