These pages on Spurgeon and the invidual Five Points of Calvinism follow on from my previous post on Spurgeon and Calvinism which was somewhat exhaustive and therefore general. Here, we get down to the brass tacks.
12 PROOFS CH SPURGEON WAS A FIRM BELIEVER IN THE CALVINIST DOCTRINE OF TOTAL DEPRAVITY
1) SPURGEON AFFIRMED HIS BELIEF IN THE FIVE POINTS OF CALVINISM IN GENERAL:
And
I have my own private opinion that there is no such a thing as
preaching Christ and him crucified, unless you preach what now-a-days
is called Calvinism. I have my own ideas, and those I always state
boldly. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel,
and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do
not preach justification by faith, without works; nor unless we preach
the sovereignty of God in his dispensation of grace; nor unless we
exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering, love
of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it
upon the peculiar redemption which Christ made for his elect and chosen
people; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after
they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the
fires of damnation after having believed. Such a gospel I abhor. The
gospel of the Bible is not such a gospel as that. We preach Christ and
him crucified in a different fashion, and to all gainsayers we reply,
"We have not so learned Christ." (Sermon number 98 New Park Street
Pulpit 1:100)
As for our faith
as a church you have heard that already. We believe in what are called
the five great points commonly known as Calvinistic; but we do not
regard those five points as being barbed shafts which we are to push
into the bowels of Christendom. We look upon them as being five great
lamps which help to irradiate the cross, or rather five bright
emanations springing from the glorious covenant of our Triune God, and
illustrating the great doctrine of Jesus crucified. Against all comers,
especially against all lovers of Arminianism, we defend and maintain
pure gospel truth. (Ceremony at laying of the stone of the New
Tabernacle: Sermon numbers: 268-270) Found in New Park St Pulpit 5:603
I cannot stop to
tell you of all the sheaves in the doctrine field. Some say there are
only five; I believe the five great doctrines of Calvinism are, in some
degree, a summary of the rest; they are distinctive points wherein we
differ from those who "have erred from the faith, and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows." But there are many more
doctrines beside these five; and all are alike precious, and all are
alike valuable to the true believer’s soul, for he can feed upon
them to his heart’s content. (Sermon number 2585 Metropolitan
Tabernacle 44:529)
Since then, you
have learned other doctrines, possibly the five points of Calvinism, or
the fifty points of any other system; but you never learned them from
merely reading them in the Scriptures, you never really knew them till
the pen of God began to move up and down upon your inward nature, and
your heart received the impression the Lord intended to convey to it.
(Sermon number 2280 Metropolitan Tabernacle 38:679)
We have certainly not thrown away the Five Points, but we may have gained other five… (Sword & Trowel Feb 1874 p.36)
2) SPURGEON URGED OTHERS TO HOLD TO THE FIVE POINTS OF CALVINISM:
Brethren, hold the
five points of the Calvinistic doctrine, but mind you do not hold them
as babbling questions. What you have received of God do not learn in
order to fight with it, and to make contention and strife, and to
divide the church of God, and rail against the people of the Most high,
as some do. (Sermon number 3394 - Metropolitan Pulpit 60:121)
3) SPURGEON AFFIRMED HIS BELIEF IN THE DOCTRINE OF TOTAL DEPRAVITY PARTICULARLY:
I am bound to the
doctrine of the depravity of the human heart, because I find myself
depraved in heart, and have daily proofs that in my flesh there
dwelleth no good thing. If God enters into covenant with unfallen man,
man is so insignificant a creature that it must be an act of gracious
condescension on the Lord’s part; but if God enters into covenant
with sinful man, he is then so offensive a creature that it must be, on
God’s part, an act of pure, free, rich, sovereign grace. When the
Lord entered into covenant with me, I am sure that it was all of grace,
nothing else but grace. When I remember what a den of unclean beasts
and birds my heart was, and how strong was my unrenewed will, how
obstinate and rebellious against the sovereignty of the Divine rule, I
always feel inclined to take the very lowest room in my Father’s
house, and when I enter Heaven, it will be to go among the less than
the least of all saints, and with the chief of sinners. (Defence of
Calvinism)
Permit me to show
you wherein this inability of man really does lie. It lies deep in his
nature. Through the fall, and through our own sin, the nature of man
has become so debased, and depraved, and corrupt, that it is impossible
for him to come to Christ without the assistance of God the Holy
Spirit…Now, the reason why man cannot come to Christ, is not
because he cannot come, so far as his body or his mere power of mind is
concerned; but because his nature is so corrupt that he has neither the
will nor the power to come to Christ unless drawn by the
Spirit…First it lies in the obstinacy of the human will. "Oh!"
