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remarks on a letter from Silas H. Durand, in The Gospel Messenger (1892)
AUTHOR: | Hassell, Sylvester |
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O, that the God of Israel would be pleased to endow every Primitive Baptist in the world, with the spirit of wisdom, reverence, humility, and love that He has so evidently imparted to our dear brother! Then would unprofitable and subverting wars of words cease among us, and gospel peace and prosperity would abound. We would then delightfully feel ourselves and clearly prove to others, better than by any amount of wrangling, that we had indeed, not merely by profession, been with Jesus , and had received in our hearts from Him that heavenly principle of Christian charity that 'suffereth long, and is kind, that envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, and never faileth, and is greater even than faith and hope.'---1 Cor. xiii. O, that every one of our brethren might have the grace to avoid that species of idolatry that puts anything in the place of Christ ---whether it be predestination, or feet-washing, or anything else which they believe to be a part a part of scriptural doctrine or practice! 'God so loved the world that gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth (not in predestination or foot-washing or in any other doctrine or practice, but) in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'--- John 3:16. The central place in the Christian system belongs only top the person and work of Christ---the incarnation and the atonement. Christ is the center of God"s revelation and of man"s redemption, of Christian doctrine and of Christian history, of each believer"s faith, yea, of the very history of this our earth, Jesus Christ is the full, the radiant, the only center---fitted to be such because He is the God-man and the Redeemer. Christ is the center of the Christian system, and the doctrine respecting Christ is the heart of Christian theology. I thoroughly and heartily agree in the sentiment of my dear brother that there is no essential difference in doctrine between him and myself---between our highly esteemed supralapsarian and our infralapsaiian brethren, as I have said on the 138th page of the April MESSENGER before, and on the 621st page of the Church History. From much personal conference, and from a long and wide-spread correspondence, I have become as thoroughly satisfied of this fact as of my own existence. No Primitive Baptist believes that anything takes place by chance, or that God does 'not work all things after the counsel of His own will.'---Eph. 1:11. And I would repeat and emphasize the remark of Elder Durand that 'there may be a difference in understanding between servants of God on some spiritual subjects without any disturbances of the holy bond of love and fellowship between them,' and that such differences should not excite their anger towards each other, and that they should confer on such subjects in a free and brotherly manner. As I have often thought and spoken favorably of a remark made by the brother in a former number of THE GOSPEL MESSENGER, that brethren should not stand guard over their own words, to the extent of sacrificing the peace of the church for them. In regard to the apparent difference of understanding between Elder Durand and myself on the present occasion, I desire to add only a few words. In the sentence quoted at the beginning of Eld. Durand"s letter, I did not allude to him, but to others who seemed to charge their maker with guilt. Instead of saying that God cannot sin or do wrong because He is not under any law , it seems to me more scriptural to say that He cannot sin or do wrong, because He is essentially, infinitely, and eternally holy . (Gen xviii. 25; Ex. xv. 11; Lev. xix.2; Deut. xxxii. 4; Psalm xevii. 2; Isa. vi. 3; lvii. 15; Hab. I. 13; Mal. iv. 2; 2 Thess. 1. 6; 2 Tim. ii. 13; Heb. vi. 18; James 1. 13-17; 1 Peter i. 15, 16; 1 John i. 5; Rev. iv. 8).
God"s precepts are for us, are actual, a perfect, and a supreme rule of right. They are right, not only because He commands, but because they are in themselves right. The distinction between right and wrong inheres and abides in the eternal, self-evident and necessary principles of His moral essence.
The Scriptures often speak of God as doing what He permits to be done ---(see Job i. 12, 21; ii. 6; 2 Sam xvi. 10, compared with 1 Chron. xxi. 1; 1 Kings xii. 11, 15; xxii. 20-23; Gen. xxxvii. 25, compared with xlv. 5, and l. 20; Psalm xxxix. 8,9; Isa. xlii. 24; Amos iii. 6; Acts iv. 27, 28); for he is the Creator and Upholder of the universe, and could prevent the occurrence of anything He chose. God hardened Pharaoh"s wicked heart by lifting from him the restraints which His weighty judgements had laid upon him; he chastened sinning David with the cursing of Shemei; He punished wicked Ahab by a lying spirit in his false prophets; and He uses the wicked as a sword to accomplish His righteous purposes" but He 'cannot be tempted with evil, neither He tempteth any man.'---James i. 13. To arrive at the whole truth on this subject, those Scriptures that declare the divine permission of sin , are just as true and important and indispensable as those other Scriptures that declare the Divine predestination. (2 Chron. xxxii. 31; Psalm lxxxi. 12; Mark 1. 34; v. 13; Luke iv. 41, viii. 32; Acts ii. 23, vii 42, xiii. 18, xiv. 16; Rom. i. 24, 26, 28; ix. 22). ' All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine ,'---2 Tim. Iii. 16. Hence any doctrine that ignores or denies any Scripture is defective or erroneous. The great scriptural fact that God permits sin (while He also overrules it for His own glory and His people"s good) is incorporated in the London Baptist Confession of Faith, and in all the great predestinarian confessions; and it is inevitably implied when we say that man is voluntary in the commission of sin, and is justly punishable for sin, and in all the sayings and writings of the spiritually enlightened children of God, whether they express it in words or not; so that there is no sort of occasion for any contention among Primitive Baptists on this subject. The denial of creature responsibility seems to me to undermine the foundations of all moral government, both human and divine, in families, schools, churches, nations, and the universe. Certainly all men by nature are dead in sin, and condemned already; and yet, if there is any meaning in language, the Scriptures plainly teach us that they are accountable, or justly punishable, not only for their past, but also for their present and future sins, whether they feel the weight of them or not. (Eccl. xii. 13, 14; Matt. xi. 20-24, xii. 36, vii. 24-27, xxv. 31-46; Luke xix. 14, 27; Rom ii. 5-16, iii. 19; 1 Peter iv. 5; Rev. xx 11-15; xxii. 12). The accountability of God"s people---their just liability to temporal chastisement---for their sins, is plainly declared in Matt. xviii. 22-35; xxv. 14, 30" Luke xix. 12-26; Rom. xiv. 10-13; 2 Cor. v. 9, 10; Heb. xiii. 17. Therefore, let all men know that 'it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God;' for the 'Holy, Holy, Holy One that inhabiteth eternity' is, to sin in every form and every being, 'a consuming fire,' ---Heb. x. 30, 31; xii. 29; Isa. vi. 3; lvii. 15. May the Lord Jesus, who alone is able, save us from our sins---from their power, their defilement, and their righteous retribution.---Matt. i. 21. If the Lord will, I shall meet our dear brother at some of our Northern Associations in May and June.
Sylvester Hassell |
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