saith the Arminian, "men may be saved if they will" We reply, "My dear
sir, we all believe that; but it is just the if they will that is the
difficulty. We assert that no man will come to Christ unless he be
drawn; nay, we do not assert it, but Christ himself declares it —
‘Ye will not come unto one that-ye might have life;’ and as
long as that ‘ye will not come‘ stands on record in Holy
Scripture, He shall not be brought to believe in any doctrine of the
freedom of the human will." It is strange how people, when talking
about free will, talk of things which they do not at all understand
"Now" says one, "I believe men can be saved if they will." My dear sir,
that is not the question at all. The question is, are men ever found
naturally willing to submit to the humbling terms of the gospel of
Christ? We declare, upon Scriptural authority, that the human will is
so desperately set on mischief,- so depraved, and so inclined to
everything that is evil, and so disinclined to everything that is good,
that without the powerful, supernatural, irresistible influence of the
Holy Spirit, no human will will ever be constrained towards Christ.
"Now" says one, "I believe men can be saved if they will." My dear sir,
that is not the question at all. The question is, are men ever found
naturally willing to submit to the humbling terms of the gospel of
Christ? We declare, upon Scriptural authority, that the human will is
so desperately set on mischief,- so depraved, and so inclined to
everything that is evil, and so disinclined to everything that is good,
that without the powerful, supernatural, irresistible influence of the
Holy Spirit, no human will will ever be constrained towards Christ.
(Sermon 182 New Park Street Pulpit 4:234ff)
SPURGEON'S WHOLE SERMON ENTITLED: HUMAN INABILITY [note: .pdf file] (Sermon 182 on John 6:44 (4:232)
SPURGEON'S WHOLE SERMON ENTITLED: UNWILLINGNESS TO COME TO CHRIST (Sermon 1324) on John 5:40 (22:803)
SPURGEON'S WHOLE SERMON ENTITLED: FREE WILL A SLAVE (Sermon 52 on John 5:40 (1:695)
4) SPURGEON REJECTED THE IDEA THAT MEN COULD BRING THEMSELVES TO CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE ARMINIAN SCHEME:
Well can I
remember the manner in which I learned the doctrines of grace in a
single instant. Born, as all of us are by nature, an Arminian, I still
believed the old things I had heard continually from the pulpit, and
did not see the grace of God. When I was coming to Christ, I thought I
was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had
no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at
first aware of this. I can recall the very day and hour when first I
received those truths in my own soul-when they were, as John Bunyan
says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron, and I can recollect how I
felt that I had grown on a sudden from a babe into a man-that I had
made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for
all, the clue to the truth of God. One week-night, when I was sitting
in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher’s
sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, How did you
come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek
the Lord? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment- I should not
have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my
mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself,
How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures.
How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to
do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all,
and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of
grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to
this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, "I ascribe
my change wholly to God." (Defence of Calvinism)
5) SPURGEON IDENTIFIED HIMSELF WHOLEHEARTEDLY WITH CALVIN AND THE CALVINIST'S WHO BELIEVED IN TOTAL DEPRAVITY:
Again, I must say,
I am not defending certain brethren who have exaggerated Calvinism. I
speak of Calvinism proper, not that which has run to seed, and outgrown
its beauty and verdure. I speak of it as I find it in Calvin’s
Institutes, and especially in his Expositions. I have read them
carefully. I take not my views of Calvinism from common repute but from
his books. Nor do I, in thus speaking, even vindicate Calvinism as if I
cared for the name, but I mean that glorious system which teaches that
salvation is of grace from first to last. (Sermon number 385
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit 7:554)
Did you say
that such-and- such a thing is believed by you because you found it in
Calvin’s Institutes? I am a Calvinist, and a lover of that grand
man’s memory and doctrine; but I believe nothing merely because
Calvin taught it, but because I have found his teaching in the Word of
God. (Sermon number 2584 Metropolitan Tabernacle 44:517)
Do you know
that John Calvin wrote his famous "Institutes" — a most wonderful
production for thought if not for accuracy — before he was
twenty-seven years of age? (Unusual Occasions p95)
The old
truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul
preached, is the truth that I must preach to-day, or else be false to
my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth; I know of no such
thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox’s
gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder
through England again. — C. H. S. (Defence of Calvinism)
I stood last
Wednesday in a sort of dream as I gazed upon my much-beloved
grandfather’s place of sepulcher. I was encouraged by seeing the
record of his fifty-four years of service in the midst of one church
and people, and I rejoiced that, could he rise from the dead, he would
find his grandson preaching that selfsame old-fashioned and
much-despised Calvinistic doctrine of the grace of God which was his
joy in life and his comfort in death. (Sermon number 1972 Metropolitan
Pulpit 33:500)
Though we
have not been called to maintain those truths as you have been, by
trials peculiar to your church polity, we have had to maintain the same
distinctly Calvinistic truth by struggles which have rooted and
grounded us in it. We are glad when we see our brethren more numerous
than ourselves across the Border giving forth a louder sound —
not, I hope, a clearer sound — than we do on the grand doctrines
of salvation by sovereign grace. May you prosper in your upholding of
the old banner for many, many years to come; and may God be with you
and bless you. (Speeches at Home and Abroad p95)
6) SPURGEON WAS THE PASTOR OF A CALVINISTIC CHURCH FOR 38 YEARS:
This was the church of Benjamin Keach and John Gill…both Calvinists. Spurgeon could claim concerning his church:
Now I am
astonished to find those persons that thus come before me so well
instructed in the doctrines of grace and so sound in all the truths of
the covenant, insomuch that I may think it my boast and glory, in the
name of Jesus, that I know not that we have any members, whom we have
received into the church, who do not give their full assent and consent
unto all the doctrines of the Christian religion, commonly called
Calvinistic doctrines. Those which men are wont to laugh at as being
high doctrinal points, are those which they most readily receive,
believe, and rejoice in. (Sermon number 178 New Park Street Pulpit
4:182)
God forbid
that we should have our Sunday-schools the hot-beds of Arminianism,
while our churches are gardens of Calvinism. (Sermon number 1115
Metropolitan Tabernacle 19:398)
Spurgeon rightly denounced those who being Arminian would pastor a Calvinistic church (and vice versa):
By what
tortuous processes of reasoning could it be made to appear consistent
with uprightness for an Arminian to accept emoluments upon the
condition of teaching Calvinistic doctrines, or how could a Calvinist
be justified should he enter into covenant to teach the opposite
tenets? Would it be any decrease of the inconsistency of either
official if he should, after gaining his position and securing its
salary, become a stickler for ministerial liberty and insist upon
delivering himself of his own real opinions which he dared not have
avowed at his instalment, and which, ex officio, he ought to denounce?
A church, having a written creed, virtually asks the candidate for her
pulpit, "Do you hold fast our form of sound words, and, will you
endeavour to maintain it?" On the response to that enquiry, other
things being settled, the appointment depends. The candidate's "yea,"
is accepted in confidence as being sincere, and he is inducted; but if
it be a lie, or if at any time it cease to be altogether true, it is
only by a sophistry unworthy of an ingenuous mind, that a man can
justify' himself in retaining his place; he is bound in honour to
relinquish it forthwith.(Sword and Trowel February 1870 2:397)
7) AT
THE OPENING OF A NEW CHURCH BUILDING, SPURGEON INVITED MEN TO PREACH ON
THE FIVE POINTS OF CALVINISM…INCLUDING TOTAL DEPRAVITY:
EXPOSITION OF THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE
NO. 385
THURSDAY, APRIL 11TH, 1861,
THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON TOOK THE CHAIR
AT 3 O’CLOCK.
The proceedings were commenced by singing the 21st Hymn —
The Rev. C. H.
SPURGEON in opening the proceedings said, we have met together beneath
this roof already to set forth most of those truths in which consists
the peculiarity of this Church…The controversy which has been
carried on between the Calvinist and the Arminian is exceedingly
important, but it does not so involve the vital point of personal
godliness as to make eternal life depend upon our holding either system
at theology….
HUMAN DEPRAVITY.
NO. 387
BY THE REV. EVAN PROBERT,
OF BRISTOL.
In the presence of C.H. Spurgeon, Evan Probert taught:
My Christian
friends, you are quite aware that the subject which in to engage our
further attention this afternoon, is HUMAN DEPRAVITY — a subject
about which there are different opinions, which I shall not attempt to
examine at the present time, but I shall confine myself to the
teachings of God’s word, which is the only infallible rule of
faith and practice, and from which we learn what man was when he came
from the hands of his Maker, and what he is now as a fallen creature.
We are
also, in consequence of Adam’s transgression become the subjects
of spiritual death, which consists not merely in the deprivation of the
principle of life, but in having become depraved creatures, all the
faculties of our souls and members of our bodies are depraved so that
it may be said of us, as the prophet says of the Jewish nation,
‘The head is sick, the whole heart is faint, from the sole of the
foot unto the head there is no soundness." What! no soundness in any
part? nothing good in any part? nothing spiritually good? nothing if
cherished and fostered that will not lead to God, to Heaven, and to
happiness? Nothing whatever. Let no one mistake me. I do not mean to
say for a single moment, that sin has destroyed any of the faculties of
man’s soul, for they are all there. They all exist as they did
when they were produced; but I mean to say, that sin has deprived man
of the principle of spiritual life, and made him a depraved and debased
creature; and we believe that we can prove this from the word of God,
as well as from observation.
Secondly,
— We have further proof of human depravity from the aversion of
sinners to come to Christ. They are invited to come, persuaded to come,
and are assured that they shall find pardon, acceptance, and salvation.
But they cannot be induced to come to him, and why will they not come?
Is it because he is not willing to receive them, or because there is
anything in him to prevent them? No but it is because of the
deep-rooted depravity in their hearts. The heart is averse to all that
is good, and therefore rejects the Savior and turns away from him.
Hence he complained when in our world, "How often would I have gathered
you, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would
not." "We will not come to me, that ye might have life!" What more need
be added? Man turns away in proud disdain from all the blessings of the
gospel, and the glories of heaven brought before him, and rushes on
with steady purpose to damnation. "Light is come into the world, and
men love darkness rather then light, because their deeds are evil." Oh,
to how many in this land may it be said, "They hate knowledge and did
not choose the fear of the Lord; they would none of his counsel, they
despised all his reproof"
8) SPURGEON PROFESSED FAITH IN THE 1689 BAPTIST CONFESSION OF FAITH WHICH TEACHES TOTAL DEPRAVITY:
Both the Westminster Confession of
Faith and the 1689 Baptist Confession teach the doctrine of Total
Depravity. Spurgeon himself reprinted the 1689 Baptist Confession in
1855. A copy of the Baptist Confession was placed under the stone
during the stone laying of the Metropolitan Tabernacle. These
Confessions both teach in the chapter entitled: Of the Fall of Man, of
Sin, and the Punishment thereof. Part of this Confession statement runs
like this:
Our first
parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and
communion with God, and we in them whereby death came upon all: all
becoming dead in sin, and wholly undefiled in all the faculties and
parts of the soul and body. (6:2)
From this original
corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled and made
opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all
actual transgressions." (6:4)
In his preface, Spurgeon refers to the doctrines of the Baptist Confession as
"excellent"
and whilst he did not want the Confession to become a fetter, yet he
did express the hope that it would be of assistance of them in
controversy, a confirmation in their faith and a means of edification.
He writes further:
"Be not ashamed of
your faith: remember it is the ancient gospel of the martyrs,
confessors, reformers and saints. Above all it is the truth of God,
against which the gates of hell cannot prevail."
9) OTHER PREACHERS CAME TO HIS CHURCH AND SPOKE OF HIS UNQUALIFIED CALVINISM:
At the opening of the Metropolitan
Tabernacle, the following comments by Calvinistic ministers were made
in the presence of Spurgeon:
The REV. F.
TUCKER, of Camden Road Chapel, "He looked upon his brother Spurgeon as
one who upheld the sovereignty of God, and who, on the other hand,
declared the responsibility of man. He preached, that never could the
sinner repent without the aid of the Holy Ghost, and yet he called upon
every sinner to repent and believe the gospel. Especially did his
brother make prominent the grand doctrine of the atoning sacrifice of
Christ, and the kindred doctrine of justification by faith in the
righteousness of the Lord and Saviour."
The REV.
GEORGE ROGERS: "Their friend Mr. Spurgeon preached all the doctrines of
grace. Election, particular redemption came from his lips in trumpet
tones. He saw the love of Christ to His Church, and of the Church to
Christ, overflowing in sweet nectar in the song of Solomon. Some said
those doctrines were destructive of all good works — that people
who listened to such doctrines did nothing. His answer to these
objectors was, let them look at that building. Election would never
have built it, except by seeking to make their calling and election
sure. Particular redemption would never have built it without the
particular love which it was calculated to inspire. The doctrine of
perseverance would never have built it without the act of perseverance."
10) CALVINISM'S ENEMIES SPOKE OF SPURGEON'S WHOLE HEARTED CALVINISM:
Mr. Dale, in his
admirable article published on Christmas-day in the Daily Telegraph,
gives it as his opinion that Calvinism would be almost obsolete among
Baptists were it not still maintained by the powerful influence of Mr.
Spurgeon. The statement is most flattering to our
vanity…Calvinism such as was taught by Owen, Charnock, Bunyan,
Newton, Whitfield, Romaine, and men of that class, is no more obsolete
than is the law of gravitation, neither are its friends at all inclined
to bewail its influence as dying out…If such Calvinism as this,
and it is the Calvinism of Calvin, and the only one which we maintain,
is really growing obsolete, we must henceforth doubt our ears and
disbelieve the statements of the best of our brethren. If the sermons
now preached in Baptist pulpits could all be printed, they would be
found to contain vastly more of what we call Calvinism than they did
twenty years ago. The party names and terms are less used, for which we
are devoutly thankful, but the essence and spirit of that side of
truth, which has for brevity's sake been called Calvinistic, are more
powerful among us now than they ever were at any previous part of the
century. We have in this matter a right to judge, because the question
relates to that Calvinism which is "maintained by the powerful
influence of Mr. Spurgeon," and therefore no man is more likely to know
than Mr. Spurgeon himself... We have certainly not thrown away the Five
Points, but we may have gained other five, and far be it from us to
deny it; but this does not in the slightest degree affect the statement
of our Birmingham friend, for it still remains a fact that the
"Calvinism," or whatever it is, which is maintained by us, does not
make us enemies among the General Baptists, but is read by thousands of
them regularly, and ensures for us a warm place in their hearts, as
many letters, donations, and kindly actions abundantly prove. Whatever
it may be which we maintain, and we do not demur to Mr. Dale's
description of it as Calvinism, for it contains a great deal of
Calvinism, we are sure that far more of it is read and endorsed among
General Baptists than at any other period in history. (Sword &
Trowel Feb 1874 p33ff)
The
Evangelical Revival and other Sermons: with an Address on the Work of
the Christian ministry in a period of theological decay and transition.
By R. W. DALE. Hodder and Stoughton.
We cannot bring
our mind to review this volume of discourses. It manifests the
author’s great ability and honesty, but to our mind it is
unsatisfactory, and to our heart it is saddening. Mr. Dale says," Mr.
Spurgeon stands alone among the modern leaders of Evangelical
Nonconformists in his fidelity to the older Calvinistic creed." If it
be so, we are sorry to hear it, and we pray God that it may not long be
true. There is an indefiniteness and uncertainty about these sermons
which distresses us. They are not after our heart, and we are the more
disappointed because Mr. Dale is a typical person among Independents,
and a fine man in all respects. (Sword & Trowel 6:245)
11) SPURGEON REPUDIATED THE HYPER CALVINIST ATTACKS UPON HIS APPLICATION OF TOTAL DEPRAVITY:
I have not kept
back the glorious doctrines of grace, although by preaching them the
enemies of the cross have called me an Antinomian; nor have I been
afraid to preach man’s solemn responsibility, although another
tribe have slandered me as an Arminian. (4:408)
To put this last remark into
context, the Articles of the Gospel Standard section of the Strict
Baptists (Hyper Calvinists) read as follows:
"Therefore for ministers in the
present day to address unconverted persons, or indiscriminately all in
a mixed congregation, calling upon them to savingly repent, believe and
receive Christ, or perform any other acts dependent upon the new
creative power of the Holy Ghost, is one hand, to imply creature
power…" (Article 23)
"…We believe that any such
expressions as convey to the hearers the belief that they possess a
certain power to flee to the Saviour, to close in with Christ, to
receive Christ, while in an unregenerate state, so that they do thus
close with Christ etc., they shall perish are untrue, and must,
therefore, be rejected…" (Article 24)
This is exactly what CHS did and denied that by doing so, he was a mongrel Calvinist, but a true Calvinist.
And just
let me say here, that it is the custom of a certain body of
Ultra-Calvinists, to call those of us who teach that it is the duty of
man to repent and believe, "Mongrel Calvinists." If you hear any of
them say so, give them my most respectful compliments, and ask them
whether they ever read Calvin’s works in their lives. Not that I
care what Calvin said or did not say, but ask them whether they ever
read his works; and if they say "No," as they must say, for there are
forty-eight large volumes you can tell them, that the man whom they
call "a Mongrel Calvinist," though he has not read them all, has read a
very good share of them and knows their spirit; and he knows that he
preaches substantially what Calvin preached — that every doctrine
he preaches may be found in Calvin’s Commentaries on some part of
Scripture or other. We are TRUE Calvinists, however. (Sermon number 591
New Park Street Pulpit: 4:598)
Spurgeon,
as a true Calvinist, believed in both man's inability and his
responsibility and preached both. This served to bring sinful men into
a recognition of their great dilemma - that they were lost and without
strength and that only by crying out to God Almighty could they be
saved.
12) SPURGEON PRESIDED OVER A BIBLE COLLEGE THAT WAS AVOWEDLY CALVINIST:
We have become
daily more and more impressed with the conviction that theology should
be the principal subject for instruction in a Theological College, and
that a diversified course, of all. other studies, prepares the young
minister to enter upon his office in the full vigour of his mental
powers, and with a capacity for continuing his research into all
subjects that may at any time contribute to his own principal design 6.
Calvinistic theology is dogmatically taught. We mean not dogmatic in
the offensive sense of that term; but as the undoubted teaching of the
Word of God. "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness."
We hold to the Calvinism of the Bible. Extreme views on either side are
repudiated by us. The cross is the centre of our system. "To this I
hold, and by this I am upheld." is our motto. This is our stand-point
from which we judge all things. We have no sympathy with any modern
concealment or perversion of great gospel truths. We prefer the Puritan
to modern divinity. (Sword & Trowel March 1886 1:240)
3. By whom
are the young men taught, and what is the scope and character of the
teaching? The young men are taught by tutors, under the direction and
with the stated teaching of Mr. Spurgeon himself, and of Mr. James
Spurgeon, who holds the position of Vice-President of the College. The
studies embrace… Systematic Theology, which is always
Calvinistic, and Homiletics. (Sword & Trowel July 1869 2:305)
The
question may be asked whether our College, based as it is on avowedly
definite and peculiar principles, has in any measure ceased to be a
necessity? We think not. We most gladly admit that in many quarters the
same gospel is being preached, and the same Bible is reverenced. We
hail gladly any evidence of approaching unity of feeling and effort in
the one harvest, field; but we are more than ever persuaded that we
need to bear our witness to the old Calvinistic doctrines of grace, and
to uphold our distinctive view of the ordinance of believer’s
baptism. (Sword & Trowel 7:156)
As it would
be quite unwarrantable for us to interfere with the arrangements of
other bodies of Christians, who have their own methods of training
their ministers, and as it is obvious that we could not find spheres
for men in denominations with which we have no ecclesiastical
connection, we confine our College to Baptists; and, in order not to be
harassed with endless controversies, we invite those only who hold
those views of divine truth which are popularly known as Calvinistic,
— not that we care for names and phrases; but, as we wish to be
understood, we use a term which conveys our meaning as nearly as any
descriptive word can do. Believing the grand doctrines of grace to be
the natural accompaniments of the fundamental evangelical truth of
redemption by the blood of Jesus, we hold and teach them, not only in
our ministry to the masses, but in the more select instruction of the
class room. (Lectures 2:6 also 4:7)
THE END
